Articles of Interest 5-4-08
184 Days until Election Day
MORNING UPDATE:
MRNHA DINNER…we ended yesterday evening in Detroit at the Michigan Republican National Hispanic Assembly dinner. Republican volunteers and activist had a tent set up at the Cinco de Mayo festival at Clark Park located in Mexican town Detroit.
Dinner guests included Congressman Joe Knollenberg, Senator Mark Jensen and Representative John Stakoe among many others. Congratulations to David and Manny for a job well done! Hispanic Republicans are growing!
SOJOURNER TRUTH WOMENS REPUBLICAN CLUB…organized the booth at the Cinco de Mayo festival Saturday and will be bringing the DRGO elephant “Ike” to the parade today. Great job ladies!
McCAIN IN MICHIGAN…Senator McCain will be in Michigan for a fundraiser and Town Hall meeting next week. Details below…join us where you can.
McCain’s Town Hall flyer here:
HOUSE REPUBLICAN DINNER…Governor Pawlenty will be our featured guest on May 5th at the Rock Financial Center in Novi…more info below.
R.I.P. SMOKIE WALL…long time Republican activist and friend Smokie Wall passed away yesterday morning. Please keep Gerry (Roscommon County Chair) and the rest of their family in your prayers.
MICHIGAN MATTERS…Carol Cain brought Brooks Patterson, Kwame Kilpatrick, Robert Ficano and Bill Crouchman together for a great show. "Michigan Matters" airs Saturday and repeated today, Sunday on CW 50 at 11 a.m.
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McCAIN IN MICHIGAN.
Next week Senator John McCain has two events for people to attend here in Michigan!
Tuesday night May 6, Senator John McCain will be attending a Fund Raising Reception hosted at the home of Peter and Danialle Karmanos with special guest Governor Mitt Romney. The cost is $2,300 per person and you should contact Sarah Prues Hecker at 313-586-4314 or sarah@prueshecker.com for more information and to RSVP. The event starts at 5:30 PM.
Wednesday morning Senator John McCain will also hold a Town Hall Meeting at Oakland University in the Shotwell-Gustafson Pavilion (adjacent to Meadow Brook Hall) at 280 South Adams Road in Rochester. There is no cost to this event, no tickets are needed, and doors open at 8:00 AM. You can RSVP at Michigan@JohnMcCain.com.
Tuesday night May 6, Senator John McCain will be attending a Fund Raising Reception hosted at the home of Peter and Danialle Karmanos with special guest Governor Mitt Romney. The cost is $2,300 per person and you should contact Sarah Prues Hecker at 313-586-4314 or sarah@prueshecker.com for more information and to RSVP. The event starts at 5:30 PM.
Wednesday morning Senator John McCain will also hold a Town Hall Meeting at Oakland University in the Shotwell-Gustafson Pavilion (adjacent to Meadow Brook Hall) at 280 South Adams Road in Rochester. There is no cost to this event, no tickets are needed, and doors open at 8:00 AM. You can RSVP at Michigan@JohnMcCain.com.
HOUSE REPUBLICAN DINNER DETAILS.
The MRP is doing all we can to assist the Michigan State House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) to add seats this November and reclaim the Majority lost in 2006. The HRCC will be holding its annual dinner on May 5th. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty will deliver the keynote. This will be a great event. Location, time and cost details below.
Diamond Center
Rock Financial Showplace
46100 Grand River Avenue
Novi, MI 48374
Diamond Center
Rock Financial Showplace
46100 Grand River Avenue
Novi, MI 48374
To RSVP please call 517-371-1830 or mihrcc@gmail.com
5:00 – 6:00 PM ~ VIP Reception
$5,000/Couple
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM ~ Strolling Dinner
$1,000/Person
$5,000/Silver Sponsor*
$10,000/Gold Sponsor**
$20,000/Platinum Sponsor***
*Silver sponsors will receive 5 tickets to dinner, or 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
