New Mexico Police Suspect 10-Year-Old Shot His Father

The story reported online says one thing; but this part as reported in The Wall Street Journal print edition [8/31/09] was completely omitted:

"The boy is in the custody of the New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department. Romaine Serna, a spokeswoman for the agency, said CYFD was called to check on the family more than seven times since 2003 after receiving anonymous reports of child abuse and neglect.

"We had concerns about this family. There were red flags," Ms. Serna said.

Mr. Hilburn was divorced and had custody of both children, police said."

Now, here is was was reported around the country online in the abbreviated Associated Press version:

New Mexico Police Suspect 10-Year-Old Shot His Father

Friday, August 28, 2009

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico police are investigating a 10-year-old boy in the shooting death of his father but couldn't say Friday whether the incident was accidental or intentional. A neighbor described the victim and his children as "a good family."

Police Sgt. Joe Portio said officers responded to a call of shots fired about 6:30 p.m. Thursday at a home in Belen and found 42-year-old Byron James Hilburn with a head wound.

Investigators said the boy and his 6-year-old sister were there, too. Portio said police believe the boy fired the fatal shot but declined to disclose details.

Hilburn was pronounced dead at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. Portio said the boy was taken into the custody of the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department at an undisclosed location.

The girl was placed with relatives, police said.

Portio couldn't offer a motive, saying police were still investigating.

"I can't elaborate more on whether the shooting was an accident or on purpose. We have to have time to finish the investigation," he said.

Police were studying the gunshot wound to determine what type of weapon was used, Portio said.

Investigators began searching the home late Thursday. Papers there showed that the divorced father had full custody of the children, Portio said.

Next-door neighbor Elaine Sanchez said they were just "normal, regular neighbors that we used to say hi and bye to."

"We never saw nothing going on, and they seemed like a normal family. We knew they were a good family," Sanchez said.

Sanchez said her daughter played with the girl who lived there.

"We live just a few feet from them. My little daughter likes to go out and ride her bike and now I keep thinking, 'What if she had been hit, too?' " Sanchez said.

Belen is 35 miles south of Albuquerque.

It was just a rotten kid.

Race Enters Atlanta Mayoral Vote

Imagine if a "White Leadership Forum" were actually in existence... and then imagine if it did this. How big would the demonstration in Washington, D.C. be? What would our President say?

From The Wall Street Journal:

Race Enters Atlanta Mayoral Vote

A local group known as the Black Leadership Forum called for African-Americans to consolidate their support around Lisa Borders, president of the Atlanta City Council and one of several African-American candidates, according to a memo circulated on the Web and to local media.

Rich Addicks/The Atlanta Journal Constitution

The local Black Leadership Forum has urged African-American voters to unite behind mayoral candidate Lisa Borders, above, to block the election of another candidate, Mary Norwood, below.

The group said Ms. Borders had the best chance of winning support from white business leaders and defeating Mary Norwood, a white city councilwoman and a leading candidate for the Nov. 3 election, according to polls.

"For the last 25 years Atlanta has represented the breakthrough for black political empowerment in the South," read the memo. "In order to defeat a Norwood (white) mayoral candidacy we have to get out now and work in a manner to defeat her without a runoff, and the key is a significant Black turnout."

The memo was the sharpest signal yet of overt racial politics creeping into the competition to replace Shirley Franklin, elected as the city's first female mayor in 2001. Atlanta was the first Southern city to elect an African-American mayor, Maynard H. Jackson, in 1973. No white candidate has mounted a serious campaign for the office since then.

Jason Getz/The Atlanta Journal Constitution

But Atlanta's demographics have shifted drastically in the past decade. The city of about 440,000 people remains a majority African-American city. But the proportion of voting-age residents who are white or Hispanic has grown.

Political scientist Bob Holmes, a professor emeritus at Clark Atlanta University and former state representative from Atlanta, said this group's effort to protect black political clout was inevitable, in part because of the shift in voting power as white newcomers moved to the city and many blacks moved to the suburbs.

"For a certain number of people, they do look at things through that prism," Mr. Holmes said. "They remember the history."

In recent months, with no clear heir apparent to Ms. Franklin, Ms. Norwood emerged as a contender. A recent poll conducted by polling firm InsiderAdvantage showed Ms. Norwood and Ms. Borders in a statistical tie. The sampling, conducted Aug. 17, showed Ms. Norwood with 30%, Ms. Borders with 28% and Kasim Reed, a state senator, with 8%. The margin of error was 5%.

Kasim Reed for Mayor

According to a recent poll, mayoral candidate Kasim Reed, a state senator, is trailing behind Ms. Norwood and Ms. Borders, who are in a statistical tie.

The call for black unity drew sharp criticism from Ms. Borders and her closest African-American competitor, Mr. Reed, who both insisted in separate news conferences Thursday that Atlanta must not choose its next mayor based on his or her race.

"We have had two Atlantas for far too long," Ms. Borders said.

Mr. Reed called the memo "racially charged and vitriolic" and said it "dishonors the legacies" of the black and white mayors who led Atlanta through the civil-rights movement and beyond. "This campaign should be waged on the merits of each candidate, not the color of their skin," Mr. Reed said.

Ms. Norwood, an at-large member of the city council who has campaigned on a pledge to improve crime-fighting and reorganize city government said, her candidacy is based on public safety and fiscal management.

"Race," she said, "does not play a role."

The Black Leadership Forum is an ad-hoc group of African-American leaders who include Aaron Turpeau, a well-known entrepreneur who worked in the administrations of Mayors Maynard Jackson and Andrew Young. Messrs. Jackson and Young had held the office in various terms for 20 years since 1973.

Mr. Turpeau, who contributed $500 to Ms. Borders' campaign, defended the memo's message.

"You shouldn't vote solely on having a black candidate," he said. "You have to deal with the credentials and skill set first. After that, it's a feeling of pride that we've had for 35 years in this town. Ego gets important."

Liz Flowers, a spokeswoman for Ms. Borders, distanced her candidate from the memo.

Ms. Flowers said the campaign found out about the memo late Wednesday, and Ms. Borders immediately called Mr. Turpeau. "She told him that she loved him and thanked him for his support, but she was disappointed in the message," Ms. Flowers said.

Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com

The pensions crisis

Just as new pronouncements of the economy being on the "cusp of recovery" are fed to the media, an insidious part of the economic stagnation is generally overlooked. The market "rally" has still left many of these plans significantly below their levels of a few years ago.

The pensions crisis

By Cynthia O’Murchu, Helen Warrell, Steve Bernard and Norma Cohen

Published: May 27 2009 14:42 | Last updated: June 16 2009 10:11

The immediate effects of the current economic downturn are highly visible: rising unemployment and bankruptcies are shaking consumer confidence, while ravaged stock markets and failing banks have damaged public trust in the financial system. But there is more damage yet to come.

The financial crisis has wreaked havoc on retirement plans of all varieties, inflicting particular damage to employer-based and private retirement savings, which have gradually come to replace state pension provision.

Meanwhile workers themselves, who have built up a lifetime of savings in pension funds, are being forced to rethink their pension plans and even defer their retirement.

This FT.com multimedia feature explores the dilemmas faced by individual savers, companies and governments. Our experts advise on how to rebuild depleted pension savings and offer potential solutions to the international pensions time bomb.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Softens Tone on Reformists

Now that the opposition has been crushed, Iran clerics can afford to be magnanimous toward the opposition... and get on with those no-precondition talks with the Obama administration.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Softens Tone on Reformists

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Published: August 27, 2009

CAIRO — Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appears to have undercut President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s attempt to convict dozens of former government officials, journalists and academics of collaborating with the West to overthrow the government, saying a connection had not been proved.

But Ayatollah Khamenei has stood by the government’s position that foreign forces orchestrated the postelection protests that gripped the country after Mr. Ahmadinejad claimed a landslide victory in the disputed presidential election in June.

“I don’t accuse the leaders of the recent incidents of being affiliated with foreign countries, including the U.S. and Britain, since the issue has not been proven for me,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with a group of university students in Tehran on Wednesday, according to Iranian news services. “But there is no doubt that the events were planned, no matter whether their leaders knew it or not.”

The comments, while appearing to throw the brakes on the most damaging charges against those under arrest, fit neatly with Ayatollah Khamenei’s track record of moving to reinforce his authority by cultivating divisions between factions. It also appeared to be a first step toward trying to reclaim a position as the fair arbiter, a standing badly damaged by his handling of the election dispute, political analysts said.

While he has shown no support for rescuing the reform movement from its current political impotence, he has alternated allegiances within the hard-line factions, nurturing tension between various arms of the state.

He appointed Sadeq Larijani, a member of the hard-line camp who is an adversary of the president, as head of the judiciary. He appointed a cleric, Kazem Sedighi, who is also a rival of the president, as a new leader of Friday Prayer. And on Thursday, there were more unconfirmed reports that Ayatollah Khamenei had fired the Tehran prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, who was close to the president and was responsible for orchestrating the mass trials of those accused of plotting a so-called velvet revolution.

“Khamenei has always ruled from a position of insecurity,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “He’s wary of capable, independent-minded people who could one day challenge his authority, and has tried to insure his pre-eminence by selecting subordinates who are absolutely loyal to him but opposed to one another.”

Ayatollah Khamenei’s comments were the latest in a series of small, if significant, steps that appeared aimed at slowing Mr. Ahmadinejad’s drive to consolidate power and define members of the reform movement as enemies of the state. There is even the suggestion, some political analysts said, that the supreme leader has begun to grow weary of Mr. Ahmadinejad, especially after the president resisted his demand not to appoint Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as vice president. Mr. Mashaei was eventually appointed the president’s chief of staff.

In his comments, Ayatollah Khamenei suggested that the protest leaders were duped, rather than conspirators, and in so doing signaled that, for now, he would not go along with calls for arresting top reform leaders like Mir Hussein Moussavi, Mehdi Karroubi or Mohammad Khatami, a former president.

“His confrontation with Ahmadinejad did not leave a good taste in his mouth, over the appointment with Mashaei,” said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University. “He is stuck with Ahmadinejad, and he is stuck with the Revolutionary Guard and their daily demands to arrest Moussavi. He is trying to calm them down.”

The leadership on Thursday appeared to be moving to blunt some of the more serious charges against it — including that prisoners were treated badly, tortured and even raped — while amplifying the leader’s notion that reform figures were pawns in the postelection crisis and therefore should be pardoned.

A former vice president, Muhammad Ali Abtahi, whose noticeable weight loss has raised concerns over his treatment, was allowed for the first time since his arrest to post remarks on his popular blog. It said that the election was clean and that the protests were organized by outsiders.

“This is a crisis which in my opinion torments the spirit of the political prisoners,” Mr. Abtahi wrote. “I hope that the decision makers will understand this point and release this group quicker so by being free they can present this perspective in society.”

Mr. Abtahi also wrote about his personal anguish — missing his daughter’s college graduation and his granddaughter’s first steps. “Loneliness,” he wrote, “is very painful.”

Iranian Web sites also carried what they said was a blog post written by Saeed Hajjarian, the prominent reformist intellectual and former deputy intelligence minister whose confession was read in court and who appeared to be in poor health.

There was no way to verify the account, in which Mr. Hajjarian said that he was being well cared for in a facility with Internet and a swimming pool. It also said that his interrogator, Haj Ali, had treated him like family, cooking for him and even drying his hair when he came out of the pool.

At one point the post said that the interrogator was so distraught by public charges that Mr. Hajjarian had been tortured that he began to cry. “As he was crying, he said, ‘Why do they lie like this? Aren’t they afraid of God?’ ” asked the interrogator, the blog post read.

US media react to Kennedy's death

Regardless of his real or imagined accomplishments, there will be those who remember only this about Sen. Edward Kennedy... but few will dare mention that now.

[source]

US media react to Kennedy's death

The media in the United States have been reacting to the news that veteran Senator Edward Kennedy has died at the age of 77 after a long battle with a brain tumour.

Here is a selection of their comments.

JOHN M BRODER, NEW YORK TIMES

Born to one of the wealthiest American families, Mr Kennedy spoke for the downtrodden in his public life while living the heedless private life of a playboy and a rake for many of his years ... A man of unbridled appetites at times, he nevertheless brought a discipline to his public work that resulted in an impressive catalogue of legislative achievement across a broad landscape of social policy

ANDREA BILLUPS, WASHINGTON TIMES

Mr Kennedy was hailed as "a natural heir to a legacy," an "indispensable patriarch," a surrogate dad to a litany of fatherless Kennedy children and for those who knew him, a "rock" on which his clan leaned - even as it was diminished by notoriety and heartache.

Some now argue that living up to the Camelot myth was a too-heavy burden, even for a man accustomed to repeated loss.

SUSAN MILLIGAN, BOSTON GLOBE

Edward Kennedy's legacy in the Senate reads like a response to the inscription on the Statue of Liberty: "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.''

Kennedy spent most of five decades on Capitol Hill trying to fulfil the promises inherent in that invitation, seeing it as government's responsibility to give aid to the disadvantaged

RICH SIMON AND CLAUDIA LUTHER, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

As the standard-bearer for the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, the square-jawed "Ted" or "Teddy" Kennedy believed in government's ability to help solve people's problems, and over the decades he learned how to wield power in the Senate to move the government in that direction.

He found numerous ways to work with Republican administrations and senators to fashion significant legislation on issues he cared deeply about.

DAN BALZ, WASHINGTON POST

As much as he was the liberal's liberal, he was the legislator's legislator, a man willing and able to work across party lines, a politician of deep conviction who knew how and when to cut a deal, who believed in the end that the role of a politician was to make progress, if not all at once then step by step.

KATHY KEILY, USA TODAY

The bipartisan outpouring of praise and fond memories vividly illustrated Kennedy's ability to build bridges across political divides.

MARC AMBINDER, DAILY DISH

Kennedy will be remembered everywhere as the "liberal lion," and he remained polarising to many on the right - check your Twitter feed if you've got doubts - but that appellation doesn't do justice to his final incarnation: so committed was he to principles that he was unafraid to hand political victories to Republican presidents on immigration and education.

The later Kennedy was a liberal, but his legislative mien resisted definition.

DAVID ROGERS, POLITICO

His very early experiences - as the youngest son listening to his father plot his brother John Kennedy's Senate bid in the '50s or years later, coming to the Senate himself as a newcomer at a time of huge change in the '60s - never left him.

And this taught him, like a sports fan at a football game, to watch the whole field, not just the player with the ball...But in time, Kennedy discovered himself in the Senate, just as the Senate discovered more in him.

U.S. Raises Estimate for 10-Year Deficit to $9 Trillion

We had to spend all of that money and increase the deficit so that we wouldn't have the problem that has created the bigger-than-expected deficit... and, by the way, trust us that government run health care will be efficient and effective... please trust us, please!

Wanna bet that number gets higher?

From The New York Times:

U.S. Raises Estimate for 10-Year Deficit to $9 Trillion

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: August 25, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, citing an economic downturn that has been deeper than it had first thought, raised its estimate on Tuesday of the government’s deficit over the next decade to $9 trillion from $7.1 trillion.

The Office of Management and Budget also said that it expected the economy to contract 2.8 percent this year, substantially more than previously estimated, and that employment would peak at around 10 percent.

Even as the new projections cast a shadow over efforts in Washington to steer a middle course between rekindling inflation with too much fiscal and monetary stimulus or risking another recession with too little, President Obama announced that he would nominate Ben S. Bernanke to another four-year term as Fed chairman.

The announcement was made by Mr. Obama while on vacation on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. It was aimed at maintaining an air of stability in the financial markets as the United States moved toward a recovery credited in part to unprecedented actions by the Fed to help avoid an even worse disaster.

“As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I’m sure Ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference also attended by Mr. Bernanke. “But because of his background, his temperament, his courage, and his creativity, that’s exactly what he has helped to achieve.”

On Wall Street, stocks moved higher in afternoon trading, bolstered not only by the news of Mr. Bernanke’s reappointment, but also by the release of the Case-Shiller home price index, compiled by Standard & Poor’s, which showed that home prices in 18 of 20 top U.S. metropolitan areas were beginning to inch up and new figures showing that consumer confidence had bounded back in August after slipping in July. A Conference Board survey of consumers found that fewer people said that business conditions were bad, and that consumers detected some hints of thaw in the job market.

Despite the budget shortfall, White House officials said they saw no reason to back away from President Obama’s ambitious and costly goal of overhauling the health care system. The new amount includes the cost of the health care overhaul as well as about $600 billion in additional revenue that the administration hopes to raise, two initiatives Congress has yet to approve.

“I know there are going to be some who say that this report proves that we can’t afford health reform,” said Peter R. Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget. But he said the opposite was true: the only way to control spiraling Medicare costs, he said, was to get control of overall health care costs by overhauling the system.

“The size of the fiscal gap is precisely why we must enact fiscally well designed health care reform now,” Mr. Orszag said.

Republicans are certain to attack that argument. Indeed, they are already doing so.

Analysts at the Congressional Budget Office put their 10-year deficit estimate slightly lower, at $7.14 trillion, though the agency uses a slightly different method to reach its number. The budget office takes into account only policies already in place, while the administration can consider policies and budget decisions that it hopes to install.

White House officials predicted that the budget deficit this year would peak at $1.58 trillion, though they said the 2009 shortfall would be about $261 billion lower than they had predicted in May. The main reason is that officials have decided that they will not need another round of bailout money for the nation’s banks. The Congressional Budget Official also estimated a deficit this year of about $1.6 trillion.

In the earlier budget forecast, administration officials had created a “placeholder” of $250 billion to cover possible costs of additional bank bailouts. They also assumed higher costs for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s expansion of deposit insurance and debt guarantees.

Even so, the administration is projecting that annual deficits will remain above $1 trillion through 2011 and will be bigger than any since World War II, even when measured conservatively as a share of the nation’s economic output.

The government’s total debt would roughly triple by 2019, to $17.5 trillion, under the new estimate, almost $2 trillion more than the White House estimated in May. Measured as a share of the nation’s economic output, public debt would hit 76.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2019 — by far the highest percentage in the past half-century — from about 56 percent this fiscal year. This year will be the first time the number has exceeded 50 percent since World War II. The previous estimate was about 67 percent.

The biggest reason for the additional red ink is the administration’s recognition that the recession has been deeper and unemployment has been much higher than White House forecasters assumed in their first budget estimate in May.

The added depth of the downturn is expected to increase payouts for unemployment benefits and other safety-net programs, while reducing tax receipts more than originally expected.

The administration had originally assumed that the economy would shrink 1.2 percent and that unemployment would average about 8.1 percent this year. Instead, the economy is expected to shrink 2.8 percent while unemployment is expected to average 9.3 percent in 2009 and 9.8 percent in 2010. The administration expects growth of 2 percent next year and 3.8 percent in 2011.

In contrast, the Congressional Budget Office expects a 2.5 percent contraction this year, followed by growth of 1.7 percent in 2010 and 3.5 percent in 2011. For the first time, administration officials officially predicted on Tuesday that unemployment would climb above 10 percent by early next year, from 9.4 percent in July.

The costs of the additional unemployment and the slower growth extend beyond the next year or two, not just because the economy will take longer to return to normal but also because the government’s interest expense will be compounding more rapidly.

Mr. Orszag estimated that, by 2019, interest expenses would account for more than 80 percent of the projected deficit of $917 billion.

Without offering any details, the White House budget director said that President Obama would soon unveil plans to reduce long-term deficits tied to soaring costs of Medicare, Social Security and other entitlement programs.

Administration creates new interrogation unit

The Census Bureau will be run by a White House Czar. Dozens of other Czars have been named for other quasi-official positions. Now the White House is practicing their dungeon techniques without the CIA.

How about doing something about home-grown terrorism like this, Mr. Holder? Or are they part of the new interrogation unit?

Administration creates new interrogation unit

Meantime, Attorney General Holder weighs reopening prisoner abuse cases

NBC News and news services

updated 52 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has moved more forcefully than ever to abandon Bush administration interrogation policies, approving creation of a special unit supervised by the White House for questioning terrorism suspects, as Attorney General Eric Holder weighs whether to reopen and pursue prisoner abuse cases.

Deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton confirmed reports Monday that Obama had approved establishment of the new unit, which The Associated Press reported would be known as the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.

Burton told reporters covering the vacationing Obama family in Martha's Vineyard, Mass., that the new unit would be situated in the Washington headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but that did not mean the Central Intelligence Agency would no longer be involved in interrogations.

A U.S. official told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell that the CIA welcomed the change. "The CIA didn't want to house this initiative. They're glad to be out of the long-term detention business," the official said.

Obama campaigned vigorously against President George W. Bush's interrogation policies in his successful run for the presidency. He has said more recently he didn't particularly favor prosecuting Bush administration officials in connection with instances of prisoner abuse. But the issue now before Holder for consideration would have the new administration do precisely that: reopen several such cases with an eye toward possible criminal prosecution.

A government official confirmed to The AP that the Justice Department's ethics office had recommended reopening nearly a dozen prisoner abuse cases. The official spoke on grounds of anonymity, citing the internal legal deliberations and indicating they remain ongoing.

Obama created task forces to study U.S. policy and practices on handling terrorism captives shortly after taking office. Obama has vowed to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison by next year, hoping to free those prisoners against whom there is no case, to transfer others to the custody of other countries and to put still others on trial, ending their condition of limbo in the U.S. brig.

'Cheney memos?'
While further information on the new interrogation unit, known by the acronym HIG, will be made public later Monday, the task force working on questions about Guantanamo and prisoners still held there has not completed its work.

The new group and new directives to rely solely on the Army Field Manual when interrogating prisoners is an attempt by the administration to separate itself from allegations that the Bush administration tortured some prisoners. While the practice of waterboarding — simulated drowning — already has been banned, the directive to stick only to procedures in the field manual means other harsh tactics, such as subjecting prisoners to loud music for long periods and sleep deprivation, are also now a thing of the past.

The administration announced the new interrogation unit on the same day that the CIA inspector general was to unveil a report on Bush administration handling of suspects. Details were expected to show that highly questionable tactics were used.

The CIA also expects to post the so-called "Cheney memos," which former Vice President Dick Cheney has claimed would prove that past interrogation tactics had achieved results, to the public soon, NBC reported.

The release is expected around 2 p.m. ET on Monday.

Subjecting prisoner abuse cases to a new review and possible prosecution could expose CIA employees and agency contractors to criminal prosecution for the alleged mistreatment of terror suspects in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Holder reportedly reacted with disgust when he first read accounts of prisoner abuse earlier this year in a classified version of the IG report.

Mock executions and other threats
Newsweek reported on Friday that the Justice report reveals how interrogators conducted mock executions and threatened at least one man with a gun and a power drill. Threatening a prisoner with death violates U.S. anti-torture laws.

A federal judge has ordered the IG report made public Monday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

A CIA spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, told The New York Times that the recommendation to reopen the cases had not been sent to the agency.

The accounts of the White House-supervised interrogation unit and the ethics recommendation to Holder were first reported, respectively, by The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The recommendation by the Office of Professional Responsibility was recently presented to Holder, an official, speaking on grounds of anonymity, told The AP.

The structure of the new unit the White House is creating would depart significantly from such work under the previous administration, when the CIA had the lead and sometimes exclusive role in questioning al-Qaida suspects.

How Do These Identity Cards Work?

I tried to figure out how these identity cards work under these circumstances. It must be a cultural thing. From The Wall Street Journal [full article].

Reuters

Afghan women, one showing her identity card, after casting votes on Thursday in Herat, the capital of Herat province in western Afghanistan.

Afghans went to the polls for their second presidential election with their country on edge. Those who exercised their democratic rights had to defy Taliban threats and hew closely to the social mores of this conservative Islamic country, which, for one, dictate when and how females leave their homes.

Wall Street shrugs off jobless concerns

We don't need employed people adding costs to businesses and reducing profits. We see the price of stocks increasing because people are unemployed and that allows business to run "lean and mean." Consumers? What's the big concern about consumers? Just look at those stock prices going up! Besides, the Obama administration is trimming deficit projections [okay, maybe not actual deficits].

Wall Street shrugs off jobless concerns

By Kiran Stacey in New York

Published: August 20 2009 14:06 | Last updated: August 20 2009 15:30

Strong buying after the open helped US stocks overcome mixed economic data on Thursday morning, putting them on course for their third successive positive session and taking the benchmark S&P 500 index back over 1,000 for the first time this week.

Financial stocks led the way, helped by news that the Obama administration would trim its budget deficit expectations next week after eradicating a $250bn provision for further bank bail-outs.

This helped the sector shake off an unexpected rise in the number of people claiming unemployment benefits for the first time, as well as a smaller-than-expected rise in a measure of several leading economic indicators. Investors instead took confidence from a dramatic and unpredicted swing in factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region, as the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said business activity turned positive for the first time in 10 months.

Read more here....

What retirement? Favre coming back with Vikings

He's back! No, not Michael Jordan... although he came back a lot, too. At some point, he is going to have to attend practices which may make him too tired to play on Sunday. The real question is: what is he trying to prove and why does he have to prove it? Oh, and can he still prove it?

What retirement? Favre coming back with Vikings

By DAVE CAMPBELL, AP Sports Writer 48 minutes ago

“I felt I did everything I possibly could do to get where I need to be,” Favre said Tuesday. “You’re 39, your arm may not feel like it did at 21. But the pieces are in place that you don’t have to do that much and I agree with that.

“If they were willing to take that chance, I was, too.”

If the wait for Favre’s decision seemed never-ending, it was resolved in a few short hours. He jumped on a team plane in Mississippi and was picked up at the St. Paul airport by coach Brad Childress himself. The two drove to the team’s practice facility, where Favre waved to hundreds of cheering fans.

No less than 90 minutes later, Favre was on the field in his familiar No. 4 jersey with purple shorts and a purple helmet, a vision that has had Packers fans cringing about for months. He shook hands with a few of his new teammates and quickly began throwing as fans peeked through the security fence to catch a glimpse of the superstar.

Shortly after practice began, the Vikings confirmed the agreement that seemed so inevitable all summer, only to be held up on July 28 when the man who holds every major NFL career passing record told Childress he wasn’t ready to play, citing a lack of confidence in his beat-up body to hold up over an entire season.

Favre also had been told by doctors that he had a tear in his rotator cuff.

Green Bay visits Minnesota on Oct. 5, and the Packers host the Vikings on Nov. 1.

“The bottom line is it’s football,” Favre said. “Once you step into the huddle, I don’t look at the helmets. I look at the faces.”

Childress a few weeks ago said he had not planned to pursue Favre after the quarterback said he was staying retired. And yet here comes Favre, once reviled by a Vikings fan base that hustled to welcome him to town.

“I don’t have any problem rooting for one of the greatest quarterbacks ever,” said Phil Setala, a 23-year-old from Minneapolis who was at practice proudly wearing a purple No. 4 jersey.

Even the governor chimed in.

“It’s going to be good for the team. It’s going to be good for the state. It’s going to be exciting,” a giddy Gov. Tim Pawlenty said after a speech.

Last month, Favre explained his decision by saying he had to be “careful not to commit for the wrong reasons.”

“I’m 39 with a lot of sacks to my name,” he said.

He has a lot of interceptions to his name, too, more than any other quarterback in NFL history. The last time Favre appeared in the playoffs—a bitter loss at Lambeau Field by the Packers to the Giants in the NFC championship game following the 2007 season—he put up one of his worst performances in recent memory.

AP - Aug 18, 6:43 pm EDT

Now the question becomes how Favre will fit in with a team that’s already done with the grind of training camp, not to mention how his health will hold up so soon after he questioned it. Favre had arthroscopic surgery to fix his throwing shoulder in May.

The Vikings got an encouraging performance in their preseason opener last week from quarterback Sage Rosenfels(notes), who has been competing with Tarvaris Jackson(notes) for the starting job. But neither of them have been consistently sharp in practice this month.

And neither is anywhere in Favre’s league. His zinger of an arm and toughness in the pocket are a combination few possess. With an offense he claimed this summer he could operate in his sleep, Favre seems to fit well with Minnesota—especially given the Vikings’ problems finding a reliable quarterback since Childress took over in 2006.

The Vikings have Pro Bowl players all over their roster, with reigning NFL rushing leader Adrian Peterson in the backfield and a dominant defensive line. No matter who’s behind center, they ought to be in position to defend their NFC North title.

To win the conference, and perhaps that elusive Super Bowl, they’ll need stability at the sport’s most critical position.

Favre has wrestled with retirement for most of this decade and the will-he-or-won’t-he saga became an annual offseason drama for the Packers, his longtime home. In Green Bay, the latest news elicited a few shrugs, little more.

A few months after Favre’s tearful goodbye news conference in March 2008, Green Bay traded him to the Jets when he tried to come back, only to learn the Packers were committed to Aaron Rodgers(notes). Favre started strong in New York, but faded down the stretch amid problems with his throwing arm and, with another “I’m done” announcement, headed for his second retirement.

The Jets released him from his contract right after the draft and soon after, the Vikings were openly expressing interest. Favre spent the summer working out in Mississippi and led everyone to believe he was on his way back to the NFL until last month.

Now, he is back.

USA To Return to South America To Seize Venezuelan Oil Fields

I get emails about U.S. imperialist plans all the time. This right-wing conspiracy; that right-wing conspiracy. Now, here is a "news" article about another conspiracy wherein the Obama forces descend on Venezuela to seize its oil.

Then you can come back to this link and read how the U.S. will go to war with China over Africa. Interesting how such politically incorrect phrases such as "the Black continent" are used.

USA To Return to South America To Seize Venezuelan Oil Fields

On August 11, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez declared the readiness of the South American countries to discuss with US President Barrack Obama the location of US army bases in Colombia.

The summit of 11 heads of the UNASUR states, the South American Union of the Nations, took place in Ecuador the day before the announcement. The issue of US army bases in Colombia was discussed at the summit, however, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, the USA’s staunch ally in the region, was absent from the forum.

On August 5 Gen. Freddy Padilla de Leon, temporarily assuming the position of the Minister of Defense of this country, declared that Colombia would grant the United States access to seven military bases on the Columbian territory.

According to his words, the number of US troops would not exceed 800. In the nearest future the countries are going to conclude the treaty of cooperation in the sphere of defense and safety, according to which the USA will invest 5 billion dollars into the infrastructure of the army bases.

Colombian officials released the statement about the deployment of the American military forces as early as July, 27th. At the same time the country’s authorities accused the main opponent of the USA in the region, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, of supplying weapons to the Colombian FARC rebels.

On July, 29 Chavez recalled the ambassador, accused the Colombian authorities of slander, and of indulgence to the American imperialism.

Afterwards, on July 30 and on August 5, Chavez declared the intention to buy a batch of tanks and jets, explaining it with the possibility of the USA’s invasion in Venezuela after the deployment of the American bases in Colombia.

On August 8, Chavez announced the revision of diplomatic relations with Colombia. He is also proposed to deploy “peace bases” as a counter to “Yankees’ military bases”.

However, the influence of the USA was obvious at the UNASUR summit. The US intends to come back to the region, that was under its foot 20 years ago, but at the moment is going out of control.

The decision to recover the erstwhile positions could be explained with two reasons. Firstly, the USA’s reputation in other countries proved to have been shattered. And secondly, China is actively substituting the USA on the local market.

The consent of Colombia to deploy the bases turned out to be helpful to the USA. In autumn the lease term of the Manta Naval Base located in Ecuador will expire, but Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa known for his warm relations with Chavez, refused to prolong the rent.

As early as June the USA asserted that it was not seeking new bases in Latin America, but it would use the existing bases in El Salvador, on the Curacao Island and in Florida. But the US failed to suit the action to the word, which raised concerns with many countries of the region.

At the moment South America suspects that the USA and Colombia military union may endanger peace and stability. Bolivian President Evo Morales declared August 7: “Bolivia has its own dignity even though it is a small country, and we will never allow any foreign military base on our territory.”

Brazil ’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pointed out at the summit, that the relations between the USA and the South American countries were problematic. He also stressed out the importance of political dialogue between the UNASUR and the USA.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim demanded an explanation from both the USA and Colombia .

“Colombia is a sovereign country and has the right to do what they want in their territory... but it is important to have transparency and clarity.” The Minister of Foreign Affairs also expressed his concern about the “strong military presence” in Colombia.

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has urged the authorities of the Latin American countries to hold an urgent meeting with the Colombian leader. She was also concerned about the possible deployment of army bases that by her opinion may escalate the military tension in the region. The President of Chile Michelle Bachelet supported her Argentine counterpart.

Hugo Chavez was the most emotional speaker. He said that the provision of seven bases for the US troops would help the USA commit intervention in order to seize the Venezuelan oil fields. The president indicated that the Colombian authorities have already attempted provocations. Chavez announced that he had denounced the energy agreement with the neighbouring country.

The UNASUR summit was concluded after the members signed the final declaration. The declaration touched the question of deployment of the US military bases in Colombia. The leaders of the countries decided to discuss the issue again at a meeting scheduled for August 24.

Thus, almost all the leading countries of the region expressed their concerns about the USA’s activities in South America. However, most countries are ready to maintain a dialogue with Washington.

The US economy is still struggling

The stock market must be an extremely leading indicator... judging from these indications.

The US economy is still struggling FT.com

Published: August 14 2009 18:54 | Last updated: August 14 2009 18:54

Is the worst over for the US economy? Some recent figures point that way, and much US economic commentary is growing cautiously optimistic. For the moment, though, the emphasis needs to stay on caution not optimism.

Certainly, the economy is levelling off: output is no longer in free-fall, and unemployment is no longer growing at post-war record rates. But it is unclear whether the bottom for output has quite been reached. Once it has, growth may be slow for some time. As for jobs, whatever happens, unemployment is likely to rise further before it falls back to more normal levels.

