OlympiaBloggers

She Should Run for President in 2012!

2010-06-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

By Katie Cobb

Published June 12, 2010| FOXNews.com

Only nine months ago, politically speaking, Jan Brewer had flatlined; the Arizona governor's approval rating was at 22 percent. And as recently as three months ago, a Rasmussen poll of likely voters showed her trailing her likely opponent, state Attorney General Terry Goddard, by nearly 10 points in the runup to November's gubernatorial election.

But voters in the Grand Canyon State have been singing a different tune since April, when Brewer signed SB1070 -- the state immigration law that has become the focus of a national controversy.

Since then, Brewer's approval ratings have skyrocketed, catapulting her to the top of the polls in the gubernatorial race and launching what may be the biggest political comeback of the year in the U.S.

Just one month after signing the law, Brewer had taken a 13-point lead over Goddard, with 52 percent of likely voters backing her candidacy, according to Rasmussen Reports.

It's a remarkable turnaround for Brewer, who assumed office last year when Gov. Janet Napolitano resigned to become President Obama's secretary of homeland security. Brewer has pulled far ahead in Arizona's Aug. 24 Republican primary race, and she has emerged virtually overnight as a national figure in the debate over border security and illegal immigration.

Matt Roberts, communications director at Arizona Republican Party headquarters in Phoenix, says Brewer's comeback is all the more impressive considering how far behind she was when she took office.

"Our former governor really left our current governor in a bad spot," Roberts said. "The voters hold elected officials accountable, and maybe her polling figures that have gone up are due to the fact that things are going better."

In a second legislative victory last month, Brewer rallied voters to pass a temporary sales-tax increase to help combat the state's budget crisis. She also delighted conservatives earlier this spring when she circumvented Goddard's office in filing a lawsuit that challenges the president's health care law.

But the signature issue in Brewer's surge is Arizona's immigration law, which makes it illegal to be an undocumented immigrant in the state and empowers law enforcement officials to question people they suspect are illegal immigrants about their status. Seventy-one percent of voters in the state support the law, and 63 percent say immigration is "very important" in determining how they will vote. Goddard has said he opposes the law, and Brewer has now hired outside counsel to defend her and the state against impending lawsuits.

Congrats to the US Soccer Team!

2010-06-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

June 12, 2010 5:31 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- A disastrous blunder by England goalkeeper Robert Green cost his side victory as they drew 1-1 with the United States in their Group C opener in Rustenburg on Saturday night.

England were leading 1-0 through a fourth minute Steven Gerrard goal approaching halftime when Clint Dempsey sent in a weak shot from just outside the penalty area.

Maradona's Argentina beat Nigeria
It appeared to be a routine save for Green but astonishingly he let the ball slip through his grasp and despite a despairing dive saw it trickle into the net.

England captain Gerrard gave his side a dream start after he latched on to a neat pass from Emile Heskey to beat Tim Howard in the U.S. goal with ease.

Fabio Capello's men were holding onto their lead comfortably enough, aside from a scare when Jozy Altidore connected with a Landon Donovan cross to send his header wide, until the fortunate 40th minute equalizer.

The idea tonight was to win the game, but unfortunately we have let a poor goal in and we couldn't go on and get the winner

The second half saw England press for the winner and Heskey was sent clear by Aaron Lennon but shot straight at Howard.

Wayne Rooney also sent a shot narrowly wide and cleverly set up substitute Shaun Wright-Phillips for a chance from the left side of the penalty area which he sent straight at Howard.

But English hearts were in their mouths as Altidore outpaced Jamie Carragher, who came on for the injured Ledley King at halftime, and bore down on goal.

This time Green came to the rescue, parrying his effort against the post to partially redeem himself for an error which will live long in the memory.

There was no masking the disappointment in the England camp at the final whistle.

So the Census scam is real!

2010-06-04T15:30:00.000-07:00

Census Hiring Bolsters U.S. Payrolls

By LUCA DI LEO -- WSJ

JUNE 4, 2010, 2:32 P.M. ET

The U.S. economy added jobs in May at the fastest pace in a decade, but the gains were inflated by temporary government hiring for the 2010 census and weren't enough to bring unemployment down much.

The U.S. Labor Department said in its closely-watched jobs report Friday that nonfarm payrolls rose by 431,000 last month, the largest gain since March 2000. That followed an unrevised 290,000 increase in April.

