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by KYW's Lynne Adkins
The Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross on Friday morning honored more than a dozen local heroes who used their skills to help others, at an event in the Horticultural Center of Fairmount Park.
Among them was 
What was going through his mind at the time?
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by KYW's Tony Hanson
A Philadelphia Revenue Department employee has been charged with bribery following a law enforcement sting, after the employee allegedly tried to shake down a city contractor.
The contractor notified councilman Jack Kelly, who contacted the district attorney. DA Seth Williams says revenue employee Mark Holt was then caught trying to extort cash for approval of a city service:
"As a result of that, we conducted an undercover operation, a sting operation, using a county detective assigned to the district attorney's office, who met with the revenue employee. The revenue employee demanded cash for the abatement certificate, at which time we arrested the individual."
The target allegedly accepted an envelope containing close to $5,000 cash and was arrested.
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by KYW's John McDevitt
The box -- with camera underneath and flashing blue lights above -- is suspended on a utility pole and has a Philadelphia Police insignia is on the side. The bright blue light blinks day and night.
Lisa (no last name given) lives in a second-floor apartment close to the device. She says she can't get away from the flashing lights:
For full story go to:
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| Ben Curtis watches his tee shot on the 18th hole during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament at Bay Hill in Orlando, Fla., Friday, March 26, 2009. |
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- For players wondering what it will be like to play golf with Tiger Woods when he returns, Ben Curtis can speak from experience.
Curtis, a member at Lake Nona, decided to practice at Isleworth two weeks ago and wound up playing 18 holes with Woods.
"He was a bit rusty," Curtis said with a grin.
Several players have been asked if it will be awkward to first see Woods on the golf course or to play with him when he returns to golf in two weeks at the Masters, his first competition since revelations of a sex scandal made him tabloid fodder for months.
"Everybody that tells you that it was the same as before would be kidding themselves," Curtis said Friday after a 67 left him in a tie for the lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. "It was obviously a little bit different. When I saw him, no one had actually really seen him in public."
Curtis said he never really spent much time with Woods except for times they were in the same group.
"I didn't know him that well before, anyway," Curtis said. "But I could see where some of the guys that might have known him pretty well - like Mark O'Meara - it might be a little bit different for them now than it was before. But I don't know. That's hard to say. I try to just treat it as we are just going out there and playing golf and just having some fun."
Curtis said Woods appeared to be nervous, perhaps because it might have been his first time playing with a PGA Tour colleague. They were joined by Steve Johnson, the swing coach for Curtis and a disciple of Hank Haney, and a friend of Woods that Curtis did not recognize.
He said when he saw Woods a week later, he seemed more relaxed in the company of other players.
Curtis said neither kept score, and their chatter was strictly golf.
Curtis won the British Open in 2003 at Royal St. George's, where Woods finished two shots behind in a tie for fourth. Curtis sank about a 10-foot par putt on the final hole, and was on the practice range waiting for everyone else to finish when he learned he had won.
"He said I made everything, but I only made one putt that one day," Curtis said. "He seems to think I make everything, but he hasn't seen me putt all year, either."
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| Actor Dennis Hopper is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday, March 26, 2010, in Los Angeles. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Dennis Hopper is a permanent part of Hollywood.
Bandaged and looking frail, the 73-year-old actor and filmmaker was honored Friday with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
Hopper, who is suffering from prostate cancer, appeared gaunt and was helped to the stage by a friend. The actor explained that his bandages were the result of a fall Thursday outside his home.
Surrounded by his family, Hopper thanked Hollywood for being "my home and my schooling."
Jack Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen, David Lynch and Dwight Yoakam were among the luminaries on hand to honor their friend and colleague.
Hundreds of camera-toting spectators lined Hollywood Boulevard for the 30-minute ceremony. Hopper's star is in front of the Egyptian Theatre.
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by KYW's Mark Abrams
A rally to oppose Mayor Nutter’s proposed tax on sugary drinks, including soda and chocolate milk, was being staged at noon Wednesday on Dilworth Plaza outside City Hall.
Representatives from the Teamsters' union, the beverage industry, convenience stores, bars and taverns were set to protest the mayor’s proposal to impose a two-cents-an-ounce tax on soda, sports drinks, and other beverages with added sugar to plug a $150-million gap in the city budget.
Teamsters' Union Local 830 president Danny Grace is leading the protest. His union represents drivers for the beverage industry. The union and the beverage distributers claim the tax would drastically cut sales and result in heavy job losses for the area.
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The Franklin Institute science museum is launching two new continuing exhibits on Saturday -- "Changing Earth" and "Electricity."
Changing Earth (above) shows how people and nature interact on a daily basis. Lots of interactives. Steve Synder is director of exhibits and development for the Franklin Institute:
"We have a changeable stream table; it let's you create a river, put in dams, create blockades, make new streams, create your own version of the Schuylkill, if you will, and see what happens as you make those changes."
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by KYW's Hadas Kuznits
Soda delivery trucks drove slowly around City Hall as the teamsters and beverage employees like Kevin Smith protested the mayor's tax on sugared beverages:
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http://www.kyw1060.com/
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| This picture provided on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 by the Monroe County Democratic Committee in Rochester, N.Y. shows damage to their office after a glass door was struck with a brick with a note reading "Exremism in Defense of Liberty Is no Vice" sometime from late Saturday, March 20, 2010 or Sunday, March 21, 2010. Bricks have been hurled through Democrats' windows, a propane line was cut at the home of a congressman's brother and lawmakers who voted for a federal health care bill have received phone threats in the days before and after passage of the sweeping legislation. |
Unrest over sweeping federal health care legislation has turned to vandalism and threats, with bricks hurled through Democrats' windows, a propane line cut at the home of a congressman's brother and menacing phone messages left for lawmakers who supported the bill.
