Things You Need to Know Today



	March 19, 2010

SC, Fla. ready to sue over health care deal
3:28 p.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Top prosecutors in South Carolina and Florida say they’re ready to sue if health care reform legislation passes this weekend.

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster says he and Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum will file a federal lawsuit challenging whether the bill is constitutional.

McMaster says that when the national government and Congress ‘‘start going wild,’’ the states have to rein them in.

The U.S. House plans to vote on the plan Sunday. McMaster and McCollum, both Republicans, will argue that it violates state sovereignty because it requires that all Americans have some form of health insurance.

They expect other attorneys general will sign onto their lawsuit as well.

Democratic critics call such lawsuits frivolous.

M Magazine editor to host fashion show Saturday
2:31 p.m.

BROOKFIELD - Jordan DeChambre-Childers, M Magazine fashion editor and magazine editor, will host a trend fashion show at Boston Store’s Brookfield Square Mall.

Professional runway models will present the spring fashion trends from Boston Store at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the store, 15875 West Bluemound Road.

Segments featured in the fashion show will highlight the season’s must haves and spring trends. Reservations are $10 and include private shopping, $10 Boston Store gift card savings coupons for 20 percent to 30 percent off everything seen in the show, refreshments and goodie bag.

Call 782-6888, Ext. 3900 for more information.

Icahn launches hostile bid for all of Lions Gate
2:30 p.m.

NEW YORK (AP) - Activist shareholder Carl Icahn raised the stakes in his yearlong dispute with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. today, launching an all-out bid to take over the movie studio following disagreements over its spending.

The hostile bid comes a week after Lions Gate rejected Icahn’s offer to buy a larger minority stake and rewrote its bylaws to make such a takeover attempt more difficult in the future.

The new offer for all outstanding shares also raised the specter of Canadian government involvement because Icahn, an American, could own the Vancouver-based company and cause friction with the country’s cultural policies.

Icahn owns almost 19 percent of Lions Gate, and his new offer for the remainder was unchanged from the $6 per share he offered last month when he sought to increase his stake to just under 30 percent. That bid represented a 15 percent premium over the stock’s latest closing price at the time.

Oconomowoc Memorial to reduce staff
1:06 p.m.

OCONOMOWOC - Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital has implemented staffing adjustments that will result in the less than 3 percent of current position being eliminated, which is linked to projected reductions in inpatient volume after the opening of the new hospital in the town of Summit by Aurora.

For more on this story, pick up a copy of Saturday’s Freeman.

Little fanfare for 7th anniversary of war in Iraq
1:05 p.m.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Seven years after the first bombs in the war to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraqis went about their business today with little observance of the anniversary, looking to the future with a mixture of trepidation and hope.

Perhaps more important in the minds of many was the ongoing wait for final results from the country’s second nationwide parliamentary election. The milestone will determine who will oversee Iraq as U.S. forces go home, but could also point the direction the fragile democracy will take down the road - deeper into the sectarian divide that followed Saddam’s fall, or toward a more secular, inclusive rule.

‘‘Now we have democracy and freedom, but the cost was dire and Iraqis have paid that price,’’ said Raid Abdul-Zahra, 38, a technician in Najaf.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition appears to be ahead in the tight race. With almost 90 percent of the vote counted as of Thursday, his coalition was leading in 7 of Iraq’s 18 provinces compared to 5 provinces for his closest rival, the Iraqiya coalition led by secular Shiite Ayad Allawi. Al-Maliki’s coalition also has about 40,000 votes more in the overall vote count.

Many, especially among the country’s Sunni-minority that dominated Iraq during Saddam’s rule, blame the U.S. for the sectarian violence that erupted after the invasion.

Democrats push toward Sunday vote on health care
10:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Slowly but steadily, support is building behind President Barack Obama’s health care legislation in the House, the result of intense lobbying and politically targeted changes aimed at reassuring waverers and winning over critics.

Obama himself was to talk up the sweeping overhaul in a midday speech today in Virginia, his fourth outside-the-Beltway event in two weeks as he scrambles to rally the public ahead of a climactic vote this weekend. On Capitol Hill, congressional leaders were focusing on those rank-and-file Democrats, including moderates and opponents of abortion, who remained undecided after the release Thursday of a final package of changes to the massive 10-year, $940 billion legislation.

Ex-porn star reveals purported Tiger Woods texts
10:01 a.m.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former porn actress said she may reveal more potentially embarrassing information about Tiger Woods after releasing sexually graphic text messages that she claims prove her affair with the golfer.

Joslyn James told The Associated Press on Thursday that she disclosed the messages because she wants people to realize that she was honest when she came forth earlier this year and said Woods had avidly pursued her.

‘‘I just wanted the public to know and the truth to be out there for me to have people see what I was being told and not just judge me for being with a married guy,’’ she said.

James posted more than 100 texts on her Web site Thursday, including some in which arrangements were made for her to meet with Woods at hotels where he was staying. Others stated a desire for rough sex, including messages dated Aug. 29 in which a person James says is Woods tells her he wants to slap her and that she should beg the next time he sees her.

James, whose real name is Veronica Siwik-Daniels, said she met Woods when she was working at a Las Vegas nightclub he frequented. She said he led her to believe she was the only woman in his life other than his wife.

Clinton says agreement with Russia near on nukes
8:45 a.m.

MOSCOW (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said today that American and Russian negotiators are ‘‘on the brink’’ of agreement on a nuclear arms reduction treaty.

After meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Clinton said she expects a treaty-signing soon, although she mentioned no date or place.

‘‘Our negotiating teams have reported that they have resolved all of the major issues and there are some technical issues that remain,’’ she said at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

‘‘But we are on the brink of seeing a new agreement between the United States and Russia,’’ Clinton added.

Her remarks were more pointedly optimistic than just a day earlier, when she cautioned against presuming success soon.

On another matter, Lavrov suggested that the issue of getting new United Nations sanctions imposed against Iran might not be as urgent as some have suggested.

He said the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, in its reports on Iran’s nuclear program, provides no basis for ‘‘alarm’’ about its intentions. He added that this did not mean that Russia is unconcerned about Iranian behavior, and he said Moscow believes sanctions may be unavoidable.

SC gov agrees to pay ethics fine, gets divorced
8:44 a.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has closed two chapters of his life, agreeing to pay $74,000 in fines to resolve ethics charges brought against him after last summer’s revelation of an extramarital affair, and receiving word that a judge had formally ended his 20-year marriage to his wife, Jenny.

The term-limited Republican agreed Thursday to pay the fines to resolve dozens of ethics charges, including a taxpayer-funded rendezvous with his Argentine mistress, marking the end to a months-long saga.

Within minutes, the governor’s marriage had been dissolved by a family court judge in Charleston County, 100 miles from the state capital of Columbia.

Judicial candidates square off in debate
4:44 a.m.

WAUKESHA - Candidates for Waukesha County Circuit Court Branch 2 and Court of Appeals District II squared off in an open forum debate sponsored by the Waukesha County Bar Association Thursday at the Waukesha County Courthouse cafeteria.