Violence Against Women Act in limbo

By doris | Published: May 20, 2012

Full Story at CNN.com

Washington (CNN) — After a high profile political battle this week over legislation to help victims of domestic abuse, its fate appears to be in limbo. And this policy-dispute-turned-election-year-brawl seems to be far from over.

The House and Senate have both passed different versions of a bill renewing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The next step would be for congressional leaders to appoint negotiators to hash out the differences between the two pieces of legislation.

That process, though, is now at an apparent standstill, with both sides pointing the finger at the other for holding up progress.

Posted in Bill, Congress, House of Representatives, Senate, Violence Against Women Act | Leave a comment

In Colorado, same-sex marriage remains a hot issue

By doris | Published: May 19, 2012

Full Story at Yahoo! News

DENVER (AP) — Minutes after President Barack Obama announced he supported gay marriage, the Democratic governor of Colorado choked back tears in Denver as he ordered state lawmakers to reconsider a civil-unions measure that Republicans had defeated the day before.

In the week that followed, the debate over equal rights for same-sex couples consumed the state Capitol. And while Republicans ultimately succeeded in killing the measure, Republicans and Democrats alike acknowledge that the emotional standoff over the issue could help shape the White House campaign in this presidential battleground state this fall.

Posted in Campaign, Equal Rights, Government, Presidental, Same-sex | Leave a comment

House passes defense bill; Approves indefinite detention of terror suspects

By doris | Published: May 18, 2012

Full Story at CBS News

(AP) WASHINGTON — The House on Friday endorsed the indefinite detention without trial of terrorist suspects, even for U.S. citizens seized on American soil.

A coalition of Democrats and tea party Republicans fell short in their effort to end the controversial policy established last year and based on the post-Sept. 11 authorization for the use of military force that allows indefinite detention of enemy combatants.

The Republican-controlled House rejected an amendment by Reps. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Justin Amash, R-Mich., that would have barred indefinite detention and rolled back mandatory military custody. The vote was 238-182.

Posted in Bill, Defense, House of Representatives, Passed, Terrorist | Leave a comment

Postal Service to begin closing plants this summer

By doris | Published: May 17, 2012

Full Story at FoxNews.com

The nearly bankrupt U.S. Postal Service is moving ahead with plans to close dozens of mail processing centers, saying on Thursday it can no longer wait as Congress remains deadlocked over how to help.

At a news briefing, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the agency’s mail processing network had simply become too big, given declining mail volume and its mounting debt. It will now consolidate nearly 250 plants as originally planned, including 48 this summer, but will stretch out the remainder over a longer time frame in 2013 and 2014.

Posted in Bankruptcy, Close, Plants, Postal Service | Leave a comment

Biden takes aim at Romney’s Bain in Ohio event

By doris | Published: May 16, 2012

Full Story at PoliticalTicker.Blogs.CNN.com

(CNN) – The Barack Obama campaign dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to eastern Ohio Wednesday to push the president’s economic record and take direct aim at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s history as a venture capitalist.

In a sometimes fiery speech at M7 Technologies, an advanced manufacturing plant in Youngstown, Ohio, Biden added new emphasis to the attack on Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital that the Obama campaign has waged all week, labeling his policies in a negative light as “Romney economics.”

Posted in Campaign, Economic, Manufacturing, Republican, technology, Vice President | Leave a comment

House passes bill undoing defense cuts

By doris | Published: May 15, 2012

Full Story at CNN.com

Washington (CNN) — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would replace looming Pentagon spending cuts opposed by the GOP with a series of domestic program reductions opposed by congressional Democrats.

The bill passed in a strongly polarized 218-199 vote. No Democrats supported the measure.

While the legislation has no chance of clearing the Democratic-controlled Senate or surviving a certain presidential veto, it helps set the stage for a campaign showdown over fiscal priorities. It also offers a partial preview of what is shaping up to be a titanic year-end fight over deficit reduction measures set to take effect in 2013.

