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For millennia, observant Jewish women have made monthly trips to a ritual bath called a mikvah for a kind of spiritual cleansing. In recent generations, the practice was dismissed by liberal Jews as demeaning. Now, some feminist Jews are reinventing the ritual.

U.S. and Iraqi forces launch an operation to take control of the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Violence there has taken a high toll on U.S. forces; it's considered one of the most dangerous places in Iraq.

Last year, Tennessee dropped some 200,000 people from TennCare, its health plan for the poor and uninsured, and reduced benefits for hundreds of thousands more. In Cocke County, one of the state's poorest, the repercussions are felt far and wide.

The mayor of Normal supports offering economic development incentives for the Trail East and West projects. The town is negotiating a development agreement with Cedar Falls, Iowa-based Eagle View Partners.

Fossils found in northern China show that some of the first birds on Earth lived on the water. The exquisitely preserved fossils, resembling modern ducks or loons, lived 110 million years ago, when many forms of today' animals started to take shape.

An experiment confirms that a weird tribe of particles known as neutrinos actually change from one form into another as they journey about the cosmos. Neutrinos seem to pass through any object. If that's really the case, are neutrinos cursed to wander the universe in solitude forever?

As summer officially arrives this week, it's time to think about books to buy, borrow or check out of the library. Dr. Abraham Verghese, director of the Center for Medical Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, offers a brief reading list.

A concert at First United Methodist Church reminds art lovers to take a deep breath amid what, for some, remains a chaotic and disorienting time. “Breathing Deeply,” a collaboration between the Normal church and Illinois Symphony Orchestra, takes place this Sunday, with art, music and poetry — plus cookies and fellowship.

NASA is hard at work trapping vultures near Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Space agency officials want to keep the four-to-six pound birds away from Saturday's shuttle launch.

The main rebel group fighting government forces and militia in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan signed on to a peace agreement earlier this month. Madeleine Brand speaks with the U.S. State Department's Jendayi Frazier, assistant secretary for African affairs, about the next steps in the peace process.