Evening Edition is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 India battles deepening Commonwealth Games crisis
by Kuldip Lal, AFP
Wed Sep 22, 12:50 pm ET
| NEW DELHI (AFP) – India struggled to keep its Commonwealth Games on track Wednesday, with England warning the event was on a “knife edge” over complaints of filthy housing and growing structural and security fears.
Officials said Commonwealth Games Federation chief Mike Fennell was flying in Thursday for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the problems overwhelming the October 3-14 event in New Delhi.
The latest high-profile withdrawals include the English Olympic 400m gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu and world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu, with Australia warning more of its competitors might follow. |
2 China’s Wen threatens new action in Japan boat row
by Marianne Barriaux, AFP
Wed Sep 22, 11:39 am ET
| BEIJING (AFP) – China’s premier threatened “further actions” if Japan fails immediately to release a trawler captain, as Beijing staged its highest-level intervention yet in a bitter row between Asia’s biggest powers.
Japan in turn called for talks to resolve the feud, but rejected China’s territorial claim to disputed islets near where the Chinese skipper was apprehended by Japanese coast guard crews two weeks ago.
“I strongly urge the Japanese side to release the skipper immediately and unconditionally,” Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in New York, according to the official Xinhua news agency. |
3 NATO and Russia on ‘solid path’: alliance chief
by Stephen Collinson, AFP
1 hr 36 mins ago
| NEW YORK (AFP) – NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen Wednesday said the alliance was on a “solid path” to improving ties with Russia, as the United States declared Moscow was not an adversary but a partner.
In their latest attempt to repair the rift in post-Cold War relations following Moscow’s 2008 war in Georgia, foreign ministers held a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
“I feel that we truly are on a solid path now to improve NATO-Russia relations,” Secretary General Rasmussen told reporters after the meeting. |
4 NATO and Russia seek new trust in New York talks
by Stephen Collinson, AFP
2 hrs 49 mins ago
| NEW YORK (AFP) – NATO and Russia on Wednesday sought to forge a new foundation of trust following the disruption of the 2008 war in Georgia, at a key meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Foreign ministers met in the NATO-Russia Council as the 28-nation Western alliance waits for Russia to respond to an invitation to hold a full-scale leaders summit in Lisbon on November 20.
The New York talks are seen as way to lay the groundwork for that summit, and were discussing issues including NATO-Russia cooperation on Afghanistan and the controversial US missile defense scheme. |
5 UN launches $40 billion health drive
by Tim Witcher, AFP
Wed Sep 22, 11:41 am ET
| UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday announced a 40-billion-dollar drive to improve the health of women and children, which he said would save millions of lives around the world.
Governments, philanthropists and private groups pledged the cash, giving a spectacular end to the UN summit on eliminating poverty, a campaign that has been badly battered by the international financial crisis.
“We know what works to save women’s and children’s lives, and we know that women and children are critical to all of the Millennium Development Goals,” Ban said. |
6 Romania sticks to austerity plan, could delay eurozone entry: Basescu
by Mihaela Rodina, AFP
Wed Sep 22, 1:06 pm ET
| BUCHAREST (AFP) – Romania will stick to an unpopular austerity plan despite protests and could delay eurozone entry to avoid a Greek-style crisis, President Traian Basescu said on Wednesday.
While nearly 10,000 people protested in Bucharest against a 25-percent cut in public sector salaries imposed in July, Basescu said in an interview with foreign media that Romania should go ahead with trimming public spending.
“The biggest issue facing Romania is restoring the macroeconomic balance,” he stressed, adding that the government is spending more than it can afford on social security. |
7 London Fashion Week ends with new confidence
by Alice Ritchie, AFP
Tue Sep 21, 4:27 pm ET
| LONDON (AFP) – London Fashion Week drew to a close Tuesday after five days of shows that commentators said marked a new maturity for the event — despite a few catwalk tumbles and the odd naked model.
Three new designers were added to this season’s official schedule and one hatmaker sent his models out nude, proving that London can still lay claim to being the adventurous younger sibling of the New York, Paris and Milan shows.
But the presence of global glamour house Burberry alongside veterans Paul Smith and Vivienne Westwood has raised London’s game, and commentators have noted an increasing maturity here that demands to be taken seriously. |
8 In Milan, plus-size label Elena Miro goes it alone, in style
by Gina Doggett, AFP
Wed Sep 22, 12:06 pm ET
| MILAN, Italy (AFP) – It was standing room only Wednesday at plus-size fashion designer Elena Miro’s show after her house was excluded from the official programme of Milan Fashion Week.
