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World News
TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
June 30 - July 6, 2012
Supreme Court upholds Obamacare 5-4 THE U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the controversial health care law championed by President Barack Obama in a landmark decision that will impact the November election and the lives of every American. In a 5-4 ruling, the high court decided the individual mandate requiring people to have health insurance is valid as a tax, even though it is impermissible under the Constitution’s commerce clause. “In this case, however, it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but choose to go without health insurance,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “Such legislation
Delroy Simmonds poses with Maria Zamara and her 9-month-old son, who he saved.
Hero who saved baby from subway tracks gets new gig after a year without a job THE UNEMPLOYED hero who plucked a baby from the subway tracks in Brooklyn was reunited with the tot Wednesday — right after getting a new job. “That’s the little man that got me a job today,” Delroy Simmonds said during a reunion with little David Zamara at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center. “It feels amazing. Just seeing him alive,” Simmonds, a father of two, told the 9-month-old child’s mom, Maria Zamara. “It’s a miracle.” Simmonds, who had been unemployed for over a year, went straight to the hospital after getting hired as a maintenance man at Kennedy Airport. “I remember you,” Maria Zamara told Simmonds. “Thank you.” She said her boy, whose head was bandaged, is “doing fine.” Just two days after showing bravery in the face of peril, Simmonds accepted a position Wednesday with a janitorial company even as other job offers began to pour in.
is within Congress’s power to tax.” The importance of the decision cannot be overstated: It will have an immediate and long-term impact on all Americans, both in how they get medicine and health care, and also in vast, yet-unknown areas of “commerce.” The most anticipated Supreme Court ruling in years allows the government to continue implementing the health care law, which doesn’t take full effect until 2014. That means popular provisions that prohibit insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and allow parents to keep their children on family policies to the age of 26 will continue. The opinion was a victory for Obama but also will serve as a rallying issue for Republicans calling for repeal of the Affordable Care Act . Roberts joined the high court’s liberal wing -- Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia
Supporters of the health care legislation celebrate after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in a 5-4 ruling Thursday, June 28.
Sotomayor and Elena Kagan -- in upholding the law. Four conservative justices -- Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas -- dissented. The polarising law, dubbed “Obamacare” by many, is the signature legislation of Obama’s
Tony Blair: I’d like to return as prime minister FORMER Prime Minister Tony Blair has revealed he would like to return to Downing Street, but has acknowledged this is “not likely to happen”. Mr Blair, who won three elections for Labour before leaving office in 2007, told the London Evening Standard he had “learned an immense amount” since. He added he “didn’t want to go” but had done so to avoid a “bloody battle” with supporters of Gordon Brown. The 59-year-old also urged Labour to pursue “strong, modern” policies. Since leaving office, Mr Blair has taken on several private-sector jobs, while also serving as a Middle East envoy for the “Quartet”, made up of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. He has also set up charitable foundations for faith, sport and Africa. ‘TWO-PARTY FIGHT’ There has been speculation in recent months that Mr Blair would return to a high-profile role within UK politics and, at the weekend, he told the BBC he would have been happy to stay as prime minister, in which role he came under pressure from supporters of Mr Brown to quit. Questioned about this by the Evening Standard, he said: “I didn’t want to go but I felt that I had to. The only choice would have been to have fought a very bloody battle internally which I thought would damage the country as well as the party.” Asked whether he would accept
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair feels he has a lot more to offer to the post of PM if he were elected again.
another term as prime minister if it was offered, he replied: “Yes, sure, but it’s not likely to happen is it, so...” Mr Blair, who was guest-editing the newspaper, suggested he might be better suited for the top job in British politics now than when he was in office. He said: “I have learned an immense amount in the past five years. One of my regrets is that what I have learned in the last five years would have been so useful to me [as prime minister], because when you see how the world is developing you get a far clearer picture of some of the issues our country is grappling with.” Mr Blair offered some advice for current Labour leader Ed Miliband, saying: “My advice to the Labour Party is to sort ourselves out with a strong, modern policy.”
time in office. It helped spur the creation of the conservative tea party movement and will be a centerpiece of the presidential election campaign. Both Obama and his presumptive Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, have been firing up supporters this week by staking out their positions. Speaking to supporters in Atlanta on Tuesday, Obama defended his health care law as the way forward for the American people.
“They understand we don’t need to refight this battle over health care,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do that we’ve got 3 million young people who are on their parent’s health insurance plans that didn’t have it before. It’s the right thing to do to give seniors discounts on their prescription drugs. It’s the right thing to do to give 30 million Americans health insurance that didn’t have it before.” Romney told supporters in Virginia the same day: “If Obamacare is not deemed constitutional, then the first three and a half years of this president’s term will have been wasted on something that has not helped the American people.” Romney, whose opposition to the law has been a rallying cry on the stump, continued: “If it is deemed to stand, then I’ll tell you one thing. Then we’ll have to have a president -- and I’m that one -- that’s gonna get rid of Obamacare. We’re gonna stop it on day one.” According to a poll released Tuesday, 37% of Americans said they would be pleased if the health care law were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. (CNN)
Japanese investigators are looking into whether a demented chef broke the law when he cooked his severed genitals and served them to five dinner guests.
police launch probe into a chef’s ‘human genitals’ dinner JAPANESE investigators are looking into whether a demented chef broke the law when he cooked his severed genitals and served them to five dinner guests. The guests at the May event knew they’d be dining on the chef’s private parts - in fact, they paid $250 for the pleasure. Chef Mao Sugiyama had his penis and testicles removed by a surgeon in March and kept them in his freezer for two months before cooking them at the exclusive Tokyo gathering. Some 70 people attended the dinner in the city’s Suginami ward, which opened with a short piano recital. Five diners then tucked into Sugiyama’s sautéed genitals — served with a side of button mushrooms and parsley — while the others ate beef or crocodile meat. Tokyo police began their probe
after the local mayor complained that it was obscene. “Many residents of Suginami and elsewhere have expressed a sense of discomfort and feeling of apprehension over this,” Suginami Mayor Ryo Tanaka said in a statement Monday. Sugiyama, a painter in his 20s who describes himself as “asexual,” announced the dinner in a tweet on April 8. “I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen …Will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location,” the tweet said. “The organs were surgically removed at age 22. I was tested to be free of venereal diseases,” it said. In later tweets, he said he took pains to make sure the dinner complied with Japanese food safety and medical waste regulations.