You’re paying more for gasoline, and here’s why

By Kevin G. Hall and Sean Cockerham McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- Think you’re paying more than you should be for gasoline right now? You are.

Prices tend to spike around Memorial Day, when increased demand cuts against a limited supply as refiners convert from winter fuels to summer blends. But by the middle of June, gasoline inventories are up and prices typically retreat.

This year, they haven’t.

The reason why refutes the commonly held view that deteriorating political conditions in Iraq haven’t had much effect on gasoline prices. They have.

Despite no apparent hit to Iraqi crude production, and near-record levels of U.S. oil production, fears about the Middle East conflict have allowed financial speculators to bid up oil prices _ another contributing factor to high gasoline prices.

The authoritative AAA Motor Club had projected in May a drop between 10 cents and 15 cents a gallon during June.

But Michael Green, a spokesman for AAA on gasoline prices, said Iraq’s troubles are affecting prices more than expected. “U.S. consumers are paying higher prices than what they would otherwise, due to the higher cost of oil,” he said.

Speculative trading on the violence in Iraq is keeping oil prices about $4 a barrel higher than they would be otherwise, said Andrew Lipow, president of the Houston consultancy Lipow Oil Associates.

And that’s affecting consumers. Gasoline prices on Wednesday averaged $3.68 for a gallon of regular unleaded, up slightly up from $3.66 a gallon a month ago and more than 13 cents a gallon higher than at the same time last year.

If you assume that gasoline would revert back to about last year’s June price and add the recent jump, prices are about 15 cents a gallon higher than they should be.

In a car with a 15-gallon tank, that’s $2.25 more per fill-up.

Multiply that by at least 212 million American motorists and you’re talking real money: If every American motorist filled up this week, they’d collectively be paying $477 million more than they did in the same week last year.

Here’s the explanation for the stubbornly high prices: Fear has gripped oil trading markets, after the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS, seized the Iraqi city of Mosul on June 10 and Fallujah soon afterward.

Financial traders fear a collapse of the Iraqi state that could suck Iran and Saudi Arabia into a regional conflict that threatens oil supplies. And those financial players far outnumber actual end users of oil in the markets where contracts for future barrels of oil are traded.

Iraq is a becoming a more important Middle East exporter over the past five years and is now the second largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But OPEC Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said this week that there is no oil supply shortage in Iraq and blamed the recent increase in oil prices on speculative trading in the markets.

“Right now the market is very well supplied,” he told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. He pledged that OPEC could increase production if there is a disruption.

Iraq’s main oilfields are deep in the Shiite Muslim South, an area that is hostile to the Sunni Muslim ISIS. The global energy consulting firm IHS said the fields are protected by government forces as well as Shiite militias, and that an ISIS offensive against them would require substantial fuel and be difficult to sustain for long.

Despite the fears in financial markets, ISIS is unlikely to disrupt Iraqi oil exports, said IHS senior director Jamie Webster, a position widely shared among experts.

Robert McNally, an energy consultant and founder of the Rapidan Group in Washington, suggested that Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region might be able to actually increase oil exports from northern Iraq after seizing the city of Kirkuk in the midst of the crisis.

There have been reports the Kurds already are starting to export oil independently while the central Iraqi government based in Baghdad is in turmoil.

While reports out of Iraq suggest production and export are, for now, unaffected, big global oil companies won’t discuss their production there.

“We don’t have any comment,” said Richard D. Keil, a spokesman for ExxonMobil in Irving, Texas.

There’s little incentive for Keil to discuss production, since the fear gripping financial markets is tantamount to free money for the oil companies. ExxonMobil and other large players reap a windfall from higher oil prices and suffer if prices collapse, as they did during the Great Recession.

What’s particularly galling for many Americans is that the energy industry and its allies in Congress, when pushing for the rights to expand domestic drilling of oil and natural gas, insisted this new production would amount to energy independence and insulate U.S. consumers from events in the faraway Middle East.

John Felmy, chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute, said the Iraq crisis comes at a time when the oil markets already have lost expected supplies of crude from other troubled areas of the globe. He pointed to sanctions against Iran and lost production as a result of problems in South Sudan and Libya.

“It’s not just Iraq, of course. We’ve lost a couple of million barrels per day of capacity . . . at the same time you’ve had growth in world demand . . . about 1.3 million (barrels per day),” Felmy said. “It’s a tighter market, and if not from the increased U.S. production, it would be even tighter.”

Group helps families 'bounce and not break'

RAPID VALLEY, S.D. -- This past Mother's Day became the last day for Jerrie Emory to look into the eyes of her son, Morgon.

Morgon, 18, passed away that day after an exhaustive, nearly 3-year battle with leukemia and other medical complications. Around 6 a.m. that day in May, Jerrie, 46, had been giving Morgon his usual round of medication when the end suddenly came.

"He opened his eyes and looked at me and he kind of winced, which was a good indication that he was having pain," she said. "I said 'Did you hit your pain button?' and I helped him. He went back to sleep and then that was the last he opened his eyes."

The weeks before Morgon passed, however, were made somewhat easier to bear with help from Minnesota-based Spare Key, a privately funded organization that granted the Emory family a month's payment to cover the mortgage on their Rapid Valley home of the past eight years.

Although a seemingly small contribution, the help was monumental. The money gave them the needed boost to shift their focus from mounting bills to allowing Morgon the creature comforts that only a close family can provide.

"You want to be able to focus 110 percent of your energy on your child because you just don't know," Jerrie said. "It came at just the right time."

Spare Key was founded in 1997 by Robb and Patsy Keech as a way to "pay it forward" after their 2-year-old son died from a chronic heart condition. The organization offers a once-a-year payment of up to $800 for rent or $1,000 for mortgage payments, which are available every year that a family qualifies for help.

The group expanded to South Dakota, North Dakota and Wisconsin in mid-2013. Group director Erich Mische was recently in the state networking and visiting families who had reached out for help.

"We use the phrase 'we help the family bounce, and not break,'" Mische said. "All of our money is private money. We use no public funds. We help the poorest of the poor to middle- and upper-income families. It doesn't matter what the illness or injury is."

To qualify, a family must have a child 18 or younger who has been hospitalized at least 14 out of 90 days. Whether the family rents or owns a home, it must be current on its payments but demonstrate a substantial reduction in income or increase in expenses.

"It takes literally 10 minutes or less to fill out the application," Mische said.

He said the program works mainly by word-of-mouth from hospital social workers, where the Emorys had first heard about the assistance.

Morgon was diagnosed with leukemia at 15 years old in August 2011, at the start of his sophomore year at Rapid City Central High School. So the mother-and-son duo set off to Minneapolis where Morgon began chemotherapy by September.

Over the next three or so years, Jerrie and Morgon would become inseparable during repeated extended stays in Minneapolis as Morgon underwent treatment.

"We were more than mother and son," Jerrie said. "We were best friends. We were all each other had in Minneapolis."

Mark Emory, 50, Morgon's father, had to stay in Rapid City to keep the family fed and under a roof, but made the journey east whenever possible, especially when dire situations called for his presence.

At first, the treatment was cut-and-dry and things seemed hopeful for Morgon, then a 15-year-old aspiring musician, Jerrie said.

