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Obstetricians, gynecologists and emergency room doctors will be shut out of the higher Medicaid pay that primary care doctors will start collecting in January.

The Obama administration made the ruling late Thursday.

Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid rates for primary care doctors will soon be on par with what Medicare pays. The overhaul law included the hike to encourage doctors to see the larger number of patients who will be covered by a Medicaid expansion.

On Tuesday, voters in Tulsa County, Okla., will weigh in on a pair of ballot measures that would extend a sales tax hike to fund economic development and public works projects.

Tulsa's Republican mayor, Dewey Bartlett, and other local GOP leaders support the idea of continuing the tax hike. So does the local business establishment, represented by the Tulsa Metro Chamber.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renée Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A video that appears to show rebels in Syria executing a small group of soldiers from the regime of President Bashar Assad has prompted human rights groups and officials to appeal to all sides to respect the human rights of their prisoners.

The nation's unemployment rate edged up to 7.9 percent in October from 7.8 percent in September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

But private and public employers added 171,000 jobs to their payrolls — nearly 50,000 more than economists had expected.

So the news is somewhat mixed: While the jobless rate remained stuck near 8 percent, job growth was better than forecast.