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The day after election losses for his party, President Barack Obama left Washington to speak before a kinder, gentler crowd: a group of Wisconsin schoolchildren, one of them a little boy with "OBAMA" shaved into his hair. The president was there to speak about a bipartisan education initiative, but felt the need to refresh the big, unrelated problems facing the country. (Even the Education secretary introduced him as a man dedicated to education "in spite of two wars" and a "really, really tough economy.") Perhaps to soothe his supporters' concerns that his presidency is in trouble, Obama reminded the audience of his successes, saying that Election Day '08 was “a day of hope, it was a day of possibility, but it was also a sobering one" because of the troubles the country faced. Now, he's dealing with "the rescue part" of his job. Obama finally deviated from his script, telling of how his daughter Malia learned to try, try again—to learn science. Her scores had faltered, but she just earned a 95 on a test. Obama said his daughter had learned not to "slack off" and to want success for herself—perhaps a lesson for dejected Democrats.
The Senate unanimously passed a bill Wednesday that would extend unemployment benefits for up to 20 weeks in states with rates of joblessness above 8.5 percent, which means the jobless in those areas could get up to 99 weeks of benefits. (States with lower rates would get 14 weeks.) This is the “second stimulus” some have buzzed about (though Democratic leadership has avoided the term); it contains other measures to boost the economy as well, all of which were in the original $787 billion stimulus package but were set to expire. This includes an extension of a first-time homebuyer tax credits, credits for homeowners who lived in the same place for at least five years, and would allow businesses who suffered operating losses in 2008-2009 to seek refunds on taxes paid over the past five years. The legislation will likely pass the House Thursday and be quickly signed by President Obama.
One regulator to rule them all, one regulator to bring Dodd another win? In a move some think is calculated to stem populist rage against him in next year’s reelection campaign, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd is preparing a bill that would radically change the regulation of American banks. His legislation—dramatically at odds with the preferred course of the president and the House—would create a single new agency in charge of bank supervision, stripping those powers away from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. Dodd’s extreme position, according to The Wall Street Journal, would likely meet tough resistance from his fellow legislators as well as the banking industry, which Dodd has been criticized for being too close to. (For example, last year Dodd drew fire for allegedly receiving below-market mortgages because Countrywide considered him a “special” customer—rather inconvenient in an age of anti-Wall Street fury.)
The Bronx erupted in cheers and the strains of “We Are the Champions” late Wednesday night as Mariano Rivera and the New York Yankees shut down the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 for the team's 27th World Series title. Phillies starter Pedro Martinez was ineffective in his second start of the Series, pitching to thunderous chants of “Who’s Your Daddy?” Andy Pettitte picked up the win for the Yankees, Hideki Matsui had six RBI, and Joe Girardi picked up his first title as manager, a year after the team failed to make the playoffs.
George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have canceled their debate—which was scheduled for February of next year at Radio City Music Hall—just a day after the event was announced. Why? The promoter “overhyped” the event. Perhaps it was their billing as “The Hottest Ticket in Political History,” or the declaration that the debate would be "uncensored, unedited, and unpredictable" that cheesed off the former presidents. A Clinton spokesman had said they’d planned “just a moderated conversation... no fireworks.”
An Italian judge convicted 23 Americans on kidnapping charges on Wednesday for their roles in the CIA's extraordinary rendition of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, an Egyptian cleric. The stiffest sentence was handed to the Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady—eight years in prison. The other 22 were sentenced to five years in jail, while three Americans—including then-Rome CIA chief Jeffrey Castelli and two Rome embassy diplomats—and several Italians were acquitted. The U.S. State Department was "disappointed about the verdicts," while civil rights groups like the ACLU celebrated the powerful symbolic indictment of Bush-era counterterror tactics. One of the convicted Americans, Sabrina DeSousa, will admit tonight on ABC News that "we broke the law." (DeSousa is in the midst of a legal battle against the State Department, which she says unfairly denied her diplomatic immuity.) All of the Americans were tried in absentia. As long as they avoid travel to Europe, they will likely be able to avoid their sentences, since Italy is unlikely to use any, ahem, extraordinary methods to force the convicted Americans back onto Italian soil for their prison terms.