**Gold sponsors will receive 10 tickets to dinner, including 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
*** Platinum sponsors will receive 20 tickets to dinner, including 4 tickets to attend the VIP reception.
5:00 – 6:00 PM ~ VIP Reception
$5,000/Couple
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM ~ Strolling Dinner
$1,000/Person
$5,000/Silver Sponsor*
$10,000/Gold Sponsor**
$20,000/Platinum Sponsor***
*Silver sponsors will receive 5 tickets to dinner, or 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
**Gold sponsors will receive 10 tickets to dinner, including 2 tickets to attend the VIP reception
*** Platinum sponsors will receive 20 tickets to dinner, including 4 tickets to attend the VIP reception.
STATE STORIES
Town Hall meeting invites you to support MBT reform
thetimesherald.com May 3, 2008
Guest Columnist State Rep. Phil Pavlov
There are few things on which politicians, business owners, and families can see eye to eye. Yet, we all were in agreement that Michigan's out-dated Single Business Tax had to go. In 2006, the Legislature banded together to do away with the complex tax. Unfortunately, that is where the consensus stopped.
After months of arguing over the necessity and specifics of a replacement, the Michigan Business Tax was passed -- then a 22% surcharge was added. Now, what was supposed to be a fairer, simpler tax, is dividing the business community into clear winners and losers. Lansing needs to be aware of the impact this tax will have on business owners; especially those who are falling into the latter category.
Governor Granholm released from hospital
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm was released from Sparrow Hospital this afternoon and sent home, four days after emergency surgery to remove a bowel obstruction.
Granholm had a 90-minute laparotomy Tuesday night after tests showed she had complications from injuries suffered in a 1993 auto accident. Doctors removed a short section of her small intestine.
Ballot drive seeks part-time lawmakers
Sunday, May 4, 2008
OPINION
Nolan Finley
Several years ago, a former colleague of mine accepted a nomination to the police commission of a Downriver community notorious for its City Hall corruption.
It was supposed to be an unpaid post, but at his swearing-in, a local politico pulled him aside and whispered: "You've got two years to get yours, son, and get out."
We cling to the ideal of the citizen politician who leaves farm or factory to selflessly serve his neighbors, does the job and comes back home. In Michigan, we've tried to build that fanciful notion into the legal code, setting rigid limits on how long politicians can stay in office in hopes of forcing a citizen Legislature.
And yet career politicians are still the norm, and politics remains an often extremely lucrative career. For example, half of the members of the U.S. Senate are millionaires, including all three presidential candidates, even though they've spent nearly their whole careers in political jobs. (John McCain was also aided by a fortuitous marriage.)
Mayor pushes tunnel sale
Money from Detroit's half would shore up budget and avoid service cuts, aide says
BY ZACHARY GORCHOW and NAOMI PATTON • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • May 3, 2008
Drastic cuts in city services as a result of layoffs would result if the Detroit City Council fails to quickly approve a proposed deal to sell the city's half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, a top aide to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Friday.
Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams told the council that the mayor opposes selling bonds to patch the $65-million hole in the 2007-08 fiscal year budget as an alternative to the tunnel deal.
New details also were revealed that show Kilpatrick's tunnel proposal has changed considerably since he proposed a year ago leasing the tunnel to Windsor for 75 years as a way of keeping Detroit's budget balanced without raising taxes or cutting services. Now, the mayor proposes to sell the city's half of the tunnel to an authority appointed by the mayor and council.
Worthy appeals, 'disturbed' by decision
BY SUZETTE HACKNEY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • May 3, 2008
The Wayne County prosecutor appealed Friday a decision to allow 36th District Court judges to preside over the criminal case against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
Prosecutor Kym Worthy filed the appeal in Wayne County Circuit Court, asking Chief Judge William Giovan to recuse the 36th District bench from involvement in the case, and order the state court administrator to appoint a visiting judge. Worthy requested an expedited hearing on or before Friday.
