Florida

Airport workers find gun inside teddy bear

Airport security workers found a loaded handgun stuffed inside a brown teddy bear that a 9-year-old boy was carrying on a trip home after his family’s Florida vacation, authorities said Thursday.

The FBI is investigating how the gun got inside the teddy bear, shown above.

A Transportation Security Administration worker noticed the outline of a gun when the bear passed through an X-ray machine Saturday at Orlando International Airport.

The TSA found a loaded .22-caliber gun after the bear was opened. The boy’s family told investigators the bear was a gift from a girl at the hotel where they stayed during their Orlando vacation.

Philadelphia

Future doctors to face bedside manner test

Starting next year, medical students throughout the country will have to pass a live-action test of their clinical skills and bedside manner before they become doctors.

The National Board of Medical Examiners, which designed the exam, said it would measure critical but often overlooked skills needed to produce an accurate diagnosis, including how well students listen to their patients and how artfully they question them.

Many medical schools already test students’ clinical skills, but this will be the first time such a national test has been required of doctors since 1964, when a similar evaluation was abandoned amid concerns about its objectivity.

Virginia

Robertson clarifies Supreme Court remarks

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said Thursday he was not talking about any particular Supreme Court justices when he asked his television audience to pray that three liberal justices retire.

“I don’t care which three, I mean as long as the three conservatives stay on,” Robertson told reporters after an event at Regent University, which he leads as president and chancellor. “There’s six liberals, so it’s up to the Lord.

“I’m not telling God what to do,” he added. “I’m just saying, ‘Lord, help us.'”

Robertson, as host of “The 700 Club” on his Christian Broadcasting Network, earlier this month began the 21-day “Operation Supreme Court Freedom.” He is asking people to pray to God to change the court after its 6-3 decision in June that decriminalized sodomy.

Washington, D.C.

Report: Nursing home care needs to improve

Many nursing homes have serious quality problems despite recent industry improvements, and state inspectors are failing to catch a large number of the problems, congressional investigators said Thursday.

Twenty percent, or about 3,500, of the nation’s nursing homes were cited for harming patients or placing them at risk of serious injury, the General Accounting Office report said. The investigation covered mid-2000 through 2002.

Twenty-nine percent of nursing homes received serious citations in the prior 18-month period. The report acknowledged the situation had improved but emphasized that the current degree of poor care was unacceptable.