National News
Washington Post - Some Questions Unanswered in Disaster Housing Plan
Nearly three years after Hurricane Katrina revealed the nation's inability to house large numbers of evacuees, the Bush administration proposed a new disaster housing strategy yesterday that includes a mix of solutions tried after the storm, while leaving major blanks to be filled by the next president.
CQ - Chambers Plan on Addressing Energy This Week
Both chambers will work on energy legislation this week in response to urgent calls to act on gasoline prices, including a vote Tuesday in the Senate on a bill aimed at energy futures trading. But both parties say measures being considered for debate on the House and Senate floors are relatively minor and could continue to be held up by the deep partisan divide over expanding offshore drilling.
CQ - Domestic Supplemental in Works
Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee plan to unveil an emergency spending package for domestic programs July 24 as a way to highlight their concern about the sluggish economy.
LA Times - Mukasey: Congress should set rules for detainees
Washington -- Congress, not judges, should decide how to give Guantanamo Bay detainees their day in court, Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey said today in calling for new laws governing how foreign terror suspects seek their release.
NY Times - As Loan Giants Are Inspected, Bush Prods Congress
Bank examiners from the Federal Reserve and the Comptroller of the Currency are inspecting the books of the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as the Bush administration prods Congress to approve a plan that would enable it to inject billions of dollars into the companies.
Roll Call - GOP Pushes 'All of the Above'
In a move aimed at pressuring Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to relent in her opposition to offshore drilling, House Republican leaders on Wednesday will unveil a comprehensive energy package and continue to demand an up-or-down vote on it until Congress adjourns for the August recess.
Roll Call - Republicans Push for Showdown on Drilling
The looming Sept. 30 expiration of the federal offshore drilling ban has Republicans eyeing a high-stakes showdown on their favorite issue a month before the elections.
Politico - Is Congress the new punching bag?
Congressional approval ratings are in the tank — down to a record 14 percent in a Gallup poll released last week. Maybe it’s partly because the people who fight so hard to get into Congress spend so much time trashing the place once they’re there.
The Hill - Ethics take back seat to economy
Democrats have gotten a taste of the ethics woes that have battered the Republican Party for the past three years, but any public outrage has taken a backseat to pocketbook issues and will likely only affect individual races.
The Hill - Money woes continue for congressional Republicans
The Democrats’ congressional campaign committees maintained a strong fundraising lead over their Republican counterparts in the second quarter, Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings showed Monday.
Politico - GOP stokes base with new "values" agenda
Evangelical conservatives have been tuned out this election cycle, but they may have found their corner of the political ring with Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.), who released a GOP family values agenda that stokes the flames on classic issues like abortion, gays and religion in the public square.
AP - US attorney general wants Congress, not courts, to resolve questions on terror detainees Congress, not judges, should decide how to give Guantanamo Bay detainees their day in court, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Monday in calling for new laws governing how foreign terror suspects seek their release.
International News
International Herald Tribune - Pakistan nervous about U.S. hints at action against militants Strong suggestions by the United States that it could resort to unilateral intervention against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan are generating increasing anxiety in the Pakistani press and among government officials, who warn that such an action could backfire.
AP - Mexico lifts criminal penalties for illegal immigrants caught within its borders
Mexico will no longer jail illegal immigrants detained within its borders.
AP - Bush seems likely to bring more troops home before leaving office as security improves in Iraq
Iraq's security has improved so much, even as U.S. troop levels have dropped, that President George W. Bush seems likely to order thousands more soldiers home by year's end.
Wall Street Journal - Kazakhstan Corruption: Exile Alleges New Details
A former member of the first family of oil-rich Kazakhstan is accusing its authoritarian ruler of extensive corruption, potentially complicating U.S. efforts to improve relations with the strategically important Central Asian state.
AP - US ready to meet with Syrians
The State Department says the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East will meet with Syrian officials traveling to Washington, if requested.
AP - US offers nuclear proposal to NKorea
The United States has proposed a mechanism for verifying North Korea's claims about its nuclear past, Washington's top envoy to the nuclear talks said Monday.
State News
San Diego Union Tribune - State's water chief worries 2009 will be worst drought
California's second-largest storage reservoir will end this year with the lowest amount of water in more than 30 years, the state's water chief said yesterday.
San Francisco Chronicle - A dozen ballot measures, and counting, on election day
Other than the few making headlines, most lack audience
Sacramento Bee - Dan Walters: State budget is late -- is it a big deal?
So we're three weeks into the new fiscal year and California doesn't have a budget. Should that be worrisome? Yes and no.
LA Times - Gasoline prices fall in California, U.S. as demand drops
Oil rises in trading over fears of a tropical storm's effect in Texas.
North County Times - Cunningham asking Bush for clemency
Former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, at the center of one of the worst Congressional bribery scandals in U.S. history, is asking President Bush to let him out of prison.
Roll Call - The Farm Team: Dominoes Fall When Schwarzenegger, DiFi Leave
If ever someone was going to write a help-wanted ad seeking Republicans with a realistic chance of winning a Senate race in California, that sentence would most certainly deserve top billing.
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