Dec 15 2010

Prime Time

I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown!.  Some premiers.

As attentive readers know I am firmly of the belief that the time you most need blogs to distract you from the chaos of meat space is during the holidays when you have to deal with the unfortunate realities of your relatives.  It turns out that this year I’ll not have to stray too far from Stars Hollow so I’m prepared to provide my usual public service of creating excuses.

Not everyone is as addicted to mindless entertainment as I am and contributors who consider their time better spent in other pursuits are hereby released from whatever perceived obligations they have.  I’ll try and keep up as best I can, but I expect slowness and disruption of settled routines which always makes me cranky and out of sorts.

And then January 4th we’ll celebrate the Six Month Anniversary of The Stars Hollow Gazette and attempt a return to normalcy (such as it is).

Later-

Dave hosts Paul Rudd, Chris Russo, and Joanna Newsom.  Jon has Ricky Gervais, Stephen Stephen Sondheim.  Conan hosts Seth Green, Tim Meadows, and Broken Bells.

Boondocks– A Date With the Booty Warrior.

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Dec 15 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Assange back in British jail after bail ruling challenged

by Danny Kemp, AFP

1 hr 1 min ago

LONDON (AFP) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange won bail from a British court Tuesday over sex crimes claims but must stay in jail for at least another night after Swedish prosecutors appealed against the decision.

The 39-year-old Australian had given a thumbs-up to the packed courtroom in London as the judge granted him conditional bail, one week after being arrested at the request of Swedish authorities.

But two hours later, lawyers for Swedish prosecutors announced that they would appeal the ruling, meaning the case will now go to Britain’s high court and a new hearing must be heard within 48 hours.

2 Assange remains in London jail as bail decision challenged

by Alice Ritchie and Danny Kemp, AFP

2 hrs 46 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was set for another night in a British jail Tuesday after he first won bail but prosecutors then said they would appeal the decision.

Assange, who denies allegations of sex crimes in Sweden, had given a thumbs-up to the packed courtroom as the judge granted him conditional bail, one week after being arrested at the request of Swedish authorities.

But hours later, lawyers were called back to court to hear Gemma Lindfield, representing the Swedish prosecutors, announce they would appeal the decision.

3 Clashes as Berlusconi survives no-confidence vote

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

2 hrs 27 mins ago

ROME (AFP) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Tuesday survived a crucial no-confidence vote in parliament by three votes, triggering violent clashes in the streets of Rome that left 90 people injured.

Berlusconi won with a razor-thin majority, with 314 lawmakers voting in his favour, 311 against and two abstentions in the 630-seat lower house.

“I didn’t just survive, I’m strong,” Berlusconi said, adding however that enacting much-needed structural reforms would now be “more difficult.”

4 Ivory Coast presidential rival pushes crisis to a head

by Evelyne Aka, AFP

58 mins ago

ABIDJAN (AFP) – Would-be Ivory Coast leader Alassane Ouattara stepped up his efforts to seize the levers of power on Tuesday, urging people to take to the streets to help him seize control of key government offices.

Ouattara has been recognised as winner of last month’s election by the UN and the international community, but previous leader Laurent Gbagbo has also declared himself president and has kept command of the army and ministries.

There were signs Tuesday the dangerous two-week-old stand-off was coming to a head, with Ouattara’s camp urging supporters to engage in “peaceful combat” to take charge of state television and the Abidjan seat of government.

5 Fed sticks to spending plan amid slow recovery

by Veronica Smith, AFP

27 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Federal Reserve Tuesday steered a steady course through a shallow economic recovery, keeping a massive spending plan intact and interest rates close to zero for the second year.

The central bank’s policymakers said the recovery was too weak to reduce high unemployment, a key challenge to getting the world’s largest economy back on a sustainable course, and inflation trends were worryingly weak.

“Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in November confirms that the economic recovery is continuing, though at a rate that has been insufficient to bring down unemployment,” the FOMC said in a statement at the end of the panel’s final meeting of the year.

6 Fed expected to draw breath after stimulus move

by Andrew Beatty, AFP

Tue Dec 14, 12:36 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Amid a slightly brighter US economic outlook, the Federal Reserve is expected to keep massive stimulus policies and record-low lending rates in place when its top policy panel meets Tuesday.

As the Fed’s November decision to pump 600 billion dollars into the ailing US economy gets into full swing — so-called QE2 — members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) are weighing its impact for the first time as a group.

After months in which the bank has been front and center of the debate about how to spur the recovery, politics and a brighter outlook have conspired to give the central bankers some breathing space.

7 Belgian’s ‘mad hatter’ also milliner to queen of hearts

by Claire Rosemberg, AFP

Tue Dec 14, 9:46 am ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – In Belgium, the country of surreal art and comic books, mad hatter Christophe Coppens is perfectly cut out for his part as designer of fantasy headgear for the likes of pop star Rihanna, and milliner to the king.

Quiet Coppens, tall and easy going with a Peter-Pan smile and fondness for bicycling about town, last month became a recipient of the royal warrant — as hatter to Belgium’s popular royals, Albert II and Queen Paola.

Perhaps not surprisingly, royal-watching hat-fanatics puzzle at times on the Internet over headpieces outed by Queen Paola and daughters-in-law Princess Mathilde and Princess Claire — though Coppens is not their sole source.

8 Obama war cabinet mulls Afghan review

by Stephen Collinson, AFP

2 hrs 58 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama finalized his Afghan strategy review with his war cabinet Tuesday in a meeting shrouded by the death of veteran diplomat and US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke.

Obama lauded the hard-charging Holbrooke as a “giant” of US diplomacy after he died from a ruptured aorta late Monday, and the president’s plan must now go ahead without the man masterminding a civilian “surge” in Afghanistan.

Tuesday’s somber one hour, 45-minute meeting, in the White House Situation Room, came two days before Obama makes public his review into the year-old “surge” plan designed to crush Al-Qaeda and break the Taliban’s momentum.

9 Assange back in jail as Sweden appeals bail

By Peter Griffiths, Reuters

1 hr 55 mins ago

LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a target of U.S. ire for releasing secret cables, returned to a London jail on Tuesday pending an appeal over a decision to free him on 200,000 pound ($317,400) bail for alleged sex crimes.

British judge Howard Riddle had initially granted Assange bail but prosecutors, representing Swedish authorities, challenged the decision before the 39-year-old Australian had left the court in central London.

“An appeal will be held within the next 48 hours and you will remain in custody,” the judge told Assange, who nodded and said, “I understand,” before being led from the dock by security guards.

10 WikiLeaks, web to revolutionize reporting: Pilger

By Mike Collett-White, Reuters

Tue Dec 14, 9:24 am ET

LONDON (Reuters) – Revelations on the WikiLeaks website which have enraged governments around the world should force the traditional media to rely less on official sources, award-winning journalist John Pilger said.

In an interview to discuss his film “The War You Don’t See,” the veteran Australian reporter told Reuters the internet, and more specifically WikiLeaks, would bring about a “revolution” in journalism which too often failed to do its job properly.

One reason the media did not challenge the U.S. and British governments’ justification for going to war in Iraq in 2003, later shown to be misplaced, was their eagerness to believe the official version of events, Pilger argued.

11 WikiLeaks’ Assange defiant as lawyers seek bail

By Adrian Croft, Reuters

Tue Dec 14, 6:13 am ET

LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has denounced the firms that suspended payments to his website as instruments of U.S. foreign policy and called for help in protecting his work from their “illegal and immoral attacks.”

Ahead of a London court hearing on Tuesday at which Assange’s lawyers will try to win his release on bail, he remained defiant, telling his mother from a British prison cell that he was committed to publishing more secret U.S. cables.

The 39-year-old Australian, whose website has provoked U.S. fury by publishing some of a trove of 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic papers, is being held on allegations of sex crimes in Sweden, which he denies.

12 Fed keeps policy on hold, says recovery too slow

By Mark Felsenthal and Pedro da Costa, Reuters

1 hr 56 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve said on Tuesday the economic recovery was still too slow to bring down unemployment, reaffirming its commitment to purchase $600 billion in bonds to stimulate growth and create jobs.

In a statement that contained little acknowledgment of a recent uptick in the economic data but focused squarely on high unemployment, the Fed characterized the U.S. expansion as “continuing,” a modest upgrade from its November description of the recovery as “slow.”

While the meeting likely involved some reevaluation of the economic outlook to account for the effects of a proposed extension of tax cuts, the Fed noted measures of underlying inflation had continued to trend lower since its last meeting.

13 Bank regulators back new capital rule

By Dave Clarke, Reuters

2 hrs 12 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bank holding companies would no longer be able to raid their federally insured banking units for capital during times of crisis under a proposal issued by U.S. bank regulators on Tuesday.

The holding companies would have to maintain the same minimum capital levels as their federally insured banking units under the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp proposal required by this year’s Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law.

The measure aims to combat behavior seen at some financial institutions during the 2007-2009 financial crisis when holding companies relied on their insured depositary units as a source of capital strength.

