Odds and ends

Lots of catching up to do:

· Illinois Senator Richard Durbin, the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, talks to the Peoria Journal-Star about his trip to Cuba.

· The Herald has a story about the sentencia in the Alan Gross case. The document states that Gross used Americans who were traveling to Cuba on Jewish fellowship trips to carry parts of his satellite equipment, without telling them that his project was a U.S. government initiative.

· Reuters: Europeans opting for Cuba over North Africa are one factor driving Cuba’s tourism numbers up, and its hotels to capacity.

· The Repsol oil rig is in place in Cuban waters, ready to drill, and the Herald has a good overview of emergency response issues.

· EFE on the 150^th anniversary of Bacardi, a company that dreams of returning to Cuba, and – well, why not? – does business in communist China.

· Vancouver Sun: Two first-stringers on the Cuban women’s soccer team hopped a cab, went to the U.S. border, pulled their carnets de identidad out of their shoes, and asked to stay. Welcome to el Yuma.

· The New York Times Magazine interviews Sen. Marco Rubio.

· Cuba travel Christopher Baker, author of the Moon’s travel guide to Cuba, has a theory about the scarcity of medicines in Cuba.