Free Internet Press Newsletter - Tuesday September 9 2008 - (813)

Tuesday September 9 2008 edition
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Hurricane Ike Causes Extensive Damage In Cuba 2008-09-09 01:32:33 Storm surges flooded neighborhoods and wind blew off roofs as Hurricane Ike tore through eastern Cuba Monday, while forecasters feared the storm would strengthen as the eye of the hurricane skirted off land and touched warm waters. Ike remained a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds. Up to 15 inches of rain fell in the past two days in some eastern provinces, as storm surges flooded coastal areas, meteorologist José Rubiera said. Tropical storm winds are expected by Monday afternoon in central Cuba as the storm's outer bands cross almost the entire length of the island. "The center of the storm will leave southern Ciego de Avila hitting water in the Gulf of Santa María, which is 87 to 89 degrees. This is strong fuel for a storm," Rubiera said on Cuban state TV. "Right now this storm is a bad Category 2 - that is to say on the lower end. If the eye stays there at sea, it will intensify. We could see it organize itself better or intensify." Models showed the storm bypassing major northern cities and heading straight for western provinces that were already hit last week by Hurricane Gustav. "The further west it goes, the worse it would be," said Rubiera. Read The Full Story Pastor: Republicans May Be Playing Down Palin's Religious Beliefs 2008-09-09 01:32:08 For more than two decades, current Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was a practicing Pentecostal. She belonged to the Wasilla Assembly of God church in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska. But though she attended the church from her teenage years through to 2002, she hasn't talked much about her religion since joining the Republican ticket. Palin's former pastor, Tim McGraw, says that like many Pentecostal churches, some members speak in tongues, although he says he's never seen Palin do so. Church member Caroline Spangler told CNN, "When the spirit comes on you, you utter things that nobody else can understand ... only God can understand what is coming out of our mouths." Some Pentecostals from Assembly of God also believe in "faith healing" and the "end times" - a violent upheaval that they believe will deliver Jesus Christ's second coming. "Our basic belief is that God is God and he knows where history is going and he has a purposeful plan and within the middle of that plan we live in an environment in our world where certain events would take place," says McGraw. "Sarah wasn't taught to look for one particular sign - a cataclysmic sign. She knew as every Christian does ... that God is sovereign and he is in control." Read The Full Story Prosecutors: Sen. Ted Stevens Got A Message Chair And A Dog 2008-09-09 01:31:36 In a filing Monday, federal prosecutors revealed more evidence in their case against U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, detailing a new round of gifts that he allegedly failed to disclose between 2001 and 2003. The government said the items were a $1,000 sled dog, a $3,200 hand-built stained glass window and a $2,695 massage chair. They are in addition to the $250,000-plus in labor and materials allegedly provided by the oil-field service company Veco Corp. when it renovated and furnished Stevens' Girdwood home starting in 2000. The disclosure of the additional gifts came in a round of filings Monday. Each side asked U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to adopt its version of the case to be read to prospective jurors when they gather in two weeks for Stevens' trial in Washington, D.C. The statement of the case is supposed to be a neutral rendition of the issues at trial, but each side clearly jockeyed for advantage. Sullivan may choose to draft his own version, steering somewhere between the two advocates. Read The Full Story Hurricane Ike On Track To Miss Florida Keys ... Maybe 2008-09-08 15:06:48 Authorities called off evacuation orders for the Florida Keys on Monday as a ferocious Hurricane Ike shifted south over Cuba and appeared on track to miss the low-lying U.S. island chain. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center warned that it was still too early to tell where Ike would strike after entering the southeastern Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday night. Gulf Coast communities as far away as Texas were keeping a nervous eye on the storm, especially in Louisiana, where residents are still recovering from Hurricane Gustav. Evacuation orders for residents expired at noon Monday. Authorities suggested residents wait until Wednesday to return and urged those who had not left to stay indoors until any errant squalls passed. Tourists should wait until the weekend to come back. A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch remained in effect for the Keys, though Ike's expected track was well south and west of the islands. Most storm-hardened Keys residents said they had never intended to leave, or even worry. Read The Full Story Predator Missiles Strike Taliban Stronghold In Pakistan 2008-09-08 15:06:22 At least 20 people were killed and 25 others injured Monday after several missiles fired by unmanned U.S. Predator drones hit a religious school and the house of a powerful Taliban commander in northwest Pakistan, near the border of Afghanistan, according to witnesses and a Pakistani security official. The missile strike occurred about 10:30 a.m. in the small village of Dande Darpa Khel in