Top Dems: Obama Won't Get Health Care Bill in 2009 Catch a Clue Time: Obama on Oct. "I am absolutely confident that we are going to get health care done by the end of this year, and Nancy Pelosi is just as confident."
Down-ballot Republicans, riding a sweep at the top of the Virginia ticket, maintained their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates, and appeared poised to widen that margin. The GOP managed to stanch a recent Democratic tide in the state legislature. Democrats had gained 11 seats in the past three elections, leaving Republicans with a six-seat working majority after holding 64 seats in 2001.
Democrat Bill Owens is up by just 2,500 votes or about 2%, and there are still about 11,000 absentee ballots that have to be counted. They won't start counting those until the morning, our Elections Unit tells us. So, we're calling it a night. See you in the morning.
An analysis of more than 1,000 California patients hospitalized with H1N1 flu during the first four months of the pandemic found that infants were most likely to be admitted, and patients 50 and older were most likely to die once admitted. In the first four months of the pandemic, H1N1, like the seasonal flu, was especially severe in older people, who are more likely to have underlying health conditions
Sacramento - The radio ads have aired daily across the state since she declared her bid for governor in September. ''I'm Meg Whitman,'' one begins, ''and I want to talk to you about California. . . .'' The costly airtime -- with the primary election still seven months away -- is just one way the former eBay chief is spending the $19 million of her personal fortune that she has plowed into the race.
Washington - Republicans today boycotted the start of a Senate hearing on climate-change legislation. The Republican members of the Environment and Public Works Committee are demanding a full Environmental Protection Agency analysis of the climate bill. But despite the boycott, committee Chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) still held the meeting, arguing that the EPA's partial analysis, based on a similar bill passed by the House of Representatives in June, was sufficient.
Harvey, La. - Mindful that the suburban West Bank of New Orleans has regained its pre-Hurricane Katrina population and is primed for growth, the Army Corps of Engineers is launching a $1 billion effort to keep the next storm at bay. The new flood protection is already having a potentially dangerous consequence, though: It's encouraging more people to move into another bowl-shaped area that experts consider perhaps the city's most vulnerable flank.
To appreciate the extent to which the Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama is a regulator reborn, consider this: EPA officials have begun to cut air pollution by invoking the Clean Water Act. Long quiescent under President George W. Bush, the agency is churning out initiatives and regulations at a pace that pleases its friends in the environmental movement and frightens many in the business community.
In the last few years, Jeff Dunham has become something akin to a rock star. The 47-year-old entertainer routinely sells out concert halls and arenas at home and abroad, travels in a decked-out touring bus and just launched a new weekly cable television show. He can thank a bunch of dummies with names including Bubba J, Walter and Achmed the Dead Terrorist for his astonishing success.
Conservatives, energized by their role in shaping Tuesday's New York congressional election, have set Florida in their sights as the big battleground for 2010. That state's Republican Senate primary in August is emerging as a focal point in the wider debate over the future course of the Republican Party. Gov. Charlie Crist, who is supported by party leaders in Washington, backed President Barack Obama's stimulus package and has expressed openness to cap-and-trade legislation to curb
A Microsoft security report released on Monday warns that cyber crooks are digging into computers for weak spots to penetrate with worms - malicious software that steals control or data. Rogue security software remained the top hacker threat to computers during the first half of this year, but the number of infections was dropping while penetrations by worms doubled
[Update] - Democrat Bill Owens is leading in the 23rd Congressional District race. The Plattsburgh attorney has 58,812 votes compared to Conservative Doug Hoffman, a Lake Placid CPA, with 54,637 votes. Dede Scozzafava, a Republican who dropped out of the race Saturday, has 6,665 votes. There were more than 10,000 absentee votes sent out before the election and some 5,800 were returned and must be counted. More absentee
Buddhists believe in reincarnation — but courts do not. A Buddhist bank robber has pled for the right of his cat to visit him in jail, saying the animal is the reincarnation of his dead mother. The man, serving five years in a German jail for armed robbery, made the court application this week, (Snip) ''I need to see her like other prisoners see their wives and children.'' The court turned down his application, arguing that he had no proof that it was
Congratulations, Chris Christie, and good luck. You’ll need it. The campaign that ended with today’s voting may have seemed a difficult ordeal, but it was a day at the beach compared to the task ahead. Now comes the really hard part. The list of problems facing the state would try the patience of Job:
Berlin - Relations have been tense between Iran and Syria in recent weeks, according to the German weekly Der Spiegel, which quotes Western intelligence sources. Iran has demanded that Syria return the uranium delivered to it prior to the Israeli bombing of the Syrian reactor two years ago, says the weekly. Moreover, Iran reportedly wants the radioactive material restored in its entirety and without Syria's receiving compensation in
Former U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie has defeated Gov. Jon Corzine in his bid for re-election. Christie, 47, who rose to political prominence as a corruption-buster, becomes the first Republican in 12 years to win a statewide contest in heavily Democratic New Jersey. With 90 percent of precincts reporting, Christie had 49 percent of the vote, compared with 45 percent for Corzine.
