Cheat Sheet
The Best In Brief
Please register to manage your email preferences and comment on the site.
In a move representing a sharp escalation in the stand off between Pakistan and India, Pakistani troops began moving away from the country’s border with Afghanistan and toward India. Many Pakistani soldiers have also been barred from going on leave. According to an Associated Press report, the troops are moving to Kasur and Sialkot, near India. One senior military official said the leave restrictions were brought on “in view of the prevailing environment” between the country and India. He also said the air force was “vigilant” and “alert” for the same reason. Across the border in India, authorities have warned travelers not to cross into Pakistan. Tensions between the longtime rivals have risen since last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai that left 171 people dead.
It wasn’t a very merry Christmas in the Holy Land. Two Palestinian girls were killed today when a Palestinian rocket fell short of its Israeli target. Since last night, 25 mortar shells have been fired into Israel. Meanwhile, Egypt beefed up its security along the Gazan border in anticipation of an IDF operation in the Gaza Strip. Should the Israeli operation proceed, Haaretz says it can expect to face about 15,000 armed Palestinians in Gaza. “For two years Hamas, with Iranian assistance,” Haaretz writes, “has been working hard on developing its military power, using Hezbollah as a model.” Gazan Palestinians are expected to escalate their mortar and rocket attacks, but Israeli and Western military experts believe that Israel can retake the territory.
Barack Obama’s panel cleared his team of any wrongdoing in the Rod Blagojevich scandal, but will it withstand legal scrutiny? An attorney for the disgraced Illinois governor has asked the legislative panel considering his impeachment to subpoena more than a dozen witnesses, including Obama advisors Rahm Emanuel, Valerie Jarrett, and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. State Representative Barbara Flynn Currie, the head of the panel, said she did not know how they will respond to the request. A decision may come on Monday, when the committee convenes.
Retail sales were down across the board during a thrifty holiday season, but somehow Amazon.com managed to buck the trend. According to the online megastore, sales peaked at 72.9 items ordered per second, versus a high of just 62.5 last year. The high point was December 15th, when the site sold some 6.3 million items, buoyed by popular gifts like the Dark Knight on DVD and the popular Twilight book series by Stephanie Meyer.
It looks possible that Oprah has another fibber on her hands, but the situation this time is a bit trickier: The suspect is Herman Rosenblat, a Holocaust survivor who says he met his wife through the barbed-wire fence of a concentration camp. The New Republic ran an excellent piece on the controversy earlier this week, and today the Associated Press reports that the author and the publisher are standing by Rosenblat’s upcoming memoir, though are creating some distance by terming it “a work of memory and not of scholarship.” Oprah has twice featured Rosenblat as a guest.
Barack Obama's fundraising machine led an epic campaign season in which presidential candidates spent a whopping $1.7 billion, by far the most expensive election cycle ever and more than double the amount spent just four years ago. Of that number, $740.6 million came from Obama versus just $222.7 million from McCain. Despite only competing in the primaries, Hillary topped McCain by spending $250 million. Mitt Romney also boosted the totals by loaning his failed campaign $44.6 million of his own money.
The Security and Exchange Commission continues to investigate Bernard Madoff’s family to see if they had any connection to his mind-boggling $50 billion fraud. Though the patriarch is the only Madoff to be formerly charged with any wrongdoing, his two sons, brother, niece and wife have all worked for his hedge fund at some point. Madoff’s close associates are also part of a wide net that the SEC has cast. One in particular, Frank DiPascali, has been questioned by authorities and was described as “evasive.”
Here’s one candidate you can probably scratch from the running for Republican National Committee chairman: Chip Saltsman, the former national campaign manager for Mike Huckabee. Saltsman has raised some eyebrows for distributing a 41-track holiday CD to national committee members that included the not-so-classic “Barack the Magic Negro,” which Rush Limbaugh first aired in 2007. Saltsman doesn’t think, however, that he’s done anything wrong. “I think that RNC members have the good humor and good sense to recognize that [satirist and Saltsman friend Paul Shanklin's] songs for the Rush Limbaugh show are light-hearted political parodies.”
