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4B Daily News– Wednesday, July 4, 2012 WORLD BRIEFING power WASHINGTON (AP) — Utility crews struggled to catch up with a backlog of millions of people without electricity for a fourth hot day Tuesday as frustration grew and authorities feared the toll of 24 storm deaths could rise because of stifling conditions and generator fumes. Power was back for more than a million cus- tomers but lights— and air-conditioning — were still out for about 1.26 million homes and busi- nesses in seven states and the District of Columbia. The damage was done by powerful wind storms that swept from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic late Friday, toppling trees and branches into power lines and knocking out big transmission towers and electrical substations. Utilities were warning Utility crews work on but 1.26 million still without straight-line winds were just as destructive as any hurricane — but when a tropical system strikes, officials usually have sev- eral days to get extra per- sonnel in place. The eastern US finds Tuesday to file criminal charges against former U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson, saying he suffered a seizure that was responsible for a trio of traffic accidents. Authorities have said — At Ayd Hardware in Towson, a chalk sidewalk sign said in big letters ''YES/DRY ICE.'' That was enough to draw in Sheila Williams of the Lockhearn area of Balti- more County, who hap- pened to be driving by. ''I hate throwing all my food out. I'm trying to see if I can save some,'' Williams said Tuesday, adding she could use the ice to chill frozen meats that had begun to defrost at her house that still lacks power. ''I don't care about the ice cream and the other stuff, but the meat is the most expen- sive.'' Williams lives with six ways to cope TOWSON, Md. (AP) that many neighborhoods could remain in the dark for much of the week, if not beyond. Public offi- cials and residents were growing impatient. ''This has happened time after time and year after year, and it seems as if they're always unpre- pared,'' said John Mur- phy, a professional chauf- feur from Burtonsville, Md., who was waiting for Pepco to restore power Monday to the homes of himself and his mother and sister, who live near- by. day evening storms, called a derecho, moved quickly across the region with little warning. The RED BLUFF The wave of late Fri- Bryson's Lexus struck a car on June 9 that was stopped for a train near Los Angeles. He spoke briefly with the three occupants then hit the car again as he departed, police said. Bryson then rammed another vehicle a few minutes later. He was found unconscious in his vehicle. relatives that include her husband, her adult daugh- ter, two teenagers and two younger boys. ''They're sleeping on the floor, sleeping every- where trying to get some air,'' Williams said. ''We stay outside until it's dark and the mosquitoes eat us up.'' Vincent Ayd, who owns the hardware store, said 1,600 pounds of dry ice finally arrived Tues- day. Before, the sign said ''Sorry, no dry ice.'' Prosecutors won't charge Bryson LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors declined Tehama County CONTRACTORS GUIDE DAILYNEWS 2012 TEHAMACOUNTY Magazine-size print and online Distribution through Spring, 2013 Licensed contractors only. If you're a licensed contractor In Tehama County, your business name, Lic #, phone and specialty will be listed at no charge advertising is available In this directory! To add information and stand out from the crowd, low cost DEADLINE: TUE, JULY 10 Call your Daily News Advertising Representative For further information! (530) 527-2151 Bryson, 68, was cited by police for felony hit- and run, but tests reveal he didn't have any alco- hol or drugs in his sys- tem. Low amounts of Ambien were found in his bloodstream, but investi- gators couldn't determine if the sleep aid was a fac- tor in the collisions. ''Both treating doctors agree that suspect was suffering from confusion following a seizure and crashed as a result,'' court documents say. ''Based on doctors' opinions there is insufficient evi- dence to show knowing failure to provide person- al information for hit- and-run.'' Phone messages left for San Gabriel police and Bryson's wife, Louise, were not immedi- ately returned. Ruling casts uncertainty on coverage above the poverty line — are expected to be reached through Medicaid, and the federal government has generous subsidies to entice the states to come on board. That's not to say all of them will; Florida Gov. announced over the week- end that his state will opt out, and others will proba- bly follow. Rick Scott Car bomb in Mexico wounds 2 but they know it was under- handed and the bankers made money.'' FDA clears first over-the- counter test for millions WASHINGTON (AP) — Really? The Supreme Court's big health care decision means 30 million or more uninsured Ameri- cans are soon going to have coverage? It's far from that simple. way forward for millions who can't get affordable coverage because they've been sick, they're self- employed or they are oth- erwise shut out of the insurance plans that most Americans get in the workplace. But the path is clouded for millions more: the people on the bottom rungs of the economic lad- der who are supposed to be reached by a major expansion of Medicaid. Thanks to last week's ruling on President Barack Obama's overhaul, states can opt out of the expan- sion without fear that Washington will shut down all their federal Medicaid financing. And if some states do opt out, a lot of their residents are going to have to find another way to get cover- age, or continue to go without. The ruling does point a Mexico (AP) — A power- ful car bomb exploded out- side the home of the top police official of the north- ern Mexico border state of Tamaulipas early Tuesday, killing two policemen and injuring four officers and three civilians. Tamaulipas state Interior Secretary Morelos Canseco said Public Safety Secretary Rafael Lomeli wasn't injured in the blast, but that three neighbors were injured by glass fragments from shattered windows. Canseco said the attack appears to be a reprisal by criminal gangs. Almost a half-dozen car-bomb attacks have occurred in recent years Tamaulipas, where the Gulf cartel is bat- tling the rival Zetas gang, but it is the first bombing in the state to cause significant casualties. ''This attack is a response to the actions of the state and federal govern- ments to improve and ensure public safety,'' Canseco said. police CIUDAD VICTORIA, wounded officers is in very serious condition. Canseco said one of the Barclays' Bob Diamond for AIDS WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans will soon be able to test themselves in the privacy of their own homes for the virus that causes AIDS, now that the Food and Drug Administra- tion has approved the first rapid, over-the-counter HIV test. hometown of Mount Airy, N.C., and played his ''aw, shucks'' persona to such perfection that viewers easi- ly believed the character and the man were one. Griffith, 86, died Tues- day at his home along the coast, Dare County Sheriff Doug Doughtie. ''Mr. Griffith passed away this morning at his home peacefully and has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island,'' Doughtie told The Associ- ated Press, reading from a family statement. The OraQuick test detects the presence of HIV antibodies using a mouth swab and returns a result in 20 to 40 minutes. Government officials estimate that about 240,000 people, or one-fifth of the roughly 1.2 million people carrying HIV in the U.S., don't know they are infect- ed. Testing is a chief means of slowing new infections, which have held steady at about 50,000 per year for two decades. FDA officials said the test is designed for people who might not otherwise get tested. ''The availability of a home-use HIV test kit pro- vides another option for individuals to get tested so that they can seek medical care, if appropriate,'' said Dr. Karen Midthun, director of the FDA's Center for Bio- logics Evaluation and Research. Andy Griffith dies at 86 — It was all too easy to con- fuse Andy Griffith the actor with Sheriff Andy Taylor, his most famous character from ''The Andy Griffith Show.'' Roughly 15 million uninsured are expected to get private insurance through new exchanges — marketplaces to be set up in each state by 2014 — that will be shored up by the individual coverage requirement that helps cre- ate a big pool of con- sumers. That mandate, vital to the law, was upheld by the court. Another 15 million people or so — mainly adults with incomes just was a poster boy for corpo- rate arrogance, telling Par- liament last year that the time for bankers to apolo- gize had passed. Now Bob Diamond is just the latest victim of growing public anger at a British establishment they regard as greedy and ethi- cally challenged. Bankers, politicians and journalists have all felt the full force of the growing disdain at a time of economic troubles. The hard-driving CEO of Barclays bank resigned Tuesday, buckling under massive media pressure and a few none-too-subtle hints from top politicians that his days at the top should be numbered. In the few short days since Barclays was fined $453 million for its role in the LIBOR interest rate fix- ing scandal, Diamond, an American with a stratos- pheric pay package, came to symbolize everything wrong with international banking. ''He became a public takes the rap LONDON (AP) — He enemy,'' said George Jones, professor emeritus of gov- ernment at the London School of Economics. ''I think the media likes to have personalities they can make into villains. The pub- lic can understand that. They can't understand all this talk about LIBOR rates, namesake show in a make- believe town based on his RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) acknowledged some simi- larities between himself and the wise sheriff who over- saw a town of eccentrics, they weren't the same. Grif- fith was more complicated than the role he played — witnessed by his three mar- riages if nothing else. Although Griffith screenings LOS ANGELES (AP) — The new Spider-Man has launched with the same midnight magic as the old one. ''The Amazing Spider- 'Amazing Spider-Man' snares $7.5 million in midnight Man'' pulled in $7.5 mil- lion from its debut screen- ings Tuesday just after midnight. According to distributor Sony Pictures, that matches the amount that ''Spider-Man 3'' took in from its first midnight screenings in 2007 on the way to what was then a record $151.1 million opening weekend. After all, Griffith set his Midnight screenings generally have become bigger business since then, hitting a peak as fans shelled out $43.5 million for midnight shows of the ''Harry Pot- ter'' finale last summer.