Feinstein chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee. McCain serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

McCain announced the trip on Twitter:

Headed down to review the situation at Guantanamo Bay prison today with @ and WH COS Denis McDonough

John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain)

An aide to Feinstein confirmed the visit.

Asked about the trip, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told Yahoo News: "Following up the president's May 23 speech, White House Chief of Staff McDonough is accompanying Sens. Feinstein and McCain to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to review the situation there and discuss the steps that we can take with the Congress to meet the president's goal of closing the facility."

Not only would one of two donated U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) telescopes suit the mission of NASA's proposed(WFIRST) it would boost the mission's capabilities without much exceeding its expected $1.63 billion budget, according to a study released on May 23.

The results of the study, known as WFIRST-AFTA (Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets), were presented here today (June 4) at the 222nd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. []

"For approximately the same cost the use of these telescope assets would enable a WFIRST mission that has significantly improved scientific capabilities," Paul Hertz, the director of the astrophysics division of NASA's science mission directorate, said during the conference.

"In addition, the use of these telescope assets would enable us to add an exoplanet-imaging instrument to a WFIRST mission that would be able to image and characterize planets around nearby stars," Hertz added.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Job growth probably picked up only slightly in May, suggesting the economy is still in a rut and not ready for the Federal Reserve to dial back its monetary support.

Employment outside the farming sector likely increased by a lackluster 170,000 jobs, according to a Reuters survey of economists. That would be just above the 165,000 created in April.

The report would be the latest to suggest tax hikes and government spending cuts will weigh on the economy throughout the first half of the year, although not enough to derail the recovery from the 2007-09 recession.

"There will be more slip-sliding through the soft patch," said Vincent Reinhart, an economist at Morgan Stanley in New York.

The Labor Department will release the May employment report on Friday at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Comments by U.S. central bankers in recent weeks have fueled speculation the Fed could be just a few months away from tapering a bond-buying program intended to keep interest rates low and boost employment.

The remarks caught investors by surprise because job growth has been rather modest in three of the last four months. Another month of slow hiring could leave investors more confident that the Fed won't start easing its foot off the accelerator until at least very late in the year.

"It would likely diminish tapering ideas," Brown Brothers Harriman said in a research note.

Slow-but-steady hiring is seen anchoring a return to stronger economic growth later in the year as the drag from government austerity fades. In the meantime, however, consumer spending is suffering; it fell in April for the first time in almost a year.

The forecast job gains should be just enough to hold the unemployment rate at 7.5 percent, its lowest since December 2008.

Fed officials next meet June 18-19 and are widely expected to keep purchasing $85 billion in bonds a month to press borrowing costs lower and spur a stronger recovery. Reinhart said job growth would probably not be strong enough for the Fed to begin scaling back its bond purchases before December.

SLUGGISH GROWTH

After barely growing in the last three months of 2012, the U.S. economy expanded at a moderate 2.4 percent annual rate in the first quarter. But it appeared to lose momentum as the quarter drew to a close.

U.S. factories are feeling the pinch from Europe's debt crisis, which has sent a chill over the global economy. The Institute for Supply Management said on Tuesday that U.S. manufacturing activity contracted in May. Manufacturing employment in seen rising by a meager 3,000 jobs last month.

Government payrolls are expected to have dropped by about 10,000 in May. Budget cuts have led to hiring freezes in many government agencies, and attrition could be slowly reducing government payrolls.

The employment report is expected to show average hourly earnings rose by 0.2 percent, while the length of the average workweek is expected to rise to 34.5 hours.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by James Dalgleish)

A jury on Thursday found Ricardo Woods guilty of murder and felonious assault for the death of David Chandler, who was shot Oct. 28, 2010, while sitting in a car in Cincinnati.

Woods, 35, had no obvious reaction as the verdict was read on the third day of jury deliberations but later said "I'm innocent" as he was led to jail. Sentencing is scheduled for June 20, and he could face up to life in prison.

Chandler's half-brother, Richard Tucker, said in a telephone interview that Chandler's family was "happy that justice has been served" and that the verdict helps ease their pain and grief.

"It's been a long time coming," said Tucker, 50, of suburban Cincinnati.

Police interviewed the 35-year-old Chandler after he was shot in the head and neck. He was only able to communicate with his eyes and died about two weeks later.

During the trial, jurors viewed the videotaped police interview that prosecutors say showed Chandler blinked three times for "yes" to identify a photo of Woods as his shooter. The defense had tried to block the video, saying Chandler's blinks were inconsistent and unreliable.

Defense attorney Kory Jackson said Thursday he expects the video will play a part in Woods' appeal.

"We have said since the beginning that the video should not have been allowed into evidence," Jackson said.

He had argued that Chandler's condition and drugs used to treat him could have affected his ability to understand and respond during the police interview.

