US Stocks Fall; Market Down 3rd Week 09/18 16:07
US Stocks Fall; Market Down 3rd Week 09/18 16:07 Wall Street capped another turbulent week of trading Friday with a broad slide in stocks that left the S&P 500 with its third-straight weekly loss. (AP) -- Wall Street capped another turbulent week of trading Friday with a broad slide in stocks that left the S&P 500 with its third-straight weekly loss. The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, led once again by a sell-off in technology companies, with Apple, Amazon and Alphabet weighing particularly on the market. Technology stocks and other companies that powered the market's strong comeback this year have suddenly lost momentum this month amid worries that they have become too expensive. The sell-off tempered later in the afternoon but still wiped out what had been a solid start to the week. The S&P 500 is on track for its first monthly loss since March. September is historically the worst month for stocks. "The market has been poised to just pull back, take a breather," said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. "Raising capital is prudent during a month that is known statistically, historically for being difficult for the market." The S&P 500 fell 37.54 points to 3,319.47. The decline marks the the first 3-week losing streak for the benchmark index since last October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 244.56 points, or 0.9%, to 27,657.42. The Nasdaq composite shed an early gain, losing 116.99 points, or 1.1%, to 10,793.28. Smaller stocks also fell, with the Russell 2000 index of small caps giving up 5.82 points, or 0.4%, to 1,536.78. Stocks have swirled this week despite the Federal Reserve's saying it expects to keep short-term interest rates at record lows through 2023. Low rates typically turbocharge the market by encouraging investors to pay higher prices for stocks, but some investors may have been looking for the Fed to be even more aggressive. Growth in some areas of the economy has also slowed after unemployment benefits and other aid from the federal government expired, and partisan disagreements in Congress are holding up a possible renewal of support. Investors say it's essential that such aid arrives. "To the extent that you don't get an additional fiscal cushion, the economy is going to be impacted by it," said Brian Levitt, global market strategist at Invesco. Rising tensions between the world's two largest economies are also continuing to keep markets on edge. The United States said on Friday that it will ban downloads of the Chinese apps TikTok and WeChat on Sunday. It cited national security and data privacy concerns. President Donald Trump's targeting of the Chinese tech industry has caused intermittent worries in the market about a possible retaliation against the U.S. industry. Big Tech stocks have stumbled sharply this month on worries that their prices have grown too expensive following their virtuosic performance through the pandemic. Surging shares of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and others helped carry Wall Street back to record heights, even as the pandemic walloped much of the economy, as the coronavirus accelerated work-from-home and other trends that benefit them. But they suddenly lost momentum two weeks ago, causing the market to swing with them. Because these companies have grown so massive, their stock movements have huge sway over broad market indexes, such as the S&P 500. "We certainly got a little short-term overbought and we headed into a time of the year that is not great for markets," Levitt said. On Friday, several Big Tech stocks continued slipping. Apple dropped 3.2%, Microsoft fell 1.2% and Amazon slid 1.8%. Also on the long list of concerns for markets is how the pandemic progresses, whether a vaccine for COVID-19 could indeed be available in early 2021 as many investors expect and what November's U.S. presidential election will do to the economy. Treasury yields remain very low, showing the powerful strength of the Federal Reserve and continued expectations by bond investors for only modest economic growth and inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.70% from 0.69% late Thursday. A preliminary report on Friday said that consumer sentiment is improving at a faster pace than economists expected, which is key for an economy where spending by consumers is the main driver. But it follows other reports this week that showed growth in retail sales slowed last month and the number of layoffs across the country remains stubbornly high. One factor that may have helped make trading bumpier than usual Friday is an event known as "quadruple witching," which marks the expiration of futures and options on stocks and indexes. The event can drive swings in prices. Other stock markets around the world made mostly modest moves. In Europe, the German DAX lost 0.7%, and the French CAC 40 sank 1.2%. The FTSE 100 in London fell 0.7%. Markets in Asia closed mostly higher. Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 0.2% to $40.89 to per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 0.8% to $42.95 per barrel.
