Sunday, May 5, 2013

Dick Durbin brings Boston into the immigration debate

Senate majority whip Dick Durbin is trying to frame the upcoming immigration debate in the context of the Boston bombings. They would be prevented if the attacks happened after the bill is adopted, he argued on CNN's State of the Union. Durbin said better information exchanging between federal agencies could have helped tip off authorities to the Tsarnaev brothers' activities before the attacks were carried out and that the Senate's immigration bill fixes that. "There?s not enough coordination between these different agencies so that we know someone should not have been readmitted to the United States," Durbin said. "Our bill addresses that directly." He also briefly touched on the failed gun background check bill. He called it "sound policy" and said he hopes it gets brought back to the Senate soon, but cautioned a "change in political sentiment" would be required before it could pass. "We need to pick up five more votes, and that?s quite a task I might add as whip in the Senate," Durbin said.

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Sen. John McCain thinks the immigration bill should maybe address people who overstay their international visas after it was revealed one of the three friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev arrested this week stayed in the country after his visa expired. "Shouldn?t we have procedures to also track down those people and enforce the laws of, when visas expire people should leave?" McCain asked on Fox News Sunday. "On the immigration reform bill, we should be looking at some of these issues as well." McCain is a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight senators who drafted the original bill. McCain also said he hasn't seen a "coherent plan" for closing Guantanamo Bay yet. "There has been no coherent plan presented to the Congress ?of, what we do with these individuals? And one of them is not to send them back into the fight where they can kill more Americans," McCain said.

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Sen. Patrick Leahy told NBC's Meet the Press he thinks the immigration bill has a good chance of passing. "I think it can," Leahy said. "I think the so-called Gang of Eight ? four Democrats, four Republicans, across the political spectrum ? deserve an enormous amount of credit. And I think we can get it passed." The Senate will hold a "markup" on the bill this week, and Leahy said he's going to propose a provision to include same-sex couples. Leahy doesn't think adding that would kill the bill. "We?ve had about 10 different things that people have said will kill it," he said. "The fact is a lot of people want to kill the immigration bill no matter what. We will have votes on this. People can vote for or against any one of these amendments."

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Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani praised the Boston bombing investigation and said people shouldn't be surprised by homegrown terrorism during his appearance on Meet the Press. "I think the investigation since the time of the bombing has been excellent," Giuliani said. "I think that unfortunately there?s an awful lot of signals that were missed before then." Giuliani compared the Boston bombings to the London terror attacks to explain why we shouldn't be surprised the suspects didn't come from away. "We shouldn?t claim surprise. This has been going on since 2005, 2006. I mean, the attack in London in 2005 was homegrown terrorists in London," he said.

Sen. Peter King is hesitant to arm the Syrian rebels because he fears doing so could strengthen Al Qaeda, he said on State of the Union. "Al Qaeda elements have a lot of control within the rebel movement," King said. "Whatever arming we do ? obviously [Syrian President Bashar] Assad is evil, and everyone?s interested he go. But if we are going to arm the rebels, we have to make sure that those arms are not going to end up in the position of Al Qaeda supporters, nor at the end game is Al Qaeda going to be in a position to take over this movement."

Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson thinks we could be heading towards a Joe Biden vs. Hillary Clinton grudge match for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Yep, Richardson said on ABC's This Week that Biden won't just step aside if Clinton decides to run. He'll stick with it and lose honorably, instead. (Just kidding, Joe, you'll put up a fight.) "I think he would run," Richardson said. "Hillary Clinton would be formidable, no question about it. But I?ve known Biden over the years. He is somebody who's always wanted to be president. He?s got the eye of the tiger. He?s going to all of these events. You see it in the speeches. I was with him Friday morning. I think there could be a faceoff." But don't let his guessing about Biden make you think he doesn't know the uphill battle the Vice President would face should that fight happen. "Obviously, Secretary Clinton is a formidable candidate, who not only is appealing to the Democratic base, but is appealing to a Republican base that acknowledges the great work she did as secretary of State."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dick-durbin-brings-boston-immigration-debate-180548185.html

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Small Wash. school closes because of nice weather

SEATTLE (AP) ? In a sun-deprived part of Washington state, the promise of nice spring weather prompted a small private school to give students a day off to enjoy the sunshine.

