Tuesday Briefing
U.S. Supreme Court will review an Idaho couple’s four-year battle with the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency has blocked Chantell and Mike Sackett’s plans to build a new house on property that, the EPA says, contains environmentally sensitive wetlands. The couple’s case has been championed by conservatives and developers, and a decision in favor of the Sacketts could curtail the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act. The Washington Post
A Houston pipe manufacturer faces federal penalties that could total more than $1 million for alleged workplace safety violations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration accused Piping Technology and Products of 13 willful and 17 serious violations for exposing workers to the risk of amputations and other serious injuries due to a lack of safeguards on dangerous equipment. OSHA placed Piping Technology in the agency’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program. OSHA , Houston Chronicle
Cement maker will pay a $1.7 million fine to resolve alleged U.S. Clean Air Act violations. Essroc Cement also will spend $33 million on new pollution control technology at five Portland Cement plants, located in Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia and Puerto Rico. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has stepped up its emphasis on reducing cement plant air pollution, which includes sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are major contributors to acid rain and smog. The Morning Call , EPA
France is launching an investigation of flawed breast implants. Between 300,000 and 400,000 women in 65 countries are believed to have had implants made by the French company PIP that contained an industrial gel. Concerns arose last month after French health authorities advised 30,000 women to have their PIP implants removed because of the increased risk of rupture. Officials have also said that cancer has been detected in 20 French women with the implants but insisted there is no proven link between the implants and the disease.
Flowery Branch Georgia Health Insurance - News
However, with federal lawsuits still pending and Republican presidential candidates promising a repeal to the new health care law, there are some calling for stalling the process. Others warn that if Georgia doesn't come up with some plan,
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration accused Piping Technology and Products of 13 willful and 17 serious violations for exposing workers to the risk of amputations and other serious injuries due to a lack of safeguards on dangerous
Justices unlikely to have last word on health care
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul divided the nation from the day he signed it into law, and that seems unlikely to change no matter how the Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality.
Some legal disputes, like the 2000 presidential election, the court can settle. Others rage on, such as abortion. It may take another decade to find the balance between private and public responsibility for health care in America, a nation disdainful of big government yet historically unable to guarantee affordable basic coverage to its citizens.
"Either way it rules, the Supreme Court decision will not end the debate on health care," said former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, an influential Democratic adviser. "It is, and will largely remain, a debate on the role of government."
The Supreme Court's announcement on Monday that it will take up the constitutional challenge to what Republicans deride as "Obamacare," sets the stage for a decision next summer in the heat of the presidential election campaign.
But even if the court upholds the law, Republican leaders say "repeal and replace" remains their slogan.
"Job-killing tax hikes on families and small businesses may well be constitutional — that doesn't mean we would support them," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio remains committed to repealing the overhaul and replacing it with a Republican plan regardless of the Supreme Court ruling, his spokesman said. "We will continue to work to repeal it," said Michael Steel.
The administration is dug in, too. Publicly, officials say they're confident Obama's plan for covering the uninsured will be upheld to the last comma.
Privately, there's a Plan B: If the court strikes down the law's unpopular linchpin — the so-called individual mandate requiring most Americans to carry health insurance — the administration would take whatever's left and try to put that in place. That includes a major expansion of Medicaid for low income people, a host of new rules for insurance companies, and cuts for hospitals, drug companies and other providers serving Medicare recipients.