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CONCORD, N.H. (AP & staff) — Tears, tomatoes and teasing — the staff at Mary Ann’s Diner has seen it all from the presidential candidates who have turned the restaurant into a must-not-miss stop during the primary campaign. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s eyes brimmed with tears as he listened to a woman describe losing her job in 2003. Four years later, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani hustled through, shook a few hands then sat down to an egg white omelet, tomatoes on the side. Teasing was on the menu when Mitt Romney stopped by in June. The former Massachusetts governor posed for a picture in front of the jukebox, told several waitresses to squeeze in closer and then pretended that one of them had grabbed his behind. “Oh my goodness!” he exclaimed. Joking aside, Romney and the others are plenty serious about seeing and being seen at popular campaign stops in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. Some venues provide wholesome, all-American backdrops for photo-ops; think 1950s-style diners. Others, such as a gun shop in New Hampshire, quickly telegraph a candidate’s position on issues important to their party’s base. Parades, fairs and festivals allow the candidates to play to large crowds at a safe distance. At least four of the Republican presidential hopefuls have stopped by Mary Ann’s in Derry during the current primary campaign, said owner William Andreoli. “There’s always a couple of people who don’t like the camera business, but all and all, people respond very well to it,” he said of his regulars Some New Hampshire venues and events are more popular with Republicans than Democrats. Candidates who want to play up their support for gun owners’ rights show up at Riley’s Sport Shop in Hooksett. Those who want to be assured they’re surrounded by GOP voters head for the Fourth of July parade in solidly Republican Amherst. In South Carolina, the Beacon Drive-In in Spartanburg is a bell-ringer for every candidate. Michele Bachmann played up the stop better than most in August, lingering on a stage set up in the parking lot and dancing with an older fellow to Elvis blaring from loudspeakers. Bachmann then headed inside the restaurant and took the unusual role of calling out a fake order. In Iowa, popular spots include the Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor in Le Mars, Pizza Ranch restaurants and [...]
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MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP & staff) — Nicaraguan president and one-time Sandinista revolutionary Daniel Ortega appears headed for victory Sunday in an election that his critics say could be the prelude to a presidency-for-life. Since returning to power in 2007, the 65-year-old Ortega has boosted his popularity in Central America’s poorest country with a combination of pork-barrel populism and support for the free-market economy he once opposed. Now, riding on a populist platform and World Bank praise for his economic strategies, he seeks a third term — his second consecutive one — after the Sandinista majority on the Supreme Court overruled the term limits set by the Nicaraguan constitution. With nearly 50 percent of voter support and an 18-point lead over his nearest challenger in the most recent poll, Ortega could end up with a mandate that would not only legitimize his re-election but allow him to make constitutional changes guaranteeing perpetual re-election. He leads his closest competitor, opposition radio station owner Fabio Gadea of the Liberal Independent Party, by 18 points. Conservative Arnoldo Aleman, a former president and perennial candidate, has 11 percent support in the poll taken between Oct. 10-17 with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. Ortega led the Sandinista movement that overthrew dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979, and withstood a concerted effort by the U.S. government, which viewed him as a Soviet-backed threat, to oust him through a rebel force called the Contras. The fiery, mustachioed leftist ruled through a junta, then was elected in 1984 but was defeated after one term in 1990. After two more failed runs, he softened his rhetoric, took a free-market stance, and regained the presidency in the 2006 election. To his supporters, he is just plain Daniel, while opponents say that in his new incarnation, he has espoused “Orteguismo,” a politics of personality based on Christianity, socialism and free enterprise. In his most recent term, Ortega has built wide support among the youth and the poor in a country of 5.8 million people, more than 40 percent of whom live on less than $2 a day. He also has maintained ties to the U.S. even as he has grown closer to Venezuelan socialist President Hugo Chavez, signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement and cultivated Nicaragua’s large business sector. Per capita income, one of the lowest in Latin America, has grown steadily since 2006, according to the World Bank, [...]
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ATLANTA (AP & staff) — Police arrested 20 people after an Occupy Atlanta protest rally in a city park spilled onto the streets and officers converged on them on motorcycles, riding horseback and in riot gear. A crowd of several hundred protesters had gathered at Woodruff Park, the scene of about 50 arrests of demonstrators last month, and set up tents. Organizers had said they planned to stay overnight despite warnings from the mayor and police that anyone there past the 11 p.m. EDT closing would be arrested. But as 11 p.m. approached, protesters began decamping peacefully. Dozens of officers were on hand, herding protesters away from the park’s entrances and installing barricades around it. A police helicopter flew overhead. While most protesters left the park, a few people stayed behind. And as demonstrators poured onto Peachtree Street and downtown, a police officer on a motorcycle drove into the crowd, sparking a confrontation between officers and protesters that turned tense at times. Police officers in riot gear and on horseback filled the street, warning protesters to stay on the sidewalk. Many protesters shouted insults at the officers, chanting slogans such as, “Put the pigs back in their sty, we the people occupy.” Police made a number of arrests, mostly people who disobeyed orders to stay on the sidewalk. Police issued a statement early Sunday saying 19 people who either refused to leave the park after the 11 p.m. closing time or blocked nearby roads were arrested. The statement also said another person accused of assaulting a motorcycle officer on patrol was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and obstruction. Protesters began camping out in Woodruff Park on Oct. 7. Mayor Kasim Reed initially issued an executive order allowing them to stay overnight, but later revoked it after he said there were increasing security concerns. “Mayor Reed was clear earlier this week in his public statements that the City of Atlanta would arrested any persons who violated the law,” Police Chief George Turner said. The statement added warnings were issued over a loudspeaker repeatedly in English and Spanish before the latest arrests. Police on Oct. 26 arrested more than 50 people they say were violating a city ordinance by staying in the park after closing. The protesters returned Saturday night. The crowd swelled during the brisk evening, as the Rev. Jesse Jackson paid an early-evening visit to show his support. He [...]