Bill to Prevent Shutdown Held Up 09/19 08:03
Bill to Prevent Shutdown Held Up 09/19 08:03 Efforts to fashion a temporary spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month ran aground Friday amid a fight over farm bailout funding that's a key priority of President Donald Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Efforts to fashion a temporary spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month ran aground Friday amid a fight over farm bailout funding that's a key priority of President Donald Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans. A House Appropriations Committee spokesman said the measure, which aides had predicted would be released Friday evening, won't be unveiled until next week. The measure needs to be passed by the end of the budget year on Sept. 30 to prevent a shutdown of nonessential government functions. A tentative proposal by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to permit Trump to keep awarding agricultural funds this campaign season in exchange for food aid for the poor ran into severe turbulence with both House and Senate Democrats. The evolving measure is a lowest-common-denominator, bare-minimum bill that befits a deeply polarized Congress. Even so, it took intense efforts at the highest levels of Washington to get the measure this far, but a negotiating flurry Friday fell apart. Neither side wants a partial government shutdown. Aides following the talks closely said Pelosi initially denied an administration request to add routine flexibility to rules governing Trump's farm bailout efforts, which would freeze his ability to dole out subsidy payments until after the election. Trump is using the funding, over which he has much control, to try to shore up his support in farm country, which has been hit hard by low commodity prices and higher tariffs he himself imposed. The battle prompted Trump on Friday to blast his nemesis on Twitter: "Pelosi wants to take 30 Billion Dollars away from our great Farmers. Can't let that happen!" Pelosi then reversed course Friday afternoon to briefly approve the Trump-sought change --- only to again change her mind, Democratic and GOP aides said, speaking on condition of anonymity to publicly characterize behind-the-scenes dealings. Pelosi was also seeking a higher food benefit for families whose children are unable to receive free or reduced lunches because schools are closed over the coronavirus. It's unclear what happens next, but Pelosi retains the option to try to jam the measure through without the farm provision and try to cast blame on Republicans or Trump if it runs aground in the Senate. Earlier, Republicans denied Democratic requests involving the census and election administration grants. What remains is not controversial and includes provisions that would extend federal highway and flood insurance programs, along with a variety of other low-profile items. As previously announced, the bill does not contain COVID-19 relief, leaving that issue in all likelihood for a post-election lame duck session --- or for the next administration. The temporary funding measure comes as some Democrats are increasingly upset that an impasse over coronavirus relief is reflecting poorly on the party and as Trump agitates for a deal that's more generous than other Republicans would like. But with COVID-19 rescue negotiations dead in the water, the stopgap spending bill is likely to be the only measure of note that passes before the election. Not long ago, such measures barely attracted notice, but there have been a handful of government shutdowns over the past few years. Congress has become so dysfunctional that crafting stopgap measures now requires more attention from top leaders. Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin negotiated the measure, which would keep the government open through Dec. 11. Democrats had proposed next February, apparently to avert any need to reconvene Congress after the election to deal with Trump, who they predict will lose his bid for a second term in November. In conversations Friday, Pelosi and Mnuchin abandoned efforts to iron out wrinkles involving the census and election administration grants to states, though a heavily lobbied package to extend a number of health programs was likely to be included. Democrats, meanwhile, were denied $400 million in grants to states to help them carry out elections this fall. Republicans also rejected a push by Pelosi to delay the once-a-decade apportionment of House seats after the census until the next administration. The House is slated to pass the stopgap funding bill --- called a continuing resolution, or CR in Washington-speak --- next week. They are likely to then recess for the campaign. Earlier this week, Pelosi said the House would stay in session until a COVID-19 deal was reached. Instead, lawmakers appear likely to leave Washington next week and be on 24 hours' notice to return if there is a coronavirus relief deal to vote on. Such a situation would surely create angst among Democrats who are increasingly vocal that Pelosi should do more to ease a weekslong standoff in bipartisan COVID-19 relief talks. Pelosi has staked out a hard line for a COVID-19 package of at least $2.2 trillion, while Republicans controlling the Senate aren't willing to come close to that. The resulting chasm would only be bridgeable if both sides were to make embarrassing retreats from their stubbornly held positions --- something neither side has been willing to do. Instead, they have been devoting their energies to posturing and finger-pointing, much to the dismay of lawmakers who believe a flawed deal is better than none at all. "We can argue about what the specifics of a plan should look like. But the important thing is that we get back to the negotiating table and hammer out a deal that can be passed into law," said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla. "Identify the things that you agree on and build from there to get recovery resources to the American people as soon as possible." Trump said this week that he wants his GOP allies to go for "higher numbers" that would permit another round of $1,200 direct stimulus payments that would be sent out under his name. Senate Republicans for the most part dismissed the idea. While Trump is seen as pushing for a deal --- any deal --- his top negotiators on COVID-19 relief, Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, have been taking a hard line with Pelosi.
