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| Soldier kills three, wounds 16 before taking own life at Texas Army base Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 08:09 PM PDT  By Lisa Maria Garza FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier shot dead three people and injured at least 16 on Wednesday before taking his own life at an Army base in Fort Hood, Texas, the site of another deadly rampage in 2009, U.S. officials said. The soldier, who was being treated for mental health problems, drove to two buildings on the base and opened fire before he was stopped by military police, in an incident that lasted between 15 and 20 minutes, Fort Hood commanding officer Mark Milley said. Security officials said preliminary information identified the gunman as Ivan Lopez, and the shooting was not linked to terrorism. U.S. President Barack Obama said he was "heartbroken" that another shooting had occurred at the Fort Hood Army base and described the situation there as fluid. Full Story | Top |
| Worried about Senate, Obama calls 2014 his last campaign Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:59 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason CHICAGO (Reuters) - On a politically focused trip aimed at revving up his base and raising cash, President Barack Obama on Wednesday urged supporters to help Democrats keep control of the U.S. Senate and declared this year to be his last campaign. Buoyed by good news over his signature healthcare program, Obama touted proposals to raise the minimum wage and spur job creation that have little chance of passage in Congress during a rally with students in Michigan. Later at a fundraiser in Chicago he underscored Democratic worries about their political vulnerabilities in the Senate and House of Representatives in November congressional elections. "Even though I promised Michelle that 2012 was going to be my last campaign, actually this one's my last campaign," Obama, referring to his wife, told a fundraiser at the private home of longtime donors in his hometown of Chicago. Full Story | Top |
| Guatemalan president eyes drug legalization proposal in late 2014 Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:24 PM PDT  Guatemala could present a plan to legalize production of marijuana and opium poppies towards the end of 2014 as it seeks ways to curb the power of organized crime, President Otto Perez said on Wednesday. Perez, a conservative retired general who broke ranks with the United States by proposing drug legalization shortly after he took office at the start of 2012, has yet to put forward a concrete plan on how it could be done. "The other thing we're exploring ... is the legalization of the poppy plantations on the border with Mexico, so they're controlled and sold for medicinal ends," Perez said. "These two things could be steps taken on a legal basis." Opium poppies are used to make opium, heroin and pharmaceutical drugs such as morphine and codeine. Full Story | Top |
| New Zealand tops social progress index, world's biggest economies trail Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:15 PM PDT By Astrid Zweynert LONDON, April 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - New Zealand came first in a global index published on Thursday that ranks countries by social and environmental performance rather than economic output in a drive to make social progress a priority for politicians and businesses. The Social Progress Index (SPI) rates 132 countries on more than 50 indicators, including health, sanitation, shelter, personal safety, access to information, sustainability, tolerance and inclusion and access to education. The SPI asks questions such as whether a country can satisfy its people's basic needs and whether it has the infrastructure and capacity to allow its citizens to improve the quality of their lives and reach their full potential. "The index shows that economic growth does not automatically lead to social progress," Michael Green, executive director of the Social Progress Imperative, a non-profit organization that publishes the index, told Thomson Reuters Foundation. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to let public see how Medicare pays doctors Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 06:09 PM PDT  The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it will for the first time reveal how much Medicare pays individual doctors for medical services and procedures, including MRIs and CT scans. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will release on April 9 massive amounts of data on more than 880,000 individual doctors and other health professionals in all 50 states who participate in Medicare's Part B fee-for-service program, which covers physician fees and out-patient services. The information, which includes doctors' names and addresses and summaries of their services, had been barred from public release by court injunction for more than 30 years until last May when a federal judge in Miami lifted the ban in response to a motion by Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. The American Medical Association, the flagship lobby group for doctors, had fought against lifting the injunction. Full Story | Top |
| Inspectors re-enter New Mexico nuclear waste site after leak Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:53 PM PDT By Joseph L. Kolb ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (Reuters) - An inspection team ventured into an underground nuclear waste disposal vault in New Mexico on Wednesday to begin an on-site investigation of a radiation leak nearly seven weeks ago that exposed 21 workers and forced a shutdown of the facility. The mission by experts from the company that manages the site marked the first time since the mishap that workers have been sent deep into the salt caverns of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, where drums of plutonium-tainted refuse from nuclear weapons factories and laboratories are buried. Located about 25 miles east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the Chihuahuan Desert, the facility is the nation's only permanent repository for the U.S. government's stockpile of nuclear waste, much of it left over from the Cold War era. Although an alarm automatically switched the ventilation system to filtration to keep radiation from spreading, trace amounts of manmade isotopes such as americium-241, a byproduct of nuclear weapons manufacturing, were measured at the surface. Full Story | Top |
| Appeals court allows Texas executions to proceed Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 05:33 PM PDT  By Jon Herskovitz and Heide Brandes AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court overturned a temporary stay of execution on Wednesday for two Texas inmates challenging the state's lack of disclosure about the supplier of the drugs to be used in their lethal injections this month. The decision puts back on track an execution scheduled for Thursday evening that had been suspended temporarily earlier on Wednesday by a federal judge in Houston, who found that Texas has hidden information about the supplier of the drugs. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore ordered the state to disclose, under seal, information regarding its execution drug, finding that Texas had provided information about the process by which the inmates would be executed and "masked information about the product that will kill them." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said the case might be different if the state were using a drug never before used or unheard of, whose efficiency was completely unknown, which was not the case. Full Story | Top |
