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    20090329
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    CORPORATE News.CorporateSECRET News.SecretsPEOPLE News.People'sHEALTH News.HealthHISTORY News.HistoryCOMPUTER News.ComputerizedDATA News.Data-MiningWEB News.WebPSYCHOLOGY News.PsychologyDRUG News.DrugFEDERAL News.FederalCONSUMER News.ConsumerPRIVACY News.PrivacyLAW News.LawPOLITICS News.Politics
    "Insurers shun those taking certain meds: How health insurers secretly blacklist those with certain ailments." ... "Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You'll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it." ... "This confidential information on some insurers' practices is available on the Web -- if you know where to look." ... "What's more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs." ... "To make sure that applicants are not lying, insurers hire a data-gathering service -- Medical Information Bureau, Milliman's Intelliscript or Ingenix Medpoint." ... "Intelliscript and Medpoint do computerized searches of a person's drug use, gleaned from pharmacy benefits managers and other databases." ... "Last year, the Federal Trade Commission accused both companies of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not offering to provide consumers with information about them. The companies agreed to settlements in which they promised to let people see their personal information." (1, 2) -By John Dorschner -MiamiHerald
    INTELLIGENCE News.
    CHINA News.ChinaHACKERS News.HackersINTERNATIONAL News.InternationalCOMPUTER News.ComputerSPYING News.SpyingNETWORK News.NetworkINVESTIGATION News.InvestigationNOTEWORTHY News.CAMS News.CamsPOLITICAL News.PoliticalECONOMIC News.EconomicMEDIA News.MediaMILITARY News.MilitaryTECH News.TechCANADA News.CanadaUNITED KINGDOM News.United KingdomUS AMERICAN News.US
    "UPDATE: Deep computer-spying network touched 103 countries: Analysts find spyware installed on servers belonging to foreign ministries, embassies, and private companies." ... "A 10-month cyberespionage investigation has found that 1,295 computers in 103 countries and belonging to international institutions have been spied on, with some circumstantial evidence suggesting China may be to blame." ... "The 53-page report, released on Sunday, provides some of the most compelling evidence and detail of the efforts of politically motivated hackers while raising questions about their ties with government-sanctioned cyberspying operations." ... "[See also: Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog]" ... "It describes a network which researchers have called GhostNet, which primarily uses a malicious software program called gh0st RAT (Remote Access Tool) to steal sensitive documents, control Web cams and completely control infected computers." ... ""GhostNet represents a network of compromised computers resident in high-value political, economic and media locations spread across numerous countries worldwide," said the report, written by analysts with the Information Warfare Monitor, a research project of the SecDev Group, a think tank, and the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto [Canada]. "At the time of writing, these organizations are almost certainly oblivious to the compromised situation in which they find themselves."" ... ""Attributing all Chinese malware to deliberate or targeted intelligence gathering operations by the Chinese state is wrong and misleading," the report said." ... "However, China has made a concerted effort since the 1990s to use cyberspace for military advantage "The Chinese focus on cyber capabilities as part of its strategy of national asymmetric warfare involves deliberately developing capabilities that circumvent [United States] U.S. superiority in command-and-control warfare," it said." ... "A second report [PDF], written by University of Cambridge [United Kingdom] researchers and published in conjunction with the University of Toronto paper, was less circumspect, saying that the attacks against the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (OHHDL) were launched by "agents of the Chinese government." The Cambridge team titled their report, "The Snooping Dragon."" (1, 2) -By Jeremy Kirk with contributions by Robert McMillan -IDG.net via -InfoWorld
    OPINION News.
    CORPORATE News.CorporateMEDIA News.MediaPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsMARKETING News.MarketingRELIGION News.ReligionGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLAW News.LawHISTORY News.HistoryTELEVISION News.Television
    "Rev. Moon Exemplifies Right Wing GOP Subsidy of Big Media to Frame Message." ... "[Reverend] Rev. Moon has adopted a relatively low-profile in recent years (if you don't count his bizarre "coronation" by elected officials in a Capitol Hill House of Representatives meeting room a couple years back), but that hasn't prevented the weird religious leader (and close ally of the Bush family) from pouring an estimated 1 - 2.5 billion dollars into subsidizing the Washington Times since 1982." ... "In 2002, Rev. Moon pronounced "The Washington Times will become the instrument in spreading the truth about God to the world." But the reality is that the Washington Times -- like the New York Post and Weekly Standard for Rupert Murdoch -- are investments in obtaining financial regulatory and other favors from Republican administrations in return for helping frame and market the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] talking points of tax cuts, cultural wars, and Wall Street gambling." ... "The Washington Times has only about 100,000 subscribers, but its newsboxes are next to the Washington Post throughout D.C. [America's capital], allowing it to appear as an equal -- and to have its banner headlines seen by tens of thousands of D.C. "influencers" every day.  Then, it also gives a byline and title for its writers to appear as D.C. pundits on television (just as Bill Kristol is identified as editor of the chronically money losing "Weekly Standard" during his ubiquitous "pundit" appearances on the tube) -- as well as all television reporters need to quote it to provide "balance."" ... "In short, Moon, in essence, shells out hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to use the Washington Times as a public relations vehicle for "framing" the GOP perspective." ... "Meanwhile, wealthy liberal Democrats don't buy up or create large media outlets; they just support efforts to criticize the corporate press and the likes of Rev. Moon." ... "You can win elections, but you can't make dramatic change unless you own part of the major media." ... "Rev. Moon understands that.  Why can't wealthy Democrats?" -By Mark Karlin -BuzzFlash.com
    ENVIRONMENT News.
    GLOBAL News.GlobalCLIMATE News.ClimateEARTH News.EarthENERGY News.EnergyEMISSIONS News.EmissionsPOLITICS News.PoliticsECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicCRISIS News.CrisisFLOOD News. WATER News.FloodsPLANT News.PlantsANIMAL News.AnimalsHISTORY News.HistoryUN News: United Nations News.
    "World switches off to save planet in "Earth Hour"." ... "Lights went out at tourism landmarks and homes across the globe on Saturday for Earth Hour 2009, a global event designed to highlight the threat from climate change." ... "Organizers said the action showed millions of people wanted governments to work out a strong new [United Nations] U.N. deal to fight global warming by the end of 2009, even though the global economic crisis has raised worries about the costs." ... "The U.N. Climate Panel says greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet and will lead to more floods, droughts, heatwaves, rising sea levels and animal and plant extinctions." ... "World emissions have risen by about 70 percent since the 1970s." -By Jon Boyle -Reuters
    20090326
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    ECONOMY News.EconomicHISTORY News.HistoryJOB News.JobsCONSUMER News.ConsumerGOVERNMENT News.Government
    "GDP revision shows 6.3% decline in fourth quarter: Worst quarter in 26 years led by weak spending, investment, exports." ... "The U.S. economy experienced its most violent contraction in a generation during the fourth quarter, with real gross domestic product plunging at a 6.3% annualized seasonally adjusted rate, the Commerce Department reported Thursday in its third estimate of quarterly growth." ... " GDP hadn't fallen so much since the first quarter of 1982. It was the third largest decline in GDP in 50 years." ... "Economists believe the current quarter, which ends March 31, was nearly as bad. Current projections look for GDP to fall at a 5.1% annual pace. Since 1947, GDP has never fallen by more than 4% for two quarters in a row." ... "Some have a more extreme view: "The economy will contract by a staggering 7% to 8% in the first quarter, before the economy begins to stabilize,"wrote Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Global Insight." ... "The recession that began in December 2007 intensified in the fourth quarter following the government's rescue of several large financial institutions and the collapse of Lehman Bros. The ensuing credit squeeze has driven consumer and business confidence to generational lows, and cost 3 million Americans their jobs." ... "The slump in the economy in the fourth quarter was broad based, with declines in every major sector except the federal government. Corporate profits fell at the fastest pace since 1953." ... "Final sales to domestic purchasers -- domestic demand -- fell at a 5.8% annual rate, the biggest drop since the second quarter of 1980." -By Rex Nutting -MarketWatch
    HISTORY News.
    LABOR News.LaborMARKET News. MONEY News.Market
    "U.S. ongoing jobless claims rise to record 5.56 million: First-time claims hit 652,000 for last week, underscoring lack of jobs." ... "Showing the labor market's considerable strain, the number of people collecting state unemployment benefits reached yet another new record, jumping 122,000 to a seasonally adjusted 5.56 million, the Labor Department reported Thursday." ... "The four-week average of these claims rose 123,750 to stand at 5.33 million -- in itself a record high since the U.S. began compiling these statistics -- also as of the week ended March 14." ... "And for the week ended March 21, first-time claims for benefits rose 8,000 to 652,000, a level that's fully 78% higher than the same period in the prior year." ... "The insured unemployment rate, representing the proportion of covered workers who are receiving benefits, rose to 4.2% from 4.1%, reaching the highest level since May 1983." -By Ruth Mantell -MarketWatch
    MONEY News.
    REAL ESTATE News.Real EstateHISTORY News.History
    "Commercial Property Faces Crisis: Delinquency Rate at 1.8%, Near Peak of Last Recession; Parallels to S&L Debacle." ... "Commercial real-estate loans are going sour at an accelerating pace, threatening to cause tens of billions of dollars in losses to banks already hurt by the housing downturn." ... "The delinquency rate on about $700 billion in securitized loans backed by office buildings, hotels, stores and other investment property has more than doubled since September to 1.8% this month, according to data provided to The Wall Street Journal by Deutsche Bank AG. While that's low compared with the home-mortgage delinquency rate, it's just short of the highest rate during the last downturn early this decade." ... "Some experts say it now looks as if the current commercial real-estate slump will rival or even exceed the one in the early 1990s, when bad commercial-property debt played a big role in dragging the economy into a recession. Then, close to 1,000 U.S. banks and savings institutions failed. Lenders took about $48.5 billion in charges on commercial real-estate debt between 1990 and 1995, representing 7.9% of such debt outstanding." ... "Since late 2007, a total of 47 banks and savings institutions have failed, of which a dozen or so had unusually high commercial-mortgage exposure. Foresight Analytics in Oakland, Calif., estimates the U.S. banking sector could suffer as much as $250 billion in commercial real-estate losses in this downturn. The research firm projects that more than 700 banks could fail as a result of their exposure to commercial real estate." ... "The Real Estate Roundtable, a trade group, estimates that commercial real estate in the [United States] U.S. is worth $6.5 trillion and financed by about $3.1 trillion in debt." -By Lingling Wei with contributions by Maurice Tamman and Jon Hilsenrath -WSJ.com
    MONEY News.
    POLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsGOVERNMENT News.Government
    "GOP [Republican] Budget Proposal: Massive Tax Cut For Wealthy." ... "House Republican leaders called a press conference Thursday to unveil their "alternative budget." While it was thin on specifics, it does include one major policy proposal: a huge tax cut for the wealthy." -By Ryan Grim -HuffingtonPost.com
    ACCOUNTING News.
    GOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMONEY News.MoneyPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsUS DEBT News.DeficitSOCIAL SECURTIY News.Social Security
    "A GOP [Republican] budget with no hard numbers." ... ""House Republicans release a 19-page document [PDF] that contains no hard spending numbers or deficit projections. Per the AP, "One of the few hard bits of information is a promise to simplify the tax code and cut income tax rates to 10 percent for people making $100,000 or less down. They also promise to cut domestic spending below current levels but don't say whether they are exempting Social Security. It's impossible to determine the projected deficit based on their offering."" ... "Not surprisingly, the Democratic National Committee pounced on the GOP's [GOP's=Grand Old Party's=Republican's] budget -- or lack thereof. "After 27 days, the best House Republicans could come up with is a 19-page pamphlet that does not include a single real budget proposal or estimate," said DNC [Democratic National Committee] spokesman Hari Sevugan. "While there had been talk that House Republicans were overriding their Senate counterparts to offer a budget alternative, it's clear after this announcement that neither of them have anything to offer but criticism."" -By Mark Murray -AP -MSNBC
    OPINION News.
    GOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMONEY News.MoneyACCOUNTING News.AccountingPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsJOB News.JobsUS DEBT News.DeficitIOWA News.Iowa
    "Republican Budget Plan: ‘Undo’ The Stimulus, Cut Taxes For The Rich." ... "Today, House Republicans released their budget plan, entitled “The Republican Road To Recovery.” They claim the plan “curbs spending, creates jobs and lowers taxes, and controls the debt; and it will soon have our economy growing again.”" ... "For an “alternative budget,” however, it is very short on numbers, including no mention of deficit implications. And the plan for creating jobs and sparking economic growth is actually undoing the stimulus and then cutting additional spending[.]" ... "Of course, stimulus dollars are already on their way out the door, so it’s difficult to envision how one would “undo” the bill. But even if it could be done, it would be an act of neo-Hooverism that would make [Iowa Republican Senator] Sen. Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA [Republican-Iowa]) insane three-year spending freeze look wise and prudent." ... "As Matthew Yglesias noted, “It’s strange that the Republicans railing about long-term deficits seem to love long-term deficits when the point of the deficits is to further enrich the rich.”" -By Pat Garofalo -ThinkProgress.org/Wonk Room
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentBUSINESS News.BusinessLEGISLATION News.LegislationPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsHOME News.Home MortgagesIN News: INDIANA News.INMO News: MISSOURI News.MO
    "Bayh: My Group Of Blue Dogs ‘Literally Has No Agenda’ Other Than Blocking Obama’s." ... "Yesterday, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, and several other progressive groups began running ads urging “moderate” Democratic members of Congress to “get on board with the president’s budget.” The ads are, in part, a response to [Indiana Democratic Senator] Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN [Democratic-Indiana]) and 14 of his Democratic colleagues who are creating what they call a “moderate coalition that will meet regularly to shape public policy.” Bayh responded to the new ads late yesterday, telling Politico that his group of “moderates” should not be targeted because they have “no agenda”:"
    "Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind. [Indiana]) is also unhappy with the friendly fire. Bayh…found himself targeted by an ad accusing him of “standing in the way of President Obama’s reforms.” “We literally have no agenda,” Bayh shot back. “How can they be threatened by a group that has taken no policy positions?”"
    "Bayh’s claim that his group has no agenda is hard to believe. Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal explained yesterday, the group’s “stated goal is to…protect business interests.” Even before the group was officially formed, their efforts dampened a number of progressive policy proposals and they clearly have aspirations to expand their portfolio:"
    "– Shrinking Economic Recovery: The group’s first significant “success” was “paring down the more than $900 billion economic stimulus bill to $787 billion,” reducing the government’s ability to spur economic recovery quickly. [Roll Call, 3/12/2009]"

    "– Preserving The [former Republican President] Bush Tax Cuts: Regarding [Democratic President] Obama’s plan to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, Bayh said, “I do think that before we raise revenue, we first should look to see if there are ways we can cut back on spending.” [Politico, 3/3/2009]"

    "– Delaying Cap-and-Trade: Bayh coaltion member, [Missouri Democratic Senator] Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO [Democratic-Missouri]), explained that the group might “push for a more lenient phase-in period for a cap-and-trade system and revenue-raising offsets to pay for expensive mandates.” [CQ Politics, 3/9/2009]"

    "– Weakening Bankruptcy Protection: Centrist Democrats “forced changes to a House bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify [home] mortgages, ensuring that the legislation better reflected the concerns of the financial-services industry.” [WSJ, 3/25/09]"

    "If Bayh is to be believed and his new group of moderates “literally have no agenda,” then what exactly are they doing? As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow explained last night, it appears that Bayh and his colleagues have found at least one niche to fill by helping Republicans obstruct the President’s agenda and deny voters the policies they endorsed last November:"
    "Anyone voting against a Democratic agenda voted Republican. Those votes produced a very small Republican minority in Congress. A small minority that now has way more power than they otherwise would because of conservative Democrats deciding to give Republicans as much power as they can."
    WATCH, Requires Macromedia FlashWATCH: "'Conservadems' strike back" On Maddow show.
    " -By Ryan Powers -ThinkProgress.org
    LAW News.
    PENNSYLVANIA News.PennsylvaniaSECRET News.SecretCORPORATE News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentCRIME News.CrimePRISON News.Prison -CHILDREN News.Children'sCIVIL RIGHTS News.RightsPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "Court overturns hundreds of cases in court scandal." ... "The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court said it would overturn the convictions of hundreds of juveniles sentenced in the midst of the Luzerne County kickback scheme." ... "Calling it a "first step," the court wielded a little- used proceeding to throw out and expunge the case records of first-time offenders convicted of minor crimes who appeared before Luzerne County Juvenile Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. between 2003 and 2008." ... "In a report to the Court, a specially appointed judge, Arthur E. Grim, said his investigation uncovered "routine deprivation of children's constitutional rights to appear before an impartial tribunal and have an opportunity to be heard."" ... "Today's ruling, which authorizes Grim to overturn the cases, affects as many as 1,200 juveniles, he said. Their cases will be reviewed individually to determine if they meet the court's conditions." ... "Ciavarella and another former Luzerne County judge, Michael T. Conahan, have pleaded guilty earlier this year to taking $2.6 million in secret payments from the former owner of two juvenile detention centers." ... "The judges admitted that they helped the centers secure a county contract worth millions of dollars. Ciavarella routinely sentenced children to them." -By John Sullivan -Philly.com
    LAW News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaFEDERAL News.FederalLAW ENFORCEMENT News.EnforcementFINANCIAL News. MONEY News.Financial -ACCOUNTING News.AccountingPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsAMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP News. AIG News:American International GroupCONSUMER News.ConsumerCRISIS News.CrisesHISTORY News.HistoryUS AMERICAN News.USINTERNATIONAL News.International
    "Geithner to Propose Vast Expansion Of U.S. Oversight of Financial System." ... "Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner plans to propose today a sweeping expansion of federal authority over the financial system, breaking from an era in which the government stood back from financial markets and allowed participants to decide how much risk to take in the pursuit of profit." ... "The [Democratic President] Obama administration's plan, described by several sources, would extend federal regulation for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives and to companies including large hedge funds and major insurers such as American International Group. The administration also will seek to impose uniform standards on all large financial firms, including banks, an unprecedented step that would place significant limits on the scope and risk of their activities." ... "Most of these initiatives would require legislation." ... "In coming months, the administration plans to detail its strategy in three other areas: protecting consumers, eliminating flaws in existing regulations and enhancing international coordination." ... "The nation's financial regulations are largely an accumulation of responses to financial crises. Federal bank regulation was a product of the Civil War. The Federal Reserve was created early in the 20th century to mitigate a long series of monetary crises. The Great Depression delivered deposit insurance and a federally sponsored mortgage market. In the midst of a modern economic upheaval, the Obama administration is pitching the most significant regulatory expansion since that time." ... "The administration's signature proposal is to vest a single federal agency with the power to police risk across the entire financial system." (1, 2, 3) -By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho with contributions by Zachary A. Goldfarb -WashingtonPost
    20090325
    ACCOUNTING News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentFINANCIAL News. MONEY News.FinancialLAW News.LawPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsAMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP News. AIG News:American International GroupUS AMERICAN News.USGLOBAL News.Global
    "Geithner to Outline Major Overhaul of Finance Rules." ... "The [Democratic President] Obama administration will detail on Thursday a wide-ranging plan to overhaul financial regulation by subjecting hedge funds and traders of exotic financial instruments, now among the biggest and most freewheeling players on Wall Street, to potentially strict new government supervision, officials said." ... "The Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, will outline the broad revamping of the regulatory system, which goes further than expected, in a hearing on Thursday. He is expected to say that the new rules are necessary to prevent a repeat of the excesses that nearly wrecked the global financial system and plunged the economy into a recession." ... "The plan, which would require Congressional approval, would give the government vast new powers over “systemically important” banks and other financial institutions that are so big that their collapse would jeopardize the economy as a whole." ... "The government would have the power to peer into the inner workings of companies that currently escape most federal supervision — insurance companies like the American International Group, multibillion-dollar hedge funds like the Citadel Group and private equity firms like the Carlyle Group or Kohlberg, Kravis & Roberts." ... "But the most striking new proposals, and the ones that may provoke the most heated opposition from the industry, would regulate so-called private pools of capital — hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds — and the gigantic market in financial derivatives, including instruments like credit-default swaps, the insurancelike instruments that allow investors to hedge against bond defaults. " -By Edmund L. Andrews and Louise Story -NYTimes
    20090321
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaCORPORATE News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsHISTORY News.HistoryTEXAS News.Texas
    "Despair over financial policy." ... "The [Democratic President Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim] Geithner plan has now been leaked in detail. It’s exactly the plan that was widely analyzed — and found wanting — a couple of weeks ago. The zombie ideas have won." ... "In effect, Treasury will be creating — deliberately! — the functional equivalent of Texas S&Ls in the 1980s: financial operations with very little capital but lots of government-guaranteed liabilities. For the private investors, this is an open invitation to play heads I win, tails the taxpayers lose. So sure, these investors will be ready to pay high prices for toxic waste. After all, the stuff might be worth something; and if it isn’t, that’s someone else’s problem." ... "Or to put it another way, Treasury has decided that what we have is nothing but a confidence problem, which it proposes to cure by creating massive moral hazard." -By Paul Krugman/Blog -NYTimes
    20090219
    SCIENCE News.
    PARENT News.ParentsGENETICS News.GeneticsPSYCHOLOGICAL News.PsychologicalHEALTH News.HealthALZHEIMER'S News.Alzheimer'sSENIORS News.SeniorsEMPLOYER News.EmployerWORKPLACE News.WorkplaceDISCRIMINATION News.DiscriminationFEDERAL News.FederalLAW News.Laws
    "Alzheimer's study finds parental link: Patients' offspring have memory loss." ... "Children of parents with Alzheimer's disease can develop memory problems in their 50s or even younger - much earlier than previously thought - according to a large study released yesterday by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine." ... "The study subjects, who carried a gene strongly linked to Alzheimer's, performed worse in memory tests, on average, than other middle-aged people who had the same gene but did not have a parent diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The difference in memory between the two groups was equivalent to approximately 15 years of brain aging, researchers found." ... "The BU findings do not suggest that everyone with the gene, known as APOE-e4, will develop Alzheimer's, said Seshadri. The gene is believed to play a role in about 50 percent of Alzheimer's cases. The study also did not address whether the people showing early memory impairment were destined to develop Alzheimer's." ... "[T]he study has not yet gone through the traditional scientific vetting process, which includes other scientists reviewing the data before it is published in a journal." ... ""I wonder about genetic discrimination," said Dr. Rudy Tanzi, a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School who co-discovered three other genes that have been linked to early-onset Alzheimer's, a more rare form of the disease that typically strikes before 65." ... ""If it's out there that my parents have APOE-e4, there is a chance my employer might know and wonder, 'Should I promote this guy?' " Tanzi said." ... "The BU findings, he added, increase the urgency for stronger genetic nondiscrimination laws. Tanzi said that even though a federal law - The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, enacted last year - protects against employment discrimination, he worries about subtle discrimination in the workplace." -By Kay Lazar -BostonGlobe
    20090218
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaDON YOUNG News.Don YoungGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMONEY News.MoneyEDUCATION News.EducationMISSOURI News.MissouriALASKA News.Alaska
    "GOP [Republicans] Fighting For Money From Stimulus They Opposed." ... "House Republicans, as a group, may take great pride in the goose egg [zero votes] they offered [Democratic] President Obama's stimulus package. But now the unanimous opposition is struggling to bring that money home." ... "Republicans will be working hard to make sure the money they opposed ends up benefiting their home districts, highlighting the political tightrope they walk in this economic crisis." ... "Back in his home district, [Missouri Republican Representative] Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO [Republican-Missouri]) [who voted against the stimulus plane] found some nice things to say about the plan." ... ""Within the stimulus package there is some Pell Grant money, which is a good thing. It helps students be able to pay for their education and that's kind of a long term stimulus effect there. I mean obviously that's not gonna provide a job in the next 120, 180 days, but the ability of someone to get an education is an economic development tool," Luetkemeyer said at a local college. He was there, in another inside-outside Washington twist, to celebrate an earmark for a college building." ... "[Alaska Republican Representative] Rep. Don Young (R-AK [Republican-Alaska]) [who voted against the stimulus plane] put out a press release saying that he "won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."" -By Ryan Grim -HuffingtonPost.com
    OPINION News.
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    "Kit Bond Touts Effects Of Stimulus Bill He Voted Against." ... "[Missouri Republican Senator Kit Bond voted against the stimulus bill asserting:} “Unfortunately, this bill stimulates the debt, it stimulates the growth of government, but it doesn’t stimulate jobs,” Bond insisted." ... "However, today Bond is touring Missouri to tout the very stimulus plan he railed against. In a press release, Bond boasted about an amendment he included in the bill to provide more funding for affordable housing — and that will create jobs:"
    "Last week, Bond led a bipartisan group of Senators in introducing an amendment to help provide needy families affordable housing. Bond’s amendment provides $2 billion to fund low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) projects that have been stalled by the financial credit crisis. As part of the Democrats’ spending bill now signed into law, the Senate unanimously accepted Bond’s provision. […]"

    "This provision will have a real impact in Missouri, especially for low-income, working families in need of safe and affordable housing. … Bond’s amendment will save more than 700 housing units and create 3,000 new jobs in Missouri."

    "“This is the type of emergency stimulus spending we should be supporting — programs that will create jobs now and help families,” Bond said." ... "Bond’s “I was against it before I was for it” maneuver at least has local media fooled. Just 24 hours after noting his opposition to the stimulus bill, local news this morning reported that Bond would be touring the state “pushing his plan to create 3,000 jobs in the state and build more than 700 affordable housing units.” Watch the local CBS channel try to keep up with Bond’s flip-flops:"
    WATCH, Requires Macromedia FlashWATCH: "Kit Bond Touts Stimulus Plan He Voted Against."
    "Bond is not alone in trying to reap the political benefits both from voting against the bill and from bringing much needed funding to his district:"
    "– [Minnesota Republican Governor] Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), who complained that the “federal government is spending money they don’t have,” told Rachel Maddow he would nevertheless accept funds for Minnesota: “Our view is, if you buy the pizza, it’s OK if you have a slice.”"

    "– [South Carolina Republican Senator] Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who also campaigned ardently against the bill, said he would nevertheless gladly accept its funds for his state. “You don’t want to be crazy here,” he said."

    "– [Florida Republican Representative] Rep. John Mica (R-FL) gushed over the bill, which he, too, voted against. “I applaud [Democratic] President Obama’s recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America’s future,” he said in a press release."

    "– [Alaska Republican Representative] Rep. Don Young (R-AK) boasted that he “won a victory for…Alaska small business owners” in the recovery bill he refused to vote for."

    "No wonder RNC [Republican National Committee] Chairman Michael Steele declared recently, “You have absolutely no reason — none — to trust our word or our actions at this point.”"
    "Update [Missouri Republican Representative] Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) boasted about the educational benefits of the recovery act, while [California Republican Representative] Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) said his office "will do what we can to direct as much money as we can." Neither voted for the bill."
    "Update [Michgan Republican Representative] Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) joins in, praising the stimulus' "generous" incentives for home buyers on his Twitter feed:"
    "petehoekstra If you know of someone thinking of buying first home, now may be the time.Stimulus incentive is very generous!Up to 8k!Check it out."
    "UpdateBlueJersey notes adds [New Jersey Republican Representative] Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) to the growing list. After insisting last Friday that the recovery bill "would have exploded our national debt without providing meaningful job growth," Lance toured construction sites in his district yesterday, touting funds that would come from the stimulus bill. "This is a classic example of a "shovel-ready' project," Lance said after the tour." -By Ali Frick -ThinkProgress.org
    MEDIA News.
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    "Media often fail in their global warming coverage, says climate researcher." ... ""Business managers of media organizations: You are screwing up your responsibility by firing science and environment reporters, who are frankly the only ones competent to do this," said climate researcher and policy analyst Stephen Schneider, in assessing the current state of media coverage of global warming and related issues." ... "Schneider, a coordinating lead author of Chapter 19 in the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 2007, is calling for the news media to employ trained reporters in covering global warming. He discussed this and other issues [2009 February] Feb. 13 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago [Illinois]." ... ""Science is not politics. You can't just get two opposing viewpoints and think you've done due diligence. You've got to cover the multiple views and the relative credibility of each view," said Schneider, the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford [Universtiy in California], in an interview before the annual meeting. "But that is not usually the problem of the well-trained reporters, who understand what is credible." ... ""The problem is CNN just fired their science team. Why didn't they fire their economics team or their sports team? Why don't they send their general assignment reporters out to cover the Super Bowl?" Schneider said." ... "In addition, researchers have to do their part by clearly explaining issues to reporters in succinct terms, he said." ... ""You have to have your elevator statement or people won't listen to you," Schneider said." ... ""What I always suggest is that scientists find metaphors that convey both urgency and uncertainty, so that you can get people's attention while at the same time not overstating the case," he said. "Then you have websites and backup articles and books where you can give the full story, but you have to have your sound bite and your op-ed piece."" -By Louis Bergeron -StanfordNewsService
    OPINION News.
    GOVERNMENT News.GovernmentECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicACCOUNTING News.AccountingJOB News.JobHISTORY News.HistoryPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "The New Deal and right-wing revisionism." ... "The best regarded data excluding public-works employees traces a steady decline in joblessness through the first five years of the New Deal, from 25 percent when [Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt] FDR took office to 14.3 percent in 1937. Then, however, joblessness rose, hitting 19.1 percent in 1938 before dropping back to 14.6 percent in 1940 and 9.9 percent in 1941." ... "Include work-relief employees, and unemployment declined more steeply, falling to 9.2 percent in 1937. It then rose to 12.5 percent in 1938 before dropping back to 6 percent in 1941." ... "Why did Roosevelt's recovery falter?" ... "Unfortunately for conservatives, the evidence cuts against their conclusions. The rise in unemployment followed FDR's cutback in government spending in 1937. The resulting spike in unemployment prompted him to shift courses and expand spending again, whereupon unemployment again fell." ... "Gross Domestic Product tracks the same way, notes economist Dean Baker, who has matched the increase in federal spending during each Depression year with the following year's growth in GDP. A 23.7 percent increase in federal spending in 1933 was followed by a 10.8 percent increase in GDP in 1934, for example, while a 34.2 percent increase in 1934 was followed by an 8.9 percent GDP increase in 1935. But when FDR retrenched and spending fell by 10 percent in 1937, the next year's GDP shrank by 3.4 percent." ... "There's virtually no disagreement that World War II gave the country the strong final tug out of the Depression. Yet that reality also argues for the efficacy of Keynesian remedies; economically, the war constituted a huge government stimulus, financed by massive deficit spending." -By Scott Lehigh -BostonGlobe
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    20090217
    OPINION News.
    JOURNALISM News.JournalismECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicsJOB News.Jobs -HISTORY News.History
    "The death of the news: If reporting vanishes, the world will get darker and uglier. Subsidizing newspapers may be the only answer." ... "Journalism as we know it is in crisis. Daily newspapers are going out of business at an unprecedented rate, and the survivors are slashing their budgets. Thousands of reporters and editors have lost their jobs. No print publication is immune, including the mighty New York Times. As analyst Allan Mutter noted, 2008 was the worst year in history for newspaper publishers, with shares dropping a stunning 83 percent on average. Newspapers lost $64.5 billion in market value in 12 months." ... "But the real problem isn't that newspapers may be doomed." ... "As Nation columnist Eric Alterman recently argued, the real problem isn't the impending death of newspapers, but the impending death of news -- at least news as we know it." ... "What is really threatened by the decline of newspapers and the related rise of online media is reporting -- on-the-ground reporting by trained journalists who know the subject, have developed sources on all sides, strive for objectivity and are working with editors who check their facts, steer them in the right direction and are a further check against unwarranted assumptions, sloppy thinking and reporting, and conscious or unconscious bias." ... "If newspapers die, so does reporting. That's because the majority of reporting originates at newspapers. Online journalism is essentially parasitic. Like most TV news, it derives or follows up on stories that first appeared in print." ... "Currently there is no business model that makes online reporting financially viable." ... "There is no substitute for field reporting, in which a real live human being observes an event while it is happening and talks to other real, live human beings." ... "If field reporting dies out, the world will become a less known place." ... "Without reporting, dirty little wars would be invisible dirty little wars." (1, 2, 3) -By Gary Kamiya -Salon
    OPINION News.
    HEALTH News.Health CareSCIENCE News.SciencePOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicLEGISLATION News.LegislationHISTORY News.HistoryPILL News.PillADVERTISING News.Advertising
    "The Far Right's All Out Offensive Against Medical Research." ... "Opponents of fixing our broken health care system are at it again, attempting to use their same old scare tactics and falsehoods to kill a common-sense health care provision [in] the economic recovery package. Fortunately Congressional leaders have recognized these tactics for what they are and have wisely kept this provision in the legislation." ... "At issue is something called "Comparative Effectiveness Research" which basically means giving your doctor access to the latest research on what treatments and therapies work and which don't. This also helps doctors know which treatments are more expensive than others, and helps both patients and doctors decide if there is a cheaper treatment that is just as effective. As a doctor and the husband of a doctor, I know how important it is to have solid scientific research to make critical decisions for my patients." ... "When I was practicing medicine, having greater access to scientific evidenced-based research would have been truly helpful in guiding me to make the best medical decisions for my patients." ... "If an inexpensive pill that has been around a long time works substantially better than a brand new, highly-advertised and thus far more expensive pill - doctors should have that information at hand when we prescribe medications to our patients. When I do something for a patient, I want the scientific research that tells me its the best course for my patient. But the far right, led by people like Rush Limabaugh, hopes to somehow convince Americans that more and better research is a bad thing." ... "This claptrap is really about the far right laying the ground work for a far greater and more sustained attack on the Democrats' attempt to fix our health care system. As we move forward with the American people to finally fulfill the promise of Harry Truman, who over sixty years ago suggested that every American ought to have a reasonable health care plan, we will rely on the voters to remind the right wing that change is what we promised, and change is what we will deliver." -By Howard Dean -HuffingtonPost.com
    20090216
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaCORPORATE News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLABOR News.LaborMAKERS News.MakersUS AMERICAN News.USGLOBAL News.GlobalLEGISLATION News.LegislationSECRET News.SecretTERRORISM News.TerrorismDETAINEE News.Detainee
    "Liberals not pleased with go-slow approach by Obama." ... "Union leaders were taken aback this month when [Democratic President Barack] Obama, during television appearances discussing the stimulus legislation, spoke skeptically of "Buy American" provisions in the bill giving [United States] U.S. makers of steel and other materials an advantage in bidding for contracts." ... "Obama told Fox News that the U.S. "can't send a protectionist message," and he cautioned on ABC News that the requirements could be a "potential source of trade wars that we can't afford at a time when trade is sinking all across the globe."" ... "Now, some labor advocates worry about how aggressively the new president will push to fulfill other key campaign promises, such as passage of the so-called card check legislation that would make it easier to form labor unions." ... "At the ACLU, Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said his group's disappointment was "deep and unparalleled" after the Justice Department decided to keep in place one of the most controversial legal tactics of the [Republican President] Bush anti-terrorism arsenal: using the "state secrets" doctrine to block lawsuits by detainees." ... "The Justice Department invoked the privilege last week in arguing that a case should not proceed because it might lead to the disclosure of state secrets." ... "As a candidate, Obama had attacked Bush for using the tactic and had pledged to reverse such policies." -By Peter Wallsten -LAtimes
    20090215
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    JOHN MCCAIN News.John McCainUS DEBT News.US_DebtECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicLEGISLATION News.LegislationBARACK OBAMA.ObamaARIZONA News.Arizona
    "Dems Fed Up With McCain: "Angry Old Defeated Candidate"." ... ""He is bitter and really angry," Bob Shrum said of [Arizona Republican Senator John] McCain in an interview on Friday. "He is angry at the press, which he thinks is unfair. He is angry at [Democratic President] Obama and angry at the voters. He has gone from being an angry old candidate to being an angry old defeated candidate."" ... ""On Sunday, McCain wouldn't let the fight die, even with the [economic stimulus] legislation through Congress. Appearing on CNN, he described the $787 billion measure as "generational theft" and said that the bill's authors should "start over now and sit down together."" ... ""[A]s other observers pointed out, McCain isn't being entirely consistent." ... """During the Senate debate, 36 of the Senate Republicans voted for an alternative that would have cut taxes over the next decade by $2.5 trillion, [and] reduced the top marginal race to 25 percent," said the Atlantic's Ron Brownstein on "Meet the Press." "For John McCain -- who voted for that alternative of a $2.5 trillion tax cut over the next decade -- to talk about generational theft, I mean, pot meet kettle." -By Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
    20090214
    NOTEWORTHY News.
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    "Case May Alter Judge Elections Across Country." ... "Don L. Blankenship, the chief executive of the nation’s fourth-biggest coal mining company, is not shy about putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to West Virginia politics." ... "In 2004, he spent $3 million on tough [television] advertisements attacking a justice of the State Supreme Court who was seeking re-election. Some of the advertisements said the justice had agreed to free a sex offender." ... "Brent D. Benjamin won that election and went on to join the 3-to-2 majority that threw out a $50 million jury verdict against Mr. Blankenship’s company, Massey Energy." ... "The question of whether Justice Benjamin should have disqualified himself is now before the United States Supreme Court." ... "The case, one of the most important of the term, has the potential to change the way judicial elections are conducted and the way cases are heard in the 39 states that elect at least some of their judges." ... "Mr. Blankenship’s advertisements, which said Justice McGraw had released a pedophile, were rough and arguably misleading. They concerned a youth who had been sexually abused from the age of 7 by two adult family members and a teacher before going on, at the age of 14, to abuse a younger half-brother. The youth was released on probation soon after he turned 18." ... "“I’m just a West Virginia country lawyer running for office,” Justice McGraw said. Of the advertisements, he said: “They say our court set a child molester loose in our schools. It’s absolutely untrue. I’m embarrassed to go out in public. They’ve absolutely destroyed me.”" ... "Mr. Blankenship cheerfully conceded that his real objection was to Justice McGraw’s rulings against corporate defendants. “Being the street fighter that I am,” he said, he had instructed his aides to find a decision that would enrage the public." ... "When they returned with an unsigned opinion in the sex abuse case, which Justice McGraw had joined, Mr. Blankenship said he knew he had hit pay dirt. “That killed him,” Mr. Blankenship said of Justice McGraw, smiling." (1, 2) -By Adam Liptak -NYTimes
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
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    "Business the big winner in California budget plan: Firms would get nearly $1 billion in breaks, while the average person would pay higher taxes five ways. Republicans say the plan would create jobs, but others dispute the claim." ... "Reporting from Sacramento [California's capital] -- The average Californian's taxes would shoot up five different ways in the state budget blueprint that lawmakers hope to vote on this weekend. But the bipartisan plan for wiping out the state's giant deficit isn't so bad for large corporations, many of which would receive a permanent windfall." ... "About $1 billion in corporate tax breaks -- directed mostly at multi-state and multinational companies -- is tucked into the proposal. Opponents say the breaks will do nothing to create jobs, and the Legislature has rejected such moves repeatedly in the past. But now, to secure enough Republican votes to pass a budget that would raise taxes on everyone else, the Legislature is poised to write them into law with no public hearings at a time when the state treasury is almost out of cash." ... "The tax breaks were inserted into the spending plan during private meetings between legislative leaders and [California Republican Governor] Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Less than 24 hours before today's scheduled vote, the proposals had not yet been printed in bills and made available to the public, but legislative leaders acknowledged them. " -By Evan Halper with contributions by Patrick McGreevy -LAtimes
    20090213
    NOTEWORTHY News.
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    "Large U.S. banks on edge of insolvency, experts say." ... "Some of the large banks in the United States, according to economists and other finance experts, are like dead men walking." ... "A sober assessment of the growing mountain of losses from bad bets, measured in today's marketplace, would overwhelm the value of the banks' assets, they say. The banks, in their view, are insolvent." ... "None of the experts' research focuses on individual banks, and there are certainly exceptions among the 50 largest banks in the country. Nor do consumers and businesses need to fret about their deposits, which are insured by the [United States] U.S. government. And even banks that might technically be insolvent can continue operating for a long time, and could recover their financial health when the economy improves." ... "But without a cure for the problem of bad assets, the credit crisis that is dragging down the economy will linger, as banks cannot resume the ample lending needed to restart the wheels of commerce. The answer, say the economists and experts, is a larger, more direct government role than in the Treasury Department's plan outlined this week." ... "The Treasury program leans heavily on a sketchy public-private investment fund to buy up the troubled mortgage-backed securities held by the banks. Instead, the experts say, the government needs to plunge in, weed out the weakest banks, pour capital into the surviving banks and sell off the bad assets." ... "It is the basic blueprint that has proved successful, they say, in resolving major financial crises in recent years." (1, 2) -By Steve Lohr with contributions by Eric Dash -IHT.com
    OPINION News.
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    "Science Journalism’s Hope and Despair: ‘Niche’ pubs growing as MSM circles the drain." (1, 2) -By Curtis Brainard -CJR.org
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaSOCIAL SECURTIY News.Social SecurityPOLITICAL News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticalECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomistsHOUSING News. APARTMENT RENTAL News.HousingHISTORY News.History
    "The Economists Who Missed the Housing Bubble Are Coming After Your Social Security." ... "Word has it that [Democratic] President Obama intends to appoint a task force the week after next which will be charged with "reforming" Social Security. According to inside gossip, the task force will be led entirely by economists who were not able to see the $8 trillion housing bubble, the collapse of which is giving the country its sharpest downturn since the Great Depression." ... "This effort is bizarre for several reasons. First, the economy is sinking rapidly. While President Obama's stimulus package is a good first step towards counteracting the decline, there is probably not a single economists in the country who believes that is adequate to the task. President Obama would be advised to focus his attention on getting the economy back in order instead of attacking the country's most important social program." ... "The second reason why this task force is strange is that Social Security doesn't need reforming. According to the Congressional Budget Office [PDF], it can pay all scheduled benefits for the next 40 years with no changes whatsoever." ... "The third reason that this effort is pernicious is that this talk of reform is occurring with the baby boomers just as the cusp of retirement. Due to the reckless policies of the Rubin-Greenspan-[ Republican]Bush clique, this cohort has just seen their housing equity wiped out with the collapse of the housing bubble. Tens of millions of baby boomers who might have felt reasonably secure three years ago are now approaching retirement with little or no equity in their homes." ... "Similarly, if they had been fortunate enough to accumulate any substantial amount of savings in a 401(k) account, they just saw much of this wealth vanish with the plunge in the stock market." -By Dean Baker -CEPR.net
    HISTORY News.
    MITCH McCONNELL News. Kentucky Republican Addison Mitchell Mitch McConnell News.Mitch McConnellECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicEMERGENCY News.EmergencyJOB News.JobsACCOUNTING News.AccountingPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsOPINION News.OpinionPEOPLE News.PeopleSOCIAL SECURTIY News. RETIREMENT News. SENIORS News.Social SecurityGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentREFERENCE News.ReferenceBOOK News.BookKENTUCKY News.Kentucky
    "Revisionists' blind view of New Deal." ... "[N]early eight decades after [Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt] FDR launched the New Deal, amid possibly the greatest economic emergency since the 1930s, it’s important to understand that the most sophisticated arguments seeking to demolish the New Deal are based on a misreading of the bulk of the historical evidence. University of California, Davis historian Eric Rauchway, the author of “The Great Depression & The New Deal: A Very Short Introduction,” dismantled Shlaes’ argument in a 2007 review in Slate. He showed how [right wing writer Amity] Shlaes had tried to diminish the nation’s economic growth during the 1930s using the narrow gauge of the Dow Jones Industrial Average as opposed to the gross domestic product." ... "Shlaes cited unemployment figures that excluded Americans who had New Deal-generated jobs, and she virtually ignored what Rauchway calls “the authoritative reference work Historical Statistics of the United States.” That reference book shows that during FDR’s first term, the real GDP grew by some 9 percent annually; and after the 1937-38 recession, the economy grew at an annual clip of 11 percent. By the fall of 1934, another New Deal historian, William E. Leuchtenburg, explains, “the ranks of the unemployed had been reduced by over 2 million and national income stood almost a quarter higher than in 1933.”" ... "The Shlaes-[ Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch] McConnell anti-New Deal critics tend to minimize the enduring contribution of laws such as the Wagner Act, which established workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, and the Social Security Act of 1935 that provided for unemployment as well as old-age insurance. They highlight, instead, the failure of the National Industrial Recovery Act to fuel economic growth, overlook the ways in which the New Deal alleviated people’s misery and rarely acknowledge that World War II lifted the economy and ultimately ended the Depression because the national government joined closely with the private sector to provide a massive stimulus in the form of federal wartime spending." ... "FDR’s New Deal had its share of failures, setbacks and problems. But to argue that it harmed the American people, “failed abysmally” (Shlaes’ words) to reduce unemployment, and retarded economic growth is to twist the historical evidence beyond all reasonable recognition. Such arguments are forms of revisionism that are misleading, polemical and riddled with distortions of the overwhelming facts at hand about the New Deal’s achievements as well as its real shortcomings. " -By Matthew Dallek -Politico.com
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    JUDD GREGG News. New Hampshire Republican Judd Alan Gregg News.Judd GreggBARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaECONOMY News.EconomyNEW HAMPSHIRE News.New Hampshire
    "Sen. Gregg: Obama on the Right Economic Track." ... "[New Hampshire Republican Senator] Judd Gregg, the Republican senator who suddenly withdrew himself as a nominee for Commerce Secretary, "feels very strongly" that [Democratic] President Obama is on the right economic track." ... ""He's going to be a very strong President, in my opinion," he said in an interview on CNBC Friday." ... "Responding to assertions that he originally sought out the position, Gregg did not "campaign" for the job, he said." -CNBC
    20090212
    MONEY News.
    UNEMPLOYMENT News.UnemploymentPOLITICS News.PoliticsFEDERAL News.FederalLAW News.Law
    "Out of Work and Challenged on Benefits, Too: In Record Numbers, Employers Move to Block Unemployment Payouts." ... "It's hard enough to lose a job. But for a growing proportion of [United States] U.S. workers, the troubles really set in when they apply for unemployment benefits." ... "More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers." ... "The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute." ... "Under state and federal laws, employees who are fired for misbehavior or quit voluntarily are ineligible for unemployment compensation. When jobless claims are blocked, employers save money because their unemployment insurance rates are based on the amount of the benefits their workers collect." ... "As unemployment rolls swell in the recession, many workers seem surprised to find their benefits challenged, their former bosses providing testimony against them." (1, 2) -By Peter Whoriskey -WashingtonPost
    HISTORY News.
    HOME News.HomeMARKET News.PricesUNEMPLOYMENT News.Unemployment
    "Home Prices in U.S. Slid 12% in Fourth Quarter, Most on Record." ... "Home prices dropped the most on record in the fourth quarter as foreclosures dragged down values and the recession pushed buyers out of the market." ... "The median price of a [United States] U.S. home declined 12 percent to $180,100 from a year earlier and sales of properties with mortgages in default accounted for 45 percent of all transactions, the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors said today. Prices declined in almost nine out of every 10 cities." ... "The worst U.S. housing slump since the Great Depression is deepening as foreclosures drain value from neighboring homes and the economic recession worsens. The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits rose to a record 4.81 million in the last week of January as companies such as Caterpillar Inc. [Incorporated] and Home Depot Inc. slashed jobs. The U.S. lost 2.6 million jobs last year in the biggest workforce reduction since 1945." -By Kathleen M. Howley -Bloomberg
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaWORKING News.WorkingFAMILIES News.FamiliesECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentACCOUNTING News.AccountingHISTORY News.HistoryLAWMAKER News.LawmakersPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "BIGGEST. TAX CUT. EVER." ... "A few weeks ago, when the House approved the economic stimulus bill without any Republican votes, David Weigel noted that he literally couldn't remember "a time when the entire Republican conference in either house voted against tax cuts."" ... "That's true, but let's go a little further. The compromise plan announced last night includes $282 billion in tax cuts over two years. With that in mind, Steven Waldman argues, persuasively, that when the vast majority of congressional Republicans oppose the package, they'll be voting against the biggest tax cut "in history.""
    "According to the Wall Street Journal, [Republican President] Bush's first two years of tax cuts amounted to $174 billion. A second batch in 2004 and 2005 cost $231. And those were thought to be bigger than the tax cuts offered by Reagan, Kennedy or others."

    "Now, perhaps some new analysis will show that the tax cuts end up not quite being the largest in history by this measure or that. But it's clear they're massive."

    "I'm ducking the debate on whether this is economically a good or bad -- but surely it ought to be a big story."

    "True. Waldman also notes that this is also an example of a liberal Democrat delivering early on a tax cut he promised during the campaign, a pledge "few Republican thought he'd keep."" ... "[Democratic President] Obama's tax cuts, meanwhile, are short-term refunds paid directly to working and middle class families (some of which Republicans have denounced as "welfare")." ... "As such, GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] lawmakers are going to reject one of the largest, if not the largest, tax cut ever proposed by a president -- which just so happens to be targeted at the working and middle class families Obama vowed to look out for." -By Steve Benen -WashingtonMonthly.com
    20090211
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    FINANCIAL News. MONEY News.FinancialCRISIS News.CrisisPOLITICS News.PoliticsSPORTS PAGES. SPORTS News.SportsENTERTAINMENT News.EntertainmentMARKETING News.MarketingTRIP News.TripHISTORY News.HistoryCONSUMER News.ConsumersGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLAWMAKER News.LawmakersBARACK OBAMA.Obama -NEVADA News.NevadaNEW YORK News.New York
    "Unapologetic CEOs: What Did the Banks Do With Your Cash? Bank CEOs [Chief Executive Officer], With $125 Billion in Taxpayer Money in Hand, Testify and Defend Before Congress." ... "The heads of eight major banks that received $125 billion in taxpayer bailout funds were largely unapologetic for their role in helping to create the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression as they testified before Congress this morning." ... "The CEOs said they are trying to lend out more money and pledged to return to profit, be more transparent and repay taxpayers as soon as possible." ... "But for the most part, the CEOs in their prepared testimony shrugged off recent criticism about the high level of pay within their firms, the use of luxury jets and posh trips to Las Vegas or Monte Carlo [Monaco]." ... "Bank of America took heat recently for sponsoring a five-day carnival-like affair outside the Super Bowl. The event -- known as the "NFL experience" -- included 850,000 square feet of sports games and interactive entertainment attractions for football fans and was blanketed in Bank of America logos and marketing calls to sign up for football-themed banking products." ... "The eight financial firms received a combined total of $125 billion since October through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly referred to as TARP." ... "Lawmakers have expressed outrage that the funds are not fulfilling their purpose of increasing the flow of credit to consumers. They point to a report released last month by the New York state comptroller that said Wall Street firms had handed out $18 billion in bonuses last year." ... "That news led [Democratic] President Obama to impose new restrictions on executive compensation for banks that receive money through the TARP in the future." ... "In the face of pressure from Washington, Citigroup recently scrapped plans to purchase a $50 million luxury jet." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Matthew Jaffe and Scott Mayerowitz -ABCNEWS.com
    MONEY News.
    GOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICS News.PoliticsNEW YORK News.New York
    "Bailed-Out Firms Distributing Cash Rewards: "Please Do Not Call It A Bonus"." ... "Two Wall Street firms that received at least $60 billion in government bailout funds will be rewarding their financial advisers with controversial retention payments, the terms of which one senior executive described as "very generous" in audio obtained by the Huffington Post." ... "The soon-to-be-merged financial giants -- Morgan Stanley and Citigroup's Smith Barney -- announced the payments during an internal conference call last week, but warned advisers against describing them in terms that would cause PR headaches." ... ""There will be a retention award. Please do not call it a bonus," said James Gorman, co-president of Morgan Stanley. "It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration."" ... "The payments, Gorman said, will be calculated based on performance numbers from 2008 instead of 2009, when the merger is expected to be completed. That decision virtually guarantees an increase in the size of the awards. While 2008 was challenging for the firms -- Morgan Stanley's client assets in fee-based accounts dropped 25 percent in the fourth quarter, and a round of lay-offs is expected -- 2009 is expected to be substantially weaker." ... ""I think I can hear you clapping from here in New York," Gorman joked during the call, after announcing that the payments would be linked to '08 performance. "You should be clapping because frankly that is a very generous and thoughtful decision that we have made. We spent a lot of time kicking this around. We could easily have done it from the point of closing, which is obviously going to be somewhere in the latter half of this year or around the middle of the year. But we just decided... that it was right thing to do, to give you that certainty that it would be based off '08. '09 is a very difficult year... So that degree of anxiety, which many, many of you have emailed me about... is now off the table."" ... "Audio of the conference call was provided by a reader who responded to the Huffington Post's call for information about wasteful or extravagant spending by bailout recipients. " -By Sam Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
    PEOPLE News.
    CORPORATE News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICS News.Politics
    "Bank CEOs: The Men Behind the Billions: From Seven-Figure Paydays to Billion-Dollar Losses: Meet the Bankers Getting Grilled." ... "The eight bank chief executives who will testify before Congress today will explain how they have used money from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP." ... "Compensation totals, which are courtesy of James F. Reda and Associates, do not include retirement investments and other deferred compensation." ...
    "John J. Mack, chairman and chief executive officer, Morgan Stanley"
    "2007 Compensation: Salary of $800,000 plus $40.2 million in stock awards."
    "Morgan Stanley TARP Funding: $10 billion" ... 
    "Morgan Stanley was once a part of the powerhouse quintet that included the country's four other top brokerage firms: Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. Of the five, Morgan and Goldman were the only firms to avoid bankruptcy or a buyout, but barely -- both became bank-holding companies in the fall in order to qualify for TARP funds." ... 
    "
    John Stumpf, president and chief executive officer, Wells Fargo & Co."

    "2007 Compensation: Salary of $749,615 plus a $4.2 million bonus and $11.6 million in stock awards."
    "Wells Fargo TARP Funding: $25 billion" ... 
    "
    Vikram Pandit, chief executive officer, Citigroup"

    "Compensation: Pandit became Citigroup's chief in late 2007. He received $44.4 million in stock awards in January, 2008."
    "Citigroup TARP Funding: $45 billion" ... 
    "
    Ken Lewis, chairman and chief executive officer, Bank of America"

    "2007 Compensation: Salary of $1.5 million plus a nearly $4.3 million bonus and $21.2 million in stock awards."
    "Bank of America TARP Funding: $45 billion, including $10 billion allocated to Merrill Lynch." ... 
    "
    James Dimon, chief executive officer, JPMorgan Chase & Co."

    "2007 Compensation: Salary of $1 million plus $14.5 million bonus and $13 million in stock awards."
    "JPMorgan TARP Funding: $25 billion" ... 
    "
    Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive officer and chairman, Goldman Sachs & Co."

    "2007 Compensation: Salary of $600,000 plus $27 million bonus and $26 million in stock awards."
    "Goldman Sachs TARP Funding: $10 billion" ... 
    "
    Robert P. Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer, Bank of New York Mellon"

    "2007 Compensation: Salary of $975,000 plus $7.5 million bonus and $10.4 million in stock awards."
    "Bank of New York Mellon TARP Funding: $3 billion" ... 
    "
    Ronald E. Logue, chairman and chief executive officer, State Street Corp."

