Source: USA Today

Local governments, once a steady source of employment in tough economic times, are shedding jobs in unprecedented numbers, and heavy payroll losses are expected to persist into next year.

The job cuts by city and county governments are helping offset modest private-sector employment gains, restraining broader job growth.

“They’ll continue to be a drag on the overall (employment) numbers and the economy,” says Wells Fargo economist Mark Vitner.

Localities have chopped 535,000 positions since September 2008 to close massive budget deficits resulting largely from sharp declines in property tax receipts. That exceeds the 413,000 local government jobs cut from 1980 to 1983, the only other substantial downturn in local government employment, according to federal records that go back to 1955.

To read this article in its entirety visit the USA Today.

Roland Martin talks with Sec. Alexis Herman and Harry E. Johnson President and CEO of the National MLK Memorial Foundation about the Martin Luther King Memorial Dedication, Sunday, October 16th in Washington D.C

Television Schedule Update: TV One’s Coverage of the MLK Memorial Dedication will begin at 9 AM ET.

Source: AP / CBS News

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Thursday that officials at the “highest levels” of the Iranian government must be held accountable for a brazen and bizarre plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States on American soil, insisting leaders of the world will believe the U.S. case without dispute once they absorb the details.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, confirmed the Obama administration has had direct contact with Iran over the allegations. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, met with Iranian officials at Iran’s mission to the U.N. on Wednesday — a highly unusual contact for two countries that do not have diplomatic relations.

Obama would not say whether Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, knew of the alleged plan. Yet he called it part of a pattern of “dangerous and reckless behavior” by the Iranian government and said people within that government were aware of a murder-for-hire plot.

The U.S. considers it an attempted act of terrorism.

“We believe that even if at the highest levels there was not detailed operational knowledge, there has to be accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity,” Obama said in a news conference tied to the state visit of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: AP / CBS News

NEW YORK – Protesters are taking their anti-Wall Street demonstration uptown, to the doorsteps of some of the city’s wealthiest.

Occupy Wall Street is planning a “Millionaire’s March” Tuesday, which will wind past the Upper East Side apartments of News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch; JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon; and billionaire and Tea Party-funder David Koch, among others, CBS Station WCBS reports.

The march begins at 12:30 p.m. at 59th Street and 5th Avenue and will head north.

The march comes a day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the demonstrators can continue their protest indefinitely as long as they continue to obey the law.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: CNN Money

NEW YORK – Millions of unemployed Americans are waiting for Congress to do something other than trade barbs over their job creation plans.

If lawmakers don’t act soon, the jobless see their unemployment checks start to disappear come January.

More than 6 million Americans are set to lose federal unemployment benefits in 2012, with 1.8 million running out in January alone, according to new figures from the National Employment Law Project.

President Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act would extend the deadline to file for federal unemployment benefits for another year. Though the Senate is expected to take up the controversial jobs bill on Tuesday, it’s unlikely to get very far.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN Money.

Source: President Barack Obama

Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth today. As one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Reverend Shuttlesworth dedicated his life to advancing the cause of justice for all Americans. He was a testament to the strength of the human spirit. And today we stand on his shoulders, and the shoulders of all those who marched and sat and lifted their voices to help perfect our union.

I will never forget having the opportunity several years ago to push Reverend Shuttlesworth in his wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge – a symbol of the sacrifices that he and so many others made in the name of equality. America owes Reverend Shuttlesworth a debt of gratitude, and our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Sephira, and their family, friends and loved ones.

Source: Engadget

Tim Cook just pulled the covers off of the hotly-anticipated iPhone 4S here in Cupertino. On the outside the 4S looks exactly like its predecessor, but on the inside it’s “all new.” Apple has jammed a dual-core A5 CPU inside alongside a new dual-core GPU that supposedly boosts graphics performance by up to 7x. Up front is the same Retina display we’ve all come to know and love, and a glass back. That antenna around the sides (which caused many users so much trouble) has been revamped and can intelligently switch between two different sets of anntenae on the fly to avoid dropping calls based on how you hold it. Those antennas are connected to a dual-mode GSM and CDMA radio that will let Apple’s handset roam the globe while enjoying either 14.4Mbps HSPA+ or EVDO.

On the back is also a new camera that sports an 8-megapixel camera with a backside illuminated CMOS sensor for better low-light performance. The lens now comes packed in a new assembly with a hybrid IR filter and sports apertures down to f/2.4. The improved visuals extend to video performance as well. The 4S can record 1080p video and has a new image signal processor for image stabilization and facial recognition, making the handset’s camera comparable to many point-and-shoots. The camera is also quite a bit faster than many other smartphone shooters, needing only 1.1 seconds before being ready to take the first shot and only half a second between successive images.

The 4S is also the first Apple handset to come packing Siri virtual assistant tech baked in.

As far as battery life, you’re looking at eight hours of talk over 3G, and 14 hours of 2G, while web browsing over 3G cuts off at six hours. Using WiFi you’ll get a respectable nine hours of web, video playback tops out at 10 hours and music at 40 hours.

To follow this topic visit Engadget.com

Source: AP / The Huffington Post

The House voted to fund the government for an additional six weeks on Tuesday, giving President Barack Obama and lawmakers more time to work out some $1 trillion of unfinished agency budgets for the fiscal year already days old.

The 352-66 final vote comes in time to send it to Obama ahead of the midnight deadline for a government shutdown.

The passage of the bill gives lawmakers additional time for what is sure to be an onerous task: passing the 12 annual spending bills that lay out the day-to-day operating budgets for Cabinet agencies and departments.

The GOP-controlled House, the Democratic-run Senate and the president are in agreement on an overall $1 trillion-plus budget for the government. Still, there’s plenty of disagreement over which programs should be increased and which should get cut the deepest.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Jenée Desmond-Harris / The Root

Last Thursday, Marcia Anderson was promoted from brigadier general to major general, becoming the first African-American woman given a second star as a general in the U.S. Army.

Anderson received the promotion after a military career spanning three decades. She left her post as deputy commanding general of the Human Resources Command at Fort Knox on Friday to move to the office of the chief of the U.S. Army Reserve in Washington, D.C.

In an interview after her promotion ceremony, Anderson recalled that her father, Rudy Mahan of Beloit, Wis., served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, but never got to fulfill his dream of flying bombers. He drove trucks instead. “There were just limited opportunities,” Anderson said.

Fort Knox Commander, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, told Anderson she is “a role model, not only to me and those that worked with you, but to countless soldiers.”

Anderson was also thinking of the soldiers who came before her: the black soldiers who fought during the Civil War and the Tuskegee Airmen. She says they never could have imagined her history-making promotion: “But, they still signed up and served,” she said. “This is for people like him who had dreams deferred.”

To follow this topic visit The Root.

Source: Colby Hall / Mediaite

This past Sunday the Washington Post published a lengthy report on a family camping site rented by Texas Governor Rick Perry that went by the name N*ggerhead Rock. The article goes in great detail asking legitimate questions surrounding the camp, and includes contains a denunciation by Perry, but also seems to find the embattled GOP candidate guilty by association for what is suggested to be tolerance of the offensive name.

Last night CNN’s Don Lemon very carefully reported on the story then asked fellow panelists if the Perry campaign can recover from even being associated from this story.

Lemon introduced this story with the same surgical tact that a bomb defuser might approach an unmarked package left in a Times Square subway stop. In fairness to all involved in this story, the WaPo story was built around numerous anonymous sources and it’s still too early in this story’s life cycle to truly understand its scale and potential political impact. This could blow up and kill a career, or could be a dud. Only more facts will reveal from which fire this smoke appears to be emanating.

To read this article in its entirety visit Mediaite.

Source: Amy Bingham
/ ABC News

Billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett, who has become the unwitting mascot of President Obama’s jobs plan, is less than thrilled with one of the plan’s main provisions: the millionaires’ tax, or as it’s come to be known, the ”Buffett Rule.”
In an interview with Bloomberg Television today, Buffett said he did not support the president’s plan to increase taxes on people who earn more than $1 million per year.

“It isn’t [my idea] to have the rich pay more taxes. It’s to have the ultra-rich pay more,” he said, according to The Hill. “What I’m talking about would probably apply to 50,000 people in the country.”

Later on CNBC Buffett said if it were up to him, people earning $50 million would not see any tax increases, only people who “make a lot of money and pay a very low tax rate, like me.” Buffett did not put on a number on what he considers a “very high income.”

The Buffett Rule, as President Obama has taken to calling it, is a provision in Obama’s American Jobs Act that would increase the tax rate for millionaires to ensure that high income earners do not pay a lower tax rate than middle- or low-income earners. Obama dubbed this provision the Buffett Rule after the billionaire investor said there should be “shared sacrifice” in reducing the deficit.

To read this article in its entirety visit ABC News.

Source: USA Today

One company here has voluntarily recalled cartons of chopped romaine lettuce because of possible listeria contamination, but no illnesses have been reported.

The lettuce was shipped both out of state and in state, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Steve Church, chief executive officer of Church Brothers of Salinas, Calif. — the marketing agent and part owner of grower True Leaf Farms — thinks all of the lettuce went out of state.

He said 2,498 boxes or cartons were shipped; 90 of those went to retail outlets and the rest went to institutional settings like restaurants.

“The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is at our plant and we are cooperating and working with them,” Church said.

The recall covers lettuce from True Leaf with a “use by” date of Thursday, Sept. 29, and the box code is B256-46438-8, said spokesman Ken August of the public health department.

Consumers would not see those codes that are on packaging, Church said.

The lettuce, in 2-pound bags, was shipped to an Oregon food services distributor and also may have gone to Washington and Idaho, Church said.

To read this article in its entirety visit the USA Today.

Source: Karen Bouffard and Mike Wilkinson /  The Detroit News

Lansing— Roughly 1 in 10 children in parts of Detroit and Flint will lose welfare benefits Saturday, when cash benefits for families who’ve been on welfare 48 months or longer are cut off.

