Former Israeli Prime Minister Shamir dies at 96

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shamir dies at 96

FILE - In this April 10, 1989 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir gestures during a news conference in Chicago. Shamir detailed some of the issues he discussed last week in his meeting with President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker III. Shamir was wrapping up a weekend visit to Chicago. Israeli media are reporting that former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has died. He was 96. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayhau mourned Shamir's death Saturday, saying in a statement that Shamir "led Israel with a deep loyalty to the nation."

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Yitzhak Shamir was a fighter for the Jews long before Israel's creation, an underground leader who led militias against the Arabs and British.

He made no apologies and no compromises - not as an underground fighter, an intelligence agent who hunted Nazis, and as one of Israel's longest-serving prime ministers who refused to bargain for land.

The 96-year-old Shamir, who clung throughout his life to the belief that Israel should hang onto territory and never trust an Arab regime, died Saturday at a nursing home in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. Israeli media said Shamir had suffered from Alzheimer's disease in recent years.

Shamir was Israel's seventh prime minister, serving as premier for seven years, from 1983-84 and 1986-92, leading his party to election victories twice, despite lacking much of the outward charisma that characterizes many modern politicians. Barely over 5 feet (1.52 m) tall and built like a block of granite, he projected an image of uncompromising strength during the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel in the West Bank and Gaza.

His time in office was eventful, marked by the massive airlift of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the Palestinian uprising and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.

"Yitzhak Shamir was a brave warrior before and after the founding of the State of Israel," said Israeli President Shimon Peres, Shamir's longtime political opponent. "He was loyal to his views, a great patriot and a true lover of Israel who served his country with integrity and unending commitment. May his memory be blessed."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shamir "led Israel with a deep loyalty to the nation and to the land and to the eternal values of the Jewish people."

And the White House praised Shamir for helping to forge strong ties with the U.S.

"Yitzhak Shamir dedicated his life to the State of Israel. From his days working for Israel's independence to his service as Prime Minister, he strengthened Israel's security and advanced the partnership between the United States and Israel," the statement said.

Defeated in the 1992 election, Shamir stepped down as head of the Likud party and watched from the sidelines as his successor, Yitzhak Rabin, negotiated interim land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.

The agreements, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's recognition of Israel, did nothing to ease his suspicion.

In a 1997 interview with the New York-based Jewish Post, he declared: "The Arabs will always dream to destroy us. I do not believe that they will recognize us as part of this region."

The Labor movement, in power for Israel's first three decades, agreed to a 1947 U.N.-proposed partition plan to allow the creation of the Jewish state alongside a Palestinian entity. To Shamir, that was tantamount to treason.

Born Yitzhak Jazernicki in what is now Poland in 1915. Shamir moved to pre-state Palestine in 1935. Most of his family - his parents, two sisters and their husbands and children - stayed behind and were killed in the Holocaust during World War II. In the late 1980s, Shamir disclosed publicly that his father had escaped a train headed for a concentration camp, but then was killed by childhood friends he sought shelter with.

Once in Palestine, Shamir joined LEHI, the most hardline of three Jewish movements fighting for independence from the British mandate authorities, taking over the group's leadership after the British killed its founder.

The group, better known as the Stern Gang after former leader Abraham Stern, was considered responsible for a string of attacks, including the assassination of United Nations mediator Count Folke Bernadotte in Jerusalem and in September 1948. LEHI commanders considered Bernadotte to be a British agent who cooperated with the Nazis.

Shamir often disguised himself as an orthodox rabbi to avoid arrest by the British. Still, he was captured twice, but escaped from two British detention camps and returned to resistance action. The second camp was in Djibouti, in Africa.

After Israel was founded in 1948, Shamir went into business before entering a career in Israel's Mossad spy agency. During that time, he carried out operations against Nazi scientists who were helping Israel's Arab neighbors build rockets. Roni Milo, a former member of parliament who served under Shamir mourned his passing to Israeli TV.

"For years he served in the Mossad and oversaw many important operations," Milo said. "I once asked him about a street name while walking in Tel Aviv and Shamir said `I know the streets of Cairo and Damascus better than the streets of Tel Aviv.'"

In the mid-1960s he emerged to join the right-wing Herut party, which evolved into the present-day Likud.

Shamir succeeded Menahem Begin as prime minister in 1983 in the aftermath of Israel's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

His term was marked by the massive airlift of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the Palestinian uprising and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.

During the Gulf war, Shamir went along with American demands not to retaliate for the Iraqi missile strikes. After the war, the United States stepped up pressure to start a Middle East process that could lead in only one direction - compromise with the Arabs.

Exasperated by Shamir's stubborn refusal to go along with their plans for a regional settlement, then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker once went on television, recited the switchboard number of the White House and told Shamir to call when he got serious about peace.

In the end, American pressure bent even Shamir. Despite his deep mistrust of Arab intentions, he agreed to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, sponsored by the U.S. and Russia.

Shamir hotly rejected the deals his successors made with the Palestinians, in which Israel turned over control of some West Bank land to the Palestinians.

His pleasure at the 1996 election victory of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu soured when Netanyahu continued to negotiate with the Palestinians and carry out land-for-security deals.

Before the 1999 election, Shamir resigned from the Likud and joined a new right-wing block called National Union, headed by Begin's son, Ze'ev Binyamin.

The party, which rejected any turnover of land to the Palestinians, won only four seats in parliament, though it had seven members of the outgoing legislature on its list.

In 2001, Shamir was given his nation's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize awarded annually to outstanding citizens in several fields.

"Dad was an amazing man," Shamir's daughter, Gilada, told the Israeli news site Ynet. "He was a family man in the fullest sense of the word, a man who dedicated himself to the State of Israel but never forgot his family, not even for a moment."

Israeli media said a funeral would be held Monday. Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin said the funeral procession would leave from Israel's parliament.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shamir dies at 96

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shamir dies at 96

FILE - In this April 10, 1989 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir gestures during a news conference in Chicago. Shamir detailed some of the issues he discussed last week in his meeting with President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker III. Shamir was wrapping up a weekend visit to Chicago. Israeli media are reporting that former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has died. He was 96. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayhau mourned Shamir's death Saturday, saying in a statement that Shamir "led Israel with a deep loyalty to the nation."

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Yitzhak Shamir was a fighter for the Jews long before Israel's creation, an underground leader who led militias against the Arabs and British.

He made no apologies and no compromises - not as an underground fighter, an intelligence agent who hunted Nazis, and as one of Israel's longest-serving prime ministers who refused to bargain for land.

The 96-year-old Shamir, who clung throughout his life to the belief that Israel should hang onto territory and never trust an Arab regime, died Saturday at a nursing home in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. Israeli media said Shamir had suffered from Alzheimer's disease in recent years.

Shamir was Israel's seventh prime minister, serving as premier for seven years, from 1983-84 and 1986-92, leading his party to election victories twice, despite lacking much of the outward charisma that characterizes many modern politicians. Barely over 5 feet (1.52 m) tall and built like a block of granite, he projected an image of uncompromising strength during the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel in the West Bank and Gaza.

His time in office was eventful, marked by the massive airlift of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the Palestinian uprising and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.

"Yitzhak Shamir was a brave warrior before and after the founding of the State of Israel," said Israeli President Shimon Peres, Shamir's longtime political opponent. "He was loyal to his views, a great patriot and a true lover of Israel who served his country with integrity and unending commitment. May his memory be blessed."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shamir "led Israel with a deep loyalty to the nation and to the land and to the eternal values of the Jewish people."

And the White House praised Shamir for helping to forge strong ties with the U.S.

"Yitzhak Shamir dedicated his life to the State of Israel. From his days working for Israel's independence to his service as Prime Minister, he strengthened Israel's security and advanced the partnership between the United States and Israel," the statement said.

Defeated in the 1992 election, Shamir stepped down as head of the Likud party and watched from the sidelines as his successor, Yitzhak Rabin, negotiated interim land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.

The agreements, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's recognition of Israel, did nothing to ease his suspicion.

In a 1997 interview with the New York-based Jewish Post, he declared: "The Arabs will always dream to destroy us. I do not believe that they will recognize us as part of this region."

The Labor movement, in power for Israel's first three decades, agreed to a 1947 U.N.-proposed partition plan to allow the creation of the Jewish state alongside a Palestinian entity. To Shamir, that was tantamount to treason.

