McClatchy Washington report 9/3

Top Story

• Mexico's drug war leaves marijuana growers to thrive

  Times are good for the dope growers of the western Sierra Madre mountains. The army eradication squads that once hacked at the illicit marijuana fields have been diverted by the drug war that's raging elsewhere in Mexico.

Spotlight

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  Tea party poised for another upset in Delaware's Senate primary

  Thanks to the tea party, Rep. Mike Castle's once smooth path to Delaware's Republican Senate nomination suddenly has become less predictable — and is providing a fresh reason for already staggering moderate Republicans everywhere to be frightened.

Latest Headlines

• Survey: Employers still shifting insurance costs to workers

  An annual survey released Thursday finds that workers are paying, on average, about $482 more for job-based family health insurance this year as companies force employees to shoulder more of the burden of health care costs.
• AFL-CIO president: We need a second stimulus program

  With the Labor Day weekend approaching, union leaders and U.S. business interests expressed concerns Thursday about the fragility of the nation's economic recovery. They offered drastically different remedies for fixing the country's woes, however.
• Breitbart touts his 'war with mainstream media' during Texas tea party speech

  Conservative blogger and activist Andrew Breitbart told a North Texas Tea Party crowd Thursday night that the biggest enemies of conservatives are not President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In his view, a major power source of the left is the mainstream media.
• U.S., Cuba will not swap 'Cuban Five' prisoners for Gross, State Dept. says

  The U.S. State Department Thursday flatly denied reports that the Obama administration is considering swapping the "Cuban Five" spies in U.S. prisons for U.S. government subcontractor Alan Gross, held without charges since his arrest in Havana on Dec. 3.
• Karzai, NATO at odds over another Afghan airstrike

  Afghan President Hamid Karzai and NATO disagreed Thursday over whether an airstrike in northern Afghanistan killed the top member of re-emerging insurgent group or 10 election workers.
• Regaining health care coverage becomes an option for young adults

  Millions of 20-somethings who became uninsured after falling off their parents' health plans can regain coverage soon as a key provision of the federal health care overhaul law takes effect. As the open enrollment season begins, parents will be able to include grown children up to age 26 on their coverage.
• Fast start: Netanyahu, Abbas meet alone for 90 minutes

  The first Middle East peace talks in nearly two years got off to a quick start Thursday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreeing to meet again in two weeks and to commence work on the blueprint for a peace treaty.
• Oil spill prevention is focus of California bill

  In response to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, California lawmakers are looking to strengthen the state's oil spill prevention requirements. An Assembly measure now before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would allow the state to increase fees on oil shipped into California by as much as $5.6 million.
• Haiti's presidential candidates are spending big where money is scarce

  Even before being deemed qualified to run, presidential hopefuls in impoverished Haiti faced a hefty bill: a $12,500 nonrefundable filing fee. With 19 candidates vying for one of the toughest and least compensated top jobs in the hemisphere — it pays just $6,000 per month — the presidential race is likely to be one of the most expensive in Haitian history for candidates.
• Commentary: Mexico needs our help, not our troops

  The escalation of drug-related violence in Mexico — including the mass execution of 72 migrants last week — is moving a small but growing number of U.S. foreign policy hawks to call for a radical solution: send in the U.S. Army.

McClatchy Washington report 8/27

Top Story

• Iraq combat phase ends, but U.S. might stay past 2011

  The U.S. combat mission in Iraq officially comes to an end Tuesday, 2,722 days after American-led troops stormed across the border from Kuwait. The remaining 49,000 U.S. troops are supposed to depart by the end of next year.

Spotlight

• A quarter of Katrina aid money still unspent

  More than a quarter of the $20 billion in Housing and Urban Development relief funds that were earmarked for Gulf Coast states after Hurricane Katrina remains unspent five years after the storm, a fact noticed by at least one congressional leader who's eager to spend it elsewhere.

