Cheat Sheet
The Best In Brief
Please register to manage your email preferences and comment on the site.
When the boss is away, the underlings--avoid voting on laws? Politico reports that, due to fear that the bill would fare poorly in the House, Congressional Democrats are postponing action on a $100 billion war spending bill until next week, when President Obama returns. The administration thinks it can reconcile criticism from the left and right, and Democratic leadership seems to think another week of talks could smooth over the bill's rough edges. "For this confident young White House, which so prides itself on juggling many balls at once, the delay is a humbling reminder of just how complex the low-profile appropriations process can be," notes Politico. It was, after all, an appropriations bill that killed Obama's plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay--and that continues to delay spending for Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan allegiances, swine flu recourse, and a host of terror-related efforts. Particularly at issue is the White House's recent decision to bar the release of detainee photographs, raising the ire of liberal Democrats who Obama can usually count on to push his causes, even in his absence.
America's richest pancreatic cancer survivor, Apple chief exec Steve Jobs, is back at the helm of his company after months of medical uncertainty, the Wall Street Journal reports. After significant weight loss and a secretive medical leave that stretched from January until now, a Jobs confidant told the Journal that the mega-famous businessman will be back on the job later this month. The question on everyone's lips now is, will he reappear in time to debut new technology at Apple's annual developers' conference next week? And just as urgently: Will it be the new iPhone iteration that some say is on the cusp of release?
It pays to have friends in high places-literally. Michelle Obama announced today that she will replace her current chief of staff with long-time colleague and friend Susan Sher, making Sher's the third top-notch position in the East Wing held by friends of the first lady. Sher is currently an associate counsel to the president and will take the place of incumbent chief of staff Jackie Norris, who is moving on to become senior adviser of AmeriCorps. It's unclear why the first lady made the switch—perhaps the workings of the administration are not as smooth as they appear. Sher and Michelle Obama worked together at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Sher was Michelle's boss. She's also counted as a member of Michelle's inner circle traveling with her during the presidential campaign and socializing with her in the White House. All that may be well and good, but the question remains: Is she "in" enough to go on burger runs with the president?
All hail—or hate—the American president! The post-speech wraps on Obama's historic visit to Cairo have hit every note in the geopolitical and opinion-making spectrum, from speechwriters' raves to political thinkers' pans. NYT blog The Lede joins the fray with a novel approach: commentary from the Arab blogosphere, including Middle Easterners' chat room responses during the State Department's global livestream of the president's speech. Naturally, the comments shows impressive range—"WE WANT OBAMA TO RULE EGYPT" to "I need to study Hypocrisology in DC. They r good at it."—but most telling were the unexpected moments of outrage. A visiting professor at UC Berkeley who blogs under the name "Angry Arab" criticized Obama for praising King Abdullah's "wisdom": "What is next? Will he praise the public beheadings in the kingdom as example of ideal justice?" Several bloggers accused Obama of patronizing them: "I was offended by his lecturing to Muslims about Jewish suffering: as if the audience is entirely anti-Semitic. There are anti-Semites in the US and he does not lecture them."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has offered some advice to China--and they don't appreciate it one bit. Speaking on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, Clinton called for China to "examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal." China refers to the protests, which many say were a massacre, as nothing more than "antirevolutionary riots." A foreign ministry spokesman accused the U.S. of meddling in its affairs and making "groundless accusations." There has been a major crackdown on would-be protesters as well as journalists in the lead-up to the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident. The Guardian reports that some of the participants in the 1989 protests are currently on forced "tourist trips" with police.
Stocks closed higher today as a result of growing commodities prices, meaning gains for companies like Alcoa and Chevron. Continuing the week’s upward trend, the Dow gained 0.86 percent on Thursday, the Nasdaq rose 1.32 percent, and the S&P 500 gained 1.15 percent. Buying in the financial sector and broader market increased as the result of an analyst’s note that said banks are at the beginning of a multi-year bull market. The note from RBC Capital was the most positive remark by a major i-bank research department on the banking sector in several months. Additionally, oil prices continued to increase to $68.81 a barrel, doubling their mid-February lows and marking a seven-month closing high.