    "2007 Compensation: Salary of $1 million plus nearly $3.8 million bonus and $22.7 million in stock awards."
    "State Street Corp. TARP Funding: $2 billion" ...
    " -By Alice Gomstyn and Russell Goldman with contributions by Matt Jaffe and Reynolds Holding -ABCNEWS.com
    OPINION News.
    MONEY News.MoneyLAW News.LawPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsFEDERAL News.FederalWORKERS News.WorkersMAINE News.Maine
    "Source: Collins Strips Stim Bill Of Whistleblower Protections." ... "The House stimulus bill contained a provision designed to protect federal whistleblowers. Currently, those protections are shockingly weak. According to the Project On Government Oversight, whistleblowers who are fired or demoted can file a complaint with a government board -- but over the last eight years, that board has ruled in favor of whistleblowers only twice in 55 cases." ... "More to the point, the protections were designed to encourage federal workers to point out cases where taxpayer money is subject to waste, fraud, or abuse -- a legitimate concern when Congress spends $800 billion, and one that centrists and Republicans have been particularly exercised about." ... "Yesterday, 20 members of the House, from both parties, sent a letter to House negotiators urging them to ensure that the protections remained." ... "But, according to a person following the bill closely, Collins used today's conference committee to drastically water down the measure, citing national security concerns as the reason for her opposition. In the end, the protections were so weakened that House negotiators balked, and the result was that the entire amendment was removed." ... "According to the person following the bill, [Maine Republican Senator Susan] Collins was the "central roadblock" to passing the protections." ... "So when, in the coming months, conservatives start jumping up and down over the fact that money from the stimulus bill is being wasted, as they surely will, it's worth remember that a key measure designed to help expose that waste was removed from the bill -- and by a senator said to be a champion of fiscal discipline." -By Zachary Roth-TPMMuckracker .TalkingPointsMemo
    HEALTH News.
    FOOD News.FoodSAFETY News.SafetyMANUFACTURER News.ManufacturersFEDERAL News.Federal -INSPECTOR News.InpectorsCORPORATE News.CorporateLAW News.LawGA News: GEORGIA News.Ga
    "Salmonella found at Ga. plant as early as 2006: Owner Stewart Parnell refused to testify at hearing; 9 have now died." ... "See the jar, the congressman challenged Stewart Parnell, holding up a container of the peanut seller's products and asking if he'd dare eat them. Parnell pleaded the Fifth." ... "The owner of the peanut company at the heart of the massive salmonella recall refused to answer the lawmaker's questions — or any others — Wednesday about the bacteria-tainted products he defiantly told employees to ship to some 50 manufacturers of cookies, crackers and ice cream." ... ""Turn them loose," Parnell had told his plant manager in an internal e-mail disclosed at the House hearing." ... "Shortly after Parnell's appearance, a lab tester told the panel that the company discovered salmonella at its Blakely, Ga. [Georgia], plant as far back as 2006. Food and Drug Administration officials told lawmakers more federal inspections could have helped prevent the outbreak." -AP -MSNBC
    LANGUAGE News.
    ERIC CANTOR.Eric CantorWEB News.WebVIDEO News.VideoPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentJOB News.JobsECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicCRISIS News.CrisisPEOPLE News.PeoplesHEALTH News.Health CareHOMES News.HomesVIRGINIA News.Virginia
    "GOP [Republican] Rep. Cantor Attacked For Profanity-Laced Web Video." ... "As first reported by The Plum Line, Virginia Republican [Representative] Eric Cantor is in hot water after his office responded to critics by sending out a profane web video." ... "AFSCME [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees] President Gerald McEntee isn't amused. "Eric Cantor may think the greatest economic crisis in seventy years is a joke, but we don't," he said in a statement. "He should talk to the people in Virginia who are losing their jobs, health care and homes."" ... "Brad Woodhouse, President of Americans United for Change, responded more forcefully:"
      "And AFL-CIO President John Sweeney added: "During these tough economic times the last thing hard working Americans need is to be ridiculed by a member of the Republican leadership. Rep. Cantor should apologize for insulting America's workers with this profane video."" ... "ThinkProgress points out that Cantor himself is an anti-obscenity crusader who has said "the use of obscenity" in television "should not and cannot be tolerated."" -By Rachel Weiner -HuffingtonPost.com
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaERIC CANTOR.Eric CantorLANGUAGE News.ObscenityVIDEO News.VideoLAW News.LawLAW ENFORCEMENT News.EnforcementPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsWORKERS News.WorkersINVESTMENT News. MONEY News.InvestmentADVERTISING News.AdvertisingVA News: VIRGINIA News.VA
    "Anti-Obscenity Crusader Eric Cantor Sends Out Profanity-Laced Attack On Union." ... "Today, public-workers union AFSCME [American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees] launched a massive advertising campaign targeting [Republican] neo-Hooverite conservatives who are trying to block [Democratic] President Obama’s recovery and reinvestment plan. One target is [Virginia Republican Representative] Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA [Republican-Virginia]), whom the union faults for declaring he was proud that his party was “just saying no” to Obama. A Cantor spokesman responded by sending around a profanity-laced video portraying AFSCME as mob goons. The video uses the F-word six times in one minute and ends with the tagline: “AFSCME: We’re the f*cking union that works for you.”" ... [WATCH - if you have the Macromedia Flash media player installed.Video. Not Safe For Work.] "Cantor claimed the video was a “joke,” though AFSCME didn’t think it was very funny." ... "Yet it’s not just unions who could be offended by the video; Cantor himself has railed against obscenity, voting for the Broadcast Deceny Enforcement Act that allowed fines of up to $500,000 on broadcasters for airing any “obscene, indecent, or profane” material. Speaking on the House floor in support of the bill, Cantor condemned “offensive television” that will “damage our society” and “cannot be tolerated“ [PDF]:"
     
    "CANTOR: The use of obscenity…should not and cannot be tolerated. As a parent, I share the concerns of many regarding the level of offensive television and radio programs that are transmitted into our homes. The recent violations that have occurred disgusted not only me, but damage our society."
    "He added that “we will not be satisfied until those responsible” for disseminating obscenity “have been reprimanded.” The heads of Americans United for Change, the AFL-CIO, and AFSCME have already reprimanded Cantor." -ThinkProgress.org
    ACCOUNTING News.
    BARACK OBAMA News. Democratic President Barack Hussein Obama News.Barack ObamaMONEY News.MoneyPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLAW News.LawHISTORY News.HistoryPEOPLE News.PeoplesJOB News.Jobs
    "The Big Winners In Stimulus Compromise: The Upper-Middle Class." ... "When [Democratic] President Obama outlined on January 8 [2009] the rationale for the economic stimulus bill, "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," he clearly identified the men and women most in trouble:"
    "Nearly two million jobs have now been lost, and on Friday we are likely to learn that we lost more jobs last year than at any time since World War II. Just in the past year, another 2.8 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs."
    "The House-Senate compromise, however, cuts funds for extended health care coverage for the unemployed; cuts $30 billion in aid to state governments to prevent reductions in social services to the poor and out-of-work; and also cuts a special "Making Work Pay" tax holiday from $500 to $400 for an individual, and from $1,000 to $800 for a couple, for low-to-middle-income workers still hanging on to their jobs[.]" ... "Amid all the cutting, however, one group emerged unscathed: the upper-middle class, the not-quite-super-rich, but certainly not on the ropes. Most of these folks, in terms of income and employment, are what could be called the un-needy, a group clearly distinct from those Obama identified as the core target of the legislation. The "compromise" legislation includes $70 billion, or just under 10 percent of the whole package, to be used expressly to take care of these affluent people." ... "In fact, these lucky men and women make so much money that they fall into the ever-expanding grasp of the alternative minimum tax (AMT). The AMT was originally designed in 1969 to prevent the nation's millionaires and billionaires from using tax loopholes to pay zero income tax. That year, 155 very wealthy taxpayers paid no federal tax whatsoever. This year, if the law remains as it is currently crafted, the AMT would, through bracket creep, apply to as many as 25 million taxpayers, including those making in the $85,000 to $250,000 range, depending on how many deductions they claim (the more deductions, the more likely the AMT comes into play)." -By Thomas B. Edsall -HuffingtonPost.com
    LAW News.
    CORPORATE News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsPA News: PENNSYLVANIA News.PA -KIDS News.KidsPRISON News.PrisonsLAW ENFORCEMENT News.Enforcement
    "Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash: Judges allegedly took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juveniles in lockups ." ... "For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre [Pennsylvania] operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses." ... "The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench." ... "Prosecutors say Luzerne County [Pennsylvania] Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC [Limited Liability Company] and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC." ... "In Luzerne County, prosecutors say, Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in 2002 and helped the two companies secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up." ... "One of the contracts — a 20-year agreement with PA Child Care worth an estimated $58 million — was later canceled by the county as exorbitant." ... "Robert J. Powell co-owned PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care until June." (1, 2) -AP via -MSNBC
    20090210
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    CORPORATE News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsLAWYER News. LAW News.LawyersJOB News.Jobs2008 ELECTION News2008 ElectionUS AMERICAN News.USINTERNATIONAL News.International
    "Bush Faithful Rewarded With Jobs: On the Way Out, He Placed Aides and Big-Money GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] Donors." ... "Fred F. Fielding, Emmet T. Flood, William A. Burck and Daniel M. Price worked together at the White House under [Republican President] George W. Bush. Less than two weeks before leaving office, Bush made sure the senior aides shared a new assignment, naming them to an obscure World Bank agency called the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes." ... "The appointments are for six years and are potentially lucrative, paying up to $3,000 a day plus travel and other expenses if an appointee is chosen to hear a case. Bush also named two other prominent Republican lawyers to the agency, which attempts to broker international finance disagreements." ... "Bush made more than 100 such end-of-term appointments to a constellation of presidential boards and panels, such as the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and the U.S.-Russia Polar Bear Commission." ... "Nearly half of Bush's appointments after [2008] Election Day were filled by donors who gave a total of nearly $1.9 million to Republicans since 2003, according to an analysis of the postings. At least 20 of the positions were filled by former Bush aides, plus others filled by old hands from the administrations of [Republican Presidents] Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush." ... "Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that while many of the appointments owe to vanity or good causes, some are also useful for maintaining political influence. "The real question is not only whether they are paid, but what benefits can they pay out from these boards," she said." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    FEDERAL News.FederalECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicHISTORY News.HistoryOHIO News.Ohio
    "U.S. Rep. Austria [falsely] blames Depression on Roosevelt." ... "U.S. [United States Ohio Republican Representative] Rep. Steve Austria said he supports a scaled-down federal economic-stimulus proposal, but the Beavercreek Republican told The Dispatch editorial board that the huge influx of money into the economy could have a negative effect." ... ""When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression," Austria said. "He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That's just history."" ... "Most historians date the beginning of the Great Depression at or shortly after the stock-market crash of 1929; Roosevelt took office in 1933." -DispatchPolitics.com
    OPINION News.
    FINANCIAL News.FinancialCRISIS News.CrisisGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentACCOUNTING News.AccountingPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsHISTORY News.HistoryBOOK News. AUTHOR News.AuthorTEXAS News.Texas
    "Economist James Galbraith: Bailed-Out Banks Should Be Declared Insolvent." ... "With estimates of the cost of addressing the financial crisis exceeding $9.7 trillion, we speak with economist and University of Texas professor James Galbraith, author of [the book] The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. Galbraith says rather than pouring billions into propping up troubled giant banks, the government should declare them insolvent." ...
    WATCH - if you have the Real media player installed.WatchLISTEN MP3 PODCAST DOWNLOAD.Listen
    JAMES GALBRAITH: ... "[W]hen you’re dealing with a bank which has already basically rendered itself insolvent by virtue of its complicity—it’s basically seeking for easy money, for big profits, out of mortgage originations and underwriting fees in the last part of this decade—then you’re dealing with a bank which is already underwater. The risk capital is already worth nothing. It’s being held up only by the expectation of a federal bailout." ... "The management is—the problem with leaving the management in place is that you cannot rely on the existing management to give you a full and fair accounting of what is in the books of the bank and what the practices of the bank are. That is why you need to bring in a new team. You need to bring in a team which is nominated by the FDIC [Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation], which has as its first objective coming clean, going through the books of the bank and separating the good assets from the bad assets, the assets which are—which have a reasonable chance of continuing to earn income from the assets which need to be written down or written off. Then you can make an assessment of just how big the losses are and what has to be done, whether the bank itself should be closed, which is sometimes the case; whether it can find a merger partner, which is sometimes the case; or whether what you do is reorganize it, isolate the bad assets from the good assets and relaunch the good assets as part of a new bank. One thing or another has to be done. And when it’s done, you can begin to basically grow the economy on the basis of these new newly reconstructed credit institutions." ... "But so long as you’re dealing with the old management and so long as you’re dealing with the old practices and so long as you don’t have a clean audit of the books, the chances are that the bank is going to behave in ways which are not constructive, which do not contribute to the growth of the economy, and which leave all kinds of suspicions present in the system about the integrity of the institution and of the regulatory process. And that’s the problem the Treasury Department seems to be determined not to face." ... "And so long as it doesn’t face it, we’re not going to get out of this, and the Treasury Department is not contributing constructively to the success of the recovery plan, which the Congress is about to enact. And that will mean that the recovery plan itself will be, sort of after the fact, too small to deal the problem of unemployment, which is just growing at the rate of a half a million jobs a month. So we are—and that’s the dilemma that we’re in."

    AMY GOODMAN: "Professor Galbraith, are you for nationalizing banks?"
    JAMES GALBRAITH: "You know, I think the term is a political misleading term. I learned a few months ago that in 1982, at the time of the Latin American debt crisis, the [Republican President] Reagan administration’s FDIC had a contingency plan to nationalize the major banks in the case that a major Latin American country—let’s say Mexico or Argentina or Brazil—had defaulted outright on its debt. This was not something that administration would have wanted to do. In the end, they didn’t have to do it. But they had a plan to do it, if it was necessary because the banks were rendered insolvent by the running to ruin of a major class of assets." ... "Well, we have a major class of assets—that is to say, all of these subprime mortgage-backed securities—which have run to ruin. They should never have been issued in the first place. They are very, very highly likely to default. They were issued on terms which makes them basically unmarketable, because there is not adequate loan documentation. And when there is loan documentation, that documentation evidently indicates that the loans are likely to go bad, so that nobody outside will buy them. That’s a problem that exists in the banking system, and the regulators simply have to deal with it." ... "And I don’t think—you know, it’s not—we’re not in 1945 in Attlee’s Britain, where we are taking the commanding heights of their economy or anything like that. We are doing what regulators always have to do, in conservative and liberal administrations, when faced with major intractable insolvencies in the financial system. If you don’t deal with that, the problem of fraud and loss just gets worse. And the losses that are incurred after insolvency are losses that fall on the taxpayer, because they come against deposits that are insured. So, one way or another, until we deal with this, the taxpayers’ liability just gets bigger and bigger."

    AMY GOODMAN: "Professor Galbraith, I hate to ask you this last question with just about thirty seconds to go, but it’s about the title of your book and what it means, The Predator State."
    JAMES GALBRAITH: "Well, the Predator State refers to the takeover of state power by private interests masquerading behind conservative principle and basically acting for private clients and private profit. That was the [Republican President] Bush administration in a nutshell. The title goes back to Veblen and a bit to my father’s New Industrial State, and it’s an attempt to capture in two words a phenomenon that I think really has transformed our economy, much for the worse in the last several decades." -DemocracyNow.org


