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Israeli soldier succumbs to wounds; Israel's Gaza death toll rises to 72

JERUSALEM –  The Israeli military says a soldier wounded in fighting in the Gaza Strip has died, bringing the Israeli military toll in the recently concluded conflict to 66.
The military says 20-year-old Sergeant Shachar Shalev died Sunday. He was wounded on July 23, six days after Israeli ground forces entered the densely populated coastal strip.
Six civilians were also killed on the Israeli side, including one agricultural worker from Thailand.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed during the 50-day war.
Israel and Hamas agreed last Tuesday to an open-ended truce. The cease-fire brought an immediate end to the fighting but left key disputes unresolved.

Obama under pressure to delay immigration action until after midterms

It's all about politics.

President Obama is reportedly mulling the possibility of delaying making changes to U.S. immigration policy until after the upcoming midterm elections, after Democrats in tough Senate races have argued that it could damage their chances in November.
The president had been expected to use his executive authority to ease deportations and give temporary work permits to millions of illegal immigrants. 
After Republicans in the House of Representatives voted down a version of immigration reform, Obama announced that he intended to act on his own before the end of summer in order to make what he said were urgent changes to the immigration system. Republicans claim that such moves would exceed his legal authority if he were to act without congressional approval.
However, The Wall Street Journal reports that White House officials are now debating whether to put off some or all of Obama’s policy changes until after the November election, after several Democrats running in tight elections in conservative states have urged the president to do so, claiming that such a move would damage their election prospects.
Democratic Senators Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Kay Hagan in North Carolina, Mark Begich in Alaska and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, all have called for immigration reform to be addressed by Congress, not by the White House, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Obama said in a news conference Thursday that his timeline for immigration reform was unclear, and said that the child-migration crisis could affect the timing of any announcement.
"Some of these things do affect timelines, and we're just going to be working through as systematically as possible in order to get this done," Obama said.
Obama also faces pressure from immigrant-rights advocates strongly urging the president not to back down and to move forward as planned, especially as he has already delayed action once in 2014.
However, Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Mr. Obama's executive action on immigration would be unpopular no matter when he made it. 
"Whether President Obama declares executive amnesty in September, October or November, he has neither the legal authority nor the public support to do it," Dayspring told The Wall Street Journal.

Reid's name removed from center at Utah university from which he graduated

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s name has been removed from a Southern Utah University facility, following pressure from a conservative group to make the change.
The group received $40,000 in pledges over five days toward removing the Nevada Democrat’s name from the school’s Outdoor Engagement Center.
University President Scott Wyatt acknowledged Friday that he was under pressure from a group of conservatives to remove Reid's name but insisted that politics had nothing to do with his decision.
Reid’s name was removed last week from the front door of the facility, several months after two local elected officials and others met with Wyatt and told him about the campaign, Wyatt said.
He said he told the group to stop raising money and that pledge money would not be accepted to remove Reid's name.
Wyatt said he removed Reid’s name because "nobody" associated the senator with the outdoors. 
The center rents outdoor equipment to students, offers internship programs for students seeking outdoor careers and coordinates project-based learning activities for students. Reid graduated from the school in 1959.
Wyatt also said the school's 2011 naming of the center in Reid's honor generated no donations to it from the senator's friends as had been hoped. 
"The decision has nothing to do with politics," Wyatt told The Associated Press. "We're a university. We're full of Democrats and Republicans and Green Party members and Libertarians. We don't make partisan calls with regard to our esteemed alumnus.
"The leading factor is the center's leadership reported to me it created confusion. When people looked at the name, they didn't understand the connection (between the center and Reid). It was just a little difficult."
Reid issued a brief statement Friday.
"I was approached and asked to use my name and I was happy to, but there was no such agreement to have me raise funds for it," he said. "I'm not going to raise money to have my name placed on anything."
When the center was named for him, Reid touted his congressional record concerning public lands in Nevada, noting his role in the creation of Great Basin National Park, the designation of wilderness areas and an annual summit to protect Lake Tahoe.
At the time, he also criticized Utah's attempts to wrest control of public lands from the federal government.
Cedar City Councilman Paul Cozzens and Iron County Commissioner Dave Miller praised Wyatt's decision to remove Reid's name. They were among the group of conservatives who met with him last spring.
"This is a conservative base in southern Utah, and many people in southern Nevada also feel the same way," Cozzens told The Spectrum of St. George, Utah. "These people in Nevada do not espouse to Reid's political philosophies, and they told me they would not support the university or send any more of their children there ... so long as Harry Reid's name remained."
But Wyatt said plans call for a future center to be named for Reid on campus. The center's purpose will depend on who donates and their interests.
"Absolutely, he's one of our most distinguished alumnus," Wyatt said. "He's somebody we should all be proud of, regardless of politics ... . It's not Sen. Reid's concern as to whether we raise money (for the new center). It's ours."