Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
President Signs Off On Legislation To Extend Unemployment Benefits (Wall Street Journal)
The latest extension of unemployment benefits couldn’t come at a better time, it seems; President Barack Obama signed legislation into law Friday providing an additional 14 to 20 weeks of benefits for those who have already exhausted theirs or will do so by year-end.
The extension comes on the same day the Labor Department announced the U.S. [...]
Q&A: Oregon Democrat DeFazio Calls for Geithner’s Resignation (Wall Street Journal)
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D., Ore.) created a stir in Washington when he said on MSNBC Wednesday evening that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should resign. Here are excerpts from his interview Thursday with the Wall Street Journal. To be sure, Rep. DeFazio doesn’t speak for all Democrats. He is considered one of the more liberal lawmakers [...]
Its Not Getting Better! Mortgage Delinquencies, Foreclosures Hit A New High (Huffington Post)
The foreclosure crisis likely will persist well into next year as high unemployment pushes more people out of homes, pulls down housing prices and raises concerns about the broader economic recovery.
The latest evidence was a report Thursday that a rising proportion of fixed-rate home loans made to people with good credit are sinking into foreclosure. [...]
America’s Best Place to Raise Your Kids (Yahoo!)
You’d think that the character of a village that grew from 12,000 to 60,000 residents in less than 40 years might have changed with the population. But young families move into Tinley Park, Ill., a proud village 25 miles southwest of Chicago, for the same reason that Edward and Emily Zabrocki chose to raise their [...]
Small Businesses Could Face New Credit Squeeze (Wall Street Journal)
Business owners could face a new credit squeeze as early as next month, in what amounts to a gap period between the expiration of two popular stimulus provisions and the ramp-up of President Barack Obama’s plan to boost loans for small companies.
To be sure, the stimulus provisions – which lured hundreds of banks back to [...]
White House Tries To Put Positive Spin On ‘Less Than Successful’ Asian Trip (L.A. Times)
Reporting from Seoul — Even before President Obama boarded his home-bound flight for Washington, capping his exhausting weeklong Asian tour, the White House was scrambling to combat perceptions that the trip failed to produce concrete results.
Compared to Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, the U.S. is putting its alliances “on a firmer footing” and has “reasserted [...]
White House Advice On Mammograms Meets With Outrage. HHS Secretary Sebelius On The ‘Hot Seat’ (CNN)
A government task force says women in their 40s don’t need annual mammograms, but Sara Fought would beg to differ: She says she’s alive today because a routine mammogram found cancer when she was 42.
“I had to read the guidelines twice because I really couldn’t believe women in the 40-49 age bracket were being discouraged [...]
Senate Dems Unveil Their Health Plan. Seeks To Add Coverage To 31 Million (New York Times)
Democratic leaders in the Senate on Wednesday unveiled their proposal for overhauling the health care system, outlining legislation that they said would cover most of the uninsured while reducing the federal budget deficit.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said at an evening news conference that the legislation, embodying President Obama’s signature domestic initiative, [...]
Ouinnipiac Poll: Obama Approval Drops. Now Under 50% – 42% Disapprove of The Job He’s Doing (Salon.com)
The White House gets some bad news, as a reliable pollster finds the president in dangerous waters
By Alex Koppelman
President Obama’s approval rating has been dropping for some time now. For the most part, that’s something that can get written off — every president sees his numbers fall once he’s in office for a little while, [...]
Obama Admits Guantanamo Won’t Close By Jan. Deadline (Washington Post)
President Obama directly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that the prison facility at Guantanamo Bay will not close by the January deadline he set, but he said he hoped to still achieve that goal sometime next year.
Obama refused, however, to set a new deadline.
In an interview in the Chinese capital with Major Garrett of [...]
