N.J. Gov. Christie admits weight-loss surgery
NEWARK, N.J. – Gov. Chris Christie, who once famously called himself “the healthiest fat guy you’ve ever seen,” disclosed Tuesday he had secretly undergone weight-loss surgery, a major new step by the potential Republican presidential contender to address both his health and a political vulnerability.
The stakes are high for Christie, with medical professionals and campaign strategists alike suggesting there is no more serious barrier to his personal well-being and national ambitions than his weight.
It’s not about politics, he said. It’s about turning 50 and wanting to be around as his children grow up.
“This is a hell of a lot more important to me than running for president,” Christie, a father of four, said at a news conference in Newark. “This is about my family’s future.”
Christie, who appeared thinner than he did earlier this year, said he decided around the time of his birthday in September to have the surgery and initially planned to have it done in November. But Superstorm Sandy’s destruction in New Jersey pushed back the procedure until February. In the operation, a band was surgically placed around his stomach to restrict how much food he could eat.
GOP questions security in immigration bill
WASHINGTON – Republican senators criticized border security provisions in a new immigration bill Tuesday, arguing that the landmark legislation can’t pass Congress unless the measures are strengthened.
“If, in fact, the American people can’t trust that the border is controlled you’re not going to be able to pass this bill,” said Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “You’re going to have to do a lot more on border control.”
Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., voiced similar concerns at a committee hearing to examine border security provisions of the bill, which is to face its first votes Thursday before a different panel, the Judiciary Committee. Amendments are expected to be offered during the Judiciary session to boost the border provisions of the bill, which was introduced last month by four Democratic and four Republican senators.
One of the legislation’s authors, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., already has acknowledged that the bill will face a tough road to passage if the border security elements are not improved.
Woman who ran prison bypassed as top spy
WASHINGTON – One of the CIA’s highest-ranking women, who once ran a CIA prison in Thailand where terror suspects were waterboarded, has been bypassed for the agency’s top spy job.
The officer, who remains undercover, was a finalist for the job and would have become the first female chief of clandestine operations.
As one of the last remaining senior CIA officers who held leadership roles in the agency’s interrogation and detention program, however, she was a politically risky pick.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, has criticized the interrogation program and personally urged CIA Director John Brennan not to promote the woman, according to a former senior intelligence briefed on the call.
Delaware is 11th state to OK gay marriage
DOVER, Del. – A divided Delaware state Senate voted Tuesday to make their state the 11th in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after hearing hours of passionate testimony from supporters and opponents.
The Senate’s 12-9 vote sends the bill to Democratic Gov. Jack Markell, who supports the measure and planned to sign it later in the day. It would go into effect July 1.
“I think this is the right thing for Delaware,” the governor said after the vote, while posing for pictures with supporters outside his legislative office. “It took an incredible team effort.”
Boston fund chief: Lower expectations
BOSTON – The head of a fund created to help survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings is warning victims to lower their expectations about how much the fund can provide.
Kenneth Feinberg hosted a public meeting Tuesday that was attended by victims and family members of victims to go over a draft plan for distributing the donations to The One Fund.
Feinberg said the $28 million raised by the fund isn’t nearly enough to fully compensate the families of the three killed and the more than 260 hurt.
Associated Press