Adults who secretly harbor a fondness for all things high school (Gossip Girl enthusiasts, we’re looking at you) rejoice! The latest crop of teeny-bopper flicks boasts a star-studded cast—as if you needed that as incentive to go see them. First up, Mary-Kate Olsen recently joined the cast of Beastly, a teenaged version of Beauty and the Beast. Sigourney Weaver’s agreed to do You Again, a Disney movie with Kristen Bell, and is in talks to join Simon Pegg and Seth Rogen in the E.T. comedy Paul. The most exciting corral of celebs comes in the form of the high-school comedic retelling of The Scarlet Letter—the aptly-titled Easy A—featuring Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, Thomas Haden Church, Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell and Twilight's Cam Gigandet, to name a few.
Cattle: Mother Nature’s worst nightmare, apparently. Studies show that through their burps, cows emit between 200 and 400 pounds of methane gases each year, one of the most dangerous heat-trapping emission with ties to global warming, second only to carbon dioxide. In an effort on behalf of the cows to go green, farmers in Vermont are altering cattle feed to reduce methane emissions as part of an experiment conducted by yogurt company Stonyfield Farms. In mid-May, when results were last recorded, one herd showed an 18-percent drop in methane output. Milk production has stayed the same, and the cows’ coats are reportedly shinier and their breaths sweeter to boot. But since cows in the United States produce more milk than ever and fewer cows are needed to fill those milk jug quotas, the country’s methane emissions compared with those of less industrialized countries are low to begin with.
Lucky break for Mike Huckabee: Sonia Sotomayor's middle name is Maria, so he wasn't completely mistaken when he referred to the Supreme Court nominee as "Maria Sotomayor." This little detail is one of many revealed in the just-released Senate Questionnaire, which was prepared in record time, according to the White House. The document spans 173 pages, including perhaps one of the most detailed resumes ever. There can be little doubt about Sotomayor's accomplishments: The list of awards she has received runs nearly five pages.
Think the average consumer in Detroit, Mich. is likely to brown-bag it in light of the economic recession that’s literally hitting them close to home? Think again. According to a study of geographic consumer spending conducted by analytics firm Acxiom, the country’s big spenders and savers aren’t where you think they might be. Sixty-four percent of the people in Detroit’s metro area are likely to spend, shall we say, non-frugally. Around 1,500 data fields go into the equation that then determines which demographics spend, and how much. The cities with the highest proportion of spenders include San Francisco, Austin, Washington, D.C., Seattle, San Diego, Denver, Cincinnati, Norfolk, Salt Lake City and Jacksonville. Less-likely spenders typically reside in Pittsburgh, Nashville, Tampa, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Little Rock, Knoxville, Tulsa, Fresno and Mobile. So what’s the reason for the disconnect? One explanation could be numbers of middle-income urban families who are concerned about protecting their quality of life.
The SEC's charges against Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo are in, and they're a doozy. The man some call the architect of the subprime mortgage collapse stands accused of deliberatedly misleading investors on Countrywide's massive credit risks and of insider trading on a deal that scored him some $140 million in profits when he unloaded personal shares of his company's stock shortly before its collapse. Two other former Countrywide execs—former COO and President David Sambol and former CFO Eric Sieracki—are also accused of misleading the public and the market. Said the director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement: "This is the tale of two companies. Countrywide portrayed itself as underwriting mainly prime quality mortgages using high underwriting standards. But concealed from shareholders was the true Countrywide, an increasingly reckless leader assuming greater and greater risk.
The black box of the fatal Air France flight likely rests on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, but investigators have nevertheless gleaned some details of the final moments of the 228 passengers killed in the crash. Judging by the wide distribution of debris, the plane likely split apart in midair in a horrific turn of events that lasted only 14 minutes. Due to the fuel spills around the crash site, terrorism has been ruled out as a possible cause. Observers also suspect that the pilot found himself trapped on all sides by volatile, towering thunderstorms, which forced him to press onward into the torrent. Around this time, the cabin pressure failed, perhaps due to a lightning strike, severe winds exceeding 100mph, or a combination of the two. Le Monde has reported that the Air France flight was flying too slowly heading into the fatal storm system.
Has Octomom’s conscience caught up with her? In a video broadcast on RadarOnline, Nadya Suleman, mother to octuplets (and six additional children) confessed that she used the embryos left over from her previous conceptions to become pregnant with her infamous octuplets--without the sperm donor’s consent. “I went behind his back and used them all,” Suleman said. “He didn't want me to. I feel so much guilt for that.” She refuses to identify her donor, who is married and has children. “I screwed myself. I screwed up my life, I screwed up my kids' lives,” Suleman says. “I have to put on this strong facade and I have to pretend like I don't regret it.”