"From induction chemotherapy on, Morgon was leukemia free," Jerrie said. "He never had any evidence of leukemia having returned."

But an apparent adverse reaction to his initial treatment left Morgon in intensive care and diagnosed with neutropenic colitis, a life-threatening gastrointestinal disease that may have resulted from his chemo treatments.

"It seemed like from that point on, things just went completely downhill," Jerrie said.

Two components of Morgon's leukemia made it an extremely aggressive form of the disease and prompted doctors to undergo a bone marrow transplant. By December 2011, he still wasn't well enough for the procedure and doctors remained perplexed as to why Morgon had reacted so badly.

At that time, medical staff found that his intestines had become severely inflamed, and they decided to remove a portion of Morgon's colon. In late-January 2011, he underwent radiation therapy and then the bone marrow transplant, despite his ill health for fear the leukemia would return.

"And from that point, I think we just thought everything was going to get better," Jerrie said. "I couldn't get any worse than it had been. It was going to get better. He was never really all that well but he got well enough, his counts and everything were good, and they discharged him from the hospital."

On the last day of the school year in Rapid City, Morgon returned home from Minneapolis in May 2012 after a 9-month stay at the hospital.

"So we finally got to come home, though, and be a family again," Jerrie said. "I couldn't even tell you how many times we had to go back, but we were back and forth from Minneapolis to here a lot."

But it would never be for good until Morgon ultimately decided that he wanted to live out his life at home after more than another year of ups, downs and several surgeries and even more complications with his worsening health.

"He returned to our heavenly home at peace," Jerrie said. "He was sleeping and that was exactly what he wanted. He wanted to sleep and not wake up. To me that was probably the greatest thing; he went the way he wanted to go."

Gloves can now come off in California kitchens

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The gloves are coming off in California kitchens.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Saturday that he signed AB 2130, which repeals a state regulation requiring restaurant employees to use gloves or utensils to handle food going straight to diners' plates.

The no-hands bill was passed last year and would have taken effect July 1. It was intended to prevent disease transmission and covered everything from sushi rice to the mint in a mojito.

Forty-one other states have similar prohibitions, and the California law drew no opposition from chain restaurants.

But some independent chefs and bartenders complained that it would restrict their hands-on craft, disrupt hand-washing routines and generate unnecessary waste of disposable gloves.

Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, authored the original law and also sponsored the repeal measure.

Pan, who is chairman of the health committee and a pediatrician, said he wanted to revisit the no-hands prohibition but make it more flexible to meet the concerns of restaurateurs.

"It's not about whether you wear gloves or not," Pan said in an interview earlier in the week with The Associated Press. "It's about how clean the surfaces (touching food) are. We need to have the conversation go back to, 'This is about food safety.'"

Elsewhere in the U.S., Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina and Wyoming encourage minimal contact but do not ban bare-hand contact outright. Tennessee is implementing its ban next year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that workers touching food provided the most common transmission pathway for food-originated norovirus outbreaks between 2001 and 2008, the most recent comprehensive review of data available.

8 Signs Obama Is Feeling Trapped In The Presidency

Past presidents have described the White House as "the crown jewel of the federal penal system" and "the great white jail." And lately, President Obama has increasingly sending signals he's feeling claustrophobic in the presidential bubble.

As imports rise, the FDA is losing its fight against foul food

In April 2012, inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigated a seafood company in southern India that had been exporting tons of frozen yellowfin tuna to the United States. What they found wasn’t appetizing: water tanks rife with microbiological contamination, rusty carving knives, paint peeling above the work area, unsanitary bathrooms and an outdoor ice machine covered with insects and “apparent bird feces,” according to the report.

The FDA issued an “import alert” that barred Moon Fishery India Pvt. Ltd. from shipping fish to the United States. But the damage to public health had been done. By the time the FDA inspected the plant, a salmonella outbreak already had erupted around the U.S. Ultimately, 425 people in 28 states and the District of Columbia were sickened.

The fact that tons of bad fish had sailed into this country was not a surprise. The FDA has been outgunned and overmatched for years as a rising tide of imported food has found a place at the U.S. dinner table. For budget reasons, usually only 1 percent to 2 percent of food imports are physically inspected by the agency each year. Typically, operations such as the one in India are inspected only if something goes terribly wrong.

The violations that FDA inspectors are finding pose some serious health risks. According to the analysis by FairWarning and the Investigative News Network, some 16,700 shipments of imported foods were barred over the past decade because they included a “filthy, putrid or decomposed substance” or were “otherwise unfit for food.” According to FDA records, foods rejected last year included hard candy from Mexico deemed “filthy” or “poisonous,” salmonella-infected cumin and ginger from India, and fish from Vietnam with excessive levels of histamine, which can cause food intolerances in some people.

The FDA declined to make officials available to comment for this story. The agency also refused a request by FairWarning to accompany inspectors at a port of entry. In response to questions, an FDA spokeswoman provided publicly available links to the agency’s website, previously issued news releases and congressional testimony by agency officials.

“It is important to note that while FDA is not able to physically inspect a large percentage of food entries, all import entries are electronically screened using an automated system, which helps field inspectors determine which products pose the greatest risk and, therefore, should be physically examined,” the agency said in a report to Congress last year.

Imports were supposed to face tighter scrutiny by now. In January 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law an overhaul of the way the FDA regulates imported and domestically produced foods, known as the Food Safety Modernization Act. But outsized hopes for the law have gone unfulfilled because of agency delays, flagging interest in public funding in Congress and food industry opposition to proposed new user fees to finance the overhaul.

Smorgasbord of tainted food

At least eight outbreaks of food-borne disease – tied to hundreds of illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths – have occurred since the law passed.

The smorgasbord of tainted foods includes ricotta cheese from Italy that was linked to a 2012 multi-state outbreak of listeriosis, a bacterial infection. Among the victims: a California woman, 27 weeks pregnant, who gave birth prematurely after eating the cheese. Her child tested positive for listeria and later died.

That adds to an already large toll of food poisoning victims. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 in 6 Americans come down with a food-borne illness each year, with children, the elderly and the infirm suffering disproportionately.

“They look at very, very little. They sample very, very little. There is a risky environment out there for food because FDA is so weak,” said William Hubbard, a former FDA senior associate commissioner. “It is still a little bit of an honor system.”

Said Carl Nielsen, a former director of FDA’s import operations: “It is the same system. It is the same lack of resources. It is a huge, huge problem.”

To be sure, some of the worst cases of illness have involved U.S.-grown foods. Some three dozen people died in 2011 after eating cantaloupe from a farm in Colorado. Four officials of a Virginia peanut company are scheduled to stand trial next month on fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with a salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened 700.

But rising imports have brought rising concern.

Behind on food safety

About 15 percent of the food Americans now consume is imported, including about half the fruits and vegetables in the winter, most seafood throughout the year and virtually all spices. FDA-regulated imports originate from an estimated 130,000 facilities worldwide in 150 countries.

The FDA is responsible for 80 percent of the U.S. food supply, including imports, but its resources are dwarfed by those of the Food Safety and Inspection Service, an arm of the Agriculture Department, which regulates meat, poultry and eggs.

The new food-safety law called for a big increase in the FDA’s inspection staff and set bold new goals for preventing contamination at foreign food plants, including a stepped-up role for private auditors and new duties for importers.