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NEW YORK (AP & staff) — Andy Rooney so dreaded the day he had to end his signature “60 Minutes” commentaries about life’s large and small absurdities that he kept going until he was 92 years old. Even then, he said he wasn’t retiring. Writers never retire. But his life after the end of “A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney” was short: He died Friday night, according to CBS, only a month after delivering his 1,097th and final televised commentary. Rooney had gone to the hospital for an undisclosed surgery, but major complications developed and he never recovered. “Andy always said he wanted to work until the day he died, and he managed to do it, save the last few weeks in the hospital,” said his “60 Minutes” colleague, correspondent Steve Kroft. Rooney talked on “60 Minutes” about what was in the news, and his opinions occasionally got him in trouble. But he was just as likely to discuss the old clothes in his closet, why air travel had become unpleasant and why banks needed to have important-sounding names. Rooney won one of his four Emmy Awards for a piece on whether there was a real Mrs. Smith who made Mrs. Smith’s Pies. As it turned out, there was no Mrs. Smith. “I obviously have a knack for getting on paper what a lot of people have thought and didn’t realize they thought,” Rooney once said. “And they say, ‘Hey, yeah!’ And they like that.” Looking for something new to punctuate its weekly broadcast, “60 Minutes” aired its first Rooney commentary on July 2, 1978. He complained about people who keep track of how many people die in car accidents on holiday weekends. In fact, he said, the Fourth of July is “one of the safest weekends of the year to be going someplace.” More than three decades later, he was railing about how unpleasant air travel had become. “Let’s make a statement to the airlines just to get their attention,” he said. “We’ll pick a week next year and we’ll all agree not to go anywhere for seven days.” In early 2009, as he was about to turn 90, Rooney looked ahead to President Barack Obama’s upcoming inauguration with a look at past inaugurations. He told viewers that Calvin Coolidge’s 1925 swearing-in was the first to be broadcast on radio, adding, “That may have been the most interesting thing [...]
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LINTHICUM, Md. (AP and Staff) — Matthew VanDyke, the missing American writer who apparently joined Libyan rebels in their uprising to topple dictator Moammar Gadhafi, returns home Saturday. An American writer who went missing in Libya for months returned to the United States on Saturday night, telling reporters he went to the north African nation to participate in the uprising against dictator Moammar Gadhafi and was on a reconnaissance mission when he was captured. But Matthew VanDyke, 32, said his mother and girlfriend didn’t know when he set off from Baltimore for Libya that his goal was to support the revolution. “You don’t tell your mother that you’re going to go fight in a war,” he said. “When I got out of (a Libyan) prison, I was going to finish what I came to do. So the past several weeks I’ve been in combat on the front lines in Sirte fighting Gadhafi’s forces.” VanDyke, dressed in his military uniform with a scarf tied around his head, held up a Libyan flag as he walked out of the concourse at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport into his mother’s arms. He was also met by friends and family waving American flags and holding up signs. Some had waited for hours after he was detained by Homeland Security officials when he entered the country in New York and missed his flight to Baltimore. Later, as VanDyke addressed the media, his girlfriend, Lauren Fischer, arrived and planted a big kiss on his lips. The two stood hand in hand for the rest of the time he spoke. Earlier this year, VanDyke was in Baltimore working on a book and film about a motorcycle trip across the Middle East and southeast Asia when he began to hear from friends in Libya about their relatives disappearing. “I wasn’t going to sit back and let this happen to people I care about and not do anything about it,” he said. “I see how people are suffering under regimes like this and it’s time for it to end.” VanDyke said he was on a reconnaissance mission in Brega with three other fighters with weapons in a truck when he was captured by Gadhafi forces. He was questioned once, he said. VanDyke spent more than five months in solitary confinement in Libyan prisons. He said he sang Guns n’ Roses songs to himself and tried to name all of [...]
