Mass. special election to replace Kerry likely June 25; primary April 30
By NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Updated, Monday 1/28 at 3:10 pm ET: Massachusetts officials expect Sen. John Kerry's resignation letter Tuesday after he is confirmed to be secretary of state, as expected.
If
he is confirmed and the letter of resignation is received tomorrow,
state elections officials will set the date of the special election to
replace Kerry as June 25th with a primary on April 30th, said Brian
McNiff, spokesman for the Massachusetts Secretary of State Elections
Division.
Kerry's resignation is expected to be effective Friday.
But state law indicates that the date needs to be set not from the
effective date of the resignation, but from the date it is received,
McNiff said. Gov. Deval Patrick (D) said Monday he would appoint a temporary replacement Wednesday.
"If
the senate votes tomorrow, and the Senator is confirmed and he submits
his resignation tomorrow, then I expect to make the announcement on
Wednesday," Patrick said earlier Monday, according to Patrick's office.
Patrick added that he has "pretty much" made a final decision, but didn't indicate who it would be.
"I
told you we’re going to have someone that I am convinced will be a wise
steward of the interest of the people of the Commonwealth while we wait
for the people to elect a senator in a special election," Patrick said.
"And I continue to believe that the main event is the special
election."
Ex-Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) has publicly expressed interest in becoming the temporary senator, but it's not clear that he is the pick.
Senators hope to approve bipartisan immigration reform within months
By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News
A bipartisan group of senators formally unveiled an
immigration reform framework that they hope the Senate could pass "in
overwhelming and bipartisan fashion" by late spring or early summer.
Speaking
at a press conference on Monday on Capitol Hill, five of the eight
members of a bipartisan working group announced the contours of their
agreement, which would shore up America's borders and provide an
eventual path to citizenship for undocumented workers.
A
bipartisan group of senators, led by Democrat Chuck Schumer and
Republican John McCain, have reached agreement on a framework to
overhaul the nation's immigration system.
"We still have a
long way to go, but this bipartisan grouping is a major breakthrough,"
New York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democratic member of the group of
eight, said Monday afternoon.
Schumer, the No. 3 Democrat in the
Senate, set an ambitious goal of translating the statement of principles
released Sunday evening by the senators into legislation by March. He
said the Senate would try to approve the legislation for consideration
in the House by the end of spring, or early summer.
The major development involves the pathway to citizenship for
undocumented workers that would be established under the Senate plan.
Conservatives have resisted similar proposals -- even when they were
proposed by President George W. Bush -- and labeled them as "amnesty"
for individuals who entered the United States illegally.
Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., said that Americans "have been too content for too
long" to allow many undocumented workers to provide basic services
"while not affording them any of the benefits that make our country so
great."
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Senator
John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks during a hearing before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee on Capitol Hill Jan. 23, 2013.
"It
is not beneficial to this country to have these people here, hidden in
the shadows," added McCain, whose own experience on the iss
ue of
immigration provides an instructive example of why immigration reform
has been so elusive for Congress.
McCain had long been one of the
most vocal advocates of a pathway to citizenship for undocumented
workers, but tempered his opinions in recent years amid conservative
scrutiny. As he was fighting off a conservative primary challenger in
2010, McCain appeared in a television ad saying it was time to "build
the danged fence" -- a reference to the proposed fence along the
U.S.-Mexico border, which is favored by a number of Republicans.
The
senators' announcement on Monday comes a day before President Barack
Obama was set to make a major policy address on Tuesday in Nevada on the
topic of immigration. While Obama had not been expected to outline any
formal legislation during his remarks, lawmakers from both parties will
carefully parse the president's words for their impact on the
immigration debate. Schumer said that he had spoken to the president
about the Senate framework, and that the president was "delighted" by
it.
Obama himself had vowed to achieve comprehensive immigration
reform during his first term, but his efforts were stymied. That failure
invited a degree of consternation from the Latino community during last
year's presidential campaign, even though Obama had taken executive
action to halt the deportation of individuals who were illegally brought
to the United States as children.
(That order, made by Obama last
summer, sought to effectively enact much of the DREAM Act, a piece of
legislation that failed in the Senate as recently as 2010, when some
Republicans who'd previously supported the law flipped, and voted
against it.)