Although nearly 41,000 people statewide will lose payments averaging $515 a month, the brunt of the impact will be felt in two of the poorest cities in the state, with Detroit accounting for more than half of those losing benefits, according to ZIP code records obtained by The Detroit News through a Freedom of Information request.

The results show high concentrations in neighborhoods deeply afflicted with blight, crime and poverty. In Detroit’s 48205 ZIP code, a roughly five-square-mile section of the northeastern part of the city, nearly 2,000 adults and 1,500 children will be cut off.

“I think it’s tragic,” said state Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park, whose district includes the 48205 ZIP code. “You can’t have high violence and crime and poverty and expect that Detroit’s going to be able to compete in its comeback.”
For Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee, the news that more than 21,000 Detroiters will lose their benefits comes at a particularly troubling time.

“It gives us cause for great concern,” he said.

Godbee said he fears the cutoff could lead to increased crime as he announced Thursday stepped-up enforcement measures in the 48205 ZIPcode, recently identified by a Detroit News analysis as the deadliest area in the city.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Detroit News.

Source: Mary Bruce / ABC News

First Lady Michelle Obama was spotted this afternoon on a recession-friendly shopping trip at the Target in Alexandria, Va. A casually dressed Mrs. Obama was snapped by Associated Press photographers wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses pushing her cart and carrying shopping bags.

While the White House does not provide details about the First Lady’s personal activities, “It is not uncommon for the First Lady to slip out to run an errand, eat at a local restaurant or otherwise enjoy the city outside the White House gates,” her Communications Director Kristina Schake said.

In the 2008 campaign Michelle Obama proudly admitted she shopped at Target and held it up as an example of how she is “just like you.” She has also been known to be a fan of the discount store’s clothing. While on vacation in 2009, she was seen wearing a dress from Target.

To follow this topic visit ABC News.

Virginia Girl Gets Alcohol Poisoning After Ingesting Hand Sanitizer at School: MyFoxDC.com

Source: The Huffington Post

An angry father wonders why his 7-year-old girl was able to drink enough hand sanitizer to put her in the hospital with alcohol poisoning.

Christy Grant, a second grader at Neabsco Elementary School in Dale City, Va. was unconscious and unresponsive when she was rushed from school to the hospital, Grant’s father told My Fox DC.

“She gave us a story. Somebody dared her. She did the dare,” Glen Grant said. “Under supervision, this would have never happened.”

A Neabsco Elementary official told My Fox DC that Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act laws prevent the school from commenting on the incident.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Alison Gendar and Corky Siemaszko New York Daily News</strong>

Congressional Democrats demanded an ethics investigation Thursday into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for allegedly failing to disclose that his wife was paid $700,000 by a conservative think tank.

They say Thomas marked off the “none” box on his annual financial disclosure form while his wife, Virginia, was raking in the dough working for the Heritage Foundation.

Between 2003 and 2007, she was paid $700,000, they claim.

“To believe that Justice Thomas didn’t know how to fill out a basic disclosure form is absurd,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter, a Democrat from Rochester, N.Y.

Slaughter has asked the Judicial Conference of the United States to decide whether Thomas’ disclosure mess should be passed on to the Justice Department for review. The question is whether Thomas has failed to comply with the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.

It requires all federal judges to disclose their spouse’s employer. There was no immediate response from Thomas or the influential Heritage Foundation.

In January, after a liberal watchdog called out Thomas for omitting his wife’s place of employment on his disclosure forms, he went back and corrected some 20 years worth of the required documents.

Thomas, in a letter to the committee that handles the reports, said the info “was inadvertently omitted due to a misunderstanding of the filing instructions.”

Source: AP / The Huffington Post

Havana, Cuba – Fidel Castro is mocking U.S. President Barack Obama for saying he’s open to changing U.S. policy toward Cuba if there is change on the island first.

Castro writes sarcastically: “How kind! How intelligent!” He adds that such goodwill has not led Washington to end its five-decade-old economic embargo against the island.

Castro says many things will change in Cuba, but it will happen organically and in spite of pressure from Washington.

The ex-leader says “perhaps that empire will fall first,” referring to the U.S. Later he calls Obama “stupid.”

Castro’s comments come in an article published in state media Thursday.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: AP / The Huffington Post

Havana, Cuba – Fidel Castro is mocking U.S. President Barack Obama for saying he’s open to changing U.S. policy toward Cuba if there is change on the island first.

Castro writes sarcastically: “How kind! How intelligent!” He adds that such goodwill has not led Washington to end its five-decade-old economic embargo against the island.

Castro says many things will change in Cuba, but it will happen organically and in spite of pressure from Washington.

The ex-leader says “perhaps that empire will fall first,” referring to the U.S. Later he calls Obama “stupid.”

Castro’s comments come in an article published in state media Thursday.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday has denied clemency for Troy Anthony Davis after hearing pleas for mercy from Davis’ family and calls for his execution by surviving relatives of a murdered Savannah police officer.

Davis’ case has already taken more unexpected turns than just about any death-penalty case in Georgia history and his innocence claims have attracted international attention. Its resolution was postponed once again when the parole board late Monday announced it would not be making an immediate decision as to whether Davis should live or die.

Davis, 42, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. He was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Source: Bill Rankin / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Troy Anthony Davis’ legal team has finished presenting its case to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles in a last-ditch bid to win clemency.

“We believe we have established substantial doubt in this case,” Stephen Marsh, one of Davis’ lawyers, said after a three-hour hearing. The execution should not be allowed to go forward, he said.

The five-member board will now hear from prosecutors and surviving relatives of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail, who was gunned down in a Burger King parking lot in 1989. Members of MacPhail’s family, including his mother, Anneliese, were seen entering the parole board offices as were former Chatham County district attorney Spencer Lawton and and his former chief assistant, David Locke.

The five-member board began its hearing at 9 a.m. and it is expected to stretch into late afternoon. The board has not said whether it will issue its decision today as to whether Davis will be granted clemency or whether his execution should be carried out as scheduled on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Rev. Raphael Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church attended the parole board hearing with members of Davis’ family. “They were certainly attentive and expressed how difficult all of this is,” Warnock said of the board members.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Source: MSNBC

Netflix Inc is separating its movie streaming business and its DVD by mail service, which will be called Qwikster, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said in a company blog post.

Andy Rendich, who has worked at Netflix’s DVD service for 12 years and has been leading it for the last four years, will become the CEO of Qwikster, Hastings said.

The streaming business will retain the brand “Netflix,” according to the blog post.

Netflix’s move follows the company’s decision to increase the monthly subscription for a joint streaming and DVD rental service by as much as 60 percent that caused an uproar among customers and bloggers. Netflix shares have fallen sharply since the price increase was announced.

“I messed up. I owe everyone an explanation,” Hastings wrote in a blog post.
Hastings said streaming and DVD by mail were becoming two quite different businesses, with very different cost structures. He also added that these two businesses offered different benefits that needed to be marketed differently.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: MSNBC

Washington — President Barack Obama, setting up another clash with Republicans, has proposed $1.5 trillion in new taxes aimed primarily at the wealthy as part of a deficit reduction plan.

The president pitched his plan Monday morning from the Rose Garden at the White House.

“Today, I’m releasing a plan which details how to pay for the jobs bill, while also paying down our debt over time,” said Obama about his recently-released plan to ease the nation’s unhealthy unemployment rate.
“Washington has to live within its means,” continued the president. “For us to solve this problem everybody … has to pay their fair share.”

Obama added, “I’m proposing real cuts to spending. These would be among the biggest cuts in our history … This plan eliminates tax loopholes that primarily go to the largest corporations.”

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Source: AP / CBS News

ATLANTA – Supporters of Troy Davis were making a last-ditch effort Monday to stop his execution for the 1989 murder of an off-duty Savannah police officer, asking the Georgia pardons board to grant clemency to the high-profile death-row inmate now that his legal appeals are exhausted.

The five-member Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles met at 9 a.m. Monday to consider arguments surrounding Davis, who claims he is innocent of the killing of Mark MacPhail. He’s set to be put to death by injection Wednesday, the fourth time in four years the state has tried to execute the 42-year-old man.

TJMS: NAACP’s Ben Jealous Details The Latest Developments In The Troy Davis Death Penalty Case

Troy Davis in spotlight again as execution nears

Dozens of Davis’ supporters rallied outside the government building housing the pardons board on Monday. They hoisted a massive “Save Troy Davis” sign and formed a makeshift drum line at one entrance to the building. At another entrance, other supporters were holding a somber prayer vigil on his behalf.

The pardons board, which has the power to commute death sentences but rarely does so, decided in 2007 to delay his execution for 90 days to grant the courts more time to review the case. A year later, it denied Davis clemency and allowed his execution to go forward. Since then, though, three new members have been appointed to the panel.

“We are hopeful this tremendous outpouring of support will demonstrate there’s such a huge concern about this case, and that this message will resonate with them,” said Laura Moye of Amnesty International, who delivered thousands of petitions in support of Davis to the board last week. “The very reputation and faith that this public has in its justice system is on the line.”

Among those who support Davis’ clemency request are former President Carter and Pope Benedict XVI.

The board, which meets in a closed-door session, will first hear hours of testimony from Davis’ legal team and its witnesses, although Davis himself is not scheduled to appear. The panel will then hear from prosecutors, MacPhail’s family and their witnesses.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Melanie Eversley / USA Today

A social media campaign to stop an execution in Georgia next week is drawing support from hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

Celebrities, Nobel laureates and national leaders have joined the NAACP, Amnesty International and the grass-roots group Change.org to urge Georgia authorities to grant clemency to Troy Davis, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday. They are flooding Twitter with several tweets a minute, signing online petitions and, starting today, planning to rally around the country.

Davis, 42, was convicted of the 1989 shooting death of Savannah, Ga., police officer Mark MacPhail. His supporters say he is innocent, noting that 10 witnesses in the case have signed affidavits recanting their testimony and indicating that police coerced them into implicating Davis. They also point out that nine people have signed affidavits implicating another man.

