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1/28/2010 | Politics, Presidential Issues
Obama Touted His Administration’s Anti-Lobbying Pledge, Even Though He’s Violated It
CNS News
In his State of the Union address Wednesday night, President Barack Obama returned to his campaign themes of ethics and transparency, touting his administration as an example of one that is setting new standards.
“That’s what I came to Washington to do,” Obama told a joint session of Congress and the nation Wednesday night. “That’s why – for the first time in history – my administration posts our White House visitors online. And that’s why we’ve excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions.”
However, the Obama administration has come under scrutiny for violating that pledge. The Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-check Web site PolitiFact was quick to call Obama out regarding lobbyists.
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1/27/2010 | Abortion
Queens clinic A1 Medicine probed after Alexandra Nunez is fatally injured while undergoing abortion
New York Daily News
Detectives are investigating a Queens clinic where a 37-year-old woman was fatally injured while undergoing an abortion, officials said Tuesday.
Alexandra Nuñez began bleeding heavily during the procedure at A1 Medicine in Jackson Heights on Monday, officials said.
One of Nuñez's arteries was inadvertently severed and she went into cardiac arrest, according to police sources.
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1/27/2010 | Medical Ethics
LA City Council moves to close pot dispensaries
Associated Press
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday tentatively approved an ordinance to close most of the city's medical marijuana dispensaries, winding down months of debate on how to limit the rapid spread of such clinics.
The ordinance, if passed next week by a simple majority of the 15-member council, would cap the number of dispensaries at 70 and require them to be at least 1,000 feet from "sensitive uses" — schools, parks and other public gathering spots.
The local law would put an end to the proliferation of pot dispensaries. As many as 1,000 have cropped up over the past few years. The ordinance would also likely force remaining clinics that comply to move to industrial areas because of the distance requirement.
1/26/2010 | Economy
Obama to propose freeze on government spending
Washington Post
Under mounting pressure to rein in mammoth budget deficits, President Obama will propose in his State of the Union address a three-year freeze on federal funding that is not related to national security, a concession to public concern about government spending that could dramatically curtail Obama's legislative ambitions.
The freeze would take effect in October and limit the overall budget for agencies other than the military, veterans affairs, homeland security and certain international programs to $447 billion a year for the remainder of Obama's first term, senior administration officials said Monday, imposing sharp limits on his ability to begin initiatives in education, the environment and other areas of domestic policy.
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1/26/2010 | Economy
Pelosi Says Jobs ‘Permeated’ Congressional Actions in Year of 10 Percent Unemployment
CNSNews.com
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that the issue of job creation has “permeated” the efforts of congressional Democrats over the past year. Pelosi’s statement stands in stark contrast to a bleak jobs year that saw unemployment rise to over 10 percent.
“The jobs issue has permeated everything, [every] major initiative that we have,” Pelosi said at her weekly press briefing Thursday. The speaker outlined the various proposals that she said had pulled the economy “back from the brink” over the past year.
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1/22/2010 | Economy
Geithner aired concern on bank limits-sources
Reuters
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has expressed some skepticism behind closed doors about the broad bank limits proposed on Thursday by his boss, President Barack Obama, according to financial industry sources.
The sources, speaking anonymously because Geithner has not spoken publicly about his reservations, said the Treasury chief is concerned the proposed limits on big banks' trading and size could impact U.S. firms' global competitiveness.
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1/22/2010 | Healthcare
Health care the hot topic in abortion debate
USA Today
Players in the abortion debate gathering in Washington, D.C., and around the country Friday are focused on the prospect of a health care overhaul.
On the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, health care "is really the big issue," says Mary Lou Gartner of Penn Hills, Pa., political chairwoman of People Concerned for the Unborn Child.
On the other side of the issue, the National Organization for Women will hold a rally and vigil in front of the Supreme Court to "make the point that abortion care is health care," says NOW president Terry O'Neill.
1/21/2010 | Economy
Russia diversifies into Canadian dollars
FinancialTimes.com
Russia’s central bank announced on Wednesday that it had started buying Canadian dollars and securities in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.
Analysts said the move could be a sign of increased diversification of emerging market central bank assets away from the dollar and into investments denominated in other commodity-linked currencies, such as the Australian dollar.
Adam Cole at RBC Capital Markets said if taken in isolation, Russia’s announcement that it was buying Canadian dollars was not significant, but if it was part of a broader trend, then it was an important step.
“If it is a barometer for the activity of other central banks, then its is structurally positive for the currencies of countries like Canada and Australia that have a commodity bias in their economies,” he said.
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1/21/2010 | Healthcare
Democrats begin discussing smaller health bill
Associated Press
President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies are conceding for the first time that they may have to accept a less ambitious health overhaul bill than the massive one they've struggled for a year to assemble.
Shorn by Massachusetts voters of their pivotal 60th Senate vote and much of their political momentum, the White House and congressional leaders are considering a more modest version of Obama's top legislative priority. It could focus on curbing insurance company practices like denying coverage to sick people and on helping low-earning people and small businesses afford coverage, officials said.
1/20/2010 | Healthcare
President Obama Says Voter Anger, Frustration Key to Republican Victory in Massachusetts Senate
ABC News
President Obama warned Democrats in Congress today not to "jam" a health care reform bill through now that they've lost their commanding majority in the Senate, and said they must wait for newly elected Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to be sworn into office.