The designer, whose real name is Elena Miroglio, said she was “still wondering” why the organisers terminated a five-year-old tradition of scheduling her show as the Fashion Week opener.
Mario Boselli, head of the National Chamber of Italian Fashion, justified the move by saying: “Some labels just weren’t in line with what ready-to-wear week should be. We wanted to champion the values of creativity to reaffirm Milan’s role in the world.” |
9 Bomb kills 12 at Iran military parade
by Farhad Pouladi, AFP
Wed Sep 22, 11:00 am ET
| TEHRAN (AFP) – A bomb tore through a military parade in Iran on Wednesday killing 12 people as the Islamic republic showcased its weaponry at events marking the start 30 years ago of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.
Among the dead were the wives of two commanders, an official said, while medics reported 81 people wounded and fearing the toll will rise.
The bomb, placed just 50 metres (yards) from the podium at the parade in the ethnically Kurdish northwestern town of Mahabad in West Ajarbaijan province, exploded at around 10:20 am (0650 GMT), officials said. |
10 ‘Extinct’ frogs haven’t croaked — scientists
AFP
Wed Sep 22, 10:00 am ET
| PARIS (AFP) – Delighted conservationists announced on Wednesday they had found two species of African frog and a Mexican salamander that had been feared to extinct.
The find was made by scientists combing some of the world’s remotest sites on a quest to determine the fate of a hundred species of amphibians that have not been sighted for decades.
“These are fantastic finds and could have important implications for people as well as for amphibians,” said Robin Moore, who is organising the search for a US-based wildife group, Conservation International, and the Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). |
11 Europe finally adopts landmark finance curbs
by Roddy Thomson, AFP
Wed Sep 22, 7:29 am ET
| BRUSSELS (AFP) – Europe finally voted through landmark curbs Wednesday to clamp down on its finance industry just as fears returned that Ireland, like Greece, was staring down bankruptcy.
The crossing of the final political hurdle at the European parliament marks the end of fierce negotiations stretching back to February 2009, after the US financial meltdown unleashed the world’s worst recession since the 1930s.
Lawmakers in Strasbourg gave their blessing after finance ministers from the 27 European Union member states sealed final agreement on September 7 following months of bickering characterised as a fight between the City of London and Brussels, under the bidding of France and Germany. |
12 Geithner: Banks can meet capital rules with profits
By Dave Clarke, Reuters
1 hr 18 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday U.S. banks can meet new higher capital rules through future profits without crimping lending and harming economic recovery.
Echoing recent comments from other top international financial regulators, Geithner said the new Basel III capital rules would not be a crushing burden on banks.
Earlier this month, regulators from the 27 Basel Committee countries agreed to make banks hold more and higher quality capital so they can better withstand economic downturns and financial shocks. |
13 Volcker says mortgage market reform crucial
By Daniel Bases and Kristina Cooke, Reuters
Wed Sep 22, 1:09 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – Paul Volcker, special adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Wednesday that reforming the U.S. mortgage market is the biggest single element missing from financial regulatory reform.
The former Federal Reserve chairman said the mortgage industry is dysfunctional and a “creature of the government” that needs reform.
Volcker told a forum sponsored by the International Economic Alliance in New York that he would want to avoid a “hybrid” institution that is “private when things are going well and public when things are going badly.” |
14 White House adviser Summers stepping down
By Caren Bohan and Ross Colvin, Reuters
Tue Sep 21, 9:05 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Brilliant but blunt-spoken White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Tuesday he will leave his job, marking a major staff shake-up for President Barack Obama as he faces growing pressure to revive the sluggish economy.
Summers, a former Treasury secretary who had grappled with the Mexican peso crisis and other global financial problems in the 1990s, brought years of experience in economic policymaking to his job as director of the White House National Economic Council. Those close to Obama said the president relied heavily on Summers’ advice during the depths of the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
But Summers, who will return to his teaching job at Harvard University by the end of the year, has been criticized by some liberal Democrats as too close to Wall Street. There were also a number of reports of clashes on the economic team within the White House. |
15 White House tries to give healthcare a human face
By Patricia Zengerle, Reuters
28 mins ago
| FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama launched a new attempt to convince Americans of the advantages of his healthcare overhaul on Wednesday, just six weeks before an election in which the plan has proved more of a liability than a benefit for his fellow Democrats.
Obama traveled to the suburban backyard of a family home in Falls Church, Virginia, to talk about provisions of the new law that will take effect on Thursday, six months after it became law, and highlight his argument that healthcare reform will help control the U.S. budget deficit.
