WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Reforms will slightly accelerate the rise in healthcare spending, according to a survey released on Thursday, handing Republicans more ammunition as they attack the Obama administration's legislative victory.
The survey, conducted by U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid ...
California last year temporarily issued IOUs during a lengthy budget impasse. It was feared the state might again have to issue IOUs in September to preserve cash for priority payments, like those to investors holding the state's debt.
But August income was $264.6 million, 3.9 percent above the ...
EAGLES MERE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - In the rush to develop America's biggest new source of domestic energy, one community is fighting to protect its rural way of life from the environmental strains that accompany shale gas drilling.
Residents of this wealthy north-central Pennsylvania vacation ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state attorney general candidate Sean Coffey on Thursday said he was the only contender qualified to police Wall Street and called Democratic rivals career politicians fixated on becoming governor.
Coffey is one of five Democrats seeking the nomination to succeed ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medicare patients with more doctors to choose from do not necessarily get more or better care, researchers reported on Thursday in an analysis demonstrating how complicated U.S. healthcare reform will be.
The Dartmouth Atlas analysis questions the Obama administration's ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week to a two-month low, while the trade deficit narrowed sharply in July, hopeful signs for the stuttering economic recovery.
The data on Thursday helped to calm fears of a sharp slowdown in growth and ...
A strengthening La Nina could "contribute to increased Atlantic hurricane activity by decreasing the vertical wind shear over the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic Ocean," said the CPC in a monthly update.
While storm projections have been scaled back recently, many weather watchers ...
The two sides have been at odds for years over what the IOC has said were far too large amounts of money from broadcasting and sponsoring deals flowing to the USOC based on old contracts.
"The IOC and the USOC have reached agreement on a significant financial contribution from the USOC to ...
"This is a recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda," Obama said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" program. "You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan. This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow ...
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the success of the TV show "Jersey Shore" made words like "BP Spillcam" and "Guido" among the most used words of the 2009-2010 TV season, according to a global language survey released on Thursday.
"BP ...
Sweden, in second spot, and Singapore in third leapfrogged the United States in the WEF's Global Competitiveness Report 2010/2011.
Last year the Asian city-state ranked third and Sweden fourth. There were no newcomers in the WEF's top 10, although Germany climbed to fifth from seventh.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New U.S. reforms are poised to dramatically shift the nation's healthcare spending, not only curbing Medicare costs but also pumping more money toward the private sector as roughly 32 million people gain coverage.
Although the law has little impact on overall healthcare ...
The study published on Friday in the journal "Health Affairs" recommended policy reforms and broader efforts to get uninsured children into government medical programs, including the use of income tax data for automatic enrollment.
An estimated 7.3 million children were uninsured on an ...
"The agreement cuts state spending, attacks the state's structural deficit, and continues reforms in government," the Democratic governor said in a statement. "These changes are essential if we are to maintain our critical investments in job-creation and education and provide the ...
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed the lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan Inc, finding that rules protecting state secrets made it impossible for the litigation to proceed. The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the case on behalf of Jeppesen.
A group of ...
Igor was bringing "squally" weather to the Cape Verde Islands, packing winds of 40 miles per hour as it moved west at just 6 mph. Early computer models showed the system strengthening into a hurricane in about three days as it moved west to northwest in the open Atlantic.
In addition, a ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Families of September 11 victims are arguing whether to call a truce on the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the United States as debate rages over plans for a Muslim center near the World Trade Center site.
The Muslim cleric leading the project reasserted on Tuesday that ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge refused on Tuesday to lift a ban on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research despite Obama administration warnings it would set back key research and cost more than a thousand jobs.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth rejected the Obama ...
The New York State Division of Parole turned down Mark David Chapman's request, citing concerns "about the disregard you displayed for the norms of our society and the sanctity of human life," according to a report by CNN.
The three-member parole board panel concluded in written comments ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. religious leaders on Tuesday condemned an "anti-Muslim frenzy" in the United States, including plans by a Florida church to burn a Koran on September 11, an act a top general said could endanger American troops abroad.
Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious ...
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced on Tuesday he would not run for re-election, ending a political dynasty in which a Daley has reigned over the nation's third-largest city for much of the past half century.
Daley's decision not to seek a seventh term in February leaves ...
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - An Alabama judge said on Tuesday he would appoint a receiver to oversee the sewer system revenues of debt-ridden Jefferson County, in a setback for county authorities.
The Bank of New York Mellon, trustee for the county's creditor banks, won its request for the ...
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (Reuters) - Court proceedings for a Colorado couple accused of abusing three girls adopted from Russia were postponed on Tuesday after a defense lawyer told a judge that plea negotiations were under way.
Edelwina Leschinsky, 44, and her husband Steven Leschinsky, 43, were ...
