Pennsylvania Civil Rights Law Network | Working to provide provide equal justice under the law in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Civil Rights Law Network | Working to provide provide equal justice under the law in Pennsylvania

The Opening Statement at today’s assault on Don Bailey and Civil Rights

Posted on August 11, 2011 by admin

Members of Judicial-Corruption.net, PennsylvaniaCivilRightsLawNetwork.com and TrueDemocracyParty.net got together and united as we were all in the courtroom for the hearing of Don Bailey this morning in Harrisburg, PA for one of the most important hearings ever to take place, that should have never been allowed to occur.

The hearing began before a hearing examiner by the name of Brian Cali, Esquire.  Mr. Cali is believed to be under federal investigation for his role in an ankle bracelet business that was connected to the “kids for cash” scandal.  Marty Carlson, the federal magistrate judge appointed to get Bailey, was U.S. Attorney early on in this scandal, and has been criticized for turning a blind eye to that judicial corruption scandal early on before it got out of control.  Chances are that Carlson and Cali’s paths crossed before.  Bailey filed a motion for Cali’s recual, which was denied without discussion, with Cali never having to reveal what his true role is in the kids of cash investigations.  We demand to know.  Is he “giving” them Bailey in exchange for favorable criminal treatment? Did Marty Carlson and Calis paths cross paths again?  Again ,we demand to know.

The testimony was consumed by a day of 2 federal judges appearing in state court to go after a lawyer.  Bailey is chagrged for saying that judges met to discuss how to get him, and that is exactly what the testimony was.  Phone calls and meetings betwen federal judges about Don Bailey.  Judge Conner was visibly nervous and had the “i don’t recalls” typicaly scattered throughout his otherwise disturbing testimony.  Everything about his and Jones demeanor suggested that they know they have been caught by Don Bailey, and that they are trying still to figure out a way out.  We have one – impeachament!

These judges don’t work on cases together, so there is only one reason to be discussing him, and then working with state authorities to get him – because what Bailey said is true.  Don Bailey is being prosecuted for true statements about judicial corruption.  We will have all the testimony here when it becomes available.

The crux of the issue hinges on the preservation of our civil rights, and our ability to enjoy due process rights and protection when it comes to blowing the whistle on corruption – at any level of government – executive, legislative, or judicial – state or local.

We caught up with Mr. Bailey after the proceedings today, and he was kind enough to give us a copy of his Opening Statement, which we felt articulates the gravity of the situation every single American is facing at this immediate moment in regards to the future protections of their civil rights.

Tomorrow’s hearing will resume at 8:30 AM, at the Judicial Center, Commonwealth Avenue, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and we encourage you to attend.

Opening Statement of Respondent Don Bailey:  August 11, 2011

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Fulton, and Attendees,

I very much appreciate the opportunity to defend myself, to the extent I can under the limitations I must endure, against charges that I wrote in a pleading that certain federal judges were misbehaving.  I confess that I did so.  Because objectively speaking, they were.  And I also confess that I still believe every word that I said.

The Federal judicial system, at least in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, has been corrupted by certain errant and dishonest judges.  There is no need to address what we have suffered, as of late, in our state judicial system.  And even greater than the injustices that I am suffering right here are the deprivations of American citizens who deserve, but have been denied, their day in court.  Political and personal misconduct by judicial officers continues in our system.  The evidence is overwhelming.  Favoritism, selective law firm influence, cronyism and political retribution are common place.  Corruption in Pennsylvania has become a pervasive way of life.  There isn’t a lawyer, nor is there a functionary in this system, who is not aware of these facts.  And just because there’s always been some wrongdoing doesn’t mean this is okay.  There are two generic classes of victims in this orchestration.  The unfortunate spill off reflects on the large maturity of our judges, the decent and honest judges whose service we are privileged to enjoy, countless citizens are required to depend upon a class of dishonest and corrupt public officials to try and seek redress of their grievances.  There is no greater example of the corruption which exists in Pennsylvania today than this very proceeding.  Pennsylvania’s so-called Lawyer’s Disciplinary System is a fraud.  If a lawyer dares to complain then his or her profession and livelihood are threatened and destroyed.  Furthermore, as Paul Killian’s behavior demonstrates, in one place you apply standards, in the next place you don’t, it all depends on who the favor is being done for.

I have been denied the opportunity to subpoena fact witnesses.  Why?  I have been denied the opportunity to review and require the production of documents and files.  Why?  I have been falsely misrepresented and intentionally attacked by certain manipulative judges, like Mr. Conner, but my clients and I expected to refrain from protest for fear of suffering personal retribution.  This entire process originated with a courteous request to Mr. Conner to reconsider a racist memorandum he wrote in a York County case.  I am suffering retaliation today because I had to courage and loyalty to my client, Stephen Conklin, to do what was right.  And the facts will clearly demonstrate that.  They are irrefutable.  But Mr. Conner moved to have them struck.  It is partly for these reasons that an effort is underway to impeach him.  See the Venesevich writ of certiorari which demonstrates not just judicial excess, but clearly illustrates the arrogance and abuse that lawyer’s and citizens can suffer because of the privileges that evolved in our judicial system that protect dishonest and abusive judges like my accusers.  The document upon which my charges are based stem from my complaining that my client Thom Lewis and I were the victims of judicial misbehavior.  Well, I believe we were.  When we attempted to present evidence we were even denied the right to subpoena witnesses in a so-called sanctions hearing.  We weren’t even allowed to question the individual who claimed to have done the legal work we were sanctioned for in the legal panorama devoid of due process.

This board is not even legally constituted.  It does not have the civilian representation it’s supposed to have.  It inappropriately mixes prosecutorial, adjudicatory, and investigative functions.  It has been recognized nationally as unreliable.

I’m the best evidence.  As I’ve been told I am here because federal judges Yvette Kane, John E. Jones III, Anthony Scirica, and Christopher Connor complained that I criticized them.  Magistrate Judge Carlson has virtually thrown tantrums comprising uncontrollable attacks on me personally which then strangely ended up being manipulated into the media.  That stemmed from my innocent questioning of his mysterious midnight appointment and the committee behind it.  So like political operatives carrying out the wishes of a political boss, I am being hauled in here to make sure that the civil rights issues I raise and the people I represent don’t have a chance to present their cases in court.  This begs other questions.  More is yet to come.

