ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Sen. Charles Schumer says a change in a massive Medicaid bill in Washington will save New York $1 billion.

Gov. David Paterson has said the change is critical as the state addresses projected multibillion dollar deficits.

Schumer pushed for the change that would increase the reimbursement New York and 11 more states get from the federal government for Medicaid coverage of the poor.

Currently, the state gets 50 percent back, but under the agreement announced Thursday the reimbursement will rise to 75 percent in 2014 and 93 percent five years later.

The reconciliation bill is the result of negotiations from an original bill to an agreement between the House and Senate.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fess Parker, a baby-boomer idol in the 1950s who launched a craze for coonskin caps as television's Davy Crockett, died Thursday of natural causes. He was 85.

Family spokeswoman Sao Anash said Parker, who was also TV's Daniel Boone and later a major California winemaker and developer, died at his Santa Ynez Valley home. His death comes on the 84th birthday of his wife of 50 years, Marcella.

"She's a wreck," Anash said, adding Parker was coherent and speaking with family just minutes before his death. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

The first installment of "Davy Crockett," with Buddy Ebsen as Crockett's sidekick, debuted in December 1954 as part of the "Disneyland" TV show.

The 6-foot, 6-inch Parker was quickly embraced by youngsters as the man in a coonskin cap who stood for the spirit of the American frontier. Boomers gripped by the Crockett craze scooped up Davy lunch boxes, toy Old Betsy rifles, buckskin shirts and trademark fur caps. "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" ("Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee...") was a No. 1 hit for singer Bill Hayes while Parker's own version reached No. 5.

The first three television episodes were turned into a theatrical film, "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier," in 1955.

CANTON — A Potsdam couple is accused of receiving $104,356 in day care funds they were not entitled to from the St. Lawrence County Department of Social Services.

Scott Turner, 38, and his wife, Sonya, 28, were each charged Thursday with second-degree welfare fraud and three counts of lying on the application to receive the benefits, St. Lawrence County district attorney investigators said.

The couple allegedly received the payments from 2006 to 2009.

Both were arraigned in Town Court before Judge William J. Galvin and released under probation supervision.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Conservative Democrat Steve Levy will run for governor as a Republican.

Campaign spokeswoman Rene Babich says Levy plans to make an announcement Monday in Albany.

Levy had run on the Democratic, Republican, Conservative and Independence lines in his successful re-election bid for county executive.

Republican candidate Rick Lazio says he's still confident he will win Republican and Conservative support. Lazio has secured many endorsements by local GOP and Conservative leaders. His campaign calls Levy a liberal, for once serving in the Democrat-controlled Assembly, and a turncoat.

The presumptive front-runner for the Democratic nomination is Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, but he has yet to say if he's running.

AURORA, N.Y. (AP) — Animal welfare crews are removing 73 horses and 26 cats from an upstate New York farm after finding them living in filthy conditions.

SPCA spokeswoman Gina Browning says none of the animals look severely underweight or dehydrated. But she says some have minor injuries, most are filthy and feces was found in their food and water.

Investigators also say one of the suburban Buffalo horse farm's three barns appears to be unsteady, with open walls covered with blue tarps.

More than 15 SPCA employees, along with East Aurora police, went to the farm Thursday after receiving a search warrant.

Browning says it's too early to say whether the farm's owner will be charged.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are pushing to the brink of passage a landmark, $940 billion health care overhaul bill that would simultaneously deliver on President Barack Obama's promise to expand coverage while slashing the deficit, a strategy aimed at winning over the party's fiscal conservatives.

Leaving nothing to chance, the White House announced that Obama has put off his planned trip to Asia for a second time, delaying it until June. Obama was to have left Sunday — when the House is planning to vote.

Said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "He wants to be here for the history."

The 10-year plan would provide coverage to 32 million people now uninsured through a combination of tax credits for middle class households and an expansion of the Medicaid program for low income people. Release of the legislation later Thursday sets the stage for a House vote on Sunday, and Democrats have already signaled they plan to go it alone, without Republican support. The GOP has steadfastly opposed Obama's plan from the outset.

It would restructure one-sixth of the economy, covering 95 percent of eligible Americans, in the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare was created in 1965. It would also impose new obligations on individuals and businesses, requiring for the first time that most Americans carry health insurance and penalizing medium-sized and large companies that don't provide coverage for their workers.

Hospitals and doctors, drug companies and insurers would gain millions of new paying customers, but they would also have to adjust to major changes. Medicare cuts would force hospitals to operate more efficiently or risk going out of business, but seniors would see the coverage gap in their prescription benefits gradually eliminated. Insurance companies would face unprecendented federal regulation. Health care industries would be hit with new federal taxes. Upper-income households would face a new tax on investment earnings.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over its first 10 years, and continue to drive down the red ink thereafter. Democratic leaders said the deficit would be cut $1.2 trillion in the second decade— and Obama called it the biggest reduction since the 1990s, when President Bill Clinton put the federal budget on a path to surplus.

"This is but one virtue of a reform that would bring accountability to the insurance industry and bring greater economic security to all Americans," Obama said. "So I urge every member of Congress to consider this as they prepare for their important vote this weekend."

Four Fort Drum pilots that were killed in Iraq in January 2009 were buried together Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

Chief Warrant Officer Philip E. Windorski, Chief Warrant Officer Joshua M. Tillery, Chief Warrant Officer Matthew G. Kelley and Chief Warrant Officer Benjamin H. Todd were on a reconnaissance mission when they were downed by enemy fire about two miles south of Kirkuk. All four pilots were with the 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade.

NEW YORK (AP) — Law enforcers are seeking a gunman who minds his manners while sticking up suburban New York banks.

FBI spokesman James Margolin says the courteous crook has thanked tellers while holding them at gunpoint. He's also wished them a nice day while making his getaway.

Authorities suspect he's robbed six banks in Westchester County and one in Putnam County since January. They say he has at least one accomplice.

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A 22-year-old Brooklyn man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for slamming an upstate New York police officer's head into the pavement during an arrest.

Paris Smith apologized to the officer during his sentencing Wednesday in Oneida County Court.

Smith pleaded guilty to assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal sale of a controlled substance.

The charges stemmed from a confrontation last July 14 on a Utica street, where Sgt. Charles Kelly attempted to take Smith into custody during a drug investigation.

Authorities say Smith punched Kelly and slammed his head on the ground, knocking him unconscious. Kelly needed 12 stitches to close a laceration on his head.

Police say onlookers were cheering on Smith during the attack.