The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY

“There is a common thread that we see in these massacres.They’re using high-capacity

magazines so they can unleash as many bullets as they can, to kill as many people as they can, in our schools, our theaters and our churches.”

Colorado Rep. Rhonda Fields, a Democrat from Aurora, who sponsored a package of new gun restrictions in her state Article, 6A

Health-insurance program scaling back

WASHINGTON - Citing financial concerns, the Obama administration has begun quietly winding down one of the earliest programs created by President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, a plan that helps people with medical problems who can’t get private insurance.

In an afternoon teleconference with state counterparts, administration officials said Friday that the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan will stop taking new applications. People already in the plan will not lose coverage.

Designed as a stopgap solution until the law’s full consumer protections are in effect next year, the plan has served more than 135,000 people, a lifeline for patients with serious medical problems such as cancer and heart failure. But Congress allocated a limited amount of money, and the administration’s technical experts want to make sure it doesn’t run out.

Health and Human Services Department spokesman Erin Shields Britt said the plan has “provided needed security to some of our nation’s sickest people.”

Texas officers kill Florida escapee

GRAPEVINE, Texas - A Florida prisoner who escaped in Texas after stabbing a detective with his eyeglasses was fatally shot early Saturday after refusing to cooperate with officers and lunging at them, police said.

Alberto Morales was shot in a wooded area of Grapevine, a community near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. It put an end to a five-day manhunt that started when he escaped Monday from a Wal-Mart parking lot after stabbing the detective.

Grapevine police Sgt. Robert Eberling said at a Saturday news conference that officers instructed Morales to lie on the ground and show his hands, but he rushed toward them. Morales, 42, was unarmed at the time of the shooting and was not wearing handcuffs. He was holding some sticks, Eberling said.

“He was very skilled and crafty as far as making makeshift edged weapons inside the prison. That was in the forethoughts of the officers. He was able to almost kill an officer with some eyeglasses,” Eberling added.

Police said Morales used a sharp piece from his eyeglasses to stab the Miami-Dade, Fla., detective who was transferring him by car to Nevada, where Morales was to serve a sentence of 30 years to life for sexual assault.

Car hits ambulance, kills medic

INDIANAPOLIS - A car collided with an ambulance early Saturday in downtown Indianapolis, leaving one of the medics inside dead and the other severely injured.

Police said the ambulance was not on an emergency run when the accident happened, shortly after 3:30 a.m.

at an intersection near the Indiana Statehouse. Police said the ambulance had the right of way because it had a flashing yellow traffic signal, while the traffic signal for the car was flashing red.

Public-safety officials identified the medic who died as Tim McCormick, 24, an Eagle Scout from New York who attended St. Lawrence University. McCormick, who lived in the Indianapolis suburb of Greenwood, was driving the ambulance, officials said.

The other medic who was in the ambulance was hospitalized in critical condition with severe head injuries, officials said. That medic’s name was not released.

The car’s driver was released after a routine blood test/

Man held in ex-wife’s death on cruise

WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. - A California man has been arrested in southwest Florida on an outstanding murder warrant in the death of his ex-wife, who went overboard from an Italian cruise ship seven years ago.

Lonnie Kocontes, 55, was taken into custody Friday night by federal marshals and booked into the Pasco County jail where he was being held without bail, authorities said.

He was charged with one count of special-circumstances murder for financial gain, according to Farrah Emami, a spokesman for the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Kocontes’ ex-wife, Micki Kanesaki, plunged into the Mediterranean on May 26, 2006, off the Island Escape, which was sailing between Sicily and Naples, according to the FBI. Her body washed ashore the next day in Calabria in southwest Italy.

Front Section, Pages 5 on 02/17/2013

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