|
(Continued from page 36)
• As residents of the city prepare to commemorate the third anniversary of the mass shooting Wednesday, Hileman said some good has come from the tragedy.
• "I look at it as a celebration of how Tucson came together, how total strangers saved my life," she said. "I don't forget the face of a 9-year-old girl whose hand I was holding as she died, but we're not looking back so much as taking their energy and moving forward."
• Jared Lee Loughner was sentenced in November 2012 to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years, after he pleaded guilty to 19 federal charges in the shooting.
• ___
Jobless benefits debate is the first political volley of an election year
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The struggle in Washington over whether to renew expired jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed is as much about providing aid to 1.3 million out-of-work Americans as it is about drawing the first political line of an election year.
• Tuesday's unexpected vote in the Senate removing one obstacle to a three-month extension of aid attracted the support of six Republicans, illustrating the real-life and political pressures on some GOP lawmakers, including those from states with unemployment above the national average.
• Still, the legislation's outcome is uncertain as Democrats, backed by the White House, and Republicans remain sharply divided over whether the cost of the $6.4 billion program extension should be added to the deficit or paid for with spending cuts. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and White House officials indicated they would be receptive to cuts to offset a yearlong renewal of the program, only if Republicans would first agree to restore the benefits for three months without conditions.
• The debate fits neatly into a White House strategy to focus much of this year on longstanding economic disparities and draw Republicans into a midterm fight that Democrats believe they win with the public. Income inequality and the lack of upward mobility will be a central theme of Obama's State of the Union address later this month -- a focus White House officials call Obama's "driving motivation."
• It could be a tricky emphasis. Even as Obama calls attention to what he perceives as structural economic flaws that have created a chasm between haves and have-nots, he is also trying to emphasize the economy's recovery from the Great (Continued on page 38)
|
|