Born Yitzhak Jazernicki in what is now Poland in 1915. Shamir moved to pre-state Palestine in 1935. Most of his family - his parents, two sisters and their husbands and children - stayed behind and were killed in the Holocaust during World War II. In the late 1980s, Shamir disclosed publicly that his father had escaped a train headed for a concentration camp, but then was killed by childhood friends he sought shelter with.

Once in Palestine, Shamir joined LEHI, the most hardline of three Jewish movements fighting for independence from the British mandate authorities, taking over the group's leadership after the British killed its founder.

The group, better known as the Stern Gang after former leader Abraham Stern, was considered responsible for a string of attacks, including the assassination of United Nations mediator Count Folke Bernadotte in Jerusalem and in September 1948. LEHI commanders considered Bernadotte to be a British agent who cooperated with the Nazis.

Shamir often disguised himself as an orthodox rabbi to avoid arrest by the British. Still, he was captured twice, but escaped from two British detention camps and returned to resistance action. The second camp was in Djibouti, in Africa.

After Israel was founded in 1948, Shamir went into business before entering a career in Israel's Mossad spy agency. During that time, he carried out operations against Nazi scientists who were helping Israel's Arab neighbors build rockets. Roni Milo, a former member of parliament who served under Shamir mourned his passing to Israeli TV.

"For years he served in the Mossad and oversaw many important operations," Milo said. "I once asked him about a street name while walking in Tel Aviv and Shamir said `I know the streets of Cairo and Damascus better than the streets of Tel Aviv.'"

In the mid-1960s he emerged to join the right-wing Herut party, which evolved into the present-day Likud.

Shamir succeeded Menahem Begin as prime minister in 1983 in the aftermath of Israel's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

His term was marked by the massive airlift of thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel, the Palestinian uprising and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.

During the Gulf war, Shamir went along with American demands not to retaliate for the Iraqi missile strikes. After the war, the United States stepped up pressure to start a Middle East process that could lead in only one direction - compromise with the Arabs.

Exasperated by Shamir's stubborn refusal to go along with their plans for a regional settlement, then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker once went on television, recited the switchboard number of the White House and told Shamir to call when he got serious about peace.

In the end, American pressure bent even Shamir. Despite his deep mistrust of Arab intentions, he agreed to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, sponsored by the U.S. and Russia.

Shamir hotly rejected the deals his successors made with the Palestinians, in which Israel turned over control of some West Bank land to the Palestinians.

His pleasure at the 1996 election victory of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu soured when Netanyahu continued to negotiate with the Palestinians and carry out land-for-security deals.

Before the 1999 election, Shamir resigned from the Likud and joined a new right-wing block called National Union, headed by Begin's son, Ze'ev Binyamin.

The party, which rejected any turnover of land to the Palestinians, won only four seats in parliament, though it had seven members of the outgoing legislature on its list.

In 2001, Shamir was given his nation's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize awarded annually to outstanding citizens in several fields.

"Dad was an amazing man," Shamir's daughter, Gilada, told the Israeli news site Ynet. "He was a family man in the fullest sense of the word, a man who dedicated himself to the State of Israel but never forgot his family, not even for a moment."

Israeli media said a funeral would be held Monday. Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin said the funeral procession would leave from Israel's parliament.

Eastern US storms kill 13, cut power to millions

Eastern US storms kill 13, cut power to millions

A fallen tree blocks the sidewalk and damages a park vehicle in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, Saturday, June 30, 2012. Violent evening storms following a day of triple-digit temperatures wiped out power to more than 2 million people across the eastern United States.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Millions across the mid-Atlantic region sweltered Saturday in the aftermath of violent storms that pummeled the eastern U.S. with high winds and downed trees, killing at least 13 people and leaving 3 million without power during a heat wave.

Power officials said the outages wouldn't be repaired for several days to a week, likening the damage to a serious hurricane. Emergencies were declared in Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, the District of Columbia and Virginia, where Gov. Bob McDonnell said the state had its largest non-hurricane outage in history, as more storms threatened. "This is a very dangerous situation," the governor said.

In West Virginia, 232 Amtrak passengers spent Friday night on a train that was blocked on both sides by trees that fell on the tracks, and they were waiting for buses to pick them up Saturday. And in Illinois, storm damage forced the transfer of dozens of maximum-security, mentally ill prisoners from one prison to another.

In some Virginia suburbs of Washington, emergency 911 call centers were out of service; residents were told to call local police and fire departments. Huge trees fell across streets in Washington, leaving cars crunched up next to them, and onto the fairway at the AT&T National golf tournament in Maryland. Cell phone and Internet service was spotty, gas stations shut down and residents were urged to conserve water until sewage plants returned to power.

The outages were especially dangerous because they left the region without air conditioning in an oppressive heat. Temperatures soared to highs in the mid-90s in Baltimore and Washington, where it had hit 104 on Friday.

"I've called everybody except for the state police to try to get power going," said Karen Fryer, resident services director at two assisted living facilities in Washington. The facilities had generator power, but needed to go out for portable air conditioning units, and Fryer worried about a few of her 100 residents who needed backup power for portable oxygen.

On Saturday night, the train passengers stranded near rural Prince, W.Va., were waiting for buses to pick them up after they got stuck at 11 p.m. the previous evening, said Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm. Kulm said the train bound from New York to Chicago has power, so lights and air conditioning are working. He says that since it's a long-distance train, it was stocked with food and crew members were able to get to town to buy more.

Kulm says passengers should be on the buses sometime Saturday evening.

About 170 miles to the northeast in Morgantown, W.Va., Jeff and Alice Haney loaded their cart at Lowe's with cases of water, extra flashlights and batteries, and wiring for the generator they hoped would be enough to kick-start their air conditioner. Even if they had to live without cool air, the family had a backup plan.

"We have a pool," Jeff Haney said, "so we'll be OK."

The storm did damage from Indiana to New Jersey, although the bulk of it was in West Virginia, Washington and suburban Virginia and Maryland. At least six of the dead were killed in Virginia, including a 90-year-old woman asleep in bed when a tree slammed into her home. Two young cousins in New Jersey were killed when a tree fell on their tent while camping. Two were killed in Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky and one in Washington.

Illinois corrections officials transferred 78 inmates from a prison in Dixon to the Pontiac Correctional Center after storms Friday night caused significant damage, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Stacey Solano said.

No one was injured, Solano said. Generators are providing power to the prison, which is locked down, confining remaining inmates to their cells.

Utility officials said it could take at least several days to restore power to all customers because of the sheer magnitude of the outages and the destruction. Winds and toppled trees brought down entire power lines, and debris has to be cleared from power stations and other structures. All of that takes time and can't be accomplished with the flip of a switch.

"This is very unfortunate timing," said Myra Oppel, a spokeswoman for Pepco, which reported over 400,000 outages in Washington and its suburbs. "We do understand the hardship that this brings, especially with the heat as intense at is. We will be working around the clock until we get the last customer on."

Especially at risk were children, the sick and the elderly. In Charleston, W.Va., firefighters helped several people using walkers and wheelchairs get to emergency shelters. One of them, David Gunnoe, uses a wheelchair and had to spend the night in the community room of his apartment complex because the power - and his elevator - went out. Rescuers went up five floors to retrieve his medication.

Gunnoe said he was grateful for the air conditioning, but hoped power would be restored so he could go home.

"It doesn't matter if it's under a rock some place. When you get used to a place, it's home," he said.

More than 20 elderly residents at an apartment home in Indianapolis were displaced when the facility lost power due to a downed tree. Most were bused to a Red Cross facility to spend the night, and others who depend on oxygen assistance were given other accommodations, the fire department said.

Others sought refuge in shopping malls, movie theaters and other places where the air conditioning would be turned to "high."

In Richmond, Va., Tracey Phalen relaxed with her teenage son under the shade of a coffee-house umbrella rather than suffer through the stifling heat of her house, which lost power.

"We'll probably go to a movie theater at the top of the day," she said.

Phalen said Hurricane Irene left her home dark for six days last summer, "and this is reminiscent of that," she said.

Others scheduled impromptu "staycations" or took shelter with friends and relatives.

Robert Clements, 28, said he showered by flashlight on Friday night after power went out at his home in Fairfax, Va. The apartment complex where he lives told his fiancee that power wouldn't be back on for at least two days, and she booked a hotel on Saturday.

