GOP shows signs of reaching out on health care

GOP shows signs of reaching out on health care

WASHINGTON

Republicans showed signs Tuesday of reaching out to Democrats for a joint if modest effort to buttress health insurance markets, four days after the GOP effort to unilaterally uproot and reshape the Obama health care law crumpled in the Senate.

The Republican chairman of the Senate health committee, Tennessee’s Lamar Alexander, proposed bipartisan legislation extending for one year federal payments to insurers that help millions of low- and moderate-income Americans afford coverage. President Donald Trump has threatened to halt those subsidies in hopes of forcing Democrats to make concessions, but the Senate’s top Democrat on Tuesday called his moves “childish.”

The No. 2 Senate Republican also seemed to suggest that the two parties seek common health care ground.

Homeland Security will waive laws to build border wall

SAN DIEGO

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive environmental reviews and other laws to replace a stretch of border wall in San Diego, moving to make good on one of the president’s signature campaign pledges.

Critics including the Center for Biological Diversity criticized the move as overreach and a threat to the environment.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement it will publish in “the coming days” in the Federal Register a notice exempting the government from the National Environmental Protection Act, which calls for extensive reviews of environmental impacts, and a host of other laws on 15 miles of border extending east from the Pacific Ocean.

Nashville mayor’s son mourned after apparent overdose

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Days after his 22-year-old son died of an apparent drug overdose, the husband of Nashville’s mayor was adamant that their son’s death doesn’t define the life of a young man who was warm, sensitive, tolerant and inquisitive.

Bruce Barry gave an energetic eulogy for his son, Max Barry, in front of more than 550 friends, family members and dignitaries Tuesday at the Belcourt Theatre, where many attendees spilled into a second room to watch the memorial service on a movie screen. Mayor Megan Barry didn’t give a speech during the service.

Max Barry died Saturday night near Denver.

Cuomo orders probe into Niagara Falls discharge

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y.

A day after directing state regulators to investigate wastewater discharges that turned the water near the base of Niagara’s falls black, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, raised the possibility of criminal action “because that situation could have been potentially serious.”

Black water spewed from a pipe along the American shoreline and crept well into the Niagara River on Saturday afternoon, alarming residents and tourists who complained about the sight and smell. The inky water enveloped the dock for the popular Maid of the Mist tour boats.

The water board for the city of Niagara Falls said it had emptied a sediment settling basin at its wastewater treatment plant during the course of routine maintenance. The basin is used for backwash water from cleaning the operation’s carbon filters and does not receive raw sewage, the governor’s office said.

Associated Press