Briefs: GOP-controlled House denounces hiking debt limit in symbolic vote

Nation

Washington— The GOP-controlled House on Wednesday kicked off another session with a protest vote against raising the government's borrowing cap by $1.2 trillion, but the maneuver amounted to political theater.

The nearly party-line 239-176 vote puts the House on record against Obama's use of unprecedented authority — awarded to him through a mechanism devised by the Senate's top Republican — to unilaterally raise the so-called debt limit unless Congress can muster the votes to block him. The Senate is sure to kill the measure next week, and President Barack Obama's veto power serves as a final guarantee that the increase will go through as intended and that the nation won't face another debt crisis like last summer.

The debate offered tea party-backed GOP freshmen an almost three-hour opportunity before C-Span cameras to cast blame on the White House and Democratically controlled Senate for the nation's fiscal ills. The national debt has skyrocketed during Obama's first term — from $10.6 trillion on Inauguration Day to $15.2 trillion today. Much of the blame lies with the recession Obama inherited, which made revenues plummet, but almost $1 trillion of the increase can be attributed to Obama's 2009 deficit-financed economic stimulus bill.

USDA announces $308M for disaster-stricken states

Kansas City, Mo. — The nation's top agriculture official on Wednesday announced more than $300 million in emergency assistance to 33 states and Puerto Rico to help them recover from an unusually intense year for natural disasters across the U.S. Utah and Missouri will receive the most disaster aid, together taking in $109 million, or more than one-third of the $308 million in aid from Department of Agriculture watershed and conservation emergency funds, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

The emergency funds are part of USDA's annual budget and money allocated from them will be used to repair and stabilize agriculture and public safety infrastructure.

Billionaire gives $7.5M to fix Washington Monument

Washington — A billionaire history buff has stepped forward to donate the $7.5 million matching gift that's needed to start repairing cracks near the top of the Washington Monument from last summer's East Coast earthquake.

Businessman David Rubenstein told the Associated Press he was inspired to help fund the repairs to the 555-foot obelisk when it became clear how severely damaged it was by a 5.8-magnitude quake on Aug. 23.

In other headlines

NASA spaceport breaks ground for shuttle display : The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex broke ground Wednesday for space shuttle Atlantis' permanent home, a $100 million exhibit due to open in summer 2013.

Police: No one had key to restroom where body lay : Police say no one apparently had a key to the locked movie theater restroom where a 66-year-old Colorado man lay undiscovered for days after he died of a heart attack. A police report released Tuesday says neither the theater nor its cleaning service had a key. George DeGrazio's body was found Jan. 14 in the Fort Collins theater when employees forced their way into the small family restroom to investigate an odor.

Pentagon works on new plan to curb sex assaults : The Pentagon is preparing a series of new initiatives to try to curb sexual assaults in the military. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that last year, 3,191 sex assault cases were reported in the military, but the real number is believed to be closer to 19,000 assaults.

World

Greece resumes talks on reducing debt by $128B

Athens, Greece— The Greek government resumed talks with its private creditors in Athens on Wednesday in the hope of sealing a debt relief deal needed to avoid a disastrous default this spring. The heads of the Institute of International Finance, a global banking association, returned after negotiations stalled last week. The so-called private sector involvement deal is meant to write off $128 billion, or half of the debt Greece owes private bondholders.

Pakistan Taliban claims credit for killing journalist

Islamabad— The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the killing of a reporter for the Voice of America, a radio service financed by the U.S. government, and warned that others will be targets in the future. A masked gunman strode into a mosque during evening prayers in Shabqadar, a small town in the tribal area of northwest Pakistan, on Tuesday evening and opened fire on the reporter, Mukarram Khan Aatif, as he was praying, his colleagues said. The killer escaped on a motorbike driven by a second masked man.

From Detroit News wire services