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The president has nominated his chief of staff. Jack Lew is also a former budget director in both the Clinton and Obama administrations. He would replace Timothy Geithner, who plans to step down soon.

At a news briefing Thursday afternoon, Kern County Sheriff Don Youngblood said that a science teacher helped convince the gunman, a 16-year-old student at the school, that he should put his weapon on the ground. The teacher was joined by a campus supervisor in talking to the gunman.

It's taken a few months for official reports to confirm what local Moroccan farmers predicted months ago: This year's date harvest was well above average. The reasons for this year's impressive haul, though, are harder to pin down.

What started as a horrible week for Harly and Courtney Forbes — a thief stole their tandem bicycle, their only way of getting around — has brightened considerably. After a flood of support from their community the thief returned the bike, with a note attached.

Junior Seau, the former NFL linebacker whose suicide last May at age 43 shocked fans and former teammates, suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease associated with repetitive head injuries, according to research by the National Institutes of Health.

Back-to-back bomb blasts at a snooker club in the city killed at least 80 people. A Sunni extremist group claimed responsibility for the attack on the predominantly Shiite area. Earlier in the day, a blast at a city market killed 11. A separatist group said it was behind the explosion.

A hard reality any re-elected president must face is that there are only so many people who have the president's confidence, experience to run a Cabinet department, personal backgrounds that can withstand vetting, and are politically acceptable to the opposition party.

Gov. Rick Scott says he's concerned about how much expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would cost. But after he was charged with exaggerating, his administration released a new study with much lower estimates.

Audie Cornish talks to sportswriter Stefan Fatsis about news in the National Football League. They cover the injury of Washington Redskins' quarterback Robert Griffin III, new information about brain damage sustained by the late linebacker Junior Seau, and a preview of the weekend's playoff games.

The cuts will come primarily in the company's travel business, and account for about 8.5 percent of AmEx's 63,500- person workforce. American Express said it will take a $287 million restructuring charge associated with the layoffs.