The case has attracted attention for years. Former president Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu are among the prominent figures who have urged that Davis’ life be spared.

The latest effort, triggered when a new execution date was set last week, includes celebrities John Legend, Mia Farrow, Bianca Jagger and the Indigo Girls. All are tweeting under #TooMuchDoubt, a hashtag, or search term, devised by Amnesty International and the NAACP. Davis supporters also have created Facebook pages.

“In the moment, when our nation stumbles toward complete failure of its justice system, we have to give every citizen the opportunity to express their outrage and their intention that the state not do this in their name,” NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous says. “When the state executes an innocent person, every citizen is implicated in that act.”

The tweets ask the public to contact the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles — the group with the authority to halt Davis’ death — and to urge the panel to grant clemency. They also ask people to sign one of three petitions the groups are circulating online.

“I think the key thing we are trying to express to the Georgia authorities is there are just so many doubts,” says Laura Moye, death penalty abolition campaign director for Amnesty International USA.

The board is scheduled to meet Monday to consider the case. If it does not grant clemency, there is no official next legal step, but “we are not going to stand by quietly if that is what happens,” Moye says. The NAACP also is calling on Chatham County, Ga., District Attorney Larry Chisolm to move to withdraw the death warrant, Jealous says.

Representatives from Amnesty International and the NAACP presented four petitions with more than 660,000 signatures to the state parole board Thursday. An online petition sponsored by Davis’ sister, Kimberly Davis, and Change.org has collected more than 233,000 signatures.

The NAACP has declared today a Global Day of Action around the country. Events include a rally at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the church of Martin Luther King. Amnesty International is sponsoring a Global Day of Solidarity in support of Davis.

To read this article in its entirety visit the USA Today.

Source: Anthony Johnson / WABC / ABC News

East Tremont – The death of a 3-year-old girl in the Bronx has been ruled a homicide, and a manhunt is under way for her stepfather.

India Durant was discovered unconscious and pronounced dead at St. Barnabus Hospital.

Police say the incident appears to be a tragic case of child abuse after the medical examiner ruled that India died of blunt force trauma to the chest and other internal injuries.

The stepfather, who identity has not been released, is the one called 911 to report that the girl was unconscious inside the apartment. He apparently told police she had fallen out of a chair, but the medical examiner said the girl’s injuries were inconsistent with that type of fall.

To read this article in its entirety visit WABC / ABC News.

Source: Tyler Kingkade / The Huffington Post

Washington- House Republicans rolled out their plan to fund disaster relief in Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) district, but at the cost of almost half of remaining loans set aside to help the American auto industry.

Included in their plan for a continuing resolution to fund the government past Sept. 30 is a provision to cut $1.5 billion of the $3.4 billion in remaining funds for low-cost loans — sometimes referred to as “Section 136 loans.” The money would be reused to pay for aid to states as they clean up after recent natural disasters like Hurricane Irene and the rare east coast earthquake — both of which greatly affected Cantor’s Virginia district. The cost of disaster assistance is usually added to the budget deficit instead of offset with cuts.

Democrats and an auto industry expert warn the funds Cantor picked to pay for disaster aid is currently supporting a successful program that has pulled manufacturing jobs back from other countries and helped keep the industry alive around the eastern Midwest. Taking the money away would jeopardize that program.

“We absolutely need to fund disaster recovery assistance in Eric Cantor’s district and all areas affected by Hurricane Irene and the recent earthquake, but that doesn’t make it ok to kill American manufacturing jobs,” Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said in a statement to The Huffington Post. “The Greater Detroit area that I represent has been hit the hardest by the recession and I strongly oppose the Republican plan to kill our jobs and delay our recovery.”

The loan program is part of a $25 billion initiative within the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was a broad plan Democrats pushed to improve energy efficiency in everything from fuel standards to light bulbs.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: AP

Huntsville, Texas – The U.S. Supreme Court has halted the execution of a black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago after his lawyers contended his sentence was unfair because of a question asked about race during his trial.

Forty-eight-year-old John Buck was scheduled for lethal injection Thursday evening.

At issue was a psychologist’s testimony that black people were more likely to commit violence.

A similar request to block the punishment was made to Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Perry is the Republican frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination and his actions have now come under closer scrutiny.

To read this article in its entirety visit AP.

Source: AP / CBS News

San Juan, Puerto Rico – Health officials in Puerto Rico say a middle school student has stabbed at least 40 classmates with a hypodermic needle. All are being tested for possible diseases and are being given preventive medicine.
Health Department spokeswoman Margarita Casalduc says the attack occurred Tuesday at a school in the southern coastal town of Arroyo. She says she does not know if the syringe contained anything or was contaminated.

Education Secretary Jesus Rivera Sanchez said in a statement that the female suspect has been suspended.

Officials said counselors were meeting Thursday with the parents of the stabbed students.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: CBS News

Washington – In announcing the “new reality” it must face, the financially troubled Postal Service said Thursday it may close more than 250 mail processing facilities across the country and plans to reduce service standards for first-class mail in an effort to cut costs.

Such a change would mean that a letter mailed with a first-class stamp would take longer to arrive at its destination, increasing delivery time from a minimum of one day to two days, the service said.

The steps are part of a broad effort to cut costs for the agency that lost $8.5 billion last year and is facing ever more red ink this year as the Internet siphons off the lucrative first-class mail and the stagnant economy holds down the growth of advertising mail. Over the last five years mail volume has declined by more than 43 billion items.

Postal officials said 252 mail processing facilities across the country will be reviewed over the next three months for possible closing. Currently there are 487 such offices. That’s in addition to about 3,700 local post offices also being reviewed for closure. Closing the mail-processing facilities could affect 35,000 workers.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

A man is arrested but licks his way out of handcuffs. CNN’s Jeanne Moos reports on a back seat escape artist.

WATCH:

Source: CNN

Washington - The Republican Party is split right down the middle between tea party movement supporters and those who do not support the two-and-a-half-year-old movement, according to a new national survey.

And a CNN/ORC International Poll released Thursday also highlights the differences in demographics, ideology, and temperament between the two camps. According to the survey, on some issues, the two wings of the GOP are in accord, but tea party activists and supporters do not speak for the entire Republican Party on issues such as the deficit, global warming, evolution, abortion, gay marriage, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Education, or Social Security.

Full results (pdf)

“Demographically, the tea party movement seems to hearken back to the ‘angry white men’ who were credited with the GOP’s upset victory in the 1994 midterm elections,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “Ideologically, it effectively boils down to the century-old contest between the conservative and moderate wings of the party.”

According to the survey, roughly half (49 percent) of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support the tea party movement or are active members, with roughly half (51 percent) saying that they have no feelings one way or another about the tea party or that they oppose the movement.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: MSNBC

A fourth-grader was expelled after school officials in Oak Harbor, Wash., discovered he had a loaded handgun in his backpack.

Police took the 9-year-old at Crescent Harbor Elementary, who had a .45 caliber Ruger with the safety on, into custody before the opening bell Wednesday and then released him to his parents, the Whidbey News Times reported.

It was the second time this week that the boy had brought a weapon to school, according to Joe Hunt, spokesperson for the Oak Harbor School District.

On Tuesday, the boy allegedly brought a different handgun to school. Hunt told the Whidbey News Times that a girl had spotted the gun on the bus, and told her parents, who then called the school Wednesday morning.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Source: WXYZ.com

Detroit – There’s been a positive development in the story of Texana Hollis, the 101-year-old woman evicted from her home . She will now get her southwest Detroit home back after a heartbreaking ordeal.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD asked a 36th District Court Officer to go to the home and remove the locks that were put on the house on Monday. Texana will now be able to return to her house on Carbondale.

The 101-year-old is, however, currently in the hospital. She was rushed by ambulance to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on Monday night. She was suffering from severe anxiety after being evicted from the home she had lived in for 58 years.

To read this article in its entirety visit WXYZ.com.

UBS has revealed a $2 billion unauthorized trading loss. CNN’s Jim Bittermann looks at past trade losses.

WATCH:

Source: CNN

The NAACP and Amnesty International on Thursday will deliver petitions with thousands of signatures seeking clemency for convicted killer Troy Davis to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Davis, 42, is set to be executed on September 21 for the murder an off-duty Savannah police officer more than two decades ago.

Since Davis’ conviction in 1991, seven of the nine witnesses against him have recanted their testimony. No physical evidence was presented linking Davis to the killing of the policeman.

The rights groups contend there is too much doubt about Davis’ conviction to let the execution proceed.

“Troy Davis could very well be innocent,” Amnesty International says on its website.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH:

Source: Abdon M. Pallasch / Chicago Sun-Times

Laura Walsh

A Chicago judge issued a preliminary ruling Wednesday against U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) in his child-support dispute with his ex-wife, ordering the Tea Party favorite to explain why he appears to be $100,000 behind in child-support payments.

Cook County Circuit Judge Raul Vega also wanted to know why Walsh wasn’t in court Wednesday — the McHenry Republican’s ex-wife, Laura Walsh, was there — and initially said he expected him to show up for the next hearing.

In court, Walsh’s attorney, Janet Boyle, asked Vega “for what purpose” he wanted the congressman in court.

Vega gave her a puzzled look — to which Boyle responded: “Mr. Walsh is a U.S. congressman.”

“Well, he’s no different than anyone else,” the judge replied.

But after Laura Walsh’s attorney said he didn’t think the congressman needed to appear at the next hearing, Vega ultimately did not issue an order requiring the congressman to appear.

But Vega did issue a “rule to show cause” — which means Walsh has to tell the court why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for falling so far behind in child support over the past five years.

Laura Walsh argues her ex-husband owes more than $100,000, a number the congressman disputes. But Vega’s ruling means that the burden is now on the congressman to prove that he doesn’t owe the money, attorneys for both Walshes agree.

To read this article in its entirety visti the Chicago Sun-Times.

Source: Deadline.com

Los Angeles – The Directors Guild of America today released a report analyzing the ethnicity and gender of directors hired to direct primetime episodic television across broadcast, basic cable and premium cable.

