(Wednesday, 18 March 2009)  A DeKalb neighborhood is on high alert after a woman out jogging is stabbed; White House consideration of a proposal involving veterans and private insurance draws criticism; being obese can take as much as 10 years off your life.  Read details of today's KISS News Now! 

• DeKalb Police step up patrols in the area of Briarcliff Road near LaVista, where a man jumped a lady jogger Tuesday morning and stabbed her several times in the back.  No arrests yet, or motive known.  Kim Tunkle is in ICU after surgery for a punctured lung.
  
  
• Georgia lawmakers say they can use federal stimulus money to keep school nurses on the job.  The plan would require six-day furloughs of public school teachers--but likely just getting rid of the teacher planning days to do it.
  
  
• The White House is on the defensive over a proposal to have some veterans' service-related injuries paid for by private insurance.  State Representative Melvin Everson of Snellville, one of just two black Republicans in the Georgia House, got a standing ovation when he blasted the idea.
  
  "President Obama is my commander in chief, and I will support him when he's right," Everson said on the floor of the House.  "But when he is wrong, I will stand up and say, 'Mr. President, no, this will not happen in Georgia, this will not happen in the United States of America.'"
  
  Everson served 23 years in the military, and has a brother who was disabled during the Vietnam War.
  
  David Gorman, executive director of Disabled American Veterans, was at a meeting in which President Obama discussed the plan with representatives of veterans' groups.
  
  The president was sympathetic to the needs of veterans, Gorman said, but insisted that the insurance companies are getting away with not paying for anything.
  
  "The vets are paying premiums to insurance companies, and that is a free ride that needs to stop," Gorman said in describing the president's message to the group.
  
  
• President Obama heads to California today, to talk up his economic recovery plan at two town-hall meetings.  He'll also become the first sitting US president to appear on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening.
  
  
• The head of AIG will be taking the heat for some $200 million in bonuses paid out when he appears in front of lawmakers on Capitol Hill this morning.  Edward Liddy says he inherited the bonus plan when he took over AIG last fall--and that he's not getting any of the dough.  As for the idea that the money is for "retention bonuses?"  As it turns out, AIG paid 73 employees bonuses of one million dollars or more--including 11 people who no longer work for the company.
  
  
• GM's chief says the new Chevy Camaro is proof the company's making more efficient cars: the V6 Camaro will get 29 miles per gallon on the highway; a V8 will get 25.
  
  
• MARTA is warning state lawmakers that they're in dire straits financially. They've sent a memo that entire rail lines may be cut unless the state lets MARTA use more sales tax money for operations.  Right now, they use half for operations, half for capital expenditures.
  
  
• Smyra Police are trying to uncover the location of a serial flasher, who showed his goods to a15-year-old girl--who was waiting in the car while her parents shopped inside Starship Enterprises on South Cobb Drive--then allegedly attacked her.  Her mother says suspect Daniel Buckner, 40, exposed himself to her daughter and grabbed her clothes, baring her breast.  Cops say Buckner has a long...criminal record.
  
  
• You may not think that a second helping of cheese fries is akin to a menthol cigarette.  Think again.  British researchers find that being obese can be as dangerous as smoking!  People with a body mass index of 40 or above can take 10 years off their life; moderately obese people generally cut three years off their life span and anyone obese risks more heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes.
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal analyzes which college basketball coaches give the least bang for the buck.  They put Georgia Tech's Paul Hewitt at the top of the list for most overpaid coaches, with his salary of $1.3 million.  To be ranked on the list of 25, coaches had to have salaries of at least $1 million and have been at their institutions for a minimum of four years.  The study used winning percentage, RPI and salary as the criteria for coming up with an "Elite Value Score."
  
  
• Is Jennifer Hudson worth as much to you as Ruben Studdard?  Decisions like that may have to be made once "American Idol'' trading cards come out next month. There will be 138 cards of current and past contestants. Even William Hung has one.
  
  
• A loud, frantic welcome-home of sorts for Octomom Nadya Suleman, who brought two babies home from the hospital.  Throngs of people and paparazzi crowded her black SUV--shoving and pushing until they broke her garage door.  The six others will stay in the hospital until they gain more weight.  They're the world's longest-surviving octuplets.
  
  
• The KISS 104.1 weather forecast:  mostly sunny high 70, low 48.  Thursday, increasing cloudiness, high 73, with a 30% chance of brief evening showers.  Friday, sunny, high of 65.