News: Whitehouse Seeks Funds to Help Gulf Residents...Arizona Immigration Law...Energy Bill

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration said Wednesday it would ask Congress for funds to help people affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, to boost the oil-spill cleanup tax by a penny a barrel, and to raise the potential liability for oil companies responsible for spills. The proposal is the latest effort by the White House to demonstrate an aggressive response to the oil spill that followed the explosion at a BP PLC offshore oil well on April 20.

Read the story in the Wall Street Journal

SAN DIEGO — New Mexico's governor says it is a step backward. Texas isn't touching it. And California? Never again.

Arizona's sweeping new law empowering police to question and arrest anyone they suspect is in the U.S. illegally is finding little support in the other states along the Mexican border.

Among the reasons given: California, New Mexico and Texas have long-established, politically powerful Hispanic communities; they have deeper cultural ties to Mexico that influence their attitudes toward immigrants; and they have little appetite for a polarizing battle over immigration like one that played out in California in the 1990s.

Read the story from the Associated Press

Washington (CNN) -- Two leading senators on Wednesday introduced a sweeping energy and climate change bill intended to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and reshape the energy sector for the 21st century.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut who sits with the Democratic caucus, said the proposal offered a broad-based approach that would end the nation's dependence on foreign oil while keeping U.S. industry.

Read the story at CNN.com