The DGA analyzed more than 2,600 episodes produced in the 2010-2011 television season from more than 170 scripted television series. The report showed that Caucasian males directed 77% of all episodes; Caucasian females directed 11% of all episodes; minority males directed 11% of all episodes and minority females directed just 1% of all episodes. Among one-hour series, Caucasian males directed 80% of episodes, and in half-hour series, Caucasian males directed 74% of all episodes.

The shows highlighted below are from major production companies ABC, CBS, Fox, HBO, NBC, Sony, Warner Bros. and other production companies whose shows appear on broadcast, basic cable and premium cable networks. They do not include series that have been cancelled. First-year shows are broken out separately because hiring decisions on first-year shows are often made differently than shows in their second seasons or beyond. Pilots are not included in the statistics. Shows that primarily hired only one or two directors for the entire season [Big Bang Theory; Eastbound and Down; The Game; How I Met Your Mother; It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia; The League; Louie; Retired at 35; Two and a Half Men] were included in the overall data, but are not singled out in the lists below.

DGA’s “WORST OF” Lists
Following are the shows with the worst records of hiring women and minority directors for the 2010-2011 television season:

9 SHOWS HIRED NO WOMEN AND NO MINORITY DIRECTORS:
Title (Production Company) – Percentage of Episodes by Women or Minority Directors:
· Bored to Death (HBO) – 0%
· Burn Notice (TVM Productions/Fox) – 0%
· Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO) – 0%
· Fringe (Warner Bros.) – 0%
· iCarly (Uptown Productions/MTV/Viacom) – 0%
· Justified (Woodridge Productions/CPT Holdings/Sony) – 0%
· Leverage (Leverage Productions) – 0%
· Victorious (Uptown Productions/MTV/Viacom) – 0%
· Weeds (Weeds Productions) – 0%

16 SHOWS HIRED WOMEN OR MINORITY DIRECTORS FOR FEWER THAN 15% OF EPISODES:

Title (Production Company) – Percentage:
· House (NBC) – 4%
· The Office (NBC) – 4%
· CSI (CBS) – 5%
· Supernatural (NS Pictures) – 5%
· Good Luck Charlie (It’s a Laugh Productions) – 6%
· Army Wives (ABC) – 8%
· Boardwalk Empire (HBO) – 9%
· Bones (Fox) – 9%
· Cougar Town (FTP Productions/ABC) – 9%
· Desperate Housewives (ABC) – 9%
· True Blood (HBO) – 10%
· Dark Blue (Horizon Scripted Television) – 10%
· Castle (ABC) – 13%
· NCIS (CBS) – 13%
· Modern Family (Fox) – 13%
· Gossip Girl (Warner Bros.) – 14%

The DGA noted that some series on the DGA’s “WORST OF” lists showed worrisome declines from their previous year hiring patterns. Burn Notice, House and Army Wives hired women or minority directors at significantly higher rates in 2009-2010 but failed to maintain the diversity of their hiring practices for the most recent television season.

DGA’s “BEST OF” List
At the same time, the following shows deserve to be highlighted for their more diverse hiring records in 2010-2011:

SHOWS THAT HIRED WOMEN OR MINORITY DIRECTORS FOR AT LEAST 30% OF EPISODES:
Title (Production Company) – Percentage:
· The Middle (Warner Bros.) – 63%
· Hung (HBO) – 60%
· In Treatment (HBO) – 54%
· 90210 (CBS) – 45%
· Treme (HBO) – 45%
· The Good Wife (CBS) – 39%
· Drop Dead Diva (Woodridge Productions/CPT Holdings/Sony) – 38%
· CSI: NY (CBS) – 36%
· Private Practice (ABC) – 36%
· Rules of Engagement (Montrose Productions/CPT Holdings/Sony) – 35%
· Nurse Jackie (Nurse Productions/Lions Gate) – 33%
· Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) – 32%
· CSI: Miami (CBS) – 32%
· In Plain Sight (NBC) – 31%
· Mad Men (U.R.O.K. Productions/Lions Gate) – 31%
· 30 Rock (NBC) – 30%

First-Year Series
Although the DGA study did not include shows whose first season of production took place during 2010-2011 in the “WORST OF” and “BEST OF” lists above, the DGA feels that it is important to call attention to those shows that have already exhibited unfavorable patterns in their first season with the hope that such attention will help encourage these series to consider more diverse hiring practices in the future.

“WORST OF” First-Year Series
· Franklin & Bash (Woodridge Productions/CPT Holdings/Sony) – 0%
· Hot in Cleveland (King Street) – 0%
· Nikita (NS Pictures) – 0%
· Teen Wolf (On Site Productions/MTV/Viacom) – 0%
· Melissa and Joey (Prodco) – 3%
· Raising Hope (Fox) – 5%
· Breakout Kings (Fox) – 8%
· Harry’s Law (Bonanza Productions/Warner Bros.) – 9%
· Hawaii Five-0 (Eye Productions/CBS) – 13%

Separately, the DGA congratulates the first-year shows, highlighted below, that have already demonstrated a commitment to diverse hiring practices.

“BEST OF” First-Year Series
· Let’s Stay Together (Breakdown Productions/BET) – 100%
· Are We There Yet? (AWTY Productions) – 86%
· Pair of Kings (It’s a Laugh Productions) – 50%
· The Walking Dead (Stalwart Films/Stu Segall Productions) – 50%
· The Killing (Killing Productions/TVM Productions/Fox) – 46%
· Body of Proof (Paige Productions/ABC) – 33%
· Pretty Little Liars (Horizon Scripted Television) – 33%

In the 2009-2010 television season, Caucasian males directed 75% of the episodes surveyed; Caucasian females directed 11% of episodes; minority males directed 12% of episodes; and minority females directed 2% of episodes. While the figures remained static for Caucasian females in 2010-2011, the percentage of episodes directed by minority men dropped (from 12% to 11%) and the percentage of episodes directed by minority women dropped by half (from 2% to 1%). The statistics seem to demonstrate that as a whole, most production companies have demonstrated little or no interest or effort in increasing diversity in their hiring practices from year to year.

Over the years, the Guild’s African American, Asian, Latino and Women’s Committees have held meetings and networking events with producers, networks and studio representatives to introduce talented directors to key producers and television executives.

At the urging of the Guild, several production companies established diversity programs designed to increase the number of women and minority directors and give them exposure to executive producers and others who hire. However, these diversity programs have borne disappointing results.

“It’s not enough to just give lip service to the idea of increasing diversity behind the camera,” said Paris Barclay, the DGA’s First Vice President and Co-Chair of the Diversity Task Force of the DGA National Board. (Barclay also served as an executive producer of In Treatment and is currently an executive producer for Sons of Anarchy.) “These programs are so far failing to live up to their promise. So we’re going to take the discussion straight to the people on each show who make the hiring decisions.”

The DGA negotiated a new provision in its most recent collective bargaining agreements, which took effect on July 1, which will allow it to meet directly with executives responsible for hiring at the individual show level. Now that the Guild has completed its analysis of diversity hiring practices in the most recent television season, the Guild is scheduling meetings with individual shows to address the problem.

“We are encouraging shows, production companies, and networks when they weigh in, to offer opportunities to up-and-coming directors from all backgrounds,” said Lesli Linka Glatter, Board Member and Co-Chair of the Diversity Task Force of the DGA National Board. (Glatter won a DGA Award last year for directing an episode of Mad Men and is currently a co-executive producer for The Playboy Club.) “We’ve heard the excuses from those responsible for hiring that they don’t want to take a chance on a new director. But the truth is that the industry hires new directors all the time; it’s just that most of them are white males.”

DGA statistics show that of the 130 first-time episodic directors hired in calendar years 2009 and 2010, 78% were Caucasian males, 13% were Caucasian females, 7% were minority males and 2% were minority females.

Barclay added, “The question each producer needs to ask is, ‘Am I the type of person who makes excuses or takes action?’”

The DGA compiled the statistics for this report from information provided by the production companies to the DGA pursuant to the requirements of the collective bargaining agreement for episodes produced during the 2010-2011 season, and then made its best effort to validate the statistics with the production companies directly by offering every production company the opportunity to review its own statistics. Some companies failed to verify their statistics.

To follow this topic visit Deadline.com

President Obama stumps for his jobs bill in Raleigh, North Carolina, saying some in Congress are “purposely divided.”

WATCH:

Source: Tami Luhby / CNN Money

New York – Without help from the federal government, millions more people would have sunk below the poverty line in 2010, U.S. Census data shows.

Unemployment insurance helped keep 3.2 million Americans out of poverty in 2010, according to new statistics released Tuesday. Without this vital lifeline, which lasts up to 99 weeks, these jobless folks would have joined the roughly 46.2 million people now considered in poverty.

Other government assistance programs, such as food stamps, also provided much-needed support to the poor. But because the Census Bureau’s official poverty statistics don’t consider these income sources, they were not taken into account when determining whether a person fell below the line, which is $22,314 for a family of four.

However, the Census Bureau does calculate what impact this assistance would have had if it were measured. Food stamp benefits would have lifted 3.9 million people out of poverty had that aid been counted as income.

And 5.4 million people, including 3 million children, would not have been considered impoverished had the Earned Income Tax Credit been counted. The EITC is a refundable federal income tax credit for low- to moderate-income working Americans. Some 22 states also offer similar credits.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN Money.

Source: Jeanne Sahadi / CNN Money

New York – Cutting spending and raising taxes now could put a drag on the economy.

That was the message Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf delivered Tuesday to the new congressional debt committee, which is in week two of its hurry-up assignment to propose ways to slash deficits.

The good news? There are fiscally responsible ways to spur the economy while simultaneously bringing down long-term deficits, Elmendorf told the 12-member panel.

The “most effective” budget approach, he said, “would be changes in taxes and spending that would widen the deficit today but narrow it later in the decade.”

