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The Obamas Vacation In Indonesia
The Obamas water rafting in Indonesia.
The former First family,
Barack, Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama were spot- ting on a rafting trip Monday during a vacation to Indonesia. The Obamas rafted down the Ayung river in Bali.
The former first family is cur- rently enjoying a 10-day trip to Indonesia, where Obama spent some of his childhood.
He moved there at age 6 when his mother married an Indone- sian man, and stayed until he moved to Hawaii to live with his grandparents at age 10.
The Obamas will also visit the ancient city Yogyakarta and President Obama will ad- dress the Indonesian Diaspora Congressan in July, the Associ- ated Press reports
3 Chicago Cops Indicted In Death Of LeQuan McDonald, 17
LaQuan McDonald, 17, was killed by Chicago police Jason Van Dyke on October 20, 2014. After investigation, Officer Van Dyke was charged in November 2015 with first-degree murder and ini- tially held without bail at the Cook County Jail. He was released on bail on November 30.
Senate Leader Delays Vote On Health Care Bill Until After July 4th Recess
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told senators on Tuesday that he will delay a vote on the Sen- ate GOP health care bill until after the July Fourth recess.
Facing intransigent Republi- can opposition, the Senate ma- jority leader dealt another setback to Republicans’ seven- year effort to dismantle the health law and setting up a long, heated summer of health care battles.
The Senate bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, re- peals an array of Obamacare taxes including the 3.8 percent tax on net investment income. It takes the 0.9 percent Medicare surtax off the books in 2023 and delays the so- called Cadillac tax on high-cost employer plans until 2026, among other tax-related meas- ures in the plan.
“We will not be on the bill this week. But we’re still work- ing toward getting at least 50 people in a comfortable place,” McConnell told reporters, re- ferring to the number of votes needed for the bill to proceed.
Senators were originally slated to vote on the highly di- visive bill this week, following a secret, closed-door process by McConnell and other Sen- ate GOP leaders to draft and rush through the bill.
McConnell’s decision came
Senate Leader Mitch McConnell did not have enough votes to pass the bill.
one day after the Congres- sional Budget Office deter- mined that the bill would result in 22 million fewer peo- ple with health insurance by 2026, and 15 million fewer just in the next year.
The bill was in peril and lacked the votes it needed to pass, with at least five GOP senators saying they would not vote to proceed with it. Several senators voiced greater con- cerns about the bill following the CBO analysis on Monday.
The divide over the bill may be difficult to bridge.
GOP opposition has tended to fall into two disparate camps: More moderate Repub- licans are concerned about the implications the legislation would have on their con- stituents, including its deep cuts to Medicaid coverage for
low-income people and its plan to defund Planned Parent- hood; more conservative Re- publicans say the bill does not go far enough in repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
Republican senators were invited to the White House on Tuesday afternoon for a meet- ing to discuss the bill, Mc- Connell said.
Senate Democrats have gone all in against the bill, warning of its dire conse- quences. Following Mc- Connell’s announcement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Republicans “we can talk” if they “abandon” the bill’s most extreme provisions.
A strike against the Chicago Police Department’s “code of silence,” has prompted a grand jury to indict three-Chicago Po- lice officers who were a part of 17 year-old Laquan McDon- ald’s murder back in October 2014, with charges of conspir- acy, obstruction, and miscon- duct, DNAinfo reports.
Patrol officers Joseph Walsh, Thomas Gaffney and Detective David March are facing charges for reportedly trying to cover up the evidence. The prosecutor tasked with the case an- nounced the indictment on Tuesday (June 27), claiming that the three officers who were present at the scene lied, did not interview witnesses, and fooled investigators in efforts to hide what really occurred.
The indictment states that Gaffney, 43, Walsh 48, and March, 58, and an unnamed fourth suspect identified as “In- dividual A,” plotted together shortly after the shooting to “conceal the true facts of the
events surrounding the killing of LaQuan McDonald ... to shield their fellow officer (iden- tified only as Individual A) from criminal investigation and prosecution.” Part of the obstruction charges include “mischaracterizing the video recordings,” of the occurrence and lie about what really led to the fatal shooting.
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