Political Scene

SENATE

N.J. senator calls for game boycott

Sen. Robert Menendez is urging the Major League Baseball Players Association to boycott next year’s All Star Game in Phoenix over the recently passed Arizona law to crack down on illegal immigrants.

The New Jersey Democrat says in a letter that 27 percent of major league players are Hispanic, and they shouldn’t be subjected to a law Mr. Menendez says codifies racial profiling.

Rep. Jose Serrano, New York Democrat, has similarly asked the players to boycott the 2011 event, noting that in 1993 the National Football League rescinded its offer to host the Super Bowl in Arizona because it didn’t then recognize the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Players Association Executive Director Michael Weiner has come out against the law, saying it could negatively affect hundreds of players.

MICHIGAN

Michigan lawmaker to seek 8th term

DETROIT | Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Michigan Democrat, is seeking an eighth term in the U.S. House.

Mrs. Kilpatrick announced her bid for re-election to the 13th District seat on Monday at an event in Detroit.

Her district includes parts of Detroit and the city’s suburbs.

She is the mother of Kwame Kilpatrick, who was forced to resign as Detroit’s mayor after a 2008 text-messaging sex scandal derailed his political career.

The congresswoman’s primary challengers include state Sen. Hansen Clarke and businessman and broadcaster Glenn Plummer.

The seat is nearly certain to remain in Democratic hands.

RUSSIA

Obama resubmits nuclear-energy deal

President Obama has resubmitted to Congress a nuclear-energy pact with Russia that his predecessor angrily canceled two years ago after Russia invaded neighboring Georgia.

The deal would allow the countries to exchange nuclear-energy technology, engage in joint commercial nuclear-power ventures and collaborate on nonproliferation goals.

Mr. Obama’s decision Monday to resubmit the pact is the latest indication of his attempts to reset relations with Russia. Last month, Mr. Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new nuclear-arms reduction treaty.

President George W. Bush signed and sent the agreement to Congress in 2008, but withdrew it after Russia invaded its West-leaning neighbor.

HOUSE

DCCC pulls out of Hawaiian race

House Democrats are abandoning efforts to win a special election in Hawaii as a party feud threatens their prospects in President Obama’s native state.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Crider on Monday said the organization would stop spending for the May 22 contest to replace Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who left Congress to run for governor. National Democrats have been smarting over the messy Democratic fight between state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and former Rep. Ed Case.

Miss Hanabusa is favored by the state’s two senators, Daniel K. Inouye and Daniel K. Akaka, as well as labor. The DCCC blamed local Democrats for infighting.

Republican Charles Djou is leading in the polls. The Democratic campaign committee has spent more than $300,000 on the race, much of it for ads critical of Mr. Djou.

HHS

Coverage for young adults to raise costs

The government says letting young adults stay on their parents’ health insurance until they turn 26 will nudge premiums higher for employer plans.

The coverage requirement, effective later this year, is one of the most anticipated early benefits of President Obama’s new health care law. The Health and Human Services department says in an estimate released Monday that the benefit will cost $3,380 for each dependent, raising premiums by 0.7 percent in 2011 for employer plans. Some 1.2 million young adults are expected to sign up, more than half of whom would have been uninsured.

PRODUCT SAFETY

Feds expand scrutiny of children’s jewelry

LOS ANGELES | Federal regulators announced another recall of children’s jewelry with high levels of the toxic metal cadmium Monday, also saying they’ve expanded their investigation in an effort to keep dangerous items off store shelves in the first place.

A spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission told the Associated Press its inspectors at 10 of the nation’s largest ports are now screening children’s jewelry — typically imported from China — for cadmium.

Our surveillance and detection program has now been expanded through the use of special guns that shoot X-rays into jewelry to estimate how much cadmium each item might contain, spokesman Scott Wolfson said.

Word of increased scrutiny came as the agency announced the voluntary recall of about 19,000 Best Friends charm bracelet sets made in China and sold exclusively at the jewelry and accessories store Claire’s, which has more than 3,000 stores in North America and Europe.

JUSTICE

Bank to forfeit $500 million

The Justice Department says the former ABN Amro Bank N.V. has agreed to forfeit $500 million for facilitating the movement of illegal funds through the U.S. financial system.

The government charged in federal court Monday that the financial institution — now named the Royal Bank of Scotland N.V. — assisted countries and entities that were under economic sanctions in evading U.S. laws.

Court papers say the bank engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The department says the bank will be under a deferred prosecution agreement. The government will recommend dismissal of the charge in one year if the bank cooperates.

In 2005, ABN Amro paid penalties in the case to various regulatory bodies and to the board of governors of the Federal Reserve system.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports