Saturday, October 17, 2009

SPB News for Saturday



Obama team makes it official: Budget deficit hits record. By a lot. — The Obama administration has released new deficit numbers, and they are not pretty. — The deficit for Fiscal Year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, came in at a record $1.42 trillion, more than triple the record set just last year.

Former Official Sentenced — David H. Safavian, the top federal procurement official under President George W. Bush, was sentenced to a year in prison for lying about his ties to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Mr. Safavian, ex-chief of staff at the General Services Administration …

Binyam Mohamed: Judges overrule attempt to suppress torture evidence --High court orders publication of US report, saying British foreign secretary's actions were harmful to the rule of law David Miliband, the foreign secretary, acted in a way that was harmful to the rule of law by suppressing evidence about what the government knew of the illegal treatment of Binyam Mohamed, a British resident who was held in a secret prison in Pakistan, the high court has ruled. In a devastating judgment, two senior judges roundly dismissed the foreign secretary's claims that disclosing the evidence would harm national security and threaten the UK's vital intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US.

Former KBR worker pleads guilty to sex crime A former employee of military contractor KBR Inc pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman at an airbase [Camp Al Asad] in Iraq, federal prosecutors said on Friday. David Charles Breda Jr. pleaded guilty to one count in a criminal information before U.S. District Judge Gray Miller in federal court in Houston. He faces a maximum sentence of two years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000

$400 per gallon gas to drive debate over cost of war in Afghanistan --Analysts: Fully burdened cost of fuel might be $1,000 per gallon The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan. The statistic is likely to play into the escalating debate in Congress over the cost of a war that entered its ninth year last week. Pentagon officials have told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee a gallon of fuel costs the military about $400 by the time it arrives in the remote locations in Afghanistan where U.S. troops operate.

Bill Shields Most Banks From Review Bowng to political pressure from community bankers, the House Financial Services Committee approved an exemption on Thursday for more than 98 percent of the nation’s banks from oversight by a new agency created to protect consumers from abusive or deceptive credit cards, mortgages and other loans. The carve-out in legislation overhauling the regulatory system would prevent the new consumer financial protection agency from conducting annual examinations of the lending practices at more than 8,000 of the nation's 8,200 banks, leaving only the largest banks and other lenders subject to the agency’s examiners..

Insurers' ad claims seniors would lose under health bill - AD TITLE: "Medicare Advantage Facing $100 Billion in Cuts"

1 comment:

KittyBowTie1 said...

"Pentagon officials have told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee a gallon of fuel costs the military about $400 by the time it arrives in the remote locations in Afghanistan where U.S. troops operate."

Wow is that ever STUPID!!! Go buy some from Iran if that could save $394 per gallon!!!!!!