AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay — once one of the most powerful and feared Republicans in Congress — was convicted Wednesday on charges he illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates in 2002. Jurors deliberated for 19 hours before returning guilty verdicts against DeLay on charges of money laundering [...]
New York Times: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration sought to heighten the pressure on China to rein in North Korea, even as American officials said that they believe that Pyongyang’s deadly shelling of a South Korea military installation was an isolated incident and not the beginning of an extended military campaign. Admiral Mike Mullen, the [...]
Politico: If Americans don’t want the government touching their “junk” to improve air security, the alternative may well be greater scrutiny of passengers’ travel histories and personal backgrounds, security experts say. The public backlash against the aggressive pat-downs the federal government rolled out this month could put more pressure on the government to introduce security [...]
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – An Iraq war veteran who shot a noisy moviegoer in Philadelphia on Christmas 2008 has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. Thirty-one-year-old James Cialella could face prison time when he is sentenced in March. He admitted Tuesday that he shot Woffard Lomax Jr. in the arm during a showing of “The Curious Case [...]
New York Times: WASHINGTON — President Obama and South Korea’s president agreed Tuesday night to hold joint military exercises as a first response to North Korea’s deadly shelling of a South Korean military installation, as both countries struggled for the second time this year to keep a North Korean provocation from escalating into war. The [...]
South Korean houses destroyed by North Korean artillery attack Fox News: Even as the world struggles to find workable ways to constrain North Korea’s expanding nuclear weapons program and unpredictable belligerence, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is planning how to channel new streams of aid and development money to the dangerous regime. Ban, the [...]
USA Today: There has been one significant travel trouble spot today, though it has nothing to do with the threatened protests tied to “National Opt Out Day.” Instead, these delays are specific to passengers on Spirit Airlines, which has been hit a “nationwide crash of the carrier’s computer system,” according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. [...]
St. Petersburg, Russia (AP) – China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday. Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at [...]
Larger agenda? The Hill: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano thanked TSA workers for their hard work on Tuesday afternoon. Officials with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have come under fire recently for implementing a series of controversial screening techniques, which include advanced body imaging systems and pat-downs. In a letter to TSA employees on Tuesday, [...]
Unemployment line in New York City Washington Post: Unemployment is set to remain higher for longer than previously thought,
L.A. Times: Stephanie Lazarus, the Los Angeles police detective charged in the 1986 murder of an ex-boyfriend’s wife, admitted to investigators the morning of her arrest that she had confronted the victim on multiple occasions, but denied having a role in the killing, according to the transcript of her interrogation. The interview transcript, which became [...]
