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In these screenings, the theater does not completely darken, the volume of the movie isn't as loud and there are no advertisements beforehand.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted late Wednesday to delay sweeping food safety rules that would require farmers and food companies to be more vigilant about guarding against contamination. Lawmakers adopted an amendment by voice vote to a wide-ranging farm bill just before midnight that would delay the rules signed into law in 2011 until the Food and Drug Administration conducts a study on their economic impacts. The proposed rules would require farmers to take new precautions against contamination, to include making sure workers' hands are washed, irrigation water is clean, and that animals stay out of fields, among other measures. The amendment was offered by Republican Rep.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine will not accept federal dollars to expand health care coverage to 70,000 more state residents after the House failed for a second time on Wednesday night to override a veto by Republican Gov. Paul LePage. The Democratic-led House voted 95-52, falling just short of the two-thirds majority of present-and-voting lawmakers needed to override the proposal to expand Medicaid coverage under the federal health care overhaul, effectively killing the bill. "This bipartisan compromise to provide life-saving health care failed because of one person — and that person is Governor LePage," House Speaker Mark Eves of North Berwick said in a statement. "I'm incredibly proud of our bipartisan effort to deliver h

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A legislative budget committee has signed off on a bill that would legalize medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon. The Ways and Means Committee approved the bill on Wednesday, sending it to the full House for a vote. Medical marijuana retail outlets exist now in Oregon, but they operate in a legal gray area and run the risk of being shut down. Current law says cardholders must grow the pot themselves or designate someone to grow it for them. Supporters say the bill would make it easier for the state's 53,000 medical marijuana card holders to get their medicine. Opponents say they're concerned the legislation is a step toward legalizing marijuana.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday cut short his trade trip to Israel to return home and lobby reluctant fellow Republicans to expand Medicaid to more Michigan adults, as the clock ticked before lawmakers break for the summer. "The governor makes a very strong case and we feel that he'll be able to make that strong case in person," Lt. Gov. Brian Calley told reporters toward the end of a long Senate session Wednesday night, when senators adjourned without voting on Medicaid expansion for the second straight day. "He spent a lot of time on the phone with people today, but it's a big enough issue for him that he has decided to cut the trade mission short by several days in order to manage the issue on the ground.

PHOENIX (AP) — Gov. Jan Brewer signed a sweeping election bill Wednesday that will overhaul the early voting process in Arizona and make it more difficult for third-party candidates to get on the ballot. The legislation backed by state and local election officials seeks to trim Arizona's permanent early voting list and limit who may return mail ballots for voters. Democratic lawmakers, voting rights groups and third-party politicians had fought the measure, calling it a thinly veiled effort to keep Republicans in power by creating new hurdles for some candidates and for low-income voters.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Rick Snyder cuts short Israel trade trip to push reluctant Senate for Medicaid expansion.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon has the highest rate of kindergarteners with nonmedical vaccine exemptions in the country, and a bill passed by the state Legislature on Wednesday aims to bring that number down by making it harder for parents to refuse the shots. The bill, which passed the House 45-15, would require parents to show they consulted a physician or prove they watched an online educational video about the risks and benefits of immunizations before sending their unvaccinated children to school. The educational material would be consistent with information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It now goes to Gov. John Kitzhaber who intends to sign it, said Amy Wojcicki, a spokeswoman for the governo

Some comments by Brazilians participating in protests across South America's biggest country: ___ "I'm here because I depend on public transportation which is terrible. Public transportation should not be for profit. I'm here to say we need better buses and better service." — Maira Zenon, graphic designer, 27, attending protest in Brasilia. ___ "We're out of medicine, out of materials; there are patients lying in the halls. Hospital staff hasn't gotten a raise in 11 years. Considering what we pay in taxes, it's a disgrace. I've been seeing this decadence, which is constantly getting worse, and I won't just accept it." — Claudia Pereira, 54, public hospital administrator participating in protest in Niteroi.

CLEVELAND (AP) — A cat caring for four newborn kittens is nursing an orphaned week-old pit bull puppy in Cleveland. Sharon Harvey of the Cleveland Animal Protective League said Wednesday that Lurlene the cat welcomed Noland the puppy to her "unusual little family." The puppy was dropped off at the animal shelter last week when he was a day old. The staff decided to place Noland with the nursing cat and her litter because bottle feeding doesn't always work. The puppy will grow faster, so the shelter says it may have to come up with another feeding idea in several weeks until Noland is ready for adoption.