The U.S. economy added 431,000 jobs in May, nearly all from census hiring. The private sector added only 41,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 9.7%. Phil Izzo, Sudeep Reddy, Dennis Berman and Evan Newmark discuss. And Jon Friedman looks at ways to save Newsweek, the venerable news weekly.

Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting payrolls to rise by an even higher 515,000.
Taking into account revisions to prior months, the U.S. economy added an average of nearly 200,000 jobs a month in the January-May period, a positive sign for the labor market as it recovers from the worst recession since the 1930s.

However, the May figure was boosted by the hiring of 411,000 temporary workers for the census. Only 41,000 private-sector jobs were added.

In a sobering reminder the labor market will take a long time to heal, the unemployment rate, which is calculated using a separate household survey, fell only moderately, to 9.7% in May from 9.9% the previous month. Economists were expecting it to drop to that level.

Analysts were disappointed by the low level of jobs created in the private sector, the worst figure since January and well below the median projection of 188,000.

"These new data do not present a picture of a healthy private-sector growth and nothing closely resembling the job growth needed to dig us out of our very deep hole," said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, an independent think tank.

The jobs report shouldn't change the Federal Reserve's view that short-term interest rates must remain at a record low for at least a few more months to support the recovery. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday said he was still concerned about the persistently high jobless rate.

Following the most severe recession that most Americans can remember, there are still around 15 million people who would like a job but can't get one. Even though the economy started to grow again almost a year ago, companies have until recently been reluctant to ramp up hiring as they waited for more evidence of a stronger economy and focused on producing more with fewer workers.

Did she cave in from meeting Obama?

2010-06-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

White House Talk Lightens Tone of Dispute on Immigration Law

By HELENE COOPER

Published: June 3, 2010

After the two met at the White House, at Ms. Brewer’s request, she emerged to announce that she and the president would “work together to try to find a solution” on the immigration issue, including the dispute over Arizona’s new statute.

As a first step, officials said, the White House will send staff members to Arizona.

The Arizona law requires the police to determine the immigration status of those suspected of being in the country without proper documentation. Some critics have likened it to racial profiling. Mr. Obama has called the measure misguided, and he has asked the Justice Department to monitor enforcement of the law for possible violations of civil rights.

Ms. Brewer said she felt more optimistic after the meeting, adding that Mr. Obama had promised her that most of the 1,200 National Guard troops he is sending to the border with Mexico would be deployed to Arizona.

“I’m encouraged that there’s going to be much better dialogue between the government and Arizona,” Ms. Brewer said after the meeting. “I hope that’s not wishful thinking.”

She said that the president did not elaborate on his threat to file a lawsuit against the Arizona law, instead telling her that the matter was in the hands of the Justice Department.

Ms. Brewer said she would not make any commitment to support an overhaul of immigration law until the border was secured.

Illegal Immigrant Crime Spree.

2010-06-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

June 1, 2010 - 11:32 AM | by: Dan Springer

One woman is dead and two others were raped recently and police say each crime was committed by a different illegal immigrant. One of the sexual assaults happened just hours before the Seattle city council passed an ordinance boycotting Arizona over its new immigration law.

Gregorio Luna Luna had a history of beating up his live-in girlfriend Griselda Ocampo Meza. He was also in the U.S. illegally. On May 1, Luna Luna was deported to Mexico. Three weeks later Meza was murdered in her apartment in a violent knife attack.

Franklin County prosecutors say Luna Luna slipped past the border again and killed Meza in front of their five year old son. He's in the county jail awaiting trial.

A suspected rapist in Edmonds, Washington has been deported at least 4 times according to Snohomish County prosecutors. Jose Lopez Madrigal has been charged with raping a woman next to a dumpster behind a Safeway store. A witness to the attack alerted police and Madrigal was taken into custody.

An illegal immigrant just convicted of his possible 3rd strike in Whatcom county- a rape of a homeless woman- has been deported to Mexico five times.

Washington State ranks 11th in the nation in the number of illegal immigrants with an estimated 150,000. They make up 2% of the state's population, but account for 4.5% of those in Washington prisons. In Franklin county, 14% of the jail bookings are illegal immigrants.