The FBI is investigating the instances, which include shattered windows at four Democratic offices in New York, Arizona and Kansas. At least 10 members of Congress have reported some sort of threat as of Wednesday, and no arrests have been made.
The brick flung through the window of a county Democratic Party office in Rochester, N.Y., over the weekend had a note attached: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice," roughly quoting 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
A New York congresswoman whose office window also was smashed with a brick accused the Republican leadership of failing to denounce attacks against lawmakers who supported the legislation. The vandalism was at Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls early Friday, two days before the House passed the health care overhaul bill.
"It's more disturbing to me that Republican leadership has not condemned these attacks and instead appears to be fanning the flames with coded rhetoric," said Slaughter, a key supporter of the bill.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said in a statement that while many Americans are angry over the bill's passage, "violence and threats are unacceptable."
"That's not the American way," Boehner said. "We need to take that anger and channel it into positive change."
The FBI and Capitol Police were briefing Democratic lawmakers on how to handle perceived security threats, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Those who feel they are at risk will be "getting attention from the proper authorities," Hoyer said, declining to say whether any are receiving extra security. Normally only those in leadership positions have personal security guards.
At a news conference in Washington, Hoyer said people have yelled that Democratic lawmakers should be put on firing lines and posters have appeared with the faces of lawmakers in the cross hairs of a target.
While not directly criticizing Republicans, Hoyer said that "any show of appreciation for such actions encourages such action."
Gun imagery was used in a posting on the Facebook page of Sarah Palin urging people to organize against 20 House Democrats who voted for the health care bill and whose districts went for the John McCain-Palin ticket two years ago. Palin's post featured a U.S. map with circles and cross hairs over the 20 districts.
Some of the anger over the bill spilled over in a flood of obscenity and threat-filled phone and fax messages to the office of Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. His office released some of the messages it has received since the health care bill passed, declining to add further comment.
"I hope you bleed ... (get) cancer and die," one male caller told the congressman between curses.
A fax with the title "Defecating on Stupak" carried a picture of a gallows with "Bart (SS) Stupak" on it and a noose attached. It was captioned, "All Baby Killers come to unseemly ends Either by the hand of man or by the hand of God."
The vandalism and threats surprised a researcher at a think tank that monitors extremist groups.
"I think it is astounding that we are seeing this wave of vigilantism," said Mark Potok of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.
In Virginia, someone cut a propane line leading to a grill at the Charlottesville home of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello's brother after the address was posted online by activists angry about the health care overhaul. Perriello also said a threatening letter was sent to his brother's house. The FBI and local authorities were investigating.
Tea party activists had posted the brother's address online thinking it was the congressman's home. The post urged opponents to drop by and "express their thanks" for the Democrat's vote in favor of the sweeping health care reform.
Nigel Coleman, chairman of the Danville Tea Party, said he re-posted the comment that originated on another conservative blog, including the address, Monday on his Facebook page. The posts were taken down after the mistake was discovered.
"We've never been associated with any violence or any vandalism," he said. "We're definitely sorry that we posted the incorrect address."
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who has filed a lawsuit challenging the health care overhaul and is a favorite of the Tea Party, said for activists to post an address of Perriello's family shows that things are going too far.
"That is way over the line," he said. "It's not civil discourse, it's an invitation to intimidation and it's totally unacceptable."
Potok compared the online posting of a public official's address to tactics used by hate groups.
"This is what neo Nazi leaders in America do today," Potok said. "They post personal information about their enemies and sit back and wait for somebody else to act."
Lyndsay Stauble, executive director of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party in Wichita, Kan., said a brick was hurled through the party's storefront plate glass window late Friday or early Saturday, landing in her office and gouging her wooden desk.
She said that written in marker on the brick were the slogans, "No to Obama" and "No Obamycare."
"The tone is not surprising, but the aggressiveness is," Stauble said Wednesday. "I'm not shocked that people are not reacting well to a large piece of legislation passed by a president that they don't like."
In Tucson, Ariz., someone either kicked in or shot out a glass door and a side window at the congressional office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords early Monday, a few hours after the House health care vote. Giffords voted for the bill.
Giffords' press secretary C.J. Karamargin in Tucson said the vandalism left the local congressional staff shaken and worried.
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| In this photo from video, Tiger Woods responds to questions during an interview with Golf Channel broadcaster Kelly Tilghman that aired on the Golf Channel on Sunday, March 21, 2010, at Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Fla. Woods answered questions on camera for the first time since his early morning car crash last November and the sex scandal that cost him sponsors and fans. |
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Tiger Woods will speak before he plays in the Masters.
Woods is scheduled to hold his first press conference in nearly five months at 2 p.m. on Monday, April 5, according to a tentative interview schedule that Augusta National released Wednesday.
It will be his first press conference in nearly five months, and his first time facing a room full of reporters since he crashed his SUV into a tree on Nov. 27, setting off shocking revelations of rampant infidelity.
The Masters only recently began conducting a press conference on Monday of tournament week, usually a player with only moderate news interest because most of the media isn't there yet.
Woods is the only player scheduled for an interview that day. Given the sensational nature of his downfall, what he says could trump the NCAA basketball championship game held later that night.
Arnold Palmer, one of the most popular players in golf history, suggested that Woods be more open with reporters.
"It's up to him to do and say whatever he feels he needs to do to redeem the situation, put it in the proper place," Palmer said. " ... I suppose the best thing he could do would be open up and just let you guys shoot at him. And that's just my thought."
The last time Woods held a press conference was Nov. 15 after he won the Australian Masters in Melbourne for his 82nd career victory. His middle-of-the-night accident occurred 12 days later.
Woods typically has his press conference at the majors on Tuesday.
