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Obama, Clinton spar over unseated delegates in Michigan, Florida (U.S., 40 articles)
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WASHINGTON Hundreds of angry voters many of them Clinton campaign volunteers demonstrated outside the Democratic National Committee meeting today, demanding that the party's rules committee honor all the primary votes and pledged delegates from Florida and Michigan. The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee was hearing from the presidential campaigns, state party officials and party members challenging the DNC's decision to strip Florida and Michigan of all delegates to the party's Aug. 25-28 convention. At a raucous meeting of the party's rules committee, frequently interrupted by cheers and jeers from Clinton's backers, the panel agreed to seat the delegations from both states but cut their voting power in half. Here's the state-by-state breakdown: Seating the full delegation with half votes would net Clinton 9 pledged delegates in Michigan and 19 pledged delegates in Florida for a net gain of 28 pledged delegates in total. (Elise Amendola/Asssociated Press) Hillary Clinton is hoping an appeal to a Democratic party rules committee Saturday will revive her campaign to become the party's candidate in November's U.S. presidential election. Delegates at the state convention will vote on how many Obama and Clinton delegates will represent Texas in the national convention in Denver.
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Gerald Ford's Perfect Pitch (U.S., 18 articles)
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US giant Ford is to invest $3bn ($1.5bn) in a new car plant in Mexico, the biggest investment in the country's manufacturing sector. Ford Motor plans to convert its truck assembly plant in Mexico to produce the North American version of its new Fiesta small car. Under his steady hand, the nation began the process of recovering from the terrible trauma of Watergate the lies, distortions, coverups, misuses of federal agencies to exact political revenge, illegal wiretapping, burglaries....
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A Premonition Fulfilled, in a City That Lives With Cranes (U.S., 22 articles)
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The towering cranes that build America's skyscrapers are often not properly inspected for wear, fatigue and other potentially dangerous structural problems, several construction safety experts said following a deadly accident in New York. Two construction workers died Friday when the huge cab of a 200-foot-high construction crane popped off its mast and plummeted onto a Manhattan street, sheering off part of an apartment building on the way down. It was the second time in nearly 11 weeks that a crane tumbled from high above a construction site in New York: On March 15 a crane - its tower, cab and boom - collapsed thunderously to earth, killing seven.
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State Supreme Court grills lawyers in same-sex marriage case (U.S., 14 articles)
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P (05-15) 12:38 PDT SAN FRANCISCO The California Supreme Court struck a historic but possibly short-lived blow for gay rights Thursday, overturning a state law that allowed only opposite-sex couples to marry. Unlike Massachusetts - the only other state to legalize same-sex marriages - California allows residents of other states to wed here even if the marriage would not be permitted in their home state. "An inevitable result of such marriage tourism will be a steep increase in litigation" over whether the couple's home state must recognize their marriage, said Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff
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White House aide's trust in Bush trumped doubts over Iraq (U.S., 11 articles)
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The president harkened back to the patriotic sacrifice of World War II, the deadliest conflict in history, in again suggesting the country must hold firm and not lose its nerve. Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan continued to press his case Thursday that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify the war in Iraq, and responded to a growing chorus of criticism from other former administration officials. Editor, The Times: Former Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written a tell-all book about the Bush administration Ex-aide says Bush misled the U.S. on war Times, News, May 28.
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Judge Stalls Deal Between Texas, Polygamist Sect to Return Children (U.S., 10 articles)
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SAN ANGELO, Texas - Negotiations for the state's release of more than 460 children who were removed from a polygamist sect in April broke down Friday in a scene of chaos in a courtroom in San Angelo. SAN ANTONIO - In a blow to the state's seizure of children from a polygamist sect's ranch, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that child-welfare officials overstepped their authority and the children should go back to their parents. The high court let stand the appellate court's order that Texas District Judge Barbara Walther return the children from foster care to their parents.
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Two cheers for the blessing of high oil prices (U.S., 6 articles)
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Exxon, the world's largest oil company; Chevron, the second-biggest in the United States; and the rest of the industry are struggling to increase production and profits because the most promising new fields are miles beneath the ocean. There are lots of villains in sight - those enriched oil executives grilled by Congress, OPEC conspirators, futures market speculators, inept regulators, indifferent politicians, environmentalists, Latin American dictators - the list goes on and on. Some analysts argue that the rise in oil will entirely offset the stimulative impact of the tax rebates that began arriving in Americans' bank accounts this month.
