Page 10 The Skanner March 8, 2017
News
Facing Strong Pushback,
GOP Leaders Advance
Health Care Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Over the
strong objections of key conservatives
and Democrats, House Republican
leaders are forging ahead with a health
care plan that scraps major parts of the
Obama-era overhaul.
The House Ways and Means Commit-
tee and the Energy and Commerce Com-
mittee will convene what are expected
to be marathon sessions on Wednesday
to start voting on the legislation. Presi-
dent Donald Trump and Vice President
Mike Pence back the plan to repeal
Barack Obama’s health care law, and
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is confident-
ly predicting it will pass the House.
But many fellow Republicans don’t
seem to be listening.
On Tuesday, less than 24 hours af-
ter the GOP health bill was launched,
a powerful conservative backlash
threatened to sink it.
“As the bill stands today, it is
Obamacare 2.0,” according to a state-
ment by the billionaire Koch Broth-
ers’-backed Americans for Prosperity
and FreedomWorks groups. “Passing
it would be making the same mistake
that President Obama, Harry Reid and
Nancy Pelosi made in 2010. Millions
of Americans would never see the im-
provements in care they were prom-
ised, just as Obamacare failed to deliv-
er on its promises.”
Rubble and Ash in Mosul
Museum Retaken from
Islamic State
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — The antiquities
museum in the Iraqi city of Mosul is
in ruins, with exhibition halls housing
piles of rubble and the basement filled
with ankle-deep drifts of ash.
Associated Press reporters were
granted rare access to the museum on
Wednesday after Iraqi forces retook
it from the Islamic State group earlier
this week.
They found the jagged remains of
what appeared to have been an ancient
Assyrian bull statue and fragments
from cuneiform tablets.
IS captured Mosul in 2014 and re-
leased a video the following year show-
ing fighters smashing artifacts in the
museum with sledgehammers. The ex-
tremists view ancient artifacts as idols.
Iraqi officials at the time said most
of what the militants destroyed were
copies, as much of the museum’s inven-
tory had been moved to Baghdad for
safe-keeping.
10 Years Gone: No Word of
Ex-FBI Man Lost in Iran on
CIA Job
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)
— Ten years after a former FBI agent
working on an unauthorized CIA mis-
sion disappeared in Iran, his family
hopes U.S. President Donald Trump
will do something America’s last two
presidents have been unable to achieve:
Finally bring him home.
Robert Levinson’s family told The As-
sociated Press this week that Trump’s
background as a deal-making business-
man and his harder line on Iran could
be an asset in finally determining what
happened to the investigator, whose
69th birthday is Friday.
They described the heartbreak of see-
ing other American prisoners in Iran
freed while the mystery surrounding
his disappearance remains. They also
acknowledged the challenge of keep-
ing his case in the public eye, as he now
has been held captive longer than any
American in history, if he remains
AP PHOTO/KHALID MOHAMMED
World News Briefs
Iraqi security forces advance during fighting against Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq,
Wednesday. IS captured Mosul in 2014 and released video showing fighters smashing museum artifacts
with sledgehammers.
alive.
“We believe people can survive 10
years under any circumstances. In the
worst places, people survive. We know
Bob is alive,” his wife, Christine Levin-
son, told the AP. “Everyone else has
gotten out of Iran, but Bob has been left
behind every single time. It’s now time
for him to be returned home to his fam-
ily.”
Levinson disappeared from Iran’s
Kish Island on March 9, 2007. For years,
U.S. officials would only say that Levin-
son, a meticulous FBI investigator cred-
ited with busting Russian and Italian
mobsters, was working for a private
firm on his trip.
China Says North Korea
Could Suspend Nukes for
Halt in US Drills
BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign min-
ister said Wednesday that North Korea
could suspend its nuclear and mis-
sile activities in exchange for a halt in
joint U.S.-South Korea military drills,
in an unusually public proposal that
analysts said showed Beijing’s growing
alarm over the tensions.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi said fric-
tions between the North and Washing-
ton and Seoul were like “two accelerat-
ing trains” headed at each other, with
neither side willing to give way.
“The question is: Are the two sides
really ready for a head-on collision?”
Wang told reporters. “Our priority
now is to flash the red light and apply
the brakes on both trains.”
Wang said China has proposed that
as a first step to defusing the looming
crisis, the North might halt its nucle-
ar program development and missile
testing if the U.S. and South Korea sus-
pended their military drills.
“This suspension-for-suspension can
help us break out of the security dilem-
ma and bring the parties back to the ne-
gotiating table,” Wang said, describing
the approach as trying to address all
parties’ concerns in a “synchronized
and reciprocal” manner.
Owners Treat Sick
Animals with Cannabis
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Michael Fas-
man’s 12-year-old dog, Hudson, limps
from pain caused by arthritis and an
amputated toe, but Fasman doesn’t
want to give her painkillers because
“they just knock her out.”
So the San Francisco resident has
turned to an alternative medicine that
many humans use to treat their own
pain and illness: marijuana.
On a recent morning, Fasman
squeezed several drops of a cannabis
extract onto a plate of yogurt, which
the Portuguese water dog lapped up in
seconds. It’s become part of Hudson’s
daily routine.
“We think it’s really lifted her spirits
and made her a happier dog,” Fasman
said. “It’s not that she’s changed. She’s
just back to her good old self.”
As more states legalize marijuana
for humans, more pet owners are giv-
ing their furry companions canna-
bis-based extracts, ointments and edi-
bles marketed to treat everything from
arthritis and anxiety to seizures and
cancer.