Programs face squeeze

Programs face squeeze

WASHINGTON — The spiraling growth of Medicare and the high cost of renewing President Bush’s tax cuts are squeezing popular education, health, housing and anti-poverty programs in the budget blueprint that he hands lawmakers Monday.

Even with difficult-to-digest proposals to curb Medicare costs and kill programs to repair dilapidated public housing, fund community action agencies and provide food to the elderly poor, Bush’s $3 trillion budget will project deficits around $400 billion this year and next.

Bush’s submission is already absorbing brickbats from Democrats castigating him for inheriting a government in surplus and leaving Washington with a budget deficit that is likely to break the $413 billion record set four years ago, once war bills and the cost of giving the economy a fiscal jolt with tax rebate checks are factored in.

Bush’s budget will demonstrate a way to produce balance in four years and still renew tax cuts on income, investments and people inheriting large estates — cuts now scheduled to expire at the end of 2010.

Sarkozy weds ex-model

PARIS — They had a glitzy, jet-setting courtship, but when it came time for the wedding, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former supermodel Carla Bruni opted for a simple, classic ceremony — and the bride wore white.

Sarkozy, 53, and Bruni, 40, were married Saturday in a small private ceremony at the presidential Elysee Palace, less than three months after they reportedly first met, and less than four months after his divorce from the previous first lady, Cecilia.

The newlyweds said in a statement only that they tied the knot “in the presence of their families in the strictest privacy.”

I think Natalee is dead,
Holloway’s mom says

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The mother of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway said she’s now convinced her that daughter is dead after watching hidden camera footage of a Dutch student allegedly acknowledging involvement, according to an interview published Saturday.

“I can let her go now and begin mourning,” Beth Twitty said in an interview Friday with the best-selling Dutch daily De Telegraaf. “The 1 percent of hope I had that she was still alive is gone.”

Joran van der Sloot on Friday denied that he had anything to do with Holloway’s disappearance in Aruba, saying he lied when he told someone privately he was involved.

Van der Sloot was interviewed by the respected Dutch television show “Pauw & Witteman” after reports that crime reporter Peter R. De Vries had captured him making statements about the case.

“It is true I told someone. Everybody will see it Sunday,” Van der Sloot said, referring to De Vries’ planned television show in which he will claim to have solved the mystery of Holloway’s May 2005 disappearance.

Tentative settlement

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A TV station and a cameraman accused of getting in the way of people fleeing the nightclub fire that killed 100 people have reached a tentative $30 million settlement with survivors and victims’ relatives, station officials said Saturday.

It is the largest settlement of several reached so far with the dozens of people and companies who sued over the Feb. 20, 2003, fire at The Station nightclub. The blaze began when pyrotechnics used by the 1980s rock band Great White ignited highly flammable soundproofing foam around the stage. Killed in the fire was Ty Longley, a member of Great White and a Mahoning Valley native.

Brian Butler, a cameraman for WPRI-TV, was at the West Warwick nightclub gathering footage for a segment on safety in public places. His video formed the most complete record of the early moments of the fire, revealing the rapid spread of flames and the frantic rush for the exits. Lawyers for the victims accused Butler of impeding the crowd’s exit through the front door, where many of the bodies were found.

Mormons mourn president

SALT LAKE CITY — The president of the Mormon church was remembered Saturday as a “giant among men” who cared deeply for others and devoted his life to the work of his faith.

Thousands of people, including some who waited overnight, packed the conference center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, capping a week of mourning for Gordon B. Hinckley. He died Sunday at age 97.

During Hinckley’s presidency, which began in 1995, the church experienced unprecedented worldwide growth, expanding to 13 million members in 160 countries. He established an education fund to help returned missionaries, grew the church’s humanitarian work and built dozens of temples around the world.

Associated Press