Obama's health care bid hangs in limbo as dispirited House Democrats reject quick fix
WASHINGTON (AP) — Though reeling from a seismic political loss, House Democrats rejected the quickest fix to their health care dilemma Thursday and signaled that any agreement on President Barack Obama's signature issue will come slowly, if at all.
Democrats weighed a handful of difficult options as they continued to absorb Republican Scott Brown's election to the Massachusetts Senate seat long held by Edward M. Kennedy. Several said Obama must forcefully help them find a way to avoid the humiliation of enacting no bill, and they urged him to do so quickly, to put the painful process behind them.
House leaders said they could not pass a Senate-approved bill, standing by itself, because of objections from liberals and moderates alike. Such a move could have settled the matter, because it would not have required further Senate action. Brown's stunning victory restored the GOP's power to block bills with Senate filibusters.
Democratic leaders weighed two main options, both problematic. The first would require congressional Democrats to muscle their way past stiff GOP objections despite warning signs from Massachusetts voters and worries about next November's elections.
The other would pare down the original health care legislation in hopes of gaining some Republican support. But the compromise process is more difficult than many lawmakers suggest.
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Rescue hopes dim for those trapped in Haiti quake; focus now on aiding injured, homeless
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The rubble from the epic earthquake now deathly quiet, search-and-rescue teams packed their dogs and gear Thursday as the focus shifted to keeping injured survivors alive, fending off epidemics and getting help to hundreds of homeless camps.
"We're so, so hungry," said Felicie Colin, 77, lying outside the ruins of her Port-au-Prince nursing home with dozens of other elderly residents who have hardly eaten since the earthquake hit on Jan. 12.
As aftershocks still shook the city nine days later, aid workers streamed into Haiti with water, food, drugs, latrines, clothing, trucks, construction equipment, telephones and tons of other relief supplies. The international Red Cross called it the greatest deployment of emergency responders in its 91-year history.
But the built-in bottlenecks of this desperately poor, underdeveloped nation and the sheer scale of the catastrophe still left many of the hundreds of thousands of victims without help. The U.S. military reported a waiting list of 1,400 international relief flights seeking to land on Port-au-Prince's single runway, where 120 to 140 flights were arriving daily.
Four ships have managed to unload cargo at the capital's earthquake-damaged port, holding out the promise of a new avenue for getting aid to the city.
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Bitterly split Supreme Court eases limits on campaign spending by corporations, unions
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bitterly divided Supreme Court vastly increased the power of big business and unions to influence government decisions Thursday by freeing them to spend their millions directly to sway elections for president and Congress.
The ruling reversed a century-long trend to limit the political muscle of corporations, organized labor and their massive war chests. It also recast the political landscape just as crucial midterm election campaigns are getting under way.
In its sweeping 5-4 ruling, the court set the stage for a wave of likely repercussions — from new pressures on lawmakers to heed special interest demands to increasingly boisterous campaigns featuring highly charged ads that drown out candidate voices.
The election-season blizzard of ads on Americans TV screens is bound to increase.
While the full consequences of the decision were hard to measure, politicians made clear whom they believed benefited. Democrats, led by President Barack Obama, condemned the decision while Republicans cheered it.
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Combative Obama aims at Wall Street big banks, wants Depression Era-style federal limits
WASHINGTON (AP) — Embracing Depression-era policy and populist politics, a combative President Barack Obama chastised big Wall Street banks Thursday and urgently called for limits on their size and investments to stave off a new economic meltdown.
Investors responded by dumping bank stock.
Obama's rhetoric covered the whole financial industry, but the key changes will affect only a few high-profile players, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., while sparing investment banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The move could undercut Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's strategy of maintaining close ties with the financial industry as part of the administration's overhaul efforts.
"We have to get this done," Obama said at the White House. "If these folks want a fight, it's a fight I'm ready to have."
"We've come through a terrible crisis," the president said, pivoting the White House focus from health care to an economy that has been slow to recover during his first year in office. "The American people have paid a very high price. ... That's why we're going to rein in the excess and abuse that nearly brought down our financial system."
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Scripture verses on combat rifle sights stoked concerns over proselytizing by American troops
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Michigan defense contractor will voluntarily stop stamping references to Bible verses on combat rifle sights made for the U.S. military, a major buyer of the company's gear.
In a statement released Thursday, Trijicon of Wixom, Mich., says it is also providing to the armed forces free of charge modification kits to remove the Scripture citations from the telescoping sights already in use. Through multimillion dollar contracts, the Marine Corps and Army have more than 300,000 Trijicon sights.
The references to Bible passages raised concerns that the citations break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, which are predominantly Muslim countries.
A spokesman for U.S. Central Command initially said the Trijicon sights didn't violate the ban and compared the citations on the sights to the "In God We Trust" inscription printed on U.S. currency.
On Thursday, however, Army Gen. David Petraeus, Central Command's top officer, called the practice "disturbing."
