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NEWS WEDNESDAY, MAY
21 , 2008 NEWS
SORE
LOSERS WILL BE STRIFE OF THE PARTY
The hard-fought battle between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama
has rubbed off on many of their diehard supporters - who plan to abandon
the Democratic Party in November if their favored candidate isn't the nominee,
exit polls showed last night. In Kentucky, where Clinton won in a rout
yesterday, two in three of her voters say they would not support Obama
for president if he's leading the ticket, according to surveys of voters
leaving the polls. About 40 percent say they would defect to Republican
John McCain, while a quarter said they would just stay home. In the more
liberal Oregon, three in 10 said Obama wouldn't get their vote against
McCain, while eight in 10 Obama backers said they would support Clinton
against McCain. NY
Post
Ore.
Win Puts Obama On Brink
Barack Obama took a major stride in the marathon
campaign for the Democratic nomination Tuesday by winning in Oregon, locking
up a majority of the elected delegates to the Democratic National Convention
and declaring that the title is within his grasp. The Illinois senator
reached the milestone by winning some delegates in Kentucky -- even though
he was blown out in the statewide vote more than 2-1 -- and more in Oregon.
Hillary Clinton remained unbowed, vowing to campaign on and pointing to
her crushing win in Kentucky as evidence that at least some Democrats want
the race to go on. Now fewer than 100 votes short of clinching the nomination,
Obama still needs to win unelected delegates, called super delegates, to
win it. Detroit
Free Press
School
For Muslims To Change 2 Islam-Related Areas
The curriculum at a school for Muslims complies with federal and state
law, the Minnesota state Education Department said but it directed that
other changes be made in religious areas. The state said Tarek ibn Zayad
Academy should change its busing schedule and its handling of Friday prayer
services. The shorter prayer services on other days were found to be acceptable,
but not the 30-minute service on school grounds on the Muslim holy day.
The department said bus rides home should be available right after school
ends; currently students must wait until after a voluntary after-school
religious program. State law requires charter schools publicly funded schools
with more autonomy than traditional public schools — to be nonsectarian.
Fox News
Senate
Panel Passes Housing Rescue Plan
The U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved legislation on that could
save a half million homeowners from foreclosure and help stabilize the
nation's
rattled housing market. Congress is trying to stem a wave of foreclosures
estimated to hit about 1.4 million this year with home prices falling and
many borrowers unable to make payments on costly mortgages taken out before
the real estate bubble burst. Under the Senate plan, lenders who agree
to erase a large share of the original loan amount could win a government
guarantee on future mortgage payments. Both the Senate bill and a similar
House bill call for creating a fund under the Federal Housing Administration
to let thousands of distressed borrowers refinance into government-guaranteed
loans. Reuters
Kennedy
Battles Tumor
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was diagnosed with a cancerous
brain tumor Tuesday in what could be the grim final chapter in a life marked
by exhilarating triumph and shattering tragedy. Some experts gave the liberal
lion less than a year to live. Doctors discovered the tumor after the 76-year-old
senator and sole surviving son of America's most storied political family
suffered a seizure over the weekend. The diagnosis cast a pall over Capitol
Hill, where the Massachusetts Democrat has served since 1962, and came
as a shock to a family all too accustomed to sudden, calamitous news.
Detroit
News
McCain
To Attend NAACP Convention
What a difference a nomination makes. Now that he's wrapped up the
Republican nomination for president, Sen. John McCain has decided to attend
the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People in Cincinnati in July. A year ago when he was just one of
a pack of GOP contenders, he turned down the civil rights group's invitation.
McCain disclosed his plans in an interview with the African-American publication
Essence, which was released Tuesday. Asked how he might reach out to the
black community, McCain replied that he would "go to places and venues
that would allow me to continue a dialogue with the African-American community.
I will go to the NAACP convention." Las
Vegas Sun
FBI Drew Line On
Interrogations
A Justice Department audit of terror interrogations at three military
bases overseas concluded Tuesday that FBI agents refused to participate
when detainees were questioned under harsh and potentially illegal methods.The
FBI clashed with the Pentagon and the CIA over how at least two top al-Qaida
operatives were interviewed, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn
Fine found during a three-year investigation. In part, that led to an August
2002 order by FBI Director Robert Mueller for agents to withdraw from interrogations
during which coercive or extreme methods were used to get information from
detainees, the audit concluded. MSNBC
GOP
Fails To Recruit Minority Candidates
At a time when Democrats are poised to knock down a historic racial
barrier with their presidential nominee, the GOP is fielding only a handful
of minority candidates for Congress or statehouses none of whom seem
to have a prayer of victory. At the start of the Bush years, the Republican
National Committee in tandem with the White House vowed to usher in a new
era of GOP minority outreach. As George W. Bush winds down his presidency,
Republicans
are now on the verge of going six - and probably more years without an
African-American governor, senator or House member. Republicans will
have only one minority governor, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, an Indian-American,
when the dust settles on the ’08 elections. Democrats have three minority
governors and 43 African-American members of Congress, Sen. Barack Obama,
who is their likely presidential nominee. CBS
News
U.S.
