Cheat Sheet
The Best In Brief
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In his final address to the American people tonight, President Bush defended his accomplishments over the past eight years while also acknowledging that his tenure was not without setbacks. "I have followed my conscience and done what I thought was right. You may not agree with some tough decisions I have made. But I hope you can agree that I was willing to make the tough decisions," he said. In front of an audience of 200 in the White House’s East Room, Bush spoke about September 11, 2001, and how that day changed his presidency—and him—forever. "As the years passed, most Americans were able to return to life much as it had been before 9/11. But I never did,” he said. The outgoing president also mentioned his successor Barack Obama. “Standing on the steps of the Capitol will be a man whose story reflects the enduring promise of our land. This is a moment of hope and pride for our whole nation. And I join all Americans in offering best wishes to President-elect Obama, his wife Michelle, and their two beautiful girls.”
A US Airways plane crashed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon after hitting a flock of birds during takeoff from La Guardia airport. With two engines disabled, pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger brought the plane to a jarring stop in the Hudson River. All 155 people on board the Airbus A320 survived. Paramedics reported that one victim had two broken legs. When the Coast Guard arrived at the plane it was submerged up to the windows with many passengers standing on the plane's wings in the frigid water. Police divers rescued some passengers from underwater.” We’ve had the 'Miracle on 34th Street.' I believe now we've had a miracle on the Hudson," New York Gov. David Paterson said in a news conference Thursday evening. The plane was en route to Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Senate approved the release of the second half of the $700 billion financial bailout package this afternoon, giving Barack Obama a major political victory before he even takes office. The roll call vote came down 42-52 against a resolution sponsored by Senator David Vitter disapproving of the release of the money. Obama took to the phones this week, reaching out to both Democrats and Republicans in an attempt to have the funds released. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged the Senate to reject the resolution. "I believe this is the road to a recovery for our country," he said. "Let’s just trust Barack Obama."
Attorney general nominee Eric Holder, in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday afternoon, said that he believes the controversial near-drowning interrogation technique of waterboarding is clearly illegal, and that the president does not have the power to immunize those who used it from prosecution. "No one is above the law," he told Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the committee's chairman and a strong opponent of the Bush administration's handling of prisoners.
Hamas' interior minister, Said Siam, who was responsible for thousands of security personnel in the Gaza Strip, was killed by an Israeli strike on Thursday. Some of Siam's relatives were also casualties of the airstrike, which targeted a home in Gaza City. Earlier in the day, Israel faced criticism from UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon after shelling the main UN aid compound in Gaza and injuring three workers. The attack came days after an Israeli tank shelled a UN school, killing dozens. According to Ki-Moon, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak apologized for the attack on the aid compound, which he called a "grave mistake."
Illinois, say hello to your new senator: Roland Burris was sworn in to the United States Senate by Dick Cheney today. Burris was seated without objection or a roll call vote a week after his colleagues were sworn in. He received a standing ovation from the other senators. Burris is the only black member of the Senate.
Caroline Kennedy's grand media blitz seems to have backfired. She's the second choice of New Yorkers in a new poll released Thursday--behind Andrew Cuomo, the state attorney general. Four in 10 registered voters would prefer Cuomo to get the appointment to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat versus just 25 percent for Kennedy. Just a month ago, they were polling even.
Might Steve Jobs have broken the law by hiding his poor health? The Apple CEO said yesterday that his health is worse than previously reported and that he’ll be taking a leave of absence until June. The Wall Street Journal reports that “some leadership specialists were troubled by the Apple CEO's latest disclosure. Wednesday's announcement raises questions about ‘whether we have been getting the full story for the past year’ about Mr. Jobs's health.” John Carney at Silicon Valley Insider translates: “Somewhere, right now, a plaintiff lawyer is preparing to file a lawsuit against Apple on behalf of shareholders who will claim they were deceived by the company’s statements about the health of chief executive Steve Jobs.”