The vast majority of my clientele are police officers.  Invariably their cases touch upon and require the disclosure of public corruption.  Today whistleblowers and loyal hard-working law enforcement personnel are under attack by our Federal courts.  Now, I’ve had the privilege of representing dozens of Pennsylvania State troopers against abuses in their own leadership system.  A case study on those cases alone should provide revealing information about the politics of our federal courts, or more specifically certain judges.   I have won over $5 million in verdicts and through settlements in just the Middle District.  Perhaps a study should be done on how those verdicts have been taken away.  I assure this committee it will be.

This is not a world of even trying to exercise neutral and detached judgments.  It’s a world of politics and egos and arrogance.  The responsibility of any official community is to at least try and let it police itself.  Our judicial system cannot do so.  And this so-called disciplinary system is little more than an enforcement arm of those who would abuse it.  The manner in which this hearing process has been conducted is a testament to the entire systems’ excesses.  Institutional reform is needed.  Judges should not be policing or regulating lawyer’s and judges should not have the bootstrapped protections they have enshrouded themselves in.

The rules of conduct that are being used to abuse me are both unconstitutional as written and as applied.  Although I have no doubt as to the outcome of this process I do have a political and more duty to fight it.

Please allow me to finish with a brief personal story.

When my children ask me, and I have six, how I seem myself, assuming I see myself as a dad and husband first, am I an ex-football player, or an ex-congressman, or an ex-statewide officer holder I laugh and tell them I’m a jungle fighter.  That’s what I did best.  That’s what I knew best and that’s what I excelled at.  My mind goes back to a day long ago back in 1969 in Vietnam.  Delta Company had surrounded a few enemy soldiers in a draw near the base of Nui Khe Mountain, just a little Southwest of the Villiage of Nam Hoa.  Naturally, my platoon was sent in to get them.  Because we were the best.  As we moved up the draw through a little blue we began to find bones.  Little bones at first and then bigger and heavier bones and then skulls.  We found the disjointed chopped skeletons of over 200 people who had been marched out of Nam Hoa in 1968.  Their names had been on a list because they had said things critical of the Communists.  That’s all they did.  They had criticized the political structure.  Now the story, which is true, is certainly an exaggeration to press the point here.  But how far removed is this so-called hearing or process?  Perhaps not as far as some of you would like to think?  You would take my right to earn a living, but more important my right to represent people that not one of you has the courage to stand up and fight for.  That I voiced substantive criticisms is not important.  You haven’t the slightest interest in the accuracy or efficacy of what I said about these judges’ and their misbehavior.  Your only fear is that someone will hear what my clients and I said and might pay attention to it.  You see what you seek to stop is any attorney saying anything critical of any judge at any time.  The judicial system charged with the responsibility for protecting American citizens from First Amendment intrusions by the government is the greatest abuser of all.

Posted in The Inquisition of Don Bailey and Civil Rights | Tagged Civil Rights, Due Process Violations, Inquisition of Don Bailey, Opening Statement | Leave a comment

Civil rights attorney Don Bailey fights to keep his law career | PennLive.com

Civil rights attorney Don Bailey fights to keep his law career | PennLive.com

This is what happens to civil rights attorneys who have the "chutzpah" to defend the ordinary citizens against what many call "the most corrupt court system in the United States".   

Spokesman: Gov. Rick Perry running for president

Spokesman: Gov. Rick Perry running for president

FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2011 file photo, Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks in Houston. Perry's spokesman said Thursday that Perry is running for president.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry is running for president, a spokesman confirmed Thursday, a move certain to shake up the race for the GOP nomination much to the delight of conservatives looking for a candidate to embrace.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the governor would make his intentions known on Saturday while visiting South Carolina and New Hampshire just as most of his presidential rivals compete in a test vote in Iowa.

Official word of Perry's entrance into the race came just hours before eight candidates, including GOP front-runner Mitt Romney, were to appear on stage during a nationally televised debate.

It wasn't much of a surprise. The longest-serving governor in Texas history has flirted with a presidential run since spring and has spent the past few months courting Republicans in early voting states and laying the groundwork for a campaign. He met privately with potential donors from California to New York and gave rousing speeches to party faithful, casting himself as a fiscally responsible social conservative.

His intentions became even clearer over the past few days when officials disclosed that he would visit an important trio of states, a campaign-like schedule timed to overshadow the debate and the Iowa straw poll and, perhaps, wreak havoc on a field led by Romney.

Perry's nascent presidential campaign is not expected to rest after this weekend's launch. Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., confirmed that he's scheduled to meet privately with Perry next Wednesday. He also confirmed a separate meeting with the first-in-the-nation primary state's only Republican senator, Kelly Ayotte.

Neither has decided whom to endorse, but both have been courted heavily by the presidential field.

Unlike others in the race, Perry has credibility with the at-times warring camps of the GOP's primary electorate. The pro-business tax-cutter who has presided over Texas' recent economic growth also is a devout social conservative with deep ties to some of the nation's evangelical leaders and Christians who dominate the pivotal Iowa caucuses.

But Perry also has never run a national campaign before, and it's unclear whether his Texas swagger and sometimes unorthodox policy positions will sit well with GOP primary voters outside his state. Another open question is whether he can raise the money necessary to mount a strong campaign against those who have been in the race for months or more.

He may face fierce opposition from secular groups and progressives who argue that his religious rhetoric violates the separation of church and state and that his belief that some groups, such as the Boy Scouts of America, should be allowed to discriminate against gays is bigoted.

Within the Republican Party, Perry has enemies among moderates who question his understanding of national and international policy, including Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who ran against him for governor in a bitter 2010 primary race.

An early adopter of tea party rhetoric, Perry even has some opponents in the movement. They complain he hasn't taken strong enough stances on state spending and illegal immigration, in part because as governor Perry signed a law making Texas the first state to offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and blasted a proposed border fence as "idiocy."

But before he starts pumping up supporters and wooing detractors, Perry will need to raise name recognition outside of Texas and conservative circles along with funds to fill a presidential campaign coffer. None of the money he's raised for Texas elections can be used in a national race, so he is starting from scratch.

The governor lags well behind previously announced candidates in both campaign workers and fundraising, mostly because he denied any interest in the presidency until late May. But the story he tells of having no interest in higher office until friends and family persuaded him to join the race adds to his carefully cultivated image as a Texas cowboy reluctantly riding into Washington to save the day.

The campaign will attempt to position Perry between the moderate Romney and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, a tea party favorite.

