Texas judge OKs Planned Parenthood funding ban

By Chris Tomlinson, The Associated Press

Texas can cut off funding to Planned Parenthood's family planning programs for poor women, a state judge ruled Monday.

Judge Gary Harger said that Texas may exclude otherwise qualified doctors and clinics from receiving state funding if they advocate for abortion rights.?

The state has long banned the use of state funds for abortion, but had continued to reimburse Planned Parenthood clinics for providing basic health care to poor women through the state's Women's Health Program. The program provides check-ups and birth control to 110,000 poor women a year, and Planned Parenthood clinics were treating 48,000 of them.?

Planned Parenthood's lawsuit to stop the rule will still go forward, but the judge decided Monday that the ban may go into effect for now. In seeking a temporary restraining order, Planned Parenthood's patients could have continued to see their current doctors until a final decision was made.?

"We are pleased the court rejected Planned Parenthood's latest attempt to skirt state law," attorney general spokeswoman Lauren Bean said. "The Texas Attorney General's office will continue to defend the Texas Legislature's decision to prohibit abortion providers and their affiliates from receiving taxpayer dollars through the Women's Health Program."?

Ken Lambrecht, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, said he brought the lawsuit on behalf of poor women who depend on its clinics.?

"It is shocking that once again Texas officials are letting politics jeopardize health care access for women," Lambrecht said. "Our doors remain open today and always to Texas women in need. We only wish Texas politicians shared this commitment to Texas women, their health, and their well-being."?

Planned Parenthood has brought three lawsuits over Texas' so-called "affiliate rule," arguing it violates the constitutional rights of doctors and patients while also contradicting existing state law.?

Republican lawmakers who passed the affiliate rule last year have argued that Texas is an anti-abortion state, and therefore should cut off funds to groups that support abortion rights. Gov. Rick Perry, who vehemently opposes abortion, has pledged to do everything legally possible to shut down Planned Parenthood in Texas and welcomed the court's ruling.?

"Today's ruling finally clears the way for thousands of low-income Texas women to access much-needed care, while at the same time respecting the values and laws of our state," Perry said. "I applaud all those who stand ready to help these women live healthy lives without sending taxpayer money to abortion providers and their affiliates."?

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has spent the last nine months preparing to implement the affiliate rule. But federal officials warned it violated the Social Security Act and cut off federal funds for the Women's Health Program, prompting the commission to start a new program using only state money.?

State officials have also scrambled to sign up new doctors and clinics to replace Planned Parenthood. Women who previously went to Planned Parenthood clinics will now have to use the agency's web site to find a new state-approved doctor.?

On Friday, HHSC officials acknowledged they are unsure whether the new doctors can pick up Planned Parenthood's caseload in all parts of the state.?

Linda Edwards Gockel, a spokesman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, said Monday that the new state program will launch as planned on Tuesday.?

"We have more than 3,500 doctors, clinics and other providers in the program and will be able to continue to provide women with family planning services while fully complying with state law," she said. "We welcome Planned Parenthood's help in referring patients to providers in the new program."?

Democratic lawmakers continued to question whether women will have to wait longer for appointments and services.?

"I vehemently disagree with the state's efforts to blacklist a qualified provider and, thereby, interfere with a woman's right to choose her own provider," said state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin. "I will be submitting a letter to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, requesting a list of approved providers to gauge the outreach of the new program, and ensure that all qualified women throughout the state have access to its services."?

Another hearing is scheduled with a different judge for Jan. 11, where Planned Parenthood will again ask for an injunction to receive state funding.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/31/16271081-texas-judge-oks-ban-on-planned-parenthood-funding?lite

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Stocks shoot up as investors bet on 'cliff' deal

A trader wearing "2013" glasses works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. The stock market struggled for direction Monday morning after five days of losses, with the "fiscal cliff" just hours away and lawmakers yet to reach a solution. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A trader wearing "2013" glasses works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. The stock market struggled for direction Monday morning after five days of losses, with the "fiscal cliff" just hours away and lawmakers yet to reach a solution. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. The stock market struggled for direction Monday morning after five days of losses, with the "fiscal cliff" just hours away and lawmakers yet to reach a solution. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Traders wear "2013" glasses as they work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. The stock market struggled for direction Monday morning after five days of losses, with the "fiscal cliff" just hours away and lawmakers yet to reach a solution. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A television news show talks about the fiscal cliff while traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. The stock market struggled for direction Monday morning after five days of losses, with the "fiscal cliff" just hours away and lawmakers yet to reach a solution. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The stock market shot higher on Monday even as the "fiscal cliff" neared. By the time trading ended, Republicans and Democrats still hadn't reached a budget compromise ? but investors were betting that they would.

It was a dramatic day on what turned out to be a strong year for stocks. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 13.4 percent for the year, after finishing flat in 2011. It was the index's best year since 2009. The gains came despite a flare-up in Europe's debt crisis and anemic U.S. growth, bringing U.S. indexes close to their highs reached before the 2008 financial crisis.

The close Monday was a high note in what had been a choppy day for the market, as choppy as the "fiscal cliff" deal-making that has been yanking it around. It also marked a turnaround after five straight days of "cliff"-influenced losses. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 both climbed more than 1 percent. The Nasdaq composite index rose 2 percent.

Stocks fell at the opening of trading Monday and struggled for direction throughout the morning. The indecisiveness overlaid a day of dramatic budget negotiations in Washington, where lawmakers were trying to hammer out a new budget deal to avert the "fiscal cliff." That refers to automatic tax increases and government spending cuts that will kick in without a budget deal.