Women are seen as a key constituency of Democrats, particularly on issues like health care. But current congressional proposals not only concern women, they may actually drive women away from the party. The Independent Women's Forum (IWF) commissioned a survey to better understand women's health-care concerns. We asked extensive questions of 800 registered voters, deliberately taking a broad sample to be
Hours after urging reporters not to draw sweeping conclusions from Tuesday's gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told POLITICO President Barack Obama wasn't even keeping an eye on the results. "He's not watching returns," Gibbs said. The Obama administration and other top Democrats have consistently tried to play down the import of this week's contests, which
Robert F. McDonnell handily defeated R. Creigh Deeds in Virginia's gubernatorial election Tuesday night as Republicans swept the state's top three offices and ended nearly a decade of Democratic dominance at the top of the ticket. Mr. McDonnell, a former attorney general, captured strong support from independents and voters in the Northern Virginia exurbs of Prince William and Loudoun counties that had been key to President
Top Democrats predicted that the backlash against the Republican Party in a New York congressional election Tuesday marked the start of a wave that will continue in key 2010 Senate races, saying they think independent voters will abandon a divided Republican Party. "What we are seeing here is a fractured GOP in Senate races all over the country," said Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat and chairman of the Democratic
Kabul - Hamid Karzai offered an olive branch to his ''Taliban brothers'' in a victory speech a day after he was declared president. He promised an inclusive government and said he would ''eradicate the stain of corruption'' as his foreign backers pressured him to clean up his regime. In a televised speech he said: ''We call on our Taliban brothers to come home and embrace their land''. Mr Karzai's previous calls for talks with Mullah Mohammad
Christopher J. Christie, a Republican former United States attorney who said he would vanquish corruption from the halls of New Jersey government, won the New Jersey governor’s race on Tuesday, defeating the incumbent, Gov. Jon S. Corzine, and striking a blow against the Democratic party on a national stage. Mr. Christie, who accused Mr. Corzine of leading the state into economic turmoil, had nearly half of the vote to Mr.
Baghdad - Despite major bombings that have rattled the nation, and fears of rising violence as American troops withdraw, Iraq’s security forces have been relying on a device to detect bombs and weapons that the United States military and technical experts say is useless. The small hand-held wand, with a telescopic antenna on a swivel, is being used at hundreds of checkpoints in Iraq. But the device works ''on the same principle as a Ouija
Noor Almaleki, whom I wrote about over the weekend, has died, the latest Western victim of a Muslim honor killing. If there were a Matthew Shepard murder every few months, Frank Rich et al would be going bananas about the "climate of hate" in our society, but you can run over your daughter, decapitate your wife, drown three teenage girls and a polygamous spouse, and progressive opinion and the press couldn't give a hoot. Indeed, as
Democrat Bill Owens is leading in the 23rd Congressional District race. The Plattsburgh attorney has 42,019 votes compared to Conservative Doug Hoffman, a Lake Placid CPA, with 39,012 votes. Dede Scozzafava, a Republican who dropped out of the race Saturday, has 4,578 votes. Owens now leads in Jefferson, St. Lawarence, Franklin, Clinton and Essex counties. Hoffman leads in Oswego, Oneida and Madison counties.
It's a common tale: Man meets penguin, penguin meets man, they fall in love. A German zoo has witnessed a bittersweet love affair between two very unequal partners. (Snip) ''I didn't choose her; she chose me. When I would get to work in the morning, she would be there waiting for me and call out to me. And when we did our daily penguin march for exercise, she would always jump to the front of the line to be next to me." With Vollbracht
