Free Republic

President Barack Obama wants to cut health care costs by reducing inefficiencies like unnecessarily long hospital stays and excessive paperwork for doctors that rack up big bills. Obama on Wednesday will launch what the White House calls a Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network... snip .... The goal is to tie more payments for health care services to the quality — not quantity — of services rendered. Earlier this year the administration set a goal to tie 30 percent of Medicare payments to quality and value, but Obama wants to go further....

Authorities were searching for a gunman after a TV meteorologist was shot multiple times during an altercation Wednesday in a Central Texas TV station's parking lot. The Texas Department of Public Safety says the shooting occurred around 9:15 a.m. Wednesday outside KCEN-TV's rural studio on Interstate 35 near Bruceville-Eddy, 75 miles north of Austin. No motive has been determined and it is unclear if the shooter has any ties to the station. The suspect is described as a white, balding man in his 30s. He is said to have been wearing a dark-hooded sweatshirt and dark jeans at the time...

Hasan’s court appearance is scheduled for 10 a.m. today in the Lawrence J. Williams Judicial Center here on Fort Hood. Hasan's defense team wants the court to rule on whether Judge Col. Gross has authority to order him to be shaved. Gross has said he would force Hasan to be shaved by Aug. 20 and held him in contempt of court twice for having a beard.

LITTLE RIVER (April 18, 2012)-One suspect is in custody and authorities were searching for four more after an early morning attempt to steal an ATM from a bank in Little River. Authorities initially thought four men were involved in the attempted theft, but after reviewing surveillance photos, determined there were five. The suspect was taken to a nearby daycare campus in handcuffs, but investigators wouldn't say why. Classes in the Academy school district were cancelled for the day because of the manhunt, superintendent Kevin Sprinkles said. The nearby Busy Bee Day Care center delayed opening for two hours as well....

An Austin police officer was killed in the line of duty earlier this morning, and a suspect has been arrested. Officials say the officer was fatally shot inside a Walmart off Interstate 35, north of Parmer Lane, in North Austin. Austin police spokesman Cpl. Anthony Hipolito said officers got a 911 call about an intoxicated person at the store at 2:21 a.m. It was not immediately clear what happened after that.

WACO- Five indictments on Wednesday are only the beginning of a local crack-down on food stamp abusers. McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna says 150 to 300 people swiped their Lonestar Cards at Swift P's Pizza on East Waco Drive, for cash back - 50 cents on the dollar. Many bought cigarettes and gasoline or used the money to gamble. SWAT teams busted the owner of Swift P's on July 29 for holding an illegal gambling place. Phillip Ferguson Haynes is currently being federally prosecuted for the gambling charge and involvement in food stamp fraud. Reyna says the Department of...

Shovel ready, it turns out, doesn't always mean shovel ready.In the first year of the Obama administration, the federal government awarded Austin a $1.9 million stimulus grant for a "shovel ready" bicycle trail in North Austin. More than two years later... Work has stopped and will not resume anytime soon...construction was supposed to be funded through federal transportation grants... those grants never arrived.

NASA is now streaming "Flyin' High," that brand-new ZZ Top song bound for the International Space Station Rocks Off told you about yesterday, on its Web site. Now all us Earthlings can listen too. Listen here:http://www.nasa.gov/mp3/557490main_flyin_high.mp3

Another tree goes into the ground in Killeen. It's not uncommon as spring planting season gets into full bloom. However for Central Texas Lawn Care and Landscaping's Larry and LW Robison, each of the trees they sell are extra special. Larry said, "These trees...come from President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas." The former president has a tree farm on his ranch. All native Texas trees and only three companies in the state can sell them. LW said, "It's hard to believe that out of three people in the state we're one of them." And if that isn't special enough... "My...