Among those scheduled to speak the day after Woods are Phil Mickelson, Geoff Ogilvy and Jack Nicklaus.
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| FILE - This May 5, 2002 file photo shows Robert Culp arriving at NBC's 75th anniversary celebration in New York. Culp, the versatile actor who teamed with Bill Cosby in the groundbreaking comedy-adventure TV series "I Spy" and was Bob in the critically acclaimed sex comedy "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," died Wednesday March 24, 2010. He was 79. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Robert Culp, the actor who teamed with Bill Cosby in the racially groundbreaking TV series "I Spy" and was Bob in the critically acclaimed sex comedy "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," died Wednesday after collapsing outside his Hollywood home, his manager said. Culp was 79.
Manager Hillard Elkins said the actor was on a walk when he fell. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead just before noon. The actor's son was told he died of a heart attack, Elkins said, though police were unsure if the fall was medically related.
Los Angeles police Lt. Robert Binder said no foul play was suspected. Binder said a jogger found Culp, who apparently fell and struck his head.
"I Spy" greatly advanced the careers of Culp and Cosby and forged a lifelong friendship. Cosby said Wednesday Culp was like an older brother to him.
"The first born in every family is always dreaming of the older brother or sister he or she doesn't have, to protect, to be the buffer, provide the wisdom, shoulder the blows and make things right," he said. "Bob was the answer to my dreams.
"No matter how many mistakes I made on 'I Spy,' he was always there to teach and protect me," Cosby said.
Candace Culp, the actor's ex-wife, said she was devastated.
"He was a wonderful, creative man who contributed so much to his business, as an actor, as a writer, as a director," she said.
Robert Culp lately had been working on writing screenplays, Elkins said.
"I Spy," which aired from 1965 to 1968, was a television milestone in more ways than one. Its combination of humor and adventure broke new ground, and it was the first integrated television show to feature a black actor in a starring role.
Culp played Kelly Robinson, a spy whose cover was that of an ace tennis player. (In real life, Culp actually was a top-notch tennis player who showed his skills in numerous celebrity tournaments.). Cosby was fellow spy Alexander Scott, whose cover was that of Culp's trainer. The pair traveled the world in the service of the U.S. government.
Culp followed "I Spy" with his most prestigious film role, in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." The work of first-time director Paul Mazursky, who also co-wrote the screenplay, lampooned the lifestyles of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Bob and Carol (Culp and Natalie Wood) were the innocent ones who were introduced to wife-swapping by their best friends, Ted and Alice (Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon).
Culp also had starring roles in such films as "The Castaway Cowboy," "Golden Girl," "Turk 182!" and "Big Bad Mama II."
His teaming with Cosby, however, was likely his best remembered role.
Cosby won Emmys for actor in a leading role all three years that "I Spy" aired, and Culp, who was nominated for the same award each year, said he was never jealous.
"I was the proudest man around," he said in a 1977 interview.
Both he and Cosby were involved in civil rights causes, and when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 the pair traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to join the striking garbage workers King had been organizing.
Culp and Cosby also costarred in the 1972 movie "Hickey and Boggs," which Culp also directed. This time they were hard-luck private detectives who encountered multiple deaths. Audiences who had enjoyed the lightheartedness of "I Spy" were disappointed, and the movie flopped at the box office.
"His proudest moments were when he was writing and directing 'I Spy' and 'Hickey and Boggs,'" Cosby said. "Bob was meticulous and committed."
After years of talking up the idea, they finally re-teamed in 1994 for a two-hour CBS movie, "I Spy Returns."
In his first movie role Culp played one of John Kennedy's crew in "PT 109."
His first starring TV series, "Trackdown" (1957-1959) was a Western based partly on files of the Texas Rangers. In the 1980s, he starred as an FBI agent in the fantasy "The Greatest American Hero."
He remained active in movies and TV. Among his notable later performances was as a U.S. president in 1993's "The Pelican Brief." More recently, he had a recurring role as Patricia Heaton's father in the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond" and appeared in such shows as "Robot Chicken," "Chicago Hope" and an episode of "Cosby."
Robert Martin Culp, born in 1930 in Oakland, led a peripatetic existence as a college student, attending College of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., Washington University in St. Louis and San Francisco State College before landing at the University of Washington drama school.
Then at age 21, a semester removed from his degree, he moved to New York, where he began landing roles in off-Broadway plays. One of them was in "He Who Gets Slapped."
"I saw it in college in Seattle, and I said, `My God, that's my part, that's my part,'" he once told an interviewer. After he won the role in a Greenwich Village production "the floodgates opened," he said.
Good reviews and an Obie award led to offers from Hollywood.
Culp was married five times, to Nancy Ashe, Elayne Wilner, France Nuyen, Sheila Sullivan and Candace Culp. He had four children with Ashe and one with Candace Culp.
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| This picture provided on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 by the Monroe County Democratic Committee in Rochester, N.Y. shows damage to their office after a glass door was struck with a brick with a note reading "Exremism in Defense of Liberty Is no Vice" sometime from late Saturday, March 20, 2010 or Sunday, March 21, 2010. Bricks have been hurled through Democrats' windows, a propane line was cut at the home of a congressman's brother and lawmakers who voted for a federal health care bill have received phone threats in the days before and after passage of the sweeping legislation. |
Unrest over sweeping federal health care legislation has turned to vandalism and threats, with bricks hurled through Democrats' windows, a propane line cut at the home of a congressman's brother and menacing phone messages left for lawmakers who supported the bill.
The FBI is investigating the instances, which include shattered windows at four Democratic offices in New York, Arizona and Kansas. At least 10 members of Congress have reported some sort of threat as of Wednesday, and no arrests have been made.