Stocks jerked higher at midday following reports that the bare outline of a deal to avoid the "cliff" had been knit together. The gains faded after President Barack Obama said in the early afternoon that a compromise was "within sight," but not finalized. Then, in the late afternoon, the indexes shot higher again. Congressional Republicans and the Democratic White House said they had agreed on some measures, but still had no final deal in hand.

At the close of trading, Dow Jones industrial average was up 166.03 points, finishing the year at 13,104.14. That's a gain of 7.3 percent for the year, its fourth straight year of gains.

The S&P 500 rose 23.76 to 1,426.19. The Nasdaq composite climbed 59.20 to 3,019.51. For the year the Nasdaq rose 15.9 percent.

With the "fiscal cliff" still closing in, investors' opinions about its potential impact varied, making its long-term effect on the market hard to guess.

Some investors are unruffled. They think that even if the U.S. does go over the "cliff," it would be more akin to the anti-climactic Y2K scare than a true Armageddon. The "cliff's" impact would be felt only gradually, they reason. For example, workers might get more taxes withheld from their first couple of paychecks in the new year, but it's not as if they'd have to pay all their higher taxes up front on Tuesday. And Congress could always retroactively repeal those higher taxes.

Others are more concerned. The higher taxes and lower government spending could take more than $600 billion out of the U.S. economy and send it back into recession. Investors would have no good read on the country's long-term policy for taxes and spending.

The psychological impact ? the U.S. would essentially be broadcasting that its lawmakers can't compromise ? would also hurt.

"We're having a fragile recovery, with the pain of 2008 still fresh on everybody's mind," said Joe Heider, principal at Rehmann Group outside Cleveland. "It's fear of the unknown. And fear is one of the greatest drivers of the financial markets."

Tim Speiss, partner in charge of the personal wealth advisers practice at EisnerAmper in New York, followed the "cliff" negotiations on Monday and wondered if the U.S. would get its debt rating cut again. The Standard & Poor's ratings agency cut its rating of the U.S. government amid similar negotiations in August 2011, when lawmakers were arguing over the government's borrowing limit. S&P said at the time that the "political brinksmanship" highlighted how "America's governance and policymaking (is) becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable." Its rating cut sent the stock market into a tailspin.

The other major ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch, have suggested that they might lower their ratings of the U.S. because of the "fiscal cliff."

"That is, unfortunately, the big story," Speiss said.

It's also one of the only stories. There's been little other news to trade on during the holiday season, giving the "fiscal cliff" drama outsized influence. No major companies are scheduled to report earnings this week. The most significant economic indicator scheduled for this week, the government's monthly jobs report, won't be released until Friday.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.76 percent from 1.70 percent late Friday, a sign that investors were moving money into stocks.

Some of the best-performing stocks for the year were those that were making up for deep losses in 2011. Homebuilder PulteGroup nearly tripled after falling for five of the previous six years. Appliance maker Whirlpool and Bank of America more than doubled over the year, after falling by double-digit percentages in 2011.

Some of the worst performers of 2012 were Best Buy, Hewlett-Packard and J.C. Penney. All are struggling to keep up with competitors who have adapted more quickly to changing technologies and customer tastes. They were all up for the day, but were all down at least 44 percent for the year.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-31-Wall%20Street/id-8555fe5c5e28415c9b9b764f49468edf

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UN Envoy warns of mass death next year in Syria

The international envoy to Syria emphasized the deteriorating situation in the country, and called for a quick end to the conflict, warning hundreds of thousands could die next year.

By Bassem Mroue,?Associated Press / December 30, 2012

A child watches men dig graves for future casualties of Syria's civil conflict at Sheikh Saeed cemetery in Azaz city, north of Aleppo December 30. The international peace envoy for Syria said the situation in the country was deteriorating sharply but a solution was still possible under the terms of a peace plan agreed in Geneva in June.

Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

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The international envoy to?Syria?warned Sunday that as many as 100,000 could die in the next year if a way cannot be found quickly to end the country's civil war.

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Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy for the Syrian crisis, told reporters in Cairo that if the crisis continues?Syria?will not be divided into states "like what happened in Yugoslavia" but will face "Somalization, which means warlords, and the Syrian people will be persecuted by those who control their fate."

Syrian rebels are fighting a 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad's regime. Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed in the crisis, which began with pro-democracy protests but has morphed into a civil war.

Since starting his job in September, Brahimi has sought to advance an international plan, reached in Geneva six months ago, that calls for an open-ended cease-fire between rebels and government troops and the formation of a transitional government to run the country until elections can be held.

Over the past week Brahimi went to Damascus where he met Assad then flew to Moscow, one of?Syria's?closest international allies, where he discussed ways of ending the country's crisis.

"The situation in?Syria?is bad. Very, very bad," Brahimi said after meeting Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby. "It is getting worse and therefore if nearly 50,000 were killed in nearly two years if, God forbids, this crisis continues for another year, it will not only kill 25,000. It will kill 100,000. The situation is deteriorating."

The monthly death toll in?Syria?rose over the past months, as both sides have used heavier weapons and as the Syrian army started using its warplanes to attack rebel-held areas around the country.

Brahimi said that peace and security in the world will be threatened directly from?Syria?if there is no solution within the next few months. "I warn of what will come. The choice is between a political solution or of full collapse of the Syrian state."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/-pG8SQu8CTo/UN-Envoy-warns-of-mass-death-next-year-in-Syria

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