http://http://www.kentucky.com/676/index.xml News, sports, and entertainment from Kentucky.com en-us Copyright 2009 Kentucky.com Politics -Wire 60 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:45:02 EST http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss McClatchy Interactive's Workbench webmaster@kentucky.com http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/652035.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/652035.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:24 EST
Obama urged Congress on Thursday to "act boldly and act now" to fix an economy growing perilously weaker, even as top Democrats said they dislike key provisions, especially the design of his tax cuts.

Democrats such as Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad complained openly that many of the incoming administration's proposed tax cuts wouldn't work. Republicans warned against excessive new spending, with both parties signaling the incoming president they intend to place their own stamp on the economic recovery effort.

Conrad, D-N.D., and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., also staked a firm position against using the economic recovery plan for permanent spending increases, opening a split with House Democrats hoping to use the plan to broaden eligibility for unemployment insurance and boost education spending.

"Doing things that would have a permanent effect when we face trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see is just unwise," Conrad said.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651990.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651990.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:09 EST
Republicans lost three of the five Senate seats opened by retirements last year and are facing at least one more retirement in Florida, a swing state.

Bond already was headed toward a highly competitive, highly watched re-election bid in 2010. By announcing Thursday that he would not seek re-election when his current term ends, Bond accelerated the ground game for the candidates that will vie for his seat.

"There is no doubt that if Senator Bond's name was on the ballot in November of 2010 he would have won," Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., considered a potential candidate for Bond's seat, said in a statement.

Sen. John Cornyn, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Republicans had "a number of qualified candidates to carry forward the Republican vision" and had been preparing for a competitive race in Missouri long before Bond's decision.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651985.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651985.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:29 EST
That swift and seamless transition, expected to be repeated when Barack Obama is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, reflects a long tradition of the Senate giving deference to a new president's picks for his leadership team. Also in play is the post-Sept. 11 resolve that there be no interruption in the line of succession if the president or other leaders die or are disabled.

Obama moved quickly to choose core members of his Cabinet, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to head the State Department, New York Federal Reserve Bank president Timothy Geithner to be treasury secretary and Robert Gates to stay on as chief at the Pentagon.

Tradition calls for current Cabinet secretaries to prepare letters of resignation as the administration nears its end. But they all serve at the discretion of the president, and Bush has directed that they will formally leave office at noon on Jan. 20, concurrent to the swearing in of the new president.

The exception is Gates, who by becoming Obama's defense secretary could move up in the line of presidential succession, although only for a few hours, if the Senate acts quickly to confirm Clinton or Geithner. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff also will keep his job briefly, until 9 a.m. on Jan. 21, to oversee the massive security operation for the inauguration.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651988.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651988.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:04 EST
1. Vice President

2. Speaker of the House

3. President Pro Tempore of the Senate

4. Secretary of State]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651963.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651963.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:52 EST
The California congresswoman was to appear Friday before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to tell lawmakers how she would lead a department that Obama says he wants to "once again stand up for working families."

Solis, the daughter of a Mexican union shop steward, has won widespread praise from union officials who expect her to step up oversight of wage and hour laws, job safety regulations and rules covering overtime pay and pay discrimination.

Organized labor also views Solis as a determined advocate for its top priority this year - legislation that makes it easier for workers to form unions by doing away with secret ballot elections.

Business groups, already spending millions of dollars to campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act, are concerned about Solis' support for the measure.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651899.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651899.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:24 EST
Obama was to introduce the two men Friday, four days after their names leaked to reporters. That gave official Washington time to vent its surprise that Leon Panetta, a former White House chief of staff with no direct intelligence experience, had been tapped to head the CIA.

The other appointee is retired Adm. Dennis Blair, a former head of the U.S. Pacific Command who won high marks for countering terrorism in southeast Asia after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He worked closely with foreign partners to target the Jemaah Islamiyah in Indonesia and Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines, offensives that crippled both terror groups.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told The Associated Press on Thursday that he plans to question Blair about the role he played 10 years ago in U.S. efforts to rein in the Indonesian military as it brutally cracked down on civilians in East Timor. Staff aides to other members said they would be listening closely to the answers.

Paramilitary groups sponsored by the Indonesian military with U.S. financial and political patronage slaughtered more than 200,000 East Timorese over two decades. In 1999, as civilians were being massacred, Congress and the Clinton administration cut off all military ties.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651892.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651892.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:24 EST
An Associated Press analysis of the most recent Energy Department data found that 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds similar to the one that collapsed last month in Tennessee.