CDC Drops Controversial Testing Advice 09/19 08:06
CDC Drops Controversial Testing Advice 09/19 08:06 NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. health officials on Friday dropped a controversial piece of coronavirus guidance and said anyone who has been in close contact with an infected person should get tested. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention essentially returned to its previous testing guidance, getting rid of language posted last month that said people didn't need to get tested if they didn't feel sick. That change had set off a rash of criticism from health experts who couldn't fathom why the nation's top public health agency would say such a thing amid the pandemic. It was "not consistent with the basic principles of controlling an epidemic,"said Dr. Silvia Chiang, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Brown University who applauded the change announced Friday. The CDC now says anyone who has been within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes should get a test. In a statement, the agency called the changes a "clarification" that was needed "due to the significance of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission." Agency officials declined additional comment. Health officials were evasive about why they had made the change in August, and some outside observers speculated it was forced on the CDC by political appointees within the Trump administration. At the time, administration officials said the language originated at the CDC but the decision came out of meetings of the White House coronavirus task force. Dr. Brett Giroir, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said many federal leaders outside the agency were involved in "lots of editing, lots of input." He said it was difficult to attribute the final language to any one source. The New York Times, citing internal federal documents and unnamed sources, on Thursday reported that the guidance was placed on the CDC's website over the objections of agency scientists. Public health experts have noted that testing the contacts of infected people is a core element of efforts to keep outbreaks in check, and that a large percentage of those infected with the coronavirus exhibit no COVID-19 symptoms. The CDC's chief, Dr. Robert Redfield, issued a statement shortly after the controversy erupted that did little to clarify why the change was deemed necessary. The main intent seemed to be to assure state health officials that they could continue to recommend that all close contacts be tested if they felt that was wisest, despite the website language that said it was not necessary. During a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday, Redfield continued to defend the language that was dropped Friday. He said the August changes had been "misinterpreted" and were part of an effort to increase engagement by doctors and local health officials in the handling of potential illness clusters. Adriane Casalotti, of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said the now-deleted guidance caused confusion among the public. She said local health officials spent a lot time answering questions about whether people should get testing, "as opposed to actually doing the testing." Dr. Richard Besser, chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said he believes the August change was made to give "wiggle room" to governors who did not want to increase testing. The whole episode is disturbing, because it makes it harder for the public to understand why the CDC is making recommendations and whether that advice can be trusted, added Besser, who previously spent 13 years at CDC and was acting director at the beginning of a 2009 flu pandemic. The CDC and Food and Drug Administration have to be seen as reliable sources of science information as the administration gears up for a national coronavirus vaccination campaign, Besser said. "If we can't believe that, then even if there is a safe and effective vaccine, a significant portion of the population will not want to get it," he said.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87 09/19 08:08
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Dies at 87 09/19 08:08 Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a towering women's rights champion who became the court's second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a towering women's rights champion who became the court's second female justice, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 87. Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said. Her death just over six weeks before Election Day is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said late Friday that the Senate will vote on Trump's pick to replace Ginsburg, even though it's an election year. Trump called Ginsburg an "amazing woman" and did not mention filling her vacant Supreme Court seat when he spoke to reporters following a rally in Bemidji, Minnesota. Biden said the winner of the November election should choose Ginsburg's replacement. "There is no doubt --- let me be clear --- that the voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice for the Senate to consider," Biden told reporters after returning to his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, from campaign stops in Minnesota. Chief Justice John Roberts mourned Ginsburg's passing. "Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her --- a tireless and resolute champion of justice," Roberts said in a statement. Ginsburg announced in July that she was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for lesions on her liver, the latest of her several battles with cancer. Ginsburg spent her final years on the bench as the unquestioned leader of the court's liberal wing and became something of a rock star to her admirer s. Young women especially seemed to embrace the court's Jewish grandmother, affectionately calling her the Notorious RBG, for her defense of the rights of women and minorities, and the strength and resilience she displayed in the face of personal loss and health crises. Those health issues included five bouts with cancer beginning in 1999, falls that resulted in broken ribs, insertion of a stent to clear a blocked artery and assorted other hospitalizations after she turned 75. She resisted calls by liberals to retire during Barack Obama's presidency at a time when Democrats held the Senate and a replacement with similar views could have been confirmed. Instead, Trump will almost certainly try to push Ginsburg's successor through the Republican-controlled Senate --- and move the conservative court even more to the right. Ginsburg antagonized Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign in a series of media interviews, including calling him a faker. She soon apologized. Her appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1993 was the first by a Democrat in 26 years. She initially found a comfortable ideological home somewhere left of center on a conservative court dominated by Republican appointees. Her liberal voice grew stronger the longer she served. Ginsburg was a mother of two, an opera lover and an intellectual who watched arguments behind oversized glasses for many years, though she ditched them for more fashionable frames in her later years. At argument sessions in the ornate courtroom, she was known for digging deep into case records and for being a stickler for following the rules. She argued six key cases before the court in the 1970s when she was an architect of the women's rights movement. She won five. "Ruth Bader Ginsburg does not need a seat on the Supreme Court to earn her place in the American history books," Clinton said at the time of her appointment. "She has already done that." Following her death, Clinton said, "Her 27 years on the Court exceeded even my highest expectations when I appointed her." On the court, where she was known as a facile writer, her most significant majority opinions were the 1996 ruling that ordered the Virginia Military Institute to accept women or give up its state funding, and the 2015 decision that upheld independent commissions some states use to draw congressional districts. Besides civil rights, Ginsburg took an interest in capital punishment, voting repeatedly to limit its use. During her tenure, the court declared it unconstitutional for states to execute the intellectually disabled and killers younger than 18. In addition, she questioned the quality of lawyers for poor accused murderers. In the most divisive of cases, including the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000, she was often at odds with the court's more conservative members --- initially Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. The division remained the same after John Roberts replaced Rehnquist as chief justice, Samuel Alito took O'Connor's seat, and, under Trump, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the court, in seats that had been held by Scalia and Kennedy, respectively. Ginsburg would say later that the 5-4 decision that settled the 2000 presidential election for Republican George W. Bush was a "breathtaking episode" at the court. She was perhaps personally closest on the court to Scalia, her ideological opposite. Ginsburg once explained that she took Scalia's sometimes biting dissents as a challenge to be met. "How am I going to answer this in a way that's a real putdown?" she said. When Scalia died in 2016, also an election year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to act on Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to fill the opening. The seat remained vacant until after Trump's surprising presidential victory. McConnell has said he would move to confirm a Trump nominee if there were a vacancy this year. Reached by phone late Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, declined to disclose any plans. He called Ginsburg a "trailblazer" and said, "While I had many differences with her on legal philosophy, I appreciate her service to our nation." McConnell, in a note to his GOP colleagues Friday night, urged them to "keep their powder dry" and not rush to declare a position on whether a Trump nominee should get a vote this year. "This is not the time to prematurely lock yourselves into a position you may later regret," he said. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer tweeted: "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." Ginsburg authored powerful dissents of her own in cases involving abortion, voting rights and pay discrimination against women. She said some were aimed at swaying the opinions of her fellow judges while others were "an appeal to the intelligence of another day" in the hopes that they would provide guidance to future courts. "Hope springs eternal," she said in 2007, "and when I am writing a dissent, I'm always hoping for that fifth or sixth vote --- even though I'm disappointed more often than not." She wrote memorably in 2013 that the court's decision to cut out a key part of the federal law that had ensured the voting rights of Black people, Hispanics and other minorities was "like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet." Change on the court hit Ginsburg especially hard. She dissented forcefully from the court's decision in 2007 to uphold a nationwide ban on an abortion procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion. The court, with O'Connor still on it, had struck down a similar state ban seven years earlier. The "alarming" ruling, Ginsburg said, "cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court --- and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives." In 1999, Ginsburg had surgery for colon cancer and received radiation and chemotherapy. She had surgery again in 2009 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and in December 2018 for cancerous growths on her left lung. Following the last surgery, she missed court sessions for the first time in more than 25 years on the bench. Ginsburg also was treated with radiation for a tumor on her pancreas in August 2019. She maintained an active schedule even during the three weeks of radiation. When she revealed a recurrence of her cancer in July 2020, Ginsburg said she remained "fully able" to continue as a justice. Joan Ruth Bader was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, the second daughter in a middle-class family. Her older sister, who gave her the lifelong nickname "Kiki," died at age 6, so Ginsburg grew up in Brooklyn's Flatbush section as an only child. Her dream, she has said, was to be an opera singer. Ginsburg graduated at the top of her Columbia University law school class in 1959 but could not find a law firm willing to hire her. She had "three strikes against her" --- for being Jewish, female and a mother, as she put it in 2007. She had married her husband, Martin, in 1954, the year she graduated from Cornell University. She attended Harvard University's law school but transferred to Columbia when her husband took a law job there. Martin Ginsburg went on to become a prominent tax attorney and law professor. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010. She is survived by two children, Jane and James, and several grandchildren. Ginsburg once said that she had not entered the law as an equal-rights champion. "I thought I could do a lawyer's job better than any other," she wrote. "I have no talent in the arts, but I do write fairly well and analyze problems clearly."
