Europe Stocks Fall After Merkel Sarkozy Meet

German Bund future FGBLc1 opened 42 ticks higher at 133.53, after rising as high as 133.79 in after hours trading.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday vowed to stand side by side in defending the euro and laid the groundwork for future fiscal union. .

But they stopped short of increasing the bloc's rescue fund and disappointed investors by declaring that any thoughts of common euro bond issuance would have to wait.

Support for a common bond had been growing as it is increasingly seen as a way to allow highly indebted euro zone countries to regain access to commercial markets while providing investors a safeguard through joint liability.

"Predictably, Tuesday's meeting between Angela Merkel and Sarkozy offered a statement of intent and floated some generic ideas, rather than offering concrete details on the next steps of how Europe's crisis will be resolved in the immediate future," Societe Generale said in a research note.

Italian 10-year government debt yields would come in focus after falling below 5 percent for the first time in five weeks in the previous session as the European Central Bank continued to buy bonds from those countries.

Analysts have said that the ECB needs to maintain consistent and steady purchases of those bonds to keep funding costs at affordable levels.

Carlsberg A/S, the Nordic region’s largest brewer, plunged 14 percent after reducing its full-year outlook. Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1) and London Stock Exchange Group Plc (LSE) lost more than 3 percent amid plans for a financial-transaction tax.

The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined 0.3 percent to 236.79 at 9:08 a.m. in London as more than three stocks dropped for every two that climbed. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.2 percent and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures rose 0.1 percent.

“The Sarkozy-Merkel meeting was the major event yesterday and anyone expecting a rabbit to be magically pulled from one of their hats would have been disappointed,” Jim Reid, a global strategist at Deutsche Bank AG in London, wrote in a report today. “Whilst markets will ponder the potential effects on market liquidity and the broader economy arising from the financial-transaction tax, it was the broader tax agreement that was unexpected.

Indiana fair tragedy was no 'fluke,' experts

An emergency plan outlining what to do if severe weather threatens the Indiana State Fair takes up a single page and does not mention the potential for evacuations. Most of the guidelines suggest language for PA announcements and offer advice about seeking shelter.

After high winds toppled a huge outdoor stage, killing five people and injuring at least four dozen, questions about whether the fair did enough to anticipate a storm have loomed over the event. Some fairs hire their own meteorologists for just such a scenario.

The Indiana fair's one-page plan has nine bullet points. Two of them quote specific wording for announcements to be made when severe weather moves in and when the all-clear is sounded. State fair spokesman Andy Klotz confirmed Tuesday that the one-page statement is the event's severe weather policy but declined to elaborate.

While the page is part of an overall emergency plan, it's far less specific than the policies of other state fairs and outdoor venues, some of which have iron-clad rules about weather and stage construction.

Managers of the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn., ask engineers to review and approve onstage sound and lighting equipment.

Let's stop bucketing meteorology and weather in general into some magical mystery science that can't be explained. When a tragic accident due to existing extreme weather conditions occurs, there is a notion to just throw your hands up in the air and say, "Well, nothing could have been done to avoid this" or "Nobody could have seen this coming" or "It was just a damn fluke". In many instances, that just simply is not the case and it wasn't the case in the tragedy at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Powerful, damaging winds were a known threat several days before and during the minutes leading up to the stage collapse.

But with all this said, it shouldn't have even come down to a warning issued by the National Weather Service. Brad Panovich, chief meteorologist at WCNC-TV, Charlotte, N.C., notes in a recent blog entry of histhat evacuations and the priority of seeking shelter even before the issuance of a severe thunderstorm warning should have already been in place. We are talking about a recipe for disaster — an approaching line of severe thunderstorms containing high winds and lightning bearing down on a large, metal but seemingly fragile outdoor stage set with its rigging standing high and hovering over the crowd below.

Story: Indiana fair's storm plan is brief, generic

He writes, "Problem here is you have people in an outdoor event and around a temporary structure which requires them to seek shelter at a much lower threshold. Something that should have been known by those organizing the event. One of the fatalities was a stage hand in a metal light structure running a spot light, with lightning clearly visible in the distance. Lightning alone was sufficient reason to evacuate people and since lightning was within 10 miles of the fair grounds patrons should have been seeking shelter.

