Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 23

www.lQ-tc.com STATENATION Saturday; February 17, 2007 C11 House passes business tax breaks linked to minimum-wage hike are more than four times bigger than the ones passed in the House. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, said House and Senate negotiators could reconcile differences in the bills within two or three weeks. "The minimum wage provision is going to trump all of this and is going to drive us to get this thing done pretty quickly," Baucus said. Under the House bill, small businesses would see an extension in some tax write WASHINGTON (AP)- The House overwhelmingly approved business tax breaks worth $1.8 billion over 10 years on Friday, a key step toward forging a congressional compromise on increasing the minimum wage. The vote on the tax cuts was 360-45.

Passage of a wage hike for the lowest-paid workers now depends on how quickly the House and Senate work out differences between their tax packages. The Senate tax breaks worth $8.3 billion dividends. The House vote displayed the influence the Senate's Republican minority can have on congressional legislation. House Democrats had demanded a minimum wage bill without any tax provisions. Senate Democrats insisted that without some tax relief, the minimum wage would lose necessary Republican backing.

Senate Republican officials predicted the final tax package would be closer to the House version than the Sen offs that are scheduled to expire and would be able to continue to claim a tax credit for hiring disadvantaged workers. The legislation also would ensure that restaurants, which can deduct Social Security taxes paid on tips above the minimum wage, would not be hurt by the wage hike. The House bill would also raise revenue by closing a loophole that permits wealthy taxpayers to shift income to their children and avoid higher taxes on capital gains and ate's. Small business groups have sided with the Senate, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is lobbying for the House version.

The bipartisan agreement behind the House tax package was in stark contrast to the largely partisan debate on Iraq that consumed the House for most of the week. Lawmakers held up the House bill as a model for legislative cooperation. Still, some Republicans complained that Democrats prevented them from offering amendments on the House floor. Rep. Charles Rangel, the chairman of the House tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said the legislation "should set the tone for the rest of the Congress as we search for common ground and solutions to tough issues." The minimum wage bill had become the new Democratic majority's first legislative challenge.

The $2.10 an hour increase from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years was a Democratic campaign issue. Classes In an Hour (or so)-even at Illinois Express Eyecare RJf.j 71 kl 7 7 FreeScratcrt-? Coatlnowith Buy 1 Get One Glasses ,2 I Pnrrhac vr1 1 'x 1 HI WIIUSJV Associated Press Near whlteout conditions can be seen on Main Street In Frisco, Friday morning as a major snow storm moved through area, causing poor visibility and road closures throughout the mountain area. Cleanup of winter onslaught continues Nautica Calvin Klein Tura Adidas Flexon Safilo Marchon OKNY Ralph Lauren Disney Silhouette i i i i COMPLETE CLASSES (Frames and unstsl Program for Seniors OPTIGOLD 60 VMBtssnrntuamrasEssa tssnmmpuutfntm SOFT CONTACTS BUY ANT PAIR Of COtOd SOT 1 Pair Special i Includes all a lasses uo to I CONTACTS, WITH AN EYE EXAM, Aw KaiKAFffifOIKPttl $99 with single vision lenses! (Lined Bifocals Additional! With This Coupon Thru March 17, 2007 One may Mt wed is eonuclrM with other tssclii ottara we Are Now aiCeyemed provider SMWPor Details BRING US YOUR DOCTOR'S PRESCRIPVONORLETUS GIVE YOU A THOROUGH PROFESSIONAL YE EXAM across the Midwest and Northeast. Numerous areas saw more than a foot of snow. More than 137,000 customers had lost power at the height of the storm.

At New York City's Kennedy Airport, JetBlue travelers continued to experience delays and cancellations Friday as the airline struggled for a third day to recover from a storm-related backlog that left angry passengers stuck in grounded planes for hours. The company had hoped to have things back to normal by Friday morning. Pennsylvania authorities blamed the snarled 50-mile stretch of 1-78 on the severity of the storm and jackknifed tractor-trailers. "This storm was rare because of the unusual amount of snow and ice," Biehler said Thursday. "This series of accidents that blocked our way made it really, really difficult." Eugene Coleman, who is hyperglycemic, was trapped in the Pennsylvania jam for 20 hours while on his way home to Hartford, from visiting his terminally ill mother in Georgia, along with his girlfriend and pregnant daughter.