But key regulations called for under the new law haven’t been implemented, and the agency is under a consent order to pick up the pace, after a lawsuit by a public-interest group, the Washington-based Center for Food Safety.

The FDA is far behind in meeting other mandates, too: The law provides for the agency to inspect 19,200 foreign plants by 2016. In 2012 _ the last year for which data is available _ the agency had inspected just 1,342 plants, with little hope of much growth anytime soon. Implementing the law, the FDA wrote in a report to Congress last year, “would require hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding, which the agency cannot realistically expect to receive.”

“This is mindless, what is happening,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a lead sponsor of the food safety legislation. “We need to provide the money to FDA so we can protect people.”

The idea that imported foods are available for consumption without ever being inspected, at the source or at the border, surprises and unnerves many Americans.

Sheila Lewis, a Virginia-based auto broker, was one of the 425 people who got salmonella poisoning after eating tuna from Moon Fishery, the Indian business that became the target of an FDA “import alert.” She was on a buying trip to Pennsylvania in March 2012 when she capped off a day of shopping at a favorite sushi bar that was a Moon customer.

“That is not something that happens overnight. How often was this facility being monitored?” she said of the FDA’s belated discovery of unsanitary conditions in India. “After several hundred people have been sickened and hospitalized, now we go out and check what their facility looks like? That is such crap.”

The FDA declined to comment on the tuna case, but described it in a report last year as a “landmark” example of interagency cooperation in tracing the cause of an outbreak.

Denise Malan of the Investigative News Network contributed to this story.

FairWarning (www.fairwarning.org) is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit news organization focused on public health, safety and environmental issues.

Wade tells Heat he will become free agent

MIAMI -- Dwyane Wade has said he wants to stay with the Miami Heat. Apparently, that means he has to technically leave first.

Wade told the Heat on Saturday that he is opting out of the final two years of his contract, making him a free agent who may negotiate with any team — Miami included — on July 1. It's the same option that LeBron James exercised earlier this week, and Bosh's decision comes out three days after he, James and Chris Bosh met at a posh Miami Beach hotel to discuss their futures.

So now, all eyes are on Bosh, to see if he'll opt out as well.

The decisions, while risky for the Heat because Bosh and James are no longer locked in to staying, could also become a big gift for Miami. The Heat owed Wade and James a combined $40.9 million for next season, and by opening up that massive amount of salary-cap room Miami now will have tons of money to lure other free agents — as well as maneuver toward keeping its stars together.

Also giving the Heat some salary room on Saturday was Udonis Haslem, who will not pick up his $4.6 million option. Haslem would prefer to stay with the Heat.

The thinking has long been that Bosh, James and Wade would all opt out and take slightly less money in the short-term, with the Heat giving them new long-term contracts in return. That would give Miami plenty of financial flexibility, which it could use to upgrade a team that has won the last four Eastern Conference titles and two of the last three NBA championships.

But Wade took a considerable amount of criticism this past season, first for missing 28 regular-season games — largely because of what the Heat called a maintenance program for his long-problematic knees — and then for struggling in the NBA Finals, which Miami lost in five games to the San Antonio Spurs.

"He's a champion. He's a world champion and he's a Miami Heat for life," Heat President Pat Riley said last week. "He's an icon. He's one of the great players in the world."

Riley remains sold on Wade's value to a championship team, though acknowledges that at 32 and with plenty of injuries in his past, some continued evolution to his game — and perhaps his role — could be needed.

"He does have pain but he doesn't have the debilitating injury that could end his career," Riley said. "Is there something that will allow him to become physically better? At the same time the roles in all player's careers change. He's too smart, he's too good, he's too talented to not be able to play a major role for years to come. Those changes, he and I will sit down and we'll talk about them."

Bosh is owed about $20.6 million for next season, and if he joins Wade and James in opting out Miami will not only have the utmost financial flexibility but would also be considered the front-runner to keep all three of its stars as well.

The free agent circus technically doesn't start until next Tuesday, but essentially began when James opted out earlier this week, a move that did not catch the Heat by any surprise.

Sports radio shows and television newscasts in South Florida have been dominated by talk of the "Big 3" future, and even at Wimbledon, at least one person is keeping a keen eye on what James in particular will be deciding.

"Obviously, we'd like to see him stay in Miami," said Heat fan Serena Williams, who when she's not watching basketball is the top-ranked women's tennis player in the world. "But, hey, you got to keep your options open I guess. I don't know. It will be really sad to lose him. He's such a wonderful, great player. He's brought so many championships to Miami. Hopefully he'll opt to stay."

The Heat hope Wade will as well.

He is, without question, the most accomplished player in Heat history, leading the team in several categories on the all-time lists. Wade has spent each of his first 11 seasons with Miami, averaging 24.3 points per game.

GM crash victim payment plan won't have limit

DETROIT -- When Kenneth Feinberg announces the terms of General Motors' plan to pay victims of crashes caused by bad ignition switches, he'll have an open wallet.

Feinberg, the country's most well-known compensation expert, is scheduled to reveal the terms Monday, and GM CEO Mary Barra has said there will be no cap on payments.

Also, GM won't have any say in Feinberg's awards, she told a U.S. House subcommittee during a hearing earlier this month.

"He will have complete independence," Barra said under questioning. "General Motors wants to reach with this compensation program everyone who lost a loved one due to this issue, or who suffered serious physical injury."

The company says the faulty switches are responsible for at least 54 crashes and more than 13 deaths, but lawyers and lawmakers say the death toll is closer to 100, with hundreds of injuries. That would send GM's payments into the millions, if not billions of dollars. GM was sitting on a $27 billion cash stockpile as of March 31. So far, it has announced or taken charges of $2 billion for recall expenses.

Feinberg, who also administered the government's $7 billion fund for the 2,977 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, is likely to follow a similar plan in the GM case, with detailed formulas setting payments based on severity of injuries and age. The average award to the 2,880 families who filed death claims from Sept. 11 was $2.1 million. The fund also paid an average of about $400,000 each for the 2,680 accepted claims of injuries; the smallest injury award was $500, the largest $8.6 million.

The Sept. 11 fund was set up to protect financially troubled airlines from thousands of potential lawsuits. It was a success, limiting the number of lawsuits to about 80.

The GM compensation likely will be limited to victims of crashes of older small cars, of which GM recalled 2.6 million earlier this year because the switches can cause engines to stall, shutting off power steering and brakes. That can cause drivers to lose control of their vehicles and also disables the air bags. The cars include the Chevrolet Cobalt and Saturn Ion, both of which are no longer made.

Feinberg could use air bag activation to decide if people are paid. If the air bags deployed in an accident, that means they were not disabled by the switches, so the switches were not at fault.

GM has said Feinberg would start taking claims Aug. 1. Barra said she did not know how much the company would have to spend to settle the claims.

To get a payment, victims would have to agree not to sue GM. The company is vulnerable to legal claims because it has admitted knowing about the switch problem for more than a decade, yet it didn't recall the cars until this year.

Feinberg is scheduled to hold a news conference in Washington on Monday to release details "including eligibility, scope, rules for the program, and timing of submitting claims," a Feinberg spokeswoman said in an email. The program also will launch a website on Monday.

The spokeswoman, Amy Weiss, would not comment on the program before the news conference. GM has deferred comment to Feinberg.

