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by KYW's Mike Dunn
Tensions are running high lately on the fourth floor of Philadelphia City Hall, as City Council members find themselves under pressure by the mayor to give up perks, and in the crosshairs of public opinion.
In the few weeks since Mayor Nutter publicly urged city council members to give up their city-owned cars, they've also been criticized on web forums and op-ed pages for big budgets and enrollment in the DROP pension program.
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| Michigan State's Durrell Summers (15) slams home a shot against Connecticut's Stanley Robinson in the second half of a men's NCAA Final Four semifinal college basketball game Saturday, April 4, 2009, in Detroit. |
DETROIT (AP) -- Raymar Morgan grinned and lifted his right arm high in the air, saluting a stadium filled with Michigan State fans with a little wave.
The Spartans promised their downtrodden state something good, and boy, did they deliver.
Morgan broke out of his late-season slump with 18 points, Kalin Lucas added 21 and the smaller Spartans ran roughshod over Hasheem Thabeet and Connecticut in an 82-73 upset in the Final Four on Saturday night. The Spartans will play the winner of Villanova-North Carolina for the NCAA title Monday night, a much-needed boost for a city and state hit harder than most by the economic crisis.
It's Michigan State's first appearance in the title game since 2000, when the Spartans won their second title.
How's this for some karma? Magic Johnson, Spartan-in-chief since leading Michigan State to its first title in 1979, will present the game ball before Monday's title game along with Larry Bird.
"Detroit's been unbelievable to us," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. "We've had some great games here, and the best is yet to come."
Flashbulbs were popping as the final seconds ticked down. After shaking hands with the UConn players, the Spartans went to center court and saluted the crowd of 72,456, the largest-ever for a Final Four, about two-thirds of which were wearing green.
The loss is the latest blow for UConn, the best team in the country until Jerome Dyson went down with a knee injury in mid-February. The Huskies have been dealing with distractions since last May, when coach Jim Calhoun was diagnosed with his third bout with cancer, and are now facing questions about alleged recruiting violations.
The loss snapped Calhoun and Connecticut's perfect run in the Final Four. They'd made it twice before - 1999 and 2004 - and went on to win the title each time.
The UConn players walked slowly off the court, looking shell-shocked that their season had ended.
This was expected to be a battle of big men. UConn's Thabeet had been a one-man swat team, averaging a double-double and winning defensive player of the year in the burly Big East for a second straight year. Michigan State's Goran Suton led the equally gritty Big Ten in rebounding and had averaged a double-double in the NCAA tournament.
But the matchup never developed, with neither a factor. Izzo had said all week the Spartans planned to make the game a sprint to keep Thabeet out of his comfort zone. The 7-foot-3 junior certainly couldn't keep up. He looked gassed from the opening tipoff, leaning over, tugging on his shorts and gasping for air not even six minutes into the game.
He finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Suton, who had the main job of corralling Thabeet, didn't score his first field goal until early in the second half and finished with four points and seven boards.
Stanley Robinson and A.J. Price had 15 each for Connecticut, and Robinson added 13 rebounds.
Morgan was Michigan State's best player early on, but he's struggled to find his groove since missing three games in February with walking pneumonia. He had just seven points in Michigan State's last three games - that's combined - and was 0-for-2 in the big win over Louisville in the Midwest Regional final. Granted, he's playing with a broken nose and a plastic mask, but Izzo has been all over him to be more aggressive.
Apparently, he finally got the message. He scored 11 in the first half, including a couple of big buckets when UConn was threatening to take off. And it was his strip of Craig Austrie that started an 8-2 run midway through the second half that caught UConn flat-footed, all but ended the game and threatened to bring down the roof at Ford Field.
Morgan stripped Austrie and dished to Draymond Green, who lumbered down the floor for an easy layup. Austrie missed a shot at the other end. Lucas - generously listed at 6-feet - grabbed the rebound and sprinted upcourt, splitting two Connecticut defenders with a shake-and-shimmy that gave him a wide-open layup. Wide open because those two defenders didn't have any help. Thabeet didn't even bother to run up the court to play defense, gasping for air with his hands on his hips.
After another Huskies miss, Morgan grabbed the rebound and fired it to Allen, who scored on a finger roll to give Michigan State a 53-49 lead.
The ball had barely dropped through the net when Calhoun barked for a timeout, and the Michigan State fans erupted. If Calhoun hoped the break would re-energize his team, he was wrong.
Green made a jumper, Durrell Summers a 3 and Green converted a pair of free throws. After Price missed a jumper, Green made his own from the top of the key to give Michigan State a 72-54 lead with 7:52 to play. He and Lucas slapped hands as the crowd roared.
UConn did manage to get within 3 with a minute to go, but the outcome was never really in doubt and Summers converted a 3-point play to put the game out of reach.
For all that's been made of Connecticut's defense, Michigan State is just as stingy, and it made for a physical first half. Things got a little out of hand near the end when Jeff Adrien and Travis Walton got tangled up under Connecticut's basket. Their arms appeared to lock, and Adrien might have added some extra oomph as he tried to shed Walton. The guard fell hard to the floor, and Thabeet and Gray quickly got in each other's faces.
There was some pushing and shoving, prompting Calhoun to come all the way from the other end of the floor to calm his players. But the dust-up fizzled quickly and no technicals were even called.
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| People go into the main entrance of The Boston Globe newspaper, in this Feb. 1, 2006, file photo in Boston. The New York Times Co. threatens to shut down one of its most prized possessions, the 137-year-old Boston Globe, if it doesn't win millions in union concessions, stunning insiders at two of the country's most famous newspapers |
But analysts say the 137-year-old Globe has been a money-loser since, and the Times, now $1.1 billion in debt, is threatening to shut down Boston's pre-eminent paper unless it gets $20 million in union concessions.
