New conservative lobbying push for gay marriage

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A national group of prominent GOP donors that supports gay marriage is pouring new money into lobbying efforts to get Republican lawmakers to vote to make it legal.

American Unity PAC was formed last year to lend financial support to Republicans who bucked the party's longstanding opposition to gay marriage. Its founders are launching a new lobbying organization, American Unity Fund, and already have spent more than $250,000 in Minnesota, where the Legislature could vote on the issue as early as next week.

The group has spent $500,000 on lobbying since last month, including efforts in Rhode Island, Delaware, Indiana, West Virginia and Utah.

Billionaire hedge fund manager and Republican donor Paul Singer launched American Unity PAC. The lobbying effort is the next phase as the push for gay marriage spreads to more states, spokesman Jeff Cook-McCormac told The Associated Press.

"What you have is this network of influential Republicans who really want to see the party embrace the freedom to marry, and believe it's not only the right thing for the country but also good politics," Cook-McCormac said.

In Minnesota, the money has gone to state groups that are lobbying Republican lawmakers and for polling on gay marriage in a handful of suburban districts held by Republicans. So far, only one Minnesota Republican lawmaker has committed to voting to legalize gay marriage: Sen. Branden Petersen, of Andover.

"I think there will be some more. There are legislators out there that are struggling with this," said Carl Kuhl, a former political aide to former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer. Kuhl's public affairs firm is contracted by Minnesotans United, the lead lobby group for gay marriage in Minnesota and main recipient of American Unity's Minnesota spending.

Gay marriage's fate in Minnesota may rest with the House, where support is seen as shakier than in the Senate. A handful of votes from Republicans could put it over the top. Nearly two dozen House Republicans represent more socially moderate suburbs and might be candidates to vote yes.

House Speaker Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, said he has encouraged advocates of the marriage bill to round up Republican votes, if nothing else than to send a message to Minnesota residents that it's not a partisan proposition. But that will be politically risky; the main opposition group to same-sex marriage, Minnesota for Marriage, has said it will seek consequences for Republicans who stray on gay marriage.

Part of American Unity PAC's original mission was to spend money on behalf of Republican gay marriage supporters. Many GOP lawmakers have faced primary challenges funded in part by anti-gay marriage groups such as the National Organization for Marriage, which argue that the lawmakers had betrayed the party's core principles.

Since forming the lobby group last month, American Unity also spent money to win over Republican lawmakers in Rhode Island, where last week all five Republicans in the state Senate jumped on the gay marriage bandwagon. Rhode Island is on track to legalize gay marriage by next week, which would make it the 11th U.S. state where gay marriage is legal.

There are also plans to lobby federal lawmakers on gay rights issues.

"We intend to work on this effort until every American citizen is treated equally under the law," Cook-McCormac said. Other wealthy, traditionally Republican donors giving money to the group include Seth Klarman, David Herro and Cliff Asness.

Though only one current GOP officeholder in Minnesota is on record supporting gay marriage, a handful of prominent Republicans have spoken out in favor of it. They include former state auditor Pat Anderson and Brian McClung, who was spokesman for former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. ProminentRepublican donors including former politician Wheelock Whitney and businesswoman Marilyn Carlson Nelson have also lent support and donated money.

Since it first formed to campaign against last fall's gay marriage ban and then shifted to pushing for its legalization at the Capitol, Minnesotans United has been building Republican alliances, hiring multiple lobbyists with Republican ties.

Are $100,000 cancer drugs unethical?

A coalition of cancer researchers have had it with Big Pharma's expensive mark-ups

Life-saving cancer drugs help earn large pharmaceutical companies like Novartis billions of dollars annually — and doctors say enough is enough.

In a new study published online in the American Society of Hermatology's medical journal Blood, 120 cancer researchers are fighting back, claiming that Big Pharma's premium on cancer-fighting drugs are unsustainable, expensive, and unambiguously unethical.

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"As physicians, we follow the Hippocratic Oath of "Primum non nocer", first (or above all) do no harm," they write [PDF]. "We believe the unsustainable drug prices in CML [chronic myeloid leukemia] and cancer may be causing harm to patients."