New state law attracts 13 film deals
5/3/2008, 8:13 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — State officials say 13 deals have been signed under a new law offering lucrative incentives to filmmakers to bring their projects to Michigan.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed legislation last month aimed at giving the state a bigger role in the film industry. Michigan is competing with more than 35 other states for movie business.
Treasury spokesman Terry Stanton told the Detroit Free Press for a story Saturday that total Michigan production costs from the projects are estimated at more than $100 million. Stanton says the state government will rebate about $39 million if the work is completed.
Don't send your tax rebates overseas
May 3, 2008
We are all being alerted that the checks are on the way, get ready to shop. While I don't see this as the answer to the current recession, those who can or feel they should go shopping should at least try to buy something made in the United States.
If we run to the nearest discount store or mega-mart, we could hurt our economy more by sending more of our dollars overseas. To get the most bang for our buck, we all should seek out made-in-America and, when possible, Michigan-made goods and services.
HOUSING CRISIS
Hopefuls pitch their remedies
May 4, 2008
The presidential candidates have proposed a dizzying number of remedies for the types of issues facing Michigan -- job loss, companies shrinking or closing and skyrocketing home foreclosures.
Want to talk unemployment insurance? Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both want to extend and broaden it, and John McCain's got a proposal for personal accounts that would pay for job training and give older workers a temporary lost earnings supplement.
Paperwork mix up leads to stolen car sold at auction
5/3/2008, 2:40 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A Flint-area man paid about $3,800 for a Buick Regal only to find out a few days later that it was stolen. The mix up was discovered after the city police department's recent mega garage sale and car auction.
Acting police Chief Gary Hagler told The Flint Journal for a story Friday that the original owner called police when she saw the vehicle at a local dealership getting repairs this week.
Huron River isn't fit for swimming
5/3/2008, 1:54 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — What lurks beneath the murky waters of the Huron River is becoming less of a mystery with improved technology.
Tests have found ibuprofen, cholesterol and caffeine. But some of those chemicals are so diluted, they have little effect on humans.
That has some scientists trying to make the Huron more swimmable.
Homeowners should invest now, local business people say
Saturday, May 03, 2008
BY ALEX NIXON anixon@kalamazoogazette.com
KALAMAZOO -- The 3,300 new jobs MPI Research is bringing to Southwest Michigan will come in slowly over the next five to seven years. But that doesn't mean Kalamazoo can't begin cashing in now, several area business people said Friday during a gathering of about 75 real estate professionals, educators and community leaders at the Kalamazoo Country Club.
``You have to go to your clients and say, `It is a good time. It is a good time to buy and sell homes. It is a good time to make investments','' said Ron Kitchens, chief executive officer of Southwest Michigan First.
``I encourage you to break that psychological logjam that people find themselves in,'' he said.
Founder to restart operations after Pfizer sale
Friday, May 02, 2008
BY TINA REED
The Ann Arbor News
Call it the perfect birthday gift for Roger Newton. On Thursday, the founder of Esperion Therapeutics - a Plymouth Township based biopharmaceutical company that Pfizer bought for $1.3 billion four years ago - announced the company is being revived to continue studying cholesterol drugs.
The announcement, which fell on Newton's birthday, came nearly a year after Esperion closed its doors as part of Pfizer's downsizing and exactly two years after moving into its Plymouth site.
Council OKs resignation
Tomion letter accepted in special meeting
By NICHOLAS DESHAIS
Times Herald
May 4, 2008
The Port Huron City Council had a special meeting Saturday morning and voted unanimously on one item: to receive and file city Manager Karl Tomion's resignation. The 5-0 vote -- Councilman Jim Relken was absent and Al Wright resigned Friday from the council -- was highly anticipated but was ultimately a formality.
Mayor Pro-Tem Jim Fisher said their vote was "substantive" and important for transparency in city government. "This is it, folks," he said at the meeting. "There are no hidden agendas."
Highway near Port Huron following overturned tanker spill
5/3/2008, 10:42 a.m. EDT
The Associated Press
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — Hundreds of people displaced after a portion of Interstate 94 near Port Huron was closed due to a tanker spill have been allowed to return home.