More Migrant Women Didn't OK Surgery 09/19 08:12
More Migrant Women Didn't OK Surgery 09/19 08:12 HOUSTON (AP) -- Sitting across from her lawyer at an immigration detention center in rural Georgia, Mileidy Cardentey Fernandez unbuttoned her jail jumpsuit to show the scars on her abdomen. There were three small, circular marks. The 39-year-old woman from Cuba was told only that she would undergo an operation to treat her ovarian cysts, but a month later, she's still not sure what procedure she got. After Cardentey repeatedly requested her medical records to find out, Irwin County Detention Center gave her more than 100 pages showing a diagnosis of cysts but nothing from the day of the surgery. "The only thing they told me was: 'You're going to go to sleep and when you wake up, we will have finished,'" Cardentey said this week in a phone interview. Cardentey kept her hospital bracelet. It has the date, Aug. 14, and part of the doctor's name, Dr. Mahendra Amin, a gynecologist linked this week to allegations of unwanted hysterectomies and other procedures done on detained immigrant women that jeopardize their ability to have children. An Associated Press review of medical records for four women and interviews with lawyers revealed growing allegations that Amin performed surgeries and other procedures on detained immigrants that they never sought or didn't fully understand. Although some procedures could be justified based on problems documented in the records, the women's lack of consent or knowledge raises severe legal and ethical issues, lawyers and medical experts said. Amin has performed surgery or other gynecological treatment on at least eight women detained at Irwin County Detention Center since 2017, including one hysterectomy, said Andrew Free, an immigration and civil rights lawyer working with other attorneys to investigate medical treatment at the jail. Doctors are helping the attorneys examine new records and more women are coming forward to report their treatment by Amin, Free said. "The indication is there's a systemic lack of truly informed and legally valid consent to perform procedures that could ultimately result --- intentionally or unintentionally --- in sterilization," he said. The AP's review did not find evidence of mass hysterectomies as alleged in a widely shared complaint filed by a nurse at the detention center. Dawn Wooten alleged that many detained women were taken to an unnamed gynecologist whom she labeled the "uterus collector" because of how many hysterectomies he performed. The complaint sparked a furious reaction from congressional Democrats and an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. It also evoked comparisons to previous government-sanctioned efforts in the U.S. to sterilize people to supposedly improve society --- victims who were disproportionately poor, mentally disabled, American Indian, Black or other people of color. Thirty-three states had forced sterilization programs in the 20th century. But a lawyer who helped file the complaint said she never spoke to any women who had hysterectomies. Priyanka Bhatt, staff attorney at the advocacy group Project South, told The Washington Post that she included the hysterectomy allegations because she wanted to trigger an investigation to determine if they were true. "I have a responsibility to listen to the women I've spoken with," Bhatt told the AP on Friday. She said one woman alleged that she was repeatedly pressured to have a hysterectomy and that authorities said they would not pay for her to get a second opinion. Amin told The Intercept, which first reported Wooten's complaint, that he has only performed one or two hysterectomies in the past three years. His attorney, Scott Grubman, said in a statement: "We look forward to all of the facts coming out, and are confident that once they do, Dr. Amin will be cleared of any wrongdoing." Grubman did not respond to new questions Thursday. In a statement Friday, ICE Acting Director Tony Pham said: "If there is any truth to these allegations, it is my commitment to make the corrections necessary to ensure we continue to prioritize the health, welfare and safety of ICE detainees." LaSalle Corrections, which operates the jail, said in a statement that it "strongly refutes these allegations and any implications of misconduct." Women housed at Irwin County Detention Center who needed a gynecologist were typically taken to Amin, according to medical records provided to the AP by Free and lawyer Alexis Ruiz, who represents Cardentey. Interviews with detainees and their lawyers suggest some women came to fear the doctor. Records reviewed by the AP show one woman was given a psychiatric evaluation the same day she refused to undergo a surgical procedure known as dilation and curettage. Commonly known as a D&C, it removes tissue from the uterus and can be used as a treatment for excessive bleeding. A note written on letterhead from Amin's office said the woman was concerned. According to a written summary of her psychiatric evaluation, the woman said, "I am nervous about my upcoming procedure." The summary says she denied needing mental health care and added: "I am worried because I saw someone else after they had surgery and what I saw scared me." The AP also reviewed records for a woman who was given a hysterectomy. She reported irregular bleeding and was taken to see Amin for a D&C. A lab study of the tissue found signs of early cancer, called carcinoma. Amin's notes indicate the woman agreed 11 days later to the hysterectomy. Free, who spoke to the woman, said she felt pressured by Amin and "didn't have the opportunity to say no" or speak to her family before the procedure. Doctors told the AP that a hysterectomy could have been appropriate due to the carcinoma, though there may have been less intrusive options