Clements' fiancee, 27-year-old Ann Marie Tropiano, said she tried to go to the pool, but it was closed because there was no electricity so the pumps weren't working. She figured the electricity would eventually come back on, but she awoke to find her thermostat reading 81 degrees and slowly climbing. Closing the blinds and curtains didn't help.

"It feels like an oven," she said.

At the AT&T National in Bethesda, Md., trees cracked at their trunks crashed onto the 14th hole and onto ropes that had lined the fairways. The third round of play was suspended for several hours Saturday and was closed to volunteers and spectators. Mark Russell, the PGA Tour's vice president of rules and competition, couldn't remember another time that a tour event was closed to fans.

"It's too dangerous out here," Russell said. "There's a lot of huge limbs. There's a lot of debris. It's like a tornado came through here. It's just not safe."

The outages disrupted service for many subscribers to Netflix, Instagram and Pinterest when the storm cut power to some of Amazon Inc.'s operations. The video and photo sharing services took to Twitter and Facebook to update subscribers on the outages. Netflix and Pinterest had restored service by Saturday afternoon.

The storm that whipped through the region Friday night was called a derecho (duh-RAY'-choh) , a straight line wind storm that sweeps over a large area at high speed. It can produce tornado-like damage. The storm, which can pack wind gusts of up to 90 mph, began in the Midwest, passed over the Appalachian Mountains and then drew new strength from a high pressure system as it hit the southeastern U.S., said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

"It's one of those storms," Jackson said. "It just plows through."

Congress passes student loans, highway jobs bill

Congress passes student loans, highway jobs bill

FILE - In this May 8, 2012 file photo, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., center, and Rep. John Mica, R- Fla., left, listen as Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., right, speaks during the first meeting of the House and Senate conference on the transportation bill on Capitol Hill in Washington. Congress on Friday, June 29, 2012 emphatically approved legislation preserving jobs on transportation projects from coast to coast and avoiding interest rate increases on new loans to millions of college students, giving lawmakers campaign-season bragging rights on what may be their biggest economic achievement before the November elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress emphatically approved legislation Friday preserving jobs on transportation projects from coast to coast and avoiding interest rate increases on new loans to millions of college students, giving lawmakers campaign-season bragging rights on what may be their biggest economic achievement before the November elections.

The bill sent for President Barack Obama's signature enables just over $100 billion to be spent on highway, mass transit and other transportation programs over the next two years, projects that would have expired Saturday without congressional action. It also ends a bare-knuckle political battle over student loans that raged since spring, a proxy fight over which party was best helping voters muddle through the economic downturn.

Under the bill, interest rates of 3.4 percent for subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduates will continue for another year, instead of doubling for new loans beginning on Sunday as scheduled by a law passed five years ago to save money.

Had the measure failed, interest rates would have mushroomed to 6.8 percent for 7.4 million students expected to get the loans over the coming year, adding an extra $1,000 to the average cost of each loan and antagonizing students - and their parents - four months from Election Day.

The Democratic-led Senate sent the measure to Obama by a 74-19 vote, just minutes after the Republican-run House approved it 373-52. The unusual display of harmony, in a bitterly partisan year, signaled lawmakers' eagerness to claim credit for providing transportation jobs, to avert higher costs for students and their families and to avoid being embarrassed had the effort run aground.

This year has seen the two parties mostly drive each other's plans for tax breaks and economic revival into a stalemate, although lawmakers have enacted bills retaining the Social Security payroll tax cut for a year and renewing a government agency that promotes U.S. exports.

"It's important for Congress to act, not just talk about problems we have but to get things done," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., a chief House author of the transportation measure.

"We have a bill that will boost this economy," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., a sponsor who said the measure would create or save 2.8 million jobs. "We have a bill that is supported by conservatives and liberals, progressives and moderates. I think this is a great day."

All the no votes were cast by Republicans.

The compromise ended up sprinkled with unrelated nuggets dealing with Asian carp, roll-your-own tobacco and federal timber aid. But its most significant provisions dealt with transportation and student aid.

The final transportation measure dropped a provision - which had drawn an Obama veto threat - that would have forced government approval of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas coast. But it contains curbs on environmental reviews of transportation projects. Republicans sought those curbs in hopes of cutting construction time almost in half.

The bill consolidates federal transportation programs and gives states more flexibility in spending money from Washington. It also contains an array of safety initiatives including requirements aimed at enhancing bus safety. And it makes advocates of bike and pedestrian paths compete for money with other transportation projects.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration was glad Congress acted "before middle class families pay the price for inaction." He said Obama will keep pressing for approval of more of his job-creating proposals from last year, to hire teachers, police officers and firefighters and for tax credits to companies that hire new workers.

Most of the overall measure was financed by extending federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel for two more years. Those levies, unchanged for nearly two decades, are 18.4 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel and now fall well short of fully financing highway programs, which they were designed to do.

About $20 billion would be raised over the next decade by reducing tax deductions for companies' pension contributions and increasing the fees they pay to federally insure their pension plans. In return, a formula was changed to, in effect, let companies apportion less money for their pensions and to provide less year-to-year variation in those amounts.

To raise other revenue, the government will start charging interest on subsidized Stafford loans no more than six years after undergraduates begin their studies. Today no interest is charged until after graduation, no matter how long that takes.

In addition, a loophole was tightened to make it harder for businesses with roll-your-own cigarette machines to classify the tobacco they sell as pipe tobacco - which is taxed at a lower rate than cigarette tobacco. The change is expected to raise nearly $100 million.

Some federal workers would be allowed to work part-time as they gradually retire, saving the government money because the workers would receive only partial salaries and retirement annuities.

As often happens with bills that are certain to win the president's signature, the measure became a catch-all for other unrelated provisions.

One would order the government to accelerate work on a plan for preventing Asian carp, which devour other species, from entering the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River. It drew opposition from Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., and some other lawmakers arguing that blocking the fish could interfere with shipping, but the Senate turned their objections aside.

Federal flood insurance programs that protect 5.6 million households and businesses were extended, allowing higher premiums and limiting subsidies for vacation homes to help address a shortfall in the program caused by claims from 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

The measure also steers 80 percent out of billions in Clean Water Act penalties paid by BP and others for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion to the five Gulf states whose beaches and waters were soiled by the disaster. The money would have otherwise gone to federal coffers.

Federal timber subsidies worth $346 million would be distributed for another year to rural counties, while other funds would be steered to rural school districts. The bill also eases restrictions that force most American food aid to be shipped abroad on U.S.-flagged vessels.

Justice won't prosecute Holder for contempt

Justice won't prosecute Holder for contempt

FILE - In this June 12, 2012 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. In email exchanges with subordinates in February and March 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder and the department's second-highest official expressed growing concern that something might have gone wrong in a federal gun-smuggling probe called Operation Fast and Furious.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department declared Friday that Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to withhold information about a bungled gun-tracking operation from Congress does not constitute a crime and he won't be prosecuted for contempt of Congress.

The House voted Thursday afternoon to find Holder in criminal and civil contempt for refusing to turn over the documents. President Barack Obama invoked his executive privilege authority and ordered Holder not to turn over materials about executive branch deliberations and internal recommendations.

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, the department said that it will not bring the congressional contempt citation against Holder to a federal grand jury and that it will take no other action to prosecute the attorney general. Dated Thursday, the letter was released Friday.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the decision is in line with long-standing Justice Department practice across administrations of both political parties.

"We will not prosecute an executive branch official under the contempt of Congress statute for withholding subpoenaed documents pursuant to a presidential assertion of executive privilege," Cole wrote.

In its letter, the department relied in large part on a Justice Department legal opinion crafted during Republican Ronald Reagan's presidency.

Frederick Hill, the spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, said it is regrettable that "the political leadership of the Justice Department" is taking that position. Issa, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, is leading the effort to get the material related to Operation Fast and Furious.

Although the House voted Thursday to find Holder in criminal and civil contempt, Republicans probably are still a long way from obtaining documents they want for their inquiry into Operation Fast and Furious, a flawed gun-tracking investigation focused on Phoenix-area gun shops by Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The criminal path is now closed and the civil route through the courts would not be resolved anytime soon.

"This is pure politics," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"Remarkably the chairman of the committee involved here has asserted that he has no evidence that the attorney general knew of Operation Fast and Furious or did anything but take the right action when he learned of it.

