BREAKING OVERNIGHT:
CNN: 'Thank you:' Cleveland kidnapping victims speak out for the first time
For the first time since their rescue two months ago, the world is hearing directly from the three women who were held captive in Cleveland for a decade. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight released a video on YouTube, offering their thanks to all those who have supported them since they were freed from captivity.
NATIONAL STORIES:
CNN: In Zimmerman's trial, it's a jury of millions
When the jury emerges from deliberations days or weeks from now to render its verdict in that Florida courtroom, when the family of Trayvon Martin leans forward in breathless anticipation and when George Zimmerman stands to hear his fate, you can bet your Disney vacation the whole affair will end badly.
SEE ALSO: CNN: Was Trayvon Martin impaired by marijuana?
CNN: Q&A: How does an air crash investigation work?
Three days after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash landed at San Francisco International Airport with the loss of two lives, there is still no official explanation for what caused the incident. Officials have said the Boeing 777, which had flown from Seoul in South Korea, was traveling slower than recommended on its final approach, though it could be months before a definite cause for this is determined. Before that an expert team of air crash investigators must complete a thorough analysis of the events leading up to the crash. CNN looks at how such an investigation works.
WSJ: Baggage-Toting Fliers Remain a Risk to Emergency Evacuations
Jumping down a steep evacuation slide from a burning airplane with people all around panicking isn't easy, and you need your arms and hands to help. Yet time after time, passengers evacuate toting suitcases, laptop computers and other valuables they apparently can't leave behind.
WHITE HOUSE:
CNN: Obama strongly considers withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan in 2014
President Barack Obama is seriously considering withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2014, a senior administration official told CNN. The official's comments came after The New York Times reported the administration was looking at speeding up the troop withdrawal to the "zero option," leaving no troops in Afghanistan. Until now, U.S. and Afghan officials had been discussing plans to keep a small force behind to fight insurgents and to train Afghan security personnel. But Obama has, in recent months, grown increasingly frustrated in dealing with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
CNN: White House: no immediate cut in U.S. aid to Egypt
When is a coup not a coup? According to White House spokesman Jay Carney, when it is an "incredibly complex and difficult situation" involving key Middle East player Egypt that requires more time to figure out what response would be in the best interest of the United States as well as promoting democracy in Egypt.
CBS: White House: Economy growing slower than forecast
The White House on Monday revised downward its forecast for U.S. economic growth this year, citing government spending cuts, the ongoing recession in Europe, and slowing expansion in China and other emerging markets. In its so-called mid-session review, the Office of Management and Budget projected that domestic GDP will expand in 2013 at an annual rate of 2 percent. That's down from the 2.3 percent rate of growth that the Obama administration assumed in its annual budget in April.
NBC: While mourning 19 dead, US again prepares to ax wildfire prevention funds
The Obama administration, which will send Vice President Joe Biden to Arizona on Tuesday to mourn 19 firefighters killed in the Yarnell Hill fire, is cutting federal programs meant to control the spread of exactly that kind of catastrophic wildland fire. For the third year in a row, the Obama administration has proposed slashing spending on hazardous fuels reduction, the federal buzzword for clearing away underbrush and smaller trees through controlled burning and cutting. The idea behind such work is to make future fires easier to put out by removing now the fuel they need to spread rapidly. Congress has cut the program in the past two years.
NYT: Judge Urges President to Address Prison Strike
A federal judge ruled on Monday that she had no power to order the military to refrain from force-feeding a detainee at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But in an unusual move, the judge made a direct appeal to President Obama to address issues raised by the hunger strike at the prison that has lasted months.
WX Post: Officer cleared of threatening Michelle Obama
A District police officer accused of threatening Michelle Obama has been cleared of administrative charges related to the first lady but was found guilty of posting a derogatory job description on social media and depicting the president as a communist, his attorney said Monday. Members of a departmental review board ruled that Christopher Picciano, a 17-year veteran who was a member of the elite presidential motorcade detail, should be suspended without pay for 40 days for conduct unbecoming an officer. His attorney, James W. Pressler, said his client is weighing an appeal. The city had sought to have Picciano fired.
CAPITOL HILL:
CNN: Student loan fight heats up as Congress returns from break
House Republican leaders returned to Capitol Hill on Monday after a one week break and immediately blamed Senate Democrats and the White House for a hike on interest rates for an estimated seven million students who plan to take out government-subsidized student loans this year.
