The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Friday, October 19, 2007 - 3

NEWS BRIEFS
KARACHI, Pakistan
Blast near
former PM Bhutto's
convoy kills 108
Two bombs exploded last night
near a truck carrying former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto on her tri-
umphant return to Pakistan after
eight years in exile, killing at least
108 people and wounding 150, an
official said. Party workers and
police said Bhutto was unhurt.
Associated Press photographer
B.K. Bangash at the scene said he
saw between 50 and 60 dead or
badly injured people. He said some
of the bodies were ripped apart.
An initial small explosion was
followed by a huge blast just feet
from the front of the truck carrying
Bhutto duringaprocessionthrough
Karachi. The blast shattered win-
dows in her vehicle and set a police
escort vehicle on fire.
Bhutto, is expected to seek the
premiership for an unprecedented
third time and partner in ruling
Pakistan with U.S.-backed Presi-
dent Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
WASHINGTON
House fails to
overturn Bush
S-CHIP veto
The Democratic-controlled
House failed yesterday to override
President Bush's veto of a politi-
cally popular children's health bill,
and the White House instantly
called for compromise talks on a
replacement.
"As long as the bottom line is that
10 million children are covered.
That's non-negotiable," responded
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
She pledged that new legislation
would be ready within two weeks,
and within hours, key lawmak-
ers met to consider changes in the
vetoed measure.
The maneuvering followed a
273-156 vote that left support-
ers 13 short of the two-thirds
majority needed to prevail in a
bruising veto struggle between
congressional Democrats and a
politically weakened Republican
president.
BAGHDAD
Iraq leaders grapple
over executions of
ex-Hussein officials
Iraq's leaders grappled yester-
day over carrying out executions
ordered for three former Saddam
Hussein regime heavyweights,
including the notorious enforcer
known as "Chemical Ali." Sunni
leaders pressed to delay the hang-
ings, warning they could incite
sectarian violence and derail gov-
ernment work on national recon-
ciliation.
The death sentences against
Saddam's cousin "Chemical Ali"
al-Majid, Defense Minister Sultan
Hashim Ahmad al-Tai and Hus-
sein Rashid Mohammed, former
deputy operations director of the

Iraqi armed forces, were upheld on
appeal early last month. The hang-
ings were to occur within 30 days,
but were put off until the end of the
Ramadan month of fasting, which
ended at mid-month.
WASHINGTON
Mukasey won't say if
waterboarding is
torture
Attorney General-nominee
Michael Mukasey refused to
say yesterday whether he con-
siders waterboarding a form of
torture, frustrating Democrats
and potentially slowing his con-
firmation to head the Justice
Department.
In an increasingly testy second
day of hearings before the Senate
Judiciary Committee, Mukasey
also said he is reluctant to support
legislation protecting reporters
from being forced by courts to
reveal their sources.
- Compiled from
Daily mire reports
3,830
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the War in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. The Department of Defense
identified no new casualities yes-
terday.

Gov, GOP
still clashing
over budget

As Oct. 1deadline
looms, lawmakers
clash over Medicaid,
social services
LANSING (AP) - The first
official sign surfaced yester-
day that lawmakers and Gov.
Jennifer Granholm are deeply
divided over how to cut $433
million in spending to balance
the state budget, with less than
two weeks remaining before
another potential partial gov-
ernment shutdown.
Senate Majority Leader Mike
Bishop (R-Rochester) accused
Democrats of resisting spending
reductions in some state pro-
grams despite cuts being part of
a recent deal to raise taxes.
"We cannot allow a second
government shutdown because
one side refuses to honor its
signed commitment to cut gov-
ernment," Bishop said in a state-
ment.
Democrats responded by
accusing the GOP of walking
away from a budget agreement
months ago.
"Citizens would be better
served if the Senate Republi-
cans refrained from firing off
disingenuous press releases and
instead continued negotiating
the specific details of the agree-
ment," said a joint statement
issued by Granholm, House
Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Red-
ford) and Senate Minority
Leader Mark Schauer (D-Battle
Creek.)
It appears Democrats and
Republicans are at odds over
cuts to Medicaid - the federal-
state health care program for
the poor - and the Michigan
Department of Human Servic-
es, which oversees welfare pay-
ments and day care assistance
for low-income parents.
Republicans, for example,
want to privatize more of the
state's foster care system and
end Medicaid coverage for 19-
and 20-year-olds and people
who get their benefits because
they take care of a low-income
child on Medicaid. Democrats
instead favor dropping reim-
bursement rates to doctors and

hospitals.
There also is disagreement
over raising hunting and fish-
ing license fees to help fund
the Department of Natural
Resources.
State government is running
on a 30-day temporary bud-
get, which was signed Oct. 1
after the Legislature ran out of
time to enact a new full budget
because of a fight over raising
taxes.
The government was shut
down partially in the early
morning hours of Oct. 1 before
a deal to raise the income tax,
expand the sales tax to more
services, cut spending and
change the management of
teachers' health insurance was
completed. Granholm and the
Legislature have been negotiat-
ing details of the spending cuts
in recent weeks, but there have
been no visible signs of prog-
ress.
At estimated $270 million in
savings are expected in the $9
billion general fund, which cov-
ers state spending aside from
K-12 education. About $160 mil-
lion in savings are planned for
the $13 billion school aid fund.
State government gets another
$20 billion in federal dollars.
Advocates for the poor yes-
terday warned that programs
for low-income people will bear
half the cuts to state depart-
ments, with the Department
of Community Health and
Department of Human Services
looking at cuts of $132 million
combined. Those departments
and the prisons budget account
for two-thirds of the general
fund.
"It's very frustrating that
once again, just days from an
extended deadline, we have no
budget to debate," said Sharon
Parks, vice president for policy
at the Michigan League for
Human Services. "All we know
is that programs for our low-
income citizens have the big-
gest bullseye in the state right
now."
Universities, community col-
leges and K-12 public schools
are expected to get 1 percent
more funding this year. That is
less than a 2.5 percent inflation-
ary increase proposed by Gran-
holm.


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