The science of meteorology is growing by leaps and bounds especially with continuing advances in satellite and radar technology. When severe weather strikes, we are in awe of the power and the visuals but we shouldn't be in awe of the severe weather event itself. There are definitive and well-known reasons why hail reaches softball size or a tornado strikes one neighborhood but misses the other or why wind gusts reach 70 mph. This isn't voodoo, this is meteorology. The science is getting better and better each day in timing of significant weather and its location down to city landmarks and even street level.

Let's stop dismissing the science and making it a scapegoat. The gust front was not random. This was a severe weather event which was well predicted but still led to the deaths of 5 people who were hoping to see a Sugarland concert.

Kevin Federline and girlfriend Victoria Prince have his fifth

Kevin Federline becomes a father once again. The ex-husband of pop singer Britney Spears welcomed his fifth child last Monday, August 15 after his current girlfriend, former competitive volleyball player Victoria Prince, gave birth to their first daughter together at 6:33 P.M., 

Kevin and Victoria named their newborn Jordan Kay. The former backup dancer has hinted the name choice back in April. To Us Weekly, he shared, "[Victoria] said that if we were going to have a little girl, she wanted to name her Jordan. And then, we actually thought that it was a boy, but we stuck with the name Jordan because, you know, it fits both ways."

The baby girl joined Kevin's expanding family. The 33-year-old, who once tried to be a rapper, has two children with ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson, a 9-year-old daughter Kori and a 7-year-old son Kaleb, and two more sons with ex-wife Britney, 5-year-old Sean Preston and 4-year-old Jayden.

Jordan Kay, who is Prince's first child, was born at 6:33 p.m. Monday. No word yet on Jordan's size or weight, but Federline already explained how he and his lady love settled on the baby's name.

"If we were going to have a little girl, she wanted to name her Jordan. And then, we actually thought that it was a boy, but we stuck with the name Jordan because, you know, it fits both ways," he told Us Weekly in April.

The rapper, 33, who now has more children than musical hits, was once married to Britney Spears and is the father of her two boys, Sean and Jayden. He also has two other kids -- Kori and Kaleb -- with ex-girlfriend Shar Jackson, an actress-singer who starred in "Moesha." Federline left Jackson to be with Spears. His marriage to Spears ended in 2007 in a very public divorce. Shar had no hard feelings, apparently: She and K-Fed appeared together in VH1's "Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp" in 2010.

Federline and Prince, 28, a former pro volleyball player, began dating in 2008. Now that the birth is out of the way, the couple could be hearing wedding bells.

"I do want to get married," he told the mag. "But I will wait until I have the courage to propose.

Voters backing Seattle tunnel; fight may finally

One of the scariest days in recent Seattle memory occurred just over a decade ago, when the 6.8-magnitude Nisqually earthquake crumbled old masonry walls and set swaying the two-level viaduct that carries automobile traffic along the downtown waterfront.

The viaduct was damaged, but didn't collapse. That was only by fortuitous accident, engineers said later. Had that 2001 earthquake been a bit stronger or lasted, say, 20 seconds longer, the elevated roadway would have pancaked like a deadly house of cards.

Thus began the process of endless studies, debate, attempted consensus -- and eventually lawsuits and recall attempts -- that often characterizes Seattle politics. Everyone is polite (the worst name-calling here happens when one side accuses the other of not being "real" environmentalists); everyone has an opinion; and nothing ever gets decided.

The issue: Should the viaduct be dismantled and replaced with a $3.1 billion deep-bore tunnel project that will carry traffic under and through downtown -- that's what the state Department of Transportation and most of the City Council want to do -- or should the city pursue a much cheaper network of improvements to surface streets and Interstate 5 that will carry traffic around downtown?

That's where things sit Tuesday, the deadline for mailing in ballots on a referendum that is intended to be a final thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the conundrum known simply as the Tunnel.