SEE ALSO: CNBC: Congress Is Back: Here's What's on the Bickering Agenda
Politico: Republicans meet to talk immigration
A small group of Senate and House Republicans met Monday night to discuss how to pass an immigration overhaul through Congress. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who has been hungry to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws this Congress, was planning on going to the session. Most top members of Republican leadership in the House and Senate were not planning on attending the confab, according to sources.
SEE ALSO: WSJ: Focus of Immigration Debate Shifts to House
The Hill: GOPer: 'We can't trust the president' on immigration laws
Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) said Monday night that Republicans who oppose the Senate's immigration bill don't trust President Obama to enforce the border enforcement provisions in that bill. "One of the biggest fears we have about the Senate amnesty bill… is we can't trust the president," Fleming said on the House floor. "We can't trust him.
NYT: Democrats Plan Challenge to G.O.P.’s Filibuster Use
In a move that could bring to a head six months of smoldering tensions over a Republican blockade of certain presidential nominees, Senate Democrats are preparing to force confirmation votes on a series of President Obama’s most contentious appointments as early as this week. If Republicans object, Democrats plan to threaten to use the impasse to change the Senate rules that allow the minority party wide latitude to stymie action.
Roll Call: Panel Tackles Legislative Branch Budget
Almost four months into life on Capitol Hill in the era of the sequester, House members have 20 percent fewer dollars to run their offices. The Office of the House Chief Administrative Officer, lawmakers’ de facto HR department, is offering buyouts. And Capitol Police officers are being pulled from posts around the Capitol complex to cut back on overtime pay, meaning longer lines to enter buildings are increasingly becoming business as usual.
POLITICAL:
CNN: Ex-advisers hint at future as Perry announces exit as governor
Rick Perry may be giving up what he called "the greatest job in modern politics." But he's not leaving the Texas-sized political stage that launched his last run for the White House anytime soon. After an event Monday in San Antonio where he announced he will not be seeking a fourth term as Texas governor, Perry was asked what he plans on doing with the time off he has coming. "No time off man. What are you talking about? You weren't paying attention in there," Perry told CNN.
SEE ALSO: Associated Press: 5 things to know about Texas Gov. Rick Perry
CNN: Federal judge temporarily blocks new Wisconsin abortion law
A Wisconsin federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order preventing the state from enforcing a new and restrictive abortion law. The law, signed by Gov. Scott Walker on Friday, bans doctors from performing abortions if they don't have admitting privileges to hospitals within 30 minutes of their practice. U.S. District Judge William Conley granted the hold Monday after the Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed suit.
Richmond Times-Dispatch: McDonnell reimburses $2,400 in mansion supplies
As legal and public pressure mounts over the use of Executive Mansion resources by Virginia’s first family, Gov. Bob McDonnell late last week reimbursed the state for nearly $2,400 in food and household supplies used by his children. The governor’s office disclosed the reimbursement Monday, the same day that a Richmond Circuit Court judge deferred until later this week a decision on whether to dismiss the four-count embezzlement indictment against former mansion chef Todd Schneider.
CNN: Romney Contributes to Ryan Campaign
Reunited with money and it feels so good. Is that the saying? In politics, it should be. Former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney donated $5,200 to his former running mate Paul Ryan on June 3, helping to bring Ryan’s second quarter haul to a total of $1.1 million.
Politico: Marco Rubio in tough spot on abortion
It took Marco Rubio only a few days to return to the spotlight on another controversial issue. Urged by anti-abortion rights groups and Republican lawmakers to take up their cause, the Florida senator is mulling over introducing legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks nationally — just a few days after he helped pass a comprehensive immigration bill that created waves among conservatives.
HuffPost: Rick Scott, Bobby Jindal, Phil Bryant Call On Obama To End Sequestration Furloughs
Three southern Republican governors called on President Barack Obama Monday to end National Guard furloughs resulting from sequestration cuts. Govs. Rick Scott (Fla.), Bobby Jindal (La.) and Phil Bryant (Miss.) said in a letter that the cuts would harm their states' abilities to fight natural disasters, and they urged the administration to direct the Department of Defense to reverse the policy.
NATIONAL SECURITY:
CNN: Report: Osama bin Laden - doting grandpa, paranoid terrorist
Osama bin Laden typically wore a cowboy hat while tending his garden. Its broad brim obscured his features from the view of pesky eyes or satellite cameras that might blow his cover while he was hiding out in Pakistan, according to a report published widely in Pakistani media. The 337-page leaked report details one of the world's most wanted man's domestic life as a grandfather in his final days of life. It also scathes Pakistani authorities for failing to keep him out of the country, and for failing to prevent the U.S. raid by Navy SEALs that killed bin Laden in May 2011.
