Jahi McMath's Family Wants To Transfer Her To Nursing Home

 
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — A lawyer for the family of a 13-year-old girl who was declared brain dead after complications from a tonsillectomy says Jahi McMath's relatives want to transfer her to a nursing home that is willing to keep caring for her.
But lawyer Christopher Dolan said Thursday that doctors at Children's Hospital Oakland need to insert breathing and feeding tubes into the girl before the nursing home can take her.
Dolan declined to name the care facility, but said it is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and is not equipped to perform surgeries.
Children's Hospital wants to take Jahi off life support, a move that her family opposes.
A judge this week gave the hospital permission to proceed after 5 p.m. on Monday to give the girl's mother time to appeal.

First-class stamp prices to rise as of Jan. 26

First-class stamp prices to rise as of Jan. 26

FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, U.S. Postal Service letter carrier Michael McDonald gathers mail to load into his truck before making his delivery run in the East Atlanta neighborhood, in Atlanta. The U.S. Postal Service says it will delay plans to cut Saturday mail delivery because Congress isn't allowing the change. The Postal Service said in February that it planned to cut back in August to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages, as a way to hold down losses. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mailing a letter is about to get a little more expensive. Regulators on Tuesday approved a temporary price hike of 3 cents for a first-class stamp, bringing the charge to 49 cents a letter in an effort to help the Postal Service recover from severe mail decreases brought on after the 2008 economic downturn.
Many consumers won't feel the price increase immediately. Forever stamps, good for first-class postage whatever the rate, can be purchased at the lower price until the new rate is effective Jan. 26.
The higher rate will last no more than two years, allowing the Postal Service to recoup $2.8 billion in losses. By a 2-1 vote, the independent Postal Regulatory Commission rejected a request to make the price hike permanent.
The higher cost "will last just long enough to recover the loss," Commission Chairman Ruth Y. Goldway said.
Bulk mail, periodicals and package service rates rise 6 percent, which is likely to draw significant consternation from the mail industry.
Its groups have opposed any price increase beyond the current 1.7 percent rate of inflation. They say charities using mass mailings and bookstores competing with online retailer Amazon will be among those who suffer. Greeting card companies also have criticized the plans.
The Postal Service is an independent agency that does not depend on tax money for its operations but is subject to congressional control. Under federal law, it can't raise prices more than the rate of inflation without approval from the commission.
The service says it lost $5 billion in the last fiscal year and has been trying to get Congress to pass legislation to help with its financial woes, including an end to Saturday mail delivery and reduced payments on retiree health benefits.
The figures through Sept. 30 were actually an improvement for the agency from a $15.9 billion loss in 2012.
The post office has struggled for years with declining mail volume as a result of growing Internet use and a 2006 congressional requirement that it make annual $5.6 billion payments to cover expected health care costs for future retirees. It has defaulted on three of those payments.
The regulators Tuesday stopped short of making the price increases permanent, saying the Postal Service had conflated losses it suffered as a result of Internet competition with business lost because of the Great Recession. They ordered the agency to develop a plan to phase out the higher rates once the lost revenue is recouped.
It's unclear if that would take rates for first-class postage back to 46 cents in 2016 or to a level somewhere in between that takes into account future inflation.
The new price of a postcard stamp, raised by a penny to 34 cents in November, also is effective next month.

Police: 4 dead after Louisiana shootings, 3 injured

RACELAND, La. (AP) - A south Louisiana man attacked his former in-laws, his current wife, and the head of a hospital where he'd worked, killing three before killing himself, authorities said.

The shootings happened at four locations in two parishes about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans on Thursday. The first report came about 6:40 p.m., when Lafourche Parish Councilman Louis Phillip Gouaux - who was shot in the throat - called 911 from his home in Lockport, Houma, La., newspaper The Courier reported.

The suspect, Ben Freeman, 38, was the ex-husband of Gouaux's daughter Jeanne, Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Brennan Matherne said in a news release.

Gouaux's wife, Susan "Pixie" Gouaux, was dead when deputies arrived, Matherne said. Louis Phillip Gouaux and his daughter, Andrea Gouaux, were injured and taken to University Hospital in New Orleans. Both were in critical but stable condition, Matherne said.

About 20 minutes later in Raceland, Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital administrator Milton Bourgeois was shot and killed at close range at his home, Matherne said. His wife, Ann Bourgeois, was shot and taken to the New Orleans hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.

Raceland police said Bourgeois was shot at close range and his wife was shot in the leg.

Freeman had been employed at three area hospitals over the last few years, including St. Anne, where Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said he had been a registered nurse before he was fired in 2011. All three hospitals were put on lockdown for a while Thursday.

Freeman's wife, Denise Taylor Freeman, was found dead in the couple's home in Houma in Terrebonne Parish. Matherne said her cause of death was not immediately known.

A shotgun was used in the shootings, deputies said.

Ben Freeman was found along U.S. Highway 90 near Bayou Blue, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Lafourche Parish sheriff said Jeanne Gouaux had filed multiple protective orders against Freeman, who had pleaded guilty to harassment charges and was allowed only supervised visits with their four children. The last protective order expired less than a month ago, he said.

"Clearly, there has been a very difficult and complicated divorce/custody issue going on," Webre said during a news conference late Thursday.

Webre could not comment on why Ben Freeman was terminated from St. Anne Hospital, but noted that police were called there after Freeman damaged a room. He told police then that he would seek mental help, Webre said.