Daily News Summaries for Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Washington Post
By Lori Montgomery and Brady Dennis
The leaders of President Obama's fiscal commission released a final report Wednesday that is full of political dynamite, recommending sharp cuts in military spending, a higher retirement age and reforms that could cost the average taxpayer an extra $1,700 a year.
By Shailagh Murray and Perry Bacon Jr.
President Obama and congressional Republicans expressed determination Tuesday to reach an agreement on the tax cuts due to expire at year's end, raising the possibility of a compromise that could avert a tax increase for virtually every American worker.
By Bill Turque
Washington Teachers' Union President George Parker, who negotiated a lucrative contract for his members earlier this year but was unable to prevent the launch of a controversial new evaluation system introduced by former chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, lost his job Tuesday.
By Tim Craig
D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray is billing it as a "get-to-know-ya meeting."
On Wednesday, Gray (D) will make his first visit to the White House for a luncheon with the man who will soon be his most famous and powerful constituent, President Obama.
By Nikita Stewart
D.C. Council members debated a possible income tax increase Tuesday as a stream of advocates for low-income residents, small-business owners, labor leaders and others lamented the proposed cuts in Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's gap-closing budget plan.
By Nathan Rott
Michael Poindexter's first memory of D.C. General Hospital is the waiting. For hours, he and his family sat in the "crazy waiting room," holding out for a doctor to check on his little brother, who had swallowed a tooth. That was in the late 1970s, when Poindexter was in elementary school and the hospital saw thousands of patients a month.
By Katherine Shaver
Routing a proposed transitway closer to the Kentlands and two major developments planned for Gaithersburg would have minimal environmental impact, because trains or buses would run along or down the middle of existing roads, according to a new state study.
The New York Times
By JACKIE CALMES and PETER BAKER
WASHINGTON — The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Budget Committee, Judd Gregg and Kent Conrad, said on Wednesday that they endorsed the package of long-term tax increases and spending cuts put forward by the co-chairmen of President Obama’s deficit reduction commission.
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
NEW HAVEN — David Carel was never a rabble-rouser. But amid the clutter of his dorm room at Yale University, Mr. Carel, baby-faced and slight-shouldered at 19, keeps evidence of his new life as an AIDS activist: posters, banners and the flier demanding “$50 bn for Global AIDS” that he concealed in his fleece jacket one Saturday in late October when, heart pounding, he sneaked past security into a Democratic campaign rally in Bridgeport.
By JULIA PRESTON
Immigrant advocate groups have mobilized across the country in what they call a last-ditch effort to persuade Congress to pass a bill that would grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students, pressing for action in the remaining weeks when Democrats control both houses of Congress.
By KEVIN SACK
WASHINGTON — For the second time in two months, a federal judge has upheld the constitutionality of the new health care law, ruling on Tuesday that the requirement that most Americans obtain medical coverage falls within Congress’s authority to regulate interstate commerce.
USA Today
By Alan Levin, USA TODAY
The nation's transportation security chief says he decided to launch controversial new airport pat-down searches without first warning travelers, against the advice of his public relations aides.
Transportation Security Administration head John Pistole said in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday that he rejected the advice for fear of highlighting screening weaknesses terrorists could exploit.
ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) — The leak of thousands of sensitive U.S. embassy cables will not hurt American diplomacy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Wednesday at a security summit.
Clinton said she has discussed the revelations published on the WikiLeaks website with her colleagues at the summit in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The event is the first major international meeting of leaders and top diplomats since the memos began appearing on the website and in international publications this week.
PARIS (AP) — Interpol has placed the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks on its most-wanted list after Sweden issued an arrest warrant against him as part of a drawn-out rape investigation.
The Lyon, France-based international police organization has issued a "red notice" for 39-year old Julian Assange — the equivalent of putting him on its most wanted list.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The economy isn't growing fast enough to significantly reduce unemployment and low consumer confidence remains a barrier to a faster recovery, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday at an event at Ohio State University.
Slate
Meredith Simons
PR Week
PRWeek Editorial
US voters spoke loud and clear on November 2 when they catapulted the Republican party into control of the House and put a severe dent into the Democrats' hold on the Senate. On a broader level, this was viewed as a warning to President Obama that his stay at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will be limited to one term if the change he promised doesn't soon become evident.
Chris Daniels
MILWAUKEE: Despite a call for passengers to boycott its full-body scanners the day before Thanksgiving, the Transportation Security Association reported that airport screening went smoothly over one of the year's busiest weekends of air travel.
In anticipation of a busy holiday travel season, the TSA had launched an “aggressive, multi-tier communications strategy,” said Sterling Payne, deputy assistant administrator, public affairs for the TSA.
The Los Angeles Times
By Kathleen Hennessey, Christi Parsons and Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau
In their first sit-down since the power-shifting elections last month, President Obama and Republican leaders in Congress agreed Tuesday on a way to negotiate the fate of expiring tax cuts — the issue likely to set the tone for the relationship between the president and his newly empowered opposition.
