The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“We won the battle; now we need to go win the war. Today is a good day, but Bradley is by no means out of the fire.”

David Coombs, the attorney for U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who was acquitted of aiding the enemy but was convicted of espionage, theft and other charges for leaking government secrets to WikiLeaks Article, 1A

State sues county to halt gay nuptials

PHILADELPHIA - State officials asked a court to stop a county from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples on Tuesday, nearly a week after a clerk began granting them in violation of Pennsylvania law.

The petition filed by the Health Department alleges that D. Bruce Hanes, the register of wills in Montgomery County, “repeatedly and continuously” flouted the law. As of Tuesday afternoon, Hanes’ office had granted 34 licenses and registered six same-sex marriages.

Pennsylvania is the only northeastern state without same sex marriages or civil unions. Hanes began issuing licenses to same-sex couples shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage of Act.

County solicitor Ray McGarry said the Health Department’s lawsuit “has serious flaws.” The county will continue to grant licenses to gay couples, McGarry said.

The developments come the same day that Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s office indicated that it would defend the state’s marriage law in a separate legal challenge filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat who supports same-sex marriage, had said earlier this month that she wouldn’t defend the state in that suit because she believes the law to be unconstitutional.

Health-law deferral to cost $12 billion

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama’s decision to give employers a year before they’re required to provide health insurance for workers will cost taxpayers $12 billion, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.

The health law will now cost $1.375 trillion through 2023, an increase of $12 billion since May, the budget office said in a letter to members of Congress. The government will lose $10 billion in penalties that companies would have paid next year for not providing employee health plans, and taxpayers will spend $3 billion more on subsidies for workers who instead will buy coverage in new marketplaces called exchanges.

The costs of the delay were offset by about $1 billion because of “small changes,” the budget office said, including an increase in income tax collections from people who don’t get coverage at work.

Even with the mandate’s delay, the health law is projected to reduce the deficit, the budget office said, because of lower Medicare spending and other provisions that offset the cost of new coverage.

Pentagon: No Afghanistan ‘zero option’

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon said Tuesday that it is offering no “zero option” for the number of troops that would remain in Afghanistan after the U.S. combat mission ends in December 2014. It said in a report to Congress that “substantial” long-term military support will be needed to ensure that Afghans can hold off the Taliban insurgency.

The White House has not ruled out leaving no troops behind after 2014, although officials say the most likely option is a residual training force of roughly 9,000.

In its twice-a-year report to Congress on war progress, the Pentagon said Afghanistan’s military is growing stronger but will require more training, advising and foreign financial aid after the American and NATO combat mission ends.

The Pentagon’s assessment was an implicit rejection of the “zero option.” Zero is considered an unlikely choice by President Barack Obama, not least because his administration has pledged to stand with the Afghans for the long term. But Obama has grown frustrated in his dealings with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Woman faces vandalism charge in D.C.

WASHINGTON - A woman charged with defacing the Washington National Cathedral was carrying a soda can containing green paint when she was arrested, and she has been linked to at least four other incidents of vandalism, including at the Lincoln Memorial, according to prosecutors and court documents.

Jia M. Tian, 58, appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Tuesday alongside a Mandarin translator. Police had previously identified her as Jiamei Tian.

The woman was arrested Monday at the cathedral, where she is accused of using green paint to deface an organ and decorative woodwork in two separate chapels. She’s been charged with defacing and destroying private property. A judge on Tuesday ordered her held without bail.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 07/31/2013

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