Daily News Summaries for Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The Washington Post
By Karen DeYoung and John Pomfret
The Obama administration sought Monday to dilute the fallout from the disclosure of more than 250,000 State Department cables, insisting that strong foreign partnerships could withstand the damage and that the leaks will not force any U.S. policy changes.
By Ellen Nakashima and Jerry Markon
Federal authorities are investigating whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange violated criminal laws in the group's release of government documents, including possible charges under the Espionage Act, sources familiar with the inquiry said Monday.
By Lisa Rein and Perry Bacon Jr.
President Obama on Monday announced a two-year pay freeze for most of the 1.9 million civilians who work for the federal government, as he tried to address concerns over a mushrooming deficit and placate Republicans who have targeted the workforce for big cuts.
By David A. Fahrenthold and Paul Kane
In the curious annals of congressional drama, this week's debate on the fate of New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel will be odder than most. The House will agonize, and Rangel will emote, over this question:
Will Rangel - who has been found guilty of 11 ethics violations - be scolded in person, or will he be scolded in writing?
By Mike DeBonis
TODAY IS NOV. 30, 2010 -- 33 DAYS UNTIL INAUGURATION
Just about now, the first of the 160-plus witnesses are in the John A. Wilson Building preparing to tell Mayor-elect Vincent Gray and the D.C. Council how they should go about cutting (or, more likely, not cutting) the city budget. Nikita Stewart previews the hearing, which is likely to last into the wee hours, at D.C. Wire. Here's some more fiscal reportage to ponder: In the Examiner, Freeman Klopott highlights that the city's borrowing is flush up against the self-imposed 12 percent debt cap and D.C. is "quickly approaching the point where it will no longer be able to afford to build new roads, overhaul school buildings and make other capital expenditures."
By Ranit Mishori
Take two of our most common obsessions - getting rich and getting thin - add a healthy dose of competition, and you get "The Biggest Loser," the NBC reality show that pays $250,000 to the contestant with the biggest percentage weight loss in a season. Some winners have dropped close to half their body weight.
Paying people to lose weight: You wonder why someone didn't think of it sooner.
The New York Times
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
ATLANTA — The Civil War, the most wrenching and bloody episode in American history, may not seem like much of a cause for celebration, especially in the South.
And yet, as the 150th anniversary of the four-year conflict gets under way, some groups in the old Confederacy are planning at least a certain amount of hoopla, chiefly around the glory days of secession, when 11 states declared their sovereignty under a banner of states’ rights and broke from the union.
By DAVID E. SANGER
WASHINGTON — With North Korea reeling from economic and succession crises, American and South Korean officials early this year secretly began gaming out what would happen if the North, led by one of the world’s most brutal family dynasties, collapsed.
By MARK LANDLER and J. DAVID GOODMAN
WASHINGTON — Some world leaders expressed anger on Monday over the disclosures in confidential American diplomatic cables, even as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was confident that the administration’s diplomatic relationships would withstand the upheaval.
Mrs. Clinton’s comments came as she prepared to set off on a trip to Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. There, she will encounter for the first time officials from countries that figure prominently in the diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks, an organization devoted to revealing government secrets, and published in The New York Times and European publications.
By SAM DILLON
The nation’s high school graduation rate, which declined in the latter part of the 20th century, may have hit bottom and begun to rise, according to a report to be issued Tuesday by a nonprofit group founded by former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
USA Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed legislation Tuesday to make food safer in the wake of deadly E. coli and salmonella outbreaks, potentially giving the government broad new powers to increase inspections of food processing facilities and force companies to recall tainted food.
Posted by David Jackson
President Obama and Republican congressional leaders laid down markers on tax cuts in advance of this morning's bipartisan White House meeting.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a speech this morning that Obama should support extending tax cuts for all Americans, including wealthy ones in a position to create jobs.
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAYIn times of crisis and natural disasters, many are eager to donate. But fundraising for chronic diseases and global troubles such as hunger or a lack of clean water can be more of a challenge. So faith-based groups have gotten creative.
They use ingenuity and strategies true to religious teachings to reel in first-time givers and conquer giving fatigue in regular donors by linking up to holy days and life cycle celebrations.
Slate
The Los Angeles Times
By James Oliphant, Tribune Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- An effort by Senate Republicans to temporarily ban earmarks failed on the Senate floor early Tuesday.
Passage of the measure, sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) would have instituted a moratorium on lawmaker-directed funds through the 2013 fiscal year. But because passage required a suspension of the Senate's regular procedure, it required 67 votes — two-thirds — of the chamber, to pass.
ANNE FLAHERTY Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pentagon study on gays in the military has determined that overturning the law known as "don't ask, don't tell" might cause some disruption at first but would not create any widespread or long-lasting problems.
The findings were confirmed by two people familiar with the findings. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the results hadn't been publicly released.