“Sometimes I fault myself for not being able to make the case more clearly to the country,” Obama told the audience of about 30 people. He described how Americans paying for health insurance are forced to subsidize those who do not have it, with hospitals passing on the expense of treating the uninsured to insurance companies, which in turn pass it on to clients. |
16 Wealthy benefit most from tax subsidies: study
By Donna Smith, Reuters
14 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Billions of dollars in U.S. tax breaks to encourage home ownership, retirement savings, business start-ups and education mostly benefit top income earners and do little to help low- and middle-income people build wealth, a report released on Wednesday said.
The U.S. government spent nearly $400 billion, mostly through tax breaks, in 2009 to promote home ownership and other wealth-building strategies, and more than half of that benefited the wealthiest 5 percent of taxpayers, said the study sponsored by the nonprofit Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED).
The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the CFED advocate for greater economic opportunities for the poor. |
17 Blast in Iranian city kills 12, injures dozens
By Robin Pomeroy and Ramin Mostafavi, Reuters
2 hrs 44 mins ago
| TEHRAN (Reuters) – Twelve people were killed and more than 70 injured on Wednesday when a bomb exploded among a crowd watching a military parade in northwestern Iran.
Officials blamed the blast, in the city of Mahabad in the predominantly Kurdish area near the borders of Iraq and Turkey, on “anti-revolutionary” militants backed by foreign states.
“This bomb was a time-bomb planted on a tree among the people and it went off at 10:20 (0650 GMT),” the website of state-run television IRIB quoted a military official as saying. |
18 Florida ban on gay adoption is illegal: court
By Jane Sutton, Reuters
1 hr 54 mins ago
| MIAMI (Reuters) – There is no rational reason to prohibit all homosexuals from adopting children, a Florida appeals court said on Wednesday in a ruling that upheld a gay man’s adoption of two young boys.
Florida is the only remaining U.S. state to expressly ban adoption by gay men and women without exception, the ruling noted.
A lower court found in 2008 that the ban violated the state constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment. It allowed the plaintiff, a gay man named Frank Martin Gill, to adopt two boys — half-brothers he had been raising as foster children since 2004. |
19 U.N. to boost poverty goals in $40 billion plan
By Patrick Worsnip and Lesley Wroughton, Reuters
2 hrs 22 mins ago
| UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will launch on Wednesday a $40 billion global strategy to save the lives of 16 million women and children over the next five years as part of efforts to reduce global poverty, hunger and disease.
The drive aims to make headway on the slowest-moving sectors of the Millennium Development Goals set by the world body 10 years ago — maternal and child health.
World leaders from 140 countries are expected to endorse a declaration at the end of a three-day summit on Wednesday that calls for stepped-up efforts to achieve the goals by 2015. |
20 NATO, Russia aim to step up military cooperation
By Andrew Quinn, Reuters
2 hrs 43 mins ago
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – NATO and Russia hope to step up military cooperation, working for progress on both missile defense and conventional arms control by the time the Atlantic alliance holds its summit in November, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday.
Rasmussen, speaking after a session of the NATO-Russia joint ministerial council, acknowledged fundamental disagreements still divide Moscow and Western nations but said he was encouraged by the discussions so far.
“They were in the right spirit, they addressed the right issues and they made it clear that we truly are on a solid path now to improve NATO-Russian relations,” Rasumssen told a news briefing. |
21 Japan PM warns of more action versus yen
By Leika Kihara, Reuters
Wed Sep 22, 8:04 am ET
| TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tokyo was ready to act again if the yen moved sharply, keeping traders on guard against further intervention as expectations of U.S. monetary easing weighed on the dollar.
Japan intervened in the currency market last week by selling yen for the first time in more than six years as its surge to a 15-year high against the dollar threatened to derail Japan’s slowing economy and worsen deflation.
In an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday, Kan said currency intervention would be unavoidable if there were a drastic change in the yen exchange rate. |
22 China’s Wen threatens to step up Japan row
By Ben Blanchard and Chisa Fujioka, Reuters
Wed Sep 22, 9:47 am ET
| BEIJING/TOKYO (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao threatened more retaliation against Japan unless it releases a trawler captain whom Tokyo accuses of ramming with two Japanese coastguard ships near disputed islands.
Japanese leaders urged calm but showed no sign of backing down on an issue one analyst said is largely a row over energy resources in sea around the islands that both claim.
In the first comments by a senior Chinese leader on the issue, he told a meeting of ethnic Chinese in New York on Tuesday that the skipper must be set free unconditionally. |
23 New Woodward expose details Afghan policy battles
Reuters
Wed Sep 22, 10:41 am ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Members of President Barack Obama’s national security team have waged an internal battle over Afghan policy that has been marked by bitter infighting, according to a new book by journalist Bob Woodward.
