Npr news in brief

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November 5, 2008
Calif. Approves Gay Marriage Ban

California voters have approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, overturning a state Supreme Court decision giving gay couples the right to wed.

The passage of Proposition 8 represents a crushing political defeat for gay rights activists, who had hoped public opinion on the contentious issue had shifted enough to help them defeat the measure.

It also represents a personal loss for the thousands of couples from California and others states who got married in the brief window when they could. Legal experts have said it will have to be resolved in court whether their unions still are valid.


Russia To Deploy Missiles Near Polish Border

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that Moscow will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans.

In a speech to the nation, Medvedev said Iskander missiles will be deployed to Russia's Kaliningrad region, which lies between Poland and the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. He did not say how many would be based there. Equipment to electronically hamper the operation of prospective U.S. missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic will also be deployed, he said.

Medvedev singled out the United States for criticism, casting Russia's war with Georgia in August and the global financial turmoil as consequences of aggressive, selfish U.S. policies.

He said he hoped the next U.S. administration would act to improve relations. In a separate telegram, he congratulated Barack Obama on his election victory and said he was hoping for "constructive dialogue" with the incoming U.S. president.

Medvedev also proposed increasing the Russian presidential term to six years from the current four, a major constitutional change that would further increase the power of the head of state and could deepen Western concern over democracy in Russia.


Gunmen In Somalia Kidnap European Aid Workers

Gunmen stormed an airstrip in Somalia on Wednesday, kidnapping two Kenyan pilots and four European aid workers.

The Europeans -- two French, a Bulgarian and a Belgian -- were among a group on a runway near the central Somali town of Dusamareb when the gang struck, local residents said.

"Heavily armed men with three battle-wagons and three small cars kidnapped the foreigners who landed a plane and also some people waiting for them at the airstrip," said Farah Osman.

Aid workers have been increasingly targeted this year for assassination and kidnap in Somalia, where Islamist insurgents are fighting the government and its Ethiopian military allies.

Suspicion generally falls on clan militia and the insurgents. But the Islamists accuse President Abdullahi Yusuf's government of staging such attacks to blacken their name.

'Jurassic Park' Author Dies At 66

Michael Crichton, the author of mega-selling sellers such as Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain and creator of the popular TV drama ER, has died at age 66.

Crichton's family said the author died in Los Angeles after a private battle with cancer.

"Through his books, Michael Crichton served as an inspiration to students of all ages, challenged scientists in many fields, and illuminated the mysteries of the world in a way we could all understand," his family said in a statement.

The science-fiction classic The Andromeda Strain was written while Crichton was a student at Harvard medical school. His last book Next, dealt with the relationship between genetics and the law. Crichton, who also directed, was the creator of ER.

 

[historylover]

November 6, 2008
Ex-NY Governor Skirts Charges in Prostitution Scandal

Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York, will not face criminal charges for his role in a prostitution scandal.

Federal prosecutors said investigators didn't find any evidence that Spitzer or his office misused public or campaign funds for prostitution.

They did find that the former governor solicited high-priced call girls, but federal prosecutors typically do not prosecute clients of prostitution rings.

The announcement, eight months after Spitzer resigned, brings to an end the bombshell investigation of Emperors Club VIP and means that nine other men described in an indictment as clients of the lucrative prostitution service also have escaped charges. Those clients were never identified.

A remorseful Spitzer issued a statement in which he expressed relief that he will not face charges.

He resigned in March after it was disclosed he was referred to in court papers as "Client-9," who spent thousands of dollars on a call girl at a swanky Washington, D.C., hotel on the night before Valentine's Day.

Spitzer admitted to investigators that he often arranged for women to travel across state lines to engage in prostitution.

The scandal brought down Spitzer, who was famed for bringing down white-collar criminals.

Spitzer won a landslide election in 2006 with a vow to clean up corruption. He has remained out of the spotlight since his shocking resignation, spending time with his wife and three daughters, working for his father's real estate business and occasionally being photographed running in Central Park.

Authorities could have charged Spitzer with violating the Mann Act, a federal law that bans carrying women or girls across state lines for "prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose." But the legal experts say the law is rarely used to prosecute johns.


Paloma Becomes Hurricane, Threatens Carribean

The National Hurricane Center said Paloma has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane that is threatening the Cayman Islands, and possibly Cuba and Jamaica.

At 10 p.m. EST, the center of Hurricane Paloma was located about 150 miles south of Grand Cayman and about 270 miles west-southwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

"Maximum sustained winds are near 75 mph with higher gusts," the hurricane center said in a statement.

The storm was expected to dump up to 10 inches of rain on the Cayman Islands.

Grand Cayman was ravaged by Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. Due to the proximity, the Cayman Islands, which thrive on tourism, tend to be brushed or hit about every two years.

It could make make landfall over Cuba over the weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center.

"Paloma continues to rapidly o rganize and additional strengthening is likely," an NHC report said, adding that the hurricane could become a Category 2 on Friday.


Muslim, Catholic Scholars Vow to Combat Violence

Muslim and Catholic scholars wrapped up an unprecedented three-day meeting at the Vatican vowing to work together to combat violence and terrorism, especially when carried out in God's name.

The Muslim-Catholic forum came two years after Pope Benedict triggered angry protests in the Islamic world when he suggested Islam is violent and irrational.

Dozens of Muslim scholars then wrote a letter to the Pope refuting his statements and calling for better mutual understanding.

The forum's final declaration called for respect of religious minorities, saying they should be entitled to their own places of worship and their founding figures and symbols should not be subjected to any form of mockery or ridicule.

The latter appears to be a reference to the 2006 Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed that sparked violent protests in the Islamic world.

The Vatican is particularly concerned by repression of Christian minorities in some Islamic countries. But at the final public session, one Muslim scholar said the persecution of Christians in the Middle East is small compared to that of Muslims in Bosnia in the Balkan wars of the 1990's.


Mattel, Fidelity To Slash 1,000 Jobs

Toy maker Mattel, Inc. as well as the investment firm Fidelity Investments plan to cut at least a thousand jobs each due to the economic meltdown that has eroded consumers' spending power.

El Segundo, Calif.-based Mattel, maker of such toys as American Girl, Barbie and Hot Wheels, said it is cutting some 1,000 jobs worldwide as the ailing economy is expected to diminish demand for toys during the crucial holiday shopping season.

Mattel's cuts constitute about 3 percent of its workforce and will reduce its professional and management staff by 8 percent. The cuts will come from a combination of layoffs, attrition and retirements.

Boston-based Fidelity Investments said it will cut nearly 1,300 jobs this month, with more layoffs to come early next year. It said steep drops in in the stock market have eroded mutual fund assets along with the fees Fidelity earns from its core business.

It's layoffs also constitute about 3 percent of the overall work force, affecting management positions as well as lower-level jobs. A spokeswoman said thatno fund managers or analysts are being laid off.


IMF Forecasts Economic Decline In U.S., Europe

The economies of the United States, Europe and Japan are expected to contract in 2009 as part of the first annual decline by the advanced economies since World War II, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday.

Governments should adopt economic stimulus packages to counteract the slowdown, the IMF said, while central banks "in some countries" should cut interest rates further. The fund didn't specify which countries.

The development of stimulus packages "should be one of the highest priorities for governments to pursue at this stage," said Olivier Blanchard, the fund's chief economist.

Conditions have deteriorated so much in the month since the IMF released its semiannual World Economic Outlook that the fund cut its forecast for the developed countries' economies to a decline of 0.3 percent, from a previous estimate of 0.5 percent growth.

Overall, the IMF now expects the world economy to grow at a 2.2 percent pace in 2009, down from its projection last month of 3 percent.

The U.S. economy will shrink by 0.7 percent, down from last month's forecast that it would grow by 0.1 percent, the IMF said. The 15 countries that use the euro will decline by 0.5 percent, down from last month's projection of 0.2 percent growth.

The slowdown stems from two primary factors, including "a dramatic fall in confidence by consumers and firms," Blanchard said. "After holding up for a long time, they simply have gotten scared and decided to spend less."

The second cause has been the "migration of the financial crisis to emerging markets," as major international banks continue to cut back on debt, Blanchard said.

The sharp drop in commodity prices also contributed. Oil, for example, has fallen by more than half since reaching record levels of $147 a barrel in July.

The IMF expects an economic recovery to begin in late 2009.


Iraq's PM Receives U.S. Security Proposal

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has received what U.S. officials said is their final offer on an agreement over how American troops can operate in Iraq, an Iraqi government spokesman confirmed Thursday.

The spokesman said the mood on reaching a deal is positive.

The agreement between the two governments would replace a United Nations mandate authorizing the U.S. presence in Iraq, which expires at the end of this year.

The Iraqis have demanded an explicit commitment that U.S. troops would be withdrawn by the end of 2011. In addition, Iraq also wants the authority to try American troops in Iraqi courts if they commit certain offenses.

Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told the Reuters news agency that the U.S. still had reservations about some Iraqi government demands. He said Iraqi and American officials will need further meetings to reach a common understanding.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said earlier that the U.S. side now considers the negotiations closed.

November 6, 2008
October Retail Sales Plummet Amid Financial Crisis

U.S. retail chains posted the worst monthly sales data in more than 30 years, as the financial crisis forced consumers to cut spending sharply in October.

The International Council of Shopping Centers called the retail sales environment "simply awful" and said the October results were the worst it had seen in 35 years.

The ICSC said it pared its forecast for what were already expected to be dismal holiday season sales. It now expects sales in November and December to rise 1 percent, down from its previous view of a gain of 1.7 percent.

The picture was particularly bleak for high-end retail stores. Saks and Nordstrom both had double-digit declines in same-store sales last month. In stores open more than a year, Saks' sales dropped more than 16 percent, while sales at Nordstrom were down 15.7 percent.

Kohl's, J.C. Penney and Macy's fared a little better, but they still saw sales slump in October. Kohl's same-store sales fell 9 percent in October, below expectations of a 6.4 percent decline. Department store operator Macy's, parent of Macy's and Bloomingdale's chains, reported a 6.3 percent drop.

J.C. Penney's October sales fell 13 percent, beating analyst expectations of a 13.2 percent slide.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. provided a bright spot in the report. Its sales increased 2.4 percent. The company now says it will introduce new price cuts every week until Christmas — trying to win an even bigger market share.


Craigslist Agrees To Crack Down On Prostitution Ads

Craigslist, the popular online classifieds site, on Thursday struck a deal with 40 states to crack down on listings for prostitutes.

The deal comes after law enforcement officials pressured the company to screen the ads.

Craigslist will now require that advertisers in its erotic services section pay a fee with a valid credit card and give a working phone number. The site will also provide the information in response to law enforcement subpoenas.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal complained to craigslist in March about postings from prostitutes. He said those often included graphic photos, rates and descriptions of the services. A Connecticut woman was arrested for posting her services on the site.

Craigslist officials said that advertising illegal services, including prostitution, is forbidden, but the new rules should help to stop the practice. The classifieds site now has a presence in more than 50 countries. It is partially owned by eBay, which purchased a 25 percent interest in craigslist in 2004.


Dow, World Markets Close Down; Banks Cut Rates

Shares of U.S. stocks tumbled as investors absorbed another round of poor economic news.

The bellwether Dow Jones Industrial average sank 443 points to 8,695 amid trading of some 6 billions shares.

The technology laden Nasdaq lost 72 points to 1,608 while the broader Standard & Poor's came down 47 points to 904.

The drop also followed sharply lower trading on Asian and European stock marekts.

Computer gear maker Cisco Systems' warning of slumping demand and retailers reporting that sales fell off a cliff for October added to the turmoil on Wall Street.

Further, the Labor Department announced a day before its key October employment report that the number of people continuing to draw unemployment benefits jumped to a 25-year high. The increase by 122,000 to 3.84 million in late October marked the highest level since late February 1983, when the economy was being buffeted by a protracted recession.

The depressing economic news quickly ended what was being dubbed the "Obama bounce" on the world's stock markets. Not even big cuts in central bank interest rates slowed the tumble.

Stocks in London lost 5.7 percent, driven down by mining and commodity shares. Germany's DAX closed down 6.8 percent, as engineering and bank shares were beaten down.

Amid the economic gloom, figures showed European car sales sharply lower. Orders for goods produced by Germany fell 8 percent in the past month, and house prices in England continued to tumble.

Britain's fine-china maker Royal Worcester — which was founded in 1751 — may not survive the economic crisis; it is on the verge of collapse. The company supplies porcelain for Queen Elizabeth II.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the central banks of Switzerland and the Czech Republic cut key lending rates Thursday in an effort to boost slowing economies.

The Bank of England's 1.5-percentage-point cut to 3 percent was the biggest in 27 years, and the European Central Bank lowered rates to 3.25 percent in only the second rate cut in five years.

Until now, the euro zone's central bank seemed only concerned with inflation — holding rates firm and even raising them in July. But on Monday, European Central Bank head Jean Claude Trichet said he wouldn't rule out an even further reduction in interest rates after Thursday's half-point cut because of the economic slump.

Economists predict the ECB will continue to aggressively reduce borrowing costs until its key rate is at 2.5 percent next spring.


U.N. Calls For Withdrawals In Congo

United Nations officials said Thursday that the cease-fire in eastern Congo was collapsing on Thursday, as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all forces to withdraw to positions they held at the end of August.

Ban was en route to Nairobi to attend a summit on Friday on the Congo crisis during which he will meet Congolese President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

"The secretary-general calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of forces to positions held prior to the resumption of fighting on 28 August," Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters.

