gov news Japan Raises Economic View Japan's government raised its assessment of the economy for the first time in eight months in March, but emphasized that the risk of prolonged deflation still lingers.   online.wsj.com   2010-03-15 Price Gap Spices Sugar Fight The battle over U.S. sugar quotas is flaring once more as the gap between domestic and much-lower global prices reaches its widest level in at least a decade.   online.wsj.com   2010-03-15 Loan Squeeze Thwarts Small-Business Revival The travails of two Michigan companies illustrate the tough choices their community bank must make.   online.wsj.com   2010-03-15 Weather Crimps Industrial Output U.S. industries reduced manufacturing output in February because of severe weather. A monthly gauge of builder confidence in new-home sales declined.   online.wsj.com   2010-03-15 Volunteers Duplicate Federal Videos for an Online Archive The International Amateur Scanning League has taken it upon itself to copy as much federal video as it can and put it online.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-15 Report Is Critical of Obama’s Efforts at Transparency A new report suggests that transparency has been mixed across the government, with progress slow and erratic.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-15 Dodd Is Ready to Introduce Reform Bill Senate Democrats are ready to introduce legislation meant to overhaul the nation’s financial system while trying to overcome partisanship.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-15 Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants A Defense Department official set up a private network of spies in Pakistan and Afghanistan to gather intelligence on insurgents, according to officials.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-15 Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care Advertising that rivals the ferocity of a presidential campaign is taking aim at about 40 House Democrats.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-15 Boehner says GOP has chance of recapturing House WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republican leader John Boehner says his party has a shot at recapturing the House majority it lost to Democrats in 2006....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 White House stands ground on high court criticism WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House on Sunday defended President Barack Obama's scathing criticism of a Supreme Court decision that allows unions and corporations to funnel unlimited dollars to political campaigns....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 Boehner determined to kill Dem health care bill WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top House Republican says the GOP can defeat the Democratic health care bill that may reach the House floor this coming week....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 White House: Israel construction plan an `insult' WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House isn't relenting in its strong criticism of Israel for plans to build 1,600 new apartments for Jews in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians are seeking as their future capital....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 White House backs down on health bill deals WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is backing down from trying to get senators to remove some special deals from the health care bill....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 Dodd seeking middle ground on new financial rules WASHINGTON (AP) -- The senator trying to rewrite the nation's financial industry rules is dropping plans to create a stand-alone consumer financial protection agency and give a single regulator the power to oversee all banks, according to people familiar with the evolving proposal....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 US cautious on removing nuclear arms from Europe WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. is taking a go-slow approach on one of the touchiest and least discussed national security issues: whether to remove the last remaining Cold War-era U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (AP) -- The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 AP Exclusive: Pentagon gun was from Tenn. police WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two guns used in high-profile shootings this year at the Pentagon and a Las Vegas courthouse both came from the same unlikely place: the police and court system of Memphis, Tenn....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 2 Americans killed in drive-by shooting in Mexico WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three people with ties to the American consulate in a drug-plagued Mexican city were killed in a drive-by shooting, a U.S. official said Sunday....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-14 Wen Defends Exchange-Rate Policy Chinese premier Wen Jiabao warned other countries not to pressure China over its exchange-rate policy, and argued strongly that the yuan isn't undervalued.   online.wsj.com   2010-03-14 The Tea Party and the Constitution Whatever their opinions of the Tea Party movement, scholars say a fight over founding principles can be a good thing.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14 As Health Vote Awaits, Future of a Presidency Waits, Too Win or lose on health care, President Obama will face a vastly different political landscape after the fate of his plan is decided.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14 Henry Kissinger Is Released From Hospital in South Korea The former United States secretary of state was released after treatment for stomach pains, a spokesman for the hospital said.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14 Chicago News Cooperative: The Pulse: Obama Comes Under Fire From the City Council President Obama was the target of sharp criticism last week from an unlikely place: his hometown’s City Council, where all members save one are fellow Democrats.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14 Former Edwards Aide Avoids Jail Judge Abraham Penn Jones ruled that the former aide, Andrew Young, was not in contempt of court for his accounting of how he handled items sought by Mr. Edwards’s mistress.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14 Same Race, Same Opponents, Three Decades Later It has been 32 years since Lowell Darling ran for office in California. His opponent is still Jerry Brown.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14 Senate Parliamentarian in a Starring Role as Health Care Bill Referee As the health care drama enters its final act, Alan S. Frumin, the Senate parliamentarian, is in a starring role.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14

