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common sense while dismissing criticisms he says come from "extreme fringe conservatives" who claim the government has no right to regulate guns.
• "Yes, they are against it, but they are the extremists and the extremists shouldn't win, especially on this issue when it is so important to the majority," Cuomo said in a radio interview Wednesday. "In politics, we have to be willing to take on the extremists, otherwise you will see paralysis."
• New York's new gun restrictions, the first in the nation passed following December's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school, limit state gun owners to no more than seven bullets in magazines, except at competitions or firing ranges.
• ___
PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama's pledges on debt, growth and manufacturing face mixed prospects
• The issue:
• The U.S. economy is recovering from the Great Recession but at a modest, uneven pace. Many scars remain visible, particularly an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent. The U.S. has 2.8 million fewer jobs than in December 2007, when the recession began. And average hourly wages have trailed inflation in the past three years.
• Meanwhile, the federal budget deficit has ballooned, topping $1 trillion each year in President Barack Obama's first term. It is forecast to fall to $845 billion this year. Obama faces the challenge of reducing that gap without cutting it so quickly that it slows growth.
• ___
As pressure builds on immigration, growing network of GOP donors push for path to legal status
• BOSTON (AP) -- As Congress readies for a drawn-out immigration debate, an expanding network of Republican fundraisers is pressing for a path to legal status for millions of immigrants living in the United States illegally.
• Business leaders and donors who raised tens of millions in the last election are meeting with top GOP fundraisers and Republican lawmakers who may be reluctant to support what critics call "amnesty" for immigrants who broke the law.
• At the same time, a coalition of fundraisers who support overhauling immigration is funneling donations to a new crop of outside groups designed to protect like-minded congressional Republicans who fear a backlash by GOP's core supporters.
• In most cases, the donors have ties to Wall Street and businesses that want (Continued on page 22)
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