the latest news on SCHIP, Iran, Katrina, Burma, Blackwater, Darfur, immigration, military recruitment, Christian education, AIDS, UK politics, and select op-eds
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SCHIP. Leavitt seeks deal on children’s health “President Bush’s health secretary said he does not expect Congress to override a veto on children’s insurance and warned that the popular program could be at risk unless Democrats restrain spending.” Democrats stand firm on SCHIP “House Democratic leaders say they won’t bow to Republican pressure to scale back a health care plan for low-income children, despite the Bush administration’s willingness to seek a compromise.” Child Health Battle Foreshadows a Larger War“If Democrats and Republicans had so much difficulty agreeing on a plan to cover 10 million children, most of them from low-income families, how can they ever agree on legislation to guarantee insurance for 250 million or 300 million people?”

Iran . US blames Tehran for escalating Iraq violence “The commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, yesterday sharpened America’s confrontation with Iran, claiming that a leader of its Revolutionary Guard corps was in direct charge of policy in Baghdad.” Iran defiant over nuclear issue “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made a defiant speech defending Iran’s nuclear programme against criticism from Western countries.” Brown not ruling out any option on Iran “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that he would not rule out any option in tackling Iran over its nuclear ambitions, but said he hoped to resolve the dispute through diplomacy.”

Burma . Myanmar junta says weapons seized from Buddhist monasteries “Myanmar’s military leaders said weapons had been seized from Buddhist monasteries and announced dozens of new arrests today, defying global outrage over its violent repression of protestors who sought an end to 45 years of dictatorship.”

Blackwater. Blackwater Faces New Monitoring From State Dept. “The State Department responded to escalating criticism of Blackwater security guards in Iraq, announcing new measures to more closely monitor their operations as a new Pentagon report depicted a troubling lack of coordination between private security contractors and the U.S. military.” Blackwater Chief at Nexus of Military and Business “He is both a former member of the Navy Seals and the scion of a fabulously wealthy, deeply religious family that is enmeshed in Republican Party politics. As a result, the 38-year-old Mr. Prince stands at the nexus between American Special Operations, which has played such a critical role in the war operations, and the nation’s political and business elite,”

Darfur . Darfur Town Razed After Peacekeeper Raid “A Darfur town under the control of Sudanese troops has been razed in apparent retaliation for a rebel attack on a nearby base of African peacekeepers. U.N. officials who inspected the town said Sunday that about 15,000 civilians had fled the area.” U.S. Envoy Laments ‘Poisonous’ Atmosphere Dividing Sudan “The United States special envoy to Sudan, Andrew S. Natsios, expressed deep concern on Saturday over the “poisonous” atmosphere between the north and south as he ended a 10-day visit to the war-torn country.” US ‘fears for Sudan peace treaty’ “He said the Comprehensive Peace Agreement had to be addressed before the situation deteriorated further. The CPA is seen as a key factor in achieving resolution of the conflict in the Darfur region.”

Immigration. Children caught in the immigration crossfire “They are the lost generation of an underground economy: Brought here illegally by parents, they grew up in American neighborhoods, attended American schools and made American friends. As they approach adulthood, most find that their illegal status is a barrier to jobs and education, and their lack of documentation puts them in line for deportation.” Immigrants’ dream nightmare for critics “the Dream Act, which Democrats have vowed to bring to a full Senate vote in November, faces an uphill fight. It was withdrawn last month as an amendment to a defense bill in the wake of intense public criticism.” U.S. working to let in more immigrants “With a nationwide farmworker shortage threatening to leave unharvested fruits and vegetables rotting in fields, the Bush administration has begun quietly rewriting federal regulations to eliminate barriers that restrict how foreign laborers can legally be brought into the country.”

Katrina. Katrina evacuees feel money pinch “Almost 40% of the people displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina were below the poverty line last year, according to a government survey.”

Military recruitment. Military sees big decline in black enlistees “African-Americans, whose longstanding relationship with the US military helped them prove their abilities and offered a way to get ahead, have turned away from the armed forces in record numbers since 2000, a period covering the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the start of the Iraq war.”

Christian education. Religious-based education on trial “In an unprecedented lawsuit that opens yet another front in the nation’s culture wars, an association of Christian schools, including Calvary, charges that the admissions policy at the university unconstitutionally discriminates against them because they teach from a religious perspective.”

AIDS. Black ministers to tackle issue of HIV/AIDS “In what organizers call a historic gathering of African-American clergy, dozens of ministers from across the USA will gather here today with medical professionals and lawmakers to map a plan to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic sweeping the black community.”

UK politics. I take full responsibility, says Brown “Gordon Brown today accepted “full responsibility for everything that’s happened” in the election debacle as he defended his decision not to call a snap poll. The prime minister conceded he “perhaps” should have stepped in earlier to halt speculation about a November election, but insisted he had listened to those on both sides of the argument.” Ministers and MPs criticise PM for ‘bottling’ election “Gordon Brown was fighting yesterday to retain his authority amid a Labour backlash over the way he handled his decision not to call a 1 November general election.”

Op-Ed.

A Nation of Christians Is Not a Christian Nation (JON MEACHAM, New York Times) “The founders were not anti-religion. Many of them were faithful in their personal lives, and in their public language they evoked God. They grounded the founding principle of the nation – that all men are created equal – in the divine. But they wanted faith to be one thread in the country’s tapestry, not the whole tapestry.”