Senate Republicans blocked consideration of the bill because they opposed the Democrats’ approach to paying for the program, which reduces some student loan interest rates.

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Senate Republicans Block Bill on Student Loan Rates

The dark clouds hanging over Rush Limbaugh appear to be lifting. Exactly one month after the conservative radio host sparked outrage by calling Georgetown law-school student Sandra Fluke “a slut” and “a prostitute” in a three-day diatribe, stations are standing by him, advertisers are trickling back to his program and the news media have moved on. Read full article > >

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Limbaugh sees heat over comments turn down to a simmer

An acclaimed radio documentary about life in the Chinese factories that make Apple Inc.’s products contained “numerous fabrications” and included invented characters and incidents, the producers of the program acknowledged on Friday. Read full article > >

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‘This American Life’ cites ‘fabrications’ in documentary on Apple suppliers

Rapid growth problems face the $53 billion Defense Health Program, which covers 9.7 million active and retired service members, their families, and eligible surviving family members of deceased active and retired service personnel. Read full article > >

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Military, heal thyself — health programs still a challenge

Decades ago, a congressman from Texas argued passionately that the federal government should pay for birth control for poor women. “We need to take sensationalism out of this topic so that it can no longer be used by militants who have no real knowledge of the voluntary nature of the program but, rather are using it as a political stepping stone,” said George H.W. Bush. “If family planning is anything, it is a public health matter.” Read full article > >

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Birth control as election issue? Why?

Among the themes of “All-American Muslim,” a cable reality show about the daily lives of five families in Dearborn, Mich., is the suspicion and bias that ordinary Muslims face in a nation uneasy about all things Islamic after Sept. 11, 2001. As it happens, reality has caught up to reality TV. Peppered by a conservative group’s complaints about the program, the Lowe’s home-improvement chain last week pulled its sponsorship — and has been fielding countercomplaints that the company had caved in to the very prejudices faced by the program’s protagonists. Read full article > >

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Reality TV catches up to reality with Muslim show

Shaka Smart figures about half the questions asked of this year’s Virginia Commonwealth team all relate back to last year’s team and its surreal Final Four run. Indeed, part of being the coach of VCU is that people outside the program still want you to be VC- Who? Creating a separate, non-Cinderella identity in college basketball “can be challenging,” Smart said Sunday at the 17th annual BB&T Classic at Verizon Center. Read full article > >

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BB&T Classic: Shifting landscape for NCAA basketball coaches in D.C. area is on display

For announcing non-candidacy on another program.

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Fox News Chief Infuriated at Palin

On Aug. 19, Maryland Coach Randy Edsall grew enraged with the lackadaisical effort he saw from his players in practice, so he gathered them in a huddle and pierced the morning air with a tirade that included this command: “Do it my way! Don’t do it your way!” While some players have embraced Edsall’s way during his first season, others have been frustrated with his approach, according to several people in and around the program. With the team ineligible to play in a bowl game, some players are now beginning to speak publicly about what they saw as a divided locker room and about the potential of prominent underclassmen transferring after the season, which continues Saturday night against Notre Dame at FedEx Field. Read full article > >

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Maryland vs. Notre Dame: Players begin to speak up on Terrapins’ discontent

You would never know, judging from the program presented Friday night, that Pilobolus is the country’s most commercially successful modern dance company. The evening was dominated by the sort of dark tropes that can turn off some audiences: nearly naked people, rolling around on the floor, to a soundtrack of creepy electronic music. The only clue that Pilobolus has found fame through rock music videos, NFL commercials and Academy Award montages was the size of the crowd: The 1900-seat George Mason University Center for the Arts was nearly sold out. Read full article > >

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Pilobolus at the George Mason University Center for the Arts

At least six states have opened their Children’s Health Insurance Program to the kids of low-income state employees, an option that was prohibited until the passage of the 2010 health-care law. This relatively small step has as its backdrop years of debate over the program, known as CHIP, including concerns that it encourages states — and consumers — to replace private insurance with taxpayer-subsidized coverage. Read full article > >

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Low-income state workers begin to gain access to Children’s Health Insurance Program

The horrifying allegations of sexual abuse of minor boys by a former Penn State coach strike straight at the heart of the program legendary Coach Joe Paterno has led for 46 years. Although Jerry Sandusky stands accused of multiple counts of sexual abuse of minor boys and two Penn State administrators have been indicted for perjury, Paterno is not expected to be indicted . He is, however, expected to be a witness for the prosecution. Read full article > >

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Jerry Sandusky indictment prompts questions about future of Penn State’s Joe Paterno

After hosting the local quiz show “It’s Academic” for 50 years, Mac McGarry, 85, has decided to retire. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed doing the program,” McGarry says, “and I had no idea how pervasive it’s been to Washingtonians.” For generations of Washingtonians, “It’s Academic” has been a soothing Saturday-morning time capsule, taped on a tiny set on Nebraska Avenue. It’s good pajama-day viewing — world capitals and world events and 11th-grade reading lists — and the centerpiece was always McGarry: paternal and chummy, dorky and suave, a comforting blend of Alex Trebek and Mr. Rogers, who wore tweed and pocket handkerchiefs and made the gentlest of jokes. Read full article > >

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‘It’s Academic’ host Mac McGarry retires

The White House has authorized an independent review of all loan guarantees made by the Energy Department to foster green technology following the bankruptcy this year of Solyndra, the California company that received a $535 million loan through the program. White House officials said Friday that Chief of Staff William Daley ordered the review that will evaluate the entire $35.9 billion loan portfolio made to support the private-sector development of new technologies that could help improve the economy and create jobs. Read full article > >

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White House orders independent review of Energy Department loans

ATHENS — The crisis plan approved by European leaders early Thursday morning sent global stock markets rocketing as officials claimed that they had turned a corner in the battle to rebuild confidence in the euro region. But even as many market analysts welcomed the resolution they cautioned that the 15-page plan , hammered out over late-night brinkmanship in a government office building in Brussels, remains very much a work in progress. Key details are uncertain, they say, and a slowing European economy could throw the program off course. Read full article > >

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Europe plan raises hope but will need to prove itself in practice