WASHINGTON — House Democrats, convinced that President Bush blundered by vetoing an expansion of a children’s health care program, plan to approve a very similar bill this week even as the administration offered new concessions Tuesday.
The Democrats’ revised bill would reduce the number of adults and higher-income families potentially eligible for the health insurance subsidies, presumably making it easier for Republicans to back it while saving face. But Democrats say they will not budge from the original $35 billion price tag.
Bush had recommended a spending increase of $5 billion over the next five years in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Tuesday the administration is now willing to support some expansion of coverage and he acknowledged that an additional $15 billion increase in funding was “a rational number.”
Additional national news briefs:
Study warns of incorrect inhaler use
CHICAGO — About a third of patients with asthma or chronic obstructive disease use their dry powder inhalers incorrectly, putting them at risk of developing dangerous complications from their disease, according to a study presented to chest physicians meeting this week in Chicago.
Unlike pressurized, metered-dose inhalers, drug powder inhalers rely on the force of the patient’s inhalation to activate the flow of medication to the lungs.
Researchers reported that 32 percent of 224 patients studied made at least one serious technical error, such as blowing into the device instead of drawing in a fast, deep breath.
The findings were presented Tuesday at Chest 2007, the international scientific conference of the American College of Chest Physicians.
“Preppie Killer” jailed, facing drug charge
NEW YORK — The so-called “Preppie Killer,” who served 15 years in prison for strangling a woman in Central Park, was in jail Tuesday after police said he repeatedly sold undercover officers cocaine out of his apartment.
Robert Chambers, 41, put up a fight during the raid late Monday, police said. One officer suffered a broken thumb and another strained his hand, authorities reported.
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said Chambers is facing 14 counts of drug possession and sale.
Chambers was released from prison in 2003 after serving 15 years for the 1986 strangling of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin during a tryst in Central Park. The slaying was splashed across the headlines as the story of a privileged prep-school youth gone bad.
Protest rips acquittals after black teen’s death
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. — About 700 protesters marched to the federal courthouse Tuesday to voice their outrage at the handling of a black teenager’s death at a boot camp. Several NAACP officials met with Justice Department officials.
The protest comes less than two weeks after an all-white jury acquitted seven camp guards and a nurse of manslaughter charges in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, a 14-year-old black inmate.
Anderson died Jan. 6, 2006, a day after being hit and kicked by the guards as the nurse watched after he collapsed while running laps. The incident was videotaped.
Protesters said they want federal authorities to investigate what they allege are civil rights violations by former boot camp staffers and others.