    OPINION News.
    MEDICAL News.Medical -DRUG News.DrugSCIENCE News.ScienceSAFETY News.SafetyCORPORATE News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "Big Pharma fights oversight." ... "This is irritating."
    ""The drug and medical-device industries are mobilizing to gut a provision in the stimulus bill that would spend $1.1 billion on research comparing medical treatments, portraying it as the first step to government rationing.""
    "Read that to mean Big Pharma doesn't want you to find out the latest name brand pill they're advertising on the TV, is ten, or a hundred times more expensive than the pill it replaced when the patent ran out. It's an old industry trick. Change the formulation just enough to get a new patent so you can justify the cost under R&D. Profits before effectiveness always. A neutral study could end that game." ... "It's a good expenditure. As one industry puts it, "Comparative research has the potential to tell us which drugs and treatments are safe, and which ones work. This is not information that the private sector will generate on its own, or that the industry wants to share."" -By Libby Spencer-TheImpolitic
    20090209
    FBI News: Federal Bureau of Investigation News.
    MICHAEL STEELE News. Maryland Republican Michael Stephen Steele News.Michael SteelePOLITICAL News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticalMONEY News. COMPANY PAYMENTS News.MoneyFEDERAL News.FederalLAW News.LawMARYLAND NewsMaryland2006 ELECTION News. 2006 VOTE News.2006 Election
    "RNC [Republican] chief Michael Steele says he'll cooperate with FBI: enying allegations of impropriety in his 2006 campaign spending, Steele says he will voluntarily hand over papers to the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], which had contacted his sister over payments her company received." ... "Reporting from Washington -- Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele said Sunday that he would provide records from his 2006 [election, Maryland, United States] U.S. Senate campaign to the FBI in an effort to speed an apparent investigation into allegations of improper campaign spending." ... "Steele confirmed that his sister was recently contacted by FBI agents looking into allegations that his campaign paid a company she owned more than $37,000 in 2007 for campaign work that was never performed. The allegations were made by Steele's former campaign finance chairman in an attempt to gain a more lenient prison sentence after he was convicted of fraud in an unrelated case." ... "Alan B. Fabian, who had been finance chairman of Steele's Senate campaign in Maryland, made the allegations in March in an effort to get a reduced sentence for his part in a $40-million fraud scheme." -By Paul West -LAtimes
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    PETE SESSIONS News. Texas Republican Pete Sessions News.Pete SessionsMICHAEL STEELE News. Maryland Republican Michael Stephen Steele News.Michael SteeleTERRORISM News.TerrorismRADIO News. On-Air News.RadioGOVERNMENT News. FEDERAL News.GovernmentECONOMIC News. MONEY News. COMPANY News. FINANCE News.EconomicLEGISLATION News. LAW News. PROSECUTION News.LegislationJOB News.JobTEX News: TEXAS News.TexGA News: GEORGIA News.GaMARYLAND NewsMaryland2006 ELECTION News. 2006 VOTE News.2006 Election
    Rush Limbaugh, Republican Leader."Republicans See Long-Term Victory in Defeat on Stimulus Plan." ... "GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] Sees Positives In Negative Stand: Leaders Seize On Spending Issue." ... "After giving the package zero [Republican] votes in the House, and 0 with their [Republican] counterparts in the Senate likely to provide in a crucial procedural vote today only the handful of votes needed to avoid a filibuster, Republicans are relishing the opportunity to make a big statement. [Texas Republican Representative] Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex. [Representative-Texas]) suggested last week that the party is learning from the disruptive tactics of the Taliban, and the GOP these days does have the bravado of an insurgent band that has pulled together after a big defeat to carry off a quick, if not particularly damaging, raid on the powers that be." ... "And it means rallying to Rush Limbaugh, who has put himself forward as a de facto party leader, penning an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal and accepting the on-air apologies of [Georgia Republican Representative] Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga. [Republican-Georgia]), who criticized the radio host and paid for it in a deluge of angry calls." ... "[Republican National Committee chairman Michael S. Steele congratulated congressional Republicans in some of his first remarks as Republican chairman,] "The goose egg that you laid on the president's desk was just beautiful," he told them. "You and I know that in the history of mankind and womankind, government -- federal, state or local -- has never created one job. It's destroyed a lot of them."" ... "Steele is also facing a distraction -- a federal inquiry into allegations that his 2006 [election Maryland] Senate campaign paid a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed. The campaign's finance chairman made the allegations to federal prosecutors last year as he sought leniency during plea negotiations on unrelated fraud charges." -By Alec MacGillis and Perry Bacon Jr. -WashingtonPost
    20090208
    OPINION News.
    MEDIA News.MediaPOLITICS News.PoliticsRADIO News.RadioMARKET News. MONEY News.Market -FLORIDA News.FloridaSAN DIEGO News. SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA News.San DiegoSACRAMENTO News. California Capital: Sacramento California News.SacramentoCALIFORNIA News.CaliforniaOHIO News.OhioMINNESOTA News.MinnesotaWISCONSIN News.WisconsinPORTLAND News. PORTLAND OREGON News.PortlandOREGON News.Oregon
    "Another Right-Wing Conspiracy in Washington?" ... "The commercial use of public airwaves is supposed to reflect the diversity of the local community, but that's not how it works in Washington [DC, America's capital]. On the AM dial, WMAL (630) features wall-to-wall conservative talk. So do stations WTNT (570) and WHFS (1580). For the past two years, OBAMA 1260 -- even with a weak signal that cannot be heard in downtown Washington -- was the exception. No longer. Starting tomorrow, our nation's capital, where Democrats control the House, the Senate and the White House, and where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to one, will have no progressive voices on the air." ... "Or maybe one." ... "To mollify critics, Red Zebra has said it will add Ed Schultz to its conservative lineup on 570 AM. This means Shultz will be outgunned in this market by at least 15 conservative talkers: Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Chris Plante, Michael Smerconish, Michael Savage, Andy Parks, Fred Grandy, Bill Bennett, Monica Crowley, Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller and Lars Larsen. No matter how good Schultz is, that's not a fair contest -- nor a fair use of the public airwaves." ... "Unfortunately, what's happening in Washington reflects what has happened in one city after another across the country. In Miami [Florida], Clear Channel recently dumped progressive talk for sports: Clear Channel stations made the same move in San Diego [California] and Cincinnati [Ohio]. Sacramento [California] abandoned progressive talk for gospel music. In fact, according to a study released by the Center for American Progress and Free Press, there are nine hours of conservative talk for every one hour of progressive talk." ... "Why? Station owners complain they can't get good ratings or make any money with progressive talk, but that's nonsense. In Minnesota, independent owner Janet Robert has operated KTNF (950 AM) profitably for five years. In Madison, Wis. [Wisconsin], WXXM, 92.1 FM, just scored its highest ratings ever. And KPOJ in Portland, Ore. [Oregon], soared with progressive talk from No. 23 in market ratings to No. 1. Nationwide, progressive talkers Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller have proven that, given a level playing field, they can more than hold their own in ratings -- and make money for their stations." ... "In fact, the only reason there's not more competition on American airwaves is that the handful of companies that own most radio stations do everything they can to block it." ... "There is no free market in talk radio today, only an exclusive, tightly held, conservative media conspiracy." -By Bill Press -WashingtonPost
    20090207
    OPINION News.
    MICHAEL STEELE News. Maryland Republican Michael Stephen Steele News.Michael SteeleRADIO News.RadioPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsCORPORATE News.CorporateMEDIA News.MediaGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMARKETING News.Marketing
    "The RNC [Republican National Committee] begs for help on right wing talk radio." ... "C&Lers Tony and Karen emailed me this tidbit and I thought I would share."
    "Please take a look at the RNC [Republican National Committee] website - http://www.rnc.org/ On the right hand side is a link that goes to a list of all of the right wing radio shows, along with a plea to promote the RNC. The [Republican President] Bush administration was constantly denying that talk radio was just another arm of their party. The RNC seems to have given up this pretense. It was blatant government propaganda for eight years. Sickening!"
    "Is there any doubt that Rush Limbaugh rules the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican]? [Republican Chairman] Michael Steele has to beg for help from wingnut talk radio. How embarrassing. " -By John Amato -CrooksAndLiars.com
    LAW News.
    MICHAEL STEELE News. Maryland Republican Michael Stephen Steele News.Michael Steele -MONEY News.MoneyPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsFEDERAL News.FederalINVESTIGATION News.Investigation2006 ELECTION News.2006 ElectionMARYLAND News.Maryland
    "Steele's Campaign Spending Questioned: Agents Contact Sister After Ex-Aide's Claims." ... "Michael S. Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed, his finance chairman from that campaign has told federal prosecutors." ... "Federal agents in recent days contacted Steele's sister, a spokesman for Steele said yesterday." ... "The claim about the payment, one of several allegations by Alan B. Fabian, is outlined in a confidential court document. Fabian offered the information last March as he was seeking leniency for himself during plea negotiations on unrelated fraud charges." ... "Fabian's claims emerge as Steele begins his new role at the RNC [Republican National Committee], where he oversees the raising and spending of hundreds of millions of dollars in party money. The former Maryland lieutenant governor has faced questions about his handling of campaign money in prior elections and was twice fined for missing filing deadlines." ... "The recent allegations outlined four specific transactions. In addition to the payment to Steele's sister, Fabian said that the candidate used money from his state campaign improperly; that Steele paid $75,000 from the state campaign to a law firm for work that was never performed; and that he or an aide transferred more than $500,000 in campaign cash from one bank to another without authorization." ... "In one of his allegations, Fabian points to a February 2007 payment by Steele's Senate campaign of more than $37,000 to Brown Sugar Unlimited, the company run by Steele's sister, Monica Turner. Campaign finance records list the expense as having been for "catering/web services." Turner filed papers to dissolve the company 11 months before the payment was received." (1, 2, 3) -By Henri E. Cauvin with contributions by Aaron C. Davis, Matthew Mosk, Katherine Shaver, John Wagner and Meg Smith -WashingtonPost
    LAW News.
    DICK CHENEY News.Dick CheneyCRIMINAL INVESTIGATION News.CriminalKBR News. HALLIBURTON Co News. KBR Inc News.KBR/HalliburtonCORPORATION News. CONGLOMERATE News. MONEY News.CorporationGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics-NB News: Nota Bene News. NOTEWORTHY News.MILITARY News.MilitaryPEOPLE News.PeopleTEXAS News.TexasUS AMERICAN News.USIRAQ News.IraqNIGERIA News.NigeriaOIL News.OilCONSTRUCTION News.Construction
    "KBR wins contract despite criminal probe of deaths." ... "Defense contractor KBR Inc. [Incorporated] has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two [United States] U.S. soldiers in Iraq." ... "The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon, in strongly worded correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, rejected the company's explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements. A senior Pentagon official, David J. Graff, cited the company's "continuing quality deficiencies" and said KBR executives were "not sufficiently in touch with the urgency or realities of what was actually occurring on the ground."" ... ""Many within DOD (the Department of Defense) have lost or are losing all remaining confidence in KBR's ability to successfully and repeatedly perform the required electrical support services mission in Iraq," wrote Graff, commander of the Defense Contract Management Agency, in a [September] Sept. 30 letter." ... "Graff rejected the company's claims that it wasn't required to follow U.S. electrical codes for its work on U.S. military facilities in Iraq." ... "The deaths of [Staff Sergeant Christopher Lee] Everett and [Staff Sergeant Ryan] Maseth are among the 18 under review by the Pentagon's inspector general." ... "KBR was previously owned by Halliburton Co. [Company], the oil services conglomerate that former [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney once led." ... "Separately, court papers filed in Houston [Texas] on Friday show KBR is preparing to plead guilty to federal bribery charges for promising and paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Nigeria in exchange for engineering and construction contracts between 1995 and 2004." -By Kimberly Hefling -AP via -Yahoo
    LAW News. Justice Department News.
    CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION News. INSPECTION News.CriminalFOOD News. Peanut News.FoodSAFETY News.SafetySCIENCE News.ScienceCONSUMERS NewsConsumersHEALTH News.HealthGa News: GEORGIA News.GaAGRICULTURAL News.AgriculturalCORP News: CORPORATION News.CorporationPLANTS News. FACTORY News.Plant
    "FDA: Plant knew peanuts laced with salmonella." ... "As far back as 2007, salmonella-laced products were shipped by a Georgia peanut company [owned by Stewart Parnell] that knew the peanuts probably were tainted and sometimes after tests confirmed that contamination, inspection records show." ... "Federal law forbids producing or shipping foods under conditions that could make it harmful to consumers' health." ... "Food and Drug Administration officials earlier had said Peanut Corp. [Corporation] of America waited for a second test to clear peanut butter and peanuts that initially were positive for salmonella. But the agency amended its report Friday, saying that the Blakely, Ga. [Georgia], plant actually shipped some products before receiving the second test and sold others after confirming salmonella." ... "The salmonella outbreak has been blamed for at least eight deaths and 575 illnesses in 43 states. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation. More than 1,550 products have been recalled." -By Brett J. Blackledge and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar with contributions by Mary Clare Jalonick -AP via -Yahoo
    OPINION News.
    GOVERNMENT News.GovernmentECONOMIC News. BUSINESS News.EconomicPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsEMPLOYMENT News.Employment
    "What the centrists have wrought." ... "[T]o appease the centrists, a plan that was already too small and too focused on ineffective tax cuts has been made significantly smaller, and even more focused on tax cuts." ... "According to the [Congressional Budget Office] CBO’s estimates, we’re facing an output shortfall of almost 14% of GDP [Gross Domestic Product] over the next two years, or around $2 trillion. Others, such as Goldman Sachs, are even more pessimistic. So the original $800 billion plan was too small, especially because a substantial share consisted of tax cuts that probably would have added little to demand. The plan should have been at least 50% larger." ... "Now the centrists have shaved off $86 billion in spending — much of it among the most effective and most needed parts of the plan." ... "My first cut says that the changes to the Senate bill will ensure that we have at least 600,000 fewer Americans employed over the next two years." -By Paul Krugman/Blog -NYTimes
    20090206
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    FINANCIAL News. TREASURY News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsAIG News: AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP News.AIGINVESTIGATION News.Investigation
    "Bush overpaid banks in bailout, watchdog says." ... "The [Republican President] Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says." ... "The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said last year's overpayments amounted to a taxpayer-financed $78 billion subsidy of the firms." ... "Financially ailing insurance giant American International Group, which the Treasury Department deemed to be too big to be allowed to fail, received $40 billion from the Treasury for assets valued at $14.8 billion, the oversight panel found." -By Jim Kuhnhenn -AP via -Yahoo
    [PDF] "Congressional Oversight Panel. February Oversight Report. Valuing Treasury's Acquisitions." -Congressional Oversight Panel - http://cop.senate.gov
    OPINION News.
    JOHN MCCAIN News.John McCainGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicHISTORY News.HistoryPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsAZ News: ARIZONA News.AZ
    "Krugman: How Can There Be Bipartisanship When GOP ‘Take Their Marching Orders From Rush Limbaugh?’" ... "Today on MSNBC, the Morning Joe team [featuring former Republican politician Joe Scarborough] — many of whom have been having a tough time with the facts of the economic recovery plan — hosted Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman to discuss the bill. Krugman began by emphasizing the severity of the current economic crisis. “This is not your father’s recession,” Krugman said. “This is your grandfather’s recession. This is something that is closer to what we went through in the 30s.”" ... "Krugman criticized opposition to the “pork” in the recovery plan, calling the obstruction “irresponsible” and “ludicrous.” He noted that it’s “a few billion dollars in a $900 billion plan. …They’re picking out small punctuation errors and saying ‘oh this whole thing is wrong.’” Krugman added, “This is the kind of situation where you try to build a bridge across an economic chasm and if you build half a bridge it doesn’t work.”" ... "Yesterday, the Senate defeated (but most Republicans voted in favor of) an alternative plan offered by [Arizona Republican Senator] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ [Republican-Arizona]) that centered mainly on massive tax cuts. Krugman called the plan “completely crazy” and an indication of a failure of bipartisanship:"
    "KRUGMAN: Look at what just happened, we had a proposal I think it was McCain’s proposal for an economic recovery package, his version of it which was all tax cuts, a complete, let’s do exactly what Bush did, have another round of Bush-style policies. After eight years which that didn’t work and we got 36 out of 41 Republican senators voting for that which is completely crazy. So how much bipartisan outreach can you have when 36 out of 41 republican senators take their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh?"
    [Watch it]
    "Later in the interview, Krugman advised President Obama to “disregard” the GOP’s [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] knee-jerk reaction to cut taxes. “At this point we have a Republican Party that, except for a few members, is committed to just doing more what we did during the last eight years. Obama has to disregard that.”" -By Ben Armbruster -ThinkProgress.org
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    JOBS News. UNEMPLOYMENT News. LABOR MARKET News. WORKING News.JobsEMPLOYERS News. MARKET News.EmployerPEOPLE News.PeopleHISTORY News.History
    "Job loss: Worst in 34 years: Employers slashed 598,000 more jobs in January as unemployment rate climbed to 7.6%." ... "Employers slashed another 598,000 jobs off of [United States] U.S. payrolls in January, taking the unemployment rate up to 7.6%, according to the latest government reading on the nation's battered labor market." ... "The latest job loss is the worst since December 1974, and brings job losses to 1.8 million in just the last three months, or half of the 3.6 million jobs that have been lost since the beginning of 2008." ... "The unemployment rate is now at its highest level since September, 1992." ... "Friday's report also showed that 2.6 million people have now been out of work for more than six months, the most long-term unemployed since 1983." ... "The so-called underemployment rate, which includes those who have stopped looking for work and people working only part-time that want full-time positions, climbed to 13.9% from 13.5% in December. That is the highest rate for this measure since the Labor Department first started tracking it in 1994." -CNN
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    HENRY PAULSON News.Henry PaulsonFINANCIAL News. TREASURY News. BANK News. MONEY News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsFLORIDA News.Florida
    "TARP Shortchanged Taxpayers by $78 Billion, Watchdog Panel Says." ... "[United States] U.S. taxpayers are being shortchanged by about $78 billion through the Treasury Department’s bank bailout, the panel overseeing the program said." ... "The Treasury, when it was headed by [Republican President Bush's] Secretary Henry Paulson, received bank assets worth about $176 billion in exchange for capital purchases of $254 billion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Congressional Oversight Panel said in a report today." ... "“The loss estimate is conservative,” said [Florida Democratic] Representative Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee. “It could turn out that those assets in the end are worthless. These are massive handouts to favored institutions to try to make up with taxpayer money the mistakes they made with investor money.”" ... "TARP [Troubled Asset Relief Program], which is part of the more than $9 trillion the government has pledged to rescue the financial system, has guaranteed $350 billion to banks so far, with another $350 billion set for use in coming months." -By Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry -Bloomberg
    20090205
