"Agriculture likes immigration bill," reads the May 21 headline in the Columbus Dispatch and other McClatchy newspapers. The new bill would expand and streamline the guest worker program which has been in place since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. Some 30,000 workers annually come in through the current H-2A program. The streamlined program, dubbed AgJOBS (for Agricultural Job Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2007) could be passed as a stand-alone bill or part of the larger immigration legislation. Some of the same politicians who shaped the 1986 act are instrumental in the guest worker provisions of the currrent bill, such as Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA). California's Tri-Valley Herald notes that the state's agbiz interests are lobbying heavily for it. But a timely May 24 story in the New York Times notes how an attempt by farm labor organizers to eliminate the system of graft which greases the H-2A program recently resulted in a grisly assassination in northern Mexico. Further details on the case are provided by the advocacy website LabourStart:

Veteran journalist Jim Lobe reports on his LobeLog blog that the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a neo-conservative group created two days after 9-11, is holding what it calls "a policy workshop" during Congress' Memorial Day recess, at a luxury resort on Grand Bahama Island. Entitled "Confronting the Iranian Threat: the Way Forward," the confab is to include "30 or so leading experts who will analyze the implications of Iran’s activities, the diplomatic challenges, military and intelligence capabilities, the spread of its ideology within and beyond its borders, and other issues, including the prospects for democratization in the Islamic world, energy security and other related issues that face policymakers in the United States, Europe and the Middle East," according to the invitation letter from FDD's president, Clifford May. The purpose will be "exploring policy options...and [to] consider solutions to one of the most significant policy issues of our day." Writes Lobe:

Every president since FDR has drawn up such plans. The most notorious were Nixon's "Operation Garden Plot" and Reagan's "REX 84 Alpha"—a legacy we recalled when the Homeland Security Act passed in 2002. This latest incarnation has gone unnoticed by the New York Times and other major media. Leave it to the editorial page of Tennessee's Chattanoogan, May 24:

The 9-11 death toll in New York City has just been officially raised from 2,749 to 2,750. From CBS, May 24:

A woman who died of lung disease five months after Sept. 11 was added on Wednesday to the medical examiner's list of attack victims, marking the first time the city has officially linked a death to the toxic dust caused by the World Trade Center's collapse.

China's newly-appointed envoy Liu Guijin called for greater humanitarian aid on a visit to Darfur—but said international sanctions against Sudan would only "further complicate the situation" and prolong the suffering of the 2.5 million refugees displaced by the conflict. Liu met local officials in El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, before touring two nearby refugee camps, the report said. An estimated 100,000 people now live in the Abu Shouk and As-Salam camps. (AlJazeera, May 24)

Fighting has resumed at Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, where authorities are demanding that Fatah al-Islam lay down arms and turn over its leaders. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said the group has two choices: "Surrender or the army will take the military option." Lebanese officials said the navy had sunk two boats carrying fighters escaping from Nahr al-Bared. (AlJazeera, May 24) Sixteen people were wounded in a bomb blast at a popular mountain resort in the Druze town of Aley—the third terrorist bombing in Lebanon in a week. (Press TV, Iran, May 24)

Thirty-three senior Hamas officials have been arrested by the Israel Defence Force (IDF). Among those detained were legislators, mayors and even the Education Minister, Nasser Shaer. [Haaretz, May 24]. Overnight, Israeli Air Force fighter jets targeted Palestinian money exchanges accused of passing monies from Iran, Lebanon and Syria into the arming and training of Hamas militants, the IDF has said. In an earlier incident, IDF fire is reported to have killed a local farmer in the Gaza Strip. [Haaretz, May 24] Palestinian militants have rejected calls for a ceasefire with both Israel and between the rival factions in the Gaza Strip. [BBC, May 24]

At least 27 people were killed and dozens wounded after a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd of mourners at a funeral in Falluja, in the Iraqi province of Anbar, May 24. The funeral was for Allawi al-Isawi, a local businessman opposed to "al-Qaeda in Iraq," and the attack appears to be the latest in a campaign of bombings and shootings against Sunni tribal leaders who have formed an alliance against them. The bomber drove into the funeral procession and blew himself up.