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A revised Senate Republican health care bill will likely retain a pair of tax boosts President Barack Obama imposed on wealthier Americans that have helped finance his law's expansion of coverage, a leading Senate Republican said Tuesday.

The two levies one on investment income and another on the payroll tax that helps finance the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly are among the biggest that Obama's 2010 statute imposed. Some of the money would be used to increase a fund the GOP bill would disperse to states to help insurers contain consumers' premiums and deductibles, said No. 2 Senate GOP leader John Cornyn of Texas.

Preserving those taxes "seems to be where we're headed," Cornyn told reporters. He said the reworked bill will also provide $45 billion over a decade to help states combat abuse of drugs including opioids, and make it easier for states to get federal waivers to decide how to spend money under their Medicaid health programs for the poor, elderly and nursing home patients.

Cornyn spoke after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced he will introduce his party's altered health care bill Thursday and begin trying to muscle it through the Senate next week. The effort comes with the fate of the GOP measure in doubt, with internal divisions threatening to mortally wound their top-tier goal of repealing much of Obama's overhaul.

"Hopefully everything we're doing now helps another member get to 'yes,'" Cornyn said. "There's really no other reason to tweak this thing."

In the face of unanimous Democratic opposition, the health care bill will crash if just three of the 52 GOP senators oppose it. McConnell suddenly canceled a doomed vote last month on an initial version of the legislation, and at least a dozen Republicans have said they oppose the initial package or distanced themselves from it.

Since his June retreat, McConnell has been reshaping the measure in hopes of winning GOP votes. Even so, no GOP leaders were yet predicting passage.

McConnell also said he will delay the chamber's August recess for two weeks, a rare move he said would give lawmakers time to break logjams on health care, defense and executive branch nominations. Growing numbers of Republicans, chagrined at Congress' failure to send any major bills to President Donald Trump, had called on McConnell to make that move.

The GOP bill would ease coverage requirements Obama's 2010 statute placed on insurers, like paying for maternity services; erase his tax penalties on people who don't buy policies and cut Medicaid. The measure will also eliminate most of Obama's tax increases, including boosts on insurers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and medical device makers.

Obama's law has added around 20 million to the ranks of the country's people with health insurance. An analysis of McConnell's initial bill by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected it would increase the number of people without coverage by 22 million by 2026.

The updated legislation is also expected to ease some of its earlier Medicaid cuts, a move aimed at assuaging GOP senators from states that expanded the program by millions of people under Obama's law.

According to Cornyn, the refashioned GOP measure will probably keep Obama's 3.8 percent tax boost on investment income for couples earning over $250,000 annually. It would also retain a payroll tax increase of 0.9 percent on the same earners that helps finance Medicare.

Together, retaining the two levies would produce $231 billion over the next 10 years, according to Congress' nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

Republicans generally oppose tax boosts, and it was unclear whether preserving those tax increases would threaten support by any conservatives for the health bill. But Cornyn said some of the money perhaps around $50 billion would be used to buttress around $100 billion already in the measure for states to help insurers hold down insurance costs, and he said the move might help defend against Democratic attacks that the GOP package will help the rich and hurt the poor.

"We're trying to take at least one sharp stick off the table," Cornyn said. "I don't think it will change the narrative."

A study released Tuesday by two bipartisan groups estimated that the country's poorest families would lose more than $2,500 in average annual health care benefits once the GOP legislation was fully phased in. Families making more than $1 million a year would get tax cuts averaging about $50,000, according to the analysis by the Health Policy Center and the Tax Policy Center.

Still at issue is a plan by conservatives led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to let insurers sell low-price policies with bare-bones coverage if the company also sells a policy covering a list of services like maternity care that Obama's law mandates.

It's received pushback from GOP moderates warning it would inflate premiums for sicker people buying generous plans because younger, healthier customers would flock to skimpier policies. To ease the price boosts people with serious illnesses might face, some Republicans said changes were being discussed that would link the premiums insurers would charge for both types of coverage.

Associated Press reporters Erica Werner, Andrew Taylor and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.

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New GOP health bill likely keeping Obama tax boosts on rich ...

Former first ladyMichelle Obamais still in charge.

How many other non-sports stars could earn perhaps thebiggest applauseat WednesdaysESPY Awardsin Los Angeles?

After receiving a standing ovation upon being introduced, Obama gave a heartfelt speech as she presented the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage to Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, posthumously.