14 Special Report: What’s a home worth? Pick a number, any number

By Linda Stern, Reuters

Tue Dec 14, 11:38 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Aaron and Beth Stiner are renters, but not by choice and not because they can’t afford to buy a house. They had a move-up home in Phoenix selected and good credit scores. They even had buyers lined up for the home they were selling. Then they entered appraisal hell.

The first appraisal on their chosen home came in at $295,000, a figure that both the Stiners and the sellers agreed upon. The lender didn’t like it, and ordered up a second appraisal. Based on comparable homes that were in a different neighborhood, the new appraisal came in $25,000 lower — too low to allow the loan to go through.

They switched lenders and got another appraisal that, at $290,000, would have allowed the deal to go through. Their new lender was skeptical, and ordered up another appraisal. At the same time, the home they were selling was appraised three times, with each subsequent valuation falling.

15 Berlusconi narrowly survives Italy confidence vote

By James Mackenzie, Reuters

1 hr 47 mins ago

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on Tuesday that left his center-right government clinging to power and provoked the most violent protests seen in Rome for years.

The result underlined Berlusconi’s reputation as one of the great survivors of Italian politics, but left him unable to ensure the stability of his government at a time of major economic problems and a menacing euro zone debt crisis.

“It’s obviously a positive outcome for Berlusconi given how things looked two weeks ago, but the government will face severe difficulties passing its policies with such a small and fractious majority,” said Marco Stringa, an analyst with Deutsche Bank in London.

16 New bank law to give Ireland sweeping powers

By Carmel Crimmins, Reuters

Tue Dec 14, 11:16 am ET

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s government will have extensive powers to restructure its banking sector, including the ability to impose losses on subordinated bondholders, under a new law published on Tuesday.

Ireland has agreed to a radical overhaul of its banks as part of an 85 billion euro ($114 billion) EU/IMF rescue package designed to prevent future loan losses at its lenders that could tip the economy over the edge and damage the wider euro zone.

“This bill will allow the minister to take the actions required to bring about a domestic retail banking system that is proportionate to and focused on the Irish economy,” Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said in a statement.

17 Special report: The cost of a malaria-free world

By Kate Kelland and Ben Hirschler, Reuters

Tue Dec 14, 7:24 am ET

LONDON (Reuters) – Joe Cohen, a scientist tantalizingly close to delivering the world’s first malaria vaccine, is on the stump.

After 23 years of painstaking laboratory work and a program of major trials in seven countries, the 67-year-old biologist says the clinical case for the vaccine is almost proved. It’s a breakthrough moment that could save hundreds of thousands of lives, but when it comes to public health in the developing world, Cohen knows hard science is only half the job. That’s why the softly spoken U.S.-Italian researcher found himself one chilly December evening pitching his life’s work to rich-world politicians whose voters will have to foot the bill, and fielding questions over festive mince pies and wine in a leather and oak-clad room in London’s Houses of Parliament.

How cost-effective will the vaccine be compared to tried and tested low-tech approaches like mosquito nets and insecticides, one inquirer asks. Is there any evidence that it will bring down the spread of the disease in general, helping those who haven’t been vaccinated? How long is a shot likely to stay effective? Is there a danger it might foster a false sense of security? As the session goes on, it’s clear that enthusiasm for Cohen’s work is coupled with wariness among the experts and well-informed lawmakers. The bottom-line question: is the vaccine — and the global health community’s aim of completely eradicating a disease that kills a child every 45 seconds — really worth the money?

18 China to raise inflation target in dovish signal

By Langi Chiang and Simon Rabinovitch, Reuters

Tue Dec 14, 6:23 am ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China will set a 4 percent target for consumer inflation next year, up from this year’s 3 percent objective, state television said on Tuesday, an indication that the government will desist from aggressive tightening even as price pressures mount.

The slightly higher threshold for inflation was consistent with another report in official media earlier in the day that China will aim to cap new loans at about 7.5 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) next year, a more generous ceiling than many in the market had been expecting.

“The main targets for economic and social development set by the central government for next year are that GDP will grow by about 8 percent and the consumer price index will be capped at about 4 percent,” CCTV quoted Zhang Ping, head of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, as saying.

19 Regulators carve into bank profits and trading bets

By Dave Clarke and Rachelle Younglai, Reuters

Tue Dec 14, 1:35 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Rules that have the potential to slash banks’ debit card profits and stop traders from excessive speculation in oil and other commodity markets will be unveiled by U.S. regulators this week.

Banks also face the prospect of tougher capital rules as regulators spend a busy three days fleshing out the Dodd-Frank law enacted in July to rein in Wall Street’s behavior in response to the 2007-09 financial crisis.

Regulators must craft more than 200 rules before July 2011, including a new regulatory regime for the over-the-counter derivatives market.

20 Judge rejects key part of Obama healthcare law

By Lisa Lambert and Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters

Mon Dec 13, 7:23 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A judge in Virginia on Monday declared a key part of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law unconstitutional in the first major setback on an issue that will likely end up at the Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2002, backed the state of Virginia’s argument that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to start buying health insurance in 2014 or face a fine.

“This dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance — or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage — it’s about an individual’s right to choose to participate,” Hudson wrote, adding the provision invites an “unbridled exercise of federal police powers.”

21 Sweden appeals UK granting bail for Julian Assange

By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press

10 mins ago

LONDON – A British judge ordered Julian Assange released on 200,000 pounds ($316,000) bail Tuesday, but the WikiLeaks founder will remain in custody for at least two more days after Swedish prosecutors challenged that decision.

Assange has spent a week in a U.K. jail following his surrender to British police over a Swedish sex-crimes warrant. He denies any wrongdoing but has refused to voluntarily surrender to Sweden’s request to extradite him for questioning – arguing that he could be questioned from Britain.

In a day of courtroom drama, the 39-year-old Australian was first told by a judge that he would be freed, then less than two hours later was informed he had at least another 48 hours in custody.

22 Berlusconi wins confidence vote in Italy – barely

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO, Associated Press

2 mins ago

ROME – Silvio Berlusconi pulled off another astonishing escape from the political dead, scraping through two confidence votes Tuesday in a dramatic parliamentary showdown. But the Italian leader’s hold on power remains precarious as his razor-thin victory makes political gridlock a near certainty – and violent street protests show growing unease with his rule.

Masked protesters torched cars and trash bins, smashed shop windows and clashed with police. Clouds of white tear gas and orange flares engulfed streets, as shops full of Christmas goods hurriedly closed down. Employees at one bank cowered in fear as a group of stone-throwing youths swept by.

Protesters rampaged in the the area around parliament and Berlusconi’s residence, which had been cordoned off by heavy police presence. By sundown, almost 100 people, both protesters and police, were reported injured, including about two dozen hospitalized. About 40 were reportedly taken into police custody.

23 Earmarkers feast on pork one last time before diet

Associated Press

37 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The spending barons on Capitol Hill, long used to muscling past opponents of bills larded with pet projects, are seeking one last victory before tea party-backed GOP insurgents storm Congress intent on ending the good old days of pork-barrel politics.

You might call it the last running of the old bulls in Congress.

In the waning days of the lame duck congressional session, Democrats controlling the Senate – in collaboration with a handful of old school Republicans – are pushing to wrap more than $1.2 trillion worth of unfinished budget work into a single “omnibus” appropriations bill.

24 Fed cites unemployment in sticking with bond plan

AFP

10 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The Federal Reserve said Tuesday it will maintain the pace of its $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program because the economy is still too weak to bring down high unemployment.

The Fed’s bond purchases are intended to lower long-term interest rates, lift stock prices and encourage spending. Its decision not to increase its purchases rattled bond investors, who fear a tax-cut plan in Congress could fuel enough growth to drive up interest rates.

Chris Rupkey, an economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, said investors worry the Fed’s bond-buying plan won’t achieve its goal of reducing long-term rates. Those rates have been rising as investors have raised expectations for growth and inflation, especially as a tax-cut plan takes shape in Congress.

25 House Dems stew over Obama’s handling of tax deal

Associated Press

Tue Dec 14, 12:34 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The struggle over tax cuts is seriously straining President Barack Obama’s relationship with House Democrats, who have backed him on key issues even when it cost them politically.

Expressing hurt and bewilderment, Democratic lawmakers say Obama ignored them at crucial negotiating moments, misled them about his intentions and made needless concessions to Republicans.

The president has responded that he acted honorably and drove the best bargain he could. But even his explanations offended some longtime allies. Aides to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi grumbled about a Dec. 7 news conference in which Obama claimed that some liberals would feel “sanctimonious about how pure our intentions are and how tough we are” by refusing to compromise, even if an impasse hurt the working class.

26 Haiti’s leading candidate speaks against council

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press

Tue Dec 14, 7:11 am ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Supporters of one of her competitors in Haiti’s presidential election set barricades on fire and threw rubble at cars when initial results put him third. The No. 2 finisher urged his partisans to mobilize and his staff warned they could start a war.