Faced with the global recession and declining revenues, the newspaper business is reeling - one major paper has already folded this year and several others are seeking bankruptcy protection. But the threat to the Globe, announced Friday on the Globe's Web site, has shocked some industry insiders, who say it shows no one is safe.
"It is a huge warning shot across the bow of the newspaper industry. If this can happen to the storied Boston Globe, pretty much nothing is safe," said Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz.
Of the major dailies that have gone down, none has the cachet of the Globe, he said.
The threat to close the paper "sends a very clear message to all employees and unions of surviving newspapers - that this is not business as usual," said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with the research firm Outsell. "This is uncharted territory."
The Times bought the Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion - the highest price ever for a single American newspaper - getting one of the country's most respected papers. The Globe has won 20 Pulitzer Prizes and has been lauded for some of its work, including its coverage of Roman Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal.
But since its purchase, the Globe has gone through several rounds of layoffs and buyouts. As readership shifts to online news, the newspaper's average weekday circulation fell 10 percent to 323,983 for the six months ending Sept. 30, compared to the same six-month period in 2007, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Advertising revenues industrywide have plunged by more than 16 percent in 2008, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
Newspapers all "have a sword over their heads," said Doctor. If the industry wants to survive, he said, "everyone has to give some blood."
The Globe reported the Times' demands a day after executives from the Times delivered its ultimatum to leaders of the Globe's 13 unions. Boston Newspaper Guild president Daniel Totten told the Globe the concessions could include pay cuts, the end of company pension contributions and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees. The Guild is the Globe's biggest union, representing more than 700 editorial, advertising, and business employees.
But some say the Times' threat may be a negotiating tactic as it strives to shed its debt, which stood at $1.1 billion at the end of 2008. It recently sold 21 floors of its new midtown Manhattan headquarters building for $225 million, asked most employees to accept a 5 percent pay cut through the end of the year and secured a $250 million infusion from a Mexican billionaire by agreeing to pay an abnormally high interest rate of 14 percent in addition to giving him potentially valuable stock warrants.
"We're a long way from a newspaper that needs to be shut down. I think it's a bargaining strategy," said Alan Mutter, a former journalist-turned-entrepreneur who writes a blog called Reflections of a Newsosaur. He said he doesn't think the Globe is in imminent danger of folding.
Globe spokesman Bob Powers declined to comment Saturday; Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis did not immediately return a call for comment.
Doctor said the Times' threat to close the Globe - first reported Friday on the Boston newspaper's Web site - parallels what Hearst Corp. did with the money-losing San Francisco Chronicle, threatening to shut it down barring concessions. Chronicle staffers took 120 buyouts last week, but the paper's seeking 150.
Elsewhere, Scripps Co. stopped publication earlier this year of Colorado's oldest newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, in Denver. Major newspaper companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection in recent months include the owners of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Newspapers like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and another venerable Boston publication, The Christian Science Monitor, stopped daily publication in favor of online news.
Matt Storin, who was the editor of the Globe when the Times purchased it, said he was shocked and saddened when he saw Friday's headline. The threat to close it "is obviously a negotiating tactic, but one that has to be taken seriously," said Storin, who now teaches journalism at Notre Dame University.
"I do think it's obvious that the Times would like to get the Globe off its books," he said. "It's possible they're trying to reduce costs because they have a prospective buyer who is negotiating on that basis."
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| Police walk up Fairfield Street in the Stanton Heights area of Pittsburgh where a gunman shot three police officers early Saturday morning, April 4, 2009. A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said. |
Police Chief Nate Harper said the motive for the shooting isn't clear, but friends said the gunman recently had been upset about losing his job and feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.
Richard Poplawski, 23, met officers at the doorway and shot two of them in the head immediately, Harper said. An officer who tried to help the two also was killed.
Poplawski, armed with an assault rifle and two other guns, then held police at bay for four hours as the fallen officers were left bleeding nearby, their colleagues unable to reach them, according to police and witnesses. More than 100 rounds were fired by the SWAT teams and Poplawski, Harper said.
The three slain officers were Eric Kelly, 41, Stephen Mayhle, 29, and Paul Sciullo III, 37. Kelly had been on the force for 14 years, Mayhle and Sciullo for two years each. Another officer, Timothy McManaway, was shot in the hand and a fifth broke his leg on a fence.
Poplawski had gunshot wounds in his legs but was otherwise unharmed because he was wearing a bulletproof vest, Harper said. He was charged with three counts of homicide, aggravated assault and a weapons violation.
The shooting occurred just two weeks after four police officers were fatally shot in Oakland, Calif., in the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001. The officers were the first Pittsburgh city officers to die in the line of duty in 18 years.
"This is a solemn day and it's a very sad day in the city of Pittsburgh," Harper said. "We've seen this kind of violence happen in California. We never would think this kind of violence would happen in the city of Pittsburgh."
At 7 a.m., Sciullo and Mayhle responded to a 911 call from Poplawski's mother, who remained holed up in the basement during the entire dispute and escaped unharmed, Harper said.
When they arrived at the home, Sciullo was immediately shot in the head. Mayhle, who was right behind him, was also shot in the head.
"It appears he was lying in wait for the officers," Harper said.
Kelly, who was on his way home after completing his overnight shift when he heard the call for help, rushed to the scene and was killed trying to help Sciullo and Mayhle, Harper said. SWAT teams and other officers arrived and were immediately fired on as well.