On the same day Rihanna is expected to open up on ABC’s 20/20, her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown will appear in a sit-down titled Chris Brown: The Interview on MTV, the network announced Wednesday. In a preview clip MTV has posted from the interview, Brown is asked yet again about what happened last February when he assaulted Rihanna in Los Angeles. “Why did that happen? Like, why?” Brown says he asked himself after the incident. “What was I thinking? Like, what is wrong with you?” Rihanna calls Chris Brown her “first big love” in the interview with Diane Sawyer, and in a Glamour cover story says she is “stronger, wiser, and more aware.” Only a month ago, Brown announced plans for a comeback “fan appreciation” tour on the same day Rihanna dropped her new single “Russian Roulette.”
It's not just people and pigs, anymore. Washington Post blog The Checkup reports that a cat in Iowa has tested positive for the H1N1 virus, "marking the first time a cat has been diagnosed with this strain of influenza," according to state officials. The 13-year-old cat is believed to have caught the illness from one of the two humans in its household who battled swine flu. All members of the household, including the cat, recovered. H1N1 has now been documented in cats, humans, pigs, birds, and ferrets.
The Federal Reserve expressed cautious optimism on Wednesday when, in a unanimously voted decision, it announced a plans to keep interest rates significantly low for an “extended period” of time—most likely until August 2010, but only if inflation remains consistently stable and unemployment doesn’t go down. The Federal Open Market Committee said that while businesses are still pulling back on investment and employment, it’s not occurring as dramatically as it has in the past, and consumer spending is rising. For the Fed’s plan to work, spending needs to keep growing, which means unexpected drops in employment—and thus household incomes and spending power—could knock the economy off course. The statement the Fed released today also noted that the central bank will buy $1.25 trillion of agency mortgage-backed securities and “approximately $175 billion of agency debt” during the first quarter of 2010.
Remember the good ol’ days, when national-security threats came in powdery white envelopes? A mysterious object that appeared on the desk of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday sparked a security scare that briefly paralyzed much of the Senate. A Senate postal clerk noticed an envelope on Reid’s desk addressed ominously by hand and without postage. So a Reid staffer alerted the Capitol Police, who responded with a “small swarm” of officers. The police shut down the hallway outside Reid’s office and then—in a rare move—closed the corridor used for press conferences outside the Senate’s main entrance. Hazardous-materials teams tested the envelope, then opened it to reveal a typed letter from C. Everett Koop, Reagan’s surgeon general. Citing concern about health-care legislation, Koop, 93, had asked Sen. Orrin Hatch to give Reid the letter, and a Hatch staffer had dropped the envelope in Reid’s mailbox. “I didn’t mean anything nefarious,” Koop said. “There’s no law about how to deliver a letter. I can appreciate all of the security that surrounds the leader, but this all could have been settled in a few minutes.”
What was former Miss California USA Carrie Prejean doing before she began upholding the sanctity of marriage? TMZ is reporting that Prejean dropped her demands for $1 million from the Miss California USA Pageant after the pageant’s lawyer got its hands on a video from Miss Prejean’s, uh, private collection. “It took about 15 seconds for Carrie to jettison her demand and essentially walk away with nothing,” TMZ writes. Apparently, TMZ got it hands on the video months ago, but did not post it because it was “so racy. … Let's just say, Carrie has a promising solo career.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that the United States rejected the legitimacy of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and that it wants to see their construction halted “forever.” She was meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and had stopped in Cairo to ease Arab concerns that the U.S. was backing off its earlier demand that Israel halt settlement construction. Still, Clinton said that Israel’s offer to restrain but not stop construction is a “positive step forward.”
Rogue warfare, perhaps? RNC Chairman Michael Steele issued a stern rebuke to conservatives like Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty, who immersed themselves in Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman’s losing House campaign. “If you don't live in the district, you don't vote there, your opinion doesn't matter very much,” Steele said. "It serves as an important lesson on how we manage an opportunity to win a seat. And how not to mismanage by putting in a botched process.” Steele went on, “I don't see a victory in losing seats. I'm in the business of multiplication and addition. I want more Republicans. I don't buy that we somehow find victory in defeat.”
