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L'OSSERVATOREROMANO—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Pope Francis delivers his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and to the world) blessing from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Thursday. ByFrancesD'emilio The Associated Press VATICAN CITY A somber Pope Francis steeped his Christmas message to the world Thursday in sadness for those with little cause for joy — abused children, refugees, hostages and oth- ers suffering from violence in the Middle East, Africa, Ukraine and elsewhere. Anguish for children who suffer maltreatment or vio- lence, including in the re- cent terrorist attack on a Pakistani military school, tempered the pontiff's tra- ditional Christmas Day speech, which he deliv- ered from the central bal- cony of St. Peter's Basilica. A crowd, estimated by the Vatican to number more than 80,000 Romans, tour- ists and pilgrims, filled St. Peter's Square for the "Urbi et Orbi" message (Latin for "to the city and to the world"). "Truly there are so many tears this Christmas," said Francis, looking solemn and smiling little, in con- trast to his often jocular demeanor when address- ing crowds. He lamented that many children are "made objects of trade and trafficking" or forced to become soldiers, as well as those never born because of abortion. "I think also of those in- fants massacred in bomb attacks, also those where the Son of God was born," said Francis, referring to the Middle East. Francis decried the per- secution of ancient Chris- tian communities in Iraq and Syria, along with those from other ethnic and reli- gious groups. "May Christmas bring them hope," he said. Referring to refugees and exiles, he prayed: "May in- difference be changed into closeness, and rejection into hospitality." He expressed hope they'd receive humani- tarian help to withstand the "rigors of winter, return to their countries and live with dignity." The pope also thanked those courageously helping people infected with Ebola in Africa. In his litany of the world's troubled places, he denounced hostage-taking in Nigeria, and hoped that reconciliation would prevail over "hatred and violence" in Ukraine, where pro-Rus- sian rebels have been fight- ing against government forces in the east of that country. While much of his mes- sage concerned poor coun- tries, Francis had harsh words for some in afflu- ent nations. He prayed for an end to the hardened hearts "of so many men and women immersed in world- liness and indifference, the globalization of indiffer- ence." Christmas joy will only be realized when weap- ons are transformed "into ploughshares, destruction into creativity, hatred into love and tenderness," Fran- cis concluded before giving the crowd his blessing. Pope wishes hope, peace for Mideast VATICAN By Omar Akour and Diaa Hadid The Associated Press AMMAN, JORDAN The fa- ther of a Jordanian pi- lot captured by the Is- lamic State group in Syria pleaded for his son's release on Thursday, asking him to treat him well in captivity as a fellow Muslim. So far, there has been si- lence from the extremists about the fate of their cap- tive, 1st Lt. Mu'ath al-Kase- asbeh, since gunmen from the group dragged him away following his crash Wednesday morning. Al-Kaseasbeh was carry- ing out air strikes against the militants when his warplane crashed near the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State group's de facto capital. The group has executed captured Iraqi and Syrian Muslim soldiers in the past — it follows an extremist version of Islam that con- siders rivals, even some Sunni Muslims, as apos- tates. Still, the group may want to negotiate a pris- oner swap or other conces- sions from Jordan. The pilot's father, Safi Yousef al-Kaseasbeh, made his plea while speaking to journalists in the Jordanian capital, Amman. "I direct a message to our generous brothers of the Is- lamic State in Syria: to host my son, the pilot Mu'ath, with generous hospitality," he said. "I ask God that their hearts are gathered to- gether with love, and that he is returned to his fam- ily, wife and mother." "We are all Muslims," he added. The pilot is the first known military member to be captured from the in- ternational coalition that has been waging a bomb- ing campaign against the Islamic State group for months, trying to break its control over territory stretching across Syria and Iraq. After the crash, al-Kas- easbeh was pulled by gun- men from a body of water and hustled away, accord- ing to photos published by the Raqqa Media Cen- ter, which operates in ar- eas under IS control. He ap- peared to be able to walk and the only visible injury was what appeared to be a spot of blood at his mouth. TERRORISM Father of pilot captured by IS pleads for release By Ben Fox and Anne- Marie Garcia The Associated Press HAVANA Like tens