If the referendum passes, the City Council will be free to sign the last agreements with the state to proceed with groundbreaking for the tunnel, which makes up $1.9 billion of the estimated $3.1 billion cost of the transportation improvement project, in the fall. If it fails, the city and state will likely try to go ahead with the tunnel anyway. How long can you talk about an issue, after all? But opponents believe a resounding public "no" will, at the very least, send a strong cautionary message to City Hall.

(Warning: The language of the referendum is actually so technical and confusing that both sides could wind up declaring victory when it's over.)

The tunnel would be the largest deep-bore tunnel ever constructed, stacking cars vertically inside a 57.4-foot-diameter underground pipe running 1.7 miles through the heart of the city.

Proponents argue that it would give the city a chance to dump the ugly viaduct and build a "world-class" waterfront that for the first time takes advantage of the breathtaking views of Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains.

Opponents say that, with little access to downtown from the tunnel, it would make travel harder, not easier, and would further wed people to their automobiles. They also warn that the $400 million in tolls the state is hoping will help pay for the project will never materialize -- drivers will churn onto surface streets anyway to avoid them -- and Seattle taxpayers will be left to cover the shortfall.

As the sun set over the Olympics, pro-tunnel Councilmember Richard Conlin said the scene from Pier 57 made him think of what the entire waterfront would look like if the viaduct were removed.

In a statement Tuesday night, Gregoire said the vote sent a clear message that "enough is enough."

Even before Tuesday's outcome, the state was determined to press ahead with the project. Contracts have been awarded and groundbreaking is scheduled for early next month. The tunnel is supposed to be completed by December 2015.

The referendum was seen as a measure of public support for the tunnel, even if the actual ballot language was on a narrow question of whether the City Council should approve technical agreements with the state on the project.

Barring a major turnaround in later vote counts, Tuesday's result clears one of the last political hurdles for the long-debated viaduct replacement.

Tunnel supporters portrayed McGinn as an obstructionist whose referendum would only prolong the process of replacing the viaduct. The Let's Move Forward campaign also reminded voters that on the eve of the 2009 mayoral election, McGinn promised to not withhold the city's cooperation on the project.

The pro-tunnel forces vastly outspent the opposition, raising $447,521, much of it from major business interests.

Protect Seattle Now, the anti-tunnel campaign, raised $95,374. But more than half its donations came before April, when it was gathering signatures to get the measure on the ballot. The Sierra Club was the biggest donor with $13,120.

Two McGinn staff members took leaves of absence to work on the signature-gathering effort. McGinn and O'Brien hosted fundraisers; McGinn's campaign consultant Bill Broadhead donated $5,000 and McGinn's wife donated $500.

Protect Seattle Now, with support from the Sierra Club, Real Change newspaper, and a citizens group that favors a viaduct rebuild, submitted more than 29,000 signatures to the city March 29 to qualify the referendum for the ballot. That day, City Attorney Pete Holmes filed a lawsuit challenging the measure's legality.

King County Superior Court Judge Laura Gene Middaugh ruled in May that one clause of the council ordinance adopting the tunnel agreements could go to voters as a referendum. That clause directs the council to give notice to the state to proceed once the final environmental reviews are completed and the project is approved by the federal government.

The narrow, procedural ruling left tunnel backers arguing that the vote would have no legal effect on the project, while McGinn and anti-tunnel activists said it would be a referendum on whether the city supported the project. Faced with poor poll numbers on their favored surface-transit option, tunnel opponents were left criticizing the tunnel but offering no funded alternative.

Clinton defends U.S. response to crackdown in Syria

One week after officials put out the word that the Obama administration would call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly passed up the opportunity to do just that.

Clinton, speaking alongside Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Tuesday at a forum in Washington, D.C., defended the U.S. response to Syria and Libya. And she suggested the time was not yet ripe to go public with a call for Assad's ouster or resignation.

"I am a big believer in results over rhetoric," Clinton said, when asked whether the administration would call on Assad to relinquish power. She noted that she wants to know that other nations in the region are on board in a uniform response.

"It's not going to be any news if the United States says, 'Assad needs to go.' OK, fine. What's next? If Turkey says it, if King Abdullah says it, if other people say it, there is no way the Assad regime can ignore it."