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Fish in a barrel: Pickings for carp worth their weight in cash was easy (U.S., 5 articles)
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By RAY SASSER / The Dallas Morning News rsasser Hurst angler Scott Townson was the key member of a record-setting, two-man tournament fishing team in late May. Townson teamed with Tim Creque of Cincinnati to win the American Carp Society Northeast Regionals on New York's Seneca River. The total catch of fish bigger than 10 pounds amassed by 41 teams was 32,181 pounds, about 16 tons of carp.
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Tony Blair's Faith Foundation to sell religion as force for good -Times Online (U.S., 8 articles)
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(Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press) Cherie Blair is taking a beating from the press in the U.K. over her memoir, Speaking for Myself. " The DA has put a lot of time and effort into investigating this case said Lubbock defense attorney Philip Wischkaemper, who worked on Mr. Blair's appeal. Former prime minister Tony Blair has launched a faith foundation to tackle global poverty, challenge conflict and unite the world's religions.
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Prescott warns on Labour troubles (U.S., 5 articles)
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Promoting his autobiography at the Hay Festival in Powys, the Welsh-born former deputy prime minster said Labour was going through a "difficult" period. The Hull East MP also warned that proportional representation such as that used in the Welsh assembly would hit Labour support in its "heartland". Mr Prescott was deputy to Mr Brown's predecessor Tony Blair from Labour's first landslide victory in 1997 until last year.
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What You Need to Know to Get a Mortgage (U.S., 5 articles)
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Massachusetts will publicly grade state-licensed mortgage companies on their efforts to help borrowers who can't afford their mortgage payments, the state's latest bid to pressure the industry to limit foreclosures. Most of the evaluation is focused on the lending process, including loan volume and interest rates; the new measure focuses instead on what happens when borrowers fall into trouble. At his busy shop in West Baltimore, one of Maryland's largest and oldest repossession companies, workers bag, tag and stash personal items from vehicles in a locked vault.
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Lose Homes, Pay More Tax (U.S., 5 articles)
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Cut the federal corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent and allow corporations to immediately deduct the costs of new equipments and technology. Investors are not sufficiently aware of an unexpected side effect of the new capital gains tax rules, advisers say, which means they can effectively claw back tax paid years ago and benefit from the new 18 per cent rate. Those who could benefit include buy-to-let investors, those who have profited from the stockmarket in the past three years, and those looking to protect their estate against inheritance tax.
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United Airlines, US Airways ground merger talks (U.S., 10 articles)
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DALLAS - Continental Airlines said Friday it is considering new alliance partners and may pull out of the SkyTeam alliance of carriers around the world. The global airline industry is facing a recession far more severe than the slowdown endured after the terrorist attacks of 2001, a leading aviation expert claims. A familiar bright spot in the results was Southwest Airlines Co., which led the industry in passenger satisfaction for the 15th consecutive year.
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Energy Firms Come to Terms With Climate Change (U.S., 6 articles)
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While the political debate over global warming continues, top executives at many of the nation's largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable. The Democratic head of the Senate's environment committee tried Saturday to drum up support for legislation to deal with " one of the most important issues of our time global warming. " There are some in the Senate who insist that global warming is nothing more than science fiction Sen. Barbara Boxer said in the Democrats' weekly radio address.
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Canada launches privacy probe into Facebook (U.S., 5 articles)
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P 05-31) 15:15 PDT TORONTO, Canada (AP) Canada's federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into Facebook after four students complained that the popular Web site violates Canadian law by disclosing personal information to advertisers without proper consent. The University of Ottawa law students, some of whom are dedicated Facebook users, allege in a complaint lodged Friday that the social networking Web site has committed 22 violations of the law. " There's definitely some significant shortcomings with Facebook's privacy settings and with their ability to protect users said Harley Finkelstein one of the students behind the complaint.
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Carroll officials adopt $353 million budget - (U.S., 4 articles)
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The Howard County Board of Education unanimously approved a combined $737.5 million for capital and operating budgets and thanked elected officials for a collaborative effort despite economic strains. Harford County Executive David R. Craig expects to endorse today the nearly $900 million budget, a voluminous document that gives about 1,200 government employees a 9 percent increase in pay without raising taxes. Craig had asked for $20 million for site acquisition and development funds that would have been available to purchase land for public projects and buildings, particularly schools.
