Clem’s Chronicles: Health Care Reform/More arrests in Billings Killings/Sotomayor

Lots and lots of news tonight. Here's what we got….

HEALTH CARE REFORM-It was the Senate’s turn to step up to the plate on health care reform today albeit on the committee level. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee(HELP) passed its version of health care reform on a party-line vote of 13-10. President Obama weighed in saying the Senate health committee vote "should make us hopeful – but it can't make us complacent," Obama said. "It should instead provide the urgency for both the House and the Senate to finish their critical work on health reform before the August recess."
Jon Karl, filing for WORLD NEWS, notes that “now (comes) the hard part…Democrats in Congress are deeply divided on key details including whether to create a new government-run health insurance program and how to pay for it all.” Not so divided at all-Republicans in opposition to the various Democratic proposals on health care. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-WY, is the ranking Republican on the HELP committee and he voiced concerns today: "The bill lays the groundwork for a government takeover of health care, creating a government-run health plan that many Americans would be forced onto, and giving Washington bureaucrats the power to ration health care," said Enzi. Karl noted the President’s disagreement with Republican opposition when Obama said “Deferring reform is nothing more than defending the status quo.”
–It’s not just Republican opposition that President Obama has to worry about. Karl notes that “the White House had hoped for support from a broad coalition of health industry groups. But that coalition is falling apart as key Democrats today proposed hitting insurance companies with a new tax.” 
–And then there’s the members of the President’s own party. Karl: “The biggest challenge may be keeping all Democrats on board…in an unprecedented move, the Democratic National Committee launched a national ad campaign today targeting fellow Democrats who have expressed concerns about the President’s health plan.” As crazy as that sounds, the Obama Administration can’t afford renegades. Karl: “With Republicans likely to be united in opposition, the President will need every single Democrat in the Senate to support his health plan.”
 
DR. TIM/OBAMA INTERVIEW ON HEALTH CARE-ABC NEWS Medical Editor Dr. Tim Johnson sat down with President Obama this afternoon at the White House to talk health care reform. Some highlights:
–Health Benefit Advisory Committee-This 25 member group(appointed mostly by President Obama) is to decide what benefits are paid for and which are not. Johnson noted that “most people, they’re worried about this new devil”. The President noted that unlike a panel who have a “profit motive…I’ve got a panel of doctors and experts whose only motivation is making sure that we get the most bang for the buck in our health care. I think that’s a situation that most Americans would feel pretty good about.”
–Primary Care Worries-Dr. Tim quoted from doctors concerned that increased insurance coverage will mean overwhelmed primary care physicians who will be unable to treat all those seeking help. President Obama replied “What we want to do is to provide a powerful set of incentives for more and more young people who are interested in health care, interested in medicine to go into primary care. So putting in a sizable chunk of money into making life better for primary care physicians, particularly those who are willing to serve in under-served areas, I think we can solve some of those problems.
–Time Frame-Dr. Tim notes the “President made a surprising statement about his timetable for solving primary care problems”. Obama: We’re not going to solve all (problems) immediately overnight, and  that’s why I think we have to anticipate this program’s not going to start up probably until 2013. That gives us four or five years to start developing programs to solve this problem. 
 
SCOTUS CONFIRMATION HEARINGS:  The third day of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings brought more hard-hitting questions from Senators and elusive answers from the nominee.  On specific questions about her stance on abortion from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sotomayor said she could not answer in the “abstract” and could only “speak to what the court has set in its precedent.”  When asked by Sen. Coburn about her personal opinion on whether he “personally, as an individual citizen, [has] a right to self-defense,” Sotomayor again called the question “abstract” and answered with an example based on New York criminal law.  Sotomayor was also asked again about the “wise Latina” comment, to which she answered “I stand by the words.  It fell flat.  And I understand that some people have understood them in a way that I never intended.  And I would hope that, in the text of the speech, that they would be understood.”  As Jan Crawford Greenburg reported on WORLD NEWS, Sotomayor’s answers – or non-answers – continue to frustrate Republicans and “even had some liberal groups wanting a better picture on where she stands. “
“Confirmation has always been Sotomayor’s to lose,” Greenburg reported, “and she’s stuck to the time-honored strategy – which we’ve seen from nominees going back 20 years – of not saying too much.  She’ll be back tomorrow for her last day of questioning…a vote could come as soon as next week.”  (thanks to Marisa Bramwell for this entry)

SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR LAUNCH-The 6th time is the charm! After five planned launches were scrubbed due to lousy weather or mechanical issues, the Shuttle Endeavour took off shortly after 6pm ET on its’ 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Gina Sunseri notes: “During Endeavour's launch several pieces of debris – unknown if it was foam or ice – fell away from the orbiter from the Pilots side of the shuttle. The incidents were seen on replays and during the launch at about one minute and 46 seconds into the launch.    Before the launch mission managers were concerned about a crack on the aft face of the feedline strut on the external tank but decided it was not an issue.  I don't know if the debris came from this area – I am just flagging it for future reference.   I have a photo of the crack if we need it, and if they determine it came from this area.” 
 
AFGHANISTAN: The death toll for foreign troops in Afghanistan this month has reached 46 – and that figure equals the highest for any month of the eight-year-old war.  The high casualty count is attributed to the U.S. decision to pour more troops into Afghanistan where a major operation is taking place to drive the Taliban out of strongholds in the southern province of Helmand.  Mike Boettcher is in the Helmand River Valley:  “Bullets, mortars and rockets fill the no-man’s land between Taliban fighters and Golf Company 2/8 Marines.  The Taliban has set an ambush for the marines leading the advance.  And this time, unlike past ambushes, the Taliban do not attack and hide.  They stay and fight.”  Bob Woodruff asked NATO’s commander in Afghanistan what has turned Helmand province into such a dangerous area.  Army General Stanley McChrystal:  “You have a combination of factors there – there's the original home of the Taliban, there's the narcotics production which pumps a lot of money into that and breeds corruption, and then there's the fact there's proximity to Pakistan, where a tremendous amount of the leaders and whatnot can seek safe haven.” As dangerous as Helmand Province is, McChrystal says he has also become concerned with the stability in the west and north of the country.  That means more security forces will be needed, especially Afghan troops and police, not to mention more Afghan government support to win over the local population. (thanks to Ed Bailey for this entry)

LATEST ON BILLINGS MURDER CASE: Authorities have identified another “person of interest” in connection to the murders of Melanie and Byrd Billings last week – Pamela Laverne Long, a real estate broker. “Long is a local real estate agent believed to have ties to two of the seven suspects now in custody,” Jeffrey Kofman reported on WORLD NEWS.   ”Records show she was charged with felony grand larceny in 1988.  But police do not believe she was at the Billings home the night of the murder.  They are also looking for a second person of interest whose identity has not been released.”  Long is not in custody and has been cooperating with officials on the investigation. UPDATE:At a 9:30pm ET press conference,  Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan says Pamela Wiggins – who was initially identified as Pamela Long – has been charged with accessory after the fact to felony murder. Morgan would not give any details on why she was charged. Law enforcement officials also say they believe a member of the team that robbed and killed the Billings was supposed to disable the house’s security system – but it was not done.  Surveillance video from the security system showed the team was inside the house for four minutes, on the Billings’ property for 10.  The sheriff’s department plans to hold another press conference at 9:30pm ET tonight. (thanks to Marisa Bramwell for this entry)
 
STOCK MARKET-Maybe the NYSE has borrowed the California Angels’ rally monkey during the All-Star break. The Dow Jones had its’ biggest one-day gain since March, gaining more than 256 points to finish at 8616.21. That was its’ third straight gain. What’s got everybody bullish? We mentioned Intel’s better-than-expected earnings which came out after yesterday’s closing bell. That has some folks believing that computer sales are picking up faster than had been expected. The tech-heavy NASDAQ gained 63.17, or 3.5 percent, to 1,862.90.
Another reason for optimism came from the Federal Reserve. Dan Arnall notes: “The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee released minutes from its June meeting today, showing continued weakness in the U.S. economy and an upward revision to the Fed’s economic forecast. First things first. The Fed’s current readings on the economy indicate that things are bad, but the speed of deterioration seems to be lessening. It is this flattening out that has given the Fed some confidence that their presumptions about future growth might be a bit too dour. The staff updated the central bank’s forecast for GDP growth, showing substantial improvement from their April guess. But the jobless rate was revised upward, reflecting a worse scenario for employment in the near term.” We’ll see if there’s a fourth day of joy on the Street.  Tomorrow comes more earnings reports, including JP Morgan Chase, IBM and Google.

