NATIONAL NEWS
     
      PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The families of three Americans detained in Iran for months say their loved ones have been allowed to call home for the first time.   The families said in a statement that they received the calls yesterday.   The three reported being well.   The families called the conversations "a tremendous relief.  "
     
      RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Vice President Joe Biden has told the Palestinians that they deserve a "viable" independent state with contiguous territory.   Biden's comments today in the West Bank may be aimed at reassuring the Palestinians of U.  S.   support a day after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new homes in disputed east Jerusalem.   The Israeli move has overshadowed Biden's visit.  
     
      ST.   LOUIS (AP) - Instead of focusing on insurance companies -- as he did earlier this week in Pennsylvania -- President Barack Obama's health care reform pitch today in St.   Louis will promote an anti-fraud plan that has bipartisan backing.   It would bring in high-tech bounty hunters to help find fraud in the health care system.   Waste and fraud are pervasive problems for Medicare and Medicaid.  
     
      HARRISON, N.  Y.   (AP) - Police in suburban New York are analyzing a Toyota Prius that crashed after the driver said its accelerator stuck.   The 2005 Prius hit a stone wall Tuesday in Harrison, toppling boulders.   The driver wasn't seriously injured.   On Monday, California police stopped a runaway Prius going nearly 85 miles an hour.   The driver said the pedal jammed.  
     
      COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The son of a man who survived a deadly shooting at Ohio State University says his father is improving in a Columbus hospital.   He tells a Columbus TV station (WSYX) that Henry Butler could be discharged as early as today.   Police say Butler was shot early yesterday by a subordinate who killed another supervisor before fatally shooting himself.   They say the gunman had been told he was losing his job as a janitor.  
     
     
     
      REGIONAL NEWS
     
      OLYMPIA, Wash.   (AP) - In Olympia, state lawmakers are trying to agree on tax and spending plans to close a $2.  8 billion budget gap before tomorrow's deadline for the session to end.   Yesterday, lawmakers sent a separate $8.  5 billion transportation budget to the governor.  
     
      OLYMPIA, Wash.   (AP) - The budget is still the big issue for lawmakers in Olympia, but they have sent a number of other bills to Gov.   Chris Gregoire.   They include additional benefits for families of police and firefighters killed on duty.   The Legislature also passed a measure limiting computer use by sex offenders at the state's Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island.  
     
      BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Lawmakers hope changes to the Idaho fund that pays medical bills of the indigent will prevent taxpayers from covering ill-advised, costly procedures.   Budget writers yesterday set an $18.  3 million catastrophic health care fund budget for fiscal year 2011.   That's less than the $34 million the fund got this year.  
     
      Weather: Partly to mostly sunny.   High near 50.