The Washington Times stories: National

Philadelphia's transit strike ends

ASSOCIATED PRESS — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:36:05 -0500

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Representatives of Philadelphia's transit system and its largest union signed a contract early Monday, bringing an end to a strike that idled the city's subways, buses and trolleys for six days. "The strike is over," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told reporters at a hastily called news conference in the lobby of a Philadelphia hotel. The governor said the transit system would be back up and running in time for Monday morning's commute. About 5,000 workers of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority walked off the job early last Tuesday in a dispute centered around pension benefits. "This was ...

Obama to meet Monday with Netanyahu

Steven R. Hurst ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:24:09 -0500

The White House, ending days of uncertainty, announced Sunday that President Obama will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during Mr. Netanyahu's trip to Washington to address Jewish groups. Mr. Netanyahu is to arrive in the U.S. capital Sunday night for a speaking engagement at the three-day 2009 General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. He will meet with Mr. Obama on Monday evening. U.S.-Israeli relations have been strained since Mr. Netanyahu rejected Mr. Obama's demand that the Israeli government stop building or expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinians say Israel has encroached deeply ...

Iraqi parliament passes key election law

Qassim Abdul-Zahra ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:55:00 -0500

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's parliament Sunday night passed a long-delayed law necessary to hold nationwide elections, in a process that has been intensely watched over fears the holdup could delay the January contests and possibly delay the planned U.S. troop withdrawal. The passage of the law repeatedly was delayed by sharp disagreements over how voting would take place in the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, claimed by both Arabs and Kurds and a major flash point in the country. The lawmakers approved the bill after a tense daylong session during which U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill could be seen shuttling between various ...

Army chief wary of backlash against Muslim soldiers

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:08:03 -0500

The Army chief of staff said Sunday that he is concerned that speculation about the Muslim faith and the motives of the accused Fort Hood gunman could spark retaliation against Muslin soldiers and hurt diversity within the branch's ranks. "I think that's something else we need to be very careful about, and I think the speculation could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers," said Gen. George W. Casey Jr. on ABC's "This Week." Gen. Casey said he has instructed his commanders to be on the lookout for that reaction to the killings at the Texas post. The ...

Karzai vows to fight corruption

Robert H. Reid ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:56:17 -0500

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Embattled Afghan President Hamid Karzai pledged Sunday that there would be no place for corrupt officials in his new administration -- a demand made by Washington and its international partners as they ponder sending more troops to confront the Taliban and shore up his government. Also Sunday, NATO reported three more coalition soldiers -- one American and two Britons -- died in combat in the Taliban-infested areas of the west and south. The latest losses pushed Britain's combat death toll in the eight-year Afghan war to 201. NATO forces said they were still searching for two American ...

Jindal declares state of emergency ahead of Ida

ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:28:56 -0500

UPDATED: NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Sunday as the Gulf Coast braced for the arrival of Hurricane Ida, which was making its way across the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 2 storm. A hurricane watch was in effect from southeastern Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, meaning hurricane conditions were possible in the next day and a half. The emergency declaration is a precaution that frees up state resources for any emergency situations. The National Guard and state agencies have been put on high alert so personnel and vehicles are available if needed. ...

Fort Hood killings evoke bad memory

Steve Miller THE WASHINGTON TIMES — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:08 -0500

KILLEEN, Texas | The town that has for years been newsworthy for its violence is again in crisis. Thursday's massacre of 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, the nation's largest active-duty military installation, has brought crisis clinics, candlelight vigils and questions on the ability of the military to police its own. For decades, Killeen, the de facto civilian arm of the U.S. Army base, has been subject to the vacillating and fickle arm of military budget cuts and call-ups. It is watching a replay of the spotlight shone on it in 1991, when a man entered a cafeteria and fatally shot ...

Sunshine vitamin stirs new debate

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:07 -0500

Remember all the advice we've heard about skin cancer -- stay out of the sun, cover up, wear sunblock? Now some doctors are saying that it has resulted in a new health problem - millions of people worldwide are suffering from vitamin D deficiency. And the scientific and therapeutic disagreements between dermatologists and nutritionists are heating up. Dr. Michael Holick, a Boston University professor of medicine and physiology and author of a forthcoming book "The Vitamin D Solution," has called the deficiency "probably the most common nutritional and medical condition in the world," affecting "more than 50 percent of the ...

Parents buying homes for kids at college

Tim Devaney THE WASHINGTON TIMES — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:05 -0500

Ashley Jordan has lived with her college roommate for most of her life, so not much changed when she moved into a College Park condo with her brother Kyle last fall — except their housing costs got a whole lot cheaper. Miss Jordan's parents bought a $185,000 condo where the siblings could live while they attend the University of Maryland. They decided it was the financially smart thing to do. "In today's economy, it literally costs less to buy this condo than put them on campus," said their father, Troy. "We save money now. We potentially make money later. They're ...

Fla. shooting suspect 'mentally ill'

Mike Schneider and Antonio Gonzalez ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:04 -0500

ORLANDO, Fla. | The engineer accused of fatally shooting one employee and wounding five others at the firm where he once worked is "very mentally ill" and crumbled under the stress of his divorce, bankruptcy and unemployment, his attorney said Saturday. Jason Rodriguez, 40, was ordered held without bail at the Orange County Jail, where he was under suicide watch after Friday's shooting. His mother, Ana Rodriguez, apologized Saturday, telling reporters she was "so sorry for everything that has happened." "Sorry for the families involved. I'm really very sorry; it is very hurtful," she said. Public defender Bob Wesley asked ...