But during the turmoil since the preliminary vote count, Mirlande Manigat, the 70-year-old law professor and former first lady in first place, has kept her calm and stayed in the classroom and her stucco-walled office.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, she blamed the discord on a “crisis of confidence” with Haiti’s electoral officials.

27 New tenant of Harvey Milk’s old store draws ire

Associated Press

Tue Dec 14, 7:11 am ET

SAN FRANCISCO – On the surface, the new tenant at the storefront where Harvey Milk waged his historic political campaign would seem like the last organization to anger people in the gay community.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights lobbying group, wants to open up an information center and a gift shop in the building that would pay tribute to the slain gay rights leader.

But Milk’s friends and admirers are so incensed at the group taking over the slain San Francisco supervisor’s stomping grounds that they would rather see a Starbucks there, underscoring the tensions that exist within the various factions of the gay rights movement.

28 Yahoo’s holiday trimming cuts work force by 4 pct

Associated Press

33 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo is reducing its work force by 4 percent as it hands out 600 layoff notices for the holidays.

The job cuts announced Tuesday follow weeks of speculation about whether a long-running financial funk would spur Yahoo to trim its payroll before the new year. Reports of Yahoo’s layoff plans surfaced a month ago on two popular technology blogs, TechCrunch and All Things Digital.

This marks the fourth time in three years that Yahoo has resorted to mass firings to boost its earnings.

29 Pa. mayor who pushed immigrant law heads to DC

Associated Press

15 mins ago

HAZLETON, Pa. – A mayor whose get-tough policies on illegal immigrants attracted national attention years before the immigration debate shifted to Arizona resigned Tuesday to take a job in Congress.

Lou Barletta, who was elected to the U.S. House last month, left the Hazleton mayor’s office at noon. He had led the northeastern Pennsylvania city for more than a decade.

“This is a bittersweet moment for me,” said Barletta, 54, addressing a City Council chambers packed with family, friends and city workers. “No matter where I go, whether it’s Washington or beyond, I will never forget where I came from.”

30 Animal rehab centers still working after BP spill

Associated Press

25 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS – A baby sea turtle escaped from the jaws of a shark, only to get stuck in oil spilled from BP’s well in the Gulf of Mexico. A young dolphin apparently was attacked by his mother, then swam into oil.

The animals are among thousands rescued since more than 200 million gallons of oil began gushing from the Macondo well about 50 miles southeast of the Mississippi River Delta, and among dozens still at Gulf Coast rescue centers five months after the well was capped.

Since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, rescue officials say 2,079 birds, 456 sea turtles, some terrapins and two dolphins have been plucked from the oil.

31 Knights of Columbus suit claims sex abuse cover-up

Associated Press

27 mins ago

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Two men sued the Knights of Columbus on Tuesday alleging a youth leader sexually abused them decades ago and the world’s largest Catholic lay organization covered up one of the men’s earlier allegations of abuse.

The lawsuits claim that Juan “Julian” Rivera, a former leader of the Columbian Squires in Brownsville, Texas, abused the men in the 1970s and ’80s when they were boys. One of the victims told Knights of Columbus officials in 1986 that he had been sexually abused by Rivera, but the Knights concealed the report of abuse and intimidated the victim into not making the abuse public, one lawsuit alleges.

“His allegations and his coming forward was basically shut down,” Jeffrey Herman, attorney for the men, said outside the Knights’ headquarters in New Haven as he announced the two lawsuits. “We believe that the Knights of Columbus organization was aware of what was taking place.”

32 GAO: Feds decline half of Indian Country cases

By FELICIA FONSECA, Associated Press

Mon Dec 13, 7:19 pm ET

ST. MICHAELS, Ariz. – Federal prosecutors declined 50 percent of cases from American Indian reservations over a 5-year period, and the figure is higher for sexual abuse cases, a report released Monday found.

U.S. attorneys resolved 9,000 of the 10,000 cases they received in fiscal years 2005-2009, declining to prosecute in half those cases, while prosecuting or administratively closing the others, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

The report came in response to congressional inquiries regarding the declination rates that federal justice officials say can be misleading. Violent crime devastates tribal communities at rates higher than the national average, and federal prosecution often is the only way to bring justice to victims of major crimes.

33 Feds: Wolverines need protection but have to wait

By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press

Mon Dec 13, 7:07 pm ET

HELENA, Mont. – The threat of climate change warrants classifying wolverines as threatened or endangered, but other species are in more imminent danger and will delay protection for the small, ferocious mammals, wildlife officials said Monday.

The population of wolverines in the contiguous United States has rebounded to an estimated 250 to 300 since the early 20th century, when predator control in the West nearly wiped them out, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in its report.

But their resurgence may be short-lived.

34 Judge in health care case known as tough

By LARRY O’DELL, Associated Press

Mon Dec 13, 7:05 pm ET

RICHMOND, Va. – The federal judge who struck down the very centerpiece of the Obama administration’s health care law Monday is a George W. Bush appointee who earned the nickname “Hang ‘Em High Henry” for his tough-on-crime stand as a prosecutor and on the bench.

Among those who have felt U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson’s wrath is NFL star Michael Vick, who in 2007 received a nearly two-year sentence – and a dressing-down – for running a dogfighting ring.

Hudson rejected Vick’s plea for leniency, questioned whether the athlete was truly remorseful and chastised him for failing to apologize to children who looked up to him as a role model.

35 Ivory Coast poll-winner vows to take control

By MARCO CHOWN OVED and SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press

Mon Dec 13, 7:00 pm ET

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – The internationally recognized winner of Ivory Coast’s presidential election said he and his supporters will march on state institutions in a bid to take control, and the European Union agreed on sanctions against the incumbent.

Incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo claimed victory in November’s balloting and has rebuffed calls from the U.S., the EU, former colonial ruler France and the African Union to step down. The United Nations recognized opposition leader Alassane Ouattara as the winner. Both took oaths of office and set up separate governments last week in the vote’s chaotic aftermath.

After setting up his administration in an Abidjan hotel, Ouattara on Monday raised the stakes by saying he and his supporters will march on government buildings and state television on Thursday in a high-risk bid to deprive Gbagbo of the trappings of his presidency.

Dec 14 2010

Housing Prices in Free Fall

Remember that housing/mortgage/fraud crisis?  Well, it’s still here and now getting worse.

Home Prices Falling Fast, Eroding American Wealth And Threatening Recovery

Plunging home prices hammered household finances in the third quarter, eroding homeowners’ wealth and making them more vulnerable to foreclosure. As prices are expected to continue falling, the economic recovery could face a major stall.

Millions of homeowners saw their most valuable asset decay between July and September, according to recently released data from the Federal Reserve, as they lost a portion of the stake they can claim in their homes. A series of new reports reflects home prices are continuing to decline, increasing the pressure on America’s tepid housing market. Until the market finds a bottom, the foreclosure epidemic will feed upon itself, analysts say, as foreclosed properties drive home values down. With the unemployment rate hovering near 10 percent, and with companies showing historic reluctance to hire, the housing drag poses a significant impediment to an economic recovery.

Today Dan Froomkin wrote this at the Watchdog Blog:

Time For Real-Estate Watchdogs To Start Howling Again

You might not know it from reading the news, but the nation’s housing prices are in free fall again.

For the many Americans who have (or had) most of their wealth tied up in their homes, the consequences of this will be profound. The effect on nationwide consumption will inevitably be severe. In fact, there are some not inconceivable scenarios in which the housing market could just take the economy down with it again. . . . .

Despite the fact that the nation is officially in a period of economic recovery, the latest data show that home prices are diving. One recent survey pegged the decline at 0.7 percent per month; another found prices down 5.8 percent between August and October.

One analysis found  home values will likely drop more than $1.7 trillion this year, on top of the $1.05 trillion drop in 2009. That would bring the loss in wealth to $9 trillion since the June 2006 market peak, when the housing stock was valued at about $24 trillion.

And many market analysts expect prices to drop 10 percent or more in 2011.

The sudden decline starting this past summer is traced in part to the end of the home-buyer’s tax credit, in April. But the real problem is the huge downward pressure caused by the the record number of homes being foreclosed.

Foreclosures depress prices directly –  foreclosed homes are currently selling at a percent discount. They also depress prices indirectly, by creating urban (and in some cases suburban) blight.

Dec 14 2010

Punting the Pundits

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Dean Baker: The Tax Deal and the Apocalypse

The proponents of the tax deal that President Obama and the Republicans negotiated last week have gotten out their TARP and Iraq War hysterics. All the important people are now telling us that if Congress doesn’t approve the package, it will be the end of the world!

To be an important person in Washington these days requires a solid record of failure. That is why we have 25 million people unemployed, underemployed or out of the labor force altogether. And those who got us into this disaster are still overwhelmingly the ones calling the shots. So, people who want a realistic assessment of what the defeat of this tax package means for the economy may not want to rely on the usual suspects.

As I have noted before, the major risk of this deal is that it would undermine Social Security. The deal temporarily lowers the Social Security tax by 2 percentage points. In principle, the tax rate will go back to its current rate after the end of next year.