Emergency management officials in St. Clair County say residents were given clearance to return home at 4 a.m. Saturday. The Times Herald reports about 500 residents were evacuated late Friday night.
Environmentalists study the Huron River to make it safer for swimming
by Tom Gantert | The Ann Arbor News
Saturday May 03, 2008, 3:43 PM
A religious organization contacted Ann Arbor's parks department with a request to baptize some of its members in the Huron River this spring.
The city's response: Not a good idea. "We just don't know," said Matt Naud, the city's environmental coordinator. "I can't tell you it's safe."
City code currently prohibits swimming off public parks. Some of the concern centers on liability. But some of the reason is because the water isn't fit for swimming, especially within two days of a rain, which washes pollutants directly into the river.
Wounded Capac police chief opens eyes, responds to name
5/3/2008, 8:24 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — The Capac police chief remains hospitalized in serious condition but his wife says he's making progress.
Vickie Hawks says family members were surprised on Saturday when her husband opened his eyes and responded to his name.
She tells the Times Herald of Port Huron for an online story published Saturday that "today was a good change," and even though progress is slow, "it was wonderful to see."
Pesky fish-eating birds targeted again
5/3/2008, 3:20 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
OSCODA, Mich. (AP) — State wildlife managers say they're launching a more aggressive strategy on thinning cormorant flocks by targeting Lake Huron's two largest nesting colonies.
Cormorants are dark-feathered birds with wingspans that can reach 4 feet. Biologists blame their voracious fish appetite for depleting certain fisheries. Critics have said their presence has hurt tourism and fishing from the western Upper Peninsula to the northern Lower Peninsula.
NATIONAL STORIES
PEER REVIEW Too Solemn for Her Generation?
Chelsea Clinton Campaigns At Our Lady Of Providence In Puerto Rico
By Ian Shapira
Sunday, May 4, 2008; Page B01
The YouTube clip is hard to hear at first, but thankfully, the main character is clutching a microphone. In the 90-second video entitled "Madison audience Defend Chelsea Clinton," a crowd member asserts that the former first daughter's phone calls to superdelegates on behalf of her mother's presidential campaign are somehow "unethical."
And then Chelsea launches into what, to my ear, sounds like one of those perfume-scented, floral-patterned Mother's Day greeting cards:
"Well, I disagree," she replies. "I'm, I'm so proud of my mom," she says, her voice softening. "There's no one in the world that I love more or respect more. . . . I'm so proud of my mom. I hope that your daughter is as proud of you or your children are as proud of you as I'm proud of my mom."
Michigan's issues are candidates' key issues
Campaign platforms address housing crisis, protecting jobs
BY TODD SPANGLER • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF • May 4, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama's lining up $1,000 rebates for most American families, wants the Internal Revenue Service to do your taxes for you and is prepared to spend $150 billion remaking the U.S. economy.
Sen. Hillary Clinton would match the first $1,000 families making less than $60,000 put away for the future and give you a tax break on the first grand you spend on college, plus half of the next $5,000. Sen. John McCain? He's ready to double your personal exemption, make sure American corporations don't pay a tax rate any higher than the Chinese do, and give spending in Washington -- at least among the items he's not required to fund -- a time-out.
Former president Clinton campaigns in Indiana for Hillary
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
KENDALLVILLE, Ind. -- Former President Clinton barnstormed small-town northern Indiana Saturday, telling voters in an economically battered region of the state that his wife is best equipped to bring new jobs and lower gas prices.
"You ought to vote for her 'cause she gets you," the former president said to an overflow crowed at a fire house in this town of about 10,000. "She knows what a fix this economy is in."
Sen. Hillary Clinton was campaigning Saturday in North Carolina, while the former president had stops scheduled in six small towns in Northeast Indiana. They were scheduled to join Saturday night in Indianapolis for a rally featuring a Hoosier favorite son, rock musician John Mellencamp. In the final weekend of campaigning before primaries in both states, Clinton is hoping to defeat Sen. Barack Obama in Indiana and stay close enough in North Carolina, where Obama is heavily favored, to remain viable in the minds of voters and Democratic Party power brokers.