Prohibits Slaughtering Weak, Sick Cows
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced a total ban on meat plant
slaughter of cows too sick or weak to stand. The planned change comes
in the wake of the nation's largest beef recall. It would shut down an
exception, which critics call a loophole, that allows a small number of
so-called "downer" cattle into the food supply if they pass veterinary
inspection. Downer cows pose increased risk for mad cow disease and other
infections, partly because they typically wallow in feces. CNN
Iraqi
Force Sweeps Across Sadr City
At least 10,000 Iraqi troops fanned out in Baghdad's Sadr City yesterday,
taking positions on main roads and rooftops and near hospitals in a bid
to establish government control in the Shiite militia enclave for the first
time since Saddam Hussein's ouster. Success relies on whether a truce holds
with fighters loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The large
force in tanks and humvees and on foot met no resistance from Sadr's Mahdi
Army militia as it rolled into the sprawling district. The area is a 12-square-mile
grid of avenues laid over a maze of tiny alleys forming densely populated
slums that are home to two million Shiites. Philadelphia
Inquirer
Court
Strikes Down Va. Late-Term Abortion Ban
A federal appeals court says Virginia's law banning a type of late-term
abortion is still unconstitutional, even though a similar federal ban has
been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The 2-1 decision by the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the same court's 2005 ruling striking
down the law. The Supreme Court had ordered the appeals court to take another
look at the law after the ruling on the federal ban. The appeals court
cited a key difference between the federal and state bans on a procedure
that abortion opponents call "partial-birth abortion." The federal law
protects doctors who set out to perform a legal abortion that by accident
becomes the banned procedure. The Virginia law provides no such protection.
Newsday
Cell
Phone Users May Get Break On Fees
The government is quietly negotiating to help cell phone customers
avoid expensive fees when they cancel contracts with wireless companies,
The Associated Press has learned. Cell phone companies routinely charge
customers $175 or more for quitting their service early. Under a proposal
to the Federal Communications Commission, the wireless industry would give
consumers the opportunity to cancel service without any penalty for up
to 30 days after they sign a cell phone contract or until 10 days after
they receive their first bill. The proposal also would cap such fees and
reduce them month by month over the course of a contract based on how long
customers have left Sun-Sentinel
Banks
Keep $35 Billion Markdown Off Income Statements
Banks and securities firms, reeling from record losses resulting from
the collapse of the mortgage securities market, are failing to acknowledge
in their income statements at least $35 billion of additional writedowns
included in their balance sheets, regulatory filings show. Citigroup Inc.
subtracted $2 billion from equity for the declining value of home-loan
bonds in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission
on May 2 without mentioning the deduction in the earnings statement or
conference call with investors that followed. Bloomberg
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Do
Cell Phones Harm Unborn Babies?
Medical experts say media reports of a study that suggests a pregnant
woman's cell phone use could cause later behavioral problems in her baby
raise unnecessary alarm. In the study, slated for publication in the July
issue of the journal Epidemiology, researchers at the Universities of California,
Los Angeles, and Aarhus, Denmark, issued a survey to mothers of 13,159
children
in Denmark. The survey asked the mothers questions about their use of cell
phones during their pregnancy as well as their child's behavior and their
current cell phone use. The researchers found that the mothers who said
they used cell phones during their pregnancy also reported a higher level
of behavioral problems in their children. ABC
News
McCain
Targeted For Opposing Full College Tuition For Veterans
Democrats and their allies are ready to convert Sen. John McCain's
stance on college aid for military veterans into a presidential campaign
cause. McCain, the all-but-nominated Republican presidential candidate,
opposes a Democratic-backed bill that would significantly expand the breadth
of education benefits for veterans, first adopted for those returning from
World War II. Democrats want the proposal included in a war spending bill
the Senate is scheduled to vote on this week. Sen. Barack Obama, McCain's
most likely general election opponent, already has raised objections to
McCain's
resistance. CNS
Candidates
Vie To Be The Anti-Lobbyist
Sen. Barack Obama accused Sen. John McCain of running a presidential
campaign bought and paid for by lobbyists and criticized the presumptive
Republican nominee for waiting more than a year to address the conflicts
of several key advisers. During a speech at a high school Obama said voters
should be concerned that "after nearly three decades in Washington, John
McCain can't see or won't acknowledge what's obvious to all of us here
today, that lobbyists aren't just part of the system in Washington, they're
part of the problem." McCain's campaign shot back quickly, challenging
Obama to "shed light on the long list of federal lobbyists advising him
on policy issues" and accusing him of diverting attention from more serious
matters. CBS
U.S.
