Across the Nation

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — A couple who authorities say performed liposuction in the basement of a home were charged Monday with practicing medicine without a license after a female patient died.

Luiz Carlos Ribeiro, 49, a native of Brazil, and Ana Maria Miranda Ribeiro, also 49, pleaded not guilty to the unauthorized practice of medicine and drug charges at their arraignment.

Luiz Ribeiro was ordered held on $250,000 bail while his wife was held on $50,000 bail. Both were ordered to surrender their passports. Neither had yet obtained an attorney, according to the district attorney’s office.

Just last week, the husband taped an interview for a local cable-access television show to warn against seeking medical care from unlicensed professionals, said Ilma Paixao, who conducted the interview.

"That would be the last person that I would think would do something like that,” said Paixao, former president of the Brazilian American Association in Framingham, which has a significant Brazilian population.

The couple are accused of performing an illegal liposuction on Fabiola DePaula, 24, of Framingham, who died Sunday after being taken unconscious to a local hospital.

Autopsy results will not be known for several days, and charges could be upgraded, District Attorney Martha Coakley said.

Texas GOP asks appeal court for new candidate to replace Tom DeLay

NEW ORLEANS — Texas Republicans asked a federal appeals court on Monday to let them replace former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on the November congressional ballot, but Democrats argued that Texas state law requires keeping DeLay as the GOP candidate.

DeLay won a March primary before resigning from Congress in June amid a growing scandal. He is awaiting trial on money laundering and conspiracy charges connected to the financing of Texas legislative campaigns in 2002 with alleged illegal corporate money.

Barring catastrophic illness or other extreme circumstance, there is no legal way to replace Delay, Democratic Party attorney Chadd Dunn told a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"It’s a high bar, the Republican party has to get over,” Dunn said.

James Bopp, arguing for Texas Republican officials, said the party should choose the candidate.

"The Democratic Party does not represent the voters in the Republican primary,” Bopp said.

Republicans want to honor DeLay’s June 9 resignation and pick another nominee to face Democrat Nick Lampson in November. Democrats sued to keep DeLay on the ballot so they could make the indicted former House majority leader their symbol for claims that the Republicans are corrupt.

A federal judge ruled in early July that DeLay’s name had to stay on the ballot even though he quit Congress and moved to Virginia.

Republicans appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Texas Republican Party chairwoman Tina Benkiser says she should be permitted to declare DeLay "ineligible” as a candidate because he moved to Virginia, allowing the party to pick a new candidate.

Democratic Party lawyers argued that it couldn’t be shown conclusively whether DeLay would or would not be an "inhabitant” of Texas on Election Day. They argued he could be living in Texas that day and be eligible to serve under the U.S. Constitution. DeLay’s wife, Christine, still lives in the DeLays’ house in Sugar Land, just outside Houston.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said that if he adopted the Republicans’ argument, then either political party could change candidates after a primary election merely by declaring a candidate ineligible based on a move.

"This would be a serious abuse of the election system and a fraud on the voters, which the court will not condone,” wrote Sparks, a Democrat appointed by Republican former President George Bush.

Texas law allows a political party to replace a candidate if he or she dies, becomes medically incapacitated or becomes ineligible for office. If the candidate simply "withdraws” from the race after winning his or her primary, a new candidate cannot be chosen.<