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Associated Press WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. » A commuter railroad me - chanic who was paralyzed in a deadly derailment said Wednesday that he forgives the man who was driving the train and is grateful to the railroad but is still suing for $100 million to protect his family. Samuel Rivera, 39, said he wasn't bitter or angry about his fate because, "Being up - set and being bitter and an- gry isn't going to get you anyplace. ... Holding grudges is just not healthy." He spoke at a news con - ference at Burke Rehabil- itation Hospital in subur- ban White Plains, north of New York City, where he is getting therapy. His doctor, Argy Stampas, said Rivera cannot move his legs or con - trol his abdominal area. He has some use of his biceps and wrists but not his fin- gers. Rivera said that the day of the derailment, Dec. 1, was his day off and he and his 14-year-old son, Sam Jr., were heading into the city on a pleasure trip. The plan was "just hang out, maybe hit the Nike store, enjoy the city," said Ri - vera, who also has a 2-year- old daughter. He remem- bers that he was watching "The Walking Dead" on a portable device, and at one point looked up and thought, "Man, this train is moving fast." He also remembers com - ing to after the derailment and seeing his son, who was not seriously injured. "I re- member telling him 'I don't think I'm going to make it,'" Rivera said, choking up. Four people were killed and more than 70 injured in the wreck. Investigators say the train was going 82 mph as it hit a curve with a 30-mph speed limit near the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx in New York City. The engi - neer, William Rockefeller, told the National Transpor- tation Safety Board that he felt "dazed" before the crash, and he has been diagnosed with a sleeping disorder. But no cause has been estab - lished and no charges have been filed. "I do forgive Mr. Rocke- feller," Rivera said. "People make mistakes. I've made mistakes. ... His mistake ended up as a major trag- edy." He spoke of his life before the accident, working on the railroad, Metro-North, and on his house, and about being a Raiders, Yankees and Knicks fan. He wore a Knicks jersey. Now, he said, he some - times wakes at night and cries. "The fact that I can't walk and pick up my daugh- ter is bad," he said. Rivera said he was grate- ful to Metro-North for "re- maining by my side." His lawyer, Gregory Cannata, said the railroad was pay- ing for extensive modifica- tions to Rivera's house in Os- sining to make it accessible when he goes home in a few months. Rivera said, "Any legal action I am taking against Metro-North is to protect my family's financial future. My care will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each year." In the lawsuit, River and his wife, Jessica Rivera, al - lege negligence by Metro- North and its parent agency, the Metropolitan Transpor- tation Authority. Jessica Ri- vera was at the news confer- ence but would not speak. Cannata said no punitive damages are being sought in the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in state court in the Bronx. Rivera said he plans to push for a law mandating seat belts or other safety re - straints on public transpor- tation. Had there been seat belts on the train, he said, "Per- haps we would not be here today." R a i l r o ad s p oke s m a n Aaron Donovan said seven lawsuits have been filed over the derailment as well as 80 notices of claim, which are often precursors to lawsuits. He said he could not com - ment on Rivera's lawsuit be- cause it is pending. rAILroAd AccIdENT Man paralyzed in derailment forgives train driver AssociAted Press samuel rivera of ossining, N.Y., speaks with reporters Wednesday in White Plains, N.Y., about the injuries he received on dec. 1, 2013. Associated Press WASHINGToN » Struggling to figure out your federal tax return? You're not alone, but you're in the minority. With the tax filing dead- line looming next week, a majority of Americans say completing a federal tax re- turn is easy, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. The findings defy conven - tional wisdom in Washing- ton, where politicians have made careers out of promis- ing a simpler tax system. In another blow to advocates of tax reform, almost no one is willing to pay higher taxes in exchange for a simpler code. "If you've got the equiv - alent of a high school de- gree and you know how to do math, it's very simple," said Sara Thornton, a small business owner from East Granby, Conn. Only 7 percent of those surveyed say they would be willing to pay more in fed - eral taxes if the process of filling out a tax return were easier. Some 90 percent say "no, thanks." "No, because I don't know that it is that difficult," said Alicia Brown of suburban Des Moines, Iowa. "We al - ready pay outlandish taxes because we live in Iowa. We have very high real estate taxes." The tax-writing commit - tees in Congress have spent the past several years try- ing to build momentum for the herculean task of simpli- fying the tax code. One rea- son it's so difficult is there are bound to be winners and losers. Sweeping changes to precious tax breaks will un - doubtedly leave some peo- ple paying more, while oth- ers pay less. One selling point for tax reform has been a simpler tax form. Ever hear a politi - cian say you should be able to fill out your taxes on the back of a postcard? You'll probably hear it again dur - ing this fall's elections. The National Taxpayer Advocate says filers spend a total of 6.1 billion hours a year preparing tax returns, at a cost of $168 billion. Ac - cording to the IRS, 90 per- cent of filers either pay a tax preparer or use computer software to help them fill out their returns. But 58 percent in the AP- GfK poll say completing a federal tax return is easy. Thirty-eight percent call it hard. Fully 86 percent who have completed their tax forms say they are ex - tremely confident or very confident that they filled them out correctly. Not surprisingly, higher income taxpayers are more likely to say that filling out tax forms is difficult. Wealthy people tend to have more complicated taxes be - cause they often have mul- tiple sources of income and they are more likely to item- ize their deductions, mak- ing them eligible for more tax breaks. Forty-f ive percent of those with incomes above $100,000 said it is hard, compared with 33 percent among those making less than $50,000. Through March 28, the IRS has processed 89 mil - lion returns. About 82 per- cent have qualified for re- funds, averaging $2,831. That's about $207 billion in tax refunds. Almost 91 