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaNOTEWORTHY News.NoteworthyECONOMY News. GREAT DEPRESSION News.EconomicCRISIS News.Crisis -HISTORY News.HistoryPEOPLE News.PeopleFAMILIES News. CHILDREN News.FamiliesJOBS News. UNEMPLOYMENT News. WORKERS News.JobsHOMES News.HomesCONSUMER NewsConsumerENERGY News. OIL News.EnergyHEALTH CARE News.Health CareEDUCATION News.EducationINTERNET News.InternetSCIENCE News.ScienceTRANSPORTATION News.TransportationCONSTRUCTION News.ConstructionGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLEGISLATION News. LAW News.LegislationPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "The Action Americans Need." [By Democratic President Barack Obama] ... "By now, it's clear to everyone that we have inherited an economic crisis as deep and dire as any since the days of the Great Depression. Millions of jobs that Americans relied on just a year ago are gone; millions more of the nest eggs families worked so hard to build have vanished. People everywhere are worried about what tomorrow will bring." ... "What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis." ... "Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse." ... "That's why I feel such a sense of urgency about the recovery plan before Congress. With it, we will create or save more than 3 million jobs over the next two years, provide immediate tax relief to 95 percent of American workers, ignite spending by businesses and consumers alike, and take steps to strengthen our country for years to come." ... "This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education. And it's a strategy that will be implemented with unprecedented transparency and accountability, so Americans know where their tax dollars are going and how they are being spent." ... "In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive." ... "I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail." ... "Every day, our economy gets sicker -- and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now." ... "Now is the time to protect health insurance for the more than 8 million Americans at risk of losing their coverage and to computerize the health-care records of every American within five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives in the process." ... "Now is the time to save billions by making 2 million homes and 75 percent of federal buildings more energy-efficient, and to double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy within three years." ... "Now is the time to give our children every advantage they need to compete by upgrading 10,000 schools with state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries and labs; by training our teachers in math and science; and by bringing the dream of a college education within reach for millions of Americans." ... "And now is the time to create the jobs that remake America for the 21st century by rebuilding aging roads, bridges and levees; designing a smart electrical grid; and connecting every corner of the country to the information superhighway." ... "These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay. They're patient enough to know that our economic recovery will be measured in years, not months. But they have no patience for the same old partisan gridlock that stands in the way of action while our economy continues to slide." ... "So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time." -By Barack Obama -WashingtonPost
    POLITICS News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaFINANCIAL News. ECONOMY News.FinancialCRISIS News.CrisisGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLEGISLATION News. LAW News.Legislation
    "Obama puts the heat on Republicans: He says the 'half steps' now urged by the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] for the stimulus bill are the same ideas that led to the financial crisis." ... "[Democratic] President Obama abruptly changed tactics Wednesday in his bid to revive the economy, setting aside his bipartisan stance and pointedly blaming Republicans for demanding what he cast as discredited "piecemeal measures."" ... "Obama's comments were a marked departure from the conciliatory tone he has maintained as he courted Republican votes for his stimulus package through compromise. Against the wishes of his own party, Obama crafted a plan that relied heavily on tax cuts rooted in Republican economic doctrine." ... ""Now, let me say this," Obama said. "In the past few days, I've heard criticisms of this plan that frankly echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis in the first place -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems, that we can address this enormous crisis with half steps and piecemeal measures and tinkering around the edges, that we can ignore fundamental challenges, like the high cost of healthcare, and still expect our economy and our country to thrive." ... ""I reject these theories," he continued. "And, by the way, so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change."" ... ""A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery and a more uncertain future," he warned at another White House appearance." -By Peter Nicholas -LAtimes
    20090204
    OPINION News.
    NOTEWORTHY News.NoteworthyCORPORATE News. MONEY News. COMPANIES News. INVESTMENT News. INDUSTRIES News. TREASURY DEPARTMENT News.Corporate -GOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLAWMAKER News. LAW News.LawmakersPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "TARP Recipients Paid Out $114 Million for Politicking Last Year." ... "The companies that have been awarded taxpayers' money from Congress's bailout bill spent $77 million on lobbying and $37 million on federal campaign contributions, Center finds. The return on investment: 258,449 percent." ... "The struggling companies whose freewheeling business practices have contributed to the country's economic woes are getting a lucrative return on at least one of their investments. Beneficiaries of the $700 billion bailout package in the finance and automotive industries have spent a total of $114.2 million on lobbying in the past year and contributions toward the 2008 election, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has found. The companies' political activities have, in part, yielded them $295.2 billion from the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), an extraordinary return of 258,449 percent." ... ""Even in the best economic times, you won't find an investment with a greater payoff than what these companies have been getting," said Sheila Krumholz, the Center's executive director. "Some of the companies and industries that have received payments may now consider their contributions and lobbying to be the smartest investments they've made in years."" ... "While the Treasury Department, not Congress, doles out TARP funds to specific institutions, congressional lawmakers had to authorize that money in the first place, and lawmakers will determine in the future whether to release more funds to prop up the U.S. economy. During the bill-writing process, members of Congress were able to specify to some extent where the money should go, and they have lobbied regulators to urge them to inject funds into specific banks and financial institutions, including those in lawmakers' own districts." ... ""Taxpayers hope their money is being allocated entirely on the merits, but with Congress controlling how much money the Treasury gets to hand out, it will be impossible to completely exclude politics from this process," Krumholz said." -OpenSecrets.org
    OPINION News.
    JUDD GREGG News.Judd GreggJACK ABRAMOFF News.Jack AbramoffCORPORATE News. MONEY News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLEGISLATIVE News. LAW News. LEGISLATION News.Legislative -POLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsINVESTIGATION News.InvestigationNEW HAMPSHIRE News.New Hampshire
    "Former Gregg Aide Tied To Abramoff Scandal, Court Documents Report He Took Gifts In Exchange For Favors." ... "Earlier today, the AP reported that Kevin Koonce, who worked as Commerce Secretary-nominee [New Hampshire Republican Senator] Judd Gregg’s legislative director from 2002-04, “has been caught up in a long-running investigation into a Capitol Hill lobbying scandal.” Koonce “was cited in a guilty plea last week by Todd Boulanger, a former deputy to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff,” as having taken gifts exceeding $10,000 in exchange for favors in spending legislation." ... "According to Boulanger’s plea documents, Koonce “tried to help insert spending measures and add other amendments to legislation for Boulanger’s clients.” At one point, Boulanger sent an e-mail to Abramoff saying that he was confident Koonce’s boss would help them out:"
    "Later, Boulanger sent an e-mail to Abramoff expressing confidence that the senator [Republican Judd Gregg] for whom the staffer worked would give them a favor. “Easy money,” Boulanger wrote, adding that the aide “practically lives in our various suites. We are shady.”"
    "As Raw Story notes, Gregg’s spokesman Joel Maiola said in 2006 that Gregg had “never had any contact” with Abramoff, despite his acceptance of donations from “two Indian tribes represented by Abramoff’s firm in 2002 and 2004.” Gregg reportedly donated the $12,000 to a New Hampshire-based charity." -By Matt Corley -ThinkProgress.org
    20090203
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    TRANSPORTATION News. Highway News. Mass Transit News.TransportationINFRASTRUCTURE News.InfrastructureWATER News.WaterGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMONEY News. ECONOMIC News.Money -WASH News: WASHINGTON News.WashCALIF News: CALIFORNIA News.Calif
    "Senate GOP blocks extra $25B in stimulus package." ... "Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked Democrats from adding $25 billion for highways, mass transit, and water projects to [Democratic] President Barack Obama's economic recovery program." ... "Already unhappy over the size of the measure, Republicans insisted additional infrastructure projects be paid for with cuts elsewhere in the bill." ... "But the Democratic amendment garnered 58 votes, just shy of the supermajority needed under Senate budget rules, and many more efforts to increase the measure's size are sure to follow." ... "At issue was a plan by [Washington Democratic Senator] Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash. [Democratic-Washington], and [California Democratic Senator] Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. [California-Democratic], to increase the highway funding in the bill to $40 billion, which reflected complaints from lawmakers in both parties that Obama's plan doesn't do enough to relieve a backlog of unfinished projects. The duo also wanted to increase mass transit programs by $5 billion boost and water projects by $7 billion." ... ""Our highways are jammed. People go to work in gridlock," Feinstein said Tuesday." -By Andrew Taylor -AP via -Yahoo
    20090202
    POLITICS News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaJUDD GREGG News. New Hampshire Republican Judd Alan Gregg News.Judd GreggCORPORATE News. MONEY News. COMMERCE News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentSENIORS News.SeniorsHEALTH News. MEDICARE News. MEDICAID News.HealthPEOPLE News.PeopleACCOUNTING News.AccountingHISTORY News.HistoryNH News: NEW HAMPSHIRE News.NH
    "Gregg Voted to Kill Commerce Before He Agreed to Lead It." ... "[Democratic] President Obama’s new candidate to run the Commerce Department voted in favor of abolishing the agency as a member of the Budget Committee and on the Senate floor in 1995." ... "[New Hampshire Republican Senator] Sen. Judd Gregg , R-N.H. [Republican-New Hampshire], whose nomination was expected to be announced Tuesday, also worked in the Senate to trim the department’s budget as head of the Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee." ... "The Senate version of the controversial measure envisioned spending cuts of more than $960 billion, almost half of it from Medicare and Medicaid. Democratic efforts to amend it were uniformly rebuked by a united GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] majority on the Budget Committee." ... "Gregg also fought [Democratic] President Bill Clinton’s efforts to increase funding for the Commerce Department to administer the 2000 census. Indeed, Gregg’s commitment to basic functions of the department has been questioned at times." ... "“I guess if you can’t destroy it, go be in charge of it,” said a Senate Republican aide." -By Jonathan Allen -CQPolitics.com
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaJUDD GREGG News. New Hampshire Republican Judd Alan Gregg News.Judd GreggFEMALE News. WOMEN News. GENDER News.FemaleWORKERS News. EMPLOYEE News. WORK News. JOB News. WORKPLACE News.Employees -PAY News. EMPLOYERS News. MONEY News. BUSINESS News. CORPORATE News.PayLAW News. LEGISLATION News. LAWSUIT News. SUPREME COURT News. INJUSTICE News.LegislationPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsHISTORY News.HistoryRACE News.RaceNEW HAMPSHIRE News.New Hampshire
    "Kudos to Congress for equal pay vote." ... "The Lilly Ledbetter case is pretty straightforward. Ledbetter, an employee of Goodyear Tire and Rubber for nearly 20 years, was paid significantly less than her male co-workers for doing the same job." ... "Ledbetter filed a lawsuit against Goodyear after someone left an anonymous note in her mailbox telling her about the disparity." ... "The case wended its way to the United States Supreme Court, which found that employers are protected from lawsuits over race or gender pay discrimination if the claims are based on decisions made by the employer 180 days ago or more." ... "Seeing the inherent injustice in the letter of the law, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act last week. The act, which represented [Democratic] President Barack Obama's first bill signing, changes the law to begin a new 180-day statute of limitations with every paycheck." ... "New Hampshire [Republican Senator] Sen. Judd Gregg, however, voted against it, saying that while all Americans deserve "equal and fair treatment at the workplace," the bill "is really a boon for trial lawyers which dramatically broadens their ability to file lawsuits, regardless of how frivolous or whether their clients even personally experienced discrimination."" ... "That's disappointing." ... "Anytime politicians want to stand up for corporate America by opposing legislation that protects workers, they play the frivolous lawsuit card." ... "Sure, there are egregious cases where wayward juries give people ridiculous amounts of money for doing something they should have known better not to do (although those cases are often later settled for less or overturned on appeal)." ... "However, this isn't such a case, and Sen. Gregg should be able to come up with a better rationale for voting to deny thousands of Americans the opportunity to pursue equal pay for equal work." -NashuaTelegraph.com
    20090201
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaCORPORATE News. FINANCIAL News. MONEY News. ECONOMIC News. BANK News. INVESTOR News. STOCKHOLDERS News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentCRISIS News.CrisisPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "Bailouts for Bunglers." ... "“We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system,” says Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary [appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama] — as he prepares to put taxpayers on the hook for that system’s immense losses." ... "Meanwhile, a Washington Post report based on administration sources says that Mr. Geithner and Lawrence Summers, President Obama’s top economic adviser, “think governments make poor bank managers” — as opposed, presumably, to the private-sector geniuses who managed to lose more than a trillion dollars in the space of a few years." ... "And this prejudice in favor of private control, even when the government is putting up all the money, seems to be warping the administration’s response to the financial crisis." ... "In normal times, banks raise capital by selling stock to private investors, who receive a share in the bank’s ownership in return. You might think, then, that if banks currently can’t or won’t raise enough capital from private investors, the government should do what a private investor would: provide capital in return for partial ownership." ... "But bank stocks are worth so little these days — Citigroup and Bank of America have a combined market value of only $52 billion — that the ownership wouldn’t be partial: pumping in enough taxpayer money to make the banks sound would, in effect, turn them into publicly owned enterprises." ... "My response to this prospect is: so? If taxpayers are footing the bill for rescuing the banks, why shouldn’t they get ownership, at least until private buyers can be found? But the Obama administration appears to be tying itself in knots to avoid this outcome." ... "If news reports are right, the bank rescue plan will contain two main elements: government purchases of some troubled bank assets and guarantees against losses on other assets. The guarantees would represent a big gift to bank stockholders; the purchases might not, if the price was fair — but prices would, The Financial Times reports, probably be based on “valuation models” rather than market prices, suggesting that the government would be making a big gift here, too." ... "And in return for what is likely to be a huge subsidy to stockholders, taxpayers will get, well, nothing." -By Paul Krugman -NYTimes
    20090128
    MONEY News. BUSINESS News. COMPANIES News. FINANCIAL INDUSTRY News. STOCK News. CORPORATE News.
    ACCOUNTING News.AccountingPOLITICS News.PoliticsGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLAW News.LawNEW YORK STATE News.New YorkJOB News.Jobs
    "What Red Ink? Wall Street Paid Hefty Bonuses." ... "By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived." ... "Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year." ... "That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller." ... "It excludes stock option awards that could push the figures even higher." ... "The state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said it was unclear if banks had used taxpayer money for the bonuses, a possibility that strikes corporate governance experts, and indeed many ordinary Americans, as outrageous." ... "“The issue of transparency is a significant one, and there needs to be an accounting about whether there was any taxpayer money used to pay bonuses or to pay for corporate jets or dividends or anything else,” Mr. DiNapoli said in an interview." ... "According to Mr. DiNapoli, the brokerage units of New York financial companies lost more than $35 billion in 2008, triple their losses in 2007." ... "Outside the financial industry, many corporate executives received fatter bonuses in 2008, even as the economy lost 2.6 million jobs." -By Ben White with contributions by Paul J. Sullivan -NYTimes
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS News. LAW ENFORCEMENT News.CriminalHOME MORTGAGE News.HomeFINANCIAL News. MONEY News.FinancingACCOUNTING News.AccountingLAW News.LawINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligenceHISTORY News.HistoryTERRORISM News.TerrorismPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "FBI saw mortgage fraud early." ... "The FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] was aware for years of "pervasive and growing" fraud in the mortgage industry that eventually contributed to America's financial meltdown, but did not take definitive action to stop it." ... ""It is clear that we had good intelligence on the mortgage-fraud schemes, the corrupt attorneys, the corrupt appraisers, the insider schemes," said a recently retired, high FBI official. Another retired top FBI official confirmed that such intelligence went back to 2002." ... "The problem, according to the two FBI retirees and several other current and former bureau colleagues, is that the bureau was stretched so thin that no one noticed when those lenders began packaging bad mortgages into bad securities." ... ""We knew that the mortgage-brokerage industry was corrupt," the first of the retired FBI officials told the Seattle P-I. "Where we would have gotten a sense of what was really going on was the point where the mortgage was sold knowing that it was a piece of dung and it would be turned into a security. But the agents with the expertise had been diverted to counterterrorism."" ... "Both retired FBI officials asserted that the [Republican President] Bush administration was thoroughly briefed on the mortgage fraud crisis and its potential to cascade out of control with devastating financial consequences, but made the decision not to give back to the FBI the agents it needed to address the problem. After the terrorist attacks of 2001, about 2,400 agents were reassigned to counterterrorism duties." ... "This mass reassignment was first chronicled by the Seattle P-I in the Terrorism Tradeoff, a series of investigative reports beginning in 2007 and stretching into 2008. That administration policy, the P-I reported, resulted in a dramatic plunge in FBI criminal investigations and referrals for prosecution. And recent data from Syracuse University researchers shows the problem has worsened." ... "Public statements by one high FBI executive shows that the bureau was well aware of the potentially devastating impact of rampant mortgage fraud at least five years ago. The executive ominously foretold the crisis in testimony before Congress." ... ""Based on various industry reports and FBI analysis, mortgage fraud is pervasive and growing," Chris Swecker, then assistant director of the criminal investigation division, said in October 2004 before the House subcommittee on housing and community opportunity." ... "Then Swecker made a chillingly accurate prediction of the coming mortgage meltdown and financial collapse:" ... ""The potential impact of mortgage fraud on financial institutions in the stock market is clear. If fraudulent practices become systemic within the mortgage industry and mortgage fraud is allowed to become unrestrained, it will ultimately place financial institutions at risk and have adverse effects on the stock market."" ... "Swecker went on to describe the scenario that ultimately wrecked financial havoc around the world: "Often mortgage loans sold in secondary markets are used by financial institutions as collateral for other investments. ... When loans sold in the secondary market default and have fraudulent or material misrepresentation ... these loans become a nonperforming asset, and in extreme fraud cases, the mortgage-backed security is worthless. Mortgage fraud losses adversely affect loan-loss reserves, profits, liquidity levels and capitalization ratios, ultimately affecting the soundness of the financial institution itself."" -By Paul Shukovsky with contributions by Daniel Lathrop -SeattlePI.NWsource
    OPINION News.
    TV News. CABLE News. CABLE NETWORKS News.CableMEDIA News.MediaPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsLAWMAKER News. LAW News.LawmakersFEDERAL News.Federal -ECONOMIC News. BUSINESS News.EconomicsJOHN BOEHNER News.John BoehnerJOHN MCCAIN News.John McCainOH News: OHIO News.OHAZ News: ARIZONA News.AZ