Some good food for thought from E.J. Dionne: “If you doubt that there is a conservative inclination in the media, consider which arguments you hear regularly and which you don't. When Rush Limbaugh sneezes or Newt Gingrich tweets, their views ricochet from the Internet to cable television and into the traditional media. It is remarkable how successful they are in setting what passes for the news agenda.” Democrats may be more than happy to see Rush Limbaugh elevated to the top of the Republican Party, “but the media play an independent role by regularly treating far-right views as mainstream positions and by largely ignoring critiques of Obama that come from elected officials on the left.”
Versace’s chief executive will hand in his resignation this Friday in Milan after reportedly clashing with Donatella Versace over her lavish lifestyle. Giancarlo di Risio has headed up the company since 2004, and is credited with putting its finances in order. But di Risio and Versace disagreed over cost-cutting measures, like whether or not to scale back on promotional parties, reports The New York Times. (The company denies there was disagreement.) Versace’s revenue fell 13 percent last quarter as cash-strapped consumers backed off luxury goods. The company, which is fully owned by the Versace family, hired a consulting firm to help it weather the financial crisis with a new management plan.
Talk about a Debbie Downer. In a speech delivered shortly after Obama’s address to the Muslim world in Cairo, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—the religious leader of Iran—announced that Muslims "hate America from the bottom of their heart.” Iran's most powerful figure gave a speech shortly before Obama stepped to the podium that addressed nearly all the beefs Iran has with the U.S. The Ayatollah touched on its nuclear power program, reckless bombing in Afghanistan, the George W. Bush legacy, and Obama's "talking, speech and slogans." Until Obama starts proposing substantive changes in foreign policy, the Middle East will not change its negative perception of the U.S., the Ayatollah said. But Khamenei’s speech had at least one point that Obama might like: The Ayatollah reiterated his belief that amassing nuclear weapons is forbidden under Iran's version of Islam.
China puts its censorship apparatus to use Thursday, as it flooded Tiananmen Square with cops and cracked down on would-be protesters all over the country. Reporters were barred from entry to Tiananmen, and those that did make it were followed by cops who blocked their cameras with open umbrellas, "a comical dance" that was broadcast on several news networks, the New York Times reports. The Times also reports that there may have been more undercover cops than citizens at the site of the infamous oppression. Throughout the country, those with ties to the incident have been harassed by the Chinese authorities. One activist said that he had essentially been put on house arrest since May 15. Meanwhile, a massive vigil attended by as many 150,000 people was held in Hong Kong in honor of those that died 20 years ago Thursday.
Newsweek is getting plenty of buzz for taking on one of the most powerful targets in all of media: Oprah Winfrey, who is none too pleased. This week's cover story accused Oprah of lending credibility to untested holistic medical treatments, as well as other "unorthodox" medicines. Oprah quickly returned fire, saying that her audience was "smart and discerning enough" to make decisions for themselves regarding what type of treatment to receive. Some of the more "out there" treatments that have appeared on Oprah's show include Suzanne Somers saying she takes 60 supplements a day, and Jenny McCarthy saying that vaccinations can cause autism. The feud makes for good press, but Newsweek better hope Oprah doesn't order her army of acolytes to boycott the magazine.
Don’t quit your day job, Dustin Hoffman: The first actor to land the role of Bernard Madoff is Paul Cohen from Jersey City. Actually, Cohen is not an actor at all, but his resemblance to the famous swindler was enough to earn him the spot in Edmund Druilhet’s docudrama, Madoff: Made Off with America. According to Druilhet, “[Cohen] had the best lips. I have to say he stood out.”
Gay rights advocates understand that Barack Obama has a crowded agenda, but they feel their issues must be dealt with now. The constituency is growing impatient with the president, as he as yet to address fundamental issues such as the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military and the movement for same-sex marriage nationwide. During his campaign, Obama made many promises in regards to LGBT issues, and thus far they have been left out of the ambitious White House agenda. Speaking to numerous players in the Democratic party, Politico found that politicians do not bear any ill will towards gay groups for criticizing Obama. "I'm in favor of giving him a little more time. He's got an awful lot on his plate. But he is a politician like everybody else, and he's going to respond to pressure. And I don't blame the LGBT community for trying to push," Howard Dean said.
