Latinos take on bigger role in Obama inauguration

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Latinos are taking a more prominent role in President Barack Obama's second inauguration, from the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice swearing in the vice president to a star-studded celebration of Latino culture.

Eva Longoria, a co-chairwoman for Obama's campaign, is hosting a salute to the president Sunday evening. Antonio Banderas, Rosario Dawson, Marc Anthony and other entertainers are scheduled to appear in "Latino Inaugural 2013: In Performance at the Kennedy Center." The lineup also includes Prince Royce, Frankie Negron, Rita Moreno and Mario Lopez.

Vice President Joe Biden and his family appeared onstage to help open the concert. He said he wanted to thank Latinos for their support in last year's election.

Biden said something profound happened with the enormous Latino support for Obama, and he said the Latino community underestimates its power.

"You spoke in a way that the world ... could not fail to hear," Biden said. "This is your moment. America owes you."

Jose Feliciano opened the show by singing the national anthem.

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who gave the keynote speech at last year's Democratic National Convention, will also address the audience.

Meanwhile, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, an Obama appointee who is the first Hispanic justice on the highest court, administered the oath of office Sunday morning to Vice President Joe Biden.

Latinos have a distinct presence at this inauguration after showing their growing political influence in the 2012 election. Hispanics voted 7 to 1 for Obama over his challenger, Republican Mitt Romney, whose Hispanic support was less than any presidential candidate in 16 years. Analysts said Romney's hardline stance on immigration was a factor.

San Antonio philanthropist and business leader Henry Munoz III, who is coordinating the Latino inauguration event with Longoria and other Obama supporters, said this is a special moment when the Latino community is positioned to take an expanded role in shaping the country's future.

"Without question, the presidential election of 2012 proves that Latinos are perhaps the most important influence from this point forward in the election of the president of the United States," Munoz said. "It's important that the leadership in Washington view us not as a narrow interest group but as a vibrant political force" that carries not just votes, but influence and financial resources.

Organizers planned a series of symposiums, dinners and events ahead of the inauguration to keep people talking about issues that matter to Latinos, from immigration reform to building a Latino history museum on the National Mall. Munoz led a presidential commission that called on Congress in 2011 to authorize such a museum within the Smithsonian Institution, but Congress has not yet passed such a bill.

Munoz said it's important to keep Latinos engaged in the nation's capital to push for their policy priorities through the inauguration and beyond.

"Our work is not done. It doesn't end," he said. "We have a tendency to look at this phenomenon as ending on Election Day, when the reality is now it's time to get to work."

Longoria said this is her first inauguration. She has taken on a new role as political advocate since her days on "Desperate Housewives," helping to push for a Latino museum and co-chairing Obama's re-election campaign.

Even though this is Obama's second inauguration, Longoria said there is still much to celebrate, including Sotomayor's role swearing in the vice president.

"I think there's something beautiful to a recommitment to the people of this great nation," Longoria told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.

Longoria said she hopes to help influence policies, including immigration reform, and that Obama will make that his top priority as an economic issue.

"I'm trying to do my part as a citizen and my part as a Hispanic and as a woman and as an American," she said. "I think everybody should be civically engaged in a level that would affect policy. That's the point; that's how our government is set up."

___

Follow Brett Zongker at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/latinos-bigger-role-obama-inauguration-202248106--politics.html

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Seeking `Higher' Ground: The Dangers of Designer Drugs

Since ancient times, humans have been fascinated with ways to alter consciousness, and have gone to great lengths to reach a ?higher??ground.? From naturally occurring substances such as opium and betel nuts, to synthetic drugs like LSD, people have long experimented with mind-altering substances. This long history of experimentation with psychoactive substances even pre-dates the existence of the word ?drug.?

For example, Native Americans??use of mescaline, extracted from peyote cacti, began as long as 5,700 years ago. Use of the Betel nut ??the seed of a palm tree fruit ??to alter consciousness may not be well-known in the U.S., but this practice has existed for thousands of years. In fact, it is estimated that among intoxicants, only nicotine, alcohol and caffeine are more popular globally than chewing Betel nut extract.