However, several prominent Republicans have already made it clear that they will call the expiration of this tax cut a tax increase. And they will point out that it is an extremely regressive tax increase that disproportionately hits low- and moderate-income workers.

Naomi Wolf: J’Accuse: Sweden, Britain, and Interpol Insult Rape Victims Worldwide

How do I know that Interpol, Britain and Sweden’s treatment of Julian Assange is a form of theater? Because I know what happens in rape accusations against men that don’t involve the embarrassing of powerful governments. . . .

(But) for all the tens of thousands of women who have been kidnapped and raped, raped at gunpoint, gang-raped, raped with sharp objects, beaten and raped, raped as children, raped by acquaintances — who are still awaiting the least whisper of justice — the highly unusual reaction of Sweden and Britain to this situation is a slap in the face. It seems to send the message to women in the UK and Sweden that if you ever want anyone to take sex crime against you seriously, you had better be sure the man you accuse of wrongdoing has also happened to embarrass the most powerful government on earth.

Keep Assange in prison without bail until he is questioned, by all means, if we are suddenly in a real feminist worldwide epiphany about the seriousness of the issue of sex crime: but Interpol, Britain and Sweden must, if they are not to be guilty of hateful manipulation of a serious women’s issue for cynical political purposes, imprison as well — at once — the hundreds of thousands of men in Britain, Sweden and around the world world who are accused in far less ambiguous terms of far graver forms of assault.

Anyone who works in supporting women who have been raped knows from this grossly disproportionate response that Britain and Sweden, surely under pressure from the US, are cynically using the serious issue of rape as a fig leaf to cover the shameful issue of mafioso-like global collusion in silencing dissent. That is not the State embracing feminism. That is the State pimping feminism.

Rep. Rush Holt: Social Security Is Not a Bargaining Chip

Much has been discussed about the effect that the proposed tax-cut compromise between President Obama and Congressional Republicans would have on long-term debt and much has been discussed about how many jobs the proposed agreement would generate and when. Overall, although it would reduce the money withheld from an average American’s paycheck in 2011, it ultimately would increase the burden shifted onto that average American’s back for funding our government. Probably the greatest damaging effect, though, would result from the 2 percent reduction in payroll tax, an ingredient injected late in the negotiations last week.

The provision puts in jeopardy the long-term survival of Social Security – a centerpiece program that has been popular, efficient, and effective for 75 years. Sixty-four percent of seniors – nearly 22 million Americans – depend on Social Security for most of their livelihood. In 1935 most seniors lived below the poverty line, a fact hard to believe since Social Security has changed that. Also 16 million others – not in their retirement years – surviving spouses and children and people with disabilities depend on Social Security.

David Sirota: Is Virginia Court’s Health Ruling an Inadvertent Progressive Victory?

Over the past few hours, the mediasphere has been ablaze with talk that Republicans and their insurance industry backers supposedly won a huge victory with a Virginia court’s ruling that the mandate to buy private insurance is unconstitutional. On the policy merits, this seems to make no sense. At all. In fact, the Republicans pushing this court case may have inadvertently helped America take a progressive step on health care, if progressives can actually take advantage of the situation. Hear me out.

The mandate to buy insurance was always a huge giveaway to the private insurers. It guarantees them a pool of customers that will pad their profits for eternity, thus solidifying private insurance as the profit-taking middleman in the American health care system. The Virginia court, however, struck down the mandate but did not strike down the other mandates forcing the insurers to sell you insurance. For instance, the court ruling did not eliminate the mandate for insurers to sell you insurance despite your preexisting condition; did not eliminate the mandate for insurers to use a certain percentage of their revenues to provide health care services (rather than padding profits); and did not eliminate the mandate that ends lifetime caps on health care benefits.

D.D. Buttenplan: What Would I.F. Stone Think of WikiLeaks?

Although a radical pariah for most of his career, towards the end of his life America’s greatest investigative journalist, I.F. Stone, had become a kind of liberal talisman-a cuddly curmudgeon whose coke bottle glasses and wrinkly venerability made him safe for mainstream admiration. Because I.F. Stone’s Weekly-the one-man, four-page newsletter he published himself, exposing White House lies and Pentagon prevarications-was run out of his Washington basement, nowadays Stone is often called “the first blogger.” As his biographer, it’s a label I’ve always resisted, pointing out that Stone made a good living from his work, supporting a wife and three children thanks to thousands of subscribers who paid to read what he had to say. And though I’m often asked “What would Izzy have thought?” about various contemporary political phenomena, from the Tea Party to the rise of Hugo Chávez, in most cases the only honest answer is “Why don’t you break out the Ouija board and ask him yourself?”

But I.F. Stone would have loved WikiLeaks. This is, after all, the man who wrote: “Nothing makes life more interesting than outwitting censorship.” Julian Assange was still a teenage hacker when Stone died in June 1989, and the WikiLeaks founder’s motives and early influences are as much of a mystery as his personal life. But what WikiLeaks has achieved, in a remarkably short space of time, is nothing less than the Holy Grail of muckrakers from Ida Tarbell to I.F. Stone. Perhaps Upton Sinclair, whose novel The Brass Check was a pioneering exposé of media self-censorship, put it best: if a journalist could only “succeed in his efforts to make the people believe what ‘everybody knows’ then he will be recognized in future as a benefactor of his race.”

John Nichols: Sanders Filibuster Halted By Senate; Tax Deal Fight Now Focuses on House Challenge to Estate-Tax Exemption

n a display of how Washington insiders practice bipartisanship, most Senate Democrats voted with most Senate Republicans to deliver for the wealthiest Americans.

Senators from both parties, self-identified liberals and conservatives, united to end a filibuster by Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders, who has led the fight to block an Obama administration deal with congressional Republicans that extends tax breaks for billionaires and establishes estate-tax exemptions for millionaires.

Sanders conducted an 8.5 hour filibuster Friday, in which he outlined arguments against the agreement to trade a two-year extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, along with sweeping estate-tax exemptions, for a one year extension of benefits for unemployed workers.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, serving as floor manager for the deal cobbled together by the Obama administration and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, sought a cloture vote to end the filibuster and open debate on the plan.

Sixty votes were needed to end the filibuster. Reid secured an overwhelming 83.

Thom Hartman Medicare “Part E”- for Everybody

“The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents. It is a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community. It is a place where men are more concerned with the quality of their goals than the quantity of their goods.”

– Lyndon Baines Johnson

There are two important reasons for having a strong social safety net, one based in sound economic policy and the other in our common humanity. So it’s no surprise that the countries that have strong social safety nets tend to have resilient economies and a higher quality of life.

Ultimately, social safety nets are about managing risk and unforeseen contingencies. On the one hand, there are the risks that we want people to take, such as starting a new business. On the other hand, there are unforeseen events that are so severe – like becoming paralyzed in an accident – that no one person (unless incredibly wealthy) could handle the expenses associated with them. In both cases, by setting up a social safety net that distributes the costs of responding to them across the wide spectrum of society, we minimize both the societal cost and the individual suffering.

David Weigel: Bipartisanship Now

Senators hold their noses and support the tax-cut deal.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., was angry, with an emphasis on “was.” Last week she told the Huffington Post that a tax-rate deal that benefited the wealthiest among us represented “moral corruptness.” On Friday, she joined Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders for a lengthy filibuster-of-sorts, using some debate time to pound the podium once again about moral corruption.

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Yet on Monday, in a conversation with reporters before the vote on whether to let the tax deal proceed, Landrieu appeared calm. “I wasn’t outraged about the bill,” Landrieu said. “What was I outraged about?” “You were describing the deal that had been struck,” said Huffington Post’s Arthur Delaney. “Not the whole deal,” said Landrieu. “I was outraged about one portion of the deal. And I’m still outraged about it.” Landrieu counted off the tax-rate cuts that would benefit “the families of millionaires” and said the negotiators never should have included them. “That is what I object to. I did not say I was against the whole package.”

Dahlia Lithwick: Dream a Little Dream

Why the Cuccinelli health care win in Virginia matters more than you think.

There were no surprises today when federal district judge Henry Hudson issued his 42-page ruling in Virginia’s challenge to President Obama’s major health reform initiative. Last August, Hudson denied an early effort to have the lawsuit dismissed. Then in October, he thumped Department of Justice lawyers arguing before him. In his decision today, striking down the health law’s individual mandate-the provision requiring that by 2014 Americans must either purchase health insurance or face fines-Judge Hudson ruled exactly as he had telegraphed earlier. “No specifically constitutional authority exists to mandate the purchase of health insurance,” he wrote. The Obama administration claimed that its power lay in the commerce clause, which allows the federal government to regulate activities that affect interstate commerce, as well as several other constitutional provisions. But Hudson reviewed the case law and deemed otherwise: “An individual’s personal decision to purchase-or decline purchase-(of) health insurance from a private provider is beyond the historical reach” of the U.S. Constitution.