The Republicans won big in Tuesday’s elections: Republican Bob McDonnell beat out Democrat R. Creigh Deeds for governor of Virginia, while New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine lost out to Republican Chris Christie despite President Obama's efforts to campaign for both Deeds and Corzine. Democrats appeared to have trouble turning out their bases in those states, while independents who went Democrat during last year's presidential elections defected en masse—at almost a two-to-one margin—to the GOP in both states, a trend that doesn't bode well for Democrats up for reelection in 2010. There were some bright spots for the Democrats, though: California Lt. Governor John Garamendi, a Democrat, won a special election to a vacant congressional seat; and Democrat Bill Owens unseated a GOP-held but vacant seat in a closely watched race in New York's 23rd District. On the state-specific issues side of things, in Maine, voters rejected gay marriage, while Ohio citizens approved casinos.
Perhaps she can rent out a room in the Fox News studio? Sarah Palin announced her plans for a national book tour on Tuesday. “An interview with Oprah Winfrey is already scheduled,” she wrote on Facebook, “and I’m also hoping to have the opportunity to talk with Bill O’Reilly, Barbara Walters, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, Tammy Bruce, and others, including local Alaska personalities Bob & Mark and Eddie Burke. (Variety is the spice of life!)” Looks like there will be plenty of Palin to go around.
Let the computer chips fall where they may. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed antitrust charges against Intel in a federal court in Delaware Wednesday, alleging that Intel has developed "a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct," using “bribery and coercion.” Cuomo alleges that for several years the computer-chip company has offered billions of dollars in kickbacks to computer makers—disguised as “rebates”—in order to prevent them from using competitors’ chips. Cuomo’s investigation began in January 2008 and has grown to include scrutiny from several regulators including the Federal Trade Commission. Intel is also reportedly being sued separately by its main competitor, Advanced Micro Devices. “We disagree with the New York attorney general,” said an Intel spokesman.
On Wednesday, a Cleveland judge ordered alleged serial killer and convicted rapist Andrew Sowell, 50, to be held without bail, after 10 decomposed bodies and one skull were found his home earlier this week, ABC News reports. Cleveland police found six female bodies in Sowell’s home on Saturday, and four bodies and a skull in a bucket were found in his backyard on Tuesday. Police have begun searching nearby abandoned homes and the walls of Sowell’s three-story house for more bodies. A prosecutor called Sowell an "incredibly dangerous threat to the public” during Wednesday’s court appearance, during which Sowell spoke only once to say that he could not afford an attorney. Public defender Kathleen DeMetz told ABC News that Sowell, a Cleveland native, takes medication for heart problems and has been receiving unemployment benefits for the last two years.
Just a month after an Afghan policeman killed two American soldiers during a joint patrol, history is repeating itself. Another Afghan policeman, sympathetic to Taliban insurgents—who may have infiltrated the ranks—opened fire on British soldiers on Tuesday in the Helmand province, killing five soldiers and wounding six in one of the deadliest single attacks against British troops since 2001. The incident occurred during a relaxed moment, while British soldiers were checking the roof of a checkpoint near a health clinic along with some Afghan police officers. The Brits were not wearing body armor. The Afghan officer began firing an automatic weapon without warning at the British soldiers, who returned fire, killing one police officer and injuring two.
The Nov. 9 episode of Gossip Girl will end with three major characters getting down—in the biblical sense—and in tandem. The right-wing political action group the Parents' Television Council hasn't seen the episode, per se, but doesn't like the news reports. PTC chief Tim Winter blasted the storyline as "reckless and irresponsible" for a show that is "expressly targeted to impressionable teenagers." Winters also told CW affiliates in a letter that if they aired the episode they'd be "complicit in establishing a precedent and expectation that teenagers should engage in behaviors heretofore associated primarily with adult films.” However, it's unclear if Gossip Girl really targets teens: The show airs outside of the traditional family hour and boasts an average viewer who is age 27.
Want to toke up? Head to the ski town of Breckenridge, Colorado, which voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for adults over age 21. Early results showed the proposal stomping the opposition with 72 percent of the vote. Of course, according to Colorado state law, it's a crime to possess pot without medical clearance, so the town's measure is a largely symbolic effort. Supporters said they wanted to send a message to local law enforcement to stop busting small-time smokers.