Posted in Bill, Defense, House of Representatives, Passed, Stop | Leave a comment

Obama calls pastors to explain gay marriage support; black churches ‘conflicted’

By doris | Published: May 15, 2012

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com
Why is the church brought into this? Church is not allowed in our government, we call on them to explain things. It not right! You can’t have it both ways,but they will.

After making his historic remarks on same-sex unions last week, President Barack Obama led a conference call with black church pastors to explain his support for gay marriage, the New York Times reports. The call, which was held with “eight or so African-American ministers,” occurred about two hours after the president’s interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts.

Obama explained to them that he struggled with the decision, pastors on the call told the paper, but several voiced their disapproval.

“They were wrestling with their ability to get over his theological position,” the Rev. Delman Coates, a Maryland pastor who was on the call, told the Times.

The conference call was part of a quiet effort by the president to control potential political damage caused by his support of same-sex marriage.

Posted in Church, Pastor, Presidental, Same-sex | Leave a comment

Parents of American ‘Spy’ Held by Iran Issue Tearful Plea

By doris | Published: May 14, 2012

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

For the first time the parents of an American who could face the death penalty in Iran for alleged espionage have gone before a camera in stirring video to speak about their young son and the suffering they’ve endured since the arrest of the “typical American boy.”

“Everywhere I go I see him. His face is in front of me everywhere,” Behnaz Hekmati, mother of arrested Amir Hekmati, says as tears stream down her face in the new video posted on FreeAmir.org. “I miss him so much. I miss him so much… [But] I keep myself strong because I know my boy needs me. I need to help him.”

Posted in American, Iran, Parents, Spy | Leave a comment

Obama Honors Nation’s Top Police Officers

By doris | Published: May 13, 2012

Full Story at ABCNews.go.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama honored several dozen law enforcement officers today after they were recognized by a national police order for acts of courage or exemplary service. Standing in the spring sun of the White House’s rose garden, the president told the officers and their assembled families he had looked forward to the event to simply say “thank you.”

“They don’t ask for a lot of credit,” the president said of the nation’s police force. “They don’t go to work planning to be heroes. They just do their jobs.”

The officers were in town for the annual awards ceremony of the National Association of Police Organizations. Since 1994, NAPO has run its “Top Cops” program to pay tribute to officers who have gone “above and beyond the call of duty.”

Posted in Honor, Police, Presidental | Leave a comment

By the numbers: Same-sex marriage

By doris | Published: May 12, 2012

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — Same-sex marriage was thrust into the political spotlight earlier this week after North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage in the state, and President Barack Obama, who will accept the Democratic Party’s nomination in North Carolina later this year, announced Wednesday that he personally supports same-sex marriage. Obama’s announcement brought cheers from gay rights activists and Democratic allies and jeers from religious conservatives and some quarters of the GOP.

Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, responded to all of the political chatter by reaffirming his belief that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman and that states should be able to extend some rights short of marriage to same-sex couples.

Posted in Gay Rights, Government, Marriages, Republican | Leave a comment

JPMorgan’s Dimon loses clout as reform critic

By doris | Published: May 11, 2012

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wall Street may have lost its most potent spokesman against Washington reforms.

JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has parlayed his bank’s reputation as a white knight during the financial crisis into a position as the champion of a beleaguered industry fighting against excessive post-crisis regulation.

But the revelation of a shocking trading loss of at least $2 billion from a failed hedging strategy diminishes Dimon’s credibility, and is already unleashing calls to get tougher on big banks.

Posted in Bank, Lost, Reform, Wall Street | Leave a comment

U.S. logs first monthly budget surplus in 42 months

By doris | Published: May 10, 2012

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States posted a budget surplus for the first time in 42 months in April on a rise in tax receipts and a drop in government spending, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

The government notched a larger-than-expected $59.12 billion surplus in the month, compared with a $40.39 billion deficit in April 2011, the Treasury said on Thursday. The last time the government logged a surplus in any month was September 2008, when the worst of the financial crisis rocked Wall Street.

Posted in Budget, Government, Surplus, U.S.A. | Leave a comment