Friday is a "sun day" of sorts for the 205 students at Bellingham Christian School, a small, private, nondenominational Christian school in Bellingham, Wash., about 90 miles north of Seattle.

"SCHOOL CANCELLED DUE TO GREAT WEATHER! WAHOOO!" the school's website announced Thursday night. "Yeah! It's a Sun Day today and everyone gets the day off from school."

Principal Bob Sampson said he wanted to give students some time to re-energize and enjoy the weather, adding that he wanted to re-create the excitement snow days get among the kids. He began teasing the possibility of giving the day off earlier in the week.

"In a world that's got a lot hard things going, it's fun to create a moment of joy," Sampson said.

The forecast for Western Washington calls for a weekend of sunshine, with highs hitting the low 80s in some parts of the region on Sunday.

The sun day was also made possible because there weren't any days off because of snow this school year.

"Kids just love the anticipation of sitting around see if school is canceled when it snows," he said. "You know, we haven't had any snow days, so I thought 'how fun would it be to create that anticipation for kids when it's nice out?'"

Sampson surveyed parents to make sure the day off wouldn't cause any hardships and floated the idea with the school board before canceling school, he said. The 22 staff members will also get the day off, he added.

Sampson and another staff member will be at the school bright and early, though, to welcome any students who didn't get the notice.

The principal asked students to take pictures of what they do on their sunny day off. He plans to show the pictures at an assembly Monday.

It's not the first time the school has given students the day off because of sunshine. The last time was two years ago.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/small-wash-school-closes-because-nice-weather-133113709.html

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How GLAAD Won the Culture War and Lost Its Reason to Exist (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Kerry phones China over dissident's nephew, can't reach minister

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tried calling Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to discuss the imprisoned nephew of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng but Wang was not available, the State Department said on Friday.

Wang was said to be in Singapore on Friday for meetings with senior officials there. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told reporters Kerry had tried to call Wang Thursday and would follow up.

Asked if he thought it odd that Wang was not available to speak to Washington's top diplomat, Ventrell suggested there was nothing unusual in Kerry's failure to connect with Wang.

"Sometimes it's time differences or travel," Ventrell said. "Sometimes it takes us a little while to connect with a foreign minister."

Kerry wants to discuss the case of Chen Kegui, who the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said had been diagnosed with appendicitis and "urgently needs effective medical care." The group said to its knowledge, Chen had not been offered surgery for the condition.

Chen was sentenced to more than three years in jail in November after a trial the United States described as "deeply flawed" and that rights activists suspect was in retaliation for his blind uncle's escape from house arrest.

Chen was charged after using knives to fend off local officials who burst into his home on April 27, 2012, the day after they discovered his uncle had escaped from 19 months of harsh house arrest in eastern Shandong province and fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Chen Guangcheng's decision to take refuge in the U.S. Embassy was deeply embarrassing for China and led to a diplomatic tussle between the two nations before China allowed him to fly to the United States with his wife and child.

Ventrell said on Thursday that Washington was concerned about reports Chen Kegui had been mistreated in prison.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-phones-china-over-dissidents-nephew-cant-reach-001911709.html