the tribal area of North Waziristan. Bashirullah, a resident of the village who like many ethnic Pashtuns uses only one name, said two Predator drones fired six missiles at a religious seminary school run by top Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani. The intense, rapid-fire bombing raid also destroyed Haqqani's nearby home and several other houses, said Bashirullah. A Pakistani security official in North Waziristan confirmed villagers' accounts of the attack, saying that the Taliban commander's supporters immediately cordoned off the area around the bomb site and barred anyone from entering. He said that Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin - a leading Taliban fighter - were not in any of the targeted buildings when the missiles struck. The Pakistani security official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly on such incidents, said dozens of the injured were taken by ambulance to hospitals in the tribal area's main town of Miranshah. Haqqani's younger son, Badruddin, told the Reuters news service that his father and brother were unharmed because they were away in Afghanistan at the time of the strike. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, chief spokesman for the Pakistani military, also confirmed that the attack had occurred, but he said he could not verify whether U.S. drones had fired the missiles or disclose any further details until the military's investigation is complete. Read The Full Story Analysis: Few Stand To Gain On Fannie, Freddie Bailout - And Many Lose 2008-09-08 15:05:53 Over the years, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac showered riches on many winners: their executives, Wall Street bankers and Washington lobbyists. Now the foundering mortgage giants are leaving some losers in their wake, notably their shareholders, rank-and-file employees and, in the worst case, American taxpayers. Yet, even after the government seized the mortgage finance companies on Sunday and dismissed their chief executives, the companies’ outgoing leaders could see big paydays - a prospect that angers many investors, particularly because ordinary stockholders could be virtually wiped out. Under the terms of his employment contract, Daniel H. Mudd, the departing head of Fannie Mae, stands to collect $9.3 million in severance pay, retirement benefits and deferred compensation, provided his dismissal is deemed to be “without cause,” according to an analysis by the consulting firm James F. Reda & Associates. Mudd has already taken home $12.4 million in cash compensation and stock option gains since becoming chief executive in 2004, according to an analysis by Equilar, an executive pay research firm. Richard F. Syron, the departing chief executive of Freddie Mac, could receive an exit package of at least $14.1 million, largely because of a clause added to his employment contract in mid-July as his company’s troubles deepened. He has taken home $17.1 million in pay and stock option gains since becoming chief executive in 2003. Both executives stood to make millions more from restricted stock grants and options, but those awards are now worthless because of the plunge in the companies’ share prices. Even so, their past pay - and the idea that they might receive more - irks some investors. Read The Full Story Boeing Strike Impact To Be Felt Globally 2008-09-08 15:05:06 Aerospace groups braced for global disruption from a potentially lengthy strike at Boeing on Monday as one of the airplane maker's biggest suppliers lost no time in cutting production and working hours. Three days after 27,000 machinists halted assembly at the world's top-selling airplane maker, Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems suspended its 2008 financial guidance and said it was cutting volumes on certain Boeing products. The former Boeing unit, based in Wichita, Kansas and one of the world's largest suppliers of airframe structures, said it had managed its way through a similar strike in 2005 by using a shorter working week instead of stopping production. It said it would implement a revised production and delivery schedule with a reduced working week for employees. Read The Full Story Russia Agrees To Limited Pullout Of Troops In Georgia 2008-09-08 15:03:50 Russian President Dmitri A. Medvedev said Monday that his country’s forces would withdraw from Georgia to within the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,the two ethnic enclaves that Russian troops seized and Russia quickly recognized as independent last month. Speaking after meeting with a senior European Union delegation led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Medvedev said Russia would allow 200 European monitors to deploy in the so-called security zones outside the two enclaves and in other disputed areas in Georgia by Oct. 1, so that Russian troops would be able to pull back. The Russian announcement represented some small concession to demands from the European Union and the United States that Russia begin to withdraw troops fully from Georgia. But on the bigger issue of Georgia’s territorial integrity, the Russian president would not yield on the sovereignty of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which the European Union, the United States and others insist remain part of Georgia. “Russia has received from the countries of the European Union, and France which is chairman of the European Union, a guarantee of the non-use of force by Georgia,” Medvedev said after the talks. Georgia and Russia have traded accusations over civilian deaths since the