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WASHINGTON (AP and Staff) — Political analysts are expecting a tough and brutal presidential race in 2012 as incumbent Pres. Barack Obama look to secure his post. One year to go until Election Day and the Republican presidential field is deeply unsettled, leaving President Barack Obama only to guess who his opponent will be. But the race’s contours are starting to come into view. It’s virtually certain that the campaign will be a close, grinding affair, markedly different from the 2008 race. It will play out amid widespread economic anxiety and heightened public resentment of government and politicians. Americans who were drawn to the drama of Obama’s barrier-breaking battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the up-and-down fortunes of John McCain and Sarah Palin, are likely to see a more partisan contest this time, with Ohio and Florida playing crucial roles as they did in 2000 and 2004. Republicans have their script; they just need to pick the person to deliver it. It will portray Obama as a failed leader who backs away when challenged and who doesn’t understand what it takes to create jobs and spur business investment. Obama will highlight his opponent’s ties to the tea party and its priorities. He will say Republicans are obsessed with protecting millionaires’ tax cuts while the federal debt soars and working people struggle. On several issues, voters will see a more distinct contrast between the nominees than in 2008. Even the most moderate Republican candidates have staked out more rigidly conservative views on immigration, taxes and spending than did Arizona Sen. McCain. Democrats say Obama has little control over the two biggest impediments to his re-election: unemployment and congressional gridlock. The jobless rate will stand at levels that have not led to a president’s re-election since the Great Depression. Largely because of that, Obama will run a much more negative campaign, his aides acknowledge, even if it threatens to demoralize some supporters who were inspired by his 2008 message of hope. The tea party, one of the modern era’s most intriguing and effective political movements, will play its first role in a presidential race. After helping Republicans win huge victories in last year’s congressional elections, activists may push the GOP presidential contenders so far right that the eventual nominee will struggle to appeal to independents. “It’s going to be extremely different, with much more hand-to-hand combat, from one foxhole to another, targeted [...]
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP and Staff) — Americans’ eye will be on the upcoming ballot battle in Ohio as Republicans try to pass a union-limiting law in the state. A ballot battle in Ohio that pits the union rights of public workers against Republican efforts to shrink government and limit organized labor’s reach culminates Tuesday in a vote with political consequences from statehouses to Pennsylvania Avenue. A question called Issue 2 asks voters to accept or reject a voluminous rewrite of Ohio’s collective bargaining law that GOP Gov. John Kasich signed in March, less than three months after his party regained power in the closely divided swing state. Thousands descended the Statehouse in protest of the legislation known as Senate Bill 5, prompting state officials at one point to lock the doors out of concern for lawmakers’ safety. The legislation affects more than 350,000 police, firefighters, teachers, nurses and other government workers. It sets mandatory health care and pension minimums for unionized government employees, bans public worker strikes, scraps binding arbitration and prohibits basing promotions solely on seniority. By including police and firefighters, Ohio’s bill went further than Wisconsin’s, which was the first in a series of union-limiting measures plugged by Republican governors this year as they faced deep budget holes and a tea party movement fed up with government excess. Democratic governors, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut’s Dannel Malloy, have also faced down their public employee unions in attempts to rein in costs. That’s why labor badly needs a win in Ohio, said Lee Adler, who teaches labor issues at Cornell University’s New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations. “If the governor of Ohio is able to hold the line on the legislation that was passed, then it would be a very significant setback for public sector workers and public sector unions in the U.S.,” he said. “Likewise, if the other result happens, then it would certainly provide a considerable amount of hope that, with the proper kind of mobilization and the proper kind of targeting, some of the retrenchment that has been directed at public sector workers can be combated.” Victory could also galvanize support and build energy within the Democratic-leaning labor movement ahead of the 2012 presidential election, a potential boon for President Barack Obama’s re-election effort. We Are Ohio, the labor-backed coalition fighting the law, had raised more than $24 million as of [...]
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NEW YORK (AP and Staff) — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was named the 30th richest man in the world, is struggling to cope up with Wall Street protesters, who are now in their seventh week. He is not only the 1 percent, he was named the 30th richest person on the planet, according to Forbes magazine. He is a man who has used his fortune to achieve vast political influence. A former trader and CEO who ardently defends the big banks against those who would blame the institutions for the nation’s economic woes. But the billionaire mayor has thus far avoided taking decisive action against the encampment protesting economic inequality and corporate greed. Bloomberg may not be able to keep that distance for long, however. Local officials displeased with noise and sanitation complaints at the site have been notching up the pressure on City Hall. And park owners may yet choose to clear out the group on trespassing charges, causing a potential showdown with police. The mayor has said the situation is the city’s responsibility — but has yet to explain how his administration might step in. “It is the city’s problem and we’ll make a decision,” he said recently. “But, you know, it’s just not so easy. You can’t just walk in and say, ‘Hey, you’re out of here.’” As the protests have grown to include encampments around the country, some mayors are taking that exact approach, while others are publicly pondering similar action. Results have been mixed. In Oakland, Calif., police in riot gear fired tear gas and bean bags to disperse protesters who had been camping in front of City Hall — a move followed by confrontations that have led local business leaders and residents to question Mayor Jean Quan’s leadership. In Atlanta and in Sacramento, Calif., police arrested dozens of people to clear out park encampments. The mayor of Providence, R.I., has threatened to ask a court to evict protesters, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has said an encampment outside City Hall “cannot continue indefinitely.” But in New York, a decision to forcibly evict the protesters could prove unpopular for a mayor already coping with a third-term decline in public approval. Two-thirds of New York City voters polled recently by Quinnipiac University say they agree with the protesters’ views, and 82 percent believe the group should be allowed to continue the protest, [...]
