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SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011 PAGE 5A
Blueprint proposes to cut $6.2 trillion and overhaul Medicare
House passes spending cut plan
By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press
AP PHOTO
Refreshing way to ring in New Year
A Thai gets a splash of water during New Year celebrations in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday. HAVANA
Communist summit begins
WASHINGTON — The House on Friday passed a Republican budget blueprint proposing to fundamentally overhaul Medicare and combat out-of-control budget deficits with sharp spending cuts on social safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid. The nonbinding plan lays out a fiscal vision cutting $6.2 trillion over the coming decade from the budget submitted by President Barack Obama. It passed 235-193 with every Democrat voting "no." The vote sets up the Republicans’ next round of confrontation with Obama and Democrats over the country’s
long-term deficit levels — a standoff likely to come to a head this summer and set the stage for 2012 elections. In an interview with The Associated Press earlier Friday, Obama the president said the Republican’s budget represents "a pessimistic vision." "It’s one that says that America can no longer do some of the big things that made us great, that made us the envy of the world," he said. Acknowledging that spending cuts would have to be made, Obama said he’s pushing for “a smart compromise that’s
serious.” Under the House Republican plan, deficits requiring the federal government to borrow more than 40 cents for every dollar it spends would be cut by the end of the decade to 8 cents of borrowing for every dollar spent. “This budget framework gets to the heart of what the American people want: big spending cuts, a downsizing of Washington and job creation,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Marino, R-Lycoming Twp. “I was proud to vote for this resolution and to take the first step on a journey that will lead to financial stability and private-sector job creation.” The plan by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a rising
figure in the party, exposes Republicans to political risk. It proposes transforming Medicare from a program in which the government directly pays medical bills into a voucher-like system that subsidizes purchases of private insurance plans. People 55 and over would remain in the current system, but younger workers would receive subsidies that would steadily lose value over time. The budget measure is nonbinding but lays out a vision to fundamentally reshape government benefit programs for the poor and elderly whose spiraling costs threaten to crowd out other spending and produce a crippling debt burden that could put a big drag on the economy in the future.
Evacuees unhappy with offer
Severe weather hits Oklahoma and Arkansas
Communist Party summit set to A start this weekend on the 50th
anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion offers Cuba’s aging leaders a last hurrah to celebrate the victories of their past, and perhaps a final chance to salvage their revolution’s future. Part pep rally, part nostalgia tour, part leadership shake-up, the Sixth Party Congress is designed to consecrate the once-unthinkable free market economic changes enacted by President Raul Castro as the country’s only path to prosperity. Even the 79-year-old president acknowledges it will be the last such gathering under the island’s graying old guard — and they have a lot riding on its success.
Japan nuclear plant operator initially will pay $12,000 to each of affected households. By SHINO YUASA and MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press
ATLANTA
MLK sanctuary reopens The voice of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. again filled the halls of Ebenezer Baptist Church and a pipe organ triumphantly announced the reopening of the sacred sanctuary regarded as the birthplace of the civil rights icon’s vision of justice, equality and a nonviolent society. The King family was joined by members of the civil rights movement and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in celebrating the reopening of Ebenezer, called the cornerstone of King’s legacy. Salazar said the church is "hallowed ground for a nation still very much in progress." "To be here this afternoon is to feel that history and remember out personal connection," Salazar told the crowd gathered in the building, which was closed to visitors in 2007. BEIRUT
Protesters march on capital Tens of thousands of protesters shouting “We want freedom!” made a bold march on the Syrian capital Friday, but security forces beat them back with tear gas and batons as the country’s monthlong uprising swelled to the largest and most widespread gatherings to date, witnesses and activists said. The violence outside of Damascus was the only major unrest reported during protests in several Syrian cities Friday, with security forces generally watching from the sidelines instead of cracking down. The change suggests President Bashar Assad may be trying to minimize deaths that have served to further outrage and mobilize the protesters. BELLE CHASSE, LA.
Gulf oil rescuers honored Nearly one year after an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig killed 11 workers and led to the nation’s worst offshore oil spill, the Coast Guard honored a supply vessel’s crew who helped rescue 115 survivors. During a ceremony Friday at an air station in Belle Chasse, Coast Guard Vice Admiral Sally Brice-O’Hara presented awards to nine crew members of the Damon B. Bankston and about two dozen helicopter pilots, rescue swimmers and other Coast Guard personnel who responded the April 20 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The awards include the Coast Guard’s certificate of valor and distinguished public service award. "We pay tribute to their readiness, to their quick thinking, to their expert ship handling," Brice-O’Hara said of the supply vessel’s crew. "Today we honor you for your willingness to act. We recognize you for a job well done." Alwin Landry, who commanded the Bankston on the night of the explosion, thanked the Coast Guard crews that flew in and tended to injured workers.
