National News from NPR

Charged this week with trying to trade methamphetamine for sex with a man, former Arapahoe County (Colo.) sheriff Patrick Sullivan is now sitting in jail.

More specifically, he's being held in the county's Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility. That's right. It's named after him. His bail has been set at $500,000.

A man was duck hunting in Box Elder County, Utah, when he climbed out of a boat to move decoys. He left his shotgun and his dog behind. The dog ended up stepping on the shotgun, and the hunter received 27 pellets of birdshot in the rear.

Three days of big gains, including the best day for the Dow Jones industrial average in more than two years, look like they'll be followed today by a bit of a pause in the latest stock market rally on Wall Street.

Many of us have left something in a jacket at the dry cleaner so it's easy to relate to the man who took a suit to Goodwill and gave it away. Only after he left did he realize what a donation he'd made. The suit had $13,000 inside.

Penn State students attended a forum on campus Wednesday night to discuss the child sex abuse scandal. Former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is charged with abusing eight boys over a 15-year period. A new accuser, who is not part of the criminal case, has filed a lawsuit alleging Sandusky abused him more than 100 times and threatened his family to keep him quiet.

Medicare has announced that it will pay for primary care providers to counsel obese patients on losing weight and maintaining the weight loss. Medicare will pay doctors, nurses and physicians' assistants to help plan weight loss programs.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

At a high school in Scranton, Pa., Wednesday, President Obama exhorted Republicans in Congress to extend the pay roll tax cut. He said putting money in the pockets of working people is more important than partisan politics.

Steve Inskeep talks to Gene Sperling, head of the president's National Economic Council, about extending the payroll tax cut. The Obama administration is pushing Congress to extend the cut before it expires at the end of the year.

The West Drainage Ditch is the name of the creek that runs through Kalona, Iowa. Not the most appealing name, but a local newspaper editor is exploring plans to change the name. The city council has embraced the idea of putting the naming rights up for auction on eBay.