Thirty years ago, radical Islamists took American hostages during Iran's 1979 Revolution, but now democratic activists will eschew and subvert the usual "Death to America" chants through rallies aimed at apologizing and offering friendship to the U.S. In Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, a human rights activist and an insider from Tahkim Vahdat, the organization which took the Americans hostage, make the case that the Obama administration is betraying "the Iranian people and American values" by emphasizing national security and the prevention of nuclear proliferation at the expense of "the Iranian people's struggle for human rights" at a time "when the Iranian regime is at its weakest." In other words, the authors say, "America is pursuing a policy of appeasement.” It's not too late to support fledgling democracy in Iran, though. The article's authors argue that the Obama administration should publicly press Iran on human rights and including rights discussions in all negotiations with the regime, fund the Internet and civic engagement training, and directly voice solidarity with young democrats on the popular Voice of America and Radio Farda broadcasts.
An 11-year-old Bulgarian girl recently became one of the world’s youngest mothers after giving birth at her wedding. Kordeza Zhelyazkova was rushed to the hospital in her wedding dress. "I'm not going to play with toys anymore—I have a new toy now," Kordeza said as she showed off her daughter. Kordeza met her baby’s 19-year-old father after he “rescued” her from bullies on the playground. The marriage was arranged after the father, Jeliazko, faced six years in prison for sex with a minor.
As the World Series returns to New York City Wednesday night, David Samuels writes in The National about the new Yankee Stadium, and how its public-funded class-divided seats are a model for the financial state of the city itself. Multimillionaires circle the bases with Wall Street survivors watching nearby as the salaried help ring the upper tiers. Throughout the summer, the patches of empty seating remained a reminder of the hits delivered by the financial crisis. But as the economy comes barking back, and the Yankees have too, those empty seats are being filled once more with celebrities and bankers. “I wonder how I will explain to my son that it is not possible for people like us to sit near the field,” Samuels writes. “Still, I am grateful that the Yankees are winners again.”
It can be dangerous to over- or under-interpret Tuesday’s election results. While Politico said that neither the Virginia nor the New Jersey race could be called a referendum on Obama, Democrats' loss was "humiliating" and "emphatically not in Obama's favor." Democrats with formerly Republican congressional seats who are up for reelection in 2010 ought to pay close attention, because many of their districts—located in the southern and border states, or the Ohio River Valley—have political conditions similar to Virginia. Overall, independents jumped ship from the Democratic Party, but rather than revealing a partisan verdict, the elections, particularly the Democrats' consolation prize in New York's 23rd House district "revealed a deeply aggrieved electorate" that is "ready to rough up incumbents of all varieties." The electorate's sea-change may have repercussions for current political debates—Obama could have a tougher time convincing moderate Democrats to support liberal priorities such as an expanded government role in health care.
One year after California rejected Proposition 8, gay marriage has once again failed to find popular approval: Voters in Maine opted on Tuesday to repeal legislature-approved gay marriage, 53 percent to 47 percent. The rebuke came as a surprise to marriage-equality activists: Protect Maine Equality had outraised its main rival by over $1 million, and Maine’s Democratic Governor John Baldacci was pleased in an earlier interview to announce “a lot of young people were showing up,” saying it looks like “the presidential election all over again.” Maine would have become the first state to approve gay marriage by the ballot box.
Michael Bloomberg is still New York City’s mayor, but at least challenger Bill Thompson made him sweat. Bloomberg won a third term 51 percent to 46 percent, after polls showed him winning in excess of 15 points; four years ago, he won by a 20-point margin. Bloomberg spent $90 million—a record for municipal spending, and 14 times more than Thompson spent. Part of the reason for the close call was that Bloomberg’s celebrated political machine failed to turn out the vote: Turnout was on track to be the lowest in modern New York City history. “Everybody was shocked,” one Bloomberg aide told The New York Times.
Call it an EU-turn: General Motors announced on Tuesday that it will retain its European division, Opel. The move is, the Financial Times writes, an embarrassment for the German government, which had thrown its weight behind the sale of Opel to Canada’s Magna and Russia’s Sberbank. According to the AP, Opel labor representatives called for work stoppages across Europe to protest the decision.
Does James Franco have a funny bone? The Golden Globe-winning actor will be guest starring on sitcom 30 Rock, a source tells Entertainment Weekly. His story line will play out in a romance with Jane Krakowski's character, Jenna. Though the liason will be fake, a stunt engineered by their publicists, Franco is said to be playing himself. He's scheduled to start filming this week, though NBC declined to confirm the rumor. Franco is already making television appearances with a recurring role on General Hospital.