High-level delegates from Africa, the U.N., the U.S. and the European Union are hoping to get Kabila and Kagame to agree to salvage a January peace accord that was supposed to end the fighting in eastern Congo.

In the past few weeks, rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi Congolese Gen. Laurent Nkunda have been engaged in fierce fighting against the army and pro-government militias.

Rwanda blames Congo's authorities and the U.N. for failing to disarm Rwandan rebels. They fled to eastern Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Congo accuses Rwanda of arming and bankrolling Nkunda's rival Tutsi rebels.


U.S. Unemployment Roll Largest Since 1983

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped slightly last week, but the number of people continuing to receive benefits reached its highest level in more than a quarter century, the government said Thursday.

The Labor Department reported that initial claims for jobless benefits dropped 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 481,000 for the week ending Nov. 1.

The number of people continuing to receive unemployment insurance jumped by 122,000 to 3.84 million, the highest since 1983, when the nation was coming out of a deep recession, according to data for the week ending Oct. 25.

The department also said that the efficiency of U.S. workers slowed sharply in the summer amid a massive pullback by American consumers that threw the national economy into reverse.

Productivity — the amount an employee produces for every hour on the job — grew at an annual pace of 1.1 percent in the July-to-September quarter, down from a 3.6 percent growth rate in the second quarter.

With productivity growth slowing, labor costs picked up. Unit labor costs — a measure of how much companies pay workers for every unit of output they produce — increased at a 3.6 percent pace in the third quarter, compared with a 0.1 percent rate of decline in the previous period.

 

[historylover]

November 7, 2008
Byrd Leaves Senate Appropriations Chairmanship

Sen. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving member of the Senate, will relinquish his gavel as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The West Virginia Democrat's departure from that chairmanship follows growing pressure from party colleagues to step aside.

The move didn't come as a surprise considering Byrd, 90, has been in frail health.

He is an icon of the Senate. He has served as chairman or top minority member of key panels such as Senate Appropriations and for decades. The committee controls more than $1 trillion in federal agencies' budgets.

Byrd was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1958, after terms in the West Virginia House and Senate and the U.S. House.

Byrd will be replaced by Hawaii Democrat Daniel Inouye, 84, who's served in the Senate since 1963, and also has a reputation for shipping federal dollars back to his state. Inouye would take over in January when the new Congress convenes.


Hurricane Paloma Strengthens to Category 3

Hurricane Paloma has strengthened into a "major" Category 3 storm late Friday, and is slowly approaching the Grand Caymans.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the Cuban provinces of Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey, and Las Tunas. These areas should expect hurricane conditions within the next 24 hours.

Meanwhile, a tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch are in effect for the Cuban province of Granma.

At 7 p.m. EST, Paloma was about 30 miles south of Grand Cayman Island and about 275 miles southwest of Camaguey, Cuba.

"The center of Paloma will pass near the Cayman Islands tonight, be near Cayman Brac Saturday morning, and be approaching the coast of central Cuba later Saturday," according to the National Hurricane Center.

The storm's winds have increased to near 115 mph with higher gusts, a hurricane center update read.

Rainfall over the Cayman Islands as well as central and eastern Cuba is due to accumulate to 10 inches. Flash flood and mud slides are also possible, especially in higher terrain.


Dozens Killed in Haiti School Collapse

At least 30 people were killed in Haiti when a church school collapsed.

Dozens more were burried under rubble, awaiting rescue.

The three-story La Promesse school building, on the outskirts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince, collapsed while class was in session and some of the walls and debris crushed neighboring residences in the Nerettes community near Port-au-Prince.

At the scene, crying and screaming parents searched desperately for their children while bodies of students lay crushed under blocks of concrete.

Brazilian Maj. Gen. Carlos dos Santos Cruz, the commander for U.N. troops in Haiti, likened the situation to an earthquake.

Dozens of people have been hospitalized in very serious condition.

The impoverished Caribbean nation lacks sophisticated rescue equipment. Haiti is still struggling with the destruction wrought by four tropical storms and hurricanes that hit in quick succession this year, killing more than 800 people and destroying 60 percent of the crop harvest.


Obama Administration to Change Hiring Policies

The transition Web site for President-elect Barack Obama says the new administration will not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

That's a change from previous federal hiring policies.

Some categories in the statement are already in nondiscrimination laws: race, and religion, and disability, for example.

But the list also includes sexual orientation and gender identity.

Employment lawyer Daniel Schwartz says gender identity nondiscrimination has never been part of federal hiring policies before.

"For people that were waiting until inauguration day for change to happen, change is already here," Schwartz says. "It started with their transition Web site, and there's no more visible way on that than, hey, look, for the people we're hiring for our new administration we're not going to discriminate based on gender identity."

The platform includes changing nondiscrimination laws to include gays, lesbians, and transgendered people.


Ford, GM Report Losses; Job Cuts Planned

Ford Motor Co. on Friday posted a $2.98 billion operating loss in the third quarter amid an auto industry downturn and massive credit crisis.

Meanwhile, General Motors Corp. reported a net loss of $4.45 per share during the quarter, compared with a record-setting loss of $39 billion, or $68.85 per share, a year ago. Revenue fell to $37.9 billion from $43.7 billion, due largely to credit freezing across the globe.

The automaker said its cash burn for the quarter accelerated to $6.9 billion due to a severe U.S. auto sales slump, and also warned that it could run out of cash in 2009.

Officials at Ford expect to cut another 10 percent of its salaried work force in North America. The company has accelerated plans to shift North American production toward more fuel-efficient cars.

The company said its automotive unit had burned through $7.7 billion of cash during the third quarter due to production cuts and other factors, ending the period with a cash position of $18.9 billion, including marketable securities.

Liquidity, including available credit, totaled $29.6 billion.

The automaker also said it would explore divestitures of other assets and use equity for debt swaps and other incremental sources of financing to support its balance sheet.

The net loss narrowed to $129 million, or 6 cents per share, from $380 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.

Ford's loss from continuing operations, excluding one-time items, was $1.31 per share.

Analysts have increasingly focused on whether Ford and rival General Motors Corp have the cash needed to ride out an auto sector downturn that spread from the United States, where sales hit a quarter-century low in October. GM reports its quarterly results later on Friday.

Army, Rebels Clash Near Goma


The army of the Democratic Republic of Congo clashed with Tutsi rebels in a town outside the provincial capital of Goma on Friday, United Nations officials said.

U.N. military spokesman Maj. Shardool Sharma said army soldiers fired mortars Friday at rebels just north of Kibati, and rebels responded with gunfire.

Kibati is six miles north of Goma. The small village has a refugee population of about 45,000 and many took to the road again Friday as the latest fighting broke out.

Kibati is one of the oldest camps for internally displaced civilians, and the population of the camp has ballooned amid recent rebel advances. The rebels moved toward Goma more than a week ago and then halted the operation and called for a unilateral ceasefire.

But since then, the rebel's demands to meet directly with the Congolese government have not been met. Also, rebel leader Laurent Nkunda, claimed his group has been attacked by pro-government militias.

Nkunda's forces are said to be re-taking lost ground in the region, leaving a growing number of civilian dead in their wake.

As the crisis unfolds, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon met African leaders at a summit in Kenya on Friday to try and end the conflict in eastern Congo, which has raised fears of a repeat of a wider 1998-2003 war in the central African nation.


November 7, 2008
World Markets See Mixed Trading

The world's stock markets were mixed Friday, after suffering major losses a day before.

Asian markets saw mixed trading, after the International Monetary Fund cut growth forecasts it had only made last month.

Japan closed down 3.6 percent, with automaker Toyota one of the biggest losers. It tumbled 9.2 percent after slashing growth forecasts. One analyst said the global economy was deteriorating much faster than had been feared.

South Korea headed up 3.9 percent after the central bank cut interest rates for the third time in a month. But investors were disappointed that the bank only cut the rate by 25 basis points.

Hong Kong also finished up 3.2 percent, and Shanghai was up 1.8 percent. The IMF is now predicting the world's developed economies are heading for their first simultaneous full-year recession since World War II.

In early European trading, London, Paris and Frankfurt were in barely in positive territory.

Meanwhile, European leaders were scheduled to meet Friday to agree new rules on global finance. They were also due to discuss the possible restructuring of global financial organizations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that reversing the global slump is vital, adding, "It's not the right time for short-term cuts in investment and public spending."



Jobless Rate Jumps To 14-Year High

The government reported Friday that the nation's unemployment rate hit a 14-year high in October as employers cut 240,000 jobs.

The Labor Department report said the national unemployment rate shot up to 6.5 percent -- the higest level since March 1984. The unemployment rate for September was 6.1 percent.

The department also revised September's losses to 284,000 -- the highest since November 2001 just after the September terror attacks -- and also revised August losses higher to 127,000.

That means 179,000 more jobs were cut in August and September than previously had been thought. In total over the three months through October, 651,000 jobs have been slashed
from payrolls.

In manufacturing alone, a whopping 90,000 jobs were cut in October - a period when 27,000 Boeing Co. assembly workers were on strike. That followed a loss of 56,000 factory jobs in September.

 

[Bone]

sorry, but i don't have time to read all that

 

[historylover]

Memo To The President
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96781900


In this occasional series, NPR will follow the transition from the Bush administration to the Obama administration through a series of stories, conversations, commentaries and essays that will outline the many issues and challenges facing the new occupant of the White House. From a broken military to a troubled economy to a National Park Service in need of a major overhaul — we'll provide the briefing paper, the options and the obstacles.


NPR.org, November 8, 2008 ·
TO: Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States
FROM: NPR News
RE: Challenges in Office

Greetings, Mr. President-elect and congratulations on your decisive victory on Nov. 4. Your campaign will be studied for years for its strategy and discipline. You have shown great skill in rallying large crowds and uniting sometimes fractious elements of your party behind your candidacy. You have won the votes of a clear, if modest, majority of the electorate. Your share of the Electoral College is better than two-thirds. You have won the great prize so many coveted and fought for during the 22-monthlong public phase of this campaign — not to mention for years before. And you have disproved the notion that only a white person could win the White House.

You may have earned the right to bask in this success and take some time off to relax. Unfortunately, this will not be possible. As you know, you and your party were borne to victory on a tide of bad news about the economy and about other aspects of our nation's present and our future.

We feel less secure economically in our country, less comfortable with our culture and less certain of our standing in the world than we have in many years. More than four out of five of us think the country is off on the wrong track. Americans have not been so downbeat about our situation since pollsters started asking this question more than a half-century ago.

Why do people feel this way? Bad as the economic news has been, it is not the only source of discouragement. Our national anxiety also stems from wars that continue in Iraq and Afghanistan with no end in sight. Our troops have been engaged in these conflicts longer than they were in World War II. We are also concerned about our health care system. The quality may be world class, but the distribution of the best care is fraught with inequities and the cost is beyond the means of many. Energy costs have eased in recent months, but within this calendar year the price of oil was a greater burden than ever on our economy and our lifestyle.

Perhaps these are the most immediate worries that plague the voters who elected you. But the electorate has a still longer list of challenges in the longer term, some of them quite profound and each important in its own way.

Here at NPR, we have talked about all of these challenges in varying measure over the course of this campaign year. Now, as you and the new Congress prepare to take office, we wanted to return to each issue in turn and provide a more systematic catalog. So in the weeks ahead, as the transition goes forward, we will air a series of stories addressing these issues.

Here is a representative list of what we will offer, for you and our listeners. And there'll be more where these came from.

Economic Crisis
A lack of oversight, transparency and accountability in financial markets has brought on the worst crisis in decades. What needs to change for a viable 21st century financial regulatory system to emerge? NPR's John Ydstie has been following the national economy through three decades when free market philosophy was ascendant.

Collapsing Industries
Congress has approved a $25 billion bailout for America's troubled automakers. But should the new president be prepared to invest even more in helping to boost a new auto industry tailor-made for the 21st century? NPR's John McChesney takes a look at the manufacturing problem from a high-tech perspective.

National Security
Nearly the entire George W. Bush presidency has been defined by a focus on homeland security following the Sept. 11 attacks. The new president will have to decide what level of peril the country is in, and whether to keep or change the measures of the Bush administration. NPR's Pam Fessler has been following homeland security since the department was created in 2002.

Energy Costs
Gas prices may have dipped, but long-term they remain a hot-button issue for the next president. "Energy independence," off-shore drilling, home heating costs and how to encourage efficiency and renewable energy are some of the things the new president will have to wrestle with in the midst of an economic crisis that will make it hard to shift away from fossil fuels — our cheapest source of power. NPR's Chris Joyce has been exploring new sources of energy since the earlier outbreak of energy consciousness in the 1970s.

Health Care
Right after economic worries and war, health care has the attention of the public. Availability and cost of care are concerns for all, but 46 million Americans have no insurance at all — and millions of those who do are one serious illness away from financial catastrophe. Meanwhile, the spiraling costs of Medicare and Medicaid are threatening to swamp the federal budget. NPR's Julie Rovner has been charting the course of this issue since well before the 1994 health care reform came together and fell apart in Congress.

Global Warming
The United States lost its leadership in the international talks on global warming during the Bush administration. The new president will face a difficult deadline working to negotiate a follow-up to the Kyoto climate treaty. The United Nations has agreed to a deadline for negotiating a new pact by the end of next year and many difficult issues remain unresolved. NPR's Richard Harris has been on the climate change beat since before the second Bush presidency.

Executive Powers
The Bush administration spent two terms working hard to expand the power of the chief executive at the expense of the other two branches of government. The new president will have to decide what approach he'll take to constitutional checks and balances. NPR's Nina Totenberg casts a judicious eye on the separation of powers.

