U.S. jobless benefits debate ends
WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- The Senate ended a long partisan stalemate Tuesday, voting to end debate and clearing the way to give millions of out-of-work Americans a benefits extension.
The procedural vote on the bill affecting those unemployed for six months or more passed on a 60-40 vote, with Maine's two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, siding with 56 Democrats and two Independents, The New York Times reported. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., voted with the Republicans, who objected to the $34 billion bill on grounds it would add to the federal deficit.
The measure could provide a financial safety net through November for as many as 4.9 million Americans whose benefits have run out after 26 weeks, Politico reported.
The Democrats needed every vote they could muster since the Republicans had blocked three final votes previously.
"Finally, finally, finally," Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., however, expressed the GOP concern that "the federal debt has grown to an alarming level, where it is threatening the future of our children and grandchildren."
The bill still needs final Senate approval, and that of the House, which is expected Wednesday, and then the signature of President Barack Obama, who has strongly endorsed it.
Obama issued a statement after the vote calling it "an important step toward passing the unemployment insurance extension which is critical to millions of Americans fighting to find a job, put food on the table and make ends meet during this tough economic time."
"After a partisan minority blocked this critical aid to our nation's families three separate times, the Senate has moved forward on restoring benefits to the 2.5 million Americans whose livelihood has been held hostage by obstruction and game playing over the past weeks," Obama said.
Obama said he will press Congress to enact legislation "to create new American jobs and strengthen our recovery, including a small business jobs bill, aid for struggling states to prevent layoffs, and tax cuts for middle class families."
The Senate vote came shortly after Carte Goodwin was sworn in to take the seat left vacant by the death last month of West Virginia Democrat Robert C. Byrd.
Goodwin's first vote as a U.S. senator brought rules-breaking applause from the visitors' gallery, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"I could not feel more privileged than I do to cast my first vote as a member of the United States Senate to have it be a vote that helps millions of Americans," Goodwin said after the vote. "These are real issues that affect real West Virginians and real Americans in very real ways, and I feel privileged to have played a small role in helping to move this legislation forward."
NAACP: 'Snookered' by Fox, Tea Party
ATLANTA, July 20 (UPI) -- The head of the NAACP says "we were snookered" by Fox News Channel and a Tea Party activist in the case of a U.S. official who resigned amid charges of racism.
Shirley Sherrod resigned Monday as U.S. Department of Agriculture director of rural development for Georgia after Fox News and other media aired a video excerpt from a speech Sherrod made at an NAACP event, describing a 1986 incident in which she did not give a white farmer "the full force of what I could do" to help him avoid foreclosure. The incident occurred before Sherrod, who is black, was a USDA official.
In media appearances Tuesday, Sherrod said the clips aired on Fox and Andrew Breitbart's biggovernment.com Web site omitted the part of her speech in which she said she eventually helped the white farmer. The wife of the farmer told CNN Tuesday Sherrod helped her and her husband save their farm and had become a good friend of theirs.
NAACP President and Chief Executive Officer Ben Jealous Monday had said Sherrod "mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race" and said the NAACP was "appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers."
Tuesday, Jealous said his organization had looked at the entire video of Sherrod's speech and concluded the tape that was broadcast was edited "with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans."
"With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias," Jealous said in a statement.
Sherrod told CNN she had been pressured by the White House to resign. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told CNN it was his decision that Sherrod had to resign because her comments compromise her "ability to do her job."
"This isn't a situation where we are necessarily judgmental about the content of the statement, that's not the issue here. I don't believe this woman is a racist at all," Vilsack said.
Breitbart told CNN he released the video because "this is showing racism at an NAACP event."
BP looks at new 'static kill' option
VENICE, La., July 20 (UPI) -- Scientists are reviewing a new option for permanently sealing the oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the option's simplicity is attractive.
BP officials said the "static kill" option would pump mud into the well to force oil back into the reservoir, CNN reported Tuesday. They said the option could succeed where similar attempts have failed because pressure in the well is lower than expected.
Developing the option is "very much in its infancy," BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells said Monday, adding that a decision could be made soon. "At the end of the day, relief wells are still the ultimate solution."
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government's lead on the spill, said Monday the well's casing didn't have significant problems, but tests on the well would be conducted for another 24 hours as federal and company officials try to explain "anomalous" pressure readings and possible leaks.
Allen said there were possible leaks of methane gas from around the well and from the inoperative blowout preventer, as well as separate -- possibly unrelated -- seepage from the ocean floor about 2 miles away.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Feinberg, the independent administrator of the Gulf Claims Facility for the $20 billion BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill compensation fund, said he doesn't know yet how BP will fund the escrow account, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported.
While acknowledging may gulf-related businesses operate on a cash basis, Feinberg said he must have documentation about lost earnings.
"You've got to prove your claim," Feinberg said. "I can be very lenient as to the proof. There's nothing illegal about a cash business, but I've got to have proof. And, you know, fisherman, you're getting a (IRS form) 1099. The law requires it."
Some people will have a hard choice deciding whether to seek compensation immediately or wait until they have a better idea about how long their operations would be affected by the spill, Feinberg said. If people seek immediate compensation, they will have to sign documents agreeing not to seek additional compensation once they accept his payment offer.
"If you sign this release, you're releasing your right to come back," Feinberg said. "But if you don't think that the period (three years) that I'm covering in this check is worthwhile, don't take it. You haven't lost any rights."
Judge to decide on Arizona immigration law
PHOENIX, July 20 (UPI) -- A federal judge is to weigh evidence on whether to block Arizona's tough new immigration law Thursday, a week before the measure is to take effect.
The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, other groups and 10 individuals, has not been as high-profile as the U.S. Justice Department challenge but has many more plaintiffs and defendants, The Arizona Republic reported.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton will decide whether plaintiffs meet criteria for a preliminary injunction to block the law from taking effect. It authorizes law enforcement officers to ask people to produce documentation if there is "reasonable suspicion" they are in the country illegally.
The plaintiffs, who also include Service Employees International Union and a non-profit organization that helps immigrants, argue the law "encourages racial profiling, endangers public safety and betrays American values."
Plaintiff Jim Shee, a U.S.-born 70-year-old of Spanish and Chinese descent, told the Republic he has been stopped twice by local law enforcement and asked to show his "papers."
Friendly House, a Phoenix non-profit, became a plaintiff in the ACLU suit because it believes the law will deter clients from getting help the organization offers, including employment services, childcare and food boxes, interim Chief Executive Officer Terri Leon said. Friendly House serves serves legal residents, citizens and illegal immigrants.
Another plaintiff in the suit, Luz Santiago, 59, a pastor at the predominantly Hispanic church Iglesia Pueblo de Dios in Mesa, said more than a week before the law takes effect, it stirs considerable anxiety among her congregation, about 80 percent of them Hispanics in the country illegally.
"I have seen so much fear in the community," Santiago said. "I see fear in the eyes of children of my congregation that their parents may one day go out somewhere and not come home. It makes me feel very depressed. The United States is supposed to represent freedom."
Santiago, who moved from Chicago to Arizona three decades ago, said nothing has had as big an impact on the immigrant community as the law and it has already kept Hispanics away from businesses in droves.
"To see empty stores, to see people not walking around like they used to, the empty apartment complexes, it reminds me of movies of Old West ghost towns," she said. "There is a mass exodus from Arizona."
