(Continued from page 26)

• SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A man who illegally came to the United States two decades ago said he hopes a court ruling granting him a law license will open doors to millions of other immigrants in the same situation.
• The California Supreme Court granted a license Thursday to Sergio Garcia, 36, in a unanimous decision.
• Garcia, who attended law school and passed the state bar exam while working in a grocery store and on farms, can begin practicing law immediately.
• Garcia said he hoped the decision would serve as a "beacon of hope" to others in the same situation. He plans to be a personal injury attorney in his hometown of Chico.
• It's the latest in a string of legal and legislative victories for people who are in the country without permission. Other successes include the creation of a path to citizenship for many young people and the granting of driver's licenses in some states.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ask people to imagine American life in 2050, and you'll get some dreary visions.
• Whether they foresee runaway technology or runaway government, rampant poverty or vanishing morality, a majority of Americans predict a future worse than today.
• Whites are particularly gloomy: Only 1 in 6 expects better times over the next four decades. Also notably pessimistic are middle-age and older people, those who earn midlevel incomes and Protestants, a new national poll finds.
• "I really worry about my grandchildren, I do," says 74-year-old Penny Trusty of Rockville, Md., a retired software designer and grandmother of five. "I worry about the lowering of morals and the corruption and the confusion that's just raining down on them."
• Even groups with comparatively sunny outlooks -- racial and ethnic minorities, the young and the nonreligious -- are much more likely to say things will be the same or get worse than to predict a brighter future.

(Continued on page 28)