Equal Justice
The Justice Department is emerging from what many have called its most tumultuous period in decades. A new attorney general will have to restore the Department's credibility and work to counter perceptions that law enforcement decisions have become politicized. NPR's Ari Shapiro witnessed the rise and fall of Alberto Gonzales and the struggle of Michael Mukasey.

Private Contracting
Under the Bush administration, there's been a "quiet revolution" in the degree to which operations of the federal government have been turned over to private entities. Yet in all this there's been little attempt to measure how it's working, or how much it costs. NPR's Daniel Zwerdling takes the measure of privatization.

Immigration Rules
Efforts to overhaul the immigration laws have dropped off the radar, but the tension continues between people who believe immigrants hurt the job prospects of Americans and those who believe immigrants support the U.S. economy. And some public officials believe this is the moment for compromise on new immigration policies. NPR's Jennifer Ludden has kept her eye on a situation the presidential campaign ignored almost completely.

Telecommunications
Is America ready for the total transfer to digital TV? Is there a strategy to reach national broadband access? Is the government prepared to lead the way and make decisions that move billions of dollars? There will soon be a vacancy for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and guess who gets to fill it? NPR's Joel Rose provides a tour of the potential pitfalls.

Space Exploration
The United States is set to retire its aging fleet of space shuttles in 2010. NASA is currently on track to build rockets that could return astronauts to the moon, but they won't be ready until 2014 or later. The next president could save money by delaying development of that next generation rocket, but that would mean an even longer human spaceflight "gap" with no American space vehicle. But can we afford space when we can't afford better schools or health insurance for all? NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce notes how the space challenge has changed since John F. Kennedy took office in 1961.

Labor organizing
Democrats won the presidency and other offices with strong support from labor unions. And they are expected to be much more supportive of labor than President Bush. Can a new president deliver for labor in a way that doesn't harm companies being battered by a severe economic downturn? NPR's Frank Langfitt specializes in the role of labor in the new economy — and the new politics.

 

[historylover]

Obama to use executive orders for immediate impact
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93297331

WASHINGTON November 9, 2008, 07:42 pm ET · President-elect Obama plans to use his executive powers to make an immediate impact when he takes office, perhaps reversing Bush administration policies on stem cell research and domestic drilling for oil and natural gas.

John Podesta, Obama's transition chief, said Sunday Obama is reviewing President Bush's executive orders on those issues and others as he works to undo policies enacted during eight years of Republican rule. He said the president can use such orders to move quickly on his own.

"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see the president do that," Podesta said. "I think that he feels like he has a real mandate for change. We need to get off the course that the Bush administration has set."

Podesta also said Obama is working to build a diverse Cabinet. That includes reaching out to Republicans and independents — part of the broad coalition that supported Obama during the race against Republican John McCain. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been mentioned as a possible holdover.

"He's not even a Republican," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said. "Why wouldn't we want to keep him? He's never been a registered Republican."

Obama was elected on a promise of change, but the nature of the job makes it difficult for presidents to do much that has an immediate impact on the lives of average people. Congress plans to take up a second economic aid plan before year's end — an effort Obama supports. But it could be months or longer before taxpayers see the effect.

Obama could use his executive powers to at least signal that Washington is changing.

"Obama's advantage of course is he'll have the House and the Senate working with him, and that makes it easier," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. "But even then, having an immediate impact is very difficult to do because the machinery of government doesn't move that quickly."

Presidents long have used executive orders to impose policy and set priorities. One of Bush's first acts was to reinstate full abortion restrictions on U.S. overseas aid. The restrictions were first ordered by President Reagan and the first President Bush followed suit. President Clinton lifted them soon after he occupied the Oval Office and it wouldn't be surprising if Obama did the same.

Executive orders "have the power of law and they can cover just about anything," Tobias said in a telephone interview.

Bush used his executive power to limit federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, a position championed by opponents of abortion rights who argue that destroying embryos is akin to killing a fetus. Obama has supported the research in an effort to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's. Many moderate Republicans also support the research, giving it the stamp of bipartisanship.

On drilling, the federal Bureau of Land Management is opening about 360,000 acres of public land in Utah to oil and gas drilling. Bush administration officials argue that the drilling will not harm sensitive areas; environmentalists oppose it.

"They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive, fragile lands in Utah," Podesta said. "I think that's a mistake."

Two top House Republicans said there is a willingness to try to work with Obama to get things done. But they said to expect Republicans to serve as a check against the power held by Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress.

"It's going to be a cheerful opposition," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. "We're going to carry those timeless principles of limited government, a strong defense, traditional values, to the American people."

Pence, of Indiana, is expected to take over the No. 3 leadership post among House Republicans.

In other transition matters, Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, would not say whether Obama would return to the Senate for votes during the postelection session this month. Obama's presence would be extraordinary, given his position as president-elect, especially if Congress takes up a much-anticipated economic stimulus plan.

"I think that the basic approach has been he's going to be here in Chicago, setting up his economic, not only his economic team, but the policies he wants to outline for the country as soon as he gets sworn in, so we hit the ground running," Emanuel said.

Also, Emanuel would not commit to a Democratic proposal to help the auto industry with some of the $700 billion approved by Congress to for the financial bailout.

Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a letter Saturday to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that the administration should consider expanding the bailout to include car companies.

Podesta appeared on "Fox News Sunday," as did Pence, and CNN's "Late Edition," where Reid also was interviewed. Emanuel spoke on ABC's "This Week" and CBS' "Face the Nation."

 

[historylover]

November 10, 2008
American Express Becomes Bank Holding Company

The Federal Reserve granted a request by American Express Co. to become a bank holding company.

The move allows the credit card giant to access low-cost financing from the Fed just as banks do.

The Fed said it had approved the application for American Express and a related company, American Express Travel Related Services Co. Inc., to become bank holding companies.

The financial services industry is undergoing its worst credit crisis in decades. Just two months ago, several investment banks were in distress. Some were bought out or propped up by the government, Lehman Brothers failed, while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley converted into bank holding companies.

AmEx last month reported that its profit fell 24 percent in the third quarter as cardholders restrained spending and struggled to pay their debt.


Government Guarantees Student Loans

The federal government is shoring up loans to college students.

The U.S. Department of Education is again stepping in to guarantee students' access to federal aid for college even if the economy continues to deteriorate.

It marks the second time in six months that the government has taken the action.

In May, as credit markets for student loans tightened and lenders began pulling out of the federal student loan program, the Education department and U.S. Treasury stepped in to ensure that eligible students would receive federal aid for college -- no matter how great a credit risk.

But with lingering uncertainty in the student loan market, the Department of Education says the government must do more.

So the Education department will continue to buy federally guaranteed loans that lenders can't sell, department officials say.

The department has already issued $42 billion through the family education loan program and another $18 directly to colleges to lend to students.


DNC Chair Dean to Step Down

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean won't seek to stay on as head of the party when his term ends in January.

It's traditional for an incoming president to choose his own party chair. And that's what president-elect Barack Obama will do.

Dean, who has chaired the Democratic National Committee since 2005, has said recently that he doesn't intend to seek reappointment.

At times he reportedly has clashed publicly with Democratic elected officials over his stewardship of the DNC -- particularly with newly selected White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

As chairman, the former Vermont governor and presidential candidate built up Democratic committees in some historically Republican states. Some Democrats called it a waste of resources. But it helped then-Senator Obama of Illinois carry some previously Republican states against his rival John McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona.

Dean is a physician, and is said to have hopes of being named Secretary of Health and Human Services. One Democratic operative says Dean won't say that, for fear of jinxing it.


Stocks Depressed by Corporate News

Shares of Wall Street stocks ended lower as investors could not maintain their enthusiasm about a $586 billion Chinese stimulus package.

Rather, investors fretted over how U.S. companies will survive a severe pullback in spending as well as credit availability.

Several businesses reported layoffs as well as quarterly losses, including German shipper DHL's layoff of 9,500 workers, bankruptcy by consumer electronics giant Circuit City, insurer AIG received another cash infusion from the U.S. government, and sharp losses by mortgage finance firm Fannie Mae and the Tribune company.

The Dow Jones Industrial average closed down 73 points at 8,870 after more than 4 billion shares exchanged hands.

The broader Standard & Poor index slipped 11 points to 919 while the tech-laden Nasdaq lost 30 points to 1,616.

The stock market received a lift from China's plans to boost its economy through a mix of spending, subsidies, looser credit policies and tax cuts. The package could benefit multinational companies with business in China such as General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc.

But Wall Street quickly realized that while China's stimulus is a positive sign that governments around the world are working to fix the global economy, the stimulus itself will likely have only a limited effect in the United States.

With too few signs of recovery in the economy investors are hardly confident about making big bets on stocks, despite how cheap they look. The major indexes are down about 40 percent from their October 2007 peaks.


DHL to Cut 9,500 Jobs

Deutsche Post AG, the German mail and logistics company, plans to cut 9,500 jobs at its DHL unit in the U.S.

The company said it will also eliminate U.S.-only domestic express shipping by land and air, citing heavy losses and fierce competition. The Express unit currently employs some 18,000 workers.

Much of the sorting and transporting of packages for DHL is done out of the Wilmington, Ohio air park. Some 7,500 employees are expected to lose their jobs there.

The new round of cuts were blamed on heavy losses at DHL, which competes with UPS, Inc., and FedEx Corp.

The cuts are part of a wider plan to trim operations in the U.S., including domestic ground and delivery services though its international shipping to and from the U.S. would continue.

But Deutsche Post said the U.S. remained a key market and that such U.S. operations as freight and global mail and other logistics won't be affected by the closings. Its U.S. logistics unit employs more than 25,000 workers.

Part of the plan calls for the halt to domestic shipping by Jan. 30, the company said, after it closes all of its ground hubs and reduces the number of service centers from 412 to 103 across the U.S.

Deutsche Post's decision is expected to reduce operating costs at the U.S. Express unit from $5.4 billion (4.2 billion euros) to less than $1 billion (770 million euros).


Fannie Mae Posts Record $29 Billion Loss

Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae reported Monday that it lost a record $29 billion in the third quarter -- its fifth consecutive quarterly loss

Fannie Mae, which has been operating under a government conservatorship since September, had previously warned it would write down "substantially all" of its deferred tax assets, which had become a controversial addition to capital as losses mounted. Deferred tax assets can be used to offset future taxes, but only if the company can show it will return to profitability.

Credit expenses soared to $9.2 billion in the quarter due to deteriorating mortgage credit conditions and as home prices declined, the company said in a statement.

Fannie Mae's loss equaled $13 per share, compared with a loss of $1.4 billion, or $1.56 per share a year earlier. The company said it expects a significant loss for the fourth quarter if downward trends in U.S. housing and financial markets continue.

Further losses for the company this quarter mean the government may have to inject billions of dollars of capital to help the company maintain routine operations. The government pledged to keep a positive level of shareholders equity.

Stockholders equity fell to $9.3 billion in the third quarter from $44 billion at the end of 2007. The figure may be negative by Dec. 31, the company said.

Fannie Mae and rival Freddie Mac own or guarantee nearly half of all U.S. residential mortgages.

Equity investors, while nearly wiped out under the conservatorship, have been eager to see if the regulator will instruct the companies to sacrifice profit for bigger volumes in their mortgage guarantee and investment businesses. Both have been given the room to expand portfolios by a combined $200 billion through 2009, but they have been slow to follow through as their funding costs have risen.


November 10, 2008
Circuit City Files For Bankruptcy Protection

Circuit City Stores, the nation's second largest consumer electronics retailer, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, but retail outlets will stay open for business during the busy holiday season.

The Richmond, Virginia-based retailer filed under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code, which will
allow it to hold off creditors and continue operations while it develops a financial reorganization plan.

The company said it decided to file because it was facing pressure from vendors who threatened to withhold products during the busy holiday shopping season.

Last week, the company announced it would close 20 percent of its stores and lay off thousands of workers. In September, the company reported a lost of 239.2 million after sales fell for the sixth straight quarter.

Before the closures and layoffs, Circuit City operated 721 stores and employed about 40,000 people. It opened in 1949, and it was the first retailer to use a warehouse-style showroom for consumer electronics.


AIG Reports $24 Billion Loss; New Bailout Unveiled

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96805486Insurer American International Group Inc. reported its fourth straight quarterly loss on Monday, amid plans for a new bailout package that includes partial goverment ownership of the troubled company.

The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department announced a new bailout plan Monday after it became clear that an original financial lifeline thrown to AIG in September would not be sufficient to stabilize the company. AIG reported Monday that it lost nearly $24.5 billion in the third quarter, compared to a profit of over $3 billion for the same period a year ago.

"The U.S. Treasury ... will purchase $40 billion of newly issued AIG preferred shares under the Troubled Asset Relief Program," the Fed said.

The government's plan will scrap the original $123 billion bailout and replace it with a new plan worth $150 billion. The plan includes lowering the interest rate on loans to the firm, and establishing two facilities to buy mortgage-backed securities from AIG and collateralized debt obligations on which AIG has written credit default swap contracts, the Fed said in a statement.

The government said the actions were needed to "keep the company strong and facilitate its ability to complete its restructuring process successfully."

As part of the new arrangement, the Federal Reserve is reducing a $85 billion loan it is had made available to AIG to $60 billion. The Fed also is replacing a separate $37.8 billion loan to the insurance company with a $52 billion aid package.

Monday's announcement was the first time money from the $700 billion bailout package Congress enacted last month has gone to any company other than a bank.

