Amazon's boosting the minimum order eligible for free shipping to $35, a $10 increase. That's the first time in more than ten years the price has gone up. [Amazon via Lifehacker
     |
From left, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida CEO Patrick Geraghty, and other health care chief executive officers arrive at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, to meet with White House officials regarding President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
From left, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida CEO Patrick Geraghty, and other health care chief executive officers arrive at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, to meet with White House officials regarding President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks during a new conference following a meeting at the Republican National Committee offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, and House Majority Leader Eric Canton of Va., right, walk away from the microphones following a news conference after a meeting at the Republican National Committee offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
From left, Tufts Health Plan President and CEO James Roosevelt, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida CEO Patrick Geraghty, Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson, and other health care chief executive officers arrive at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, to meet with White House officials regarding President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The principal contractors responsible for the federal government's trouble-plagued health insurance website say the Obama administration shares responsibility for the snags that have crippled the system.
Executives of CGI Federal, which built the federal HealthCare.gov website serving 36 states, and QSSI, which designed the part that verifies applicants' income and other personal details, are testifying Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The hearing comes as President Barack Obama's allies are starting to fret about the political fallout. Democrats had hoped to run for re-election next year on the benefits of the health care law for millions of uninsured Americans. Instead, computer problems are keeping many consumers from signing up through new online markets.
One House Democrat says the president needs to "man up" and fire somebody, while others are calling for signup deadlines to be extended and a reconsideration of the penalties individuals will face next year if they remain uninsured.
On that point, a change in the timeline for signing up for coverage is underway, the White House said. Consumers have until Dec. 15 to apply for coverage that's effective Jan. 1. Even though open enrollment lasts until March 31, people would face a penalty if they postpone buying coverage beyond mid-February. Calling that a "disconnect," the White House said officials will soon issue policy guidance allowing consumers to sign up by the end of March without penalty.
The focus on the contractors is a first step for GOP investigators. After the failure of their drive to defund "Obamacare" by shutting down the government, they've been suddenly handed a new line of attack by the administration itself. Administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, are to testify next week.
Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI, suggested in prepared testimony that Congress should look beyond the contractors. HHS "serves the important role of systems integrator or 'quarterback' on this project and is the ultimate responsible party for the end-to-end performance," she said.
Overwhelming interest from consumers triggered the website problems, she said. "No amount of testing within reasonable time limits can adequately replicate a live environment of this nature," she said.
Andy Slavitt, representing QSSI's parent company, said the operation's virtual back room, known as the federal data hub, is working well despite some bugs. But his company was also involved with another part of the system, a component for registering individual consumer accounts that became an online bottleneck.
Slavitt blamed the administration, saying that a late decision to require consumers to create accounts before they could browse health plans contributed to the overload. "This may have driven higher simultaneous usage of the registration system that wouldn't have occurred if consumers could window-shop anonymously," he said.
Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., chairman of the panel's health subcommittee, said he wants to focus on the administration's decision not to allow browsing, or window-shopping. That's a standard feature of e-commerce sites, including Medicare.gov for seniors. Lack of a browsing capability forced all users to first go through the laborious process of creating accounts, overloading that part of the site.
"Who made that decision? When was it made? Why was it made?" Pitts asked.
Acknowledging what's been obvious to many outside experts, the administration said Wednesday that the system didn't get enough testing, especially at a high user volume, before going live. It blamed a compressed time frame for meeting the Oct. 1 deadline to open the insurance markets. Basic "alpha and user testing" are now completed, but that's supposed to happen before a launch, not after.
The administration provided no timetable to fix extensive computer snags but said technicians are deep into the job. Its explanation, posted online in an HHS blog and accompanying graphic, identified six broad areas of problems and outlined fixes underway but in most cases incomplete.
The HHS explanation identified some bugs that have gotten little outside attention. Technical problems have surfaced that are making the application and plan-shopping functions difficult to complete. That's a concern because those stages are farther along in the signup process than the initial registration, where many consumers have been getting tripped up. The problems are being analyzed and fixes are planned.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are starting to worry aloud about persistent problems with the rollout.
Rep. Richard Nolan, D-Minn., told The Associated Press the computer fiasco has "damaged the brand" of the health care law.
"The president needs to man up, find out who was responsible, and fire them," Nolan said. He did not name anyone.
Obama says he's as frustrated as anyone and has promised a "tech surge" to fix the balky website. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration will be more transparent about the problems. After more than 20 days without briefing the media, HHS will start regular sessions on Thursday, he said.
In light of the computer problems, some Democrats are saying Obama should consider extending open enrollment season beyond March 31 and revisit the penalties for individuals who don't sign up and remain uninsured. Under the law, virtually all Americans must carry health insurance starting next year or face fines.
____
Associated Press writers Josh Lederman and Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-24-US-Health-Overhaul-Problems/id-21435afd57d44a9c96e56b0737ecc0f4Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.
Source: http://images.infoworld.com/slideshow/125074/the-10-best-new-features-in-os-x-mavericks-229256?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Hardy will play Elton John in a biopic titled "Rocketman."
Focus Features announced Hardy's casting as the iconic piano man on Wednesday. The film is planned to begin shooting late next year.
The 36-year-old British actor is well respected for his wide-ranging talent, but his brawny, tattooed frame makes him an unconventional choice. Hardy is most famous for playing the terrorist Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises." He has showcased a muscled masculinity in films like "Warrior," ''Lawless" and "Bronson."