Latest Headlines

• American Airlines hit with largest fine ever over maintenance

  The FAA's proposed $24.2 million civil penalty is related to the April 2008 grounding of about 300 American planes, a move that led to 3,000 canceled flights in one week. The FAA said it determined that 286 of American's MD-80s flew a combined 14,278 passenger flights while not in compliance with an airworthiness directive.
• Obama administration eases stance on deportations

  In a new and more lenient policy, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has instructed the agency's legal office to stop the deportation proceedings of foreign nationals who may now be eligible for a green card. The decision primarily affects immigrants ordered deported who have a relative or spouse who is a U.S. citizen.
• Florida GOP split: McCollum refuses to endorse Rick Scott

  Two days after he lost the Republican nomination for governor, Florida Attorney General McCollum still refuses to support winner Rick Scott, and continues to raise questions about his former rival's character. A Scott spokeswoman called McCollum a "sore loser."
• The math on Alaska: 20,000 ballots still to be tallied

  The Division of Elections isn't saying how many of the ballots left to count are for the closely contested Republican Senate primary, where insurgent Joe Miller is leading incumbent U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski by 1,668 votes. But three times more Republican than Democratic ballots were cast on Election Day in the Senate race.
• UNC Tar Heels football program probed for 'academic misconduct'

  The University of North Carolina's investigation into possible improprieties in its football program took another serious turn Thursday night with the announcement of possible academic misconduct. The allegations involve a tutor who formerly was employed by Tar Heel football coach Butch Davis.
• Discredited Duke lacrosse accuser is jailed in North Carolina

  Crystal Gail Mangum, the discredited accuser in the Duke lacross case, is in police custody under $150,000 bond after court officials accused her of violating a condition of a previous pre-trial release agreement.
• Palin reversal: Cal State releases speech contract it said it didn't have

  Hours after it told a court that it was not in possession of the contract for a controversial speech Sarah Palin gave in June, California State University-Stanislaus released the contract. There were no surprises — Palin's $75,000 fee was already known — but the quick reversal underscored the controversy over the speech.
• Author takes on China's premier, aware that free speech has a cost

  Yu Jie has picked a fight with the Communist Party of China, and if state security forces haul him away in the dark of night, there will be no one to stop them. It's a risk Yu took knowingly when he wrote a book published this month that slammed the country's prime minister as an "actor" shilling for an authoritarian government.
• McClatchy journalist Pentagon banned gets First Amendment Award

  Carol Rosenberg, The Miami Herald reporter banned by the Pentagon earlier this year from covering military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been awarded the Society of Professional Journalists' First Amendment Award for her efforts to cover the detention center there, despite "consistent hostility in covering her beat."
• Good news for bad drivers: California to cut fine for illegal right turns

  Make no mistake, the infamous rolling "California stop" on right turns is still illegal, and arguably more dangerous than ever. But a bill on the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk would cut the cost of turning right on red without coming to a complete stop.

McClatchy Washington report 8/11

Top Story

• Victims in crash that killed Stevens identified

  Four people survived the crash into a steep, remote Alaska hillside that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens. At least three were flown to an Anchorage hospital in a Coast Guard C-130 aircraft. Among the survivors was former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe and his son, Kevin. The bodies of Stevens, 86, and the other victims were still at the site.

Spotlight

• In small rubber boat, Pakistani navy searches for flood victims

  The craft was part of an operation to rescue people around Sukkur, the city in Sindh province where the wall of water unleashed by the worst flooding in Pakistan's history was cresting Tuesday as it moved south down the Indus River toward the Arabian Sea.

