The monthly unemployment report contained undeniably good news Friday, but with bad statistics dappled in like dandelions in a lawn. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment was down to 8.3 percent for January from 8.5 percent in December, the lowest it has been since February 2009. (Today)
WASHINGTON -- Veterans who want to work as police officers and firefighters could get some help from the White House if Congress signs on to $5 billion in funding to spur the hiring of emergency responders. President Barack Obama on Friday offered a glimpse of some of the spending priorities he intends to lay out in his Feb. 13 budget address. (Today)
A health advocacy group is questioning Pennsylvania's early designs for its public health insurance exchange, the statewide insurance policy clearinghouse mandated as part of the federal government's 2010 health care overhaul. (Today)
For the former Allegheny County morgue, it no longer will be about corpses but habeas corpus. The county plans to convert the historic 110-year-old building, once a place for autopsies and tragic endings, into offices for its law department. (Today)
Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/MCT
David Means, right, ringmaster and proprietor of Callaway Livestock Center, wrangles four head of feeder cattle at a weekly cattle auction in January in Callaway County, Miss.
ST. LOUIS -- For anyone who loves a good steak, a juicy burger or a nice Sunday roast, these are anxious times. Prices for beef, which have been climbing for months, hit a record high in December -- an average of $5 a pound -- and analysts predict they could climb 5 to 8 percent higher this year. (Today)