Although many of the internal divisions described are now public knowledge the book, “Obama’s Wars,” offers new details and suggests the disagreements were more intense than previously known, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
The newspaper obtained a copy of the book in advance of its scheduled release next Monday. |
24 UN anti-poverty goals get new financial pledges
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 22, 11:30 am ET
| UNITED NATIONS – A three-day summit to push global leaders to meet U.N. goals to significantly reduce poverty by 2015 wraps up Wednesday with a major development policy address by President Barack Obama and new financial pledges from other countries to combat maternal and child mortality.
But there was no certainty that there will be enough money and political will to fulfill the plans and pledges.
With many countries under financial pressure from the effects of the global economic crisis as well as rising food and energy prices, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly urged governments not to abandon the 1 billion people living on less than $1.25 a day. |
25 Bomb attack kills 12 people in western Iran
By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
36 mins ago
| TEHRAN, Iran – A bomb exploded at a military parade in northwestern Iran on Wednesday, killing 12 spectators in an attack that one official blamed on Kurdish separatists who have fought Iranian forces in the area for decades.
The blast in the city of Mahabad, close to the borders with Iraq and Turkey, also wounded 75 people, Iranian media reports said. Most of the victims were women and children, said provincial Governor Vahid Jalalzadeh, who was quoted in a report by Iran’s state broadcasting company.
Iranian forces in the border zone have clashed for years with Kurdish rebels from the Iranian wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party, which also has fighters based in Turkey and Iraq. The group in Iran has generally not targeted civilians in its campaign for greater rights for the Kurdish minority, raising the prospect that the bomb might have gone off prematurely. |
26 Obama faults himself for not selling health law
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
34 mins ago
| FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Blaming himself for coolness to his health care overhaul, President Barack Obama is seeking to reintroduce the law to voters who don’t much like or understand it six months after he signed it.
The White House gathered patients from around the country who have benefited from the measure, and the president rolled up his sleeves to address them Wednesday in a sunny Virginia backyard, highlighting changes that take effect at the six-month mark on Thursday. These include a ban on lifetime coverage limits, as well as free coverage for preventive care and immunizations. Young adults will be able to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26, and kids with pre-existing health conditions won’t be denied coverage.
“We just got to give people some basic peace of mind,” the president said, |
27 US official: CIA runs elite Afghan fighting force
By KIMBERLY DOZIER and ADAM GOLDMAN, Associated Press Writers
8 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The CIA has trained and bankrolled a well-paid force of elite Afghan paramilitaries for nearly eight years to hunt al-Qaida and the Taliban for the CIA, according to current and former U.S. officials.
Modeled after U.S. special forces, the Counterterrorist Pursuit Team was set up in the months following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2002 to penetrate territory controlled by the Taliban and al-Qaida and target militants for interrogations by CIA officials.
The 3,000-strong Afghan teams are used for surveillance and long-range reconnaissance missions and some have trained at CIA facilities in the United States. The force has operated in Kabul and some of Afghanistan’s most violence-wracked provinces including Kandahar, Khost, Paktia and Paktika, according to a security professional familiar with the program. |
28 Book says aides doubt Obama’s Afghan strategy
Associated Press
49 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s top advisers spent much of the past 20 months arguing about policy and turf, according to a new book, with some top members of his national security team doubting the president’s strategy in Afghanistan will work.
The book, “Obama’s Wars,” by journalist Bob Woodward, says Obama aides were deeply divided over the war in Afghanistan even as the president agreed to triple troop levels there. Obama’s top White House adviser on Afghanistan and his special envoy for the region are described as believing the strategy will not work.
According to the book, Obama said, “I have two years with the public on this” and pressed advisers for ways to avoid a big escalation in the Afghanistan war. |
29 Spanish area OKs flaming bull festivals
By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 2 mins ago
| MADRID – Lawmakers who banned bullfighting in Spain’s Catalonia region this summer voted Wednesday to endorse other traditions that have been criticized as cruel to bulls, such as attaching burning sticks to their horns as they chase human thrill seekers.
The vote will only affect the Catalonia region of northeast Spain, but it addresses another manifestation of this country’s timeless fascination with bulls and the testing of people’s bravery with the snorting animals.
Besides watching the deadly duel of matador and bull, Spaniards run with bulls in Pamplona every year, spear them to death from horseback in another northern town – neither are in Catalonia – and cordon off town squares to let even children dodge feisty calves of the kind used to breed top-grade fighter bulls. |
30 Audit finds Bell misused millions in city funds
By JOHN ROGERS and ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writers
37 mins ago
| LOS ANGELES – The scandal-plagued city of Bell mismanaged more than $50 million in bond money, levied illegal taxes and paid exorbitant salaries to its leaders, according to a state audit released Wednesday.