Now that Christmas is over it’s time for more depressing economic news: retail sales this holiday season were awful. According to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell 5.5% in November and 8% in December from the same time last year. The numbers are far worse than predictions, the most pessimistic of which predicted a 1% drop. “This will go down as the one of the worst holiday sales seasons on record," said one retail consultant. "Retailers went from 'Ho-ho' to 'Uh-oh' to 'Oh-no.'" Luxury goods, formerly untouchable, were the hardest hit, falling a whopping 34.5%.
Coal in your Christmas stocking is nothing compared to what the poor residents of Roane County, Tennessee are dealing with. The area is the site of a massive coal ash spill, covering the region in the carcinogenic byproduct of a nearby power plant. About a dozen homes have affected by the sludge and on Thursday officials said the spill was over three times larger than originally believed - some 5.4 million cubic yards.
With the total bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan projected by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments to be as high as $1.7 trillion by 2018, President-elect Obama is being urged to bring change to the Bush administration's booming defense spending. The root of the problem? Bush's decision to fund the wars via so-called "emergency spending measures" as opposed to appropriations requests. "The process has reduced the ability of Congress to exercise effective oversight. It has also tended to obscure the long-term costs and budgetary consequences of ongoing military operations," the CSBA's report says.
Jeb Bush has been talking to GOP leaders and potential contributors about a run for Florida's Senate seat—which will be up for grabs when Mel Martinez retires in 2010—and he's "getting green lights," Politico reports. "Everything indicates that he's in," said a strategist. "You're not making calls and laying the ground work for fundraising unless you're clearing the field for your candidacy." Though it's not a done deal, a source added: "I think he was a little surprised by the magnitude of support. It was so broad and so deep." While Bush will make an announcement in early January, another political dynasty is facing new criticism. Senate-hopeful Caroline Kennedy has "been largely AWOL" from New York politics, especially when it comes to donating to local Democratic candidates, the NY Daily News reports. The only local candidate she supported financially was Hillary Clinton—shelling out $30,000 over the past decade.
The CIA has new tool when it comes to winning friends among Afghanistan’s older male population: Viagra. U.S. Intelligence officials have used the little blue pill and other novel incentives to gain support in some of the country’s toughest areas. Long known for exchanging cash for information, the CIA’s operatives have created allies by offering up pocketknives, tools, medicine, surgeries for family members, travel visas and yes, even libido enhancement. "Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people—whether it's building a school or handing out Viagra," said one agency operative. The less flashy incentives play better in a country where a chunk of cash can draw unwanted attention, leading to an informant who is no longer privy to valuable information or, in some cases, dead.
Perhaps there was something in the air. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady proposed to girlfriend Gisele Bündchen on Christmas Eve as the pair traveled via private jet from New Jersey to Boston, TMZ.com reports. There were four dozen white roses and champagne on board as Brady nervously popped the question to his girlfriend of two years. No worries: the Brazilian-born highest-paid model in the world said yes. Brady has a one-year-old son with ex-girlfriend Bridget Moynahan.
Each year the North American International Auto Show is Detroit one chance to forget the economic devastation that has ravaged the city and pretend it's Hollywood. But like most glitzy parties this time of year, the notoriously lavish affair is being scaled back. Opening to the media on January 11, the show is expected to bring $350 million to the city's economy, down $100 million from last year. Everyone from tradesmen (whose numbers at event preparations have dwindled) to fashionistas, who have seen General Motors cancel its "GM Style" fashion party, are feeling the effects of the cutbacks. There will also be fewer hospitality areas, carpet instead of wood or tile floors and, most drastically, the complete absence of Nissan, the most high-profile withdrawal from the show.
What do you get when you cross Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and a teary tale about a dog? The highest Christmas opening in Hollywood history. According to Nikki Finke, Marley and Me pulled in $15 million in 3,480 theaters on a day that also saw big ticket sales for Brad Pitt’s The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Adam Sandler’s Disney flick Bedtime Stories. The rest of the top five was rounded out with Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie and Jim Carrey’s Yes Man. All-told, it was an “enormous” day for the movie industry and an even bigger day for Jen, who, for once, has beat Brad.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet’s on-screen reunion in Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road is receiving mostly positive reviews from critics. The New York Post said the portrait of a ‘50s marriage is “the best work of their careers” and called the film “beautifully executed.” DiCaprio, critic Lou Lumenick wrote, “reaches deep into himself for a not especially likable character” and Winslet (Mendes' wife) “once again demonstrates why she's one of the best actresses working today.” David Denby of the New Yorker, meanwhile, raved that Winslet displays “laborious precision” in the movie, based on the 1961 novel by Richard Yates, and Mendes’ version is “clenched, explosive, and, perhaps, cathartic.”