The brick flung through the window of a county Democratic Party office in Rochester, N.Y., over the weekend had a note attached: "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice," roughly quoting 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
A New York congresswoman whose office window also was smashed with a brick accused the Republican leadership of failing to denounce attacks against lawmakers who supported the legislation. The vandalism was at Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter's district office in Niagara Falls early Friday, two days before the House passed the health care overhaul bill.
"It's more disturbing to me that Republican leadership has not condemned these attacks and instead appears to be fanning the flames with coded rhetoric," said Slaughter, a key supporter of the bill.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said in a statement that while many Americans are angry over the bill's passage, "violence and threats are unacceptable."
"That's not the American way," Boehner said. "We need to take that anger and channel it into positive change."
The FBI and Capitol Police were briefing Democratic lawmakers on how to handle perceived security threats, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Those who feel they are at risk will be "getting attention from the proper authorities," Hoyer said, declining to say whether any are receiving extra security. Normally only those in leadership positions have personal security guards.
At a news conference in Washington, Hoyer said people have yelled that Democratic lawmakers should be put on firing lines and posters have appeared with the faces of lawmakers in the cross hairs of a target.
While not directly criticizing Republicans, Hoyer said that "any show of appreciation for such actions encourages such action."
Gun imagery was used in a posting on the Facebook page of Sarah Palin urging people to organize against 20 House Democrats who voted for the health care bill and whose districts went for the John McCain-Palin ticket two years ago. Palin's post featured a U.S. map with circles and cross hairs over the 20 districts.
Some of the anger over the bill spilled over in a flood of obscenity and threat-filled phone and fax messages to the office of Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. His office released some of the messages it has received since the health care bill passed, declining to add further comment.
"I hope you bleed ... (get) cancer and die," one male caller told the congressman between curses.
A fax with the title "Defecating on Stupak" carried a picture of a gallows with "Bart (SS) Stupak" on it and a noose attached. It was captioned, "All Baby Killers come to unseemly ends Either by the hand of man or by the hand of God."
The vandalism and threats surprised a researcher at a think tank that monitors extremist groups.
"I think it is astounding that we are seeing this wave of vigilantism," said Mark Potok of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.
In Virginia, someone cut a propane line leading to a grill at the Charlottesville home of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello's brother after the address was posted online by activists angry about the health care overhaul. Perriello also said a threatening letter was sent to his brother's house. The FBI and local authorities were investigating.
Tea party activists had posted the brother's address online thinking it was the congressman's home. The post urged opponents to drop by and "express their thanks" for the Democrat's vote in favor of the sweeping health care reform.
Nigel Coleman, chairman of the Danville Tea Party, said he re-posted the comment that originated on another conservative blog, including the address, Monday on his Facebook page. The posts were taken down after the mistake was discovered.
"We've never been associated with any violence or any vandalism," he said. "We're definitely sorry that we posted the incorrect address."
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who has filed a lawsuit challenging the health care overhaul and is a favorite of the Tea Party, said for activists to post an address of Perriello's family shows that things are going too far.
"That is way over the line," he said. "It's not civil discourse, it's an invitation to intimidation and it's totally unacceptable."
Potok compared the online posting of a public official's address to tactics used by hate groups.
"This is what neo Nazi leaders in America do today," Potok said. "They post personal information about their enemies and sit back and wait for somebody else to act."
Lyndsay Stauble, executive director of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party in Wichita, Kan., said a brick was hurled through the party's storefront plate glass window late Friday or early Saturday, landing in her office and gouging her wooden desk.
She said that written in marker on the brick were the slogans, "No to Obama" and "No Obamycare."
"The tone is not surprising, but the aggressiveness is," Stauble said Wednesday. "I'm not shocked that people are not reacting well to a large piece of legislation passed by a president that they don't like."
In Tucson, Ariz., someone either kicked in or shot out a glass door and a side window at the congressional office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords early Monday, a few hours after the House health care vote. Giffords voted for the bill.
Giffords' press secretary C.J. Karamargin in Tucson said the vandalism left the local congressional staff shaken and worried.
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| President Barack Obama signs the health care bill, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Claiming a historic triumph that could define his presidency, a jubilant Barack Obama signed a massive, nearly $1 trillion health care overhaul on Tuesday that will for the first time cement insurance coverage as the right of every U.S. citizen and begin to reshape the way virtually all Americans receive and pay for treatment.
After more than a year of hyperpartisan struggle - and numerous near-death moments for the measure - Obama declared "a new season in America" as he sealed a victory denied to a line of presidents stretching back more than half a century. Democratic lawmakers cheered him on, giving the White House signing ceremony a rally-like atmosphere as they shouted and snapped photos with pocket cameras or cell phones.
Not everyone was cheering. The Democrats pushed the bill through Congress without GOP support, and the Republicans said Tuesday that those Democratic lawmakers would pay dearly in this November's elections. Opinion polls show the public remains skeptical, too, and Obama will fly to Iowa on Thursday for the first of a number of appearances that will be more like a continuing sales job than a victory lap.
Aside from the huge, real-life changes in store for many Americans, the White House hopes the victory - even as a companion Senate "fix-it" bill moves through the Senate - will revitalize an Obama presidency that has been all but preoccupied with health care for his first year and two months in office. Vice President Joe Biden was caught whispering a profanity as he exclaimed to the president what a big deal it was.
Indeed, the reshaping of one-sixth of the U.S. economy, to be phased in over several years, ranks among the biggest changes ever devised by Washington. That was a main complaint from Republicans who characterize the measure as a costly, wrongheaded government power grab. Obama and the Democrats portray it as literally a lifesaver for countless Americans.
The core of the massive law is the extension of health care coverage to 32 million who now lack it, a goal to be achieved through a complex cocktail of new mandates for individuals and employers, subsidies for people who can't afford to buy coverage on their own, consumer-friendly rules clamped on insurers, tax breaks, and marketplaces to shop for health plans.
