Health care overhaul bill suffers another setback as House Dems seek more time to make changes

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The drive to remake the nation's health care system suffered yet another setback in Congress on Thursday when a pivotal group of House Democrats rebelled against leadership-backed legislation taking shape and sought additional time to make changes.

"We need to slow down and do it right," Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said outside a meeting of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 52 moderate to conservative Democrats. "It needs to do a much better job of cost containment" within the health care system, he added.

Other lawmakers said they were concerned about proposed tax increases, the rules on any government-sold insurance, and other issues that are key to implementing President Barack Obama's call for sweeping legislation.

Ross said the group was drafting a letter to the Democratic leadership asking for additional time. Although he did not specify how much time, he said he believes no vote should take place until the fall _ well after a midsummer informal deadline set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The group met as Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee were laboring to put the final pieces in place on a bill that the White House has praised. The party's leadership hopes to unveil it Friday and push it through committee next week.

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Police wielding batons, tear gas seek to break up new protests in Iranian capital

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) _ Thousands of protesters streamed down avenues of the capital Thursday, chanting "death to the dictator" and defying security forces who fired tear gas and charged with batons, witnesses said.

Turning garbage bins into burning barricades and darting through choking clouds of tear gas, the opposition made its first foray into the streets in nearly two weeks in an attempt to revive mass demonstrations that were crushed in Iran's postelection turmoil.

Iranian authorities had promised tough action to prevent the marches, which supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been planning for days through the Internet. Heavy police forces deployed at key points in the city ahead of the marches, and Tehran's governor vowed to "smash" anyone who heeded the demonstration calls.

In some places, police struck hard. Security forces chased after protesters, beating them with clubs on Valiasr Street, Tehran's biggest north-south avenue, witnesses said.

Women in headscarves and young men dashed away, rubbing their eyes in pain as police fired tear gas, in footage aired on state-run Press TV. In a photo from Thursday's events in Tehran obtained by The Associated Press outside Iran, a woman with her black headscarf looped over her face thrust her fist into the air in front of a garbage bin that had been set on fire.

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Lawyer for John Ensign says senator's parents gave nearly $100,000 to mistress and her family

LAS VEGAS (AP) _ Sen. John Ensign said Thursday his parents gave his mistress and her family nearly $100,000 "out of concern for the well being of longtime family friends during a difficult time," providing his first public acknowledgment that the woman received payments tied to the affair.

In a statement through his attorney, Ensign described the April 2008 payment as a single check for $96,000 given to Cindy and Doug Hampton and two of their children. The Hampton family received the check after the senator told his parents of his affair with Cindy Hampton, a campaign aide and longtime friend.

"None of the gifts came from campaign or official funds, nor were they related to any campaign or official duties," Ensign's Dallas-based attorney, Paul Coggins, said in a statement. "Sen. Ensign has complied with all applicable laws and Senate ethics rules."

The statement comes a day after Doug Hampton told a Las Vegas television show that Ensign paid Cindy Hampton more than $25,000 in severance when she left her job as treasurer for two Ensign-controlled campaign committees.

Ensign, the son of a Las Vegas casino mogul, had not commented directly on allegations of payments to the Hamptons, but through a spokesman called Doug Hampton's statements "consistently inaccurate."

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Iraq sees worst violence since US combat troops left cities; US military releases Iranians

BAGHDAD (AP) _ Bombs killed nearly 60 people in Iraq on Thursday in the worst violence since U.S. combat troops withdrew from urban areas last week, and American forces released five Iranian officials suspected of aiding Shiite insurgents.

U.S. officials said they believe the Iranians, detained in northern Iraq in January 2007, had facilitated attacks on American-led forces but handed them over to the Iraqi government at its request because they were obliged to do so under a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.

The U.S. State Department said it was concerned their release could present a security threat to American troops in Iraq.

Iraq's foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, called the release a "good initiative" that could encourage dialogue between Washington and Tehran, which are longtime foes.

Iranian Embassy spokesman Amir Arshadi said Iraq had transferred the Iranians, described by their government as diplomats, to the embassy. Washington believes they are associated with the Quds Force, part of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, and that they trained Iraqi militants.

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4 accused of digging up bodies to resell burial plots at historic black cemetery near Chicago

ALSIP, Ill. (AP) _ Prosecutors on Thursday charged three gravediggers and a manager in an elaborate scheme in which hundreds of corpses were dug up at a historic black cemetery near Chicago and strewn in a weeded area or reburied with other bodies so that plots could be resold, authorities said.