Latest Headlines

• House sends $26 billion in aid to states for teachers, Medicaid

  The House of Representatives approved the new spending on Tuesday by 247 to 161, and President Barack Obama signed it. The money should begin flowing in time for school systems to rehire and retain teachers early in the school year.
• Feds lift fishing ban off Florida's Panhandle

  Federal regulators lifted a fishing ban off Florida on Tuesday, pronouncing all but a small area far off the Panhandle coast clear of any oil spill stigma. Reopening the areas was symbolically important enough that NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco flew to Panama City Beach to announce that a "rigorous set of steps" had shown seafood in the area was safe.
• During Ramadan, Muslims reach out to foster understanding

  Gesturing at cameras in the room during a recent Friday sermon at his Pembroke Pines, Fla., mosque, Shafayat Mohamed shared his solution for turning what Muslims are calling a tide of anti-Islamic sentiment: Throw the doors wide open — online. During Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and prayer that begins Wednesday, Muslims are opening mosques' doors, online and in person, aiming to improve images of Islam.
• GOP benefactor Spanos makes donation to Jerry Brown's campaign

  Alex Spanos, one of the nation's foremost Republican benefactors, has contributed $20,000 to Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown's gubernatorial campaign. The donation is unusual. Spanos has given millions of dollars to Republican causes, and he was a top fundraiser for President George W. Bush and former presidential candidate John McCain.
• Fed announces plan to buy Treasury debt, spur growth

  Downgrading its view of the economy, the Federal Reserve on Tuesday projected a "more modest" rate of recovery in the months ahead and announced that it will use proceeds from the mortgage bonds it owns to buy new Treasury debt in an effort to spark growth and investor confidence.
• Texas Republicans mull options over jobs bill mandate

  The possibility of legal action remained on the table as Texas' Republican political leaders decried a Texas-specific mandate included in a $26 billion jobs bill that won final congressional approval Tuesday. Texas Republicans object to an amendment crafted by the state's congressional Democrats to prevent Gov. Rick Perry and other state leaders from diverting millions of dollars in federal education assistance to other purposes. Republicans have denounced the restriction as a political stunt that would require them to violate the Texas Constitution to receive the money.
• 'Uncle Ted' Stevens helped shape Alaska

  Ted Stevens died Monday the way Alaskans die, in a plane crash in the wilds of the state he devoted his life to. At 86, he was the last giant of statehood and a major architect of the Alaska that emerged from its territorial history. His constituents called him Uncle Ted and Senator for Life. Even his enemies welcomed his largesse, dished out in federal appropriations that numbered in the tens of thousands and affected almost every Alaskan's life.
• Rand Paul: GQ report that he kidnapped woman 'absolutely untrue'

  Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul on Tuesday denied trying to abduct a woman and force her to use illegal drugs while attending Baylor University in the early 1980s. He said the allegations, published on the website of GQ magazine, are "absolutely untrue" and worthy of a lawsuit.
• Adult entertainment businesses challenge new Missouri law

  Amy, Betty and Cindy Doe just want to dance. The pseudonymous Ms. Does are three Kansas City-area erotic dancers named in a lawsuit challenging new restrictions on adult businesses in Missouri that are set to go into effect later this month. In addition to the dancers, several adult clubs and retailers, a cabaret owner and an industry trade group brought the case against the state.
• Commentary: Willy Brown deserved better

  This is a requiem for Willy Brown.
  As these words are written, he lies brain dead and on life support at Miami Children's Hospital. By the time you read this, there's a good chance he will have been disconnected and declared dead. He is, or he was, two years old. His father, 23-year-old Lee Willie DeJesus of Homestead, is in jail, having been denied bond. Prosecutors expect to charge him with first-degree murder.

McClatchy Washington report 8/10

Top Story

• Pakistan's flood victims find little help from government

  Hungry, bewildered and bedraggled villagers are arriving by the thousands in Sukkur, a town in Pakistan's southern Sindh province that so far has escaped the country's devastating flooding, only to find that little or no help is available, victims of the disaster said.

Spotlight

• House expected to approve $26 billion in aid to states

  The House of Representatives plans Tuesday to approve funding that would save an estimated 161,000 teachers' jobs nationwide and pump billions of dollars into depleted state treasuries to help pay health benefits for the poor.