Take Gleevec, for example, which CNN Money reports is widely heralded as a "miracle pill." Since 2001, it's been shown to dramatically increase a patient's chances of surviving CML, transforming it "from a lethal disease to one that is usually chronic but manageable." It's akin to taking daily medication for diabetes, and cost $30,000 a year when it first hit the market — which is pretty expensive as is.

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Then the price skyrocketed:

"We agree with those who say the price we have set for Gleevec is high. But given all the factors, we believe it is a fair price," Daniel Vasella, Novartis' CEO at the time, wrote in Magic Cancer Bullet, a 2003 book he penned about his company's wonder drug.

That "fair price" nearly tripled over the past decade. An annual course of Gleevec now wholesales for more than $76,000 in the U.S., according to Novartis. The retail price that patients or their insurers pay is typically much higher. [CNN Money]

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"If you are making $3 billion a year on Gleevec, could you get by with $2 billion?” Dr. Brian Druker, director of the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, tells the New York Times. "When do you cross the line from essential profits to profiteering?"

In 2012, Gleevec earned Novartis $4.7 billion — easily the company's best-selling drug ever. Big Pharma argues that high prices are necessary to fund the cost of research, development, manufacturing, and more. But a recent TIME cover story (subscription required) shows the toll that such logic has taken on the health care system, with a hard look at the exorbitant cost of medical bills. In addition to bankrupting families and sending them into debt, medical expenses now account for an estimated 20 percent of the United States' GDP — $2.8 trillion for 2013.

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"I am sure I am going to be blackballed," says Dr. Hagop Kantarjian, the Blood study's lead author and chairman of the leukemia department at the University of Texas' MD Anderson Cancer Center. "My research career will be hurt… [But] pharmaceutical companies have lost their moral sense."

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6 new details from the Boston carjacking victim's terrifying ordeal

And how a gas station's "cash only" policy might have saved his life

By now, most people have heard the basic details of this story:Boston bombing suspects Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, allegedly carjacked a Mercedes SUV, let the driver escape, and then were eventually confronted by police in Watertown, Mass., where Tamerlan died in a shootout and Dzhokhar escaped only to be caught later that evening.

But in the middle of that drama was the carjacking victim — a 26-year-old Chinese immigrant who is calling himself only "Danny." He sat down with Eric Moskowitz ofThe Boston Globe to share his story. Be sure to read the whole story at the Boston Globe. But in the meantime, a few of the most compelling details:

1. Tamerlan bragged about killing people
According to Danny, Tamerlan was proud of the devastation he had caused. He reportedly asked Danny if he had heard about the Boston Marathon bombings. When Danny said yes, Tamerlan replied, "I did that. And I just killed a policeman in Cambridge."

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2. Danny was saved by a "cash only" policy
Dzhokhar initially tried to pay for gas at the pump with a credit card, Danny says. After that failed,Dzhokhar knocked on the car window, told Tamerlan it was cash only, and walked away with $50 that Tamerlan had given him.

While waiting for Dzhokhar to return, Tamerlan put his gun in a door pocket to mess with the car's navigation device. That's when Danny ran:

I was thinking I must do two things: unfasten my seatbelt and open the door and jump out as quick as I can. If I didn't make it, he would kill me right out, he would kill me right away. I just did it. I did it very fast, using my left hand and right hand simultaneously to open the door, unfasten my seatbelt, jump out...and go. [The Boston Globe]

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4. The Tsarnaev brothers were frustrated by a lack of tunes
The Tsarnaev brothers reportedly flipped through a bunch of music stations on the radio before asking Danny if he had any CDs. Danny, it turns out, only listens to music on his phone, forcing the brothers to put on a CD that sounded "like a call to prayer."

5. Danny pretended to be less successful than he was
An immigrant from central China, Danny got his master's degree from Northeastern University and was working at a start-up in Kendall Square — which paid him enough to lease the Mercedes ML 350 that had just been carjacked. Danny, however, pretended his car was older than it was and cost less than it did in an attempt to make the Tsarnaevs think he didn't have any money.

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The brothers were reportedly upset that a man driving a $50,000 car had only $45 in his wallet. Later, they would force him to give up his ATM code so they could withdraw more cash.