Indeed, the success of this push in the Senate may
well hinge on Republicans' willingness to go along with a plan that
gives undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship. Texas Rep. Lamar
Smith, an influential House Republican, already labeled the Senate
framework as "amnesty" in a statement on Monday.
House GOP leaders
were otherwise mum on Monday toward the Senate proposal, though top
Republicans have previously expressed a preference for tackling
immigration in a piecemeal manner.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a
member of the eight-member group and a favorite of conservatives, has
worked to gather conservative support for the proposal. He said at
Monday's press conference that while no one is happy about the estimated
11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally, "We have
an obligation and need to address the reality that we face."
The
other factor weighing upon Republicans involves their poor performance
among Hispanic voters -- a bloc that is growing in importance in a
variety of key battleground states -- during last fall's election.
"The
Republican Party is losing support of our Hispanic citizens," McCain
said Monday in a nod toward a variable that could convince more GOP
lawmakers to support this bipartisan proposal. But, McCain noted, "We're
not going to get everybody onboard."
In the meanwhile, Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged to "do everything in [his]
power as the majority leader to get a bill across the finish line."
"Nothing
short of bipartisan success is acceptable to me," he said in remarks on
the Senate floor preceding the group of eight's press conference.
An interior view of the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil, after it was destroyed by a fire on Jan. 27.
By Alastair Jamieson, Staff Writer, NBC News
Shoes,
bottles and slices of lime lay scattered around the blackened remains
of a dancefloor in Brazil on Monday – signs of how quickly a Saturday
night student party turned into one of the world’s worst nightclub
fires.
End-of-summer celebrations were in full swing at the Kiss
club in the university town of Santa Maria when a band’s pyrotechnic
display set fire to the sound-proofed ceiling and started a fire that
choked dozens to death and saw dozens more trampled in the ensuing
panic.
The image of the burned, empty building was in stark
contrast to the town’s packed gymnasium where relatives of the victims
gathered late on Sunday to mourn after the mortuary became overwhelmed
with bodies.
One woman fell to her knees in grief at the coffin of a relative, while others waited to identify their loved ones.
In total, at least 233 died - 120 men and 113 women - while 92 people are still being treated in hospitals, Reuters reported.
About 50 funerals were expected to take place at the municipal cemetery in Santa Maria on Monday, according to Brazilian television news broadcast Zero Hora.
The cemetery opened early, at 7:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET), and was planning to conduct burials at half-hour intervals, O Globo reported, saying the army had helped dig graves.
A Brazilian nightclub owner and two members of a band have been arrested by civil police investigating the blaze, newspaper Diario de Santa Maria reported Monday. A fourth person is also being sought, the newspaper said.
It
said businessman Elissandro Spohr, also known as ‘Kiko’ – one of the
owners of the Kiss nightclub in the city of Santa Maria – was detained
“on a temporary basis.”
Marcelo Arigony, a police inspector, said
the arrests were "provisional" and that there was not yet ant criminal
accusation. He declined to confirm the identities of those arrested,
saying the investigation "is still quite precarious."
Sphor's
lawyer, Jader Marques, told the Diario de Santa Maria that his client
was present in the club with his pregnant wife at the moment that a
spark from the pyrotechnic flare or fuse handled by the band lit the
soundproofing on the ceiling.
One
of the worst nightclub fires in history has claimed a terrible toll in
the southern Brazil city of Santa Maria, with at least 233 dead by the
most recent count. Authorities and witnesses are saying the fire may
have been sparked by a pyrotechnics show. NBC's Mike Taibbi reports.
The main door of the nightclub was locked at the time, fire chief Guido Pedroso de Melo told O Globo.
He
added that firefighters responding to the blaze initially had trouble
getting inside the nightclub because "there was a barrier of bodies
blocking the entrance.”
Survivors and the police inspector Marcelo
Arigony said security guards briefly tried to block people from exiting
the club, according to the AP, perhaps fearing that patrons would leave
without paying their tab.
But Arigony said the guards didn't
appear to block fleeing patrons for long. "It was chaotic and it doesn't
seem to have been done in bad faith because several security guards
also died," he told the AP.
In a radio interview, the band’s
guitarist Rodrigo Martins said the fire began shortly after the band
took to the stage at 2.15 a.m. local time Sunday.
"When the fire
started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use
it but it wasn't working," he said, adding that the accordion player
Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out
safely.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
COMPLETE TESTIMONY OF LT. JOHN KERRY SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
I found this after I posted the entire piece. So this is for those who want to read the congressional transcript.