Don Sand, who lives across the street from Poplawski, said he was woken up by the sound of gunfire. Hunkering down behind a wall in his home, he saw the first two officers go down and then saw Kelly get shot.
"They couldn't get the scene secure enough to get to them. They were just lying there bleeding," Sand said. "By the time they secured the scene enough to get to them it was way too late."
Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson, who lives nearby, was one of the first officers to arrive. He saw Mayhle by a bush to the right of the door; Kelly was in the street and McManaway, his hand injured, was kneeling beside him, yelling that Kelly needed help.
Donaldson suggested using a police van to get them. They draped a bulletproof vest on the window to protect the driver and several officers got into the van to get Kelly and McManaway.
During this time, Poplawski was somehow distracted, Donaldson said.
"We were fortunate that he didn't fire on us. I don't know why he was distracted, but he apparently didn't see us coming down to get them," he said. "It could have been worse."
Poplawski had feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon," said Edward Perkovic, his best friend.
Perkovic, 22, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, "Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you."
Perkovic said: "I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot."
Poplawski had once tried to join the Marines, but was kicked out of boot camp after throwing a food tray at a drill sergeant, Perkovic said.
Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said Poplawski feared that President Barack Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."
Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn't successful. He said Poplawski owned an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.
Obama has said he respects Americans' constitutional right to bear arms, but that he favors "common sense" gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he would approve some curbs on assault and concealed weapons.
Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year, said another friend, Joe DiMarco. DiMarco said he didn't know the name of the company, but knew his friend had been upset about it.
The last Pittsburgh police officers killed in the line of duty were Officers Thomas L. Herron and Joseph J. Grill, according to a Web site that tracks police killings. They died after their patrol car collided with another vehicle while chasing a stolen car on March 6, 1991.
In 1995, an off-duty officer was shot with his own gun after he confronted a group of teenagers about graffiti. Tests later showed the officer had been drinking.
According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 133 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2008, a 27 percent decrease from year before and the lowest annual total since 1960.
Poplawski had often fought with neighbors and had even gotten into fist fights with a couple, Sand said.
"This is a relatively really quiet neighborhood except for him," Sand said. "He was just one of those kids that we knew to stay clear from."
Harper confirmed police had responded to calls from the Poplawski house several times but said the incidents were still being investigated.
Rob Gift, 45, who lives a block away, said the well-kept single-family houses with manicured lawns are home to many police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other city workers.
"It's just a very quiet neighborhood," Gift said.
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| Participants in a career fair wait in line to speak to employers in New York. The Labor Department says that initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to a seasonally adjusted 669,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 657,000. |
by KYW's Steve Tawa
On the day that the US Department of Labor announced that unemployment across the United States hit a 25-year high of 8.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also released local numbers for the Philadelphia area.
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Philadelphia police brass has been busy responding to a recent wave of allegations against Philadelphia police officers.
In one case, an officer -- who has since been fired -- is accused of selling drugs and plotting to rob and/or shoot a drug supplier.
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| Janet Napolitano, center, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and Congressman Henry Cuellar leave the World Trade Bridge in Laredo, Texas, Friday, April. 3, 2009. Secretary Napolitano visited Laredo as part of her three-day trip to California, Mexico and Texas. |
LAREDO, Texas (AP) -- Beefed up vehicle inspections, more drug-sniffing dogs and improved surveillance should help curb the flow of guns and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Friday.
Speaking at a border crossing facility near the Rio Grande River, Napolitano said strategies outlined in meetings with Mexican officials this week will put the squeeze on warring drug cartels.
The two governments agreed to "operate almost like a vice from the north and from Mexico . . . to take out the large cartels which have plagued our area for far, far too long," said Napolitano, the former governor of Arizona.
Earlier Friday, Napolitano and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder met with Mexico President Felipe Calderon and members of his Cabinet, wrapping up a series of meetings on drug violence in the two countries.
Among the strategies under consideration are:
- Changes to extradition laws in both countries to ensure that offenders get the greatest punishment possible.
- How to better coordinate efforts by the Mexican navy and the U.S. Coast Guard to intercept offshore smugglers.
- Sharing surveillance data to better identify motor vehicles and railroad cars that might be smuggling drugs, weapons or bulk quantities of currency.
- Allowing top Mexican law enforcement officials to work alongside U.S. authorities investigating stateside activites of the drug cartels.
Homeland Security spokesman Sean Smith said the U.S. agreed to begin training drug- and gun-sniffing dogs to work with Mexican handlers. At present, canine units are credited with detecting about 60 percent of the cash, guns and drugs intercepted along the southwestern U.S. border.
Before the meeting with Calderon, Holder told The Associated Press that extradition laws on both sides of the borders will be reviewed to find ways ensure that cartel members and associates are prosecuted in locations where they face the toughest penalties.
"Which way are they going to go? Are they going to stay here? Go there?" Holder said. "We frequently have them charged in both countries, so the question then becomes where can you get the greatest sentence? Where can you have the greatest impact?"
In Laredo, Napolitano cited recent seizures of cash and guns as an example of what the two governments can do to put pressure on the drug cartels. Since October, Border Patrol officers have seized more than $50 million in U.S. currency, 641 firearms and nearly 125,000 rounds of ammunition.
Recent deployment of additional immigration enforcement agents to the Southwest includes 30 divided among three South Texas border cities Brownsville, Laredo and McAllen.