CNN: Snowden weighs asylum offers
Still a man without a country and stuck in a Moscow airport, U.S. intelligence leaker Edward Snowden appears to have several options available as he seeks asylum. Venezuela has extended an offer of asylum to Snowden; President Nicolas Maduro said his government received a formal asylum request from Snowden and is now waiting to hear back from him, a government spokesman said Monday.
SEE ALSO:
WX Post: With Snowden offer, Venezuela’s Maduro is on world stage
BBC: Edward Snowden case: Bolivia summons envoys over jet
Military Times: Congressman takes interest in complaint against Marine Corps commandant, legal advisers
An outspoken congressman says he is troubled by allegations the Marine Corps commandant and his legal advisers manipulated criminal cases stemming from a vulgar war-zone video. Rep. Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican whose House district encompasses Camp Lejeune, contacted the Defense Department inspector general on July 2 to ask about that complaint.
TRANSPORTATION, REGULATION and JUSTICE:
CNN: Flash flooding traps Toronto train passengers, stalls rush hour traffic
Toronto's rush hour Monday turned into anything but - as a deluge from a summer storm inundated the city, swamping commuters whether they traveled by rail or by road. Passengers on a double-decker Go Transit train found themselves dead in the water when a flash flood submerged the line, leaving them ankle-deep in the murky mess and in need of rescue.
SEE ALSO: WX Post: Canadian train disaster sharpens debate on oil transportation
CNN: Judge orders Aaron Hernandez case evidence documents to be released
A Massachusetts judge ruled Monday that the public should know exactly what investigators seized from the home of former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez, who has been charged with murder in the death of a friend. Bristol County District Judge Daniel O'Shea ordered the documents to be made available Tuesday afternoon.
SEE ALSO: USA Today: Robert Kraft: Patriots were 'duped' by Aaron Hernandez
CNN: Supreme Court asked to stop NSA telephone surveillance
The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to stop the National Security Agency's surveillance of domestic telephone communications data. In an emergency appeal filed Monday, a privacy rights group claimed a secret federal court improperly authorized the government to collect the electronic records, and said only the justices could resolve the statutory issues at stake.
LA Times: California prison officials say 30,000 inmates refuse meals
California officials Monday said 30,000 inmates refused meals at the start of what could be the largest prison protest in state history. Inmates in two-thirds of the state's 33 prisons, and at all four out-of-state private prisons, refused both breakfast and lunch on Monday, said corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton. In addition, 2,300 prisoners failed to go to work or attend their prison classes, either refusing or in some cases saying they were sick. The corrections department will not acknowledge a hunger strike until inmates have missed nine consecutive meals.
National Journal: The IRS Mistakenly Exposed Thousands of Social Security Numbers
Another day, another slipup by the Internal Revenue Service. The incident involves the unwitting exposure of "tens of thousands" of Social Security numbers, according to a recent audit by the independent transparency and public-domain group Public.Resource.org. The identifying numbers were on the Internet for less than 24 hours after being discovered, but the damage was done. And unfortunately, the data-breach concerns some of the most sensitive types of transactions: Those made by nonprofit political groups known as 527s.
REGIONAL HEADLINES:
The Courant: Newtown Firearms Group Files Suit Over New State Gun Laws
A Newtown-based trade association for the firearms industry filed a lawsuit against Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and others on Monday seeking to reverse the state's tough gun-control law passed in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, whose headquarters are just 3 miles from the school where a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators Dec. 14, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut.
NYT: Financial Crisis Just a Symptom of Detroit’s Woes
As officials negotiate urgently with creditors and unions in a last-ditch effort to spare Detroit from plunging into the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation’s history, residents say the city has worse problems than its estimated $18 billion debt.
SEE ALSO: Detroit Free Press: Tom Walsh: Will Detroit go bankrupt? Orr says the answer may already be in the cards
Houston Chronicle: Abortion rallies face off again in Austin
About 2,000 people rallied at the Capitol on Monday to speak out for and against abortion rights before lawmakers return to a special session Tuesday to work on measures to restrict the procedure. Featured speaker at the Stand4Life Rally was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who said “the eyes of America are on Texas and the stand you're taking on human life.”
Boston Herald: Brothers’ mother will face accused bomber
Her heart has been broken “in a million ways,” but Liz Norden has vowed to look evil in the eye tomorrow in a search for answers as accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev makes his first appearance in federal court. Her boys — J.P. Norden, 33, and Paul Norden, 32 — both lost their right legs in the April 15 blasts on Boylston Street. J.P. also had his car keys burned into his left leg, his mother added, further complicating his painful recovery.