The law's most far-reaching changes don't kick in until 2014, including a requirement that most Americans carry health insurance - whether through an employer, a government program or their own purchase - or pay a fine. To make that a reality, tax credits to help cover the cost of premiums will start flowing to middle-class families and Medicaid will be expanded to cover more low-income people. Insurers would no longer be allowed to deny coverage to people with health problems.
Among the new rules on insurance companies that take effect this year are banning lifetime dollar limits on policies and policy cancellations when someone gets sick. Insurers also will have to allow parents to keep children on their plans up to age 26. But a much-touted provision to protect children in poor health has a gap. Insurers would still be able to deny new coverage to kids with health problems until 2014, although they could no longer refuse to pay for a particular condition once the child is covered.
The changes are to be paid for with cuts in projected government payment increases to hospitals, insurance companies and others under Medicare and other health programs, an increase in the Medicare payroll tax for some, fees on insurance companies, drug makers and medical device manufacturers, a new excise tax on high-value insurance plans and a tax on indoor tanning services.
For seniors, the plan will gradually close the "doughnut hole" prescription coverage gap and improve preventive care. But it also will cut funding for popular private insurance plans offered through Medicare Advantage. About one-quarter of seniors have signed up for such plans, which generally offer lower out-of-pocket costs.
Democrats, led by Obama, celebrated a "new wind at our backs" from an achievement accomplished after more than a year of high tension and deep division - stretching back to shouted protests that interrupted lawmakers' town hall meetings on the subject last summer. Obama signed the measure less than two days after the cliffhanger final House vote in a rare Sunday night session.
"Our presence here today is remarkable and improbable," Obama said, his grin wider than any in recent memory. "With all the punditry, all of the lobbying, all the game-playing that passes for governing in Washington, it's been easy at times to doubt our ability to do such a big thing, such a complicated thing."
At a second celebration later, he said, "After a century of striving, after a year of debate, after a historic vote, health care reform is no longer an unmet promise. It is the law of the land."
The president now faces the task of selling to the public a bill that satisfies neither side of the political spectrum.
Liberals bemoan that a government-run plan to compete with private ones was shed from the legislation during bitter negotiations. Conservatives fear an expansion of government and costs they say will bankrupt the country, despite an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that the law will cut federal budget deficits by an estimated $143 billion over a decade.
Obama's explanatory hurdle is not an easy one, given the law's multilayered provisions and timetables. A bumper-sticker slogan it is not. But he must help protect the Democrats - particularly those from conservative-leaning districts - who stand to suffer in the fall elections from their votes.
Republicans face a challenge as well. Aware of traditional American suspicions of government intrusion, they cast themselves throughout the process as against major changes. They now must explain to voters impatient for action in Washington why nothing was their best choice.
In a hint of the coming Republican line of argument, Sens. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said the new law would push the United States to a "European-style" government.
More than a dozen Republican senators introduced legislation to repeal the law that Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said would "force taxpayer funding of abortions, raise health costs, hike taxes, cut Medicare, raid Social Security and put bureaucrats between patients and their doctors."
"Repeal and replace," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters.
And attorneys general from 13 states acted on their opposition immediately, filing suit to stop the overhaul just minutes after the bill signing. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum took the lead in the lawsuit that contends the legislation is unconstitutional, joined by colleagues from South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota, Louisiana, Idaho, Washington and Colorado. Other GOP attorneys general may join the lawsuit later or sue separately.
Obama made clear that the Republican offensive will not go unanswered. His larger, second event, held in a vast Interior Department auditorium, had a more combative feel. He accused Republicans of telling "lies."
"Those fighting change are still out there, still making a lot of noise about what this reform means," he said. "Look it up for yourself."
Starting with a Thursday trip to Iowa City, where as a presidential candidate he announced his health care plan in May 2007, Obama intends to emphasize the law's most immediate impacts, including the ability of young adults to remain on their parents' health plans and a ban on insurers denying coverage to sick children.
Even as the celebration proceeded in Washington, Congress labored to complete the overhaul with a companion measure containing changes demanded as a condition of House Democrats' approval. The Senate was poised to consider that bill, with Democratic leaders hoping for its completion by week's end.
"We are going to make a good law signed by the president even better," Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declared on the Senate floor.
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by KYW's Tony Hanson
Pennsylvania state senator Anthony Williams has pledged to work to restore cuts to the successful Philadelphia Gun Task Force, whose budget was cut this past year from $5 million to $3 million.
Officials say the gun task force has made more than 400 arrests and recovered nearly 800 guns, including assault weapons that were on display (above) as Sen. Williams talked of restoring the cut funds and actually expanding the program elsewhere in Pennsylvania:
"The last time I checked, my local police officer, he or she, did not have the ability to fight somebody on the streets of Philadelphia with these armaments -- not one. What they are able to do through the work of this illegal (guns) task force is to get these armaments off the street before they attack another police officer, another senior citizen, another child."
For full story go to:
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by KYW's Paul Kurtz
Eighteen more teens have entered admissions of guilt and two others have been convicted for their roles in a "flash mob" incident earlier this month.
The bulk of the defendants have accepted deals -- ranging from probation, to boot camp, to reform school. All admitted taking part in a "flash mob" incident on March 3rd that marauded through the Gallery shopping mall and up Market Street to City Hall.
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by KYW's Tony Romeo
Pennsylvania's attorney general is joining his counterparts from twelve other states in challenging the constitutionality of the new federal health care law.
Tom Corbett (above) says that Congress can regulate insurance but does not have the authority to impose an individual mandate to purchase it:
“My colleagues and I believe that regulating and penalizing private decisions would leave no area of individual decision-making beyond the reach of the federal government in the future.”