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| Rep. Steve Howard, D-Rutland, who is gay, right, hugs Rep. Rep. Lucy Leriche, D-Hardwick, following preliminary approval of a gay marriage bill in Montpelier, Vt., Thursday, April 2, 2009. |
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Iowa's Supreme Court legalized gay marriage Friday in a unanimous and emphatic decision that makes Iowa the third state - and first in the nation's heartland - to allow same-sex couples to wed.
Iowa joins only Massachusetts and Connecticut in permitting same-sex marriage. For six months last year, California's high court allowed gay marriage before voters banned it in November.
The Iowa justices upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman.
The county attorney who defended the law said he would not seek a rehearing. The only recourse for opponents appeared to be a constitutional amendment, which could take years to ratify.
"We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective," the Supreme Court wrote.
Iowa lawmakers have "excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification."
To issue any other decision, the justices said, "would be an abdication of our constitutional duty."
The Iowa attorney general's office said gay and lesbian couples can seek marriage licenses starting April 24, once the ruling is considered final.
Des Moines attorney Dennis Johnson, who represented gay and lesbian couples, said "this is a great day for civil rights in Iowa."
At a news conference announcing the decision, he thanked the plaintiffs and said, "Go get married, live happily ever after, live the American dream."
Plaintiff Kate Varnum, 34, introduced her partner, Trish Varnum, as "my fiance."
"I never thought I'd be able to say that," she said, fighting back tears.
Jason Morgan, 38, said he and his partner, Chuck Swaggerty, adopted two sons, confronted the death of Swaggerty's mother and endured a four-year legal battle as plaintiffs.
"If being together though all of that isn't love and commitment or isn't family or marriage, then I don't know what is," Morgan said. "We are very happy with the decision today and very proud to live in Iowa."
In its ruling, the Supreme Court upheld an August 2007 decision by a judge who found that a state law limiting marriage to a man and a woman violates the constitutional rights of equal protection.
The Polk County attorney's office claimed that Judge Robert Hanson's ruling violated the separation of powers and said the issue should be left to the Legislature.
The case had been working its way through the courts since 2005, when Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay rights organization, filed a lawsuit on behalf of six gay and lesbian couples in Iowa.
"Today, dreams become reality, families are protected and the Iowa Constitution's promise of equality and fairness has been fulfilled," Lambda Legal attorney Camilla Taylor said.
John Logan, a sociology professor at Brown University, said Iowa's status as a largely rural, Midwest state could enforce an argument that gay marriage is no longer a fringe issue.
"When it was only California and Massachusetts, it could be perceived as extremism on the coasts and not related to core American values.
"But as it extends to states like Iowa, and as attitudes toward gay marriage have evidently changed, then people will look at it as an example of broad acceptance," Logan said.
Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said his office will not ask for the case to be reconsidered.
"Our Supreme Court has decided it, and they make the decision as to what the law is, and we follow Supreme Court decisions," Sarcone said.
Gay marriage opponents have no other legal options to appeal the case to the state or federal level because they were not parties to the lawsuit, and there is no federal issue raised in the case, Sarcone said.
Bryan English, spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy Center, a conservative group that opposes same-sex marriage, said many Iowans are disappointed with the ruling and do not want courts to decide the issue.
"I would say the mood is one of mourning right now in a lot of ways," English said. He said the group immediately began lobbying legislators "to let the people of Iowa vote" on a constitutional amendment.
"This is an issue that will define (lawmakers') leadership. This is not a side issue."
Iowa has a history of being in the forefront on social issues. It was among the first states to legalize interracial marriage and to allow married women to own property. It was also the first state to admit a woman to the bar to practice law and was a leader in school desegregation.
Todd Pettys, a University of Iowa law professor, said the state's equal protection clause on which Friday's ruling was based is worded slightly differently than the U.S. Constitution. But Iowa's language means almost "exactly the same thing."
Still, he said, it's difficult to predict whether the U.S. Supreme Court would view the issue the same way as the Iowa justices.
Linda McClain, professor at Boston University School of Law, said she doubted Iowa's ruling would be "a realistic blueprint" for the U.S. Supreme Court," particularly considering the court's conservative leadership.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal, a Democrat, said state lawmakers were unlikely to consider gay marriage legislation in this legislative session, which is expected to end within weeks.
Gronstal also said he's "not inclined" to propose a constitutional amendment during next year's session.
Iowa's Democratic governor, Chet Culver, said he would review the decision before announcing his views.
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| A man collects literature at the Access Opportunity Career Fair in Boston Thursday, April 2, 2009 which was held to assist job seekers with information and resources to improve their chances of finding a job in today's tough market. The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since late 1983, as a wide range of employers eliminated a net total of 663,000 jobs. |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Unemployment zoomed to 8.5 percent last month, the highest in a quarter-century, as employers axed 663,000 more workers and pushed the nation's jobless ranks past 13 million. The hard times were only expected to get harder - a painful 10 percent jobless rate before long.
The current rate would be even higher - 15.6 percent - if it included laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have had to settle for part-time work because they can't do any better. That's the highest on record for that number in figures that go back to 1994.
"Even if the economy continues to show signs of improvement, businesses will cut jobs and trim fats to stay lean and mean," said Sung Won Sohn, economist at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University, Channel Islands.
So far, the public has shown great hopes for the economic policies of new President Barack Obama. But those could fade quickly with more months of layoffs. In Europe for an economic summit, Obama called Friday's unemployment report a "stark reminder" of a need for action at home and abroad.
The recession may well end later this year - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and many private analysts see that possibility - but rehiring historically doesn't get going until after an economic recovery is picking up steam. The jobless rate is expected to reach 10 percent by year's end.
The stock market generally bottoms out before a recovery gets under way, too, and stocks now have risen for four straight weeks.
