LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“When flights start getting canceled and the beef inspectors stop inspecting beef, I think that people will know what sequester is.”
Republican Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida Article, this page
Obama honors staff 6 slain at Newtown
WASHINGTON - Family members of the six adults killed in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting gathered at the White House Friday as President Barack Obama bestowed the nation’s second highest civilian honor on their fallen relatives.
One by one, Obama read the names of the six educators receiving the Presidential Citizens Medal, saying they had no idea when they woke up on a chilly December morning of the sacrifice they would soon make for their communities.
“They could have focused on their own safety, on their own well-being. But they didn’t,” Obama said. “They gave their lives to protect the precious children in their care.”
In all, Obama honored 18 people Friday, including Newtown principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach and teachers Victoria Soto, Lauren Rousseau, Rachel D’Avino and Anne Marie Murphy.
Christie: N.J. to join federal care market
TRENTON, N.J. - Gov. Chris Christie said Friday he gave formal notice to the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services that New Jersey will join a federally administered exchange in 2014.
Friday was the deadline for states to join the federal system, declare a state-federal partnership or create their own.
Christie, 50, a Republican, said in a statement that his administration “is committed to meeting our obligation to comply with the Affordable Care Act, but only in a manner that is the most effective and efficient for the residents of New Jersey, and the businesses that will carry the costs of this new program.”
Also Friday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, announced that his state also will eschew a partnership and instead will let the federal government run the exchanges there.
The health-care exchanges are to start operating in 2014.
The federal government will establish the markets in states that haven’t created them.
Barring last-minute switches that may not be revealed until next week, 23 states plus Washington, D.C., have opted to run their own markets or partner with the Obama administration to do so. Arkansas has selected the partnership model.
Twenty-six states are defaulting to the federal government. Utah’s status is unclear.
Hanford nuke tank is leaking liquids
OLYMPIA, Wash. - A tank that holds radioactive liquids is leaking at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday.
The U.S. Department of Energy said liquid levels are decreasing in one of 177 underground tanks at the nuclear reservation. Monitoring wells near the tank have not detected higher radiation levels, but Inslee said the leak could be in the range of 150 gallons to 300 gallons over the course of a year and creates a long term threat that could affect groundwater or rivers.
“I am alarmed about this on many levels,” Inslee said at a Friday afternoon news conference. “This raises concerns, not only about the existing leak ... but also concerning the integrity of the other single shell tanks of this age.”
Front Section, Pages 3 on 02/16/2013