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The Health and Human Services Department granted 39 new waivers last month from part of the healthcare law, bringing the total to just shy of 1,500.In September, HHS will stop the process of granting a new batch of one-year waivers at the end of each month. Companies have until Sept. 22 to file their initial application for a one-year reprieve and seek an extension to carry them through the next three years.Department officials said they decided on the September cutoff because, by then, every company that thinks it needs a waiver would have had time to apply.

Sacramento -- Attorney General candidate Kamala Harris is battling increasing criticism of her performance as San Francisco district attorney both at home and on the campaign trail with only eight days left before the primary. On May 20, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo ripped into Harris, saying she violated defendants' rights by failing to disclose to defense attorneys damaging information about a police drug lab technician who's under investigation for allegedly skimming cocaine from evidence files. Problems intensified for Harris last week when The Chronicle disclosed that a toxicologist at the San Francisco coroner's office had been labeled...

A US Navy destroyer has made visual contact with a Ukrainian ship which was seized by pirates last week and is now moored off the Somali coast. There is no indication that the USS Howard intends to approach the ship, which is carrying 72 battle tanks destined for Kenya's government. The pirates' ransom demand for the ship and its 21 crew has fallen from $35m to $20m (£10.9m), their spokesman said. A man on the ship also told the BBC that one of the crew members had died.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30, 2007 – In 46 states across the country, 188 groups are planning Freedom Walks to be held in conjunction with the national America Supports You Freedom Walk planned for Sept. 9 here. America Supports You is a Defense Department program connecting citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad. As of Aug. 28, 3,200 people had registered to walk in this year’s national Freedom Walk, part of a series of events commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “All along we’ve been about 100-plus people (ahead of last year),” said...

  Al Rasheed Renovation Nears Completion $5.8 million renovation to Baghdad's most-famous hotel should be completed before the end of the year. By Norris Jones Gulf Region Central District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers BAGHDAD, Aug. 14, 2006 -- He’s been responsible for a variety of reconstruction efforts in Iraq – building sewers and water lines, electrical distribution networks, and roads. But project engineer Ross Warner says his work on Baghdad’s most-famous hotel has been both his biggest challenge and most rewarding experience during his six-month tour. “I’m proud of the progress we were able to achieve on the...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 8, 2006 – Even though the registration deadline is only a week away, there's still room for military children to attend an "Operation Purple" summer camp free of charge, according to National Military Family Association officials. Applications are available only online, and officials emphasized they will be accepted only through May 15. NMFA's Operation Purple camps provide children from military families fun and memorable opportunities to learn new skills for managing deployment-related stress, officials said. NMFA developed this free summer camp program, sponsored this year by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and TriWest Healthcare Alliance,...

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham are among the many Republicans whose ethical misconduct have prompted Democratic strategists to conclude that the Republican-run Congress has fostered a “culture of corruption.” But in the run-up to an April 11 special election in California’s 50th District, which Cunningham vacated after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges, it is a Democrat — Francine Busby, an educator and school board trustee — who has had to defend herself against Republican attempts to link her to lobbyists. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) this week unleashed a television attack on Busby,...

A modular unit is lowered into place at the new Bagram Airfield hospital. Seventy-seven modular units were manufactured and assembled in Dubai and delivered here. The units will be used as an emergency unit, intensive care unit and operating room. Courtesy photo Bagram’s New Hospital Nears Completion The new hospital, nearly complete with the delivery of new modular units, will increase the level of care available to troops, Afghans and civilian contractors. By U.S. Army Army Sgt. Douglas DeMaio 20th Public Affairs Detachment BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Feb. 14, 2006 — The new Bagram Airfield hospital is nearly complete with...

