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If Obama doesn’t scrap the existing health-care reform bills, leading House Republicans have said they won't participate in the president's upcoming, televised health-care summit. In a letter to Rahm Emanuel, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner and Minority Whip Eric Cantor expressed frustration at reports that Obama intends to put the Democratic bills on the table for discussion at the Feb. 25 summit. "If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate," Boehner and Cantor wrote. "'Bipartisanship' is not writing proposals of your own behind closed doors, then unveiling them and demanding Republican support." White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded by saying that Obama has sought Republican input since early last year, and the president remains interested in hearing ideas that the GOP believe will advance the cause of health-care reform. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Obama is "absolutely not" scrapping the bills.
After a slow response and more than a little public embarrassment, Toyota is recalling 437,000 Priuses and other hybrids in hopes of fixing faulty brakes, which are believed to have contributed to four crashes and two minor injuries. “I don’t see Toyota as an infallible company that never makes mistakes,” said the company’s president. “We will face up to the facts and correct the problem, putting customer’s safety and convenience first.” Including this latest announcement, which addresses recent customer complaints, Toyota has now recalled 8.5 million vehicles worldwide for similar problems. “If the company had paid more attention to consumers’ viewpoint, it could have realized there was a safety problem,” said the chief of the recall department at Japan’s Transport Ministry.
Iran has officially begun to enrich its nuclear fuel and is working toward weapons grade strength in spite of continued efforts by Western countries to limit the nation’s nuclear capabilities. The move flies in the face of an attempted deal with the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency to monitor and curtail Iran’s nuclear supply, and the French foreign minister equated the nation’s actions to blackmail in a statement. Iranian facilities lack the technology necessary to use the fuel for medical purposes, further raising suspicions that President Ahmadinejad has plans to build weapons. In response, Western nations on the U.N. Security Council are working to convince Russia and China to support sanctions against Iran.
After 10 Americans were arrested for trying to take children out of Haiti last month, fear of kidnapping accusations has largely stopped private medical evacuations of critically injured Haitian children to the United States. Before the arrests, the largest pediatric field hospital in the country was sending 15 injured children to the U.S. via private flights each day. But since the arrests, the hospital has been able to evacuate only three children on private flights to American hospitals, according Elizabeth Greig, the field hospital's chief administrative officer. At least 10 other children have died or become worse while waiting to be airlifted out of the country, she said. Dozens of children are in critical need of care, and there has been no shortage of American hospitals or pilots willing to take them. "They're all at risk of dying," Dr. Shayan Vyas, an American pediatrician changing an IV at the pediatric field hospital, told The New York Times. "And none of these children should still be here in Haiti."
Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama has released his controversial blanket hold on more than 70 presidential nominations. Shelby's maneuver, targeted at all appointments awaiting confirmation on the Senate floor, irked Democrats since it effectively limited confirmation votes to a handful per month. It also represented a low point in a partisan standoff in the Senate that has forced Democrats to find 60 votes to avoid a filibuster on almost every piece of legislation. "The purpose of placing numerous holds was to get the White House's attention on two issues that are critical to our national security—the Air Force's aerial refueling tanker acquisition and the FBI's Terrorist Device Analytical Center," Shelby's office said in a lengthy written statement. "With that accomplished, Senator Shelby has decided to release his holds on all but a few nominees directly related to the Air Force tanker acquisition until the new Request for Proposal is issued." The White House said that it had agreed to none of Shelby's demands and that the senator released the holds on his own accord.
The East Coast and mid-Atlantic are gearing up for round two of the 'Snowpocalypse,' and New York City public schools will be closed on Wednesday due to an expected foot or more of snow. Winter-storm warnings have been issued for mid-Atlantic states, and the snow is expected to work its way up the East Coast and hit New York City sometime around midnight on Tuesday night piling up to anywhere between six to 12 inches.
When Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) prodded the Federal Reserve last summer to approve an acquisition to save First BankAmericano he left out a key detail: the company’s chairman and vice chairman were two of his campaign’s biggest donors. Menendez’s request to approve the sale of the bank to JJR Bank Holding Co. shortly before its failure at the end of July was unusually specific (an aide later called it a mistake) and former federal bank regulator William Black called the senator’s actions “grotesquely inappropriate,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Menendez, who is a member of the Senate Banking Committee and currently oversees the Democrats’ Senate re-election campaigns, defended the letter, saying, “If any New Jersey Constituent comes to me seeking assistance with a legitimate federal matter, not only is it important to help, I was elected to help. Telling them ‘no’ would be abdicating my responsibility.”
