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• "America's become more touchy-feely," says Lillian Glass, a body language expert based in Los Angeles. "That's what they want in their candidates, and that's what they're getting."
• When 74-year-old Jan Queen locked on to Biden for a hug and kiss in Jackson, Ohio, on Saturday, she didn't budge for a minute or so.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House Big Dig is finally wrapping up, but the Big Reveal is proving to be a pretty big letdown.
• After nearly two years and $86 million worth of noisy and disruptive construction, the West Wing has emerged from its visual seclusion remarkably unchanged. And deep underground, whatever has been built there remains shrouded in mystery.
• Plus, if you ask what the next phase is in this massive, four-year project, the official answer is "TBD" -- to be determined.
• The construction project -- officially a long overdue upgrade of White House utilities -- began in September 2010 with the excavation of a huge, multistory pit in front of the West Wing, wrapping around to include West Executive Avenue, the street that separates the White House from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. A tall, green construction fence sprang up that blocked America's most famous office complex from public view.
• But now the fence has come down, revealing the familiar whitewashed sandstone facade and the lone Marine guard who stands watch at the entrance to the West Wing lobby.
• ___

• KARLSRUHE, Germany (AP) -- Germany's high court on Wednesday rejected calls to block the Europe's permanent rescue fund, paving the way in a much-anticipated ruling for its ratification by the country's president.
• Investors breathed a sigh of relief that Germany's highest court was not putting up a roadblock in a central part of Europe's efforts to contain its near three year debt crisis. Stocks across Europe rallied strongly, the euro spiked to a four-month high of $1.2897 and the borrowing rates of troubled economies, such as Spain and Italy,

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