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WASHINGTON (AP & staff) — He set out to create a mini-Goldman Sachs. In the end, he built a mini-Lehman Brothers. Former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine’s resignation Friday from the securities firm he led capped a week of high drama and swift failure. MF Global collapsed into bankruptcy Monday, and Corzine has since hired a criminal defense attorney amid an FBI investigation into the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars in client money. In another twist, a top regulator ended his role in the investigation of MF Global because of longstanding ties to Corzine. Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Gary Gensler, whose agency is leading the effort to locate the missing client money, had worked for Corzine at Goldman Sachs. MF Global’s implosion, which came after Corzine made a big, risky bet on European debt, revived memories of the 2008 banking crisis and the ruin of the much bigger Lehman. As Corzine, 64, stepped down as chairman and CEO, he said he felt “great sadness about what has transpired at MF Global.” Corzine, who ran the investment firm Goldman Sachs years before joining MF Global, said his resignation was voluntary and called it “a difficult decision.” Regulators said more than $600 million in client money is still missing. They said MF Global apparently moved the money out of client accounts within days as the company’s cash dried up. The FBI is examining whether the firm’s actions amounted to a crime, two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press this week. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The New York Post reported that U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in New York City is also investigating. Corzine’s resignation doesn’t untangle him from MF Global’s affairs. The trustee overseeing the liquidation of its brokerage gained permission Friday to subpoena top executives, including Corzine. Corzine has hired prominent defense attorney Andrew Levander of New York, according to a person familiar with the situation. Securities firms such as MF Global are supposed to keep their own money separate from their clients’. That way, clients can retrieve their assets easily if the company fails. MF Global has maintained that the missing customer money is being held up by trading partners that froze its accounts as it teetered last week. The Corzine era at MF Global began in March last year. Seeking to raise [...]
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PALATKA, Fla. (AP & staff) — Eighty six years old Betty Wills sees the advertisements of obstetricians and gynecologists on the main road’s billboards in the sleepy, riverside town in northeast Florida and has found specialists ranging from cardiologists to surgeons in the phone book. But there’s not a single geriatrician — a doctor who specializes in treating the elderly — in all of Putnam County, where a fifth of the county’s 74,000 people are seniors. “I looked,” Wills said. “I didn’t find one.” It’s a nationwide shortage and it’s going to get worse as the 70 million members of the baby-boom generation — those now 46 to 65 — reach their senior years over the next few decades. The American Geriatrics Society says today there’s roughly one geriatrician for every 2,600 people 75 and older. Without a drastic change in the number of doctors choosing the specialty, the ratio is projected to fall to one geriatrician for every 3,800 older Americans by 2030. Compare that to pediatricians: there is about 1 for every 1,300 Americans under 18. Geriatricians, at their best, are medicine’s unsung heroes. They understand how an older person’s body and mind work differently. They listen more but are paid less than their peers. They have the skills to alleviate their patients’ ailments and living fuller, more satisfied lives. Though not every senior needs a geriatrician, their training often makes them the best equipped to respond when an older patient has multiple medical problems. Geriatricians have expertise in areas that general internists don’t, including the changes in cognitive ability, mood, gait, balance and continence, as well as the effects of drugs on older individuals. But with few doctors drawn to the field and some fleeing it, the disparity between the number of geriatricians and the population it serves is destined to grow even starker. “We’re an endangered species,” said Dr. Rosanne Leipzig, a renowned geriatrician at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. Geriatricians rank among the lowest-paid medical specialties, with a median salary of $183,523 last year, according to the Medical Group Management Association, which tracks physician pay. That sounds like a lot, but many other specialties pay two or three times more, while the average doctor graduates with $160,000 in student loan debt. Just 56 percent of first-year fellowship slots in geriatrics were filled last academic year, according to a University of Cincinnati study, while the [...]
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WASHINGTON (AP & staff) — Jack Abramoff can’t say he wasn’t warned. When the now-notorious lobbyist was a rising star as Republicans expanded their power in Washington, a concerned senior partner in his firm warned against his win-at-all-costs approach to business. “At the rate you’re going,” the boss said, “you’re either going to be dead, disgraced or in jail in five years.” Abramoff writes in his autobiography, out Monday, that the line rang in his ears for the next decade, including the 3 1/2 years he spent in a federal penitentiary paying for his bribery of public officials and other crimes before his release last year. The 52-year-old’s name has become a synonym for Washington corruption. The influence-peddling schemes he masterminded ultimately resulted in conviction of 20 people and changed federal lobbying laws. But Abramoff says the reforms aren’t tough enough to keep special-interest power in check and, from his insider perspective, he lays out what more needs to be done. He writes in “Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption from America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist” that there still are plenty of corrupt lobbying practices that are perfectly legal. Abramoff is now out of the lobbying business, but the father of five has returned to the home he shares with his wife in the Washington suburb of Silver Spring, Md., and is promoting the book, including an interview airing Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Authorities have said in court filings they are looking into using the book proceeds to help repay a $23 million restitution order to his victims. Abramoff became a lobbyist in 1994 after the Republican takeover of Congress, when firms were eager to hire help with conservative credentials. Abramoff was the former two-term chairman of the College Republican National Committee and executive director of President Ronald Reagan’s grassroots lobbying organization, Citizens for America, and rode the Republican bandwagon of power in the House. He was especially close to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. He writes that the two bonded over their adherence to religion; Abramoff is an orthodox Jew, DeLay a born-again Christian. Abramoff got his clients to donate generously to DeLay, helping build the No. 2 House Republican’s power and giving himself an ally in a high office. He built relationships with other congressional offices by collecting campaign cash for those who helped his clients. He charged high fees, but they were his ultimate [...]