The Los Angeles City Attorney's office plans to file a criminal complaint against Jackass star Johnny Knoxville after airport screeners found a grenade in his luggage today. Airport police and the bomb squad discovered that the grenade did not have a firing pin and wasn't live. Knoxville claimed that the grenade was left over from an earlier photo shoot and he forgot it was in his bag. Police said the 38-year-old cooperated throughout the whole ordeal and was eventually allowed to board his flight to Miami.
Felix Salmon was heralding the failure of Citigroup before almost anybody else, and after the megabank’s bailout, he predicted that it would fail again. So, with Citigroup and Bank of America both on the brink of failure, pay attention to Salmon: “I can't see a solution to this problem short of nationalizing both Citi and BofA, and summarily firing the hapless Vikram Pandit along with the overambitious Ken Lewis. … Nationalization is a messy solution, and one which will make no one happy. But it's better than desperately trying to kick the ball down the field until the banks come back in a few weeks for even more money. If we've learned anything from the last Citi bailout, it's that small interventions don't work. What's needed now is a complete revamp of both banks' capital structures, and a brand-new owner.”
The last weekend for the Bush White House is going to be a quiet one. After his final address to the nation tonight, the president and First Lady Laura Bush are off to Camp David. Staffers these days are left handing in their passes, label pins, IDs, BlackBerries, and clearances. "At 9:00 p.m. Friday, the highest-level staffers will turn in their gear; and the West Wing will become a ghost town," ABC News' longtime White House correspondent Ann Compton writes. Plus, with Monday a federal holiday, 1600 will be mostly manned by loyal standbys: Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, Counselor Ed Gillespie, and Press Secretary Dana Perino. Laura's already packed up her books for Dallas. The Obamas' moving van will pull up Tuesday morning.
Back at the trough already? Banks are once again struggling as gigantic fourth quarter losses roll in, and some institutions that received bailouts a few months ago are begging for more. Bank of America, which already accepted $25 billion, is looking to score billions once again to help it absorb Merrill Lynch. Major banks that previously avoided having to ask for capital, like HSBC, are now in dire straits as well. The situation has prompted Barack Obama to ask Congress to release the second half of the $700 billion TARP in order to combat the latest wave of credit problems.
With prices at the pump falling as consumers cut back on transportation costs, crude oil holders are attempting to build up their reserves until prices rise later in the year. So where do companies like Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Shell store their supply of crude? In supertankers idling around the world's oceans. The top owner of supertankers, Frontline Ltd., estimates 80 million barrels of crude are now in such tankers-the most in two decades, Bloomberg reported. Pirate dangers aside, using a supertanker for storage costs about $75,000 each day.
Poor Steven Spielberg. First his charity gets fleeced by Bernie Madoff, and now he has to dip into his own pockets to support Dreamworks, the film company he co-founded in 1994. According to Variety, the production company cannot find credit during the financial crisis, forcing Spielberg to spend $13 million of his own dough to Paramount in order to keep the rights to 17 films. It is possibly the only time the mogul has had to use his personal wealth to pay for Dreamworks' operations.
The Dow Jones average dropped over 200 points in midday trading Thursday on the heels of more sour economic data but shot back up as markets closed to finish up 12.35 points for the day. The market fell below 8,000 early in the day for the first time in two months, but news that Bank of America may receive another $15 billion from the government brought on the rally. "As soon as you saw the confirmation that they weren't going to let Bank of America become the next Lehman Brothers, everyone jumped to cover their short positions," one trader said. Overall, the economy is still reeling: jobless claims rose 54,000 to 524,000 last week and producer prices fell for a fifth straight month. Overnight, Japan's Nikkei lost 4.9%.
The rest of the conservative punditry may be dining with Barack Obama, but Rush Limbaugh is standing by his man: President Bush hosted a private birthday lunch for the conservative radio host on Tuesday. According to Limbaugh, he had salmon over rice, French fries, and a salad, while Bush had only a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. At the end of the lunch, Michelle Malkin jumped out of a birthday cake. Okay, not really, but Limbaugh claimed he was in “stunned disbelief” when the President presented him with a chocolate cake.
