Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Debt may do what rain, heat, gloom can’t

Postal service considers cutting one day of mail delivery due to deficit

WASHINGTON - Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery per week, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday.

Postmaster General John E. Potter asked lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week.

Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year and, “if current trends continue, we could experience a net loss of $6 billion or more this fiscal year,” Potter said in testimony for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee.

Read full story MSNBC

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House passes Obama economic stimulus plan

President: 'Perilous moment' requires swift action to kick-start economy

WASHINGTON - The Democratic-controlled House approved $819 billion in spending increases and tax cuts at the heart of President Barack Obama's economic recovery program Wednesday evening, despite Republicans' charges that the bill is wasteful.

"We don't have a moment to spare," Obama declared earlier Wednesday at the White House as Democrats hastened to do his bidding.

A mere eight days after Inauguration Day, Speaker Nancy Pelosi heralded a new era. "The ship of state is difficult to turn," said the California Democrat. "But that is what we must do. That is what President Obama called us to do in his inaugural address."

Read full story MSNBC

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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Byrd, Kennedy stricken at Obama luncheon

Two senators taken away from event for medical attention

BREAKING NEWS
NBC News
updated 9 minutes ago


Sens. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., were stricken Tuesday at an inauguration luncheon for President Barack Obama.

A Capitol police officer stood up at the luncheon and said medical attention was needed.

Kennedy collapsed and was wheeled out on a stretcher from the Capitol luncheon following the inauguration of the 44th president, NBC's Mike Viquiera said. Kennedy reportedly suffered convulsions.

Read full story MSNBC

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Friday, January 16, 2009

Obama's stimulus plan promises new jobs

Engineering, accounting, nursing and IT among likely growth fields

In his weekly radio address on Jan. 10, 2009, Barack Obama said the No. 1 goal of his economic stimulus plan is to create 3 million new jobs in the next two years. Less than 20 percent of them will be government jobs.

What exactly, then, will these jobs be?

Career Web site Jobfox has analyzed Obama's plan and come up with five areas of likely job growth over the next two years, with 22 specific job titles among them. Engineering, accounting, nursing and information technology will all fare particularly well, Jobfox predicts.

Read full story MSNBC

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Napolitano to review controversial REAL ID plan

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama's pick to oversee Homeland Security told senators Thursday the agency needs to focus on transportation security and securing biological and chemical facilities in the private sector.

Janet Napolitano, a twice-elected governor of Arizona, said aviation security has improved since the 2001 terror attacks, but more needs to be done to secure transit systems and other modes of ground transportation.

Testifying in her Senate confirmation hearing, Napolitano defended her work on homeland security issues in Arizona and pledged to revisit a controversial and costly program to enhance the security of driver's licenses.

Read full story AZ Central

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Friday, January 9, 2009

Jobless rate jumps to 7.2 percent in Dec

Caps year with most annual job losses in the post-World War II era

WASHINGTON - The U.S. unemployment rate bolted to 7.2 percent in December, the highest level in 16 years, as nervous employers slashed 524,000 jobs. The labor market is expected to remain weak as mass layoffs continue.

The Labor Department's report, released Friday, underscored the terrible toll the deepening recession is having on workers and companies, and highlights the hard task President-elect Barack Obama faces in resuscitating the flat-lined economy.

For all of 2008, the economy lost a net total of 2.6 million jobs. That was the most since 1945, when nearly 2.8 million jobs were lost. Although the number of jobs in the U.S. has more than tripled since then, losses of this magnitude are still being painfully felt.

Read full story MSNBC

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Thursday, January 8, 2009

As His Inmates Grew Thinner, a Sheriff’s Wallet Grew Fatter

DECATUR, Ala. — The prisoners in the Morgan County jail here were always hungry. The sheriff, meanwhile, was getting a little richer. Alabama law allowed it: the chief lawman could go light on prisoners’ meals and pocket the leftover change.

And that is just what the sheriff, Greg Bartlett, did, to the tune of $212,000 over the last three years, despite a state food allowance of only $1.75 per prisoner per day.

In the view of a federal judge, who heard testimony from the hungry inmates, the sheriff was in “blatant” violation of past agreements that his prisoners be properly cared for.

“There was undisputed evidence that most of the inmates had lost significant weight,” the judge, U. W. Clemon of Federal District Court in Birmingham, said Thursday in an interview. “I could not ignore them.”

Read full story New York Times

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