By Joanne von Alroth SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - The Illinois House of Representatives on Friday voted overwhelmingly to allow residents to carry concealed guns, taking the state one step closer to joining all others in allowing some form of carrying guns in public. Illinois is the only state in the nation to ban most people from carrying a concealed gun outside the home. Lawmakers acted on Friday after a federal appeals court in January struck down the ban, saying it violated the right to bear arms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. ...

By Ronnie Cohen (Reuters) - Federal authorities approved a Nevada hospital's proposal on Friday for correcting deficiencies that led to newly discharged psychiatric patients being bused out of state without adequate plans for continued care. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also said it would conduct unannounced inspections of Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas to ensure that procedures are in place and working to prevent further instances of so-called patient dumping. ...

From William Ray Fullmer: "My nephew, Sgt. Derek Tillman Roberts, spilled his blood on the sands of Iraq to extend the right to live free to the people of the Middle East. On June 14, 2007, Derek was killed by a roadside bomb in Kirkuk, placed by those too cowardly to face him on the [...]

Storm chasers from an outfit called Fast Unit 70 uploaded raw footage of the first 10 minutes of the Moore, Okla., tornado that gives viewers a harrowing sense of what the EF5 twister looked like. Watch that footage here. As cars and trucks zoom past, Chance Coldiron and Justin Cox's camera focuses on the dark [...]