The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 6

A6 The Pantagraph Monday, September 9, 2013 www.pantagraph.com Early look Band of Republicans pushes immigration in U.S. House 1 A vocates who want a path to citizenship. Many come from swing districts with sizable Hispanic populations that could make a difference in next year's elections, tipping the balance of power in the GOP-controlled House. The lawmakers also feel the pressure from business interests that rely on immigrant labor. At the same time, conservative taxpayer groups who typically fund GOP primary challenges have remained largely silent on immigration.

Anti-immigration activists have failed to organize large-scale demonstrations or generate the kind of public backlash that killed Congress' last attempt to remake immigration policy, in 2007. Immigrant advocates, on the other hand, have waged a well-funded, aggressive campaign to push for the legislation. way to embrace an immigration overhaul, which is a crucial issue for the country's fast-growing bloc of Hispanic voters. Supporters of a path to citizenship point to demographic changes and business backing that have helped sway Webster, who for years opposed immigrant-rights legislation, as potential motives for wavering lawmakers to sign on. "I think as a country we need to do something," Webster said in an interview, echoing the rhetoric of Florida Sen.

Marco Rubio and other prominent Republicans. "Doing nothing is amnesty." Striking balance The small but growing band of Republicans is trying to strike a balance between conservative activists who want border security and immigration ad By Michael J. Mishak ASSOCIATED PRESS GROVELAND, Fla. In the five weeks since he declared his support for a comprehensive immigration overhaul, U.S. Rep.

Daniel Webster has gotten an earful. One constituent told the second -term Republican that immigrants carry disease. Another said immigrants would steal jobs away from Americans. "You cannot stop illegal immigration by rewarding it," another man said at a recent town hall-style meeting in Groveland, a rural community west of Orlando. "Amnesty is a reward." As Congress returns to work this week after its summer break, Webster faces perhaps an even tougher crowd: fellow Republicans.

Webster is among about i I Associated PressMARY ALTAFFER A photographer takes a picture of a steel column from the North Tower of the World Trade Center during a media tour of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum last week in New York. Construction is racing ahead inside the museum as the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks draws near. Several more large artifacts recently have been installed in the cavernous space below the World Trade Center memorial plaza. GOP law- makers who support an eventual path to citizenship for millions of people Daniel Webster who are living in the U.S.

illegally. These Republicans are facing the daunting challenge of trying to persuade colleagues to follow them. Most Republicans oppose this approach on citizenship, and there is little political incentive for them to change their minds. Only 24 of 233 Republicans represent districts where more than one-quarter of their constituents are Hispanic. Even so, some in the Republican Party argue that its future hinges on whether the House finds a struggling property, said Robert Radovan, co-owner of Criswell-Radovan.

His Napa Valley, Calif. -based development company acquired the Cal Neva in April. "Our goal is to bring it back to its former glory and to make it what it was like in Sinatra's day," Radovan told The Associated Press. "It has such great soul and character, and it's needed this redo for many decades." The property has fallen on hard times because of the double whammy of the recession and competition Sinatra's old Tahoe resort to get Naming rights to WTC sold in 1986 for mere $10 makeover August 1962. Five small cabins, including the one where she stayed that year, also will be renovated, Radovan said.

The other cabins were used by Sinatra and friends. Sinatra himself renovated the Cal Neva, adding the celebrity showroom and a helicopter pad on the roof. He used tunnels to shuffle mobsters and celebrities beneath the resort so they wouldn't be seen by the general public. The tunnels were built in the late 1920s so liquor could be smuggled in during Prohibition. from Las Vegas and Indian casinos.

Its casino was forced to shut down in 2010 due to declining business. During its heyday from 1960 to 1963, the Cal Neva was owned by Sinatra and became one of the most famous resorts in the country. It drew fellow Rat Packers Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford, and stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio and Juliet Prowse. Monroe spent her final weekend at the Cal Neva before she died of a drug overdose in Los Angeles in Sunday that the Port Authority pays $10,000 a year to use the words "World Trade Center," including on merchandise it plans to sell in the new World Trade Center it's building.

Those sales could bring an estimated $23 million to $28 million annually. The paper reports the executive who made the deal, Guy Tozzoli, earned millions as president of the nonprofit. He died this year. WOODLAND PARK, N.I. (AP) The public agency that owned the World Trade Center sold its naming rights to a nonprofit decades ago for $10 and has to pay to use the name.

The Record newspaper of New Jersey reported that a contract shows the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sold the rights to the World Trade Centers Association in 1086. The newspaper reported Needed By Martin Griffith ASSOCIATED PRESS RENO, Nevada A Lake Tahoe resort once owned by Frank Sinatra and frequented by his Rat Pack buddies is about to undergo a major makeover. The Cal Neva hotel-casino that straddles the California-Nevada line will close for more than a year beginning today to allow for the multimillion-dollar project. The 219-room, 10-story hotel and casino will be upgraded in an effort to revive the 7 A ji I If I I Wanted i a.