Oregon switching to federal health site
DURHAM, Ore. – After months of trying to get its problem-plagued online health exchange to work, Oregon on Friday officially gave up on the state portal and decided to switch to the federal website – the first state in the nation to do so.
Cover Oregon’s board unanimously approved an advisory committee’s recommendation to ditch its troubled portal. Oregon will use HealthCare.Gov for private policies.
Officials say fixing the existing system would be too costly at $78 million and would take too long. Switching to the federal system will cost just $4 million to $6 million and is the least risky option.
Oregon will continue using the current technology for Medicaid enrollments, but it will have to improve on the system. Officials estimated the cost of the improvements at about $35 million. They said the federal government would pay 90 percent of those costs and of the costs of switching to the federal exchange.
U.S. hailing decision on fracking disclosure
PITTSBURGH –The U.S. Department of Energy said Friday that it welcomes the decision by oil and gas industry supplier Baker Hughes to disclose all chemicals in hydraulic fracturing fluid. But Halliburton, a major competitor in the field, isn’t committing to such disclosure.
Deputy Assistant Energy Secretary Paula Gant said that Baker Hughes’ move “is an important step in building public confidence,” and the department “hopes others will follow their lead.”
The gas-and-oil industry has said the fracking chemicals are disclosed at tens of thousands of wells, but environmental and health groups and government regulators decry a loophole that allows companies to hide chemical “trade secrets.”
Israel seeks OK to drop U.S. visa requirement
WASHINGTON –A campaign to allow Israelis to enter the United States without a visa is gaining steam in Congress but is still running into problems with the Obama administration over a demand that the Jewish state provide the same treatment at its borders to all Americans, even if they are Arab or Muslim.
A congressional effort last year was blocked. It could have allowed Israel to maintain discriminatory entry policies for some Americans. However, new legislation could offer Israel greater flexibility in the Visa Waiver Program, and the administration has pledged to work with Israel to help it move closer to qualifying for the program.
Israel’s push to join the prestigious club of 38 mainly European and Asian nations is a top priority for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Mom says stowaway thought she was dead
SAN JOSE, Calif. –The mother of a California teen who stowed away on a flight to Hawaii tells Voice of America that her son had recently learned that she was alive after being told by his father she had died.
Speaking with VOA from a refugee camp in eastern Ethiopia, mother Ubah Mohamed Abdullahi said she felt bad her son risked his life and that her dream is to live with her children in the United States.
FBI agents say surveillance video shows the 15-year-old jumping out of the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines jet on a Maui tarmac Sunday after surviving a cross-Pacific flight from San Jose, California.
Associated Press