Details are slowly emerging about Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, the 45-year-old California man who opened fire at a Christmas party, killing nine and setting the house on fire—all while dressed as Santa Claus. Shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve Pardo arrived at his ex-wife’s parent’s house. When an 8-year-old girl opened the door he shot her face and proceeded to unload a semiautomatic handgun on the two dozen or so attendees. Pardo also had a pressurized fuel tank that he sprayed throughout the house before setting it on fire. Found dead at his brother’s early Christmas morning, Pardo was embroiled in relationship problems and, perhaps predictably, was described as quiet and easy going by his neighbors. By late last night, police couldn’t identify all the victims, though he wife and her parents are believed to be among them.
For the first time in more than fifty years, a president-elect tops Gallup Poll's list of the most admired man in the world (as determind by 1,008 American adults). Obama's 32% of respondents beats out President Bush's 5% in second place. Hillary Clinton tops the list of most admired woman with 20% in the poll while Sarah Palin comes in second at 11%. Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice and Michelle Obama (3%) round out the top five. Clinton, for her part, has held the top spot for 13 of the past 16 years.
Joe and Jill Biden have christened their two-month-old German shepherd “Champ.” And like all moves made by politicians, this one was well thought out. The name recalls a story that Biden liked to tell on the campaign trail about his father and how he used to tell the vice president-elect to “get up champ” when he was feeling down. How charmingly middle class. Champ will move into the vice presidential mansion after the inauguration when it may very well have a new puppy pal. The Bidens' have announced that they’ll be getting another dog from the pound for Jill.
Following a surge in rocket attacks from Gaza, Israeli PM issued a warning to terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stand down or face a military response. "I'm telling them now. It may be the last minute. I'm telling them. Stop it. We are stronger. There will be more blood there. Who wants it? We don't want it," Olmert said in an interview with an Arab television station. Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005, but have been plagued by A six month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended recently.
Eartha Kitt, whose seductive voice propelled her to fame, died of cancer on Christmas Day at age 81. Appropriately enough, one of Kitt's biggest hits was a Christmas song, her 1953 tune "Santa Baby." Kitt was perhaps best known for her TV career, where she played Catwoman in the cheeky 1960s Batman series.She was nominated for Tony, Emmy, and Grammy awards during her long career.
Chrysler could just have taken the bailout money and run, but the company's chronic politeness is setting off fierce criticism. The company purchased full page ads this week in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and USA Today thanking Americans for "investing" (their words) in Chrysler, prompting a swift and devastating response from billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. On his personal blog, Cuban called the move "idiotic" and asked, "How does it make the next unemployed Chrysler worker feel that their entire year's salary just went for a single, ridiculous ad?" We asked Chrysler for a response and a spokesperson sent over a statement: "With the recent announcement by the White House, Chrysler LLC has the initial injection of working capital necessary to help bridge the liquidity crisis the industry is facing and help return the Company to profitability. The ad thanks America for this investment in Chrysler. As the process evolves, many individuals will have opinions. The Company has no higher priority than to satisfy the loan conditions laid out last Friday by the Government. As a result, Chrysler will not comment on individual opinion." The spokesperson added that "the overall purpose of the ad was to reinforce our long-term commitment to America."
If you thought life was easy for reporters covering Barack Obama as he vacations in Hawaii, you’re sorely mistaken. According to the Washington Post, the intrepid journos face a multitude of challenges, from anchors who tease them about their board shorts and bathing suits to a constant gaggle of wacky kids and picture happy tourists milling around the camera. Then there’s the resentment of all those who aren’t having a 75-degree Christmas and the misconception that they must not be working very hard while under the sun. Poor them. Still, the conditions represent an upgrade from the past eight years. "No offense to the people of Crawford, Texas, but taking the presidential retreat from Crawford to Honolulu is change anyone can believe in," said CNN’s Ed Henry.
Partner Sites: Expedia| Hotels| Hotwire| Urbanspoon| Vimeo
