US: No benefit hike for seniors in 2016

US: No benefit hike for seniors in 2016

WASHINGTON

Older Americans got a double dose of bad news Thursday: There will be no cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits next year, and Medicare bills are set to soar for many.

It’s just the third time in 40 years that Social Security payments will remain flat. All three times have come since 2010.

The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, by law is based on a government measure of inflation that was released Thursday. Low gas prices – a boon to all Americans – are driving down consumer prices. Currently the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is $2.30, about 90 cents less than it was a year ago, according to AAA.

Texas wildfire slows

SMITHVILLE, Texas

A wildfire chewing the same Central Texas forestland scorched by a devastating blaze in 2011 slowed dramatically Thursday as improving weather kept the deadly destruction of four years ago at bay.

No rain is in sight to extinguish the latest flare-up that has burned 6 square miles, wiped out roughly three dozen homes and threatened hundreds others. But calming and shifting winds pushed the blaze away from busy neighborhoods in Bastrop County and were far weaker than the 50 mph gusts in 2011 that carried flames over highways and containment lines.

Pistorius to leave prison next week

JOHANNESBURG

Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee Olympic runner who shot his girlfriend to death Valentine’s Day 2013, can leave prison and move to house arrest next Tuesday, South Africa’s Department of Corrections said Thursday.

A parole board at the prison where Pistorius has served nearly a year of his five-year sentence for manslaughter made the decision. It came after an initial ruling to release the athlete in August was canceled at the last minute after intervention by the justice minister.

Canadian envoy who hid Americans dies

TORONTO

Ken Taylor, Canada’s ambassador to Iran who sheltered Americans at his residence during the 1979 hostage crisis, has died. He was 81.

Taylor’s wife, Pat, said he died Thursday after a two-month battle with colon cancer.

Taylor kept the Americans hidden at his residence and at the home of his deputy, John Sheardown, in Tehran for three months. Taylor facilitated their escape by arranging plane tickets and persuading the Ottawa government to issue fake passports.

He was heralded as a hero in both the U.S. and Canada for helping save the Americans in the clandestine operation.

Some of Taylor’s exploits in Iran in 1979 later became the subject of the 2012 Hollywood film “Argo.” But Taylor and others, including former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, felt the film downplayed his role and that of Canada in the operation.

Train hero released from Calif. hospital

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

The U.S. airman hailed as a hero for helping thwart a European terror attack was released from the hospital where he had been for a week after an unrelated stabbing, officials said Thursday.

U.S. Air Force Airman Spencer Stone was knifed three times in the torso Oct. 8 in a fight near a bar in Sacramento, Calif.

He was released Thursday from UC Davis Medical Center and thanked the first- responders and the team at UC Davis Medical Center for taking “such good care of me,” according to a statement released by the medical center.

Associated Press