The music streaming service Spotify, which was launched in Sweden in 2008 and has been eagerly awaited by tech-savvy music fans in the United States for the past year, has begun offering its U.S. version.

The service has won over users in Europe — and generated anticipation here — by offering a simple service: a huge catalog of music that can be streamed, combined into playlists and accessed from any computer with an Internet connection, all free.

With Atlantis paying a visit to the International Space Station on the last mission of the space shuttle program, NASA thought it was a good time for a cookout... in space. The 10 astronauts on the two linked spacecraft will enjoy a special "all-American meal" today.

The meal — or, thermostabilized space food items, in NASAspeak — includes grilled chicken and barbecued beef brisket, along with Southwestern corn, baked beans and (unconfirmed) a Hostess apple pie.

AIDS researchers are excited — to use their word — about two new studies that seem to nail down the effectiveness of a daily antiviral pill to protecting heterosexual men and women against HIV.

California health officials say smoking rates in the state are down to 11.9 percent, a new low. And the latest figures make it only the second state so far to achieve a federal target of reducing adult smoking rates to 12 percent by 2020 so far. Utah got there first, in case you were wondering.

The 233rd Transportation Company is headed back to the Middle East. The heavy truck company under the 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) cased its colors Wednesday at Fort Knox as it readied for deployment to Iraq later this week. The deployment is the company’s seventh to Iraq since 2003 and supports Operation New Dawn. The unit deployed six times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Matthew D. Vanderpool, who lost a bid for the 45th District state House of Representatives seat last fall, was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head early Wednesday, several hours after Lexington police responded to a call about a suicidal man at a home.

More than 15,000 motorcycle enthusiasts are expected to show up on roadways in western Kentucky and southern Illinois today through July 17, as they partake in the Kentucky Bikefest at the Union County Fairgrounds in Sturgis. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is encouraging local motorists to be alert for an influx of motorcycles, RV’s and other support vehicles pulling trailers in the area.

The city of Cumberland is considering turning the water off for customers in outlying areas. That was revealed at Tuesday’s city council meeting where Mayor Carl Hatfield painted a stark picture of the city’s water problems. “Unless we get funds to rebuild our water distribution system, we will have to disconnect our service to customers in the outlying areas,” said Hatfield. “This is very serious. The new hookups that we have been doing have overburdened the city’s water system. Our water lines are so dilapidated that the added pressure from additional hookups causes them to pop open.”

Northern Kentucky lawyer and radio personality Eric Deters filed a federal lawsuit in January to stop the Kentucky Bar Association from moving forward with disciplinary proceedings against him. What he got on Wednesday was a federal judge who accused him of filing lawsuits before fully researching the facts and the laws that apply - a similar claim that has been made in the state disciplinary proceedings. To discourage such frivolous filings, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves said that he was ordering Deters to have an independent lawyer review the operations of his law firm and adopt any recommendations. Deters must also attend 20 hours of continuing legal education on ethics.

In better numbers than the market had been expecting, retail and food service sales were up in June, according to the Commerce Department. Seasonally adjusted sales were up 0.1 percent. That's a rebound from May, when sales fell by the same amount.

For Newscast, Yuki Noguchi filed this report: