The nation in brief

LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "The alarm bells on

our nation's fiscal condition have now

become a siren."

Senate Minority Leader

Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,

on reports the national

deficit will rise to nearly $1.6 trillion this year Article, 1APost office offering

$15,000 buyouts

WASHINGTON - The Postal Service is offering $15,000 buyouts to some employees to cut costs at a time when the post office is buffeted by the recession and the popularity of e-mail and electronic bill payment.

Up to 30,000 employees could take the offer at a total cost of about $450 million, the agency said Tuesday. The post office said it could save as much as $500 million in the next two years.

The majority of those who could take the buyouts work in the mail processing facilities, the post office said.

The offer is open to those eligible for retirement and early retirement. It also includes employees in select positions, such as retail clerks, distributors and mail handlers who are willing to resign voluntarily.

Storms, then valve foil shuttle's launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

- NASA called off the launch of space shuttle Discovery for a second time Tuesday after a critical fuel valve failed to work properly.

Launch officials halted the countdown midway through the fueling process. The seven astronauts had not yet boarded the shuttle for the flight to the international space station scheduled for early this morning.

The astronauts said another attempt would not be made until Friday at the earliest.

The problem cropped up while launch controllers were trying to shut the fill-and-drain valve in Discovery's engine compartment. There was no indication the valve closed, and it appeared to be broken, said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.

He stressed that the exact condition of the valve was not known;

it could be simply sticky.

The first launch attempt was scuttled in the wee hours of Tuesday because of thunderstorms. Sixteen hours later, try two ended with the surprising scrub.

3 barn deaths look like murder-suicide

MOORESBURG, Tenn.

- Authorities were investigating a possible murder-suicide Tuesday after three people were found dead in a barn in rural northeastern Tennessee after a standoff with police.

The bodies were found by officers around dawn after a 10-hour standoff that started Monday night.

The deaths initially appeared to be a murder-suicide, said Kristin Helm, spokesman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Hawkins County sheriff's Detective Randy Collier said deputies found two men and a woman dead with gunshot wounds inside the barn.

District Attorney General Berkeley Bell Jr. told the Citizen Tribune newspaper in Morristown that those found dead were Darran Blevins; his ex-stepfather, Dennis Christian; and Christian's live-in girlfriend, Brandy Seal.