conflict over the territories began. Read The Full Story MSNBC Drops Olbermann, Matthews As News Anchors 2008-09-08 15:02:51 MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign. David Gregory, the NBC newsman and White House correspondent who also hosts a program on MSNBC, will take over during such events as this fall's presidential and vice presidential debates and election night. The move, confirmed by spokesmen for both networks, follows increasingly loud complaints about Olbermann's anchor role at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Olbermann, who regularly assails President Bush and Republican nominee John McCain on his "Countdown" program, was effusive in praising the acceptance speech of Democratic nominee Barack Obama. He drew flak Thursday when the Republicans played a video that included a tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, saying that if the networks had done that, "we would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that videotape the way I did, I apologize." Matthews, who has criticized politicians in both parties, drew less criticism for his convention role but became a divisive figure during the primaries when he described how he was inspired by Obama's speeches and made disparaging remarks about Hillary Clinton, for which he later apologized. Read The Full Story	Indictment Links Congressman Doolittle To Abramoff 2008-09-09 01:32:21 A former top aide to Republican Rep. John Doolittle pleaded not guilty Monday to public corruption and obstruction of justice charges in an indictment that links the northern California congressman and his wife, Julie, to convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Doolittle and his employees were showered with free lunches and tickets to concerts and sporting events, according to the indictment of his former aide, Kevin Ring. In exchange, Doolittle provided legislative favors to Abramoff's clients, including work on a $16 million appropriation and a bill to provide statehood to Puerto Rico, said the indictment. In addition, Abramoff provided Doolittle's wife with a job in which she received $96,000 working for a non-profit group, according to the indictment. Court documents said Abramoff sent an e-mail to a consultant of the company, saying: "I want her to help, but not be overburdened with work." Later, Abramoff canceled a charity event that Doolittle's wife was working on, but she continued to receive $5,000 for month purportedly for "marketing ideas" for Abramoff's restaurant, the indictment said. David Barger, Doolittle's attorney, said Rep. Doolittle and his wife are innocent. Prosecutors have not charged them with any wrongdoing. "It is clear that portions of the indictment of Kevin Ring are written with gratuitous references to the congressman and his wife to titillate the public, with the foreseeable and therefore intended consequence of attempting to embarrass and pressure the Congressman." Read The Full Story Palin Billed State For Nights Spent At Home 2008-09-09 01:31:55 Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a "per diem" allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business. The governor also has charged the state for travel expenses to take her children on official out-of-town missions. And her husband, Todd, has billed the state for expenses and a daily allowance for trips he makes on official business for his wife. Palin, who earns $125,000 a year, claimed and received $16,951 as her allowance, which officials say was permitted because her official "duty station" is Juneau, according to an analysis of her travel documents by the Washington Post.  The governor's daughters and husband charged the state $43,490 to travel, and many of the trips were between their house in Wasilla and Juneau, the capital city 600 miles away, the documents show. Read The Full Story China's Outsourcing Appeal Dims As Costs Rise 2008-09-08 15:06:59 Harry Kazazian built his business on sleeping bags that are made in China and shipped across the ocean to the United States, but he realized recently that the math doesn't work anymore. With fuel prices at record highs, the cost of sending a standard 40-foot container of goods has gone from $3,000 in 2000 to about $8,000 today, squeezing profit. So this summer Kazazian, chief executive of Exxel Outdoors, a Los Angeles-based maker of recreational equipment, did something radical: He moved the manufacturing back to Haleyville, Alabama. Soaring energy costs, the falling dollar and inflation are cutting into what U.S. manufacturers call the "China price" - the 40 to 50 percent cost advantage once offered by Chinese producers. The export model that has powered China and other Asian countries for three decades will be compromised if fuel prices continue to rise, said Stephen Jen, a managing director for Morgan Stanley. Read The Full Story Russia, Venezuela Confirm Joint Military Exercises 2008-09-08 15:06:37 Chafing at the reactivation in recent weeks of an American naval fleet in Latin American waters, President Hugo Chavez  said Sunday that Venezuela could engage in naval exercises with Russian ships in the Caribbean before the end of the year. Chavez’s words echoed news reports here over the weekend that four warships with as many as 1,000 sailors from Russia's Pacific Fleet could take part in a training exercise in November off Venezuela’s coast. Salvatore Cammarata Bastidas, Venezuela’s chief of naval intelligence, said the exercises were aimed at strengthening military ties. Russian officials confirmed on Monday that Russian naval ships, including