WASHINGTON – In a triumph for President Barack Obama, Democrats narrowly pushed sweeping health care legislation through a key congressional committee Friday night and cleared the way for a September showdown in the House.
The 31-28 vote in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, along party lines, was weeks later than either the White House or Democratic leaders had hoped.
Typical "Blue Dog" Democrats — moderate members of Congress who have been the most ardent among Obama’s own party in thwarting ongoing national healthcare legislation — receive 25 percent more campaign cash from the healthcare and insurance industry than other Democrats, an investigation has found.
In fact, a Blue Dog’s average receipts from the medical industry was just $3,625 less than that of the average Republican. Republicans have worked to block plans to enact universal health insurance legislation, saying that it would restrict individual choice and lead to the rationing of medical care.
Five days later, Ross was the guest of honor at a special "health-care industry reception," one of at least seven fundraisers for the Arkansas lawmaker held by health-care companies or their lobbyists this year, according to publicly available invitations.
On June 19, Rep. Mike Ross of Arkansas made clear that he and a group of other conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs were increasingly unhappy with the direction that health-care legislation was taking in the House.
"The committees' draft falls short," the former pharmacy owner said in a statement that day, citing, among other things, provisions that major health-care companies also strongly oppose.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, a leading force for U.S. healthcare reform, said on Friday he has prostate cancer but still plans to run for re-election next year.
"I'll be a little leaner and a little meaner but I'm running," Dodd, 65, told a televised news conference in his home state of Connecticut.
WASHINGTON – Democrats sought to limit increases in the cost of insurance sold under a sweeping health care bill Friday as they labored to clear the final obstacle to a September showdown on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
Several officials said a last-minute agreement among Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee also included authority for the federal government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices under Medicare.
The House of Representatives took the first step toward an overhaul of financial regulation by passing a bill that aims to curb executive pay deemed excessive. The bill would give shareholders a voice in executive pay and allow federal regulators to restrict pay practices that might encourage risky behavior.
WASHINGTON – The House has voted to rush an additional $2 billion into the popular but financially strapped "cash for clunkers" car purchase program.
The bill was approved on a vote of 316-109. House members acted within hours of learning from Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood that the program was running out of money.
According to a new poll by Research 2000, less than half of Republicans surveyed believe that President Barack Obama was born in the United States. The new poll comes as a fringe element of the Republican Party tries to gain a foothold in the party by saying Obama is not a U.S. citizen.
28 percent of the Republicans surveyed said they did not believe President Obama was a natural born citizen, a requirement in the U.S. Constitution for any person seeking to become President. 30 percent of Republicans said they were not sure and 42 percent said they thought he is a natural born citizen.
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US economy showed signs of emerging from a long and brutal recession, according to data Friday showing a narrower-than-expected 1.0 percent decline in output in the second quarter.
The Commerce Department estimate on gross domestic product (GDP) was stronger than expected by private forecasters who had called on average for a 1.5 percent annualized pace of contraction in the April-June quarter.
NEW YORK – New hope for the economy just gave the stock market its best July in 20 years.
Investors placed big bets over the last month that the profit machine at U.S. companies will continue to rev higher and that the longest recession since World War II is finally easing its grip. If that turns out to be wrong, the huge gains of July mean there will be an even bigger price to pay if companies don't deliver.
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The recession has delivered a disproportionate blow to blacks and Hispanics, yet minorities may be more optimistic about the economy than most Americans and many feel they have earned a place at the corporate table.
A pair of surveys released this week carried some hopeful signs for minorities, who in recent years have seen African-Americans occupy top executive posts at an expanding roster of companies, including Time Warner Inc and Xerox Corp.
One group includes Stephen Pagliuca, co-owner of the Boston Celtics basketball team and a top executive at private equity company Bain Capital, the Globe reported.
It also includes former advertising executive Jack Connors, who previously worked with ex-General Electric Chief Executive Jack Welch to buy the paper, the Globe said.
DETROIT (Reuters) – Honda Motor Co said on Friday that it is recalling another 440,000 vehicles -- including some of its best-selling Accord and Civic models -- for a potentially lethal airbag defect.
