Shorts (left)
Canada’s parliamentary opposition reacted with outrage on Thursday after Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down the legislature until Jan. 26, seeking to forestall a no-confidence vote that he was sure to lose and, possibly, provoking a constitutional crisis.
New Economic Bailout Plans May Focus on Homeowners
After pouring vast amounts of money into financial institutions of almost every type, and having little to show for it, the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve are suddenly taking a new look at ordinary homeowners.
In Mumbai, More Evidence Links Terrorists to Pakistan
Fresh evidence unearthed Thursday by investigators in India indicated that the Mumbai attacks were stage-managed from at least two Pakistani cities by top leaders of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Shorts (right)
To get elected in Alaska to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat sometimes requires not acting like one. Talk up drilling for oil in wildlife refuges. Talk up gun rights. Insist that those liberals who control Congress will never push you around.
Ordering Up a Sunny Day
Every now and then a story about a novel invention that modifies the weather becomes an attention grabbing flash in the pan with the popular media. Wouldn’t it be great if you could order up sunny days every weekend and have it rain only at night? Florida homeowners would love nothing more than to set up a huge fan along the coast to blow hurricanes out to sea. Most attention in the arena of weather modification has been to prevent severe weather events, make it rain by seeding clouds, and reverse the effects of global climate change. Unfortunately, despite the rosy promises any method holds, there are often problems with feasibility, cost, scaling, reproducibility, and just plain lack of thought. For now, we mere mortals just have to deal with the weather or move to San Diego.
Obama Moves Fast to Fill Top Administration Posts
The call summoning him was somewhat cryptic. Only after Gen. James L. Jones showed up in a hotel suite for a one-on-one meeting with Barack Obama did it become clear what was going on.
Presidential Race Still Alive In Georgia Runoff for Senate Seat
So upset was Patricia Mock with Barack Obama’s election that she drove two hours to this middle Georgia town on Monday to rally against the president-elect.
Shorts (left)
For the Big Three automakers to win over Washington lawmakers in their bid for federal aid, they will have to address a key question in the business plans they present Congress with on Tuesday.
Shorts (right)
Anti-government protests that began in August and intensified last week with the takeover of the capital’s two airports have plunged Thailand into its worst national crisis in at least a decade, and might severely damage the country’s economy.
U.S. Recession Is Officially Declared Almost a Year Old
The U.S. economy officially sank into a recession last December, which means that the downturn is already longer than the average for all recessions since World War II, according to the committee of economists responsible for dating the nation’s business cycles.
With Appointments, Obama Puts Campaign Behind Him
President-elect Barack Obama put the rancor and even some of the rhetoric of the presidential campaign behind him on Monday as he welcomed his chief Democratic adversary into his Cabinet and signaled flexibility in his plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.
India Demands Pakistan To Act Against Terrorists
In a new sign of rising tensions between two nuclear-armed neighbors, Indian officials summoned Pakistan’s ambassador on Monday evening and told him that Pakistani nationals were responsible for the terrorist attacks here last week and that they must be punished.
Strategy Shift for Afghan War Poses Stiff Challenge for Obama
One of the most difficult challenges President-elect Barack Obama’s national security team faces is Obama’s vow to send thousands of U.S. troops to help defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan.
You Betcha (It’ll Be Cold Again)
After yesterday’s (somewhat unexpected) high temperature of 60°F (+1.5 standard deviations from the norm), you knew this unseasonably warm air wouldn’t last long. After November’s below-average warmth, deep down you knew it’d be cold again. In this case, again starts Friday. After that, the jet stream is forecasted to dip southward, bringing the colder Canadian air into New England and persisting for more than a week. Likely as a result, the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is predicting a moderate chance that this month’s average temperature over the eastern-half of the United States to be below normal. Furthermore, since the jet stream is a “highway” for low-pressure systems to travel on, storms will likely pass by Boston every three days or so. Likely as a result, the CPC is predicting above-normal precipitation for the next couple of weeks. So the upshot: there’ll be more than a handful of opportunities for you see snow this month.
Another Financial Crisis, Another Govt. Guarantee
Guarantees that could not be honored thrust the world financial system into its worst crisis since the Great Depression. Will a guarantee by the U.S. government finally restore confidence in the American financial system?
Geithner, Rescue Veteran, Has Jump in Seizing Reins
For the last year, Timothy F. Geithner has been at the very heart of dealing with the financial crisis, the junior partner with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve. Together, they scrambled to save Bear Stearns, American International Group and Citigroup, while letting Lehman Brothers fail.
Bush Issues 14 Pardons, But None to Notables
President Bush granted 14 pardons and commuted two prison sentences on Monday, but the benefactors included none of the big names who had become the topic of speculation as Bush leaves office.
Obama Unveils Team to Tackle Economic Crisis
President-elect Barack Obama sought to seize the reins of the economic crisis on Monday as he and his new economic team worked closely with President Bush to inject confidence into the trembling financial markets, which rallied throughout the day and erased nearly all of last week’s losses.
Shorts (left)
Just as the world seemed poised to combat global warming more aggressively, the worldwide economic slump and plunging prices of coal and oil are upending plans to wean businesses and consumers from fossil fuel.
Shorts (right)
From the hardened slums of this city to some of Venezuela’s most populous and economically important states, many of President Hugo Chavez’s supporters deserted him in regional elections, showing it is possible to challenge him in areas where he was once thought invincible.