USA Today Top Online Stories: Thu 11/11/10

The USA Today lead headline online early Thursday morning says "Number of uninsured U.S. adults hits record high." The paper says nearly 50 million Americans have gone without health insurance for at least part of the past year — up from 46 million people in 2008, federal health officials reported Tuesday.

It says Rep. Michele Bachmann, a favorite of the Tea Party movement, has dropped out of the race for House Republican Conference chair, the party's No. 4 leadership post.

The paper says a new study finds that being in a committed relationship, even without being married, appears to have the same protective effect, according to a study published in the journal Stress.

It says Gwyneth Paltrow made her singing debut on the Country Music Association awards show, which aired live on ABC Wednesday night.

The paper says the mysterious vapor trail off the Southern California coast was probably an airplane and not a missile, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

And the most popular story on USA Today says passengers on the fire-damaged Carnival Splendor face another trying day without air conditioning, hot food and other key on-board services as tugboats slowly pull the disabled vessel to land.