    "REPORT: GOP Lawmakers Outnumber Democratic Lawmakers 2 To 1 In Stimulus Debate On Cable News." ... "As Media Matters has documented, during the [Republican President] Bush administration, the media consistently allowed conservatives to dominate their shows, booking them as guests far more often than progressives. The rationale was that Republicans were “in power.”" ... "It appears that old habits die hard. Even though [Democratic] President Obama and his team are in control of the executive branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic recovery package." ... "On Sunday, conservatives began an all-out assault on President Obama’s economic recovery plan, with [Ohio Republican Representative and Republican] House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH [Republican-Ohio]) and [Arizona Republican Senator] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ [Republican-Arizona]) both announcing that they would vote against the plan as it stood. Despite Obama’s efforts at good faith outreach, congressional conservatives have continued to attack the stimulus plan with a series of false and disingenuous arguments." ... "The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week:"
    "Cable News Appearances By Members of Congress"
    "(By Party - January 26-28, 2009)"
    Cable TV Politics: Media Bias More Republican Than Democratic. Bar graph graphic from ThinkProgress.org.
    [Red=Republican / Blue=Democratic]
    ... "The drastically imbalanced coverage isn’t the first time that the news networks have effectively supported attacks on the recovery plans. As ThinkProgress reported on Monday, the cable networks, the Sunday shows and the network newscasts promoted a controversial CBO non-report 81 times before the actual CBO analysis of the stimulus plan was released." -ThinkProgress
    HEALTH News.
    FOOD News. PEANUT BUTTER News.FoodSAFETY News.SafetyMANUFACTURING News.Manufacturing -COMPANY News.CompanyGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLAW News.LawGEORGIA News.Georgia
    "FDA Alleges Company Knowingly Sold Peanut Products Containing Salmonella." ... "There is new information available about the recent salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter from a plant in Georgia." ... "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said at least 12 times over the past two years the Peanut Corporation of America has knowingly sold products that had tested positive for salmonella." ... "The FDA also claimed the company did nothing to improve its manufacturing and sanitation practices after salmonella was found in its plant, and that is a clear violation of the law." ... "More than 500 people have gotten sick and the outbreak may have contributed to at least eight deaths. " -ByLee Sausley -KRISTV.com via -MSNBC
    OPINION News.
    ECONOMY News. MONEY News.EconomicLEGISLATION News. LAW News.LegislationPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentINFRASTRUCTURE News.InfrastructureENERGY News.EnergyPEOPLE News. HUMAN News.People'sHEALTH CARE News.HealthJOB News.JobsEDUCATION News.Education-FOOD News.FoodBARACK OBAMA News.Obama
    "Republicans Vote Against the American People." ... "The House of Representatives passed an $819-million economic stimulus package this evening. The vote was 244-188. Only Democrats voted for it. 177 Republicans voted against it." ... "The package includes both spending measures and tax cuts. The American people would get some tax relief, money to save or to spend, perhaps to pay the bills and put food on the table, and money would go to infrastructure projects, for energy and education and health care, to support those who need it, those who have lost their jobs at a time when the economy is bleeding jobs, and down to states and municipalities, to levels of government on the front lines of service provision." ... "You know what? It’s not just about stimulating the economy, it’s about helping people. It’s responsive, responsible government action at a time when government action is desperately needed." ... "And, in the House, every single Republican voted against it." ... "Read that again: EVERY SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTED AGAINST IT." ... "So much for bipartisan outreach. So much for [Democratic President] Obama’s efforts to be inclusive and to seek compromise with the other side. All the Republicans could offer was the same old tired formula of tax cuts, tax cuts, and more tax cuts, and, when it came right down to it, when it came time to pick a side, the Republicans sided, in unison, against the American people and the American economy." -By Michael Stickings -TheModerateVoice.com
    LAW News.
    MONEY News. FINANCIAL News. INVESTORS News.FinancialACCOUNTING News.AccountingFEDERAL News.Federal -LAW ENFORCEMENT News.EnforcementFLORIDA News.FloridaNY News: NEW YORK News.NYPENNSYLVANIA News.PennsylvaniaIDAHO News.Idaho
    "In Echoes Of Madoff, Ponzi Cases Proliferate." ... "Federal and state authorities are reporting a growing number of financial scams that echo the alleged Madoff fraud, as strapped investors seek access to their cash amid increasingly hard times." ... "At least six suspected multimillion-dollar fraud cases have emerged this month alone, many of them alleged Ponzi schemes, in which investors are lured by promises of lofty returns but are actually paid off from new victims' funds." ... "On Tuesday, authorities arrested Arthur Nadel, the missing Florida hedge-fund adviser, who was accused by federal authorities of defrauding clients of millions of dollars." ... "In the latest case to emerge, Nicholas Cosmo, a Long Island, N.Y. [New York], investment-firm owner, surrendered to federal authorities Monday." ... "The [Securities and Exchange Commission] agency, which doesn't keep an official count, brought at least 23 Ponzi cases last year, up from 15 in 2007. It has already filed four in 2009. That tally doesn't include actions on the state level, where allegations of securities fraud are routinely pursued." ... "Three weeks ago, the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] accused a Philadelphia[ Pennsylvania]-area investment fund manager, Joseph S. Forte, with running a Ponzi scheme since at least 1995 that claimed returns as high as 38% and raised $50 million." ... "Meanwhile, Idaho's securities regulators are investigating allegations by investors in Idaho Falls [Idaho] that they lost up to $100 million in an alleged Ponzi scheme by Daren Palmer, a local money manager." -By Steve Stecklow with contributions by Philip Shishkin and William M. Bulkeley -WSJ.com
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    DIGITAL News. COMPUTER News.DigitalTV News: TELEVISION News. BROADCASTERS News.TelevisionTECHNOLOGY News.TechnologyLAW News.Law -WIRELESS News.WirelessCOMPANIES News.CompaniesBARACK OBAMA News.ObamaCONSUMER NewsConsumer
    "Plan to delay U.S. switch to digital TV thwarted by Republicans." ... "An attempt to delay the U.S. [United States] switch to digital-only television transmission by four months has been scuttled by the House of Representatives." ... "House Republicans voted down a bill on Wednesday that would have postponed the latest date for the transition to digital broadcasting from analog until June 12. The changeover is set for [February] Feb. 17." ... "The majority of House members voted 258-168 in favour of the bill, but it required two-thirds support to pass." ... "Republicans oppose the delay because they say it would confuse consumers, burden wireless companies and would create added costs for broadcasters. [Democratic] President Barack Obama, Senate Democrats, and consumer advocates have said the delay is necessary to accommodate people who are unprepared." -AP via -CBC.ca
    20090127
    ACCOUNTING News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentECONOMIC News. MONEY News. BUSINESS News.EconomicsLEGISLATION News.LegislationPOOR News.PoorUNEMPLOYED News. EMPLOYMENT News. WORK News.UnemployedCONSUMER NewsConsumerCONSTRUCTION News.ConstructionPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "GOP [Republicans] may vote no, but economists back Obama stimulus." ... "Economists think the stimulus plan that the House of Representatives will vote on Wednesday, while far from perfect, will help stimulate the moribund U.S. [United States] economy." ... "There's no panacea for what ails the economy. A stimulus plan will work only in combination with other actions, such as more aid to the banking system to spark lending and boost consumer confidence, and the implementation of any plan will be as important as what's in it." ... "However, most leading economists who are experienced in public policy generally favor the stimulus plan that the House is considering because through it the government will step up spending at a time when private-sector spending has fallen off sharply." ... "The House legislation would erect four pillars of economic stimulus. It would provide income support to the poor and recently unemployed, distribute aid to state governments, seek relatively quick employment gains through public works spending and aim to spark consumer and business spending through targeted tax cuts." ... "Private-sector economists who support the stimulus plan say that it could be made better, and, yes, bigger." ... ""I would make the package bigger . . . increase the package to over $1 trillion," [Moody's chief economist Mark] Zandi said." -By Kevin G. Hall -McClatchyDC.com
    NOTEWORTHY News.
    ECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicsHISTORY News.HistoryFEDERAL News.FederalLEGISLATION News.LegislationPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "Congressional Budget Office compares downturn to Great Depression." ... "The nation's current recession is likely to be the longest since World War II, and by some measures could be the worst since the Great Depression, a new Congressional Budget Office forecast said Tuesday." ... "Without a major economic stimulus plan, "the shortfall in the nation's output relative to its potential would be the largest – in terms of both length and depth – since the Depression of the 1930s," said new CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf in testimony prepared for the House Budget Committee." ... "The nonpartisan CBO is highly regarded by both parties." ... ""It could also be the deepest recession during the postwar period in terms of the difference between actual and potential output," Elmendorf said. By his estimates, output over the next two years will average 6.8 percent below normal." -By David Lightman -McClatchyDC.com
    20090126
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    ICELAND News.IcelandECONOMIC News. MONEY News.EconomicCRISIS News.Crisis
    "Crisis claims Icelandic cabinet: Iceland's coalition government has collapsed under the strain of an escalating economic crisis." ... "Conservative Prime Minister Geir Haarde announced the resignation of his cabinet, after talks with his Social Democratic coalition partners failed." ... "He said he could not accept the Social Democrats' demand to lead the country." ... "Iceland's financial system collapsed in October under the weight of debt, leading to a currency crisis, rising unemployment and daily protests." ... "The economy is forecast to shrink by almost 10% this year." ... "The coalition between Mr Haarde's Independence Party and Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Gisladottir's Social Democratic Alliance had been under strain in recent months." ... "It emerged that the country's banks, which had amassed debt during years of rapid expansion, owed about six times the country's economic output." ... "Money from around the world had also poured into Iceland because interest rates there exceeded 10%." ... "Mr Haarde's government responded to the financial collapse by nationalising leading banks. It also negotiated about $10bn in loans with the International Monetary Fund and donor countries. " -BBC.co.uk
    PEOPLE News.
    SENIORS News.SeniorsHEALTH News. MEDICAL News.HealthELECTRICITY News. POWER COMPANY News.PowerCOMPANY News. MONEY News.CompanyWEATHER News.WeatherMICHIGAN News.Michigan
    "Man freezes to death after city limits electricity." ... "A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his home [in Bay City, Michigan] just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills, officials said." ... "Marvin E. Schur died "a slow, painful death," said Kanu Virani, [Michigan's] Oakland County's deputy chief medical examiner, who performed the autopsy." -AP via -MSNBC
    OPINION News.
    JOHN BOEHNER News.John BoehnerGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentECONOMIC News. MONEY News. INDUSTRY News.EconomicLEGISLATION News. LAW News.LegislationPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsHISTORY News.HistoryPOOR News.PoorFAMILY News.FamilyWOMEN'S News.Women'sMEDICAL News. MEDICAID News. HEALTH News.MedicalABORTION News.AbortionAL News: ALABAMA News.AL.FL News: FLORIDA News.FLMS News: MISSISSIPPI News.MSSC News: SOUTH CAROLINA News.SCCA News: CALIFORNIA News.CALA News: LOUISIANA News.LAMN News: MINNESOTA News.MNRI News: RHODE ISLAND News.RIMO News: MISSOURI News.MOOHIO News.OhioWISCONSIN News.Wisconsin
    "Republicans Irate Over Expansion of Republican-Approved Program." ... "[T]he family-planning program that [California Democratic Representative and House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi supports expanding in the stimulus bill was created in 1972 under the leadership of Republican president Richard Nixon." ... "What's being proposed is an expansion in the number of states that can use Medicaid money, with a federal match, to help low-income women prevent unwanted pregnancies. Of the 26 states that already have Medicaid waivers for family planning, eight are led by Republican governors (AL [Alabama], FL [Florida], MS [Mississippi], SC [South Carolina], CA [California], LA [Louisiana], MN [Minnesota] and RI [Rhode Island] -- a ninth, MO [Missouri], had a GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] governor until this past November). If this policy is truly a taxpayer gift to "the abortion industry," as [Ohio Republican Representative] John Boehner and House Republicans claim, where are the GOP governors promising to end the program in their states?" ... "Additionally, the process of obtaining a waiver for Medicaid family-planning coverage is extremely cumbersome. A letter written by Wisconsin health regulators in 2007 noted that some states have had to wait for as long as two years before their request was approved. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that eliminating the waiver requirement would save states $400 million over 10 years." -By Elana Schor -TPMDC .TalkingPointsMemo
    20090121
    HISTORY News.
    AUTO News. Automaker News. GM News: General Motors Corp News. TOYOTA News. Toyota Motor Corp News.AutoMANUFACTURING News. Maker News.ManufacturingBUSINESS News. CORP News. INDUSTRY News. Market Capitalization News.BusinessHISTORY News.HistoryMICHIGAN News.MichiganUS AMERICAN News.US -JAPAN News.JapanGLOBAL News. World's News.Global
    "GM loses global sales crown after 77 years." ... "[United States] General Motors Corp reported an 11 percent drop in global sales in 2008, allowing rival [Japan] Toyota Motor Corp to surpass it as the world's largest automaker for the first time." ... "GM [General Motors], now struggling to restructure under a $13.4 billion U.S. [United States] government bailout, had held the title as the global auto industry leader for 77 years and used the line in marketing." ... "But for 2008, Detroit[ Michigan]-based GM said sales tumbled to 8.35 million vehicles, pressured by tightening credit and a slowdown that began in the United States and spread to emerging markets where GM has been stronger." ... "GM, which faces an end-March deadline to demonstrate to U.S. officials that it can be made viable, has a market capitalization of just under $2 billion." ... "Toyota has a market value of about $117 billion." (1, 2) -By Kevin Krolicki with contributions by Poornima Gupta, Soyoung Kim, Maureen Bavdek and Matthew Lewis -Reuters
    20090120
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    HILLARY CLINTON News.Hillary Clinton -TEXAS News.TexasNEW YORK News.New YorkFOREIGN News.ForeignDONATIONS News. MONEY News.Donations
    "Texas senator [Republican Cornyn] blocks [Democratic Senator] Clinton's state confirmation." ... "The confirmation of [New York Democratic Senator] Hillary Rodham Clinton to be secretary of state will be held up for at least a day due to the objection of a single senator. [Texas Republican Senator] Sen. John Cornyn, R[ Republican]-Texas, said he wanted "a full and open debate and an up-or-down vote on [Senator] Sen. Clinton's nomination."" ... "He said important questions remain unanswered concerning the foundation headed by former [Democratic] President Bill Clinton "and its acceptance of donations from foreign entities. Transparency transcends partisan politics and the American people deserve to know more."" ... "In her testimony, Clinton said the foundation would provide a clearer picture of its annual donations." -By Jim Abrams -AP via -Yahoo
    20090110
    OPINION News.
    CORPORATE News. MONEY News. INVESTMENT News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentACCOUNTING News.AccountingPOLITICIAN News. POLITICIZED News.PoliticsHISTORY News.HistoryMILITARY News.MilitaryRECONSTRUCTION News. CONSTRUCTION News.ReconstructionGAS News.GasALBERTO GONZALES News. Republican Attorney General Alberto R Gonzales News.Alberto GonzalesTORTURE News.TortureLAW News. Justic Department News.LawINTELLIGENCE News.IntelligencePAT TILLMAN News.Pat TillmanUS AMERICAN News.USAFGHANISTAN News.AfghanistanGUANTANAMO News. Guantánamo Bay News.GuantánamoIRAQ News.Iraq
    "Eight Years of Madoffs." ... "Three days after the world learned that $50 billion may have disappeared in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, The Times led its front page of [2008 December] Dec. 14 with the revelation of another $50 billion rip-off. This time the vanished loot belonged to American taxpayers. That was our collective contribution to the $117 billion spent (as of mid-2008) on Iraq reconstruction — a sinkhole of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and outright theft that epitomized [Republican President] Bush management at home and abroad." ... "The source for this news was a near-final draft of an as-yet-unpublished 513-page federal history of this nation-building fiasco. The document was assembled by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction — led by a Bush appointee, no less. It pinpoints, among other transgressions, a governmental Ponzi scheme concocted to bamboozle Americans into believing they were accruing steady dividends on their investment in a “new” Iraq." ... "The report quotes no less an authority than Colin Powell on how the scam worked. Back in 2003, Powell said, the Defense Department just “kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces — the number would jump 20,000 a week! ‘We now have 80,000, we now have 100,000, we now have 120,000.’ ” Those of us who questioned these astonishing numbers were dismissed as fools, much like those who begged in vain to get the Securities and Exchange Commission to challenge Madoff’s math." ... "What’s most remarkable about the Times article, however, is how little stir it caused. When, in 1971, The Times got its hands on the Pentagon Papers, the internal federal history of the Vietnam disaster, the revelations caused a national uproar. But after eight years of battering by Bush, the nation has been rendered half-catatonic. The Iraq Pentagon Papers sank with barely a trace." ... "After all, next to big-ticket administration horrors like Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and the politicized hiring and firing at Alberto Gonzales’s Justice Department, the wreckage of Iraq reconstruction is what Ralph Kramden of “The Honeymooners” would dismiss as “a mere bag of shells.” The $50 billion also pales next to other sums that remain unaccounted for in the Bush era, from the $345 billion in lost tax revenue due to unpoliced offshore corporate tax havens to the far-from-transparent disposition of some $350 billion in Wall Street bailout money. In the old Pat Moynihan phrase, the Bush years have “defined deviancy down” in terms of how low a standard of ethical behavior we now tolerate as the norm from public officials." ... "Not even a good old-fashioned sex scandal could get our outrage going again. Indeed, a juicy one erupted last year in the Interior Department, where the inspector general found that officials “had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives." ... "Back in the day, an oil-fueled scandal in that one department alone could mesmerize a nation and earn [Republican President] Warren Harding a permanent ranking among our all-time worst presidents. But while the scandals at Bush’s Interior resemble Teapot Dome — and also encompass millions of dollars in lost federal oil and gas royalties — they barely registered beyond the Beltway. Even late-night comics yawned when The Washington Post administered a coup de grâce last week, reporting that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne spent $235,000 from taxpayers to redo his office bathroom (monogrammed towels included)." ... "It took 110 pages for the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan research organization, to compile the CliffsNotes inventory of the Bush wreckage last month. It found “125 systematic failures across the breadth of the federal government.” That accounting is conservative. There are still too many unanswered questions. " ... "Just a short list is staggering. Who put that bogus “uranium from Africa” into the crucial prewar State of the Union address after the C.I.A. [Central Intelligence Agency] removed it from previous Bush speeches? How high up were the authorities who ordered and condoned torture and then let the “rotten apples” at the bottom of the military heap take the fall? Who orchestrated the Pentagon’s elaborate P.R. [Public Relations] efforts to cover up Pat Tillman’s death by “friendly fire” in Afghanistan? " -By Frank Rich -NYTimes
    20090109
    OPINION News.
    JUDD GREGG News. New Hampshire Republican Judd Alan Gregg News.Judd GreggCORPORATE News. MONEY News.CorporateACCOUNTING News.AccountingPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsFEDERAL News. GOVERNMENT News.FederalHISTORY News.HistoryNEW HAMPSHIRE News.New Hampshire
    "Republican Judd Gregg (R-NH) Is a Liar." ... "So Justin Fox says:"
    "The Curious Capitalist: Judd Gregg’s dubious tax math: Republican New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg (or one of his staffers) writes:"
    "The growth in tax revenues from 2002 through 2007 were some of the largest in history. The tax system became much more progressive, with the top 20% of income earners paying 85% of the taxes -- a rate much higher than during the Clinton years -- all while keeping capital-gains rates low."
    "I'll blame the WSJ [Wall Street Journal] opinion editors for the verb-subject disagreement in the first sentence. But I'm assuming the facts came from Gregg. Except they're not quite facts—and since this sort of tax disinformation is pretty common, I couldn't resist wasting an hour digging up the data to refute them."

