National News

Dorner is suspected of going on a killing spree that led to a multi-state manhunt. The remains were identified using dental records.

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The potential Democratic Party contest between 89-year-old Sen. Frank Lautenberg and 43-year-old Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker had been shaping up to be a generational battle royale. Alas, it won't happen now that Lautenberg has announced that he won't run for re-election in 2014.

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A Vatican spokesman denied that had anything to do with Benedict XVI's decision to step down. But the revelation came just two days after the spokesman said the pope underwent a secret operation late last year to replace the battery for a pacemaker.

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Ramiro Gomez Jr. is an artist — and nanny — who places cardboard paintings of domestic workers in affluent Los Angeles neighborhoods. Some people see him as an activist, but Gomez shies away from that label; he just hopes his project will help to humanize immigrant workers.

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Lautenberg had already been challenged by the younger and very popular Newark Mayor Cory Booker. In a statement, Lautenberg said he still had a lot of work to do in his remaining two years.

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Military leaders are among those warning Congress of the consequences of the automatic spending cuts set to kick in at the beginning of March. But many on Capitol Hill seem resigned to the cuts taking place.

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There might be a lot of talk right now about all those Oscar-nominated films -- but what about the less-intensive viewing experiences? There's a presumptive new blockbuster out this week: 'A Good Day to Die Hard.' Chances are you already know all about the lead character -- and maybe even the plot.

Wesley Morris is a film critic with Grantland. He says that behind the decision to make one more 'Die Hard' movie is, of course, money.

"I think it involves a lot of finance people sitting around saying, 'Dude, I think there's still some water left in this sponge,'" Morris points out.

But there's more to the story here. The most famous action heroes -- the Schwarzeneggers and Stallones of the world -- are still up to their old tricks. But the movie industry has changed since they first started blowing up buildings and crashing cars. 

"In the original 'Die Hard' movies was a really fresh approach that basically changed for a long time the kind of action movies we got," says Morris. "I think we have sort of grown past this idea of an action hero in some ways. And I think that the movies aren't helping us out by basically regurgitating stuff it has always done without trying to find a new way to do it."

He cites blockbuster director Michael Bay and his 'Transformers' franchise as the main contenders filling the void.

"Michael Bay is a sort of evil genius," Morris adds. "He has figured out a way to do this without having to deal with the overhead of egos like Stallone's or Schwarzenegger's. And I don't see [the classic action hero] coming back around without a complete rethinking of how an action movie is supposed to work."

...Especially at $13.75 per viewing.

The Crystal River nuclear plant was a driver of commercial life in rural Citrus County, Fla. The power company's decision to close the troubled plant will leave taxpayers and ratepayers on the hook for up to several billion dollars and has residents worried about their region's future.

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The vote makes the former Republican senator the first defense nominee to be filibustered.

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Kittens regained sight in a blind eye after being plunged into darkness for 10 days. Researchers say that prolonged darkness may reset the brain to an earlier stage of development, allowing the kittens to recover their vision.

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Remember Sen. Marco Rubio's paean to his Florida neighborhood in giving the Republican response to the State of the Union address? It seems Rubio is still living in West Miami because he's been unable to find someone to buy his house in the three months it's been on the market.

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George Prendes was 23 when he was sentenced under New York's Rockefeller drug laws — tough mandatory sentencing guidelines for nonviolent drug crimes. The 15 years Prendes served for a drug transaction still reverberate for him and his family.

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One expert said logistics and safety are considerations, while another said it likely comes down to a question of money.

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Consider ketchup. Tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and a little salt. There's not much more to it than that. And yet it is on top of that humble ketchup bottle that the H.J. Heinz company built a $28 billion empire.

Today, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced that it will partner with investment firm 3G Capital to buy Heinz for$23 billion in cash. But with debt assuption, the whole deal is valued at around $28 billion. 