Perry, who has been governor for 11 years, has touted his business-friendly job-creation skills in Texas as evidence of fiscal wisdom, giving him a chance to drain support from Romney, whose conservative record is burdened by the health care plan he implemented as governor of Massachusetts.

Social conservatives already support Perry in equal numbers to Bachmann, who never has held an executive office and who some Republicans consider too far right to beat President Barack Obama.

In polls conducted before he joined the race, Perry was in a statistical tie with Bachmann and within striking distance of Romney.

A career politician with 27 years in elected office, Perry calls his economic track record in Texas a model for the country, arguing that low taxes, little regulation and tough lawsuit restrictions help create jobs and attract business. Texas has fared better than most states during the Great Recession, though it has the highest rate of uninsured residents and among the poorest populations in the country.

Perry is a full-throated critic of both Democratic and Republican politics in Washington, advocating a weaker federal government with smaller entitlement programs and greater states' rights. He recently signed a pledge to cut spending, place a cap on future government expenses and balance the budget.

The Texas governor's office, however, is designed to be weak. Voters elect top state executives and all judges, and the Legislature drafts the state budget and sets its own agenda. The veto is the only real power the Texas governor has other than appointing people to lesser government offices. But Perry has wielded all the power he could muster, using his power of appointments to commissions and university boards of regents to establish a network of loyalists who carry out his policies.

Democrats will highlight what they say are Perry's extreme right-wing beliefs, such as opposing the national income tax and the direct election of U.S. senators. States' rights is one of Perry's biggest issues, and he has said individual legislatures should decide matters such as gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana. Those stances could draw conservative opposition - unlike his well-known love of guns.

Perry last year told an Associated Press reporter that he carries a laser-sighted pistol while jogging, and that he used it to shoot a coyote that threatened his daughter's dog that came along one day for a run. Texans touted what they called a heroic act, and gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. issued a "Coyote Special" edition of its Ruger .380-caliber pistol complete with "A True Texan" emblazoned on the side.

How such stories play on a national stage could determine whether Perry can secure the GOP nomination. He'll also have to prove he has the skill to put on a national campaign.

While Perry looks good on television and gives fiery speeches, he is less disciplined in one-on-one encounters where he has made comments like the one about secession. He also did not fare well during the one debate he agreed to in his 2010 gubernatorial race, appearing awkward while repeating talking points rather than engaging the other candidates.

Stocks resume sell-off; Dow finishes down 519

Stocks resume sell-off; Dow finishes down 519

Specialist James Ahrens works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011. Wall Street focused Wednesday on the bleak landscape ahead for the economy and sold off, wiping out the big gains from a day earlier and then some. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 519 points.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Back to reality and back down, Wall Street focused Wednesday on the bleak landscape ahead for the economy and wiped out its big gains from a day earlier - and then some.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 519 points and has now lost more than 2,000 in less than three weeks. Swings of several hundred points in just minutes have become commonplace.

This time, the selling was intensified by worries about debt problems in Europe.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve said it planned to keep interest rates ultra-low for two more years. After some initial confusion, the stock market staged a huge comeback and had one of its best days.

But the interest-rate news proved to be a distraction. The Fed made the pledge because it sees almost no chance that the economy will improve substantially by 2013, and when investors focused on that, they dumped stocks again.

"Now it gets back to the fundamentals," said Mark Lamkin, founder of Lamkin Wealth Management, which manages $215 million.

The Dow closed at 10,719.94, down 4.6 percent for the day. By points, it was the ninth-steepest decline for the market.

Wednesday was another day marked by big moves. The Dow was down more than 300 points within minutes of the opening bell. It recovered some of that loss, then drifted steadily lower in the last two hours.

The market has traded that way for two weeks, lurching up and down. The most extreme example was Tuesday, when the Dow swung more than 600 points in the one hour and 45 minutes after the Fed's statement.

The stomach-churning highs and lows are reminiscent of the fall of 2008, the depths of the financial crisis, when there were swings of 800 or even 1,000 points in day.

Computerized trading systems - programmed to analyze charts, capitalize on the tiniest changes in price and execute trades with no human intervention - are making the market rougher.

High-frequency trading programs make up about half of the trading volume in a normal market day but 70 percent or more on a volatile one. The programs pounce on stock changes to make just slivers of a penny but do it so often that it adds up.

Other investors also use charts and market indicators to make trades based on market momentum. The bet is that if the market is rising, it will keep rising, and if it's falling, it will keep falling.

More investors are turning to this strategy because the sudden slowdown in the economy has left them unable to judge companies based on their fundamentals, like projected profits. The more people use a momentum strategy, the faster the indexes rise or fall.

The S&P 500 finished the day down 4.4 percent and the Nasdaq composite index down 4.1 percent.

Financial stocks led the market lower. Bank of America and Citigroup each lost more than 10 percent of their market value. Wall Street is worried because it doesn't know how badly American banks might be hurt by Europe's debt problems.

Investors fear Italy and Spain will be the next countries unable to repay their debts. The European financial system has been battered by fears about banks holding bonds of heavily indebted countries such as Greece and Portugal.

"It's the same game of Old Maid playing out in Europe that was played out here during the subprime mortgage crisis," said Quincy Krosby, an economist and market strategist with Prudential Financial.

The fear is that if European governments default on their bonds, it will hurt the European banks that own them. That could start a chain reaction that hurts the United States, because large U.S. banks have loans to European banks.

Europe is also a big market for U.S. companies. It accounted for about 29 percent of foreign sales for S&P 500 companies last year.

France came under pressure Wednesday amid concerns that it could become the next country to lose its top AAA rating. The cost of insuring against a default of French government debt hit a record, according to data from Markit.

In Asia, the concern is that higher inflation in China could lead to slower growth. China, Brazil and other less-developed countries have provided the strongest economic growth since the world began to recover from recession in 2009.

Gold rose above $1,800 per ounce for the first time as more money poured into investments considered safe at a volatile time for the financial markets. Gold closed up about $41 at $1,784. It first passed $1,600 only in late May.

The 10-year Treasury note, which has also served as a haven, also rose sharply. Its yield fell to 2.11 percent from 2.26 percent late Tuesday. It had reached a record low of 2.03 percent on Tuesday. A bond's yield falls when its price rises.

Investors have bought U.S. government debt even after S&P stripped the United States of its top credit rating, AAA, late last week.

Nearly three stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated trading volume was heavier than usual, 8.3 billion shares. In July, average daily volume was less than half that. On Monday, it was 9.9 billion, the highest since September 2008.

