2 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 16, 2005
NATION/WORLD
Taxes
cut for
Katrna
s "
victims
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House
and Senate each passed tax cut bills yes-
terday aimed at helping victims of Hur-
ricane Katrina as government money
continues to flow in response to the dev-
astation.
The tax cuts are designed to give
people affected by the hurricane easier
access to their retirement savings and
to encourage charitable giving, among
other incentives aimed at easing suffer-
ing from Katrina. Each chamber passed
its bill by a voice vote.
Lawmakers still need to reconcile the
minor House-Senate differences in the
legislation before it can be sent to Presi-
dent Bush for his signature.
Lawmakers worked on the aid for
New Orleans and other stricken areas
as Bush prepared for his fourth trip to
the region to give a nationally televised
address yesterday night on his recovery
and reconstruction plans.
The House and Senate tax plan,
among other steps, waives penalties
for hurricane victims who tap into
their retirement savings accounts, helps
the working poor hold onto an earned
income tax credit, and provides a tax
AP PHOTO
Sen. Barack Obama (D-ll.) discusses Hurricane Katrina relief efforts on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Sen. Tom
Coburn (R-Okla.) is at left and Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.) at right.
break to anyone who houses evacuees
for two months or more.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman
Charles Grassley also hoped to pass a
bipartisan $5 billion to $7 billion plan to
speed health care to those displaced by
Katrina by easing rules for the Medic-
aid federal health care program, though
objections from unnamed senators had
snagged the bill as off midday.
And the Senate is likely to pass and
send to Bush a House-passed bill to
temporarily ease rules requiring wel-
fare recipients to work 30 hours a week
for their benefits while extending the
overall welfare program through the
end of the year.
Separately, an amendment adopted
Wednesday by the Senate on a voice
vote would provide more than 350,000
families left homeless by Katrina with
emergency housing vouchers averaging
$600 a month for up to six months.
Any displaced family, regardless of
income, would be eligible for the pro-
gram, which is slated to cost $3.5 billion
over six months.
The measure was attached to a spend-
ing bill covering the departments of
Commerce and Justice. The Senate was
to pass the overall bill yesterday; a final
version needs to be worked out with the
treatment k
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House, which has not voted on the hous-
ing amendment. But Democratic and
GOP aides said the expensive housing
plan might not survive talks with the
more conservative House.
Also yesterday, Michael Brown, who
resigned under fire as director of the
Federal Emergency Management Agen-
cy, was quoted criticizing the state of
Louisiana's response to Katrina.
"I never received specific requests
for specific things that needed doing,"
Brown told The New York Times.
Hours after the hurricane struck,
Brown said, he told the White House
that the situation was "out of control."
31 kiled
mnew
Baghdad
attacks
BAGHDAD (AP) - Suicide bomb-
ers inflicted another day of mayhem in
the capital yesterday, killing at least
31 people in two attacks about a min-
ute apart that targeted Iraqi police and
Interior Ministry commandos. The
carnage left nearly 200 people dead
just two days.
A dozen bombings during a nine-hour
spate of terror Wednesday killed at least
167 people and wounded nearly 600 -
Baghdad's worst day of bloodshed since
the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
U.S. officials blamed the bombing
onslaught on efforts by the Sunni Arab-
dominated insurgency to answer the
Iraqi army's successful offensive in the
northern city of Tal Afar and to under-
mine the Oct. 15 referendum on Iraq's
new constitution.
"These spikes of violence are predict-
able around certain critical events that
highlight the progress of democracy,"
said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the chief
American military spokesman.
"Remember, democracy equals fail-
ure for the insurgency. So there has to
be heightened awareness now as we
work our way toward the referendum.
That's power, that's movement toward
democracy."
Al-Qaida in Iraq, headed by Jorda-
nian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
claimed responsibility for the bombing
campaign launched after an Iraqi-U.S.
force of 8,500 soldiers stormed Tal
Afar, an insurgent bastion, this week.
NEW ORLEANS
French Quarter set to reopen soon
In a big step toward restoring the pulse and soul of flood-battered New Orleans,
the mayor announced plans yesterday to reopen over the next week and a half some
of the Big Easy's most vibrant neighborhoods, including the once-rollicking French
Quarter.
The move could bring back more than 180,000 of the city's original half-million
residents and speed the revival of its economy, which relies heavily on the bawdy,
Napoleonic-era neighborhood that is the home of Bourbon Street, Mardi Gras, jazz
and piquant food.
"The city of New Orleans ... will start to breathe again," a beaming Mayor Ray
Nagin said. "We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people get-
ting into their normal modes of operations and the normal rhythm of the city."
Nagin said the "re-population" would proceed ZIP code by ZIP code, starting
Monday in the Algiers section, a Creole-influenced neighborhood across the Mis-
sissippi River from the French Quarter.
RAFAH, Egypt
Palestinians breach wall, infiltrate Egypt
Palestinians blasted holes in an Israeli-built wall and overwhelmed Egyptian
troops on the Gaza border to flow by the hundreds into Egypt yesterday, foiling
attempts to impose control after days of unhindered crossings.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders expressed fears that militants and al-Qaida ter-
rorists will infiltrate Gaza and Israel through the border, which has been open
since Israeli troops withdrew from the Palestinian territory.
Egypt had promised to reimpose border controls by yesterday evening, and in
the morning several hundred policemen were deployed at the main crossing points
- more than the few dozen seen over the past days. They allowed Palestinians to
return to Gaza and managed to slow the number entering Egypt to a trickle for part
of the day.
But after hours of pushing and shoving at the Saladin border crossing in Rafah,
the police line broke and hundreds of Palestinians crossed the border. Faced with
the large crowds, many policemen gave up and the crossing became almost as open
as it was in the past days.
SALTER PATH, N.C.
Hurricane Ophelia lingers at Outer Banks
Hurricane Ophelia crawled along the North Carolina coast yesterday, prolonging
its punishment of the Outer Banks with rain and wind as coastal residents else-
where returned home to damaged homes and businesses.
While the weakening storm's center was expected to stay just off shore, the
northern side of Ophelia's eyewall, the ring of high wind surrounding the eye,
could remain over the Outer Banks until midday today, the National Hurricane
Center said.
Ophelia was "just beating us to death," said Alton Ballance, who lives on the
Outer Banks' Ocracoke Island, just south of Hatteras.
TIJUANA, Mexico
Tijuana passes new regulations for prostitutes
Tijuana is cracking down on prostitutes by requiring them to pass monthly exams
to detect sexually transmitted diseases, part of new standards aimed at protecting
them and their clients and putting unsafe brothels out of business.
The regulations amount to an open, official acknowledgment of what has long
been a fact of life in this Mexican border city. Before, the few standards that existed
were unwritten, which authorities say made them difficult to enforce. They includ-
ed requiring prostitutes to submit to regular health exams, including three AIDS
tests a year.
- Compiled from Daily wire reports
CORRECTION
An editorial in Tuesday's edition of the Daily should have said the University of
Wisconsin birth-control ban was passed by the state Assembly and is pending in the
state Senate. The bill only explicitly addresses emergency contraception, although Wis-
consin Attorney General Peggy Lautenschlager said it could be interpreted to include
other forms of birth control.
Please report any error in the Daily to corrections@michigandaily.com.
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Congratula~ ons
otenboer
Pizza is on us for
a job well done
-Papa John's
4
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This fall, thousands will walk
for suicide prevention.
BE ONE OF THEM!
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