Sweetness & Light

May Jobless Rate Up As People Look For Work

Steve — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:42:00 +0000

From Reuters: Job growth falters in May Lucia Mutikani | June 1, 2012 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Job growth in May was the weakest in a year and employers added far fewer jobs in the prior two months than previously reported, suggesting the economic recovery was faltering. Employers created a paltry 69,000 jobs last month, the [...]

Obama Tells Donors May Lose O-Care Ruling

Steve — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:53:30 +0000

From Bloomberg: Obama Tells Donors Health-Care Fight May Loom After Court Rules By Hans Nichols – May 31, 2012 President Barack Obama is confiding to Democratic donors that he may have to revisit the health-care issue in a second term, a position at odds with his publicly expressed confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will [...]

Politico: Hecklers Brawl: 2012′s Nastiest Day

Steve — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:18:35 +0000

From the Politico: Heckler’s [sic] brawl: 2012′s nastiest day By: Reid J. Epstein and Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush May 31, 2012 BOSTON — Welcome to the schoolyard slap-fight that is the 2012 campaign to lead the most powerful nation on Earth. Barack Obama’s top strategist David Axelrod giddily trespassed on Mitt Romney’s backyard here [...]

Yippee! US Lost 129,000 Millionaires In 2011

Steve — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:10:08 +0000

From CNBC: America Lost 129,000 Millionaires in 2011 Robert Frank May 31, 2012 America’s millionaire population declined last year for the first time since the financial crisis, according to a new report. The population of U.S. millionaire households (households with investible assets of $1 million or more) fell to 5,134,000 from 5,263,000 in 2011, according [...]

First Solar Laying Off Half Its LA Workforce

Steve — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:48:30 +0000

From the Washington Free Beacon: First Solar Furlough Andrew Stiles May 30, 2012 A politically connected, taxpayer-funded solar firm announced a massive round of furloughs on Friday, just weeks after its chairman told Congress his company was “financially strong.” First Solar, an Arizona-based solar panel manufacturer that received more than $3 billion in federal loan [...]

Bill Clinton: Romney Bain Record Is ‘Sterling’

Steve — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:41:56 +0000

From the Politico: Bill Clinton: Mitt Romney’s business record ‘sterling’ By BYRON TAU 5/31/12 President Bill Clinton veered sharply off message Thursday, telling CNN that Mitt Romney’s business record at Bain Capital was "sterling." "I don’t think that we ought to get into the position where we say ‘This is bad work. This is good [...]

MoveOn May Have To Cut Back Dem Funding

Steve — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:59:35 +0000

From the Washington Examiner: MoveOn warns ‘We might have to pull the plug’ Paul Bedard May 30, 2012 MoveOn, a giant in the progressive political world and an early endorser of Barack Obama in 2008, warns that it might have to “pull the plug” on key campaigns to help Obama and Senate Democrats if its [...]

Jobless Claims Up For Fourth Week In A Row

Steve — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:11:15 +0000

From a suddenly awakened Reuters: Jobless claims rise for 4th straight week Jason Lange May 31, 2012 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New claims for unemployment benefits rose last week for the fourth straight week, which could heighten concerns the labor market recovery is softening. Er, as far as we know, this is the first time Reuters [...]

Exercise May Increase Heart Risk For Some

Steve — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:09:34 +0000

Buried in the ‘Well’ [sic] section of the From New York Times: Can Exercise Be Bad for You? By GINA KOLATA May 30, 2012 Could exercise actually be bad for some healthy people? A well-known group of researchers, including one who helped write the scientific paper justifying national guidelines that promote exercise for all, say [...]

Firms Don’t Want $2K Obama-Care Tax Credit

Steve — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:41:14 +0000

From a perplexed Associated Press: Obama’s health care aid to small firms disappoints By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR May 30, 2012 WASHINGTON – Many small businesses struggle to afford health insurance for their workers, but a a [sic] new tax credit meant to help them seems to be turning into a disappointment. Although opinion polls show the [...]

Health Cost Increase May Double 2010 Rate

Steve — Thu, 31 May 2012 12:01:42 +0000

From a seemingly unfazed Reuters: Healthcare costs to rise 7.5 percent in 2013: report By David Morgan May 31, 2012 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The cost of healthcare services is expected to rise 7.5 percent in 2013, more than three times the projected rates for inflation and economic growth, according to an industry research report released [...]

Poll: Women See Assault On Abortion Rights

Steve — Thu, 31 May 2012 11:24:59 +0000

From Reuters: U.S. women see assault on reproductive rights: poll By David Morgan May 31, 2012 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – About one-third of American women believe there is a broad effort under way to limit their access to reproductive services including contraception, family planning and abortion, according a poll released on Thursday. After months of election-year [...]

Planned Parenthood Ads To Target Romney

Steve — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:44:45 +0000

From a cheering New York Times: Planned Parenthood Ads to Target Romney By MICHAEL D. SHEAR May 30, 2012 … [T]he Planned Parenthood Action Fund is unveiling one of its biggest-ever political advertising campaigns aimed at using Mr. Romney’s own words to undermine his support among women — a critical voter group among whom he [...]

Obama Gives Top Medal To Radical Socialist

Steve — Wed, 30 May 2012 13:43:51 +0000

From the Heritage Foundation: Obama Awards Medal of Freedom to Democratic Socialists of America Chair Lachlan Markay May 29, 2012 President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday to Dolores Huerta, an 82-year-old labor activist and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union. Huerta is also an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists [...]

Reuters Probes George Romney’s Citizenship

Steve — Wed, 30 May 2012 12:54:53 +0000

From an endlessly compliant Reuters: Romney’s birth certificate evokes his father’s controversy By Mark Hosenball Tue May 29, 2012 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Finally, there is definitive proof: The presidential candidate was born in the United States, and his father was not. Yes, Republican Mitt Romney appears eligible to be president, according to a copy of [...]

Media: Trump Upstages Romney’s Clinching

Steve — Wed, 30 May 2012 11:58:09 +0000

From the echo chamber that is the Associated Press: Romney clinches nomination, but Trump overshadows By KASIE HUNT May 30, 2012 LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mitt Romney has won the Republican presidential nomination after years of fighting, though his triumph was partially overshadowed by the celebrity businessman who helped him along the way. As primary [...]