Abdullah Abdullah did not necessarily go gently into the night when he bowed out of the Afghanistan presidential race. Though the candidate tried to claim conscientious objection to a flawed electoral system, U.S. and Afghan officials say that Abdullah was negotiating with Hamid Karzai for power sharing and cabinet posts, though it's unclear which side initiated the conversations. During negotiations, one of Adbullah's advisers was bargaining for cabinet posts, said one Afghan official. Karzai has vowed to fight corruption, though there's speculation about whether he would do that by removing top officials or enacting constitutional reforms.
The good news: There’s been an increase in the number of swine-flu vaccines available. The bad news: The increase is no match for the fast-spreading disease. “We are seeing a steady increase in the availability of the vaccine, but not as quickly as we’d like it to be,” the CDC’s director says. H1N1 has already caused 1,000 deaths in the U.S. and infected 5 million total, and the government has now received 31.8 million doses of the vaccine for the new breed of flu. The scarcity of the shot led to raised eyebrows (and fists) over reports that Guantanamo detainees would be vaccinated, but the White House is now denying the claims. “There is no vaccine in Guantanamo and there’s no vaccine on the way to Guantanamo,” spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Republicans swept Tuesday's gubernatorial races, with Bob McDonnell easily winning in Virginia and Chris Christie squeaking ahead of incumbent Jon Corzine in New Jersey. The New Jersey loss is a big blow for Democrats, as President Obama had campaigned heavily for Corzine. And results reverse a trend for Virginia, which has had Democratic governors for the past eight years and last year, for the first time in 44 years, went blue to elect Barack Obama. Leading up to the election, pundits speculated that a Republican gubernatorial sweep could indicate dissatisfaction with the administration in Washington, but exit polls indicated that voting reflected feelings about the economy, not Obama. Exit polls showed that 89 percent of voters in New Jersey, and 85 percent in Virginia, were "very" worried about the economy for the upcoming year.
In a bright spot in an otherwise grim Election Day for Democrats, the New York 23rd Congressional District flipped from red to blue on Tuesday. After conservative third-party challenger Doug Hoffman forced Republican candidate Dede Scozzafava out of the race, Democrat Bill Owens was able to win by a slim margin. (Despite dropping out on Halloween, Scozzafava still managed to pick up 5 percent of the vote). Hoffman had been a darling of conservative commentators and picked up endorsements from Sarah Palin and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty. But in one small town, at least, they were no match for the backing of the local newspaper. The Hoffman-supporting mayor of Watertown lamented, “We lost. The Scozzafava endorsement, the [Watertown Daily Times] endorsement of Owens—I mean, they roughed Hoffman up. It’s over.”
It’s the year of the Mouse in China: The Walt Disney Company has won approval from the Chinese government to build a theme park in Shanghai after a 20-year courtship. The $3.5-billion park—not including resorts and infrastructure—will be one of the largest foreign investments ever in China. The initial resort is slated to open in five or six years and will be slightly bigger than Disneyland in Anaheim, California. However, if development goes as expected, its capacity could eventually rival Florida’s Disney World.
In a new interview with Glamour, Rihanna talks candidly about her relationship with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, who assaulted her on the eve of the Grammy Awards in February. She called the abuse and the ensuing media frenzy—during which a police photo of Rihanna's injured face was leaked to the press—"humiliating." "That is not a photo you would show to anybody," she said. "I felt completely taken advantage of." The chaos that erupted the day after the news broke made Rihanna feel "like I went to sleep as Rihanna and woke up as Britney Spears." The 21-year-old music star added that "domestic violence is a big secret" because "it's embarrassing," although she hopes that the public can learn from her story. "I want to give as much insight as I can to young women, because I feel like I represent a voice that really isn't heard," she said.
Ever feel like you're swimming with the sharks? You may be right. New research shows that great white sharks spend months each year near the central and northern California coastlines, passing close to populated beaches as they hunt elephant seals, sea lions, and other prey. The predators make such regular migrations between California and Hawaii that they are genetically different than their counterparts on the other side of the Pacific. That so many sharks live near humans "shows us the sharks are really minding their own business,” says one scientist. “The number of interactions with people is very small, considering."
We hope you weren’t looking forward to the song-and-dance routines. A year after Hugh Jackman’s ratings success, the Oscars have turned to two more-traditional hosts for March’s show: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Martin previously hosted in 2001 and 2003, while Baldwin has never hosted. "I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin," Martin said in a statement.
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