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Saturday, May 4, 2013

California wildfire grows to 43 square miles

Firefighters from Riverside, Calif. work to extinguish a brush fire at Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. A Southern California wildfire carving a path to the sea grew to more than 15 square miles and crews prepared Friday for another bad day of gusting winds and searing weather. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Firefighters from Riverside, Calif. work to extinguish a brush fire at Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. A Southern California wildfire carving a path to the sea grew to more than 15 square miles and crews prepared Friday for another bad day of gusting winds and searing weather. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A firefighter keeps watch as the wildfire burns along a hillside in Point Mugu , Calif. Friday, May 3, 2013. Firefighters got a break as gusty winds turned into breezes, but temperatures remained high and humidity levels are expected to soar as cool air moved in from the ocean and the Santa Ana winds retreated. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Fire trucks keep an eye on a burned structure at the Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) at Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. The 15 1/2-square-mile blaze was only 10 percent contained on Friday, and the work of more than 900 firefighters, aided by air tankers, was just beginning. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A firefighter carries tools down a burned hill after a wildfire in Point Mugu on Friday, May 3, 2013. A huge wildfire carved a path to the sea and burned on the beach Friday, but firefighters got a break as gusty winds turned into breezes. Temperatures remained high, but humidity levels were expected to soar as cool air moved in from the ocean and the Santa Ana winds retreated. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A resident waters the burned area next to his home in Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. A huge wildfire carved a path to the sea and burned on the beach Friday, but firefighters got a break as gusty winds turned into breezes. Temperatures remained high, but humidity levels were expected to soar as cool air moved in from the ocean and the Santa Ana winds retreated. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

(AP) ? It seemed that each time wind-driven embers sparked new blazes or a wall of fire leaped a Southern California hillside and came charging toward hundreds of homes, an army of firefighters was right there to either douse or direct the flames away from humanity.

As a result, the fire that broke out Thursday quickly moved through the Camarillo Springs area without destroying a single home.

Firefighters were hoping for the same success on Friday, as the fire raged out of control miles away near the coast.

Fifteen structures in the area 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles sustained some damage, and other homes in a wooded area were being threatened Friday by the blaze that had roared across 43 square miles. Some 900 firefighters using engines, aircraft, bulldozers and other equipment had it just 20 percent contained. Since daybreak, the fire has nearly tripled in size.

"That's the way this fire has behaved, it has been a very fast-moving, feisty fire," said Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash.

To the north of the fire, parts of the Newbury Park community of Thousand Oaks are under mandatory and voluntary evacuations, Nash said.

Overnight, Nash said firefighters plan to stockpile resources along a road that lies between the fire and Malibu, protecting homes on the fire's eastern front.

Of the thousands of homes threatened by flames, 15 have been damaged.

The good fortune of the Camarillo Springs area wasn't the result of luck or clairvoyance by firefighters. It came after years of planning and knowing that sooner or later just such a conflagration was going to strike.

"When developers want to go into an area that is wild-land, it's going to present a unique fire problem," county fire spokesman Tom Kruschke said. "And you have to be prepared for that."

Camarillo Springs, which was nothing more than rugged backcountry when homes began to go up there 30 years ago, was well prepared.

Its homes were built with sprinkler systems and fireproof exteriors from the roofs to the foundations. Residents are required to clear brush and other combustible materials to within 100 feet of the dwellings, and developers had to make sure the cul-de-sacs that fill the area's canyons were built wide enough to accommodate the emergency vehicles seen on TV racing in to battle the flames.

"All of our rooftops are concrete tile and all of the exteriors are stucco," said Neal Blaney, a board member of The Springs Homeowners Association and a 15-year resident. "There's no wood, so there's almost no place for a flying ember to land and ignite something."

When the blaze broke out, Blaney said, volunteer emergency officers in the neighborhood gave the first alert to residents. As a result, when the flames got close, residents were ready to get out of the way of firefighters.

Residents in the area are also particularly vigilant about clearing brush from the hillsides next to their yards, Kruschke said. Normally, firefighters remind people in such areas to do that every June, but in Camarillo Springs people do it every few months. The work paid off this week.

The type of blaze that hit the area usually doesn't strike Southern California wild-land until September or October, after the summer has dried out hillside vegetation. But the state has seen a severe drought during the past year, with the water content of California's snowpack only 17 percent of normal.

That created late-summer conditions by May, and when hot Santa Ana winds and high temperatures arrived this week, the spring flames that firefighters routinely knock down once or twice a year quickly roared up a hillside ? out of control.

"It's just the beginning of May and we already have a 10,000-plus acre fire that's burning intensely," Kruschke said. "That doesn't bode well for the rest of the season."

On Friday, the huge wildfire stormed back through canyons toward inland neighborhoods when winds reversed direction. A new evacuation was ordered in a Thousand Oaks neighborhood along a two-mile stretch of road overlooking smoke-filled coastal canyons.

