Rahm Emanuel was sworn in Monday as Chicago's first new mayor in more
than two decades, a historic power shift for a city where the retiring
Richard M. Daley was the only leader a whole generation had ever known.
Driven by immigrants and young people moving to the South and West and
older Americans who stay put elsewhere, the age gap between regions in
the U.S. has grown to its widest level in decades, sharpening the
divides on hot-button issues such as immigration and changes to
Medicare.
President Barack Obama, visiting the U.S.-Mexico border for the first
time as president, is trying to build pressure on Republicans to take on
comprehensive immigration legislation — while showing vital Hispanic
voters that he is not the one standing in the way.
The White House said Wednesday that it was ready to start talks with
Congress on a free trade deal with Colombia, setting the stage for
lawmakers to move ahead on similar agreements with South Korea and
Panama, as Republicans had demanded.
More than two dozen states challenging the health care overhaul urged a
U.S. appeals court on Wednesday to strike down the Obama
administration's landmark law, arguing it far exceeds the federal
government's powers.
Straddling the corner of a padded high jump pit, four-time Olympic gold
medalist Michael Johnson looked down the straightaway of a 10-lane
indoor track ringing a synthetic turf field built on land where a
vineyard once thrived.