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| President Barack Obama hugs Vice President Joseph Biden at the Interior Department in Washington, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, prior to speaking about the health care bill. |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leave it to Vice President Joe Biden to add a little, ahem, flair to the signing of a health care bill affecting millions of people.
"This is a big f------ deal," Biden told President Barack Obama after introducing him at Tuesday's ceremony at the White House.
Biden appeared to be offering that perspective to Obama privately, but his remark was captured on audio and video.
The episode quickly got buzz on the Internet.
Biden has a reputation of verbal slips, and he knows it.
The White House response to this one? Embrace it.
"And yes Mr. Vice President, you're right," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a post, or "tweet," on Twitter, the social networking site.
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| FILE - This Feb. 5, 2010, file photo shows NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during a news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The competition committee recommends that a team surrendering a field goal on the first possession should have a series of its own in OT. Goodell says the idea "stays true to the integrity of the game" and finds it "very much worth considering." The 32 team owners are expected to vote on the issue this week at their annual league meetings. |
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Sudden death has gotten a little less sudden in the NFL playoffs.
The league on Tuesday changed its overtime rules for postseason games. Starting next season, if a team wins the coin toss and then kicks a field goal, the other team gets the ball. If that next series ends with another field goal, play will continue under the current sudden-death rules.
If the team winning the toss immediately scores a touchdown, however, the game is over.
Team owners voted 28-4 on Tuesday in favor of the proposal at the NFL meetings. Minnesota, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Baltimore opposed the change.
Passage was helped by commissioner Roger Goodell's support and by a spate of statistics indicating the coin toss had become too prominent in determining OT winners.
Minnesota lost last season's NFC championship game in overtime to New Orleans. The Saints won the toss, drove downfield and kicked a field goal to win.
"Modified sudden death is an opportunity to make a pretty good rule ... even better," said Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee. "Statistically, it needed to change. It wasn't producing the 'fairest result.'"
Those statistics showed that since 1994, the team that won the overtime coin toss won the game on the first possession 34 percent of the time.
Overall, the team that correctly called the coin toss won overtime games nearly 60 percent of the time in the last 15 years, or since kickoffs were moved back 5 yards to the 30.
"Plenty of people on the committee, myself included, are so-called traditionalists," Indianapolis Colts president Bill Polian said. "I am proud to be one. But once you saw the statistics, it became obvious we had to do something."
The new rule applies only to postseason games. But McKay said even that could change, and several owners expressed interest in further discussions at their May meetings in Dallas.
"There was a lot of sentiment in the room to change this rule for the regular season," McKay said, adding he doesn't expect that to happen this year. "Our thought is to take our time and study it a bit and make sure everyone understands the implications there would be for that."
McKay and Polian said the Vikings-Saints game had little role in the vote to modify the rule.
"That's interesting," McKay said. "One of the teams that voted against was in the game and, last I checked, I don't think they won."
Vikings owner Zygi Wilf said Monday he was inclined to vote no.
"You need consistency of the regular season and the postseason," Wilf said.
But the overtime rules already are different. During the season, games end in ties after a 15-minute OT. In the playoffs, a winner must be determined.
McKay and Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, the other competition committee co-chairman, said coaches quickly began favoring the change once they learned the details. It became such a hot issue that the owners' vote was taken one day earlier than expected.
One of those coaches, Marvin Lewis of the Bengals, is on the committee. Hours before his team voted no, Lewis expressed approval of the alteration.
"There's a lot of elements that come into play," Lewis said. "For all the proposals we've discussed, this is, I think, the most complete one."
McKay said it was critical in making the rule change that "no phase of the game" was "adversely affected."
The players' union has said it believes any change in overtime needs to be collectively bargained. Of course, the contract between the league and players expires next March. While the competition committee briefly discussed potential OT changes with the union in February, the NFLPA was not consulted this week.
Denver Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley doesn't like the rule change.
"I just think that they should keep it like it is," he said. "It makes things interesting. Some people don't like the coin toss, but that's just the way it goes. If you're on defense first and you don't have the ball, you've just got to stop them."
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| Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at Itawamba County Agricultural High School, center, flanked by an American Civil Liberties Union legal team, walks to the federal courthouse in Aberdeen, Miss., Monday, March 22, 2010, for a hearing regarding the ACLU's preliminary injunction to force the prom at her high school. McMillen was told by school authorities that she could not wear a tux or bring a same sex date to the prom on April 2. |
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- The prom's still off at a Mississippi high school that canceled it instead of letting a lesbian student bring her girlfriend, but a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the district's actions did violate the teen's constitutional rights.
U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson refused the American Civil Liberties Union's demand to force the Itawamba County school district to put on the April 2 prom. However, he said canceling it did violate 18-year-old Constance McMillen's rights and that he would hold a trial on the issue.
That would come too late for the prom to be salvaged at Itawamba Agricultural High School. Still, Kristy Bennett, ACLU Mississippi legal director, called the decision a victory.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the district to force it to put on the prom and allow McMillen to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. School officials said in U.S. District Court this week that they decided to cancel it because McMillen's challenge to the rules had caused disruptions.
The judge noted that McMillen has been openly gay since she was in the eighth grade and that she intended to communicate a message by wearing a tuxedo and escorting a same-sex date.
"The court finds this expression and communication falls squarely within the purview of the First Amendment," Davidson said.
As for McMillen, she said she was happy about the ruling but doesn't know what to expect when she returns to school. She attended classes a day after the March 10 decision to cancel the prom. But she said the hostility and comments from other students led her to miss school. She skipped class on Tuesday to go to the doctor and the fight is taking a toll, she said.
"My nerves are shot," she said.
District officials said in a statement that they were ready to get back to educating students.
Davidson said a private prom parents are planning will serve the same purpose as a school-sponsored one. He wrote that "requiring defendants to step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue."
