Speaking to WHAS-AM radio personality Mandy Connell on Wednesday morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., defended his proposal to give President Barack Obama unilateral authority to raise the debt ceiling even if party leaders can’t agree on ways to reduce the debt moving forward. McConnell’s proposal gives the president the power to request increases of up to $2.5 trillion in three separate installments over the next year if they are coupled with larger spending cuts.

Illinois lawmakers are re-examining the state's business tax climate, just six months after raising the corporate income tax rate. The move comes as some corporate giants threaten to move out of Illinois. Some wonder how far the state should go to keep them.

Doug Whitley, president and CEO of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, says his members aren't happy with the state's approach towards businesses.

"Big-name, household-name companies that are long-standing Illinois businesses have begun to rattle the cage and say, you know, this isn't the best environment," he says.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. announced Wednesday that it has withdrawn its bid for BSkyB, a major U.K. broadcaster. Murdoch is embroiled in a phone hacking scandal involving the tabloid News of the World, which News Corp. shut down last week. Steve Inskeep talks about the announcement with NPR's David Folkenflik in London.

The U-S House is debating an energy spending bill that could be good for Kentucky’s coal industry, but it also has critics bristling. The legislation cuts one billion dollars from energy and water related spending… winding back investments in more fuel efficient vehicles and renewable energy programs.  Those are intended to wean the nation off coal. Kentucky Republican Ed Whitfield says undoing some of the president’s green energy investments is good.

Update at 10:23: Deaths Reported; Unexploded Bomb Found

NDTV reports that at least 10 people have died in three attacks in Mumbai, with more than a dozen taken to the hospital. From NDTV:

One explosion, in a car at a bus stop in Dadar West, has been confirmed. A police officer said there might have been an explosive in a meter box behind a hoarding at Khau gali, a street filled with eateries at Zaveri Bazaar.

For one spring night next year, the world of Bluegrass music will fix their focus on Jackson and Breathitt County, when the renowned six-piece band The Grascals will grace the Douthitt Park stage for a concert on Saturday, June 9, 2012.

The Internet, as you may have noticed, just seems to keep on growing. But not in China — in fact, Chinese officials said that the country had 41 percent fewer sites at the end of 2010 than existed one year earlier — mostly the result of government restrictions.

Worldwide, there were a reported 255 million websites at the end of 2010. That number, drawn from research conducted by Royal Pingdom, reflects a yearly gain of 21.4 million sites.

With a little less than a month to go, organizers of “Breathitt County Day” in Frankfort are making final preparations to make this year's event – the seventh annual one – to exceed last year's record turnout. They hope to tie into this November's elections for state offices, by inviting Democratic and Republican candidates for governor to the festivities, which will be held on Friday, Aug. 5, starting at 10 a.m. at VFW Post # 4075, located at the corner of East Second Street and Capital Avenue in Frankfort, just five blocks away from the Kentucky State Capitol.

As the U.S. winds up its space shuttle program, Beijing is shooting for the moon.

Chairman Mao once said China would never be a great nation if it couldn't even shoot a potato into space. But in 2003, it became only the third country to send a man into orbit, and since then it's launched five more astronauts — or "taikonauts" as they've been christened here, showing how China's even trying to leave its own mark on space vocabulary.