Currently, over half of the individuals on the Washington State Patrol's Most Wanted List are suspected illegal immigrants. 18 of the 26 on the list are Hispanic with no place of birth identified. Most are wanted for vehicular homicide and they have languished on the Most Wanted list for several years.

There are about 50,000 felony warrants currently issued in Washington State and according to a source in the U.S. Marshall's office between 30-40 percent are believed to be illegal immigrants.

We asked the State Patrol about the immigration status of the most wanted suspects and they told us they didn't know. Officials say that information is not important in trying to locate the individuals.

The U.S. Marshall's Service disagrees. Leaders of the region's fugitive task force say knowing immigration status can be very important to an investigation. In fact, the Marshall's have an office in Mexico to help with cross-border cases.

Last week, the city of Tacoma joined Seattle in admonishing Arizona for its immigration law. While the council did not go so far as passing a boycott, the ordinance does criticize Arizona for its stand against illegal immigration.

Residents Forming a Militia?

2010-05-29T07:10:00.001-07:00

by ELISA HAHN / KING 5 News

KING5.com

Posted on May 28, 2010 at 10:38 PM

Updated yesterday at 10:38 PM

BURIEN, Wash. - Fed up with burglars in their neighborhood, Burien residents decide to get creative. They posted signs throughout their neighborhood warning people to get out their guns.

It's happening in south Burien, near SW 160th Street and 12th Avenue SW. Pass through this part of town and you'll see posted neon colored signs, warning residents of burglars.

"We were seeing an increase in breakins and we wanted to make sure people were aware of what's happening," says John Lee.

Stacie Lee came up with the phrase for the sign "Get out your guns if you see any suspicious activity." She even wrote it in Spanish.

"I don't want to run into somebody walking into our backdoor and that scares me," she says.
It was meant to send a strong message to neighbors, and to the burglars too: Some homeowners who have guns are prepared to use them.

"If I'm in my home with my wife and my dogs, I will protect my wife and my family," says John Lee.

Flash Crash of 2010.

2010-05-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

BY EMMA MOODY May 29, 2010

Between the "Flash Crash" and angst over the worsening crisis in Europe, stocks suffered a dismal May, posting their worst decline for the month since Franklin Roosevelt was in the White House.
The month ended with a thud Friday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 122.36 points, or 1.2%, to 10136.63, leaving it in negative territory ...

On May 28, there was a "flash crash." If you didn't notice it, that is because it occurred not in 2010, but in 1962. Its aftermath offers some clues on what might happen in the wake of this year's flash crash on May 6.
"The stock market careened downward yesterday," reported The Wall Street Journal on May 29, 1962, "leaving traders shaken and exhausted." The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 5.7% that day, down 34.95, the second-largest point decline then on record.

"The drop took place on volume so heavy," added the Journal, that the "ticker wasn't able to finish reporting floor transactions until 5:59 p.m., two hours and 29 minutes after the market closed."
Like this year's flash crash, the "market break" of 1962 came after a run-up in the market that had led many investors into complacency. In 1961, stocks had risen 27%, with leading technology stocks like Texas Instruments and Polaroid trading at up to 115 times earnings.

From poor to poorer.

2010-05-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

May 28, 2010 04:00 PM ET | Peter Roff |

Kansas Republican Rep. Todd Tiahrt is demonstrating the kind of leadership that is sorely needed in Washington right now.

Fearing that a commission chartered by President Barack Obama and chaired by former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and former Republican U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson will recommend the introduction of a value added tax to pay down the debt all of Obama’s new spending has accrued, Tiahrt has authored a resolution asking Congress to go on record against the VAT.
[See which industries donated the most to Tiahrt.]

House Resolution 1245, written by Tiahrt and co-sponsored by 32 of his colleagues, expresses “the sense of the House of Representatives that the Value Added Tax is a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America’s economic recovery.
”
According to Tiahrt, his anti-VAT resolution is intended to put Congress on record as opposing a massive tax increase of this type, which he says is “the wrong path for the American economy and the working families of America.” As he points out, the VAT was first enacted in Europe in 1967, at a time when the United States and Europe both taxed about 27 cents out of every dollar of national income. Since the VAT is a sales tax that is imposed on goods and services at each stage of production, the true cost is ultimately hidden from the end user. Moreover, it is highly regressive, hitting unfairly the wallets of low and middle income wage earners while being a massive revenue machine for the government.