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LINTHICUM, Md. (AP & staff) — An American writer is returning home Saturday after spending more than five months in solitary confinement in Libyan prisons, then joining the rebel forces who opposed dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Earlier this year, 32-year-old Matthew VanDyke was working in Baltimore on a book and film about a motorcycle trip across the Middle East and southeast Asia when he decided to witness the uprising in Libya. He disappeared during a day trip to Brega in March. Although he wasn’t heard from for months, VanDyke’s mother, Sharon, and his girlfriend, Lauren Fischer, held strong to their belief that VanDyke would return. Sharon VanDyke even traveled to Turkey with photos of her son in hopes of speaking to Libyan diplomats in hopes they could work to free him. Sharon VanDyke and Fischer enlisted Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersburger, a Maryland Democrat and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, who held a news conference in May to call attention to the situation. Libyan officials initially denied VanDyke was being held, but in July they acknowledged he was in custody. When the infamous Abu Salim prison in Tripoli was bombed in August, fellow prisoners broke open VanDyke’s cell and he escaped. The fleeing prisoners made their way to a compound, where he was able to borrow a phone to call home. After his escape, VanDyke said he and his companions were ambushed by government troops in Brega. He was held in solitary confinement in two prisons for months but was never told what he was accused of or if he would be released, he said. VanDyke said he’d remain in Libya until Gadhafi fell from power and he found out whether friends safely made it through the fighting. He later joined rebel fighters and now, on Facebook, he describes himself as a soldier in the Ali Hassan al-Jaber Brigade of the National Liberation Army of Libya. His mother has said she was nervous about him fighting, but supported his decision.
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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP & staff) — Local residents were awakened early Saturday morning shortly after 2 a.m., reporting that their homes were shaken. Authorities say three earthquakes that have shaken much of central Oklahoma could be felt as far away as Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. The U.S. Geological Survey says on its website early Saturday morning that a 4.7 magnitude earthquake struck at 2:12 a.m., with an epicenter about six miles north of Prague in southern Lincoln County. That’s about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City. A 3.4 magnitude aftershock was reported at 2:27 a.m. from the same location. The survey says a 2.7 magnitude quake also was recorded at 2:44 a.m. Lincoln County sheriff officials say there have been no reports of injuries but several people have reported items falling off walls. Oklahoma City police officials say they have received several 911 calls, but have no reports of injuries or damage.
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CONCORD, N.H. (AP & staff) — Republican presidential contenders courting an intensely partisan GOP primary electorate are promoting their experience in working with home-state Democrats to tackle big problems. With most voters craving an end to intense polarization in Washington, the message of bipartisan collaboration is seeping into debates, interviews and other campaign appearances. The candidates, particularly former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, are trying to broaden their appeal to independents, whose support will be critical in the general election next fall against President Barack Obama. The president ran as an across-the-aisle dealmaker, but he hasn’t lived up to that image in his first term. His top Republican rivals seem to sense an opening, even though they, too, have mixed records when it comes to working with the opposition party. “This is not the Democrats’ country or the Republicans’ country. This is our country,” Perry said during a recent campaign stop in Iowa, arguing that the country’s troubles are ideologically blind and not Democratic vs. Republican. Romney often tells supporters that compromise was necessary in Massachusetts, where Democrats dominated. At a recent debate, he jabbed at Obama and said: “The real course for America is to have someone who is a leader, who can identify people in both parties who care more about the country than they care about getting re-elected.” Such talk of compromise isn’t usually popular in the Republican primary campaign, where the usual emphasis is on bashing government regulation, illegal immigrants and anything Obama. Conservatives who make up the party’s base don’t like the two signature issues in which Romney and Perry have demonstrated an ability to work with Democrats and Republicans: Massachusetts’ health care overhaul and the Texas law giving in-state college tuition to some illegal immigrants. But public polling suggests that strong majorities of Republicans and Democrats favor political leaders who work together. A recent CBS/New York Times poll found that 85 percent of Americans say they want to see both parties compromise some positions to get things done. All that explains why Romney and Perry, seen as the candidates most likely to win the nomination, are trying to courting ideologically diverse general election voters without angering the passionate partisans who dominate the primary season. Critics say the Republicans are trying to have it both ways, sometimes in the same speech. The GOP candidates hammer Obama and congressional Democrats while also [...]