But the latest wave of man-made drugs, or ?designer drugs,??carries new and very real dangers.? For both the individuals using them and the general public, so-called designer drugs like ?bath salts,???K2??or ?spice??quickly have become a public health crisis, and their use is on the rise.? Their danger is related to the potent effect these drugs can have on the human nervous system.? For example,? ?bath salts? (chemically known as synthetic cathinones) combine the dangerous properties of both a potent stimulant and a hallucinogen.? ?K2? is a type of synthetic marijuana (the active compound is THC) and is dangerous because it can be more potent than the naturally occurring plant.

These new designer drugs are proliferating because in many states they are sold ?legally.??This is possible because they are deliberately designed with an alteration to the molecular structure of an existing drug ? to avoid classification as an illicit drug.

Despite their recent proliferation, ?designer drugs?? are not really new ??the term was coined by law enforcement in the 1980s, and widely recognized drugs like LSD, ecstasy and methamphetamines fall into this category.? The latest generation of designer drugs includes synthetic cathinones (commonly labeled with harmless-sounding monikers like ?bath salts??or ?plant food?), which are structurally and pharmacologically similar to cocaine, methamphetamines and ecstasy (MDMA). Synthetic cannabinoids, often branded as ?Spice?? or ?K2,??are chemically engineered to mimic marijuana.? There are many other potent designer drugs with names like Europa and Smiles that are increasing in use. Many of these designer drugs are available legally in drug paraphernalia stores, convenience stores or even via the Internet.? That?s right, legally. Like many cyber sales, delivered to your door with free shipping.

Law enforcement officials are increasing efforts to monitor for and curtail the use of these dangerous drugs.?? For example, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) now includes three synthetic cathinones on its Schedule 1 list of controlled substances and several of the chemicals found in synthetic cannabinoids are banned under the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act of 2012. But many similar compounds are not yet classified as illegal and in some cases they have not even been identified. This is because the ?chemists? who produce designer drugs make incremental alterations to the drugs? chemical make-up, dodging Schedule 1 or illegal classification on a technicality, and thereby claiming to provide a ?legal? high.

For law enforcement officials and regulators, keeping up with these chemists is a game of cat-and-mouse, with potentially deadly consequences. Bath salts carry a high risk of overdose and addiction, chest pains, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia, and delusions¹.? Reported side effects of K2 and Spice include paranoia, panic attacks, giddiness and psychotic episodes.² Despite these risks, their use is on the rise at an alarming rate.? In 2011, the National Poison Control Centers received more than 6,000 calls about synthetic cathinones (including bath salts), compared to only 300 in 2010³.? The American Association of Poison Control Calls reported a 58 percent increase in the number of calls related to synthetic marijuana and/or K2/Spice in just one year ? from 2,906 calls in 2010 to 6,959 calls in 2011.⁴

To make matters worse, the popularity of these drugs is fueled by the frequent claim that standard urine drug screens will not detect their presence. Luckily, there is a new solution that can detect these substances.

Sophisticated laboratory technologies using mass spectrometry assays of urine specimens can identify the vast majority of legal and illegal drugs ingested, since most small molecules have metabolites (i.e., break down products) that are excreted by the kidneys and into the urine. Mass spectrometry assays currently used to detect and monitor use of powerful pain medications (e.g. opioids) can be mobilized to help physicians and regulators, such as the DEA, detect these new designer drugs.

Specialty laboratories are using these advanced technologies to anticipate new chemical formulations and launch new tests to detect dangerous substances.? For example, long before bath salts were a problem in the U.S., the United Kingdom was struggling with increasing rates of overdose and death due to synthetic cathinones.? Reports from British physicians, and the laboratory scientists, prompted U.S.-based scientists to develop new tests that would detect multiple synthetic cathinones ? even variations that were not yet classified by DEA as Schedule 1 substances.