Silicon Valley Mercury News: New Bay Bridge opening postponed until at least December
The Bay Bridge's broken bolts have busted the schedule, forcing the construction team to postpone for weeks or months the opening of the Bay Area's new signature bridge while critics lambaste the designers and builders for missteps that contributed to the delay. Citing a longer than expected timetable to retrofit the seismic stabilizers where key anchor rods snapped in March, transportation leaders acknowledged Monday that the span will not open to traffic immediately the morning after Labor Day as planned. No new opening date has been set.
Portland Press Herald: LePage vetoes bill cutting toxic chemicals in kids' items
Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a bill Monday that would bolster a state program to phase out toxic chemicals in children's products. Advocates said they would return to the State House on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to override the veto. The focus will likely be on Republican lawmakers who have helped sustain most of the governor's vetoes this session, after initially voting to pass legislation.
INTERNATIONAL:
CNN: Reports: Egypt's interim president limits his powers, sets timetable for elections
Egypt's interim leader, Adly Mansour, has issued a constitutional declaration giving himself limited power to make laws, and outlined a timetable for parliamentary and presidential elections, according to state media. There was no official word on the decree from the president's office. If state media reports are accurate, the 33-article decree would grant Mansour limited legislative powers, but only after consultation with a cabinet, which would wield veto power.
WATCH: VIDEO After more than 50 people are killed in Egypt, Fouad Ajami and CNN's Ben Wedeman weigh what's next.
CNN: 13 dead in Indian hotel collapse
The death toll from Monday's building collapse in southern India has risen to 13, local officials said Tuesday. The three-storey hotel was located in Secunderabad, a city in Andhra Pradesh state, senior police official Anjani Kumar told CNN.
BBC: Syria opposition government head Ghassan Hitto resigns
The Syrian opposition figure tasked with forming an interim government to administer rebel-held areas has resigned, citing an inability to do so. In a statement, Ghassan Hitto said he would "continue working for the interests of the revolution". His decision follows a leadership overhaul by the National Coalition.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23232189
BBC: Chinese police 'fired on Tibetans marking Dalai Lama birthday'
Chinese police opened fire on a group of Tibetans who had gathered to mark the Dalai Lama's birthday, leaving several people injured, a rights group and news reports say. The incident happened in Daofu in Sichuan province on 6 July.
NYT: Istanbul Park Becomes Scene of Violence After Reopening
The public park at the center of last month’s antigovernment protests in Turkey, sealed off for weeks to keep demonstrators at bay, quickly became the scene of more unrest after reopening on Monday, offering a volatile reminder of how divided the government and its opponents remain.
Times of London: Miliband challenges unions on funding
Ed Miliband will stake his leadership today on driving through fundamental reforms to weaken the unions’ grip on Labour’s funding, selection and policymaking. Three million union members will be asked whether they want to be affiliated to Labour, instead of being automatically enrolled, as at present.
BUSINESS:
Bloomberg: Asiana Seen Saving Millions With Tactic to Bar U.S. Suits
Asiana Airlines could avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements by employing a tactic under international law to bar Chinese and South Korean passengers from suing in victim-friendly U.S. courts over the crash of Flight 214. Asiana may argue that most if not all of the Chinese and South Korean passengers’ ultimate destination was their home countries, since they probably held round-trip tickets, and that’s where they should file their claims.
CNNMoney: Barnes & Noble CEO resigns as company struggles
Barnes & Noble announced Monday that CEO William Lynch has resigned, as the ailing bookseller struggles to find its place in a rapidly changing industry. Lynch is departing after a three-year tenure in which Barnes & Noble was battered by the shift away from brick-and-mortar bookstores to e-commerce and digital products.
WSJ: Central Bankers Hone Tools to Pop Bubbles
Central bankers everywhere else are watching these experiments closely, among them Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve. He and his counterparts around the world, seared by the worst financial crisis in 75 years, are searching for ways to halt borrowing binges before they morph into bubbles, and to push lenders to shore up their defenses before the next crisis arrives.
Reuters: China inflation picks up, limits room for policy easing
China's annual consumer inflation accelerated more than expected in June but factory-gate deflation persisted for a 16th month, underscoring the policy dilemma facing the People's Bank of China as it worries about long-term price risks even as economic growth slows.
CNNMoney: Credit card delinquencies lowest since 1990
Credit card holders are more responsible about paying their bills than they've been in more than 22 years. Delinquencies on bank-issued credit cards - on accounts that were 30 days or more overdue - fell to 2.41% in the first quarter of 2013, the lowest level since 1990, according to an American Bankers Association report released Tuesday.