Clinton's backers beg delegates' patience
By Donald Lambro
May 4, 2008
Democratic power brokers who back Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are urging superdelegates to stay uncommitted until the last contest in June, saying that by then they will be in a position to put the former first lady over the top.
This is the argument that Mrs. Clinton's most prominent superdelegates, the party VIPs who likely will break a looming nominating impasse at the end of the primary process, are pitching to fellow superdelegates who remain uncommitted.
Their message: There are eight more contests to go and nearly 500 more pledged delegates at stake, and we can still win this one, so keep your powder dry.
Obama nets razor-thin win in Guam
By Christina Bellantoni
May 4, 2008
WAKE FOREST, N.C. — Sen. Barack Obama took a razor-thin victory in the Guam caucus yesterday, edging him closer to the Democratic presidential nomination as the two candidates made their closing arguments to Indiana and North Carolina voters before Tuesday's primaries.
Mr. Obama cast himself yesterday as "something entirely different" and depicted his race with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as a choice between himself and "the same kind of politics we've come to know in Washington."
Dems seek better way to pick nominee
May 4, 2008
The protracted nomination battle between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama underscores the need for Democrats to find a better way to pick a presidential candidate, some party superdelegates say.
"The entire process needs to be evaluated and a more sane process put in place," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri, a Clinton backer and superdelegate. "Look at all the chaos surrounding the primaries."
May 4, 2008
The Debate
For Democrats, Instincts Differ on Economics
By DAVID LEONHARDT
As they traveled across Indiana and North Carolina over the last few days, trading charges and countercharges about the wisdom of suspending the federal gas tax for the summer, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama were really having a larger fight.
They were arguing over who had better economic instincts.
For all the similarities between the two Democrats, there is also a core thematic difference between them. Mrs. Clinton tends to favor narrowly focused programs, like the gas-tax holiday, that speak to specific voter concerns. By suspending the tax and replacing it with a new tax on oil companies, Mrs. Clinton told a rally in Hendersonville, N.C., on Friday, she was standing with “hard-pressed Americans who are trying to pay their gas bills.”
Wright Controversy Affects the Polls
A Commentary By Michael Barone
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Is the bottom falling out for Barack Obama? It's too early to say that, but there are some disturbing signs. On the positive side, superdelegates still are breaking his way. Rep. Baron Hill, whose southern Indiana district almost certainly will vote for Hillary Clinton, came out for Obama. So did fellow Hoosier Joe Andrew, who previously endorsed Clinton and who was named Democratic national chairman by Bill Clinton in the 1990s. (James Carville may have another name for him.) Obama is still well ahead among delegates chosen in primaries and caucuses, and he is not very far behind in superdelegates, either.
But what about the voters? Here there are some ominous signs. The latest Fox News poll, conducted after the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's appearance at the National Press Club, showed Obama's favorable/unfavorables at 63 to 27 percent among Democrats, compared to Hillary Clinton's 73 to 22 percent. Suddenly she's not the only one with high negatives.
Labor raises $1.58 million
Money will fund ballot initiatives; right-to-work group raised $200,250
By Andy Vuong
The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 05/02/2008 02:32:15 AM MDT
Labor unions have raised $1.58 million to push a pair of ballot initiatives that would hold executives criminally liable for company wrongdoings and require businesses to provide reasons for firing workers.
The Service Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters union and other labor groups provided nearly all of the money collected by Protect Colorado's Future, records filed Thursday with the secretary of state's office show. Meanwhile, the group conducting the business-backed right-to-work campaign has raised $200,250, with $200,000 coming from Golden-based CoorsTek.
...Shhh.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL
May 4, 2008
The economy continued to limp forward during the first quarter, according to the Commerce Department's "advance" report on gross domestic product (GDP), which increased at an annual rate of 0.6 percent in the January-March period. That growth rate was identical to the slow pace experienced during the fourth quarter.