By David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau
Reporting from Washington —
California's bid to block a court order requiring the release or transfer of more than 40,000 inmates seemed in jeopardy Tuesday, with the U.S. Supreme Court sounding ready to force the state to significantly reduce its prison population.
STEPHANIE NANO Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Fewer than half of Americans have had an AIDS test since guidelines were expanded to include routine screening, according to a government report released Tuesday.
Last year, an estimated 45 percent of Americans ages 18 to 64 reported they've had an HIV test at least once in their lives, up from 40 percent in 2006. That's an increase of 11 million people to 83 million people who have ever been screened, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in Atlanta.
By STEPHEN POWER
The Obama administration plans to announce Wednesday that its next five-year drilling plan won't allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic coast, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Media Post
by Erik Sass
Another week, another new social network, promising a new way of facilitating life, the universe, and everything. This week's entry is Jumo, a social network created by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who tells The New York Times the site is intended to help people stay in touch with charitable causes close to their hearts. The site included 3,000 organizations and issues at launch, and any non-profit organization can create a profile page, provided it can provide proof of official tax exemption to certify its authenticity.
Politico
By GLENN THRUSH & CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN & JONATHAN ALLEN
President Barack Obama achieved bipartisan consensus on at least one issue Tuesday: Democrats and Republicans were united in their skepticism of his latest effort to bridge the partisan divide.
Obama’s first meeting with congressional leaders from both parties since the watershed midterm elections injected a jolt of energy into what was shaping up to be among the lamest of lame duck congressional sessions.
By SCOTT WONG
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he would file a motion Tuesday so the Senate could take up the DREAM Act, setting up a showdown over the immigration bill that would provide some young, undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship.
Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Reid vowed earlier this month to hold votes on the standalone immigration bill during the lame-duck session. But Reid has been unable to hold together his 58-member caucus, and it’s uncertain if he’ll be able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster.
By JOHN MAGGS
Republicans and Democrats do seem to agree on at least one thing these days: Small businesses are the engine of job creation.
Small businesses with fewer than 500 employees provide 70 percent of our nation’s jobs and are the “heartbeat of innovation and productivity in America,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).
The Huffington Post
By Ryan Grim and Dan Froomkin
WASHINGTON — The president's deficit-commission report, scheduled for a vote by the full panel on Friday, proposes to slash tax rates for corporations and for high earners.
The top tax rate is currently 35 percent and is scheduled to rise to 39.6 percent in 2011. The commission would cut that rate to between 23 and 28 percent, while shaving between seven and nine points off the corporate rate.
By Sam Stein
This story has been updated
WASHINGTON -- The entire Republican Senate caucus has signed a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, informing him that they will filibuster any legislative measure that comes before the Senate prior to the body considering a budget or tax cut legislation.
By Karen Hawkins
CHICAGO — To some, Cabrini-Green's infamous high-rises were a symbol of urban blight – towering testaments to the failure of Chicago public housing to safely give shelter to the poorest of the poor. But to the last residents being rousted from the last building, Cabrini-Green was simply home.
By Jim Heintz
MOSCOW — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is warning that his country will find it necessary to build up its nuclear forces, if the United State's doesn't ratify a new arms reduction treaty.
The treaty, called New START, was worked out this year amid praise that it marked a newly cooperative spirit between Washington and Moscow. However, many Republicans in the U.S. Senate are expressing reluctance to ratify it.
By Susan Blumenthal, M.D.
On this World AIDS Day, achieving an HIV-free generation must be a top priority. In many areas of the world, including the United States, youth bear the brunt of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In 2009, 370,000 children who became HIV-positive globally were infected by mother to child transmission (MTCT). That's 1,000 children every day. Provision of anti-retroviral medications (ARVs) to pregnant women living with HIV could prevent most of these infections, but only 53 percent of pregnant women who are HIV positive receive these drugs in low and middle income countries.
By Mary Clare Jalonick
WASHINGTON — Congress is poised to give President Barack Obama – along with his wife, Michelle – a congressional victory as the House takes up legislation to push greasy foods off the school lunch line and sugary drinks out of vending machines.
The president met with liberal Democrats Tuesday in a last minute push to unite his party in support of a $4.5 billion child nutrition bill that would improve lunches in schools and expand feeding programs for low-income students.
"Dropout factory" high schools may be on the decline in United States but for minority communities, the good news may not apply. A report released Tuesday by America's Promise Alliance, shows the nation's graduation rate went up from 72 to 75 percent between 2001 and 2008.
But the report also states that nearly all high-poverty urban districts have graduation rates below the national average.
Talking Points Memo
Ryan J. Reilly
Two lawyers from the House ethics committee, including the chief prosecutor working on the case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), were suspended last month on the same day the panel announced an infinite delay in Waters' public trial.
Cindy Morgan Kim and Stacy Sovereign were placed on administrative leave on Nov. 19 -- the same day that the panel announced an indefinite delay of Waters trial. The suspensions were first reported by Politico.
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