Hudson’s ruling does not come in a vacuum, although in many quarters it will be received as if it had. Depending on whether you refer to health reform as “Obamacare” or the “Affordable Care Act,” today’s decision was either the first well-deserved “pockmark” on the legislation or a wing-nut outlier, penned by a reliably conservative George W. Bush appointee.

To put today’s ruling in perspective, there are almost two dozen health care challenges still pending. Supporters of health care reform point out that two other federal courts have ruled that the legislation is perfectly constitutional. (A federal judge in Virginia recently upheld the law, as did a federal judge in Michigan last October.) It hardly warrants repeating that both were Clinton appointees. Given the partisan judicial split that Hudson’s ruling now produces, the most relevant observation about the constitutionality of health care reform today is that each side can continue to dismiss its opponents as having scored empty symbolic victories.

Dec 14 2010

UPDATED: WikiLeaks Founder Assange Granted Bail By British Court

( – promoted by TheMomCat)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, arrested in Britain on Swedish allegations of sex crimes, was conditionally granted bail by a British court today, an article by Reuters says this morning. The article notes that “Judge Howard Riddle, who had earlier granted Assange bail under stringent conditions, said Assange must remain in custody until the appeal is heard within 48 hours.”

Riddle, who last week said that Swedish authorities would need to show some convincing evidence if they wanted to oppose bail for the 39-year-old Australian when he appears in court to oppose extradition to Sweden, today granted Assange bail with conditions until another hearing on January 11.

Mr Assange had been refused bail Wednesday December 08, 2010 and sent to Wandsworth prison when he appeared before Judge Riddle to answer a Swedish extradition application.

The Brisbane Times reports that “Mr Assange, 39, won his temporary freedom after his lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson, gave Judge Howard Riddle a temporary address where the WikiLeaks founder would stay and agreed to post a guarantee of £200,000 ($US315,280).”

…Mr Assange had not been given any of his mail, including legal letters, since he was jailed.

He was on 23½-hours-a-day ”lock-down” at Wandsworth. He was kept under surveillance on infrared video.

Ahead of his court appearance, Mr Assange blasted Visa, MasterCard and PayPal for blocking donations to his website.

In a defiant statement from behind bars, he claimed the firms were “instruments of US foreign policy” but vowed their actions would not stop the whistle-blowing website from continuing to publish thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables.

Last week, in the wake of Visa, MasterCard and PayPal shutting down donations processing for WikiLeaks, the organizations credit card processor DataCell ehf of Iceland announced its intention to sue Visa and Mastercard, with DataCell CEO Andreas Fink stating that the company “has decided to take up immediate legal actions to make donations possible again,”  and that “The suspension of payments towards Wikileaks is a violation of the agreements with their customers.”

Visa should “just simply do their business where they are good at – transferring money,” Fink wrote.

Neither of the credit card companies have commented on the pending lawsuit.

Xipwire, Inc. of Philadelphia announced on Tuesday December 07 that it would act as an intermediary for WikiLeaks after the world’s largest credit card providers halted all electronic donations to the non-profit media outlet. Xipline accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and bank debit cards, and has since stated in their website that “We have officially been contacted by WikiLeaks and will be forwarding all donations to them directly”.

Stephen Webster writing at RawStory also notes this morning that “Though granted bail, Assange may not actually be freed on Tuesday, as it was already late afternoon when the ruling came down and prosecutors had time to appeal the decision. One of his supporters, Sarah Saunders, offered the court £150,000 — or “pretty much all I’m worth,” according to a reporter on the scene — to ensure Assange did not flee. — Bail was set at 200,000 pounds. Once the decision was announced, the courtroom erupted with cheers, according to The Guardian. The court required that Assange surrender his passport, submit to a curfew and wear a tracking device.”

Earlier this morning filmmaker Michael Moore had issued an announcement stating that “Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail. Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.”

The UK Independent reported this morning ahead of Mr. Assange’s bail hearing that:

Whitehall is preparing for a crippling attack on government websites as evidence mounts that the backlash against the arrest of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is rapidly growing into a mass movement that aims to cause widespread disruption on the internet.

Extra security measures have been added to a host of government web services, in particular those used to claim benefits or provide tax information, after Sir Peter Ricketts, the national security adviser, warned permanent secretaries across all departments that “hacktivists” who last week targeted the sites of companies such as MasterCard and PayPal could switch their focus to Britain.

Downing Street officials confirmed they are preparing for a court appearance today by Mr Assange, who remains in custody following his arrest on sex allegations at the request of the Swedish authorities, to be used by hackers as an excuse to switch their focus to key cyber infrastructure such as the website of HM Revenue and Customs. Members of the online collective Anonymous have already signalled their willingness to attack UK targets if Mr Assange – who denies the claims and whose lawyers will today apply for bail – is extradited to Sweden.

WikiLeaks has said that it is in no way connected to “Anonymous,” but added that they neither approve nor disapprove of their actions.

UPDATES – 2:00PM PST:

From David Edwards and Stephen Webster at RawStory:

Update: Swedish authorities will appeal decision

Swedish prosecutors will appeal a British decision to grant WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange bail, according to updates from sources outside the courtroom.

“This is really turning in to a show trial,” his attorney told reporters. “We will be in court in the next 48 hours, they haven’t given us the courtesy to say when. It is an unfortunate state of affairs, but given their history of persecuting of Mr Assange, it is perhaps not surprising.”

Assange will remain in custody until there’s a ruling on the appeal.

From RT:

The WikiLeaks founder has been granted bail by a British court – but with strict conditions. Assange will stay in jail until another hearing in the next two days, as Swedish prosecutors are appealing the bail decision. Stockholm wants to extradite Assange to answer questions over sexual assault allegations, which he denies. The WikiLeaks site is still operating and continues to publish confidential American diplomatic cables.



Dec 14 2010

On This Day in History: December 14

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

December 14 is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 17 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1995, the Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris.

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on December 14, 1995. These accords put an end to the three and a half year long war in Bosnia, one of the armed conflicts in the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. Some articles erroneously refer to the agreement as the Treaty of Dayton.

Background

Though the basic concepts of the Dayton Agreement began to appear in international talks since 1992, the negotiations were initiated following the unsuccessful previous peace efforts and arrangements, the August 1995 Croatian military Operation Storm and its aftermath, the government military offensive against the Republika Srpska, in concert with NATO’s Operation Deliberate Force. During September and October 1995, many of the world powers (especially the USA and Russia), gathered in the Contact Group, applied intense pressure to the leaders of the three sides to attend the negotiations in Dayton, Ohio.

The conference took place from November 1 to November 21, 1995. The main participants from the region were Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic (representing the Bosnian Serb interests due to absence of Karadzic), Croatian President Franjo Tudman, and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic with Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey.

The peace conference was led by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and negotiator Richard Holbrooke with two Co-Chairmen in the form of EU Special Representative Carl Bildt and the First Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Igor Ivanov. A key participant in the US delegation was General Wesley Clark (later to become NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) in 1997). The UK military representative was Col Arundell David Leakey (later to become Commander of EUFOR in 2005). The Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) served as legal counsel to the Bosnian Government delegation during the negotiations.

The secure site was chosen in a bid to curb the participants’ ability to negotiate in the media rather than at the bargaining table.

After having been initiated in Dayton, Ohio on November 21, 1995 the full and formal agreement was signed in Paris, France, on December 14, 1995 also by French President Jacques Chirac, U.S. President Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister John Major, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.

The present political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its structure of government were agreed upon as part the constitution that makes up Annex 4 of the General Framework Agreement concluded at Dayton. A key component of this was the delineation of the Inter-Entity Boundary Line, to which many of the tasks listed in the Annexes referred.

The agreement mandated a wide range of international organizations to monitor, oversee, and implement components of the agreement. The NATO-led IFOR (Implementation Force) was responsible for implementing military aspects of the agreement and deployed on the 20th December 1995, taking over the forces of the UNPROFOR.

Ironically, the chief architect of the Dayton Accord, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, died yesterday, December 13, in Washington, DC. May he rest in peace.

 1287 – St. Lucia’s flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.

1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.

1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first Military Academy in the world.

1782 – The Montgolfier brothers’ first balloon lifts off on its first test flight.

1812 – The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armee are expelled from Russia.

1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.

1825 – Advocates of Liberalism in Russia rise up against Tsar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist Revolt in St. Petersburg.

1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends.

1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.

1900 – Quantum Mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.

1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.

1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signed the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.

1911 – Roald Amundsen’s team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.

1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last ship of the Kongo-class, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.

1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Democrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires.

1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Vaino I, renounces the Finnish throne.

1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.

1941 – World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York City.

1947 – The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is founded in Daytona Beach, Florida.

1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sri Lanka join the United Nations.

1958 – The 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first expedition to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.

1961 – The United Republic of Tanzania joins the United Nations.

1962 – NASA’s Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

1963 – Baldwin Hills Reservoir wall bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles.

1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States – The United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S.

Congress can use the Constitution’s Commerce Clause power to fight discrimination.

1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission. This is the last manned mission to the moon of the 20th century.