Ah, the naïveté of youth. Actress Denise Richards came clean about her surgical enhancements on Howard Stern's show today (a popular place for confessions) admitting that she has had three breast implant operations. The first came just as the rising star moved to Los Angeles when she was only 19 years-old. "I thought, 'Whoa you can just buy them' and stupidly had them done!" Richards said. Despite the first set looking too big, Richards went for another upgrade, which she quickly deemed over the top. So, with the third procedure, they were just right. "You know, it was a big mistake. Young girls, don't do it!" Richards said on the air.
For the history books: New pictures of Hitler, published by Life magazine, do not provide any revelations, but do show the Fuhrer in full, living color for the first time. The way the photographs made their way into Life magazine's offices is remarkable in and of itself. All the pictures were taken by Hugo Jaeger, a photographer who spent seven years with Hitler. After the fall of the Nazis, he closely guarded his undeveloped rolls of film, and eventually buried them in the ground for over 15 years. Late in his life, Jaeger unearthed the film and sold it to Life, only five years before his death. Thursday marks the first time the photographs of the Fuhrer have been seen by the public.
The actor David Carradine has been found dead in a hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. The 72-year-old first became famous in the 1970s when he starred in the television show Kung Fu, and starred, more recently, as Bill in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films. He was, apparently, hanged, and the death is believed to be a suicide.
Further proof that print-based communication are on their way out? At the offices of The New York Times, Twitter usage has become so rampant that it brought down the Gray Lady’s computer system. Twitterers in the newsroom apparently use the application TweetDeck, which allows users to access Twitter but isn’t actually made by the start-up site. “It…takes a serious bite out of the performance of many computers, particularly PCs,” an internal memo read. “We recommend against installing it or using it on Times computers.” NYT stopped short of actually discouraging the use of Twitter, promising to look for an alternative that is “both safe and easy to use, for both casual and power users.” Admitting you have a problem is the first and hardest step.
Susan Boyle sabotage! Videos uploaded to YouTube during the season finale of Britain’s Got Talent reportedly displayed an incorrect phone number for viewers to dial in order to cast votes for Boyle. The last two digits, meant to read “08” either came up as “07” or “09”—the numbers of other contestants. Dance group Diversity won with a margin of just 4.7 percent of the vote, leading some to think that Boyle’s loss was the result of the clerical error. Meanwhile, Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden went on Larry King Live to defend the show against claims that it “exploited” Boyle. The so-called Hairy Angel’s post-finale health problems led to speculation that the show provided inadequate care for its contestants. Holden fired back by accusing tabloid media attention for Boyle’s meltdown and hospitalization. “We are a very loyal show, we love Susan very much,” Holden said. “All the contestants that appear on the show are extraordinarily well looked after.”
In this economic slump, why did arsonists burn down a booming business? A state fire official confirmed that the fire that destroyed Vassalboro, Maine's topless coffee shop was caused by arson, CNN reports. Donald Crabtree, the shop's owner, is determined to rebuild. Crabtree and six others, including his two infant grandchildren, lived in the building but escaped from the fire unharmed.
The line between televised "reality" and staged events is becoming thinner every day. We learned on Tuesday that Eminem's outrage over Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno stunt, which left the British comedian's rear end in the rapper's face last weekend's MTV Movie Awards, was faked. Now, the rapper has explained why he played along. Eminem told MTV.com that Baron Cohen called him and suggested the stunt. "I'm a big fan of his work so I agreed to get involved with the gag," he said. "I'm thrilled that we pulled this off better than we rehearsed it." After having his bodyguards pull the comedian off him, Eminem went back to his hotel and "laughed uncontrollably for about three hours."
Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising in which the Chinese military brutally crushed protestors, possibly killing thousands of students, activists, and citizens. The Chinese government, however, has quashed public attempts to mark the occasion with extreme security moves. Officials have instituted passport checkpoints to bar foreign journalists, photographers, and TV camera operators from entering the square, banned social networking and image-sharing websites like Twitter and Flickr, blacked out foreign news channels such as CNN during broadcast segments on Tiananmen, and put dissidents under house arrest or forced them to leave Beijing. Wu'er Kaixi, the No. 2 wanted student leader from that day, who has since been in exile, tried to enter China to turn himself in to authorities so that he could see his parents, who are not permitted to leave China, but he was denied entry.