per- cent of returns have been filed electronically. Americans think most of their fellow taxpayers are honest, but not all of them. On average, poll-takers es - timate that about one-third of Americans intentionally cheat when filling out their tax returns. Erma Pierce of Poplar Bluff in southeast Missouri said she thinks about half of people cheat on their taxes, and she takes a dim view of it. "You're not supposed to cheat, lie or steal," Pierce said. "It's against the Bible." Thornton, the small busi - ness owner in Connecticut, said her estimate depends on the definition of cheating. "People think of cheat- ing as a case of, I reported I have nine children and I only have two. Or I reported I only made $20,000 this year and I actually made $50,000," Thornton said. "They think of those forms of cheating, the absolute bla - tant, extravagant forms." Thornton's definition of cheating is broader, which is why she thinks 80 per - cent to 90 percent of people cheat on their taxes. "The minor forms of cheating are things like, well, I can increase my char - itable deduction by $200," Thornton said. "Most people consider, quote, unquote padding their income tax reporting or shaving it off a little bit, they don't necessarily view that as cheating." "I define that as cheating only because it really is." The AP-Gf K Poll was conducted March 20-24, 2014 using KnowledgePanel, GfK's probability-based on - line panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population. It involved on- line interviews with 1,012 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for all respondents. Respondents were first selected randomly using phone or mail survey meth - ods, and were later inter- viewed online. People se- lected for KnowledgePanel who didn't otherwise have access to the Internet were provided with the ability to access the Internet at no cost to them. rETurNS Poll: Most Americans say filing taxes is easy AssociAted Press this March 22, 2013, file photo shows the exterior of the internal revenue service building in Washington. Assocaited Pres WASHINGToN » How is it that a few doctors take in millions of dollars from Medicare? Explanations for Wednes - day's eye-popping numbers from Medicare's massive claims database ranged from straightforward to what the government con - siders suspicious, as the medical world confronted a new era of scrutiny. The long-sought release of Medicare data revealed just how much the program paid individual doctors in 2012. An analysis by The As - sociated Press found that a tiny group, 344 out of more than 825,000 doctors, re- ceived $3 million or more apiece — a threshold that raises eyebrows for the gov- ernment's own investiga- tors. Overall, about 2 per- cent of clinicians accounted for one-fourth of payments. Deputy administrator Jon Blum said Wednes - day that Medicare will now take a closer look at doctors whose payments exceed certain levels. Blum told re - porters he did not want to reveal those thresholds be- cause that would tip off peo- ple trying to game the sys- tem. "We know there is waste in the system, we know there is fraud in the sys- tem," he said. "We want the public to help identify spending that doesn't make sense." Blum said an even bigger goal in making the data public is to help find more cost-effective, qual - ity- conscious pathways for America's $2.8-trillion health care system. Medi- care, a $600-billion pro- gram for seniors and dis- abled people, sets the tone. In rural Hastings, Neb., ophthalmologist John Welch said the vast majority of the $9.5 million that Medicare paid him went straight from his practice to drug compa - nies, for expensive medica- tions used to treat patients with macular degeneration. "I'm concerned that peo- ple in the community will get the wrong idea of how these billings reflect doc- tors' income," said Welch, who ranked No. 8 in Medi- care payments. "Instead of blaming us, they need to have a serious discus- sion with the drug com- panies about lowering the cost of these drugs. If they want us to stop taking care of patients, then tell us that — but don't blame us for costs." As for No. 4 on the pay - ments list, the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota says a large number of tests are billed under the name of its Dr. Franklin Cockerill, chair- man of laboratory medicine and pathology. According to the Medicare database, Cockerill was paid more than $11 million. "Dr. Cockerill is a sal - aried employee of Mayo Clinic and is not making big money from Medicare," said spokesman Bryan Ander - son. Medicare officials said multiple providers should not be using a doctor's iden- tification number to bill. The American Medical Association has expressed concern that laypersons may draw wrong conclu - sions from seeing large dol- lar signs next to a physi- cian's name. HEALTH cArE To p- pa id M ed ic ar e do ct or s sa y th ey h av e re as on s Associated Press WASHINGToN » It's been al- most a year since police in the Boston suburb of Wa- tertown were at the center of the hunt for the Boston Mar- athon bombing suspects. Police found themselves in a late-night shootout with the suspects — one was killed, the other was found wounded almost a day later. Wednesday, Watertown's police chief was on Capitol Hill testifying at a House hearing on the aftermath of last April's bombings. E dwa rd Deveau wa s asked about what lessons his department learned in the wake of the attack and if anything should be different. He said while his depart - ment is too small for a per- manent seat on the Bos- ton area's Joint Terrorism Taskforce — one of many task forces around the coun- try organized by the FBI — smaller agencies like his "need to have access to that table" immediately after events such as the Boston Marathon bombings. A few days after the at - tacks that killed three and wounded hundred others, Watertown officers got into an early morning shootout with bombing suspects Ta - merlan and Dzhokhar Tsar- naev. Deveau said his officers thought they were pursing carjacking suspects when the officers were attacked with homemade explosives and gunfire. Tamerlan Tsar - naev was killed in the shoot- out and Dzhokhar Tsar- naev was found nearly a day later, wounded and hiding in a boat. Deveau testified before the House Homeland Secu- rity Committee along with a sergeant from his depart- ment and former Boston Po- lice Commissioner Ed Davis. "When something like this happens, we need to have ac- cess to that table ... to be up- dated," Deveau said of work- ing with the FBI-led terror- ism task force. "We need to have a seat right away." The committee chair- man, Rep. 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