6. Police had two ways to track the bombing suspects
After Danny sprinted across the street to a Mobil station, he made sure to tell police that he had left his iPhone in the Mercedes, which was also equipped with Mercedes' personal assistance system mbrace. Both of them could be used to track the car's location. Police soon found the suspects and killed Tamerlan in a shootout.

WATCH: Brave Boston bombing victim opens up about her leg amputation

The amputation is "what I needed to do," says Heather Abbott

Heather Abbott, one of the more than 260 victims injured in theBoston Marathon bombings, opened up about her recovery at apress conference on Thursday, saying her decision to amputate her left leg below the knee was "what I needed to do." Displaying a remarkable degree of stoicism and good cheer, the 38-year-old native of Providence, R.I., said that without the operation she would have been left with a "mangled" foot that may never have fully healed.

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Abbott fielded questions on an array of topics, from her memories of the blast ("I felt like my foot was on fire") to meeting Michelle Obama in the hospital ("She was a very nice lady"). But it was her courageous response to her life-altering injury that drew the most attention. "If someone had told me that I was going to have half a leg, basically, at the age of 38, before this happened, I think I would never have believed it, I think I would have been devastated," she said. "And I really haven't had a moment yet of being devastated, because I've gotten so much support."

Watch more of the press conference below:

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Taliban announce start of spring offensive

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban have announced they will launch their spring offensive on Sunday, signaling plans to step up attacks as the weather warms across Afghanistan, making both travel and fighting easier.

The statement comes toward the end of a month that already has been the deadliest of the year.

The militant group's leadership vowed on Saturday that "every possible tactic will be utilized in order to detain or inflict heavy casualties on the foreign transgressors," including suicide attacks on military bases and diplomatic areas.

The leadership also threated more so-called insider attacks by members of the Afghan security forcesagainst their colleagues or foreign troops. Such attacks threaten the strength of the Afghan forces as they work to take over responsibility from international troops. The latest one occurred in March, when a member of Afghanistan's government-backed militia program shot and killed five of his colleagues in Badghis province in northwest Afghanistan.

In a sign of Taliban's determination to replace Afghanistan's government with one promoting a stricter interpretation of Islamic law, they named their new offensive after a legendary Muslim military commander, Khalid ibn al-Walid. Also known as "the Drawn Sword of God," he was a companion of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Afghanistan's defense ministry responded by saying its security forces are prepared for Taliban's new campaign. "The Afghan National Army is ready to neutralize the offensive," the ministry said, adding that the soldiers now have the support and trust of many Afghans.

In another development, a NATO aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, and coalition forces were securing the site, the International Security Assistance Force said. Its brief statement provided no information about where the crash occurred or if there were casualties, but did say there was no indication it was downed by insurgents.

Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, deputy governor of the southern Zabul province, said a helicopter belonging to foreign forces crashed on Saturday afternoon in the district of Shah Joy. He confirmed that the site was surrounded by foreign forces but had no information on the cause of the crash or whether anyone was hurt or killed.

The new Taliban offensive comes as U.S.-backed efforts to try to reconcile the Islamic militant movement with the Afghan government have so far failed. Insurgents already have intensified attacks this spring as they try to position themselves for power ahead of national elections and the planned withdrawal of most U.S. and other foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

April has already been the worst month for combat deaths so far this year. According to an Associated Press tally, 257 people — including civilians, Afghan security forces and foreign troops — have been killed in violence around the nation. During that time 217 insurgents have died.

Last year during the month of April, 179 civilians, foreign troops and Afghan security forces were killed and 268 insurgents.

Still, the top U.S. commander in Kabul, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, said Wednesday that the security situation has improved across the country, with Afghan forces now leading 80 percent of all conventional operations.

"As the traditional fighting season begins, the insurgency will confront a combined " Afghan force of 350,000 soldiers and police, he said.

"The insurgency can no longer use the justification that it is fighting foreign occupiers — that message rings hollow," Dunford said in a statement.

Meanwhile, late on Friday, the Taliban freed nine civilian de-miners it had captured in the southern province of Kandahar after negotiations involving tribal elders, provincial spokesman Javeed Faisal said.

The Afghan men were being driven back from a minefield last Sunday when they were captured. Afghanistan has a legacy of land mines going back decades and remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

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AP writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.

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