She knew that when we give others a chance to fulfill their greatest potential, we all win, Obama said, per The Hill.

Obama described how Shriver, a champion for people with intellectual disabilities,created the Special Olympicsin the 1960s and turned the event into a global phenomenon.

Through her passionate service she made the world more welcoming, Obama said. The former fab FLOTUS also got props for slaying in a cutout dressby Cushnie et Ochs.

We think Shrivers son, Tim, who accepted the award on her behalf, summed up Obamas presence best: Once a great first lady, still a great first lady.

Kevin Winter via Getty Images

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Michelle Obama Knocks It Out Of The Park At The ESPYs

Donations for former President Obama's presidential library have been open since January, and the cash is already rolling in.

On Friday, the Foundation's website released a list revealing millions of dollars in donations from a number of big-ticket donors, including the Microsoft corporation, Exelon, and top wealthy donors likeAnn andJohn Doerr.

According to the website, at least eight donors had given the foundation donations in excess of $1 million dollars.

An official with the Obama Foundationtoldthe Chicago Sun-Times that the organization would no longer follow self-imposed "restrictions" on donations now that Obama has left the White House.

While President Obama was still in office, the Obama Foundation applied self-imposed restrictions on its fundraising activity," an officialtoldthe newspaper.

"Now that the President is no longer in office, those restrictions no longer apply, but the Obama Foundation will continue to vet and publicly disclose all large contributions.

According to disclosures, the library raised more than $1.2 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2017.

The development of the Obama Center was announced in January. In May, the former president and first lady unveiled the designs for the building.

The Obama Foundation said the center, located near Chicago's historically African-American Woodlawn neighborhood, will revitalize the Jackson Park neighborhood by attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors and creating new jobs on the South Side.

More than a library or museum, it will be a living, working center for citizenship, Obama said in a video message in January. That's why we want to hear from you. Tell us what you want this project to be.

The Obama Foundation is run by the family's longtime friend Marty Nesbitt and former White House political director David Simas. The library, which is being built in Chicago, will cost $500 million and will be completed by 2021.

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Obama foundation raises millions from first corporate donors - The Hill

Six months into his administration, President Donald Trump has far fewer political appointees in place than his four predecessors, stoking discontent among senior members of his administration and those seeking action with the federal government.

Trump's four predecessors were at least three times faster than the current president at getting their nominees into their desks. Some 49 of Trump's key nominees have been confirmed as of Thursday, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan group that tracks more than 500 key appointments. That's compared to 201 for Barack Obama, 185 for George W. Bush, 196 for Bill Clinton and 148 or George H.W. Bush.

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What that means is entire wings of the government are largely devoid of Trump appointees -- with few of the president's aides setting policies, reviewing regulations, overseeing the bureaucracy or being available for meetings with advocates, lobbyists or others. On some key policy pushes like health care and taxes, policymaking is being run largely from the West Wing, partially because are few people at the agencies.

"I don't believe any prior president has done this fast enough, but this administration is far lagging every other administration," said Max Stier, who has advised transitions of both parties and runs the Partnership. "You're not exaggerating to say this is a big problem for them."

The White House has pinned much of the blame on Senate Democrats, accusing them of obstructing Trumps nominees as part of a broader attempt to thwart the presidents agenda. Democrats, however, point out that Trumps pace of nominating political appointees has been slower than his predecessors.

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Trump's team says there is a renewed effort in place to nominate picks more quickly, noting the administration now has 150 nominations in the queue waiting for a Senate hearing. "And there are a lot more in the pipeline," said Marc Short, the administration's legislative affairs director.

Short blamed Democrats for slowing many of the nominees with cloture votes -- or forcing 30 hours of debate and an up-and-down vote -- for nominees that are not controversial, including a judge this week who was eventually confirmed 100-0. Another pick was confirmed 97-3 after a cloture vote was called.

The administration has already faced 30 cloture votes. That's more than any Congress since 1949 other than in 2013, after Obama was re-elected, according to the Pew Research Center.

"They are trying to delay the legislative agenda," Short said of the Democrats. "Would it matter if we had 250 in a backlog instead of 150?"

Short said the administration planned to do a better job of reminding the American people that such jobs were important for the administration as they put together a policy agenda, cut regulations and oversee the vast federal government.

A different senior administration official said the White House would consider recess appointments "if necessary." This person said it took several months for some White House officials to realize "that appointments are such a big deal."