Latest Headlines

• Texas Gov. Perry asks Obama for more troops, drones along border

  Defying harsh criticism from Texas Republicans, President Barack Obama said Monday that his 19-month-old presidency has put America "on the right track" and warned against returning to GOP policies that he blamed for the country's economic "mess." Texas Gov. Rick Perry, one of the president's biggest critics in the Lone Star State, met Obama on his arrival at Austin-Bergstrom Airport and presented the president with a four-page letter calling for tougher federal enforcement along the state's violence-ridden border with Mexico.
• Gates proposal would cut thousands of Defense jobs

  In an effort to deter potential budget cuts by Congress and streamline a burgeoning Defense Department, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Monday proposed to cut spending on contracting, to close a command stationed in Norfolk, Va., and to reduce the number of flag officers and civilian leaders.
• Khadr's confessions can be used during Guantanamo trial, judge rules

  All of Canadian captive Omar Khadr's confessions to U.S. military interrogators can be used at the accused teen terrorist's trial, including one that followed a tawdry tale of rape, a war court judge ruled Monday to set the stage for the first full war crimes tribunal of the Obama administration.
• What lies in the Gulf Coast's future after the oil spill?

  Oil has stopped flowing, but the BP catastrophe is now ingrained in Gulf life. Evidence and experience indicate environmental, psychological and economic impacts will linger. Nobody can say how bad they will be or how long oil will continue to come ashore.
• Judge: National parks can't require permit for free speech

  Religious missionaries and political activists will have more freedom to speak out in Yosemite, Great Smoky Mountains and other national parks under an important appellate court ruling.
• Stimulus-created jobs wasteful, Republican lawmakers say

  Prominent Republican lawmakers say the 10,000 jobs created by federal economic-stimulus money at South Carolina's Savannah River Site and other nuclear complexes are wasteful, costing taxpayers more than $194,000 a job.
• Alaska Rep. Young wants to strip EPA of authority in Peeble mine deal

  The opponents of Pebble, the giant copper and gold prospect in Southwest Alaska, have asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to invoke its potent and rarely used power to block the potential mine. But U.S. Rep. Don Young late last month filed legislation seeking to strip the EPA of that authority.
• More Florida voters are registering as independents

  There's only one party with steady growth this year in the Florida electorate: No Party. Newly released voter registration statistics show another year of gains for independent voters, while Democrats struggled to maintain their hefty registration edge over the GOP.
• 'Diaphragm pacing system' gives taste, smell back to paralyzed patients

  A new breathing device is helping to return the senses of taste and smell back to some paralysis victims. The "diaphragm pacing system" uses tiny steel electrodes implanted in the chest to electronically stimulates the patients diaphragm to contract This pulls air into the lungs through the nose and mouth and lets the patient breathe the way everybody else does. And it returned their senses of taste and smell.
• Commentary: The economics of gay marriage

  From Alaska to Patagonia, supporters of same-sex weddings won important legal victories in recent days. And I would bet that — despite strong Roman Catholic Church opposition — gay marriages will be legal in most countries of the hemisphere sooner than you think.

McClatchy Washington report 8/9

Top Story

• Lawmakers on break may not find much more love at home

  These summer days are crucial times for politicians to press their cases in a congressional election year that remains volatile and unpredictable, with only one thing certain: "Voters are sour on everybody," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Spotlight

• While some Democrats run from Obama, Sen. Murray isn't

  While some Democratic candidates nationally are keeping their distance, Washington Sen. Patty Murray is welcoming President Barack Obama later this month to the state even as his poll numbers have faded and Republicans call the visit a sign her campaign is desperate.

