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If you've ever wanted to check out Mushihimesama Bug Panic on iPhone, wait until Saturday to do so (or download the Lite version). The top-down, bomb-tossing action-adventure game is discounted to $0.99 from April 9 through April 17, with all sales going to the Red Cross.

It's doing the same for the as-yet-unreleased Nin2-Jump for XBLA. Cave says that the game will be released worldwide this April for 400 Microsoft Points, with all proceeds through June also going to the Red Cross.

Cave also has a couple of non-charity-related discounts. From April 9 through April 17, Dodonpachi Resurrection will be $4.99, and EspGaluda 2 will be $4.99 (if it gets enough votes in the OpenFeint Fire Sale......

Planned Parenthood

Republicans portray Planned Parenthood as primarily focused on performing abortions and – intentionally or not – using American taxpayer dollars to do it.

Not so, say Democrats who counter that the group's 800-plus health centers nationwide provide an array of services, from screenings for cancer to testing for sexually transmitted diseases. Abortion is just one of many procedures, and the law bars Planned Parenthood from using tax money for it.

In the budget maelstrom that threatened to partially shut the federal government Friday stood Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a 90-year-old organization now part of a decades-long congressional battle over abortion.

Republicans want any legislation keeping the government operating to bar federal dollars for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest provider of abortions. They want to distribute the money to the states.

"The country is broke and the vast majority of Americans don't want tax dollars to take the life of unborn children," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., chairman of Republican Study Committee, told reporters in a conference call.

Iggy Pop played American Idol Watch Video

Manny Ramirez Retires After Testing Positive

The 38-year-old outfielder-designated hitter left the team earlier this week to attend to what the Rays called a family matter. Manager Joe Maddon said on Thursday that he expected Ramirez to be available for Friday night's game at the Chicago White Sox.

The 12-time All-Star agreed to a $2 million, one-year contract with the defending AL East champions in the offseason, hoping to re-establish himself as one of the game's feared hitters.

Ramirez struggled with injuries but still hit .298 with nine homers and 42 RBIs in 90 games for the Dodgers and White Sox last season. He's a career .312 hitter with 555 home runs in 18-plus seasons, including some of his best with the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox.

It was after signing with the Dodgers, though, that his reputation was sullied.....

John Yarmuth on CSPAN's Washington Journal

While John Yarmuth took a barrage of questions for 20 minutes on live national television about the budget, we must also remember that Ben Chandler sent out a fundraising email yesterday saying that killing Medicare is bad. So there's that.

Planned Parenthood

As House Republicans threaten to shut down the government over federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the woman at the helm of that controversial organization, Cecile Richards, is fighting to set the record straight about what exactly is at stake.

"This isn't about federal funds being cut from Planned Parenthood," Richards, who's led Planned Parenthood since 2006, told The Huffington Post. "What has been proposed by the House of Representatives is to say that women can no longer go to Planned Parenthood to get their cancer screenings, to get their birth control, to get any kind of services through federal programs. That's what's getting lost here," she said.

After weeks of federal budget negotiations, the focus has shifted in the past couple of days from economic issues to a particular rider that would eliminate all government funding to Planned Parenthood through the Title X family planning program. Conservatives are targeting Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics provide abortions, even though those abortions make up less than three percent of Planned Parenthood's services and federal money is not used to pay for abortion services. Democrats, who have already accepted about a dozen provisions Republicans tacked onto the budget bill, are digging their feet in on the issue of Planned Parenthood funding.

Richards said she is frustrated that the Planned Parenthood rider is being misleadingly portrayed as a fight against "abortion funding," when so many patients in rural and medically underserved communities depend on Planned Parenthood clinics as a primary health provider.