The audit was made public a day after eight current and former officials of the blue-collar Los Angeles suburb were arrested for misappropriation of public funds and other charges.
The officials, wearing handcuffs and jail clothing, appeared before a judge on Wednesday but did not enter pleas. Their arraignments were postponed until Oct. 21. |
31 Atlanta megachurch pastor denies sex with men
By ERRIN HAINES, Associated Press Writer
25 mins ago
| ATLANTA – The prominent pastor of a 25,000-member megachurch near Atlanta denies allegations in a lawsuit that he coerced three young men from the congregation into a sexual relationship, his attorney said.
Lawyers for two of the men, now 20 and 21, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in DeKalb County Court against Bishop Eddie Long. The third lawsuit was filed Wednesday. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they were victims of sexual impropriety.
President George W. Bush and three former presidents visited the sprawling New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in the Atlanta suburb of Lithonia for the 2006 funeral of Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Long introduced the speakers and the Rev. Bernice King, the Kings’ younger daughter, delivered the eulogy. She is also a pastor there. |
32 North Dakota lake swallows land and buildings
By DAVE KOLPACK, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 3 mins ago
| DEVILS LAKE, N.D. – It’s been called a slow-growing monster: a huge lake that has steadily expanded over the last 20 years, swallowing up thousands of acres, hundreds of buildings and at least two towns in its rising waters.
Devils Lake keeps getting larger because it has no natural river or stream to carry away excess rain and snowmelt. Now it has climbed within 6 feet of overflowing, raising fears that some downstream communities could be washed away if the water level isn’t reduced.
And those worries are compounded by another problem: Scientists believe the pattern of heavy rain and snow that filled the basin is likely to continue for at least another decade. |
33 Commonwealth Games chief rushing to New Delhi
By RAVI NESSMAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 22, 6:28 am ET
| NEW DELHI – The Commonwealth Games chief rushed to New Delhi seeking emergency talks with the prime minister over India’s chaotic preparations, as two world champion competitors withdrew and England warned that problems with the athletes’ village have left the sporting event on a “knife-edge.”
No national teams have yet pulled out, but Scotland announced Wednesday it would delay its travel to the Indian capital, where the athletes’ village – said to be incomplete and soiled with human excrement – was supposed to open Thursday.
Indian officials insisted that facilities would be ready and immaculate for the Oct. 3 games opening despite wide-ranging concerns about unfinished buildings construction collapses and an outbreak of dengue fever. |
34 For Obama, time to remind the world of his agenda
By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent
1 hr 19 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Consumed by concerns at home, President Barack Obama is turning back to the world stage, hoping to remind anyone listening of his efforts to reshape the image and diplomacy of the United States.
Obama’s three-day trip to the United Nations in New York, which begins Wednesday afternoon, does not offer the sense of anticipation that came with his first presidential address to the General Assembly last September. That event was about defining his new brand of U.S. engagement upon succeeding George W. Bush; this one is more about defending it.
The timing comes as domestic matters still dominate, with a jobs shortage and midterm elections sucking up attention. |
35 Dems’ plea to core voters: We need you fired up
By LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer
2 hrs 32 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Democrats desperately need other Democrats – to vote.
With midterm elections in just six weeks – and Republicans fired up and ready to go – Democratic leaders are pushing issues that resonate with their constituencies, from trying to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the military to allowing thousands of young illegal immigrants who attend college or join the military to become legal U.S. residents.
Democrats also have expressed outrage over Republican-aligned, big-money shadow groups, a strategy primarily aimed at motivating party faithful. And they’re intensifying efforts to reach out to their core backers. |
36 Va. could execute 1st woman in nearly a century
By STEVE SZKOTAK, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 22, 6:28 am ET
| RICHMOND, Va. – A woman convicted of two hired killings is scheduled to die by injection Thursday and become the first woman put to death in Virginia in nearly a century, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block her execution.
Teresa Lewis, 41, was sentenced to death for providing sex and money to two men to kill her husband and stepson in October 2002 so she could collect on a quarter-million dollar insurance pay out. The nation’s high court refused Tuesday to intervene.
Two of the three women on the court, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, voted to stop the execution. The court did not otherwise comment on its order. |
37 Republicans block bill to lift military gay ban
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 21, 9:28 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked an effort by Democrats and the White House to lift the ban on gays from serving openly in the military, voting unanimously against advancing a major defense policy bill that included the provision.
