NATION BRIEFING Ex-Senate staffer indicted in leak probe
Justice Dept. won’t defend health law
The Trump administration says it no longer will defend the Affordable Care Act from a challenge filed by 20 states because it agrees that the law’s individual mandate is unconstitutional and that key parts – including provisions protecting those with pre-existing conditions – are invalid.
President Donald Trump has long declared the ACA, also known as “Obamacare,” to be a “disaster.”
The move upends a long-standing legal and democratic norm that the executive branch will uphold existing laws.
“I am at a loss for words to explain how big of a deal this is,” University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley said in a blog post.
“It suggests that future administrations can pick and choose which laws they’re going to enforce,” he said.
Trump says he may pardon Ali
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Friday that he might grant a posthumous pardon to heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, adding to the list of high-profile celebrity pardons the president is openly considering.
But the conviction for which Ali would be pardoned — evading the draft during the Vietnam War — was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. And Ali would also be covered by the blanket amnesty granted by President Jimmy Carter.
House passes $145B spending package
WASHINGTON – The GOP-controlled House on Friday passed a $145 billion spending bill funding Energy Department and veterans’ programs for the upcoming budget year.
Approval of the measure came over the opposition of Democrats on a 235-179 vote that sent it to the Senate, where action is expected to be more bipartisan.
The legislation includes a $5 billion increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs, including $1.1 billion to pay for earlier legislation giving veterans more freedom to see private doctors.
Flu season one of the deadliest for US kids
NEW YORK – The past flu season was the deadliest for U.S. children in nearly a decade, health officials said Friday.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said they had received reports of 172 pediatric flu deaths since October. That surpasses the 2012-2013 flu season, when there were 171. An average season sees about 110.
There were more deaths in 2009-2010, but that was when a rare flu pandemic occurred involving a new strain. More than 300 children died that season.
US pulls 2 from Cuba amid health worries
WASHINGTON – The United States has pulled out two more of its workers from its embassy in Cuba and is testing them for possible brain injury, three U.S. officials told the Associated Press on Friday.
The two are considered “potentially new cases” but have not yet been “medically confirmed,” a State Department official said.
Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania have been treating and studying Americans affected in Cuba last year as well as almost 10 new possible cases from a U.S. consulate in China. The cause is thus far unknown.
WASHINGTON – A veteran Senate Intelligence Committee staffer was arrested Thursday on charges of lying to FBI agents during an investigation into the leak of classified information.
Federal authorities also seized emails and phone records belonging to a New York Times reporter. James A. Wolfe, 58, is alleged to have made false statements to agents about his contacts with three reporters, according to court documents.
One of the reporters was identified as New York Times correspondent Ali Watkins, the newspaper said, adding that the staffer and Watkins had a personal relationship.