In other words, pairing policies to spur economic growth while also enacting a longer term debt reduction plan to take effect later.

Elmendorf’s reasoning: The unemployment rate is high. Factories and offices are underused. And interest rates are already at rock bottom.

Thus, he said, “there is no inherent contradiction between using fiscal policy to support the economy today … and imposing fiscal restraint several years from now when output and employment will probably be close to their potential.”

To read this article in its entirety visti CNN Money.

Roland Martin joins Anderson Cooper on AC360 to detail Gov. Rick Perry’s record as it relates to job creation and balancing Texas’ budget.

Source: Mariano Castillo / CNN

It was a chilling message: Two bodies with signs of torture found hanging from a pedestrian bridge in the border town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Two posters left near the bodies declared that the pair — a young man and woman — were killed for denouncing drug cartel activity on a social network.

Bloggers who specialize in sharing news about trafficking have been threatened in the past, but this could be the first time that users of such social networks have been targeted.

The effect of such threats could be chilling, as several areas in Mexico — including Nuevo Laredo — have media outlets that self-censor out of fear of retribution by the cartels. In light of this censorship, blogs and social networks such as Twitter have surged as alternatives to keep citizens informed of dangers in their community.

Now the users of those networks appear to be under threat.

“This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the internet,” one of the messages said. “You better (expletive) pay attention. I’m about to get you.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: CNN

Kabul, Afghanistan - A nearly day-long Taliban siege on the U.S. Embassy and NATO command center in Kabul ended early Wednesday, Afghan and NATO officials said.

A policeman and two civilians were killed and 21 civilians were injured, the Interior Ministry said. Six militants have been killed and the building they were firing from has been cleared, the ministry said.

The strike in central Kabul began Tuesday amid intelligence that insurgents might launch a high-profile attack in the capital around the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States, a coalition officer and a senior official of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force confirmed to CNN.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told CNN that his group targeted “the U.S. Embassy, governmental organizations and other foreign organizations.”

ISAF said after insurgents attacked the targets Tuesday afternoon “with small arms fire from outside the secure zone surrounding these compounds,” Afghan security forces “responded immediately.”

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH:

Source: Stephanie Condon / CBS News

As Washington’s use of private contractors grows, the government is paying those contractors billions more than it would pay their government workers to do the same job, according to a new study released Tuesday..

In an attempt to verify frequently made claims that the government can save money by outsourcing its work, the nonprofit Project On Government Oversight (POGO) compared the total annual compensation for federal (and private sector) employees with federal contractor billing rates.

The group found that in 33 of the 35 occupational categories it reviewed, federal government employees were less expensive than contractors. On average, the federal government pays contractors 1.83 times more than it pays federal employees and two times more than what comparable workers in the private sector are paid.

For instance, the government on average pays contractors $299,374 for accounting services, while it pays federal employees $124,851 for accounting services. By comparison, workers in the private sector (not under contract by the government) make on average $83,132. The government on average pays contractors $198,411 for information technology management, while they pay federal workers $124,663.

That discrepancy is significant, given the federal government spends over $320 billion on service contracts each year, and about one-quarter of all discretionary spending goes to service contractors. According to POGO’s report, the contractor workforce rose from an estimated 4.4 million in 1999 to 7.6 million in 2005 — while the size of the federal employee workforce has remained relatively steady at about 2 million.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Martin Wolk / MSNBC

The Obama administration committed more than $500 million in taxpayer money to a maker of solar power panels despite repeated red flags about the company’s viability, NBC News’ Lisa Myers reported Wednesday.

The FBI raided the Silicon Valley headquarters of the company, Solyndra, last week, investigating whether the government was misled when it loaned the company $535 million in taxpayer funds. Solyndra officials say they are cooperating with the investigation.

Solyndra received the loan guarantees in 2009 as part of President Barack Obama’s promise to create millions of so-called “green” jobs. But last month, Solyndra declared bankruptcy, laying off all 1,100 workers.

A committee panel, which has been looking into the company for months, will hold a hearing Wednesday on what went wrong with Solyndra. Two company executives are expected to appear before the panel next week, The Associated Press reported.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Source: Washington Post

A 16-month federal investigation has concluded that BP’s efforts to limit costs on its mile-deep Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico contributed to the disastrous blowout last year that killed 11 workers and sunk the giant rig Deepwater Horizon.

WATCH: Washington Watch with Roland Martin, 07.11.10, Video Podcast [Gulf Coast Edition]

“BP’s cost or time saving decisions without considering contingencies and mitigation were contributing causes of the Macondo blowout,” states the long-awaited report by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

The report, based on months of hearings and testimony from rig workers and engineers, skewers BP for dozens of mistakes, questionable moves, and a general failure to appreciate the risks of drilling, and then temporarily abandoning, the well in 5,000 feet of water. It also finds abundant fault among BP’s contractors, including Transocean, which owned the doomed rig, and Halliburton, which cemented the well.

BOEMRE conducted its inquiry alongside the Coast Guard, which released its findings earlier this year. Since the blowout, BP, Transocean and Halliburton have traded accusations about which party was most to blame for the disaster. BP and Transocean have released their own reports, for most the part finding fault in the other company.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Washington Post.

Source: AP / CBS News

Detroit – A 101-year-old woman was evicted from the southwest Detroit home where she lived for nearly six decades after her 65-year-old son failed to pay the mortgage.

Texana Hollis was evicted Monday and her belongings were placed outside the home. Her son, Warren Hollis, said he didn’t pay the bill for several years and disregarded eviction notices.

“I kept it from her because I didn’t want to worry her,” Warren Hollis told WXYZ-TV for a report that aired Monday night. “I was just so sure it wasn’t going to happen.”

Wayne County Chief Deputy Treasurer David Szymanski told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Hollises took out an adjustable-rate mortgage in 2002. A default and foreclosure notice was filed in November.

“They ended up owing $80,000 on the home,” Szymanski said. “Warren indicates he did not make the payments. He got the notices, but threw them away.”

County records show that property taxes were paid on the home through summer 2010. A winter tax bill of $55.95, including interest and fees, was unpaid, and a $778.44 summer tax bill was due this month.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Stephanie Kirchgaessner and James Politi in Washington / Financial Times

Barack Obama is expected to lay out a plan next week that would cut several hundred billion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid, the large government healthcare schemes for the elderly and the poor, as part of a pitch to cut future deficits by more than $1,500bn.

Mom Loses Job After Kidney Donation: MyFoxPHILLY.com

Source: The Huffington Post

After using up her vacation days to take care of her dying mother, Claudia Rendon took a leave of absence from her job to donate a kidney to her sick son. But, when she was well enough to return to work, Rendon found out she had been replaced, myfoxphilly.com reports.

“Everything was coming down all at once,” Caludia Rendon told Fox 29. “I felt like the best thing that happened to me this whole entire year was that God gave me the blessing of being able to give my son my kidney.”

After taking time off to take care of her ailing mother who recently passed away, Rendon’s father was diagnosed with leukemia, her father died and her son’s kidneys started to fail. Without hesitation, Rendon decided to take a leave of absence from her job at the Aviation Institute Of Maintenance, in Northeast Philadelphia. Her boss forced her to sign an agreement saying that her job wouldn’t be guaranteed on return. When Rendon tried to get her job back last week, her supervisor showed her the door.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: LeAnne Gendreau / MSNBC

Three TSA agents and at least two police officers have been arrested, accused of being involved in a massive oxycodone trafficking operation between Connecticut, New York and Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The arrested officers include three Transportation Security Administration officers based at airports in Florida and New York, a Westchester County police officer and a Florida State Trooper, whose names have not been released.

Officials said the suspects are accused of receiving cash to assist in moving tens of thousands of oxycodone pills from Florida to New York and Connecticut as well as transporting cash proceeds from the sale of the drugs back to Florida.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Source: AP/ CBS News

Tacoma, Wash. – Teachers in the Washington city of Tacoma voted overwhelmingly Monday evening in favor of a strike.

That means after only seven days of school, the 28,000 children in Washington state’s third-largest school district will be staying home Tuesday. Tacoma Education Association spokesman Rich Wood said 87 percent of the union’s total membership voted to walk out.

Tacoma School District spokesman Dan Voelpel said the district will seek an immediate court injunction Tuesday to terminate the strike, which school officials contend is illegal. Superintendent Art Jarvis will revisit the decision to keep school closed in light of whatever happens in court, Voelpel said.

Voelpel told CBS News affiliate KIRO-TV of Seattle that teachers are refusing to bargain or budge from their demands.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: David Morgan / CBS News

Washington — The number of people in the U.S. living in poverty in 2010 rose for the fourth year in a row, representing the largest number of Americans in poverty in the 52 years since such estimates have been published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Median household income in the U.S. also declined.

According to a report issued Tuesday, 46.2 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009. Data in the Census Bureau covers the first full calendar year following the December 2007-June 2009 recession.

The nation’s official poverty rate increased for the third year in a row – 15.1 percent in 2010, up from 14.3 percent in 2009.

Real median household income in the United States also fell in 2010, to $49,445 (a 2.3 percent drop from 2009).

The number of people without health insurance coverage rose by nearly a million (from 49.0 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010). However, the percentage rate of those without coverage (16.3 percent) was not statistically different from the 2009 rate.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: JoNel Aleccia / MSNBC

Federal agriculture officials are expanding long-delayed rules that will ban six new strains of potentially lethal E. coli bacteria from the nation’s meat supply, msnbc.com has learned.

Under the new regulations, a group of E. coli bacteria collectively dubbed the “the big six” capable of causing infection and death will be classified as adulterants on par with the better-known E. coli 0157:H7, the bug frequently linked to serious foodborne illness from tainted ground beef.

Starting next spring, meat packers will be required to test for those strains of E. coli and it will be illegal to sell meat contaminated with the pathogens, consumer advocates and meat industry sources told msnbc.com.
US Department of Agriculture officials were expected to confirm the changes at a press conference scheduled Tuesday.