Ads Push Patients To Shop For Hospitals
The Bush administration today launches a $1.9
million advertising campaign touting its effort to rate hospitals and urging
patients to check a government website before choosing one. The ad campaign
in 58 regional newspapers lists hospitals and their scores on two of more
than 30 measures available on the website: the percentage of patients getting
antibiotics before surgery to prevent infection and whether patients "always"
got help when they asked for it. The government's campaign promoting the
website by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) comes
amid a flurry of efforts by states and the private sector to rate medical
providers. USA
Today
Dollars Discriminate
Against Blind
Close your eyes, reach into your wallet and try to distinguish between
a $1 bill and a $5 bill. Impossible? It’s also discriminatory, a federal
appeals court says. Since all paper money feels pretty much the same, the
government is denying blind people meaningful access to the currency, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday.
The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different
sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features.
MSNBC
White
House Denies Imminent Plans To Attack Iran
The White House on Tuesday dismissed an Israeli media report that President
Bush intends to attack Iran before his term ends in January. President
Bush isn't taking any options off the table in dealing with Iran, the White
House says. An article in today's Jerusalem Post about the president's
position on Iran that quotes unnamed sources, quoting unnamed sources,
is not worth the paper it's written on, the White House said in a statement
hours after the Israeli newspaper published the report on its Web site.
CNN
Farm
Bill's Subsidy Costs May Rise
A major new program in the recently enacted farm bill could increase
taxpayer-financed payments to farmers by billions of dollars if high commodity
prices decline to more typical levels, administration and congressional
budget officials said yesterday. The potential costs came to light as administration
officials pored over details of the 673-page, $307 billion legislation.
President Bush has promised to veto the measure, which he called "bloated."
The House and Senate passed the bill by bipartisan margins large enough
to override him unless dozens of lawmakers switch sides. Washington
Post
Problems
Rare But More Likely In Teen Blood Donors
Complications from donating blood are rare but happen more often in
teens than in older donors, including dizziness, fainting and falls, a
study found.The findings come as blood agencies increasingly rely on young
people to maintain an adequate supply. Blood donation has declined in recent
years, particularly among some older age groups, and the American Red Cross,
which conducted the study, has supported efforts to allow more high school
students to donate. Las
Vegas Sun
Puerto
Ricans Help Pick Nominee They Can't Vote For In November
From San Juan's streets to muddy backroads that skirt Puerto Rico's
coastal farmland, backers of U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama are wooing voters with dueling salsa and reggaeton tunes,
thousands of flags and placards, and convoys of loudspeaker trucks and
honking cars. The tight Democratic race has made voters in this U.S. commonwealth
more passionate and relevant than they have been in decades. The
contest casts a spotlight on the question that's festered at the center
of Puerto Rican politics for years U.S. statehood, independence or status
quo even as it cuts across the debate by uniting normally warring partisans.