The Dow Jones industrials rose 39.51 points on Friday after surging 216 points on Thursday and closed above 8,000 for the first time in nearly two months.
Small comfort to millions of laid-off workers. The Labor Department report underscored the recession's toll: a spike in the jobless rate from February's 8.1 percent and a net loss of 5.1 million jobs since December 2007, almost two-thirds of them in just the past five months. And economists say an additional 2.4 million jobs will disappear through the first quarter of next year.
As the downturn eats into companies' sales and profits, they are laying off workers and resorting to other cost-saving survival measures that also hit employees, the report showed. Those include holding down hours and freezing or cutting pay.
"It's an ugly report, and April is going to be equally as bad," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "I couldn't see any rays of sunshine. Nothing."
The average work week in March dropped to 33.2 hours, a record low. And nearly a quarter of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more, the highest proportion since the steep 1981-82 recession.
Margaret Barnett, 55, of Villa Rica, Ga., knows about that. She has been looking for work since she was laid off from a plastics distributor when the recession began in December 2007. She checks job listings every day at an employment agency and thumbs through the classified section of the local newspaper. But no luck.
"It's more people advertising that they need work than people hiring," Barnett said.
And hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans soon will exhaust their unemployment benefits in the coming weeks. Congress extended benefits twice last year to a total of 46 to 59 weeks.
Many who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs are seeing their paychecks shrink.
Average weekly earnings declined to $614.20 in March from $615.05 in February. If earnings keep falling, that would give consumers another reason to pull back spending, which would further weaken the economy.
But there have been some positive economic signs recently. Orders placed with U.S. factories actually rose in February, ending six straight months of declines, the government reported Thursday. Earlier in the week, there were better-than-expected reports on construction spending and pending home sales.
And last week a report showed that consumer spending - an engine of the economy - rose in February for the second month in a row - after a half-year of declines.
Still, there was plenty of bad news in the details of the new report. For example, January's job losses were revised much higher, to 741,000 from 655,000, making them the worst in a single month since 1949.
In March, the number of unemployed people climbed to 13.2 million. The number of people forced to work part time for "economic reasons" rose by 423,000 to 9 million. Those are people who would like to work full time but whose hours were cut back or who were unable to find full-time work.
Most economists expect monthly job losses to continue for most if not all of this year.
However, they are expecting that reductions in the current quarter won't be as deep as the roughly 685,000 average monthly job losses in the January-March period.
Job losses were widespread last month. Construction companies cut 126,000. Factories axed 161,000. Retailers cut nearly 50,000. Professional and business services eliminated 133,000. Leisure and hospitality cut 40,000. Even the government cut jobs - 5,000 of them.
Education and health care were among the few industries showing any job gains.
There was more bad news for workers in service industries - hotels, retail, health care and such. An index of services activity shrank for a sixth straight month, according to the Institute for Supply Management, a Tempe, Ariz.-based trade group of purchasing executives.
Bernanke said the recession could end later this year, setting the stage for recovery, if the government is successful in bolstering the banking system. Banks have been clobbered by the worst housing, credit and financial crises to hit the country since the 1930s.
The Fed chief said Friday he expects to see a "gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth." But he didn't say when.
To brace the economy, the Fed has slashed a key bank lending rate to an all-time low and has embarked on a series of radical programs to inject billions of dollars into the financial system.
And the Obama administration has launched a multi-pronged strategy to turn the economy around. Its $787 billion stimulus package includes money that will flow to states for public works projects, help them defray budget cuts, extend unemployment benefits and boost food stamp benefits.
Still, skittish employers announced more job layoffs this week.
3M Co., the maker of Scotch tape, Post-It Notes and other products, said it was cutting 1,200 more jobs. Health care products distributor Cardinal Health Inc. said it would eliminate 1,300 positions. Semiconductor equipment maker KLA-Tencor Corp. said it would cut about 600. And Caterpillar said it was speeding up layoffs - cutting more than 1,000 jobs at an Illinois plant two weeks ahead of schedule.
"The philosophy seems to be cut massively now and ask questions about whether too much has been done later," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors.
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| In this photo rendered from video and released by WBNG-TV in Binghamton, N.Y., authorities take up positions behind a vehicle, Friday, April 3, 2009, in Binghamton, N.Y. At least four people were shot and as many as 41 people taken hostage Friday morning at an immigration services center in western New York state, according to media reports. |
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) -- A gunman opened fire on a room where immigrants were taking a citizenship exam in downtown Binghamton on Friday, killing as many as 13 people before committing suicide, officials said.
Gov. David Paterson said at a news conference that 12 or 13 people had been killed. The suspected gunman carried identification with the name of 42-year-old Jiverly Voong of nearby Johnson City, N.Y., a law enforcement official said.
The suspect's body was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in an office of the American Civic Association building, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and was talking on condition of anonymity.
The gunman barricaded the rear door of the building with his car before entering through the front door, firing his weapon, the official said.
Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at an event in New York, told the crowd that someone entered a room where an examination was being given from immigrants to become U.S. citizens, then shot and killed 12 or 13 people.
The Binghamton SWAT team responded, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also sending agents to Binghamton.
The American Civic Association helps immigrants in the Binghamton area with naturalization applications, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The association describes itself as helping immigrants and refugees with counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification and translators.
The association's president, Angela Leach, "is very upset right now," said Mike Chanecka, a friend who answered a call at her home as Leach wept in the background.
"She doesn't know anything; she's as shocked as anyone," Chanecka said. "For some reason, she had the day off today. And she's very worried about her secretary."
