In brief: Senate passes $612 billion defense policy bill

WASHINGTON – Over White House objections, the Senate on Thursday passed a $612 billion defense policy bill that calls for arming Ukraine forces, prevents another round of base closures and makes it harder for President Barack Obama to close the prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Senate voted 71-25 to approve the bill, which Obama has threatened to veto.

The bill provides a 2.3 percent pay increase for U.S. servicemen and women and sets up a system so troops would not have to serve for 20 years before getting some retirement money. It also reaffirms a ban against torturing detainees, works to curb cost overruns at the Pentagon, suggests cuts to headquarters’ staffs, provides $3.8 billion for the Afghan security forces and accelerates shipbuilding.

“The Senate’s overwhelming, bipartisan vote reflects the vital importance of this legislation to our men and women in uniform, especially at a time of growing threats to our national security. I hope today’s result will encourage the president to abandon his misguided veto threat,” said Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Before it can go to the president’s desk, the bill must be reconciled with a version passed by the House – a process McCain, R-Ariz., predicted could be finished in July.

Moments after the overwhelming vote to establish military policy, Democrats blocked a separate bill that provides the actual funds for the Pentagon. The vote was 50-45, 10 short of the votes necessary to move ahead.

Democrats oppose the way the bill skirts congressional spending caps by padding an emergency war-fighting account that is exempt from the caps. They argue that if Republicans want to break through spending caps on defense, they should do so for domestic spending, too.

World’s oldest person, 116, dies

DETROIT – A woman deemed the world’s oldest person died in Michigan, about a month after her 116th birthday.

Jeralean Talley died Wednesday evening at her home in the Detroit suburb of Inkster, according to her daughter, Thelma Holloway. Holloway said Thursday that her mother was recently hospitalized and treated for fluid in her lungs before returning home “just where she wanted to be.”

Talley turned 116 last month. The Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group considered Talley to be the world’s oldest person, based on available records, followed by Susannah Jones of Brooklyn, New York. The group said Jones turns 116 in July.

Texas inmate executed

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Texas death row inmate Gregory Russeau was executed Thursday evening for the slaying of a 75-year-old East Texas auto repair shop owner 14 years ago during a crack cocaine binge.

Russeau, 45, from Tyler, became the nation’s 17th convicted killer to receive a lethal injection this year and the ninth in Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court last October refused to review his case, and no additional appeals were filed for him in the courts. In a 7-0 vote this week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected a clemency petition for Russeau.

Russeau was convicted and sentenced to die for the May 2001 fatal beating of James Syvertson, who was attacked, robbed and whose car was stolen from his shop in Tyler.

One dead after boat collision

SAN DIEGO – A woman has died after a collision between a suspected smuggling boat and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vessel off the coast of San Diego County.

Authorities spotted a boat before dawn Thursday off Encinitas, California, that was carrying 20 people suspected of trying to enter the country illegally.

CBP spokeswoman Jackie Wasiluk said authorities ordered the skipper of the 26-foot-long boat to stop and fired warning shots when it kept going.

The two boats collided, and the suspected smuggling vessel capsized and sank.

Agents pulled everyone from the water. An unconscious woman died at a hospital, and several others were treated for minor injuries.

Nineteen people are in custody. The death is under investigation.