The move was hailed as a long-sought victory by food safety advocates, who said they wondered why it took so long to require testing for bacteria that last year collectively caused more infections in the U.S. than E. coli 0157.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

At least 100 people have been killed by an explosion at a leaking petrol pipeline in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.

Source: The Huffington Post

Mississippi voters will be allowed to decide on a ballot measure that defines “personhood” from the moment of fertilization, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled last week. The measure could potentially outlaw abortions, birth control, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research across the state.

Measure 26, which will bypass the legislature and go straight to a popular ballot vote, redefines the term “person” as it appears throughout Mississippi’s Bill of Rights to include “all human beings from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit against the proposal earlier this year, not based on its content or constitutionality, but because Mississippi state law says a ballot initiative cannot be used to change the Bill of Rights.

The Mississippi Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit in a 7-2 ruling, saying that it had no power to review any ballot initiative before the actual vote takes place.

“We didn’t lose on the merits of the case, but what’s disappointing is that it means the measure does go on the ballot that could later be held unconstitutional,” said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, an ACLU attorney on the case.

Les Riley, the founder of Personhood Mississippi, whose primary mission is to get Measure 26 passed, told HuffPost that he believes the ballot initiative is legal and valid because it does not alter the state constitution, but simply defines a particular word in it that should have been defined by the Supreme Court in the 38 years since Roe v. Wade.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Chris Broussard / ESPN

The NBA fined Michael Jordan $100,000 for public comments he made last month about the lockout and one of the league’s players, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

NBA spokesman Tim Frank confirmed that Jordan had been fined, but said the league would not comment on the total.

In an Aug. 19 interview with The Herald Sun, a newspaper in Australia, the Charlotte Bobcats owner spoke extensively about the need for revenue sharing and mentioned Milwaukee Bucks’ Australian center Andrew Bogut.

That violated the league’s policy that bars team owners and employees from discussing the lockout or any players during the work stoppage. The NBA sent out a league-wide memo just before the lockout began on July 1 stating that anyone who broke the rules could be fined up to $1 million.

Jordan, who along with Bucks owner Herb Kohl recently lobbied other owners to support revenue sharing, told The Herald Sun: “We need a lot of financial support throughout the league as well as revenue sharing to keep this business afloat.

“We have stars like Bogut who are entitled to certain type of demands. But for us to be profitable in small markets, we have to be able to win ballgames and build a better basketball team.”

To read this article in its entirety visit ESPN.

Source: Alex Alvarez / Mediaite

It’s a pivotal day following a pivotal summer for Glenn Beck. Today, the former Fox News personality debuts his two-hour show — rather appropriately titled Glenn Beck — on his subscriber-based, online-only network, GBTV.

Those familiar with Beck’s Fox News show will recognize certain features, like the chalkboard that has become nearly synonymous with the controversial host and author’s special brand of infotainment and activism. And, as the The Wall Street Journal notes, the new show and burgeoning network could translate into even more dollar signs for Beck as he continues to delight and ignite his audience:

Because Mr. Beck owns the show and the network, he could make substantially more than the $2.5 million salary he got each year at Fox. GBTV is on track to take in more than $20 million in revenue in its debut year, according to a person close to the company.

To read this article in its entirety visit Mediaite.

Source: Marie Diamond / ThinkProgress

Top economic analysts have weighed in with positive reviews of President Obama’s recently unveiled jobs plan to spur job creation. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, predicted that Obama’s “American Jobs Act” will likely add 1.9 million jobsand grow the economy by 2 percent. Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute reported that it would boost employment by around 4.3 million jobs, with 2.6 million jobs coming from new initiatives alone.

But Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and other GOP legislators in the state are strongly indicating they will reject billions in federal aid that could be used to create jobs in Florida:

Gov. Rick Scott and top Florida Republicans are sending early signals they could reject the billions in federal aid that could flow to the state under President Barack Obama’s jobs proposal.

Florida has a 10.7 percent unemployment rate that is higher than the national average. But Scott and GOP legislative leaders said the plan outlined by President Barack Obama was too similar to the nearly $800 billion stimulus package that was approved by Congress back in 2009.

“It sounds like President Obama still doesn’t get it,” House Speaker Dean Cannon said Friday. “The answer to the current economic problems is not spending more money.”[...]

A state-by-state breakdown of the president’s plan shows that Florida could stand to receive more than $7.5 billion for schools, roads and other projects. The White House estimates that the funds under the plan would support more than 60,000 jobs in Florida, including those held by teachers, cops and firefighters.

To read this article in its entirety visit ThinkProgress.

Source: David Cohen / Politico

In 1972, Barbara Jordan became the first African-American woman elected to Congress from the South. This week, 15 years after her death, she will become the first African-American congresswoman to appear on a U.S. postage stamp.

Jordan, who delivered an acclaimed keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention and also made a keynote address to the convention in 1992, will be the 34th person honored as part of the Postal Service’s annual Black Heritage series.

Last year’s honoree was filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. The series, which began in 1978 with a stamp honoring Harriet Tubman, has also depicted such political figures / social activists as Martin Luther King Jr., A Philip Randolph, W.E.B. DuBois, Roy Wilkins, Malcolm X, Paul Robeson and Thurgood Marshall. (The Postal Service doesn’t honor living people or anyone, except for recently deceased presidents, until they have been dead at least 10 years.)

She is also one of a small number of former members of Congress from Texas to be honored with a stamp of her own, following Sam Rayburn and Lyndon B. Johnson.

A native of Houston, Jordan was first elected four years after New York’s Shirley Chisholm, the first black congresswoman. She served three terms.

First-day ceremonies for the stamp will be held Friday morning in Houston at Texas Southern University and then later at the Houston Stamp Show in Humble, Texas

To read this article in its entirety visit Politico.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63168.html#ixzz1XlfhsaDX

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63168.html#ixzz1XlfVIkCg

Source: CNN

Tampa, Florida - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is backing Rick Perry for president, a major endorsement for the Texas governor as the campaign for the Republican nomination enters the crucial fall stretch of the primary calendar, a source tells CNN.

Roland Martin: GOP Race Not Down to Romney and Perry

Jindal is on his way to Florida and will be Perry’s guest at Monday night’s “Tea Party Republican Debate” broadcast on CNN from Tampa, the source said. Jindal is expected to formally make the announcement prior to the debate.

Earlier in the day, Tim Pawlenty endorsed his one-time rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, for the GOP nomination. Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor who dropped out of the race last month, will be Romney’s guest at the debate.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: Dana Hughes and Wilfred Wamburaabc / ABC News

More than 100 people are feared burned to death in a massive fire that engulfed a crowded slum in the Kenyan capital city of Nairobi.

Police say at least 80 people have been confirmed dead, but officials expect the toll to rise. An official from Kenyatta National Hospital tells ABC News that 112 people have been admitted so far with third degree burns, many of them children. The hospital has issued an appeal for for blankets and blood donations to help the injured.

The fire broke out in the Mukuru Sinai slum, located in Nairobi’s industrial zone after an oil pipeline exploded.

Witnesses say the explosion happened after some of the dwellers rushed to siphon off the spilling fuel from a burst pipeline, which runs through the area. Plumes of black smoke could be seen for miles as over-crowded shacks went up in flames. Police say the exact cause of the explosion remains unclear.

To read this article in its entirety visit ABC News.

Source: AP / CBS News

Bastrop, Texas – The number of homes destroyed by a still-raging wildfire here increased on Sunday to 1,554 and will increase further as emergency crews enter areas where the blaze has been extinguished. Seventeen people remain unaccounted for, but officials believe they could simply be out of town.

Bastrop County officials joined by Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett sought to provide new information to hundreds of residents evacuated a week ago, when blustering wind whipped up by Tropical Storm Lee swept across parched, drought-stricken Texas — helping to spark more than 190 wildfires statewide that killed four people.

The worst of the fires is the one in Bastrop that has consumed more than 34,000 acres.

Crews have now contained more than 50 percent of the blaze, paving the way for people to begin returning home and trying to rebuild their lives from the remains of the smoldering rubble.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: CNN

Bank of America expects to cut 30,000 jobs in the ‘next few years’ as it moves to refocus its banking business.

This story is developing. CNNMoney.com is digging into the story and we’ll bring you the latest details and information as soon as we get them.

To follow this topic visit CNN.

Source: AP / CBS News

Lagos, Nigeria – Authorities say four drunk officers with Nigeria’s federal police force opened fire on a funeral service they were assigned to guard, killing at least three mourners.

The shooting took place this weekend in the village of Akoko in Nigeria’s Delta state. Delta state police spokesman Charles Muka said Monday that the officers opened fire for no reason after drinking heavily.

Muka said the four officers were being held pending the filing of criminal charges over the shooting.

Nigeria’s federal police remain incapable of stopping ethnic and religious violence sweeping the oil-rich nation. Critics say its officers instead shake down motorists for bribes and make sham arrests to demand bail money from families. Many officers serve as personal orderlies to the country’s elite.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Mike Brunker / MSNBC

Thousands of so-called “deadbeat” parents are jailed each year in the U.S. after failing to pay court-ordered child support — the vast majority of them for withholding or hiding money out of spite or a feeling that they’ve been unfairly gouged by the courts.

But in what might seem like an un-American plot twist from a Charles Dickens’ novel, advocates for the poor say, some parents are wrongly being locked away without any regard for their ability to pay — sometimes without the benefit of legal representation.

“Languishing in jail for weeks, months, and sometimes over a year, these parents share one trait … besides their poverty: They went to jail without ever talking to an attorney,” according to the lawsuit filed by the nonprofit Southern Center of Human Rights in Atlanta.

While jailing non-paying parents — the vast majority of them men — does lead to payment in many cases, critics say that it unfairly penalizes poor and unemployed parents who have no ability to pay, even though federal law stipulates that they must have “willfully” violated a court order before being incarcerated.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

WATCH:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: AP / CBS News

Washington – Organizers have set new date in October for the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington.

Executive Architect Ed Jackson Jr. told The Associated Press on Sunday that the memorial will now be dedicated Oct. 16. A formal announcement is expected soon.

