Patt Morrison

Farewell, Mr. Cain. You certainly gave us a lot to chew on.

Herman Cain's withdrawal from the Republican primaries on Saturday hit the field like a bolt of lightning, and the results have been surprising. According to RealClearPolitics, Newt Gingrich now leads the pack with 27 percent of the Republican vote.

Times are getting tougher, and there are fewer and fewer places for people to go to cope with the challenges. Changes in the organization of healthcare services and cutbacks in mental health treatment facilities have prompted the imminent closing of Cedars-Sinai's in-patient and out-patient psychiatry programs over the next year.

Catholic bishops are lobbying the Obama administration to change some parts of new federal health care regulations that require employers to offer prescription birth control as part of their insurance plans.

Astronomers have long suspected that there were other earth-like planets in the universe. Given the vastness of space, there very well may be millions of them - but hard evidence of their existence was elusive until NASA’s Kepler mission began cataloging them in 2009.

It has become a right of fall as dependable as cold weather and “Black Friday” - the ongoing controversy of the Bowl Championship Series and its complex and seemingly byzantine process of selecting the match-ups for college football’s champion has once again inspired the annual gnashing of teeth.