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Barclays to cut penalty charges (U.S., 4 articles)
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Andy Harris said last week the bank was looking to triple sales of its most-expensive account , Premier Life, which costs up to $25 a month. Most of Barclays' 11m customers who occasionally dip into authorised overdraft will lose out after the bank raised the interest charged by 2.3 points, from 15.6% to 17.9%. Banks, building societies and insurance companies could face league tables of poor service, under proposals published by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
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Marijuana 101: School teaches ins, outs of pot (U.S., 4 articles)
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Then the 12-man major crimes task force kicked in the doors one day earlier this month at twilight, screaming, " Police Department, search warrant. Related story: Pot is burning issue on Mendocino ballot It had been gutted and transformed into an indoor farm for at least 270 marijuana plants. ARCATA, CALIF. LaVina Collenberg thought she had ideal tenants for her tidy ranch-style home on the outskirts of this university town nestled in the redwoods of the North Coast.
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Procession was for police officer's father - (U.S., 4 articles)
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A pedestrian was forced into a car by three men in Glen Burnie and robbed at gunpoint, Anne Arundel County police said. Anne Arundel County police are seeking the driver of a car that crashed into another vehicle in the Seven Oaks community of Odenton, injuring one of its passengers, before fleeing. An Annapolis teenager has been charged with stabbing an Arnold woman in the leg during an argument, Anne Arundel County police said.
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Throwing off players association, Grimsley hurls hGH into spotlight - (U.S., 4 articles)
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Not to get all biblical on you, but if the just-released Mitchell Report is any indication, the truth will not necessarily set you free. Commissioner Bud Selig spent millions of Major League Baseball dollars to get closure on the steroid issue and instead opened a can of worms that will be crawling through this tainted sport for decades. The Mitchell Report was supposed to provide some measure of closure to a decade of steroid suspicion and recrimination but instead threatened to turn the scandal into a soap opera with the staying power of Days of Our Lives.
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If Landlord Doesn't Fix Radiator, Turn Up the Heat by Going to the County (U.S., 8 articles)
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Q: You have mentioned that the burden is on renters to prove that any apartment damage found on move-out is not their responsibility, but that seems like backward logic. The professionals should have to prove that renters caused damage, either by insisting on an apartment check before the renters move in or otherwise documenting that damage took place after the rental. Some landlords have hazy memories about the apartment's condition before their renters moved in, and others are not honest or fair in judging normal wear and tear.
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Landis Attorneys Question Lab's Methods at Hearing (U.S., 7 articles)
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Landis and his attorneys alternately claimed that the elevated levels were the result of a pre-Stage 17 drinking binge, a naturally high level of testosterone in his body, cortisone shots for his ailing hip and other legal medication. Attorneys for Floyd Landis began trying to paint a picture yesterday of incompetence at the French laboratory where the cyclist's urine was tested. While Floyd Landis s former manager prepared to enter rehab yesterday, a witness for Landis testified he had grave concerns about the evidence being used to prove the Tour de France champion's positive doping test.
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Cubans Hope Raul Castro Brings Reform (U.S., 7 articles)
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The Bush administration is ruling out any changes in its Cuba policy - including lifting a five-decade trade embargo - deriding Fidel Castro's brother and heir apparent, Raul, as " dictator lite. Led by President Bush, a chorus of officials expressed hope that Castro's departure would spark fundamental changes for the Cuban people. When Cuban native Maria Elena Alvarez first heard the news that Fidel Castro had finally stepped from his post as Cuba's president, her reaction was " so what?.
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Mad cow fears grip SKoreans (U.S., 6 articles)
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Tens of thousands of South Koreans have rallied against plans to import US beef again after a four-year suspension that followed a mad cow disease scare. SEOUL, South Korea - Police clashed with elements of a crowd estimated at nearly 40,000 who protested into early Sunday in downtown Seoul against South Korean government plans to import U.S. beef. Water cannons were fired at some of the protesters who were blocked by police buses from a road leading to the presidential Blue House, prompting angry reaction from demonstrators.
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Actor Murray's wife seeks divorce (U.S., 5 articles)
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Jennifer Butler Murray's complaint also alleges frequent abandonment by the US film actor, best known for his roles in Lost in Translation and Ghostbusters. The complaint, filed on 12 May in Charleston County, South Carolina, alleges the actor would often leave home without telling his wife, travelling overseas to engage in "public and private altercations and sexual liaisons". The couple separated more than a year ago when Ms Murray moved with their four sons to Sullivan's Islands, South Carolina.
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Heath Henry: Why students need summer vacation (U.S., 5 articles)
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U.S. high schools are famously forgiving of students who don't want to subject themselves to the three-hour college level exams at the end of AP courses. To a senior who has already been admitted to college by May, that has no more sting than a disappointed look from his mother. Yet here were Old Tappan and Demarest high schools, well-regarded public institutions in affluent neighborhoods, cruelly flunking students who didn't show up.