"No evidence, so if you have no evidence as he has stated now about the White House and the attorney general, what else could this be but politics?"

More than 100 Democrats walked out of the House chamber to boycott the first of two contempt votes, saying Republicans were more interested in shameful election-year politics than documents.

Republicans demanded the documents for an ongoing investigation, but their arguments focused more on the need for closure for the family of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Two guns identified by the Fast and Furious tracking operation were found near his body after a shootout in Arizona.

Democrats promised closure as well, but said a less-partisan Republican investigation was the only way to get it.

Adding to the emotion of the day, the family of the slain agent issued a statement backing the Republicans.

"The Terry family takes no pleasure in the contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder. Such a vote should not have been necessary. The Justice Department should have released the documents related to Fast and Furious months ago," the statement said.

The contempt votes happened on the day that Obama's health care law survived in the Supreme Court, prompting some Democrats to speculate that the votes were scheduled to be overwhelmed by news stories about the ruling.

About five hours after the court ruled, with news sites flooded with information about the health care ruling, the House voted 255-67 to declare Holder in criminal contempt.

A second vote of 258-95 held Holder in civil contempt and authorized the House to file a lawsuit.

In past cases, courts have been reluctant to settle disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government.

The issue became more complicated when Obama invoked a broad form of executive privilege, a legal doctrine designed to keep private certain communications of executive branch agencies.

Issa's committee will consult with the House counsel's office about a court challenge to the administration's decision not to cooperate, spokesman Frederick Hill said.

The documents were written after Fast and Furious was shut down. The subpoena covered a 10-month period from February 2011, as the Justice Department expressed growing concern that the Fast and Furious operation had employed a risky investigative tactic known as "gun-walking." In early December 2011, the department finally acknowledged that the initial denial of gun-walking was in error.

Republicans said the contempt citations were necessary because Holder refused to hand over documents that could explain why the Obama administration took 10 months to acknowledge the gun-walking.

In Fast and Furious, ATF agents abandoned the agency's usual practice of intercepting all weapons they believed to be illicitly purchased, often as soon as they were taken out of gun shops. Instead, the goal of the tactic known as "gun-walking" was to track such weapons to high-level arms traffickers, who had long eluded prosecution, and to dismantle their networks.

Gun-walking long has been barred by Justice Department policy, but federal agents in Arizona experimented with it in at least two investigations during the George W. Bush administration before Operation Fast and Furious. These experiments came as the department was under widespread criticism that the old policy of arresting every suspected low-level "straw purchaser" was failing to stop tens of thousands of guns from reaching Mexico, more than 68,000 in the last five years. A straw purchaser conceals that he is buying guns for others.

Fast and Furious identified more than 2,000 weapons suspected of being illicitly purchased. But agents lost track of many of the guns. Some 1,400 of them have yet to be recovered.

Teen charged in shooting Watts baby, father

A 15-year-old boy has been charged with killing a baby and wounding the baby's father in Watts.

Police say they've arrested Donald Dokins in connection with the June 4 shooting. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office says 14-month-old Angel Cortez was in his father's arms when a gunman rode up on a bike and fired several shots.

The baby died at a local hospital; his father was hit in the shoulder.

Dokins will be arraigned Friday and will be tried as an adult. If convicted, he could face several life sentences.

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Story posted 2012.06.29 at 12:54 AM PDT

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Beckham fails to make Britain's Olympic team

Beckham fails to make Britain's Olympic team

FILE This Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 file photo shows England's David Beckham applauding the crowd after their World Cup group 6 qualifying soccer match against Belarus at Wembley Stadium, London. Former England captain David Beckham has failed to make the British football team for the London Olympics. The Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder made Britain coach Stuart Pearce's shortlist of 35 but wasn't selected for the final 18-man squad as one of three players over the age of 23 allowed to compete in the games. "Everyone knows how much playing for my country has always meant to me, so I would have been honored to have been part of this unique Team GB squad," the 37-year-old Beckham said Thursday June 28, 2012 in a statement to The Associated Press.

LONDON (AP) -- Bending free kicks. Hollywood looks. National hero.

David Beckham - Britain's most famous sportsman - seemed destined to be a headliner at the London Olympics.

Not on the soccer field.

The former England captain failed to make the British Olympic team, a surprise snub for a local lad who helped secure the games for his city and worked tirelessly to promote them.

"Naturally, I am very disappointed," Beckham said Thursday after being notified that he hadn't been selected for the final 18-man squad. "But there will be no bigger supporter of the team than me."

The Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder had made Britain's 35-man preliminary shortlist and seemed certain to win one of the three places allowed for players over the age of 23. Instead, he was informed by coach Stuart Pearce that he hadn't made the final squad.

"Everyone knows how much playing for my country has always meant to me, so I would have been honored to have been part of this unique Team GB squad," the 37-year-old Beckham said in a statement Thursday.

Beckham's ties to the Olympics go back to 2005 when he joined the bid team run by Sebastian Coe for the competition against Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow. He was with the team in Singapore when London beat Paris in the final round of voting, adding credibility not just as a celebrity but as an east London native.

Since then, Beckham has taken part in countless Olympic activities. He even accompanied the Olympic flame on a flight from Greece to England last month and lit a cauldron signaling the start of the British torch relay.

"David has been an extraordinary supporter, probably our No. 1 supporter, of the games from the very beginning and is keen to continue his enthusiastic support right to the end," Coe said.

He indicated there could still be a role for Beckham, though not in a sporting capacity.

"He really gets this," Coe said. "He is from east London and knows how important the games and sport are to young people. He is a great role model and we are lucky to have such an advocate. I will be talking to him about a games-time role."

British bookmaker Ladbrokes slashed the odds on Beckham being given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame at the July 27 opening ceremony, making him 5-1. Five-time rowing gold medalist Steve Redgrave is the 1-2 favorite. The Olympic Stadium is located near Leytonstone, where Beckham was born.

For his part, Beckham has so far only said he hopes to attend the Olympics and support Britain's athletes.

"As a Londoner, I will have been really proud to have played a small part in bringing the Olympics to my home town as part of Seb's team, and I can't wait for the games to begin and enjoy every moment along with the rest of Great Britain," Beckham said.

Beckham's absence from the team will come as a big disappointment to his fans around the world.

Laura Robson, who lost a first-round doubles match at Wimbledon on Thursday with fellow British partner Heather Watson, said: "Obviously, I'm disappointed that he's not going to be joining myself and Heather in the Olympic Village."

Then she jokingly added: "Won't be able to stalk him."

The decision by Pearce to omit Beckham almost certainly spells the end of his career representing his country. He has made 115 England appearances, with the last coming in 2009.

Former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who made a record 125 appearances for the national team, backed Pearce's decision to omit Beckham.

"He's been a fantastic player over the years, certainly when he was at his peak, but he's nowhere the player he was," Shilton said on British television. "It would have been great from a publicity point of view, but Stuart Pearce obviously feels he'd struggle in that type of tournament."

The Olympics would have provided Beckham with a last chance to win an international trophy, the only triumph to elude a player who has won domestic league titles in England and Spain, the Champions League and the MLS Cup.

Despite Beckham's best efforts, including a prolonged spell as captain, England remains without a trophy since winning the 1966 World Cup on home soil.

Being dropped from the team means Beckham won't get a chance to reunite with former Manchester United teammate Ryan Giggs on the international stage when Britain fields its first Olympic soccer team since 1960.

Giggs, fellow Welshman Craig Bellamy and English defender Micah Richards will be the overage players in the squad, a person familiar with the situation said. He spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because details of the squad haven't been publicly released.

It appears that Beckham lost his place to the 24-year-old Richards, who plays for Manchester City and will provide extra defensive cover after missing out on England's European Championship squad.

The 32-year-old Bellamy is a forward at Liverpool who, like Giggs and Richards, has never appeared at a major international soccer tournament.

The British Olympic Association said it had not yet been informed by the English Football Association, which is running the team, that Beckham had been overlooked by Pearce. The coach had traveled to the United States to assess Beckham's form and fitness in Major League Soccer.

"We are expecting the list no later than the early part of next week," the BOA said in a statement.

Britain plays its opening match on July 26 against Senegal at Old Trafford, where Beckham spent his 10-year career with United before joining Real Madrid in 2003. He moved to the Galaxy four years later.

