White House: Obama would veto GOP student loan plan

By doris | Published: April 28, 2012

Full Story at CNN.com

Washington (CNN) — The White House said Friday that President Barack Obama would veto a Republican measure passed by the House to extend lower interest rates on federal student loans because it takes money from a health care fund that benefits women.

A White House statement said Obama’s senior advisers would recommend a veto if the House measure, which passed 215-195 on a largely party-line vote, were to win Senate approval and reach the president’s desk.

Posted in Health Care, House of Representatives, Presidental, Republican, Student Loan, Veto, White House | Leave a comment

US, Japan reach deal to move forces, as 9,000 US Marines will be relocated from Okinawa

By doris | Published: April 27, 2012

Full Story at FoxNews.com

WASHINGTON – About 9,000 U.S. Marines stationed on the Japanese island of Okinawa will be moved to the U.S. territory of Guam and other locations in the Asia-Pacific, including Hawaii, under a U.S.-Japan agreement announced Thursday.

The move is part of a broader arrangement designed to tamp down tensions in the U.S.-Japan defense alliance stemming in part from opposition in Okinawa to what many view as a burdensome U.S. military presence.

It also reflects a desire by the Obama administration to spread U.S. forces more widely in the Asia-Pacific region as part of a rebalancing of U.S. defense priorities in the aftermath of a decade of war in the greater Middle East.

Posted in American, Japan, Military, Relocated | Leave a comment

Senate passes bill that would keep post offices open

By doris | Published: April 26, 2012

Full Story at CBSNews.com

CBS News) The U.S. Senate passed legislation Wednesday afternoon that would preserve post office services now set to be slashed due to the agency’s financial problems.

The measure, which passed 62-37, eases the Postal Service’s money woes by reimbursing the agency to the tune of $11 billion for overpaying into federal workers’ retirement fund.

The Senate bill would slow or prevent the closing of many low-revenue post office locations that have been slated to close. It also prohibits the elimination of Saturday delivery for at least two years to allow cost-cutting measures to go into effect. In addition, the measure authorizes the Postal Service to offer buyouts and early retirement incentives to its employees.

Posted in Money, Postal Service, Senate | Leave a comment

Gingrich to end presidential campaign next week

By doris | Published: April 25, 2012

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newt Gingrich began taking steps Wednesday to shut down his debt-laden White House bid, setting the stage to endorse one-time rival Mitt Romney next week and rally Republicans behind their apparent nominee.

Gingrich had a friendly telephone conversation Wednesday with Romney and had started planning an event where he would throw his support behind the likely nominee, Gingrich spokesman R.C Hammond said. The pair agreed to work together to unite conservatives against President Barack Obama.

Posted in Campaign, Candidates, Election, Government, Presidental, Stop | Leave a comment

U.S. disputes Iran’s claims about crashed drone

By doris | Published: April 24, 2012

Full Story at CBSNews.com

(CBS News) A senior administration official disputes Iran’s claims that they have extracted secret intelligence information from an American drone that crashed in December.

Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, who is chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, was quoted Sunday by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying that Iran has reverse-engineered the RQ-170 Sentinel.

But a senior administration dismissed those claims. “They don’t have the technology to be able to pull it off,” the official told CBS News.

Asked about claims that Iran is hacking the software to build a drone of its own, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was skeptical.

Posted in Dispute, Iran, technology | Leave a comment

Explosive Immigration Issue to Hit Supreme Court

By doris | Published: April 23, 2012

Full Story at ABCNews.go.com

Jim Shee, a U.S. citizen of Spanish and Chinese ancestry, says he began to understand the impact of Arizona’s strict immigration law called S.B.1070 when he was stopped by Arizona police twice in one month.

“I was stopped for the color of my skin. I look like a minority, whatever a minority is supposed to look like,” he says.

The stops occurred less than a month after the law was signed in 2010. The first happened while he was sitting in his parked car reading a text message. The policeman told him he “looked suspicious,” asked for his papers, and then let him go. The second stop was 10 days later.

“The officer comes up to my window and says ‘can I see your papers?’ I handed my driver’s license and insurance card.,” he said.

Posted in Bill, Court, Immigration, Supreme Court | Leave a comment

Edwards lawyers to follow trail of ‘Bunny money’

By doris | Published: April 22, 2012

Full Story at FoxNews.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Defense lawyers for John Edwards will argue at his trial that much of the nearly $1 million in secret payments at issue in the criminal case against their client were actually siphoned off by a trusted aide to build an expansive dream home.