If things are still getting worse, albeit much more slowly than before, one can hardly argue that the worst is over, only that the rate of decline has moderated. And since unexploded ordnance still litters the financial landscape, one cannot be sure that there will be no more sudden setbacks.

This week the Fed did sound a little more cheerful. It said that the longest period of US economic decline since the Great Depression was coming to an end, prompting speculation that the recovery has begun. But the central bank also left its benchmark interest rate at zero, and said it would stay there “for an extended period”. That monetary stance seems right – but one can hardly call this an expression of confidence.

The headline unemployment rate fell in July from 9.5 to 9.4 per cent, welcome news that was widely noted. But the monthly rate of job losses – about 250,000 in the private sector, down from more than 600,000 at the beginning of the year – was still at the high end of the range for a normal recession. The unemployment rate dropped because more than 400,000 workers dropped out of the labour force altogether, and are no longer looking for work. The labour market has not yet turned the corner.

An even more sobering statistic was the number of mortgage foreclosures in July. At 360,000, it set a new record. In the first seven months of the year, notices of default, auction or repossession totalled 2.3m. The still-crippled housing market, and the damage it has inflicted on the net worth of US households, continue to depress the prospects for the recovery in consumer spending on which everything else depends.

Normally, the faster the downturn, the more vigorous the recovery. A few economists expect that pattern to hold this time, but most do not. Continuing stresses in financial markets, the fear that there may be shoes to drop in other sectors, and the lingering effects of the crash on households’ income all suggest the recovery may be sluggish even by normal standards, let alone compared to the slump that preceded it.

The US economy is still desperately weak and will most likely continue to struggle for months.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

US industrial production climbs in July - Aug-14

In depth: US downturn - Mar-13

Video: Dan McCrum on US recovery - Aug-13

Short View: Retail clunker - Aug-13

Warning over US cash-for-clunkers scheme - Aug-13

US retail sales fall unexpectedly - Aug-13

California to end IOUs on Sept. 4

Callifawnia is going to stop writing IOUs... and just find some nice Daddy Warbucks to give it $10 billion or so to "tide it over." The budget "rainy day" has turned into a monsoon for the most progressive state in the Union. The questions is: to where is Callifawnia progressing?

California to end IOUs on Sept. 4

By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer
August 13, 2009: 4:40 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- California will have enough cash to stop issuing IOUs on Sept. 4, almost one month earlier than expected, the state controller said Thursday. That's also the date when people and companies can redeem their IOUs with the state treasurer.

The controller's office has issued 327,000 IOUs worth a total of $1.95 billion so far.

The Golden State was forced to start handing out IOUs on July 2 after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers failed to close a $24 billion budget deficit. Controller John Chiang had to start issuing the vouchers so the state would have enough money to cover debt payments and fund education. It was the first time the state issued IOUs since 1992, though it did delay payments in February during another cash crunch.

Even after the governor signed a budget agreement in late July, the controller's office had to determine when there'd be enough money in the state coffers to end the IOU issuance. Since the budget was signed, Chiang has issued 100,000 IOUs totaling more than $800 million.

"Along with short-term loans that are routinely obtained in the fall, this spending plan should provide sufficient cash to meet all of California's payment obligations through the fiscal year," Chiang said.

The IOUs were sent to the state's vendors, county social service agencies and residents expecting tax refunds. The state's biggest banks accepted them until July 10, but then most cut them off, hoping to bring lawmakers and the governors to the negotiating table.

They were told they could redeem the paper on Oct. 2 or when the state had enough money in the bank, whichever came first. They will be paid an annual interest rate of 3.75%.

California still isn't out of its hole: The state will need to borrow $10.5 billion to meet California's cash needs for the fiscal year, Chiang said. Ending the IOUs on Sept. 4 is contingent on the state obtaining a $1.5 billion loan by Aug. 28, which the state treasurer assured the controller will happen.

'Fastest Dying Cities' Meet for a Lively Talk

What do these cities have in common... besides failing? Perhaps:

• high taxes
• government growth/over-regulation/onerous administrative processes
  
• strong city employee unions with restrictive job rules

Or maybe God doesn't like them anymore.

In The Wall Street Journal Online:

By DOUGLAS BELKIN

DAYTON, Ohio -- Here's an idea for saving Rust Belt cities: Tell bloggers and radio stations to stop calling your town a basket case.

That was one suggestion from representatives of eight of the 10 cities labeled last year as America's fastest dying. They met at the Dayton Convention Center last weekend to swap ideas about how to halt the long skid that's turned cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, N.Y., into shorthand for dystopia.

The city representatives lunched on $6 sloppy Joes and commiserated through Power Point strategy sessions: Lure back former residents, entice entrepreneurs and artists, convert blighted pockets into parkland.

On the Ropes

• See a chart of percentage change in population in these cities since 2000

What emerged was a sense of desperation over the difficulty of rebounding from both real problems -- declining populations, dwindling tax bases -- and perceived woes.

Valarie McCall expressed frustration at marketing a city that still echoed the image of the polluted Cuyahoga River catching fire. "That was 1969," said Ms. McCall, Cleveland's chief of governmental affairs. "Come on, I wasn't even born then."

Last year, Forbes.com used long-term trends of unemployment, population loss and economic output to devise a list of "America's Fastest Dying Cities." A few months later, Peter Benkendorf was eating chicken tacos when he hatched the idea for the symposium.

Mr. Benkendorf, a 47-year-old Dayton resident, said he was angry the article ignored efforts by the cities to attract small businesses and entrepreneurs. He thinks these cities are poised for reinvention.

"For a long time, people thought granddaddy was going to come back and make everything all right again," said Mr. Benkendorf, referring to the manufacturers that decades ago built the economies of cities like Dayton. "People have begun to realize that's not going to happen."

Mr. Benkendorf, who directs an arts program affiliated with the University of Dayton, named the symposium, "Ten Living Cities." Dayton skeptics called it "Deathfest."

One was college student Joe Sack, 22. "It's like a gambling addict [trying] to help an alcoholic," he said while at work in a coffee shop. "It's hard to see what they can learn from each other."

Dayton, which has a population of 155,000, has since 1970 has lost more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs a year and a third of its residents. NCR -- the cash-register and ATM maker -- once employed more than 20,000 here. This summer the company said it would move its headquarters and 1,000 jobs to Georgia.

The cities' meeting began Saturday with Forbes reporter Joshua Zumbrun telling the city representatives and about 100 visitors that his story was among his most popular. Then he apologized for any hurt feelings.

Representatives of Dayton, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo; Canton and Youngstown, Ohio; Flint, Mich.; and Charleston, W.Va., took turns talking about their plans. There was little discussion of how cities might pay for the initiatives.

Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin ran to the podium for her talk. "If you look under the surface, you will see that we are developing a boutique city," she said. She didn't elaborate on what she meant.

