News roundup


--> US news: President Barack Obama will urge Congress to get to work this week on passing pieces of his larger, now-defunct jobs bill during a three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia, two southern states that could be critical to his re-election campaign.

The two-state swing, which kicks off today in Asheville, N.C., is Obama's latest attempt to combine campaigning for his jobs bill with campaigning for his re-election. While he has pledged to travel the country pitching his plans to get Americans back to work, his stops have focused heavily on political swing states, underscoring the degree to which what happens with the economy is tied to Obama's re-election prospects.

The bus tour comes as the fight over Obama's jobs proposals enters a new phase. The president's efforts to get his entire $447 billion bill passed were blocked by Senate Republicans, leaving Obama and his Democratic allies to push for the proposals contained in the bill to be passed piece by piece. That means the president's rallying cry this week could go from "Pass this bill" to "Pass these bills." More at Time.

--> World news: Iran is willing to look at evidence that an Iranian man plotted to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, the country's foreign minister said today, even as he denied the allegations had "the necessary basis in fact."

"We are prepared to consider any issue, even if it is falsely created, with patience. We have asked the Unites States to provide us with the relevant information regarding this scenario," said Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi (pictured).

The U.S. State Department said last last week there had been direct contact with Iran about the alleged plot, but a senior Iranian official denied it. (Via CNN)

--> Deaths: Indy car champion Dan Wheldon dies in massive crash:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy



--> Sports: The St. Louis Cardinals clinched the National League Championship last night in a 12-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. The Cardinals are now headed to the World Series for the second time in six years. With the National League winning the All-Star Game, they'll have home-field advantage and host the Rangers for Game 1 on Wednesday. More at Yahoo! Sports.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regarding the Barry Manilow concert in Coral Gables

Image
[ Editor's note ] Three monumental things have happened to me at the BankUnited Center. In 2004, my high school held its graduation ceremony there. In 2008, I heard presidential nominee Barack Obama speak about the future. And this past Saturday night, I saw the incomparable Barry Manilow perform in concert. To say that Barry remains every bit the superstar I was hoping for is putting it mildly. At 67 years young, he brought all the magic, the smiles, and the bandstand boogie he's famous for and then some. Funny, talented and charmingly self-deprecating, Barry Manilow remains without equal. Admittedly, the night started off rather poorly. Barry’s opening act was a man named Gerry McCambridge who has allegedly been wowing audiences at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas since 2005. As the creative force and inspiration behind the TV show The Mentalist , McCambridge's schtick is to do clever things with numbers. Honestly, I've never thought that doing anything with numbers w...
Read more

Regarding Steve Grand at Market Days

Image
Today, in the unlikeliest place imaginable, a musician restored my faith in music. His name is Steve Grand and believe me when I say that he lives up to his name. I first heard about Steve a year ago when his video for “All-American Boy” spread across the Internet like a wildfire. Being an ardent supporter of talented people (because there are so few of them left!) I downloaded the song, donated a little money to his Kickstarter campaign for an album, and followed him on the Twitter. Then last week I found out that he’d be at Market Days this weekend and quickly made arrangements to be there, too. Given the venue and nature of the audience, I was not expecting much. Steve is handsome and built like a truck, so I thought he’d come out shirtless, the audience of boys would fawn over him for the duration of three songs, and that would be that. How wonderfully wrong I was. Steve came out fully clothed-- wearing a plain white V-neck tee shirt, skinny black Levis, and...
Read more

California high court expected to rule on same-sex marriage

Image
The California Supreme Court is expected to determine the fate of same-sex marriage in the state today as well as the validity of about 18,000 same-sex marriages. The court will rule on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the controversial measure banning same-sex marriage that voters approved in November. Its opponents want the amendment nullified. They say the proposition alters California's Constitution and, therefore, under state law, is a revision that requires a constitutional convention. Attorneys for the opponents also say the proposition, which removed the "marriage" label from same-sex unions, effectively deprives same-sex couples of a fundamental right guaranteed them under the equal-protection clause in the U.S. Constitution. Proposition 8 passed with about 52.5 percent of the vote, making California one of several states to ban same-sex marriage in the November 4 elections. But unlike others, California had been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex coupl...
Read more