Nation briefs
BY Wire reports
Friday, December 28, 2012
12/28/12 at 5:52 AM
Chief of staff: H.W. Bush getting excellent care
HOUSTON - Former President George H.W. Bush, who has been hospitalized for more than a month, is getting excellent medical treatment and would advise people to "put the harps back in the closet," his longtime Houston chief of staff said Thursday evening.
But Jean Becker also pointed out in her statement that the 88-year-old Bush is sick and likely will be in the hospital for a while after a "terrible case of bronchitis which then triggered a series of complications."
Bush, the oldest living former president, has been in intensive care since Sunday. He was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Houston on Nov. 23 for treatment of what his spokesman Jim McGrath described as a "stubborn" cough. He had spent about a week there earlier in November for treatment of the same condition.
Becker said "most of the civilized world" contacted her Wednesday after disclosures Bush had been placed in the intensive care unit after physicians were having difficulty bringing a fever under control.
Mich. governor signs new emergency manager law
DETROIT - Gov. Rick Snyder put a new emergency manager law on the books in Michigan on Thursday, weeks after voters repealed a version that gave sweeping powers to a single person to overhaul financially distressed communities.
The new law, passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature, will give local governments and ailing school districts the opportunity to choose their own remedy. If a review team finds that a financial emergency exists, those communities can request an emergency manager, ask for a mediator, file for bankruptcy or introduce a reform plan with the state.
"This legislation demonstrates that we clearly heard, recognized and respected the will of the voters," Snyder, a Republican, said in a statement. "It builds in local control and options while also ensuring the tools to protect ... residents, students and taxpayers."
The law won't kick in until late March. Under the old law, the power to send an emergency manager rested solely with the governor. It was a threat to labor unions because managers had the power to throw out contracts.
Ray Holman, a lobbyist for a UAW local that represents 17,000 state workers, gathered signatures to get a repeal of the old law on the ballot. He said the new law is "only slightly better" and predicted critics would explore a legal challenge.
Autopsy: NY gunman shot self, not hit by police fire
WEBSTER, N.Y. - The gunman who lured two firefighters to their deaths died of a self-inflicted shot to the head and wasn't hit by return fire from a police officer, New York State Police said Thursday.
But investigators still hadn't made a positive identification of the body found in William Spengler's burned house. They have said they believe the remains are those of his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl Spengler, who also lived in the house near Rochester.
Autopsies showed that West Webster volunteer firefighter Michael Chiapperini died of a single gunshot and Tomasz Kaczowka was killed by two, police said.
Spengler set a car on fire and touched off an "inferno" in his Webster home on a strip of land along the Lake Ontario shore, took up a sniper's position and opened fire on the first firefighters to arrive at about 5:30 a.m. on Christmas Eve, authorities said. He wounded two other firefighters and an off-duty police officer who was on his way to work.
A Webster police officer who had accompanied the firefighters shot back at Spengler with a rifle in a brief exchange of gunfire before the gunman killed himself.
