AP-NORC poll: Negotiate on ‘Obamacare,’ don’t just kill it
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans overwhelmingly want lawmakers of both parties to work out health care changes, with only 13 percent supporting Republican moves to repeal “Obamacare” absent a replacement, according to a new poll.
Although a deep partisan divide endures over the 2010 Affordable Care Act, people may be less far apart on what policymakers should try next, says the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey.
In the poll, 8 in 10 said Republicans should approach Democrats with an offer to negotiate if the current GOP overhaul effort fails, rather than sticking with their own “repeal and replace” campaign of the past seven years. And nearly 9 in 10 said Democrats should take Republicans up on such an offer.
The poll was conducted as the GOP’s plan floundered in the Senate during the past week.
A foundation for common ground seems to be this: Nearly everyone wants changes to the Obama law, while hardly anyone wants to see it abolished without a substitute in place. The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday the GOP repeal of Obama health law without replacement means 32 million more uninsured by 2026.
Army general among Thais convicted of human trafficking
BANGKOK (AP) — A Thai army general was one of dozens of people found guilty Wednesday in a major human trafficking trial that included 103 defendants accused of involvement in a modern-day slavery trade.
Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen was convicted of several offenses involving trafficking and taking bribes in the case involving migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
He had held a position with responsibility for keeping out and expelling migrants who entered Thailand illegally. Because he was a government official, any sentence he receives will be double that of an ordinary citizen who violated the same trafficking laws.
At least one other defendant considered a kingpin in the illegal trade, Pajjuban Aungkachotephan, was also found guilty. He was a prominent businessman and former politician in the southern province of Satun.
By Wednesday evening, 62 people were found guilty, with sentences ranging from four years to the maximum 50 years allowed under the criminal code, officials said. Individual sentences were not immediately announced.
All the defendants were charged with human trafficking and pleaded not guilty.
The defendants were arrested in 2015 after 36 bodies were discovered in shallow graves in southern Thailand in what had served as holding camps until migrants could be smuggled over the border into Malaysia, the intended destination for most. Other such camps with scores more bodies were found, some on the Malaysian side of the frontier.
House panel moves ahead on budget with hopes for tax reform
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key House panel on Wednesday divided along party lines as it slogged through a daylong debate over a Republican budget that would slash safety net programs while rewarding the military with a $70 billion boost.
The Budget Committee plan would pave the way for Republicans to overhaul the tax code, a top priority of President Donald Trump. Passing a budget through Congress is the only way to get a GOP-only tax plan enacted this year.
But the budget outline faces opposition from both wings of the party. Republican conservatives want more of its proposed cuts to actually take effect, while moderates want to focus on tax reform instead of cuts to benefit programs like food stamps.
The nonbinding GOP plan promises to cut more than $5 trillion from the budget over the coming decade, though Republicans only appear serious about enacting a relatively modest $203 billion deficit cut over the same period through filibuster-proof follow-up legislation.
Republicans argue that growing deficits and debt are part of the reason for slow economic growth and that big benefit plans like Medicare and Medicaid need changes now to keep them from going broke for future generations.
Minneapolis police officer has yet to talk to investigators
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Four days after a Minneapolis police officer fatally shot a woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape, the officer has yet to talk with investigators, and his attorney has given no indication he ever will.
Some legal experts say the move is wise and well within the officer’s rights. But without Officer Mohamed Noor’s version of events, there’s virtually no explanation for what happened Saturday when he fired a shot from the passenger seat of a squad car, past his partner in the driver’s seat and killed Justine Damond, 40, who was standing outside the vehicle.
Details that have emerged raised new questions Wednesday about whether proper police procedures were followed.
According to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Noor’s partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, told investigators he was driving in the alley with all of the vehicle’s lights off when he was startled by a loud noise, which authorities did not describe. Harrity said Damond appeared at the driver’s side window “immediately afterward” and Noor fired, striking her in the abdomen. She died at the scene.
Television station KSTP, citing a source it did not name, said the two officers thought they were being targeted for an ambush when they heard a pounding noise on the driver’s side. Noor had his gun on his lap.
Illinois sheriff IDs another victim of John Wayne Gacy
CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois sheriff’s office said Wednesday that it has identified a Minnesota runaway as one of the victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said in a news release that the remains of a person whose body was found under the crawl space of Gacy’s Chicago area home in 1978 were those of 16-year-old James “Jimmie” Byron Haakenson. The teenager had left his home in 1976 and was last heard from in August of that year when he called his mother and told her he was in Chicago.
Gacy was convicted of killing 33 young men and was executed in 1994. Haakenson was one of eight of Gacy’s victims who were buried without being identified. Dart’s office exhumed the remains of all eight in 2011 in an effort to identify them using DNA testing.
At the time, Dart asked that relatives of young men who vanished between 1970 and Gacy’s 1978 arrest submit saliva samples so that their DNA could be compared with the DNA of the remains. He said he hoped advances in scientific technology would allow investigators to figure out who the eight victims were.
Two siblings of the teen were among the scores of relatives who submitted saliva samples. Dart said that there was a “strong genetic association” between the siblings and the teen’s remains.
