Continued live blogging of Senate Finance Committee -- discussion of Rockefeller Amendment to add a "robust" public option based on Medicare.

AP is reporting there's a new agreement between House conservatives, moderates (??) and liberals on ways to strengthen the House health care reform bill. A strong public option will be preserved, AP says.

a Chairman Henry Waxman today released Chairman's amendments to the tri-committeed House bill on health care reform. In addition to the usual technical fixes, Waxman's substitute contains improvements designed to lower costs and improve the cost-efficiency of both Medicare and the public plan.

The Anchorage Daily News just broke a story about a scandal in Alaska's administration of the Medicaid programs. It seems federal auditors have suspend parts of the program because of gross mismanagement by Alaska officials that was leaving hundreds untreated and may have resluted in over 200 deaths while patients were waiting for treatment.

Another 22 members of the House, including some moderates, sent at letter yesterday to Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer to express their "strong desire to see a robust public health insurance option" in the health reform bill. And they emphasize the need for the public option to have access to strong provider networks, like Medicare.

Blanche Lincoln has been spending a lot of time thinking about health care reform, and about those ads ActBlue plans to start running in Arkansas asking why she's against a public plan forcing insurance companies to shape up or lose market share. So she's moving -- not to another state, but to another point of view.

Bernie Sanders send a message to Max Baucus and his "coalition of the willing" working on weaking the public health insurance option: let's form a "coalition of the unwilling" to insist on blocking any "reform" bill that doesn't contain a strong public option.

Is it possible that the first reported incident of attempted voter fraud is Joe the Plumber?? Priceless.

Republican are paying for this nasty billboard along the heavily used I-10 corridor between El Paso, Texas and Southern New Mexico.