Democrats, for their part, are feeling little pressure to speed up any of Trump's nominees.

A senior Democratic aide said the party was deliberately delaying nominees because of the president's approach and policy agenda and would also continue to invoke the "two-hour rule," which keeps committees from meeting longer than two hours. This person said there was no benefit to having more of Trump's people in place.

"We are not going to consent to time agreements while Republicans are trying to jam through a health care bill," the aide said.

Matt House, a spokesman for Schumer, scoffed at Short's claims that the slowing of the picks would hurt the administration's broader agenda. "What legislative agenda?" he said.

Among close observers of Washington government and the lobbying community, Trumps nomination process has been perplexing and frustrating. It has been dominated by fights between cabinet secretaries and the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, divided by the White House factions and slowed by nominees with complicated ethics forms, which have led some to withdraw.

Schumer said on the floor last week that Trump had nominated picks slower than his predecessors, which is accurate, according to the Partnership for Public Service. Trump has named 206 nominees, while Obama had named 355, George W. Bush had named 313, Clinton had named 267 and George H.W. Bush had named 243.

"There has been a huge swath of federal policy where there were no political appointees at all," said Barry Bennett, a lobbyist and former Trump campaign aide. "There are finally some deputies to have meetings with, and it's getting better by the day."

A different lobbyist said the hiring slowdown had led to more headaches for West Wing aides, who receive the brunt of calls when agency officials aren't in place. "You go to these departments, and there literally is no one to talk to," this person said. "You call the White House, and they say, Oh, we don't have any of our people for you."

Matt Schlapp, a conservative activist close to the White House, said many Republicans are increasingly concerned about the openings -- and that many of the bureaucrats overwhelmingly oppose the president.

"Politically, they're doing a very good job of hobbling the president," Schlapp said of Democrats and the nominating process. "One of the reasons they've had all these leaks is they don't have appropriate control of their agencies, who feel like the parents have left and there is no babysitter."

Stier said the administration, in recent weeks, had piled up more nominees than the Senate can quickly handle. "Falling behind makes it really hard to catch up," he said.

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Trump badly lagging Obama, Bush, Clinton in political appointees - Politico

Using an algorithm they developed, researchers (Supasorn Suwajanakorn, Steven M. Seitz, Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman) from the University of Washington created this realistic video of President Obama from audio clips of his past speeches. (Published 6 hours ago)

Identifying "fake news" may have just gotten more difficult.

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an algorithm that can take an audio clip and convert it into an artificial video of someone speaking those words.

This week, the team behind the technology released a video of a synthesized President Obama that they created by pulling audio from his past speeches.

These type of results have never been shown before, said one of the researchers, Ira Kemelmacher-Shilzerman, in a statement.

This technology has been around for years, but past attempts yielded more robotic-looking looking results.

If you dont render teeth right or the chin moves at the wrong time, people can spot it right away and its going to look fake, Supasorn Suwajanakorn, another researcher on the project, said in a statement.

The team at University of Washington was able to overcome this by inputting hours of footage of Obama into a special computer system called a neural network. The network then tracked what shape his mouth made depending on which sound he made. Those mouth shapes were then superimposed onto an existing video of the Presidents face. This combination of tactics resulted in a more authentic simulation that takes into account Obamas distinct mannerisms.

While the developers behind this method think it could one day be used as a more efficient alternative to video chatting (streaming audio uses less bandwidth than streaming video), critics are concerned that the potential for abuse outweighs any positive outcomes.

It introduces a new question in viewers and voters minds as to whether what theyre watching is real or whether its created artificially, said Morley Winograd, a Senior Fellow at the University of Southern Californias Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy who studies the intersection of politics and technology in the information age. The last thing we need is more suspicion in our sources of information in our political world these days.

The researchers claim that a new algorithm to help determine whether a video is real or not could be developed by reversing their method and feeding video rather than audio into the neural network. But whether this would be effective in actually stopping the spread of rumors has yet to be determined.

Theres no regulatory scheme that I can think of that would be adequate for policing the internet, said Winograd.

Despite this, the researchers have already taken some precautions to try and ensure their technology will be not be used for sinister purposes.

We very consciously decided against going down the path of putting other peoples words into someones mouth, researcher Steve Seitz said in a statement. Were simply taking real words that someone spoke and turning them into realistic video of that individual.

Published 52 minutes ago

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Researchers Develop Ultra-Realistic Video Simulation of President Obama - NBC4 Washington