Boy Scouts close to ending ban on gay members, leaders
About time! To me it should be the parents decision, as in one video the parents did not care, she was a good leader and cared about the boys. Her sexual habits did not enter the picture, I am very happy to hear that the elite board members are changing their views.
NBC's Pete Williams reports on the major policy shift being considered by the Boy Scouts of America.
By Pete Williams, Justice Correspondent, NBC News
The
Boy Scouts of America, one of the nation’s largest private youth
organizations, is actively considering an end to its decades-long policy
of banning gay scouts or scout leaders, according to scouting officials
and outsiders familiar with internal discussions.
If
adopted by the organization’s board of directors, it would represent a
profound change on an issue that has been highly controversial -- one
that even went to the US Supreme Court. The new policy, now under
discussion, would eliminate the ban from the national organization’s
rules, leaving local sponsoring organizations free to decide for
themselves whether to admit gay scouts.
“The chartered
organizations that oversee and deliver scouting would accept membership
and select leaders consistent with their organization’s mission,
principles or religious beliefs,” according to Deron Smith, a spokesman
for the Boy Scouts’ national organization.
Individual sponsors and parents “would be able to choose a local unit which best meets the needs of their families,” Smith said.
The
discussion of a potential change in policy is nearing its final stages,
according to outside scouting supporters. If approved, the change could
be announced as early as next week, after the BSA's national board
holds a regularly scheduled meeting.
Only seven months ago, the
Boy Scouts affirmed a policy of banning gay members, after a nearly
two-year examination of the issue by a committee of volunteers convened
by national leaders of the Boy Scouts of America, known as the BSA.
In a statement last July affirming the ban, its national executive board called it “the best policy for the organization.”
But
since then, a scouting official said, local chapters have been urging a
reconsideration. "We're a grassroots organization. This is a response
to what's happening at the local level," the official said.
Two
corporate CEOs on BSA’s national board, Randall Stephenson of AT&T
and James Turley of Ernst & Young, have also said they would work to
end the ban. Stephenson is next in line to be the BSA’s national
chairman.
Jennifer
Tyrrell, who was ousted as a den mother for her son's Cub Scout troop
because of her sexual orientation, is fighting back. Tyrrell talks to
msnbc's Thomas Roberts about her petition to change the Boy Scouts of
America's long-standing policy on banning gays and lesbians.
About
50 local United Way groups and several corporations and charities have
concluded that the ban violates their non-discrimination requirements
and have ceased providing financial aid to the Boy Scouts. An official
of The Human Rights Campaign, an advocate for gay rights, said HRC
planned to downgrade its non-discrimination ratings for corporations
that continue to give the BSA financial support.
“It’s an
extremely complex issue,” said one Boy Scouts of America official, who
explained that other organizations have threatened to withdraw their
financial support if the BSA drops the ban.
While the national
scouting organization sets broad policies, more than 290 local councils
nationwide govern the day-to-day conduct of the more than 116,000 local
organizations. Individual scouting troops are sponsored by religious and
civic organizations that represent a diversity of views on the issue of
allowing gay scouts and leaders.
“The beliefs of the sponsoring organizations are highly diverse,” the official said.
The
policy change now under discussion “would allow the religious, civic or
educational organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting to
determine how to address this issue,” said the BSA's Smith.
“The
Boy Scouts would not, under any circumstances, dictate a position to
units, members or parents. Under this proposed policy, the BSA would not
require any chartered organization to act in ways inconsistent with
that organization’s mission, principles or religious beliefs,” he said.
In
2000, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that the Boy Scouts had a First
Amendment right of free expression when it came to the organization’s
belief that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with values stated in the
scout oath, requiring scouts to be “morally straight.”
The Scouts
have won similar legal battles, with courts finding that the BSA’s
right of free association permits it, as a private organization, to
reject those it believes do not conform to is values.
A
fire broke out early Sunday morning at a night club in Santa Maria, in
southern Brazil, killing revelers — many of them students. NBC's Mike
Taibbi reports.
By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News
Updated at 1:23 a.m. ET:
At least 233 people were killed after a band’s fireworks show sparked a
rapidly moving fire in a packed nightclub in southern Brazil and
fleeing patrons were unable to find their way out, local police said.