available. Lawyers for both women asked that their names be withheld for fear of retaliation by immigration authorities. In another case, Pauline Binam, a 30-year-old woman who was brought to the U.S. from Cameroon when she was 2, saw Amin after experiencing an irregular menstrual cycle and was told to have a D&C, said her attorney, Van Huynh. When she woke up from the surgery, Huynh said, she was told Amin had removed one of her two fallopian tubes, which connect the uterus to the ovaries and are necessary to conceive a child. Binam's medical records indicate that the doctor discovered the tube was swollen. "She was shocked and sort of confronted him on that --- that she hadn't given her consent for him to proceed with that," Huynh said. "The reply that he gave was they were in there anyway and found there was this problem." While women can potentially still conceive with one intact tube and ovary, doctors who spoke to the AP said removal of the tube was likely unnecessary and should never have happened without Binam's consent. The doctors also questioned how Amin discovered the swollen tube because performing a D&C would not normally involve exploring a woman's fallopian tubes. Dr. Julie Graves, a family medicine and public health physician in Florida, called the process "absolutely abhorrent." "It's established U.S. law that you don't operate on everything that you find," she said. "If you're in a teaching hospital and an attending physician does something like that, it's a scandal and they are fired." Binam was on the verge of deportation Wednesday, but ICE delayed it after calls from members of Congress and a request for an emergency stay by her lawyer. Grubman, Amin's lawyer, said in a statement that the doctor "has dedicated his adult life to treating a high-risk, underserved population in rural Georgia." Amin completed medical school in India in 1978 and his residency in gynecology in New Jersey. He has practiced in rural Georgia for at least three decades, according to court filings. State corporate records also show Amin is the executive of a company that manages Irwin County Hospital. In 2013, state and federal investigators sued Amin, the hospital authority of Irwin County and a group of other doctors over allegations they falsely billed Medicare and Medicaid. The lawsuit alleged that nurses at Irwin County Hospital were trained to follow a doctor's "standing orders" --- described as "scripted procedures based on the nurse's diagnosis." That meant nurses often decided treatment plans, but they were billed to Medicaid and Medicare as if they doctor did, the lawsuit said. Investigators linked a standing order to Amin, alleging he required "certain tests always be run on pregnant patients, without any medical evaluation and regardless of her condition." The lawsuit was settled in 2015 with no known sanctions against Amin. The hospital paid a $520,000 settlement, saying no doctor paid any of it and had been "released from any and all liability." The Georgia Composite Medical Board lists Amin as a doctor in good standing with no public disciplinary action. Board executive director LaSharn Hughes said records of investigations were confidential under state law. State prosecutors didn't refer Amin to the medical board after the billing lawsuit because it didn't involve specific allegations of patient harm, said Katie Byrd, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr.
DHS Whistleblower Not Ready to Testify 09/19 08:14
DHS Whistleblower Not Ready to Testify 09/19 08:14 WASHINGTON (AP) -- A whistleblower from the Department of Homeland Security who says he was pressured to suppress facts in intelligence reports says he won't be able to testify before a House panel until the department gives him more access to "relevant information," according to his lawyer. Attorney Mark Zaid said Brian Murphy, a former top intelligence official at the department, won't participate in a closed-door deposition with the House Intelligence Committee "until the clearance issues have been resolved favorably in order to properly protect Mr. Murphy's legal rights." He says he and Murphy "look forward to and desire the opportunity" to participate. "Mr. Murphy wishes to provide protected, classified whistleblower disclosures to the relevant oversight authorities in the Executive and Legislative Branches," Zaid said in a statement. "That requires his access, as well as his legal counsel, to all relevant information." House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff made Murphy's complaint public last week and said he had been invited to provide a deposition on Sept. 21. He has not been subpoenaed and was asked to participate voluntarily. An intelligence committee official said the panel hasn't rescheduled the deposition at this time, but said DHS had delayed the processing of his lawyers' clearances. The official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting, said the clearances were needed so Murphy could be properly represented during any classified portions of the deposition. Murphy said in the complaint that he was pressured by senior officials to suppress facts in intelligence reports that President Donald Trump might find objectionable, including information about Russian interference in the election and the rising threat posed by white supremacists. The department has denied his allegations. Murphy, a former FBI agent and Marine Corps veteran, also alleged that senior DHS officials pressed him to alter reports so they would reflect administration policy goals and that he was demoted from his post as principal deputy under secretary in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis for refusing to go along with the changes and for filing confidential internal complaints about the conduct. He remains with the department in a different capacity.