KUHNHENN: 10% jobless rate is Obama's troubling world

Jim Kuhnhenn ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:01 -0500

For months he had warned it was coming, but that didn't ease the political shockwaves for President Obama when unemployment topped 10 percent. A year after his election, Mr. Obama finds it increasingly difficult to blame the sour economy on George W. Bush or offer reassurances that jobless Americans will soon find work. Never mind that the economy itself grew in the last quarter, that the recession, as measured by the precise formulas used by economists, is over and that the number of jobs lost in October was less than one-third the number of job losses at the start of ...

New wave of dolls delivers positive messages

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0500

Call them the alternative Barbies. The iconic doll recently celebrated her 50th birthday with a pink cake, a party at her Malibu dream house — and an 8 percent fall in sales during the third quarter of 2009. She's also faced a half-century of fighting off critics and parents, who say Barbie is too sexy for the young girls who play with her. That has left a spot on the shelves for companies that have created dolls just a little more modestly dressed and with a girl-power message that trumps even Barbie's NASA flight suit. "A lot of parents have ...

MARSHALL/DERHAM: Making our tax system more fair

Will Marshall and Mike Derham — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0500

Americans want a tax system that is fair, simple and capable of raising the revenue we need to pay the nation's bills. The one we have fails on all three counts. That's why President Obama will probably have to add comprehensive tax reform to his already jammed agenda. The first imperative of reform is to restore progressivity, the keystone of a fairer tax system. Since there is a lot of fatuous talk about "socialism" in the air these days, it's worth noting that progressive taxation, which dates back to 1913, is a deeply American tradition. It recognizes that our free ...

ELLIS: Making our tax system more fair

Ryan Ellis — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0500

Pundits in Washington from time to time like to debate how to make the tax system more "fair." At one level, this is comical. Asking the tax system to be more fair is like asking Barack Obama not to use a teleprompter: theoretically possible, but not going to happen in the real world. There is simply no "fair" way to steal one-third of the nation's output and give it to people who never earned it. It's theft at the barrel of a gun, just an Army-issue one. On the other hand, there are ways to make the tax system less ...

G-20 says too early to brake stimulus

Jane Wardell ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0500

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland | Finance officials from rich and developing countries pledged Saturday to maintain emergency support for their economies until recovery is assured, but failed to reach a clear agreement to bear the cost of fighting climate change. There was also a mixed reaction among the Group of 20 leading rich and emerging nations to a British-led push to consider a fund for bank bailouts, possibly financed by a tax on financial transactions, to ensure that taxpayers don't bear the brunt of any future rescues. The grouping - representing around 90 percent of the world's wealth, 80 percent of ...

With its 'Mother' dead, future of doomsday sect is in doubt

Matthew Brown ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0500

BOZEMAN, Mont. | It wasn't long ago that thousands of members of the Church Universal and Triumphant followed their leader's call to donate their life savings to build underground shelters against a coming nuclear apocalypse. Yet Armageddon never came, and after a decade-long decline caused by Alzheimer's disease, Elizabeth Clare Prophet - "Mother" to her followers - died last month at age 70. In the waning days of Mrs. Prophet's reign as the church's divinely chosen messenger, its focus shifted from civilization's end to the development of a New Age publishing juggernaut, producing hundreds of books and recordings drawn from ...

19-year-old led L.A. celebrity burglaries

Ken Ritter and Thomas Watkins ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0500

LAS VEGAS | A 19-year-old woman was the driving force behind a youthful burglary ring that preyed on Hollywood's rich and famous, often brazenly walking into unlocked homes to make off with cash, jewels and family heirlooms, authorities said. A suspect turned informant, Nicholas Prugo, told Los Angeles police detectives that Rachel Jungeon Lee spearheaded the break-ins, motivated by a desire to own the designer clothes and jewelry of such celebrities as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, according to a Las Vegas police search warrant obtained by the Associated Press on Friday. Mr. Prugo, 18, told police that Ms. Lee ...

Nation Briefs

From wire dispatches and staff reports — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0500

Wrong-way driver a 'pot smoker' WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. | New York State Police investigators said in a written report that a woman who killed seven people and herself in a crash on the Taconic State Parkway was a regular marijuana user. The report said Diane Schuler's husband told police his wife "smoked marijuana once in a while to relieve the stress of work and the kids." Mrs. Schuler's sister-in-law told police she "didn't believe in medicine and used marijuana to relax," usually smoking after her children went to bed. Relatives of the crash victims got the report Friday during a ...

Obama praises those who ended Fort Hood violence

Philip Elliott ASSOCIATED PRESS — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:15:00 -0500

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Saturday that the training designed to keep U.S. forces safe abroad prevented further deaths and ended the rampage at Fort Hood. He praised those who serve or have served in uniform and reminded the public of their diversity — a move designed to calm tensions around the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. "They are Americans of every race, faith and station. They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers," Obama said in his radio and Internet address, airing the weekend before Veterans Day. "They are descendants of immigrants and immigrants themselves. ...

'Gentle' Army psychiatrist displayed worrisome signs

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:45:10 -0500

Investigators worked doggedly Friday to piece together what apparently drove an Army psychiatrist to open fire on his comrades at Fort Hood in Texas. While they searched for clues, a conflicting portrait of the accused shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Arlington native, has continued to emerge. On the one hand, he has been described by some as a gentle man who was involved in his mosque's charitable endeavors and spoke little of America's conflicts abroad; but there also seemed to be worrisome signs. A neighbor said Maj. Hasan, who on Friday night remained hospitalized and unconscious, recently had given away ...