Britain then faces the United Arab Emirates three days later at Wembley and Uruguay on Aug. 1 at the Millennium Stadium.

Britain has not fielded an Olympic soccer team since 1960 because Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland feared losing their independence within FIFA. The world body has assured the federations that their status won't be affected by participating in the 16-team competition at the London Games.

Health care law survives _ with Roberts' help

Health care law survives _ with Roberts' help

Supporters of President Barack Obama's health care law celebrate outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the court's ruling.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Obamacare lives.

America's historic health care overhaul, derided by Republicans as intrusive, costly "Obamacare," narrowly survived an election-year battle at the Supreme Court Thursday with the improbable help of conservative Chief Justice John Roberts.

The 5-4 ruling now makes it certain that major health care changes will move ahead, touching virtually every American's life. And Democrats, who have learned to accept if not love the GOP label for the law, heartily praised the decision.

But the ruling also gave Republicans unexpected ammunition to energize supporters for the fall campaign against President Barack Obama, the bill's champion - and for next year's vigorous efforts to repeal the law as a new federal tax

Roberts' vote, along with those of the court's four liberal justices, preserved the largest expansion of the nation's social safety net in more than 45 years, including the hotly debated core requirement that nearly everyone have health insurance or pay a penalty. The aim is to extend coverage to more than 30 million people who now are uninsured

The decision meant the huge overhaul, still taking effect, could proceed and pick up momentum over the next several years, with an impact on the way that countless Americans receive and pay for their personal medical care.

The ruling handed Obama a campaign-season victory in rejecting arguments that Congress went too far in approving the plan. However, Republicans quickly indicated they would try to use the decision against him.

At the White House, Obama declared, "Whatever the politics, today's decision was a victory for people all over this country." Blocks away, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney renewed his criticism of the overhaul, calling it "bad law" and promising to work to repeal it if elected in November.

Demonstrators for and against the law crowded the grounds outside the Supreme Court Building on Capitol Hill as Roberts, sitting at the center of the nine black-robed justices inside, announced the decision to a packed courtroom.

Breaking with the other conservative justices, Roberts wrote the judgment that allows the law to go forward. He explained at length the court's view of the insurance mandate as a valid exercise of Congress' authority to "lay and collect taxes." The administration estimates that roughly 4 million people will pay the penalty rather than buy insurance.

Roberts, appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, opposed by young Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and much-criticized by Democrats in recent years, sided with his court's liberals on a major case for the second time this week as the justices concluded their 2011-12 term.

On Monday, he had voted to invalidate parts of Arizona's tough crackdown on illegal immigrants.

In the health care case, Congress had referred to a penalty, not a tax, on people who don't obtain insurance. But Roberts said the court would not get hung up on labels. Among other indications it is a tax, Roberts said, "the payment is collected solely by the IRS through the normal means of taxation."

"Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness," Roberts said.

Many Republicans oppose the law, arguing that it marks a government takeover of health care at the same time it curtails Medicare spending and raises taxes. They also point to studies that predict private employers will be forced to reduce or eliminate coverage and that the legislation will wind up costing far more than estimated, raising federal deficits as a result.

Stocks of hospital companies rose and some insurance companies fell after the ruling.

The decision should help hospitals by adding millions of people to the rolls of the insured, expanding the pool of health care consumers. But by the same reasoning, insurance companies will also gain millions of premium-paying customers.

The court found problems with the law's expansion of Medicaid, but even there it said the expansion could proceed as long as the federal government does not threaten to withhold states' entire Medicaid allotment if they don't take part.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor joined Roberts in the outcome.

Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Kennedy summarized the dissent in the courtroom. "In our view, the act before us is invalid in its entirety," he said.

The dissenters said in a joint statement that the law "exceeds federal power both in mandating the purchase of health insurance and in denying non-consenting states all Medicaid funding."

The justices rejected two of the administration's three arguments in support of the insurance requirement. Roberts agreed with his conservative colleagues that Congress lacks the power under the Constitution's commerce clause to put the mandate in place.

"The federal government does not have the power to order people to buy health insurance," he said in a part of his opinion that the liberal justices did not join. But his crucial bottom line was: "The federal government does have the power to impose a tax on those without health insurance."

In all, the justices spelled out their views in six opinions totaling 187 pages. Roberts, Kennedy and Ginsburg spent 51 minutes summarizing their views in the courtroom.

The legislation passed Congress in early 2010 after a monumental struggle in which all Republicans voted against it. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Thursday the House will vote July 11 on whether to repeal the law, though such efforts have virtually no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the health care law makes it harder for small businesses to hire workers. "Today's ruling underscores the urgency of repealing this harmful law in its entirety," he said.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., heaped praise on the court's decision, and the 2010 law, in a Senate speech. "Passing the Affordable Care Act was the greatest single step in generations toward ensuring access to affordable, quality health care for every American, regardless of where they live or how much money they make," he said.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi cast the decision as vindication for her work to secure passage of the far-reaching legislation.

"This decision is a victory for the American people. With this ruling, Americans will benefit from critical patient protections, lower costs for the middle class, more coverage for families, and greater accountability for the insurance industry," Pelosi said.

After the ruling, Republican campaign strategists said Romney will use it to continue campaigning against "Obamacare" - the name the GOP gave the plan In derision, though many Democrats now accept it - and in attacking the president's signature health care program as a tax increase.

"Obama might have his law, but the GOP has a cause," said veteran campaign adviser Terry Holt. "This promises to galvanize Republican support around a repeal of what could well be called the largest tax increase in American history."

Democrats said Romney, who backed an individual health insurance mandate when he was Massachusetts governor, will have a hard time exploiting the ruling.

"Mitt Romney is the intellectual godfather of Obamacare," said Democratic consultant Jim Manley. "The bigger issue is the rising cost of health care, and this bill is designed to deal with it."

Ginsburg, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, said in her opinion that "Congress followed Massachusetts' lead."

More than eight in 10 Americans already have health insurance. But for most of the 50 million who are uninsured, the ruling offers the promise of guaranteed coverage at affordable prices. Lower-income and many middle-class families will be eligible for subsidies to help pay premiums starting in 2014.

There's also an added safety net for all Americans, insured and uninsured. Starting in 2014, insurance companies will not be able to deny coverage for medical treatment, nor can they charge more to people with health problems. Those protections, now standard in most big employer plans, will be available to all, including people who get laid off, or leave a corporate job to launch their own small business.

Seniors also benefit from the law through better Medicare coverage for those with high prescription costs, and no copayments for preventive care. But hospitals, nursing homes, and many other service providers may struggle once the Medicare cuts used to finance the law really start to bite.

Illegal immigrants are not entitled to the new insurance coverage under the law, and will remain one of the biggest groups uninsured.

Obama's law is by no means the last word on health care. Experts expect costs to keep rising, meaning that lawmakers will have to revisit the issue perhaps as early as next year, when federal budget woes will force them to confront painful options for Medicare and Medicaid, the giant federal programs that cover seniors, the disabled, and low-income people.

The health care overhaul focus will now quickly shift from Washington to state capitals. Only 14 states, plus Washington, D.C., have adopted plans to set up the new health insurance markets called for under the law. Called exchanges, the new markets are supposed to be up and running on Jan. 1, 2014. People buying coverage individually, as well as small businesses, will be able to shop for private coverage from a range of competing insurers.

Most Republican-led states, including large ones such as Texas and Florida, have been counting on the law to be overturned and have failed to do the considerable spade work needed to set up exchanges. There's a real question about whether they can meet the deadline, and if they don't, Washington will step in and run their exchanges for them.

In contrast to the states, health insurance companies, major employers, and big hospital systems are among the best prepared. Many of the changes called for in the law were already being demanded by employers trying to get better value for their private health insurance dollars.

"The main driver here is financial," said Dr. Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, which has pioneered some of the changes. "The factors driving health care reform are not new, and they are not going to go away."

The Medicaid expansion would cover an estimated 17 million people who earn too much to qualify for assistance but not enough to afford insurance. The federal and state governments share the cost, and Washington regularly imposes conditions on the states in exchange for money.

Roberts said Congress' ability to impose those conditions has its limits. "In this case, the financial `inducement' Congress has chosen is much more than `relatively mild encouragement' - it is a gun to the head," he said.

The law says the Health and Human Services Department can withhold a state's entire Medicaid allotment if the state doesn't comply with the health care law's Medicaid provisions.