Honda said that the airbag inflators in some of its top-selling sedans can rupture because of too much air pressure causing metal fragments to shoot through the airbag and strike vehicle occupants.
One fatality and a number of injuries have been linked to the defect, Honda spokesman Sage Marie said.
The recall covers certain 2001 and 2002 Accords, 2001 Civics and some 2002 and 2003 model Acura TL sedans. The driver's side airbag is the defective component on the affected vehicles.
The 1960s were rife with political demonstrations, civil unrest and social change, yet there was less of a perceived generational gap then than there is now. In 1969, Gallup found that 74% of Americans felt there was "a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today." Ten years later, a New York Times/CBS poll found just 60% saw a generation gap. Today, however, 79% of respondents said they believe there is a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people. While the phrase may mean something different now than it did in 1969, nearly identical shares of young, middle-aged and older adults see the generational gap.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A second New Jersey mayor and a state assemblyman who were both arrested in a federal corruption probe resigned Friday under pressure from voters and the state's governor.
Peter Cammarano, 32, was arrested last week and accused of taking $25,000 in bribes. While professing his innocence, the Democrat resigned less than a month after he was sworn in as mayor of Hoboken, an industrial city across the Hudson River from New York.
For as long as Americans have been paying the mortgage, we've been transfixed by the home of tomorrow. It was back in 1957 when Disneyland's forward-looking model dwelling--the Monsanto House of the Future--began dazzling millions of visitors with then futuristic features like telescreen intercoms and microwave ovens. Fast-forward to 2008, when the Happiest Place on Earth unveiled its Innoventions Dream Home, a house so advanced that its kitchen can suggest what to make with certain ingredients (like all that flour). Meanwhile, the Microsoft Home, the software giant's interpretation of the future of residential living, doesn't just alert you when you're out of milk--it can send for a fresh gallon.
Carla McCabe spent a decade building nuclear bombs at the sprawling Rocky Flats complex near Denver. When she developed a brain tumor and asked for help, federal officials told her that none of the toxic substances used at the top-secret bomb factory could have caused her cancer.
Now, on the eighth anniversary of the federal program created to help sick nuclear weapons workers, the man who until recently was the program's top doctor says that McCabe, now 55, and many others like her are being improperly rejected.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five U.S. senators have written to antitrust regulators asking the agency to look into allegations that CVS inappropriately used its pharmacy benefits business to win clients and squeeze smaller competitors.
Other groups have already complained to the Federal Trade Commission about the CVS drugstore chain's 2007 purchase of Caremark, which specialized in pharmacy benefits, saying that the merger has meant higher prices for consumers in some cases.
In letters to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, the five senators cited instances where patients who did not use a CVS pharmacy were required to make a higher co-pay and asked for a probe into whether the company engaged in anti-competitive conduct.
Swine-flu virus has claimed the lives of two Bay Area women who recently gave birth, adding to the growing body of evidence that pregnancy puts women at increased risk of flu-related hospitalization and death.
News of the deaths comes as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that pregnant women be among the first to receive a vaccine, when it's available. The CDC also urges that anti-viral drugs like Tamiflu or Relenza be quickly administered to pregnant women with suspected influenza.
SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Garlic is best for your heart when it is raw, crushed and smelly rather than when it is processed or cooked, according to a study by U.S. scientists.
For centuries garlic has been hailed for its health benefits but cardiovascular researchers from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine said they have the first scientific evidence that freshly crushed garlic has more potent heart-healthy effects than dried garlic.
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – The U.S. government on Friday began distributing millions of dollars to help cash-strapped states respond to the H1N1 pandemic amid a deep economic recession that has decimated local health budgets.
"For a pandemic to come in this economy is enormously challenging," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the National Association of County and City Health Officials annual conference. "If we could have chosen a different time for the H1N1 to come, we would have."
WASHINGTON – Social Security officials say they expect an even larger spike in new disability claims than they had predicted, as aging, injured baby boomers tumble out of the work force and need income.
Officials estimate they'll receive 3.3 million new disability claims over the next year, up from their previous estimate of 3 million projected just five months ago.
FRIDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- A growing number of Americans now have a positive opinion on psychiatric medications, a new study contends.