Extended coverage of the MLK Memorial dedication

The dedication had been planned for Aug. 28, the 48th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But it was delayed by Hurricane Irene, which swept through Washington with high winds and rain.

President Barack Obama had been scheduled to speak and up to 250,000 people were expected to attend. When the event was postponed, organizers said they wanted to set a new date with the White House.

Oct. 16 will be the 16th anniversary of the Million Man March on the National Mall in 1995.

To follow this topic visit CBS News.

Source: The Road to Resilience

Tom Hanks narrates the epic story of the 9/11 boatlift that evacuation half a million people from the stricken piers and seawalls of Lower Manhattan. Produced and directed by Eddie Rosenstein. BOATLIFT was commissioned by Dr. Stephen Flynn, President, Center for National Policy, for the 9/11 Tenth Anniversary Summit: Remembrance/Renewal/Resilience in Washington (www.road2resilience.org). Flynn & Sean Burke served as executive producers. The film was made possible by a generous grant by philanthropist Adrienne Arsht, Chairman Emerita, and TotalBank.

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

CNN’s Maggie Lake talks to World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein about rebuilding after the 9/11 attacks.

WATCH:

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

From around the world people reflect on how the 9/11 tragedy changed their lives.

WATCH:

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Harrowing tales of survival from those on the 81st and 84th floors of World Trade Center Tower 2 on 9/11.

WATCH:

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

CNN’s Carl Azuz recalls the events and times of an infamous day in American history.

WATCH:

Source: The Road To Resilience

A documentary short film about the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, as a metaphor for the rekindling of our spirit since the dark days of 9/11. Narrated by Tom Hanks, Directed by Eddie Rosenstein, Produced by Eyepop Productions, Inc. It was executive produced by Stephen Flynn and Sean Burke and premiered on September 8th at the 9/11 Tenth Anniversary Summit: Remembrance, Renewal, Resilience, in Washington D.C. The Summit kicked off a national movement to foster community and national resilience in the face of future crises. See www.road2resilience.org to become a part of the campaign to build a more resilient world.

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Source: Road to Resilience

Voices, a short film to honor those loved and lost on 9/11. From TakePart productions.

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Source: The Road to Resilience

Dr. Stephen Flynn on the challenges ahead.

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

For a class of second graders, on 9/11 their place was secured in history. CNN’s Jason Carroll reports.

WATCH:

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Newly-released audio recordings from 9/11 include chilling words from the lead hijacker as the attacks were in progress.

WATCH:

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

CNN’s Nancy Grace examines a report 2 American citizens are tied to a credible terror threat as 9/11 approaches.

WATCH:

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Vice President Joe Biden addresses an audience at the dedication of a Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

WATCH:

Extended coverage of the 10th Anniversary of 9/11

Source: Herald-Tribune.com

Palmetto, FL – Two people were shot dead and 22 others wounded when a pair of assailants opened fire on a large crowd outside a Palmetto nightclub early today, police say.

Palmetto Police officials are “aggressively pursuing leads” into the mass shooting, which happened about 12:30 a.m. outside Club Elite at 704 10th St. W. in Palmetto.

According to a police press release, a Palmetto man and a Bradenton woman were shot dead when at least two men opened fire on the crowd. The dead are 25-year-old Trayton Goff of Palmetto and 38-year-old Gwenette Matthews of Bradenton. Goff was found dead outside the club’s front door, while Matthews was found dead inside the club.

Police say 22 other people were hit by gunfire during the attack; six who were wounded most seriously were taken to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, while the 16 other victims were taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital for treatment, police said.

To read this article in its entirety visit the Herald-Tribune.

Source: Dan Froomkin / The Huffington Post

Washington – In July, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security quietly scuttled a multi-billion dollar program to install high-tech radiation detectors at the nation’s ports. A top priority of the Bush administration, the advanced spectroscopic portal (ASP) devices that the Raytheon Company was being paid to build weren’t just way behind schedule and enormously over budget — they didn’t actually appear to work. The failed project cost taxpayers well over $230 million.

DHS had already pulled the plug on its SBInet program — an effort to build a “virtual fence” of sensors, cameras and radar along the nation’s border — in January, after paying more than $1.1 billion. The Government Accountability Office, among others, had concluded that poor management and an over-reliance on the prime contractor, Boeing, had caused staggering delays and cost overruns while producing inadequate results.

And earlier in July, DHS had scrapped its unfinished and dysfunctional Risk Assessment Management Program, a computer application intended to help officials distribute their small army of private security guards between federal buildings, based on the chances of those buildings becoming terror targets. DHS had already shelled out $35 million over three years for a project that contractor Booz Allen had promised to complete in one year for $21 million. With the program axed, some eight years after DHS was founded, the department still isn’t able to do something as basic as assess which federal buildings are more vulnerable to attack than others.

These are just a few of the most recent — and in these cases, now staunched — examples of how DHS has hemorrhaged money since its creation in 2003.

According to an estimate by Ohio State University political scientist John Mueller and Australian engineer Mark Stewart, the cumulative increase in U.S. domestic homeland security spending since the 9/11 terror attacks totals about $580 billion.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Scott Pelley / CBS News

This week, CBS Evening News has visited all three sites of the 9/11 attacks. On Friday, it reported from what has been known as Ground Zero. But after a commemoration Sunday, it may be known by its new name — the National September 11th Memorial. Anchor Scott Pelley went down for an early look at the magnificent centerpiece.

Two granite pools with waterfalls spread out across the World Trade Center plaza — one for each fallen tower. Each of them is an acre in size. The water glides down 30 feet.

Pelley got a look of the memorial with Chris Ward, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — the agency that owns the site and oversees the rebuilding.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Jacqueline Kennedy’s recorded comments are now in a new book and companion audio CD with a foreword by her only surviving child Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg. NBC’s Brian Williams reports.

Source: Jordana Ossad  / CNN

New York – Hackers accessed the Twitter account for NBC News on Friday and posted false messages about a fresh attack on New York’s ground zero.

A group calling itself The Script Kiddies claimed responsibility for the hacking, which included three messages about a hijacked plane hitting the World Trade Center site just before 6 p.m.

NBC issued a statement Friday confirming the hacking and said it is “working with Twitter to correct the situation and sincerely apologize for the scare that could have been caused by such a reckless and irresponsible act.”

Both Twitter accounts for NBC News and The Script Kiddies were suspended shortly after the tweets were posted.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Rep. Michele Bachmann slams Obama’s jobs plan saying he’s “philosophically incapable” of doing what needs to be done.

WATCH:

Source: Reuters / The Huffington Post

Bank of America Corp officials have discussed slashing roughly 40,000 jobs during the first wave of a restructuring, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the plans.

The number of job cuts are not final and could change. The restructuring aims to reduce the bank’s workforce of 280,000 over a period of years, the Journal said.

BofA could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

The Journal said BofA executives met Thursday at Charlotte, North Carolina, where the bank is headquartered, and will gather again Friday to make final decisions on the reductions, putting the finishing touches on five months of work.

Investors are pressing BofA to improve its performance after it lost money in four of the last six quarters and its stock has fallen by half this year.

The Journal said the proposed job cuts may exceed BofA’s last big cutback in 2008 when it called for 30,000 to 35,000 job cuts over three years. That move was triggered by an economic slowdown and the planned takeover of securities firm Merrill Lynch & Co.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Hal Millard / Patch.com

Gov. Nikki Haley said Thursday she wants to institute drug testing for people who apply for state unemployment benefits.

“I so want drug testing,” Haley told a receptive, hometown gathering of Rotarians at a breakfast reception held at the Country Club of Lexington. “It’s something I’ve been wanting since the first day I walked into office.”

However, Haley stopped short of proposing any such testing for those who receive welfare benefits, including those on food stamps.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott recently signed into law a measure that requires welfare recipients to pass annual drug screens. However, early indications are that the measure is unlikely to save that cash-strapped state any money, and is highly vulnerable to costly lawsuits on constitutional grounds, analyses show.

To read this article in its entirety visit Patch.com.

Source: Reuters / The Huffington Post

Regulators are close to an agreement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to settle a case over disclosing their exposure to risky subprime loans, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

Neither a monetary penalty nor an admission fraud would be included in the settlement under the proposed agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Times reported, citing several people briefed on the case.

The SEC abandoned hopes of assessing a fine because of the precarious financial positions of the two companies, the newspaper said, citing sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal was not yet final.

The two companies did not view the government’s case as particularly strong, but they said they moved to settle to spare time and resources, the Times said, citing one person close to the talks.

The negotiations have been going on since at least early summer, and a deal may not come until later this year, the newspaper said, citing its sources.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: AP / CBS News

Washington – Just days before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. counterterrorism officials were chasing a credible but unconfirmed al Qaeda threat to use a car bomb on bridges or tunnels in New York City or Washington. It was the first “active plot” timed to coincide with the somber commemoration of the terror group’s 9/11 attacks a decade ago that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Counterterrorism officials were investigating the threat throughout the night and into Friday, as police in New York and Washington said they would increase their already stepped-up staffing levels in light of the recent intelligence.

The threat originated from Pakistan and what remains of al Qaeda’s core leadership, including its new head Ayman al Zawahiri, reports CBS News homeland security correspondent Bob Orr. A U.S. official told Orr the original intelligence source provided enough specifics relating to locations, dates, methods and operatives to suggest that “it is more than ‘aspirational.’”

The intelligence suggested that al Qaeda planned to car bomb one or both of the two cities that were hit 10 years ago.

But the threats remain unconfirmed, and there is a full court press by the FBI, CIA and others to refute or corroborate the information.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: Hillary Reinsberg / Mogulite

Most people wouldn’t sue for being told they’re worth a few hundred million dollars. Most people aren’t Donald Trump.

