Pat Dollard

ATHENS, Greece (AP) – With creditors demanding solutions to the Greek debt crisis and the financial world increasingly on edge, Athens on Wednesday froze pensions, cut civil service salaries and slapped new taxes on everything from cigarettes and alcohol to fuel and precious gems. Markets and the European Union reacted well to the euro4.8 billion [...]

Funny or Die’s Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

The Washington Times: By Jim DeMint You’d think the Obama administration is busy enough controlling the banks, insurance companies and automakers, but thanks to whistleblowers at the Department of the Interior, we now learn they’re planning to increase their control over energy-rich land in the West. A secret administration memo has surfaced revealing plans for [...]

Detroit News: Detroit — DTE Energy removed a gas meter and shut off electrical service at a west-side house hours before a fire ripped through the home Tuesday, killing three young children and injuring two youngsters. A meter reader noticed energy was being used at the house on the 4900 block of Bangor near West [...]

ABC News: Even as many Americans still struggle to recover from the country’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, another crisis – one that will be even worse than the current one – is looming, according to a new report from a group of leading economists, financiers, and former federal regulators. n the report, [...]

Fresh controversy over aid to Ethiopia erupted today after an investigation concluded that millions intended for victims of the 1984 famine was diverted to anti-government rebel leaders – including the current Ethiopian Prime Minister. The allegations, made by former rebel compatriots of Meles Zenawi, are the first to detail how millions raised by Bob Geldof’s [...]

Washington (AP) – Embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel announced Wednesday that he plans to temporarily step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee amid a wide-ranging ethics probe. The announcement came as Republicans readied a formal resolution to strip the Harlem Democrat of his chairmanship, and as several Democrats began to peel away [...]

NY Times: To meet the Obama administration’s targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, some researchers say, Americans may have to experience a sobering reality: gas at $7 a gallon. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the transportation sector 14 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, the cost of driving must simply increase, according to a [...]

Washington Post: As Democrats on Capitol Hill prepared a risky effort to muscle sweeping health-care legislation to final passage, President Obama on Tuesday made a last gambit to split Republicans on the issue, proposing to incorporate a handful of GOP ideas into his signature domestic initiative. On Wednesday, Obama plans to call on Congress to [...]

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“Where’s the beef?” – Labor Unions New York Times: ORLANDO, Fla. — The nation’s union leaders said on Tuesday that they were “appalled” at remarks made by President Obama condoning the mass firing of teachers at a Rhode Island high school. Coming the day after union presidents sharply complained to Vice President Joseph R. Biden [...]

Athens, Greece (AP) -Greek officials say they will save euro4.8 billion with measures including a hike in value-added tax from 19 to 21 percent. Officials speaking on condition of anonymity say they will also cut back holiday bonus payments for civil servants by 30 percent. Greece has been under intense pressure from the European Union [...]

Fox News: An investigation is underway after a child was heard giving instructions to a pilot from the air-traffic control tower at one of America’s busiest airports. In a recording that has been confirmed as genuine by the Federal Aviation Administration, the child makes five transmissions from John F Kennedy International Airport — with the [...]

Times Of London: Pakistani forces have taken control of a warren of caves that served until recently as the nerve centre of the Taleban and al-Qaeda and sheltered Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command to Osama bin Laden. “It was the main hub of militancy where al-Qaeda operatives had moved freely,” Major-General Tariq Khan, the Pakistan regional [...]