of thousands of Cubans, Ge- rardo Luis wants to get to the United States and he's suddenly worried that time may be running out. Across an island where migrating north is an ob- session, the widespread ju- bilation over last week's his- toric U.S-Cuba detente is soured by fear that warm- ing relations will eventu- ally end Cubans' unique fast track to legal Ameri- can residency. For nearly a half-century, the Cuban Adjustment Act has given Cubans who ar- rive in the U.S. a virtually guaranteed path to legal residency and eventual cit- izenship. The knowledge that they will be shielded from deportation has drawn hundreds of thou- sands of Cubans on peril- ous raft trips to Florida and land journeys through Cen- tral America and Mexico. "If they take away the adjustment law, it would mean Cubans would end up just like all the other Hispanics who want to en- ter the United States," said Luis, a 36-year-old con- struction worker who said he may try to reach Mexico and walk across the border if he doesn't get a visa soon. U.S. officials say there are no immediate plans to change immigration laws or policy. But with the U.S. and Cuba negotiating a re- turn to full diplomatic re- lations, many Cubans are wondering how long their extraordinary privilege can survive under restored di- plomacy, and are thinking about speeding up plans to get to the U.S. "I don't know if they will take it away," Angela Moreno, a 67-year-old re- tiree said of the preferen- tial treatment, "but if they do, Cubans who go to the United States will have to do it like people from other countries." Cubans arriving at a U.S. border or airport automati- cally receive permission to stay in the United States under policies stemming from the 1966 act, which allows them to apply for permanent residency after a year, almost always suc- cessfully. Seeking to discourage mass migrations by sea, the United States developed its so-called "wet foot, dry foot policy," in which migrants who make it to the U.S. are automatically allowed to stay. Those stopped at sea are either sent back to their homeland or to a third country if they can prove a credible fear of per- secution. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said he welcomed President Barack Obama's move to create a "modern relationship" with Cuba, but Congress is not likely to alter the Cuban Adjustment Act or the U.S. trade embargo, until there have been significant steps by the Castro government. "Major changes to a law like that or to the embargo are not going to happen un- less people like me support those changes, and I'm not going to support them un- less I see some movement toward freedom" Nelson told The Associated Press. However, the restora- tion of diplomatic relations could cause its own compli- cations. Illegal immigrants caught right after crossing the border are subject to swift deportation without a hearing, a process known as expedited removal. Cu- bans are exempted simply by presenting proof of their nationality. Randy McGrorty, the di- rector of Miami's Catho- lic Legal Services, which helps migrants settle in the United States, noted that a section of the Immigra- tion and Naturalization Act dealing with expedited re- moval of migrants excludes people from "a country in the Western Hemisphere with whose government the United States does not have full diplomatic rela- tions" without mentioning Cuba by name. It's unclear how re-establishing full re- lations would affect that vi- tal section of immigration law, he said. The Cuban Adjustment Act was designed in an era when politics was a factor in many migrants' decision to leave. In recent years Cu- bans have increasingly left primarily to reunite with their families and seek better economic opportu- nities. President Raul Castro's 2012 relaxation of Cuba's immigration laws means citizens can leave without applying for special per- mits, and maintain many of the island's social ben- efits even after moving to the U.S. Along with U.S. measures including the granting of five-year, mul- tiple-entry visas, that has contributed to a rising flow of Cubans and Cuban- American traveling back and forth between the two countries. CUBA Detente spawns worry on US migration rights DESMOND BOYLAN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS People queue for visas at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, Cuba, on Monday. By Bill Barrow The Associated Press ATLANTA Republicans crowed in 2004 that freshly re-elected President George W. Bush had established a "permanent governing ma- jority" for the GOP. Eight years later, Democrats were touting the enduring power of the "Obama coalition" to keep their party in the White House. But Democrats couldn't sustain that coalition for this year's midterm elec- tions, leading to Republi- can gains in Congress, gov- ernorships and state legis- latures nationwide. "The notion of