Obama to give healthcare speech next week
WASHINGTON, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress on healthcare reform during prime time Sept. 9, a senior official said Wednesday.
Obama plans to offer more specifics about what he wants to see in a healthcare bill, aides told Politico.
Presidential aides said Obama doesn't plan to make a public health insurance option a make-or-break issue when he spells out his specifics.
"We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition," an aide told the Washington publication. "There are lots of different ways to get there."
While Obama has offered a broad outline of what he wants in any healthcare legislation, he left the task of hashing out details to Congress.
"We're entering a new season," senior White House adviser David Axelrod said on CNN. "It's time to synthesize and harmonize these strands and get this done."
Obama's goal is to create "the best possible situation for consumers" by fostering competition and choice, Axelrod said.
"We want to bring a measure of security to people who have health insurance today," he said. "We want to help those who don't have coverage today, because they can't afford it, get insurance they can afford. And we want to do it in a way that reduces the overall cost of the system as a whole."
Official: LA-area fire human-caused
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- The monster Station Fire burning north of Los Angeles was human-caused, a U.S. Forest Service official said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, fire crews prepared for potential setbacks because of returning drier conditions, MSNBC.com reported.
Investigators don't know specifically how the Station Fire was started but have enough information to determine it was caused by a person, the Forest Service's deputy incident commander Carlton Joseph said during a news conference. Investigators were determining whether the fire was accidental or arson and identified the point of origin as mile marker 29 on Angeles Crest Highway.
Firefighters caught a weather break Tuesday when moister, cooler conditions moved into the area.
"Now we're going to have drier conditions, so fire activity is going to pick up quite a bit," Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mark Whaling said Wednesday. "It's still a very dynamic fire even though it looks calm right now."
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger visited the fire area Wednesday, dishing up breakfast for firefighters and giving them protein so "they get all pumped up for the next fight out there with those fires."
Since erupting Aug. 26, the Angeles National Forest blaze has burned through nearly 219 square miles, destroyed more than five dozen structures, killed two firefighters and forced thousands of people from their homes.
Officials also expressed concern about the fire's threat to the Mount Wilson observatory and communications complex, the Los Angeles Times said.
As of Monday, California had spent $21 million fighting the fire, CNN reported.
"I've made it clear that even though we have a budget crunch ... we will always have the money available to fight the fires because public safety is our No. 1 priority," Schwarzenegger said, saying the budget has a $500 million reserve for emergencies such as fires.
Hurricane Jimena buffets Mexico's Baja
MIAMI, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Pacific Hurricane Jimena's wind and rain swept Mexico's Baja Peninsula Wednesday, as hurricane and tropical storm warnings forced thousands into shelters.
At 11 a.m. PDT, the center of Hurricane Jimena was located about 60 miles north of Cabo San Lazaro, as a hurricane warning was in effect from Agua Blanca northward to Punta Abreojos on Baja's west coast and from La Paz northward to Mulege on the east coast.
Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Jimena's sustained winds had decreased during the day to 90 mph, while hurricane-force winds extended outward as far as 35 miles from the center and tropical storm-force winds extended 140 miles outward.
The storm was expected to weaken during the next 24 hours as Jimena moved inland, the hurricane center said.
Jimena was expected to produce 5-10 inches of rain over the southern half of the Baja Peninsula and parts of western Mexico during the next few days, forecasters said.
Early Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported as least 5,000 people had taken refuge in government shelters as the storm approached.
Poll: White Americans in political middle
PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- About half of white Americans fall in their political parties' conventional segments, with only a few nibbling at the parties' edges, a Gallup Poll indicates.
Only 6 percent identified themselves as conservative white Democrats and 11 percent said they were moderate-to-liberal white Republicans, result from Gallup's study released Wednesday showed. However, nearly half of the respondents fit in the more conventional categories of moderate-liberal white Democrats or conservative white Republicans.
The Gallup analysis looked at more than 47,000 interviews the Princeton, N.J., polling agency conducted from July to mid-August, focusing mainly on the combination of party and ideology among the 72 percent of U.S. adults who are non-Hispanic whites, pollsters said.
Gallup said political ideology and partisanship of blacks, Hispanics, and other ethnic and racial groups would be reviewed in future reviews.
Data analyzed are based on a sample of 47,413 adults, age 18 and older, interviewed by telephone between July 1 and Aug. 17. The margin of error is 1 percentage point.
Youngstown to welcome ex-Rep. Traficant
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Federal prison officials said former U.S. Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, was being released Wednesday after serving seven years for bribery.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer said Traficant planned to return to his home turf in Youngstown, Ohio, where his reputation still has some of its old luster.
"People in this valley adored Jim Traficant," said pizzeria owner John Thompson. "He actually cared about people here. He spoke for the little guy."
T-shirts saying "Welcome Home, Jimbo" were being sold around Youngstown, and 1,000 people are expected to attend a dinner in his honor this weekend, the newspaper said.
Traficant, 68, was known for sometimes-crude vitriol and fierce opposition to the Internal Revenue Service and international trade policies that he said hurt his constituents. His 18-year tenure as a Democratic member of the House ended in 2002 with his conviction on 10 corruption-related counts.
Traficant's wife told the Plain Dealer her husband planned to re-connect with his family, but she did not know his long-term plans.
Convicted felons are not prohibited from serving in Congress, and the newspaper said some of his old supporters have kicked around the idea of running him for office again.
Earthquake hits Indonesia; dozens killed
JAKARTA, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A powerful earthquake struck Wednesday off the southern coast of Java, killing at least 34 people and rocking buildings in Jakarta, Indonesian officials said.
No tsunami watches, warnings or advisories were in effect by Wednesday evening, although the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center alerted local authorities to be aware of possible local surges and take appropriate precautions, The New York Times reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake's magnitude at 7.
Government officials warned the death toll could be higher because communications with some of the affected areas have been severed, The Jakarta Post reported.
Rustam S. Pakaya, director of the Health Ministry's disaster control center, said deaths were reported in Tasikmalaya, Cianjur, Banjar and Garut, all in West Java province.
Officials said at least 305 people were injured, Japan's Kyodo News Service said.
Witnesses reported windows were shattered in several buildings in Jakarta, about 120 miles away from the quake's epicenter, Kyodo said.
In Tasikmalaya, officials said several older buildings were damaged and people panicked in the streets because of the lack of electricity, a witness told CNN. Tasikmalaya is about 88 miles from the quake's epicenter.
The United Nations said it was preparing to participate in an emergency assessment mission on Java. The U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said an inter-agency assessment team led by the Indonesian government and backed by U.N. agencies would begin working Thursday to assess the situation and determine priority needs for the local population.
