From the HUFF POST / AOL NEWS: Senate Democrats wasted no time capitalizing on Tuesday’s Medicare-fueled upset in a New York special election, holding a vote on the GOP budget plan Wednesday designed to put Republicans on record backing the controversial House budget plan.
Month: May 2011
PA House GOP passes budget to Senate, 109-92, after nearly eight hours of debate.
From CAPITOLWIRE: After nearly eight hours of mostly partisan-fueled debate, the House GOP budget was passed on to the Senate by a vote of 109-92. House Bill 1485 would keep funding at $27.3 billion – the spending level proposed in Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget – but shifts money around through various cuts and restorations…
Democrats Court Warren to Take on Scott Brown
NEWSMAX: Democrats desperate to find a strong challenger to popular GOP Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts are actively courting consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren to jump into the race… Warren is a Harvard Law professor tapped by President Barack Obama last year to set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but congressional Republicans oppose her […]
Democrat scores upset in Medicare-focused House race
From USA TODAY / AP: Democrat Kathy Hochul scored an upset victory Tuesday in a special election for Congress that was viewed as a proxy battle for the future of Medicare. The district, one of only a handful in New York that backed John McCain for president in 2008, has elected a Republican to Congress since 2002…
Anti-logging activist murdered in Amazon
ALJAZEERA: An Amazon environmental activist and his wife were killed late on Monday and the crime is being investigated as a possible assassination to silence the outspoken forest defender, according to police. José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, also known by his nickname of “Ze Claudio,” was shot and killed along with his wife, Maria do […]
Obama and Cameron to talk tough on Libya
FT.COM: The US and UK are warning that Nato will increase airstrikes against Libya to levels not yet seen during the two month old conflict, as the pageantry of President Barack Obama’s state visit to the UK turns to issues of life and death. Speaking on a day when Nato aircraft carried out their most […]
LANCASTER NEW ERA
Editorial “Bringing back Pa. helmet law” reports “This time, proponents cite a 2008 study by two University of Pittsburgh faculty members who compared statistics from the two years before the repeal and the first two years after the repeal. The two found that head injury deaths increased 66 percent and cycle-related head injury increased 78 percent.
Antitax campaigner holds a lot of sway in Harrisburg
From the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: -The most powerful person in the state Capitol these days might not be the governor or any of his top deputies or even anyone from Pennsylvania. It might just be Grover Norquist.
Too Big to Fail
Because it was after midnight, the Watchdog only stayed up to see half of the HBO special “Too Big to Fail” but found what he saw to be terrific. It seems very faithful to the history of the events, avoiding the usual Hollywood approach to using a human interest plot to provide drama. There is more than enough drama in what occurred!
NATO airstrikes hit Tripoli
USATODAY: NATO warplanes bombarded targets in Tripoli with more than 20 airstrikes early Tuesday, striking around Moammar Gadhafi‘s residential compound in what appeared to be the heaviest night of bombing of the Libyan capital since the Western alliance launched its air campaign against his forces…. In a significant new deployment of firepower, France and Britain […]
LETTER: What does RACL do with the $200,000 from CC project?
The “private” hotel is SUPPOSED to be paying $200,000 a year for payments in lieu of taxes. The problem is, all this money goes to the owner of the hotel building, the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster (which receives no rent from the hotel).
Government Report Exonerating Toyota Was Flawed, Says Watchdog Group
HUFF POST / AOL: Safety Research and Strategies, which provides research and analysis of motor vehicle and product safety issues, today published a report critical of the government after an extensive review of documents recently released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the NASA Engineering and Safety Center. The report claims to show […]
Treasury set to make small profit in sale of AIG stock
American International Group and its largest investor, the US Treasury, are poised to raise at least $8.7bn through a sale of stock on Tuesday, handing the federal government a small profit on the deal, people familiar with the matter said. AIG and the Treasury plan to issue the shares at $29-$29.30 each on Tuesday, the […]
Euro contagion fears hit Spain and Italy
FT.COM: The euro and the Spanish and Italian bond markets came under pressure on Monday amid growing investor fears that the problems of Greece are hitting the bigger economies of Europe’s single currency. The euro fell to record lows against the Swiss franc and two-month lows against the dollar, while Spain’s cost of borrowing for […]