Friday, June 26, 2009

SPB News for Friday



Gore Making Calls To Key Dems To Lobby For Climate Bill

Rahm: Immigration Reform May Not Happen This Year

Sen. Brownback (R-KS) Says He Will Vote Against Sotomayor

Biden: $19B In Highway Stimulus Funds Already Allocated

Insurance exec: We dump sick people

Hollywood 'madam' plans tell-all on clients


GE to bring 1,200 'green' jobs to Detroit

Sen. Roland Burris failed to reveal he has options to buy stock in a company where he was a board member, records show: Burris can buy the stock at prices ranging from $9 a share to about $20 a share, according to Inland’s federal securities filings. The senator is unlikely to exercise those options any time soon — Inland stock closed at $6.72 on Wednesday, below Burris’ $9 option.

ABC's White House special struggled for viewers — President Obama's town hall meeting on health care delivered a sickly rating Wednesday evening. — The one-hour ABC News special “Primetime: Questions for the President: Prescription for America” (4.7 million viewers …

Kerry Pushes For Public Option Trigger In Closed-Door Meeting — In a closed-door meeting of Senate Finance Committee Democratic members and their staff Wednesday evening, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) suggested that if the committee bill didn't have enough votes for a public option it include …

FBI report: Saddam Hussein 'would have sought security agreement' with US --Iraq leader 'would have cut a deal' with Bush Saddam Hussein feared Iran's arsenal more than a U.S. attack, and even considered asking ex-President [sic] George W. Bush "to protect" Iraq from its neighbor, once secret FBI files show... Asked how he would have faced "fanatic" Iranian ayatollahs if Iraq had been proven toothless by UN weapons inspectors in 2003, Iraq's ex-president said he would have cut a deal with Bush. "Hussein replied Iraq would have been extremely vulnerable to attack from Iran and would have sought a security agreement with the U.S. to protect it from threats in the region," according to a 2004 FBI report among the declassified files. Without Bush's help, "Iraq would have done what was necessary," he told FBI Agent George Piro in his Baghdad International Airport cell.

US behind recent blasts in Iraq, says Sadr Senior Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has accused "the occupier forces" of being behind the recent escalated violence in the war-torn country. Sadr called the Saturday blast in Taza, south of the northern oil hub of Kirkuk, as a "terrorist attack carried out by the Americans", Mehr News reported on Thursday.

U.S. foreign policy veteran Ross moves to White House Dennis Ross will become a special assistant to the president and an NSC senior director with overall responsibility for a region that includes the Middle East, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia. Foreign policy veteran Dennis Ross, who has been the Obama administration's pointman on Iran, has a new job -- to oversee policy in several of the world's hot spots, the White House said on Thursday. After only a few months as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "Iran czar," Ross is moving to the White House.

House passes $44B Homeland Security spending bill The House passed a $44 billion spending bill Wednesday that awards the Homeland Security Department a 7 percent budget increase, with money for more border patrol agents and for 'anti-piracy' efforts off the coast of Somalia. The House bill passed by a 389-37 vote.

Bank of America sued for gender bias over bonuses Bank of America Corp was accused in a Manhattan federal lawsuit of discriminating against female brokers at the former Merrill Lynch & Co by offering them lower retention bonuses than male counterparts. Thursday's lawsuit seeks class-action status, and contends that female brokers were typically eligible for lower bonuses because of gender bias at Merrill, including the brokerage's practice of steering wealthier clients to male brokers.

Record bonuses at bailed-out US banks By Andre Damon Executives at Goldman Sachs were told last week that they could expect to receive their highest ever bonuses this year, according to an article published Sunday in London's Observer newspaper. The first half of this year has seen a spectacular rebound for Goldman, and the company's London staff were told they would receive corresponding end-of-year bonuses if, as expected, the bank sets a new profit record

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