But the city is working with hospitals, universities and a U.S. Air Force base to rebuild neighborhoods. About 500 abandoned structures will be razed this year with $3.5 million in federal stimulus money. Neighbors can annex the empty lots or the city will plant prairie grass and call them parks, said John Gower, Dayton's director of planning and community development.

"We can't go back and recreate the neighborhoods of the 1950s and 1960s, but we have a huge opportunity to create a new form for our cities," Mr. Gower said. "People want to live in beautiful places near green space."

In a historic reversal, the cities are embracing plans that emphasize growing smaller. In Buffalo, where more than a third of the students drop out of high school, Michael Gainer, executive director of Buffalo ReUse, is putting young people to work dismantling some of the thousands of abandoned homes and selling the scrap materials.

A councilman from Charleston described how the city lured "The Worlds Strongest Man Competition." It was shown several times on ESPN, she said.

Matt Bach, public relations manager for Flint's convention and visitors bureau, said the image most closely linked to Flint was a scene from Michael Moore's 1989 documentary "Roger and Me": a woman skinning a rabbit to make a fur coat. The Dayton audience groaned in sympathy.

Mr. Bach described how he is fighting back. After a Canadian radio station aired a "This Ain't Flint" campaign to cheer up listeners depressed about Ottawa's economy, Mr. Bach orchestrated a letter-writing and email effort to stop the ads. The station awarded Flint more than $60,000 in free radio time that Flint used to air spots about vacationing in Michigan.

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams talked of helping startup companies. This month, his city was named by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the 10 best in the U.S. to start a business.

Mr. Williams, a tall 37-year-old with a background in banking, argued that some who have moved out of Youngstown may consider moving back. A University of Pittsburgh demographer is tracking former residents with the idea of telling them about the city's new direction. "We don't want to force anything on them," said John Slanina, a Youngstown native working on the project. "But we want people to know, 'Hey, Youngstown is changing, take a look.'"

Mr. Slanina said he's optimistic about the future of his hometown. But for now he lives in Columbus, Ohio, and has no plans to move back.

More Cap-and-Trade War

Create an unnecessary impediment to the economy and see what happens next. Cap and Tax....
[Also see this]

President Obama says his cap-and-trade energy tax won't hurt the economy, but at least 10 Senate Democrats disagree. Last week they sent Mr. Obama a letter demanding that any bill taxing U.S. CO2 emissions must include a carbon tariff "to ensure that manufacturers do not bear the brunt of our climate change policy."

Hmmm. This sure sounds like an explicit admission that cap and tax would add so much to the cost of doing business in the U.S. that it would drive factories and jobs overseas. The 10 mostly liberal Senators come from states like Ohio, Michigan and West Virginia whose economies rely heavily on manufacturing and coal. "We must not engage in a self-defeating effort that displaces greenhouse gas emissions rather than reducing them and displaces U.S. jobs rather than bolstering them," wrote the Senators.

Thus their demand that "a longer-term border adjustment mechanism"—a euphemism for tariffs—"is a vital part of this package to prevent the relocation of carbon emissions and industries" to countries that aren't as foolish as to impose a similar tax. Those countries include China and India, which have told Obama officials that they have no intention of signing on to the rich world's growth-killing obsessions.

All of which puts the President in an economic policy bind. When the House passed its cap-and-tax bill in June, he warned against a carbon tariff by saying "I think we need to be very careful about sending any protectionist signals." But these 10 Senate Democrats are saying explicitly that protectionism is the price of their support. So Mr. Obama can opt to impose a huge carbon tax and drive jobs overseas, or he can impose the tax along with a tariff, and kick off a trade war. Better to call the whole thing off.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A14

GM claims unprecedented mileage from Volt

This seems to go along with most government math.... Government Motors, er, General Motors says the Volt gets 230 mpg. That translates into 50 mpg real world.

GM claims unprecedented mileage from Volt

* Volt to get 230 mpg based on draft EPA standard

* GM says working on second and third-generation Volt (Adds analyst's comments)

By Kevin Krolicki and Soyoung Kim

DETROIT, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The Chevrolet Volt, the electric car General Motors Co [GM.UL] is counting on to revitalize its lineup, is on track to achieve an unprecedented fuel economy rating of 230 miles per gallon in city driving, GM said on Tuesday.

GM's Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said the Volt would get a "triple-digit" fuel economy rating for combined highway and city driving based on a draft standard developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He did not provide the combined highway and city figure.

Toyota Motor Corp's (7203.T) Prius hybrid, which accounted for over 60 percent of U.S. hybrid sales from January through July 2009, has a combined fuel economy rating of 50 miles per gallon.

"The Volt is becoming very real, very fast," Henderson said in an announcement at GM's technical center that was Webcast to the public.

The Volt, expected late next year, is designed to run for 40 miles from a single charge of a lithium-ion battery pack. When the battery is partly depleted, a small combustion engine kicks in to recharge the battery and power the vehicle.

Industry tracking firm Edmunds.com said that while the Volt might fall short of mileage expectations, it would still be the most fuel-efficient mass-market vehicle and would help GM to break its association with gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.

"For most people, it is not realistic to expect that kind of mileage in real world driving," said Michelle Kreb, an analyst at Edmunds.com. But, he added, "The Volt should easily get more than 50 miles to the gallon, and that will make it an industry leader."

In drafting standards to calculate the published mileage rating for the Volt and other upcoming electric vehicles, U.S. regulators have made assumptions about how much a typical driver would rely on the traditional gas engine.

Those standards are due to be published later this year.

Henderson said GM has engineers working on second- and third-generation versions of the Volt to cut production costs.

GM has been racing to make Volt the first mass-market plug-in hybrid in the United States and generate buzz for its lineup that will take aim at competitors led by Toyota Motor Corp.

The Volt is designed to be recharged at a standard electric outlet. Henderson said that would reduce the cost of the first 40 miles of driving for some Americans to about 40 cents, the cost of recharging the car overnight in a garage.

The national average price of a gallon of gasoline on Tuesday was $2.643 for regular, according to the Automobile Association of America's daily fuel gauge report. On that basis, it would cost about $8.81 for a vehicle getting 12 miles per gallon to travel 40 miles.

Toyota is developing a rechargeable Prius, but it appears the Volt could be the first vehicle of its kind in U.S. showrooms.

THE COST OF SUCCESS

GM executives have said the Volt could cost as much as $40,000 before a $7,500 consumer tax credit.

The company has said the car would not be profitable in its first version because of development costs.

"I don't want to say we're going to subsidize things," Henderson said, "but that said, we need volumes to get to (the second generation)."

The announcement about Volt's projected fuel economy comes a month after GM exited a fast-track bankruptcy, and is part of an effort by Henderson to shift attention back to GM's vehicles and away from the financial problems it has had.

GM emerged from bankruptcy under the majority ownership of the U.S. Treasury, and is planning an initial public offering by July 2010 to pay back part of what it owes the government.

Henderson said GM was on track to post a net profit as early as 2011 after cutting costs and improved sales.