Because physicians are on the front lines ?? typically seeing the effects of designer drugs in the emergency room, office examination room, or hospital ??drug monitoring using mass spectrometry is a critical tool to identify and prevent the use of designer drugs.? Consequently, physicians are increasingly relying on specialty laboratories to help identify the compounds present in patients who are taking controlled medications who are at risk for drug misuse or abuse.

Tackling the threat to public health posed by the proliferation of designer drugs will require efforts from multiple stakeholders.?? Policymakers are beginning to take important action.? In addition to the national ban on several types of synthetic drugs signed this summer by President Obama, both New Jersey and Washington, D.C., have enacted similar bans in recent weeks.^5,6 But the new laws will not save lives without additional action and support.

Regulators and the DEA could make better use of advanced drug detection technologies to more quickly classify new designer drugs as illegal.? Insurance companies must be encouraged to support these efforts by ensuring reimbursement for specialty labs, so that doctors have access to the best technology available to detect and identify designer drug compounds. Data about drug use trends must be provided to the DEA and physicians to educate clinicians on any new dangerous drugs ? and physicians must be vigilant in testing patients who are at risk for drug abuse and misuse.? Finally, the public must be educated about this dangerous category of drugs ? especially because users commonly assume that if a drug is not technically ?illegal,? it is safe to use.