Records indicate that states storing the most coal ash in ponds are Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama.

The man-made lagoons hold a mixture of the noncombustible ingredients of coal and the ash trapped by equipment designed to reduce air pollution from the power plants.

Over the years, the volume of waste has grown as demand for electricity increased and the federal government clamped down on emissions from power plants.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651729.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651729.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:44 EST
"I'm shocked that we have to ask these questions," said Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren, "but what I will say is that I'm not giving up on this. The best news is that these questions have gotten a lot of attention and a lot of people are demanding answers and when a lot of people demand answers, things start to change."

Warren appeared on a nationally broadcast television show Friday as the Congressional Oversight Panel she heads released a report featuring questions about how banks are spending taxpayer money, how the money will combat the rising tide of home foreclosures and Treasury's overall strategy for the rescue.

But Treasury's Dec. 30 response "did not provide complete answers to several of the questions and failed to address a number of the questions at all," said the panel's second report.

The new document cited an Associated Press investigation that found none of the banks was willing to disclose what they were doing with hundreds of billions of dollars distributed through direct injections of federal money.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651673.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651673.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:59 EST
But now he is making a public show of closing his wallet, fed up with Congress' failure to act on pressing issues such as the excesses that caused the financial meltdown.

He is part of a grass-roots initiative led by Internet guru Lawrence Lessig and Joe Trippi, a master of using small-dollar donations to finance political campaigns, that seeks to get big money out of politics.

Lessig and Trippi set up a "strike for change" at Change-Congress.org that launched Thursday night, where ordinary people such as Kovacs can sign a pledge refusing to give any money to politicians unless they support legislation to publicly finance House and Senate races.

It's usually wealthy contributors and well-heeled lobbyists who dole out lavish campaign contributions to politicians and hope the recipients will return the favor by embracing donors' pet interests. The new idea is to get small givers to withhold their cash until they get their way.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651651.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651651.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:54 EST
The deaths of the men would appear to be a major victory in the fight against al-Qaida and follow reports of top terrorists being killed by stepped up U.S. missile strikes in northwest Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding.

One of the men, Usama al-Kini, is believed by U.S. intelligence to be behind the September 2008 Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad and the October 2007 attack on a convoy carrying Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. intelligence, said Thursday. Bhutto was killed in a separate attack in late 2007.

The other man killed was Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan. Both were believed to have been involved in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa.

The killings of the al-Qaida operatives occurred on New Year's Eve and was first reported by The Washington Post on its Web site Thursday night.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651591.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651591.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:09 EST
Electronics, computer network hardware, pharmaceuticals and perfume were among the fakes that posed health or security risks, the Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement divisions of Homeland Security said Thursday.

Shoes and other footwear valued at $103 million, or 38 percent, topped the list of counterfeits seized, the report said.

Most of the goods - 81 percent - originated from China, up 40 percent from 2007. India was the second highest counterfeit goods producer, accounting for 6 percent in the value of seized counterfeit goods.

The value of pharmaceuticals, handbags, wallets, and backpacks seized increased more than 100 percent in 2008 over 2007.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651519.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651519.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:49 EST
Republican and Democratic lawmakers promised to make sure that the Tennessee Valley Authority helps the region recover from one of the nation's worst spills and looks for ways to prevent other spills and leaks.

TVA president and chief executive Tom Kilgore told the committee that his agency would do a first-rate cleanup.

"We'll start with the people first, and the environment comes right after that," he said. He also said the TVA wanted to work with the environmental committee to become a leader in better ash disposal methods.

It's not entirely clear how much ash is stored around the country or where. The Environmental Protection Agency doesn't track the number or have a breakdown for the states, said spokeswoman Tisha Petteway.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651489.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651489.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:49 EST
Car companies called back 10.4 million vehicles in 2008, about 30 percent fewer than the 14.8 million cars and trucks recalled in 2007, the government said Thursday. It was the lowest number since the industry recalled 6.2 million vehicles in 1994.

At the same time, car companies issued a record 684 vehicle recall campaigns in 2008, a 16 percent increase over 2007, when the industry issued 587 campaigns. The attention reflected better monitoring systems aimed at catching problems earlier, safety experts said.