After examining debris from the Air France jet crash that killed 228 people en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, Brazilian search crews have ruled out the possibility that a bomb took down the plane. Reuters reports that the crash debris was spread over 55 miles of ocean, and included large fuel stains in the water, which suggest that the plane wasn't burned and therefore that a bomb was not what caused the crash. Experts think that extreme turbulence or decompression during a storm are more likely. The real cause of the tragedy may never be definitively determined. Although France has sent out a small submarine to try to recover the flight data and voice recorder from the floor of the ocean, finding the items may prove difficult as the crash site is over a particularly deep and mountainous segment of ocean.
Another player for Team Sotomayor: First lady Michelle Obama. At a high school commencement held at Howard University today, Obama pronounced her allegiance to the hotly debated Supreme Court nominee. Many say Michelle’s support is part of a coordinated White House effort to humanize Sotomayor in the public eye. The endorsement came hours after GOP house speaker Newt Gingrich apologized for his remark that Sotomayor was a racist in similar fashion to Republican talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s comments today that the candidate would bring “racism” and “bigotry” to the court. Sotomayor is “more than ready” for the job, Obama said. Sotomayor, 54, would be the third woman and first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court.
You mean we have to pay for this stuff? Skyrocketing deficits in America and around the world designed to help counter the recession could sap global economic growth for years to come as rising interest rates force countries to pay more each year to finance their debt. A one point increase in interest rates could cost the U.S. another $50 billion per year thanks to its rising national debt. The prospect of prolonged stagnation thanks to the deficit prompted Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to warn Congress on Wednesday that it needed a plan to get its budget under control once the need for emergency economic spending has passed. "Even as we take steps to address the recession and threats to financial stability, maintaining the confidence of the financial markets requires that we, as a nation, begin planning now for the restoration of fiscal balance," Bernanke told lawmakers.
Congratulations Hillary Clinton and John McCain, you were right about health care all along. The moral victory is probably small comfort as President Obama unveiled the most detailed outline yet of his long-anticipated plan to overhaul the nation's health care system on Wednesday. In a two-page letter to senators working on health care reform, Obama indicated he was open to two elements of Clinton and McCain's 2008 health care proposals that he had opposed on the campaign trail—a mandate requiring individuals to purchase insurance and possibly limiting tax deductions on employee-based health care. Obama's letter pleased liberals by also calling for a public health insurance plan that Americans could turn to as an alternative to private insurance companies, a move opposed by the insurance industry.
America can find "common ground" with the Islamic world, President Obama told an audience in Cairo, Egypt Thursday. The much-anticipated speech was carried with live translations in every major language around the world. Obama used the opportunity to emphasize the role of Islam in America. "I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam where ever they appear," Obama said, adding that in turn "America is not a crude stereotype of a self interested empire" either. Obama called on the Muslim world to join the West in confronting "violent extremism in all of its forms" and noted that the majority of those killed by Islamic terror have been Muslims themselves. Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama decried anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial and defended America's relationship with Israel as "unbreakable." He added that the Palestinian suffering is "intolerable" and called for a two-state solution. Obama drew applause by saying that the U.S. solidly opposed Israeli settlements in the West Bank, an issue that has caused tension between America and Israel in recent days. He also brought up Iran's nuclear ambitions, emphasizing America's willingness to negotiate in good faith and warning of a nuclear arms race in the region.
Palm, which created the smartphone market, now seems like a relic, but might the company be back on the scene with its new phone, the Pre? Walter Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal calls it “a beautiful, innovative and versatile hand-held computer that's fully in the iPhone's class.” Naming it the “strongest rival to the iPhone to date,” Mossberg writes “The Pre's biggest advantage over the iPhone is that, in addition to sporting an elegant touch-screen interface that matches or exceeds Apple's, the new Palm device has a real physical keyboard that slides out from its curved body.” David Pogue at The New York Times concurs, calling the Pre “an elegant, joyous, multitouch smartphone; it’s the iPhone remixed. … That the Pre even comes close to succeeding is astonishing.”
How did the audience react to President Obama’s speech? Well it depends on where you get your news. The Huffington Post is broadcasting “Standing Ovation in Cairo” on its homepage. But Politico’s Roger Simon headlines his piece “Barack Obama draws tough crowd in Cairo,” writing “While President Barack Obama received some applause and cheers during his address at Cairo University Thursday, at other times his speech fell flatter than a piece of pita bread.” And Drudge, shockingly, seems to be at a loss with spin. His headline for the speech is merely “6,000 words.”
Partner Sites: Expedia| Hotels| Hotwire| Urbanspoon| Vimeo
