February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Ray O’Hanlon
Two months after the House of Representatives approved an extension of immigration provision 245i, the U.S. Senate has yet to vote on its own version of the House measure.
However, the Senate’s 245i bill could advance this week as it is on the agenda for a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration which is chaired by Sen. Edward Kennedy.
The Senate bill is co-sponsored by Kennedy and Republican senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska.
245i, which expired from the books April 30, allows certain undocumented immigrants to apply for legal residence while remaining in the U.S., thus avoiding up to a ten year ban for living in the country illegally in the first place. The House bill approved a four month extension to the provision.
One in 1.1 million
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If you flew the Atlantic on an Aer Lingus aircraft last year you were one in a million plus.
A record total of 1.1 million passengers spanned the ocean with the Irish carrier during the period which saw the airline open a new service out of Baltimore/Washington.
The transAtlantic passenger total was a jump of 21 percent over the previous year.
Aer Lingus currently operates services out of New York, Newark, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles as well as Baltimore/Washington. An additional service linking Toronto with Ireland is currently being considered.
But while 2000 was a high flying year over the Atlantic for Aer Lingus, 2001 is proving to be very different story with passengers numbers being trimmed by several factors including the economic downturn and the effects of the foot and mouth crisis.
Youth speaks
With the Northern Ireland peace process at a crossroads, college students from the North will gather in Washington D.C. next week to discuss the state of the process and where they think it should go from here.
The Second Annual Congressional Forum for "Young Leaders" of Project Children is set for Tuesday, July 31 in the Rayburn House Office Building.
The forum is being hosted by the co-chairs of the congressional Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs, Reps. Joe Crowley, Ben Gilman, Richard Neal and Peter King.
Project Children, which mostly sponsors U.S. vacations for school-age children from Protestant and Catholic families in the North, also brings 32 university students from both communities to the U.S. each year to work in Washington as interns in both House and Senate offices.
Cullinane honored
Boston-based Irish American businessman John Cullinane is being honored this week by the University of Ulster.
Cullinane is to receive an honorary degree in recognition of his work in promoting peace and economic development in Ireland, north and south.
The conferring will take place Thursday at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Dorchester and will be presided over by the university’s president and vice-chancellor, Dr. Gerry McKenna.