Obama, Congress easing debate on public option, turning attention to insurance regulation
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and members of Congress on Sunday played down an immediate role for a government health insurance option and turned attention to regulating insurers, with the goal of lowering costs and ensuring coverage regardless of medical condition.
After a summer taking heat on health care, President Barack Obama has gone back on offense on his top domestic issue, most notably with a prime-time speech to Congress last week. He told the nation that the "time for bickering is over" and a plan for the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry was "only a means to that end and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal."
With that statement, Obama began the difficult task of trying to lubricate negotiations on Capitol Hill, to push opposing lawmakers away from positions — both left and right — that were threatening stalemate. That's what happened when Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president, tried to push through an overhaul in the 1990s.
Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, drove home that point again on Sunday, focusing on the public option idea to help provide coverage to the estimated 45 uninsured Americans without insurance.
The president "prefers the public option. However, he said what's most important is choice and competition," said Gibbs, adding that "it is not all of health care."
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Afghan official says dozens of Taliban killed in battle after ambush killed 3 US troops
KABUL (AP) — A battle in western Afghanistan that included airstrikes killed dozens of Taliban militants after an insurgent ambush left three U.S. troops dead, an Afghan official said Sunday.
The hours-long battle took place Saturday in the western province of Farah after a complex attack killed three Americans and seven Afghan troops, said Afghan army spokesman Maj. Abdul Basir Ghori.
The insurgent ambush involved two roadside bombs, gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades, Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman, said Sunday. Mathias confirmed that fighting in the west continued for six to eight hours after the ambush, but could not provide any casualty figures.
"The combined ISAF and Afghan force was receiving significant small-arms, RPG and indirect fire throughout that time frame," she said, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Ghori said about 50 militants were killed in Saturday's battle, but no other Afghan officials could immediately confirm that figure.
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Search for Yale grad student turns to Conn. incinerator as FBI officials widen investigation
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Investigators sifted through garbage at an incinerator Sunday, looking for clues into the disappearance of a Yale University graduate student who was supposed to be celebrating her wedding day.
FBI agent Bill Reiner said Sunday that investigators are "following the trash" that left the university laboratory in New Haven. He declined to comment further on the search at the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority's trash-to-energy plant in Hartford.
Annie Le, 24, was last seen Tuesday morning at the lab. More than 100 state, local and federal law enforcement agencies are looking for her but have not yet determined if Le's disappearance is a missing person's case or an act of foul play.
Authorities say Le, a pharmacology doctoral student originally from Placerville, Calif., swiped her identification card to enter the lab. But there is no record of her leaving despite some 75 surveillance cameras around the complex. Her ID, money, credit cards and purse were found in her office.
Investigators on Saturday said they recovered evidence from the building that houses Le's laboratory, but would not confirm reports by media outlets that the items included bloody clothing.
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Mayor: Fundraiser for ex-Ill. governor told police before he died he took drug overdose
CHICAGO (AP) — A former chief fundraiser for ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich told a police officer before he died that he overdosed on a prescription drug, the mayor of the south Chicago suburb of Country Club Hills said Sunday.
Mayor Dwight Welch did not say what drug Christopher Kelly told police he ingested, but he said authorities found a variety of drugs in Kelly's vehicle. Kelly, 51, died Saturday at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in Chicago, and Welch said police are investigating the death as suicide.
The Cook County medical examiner's office performed an autopsy but did not immediately disclose the results.
Welch also said police want to interview Clarissa Flores-Buhelos, 30, who identified herself as Kelly's girlfriend and told police she drove him to Oak Forest Hospital Friday night after finding him slumped over the steering wheel of his Cadillac Escalade at a Country Club Hills lumber yard.
Flores-Buhelos, of Chicago, told investigators Kelly called or text-messaged her to come to the lumber yard, Welch said.
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Health secretary says swine flu shots could be available first week of October
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's first round of swine flu shots could begin sooner than expected, with some vaccine available as early as the first week of October, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Sunday.
Sebelius said she is confident the vaccine will be available early enough to beat the peak of the expected flu season this fall and that early doses are intended for health care workers and other high-priority groups.
"We're on track to have an ample supply rolling by the middle of October. But we may have some early vaccine as early as the first full week in October. We'll get the vaccine out the door as fast as it rolls off the production line," she told ABC's "This Week."
The possibility of early shots follows encouraging news from last week about the swine flu vaccine. Researchers have discovered that one dose instead of two could be enough for healthy adults, and protection could begin once vaccinated within 10 days instead of three weeks.
"That's great, which means we'll have a lot more vaccine," she said. "We also have seen a robust immune response within 10 days, instead of three weeks as was feared."
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AP IMPACT: After decades of silence, reports of priest sex abuse in Vatican's own back yard
VERONA, Italy (AP) — It happened night after night, the deaf man said, sometimes in the priest's bedroom, sometimes in the bathroom, even in the confessional.