Two women and a man suffering gunshot wounds were being treated at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, said hospital spokeswoman Christina Boyd. One was stable, one was serious and one was critical. Their ages ranged from 20s to 50s, she said.
Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, said a student from Binghamton University was being treated there.
The shooting occurred in a mixed neighborhood of homes and small businesses in the center of Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 located 140 miles northwest of New York City.
College student Leslie Shrager told the AP that she and her five housemates were sleeping when police pounded on the front door of their house next door to the shooting scene.
Officers escorted the six Binghamton University students outside, she said, and that's when they learned of the shooting.
"One of our housemates thought they heard banging of some kind. But when you're living in downtown Binghamton, it's always noisy," said Shrager, of Slingerlands, an Albany suburb. "Literally two minutes later the cops came and got us out."
At the junction of the Susquehanna and the Chenango rivers, the Binghamton area was the home to Endicott-Johnson shoe company and the birthplace of IBM, which between them employed tens of thousands of workers before the shoe company closed a decade ago and IBM downsized in recent years.
Sometimes you just have it in your genes. For New Jersey's Haley Peters both athletics and academics run deep in her family, making the Peddie School star a double threat.
This winter quarter -- in the middle of another strong season for Peddie -- Peters managed to excel on the hardwood and in the classroom with five grades of A+. Sean Casey, the Director of Marketing and Communications at the Peddie School and the head girl's basketball coach, said it is rare for a student to earn even one A+, let alone five.
Peters has the pedigree because her father, Kurt, attended Columbia while playing baseball and football. Plus, her mother, Sharon, is a Duke graduate. No wonder she just gets it when it comes to being a student-athlete.
The 6-foot-3 forward is among the top juniors in the country on the basketball court, but the praise for her game comes almost secondary to the glowing reviews she receives from her teachers.
"She often gets her work done ahead of time when she knows she has other commitments coming up," said her Environmental Science teacher Scott McCormick. "Revealing a level of maturity about time management that eludes many adults!"
Or her Honors Precalculus teacher, John Bates, who received his first ever perfect winter exam in 10 years from Peters.
"But, with the strength set she has developed from athletics as well as academics, Haley always seems to rise again and break through the obstacles set before her. Haley had a perfect exam score, closing the winter term off with her strongest effort yet."
Many kids with such strong academics already have their path set for future studies, but not Peters. She's doing so well at so many things that she's nowhere close to deciding her college ambitions.
"I have no idea," Peters said about what she'll study in college. "I like all my classes."
While her parents deserve a great deal of the credit for raising such a mature and focused young lady, Peters also sees the Peddie School itself as the framework for her success.
"I think going to school at Peddie," Peters said, "it is one of those things, every student plays a sport or does an activity, every quarter."
Perhaps Peters is just being modest, but those around her know there is something extraordinary about her. She did something in her AP U.S. History class that her teacher, Erik Treese, had not seen in 13 years of teaching. She earned an A+ and turned in a perfect final document based question (DBQ) essay exam.
Peters is also ahead of the curve on her recruitment and she is in the process of making unofficial visits during her junior year. Last week, she made an unofficial visit to Duke and took in the NCAA tournament's Selection Monday, where the Blue Devils learned they were a No. 1 seed in this year's tournament.
She has previously made visits to Boston College and Vanderbilt and was contemplating another visit to the Eagles or a visit to Connecticut this early spring.
Peters is already a 1,000-point scorer with another season to play, but basketball isn't the primary focus of her college search.
"A lot of it has to do with how strong a school is academically," Peters said.
On the basketball front, Peters is interested in the style of play. She likes up-tempo, but not at the expense of being able to execute in the half court.
Peters, who is No. 40 in the ESPN HoopGurlz Super 60, has two older brothers, both of whom are hoopsters themselves. Her brother Ryan is a senior and will play at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., next season while her brother Casey is a team manager at Duke, but hoped to walk on next season.
While it is appealing for Peters to go to the school her brother Casey is currently attending, she realizes they would only be together for one year and that alone isn't a reason to pick a school.
Peters also said that distance from home really isn't a factor because the growing television coverage will allow her parents to see her play regardless.
In addition to Boston College, Connecticut, Duke and Vanderbilt, Peters is getting significant interest from Georgetown, Notre Dame and many others.
"I'm pretty open now," Peters said of her recruitment.
Despite the success of the Peddie School's girl's basketball program, the team doesn't attract the biggest crowds to its home games. Peters compared her home games to "sitting at a funeral home." Perhaps the number of activities the students participate in, and the mix of local students as well as boarded students makes for a less than ideal home court advantage.
Nevertheless she has turned the experience into an opportunity to learn.
"We've all learned to deal with it," Peters said, "and we're all internally motivated."
She also sees the potential for big crowds and television exposure in college to be an opportunity to learn and develop.
"You have external motivation instead," Peters said.
Peters' basketball development at an early age landed her on the Philadelphia Belles Nike sponsored travel team at the age of 14.
"She's actually the youngest kid I ever kept on the top team," former Philly Belles coach Kevin Lynch said.
She credits Caroline Doty (Connecticut) and Chelsea Shine (Virginia), who were the upperclassmen on her first Belles team for teaching her how to compete at a high level.
Having two older brothers to battle with also taught her what competition was about.
But who is the best in the family?
"It's pretty close," Peters said. "Casey's the best player, but I think I am the best shooter."
Shooting is something Peters is focused on in her development. Her current skill set is centered on a versatile inside scoring repertoire and the ability to take defenders off the bounce from the high post. She is athletic enough to get out and run the lanes on fast breaks, but she sees expanding her range as a part of taking her game to the next level.
