The new "Debt Supercommittee" created by the recent deficit ceiling deal now has 9 of its 12 members, as House Speaker John Boehner says Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas will co-chair the new committee, according to the AP.

The panel's task will be to create a bipartisan plan for cutting the federal deficit by around $1.5 trillion. That money could come from a combination of spending cuts and raising revenue.

If the panel fails to reach an agreement, automatic cuts would be made — and the automated cuts were crafted to be unpalatable to both of the major political parties.

Call it what you will — an August Occasion, Summery Judgment, Iowa ... wa ... whatever — the hype is hyperbolic this week as Republican presidential aspirants converge on Ames, Iowa, like storm clouds on an open prairie. The candidates will debate Thursday night at Iowa State University and then be subjected to a straw poll on Saturday.

Music therapy for cancer sounds like the ultimate in New Age woo-woo. But a respected medical journal now says that listening music can indeed help relieve the suffering caused by cancer and cancer treatments.

It's illegal to feed the bears in California. So what to do with Mendocino County's "Bear Woman," who remade her home into something of a luxury resort for more than a dozen bears? Before the authorities stepped in, Lynne Gravier was reportedly feeding them as much as 6,000 pounds of corn each month.

As the San Francisco Chronicle reports,

Forget, if you can, the day-to-day craziness in the stock market. Here's a broader question: After the big declines of the past several months, are stocks cheap? Are they still expensive?

By one measure, stock prices are not particularly high or low — they're valued very close to their 50-year average, as Jason Zweig pointed his latest WSJ column.

U.S. stocks stumbled out of the gate Wednesday, falling more than 300 points in the first few minutes of trading.

The sharp drop came despite a rally that buoyed U.S. indexes Tuesday, and rallies from the European and Asian markets Wednesday. Global investors seemed to take heart in the Federal Reserve's pledge to maintain low interest rates and stabilize the U.S. economy.

Quick: Where do insured Americans spend the most on health care? Miami? Los Angeles?

Nope. It's Anderson, Ind., where people with employer-provided insurance spent an average of $7,231 on medical treatments per year. That's according to an analysis of 382 metropolitan areas by Thomson Reuters, a consulting firm that has one of the biggest databases of insurance claims from employers.

An arresting image of a woman jumping into the arms of riot police has become a sensation, as the stark silhouette of her leaping figure against a background of bright flames captures a dramatic moment in Britain's riots. At least five of Britain's largest newspapers used the photo on their front pages Tuesday.

Maria Margaronis writes from The Nation's London bureau.

America has a new poet laureate today, as the Library of Congress names Philip Levine in the one-year position. He will succeed W.S. Merwin in the post. Born in Detroit in 1928, Levine has used his poetry to examine blue-collar life, often embroidering everyday events with a sense of myth.