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WASHINGTON (AP & staff) — Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday continued to press Congress to pass the Obama administration’s nearly $450 billion jobs bill. The bill is more of a token of concern as its spending will be spread out over years, if it ever occurs at all, and is a drop in the bucket so small that it will not even offset the continued population growth let along generate the immediate $4trillion of additional spending needed to restore full employment. Only the President’s appointees on the Federal Reserve can do that and they apparently don’t have either the knowledge or the real world experience in mainstreet business and banking or empathy with the millions of unemployed and bankrupt Americans or the personal decisiveness needed to act. Filling in for President Barack Obama in the weekly White House radio and Internet address, Biden asked listeners to tell Republican lawmakers “to step up” and approve the legislation. “Tell them to stop worrying about their jobs and start worrying about yours because we’re all in this together, and together is the way we’re going to bring America back even stronger than it was before,” Biden said. Obama, who returned to Washington late Friday after attending an international economic summit in France, made a similar appeal in last week’s address. Biden said as opposition from Republicans continues — a piece of the larger jobs bill was blocked earlier this week — the president has used his executive authority to help veterans find jobs, homeowners refinance mortgages, and reduce the cost of student loans. The vice president said those efforts would continue so long as Republican oppose the president’s jobs bills. “If the Republican Congress won’t join us, we’re going to continue to act on our own to make the changes that we can to bring relief to middle-class families and those aspiring to get in the middle class,” Biden said. Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected a $60 billion bill that would have built and repaired infrastructure such as roads and rail lines. It was the third defeat for Obama’s stimulus-style jobs agenda. Last month, Republicans blocked the $447 billion package and then Democratic efforts to win approval of a $35 billion piece of the legislation intended to prevent layoffs of teachers and firefighters Obama unveiled his jobs plan in September and has since launched a campaign-style effort — holding rallies in states critical to his [...]
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WASHINGTON (AP & staff) — With leaves swirling and an autumn chill in the air, nature reminds us it’s time for most Americans to set the clock back. Officially, the change to standard time occurs at 2 a.m. Sunday. Most folks will set their clocks Saturday night. Remember, it’s fall back an hour. Otherwise, you’ll be an hour early on Sunday for church, golf or whatever. Residents of Hawaii, most of Arizona and some U.S. territories don’t have to change since they did not observe daylight saving time, which resumes the second Sunday in March.
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ABILENE, Texas (AP & staff) — An Abilene Christian University bus veered off a Texas highway and overturned on Friday, ejecting several of those onboard, killing a 19-year-old student and critically injuring four other people, officials said. The school-owned bus was carrying 12 agricultural studies students, three faculty members and a faculty member’s wife from Abilene to Medina, where they were going to spend the weekend doing mission work at a children’s home, school spokesman Grant Rampy said. “These were students from our agriculture department, heading to an annual service project to help a children’s home in town,” he told The Associated Press. The driver, 34-year-old faculty member Michael Nicodemus, lost control as the bus was entering a bend on U.S. 83 near the town of Ballinger, about 50 miles southwest of Abilene, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. The vehicle hit a concrete culvert and did a complete roll, ejecting several passengers, the DPS said. It ended up a shredded, metal wreck. Anabel Reid, a student from Petersburg, was pronounced dead at the scene, and everyone else who was on the bus was taken to one of four area hospitals. Four of the injured were in critical condition, Rampy said. Officials at Community Hospital in San Angelo said Allison Dorshorst, 18, of Colleyville was in satisfactory condition, while a spokesperson at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene said Merissa Ford, 19, of Maple Valley, Wash. was in good condition and Naomi Cruz, 19, of Richmond was in critical condition. Reid was among 23 ACU agricultural and environmental science majors who made the annual trip to the Medina Children’s Home last year, where she helped clear land, mow the yard and move in a new family, according to a 2010 story posted on the school website. In another story, Reid spoke about how a school workshop she attended would help prepare her for a lifetime of Christian service. “I enjoyed the simulation of village and rural settings and all of the hands-on experience,” Reid is quoted as saying the story. “I was able to physically help dig a well which put my dream of working in developing countries into perspective. I learned about the attitude with which I should approach situations and also about the cultures and how to live within them.” Several hundred students and faculty members gathered for a prayer vigil Friday night at an outdoor amphitheater on [...]
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP & staff) — Republicans in early voting states like Iowa seem to be giving Herman Cain the benefit of the doubt for now — but they also say they need to know more, nearly a week after the disclosure that he was accused of sexually harassing women who worked for him in the 1990s. “It’s concerning, but it’s not a big deal,” said Cindy Baddeloo of suburban Des Moines, one of more than two dozen undecided Republican voters interviewed in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in the days since the allegations — which Cain has repeatedly denied — surfaced. “Nobody’s perfect,” she said. The same for LaDonna Ryggs, chairwoman of Spartanburg County GOP in South Carolina. “You give me some substance to the questions, and then we’ll talk.” With the furor over the allegations showing no signs of abating, it’s an open question whether supporters of Cain’s presidential campaign will stick with him, or whether the one-time long shot can increase his base of support at a time when many early state GOP activists are making up their minds. And while the Georgia businessman topped a national poll taken this week, the new round of questions follow doubts that had already begun to form about him before he became enmeshed in this latest controversy. “Fair or unfair, is anybody more likely to vote for Herman Cain as a result of these allegations? The answer is no,” said Phil Musser, a GOP strategist unaffiliated with any campaign. Cain was sharply critiqued by his rivals over his tax proposal during a debate in Las Vegas last month. And questions later arose over his loyalty to the GOP base’s most enduring litmus test, opposition to abortion, after he said in an interview the decision was a matter of choice. And the timing is problematic for Cain, too, just two months before the Iowa caucuses and as Cain presumably should be seeking to close the deal with undecided caucus-goers in the state. He’s not slated to return to Iowa for another two weeks, and, if he follows through, he will have made just one trip to the leadoff caucus state over the course of three months. Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is stepping it up here, Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s gung-ho on advertising and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is hitting his stride. Cain denied all along that [...]