“Since the introduction of the VAT in Europe, its average tax take has gone from 27 percent to 41 percent, nearly a 50 percent increase in just four decades,” Tiahrt says.

Pakistan better wake up!

2010-05-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

Published May 29, 2010

| Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military is developing plans for a unilateral attack on the Pakistani Taliban in the event of a successful terrorist strike in the United States that can be traced to them, The Washington Post reports.

Planning for a retaliatory attack was spurred by ties between alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and elements of the Pakistani Taliban, the Post said in an article posted on its website Friday night, quoting unidentified senior military officials.

The military would focus on air and missile strikes but also could use small teams of U.S. Special Operations troops currently along the border with Afghanistan, the Post said.

Airstrikes could damage the militants' ability to launch new attacks but also might damage U.S.-Pakistani relations.

The CIA already conducts unmanned drone strikes in the country's tribal regions. Officials told the Post that a U.S. military response would be considered only if a terrorist attacks persuaded President Barack Obama that the CIA campaign is ineffective.

A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Pakistan already has been told that it has only weeks to show real progress in a crackdown against the Taliban.

The U.S. has put Pakistan "on a clock" to launch a new intelligence and counterterrorist offensive against the group, which the White House alleges was behind the Times Square bombing attempt, according to the official.

U.S. officials also have said the U.S. reserves the right to strike in the tribal areas in pursuit of Osama bin Laden and other high-value targets.

At the same, the Obama administration is working to improve ties with Pakistani intelligence officials to head off attacks by militant groups, the Post reported.

Robbing Banks to a Tea!

2010-05-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Robbers stole $5.5 million from a southern Iraqi state bank after giving guards tea laced with a sleeping drug, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

No shots were fired during the incident Friday at a bank near Najaf, the Interior Ministry said. The money is the equivalent of 6.5 billion Iraqi dinars.
In recent months, there has been a spike of similar incidents and authorities believe that insurgents were behind them to fund their military operations

Earlier this week, 15 people died in southwestern Baghdad after a brazen series of jewelry store heists on Tuesday in which bandits made off with gold and money.
In this latest incident, robbers had an associate among the bank's guard force give drugged tea to the guards, officials said.

After the guards passed out, the robbers entered the bank and made off with the money.
Two people were arrested, but police were not able to recover any of the money. The Interior Ministry said it appears the two are poor people trying to make money and are not part of a terrorist organization.

Never would we have an energy crisis with...anti-matter!

2010-05-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

By James Schultz
Special to SPACE.composted: 07:00 am ET
11 January 2001
With antimatter in the tank, taking the family rocket out for a spin to the nearest M-class planet would be a relative breeze. Miniaturized antimatter fuel might consist of a thumb-sized canister with an energy source no bigger than an aspirin and no need of replenishment for hundreds of light-years -- or, locally, tens of millions of intra-solar-system miles.

[inset]Ever since the 1930s, scientists have known of the existence of a twin to ordinary matter. Antimatter has the same mass but opposite spin and charge. Put matter and antimatter together and its like Einstein said, E=mc²-- 100-percent energy conversion. Luckily for normal-matter humanity, there doesnt seem to be too much antimatter left over from the Big Bang to cause random ultra-explosions.

Cosmic paucity, however, hasnt stopped human manufacture. More antimatter is now being produced artificially than at any previous time in human history. So where are the next-generation, Star Trek-like antimatter rocket engines? Only in the imaginations of futurists, and definitely not on the drawing boards, retort researchers.
[quote]

"The power we use now to make antimatter is close to a billion times more than we can produce [with antimatter]," said Dave McGinnis, an antiproton expert and department head of the Antiproton Source at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois. Fermilab is one of the worlds leading makers of antimatter for scientific study. "Its remarkably inefficient and just not economical. Thats the bottom line and the reason we dont yet have an antimatter rocket."

This is why the Federal Government needs to enforce illegal immigraiton laws!

2010-05-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

by JAKE WHITTENBERG / KING 5 News

KING5.com

Posted on May 27, 2010 at 2:22 PM

Updated yesterday at 5:22 PM

BELLINGHAM, Wash. - An illegal Mexican immigrant will be sentenced in Whatcom County for the rape of a homeless woman. But what makes this case even more troubling is that this man has a history of crime in the U.S. and has been deported multiple times.

