National news in brief

Dem foes of tax-cut plan see it passing

WASHINGTON

The White House expressed confidence Sunday that President Barack Obama’s deal with Republicans will pass by year’s end, averting a Jan. 1 increase in income taxes for nearly all Americans, even the highest earners. In a sign of fading resistance, a Democratic leader said the lame-duck House will try to make changes but won’t block the bill.

Ahead of a test vote in the Senate today, Obama adviser David Axelrod predicted the president’s compromise deal would win out despite a tougher sell in the House. Majority Democrats, who lose control of the House to Republicans in January, voted last week not to allow it to reach the floor without changes to scale back relief for wealthy estates.

The package also would renew a program of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed that is due to lapse within days and put in place a one-year cut in Social Security taxes.

Madoff suicide leaves many questions

NEW YORK

For two years, the two sons of jailed financier Bernard Madoff portrayed themselves as honest whistle-blowers of their father’s historic fraud. A court-appointed trustee depicted them as bungling money managers who did nothing to protect investors.

The suicide of Mark Madoff leaves unanswered questions for investors seeking payback for the billions of dollars his father siphoned — and for criminal investigators who continued to pursue charging Madoff’s family for knowing participation in the fraud.

The 46-year-old Madoff — Bernard Madoff’s eldest son — hanged himself Saturday by a dog leash on a metal ceiling beam in his Manhattan loft apartment, his 2-year-old son asleep in another room. The death was officially ruled a suicide by hanging Sunday by the city medical examiner.

Stylish Cosmopolitan needs every edge

LAS VEGAS

The last major Las Vegas resort approved before the Great Recession will have to lure thousands of gamblers from established neighbors to survive after it opens Wednesday.

The $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, built by a German investment bank after its original developer defaulted, may have the hippest-ever TV commercials: Over a garage rock soundtrack with a jazzy interlude, guests with crafty smiles stray across a landscape of shiny dance floors, soothing guest rooms and tables laden with food and drink.

But the 2,995-room Cosmopolitan is entering a market that’s struggling. And analysts say that just to cover its debt, it will need to do better than even the top-performing Bellagio, its neighbor to the north with 3,933 rooms and the same amount of casino space as Cosmopolitan.

Both sides praise gas-drilling timeout

ALBANY, N.Y.

Environmental groups and energy companies both claimed victory after Gov. David Paterson ordered a seven-month moratorium on some natural gas drilling in the state, although environmentalists would have preferred the broader ban that the Legislature had approved.

The outgoing Democratic governor vetoed a bill Saturday that would have suspended all new natural-gas drilling permits until May 15. Instead, he issued an executive order prohibiting high-volume hydraulic fracturing of horizontally drilled wells, such as those in the Marcellus Shale region of southern New York. The order stands until July 1.

High-volume hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, involves blasting millions of gallons of chemical-laced water thousands of feet underground to crack shale and release natural gas trapped inside it. The Environmental Protection Agency is examining the process to see if it imperils drinking water supplies, as opponents claim.

Associated Press