The bodies removed from the Kiss nightclub in the southern
city of Santa Maria were taken to the Municipal Sports Center gymnasium
for identification, police said.
Major Gerson da Rosa Ferreira,
who led rescue efforts at the scene for the military police, told
Reuters that the victims died of asphyxiation or from being trampled.
Police
Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello told the Associated Press by
telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a
hospitalized victim.
Officials earlier counted 232 bodies that had been brought to the gymnasium in Santa Maria.
In
addition to the number of deaths, more than 100 people were injured,
police said, and most remain hospitalized. Police officials had reported
earlier in the day that 245 people were killed. The death toll could
still rise, police said later, from the people who are injured.
Fire brigade colonel Guido Pedroso de Melo told O Globo newspaper that rescuers had difficulty entering the premises because of "a barrier of bodies" at the entrance to the club.
Television
footage monitored by Reuters overnight showed people crying outside the
club as shirtless firefighters used sledge hammers and axes to knock
down an exterior wall to open up an exit.
Agencia RBS via AP
People help a man injured in a nightclub fire in Santa Maria city, Brazil, on Sunday.
Rodrigo
Moura, who the newspaper Diario de Santa Maria identified as a security
guard at the club, said it was at its capacity of between 1,000 and
2,000 people and patrons were pushing and shoving to escape, the AP
reported.
Police estimated the crowd at some 900 revelers.
Fire
officials said at least one exit was locked and that club bouncers, who
at first thought those fleeing were trying to skip out on bar tabs,
initially blocked patrons from leaving, Reuters reported.
The club's management said in a statement it would help authorities with their investigation, Reuters reported.
One of the club's owners has surrendered to police for questioning, GloboNews TV reported.
"It
was really fast. There was a lot of smoke, really dark smoke," survivor
Aline Santos Silva, 29, told Globonews TV. "We were only able to get
out quickly because we were in a VIP area close to the door."
President
Dilma Rousseff cut short a visit to Chile and visited families of the
victims at the Municipal Sports Center, where relatives were gathering
to identify the bodies. She met with relatives of the injured at
Hospital de Caridade de Santa Maria.
Rousseff declared a national three-day mourning period for victims of the fire.
“Sad
Sunday!” Tarso Genro, the governor of Rio Grande do Sul state where the
club is located, tweeted. “We are taking all of the possible and
appropriate actions,” the tweet read, according to a rough translation
by NBC News. “I will be in Santa Maria later this morning.”
The
precise cause of the fire was still under investigation, authorities
said. But Luiza Sousa, a civil police official in Santa Maria, told
Reuters that the blaze started when someone with the band ignited what
was described as a flare, which then set fire to the ceiling. The fire
spread "in seconds," Sousa said.
The tragedy in Brazil recalled
other nightclub disaster. A fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in 2003
killed 100 people after pyrotechnics used on stage by the rock band
Great White set ablaze foam used for soundproofing on the walls. A
Buenos Aires nightclub blaze in 2004 killed nearly 200 people.
Reuters
noted that Brazil's safety standards and emergency response
capabilities are under particular scrutiny as the country prepares to
host the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The
Brazilian state’s Health secretary, Ciro Simoni, told the news service
that emergency medical supplies from all over the state were being sent
to the scene.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Santa
Maria is in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, the last Brazilian state to
the South. I'm an American living in this region and unfortunately,
little emphasis is put on safety in this country as a whole. Health
codes, building codes, driving rules are either non-existent or not
adhered to. Officials can easily be paid off and the result is tragedy.
We have our share fair of accidents and tragedies in the U.S. but here
it's negligence and thoughtlessness. It's a very sad day for so many
lost lives and for the families and friends of the lost. The 3rd world
will remain 3rd world until the mentality and corruption changes.
Codes, laws and rules have to be in place to prevent these things.
Unfortunately,
I'm reminded of the Great White tragedy that happened here in the
states a few years ago. So many lives lost, for no reason other than
ignorance. I hate to say it, but 3rd world has little to do with it,
though I understand your frustration. It's simple, human, arrogance.
That's a global issue Think.
The
real problem is that fire inspectors are paid off by clubs and that the
clubs themselves do not have trained staff that would inform bands that
NO fires or pyrotechnics on stage. If the band tries to engage in
anything that would start a fire, the plug would be pulled.
It
doesn't happen though...clubs let bands play and do what they want and
fire officials don't do inspections as long as they are paid off.
