Posted on Fri, Aug. 1, 2008
Mass. lifts a bar on gay marriages
BOSTON - Massachusetts has lifted its ban that kept out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying.
Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill yesterday revoking a 1913 law that had been used to bar the weddings of gay and lesbian couples if the unions would not be recognized by their home states. The law was originally passed to prevent interracial couples from coming to Massachusetts to marry.
"In Massachusetts, equal means equal," Patrick said.
In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages. California followed in June but did not forbid out-of-state gay couples from marrying there.
A Massachusetts study estimates that more than 30,000 out-of-state gay couples will wed in Massachusetts in the next three years, boosting the state's economy by $111 million.
- Inquirer wire services
Senate passes bill to ban lead in toys
WASHINGTON - The Senate yesterday passed and sent to the White House legislation that would ban lead from children's toys and seeks to ensure that chemicals posing possible health problems will not end up on toys and articles that children chew on and play with.
The Senate, stymied by partisan differences over the energy crisis, put aside those differences momentarily to vote, 89-3, for the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. The House passed the bill Wednesday on a 424-1 vote, a reflection of the national outcry over a rash of recalls last year of toys and children's products contaminated by lead and other dangerous elements.
All Philadelphia-area senators voted for the bill. The administration has objected to parts of the measure, but spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday that President Bush would sign it.
- AP
Congress OKs bill on Libya lawsuits
WASHINGTON - Congress yesterday approved legislation to let the State Department settle all remaining lawsuits against Libya by U.S. terror victims.
The bill paves the way for healing the last rifts between the United States and Libya - but only after the country fully compensates Americans harmed in Libya-sponsored attacks, including the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin discotheque.
The Senate passed the bill without objection, and the House followed suit later in the day, sending the bill to President Bush, who is expected to sign it.
The bill creates a fund to compensate the victims and grants Libya immunity from terror-related lawsuits once the secretary of State certifies that they have all been fully compensated.
Libya has paid the 268 families in the Pan Am settlement $8 million each and owes them $2 million more.
- AP
Elsewhere:
Illegal immigrants who volunteer to leave the country through an experimental program to be offered in five cities this month may have to wear tracking devices or check in at offices until they go, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said yesterday. The cities are Santa Ana, Calif.; San Diego; Phoenix; Charlotte, N.C.; and Chicago.
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