It's unclear whether the administration is waiting for a particular development in order to outline a firmer public stance on Assad, whose forces have launched an aggressive and deadly campaign since the start of Ramadan that has resulted in dozens of deaths. The four-day death toll in the Syrian city of Latakia reportedly reached 35 on Tuesday.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland suggested Tuesday that the administration wants to see more out of the United Nations. She said that while the U.N. has issued a presidential statement condemning the Assad regime, "we don't have a Security Council resolution because some countries have still not come off the fence."

Though the State Department claims it wants to hear more from other nations, U.S. officials told Fox News last Tuesday that the administration was planning to explicitly call for Assad to go.

It’s not just brute force, it’s not just unilateralism, it’s being smart enough to say: ‘You know what? We want a bunch of people singing out of the same hymn book,’ ” said Clinton, who appeared with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta at a national security forum at the National Defense University in Southwest Washington.

In some of her bluntest language to date on the administration’s cautious response to the Syrian uprising, Clinton acknowledged Washington’s limited ability to directly influence a country with which it has few economic or political ties. And she struck back at critics who have accused the United States of failing Syria’s pro-democracy movement by not yet publicly demanding the removal of President Bashar al-Assad. Administration officials said last week that such a call might come within days.

“It’s not going to be any news if the United States says, ‘Assad needs to go.’ Okay, fine, what’s next?” asked Clinton, who spoke before a room packed with service members, academics and journalists. “If Turkey says it, if [Saudi] King Abdullah says it, if other people say it, there is no way the Assad regime can ignore it.”

Clinton pointed to fresh successes in building a “chorus of condemnation” against Assad, noting strong statements last week by Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states as well as by Turkey, Syria’s neighbor and major trading partner.

So far there been no evidence of a change of heart by Assad. Tuesday brought fresh reports of violence in at least two Syrian cities as protesters continued to take to the streets, braving sniper fire and, in one case, shelling from tanks, according to news reports. Both U.N. relief officials and the Palestine Liberation Organization condemned this week’s attacks by troops on a Palestinian refu­gee camp in Latakia. A PLO spokesman accused the regime of committing “a crime against humanity.”

At the Washington event, Clinton was asked if the limited U.S. response signaled that the United States would no longer be prepared to preserve stability in troubled corners of the globe. Clinton replied that Americans would still lead but would no longer shoulder the burden alone.

“We have a very clear view that others need to be taking the same steps to enforce a universal set of values and interests,” she said.

Both Clinton and Panetta warned against deeper budget cuts for defense and diplomacy, saying the cuts would undermine the nation’s ability to deal with present security threats as well as future challenges, such as cyber-security and the rise of new economic powers.

“Very simply, it would result in hollowing out the force,” Panetta said. “It would terribly weaken our ability to respond to the threats in the world. 

Carl Lewis Can’t Appear on New Jersey State Senate Ballot

Former Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis, running for a Burlington County state Senate seat, was pushed off the November ballot Tuesday when the state's top elections official refused to certify his candidacy.

A federal judge will hold a hearing on the matter Friday afternoon and could reverse the decision by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who acted in her capacity as secretary of state.

Lewis, 50, a Medford Democrat, has been embroiled in a months-long legal fight over whether he meets the state's residency requirement to run in the Eighth Legislative District.

The track-and-field star grew up in Willingboro but in recent years lived in California, where he voted as recently as 2009. Though he owns property in Burlington County and coaches track at his alma mater, Willingboro High School, he did not register to vote in New Jersey until April 11, the day he launched his campaign.

Guadagno, a Republican, tried to bump Lewis from the primary ballot in April on the ground that he had not lived in New Jersey officially for the required four years.

A federal appeals court overruled Guadagno in May and ordered that Lewis' name remain on the ballot until a federal court judge could rule on the matter.

Both sides are waiting for U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman, who already has rejected part of Lewis' residency argument, to make a determination.

Absent a decision from a court to the contrary, Lewis wasn’t a resident of the state for the constitutionally required four years prior to the general election in November, Secretary of State Kimberly Guadagno said yesterday in a letter to three county clerks in the state’s eighth legislative district.

