It isn't even the law of the land yet. Health care reform, President Obama's most ambitious policy initiative since taking office, won't become law unless Congressional Democrats put aside their differences and support the legislation in a crucial vote later this week.

But that fact isn't stopping some individual states from preparing legal strategies to gut the effectiveness of Obama's health care reform package - just in case it becomes law.

In Idaho, Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter signed a law that that forced the state's attorney general to sue the federal government for requiring people to buy health insurance.

Like rats jumping off a sinking ship, the press secretary of New York Gov. David Paterson became the latest top official in his administration to leave office.

It seems a day can't go by without Paterson's name making headlines for something other than running the state.

Press Secretary Marissa Shorenstein resigned saying she could not longer do her job effectively due to the recent scandal over whether Paterson improperly tried to protect one of his top aides, David Johnson, from a physical abuse charge brought by Johnson's ex-girlfriend Sherr-una Booker.

Kucinich's announcement gives Obama a key vote, and he will likely need others to secure victory on his most sought-after policy initiative to date.

While Obama can't open any champagne bottles just yet, he should be feeling much better as he engages in a last-minute tour this week to rescue health care reform legislation from its death bed.

A liberal representing a Cleveland congressional district, Kucinich voted against the health care reform bill in November, because it did not contain a "public option" for government-regulated health care to compete with private plans.

An announcement telling black shoppers to leave the building at a New Jersey Wal-Mart has store officials reviewing store security tapes and black patrons fuming.

A male voice said, "Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now," over the the public address system Sunday evening at the Washington Township Wal-Mart in southern New Jersey.

Customers expressed surprise at the announcement, which is also being investigated by the local police and prosecutor's office. The store management apologized to shoppers.

Aid workers in quake-ravaged Haiti are reporting that increasing numbers of women are falling victim to sexual assaults as tent cities swell with victims and victimizers.

Rates of rape were high in Haiti prior to the Jan. 12th earthquake that killed 200,000 and left the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere reeling. The pervasive sense of lawlessness since the earthquake, though, has unleashed a wave of rapes against women in the tent camps, where security and lighting are virtually nonexistent.

Aid workers say the rapes are a daily occurrence and that many go unreported because of the shame and fear of reprisal felt by the victims.

As the counting of the nation's population begins this week with the 2010 census, one question rises above all others: Is cramming our mailboxes with another piece of of paperwork the best way to tally our population?

With America's use of computers dominating our shopping, banking and entertainment, it seems the goal of sending out old-fashioned mail-in forms to every American is the most inefficient way imaginable to get an accurate head count of America.

We all see that the U.S. postal system is suffering a slow death.

Just a few weeks ago, the US Postal Service said it would likely end Saturday delivery of the mail and trim its workforce by 50,000 full-time employees next year to stop an expected loss of $238 billion over the next 10 years.

In the year-long battle for health care reform, President Barack Obama has lobbied, compromised, implored, and negotiated with members of Congress, getting mixed results.

So this week, as crucial votes in the House of Representatives loom, Obama is using the most powerful weapon in his arsenal-- his ability to speak directly to people -- to get the final push he needs to make health care reform a reality.

In a seniors' recreation center in Strongsville, Ohio, outside of Cleveland, Obama got personal with the audience, telling the story of how a self-employed wash woman named Natoma Canfield was being financially battered with spiraling health care costs and a recent cancer diagnosis.