When he was a young boy at a Catholic-run institute for the deaf, Alessandro Vantini said, priests sodomized him so relentlessly he came to feel "as if I were dead." This year, he and dozens of other former students did something highly unusual for Italy: They went public with claims they were forced to perform sex acts with priests.
For decades, a culture of silence has surrounded priest abuse in Italy, where surveys show the church is considered one of the country's most respected institutions. Now, in the Vatican's backyard, a movement to air and root out abusive priests is slowly and fitfully taking hold.
A yearlong Associated Press tally has documented 73 cases with allegations of sexual abuse by priests against minors over the past decade in Italy, with more than 235 victims. The tally was compiled from local media reports, linked to by Web sites of victims groups and blogs. Almost all the cases have come out in the seven years since the scandal about Roman Catholic priest abuse broke in the United States.
The numbers in Italy are still a mere trickle compared to the hundreds of cases in the court systems of the United States and Ireland. And according to the AP tally, the Italian church has so far had to pay only a few hundred thousand euros (dollars) in civil damages to the victims, compared to $2.6 billion in abuse-related costs for the American diocese or euro1.1 billion ($1.5 billion) due to victims in Ireland.
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Banks' appetite for risk is rebounding 1 year after crisis: Is the financial system any safer?
NEW YORK (AP) — A year after the financial system nearly collapsed, the nation's biggest banks are bigger and regaining their appetite for risk.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and others — which have received tens of billions of dollars in federal aid — are once more betting big on bonds, commodities and exotic financial products, trading that nearly stopped during the financial crisis.
That Wall Street is making money again in essentially the same ways that thrust the banking system into chaos last fall is reason for concern on several levels, financial analysts and government officials say.
_ There have been no significant changes to the federal rules governing their behavior. Proposals that have been made to better monitor the financial system and to police the products banks sell to consumers have been held up by lobbyists, lawmakers and turf-protecting regulators.
_ Through mergers and the failure of Lehman Brothers, the mammoth banks whose near-collapse prompted government rescues have gotten even bigger, increasing the risk they pose to the financial system. And they still make bets that, in the aggregate, are worth far more than the capital they have on hand to cover against potential losses.
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Beyonce and Lady Gaga vie for top honors at MTV Video Music Awards; Jackson tribute planned
NEW YORK (AP) — The MTV Video Music Awards are known for kicking off with the kind of zaniness that has come to define the show, from a dazed Britney Spears to a disgraced Pee Wee Herman.
But on Sunday, it is expected to have a somber start with a musical tribute to Michael Jackson, led by his sister Janet.
Jackson died a drug-induced death on June 25 at age 50. The coroner's office has labeled the death a homicide, and prosecutors are still investigating.
Jackson was not only an integral part of MTV's history — his legendary videos changed the way music clips were made and he was the first black artist whose work was aired on the fledgling network — but he also provided the VMAs with some of its most memorable moments, including his infamous smooch with then-wife Lisa Marie Presley in 1994.
The Jackson tribute won't be the only moment where Jackson's presence will be felt. The network is also airing the premiere of the trailer for "This Is It," the documentary about Jackson's preparations for his comeback concerts that were to be held in London. That film is due to come out in October.
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Michigan returns to AP Top 25 and knocks Notre Dame out with dramatic victory
After a season on the outs, Michigan is back in the AP Top 25.
The Wolverines, unranked all last season while finishing 3-9, were No. 25 in The Associated Press college football poll released Sunday.
Michigan moved into the media ranking for the first time since the end of the 2007 season after a thrilling 38-34 victory against Notre Dame on Saturday. The loss dropped the Fighting Irish out of the rankings.
Florida remained No. 1 after it's second landslide victory. The Gators received 56 first-place votes. Texas is still No. 2, with one first-place votes.
No. 3 Southern California received a first-place vote for the first time this season after Matt Barkley and Trojans used a late-fourth quarter touchdown to rally past Ohio State 18-15 on the road.
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Big man gets big win: Del Potro reaches final with romp over Nadal at US Open
NEW YORK (AP) — Rafael Nadal looked lost, swallowed up by the huge serves and crushing forehands coming at him from his 6-foot-6 opponent across the net.
That was Juan Martin del Potro, who made his first Grand Slam final, handing Nadal a 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 loss Sunday at the U.S. Open — the worst loss Rafa has suffered in a major tournament.
"I think this is the best moment of my life," del Potro said.
Nadal was dealing with a strained abdominal muscle, and after the match he finally admitted the obvious — that it was bothering him.
The six-time Grand Slam tournament champion also gave plenty of credit to del Potro, who deserved every bit of it after sapping all the life, and hope, out of a player whose relentlessness is one of his biggest attributes.
Source: AP News
