Midday Roundup: Senate serves up Keystone bill for veto test

Ready to rumble. The Senate approved a bill with bipartisan support Thursday that would complete construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Hours earlier, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest indicated the president isn’t budging on his plan to veto construction of the 1,179-mile pipeline that would bring crude from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast.But the Senate passed the measure anyway, and it now needs to be reconciled with a similar bill already passed in the House. Heartland Institute’s Jesse Hathaway said the Keystone legislation puts the president in the uncomfortable position of choosing between environmentalists and unions, two groups that support Democrats. As of now, Keystone supporters lack the votes needed to override a presidential veto.

Hola, Elena. Disney today unveiled its first Latina-inspired princess, Elena of Avalor. Disney describes the character as a “confident and compassionate teenager” who will first appear on the Disney Junior show Sofia the First and then get her own spinoff series. Elena’s stories will have themes that are “familiar to the worldwide population of Hispanic and Latino families,” Disney Junior Vice President Nancy Kanter said in a statement. Elena’s introduction comes after speculation when Sofia the First debuted that the young princess was Latina. Disney clarified that the character was a compilation of European ethnicities, calling her a “mixed-heritage princess in a fairy-tale world.”

Compton collision. Police have arrested rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight on murder charges related to a hit-and-run. Knight is accused of running over two men and killing one of them at a promotional shoot in Compton, Calif., for an upcoming movie. Knight’s attorney said it was an accident and that Knight was fleeing an attempted assault. Knight helped found Death Row Records, the music label that supported much of the West Coast rap movement with artists such as Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur in the 1990s. The producer has a colorful history with law enforcement, with prior felony convictions for armed robbery and assault.

Presumed dead. Investigators on Thursday officially declared the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 an accident. A representative of Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation said the jet is believed to have run out of fuel over the Southern Indian Ocean on March 8, 2014, and crashed, killing all 239 passengers and crew members. They do not know why the plane flew off course, nor has its wreckage been found. The announcement, confirming much of what has been suspected about the plane’s fate, allows relatives to file compensation claims in the deaths of their loved ones. The underwater search for the plane’s wreckage will continue.

WORLD Radio’s Mary Reichard contributed to this report.