Republicans plan hearing on borders
House Republican leaders announced Thursday that rather than negotiate the type of overhaul of immigration law that President Bush has called for, they instead will hold a hearing next week to help fashion a focused border-security package.
The decision effectively ends any chance that Congress would pass legislation addressing the legal status of millions of illegal immigrants before November’s elections.
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said the border-security initiative would provide more border-patrol agents, add fencing and surveillance along the southern border, and toughen the enforcement of immigration laws inside the country.
Phoenix
Man arrested in attack on sisters
Police arrested a man in two sexual assaults blamed on the city’s elusive Baseline Killer. But they stopped short of saying Thursday that they have caught the predator who has been spreading fear across the Phoenix area.
Mark Goudeau, a 42-year-old construction worker, was arrested Wednesday and accused of attacking two sisters, ages 21 and 24, in September 2005 while they were walking in a park at night.
Police said forensic evidence tied him to the two crimes, but they would not elaborate.
The Baseline Killer, so-named because his earliest crimes occurred along Phoenix’s Baseline Road, has been linked to 23 crimes in the Phoenix metropolitan area dating to August 2005, including eight killings, 11 sexual assaults of women and girls, and several robberies.
Washington
Senate OKs money for military efforts
The Senate agreed to spend an additional $63 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as lawmakers Thursday passed a massive bill that funds the Pentagon.
The bill sailed through by a vote of 98-0 after senators added money to help track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and fight the opium trade in Afghanistan that is helping fuel the Taliban’s resurgence.
By a 96-0 vote, senators approved $200 million to revive a CIA unit dedicated to hunting down bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.
Senators also voted 51-45 in support of an amendment by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to provide $700 million for Pentagon efforts to combat the opium trade in Afghanistan.
Cape Canaveral, Fla.
NASA will attempt launch today
Caught in a scheduling squeeze, NASA decided to try to launch space shuttle Atlantis today without replacing a troublesome electrical component.
Today had been the last launch day available before the U.S. space agency ran into a scheduling conflict with the Russian space agency. But NASA managers now believe they can try Saturday, if needed.
There was a 30 percent chance bad weather would interfere at the 8:40 a.m. PDT launch time today.