National Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

WASHINGTON
AIDE TO NUCLEAR-DUMP FOE TO BE PUT ON NRC In a deal to let 175 of President Bush’s nominees take office, an adviser to Senator Reid, the Senate’s staunchest opponent of a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, will be named to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
For months Senate Republicans had refused to take up, or even hold a hearing, on the nomination of Gregory Jaczko, Mr. Reid’s adviser on nuclear issues.
In turn, Mr. Reid, the new Democratic leader who has pledged to try to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, had blocked the Bush nominations. In negotiations just before Congress recessed during the weekend, an agreement was worked out: the White House promised Mr. Jaczko would be appointed to a limited two-year term while Congress was in recess, and Mr. Reid lifted his hold on the package of Bush nominations, which zipped through the Senate.
Some Republicans and executives in the nuclear industry had opposed Mr. Jaczko’s nomination bitterly, fearing that he would work to further Mr. Reid’s desire to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. The NRC is expected to begin considering a license for the facility next year. Under the compromise reached on the NRC nominations, Mr. Jaczko agreed not to participate in any Yucca Mountain-related matters for the first year of his two-year term.
– Associated Press
MEDICARE PRESCRIPTION DRUG INSURANCE SAVINGS VARY WIDELY Roughly 19 million people are expected to reap some savings from Medicare’s new prescription drug benefit, according to an independent analysis released yesterday. But 10 million others would pay as much or more for their medicines.
The biggest winners are low-income Americans, who will receive government assistance that is projected to reduce their drug spending by 83% when the drug insurance program begins in 2006, said the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care think tank. The prescription drug benefit will vary widely in its impact on the 29 million older and disabled Americans that the Congressional Budget Office projects will enroll, the study said.
The prospect of differing benefits is no surprise to lawmakers who wrote the Medicare legislation. The most assistance was to go to the poor and those whose drug bills exceed $5,100 a year. In between, there is help, but also a large gap – known as the “doughnut hole” – in which the government will pay nothing.
The Bush administration is projecting higher participation and larger average savings, exceeding 50%, among the 41 million Medicare beneficiaries.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services took the unusual step of sending reporters a four-page rebuttal of the Kaiser report, asserting that it contains “several important flaws.”
– Associated Press
WHITE HOUSE ASKS FOR STUDY ON CIA FORCES The White House has requested that the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon study whether the Defense Department should take over CIA paramilitary operations, as recommended by the September 11 commission.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and then-acting Director of Central Intelligence John McLaughlin rejected the idea – Mr. McLaughlin quite viscerally – when the commission issued its final report this summer. President Bush’s request indicates that the administration wants to give the issue closer study.
“The president asked that we look at this to understand and address the specifics of this issue,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said last night.
Both Mr. Whitman and an American official, who also confirmed the study on the condition of anonymity, stressed that the work is being done collaboratively. The study is still in its early stages. The review comes as Congress has reached an apparent stalemate over other sweeping recommendations from the commission that investigated the September 11, 2001, attacks, including the creation of a new national intelligence director.
– Associated Press
AFTER TOWEL SKIT, ‘DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES’ GETS TOP RATING ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” drama, featured in a promotion before last week’s “Monday Night Football” that is being reviewed by the Federal Communication Commission, drew the best big-city ratings in its seven-episode history Sunday night.
The show drew a season-high 17.5% of viewers in the 56 largest American media markets, according to Nielsen Media Research Inc. It was the first time the show aired since the skit preceding last week’s game. In the promotion, “Desperate Housewives” actress Nicollette Sheridan dropped the towel she was wearing and threw her arms around Philadelphia Eagles receiver Terrell Owens in the locker room, revealing her bare back from the waist up to viewers. The National Football League, ABC, and Mr. Owens all apologized. The FCC said it was reviewing the skit. The agency received almost 50,000 complaints relating to last week’s pregame promotion, according to the Web site for Television Week magazine.
– Bloomberg News
SOUTH
BABY DIES AFTER MOTHER REPORTS CUTTING OFF ITS ARMS PLANO, Texas – A woman with a history of postpartum depression told a 911 operator she had cut off the arms of her baby daughter yesterday, then waited calmly until police arrived, authorities said.
Authorities found Dena Schlosser, 35, and the fatally injured baby after the child’s father called a day-care center and asked them to check on his wife and daughter at their suburban Dallas home. Day-care workers called 911 after talking with Ms. Schlosser, and a 911 operator then phoned the mother.
The operator asked Ms. Schlosser if there was an emergency, according to tapes obtained by Dallas television station. Ms. Schlosser calmly responded: “Yes.”
“Exactly what happened?” the 911 operator asked.
“I cut her arms off,” Ms. Schlosser replied, as the hymn “He Touched Me” played in the background.
Authorities said when they arrived at the family’s apartment they found the nearly 11-month-old baby in a bedroom with her arms severed. Ms. Schlosser, covered in blood, was sitting in her living room. The child died at a hospital. It was not immediately clear what instrument was used to sever the baby’s arms or why the baby’s father asked the day-care center employees to check on his family. Ms. Schlosser lived at the apartment with other family members, including her two older daughters. The girls, ages 6 and 9, were at school and their father was at work when police arrived. Child-protection authorities said the mother had past tendencies of postpartum depression, but there had been no signs of violence.
– Associated Press
MIDWEST
TRIBUTE DINNER SLATED FOR GEPHARDT Friends, political colleagues, and backers of Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri, who is retiring after 28 years as a lawmaker, will get a chance to thank him for his public service by attending a $1,000-a-plate tribute dinner for him.
The money, minus costs, will all go to two charities designated by Mr. Gephardt: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a world-renowned pediatric treatment facility, and the Children’s Inn at NIH, a private, nonprofit, family-centered residence for pediatric outpatients at the National Institutes of Health and for their families. According to an invitation letter from a former senator, Thomas Eagleton, the dinner is to be held in St. Louis.
In the invitation letter, Mr. Eagleton says: “No one has worked harder for his constituents, whether it was the aid he brought to the St. Louis region after the devastating floods of 1993 or starting the effort to bring the Rams to St. Louis. Dick Gephardt’s highest priority has always been the people he represents, or as he calls them: ‘The best people in the world.'”
– Staff Reporter of the Sun