The Treasury Department, which is overseeing the program, has promised to inject $250 billion into banks in return for partial ownership. The original notion behind the bailout package was to help financial institutions lend money more freely again, one of the main reasons the economy is in danger of getting stuck in a long and painful recession.

Until Monday, all of AIG's bailout relief was coming from the Fed.

The Fed, earlier this year, said it would loan a total of $123 billion to AIG. The insurance company was later allowed to access another $20.9 billion through the Fed's "commercial paper" program. That's where the Fed is buying mounds of companies' short-term debt often used for crucial day-to-day expenses, such as payrolls and supplies.

 

[historylover]

November 11, 2008
Government Unveils Plan For Mortgage Help

The government and the mortgage industry have launched a plan to help troubled homeowners by speeding up the process for renegotiating hundreds of thousands of delinquent loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seized control of the two mortgage finance companies in September, announced the plan Tuesday along with officials from the Treasury Department, Wells Fargo & Co., the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Hope Now, an alliance of mortgage companies organized by the Bush administration last year.

It likely will have tremendous importance because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee about half of U.S. home loans.

The approach, which goes into effect Dec. 15., "will be a standard for the industry to quickly move homeowners into long-term sustainable mortgages," said Neel Kashkari, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial stability in prepared remarks.

To qualify, borrowers would have to be at least three months behind on their home loans, and would need to owe 90 percent or more than the home is currently worth. The interest rate would be reduced so that borrowers would not pay more than 38 percent of their income on housing expenses.


Bush Honors Veterans Aboard USS Intrepid

President Bush marked his last Veterans Day in office by visiting the World War II aircraft carrier USS Intrepid and participating in the rededication of the newly renovated museum.

Bush stood in the shadow of the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on Manhattan's West Side. He praised veterans from the five branches of military service, including the Coast Guard. He praised them for their courage, sacrifice and added that he would "miss being the commander in chief of such a fabulous group of men and women."

Mr. Bush was awarded the Intrepid's medal of freedom, and later the president and astronauts Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Scott Carpenter tossed a memorial wreath into the Hudson River as a bugler played Taps.

The USS Intrepid was launched in 1943 and was involved in six major pacific theater campaigns. It became a popular museum in the 1980s.


Pelosi Calls For Bailout Aid To U.S. Car Makers

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesady called for Congress to act quickly in the coming session to extend emergency assistance to the nation's battered auto industry.

Five days after dismal financial reports from General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co., Pelosi backed legislation to make the automakers eligible for help under the $700 billion bailout measure that cleared Congress in October.

In a written statement, the California Democrat said the aid was needed "in order to prevent the failure of one or more of the major American automobile manufacturers, which would have a devastating impact on our economy, particularly on the men and women who work in that industry."

"Congress and the Bush administration must take immediate action," she added.

The plight of the industry has drawn attention from the White House and the incoming Obama administration in recent days, as well as among lawmakers.


Oil Falls Below $60 Per Barrel

Retail gasoline prices dipped for a 17th week since July 4, falling below $2 a gallon in a number of states and as low as $1.77 in Des Moines, Iowa as the price of oil dropped below $60 per barrel.

The price at the gas pump reflected another steep drop in oil prices, which hit a 20-month low Tuesday as Wall Street offered yet more evidence that consumers have gone into hiding.

Retail gasoline prices fell to a national average of $2.22 a gallon, dragged down by the falling price of crude, which now costs 60 percent less per barrel than it did in mid-July.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery fell more than 5 percent, or $3.25, to $59.16 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In earlier electronic trading, crude fell to $58.32, its lowest point since March 2007.


Obama Transition Team Barred From Lobbying

President-elect Barack Obama's aides have announced new rules to govern the conduct of lobbyists during the transition of power, including steps to limit their involvement in areas where they have sought to influence policy in the past year.

According to John Podesta, a top transition aide, federal lobbyists will be prohibited from any lobbying while they are at work on the transition.

Also, if anyone involved in the transition later becomes a lobbyist, they would not be able to lobby the new administration for one year on matters on which they worked for the president-elect.

The rules also stipulate that federal lobbyists may not contribute financially to the transition.


NPR Announces New CEO

The board of directors of National Public Radio announced Tuesday that Vivian Schiller has been appointed as the network's new president and CEO.

Schiller, who will start on January 5, 2009, joins NPR from The New York Times Company, where she is currently senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com.

"With more than 20 years of experience in the media industry, Vivian is a talented and proven leader with superb skills and roots in the news business," Howard Stevenson, chairman of NPR's Board of Directors, said in a statement released Tuesday. "Her inclusive management style and operational expertise have garnered superior results at every step of her career."

Schiller replaces Ken Stern, who stepped down as president and CEO of the network in March. Dennis Haarsager has served as interim CEO from the time of Stern's departure.

NPR, which has a weekly audience of 26 million listerners, provides news and entertainment programming to 850 public radio stations nationwide and through its Web site, NPR.org. The network's flagship Morning Edition and All Things Considered magazine shows are among the top-rated radio programs in the country.

 

[historylover]

November 12, 2008
Obama Selects Bipartisan Team To Attend Summit

Former Iowa Republican Congressman Jim Leach and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright will represent President-elect Barack Obama this weekend at the global financial summit in Washington.

Obama will not attend, but Albright and Leach will be available for unofficial meetings with international leaders on his behalf, his office said in a statement.

"There is one president at a time in the United States, so the president-elect has asked Secretary Albright and Congressman Leach, an experienced and bipartisan team, to be available (to) meet with and listen to our friends and allies on his behalf," said Denis McDonough, Obama's senior foreign policy advisor.

Officials from the G-20 group of leading economies are scheduled to discuss overhauling the international financial system in response to a credit crisis that threatens global recession.

Obama met with Vice President-elect Joe Biden and members of his transition team in Chicago on Wednesday. He may announce some White House staff appointments later in week.


U.S. Stocks Plunge For Third Straight Session

U.S. stocks tumbled on Wednesday after the United States backed away from using its $700 billion bailout to mop up sour mortgages and added to uncertainty about how the government plans to revive bank lending.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 411.30 points, or 4.73 percent, to end unofficially at 8,282.66. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 46.64 points, or 5.19 percent, to finish unofficially at 852.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 81.69 points, or 5.17 percent, to close unofficially at 1,499.21.

Macy's Inc. reported a sharp drop in sales, Best Buy Co. Slashed its 2009 outlook on fears that consumer spending will keep eroding, and Morgan Stanley outlined plans to cut 10 percent of staff in its institutional securities group.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the government's $700 billion financial rescue package won't be used to buy banks' troubled assets and will instead buy stakes in the banks.

Iraqi Soldier Kills 2 U.S. Soldiers, Wounds 6 Others

An Iraqi solider killed two U.S. soldiers and wounded six others Wednesday in the northern city of Mosul, Iraq's Defense Ministry and the U.S. military said.

Iraqi officials said the gunman was killed. No other details are known.

The U.S. military officials withheld other details pending the outcome of an investigation. U.S. and Iraqi soldiers have been working together in an intense effort to wipe out insurgent cells that carry out regular attacks in the city.

Meanwhile, a wave of car bombings and suicide attacks continued for the third straight day in Baghdad. Police said the death toll from three separate bombings on Wednesday was at least 23, with around 90 wounded.

U.S. military officials confirmed the bombings, but they said there was only death.


Conn. Judge Officiates At State's First Gay Marriage

A Connecticut judge on Wednesday officiated at the wedding of a same-sex couple less than two hours after a court ruling legalizing gay marriages became official.

Peg Oliveira and Jennifer Vickery of New Haven were married next door to New Haven City Hall. They said their vows and exchanged rings in a brief ceremony led by state Appellate Court Judge F. Herbert Gruendel.

The wedding follows the final order issued earlier Wednesday by a New Haven judge to legalize gay marriage.

Eight same-sex couples had sued the state, claiming that Connecticut's law prohibiting gay marriage was discriminatory. The state Supreme Court ruled in their favor Oct. 10.

Connecticut is the second state to allow same-sex marriages. Massachusetts also allows gay couples to wed.


Supreme Court Rules For Navy On Sonar Exercises

The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises off the California coast, a defeat for environmental groups who say the sonar can harm whales.

The court, in its first decision of the term, voted 5-4 that the Navy needs to conduct realistic training exercises to respond to potential threats by enemy submarines.

Environmental groups persuaded lower federal courts in California to impose restrictions on sonar use in submarine-hunting exercises to protect whales and other marine mammals.

The Bush administration argued that there is little evidence of harm to marine life in more than 40 years of exercises off the California coast.

 

[historylover]

November 13, 2008
Bush Defends Capitalism; Stocks Rally

President Bush defended capitalism on Thursday, saying the global financial crisis is "not a failure of the free market."

In a speech in New York the day before the global financial summit, Bush urged world leaders to adopt modest financial reforms rather than the tighter regulations favored by Europeans.

"Our aim should not be more government. It should be smarter government," Bush said.

Bush called on international leaders to embrace "reasonable" reforms, saying changes won't work if they shun the free market system or restrict trade.

Bush will play host to representatives of some of the world's biggest industrial democracies, emerging nations and international bodies in Washington to come up with a coordinated world response to the economic downturn. He is scheduled to host the leaders at a White House dinner Friday and review causes and solutions for the financial mess Saturday.

Meanwhile, U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday in late trading on Thursday, ending up over 6 percent after the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq touched new multiyear lows earlier in the session.

The Dow Jones industrial average dipped below 8,000 earlier in the day, but rose as bargain hunters snapped up cheap stocks in the last hour of trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 552.59 points, or 6.67 percent, to end unofficially at 8,835.25, based on the latest data. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shot up 58.97 points, or 6.92 percent, to finish unofficially at 911.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged 97.49 points, or 6.50 percent, to close unofficially at 1,596.70.

Obama Announces Resignation From Senate

President-elect Barack Obama said Thursday that he will resign from the Senate, effective Sunday, in order to focus on his transition to the White House.

"It has been one of the highest honors and privileges of my life to have served the people of Illinois in the United States Senate," Obama said in a statement.

The resignation means that Obama will not participate in the next week's post-election Senate session. The Democratic-led Senate is hoping during the session pass a possible rescue package for the struggling auto industry and an economic stimulus package.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Democrat, will now name a replacement to serve the remaining two years on Obama's six-year term

Obama will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20.


FDA Puts Hold On Chinese Food Items

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday ordered dozens of imported food items from China to be held at the border as possible health risks.

Most of the foods included in the hold order are ethnic treats, including snacks, drinks and chocolates, federal health officials said. The order, which covers products made with milk, is a precaution to keep out foods contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, which can cause serious kidney problems.

"We've continued to get information from others in the international community, and reports from China, about (melamine contamination) moving into different commodities," said Steve Solomon, a senior FDA enforcement official. "Most of the products we are talking about are finished products like cookies, cakes and candies. The impact will be for various ethnic communities looking for specific products."

Under the directive, FDA inspectors at U.S. ports of entry will hold foods from China made with milk and certain ingredients derived from milk. Importers must pay to have their products tested
by an independent laboratory that meets FDA standards. Only products found to be melamine-free will be allowed into the country.

The order also applies to pet foods and some bulk protein products, the focus of a melamine recall in 2007.

The FDA action shifts the burden of proof to Chinese companies, which must now supply evidence that their products are safe. Most consumers should not be affected, since major U.S. food manufacturers get their milk ingredients here.

Unemployment Claims Reach 7-Year High

The number of new people seeking unemployment benefits jumped to the highest rate since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted number of new claims rose to 516,000. Not only is that a record for new monthly claims, it also marks the largest number of people on the unemployment rolls since 1983.

The credit meltdown and the slowing economy have caused deep cuts in the job market. Financial service giants Morgan Stanley and Fidelity Investments, as well as auto companies General Motors and Ford, have all announced layoffs.

Initial claims have been driven higher in the past several months by a slowing economy hit by the financial crisis and cutbacks in consumer and business spending. Claims also rose in late September due to the impact of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav, but the department said last week that the impact of the hurricanes has passed.

The rise in claims has been mirrored by an increase in the unemployment rate. Unemployment reached a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October, the Labor Department said last week, as the ranks of the unemployed swelled to 10.1 million.


Foreclosures Up 25 Percent From Year Ago

New data show the number of foreclosures nationwide grew by 25 percent in October from a year ago.

The tracking firm RealtyTrac said more than 279,500 U.S. homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in October, an increase of 5 percent over September. One in every 452 housing units received a foreclosure filing, such as a default notice, auction sale notice or bank repossession.

More than 84,000 properties were repossessed in October.

Strict lending standards; falling home values; and a tough economy are filtering through the housing market.

By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S.

 

[historylover]

November 14, 2008
Bush Wants $25 Billion In Loans Released For Big 3

The White House said on Friday it would support accelerating the release of $25 billion in loans to Big Three automakers, but rejected Democrats' plan to use funds from a $700 billion financial rescue package.

The White House said Congress was headed for "partisan gridlock" in proposing that money from the bailout be used and should instead speed up a $25 billion loan program that was already appropriated.

"We were seeking a bipartisan path forward using that existing legislation that just needed to be amended," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"And unfortunately it's become clear that congressional Democrats are instead choosing a path that will only lead to partisan gridlock because they are focusing only on the Troubled Asset Relief Program," she said.

Perino said the White House was prepared to act quickly to accelerate the loans if Congress moved in that direction.


U.S. Stocks Slide; October Retail Sales Slump

U.S. stocks fell on Friday after a record drop in retail sales last month increased fears that consumers' failure to spend money will worsen the economic downturn.

