Wednesday, May 27, 2009

SPB News for Wednesday.


Heavyweight champ's four-year-old sustained severe injury on treadmill.

Obama Integrates NSC and Homeland Security Councils, Adds Pandemic Threat Office --Aides: Doing so will improve state and local officials' access to the White House and does not require an act of Congress 26 May 2009 President Obama announced yesterday that he will merge the staffs of the Homeland Security Council and the National Security Council to speed up and unify security policymaking inside the White House. The White House also will add new offices for cybersecurity, for terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction, and for "resilience" -- a national security directorate aimed at preparedness and response for a domestic WMD attack, pandemic or natural catastrophe, officials said. Obama will preserve the Homeland Security Council's role as the main forum for government policymaking on issues such as terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, natural disasters and pandemic influenza.

Obama urged to curb Buy American plan The Obama administration faces mounting pressure [from corpora-terrorists] to wind back Buy American measures passed by Congress this year amid growing concerns that they hurt some US workers they were designed to help. The measures, which were in the $787bn US stimulus bill, require any project funded with stimulus money to use only US-made steel, iron and manufactured goods.

U.S. consumer confidence soared in May --Highest level since September; a sign that economy stabilizing Consumer confidence extended its rebound in May, soaring to the highest level since last September as more shoppers are feeling the worst of the recession is behind them. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index, which had dramatically increased in April, zoomed past economists' expectations to 54.9 from a revised 40.8 in April.

Army engineers begin building new polar bear home A group of engineers from the Army have started constructing a new home in the Scottish Highlands for Mercedes, a polar bear. Some 80 soldiers from 75 Engineer Regiment, which is based in the north-west, have begun constructing the enclosure at the Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie. Mercedes, who is currently the only polar bear in a British zoo, hopes to move into her new home later this year.

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