1981 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Israel’s Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.

1983 – The 3rd Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.

1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River.

1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris by leaders of various governments.

1999 – Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations.

2003 – President of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.

2004 – The Millau viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.

2004 – Cuba and Venezuela found the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas.

2006 – American spy satellite USA-193 is launched.

2008 – President George W. Bush makes his fourth and final (planned) trip to Iraq as president and is almost struck by two shoes thrown at him by Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi during a news conference in Baghdad.

Holidays and observances

   * Alabama Day (Alabama)

   * Christian Feast Day

         o John of the Cross

         o Spyridon (Western Church)

   * Monkey Day (Unofficial holidays)

Dec 14 2010

Morning Shinbun Tuesday December 14




Tuesday’s Headlines:

‘Prepare for all-out cyber war’

USA

Years of Wrangling Lie Ahead for Health Law

Georgia prisoners continue their protest strike

Europe

The ‘bubbly’ Luton radical who became a suicide bomber in Sweden

Germany admits enslaving and abusing a generation of children

Middle East

EU shelves recognition of Palestine

Relatives of Spanish cameraman killed in Baghdad use WikiLeaks to press for justice

Asia

Japan faces up to threats from China, North Korea

Aasia Bibi blasphemy case a symbol of Pakistan’s religious intolerance

Africa

Malian cotton struggles against subsidy regime

Polisario chief extends hand to Morocco

Latin America

In Haiti, good intentions have unexpected and unfortunate results

Obama says he remains committed to engagement based on ‘trust and candour’

The comments are the closest the US president has come to making a public statement on the release of US embassy cables by Wikileaks

Ed Pilkington in New York

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 December 2010  

President Obama came the closest he has yet to making public comments on the WikiLeaks release of US embassy cables, when he told a gathering of diplomats from around the world yesterday that he remained committed to engagement based on trust and candour.

Obama has so far given no official response to WikiLeaks, leaving that to his secretary of state Hillary Clinton who has condemned the publication of thousands of classified state department documents as “an attack on the international community”.

‘Prepare for all-out cyber war’

Government sites braced for attack by pro-WikiLeaks ‘hacktivists’

By Cahal Milmo and Nigel Morris Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Whitehall is preparing for a crippling attack on government websites as evidence mounts that the backlash against the arrest of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is rapidly growing into a mass movement that aims to cause widespread disruption on the internet.

Extra security measures have been added to a host of government web services, in particular those used to claim benefits or provide tax information, after Sir Peter Ricketts, the national security adviser, warned permanent secretaries across all departments that “hacktivists” who last week targeted the sites of companies such as MasterCard and PayPal could switch their focus to Britain.

USA

Years of Wrangling Lie Ahead for Health Law

LEGAL MEMO  

By KEVIN SACK

Published: December 13, 2010

By contradicting two prior opinions, Monday’s court ruling in Virginia against the Obama health care law highlighted both the novelty of the constitutional issues and the difficulty of forging consensus among judges who bring differences in experience, philosophy and partisan background to the bench.

Judge Henry E. Hudson of Federal District Court in Richmond wrote with conviction that the law’s requirement that most Americans obtain insurance goes “beyond the historical reach” of Supreme Court cases that limit federal regulation of commercial activity.

Georgia prisoners continue their protest strike

 

LARA MARLOWE in Washington

THOUSANDS OF prisoners i in at least four penitentiaries across the state of Georgia continued a non-violent strike for the fifth consecutive day yesterday in a showdown between the Department of Corrections and inmates over forced labour and poor living conditions.

The strike is unprecedented in at least two ways: it was organised by mobile phones that were smuggled into the prisons, and it has united prisoners across ethnic and religious lines, in an environment where racially-based gangs often fight each other.

Europe

The ‘bubbly’ Luton radical who became a suicide bomber in Sweden

Police investigation will focus on how and where Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly became radicalised

Sam Jones, Ian Cobain, Richard Norton-Taylor and Shiv Malik The Guardian, Tuesday 14 December 2010  

When he decided to move from Sweden to Britain in 2001, Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly found himself living in a small community that has thrown up more than its fair share of violent jihadists.

Police and security service officers in Sweden and the UK are now attempting to discover how Abdaly came to be radicalised to such an extent that he would attempt to mount a mass-casualty attack in Sweden, the country that became his home when he was 10 years old. They will be particularly anxious to establish whether any individuals living in Luton played a part in the process.

Germany admits enslaving and abusing a generation of children  

Government agrees up to €120m in compensation for three decades of post-war ‘Nazi-era’ brutality in foster homes

By Tony Paterson in Berlin Tuesday, 14 December 2010

Germany has owned up to one of the most disturbing examples of mass child and youth abuse in its post-war history, some 60 years after the first teenagers started being locked away and mistreated by supposedly “caring” foster homes.

The country agreed yesterday to provide a €120m (£101m) compensation fund for the estimated 30,000 victims who were among the 800,000 children in German foster homes in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies.

Middle East

EU shelves recognition of Palestine  

Foreign ministers from European Union say they will recognise a Palestinian state “when appropriate”.

Last Modified: 14 Dec 2010

Foreign ministers from the European Union have said they would recognise a Palestinian state “when appropriate”.

The ministers’ declaration on Monday followed a call from Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, for the EU to recognise Palestine based on the 1967 borders.

Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 war. It withdrew its troops from Gaza in 2005.

The EU foreign affairs council “reiterates its readiness, when appropriate, to recognise a Palestinian state”, the European foreign ministers’ said in a statement.

“Urgent progress is needed towards a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The ministers said.

Relatives of Spanish cameraman killed in Baghdad use WikiLeaks to press for justice  

After years of delays, the family of a Spanish journalist killed in a 2003 US attack on a Baghdad hotel turns to WikiLeaks documents that suggest the US and Spain colluded to prevent legal action.

By Andrés Cala, Correspondent / December 13, 2010  

In what could be the first legal case to use filtered WikiLeaks documents as evidence, the family of a Spanish cameraman killed in 2003 by a US tank shell during the battle for Baghdad filed a complaint Monday. They seek to open an investigation into whether high-ranking officials here colluded with the US Embassy to stop charges being filed against three American soldiers, including a colonel.

José Couso of Telecinco, the Spanish cameraman, and Taras Protsyuk, a Ukranian cameraman working for Reuters, died April 8, 2003, when a shell fired by an M1 Abraham tank hit the 15th floor of the Palestine Hotel, which scores of foreign journalist were using as a base and Pentagon-approved safe haven. Two other media locations were hit that day, also killing Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayyoub. Four others were injured, leading to broad condemnation and demands to protect reporters.

Asia

Japan faces up to threats from China, North Korea



Martin Fackler December 14, 2010  

TOKYO: Japan is to sweep aside its Cold War-era defence strategy aimed at containing Russia to focus on threats to the south and west of the country.

The national defence guidelines will reduce its heavily armoured and artillery forces pointing north towards Russia in favour of creating more mobile units that could respond to China’s growing presence near its southernmost islands, Japanese newspapers reported.

Aasia Bibi blasphemy case a symbol of Pakistan’s religious intolerance  

The Pakistani government’s handling of the case of Aasia Bibi, a Christian facing the death penalty for insulting the Quran, indicates a willingness to let extremists have their way.

By Issam Ahmed, Correspondent / December 13, 2010

Islamabad, Pakistan

The Pakistani government’s refusal to repeal or amend the country’s blasphemy laws have renewed concerns about its resolve to tackle extremism at home.

The key symbol in the matter is Aasia Bibi, a 45-year-old Christian woman currently facing the death penalty on the charge of insulting the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad. Government officials originally promised to pardon but she continues to languish in jail. Some analysts say that the government’s apparent willingness to bow to Islamist extremists in the matter could undermine the country’s gains in the ongoing battle against the Taliban.

Africa

Malian cotton struggles against subsidy regime

The Irish Times – Tuesday, December 14, 2010

RUADHÁN Mac CORMAIC in Kolondieba, Mali  

COTTON HAS been in Broulaye Traoré’s family long enough for him to remember the days when they used to call it “white gold”.

In the decades after Malian independence in 1960, surging global demand pushed yields higher and great swathes of land here in the Sikasso region, in the southwest of Mali, turned white as smallholders switched to the fluffy cash crop. When Traoré took over as head of his extended family in the early 1990s, he remembers business running smoothly.

“In 1994, there weren’t many problems with cotton,” he says, sitting in the shade of a tree in the village of Kolondieba, in the heart of Mali’s southern cotton belt. “It was straightforward: the government bought it from us and there was little trouble. The problems began a few years later, starting with problems getting paid.”

Polisario chief extends hand to Morocco



ALGIERS, ALGERIA Dec 14 2010 07:35

Mohamed Abdelaziz, leader of the Polisario Front, says he hopes Morocco will remove all obstacles to progress in negotiations at the informal U.N.-sponsored meeting Dec. 16-18 in Manhasset, in New York.

Abdelaziz spoke to reporters Monday outside a conference in Algiers.

