Obama says reform won't reduce coverage
RALEIGH, N.C., July 29 (UPI) -- Healthcare reform won't cut Medicare benefits, signal a government-run system or force people to drop coverage they like, U.S. President Obama said Wednesday.
"Just tell your mom, nobody's messing with her doctor, nobody's messing with her Medicare," Obama told an elderly woman during a town hall meeting at a Kroger Co. grocery store in Bristol, Va.
Earlier, at a stop in Raleigh, N.C., the president said healthcare reform would provide more stability and security.
"What we need, and what we will have when we pass these reforms, are health insurance consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and insurance companies are held accountable," he said.
As he has repeatedly, he said the healthcare bill he signs must be deficit-neutral.
Obama addressed the politics of healthcare reform, saying lawmakers who complain of not being able to read the bill have an opportunity to do so, since it likely won't be voted on before the fall.
He smacked opponents of the various proposals floating in Congress, commenting that they've said, "The more we can delay, the better chance we have of killing the bill."
In a question-and-answer session at the Virginia grocery store, Obama said a healthcare network, including a public option, would enable patients to choose the best policy for them, while keeping insurance companies "honest."
Large companies that don't provide health insurance force others to pick up the tab through costs including Medicaid and emergency room visits, and such companies need to heed a message, he said:
"If you're not providing health insurance," the president said, "then you need to pony up a little bit of money to help pay for the fact that somebody somewhere is going to be taking care of your employees' healthcare."
Boston cop out after alleged Gates slur
BOSTON, July 29 (UPI) -- A Boston police officer has been suspended for allegedly referring to black Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by a racial slur, officials said.
Officer Justin Barrett, who is white, sent an anonymous mass e-mail calling Gates, who is black, a "jungle monkey" to fellow National Guard members after the professor's July 16 arrest in Cambridge, Mass., The Boston Globe reported on its Web site Wednesday.
When confronted by a supervisor, Barrett, a two-year veteran, admitted he had sent it, the Boston Herald reported.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis learned of the e-mail Tuesday and stripped Barrett of his gun and badge, WCVB, Boston, reported Wednesday. It remained unclear when Barrett allegedly sent the e-mail.
Davis told Mayor Thomas M. Menino of the e-mail Tuesday night, and the mayor compared Barrett to a cancer, saying he is "gone -- g-o-n-e'' from the force, the Globe reported.
"That stuff doesn't belong in our city and we're not going to tolerate it," the Globe quoted Menino's telling Davis.
Barrett faces a termination hearing in the next week, police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll told the Globe. He has no previous disciplinary record, she said.
The Globe said Barrett could not immediately be reached for comment.
The arrest of Gates sparked a national debate on relations between police and minorities. Sgt. James Crowley, who is white, arrested Gates, on a disorderly conduct charge, which was dropped. Gates and a taxi driver had been trying to force open a jammed door at the professor's house.
Closing arguments in Jefferson trial
ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 29 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson violated his oath of office by taking bribes, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday in her closing argument.
In Alexandria, Va., Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Bellows said Jefferson, D-La., "lined his own pockets with cash," The Washington Post reported. Jefferson allegedly took the money from telecommunications companies that wanted to do business in Africa.
"It's time, at long last, to bring Congressman Jefferson to justice," Bellows said.
However, in his closing argument, Jefferson lead attorney Robert Trout said the federal government had made a crime of the congressman's actions when they really were in the "gray area" of ethics and the appearance of impropriety, The Times-Picayune in New Orleans reported.
"There is a difference between a gray area and committing a crime," he said, the newspaper reported. " ... What is appropriate, what is ethical is not the issue in this case."
Before Bellows began, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III refused to dismiss an obstruction of justice count, the Times-Picayune reported. Jefferson faces 16 criminal counts.
With both sides completing their arguments, Ellis said he planned to give the jury instructions Thursday
Jefferson, who lost his seat last year in a close election, faces a lengthy prison term if convicted.
The most notorious development in the case was the FBI's discovery of thousands of dollars in cash concealed in a freezer during a search of Jefferson's home in Virginia.
U.N. panel pays $430M for Kuwait invasion
UNITED NATIONS, July 29 (UPI) -- A total of $430 million was disbursed Wednesday to claimants by a U.N. reparations panel that settles damage claims stemming from Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
The latest round of payments by the U.N. Compensation Commission brings the overall to-date amount paid to $28 billion, the United Nations said in a news release.
The overwhelming majority of funds for compensation payments came from the sale of Iraqi petroleum under the so-called Oil-for-Food program, which ended in 2003, and under arrangements made through U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The panel, based in Geneva, Switzerland, has received nearly 3 million claims since it was established in 1991, the United Nations said.
Holder worried about homegrown terror
WASHINGTON, July 29 (UPI) -- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC News in an exclusive interview Wednesday he is increasingly worried about homegrown terrorists.
Earlier this week, the FBI arrested seven people from North Carolina on terror-related charges. The group allegedly traveled to Gaza, Jordan, Kosovo and Pakistan, where one of the defendants is believed to be hiding.
The alleged ringleader, Daniel Patrick Boyd, was estranged from his mosque and taught Islamic courses to young Muslims from his home, ABC said.
In an interview in his sports utility vehicle on the way home from work, Holder told ABC: "That's one of the things that's particularly troubling: this whole notion of radicalization of Americans. Leaving this country and going to different parts of the world and then coming back, all, again, in aim of doing harm to the American people, is a great concern."
Holder said it was still hard "to figure out how to prioritize these things in some ways. The constant scream of threats, the kind of things you have to be aware about, the whole notion of radicalization is something that didn't loom as large a few months ago ... as it does now. And that's the shifting nature of threats that keeps you up at night," ABC reported.