Iran Vows 'Hit' After US Kills General 09/19 08:17
Iran Vows 'Hit' After US Kills General 09/19 08:17 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- The chief of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Saturday to go after everyone who had a role in a top general's January killing during a U.S. drone strike in Iraq. The guard's website quoted Gen. Hossein Salami as saying, "Mr. Trump! Our revenge for martyrdom of our great general is obvious, serious and real." U.S. President Donald Trump warned this week that Washington would harshly respond to any Iranian attempts to take revenge for the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, tweeting that "if they hit us in any way, any form, written instructions already done we're going to hit them 1000 times harder." The president's warning came in response to a report that Iran was plotting to assassinate the U.S. ambassador to South Africa in retaliation for Soleimani's killing at Baghdad's airport at the beginning of the year. "We took out the world's number one terrorist and the mass murderer of American troops and many, many troops and many people all over the world," Trump said. "Qasem Soleimani is dead. He's dead. Bad guy. Bad guy. Very bad guy." Salami rejected the report of an Iranian plot to assassinate Ambassador Lana Marks, but made clear that Iran intends to avenge the general's death. "Do you think we hit a female ambassador in return to our martyred brother?' the general said. "We will hit those who had direct and indirect roles. You should know that everybody who had role in the event will be hit, and this is a serious message. We do prove everything in practice." In January, Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq in response to the fatal drone strike. Trump has stepped up economic pressure on Iran with sanctions since he pulled the United States out of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Tehran has continued to expand its stockpile of enriched uranium and pressured other nations to offset the harm of U.S. sanctions, while insisting it does not want to develop a nuclear weapon.
McConnell Vows Quick Vote on Justice 09/19 08:18
McConnell Vows Quick Vote on Justice 09/19 08:18 The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election cast an immediate spotlight on the crucial high court vacancy, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly vowing to bring to a vote whoever President Donald Trump nominates. WASHINGTON (AP) -- The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg just six weeks before the election cast an immediate spotlight on the crucial high court vacancy, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell quickly vowing to bring to a vote whoever President Donald Trump nominates. Democratic nominee Joe Biden vigorously disagreed, declaring that "voters should pick the president and the president should pick the justice to consider." McConnell, who sets the calendar in the Senate and has made judicial appointments his priority, declared unequivocally in a statement not long after Ginsburg's death was announced that Trump's nominee would receive a confirmation vote in the chamber. In 2016, McConnell refused to consider President Barack Obama's choice for the high court months ahead of the election, eventually preventing a vote. The impending clash over the vacant seat --- when to fill it and with whom --- is sure to significantly affect the stretch run of the presidential race, further stirring passions in a nation already reeling from the pandemic that has killed nearly 200,000 people, left millions unemployed and heightened partisan tensions and anger. Trump, in brief remarks to reporters after learning of Ginsburg's death, called her "an amazing woman who led an amazing life." He had continued with a campaign speech in Minnesota for about an hour and a half after the nation --- as well as aides and many in his audience with cell phones --- had learned of her death. He seemed surprised when he spoke with reporters afterward, saying he did not know she had died. Trump had noted in his rally speech that the next presidential term could offer him as many as four appointments to the nine-member court, whose members are confirmed for life. "This is going to be the most important election in the history of our country and we have to get it right," he added. Biden said it must be up to the next president, whether himself or Trump, to choose a successor to be submitted for Senate confirmation. "This was the position that the Republican Senate took in 2016, when there were nearly nine months before the election," he said. "That is the position the United States Senate must take now, when the election is less than two months away. We are talking about the Constitution and the Supreme Court. That institution should not be subject to politics. A confirmation vote in the Senate is not guaranteed, even with a Republican majority. Typically it takes several months to vet and hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee, and time is short ahead of the election. Key senators may be reluctant to cast votes so close to the election. With a slim GOP majority, 53 seats in the 100-member chamber, Trump's choice could afford to lose only a few. McConnell did not specify the timing, but trying for confirmation in a post-election lame-duck session if Trump had lost to Biden or Republicans had lost the Senate would carry further political complications. Democrats immediate denounced McConnell's move as hypocritical, pointing out that he refused to call hearings for Merrick Garland, Obama's pick, 237 days before the 2016 election. The 2020 election is 46 days away. Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer, in a tweet, echoed word for word what McConnell said in 2016 about the Garland nomination: "The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president." Both Trump and McConnell have pointed to appointments to the federal judiciary, including two Supreme Court justices, part of their legacy. Trump said last month that he would "absolutely" try to fill a vacancy if one came up before the end of his first term. "I would move quickly, " Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. "Why not? I mean, they would. The Democrats would if they were in this position." While plans were still being formalized, Trump was expected to announce a choice sooner rather than later and may meet with members of his short list in coming days, according to a White House official not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump last week added 20 names to his list of candidates he's pledged to choose from if he has future vacancies to fill. He contrasted his list with unnamed "radical justices" he claimed Biden would nominate who would "fundamentally transform America without a single vote of Congress." Trump released a similar list in 2016 in a bid to win over conservative and evangelical voters who had doubts about his conservative credentials. Among those on his current list: Sens. Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton, former Solicitor General Noel Francisco and Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, long a favorite of conservatives. The average number of days to confirm a justice, according to the Congressional Research Service, is 69, which would be after the election. But some Republicans quickly noted that Ginsburg was confirmed in just 42 days. Four GOP defections could defeat a nomination, while a tie vote could be broken by Vice President Mike Pence. Among the senators to watch are Republicans Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah and others. Collins is in a tight race for her own reelection, as are several other GOP senators, including Cory Gardner in Colorado. Murkowski and Romney have been critical of Trump and protective of the institution of the Senate. Some Republicans, including Collins and Murkowski, have suggested previously that hearings should wait if a seat were to open. And because the Arizona Senate race is a special election, that seat could be filled as early as November 30 --- which would narrow the window for McConnell if the Democratic candidate, Mark Kelly, hangs onto his lead. In a note to his GOP colleagues Friday night, McConnell urged them to "keep their powder dry" and not rush to declare a position on whether a Trump nominee should get a vote this year. "Over the coming days, we are all going to come under tremendous pressure from the press to announce how we will handle the coming nomination. For those of you who are unsure how to answer, or for those inclined to oppose giving a nominee a vote, I urge you all to keep your powder dry," McConnell wrote. "This is not the time to prematurely lock yourselves into a position you may later regret." McConnell argued that there would be enough time to fill the vacancy and he restated his argument that the 2016 Senate precedent --- in which a GOP-held Senate blocked Obama's election-year nomination --- did not establish a rule that applies to the Ginsburg case. A top aide to a GOP senator confirmed the authenticity of McConnell's email to his fellow senators, which was first reported by The Washington Post. Under McConnell, the Senate changed the confirmation rules to allow for a simple majority. The Senate's No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Thune, supported McConnell's plan Friday night, though the Judiciary Commtitee chairman, Lindsey Graham, did not weigh in. Obama called for Republicans to wait, saying "a basic principle of the law -- and of everyday fairness -- is that we apply rules with consistency and not based on what's convenient or advantageous in the moment." One difference from 2016 is that, despite the vacancy resulting from Ginsburg's death, conservatives have a working majority of five justices on a range of issues. When Antonin Scalia died four years ago, the court was divided between four liberals and four conservatives. The next pick could shape important decisions, including on abortion rights, as well as any legal challenges that may stem from the 2020 election. The 2018 hearings on Trump's second pick, now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, turned into a bitter partisan battle after sexual assault allegations were made. Biden has promised to nominate a Black woman to the high court if given the chance. He has said he's also working on a list of potential nominees, but the campaign has given no indication that it will release names before the election. Democrats believe doing so would unnecessarily distract from Biden's focus on Trump's handling of the pandemic and the economy, while also giving the president and his allies fresh targets to attack. In the hours before Ginsburg's death, Trump trailed Biden in national polling but the race was much tighter in battleground states.
