WASHINGTON – House and Senate negotiators reached agreement Monday on a new round of stifling sanctions on Iran, targeting energy, shipping and insurance sectors with punitive measures to derail Tehran’s suspected push for nuclear weapons.
Lawmakers filed a final bill late Monday, with a House vote expected as early as Wednesday.
Congress has just a week before a monthlong August recess and members see the legislation as the last chance to impose crippling penalties on Iran.
“The bill sends a clear message to the Iranian regime that the U.S. is committed, through the use of sanctions, to preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold,” said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said the bill reconciles the House and Senate bills and incorporates new provisions from lawmakers. He vowed to help pass it in the Senate before Congress adjourns.
Singer Tony Martin dies in LA at 98
Crooner Tony Martin, whose career spanned from the Great Depression to the 21st century, has died in Los Angeles at 98. Friend and accountant Beverly Scott says Martin died Friday of natural causes at his West Los Angeles home.
A romantic idol for at least one generation, his hit recordings include “I Get Ideas,” “To Each His Own,” “Begin the Beguine” and “There’s No Tomorrow.”
Although he never became a full-fledged movie star, Martin was featured in 25 films, most of them made during the heyday of the Hollywood musicals.
Off-screen, he married two movie musical superstars, Alice Faye and Cyd Charisse.
Ohio rep won’t seek 10th term in House
Republican Rep. Steven LaTourette of Ohio, a nine-term lawmaker and a close confidant of House Speaker John Boehner, has decided not to seek re-election.
Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett said Monday night that LaTourette had told him that he wouldn’t be a candidate in November.
“Steve has been a good congressman in a tough district,” Bennett said. “He obviously has been able to work with people across the aisle.”
The Columbus Dispatch, which first reported LaTourette’s decision, said that LaTourette decided to retire over a dispute with leadership on committee assignments.
Massive blackout disrupts day in India
Northern India’s power grid crashed Monday, halting hundreds of trains, forcing hospitals and airports to use backup generators and leaving 370 million people sweltering in the summer heat.
The blackout, one of the worst to hit India in a decade, highlighted the nation’s inability to feed a growing hunger for energy. The northern grid crashed about 2:30 a.m. because it could no longer keep up with the huge demand for power in the hot summer, officials in the state of Uttar Pradesh said.