Latest Headlines

• While some Democrats run from Obama, Sen. Murray isn't

  While some Democratic candidates nationally are keeping their distance, Washington Sen. Patty Murray is welcoming President Barack Obama later this month to the state even as his poll numbers have faded and Republicans call the visit a sign her campaign is desperate.
• Social Security approaches its 75th anniversary

  Today's older adults were children and teenagers when President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the face of aging on Aug. 14, 1935, when he signed the Social Security Act into law. They also remember their parents' fears that Social Security amounted to socialism. Yet on the edge of the program's 75th anniversary, most of them can't imagine retirement without the small cushion of funds and dignity that Social Security provides.
• Stimulus bill helped some far more than others

  At the urging of President Barack Obama, Congress passed a $787 billion economic stimulus bill on Feb. 10, 2009, to get federal dollars flowing into the U.S. economy. Eighteen months later, an examination by McClatchy and the Medill News Service has found that some parts of the country have benefited far more than others have, that some sectors of the economy are benefiting far more than others are, and that it's difficult to detail exactly where all the money has gone.
• S.C. Green Party candidate takes aim at DeMint

  There's a third candidate in the South Carolina U.S. Senate race — nationally known environmental activist Tom Clements of Columbia — who, right now, is struggling to gain name recognition equal to that of Democrat Alvin Greene.
• U.S. dentist slain in Afghanistan wouldn't proselytize, brother says

  The twin brother of one of the 10 medical volunteers killed in Afghanistan last week spoke out Sunday about the nature of his brother's work, saying there was no element of Christian proselytizing.
• Sebelius has task few envy: Leading health care overhaul

  Implementing the health-care overhaul bill passed earlier this year makes her one of the most powerful bureaucrats in the country, with one of the toughest jobs. How important is her role? Forbes magazine last year ranked her the 57th-most powerful woman in the world.
• Report unveils junk science, tainted testimonies at N.C.'s SBI

  Agents at North Carolina's State Bureau of Investigations have cut corners, bullied the vulnerable and twisted reports and court testimony when the truth threatened to undermine their cases, a Raleigh News & Observer investigation of the SBI's work, policies and practices reveals.
• In flood-ravaged Pakistan, army gains stature over government

  The Pakistani government's poor response to the worst floods in the country's history has damaged its fragile democracy, while the powerful military establishment has gained stature with its emergency relief work, analysts said.
• Rwandan genocide survivor sees laptops as key to country's future

  Samuel Dusengiyumva was 13 years old in the spring of 1994, when more than 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered in a 100-day killing spree of unthinkable proportions. His family — mother, father, siblings — was wiped out by the Rwandan genocide. Dusengiyumva put his life back together through education — finishing school and studying to become a lawyer — and that decision led him to his current role: country manager for a computer program that aims to put a laptop in the hands of every school-age child in Rwanda.
• Commentary: The unconscious of a conservative

  Future historians will have plenty to argue about as they analyze today’s politics through the lens of time. One debate might be about whether 2010 was the year conservatism died.
  In the days of Dwight Eisenhower and Nelson Rockefeller, conservatives were those who wanted limited government and low taxes, but still found room to accommodate a range of beliefs under their tent. And they even had a degree of tolerance for those who were outside it. Now intolerance is in and anyone violating any of the core conservative beliefs is branded a heretic.

McClatchy Washington report 8/6

Top Story

• Obama courts GOP's McConnell — a vision of life after November?

  Is President Barack Obama preparing for a new political balance in Washington if Democrats lose or significantly narrow their congressional majorities in November's elections and he'll need more Republicans to get anything done?

Spotlight

• Despite constitution, Nicaragua's Ortega plans to stay in power

  The constitution bars Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega from seeking re-election next year, but that's not stopping the onetime leftist revolutionary.

