HHS Secretary Sebelius resigning after rocky rollout of health care law
WASHINGTON — Embattled Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is resigning as the White House seeks to move past the election-year political damage inflicted by the rocky rollout of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
Sebelius’ resignation comes just over a week after sign-ups closed for the first year of insurance coverage under the so-called Obamacare law. The opening weeks of the enrollment period were marred by widespread website woes, though the administration rebounded strongly by enrolling 7.1 million people by the March 31 deadline, exceeding initial expectations. Enrollment has since risen to 7.5 million as people were given extra time to complete applications.
Even with the late surge in sign-ups, the law remains unpopular with many Americans and Republicans have made it a centerpiece of their efforts to retake the Senate in the fall.
Another ‘possible signal’ detected in Flight 370 search zone where past sounds were heard
PERTH, Australia — An air and sea hunt for the missing Malaysian jet resumed Friday in the same swath of the southern Indian Ocean where an underwater sensor made the fifth detection of a signal in recent days, raising hopes that searchers are closing in on what could be a flight recorder.
An Australian air force P-3 Orion, which has been dropping sonar buoys into the water near where four sounds were heard earlier, picked up a “possible signal” on Thursday that may be from a man-made source, said Angus Houston, who is coordinating the search for Flight 370 off Australia’s west coast.
The latest acoustic data needed to be analyzed, he said. If confirmed, the signal would further narrow the hunt for the plane, which vanished March 8 while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard.
Hillary Clinton ducks, avoids shoe thrown at her during speech at Vegas conference
LAS VEGAS — A woman was taken into federal custody Thursday after throwing a shoe at Hillary Clinton as the former Secretary of State began a Las Vegas convention keynote speech.
The incident happened moments after Clinton took the stage before an Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries meeting at the Mandalay Bay resort.
Clinton ducked, and she did not appear to be hit by the object. She then joked about it.
“Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque de Soleil?” Clinton quipped.
Many in the audience of more than 1,000 people in a large ballroom laughed and applauded as Clinton resumed her speech.
Harvard study: Tests indicate controversial ‘Jesus’ wife’ text likely ancient document
BOSTON — New scientific tests suggest a fragment of papyrus in which Jesus speaks of “my wife” is more likely an ancient document than a forgery, according to an article published Thursday by the Harvard Theological Review.
The text, which is written in Coptic and is roughly the size of a business card, specifically contains the phrase “Jesus said to them, my wife.”
Karen King, a Harvard professor of divinity, said the papyrus probably dates to eighth century Egypt, based on radiocarbon dating and tests on the ink’s chemical composition.
“If it was written in the eighth or even the ninth century, it’s still an ancient document,” she said in a conference call Thursday. “It’s not a modern forgery.”
But, she stressed, the fragment doesn’t prove that the historical Jesus was actually married. Most reliable evidence from early Christianity is silent on Jesus’ marital status, King added.
By wire sources