However, cooler, calmer ocean air was beginning to move ashore, raising humidity and even bringing a chance of rain by Sunday night, which should aid firefighters.

California State University, Channel Islands, remained closed, however.

After jumping Pacific Coast Highway 20 miles north of Malibu, the fire burned for a time on a beach shooting range at the Point Mugu Naval Air Station.

The blaze is one of more than 680 wildfires in the state so far this year ? about 200 more than average.

On Friday, some 3,000 firefighters were battling a handful of blazes scattered around the state.

In Riverside County, a 4 1/2-square-mile fire that destroyed a home burned for a third day in mountains north of Banning. It was 65 percent contained.

Fifty-five miles away from Camarillo, in the hills above Glendale, a blaze broke out Friday afternoon, prompting the closure of several roads as it quickly charred 75 acres.

In Tehama County in Northern California, the size of a wildfire north of Butte Meadows was revised down from more than 15 square miles to 10 square miles, state fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

The fire, which was 10 percent contained, was burning in a remote area and wasn't posing an imminent threat to any structures.

A fire in Butte County that covered 55 acres was expected to be contained this weekend.

___

Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-03-California%20Wildfires/id-22bdbeda2f0d4d6b85b794133517e15d

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History is made in NYC

May 1 (Reuters) - Post position for Saturday's 139th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs after Wednesday's draw (listed as barrier, HORSE, jockey, trainer) 1. BLACK ONYX, Joe Bravo, Kelly Breen 2. OXBOW, Gary Stevens, D. Wayne Lukas 3. REVOLUTIONARY, Calvin Borel, Todd Pletcher 4. GOLDEN SOUL, Robby Albarado, Dallas Stewart 5. NORMANDY INVASION, Javier Castellano, Chad Brown 6. MYLUTE, Rosie Napravnik, Tom Amoss 7. GIANT FINISH, Jose Espinoza, Tony Dutrow 8. GOLDENCENTS, Kevin Krigger, Doug O'Neill 9. OVERANALYZE, Rafael Bejarano, Todd Pletcher 10. PALACE MALICE, Mike Smith, Todd Pletcher 11. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-flag-covered-spire-hoisted-nys-wtc-roof-155823396.html

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Friday, May 3, 2013

Maker's Mark mistake fuels big Beam profit

By Martinne Geller

(Reuters) - A public relations disaster pumped up Beam Inc's first-quarter profit.

Sales of Maker's Mark soared 44 percent after the company announced it would lower the alcohol content in its bourbon because of a limited supply of whiskey.

A consumer outcry led Beam to quickly reverse that decision, but not before die-hard fans stocked up.

"As you know, we heard our consumers loud and clear, responded quickly and maintained Maker's at 90 proof," said Beam Chief Executive Matt Shattock.

He said that kind of growth was not sustainable and that Beam would control the supply of Maker's by managing bottle sizes, prices and promotions.

Maker's, one of several higher-end bourbons in the Beam portfolio, is made in Loretto, Kentucky, with red winter wheat meant to stimulate taste buds in the front of the mouth.

Beam on Thursday said net income rose to $114.5 million, or 71 cents per share, in the first quarter, from $79.1 million, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Beam earned 64 cents per share, or 10 cents per share more than analysts were expecting on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 8 percent to $577.7 million, as the strength in Maker's Mark was partially offset by declines in Sauza tequila, Courvoisier cognac and Kilbeggan Irish whiskey.

Still, Beam stood by its full-year outlook, saying that some of the factors that helped results earlier in the year will reverse themselves later.

The company said it had benefited from the timing of ingredient costs, selling a higher proportion of more-expensive products, price increases and a shift in advertising spending to the second and third quarters from the first quarter.

The company affirmed its full-year forecast, which called for earnings before one-time items to grow at a high single-digit percentage rate from the $2.40 per share it earned in 2012. It said it still expected 2013 free cash flow of $300 million to $350 million.

Beam shares ended regular trading on Thursday up $1.82, or 2.8 percent, at $66.11.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/makers-mark-mistake-fuels-big-beam-profit-203618680.html

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