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Last Updated: Dec 8th, 2009 - 12:10:12 |
Bloomberg Retains NYC Mayoral Seat with Slim Margin; GOPers Win NJ, VA Gov. Races
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| William Thompson |
The most surprising result of Tuesday’s elections may have been in New York City where the mayor’s race between billionaire incumbent Michael Bloomberg and William Thompson was far tighter than many analysts had projected. Unofficial returns showed Bloomberg with 51 percent of the vote and Thompson with 46 percent. Bloomberg poured at least $90 million of his own money into the race and spent at least 14 times as much as Thompson. Election Day saw Republicans taking both gubernatorial races, while Democrats won the only two House seats up for grabs. In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie beat incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, the former senator and former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Christie becomes the first Republican to win statewide office in New Jersey in twelve years. In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell easily beat Democrat Creigh Deeds.
Louisiana Justice of Peace Who Shunned Interracial Marriage Resigns
In Louisiana, a justice of the peace who refuses to marry interracial couples has resigned. Keith Bardwell stepped down after weeks of calls for his ouster stemming from his refusal to marry an interracial couple last month.
All Active House Ethics Probes Focus on Black Lawmakers
The website Politico is reporting the House Ethics Committee is refusing to comment about why the committee is only investigating African American lawmakers for possible ethics violations. The committee is currently investigating seven African American lawmakers—more than 15 percent of the total in the House. Not a single White lawmaker is currently the subject of a full-scale Ethics Committee probe. Last week the committee considered three referrals from the recently formed Office of Congressional Ethics. The committee dismissed a case against Missouri Republican Sam Graves, who is White, but agreed to open full-blown investigations of California Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson, both of whom are Black. A document leaked to the Washington Post last week showed that nearly three dozen lawmakers have come under scrutiny this year by either the House Ethics Committee or the Office of Congressional Ethics. While the list contained a substantial number of White lawmakers, the Ethics Committee has not yet launched formal investigative subcommittees with respect to any of them..
Police Discover More Bodies at Cleveland Home
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| Anthony Sowell |
Cleveland police have discovered a total of 11 bodies at the home Anthony Sowell, 50, who is being held on suspicion of murder. Sowell was charged with five counts of aggravated murder even as workers continued finding more bodies in his back yard. Police, coroner and fire personnel are at the home, along with a dump truck. The first bodies were discovered last week scattered throughout the home, including buried in a shallow grave in the basement and in crawl spaces.
Low Road to High Finance: McClatchy Expose Reveals How Goldman Sachs Sold Off Billions in Mortgage Securities After Anticipating Housing Collapse
A five-month investigation by McClatchy Newspapers reveals that Goldman Sachs made secret bets against the housing market while simultaneously selling off billions in soon-to-be worthless securities. In 2006 and 2007, the bank reportedly peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in US housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting. It was only later that investors discovered that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.
This double-dealing allowed Goldman to foist most of its potential losses on to other investors before a flood of mortgage defaults brought down the US and global economies. But Goldman’s failure to disclose that it made secret bets on an imminent housing crash may have violated securities laws. The investigation also reveals that Goldman Sachs used offshore tax havens to shuffle its mortgage-backed securities to institutions around the world, often in secret deals run through the Cayman Islands.
Study Links Deaths of 17,000 Children to Lack of Insurance
A new study shows that a lack of health insurance led to the deaths of nearly 17,000 children over the span of less than two decades. Using millions of hospital records dating from 1988 to 2005, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center found uninsured children were 60 percent more likely to die than those with insurance. The study’s authors say the real toll could be even higher, because their research only covered children who were hospitalized. The study follows last month’s findings by a Harvard University research team that around 44,000 people die every year because they lack health insurance.
Study: Half of All US Children Will Get Food Stamps
A new study has concluded that nearly half of all US children and 90 percent of Black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood. Researchers say the fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher. The lead author of the study, Mark Rank, said, “This is a real danger sign that we as a society need to do a lot more to protect children.” Children on food stamps are at risk for malnutrition and other ills linked with poverty. In 2008, over 28 million Americans received food stamps in an average month. About half of the recipients were under the age of 16.