"She's one of those kids who has a calming effect on the game," Lynch said. "She really knows how to play and even at the young age, she's just so gifted mentally she can fit in anywhere."
Peters has seen her game evolve since she started playing club basketball. During her first season with the Belles she was primarily a rebounder and defender, but this year -- her third with the team -- she hopes to take her game to the next level.
"I'd like to be a little more dominant in the game and in the class I'm in," Peters said.
Her coaches doubt there is anything she can't do.
"Haley is just a remarkable student-athlete," Casey said. "Her natural ability and work ethic speak for themselves both in the classroom and on the court. Having coached two McDonald's All-American and numerous [Division I] players, Haley may be the best to have ever played for Peddie. She is just that good."
"As far as her improvement, it's just about everything," Lynch said, "her ballhandling, her off-the-dribble shot, she has a really nice pull-up jump shot now, (and) she can shoot the three-ball."
"But what is truly amazing, is that she doesn't pick-and-choose where she wants to succeed," Casey added, "she wants to excel at everything -- and does."
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A little rain didn't keep a couple of hundred Villanova fans from seeing off their Wildcats on Wednesday night as the men’s basketball team headed to Detroit for the NCAA Final Four.
Fans showed their love to the team, chanting and waving signs.
For full story go to: http://www.kyw1060.com/
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Dozens of protesters held a lunchtime rally at City Hall on Thursday in support of Seth Williams, the candidate for Philadelphia district attorney whose name was removed from the ballot last week.
Williams did not attend the courtyard rally but many of his supporters did, and in this case they included some politicans from the other party.
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| Customs and Border Protection officers stand by guns confiscated along the U.S.-Mexico border before a news conference with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego Wednesday, April 1, 2009. |
Medina-Mora also announced plans to begin checking 10 percent of the vehicles entering his country from the U.S. for illegal weapons.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder met privately for several hours with Medina-Mora, Interior Minister Fernando Gomez-Mont and Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna.
The officials hammered out an agreement that might be signed when U.S. President Barack Obama visits Mexican President Felipe Calderon later this month.
Holder said the U.S. is not seeking to change any of its gun laws as part of the effort to curb weapons smuggling.
"I don't think our Second Amendment will stand in the way of what we have begun," he said.
Until recently, the U.S. did not regularly inspect southbound vehicles, and the Mexicans didn't scan the license plates of cars coming into the country. Now Mexico will begin scanning vehicles for drugs and money and using intelligence to target the right vehicles, Medina-Mora said.
Mexico will also rely on the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to use technology to help trace the illegal sale of guns.
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| U.S. President Barack Obama gestures during a press conference at the end of the G20 Summit at the Excel centre in London, Thursday, April 2, 2009. The objective of the London Summit is to bring the world's biggest economies together to help restore global economic growth through enhanced international coordination. |
LONDON (AP) -- At his summit debut, President Barack Obama failed to persuade foreign counterparts to commit to fresh and lavish spending to boost economic revival. And the success he did achieve in finding common ground was as much the result of modified goals as swaying other countries to bend to U.S. priorities.
Still, he emerged with much of what he wanted from allies on the flailing global economy. And he helped thwart a French-backed attempt to set up an international financial regulator.
Closing out the 20-nation gathering here, Obama - aware of the risks of over-promising to a hurting public back home - hailed the agreement hammered out among wealthy and developing countries while stopping well short of claiming it would reverse dismal conditions or even prevent a deeper recession.
"This is not a panacea," Obama said at a news conference where he straddled nearly every issue.
The president called the meeting a "turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery" and heralded steps agreed to by the Group of 20 leaders as both "critical" and "necessary."
But, he cautioned: "Whether they're sufficient, we've got to wait and see."
The new U.S. president also has met privately with other heads of state, from Russia, China, Great Britain and India on the sidelines of the summit.
How has he done? "I think we did OK," he said, summing up his performance so far.
Thursday's daylong gathering of the G-20 nations pledged $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to struggling countries, agreed to crack down on tax havens, large hedge funds and other risky financial products, rejected protectionism that hampers foreign trade and committed to upgrading an existing financial forum to flag problems early in the global financial system. Those were all elements Obama was seeking.
And, as he hoped, the leaders also rejected a push by French and German politicians for a global financial super-regulator, a proposal that had been expected to go down in defeat. The emphasis, instead, was on cooperation among nations to each choose it own way to enact "a stronger, more globally consistent, supervisory and regulatory framework."
Overall, the outcome seemed more robust than the one global leaders were able to muster at a first summit held last fall in response to the financial meltdown and hosted by Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush. Since that November meeting, the global crisis has worsened, making the need for urgent action more plain to formerly reluctant nations.
Still, the leaders, many wary of piling up debt, did not sign off on large new stimulus packages for their own countries. Obama's administration had initially pushed for such a commitment, but backed off in recent days as European opposition solidified.
Obama claimed Thursday's collective action was a giant victory, calling the meeting historic "by any measure." The president said he was sure the steps would have "a concrete effect" in each nation of creating jobs, saving jobs, expanding economies, loosening credit and restoring confidence in financial markets. To Americans hurting at home, he argued that working to boost the economy worldwide - in particular by helping poorer nations - creates export markets for U.S. goods and the restoration and creation of crucial jobs.
"The steps that have been taken are critical to preventing us sliding into a depression," he said. "They are bolder and more rapid than any international response that we've seen to a financial crisis in memory."
He acknowledged the U.S. had to make concessions. But he begged off detailing them, saying the final communique reflected a collective voice of world leaders.
