State and National News

If you show up at the emergency department at San Francisco General Hospital — for any reason — there's a good chance they'll offer you an HIV test.

It's part of a big push, in a city closely associated with the AIDS pandemic, to find nearly all people infected with the virus and get them in treatment right away.

In a theme playing out all over the country, Justice Department officials are proposing new ways to put the brakes on massive prison expenditures that have been eating up a bigger portion of their flat-lined annual budget.

The British probe into Rupert Murdoch's tabloid operations has extended into an investigation of information obtained from stolen cellphones. The New York Times reports that a senior police officer testified that an investigation found payoffs were given to public officials and that medical and banking records were obtained illegally.

The Times adds:

Chad Ochocinco has been deep-sixed.

After unofficially changing his name (but not his @ochocinco Twitter handle) back to what it used to be, the Miami Dolphins' No. 85 officially once again became Chad Johnson today.

Pointing to an "unprecedented failure" at the top levels of Penn State leadership, the NCAA announced wide-ranging sanctions against the football program. NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca talks about public reaction and what it could mean for the future of Penn State football.

Before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, U.S. sprinter Lauryn Williams accepted that her father, who was suffering from leukemia, wouldn't be there to see her compete in the 100-meter dash. But when residents of her hometown in Rochester, Pa., heard about it, they raised enough money to send her father and several other family members to Athens.

"I was very surprised," Williams tells NPR's Neal Conan. "It was really a great experience just to see everyone rally together."

Events like the mass shooting that killed 12 people and wounded dozes more in Aurora, Colorado can remind survivors of past massacres about their experiences. Edward Smith, a reporter with the Denver Post at the time of the Columbine shooting, and callers talk about what's been learned.

People diagnosed with conditions including autism, Alzheimer's and dementia often wander. Dean King of Outside Magazine, Robert Koester of the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and Dr. James Harris talk about why, and the challenges of search and rescue missions to find them.

Headlines today about one of the latest statements from the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad have tended to focus on the news that a spokesman says the government would never use chemical or biological weapons against its own people.

The stories take two angles: One, that this confirms Syria has such weapons; two, that it's good the regime says it won't use them on civilians.

Of course, the regime has also pledged to abide by a ceasefire brokered by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and in the ensuing weeks the bloodshed in Syria has continued.

You remember that fire on the Navy submarine that caused $400 million in damage in May? Last month, we told you that a preliminary investigation had found the fire was started by a vacuum cleaner.

Well, it gets weirder.

Today, we learn that a civilian employee has admitted to setting the fire because he wanted to get out of work early.

The Associated Press reports: