Wednesday, July 26, 2006; A05

Postal Service Spokesman Resigns

Azeezaly S. Jaffer, the U.S. Postal Service's top spokesman, has left the agency under a cloud.

Jaffer left his post unexpectedly June 30. He has declined to discuss his reasons for leaving or accusations against him.

A longtime head of the Postal Service's stamp section, Jaffer was in charge of public affairs when he left.

A Postal Inspection Service report dated June 19 includes accusations of Jaffer running up an excessive $8,252 hotel bill at a three-day event in Washington, bypassing the Postal Service travel agency to obtain travel promotional benefits, and spending extravagantly on meals and drinks.

The report also included allegations of excessive drinking, using crass language in mixed company and commenting on the appearance of female co-workers.

It will cost billions of dollars to forestall congressionally mandated cuts in Medicare payments to doctors, but the perennial override is necessary to ensure that patients receive the health care they need, lawmakers said yesterday at a hearing.

A program created in 1997 to put the brakes on federal Medicare spending sets annual and cumulative spending targets for physician reimbursements. When spending increases exceed economic growth, payments to doctors are supposed to be cut.

Under the system, payments to doctors would have to be cut by 5 percent a year through 2016 to meet program spending targets, according to federal estimates.

Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) said that the mandated cuts system is "fatally flawed" and that "it's time we start writing its obituary today."

Even though the law requires reductions in doctor payments when the target is missed, Congress has been reluctant to allow those cuts to go through. The last cut in doctors' fees -- 4.8 percent -- was in 2002.

Since then, Congress has rejected the mandated reductions and allowed small increases in payments. The same is likely to happen this year.

Global warming puts 12 of the most famous U.S. national parks in the West at risk, environmentalists said yesterday, conjuring up visions of Glacier National Park without glaciers and Yellowstone Park without grizzly bears.

Temperatures have risen twice as fast in the West as in the rest of the country over the past 50 years, said Theo Spencer of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"Rising temperatures, drought, wildfires and diminished snowfalls endanger wildlife and threaten hiking, fishing and other recreational activities" in the parks, Spencer said at a news conference. "Imagine Glacier Park without glaciers or Yellowstone without any grizzly bears."

The report released by the council and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization stressed the connection between global warming and environmental damage at the parks, including the loss of specific wildlife, and called on the U.S. government to cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly in 10 years.

Glaciers and ice caves have melted in North Cascades and Mount Rainier parks, and mountaintops in Western parks could be snow-free in summer within decades, said Stephen Saunders of the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.

The number of illegal immigrants caught trying to sneak into the United States from Mexico has dropped since President Bush ordered 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, the head of the Border Patrol said yesterday.

Border Patrol chief David V. Aguilar reported a 45 percent decline in the number of people arrested along the U.S.-Mexican border, when comparing the 69 days before Bush's mid-May announcement with the 69 days after.

That is a much greater decline than normally seen in the summer months, officials said, and they surmise that part of the reason is because fewer people are trying to enter the country because they are discouraged by the increase in efforts against them.

Immigrant rights advocates think the migrants may just be shifting entry points, crossing at more remote and dangerous areas.

-- From News Services