In summary, we have a new major public health threat that represents just the latest step in man?s creative pursuit of new ways to get high.? History tells us that we can?t completely eliminate this threat, but by pooling our knowledge and streamlining legal and regulatory processes, we can succeed in reducing the threat of designer drugs and enhancing public safety. It is the collective responsibility of public agencies, specialty labs, physicians, regulators, and health insurers to pool their knowledge and resources to help improve individuals??safety and the safety of the communities they live in.

~~~

¹http://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/directors-page/messages-director/2011/02/bath-salts-emerging-dangerous-products

² FLASHCARD: National Institute of Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse (2012, May). DrugFacts: Spice (Synthetic Marijuana).

³ American Association of Poison Control Centers, Synthetic Drugs Data and Fact Sheets, Bath Salts and Synthetic Marijuana (September 2012).

⁴ SLIDE DECK: http://www.aapcc.org/dnn/Portals/0/Synthetic%20Marijuana%20Data%20for%20Website%208.2012.pdf

⁵ Howell T.? D.C. joins states on synthetic drug ban.? Washington Times.? Nov 29, 2012. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/29/dc-joins-states-on-synthetic-drug-ban-first-appear/#ixzz2DjTy5B3k

⁶ Queally J.? N.J. permanently bans synthetic marijuana.? The Star-Ledger.? Nov 26, 2012.? http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/11/nj_permanently_bans_synthetic.html

Images: Ameritox

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ASUS MeMo Pad 10 makes unexpected appearance, could become official at MWC (video)

It's been but a mere few days since ASUS quietly introduced that Jelly Bean-loaded, 7-inch Memo Pad, though if a recent video shown off on YouTube is to be believed, the company's got yet another, larger Memo Pad up its sleeve. Such tablet's said to be the MeMo Pad 10, which has yet to be officially unveiled by the Taiwanese firm but has somehow made its way to the folks over at MobileArena. Just like its smaller sibling, the MeMo Pad 10 is reportedly sporting a flavor of Android's latest, but, as its moniker would imply, a 10-inch (1280 x 800) display is among the highlights here -- other purported specs include a 1.2GHz Tegra 3 CPU, 1GB RAM and 16GB of built-in storage (which could be expanded via microSD). We'll have to wait and see if ASUS makes a MeMo Pad 10 announcement in a few weeks at Mobile World Congress; until then, however, there's a video after the break for anyone interested in getting an early peek at the slate.

Filed under: Tablets, ASUS

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Via: Android Community

Source: MobileArsenaldotcom (YouTube)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/zDwzYnVxaS0/

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Red Moon Cafe: A Slow Embrace of Technology

Having reached middle age without having a computer or a cell phone, I don?t think of myself as a Luddite but simply someone slow to embrace new technology. One of my professors gave me a lesson in using WordStar in 1986 when I first entered graduate school to work on my MA. At that time, the computers in use by the English department had two 5.25 inch slots, one for the program disk and one for the disk containing one?s documents. All through graduate school, I continued to draft my essays in longhand first and then type up the final copy on my typewriter. Fortunately, my wife in 1989 helped me put my Master?s thesis on the computer so that it would be easier to make corrections. It took a few frustrating incidents before I mastered the use of the Insert key; something so simple could prevent me from losing text when making an addition or a correction.
By 1993, at the age of forty-two, I had my own computer, a 386, although it essentially was only good for WordStar, which by that time required the downloading of information from three or four 5.25 diskettes. Not having the Internet in my home office made it easier to devote attention to my writing. Taking my comprehensive exams for the PhD required that I learn to use Microsoft Word. Even so, I didn?t finally stop using WordStar until 1999 when my new computer at that time wouldn?t take the 5.25 diskettes containing the software for WordStar. Out of necessity, I had to become comfortable with Microsoft Word.
Despite this slow embrace of technology, I have learned much more about computers and word processing software. After getting tired of giving my money to computer repair people for minor upgrades and virus removal, I resolved about eight years to learn much more about computers and computer repair.
Accepting technology into my life hasn?t included a cell phone until more recently, however. I didn?t get my first cell phone until about 2001 when my wife insisted that I get one in case of an emergency during the lengthy commute to where I was teaching at the time.
About twenty-two years ago, when we briefly sold water treatment systems during a semester we didn?t get a teaching assignment, my wife and I used to admire the guy who had a phone in his car because it allowed him to get his assignments much quicker and to get directions when he couldn?t find the house where he was scheduled to make his sales pitch. We were forced to return to an area convenience store and to use the pay phone as we arranged our next appointment. Our time selling water treatment systems didn?t last. We sold two units but only got paid for one because the other buyer refused to disclose his regular income when the company wanted the buyer to sign a contract and to set up monthly payments. That $800 earned in commission, while not enough compensation for the time that we had invested in our training, helped to ease our poverty for a little while. The remainder of that semester was spent working temporary employment. We ended up moving to the Kansas City area during the following summer.
