WASHINGTON
Fewer pay health law penalty
About 6.5 million Americans paid an average penalty of $470 for not having health insurance in 2015 — 20 percent fewer than the year before, according to data released Tuesday by the IRS. The IRS collected $3 billion, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in a letter to members of Congress. The individual mandate is the most unpopular part of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, surveys show, and both Republican congressional leaders and the incoming Trump administration have pledged to repeal it.
WASHINGTON
Security flaw in heart devices
The Homeland Security Department warned Tuesday about an unusual cybersecurity flaw for one manufacturer’s implantable heart devices that it said could allow hackers to remotely take control of a person’s defibrillator or pacemaker. St. Jude Medical, made a software repair available Monday. The government advisory said security patches will be rolled out automatically over months to patients with a device transmitter at home. The transmitters send heart device data back to medical professionals. Abbott Laboratories’ St. Jude said in a statement it was not aware of deaths or injuries caused by the problem.
WASHINGTON
Drawing is back in Capitol
A high school student’s painting of Ferguson, Mo., with the image of a pig in a police uniform aiming a gun at a protester is back on the wall on Capitol Hill. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., rehung the painting on Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker found it offensive and removed it. Joined by several lawmakers, including other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Clay said returning the painting was about defending the Constitution.
BISMARCK, N.D.
Pipeline watch costs millions
The cost of policing the Dakota Access pipeline protests in North Dakota has surpassed $22 million — an amount that would fund the state Treasury Department for two decades and $5 million more than the state set aside last year, state lawmakers said.
Compiled from wire reports.