Even while ruling out that level of coercion, however, Roberts said nothing prevents the federal government from offering money to accomplish the expansion and withholding that money from states that don't meet certain conditions.

"What Congress is not free to do is to penalize states that choose not to participate in that new program by taking away their existing Medicaid funding," he said.

Ginsburg said the court should have upheld the entire law as written without forcing any changes in the Medicaid provision. She said Congress' constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce supports the individual mandate. She warned that the legal reasoning, even though the law was upheld, could cause trouble in future cases.

"So in the end, the Affordable Health Care Act survives largely unscathed. But the court's commerce clause and spending clause jurisprudence has been set awry. My expectation is that the setbacks will be temporary blips, not permanent obstructions," Ginsburg said in a statement she, too, read from the bench.

In the courtroom Thursday were retired Justice John Paul Stevens and the wives of Roberts, Alito, Breyer, Kennedy and Thomas.

dd

Supreme Court upholds entire health care law

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the vast majority of President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul, including the hotly debated core requirement that virtually all Americans have health insurance.

INTERACTION : WHAT'S YOUR REACTION TO THE HEALTH CARE RULING?

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld virtually all of President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul, including the hotly debated core requirement that nearly every American have health insurance.

The 5-4 decision meant the huge overhaul, still taking effect, could proceed and pick up momentum over the next several years, affecting the way that countless Americans receive and pay for their personal medical care.

The ruling hands Obama a campaign-season victory in rejecting arguments that Congress went too far in approving the plan. However, Republicans quickly indicated they will try to use the decision to rally their supporters against what they call "Obamacare," arguing that the ruling characterized the penalty against people who refuse to get insurance as a tax.

Obama declared, "Whatever the politics, today's decision was a victory for people all over this country." GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney renewed his criticism of the overhaul, calling it "bad law" and promising to work to repeal it if elected in November.

Breaking with the court's other conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts announced the judgment that allows the law to go forward with its aim of covering more than 30 million uninsured Americans. Roberts explained at length the court's view of the mandate as a valid exercise of Congress' authority to "lay and collect taxes." The administration estimates that roughly 4 million people will pay the penalty rather than buy insurance.

Even though Congress called it a penalty, not a tax, Roberts said, "The payment is collected solely by the IRS through the normal means of taxation."

Roberts also made plain the court's rejection of the administration's claim that Congress had the power under the Constitution's commerce clause to put the mandate in place. The power to regulate interstate commerce power, he said, "does not authorize the mandate. " Stocks of hospital companies rose after the decision was announced, while shares of insurers fell sharply. Shares of drugmakers and device makers fell slightly.

The justices rejected two of the administration's three arguments in support of the insurance requirement. But the court said the mandate can be construed as a tax. "Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness," Roberts said.

The court found problems with the law's expansion of Medicaid, but even there said the expansion could proceed as long as the federal government does not threaten to withhold states' entire Medicaid allotment if they don't take part in the law's extension.

The court's four liberal justices, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, joined Roberts in the outcome.

Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Kennedy summarized the dissent in court. "In our view, the act before us is invalid in its entirety," he said.

The dissenters said in a joint statement that the law "exceeds federal power both in mandating the purchase of health insurance and in denying non-consenting states all Medicaid funding."

In all, the justices spelled out their views in six opinions totaling 187 pages. Roberts, Kennedy and Ginsburg spent 51 minutes summarizing their views in the packed courtroom.

The legislation passed Congress in early 2010 after a monumental struggle in which all Republicans voted against it. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Thursday the House will vote the week of July 9 on whether to repeal the law, though such efforts have virtually no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

After the ruling, Republican campaign strategists said Romney will use it to continue campaigning against "Obamacare" and attacking the president's signature health care program as a tax increase.

"Obama might have his law, but the GOP has a cause," said veteran campaign adviser Terry Holt. "This promises to galvanize Republican support around a repeal of what could well be called the largest tax increase in American history."

Democrats said Romney, who backed an individual health insurance mandate when he was Massachusetts governor, will have a hard time exploiting the ruling.

"Mitt Romney is the intellectual godfather of Obamacare," said Democratic consultant Jim Manley. "The bigger issue is the rising cost of health care, and this bill is designed to deal with it."

More than eight in 10 Americans already have health insurance. But for most of the 50 million who are uninsured, the ruling offers the promise of guaranteed coverage at affordable prices. Lower-income and many middle-class families will be eligible for subsidies to help pay premiums starting in 2014.

There's also an added safety net for all Americans, insured and uninsured. Starting in 2014, insurance companies will not be able to deny coverage for medical treatment, nor can they charge more to people with health problems. Those protections, now standard in most big employer plans, will be available to all, including people who get laid off, or leave a corporate job to launch their own small business.

Seniors also benefit from the law through better Medicare coverage for those with high prescription costs, and no copayments for preventive care. But hospitals, nursing homes, and many other service providers may struggle once the Medicare cuts used to finance the law really start to bite.

Illegal immigrants are not entitled to the new insurance coverage under the law, and will remain one of the biggest groups uninsured.

Obama's law is by no means the last word on health care. Experts expect costs to keep rising, meaning that lawmakers will have to revisit the issue perhaps as early as next year, when federal budget woes will force them to confront painful options for Medicare and Medicaid, the giant federal programs that cover seniors, the disabled, and low-income people.

The health care overhaul focus will now quickly shift from Washington to state capitals. Only 14 states, plus Washington, D.C., have adopted plans to set up the new health insurance markets called for under the law. Called exchanges, the new markets are supposed to be up and running on Jan. 1, 2014. People buying coverage individually, as well as small businesses, will be able to shop for private coverage from a range of competing insurers.

Most Republican-led states, including large ones such as Texas and Florida, have been counting on the law to be overturned and have failed to do the considerable spade work needed to set up exchanges. There's a real question about whether they can meet the deadline, and if they don't, Washington will step in and run their exchanges for them.

In contrast to the states, health insurance companies, major employers, and big hospital systems are among the best prepared. Many of the changes called for in the law were already being demanded by employers trying to get better value for their private health insurance dollars.

"The main driver here is financial," said Dr. Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic, which has pioneered some of the changes. "The factors driving health care reform are not new, and they are not going to go away."

The Medicaid expansion would cover an estimated 17 million people who earn too much to qualify for assistance but not enough to afford insurance. The federal and state governments share the cost, and Washington regularly imposes conditions on the states in exchange for money.

Roberts said Congress' ability to impose those conditions has its limits. "In this case, the financial 'inducement' Congress has chosen is much more than 'relatively mild encouragement' - it is a gun to the head," he said.

The law says the Health and Human Services Department can withhold a state's entire Medicaid allotment if the state doesn't comply with the health care law's Medicaid provisions.

Even while ruling out that level of coercion, however, Roberts said nothing prevents the federal government from offering money to accomplish the expansion and withholding that money from states that don't meet certain conditions.

"What Congress is not free to do is to penalize states that choose not to participate in that new program by taking away their existing Medicaid funding," he said.

Ginsburg said the court should have upheld the entire law as written without forcing any changes in the Medicaid provision. She said Congress' constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce supports the individual mandate. She warned that the legal reasoning, even though the law was upheld, could cause trouble in future cases.

"So in the end, the Affordable Health Care Act survives largely unscathed. But the court's commerce clause and spending clause jurisprudence has been set awry. My expectation is that the setbacks will be temporary blips, not permanent obstructions," Ginsburg said in a statement she, too, read from the bench.

In the courtroom Thursday were retired Justice John Paul Stevens and the wives of Roberts, Alito, Breyer, Kennedy and Thomas.

---
Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Charles Babington, Jessica Gresko, Jesse J. Holland and David Espo contributed to this report.

PHOTOS: The battle over Obamacare

---
USEFUL LINKS:

FROM THE SUPREME COURT:

PDF: Text of Supreme Court ruling on health care

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Cases

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE:

White House on healthcare reform - www.whitehouse.gov/healthreform

FROM ABC NEWS:

Health care Supreme Court ruling topics page

Tweet your reaction on the Health Care ruling #HealthCareABC

---
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Story posted 2012.06.28 at 12:46 PM EDT

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video from fire at 33rd and Euclid St

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Fire at 33rd and Euclid St.

