WASHINGTON -- The federal government's tab for hurricane relief and rebuilding efforts is likely to cost less than $150 billion, Congress' top budget analyst said yesterday, an amount significantly less than original guesstimates tossed about in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin told the House Budget Committee that his agency now estimates damage to homes, government buildings, oil refineries and businesses will total between $70 billion and $130 billion.
Those figures don't include the immediate relief and rescue efforts, which have been paid for out of the $62 billion Congress has already approved.
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A 27-year-old woman who is a defiant critic of Afghanistan's powerful warlords won one of the first seats declared yesterday in provisional results from landmark parliamentary elections, a key step in the nation's transition to democracy.
"I'm very happy and thankful for Afghan men and women who voted for me," said Malalai Joya, a women's rights worker from Farah, who won one of her province's five seats in the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, or National Assembly.
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- A tour boat that capsized, killing 20 elderly tourists, was never subjected to stability tests after modifications that increased its weight because state boating regulations don't require them, a federal official said yesterday.
State rules also allowed the operators of the Ethan Allen to store the boat's life jackets in a locker, even though that prevented passengers from getting to them easily, said Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
When the Ethan Allen flipped over Sunday in the calm waters of Lake George, none of its 47 passengers or the captain was wearing a life jacket. Rosenker said some survivors probably grabbed the orange vests as they popped to the surface.
WASHINGTON -- A consultant to a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has resigned in protest of the agency's handling of the Plan B contraceptive.
Dr. Frank Davidoff, editor emeritus of the Annals of Internal Medicine, said the agency is ignoring science in favor of politics in delaying approval of the drug for over-the-counter sales.
He was a member of the FDA's Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee when it voted to approve Plan B for over-the-counter sales in 2003, and had served as a consultant to the committee since his term ended earlier this year.
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