“I am statutorily required to make and certify a statement of all candidates for whom voters ‘may be by law entitled to vote’ in November,” Guadagno said in the letter obtained by Bloomberg News. “In view of my statutory obligations, I cannot certify the name of Frederick Carlton ‘Carl’ Lewis.”

A hearing is scheduled for Aug. 19, William Tambussi, an attorney for Lewis, said today in an e-mail.

Lewis, a 49-year-old Democrat, persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to stay an April 26 ruling by Guadagno that found him ineligible to run for office because of residency requirements. The ruling temporarily allowed Lewis’s name on the ballot for the June 7 primary election until a district court judge could decide the constitutionality of the state’s residency provision as it was applied to the former athlete.

This eleventh hour, unilateral political tactic is further evidence of the Secretary of State’s utter disregard of the facts,” Tambussi said in an e-mail. “Mr. Lewis’ position from the outset has been and remains that the election should be in the hands of the voters and not a political actor.”

Lewis, who grew up in New Jersey before moving to Texas and California, is fighting to represent a district that has traditionally elected Republicans. Incumbent Dawn Marie Addiego, a Republican, was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Phil Haines, who was tapped for a judgeship.

The nine-time Olympic gold medalist argued that he bought a home in New Jersey in 2005, which made him a state resident. He got a state driver’s license in 2006 and became a volunteer assistant track coach at Willingboro High School, his alma mater, in 2007. Guadagno, a Republican who is also the lieutenant governor, said the record showed Lewis didn’t buy his current home until Nov. 16, 2007, eight days after the cutoff.

Perry's colorful tongue takes the national stage

As Gov. Rick Perry of Texas campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, he's promoting his record in his home state, a state that has created more than 265,000 jobs in the last two years.

Perry says he would do for the nation what he's done for the Lone Star State.

The economy of Texas is growing at roughly twice the national average, but the question is: how much did Rick Perry and his low tax, low regulation philosophy influence that growth?

If you draw a rectangle on a piece of paper and put your pen in the bottom left-hand corner and then make a straight line across the box to the top right-hand corner, you've just drawn a graph of employment in Texas for the last 20 years. Really, that's what it looks like. From Gov. Ann Richards to Gov. George W. Bush to Gov. Rick Perry, the state has exploded in population and jobs.

"So it's not just the last 10 years; this has been going on now for 21 years — at least," says Richard Fisher, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Fisher says population expansion is driving growth. Every day, about 1,000 people are either born in or move to Texas. That means new housing, roads, retail, schools, police, fireman, the list goes on. And while Gov. Perry touts the success of job creation in the private sector, job growth in government employment has been just as strong.

"We're growing at 80,000 school children a year, so those children are going to have to be accommodated," says Bill Hammond, the president of The Texas Association of Business.

The oil and gas industry provided nearly 40,000 new jobs since 2009, and most pay good wages. A truck driver servicing an oil or natural gas rig earns on average $1,600 a week. Texas is also creating a lot of low-paying jobs as well.

A new 4-bedroom/3-bathroom house in a Dallas suburb can be bought for $189,000, and one reason is because immigrants, both legal and illegal, are willing to shingle those roofs in 100-degree heat for relatively low pay. Hammond says easy access to inexpensive labor has long been a critical part of the economy's success.

The governor's mouth may come across as amusing to some Texans who have grown accustomed to "Perryisms" over his decades in public office. Now, however, he's on a larger stage with a brighter spotlight. Will his quips be a plus — something for voters to identify with — or a vulnerability in the campaign?

Obama said Tuesday he was inclined to cut the governor "some slack" since it was so early in his run. The president was asked on CNN about Perry's suggestion that military members would respect the Texan more than him because Perry served in the military and he didn't.

"I think that everybody who runs for president, it probably takes them a little bit of time before they start realizing that this isn't like running for governor or running for Senate or running for Congress," Obama said. "You've got to be a little more careful about what you say."

Not everyone was so understanding about Perry's latest comments.

"Inappropriate and unpresidential," tweeted Tony Fratto, a Republican who worked at the Treasury Department and in the White House under President George W. Bush.