A fire broke out this morning on the 3300 block of Euclid St. In the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia. The fire department was called to scence at around 5:45AM,they arrived to smoke billowing of a third floor window. The fire was under control by 6:15 and no injuries were reported.

Texas man gets 40 years in stand-your-ground case

Texas man gets 40 years in stand-your-ground case

Raul Rodriguez weeps in the beginning of his trial at Harris County Criminal Courthouse on Monday, June 25, 2012, in Houston. Relatives of Rodriguez, who claimed Texas' version of a stand-your-ground law allowed him to fatally shoot a neighbor after an argument about a noisy party, told jurors Monday he was not an abusive person and always stressed the importance of gun safety. He faces up to life in prison for the 2010 killing of Kelly Danaher.

HOUSTON (AP) -- A man who claimed Texas' version of a stand-your-ground law allowed him to fatally shoot a neighbor after an argument about a noisy party was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years in prison for murder.

Raul Rodriguez, 46, had faced up to life in prison for the 2010 killing of Kelly Danaher. He will be eligible for parole in 20 years.

"I think it sends a clear message that this was not a case of stand your ground," prosecutor Kelli Johnson said of the sentence.

Rodriguez, a retired Houston-area firefighter, was angry about the noise coming from a birthday party at his neighbor's home. He went over and got into an argument with 36-year-old elementary school teacher Danaher and two other men at the party.

In a 22-minute video he recorded on the night of the shooting, Rodriguez can be heard telling a police dispatcher "my life is in danger now" and "these people are going to go try and kill me." He then said, "I'm standing my ground here," and fatally shot Danaher and wounded the other two men.

Rodriguez's reference to standing his ground is similar to the claim made by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who is citing Florida's stand-your-ground law in his defense in the fatal February shooting of an unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin. Rodriguez's case, however, was decided under a different kind of self-defense doctrine.

Defense attorney William Stradley said Rodriguez's family was disappointed with his sentence and that the case was tragic for everyone involved.

"He understands that what he's done is difficult and obviously if he could go back and change it he would," Stradley said.

Mindy Danaher, the wife of the man Rodriguez killed, said, "Nothing will be enough. It's not going to bring Kelly back. I just want (Rodriguez) to be in there forever."

Kelly Danaher's mother, Connie, read a statement in court in which she called Rodriguez a "hateful coward."

"Eternal fire and damnation is not enough for what you took from us," she said.

Prosecutors called Rodriguez the aggressor who took a gun to complain about loud music and could have safely left his neighbor's driveway in Huffman, an unincorporated area about 30 miles northeast of Houston, any time before the shooting. Defense attorneys argued Rodriguez was defending himself when one of the men lunged at him and he had less than a second to respond.

At trial, prosecutors tried to show Rodriguez had a history of not getting along with Danaher and other neighbors.

One neighbor testified that Rodriguez, who had a concealed handgun license, bragged about his guns and told her a person could avoid prosecution in a shooting by telling authorities you were in fear of your life and were standing your ground and defending yourself. During the trial's punishment phase, neighbors, former co-workers and Rodriguez's ex-wife testified that Rodriguez was abusive, a bad neighbor and that he once shot a dog.

Rodriguez's attorneys did not present any witnesses before the jury convicted him on June 13. But during the punishment phase, they called more than a dozen witnesses, including his wife and sons. They and other family members testified that he was not abusive, always stressed the importance of gun safety and that he was not cavalier with his weapons. One son said Rodriguez shot the dog because it was attacking his family.

Texas' version of a stand-your-ground law is known as the Castle Doctrine. It was revised in 2007 to expand the right to use deadly force. The new version allows people to defend themselves in their homes, workplaces or vehicles. It also says a person using force cannot provoke the attacker or be involved in criminal activity at the time.

Health ruling to end campaign mystery, unleash ads

Health ruling to end campaign mystery, unleash ads

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns at Electronic Instrumentation and Technology in Sterling, Va., Wednesday, June 27, 2012.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barely four months before the nation votes, one of the biggest factors in the fight for the White House still is a mystery. That will change on Thursday.

The Supreme Court's expected ruling on President Barack Obama's sweeping federal health care law will shape the contours of the presidential campaign through the summer and fall. Both Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are primed to use the ruling - whatever it is - for political gain.

Obama expresses confidence the court will uphold his signature legislative initiative. But he won't be shocked if a conservative majority overturns the most controversial provision, those familiar with his thinking say. Romney aides say the Republican candidate will get a political boost if the court strikes down the measure. But they don't want celebrations that could alienate voters who could lose health care benefits through the decision.

Neither candidate has any direct influence over the decision. The court may uphold the health care law, strike it down or deem the requirement that most Americans carry health insurance unconstitutional while keeping other aspects in place.

The ruling is expected to be followed almost immediately by a barrage of advertisements and fundraising appeals from Democrats and Republicans, with both sides trying to cast the decision in the most advantageous light for its candidate.

Romney, running on a pledge to repeal Obama's overhaul as a costly federal power grab, has focused more than usual on the Supreme Court ruling this week. In campaign appearances in Virginia, New Jersey and New York, he offered supporters and donors a preview of his likely response to the decision.

"My guess is they're not sleeping real well at the White House tonight," a confident Romney told cheering supporters gathered Wednesday evening at a Sterling, Va., electronics manufacturer.

The night before, he told donors in New Jersey that if the Supreme Court lets the law stand, "it will make it very clear to the American people that they must elect someone who will stop it." If the high court overturns the law, "then the first three and a half years of the Obama administration will have been entirely wasted, because that's where he devoted his energy and passion," the Republican said.

Romney's campaign also is running new ads this week in Virginia, North Carolina and Iowa promising he would move to "repeal Obamacare" on his first day in office.

Obama, while recently avoiding mentioning the impending court ruling directly, has vigorously defended the overhaul as critical to the public's health and well-being in his own campaign events this week.

"I think it was the right thing to do. I know it was the right thing to do," he told supporters in Boston.

The White House also published a blog post Wednesday touting the benefits of the overhaul, including free preventive services for people on Medicare and health insurance rebates for nearly 13 million Americans.

Both Obama and Romney were scheduled to be in Washington on Thursday. Romney planned to comment on the ruling during an event on Capitol Hill, and Obama was certain to address the decision as well.

Obama advisers say the Supreme Court showed reasonableness earlier this week in a ruling on an Arizona immigration case, and they see it as a hopeful sign for how the court might rule on health care.

If the court upholds the law, Obama could get an election year gust of wind at his back, with his vision and leadership validated. If the court strikes down the overhaul, the White House would seek to cast the decision as detrimental to millions of Americans by highlighting popular elements of the law that would disappear, such as preventive care and coverage for young adults on a parent's plan.

Romney, who as Massachusetts governor signed a health care law on which the Obama's federal law was modeled, is expected to use the health care law - or what remains of it - as a defining issue going forward in the presidential contest, regardless of which way the court's ruling goes.

Aides say that that Romney will hold up the law either as a symbol of Obama's ineffective leadership or as federal overreach that only the Republican can stop.

The campaign has coordinated its response directly with the Republican National Committee and House Republicans, who have agreed not to "spike the ball" - as one Republican put it - should the law be struck down. Romney's campaign worries that an over-celebratory tone may turn off voters affected by the decision.

Still, both sides will use it to raise money and motivate supporters. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee issued a fundraising appeal for a "health care rapid response fund," telling supporters in an email Wednesday that however the court rules, "Democrats are in for a tough fight."

A flood of advertisements is also expected from outside groups. The conservative group called Concerned Women for America pre-emptively launched a six-state, $6 million advertising campaign this week claiming Obama's overhaul results in delayed and denied care, as well as skyrocketing costs.

Beam strikes 4 World Trade Center, breaking glass

A crane lifting a beam struck several floors at 4 World Trade causing windows to shatter, said FDNY officials.

Pedestrians below were sent running for cover late Wednesday morning.

Glass and debris rained down on the area near the 9/11 memorial park.  No injuries were reported.

The 9/11 Memorial posted a message on its website apologizing for the closure. It suggested that people who were scheduled to visit on Wednesday reschedule their visit.

The final steel beam at 4 World Trade Center was raised earlier this week.

On Tuesday, a worker was seriously hurt at the WTC construction site when he was impaled on some rebar, said FDNY officials.

The 37-year-old man fell about four to five feet.

The worker suffered a puncture wound on the left side of his torso by the two inch thick rebar.