The Dow Jones industrial average slid 337.94 points, or 3.82 percent, to end unofficially at 8,497.31, based on the latest available data. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 38.00 points, or 4.17 percent, to finish unofficially at 873.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 79.85 points, or 5.00 percent, to close unofficially at 1,516.85.

For the week, the Dow unofficially lost 5 percent, while the S&P 500 dropped 6.2 percent and the Nasdaq tumbled 7.9 percent.

Consumer spending is a key driver for U.S. economic growth and corporate profits, and retail sales dropped 2.8 percent in October as consumers curbed their spending amid recession fears, a government report showed.

In addition, J.C. Penney, the department store operator, and Abercrombie & Fitch, a clothing retailer for teens and young adults, gave disappointing outlooks and said shoppers look like they will be reining in spending this holiday season.

"Retail sales was abysmal, and guidance from retailers like J.C. Penney and Abercrombie was pretty bleak," said Michael James, senior trader at regional investment bank Wedbush Morgan in Los Angeles.

"Without the participation from the retail sector, you're not going to be able to get much sustainability to any rally," he added.


Freddie Mac Posts $25 Billion Loss

Mortgage finance company Freddie Mac asked for a cash infusion of $13.8 billion from the government after posting a massive quarterly loss on Friday.

The McLean, Va.-based company posted a loss of $25.3 billion, or $19.44 per share, for the third quarter. The results compared with a loss of $1.2 billion, or $2.07 a share, for the same period last year.

The company attributed much of the record loss to a write down of tax-related assets, essentially conceding it will not return to profitability soon. Writing down the assets left the company with a negative net worth, in which liabilities exceed its assets, requiring it to tap the Treasury backstop.

The government placed Freddie Macand Fannie Mae under conservatorship in September, pledging to inject capital as needed for the companies to operate and help stabilize the housing market.

The companies' regulator submitted the request for cash to the Treasury Department to provide $13.8 billion for Freddie Mac to erase the shareholder equity deficit.

The McLean, Virginia-based company said it expects to receive the money from the Treasury Department by Nov. 29.


Army Names First Female, Four-Star General

The Army named its first woman four-star general on Friday, a career officer who comes from a long line of military leaders.

Gen. Ann Dunwoody, 55, is the daughter, granddaughter and great granddaughter of West Point graduates. She will run the Army Materiel Command, responsible for arming, equipping and supplying soldiers.

Dunwoody went to a state school in New York, and she said she considered becoming a gym teacher until she learned the Army would pay her to go to school and let her jump out of airplanes.

The Army's women generals command in support roles, including supply and intelligence. They are barred from ground combat jobs; however, Dunwoody's niece is a fighter pilot who has flown missions in Afghanistan.

Dunwoody is one of 21 Army generals.


India's Lunar Probe Lands On Moon

India's space agency said Friday that it successfully sent a small probe to the surface of the moon.

India launched its first moon mission in late October. The unmanned spacecraft reached lunar orbit last week, and it carried with it a box of science instruments called the Moon Impact Probe.

On Friday, the Indian Space Research Organization said that the small probe successfully detached from the orbiting spaceship. The probe headed for the lunar surface, taking photos during its 25-minute trip. It sent back information before smacking into the lunar surface near the moon's south pole.

The space agency said the planned crash-landing was the end of the probe. But the orbiter will keep circling the moon during its two-year mission. It has a variety of on-board instruments that will study the moon.

Japan and China launched lunar orbiters last year.


Euro-zone Countries Sink Into Recession

The economies of 15 countries using the euro are officially in a recession, shrinking for a second straight quarter because of the world financial crisis, according to a report released Friday by the European Union.

Twelve other nations in the European Union have, so far, escaped recession.

EU statistics showed the euro zone as a whole shrank by 0.2 percent in both the second and third quarters compared to the first three months of the year. Six months of contraction is the classic definition of a recession.

Two of the region's largest economies -- Germany and Italy -- are in recession, according to Eurostat data. France narrowly escaped, growing just 0.1 percent in the third quarter after shrinking in the second quarter.

European carmakers said Friday that sales are slumping even as euro-zone inflation calms from record highs. So far, euro economies have not seen the jobless rate surge, but the EU executive Commission estimates that it will rise steadily over coming months.


November 14, 2008
Sun Microsystems To Cut 18 Percent Of Workforce

Sun Microsystems Inc., one of the leading suppliers of computer servers and workstations, said Friday it plans to slash up to 6,000 jobs worldwide amid slowing sales.

The 18 percent cut in the computer company's staff comes as demand has dropped for its high-end servers.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun is in a particularly difficult spot, as its shares have fallen so much that they have driven the company's market value below its cash on hand.

The company said the job cuts would include between 5,000 and 6,000 employees over the next year in an effort to save an estimated $700 million to $800 million annually.

Sun also said its software chief, Rich Green, has resigned.

"These are hard but necessary changes," said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's chief executive. He said the company has been hard-hit by the credit crunch because customers can't get loans to buy expensive servers and a quarter of the Sun's business comes from the ailing financial services sector.

Sun was founded in 1982 by three Stanford University graduate students. Although primarily a hardware company, it is perhaps best known for its popular Java programming language.

 

[historylover]

World Leaders Lay Out Five Principles Of Reform

by Jeff Brady and Yuki Noguchi
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97053296


NPR.org, November 15, 2008 · With only a few weeks to prepare, leaders from the world's 19 largest economies and the European Union agreed Saturday on broad principles at an economic summit in Washington, D.C.

The principles eventually will lead to actions designed to prevent future economic crises like the one currently plaguing countries around the world.

Speaking after the meeting, President Bush called the agreement "an important first step."

The general principles included in the G-20's declaration include strengthening transparency and accountability in financial systems; enhancing regulation; increasing international cooperation between the countries' financial regulators; and expanding the scope of international financial institutions to include emerging economies.

The G-20 declaration also committed to free-market principles. "We underscore the critical importance of rejecting protectionism and not turning inward in times of financial uncertainty," it said.

"Our nations agree that we must make the markets, the financial markets more transparent and accountable," Bush said. He added that he believes the best way out of this crisis is through economic growth.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the talks difficult, but said, "We have reached important conclusions today about trade, about financial stability and about the expansion of our economies."

The summit represented the biggest gathering of world leaders in a decade. Bush said the countries were brought together out of concern that they faced "a depression greater than the Great Depression."

Bush said details of reform plans and cooperation will be determined in coming months.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had high expectations for the summit. He had called for wholesale changes to Western-style capitalism and called for leaders to create a new international regulator to oversee global financial companies. But the U.S. and several developing countries rejected that idea.

Speaking after the summit, Sarkozy said he was heartened that leaders could come together on a plan for action, despite such diverse interests from individual nations.

"This is a historic, historic event," he said. "Not only in this case has Europe — the European states — agreed, but the entire world has agreed to be in step with one another — in synch and respond in a coordinated fashion to the economic and financial crisis."

In his speech before the other G-20 leaders, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said comparisons to past economic crises don't work. He said this is a 21st century and existing institutions that regulate the economy are not adequate for the challenges the world faces now. Medvedev also called for an international commission of "financial gurus" to advise world leaders.

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he was disappointed the summit members did not agree to require tougher rules on hedge funds.

"Our view is all significant pools of capital that are leveraged need to be subject to capitalization rules in particular," he said.

This was the first in a series of summits. The next will likely come in April, after Barack Obama takes office.

Summit participants also agreed to push for completion of the Doha round of global trade talks within the next year. This round of World Trade Organization negotiations started in 2001 and the goal was to lower trade barriers. But the talks have stalled because of disagreements between major developed and developing countries. The U.S. and the European Union also have fought over agriculture subsides.

 

[historylover]

Top Republican senators oppose automaker bailout
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96871467
from The Associated Press

WASHINGTON November 16, 2008, 12:01 pm ET · Top Republican senators said Sunday they will oppose a Democratic plan to bail out Detroit automakers, calling the U.S. industry a "dinosaur" whose "day of reckoning" is coming. Their opposition raises serious doubts about whether the plan will pass in this week's postelection session.

Democratic leaders want to use $25 billion of the $700 billion financial industry bailout to help General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.

Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona said it would be a mistake to use any of the Wall Street rescue money to prop up the automakers. They said an auto bailout would only postpone the industry's demise.

"Companies fail every day and others take their place. I think this is a road we should not go down," said Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

"They're not building the right products," he said. "They've got good workers but I don't believe they've got good management. They don't innovate. They're a dinosaur in a sense."

Added Kyl, the Senate's second-ranking Republican: "Just giving them $25 billion doesn't change anything. It just puts off for six months or so the day of reckoning."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said over the weekend that the House would provide aid to the ailing industry, though she did not put a price on her plan.

"The House is ready to do it," said Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. "There's no downside to trying."

But Democrats have only a narrow majority in the Senate and President George W. Bush opposes the idea. That raises the possibility that any help for automakers will have to wait until 2009, when Barack Obama takes office and the Democrats increase their majority in the Senate.

At least two Republican senators support an automaker bailout — George Voinovich of Ohio and Kit Bond of Missouri. But if the Republicans are seen as neglecting an industry that inevitably collapses, they risk lasting political problems in Midwestern industrial states that can swing for either political party.

Obama won most of the manufacturing states in the presidential race, including Ohio, a perennial battleground, and Indiana, which had not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964. Obama easily won Michigan after Republican John McCain publicly pulled out weeks before Election Day.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said automakers are working to adapt to a changing consumer market, but they need immediate help to survive the nation's current economic crisis.

"This is not a Big Three problem alone," Levin said. "This current crisis is a crisis in the economy where there is no credit available to purchase, and where people are not buying cars because they are afraid."

The companies are lobbying lawmakers furiously for an emergency infusion of cash. GM has warned it might not survive through year's end without a government lifeline.

"It's not the General Motors we grew up with. It's a General Motors that is headed down this road to oblivion," said Shelby. "Should we intervene to slow it down, knowing it's going to happen? I say no, not for the American taxpayer."

Obama said he believes that aid is needed but that it should be provided as part of a long-term plan for a "sustainable U.S. auto industry" — not simply as a blank check.

"For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment," Obama said in an interview on CBS's "60 Minutes" that was set to air Sunday night. "So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all of the stakeholders coming together with a plan — what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like?"

Automakers say bankruptcy protection is not an option because people would be reluctant to make long-term car and truck purchases from companies that might not last the life of their vehicles. But lawmakers opposed to the bailout say Chapter 11 might be a better option than government loans and they cite the experience of airlines that have gone through the process of reorganization.

Shelby and Levin were interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press" and Shelby also appeared with Frank on CBS' "Face the Nation." Kyl spoke on "Fox News Sunday."

 

[historylover]

Showdown looming in Congress over automaker rescue

from The Associated Press
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97069463

Hardline opponents of an auto industry bailout branded the industry a "dinosaur" whose "day of reckoning" is near, while Democrats pledged Sunday to do their best to get Detroit a slice of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue in this week's lame-duck session of Congress.

The companies are seeking $25 billion from the financial industry bailout for emergency loans, though supporters of the aid for General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have offered to reduce the size of the rescue to win backing in Congress.

Senate Democrats intended to introduce legislation Monday attaching an auto bailout to a House-passed bill extending unemployment benefits; a vote was expected as early as Wednesday.

A White House alternative would let the car companies take $25 billion in loans previously approved to develop fuel-efficient vehicles and use the money for more immediate needs. Congressional Democrats oppose the White House plan as shortsighted.

Majority Democrats will need at least a dozen GOP votes in the Senate to prevent opponents from blocking their measure — assuming all Senate Democrats support it. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky questioned whether there was sufficient Democratic support for an auto bailout in a statement released Sunday.

"The silence from the Democrat rank and file on this matter has been deafening," McConnell said.

So far two Republicans publicly have voiced support for the idea. Several others, including Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman on Sunday, have indicated they might accept a rescue under strict conditions.

Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona said it would be a mistake to use any of the Wall Street rescue money to prop up the automakers because a bailout would only postpone the industry's demise.

"Companies fail everyday and others take their place. I think this is a road we should not go down," said Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. "They're not building the right products," he said. "They've got good workers but I don't believe they've got good management. They don't innovate. They're a dinosaur in a sense."

Added Kyl, the Senate's second-ranking Republican: "Just giving them $25 billion doesn't change anything. It just puts off for six months or so the day of reckoning."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said over the weekend the House would aid the ailing industry, though she did not put a price on her plan. "The House is ready to do it," said Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. "There's no downside to trying."

Frank's committee has scheduled a Wednesday hearing on an auto bailout.

It is a more difficult fight in the Senate, given the Democrats' slim edge and President George W. Bush's opposition. Bush wants to speed the release of $25 billion from a separate loan program intended to help the automakers develop fuel-efficient vehicles and have that money go toward more urgent purposes as the companies struggle to stay afloat. The loan program was approved by Congress last year, but more legislation would be necessary to change its purpose.

"That should be done this week," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said. He said reopening the Wall Street bailout and including automakers could attract other industries looking for bailouts.

"If you start that, where do you stop?" he asked. "There's a line of companies of industries waiting at Treasury just to see if they can get their hands on those $700 billion."

The disagreement raises the possibility that any help for automakers will have to wait until 2009, when President-elect Barack Obama takes office and the Democrats increase their majority in the Senate.

At least two Republican senators support an automaker bailout — George Voinovich of Ohio and Kit Bond of Missouri. But if the Republicans are seen as neglecting an industry that inevitably collapses, they risk lasting political problems in Midwestern industrial states that can swing for either political party.