The president also said the same voter anger that swept him into office in 2008 carried Brown into office on a stunning upset victory Tuesday night over heavily favored Democrat Martha Coakley.
1/20/2010 | Economy
Hong Kong remains world's freest economy
Breitbart
Hong Kong remains the world's freest place to do business while the United States has lost its claim to an unrestricted economy, according to an annual report published Wednesday.
Singapore, Australia and New Zealand grabbed second, third and fourth spots respectively.
But Canada pushed the US from the top seven economies deemed to have an entirely free economy due to "notable decreases in financial freedom, monetary freedom, and property rights," the report said.
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1/19/2010 | Healthcare
Democrats Face Loss of Kennedy Seat, Health-Care Vote
Bloomberg.com
Democrats face the possibility of losing their most iconic U.S. Senate seat, held for almost 47 years by the late Edward Kennedy, in a Massachusetts election today that could also cost them their 60-vote Senate supermajority needed to help pass a health-care overhaul.
In just more than a week, Democrat Martha Coakley, the state attorney general once considered a sure bet for the Senate, has watched her lead evaporate. Some polls show her trailing state Senator Scott Brown, who was more than 30 points behind last November.
1/19/2010 | Freedom of Religion, Homosexuality
Obama’s EEOC Nominee: Society Should ‘Not Tolerate Private Beliefs’ That ‘Adversely Affect’ Homosexuals
CNS News
Chai Feldblum, the Georgetown University law professor nominated by President Obama to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has written that society should “not tolerate” any “private beliefs,” including religious beliefs, that may negatively affect homosexual “equality.”
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1/15/2010 | Healthcare
Unions will dodge O's health tax
New York Post
Big Labor got some big love from President Obama and congressional Democrats yesterday after they agreed to exempt union workers from the whopping “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health-care plans until 2018.
The sweetheart deal, hammered out behind closed doors, will save union employees at least $60 billion over the years involved, while others won't be as lucky -- they'll have to cough up almost $90 billion.
The 40 percent excise tax on what have come to be called "Cadillac" health-care plans would exempt collective-bargaining contracts covering government employees and other union members until Jan. 1, 2018.
1/15/2010 | Healthcare
Feds vs. states: Who should run health market?
MSNBC
The fight over whether states or the federal government will have more clout in a proposed health insurance marketplace is escalating — and the outcome has big implications for consumers.
This issue is one of the key disputes in the current negotiations between leaders of the House and Senate as they meld their health bills. The House, which would establish a national exchange run by the federal government, argues that setting a uniform program would help protect consumers. The Senate, which wants each state to create and run its own exchange, says states have more experience overseeing insurance plans and know their residents’ needs better.
1/14/2010 | Economy
Retail sales sink, jobless claims rise
Associated Press
Retail sales unexpectedly fell in December, leaving 2009 with the biggest yearly drop on record and highlighting the formidable hurdles facing the economy as it struggles to recover from the deepest recession in seven decades.
In another disappointing economic report, the number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week as jobs remain scarce.
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1/14/2010 | Healthcare
Jackley, others say Congress wrong in Neb. deal
The Daily Republic
State Attorney General Marty Jackley is among 14 attorneys general nationwide calling for the House and Senate to remove a provision from the health care reform bill that they claim gives special treatment to Nebraska for new Medicaid enrollees.
Jackley and Republican attorneys general from several states dispute the constitutionality of the provision in a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., shortly after the Senate voted to approve the bill last month.
1/13/2010 | Economy
U.S. Chamber CEO Calls Obama's Plan to Tax Bank Transactions ‘Bad Idea’
CNS News
Tom Donohue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the Obama administration’s plan to tax bank transactions to recoup some of the $364 billion in TARP funds used to bail out the U.S. financial sector is misguided.
“The interesting thing about the suggestion of some form of tax or another on bank transactions, the immediate thing they say is, ‘don’t pass it on to consumers,’” Donohue said.
“If you don’t pass it on to the consumer, then you’re going to have smaller profits,” Donohue said. “If you have smaller profits, then your stock is going to go down. If your stock goes down, then everybody that holds your stock may need to sell it, or they are going to have less money in their 401K or in their pension plan or in their investment deals.
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1/13/2010 | Healthcare
Obama, Democrats Meeting Privately to Discuss Health Care Bill on Wednesday
Associated Press
With congressional negotiators starting to make decisions on a final health overhaul bill, top Democrats are hoping a White House session with President Barack Obama will narrow differences between the House and Senate.
Negotiators from the White House and the two chambers have begun closed-door meetings already and seem likely to abandon a House-approved surtax on the wealthy even as they consider extending the Medicare payroll tax to investment income of high earners, Democratic officials said.
1/12/2010 | Character and Ethics, Medical Ethics
New Jersey Set to Allow Medical Pot
Wall Street Journal
New Jersey's state legislature Monday approved a bill that would allow chronically and terminally ill patients to smoke marijuana with their doctors' approval.
Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, has told lawmakers he would sign it before leaving office next week. A spokesman for the governor couldn't be reached to comment.
New Jersey would join more than 10 states that give a medical exception to marijuana use despite federal laws prohibiting the drug's use. Those states include California, Colorado, Maine and Michigan. Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier this year that the federal government wouldn't prosecute people complying with state medical marijuana laws.
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