Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize
President Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. In a statement earlier today, the Oslo-based Nobel Committee cited Obama for “extraordinary efforts in international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples.” Obama is the third US president to win the Nobel while in office. The award comes despite Obama’s continuation of the Iraq war and escalation of the US occupation of Afghanistan.


ACORN Defunding Spurs Proposals to Bar Federal Money to Companies Convicted of Felonies
The embattled community group ACORN is continuing to come under fire across the country. In Louisiana, Attorney General James Caldwell announced that he is stepping up an investigation into embezzlement at ACORN that took place nearly a decade ago. In Minnesota, Republican lawmaker Michele Bachmann is asking Governor Tim Pawlenty to name a special investigator to look into the activities of the local ACORN chapter. In Virginia and Kansas, Republican organizations are going after one of ACORN’s closest allies, the Service Employees International Union, because of its longstanding financial and leadership ties to the group.

ACORN, which helps poor people fight foreclosures and fix tax problems, has long been the target of right-wing scorn. But the group has been reeling since ACORN workers were secretly captured on video last month appearing to offer advice to a pimp and prostitute. Since then, the group has seen the Internal Revenue Service, Bank of America and the US Census Bureau cut ties with it; faced investigations into its activities announced by the Justice and Treasury Departments; and watched as Congress has cut its funding.

ACORN received about $53 million in federal funding over fifteen years. The Defund ACORN Act recently passed in the Senate by a vote of 83-to-7 and in the House by 345-to-75.

But in response, some of the lawmakers that voted against the measure have introduced legislation of their own. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont says the same standard should be applied to defense contractors and proposed amendment to the defense appropriations bill that focuses on defense contractors who receive billions of taxpayer dollars every year. And in the House, Minnesota Democrat Betty McCollum introduced an ACORN act of her own titled the Against Corporations Organizing to Rip-off the Nation Act of 2009, which seeks prohibit federal funding to corporations guilty of felony convictions.


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Study: Foreclosure Crisis Worsened by Scarcity of Legal Assistance for Struggling Homeowners
A new study by the Brennan Center for Justice concludes the national foreclosure crisis is also “a legal crisis. Many homeowners are losing their homes because they lack the ability to navigate the landscape of our lending laws…and too few people are ever able to obtain qualified legal guidance.”


House OKs Matthew Shepard Act on Hate Crimes
The House also voted Thursday to expand the definition of hate crimes to cover those targeted because of their sexual orientation. The measure would grant new protections to lesbian, gay and transgender people under federal law. The Matthew Shepard Act is named for the gay Wyoming university student who was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in 1998.


Study: House Military Spending Steered to Ex-Staffers’ Firms
And a new study shows members of a key House appropriations panel continue to steer millions of dollars in contracts to firms staffed by former colleagues, who in turn make large donations to the Congress members’ election campaigns. The Center for Public Integrity says ten of the sixteen members of the House subcommittee on defense appropriations won earmarks worth $103 million for companies that have employed former staffers.


Peace Activists Accuse Rochester Police of Excessive Force
Peace activists in Rochester, New York are accusing local police of a brutal crackdown on a peaceful march against the Afghan war. The activists say they were attacked as they marched through downtown Rochester on Wednesday. The protest was held as part of a nationwide day of action organized by the group Students for a Democratic Society. The activists say police deliberately targeted an African American protester as well as a videographer filming the march. One police officer reportedly announced he had arrested a protester for cursing. At least twelve people were arrested.


Geithner Had 80 Contacts with Top Bank Execs in 7 Months
Newly disclosed records show Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has held frequent talks with top executives from the banks Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase. The Associated Press reports Geithner had at least eighty contacts with the firms’ top executives during the first seven months of his tenure. Geithner has been criticized for his Wall Street ties and his role in the bailout as the former head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.


Cuban Embargo Forces New York Philharmonic to Delay Havana Performance
The New York Philharmonic orchestra has postponed a visit to Cuba after the US government refused to grant travel permission to the trip’s financial backers. The Philharmonic was scheduled to perform in Havana later this month in what would have been the most high-profile US cultural event in Cuba since the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Critics say the move could signify the US government looks more favorably on North Korea than it does on Cuba. The Philharmonic and its patrons were allowed to travel to North Korea for a performance there last year.


Zelaya Camp: No Progress in Coup Talks
In Honduras, talks are expected to continue today and through the weekend between representatives of the coup regime and the ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The negotiations resumed this week with the backing of a visiting delegation from the Organization of American States. Zelaya negotiator Miguel Barahona said the coup regime continues to reject the basic demand of Zelaya’s return to office.

Miguel Barahona: “The talks are at zero. We haven’t progressed since starting. The first point we are dealing with is the restitution of President Zelaya, and they reject this. If there is no progress made on this matter, what is the point of continuing with the following issues?”

The OAS delegation left Honduras on Thursday after claiming both sides had reached agreement on one quarter of the outstanding issues. In a statement, the OAS renewed its call for Zelaya’s return and urged the coup regime to lift a ban on two opposition media outlets. The OAS also called for an end to the siege of the Brazilian embassy, where Zelaya and a group of supporters have taken refuge since Zelaya’s dramatic return last month.

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