Tensions high in Sidon after sheikh attacked

SIDON: Tensions ran high in the coastal city of Sidon Saturday after members of a Hezbollah-affiliated group allegedly attacked a preacher overnight.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Sheikh Khalil Al-Solh said a group of young people was hanging posters around the Mosque to commemorate the start of Ramadan, which starts Sunday.

"Suddenly, a group of men got out of a BMW and threw stones at them and beat them with metal objects," Solh said.

The same thing happened hours later when they attacked me personally and used profanities."

The preacher said he has filed a complaint at the Sidon police station.

Immediately after the scuffle, security forces deployed around the Arqam Mosque in Sidon and carried out raids in search of the perpetrators.

Solh said the men were known members of the Sidon-based pro-Hezbollah Resistance Brigades.

The incident prompted Sidon Mufti Salim Sousan to convene a meeting at Dar al-Fatwa, releasing a statement afterward, urging the government to take action.

"Security is the responsibility of the Lebanese state and we do not accept anyone outside the law,” Sousan said in a statement.

"We are committed to coexistence under the law and oppose attempts to incite sectarian and confessional strife.”

“The attack was carried out by a known group and we call on legitimate forces to take the necessary measures.”

The Committee of Muslim Scholars also held a meeting overnight Friday and said the attack was not only against a sheikh but also the sanctity of mosques.

"Such attacks sound the alarm of a sectarian strife. Therefore, officials should play their role in holding those accountable before it's too late."

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Berri: Libya hesitant to uncover former regime crimes

BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri Saturday said Libyan authorities have been hesitant to disclose secrets of the former regime’s crimes, insisting Lebanon has made some progress, albeit minor, to uncover the truth behind the case of Imam Musa Sadr.

In a statement published on his Facebook page, Berri responded to people's questions about the case of the Imam who went missing during a visit to Libya on Aug. 31, 1978, along with his two companions – Sheikh Mohammad Yacoub and journalist Abbas Badreddine.

“An official Lebanese-Libyan governmental committee was formed and that committee has not spared any effort with the Libyan authorities to reach the truth, despite hesitance by the authorities to expose secret files of the regimes and its crimes,” Berri said in a scanned document on his page.

He said he has called for the creation of a committee to set the rules governing the judicial and security ties between Lebanon and Libya “with the aim of unlocking such doors.”

“Despite the chaos and fighting in various areas in Libya, we were able to sign a memorandum of understanding about cooperation between the two countries,” he said.

The memo, Berri continued, was signed by the Lebanese Ambassador Mohammad Skineh and the Justice Ministry in Libya’s Tripoli.

“It stipulates a clear and honest recognition that the disappearance of the Imam in Libya occurred under the regime of former President Moammar Ghadafi,” Berri said, quoting the memo.

“The Libyan side should commit to speedy investigation in coordination with Lebanese judges and provide the Lebanese side with all documents and information about Sadr’s case.”

It also noted that the work should be kept secret and both sides should refrain from leaking information to the media.

Ties between Libya and Lebanon were severed after Sadr's disappearance in light of Beirut's position that Ghadafi was responsible for the incident. Ghadafi's collapse reversed the relationship with a Lebanese delegation traveling to Libya on several occasions and holding talks with authorities there over the case.

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New England editorial roundup

The Portland (Maine) Press Herald, June 25, 2014

The United States is the only developed country without a statutory right for paid leave for mothers of newborn babies. Extended to the rest of the world, the list topped by the U.S. includes only Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.

That's it, the sum total of all the countries in the world that don't provide at least some support for mothers who want to stay home with their newborns for the first few weeks.

That's not enough evidence by itself to establish a system of universal paid leave. But it is a sign the United States is on the wrong side of the issue, and evidence points to the clear conclusion that paid parental leave is the right thing to do for newborns, parents and even employers.

President Obama, speaking at the White House Summit on Working Families, cited the lack of paid maternity leave as one of a handful of "basic needs" that "should be part of our bottom line as a society."

He stopped short, however, of endorsing a bill that would give workers 12 weeks of leave at two-thirds of their salary up to $4,000 per month, paid by an increase in payroll-tax contributions of 0.2 percent.

However, the bill, and Obama's statement this week, should generate discussion about how to make universal paid leave a reality. People may disagree about how to put it in place, but the case for paid leave is too strong to leave on the table.

Federal law now guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for childbirth for employees in companies with 50 or more workers. Maine law goes further, covering companies with 15 or more workers.

Few workers, however, can afford even a short amount of time without a paycheck, and new parents who can't afford a leave of suitable length on their own end up away from their children during a crucial time for development and attachment.

That, research shows, can have an impact on the mental health of the mother and the parental involvement of the father, which in turn can have long-term implications for a child's educational performance.

It also disproportionately hits low-income families, which already face barriers on education and employment for themselves and their children, because the parents tend to work at jobs that don't offer paid leave.

According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, citing the U.S. Department of Labor, only 12 percent of employees have access to paid family leave — which includes paternity leave and leave for family illness — and it gets worse the less you earn.

In the top 25 percent of wage earners, one-fifth of workers can get paid leave, but that falls to 5 percent for wage earners in the bottom 25 percent.

Universal paid leave, however, would correct that inequality.

In the five states that offer a form of paid family leave through employee insurance, women are two times more likely to take leave than in other states, a disparity that grows as income shrinks.

And not only are mothers who take leave afforded more time with their newborns, with all the attendant health and well-being benefits, they also are less likely to need public assistance.

In states offering paid leave, only 10 percent of new mothers drew public assistance in the first year following childbirth, with an average benefit of $358.

In other states, 24 percent of new mothers utilized aid, at an average of $749.

The mothers also are more likely to receive a wage increase in that ensuing year, and their employers report lower recruiting, hiring and training costs, because the mother is more likely to stay with the job.

In fact, a report by the Rutgers Center for Women and Work surveying employers in California, which offers the most comprehensive leave benefit for both mothers and fathers, reported that 87 percent of respondents have found no cost increase since the benefits were put in place in 2002, and 9 percent indicated a savings.

That suggests that employers would benefit by some form of universal paid leave, made flexible enough to account for company size and employee tenure, but available for mothers, fathers and adoptive parents.

And with the benefits to employees clear, there's little reason the U.S. can't join the rest of the world and give new parents some well-needed support.

The Day of New London (Conn.), June 27, 2014

In a rare display of unity for this group, the U.S. Supreme Court this week issued a series of unanimous opinions, each well-grounded in upholding constitutional protections.

Ruling in a case with broad implications for the digital age, the court found that in making an arrest, police need a warrant to search a suspect's cellphone, just as they need a warrant to search his home. The court concluded the information contained in a cellphone (aka smartphone) falls under the Fourth Amendment requirement that law enforcement officials obtain a warrant before searching "houses, papers, and effects."

As Chief Justice John Roberts well put it in writing the unanimous decision, "With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans 'the privacies of life.' "

It will make things more difficult for police, but this country was founded on the premise that individual rights take priority over the convenience of law enforcement authorities.

Before rifling through a cellphone — just has long been the case before they can search a home office — police must demonstrate to a judge that there is reasonable suspicion to believe that a crime has been committed and evidence of that crime can be found on the phone. This is how it should be.