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Despite price increases, dining out is better than ever (U.S., 5 articles)
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Two elements set the year apart: The large, flashy restaurants have given way to smaller, more personal places; and the restaurant boom has spread to Napa Valley and the Peninsula. The most obvious, of course, is when a restaurant closes, as in the cases of Wu Kong and Alain Rondelli. P There's a downside to the booming economy and the strong showing of restaurants in the past year: Prices are skyrocketing.
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UN nuclear agency report puts Iran on defensive (U.S., 5 articles)
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Now comes a report that substituting reeds and wild grasses, which might ease looming food shortages worldwide, has harmful effects, too. As invasive species, these grasses could overtake other vegetation and change the face of some areas of the country, such as the Everglades. Briefing board members three days after the report's release, Olli Heinonen und the IAEA's deputy director general in charge of the agency's Iran file und said Iran's possession of nuclear warhead diagrams was " alarming.
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Webb Aide Tried To Take Gun Into Senate Building, Capitol Police Say (U.S., 5 articles)
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P Bill Thompson jokingly calls his life schizophrenic, with one half spent in the big, busy city working all day, the other half living in forested seclusion. Thompson and his wife , Patty Paton, just sort of fell into their ever-so-ecological lifestyle one step at a time. First Air has suspended its jet service to Thompson, Man, with the airline blaming unacceptable runway conditions at the local airport.
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Article:The new cult wines: 6 wines to covet:/c/a/2008/05/29/WI4G10U4F4.DTL (U.S., 5 articles)
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As global warming threatens to change the land vintners have relied on - sometimes for centuries - established wine-growing regions around the world are deploying techniques old and new to adapt. The goal: to stay competitive as progressively hotter harvests open up the prospect of wine from regions once deemed unsuitable for growing grapes - including Russia's frozen but now thawing lands and rain-battered Britain. In France's southern Languedoc region, for example, once-sacred rules against irrigating vines are being relaxed, while growers in the U.S. are experimenting with genetically modified heat-resistant grapes.
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After Caesareans, Some Women See Higher Insurance Cost (U.S., 5 articles)
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REQUIRE EVERYONE TO OBTAIN HEALTH INSURANCE, SUBSIDIZED BY EMPLOYERS AND THE GOVERNMENT Require large employers to provide insurance or contribute to the cost. When dependents and non-working spouses are added, the total rises to $637 million, an increase of 14 percent over fiscal 2006 when the estimate was $559 million. The report, from the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, said that in Massachusetts, 72 percent of employers offer health insurance to their workers, higher than the national rate of 60 percent.
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Negotiating for a House? Start With ‘Dear Seller’ (U.S., 5 articles)
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A few years ago, when multiple bidders would show up at a real estate open house, the truly desperate resorted to writing love letters to the sellers. Today's real estate market, however, calls for a different kind of letter, less a fuzzy valentine and more like a cold splash of water. The dream scenario for someone selling his or her home is a long line of prospective buyers shouting at the top of their lungs in a protracted bidding war for the home.
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ABC News: Rate of U.S. Army Suicides at 20-Yr High (U.S., 5 articles)
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P (05-30) 04:00 PDT Washington Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007 at the highest rate on record, and the toll is climbing ever higher this year as long war deployments stretch on. Increasing the strain on the force last year was the extension of deployments to 15 months from 12 months, a practice ending this year. " Mainly the longtime and multiple deployments away from home, exposure to really terrifying and horrifying things, the easy availability of loaded weapons and a force that's very, very busy right now.
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Tysons Planners Thinking 'Circulator' (U.S., 4 articles)
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Virginia leaders who are nearing a decision on whether to build a Metrorail line below ground through Tysons Corner face a question that goes well beyond disputes over cost estimates and construction timelines. The extension's top congressional sponsors warn that delays and cost escalations associated with a tunnel could imperil the 23-mile line to Dulles. Virginia officials are considering a proposal from contractors allied with a major Tysons Corner landowner to take over construction of at least half of the Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport, a prospect that threatens to further delay the project.
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Revellers in dash to have last booze on the Tube (U.S., 4 articles)
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Revellers in fancy dress and carnival mood to mark the start of an alcohol ban on public transport in London prompted closure of Underground stations last night. Concerned about overcrowding, Transport for London shut the Underground section of Liverpool Street station and Baker Street. As offkey chants of "Ole ole ole" and "Circle Line" echoed through Liverpool Street station, crowds thought to number 2,000 were escorted into the main concourse to consume a vast array of alcoholic drinks.
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blaster@cs.columbia.edu
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