Shorts (left)
Until 3 p.m. on Thursday, it seemed as if the stock market might escape another dark day.
Military Has Cause for Both Hope and Concern in Iraq
Market by market, square by square, the walls are beginning to come down. The miles of hulking blast walls, ugly but effective, were installed as a central feature of the surge of U.S. troops to stop neighbors from killing one another.
In Calls, Palin and Aides Pressed for Trooper’s Removal
The 2007 state fair was days away when Alaska’s public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, took another call about one of his troopers, Michael Wooten. This time, the director of Gov. Sarah Palin’s Anchorage office was on the line.
Bogus Campaign Donors Raise Questions on Obama Fundraising
Last December, somebody using the name “Test Person,” from “Some Place, UT” made a series of contributions, the largest being $764, to Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign totaling $2,410.07.
Georgian Press Sees Many Restrictions on Its Freedoms
The cameras at Georgia’s main opposition broadcaster, Imedi, kept rolling Nov. 7, when masked riot police officers, armed with machine guns, burst into the studio. They smashed equipment, ordered employees and television guests to lie on the floor and confiscated their cell phones. A news anchor remained on-screen throughout, describing the mayhem. Then all went black.
Race’s Last Stage Has Appearance of a Grudge Match
Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama entered their general election contest this summer denouncing American politics as trivial and negative, and vowing to run campaigns that would address the concerns of voters during a difficult time.
Shorts (left)
Emerging markets took one of their biggest collective tumbles in a decade Monday as stock markets from Mexico to Indonesia to Russia were gripped by fears of a meltdown in Europe’s banking system and concern that a global recession could drag down the price of commodities, forcing a steep slowdown in emerging-market growth.
Lehman’s Chief Defends His Actions As Prudent for Time
Richard S. Fuld Jr. blamed the news media. He blamed the short-sellers. He blamed the government, as well as what he characterized as an “extraordinary run on the bank.”
Shorts (right)
The Alsace-Moselle region is the great French exception. Having been variously French and German in the last few centuries — annexed, presumably for the last time, by Hitler’s Germany before returning to France after World War II — Alsace-Moselle still has a German feel, with rounded edges.
Fed Weighs a Radical Intervention in Debt Market
As pressure built in the credit markets and stocks spiraled lower around the world on Monday, the Federal Reserve was considering a radical new plan to jump-start the engine of the financial system.
As Crisis Spreads, Investors Fear Worldwide Recession
When the White House rolled out its $700 billion rescue plan two weeks ago, its sheer size was meant to soothe the global financial system, restoring trust and confidence. Three days after the plan was approved, it looks like a pebble tossed into a churning sea.
Nashville: 100 Percent Chance of Precipitation for the Second Debate
Tonight marks the second presidential debate at Belmont University’s Curb Event Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Unfortunately, moderator Tom Brokaw and the two candidates are in for rain, preceding a cold front that should pass through Nashville on Wednesday. Weather has long had a psychological effect on the human psyche. How will this affect the debate? Will the rainy skies cast shadow on either candidate, making either seem unqualified? Will McCain make use of the thunder for dramatic effect? Or perhaps, Obama will show flashes of clarity with every lightning strike.
Shorts (left)
Investors drove stocks sharply lower on Thursday as signs of the economy’s worsening health and a continued choking of credit unnerved investors ahead of a crucial vote in Washington on a financial rescue plan.
Shorts (right)
Microsoft said Thursday that it would set up research centers in Britain, France and Germany to improve its Internet search technology, describing the move as a vote of confidence in the European economy and in the company’s ability to close the gap with Google.
With High Stakes and Low Expectations, Palin Survives
Gov. Sarah Palin made it through the vice-presidential debate on Thursday without doing any obvious damage to the Republican presidential ticket. By surviving her encounter with Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and quelling some of the talk about her basic qualifications for high office, she may even have done Sen. John McCain a bit of good, freeing him to focus on the other troubles shadowing his campaign.
Bloomberg Finds Ally for Extending Term Limits
City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn said on Thursday that legislation to alter the city’s term limits law would be introduced on Tuesday, paving the way for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Quinn and more than 40 other elected officials to stay in office four more years.
Nebraska’s Safe Haven Law Becomes License to Abandon
The abandonments began Sept. 1, when a mother left her 14-year-old son in a police station here.
Pakistan’s Fight With Taliban Widens Into Full-Scale War
War has come to Pakistan, not just as terrorist bombings, but as full-scale battles, leaving Pakistanis angry and dismayed as the dead, wounded and displaced turn up right on their doorstep.
House GOP Leaders Wrangle Balky Caucus on Bailout
House Republican leaders struggled Thursday to persuade some of their members to reverse course and support the $700 billion economic bailout package, but both parties said that they were guardedly optimistic about winning final passage of the measure in a vote expected early Friday afternoon.
Fall Getting In Shape
New England has a few days in the year that we, people from more template climates, can properly call fall. These are those days, and they are the fair warning of the winter that comes ahead. Be quick to see the foliage as it will be a few weeks before snow comes in!