Top Foodie Cities by StudyAbroad101.com

I am completely shocked to see that Paris doesn't make this list! However I can personally attest to the wonderful food of the wonderful ville that is Aix-en-Provence. <3 Visiting Aix is one of my favorite memories from studying abroad. The food: delicious. The people: extraordinarily kind. The architecture: Romanesque. The night life: Bumpin'.

Immigration Legislation Update

From the Wall Street Journal by Carol E. Lee

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Tuesday he would accept a piecemeal approach to overhauling the immigration system, a move aimed at jump-starting a moribund process that reflects the realities of a divided Congress.

Mr. Obama has long favored the sweeping immigration bill that passed the Senate in June, but the House has made clear it wouldn't consider that measure. In a wide-ranging interview before business executives at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council, the president said he is amenable to House Republicans' taking up elements of the Senate bill, as long as the end result is the same.

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President Obama was interviewed at the annual Wall Street Journal CEO Council in Washington on Tuesday. Ralph Alswang for The Wall Street Journal

"If they want to chop that thing up into five pieces, as long as all five pieces get done, I don't care what it looks like," Mr. Obama said. "What we don't want to do is simply carve out one piece of it…but leave behind some of the tougher stuff that still needs to get done."

Many advocates of a broad immigration overhaul have worried that Congress would pass some elements, such as business-backed measures allowing more temporary workers into the country, without setting a path to citizenship for people now in the U.S. illegally, as the Senate bill does. Mr. Obama's statement was his most extensive about accepting a piecemeal approach.

The president said he was "optimistic" that Congress would meet the goal he set of passing an immigration bill by the end of the year.

But just after Mr. Obama spoke, Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, poured cold water on that idea. In his own appearance before The Wall Street Journal CEO Council, Mr. Ryan said there wasn't enough time left to tackle immigration this year.

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My Reactions:
To me, this seems like bipartisan action towards an important issue. We all know that our politicians don't get along all that well, but immigration reform is a subject in which both parties have an interest. It is clear that the two sides don't share the opinion of how reform should be passed; democrats prefer a large sweeping bill, while republicans want to consider each piece of immigration legislation separately. Both approaches have positive qualities: one large bill would have ensured that the reform does in fact pass before this year while several bills will ensure that it is more thoroughly considered. I agree that it would be detrimental to take just one piece of the bill and leave the tough stuff behind. It seems to be a problem that our representatives are averse to getting down and dirty with those tough problems (government shutdown, anybody?). As long as Obama is confident that Congress can still pass the legislation by the end of the year, this is positive news. 

News in Immigration policies on capitol hill