Stocks have fallen so far that six companies have withdrawn plans this week to sell stock on U.S. markets for the first time, according to Dealogic. That brings the number of withdrawn initial public offerings, or IPOs, to 65 so far this year. That is the most through this point in the year since 2001.

APNewsBreak: British far-right aims to quell riots

APNewsBreak: British far-right aims to quell riots

London residents wait to be allowed through a police cordon to help council workers with the clear up after the rioting that took place the previous night outside Clapham Junction railway station in Battersea, London, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2011. Britons swept up, patched up and feared further violence Tuesday, demanding police do more to protect them after three nights of rioting left trails of looted stores, wrecked cars and burned buildings across London and several other cities.

LONDON (AP) -- The leader of a British far-right group says its members are taking to the streets of British cities in an attempt to quell riots that have spread across the country for four nights.

Stephen Lennon, leader of the English Defense League, told The Associated Press that up to 1,000 members planned to turn out in Luton, where the group is based, and others areas that have suffered unrest, including the northwestern city of Manchester.

Lennon said some members had were already carrying out patrols trying to deter rioters, and that hundreds more would join them Wednesday.

"We're going to stop the riots - police obviously can't handle it," Lennon told the AP.

The far-right group was cited as an inspiration to Anders Behring Breivik who has confessed to the July 22 massacre in Norway.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LONDON (AP) - Thousands more police officers flooded London streets Tuesday in a bid to end Britain's worst rioting in a generation as nervous shopkeepers closed early and some residents stood guard to protect their neighborhoods. The unrest spread across central and northern England on a fourth night of violence driven by poor, diverse and brazen crowds of young people.

Scenes of ransacked stores, torched cars and blackened buildings frightened and outraged Britons just a year before London is to host the summer Olympic Games, and brought demands for a tougher response from law enforcement.

London's Metropolitan Police department put thousands more officers in the streets and said that by Wednesday there would be 16,000 - almost triple the number present Monday. Dozens of police were seen combing through the Canning Town area of east London as officers hunted for potential new flash points, but the department acknowledged it could not guarantee an end to the violence.

Though London saw no new unrest late Tuesday, but the chaos spread to other cities. A police station in the central England city of Nottingham was firebombed by a 40-strong mob, and hundreds of youths battled police in the northwestern city of Manchester.

Stores, offices and nursery schools across London closed early amid fears of fresh rioting. Many usually busy streets had an eerie calm as cafes, restaurants and pubs also decided to shut down for the night.

Many shops had their metal blinds pulled down, while other business owners rushed to secure plywood over their windows before nightfall.

Some London residents prepared to defend their homes and stores. Outside a Sikh temple in Southall, west London, residents stood guard and vowed to defend their place of worship if mobs of young rioters appeared. Another group marched through Enfield, in north London, aiming to deter looters.

In east London's Bethnal Green district, convenience store owner Adnan Butt, 28, said residents were tense.

"People are all at home - they're scared" of the rioters, he said.

London's deputy assistant police commissioner Steve Kavanagh vowed that large numbers of officers would remain on London's streets until calm was restored.

"We will continue with this additional policing for as long as is necessary. Our priority remains protecting the public and restoring order to our streets," he said.

In Nottingham, police said rioters had hurled firebombs though the window of a police station in the Canning Circus area of the city, but that there were no reports of injures. Eight men were arrested at the scene, where firefighters doused a blaze.

In Manchester, hundreds of youths rampaged through the city center, hurling bottles and stones at police and vandalizing stores. A women's clothing store on the city's main shopping street was set ablaze, along with a disused library in nearby Salford. Looters targeted stores selling designer clothes and expensive consumer electronics.

Neither Manchester nor Nottingham had previously been involved in unrest. There also was minor unrest for the first time in the central England locations of Leicester, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich.

Britain's riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in London's Tottenham neighborhood turned violent. That clash has morphed into a general lawlessness in London and several other cities that police have struggled to halt with ordinary tactics. While the rioters have run off with sneakers, bikes, electronics and leather goods, they also have torched stores apparently just for the fun of seeing something burn.

Rioters, able to move quickly and regroup to avoid the police, have been left virtually unchallenged in several neighborhoods, plundering stores at will.

Police said they were considering the use of plastic bullets - blunt-nosed projectiles designed to deal punishing blows to rioters without penetrating the skin. Such weapons, formally called baton rounds, still are used to quell riots in Northern Ireland but have never been used by police on Britain's mainland.

The government rejected calls by Conservative lawmaker Patrick Mercer and some members of the public for strong-arm riot measures that British police generally avoid, such as tear gas and water cannons.

"They should have the tools available and they should use them if the commander on the ground thinks it's necessary," Mercer said.

Police did offer advice on what actions people could legally take to defend homes from attack. "As a general rule, the more extreme the circumstances and the fear felt, the more force you can lawfully use in self-defense," London's police department said in advice circulated late Tuesday.

In central England, police said they had made five new arrests amid violence Tuesday in Birmingham - which also suffered rioting on Monday - and had dispersed a small group of people who torched two cars in the center of West Bromwich, a nearby town. About 20 people were arrested following rioting in the central city of Wolverhampton, police said.

Riots and looting has flared across London from gritty suburbs along the capital's fringes to the posh Notting Hill neighborhood. The disorder has caused heartache for Londoners whose businesses and homes were torched or ransacked, and a crisis for police and politicians already staggering from a spluttering economy and a scandal over illegal phone hacking by a tabloid newspaper that has dragged in senior politicians and police.

"The public wanted to see tough action. They wanted to see it sooner and there is a degree of frustration," said Andrew Silke, head of the criminology department at the University of East London.

So far more than 560 people have been arrested in London and about 100 charged - including an 11-year-old boy - and the capital's prison cells were overflowing. Several dozen more were arrested in other cities. The Crown Prosecution Service said it had teams of lawyers working 24 hours a day to help police decide whether to charge suspects.

Silke said it will be hard to control the rioting until police make larger numbers of arrests.

"People are seeing images of lines of police literally running away from rioters," he said. "For young people that is incredibly empowering. They are breaking the rules. They are getting away with it. No one is able to stop them."

The unrest has been Britain's worst since race riots set the capital ablaze in the 1980s. "No one should wake in this wonderful city of ours to see such scenes of devastation and violence," Kavanagh said early Tuesday, as police and lawmakers surveyed the damage.