About five out of six people surveyed felt psychiatric medications could help people control psychiatric symptoms, but many also expected the medications could help people deal with day-to-day stresses, help them feel better about themselves and make things easier with family and friends.
"People's attitudes regarding psychiatric medications became more favorable between 1998 and 2006," said study author Dr. Ramin Mojtabai, an associate professor in the department of mental health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
The fight over the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone" - a problem scientists say can be traced in large part to Iowa and its sister farming states - has ramped up as the Obama administration considers a regulatory attack on the problem.
Suzanne Schwartz, who directs a division of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency working on the dead-zone issue, said the federal government and Louisiana researchers are checking to see whether the pollution violates water quality standards.
NEW DELHI (AFP) – India insisted Friday it wanted to reach a global agreement on fighting climate change at the upcoming UN summit in Copenhagen but reiterated its opposition to binding carbon emission cuts.
"We are not defensive, we are not obstructionist. We want an international agreement in Copenhagen," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Ramesh told reporters in New Delhi.
But India "simply is not in a position to take on legally binding emissions reductions targets," he said, while pressing rich nations to provide technical and monetary aid to help developing countries fight global warming.
As U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello was considering how to vote on an important piece of climate change legislation in June, the freshman congressman’s office received at least six letters from two Charlottesville-based minority organizations voicing opposition to the measure.
The letters, as it turns out, were forgeries.
"They stole our name. They stole our logo. They created a position title and made up the name of someone to fill it. They forged a letter and sent it to our congressman without our authorization," said Tim Freilich, who sits on the executive committee of Creciendo Juntos, a nonprofit network that tackles issues related to Charlottesville’s Hispanic community. "It’s this type of activity that undermines Americans’ faith in democracy.
SAN FRANCISCO – Mayor Gavin Newsom and the United Nations are eyeing a former naval shipyard contaminated by radiation, heavy metals and other industrial toxins as the future site of a sprawling new green technology complex and climate change think tank.
The proposal would turn a section of the Hunters Point Shipyard, one of the most polluted places in the nation according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, into a UN "Global Compact Center" meant to help solve the world's pollution dilemmas and foster clean tech business.
MANILA, Philippines – Former President Corazon Aquino, who swept away a dictator with a "people power" revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years, died on Saturday, her son said. She was 76.
The uprising she led in 1986 ended the repressive 20-year regime of Ferdinand Marcos and inspired nonviolent protests across the globe, including those that ended Communist rule in eastern Europe.
But she struggled in office to meet high public expectations. Her land redistribution program fell short of ending economic domination by the landed elite, including her own family. Her leadership, especially in social and economic reform, was often indecisive, leaving many of her closest allies disillusioned by the end of her term.
BAGHDAD (AFP) – A wave of bombs targeting Shiite Muslim worshippers at mosques across Baghdad killed 29 people and wounded more than 136 on Friday a month after US troops withdrew from Iraq's main urban centres.
Security officials said the six apparently coordinated blasts, which were condemned by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, occurred outside mosques and prayer centres in and around the capital, including one frequented by followers of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sad.
(CNN) — Three American tourists are reported in Iranian custody after they may have strayed across the border from Iraq during a mountain hike, Kurdish officials told CNN Friday.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said it was checking into the reports but could not confirm them.
A senior Kurdish official told CNN that four U.S. tourists had entered Kurdistan in northern Iraq from Turkey, staying in Sulaimaniya for about two nights. Three of the tourists traveled on to a tourist area near the Iranian border called Ahmed Awa, where they intended to go backpacking.
The UN food agency says it is facing critical funding shortages that have forced it to cut aid deliveries to millions of people facing starvation.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it could have to close parts of its airway, used to fly aid workers to humanitarian trouble-spots.
Deliveries have already been suspended to north Uganda, Ivory Coast and Niger.
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq – The U.S. State Department said Friday it was investigating reports that three American tourists have been detained by Iranians while hiking near the border in the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
Two Kurdish officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information, said the Americans apparently were arrested after entering Iranian territory without permission.
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) – Attacks in Afghanistan Friday killed four Afghan soldiers and left 13 civilians with severe burn wounds while a foreign soldier died after coming under insurgent fire, authorities said.