Recognizing the potential for information to be remotely erased, the justices noted that police, while awaiting a warrant, can turn off the phone, remove its battery or place it in a container impervious to radiofrequency waves.

In a ruling protecting First Amendment rights, the high court unanimously struck down a Massachusetts law that imposes a 35-foot buffer zone around entrances to abortion clinics. The intent of the buffer is to prevent patients and clinic workers from being harassed by anti-abortion protesters and to reduce the risk of violence.

However, there are already laws against harassment and they are constitutional. What the court correctly found as unconstitutional is to prevent a group from assembling on public property to make its point and, in this case, try to dissuade patients from having abortions.

This unanimous ruling should set a precedent that reverses a disturbing trend of late that has placed needless restrictions on the ability of people to assemble and make known their grievances. At political conventions, for example, protesters have been forced to amass in official demonstration areas, often far from the convention delegates and gathered news media they intend to reach with their message.

The court can start by easing some of the restrictions around the Supreme Court building itself. In 1983, the court found unconstitutional restrictions on demonstrations on the public sidewalks near the court. However, on the grand plaza in front of the courthouse itself, police have ordered visitors to remove buttons making political statements. In recently throwing out the conviction of college student Harold Hodge Jr. for wearing, on the plaza, a sign alleging police misconduct, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the Federal District Court in Washington pointed to the hypocrisy of the rule.

"The absolute prohibition on expressive activity in the statute is unreasonable, substantially overbroad and irreconcilable with the First Amendment" and "unconstitutional and void as applied to the Supreme Court plaza," she wrote.

Perhaps the Supreme Court will get the chance to toss out its own rules as unconstitutional. The clash of ideas in the public square can be inconvenient and even ugly, but it remains vital in a free society.

In a third 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court placed reasonable limits on the power of the president to make appointments while the Senate is in recess.

"The president shall have the power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate," reads the U.S. Constitution.

Presidents have long used this provision to make appointments that were unlikely to get approval from recalcitrant Senates.

The Supreme Court ruled, however, that President Obama went too far when he appointed three officials to the National Labor Relations Board during a brief break in the Senate's work, knowing that the chamber was convening every three days in pro forma sessions.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote in the majority opinion that it has to be a genuine break — the court set the bar at 10 days or more — before the president can constitutionally exercise his power to appoint without Senate consent.

This ruling leaves room for the party not in control of the White House to play games and act unreasonably in blocking appointments, but unreasonableness is for the voters to judge and correct at the ballot box, not by allowing the president to ignore constitutional checks and balances.

On-demand groceries: Fill your fridge in 1 hour

WASHINGTON -- Craig Auster studies his iPhone in Magruder's, a small, family-owned grocery store in the Chevy Chase section of the District of Columbia, and navigates his way to a crate of sugar snap peas.

He rips a plastic produce bag off the stand and meticulously sifts through the green peas, checking for any flaws, filling the bag and weighing it until it reaches precisely half a pound.

The bag of produce isn't for the 28-year-old's personal pantry. Auster, who wears a bright green T-shirt detailed with grocery illustrations, is a personal shopper for Instacart, a grocery delivery business that began in San Francisco in 2012 and launched in the Washington area four months ago.

Washington has no shortage of online grocery delivery businesses — there's Peapod, Relay Foods and a handful of other services, including Safeway's own delivery program.

But Erika Hard, city manager for Instacart, says the company's model differs from others because it's an on-demand service. It delivers most grocery orders in less than two hours to customers in the District and parts of northern Virginia and Maryland. A one-hour delivery option also is available for a slightly higher fee.

"If you're coming home from work and you're stuck in traffic, and you want some groceries at your door by the time you get home, we can accommodate that," Hard says. Customers can also place advance orders for parties or events.

Those in the Washington area can select grocery items online or via the Instacart app from one of six local stores: Whole Foods, Safeway, Harris Teeter, Costco (no membership required), Yes! Organic Market and Magruder's.

Once Instacart receives the order, Hard assigns the grocery list to one of the roughly 100 Instacart personal shoppers in the area.

In the parking lot outside of Magruder's, Auster gets a text message on his phone that directs him to his Instacart shopper app. A customer's order of rice crackers, plantain chips, grapes, sugar snap peas, goat cheese and chocolates pops up.

He heads into the store and begins to fill the order. As he places items in his basket, he occasionally scans a barcode to make sure the item he selects is the correct variety. Then he checks it off the list on his app.

Auster joined the Instacart team about two months ago. The Capitol Hill resident had finished working on a campaign and was in between jobs.

"I was looking in the food/beverage/hospitality section (of Craigslist), thinking maybe I would be a waiter, and then I saw this posting and it just seemed so much more fun and interesting," says Auster, who admits he's always enjoyed grocery shopping.

"It's fun to see what people are ordering; it gives you ideas for yourself, too."

Auster says one of the best parts about being a personal shopper is the flexibility of the job. Every Thursday, he lets Hard know what days and hours he's available to work the following week.

He says he fills anywhere from two to 10 orders a day, and that his fastest delivery, taking into account District traffic, was about 40 minutes.

Auster says his pay is based on the hours he works and the deliveries he makes. The New York Times reports Instacart's shoppers can earn between $15 and $30 an hour; typical supermarket employees make about $9 to $11 per hour.

But not just anyone can be an Instacart personal shopper. Potential shoppers are required to take an online "grocery challenge" as their first round of training.

"And then we'll bring them in for a formal training where they can learn how to navigate the shopper app and also get some really rigorous produce training on how to pick out the best bananas and the best avocados," Hard says.

The role of a personal shopper also requires interaction with the customer.

"Some of our shoppers even put little treats in the bags for every order that they do," Hard says.

If the store is out of an item the customer selected, often the shopper will call the customer and recommend a similar product or obtain approval for a substitute.

"Everything is totally specific — from the brand, the flavor, the size — and if something's not available, I have to do my best to find them a replacement," Auster says.

Instacart does not operate out of a warehouse, another difference which also sets it apart from similar online grocery delivery services. Hard and the District's other city manager, John Hancock, work out of a shared workspace on 14th Street. Instacart's operating model is what The New York Times calls "part of the sharing economy."

It relies on existing grocery stores and an existing population of workers with cars who want part-time or flexible work.

The company makes its profit by marking up the store's price. Through Instacart, a pound of sugar snap peas is $4.99; in Magruder's, it's $2.79. The mark-up differs from product to product.

The delivery fee is $3.99 for every order over $35; the one-hour delivery fee is $5.99 for orders over $35. The Costco delivery fee is more expensive ($9.99 per order), mostly because the orders are often large and pack the cars of the personal shoppers, Hard says.

In addition to delivering grocery items, Instacart also delivers beer and wine to customers in the District and Virginia, and liquor from Magruder's to customers in Washington.

"One of our customer bases is young professionals and they like to stock up on beer and wine. It's pretty easy, especially if you didn't prepare adequately for your weekend," Hard says.

Auster, who has run more Instacart deliveries than he can remember, says he's getting the swing of things; he's even met other personal shoppers within the company. They're easy to spot in their green Instacart shirts, he says.

"But you don't always wear the shirt. Sometimes you see people staring at their phone in the grocery store, and you're like, 'I bet that person is also with Instacart.' Then you start recognizing people too."