That Motorola 120C, my first cell phone, remained in use even after four or five years. I had no reason to update since I seldom used it and actually prefer not to use a phone because of my phone phobia, aka telephobia. I don?t know when I would have updated if Tracfone had not informed me that they would no longer service that phone in my area and sent me a replacement Nokia 1100 free of charge. Once again, that phone lasted several years until I replaced it with a Samsung T105G, which made it easier to send text messages even though it, too, didn?t have all of the features of a regular keyboard and made long messages difficult because of its inflexibility.
When we stopped paying for a landline last year, my wife bought a LG 500G as the house phone. After growing familiar with that phone from texting during those occasions when my wife drove, I discovered that it was possible to get my own LG 500G for $10. I can now say that I am much happier with my phone and use it frequently for texting when away from the house. I don?t think I have made an actual phone call in the month that I have been using this phone, however. This phone can be used as a mp3 player if one doesn?t mind using earbuds. It also offers a digital camera of something like 1.3 megapixels. These additional features may seem like bonuses although one has to consider the quality of the camera and the sonic capability of its single speaker. Nonetheless, I now more often make an effort to grab my phone when leaving the house instead of misplacing it and letting it go missing for days on end.
Having become more comfortable with a cell phone, I still don?t foresee a day when I will start acting like my relatives. While visiting them on Thanksgiving, and while trying to ignore the football game that was blaring from the television, I often glanced around the room and saw three or four of my relatives looking down at the screens of their iphones?either to play a game, to organize their pictures, or to send someone else one of their pictures. No one was talking. I hope I never will become that obsessed with technology.

Source: http://redmooncafe.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-slow-embrace-of-technology.html

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Artist's obsession with Twinkies spans 4 decades

This undated image shows "Never Forget,'' one of the most recent of dozens of pieces of art Nancy Peppin has created over the years using Twinkies and other Hostess products. A graphic artist by day for slot machine-maker International Game Technology, Peppin doesn't like to eat Twinkies. She uses them to depict popular culture similar to Any Warhol. (AP Photo/Courtesy Nancy Peppin)

This undated image shows "Never Forget,'' one of the most recent of dozens of pieces of art Nancy Peppin has created over the years using Twinkies and other Hostess products. A graphic artist by day for slot machine-maker International Game Technology, Peppin doesn't like to eat Twinkies. She uses them to depict popular culture similar to Any Warhol. (AP Photo/Courtesy Nancy Peppin)

In this Dec. 14, 2012, photo, artist Nancy Peppin poses with her artwork titled "The Last Snack," modeled after Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper,'' one of dozens of pieces of art she has created over the years using Twinkies and other Hostess products, in Reno, Nev. A graphic artist by day for slot machine-maker International Game Technology, Peppin doesn't like to eat Twinkies. She uses them to depict popular culture similar to the work of Andy Warhol. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner)

In this Dec. 14, 2012, photo, Artist Nancy Peppin holds one of her creations from her series "Day of the Dead Twinkies" one of dozens of pieces of art she has created over the years using Twinkies and other Hostess products, in Reno, Nev. A graphic artist by day for slot machine-maker International Game Technology, Peppin doesn't like to eat Twinkies. She uses them to depict popular culture similar to the work of Andy Warhol. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner)

In this Dec. 14, 2012, photo, artist Nancy Peppin poses with her artwork titled ``The Search for the Darwin Twinkie,'' one of dozens of pieces of art she has created over the years using Twinkies and other Hostess products, in Reno, Nev. A graphic artist by day for slot machine-maker International Game Technology, Peppin doesn't like to eat Twinkies. She uses them to depict popular culture similar to the work of Andy Warhol. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner)

This undated image shows artist Nancy Peppin's "The Last Snack," modeled after Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper,'' one of thedozens of pieces of art Nancy Peppin has created over the years using Twinkies and other Hostess products. A graphic artist by day for slot machine-maker International Game Technology, Peppin doesn't like to eat Twinkies. She uses them to depict popular culture similar to Any Warhol. (AP Photo/Courtesy Nancy Peppin)

RENO, Nev. (AP) ? Long before Hostess Brands' plan to shut down made Twinkies the rage, Nancy Peppin found something special about the cream-filled snack cakes.

No, she doesn't have a sweet tooth for them.

But she has featured Twinkies in hundreds of pieces of quirky, satirical artwork because of an obsession with what she calls the "ultimate American food icon."

The prolific Reno artist says she was first influenced to focus on Twinkies in 1975 by Andy Warhol, who demonstrated that even a Campbell's soup can could be an object of art.

"He showed you a new way of looking at a familiar object," said Peppin, who has sold and exhibited her artwork. "That's what I'm doing with Twinkies. I'm having people look at Twinkies in a brand new way and in an entertaining way."

Shortly after Hostess Brands Inc. announced plans to go out of business last year, Peppin was among those who joined the rush to stores to fill shopping carts with boxes of the spongy cakes.

