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(WSB Radio) House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says the proposed final healthcare legislation will cut the deficit by $100 billion over the first ten years.
Hoyer, citing a report from the Congressional Budget Office, says the numbers show a reduction in the deficit of more than $1 trillion over the next decade.
The CBO is expected to release its official estimates of the cost of the legislation later today.
Hoyer says momentum is building for passage of the legislation, despite strong Republican opposition.
The House is expected to vote on the bill on Sunday.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the voluntary recall Thursday involving the product made by Graco Children's Products, Inc., of Atlanta.
The regulatory agency said ``screws holding the front legs of the high chair can loosen and fall out'' and said cracking plastic brackets can cause the high chair to ``tip over unexpectedly.'' These tip-overs resulted in 24 reports of injuries including bumps and bruises to the head, a hairline fracture to the arm and cuts, bumps and bruises and scratches to the body.''
The CPSC said consumers should stop using the high chairs immediately and identified the recall product as ``all Harmony-TM high chairs.'' It said the product is no longer in production and said the model number can be located on the underside of the foot rest.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(WSB Radio) Playboy magazine's Miss April is a 25 year old graduate student at Georgia State, and a native of Conyers.
Amy Leigh Andrews was chosen by the magazine to be the April centerfold. The issue goes on sale later this week.
Andrews first came to the attention of Playboy officials when she answered a casting call in 2008. She appeared in the magazine as a co-ed of the month later that year.
Andrews joins former Atlanta Falcons cheerleader Tiffany Fallon as Georgians who have been a Playboy playmate. Fallon was chosen for the December 2004 issue, then was named Playmate of the Year in 2005.
The magazine will conduct another casting call in the Atlanta area next week. Women who are interested need to register at the magazine's website, Plaboy Casting Calls.
The former Massachusetts governor will speak on ``the case for American greatness'' and discuss U.S. courts during a March 30 lecture at Emory's Glenn Memorial Auditorium.
Fellow Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue will introduce Romney. A question-and-answer session will follow Romney's 7 p.m. speech.
It is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Romney ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2008, eventually losing to John McCain. He was a governor from 2003-07.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Police say two people were at the studio Wednesday night when someone knocked on the door.
Atlanta Police Maj. Keith Meadows says that when they opened the door, someone who stood behind the person knocking pushed his way into the studio and began shooting.
Meadows says one man was killed and the other was shot in the leg and fled the building.
Police say detectives are questioning the man, who was found in nearby East Point and was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(WSB Radio) Police are hunting for the suspect in the fatal shooting of a Jonesboro man at the East Point MARTA station.
Authorities say 19 year old Anthony Beavers was killed just after 10:30 last night at the south end of the station.
A motive in the shooting has not been determined.
"It hasn't been determined exactly what happened," says Assistant MARTA Police Chief Joseph Dorsey. "We are interviewing witnesses."
Train service was suspended and the station was sealed, but the gunman was able to escape.
Dorsey says the station is equipped with surveillance cameras, but he does not know if the cameras captured the shooting, or what might have prompted it.
``This is historic,'' acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman said. ``There is no other case like this one anywhere.''
The probe, which began in 2005 when a Drug Enforcement Administration narcotics dog in Florida detected cocaine traces in an airplane, ultimately uncovered at least $110 million in drug profits laundered from Mexico through Wachovia. The total settlement includes forfeiture in that amount plus a $50 million fine.
``DEA will follow drug money wherever it leads us,'' said Mark R. Trouville, chief of the DEA's Miami office.
The agreement means Wachovia and its executives will avoid criminal prosecution in return for the $160 million payment and significant improvements in its anti-money laundering program. If those and other conditions are met within one year, potential criminal charges for failure to maintain a system to detect money launderers will be dropped.
Wachovia, now a unit of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Co., said in a statement that Wells Fargo had already set aside money to pay the settlement. The statement said Wachovia, based in Charlotte, ended its relationships with foreign currency exchange houses in 2008.
``Wachovia Bank has fully cooperated with the federal government throughout the course of its investigation,'' the statement said.
The $160 million fine and forfeiture represents the biggest penalty ever imposed under the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires financial institutions to keep close tabs on suspicious transactions that could indicate money is being laundered from criminal enterprises. According to prosecutors, Wachovia's program was woefully inadequate and bank executives knew it, meaning that numerous red flags were missed over a three-year period.
In fact, officials said Wachovia had no way of checking some $420 billion in transactions from Mexican exchange houses for possible money-laundering activity. That means investigators didn't get potentially key information on drug cartels, terrorist financing networks and other organized crime enterprises.
``The integrity of our financial system is at stake,'' said Charles Steele, deputy director of the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. ``It poses a very serious problem, a very serious threat for law enforcement.''
Beginning with that DEA drug-sniffing dog in June 2005, investigators began tracing the source of money for airplanes being used to ferry cocaine in Colombia and Mexico that was ultimately destined for the U.S. Those initial money transfers were overseen by a Wachovia office in Miami.
Ultimately at least $13 million from the Mexican exchanges went through Wachovia for the purchase of aircraft, according to court documents. Four of them were seized by investigators, along with more than 22 tons of cocaine.
From there, investigators from the DEA, Internal Revenue Service and other agencies tracked billions of dollars in wire transfers, bulk cash shipments and other transactions from the Mexican exchanges through Wachovia. Many were considered suspicious, including such tactics as multiple round-number wire transfers on the same day for a single account; deposits of traveler's checks with sequential numbers that contain unusual markings; and bulk cash transfers up to 50 percent larger than a customer had led Wachovia to expect.
Under the agreement, Wells Fargo cannot use taxpayer money provided under the federal financial bailout program known as TARP to pay its fine and forfeiture amounts. A Wachovia spokewoman said Wells Fargo fully repaid its TARP money to the government in late 2009, before the money-laundering settlement was finalized.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(WSB Radio) Administrators at a Kennesaw school and those who live nearby, are furious about the opening of drug treatment center.
The Treatment Centers of America, which has five other locations in Georgia, uses methadone as part of its treatment plan to wean patients off of drugs.
Parent Davina Pultz tells Channel 2 Action News, what really is frustrating is that the center plans on opening at 6am, just like The Ivy Hall School.
"We trust coming here. We enjoy coming here. We're comfortable coming here," she says. "We're not going to be comfortable coming here now. We're always going to be looking around, wondering what might be knocking on our windows as we're pulling in."
There is not a city ordinance preventing the drug treatment facility from being located near the school, but the city and both businesses will meet on Monday in an effort to work things out.
(WSB Radio) It could be weeks before we know whether a fire DeKalb County fire captain will be reinstated.
The hearing for Captain Tony Motes concluded on Wednesday.
Current and former firefighters came to Motes' defense, saying they may have done the same thing Motes did during a fire in January.
Ann Barlett, 74, died in the fire at her home in Dunwoody.
Firefighters, including Motes, responded to the call but, upon arrival, saw no smoke from the house and left.
A short time later, the house was engulfed in flames.
At Wednesday's hearing, current firefighters testified that they, too, may have left if they saw no smoke coming from a house.
Five firefighters were dismissed from the DeKalb County department.
Motes says he does not want to return to duty, but wants reinstatement so that he may retire.
(WSB Radio) Administrators at South Gwinnett High School decided to cancel after school activities this past Tuesday, not because of any incident, but because of the threat of something happening.
Rumors of possible gang activity prompted the cancellation of sports practices, club meetings and other after school programs, out of concern for possible disruptions.
The concerns was, apparently, not about students at the high school.
Last week, five students were charged over a ritual beating in a boys bathroom at the school.
A parent found a camera with video of the beating, which took place late last year.
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