Governor Jodi Rell, who will leave office next January, proposed establishing a defined contribution plan for new state workers, increasing the retirement age to 65 from 62 and the early retirement age to 60 from 55 and raising the employee contribution.
Rell, a Republican, also proposed that in ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Appeals Court on Tuesday declined to consider a deeper legal review of patent settlements by drug companies that pay rivals to delay production of generic drugs, setting the stage for the Supreme Court or Congress to address the matter.
On April 29, a three-judge panel ...
Orszag's views differed from those of his former boss, President Barack Obama.
Orszag, who stepped down in July as Obama's budget chief, said the United States faces a "jobs deficit" near term and fiscal shortfalls that are unsustainable longer term.
The NIH has already designated another $10 million to begin the study, which will look at the health effects on clean-up workers from oil and dispersants, including respiratory, neurobehavioral, carcinogenic, and immune conditions.
The study will also include mental health concerns and other ...
MIAMI (Reuters) - Civil and military leaders stepped up calls on Tuesday for an obscure U.S. pastor to drop his plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, as fears grew it would fan religious hatred.
Pastor Terry Jones of the small Gainesville, Florida-based ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The State University of New York has adopted new practices to help prevent students from falling victim to deceptive credit card marketing that can burden them with too much debt in tough economic times.
Under an agreement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose ...
Hermine's path kept it away from major oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico, and refineries in Texas were unaffected by the passage of the storm, operators said.
The storm was expected to weaken during the next 48 hours and become a tropical depression later Tuesday.
These costs, which also include administrative costs, payments to plaintiffs and lawyer fees, account for 2.4 percent of annual U.S. healthcare spending, Michelle Mello of the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues reported.
So-called defensive medicine costs alone totaled an estimated ...
MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan warned on Monday that a small Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks could endanger the lives of American troops.
The warnings followed an angry protest on Monday by several hundred ...
The National Hurricane Center gave Gaston, which weakened to a remnant low-pressure area on Thursday soon after becoming a tropical cyclone, an 80 percent chance of redeveloping over the next 48 hours.
An area of low pressure over the extreme southwestern Gulf of Mexico became a tropical ...
on Saturday.
"We basically have secured this well," retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said. "We have essentially eliminated the threat of discharge from the well at this point."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he would outline new measures next week to boost the U.S. economy, but analysts were skeptical he would be able to deliver a big enough package to lift growth significantly.
Obama made his remarks after August data showed that jobs -- ...
HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. government inspectors found no leaking oil at Mariner Energy Inc's burned platform in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said late on Friday, allaying fears about more environmental damage after BP's massive spill.
"Inspectors have reported no sign of pollution," the ...
Skilling led Enron's transformation from a sleepy natural gas pipeline company into a global energy trading powerhouse, which disintegrated in bankruptcy in 2001.
Convicted in May 2006 of 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors, Skilling is currently in ...
CHATHAM, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Residents and business owners in the beach communities of Cape Cod and nearby islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard hung plywood over their shop windows on Friday and rued the arrival of Hurricane Earl, which appeared set to spoil their holiday weekend.
But ...
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors in Gabriel Capital LP, a so-called feeder fund that funneled money to imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff, were awarded $12.74 million by a panel of three arbitrators, court records show.
The award to two New Jersey investment funds was disclosed in a filing Thursday ...
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami Dade County, the Fraternal Order of Police said the city should void the cuts and come up with other ways to fill a $105 million budget gap, like stepping up its collections enforcement.
Miami declared a "financial emergency" in July and said ...
Christopher Ward, 41, admitted to issuing unauthorized checks and wire transfers from the National Republican Congressional Committee and other political committees between March 2001 and December 2007, the Justice Department said.
In addition to working for the NRCC accounting department, Ward ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama Administration is likely to stay focused on toughening regulatory oversight of the U.S. offshore oil industry and may push back lifting a ban on deepwater drilling after the latest accident in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts said on Thursday.
The fire on a Mariner ...
The Miami Herald said the man held, a former science professor at Texas Tech University identified as Thomas Butler, had been convicted in 2003 on federal charges related to shipping vials of plague bacteria.
His history may have raised red flags. But an FBI spokesman, who said he was unable to ...
By Susan Heavey and Lisa Richwine
SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) - It wasn't what you would call a casual get-together.
"I am in no sense writing off legislation over time. And I'm quite sure the president isn't," U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern told a news conference during two days of talks in Geneva among about 45 nations reviewing climate finance.
He said Washington would rely on a combination of ...
The study published on Friday in the journal "Health Affairs" recommended policy reforms and broader efforts to get uninsured children into government medical programs, including the use of income tax data for automatic enrollment.
An estimated 7.3 million children were uninsured on an ...
