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Monday, June 24, 2013

Key Democrat sees pressure on House to permit U.S. immigration vote

By Thomas Ferraro

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington may again be the site of massive civil-rights rallies, this time pressuring the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives to approve a pathway to U.S. citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, a key Democrat said on Sunday.

With the Senate set to approve its White House-backed bill this week, Senator Charles Schumer, an author of a bipartisan bill that would allow about 11 million immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens, said he expects House Speaker John Boehner will soon have "no choice," but to let pass a Democratic-backed immigration bill.

However, if Boehner tries to bottle up a bill that includes eventual citizenship, Schumer said, "I could envision in the late summer or early fall ... a million people on the mall in Washington," demanding action.

"This has the potential of becoming the next major civil rights movement," Schumer told CNN's "State of the Union," conjuring up memories of rallies in the 1960s that resulted in landmark anti-discrimination and voting rights legislation for African Americans. Schumer is the third ranking Democrat in the Senate.

Boehner's Republican Party has said it needs to support comprehensive immigration reform to make the party more attractive to Hispanics, the fastest growing U.S. voting bloc.

Yet Boehner, facing pressure from many of the House's most conservative members, said last week that he would not bring any immigration bill up for a vote unless most Republicans back it.

A Senate test vote is set for Monday, with passage of the bill expected on Thursday.

Strong bipartisan Senate support was assured last week when a $40 billion deal was reached to double to about 40,000 the number of federal agents on the U.S.-Mexican border, and obtain a crush of additional high-tech surveillance equipment, including planes, drones and radar.

Up to 70 or more of the 100 senators are expected to vote for the bill, including all 52 Democrats, both independents and perhaps 16 or so of the 46 Republicans, according to aides for both parties.

BORDER CONTROL

With passage virtually assured, the Senate immigration battle is now essentially over with the focus shifting to the House where it remains unclear what will happen.

Many Republicans oppose the proposed pathway to citizenship, denouncing it as "amnesty" for law breakers that will attract even more illegal immigrants.

Backers reject such talk, noting that the 13-year pathway would require undocumented immigrants to pay back taxes, learn English, hold a job and pass criminal background checks.

They also argue that the pathway would draw undocumented immigrants from the shadows, where many are now abused, and help make them a productive part of the American way of life.

Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, one of the most conservative members of Congress and a potential 2016 White House contender, said, "It will pass the Senate. ... But it's dead on arrival in the House."

Speaking on CNN, Paul said many agree with him that there should be evidence that bolstered border security has reduced illegal crossings before anyone can begin a pathway to citizenship.

Under the Senate bill, there is no such requirement.

Republican Senator Mike Lee, like Paul, a favorite of the conservative Tea Party movement, said his chief problem with the Senate bill is the sequencing of events.

"The pathway to citizenship begins basically on day one. But it will take many, many years, if not decades to fully implement all these border security measures," Lee told Fox News Sunday.

The deal to implement additional border security was reached after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the initial bill would reduce illegal immigration by just 25 percent.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the "Gang of Eight" that wrote the bipartisan bill, hailed the added security.

"We practically militarized the border," Graham told Fox TV.

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; editing by Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/key-democrat-sees-pressure-house-permit-u-immigration-192349056.html

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A Typeface Designed To Thwart Spying Computers

If people are snooping on your textual communications and you don't like it, there are a couple of things you can do. You can try to block the prying eyes, you can stop saying things you don't want to be seen, or you can make your messages make no sense to the outside. The anti-authoritarian typeface ZXX is shooting for that last one.

PFT: NFL rookies get harsh truth at symposium

Getty Images

Reggie Williams, the Jaguars? first-round pick in 2004, was among the final cuts of the CFL?s Toronto Argonauts on Saturday.

Williams, 30, signed with the Argonauts on May 29. According to the Canadian QMI Agency wire service, Williams had a one-handed TD catch in the Argonauts? final preseason game Thursday vs. Montreal.

While Reggie Williams? stint in Toronto has ended, another former Jaguars receiver is very much a key part of the Argonauts? 2013 plans.

In fact, this ex-Jaguar is the CFL?s top best player in the estimation of TSN and sportswriters across Canada.

Chad Owens, a sixth-round pick of Jacksonville in 2005, was voted the CFL?s best player?on Friday.

Owens, 31, was the CFL?s Most Outstanding Player in 2012 after catching 94 passes for 1,328 yards and six TDs for the Grey Cup-champion Argos. Moreover, he set a league record for all-purpose yards.

Owens could never quite stick with the Jaguars, who released him in January 2008. But he stuck with professional football. He played Arena ball for a year, then landed on the Montreal Alouettes? practice roster for much of 2009. The next year, the Als traded him to Toronto, and he has been a key contributor since.

