House bill favors small businesses

House bill favors small businesses

WASHINGTON

Long-term investors in some small businesses would escape capital-gains taxes under a bill passed by the House Tuesday as congressional Democrats tried to revive their jobs agenda.

The bill also would increase tax deductions for startup expenses by new small businesses. The House passed the bill on a mostly party-line vote of 247 to 170.

House Democrats plan to merge the bill with legislation creating a $30 billion fund for community banks to increase lending to small businesses. The House could vote on the lending bill as early as today, sending the entire package to the Senate.

New rules proposed for college recruiting

WASHINGTON

Colleges no longer would be allowed to pay recruiters for students or engage in aggressive or misleading recruitment under proposed new federal regulations that target the practices of for-profit colleges.

The proposed new Department of Education rules were to be announced today. They apply to all colleges but are of particular interest to the for-profit world, where some institutions have been accused of misleading students about the cost and value of their programs.

N. Korea issues another threat

UNITED NATIONS

North Korea warned Tuesday that its military forces will respond if the U.N. Security Council questions or condemns the country over the sinking of a South Korean navy ship, which it vehemently denies.

At a rare news conference, North Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Sin Son Ho demanded that a military investigation team from North Korea be permitted to go to the site of the sinking to verify the result of a South Korean probe “in an objective and scientific way,” which the South has refused to allow.

Mexican soldiers battle gunmen

MEXICO CITY

Soldiers battled gunmen for nearly an hour Tuesday on the outskirts of the popular tourist town of Taxco, killing 15 suspects as escalating bloodshed puts June in line to become the deadliest month yet in Mexico’s drug war.

Troops investigating suspicious activity came under fire from gunmen holed up in a house, the Defense Department said. It said no soldiers were hurt in the 40-minute shootout. Twenty guns and two homemade explosives were recovered, it added.

The battle in Guerrero state came one day after 12 federal police officers were killed in an ambush in neighboring Michoacan state, a stronghold of drug activity. It was unclear if the two shootouts were related.

Judge denies stay of execution

SALT LAKE CITY

A federal judge has denied a request from a Utah death-row inmate seeking to postpone his execution while he pursues a civil-rights lawsuit.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Tena Campbell rejected Ronnie Lee Gardner’s petition for a stay of execution Tuesday evening.

Gardner is set to be executed by firing squad Friday. He is scrambling to block his execution after losing an appeal at the Utah Supreme Court and failing to persuade the state parole board to grant him clemency.

Spain moves to restrict burqas

MADRID

Spain’s government on Tuesday said it favors barring the use of burqas in government buildings, joining other European countries considering similar moves on the grounds that such garments are degrading to women.

Total body-covering Islamic veils demean women, and the restriction will be included in an upcoming bill on religious issues, Justice Minister Francisco Caamano said.

Associated Press