Latest Headlines

• Lobbyist charged with making illegal campaign donations

  A federal grand jury on Thursday charged a once-powerful Washington lobbyist with evading federal limits on campaign donations by using straw donors to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to members of Congress, especially those with influence over military spending.
• Prop 8 supporters question Judge Walker's impartiality

  After Vaughn Walker was nominated for the federal court in 1987, gay activists took issue with his role as a lawyer for the U.S. Olympic Committee who successfully sued to bar a San Francisco sports festival from calling itself the "Gay Olympics." After Walker issued a landmark ruling Wednesday that overturned California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, his detractors took issue with the fact that the judge is gay.
• Retired N.C. scientists recall birth of the atomic age

  Sixty-five years ago today, high in the mountains of northern New Mexico, the public address system at a secret facility called Site Y — now known as Los Alamos National Laboratory — crackled to life. "Attention, please. Attention, please," the announcer said. "One of our units has just been successfully dropped on Japan." That was it. No details about the destruction or even the name of the city that had been struck, Hiroshima.
• Senate approves Wynn for Fourth Circuit, Diaz still waits

  After months of languishing on the U.S. Senate calendar, Judge James A. Wynn Jr. of Raleigh, N.C., was confirmed late Thursday to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, a position for which he was first nominated in 1999.
• Texas leaders threaten lawsuit over federal education fund provisions

  In the latest round of the Texas vs. Washington political battle, the state's Republican leaders Thursday blasted a U.S. Senate-passed mandate on education funding in Texas, with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst threatening legal action against the federal government if the House upholds the measure in a critical vote next week. The provision applies only to Texas and was crafted by Texas Democrats in Congress, who say they want to ensure that more than $800 million in federal education dollars earmarked for the state isn't diverted to other purposes.
• South Carolina's Graham, DeMint part ways on Kagan

  Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint on Thursday offset each other's votes on Solicitor General Elena Kagan's Supreme Court nomination, with Graham backing her to become the third sitting female justice and DeMint opposing her.
• Cuba demands removal from U.S. terror list

  The U.S. State Department on Thursday kept Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying that Havana continues to shelter members of two Colombian guerrilla groups and a Basque faction. The list, which includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, is part of a State Department report issued annually since 1979 on cooperation with U.S. counter-terrorism efforts. Cuba was first put on it in 1982.
• With BP oil well capped, Florida looks for business to rebound

  In June, Sean Snaith ran the numbers and concluded the Gulf oil crisis might cost Florida's economy $11 billion. This week, the University of Central Florida economist dialed back that nightmare scenario and says the damage will probably be about 80 percent less. Snaith's revised math may be an academic exercise. But it also reflects a hope across the Gulf Coast that the coming weeks will bring a brighter outlook for a battered economy.
• Alaska Rep. Young's GOP opponent wants answers on Coconut Road earmark

  Alaska Republican congressional candidate Sheldon Fisher on Thursday called on the Justice Department to disclose the results of its investigation of Rep. Don Young's Coconut Road earmark because Congress itself took the unprecedented step of seeking the inquiry. The Justice Department, as is typical in investigations that end without prosecution, has declined comment on Young's assertions. But Fisher said the Coconut Road matter is different because it was requested by a vote of Congress in 2008.
• Commentary: Piecemeal approach to immigration reform won't work

  Facing an ABC-TV news camera in Arizona just after pieces of that state's highly publicized immigration law were blocked, a young woman who supports the measure said immigrants were taking jobs away from legal citizens.
  With all the political posturing, however, we sometimes forget there are human beings involved. And we definitely forget that laws created in individual states cannot trump federal mandates. That's why key pieces of the Arizona law were blocked.

McClatchy Washington report 8/5

Top Story

• Housing boom's jobs aren't returning as economy recovers

  The housing boom that helped fuel U.S. economic growth and employment from 2000 to 2007 was an unsustainable bubble, and when it burst it not only sent the economy into a tailspin, but also left the U.S. economy struggling to create jobs.

Spotlight

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  Ex-Guantanamo detainee now campaigning in Afghanistan

  In a country whose young parliament is filled with warlords, suspected drug barons, one-time mujahedeen fighters and religious zealots, Izatullah Nasrat Yar can still make history. Yar has set out to become the first "enemy combatant" once held at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay to become an elected Afghan lawmaker.

