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ByStephenOhlemacher The Associated Press WASHINGTON Medi- care's finances are looking brighter, the government said Monday. The program's giant hospital trust fund won't be exhausted un- til 2030 — four years later than last year's estimate. Meanwhile, Social Secu- rity's massive retirement program will remain sol- vent until 2034, officials say, although disability benefits are in more immediate dan- ger. The disability trust fund now is projected to run dry in 2016, unless Congress acts. At that point, the pro- gram will collect enough payroll taxes to pay only 81 percent of benefits. The trustees who over- see Social Security and Medicare issued their an- nual report Monday on the financial health of the gov- ernment's two largest ben- efit programs. The trustees project a 1.5 percent increase in monthly Social Security payments to beneficiaries for next year. That would be among the lowest since automatic ad- justments were adopted in the 1970s. The increase is based on a government measure of inflation. Medicare's Part B monthly premium for out- patient care is expected to remain unchanged for next year, at $104.90. Average premiums for prescription coverage are expected to increase by less than $2 a month. Social Security's finances are relatively unchanged from a year ago. Medi- care's improved finances are largely due to a continu- ing slowdown in health care spending, the report said. "As today's reports make absolutely clear, Social Se- curity and Medicare are fundamentally secure, and they will remain fun- damentally secure in the years ahead," said Trea- sury Secretary Jacob Lew. "The reports also remind us of something we all un- derstand: we must reform these programs if we want to keep them sound for fu- ture generations." Experts debate whether the health-spending slow- down is the result of a slug- gish economy or represents a dividend from President Barack Obama's health care law, and more recent Medi- care cuts by Congress. Pri- vate insurers, including those in Medicare's man- aged care program, are also shifting more costs to patients, contributing to the slowdown. "No one knows and there is an active debate go- ing on," said Charles Bla- hous III, one of two pub- lic trustees. "That debate is certainly not one that the trustees are going to settle." The trustees consist of the secretaries of the Trea- sury, Health and Human Services, and Labor Depart- ments, as well as the So- cial Security commissioner and two public trustees — a Democrat and a Repub- lican. Medicare is adding 10,000 new beneficiaries a day as baby boomers reach age 65. But the report said that costs per beneficiary were essentially unchanged in 2013, for the second year in a row. That particular statistic is critical because per-person costs had surged for many years. In the long run, both So- cial Security and Medicare are still in financial dan- ger, the trustees said. Ben- efit cuts, tax increases or a combination of both will be needed to keep paying ben- efits at current levels. Given the state of dis- trust in Washington, there is little appetite in Congress to tackle such big issues. However, Blahous said that the longer Congress waits to act, the more difficult it will become to avoid either large tax increases or signif- icant benefit cuts. "What is changing is that we are rapidly running out of time," Blahous said. In 2030, when the hospi- tal trust fund is expected to be depleted, Medicare will collect enough payroll taxes to pay 85 percent of bene- fits. Social Security's disabil- ity program could be shored up in the short run by shift- ing tax revenue from the much larger retirement pro- gram, as Congress has done in the past. However, that would slightly worsen the retirement program's long- term finances. ENTITLEMENTS Feds: Medicare hospital fund will last 4 years longer SUSANWALSH—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Acting Social Security Commissioner Carolyn Colvin, right, speaks at a news conference at the Treasury Department in Washington on Monday to discuss the release of the annual Trustees Reports. From le are, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Treasury Secretary and Managing Trustee Jacob J. Lew and Colvin. By Michael Felberbaum The Associated Press RICHMOND, VA. Virginia's same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Mon- day in a decision that could overturn similar prohibi- tions in the Carolinas and West Virginia. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond is the second federal appellate court to overturn gay mar- riage bans, after the Denver circuit, and is the first to af- fect the South, where states' rights have held particular sway for generations. In Monday's 2-1 opinion, the judges ruled that Vir- ginia's constitutional and statutory provisions bar- ring gay marriage and de- nying recognition of such unions performed in other states violate the U.S. Con- stitution. The defendants are likely to ask for the rul- ing to be stayed pending more appeals to the full 4th circuit and the U.S. Su- preme Court; otherwise, marriage licenses to same- sex couples could begin to be issued in 21 days. Virginians voted 57 per- cent to 43 percent in 2006 to amend their constitution to ban gay marriage. Vir- ginia laws prohibit recog- nizing same-sex marriages performed in other states. Writing for the 2-1 major- ity, Judge Henry F. Floyd said Virginia's bans "im- permissibly infringe on its citizens' fundamental right to marry." "We recognize that same- sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfort- able. However, inertia and apprehension are not legiti- matebasesfordenyingsame- sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws," Floyd wrote, joined by Judge Roger L. Gregory. Judge Paul V. Niemeyer dissented. Gay marriage proponents have won more than 20 le- gal decisions around the country since the U.S. Su- preme Court struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year. Most are still under appeal. More than 70 cases have been filed in all 31 states that prohibit same-sex mar- riage. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia al- low such marriages. Three more federal ap- peals of gay marriage rul- ings are coming up: The 6th Circuit in Cincinnati will hear arguments on Aug. 6 for Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. The 7th Circuit in Chicago is set for arguments on Aug. 26 and the 9th Circuit in San Francisco for Sept. 8. GAY RIGHTS US Court: Virginia marriage is for all lovers By Nigel Duara The Associated Press BOARDMAN,ORE. The larg- est power plant in Oregon, the Boardman Coal Plant, sat idle one day earlier this summer, "cold steel" in in- dustry parlance, its dirty power no longer wanted on an electricity grid that is becoming greener. For two weeks in June, wind and hydroelec- tric dams were supplying enough electricity to Port- land General Electric's 830,000 customers, most of whom live far away in Portland. With increasing amounts of power required to come from renewable sources, Boardman even- tually won't be needed at all. But that doesn't mean coal here is dead. By 2020, coal will no longer be burned at the 38-year-old power plant, replaced by cleaner-burn- ing natural gas. The end of coal here will helpOregonmeettheObama administration's latest pro- posal to slash the pollution blamed for global warming. The plan calls on the state to cut its power plant car- bondioxideemissionsinhalf by 2030. Closing Boardman, which gets its coal from the Northern Rockies, will go a long way toward that goal. But 12 miles north, a port on the Columbia River could represent the region's coal future. If all goes according to plan for global energy conglomerate Ambre En- ergy Ltd., coal mined from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming will still arrive in Board- man by train car. But in- stead of feeding the coal plant, it would be shipped to Asia, where an energy- hungry populace is reliant on coal as a cheap power source. This town in the Colum- bia Gorge is a real-life ex- ample of the gulf between Obama's grand strategy to reduce coal emissions and the reality behind that pol- icy: As the U.S. reduces its own carbon pollution, it is exporting more of it abroad. Built in 1976, the Board- man Coal Plant burns about 3 million tons of coal each year. The Port of Mor- row terminal would ship three times more — nearly 9 million tons — out of the country. Those extra 6 million tons of thermal coal will generate energy some- where, its carbon emis- sions joining the same at- mosphere. It just won't be on the U.S. side of the global pol- lution ledger. Over the last five years, as the U.S. has cut coal consumption by 195 mil- lion tons, about 20 per- cent of that coal has been shipped overseas, accord- ing to an analysis by The Associated Press of Energy Department data. That pro- portion is expected to get larger as the U.S. continues to clean up its power plants, boost energy efficiency and move to more pollution-free sources of energy such as wind and solar. For the Northwest, proposed coal terminals would export more than 100 million tons of coal to Asia per year, far exceed- ing the total consumption for all plants that feed coal- fired power to the region, including Oregon, and dou- bling U.S. exports. "If we're trying to ad- dress carbon and we're cre- ating a whole new export industry, I think that is problematic," said Citizens Utility Board of Oregon ex- ecutive director Bob Jenks. "There's a fundamental dis- connect between trying to reduce carbon emissions and creating new indus- tries around coal." No one knows exactly how much pollution the U.S. is sending abroad, or its overall effect on global greenhouse gas emissions. That's because no one, in- cluding the Obama admin- istration, has calculated it. Despite requests from Oregon's Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber to evalu- ate the full environmental consequences of the export terminal proposed here, in- cluding the emissions re- leased in Asia from U.S. coal, the Obama adminis- tration has decided to an- alyze only the carbon re- leased in the U.S. Boardman presents an opportunity for coal export that's nearly unmatched on the West Coast. The port provides easy access to the Columbia River, which feeds Pacific Ocean ship- ping channels. It's just a couple miles from a major interstate highway, and rail lines connect the region to valuable coal in the north- ern Rockies. Coal from the Powder River Basin is a special breed. Wetter than Appa- lachian coal, it also has a lower sulfur content when it burns. That means it's cleaner, said plant man- ager Tom Myers. Of primary concern are its carbon emissions of about 3.6 million tons per year, an amount that will be cut by half when the plant starts burning natu- ral gas. The plant still spat out nearly 14,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the at- mosphere in 2013, which places it among the top 70 sulfur dioxide-polluting plants in the country and by far the worst in Oregon. Meanwhile, the coal ex- ported will result in nearly 51 million tons of emis- sions. INDUSTRY AND TRADE Not in my backyard: US sending dirty coal abroad NIGEL DUARA — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Boardman Coal Plant's wastewater lake in Boardman, Ore., is seen on June 20. The plant is scheduled to close in 2020. The Associated Press PHOENIX Intravenous lines were placed correctly dur- ing the execution of an Ar- izona inmate whose death with lethal drugs took more than 90 minutes, a medical examiner said Monday. Incorrect placement of lines can inject drugs into soft tissue instead of the blood stream, but the drugs used to kill Joseph Wood went into the veins of his arms, said Gregory Hess of the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office. Hess also said that he found no unexplained in- juries or anything else out of the ordinary when he ex- amined the body of Wood, who gasped and snorted Wednesday more than 600 times before he was pro- nounced dead. An Ohio inmate gasped in similar fashion for nearly 30 minutes in January. An Oklahoma inmate died of a heart attack in April, min- utes after prison officials halted his execution be- cause the drugs weren't be- ing administered properly. Hess said he will certify the outcome of Wood's ex- ecution as death by intoxi- cation from the two execu- tion drugs — the sedative midazolam and the pain- killer hydromorphone — if there is nothing unusual about whatever drugs are detected in Wood's system. ARIZONA Doc: Injection lines were placed correctly in inmate www.expresspros.com 530-527-0727 243 So. Main Street RespectingPeople. Impacting Business Call us. And get back to work. 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