London's beleaguered police force noted that it had received more than 20,000 emergency calls on Monday - four times the normal number. Scotland Yard has called in reinforcements from around the country and asked all volunteer special constables to report for duty.

A soccer match scheduled for Wednesday between England and the Netherlands at London's Wembley stadium was canceled to free up police officers for riot duty. Britain's soccer authorities said they were in talks with police to see whether this weekend's season-opening matches of the Premier League could still go ahead in London.

Police launched a murder inquiry after a man found with a gunshot wound during riots in the south London suburb of Croydon died of his injuries Tuesday, and arrested three people on suspicion of the attempted murder of a police officer hit by a car.

A total of 111 officers and 14 members of the public had been hurt so far in the rioting, including a man in his 60s with life-threatening injuries, police said.

Prime Minister David Cameron - who cut short a holiday in Italy to deal with the crisis, reversing an earlier decision to remain on his vacation - recalled Parliament from its summer recess for an emergency debate Thursday on the riots. He described the scenes of burning buildings and smashed windows as "sickening," but refrained from tougher measures such as calling in the military to help restore order.

"People should be in no doubt that we will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain's streets and to make them safe for the law-abiding," Cameron told reporters after a crisis meeting at his Downing Street office.

Other politicians visited riot sites Tuesday - but for many residents it was too little, too late.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was booed by crowds who shouted "Go home!" in Birmingham, while London Mayor Boris Johnson - who flew back overnight from his summer vacation - was heckled on a shattered shopping street in Clapham, south London.

Johnson said the riots would not stop London from "welcoming the world to our city" for the Olympics.

"We have time in the next 12 months to rebuild, to repair the damage that has been done," he said. "I'm not saying it will be done overnight, but this is what we are going to do."

Violence broke out late Saturday in the low-income, multiethnic district of Tottenham in north London, after a protest against the fatal police shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old father of four who was gunned down in disputed circumstances Thursday.

Police said Duggan was shot dead when officers from Operation Trident - the unit that investigates gun crime in the black community - stopped a cab he was riding in.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting, said a "non-police firearm" was recovered at the scene, but that there was no evidence it had been fired - a revelation that could fuel the anger of the local community.

An inquest into Duggan's death was opened Tuesday, though it will likely be several months before a full hearing.

Duggan's death stirred memories of the 1980s, when many black Londoners felt they were disproportionately stopped and searched by police. The frustration erupted in violent riots in 1985, during which a police officer was stabbed to death.

Relations have improved since then, but tensions remain and many young people of all races mistrust the police.

Seeking explanations for the unrest, some pointed to rising social tensions in Britain as the government slashes 80 billion pounds ($130 billion) from public spending by 2015 to reduce the country's huge budget deficit, swollen after the country spent billions bailing out its foundering banks.

But many rioters appeared simply to relish the opportunity for unchecked violence Monday night. "Come join the fun!" shouted one youth as looters hit the east London suburb of Hackney.

In Croydon, fire gutted a 140-year-old family run department store, House of Reeves, and forced nearby homes to be evacuated. "No one's stolen anything," said owner Graham Reeves, 52. "They just burnt it down."

Many Londoners emerged on Tuesday with brooms to help sweep the streets of broken glass, rallying to the aid of those whose homes or premises had been vandalized.

The riots could not have come at a worse time for police - a year before the Olympic Games, which Scotland Yard says will be the biggest challenge in its 182-year history.

Cameron's government has slashed police budgets under its austerity program. A report last month by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary said the cuts - a third of which have already taken place - will mean 16,000 fewer police officers by 2015.

Scotland Yard is also without a full-time leader after chief Paul Stephenson quit last month amid a scandal over the ties between senior officers and Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers, which are being investigated for hacking phone voicemails and bribing police for information. The force's top counterterrorism officer, John Yates, also quit over the hacking scandal.

Obama seeks to reassure faith in US credit

Obama seeks to reassure faith in US credit

President Barack Obama speaks in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Aug. 8, 2011.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eager to calm a nervous nation, President Barack Obama on Monday dismissed an unprecedented downgrade in the nation's credit rating, insisting investors will stand by the United States even as stock markets plunged. Obama said Washington can fix its ills by showing more political will.

"Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America," Obama said. "No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a triple-A country."

Investors did funnel money on Monday into Treasurys, a sign of confidence in the United States as a safe long-term investment even after Standard & Poor's had dropped the U.S. credit rating down a notch. But the broader story was far more worrisome: stock markets kept tumbling over concerns about the weakening U.S. economy and the debt crisis in Europe.

The Dow Jones industrials plummeted to its worst drop since December 2008.

For Obama, a president seeking a second term from voters desperate for better times, the pressure for results is intense.

He is the first president to have a credit downgrade come on his watch. And whether blaming him is fair or not - he actually pushed for the type of deal that might have prevented a downgrade - presidents are always accountable.

After saying nothing about the downgrade all weekend, Obama sought Monday to use it as leverage against a Congress whose members are on an August vacation. He said a downgrade ought to compel a smart compromise from the bipartisan committee of lawmakers that will soon be tasked with shaping up to another $1.5 trillion in difficult deficit reduction.

Obama said he would offer his own recommendations, although the White House suggested that would likely mean ideas Obama has already presented in recent weeks. Obama on Monday said Congress should ask wealthy Americans to pay more in taxes and should make adjustments in programs like Medicare. Both ideas face fierce political opposition.

"I assure you, we will stay on it until we get the job done," the president assured. But Congress remains in divided political hands, limiting Obama's ability to keep that promise.

Heading into a campaign-style economic tour before going on his own vacation, Obama's overall rating hovers below 50 percent in most polling. He is on far more perilous ground when it comes to public views on the key issue for voters - his handling of the economy - where his approval rating is under 40 percent in most major recent surveys.

Obama's aim is to keep heat on Congress to enact concrete measures, separate from the grueling debt debate, which could help people in the short term.

He pressed lawmakers to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits in September as a way to "put money in people's pockets and more customers in stores."

On a jittery day for the financial world, it fell to Obama to deal with a downgrade that S&P had warned for weeks would come if Obama and Congress failed to agree on a major debt-reduction package. The agency was dissatisfied with the deal lawmakers reached last week to cut more than $2 trillion from the debt over 10 years.

The administration has derided the downgrade as having no economic basis. S&P, though, has little faith in Washington's ability to overcome its partisan woes on the debt.

"We didn't need a rating agency to tell us that the gridlock in Washington over the last several months has not been constructive," Obama said.

