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

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

Ever since a researcher named Trevor Eckhart posted evidence that a program known as Carrier IQ is tracking mobile users’ keystrokes and activities, the Web has been abuzz trying to find out how much the program actually collects and how widespread it is. Carrier IQ is an analytics program for mobile devices that advertises to carriers that it can “measure performance and user experience with no visible impact to your customers.” Eckhart, using his own HTC device, found that the program not only records information about app activity and battery life but also notes when users press any key on the phone and records text messages. He said the data is transmitted back to Carrier IQ’s servers. Read full article > >

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What is Carrier IQ?

At 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, television programs and radio shows will be interrupted with a familiar message: “This is a test. This is only a test.” It will be the first time the Federal Emergency Management Agency has attempted to alert the entire nation at once with its Emergency Alert System. While the program hopes to reach as many people as possible as quickly as possible, two means of communication are still missing from the system: the Internet and mobile phones. Read full article > >

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Where’s an Emergency Alert System for the Internet and the phone?

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

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 Emerson String Quartet is one of the world’s blue-chip chamber groups, so perhaps it wasn’t a surprise that it turned in a superb and often deeply involving performance on Saturday night at the National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium. What was a little surprising was the relative conservatism of the program — a well-worn path of late works by Mozart and Beethoven — but as it turned out, the conservatism was only skin deep. Read full article > >

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Review of Emerson String Quartet at Natural History Museum

The Obama administration ended a major benefit in the 2010 health-care law on Friday, announcing that a program to offer Americans insurance for long-term care was simply unworkable. Although the program had been dogged from the start by doubts about its feasibility, its elimination marks the first time the administration has backed away from a key piece of what remains of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. Read full article > >

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White House eliminates insurance program for long-term care

Although Randy Edsall said unequivocally Tuesday that he is not engaged in a rebuilding project as Maryland’s first-year coach , he also suggested that the foundation of the program was laden with cracks when he was hired in January. “When you come in with the type of program you are going to run, it takes time,” Edsall said during his weekly news conference. “Most especially if young people aren’t used to being held accountable or they are not used to doing things correctly all the time.” Read full article > >

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Maryland Coach Randy Edsall: ‘There’s no rebuilding here’

Facebook announced Friday that it will end its Deals program, the network’s answer to Groupon and other daily deals sites. The program is being dropped after four months of testing in select markets in Texas, California and Georgia. The network will discontinue the program in the “coming weeks.” “We think there is a lot of power in a social approach to driving people into local businesses,” Facebook said in a statement to the Associated Press. “We’ve learned a lot from our test and we’ll continue to evaluate how to best serve local businesses.” Read full article > >

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Facebook ends Deals in a move that bolsters Groupon’s lead

It was 1962 when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration first decided to invite artists — yes, artists — to interpret the work of the space agency. At the time, James Dean, the program’s founding director, remembers thinking, “What do we know about art, right?” You may be wondering that, too. This is a government agency staffed by people with pocket protectors. What do they traffic in? Only stuff such as human weightlessness, speeds that could rip your skin off, and the power to lift a house-size ship filled with astronauts off the face of the Earth and send them hurtling through space. Read full article > >

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Art review: ‘NASA/Art: 50 Years of Exploration’

It was 1962 when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration first decided to invite artists — yes, artists — to interpret the work of the space agency. At the time, James Dean, the program’s founding director, remembers thinking, “What do we know about art, right?” You may be wondering that, too. This is a government agency staffed by people with pocket protectors. What do they traffic in? Only stuff such as human weightlessness, speeds that could rip your skin off, and the power to lift a house-size ship filled with astronauts off the face of the Earth and send them hurtling through space. Read full article > >

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Art review: ‘NASA/Art: 50 Years of Exploration’

Haitians living in the United States under temporary protected status will be granted an 18-month extension of the program, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday, allowing them to remain here through Jan. 22, 2013. The program, which gives temporary legal status to foreign nationals whose homelands are in crisis, was extended to Haitians after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in their country. Those with proof of continuous residence in the United States since that date could apply to remain here legally for 18 months, regardless of their status when they applied. Read full article > >

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Haitians’ temporary protected status in U.S. since quake to be extended 18 months

Mr. Beck, who has been contemplating an exit from Fox for some time, will end the program later this year.

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Media Decoder: Glenn Beck to End Daily Fox News Program

Hamstrung by federal prohibitions against lowering Medicaid eligibility, governors from both parties are exercising their remaining options in proposing bone-deep cuts to the program during the fourth consecutive year of brutal economic conditions. read more

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For Governors, Medicaid Looks Ripe for Slashing