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Nation in brief

Senators want Medicare signup extended

By Wire services
Published April 20, 2006

WASHINGTON - Forty-eight of the 100 senators urged Republican leaders and the Bush administration on Wednesday to allow people more time to sign up for the Medicare drug benefit beyond the May 15 deadline.

"By extending the enrollment deadline and delaying late enrollment penalties, we can make sure that our constituents are not forced to make hasty decisions about their health care," the senators wrote Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

The administration has extended the enrollment period for some low-income people. That could affect 2-million people whose incomes are below 150 percent of the poverty level - $14,355 for an older person who lives alone, $19,245 for a couple.

Administration officials said last week they lack the legal authority to extend it for everyone.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who has written legislation to extend the deadline, acknowledged that the letter does not have enough signatures to make Frist bring the issue up again. The letter was circulated by several senators, including Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Half a dozen relatives of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks testified for terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday. One woman told jurors weighing whether to execute him that her family does not want to "get caught in a whirlpool of sadness and anger."

Meanwhile, a psychiatrist testified that Moussaoui's failure to learn enough to fly an airplane solo was probably a result of schizophrenia developed around the time he embraced Islamic fundamentalism in the 1990s.

After two days of argument over the mental health of the 37-year-old Frenchman, many jurors noticeably sat up and leaned forward when they realized that victim relatives were coming to testify on behalf of the confessed Sept. 11 conspirator.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - An antiabortion extremist already behind bars for sending hundreds of letters with fake anthrax to women's clinics has agreed to plead guilty to carjacking, robbery and other offenses.

Clayton Lee Waagner, 49, said in documents filed in federal court that he wants to plead guilty to a 2001 Mississippi carjacking, to weapons charges in Mississippi and Tennessee, and to robbing banks in Harrisburg and Morgantown, W.Va.

Waagner, who once said he was on a mission from God to kill abortion providers, was sentenced in 2003 to 19 years for the fake anthrax letters, and at the time of that sentencing was serving 49 years on firearms and escape charges. The new plea deal covers crimes while he was on the run following the 2001 jail escape.

MIDWEST SNOWSTORM: A powerful spring storm swept through the northwestern Plains on Wednesday, dumping up to 2 feet of snow that closed major highways and cut power to hundreds. More than 2,000 homes and businesses lost power in South Dakota's Black Hills, and many schools were closed. Some customers in North Dakota could be without electricity until Friday.

AIRPORT SCARE: Officials shut down all security checkpoints at the nation's busiest airport for about two hours after a "suspicious image" was detected in a screening machine. After a hand search of bags, nothing matching the image was found, said Willie Williams, Transportation Security Administration director at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. He declined to say what the image appeared to be but said authorities continued to analyze it.

[Last modified April 20, 2006, 01:51:05]