By Shari Roan, Los Angeles Times
Use of CT scans in hospital emergency rooms has risen 16% a year since 1995, raising questions about unnecessary radiation exposure and how healthcare costs can be contained against such fervent use of technology.
The Wall Street Journal
By ADAM ENTOUS And JONATHAN WEISMAN
The U.S. believes Russia has moved short-range tactical nuclear warheads to facilities near North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies as recently as this spring, U.S. officials say, adding to questions in Congress about Russian compliance with long-standing pledges ahead of a possible vote on a new arms-control treaty.
Politico
By GLENN THRUSH & JOHN BRESNAHAN
It isn’t exactly the relaxed dinner-and-drinks working session President Barack Obama wanted, but the White House still hopes this morning’s delayed and abbreviated summit with Republicans will start to bridge the bipartisan divide.
The problem for Obama is that GOP leaders have little incentive to cut any deals in the lame-duck congressional session — the better to capitalize on their new House majority in January — and have no appetite for major compromise on the extension of Bush-era tax cuts or their deficit-cutting platform.
By KEACH HAGEY
After the New York Times published stories based on the WikiLeaks’ Iraq war logs in October next to a tough profile of the organization’s founder, the paper’s public editor concluded that the paper had taken a “reputational risk in doing business with WikiLeaks, though it has inoculated itself somewhat by reporting independently on the organization.”
But that independent reporting got the paper left out of getting advance access to the latest round of leaked cables, despite being originally told that it would get them, New York Times Editor Bill Keller told POLITICO.
By SCOTT WONG
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Monday that Congress can’t afford to wait to pass the DREAM Act, even as immigration allies acknowledge there’s little hope of getting the bill done in the lame-duck session.
In his second conference call with reporters in 12 days, Duncan reiterated that the legislation is not an issue of politics or ideology but rather fairness and economic necessity. The DREAM Act would provide a path to citizenship for tens of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants who attend college or serve in the military for at least two years. Critics still dismiss the proposal as “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.
By AMIE PARNES
First lady Michelle Obama asked faith and community leaders Monday to “shake up their congregations” and help her play a “critical role” in helping to eliminate childhood obesity.
In a conference call, Obama asked the leaders — including ministers, rabbis and Girl Scout officials — to become involved in “Let’s Move Faith and Communities,” an offshoot of her national campaign to promote exercise and proper nutrition.
The Huffington Post
By Arthur Delaney
WASHINGTON — Tempers flared at an unemployment office in Louisville, Ky. as the end nears for federally-funded extended jobless benefits.
Local CBS affiliate WLKY captured a bit of the scene on Monday -- amid some commotion, a man can be heard saying in a raised voice, "What did you just say to me?"
By Nick Wing
Former Republican Congressman and current MSNBC host Joe Scarborough is out with a vicious new post encouraging Republicans to "man up" and take Sarah Palin down a peg. As if trying to get the ball rolling, he precedes this suggestion with a few choice volleys of his own.
"Republicans have a problem," Scarborough writes at Politico. "The most-talked-about figure in the GOP is a reality show star who cannot be elected."
By Ryan Grim
Rep. Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, referred to President Obama as "very, very urban," while charging that as a senator he gave special favor to African American farmers who were victims of government discrimination. In case anybody missed his meaning in a speech on the House floor Monday evening, King emphasized the word "urban," drawing the first syllable out.
King is referring to legislation created to settle what is known as the Pigford case.
By Sam Stein
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), long known for being one of the first and loudest voices to offer his two cents on national security crises, took umbrage with the New York Times on Tuesday morning for its decision to publish leaked State Department cables.
The gray lady -- technically, King's hometown paper -- showed "arrogance" for running stories based off the WikiLeaks information, he said, acting as if it was an honest arbiter of what was or was not pivotal national security information.
Talking Points Memo
Brian Beutler
Conservative foes of the Affordable Care Act want the federal courts to smother the new health care law in its crib. They've argued that Democrats failed to erect the proper safeguards to protect the legislation from being stricken down entirely by the courts. And when a Virginia district court judge rules in the coming days on the Constitutionality of the law's insurance mandate, he'll also have to decide whether none, some, or all of the law must go with it.
Brian Beutler
For weeks now, Republicans have been intoning darkly about the possibility that Americans will see a historic tax increase if Congress (read: Democrats) and the White House don't act. At the same time, they've come out strongly against just about all of the compromise proposals Democrats have put forward to prevent the Bush tax cuts on the middle class from expiring.
Brian Beutler
Congressional Democrats are divided once again over an olive branch President Obama extended to the GOP. Progressive members are openly questioning his proposal to freeze federal pay through at least 2012, while their conservative counterparts support the plan, aligning themselves with Republican members who are already pressing Obama to move further to the right.