Judge Beth Myers, who ruled that jurors could see the video, had noted that Chandler's identification was made by pronounced, exaggerated movement of the eyes. A doctor who treated Chandler later testified that Chandler was able to communicate clearly about his condition.

In the video, police had to repeat some questions when Chandler failed to respond or when the number of times he blinked appeared unclear. But Chandler blinked his eyes hard three times when police asked him if the photo of Woods was the photo of his shooter. He again blinked three times when they asked him if he was sure.

The defense also had argued that showing Chandler only one photo that of Woods instead of presenting a lineup of photos was "suggestive." Jackson said the case against Woods was about misidentification and "a misguided investigation."

Jocelyn Chess, an assistant county prosecutor, said jurors made the right decision.

"They looked at all the evidence, and the evidence showed that Ricardo Woods was guilty," she said.

A jailhouse informant testified that Woods told him he shot at Chandler because he caught him buying drugs from someone else while still owing Woods money for drugs.

The defense argued that the informant, who faced armed robbery charges, was trying to use testimony against Woods to get a lighter sentence for himself. The defense also said Chandler had stolen drugs from dealers, was considered a police "snitch" and had many enemies.

The defense insisted that Woods was a victim of misidentification and misinformation.

Legal experts say such cases where prosecutors attempt to show a defendant was identified by a gesture are not unheard of but are unusual. Dying identifications relying on gestures rather than words are often not used in trials because of concern over reliability or differing interpretations. But some have been used in murder cases around the country that have ended in convictions.

The case of Elmbrook School District v. Doe involves a controversy over the rental and use of a church sanctuary to host graduation ceremonies for two public schools.

The court is also considering another case with separation of church and state implications called Town of Greece v. Galloway.

The court could announce some type of action on both cases on Monday morning, based on its conference last Thursday.

Constitution Daily contributor Lyle Denniston covered the Elmbrook story and its history in detail last month.

Related Story:

In Brookfield, Wisconsin, a western suburb of Milwaukee, the two local high schools for years staged graduation exercises in the sanctuary of Elmbrook Church, an evangelical congregation not affiliated with any denomination. The practice began in 2000 with a choice by one of the high schools, at the request of its graduating class, to move the ceremony out of the schools gym, because of limited conditions there.

The churchs leaders and its congregation had no role in the graduation celebration, and there was no one on hand to offer any kind of religious counseling.

But for nine people, current and former students and their parents, the site itself was the problem, with its religious symbolism and significance. They said the exposure to artifacts of faith offended them and compromised the experience of graduating.

The lawsuit continued, even though the district stopped using the sanctuary, as the challengers took the case on to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel there agreed with a trial judge, finding no First Amendment religion problem. But the full circuit court reconsidered. Splitting 7-3, that court found that the Elmbrook Church site could not avoid being coercive for the students and their younger brothers and sisters attending the ceremony.

The decision was then sent to the Supreme Court for consideration.

At the heart of the case is the Establishment Clause in the , which deals with issues about the separation of church and state.

In its petition to the court, the attorneys for Elmbrook School District asked the court to decide, whether the Establishment Clause prohibits the government from conducting public functions such as high school graduation exercises in a church building, where the function has no religious content and the government selected the venue for reasons of secular convenience.

Among the parties involved in the case are The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The court is also mulling over Town of Greece v. Galloway.

In 2008 two Greece, N.Y., residents sued about the towns practice of having a prayer delivered before board meetings.

They believed the practice violated the First Amendment because of the types of prayers offered. A U.S. District Court said the prayers didnt violate the First Amendment. But the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in May 2012 overturned the lower court decision.

The towns desire to mark the solemnity of its proceedings with a prayer is understandable; Americans have done just that for more than 200 years. But when one creed dominates others regardless of a towns intentions constitutional concerns come to the fore, Judge Guido Calabresi wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel last May.

The community of Greece is mostly Christian and most of the prayers offered at its board meeting were Christian or came from Christian clergy within that community.

Recent Constitution Daily Stories

Karen Faye is testifying for Jackson's mother in a lawsuit against AEG Live LLC, the promoter of his planned series of comeback concerts.

She says Jackson trusted the advice of doctors to help him sleep and deal with pain from injuries and performances.

Faye says during the "Dangerous" tour, promoters asked that she give Jackson injections of pain medications, but she refused. She says a tour manager who later became a top AEG executive then enlisted a doctor to treat Jackson.

Jackson's mother is suing AEG claiming it didn't properly investigate the doctor convicted of causing Jackson's death. AEG denies wrongdoing.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Friday his party championed a new constitution accepted in a March referendum.

"We have a new constitution, we must definitely have a new government" to open Zimbabwe for business and restore human rights and the rule of law, he told a party conference.

"We are going to be new brooms" for change, he vowed. President Robert Mugabe, 89, faces Tsvangirai in the elections that are scheduled around September.

"Yesterday people" will be replaced by younger politicians with new ideas and vision, the 60-year-old Tsvangirai said.