Odds and ends

• Senator Menendez vows to filibuster any Cuba travel bill that comes his way, and Senators Dorgan and Enzi say they have the 60 votes they need to overcome a filibuster. Their bill, S. 428, has 40 sponsors.

• A column in last week’s Wall Street Journal reported indirectly that Cardinal Ortega had been in Washington, and rumors of meetings he had here. There’s lots of talk about that trip, very little concrete or on the record. But the June 21-28 trip itself has been confirmed by his spokesman Orlando Marquez; see Progreso Weekly and La Jornada.

• AP: Cuba is closing more workplace cafeterias. The experiment that initially affected 2,800 workers is now expanding to cover 225,000, all in Havana, all of whom receive 15-peso daily stipends to go buy their own lunch. Earlier discussion here.

• The Wall Street Journal advances the Cuba oil story, quoting a Repsol spokeswoman saying the company plans to resume drilling next year in its concession in Cuba’s Gulf waters. Its rig is under construction in China. Also: “A Treasury Department spokeswoman said some U.S. firms involved in oil cleanup have been issued licenses to travel to Cuba in case oil from the continuing spill hits beaches there.”

• The understatement of the year from Elian Gonzalez, who holds no ill feelings against his Miami relatives but says they “just didn’t make their best effort” to reunite him with his father. If that’s the way he remembers it, it’s probably not a bad thing. Herald story here.

• From a reader: video of one number, “Demasiado,” at Silvio Rodriguez’ Washington concert.