Blueberry Farming Giant Found to Use Child Labor at Michigan Fields
An ABC News investigation has exposed how one of the country’s largest blueberry growers uses child labor on its fields. Adkin Blue Ribbon Packing Company in South Haven, Michigan is at the center of this scandal. Wal-Mart and the Kroger supermarket chain were among Adkin’s high-profile customers that have now cut ties with the blueberry grower.
CIT Group Declares Bankruptcy
In one of the largest bankruptcies in US corporate history, CIT Group has filed for Chapter 11 protection. CIT’s bankruptcy is a potential blow to the thousands of small and mid-sized businesses that rely on the company for loans to keep their operations afloat. The US government is likely to lose the $2.3 billion it sunk into CIT last year to prop up the ailing company
GOP Boycott Delays Senate Climate Bill
On Capitol Hill, Republican senators have delayed consideration of a major climate bill that would impose curbs on emissions of greenhouse gases. On Tuesday, Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee shunned a vote on amendments to the Kerry-Boxer climate bill, delaying its introduction. The Republican boycott came as European leaders met with President Obama ahead of next month’s global climate summit in Copenhagen.
House Denounces Goldstone Report on Gaza Assault
The House has approved a non-binding measure denouncing a UN inquiry for accusing Israel of committing war crimes in its assault on the Gaza Strip. The inquiry, headed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, also accused Hamas of war crimes and urged both sides to investigate the charges or face international prosecution. But the House measure dismissed the Goldstone report as “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.” It also calls on the Obama administration to “strongly and unequivocally oppose” discussion of the report’s findings in any international setting. The resolution passed by a margin of 344-to-46. Before the vote, activists confronted the measure’s co-sponsor, Democratic Congress member Howard Berman. Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK said Berman is afraid to hear Goldstone’s findings.
Medea Benjamin: “We have been calling on Congress to let Judge Goldstone come and brief Congress. And Congressman Berman has been afraid to have him come to do that. And that’s one of the other things that we asked. We said, ’Don’t vote now. Let Congress have a chance to hear directly from Judge Goldstone.’ Judge Goldstone is a preeminent lawyer, internationally respected, has his daughter living in Israel, calls himself a Zionist. I mean, he’s the perfect person to do this report. And to just poo-poo the whole thing and try to push it under the rug is really criminal. And Congressman Berman is afraid to hear from Judge Goldstone.”
US Reverses Policy on Israeli Settlements
Palestinian leaders are accusing the Obama administration of destroying any chance of peace talks after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed Israel’s refusal to halt expanding illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Up until this weekend, the Obama administration had been demanding that Israel halt all settlement building before negotiations could resume, but Clinton announced a reversal of that policy on Saturday during a one-day visit to the Middle East.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “What the Prime Minister is saying is historically accurate. There has never been a precondition. It’s always been an issue within the negotiations. What the Prime Minister has offered, in specifics of a restraint on the policy of settlements, which he has just described—no new starts, for example—is unprecedented, in the context of prior to negotiations.”
Israel is refusing to halt construction of about 3,000 houses currently being built in the West Bank or any construction in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the Palestinian leadership for calling for a freeze on illegal settlements.
Benjamin Netanyahu: “The simple fact is this: We are willing to engage in peace talks immediately without preconditions. The other fact is that, unfortunately, the other side is not. It is asking and piling on preconditions that it never put on in the sixteen years that we’ve had the peace process, since the annunciation of the Oslo accords. There have not been these preconditions. It’s a change of Palestinian policy, and I hope they change back to the right thing, which is to get into the negotiating tent. We’re eager and sincere in our desire to reach an agreement to end this conflict.”
Earlier, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Arab states are deeply disappointed that the US-Israeli talks last week failed to produce greater pressure for a freeze on West Bank settlement building.
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