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A federal judge in Detroit today upheld key provisions of President Barack Obama’s landmark health reform law. In a 20-page decision, U.S. District Judge George Steeh refused to issue an injunction to halt preparations for putting federal health reforms into full effect in 2014, a law known as the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress in March.

WASHINGTON — Here are the effective dates of major provisions of the health care overhaul legislation approved Sunday: WITHIN A YEAR - Would provide a $250 rebate this year to Medicare prescription drug beneficiaries whose initial benefits run out. 90 days after enactment: - Would provide immediate access to high-risk pools for people with no insurance because of pre-existing conditions. Six months after enactment: - Would bar insurers from denying people coverage when they get sick. - Would bar insurers from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. - Would bar insurers from imposing lifetime caps on coverage. - Would...

WASHINGTON — Early versions of the Senate’s far-reaching health care bill said that small businesses with fewer than 50 workers would not be penalized if they failed to provide insurance. That was before labor unions in the construction industry went to work and persuaded Senate leaders to insert five paragraphs. In a provision of the Senate health care reform bill, construction companies with five or more workers would generally have to provide health insurance or pay a penalty. Their provision, added to the 2,074-page bill at the last minute, singles out the construction industry for special treatment, in a way...

MIDDLEVILLE, Mich. -- It was around midnight one evening in November when Aaron Wissner shot up in bed, jolted awake by a fear: He wasn't fully ready for the day when the world starts running low on oil. Yes, he had tripled the size of the garden in front of the tidy white-clapboard house he shares with his wife and infant son. He had stacked bags of rice in his new pantry, stashed gold valued at $8,000 in his safe-deposit box and doubled the size of the propane tank in his yard. "But I felt panicky, like I needed more...

Excerpts on fake documents from President Bush's May 15 national address on immigration reform: "Comprehensive immigration reform must include a better system for verifying documents and work eligibility. A key part of that system should be a new identification card for every legal foreign worker. This card should use biometric technology, such as digital fingerprints, to make it tamperproof. A tamperproof card would help us enforce the law and leave employers with no excuse for violating it." --- Highlights of a bill the Senate passed in May: - Requires employers and subcontractors to use an electronic system within 18 months...

Quake victims could be left without basic provisions for months, warns president · Rescuers give up hope of finding more survivors· Homeless and sick face threat of erupting volcano John Aglionby in Yogyakarta Tuesday May 30, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Indonesia's president warned last night it would take months to deal with the basic needs of tens of thousands of earthquake survivors, as rescue teams all but gave up hope of pulling more people alive from the rubble. Relief started trickling through to towns demolished by Saturday's 6.3-magnitude quake that killed at least 4,300 people on Java island, but President...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - In spite of congressional efforts to clarify portions of the U.S. Patriot Act, some provisions dealing with foreign terrorist organizations remain too vague to be understood by a person of average intelligence and thus are unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins found that Congress failed to remedy all the problems she defined in a 2004 ruling that struck down key provisions of the act. Her decision was handed down Thursday and released Friday. Collins was responding to a petition from the Center for Constitutional Rights that sought to clear the way...

Should the Patriot Act be renewed and its provisions extended into permanent law? Yes, we're more secure with it. 39 (25%) No, it's more dangerous than the dangers it's supposed to counter. 95 (60%) Maybe with modifications. 22 (14%) No opinion. 3 (2%) Total Votes: 159

The REAL ID Act has many Americans, especially civil libertarians, up in arms. They are concerned that "Big Brother" has crossed the fine line between security and intrusion. While we are all well advised to guard against an ever-intrusive government, it serves no good purpose to denigrate a piece of legislation simply because special interest groups are attempting to persuade us into believing there is something sinister afoot. "We the People" have a responsibility to ascertain the facts about any given issue before we storm the village square, flaming torches in hand. This concept is called civic responsibility and our...

WASHINGTON, D.C., Mar 24 (OneWorld) - A novel coalition of conservatives and liberals normally at each other's throats over the nature of government and free speech have made common cause to oppose key parts of the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law. The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) (ACLU), long vilified by conservatives, has joined forces with right-wing groups the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, and the Free Congress Foundation to spearhead the ''Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances'' coalition. The Patriot Act's supporters have said it has kept America safe since 2001 but opponents have...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites) launched a campaign to get an extension of controversial anti-terrorism legislation passed after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Insisting that the USA Patriot Act had helped prevent more terrorist attacks, Bush criticised members of Congress, who include Democratic presidential contender John Kerry (news - web sites), for threatening to block the renewal of parts of the legislation next year. "Some politicians in Washington act as if the threat to America will also expire on that schedule," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Yet we have seen what...

Sausage and tax cutsBruce Bartlett (archive) May 23, 2003 | Print | SendIt is often said that the legislation process is like watching sausage being made: disgusting. What is left off this analogy, however, is that sausage can be very tasty. We have just seen a good example of tasty sausage being made in the tax area. Although the process by which it was made was convoluted and painful, at the end of the day Congress will have enacted one of the best tax bills in history. To summarize: President Bush proposed full elimination of the double tax on corporate...

<p>MEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican President Vicente Fox said today his administration is open to the possibility of renegotiating agricultural tariffs under the North American Free Trade Agreement -- although he warned that the move wouldn't benefit Mexico.</p> <p>It was the first time Fox has talked of the possibility of renegotiating NAFTA provisions that lifted tariffs Jan. 1 on many U.S. farm products. Before, he had said the Mexican government would live with the changes -- angering farmers across the country who have periodically threatened to block roads and crossings at the U.S. border.</p>