National News
Idaho will fight health care reform
BOISE — Democrats in Washington, D.C., hope to pass health care reform soon, but Republican state leaders in Idaho are preparing to go to court to fight it. Gov. Butch Otter signed the Idaho Health Freedom Act on Wednesday in his first public bill signing of the 2010 session.
CBO says health care plan could reduce deficit
WASHINGTON — Democratic health care efforts got an important boost today as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the $940 billion health care package could reduce federal deficits $130 billion over the next 10 years. The preliminary CBO analysis had been stalled for nearly a week, as Democrats scrambled to change their health care plan so that its cost remained under $1 trillion and deficits could be cut.
After default, homeowners may still owe
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Home- owners defaulting on mortgages today may be surprised to learn years from now that they still owe thousands of dollars — and a collection agency is coming after them to get it. That’s because lenders have been quietly selling second mortgages and home equity lines left unpaid after foreclosures and short sales. The buyers: collection agencies, which in some states have years to make a claim.
Report sheds no new light on runaway Prius
EL CAJON, Calif. — A California Highway Patrol officer re-sponding to a report of a runway Toyota Prius last week arrived to find a Border Patrol agent near the driver with emergency lights on. The Border Patrol presence raises the prospect that there were other witnesses. It is one of the few new details in a report released Wednesday by the CHP that is consistent with what the CHP and the driver, James Sikes, have previously said.
‘Jihad Jane’ pleads not guilty to terror plot
PHILADELPHIA — Colleen LaRose, the Philadelphia-area woman who authorities say dubbed herself “Jihad Jane” online pleaded not guilty today in federal court to a four-count indictment charging her in an overseas terrorist plot. A May 3 trial date was set.
Dear Abby: Readers share loved ones’ final wishes
Dear Abby: I’m writing to encourage “Wants to Do Right by Mama” to honor her mother’s final wishes. Several years ago, I sat down with my parents and we talked about their wishes for when they die. We discussed everything from the distribution of their assets to the type of funerals they want. Mom and Dad have already written their obituaries for the newspaper. Mom listed all the songs to be played at her service and the flowers she wants. We visited funeral homes, discussed coffins and services, etc. Everything is written down and I sent copies to my brother, who lives out of town.
Haim’s mother told 911 that the actor had a fever
LOS ANGELES - Corey Haim’s mother said the actor had a fever the morning before he died of an apparent drug overdose, his mother told a Los Angeles 911 operator. Authorities released the 911 tape related to the death last week of the 1980s teen star.
Triplet births more common — and more dangerous
LOS ANGELES - The rate of natural triplet births — those not resulting from assisted reproductive technology — is 2.5 times as high as it was in the 1970s, probably because of the increased use of ovulation-inducing drugs and the older age of mothers, Norwegian researchers reported Wednesday. And despite improvements in prenatal care, the death rate for triplets is about 10 times as high as for a singleton, Dr. Anne Tandberg of the Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen and her colleagues said.
Free speech doesn’t cover anti-gay threats, court says
LOS ANGELES - Students at an elite Los Angeles private school who posted death threats and anti-gay messages on the Internet site of a 15-year-old classmate can’t claim the constitutional protection of free speech, a California appeals court has ruled. The parents of the boy targeted by the threatening and derogatory posts on his Web site withdrew him from Harvard-Westlake School and moved to Northern California to protect him from classmates who had incorrectly labeled him as gay and pronounced him “wanted dead or alive,” the boy’s father said in a lawsuit brought against six students and their parents.
EPA plans to tighten rules on flea, tick treatments
WASHINGTON - Products intended to treat cats and dogs for fleas and ticks injure thousands of pets each year and kill hundreds more, the Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday as it outlined plans to make the products safer. The EPA said it will develop stricter testing requirements for flea and tick treatments that are applied to a pet’s skin. The agency also will begin reviewing labels to determine if they need to be clearer.
Strapped states letting prisoners go free
WASHINGTON — Mississippi is a tough-on-crime state, and in 1995, like many tough-on-crime states, it approved a version of “truth in sentencing” — a popular law requiring inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their prison terms before they could be considered for parole. More than half the states have similar laws on the books. Mississippi, however, changed course two years ago. Responding to budget constraints and a surge in its prison population — from about 12,000 inmates in 1995 to more than 22,000 in 2008 — lawmakers revisited truth in sentencing.
Internet fraud cost U.S. $550 million
LOS ANGELES — U.S. citizens reported losing more than $550 million in 2009 in Internet fraud, falling prey to a variety of increasingly sophisticated scams, according to a report by the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The loss was more than twice that reported in 2008, according to the agency, a partnership of the FBI and the privately funded National White Collar Crime Center. The center tracks Internet crime around the world.
Pepsi cuts sugary drinks from schools
NEW YORK — PepsiCo plans to remove sugary drinks from schools worldwide, following the success of programs in the U.S. aimed at cutting down on childhood obesity. The company said Tuesday it will remove full-calorie, sweetened drinks from schools in more than 200 countries by 2012, marking the first such move by a major soft drink producer.
Dead wolves will be tested for link in attack
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Two wolves state officials have killed were being transported to the state wildlife veterinarian in Fairbanks for testing to determine if they were the animals that killed a teacher jogging near Chignik Lake last week, according to the state Department of Fish and Game. The wolves, shot from a helicopter in the Chignik drainage, matched the descriptions of wolves seen at the site where 32-year-old Candice Berner, a special-education teacher based in Perryville, was attacked and killed on a remote road outside town on March 8, according to Fish and Game.
Mexico-bound bus crashes in Texas, killing 2
CAMPBELLTON, Texas — A crowded bus carrying young families and spring breakers toward Mexico went careening off a Texas highway and flipped onto its side Tuesday, killing two people and forcing dozens of bloodied passengers to climb to safety through broken windows and an emergency exit. The Americanos USA bus left San Antonio with 42 people on board and was headed to the Mexican border city of Matamoros,.
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