Instacart operates in 10 other U.S. cities and hopes to be in 17 by the end of the year, Hard says. It's open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., including holidays. Right now, Hard is busy predicting what customer traffic will look like for the weekend of July Fourth.

"We don't seem to see significant dips (on summer weekends), but we do see a big uptick in charcoal and beer," she says. "If you do find yourself stranded in need of charcoal on July Fourth, we're open."

Get ready for the big 'gimmick' state budget

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Call it "the big gimmick."

An approximately $29 billion state government operating budget under negotiation in the Legislature is likely to be based on a fast-growing amount of one-time cash items to avoid the prospect of a tax increase that would split the House's and Senate's Republican majorities.

The one-time items — derided by critics as gimmicks — include raiding off-budget programs, postponing bills and cleaning out reserves.

And this year, with a massive and unexpected collapse in tax collections, Republicans have shied away from putting off business tax cuts or increasing taxes on the booming natural gas industry or sales of tobacco products advocated by Democrats. Instead, they have looked to push one-timers past $2 billion.

That is the highest they have ever been, not counting the $6.9 billion in federal recession bailout dollars that came to Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2011.

"This will be precedent-setting in one-time revenues," said Randy Albright, the Democrats' top staff aide on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Some Republicans acknowledge that the trend toward a tax increase is inevitable.

Last November, the nonpartisan Independent Fiscal Office projected that Pennsylvania's state government has a structural deficit that will hit nearly $2 billion in four years — and that was before this year's tax collections fell behind by $600 million.

"Am I concerned? Yes, but we've done it before," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre.

When Tom Corbett, a Republican who campaigned as a fiscal conservative, became governor in 2011, his office calculated that the $28 billion budget he inherited was built on $4.1 billion in one-time items, including $2.65 billion in federal recession bailout funds.

The one-timers that Pennsylvania will require this year will be far less than that, Corman said.

"For now, it's OK," he said. "But the more you do it, the more you set yourself up for problems down the road."

That problem down the road is that those one-time items are not always available the next year and, right now, Pennsylvania's state government obligations are rising by more than $1 billion a year. Primarily, that is a growth in Medicaid driven by the elderly entering nursing homes and the bill that is coming due for delaying past payments into public employee pension funds.

Nobody in state government has found an answer for those rising costs, despite considerable debate about it since Corbett took office.

"Sooner or later, a broad-based tax increase will be necessary to pay for it," Corman said. "Whether that's next year or the year after that, I don't know. But they're increasing at a billion dollars a year and revenues aren't keeping up."

It also sets up what some Democrats are warning will be an even more brutal budget next year. The budget for the fiscal year ending June 30 is built on nearly $900 million in one-time items, according to estimates by the Senate Democratic Appropriations Committee. The majority of that was an infusion of cash reserves carried over from the 2010-11 fiscal year surplus.

One-time items well in excess of $2 billion will be required to prop up a budget of $29 billion without a tax increase for the 2014-15 fiscal year that begins Tuesday.

Those one-time items will probably include transfers from small business loan funds, a state forests and parks improvement program, lottery profits meant to enhance programs for the elderly and cash meant to fight tobacco addiction and cancer.

Lackawanna County Sen. John Blake, the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee and a former secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development, said the transfers will endanger money that can benefit crucial economic development funds. Other one-timers are built on flimsy assumptions, he said, such as the expectation that speeding up a seizure of unclaimed assets from banks and other institutions will net $150 million.

"We're out of space and time here," Blake said. "We have an obligation to guarantee that public education is properly funded, that our safety net is properly funded, right? That our corrections continues to be properly funded, that our debt service continues to be property funded, and one-time transfers are not the solution set. It's no way to govern."

Marc Levy covers politics and government for The Associated Press in Pennsylvania. He can be reached at mlevy@ap.org. Follow him on Twitter at http://bit.ly/1f8j2K0

Correction: Unemployment-Michigan-Glance story

In a story June 26 about Michigan's unemployment rates, The Associated Press reported incorrect numbers for May. The numbers in the story were from May 2013, not May 2014.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Michigan's May unemployment rates by region

Michigan's May seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates by region at a glance

By The Associated Press

Michigan's major labor market areas, their seasonally unadjusted jobless rates for May, followed by April:

---

— Michigan, 7.3 percent, compared with 7.3 percent.

— Ann Arbor, 5.3 percent, compared with 4.8 percent.

— Battle Creek, 6.3 percent, compared with 6 percent.

— Bay City, 7.6 percent, compared with 7.7 percent.

— Detroit-Warren-Livonia, 8 percent, compared with 7.9 percent.

— Flint, 8 percent, compared with 7.8 percent.

— Grand Rapids-Wyoming, 5.4 percent, compared with 5.1 percent.

— Holland-Grand Haven, 5.3 percent, compared with 5 percent.

— Jackson, 7.3 percent, compared with 7.2 percent.

— Kalamazoo-Portage, 6.3 percent, compared with 6 percent.

— Lansing-East Lansing, 6.4 percent, compared with 6.1 percent.

— Monroe, 6.8 percent, compared with 7.4 percent.

— Muskegon-Norton Shores, 7 percent, compared with 6.9 percent.

— Niles-Benton Harbor, 7.2 percent, compared with 6.9 percent.

— Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, 7.6 percent, compared with 7.4 percent.

— Upper Peninsula, 8.4 percent, compared with 9.2 percent.

— Northeast Lower Michigan, 9.2 percent, compared with 11.2 percent.

— Northwest Lower Michigan, 7.9 percent, compared with 9 percent.

Source: Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

Tripoli’s Islamists decry ‘unfair arrests’

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: Tensions have been steadily rising in the northern city of Tripoli ever since the Lebanese Army began implementing its security plan in April, drawing the ire of Islamists who say arrests have been random and unjust.

“We are keen on civil peace ... but there is a feeling of oppression overcoming Islamist activists as they are detained in prison for long periods of time without evidence or proof,” Sheikh Nabil Rahim, a member of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, told The Daily Star.

“It is unacceptable that every individual who goes to Syria is interrogated and thrown in jail while other political parties in Lebanon have publically intervened inside Syria and are fighting and slaughtering without a word of blame aimed at them,” he added, referring to Hezbollah’s role in Syria supporting President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The Lebanese Army’s intelligence unit has conducted a number of raids and arrests since April, putting an end to around 20 rounds of violence between opponents of Assad in the Sunni-dominated Bab al-Tabbaneh and rivals in largely Alawite Jabal Mohsen districts. The crackdown has prompted the Committee of Muslim Scholars and Salem Rafei, imam of Al-Taqwa Mosque in Tripoli, to call for Sunnis’ rights to be safeguarded.

Security sources in Tripoli told The Daily Star that tensions have been further heightened with the recent re-emergence of Sheikh Husam al-Sabbagh, known as Abul Hasan, into the spotlight.

A prominent Salafist figure, Sabbagh is also believed to be an Al-Qaeda member, and many arrest warrants have been issued for him since 2007. He holds an Australian passport and has played a prominent role in the Syrian conflict fighting alongside the Nusra Front rebel group.

He was also one of the leaders who disappeared from sight when the security plan began. Although the Army has been conducting raids, confiscating weaponry and apprehending dozens of wanted suspects in Tripoli neighborhoods, many of the prominent militia leaders involved in the recent fighting disappeared before they could be apprehended.