Police meanwhile announced that an hours-long overnight battle had killed 11 militants as well as one policeman, in the latest wave of violence to cast a shadow over elections to be held on August 20.
MADRID (AFP) – Thousands marched in Spain to condemn ETA as tearful families mourned two young policemen killed in a bombing blamed on the Basque separatist group which marked its 50th anniversary on Friday.
The prime minister and royal family at a memorial service honoured the officers slain in Thursday's attack on the island of Majorca, and the government put security forces on maximum alert for more possible attacks.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday no decision had been taken to ease some sanctions against Sudan, one day after a senior U.S. official suggested this step might help the peace process.
General Scott Gration, the U.S. special envoy for Sudan, told lawmakers on Thursday he did not know of any intelligence to justify Sudan remaining on a list of "state sponsors of terrorism," a designation accompanied by sanctions and restrictions on aid.
Asked whether the administration was considering such as move, Clinton replied: "We have made no decision to lift the listing on the terrorist list of Sudan."
HAVANA – It's hard to find a spare tire in Cuba these days, or a cup of yoghurt.
Air conditioners are shut off in the dead heat. Factories close at peak hours, and workers go without their government-subsidized lunches.
Cuba has ordered austere energy savings this summer to cope with rising budget deficits and plummeting export profits, and the Communist Party Central Committee on Friday lowered 2009 economic growth projections by nearly a full percentage point. The committee also announced that it was suspending plans for the first Communist Party congress in 12 years in order to deal with the financial crisis.
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran lashed out at foreign governments on Friday accusing them of complicity in crimes and killings in the violent aftermath of the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The fresh anti-West salvo by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki comes a day after violent clashes between thousands of mourners and riot police in central Tehran and as the Islamic republic prepares to put around 30 protesters on trial on charges of rioting and vandalism.
LAS VEGAS -
The race to build a "smarter" electrical grid could have a dark side. Security experts are starting to show the dangers of equipping homes and businesses with new meters that enable two-way communication with utilities.
There are many benefits to upgrading the nation's electricity networks, which is why a smart-grid movement was already revving up before the recent economic recovery package included $4.5 billion for the technology. Smarter grids could help conserve energy by giving utilities more control over and insight into how power flows.
But presentations at the Black Hat and DefCon security conferences here this week highlighted potential problems with moving too fast.
HOUSTON, Texas (AFP) – The shuttle Endeavour descended safely to Earth on Friday, ending a successful 16-day assembly mission to the international space station with the final piece of Japan's Kibo science laboratory.
The seven US, Canadian and Japanese astronauts aboard Endeavour touched down at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:48 am EDT.
There were concerns that early morning thunder storms, coastal rain showers and fog near the Florida landing site might force shuttle commander Mark Polanski and his crew to postpone their return until Saturday.
LONDON – The British government said Friday that it plans to ban private organ transplants from dead donors to allay fears that prospective recipients can buy their way to the front of the line.
A government-commissioned report recommended that organs donated within the state-run National Health Service should stay within the public health system, which provides universal care to everyone who lives in Britain. Though transplants are free, there are often long waiting lists.
The Federal Communications Commission is seeking additional information about Apple Inc's decision to reject Google Inc's voice application for the iPhone.
The Google application is seen by some as a competitive threat to the voice services that come with the iPhone, which is carried exclusively in the United States by AT&T Inc.
SEATTLE – A high school student is suing Amazon.com Inc. for deleting an e-book he purchased for the Kindle reader, saying his electronic notes were bollixed, too.
Amazon CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos has apologized to Kindle customers for remotely removing copies of the George Orwell novels "1984" and "Animal Farm" from their e-reader devices. The company did so after learning the electronic editions were pirated, and it gave buyers automatic refunds. But Amazon did it without prior notice.
DES MOINES, Iowa – This has been an unusually mild year in Tornado Alley, which is good news, of course, for the people who live here, but a little frustrating to scientists who planned to chase twisters as part of a $10 million research project.
"You're out there to do the experiment and you're geared up every day and ready. And when there isn't anything happening, that is frustrating," said Don Burgess, a scientist at the University of Oklahoma. But he was quick to add that he is pleased the relative quiet has meant fewer injuries and less damage.