A Protest Group’s Name Change Stirs Debate

A British fighter jet was launched to divert a civilian plane carrying nearly 300 passengers from Pakistan to England after an incident on board, British officials said Friday. Britain's Ministry of Defense said the Typhoon was launched to investigate an incident involving a civilian aircraft. It declined to provide further details. Mark Davison, press officer at Stansted Airport, confirmed that the plane had landed safely and is on an isolated runway. Pakistan International Airlines confirmed that its Flight P709 traveling from Lahore to Manchester was involved. Spokesman Mashood Tajwar said the airline has been unable to contact the pilot of the airplane despite repeated attempts, adding that 297 passengers and 11 crew are on board the flight. Essex Police confirmed that "an incident has occurred" on the plane and that police and partners are responding. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.    

A day after laying out his counterterrorism vision, President Barack Obama is addressing future military leaders who could help carry it out in a speech to U.S. Naval Academy graduates. It’s a tradition for presidents to speak at the commissioning ceremony in Annapolis, Md., about 30 miles from the White House.    

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One Republican governor has finally given up his opposition to expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, while another is steadfastly fighting his legislature, vetoing an expansion bill. The former is Iowa's Terry Brandstad who has finally signed off on a compromise the state Senate worked out. It's a variation of the privatized Arkansas model, in which the Medicaid money will subsidize the purchase of insurance either in a new state plan or on the new insurance exchange. Even with Brandstad's approval, though, the proposal faces two more hurdles: the state House and the federal government. Like Arkansas, it would have to obtain a waiver from the Department of Health and Human Service to use Medicaid funds in this way. A potential problem with the proposal is that it would require some of the 150,000 new recipients, who earn between 101 percent and 133 percent of poverty, to follow health directives from their physician or risk paying a percentage of their costs. Then there's Maine, where crazy Gov. Paul LePage has vetoed the expansion passed by the Democratic legislature. The legislature linked the Medicaid expansion to a plan to pay the state's share of $484 million in debt owed to Maine's hospitals. “Democrat leadership has spent the past week forcing this bill through the legislative process, over the objections of both Republicans and Democrats alike,” the veto letter reads. “This unadulterated partisanship tied two different issues together in a quest to force welfare expansion upon the Maine people. I have said all along this bill would receive a veto when it reached my desk, so this letter should be no surprise.” So much for health care for 70,000 more Maine citizens. Democrats in the legislature have vowed an override attempt.