However, based on a related measure of economic activity — final sales of domestic product, which deducts the change in private inventories from GDP — the economy performed significantly worse during the first quarter. Final sales fell by 0.2 percent in the first quarter after rising by 2.4 percent during the fourth quarter.
While the Commerce Department reported that the annualized increase in GDP during the first quarter was $17 billion (measured in constant 2000 dollars), more than 100 percent of that increase related to the net change in private inventories ($20 billion), which was equivalent to 0.8 percent of GDP. Thus, removing the change in inventories from GDP turns a GDP growth rate of 0.6 percent into a decline of 0.2 percent for final sales.
Obama, Clinton vie in Guam Democratic caucuses
5/3/2008, 5:31 p.m. EDT
The Associated Press
HAGATNA, Guam (AP) — Barack Obama was leading Hillary Rodham Clinton by just 203 votes out of more than 3,500 cast in Democratic presidential caucuses on Guam as counting continued early Sunday.
Obama-pledged delegates led Clinton's slate 1,951 to 1,748 in an election that sparked wide interest even though Guamanians, like other citizens in U.S. territories, have no vote in the November presidential election.
All-day voting Saturday had people lining up at 21 caucus sites around the U.S. territorial island, which has unexpected importance in a historic Democratic race in which every delegate matters.
Obama attacks Clinton's gas tax plan
5/3/2008, 4:36 p.m. EDT
By DAVID ESPO and BETH FOUHY
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Broadening his attack, Barack Obama said Saturday that Hillary Rodham Clinton's support for a summertime break from the federal gasoline tax symbolizes a candidacy consisting of "phony ideas, calculated to win elections instead of actually solving problems."
Not so, the former first lady told a campaign audience as the next round of primaries approached. Obama is "attacking my plan to try to get you some kind of break this summer," she said.
Locked in a Democratic presidential race for the ages, Clinton and Obama campaigned across Indiana and North Carolina at the same time they competed in Guam's caucuses and added to their convention delegate totals in several states.
Even the Insured Feel the Strain of Health Costs
By REED ABELSON and MILT FREUDENHEIM
The economic slowdown has swelled the ranks of people without health insurance. But now it is also threatening millions of people who have insurance but find that the coverage is too limited or that they cannot afford their own share of medical costs.
Many of the 158 million people covered by employer health insurance are struggling to meet medical expenses that are much higher than they used to be — often because of some combination of higher premiums, less extensive coverage, and bigger out-of-pocket deductibles and co-payments.
With medical costs soaring, the coverage many people have may not adequately protect them from the financial shock of an emergency room visit or a major surgery. For some, even routine doctor visits might now take a back seat to basic expenses like food and gasoline.
States looking to curb toy guns
Associated Press
May 4, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Concerns that realistic-looking toy weapons are confusing police and threatening safety have led 15 states to try going beyond gun control and cracking down on fake firearms. Officer Michael Hoover knows a fair amount about guns as a sniper instructor for a Tennessee SWAT team. He recalls the night two years ago when a car pulled up beside him on a highway, and the passenger waved what looked like an Uzi.
"It scared me," he said. "If anyone is in their right mind, I don't see how it wouldn't."
Officer Hoover was off-duty and called for police help. A 20-year-old man was charged with aggravated assault after police found a black plastic Uzi submachine gun under the car's passenger seat, but he was acquitted because jurors felt the officer should have been able to tell it was only a toy. Lawmakers across the country are coming to a different conclusion, deciding that it is so hard to differentiate the toys from the fakes that public safety demands they take action.
May 4, 2008
Microsoft Withdraws Its Bid for Yahoo
By MIGUEL HELFT and ANDREW ROSS SORKIN
Microsoft said Saturday that it was abandoning its blockbuster bid to acquire Yahoo after it raised its offer by $5 billion but Yahoo rejected it as still too low.
