AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
COVID-19 coverage safety net has plenty of holes in US
COVID-19 can do more than torment patients physically. It also clobbers some financially.
Even though many insurers and the U.S. government have offered to pick up or waive costs tied to the virus, holes remain for big bills to slip through and surprise patients.
People who weren't able to get a test showing they had the virus and those who receive care outside their insurance network are particularly vulnerable. Who provides the coverage and how hard a patient fights to lower a bill also can matter.
There are no good estimates for how many patients have been hit with big bills because of the coronavirus. But the pandemic that arrived earlier this year exposed well-known gaps in a system that mixes private insurers, government programs and different levels of coverage.
“There are in our system, unfortunately, lots of times when people are going to fall through the cracks,” said Sabrina Corlette, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.
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Supreme Court pick Barrett draws on faith, family for Senate
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett vows to be a justice “fearless of criticism” as the split Senate charges ahead with confirmation hearings on President Donald Trump’s pick to cement a conservative court majority before Election Day.
Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, draws on faith and family in her prepared opening remarks for the hearings, which begin Monday as the country is in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic. She says courts "should not try” to make policy, but leave those decisions to the government's political branches. She believes she would bring “a few new perspectives” as the first mother of school-age children on the nine-member court.
Trump chose the 48-year-old judge after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a liberal icon.
“I have been nominated to fill Justice Ginsburg’s seat, but no one will ever take her place,” Barrett says in her remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Associated Press obtained a copy of her statement on Sunday.
Barrett says she has resolved to maintain the same perspective as her mentor, the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was “devoted to his family, resolute in his beliefs, and fearless of criticism.”
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Trump claims he's free of virus, ready for campaign trail
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday declared he was ready to return to the campaign trail despite unanswered questions about his health on the eve of a Florida rally meant to kick off the stretch run before Election Day.
His impending return comes after the White House doctor said he was no longer at risk of transmitting the coronavirus but did not say explicitly whether Trump had tested negative for it. The president insisted he was now “immune” from the virus, a claim that was impossible to prove and added to the unknowns about the president’s health.
“I’m immune,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel's “Sunday Morning Futures.” “The president is in very good shape to fight the battles.”
In a memo released Saturday night by the White House, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley said Trump met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for safely discontinuing isolation and that by “currently recognized standards” he was no longer considered a transmission risk. The memo did not declare Trump had tested negative for the virus.
But sensitive lab tests — like the PCR test cited in the doctor’s statements — detect virus in swab samples taken from the nose and throat. Some medical experts had been skeptical that Trump could be declared free of the risk of transmitting the virus so early in the course of his illness. Just 10 days since an initial diagnosis of infection, there was no way to know for certain that someone was no longer contagious, they said.
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'We can’t lose our momentum:' Louisiana vows to rebuild
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — Back-to-back hurricanes in the space of six weeks left this corner of Louisiana blanketed Sunday with tarpaulins, mangled metal and downed power lines — but not necessarily despair.
Utility crews fanned out across the battered southwestern part of the state to restore electricity in the wake of Hurricane Delta, and residents began returning home along roads lined with debris and houses missing roofs. Some were grateful that the damage was not as bad as it could have been.
Louisiana officials blamed the death of an 86-year-old man on the hurricane. The St. Martin Parish resident died in a fire that erupted after he refueled a generator in a shed, Gov. John Bel Edwards said. He said it didn’t appear that the man had let the generator cool down before refilling it.
Also, a 19-year-old tourist from Illinois drowned after getting caught in a rip current caused by the storm off Destin, Florida, authorities said.
Roughly 350,000 customers in Louisiana remained without power two days after Delta blew ashore near the town of Creole with winds of 100 mph (155 kph), slamming a part of the state still recovering from Hurricane Laura's 150 mph (241 kph) onslaught on Aug. 27. Laura was blamed for 32 deaths, many of them caused in the storm's aftermath by carbon monoxide poisoning from generators.
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GOP governors in spiking states strain for silver linings
Hospitalizations from COVID-19 have hit their highest points recently throughout the Midwest, where the growth in new cases has been the worst in the nation.
But that's not the message coming from a number of Republican governors in the region, who are working to find silver linings in the ominous health data as outbreaks surge in their states.
“In South Dakota, we didn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach and the results have been incredible,” Gov. Kristi Noem told lawmakers in her state, which Johns Hopkins University says ranks second in the country for new cases per capita.
Oklahoma's governor has been effusively upbeat about progress against the virus, despite what figures compiled by public health experts and a White House task force show. North Dakota's governor has called his state's test positivity rate an achievement, even though its rate of new cases tops the nation.
The rhetoric in some cases is mirroring that of President Donald Trump, who continues to downplay the virus' risk even after being hospitalized with COVID-19. And it's worrying public health experts concerned about a flu season that may exacerbate the outbreak's effects.
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Ex-members of religious group mixed on Barrett nomination
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s affiliation with the Christian community People of Praise is drawing scrutiny because of what former members and observers describe as its ultraconservative views on women. Her defenders say scrutinizing her beliefs and relationship to the mostly Catholic organization is akin to anti-religious bigotry.
