Obama says he’s open to GOP proposals

Obama says he’s open to GOP proposals

washington

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he was open to four new Republican proposals on health-care legislation, in a gesture of bipartisanship meant to jump-start his stalled drive to overhaul the system.

Obama detailed the ideas, all of which were raised at a bipartisan health-care summit last week, in a letter to congressional leaders. In a nod to his 2008 presidential rival, Obama also said he had eliminated a special deal for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in Florida and other states that drew criticism at the summit from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

The proposals Obama listed are: sending investigators disguised as patients to uncover fraud and waste; expanding medical-malpractice-reform pilot programs; increasing payments to Medicaid providers and expanding the use of health savings accounts.

Washington adopts 1-drug executions

OLYMPIA, Wash.

Washington state has changed its method of execution from a three-drug cocktail to a one-drug system, according to paperwork filed Tuesday with the state Supreme Court.

The filing by state Attorney General Rob McKenna reveals that the state made the decision Thursday. It wants the high court to dismiss portions of the appeal of death-row inmate Darold Stenson, arguing that a challenge of the drug protocol’s constitutionality is now moot.

2 Americans jailed in Haiti awaiting release

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti

Two Americans still jailed on kidnapping charges in Haiti will have to wait for their freedom, Judge Bernard Saint-Vil said Tuesday.

The judge had said earlier that testimony from three witnesses about the missionaries’ efforts to set up an orphanage in the neighboring Dominican Republic would allow him to free Laura Silsby, 40, and Charisa Coulter, 24.

The Dominican witnesses gave the expected testimony Tuesday at a meeting in his office, the judge told The Associated Press — but then he said he still needed to deliver all his evidence to the prosecutor general’s office and await its reply.

Iraq renews warrant against Shiite leader

BAGHDAD

In a surprise move ahead of weekend elections, Iraq’s highest judicial body has renewed an arrest warrant against an anti-U.S. Shiite leader in the murder of a moderate cleric nearly seven years ago, a senior government official and a spokesman for the leader said Tuesday.

Muqtada al-Sadr, who heads one of the major Shiite parties competing against Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, is believed to have been living in neighboring Iran for the past two years. He is not thought to be planning to return to Iraq any time soon, although a rumor has been circulating among supporters that he wanted to make an appearance in Iraq before Sunday’s parliamentary vote.

Report: Food-borne illnesses cost $152B

YAKIMA, Wash.

Food-borne illnesses, such as E. coli and salmonella, cost the United States $152 billion annually in health care and other losses, according to a report released today by a food-safety group.

The report comes as the U.S. Senate considers legislation that would require more government inspections of food manufacturers and give the Food and Drug Administration new authority to order recalls, among other things. The House passed a similar bill last year.

The government estimates 76 million people each year are sickened by food-borne illness, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized, and about 5,000 die.

German court throws out anti-terror law

BERLIN

Germany’s highest court on Tuesday overturned a law that let anti-terror authorities retain data on phone calls and e-mails, saying it was a “grave intrusion” into personal privacy rights and must be revised.

The court ruling was the latest to sharply criticize a major initiative by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government and one of the strongest steps yet defending citizen rights from post-Sept. 11 terror-fighting measures.

Associated Press