Obama won most of the manufacturing states in the presidential race, including Ohio, a perennial battleground, and Indiana, which had not voted for a Democrat for president since 1964. Obama easily won Michigan after Republican John McCain publicly pulled out weeks before Election Day.

Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich said young voters, who overwhelmingly supported Obama over Republican John McCain in the presidential election, could get turned off by expensive corporate bailouts that they will eventually have to pay for.

If "those 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds start to figure out they're going to pay the taxes, they're not getting the billions, I think you might find a lot of dissatisfaction by next summer," Gingrich said.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said automakers are working to adapt to a changing consumer market, but they need immediate help to survive the current economic crisis. "This is a national problem," Levin said. "The auto industry touches millions and millions of lives."

The companies are lobbying lawmakers furiously for an emergency infusion of cash. GM has warned it might not survive through year's end without a government lifeline.

"It's not the General Motors we grew up with. It's a General Motors that is headed down this road to oblivion," said Shelby. "Should we intervene to slow it down, knowing it's going to happen? I say no, not for the American taxpayer."

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger would not flat-out reject further concessions by members on top of the two-tiered wage system and other concessions the union gave the automakers last year, but he bristled at calls for further sacrifices by his members.

"Let's go to AIG, Bear Stearns, active and retired workers: Did anybody go in and ask them to give back wages and benefit levels?" Gettelfinger said on WDIV-TV in Detroit. "What about the bond traders? Did anybody ask them? What about the cleaners in the building? Why would the UAW be any different?"

"We made an agreement, and we made major concessions," he said. "So how can you blame the autoworkers?"

Obama said he believes aid is needed but that it should be provided as part of a long-term plan for a "sustainable U.S. auto industry" — not simply as a blank check.

"For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment," Obama said in a "60 Minutes" interview airing Sunday night on CBS. "So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all of the stakeholders coming together with a plan — what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like?"

Lawmakers opposed to the bailout say Chapter 11 might be a better option than government loans and they cite the experience of airlines that have gone through the process of reorganization.

But GM CEO Rick Wagoner, also appearing on Detroit's WDIV, said: "This idea that you just go into Chapter 11 and hang around for three months ... this is a fantasy. This is not going to work. Most important to what is going to happen is most people will stop buying the cars of a bankrupt company."

Shelby and Levin were interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press" and Shelby also appeared with Frank on CBS' "Face the Nation." Kyl spoke on "Fox News Sunday" and Gutierrez was on "Late Edition" on CNN.

 

[historylover]

Will Bill Clinton Doom Hillary For Secretary Of State?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97087666


NPR.org, November 17, 2008 · We never bought into the "Hillary Clinton for VP" talk that was the topic du jour (actually, du mois) last summer as Democrats approached their nominating convention in Denver. The emotions between Clinton and Barack Obama were still too raw. There was the inevitable "what to do with Bill" question. And not everyone in the Obama camp was convinced that she would be a plus for the ticket.

But that was then. Since then, Hillary Clinton campaigned long and hard for Obama, far more enthusiastically than two other famous defeated presidential hopefuls who come to mind. Ted Kennedy (D) in 1980 and Ronald Reagan (R) in 1976 did not exactly exert themselves on behalf of their victorious rivals after they lost out at their respective nominating conventions.

Now comes the latest buzz: Hillary for secretary of state. It's an intriguing thought, more so than the running-mate speculation. And people are not necessarily dismissing it out of hand.

The first question is: Would she want it? If you buy the argument that Clinton only ran for the Senate back in 2000 as a steppingstone to the White House — and, mind you, she would be 69 years old after two Obama terms — maybe this is how she wants to complete her service. Alternatively, she could do what Kennedy did: After failing in his presidential bid, he became a Senate workhorse, a Senate lifer, putting aside personal ambition on behalf of pushing through his liberal agenda. But it took Kennedy, who was only 48 years old when he ran for president, many years to reach the iconic status he now holds. Clinton had hoped to be put in charge of a subcommittee to deal with health care issues in the new, 111th Congress, but that has been met with resistance and is not going to happen. And as for her moving into the post of Senate majority leader, as some of her supporters had hoped, current leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has shown no indication he is willing to cede the position.

The most surprising thing about all this is that it has become so public, especially given the fact that the vice presidential vetting process was done in such secrecy. Certainly there can be private discussions, even between these two very high-profile Democrats, without the entire world knowing. But the secret Clinton-Obama meeting last Thursday in Chicago became anything but secret. In addition, there apparently have been conversations with other hopefuls, such as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), a former Bill Clinton Cabinet official for whom Hispanic groups are lobbying. Sen. John Kerry (MA), the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, has been mentioned as well. Both Kerry and Richardson bring pluses and minuses to the table.

What if, after this whole episode has become public, Obama doesn't offer the post to Clinton? It could reopen an intraparty wound that seemed to be healing.

But some of the questions that surround Hillary Clinton are the same ones that were there during the VP process, and for the most part they are about Bill Clinton's business dealings around the world and the contributors to his presidential library — information that he has refused to reveal. That, more than anything else, could put a kibosh on the whole thing.

REQUIRED READING: Doris Kearns Goodwin's 2005 Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, a book that discusses Lincoln's decision to bring his rivals into his Cabinet.

FAMOUS QUOTES: Hillary Clinton, in an April interview with ABC News, when asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons: "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

THE LAST SENATOR NAMED SECRETARY OF STATE: That would be Maine's Ed Muskie (D), who was picked after Cyrus Vance, Jimmy Carter's secretary of state, resigned in April 1980 in protest of Carter's ultimately disastrous decision to attempt a rescue of the American hostages in Iran.

CLINTON'S SENATE SEAT: There is no shortage of Democrats who are hoping for an appointment by New York Gov. David Paterson (D) should Clinton leave to join the Cabinet. The list includes state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who unsuccessfully sought the governorship in 2002 and who might have been looking at a primary challenge to Paterson in 2010; Rep. Nita Lowey of Westchester, who was planning to run for the Senate herself in 2000 until Clinton decided she was a New Yorker; Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo, who would give the Democrats an upstate presence; Rep. Nydia Velazquez of Brooklyn, the first Puerto Rican woman in the House; and environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father once held the seat. Any appointee would have to face the voters in a special election in 2009.

LAST NEW YORK SENATE VACANCY: That came, tragically, in June of 1968, when Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican, named GOP Rep. Charles Goodell to the seat in September.

Now, a word or two about those Nov. 4 races that are still unresolved:

UNDECIDED SENATE RACES

Alaska: When we last left you, Republican Sen. Ted Stevens was leading his Democratic challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, by about 3,200 votes, with 80,000 votes still to be counted. No longer. Begich has now taken a lead of 1,022 votes, with the remaining votes scheduled to be counted Tuesday. Even Republicans are starting to concede that Begich may win this race; if that happens, he would be the first Democrat to win an Alaska Senate seat since 1974. The 84-year-old Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, was first appointed to the seat in 1968. He was convicted of seven felony counts regarding unreported personal gifts eight days before the election.

Georgia: Now it's official: The race between Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) and former state Rep. Jim Martin (D) goes to a Dec. 2 runoff. After the counting had concluded, Chambliss received 49.8 percent of the vote — topping Martin by more than 100,000 votes — but state law mandates the winner receive a majority of the vote. Some conservatives voted for Libertarian Allen Buckley instead of Chambliss because they were angry over the senator's vote in favor of the $700 billion financial bailout/rescue package; many may return to the GOP fold. Republicans are arguing that a Chambliss victory is needed to keep the Democrats from obtaining a 60-vote, filibuster-proof Senate — something thought to be most unlikely just a few weeks ago. Defeated GOP presidential nominee John McCain, who carried the state on Nov. 4, has already been in to campaign for Chambliss, as has Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who won the state's presidential primary back in February. Zell Miller, the former Democratic senator and governor, has also endorsed Chambliss. Obama will not personally stump for Martin, but his operation is working tirelessly on his behalf, and Bill Clinton will be in the state later this week. Democrats want revenge against Chambliss, whom they accuse of running a dishonest campaign six years ago when he defeated Max Cleland, the Democratic incumbent. The last time an incumbent Georgia senator was forced into a runoff was in 1992, when Democrat Wyche Fowler led in the initial balloting but lost the runoff to Republican Paul Coverdell.

Minnesota: This one, in which Sen. Norm Coleman (R) leads challenger Al Franken (D) by 206 votes out of nearly 2.9 million cast, has turned especially nasty, with each side accusing the other of dishonestly handling disputed votes. Republicans, dismayed that Coleman's lead has narrowed since Election Day, are crying foul, implying that Mark Ritchie, the Democratic secretary of state, is fixing the tally on behalf of his party (not unlike Democrats' complaints about Katherine Harris, Florida's secretary of state during the 2000 presidential recount). Democrats, proud of the state's reputation of honesty when it comes to handling elections, are furious at accusations impugning Ritchie's integrity. A hand recount begins on Thursday, with the results not likely to become official before Dec. 19.

UNDECIDED HOUSE RACES: One has been called since last week's column: the Alaska At-Large seat. Rep. Don Young (R) was re-elected over Democratic challenger Ethan Berkowitz. Three have yet to be finalized:

California 04: As the count continues, Republican Tom McClintock's lead over Democrat Charlie Brown is up to 970 votes out of more than 312,000 counted. The incumbent, Republican John Doolittle, is retiring.

Ohio 15: In the battle for the seat of retiring Republican Deborah Pryce, GOP candidate Steve Stivers leads Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy by 149 votes.

Virginia 05: Tom Perriello (D) has increased his lead over GOP incumbent Virgil Goode to 745 votes. Perriello has already declared victory.

In addition, two Louisiana races go into December runoffs.

THE LADY FROM MAINE: We made the argument in the Oct. 22 column that while Hattie Caraway (D-AR) was the nation's first elected female senator, Maine's Margaret Chase Smith (R) was the first woman elected to the Senate "in her own right" — that is, without having first been appointed to the seat to succeed her late husband (as was the case with Caraway). But Frank Conaway of Hinsdale, Ill., and Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., point out that while that may be true, we shouldn't forget that Smith was first elected to the House in a special June 1940 election to succeed her husband, Rep. Clyde Smith (R-ME), who died in office. Better to say, suggests Frank, that it was Nancy Kassebaum (R) of Kansas, elected in 1978, who was the first woman in the Senate who came to office without succeeding a late husband somewhere along the way.

By the way, a nice note about Margaret Chase Smith from Paul Doering of Rochester, N.Y., who writes that Smith "normally wore a single red rose as part of her ensemble. A broadcast report after her death said that when the Senate next convened, New York's Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D) quietly placed a red rose on her empty desk. That gesture, apocryphal or not, speaks to the stature and humanity of two people whose memory I revere."

VOTE NPR: Our offer still holds. If you want that nice "Listen/Vote/NPR" button featured in the Nov. 3 column, I will mail it to anyone who has a Senate or congressional button from 2008 that I need. Shoot me a photocopy of what you've got c/o NPR, 635 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, DC, 20001.

ON THE CALENDAR

Nov. 18 — Party leadership elections in the House and Senate. Democrats decide what to do with independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, who endorsed GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Republicans may vote on a motion to kick the indicted Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) out of their conference. In the House, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) faces a challenge from Rep. Dan Lungren of California. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) challenges House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI), the dean of the House.

Nov. 19 — Hand recount begins in Minnesota Senate race.

Dec. 1 — "Political Junkie" goes from a weekly column to several-times-daily blog. (America, you've been warned.) Also, a winner is expected to be certified in the Alaska Senate race.

Dec. 2 — Senate runoff election in Georgia between incumbent Saxby Chambliss (R) and challenger Jim Martin (D).

POLITICAL JUNKIE CONTINUES ON TALK OF THE NATION: Despite popular demand, we remain a fixture every Wednesday on Talk of the Nation, NPR's live call-in program, beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern. We're no longer live at the Newseum, but the usual concoction of somewhat interesting conversation, useless trivia questions and sparkling jokes remains intact. And remember, if your local NPR station doesn't carry TOTN, you can hear the program on the Web or on HD radio. And if you are a subscriber to XM or Sirius radio, you can find the show there as well (siriusly).

IT'S ALL POLITICS: And until someone rats on us to the FCC, our podcast continues as well. Current edition can be found here. New podcast every Thursday.

POLITICAL JUNKIE, THE BLOG: Our mail has been split down the middle on this, but it looks like we're going to try to make "Political Junkie" a several-times-daily blog instead of a weekly column, with the option of producing a larger weekly feature if the situation warrants. It starts Dec. 1.

A SAD FAREWELL: And heartfelt thanks to some outstanding members of NPR's 2008 Political Unit, without whom we could not have brought you the kind of election coverage, editing, guest booking and podcast production you got from National Public Radio this year. We will miss Thomas Pierce, Michael Olson, Laurel Wamsley, Sean Bowditch, Josh Figueira, Nancy Cook, Natalie Friedman and Kyle Gassiott. You have not heard the last of them, I guarantee that.

 

[historylover]

November 17, 2008
White House Reaffirms Position On Auto Industry Fix

The White House emphasized Monday that it wants to help the auto industry but not at the expense of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue program.

In a statement, White House press secretary Dana Perino said the administration believes $25 billion that democrats want to use to bailout Detroit should come instead from a Department of Energy program designed to help develop fuel efficient vehicles. In her statement Perino said the Wall Street rescue plan, "was never intended by Congress to assist automakers or other sectors of the economy. It was solely intended to deal with what is an ongoing credit crisis in our financial sector."