    "Non-fact No. 1: The tax revenue gains from 2002 through 2007 weren't "some of the largest in history," unless you define "some" extremely broadly. Adjusted for inflation, [United States] U.S. government revenue rose 20% from 2002 to 2007. That ranks 24th among the 58 rolling five-year periods between the end of World War II and 2007. Just barely above average.... Over the full eight years of the [Republican President] Bush administration, it appears likely that federal revenue growth will be just about zero. Over the eight [Democratic President] Clinton years it was 58%."

    "Non-fact No. 2: The percentage of federal taxes paid by the top 20% of the income distribution in 2005 (the most recent year covered by the Congressional Budget Office's annual examination of tax rates and the income distribution) was 69%. The percentage of federal income taxes was 86%...."

    "The cuts in tax rates on capital gains and dividends during the Bush years accentuated this kink, so on the whole a fair-minded observer would have to say the tax system became somewhat less progressive. Which isn't what Judd Gregg said."

    [-By Justin Fox -TIME.com]
     -By Brad DeLong
    HISTORY News.
    JOB News. JOBLESS News. WORKERS News. UNEMPLOYMENT News.JoblessEMPLOYER News. MONEY News. BUSINESS News. COMPANIES News.EmployersPEOPLE News.People
    "Jobless Rate Hits 7.2%, a 16-Year High." ... "The nation lost 524,000 jobs in December, reflecting a pervasive fear among employers that if they fail to shed workers quickly their companies may go under in a recession poised to become the worst since the 1930s." ... "The unemployment rate, meanwhile, jumped to a 16-year-high of 7.2 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. The growing army of the unemployed, at 11.1 million, is nearly 50 percent bigger than at the start of the recession a year ago." ... "The December decline in jobs came on top of similar losses in October and November. Not since 1980 has the work force shrunk so much in just three months. Companies across all industries are grappling with sales that are deteriorating rapidly just as they lose easy access to loans." ... "The total number of jobs lost in the recession now totals 2.59 million, counting upward revisions for October and November, with many more job losses expected in coming months." ... "Nearly as troubling, hundreds of thousands more people sought full-time work in December but could not get more than part-time jobs." ... "If those workers are included, the so-called total unemployment rate swelled to 13.5 percent, from 12.6 percent in November and just 8.7 percent at the start of the recession. Total unemployment includes the officially unemployed, the part-timers who seek more hours and the nearly 300,000 who would like a job but tell pollsters from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that they are too discouraged to look." -By Louis Uchitelle with contributions by Jeff Zeleny -NYTimes
    20090108
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    CORPORATE News. MONEY News. BUSINESS News. COMPANY News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News. FEDERAL News.GovernmentREGULATION News. LAW News. REGULATORY News.RegulationsWORKERS News. EMPLOYEE News.Workers -SAFETY News.SafetyMEDICAL News.MedicalSCIENCE News.ScienceENVIRONMENT News.Environment -HISTORY News.HistoryEARTH News.Earth -OIL and GAS News. OIL SHALE News. FUEL News.OilAUTO News. CARS and LIGHT TRUCKS News.AutoSt PAUL News. St Paul Minnesota News.St. PaulMINNESOTA News.MinnesotaWYOMING News.WyomingUTAH News.UtahBARACK OBAMA News.Obama -US AMERICAN News.USNETHERLANDS News.NetherlandsWORLD News.World
    "Bush Pushes ‘Midnight Rules’ to Support Companies as Term Ends." ... "[Republican President] George W. Bush is using the waning days of his presidency to implement a raft of pro-business regulations, triggering vows by the incoming [Democratic President Elect] Obama administration and congressional Democrats to gut the measures." ... "Bush is proposing changes to federal rules that critics say make it more difficult to protect U.S. [United States] workers from exposure to toxic chemicals, reduce the use of employee medical leave and open more land to oil and gas exploration. The effort is supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and trade groups representing companies including [Netherlands-based] Royal Dutch Shell Plc [Public limited company] and Dow Chemical Co. [Company.]" ... "The Interior Department today is publishing a rule that would lift a 79-year-old executive order prohibiting oil shale development in Wyoming and Utah. Yesterday, the Bush administration postponed regulations requiring cars and light trucks to be more fuel efficient by 2011." ... "Bush’s regulation on toxins, which isn’t final yet, would change the way workplace exposure to poisonous substances is measured, and is supported by associations representing companies such as Dow, the biggest U.S. chemical company, Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest oil company, and 3M Co., the St. Paul [Minnesota's capital], Minnesota-based maker of 55,000 products." ... "The change is opposed by the United Mineworkers and other unions. They argue it would delay new health protections for workers by requiring a lengthy regulatory process before new standards could be issued. " -By Holly Rosenkrantz and Mark Drajem -Bloomberg
    PEOPLE News.
    CORPORATE News. MONEY News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentMILITARY News.MilitaryVIRGINIA News. VIRGINIA State News.VirginiaUS AMERICAN News.USIRAQ News.IraqAFGHANISTAN News.Afghanistan
    "Army Sends 'Dear John Doe' Letters to Families of Fallen Troops." ... "The Army mistakenly sent letters addressed "Dear John Doe" to 7,000 family members of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, unleashing calls from troubled relatives and prompting a formal apology yesterday from the Army's top general." ... "The letters, mailed late last month by the Army's Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operation Center in Alexandria [Virginia], contained information about private organizations that assist families of the fallen. But in what the Army called a printing error by a contractor, the letters did not contain specific names and addresses; instead, they had the placeholder greeting "Dear John Doe."" -By Ann Scott Tyson -WashingtonPost
    OPINION News.
    KARL ROVE News.Karl RoveFEDERAL News.FederalHOUSING News.HousingECONOMY News.EconomyHISTORICAL News.HistoricalPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "Karl Rove’s Factually Challenged Housing Revisionism." ... "As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. The instant historical revisionism by [Republican] Karl Rove in today’s WSJ [Wall Street Journal] — mythmaking writ large — contains an egregious combination of false statements, crucial omissions and misleading assertions." ... "A few thoughts are required to correct Rove’s attempt to create a false and deceptive narrative. Consider these few corrections:" ... "1. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were among the principal culprits of the housing crisis” Wrong. Fannie and Freddie were cogs in the giant mortgage machine, but they had nothing to do with the abdication of lending standards from 2002-07. That was a function of the Lend-to-Securitize business model of the sub-prime mortgage originators. THAT was the primary cause of the housing boom and bust, along with Ultra-low rates and a lack of Fed regulation of these sub-prime lenders." ... "2. “Fannie and Freddie were too large and overleveraged” True. This had been pointed out by many people, before [Republican President] Bush and afterwards, that Fannie was a problem. Chief amongst the Fannie critics was Fed Governor William Poole. He deserves credit for his many early warnings about Fannie Mae and the GSEs [Government Sponsored Enterprises]. He was ignored by Alan Greenspan. Also ignored was Fed Governor Edward Gramlich, whose early warnings about subprime and predatory lending and were both timely and prescient." ... "3. Democrats controlled the Congressional Debate on GSEs: Rove somehow fails to note the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] controlled Congress from 1994-2006, including the first 6 years of the Bush Presidency. If the President wanted to rein in the GSEs, he needed only make it a major priority, and not a footnote in the 2001 budget." -By Barry Ritholtz.com
    OPINION News.
    WOMEN News.WomenJOB News.JobsMONEY News.MoneyCIVIL RIGHTS News.Civil RightsLAW News.LawPOLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.PoliticsCALIFORNIA News.California
    "Courts using Ledbetter decision to ‘undermine civil rights principles across the board.’." ... "Tomorrow, the House is set to take up the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would overturn a Supreme Court decisionthat restricted a woman’s right to bring pay discrimination lawsuits. The House handily passed the bill last year, but Senate conservatives blocked it after [Republican] President Bush threatened to veto it. On a conference call organized by [California Democratic Representative] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today, Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center, explained that the faulty Supreme Court decision has been stretched to cripple all kinds of anti-discrimination laws:"
    "GREENBERGER: So now we’ve got these judges taking the Ledbetter decision to absurd lengths and saying that the most entrenched and invidious discrimination — now that those who have the courage and the knowledge and the ability, for the first time to combat are out of time. It is an outrageous approach, an undermining of civil rights principles across the board. It’s now causing real misery, as was described not only for women and their families in pay…but for all victims of discrimination."
    "Check out the Center for American Progress’s Fair Pay Calculator, and learn more about the fight for fair pay, here. Firedoglake has more." -By Ali Frick -ThinkProgress.org
    POLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaFINANCIAL News. ECONOMISTS News. COMPANIES News. EMPLOYER News.FinancialJOB News. WORKERS News.JobsGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentLAWMAKER News. LAW News.LawmakersMASS News: MASSACHUSETTS News.Mass
    "Lawmakers and Financial Experts Question Obama's Tax Cuts." ... "At least two tax cuts that are part of [Democratic President Elect] Barack Obama's stimulus package have been criticized by lawmakers, tax experts and economists for being potentially too expensive and ineffective, signaling that they are likely to face resistance on Capitol Hill as congressional leaders begin direct negotiations with the president-elect's team." ... "Both Democrats and Republicans have questioned a provision that would provide a $3,000 tax credit to companies for every job created and, possibly, for every job spared. They contend that the idea would be ripe for abuse and difficult to administer." ... ""It is tough to see how a company that is seeing its sales slaughtered in today's recession is going to hire just because it gets a few thousand dollars per new worker from the government," Howard Gleckman wrote on the TaxVox blog for the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. "Profitable firms would merely take the credit for bringing on workers they were already planning on hiring."" ... "[Massachusetts Democratic Representative] Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass. [Democratic-Massachusetts]), chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on select revenue measures, said the scenario that worries him is that of the employer who lays off thousands of people and then is subsidized for hiring back a few hundred." (1, 2) -By Shailagh Murray -WashingtonPost
    MONEY News. INCORPORATED News. FINANCIAL INDUSTRY News. MARKET News. CORP News.
    CONSUMER NewsConsumer -HOME News.HomeCOURTS News. LAW News.LawGOVERNMENT News. FEDERAL News.GovernmentPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "Citigroup Backs Bankruptcy Courts Cutting Loan Rates (Update1)." ... "Citigroup Inc. [Incorporated], one of nine U.S. [United States] banks to get government aid, agreed to support legislation that would let bankruptcy judges cut mortgage rates for at-risk borrowers, three U.S. senators said today as financial industry lobbyists said the compromise was flawed." ... "Citigroup in November got $306 billion of U.S. government guarantees for troubled mortgages and toxic assets to stabilize the bank. The deal, brokered by the Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. [Corporation] required the bank to modify terms for guaranteed troubled loans based on a model created by the FDIC." ... "Congress has passed several measures in the past year to stem home foreclosures, including a $300 billion bill passed in July aimed at helping 400,000 borrowers keep their homes. Senate Democrats were unable in April to adopt the bankruptcy proposal. Republicans, and the banking industry, said the plan would raise costs because lenders would try to recoup losses in court with higher rates on other loans." ... "The revised bill Citigroup endorsed would give judges the ability to adjust principle payments or interest rates on existing loans, and could extend the term on the loan, according to the language of the bill, which would force lenders to take losses without a say in bankruptcy court proceedings." ... "Citigroup accounted for 7 percent of the U.S. market for servicing home loans as of Sept. 30, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance newsletter in October. " -By Margaret Chadbourn -Bloomberg
    CONSUMER News.
    MONEY News.MoneyHISTORY News.History
    "Consumer Borrowing in U.S. Falls Record $7.9 Billion (Update1)." ... "Consumer borrowing dropped by a record $7.9 billion in November as Americans scrambled to boost savings in face of the deepening recession and amid an investor exodus from securities backed by credit-card and other loans." ... "The slump brought consumer credit down to $2.57 trillion, and capped the first back-to-back monthly decline since 1992, the Federal Reserve said today in Washington. The biggest decrease came in securitized assets, an area where Fed policy makers are creating a new $200 billion lending program to shore up credit." ... "Today’s figures foreshadow a prolonged drop in consumer spending as households try to reduce debt with their net worth declining and job losses accelerating, analysts said." ... "The Fed’s figures don’t cover borrowing secured by real estate. In October, credit fell by $2.8 billion, previously reported as a drop of $3.5 billion. " -By Shobhana Chandra -Bloomberg
    OPINION News.
    DICK CHENEY News.Dick CheneyDOUGLAS J FEITH News.Douglas J FeithI LEWIS 'SCOOTER' LIBBY News."Scooter" LibbyNOTEWORTHY News.NoteworthyMILITARY News.MilitaryPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsHISTORY News.HistoryBOOK News.BookPETROLEUM News. OIL News.PetroleumMONEY News.MoneyUS AMERICAN NewsUSISRAEL News.IsraelPALESTINE News. Palestinian News.PalestineIRAQ News.IRAN News.LEBANON News.SYRIA News.TURKEY News.SAUDI ARABIA News.JORDAN News.NORWAY News. NORWEGIAN News.
    "Neoconservatism dies in Gaza: he recent Israeli offensive has put the final nail in the coffin of the [Republican President] Bush administration's Middle East fantasy." ... "The Gaza War of 2009 is a final and eloquent testimony to the complete failure of the neoconservative movement in United States foreign policy. For over a decade, the leading figures in this school of thought saw the violent overthrow of [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein and the institution of a parliamentary regime in Iraq as the magic solution to all the problems in the Middle East. They envisioned, in the wake of the fall of Baghdad [Iraq's capital], the moderation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the overthrow of the Baath Party in Syria and the Khomeinist regime in Iran, the deepening of the alliance with Turkey, the marginalization of Saudi Arabia, a new era of cheap petroleum, and a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on terms favorable to Israel. After eight years in which they strode the globe like colossi, they have left behind a devastated moonscape reminiscent of some post-apocalyptic B movie. As their chief enabler prepares to exit the White House, the only nation they have strengthened is Iran; the only alliance they have deepened is that between Iran and two militant Islamist entities to Israel's north and south, Hezbollah and Hamas." ... "The neoconservatives first laid out their manifesto in a 1996 paper, "A Clean Break," written for an obscure think tank in Jerusalem [Israel's capital] and intended for the eyes of far right-wing Israeli politician Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party, who had just been elected prime minister. They advised Israel to renounce the Oslo [Norway's capital] peace process and reject the principle of trading land for peace, instead dealing with the Palestinians with an iron fist. They urged Israel to uphold the right of hot pursuit of Palestinian guerrillas and to find alternatives to Yasser Arafat's Fatah for the Palestinian leadership. They called forth Israeli airstrikes on targets in Syria and rejection of negotiations with Damascus [Syria's capital]. They foresaw strengthened ties between Israel and its two regional friends, Turkey and Jordan." ... "They advocated "removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq," in part as a way of "rolling back" Syria. In place of the secular, republican tyrant, they fantasized about the restoration of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, and thought that a Sunni king might help moderate the Shiite Hezbollah in south Lebanon. (Yes.) They barely mentioned Iran, though it appears that their program of expelling Syria from Lebanon and weakening its regime was in part aimed at depriving Iran of its main Arab ally. In a 1999 book called "Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein," David Wurmser argued that it was false to fear that installing the Iraqi Shiites in power in Baghdad would strengthen Iran regionally." ... "The signatories to this fantasy of using brute military power to reshape all of West Asia included some figures who would go on to fill key positions in the Bush administration. Richard Perle, a former assistant secretary of defense under Reagan, became chairman of the influential Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, a civilian oversight body for the Pentagon. Douglas J. Feith became the undersecretary of defense for planning. David Wurmser first served in Feith's propaganda shop, the Office of Special Plans, which manufactured the case for an American war on Iraq, and then went on to serve with "Scooter" Libby in the office of [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney." ... "The neoconservatives used their well-funded think tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP, an organ of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the Hudson Institute, among others, to promote this agenda of the conquest of Iraq as a solution of all ills." ... "The biggest danger facing the United States is that there will be no true "Clean Break" -- that the neoconservatives will somehow find a way to survive the Bush administration, and continue to influence American foreign policy." (1, 2) -By Juan Cole -Salon
    OPINION News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaECONOMIC News. MONEY News.Economic -JOB News.JobsPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentHISTORY News.HistoryIOWA News.Iowa
    "Harkin Fears "Trickle-Down" Stimulus." ... "Democratic senators are still emerging from their closed-door briefing with [Democratic President Elect] Obama economic adviser Larry Summers ... but a senior Democratic senator, Iowa progressive Tom Harkin, just gave me a dire buzzword: trickle-down." ... ""There's only one thing we've got to do in this stimulus, and that's create jobs," Harkin told me. "I'm a little concerned by the way Mr. Summers and others are going on this ... it still looks a little more to me like trickle-down."" ... "Likening Barack Obama's economic recovery plan to the failed supply-side excesses of the [Republican Presidents] Reagan and Bush years is a bit of a Cassandra moment. But Harkin didn't back down. "What I'm hearing from Mr. Summers is that they've got a different approach -- tax breaks, and this and that," he said. Harkin warned that, much like the outcome of George Bush's $600 stimulus package last year, recipients of quick tax cuts "are going to be salting it away, not spending it."" ... "When I asked if he felt his concerns were heard during the meeting, he looked to the floor and slowly shook his head. It was almost forlorn." -By Elana Schor -TPMElectionCentral .TalkingPointsMemo
    20081224
    POLITICS News. POLITICIAN News.
    KARL ROVE News.Karl RoveFEDERAL News.FederalCHRISTMAS EVE News.ChristmasTRADE News. COMMERCE News. MONEY News.TradeTEXAS News.Texas
    "Top Bush Aides to Linger on High-Profile Boards." ... "The Christmas Eve appointments will allow them to serve far beyond [2009, January] Jan. 20, the end of [Republican President] Mr. Bush’s term in office." ... "Ms. [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice got a spot on the John F. Kennedy Center’s board of trustees until September 2014." ... "Mr. Bush’s gift to Mr. [Commerce Secretary Carlos M.] Gutierrez: membership on the board of trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a research institute in Washington. Joining Mr. Gutierrez as a trustee is Barry Jackson, a former deputy to Karl Rove, who serves as assistant to the president for strategic initiatives and external affairs." ... "Maria Cino, a longtime ally of the president who was deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation and helped run the 2008 Republican National Convention, received a four-year term on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. President Bush also extended the same courtesy to Israel Hernandez, who was once a personal aide to Mr. Bush in Texas and now serves as an assistant secretary of commerce and director general of the United States Commercial Service." ... "And the first lady, Laura Bush, appears to be taking care of her own, too. The president appointed her chief of staff, Anita B. McBride, to a three-year term on the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board." -By Michael Falcone with contributions by Sheryl Stolberg -NYTimes
    SCIENTIFIC News. RESEARCH News.
    BARACK OBAMA News.Barack ObamaFEDERAL News.FederalEMBRYONIC STEM CELL News.Stem CellHEALTH News.HealthMONEY News.MoneyLEGISLATION News. LAW News.LegislationPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsCOLO News: COLORADO News.Colo
    "Scientists eager for stem cell policy change." ... "Although [Democratic] President-elect Obama’s pledge to change federal policy on stem cell research is not likely to lead to new cures by the end of his first year — or even first term — the scientific community is eager to get moving." ... "Embryonic stem cell research is one area in which the change that Obama has promised on the campaign trail will provoke an immediate effect." ... "Once he has acted to ease the restriction on federal funding, researchers across the United States will be free to request funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and to collaborate with colleagues conducting experiments with private or state-government money and those working abroad." ... "“Just with the stroke of a pen, the new president could open up new avenues of research,” said [Colorado Democratic Representative] Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.), the lead Democratic sponsor of legislation that would broaden funding for embryonic stem cell research." ... "Researchers believe embryonic stem cells can be made to replicate practically any human cell or tissue, thus leading to treatments for countless ailments." -By Jeffrey Young -TheHill.com
    OPINION News.
    CHRISTOPHER COX News.Christopher CoxMONEY News. CORPORATE News. FINANCIAL News. WALL STREET News. MARKETS News. INVESTORS News.CorporateGOVERNMENT News.GovernmentACCOUNTING News. ACCOUNTANT News.AccountingLAW News.LawINVESTIGATION News. LAW ENFORCEMENT News.InvestigationPOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.Politics
    "SEC Chair Asked If He Deserves Blame For Wall Street Crisis: ‘Absolutely Not,’ It ‘Wasn’t The SEC’s Job’." ... "In a new interview with the Washington Post, embattled [Republican President Bush's] Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox stridently “defend[ed] his restrained approach to the financial crisis.” He refused to accept any blame for the Wall Street crisis or the Madoff Ponzi scheme, saying that regulating Wall Street and protecting investors “wasn’t the SEC’s job“:"
    "Cox argued that the agency has carefully defined responsibilities and that it was unfair to blame it for every problem on Wall Street." ... "“The public might not understand that that wasn’t the SEC’s job,” he said, adding that the agency was not responsible for preventing investment banks from collapsing but rather for sheltering their securities trading units from problems in the broader corporation. “The SEC is not a safety and soundness regulator,” he said. [..]"
    "In fact, the SEC’s mission statement clearly suggests that “safety” is — or should be — a primary concern of the commission:"
    "The mission of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation."
    "A review by the SEC inspector general “determined the agency’s monitoring of the five biggest Wall Street firms, which included Bear Stearns, was lacking.” (Just a few days before Bear Stearns collapsed, Cox said he had “a good deal of comfort” in the bank’s capital levels.) Another analysis showed that the SEC dramatically cut its oversight of financial trades. “In one of its core areas — regulation of Wall Street firms — its case load was down significantly,” said Ben A. Indek, a securities lawyer at the law firm that performed the analysis." ... "Cox also denied any culpability in the Madoff scandal: “When Cox was asked whether he should be blamed for a culture of lax enforcement that allowed multiple warnings about the fraud to go undetected, he said: ‘Absolutely not.’” However, a former SEC official slammed Cox for failing to prevent the Ponzi scheme: “I can’t comprehend how a well-run investigation would have missed a fraud of this magnitude,” said Lynn Turner, a former SEC chief accountant." -By Ali Frick -ThinkProgress.org
    20081223
    OPINION News.
    HEALTH News.HealthMILITARY News.MilitaryLAWSUIT News. LAW News.LawsuitKBR News.KBRCORPORATE News. COMPANY News.CorporatePOLITICIAN News. POLITICS News.PoliticsUNSAFE News. SAFETY News.UnsafeICE News. WATER News.IceIN News: INDIANA News.INUS AMERICAN News.USIRAQ News.Iraq
    "Soldiers Accuse KBR Of Knowingly Exposing Troops To Deadly Toxin In Iraq." ... "Controversial military contractor KBR has racked up quite a record of endangering the lives of U.S. [United States] soldiers serving in Iraq. Over the years, the former Halliburton subsidiary has been accused of everything from giving troops ice tainted with “traces of body fluids and putrefied remains” to ignoring warnings of unsafe wiring that led to troop deaths." ... "Earlier this month, attorneys for 16 members of the Indiana National Guard filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that they “knowingly exposed the soldiers to a cancer-causing toxic chemical.” In a special report last night, CBS News revealed that KBR knew of the toxic exposure to hexavalent chromium long before it informed the guardsmen:"
    "Now CBS News has obtained information that indicates KBR knew about the danger months before the soldiers were ever informed." ... "Depositions from KBR employees detailed concerns about the toxin in one part of the plant as early as May of 2003. And KBR minutes, from a later meeting state “that 60 percent of the people … exhibit symptoms of exposure,” including bloody noses and rashes." ... "Gentry says it wasn’t until the last day of August in 2003 - after four long months at the facility - that he was told the plant was contaminated."
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    WATCH: "KBR Accused In Toxic Scandal" via -CBSNews
    "After receiving a briefing on the case on Monday, [Indiana Democratic Senator] Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN [Democratic-Indiana]) told CBS that “KBR has a lot to answer for“:"
    "“Look, I think the burden of proof at this point is on the company,” Bayh said. “To come forward and very forthrightly explain what happened, why we should trust them, and why the health and well-being of our soldiers should continue to be in their hands.”"
    "In a statement to CBS, the company denied all charges, saying, “We deny the assertion that KBR harmed troops and was responsible for an unsafe condition.” According to CNN, “an estimated 275 American soldiers may have been exposed to the chemical” at the KBR water plant, “over a period of months through mid- to late-2003.”" -By Matt Corley -ThinkProgress.org
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    "Cocoa hits 23-year high on supply fears." ... "Cocoa prices on Tuesday surged to a 23-year high as speculative investors poured into the market amid concerns about dwindling supplies from Ivory Coast, by far the world’s largest producer." ... "Prices for cocoa have risen 70 per cent in the past year, bucking the weakness in overall commodities prices. " -By Javier Blas -FT.com
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