CIT PROBLEMS-Ever heard of CIT Group Inc.? Me neither. But Matt Jaffe tells us that “around one million small and middle-market businesses nationwide count on the lender for financing.” That’s about 60-70% of all the small business financing done in this country. Why do you care? They’re in trouble. Jaffe: “The lender is struggling under the weight of ongoing losses, a decrease in liquidity, and billions of dollars in debt that is about to come due. Since they have already received $2.33 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, there are only so many possible solutions left. In recent days, the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have been debating behind closed doors what to do to help CIT, but the discussions are yet to result in an agreement between the agencies.” Tonight a bad situation appears to be getting worse. CIT Group Inc. released a statement tonight saying that “it has been advised that there is no appreciable likelihood of additional government support being provided over the near term.” The statement goes on to say that the company’s management is “evaluating alternatives” but they appear to be few in number. Dan Arnall notes that  “The firm had a capital plan in place that would have allowed it to continue to function through the first quarter of next year, but the widely reported ‘run’ on the lender – where companies have been asking for the money available to them in their lines of credit with CIT – have reportedly drained the firm’s assets.” Arnall also notes “there seems to be a turf battle amongst the regulators – Treasury pushing for an intervention and the FDIC reluctant to put its money into play here.”  

RUSSIAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST FOUND DEAD-From Alexander Marquardt: “Human rights activist Natalya Estemirova was found dead this afternoon in the woods of Ingushetia in the North Caucasus region, says Chechnya’s Interior Ministry. Colleagues at the NGO where she worked  Memorial – say she was abducted this morning, forced into a car by four men in the Chechen capital of Grozny where she lived.  The chairman of Memorial, Oleg Orlov, said that the Chechen authorities had been highly critical of her work which spanned more than a decade and focused on kidnappings, torture and killings in Chechnya.  Along with neighboring Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya have seen a spike in violence in recent days with almost daily clashes between police and militants.”

WAL-MART/SUSTAINABILITY-Charlie Herman has details on an interesting Wal-Mart story happening tomorrow. Herman: “Thursday, Wal-Mart will hold a webcast press conference at 10am ET where the CEO will discuss the company’s latest efforts to broaden its sustainability projects. Tomorrow, it appears that Wal-Mart will release a “sustainability” index that will measure how sustainable every product it sells is.  Is Coke or Pepsi better for the environment?  Should you buy Tide or Cheer if you are trying to reduce use of chemicals?  More details here:  http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2009/07/13/wal-mart-become-green-umpire?page=0,0
Marc Gunther who has closely followed Wal-Mart’s green initiatives reports that several universities – Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford – have been involved in creating the sustainability index.  Gunther reports that some of the nation’s biggest companies – Procter and Gamble, General Mills, Tyson – have joined the “sustainability consortium.”  Competitors such as Costco and Target have been asked to join as well.
If you can look at a label of a product and know how many calories it has and buy accordingly, might you do the same thing if you know how “sustainable” it is? 
Over the past several years, the nation’s largest retailer has become a supporter of sustainability – windmills for power, green roofs, fuel efficient trucks, reduced cardboard and demands for reduced sized packages.  Embracing green has led to greater efficiencies for the company and saving money (what it loves) and given the previously bad PR-plagued retailer something positive to highlight.”

OTHER STUFF- 
–POTTER BOFFO MIDNIGHT COIN-Warner Brothers announced that midnight showings of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” raked in $22 million at the box office. That’s a record, besting previous champ (and Warner Brothers movie) “The Dark Knight” and it’s $18.5 million haul last summer. Elizabeth Vargas has an exclusive interview with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. She’ll be in TSS for GOOD MORNING AMERICA. You can see the full fruits of her labor tomorrow night in an ABC NEWS special entitled “J.K. Rowling:A Year in The Life” at 8pm ET.
–AMERICAN AIRLINES LOSS-American Airlines posted a $390 million loss in the second quarter. Revenue in April through June dropped 21 percent, to $4.89 billion. AMR said the swine flu outbreak cost it $50 million to $80 million in revenue. The AMR report was the first from major U.S. carriers covering the April-to-June quarter, usually a good one for travel. This year though, most airlines are expected to post a loss for the quarter. 
–WAR ZONE SMOKING OK- The Pentagon says it won't ban smoking by troops in war zones despite a recent study recommending a tobacco-free military. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell says troops already are under enough stress and making enough sacrifices from fighting the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he says Defense Secretary Robert Gates doesn't want to do add to that stress by taking away one of the few outlets they have to relieve it.