For former NFL players, making a?CFL roster is easier said than done. There are just eight CFL teams, and the Canadian game is different than the NFL game, with the wider field one example.

Given that Reggie Williams hasn?t been on an NFL roster since 2010, lasting until Toronto?s final cuts may signal he?s retained some professional-caliber skill. That?s one silver lining. Another may well be the success of his former Jaguars teammate, who?s authored quite the impressive career revival in Canada.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/22/rookie-symposium-message-most-of-you-will-be-gone-in-three-years/related/

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Hong Kong lets Snowden leave to Moscow, with Cuba among possible destinations

By James Pomfret

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A former contractor for the U.S. National Security Agency, charged by the United States with espionage, was allowed to leave Hong Kong on Sunday, his final destination as yet unknown, because a U.S. request to have him arrested did not comply with the law, the Hong Kong government said.

Edward Snowden left for Moscow on Sunday and his final destination may be Cuba, Ecuador, Iceland or Venezuela, according to various reports. The move is bound to infuriate Washington, wherever he ends up.

"It's a shocker," said Simon Young, a law professor with Hong Kong University. "I thought he was going to stay and fight it out. The U.S. government will be irate."

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a source at the Aeroflot airline as saying there was a ticket in Snowden's name for a Moscow-Cuba flight. Itar-Tass news agency cited a source as saying Snowden would fly from Havana to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.

The South China Morning Post said his final destination might be Ecuador or Iceland.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was unaware of Snowden's whereabouts or travel plans.

The WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website said it helped Snowden find "political asylum in a democratic country". It did not elaborate, other than to say Snowden was "currently over Russian airspace" with WikiLeaks legal advisers.

The White House had no comment on the WikiLeaks posting.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said last week he would not leave the sanctuary of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London even if Sweden stopped pursuing sexual assault claims against him because he feared arrest on the orders of the United States.

U.S. authorities have charged Snowden with theft of U.S. government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.

The United States had asked Hong Kong, a special administrative region (SAR) of China, to send Snowden home.

"The U.S. government earlier on made a request to the HKSAR government for the issue of a provisional warrant of arrest against Mr Snowden," the Hong Kong government said in a statement.

"Since the documents provided by the U.S. government did not fully comply with the legal requirements under Hong Kong law, the HKSAR government has requested the U.S. government to provide additional information ... As the HKSAR government has yet to have sufficient information to process the request for provisional warrant of arrest, there is no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden from leaving Hong Kong."

It did not say what further information it needed, but said Snowden left Hong Kong "on his own accord for a third country through a lawful and normal channel".

CHINA SAYS U.S. "BIGGEST VILLAIN"

Hong Kong, a former British colony, reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 and although it retains an independent legal system, and its own extradition laws, Beijing has control over Hong Kong's foreign affairs. Some observers see Beijing's hand in Snowden's sudden departure.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said earlier this month that Russia would consider granting Snowden asylum if he were to ask for it and pro-Kremlin lawmakers supported the idea, but there has been no indication he has done so.

Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden, a former employee of contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who worked at an NSA facility in Hawaii.

The South China Morning Post earlier quoted Snowden offering new details about the United States' spy activities, including accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile telephone companies and targeting China's Tsinghua University.

Documents previously leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies, including Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.

In its statement, the Hong Kong government said it had written to the United States "requesting clarification" of earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in Hong Kong by U.S. government agencies.

"The HKSAR Government will continue to follow up on the matter, so as to protect the legal rights of the people of Hong Kong," it said.

China's Xinhua news agency, referring to Snowden's accusations about the hacking of Chinese targets, said they were "clearly troubling signs".

It added: "They demonstrate that the United States, which has long been trying to play innocent as a victim of cyber attacks, has turned out to be the biggest villain in our age."

(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in Shanghai; Nishant Kumar in Hong Kong; Alexei Anishchuk and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-nsa-contractor-snowden-leaves-hong-kong-moscow-080843121.html

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Obama to lay out climate change plan in speech on Tuesday

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Saturday that he will outline a climate change plan on Tuesday centered around reducing pollution from carbon emissions as he attempts to make good on a pledge for his second term.

"This Tuesday, I'll lay out my vision for where I believe we need to go - a national plan to reduce carbon pollution, prepare our country for the impacts of climate change and lead global efforts to fight it," he said in a White House video.

Obama made tackling climate change a top priority in his inaugural address in January when he began his second term. His speech will be at Georgetown University, the day before he goes on a three-nation tour of Africa.