U.S. auto sales rose in July as Americans took advantage of a government "Cash for Clunkers" incentive program to trade in old gas guzzlers for more fuel efficient vehicles.

With GM's inventory levels low, the company is looking at raising production in the current and coming quarters, Henderson said. "We certainly feel very good about our inventory position, feel better about the market at least hitting the bottom and maybe starting to bounce, and we will adjust accordingly." (Reporting by Kevin Krolicki and Soyoung Kim, additional reporting by Bernie Woodall in Los Angeles; Editing by Derek Caney, Toni Reinhold)

Westchester Agrees to Add Housing in Desegregation Pact

Or perhaps the answer is to abandon the worship of the "poor black/hispanic culture" and encourage adoption of mainstream attitudes toward family, education, and business. Ethnic "pride" that is self-defeating has it own rewards. That shouldn't be cause to penalize others.

By SAM ROBERTS

Published: August 10, 2009 The New York Times

Westchester County officials have entered into a landmark desegregation agreement that would compel the county to create affordable housing in overwhelmingly white communities and aggressively market it to non-whites in the county and in neighboring New York City.

The agreement, to be formally filed Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, would end three years of litigation by the Anti-Discrimination Center over Westchester’s responsibility to enforce fair-housing goals.

“Residential segregation underlies virtually every racial disparity in America, from education to jobs to the delivery of health care,” said Craig Gurian, executive director of the Anti-Discrimination Center, which filed the suit under the federal False Claims Act.

The agreement calls for the county to spend more than $50 million to build or acquire 750 homes or apartments, 630 of which must be provided in towns and villages where blacks constitute 3 percent or less of the population and Hispanic residents make up less than 7 percent. The county has seven years to complete the construction or acquisition of the affordable housing units.

Among the towns and villages in which blacks constitute less than 3 percent of the population and would theoretically be eligible for affordable housing under the settlement are Bedford, Bronxville., Eastchester, Hastings-on-Hudson, Harrison, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, New Castle, Pelham Manor and Scarsdale.

It was not immediately clear where the new houses and apartments would be placed, although the settlement says that priority should be given to sites near public transportation. The overarching goal, though, is to locate them in the least racially integrated neighborhoods.

Given that 120,000 acres of land in the county meet the criteria, Mr. Gurian said, the federal monitor “should have no difficulty making sure that Westchester ends its policy of allowing affordable housing to be off-limits in the most highly white neighborhoods in the county.”

Brokered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the agreement promises to spark challenges to suburban counties across the country that have resisted pressure to undo decades of residential segregation.

“Westchester, belatedly acknowledging its authority to do so, is obligated to take legal action against resistant municipalities where needed to fulfill the affirmatively furthering fair housing purposes of the settlement,” Mr. Gurian said.

Westchester officials had originally dismissed as “garbage” the lawsuit’s premise that the county had fraudulently claimed that, as a condition of accepting federal funds, it fully complied with mandates to provide affordable housing without furthering racial segregation.

But the county’s claims were largely repudiated in February when Judge Denise L. Cote ruled that between 2000 and 2006 the county had misrepresented its efforts to desegregate overwhelmingly white communities when it applied for federal housing funds.

Judge Cote concluded that Westchester made little or no effort to find out where low-income housing was being placed, or finance homes and apartments in communities that opposed affordable housing.

Andrew Spano, the Westchester County executive, attributed the settlement" to "a historic shift of philosophy" by federal housing officials. Mr. Spano said that the settlement would have "a sweeping effect on communities nationwide” and that he signed the agreement to avoid further litigation and possible penalties.

The county admitted no wrongdoing, blamed the judge’s ruling on a technicality, said it had always given made affordable housing a priority and said that since it had previously invested in affordable housing, "what is different is the locations where the housing must be built."

The false claims suit by the Anti-Discrimination Center, a nonprofit group, and the settlement apply to towns and villages in Westchester. The federal government deals directly with the cities in the county, among them Yonkers, which nearly went bankrupt before capitulating two years ago in a housing segregation case that dragged on for 27 years.

The agreement is to be formally announced on Monday by federal and county officials.

It is subject to approval within 45 days by the county Board of Legislators, which is also required to approve a $32.9 million bond sale to help finance the housing.

Without that approval, the litigation would resume and the county would be faced with having to prove at trial that it did not knowingly file false claims.

Federal housing officials would appoint a monitor to ensure compliance.

“Affordable” housing is defined by a complex formula, but generally it is meant for working families. In some cases, a family of four could make up to $90,000 and still qualify.

There is no minimum income level, “but it’s not going to be no-income,” Mr. Gurian said. “This agreement is not focused on facilitating housing for the poorest of the poor.”

Mr. Gurian said that while black and Hispanic residents have a disproportionate need for affordable housing, “this is an opportunity-creating agreement, not a guarantee” that the homes would go to members of minority groups.

Most of the homes would be new construction, although some existing houses and apartments could qualify if the county made them permanently affordable.

The case was litigated by Mr. Gurian and the center’s lawyer, John Relman. Their argument that the county had largely ignored local impediments to affordable housing was based, in part, on testimony by Andrew A. Beveridge, a sociologist at Queens College of the City University of New York.

Dr. Beveridge found that “racial isolation is increasing for blacks, falling slightly for whites” and that “income level has very little impact on the degree of residential racial segregation experienced by African-Americans.

Reality Check: Trucks Are The Most Popular "Cash for Clunker" Vehicle and Some Only Get 14 mpg!

So, if the F-150 is split up into the various models in the government's tally of which vehicles are the most popular purchases for those who gave up their "clunkers," why wasn't the same methodology followed for the Ford Focus which was given the honor of being the most popular purchase? Could it be that the Obaminions had an agenda of telling everyone that small cars were really... really... popular? More twisting the data.

Reality Check: Trucks Are The Most Popular "Cash for Clunker" Vehicle and Some Only Get 14 mpg!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- What are people trading their clunkers in for? It depends on who you ask. The government's results showed small cars as the top choice for shoppers looking for Cash for Clunker deals. But an independent analysis by Edmunds.com disputed those results, and showed that two full-size trucks and a small crossover SUV were actually among the top-ten buys.

The discrepancy is a result of the methods used. Edmunds.com uses traditional sales measurements, tallying sales by make and model. The government uses a more arcane measurement method that subdivides models according to engine and transmission types, counting them as separate models.

Sales of truck models would tend to be heavily diluted using the government's method because practically each version counts as a different vehicle. The difference in tallying methods would not affect the overall totals of trucks, as opposed to cars purchased under the program, only the sales rankings of individual models.

Sales of GM's Silverado truck, under the government's counting method, were divided among five different versions. So were the Ford F-150s. If the different versions of these trucks were considered the same vehicle, as auto sales are normally reported, sales of these trucks would look much heftier.

MP: The Ford F-150 (pictured above) gets only about 14 mpg. and the Chevy Silverado gets the same 14 mpg.

Originally posted at Carpe Diem.