Medics brought the worker to Bellevue Medical Center where he was listed in serious condition.

If you have photos from the scene you can email them to fox5video@gmail.com .

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Story posted 2012.06.27 at 02:50 PM EDT

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Man says refusal to sell cigarettes discriminatory

A man who tried to buy cigarettes using a state-issued public assistance card said Wednesday he felt discriminated against when a clerk refused to sell to him.

Clerk Jackie Whiton said she was fired from the Big Apple convenience store after refusing to sell cigarettes to the man, who was using an EBT card, an electronic benefit card used to distribute state benefits for low-income residents that functions like a debit card.

Her story has drawn national attention.

"People all over the country have been talking about it, and I have had calls as far away as Arizona," she said.

Whiton said she is glad her actions brought attention to the issue.

"When your states, towns and country are in debt, this is one good reason why," she said.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, there are no restrictions in New Hampshire or any other state on how the cash on an EBT card can be used. The man who tried to buy the cigarettes, and who asked that his identity not be revealed, said Whiton was in the wrong.

"When you work with the public, you need to put on a smile and curb your views, and the store accepted it, but I wasn't even given a chance to use it," he said.

The man said the refusal was embarrassing, but he didn't make a fuss in the store. Instead, he called Whiton's district manager and complained.

"Clearly, I was in the right, because she was fired," he said.

A person receiving benefits may get both food stamps and cash, both of which can be tracked on an EBT card. Food stamps must be used for food, but the cash can be used for anything. The man said he gets no more than $$34 per month.

"I barely qualify for it, and for me to use the few dollars I get on cigarettes, that's considered a treat," he said.

He called Whiton's actions discrimination, an accusation to which Whiton said she had no response.

"No I do not," she said. "I wouldn't waste my breath."

House Speaker Bill O'Brien said he doesn't agree with how EBT cards can be used and plans to file legislation next session to add restrictions. DHHS officials said attempting to implement controls on how the cash can be used would be expensive and complicated. They noted that the cash benefit can be withdrawn from the card as cash at an ATM, making restricting its use impossible.

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Story posted 2012.06.27 at 06:17 PM EDT

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Baltimore detective charged with perjury

A Baltimore City police homicide detective has been charged with perjury Wednesday regarding an incident in January 2011, according to court documents.

Detective Anthony N. Fata faces four criminal charges, including misconduct and lying to get workers' compensation benefits.

Fata claims he was attacked while getting something from his car. At the time, police reported Fata wrestled with the assailant, described only as a black man, and was shot and wounded before the assailant fled.

The shooting happened at a garage at Water and Frederick streets, just a few blocks from the Inner Harbor.

Prosecutors charged Fata with lying about the incident. Court documents show Fata is accused of falsifying the story in testimony he gave to the Workers' Compensation Commission as he apparently tried to use the shooting to get benefits.

Fata is also charged with two counts of misconduct.

Shortly after the shooting last year, WBAL-TV 11 News reported there were questions about what Fata had claimed.

Despite intense investigation, little in the way of physical evidence was found to substantiate the presence of another person.

Fata was in the news before 10 years ago when city police officers were caught on tape confronting rowdy Preakness fans. Fata was seen on video punching a fan in the face.

Fata's career survived that incident.

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Story posted 2012.06.27 at 12:17 PM EDT

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Christian group backs away from ex-gay therapy

Christian group backs away from ex-gay therapy

FILE - In this Thursday, May 11, 2006 file photo, Alan Chambers, left, president of Exodus International, sits with his wife, Leslie, in their home in Winter Park, Fla. The president of the country's best-known Christian ministry dedicated to helping people repress same-sex attraction through prayer is trying to distance the group from the idea that gay people's sexual orientation can be permanently changed or "cured." Chambers said Tuesday, June 26, 2012 that their upcoming national conference would highlight his efforts to dissociate the group from the controversial practice usually called ex-gay, reparative or conversion therapy.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The president of the country's best-known Christian ministry dedicated to helping people repress same-sex attraction through prayer is trying to distance the group from the idea that gay people's sexual orientation can be permanently changed or "cured."

That's a significant shift for Exodus International, the 36-year-old Orlando-based group that boasts 260 member ministries around the U.S. and world. For decades, it has offered to help conflicted Christians rid themselves of unwanted homosexual inclinations through counseling and prayer, infuriating gay rights activists in the process.

This week, 600 Exodus ministers and followers are gathering for the group's annual conference, held this year in a Minneapolis suburb. The group's president, Alan Chambers, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the conference would highlight his efforts to dissociate the group from the controversial practice usually called ex-gay, reparative or conversion therapy.

"I do not believe that cure is a word that is applicable to really any struggle, homosexuality included," said Chambers, who is married to a woman and has children, but speaks openly about his own sexual attraction to men. "For someone to put out a shingle and say, `I can cure homosexuality' - that to me is as bizarre as someone saying they can cure any other common temptation or struggle that anyone faces on Planet Earth."

Chambers has cleared books endorsing ex-gay therapy from the Exodus online bookstore in recent months. He said he's also worked to stop member ministries from espousing it.

Chambers said the ministry's emphasis should be simply helping Christians who want to reconcile their own particular religious beliefs with sexual feelings they consider an affront to scripture. For some that might mean celibacy; for others, like Chambers, it meant finding an understanding opposite-sex partner.

"I consider myself fortunate to be in the best marriage I know," Chambers said. "It's an amazing thing, yet I do have same-sex attractions. Those things don't overwhelm me or my marriage; they are something that informs me like any other struggle I might bring to the table."

Exodus has seen its influence wane in recent decades, as mainstream associations representing psychiatrists and psychologists have relegated reparative therapy to crackpot status. But Exodus and groups like it continue to influence many evangelicals and fundamentalists, and gay rights activists said the damage they inflict on individuals can be deep and lasting.

"We appreciate any step toward open, transparent honesty that will do less harm to people," said Wayne Besen, a Vermont-based activist who has worked to discredit ex-gay therapy. "But the underlying belief is still that homosexuals are sexually broken, that something underlying is broken and needs to be fixed. That's incredibly harmful, it scars people."

The cultural battle over ex-gay therapy drew national attention last year, after an activist with Besen's group, "Truth Wins Out," went undercover in a counseling clinic co-owned by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, at the time a GOP presidential contender, and run by her husband, Marcus. The activist, John Becker, released footage seeming to show a counselor at the Minnesota clinic offering to help him overcome homosexual urges.

In earlier interviews, Marcus Bachmann had denied his practice seeks to "cure" gay people but said it was open to patients who wanted to talk about their homosexuality.

Besen said Truth Wins Out is unveiling a campaign this week to encourage lawmakers in all 50 states to ban reparative therapy from being performed on minors. The California state Senate passed a bill to do that last month, and Besen said similar legislation is likely to be introduced soon in at least three other states.

While Exodus has officially shied away from reparative therapy, the practice still has adherents.

"To hold out the idea that one's homosexual attractions can diminish, that the possibility of heterosexual attractions coming forth over a period of time - those things are possible," said David Pruden, chief operating officer with the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, a professional association made up of about 2,000 therapists and others who still espouse such treatments.

Chambers acknowledged some Exodus affiliates might still offer reparative therapy. But he said "99.9 percent" of people he's encountered in two decades with Exodus were not able to completely rid themselves of same-sex attraction. He believes the organization must be honest about that when people come looking for help.

"I guess I'd like to see some sort of apology from leaders of Exodus for all the people they misled," said Jeffry Ford, a St. Paul psychologist who worked for an Exodus-linked group in the 1970s and `80s before splitting with his wife, coming out and strongly disavowing his past work.

Ford and other gay activists have planned a Thursday news conference to criticize Exodus for holding its conference in Minnesota just months before a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage.

"These kinds of conferences help put fears in the world about what it means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender," said Monica Meyer, executive director of OutFront Minnesota, the state's chief gay rights group. "For people who are questioning or LGBT, it sends them a message that there's something wrong with them."

Chambers said the timing is coincidental and Exodus isn't looking to influence Minnesota voters. While the group holds that any sexual activity outside a heterosexual marriage is sinful, he said he wants Exodus to disengage from politics.

"For those that don't hold to the same Biblical ethic that I do, I think there's room for further discussion without a culture war that has really served no one," Chambers said. "I think it's time for us in the church to move on from that fight."