| SeaWorld lobbies against California bill to ban 'Shamu' shows Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:45 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - SeaWorld executives urged California lawmakers on Wednesday not to pass a bill banning live performances and captive breeding of killer whales, a move that would force the company's San Diego marine theme park to end its popular "Shamu" shows. Executives met with lawmakers and aides in private meetings over two days, and it was the first time in years that SeaWorld hired an outside lobbyist to advance its interests. Many consumers are re-thinking the company's use of marine mammal parks in the wake of last year's film "Blackfish," which dealt with the treatment of killer whales at SeaWorld parks and the death of a trainer in 2010. "This film was a piece of propaganda and an attempt to exploit a tragic incident," John Reilly, president of SeaWorld's flagship San Diego park, told lawmakers and legislative aides attending a briefing in the state capital on Wednesday. Full Story | Top |
| Advocacy groups plan new lawsuit against Texas abortion limits Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:38 PM PDT By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) - Advocacy groups filed a new lawsuit on Wednesday to challenge restrictions in Texas that have caused a third of abortion clinics there to close. It was filed in an Austin federal court by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of Whole Woman's Health and other abortion providers, the groups said on Wednesday. The lawsuit seeks to block provisions in the Texas law that are due to go into effect later this year to impose surgical center standards on abortion clinics, according to the plaintiffs. "It's sad that we have to turn to the courts to fight this battle but Whole Woman's Health will do what it takes to do right by the women who need us across the state," founder Amy Hagstrom Miller told reporters on a conference call. Full Story | Top |
| Party drug Ketamine could help treat severe depression: research Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 04:04 PM PDT By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - The party drug ketamine could one day be used to help some people suffering from severe depression, according to British scientists who gave infusions of the narcotic nicknamed "special K" to patients. Researchers who tested the drug on 28 people with major depressive disorder found ketamine quickly helped relieve the condition for some - and made a number of them completely well again for up to several weeks. But it's not about to become a routine treatment," Rupert McShane, a consultant psychiatrist and researcher at Oxford University who led the study, told reporters. "We've seen remarkable changes in people who've had severe depression for many years that no other treatment has touched," McShane said. Full Story | Top |
| Judge sets trial date on Alabama abortion law, extends injunction Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 03:42 PM PDT By Verna Gates BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday set a May 19 trial date to determine whether a new Alabama law requiring doctors who perform abortions to obtain hospital admitting privileges poses a significant impediment for women seeking an abortion. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson scheduled a non-jury trial to examine if the law, which was passed last year by the Alabama Legislature, violates the constitutional rights of women who want an abortion. Two organizations that support abortion are challenging the law, arguing it will force the closure of three of the five abortion clinics in the state. Supporters of the law say it is intended to help ensure women will have adequate health care in the event of complications from an abortion procedure. Full Story | Top |
| Appeals court halts enforcement of Arizona abortion drug curbs Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 03:25 PM PDT A federal appeals court sided with abortion rights advocates on Tuesday in temporarily blocking Arizona from enforcing regulations that restrict access to abortion-inducing drugs by prohibiting off-label uses. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction stopping enforcement of the statute while opponents, including Planned Parenthood, sought to overturn it in court. The FDA has approved RU-486, the so-called "abortion pill," for use within seven weeks' gestation. Doctors who have prescribed it later than that have made an off-label use that is not allowed under the Arizona rules. Full Story | Top |
| Blue Cross group sees Obamacare premium payments at 80-85 percent Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 03:09 PM PDT  A leading federation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans said on Wednesday that it is receiving premium payments from 80 to 85 percent of its new Obamacare health insurance customers. The estimate, released by the Chicago-based Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, reflects enrollment activity among 35 Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 47 of the 50 states, including plans sold by WellPoint Inc, from October 1 through February 1. That data could help shed light on the integrity of administration figures that show 7.1 million people have signed up for private health insurance under President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare reform law. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association did not say how many of those who have signed up for coverage under Obamacare are new customers. Full Story | Top |
| Exchange student falls to death in Denver after eating marijuana cookie Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 02:49 PM PDT  By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - An African exchange student plummeted to his death from a hotel balcony after eating a marijuana-infused cookie, in the first reported pot-related death in the city since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, the Denver coroner's office said on Wednesday. Levi Thamba Pongi, 19, died on March 11 from injuries related to the fall and marijuana intoxication is listed as "a significant condition" that contributed to the accident, said Michelle Weiss-Samaras, spokeswoman for the Denver medical examiner's office. Possession and use by adults of small amounts of recreational marijuana is legal in Colorado. He went on a spring break in Denver with three other exchange students from the school to try marijuana, Weiss-Samaras said. Full Story | Top |
| Connecticut blocks chimp-attack victim's bid to sue state Wednesday, Apr 02, 2014 02:48 PM PDT  By Richard Weizel MILFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - A Connecticut woman whose face and hands were ripped off in an attack by a friend's pet chimpanzee in 2009, on Wednesday was denied a bid to sue the state for up to $150 million to cover her medical expenses. The state legislature's judiciary committee voted 35-3 against Charla Nash's request to sue the state to cover injuries she suffered when the 200-pound (90 kilogram) chimpanzee mauled her while she was visiting the home of her friend and employer, who owned the animal. State Attorney General George Jepsen had said that allowing the suit to proceed would "open the floodgates for unlimited lawsuits and liability that would bankrupt the state." Attorneys for Nash had argued that the state should have removed the animal from her friend's home, noting that the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection was aware of its presence and, in one report, had called it "an accident waiting to happen." Nash, 60, has undergone a face transplant, a failed double-hand transplant and many other surgeries since the attack. Full Story | Top |
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