Polisario refugee camps are located in southern Algeria.

Morocco wants autonomy for the Western Sahara which it annexed in 1975. But the Polisario chief reiterated his hope for a referendum on independence for Western Sahara.

A third round of negotiations was held in November.

Latin America

In Haiti, good intentions have unexpected and unfortunate results  

Some of the international community’s aid efforts have caused problems, including an increase in housing prices, political turmoil and perhaps even the cholera epidemic.

By Joe Mozingo, Los Angeles Times  

Reporting from Port-au-Prince, Haiti –

The wood-frame Carousel grammar school survived the earthquake that destroyed much of this city in January. Beatrice Moise had taught there for five years and hoped she would continue when schools reopened in spring.

But in February she found out that the director had rented the building out to the international relief group Oxfam. Buildings in the upscale suburb of Petionville, where foreigners like to live and work, were in high demand, and Oxfam paid $10,000 a month.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Dec 14 2010

Thank goodness we’re not a Banana Republic!

Telecom Scandal Plunges India Into Crisis

By JIM YARDLEY and HEATHER TIMMONS, The New York Times

Published: December 13, 2010

NEW DELHI – Tycoons with friends in high places. Public tenders conducted by irregular rules. Tens of billions of dollars in potential losses for the national treasury. Allegations of government ministers on the take, and of a respected prime minister too aloof to notice.

Those are some of the ingredients of a telecommunications scandal that is growing into India’s equivalent of Teapot Dome, an almost daily flurry of revelations about bribery, abuse of power, and privatization of public wealth that paralyzed Parliament for more than three weeks before its winter session ended Monday and have plunged the governing Congress Party into its worst political crisis in years.

The issue is how a minister allied with Congress sold cellphone operators the airwaves to provide their service to in 2008. But the amounts involved – an independent auditor estimated that the government may have left almost $40 billion on the table by selling the rights too cheaply – and subsequent revelations of how some of India’s richest men sought to exercise influence over political appointments and regulatory decisions has surprised a nation seemingly inured to reports of corruption in politics.

“Open corruption and rising stark disparities in wealth are a volatile mix that could affect social stability if the benefits of growth don’t filter down.”

Dec 14 2010

Prime Time

Some Premiers.

You only think I guessed wrong! That’s what’s so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia” – but only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line”! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha…

Later-

Dave hosts Ricky Gervais, Hailee Steinfeld, and Diddy-Dirty Money.  Jon has Gordon Brown, Stephen Patti Smith.  Conan hosts Gwyneth Paltrow, T.J. Miller, and Jimmy Eat World.

Boondocks– Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy

Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.

There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war.

It’s possible, Pig, I might be bluffing. It’s conceivable, you miserable, vomitous mass, that I’m only lying here because I lack the strength to stand. But, then again… perhaps I have the strength after all. DROP… YOUR… SWORD!

Dec 14 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Berlusconi foes reject peace offer ahead of vote

by Dario Thuburn, AFP

1 hr 29 mins ago

ROME (AFP) – Opponents of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday rejected a last-ditch peace offer from the embattled leader, leaving Italy on tenterhooks on the eve of a confidence vote that could bring him down.

Lawmakers loyal to speaker of parliament Gianfranco Fini, whose break with Berlusconi earlier this year precipitated the current political crisis, said they would only support a centre-right government “headed up by someone else”.

Berlusconi, 74, had offered a new “legislative pact” with Fini’s allies, as well as with the opposition Union of the Centre (UDC) party, and said a vote of no-confidence in his government would mean holding fresh elections.

2 Ivory Coast troops pressure Ouattara ‘government’

by Christophe Koffi, AFP

59 mins ago

ABIDJAN (AFP) – Troops loyal to defiant Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo blockaded his rival Alassane Ouattara’s headquarters Monday, in the first armed stand-off of the West African nation’s two-week-old crisis.

As EU foreign ministers in Brussels agreed measures against Gbagbo and his top supporters, the incumbent deployed troops and gendarmes on access routes to Ouattara’s United Nations-protected waterfront base.

Gbagbo and Ouattara both declared themselves president in the wake of last month’s disputed election. Ouattara has been recognised by the international community, but Ivorian army chiefs continue to back Gbagbo.

3 Judge rules Obama health reform unconstitutional

by Lucile Malandain, AFP

1 hr 39 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US judge Monday ruled that a key provision in the Obama administration’s landmark health care reform requiring all Americans to have medical insurance was unconstitutional.

It was the first major legal blow to President Barack Obama concerning the radical overhaul of the nation’s health care system, which he has made a cornerstone of his administration.

The ruling by Judge Henry Hudson of the Eastern District Court in Richmond, Virginia, found that the new law’s mandate that Americans must buy insurance or pay a fine goes beyond federal authority and violates the Commerce Clause, a key component of the US Constitution.

4 Kosovo tense as Thaci claims victory ahead of poll results

by Stephanie van den Berg, AFP

Sun Dec 12, 7:25 pm ET

PRISTINA (AFP) – Prime Minister Hashim Thaci claimed victory late Sunday for his Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), but the main opposition Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) claimed they led the vote.

“Victory is ours!” Thaci told his supporters hours after polling closed in what were the first elections since the territory declared independence nearly three years ago.

The election commission will only begin announcing results on Monday but an exit poll put the PDK in the lead with 31 percent of the vote.

5 Palin broadens horizons in troubled Haiti

by Andrew Gully, AFP

Sun Dec 12, 6:12 pm ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) – Sarah Palin toured Haiti Sunday amid post-election unrest, comforting quake and cholera victims and gaining humanitarian kudos as she geared up for a possible White House bid in 2012.

The 46-year-old former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate was accompanied on the weekend trip by her husband Todd and 20-year-old daughter Bristol.

On the 11-month anniversary of January’s devastating earthquake, there is deep political uncertainty in violence-plagued Haiti, where rioting after disputed elections killed five people this week.

6 Ambassadors urge Haiti to trust in vote review

by Andrew Gully, AFP

Mon Dec 13, 3:52 am ET

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) – Key ambassadors to Haiti called on the country’s leaders to resolve a post-election crisis, which has been aggravated by a controversial vote recount due to begin on Monday.

Envoys from the United Nations, the United States, the Organization of American States and the European Union urged Haiti’s presidential candidates to avoid violence by pursuing legal means to challenge the election results.

The joint statement, on the eve of a Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) meeting to discuss forming a commission to sort out the dispute, invited the candidates “to take part in the process of establishing the commission.”

7 African health research has solutions but no support

by Boris Bachorz, AFP

Sun Dec 12, 3:37 pm ET

NAIROBI (AFP) – African health laboratories are bubbling with innovation to combat the continent’s diseases but these home-grown solutions are stagnating due to a lack of support, studies published Sunday said.

The studies published by the Science journal and BioMed Central identified 25 “stagnant technologies” that never got off the drawing board.

“Driven largely by entrepreneurs, innovative and affordable technologies to improve health in Africa are under development throughout the continent,” said Ken Simiyu, who co-authored the study for Canada’s McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health (MRC).

8 China’s leaders pledge stable economic growth

by Dan Martin, AFP

Sun Dec 12, 4:21 pm ET

BEIJING (AFP) – China’s leaders pledged to ensure “stable and healthy” economic development in 2011, state media said on Sunday in announcing the conclusion of a top-level annual meeting on the economy.

The Central Economic Work Conference, held each year to outline economic strategies for the coming 12 months, also resolved to manage inflation expectations in an “active and stable way”, the official news agency Xinhua said.

The three-day meeting of the powerful nine-member Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee — presided over by President Hu Jintao — also reaffirmed plans for a tighter monetary policy next year, the report said, citing a statement from the meeting.

9 OECD warns eurozone on debt

AFP

Mon Dec 13, 10:30 am ET

PARIS (AFP) – Eurozone nations are enjoying a sustained if muted recovery but need to adopt tough measures to correct economic imbalances and must soon begin to cut their massive debt loads, the OECD said on Monday.

The eurozone should also put in place a permanent crisis resolution mechanism that would force nations to carry out reforms to get aid, the OECD said, an issue European leaders are expected to tackle at a summit later this week.

In its latest survey of the 16 nations which share the euro, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said a “gradual and sustained recovery” is underway in the but that “the pace of recovery is likely to be muted.”

10 Moody’s says Spain banking outlook "negative"

by Katell Abiven, AFP

Mon Dec 13, 7:30 am ET

MADRID (AFP) – Credit rating agency Moody’s issued a negative outlook on Spain’s banks on Monday and warned that total economic losses could reach 176 billion euros.

New York-based Moody’s Investors Service said it was maintaining a negative view for the next 12-18 months because it expected Spanish banks’ capital, profits and access to finance to remain weak.

The verdict comes as Spain battles to convince nervous markets that its finances are solid and there is no reason to fear it will need an Irish-style economic and banking rescue.

11 Judge rejects key part of Obama healthcare law

By Lisa Lambert and Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters

15 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A judge in Virginia on Monday declared a key part of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law unconstitutional in the first major setback on an issue that will likely end up at the Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2002, backed arguments by the state of Virginia that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to start buying health insurance in 2014 or face a fine.