Senate Democrats, meeting in a lame duck session, plan to introduce legislation that will attach an auto bailout to a bill extending unemployment benefits. A vote was expected as early as Wednesday.


Stocks Finish Sharply Lower

Wall Street ended the day Monday with a late decline as investors worried about more layoffs in the financial sector and amid uncertainty about a rescue plan for the Big Three automakers.

Citigroup Inc. announced it is cutting another 53,000 jobs, coming after the company shed 22,000 jobs in October. In addition, the company plans to lower expenses by about 20 percent and has reduced its assets by more than 20 percent since the first quarter of the year.

At the same time, nervous investors awaited news of a possible auto bailout strategy as Senate Democrats introduce legislation to use part of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan to help out financially struggling General Motors Corp.,Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.

The Dow Jones industrials fell nearly 224 points to end the day at 8,273 Monday, while the S&P 500 dropped 22 points to end at 850 and the Nasdaq composite lost nearly 35 points to end at 1,482.



Residents Tour Fire Damaged Neighborhood

Residents of a mobile home park in Sylmar, California returned to view what was left of their homes Monday after a weekend of devastating wind-swept fires.

Nearly 500 homes in the Oakridge Mobile Home Park were destroyed. Among the residents who toured the site was retiree, Ed Hurdle, 82, who said, "The car is gone. The house is gone. It's twisted metal. It's totally charred there. There's no hope at all. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing."

The tours came as firefighters in Southern California were finally seeing some relief as wildfires that had burned for days started to be brought under control.

Part of the credit goes to the weather, as the humidity has started to climb after hovering in the single digits for much of the weekend, and the winds have died down. Over the weekend wind gusts peaked at 70 mph.

The largest blaze in Orange,Riverside Counties, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties has burned through almost 29,000 acres. The fire has destroyed more than 160 homes.

Meanwhile a wildfire that broke out late last week in Santa Barbara County is almost contained. State fire investigators now believe that blaze could have been caused by a cigarette, or possibly be a result of arson.


Obama, McCain Meet In Chicago

President-elect Obama says he and Republican Sen. John McCain plan to work together to "fix up the country."

The two former rivals met in Obama's transition office in Chicago on Monday.

Obama said the two were "just going to have a good conversation about how we do some work together to fix up the country and also to offer thanks to Sen. McCain on the outstanding service he's already rendered."

Obama's incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, participated in the meeting, as did McCain's close friend, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

When asked if he planned to help the Obama administration, McCain replied, "obviously."


More Americans Going Hungry

Nearly 691,000 children went hungry at some time last year, while about one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves even before this year's economic downturn began, according to the U.S.Department of Agriculture on Monday.

The department's annual report showed the number of children who went hungry more than doubled last year and was at the highest level in a decade. Nearly 12 million adults and children suffered a major disruption in their food supply at some point and were classified by the government as having "very low food security."

The report's findings have led James Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, an anti-hunger group, to predict this year's economic downturn will show an increase in those going hungry. "The increases in the number of hungry people will be very, very large based on the increased demand we're seeing this year at food stamp agencies, emergency kitchens...really reach across the entire social service support structure," said Weill.

The states with families reporting the highest levels of food insecurity were Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas and Arkansas.


Pirates Seize Saudi Oil Tanker

Pirates have taken control of a Saudi-owned oil supertanker off east Africa, the U.S. Navy said on Monday.

The Sirius Star is the first oil tanker to have been seized by pirates in the area. The huge vessel can hold up to two million barrels of crude oil.

"We don't have any reports of any damage to the ship," said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet. "We are evaluating the situation," he said when asked whether the navy was taking action to rescue the tanker.

He was unable to say how much crude was on the ship.

The vessel has 25 crew from Croatia, Britain, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Navy said in a statement.

The tanker was attacked 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, it said.

Pirates, often based in Somalia, have made shipping routes off east Africa among the most dangerous in the world.


November 17, 2008
Industrial Output Bounces Up In October

Industrial output posted a bigger-than-expected rebound in October after plunging in September by the largest amount in over 60 years.

The Federal Reserve said Monday that industrial output rose 1.3 percent last month, reflecting a return to more normal operations following hurricanes and a strike at aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co. the previous month.

Those disruptions along with the weak economy caused industrial production to fall by 3.7 percent in September, the biggest one-month drop since a 5 percent plunge in February 1946.

The 1.3 percent increase in October was bigger than the 0.2 percent rise that economists expected, but the September decline was worse than the 2.8 percent drop originally reported.

Analysts said the outlook for the industrial sector remained gloomy, given that they believe the country has tumbled into what could be a prolonged recession.


Mavericks Owner Charged With Insider Trading

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against billionaire Mark Cuban, accusing him of insider trading after he allegedly used confidential information to avoid $750,000 in stock losses.

The SEC said in June 2004 that Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, was invited to participate in a stock offering for the Internet search engine Mamma.com Inc. In exchange, he agreed to keep information surrounding the offering private.

The agency said Cuban knew the shares would be sold below the current market price, and a few hours after receiving the information, told his broker to sell his entire stake of 600,000 shares in the search engine company before the public announcement of the offering.

In March, Forbes magazine estimated at Cuban's wealth at $2.3 billion. In addition to the Mavericks, he owns andmark theaters and the HdNet cable channel.

The SEC is seeking a court judgment against Cuban finding that he violated the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, an injunction against future violations, an unspecified civil penalty and restitution of the losses Cuban allegedly avoided.

 

[historylover]

Job Cuts Show Depth Of Citigroup's Problems

by Jim Zarroli
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97105424

All Things Considered, November 17, 2008 · Citigroup — the country's second-largest bank — said Monday it plans to eliminate more than 50,000 jobs. That's about 15 percent of its global workforce.

Like a lot of banks, Citigroup suffered big losses because of the collapse in subprime mortgages. Its efforts to climb out of the hole have been complicated by the economic slowdown.

CEO Vikram Pandit gathered his employees together early Monday to deliver the news everyone was expecting. The company had already cut 23,000 jobs this year. Now it was cutting even more.

"Payroll is probably the biggest cost for any financial institution," noted Chris Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics. "If they're going to reduce their cost, they have to cut back on head count."

The cuts were the second-biggest ever announced by any company, according to the job placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, exceeded only by IBM's 1993 decision to cut 60,000 jobs.

Citigroup didn't provide hard numbers, but it did say the cuts would come throughout the company. About half of the cuts would come from attrition or layoffs. The rest will come from the sale of some of its assets, like its German retail banking business.

Citigroup has long had extensive overseas operations. Until now its geographic diversification has been a source of strength. Now it's a vulnerability, according to banking consultant Bert Ely.

"Citi is a globally active company," Ely said. "They're in over a hundred countries, so to the extent that we get a global recession or at least a recession in a lot of countries, that is going to hurt Citi in many of its markets."

Citigroup faces other challenges as well. Far more than other companies, it does a lot of consumer banking. And consumers are reining in their spending.

Whalen predicted that will make it tougher for the company to survive the months ahead.

"As they go through this process, this recession, I anticipate we're going to see record levels of loss for Citi, even compared to the early 1990s," Whalen said.

That is one of the reasons Citigroup's stock has fallen by more than two-thirds this year. Recently it even dropped into the single digits for the first time in a decade. The layoffs are part of an attempt by the company to convince investors they are on top of the problems. But Whalen said there's not much more the company can do to cut expenses without scaling back its operations.

"Because their cost structure is difficult to attack, they have to cut across the board, and it's going to force them eventually to sell some of their overseas operations if they want to survive," Whalen said.

The layoffs also present the company with political problems. Over the weekend, Goldman Sachs announced it was freezing bonuses for its seven top executives, who have traditionally been among the highest-paid people on Wall Street.

Patrick McGurn, special counsel for the corporate advisory firm Riskmetrics, said Goldman was one of the big banks that are drawing from the $700 billion bailout fund approved by Congress in September.

"I think they knew there would be a firestorm if again multimillion-dollar bonuses were being paid out in the wake of the bailout," McGurn said. "So I think some of the top executives decided, frankly, to fall on their compensation swords."

Citigroup also drew money from the fund, and now it is under similar pressure.

On Monday, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo called Citigroup's layoffs disturbing and said the company should also freeze bonuses.

Cuomo says executives shouldn't get bonuses while taxpayers, investors and employees are hurting.

Citigroup officials hinted they may follow Goldman Sachs' lead.

But cutting bonuses will be relatively easy compared with the other challenges facing Citigroup. It has to figure out a way to survive the coming months in an environment that's not very hospitable to big banks.

 

[historylover]

November 18, 2008
Holiday Gift Card Sales Expected to Slip

Gift cards may still be one of the most popular gifts for the holiday season, but steep declines in gift card sales are forecast.

Gift cards have become the easy out for those shoppers at a loss for what to buy someone, making them increasingly popular in recent years.

But this holiday season sales of gift card sales are expected to fall as the worsening economy and mounting layoffs clip consumers' spending power.

TowerGroup Research Director Brian Riley said sales of gift cards tied to retailers are expected to fall 14 percent.

The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group, is projecting gift card sales will be down 6 percent. The group pegged the drop to bargain shopping, saying consumers are looking for discounts and gift cards don't go on sale.

Meanwhile bank sponsored gift cards that can be spent anywhere are expected to see an increase, TowerGroup said.


U.S. Defends Bailout, Rejects Helping Auto Industry

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday defended their $700 billion financial bailout plan before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Paulson in recent days has refocused the program on having the government take stakes in banks rather than buying up bad loans, which was key to his original plan.

His testimony before lawmakers seemed to quiet the idea of lending to other companies too, such as the Big Three automakers whose executives have been seeking a $25 billion rescue package.

"There are other ways" to help battered automakers, Paulson told the House Financial Services Committee.

The Bush administration has been firm in its opposition to give automakers another $25 billion. It had previously given the industry a $25 billion loan -- appropriated through the Department of Energy. The measure was designed specifically to help auto manufacturers retool their factories so they can make more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair, also testifying before the panel, pressed anew for using $24 billion of the bailout money to help some American households avoid foreclosure. As foreclosures mount, the government is "clearly falling behind the curve," she warned.

The $700 billion bailout plan was signed into law by President Bush in October to help rescue banks. The bailout was supposed to stabilize jittery financial markets and get lending flowing freely again, which eventually should help revive the ailing economy.

But last week, Paulson changed course and said the government would not use any of the $700 billion to buy bad assets from banks.

Buying banks' toxic debts would have required a "massive commitment" of the bailout money, Paulson said in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. As economic and financial conditions quickly worsened, it became clear that the first installment of the money -- $350 billion -- for that purpose "simply isn't enough firepower," he said.

It's crucial that the administration be nimble in assessing changing conditions and adapt the bailout strategy accordingly, the Treasury chief said. "If we have learned anything throughout this year, we have learned that this financial crisis is unpredictable and difficult to counteract," Paulson said.


Late-day Rally Boosts Dow 151 Points

In a turbulent trading session Wall Street stocks pulled out a final-hour rebound to finish on the upside.

Investors rushed back into the market after a slide in the Standard & Poor's 500 index that tested trading lows not seen since 2003.

The Dow Jones Industrial average ended with a gain of 151 points to close at 8,424. More than 6 billions shares exchanged hands.

The tech-laden Nasdaq nudged up 1 point to 1,483 while the S&P 500 inched up 8 points to 859.

Stocks rallied in the final hour of trading in part because fund managers whose portfolios are tied to the S&P 500 had to find a replacement for Anheuser-Busch Cos. The brewer was officially acquired by Belgium's InBev SA for $52 billion.

The market had been down four of the past five sessions.


Raided Leather Goods Maker Settles Lawsuit

A Massachusetts leather goods factory has agreed to pay back wages and overtime to settle a lawsuit by former employees.

The Michael Bianco plant in New Bedford drew national scrutiny last year when federal agents arrested 361 workers, mostly women from Central America, on federal immigration charges.

The former owners of factory, which made handbags and other leather goods, will pay $850,000 to workers -- including illegal immigrants. More than $600,000 will go to 764 former employees for unpaid wages and overtime. The remaining $250,000 will cover legal fees and contributions to community groups that work with immigrants.

A legal services group is trying to find some of the illegal immigrants due to benefit from the settlement even though they may have returned to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

The company admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement.

According to the lawsuit, the company tried to avoid paying overtime by giving workers paychecks from Michael Bianco for day shift work and checks from a bogus second company, called Front Line Defense, for evening shift work. The separate checks made it appear that workers who put in long hours had not exceeded the 40-hour-a-week mark that triggers overtime pay.

The company was sold to Eagle Industries of Fenton, Mo., more than a year ago.


Seized Tanker Anchors Off Somali Coast

Pirates who seized a Saudi supertanker earlier this week anchored the enormous vessel off a Somali port on Tuesday, where they were expected to begin negotiations for the release of the crew and cargo.

The Sirius Star is about the size of an aircraft carrier and believed to be carrying more than $100 million worth of crude oil. Twenty-five crew members were also seized when pirates boarding and captured the vessel over the weekend.

Piracy is a multi-billion dollar industry off the coast of Somalia, where commercial ships are routinely seized for the value of the cargo and to ransom the crew.

Despite anti-piracy efforts by the U.S., NATO and other European powers in the Gulf of Aden, the pirates have widened their field of operation. The Sirius Star was hijacked in the Indian Ocean, 450 miles off the coast of Kenya.

The vessel was anchored off the coastal village of Harardhere, a known pirate base.

