Administration agrees to delay health care rule

Administration agrees to delay health care rule

SAN FRANCISCO

The Trump administration has agreed to postpone implementing a rule allowing medical workers to decline performing abortions or other treatments on moral or religious grounds while the so-called “conscience” rule is challenged in a California court.

The rule was supposed to take effect July 22, but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its opponents in a California lawsuit mutually agreed Friday to delay a final ruling on the matter until Nov. 22.

The agency called it the “most efficient way to adjudicate” the rule.

A federal judge in San Francisco permitted the change Saturday.

Contractor says suspect in killing wanted secret room

SALT LAKE CITY

A construction contractor says the primary suspect in the killing of University of Utah student Mackenzie Lueck approached him in April about building a secretive and soundproof room under a front porch.

Brian Wolf told the Desert News that the construction request from homeowner Ayoola A. Ajayi made him uneasy and included hooks mounted high on a concrete wall for reasons that didn’t make sense. Wolf turned the job down and reported the encounter to Salt Lake City police after seeing news reports Friday of Ajayi’s arrest in Lueck’s death.

Salt Lake City Police spokeswoman Christina Judd confirmed Saturday that Wolf recounted the story to detectives.

Hiker missing for week found alive

LA CRESCENTA, Calif.

A hiker who was missing in the mountains north of Los Angeles for a week was found Saturday and apparently has survived in the wilderness by drinking water from a creek, authorities said.

A helicopter crew found Eugene Jo, 73, in a canyon in the San Gabriel Mountains and hoisted him to safety, Sgt. Greg Taylor with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department said.

The crew flew him to a hospital to be examined.

The Montrose Search and Rescue team tweeted that Jo was “walking and speaking” despite not having had eaten in at least five days. He survived by drinking water from a creek. Temperatures have been mild in the mountains.

Migrant aid ship rams police boat; captain arrested

LAMPEDUSA, Sicily

The German captain of a humanitarian rescue ship with 40 migrants aboard has been arrested after she rammed her vessel into an Italian border police motorboat while docking at a tiny Mediterranean island Saturday in defiance of Italy’s anti-migrant interior minister.

Jeering onlookers shouted “handcuffs, handcuffs” as Carola Rackete, the 31-year-old captain, was escorted off the boat at Lampedusa, which is closer to north Africa than to the Italian mainland.

The migrants, meanwhile, hugged personnel of the German Sea-Watch charity who helped them during their 17 days at sea. Some kissed the ground after disembarking from Sea-Watch 3 at dawn’s break.

The migrants had been rescued from an unseaworthy vessel launched by Libya-based human traffickers, but Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had refused to let them disembark on Lampedusa until other European Union countries agreed to take them. Five nations pledged to do so Friday: Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal.

Associated Press