AP News in Brief
Home-buyers tax cut raises cost of stimulus bill that Senate Dems hope to finish by Friday
WASHINGTON (AP) — Historically huge to begin with, economic stimulus legislation is growing larger by the day in the Senate, where the addition of a new tax break for homebuyers sent the price tag well past $900 billion.
“It is time to fix housing first,” Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said Wednesday night as the Senate agreed without controversy to add the new tax break to the stimulus measure, at an estimated cost of nearly $19 billion.
The tax break was the most notable attempt to date to add help for the crippled housing industry and gave Republicans a victory as they work to remake the legislation more to their liking.
Democratic leaders hope for Senate passage of the legislation by Friday at the latest, although prospects appear to hinge on crafting a series of spending reductions that would make the bill more palatable to centrists in both parties.
Three swing-vote senators met with President Barack Obama at the White House on Wednesday to discuss possible cutbacks, but they declined to discuss details of their talks. Obama has made the legislation a cornerstone of his recovery plan.
———
Lawmakers to press for food safety overhaul as peanut recall surpasses 1,000 products
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are looking into the national salmonella outbreak and vowing to press for stronger food safety laws and more money for inspections.
“To say that food safety in this country is a patchwork system is giving it too much credit. It is a hit or miss gamble, and that is truly frightening,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which was holding a hearing on the outbreak Thursday. “It’s time to find the gaps in the system and remedy them.”
Meanwhile, more peanut products are being added to a recall list that surpasses 1,000 items — from ice cream to crackers to granola bars. Independent experts say it appears to be a record number of products for a recall involving foods consumed by humans.
In Congress, lawmakers are dusting off legislation that went nowhere under the previous administration and hoping for better luck under President Barack Obama, who has criticized the Food and Drug Administration’s handling of the outbreak.
But it remains unclear whether Congress can deliver major improvements in food safety this year, given the press of critical issues such as the shaky economy and a ballooning federal deficit.
———
Boston-area home of one-time suspect in 1982 Tylenol poisoning deaths is searched
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Federal agents taking a second look at the murders of seven people who swallowed tainted Tylenol capsules in 1982 have searched the home of a one-time leading suspect in the still-unsolved case.
FBI agents from Boston and Chicago were seen Wednesday removing boxes and a computer from the condominium owned by James W. Lewis, who served more than 12 years in prison for trying to extort $1 million from the painkiller’s manufacturers.
No one was ever charged with the deaths of the seven people who took cyanide-laced drugs in the Chicago area 26 years ago, leading to dramatic changes in the way food and medical products are packaged.
The FBI’s Chicago office cited “advances in forensic technology” in a statement Wednesday announcing that it, along with Illinois State Police and local departments, was conducting a “complete review of all evidence developed in connection with the 1982 Tylenol murders.”
The review began in part because of publicity and tips that arrived after the 25th anniversary of the deaths in 2007, according to the FBI. It has not resulted in any criminal charges.
———
Light on intelligence experience, CIA nominee and D.C. insider Panetta faces senate hearing
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Intelligence Committee is taking up the last of President Barack Obama’s nominee for a high-profile national security post, the surprising pick of Leon Panetta to head the CIA.
Going into Thursday’s public hearing, the former Democratic congressman from California knows he will have to give up lucrative seats on boards of directors, end his consulting work and do without well-paid speeches while running the spy agency.
Panetta earned more than $800,000 in director’s and consultant’s fees, including a $50,000 salary as a professor at Santa Clara University in California. He also netted an additional $250,000 for 12 speeches last year, several of which earned him $28,000 apiece.
Among those hiring Panetta through a Washington-based speaker’s bureau were two troubled financial companies, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia, that took federal aid during the upheavals on Wall Street. Both were bought out by other banks.
Panetta also spoke to the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with interests in defense, financial services, energy and infrastructure companies.
———
German investigators seek permission from Egypt to look for body of Nazi war criminal
BERLIN (AP) — German investigators who have hunted Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim for decades said Thursday that new information indicating the former concentration camp doctor died in Egypt in 1992 appears credible and that they will attempt to locate his corpse to rule out any doubt.
The Baden-Wuerttemberg state police unit that investigates Nazi-era crimes is preparing a request asking Egyptian authorities to allow them to pursue the case in Cairo, unit spokesman Horst Haug said.
“We want to attempt to find the body,” Haug told The Associated Press.
Heim’s son Ruediger told Germany’s ZDF television that his father fled to Egypt after authorities tried to arrest him at his Baden-Baden home in 1962. The younger Heim contradicted previous statements that he had never had any contact with his father since that time, telling ZDF that he had met with him several times in Cairo, starting in the mid-1970s.
Asked about the discrepancies, Heim told the AP on Thursday that the ZDF interview was the correct version of the story.
