Monday,  September 10, 2012 • Vol. 13--No. 055 • 37 of 47 •  Other Editions

(Continued from page 36)

• The report also found:
• -- An audit of the spending is being hampered because someone shredded financial records covering $475 million in fuel payments over more than four years and officials inexplicably couldn't provide complete records for a fifth year.
• ___
• Lawmakers return to Washington with key objective: kick the can down the road
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- When lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, they face big issues, including taxes, spending cuts and the prospect of a debilitating "fiscal cliff" in January. Yet Congress is expected to do what it often does best: punt problems to the future.
• With Election Day less than two months away, their focus seems to be on the bare minimum -- preventing a government shutdown when the budget year ends Sept. 30.
• Democrats controlling the Senate and their House GOP rivals also will also try to set up votes intended to score political points or paint the other side with an unflattering brush two months before the election. Their efforts are sure to be overshadowed by the presidential campaign.
• Topping the agenda of substantive business is a six-month temporary spending bill to finance the government's day-to-day operations. The annual appropriations process on Capitol Hill collapsed about midway through the campaign season. The stopgap measure would give the next Congress time to fashion a full-year plan. There would be no more sure way of driving Congress' approval ratings even lower than for lawmakers to stumble into a government shutdown right before the Nov. 6 vote.
• House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., hope to present the measure this week, with a House vote as early as Thursday. The measure also will ensure a steady flow of money into disaster aid accounts.
• ___

Desperate to stop attacks by patients' relatives and friends, Indian hospital hires bouncers

• NEW DELHI (AP) -- Pradeep Kumar, a muscular man in shades and tattoos, pulls up on a motorcycle, ready for his job as a bouncer. Not at a nightclub, but at another workplace where violence is common in India: a hospital.
• He and his burly colleagues keep the emergency and labor rooms from filling up

(Continued on page 38)

© 2012 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.