Salafist sources in Tripoli said approximately 100 men had gone to Syria and possibly even Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) and the Nusra Front in a bid to evade arrest.

Security forces are reported to be taking this information seriously, as these individuals – none of whom exceeds 20 years of age – are potentially ticking time bombs if they return to Lebanon to undertake terrorist operations. More than one Salafist preacher, however, pointed out that they would most likely to die in the fighting.

A Tripoli MP who chose to remain anonymous told The Daily Star that the security forces’ decision to issue arrest warrants against a large number of militia leaders and reopen files of their previous offenses was hugely problematic.

The MP cited Bab al-Tabbaneh’s militia commander Ziad Saleh, better known as Ziad Allouki, as a prime example.

“Militia leaders – including Allouki – agreed with security and judicial forces, under the patronage of a number of politicians, to turn themselves in in exchange for the settlement of their files,” he said.

“But soon after, Allouki was surprised to find that his charge was not limited to opening fire and taking up arms, but that other files and old complaints were also opened. This made everyone who turned himself in feel as if he had been deceived, and also embarrassed politicians who sponsored the agreement, as well as their families and loyalists, especially in Bab al-Tabbaneh, which is exceptionally sensitive.”

According to the MP, the situation exploded quickly and without warning after the arrest of Ibrahim Idlibi and Mahmoud Darwish, who are close to both Sabbagh and Rafei. Darwish in particular was surprised at the tone and attitude of the security officials, who have become much firmer.

“There were protests once again and protesters carried ISIS and Nusra Front banners and chanted very sectarian slogans, and things would have returned to the way they were if it wasn’t for the intensive contacts that took place to remedy the situation,” he added.

The MP said the agreement with security services also stated that Lebanese Salafists who were active in Syria would not be apprehended as long as they stayed out of the limelight, with particular reference to Sabbagh.

However, as soon as ISIS began gaining ground in Iraq and rigged cars, and as terrorist cells returned to Lebanon, security forces began tightening their hold on the Salafists, who say they were angered because they have not been involved in any security incidents in Lebanon apart from the conflict between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen.

However, the MP stressed to The Daily Star that the city had grown weary of violence and terrorism, taking a jab at recent comments by Rafei in which he suggested Sunnis in Lebanon may choose the same path as Sunnis in Iraq, who have rallied behind ISIS to try to overthrow the government.

“ Tripoli is not Kandahar or Fallujah [Afghan and Iraqi cities, respectively], and Lebanon is not Afghanistan or Iraq or the [Syrian] Raqqa province,” he said. “We have to safeguard civil peace and the insistence of Tripoli’s residents on life is a safety valve.

“Whoever sees otherwise – his adventures will only bear illusions. There is no going back in terms of the security situation in Tripoli.”

Rahim also bemoaned the media frenzy that occurred whenever a Sunni religious figure was arrested, and highlighted the fact that Idlibi and Darwish were released only two days after their arrest due to a lack of evidence.

Commenting on the recent level of communications held between the committee and security forces, he said the most significant problem was the media’s exaggeration of the issue.

“There are tendentious rumors about the ties between us and between the security forces, the biggest example of which is leaking that an arrest warrant is out against Sheikh Rafei, and that relations with the security forces are bad,” he said.

“All of this information has no relevance to the truth as dialogue is open and strong and we seek to preserve civil peace as much as we can.”

Weekly Address: Focusing on the Economic Priorities for the Middle Class Nationwide

President Barack Obama tapes the Weekly Address in the Blue Room of the White House, June 27, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

In this week’s address, the President discussed his recent trip to Minneapolis where he met a working mother named Rebekah, who wrote the President to share the challenges her family and many middle-class Americans are facing where they work hard and sacrifice yet still can’t seem to get ahead. But instead of focusing on growing the middle class and expanding opportunity for all, Republicans in Congress continue to block commonsense economic proposals such as raising the minimum wage, extending unemployment insurance and making college more affordable.

The President will keep fighting his economic priorities in the weeks and months ahead, because he knows the best way to expand opportunity for all hardworking Americans and continue to strengthen the economy is to grow it from the middle out.

Transcript | mp4 | mp3

Jounieh festival kicks off with firework show

JOUNIEH: The Jounieh International Festival Friday evening kicked off its festivities with its annual firework show.

Seven minutes of synchronized fireworks along the coast of Jounieh lit up the skies with changing colors as boats gathered on the bay for private parties.

Hundreds of people gathered in several areas in the north Beirut region to watch the spectacle, dispelling, even if momentarily, fears over security concerns in the country.

The festival will include a family day out on July 4 and a concert by Elias Rahabni on July 2 at Fouad Chehab Stadium.

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Army raids north Lebanon refugee center

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Army Saturday raided a Syrian refugee center as well as other areas where the military had confiscated explosives the day before.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the Army carried out a raid in the Akkar village of Fnaydeq and surrounding neighborhoods, as well as the Aziziyeh center which hosts some Syrian refugees.

Soldiers also inspected al-Kafroun and Ain Banat in the northern region.

This lastest crackdown on terrorist groups comes a day after the seizure of material used to make explosive belts that the Army discovered during a raid in the northern province of Akkar.

“Military and security forces are on high alert, searching for suicide bombers and two explosives-laden vehicles,” a security source told The Daily Star Friday.

Three suicide bombings rattled Lebanon in the past week, raising fears of a return to the series of car bombings that have mainly targeted the capital’s southern suburbs. The deadly attacks, that began in July last year and lasted for several months, were linked to the crisis in Syria.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah MP Nawwaf Musawi called on security forces to engage in what he described as a "preemptive crackdown on Takfiri terrorism."

"We urge security forces and the Lebanese Army to adopt a preemptive confrontation with Takfiri terror so that they raid their homes before they come with their car bombs to ours."

"It is necessary to strengthen national consensus among Lebanese political groups because terrorism might take advantage of political disputes to incite sectarian strife and secure a safe haven to destabilize Lebanon."

Musawi also defended his party against allegations that the bombings in the country were in retaliation to Hezbollah's role in Syria, saying: "If we had not faced the Takfiri forces for two years in Syria, we would have been infiltrated by them in Beirut, the Bekaa, the north and the south."

“It is high time some people let go of their pride and admit that the mission Hezbollah carried out to face the Takfiris protected Lebanon from a bloody coup.”

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Lebanon trend explodes on Twitter

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s conversation with itself sparked social media buzz on Twitter, after #WhatisTheSolutionForLebanon made trending lists for two consecutive days.

“Don’t give visas upon airport arrival” was a very common response on the platform, alongside requests to “elect a president now” and “close off Lebanon’s borders.”

When it came to tweeting solutions to Lebanon’s pitfalls, Twitter users split between pessimists who believed that “there is no solution, Lebanon will never be a country,” and others who felt that certain recommendations would improve the situation.

LBCI reporter Yazbek Wehbe’s tweet expressed the view that “ Lebanon should remain neutral [with respect to] regional problems.”

One user suggested a fresh take on security raids by tweeting “[the ISF] should form a special raid unit comprised of Haifa Wehbe, Maya Diab, and Ammar Houry.”

