Texas
Pelosi holds little hope for immigration reform
BROWNSVILLE, Texas – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Saturday during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border that she holds little hope that Congress will pass comprehensive immigration reform this year.
After visiting a Border Patrol facility in Brownsville holding unaccompanied children, the California Democrat said politics should be set aside to address what President Barack Obama has called an “urgent humanitarian situation.” More than 52,000 unaccompanied children, most from Central America, have been apprehended entering the U.S. illegally since October.
“A few days ago I would have been more optimistic about comprehensive immigration reform,” Pelosi said. “I thought that we had been finding a way because we have been very patient and respectful of (Speaker of the House John Boehner) trying to do it one way or another. I don’t think he gives us much reason to be hopeful now, but we never give up. There’s still the month of July.”
Washington
Supreme Court to decide on birth control coverage
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is poised to deliver its verdict in a case that weighs the religious rights of employers and the right of women to the birth control of their choice.
The court will meet for a final time Monday to release decisions in its two remaining cases before the justices take off for the summer. The cases involve birth control coverage under President Barack Obama’s health law and fees paid to labor unions representing government employees by workers who object to being affiliated with a union.
Two years after Chief Justice John Roberts cast the pivotal vote that saved the health-care law in the midst of Obama’s campaign for re-election, the justices are considering a sliver of the law.
Employers must cover contraception for women at no extra charge among a range of preventive benefits in employee health plans.
Lebanon
World’s 1.6 billion Muslims getting ready for Ramadan
BEIRUT – Across a wide belt that stretches halfway around the globe, the world’s estimated 1.6 billion Muslims will mark the beginning of Ramadan this weekend. The holy season is marred by unprecedented turmoil, violence and sectarian hatreds that threaten to rip apart the Middle East, the epicenter of Islam.
Syria is bleeding. Militants have taken over large parts of Iraq. Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Egypt are all battling Islamic extremists. Millions of war refugees are scattered across the landscape.
Puerto Rico
U.S. man rows across Atlantic to honor brother who died
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Three times, Victor Mooney tried to row across the Atlantic. Three times he failed. One boat sank. Another lost its freshwater system. A third sprang a leak and left him drifting on a life raft for two weeks. As he planned for a fourth attempt, his wife made it clear it would be the last.
“I’m going to give you all the support you need, but this is it. We have to close the book on this one,”’ Mooney recalled her telling him.
Now the 48-year-old Brooklyn native has finally completed the approximately 3,000-mile journey.
Associated Press
