Buy a GM, Like It, Or Get Your Money Back
Can a straight-talking Texan and a money-back guarantee persuade American consumers to buy a car from General Motors?
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At least five schoolgirls died in a stampede that started on a crowded stairway at a large government-run school in the Indian capital, Indian news media and police officials said Thursday.
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President Barack Obama’s speech on health care failed to bridge the gulf with Republicans, but Democrats said on Thursday that the president had largely succeeded in unifying his own party by making a cogent, persuasive pitch to the American public, and by casting his plan to overhaul the health care system as a political and moral imperative.
Wilson’s District Mostly Backs His Outburst Against Obama
In Washington, Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina was sharply criticized by both Democrats and his fellow Republicans for shouting “You lie!” during President Barack Obama’s health care address on Wednesday. But here in his strongly Republican congressional district on Thursday, he was celebrated by many of his constituents for his outburst.
Intermission
The first ten days of September have been exceptionally nice with mostly sunny skies and temperatures near normal. September always seems to shake out this way for a good chunk of the month. It’s our short intermission from the otherwise variable weather we typically experience here in New England.
Treasury Secretary Says Bailout Programs Are Shrinking
One of President Barack Obama’s top economic strategists said on Thursday that the government was now starting to shrink many parts of the gigantic financial bailout that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September.
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Three days after announcing that he was resigning as the head of Google’s Chinese operations, Kai-Fu Lee said on Monday that he had raised $115 million to create a company that would finance high-tech start-ups in China.
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A devastating drought is sweeping across Kenya, killing livestock, crops and children. It is stirring up tensions in the ramshackle slums where the water taps have run dry, and spawning ethnic conflict in the hinterland as communities fight over the last remaining pieces of fertile grazing land.
Just What Season Is It Anyway?
Many people consider Labor Day as the last weekend of the summer, signaling the end of hot weather and the beginning of the school year. Climatologists define their seasons to be three months long, so that autumn starts on September 1 and ends on November 30, summer starts on June 1st and ends on August 31st, etc. The astronomical first day of autumn starts at the precise moment of the autumnal equinox, which in the Northern Hemisphere can either occur on September 22nd or 23rd. Likewise, the first day of summer starts at the summer solstice (June 20 or 21).
After U.S. Aid, Some Schools Still Face Large Cutbacks
Children are returning to classrooms across the nation during one of the most tumultuous periods in American education, in which many thousands of teachers and other school workers — no one yet knows how many — were laid off in dozens of states because of plummeting state and local revenue. Many were hired back, thanks in part to $100 billion in federal stimulus money.
Insurgents Set Off Blasts at Checkpoints in Iraqi Cities
Insurgents detonated bombs and threw grenades on Monday at or near six Iraqi police and army checkpoints, in assaults on the most visible deterrents the Iraqi government has to attacks.
Joseph Kennedy Will Not Seek Uncle’s Senate Seat
Former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II announced Monday that he would not seek the Senate seat held by his late uncle, Edward M. Kennedy.
18 Are Killed at MexicanDrug Rehab Center
As many as a dozen masked men armed with automatic weapons stormed into a drug rehabilitation center in this violent border city on Wednesday night, lined up recovering drug addicts and alcoholics against a wall and opened fire at point-blank range, killing 18 people.
Jeter Nears a RecordGehrig Couldn’t Savor
His body betraying him for reasons he could not understand, Lou Gehrig came to bat at Yankee Stadium in the fourth inning against the Washington Senators on April 29, 1939.
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Unseasoned investigators from the SEC were alternately intimidated and enthralled by a name-dropping, yarn-spinning Bernard Madoff as he dodged questions about his financial house of cards, according to a scathing new report on the agency’s repeated failure to uncover the fraud.
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President Barack Obama’s plan to deliver a speech to public school students on Tuesday has sparked a revolt among conservative parents, who have accused the president of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening.
Obama Advisers Are Split On Size of Afghan Force
The military’s anticipated request for more troops to combat the insurgency in Afghanistan has divided senior advisers to President Barack Obama as they try to determine the proper size and mission of the U.S. effort there, officials said Thursday.
Berlusconi Clashing with Catholic Church Over His Lifestyle
For months, the staid newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Avvenire, steered largely clear of the major topic of conversation here: the spicy personal life of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Who Will Sawyer Replace at ‘Good Morning America’?
When David Westin solved his evening news problem with the promotion of the “Good Morning America” co-host Diane Sawyer this week, he created a much more onerous problem for himself in the morning.
Tropical Cyclones Remain Active in Pacific
While New England has recently felt the effects of Hurricane Bill and Tropical Storm Danny in the Atlantic, two other tropical cyclones are currently causing trouble in the Pacific Ocean. Recently, Hurricane Jimena has impacted areas of Northwest Mexico, strengthening to the verge of Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. On August 31, Jimena had sustained winds of 150 miles per hour while off of the Mexican West coast. Since then, the hurricane made landfall near Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico as a Category 2 storm. As of Thursday evening, Jimena continues to churn as a Tropical Storm over the Gulf of California. Meanwhile, in the East Pacific Ocean, Tropical Depression Dujuan formed on September 2nd about 80 km east of the Philippines, and is forecast to attain hurricane strength and impact the Japanese islands by the end of next week.