"This is very frustrating," says Whatcom County Deputy Prosecutor Dona Bracke.
Frustrating because, according to court documents, Hector Salinas, 38, has been deported at least five times. He has been convicted of robbery, theft, carrying a weapon and selling narcotics in Washington state and California.

The crimes date back to 1994. In almost all cases, he was sentenced to time in prison.
"All of these crimes, yet he continues to cross back over the border and hurt more people," says Bracke.
Bracke was the prosecutor against Salinas during the rape trial which ended with a guilty verdict in March. He will be sentenced June 8 in Whatcom County under the state's 3 strikes law. That means Salinas may spend the rest of his life behind bars with no chance for parole.

This news comes just days after the KING 5 Investigators revealed that the suspect in a rape last weekend in Edmonds, Wash. has been deported to Mexico nine times.

Our great historic icon of Thurston County, Up in Smoke?

2010-05-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

The Olympian
JEREMY PAWLOSKI; Staff writer | • Published May 27, 2010

TUMWATER - An intentionally set fire at the historic riverfront brewhouse built by the Olympia Brewing Co. in 1906 sent a huge plume of dark smoke into the sky, attracting attention from onlookers and local fire departments Thursday.

About 5:30 p.m., Tumwater police had a “person of interest” in custody, but he had not been arrested, Tumwater Police Detective Charles Liska said. He added that witnesses had reported seeing a person leave the area where the fire had started – a smaller black building outside the brewery complex.
Later, Liska said the person in custody had issues with the state Department of Corrections, but there was no evidence he had anything to do with the fire.

“As of right now, we don’t have anybody in custody related to the fire, and it remains under investigation,” Liska said about 7 p.m. “We’re doing an arson investigation.”
The fire was small, confined to a warehouse building separate from the tall brick structures of the brewhouse, Tumwater Assistant Fire Chief Jim McGarva said.

“There was a lot of smoke generated, and it had to do with the (fact that the) underside of the roof was lined with some tar material,” he said outside the fire Thursday afternoon.
Someone used wood pallets and old paperwork and marketing materials that had been left at the old brewery to start the fire, McGarva said. The fire was started by a human; whether it was arson will be up to police and prosecutors to decide, he added.

“Maybe his intent was to keep warm; I don’t know,” McGarva said.

The fire caused about $20,000 in damage, he said. The old brewhouse, once owned by Leopold Schmidt, has historical significance in Tumwater, McGarva said.

“A lot of the architecture in Tumwater is patterned after this building,” he said.

And this is how greedy homeoweners associations treat our heros!

2010-05-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Huffington Post/Mother Jones

Fri May. 28, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

Michael Clauer is a captain in the Army Reserve who commanded over 100 soldiers in Iraq. But while he was fighting for his country, a different kind of battle was brewing on the home front. Last September, Michael returned to Frisco, Texas, to find that his homeowners' association had foreclosed on his $300,000 house—and sold it for $3,500. This is story illustrates the type of legal quagmire that can get out of hand while soldiers are serving abroad and their families are dealing with the stress of their deployment. And fixing the mess isn't easy
.
Michael went on active duty in February 2008 and was sent to Iraq. After he shipped out, his wife May slipped into a deep depression, according to court documents. "A lot of people say that the deployment is more stressful on the spouse than the actual person who's being deployed," Michael, 37, says in an interview with Mother Jones. May Clauer had two kids to take care of—a ten-year-old and a one-year-old with a serious seizure-related disorder. In addition, she was worried sick about her husband. Michael's company was doing convoy security in Iraq—an extremely dangerous job. "It was a pretty tough year for the whole company," he says. "We had IEDs, rocket attacks and mortar attacks, and a few soldiers that were hurt pretty bad and had to be airlifted back to the States."

Is China coming around?

2010-05-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

BY EVAN RAMSTAD

SEOUL – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered the first hint that Beijing might be willing to budge from weeks of fence-sitting over the sinking of a South Korean warship, telling South Korea's leader that China won't prevent penalties for whoever is responsible for the deadly incident.