The mostly partisan vote dealt a major blow to gay rights groups who saw the legislation as their best hope, at least in the short term, for repeal of the 17-year-old law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
If Democrats lose seats in the upcoming congressional elections this fall, as many expect, repealing the ban could prove even more difficult – if not impossible – next year. With that scenario looming, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that a lame-duck session was being planned and that lifting the ban would be taken up then. |
38 New tea party: energy, money and detente with GOP
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 21, 9:29 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – Tea party activists and the Republican establishment are quickly joining forces for the fall elections as fresh cash and energy flow to the upstarts.
Separate tea party groups still squabble over roles for Republican insiders within the movement, but the conservative activists and GOP stalwarts have reached a truce for the common goal of defeating Democrats, heeding calls for unity from Republicans including Sarah Palin.
One group – the nonprofit Tea Party Patriots – on Tuesday announced a $1 million donation from an anonymous donor, a shot of cash to be spent before the election on voter mobilization efforts. The Tea Party Express is preparing to assist specific candidates, building on its targeted advertising campaigns during primary races in Delaware, Alaska and Nevada. |
39 Obama aide’s exit could be prelude to more changes
By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 22, 3:22 am ET
| WASHINGTON – The departure of President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser at the end of the year could provide the White House with an opportunity to revamp its economic team after the November elections, when voters are expected to take out their anxieties on Democrats.
The White House said Tuesday that Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, would leave at the end of the year to return to Harvard University. Though administration officials said Obama had known for some time that Summers would depart this year, news of his pending exit comes amid deep concern over the sluggish pace of the recovery, as well as criticism of the team that conceived the administration’s economic policies.
Summers was the chief architect of many of those policies, playing a central role in the massive economic stimulus and the government bailout of the auto industry. He also was an advocate for the financial regulatory legislation Obama signed into law earlier this year. |
40 AP Poll: Health care law making us muddle-minded
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers
Tue Sep 21, 9:29 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – Six months after President Barack Obama signed the landmark health care law, the nation still doesn’t really know what’s in it.
More than half of Americans mistakenly believe the overhaul will raise taxes for most people this year, an Associated Press poll finds. But that would be true only if most people were devoted to indoor tanning, which got hit with a sales tax.
Many who wanted the health care system to be overhauled don’t realize that some provisions they cared about actually did make it in. And about a quarter of supporters don’t understand that something hardly anyone wanted didn’t make it: They mistakenly say the law will set up panels of bureaucrats to make decisions about people’s care – what critics labeled “death panels.” |
41 Anonymity promised for NYC terror trial jurors
By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer
10 mins ago
| NEW YORK – More than 400 prospective jurors filled out questionnaires Wednesday aimed at gauging their eligibility for the first civilian trial of a Guantanamo Bay detainee after a judge assured them that they would remain anonymous.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan briefly spoke to two separate groups of possible jurors for the trial of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is charged in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
Kaplan said even he won’t know the identity of potential jurors, who were identified only by a number. Anonymous juries are not unusual in federal court in Manhattan for trials involving terrorism or organized crime. |
42 Ray Perelman mounts solo bid for Philly newspapers
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer
41 mins ago
| PHILADELPHIA – Philanthropist Raymond Perelman has mounted a solo bid of at least $50 million as he fights creditors for control of Philadelphia’s two largest newspapers.
The 93-year-old Perelman called The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News iconic city institutions that should remain in local hands.
“I have a strong interest in protecting the integrity of the newspaper and in the continued employment of as many employees (as possible),” Perelman told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “How can you have a city without a newspaper?” |
43 Court affirms overturning Fla. gay adoption ban
By CURT ANDERSON and KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 1 min ago
| MIAMI – Florida will immediately stop enforcing its ban on adoptions by gay people following a decision by a state appeals court that the three-decade-old law is unconstitutional, Gov. Charlie Crist said Wednesday.
Crist announced the decision after the 3rd District Court of Appeal upheld a 2008 ruling by a Miami-Dade judge, who found “no rational basis” for the ban when she approved the adoption of two young brothers by Martin Gill and his male partner.
“I’m very pleased with the ruling on behalf of the Gills,” Crist told reporters in Tallahassee. “It’s a great day for children. Children deserve a loving home.” |
44 DA: NYC cabbie attacker called himself a patriot
By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 8 mins ago
| NEW YORK – A college student declared himself “a patriot” after slashing a New York cabbie’s neck because the driver is Muslim, prosecutors said in a court document released Wednesday.
Michael Enright also fumed to the police officers who arrested him that “you allow them to blow up buildings in this country,” made an apparent joke about an Arabic greeting, taunted officers and said he had downed a pint of scotch, according to the document.