197 people, including a former ally of Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, were charged with murder on Tuesday for the massacre of 57 people last year. Andal Ampatuan Snr, the former governor of Maguindanao, was among the charged, as were other senior clan members, local government officials, policemen, and thugs. "All the conspirators are answerable as co-principals regardless of the extent or degree of their participation," prosecutors said in a statement. However, only 11 people are in custody, with most on the run since the November 23 killings.
After decades of flying high, could Hugh Hefner find his wings clipped by an angry Playboy shareholder? In a class action lawsuit, the shareholder alleges that Hef has continued his enviable lifestyle while the company falls apart and that he’s sabotaged two potential deals to sell the magazine in the past six months. The lawsuit cites a note from an investment company that analyzed Playboy’s business model and said, “If you were Hugh Hefner, 81, would you give up the parade of busty blonds, the fancy mansion and the reality TV show for a payout?" The lawsuit continues, “"Hefner has continued to live the good life and make sure everyone knows it.” A share of Playboy stock—worth $36 in 1999—now sells for about $3, almost half the newsstand price of an issue of the magazine.
Swimsuit season is here early: Sports Illustrated unveiled the cover to its latest swimsuit issue, featuring tennis star Andy Roddick’s wife, Brooklyn Decker. The couple, which married in April, reportedly met after Roddick spotted the model in the magazine’s 2007 issue. After appearing on David Letterman to announce the new cover, Decker gushed via Twitter, “THANK YOU EVERYONE!!! I Wish I could respond to every single one of you but thank you so much for your AMAZINGLY sweet tweets!”
New York Governor David Paterson is furious about a rumored New York Times story that some say is so salacious it could end his career. "For the last couple of weeks, I have been the subject of what, even by Albany standards, has been a spate of outrageous rumors about me," Paterson tells the New York Post. "There is an accountability that should exist in the media. How do I get my reputation back?" Thumbing his nose at his critics, The Wall Street Journal says Paterson will announce plans for reelection next week.
It turns out that the world’s tallest building may also be the world’s faultiest–just one month after is opening, a half-mile high Dubai skyscraper has closed to the public indefinitely with little explanation other than electrical problems and “unexpected high traffic.” The Burj Kahlifa, which cost $1.5 billion to build, has attracted swarms of tourists to its observation deck since opening and one would-be visitor described it as “a metaphor for Dubai.” Some sources say that the building will reopen to the public on Valentine’s Day but official statements have been vague and have yet to rule out the possibility of foul play.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iran will deliver a “punch” that will stun the Western world during this week’s anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei told a gathering of air-force employees, reports AFP. These comments come on the heels of Iran’s announcement that it will begin to produce enriched uranium despite worldwide protest and threats of sanctions. Opposition protesters are expected to take to the streets in demonstrations and marches on the February 11 anniversary. "The clerics should know that since imprisonment, beatings, and other confrontational methods are done in the name of Islam and the Islamic regime, it is hurting Islam and we all should try to stop," said opposition leader Hossein Mousavi on his Web site.
How can Wall Street regain Main Street’s trust? Elizabeth Warren, the TARP watchdog and Harvard law school professor, suggests one way in The Wall Street Journal: Wall Street should support the creation of an agency to protect consumers from products like credit cards and the bad mortgages it used to peddle. Warren—with the backing of President Obama—supports a single agency that could write and enforce rules. Banks, however, oppose the move, saying it will raise costs that they’ll just pass on to consumers. Warren writes: “It's a bad calculation because shareholders suffer enormously from the long-term cost of the boom-and-bust cycles that accompany a poorly regulated market. J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon recently explained this brave new world, saying that crises should be expected 'every five to seven years.' He is wrong.”
As the commander of Canada’s largest Air Force base, Colonel Russell Williams once regularly met with dignarities; now, he has been charged with the murder of two women and the sexual assault of two others. The 23-year veteran is believed to have killed Jessica Lloyd, 27, whose body was found earlier Monday, and Marie Comeau, 38, who was found dead in November. According to his Defense Department biography, Williams is married.
A bit of encouraging—and shocking—news out of a Haiti: a 28-year-old man was pulled from the wreckage of a Port-au-Prince market on Monday, four weeks after the devastating earthquake hit. The man has been admitted to a hospital and claimed that someone brought him water while he was trapped in the Croix Bossal market where he had worked selling rice. “I thought he was dead, but God kept him from dying,” his mother told reporters.
