National News from Yahoo

Lucky Iowa porker gets pardon for bacon celebration

Bonnie is one lucky porker. Kicking off Iowa's Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival next week, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad will literally save a pig's bacon by pardoning Bonnie, a Berkshire sow, on Friday. Like a president granting a pardon to a turkey at Thanksgiving time, Branstad will join Bonnie on the steps of the governor's mansion [...]

Energy Secretary Chu steps down, blasts climate-change skeptics

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist frequently the target of Republican criticism, announced Friday that he was stepping down in the latest shake-up of President Barack Obama's Cabinet. Chu, who disclosed his decision in a letter to Energy Department staff, frequently clashed with GOP lawmakers over gas prices as well as government backing [...]

Religious groups get new opt-out on birth-control coverage

Religious universities and other non-profits may opt-out of requirements to provide no-cost contraception through their group health plans if they object to it on religious grounds, following a change announced Friday to President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. Religious non-profits will not have to "contract, arrange, pay or refer for any contraceptive coverage to which [...]

FYI, USPS drivers: You can get traffic tickets, too

A U.S. postal service truck. (AP) A government lawyer’s attempt to get dismissed nearly $700 in traffic tickets given to the U.S. Postal Service is being met with a hearty and humorous "heck no." In a Jan. 22 letter sent to both the city of East Cleveland, Ohio, and the company that operates the city's [...]

Man who hoaxed Manti Te'o says he was molested

The man who says he tricked Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o into falling for a fake woman he had created online says the hoax had ''everything to do'' with escaping from real life because he had been molested as a child.

For just a minute, Dow hits 14,000

NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average briefly topped 14,000 on Friday morning, a milestone not seen since before the financial crisis rocked the markets and the world economy.


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