The former aide, Andrew Young, is potentially the prosecution’s most important witness: He was once so loyal to Edwards he falsely claimed paternity of the baby fathered by his married boss in an attempt to avoid a sex scandal.

Young’s testimony, along with a cache of voicemails he received from Edwards, will be vital to making the government’s case that the North Carolina Democrat masterminded the effort to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008.

Posted in Court, Government, Investigation, Judge, Money, Politcal, Stealing | Leave a comment

Secret Service sex scandal keeps growing

By doris | Published: April 21, 2012

Full Story at CBSNews.com

(CBS NEWS) WASHINGTON – The sex scandal rocking the Secret Service is spreading.

Three more agents have stepped down in the wake of alleged activities involving prostitutes in Cartagena, Columbia last weekend. One more agent is now under investigation, and another has been cleared of serious misconduct. In all, 12 have now been in focus.

The U.S. military says 11 of its members are being investigated. That’s up from the 10 previously believed to be involved. So far, they haven’t been charged or placed in detention.

The latest departures, after several days of lie detector tests and interviews, follow the dismissal earlier in the week of two supervisors. David Chaney, who was allowed to retire, was a member of Sarah Palin’s protective detail during the 2008 campaign. Greg Stokes was dismissed, but has the option to appeal. A third agent resigned.

Posted in Investigation, Secret, Security, Sex | Leave a comment

Senate tries to put wrangling aside to rescue Postal Service from insolvency

By doris | Published: April 20, 2012

Full Story at NBCPolitics.msnb,.msn.com

Updated at 3:05pm ET The Senate struggled Thursday to push forward a bill to restructure the U.S. Postal Service, but still lacked accord on which amendments the senators would be allowed to offer.

“We’re really very, very close to getting something done,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid Thursday afternoon. “Our main issue now is whether there will be a 50-vote hurdle or a 60-vote hurdle,” he said.

The Postal Service is headed for financial collapse and perhaps for a taxpayer bailout. Whether Congress can avert this outcome and save it is the question that the Senate has been debating this week as it considers a bipartisan agency restructuring bill.

Reid warned on the Senate floor Thursday, “Those of you who are holding up the bill because you don’t like it, you may not like what the result of having no bill is.”

Posted in Bail Out, Deficit, Economy, Government, Lawmakers, Money, Postal Service | Leave a comment

CNN/ORC poll: Most Americans say tax system favors wealthy

By doris | Published: April 19, 2012

Full Story at PoliticalTicker.blogs.CNN.com

(CNN) – As procrastinators rush to file their 2011 tax returns by the Tuesday deadline, a new poll shows more than two-thirds of Americans believe the revenue system benefits the wealthy while being unfair to average workers.

In the CNN/ORC survey, 68% of respondents said the current tax system benefits the rich and is unfair to ordinary workers, compared with 29% who disagreed with that view. Overall, 50% said the federal income taxes they paid were about right, with 45% saying their taxes were too high and 3% answering their taxes were too low.

Posted in Benefits, Tax, Wealthy | Leave a comment

Senate rejects ‘Buffett rule’

By doris | Published: April 18, 2012

Full Story at NBCPolitics.msnbc.msn.com

Updated at 7:06 pm ET On the eve of the federal tax filing deadline, the Senate blocked consideration of a Democratic bill to ensure that taxpayers making over $1 million a year pay more in federal taxes.

The vote, mostly on party lines, was 51 to 45, short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is a version of a proposal made last year by investor Warren Buffett.

President Barack Obama had been rallying support for the “Buffett Rule” for the past several months and especially in the past week.

Posted in Money, Senate, Tax | Leave a comment

Study: Obama’s health care law will add at least $340 billion to deficit

By doris | Published: April 17, 2012

Full Story at CBSNews.com

(AP) WASHINGTON – Reigniting a debate about the bottom line for President Barack Obama’s health care law, a leading conservative economist estimates in a study to be released Tuesday that the overhaul will add at least $340 billion to the deficit, not reduce it.

Charles Blahous, who serves as public trustee overseeing Medicare and Social Security finances, also suggested that federal accounting practices have obscured the true fiscal impact of the legislation, the fate of which is now in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Officially, the health care law is still projected to help reduce government red ink. The Congressional Budget Office, the government’s nonpartisan fiscal umpire, said in an estimate last year that repealing the law actually would increase deficits by $210 billion from 2012 to 202

Posted in Deficit, Health Care, Presidental | Leave a comment