S&P has dropped the government's rating to AA+ from the top rating, AAA. The agency attached a negative outlook that means the rating could be lowered again.

Asked under what scenario the United States could regain its AAA rating, David Beers, head of sovereign ratings at S&P, told reporters on Monday, "We don't anticipate a scenario at the moment where the United States could quickly return to AAA."

S&P officials said that five countries including Canada and Australia have lost their AAA ratings from S&P and then regained them. The shortest time that it took a country to regain an AAA rating was nine years and the longest time was 18 years.

Wall Street had its first chance to react to the downgrade on Monday. The Dow fell below 11,000 for the first time since November. The sharp drop extended Wall Street's almost uninterrupted decline since late July, when the Dow was flirting with 13,000.

Republican candidates hoping to challenge Obama next year have placed blame for the downgrade on Obama, tying it to his larger economic agenda.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who leads the GOP field in fundraising and early polls, said the downgrade was a "deeply troubling indicator of our country's decline under President Obama." Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minn., who has shown strength in the early voting state of Iowa, accused Obama of "destroying" the U.S. credit rating.

Obama calmly sought to dismiss all the talk of a dent to U.S. credit.

"Our problems are eminently solvable," he said. "We know what we have to do to solve them. Our problem is not confidence in our credit. The markets continue to reaffirm our credit as among the world's safest. Our challenge is the need to tackle our deficits over the long term."

Stocks tumble after S&P downgrade of US

Stocks tumble after S&P downgrade of US

In this Aug. 4, 2011 photo, a trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York. Global stock markets sank again Monday, Aug. 8, 2011, as worries about the downgrade of U.S. debt outweighed relief at a European Central Bank pledge to buy up Italian and Spanish bonds to help the two countries avoid devastating defaults.

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are tumbling amid a rout in global markets after Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time.

S&P cut the long-term debt rating for the U.S. by one notch late Friday. The downgrade wasn't unexpected, but it comes when investors are already nervous about a weak U.S. economy, European debt problems and Japan's recovery from its March earthquake.

At the opening of trading, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 192, or 1.7 percent, to 11,252. The S&P 500 is down 23, or 2 percent to 1,176. The Nasdaq is down 64, or 2.5 percent, to 2,468.

Prices for Treasurys are rising because they're still seen as one of the few safe investments. Gold topped $1,700 per ounce for the first time.

SEALs on rescue mission killed in Afghan crash

SEALs on rescue mission killed in Afghan crash

FILE - US soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, secure the area after existing a Chinoonk helicopter, Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in this Sunday, June 18, 2006 file photo. Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter Saturday Aug. 6, 2011 similar to this one shown during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite Navy SEALs unit that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as seven Afghan commandos, U.S. officials said. It was the deadliest single loss for American forces in the decade-old war.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The 30 American service members - most of them elite Navy SEALs - who died when their helicopter was shot down had rushed to help Army Rangers who had come under fire, two U.S. officials said Sunday.

The heavy loss shows that clandestine tactics carry huge risks despite the huge success of the SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden more than three months ago. Most of the SEALs who died Saturday were from the same unit that killed bin Laden, although none of the men took part in that mission.

The U.S.-led coalition plans to rely more on special operations missions as it reduces the overall number of combat troops by the end of 2014.

This weekend, the rescue team had subdued attackers who had pinned down the Rangers and were departing in their Chinook helicopter when the aircraft was apparently hit, one of the officials said.

Thirty Americans and eight Afghans were killed in the crash, making it the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. The Rangers, special operations forces who work regularly with the SEALs, secured the crash site in the Tangi Joy Zarin area of Wardak province, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, the other official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the event, as the investigation is still ongoing. The SEAL mission was first reported by CNN.

NATO was recovering the remains of the twin rotor Chinook helicopter. A current and a former U.S. official said the Americans included 22 SEALs, three Air Force combat controllers and a dog handler and his dog. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because military officials were still notifying the families of the dead.

All but two of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed bin Laden, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Eight Taliban fighters were also killed in the battle, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Afghanistan has more U.S. special operations troops, about 10,000, than any other theater of war. The forces, often joined by Afghan troops, are among the most effective weapons in the coalition's arsenal, conducting surveillance, infiltration and capture missions and night raids.

From April to July this year, 2,832 special operations raids captured 2,941 insurgents and killed 834, twice as many as during the same time period last year, according to NATO.

SEALs, Rangers, and other special operations troops are expected to be the vanguard of the American military effort in Afghanistan as international military forces start pulling out. By the time combat troops plan to have left the country, the coalition will have handed control of security to the Afghan forces they have spent tens of billions of dollars arming and training.

Special operations troops are expected to remain in the country after 2014 for counterterrorism missions and advisory support. Just how many will remain has not yet been negotiated with the Afghan government, but the United States is considering from 5,000 to 20,000, far fewer than the 100,000 U.S. troops there now.

Special forces are frequently used to target insurgent commanders as part of an effort to force the Taliban's leadership to agree to a negotiated peace. The operations, mostly in the form of night raids, are often carried out by Afghan and coalition special operations forces.

Night raids have drawn criticism from human rights activists and infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who says they anger and alienate the Afghan population.

But NATO commanders have said the raids are safer for civilians than relatively imprecise airstrikes.

As U.S. forces removed the wreckage Sunday, nearby Afghan and NATO forces battled insurgents as they carried out clearing operations in the areas around the crash site, a region that is just a stone's throw from the capital. The province, which borders Kabul, has increasingly come under Taliban control in recent months - even as the U.S.-led coalition has begun handing over security for parts of Afghanistan over to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

"There have been a small number of limited engagements in the same district" as Saturday's helicopter crash, NATO said in a statement. "However those clashes have not been in the direct vicinity of the crash site. As of now, we have no reporting to indicate any coalition casualties resulting from these engagements."

Copter downing in Afghanistan kills 30 Americans

Copter downing in Afghanistan kills 30 Americans

ADDS DATE OF CRASH - FILE - A US Marine tries to take cover, perched on a container, trying to shelter from the dust as a Chinook helicopter arrives to pick up supplies at Forward Operating Base Edi in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, in this June 9, 2011 file photo. Afghan President Hamid Karzai says 31 U.S. special forces and seven Afghan soldiers were killed when a helicopter, similar to the one shown crashed in eastern Wardak province Saturday Aug. 6, 2011.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite unit as the Navy SEALs who killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, U.S. officials said Saturday. It was the deadliest single loss for American forces in the decade-old war against the Taliban.