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WASHINGTON (AP & staff) — Grass-roots volunteers flocked to Barack Obama last time. This time, the president’s campaign is in recruiting mode. Facing no primary challenger, Obama is trying to rebuild a massive organization of supporters to help boost his efforts next year in the face of a struggling economy and weakened political standing. Obama’s campaign has spent the past week holding about 1,500 events around the nation, from small neighborhood gatherings to one-on-one meetings in coffeehouses, marking the one year to go before the incumbent Democrat faces the electorate. The events, including a chunk of them this weekend, comprise the nuts-and-bolts of a campaign: local phone banks, voter registration drives, door-to-door voter canvassing and house parties. And they’re all aimed at organizing the legions of activists who formed the core of Obama’s coalition in 2008 — black and Latino voters, women and college students and voters entering the workforce — long before Election Day 2012. Such activities could help determine next year whether Obama can mobilize sufficient support to overcome the larger forces acting against his campaign; namely, broad concerns among the public over joblessness and the direction of the country as well as disillusionment among some of his 2008 supporters. Back then, Obama built a large base of volunteers in dozens of states that held primaries and caucuses and then quickly moved on to the general election. Many of the volunteers were drawn to Obama because he was new to the national stage and sounding a message of hope and change. Such support was said to contribute to victories in states typically unfriendly to Democrats, such as Indiana and North Carolina. But this time, Obama is the president with a governing record that doesn’t sit well with some who worked to help him get elected. His campaign is undeterred. “Block by block, person by person, student by student, we are going to build the biggest grass-roots effort in American political history,” declared campaign manager Jim Messina at an event Wednesday at the University of Pennsylvania. The campaign held the Philadelphia round-table discussion to launch a program aimed at mobilizing young voters on college campuses. Messina told about 250 college and high school students and others watching online that there were 8 million registered voters between the ages of 18 and 21 who weren’t old enough to vote in 2008 but would be harnessed to support the president. Yet, [...]
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CANNES, France (AP and Staff) — President Barack Obama is still confident European leaders can solve the potentially disastrous Greek debt crisis that could put the US economy and his bid for a second term in jeopardy. Conceding a fragile global recovery and plodding job growth back home, President Barack Obama said Friday he is confident European leaders are fixing their ominous debt crisis, which threatens to undermine the United States and his own shot at a second term. A year shy of the election, Obama said the American economy is growing, but “way too slow.” The president capped his role at a brisk G-20 summit essentially where he started it, offering solidarity to his European peers with none-too-subtle signals it was their responsibility to clean up the economic mess in their own backyards. At issue is an evolving rescue package across the 17 nations sharing the euro as their common currency. The plan could prevent a default in Greece, put up a financial firewall against future trouble and reassure markets about the credibility of the euro. “I am confident that Europe has the capacity to meet this challenge,” Obama said in a news conference at the meeting of leading industrialized and developing countries. “I know it isn’t easy, but what is absolutely critical — and what the world looks for in moments such as this — is action,” he said. “That’s how we confronted our financial crisis in the United States.” The drama of Greek’s messy internal struggles and their potential to derail the entire European effort hung over the summit in this French Riviera resort, as did a gloomy rain. While Obama met with world leaders, a new jobs report showed that the American economy added 80,000 jobs in October and that the job expansion in the previous two months was better than first thought. The unemployment rate dropped slightly to 9 percent. Should it remain anywhere close to that level a year from now, Obama will face re-election with the highest jobless rate in recent times. “The least of my concerns at the moment is the politics of a year from now,” Obama said. “I’m worried about putting people back to work right now because those folks are hurting and the U.S. economy is underperforming.” He cast the jobs report as positive but said the pace of the recovery shows “once again that the economy’s growing way [...]
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CANNES, France (AP and Staff) — The G-20 rejected the proposal to shell out additional money in an effort to ease Europe’s bank crisis. The G-20 summit ended in disarray Friday without additional outside money to ease Europe’s bank crisis and new jitters about Italy’s ability to replay it loans clouding a plan to prevent banks from defaults. In Athens, meanwhile, Greece’s prime minister survived a confidence vote in parliament, calming a revolt in his Socialist party with a pledge to seek an interim government that would secure a new European bank payment deal. In the end, only vague offers to increase the firepower of the International Monetary Fund — at some later date — were all the eurozone leaders were able to take home after two days of tumultuous talks. With their own finances already stretched from bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal — and the United States and other allies wrestling with their own problems — eurozone countries had been looking to the IMF to help line up more financing to prevent the debt crisis from spreading to larger economies like Italy and Spain. Italy’s fate in particular is crucial to the eurozone, because its economy — the third-largest in the currency union — would be too expensive to bail out. The implications for the world economy are stark: The debt crisis that has rocked the 17-nation eurozone threatens to push the world economy into a second recession. European leaders could point to one potential catastrophe averted: They stared down Greece’s prime minister and berated him into scrapping a referendum that threatened their European bailout plan. Greece’s politics are in upheaval as a result, but the shaky bailout plan appears back on track — for now. “We want Europe to work,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on French TV when the summit was over. “I think today we can have confidence … but that’s not to say our troubles are behind us.” In the end, the Greek question completely derailed Sarkozy’s aim of using the summit to show that Europe had sorted out its debt problem once and for all — and possibly convince some of them to pitch in to the rescue effort. In the space of days, the already shrunken list of goals set out by France to close out its year as head of the G-20 was scrapped, replaced by a nearly constant stream of shocking new developments [...]