The explosion of tweets was inspired by last week’s crackdown on terror cells across the country, and after three suicide bombings hit the regions of Dahr al-Baidar, Tayyouneh, and most recently Raouche’s Duroy Hotel.

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Russia warns Europe over re-selling gas to Ukraine

MOSCOW -- Russia's state-controlled gas company, Gazprom, warned its European customers Friday that it could limit supplies to countries that intend to re-sell the natural gas on to Ukraine.

Along with a military conflict in the east, Ukraine is struggling with a $4.5 billion gas debt to Russia. Gazprom last week cut gas shipments to Ukraine after the talks to settle the debt and negotiate a lower price failed. Supplies to Europe via Ukraine and other pipelines have not been affected, however.

Ukraine has sought to counter the Russian move by trying to negotiate gas supplies from other European countries that buy Russian gas. European Union officials said they were working to set up so-called "reverse flow" shipments back to Ukraine via Slovakia.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Friday that the company is closely monitoring the situation and may curb supplies "in the foreseeable future" to those nations that would pump the Russian gas to Ukraine through reverse flow, which he described as a "half-fraudulent scheme." He wouldn't name any specific countries.

"Ukraine has no right to use the gas in its pipeline," Miller told reporters.

Asked whether Moscow was willing to resume talks with Ukraine, Miller reiterated the company's stance, saying that the country needs to pay down at least some amount of the debt before the talks could resume.

Ukrainian officials have admitted that the country cannot cuts its dependence on the Russian gas right now but have unveiled plans on how to diversify energy supplies and rationalize their use.

Miller said Gazprom is beginning to store extra amounts of gas in its underground storages in Europe in order to guarantee winter time supplies. He said, however, that this "does not eliminate the risks of transit" through Ukraine.

Geagea rejects extending Parliament term once again

BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, in remarks published Saturday, rejected attempts to extend Parliament’s term for the second time, saying the November polls should be held based on a new electoral law.

“We insist on holding the presidential election as soon as possible and the parliamentary elections on time,” Geagea told A-Mustaqbal.

“The parliamentary election should be held according to a hybrid law [a majority and proportional representation] to correct representation, protect the National Accord and safeguard the republic.”

Last year, MPs approved a 17-month extension to their four-year term, citing security concerns and the failure of lawmakers to draft a new electoral law.

Geagea along with the majority of the country’s political groups had sought to pass a new electoral law that would provide better representation. Since the extension, however, lawmakers have not yet resumed discussion on a new electoral bill.

The current law is an amended version of the 1960 law, which was used in the 2009 polls and adopted the administrative unit of the qada as the so-called “small” electoral district, while the Taif Accord stipulated the larger governorate as the electoral constituency.

The Lebanese Forces and other Christian parties have rejected the 1960 law as unfair to Christian representation, with parliamentary talks centering on a hybrid law that brings together proportional representation and majority vote in order to appease the various rival blocs.

The March 8 group has supported a law based on proportional representation with larger districts, while the Future Movement has backed a majority vote.

Before the end of his term, former President Michel Sleiman signed a decree in May calling on Parliament to open a round of legislation starting June 2, 2014, and running to Oct. 20, 2014 to study outstanding draft laws, primarily a new electoral law.

High court poised to decide birth-control dispute

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court is poised to deliver its verdict in a case that weighs the religious rights of employers and the right of women to the birth control of their choice.

The court meets for a final time Monday to release its two remaining decisions before the justices take off for the summer.

One case involves birth control coverage under President Barack Obama's health law. Employers must cover contraception for women at no extra charge among a range of preventive benefits in employee health plans. Dozens of companies, including arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby, claim religious objections to covering some or all contraceptives.

The other case before the court deals with fees paid to labor unions representing government employees by workers who object to being affiliated with a union.

Lebanon announces three-day mourning for Solh

BEIRUT: Lebanon Saturday announced a three-day mourning period over the passing of former Prime Minister Rashid Solh, who will be buried in his hometown of Beirut, in the Ouzai suburb later in the day.

In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Tammam Salam said the mourning period will begin Saturday and will be accompanied by a lowering of Lebanese flags at all government buildings.

An official convoy will transport Solh's body at 4 p.m. from his residence in Ain el-Tineh to the Ouzai cemetery.

"With the passing of Solh, Lebanon has lots one of its good leaves, who contributed to its independence and renaissance in spreading coexistence values and dialogue,” Salam said.

“Solh was a Beirut resident who remained in contact with all of the city's residents ... he lived through difficult times in Lebanon's history where he was adamant on playing his national role without jeopardizing the Lebanese national entity.”

A former judge, Solh passed away at the age of 88 Friday. Solh was a prime minister when Lebanon’s Civil War broke out in April 1975, after which he resigned.

He also served as a prime minister in 1992, three years after Lebanese factions signed the Taif Agreement which brought the Civil War to an end. The late politician was elected an MP in 1964, 1972 and 1992.

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Lebanon's Arabic Press Digest - June 28, 2014

The following are a selection of stories from Lebanese newspapers that may be of interest to Daily Star readers. The Daily Star cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports.

As-Safir

Abbas Ibrahim is the target ... Will ISIS push the state to fill the presidential gap?

Lebanon has been without a president for 35 days.

Although "preemptive security" has become something to boast about, that does not mean that there is not a clear danger to the Lebanese. Especially if you consider that some terrorist organizations are now working based on contradictory agendas, according to the interrogation of the would-be suicide Saudi bomber.

He told interrogators that he and his partner were tasked with carrying out a double suicide attack targeting Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim before receiving orders from Monzer al-Hasan to change the target. ISIS sought to take advantage of a security gap and target a restaurant in Chtaura during a ceremony to honor the Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorius Lahham III and Abbas Ibrahim.

Investigation with the Saudi national, as well as the French citizen from the Napoleon hotel, center on uncovering the identifies of people who came to Lebanon and possible targets.

Investigators are also looking into where the vehicle which was used in the Tayyouneh came from, and where it was rigged.

An-Nahar

Diplomatic activity to speed up elections amid security alert

Fears mount of possible terrorist attacks during Ramadan, which is set to begin Sunday, giving security forces another reason to impose stricter measures in all areas.

Investigations brought about after interrogations of the would-be suicide bomber from Duroy Hotel seek to locate the third wanted suspect, Monzer al-Hassan, believed to be the one who provided the bombers with the explosives and the link between ISIS and Nusra in Lebanon.

Hassan would handle preparations for suicide attacks by facilitating the bombers’ arrivals, providing them with explosives and specifying the target.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking French official said that the presidential election will likely be held this fall and that contacts are ongoing to distance Lebanon from regional repercussions. An-Nahar has learned that a team from the U.S. Secretary of State's office and the French foreign ministry held a meeting in Paris and discussed the Lebanese case.

Al-Akhbar

Saudi Arabia proposes a committee to exchange intelligence

Saudi Arabia called for cooperation with Lebanon and the establishment of a security committee to exchange intelligence, while Tripoli MPs continued with their campaign against the Lebanese Army.

The Muslim Gathering held a meeting in MP Mohammad Kabbara's residence in Tripoli condemning the security oppression against Tripoli, particularly "illegal summons" for men who had defended the city at a time the state was absent. They held the government responsible for the arrests and the repercussions of accumulated feelings of oppression.