That was his quick verdict after Perry said at a campaign appearance Monday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would be committing a "treasonous" act if he decided to "print more money to boost the economy." Perry said such action by the Fed would amount to a political maneuver aimed at helping President Barack Obama win re-election.

"If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don't know what y'all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas," Perry said, responding to a question from the audience.

He stood by that comment later, telling reporters on Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa: "I am just passionate about the issue, and we stand by what we said."

On Monday, Perry also said he would be a president who was "passionate about America — that's in love with America." Asked whether he was suggesting that Obama didn't love his country, Perry said, "You need to ask him."

Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs hit back Tuesday.

"The statements that Perry makes are remarkable in that just two years ago, the governor of Texas openly talked about leading Texas out of the United States of America, and now this campaign has caused him to profess his love to the United States," Gibbs said during an appearance on MSNBC.

Gibbs added, "Any day now Rick Perry will probably ask to see the president's birth certificate," planting the notion that Perry would stoke falsehoods that Obama was not born in the U.S.

Former President Bill Clinton put it another way this week, dismissing Perry as a "good looking rascal" whose policies are "crazy."

Perry never advocated Texas actually would break away from the United States at a tea party rally in 2009, but he did suggest that Texans might get so fed up they'd want to secede at some point.

In the decade that Perry has served as the longest-running governor in Texas history, he's had more than a few memorable remarks.

Following the BP oil spill last year, he used the term "act of God" to describe the disaster, then later defended the comment as a legal term to emphasize his point that nobody knew what happened. Ending a television interview in 2005 — he says he didn't realize the station was still broadcasting — Perry famously shot a wry smile toward the camera and signed off with what became a Texas catchphrase: "Adios, mofo."

His joke in June about an official whose name sounds like Jose Cuervo, a brand of tequila, being a perfect fit for the state's alcohol and beverage commission fell flat to a ballroom of Hispanic lawmakers. When an American tourist was allegedly gunned down in Mexican waters last summer, Perry drew criticism for asking Mexican President Felipe Calderon to call him within 48 hours to say the body had been found, "or they're not looking hard enough."

Even Perry has acknowledged that some of his beliefs might be a bit out of the mainstream for a presidential run. As the polls closed on Election Day 2010, when Perry would be elected to a third full term, he told The Associated Press that the ideas laid out in his new book were proof that he couldn't seek the White House. He called for scrapping Social Security in his book "Fed Up!" and compared the program to a Ponzi scheme. He's suggested states would do a better job than the federal government managing Medicare.

"Because when you read this book, you're going to see me talking about issues that for someone running for public office, it's kind of been the third rail if you will," Perry said last summer.

But political observers say that even when it looks as if Perry is veering off script, he knows how far to take it.

Carl Lewis stops by the Tri-County Swim meet

USA TODAY's Chelsea Janes caught up with Lewis, 50, as he prepares for this weekend's Hershey's Track & Field Games in Hershey, Pa., where he is a spokesperson.

I'm so fortunate to have done what I love to do for so long, but the day I retired was one of the best days of my life. Not because I was happy to get away from the sport, but because it was clear in my mind that I had done all I possibly could, and that it was time to go.

What are you up to nowadays?

Well, first of all, I started my own foundation — the Carl Lewis Foundation — which works with kids with disabilities. I'm a U.N. (United Nations) ambassador, and I'm also now running for state senate of New Jersey.

And then a relationship with Hershey's and the Hershey's Games. And those games are so real, it's so emotional. These kids get here, maybe their first time on a plane, and they go to chocolate world, so they become friends. They go out, they want kill each other. Some cry losing, some win, but they're all friends right after. It's just so real. And stuff like that is what made me want to find other ways to keep helping out.

Once every 36 years, a local swim club hosts the Annual Burt German Tri-County Swimming Championships, the largest gathering of South Jersey athletes in one location each year. On Aug. 6 and 7, Cherry Hill’s Wexford Leas Swim Club proudly hosted the event. More than 4,000 swimmers from three counties participated.

