Wednesday,  Dec. 25, 2013 • Vol. 16--No. 162 • 16 of 20

(Continued from page 15)

is fast and the error rating is low."
• Error rates were lower than 1 in 200, and pages loaded quickly, in less than a half-second, officials said.
• ___

To avoid health insurance gaps, consumers need patience and persistence

• CHICAGO (AP) -- The deadline has passed, and so too the surprise grace period, for signing up for health insurance as part of the nation's health care law.
• Now what?
• For those who were able to navigate the glitch-prone and often overwhelmed HealthCare.gov website, there's still work to be done to make sure success online leads to actual coverage come the new year.
• The first step experts recommend is to call your insurance company and double-check they received your payment.
• What if you missed the Christmas Eve deadline and still want insurance in 2014, as the health law requires of most Americans? You may be without health insurance for a month, but you can still sign up for coverage that will start in February.
• ___

5 years after man in Santa suit killed 9 relatives, reluctant matriarch leads family recovery

• LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Five years after a man dressed as Santa Claus massacred nine members of her family on Christmas Eve, the surviving daughter of the Ortega clan worked to master her mother's pozole recipe to serve at a traditional family dinner that's now forever tinged with tragedy.
• The recipe was one from Leticia Yuzefpolsky's childhood and a reminder of festive meals she hadn't enjoyed since Bruce Pardo walked through the door of her parents' home outside Los Angeles five years ago, killed her family and burned the place down. In a matter of minutes, Yuzefpolsky lost nearly everyone she'd looked up to: her parents, two brothers and two sisters. Her two sisters-in-law and 17-year-old nephew also died.
• But she was far from alone in her losses. Thirteen sons and daughters lost at least one parent that night in Covina, a suburb about 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
• Yuzefpolsky, the youngest of five children, became the reluctant matriarch, main

(Continued on page 17)

© 2013 Groton Daily Independent • To send correspondence, click here.