“This dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance — or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage — it’s about an individual’s right to choose to participate,” Hudson wrote.

12 Special Report: Julian Assange versus the world

By Mark Hosenball, Reuters

2 hrs 16 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hollywood has long had a weak spot for renegade computer hackers. In the 1983 film “War Games,” a teenage whiz breaks into military data networks and almost sets off World War III. In “The Matrix,” the 1999 blockbuster, a rebellious programer fights for humanity against soulless machines. And in this year’s model, the hero of “Inception” hacks into, and manipulates, people’s dreams.

Dream-hacking is still probably beyond the capabilities of Julian Assange, the 39-year-old Australian-born computer programer who created and, until his arrest last week, served as editor in chief of the website WikiLeaks.

But Assange, relatively unknown until earlier this year, has masterfully manipulated elite media outlets. He has exasperated and humiliated the U.S. government and its diplomatic partners by creating a resilient, hard-to-kill worldwide network of websites that reveals their secrets. And he has in short order turned WikiLeaks and himself into household names, demonstrating how reality can be stranger than Hollywood fiction.

13 Berlusconi warns of crisis ahead of crucial vote

By James Mackenzie, Reuters

Mon Dec 13, 9:24 am ET

ROME (Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said rebel lawmakers could pitch Italy into the middle of the euro zone’s debt crisis if they voted against him in a no-confidence vote on Tuesday.

Speaking in the Senate a day before a showdown that could force him from office and trigger early elections, Berlusconi said his government had kept Italy out of the turmoil seen in Ireland or Greece but that the threat of instability remained.

“It is madness to initiate a crisis without any foreseeable solutions,” he said.

14 Afghan MPs demand president form new parliament

By Jonathon Burch, Reuters

Mon Dec 13, 6:09 am ET

KABUL (Reuters) – A group of about 100 Afghan members of parliament demanded Monday that President Hamid Karzai inaugurate the assembly by December 19, almost three weeks after final results of a fraud-marred election were declared.

Afghanistan’s political crisis has been simmering since the September 18 ballot, with tension rising on reports that the attorney general’s office had asked for the vote to be annulled.

The troubles present a worrying message for U.S. President Barack Obama, who will not want to see any further signs of instability as he completes a review of his Afghanistan war strategy this week.

15 Judge in Va. strikes down federal health care law

By LARRY O’DELL, Associated Press

31 mins ago

RICHMOND, Va. – A federal judge declared the foundation of President Barack Obama’s health care law unconstitutional Monday, ruling that the government cannot require Americans to purchase insurance. The case is expected to end up at the Supreme Court.

U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson wrote that no court had expanded the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to allow the government to regulate a person’s decision not to buy a product.

“At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance – or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage – it’s about an individual’s right to choose to participate,” Hudson wrote.

16 Judge throws health care overhaul into uncertainty

By MARK SHERMAN and ERICA WERNER, Associated Press

16 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s historic health care overhaul was thrown into uncertainty Monday by a federal judge’s decision to declare its central provision unconstitutional. Almost certainly headed to the Supreme Court, the issue hands ammunition to Republican opponents as they try to repeal the far-reaching law in the new Congress.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson marked the first time that portions of the new law have been struck down. The decision follows earlier rulings by Democratic appointees in favor of the law.

Hudson declared that the law’s central requirement for nearly all Americans to carry insurance is unconstitutional, well beyond Congress’ power under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause or other provisions. He denied requests to strike down the law in its entirety or block it from being implemented while his ruling is appealed by the administration.

17 No decisive victory one year into Afghan surge

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press

32 mins ago

KABUL, Afghanistan – One year after President Barack Obama ordered a troop buildup to halt the Taliban’s momentum, the war in Afghanistan has not broken decisively in favor of U.S.-led forces – at least not yet.

While NATO forces have routed insurgents from their strongholds in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban’s strongest region, the militants have opened new fronts in the north and west and have stepped up attacks in the east.

At the same time, the surge has exacted a high price: More than 680 international troops, including at least 472 Americans, have been killed in 2010, making it the deadliest year of the war. Hundreds of Afghan civilians have also died, most as a result of Taliban attacks.

18 Discharged gay veterans sue for reinstatement

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press

33 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO – Three military veterans who were discharged under the law that prohibits gays from serving openly in uniform sued the government Monday to be reinstated and to pressure lawmakers to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law before a new Congress is sworn in.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco also seeks to have the ban on openly gay troops declared unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable for any service members.

“I don’t feel like I’m going up against the military, I really don’t. I just feel like this is a necessary step for doing away with this policy,” said former Air Force Staff Sgt. Anthony Loverde. “I believe the military, the majority of troops I’ve served with, and those who have been studied to death are with us.”

19 APNewsBreak: NFL concussion reports up this season

By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Pro Football Writer

1 hr 1 min ago

With a late-season game on the line, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers exits with a concussion and doesn’t return. Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Heath Miller and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson sit out games altogether because of head injuries.

And those are only a few examples from this Sunday. If it seems as though more and more NFL players are missing time because of concussions, it’s because they are: According to league data obtained by The Associated Press, the number of concussions being reported this season is up more than 20 percent from 2009, and more than 30 percent from 2008.

The NFL considers that proof that players and teams are taking head injuries more seriously and being more open about them. The players themselves agree.

20 Lions halt distribution of free NFL tickets

By JON KRAWCZYNSKI, AP Sports Writer

Mon Dec 13, 12:30 pm ET

MINNEAPOLIS – Through the years, Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings have turned to the Detroit Lions for comfort when things weren’t going their way.

The Vikings are 21-2 against the Lions in their last 23 meetings and Favre has more completions, yards and victories against them than any other team in his career.

Now, with Favre hurting and the Vikings rendered homeless by a massive snowstorm, the Lions are there for them both again.

21 Arrests in Afghan attack that killed 6 US troops

By RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press

Mon Dec 13, 8:46 am ET

KABUL, Afghanistan – Several suspects have been arrested for a suicide attack that killed six U.S. troops when an explosives-packed minibus blew up at the entrance of a joint NATO-Afghan base in southern Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz said that several arrests had been made Sunday night for the blast, which was the deadliest attack on coalition troops this month.

“Individuals believed to be involved in yesterday’s attack have been arrested by Afghan and coalition forces,” Blotz said at a news conference, adding that no shots were fired as the suspects were taken into custody.

22 Feds: Wolverines need protection but have to wait

By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press

12 mins ago

HELENA, Mont. – The impact of climate change on wolverines warrants adding the small, ferocious mammals to the list of endangered and threatened species, but consideration of other species considered in greater danger will prevent such protection for now, wildlife officials said Monday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated in its report that there are 300 or less wolverines in the contiguous United States, with most living in the northern Rocky Mountains.

The animals need adequate spring snow cover to reproduce, and female wolverines have abandoned dens when temperatures warm and snow conditions become wet due to the changing climate.

23 AP Enterprise: Eagle concerns stymie wind farms

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ and JASON DEAREN, Associated Press

2 hrs 14 mins ago

APPLE VALLEY, Calif. – Fears that whirling wind turbines could slaughter protected golden eagles have halted progress on a key piece of the federal government’s push to increase renewable energy on public lands, stalling plans for billions of dollars in wind farm developments.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management suspended issuing wind permits on public land indefinitely this summer after wildlife officials invoked a decades-old law for protecting eagles, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The restriction has stymied efforts to “fast-track” approvals for four of the seven most promising wind energy proposals in the nation, including all three in California.

24 Cattlemen look for lessons in $130 million swindle

By BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press

Mon Dec 13, 4:14 am ET

LUBBOCK, Texas – The collapse of a Midwest cattle brokerage company that owes hundreds of ranchers as much as $130 million could result in some going under and has others wondering if regulatory changes are needed to prevent similar swindles in the future.

Federal agriculture officials filed a complaint last month against Indiana-based Eastern Livestock Co., LLC, accusing it of bouncing checks for livestock purchases and failing to maintain an adequate bond to cover its debts. The company owes money to about 740 ranchers in 30 states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Three of those owed money have filed a lawsuit to try to force Eastern into involuntary bankruptcy.

The average loss of about $175,000 per rancher is enough to put some out of business, said David Scott, president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Many ranchers, unaware that Eastern’s checks were no good, tried to pay bills and ended up writing bad checks themselves, ranchers said.

25 1 small town’s battle for tolerance

By HELEN O’NEILL, AP Special Correspondent

Mon Dec 13, 3:12 am ET

SIDNEY CENTER, N.Y. – On a crisp November day in 2009, the cemetery on the hill received its first guest – a 28-year-old stonemason killed in a car accident two days earlier.

Solemnly his Sufi Muslim brethren buried him beneath a vibrant green headstone – the color of the Osmanli Naksibendi Hakkani order, which runs a 50-acre farm and mosque here. They prayed for him to rest in peace.

But that was not to be.

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