Friday, May 16, 2008

Senate Passes Farm Bill, But Bush Still Plans Veto

President Bush will now follow the lead of the late Dwight Eisenhower by vetoing a comprehensive farm bill.

Bush, though, is no Eisenhower.

On Thursday, the Senate, by a comfortably veto-proof margin of 81 to 15, approved a farm bill that now faces a resistant White House. Bush says he will veto the five-year package, much as Eisenhower nixed a big farm bill in April 1956.

Eisenhower won his showdown, the last time a president vetoed a major, standalone farm bill. Bush, however, will lose. The House and Senate now have both approved the farm bill by more than the two-thirds vote needed to override a veto.

"Mr. President, you and your people have been at the table for more than a year," Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) declared. "It's time you recognize the value of this project."

Craig was one of 35 Republican senators to abandon Bush on Thursday and support the farm bill. On Wednesday, 91 GOP House members voted for the bill, boosting the House's approval to a veto-proof margin of 318 to 106.

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Republicans' presumptive presidential candidate, missed the vote but said he opposes the bill. Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) both support the bill, but they likewise missed the vote.

West Point May Alter Songs' Lyrics

WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The head of the U.S. Military Academy thinks it is time to replace the "men" and "sons" in West Point's two most beloved songs with more gender-neutral lyrics. Lt. Gen. Franklin "Buster" Hagenbeck, superintendent of the nation's oldest military academy, has told a congressional oversight committee that with more than 3,000 women having graduated from West Point since 1976, the change is long overdue. Hagenbeck said he wants to change the words to the military academy's alma mater and its companion piece, "The Corps." Both songs date back about a century.

Storms Kill at Least 1 in South

NEW ORLEANS -- Severe storms with damaging winds and possible tornadoes pounded the South, killing at least one person in Louisiana and shattering windows at the Texas Capitol in Austin. In the southern Louisiana town of Grosse Tete, a pecan tree fell onto a camper, killing a 77-year-old man alone inside it.

3 Indicted Over La. Levee Project

NEW ORLEANS -- A former Army Corps of Engineers consultant and a dirt subcontractor have been indicted on bribery charges stemming from an investigation into levee work after Hurricane Katrina. Durwanda Elizabeth Morgan Heinrich, a dirt, sand and gravel subcontractor, was accused of conspiring with two former corps workers to get confidential bid information for a $16.8 million levee project southwest of New Orleans in September 2006.

Causes of Firefighter Deaths Cited

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Inadequate training, outdated tactics and aging equipment helped lead to the deaths of nine Charleston firefighters fighting a furniture store blaze last year, according to a long-awaited analysis by fire experts. The report said firefighters did not follow standard safety practices and had obsolete equipment when battling the Sofa Super Store blaze. The June 18 fire killed more firefighters than any emergency since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

-- From News Services