Latest Headlines

• Scientists cast doubt on claims BP spill's no threat to Gulf

  Many scientists say they're skeptical of a widely publicized government report Wednesday that concludes much of the oil that gushed from BP's leaking well is gone and poses little threat to the Gulf of Mexico.
• Oman wants to purchase Lockheed F-16s

  Lockheed Martin could be close to landing another foreign order for F-16s after the Defense Department notified Congress on Tuesday that the government of Oman requested permission to negotiate to buy 18 planes, weapons and other equipment worth about $3.5 billion. The Oman deal still faces several hurdles. Congress has 30 days to veto the proposed sale. If that does not occur, the U.S. government would extend a formal offer to sell planes to Oman. Once that offer is accepted, Oman and Lockheed would negotiate terms of a sale.
• Prop 8 ban dropped but California gays must wait to marry

  Within an hour after a federal judge declared that gay people in California have the right to marry, Wendy Rae Hill gathered her partner, two children and mother and headed to the Sacramento County clerk's office. Hill and Carrie Tedrick, who have been together for three years, hoped to officially tie the knot Wednesday. They left disappointed. The clerk told them and other gay couples who wanted to take advantage of a window of opportunity to get married that no certificates would be issued for at least a day or two.
• U.S. PR offensive highlights insurgent attacks on Afghan civilians

  In one of his first major initiatives since he took command of the international force in Afghanistan a month ago, Army Gen. David Petraeus has launched a public relations offensive to focus attention on the Taliban-led insurgency's killings and abuse of Afghan civilians.
• Small business bill appears to be stuck in Senate

  The U.S. Senate might leave town this week without finishing up what Democrats had hoped would be a significant political achievement before the August recess: passing a multibillion-dollar swath of programs to help struggling small businesses. On its face, the legislation would pour billions into a slate of programs to help small business obtain federal microloans, government contracts and export assistance. But the bill also is part of the political wrangling that's going on in Washington ahead of fall's midterm elections.
• California asks Holder to investigate climate change rollback donor

  California's State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John Perez have asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to open an investigation into a tiny Missouri nonprofit organization that has pumped nearly $500,000 into a voter initiative to suspend the state's landmark climate change law.
• Feds indict dealers of data for fake credit history reports

  Federal prosecutors in Kansas City on Wednesday claimed a first-in-the-nation indictment against people who supply information used to build fake credit histories. In the federal grand jury indictment returned Wednesday, two people were accused of conspiring in a large-scale scheme to help others buy expensive houses in Lee's Summit, Missouri, by using phony credit reports and stolen Social Security numbers.
• BP will try to cement Deepwater Horzion well today

  BP said it would begin pouring cement into the Deepwater Horizon well today in a procedure that could lead to the permanent sealing of the well. National Incident Commander Thad Allen gave permission for the process after a day of monitoring the well indicated no problems from the successful "static kill" that used heavy drilling mud to drive the crude oil back into the rock formation from which it had surged 106 days earlier.
• Commentary: U.S. has always struggled with immigration

  Fierce partisans on both sides of the immigration debate would do well to take a breather.
  Some of the harshest measures of Arizona's controversial immigration law have been halted by an injunction. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton forbade the state from requiring police officers to check the immigration status of those they stop or arrest. Thus begins what promises to be a protracted fight in federal courts.
• Commentary: WikiLeaks, Breitbart and the rise of 'parallel media'

  The politics and consequences of the Shirley Sherrod video and the WikiLeaks' Afghan was documents were dramatically different, but the two affairs have enough in common to warrant seeing them as a single takeaway moment in contemporary media history. In both cases — the civil servant unjustly lifted from obscurity to serve as a partisan punching bag and the deluge of secrets shaking certainties about a war that has evaded domestic political challenge — the news agenda was shaped by new media players who were playing by rules of their own.