In his video message, Obama outlined what would be a major national effort to address climate change. He said scientists will be needed to design new fuels, farmers to grow them, engineers to devise new sources of energy and workers to build the foundation for a clean energy economy.

"There's no single step that can reverse the effects of climate change. But when it comes to the world we leave our children, we owe it to them to do what we can," he said.

Sources familiar with his plans have said Obama is likely to roll out a number of measures on climate policy. They may include a strategy to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, which account for roughly 40 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.

Controlling carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning coal and other fossil fuels, is seen as a vital step in confronting climate change.

Federal regulations are still pending on power plants that have yet to be built, after the Environmental Protection Agency missed an April deadline to roll out emissions rules.

However, environmentalists have been pushing Obama's administration to go after a bigger target and set tighter standards for the roughly 1,400 coal-fired burners that already feed the nation's electric grid.

It is unclear if Obama's speech on Tuesday will make any reference to TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport heavy crude oil from Canada's oil sands region to the refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Opponents say the 830,000-barrel-per-day pipeline, which awaits U.S. approval, would raise greenhouse gas emissions and lock the United States into oil dependency for decades into the future.

The White House's top energy and climate adviser, Heather Zichal, said recently that Obama will take several steps to make tackling climate change a second-term priority.

"In the near term, we are very much focused on the power plant piece of the equation," she said at an energy and environment forum.

Besides framing power plant emissions in the context of climate change, many of the steps outlined by Obama to curb demand for carbon-based fuels are likely to be modest.

He is likely to talk about the importance of conserving energy, for example.

Other steps he could announce include an expansion of energy efficiency standards for appliances and accelerate clean energy development on public lands. Another move could be to raise onshore oil and gas royalties, which was suggested by the administration earlier this year.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Rucker, Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason.; Editing by Eric Beech and Christopher Wilson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-lay-climate-change-plan-tuesday-speech-194942416.html

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

PFT: Police return to Hernandez home amid probe

Getty Images

Reggie Williams, the Jaguars? first-round pick in 2004, was among the final cuts of the CFL?s Toronto Argonauts on Saturday.

Williams, 30, signed with the Argonauts on May 29. According to the Canadian QMI Agency wire service, Williams had a one-handed TD catch in the Argonauts? final preseason game Thursday vs. Montreal.

While Reggie Williams? stint in Toronto has ended, another former Jaguars receiver is very much a key part of the Argonauts? 2013 plans.

In fact, this ex-Jaguar is the CFL?s top best player in the estimation of TSN and sportswriters across Canada.

Chad Owens, a sixth-round pick of Jacksonville in 2005, was voted the CFL?s best player?on Friday.

Owens, 31, was the CFL?s Most Outstanding Player in 2012 after catching 94 passes for 1,328 yards and six TDs for the Grey Cup-champion Argos. Moreover, he set a league record for all-purpose yards.

For former NFL players, making a?CFL roster is easier said than done. There are just eight CFL teams, and the Canadian game is different than the NFL game, with the wider field one example.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/06/22/police-are-back-at-hernandezs-house/related/

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1 killed, 1 hit by lightning as storms sweep through Plains, Upper Midwest

By Daniel Arkin, Staff Writer, NBC News

Storms that pummeled the northern Plains and Upper Midwest on Friday left at least one person dead and two other people injured, including one hit by lighting, officials said.

In South Dakota, severe winds damaged homes and killed a 63-year-old woman as she sheltered in a bathtub in the community of Lake Poinsett north of Sioux Falls, Hamlin County Sheriff Chad Schlotterbeck said. Her husband was injured and taken to a hospital.

Another person was struck by lightning and injured during the storm in the city of Lake Norden, Schlotterbeck said. He said numerous homes were damaged by what were believed to be straight-line winds but a count was not possible after darkness fell. "The power's out and we've suspended all operations until the morning," he said.

At least four tornadoes were seen sweeping through rural areas of Nebraska?s southern Panhandle, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Storm watchers reportedly spotted a twister and golf-ball-sized hail in the city of Sidney on Friday afternoon, the newspaper reported. There were similar sightings in the cities of Colton, Brownson and Potter.

Parts of southern Minnesota and west-central Wisconsin were under flash flood watches early Saturday, the National Weather Service said. In St. Croix County, Wisc., 1.5 inches of rain in 40 minutes was reported, the Weather Service said.

The Upper Midwest may be due for a weekend of heavy rainfall, according to Dr. Greg Forbes, a severe weather expert with The Weather Channel.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2da20ca5/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C220C190A80A4190E10Ekilled0E10Ehit0Eby0Elightning0Eas0Estorms0Esweep0Ethrough0Eplains0Eupper0Emidwest0Dlite/story01.htm

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