Bloomberg
Clinton
Supporters Resist Calls To End Contest
A top Barack Obama adviser urged Democrats to unite behind the Illinois
senator for the fall campaign and bring the marathon contest for the presidential
nomination to a close, but some Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters weren’t
buying that as Oregon and Kentucky held primaries Tuesday. In a full page
ad in The New York Times, Clinton’s female supporters demanded she stay
in the race despite overwhelming odds. Fox
News
Stocks
Fall On Oil Spike, Credit Fears
U.S. stocks fell sharply Tuesday as concerns about surging oil prices,
consumer spending and the credit crisis returned to the fore after several
weeks of calm in financial markets. The Dow Jones industrial average fell
by nearly 200 points. Shares of financial companies led the declines after
a widely followed analyst lowered earnings estimates for the U.S. banking
sector. Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney, who garnered attention late
last year when she correctly predicted that Citigroup would have to cut
dividends, warned that the credit crisis would "extend well into 2009 and
perhaps beyond." Washington
Post
"Imminent"
Recession May Cost NYC 59,400 Jobs
An imminent recession could cost New York City 59,400 jobs between
now
and the middle of next year, with the profit-stricken financial sector
the "epicenter" of the downturn, a report said on. This would amount to
one-quarter of the hiring by private employers after the 2001 recession,
according to the Independent Budget Office, a fiscal monitor that serves
as the city's equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office.But the previous
downturn, which accelerated after the September 11, 2001 attacks, will
still turn out to have been more severe, as employers cut about 43 percent
of jobs added in the expansion that lasted from 1993 to 2000. Reuters
Judges
Stance Bolsters McCain
Prominent conservatives and activists are indicating they will put
aside their differences with presumptive Republican presidential nominee
Sen. John McCain and rally their supporters to his side because of one
issue: federal judgeships. In big gatherings and small, in e-mails and
one-on-one conversations, conservative opinion leaders fear a Democratic
president, especially Sen. Barack Obama, will use the presidential power
to appoint federal judges who will remove references to God and religious
symbols from public places. Washington
Times
Lenders
Meet With Feds On Student Loans
The student loan industry is pressing the Bush administration to boost
its bottom line. Lenders, including industry leader Sallie Mae, say they
need some more federal help if they're going to continue serving college
students under the federal student loan program. A meeting between Bush
administration officials and leading lenders was set for Tuesday evening.
Congress sets the interest rates borrowers pay and the subsidy levels lenders
receive under the federal student loan program. Last year, lawmakers cut
billions
in subsidies to lenders to pay for increases in student aid. Newsday
US
Effort To Defeat al-Qaida Questioned
A congressional watchdog group and several senators declared Tuesday
that nearly seven years after the 9/11 attacks, there appears to be no
winning plan to defeat al-Qaida and other extremists in tribal areas of
Pakistan. "I am troubled by where we find ourselves," said Sen. John Kerry,
D-Mass., as he chaired a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that
took two hours of testimony from Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
Atlanta
Journal
Aid
From U.S. Warships Is Rejected By Myanmar
Myanmar will allow U.N. helicopters to ferry aid to cyclone victims,
the U.N. chief said. But state media reported today the government will
not accept any disaster relief from U.S. warships. The New Light of Myanmar
newspaper said that such U.S. military assistance would come "with strings
attached." The U.S. has several helicopters on standby on a warship off
the Myanmar coast and in neighboring Thailand. Seattle
Times
Farm
Bill Includes Lots Of Help For Sugar Growers
The farm bill that just sailed through Congress includes provisions
aimed at helping sugar growers, which is of special interest to Minnesota,
the nation's largest producer of sugar beets. The legislation calls for
a gradual 5.2 percent increase in the loan rate for sugar beet growers,
or guaranteed minimum price, through 2011, and a 4.2 percent increase for
cane. That would be the first increase since 1985. It also uses the ethanol
industry as a hedge against the effects of more imported sugar. The bill
calls on the government to buy surplus domestic sugar and sell it to ethanol
producers - for use in a mixture with corn - in the event of a glut of
imported sugar. The Red River Valley of eastern North Dakota and northwestern
Minnesota is prime sugar beet country. Miami
Herald
USA's
Drought Begins To Ease
Heavy rainfall in the Southeast and record snowpack in the Rockies
have eased dramatically the nation's worst drought in more than a century.
Drought conditions are the least severe since January 2006. A quarter of
the USA is suffering some form of drought today, down from 65% last summer,
federal agencies said. In the Southeast, where drought has been most severe,
the area in drought has plummeted from 86% in August to 40% today. USA
Today
McCain
Adviser From Austin Quits To Avoid Fighting Obama
Sen. John McCain's chief advertising strategist, Mark McKinnon, announced
Tuesday that he was resigning, following through on a vow he had made months
ago not to work against the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama. His resignation
follows the departures of five other aides in recent days because work
they have done outside the campaign — as lobbyists for corporations and
foreign nations, and, in one case, as a strategist for an independent political
group — had presented conflict of interest issues. In telling the Cox News
Service last June that he would not work against an Obama candidacy, McKinnon
had said that Obama's election to the presidency "would send a great message
to the country and the world." Houston
Chronicle
Socioeconomics,
Not Race Drives Vote
Polling from Tuesday's Democratic primaries indicate a tale of two
states, with differing profiles of the voters in Kentucky and Oregon informing
vote preferences. Working-class whites dominate in Kentucky: In preliminary
exit poll results about two-thirds of white voters there lack a college
degree, far more than the number across all primaries to date, 49 percent.
