TV News LIES

As the Senate Armed Services Committee meets Wednesday to take up its version of the Defense Authorization bill, senators will likely devote at least as much verbiage to discussion of sexual assault in the military ranks as they do to the finer points of the Pentagon budget that is the bill’s main focus.

But missing from the committee’s final version of the bill will be the one measure that advocates for survivors of sexual assault and rape say is critical to ending the crisis that grips the military: removing the reporting and prosecution of sexual assault cases from the chain of command.

The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a sweeping, $638bn defence bill that would block President Barack Obama from closing the US detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, and limit his efforts to reduce nuclear weapons.

Ignoring a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House voted 315-108 for the legislation – which also authorises money for aircraft, weapons, ships, personnel and the war in Afghanistan. It must be reconciled with a Senate version before heading to the president's desk.

The U.S. Senate Thursday rejected an amendment to the immigration reform bill that would have required increased border security, officials said. The amendment, proposed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, was struck down in a 57-43 vote, The Hill reported.

Had the amendment been approved, the Department of Homeland Security would have been required to strengthen border security before the government would be allowed to grant provisional immigration status to anyone.

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Pocketknives of any shape and size are back on "banned" list of items air passengers may not carry into the cabins of commercial planes – a victory for aviation workers who had pressured the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to rethink its decision of three months ago to stop confiscating such knives during passenger screening.

But the workers, which included pilots, flight attendants, and air marshals, do not intend to chalk up the victory and fly off into the sunset. Rather, a flight attendants union is pressing for a federal law that would keep knives off airplanes for good, and others are urging the TSA to beef up security out on the tarmac, where a host of service workers have access to the planes themselves.

The Senate on Thursday failed to pass two bills that would have blocked increases in federal student loan rates, which are set to double July 1.

The Democrats' bill would have kept interest rates where they are for the next two years to give Congress more time to negotiate student loans. Total student loan debt in the U.S. is about $1 trillion.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Thursday announced he will appoint state Attorney General Jeff Chiesa to the seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.).

Chiesa will serve for only a few months, until a new senator can be elected in a special election. Christie on Tuesday set the special election for Oct. 16. Christie said he will file the paperwork and Chiesa (pronounced Key-AY-zuh) will be sworn in Monday.