Enright, 21, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to attempted murder as a hate crime and assault as a hate crime. He is being held without bail in a psychiatric ward. |
45 Little known republic in La. celebrates 200 years
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 37 mins ago
| BATON ROUGE, La. – While Texans are fiercely proud their state was once its own republic, and California celebrates the same former status on its flag, relatively few Louisianans know that a group of their forebears overthrew Spanish rule to carve out a tiny, independent nation 200 years ago. With the bicentennial coming up Thursday, historians and descendants of the rebels are hoping to change that.
“It is the most dramatic event in Louisiana history that has been so little recognized,” said Sam Hyde, director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University. “We have been lost to all the Cajuns and the debauchery of New Orleans, but it is a unique event that had a lasting effect on this area and others.”
In the early morning hours of Sept. 23, 1810, 75 armed rebels slipped into the Spanish fort at Baton Rouge, and in what was described as a “sharp and bloody firefight,” subdued the garrison. They lowered the Spanish flag and raised the Bonnie Blue Flag – a single white star on a blue field – that had been adopted for the new nation they called West Florida. |
46 Would-be school volunteers thwarted by their past
By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 38 mins ago
| Wendy Cross wants to chaperone field trips and join other parents in supervising activities at her children’s school in Grand Rapids, Mich. But because of some bad checks she wrote a decade ago, that’s out of the question.
Cross, 36, is barred under a school district policy that requires would-be volunteers to undergo criminal background checks and disqualifies anyone with a felony record.
Now Cross is circulating a petition, signed so far by more than 300 other parents and community members, to lift the blanket ban. |
47 Mercedes sedan ups fuel mileage
By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated Press
Wed Sep 22, 1:57 pm ET
| Most people don’t buy big, heavy, luxury sedans for their gasoline mileage. There are many other vehicles – lower-priced, too – that excel at fuel economy.
But government goals for atmospheric carbon reduction, plus competition among automakers, can do funny things to the car marketplace and help explain why Germany’s Mercedes-Benz now sells a gasoline-powered, hybrid version of its flagship S-Class sedan.
The new-for-2010 S400 Hybrid is the first mass-production car to use a lithium ion battery to store and supply electric power. The 120-volt battery is more compact and adds less weight to the car than do nickel metal hydride batteries and has high energy density for its size. |
48 Mental health pros boo haunted house at Pa. asylum
By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 22, 1:19 pm ET
| SPRING CITY, Pa. – Since the last residents left more than 20 years ago, Pennhurst State Hospital has been vacant, its sprawling complex of buildings crumbling, overcome by brush in the suburban Philadelphia countryside.
The old asylum may not be still much longer.
It’s being filled with fake skeletons, hanging torsos, coffins, exam tables and other frightful things as new investors plan to begin redevelopment efforts by turning it into a haunted house set to open Friday. |
49 Tailor-made treats: Web offers your food your way
By MICHELLE LOCKE, For The Associated Press
Wed Sep 22, 1:18 pm ET
| Log on and you can design your own jeans, shoes, even cars. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that you also can go online for tailor-made treats that let you put your own twist on everything from jerky to gingerbread.
Take chocri, a chocolate bar company that lets you pick out different chocolate bases, then choose toppings from dozens of options.
Customers fall into three camps, says chocri’s U.S. CEO Carmen Magar. There are people who want to go crazy – chives? Really? People who like the idea of personalizing a gift without having to clock hours in the kitchen, and people who just really like the chocolate, which is fair trade, organic and from Belgium. |
50 Vintners having a ball with harvest dinners
By MICHELLE LOCKE, For The Associated Press
Wed Sep 22, 1:13 pm ET
| NAPA, Calif. – Once you had to be a winery or vineyard worker to get invited to a harvest dinner, the ample feasts celebrating hours of backbreaking toil. These days you just need a ticket.
“People really want to have a special experience,” says Chris Hall, proprietor of Long Meadow Ranch Winery & Farmstead, which is making its first foray into the pay-per-plate harvest dinner arena this fall with an event to raise money for charity. “Plus, it’s a good time.”
The old-fashioned tradition of private dinners for winery staff and picking crews hasn’t gone anywhere. Even wineries that are putting on ticketed affairs still have those. |
51 Chimps’ future prompts debate over NM primate lab
By TIM KORTE, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 22, 3:48 am ET
| ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A decision to move 186 chimpanzees from a southern New Mexico facility to Texas is pitting government officials and scientists against a coalition of elected officials and animal rights advocates, including New Mexico’s governor and famed primate researcher Dr. Jane Goodall.
