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The nation's biggest insurer is starting to dole out bonuses and penalties to nearly 3,000 hospitals as it ties almost $1 billion in payments to the quality of care provided to patients.

House Speaker John Boehner was dealt a major defeat Thursday night. After spending most of the week trying to round up votes for his "Plan B" to extend tax cuts for virtually everyone, he pulled the measure without a vote. The clock keeps ticking toward the end of the year, when automatic tax increases and spending cuts are set to hit.

That talk about the Mayan calendar supposedly predicting the end of the world turned out to be just ... talk. Now, on to the next predictions about the end of the world. Watch out for 2016 and 2020.

Authorities in Denham Springs, La., threatened Sarah Childs with arrest because her holiday lights were arranged in a particular shape. A judge sided with her, issuing a temporary order allowing her to light up the night with the shape of an extended middle finger.

Over the years, the National Rifle Association has become synonymous with protection of gun owners' rights. But other groups have taken an even stronger line in defense of Second Amendment protections. On Friday, the NRA echoed some of those groups, calling for "qualified armed security" in all schools.

The increases add to signs that the economy continues to rebound from the 2007-09 recession and the slow recovery that followed.

On this morning after he couldn't get fellow Republicans to support his "Plan B" for avoiding the year end "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts, House Speaker John Boehner said it's clear Democrats "run Washington." But the GOP will continue to negotiate, he said.

President Obama is expected Friday to nominate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as his next secretary of state. Kerry would replace Hillary Clinton, who's planning to leave the post after four years as the president's globetrotting emissary.

Jazz lost many great saxophonists in 2012, including David S. Ware, John Tchicai, Byard Lancaster, Faruq Z. Bey, Hal McKusick and Red Holloway. Critic Kevin Whitehead pays tribute to three more of his favorites.

Kristian Aspelin had one thing in his favor: enough money to pay for medical experts. The experts were able to convince prosecutors that his infant son's death was an accident.