The National Institutes of Health should retire most of its chimps that are currently living in research facilities, according to a working group put together by the NIH to look at the future need for biomedical research on chimps.

The group did recommend keeping a small number of chimps in reserve in case they are needed for studies later on. But it also laid out a detailed description of the kind of living conditions that would be needed for those chimps, and said any proposed research should go through a review committee that includes members of the public.

Communism in China brought mixed reactions for a young Harry Wu.

When he visited poorer regions of the country, Wu could see some benefits for the poor. But Wu's father was a banker, among the capitalist class who were being persecuted in Mao's China. He considered leaving — maybe going to the then-British controlled Hong Kong — but he decided to stay in China and study. 

His family's past wealth caused him harassment until, in 1960, he was shipped off to a labor camp. And in labor camps he'd stay for the next 19 years.

Start your car. See that puff from the tailpipe in your rearview mirror? Benzene, butadiene, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide.

 Reverend Maurice "Bojangles" Blanchard was arrested Tuesday evening after applying for a marriage license at Louisville's County Clerk's office. The arrest followed a protest and sit-in Blanchard called the Southern Satyagraha, which happened on West Jefferson Street near the Hall of Justice. 

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence used his first State of the State address to lobby for a personal income tax cut, an expansion of Indiana's school voucher system and improved vocational training.

The Republican's speech tonight didn’t reveal much new information about what he wants to accomplish. Instead, he's used it to push for a handful of priorities he's laid out since taking office last week.

Piggybacking on a warning from more than a dozen Kentucky Tea Party groups, the head of a libertarian-leaning Super PAC says Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is everything that is wrong with politics.

Preston Bates is executive director of Liberty For All, which is a Texas-based group founded by 22-year-old millionaire John Ramsey.

In a series of statements, Bates says McConnell is unpopular enough to unite independents, libertarians and Democrats alike.

From Liberty for All:

On a Primary Challenge

“Mitch McConnell can’t afford a conversation with primary voters on his record, so his only prayer is an Ashley Judd candidacy so he can side-step the primary.”

Is Mitch Tea Party?

“Mitch McConnell is a poster-boy for everything that’s wrong with politics: a career politician who’s made tens of millions while Kentucky families suffer. He’s raised the debt ceiling, called TARP a success, and is fresh of raising taxes on Kentucky’s families. Simply put, he’s anything but a tea partier.”

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky says he isn’t sure he can support a plan to raise the nation’s debt ceiling until May, even though his party’s leaders are backing the idea.

Massie was among a group of GOP lawmakers who participated in a press conference in Washington today called “Conversations With Conservatives.”

President Obama mentioned him five times in Monday's inaugural address — God, that is.

In modern times, religion has become so intertwined in our political rhetoric that the failure of any president to invoke God in a speech as important as the inaugural could hardly escape notice. Thanks to this graphic in The Wall Street Journal, we noticed the presidents who did (nearly all) and the few who didn't (Teddy Roosevelt, Rutherford B. Hayes).

People sent to prison for sex offenses couldn't receive credit toward an early release by earning college degrees under a proposal supported by an Indiana Senate committee.

The Indiana Senate's corrections committee voted 8-1 today to advance the measure.

Bill sponsor Sen. Jim Merritt cited the case of a former high school swim coach who was released after serving less than two years of an eight-year sentence for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl he coached.     The man was able to use his education credits to help shorten his time in prison. 

Lexington Mayor Jim Gray delivered his annual State of the Merged Government address today.

Gray highlighted the city’s successes, including an agreement last week with public safety unions to shore up the police and firefighter pension fund.   He also touted plan to bring the long buried Town Branch Creek back to the urban surface, and urged people to think of other big ideas for the city's future. 

Gray told reporters that Lexington is better off than a lot of cities, but still has work to do.