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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Days after the mass shootings in Colorado, guns shifted to the forefront of the presidential campaign as President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney engaged in their most extensive discussions on the issue since the tragedy.
• Obama, in a speech to an African-American group Wednesday in New Orleans, embraced some degree of additional restrictions on guns. He acknowledged that not enough had been done to prevent weapons from getting into the hands of criminals and pledged to work with lawmakers from both parties to move forward on the matter.
• Romney said in a television interview that changing the nation's laws would not prevent gun-related tragedies. But he mistakenly said many weapons used by the shooting suspect in Aurora, Colo., were obtained illegally, despite the fact that authorities allege that the firearms used to kill 12 people and injure dozens more were purchased legally.
• Neither candidate strayed significantly in their remarks Wednesday from their previously held positions on gun violence. But their pointed comments revived a debate -- if perhaps only briefly -- that has steadily faded to the background in national politics and been virtually non-existent in the 2012 campaign.

• The White House in particular has faced fresh questions since the shootings about whether Obama, a strong supporter of gun control as a senator from Illinois, would make an election-year push for stricter measures.
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• Penn State's trustees may not like the NCAA's unprecedented sanctions against the university's football program, but they say the alternative -- the so-called "death penalty" -- would have been worse.
• In their first joint statement since Penn State was hit with a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl game ban, reduced football scholarships and the forfeiture of 112 wins, trustees said Wednesday the NCAA punishment was "unfortunate" and "difficult."

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