News Headlines
Rivals pounce as Romney says: “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me’
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — Republican front-runner Mitt Romney stumbled down the homestretch of the New Hampshire primary on Monday, declaring, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me” as his rivals intensified already fierce criticism.
“Gov. Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs,” said former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who has staked his candidacy on a strong showing in Tuesday’s primary and has shown signs of gaining ground in recent polls.
Adding insult to any injury, Texas Gov. Rick Perry posted a ringtone to his campaign website that consisted of Romney saying, “I like being able to fire people,” over and over.
Romney is the odds-on favorite in New Hampshire, and Huntsman as well as other Republicans who are contesting the state have generally been content to vie for second place in hopes of emerging as his main rival in the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21.
“Second place would be a dream come true,” said former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, as he raced through a final full New Hampshire campaign day that began before sunrise and stretched for more than 14 hours. The former Pennsylvania senator finished a surprising second in last week’s Iowa caucuses, but without money for television ads he has appeared to struggle as he seeks to convert that into momentum.
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Obama announces resignation of chief of staff Daley, taps Budget’s Lew as replacement
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a jolt to the White House, President Barack Obama announced Monday that chief of staff William Daley was quitting and heading home, capping a short and rocky tenure that had been expected to last until Election Day. Obama budget chief Jack Lew, a figure long familiar with Washington’s ways, will take over one of the most consuming jobs in America.
Daley’s run as Obama’s chief manager and gatekeeper lasted only a year. It was filled with consequential moments for the White House, like the killing of al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, but also stumbles with Congress and grumbles that Daley was not the right choice to coordinate an intense operation of ideas, egos and decisions.
Obama said he reluctantly accepted the news and at first refused to accept Daley’s post-holidays resignation letter last week.
Daley did not waver, expressing to his boss a desire to get back to his family in Chicago, where Daleys have dominated local politics for decades. But he offered no explanation on Monday about what accelerated his decision; he had committed to Obama that he would stay on through the election.
It apparently became clear that the fit was no longer working for either side. Senior adviser Pete Rouse had already taken on more of the day-to-day management.
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US condemns Iranian death sentence for American, rejects that ex-Marine was a CIA spy
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration denied on Monday that an American man sentenced to death in Iran was a CIA spy, and sharply criticized the Islamic republic in Tehran for what it called a pattern of arresting innocent people for political reasons.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said officials were still trying to learn the details of the sentence against Amir Mirzaei Hekmati. If true, the U.S. would condemn the verdict, he said.
Iran charged that Hekmati received special training and served at U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan before heading to Iran for an intelligence mission. A court convicted him of working with a hostile country, belonging to the CIA and trying to accuse Iran of involvement in terrorism, according to a state radio report Monday.
“Allegations that Mr. Hekmati either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA are false,” Vietor said in a statement. “The Iranian regime has a history of falsely accusing people of being spies, of eliciting forced confessions, and of holding innocent Americans for political reasons.”
The 28-year-old former military translator was born in Arizona and graduated from high school in Michigan. His family is of Iranian origin, and Hekmati claims dual citizenship. His father, Ali, a professor at a community college in Flint, Mich., has said his son was visiting his grandmothers in Iran.
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UN nuclear agency confirms Iranian uranium enrichment at bunker, increasing nuke fears
VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. nuclear agency on Monday confirmed that Iran has begun enriching uranium at an underground bunker to a level that can be upgraded more quickly for use in a nuclear weapon than the nation’s main enriched stockpile.
Comment from the International Atomic Energy Agency came after diplomats said that centrifuges at the Fordo site near Iran’s holy city of Qom are churning out uranium enriched to 20 percent. That level is higher than the 3.5 percent being made at Iran’s main enrichment plant and can be turned into fissile warhead material faster and with less work.
“The IAEA can confirm that Iran has started the production of uranium enriched up to 20 percent … in the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant,” said an agency statement, which used the alternate spelling for the site.
The move was expected, with Tehran announcing months ago that it would use the Fordo facility for 20 percent production. Iran began to further enrich a small part of its uranium stockpile to nearly 20 percent as of February 2010 at a less-protected experimental site, saying it needs the higher grade material to produce fuel for a Tehran reactor that makes medical radioisotopes for cancer patients.
But with the time and effort reduced between making weapons-grade uranium from the 20-percent level, the start of the Fordo operation increases international fears that Iran is determined to move closer to the ability to make nuclear warheads — despite insistence by the Islamic Republic that it is enriching only to make reactor fuel.
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Authorities: Suspected Islamic extremist arrested in plan to bomb, shoot up Tampa-area sites
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Kosovo-born Muslim man was charged with plotting to attack crowded locations around Tampa, including nightclubs and a sheriff’s office, with a car bomb, assault rifle and other explosives, federal authorities said Monday.
According to a federal complaint, 25-year-old Sami Osmakac recorded an eight-minute video shortly before his arrest explaining why he wanted to bring terror to his “victims’ hearts” in the Tampa Bay area. Osmakac is a naturalized American citizen born in Kosovo, then part of the former Yugoslavia in eastern Europe.