PHOENIX (AP) — Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill requiring hospitals and doctors to post the prices of their most common procedures and changing the way the state's Medicaid program determines what to pay hospitals. The bill Brewer signed Wednesday will allow the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to pay hospitals by diagnosis rather than how long the patient stays in the hospital. The idea is to promote efficient patient care and cut expenses. Brewer vetoed a bill requiring posted prices in April, saying it included tribal and federal hospitals that might not charge for services. Those provisions were stripped out of the language added to the hospital reimbursement bill. Brewer said Wednesday the requirement

Oklahoma's newest Republican congressmen took aggressive parts in Tuesday's House debate over a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Oklahoma's all-Republican House delegation voted unanimously in favor of the proposal. In floor debate, First District Congressman Jim Bridenstine introduced the sufferings of Jesus into the discussion. Click here to read the complete article at tulsaworld.

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — Just four months after she was rushed to Ohio for emergency heart surgery, Susie Arroyo feels better than she has in years. In March, Cincinnati Children's Hospital placed a device in Arroyo's left ventricle that helps it pump blood to the rest of her body. She was the first woman and only second person with her form of muscular dystrophy to receive the device. Arroyo, 23, lived with a heart condition caused by muscular dystrophy since she was 11. She had suffered with a low-functioning heart for four years until December, when as she was already planning for a heart transplant, her heart function declined so much she needed an immediate fix to survive.

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — A former state judge appointed to oversee a financial fraud case has cleared a mental health provider of wrongdoing and restored the clinic's status as a Medicaid provider. The decision was made Tuesday by former state judge Peter D. McDermott, who was appointed to serve as an administrative hearing officer in a case against Seasons of Hope, which operates clinics across southern and eastern Idaho. The Chubbuck-based provider lost its Medicaid payments earlier this year after an 18-month investigation by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Investigators accused the company of billing for services not covered, misrepresenting services and billing for services that were not documented, leading

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's governor does not have the legal authority to operate the Division of Medicaid by executive order, Attorney General Jim Hood said in a nonbinding legal opinion issued Wednesday. The opinion from Hood, a Democrat, contradicts Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. The governor has said for weeks that he thinks he can run the program himself, even if lawmakers don't vote to keep it alive beyond June 30, the end of the current budget year. Some lawmakers say the attorney general's opinion could increase pressure on Bryant to call the Legislature into special session by next week to reauthorize Medicaid, which covers 644,000 low-income, needy or disabled Mississippians.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Another LSU hospital privatization contract with missing financial details received approval Wednesday from the university system's Board of Supervisors, this one to turn over management of the rural Bogalusa hospital next year. The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, which operates four private hospitals in Louisiana, will take control Jan. 6 of LSU's Bogalusa Medical Center, a hospital that cares for the poor and uninsured and trains medical students. "We see it as an extension of our mission," said Robert Burgess, CEO of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales, one of the health system's community hospitals and the executive who will be in charge of Bogalusa hospital operations.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — House and Senate lawmakers have moved toward agreement on a severely scaled-back version of a bill intended to align New Hampshire insurance rules with President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law. The state insurance commissioner had argued that a wide range of changes were necessary to preserve the state's traditional role in regulating insurance plans. But opponents of the bill cast the original as an attempt to move New Hampshire toward a state-operated marketplace, something specifically prohibited by state law. In the end, House and Senate negotiators drafted a new three-paragraph bill to replace the 15-page original that addressed issues such as the demographic factors insurance companies ca

ONEIDA, N.Y. (AP) — Police in central New York say a collision between a car and a bus carrying developmentally disabled people home from day programs has sent 15 people to hospitals, most of them with bruises and other minor injuries. Oneida police tell the Oneida Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/12L6NBf ) that the car driven by 49-year-old Bobbi Marsh of Whitesboro veered around stopped traffic into an oncoming lane and hit the front of the Madison Cortland ARC bus just after 4 p.m. Wednesday. There were 13 passengers and a driver on the bus. None was seriously hurt. They were taken to a hospital for observation. Police say Marsh was taken to a hospital after reporting shoulder, arm and ankle injuries.

LONDON (AP) — A mysterious new respiratory virus that originated in the Middle East spreads easily between people and appears more deadly than SARS, doctors reported Wednesday after investigating the biggest outbreak in Saudi Arabia. More than 60 cases of what is now called MERS, including 38 deaths, have been recorded by the World Health Organization in the past year, mostly in Saudi Arabia. So far, illnesses haven't spread as quickly as SARS did in 2003, ultimately triggering a global outbreak that killed about 800 people. An international team of doctors who investigated nearly two dozen cases in eastern Saudi Arabia found the new coronavirus has some striking similarities to SARS. Unlike SARS, though, scientists remain

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Cone Health announced Wednesday that it's laying off 150 workers to help cut $30 million from its budget. President and chief operating officer Terry Akin said the health care provider will eliminate a total of 300 jobs over the next three months. Of those jobs, 150 are vacant, he said. "This has impacted types of positions that cut across the organization at all levels," Akin said, "and we've done our very best to minimize impact on patient care." Officials blame President Barack Obama's health care reform policies, sequestration and the N.C. General Assembly's decision not to expand Medicaid.