Docs offered freeze in Medicare cuts
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Democratic leaders have offered to freeze cuts in Medicare payments to doctors in exchange for doctors' support of healthcare reform, sources say.
During a meeting on Capitol Hill last week with several doctors groups, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the Senate would consider legislation to freeze the cuts, mandated by a 1997 law, during the next decade, The Hill reported. In return, the leadership made clear it expected physician support for the healthcare bill, sources told the publication.
"They said they're going to need our help in getting healthcare reform over the goal line and they expect our support," a participant who represents doctors said of Reid, Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Banking Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.
"All three said the same thing: They want and expect our support," the participant said.
Another participant told the Washington publication White House officials "were in for five minutes and then went to the House side to talk strategy. They were there because the White House wanted to show how serious they were and to give their stamp of approval," the source said.
J. James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association, said it would be difficult for doctors to support the Senate healthcare legislation if long-term cuts to Medicare payments weren't addressed. The Finance Committee bill would increase doctors' payments by 0.5 percent in 2010, but leave doctors facing a 25 percent cut in 2011.
"It would be very challenging for physicians looking at a .5 percent increase next year and 25 percent cut the following year to say, 'Yay, let's support the reform bill' or to say the health reform bill would be viable," said Rohack, who didn't attend the meeting.
Man charged with murder in 2003 wildfire
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A Southern California man indicted Tuesday on five counts of murder stemming from a 2003 wildfire could face the death penalty, authorities said.
A San Bernardino County grand jury indicted Rickie Fowler, 28, who has been in prison in Lancaster, Calif. since 2003 on burglary charges, the Los Angeles Times reported. Fowler was charged in the deaths of six people who lived in the Old fire burn area and died of heart attacks, the newspaper said.
The fire destroyed an estimated 1,000 homes and burned more than 90,000 acres.
Fowler was also charged with aggravated arson with special circumstances. San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos said Fowler could face the death penalty if convicted.
Michael Valdez, a second suspect in the Old fire, was killed in a 2006 shooting at age 24.
Investigators connected Fowler and Valdez to the fire after receiving reports from witnesses who said they saw a man tossing what appeared to be lighted matches from a van, the Times reported.
Georgia puts convicted killer to death
JACKSON, Ga., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A Georgia man was put to death Tuesday for killing a Domino's Pizza manager during a 1994 robbery that brought him $130.
Mark McClain, 42, died at 7:24 p.m. EDT, officials at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson said. He had declined to make any last statement, The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle reported.
During his 1995 trial, McClain admitted shooting Kevin Brown, 28. But he said he did not intend to kill him.
McClain was on parole at the time of the robbery after doing time in South Carolina for a holdup. Prosecutors called him a hardened criminal.
Both the U.S. and Georgia supreme courts rejected last-minute appeals to delay the execution. Brian Kammer, McClain's lawyer, called the decisions "an intolerable result which institutionalizes a fundamental arbitrariness within Georgia's capital punishment system," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Death penalty opponents held vigils outside the prison, in Atlanta and elsewhere in the state. The execution was the third in 2009 and the 45th under Georgia's 1983 capital punishment law.
As Georgia prepared to execute his killer, friends in Augusta remembered Brown as a shy friendly man who loved playing the bass guitar. Stoney Cannon, a friend, began holding annual Kevin Scott Brown Rocking the Stocking concerts with live local bands in December 2004.
"Kevin loved music, Kevin loved helping people and that had a lot to do with what I've become," Cannon told WAGT-TV, Augusta.
U.S. high court refuses to review DUI case
WASINGTON, D.C., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday his colleagues have given drunken drivers "one free swerve" by refusing to review a Virginia DUI case.
The court majority did not comment on the decision, The Christian Science Monitor reported. Prosecutors appealed a state Supreme Court ruling in Virginia vs. Harris that an anonymous telephone call was not enough to justify a police stop.
Four of the nine justices must vote in favor of reviewing a specific case. Roberts, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, issued an unusual written dissent.
"The conflict is clear and the stakes are high," Roberts wrote. "The effect of the rule below will be to grant drunk drivers 'one free swerve' before they can legally be pulled over by police. It will be difficult for an officer to explain to the family of a motorist killed by that swerve that the police had a tip that the driver of the other car was drunk, but that they were powerless to pull him over, even for a quick check."
The driver argued his constitutional protection against unreasonable searches and seizures was violated because the police who pulled him over observed no problems with his driving.