Mr. Wen's comments Friday, related by South Korean officials, stopped well short of conceding the involvement of China's longtime ally North Korea. Seoul has concluded that Pyongyang sank its patrol boat Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 South Korean sailors, and Beijing's failure to accept that finding has angered South Korean officials and the ...

More Chicago Politics!

2010-05-28T08:13:00.001-07:00

Published May 28, 2010

| FOXNews.com

The White House asked former President Bill Clinton to talk to Rep. Joe Sestak about the possibility of obtaining a senior position in the Obama administration if he would drop out of the Democratic primary race against establishment-backed Sen. Arlen Specter, the Obama administration will say in a report to be released Friday morning, Fox News has confirmed.

The report, by the White House Counsel's office, will describe the Clinton conversations as informal and unhinged from any precise job offer since, as a former president, Clinton could not guarantee Sestak anything.

The conversations with Sestak were initiated by Clinton at the behest of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel was Clinton's political director when he was president. Clinton promoted Sestak to vice admiral and made his director of defense policy. Sestak was a loyal and tireless supporter of Hillary Clinton's run for the presidency in 2008.

The report will be released one day after President Obama said the White House would issue a formal explanation that should answer questions about Sestak's allegation and insisted "nothing improper" happened. On the same day, Clinton had lunch with Obama.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has also said nothing improper happened, but refused to elaborate when asked repeatedly about the charge at Thursday's briefing.

Why did the Earth give us horses again?

2010-05-28T08:10:00.001-07:00

On the Gulf of Mexico (CNN) -- Ten miles off the coast of Louisiana, where the air tastes like gasoline and the ocean looks like brownie batter, Louisiana State University professor Ed Overton leans out of a fishing boat and dunks a small jar beneath the surface of the oil-covered water.

"God, what a mess," he says under his breath, scooping up a canister of the oil that's been spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.

Even though Overton has been studying oil spills for 30 years, he's not sure what he'll find in that sample. That's because, just below the surface, the scope and impact of one of the biggest environmental disasters in the history of the U.S. remains a mystery.

And that terrifies some scientists.

It's been five weeks since an oil rig exploded and sank, rupturing a pipeline 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Some clues about what so much oil -- perhaps 22 million gallons of it -- will do to the environment have become obvious:

Dolphins have washed up dead. Endangered sea turtles have been found with oil stuck on their corneas. Lifeless brown pelicans, classified as endangered until recently, have been carried away in plastic bags. Beaches in Grand Isle, Louisiana, are spattered with gobs of sticky crude. And when the moon rises over the coast there, the oil-soaked ocean sparkles like cellophane under a spotlight.

Ed Overton takes a simple oil sample about 10 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

But what's really going on in the depths of the ocean and in the all-important root systems of coastal marshes may prove to have more impact in the long term, and scientists know much less about what's happening in these invisible reaches of the Gulf ecosystem.

Mexico, are you ready?

2010-05-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

By Scott Wilson

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2010

The challenge for Obama, whose opposition to the Iraq invasion helped propel him to the presidency, is sticking to his timeline for a U.S. military withdrawal despite a jump in violence and continued wrangling among Iraqi politicians over who will lead the country.

The sensitive departure is being managed by Vice President Biden, who says the U.S. military will reduce troop levels to 50,000 this summer, even if no new Iraqi government takes shape.
"It's going to be painful; there's going to be ups and downs," Biden said in a 40-minute interview in his West Wing office this month. "But I do think the end result is going to be that we're going to be able to keep our commitment."

White House officials say Iraqis are increasingly relying on politics, rather than violence, to deal with disputes, diminishing the need for U.S. forces. But the situation on the ground demonstrates that Iraq remains fractured.
Rival factions have yet to establish a new government, nearly three months after close national elections, and politicians have begun warning of a power vacuum as neighboring Iran works to influence the outcome. Adel Abdul Mahdi, one of Iraq's vice presidents, urged all parties this month to agree quickly on a new leader to head off attempts by "terrorist gangs to use the circumstances in the country to hurt the Iraqi people and the armed forces."

Bill, What happened?

2010-05-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

By MIGUEL HELFT and ASHLEE VANCE

Published: May 26, 2010

The moment came Wednesday when Apple, the maker of iPods, iPhones and iPads, shot past Microsoft, the computer software giant, to become the world’s most valuable technology company.