But unlike others, she didn't buy 12 boxes with 10 Twinkies each to turn a profit on eBay or Craigslist.

"I needed art supplies," said Peppin, who uses Twinkies and their packaging to create some of her pieces. She also features renderings of the snack cakes in watercolor paintings, mixed media, prints and artwork.

Her works include her "Twinkies in history series," which portrays how scientists such as John James Audubon, Charles Darwin and Leonardo da Vinci would have sketched and written about Twinkies in journals or books.

Peppin, an Oakland, Calif., native who earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1966, conducted extensive research to make the series seem as authentic as possible.

Her Audubon series on the "North American Twinkie (twinkopus hostus)" includes illustrations of three "important subspecies ? Cream-bellied Twinkie, Strawberry-throated Twinkie, Golden-backed Twinkie" ? as well as writings describing the "birds" and explaining their migration patterns.

"Twinkies radiate out from the spring St. Louis breeding area to the summer nesting habitats throughout the world. Populations are heaviest in the North American 7-11 meridian," she wrote. St. Louis and 7-Eleven stores both share a long history with Hostess and its brands.

She updated the Audubon series after Hostess shut down operations in November: "It went from being the most popular snack cake in the world to sudden extinction due to consumption by raptors ? capitalist vultures (cathartes wallstreetidae)."

Her painting titled "The Last Snack" is a takeoff of da Vinci's "The Last Supper" featuring Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and other Hostess products at a table with the same arrangement and background as da Vinci's classic.

Her parody of a "girly" calendar from an auto body shop features a partially undressed "Miss Twinkie" standing next to her Harley.

The artwork reflects the offbeat sense of humor of a woman who by day creates special effects animation for Reno-based International Game Technology, one of the world's largest slot machine makers.

Steven High, executive director of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla., said he finds Peppin's artwork ? and use of Twinkies as a metaphor to explore various subjects ? clever, humorous and imaginative.

"In some ways, she takes this kind of silly item and treats it as a cultural artifact and imagines it as a subject of scientific studies," he said. "She's an excellent illustrator and the way she pulls these (works) together is amazing. They're fascinating and draw you in, even though the subject matter is unusual."

Peppin foresees no end to her obsession. With many potential buyers lined up for Hostess brands, she says, Twinkies will survive into the future.

Hostess is expected to announce a bidder for Twinkies and its other snack cakes this month. Other interested parties will be able to make competing offers once the top bid is announced.

"It'll become a mutation of the species, but it'll perpetuate the species," Peppin said. "There are all sorts of history applications that I haven't exhausted like Twinkies being found in the ruins at Pompeii."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-01-21-Twinkie%20Art/id-e5f8cd021b964580802d4784e5e67824

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Astronomy Teacher Finds Hubble Telescope's Hidden Treasure

A Connecticut astronomy teacher has uncovered a dazzling view of a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way while exploring the "hidden treasures" of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The new Hubble photo, released Thursday (Jan. 17), shows an intriguing star nursery dotted with dark dust lanes in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 200,000 light-years from Earth. The Hubble observation used to create the image was discovered in the telescope's archives by Josh Lake, a high school astronomy teacher at Pomfret School in Pomfret, Conn., as part of the "Hubble Hidden Treasures" contest that challenged space fans to find unseen images from the observatory.

Hubble officials also released an eye-popping video tour of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which zooms in on the region highlighted in Lake's photo.

Lake won first prize in the Hubble photo contest with an image of the LHA 120-N11 (N11) region of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Hubble officials combined Lake's image with more observations of the N11 region in blue, green and near-infrared light wavelengths to create the new view.

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"In the center of this image, a dark finger of dust blots out much of the light," Hubble officials said in an image description. "While nebulae are mostly made of hydrogen, the simplest and most plentiful element in the universe, dust clouds are home to heavier and more complex elements, which go on to form rocky planets like the Earth." [Hubble Telescope's Hidden Treasures: Winning Photos

The interstellar dust in N11 is extremely fine, much more so than household dust on Earth. It is more similar to smoke, researchers explained.

The Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC, is one of two small satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (the other is the smaller, aptly named Small Magellanic Cloud). Because of its relatively close proximity, the Large Magellanic Cloud has long been used as a sort of cosmic laboratory to study how stars form in other galaxies.

"It lies in a fortuitous location in the sky, far enough from the plane of the Milky Way that it is neither outshone by too many nearby stars, nor obscured by the dust in the Milky Way?s center," Hubble officials said in a statement. "It is also close enough to study in detail ? and lies almost face-on, giving us a bird?s eye view."

