Word: aids
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...plans to help subsidize low-income insurance coverage. Officials who have seen the Baucus plan are refreshingly optimistic, noting that the chairman has moved on some provisions that could make his proposal reconcilable with whatever passes the more liberal House. One key issue is how it deals with government aid to people who do not get health insurance through their employers; those not covered by an expanded Medicaid system would be required, for the first time, to purchase health coverage on their own. The subsidies in Baucus' current proposal are significantly more generous than those proposed under earlier versions...
...problem is, Karzai's legitimacy is shot. Even before the election, many Afghans (though perhaps not a majority) were angry with him over his failure to curb a system of corruption and patronage that had paralyzed efforts to repair the war-thrashed nation. The international aid community is disheartened by the prospect of another five years of a government that is infested with warlords and drug traffickers. And Washington is fed up with Karzai's duplicity and fecklessness. Despite the fact that he came to power on the back of the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, Karzai used the latest...
...even with federal assistance, the California fiscal crisis - and in particular July's $1.9 billion raid on local government finances to help balance the state budget - could threaten the system of mutual aid between fire departments across the state. For example, several fire departments in northern California went south to help out with the Angeles National Forest blaze. As the fire season continues, however, budget cutbacks may force some local fire departments to stop participating in mutual aid. "Local agencies may have no choice but to hold back. A fire department's first responsibility is to protect the home front...
...fact, it reminds me a lot of how Kabul was when I was last here. The foreigners - diplomats, aid workers, journalists, assorted mercenaries and adventurers - disported themselves quite oblivious to the fact that this was a conservative Muslim country just emerging from the Taliban's medieval totalitarianism. You could find booze in shops. On weekends, you could go picnicking and horseback riding in the country. Many embassies moved into gaudy narco-mansions rented out by warlords loyal to President Hamid Karzai. For dining, you had a choice of Mexican, Balkan, Lebanese, Indian, Thai, American and Chinese restaurants. The Chinese places...
Three years on, Kabul has become a more sober, watchful city. The walls around embassies, aid offices and foreigners' guest houses have sprouted to around 15 feet high, and are often crowned with razor wire. After a few foreigners were kidnapped and shot by drive-by gunmen last year, it is now considered foolhardy to walk around the streets of Kabul. Booze is no longer sold openly. Many, but not all, of the brothels were shut down and the girls rounded up and flown back to China...