The downing, in which seven Afghan commandos were also killed, was a stinging blow to the lauded, tight-knit SEAL Team 6 months after its crowning achievement. It was also a heavy setback for the U.S.-led coalition as it begins to draw down thousands of combat troops fighting what has become an increasingly costly and unpopular war.

None of the 22 SEAL personnel killed in the crash were part of the team that killed bin Laden in a May raid in Pakistan, but they belonged to the same unit. Their deployment in the Friday night raid in which the helicopter crashed would suggest that the target was a high-ranking insurgent figure.

Special operations forces, including the SEALs and others, have been at the forefront in the stepped up strategy of taking out key insurgent leaders in targeted raids, and they will be relied on even more as regular troops pull out.

The strike is also likely to boost the morale of the Taliban in a key province that controls a strategic approach to the capital Kabul. The Taliban claimed they downed the helicopter with a rocket while it was taking part in a raid on a house where insurgents were gathered in the province of Wardak late Friday. Wreckage of the craft was strewn across the crash site, a Taliban spokesman said.

A senior U.S. administration official in Washington said it appeared the craft had been shot down. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the crash is still being investigated. The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan has not yet provided any details on the crash or the circumstances of Friday night's operation.

"Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan," President Barack Obama said in a statement, adding that his thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those who perished.

The dead included 22 SEALs, three Air Force air controllers, seven Afghan Army troops, a dog and his handler, a civilian interpreter and the helicopter crew, according to a current U.S. official and a former U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because military officials were still notifying the families of the dead.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced the number of people killed in the crash and the presence of special operations troops before any other public figure. He also offered his condolences to the American and Afghan troops killed in the crash.

The deaths bring to 365 the number of coalition troops killed this year in Afghanistan and 42 this month.

The raid Friday night took place in the Tangi Joy Zarin area of Wardak's Sayd Abad district, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Kabul. Forested peaks in the region give the insurgency good cover and the Taliban have continued to use it as a base despite repeated NATO assaults.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement that the helicopter was involved in an assault on a house where insurgent fighters were gathering. During the battle, the fighters shot down the helicopter with a rocket, he said.

An American official in Brussels said the helicopter was a twin-rotor Chinook, a large troop and cargo transporter.

The casualties are believed to be largest loss of life in the history of SEAL Team Six, officially called the Navy Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU. The team is considered the best of the best among the already elite SEALs, which numbers 3,000 personnel.

NPR and ABC News first reported that those aboard were believed to be Navy SEALs. The AP withheld the report at the request of their sources until they believed the majority of families of those lost had been notified.

The death toll surpasses the previous worst single day loss of life for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001 - the June 28, 2005 downing of a military helicopter in eastern Kunar province.

In that incident, 16 Navy SEALs and Army special operations troops were killed when their craft was shot down while on a mission to rescue four SEALs under attack by the Taliban. Three of the SEALs being rescued were also killed and the fourth wounded.

Afghanistan has more U.S. special operations troops, about 10,000, than any other theater of war. The forces, often joined by Afghan troops, carry out as many as a dozen raids a night and have become one of the most effective weapons in the coalition's arsenal, also conducting surveillance and infiltration.

From April to July this year, special operations raids captured 2,941 insurgents and killed 834, twice as many as those killed or captured in the same three-month period of 2010, according to NATO.

The coalition plans to increase its reliance on special operations missions as it reduces the overall number of combat troops.

Night raids have drawn criticism from human rights activists and infuriated Karzai, who says they anger and alienate the Afghan population. But NATO commanders have said the raids are safer for civilians than relatively imprecise airstrikes.

The loss of so many SEALs at once will have a temporary impact on the tempo of missions they can carry out, but with an ongoing drawdown of special operations forces from Iraq, there will be more in reserve for Afghan missions.

The site of Friday night's crash, Tangi, is a particularly dangerous area, the site where many of the attacks that take place in the province are planned, said Wardak's Deputy Gov. Ali Ahmad Khashai. "Even with all of the operations conducted there, the opposition is still active."

The U.S. army recently turned Combat Outpost Tangi over to Afghan National Security Forces in an effort to consolidate American forces in the east and to help the Afghan army stand on its own.

Western military commanders have been debating moving forces from other areas in Afghanistan to reinforce troops around the capital and in the east, where the Taliban is often aided by al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. Earlier this year, the U.S. military closed smaller outposts in at least two eastern provinces and consolidated its troops onto larger bases because of increased insurgent attacks and infiltration from the Pakistan border.There have been at least 17 coalition and Afghan aircraft crashes in Afghanistan this year.

Most of the crashes were attributed to pilot errors, weather conditions or mechanical failures. However, the coalition has confirmed that at least one CH-47F Chinook helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade on July 25. Two coalition crew members were injured in that attack.

Jobs report is good enough to calm Wall Street

Jobs report is good enough to calm Wall Street

In this Aug. 4, 2011 photo, job seekers Yefin Milinevsky, right, and Jeffrey Thomson speak with recruiters Pam Hockenberry and Catrina Stagnato at a career job fair in Arlington, Va. The Labor Department announced Friday, Aug. 5, 2011 that hiring picked up slightly in July and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 percent as employers added 117,000 jobs.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Better.

The job market beat expectations, and the stock market managed a modest gain - not great, but good enough after a turbulent week.

The nation added 117,000 jobs in July, the government said Friday - far from what happens in a healthy economy, and only good for a reduction of one notch in the unemployment rate, to 9.1 percent.

But the jobs number beat the forecast of economists, who were expecting no more than 90,000. And it was an overwhelming relief for investors, who just lived through two of the most brutal weeks in Wall Street history.

"Nothing to pop Champagne corks over," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, "but a much-needed shot in the arm for confidence at a time when we have so little."

The Dow Jones industrial average finished with a gain of 60.93 points and closed at 11,444.61. It made up only a small fraction of the losses from Thursday, when the Dow dropped 512, its worst since the financial crisis of 2008.

Friday was not exactly quiet for the market, either.

At the start of trading, investors were thrilled with the unemployment report, and the Dow rose 171. Ten minutes later, the gains were gone. Investors focused on Europe, which is struggling to keep Italy and Spain from being consumed by a growing financial crisis, and the Dow fell 243.

"The fear was that they had no plan to deal with the situation," said Randy Warren, chief investment officer at Warren Financial Service.

Later in the day, Italy promised to work toward a constitutional amendment to balance its budget. It was trying to calm investors around the world, who are worried that financial problems are spreading in Europe.

