1. Iraq strategy: Obama, Congress leaders meeting
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has shifted his focus away from airstrikes in Iraq as an imminent option for slowing the Islamist insurgency, in part because there are few clear targets the U.S. could hit, officials say.
Obama has made no final decisions and could ultimately approve limited strikes if stronger targets emerge, the officials say. The CIA and other spy agencies are scrambling to close intelligence gaps in the region and track the movements of key figures in the militant group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which seized Mosul, Tikrit and other towns in Iraq as parts of the country’s military melted away.
The president summoned top congressional leaders to the White House on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the collapsing security situation. The relentless violence marks the greatest threat to Iraq’s stability since the U.S. military withdrew at the end of 2011 after more than eight years of war.
“It’s time for the Iraqis to resolve it themselves,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry, a Nevada Democrat. “Those who attack President Obama for bringing our troops home from Iraq are wrong and out of step with the American people. After a decade of war, the American people have had enough.”
Obama has ruled out returning combat troops to Iraq in order to quell the insurgency. However, he has notified Congress that up to 275 armed U.S. forces are being positioned in and around Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. interests.
2. Senators propose 12-cent gas tax increase
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators unveiled a bipartisan plan Wednesday to raise federal gasoline and diesel taxes for the first time in more than two decades, pitching the proposal as a solution to Congress’ struggle to pay for highway and transit programs.
The plan offered by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would raise the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4-cents-a- gallon diesel tax by 12 cents each over the next two years, and then index the taxes to keep pace with inflation.
The plan also calls for offsetting the tax increases with other taxes cuts. Senators said that could be done by permanently extending six federal tax breaks that expired this year, but they indicated they would be open to other suggestions for offsets.
The federal Highway Trust Fund that pays for highway and transit aid is forecast to go broke by late August. Revenue from gas taxes and other transportation user fees that go into the fund haven’t kept pace with federal aid promised to states. People are driving less per capita and cars are more fuel efficient, keeping revenues fairly flat. But nation’s infrastructure is aging, creating greater demand for new and rebuilt roads and bridges. At the same time, the cost of construction has increased.
“For too long, Congress has shied away from taking serious action to update our country’s aging infrastructure,” Murphy said in a statement. “We’re currently facing a transportation crisis that will only get worse if we don’t take bold action to fund the Highway Trust Fund.”
3. Trademark board rules against Redskins name
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal trademark board ruled Wednesday that the Washington Redskins nickname is “disparaging of Native Americans” and that the team’s trademark protections should be canceled, a decision that applies new financial and political pressure on the team to change its name.
The 2-1 ruling from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board came in a case that has been working its way through legal channels for more than two decades. It doesn’t force the team to abandon the name, but it comes at a time of increasing criticism of team owner Dan Snyder from political, religious and sports figures who say it’s time for a change.
The Redskins quickly announced that they will appeal, and the cancellation for trademark protections will be on hold while the matter makes its way through the courts. That process could take years.
“We’ve seen this story before,” Redskins attorney Bob Raskopf said. “And just like last time, today’s ruling will have no effect at all on the team’s ownership of and right to use the Redskins name and logo. We are confident we will prevail once again.”
4. Clinton: ‘Unanswered questions’ remain on Benghazi
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton says many unanswered questions remain about the deadly 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, even as U.S. authorities have captured their first suspect in the case.
Clinton, speaking in separate interviews with CNN and Fox News, said Tuesday she was still seeking information on the attacks that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans and led to numerous investigations. But she defended the Obama administration’s response to the incident and said the State Department tried to respond to the fast-moving attacks that have become a focal point of criticism from Republicans.
“We want to know who was behind it, what the motivation of the leaders and the attackers happened to be. There are still some unanswered questions,” Clinton said on CNN. “It was, after all, the fog of war.”
Clinton urged the Obama administration to remain cautious about working with Iran to combat fast-moving Islamic insurgents in Iraq. And she said it was unclear whether it would have turned the tide in Syria if the U.S. had tried to help moderate rebel forces there, as she once advised.
5. Ukraine’s president offers cease-fire in east
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s new president on Wednesday promised a unilateral cease-fire as a start toward ending the fighting that has wracked the country’s east, a potential major development in efforts to bring peace to the deeply polarized nation.
President Petro Poroshenko’s plan, announced after talks with the leaders of Russia and Germany, would offer separatists in the eastern provinces that form Ukraine’s industrial heartland a chance to lay down their weapons or leave the country.
Yet a key question is whether Moscow has the desire and the ability to persuade the pro-Russia insurgents to accept Poroshenko’s plan. Rebel leaders have remained defiant, but in a sign of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, some of them visited Moscow this week to meet with senior officials and lawmakers.
Poroshenko didn’t say when the cease-fire could be declared, but the country’s defense minister, Mykhailo Koval, was quoted as saying it could begin “within days.”
The plan could also help ease the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War, a situation triggered by Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in March following the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russia president.
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