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WASHINGTON (AP and Staff) — A modest improvement in the American job market in October has non-economists and Obama appologists feeling optimistic despite slow economic recovery. The nation added 80,000 jobs. That was fewer than the 100,000 that economists expected, and way short of the 130,000 new jobs that must be generated each month to keep abreast of population growth. Fears of a new recession that loomed over the economy this summer have receded – except among macroeconomists with real world banking and business experience who continue to say things are getting worse. The “official” unemployment rate nudged down, to 9 percent from 9.1 in September. This was accomplished by more people giving up on actively seeking employment because they thought no jobs are available. The real rate according to macroeconomists who look at labor force participation rates is now 20.6 percent. Yet some who the media consider to be economists are cheered. “Those are pretty good signs,” said Michael Hanson, senior economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “We’re hanging in there.” No one looking at Friday’s report from the Labor Department saw a quick end to the high unemployment that has plagued the nation for three years. The official jobless rate has been 9 percent or higher for all but two months since June 2009 and the actual unemployment rate continued rising, going from 18% to its current 20.6%. The government uses a survey of mostly large companies and government agencies to determine how many jobs were added or lost each month. It uses a separate survey of households to determine the unemployment rate. The household survey picked up a much bigger job gain — 277,000 in October, and an average of 335,000 per month for the last three months. The household survey picks up hiring by companies of all sizes, including small businesses. The household survey is more volatile and less comprehensive than the other survey, and is not followed as closely by economists. Still, job growth in the household survey has not been this strong for three months since the end of 2006. People counting themselves self-employed increased by 200,000 in October, accounting for most of the increase, but it is difficult for economists to explain the three-month trend. Economists pointed out other bright spots in the unemployment report: — Average hourly wages rose 5 cents a week, to $23.19. More pay for workers means they have more spending power in [...]
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URBANDALE, Iowa (AP & staff) — Pitching to conservatives who have tremendous sway in this early nominating state, presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is packaging a social agenda that would amend the Constitution to ban gay marriage and abortion. Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, outlined an agenda that would reinstate a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, teach abstinence-only sexual education courses in schools and end any taxpayer dollars for contraception. The sweeping package also pledged to fund organizations that promote marriage and counsel against abortions. “We have to have strong families and strong culture to have a free and prosperous and strong America,” Santorum said. While the GOP contest has mainly focused on the struggling economy and efforts to put Americans back to work, Santorum said the debate should not ignore questions of values. He said the country was founded on its Christian beliefs that could help fix the ailing economy. “If you want to get this economy going… having just a little bit of support for marriage and families and fatherhood would be a huge step toward that,” Santorum said. If elected to the White House, Santorum said he would veto any legislation that provides money to organizations that provide abortions, such as Planned Parenthood. While the group provides other health services, Santorum said it would receive zero taxpayer dollars under his administration for any of its work, such as cancer screenings. Santorum also promoted a Constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman and to ban abortions. While he said he is not generally a supporter of changes to the Constitution, he said conservatives have no choice. “Sometimes that’s all you have left when the courts have run roughshod,” he said. “We need to let them know exactly what our country wants.” Santorum also called on Congress to abolish the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which conservatives regard as the most liberal appeals court and criticize regularly. He said that would oust the current judges and give him as president the opportunity to appoint conservatives to the bench in two or three new appellate courts that would replace the Ninth Circuit. “This will be a very important signal to be sent to the judiciary,” said Santorum, an attorney. And in a nod to the cultural role of the president, he said he would champion conservative values [...]
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CANNES, France (AP & staff) — President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are saluting service members from both their countries who fought in a NATO-led campaign that drove Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi from power. They’re also celebrating the enduring U.S.-French alliance at a ceremony at Cannes City Hall after the two-day Group of 20 economic summit. As military brass from both countries looked on, Obama said that French and American troops serving shoulder-to-shoulder in the skies over Libya succeeded in liberating the Libyan people — and proving the strength of the bond between the U.S. and France. He said they were carrying on a legacy of more than two centuries of cooperation between the two nations. The triumphant 7-month air campaign ended Monday less than two weeks after Gadhafi was captured and killed. Most of the air strikes and all of the “boots on the ground” came from France and other NATO countries with no assistance from the United States. Said one perturbed French participant, “Obama is taking credit for the actions of France?”
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WASHINGTON (AP & staff) — House GOP leaders say the latest unemployment numbers show it’s time for the Democratic-led Senate to begin approving jobs-related bills that the Republican-run House has passed. The government reported Friday that unemployment rate in October fell to 9 percent from 9.1 percent in September, and that the economy added 80,000 jobs. House Speaker John Boehner wants President Barack Obama to press the Senate to act. The Ohio Republican says it’s “unacceptable for the White House to be anything less than 100 percent engaged in the legislative process.”
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