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NATION/WORLD Thursday, March 23, 2017 East Oregonian Page 7A Five dead in attack at British Parliament LONDON (AP) — A knife-wielding man went on a deadly rampage in the heart of Britain’s seat of power Wednesday, plowing a car into pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge before stabbing a police officer to death inside the gates of Parliament. Five people were killed, including the assailant, and 40 others were injured in what Prime Minister Theresa May condemned as a “sick and depraved terrorist attack.” Lawmakers, lords, staff and visitors were locked down after the man was shot by police within the perimeter of Parliament, just yards from entrances to the building itself and in the shadow of the iconic Big Ben clock tower. He died, as did three pedestrians on the bridge, and the police officer. A doctor who treated the wounded from the bridge said some had “catastrophic” injuries. Three police officers, several French teenagers on a school trip, two Romanian tourists and five South Korean visitors were among the injured. Police said they were treating the attack as terrorism. There was no immediate claim of respon- sibility. Metropolitan Police counterterrorism chief Mark Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP Emergency services at the scene outside the Palace of Westminster, London, Wednesday. London police say they are treating a gun and knife incident at Brit- ain’s Parliament “as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise.” Rowley said police believed there was only one attacker, “but it would be foolish to be overconfident early on.” He said an unarmed policeman, three civilians and the attacker died. Forty others, including three police officers, were injured. Islamic extremism was suspected in the attack, Rowley said, adding that authorities believe they know the assailant’s identity but would not reveal it while the investigation was ongoing. The threat level for international terrorism in the U.K. was already listed at severe, meaning an attack was “highly likely.” Speaking outside 10 Downing St. after chairing a meeting of government’s emergency committee, COBRA, May said that level would not change. She said attempts to defeat British values of democracy and freedom through terrorism would fail. “Tomorrow morning, Parliament will meet as normal,” she said. Londoners and visitors “will all move forward together, never giving in to terror and never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart.” U.S. President Donald Leaders need votes for health bill WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican legisla- tive priority in peril, President Donald Trump dangled possible changes to the health care bill Wednesday aimed at placating conservatives threatening to torpedo the legislation. The White House seemed to make progress with the hardliners while House leaders struggled with moderates on eve of a show- down vote. Trump huddled at the White House with 18 lawmakers, a mix of supporters and opponents, Vice President Mike Pence saw around two dozen and House GOP leaders held countless talks with lawmakers at the Capitol. The sessions came as leaders rummaged for votes on a roll call they can ill-afford to lose without diminishing their clout for the rest of the GOP agenda. Most GOP opponents were conservatives asserting that the legislation demolishing former President Barack Obama’s health care law did not go far enough. They were demanding repeal of the law’s requirements that insurers pay for specified services like maternity care, prescription drugs and substances abuse treatment. Late Wednesday night, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., met with moderate Republicans from Penn- sylvania, Illinois, Maine and New York as well as members of leadership. Any changes on essential health benefits would likely trigger an immediate backlash from patient advocacy groups and doctors. In early meetings with Trump and Pence and later AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite After eight hours of debate, House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, left, and Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the vice-chair, listen to arguments from committee chairs as the panel meets to shape the final version of the Republican health care bill be- fore it goes to the floor for debate and a vote, Wednes- day on Capitol Hill in Washington. discussions with the White House, talks focused on language addressing conser- vatives’ concerns that those coverage requirements drive up premiums. Details were unclear, but members of the House Freedom Caucus, the hard-line group spearheading the opposition, were expected at the White House early Thursday. “Tonight is an encour- aging night,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., leader of the caucus, who for days has said he has the votes to kill the measure. “But I don’t want to be so optimistic as to say the deal is done.” It was initially uncertain if the provision could survive in the Senate or how moderate Republicans would react. Democrats said the language would die in the Senate because that chamber’s rules don’t allow provisions not directly related to the federal budget. The Republican legisla- tion would halt Obama’s tax penalties against people who don’t buy coverage and cut the federal-state Medicaid program for low earners, which the statute expanded. It would provide tax credits to help people pay medical bills, though generally skimpier than the aid Obama’s statute provides. It also would allow insurers to charge older Americans more and repeal tax boosts the law imposed on high-income people and health industry companies. In a count by The Associ- ated Press, at least 26 Repub- licans said they opposed the bill and others were leaning that way, enough to narrowly defeat the measure. The number was in constant flux amid eleventh-hour lobbying by the White House and GOP leaders. Including vacancies and expected absentees, the bill would be defeated if 23 Republicans join all Demo- crats in voting “no.” In a show of support for the opponents, the conserva- tive Koch network promised Wednesday night to spend millions of dollars to defeat the health care overhaul, the influential network’s most aggressive move against the bill. Moderates were daunted by projections of 24 million Americans losing coverage in a decade and higher out-of- pocket costs for many low-in- come and older people, as predicted by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. For now, leaders showed no sign of delaying a House vote, their initial attempt to deliver on a pledge to erase Obama’s law they’ve repeated since its 2010 enactment. Underscoring the delicate pathway to victory, partici- pants in the Pence meeting said there were no visible signs of weakened opposition and described one tense moment. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, said White House chief strategist Steve Bannon told them: “We’ve got to do this. I know you don’t like it, but you have to vote for this.” Weber said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, bristled. “When somebody tells me I have to do something, odds are really good that I will do exactly the opposite,” Barton said, according to Weber. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said that talk of deleting the insurance coverage require- ments had converted him into a supporter. But before the late talks, others were skeptical. “We’re being asked to sign a blank check,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., who’s been an opponent. “In the past, that hasn’t worked out so well.” Send resume and cover letter stating salary requirements to: EO Media Group PO Box 2048 Salem, OR 97308-2048 or fax: (503) 371-2935 or email: hr@eomediagroup.com. Benefi ts include Paid Time Off (PTO), insur- ances and a 401(k)/Roth 401(k) retirement plan. Send resume and letter of interest to EO Media Group., PO Box 2048, Salem, OR 97308-2048, by fax to 503-371-2935 or email hr@eomediagroup.com of blood and give mouth to mouth while waiting for the medics to arrive but I think he had lost too much blood,” Ellwood said. “He had multiple wounds, under the arm and in the back.” The attack began early Wednesday afternoon as a driver in a gray SUV slammed into pedestrians on the bridge linking Parlia- ment to the south bank of the River Thames. Ambulances arrived within minutes to treat people who lay scattered along the length of the bridge. One bloodied woman lay surrounded by a scattering of postcards. Police said one injured woman was pulled from the river. The car crashed into rail- ings on the north side of the bridge, less than 200 yards from the entrance to Parlia- ment. As people scattered in panic, witnesses saw a man holding a knife run toward the building. “The whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben,” said witness Rick Longley. “A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman. I have never seen anything like that. I just can’t believe what I just saw.” Trump’s ‘skinny budget’ deepens cuts to USDA By CAROL RYAN DUMAS EO Media Group President Donald Trump’s preliminary “skinny budget” would slim down resources to farmers, ranchers and rural America, further cutting USDA’s already trimmed-down budget. Trump’s FY2018 proposal would cut discre- tionary funding to USDA by 21 percent, a decrease of $4.7 billion to $17.9 billion. The current USDA budget includes $25 billion in discretionary spending for such programs as the special nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children called WIC, Rural Development, food safety, the U.S. Forest Service, research and conservation activities. That’s on top of $130 billion in congressionally mandated spending for a current overall budget of $155 billion. Of that total, 71 percent goes to WIC and SNAP food stamps for 44.5 million Americans, 16 percent goes to farm and commodity programs, 7 percent goes to conservation and forestry and 6 percent goes to rural development, research, food safety, marketing and regulatory functions and management. In a climate of serious economic challenges in farm country, it’s not the time to cut programs and services that have already been on the chopping block the past few years, said R.J. Karney, American Farm Bureau Federation director of congressional relations. LENT Press Position Press person need- ed at East Oregonian newspaper. Our operation prints an array of weekly, bi-weekly and monthly publications. To join our team, you’ll need web press operation skills, an eye for color, mechanical ability, be a good com- municator and work well with others. Must be able to lift 50# and go up/down stairs on a regular basis. Trump was among world leaders offering condo- lences, and in Paris, the lights of the Eiffel Tower were to be dimmed in soli- darity with London. London has been a target for terrorism many times over past decades. Just this weekend, hundreds of armed police took part in an exercise simulating a “marauding” terrorist attack on the River Thames. Wednesday was the anni- versary of suicide bombings in the Brussels airport and subway that killed 32 people last year, and the latest events echoed recent vehicle attacks in Berlin and Nice, France. In the House of Commons, legislators were holding a series of votes on pensions when deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle announced that the sitting was being suspended and told lawmakers not to leave. Parliament was locked down for several hours, and the adjoining Westminster subway station was shut- tered. Conservative lawmaker Tobias Ellwood, whose brother was killed in the Bali terror attack in 2002, performed first aid on the wounded police officer, who later died. About 10 yards away lay the assailant. “I tried to stem the flow The significant cut in USDA’s budget demon- strates the importance of having the secretary of agri- culture at the table to cham- pion the needs of farmers and ranchers. That didn’t happen, as Trump’s nominee for that position, Sonny Purdue, has been sidelined by delays in the confirmation process, he said. “Not having the secretary of ag at the table to help the budget process was made clear by the negative impact to the (USDA’s) budget,” he said. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson said in a statement the proposed cuts and message they send to rural America are “deeply disappointing.” Family farmers and ranchers are enduring the worst farm economy in well over a decade and an inad- equate safety net already hamstrung by $23 billion in budget cuts, he said. All the details have not yet been released, but funding cuts would target USDA’s statistical capabilities within the National Agricultural Statistics Service and Economic Research Service and USDA Service Center Agencies — Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources and Conservation Service and Rural Development. It would also eliminate the Waste and Wastewater loan and grant program. TWO HOURS every morning paid off my credit card debt. March 24th from 5 to 7:00 p.m. @ the St. Anthony Hospital Blue Mountain Cafe Cedar Wrapped Salmon - $7.50/Adults - $7.00/Children & Seniors with Rice Pilaf & Buttered Green Beans Baked Potato Bar - $4.00/with toppings All you can eat. 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