In addition to the N11 region, the Large Magellanic Cloud is also home to the spectacular Tarantula nebula, the brightest nearby star nursery, Hubble officials said.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been snapping spectacular photos of the universe since 1994 and is a joint project by NASA and the European Space Agency. This month, NASA officials said the long-lived space observatory could potentially last through 2018.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter?@tariqjmalik.?Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/astronomy-teacher-finds-hubble-telescopes-hidden-treasure-142230710.html

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Obama adviser optimistic on immigration overhaul

Gun-rights advocates gather outside the Utah Capitol during the National Gun Appreciation Day Rally Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, in Salt Lake City. Gun owners and Second Amendment advocates rallied in state capitals nationwide Saturday, days after President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping package of federal gun-control proposals. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Gun-rights advocates gather outside the Utah Capitol during the National Gun Appreciation Day Rally Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, in Salt Lake City. Gun owners and Second Amendment advocates rallied in state capitals nationwide Saturday, days after President Barack Obama unveiled a sweeping package of federal gun-control proposals. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Gun rights advocates demonstrate near the Capitol building on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, in Nashville, Tenn. Supporters of gun rights held "Guns Across America" rallies across the country Saturday in response to President Barack Obama's plan to curb gun violence. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A top White House adviser said Sunday the stars seem aligned for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul this year, but he sounded less confident about prospects for toughening the nation's gun laws.

White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe made the rounds on Sunday talk shows, outlining the president's agenda for the months ahead. He said past presidents have been able to make significant progress during their second terms, noting that President Ronald Reagan pushed through more tax cuts and that President Bill Clinton helped transform budget deficits into budget surpluses.

He said Obama's focus will be on improving the economy, saying the president believes the best way to do that is to invest in education and manufacturing while also seeking what he called "balanced deficit reduction."

Republicans agreed to let tax cuts expire this year for those workers whose incomes exceed $400,000 a year, but Plouffe said that future negotiations on reducing the deficit will have to include more tax revenue as well as spending cuts and changes to entitlement programs.

"We've dealt with the tax rate issue. Now it's about loopholes," Plouffe said on ABC. "And I think the country would be well-served by tax and entitlement reform, because it'll help our economy."

Beyond the economy and the budget, Plouffe indicated that two social issues will be a focus at the outset of the president's second term: immigration and gun control.

On gun control, he mixed statements of optimism with an acknowledgement of political realities. Republicans control the House, and even some Democrats in the Senate have been extremely cautious in addressing the issue.

"It's going to be very, very hard," Plouffe said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming underscored that point. He said he doubted supporters could get 60 votes in the Senate for legislation allowing universal background checks for gun purchasers and for limiting gun magazines to 10 rounds and under.

"The debt and spending. That's where people are focused. That's the big anxiety of this country," Barrasso said on CNN.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., would not answer whether he could support background checks for every gun purchase. Without getting into specifics, he advocated for better information-sharing to prevent some people with mental health problems from buying guns.

"Let's do things that will make a difference here, rather than take one more opportunity to go at an old agenda," Blunt, a gun-rights advocate, said on Fox News Sunday.

When it comes to overhauling the nation's immigration laws, Plouffe said he believes there's broader support from Republicans nationally than there is from Republicans in Congress. Still, "the stars are aligned" for a bill to include beefing up border security as well as giving those already in the U.S. illegally a path to citizenship. He cited business organizations and religious leaders as key players backing a comprehensive immigration bill.

In leading up to Monday's inauguration, the White House has sought to leave the impression that the president will seek common ground with Republicans. It will also seek to undertake public campaigns to build pressure on Congress to act on the administration's legislative priorities.

The new mobilizing effort will be led by a tax-exempt group called Organizing for Action. The move represents the first time a sitting president has ever transformed his presidential campaign operation into an outside group with the express purpose of promoting his agenda. "We're also going to bring the American people more into the debate than we did in the first term," Plouffe said.

Blunt said the president should put forward proposals that a divided Congress can support rather than put in place an ongoing campaign effort designed to pressure Republicans into going along with his priorities.

"I don't think there's any reason to believe from looking at the last four years that that produces much of a result," he said. "It might produce a stalemate. It might get the president re-elected, but he's not running for a third term."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-20-US-Obama-Agenda/id-205e7abe07ef4b5ba787292d8291c6da

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