In 2005, Tim O’Brien wrote Trump Nation, an investigative book in which, among other things, he argued that Trump wasn’t worth nearly as much as he said he was. While Trump claims he’s worth upwards of $7 billion, O’Brien said the number was actually between $150 million to $250 million. In Trump’s eyes, this was defamation. A judge ruled this week that it wasn’t. And thus the lawsuit was dropped.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “in order to prove defamation in a case like this, a plaintiff has to show that claims were published even though the author knew they were false, or recklessly disregarded whether the claims were false. This is called ‘actual malice.’”

By the way, the case had already been dismissed in 2009 — so Trump brought it to the appeals court. Both times, judges ruled that there wasn’t actually any “actual malice” on O’Brien’s part. O’Brien may have been wrong, but the judge ruled that even so, it might be result of negligence.

With that in mind, Trump still contends he’s worth $7 billion. In which case, it’s not like he needs the money he would have won in a lawsuit anyway.

To read this article in its entirety visit Mogulite.

Source: AP / CBS News

Pooler, Ga. – An 80-year-old Florida woman has died after being sickened by fumes at a McDonald’s restaurant in south Georgia, authorities said.
Pooler police Chief Mark Revenew said Anne Felton of Ponte Verda, Fla., died early Thursday. She and her husband were customers at the restaurant. An autopsy will be conducted to determine cause of death.

Felton was one of ten taken to the hospital Wednesday after firefighters found two customers unconscious inside a restaurant bathroom and others struggling to breathe. Eight were treated and released and two were admitted for treatment.

Authorities said Wednesday they suspected cleaning chemicals in the restroom were to blame, but the cause was still under investigation.

To follow this topic visit CBS News.

Source: The Huffington Post

Steve Stoute, the former music executive, has long played matchmaker between the popular culture and corporate America. He launched Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging in 2004, and linked Justin Timberlake to McDonald’s for the fast food chain’s “I’m Loving It” campaign, helped seal LeBron James’ partnership with State Farm Insurance, Gwen Stefani’s pact with Hewlett-Packard, Lady Gaga’s deal with MAC Comestics, and Jay-Z’s exclusive line with Reebok.

TJMS: Steve Stoute On Hip Hop, The Tanning Of America And The New Economy

Stoute — never at a loss for words — is also debuting a new book, “The Tanning Of America: How the Culture of Hip-Hop Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy,” out this week. To coincide with “Tanning,” he is developing a video series, “The Tanning Effect” with AOL HuffPost Media Group. Check out the exclusive trailer above, featuring Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams, Lady Gaga, and music industry impresario Jimmy Iovine.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: CNN

FBI agents on Thursday were searching the offices of a California solar energy company touted by President Barack Obama that recently halted operations, FBI spokesman Peter Lee confirmed to CNN.

Search warrants were executed at the Fremont, California, offices of Solyndra, which recently filed for bankruptcy, in a joint operation involving the FBI and the Department of Energy, Lee said.

Solyndra received a $535 million government loan guarantee from the Obama administration under the stimulus bill of 2009, and the president visited the company last year to demonstrate his support for alternative energy sources made in the United States.

Congressional Republicans have called for an investigation of the government loan to Solyndra, questioning if political favoritism was involved.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

Source: CNN

Police are investigating the death of an Arkansas man whose naked body was allegedly found next to a sleeping TV weatherman in a hot tub after a night of drinking and drugs.

The owner of the home awoke Monday morning to find the body of 24-year-old Dexter Williams at the bottom of an empty tub, his face blue and purple and a chain resembling a dog collar around his neck, according to a Maumelle Police report.

Asleep next to him was KARK meteorologist Brett Cummins, 33, who had arrived at Christopher Barbour’s home outside Little Rock accompanied by Williams around 8 p.m. on Sunday, Barbour told police.

The three drank and snorted drugs, though Barbour told police he did not know what kind, Officer Gregory Roussie said in a report. The three continued drinking in the hot tub until Barbour retired for the night around 11 p.m., falling asleep on his couch.

Maumelle Police and fire rescue arrived at the home around 8:10 a.m. and found Williams’ body in the tub with blood pooling around his head, Sergeant David Collins said in a report. In the master bedroom he found a pill bottle next to a pair of khaki cargo shorts on a storage ottoman at the foot of the bed.

To read this article in its entirety visit CNN.

WATCH:

Source: CBS News

Groups pushing for comprehensive sex education classes in Mississippi schools say there’s a good economic reason for what they’re doing.

A new analysis shows births to teen or preteen mothers cost the state $154.9 million in 2009.

That includes increased costs of foster care, social services and incarceration for young people born years ago to teen moms. It also takes into account lost revenue from people who have lower levels of education and lower-paying jobs because they became parents when they were younger than 20.

The study was done by a nonprofit, nonpartisan group called the Mississippi Economic Policy Center and was sponsored by the Women’s Fund of Mississippi. It was also supported by Mississippi First, an advocacy group for health and education issues.

To read this article in its entirety visit CBS News.

Source: David Jackson / USA Today

President Obama wins the latest round in the health care legal fight.

A federal appeals court tossed out Virginia’s lawsuit against the Obama health care law, ruling that the state’s attorney general lacked legal standing to bring the case.

The decision essentially reversed a lower court judge’s ruling that the law violates the Constitution because it forces most Americans to buy some sort of health insurance.

The appeals court did not rule on the constitutional issues involved in the challenge to the health care law.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, is the second appeals court to rule in the administration’s favor on the landmark 2009 law, though a third one has ruled against its key provision: The insurance purchase requirement known as the individual mandate.

To read this article in its entirety visit the USA Today.

Source: Ryan Creed,Sheila Marikar / ABC News

A French court has found fashion designer John Galliano guilty of anti-Semitic behavior in two complaints.

He could have been sentenced to a maximum of six months in jail. Instead, Galliano was fined 6,000 euros ($8,400), though the fines were suspended.

The Black Room: John Galliano Gets The Boot For Racist Comments (VIDEO)

The former Dior designer was charged in connection with incidents in October, where he was accused of verbally abusing an English language teacher at Cafe La Perle in Paris, and in March where he ranted at a couple at the same restaurant.

Galliano swiftly fell from fashion’s highest ranks after a video of a third tirade at La Perle appeared on the website of the British tabloid The Sun in February. In the video, Galliano – apparently intoxicated – declares to the bar’s patrons, “I love Hitler,” says that “people like you would be dead,” and “your mothers, your forefathers” would all be “gassed.”

To read this article in its entirety visit ABC News.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Source: MSNBC

Due to flooding fears, officials in northeastern Pennsylvania are calling for a mandatory evacuation of communities along the Susquehanna River — an area that was inundated in the historic Agnes flood of 1972.

The order affects more than 100,000 residents.

Luzerne County Management Agency official Frank Lasiewicki told The Associated Press Thursday the river is projected to crest at nearly 41 feet between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET Thursday — the same height as the levee system protecting riverfront communities including Wilkes-Barre and Kingston.

Residents were ordered to leave by 4 p.m. Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton said residents should prepare for an extended evacuation of 72 hours and advised them to take clothing, food and prescription medicine. He also asked city businesses to close their doors by noon.

To read this article in its entirety visit MSNBC.

Source: Trymaine Lee / Blackvoices / The Huffington Post

Years of public appeals, pleas of innocence and international support have yet to prevent what may be Troy Davis’ fate: Prison officials in Georgia have set the date of execution for Davis, one of the highest-profile inmates on the state’s death row.

It is the fourth time in as many years that officials have set such a date. This time the date is September 21.

Davis, convicted of the 1989 killing of an off-duty Savannah police officer, has steadfastly maintained his innocence. In the decades since his conviction, his case has become somewhat of a cause célèbre, with former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and even Pope Benedict XVI, among others, having urged the courts to grant Davis a new trial. Family members have poured their hearts and souls into Davis’ case. Advocacy groups rallied. Letter-writing campaigns were launched.

Earlier this year the U.S. Supreme Court turned down what likely was Davis’ last set of appeals. In 2009, Davis, by filing an original writ of habeas corpus to the Supreme Court, convinced the justices to order a federal court in Georgia to look into new evidence that he said would establish his innocence. By then, according to reports, several of the witnesses had recanted their earlier testimony that Davis had gunned down officer Mark MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot that night 20 years earlier.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

WATCH:

Souce: The Huffington Post

In Al Gore’s most recent post to “Al’s Journal,” the former vice president slams President Obama for his recent retreat on smog standards.

Last Friday, under pressure from big industries and GOP lawmakers, Obama asked the EPA to withdraw proposed clean air regulations.

According to the Associated Press, “The regulation would have reduced concentrations of ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in smog, a powerful lung irritant that can cause asthma and other lung ailments.”

In Gore’s Wednesday post, he writes:

Instead of relying on science, President Obama appears to have bowed to pressure from polluters who did not want to bear the cost of implementing new restrictions on their harmful pollution—even though economists have shown that the US economy would benefit from the job creating investments associated with implementing the new technology. The result of the White House’s action will be increased medical bills for seniors with lung disease, more children developing asthma, and the continued degradation of our air quality.

To read this article in its entirety visit The Huffington Post.

Source: Jenée Desmond-Harris /The Root

Twenty-one-year-old rapper Soulja Boy recently released a video of a song with lyrics about the military so offensive that they’ve inspired Army personnel and veterans to petition to have his music banned from bases around the country:

“F–k the FBI/And f–k all the Army troops/Bitch, be your own man/I’ll be flying through the clouds/With green like I’m Peter Pan,” he raps on a new track titled, “Let’s Be Real,” which went viral on Labor Day.

This morning, the rapper (real name DeAndre Cortez Way) issued a heartfelt apology viaGlobal Grind.

“As an artist, I let my words get the best of me. Sometimes there are things that we feel, things that we want to express, and when we put them on paper and speak them out loud, they can come out wrong,” he wrote in a statement. “When I expressed my frustration with the US Army, not only did my words come out wrong, I was wrong to even speak them. So, I write this to give my sincerest apology to all members of the United States military services, as well as their families that were offended by my most recent lyrics.”

To read this article in its entirety visit The Root.