This changing of the guard caps one of the most stunning turnarounds in business history for Apple, which had been given up for dead only a decade earlier, and its co-founder and visionary chief executive, Steven P. Jobs. The rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds an important cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology.

Microsoft, with its Windows and Office software franchises, has dominated the relationship most people had with their computers for almost two decades, and that was reflected in its stock market capitalization. But the click-clack of the keyboard has ceded ground to the swipe of a finger across a smartphone’s touch screen.

Our condolences

2010-05-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

by KING5.com Staff & Associated Press

KING5.com

Posted on May 26, 2010 at 6:54 PM

Updated today at 6:50 AM

AUBURN, Wash. -- Police in Auburn say two men were killed late Wednesday afternoon when their boom truck hit a power line, electrocuting the men.

Police Sgt. Scott Near says the two operators were moving propane tanks at the Farrellgas Propane Store. Both men were outside the truck, using the controls on the driver's side, when the accident happened. The driver's side of the vehicle was facing the powerlines.

The men were pronounced dead at the scene. They were not immediately identified.
The contact also sparked a fire in the truck. Near says several tanks were charred during the fire, but the blaze was quickly contained. No other injuries were reported.

Police are trying to figure out if the accident was caused by operator error or a malfunction.

Here we go again!

2010-05-27T06:46:00.000-07:00

By Jana Winter

Published May 26, 2010

| FOXNews.com

The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com.

The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a “large-scale smuggling enterprise” responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border. Many of the illegal immigrants, who court records say were given fake IDs, are alleged to have ties to other now-defunct Somalian terror organizations that have merged with active organizations like Al Shabaab, al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami.

In 2008, the U.S. government designated Al Shabaab a terrorist organization. Al Shabaab has said its priority is to impose Sharia, or Islamic law, on Somalia; the group has aligned itself with Al Qaeda and has made statements about its intent to harm the United States.

In recent years, American Somalis have been recruited by Al Shabaab to travel to Somalia, where they are often radicalized by more extremist or operational anti-American terror groups, which Al Shabaab supports. The recruiters coming through the Mexican border are the ones who could be the most dangerous, according to law enforcement officials.

Security experts tell FOXNews.com that the influx of hundreds of Somalis over the U.S. border who allegedly have ties to suspected terror cells is evidence of a porous and unsecured border being exploited by groups intent on wrecking deadly havoc on American soil.

What is North Korea thinking!

2010-05-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

By the CNN Wire Staff

May 27, 2010 8:45 a.m. ED

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- North Korea reacted to a South Korean anti-submarine exercise early Thursday by saying it would meet "confrontation with confrontation" and war with "all-out war," according to North Korean state-run media.

"Now that the puppet group challenged the DPRK [North Korea] formally and blatantly, the DPRK will react to confrontation with confrontation, and to a war with an all-out war," according the KCNA news agency.
The news agency referred to South Korean leaders as a "group of traitors" and said they would experience "unheard of disastrous consequences" if they misunderstand North Korea's will.

The response comes amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula, after Seoul blamed Pyongyang for the sinking in March of a South Korean warship. An official South Korean report has accused the communist North of firing a torpedo at the ship, killing 46 sailors.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Seoul on Wednesday, called the sinking "an unacceptable provocation by North Korea" and said the international community should respond.

Is she related to Dumbo?

2010-05-26T22:05:00.000-07:00

By ETHAN SMITH And JOHN R. EMSHWILLER WSJ May 27, 2010

Federal authorities alleged Wednesday that a Walt Disney Co. executive assistant and her boyfriend engaged in a ham-handed plot to sell Wall Street traders inside information, first offered in a chirpy missive sent to dozens of investment companies.

"Hi, I have access to Disney's (DIS) quarterly earnings report before its release on 05/03/10," the March 5 letter began. "I am willing to share this information for a fee that we can determine later."
The alleged plan went awry. Instead of taking the bait, "multiple hedge funds reported the illicit scheme," the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a press release.

In a pair of complaints filed Wednesday, federal authorities said the letter and subsequent emails were sent by Yonni Sebbag, whose girlfriend Bonnie Hoxie was an assistant to Disney's head of corporate communications.

Disney said in a statement Wednesday that it "has been fully cooperating with this investigation." Ms. Hoxie was at work as recently as Tuesday, according to people at the company.
A federal judge ordered Mr. Sebbag held as a potential flight risk and released Ms. Hoxie on a $50,000 bond Wednesday. Neither responded to the charges in a bail hearing Wednesday.

