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Denver a year and a half ago and was advanced when Timothy Purdon, U.S. attorney for North Dakota, and Mike Cotter, U.S. attorney for Montana, held a meeting with local law enforcement officials on the oil patch.
• Other agencies involved in the tour this week were the Internal Revenue Service, Secret Services, Homeland Security Investigations and Drug Enforcement Agency.
• "We're going to be in the upward part of this bell curve of increased criminal activity, and if we don't get a handle on it now, it really will get out of hand," Sweetow said.
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AP News in Brief
In a twist, Republican senators fight to keep tax increase as part of new health care law
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans in Congress don't usually fight for tax increases, especially ones that are part of President Barack Obama's health care law.
• But GOP senators balked when Democrats proposed delaying a new temporary fee on everyone covered by health insurance.
• So employers, insurance companies and other health plan sponsors are in line to pay $63 a person next year for everyone who has coverage. The temporary fee covers all workers, spouses and dependents covered by health insurance.
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., proposed delaying the fee in recent budget talks with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. McConnell and other Republican senators objected; the fee was left intact.
• GOP senators complained the delay was basically a favor for labor unions, traditional Democratic allies that oppose the new fee.
• ___
AP Interview: Christie blames Congress, federal red tape for delays in aid to Sandy victims
• TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Gov. Chris Christie says he understands victims' frustrations a year after Superstorm Sandy but maintains that his administration isn't to blame for delays in aid reaching victims.
• In an interview with The Associated Press as the anniversary of the Oct. 29 megastorm approached, Christie blamed Congress, which took three months to approve a $50.7 billion relief package for the region, and a thicket of red tape put in (Continued on page 19)
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