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legs to reach the toilet door.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- If America is a nation of immigrants, it's also a nation of immigrants' husbands, wives, parents and children -- and their brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews too.
• That could begin to change under legislation being written in the Senate, where the nation's longstanding emphasis on family-based immigration is coming under scrutiny.
• Unlike most other industrialized nations, the U.S. awards a much larger proportion of green cards to family members of U.S. citizens and permanent residents than to foreigners with job prospects here. About two-thirds of permanent legal immigration to the U.S. is family-based, compared with about 15 percent that is employment-based, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The remainder is largely humanitarian.
• It's a lopsided ratio that may change under a bill being crafted by a Senate bipartisan negotiating group that is aiming to release legislation next month.
• Several senators involved in the talks said employment-based immigration must increase to help American competitiveness and the U.S. economy. High-tech companies have been pleading for more workers, and some Republicans, in particular, believe the educational backgrounds and employment potential of prospective immigrants should be a bigger part of the calculus in awarding green cards, the permanent resident visas that are the key step toward citizenship.
• ___

• ATLANTA (AP) -- Now that investigators have determined the origins of the engine-room fire that paralyzed a Carnival cruise ship at sea for five days, they will try to learn more about the cause, the crew's response, and why the ship was disabled for so long.
• A Coast Guard official said Monday that a leak in a fuel oil return line caused the engine-room fire that disabled the Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving 4,200 people without power or working toilets for five days.

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