McMillen isn't sure if she'll go to the dance.
"I'm going to school tomorrow (Wednesday) and will get a feel of how everybody feels about me. That will help me make my decision about whether I'm going to the private prom," McMillen said. "I want to go because all my junior and senior class will be there, but I don't want to be somewhere I'm not welcomed."
Ben Griffith, the school district's attorney, said his clients were pleased with the ruling.
"What we're looking at now is the fact that the case is still on the docket for a trial on the merits," Griffith said.
McMillen first approached school officials about bringing her girlfriend in December, and again in February. Same-sex prom dates had been banned in the past, but she had hoped school officials would grant her request.
"I thought maybe the policy had been in place for a different reason," McMillen testified at a hearing on the ACLU lawsuit. "I wanted to let them know how it made me feel. I felt like I couldn't go to the prom."
She was told two girls couldn't attend together and she wouldn't be allowed to wear a tuxedo, court documents show. The ACLU issued a demand letter earlier this month and the district responded by canceling the event. McMillen, who lives with her grandmother and has a 3.8 grade point average, has kept her 16-year-old girlfriend out of the spotlight at the request of the girl's parents.
District officials said they felt not hosting the prom was the best decision "after taking into consideration the education, safety and well being of our students." Superintendent Teresa McNeece said it was "a no-win situation."
The 715-student high school is located in Fulton, a town of about 4,000 in rural, north Mississippi. The entire county school district has 3,588 students.
The case is typical of what's happening in schools across the country, said Charles Haynes, senior scholar for The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center.
"This case is different because this is not just dress, it is a higher claim of personal identity," Haynes said. "I think that if the student prevails in this case, it will send a message to school districts that they need to accommodate students now who are openly gay and lesbian and want to participate in student activities," Haynes said.
Her case has become a cause celebre.
She has appeared on the "The Early Show," "The Wanda Sykes Show" and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" to talk about how she is fighting for tolerance. DeGeneres presented her with a $30,000 college scholarship from Tonic, a digital media company. A Facebook page set up by the ACLU for McMillen has over 400,000 fans.
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| FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2007 file photo, U.S. talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, second left, and students are seen during the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, South Africa. Winfrey has settled a defamation lawsuit filed by the ex-headmistress of her girls school in South Africa, lawyers said Tuesday March 23, 2010. The lawsuit by former headmistress Nomvuyo Mzamane claimed Winfrey defamed her in remarks made in the wake of a 2007 sex-abuse scandal at the school. |
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Oprah Winfrey has settled a defamation lawsuit filed by a headmistress she had accused of performing poorly at her South African girls school, where some students claimed they were abused, lawyers said Tuesday.
The lawsuit by former headmistress Nomvuyo Mzamane claimed Winfrey defamed her in remarks made in the wake of the 2007 sex-abuse scandal at the school. Mzamane said she had trouble finding a job after Winfrey stated she had "lost confidence" in her and was "cleaning house from top to bottom."
A trial had been set to start next week in federal court in Philadelphia. Winfrey and several schoolgirls had been expected to testify.
A joint statement released late Tuesday by lawyers for both sides said Winfrey and Mzamane met to resolve their differences.
"The two parties met woman to woman without their lawyers and are happy that they could resolve this dispute peacefully to their mutual satisfaction," the statement said.
Winfrey was visiting her school last week when U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno refused to dismiss the lawsuit, concluding Mzamane had presented enough evidence to go to trial. Court papers suggest Mzamane is again working at a school in Africa, but a Winfrey spokeswoman declined to say if the meeting took place during Winfrey's trip.
The parties do not plan to discuss terms of the settlement, according to the spokeswoman, who works with Winfrey's production company, Harpo Productions, which also was a defendant in the suit.
A dorm matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has been charged in South Africa with abusing six students. Winfrey has called the allegations crushing given her own stated history of childhood sexual abuse.
The dorm matron, Tiny Virginia Makopo, has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges.
Mzamane claimed that she was never told of the sexual abuse. However, Winfrey's lawyers said in their pretrial memo this month that Mzamane failed to discipline Makopo despite her history of run-ins with students and fellow staff.
One of Mzamane's lawyers, Timothy McGowan, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday.
Mzamane, born in Lesotho, formerly worked at the private Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia and was living in the city when she sued two years ago. She earned $150,000 a year as Winfrey's headmistress.
Winfrey had planned to defend the case on free speech and other grounds, arguing she merely voiced her opinions.
Mzamane's lawyers, who noted Winfrey's huge media reach, contended listeners would think the remarks were based on facts she had gleaned from the school's internal investigation.
Winfrey, as a named defendant, would have had to attend the trial each day, and courthouse staff had been preparing for a media onslaught.
In court papers, Winfrey said she had planned to hire nurses to serve as dorm matrons for the 150 seventh- and eighth-grade girls who were selected from impoverished backgrounds to attend her school. Mzamane instead hired eight young women from a local company called Party Design, she said.
"These young women were later found to be totally unqualified to handle the position, something Ms. Mzamane had been warned about," Winfrey's lawyers wrote.
During the school year, Makopo attacked another dorm parent, injured three people while driving a golf cart after a champagne party at Mzamane's home and retaliated rather than apologize to girls who complained of mistreatment, while Mzamane did little or nothing, Winfrey's lawyers had alleged in their trial memo.
The school now has about 330 students.
Forbes last year listed Winfrey's net worth at $2.7 billion. However, for trial purposes, lawyers stipulated the amount at $1.2 billion. Mzamane's suit had sought more than $250,000.
In 1998, Winfrey successfully defended a libel lawsuit brought by a group of Texas cattle ranchers. The ranchers had sued her and a vegetarian activist over a talk-show segment on mad cow disease, in which Winfrey swore off hamburgers. Winfrey spent six weeks on trial in Texas, sometimes taping her show there, before the jury acquitted her.