"This is a serious concern to me and the other commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan," Petraeus told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
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Obama, Republicans fight for control of security debate with concerns about terrorism rising
WASHINGTON (AP) — Terrorism is creeping back to the forefront of the American mindset, creating an election-year issue for emboldened Republicans and forcing President Barack Obama to reassert himself after a wobbly period of homeland protection.
Republican Scott Brown's startling Senate win in Massachusetts, propelled in part by his opposition to Obama's terror-fighting approach, has weakened Obama's legislative hand just as Congress is demanding answers about security. And although health care reform is the matter most immediately affected by Obama's sudden loss of the minimum 60 votes he needs in the Senate on big legislation, his entire agenda will be reshaped in some way by the political fallout.
Public concern about terrorism is at its highest levels in months, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.
In Obama's favor: More than half of people, 54 percent, approve of his handling of terrorism, the poll found. That's a higher rating than Obama gets for his handling of the economy, health care, Iraq, the budget deficit or taxes.
Yet Republicans traditionally claim security as a political strong suit, and recent events have not helped the party in power.
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Stepbrother testifies at IL 'hearsay' hearing that ex-cop hinted he would kill his 4th wife
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — The stepbrother of a former Illinois police officer accused of killing his third wife told a hushed courtroom Thursday that he believed he might have helped his relative dispose of the body of his fourth wife, who has not been seen for more than two years.
Thomas Morphey testified at a hearing to decide whether prosecutors can use "hearsay" evidence to try and prove allegations that Drew Peterson killed his third wife, Kathleen Savio, in 2004. Peterson hasn't been charged in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, but authorities say he is the only suspect.
While the Will County hearing is about the death of Savio, Thursday's testimony focused on the day Stacy Peterson disappeared. Prosecutors would not say why Morphey was being asked to testify about Stacy Peterson, but Will County state's attorney's office spokesman Chuck Pelkie said the reasons would become clear in the proceedings.
In a packed but quiet courtroom, Morphey said Peterson suggested when they talked on Oct. 27, 2007, that he intended to kill Stacy because she planned to divorce him, win custody of their children and take Peterson's money.
Morphey said he drank heavily the next day.
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John Edwards admits he fathered child in affair; Elizabeth Edwards says family is 'relieved'
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards finally admitted Thursday he fathered a child during an affair before his second White House bid, dropping long-standing denials just ahead of a book by a former campaign aide who initially took the fall.
Edwards released a statement admitting paternity of the girl, Frances Quinn Hunter, who was born in 2008 to videographer Rielle Hunter as the result of an affair Edwards has already confessed to.
"It was wrong for me to ever deny she was my daughter," Edwards said, adding he was providing financial support for the child and mother. "I am Quinn's father."
Elizabeth Edwards, who has been battling an incurable return of cancer since 2007, said in an interview with The Associated Press that "the whole family is relieved." She declined to discuss the couple's marital status and said she didn't know where things will go from here.
"If somebody has a crystal ball, they can let me know," she said when asked what was next for her and John Edwards.
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Landlord sues Mischa Barton, saying she hasn't paid $7K-a-month rent on posh NYC apartment
NEW YORK (AP) — Mischa Barton's landlord says the actress is refusing to pay rent on her $7,000-a-month apartment in New York City.
Landlord M.R.A. Realties Inc. says in a lawsuit that Barton rebuffed efforts to collect the last three months' worth of rent on her flat in the trendy Tribeca neighborhood.
Barton's representatives had no immediate response. The landlord wants Barton to pay the rent and legal fees.
The 23-year-old Barton also lives in Los Angeles. The lawsuit filed Thursday says her one-year lease on the Manhattan apartment began in September.
At the time, she was in "The Beautiful Life," a CW series about the New York modeling world. The show was canceled in September.
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AP Interview: Ferguson Jenkins says Mark McGwire owes apology to pitchers
NEW YORK (AP) — Ferguson Jenkins says Mark McGwire owes an apology to all those pitchers who gave up his home runs. The Hall of Fame ace sent an open letter to The Associated Press this week, telling the former home-run king: "You have not even begun to apologize to those you have harmed."
"How many pitchers do you think he ended their careers by hitting numbers of home runs of them?" Jenkins said during a telephone interview Wednesday.
Jenkins also maintained he would have known how to handle the bulked-up McGwire, who hit a then-record 70 homers in 1998 and followed with 65 the following year.
"It's tough to hit a home run off your back," Jenkins said. "In my era, Seaver, Gibson, Drysdale, Carlton, there were so many guys that would have probably knocked him on his butt. He wouldn't have hit home runs the way he did in that era."
Thirty years ago, Jenkins himself became one of the first players caught up in baseball's struggles with drug discipline. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended Jenkins following the pitcher's arrest in Canada on charges of cocaine possession, but the penalty was overturned by an arbitrator less than two weeks later — the first time a baseball commissioner's ruling was reversed. A judge gave Jenkins an absolute discharge: no fine, no jail term and no record.