Recalls can cost companies millions of dollars, but the industry has been more aggressive in urging owners to bring their vehicles to dealerships to fix defective parts. Their efforts have come in response to the federal TREAD Act, which was approved in 2000 to help spot safety defects sooner after the massive Firestone tire recall.

"We're getting information earlier if there's a potential problem," said David Kelly, acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651484.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651484.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:44 EST
One of Craig's lawyers, Tom Kelly of Minnesota, said that Craig decided a further appeal to the state's Supreme Court would be "a futile exercise" for the former Republican senator from Idaho.

"We've concluded that the Supreme Court would not accept this for review," Kelly told The Associated Press.

Craig had indicated as much in his most recent public appearance, at a Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce meeting in December, when he told reporters that he was considering dropping the appeal.

At the time, he said he was "moving on" and had formed a consulting company and also would work with a group in Washington, D.C., on land and energy issues. A search of Idaho business records shows that Craig established Craig and Associates LLC, a consulting business, in November.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651477.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651477.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:29 EST
Defining whether a stimulus package will work depends on how success is defined.

President-elect Barack Obama has said the stimulus plan is intended to create jobs. So he'll be measuring success in part, it appears, by the number of jobs created.

Some of the brightest minds who study the economy, however, think that even with a massive stimulus plan, there would still be staggering job losses.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at forecaster Moody's Economy.com, thinks the unemployment rate could top 10 percent in 2010 before the crisis ebbs. That's if an effective stimulus plan isn't passed. The highest unemployment rate in the postwar period was 10.8 percent in 1982.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651471.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651471.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:24 EST
Rep. Edward Markey, known for his tough stances on environmental issues, will replace Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat who has been friendly to the coal industry. Boucher had chaired the panel eight years.

Markey's appointment is another sign that House Democrats plan to aggressively tackle global warming and other environmental problems. He will take charge of an expanded subcommittee with broader jurisdiction, renamed Energy and Environment.

Markey already chairs a special committee set up in 2007 to focus on global warming and energy independence.

"I look forward to pursuing the legislative agenda on climate change and clean energy at this critical time," Markey said in a statement.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651470.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651470.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:19 EST
Citigroup, said Assistant Senate Majority Leader Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is the "first major financial institution to step forward and to say, 'We understand this is a crisis in America.' "

The breakthrough agreement boosts the chances that Democrats can push new laws through Congress that direct bankruptcy judges to rework mortgage terms by writing down the principal on the millions of homes that now are worth less than the mortgages they carry.

Democrats have argued that lenders must accept a "cram down," essentially modifying a home loan to reflect a property's current value.

Thursday's agreement with Citigroup is important because it gives lenders a strong incentive to modify the terms of distressed mortgages before homeowners opt to seek bankruptcy protection.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651446.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651446.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:04 EST
Obama transition officials said the visit was in keeping with the tradition of U.S. presidents meeting with their Mexican counterpart soon after winning election.

Calderon, who was elected president in 2006, has been critical of U.S. immigration policies, and has advocated for the rights of Mexicans living in the U.S.

In Mexico, Foreign Relations Secretary Patricia Espinosa said Calderon also would meet with congressional leaders during his visit.

"There isn't a defined agenda but we would like to talk about security, migration and the economy," Espinosa told reporters.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651437.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651437.html Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:49 EST
Cheney also said during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press that he has no qualms about the reliability of intelligence obtained from terrorism suspects through waterboarding, a technique simulating drowning. The vice president said waterboarding has been used with "great discrimination by people who know what they're doing" and produced much valuable information.

He also said he doesn't think anyone at the CIA did anything illegal during interrogations. He says they followed the administration's legal opinions.]]> http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651435.html http://www.kentucky.com/676/story/651435.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:04 EST
Taming the nation's rising deficits and debt and bringing entitlement programs to heel? Good luck.

For now Obama is using his considerable political muscle and public goodwill to leverage a massive stimulus bill - big spending, big tax cuts - to inject adrenaline into an economy in crisis.

But he best save a significant part of that political capital if he wants to overhaul so-far politically inviolable programs such as Social Security and Medicare and avert a looming crisis that few Americans now feel or comprehend.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid make up 42 percent of the federal budget, providing a vital baseline of income and health security to millions of Americans. They are the symbols of government's social compact with its citizens. But a retiring baby boom generation and steady increases in health care costs are placing the programs on a potentially unsustainable course.]]>