SPB News for Friday.

Obama on 60 Minutes Sunday

Chicago braces for mass layoffs

Mayor Daley warns city that corporate CEO's plan huge layoffs in 2009.

The RNC Throws A Pie In John McCain's Face — Nine days after the election, the Republican National Committee is no longer interested in being friends with their nominee. — They've filed suit today in courts in Louisiana and Washington, D.C. claiming that the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act …

Bill Ayers: Barack Obama a ‘family friend’ — Bill Ayers, former 1960s radical activist turned college professor, listens to Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. speak at Northwestern University during an event hosted by Northwestern's Black Student Alliance. Ayers' name gained prominence during …

Crowd of 1 million could attend Obama inauguration — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration is expected to draw 1 million-plus to the capital, and already some lawmakers have stopped taking ticket requests and hotels have booked up.

CIA Chief: Bin Laden Alive, Worried About ‘Own Security’

Blackwater likely to be fined millions in Iraq weapons case The State Department is preparing to slap a multi-million dollar fine on private military contractor Blackwater USA for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits. Some of the weapons are believed to have ended up on the country's black market, department officials told McClatchy, but no criminal charges have been filed in the case.

Bush, Out of Office, Could Oppose Inquiries 13 Nov 2008 When a Congressional committee subpoenaed Harry S. Truman in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, he made a startling claim: Even though he was no longer president, the Constitution still empowered him to block subpoenas... As Congressional Democrats prepare to move forward with investigations of the Bush regime, they wonder whether that claim may be invoked again. Topics of open investigations include the torture of detainees, the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, secret legal memorandums from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and the role of the former White House aides Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers in the firing of federal prosecutors. [etc.]

Israeli Bombs Are Source of Uranium at Shelled Site, Syria Says Israeli missiles are the source of traces of uranium that diplomats at the International Atomic Energy Agency say were found at a suspected nuclear site in Syria, according to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem. "The basis of American complaint and allegations, presented to the IAEA seven months after the Israeli raid, is that a reactor was under construction, not operating, so where did the uranium particles come from?" al-Moallem said late yesterday, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

Democrat takes 800-vote lead in Alaska U.S. Senate race Mark Begich made a dramatic comeback Wednesday to overtake incumbent Ted Stevens for the lead in Alaska's U.S. Senate race. Begich, who was 'losing' after election night, now leads Stevens by 814 votes -- 132,196 to 131,382 -- with the state still to count roughly 40,000 more ballots over the next week.

Illegal tax scheme gives $140 billion to biggest US banks By Bill Van Auken An extra-legal measure quietly enacted by the Treasury Department in the shadow of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package will hand the country's biggest banks another $140 billion windfall, the Washington Post reported this week. In a five-sentence memo issued on September 30, on the eve of the first House vote on the bailout bill, the Treasury Department unilaterally overturned a two-decade-old tax law passed by Congress.