In brief: Vet’s mom wins cemetery battle

WASHINGTON – A Massachusetts mother who lost her only son in Iraq has won her nearly two-year fight for the right of parents like herself to be buried alongside their children in national veterans cemeteries.

“I’m elated,” Denise Anderson said in a phone interview Thursday. “I have peace in my heart now that I know I can be buried with him.”

Anderson was the driving force behind a bill that Congress approved on Wednesday to allow some parents of fallen soldiers to be buried next to their children in national military cemeteries.

The bill does not apply to burials at Arlington National Cemetery, which is maintained by the Army.

Under the bill, parents would be allowed burial space if their deceased veteran sons and daughters had no living spouse or minor children.

Grants awarded for state-based health insurance exchanges

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration Thursday awarded 49 grants to states and the District of Columbia to plan for new health insurance exchanges designed to help Americans shop for health plans beginning in 2014.

These state-based exchanges, a key foundation of the new health care law, are to become the central Internet-based marketplace for consumers who do not get health benefits at a work.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that the grants, each around $1 million, will help states begin designing these new systems and hiring staff.

Only Minnesota and Alaska, both of which earlier turned down grants designed to bolster state oversight of insurance premiums, did not apply for the grant.

Woman, escapees indicted by jury

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A federal grand jury has indicted two Arizona prison escapees and a woman who allegedly helped them escape on capital murder and carjacking charges in the New Mexico deaths of an Oklahoma couple.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales said Thursday that John Charles McCluskey, 45, Tracy Allen Province, 42, and Casslyn Mae Welch, 44, could face the death penalty if convicted. The three are accused in the murders of Gary and Linda Haas, of Tecumseh, Okla., whose remains were found with their burned-out recreational trailer near Santa Rosa, N.M.

McCluskey, Province and Welch face charges of conspiracy to commit carjacking, carjacking resulting in death, tampering with a witness, conspiracy and other crimes.

Prosecutors have said the Haases were taken to a remote ranch where they were shot, and the trailer was set on fire Aug. 2.