Archive for the ‘u.s.+news’ Category

Seattle never ‘misses a chance to miss a chance’ on light rail

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

At least two big rail transit measures are on the ballot around the country this November, maybe more. In Seattle, voters will be asked to approve light-rail expansion. And in California, there's a truly transformative measure to build a high-speed rail network. Both will probably fail, both due to ...

Protester tries to handcuff Karl Rove

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

An anti-war protester confronted former Bush administration aide Karl Rove while he spoke at a San Francisco mortgage bankers' meeting. A statement by the group Code Pink identified the woman as 58-year-old Janine Boneparth, who tried to handcuff Rove in what she called a citizen's arrest for "treason."Read the ...

STD postcards: You’ve got mail — and more

Monday, October 20th, 2008

The site, www.InSPOT.org , is a way for people newly diagnosed with an STD to notify their partners to be tested, too. The e-cards, a sort of greeting card you'd rather not receive, are direct and to the point.Read the full story

Nation’s power elite at play is no pretty picture

Friday, October 17th, 2008

It's the American power elite at play, as photographed by Alejandro Tomas over 26 years of attending an annual horse ride called Rancheros Visitadores in the Santa Ynez Valley near Santa Barbara, Calif. Tomas, a senior faculty member at Seattle Central Community College, has assembled a startling photo essay ...

Palin’s e-mails? That’ll be $15 million

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

The office of the Republican vice-presidential nominee has quoted prices as high as $15 million for copies of state e-mails requested by news organizations and citizens. No matter what the price, most of the e-mails of the governor, her senior staff and other state employees won't be made public until ...

Social Security benefits going up by 5.8 percent

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Social Security benefits for 50 million people will go up 5.8 percent next year, the largest increase in more than a quarter century. The increase, which will start in January, was announced Thursday by the Social Security Administration. It will mean an additional $63 per month for the average ...

Dow jumps 936 as governments pledge bank aid

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Wall Street stormed back from last week's devastating losses Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrials soaring a nearly inconceivable 936 points after major governments' plans to support the global banking system reassured distraught investors. All the major indexes rose more than 11 percent.Read the full story

Krugman - Moment of Truth

Friday, October 10th, 2008

What he should have proposed instead, many economists agree, was direct injection of capital into financial firms: The U.S. government would provide financial institutions with the capital they need to do business, thereby halting the downward spiral, in return for partial ownership. When Congress modified the Paulson plan, it introduced ...

After Bailout, AIG Executives Head to Exclusive Resort

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Less than a week after the federal government offered an $85 billion bailout to insurance giant AIG, the company held a week-long retreat for its executives at the luxury St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., running up a tab of $440,000, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said today at the ...

Retirement accounts have lost $2 trillion

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Americans' retirement plans have lost as much as $2 trillion in the past 15 months, Congress' top budget analyst estimated Tuesday. The upheaval that has engulfed the financial industry and sent the stock market plummeting is devastating workers' savings, forcing people to hold off on major purchases and consider delaying ...