TESTIMONY ON EDWARDS’ WIFE HEARING OF AFFAIR: GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A former adviser to John Edwards recounted Wednesday how the former presidential candidate's now-deceased wife indignantly confronted her husband, baring her chest in front of staff members the day after a tabloid reported that he was cheating on her.
During a session at Edwards' corruption trial that saw his 30-year-old daughter flee the courtroom in tears, Christina Reynolds described how a very upset Elizabeth Edwards stormed away from her husband in October 2007, then collapsed in a ball on the pavement outside a private airplane hangar. Reynolds and another woman guided the anguished wife into a nearby ladies room to compose herself, but she soon returned to the private hangar to again confront her husband.
In front of several staff members, the woman who had endured grueling treatments for breast cancer took off her shirt and bra, exposing her chest.
"'You don't see me anymore,'" Reynolds quoted Elizabeth Edwards as screaming. "He didn't have much of a reaction."
As staffers scrambled to cover up Edwards' wife and huddle her into a car, Reynolds heard the Democratic candidate use a cell phone to call his wife's doctor to ask for help.
Edwards then boarded a waiting jet and took off for his scheduled appearance in South Carolina, Reynolds said.
ATTORNEY: CUSTOMS AGENT DIRECTED TRUCKER TO MEXICO: EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The lawyer for a Texas trucker who claims he made a wrong turn before taking ammunition into Mexico said Wednesday that a U.S. customs agent directed his client to cross the border, an account that contradicts what agency officials have said.
Javin Bogan was arrested April 17 when he tried to enter Mexico carrying 268,000 rounds of ammunition. He claims that he took a wrong turn after the second of his four stops of the day and was on his way to a West El Paso medical supplies company when he found himself at the bridge, unable to turn back.
Bogan's El Paso attorney Carlos Spector said at a news conference Wednesday that Bogan told him by phone that a Customs and Borders Protection officer told him to continue across the bridge.
POLICE: 5 DEAD IN SHOOTING AT PHOENIX-AREA HOME: GILBERT, Ariz. (AP) — Five people died in a shooting Wednesday at a Phoenix-area home, where the investigation is being slowed by concerns there could be hazardous materials in 55-gallon drums in the backyard.
The shooter is among the dead, police said, although they're not yet certain whether he killed himself. Police haven't identified him or the victims.
The bodies — including that of a toddler — are still in the home in the city of Gilbert southeast of Phoenix. Officials are testing an unknown liquid in drums in the backyard as a precautionary measure.
At a briefing for reporters, Gilbert police Sgt. Bill Balafas said all the evidence points to the shooting being related to domestic violence. He didn't elaborate. Officers have recovered two handguns and a shotgun.
107 CHARGED IN MEDICARE FRAUD BUSTS IN 7 CITIES: MIAMI (AP) — Federal authorities charged 107 doctors, nurses and social workers in seven cities with Medicare fraud Wednesday in a nationwide crackdown on unrelated scams that allegedly billed the taxpayer-funded program of $452 million — the highest dollar amount in a single Medicare bust in U.S. history.
It was the latest in a string of major arrests in the past two years as authorities have targeted fraud that's believed to cost the government between $60 billion and $90 billion each year. Stopping Medicare's budget from hemorrhaging that money will be key to paying for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder partnered in 2009 to increase enforcement by allocating more money and staff and creating strike forces in fraud hot spots.
On Wednesday, hundreds of federal agents fanned out around the country, raiding businesses, seizing documents and charging 107 suspects in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, Detroit, Chicago, Tampa, Fla., and Baton Rouge, La. The government suspended payment to 52 providers as part of the investigations.