Bill Richardson may not have turned out to be an awful commerce secretary: He sure seems to know a lot about raising money. The New Mexico Governor has been slapped with a second pay-to-play allegation, as New Mexico’s former state investment officer has accused Richardson appointees of directing $90 million to a financial firm in exchange for donations to the governor's presidential campaign. The accuser, Frank Foy, was dismissed from his job for sexual harassment, but says the event has nothing to do with his allegations against Richardson. Richardson withdrew his nomination to be Barack Obama’s commerce secretary after a separate accusation of giving state contracts to a lucrative donor.
CBS is trying to bring Grammy-nominated singer John Mayer aboard to host a music variety show. The Tiffany network and Jennifer Aniston's beau are currently in talks with the singer to negotiate a deal. Network executives hope the show, which would be directed by Grammy producer Ken Ehrlich, will diversify their drama-heavy line-up. Mayer wouldn't be totally new to the small screen--he appeared on CSI in 2006.
While her husband was cooking books, his wife Ruth was supposedly writing cookbooks, but was she really? The editor of Ruth’s cookbook, The Great Chefs of America Cook Kosher, is telling The New York Times that she wrote the cookbook in its entirety. She claimed Mrs. Madoff “was interested in having her name on something that would allow for some sort of fun.” The New York Times profiles Ruth in a separate story, noting “by the standards of her peers, Mrs. Madoff lives a relatively modest life” and asking “was Mrs. Madoff really blindsided? In the social circles where the couple once traveled, both possibilities are unnerving—that Ruth Madoff was in on this, or that she wasn’t.”
Can Joe Biden do more with less? The vice president-elect, who has never before set foot in the vice president’s office, wants to “restore the balance” and pare back some of his predecessor’s excesses but without relegating himself to irrelevancy. “I want to be the last guy in the room on every important decision,” he tells The New York Times in his first interview with a paper outside of Delaware. “I know as much or more than Cheney,” he said. “I’m the most experienced vice president since anybody.”
The housing bubble was the trigger for the current economic crisis and its implosion is leaving behind a massive wake of home foreclosures. According to a report by RealtyTrac Inc., foreclosure filings were up 81 percent in 2008 with more than 2.3 million properties affected. Experts say the problem could get much worse before it gets better. "If we don't adopt a comprehensive national policy, we'll have 5 million to 8 million new foreclosures in the next three years," Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, told Bloomberg.
It’s looking likely that Gossip Girl addicts will have a second night each week to indulge their habit. The Hollywood Reporter writes that a spinoff about the teenage years of show-mom Lily van der Woodsen is in the works. “The spinoff will center on young Lily Rhodes (her maiden name) who, after a falling out with her parents, is forced to move in with her sister, the black sheep of the Rhodes family.” The show will take place in the eighties—let’s hope it’s more Freaks and Geeks than That Eighties Show.
Hillary Clinton's nomination to be secretary of state is chugging along so smoothly and quietly that it almost makes you long for the dramatic days of the vast rightwing conspiracy. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved her nomination by a vote of 16-1, paving the way for her appointment to sail through the Senate after Barack Obama is sworn in as president on January 20. Clinton also gave a farewell speech on the Senate floor today.
The Bush White House has long had a tendency for e-mails to go "missing" when the courts and Congress come calling, but the Justice Department claims the administration has located some 14 million previously missing missives after a massive search project that cost some $10 million to complete. Some good-government groups are still skeptical that everything will be in order, however: "I'll believe it when I see it," the counsel for CREW, Anne Weisman, who sued the administration to demand the preservation of its records, said on Wednesday. A federal court recently ordered administration officials to not destroy any politically significant records on the way out. In several major cases in recent years, including the Valerie Plame investigation, the US Attorneys scandal, and certain moments during the Iraq War, crucial e-mails have gone "missing" in the White House.