"How could you operate a state like this? It's totally disgusting," Coleman said. At least 24 deaths were blamed on the storm system and accompanying cold: six in Ohio; three in Nebraska; two each in Illinois, Indiana, New York, New Jersey and Delaware; and one each in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Hampshire and Louisiana. ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) -The last of hundreds of stranded motorists were freed but highways remained shut Friday as crews struggled to clear ice and snow following a monster storm that has been blamed for at least 24 deaths. State Transportation Secretary Allen D.

Biehler said Friday that Interstate 78, site of a huge traffic jam Thursday, as well as large portions of I-81 and 1-80, would remain closed so workers could clear them. The icy mixture, up to six inches thick, became rock-hard as overnight temperatures plummeted to the low teens and single digits. The sprawling storm system, which caused deaths from Nebraska to New England, blew out to sea Thursday, leaving huge snow piles, frigid temperatures and tens of thousands without power CD' VISA i Dr. Steve Lane, O.D HOURS: SAT. SUNDAY NOON -5PM mEXPRESS EYECARE FREE ADJUSTMENTS No other discounts apply frXrailllltaTTTTTr Illinois Supreme Court upholds serial killer death sentence ook for things, the trial judge was wrong to reject his plea of guilty but mentally ill.

Urdiales had not yet been convicted of Corum's death at the time Ryan commuted his death sentence in the other cases. The Supreme Court, however, found that the judge did nothing wrong when he concluded that Urdiales was not mentally ill. The court noted that defense witnesses didn't agree on what illness Urdiales supposedly suffered and that his crime involved careful planning. Despite Friday's ruling, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has ordered the Corrections Department not to conduct any executions, continuing the moratorium begun by Ryan.

The Supreme Court also allowed a case to proceed against Clark USA, owner of Clark Refining and Marketing. Clark Refining owned an oil refinery in Blue Island where a fire broke out in 1995, killing two workers. SPRINGFIELD (AP) -Serial killer Andrew Urdiales is heading back to death row because of a ruling Friday by the Illinois Supreme Court. The court also allowed a lawsuit against the parent company of a refinery where two workers died in a fire, and ruled the state Corrections Department wrongly charged indigent prisoners a copayment for health care. Urdiales has confessed to killing eight women in Illinois and California between 1988 and 1996 and is serving a life sentence.

He was originally condemned to die for two of i those murders, before then-Gov. George Ryan commuted his sentence because of flaws in the state's death penalty system. Friday's ruling involves Cassandra Corum of Indiana, who was shot and stabbed to death in 1996. Urdiales appealed his death sentence in that case on the grounds that, among other Journal Gazette tCimes-Courier Viewer 9 Choice YOUR WEEKLY ENTERTAINMENT TV GUIDE on Obama: White House can be won altoirday be io mm Big that." And when others said blacks couldn't sit at lunch counters, blacks did that, said Obama, who ended his thought with: "Yes, we can." The crowd then started chanting the line. Obama also touched on the diversity of the nearly 3,000 people at the event, saying a generation ago, blacks were harassed if they walked across the Statehouse grounds a few blocks away.

Twenty years ago, nobody would have believed this crowd right here in South Carolina," Obama said. Obama said significant numbers of troops should be coming home from the Middle East by March 31, 2008 because the U.S. effort is not working. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -Waving blue campaign signs and cheering their support, thousands of people gathered to hear Sen.

Barack Obama on Friday evening as the Democratic White House hopeful made his first presidential campaign visit to South Carolina. Obama was keenly aware of the significance of appearing before a crowd in Columbia just a few days after a black South Carolina legislator said if Obama won the nomination, it would lead to losses for Democrats in Congress and governorships. "Everybody's entitled to their opinion," Obama said. "But I know this that when folks were saying we're going to march for our freedom, somebody said we can't do na 24 onuiairy.