Train Disaster: The crash of a high-speed passenger train in Northwestern Spain has killed at least 77 people and injured 100. The train carrying 218 people was near the end of a six-hour trip from Madrid to Ferrol when it derailed on a curve. At least one car broke in half and others jacknifed.

National: The Senate passed a student loan bill that will tie interest rates to the financial markets. Right now the rate is 3.9% for undergraduates and 5.4% for graduate students fixed for the life of the loan. But those rates will go up if overall interest rates climb.

>A bill that would have limited the NSA’s electronic surveillance of Americans’ phone calls failed to pass the House yesterday. It was close, 217-205. The bill would have restricted surveillance to criminal targets rather than a dragnet of all phone calls. The vote shows Congress is uneasy with the NSA’s collection of information.

>The burning gas well rig in the Gulf of Mexico is collapsing in the heat of the fire. The rig blew on Tuesday. Efforts are under way to drill a relief well, but that could take several days. Authorities say environmental damage will be minimal because the ruptured rig is gas, not oil.

>President Obama has nominated Caroline Kennedy to be Ambassador to Japan. She has no diplomatic experience. Big appointments like this are usually given as political rewards and Kennedy’s endorsement of Obama in big first presidential campaign helped him pull ahead of Hillary Clinton.

Oh Baby: The new British royal baby has been named George Louis Alexander, which makes him His Royal Highness Prince George Louis Alexander of Cambridge. He’s going to take a beating in nursery school.

The Obit Page: Willie Louis, one of the last living witnesses in the infamous racial killing of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi, has died outside Chicago at 76. Louis was only 18 when he saw Till in the back of a truck driven by four white men. Till was never seen alive again. Louis ignored threats and walked past a line of Klansmen to testify in open court.

Tabloid News: The press is having a field day with the most recent revelations about Anthony Weiner’s Internet fantasy romances. The NY mayoral candidate admitted he continued sexting strangers even after leaving Congress. Headlines: “Erection Update”, “LimpXXXcuse”, and  “Humailiation”. Weiner says he went back to the Internet during a rough patch in his marriage last summer. Attention has now turned to why his wife Huma Abedin sticks with this guy. Forget his wife, why haven’t the voters left?

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