Pushing housing aid plan

Pushing housing aid plan

WASHINGTON — With lawmakers angling to pass an economic recovery package by the middle of next month, desperate homebuilders from around the country flew to Washington to spend Wednesday pushing a $150 billion plan to revive the housing market.

The National Association of Home Builders brought around 80 builders — mainly from smaller, privately owned companies — for meetings with lawmakers from their districts, particularly those on committees that will handle President-elect Barack Obama’s economic rescue package.

The home building industry has been devastated by the housing market bust.

Study looks at when C-sections are safest

NEW YORK — Babies do better after a scheduled Caesarean section if they’re born no sooner than seven days before their due date, a new large study of U.S. births shows.

Those delivered earlier had more complications, including breathing problems, even though they were full term, the researchers reported in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine. Even just a few days made a difference, they said.

The findings offer important guidance to the growing number of women who face planned C-sections. And the study supports recommendations that elective C-sections be scheduled after 39 weeks unless tests show the infant’s lungs are fully mature. Due dates are set at 40 weeks gestation, and infants are full term at 37 weeks.

U.S. teen birth rates rise

WASHINGTON — U.S. teen birth rates rose sharply in 2006, according to figures released Wednesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ending a 14-year decline.

While U.S. teen birth rates remained the highest in the industrialized world, the long decline had amounted to a 45 percent reduction since 1991.

According to the figures for 2006, the latest year for which data are available, birth rates for teens age 15-19 rose by 3.5 percent. This increase marks the largest growth in teen birth rates since 1989-90.

Joe the Plumber to write

TOLEDO — Joe The Plumber is putting down his wrenches and picking up a reporter’s notebook.

The Ohio man who became a household name during the presidential campaign says he is heading to Israel as a war correspondent for the conservative Web site pjtv.com.

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher says he’ll spend 10 days covering the fighting.

He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants to let Israel’s “‘Average Joes’ share their story.”

Wurzelbacher gained attention during the final weeks of the campaign when he asked Barack Obama about his tax plan.

Melamine byproduct in more U.S. infant formula

The Food and Drug Admin-istration says the industrial chemical melamine and a byproduct cyanuric acid have now been detected in four of 89 containers of infant formula made in the United States, doubling previously reported positive results. The contamination is extremely minute, at levels federal regulators say are safe for babies.

In November, The Associated Press reported previously undisclosed FDA tests, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showing that out of 77 containers of domestic infant formula tested, a can of milk-based liquid Nestle Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron contained traces of melamine while Mead Johnson’s Enfamil LIPIL with Iron had traces of cyanuric acid.

The FDA has now updated its response to the AP’s FOIA request by posting results of 89 tests on its Web site. Those results show that two additional containers of Enfamil LIPIL with Iron had traces of cyanuric acid.

Passengers tackle man

LOS ANGELES — A man who claimed to have a bomb aboard a Los Angeles-bound jetliner and was then tackled and bound by other passengers will not face federal charges, the FBI said Wednesday.

No bomb was found aboard the Delta Air Lines Flight 110 from Atlanta, and after questioning by the FBI and airport police, federal investigators had decided not to pursue charges, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

She said they also concluded the man should undergo a psychological evaluation.

The plane was only minutes from landing at Los Angeles International Airport shortly before 10:30 a.m. Wednesday when the man “jumped up and started running ... [and] yelled ‘I’ve got a bomb,’” passenger Bruce Worrilow told Fox 11 News.

Combined dispatches