Archive for June 5th, 2009

  • Cuba spy charges surprise neighbors in D.C. (AP)

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks with reporters during a news conference with Ahmet Davutoglu, foreign minister of Turkey, at the State Department in Washington, Friday, June 5, 2009. Clinton has ordered a damage assessment after learning that a retired State Department worker with a top-secret security clearance and his wife have been indicted on charges of spying for Cuba for 30 years. The indictment also says Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, met with Cuban President Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1995 after traveling through Mexico under false names. They allegedly made several other trips to Latin America and the Caribbean to meet with Cuban agents. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP – Behind the massive English gates that herald the luxury co-op complex have lived senators, Cabinet members, judges.

  • New CDC chief to target smoking; led charge in NYC (AP)

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    FILE - This Friday, May 15, 2009 file photo shows Thomas Frieden, newly named director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), at a press conference in the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)AP – Dr. Thomas Frieden has swung a big stick as New York City’s top health official, pushing through bans on smoking and artery-clogging trans fats.

  • President Obama Calls for Real Health Care Reform

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    The President makes clear that as Congress works through health care reform legislation, it must include fundamental changes that lower costs, ensure Americans have choices, and establish access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans. But what we cant welcome, the President says, is reform that just invests more money in the status quo reform that throws good money after bad habits.

  • Visiting Buchenwald, Obama speaks of the lessons of evil

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    President Barack Obama made an emotional visit to the former Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, Friday, saying that the camp should serve as a reminder of humanity’s duty to fight the spread of evil.

  • White House mulls Guantanamo guilty pleas: report (Reuters)

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    Reuters – The Obama administration is considering seeking a change in the special U.S. military trials for Guantanamo Bay terrorism suspects to allow those who face the death penalty to plead guilty without getting a full trial, The New York Times reported on Friday.

  • Too early to rule out Sotomayor filibuster (AP)

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    This undated cartoon provided by Chip Bok and Creators Syndicate depicts Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as a strung-up pinata that President Barack Obama is inviting Republicans to whack. The cartoon by Chip Bok of Creators Syndicate ran in The Oklahoman on Tuesday. It shows Obama wearing a sombrero and saying 'Now, who wants to be first?' to a group of elephants in suits holding sticks. The underline says, 'Fiesta Time At The Confirmation Hearing.' (AP Photo/Chip Bok and Creators Syndicate)AP – The Senate’s top Republican said Friday it’s “way too early to know” whether his party will try to block a vote on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation, leaving open a possibility that a so-far mild debate on her confirmation could turn bitter.

  • NYT: Detainee guilty pleas without trials?

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    Guantanamo detainees sit together inside a common area at Camp 6 detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on May 31.The Obama administration is considering a change in the law  that would clear the way for Guantanamo detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial.

  • Cartoon of Sotomayor as pinata draws criticism (AP)

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    This undated cartoon provided by Chip Bok and Creators Syndicate depicts Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as a strung-up pinata that President Barack Obama is inviting Republicans to whack. The cartoon by Chip Bok of Creators Syndicate ran in The Oklahoman on Tuesday. It shows Obama wearing a sombrero and saying 'Now, who wants to be first?' to a group of elephants in suits holding sticks. The underline says, 'Fiesta Time At The Confirmation Hearing.' (AP Photo/Chip Bok and Creators Syndicate)AP – Some Hispanics and advocates for women are criticizing an editorial cartoon that depicts Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as a strung-up pinata that President Barack Obama is inviting Republicans to whack.

  • Obama sees ’serious progress’ for Mideast peace (AP)

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    Palestinians pray during Friday prayers as the Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim is seen in the background, on a hilltop next to the West Bank Jewish settlement of Qedar, Friday, June 5, 2009. Israel will not heed US President Barack Obama's powerful appeal to halt all settlement activity on lands the Palestinians claim for a future state, officials said Friday. The government plans to allow construction inside existing West Bank settlements to accommodate for growing families, said the officials, explaining a position that looks sure to cause a serious policy clash with the United States. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)AP – Trying to defy decades of disappointment in the Middle East, President Barack Obama raised hopes Friday for “serious progress this year” in the elusive search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

  • Intelligence pick bows out over CIA tactic ties (AP)

    Friday, June 5th, 2009

    FILE -- In this Aug. 3, 2004 file photo, Philip Mudd of the CIA's counterterrorist center appears before Senate Government Affairs Committee Chairman on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)AP – President Barack Obama’s pick for intelligence chief at the Homeland Security Department withdrew from consideration Friday amid questions about his role in the CIA’s interrogations of suspected terrorists.

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