the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Peter the Great and the anti-submarine ship Admiral Chabanenko, will dock in Venezuela by the end of the year. The ships will engage in joint exercises with Venezuelan warships in the Atlantic Ocean, Russian Navy Assistant Commander Capt. Igor Dygalo told the Interfax news agency on Monday. “The ships will have joint maneuvers, practice search and rescue at sea and check communications," he said. Read The Full Story Stock Markets Soar After Fannie, Freddie Bailout 2008-09-08 15:06:04 U.S. stock markets surged higher this morning as investors expressed confidence that the government's weekend seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would bolster the slumping U.S. housing and mortgage markets. Shares in the companies themselves, meanwhile, plummeted towards penny stock range, undermined by a government takeover that puts the rights of bondholders and the U.S. Treasury above those of common and preferred stockholders. Shares in both companies each fell by about 80 percent, with Freddie at one point falling below a dollar before rebounding to about $1.50. Following rallies that pushed Asian and European indexes up as much as 4.5 percent, the Dow Jones industrial average  jumped more than 330 points in early trading before falling back to a roughly 200-point gain, a jump of about 2 percent. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 were up by more than 2 percent each. The rally provided at least an initial vote of confidence in the plan announced yesterday by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr., to place the two mortgage giants into a government-managed conservatorship while a longer-term restructuring is ironed out. Central bankers in Beijing and Tokyo - important buyers of U.S. mortgage-backed debt - also came out in support of the takeover, which includes U.S. government guarantees that their billions of dollars in bonds will be repaid. In an interview on CNBC this morning, Paulson said seizing control of the two companies was "not something I wanted to do" but was unavoidable given the havoc the failure of either firm would have caused to the U.S. and global economies. Fannie and Freddie are critical to the functioning of U.S. mortgage markets, but there have been growing doubts about their ability to fill that role. Read The Full Story What The Treasury Dept.'s Takeover of Fannie and Freddie Means For Your Mortgage 2008-09-08 15:05:41 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the largest buyers of U.S. mortgages. Their takeover is expected to ripple through the economy, affecting U.S. home buyers directly and indirectly. Here are answers to common questions about the mortgage finance giants and explanations on how you might be affected by Sunday's news. Q What does the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mean for mortgage rates? A The government takeover is expected to push mortgages rates down. District-based Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of McLean do not set mortgage interest rates, but they hold significant sway over the market. The firms buy mortgage loans and sell them to investors. The government's backing is expected to make investors more willing to buy the loans and bring rates down as demand increases, said analysts. "It will make investors more comfortable with the risk of buying these mortgage-backed securities," said Holden Lewis, a reporter for Bankrate, an online research site. Read The Full Story United Airlines Shares Fall On False Bankruptcy Report 2008-09-08 15:04:33 Shares of United Airlines lost nearly all their value Monday morning when a false rumor swept financial markets that the struggling carrier had filed for bankruptcy protection. United shares traded at one cent in late morning on the New York Stock Exchange, down 99.92 percent, or $12.29. Its volume was more than 29 million shares. Trading in United shares was halted at 11:08 a.m., pending news from the company. Trading resumed at 12:30 p.m., and by early afternoon, shares had nearly recovered, down 70 cents, to $11.60. A United spokeswoman, Jean Medina, denied the bankruptcy rumor. The circumstances surrounding the rumor were still being sorted out Monday afternoon. Read The Full Story Ramadan Curbs Imposed In Western China 2008-09-08 15:03:10 Local governments in a Muslim desert region in western China have imposed strict limits on religious practices during the traditional Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began last week, according to the Web sites of four of those governments. The rules include prohibiting women from wearing veils and men from growing beards, as well as barring government officials from observing Ramadan. One town, Yingmaili, requires that local officials check up on mosques at least twice a week during Ramadan. The local governments administer areas in the western part of Xinjiang, a vast autonomous region that is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic people who often chafe under rule by the ethnic Han Chinese. In August, a wave of attacks swept through Xinjiang, the largest surge of violence in the region in years. Some local officials blamed the instability on separatist groups, and the central government sent security forces to the area. The limits on religious practices put in place by local governments appear to be part of the broader security crackdown. The areas affected by the new rules are near Kuqa, a town struck by multiple bombings on Aug. 10. Read The Full Story
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