The Pittsbugh-Based Heinz owns all sorts of products like Classico Spaghetti Sauces and Ore-Ida fries, but it is the company's ketchup that is so iconic. "If you think about it this is a brand -- like Fedex or Coke or Starbucks more recently -- that has become the placeholder for the category," says Harvard business historian Nancy Koehn. "If we ask for ketchup and we don't get Heinz -- wherever we are -- there is a little bit of a reboot ... it looks wrong." 

Koehn says Heinz has always been innovative in terms of production, marketing and distribution, and was even in front of the pact when it came to safety and regulatory standards. Also, says Koehn, " A lot of the foods that grew up with ketchup -- including fast food in the 1950s -- grew up literally in tandem with alliances and suply relationships with Heinz." 

Consider ketchup. Tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and a little salt. There's not much more to it than that. And yet it is on top of that humble ketchup bottle that the H.J. Heinz company built a $28 billion empire.

Today, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced that it will partner with investment firm 3G Capital to buy Heinz for$23 Billion in cash. But with debt assuption, the whole deal is valued at around $28 billion. 

The Pittsbugh-Based Heinz owns all sorts of products like Classico Spaghetti Sauces and Ore-Ida fries, but it is the company's ketchup that is so iconic. "If you think about it this is a brand -- like Fedex or Coke or Starbucks more recently -- that has become the placeholder for the category," says Harvard business historian Nancy Koehn. "If we ask for ketchup and we don't get Heinz -- wherever we are -- there is a little bit of a reboot ... it looks wrong." 

Koehn says Heinz has always been innovative in terms of production, marketing and distribution, and was even in front of the pact when it came to safety and regulatory standards. Also, says Koehn, " A lot of the foods that grew up with ketchup -- including fast food in the 1950s -- grew up literally in tandem with alliances and suply relationships with Heinz." 

Whether or not electric cars ever make it big, this week could eventually be looked at as a turning point. Not so much in the development of the cars themselves but in how they're perceived by the public -- and written about in the press.

This past weekend, the New York Times published a story about Tesla, EV cars, and new charging stations. Suffice it to say that it was not a story Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk was pleased with, seeing as how the the car wound up on a flat bed truck.

Now, Musk is challenging the report with detailed logs of the trip that New York Times reporter John Broder wrote about.

“Bottom line, Tesla pitched a road-trip story to the New York Times and is now unhappy with the story that the New York Times’s printed. And is going after them for faking it and slanting it and the whole thing when really it just wasn’t the wisest trip to begin with,” says Wired Magazine contributor Chelsea Sexton.  “ It’s not what the EV experience represents.”

Sexton points out that, in general, there is a double standard for electric vehicles. 

“No new product does absolutely everything in exactly the same way as the product its replacing,” she says. "And yet when it comes to electric cars that’s the expectation."

Sexton says EVs are great for lots of things, like running errands and commuting.

"(EVs) are not great for boat-towing and road trips and off-roading," she says. "Neither is a Corvette.”

Whether or not electric cars ever make it big, this week may eventually be looked at as a turning point. Not so much in the development of EVs but in how they're percieved by the public and written about by the press.

This past weekend the New York Times published a story about Tesla, its cars, and its new charging stations. Suffice it to say that it was not a story Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk was pleased with, seeing as how the the car wound up on a flat bed at one point.

Now, Musk is challenging the report with detailed logs of the trip Times reporter John Broder took in the Tesla.

Small amounts of the drugs that people take end up in wastewater and then in streams and rivers. It's usually not enough to harm the health of humans who swim in or drink the water. But there is growing evidence that pharmaceuticals in wastewater may affect wildlife.

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President Obama will cap off a busy week of politicking with some R&R in Florida, traveling to the West Palm Beach area for what his spokesman called "some well-deserved downtime."

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Maureen O'Connor pleaded not guilty to a money laundering charge, but agreed to repay $2 million she took from her late husband's charity. O'Connor's attorney said she had a gambling problem, stemming from a brain tumor.

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