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| Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum announces at a news conference that he has filed a lawsuit against the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U. S. Department of Treasury, and the U. S. Department of Labor, alleging the health care reform bill signed into law by President Obama is unconstitutional, Tuesday, March 23, 2010, in Tallahassee, Fla. |
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- The White House says it isn't worried that 13 state attorneys general are suing to overturn the massive health care overhaul, and many legal experts agree the effort is futile.
But the lawsuit, filed in federal court seven minutes after President Barack Obama signed the 10-year, $938 billion health care bill, underscores the divisiveness of the issue and the political rancor that has surrounded it.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum led the effort to file the suit that claims Congress doesn't have the constitutional right to force people to get health coverage. It also says the federal government is violating the Constitution by forcing a mandate on the states without providing resources to pay for it.
"To that I say, 'Bring it on,'" said White House domestic policy chief Melody Barnes, who cited similar suits filed over Social Security and the Voting Rights Act when those were passed. "If you want to look in the face of a parent whose child now has health care insurance and say we're repealing that ... go right ahead."
A 14th state, Virginia, did not join the bigger lawsuit, but filed its own, which other states are also considering.
McCollum, a Republican running for governor, has been talking about suing to overturn the bill since December. This month he invited other attorneys general to join him. So far South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota, Idaho, Washington, Colorado and Louisiana have agreed.
All the attorneys general are Republican except James "Buddy" Caldwell of Louisiana, a Democrat, who said he signed on because Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal asked him to and he felt the effort had merit.
The lawsuit, filed in Pensacola, asks a judge to declare the bill unconstitutional because "the Constitution nowhere authorizes the United States to mandate, either directly or under threat of penalty, that all citizens and legal residents have qualifying health care coverage."
Robert Sedler, a constitutional law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, said the effort isn't going anywhere.
"This is pure, pure political posturing and they have to know it," he said.
But South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley disputed that characterization, saying his state will have to cut education and other programs to make up for increased Medicaid costs under the overhaul.
"This isn't about attorneys general trying to break into the realm of telling what needs to happen with health care reform," he said. "This is attorneys general saying you went too far with unfunded federal mandates. You exceeded your power under the Constitution."
Not so, said Bruce Jacob, a constitutional law professor at Stetson University in Florida, who said the suit seems like a political ploy and is unlikely to succeed.
"The federal government certainly can compel people to pay taxes, can compel people to join the Army," he said.
Some more states, including Missouri, may join the multistate suit. Still others are looking at other ways to avoid participating, like passing legislation to block requirements in the bill.
McCollum predicted his suit would eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The health care bill "is not lawful," he said. "It may have passed Congress, but there are three branches of government."
The lawsuit claims the health care bill violates the 10th Amendment, which says the federal government has no authority beyond the powers granted to it under the Constitution, by forcing the states to carry out its provisions but not reimbursing them for the costs.
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, said she strongly disagrees with Attorney General Rob McKenna's decision to sue, calling the lawsuit an effort to "gut the bill."
"There is no reason why we need to spend taxpayer money in the state of Washington to join this suit, when it's going to be litigated no matter what," she said.
The lawsuit also says the states can't afford the new law. Using Florida as an example, it says the overhaul will add almost 1.3 million people to the state's Medicaid rolls and cost the state an additional $150 million in 2014, growing to $1 billion a year by 2019.
"We simply cannot afford to do the things in this bill that we're mandated to do," McCollum said at a press conference after filing the suit. He said the Medicaid expansion in Florida will cost $1.6 billion, including administrative and other costs.
Under the bill, starting in six months, health insurance companies would be required to keep young adults as beneficiaries on their parents' plans until they turn 26, and companies would no longer be allowed to deny coverage to sick children.
Other changes would not kick in until 2014.
That's when most Americans will for the first time be required to carry health insurance - either through an employer or government program or by buying it themselves. Those who refuse will face tax penalties.
No Republicans in the U.S. House or Senate voted for the bill, which Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller in Washington said his agency will vigorously defend.
"We are confident that this statute is constitutional and we will prevail when we defend it," he said.
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by KYW's Mike Dunn
Philadelphia city council on Monday is again picking up the hot potato known as Mayor Nutter's budget. And later this week, will come a proposal to raise property taxes -- as an alternative to Nutter's plan for a trash collection fee.
Councilman Frank DiCicco (in file photo) on Thursday will formally introduce legislation for a property tax hike on the order of 12 percent to replace the trash fee. Both would bring in more than $100 million extra a year. DiCicco says a tax hike is better because the increased payment would be deductible:
"You cannot deduct a trash fee."
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by KYW's Mike Dunn
In the wake of the latest "flash mob" incident in Philadelphia (Saturday night on South Street), Mayor Nutter is promising "upgrades" to police response procedures.
Nutter says he personally observed some of the massive gathering on South Street this past Saturday night, though he witnessed no violent behavior at the time.
Nonetheless, the incident concerns Nutter, and he says police procedures will be altered for better response:
"I've had a number of conversations with police commissioner Ramsey (and) deputy mayor Everett Gillison, and we are upgrading some of the plans that have already been put into place."
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The large and complicated trial for two groups of teens accused of taking part in two recent "flash mob" incidents in center city was continuing on Monday at Philadelphia Family Court.
A security officer for Macy's department store at 13th and Market Streets has testified that he was right in the middle of it as up to 150 young people poured into the store on February 16th -- brawling, throwing shoes and other merchandise, destroying a mannequin. Some of the mayhem was caught on tape.
As the gangs of teens fled the store, police arrived. Officers testified that the teens ran "through" and "over" people in the street -- yelling, screaming, cursing, brawling, even throwing snow and iceballs at the officers.
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