demo- graphics as destiny is overblown," said Repub- lican pollster and media strategist Wes Anderson. "Just like (Bush aide Karl) Rove was wrong with that 'permanent majority' talk, Democrats have to remem- ber that the pendulum is al- ways swinging." So how will it swing in 2016? Is the path to 270 electoral votes so fixed that one side just can't win? Do Obama's unpopularity carry over into the next race for the White House? Or will an increasingly diverse electorate pick a Democrat for a third con- secutive presidential elec- tion for the first time since Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman won five straight elections from 1932 to 1948? Despite Democrats' mid- term shellacking and talk of a "depressed" liberal base, many in the party still like their starting po- sition for 2016. Ruy Teix- iera, a Democratic demog- rapher, points to a group of states worth 242 elec- toral votes that Demo- cratic presidential nomi- nee has won in every elec- tion since 1992. Hold them all, and the party is just 28 votes shy of the majority needed to win the White House next time. Obama twice compiled at least 332 electoral votes by adding wins in most ev- ery competitive state. He posted double-digit wins among women, huge mar- gins among voters younger than 30 and historically high marks among blacks and Latinos. As non-white voters con- tinue to grow as a share of the electorate, a Demo- cratic nominee that roughly holds Obama's 2012 level of support across all de- mographic groups would win the national popular vote by about 6 percent- age points and coast in the Electoral College, Teixeira estimates. "Could a Republican win? Sure," Teixeira said. "But they have to have a lot of different things hap- pen." What if the GOP is able to continue its gains among non-white vot- ers? Obama, after all, lost ground in 2012 among most demographic mea- sures, compared to his 2008 performance. Those slides helped make him the first president since World War II to win re-election with a lower popular vote total than he got in his ini- tial victory. A GOP nominee such as the Spanish-speaking Jeb Bush, a proponent of com- prehensive immigration re- form, has the potential to capture significantly more than the 27 percent of the Latino vote that Mitt Rom- ney claimed in 2012. Mean- while, Republicans hope African-Americans make up a smaller share of the electorate with Obama no longer atop the ballot. "We're not talking about winning those groups, but these elections are fought on the margins, so im- provements here and there can make a difference," An- derson said. Republicans acknowl- edge that demographic shifts make it more diffi- cult than in years past for the GOP nominee to de- pend on white voters, who cast 87 percent of presiden- tial ballots in 1992 and just 72 percent in 2012. At the same time, Dem- ocrats have watched white voters, particularly those without a college degree, move away from the party during Obama's presidency — and not just in the con- servative South. Obama lost this group by about 26 points in 2012, according to exit polls and other analy- ses. By this November, his Gallup approval rating among the group stood at 27 percent. Extending that trend into 2016 could push Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire into the GOP column. Whites also could tip Florida, Virginia and Colorado, although non- white voters in those states hold more influence than in the Midwest and northeast. Those seven states, plus all won by Romney in 2012, would give the GOP a win- ning total of 295 electoral votes. POLITICS Can GOP shatter 'Obama coalition' in 2016? DOROTHYMAEKELLOGG December 26, 1922 ~ December 23, 2014 At the request of the deceased, no formal services will be held for long time Los Molinos resident, Dorothy Mae Kellogg, 91, who left us for her place beside her beloved, Alvin Kellogg, Tuesday, December 23, 2014. Mrs. Kellogg was born in Mattoon, IL on December 26, 1922. She retired after 30 years of service as the Hayfork Community Librarian. She was a member of the Molino Chapter # 83 of Eastern Star. She is survived by her daughter and son in law, Marilyn and Tom Smith; daughter in law, Shirley Kellogg; 7 grand- children, several great-grandchildren, nieces and neph- ews. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Private inurnment will be at the Tehama Cemetery in Gerber, CA. Arrangements entrusted to the Neptune Society of No CA, Chico Branch. Obituaries GreenWasteofTehama Holiday Tree Collection December26ththroughJanuary18th Holiday trees may be dropped off at dumpsters at the following locations: 1.CedarSt./JacksonSt. 2. Kimball Rd, by the city yard. No ornaments, stands, tinsel or flocked trees will be collected. For more information please contact our Customer Service Department at 530-528-8500 or 800-443-6924. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 7 A