The chimps have spent the past decade undisturbed by medical researchers. But the National Institutes of Health has decided to cut government costs by moving the animals to a San Antonio primate facility, where animal rights activists worry they’ll be improperly poked, prodded and stabbed in the name of science.
Gov. Bill Richardson and others would prefer to see the chimps’ current home – a former biomedical research lab at Holloman Air Force Base – converted into a chimpanzee sanctuary. After visiting the site Tuesday, the governor said the animals are in excellent health, and he suggested the New Mexico lab could instead become a behavioral research facility. |
52 DREAM Act dies with rejection of defense bill
By SUZANNE GAMBOA, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 21, 9:42 pm ET
| WASHINGTON – The chance for hundreds of thousands of young people to legally remain in the U.S. evaporated Tuesday when Republicans blocked a defense spending bill in the Senate.
Democrats failed to get a single Republican to help them reach the 60 votes needed to move forward on the defense bill and attach the DREAM Act as an amendment. The vote was 56-43. Arkansas Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor voted with Republicans. Majority Leader Harry Reid also voted to block the bill in a procedural move that allows the defense bill to be revived later.
The DREAM Act allows young people to become legal U.S. residents after spending two years in college or the military. It applies to those who were under 16 when they arrived in the U.S., have been in the country at least five years and have a diploma from a U.S. high school or the equivalent. |
53 Judge to rule Friday on Witt’s return to Air Force
By GENE JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 21, 9:34 pm ET
| TACOMA, Wash. – A lawyer for a decorated flight nurse discharged for being gay urged a federal judge Tuesday to reinstate her to the Air Force Reserve, and the judge indicated he might have no other choice.
U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton said he would issue a ruling Friday in the closely watched case of former Maj. Margaret Witt. As her trial closed, he expressed strong doubts about government arguments seeking to have her dismissal upheld.
The judge’s comments came a few hours after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to repeal the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law on gays serving in the military. |
54 Brown wants executions to resume in California
By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer
Tue Sep 21, 9:15 pm ET
| SAN JOSE, Calif. – Whether California’s first execution in more than four years will occur next week remained an open question Tuesday, as a judge grappled with a demand from the state attorney general’s office to resume lethal injections.
A hearing was held on the issue after a Riverside County judge last month set an execution date of Sept. 29 for Albert Greenwood Brown, who was convicted of abducting, raping and killing a 15-year-old girl on her way home from school in 1980.
The action surprised many because a federal judge halted executions in 2006 and ordered prison officials to overhaul lethal injection procedures. The state adopted new regulations on Aug. 29 but had not sought the judge’s permission to restart executions. |
55 Tax, spending cuts top GOP campaign-year ‘Pledge’
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
28 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – House Republican leaders are vowing to cut taxes and federal spending, repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law and ban federal funding of abortion as part of a campaign manifesto designed to propel them to victory in midterm elections Nov. 2.
The “Pledge to America,” circulated to GOP lawmakers Wednesday, emphasizes job creation and spending control, as well as changing the way Congress does business, according to Republicans who have been briefed.
It pairs some familiar Republican ideas – such as deep spending cuts, medical liability reform and stricter border enforcement – with an anti-government call to action that draws on tea party themes and echoes voters’ disgruntlement with the economy and Obama’s leadership. |
56 Dems struggle for resolution on taxes, spending
By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
56 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – Behind in the polls and split on the issues, Democrats are grappling with politically difficult decisions over tax cuts and federal spending in the final days before Congress adjourns for midterm elections.
Republicans hope to make the most of it.
As a result, President Barack Obama’s request to lawmakers to extend expiring tax cuts for all except upper-income earners faces an uncertain future. At the same time, legislation needed to allow normal operations of the federal government after Sept. 30 is likely to trigger one more showdown in the House over spending before voters decide on Nov. 2. |
57 For Obama, time to remind the world of his agenda
By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent
2 hrs 1 min ago
| WASHINGTON – Consumed by concerns at home, President Barack Obama is turning back to the world stage, hoping to remind anyone listening of his efforts to reshape the image and diplomacy of the United States.
Obama’s three-day trip to the United Nations in New York, which begins Wednesday afternoon, does not offer the sense of anticipation that came with his first presidential address to the General Assembly last September. That event was about defining his new brand of U.S. engagement upon succeeding George W. Bush; this one is more about defending it.
The timing comes as domestic matters still dominate, with a jobs shortage and midterm elections sucking up attention. |
At 11:09 PM EDT, Summer exits and Autumn begins. This year is especially significant since it also coincides with the Full Moon also known as the Harvest Moon. The night and day are equal as the sun passes over the equator heading south to give the Earth’s Southern Hemisphere its turn at Summer.
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