10 things you need to know today: July 3, 2013

Dr. Martha Perez examines a patient at a Florida health clinic in February.

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. A KEY OBAMACARE PROVISION IS DELAYED

The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it was delaying a provision requiring large employers to provide health-care coverage for their workers next year. The rule now won't take effect until 2015, after the 2014 midterm elections. Republicans said the delay, urged by business leaders, proved ObamaCare wasn't working. Administration officials said they needed the extra time to help businesses by streamlining the steps they will have to take to prove they are complying. [Politico]

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Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane was grounded in Austria Tuesday over suspicion that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was on board. The jet, returning home from Moscow, was forced to land in Vienna after Portugal, France, Italy, and Spain refused to let it cross their airspace. Austrian authorities said Snowden did not appear to be on the plane. Bolivia said the U.S. had spread the "lie," saying Morales had been "kidnapped by imperialism." The jet left Vienna early Wednesday. [CNN, BBC News]

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi insisted he would not resign, defying a Wednesday deadline set by the military for coming up with a plan for reconciliation as protesters demand that he step down. "The price... is my life," Morsi said. The military chiefs, eager to restore order after an eruption of public anger at Morsi's Islamist policies, issued a statement saying that they, too, were willing to put their lives on the line against "terrorists and fools." [Reuters]

Federal fire investigators have arrived near the scene of the Arizona wildfire that killed 19 elite firefighters three days ago. On Wednesday, they plan to begin examining the area where the crew died. The surviving member of the team — the Granite Mountain Hotshots of Prescott, Ariz. — was a scout who warned the rest of the crew that violent wind gusts had steered the fire toward them, but they couldn't get out of its way. The massive blaze is still not contained. [USA Today]

The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday reaffirmed its conclusion that TWA Flight 800 exploded in 1996 due to faulty wiring that ignited a fuel tank. The announcement came ahead of the airing of a documentary that suggests a missile brought down the plane off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 people on board. Investigators said they had ruled out bombs or missiles during their four-year examination of the evidence, and they saw nothing new to suggest they were wrong. [Reuters]

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has apologized for telling Congress the National Security Agency does not collect data on millions of Americans. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA mined data from phone logs and internet communications. Clapper said in a letter posted on his office's website that his claim was "clearly erroneous." He said he meant that the government doesn't gather information on the content of the calls and emails. [ABC News]

Apple has hired Paul Deneve, CEO of luxury fashion house Yves St. Laurent, to work on special projects, reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. The move has some Apple watchers puzzled. Deneve did, however, work for the iPhone maker in Europe during the 1990s. His experience in high fashion also taught him how to sell products for premium prices — a pair of Yves St. Laurent women's shoes can fetch $625. [Bloomberg]

A Republican-controlled committee in the Texas House gave its approval to a proposal to impose tough new abortion restrictions early Wednesday, after limiting public testimony and refusing to consider Democratic amendments. The move sends the bill to the full House next week. Gov. Rick Perry is pushing his fellow Republicans to act quickly to pass it. He had to call a second special session after a filibuster by Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis ran out the clock in the last one. [Associated Press]

Federal authorities on Tuesday arrested a former Tiffany & Co. executive, Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, and accused her of taking jewelry out of the company's iconic Manhattan store and reselling it for $1.3 million. As a vice president for product development, she had authority to check out jewelry to show potential manufacturers. The company said Lederhaas-Okun, who left Tiffany in February, checked out 164 items, including diamond bracelets and rings. [CBS News]

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.

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