———
Study finds some WTC responders’ reduced lung function persists years after 1st tests
NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers tracking Sept. 11 responders who became ill after working at the World Trade Center site found many had lung problems years later in a study the authors said proves persistent illness in people exposed to toxic dust caused by the twin towers’ collapse.
The study by the Mount Sinai Medical Center’s medical monitoring program examined more than 3,000 responders between 2004 and 2007, repeating exams conducted between the middle of 2002 and 2004.
Slightly more than 24 percent of the patients had abnormal lung function, the study found. In the earlier examinations, about 28 percent of the patients had similar results.
“We know people we are following are still sick. It’s confirming what we’ve been seeing clinically,” said Dr. Jacqueline M. Moline, who treats ailing responders and co-authored the study.
Experts have struggled since the 2001 attacks to find standards to define post-Sept. 11 illness and the time it would take to develop. The city’s medical examiner recently added to the official victims’ list a man who died in October of cancer and lung disease, citing his exposure to the dust cloud that enveloped the city when the 110-story towers collapsed.
———
Obama sees expansion of children’s health insurance as down payment on universal coverage
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama sees expansion of government health insurance to millions of lower-income children as a first step of several to come in providing coverage for all Americans.
Ending a two-year effort by Democrats, Obama signed legislation Wednesday that will allow about 7 million children to continue coverage through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and allow an additional 4 million to sign up.
“The way I see it, providing coverage to 11 million children through CHIP is a down payment on my commitment to cover every single American,” Obama said at a White House bill-signing ceremony.
The measure was similar to two bills vetoed by former President George W. Bush. It was pushed through both the House and Senate by Democrats eager to give Obama an early victory on health care.
Most lawmakers and advocacy groups in the health reform debate acknowledge that the next steps toward reform will be harder than expanding SCHIP, given the increasing federal deficit.
———
World markets fall as grim company news outweighs China economic hopes; Tokyo off 1.1 pct
HONG KONG (AP) — Most Asian stock markets sank Thursday, with Japan’s index down over 1 percent, as more grim corporate news undermined optimism that China’s stimulus measures will help its economy weather the global slowdown. European stocks opened lower.
An early rally was snuffed out in the afternoon by the drumbeat of ugly results from major companies. China’s Lenovo Group, the world’s fourth-largest computer manufacturer, announced its first quarterly loss in nearly three years and said its chief executive, William J. Amelio, had resigned.
The downbeat earnings reports seemed to sap early enthusiasm over figures about Chinese manufacturing and lending that suggested the world’s third-largest economy was faring better than expected despite slumping demand for its exports.
“Governments are coming out with stimulus measures but you can’t make the economy and corporate earnings turn around in such a short time,” said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong. “The global economy is still in the downturn, so we’re going to have more bad times.”
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average slipped 89.29 points, or 1.1 percent, to 7,949.65, South Korea’s Kospi slid 1.5 percent to 1,177.88 and China’s Shanghai index, up more than 1 percent earlier in the day, lost 0.5 percent to 2,098.02.
———
‘American Idol’ cuts more hopefuls during second round of Hollywood Week
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “American Idol” is another step closer to revealing its 36 semifinalists.
Following group performances by the remaining 104 crooners, host Ryan Seacrest announced at the end of Wednesday’s episode that about 75 hopefuls made it through to the next round of Hollywood Week on the eighth season of the popular Fox singing competition.
Much of the episode focused on bickering and sobbing singers rather than their group routines performed for the judges.
Among the hopefuls cut: Katrina “Bikini Girl” Darrell, confrontational Nancy Wilson, happy-go-lucky Austin Sisneros, dreadlocked Rose Flack, Southern belle Deanna Brown and David Osmond, the son of the eldest singing Osmond brother.
———
——— By The Associated Press
Court documents: Bonds tested positive for 3 types of steroids, trainer discussed injections
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Court documents show Barry Bonds tested positive for three types of steroids, and his personal trainer once told his business manager in the Giants’ clubhouse how he injected the slugger with performance-enhancing drugs “all over the place.”
Prosecutors plan to use those positive test results and other evidence, detailed in documents released Wednesday, at Bonds’ trial next month to try to prove he lied when he told a federal grand jury in December 2003 that he never knowingly used steroids.
The release of documents by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston set the stage for a hearing Thursday to decide what evidence to allow jurors to hear.
Hundreds of pages of documents show how the prosecution intends to prove its case without the cooperation of Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, whose previous refusals to testify resulted in a yearlong prison stint for contempt. And his lawyer, Mark Geragos, said Anderson again will refuse to discuss Bonds if prosecutors call him to testify.
Also among the evidence made public were a positive test for amphetamines in 2006 in a urine sample Bonds gave to Major League Baseball; doping calendars Anderson maintained with the initials “BB” and a handwritten note seized from his house labeled “Barry” that appears to be a laundry list of steroids and planned blood tests; and a list of current and former major leaguers, including Jason Giambi, who are expected to testify at the March 2 trial.
Post a Comment