In Oregon, the voter poll indicates that less-educated whites make up about
half of the electorate, again well under their share in Kentucky. Hillary
Clinton has done better in past primaries with working-class whites, Barack
Obama with their better-educated and higher-income counterparts. ABC
News
Hikind
Says He Saw Olmert Take Cash
Assemblyman Dov Hikind said that he saw then-Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert
take an envelope full of cash following a Brooklyn fundraiser for the New
Jerusalem Foundation in the 1990s. Hikind said he had hosted the fundraiser
at his Brooklyn home. When it was over, he said, he walked Olmert out and
saw a person "give him an envelope filled with cash." However, Hikind wasn't
sure when the fundraiser was held and would not identify the individual
who he claimed handed over the envelope. Jerusalem
Post
UN
To Fly Aid To Burmese Victims
Burma has allowed nine UN World Food Programme helicopters to deliver
aid to remote cyclone-hit areas, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says.
He said aid had reached only a quarter of those in need, following the
2 May storm which killed tens of thousands. Mr Ban welcomed the Burmese
military's "recent flexibility" in allowing Asian aid workers into the
country, relaxing restrictions on foreign relief teams. Mr Ban is to meet
officials
of Burma's ruling junta and tour affected areas. BBC
Foreign
Aid Arrives As Quake Region's Death Toll Nears 40,000
The death toll from China's earthquake has reached almost 40,000 in
Sichuan, the province's government confirmed today. The announcement came
as
foreign medical teams and mobile hospital equipment were dispatched to
the region after government appeals for medical aid from the international
community. With only slim hopes of finding more people alive, the scope
of the mission has shifted to caring for those who have survived, including
the 250,000 people left injured. Hundreds of aftershocks have been felt
over the past week, leaving thousands of people so anxious they are sleeping
in cars and in the street, fearing more building collapses. Guardian
Mbeki
Is To Blame For Xenophobic Attacks
Aid workers in Johannesburg are struggling to feed and shelter the
thousands of immigrants who have fled a wave of xenophobic attacks in which
24 people have been killed. The Institute for Race Relations, a respected
think-tank,
blames the ANC government and President Thabo Mbeki for the violence, the
worst South Africa has seen since the dying days of apartheid. Its chief
executive, Frans Cronje, said corruption, failing law and order, economic
mismanagement and lack of proper border controls "contributed to create
a perfect storm of lawlessness, poverty and unfulfilled expectations which
has now erupted into violence". Independent
News
Iran's
Nuclear Program Feeding Proliferation
Iran's disputed nuclear program has sent a wave of interest in atomic
energy across the Middle East, a think tank said, warning that it risked
setting the scene for a regional nuclear arms race. At least 13 Middle
Eastern countries either announced new plans to explore atomic energy or
revived pre-existing nuclear programs between February 2006 and January
2007, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, or
IISS, said in a report. CNS
Egyptian
Official: Israel Has Accepted Gaza Cease-Fire
A senior Egyptian official said on Tuesday night that Israel had accepted
in principle a proposal for a truce in the Gaza Strip, according to the
official MENA news agency. Israeli leaders have informed us of their support
for and understanding of the Egyptian proposals for a truce," the news
agency quoted the unidentified official as saying. It added that Egyptian
intelligence chief Omar Suleiman had relayed the news to a Hamas delegation
from Gaza earlier in the day. Israeli officials declined to confirm the
report. Jerusalem
Post
Tough
Penalty Urged In Aziz Trial
Mr Aziz served as foreign minister and deputy prime minister under
Saddam. The prosecutor at the trial of the former Iraqi deputy prime minister,
Tariq Aziz, has called for a tough penalty to be handed down. Prosecutor
Adnan Ali called for a punishment which would "ease the hearts of widows".
Mr Aziz, once the public face of Saddam Hussein's government abroad, is
accused over the deaths of 42 traders executed for sanctions profiteering
in 1992. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty or be jailed
for life. BBC
World 'More
Peaceful' In 2008
Iceland is the world's most peaceful country, according to an index
measuring
internal and external turmoil in 140 countries. Only one of the G8 countries,
the world's most economically powerful nations, makes it into the top ten
of the survey, which is published today. While Iraq, Somalia and Sudan
unsurprisingly take the bottom three places in the index, the survey suggests
that the world is a marginally more secure place than it was a year ago.
Angola, Indonesia and India are seen as the nations that have made the
greatest strides away from conflict in the twelve months since the previous
index was published. Guardian
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