McConnell defers action on GOP health care vote

McConnell defers action on GOP health care vote

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s deferring consideration of the GOP health care measure.

The Senate leader had planned action on the controversial bill next week. But Sen. John McCain announced Saturday he would be staying in Arizona following surgery for a blood clot. That put the measure in jeopardy in the closely divided Senate.

Trump’s no ‘dying in the streets’ pledge faces reality check

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump has often said he doesn’t want people “dying in the streets” for lack of health care.

But in the United States, where chronic conditions are the major diseases, people decline slowly. Preventive care and routine screening can make a big difference for those at risk for things such as heart problems and cancer, especially over time.

That edge is what doctors and patients fear will be compromised if Republican efforts to repeal the Obama-era health law lead to more uninsured people. The uninsured tend to postpone care until problems break through.

It’s a message that lawmakers are hearing from doctors’ groups and constituents, in letters and emails and at town hall meetings.

Honolulu fire: New photos show charred remains of 26th floor

HONOLULU

Karen Hastings was in her 31st-floor Honolulu apartment when she smelled smoke. She ran out to her balcony, looked down and saw flames five floors below her.

“The fire just blew up and went flying right out the windows,” the 71-year-old Hastings said of the first moments of the high-rise blaze that killed at least three people and injured 12. “And that was like a horror movie. Except it wasn’t a horror movie, it was for real.”

The fire broke out Friday afternoon in a unit on the 26th floor, where all three of the dead were found, Fire Chief Manuel Neves said.

The building known as the Marco Polo residences is not required to have fire sprinklers, which would have confined the blaze to the unit where it started, Neves said. The 36-floor building near the tourist mecca of Waikiki was built in 1971, before sprinklers were mandatory in high-rises. It has more than 500 units.

Late into the night as embers smoldered, firefighters were searching the damaged areas to make sure no additional people perished. The names of the victims haven’t been released.

Cousins’ lives escalate from petty crimes to purported murder

PHILADELPHIA

The cousins started small – break-ins, jewelry heists and traffic violations – but Friday they were charged in a grisly crime spree that ended with police unearthing the bodies of four young men from two pits buried deep on a sprawling family-owned farm.

Police found the missing men after a grueling, five-day search in sweltering heat and pelting rain, but it’s still not clear why the 20-year-old suspects’ crimes escalated from petty offenses.

For Cosmo DiNardo, whose lawyer said he confessed all four killings in exchange for being spared the death penalty, brushes with the law began in his early teenage years.

He was about 14 when the Bensalem Police Department first had contact with him. Over the next six years, he had more than 30 run-ins with its officers, department director Frederick Harran said, although court filings reflect only the minor infractions and traffic stops that came after age 18.

DiNardo enrolled at Arcadia University in Glenside in fall 2015 with hopes of studying biology and had an eye on international travel, according to a blog post announcing the incoming class.

Turks commemorate 1 year since failed coup with march

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s president addressed tens of thousands of people Saturday at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the country’s crushed military coup, vowing to “rip the heads off” of terror groups and of the coup-plotters who tried to end his more than a decade-long rule.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the large, flag-waving crowd who took part in a national unity march in Istanbul, converging at the iconic July 15 Martyrs’ Bridge to remember 250 people who died July 15, 2016, trying to resist the coup. Accompanied by his family and the families of the deceased, he inaugurated a hollow, globe-shaped monument featuring the names of the victims near the foot of the bridge.

“The July 15 coup attempt is not the first attack against our country, and it won’t be the last,” Erdogan said, referring to a series of terror attacks that also hit the country. “For that reason, we’ll first cut the heads off of these traitors.”

The bridge was the scene of clashes between civilians and soldiers in tanks. At least 30 people died there, and more than 2,000 were injured across Turkey in the struggle. Thirty-five coup plotters were also killed.

Fla. sinkhole stops growing after swallowing 2 houses

LAND O’ LAKES, Fla.

A sinkhole that swallowed a boat and destroyed two homes had stopped growing and officials said Saturday they would monitor it over the weekend before determining when cleanup can begin.

The hole has been stagnant since Friday afternoon, said Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County’s assistant administrator for public safety. He confirmed that the hole, which is 250 feet wide and 50 feet deep, is the largest in three decades in the county, which has a history of sinkholes.

Dramatic video showed the home in Land O’ Lakes, north of Tampa, collapsing into the hole Friday morning. It quickly engulfed one home and a boat and then consumed about 80 percent of another home.

Guthrie said 11 homes in all have been affected. A third home lost about 45 feet of driveway and a septic tank.

Self-fueling boat sets off from Paris on 6-year world trip

PARIS

A boat that fuels itself set off around the world from Paris on a six-year journey that its designers hope will serves as a model for emissions-free energy networks of the future.

Energy Observer will use its solar panels, wind turbines and a hydrogen fuel-cell system to power its trip. The $5.25 million boat headed off Saturday from Paris toward the Atlantic.

Associated Press