gov news Dodd to Unveil a Comprehensive Financial Overhaul Bill A proposal to be unveiled Monday expands on shareholder provisions and hews in many ways to a proposal advanced by the White House.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14 Obama Calls for Sweeping Change in Education Law The administration is seeking changes to the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, eliminating divisive provisions.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-14 For Obama, big agenda and small window for results WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's intense juggling of domestic issues reflects all the realities he faces at once: a vast agenda, a smaller window for results this year and a need to keep promises to constituencies that will have a huge say in the fall congressional elections....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 Reid's wife undergoes surgery after traffic crash FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's wife underwent surgery Friday to stabilize serious injuries suffered when a tractor-trailer rear-ended the minivan she and their daughter were riding in on an interstate highway....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 US avoids anti-abortion debate at UN meeting UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A U.N. meeting to assess progress in advancing the fight for women's equality that ended Friday had a dramatically different slant than a similar session held five years ago: This time, the United States was not trying to make an anti-abortion declaration a crucial theme....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 Senate, Obama spar over health plan's pet projects WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama says he wants projects helping specific states yanked from the health care bill Congress is writing. Democratic senators, being senators, beg to differ....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 Obama's education law overhaul to focus on college ATLANTA (AP) -- The Obama administration unveiled its plan Saturday to radically change his predecessor's No Child Left Behind law in hopes of replacing an accountability system that in the last decade has tagged more than a third of schools as failing and created a hodgepodge of sometimes weak academic standards among states....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 Obama chooses 1st young appeals court nominee WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thirteen months into his presidency, Barack Obama finally gave liberal supporters the kind of judicial nominee they had sought and conservatives feared....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 New Sen. Brown bashes Obama's `bitter' health push WASHINGTON (AP) -- Newly arrived Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts accused President Barack Obama and Democrats on Saturday of a "bitter, destructive and endless" drive to pass health overhaul legislation that Brown warned would be disastrous....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 Divided party? It's not just GOP, but also Dems WASHINGTON (AP) -- For all the evidence of a divided GOP, the Democratic Party has its own widening cracks that could make a potentially bleak election year even more dour....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 AP Source: Colo. woman held in terror probe WASHINGTON (AP) -- A U.S. official says a Colorado woman has been detained in Ireland in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist whose sketch offended many Muslims....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 Catholic hospitals support health care bill WASHINGTON (AP) -- A group representing Catholic hospitals is rallying behind President Barack Obama's health care bill....   hosted.ap.org   2010-03-13 Schwab Issues Profit Warning Charles Schwab warned first-quarter earnings will fall short of fourth-quarter levels as the brokerage said February trading fell 14%.   online.wsj.com   2010-03-13 Consumer Spending Perks Up Retail sales increased a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in February from a month earlier. Sales excluding the volatile autos sales increased 0.8%. Compared with a year ago, sales rose 4%.   online.wsj.com   2010-03-13 Questions For Mickey Kaus: The Blogging of the Candidate The online political writer talks about why he’s running against Barbara Boxer.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13 On the Hill: Portraying Hand-Picked as a Bad Thing In the Indiana Senate race, Republicans are planning a strategy that grew out of developments suggesting that efforts to anoint candidates or manipulate the playing field can backfire.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13 National Briefing | South: Virginia: Senator’s Wife Has Surgery The wife of the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, underwent surgery Friday to stabilize serious injuries suffered in a car accident.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13 Senate Backs Ban on Mail-Order Cigarettes in Setback for Tribe The vote, which was unanimous despite earlier opposition to the bill, was condemned by leaders of the Seneca Nation.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13 Republicans Name 6 to Debt-Reduction Panel Skepticism is high that Republicans would agree to raise revenues, or that Democrats would slash spending on programs like Medicaid, but economists called for both actions.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13 Texas Conservatives Win Vote on Textbook Standards Because Texas is a large buyer of textbooks, the changes approved by the school board will have a broad influence.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13 I.R.S. Increases Audits of Wealthy The federal agency increased its audits of taxpayers who earned $1 million to $5 million by 33 percent in 2009 from 2008.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13 Top Choices Are Floated to Fill Seats on Fed Board Issues like inflation and interest rate policy played roles in the administration putting forth names like Janet L. Yellen to be considered for the bank’s board of governors.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13 Henry Kissinger Hospitalized in South Korea Henry Kissinger, the former U.S. secretary of state, was hospitalized in Seoul for stomach pains , but his condition has quickly improved, said a hospital spokesman.   feeds.nytimes.com   2010-03-13