Hasta La Gadget!

WASHINGTON — The Senate finally appears to have a Plan B — or at least the beginnings of one — to break the standstill on funding the Department of Homeland Security.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced Monday that the chamber will vote on a stand-alone bill to block President Barack Obama’s immigration executive actions that could allow as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants to remain in the country and work.

That bill will be separate from funding for DHS, at risk of shutting down after Feb. 27 because of an impasse over whether funding legislation should include measures to block Obama’s immigration actions. If Republicans move next to vote on a DHS funding bill without those riders, a DHS shutdown could be averted. It remains unclear whether conservative lawmakers would be open to such a strategy.

McConnell announced the plan for a stand-alone bill after Senate Democrats for the fourth time blocked a House-passed bill that would fund DHS and stop an array of Obama’s immigration policies. McConnell didn’t reveal next steps for DHS funding legislation, and said his preference remains passing the House measure.

“As long as Democrats continue to prevent us from even doing that, the new bill I described offers another option we can turn to,” McConnell said. “It’s another way to get the Senate unstuck from a Democrat filibuster and move the debate forward.”

It’s also a way to call out Democratic senators who have previously expressed disapproval of the president’s actions. House Republican leadership aides appeared to be on board with that strategy.

“This vote will highlight the irresponsible hypocrisy of any Senate Democrat who claims to oppose President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration, but refuses to vote to stop it,” Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said in an emailed statement after McConnell’s announcement.

Senators will meet for caucus lunches on Tuesday, and House members will huddle with their parties on Wednesday. Boehner has maintained that the issue is now up to Senate Democrats to stop blocking the House-passed measure from moving forward. Asked earlier Monday whether there are other plans in the works in the House, Steel said there was nothing new to report.

Obama’s 2014 immigration executive actions were stalled from moving forward last week by a federal judge presiding over a lawsuit brought against the government by 26 states. The Department of Justice appealed that decision Monday and is seeking a stay.

Some speculated that a preliminary injunction could break the stalemate over DHS funding. If the programs weren’t moving forward anyway, the reasoning went, Republicans might be able to support a DHS bill that didn’t block them.

Republicans floated other ideas for averting a shutdown as well. There could be a short-term continuing resolution to keep DHS open as the lawsuit works through the courts, some said. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said perhaps Republicans could fight Obama’s immigration actions by filing an amicus brief in support of the states’ lawsuit.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) proposed the relatively extreme option of changing Senate rules so the GOP could move forward with bills with only a simple majority, making filibusters more difficult. He told reporters that he believes it would be appropriate to make that move, since Democrats changed filibuster rules on nominees in 2013.

“They’ve broken the eggs now and my own view is that we should go ahead and break some more eggs,” Shelby said. “It’s just a rule, it’s not a law.”

But any plan would require Republicans to either get on board, or for leaders to rely on Democratic support. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has said he would support dealing with the immigration issue separately, told reporters he is concerned some of the more conservative members of his caucus would oppose a clean short-term funding bill.

The injunction seemed to strengthen some Republicans’ resolve. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters, “Democrats should not hold national security hostage” over a policy blocked by the courts. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) didn’t give a firm answer when asked whether it would be bad to shut down DHS, or whether it would be something of a victory for standing up for the Constitution.

“We don’t need to be funding unlawful activities, that’s for sure,” Sessions told reporters.

From Oscar winners to gadget leaks and a robot that feeds you tomatoes while you run, we’ve got plenty of stories to get you talking in today’s Daily Roundup. Won’t you join us past the break?…

iBall has once again expanded its line of Android 4.4 smartphones by announcing the Andi 5Q Cobalt Solus. Running on Android 4.4 KitKat OS (upgradable to Android 5.0 Lollipop), this mid-range smartphone features a 5.0-inch 1280 x 720 HD IPS OGS display, a 1.4GHz octa-core Cortex A7 processor, a 2GB RAM and a 16GB of expandable internal storage (up to 32GB).

Coming with dual SIM card slots, the handset sports a 5MP front-facing camera, a 13MP rear-facing autofocus camera with LED flash, an FM radio and a 2250mAh battery. Connectivity-wise, the Andi 5Q Cobalt Solus provides 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS.

The iBall Andi 5Q Cobalt Solus will retail for Rs 11,499 (about $185). [Product Page]

The sinking of the Titanic was a historical event that still has many interested about it until this day. We’ve seen a variety of documentaries made about it, books written about it, and how could we not forget the movie. However if you’re looking to explore the Titanic in your own time, you might be interested in a game that is being made about it.

Now this is definitely not the first Titanic game made, but based on the graphics and its premise, we have to say that this is worth looking out for. Dubbed Titanic: Honor and Glory, this is basically an adventure game where players are tasked to solve a murder-mystery in first person mode, and all of this is done while the ship is actually sinking.

Why you would care to solve a murder-mystery when you know you might end up dying is beyond us but the race against the clock definitely makes things interesting and challenging. The game will also feature key characters who are on the ship and placed at their respective locations based on the memoirs that were published later, so as far as the game is concerned, it’s pretty accurate.

According to the game’s writer and producer Tom Lynskey, “We are creating an experience that allows the player to feel what it is like to be on the Titanic, during the voyage and the sinking.” Like we said it’s an interesting premise and if you’d like to donate to its Indiegogo campaign, head on over to its website for the details.

Indiegogo Titanic Game Lets You Explore The Ship While It Is Sinking , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

We have been hearing about the second-gen Moto E for a while now, although nothing official has yet been announced. That being said, perhaps we could be inching towards an official announcement as the folks at Android Police have recently gotten their hands on what appears to be a leaked image for Verizon’s Moto E.

As you can see in the image above, the handset in the photo is sporting Verizon’s branding and what’s interesting is the fact that it will come with 4G LTE support, making it a phone that is cheap and fast, assuming those are the features that you are after. Still no word on when we might be able to expect the phone to be announced, but we will definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for it.

In the meantime just in case you missed the earlier rumors and leaks, the second-gen Moto E is rumored to feature a 4.5-inch 960×540 display. Under the hood, it will be powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. The model is unknown at this point but it has been assumed that it will most likely be the Snapdragon 200. It will also come with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of onboard storage, and last we checked, the rumors had it priced at $100.

Alleged Second-Gen Moto E For Verizon Leaked , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.