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| Washington state ex-campaign director sentenced for embezzlement Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 07:35 PM PST By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - The former head of a Democratic Party fundraising committee in Washington state has been sentenced to over a year in prison for embezzling in excess of $300,000 in campaign contributions to feed an alcohol-fueled gambling habit, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Michael King, 32, pleaded guilty in October to four counts of first-degree theft and four counts of second-degree theft. He concealed the theft from the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee in part by reporting it as a series of phony reimbursements for political polling, according to court documents. King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick sentenced King to just over one year in prison to be followed upon his release by an equal term in community custody, the state's version of parole. Full Story | Top |
| Illinois lawmakers pass long-awaited pension reform Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 05:40 PM PST  By Joanne von Alroth and Karen Pierog SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) - Illinois' Democratic-controlled legislature on Tuesday passed a landmark pension reform bill, choosing to address the state's crumbling finances over strong public labor union opposition to cuts in retirement benefits. The bill addresses problems that have built up over decades in the nation's worst-funded state pension system, which is underfunded by $100 billion. The vote comes despite union threats to challenge pension reform in state court, based on claims it would violate a state constitution provision that guards against cuts to pension benefits. It now heads to Governor Pat Quinn, who told reporters he hopes to sign the bill into law soon, although it will not take effect until June. Full Story | Top |
| Four California students sickened with meningitis bacteria Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 05:08 PM PST An outbreak of meningococcal disease has sickened four students at a major California university, prompting discussions with federal regulators about using a vaccine approved for use in Europe but not in the United States. The students, at the University of California at Santa Barbara, were all sickened within a three-week period last month with the disease, a sometimes fatal illness that can affect the brain or the blood, according to a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health. They were stricken by a form of the bacteria that does not respond to the meningitis vaccine currently approved for use in the United States, said the spokeswoman, Susan Klein-Rothschild. A vaccine known to be effective against this form of meningitis is approved for use in Europe, and Santa Barbara public health officials were in discussions with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about using it to protect students at the California university. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. surgeon general says Healthcare.gov making progress Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:57 PM PST By Daniel Lovering CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The acting U.S. surgeon general said on Tuesday he was "enthusiastic" about the recent improvements to the troubled HealthCare.gov website, which was designed to allow users to shop for health insurance required under new reforms. Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak, who has been acting as the surgeon general since July, said President Barack Obama's administration had acknowledged there was "still a way to go" to fix the site, "but in fact progress is being made." "When I looked at some of the numbers recently - a million, for example, hits or a million people at least connecting up with the site, I get a sense of enthusiasm that we're headed obviously in the right direction," he told Reuters ahead of a health care innovation conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Full Story | Top |
| Short-term fix eyed for another problem with U.S. healthcare website Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:44 PM PST  By Roberta Rampton and Caroline Humer WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's administration has found a short-term fix to pay insurance companies for plans selected on HealthCare.gov, the not-yet-complete government website used to shop for insurance required under Obama's healthcare program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has not yet finished building the part of the website that would transfer billions of dollars in subsidies for plan premiums and cost-sharing payments to insurance companies. The healthcare program faces a critical test to enroll hundreds of thousands of people by December 23, the deadline for people who need insurance coverage starting on January 1, 2014. Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for CMS, said the government will make the payments to insurers for premium tax credits and cost sharing on time. Full Story | Top |
| Arafat did not die of poisoning, French tests conclude Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:37 PM PST  By Paul Taylor PARIS (Reuters) - Yasser Arafat was not the victim of poisoning, French forensic scientists concluded on Tuesday, countering a Swiss report on the 2004 death of the Palestinian leader that found he was probably killed with radioactive polonium. The French conclusions were immediately challenged by his widow, Suha Arafat, who has argued the death was a political assassination by someone close to her husband. A senior Palestinian official dismissed the report as "politicized". "You can imagine how much I am shaken by the contradictions between the findings of the best experts in Europe in this domain," Suha Arafat, dressed in black and reading from a written statement, told a news conference in Paris. Full Story | Top |
| Notre Dame challenges U.S. contraceptive mandate in lawsuit Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 04:25 PM PST  (Reuters) - The University of Notre Dame filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging mandatory coverage of contraception under U.S. federal healthcare laws that it said run contrary to the Catholic university's religious beliefs. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in South Bend, Indiana, followed university discussions with the Obama Administration that sought an expanded exception for schools and universities from the requirement, Notre Dame said. "This lawsuit is about one of America's most cherished freedoms: the freedom to practice one's religion without government interference," Notre Dame said in the lawsuit filed on Tuesday that asks a judge to block the requirement. The 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, requires employers to provide health insurance policies with cover preventive services for women including access to contraception and sterilization. Full Story | Top |
| Insurers warn of problems with Obamacare enrollment surge Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 03:56 PM PST  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. insurers fear that a surge in enrollments on the revamped government-run healthcare website could create more problems for insurance companies already struggling with error-filled applications for coverage three weeks before a sign-up deadline. In what could become the next major headache for President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy, a group representing leading U.S. insurers said on Tuesday that technology fixes that will enable millions of people to sign on to HealthCare.gov have not fully addressed faulty data that the site has been sending these companies about their new enrollees. The problems include enrollment forms with erroneous personal information and duplicate or missing applications. The warning coincided with an effort by Obama to win back support for the healthcare overhaul after the website's disastrous October 1 debut sent his job approval ratings plummeting and threatened to damage fellow Democrats in next year's congressional elections. Full Story | Top |
| Tighter fraud filter needed for Obamacare tax credits: IRS watchdog Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 03:00 PM PST  The Internal Revenue Service needs to be better prepared to stop possibly fraudulent claims for tax subsidies that some Americans will soon be able to get under the Affordable Care Act, the tax agency's inspector general said on Tuesday. Beginning in 2014, a tax credit will be available to low- and middle-income individuals to help them pay for health insurance, based on a percentage of income. The credit is meant to help people get coverage in insurance marketplaces being set up by the states and federal government as part of President Barack Obama's healthcare law, known as "Obamacare." In an audit, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), said two new IRS systems to catch tax refund fraud are under development. Full Story | Top |
| Britain's Cameron defends GSK's business practices in China Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 02:03 PM PST  By Andrew Osborn and Ben Hirschler SHANGHAI (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday mounted a robust defense of GlaxoSmithKline's business practices in China - where it is being investigated for alleged bribery - calling the firm "very decent". Cameron's intervention came a day after he raised GSK's situation with China's top leadership in a move one person familiar with the conversation said was designed to draw a line under the company's woes and ensure it was treated fairly. Cameron is on a trade promotion trip to China with around 100 executives, including GSK Chief Executive Andrew Witty, and is trying to help the firm grapple with the aftermath of accusations it funneled up to 3 billion yuan ($492 million) to travel agencies to facilitate bribes to boost its drug sales. The claims are the most serious against a multinational in China in years. Full Story | Top |
| Few people read restaurant calorie information Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 12:37 PM PST  By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More fast food and chain restaurants are posting calorie counts on their menus, but a new study suggests only one in three diners reads that information. The good news is, most consumers who do read calorie counts take them into consideration when deciding what to order. "Restaurant food tends to have many more calories than people realize, and many more calories than if the same food is cooked at home whether because of the preparation method or because restaurants often provide large portion sizes," Katherine Bauer told Reuters Health in an email. Some U.S. cities, including New York, require chain restaurants to post calorie counts for diners. Full Story | Top |
| Obama urges Americans not be discouraged by rocky healthcare rollout Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 12:24 PM PST  President Barack Obama urged Americans not to be discouraged by the rocky rollout of HealthCare.gov on Tuesday and vowed to fix whatever glitches remain as he sought to restore confidence in his leadership. Obama used a speech at the White House to address criticisms of the law and accuse his Republican opponents of attempting to gain politically from the problems surrounding his central domestic policy achievement. Obama, whose job approval ratings have sunk as problems mounted around the healthcare system's website, said repairs to the website have now made it work well for the vast majority of users and that "we're are going to keep on working to fix whatever problems come up." "Do not let the initial problems with the website discourage you because it's working better now," Obama told an audience of supporters of the law. "And it's going to keep on working better over time." Obama is struggling to contain the political damage from the troubled rollout of the new health law. Full Story | Top |
| Analyst who cast doubt on Provenge vaccine settles with SEC Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 11:59 AM PST A former hedge-fund analyst who argued that Dendreon Corp's therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer may hasten the death of patients has reached a settlement with U.S. securities regulators over failure to disclose her financial interests in the company. Marie Huber, who trained as a biochemist at Cambridge University in England and worked at an unnamed New York hedge fund from 2007 to 2011, neither admitted nor denied the Securities and Exchange Commission's findings, according to the agency. The SEC's administrative finding, dated last week, concluded that Huber had a significant financial stake in the perception of Dendreon. From June 17 to July 12, 2010, it found, she purchased $236,000 worth of options in Seattle-based Dendreon, essentially betting that its stock price would drop. Full Story | Top |
| Traveler pulled from U.S. plane with suspected TB cleared in tests Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 11:36 AM PST A man removed from a US Airways Express flight in Phoenix over the weekend because he was suspected of having tuberculosis has tested negative for the contagious disease, health officials said on Tuesday. The unidentified man was removed from a flight from Austin, Texas, on Saturday during the busy Thanksgiving holiday weekend, after an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "All of our preliminary tests have come back negative, and after discussions with the CDC it was decided that this man should be allowed to fly," Jeanene Fowler, spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Department of Public Health told Reuters by telephone. The health scare began after the CDC contacted the Transportation Security Administration when the flight was already in the air, informing them that the passenger was on a "do not board" list. Full Story | Top |
| Dying Iowa inmate, sentenced to life at 15, granted parole Tuesday, Dec 03, 2013 11:28 AM PST A terminally ill Iowa inmate, who was only 15 when she was sentenced to life in prison for murdering an elderly relative, is being paroled, authorities said on Tuesday. The Iowa Parole Board decision allows the cancer stricken Kristina Fetters, now 33, to become the first Iowa inmate serving a life term without possibility of parole to have her sentence altered following a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year making life without parole unconstitutional for juveniles. The parole board decision Tuesday requires Fetters to be transferred to a hospice and to remain there unless and until her medical condition changes, said Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections. She also is to have "intense supervision, including regular contact from a parole officer," Scaletta said. Full Story | Top |
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