WASHINGTON, D.C.

New items stall stimulus bill in Senate

The economic stimulus bill that shot through the House in a burst of bipartisan agreement last week remained stalled in the Senate.

Behind the scenes, a diverse coalition of lobbyists and grass-roots organizers worked to add favorite items to the measure. A Senate vote on the package could occur today or Thursday.

Senior citizens were asking senators to support extending $500 to $1,000 rebates to 20 million elderly people and 250,000 disabled veterans.

TEXAS

Suit tests limiting rentals to legality

A lawsuit was filed over the latest effort in Farmers Branch to keep out illegal immigrants by barring home rentals to people who can’t prove they are in the country legally.

The suit, filed on behalf of real estate broker Guillermo Ramos, alleges the Farmers Branch City Council violated the Texas Open Meetings Act when it drafted and approved the new rule late last month.

RHODE ISLAND

Teens get second chance for justice

Seventeen-year-olds who were charged with felonies as adults under a short-lived state law will have their cases dismissed or be transferred back to juvenile court under a judge’s ruling released in Providence.

The decision affects about 100 teens known as “gap kids” who were charged from July to November after Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri and the Democratic General Assembly agreed to send the teens to adult courts and prisons as a cost-saving measure.

“It is apparent that defendants’ rights were violated by their direct placement in the adult criminal system,” Superior Court Judge Daniel Procaccini said in his ruling.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Georgia loses a water battle

A federal appeals court threw out an agreement that Georgia reached with the Army Corps of Engineers for water rights to a major federal reservoir outside Atlanta, handing Alabama and Florida a victory in the states’ long-standing water wars.

The ruling comes amid tense negotiations among the states’ governors over water sharing during a record drought. The 2003 agreement with the corps would give Georgia about a quarter of Lake Lanier’s capacity over the coming decades, primarily to serve Atlanta.

Alabama and Florida challenged the pact, arguing that Georgia doesn’t have a legal right to the federal reservoir, which was initially built for hydropower.

From Times Wire Reports