NATION
Roswell Daily Record
Friday, December 6, 2013
1
Boneless Skinless
$ 49
Chicken Breast
AP Photo
Passengers on a Metro-North train view ongoing repair work near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx borough of New York, Wednesday, where a fatal derailment Sunday disrupted service on the Hudson Line of the railroad.
Prosecutors face tough choices in derailment NEW YORK (AP) — While the city’s MetroNorth Railroad is already getting hit with multimillion-dollar civil claims over a deadly commuter train derailment, prosecutors will face tough choices when deciding whether to bring criminal charges against the train’s engineer, who told investigators he nodded or fell into a daze at the controls. Legal experts say drowsy driving isn’t necessarily a crime, and it can be tough to prosecute drivers who nod off unless there are extra factors at play, such as drug use or brazen disregard for passenger safety. The prosecutor’s office investigating the engineer recently failed to convict a bus driver of manslaughter in a 2011 crash that killed more than a dozen passengers, in part because his drowsiness wasn’t accompanied by any such factors. “There’s a sentiment
that when something terrible happens, you have to hold someone accountable criminally — that’s not always the case,” said attor ney Andrew Abramson, who represented a Staten Island Ferry pilot sentenced to 18 months in prison following a deadly wreck in 2003. “Sometimes there is a tragedy, and it’s really a matter for the civil courts.” Federal and city investigators are gathering information about Sunday’s train accident, which killed four people and injured more than 60, and likely will spend months analyzing the conduct of engineer William Rockefeller. National Transportation Safety Board of ficials have said the train derailed in the Bronx after hitting a curve at 82 mph — far faster than the 30 mph speed limit. The accident happened at 7:20 a.m. Rockefeller’s lawyer said the engineer had gotten up at 3:30
a.m. for his 5 a.m. shift after going to bed at 8:30 the previous night. Rockefeller passed a level blood-alcohol breath test, officials said. His lawyer and union chief said he hadn’t been using drugs or doing anything else reckless, such as using a phone while at the controls. The NTSB is trying to build a timeline of what Rockefeller was doing in the 72 hours leading up to the accident, in part to deter mine whether he might have been sleepdeprived or suf fering from an undisclosed health condition. Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson, who would handle any prosecution, has declined to comment publicly on the case and hasn’t given a timeline on a decision about criminal charges. In past cases, prosecutors have commonly waited until the conclusion of the federal investigation to convene a grand jury.
Medicaid data for states incomplete on Fed’s site
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — People shopping for insurance on the federal marketplace may be infor med they’re eligible for Medicaid and that their information is being sent to state officials to sign them up. However, states say they aren’t able to enroll them because they’re receiving incomplete data from the Obama administration. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services wrote a memo to the 36 states using the federal website last week acknowledging the infor mation wasn’t being transferred automatically and saying another system was being developed to send it. More complete files could be sent as soon as next week. The technical problem could affect tens of thousands of Medicaid applicants and represents the latest issue to arise in the rollout of a website that’s been plagued with long waits for users and other glitches. Some users who fill out applications on the federal site may believe that they’re already being enrolled in Medicaid or that state officials will contact them, even though the agencies aren’t receiving the infor-
mation they need, said Matt Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. The data transfer problem is occurring in the 36 states where the federal site is deployed, regardless of whether they chose to expand Medicaid. “Essentially, if you’re a consumer on healthcare.gov, it will tell you you’re eligible for Medicaid and the state agency will take care of it, but there’s no real way for the state Medicaid agency to know anything about it,” said Salo, who leads the nonpartisan membership group for state Medicaid chiefs. The federal marketplace was designed to help people buy private insurance under President Barack Obama’s health overhaul. If shoppers qualified for Medicaid, the site was supposed to send their data to the Medicaid agency in their state. As explained on healthcare.gov, “When you finish this application, we’ll tell you which programs you and your family qualify for. If it looks like anyone is eligible for Medicaid, we’ll let the Medicaid agency know so your coverage can start in 2014.”
The site also says: “If you or a member of your family qualify for Medicaid or CHIP, a representative will contact you to enroll.” CHIP is a health insurance program for children. The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has devised an alternative way of sending files including the patient information to the states. “CMS announced that we will be providing states with additional flexibility to use existing processes to enroll individuals in Medicaid and CHIP who applied through the federal marketplace. This process will ensure that coverage will begin on Jan. 1 for newly eligible enrollees,” said spokeswoman Emma Sandoe. Salo said the federal government is currently sending states incomplete data files on people deemed eligible online — data called “flat files” — so that agencies can get a rough estimate of how many people they may need to enroll. New files with more information could be sent as soon as Tuesday, Salo said. But states are unsure the new files will be complete or accurate enough for enrollments.
A7
99
Sirloin End Pork Roast
¢
Fresh
lb.
Oscar Mayer Lunchables
10$
10
Select Varieties 3.1-4.4 oz.
FOR
Boneless
3
Regular or Hot 2 lb. roll
Shurfine Orange Juice
99
¢
3$
5
Select Varieties 64 oz.
FOR
Iceberg Lettuce
Shurfine Yogurt
99
99
¢
Premium Crisp
¢
Select Varieties 6 oz.
ea.
Navel Oranges
Roma Tomatoes
89
lb.
$ 99
Jimmy Dean Sausage
Shurfine 24 oz.
FOR
2
$ 99
Top Blade Roast or Arm Roast
White Sandwich Bread
3
lb.
2$
¢
Large Red Ripe
FOR
lb.
4
Sweet 4 lb. bag
5
Large
Ripe Avocados
5$
FOR
TWO BIG DAYS
December 6-7, 2013 IN ROSWELL
600 East 2nd • 800 West Hobbs • 2800 N. Main
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