In the video, Osmakac is seen cross-legged on the floor with a pistol in his hand and an AK-47 behind him. Osmakac said in the video that Muslim blood was more valuable than that of people who do not believe in Islam, according to the complaint. He said he wanted “payback” for wrong that was done to Muslims, the complaint said.
There is no indication that Osmakac planned to attack the Republican National Convention, which will be held in Tampa in August, federal authorities said.
The area’s Muslim community helped provide authorities with information, said Steve Ibison, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Tampa division.
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Local laws around the US thwart medical marijuana, even in states that have blessed it
More and more states are saying yes to medical marijuana. But local governments are increasingly using their laws to just say no, not in our backyard.
In California, with the nation’s most permissive medical marijuana laws, 185 cities and counties have banned pot dispensaries entirely. In New Jersey, perhaps the most restrictive of the 17 states that have legalized marijuana for sick people, some groups planning to sell cannabis are struggling to find local governments willing to let them in.
Dispensaries have also been banned in parts of Colorado and have run into opposition in some towns in Maine.
Local politicians have argued that pot is still illegal under federal law, that marijuana dispensaries bring crime, and that such businesses are just fronts for drug-dealing, supplying weed to people who aren’t really sick.
Cities and towns are prohibiting dispensaries outright or applying zoning ordinances so strict that they amount to the same thing. The ordinances typically set minimum distances between such businesses and schools, homes, parks and houses of worship.
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Annual growth in US health care spending at historic lows; experts debate if relief will last
WASHINGTON (AP) — Is health-care relief finally in sight?
Health spending stabilized as a share of the nation’s economy in 2010 after two back-to-back years of historically low growth, the government reported Monday.
Experts debated whether it’s a fleeting consequence of the sluggish economy, or a real sign that cost controls by private employers and government at all levels are starting to work.
The answers will be vital for Medicare’s sustainability, as well as for workplace coverage.
U.S. health care spending grew by 3.9 percent in 2010, reaching $2.6 trillion, according to the report by the Health and Human Services department.
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FDA says fungicide has been detected at low levels in orange juice, will step up testing
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says it will step up testing for a fungicide that has been found in low levels in orange juice.
FDA officials said they aren’t concerned about the safety of the juice but will increase testing to make sure the contamination isn’t a problem. In a letter to the juice industry Monday, the agency said that an unnamed juice company contacted FDA in late December and said it had detected low levels of the fungicide carbendazim in the company’s own orange juice and also in its competitors’ juice. Fungicides are used to control fungi or fungal spores in agriculture.
Carbendazim is not currently approved for use on citrus in the United States, but is used in Brazil, which exports orange juice to the United States. An FDA spokeswoman said the company’s testing found levels up to 35 parts per billion of the fungicide, far below the European Union’s maximum residue level of 200 parts per billion. The United States has not established a maximum residue level for carbendazim in oranges.
In the letter to the Juice Products Association, FDA official Nega Beru said the agency will begin testing shipments of orange juice at the border and will detain any that contain traces of the chemical. Because it is not approved for use in the United States, any amount found in food is illegal.
Beru said that because the FDA doesn’t believe the levels of residue are harmful, the agency won’t remove any juice currently on store shelves. But he asked the industry to ensure that suppliers in Brazil and elsewhere stop using the fungicide.
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Rep says Nick Cannon released from Los Angeles hospital, resting at home after kidney problem
NEW YORK (AP) — Nick Cannon is out of the hospital after battling what wife Mariah Carey called “mild kidney failure.”
The entertainer was hospitalized in Aspen, Colo., last week after he fell ill while the couple was on vacation there. He was transferred to a Los Angeles hospital a few days later. Carey said he was suffering from a form of kidney failure but no further details were released.
In a statement Monday, Cannon’s publicist Tracy Nguyen (WIHN) said he’s now “resting and recovering at home” and thanks everyone who was concerned about him.
She says he’ll return to his live morning radio show, “Rollin’ with Nick Cannon,” on Jan. 17.
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Former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin elected to baseball Hall of Fame
NEW YORK (AP) — Barry Larkin was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame on Monday with plenty of room to spare.
The former Cincinnati Reds shortstop was chosen on 495 of 573 ballots (86 percent) in voting announced by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, well above the necessary 75 percent. Larkin was on the ballot for the third time after falling 75 votes short last year.
He will be inducted July 22 in Cooperstown along with the late Ron Santo, elected last month by the Veterans Committee.
“I am so humbled by the experience and so excited about being the newest member of the Hall of Fame,” Larkin said on a conference call.
Playing from 1986-04 — all with his hometown Reds — Larkin hit .295 with 198 home runs, 960 RBIs, 2,340 hits and 379 stolen bases. A 12-time All-Star, he won the 1995 NL MVP award, three Gold Gloves and the 1990 World Series. In 1996, he became the first shortstop to have 30 homers and 30 steals in a season.
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