In a jam-packed news conference that drew hundreds of journalists from around the world, Obama was both playful and wonkish, coughing and sniffling at times with a cold he said he'd been fighting all week.
Obama moved closer to his goal of decisively putting a new, listening-not-lecturing stamp on U.S. foreign policy, not only as it is conducted but as it is perceived around the globe. Citing international polling showing his popularity, Obama said: "I would like to think that, with my election and the early decisions that we've made, that you're starting to see some restoration of America's standing in the world."
Yet, Obama also found himself defending American prominence for the second time in as many days. Just before he spoke, the summit host, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, declared "the old Washington consensus is over," a reference to decades of U.S.-led dominance of the global economic order.
"I do not buy into the notion that America can't lead in the world," Obama said. "America is a critical actor and leader on the world stage and that we shouldn't be embarrassed about that. But ... we exercise our leadership best when we are listening."
Obama acknowledged that some participants during the summit made comments that seemed to blame America and Wall Street for triggering the crisis that has spread around the world.
"It's hard to deny that some of the contagion did start on Wall Street," Obama said, asserting that some firms took "wild and unjustified risks" and some government regulators were "asleep at the switch."
But he said there were problems in other parts of the world as well.
While Obama argued that the document the G-20 produced included both "a strong, coordinated response to growth" and "a strong, coordinated regulatory response," he said it also reflected the range of the nations' individual priorities, and he added: "It is hard for 20 heads of state to bridge our differences."
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| In this Dec. 15, 2008 file photo, then Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich leaves his house through an alley entrance. A federal grand jury handed down a 19-count indictment against Blagojevich Thursday, April 2, 2009, on charges he engaged in a "wide-ranging scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government." The 19-count indictment against Blagojevich, his brother, two former aides and two businessmen, accuses Blagojevich of corruption involving billions of dollars in state pension bonds. |
Obama's Deputy Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, said the White House would not comment.
The indictment also charged that Blagojevich was involved in a corrupt scheme to get a massive kickback in exchange for the refinancing of billions of dollars in state pension funds. It said he took part in a plan with convicted political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko and two others to make money while Blagojevich was governor, then split the profits after he left the office.
Blagojevich, 52, and others are accused of illegally pressuring an Illinois congressman for help in raising funds and lying when FBI agents came to question him.
His publicist, Glenn Selig, said a statement would be issued shortly.
Blagojevich was arrested Dec. 9 on a criminal complaint, and U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald had faced a Tuesday deadline to supplant it with an indictment from a federal grand jury.
The Democrat's arrest meant curtains for his political career: The Illinois House impeached him Jan. 9, and the Senate convicted him and removed him from office Jan. 29.
Others charged in the indictment include the former governor's brother, Robert Blagojevich, one-time chief fundraiser Christopher G. Kelly, former aide Lon Monk, Springfield lobbyist-millionaire William F. Cellini and former chief of staff John Harris.
Prosecutors said Harris has agreed to cooperate in the case.
Blagojevich's administration has been under federal investigation for years. Kelly and Rezko already have been convicted of federal crimes and are facing prison.
The former governor's wife, Patti, had been mentioned prominently in the complaint and was the focus of considerable speculation, but she was not charged in the indictment.
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Philadelphia kicks off its second annual Spring Cleanup this weekend.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter says it's the volunteers who make the city's Spring Cleanup a success:
"People want this city to be a clean city. They want to be involved. They want to do something that actually makes a difference in their community, whether it's just taking care of your front steps or taking care of your sidewalk, a community building activity; painting a fence, planting a tree, fixing up a rec center."
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Philadelphia City Council is taking its review of Mayor Nutter's tax-boosting budget on the road. Members have scheduled rare public hearings outside of City Hall, with the first coming Wednesday night in North Philadelphia.
Mayor Nutter held a number of public meetings throughout the city before he unveiled his budget, and now comes Council's turn.
For full story go to:
http://www.kyw1060.com/
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| In this Feb. 8, 2009 file photo, Natalie Cole is shown backstage at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. |
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Natalie Cole's fans want to give her a kidney. The 59-year-old singer told Larry King on Tuesday that she was diagnosed with kidney failure, and while she was till on his CNN show, dozens of viewers wrote in offering to be tested as possible donors.
Without a donor kidney, Cole says she will be on dialysis for the rest of her life.
The daughter of Nat King Cole said she was diagnosed with hepatitis C in February 2008. Her kidneys failed after treatment and she has since been seeking a donor.
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| Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, left, talks with ATF agent-in-charge Shawn Hoben, left-center, after a news conference held at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego Wednesday, April 1, 2009. In the foreground are bales of marijuana confiscated at the port of entry. |
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The Obama administration plans to spend more than $400 million to upgrade ports of entry and surveillance technologies to help thwart drugs and arms smuggling along the U.S-Mexico border. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that the projects will help keep violence from spilling across the border.
"Working together at all levels, we take them on and we take them out. That is our goal," Napolitano told reporters after an aerial tour of the border area near San Diego.
In her first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office two months ago, Napolitano toured a customs and border protection facility at Otay Mesa, Calif.
The spending outlined by Napolitano is part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package approved by Congress.
Included in the border spending is $269 million to upgrade ports of entry, including San Diego's Otay Mesa - a busy crossing for trucks - Antelope Wells, N.M., and Nogales, Ariz.
The plan calls for $42 million for high-tech inspection equipment and $50 million for a high-tech surveillance systems along Arizona's border with Mexico.
Napolitano heads to Mexico City on Thursday and Laredo, Texas, on Friday.