"Rocketman" is being made with the cooperation of the 66-year-old John, who's an executive producer on the film.
|
|
Essential News from The Associated Press |
|
|
© Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier Ex-USS Forrestal (CV 59) departs Naval Station Newport for a three-day cruise to Philadelphia in June, 2010.
The decommissioned aircraft carrier Ex-USS Forrestal (CV 59) departs Naval Station Newport for a three-day cruise to Philadelphia in June, 2010.
The U.S. Navy's first "supercarrier" is being sold for just 1 cent to a ship breaker.
The ex-USS Forrestal, launched in 1954 and decommissioned in 1993, is the first of three conventional (non-nuclear) carriers due to be scrapped in the coming years. The Forrestal is best known for a devastating fire in 1967 that engulfed the ship's flight deck, killing 134 sailors and wounding 161 others.
Navy crewmen try to put out a fire aboard the USS Forrestal in the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of Vietnam, July 29, 1967.
Navy crewmen try to put out a fire aboard the USS Forrestal in the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of Vietnam, July 29, 1967.
In a statement, the U.S. Navy says All Star Metals, which was awarded the contract for the ship, is developing a final tow plan to get the ship "from its current berth at the Navy's inactive ship facility in Philadelphia to All Star Metals' facility in Brownsville. The ship is expected to depart Philadelphia before the end of the year."
The minimal payment reflects the net price proposed by All Star Metals, "which considered the estimated proceeds from the sale of the scrap metal to be generated from dismantling," the statement said.
Stars and Stripes says of the ship's famous fire:
"[The] Forrestal was in the Gulf of Tonkin the morning of July 29, 1967, for the Vietnam War effort when stray voltage triggered a rocket to launch from an F-4 Phantom on the flight deck.
The rocket struck an armed A-4 Skyhawk — piloted by a young Lt. Cmdr. John S. McCain III — rupturing the fuel tanks and sparking a chain reaction of fires and explosions on the deck, which was parked full of planes.
The crew fought the flight deck fire for an hour, but other fires blazed into the next day."
The Navy says it made the Forrestal available for donation in June 1999 as a museum or memorial, but didn't get any viable offers.
FILE - This file photo released Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Lawyers for Tsarnaev will ask a judge to address the death penalty protocol during a status conference in federal court Monday, Sept. 23, 2013, in Boston. Tsarnaev is accused in two bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the finish line of the April 15 marathon. (AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation, File)
FILE - This file photo released Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. Lawyers for Tsarnaev will ask a judge to address the death penalty protocol during a status conference in federal court Monday, Sept. 23, 2013, in Boston. Tsarnaev is accused in two bombings that killed three people and injured more than 260 others near the finish line of the April 15 marathon. (AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation, File)
This May 4, 2013 police mugshot provided by the Orange County Corrections Department in Orlando, Fla., shows Ibragim Todashev after his arrest for aggravated battery in Orlando. Todashev, who was being questioned in Orlando by authorities in the Boston bombing probe, was fatally shot Wednesday, May 22, 2013 when he initiated a violent confrontation, FBI officials said. According to a filing made Monday, Oct. 23, 2013, Ibragim Todashev told investigators that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the slain Boston Marathon bombing suspect, participated in a triple killing in Waltham, Mass. on Sept. 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Orange County Corrections Department)
BOSTON (AP) — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers may try to save him from the death penalty in the Boston Marathon bombing by arguing he fell under the murderous influence of his older brother, legal experts say.
The outlines of a possible defense came into focus this week when it was learned that Tsarnaev's attorneys are trying to get access to investigative records implicating the now-dead brother in a grisly triple slaying committed in 2011.
In court papers Monday, federal prosecutors acknowledged publicly for the first time that a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev told investigators that Tamerlan participated in the unsolved killings of three men who were found in a Waltham apartment with their throats slit, marijuana sprinkled over their bodies.
The younger Tsarnaev's lawyers argued in court papers that any evidence of Tamerlan's involvement is "mitigating information" that is critical as they prepare Dzhokhar's defense. They asked a judge to force prosecutors to turn over the records.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction, in the twin bombings April 15 that killed three people and injured more than 260. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in a gunbattle with police days later.
The government is still deciding whether to pursue the death penalty for the attack, which investigators say was retaliation for the U.S. wars in Muslim lands.
Miriam Conrad, Tsarnaev's public defender, had no comment.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said the defense may be trying to show that the older brother was the guiding force.
"If I was a defense attorney and was seeking perhaps to draw attention to the influence the older brother had in planning the bombing, I would use his involvement in other crimes to show that he was likely the main perpetrator in the Boston bombing," Dieter said.
"I would take the position that my client, the younger brother, was strongly influenced by his older brother, and even if he is culpable, the death penalty is too extreme in this case."
Similarly, Aitan D. Goelman, who was part of the legal team that prosecuted Oklahoma City bombing figures Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, said the defense may be looking to minimize the younger brother's role in the bombing.
"I think the mostly likely reason is that if they are arguing some kind of mitigation theory that the older brother was a monster and the younger brother was under his sway or intimidated or dominated by him," he said.
Investigators have given no motive for the 2011 slayings. One victim was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's.
Federal prosecutors said in court papers that Ibragim Todashev, another friend of Tamerlan's, told authorities that Tamerlan took part in the killings. Todashev was shot to death in Florida in May by authorities while being questioned.
Prosecutors argued that turning over the records would damage the investigation into the killings.
___
Smith reported from Providence, R.I. Associated Press writer Pete Yost in Washington contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-23-Boston%20Marathon%20Bombing/id-56a08c9416df4f2b83f7ab0c21020bf9