EDITOWEB in USA today October 18 2007

House Democrats on Thursday failed to override President Bush's veto of a children's health insurance bill that opponents said was too expensive.

By a vote of 273 to 156, the measure fell 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for an override. Forty-four Republicans voted for the override.

Democrats, sensing earlier that they didn't have the votes, vowed to continue the fight, despite a defeat.


US attorney general candidate rejects torture, vows independence

Michael Mukasey, President George Bush's choice to replace Alberto Gonzalez, whose office was criticized for its support of what the CIA has called "enhanced interrogation" techniques and opponents called torture, appeared to repudiate the use of such measures at the start of his confirmation hearings at which he also promised independence from the White House.


Baseball, Schreiber’s Notes: Fortune Shifts for Indians and Red Sox

You can’t dismiss luck in baseball. Twice in an extra-innings, Game 2 of a postseason series, the Cleveland Indians benefited from a sudden change in fortune.

Look what happened in Game 2 of the A.L. divisional series between the Indians and the Yankees: Until the bugs appeared, it was a really frustrating game for the Indians. They had a lot of lead-off runners on base against Andy Pettitte. But they had a guy thrown out at the plate. They were losing 1-0 in the 8th inning with a guy on third, nobody out, and they couldn’t score. Another guy on second and, again, nobody could score.