The March 5 form letter was sent to 33 investment companies, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan federal court charging the two with conspiracy and wire fraud. Undercover agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation began corresponding with Mr. Sebbag, who used the pseudonym "Jonathan Cyrus" in the email exchanges, according to the complaint.

As the earnings release approached, Mr. Sebbag, 29 years old, and Ms. Hoxie, 33, engaged in an awkward exchange of their own as they waited with growing frustration for the quarterly earnings data to materialize, according to transcripts in both complaints. The exchange at points took on the tone of any couple bickering over mundane issues like bill paying.

"Get things moving with all the powers you have," Mr. Sebbag urged his girlfriend at one point.
"Thanks for the flattery," Ms. Hoxie replied. "I wish you could come to work every day with me."
On the day of the earnings release, Ms. Hoxie sent Mr. Sebbag an email stating "here is the bag that you are going to get for me," the SEC said in a companion civil complaint filed in New York federal court. It said the email included a link to "a picture of an expensive Stella McCartney designer handbag available for $700 at Neiman Marcus."

It's never Obama's fault!

2010-05-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

Published May 26, 2010 | FOXNews.com

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has been keeping pesky reporters at bay as the Obama administration faces mounting pressure over controversies ranging from the BP oil spill to the allegation that the White House offered a congressman a job to drop out of a race against a key ally.

As some media outlets and pundits typically allied with the Obama administration seem to take a tougher tone toward the White House, Gibbs is telegraphing the message that on certain issues, they shouldn't ask and on others, he won't tell.

The tension may be reaching new heights. CBS correspondent Chip Reid revealed on air Friday that White House officials called reporters into the West Wing on Friday to scold them for asking too many questions about the Gulf of Mexico spill. One report identified Gibbs as the one doing the scolding.

The dressing-down came after the press secretary faced a barrage of questions about why the administration wasn't doing more to ensure the leak is plugged and mitigate the environmental damage to the coastline. The White House for weeks has battled the narrative that it has not responded forcefully enough to the spill, entrusting too much to the expertise of BP, and at Friday's briefing Gibbs repeatedly swiped at reporters who pressed that button.

The press secretary also shut down questions a day earlier about Rep. Joe Sestak's claim that the Obama administration offered him a job in exchange for dropping out of the Senate Democratic primary race against Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter. Sestak, who did not take the alleged offer, won that race last week but has not been willing to elaborate on his allegation in media interviews.

Gibbs and other officials haven't shed any light on the subject either.

"I don't have anything to add to what I said in March," Gibbs said Thursday when the topic was broached.

When it was pointed out that Gibbs did not provide any substantive information in March - other than to say the issue was "not problematic" - Gibbs again said he didn't "have anything to add."

The press secretary repeated that line five more times before cutting off reporters.

Another Korean War Brewing?

2010-05-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

By EVAN RAMSTAD

WSJ MAY 25, 2010, 5:15 P.M. ET

SEOUL—North Korea said it will "totally freeze" its relations with South Korea and pull out of a nonaggression pact between the two countries, heightening tensions and widening the rift between the Koreas to its greatest point in two decades.

In its announcement, made late Tuesday local time, the North pulled further back from inter-Korean cooperation than the South had a day earlier when it penalized Pyongyang for allegedly torpedoing and sinking a South Korean warship.

North Korea pulls further back from inter-Korean cooperation than South Korea had a day earlier when it penalized Pyongyang for allegedly torpedoing and sinking a South Korean warship. WSJ's John Bussey joins the News Hub to discuss the U.S. endgame for North Korea.

The statement said the North "formally declares that from now on it will put into force the resolute measures to totally freeze the inter-Korean relations, totally abrogate the agreement on nonaggression between the north and the south and completely halt the inter-Korean cooperation."

The two Koreas have forged several nonaggression pacts since the 1970s; the North's statement didn't specify which agreement it meant.

The decision appears to break a pattern that has characterized North Korea's interaction with the outside world for about 20 years, in which Pyongyang creates a crisis, then seeks monetary and security concessions for ending it. It essentially sets inter-Korean relations back to where they were in the early 1990s.