MON DAY, MArch 15, 2010 • 50¢
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Obama making last big push for health care
COMING UP
By The Associated Press
NIT-bOUND State, Ole Miss, Jackson State on the boards b1
WEAThEr Tonight: Partly cloudy; low near 43 Tuesday: Partly cloudy; high near 58 Mississippi River:
24.6 feet Rose: 0.1 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
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DEAThS • Ben H. Butler Jr. • Lamar Eakes • John L. Rozell Sr. • Helen L. Sink
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TODAY IN hISTOrY 44 B.C.: Roman dictator Julius Caesar is assassinated by a group of nobles that included Brutus and Cassius. 1493: Christopher Columbus returns to Spain, concluding his first voyage to the Western Hemisphere. 1913: President Woodrow Wilson meets with reporters for what’s been described as the first presidential press conference. 1919: Members of the American Expeditionary Force from World War I convene in Paris for a three-day meeting to found the American Legion. 1964: Actress Elizabeth Taylor marries actor Richard Burton in Montreal; it was her fifth marriage, his second. 1975: Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis dies near Paris at age 69. 2005: Former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers is convicted in New York of engineering the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history. (He was later sentenced to 25 years in prison.)
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ONLINE www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 128 NUMBER 74 2 SECTIONS
merediTh spencer•The Vicksburg PosT
Tim Evans of Vicksburg prepares to load his boat up at LeTourneau Landing after taking a ride on the Mississippi River Sunday.
River expected to begin spring climb today By Steve Sanoski ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com After weeks of retreating, the Mississippi River at Vicksburg will begin rising again today — possibly en route to another year of spring flooding, forecasters say. “Right now, we’re looking at above-normal potential for spring flooding,” said Marty Pope, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Jackson. “The snow melt up north is over for the most part, so what
we have to watch out for now are heavy rains over the Upper Mississippi River and Ohio River valleys.” As of this morning, the Mississippi River was running at 24.6 feet, up .1 from Sunday’s reading. After predicted rises of about a half foot today and Tuesday, the river is forecast to begin rising by more than a foot a day on Wednesday. The long range forecast by the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell, La., is calling for
the city of Cairo, Ill. — where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers converge — to crest at 5.5 feet over the city’s flood stage of 40 feet on March 25. While an extended river forecast for Vicksburg was not yet computed this morning, LMRFC Hydrologist Daniel Pearce said the Vicksburg area also likely will be nearing its flood stage of 43 feet by the end of the month. “It’s hard to predict exactly, but Vicksburg will probably be
U.S. coverage could take years By The Associated Press
from Social Security rather than forSee IOUs, Page A2.
See Coverage, Page A2.
By The Associated Press
federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow
See Health care, Page A2.
WASHINGTON — It took lawmakers a year to shape President Barack Obama’s health care bill. If it finally passes Congress, it’ll take the better part of a decade to write the user manual for consumers and doctors, employers and insurance companies. Here’s a primer on some of the major effects for consumers and other key players: • Immediate changes: The bill pumps $5 billion into high-risk insurance pools run by the states to provide coverage to those in frail health. Taxpayer-backed insurance won’t be free, but premiums should be much lower than what’s charged by private insurers willing to take those in poor health. Children could stay on their parents’ coverage until age 26. • The self-employed: Starting in 2014, self-employed people and those whose employers don’t offer coverage would be able to pick a plan through a health insurance exchange. More than 30 million people would
See River, Page A7.
Social Security to start cashing in IOUs PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration. It’s time to start cashing them in. For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year. Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more. Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the
WASHINGTON — With a fresh sense of urgency, President Barack Obama and congressional Democratic leaders pressed wavering rank-andfile lawmakers to back his health care overhaul, determined to give the party something to show voters in the midterm elections. Obama was set to head to northeast Ohio today with a final sales pitch for health care legislation that the President Barack top Democratic voteObama counter in the House said still lacked the necessary votes to pass. Obama’s top political adviser, David Axelrod, said he was “absolutely confident” the measure would pass during a make-or-break week that already saw the president delay his trip to Indonesia, Australia and Guam. “This is the week where we will have this important vote,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs
Census forms to begin arriving in mail today By The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Let the count begin. More than 120 million U.S. census forms begin arriving today in mailboxes around the country, in the government’s once-a-decade population count that will be used to divvy up congressional seats and more than $400 billion in federal aid. Fast-growing states in the South and the West could stand to lose the most because of lower-than-average mail participation rates in 2000 and higher shares of Hispanics and young adults, who are among the least likely to mail in their forms. Did those $2.5 million Super Bowl ads work? Stay tuned. “When you receive your 2010 census, please fill it out and mail it back,” said Census Bureau director Robert Groves, who was set to kick off the national mail-in campaign today in Phoenix, Ariz., a state which could gain up to two U.S. House seats because of rapid immigrant growth in the last decade. Groves is urging cities and states to promote the census and improve upon rates in 2000, when about 72 percent of U.S. households returned their forms. If everyone who receives See Census, Page A2.
A few problems • Household and residence: These are determined by where people live or sleep most of the time as of April 1. Household members should include babies born on or before April 1, 2010, as well as non-U.S. citizens. The rationale is that cities and states should receive federal money to support everyone who uses their public roads, schools and other programs. College students who live away from home and U.S. military personnel who live in barracks are tallied in those places. For divorced parents who have shared custody of a child, indicate where a child usually lives. If custody is split equally, the child’s residence is where he or she is on April 1. • Race and ethnicity: If no box
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exists that describes yourself, or with the level of specificity you prefer, write it in the space marked for “other race.” • Internet option: There is none. Census officials in 2008 determined that submitting census data through the Internet posed too large a risk for security breaches. • Long form: This year’s census is only 10 questions. Previously, 1 in 6 households — roughly 20 million — received a detailed census questionnaire called the “long form” that asked about income, disability, commuting, education level and other characteristics. • Missing forms: If you don’t receive a census form, Census Bureau director Robert Groves advises that people wait until April 12 to allow time for it to arrive. After April 12, people may call the census help line at 1-866872-6868.
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Ex-MVSU chief, Vicksburg native dies in Hattiesburg By Pamela Hitchins phitchins@vicksburgpost.com Dr. Ernest A. Boykins, Vicksburg native and former president of Mississippi Valley State University, died Sunday, March 14, 2010, at his home. He was 78. Dr. Boykins was MVSU’s Ernest A. second presiBoykins dent, presiding from 1971 to 1981 during the period which saw the Delta school granted university status. After retiring from higher education, Dr. Boykins built a second career as well as a volunteer ministry counseling patients See Boykins, Page A7.