FORT HOOD (October 13, 2010)—Sgt. Alonzo Lunsford, based at Fort Bragg, N.C., who survived the deadly Nov. 5, 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, testified Wednesday accused gunman Maj. Nidal Hasan “yelled 'Allāhu Akbar' before he reached under his blouse pulled out his weapons, and started firing.” Lunsford was shot in the head during the rampage at the post’s Soldier Readiness Center that left 13 dead. He identified Hasan as the gunman. The hearing will determine whether the Army psychiatrist stands trial for the deadly Nov. 5, 2009 shooting. Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32...

When Walter Brown went to pay his $1,700 bill for a new septic system for the catering hall of his restaurant, Big Hoss BBQ, he was told to take his money elsewhere. Specifically, he was told to take it to soldiers. Pat Kern, the owner of Paramount Waste Water in Temple, had heard stories about Brown and his history of greeting soldiers during troop returns and feeding them when he could. Kern grew up in Harker Heights and had an appreciation for the soldiers at Fort Hood and people like Brown who support them. "I thought it was the least...

Last night President Obama and First Lady Obama dined at State Road Restaurant in West Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard. ... As they departed the restaurant at 9:55 pm ET, reporters asked the president if he was enjoying his vacation even with the rain. "I'm having a great time,” the president said. “Doing a lot of reading"

The remains of Noah's Ark have been discovered 13,000ft up a Turkish mountain, it has been claimed. A group of Chinese and Turkish evangelical explorers say they have found wooden remains on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey. They claim carbon dating proves the relics are 4,800 years old — around the same time the ark was said to be afloat. Yeung Wing-Cheung, from the Noah's Ark Ministries International research team, said: "It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it." He said the structure contained several compartments,...

After a week of anticipation, suspected Fort Hood gunman, Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan is officially a resident of the Bell County Jail. Defense attorney John Galligan told News 10 that Hasan arrived at the Bell County Jail around 4 a.m. Friday. "His unit, the 21st Combat Aviation Brigade, provided the air assets to move Hasan to his pretrial confinement facility," Fort Hood officials said in a press release Friday morning. Galligan says Hasan's brother saw him in San Antonio at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and was given no notice that Hasan was going to be moved. Galligan did not know...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has activated a secret spillover violence contingency plan, citing an increasing threat of violence crossing the Texas border from Mexico. ... snip ... The plan includes increased surveillance of border activity and increased ground, air and maritime patrols. Additional resources ready for rapid deployment also have been placed on standby... Texas Department of Public Safety tactical teams... Trooper Strike Teams... as well as Texas Ranger Recon Teams prepared to deploy based on the threat.DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION

The Department of Public Safety is advising Texans on spring break to avoid Mexican border cities because of drug cartel violence. snip Parents should not allow their children to visit these Mexican cities because their safety cannot be guaranteed.

CARROLL, Iowa (AP) — Police had no trouble identifying two men accused of trying to break into a Carroll apartment. Police were responding to a call about an attempted burglary when they pulled over a car matching the alleged suspects' vehicle. Inside the car, officers found two men with their faces blackened with permanent marker. Police said the caller described two men with painted faces attempting to break into an apartment Friday night before driving off...(snip)

FORT HOOD – No errors, no losses. The 4th Infantry Division's Combat Aviation Brigade didn't lose one soldier or aircraft during its year in Iraq. It's the first combat aviation brigade to do so since the war began, said Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, the division's commander. "That's tough in peacetime flying," said Col. Patrick Tierney, the brigade's commander, adding it was an even more remarkable accomplishment in combat. Tierney and Command Sgt. Maj. Archie Davis, the brigade's senior noncommissioned officer, returned Wednesday to Fort Hood with more than 500 of their soldiers. More than 360 from the 1st Cavalry Division's...

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala today charged seven employees of ACORN (snip) with forgery and election law violations, saying they filed hundreds of fraudulent voter registrations during last year's general election. The charges are part of a continuing investigation of ACORN, (snip) fake voter registrations were filed by hourly employees apparently attempting to meet daily registration quotas in order to be paid. (snip) ACORN officials have denied those charges.