AP PHOTO
JEROME WHITTINGTON ATTEMPTS to salvage belongings through the window of his automobile in Tushka, Okla., Friday, following a tornado Thursday night. At least nine people died as a result of storms in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Most of the damage was attributed to winds that struck with hurricane force during the night. Heavy rain and hail were reported elsewhere in the states as the spring storm system pushed east. There also were reports of damage to a few mobile homes and other structures.
Troops hit rebel city
Gadhafi forces launch attack By KARIN LAUB and BEN HUBBARD Associated Press
TRIPOLI, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi’s troops launched a powerful assault with tanks and rockets Friday on Misrata, the last major rebel city in western Libya, sending residents fleeing to increasingly crowded safe areas of the city that are still out of the Libyan leader’s reach. Misrata has become emblematic of the limits of NATO’s air campaign, with the alliance’s top military commander saying he needs more precision attack aircraft to avoid civilian casualties in urban combat. President Barack Obama acknowledged in an interview that the two-month-old
civil war has reached a stalemate. After a weeklong flurry of high-level diplomatic meetings in Europe and the Middle East, rebel leaders complained that the international community is not doing enough to keep Gadhafi’s troops at bay. Friday’s attacks on Misrata — even as NATO foreign ministers meeting in Berlin debated handling of the Libya air campaign — highlight rebel worries that international intervention won’t come fast enough or will be ineffective. “Time is critical, especially for the peoAP PHOTO ple in the west part of the country, especially in Misrata,” said Mustafa Gheriani, A Libyan man prays Friday in front of a a spokesman for the rebels. coffin in Ajdabiya on Thursday.
TOKYO — The crisis at Japan’s tsunami-crippled nuclear plant forced Kazuko Suzuki to flee her home without packing, ended her job at a welfare office and cost her 18-year-old son an offer for work of his own. The plant operator’s announcement Friday that it would pay $12,000 in initial compensation to each evacuated household struck her as far too little to repay her family for the economic turmoil it has already suffered. “I’m not satis- Roughly fied,” said the 48,000 49-year-old sin- households gle mother living within from Futaba, who has lived about 20 for the past miles of the month with her crippled plant two teenage sons at a shelter would be in a high school eligible for north of Tokyo. the initial “I feel like this is just a way to payments. take care of this quickly.” Suzuki is among tens of thousands forced to leave their homes because of radiation leaking from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, unsure of when, if ever, they will be able to return. The complex’s cooling systems were disabled by the March 11 tsunami, which was spawned by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. Roughly 48,000 households living within about 20 miles (30 kilometers) of the crippled plant would be eligible for the initial payments — 1 million yen (about $12,000) for families and 750,000 yen (about $9,000) for single adults, the government said. The government said more was expected to be paid later.
Virginia Tech mulls appeal of fine as it marks grim anniversary By LARRY O’DELL and DENA POTTER Associated Press
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Four years after a troubled student gunned down 32 in a campus rampage, Virginia Tech officials remain adamant that they did nothing wrong by waiting two hours to warn the campus that a gunman was on the loose. Today, the school will mourn the victims of the April 16, 2007 mass shooting — the worst in modern U.S. history — with a 3.2-mile Run for Remembrance and a candlelight vigil. Mean-
while, school officials are strongly leaning toward appealing a $55,000 fine for violating federal law with its response the day of the shootings. They have until April 29 to decide. “Truth, accountability, apology, forgiveness — you have to get through the first three to get to the fourth,’’ said Joseph Samaha, whose daughter Reema was killed. “Somebody needs to say, ‘I made a mistake.’ ’’ Virginia Tech says it acted reasonably based on standards in place at the time and doesn’t
deserve the fine that the U.S. Department of Education has imposed. President Charles Steger argues that federal bureaucrats with the benefit of hindsight are holding the university to stricter standards. “We were there, and given the information we had and the circumstances we faced, I believe we acted appropriately,’’Steger said. Steger said the school’s likely appeal is an attempt to make the government explain its rationale — not to escape accountability.
A memorial marker for Virginia Tech shooting victim professor G.V. Loganathan is marked with flowers at the school in Blacksburg, Va. AP PHOTO
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