Washington: Democrat pans Bush on prescription drugs

President Bush has not done enough to ensure that all older Americans receive enough money to cover the expensive prescription drugs so many must purchase, a Democratic senator said Saturday.

In his party’s weekly radio address, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia said Bush promised money for all seniors while a candidate.

He hasn’t made good, Rockefeller said.

“Even though costs are rising, President Bush proposed even less funding for prescription drugs than Congress approved last year,” he said.

The administration is touting its revised plan to promote private drug discount cards as a much-needed step toward helping seniors save money on prescriptions.

But Rockefeller said the plan won’t help enough seniors and that many wouldn’t realize significant savings.

Wisconsin: Jury rules mother enslaved her daughter

The mother of a 9-year-old girl faces the possibility of more than 200 years in prison for treating her daughter as a virtual slave  beating her for months because she couldn’t clean or cook properly.

A Madison jury on Friday found Olga Jaramillo, 27, guilty of 17 criminal charges, including 10 counts of child abuse and three counts of false imprisonment.

The woman showed little reaction when told of the verdicts by a Spanish language court interpreter.

Authorities said the abuse occurred from October 2000, after the girl moved from Mexico to live with her mother in Madison, to April 9, 2001, when police found the child jammed under a bed, her body full of bruises.

The child, now in foster care, testified that she was tied up, beaten with a belt and a hanger, choked, slapped, pinched, stabbed with a pencil and burned with a hot pan.