Swimmers and their families thrilled at the appearance of Olympic Gold Medalist and champion Carl Lewis. Lewis told the children that he was once where they are now. He gave an inspirational speech that encouraged the children to always do their best.

Obama tries to connect with Iowa voters

Davenport, Iowa — President Barack Obama is venturing from Iowa into politically familiar territory, taking his bus motorcade into his home state of Illinois as he wraps up a three-state tour through the cornfields, towns and cities of the Midwest.

The president will hold two town hall meetings Wednesday in western Illinois, the state he once served as senator. He'll then return to Washington for the start of a vacation.

The tour — covering Minnesota and Iowa as well as Illinois — has given Obama a chance to command attention just after Republican presidential candidates dominated the news with a debate and straw poll in Iowa.

Obama made an unscheduled stop in Guttenberg to have breakfast with small-business owners at Rausch’s Cafe. He greeted patrons, who were clearly surprised to see him.

One of them, Jim Pape, a retired plant manager, said he didn’t think much of Washington.

“They ought to plow it under and plant corn,” he said, capturing a sense of the frustration Obama is picking up out on the road.

Obama slammed the Republican presidential field, recalling a moment in last week’s GOP presidential debate when all eight of the candidates said they would refuse to support a budget deal with tax increases, even if tax revenues were outweighed 10-to-1 by spending cuts.

Deportation policy expected to draw protests angry immigrants

Local leaders across the country were presented Tuesday with the results of a report that calls for the end of a controversial Department of Homeland Security program involving local officials in immigration enforcement.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, known as Secure Communities, seeks to find unauthorized immigrants who have criminal records and deport them. According to ICE, the program is a "simple and common sense" way to carry out its agency's priorities, which include the removal of those who pose a threat to the public or are repeat immigration offenders.
But the report, written by a coalition of community organizations under the umbrella of the National Community Advisory Committee, found that a large number of immigrants being deported were not criminals and that it distracts from local police work.
In more than half a dozen cities Tuesday, groups of activists -- ranging from a handful to dozens -- presented the report to local leaders in an effort to get the federal government to drop the program.
Under the program, law enforcement agencies run the fingerprints of people they arrest through immigration databases, aiming to find illegal immigrants.
Critics have said it results in the deportations of immigrants who are in the United States illegally but have no criminal arrest records.
But federal officials have praised the program, arguing that it allows authorities to catch criminals who could fall through the cracks.
Critics of Secure Communities -- including several state governors -- have argued that is not the case.


Touted as protecting citizens from dangerous convicts, the program could split thousands more families, erode trust between immigrant communities and police and cost the president Latino votes if his administration pushes ahead with plans to make it mandatory nationwide, protesters warned Tuesday.


Department of Homeland Security officials are due to host what’s likely to be a heated town hall meeting in Chicago Wednesday about the program.


Just 26 of Illinois’ 102 counties currently participate., including include DuPage, where Procopio was arrested. But the Department of Homeland Security recently told Gov. Pat Quinn and the governors of two other states they can no longer opt out.


Angry immigrants are expected to pack Wednesday’s 6 p.m. meeting at the IBEW Hall, 600 W. Washington Blvd.


“We came to this country for the same reason as everyone else, to work,” said Procopio’s common-law wife, Sonia Perez, one of three dozen protesters at a news conference Tuesday in Pilsen.


“If they take him, I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said, sobbing.


As protesters chanted “Hey, hey, Obama, don’t take away my mama,” Susana Chinchilla, 24, said she is facing deportation after being picked up for running a red light in South Holland in November. Though she was not charged with a criminal offense, she said, police referred her case to Immigration.


Immigration officials emphasize that most immigrants detained under the Secure Communities program are accused of more serious crimes. Statistics from Cook County — which is not part of the program but where Immigration agents can manually check arrestees’ identities through state records — support that argument.


Just two of the 278 inmates held for Immigration at Cook County Jail face driving charges, while 29 are charged with murder, Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Patterson said.


If Cook County was forced to join the program, “I don’t know that we’ll see a big change,” he said.


Protest organizer Emma Lozano disagreed, saying the program would make it “much easier for Immigration to sweep people up.