On Tuesday, Somali pirates hijacked a Hong Kong-flagged ship loaded with wheat bound for Iran was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, maritime officials said, the latest raid in the Horn of Africa's perilous waters.

The rash of attacks in recent years have driven up insurance costs, forced some ships to go round South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal and secured millions of dollars in ransoms.


Eric Holder Tapped for Attorney General

Washington lawyer Eric Holder was selected to serve as attorney general in the Obama administration and has accepted the offer, NPR has confirmed.

President-elect Barack Obama's decision to nominate Holder as attorney general puts him on track to become the first African-American to head the Justice Department.

Holder, who served as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration, would still need to undergo a formal "vetting" review by the Obama transition team to finalize the selection.

Although the Obama transition team has not made a formal announcement, aides to the president-elect have gone so far as to ask senators whether Holder would be confirmed. Their chief concern was whether the confirmation process would be delayed because of Holders' involvement in the 2001 pardon of fugitive Marc Rich by Clinton at the end of his presidency.

Holder, 57, has been on Obama's "short list" for attorney general from the outset. A partner at the D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling, Holder served as co-chief (along with Caroline Kennedy) of Obama's vice-presidential selection process.

 

[historylover]

November 19, 2008
Dow Plunges Below 8,000 Amid Continued Turmoil

U.S. stocks plunged to their lowest level in more than five years Wednesday as the Federal Reserve slashed economic growth forecasts and the fate of the auto industry remained uncertain.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 426.99 points, or 5.07 percent, to close unofficially at 7,997.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 52.18 points, or 6.07 percent, to 806.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index tanked 96.85 points, or 6.53 percent, at 1,386.42.

Investors shied away from stocks Wednesday afternoon unnerved by continued bad news.

U.S. automakers were on Capitol Hill Wednesday, arguing for a second day for a $25 billion government loan to avoid bankruptcy and layoffs.

U.S. auto companies employ nearly a quarter-million workers, and more than 730,000 other people have jobs producing the materials and parts that go into cars. About 1 million on top of that work in dealerships nationwide. If just one of the auto giants were to go belly up, some estimates put U.S. job losses next year as high as 2.5 million.

Executives from Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC asked Congress to approve the use of $25 billion from the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund to help the auto industry and prevent millions of layoffs.

At a House Financial Services Committee hearing, GM Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner testified that the global financial crisis threatens the companies' very survival. "Our industry needs a bridge to span the financial chasm that is open before us," he said.

Michigan lawmakers tried to help make the case for an auto bailout. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) said it is in the nation's best interest to help automakers. "There is fear out there -- not just in Michigan -- that the collapse of GM, Ford and Chrysler could, would trigger an economic depression," Upton said.

But other House Republicans opposed using financial bailout funds to help the auto industry.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve slashed its projection for economic activity for 2008 and 2009 amid predictions that unemployment could rise and another interest rate cut may be needed.

According to minutes from the Fed's Oct. 29 policy meeting, federal reserve officials predicted that the unemployment rate would climb above 7 percent, and some Fed officials suggested that "additional policy easing could well be appropriate at future meetings.

The Fed ratcheted down rates to 1 percent, a level seen only once before in the last half-century. Many economists predict the Fed will lower rates again at its last meeting of the year on Dec. 16, to help brace the sinking economy.

Under its new economic forecast, the Fed now believes gross domestic product could be flat or grow by just 0.3 percent this year. GDP could actually shrink or expand by 1.1 percent next year. Both sets of projections are lower than the Fed's forecasts delivered to Congress in July.

GDP is the value of value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is the best measure of the country's economic health.

These forecasts are based on what the Fed calls its "central tendencies," which exclude the highest three forecasts and the lowest three forecasts made by Fed officials. The Fed also gives a range of all forecasts that showed some Fed officials projecting a 0.3 percent dip this year, followed by a deeper 1 percent contraction next year.

Calif. Court To Hear Challenge To Gay Marriage Ban

California's highest court on Wednesday agreed to hear legal challenges to a ban on gay marriage approved by voters earlier this month.

The California Supreme Court accepted three lawsuits seeking to overturn Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that passed with 52 percent of the vote.

The state's highest court ruled in May that gay couples could marry, but California voters overrode that decision on Nov. 4, changing the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

Gay advocates mounted the legal challenge to the vote, arguing that the majority could not vote to strip rights from a minority. The three lawsuits claim the ban abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.

IAEA Says Iran Nuclear Inspections Deadlocked

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Wednesday that its ongoing investigation into Iran's nuclear activities is deadlocked.

Over the past year, the IAEA has been trying to clear up questions about Iran's past nuclear activities, including allegations the cduntry conducted research into high explosives and warhead design that could be used for nuclear weapons.

Last June, Iranian officials turned over some 200 pages of documents to the IAEA and declared the matter closed.

In its report Wednesday, the IAEA said Iran's lack of cooperation since then has impeded progress on these issues. The agency appealed to Iran to make key documents and individuals available to clear up these questions.

At the same time, the agency continued to monitor Iran's uranium enrichment facilities. Iran has stockpiled about 1,400 pounds of low-enriched uranium suitable for nuclear reactor fuel, but not for nuclear weapons.


Democratic Official: Daschle Accepted Cabinet Post

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has accepted President-elect Barack Obama's offer to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, a Democratic official confirmed to NPR on Wednesday.

The appointment has not been announced, but the official said the job is Daschle's barring an unforeseen problem as Obama's team reviews the background of the South Dakota Democrat.

Daschle is a close adviser to Obama throughout the Illinois senator's White House campaign. He recently wrote a book on his proposals to improve health care, and he is working with former Senate leaders on recommendations to improve the system.


FDA Opens Inspection Facility In Beijing

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened its first foreign office in Beijing on Wednesday as part of a broad effort to regulate the safety of foods and medicines imported into the United States.

Eight FDA workers will set up a process for pre-certifying and inspecting Chinese goods bound for the U.S. following several scandals involving contaminated Chinese-made products -- including toothpaste, pet food, drugs and milk.

"We are embarking on a system that will recognize the need to ensure that everything that comes to the U.S. has been subject to either heightened scrutiny by our regulators or has been certified as meeting our standards by someone we trust," said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

The FDA staffers will inspect local facilities, provide guidance on U.S. quality standards, and eventually train local experts to conduct inspections on behalf of the FDA. Leavitt said the new measures would include better technology for detecting contamination, greater demands for corporate responsibility and increased sharing of information.

The FDA also plans to open inspection offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou, China, as well as India and Latin America.



Sen. Clinton Mulls Possible Nomination

Former President Bill Clinton is taking steps to help his wife if she should be President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of state, Democratic Party officials said Wednesday.

Bill Clinton said he will publicly disclose the names of all donors who have given more than $250 to his presidential library and foundation if his wife becomes the nominee for the nation's top diplomatic post. Officials were trying to work out the details on how to handle those who gave money on the condition that their names would not be revealed.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is said to be weighing the option of becoming secretary of state against staying in the Senate. Face-to-face meetings between the transition team and lawyers representing the Clintons have ended, but aides to the president-elect said some final vetting is still under way.

Transition officials for Obama said other candidates have been vetted for the job.

 

[historylover]

November 20, 2008
Stocks Fall To 5-Year Lows

Panic selling drove stocks to their lowest levels in five years on Thursday as investors deserted the equity market in droves for Treasury bonds.

U.S. stocks plunged, as a frantic flight from risk on investors' deepening economic fears left the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index at its lowest level since 1997 -- completing the erasure of more than a decade of stock market gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average slid 444.99 points, or 5.56 percent, to close unofficially at 7,552.29. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunged 54.14 points, or 6.71 percent, to finish unofficially at 752.44. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 70.30 points, or 5.07 percent, to close unofficially at 1,316.12.

Fears of a deepening financial crisis were not assuaged by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's assurances that he has the tools to stabilize the situation. Plunging financial shares were joined by energy stocks as oil fell below $50 per barrel. As anxious investors fled into safe haven Treasury securities, T-bill yields fell to zero.


Democrats Demand Plan From Automakers

Congressional Democrats gave Detroit automakers until December to develop a plan to show that money from a potential bailout would make their companies economically viable.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Congress would return to work in early December to vote on legislation if General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC produce an acceptable plan.

"Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money," Pelosi said at a news conference in Washington.

Four U.S. senators announced a bipartisan deal for automakers, which briefly pushed U.S. markets higher and halted a steep slide that had been touched off a day before on Wall Street and had spread round the globe.

The big three U.S. automakers have pushed Congress this week for a $25 billion bailout from the government to avert possible bankruptcy.

However, Democratic leaders warned the bill would not pass unless it included a plan for the industry to return to profitability. They said automakers can submit another plan by Dec. 2, which could be considered the week of Dec. 8.

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger on Thursday urged Congress and the Bush administration to act immediately on loans for the U.S. automakers, saying one or more of them could collapse by the end of the year without additional money.

"Without immediate assistance, we could see, and I stress could see, a collapse of one or more of the domestic auto companies by the end of this year," Gettelfinger said. "The costs that would flow from this are simply too great."

He repeated statements he and the CEOs of the Detroit automakers made in Capitol Hill testimony that a collapse could cost 3 million jobs and endanger the pension and health care benefits of 1 million retirees.

Senate Democrats abandoned earlier efforts to bail out the industry with funds from the $700 billion earmarked for the financial industry in the face of strong Republican opposition. They had pushed to take $25 billion from the financial bailout package for a bridge loan to GM, Ford and Chrysler.

Auto industry executives asked Congress for the $25 billion on Wednesday, but their lavish corporate lifestyles came in for scrutiny by lawmakers. They arrived in Washington to testify aboard multimillion-dollar private jets that cost tens of thousands of dollars to operate.

Economists are expecting motor vehicle sales to drop this year to around 13 million from 16.1 million a year ago, and domestic automakers are barely clinging to half the market -- down from nearly 73 percent in 1996.


Bill Extending Jobless Benefits Goes To Bush

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed legislation to extend jobless benefits for those who have been unemployed for a prolonged period, sending the measure along to President Bush.

The bill would give seven more weeks of government unemployment payments to workers who have exhausted their current jobless benefits. For those in states with the highest unemployment rates, an additional 20 weeks would be allowed.

Earlier in the day, the White House said Bush was concerned about people losing their jobs and urged Congress to move quickly to extend expiring benefits.

The measure already had been approved by the House of Representatives. The president is expected to sign the measure into law.

The vote came on the same day the Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits hit their highest level since 1992.


Al-Qaida Leader Killed In Raid In Iraq

An al-Qaida in Iraq leader blamed in the 2004 abduction and murder of a 20-year-old Army reservist and other deadly attacks was killed in a U.S. raid in Baghdad, the United States military said Thursday.

U.S. forces acting on a tip killed Hajji Hammadi and another armed insurgent during a Nov. 11 raid in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood, the military said.

The Iraqi was accused in the abduction and killing of Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin, a private first class who was seized when his fuel convoy was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on April 19, 2004, as the insurgency was gaining strength.

Maupin's remains were found in March on the outskirts of Baghdad, about 12 miles from where the convoy was ambushed.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tried Thursday to beef up support for a pact allowing U.S. troops to stay in Iraq three more years. He said the agreement is Iraq's best option for restoring sovereignty, and its critics are making unrealistic demands.

Iraq and the United States signed the agreement on Monday, but it must first pass in the Iraqi parliament to take effect. A vote is expected next week before lawmakers recess for holiday.

It requires the roughly 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq to leave by the end of 2011, a timetable Washington accepted only after months of intense negotiations.


Oil Dives Below $50; European Markets Down

Oil prices plunged to under $50 per barrel on Thursday, hitting its lowest level since May 2005 as demand continued to fall.

Benchmark crude fell as low as $49.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, levels last seen on May 18, 2005, when oil hit $46.80 a barrel.

In addition, prices at the pump continued to drop to around $2 a gallon nationally, although the average price in 23 states was even less. Gasoline prices have been halved since reaching a record above $4 in July.

Meanwhile, European stocks unofficially ended 3.7 percent lower Thursday, their lowest close since April 2003, as oil shares tracked hefty losses in crude and recession fears hammered banks.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares unofficially closed down 3.7 percent at 781.9 points, recovering somewhat from a session low of 765.38 points. The index has shed about 48 percent so far this year in deepening economic gloom.


Judge Orders Release Of 5 Held At Guantanamo Bay

A federal judge in Washington has ordered the release of five Algerians who have been held without charges at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for seven years.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon on Thursday said the five men could not be held indefinitely as enemy combatants, but he said the military could continue to detain another Algerian who challenged his confinement.

Leon made the ruling after the first hearings held since the Supreme Court ruled in June that Guantanamo prisoners have a legal right to challenge their detention. One of the men to be released is Lakhdar Boumediene, whose suit was the impetus for the Supreme Court decision.

The government had accused all six men of planning to travel to Afghanistan to join al-Qaida.

President-elect Obama has promised to close the prison camp after he takes office in January. Meanwhile, U.S. judges in Washington are moving ahead with case-by-case reviews of detainee legal challenges.


November 20, 2008
Fannie, Freddie Suspend Foreclosures During Holidays

Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are suspending foreclosures during the holiday season.

The two companies say they will halt foreclosure sales between Nov. 26 and Jan. 9, while they evaluate whether borrowers qualify for a new loan modification program.

Fannie and Freddie's loan modification plan aims to help abate the foreclosure crisis by aiding homeowners who have fallen at least three months behind on their payments, but only if their loans are held by the two companies.

Under the program, the new primary mortgage payments - including taxes and insurance -shouldn't total more than 38 percent of homeowners' pretax monthly income.