President Barack Obama said on Thursday a report on his proposed legislation to overhaul the healthcare system showed it would reduce the nation's budget deficit over the long term.

House Democrats are pushing to the brink of passage a landmark, $940 billion health care overhaul bill that would simultaneously deliver on President Barack Obama's promise to expand coverage while slashing the deficit, a strategy aimed at attracting support from the party's fiscal conservatives.

The 10-year plan would provide coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured through a combination of tax credits for middle class households and an expansion of the Medicaid program for low income people. Release of the legislation later Thursday sets the stage for a House vote on Sunday.

It would restructure one-sixth of the U.S. economy in the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare was created in 1965. It would also impose new obligations on individuals and businesses, requiring for the first time that most Americans carry health insurance and penalizing medium-sized and large companies that don't provide coverage for their workers.

Hospitals and doctors, drug companies and insurers would gain millions of new paying customers, but they would also have to adjust to major changes. Medicare cuts would force hospitals to operate more efficiently or risk going out of business. Insurance companies would face unprecendented federal regulation. Health care industries would be hit with new federal taxes. Upper-income households would face a new tax on investment earnings.

British drugmaker AstraZeneca wins the first trial brought by a patient alleging its psychiatric drug Seroquel caused harm.

AstraZeneca says a jury in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Jersey ruled in favor of the drugmaker.

The case was brought by a 61-year-old Louisiana man who claims he developed diabetes after taking the drug for a few years. Ted Baker, a Vietnam veteran, took Seroquel from 2001 through 2006.

The drug is approved for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. It's been on the market since 1997 and brings in more than $4 billion in annual sales.

Nine other cases brought by plaintiffs in New Jersey, Delaware and Florida have been dismissed before the start of a trial.

The Idaho Supreme Court has denied requests from six death row inmates who said they were entitled to new trials because a U.S. Supreme Court ruling made after their convictions called on juries, not judges, to impose the death penalty.

All the men argued that the state violated their Sixth Amendment due process rights because they were sentenced to death by a judge instead of a jury, as required under the 2002 federal decision.

But in a unanimous ruling handed down Friday, the Idaho Supreme Court noted that their cases were all appealed and the judgments made final before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling was issued — and that 2002 decision can't be retroactively applied to the Idaho inmates' cases.

All six inmates have appeals in various stages of state and federal court that will now move forward.

President Barack Obama has nominated the sister of National Public Radio legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg (TOH'-ten-burgh) for a federal judgeship.

Obama on Wednesday tapped Amy Totenberg for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She has been in private practice and has served as an arbitrator in Atlanta since 2000.

The Harvard Law School graduate also is a special master in federal court in Maryland and a court monitor in federal court in the District of Columbia.

A federal judge refused Wednesday to postpone the June start of ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich's corruption trial, brushing aside defense attorneys' claims that they won't have enough time to prepare.

U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel also dismissed defense attorneys' concerns that U.S. Supreme Court decisions expected by the end of June could unfairly complicate the trial.

Zagel said he saw no reason to delay the trial's June 3 start date.

If the date holds, voters will likely hear months of testimony about the former Democratic governor's alleged misdeeds as the party tries to retain his former seat and the U.S. Senate seat once held by President Barack Obama.

Prosecutors say Blagojevich schemed to sell or trade that Senate seat and used his power to illegally pressure political campaign donors.

Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges.

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Max Mizejewski (pronounced majeski) received his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1993. In 1997, Max graduated from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College and went on to work in the public sector before entering private practice. As Manager of the Oregon Department of Transportation Environmental Unit, Max gained valuable experience negotiating, problem solving and working through confrontational issues with emotionally charged individuals. Max brings this experience to his private practice which focuses on criminal defense and family law.


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