The average SAT scores for South Carolina’s graduating seniors are down - falling this year in all three test sections for a nine-point drop. The College Board reported Tuesday the state’s class of 2009 scored a combined average of 1,452. That’s 59 points below the national average, which saw a two-point decline from last year to 1,509.

Georgia high school students performed worse on the SAT college-entrance exam than their predecessors for the third year in a row. According to data released Tuesday by the test’s administrators, The College Board, Georgia’s mean score on the test is 1,460 this year, a six-point drop since last year. That’s compared to the national mean score of 1,509.

The government’s first study of how well rapid tests diagnose swine flu finds they’re wrong at least half the time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at rapid tests made by three companies. The tests correctly confirmed swine flu infections only 10 percent to 51 percent of the time. The tests were better at diagnosing seasonal flu.

The government’s first study of how well rapid tests diagnose swine flu finds they’re wrong at least half the time. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at rapid tests made by three companies. The tests correctly confirmed swine flu infections only 10 percent to 51 percent of the time. The tests were better at diagnosing seasonal flu.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will be asked to pay disability benefits and possibly other compensation for hospital mistakes that possibly exposed veterans to infectious body fluids.

The state Board of Education has approved unanimously a plan to toss out scores for standardized tests at four elementary schools where cheating was discovered.

An attorney for veterans who were possibly exposed to HIV and other infections at three Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals says his clients are waiting to hear if they will be compensated for mistakes that led to congressional hearings and new VA spending on patient safety.

A new federal report shows a Veterans Affairs clinic in Augusta was investigating improper sterilization of endoscopic equipment a month before a similar discovery in Tennessee set off a national review of VA cleaning procedures.

Lawmakers sharply criticized the Department of Veterans Affairs on Tuesday about why a national scare over botched colonoscopies earlier this year didn’t prompt stronger safeguards at the agency’s medical centers. House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner said VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has pledged to take disciplinary action over the matter.

The Associated Press has learned that fewer than half of Veterans Affairs clinics given a surprise inspection last month followed proper standards for colonoscopies and other minimally invasive procedures - even after the agency learned that mistakes may have exposed thousands of veterans to HIV and other diseases.

Columbia County school leaders say they are pleased with math and reading results from the Criterion Reference Competency Test. Students who failed will get remediation, in summer school, and a chance to retake the test. Count on WJBF’s Renita Crawford to break down the numbers.

The director of the Miami Veterans Affairs Healthcare System says she was “heartbroken” when she learned patients had been exposed to contaminated medical equipment at VA hospitals. Mary D. Berrocal told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she has created a position to supervise training in Miami and make sure biomedical equipment is functioning properly.

Health officials in Texas say lab tests show there may have been salmonella at a shuttered Texas plant operated by the peanut company linked to a national outbreak.

The Tennessee Valley Authority says initial tests show no major environmental damage from a spill at the Widows Creek power plant in northeast Alabama.