Top Dems leave as protest nears Party split between anti-war activists and prominent critics STEVEN THOMMA Knight Ridder Posted on Fri, Sep. 23, 2005 WASHINGTON - As the anti-war movement arrives in Washington this weekend, many Democrats are leaving. Nationally known Democratic war critics, including Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and John Kerry of Massachusetts, won't attend what sponsors say will be a big anti-war rally Saturday in Washington. **SNIP** En route to Washington for the rally, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan protested outside Clinton's New...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Dozens of insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles attacked Iraqi police checkpoints in western Baghdad on Wednesday in some of the heaviest street fighting the capital has seen in months. Several loud explosions shook the Hay al-Jamia district of the city and at least six police vehicles were set ablaze as a group of around 40 insurgents, some with their faces masked, launched a brazen daylight assault, police and witnesses said. "It was raining bullets," said a police official, who said a dozen police vehicles had been sent in to try to evacuate those under...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A staffing dispute that has helped shut down the U.S. House of Representatives ethics committee most of this year neared resolution on Wednesday, a top Democrat said. Such a settlement would clear the way for the anticipated investigation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican. "I think we have a deal," Rep. Alan Mollohan (news, bio, voting record) of West Virginia, the panel's ranking Democrat, said after talks with the panel's chairman, Washington Republican Rep. Doc Hastings (news, bio, voting record). Hastings had no immediate comment. Mollohan said in a telephone interview that they had...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to wage a great battle this fall in a special election showdown with the unions, the special interests and - most of all - the Democrats. But with his numbers falling in the polls and a key petition deadline approaching, there is growing uncertainty not only about which measures voters might face but even whether Schwarzenegger still wants the confrontation. "This has been a catastrophe from beginning to end," said Raphael Sonenshein, a political scientist at California State University, Fullerton. "He's proposed a year of warfare with the Democrats on issues that unite...

Tick, Tick, Tick, Tick Thu Dec 30, 7:00 PM ET Ibd It 's been nearly 3 1/2 months since former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press chief executive Louis D. Boccardi were named to an independent panel to investigate the "60 Minutes" story that used forged documents to allege Bush shirked his duties when in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1960s and 1970s. The panel was named Sept. 22, 14 days after the story aired and two days after Rather finally stopped denying that the documents were bogus and admitted the story was a mistake....

SACRAMENTO - Embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Thursday shook up his top management team five days before Tuesday's presidential election. Most important, Mark Kyle, the undersecretary of state and Shelley's best friend, will be replaced immediately by a 23-year veteran of the agency, Cathy Mitchell. Caren Daniels-Meade, Shelley's new assistant for communications, said ongoing investigations tied to the secretary were not a factor in the change, which she described as the result of ``mutual agreement.'' Daniels-Meade, who has worked in the secretary of state's office for three decades, said Kyle ``had given Kevin a two-year commitment. And he's...

Caribbean Death Toll from Floods Nears 2,000 Wed May 26, 2004 07:05 PM ET PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic rose to at least 1,950 on Wednesday. The toll rose dramatically with the discovery of more than 1,000 bodies in Mapou, a southeastern Haitian town where communications are poor, said Margareth Martin, the head of the civil protection office for Haiti's southeast region. Haiti's death toll stood at about 1,660, including 1,000 in Mapou, 500 elsewhere in Haiti's southeast region, 158 in the riverside town of Fond Verettes, and...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (news - web sites) are near a deal to reform a workers' compensation system whose high costs, critics claim, have been a drag on the local economy, the state's Assembly speaker said on Friday. "I'd say we're 90 percent of the way there," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez told Reuters. "I don't see why we wouldn't have workers' comp reform by the end of the month." Democrat Nunez's optimism comes amid a flurry of talks between lawmakers and the Republican governor on the state's insurer of last resort for workplace injuries....

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's budget deficit has ballooned to a staggering $34.8 billion, Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites) announced on Wednesday, leaving lawmakers the task of crafting a new spending plan with scant revenues to fund state programs. "(It) is far more than any expert predicted," Davis told reporters. Previous official estimates put the deficit at $21 billion. Davis made his announcement after meeting with top legislative leaders to discuss the shortfall over the next 18 months that has already forced the Democratic governor to propose $10.2 billion in spending cuts in the nation's most populous and...