But in interviews with a dozen former members of the organization and graduates of the schools it runs, most told The Associated Press that Barrett's association with the group should be examined when the Senate takes up her nomination beginning Monday.
Some were proud and excited that one of their own could soon be on the high court, in a position to roll back abortion rights.
Others were deeply concerned about that threat, and also about the community’s teachings on gender, gay rights, and other social issues. They also raised flags about what they describe as the organization's authoritarian structure.
Some wondered why Barrett has not disclosed or even acknowledged her connection to People of Praise and why the group appeared to try to hide her affiliation by deleting documents from its website.
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Biden visit Monday caps push into Ohio, once a longshot
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Joe Biden is set to make his first general election campaign visit Monday to Ohio, signaling the former vice president’s hopes of winning the state Democrats lost by a significant margin in the 2016 election.
The Biden campaign said the former vice president plans an afternoon campaign speech in Toledo, then will head to Cincinnati for a voter mobilization event.
Vice President Mike Pence also plans a “Make America Great Again” campaign stop in Columbus on Monday, as he filled in for Trump, who has been sidelined from the campaign trail recently after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Biden extended his Ohio advertising presence in Ohio last week, adding money notably to radio in rural western counties and in the state's eastern and southeastern Appalachian counties, where Trump won big four years ago. The president won the state over Democrat Hillary Clinton by 8 percentage points in 2016.
The announcement comes as surveys show the race in Ohio close, with Trump consistently trailing in key northern industrial states he won in 2016.
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Dem challenger in SC Senate race raises record $57 million
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Democrat Jaime Harrison has shattered congressional fundraising records, bringing in $57 million in the final quarter for his U.S. Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Lindsey Graham as the GOP tries to retain control of the chamber in the Nov. 3 election.
Harrison's campaign said Sunday the total was the largest-ever during a single three-month period by any Senate candidate. That tops the $38 million raised by Democrat Beto O'Rourke in 2018 in the final fundraising period of his challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who won the race, and comes as other Democratic Senate challengers continue to rake in eye-popping cash against Republican incumbents.
The third-quarter amount brings Harrison's overall campaign fundraising to $86 million. Attributing the success to grassroots support, Harrison’s campaign said the $57 million came in the form of 1.5 million donations from 994,000 donors. The average contribution was $37.
“This campaign is making history, because we’re focused on restoring hope back to South Carolina,” said Guy King, Harrison’s campaign spokesman. “While Lindsey Graham continues playing political games in Washington, Jaime Harrison is remaining laser-focused on the real issues impacting people here — like health care, broadband access, and COVID relief for businesses and families.”
Graham hasn't released fundraising totals for the latest quarter, although it's likely he's been eclipsed by Harrison, an associate Democratic National Committee chairman and former lobbyist. Last month, Graham made a public fundraising plea to help him keep up with Harrison, saying on Fox News he was “getting killed financially” by Harrison, who he predicted would “raise $100 million.”
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Security guard jailed in deadly shooting at Denver protests
DENVER (AP) — A private security guard working for a local TV station was jailed for investigation of first-degree murder in the deadly shooting of another man during dueling right- and left-wing protests in downtown Denver, police said Sunday.
Matthew Dolloff, 30, was taken into custody in connection with a clash that took place Saturday afternoon in Civic Center Park.
A man participating in what was billed a “Patriot Rally” slapped and sprayed Mace at a man who appeared to be Dolloff, the Denver Post reported, based on its photographs from the scene. The man identified by the newspaper as Dolloff drew a gun from his waistband and shot the other person, according to the Denver Post journalist who witnessed the episode.
The shooting victim was not named by authorities and died at a nearby hospital. But his son identified the man on Sunday to the Denver Post as Lee Keltner, a 49-year-old U.S. Navy veteran who operated a hat-making business in the Denver area.
“He wasn’t a part of any group,” Johnathon Keltner told the newspaper. “He was there to rally for the police department and he’d been down there before rallying for the police department.”
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Fake asteroid? NASA expert IDs mystery object as old rocket
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The jig may be up for an “asteroid” that’s expected to get nabbed by Earth’s gravity and become a mini moon next month.
Instead of a cosmic rock, the newly discovered object appears to be an old rocket from a failed moon-landing mission 54 years ago that’s finally making its way back home, according to NASA's leading asteroid expert. Observations should help nail its identity.
“I’m pretty jazzed about this,” Paul Chodas told The Associated Press. “It’s been a hobby of mine to find one of these and draw such a link, and I’ve been doing it for decades now.”
Chodas speculates that asteroid 2020 SO, as it is formally known, is actually the Centaur upper rocket stage that successfully propelled NASA’s Surveyor 2 lander to the moon in 1966 before it was discarded. The lander ended up crashing into the moon after one of its thrusters failed to ignite on the way there. The rocket, meanwhile, swept past the moon and into orbit around the sun as intended junk, never to be seen again — until perhaps now.
A telescope in Hawaii last month discovered the mystery object heading our way while doing a search intended to protect our planet from doomsday rocks. The object promptly was added to the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center’s tally of asteroids and comets found in our solar system, just 5,000 shy of the 1 million mark.