Obama health adviser Gruber apologizes for ‘glib, thoughtless’
WASHINGTON — MIT economist Jonathan Gruber — an often-quoted adviser on the president’s health care law — told Congress on Tuesday he was glib and “inexcusably arrogant” when he said it was “the stupidity of the American voter” that led to the law’s passage. Democrats tried to limit the damage as Republicans raked Gruber at a four-hour hearing, but acknowledged he gave the GOP a political gift “wrapped in a bow.”
Gruber told groups in 2012 and 2013 that voter stupidity and a “lack of transparency” were important to passing the hard-fought legislation. Appearing before the House Oversight committee Tuesday, Gruber expanded on earlier apologies, repeatedly saying “I was conjecturing in areas beyond my expertise.”
Enduring one fierce lecture after another, Gruber said his earlier comments were uninformed, “glib, thoughtless and sometimes downright insulting.” He said he was showing off before various groups, and “trying to be something, I’m not, which was a political expert.”
He said the law’s passage was actually transparent and heavily debated in public, despite his earlier comments.
French hostage held for 3 years is freed by al-Qaida
PARIS — A Frenchman held for more than three years by al-Qaida’s North African branch was freed Tuesday, days after two of the men implicated in his abduction were reportedly released from a prison in Mali.
Negotiations among the governments of Niger, Mali and France led to freedom for Serge Lazarevic, 51, who was described by the French president as in “relatively good health” despite his long captivity.
Tuesday’s release, greeted with joy among many in France, stands in contrast to the attempted rescue in Yemen last weekend that ended in the deaths of two hostages — an American and South African — held by al-Qaida.
Lazarevic was en route to Niamey, the capital of Niger, French President Francois Hollande said as he thanked Niger’s president for helping to free the Frenchman.
“We no longer have any hostages in any country of the world and we should not have any,” he added.
No terrorism link in stabbing of Jewish student in Brooklyn
NEW YORK — A man with a history of mental illness slipped into the headquarters of a major Jewish organization in Brooklyn in the middle of the night and stabbed an Israeli student in the head as he was studying in the library.
Then, as the screaming, bloody victim was taken away, the attacker lunged at police with his knife and was shot and killed, authorities said.
Calvin Peters, 49, could be seen on amateur video waving the knife inside the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights around 1:40 a.m. Tuesday after the attack on 22-year-old Levi Rosenblat. Rosenblat, wounded in the side of the head, was listed in stable condition.
Police said the stabbing was not believed to be connected to terrorism. But it shook the Jewish community, still reeling over an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue by two Palestinian cousins last month that left four worshippers and an officer dead.
By wire sources