The about-face followed a meeting on Saturday morning in Seattle between Microsoft’s chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, and Yahoo’s chief and co-founder, Jerry Yang, according to a person familiar with the talks.
At the meeting, which also included Yahoo’s other founder, David Filo, and a Microsoft president who oversees its online unit, Kevin Johnson, Mr. Ballmer increased Microsoft’s offer to $33 a share, or a total of about $47.5 billion, from $29.40 a share. Mr. Yang told Mr. Ballmer that Yahoo would not accept an offer below $37 a share, this person said.
Bush asks for defense money for Poland
5/2/2008, 7:45 p.m. EDT
By DESMOND BUTLER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration has asked Congress for $20 million for military aid to Poland as it seeks to complete a missile defense deal.
The administration wants to build a European missile shield that would include a radar installation in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptors in Poland. Officials have been trying to reach a deal with the two countries before President Bush leaves office in January.
Article published May 4, 2008
Israel urged to lift West Bank barriers
By Nicholas Kralev - JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began another mediating effort in the Middle East yesterday with a call on Israel to remove roadblocks in the West Bank to allow Palestinians to move more freely in their own territories.
During her visit here in April, Miss Rice secured a promise from Israel to do away with 50 out of hundreds of roadblocks. But she said some of those that were removed were insignificant.
"One thing I want to talk to the Israelis about is the qualitative character of those roadblocks because not all roadblocks are created equal," she told reporters on her way to Jerusalem.
Jackboot liberalism, Maryland-style
THE WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL
May 4, 2008
Maryland is very much a bastion of one-party liberalism, with Democrats controlling every elected statewide office and holding commanding majorities in both Houses of the legislature. But "progressives" are very worried that Maryland could become a two-party state. So, with Attorney General Doug Gansler taking the lead, they came up with a plan to make it as easy as possible to get likely Democratic voters to the polls — and, disgracefully, they raised the specter of using the power of the state to threaten to silence anyone who gets in their way.
Mr. Gansler put together something called "The Attorney General's Task Force On Voting Irregularities," packed it with liberals like veteran Annapolis activist Carl Snowden, liberal attorneys and law professors, a newly enfranchised ex-felon and Deborah Jeon, legal director of the ACLU of Maryland; the task force was asked to come up with a plan to fix everything that's wrong with the way elections are conducted in the state.
Bush's N. Korea policy draws right jab
By David R. Sands
May 4, 2008
Conservative critics of the Bush administration's North Korea policy — including former top security officials from the president's first term — say they are not assuaged by the administration's latest move to toughen the terms of a deal to end Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons programs.
These opponents say the administration repeatedly has offered concessions to keep the deal alive, even as North Korea has tested a nuclear device, ignored international sanctions, repressed dissent at home and now stands accused of helping Syria develop a secret nuclear program.
On Japan's secretive death row, inmate becomes cause celebre
5/3/2008, 7:03 p.m. EDT
By CHISAKI WATANABE
The Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) — Iwao Hakamada, Japan's longest serving death row inmate, has insisted for 40 years that he is innocent of the four murders he was convicted of. The evidence was suspect, he says, and his confession was coerced.
Now the judge who wrote the ex-boxer's death sentence agrees. "My feelings about Mr. Hakamada remain the same — I believe he is innocent," said Norimichi Kumamoto, who now reveals that he argued for acquittal but was outvoted by two other judges in their secret deliberations before handing down their ruling in 1968. As the junior judge, he was tasked with writing the death sentence order.
Johnson wins London mayoral race
Boris Johnson has won the race to become the next mayor of London - ending Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign at City Hall. The Conservative candidate won with 1,168,738 first and second preference votes, compared with Mr Livingstone's 1,028,966 on a record turnout of 45%.
He paid tribute to Mr Livingstone and appeared to offer him a possible role in his new administration. Lib Dem Brian Paddick came third and the Greens' Sian Berry came fourth. Mr Johnson is expected to stand down as MP for Henley, triggering a by-election.