As frantic relatives of the deceased descended on the Burr Oak Cemetery _ the final resting place of lynching victim Emmett Till, blues singers Willie Dixon and Dinah Washington _ investigators said it could be months before they fully understand what took place.

More than a dozen FBI agents would help sort through the evidence and identify bodies at the cemetery in Alsip, 12 miles south of Chicago, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, flanked by distraught family members, expressed the outrage he was feeling at the workers accused of tossing human remains into a remote area of a cemetery.

"In my judgment, there should be no bail for them, there should be really a special place in hell for these graveyard thieves who have done so much, hurt these families," he said.

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Federal safety officials say downdrafts caused Steve Fossett's plane to slam into mountainside

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The aircrash that killed entrepreneur Steve Fossett, famed for his daredevil aerial feats, probably was caused by downdrafts that exceeded the ability of his small plane to recover before slamming into a mountainside, federal safety officials said Thursday.

Fossett, 63, disappeared on Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off alone from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton for what was supposed to be a short pleasure flight. His Bellanca 8KCAB-180, a single-engine, two-seater known as the "Super Decathalon," crashed near Mammoth Lakes, Calif.

An extensive, high-profile search failed to turn up any clues to his fate. A year later, on Oct. 7, 2008, a hiker found some of Fossett's belongings. An aerial search located the wreckage about a half-mile away at an elevation of about 10,000 feet.

On the day of the accident, no emergency radio transmissions were received from Fossett, nor were any emergency locator transmitter signals received, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report.

However, after the wreckage was discovered, a review of radar data from September 2007 revealed a "track" that ended about a mile northwest of the accident site, the board said.

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Billions remaining in bank bailout fund drive debate in Congress over how to use it

WASHINGTON (AP) _ The government has tens of billions of dollars left in the eye-popping $700 billion bank bailout fund created last fall, prompting a debate in Congress over what to do with it.

The Treasury Department wants to keep the money at its disposal in case the economy gets worse. But fiscal conservatives like Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, both Republican, want the money kept to pay down the national debt.

Meanwhile, a group of liberal Democrats led by Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, say at least a portion of it should be spent to help cash-strapped homeowners.

"We clearly face a new wave of foreclosures" because of rising unemployment, Frank said at a hearing Thursday.

The question of what to do with the money will grow more pressing in coming months as Congress takes a step back to consider the fate of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

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Even after death, TV pitchman Billy Mays is hawking his wares

NEW YORK (AP) _ Death won't still the voice of Billy Mays or his mighty powers of persuasion. Viewers will continue to find the boisterous, bearded TV pitchman hawking household products for the indefinite future.

And at least one of his commercials is being introduced posthumously.

"Just stretch, wrap and it fuses fast," says Mays, demonstrating a product called Mighty Tape on a kitchen drain pipe in the new commercial. Moments later, he's seen, still wearing his signature sport shirt and khaki slacks but accessorized with scuba gear, as he repairs a hole in another diver's air hose underwater using Mighty Tape.

The commercial will begin airing July 20. Mays' advertising for other products in the Mighty brand line returned to the air earlier this week. The commercials were pulled after Mays' death June 28 of an apparent heart attack.

"Our feeling is, everyone wants to have Billy go on," said Bill McAlister, president of Media Enterprises, a sales and marketing company based in Trevose, Penn. "This is what he would have wanted."

Besides Media Enterprises, the 50-year-old Mays had worked with several other companies as the yell-and-sell spokesman for products with rousing names like OxiClean, Awesome Auger, WashMatik and Orange Glo.

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Mark Teixeira finally homers, Yankees extend dominance of Twins with 6-4 victory for sweep

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) _ Mark Teixeira ended a 23-game homerless drought and the New York Yankees completed a season sweep of the Minnesota Twins with a 6-4 victory Thursday.

Teixeira connected on the first pitch of the fifth inning. It was his 21st homer of the season and first in 96 at-bats, dating to June 12 against the Mets.

Mariano Rivera picked up his 23rd save for the Yankees, who have won eight straight on the road and beat the Twins all seven times they met this season.

Francisco Liriano (4-9) gave up six runs _ three earned _ on seven hits in 5 1-3 innings for the Twins, who have lost 18 of their past 24 games against the Yankees.

Twins All-Star first baseman Justin Morneau was 0 for 4 and went 0 for 10 in the series.

New York moved Alfredo Aceves from the bullpen for a spot start in place of the injured Chien-Ming Wang. Aceves gave up four runs _ two charged to him when reliever David Robertson walked Denard Span and Matt Tolbert with the bases loaded in the fourth _ on four hits in 3 1-3 innings.