The Dow's gain was only its second in the past 11 trading sessions. The average has lost about 10 percent of its value in that time. The Standard & Poor's 500, a broader measure of the market, finished just under 1,200, down a fraction of a point.

It was the Dow's worst week since March 2009, down 5.8 percent. The S&P, down 7.2 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index, down 8.1 percent, had their worst weeks since November of that year.

The gain of 117,000 jobs for the U.S. economy looked even better considering that 37,000 public jobs disappeared during the month. Most of those were from a temporary government shutdown in Minnesota.

Subtracting those government layoffs, the private sector added 154,000 jobs for the month. And the economy added 56,000 more jobs than first thought in May and June.

Workers were paid more, too. Average hourly wages showed the biggest monthly gain since 2008. More jobs and better pay means people have more cash to spend, helping the economy grow.

And manufacturing companies added 24,000 jobs, which suggests that the supply disruptions caused by the Japan earthquake may be almost over. Makers of cars and other products found themselves short of parts after the disaster.

All told, the figures suggested a slower-growing economy - but not one on the verge of a new recession, as some had feared.

Some economists were impressed that the economy managed to add more than 100,000 jobs in a month when companies feared the government might default on its debt. Congress and the White House struck a deal with hours to spare.

Other economists noted that corporations remain highly profitable, stocked with cash, and can hire when needed. They're waiting for customer demand to come back in force.

The economy is still too weak to produce the 250,000 new jobs a month that it takes to bring down the unemployment rate quickly. The rate has been above 9 percent in every month except two since the Great Recession ended in June 2009.

Other recent data show the economy struggling. In June, consumers cut back on spending for the first time in 20 months. Manufacturers are barely increasing their output. The economy barely grew in the first half of the year.

The weakness has raised pressure on the Federal Reserve to take further steps to support growth. After they meet Tuesday, Fed policymakers could make clear that short-term interest rates will stay low indefinitely. But analysts say the Fed probably won't signal any new action.

The July job gains ranged broadly across industries. Retailers, factories and health care firms were among the many sectors that added workers.

President Barack Obama used the jobs report to press Congress to extend a Social Security tax cut enacted this year that put an extra $1,000 to $2,000 in most workers' pockets. Obama also called for a renewal of emergency unemployment benefits, which provide up to 99 weeks of support.

The tax cuts and extra benefits are scheduled to expire at year's end. Economists have cautioned that the end of the two programs could weaken growth in 2012.

Economists aren't expecting much improvement this year. Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets, foresees growth at a modest 2.4 percent annual rate in the last six months - the same as he did before Friday's jobs report.

"These numbers are not great," Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a note to clients. "But they are a long way from recession territory."

Dan Schneider, founder of SIB Consulting and Development in Charleston, S.C., started hiring one or two employees a month earlier this year. He plans to keep doing so for the next year to year and a half.

Business clients pay Schneider's firm to look over their bills and find savings. The company keeps a cut. Schneider started the company during the recession and now employs about 25 people.

"The economy is not that great, and people are looking to save money," he said. "We find people more receptive to what we do."

Unemployment came down partly because some people stopped looking for work. Those people are no longer counted as unemployed. There are about 13.9 million people unemployed in the United States, double the total before the recession.

The number of people working part time who would prefer full-time work declined. Adding them to people who are unemployed or have given up looking, 25.1 million people are "underemployed," about 16 percent of the work force.

Dow falls 512 in steepest decline since '08 crisis

Dow falls 512 in steepest decline since '08 crisis

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2011 in New York. Stocks sank again early Thursday as investors continued to fret about the struggling economies in Europe and slow growth in the U.S.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Gripped by fear of a new recession, the stock market suffered its worst day Thursday since the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 500 points, its ninth-steepest decline.

The sell-off wiped out the Dow's remaining gains for 2011. It put the Dow and broader stock indexes into what investors call a correction - down 10 percent from their highs in the spring.

"We are continuing to be bombarded by worries about the global economy," said Bill Stone, the chief investment strategist for PNC Financial.

Across the financial markets, the day was reminiscent of the wild swings that defined the financial crisis in September and October three years ago. Gold prices briefly hit a record high. Oil fell even more than stocks - 6 percent, or $5.30 a barrel. And frightened investors were so desperate to get into some government bonds that they were willing accept almost no return on their money.

It was the most alarming day yet in the almost uninterrupted selling that has swept Wall Street for two weeks. The Dow has lost more than 1,300 points, or 10.5 percent. By one broad measure kept by Dow Jones, almost $1.9 trillion in market value has disappeared.

For the day, the Dow closed down 512.76 points, at 11,383.68. It was the steepest point decline since Dec. 1, 2008.

Thursday's decline was the ninth-worst by points for the Dow. In percentage terms, the decline of 4.3 percent does not rank among the worst. On Black Monday in 1987, for example, the Dow fell 22 percent.

Two weeks ago, investors appeared worried about the deadlocked negotiations in Washington over raising the ceiling on government debt. As soon as the ceiling was raised, investors focused on the economy, and the selling accelerated.

On Thursday, growing fear about the weakening U.S. economy was joined by concern in Europe that the troubled economies of Italy and Spain might need help from the European Union.

The European Union has already given financial assistance to Greece and Ireland, two countries that have struggled to pay their debts. A financial rescue package for Italy or Spain might be more than the group of countries can handle.

Traders also unloaded stocks before Friday's release of the government's unemployment report for July, which is expected to show weak job growth and perhaps a rise in the unemployment rate, which is 9.2 percent.

Together, they produced "a perfect storm of selling," said Ryan Larson, head of U.S. equity trading for RBC Global Asset Management.

Until a week ago, Wall Street had mostly convinced itself that the U.S. economy would improve in the second half of the year. Gas prices were falling, and Japanese factories were resuming production after disruptions from the March earthquake.

Then one report after another began to show that the economy was much weaker than first thought.

Manufacturing is barely growing. The service sector, which covers about 90 percent of the American work force, is growing at the slowest rate in a year and a half. People spent less in June than in May, the first decline since September 2009.

And the overall economy is expanding at the slowest pace since the end of the Great Recession. It grew at an annual rate of just 0.8 percent for the first six months of this year, raising the risk of another recession.

In an indication of how frightened investors are, Bank of New York Mellon said it would start charging large investors to hold their cash because they are depositing so much. The bank's clients include pension funds and large investment houses that are selling stock and need to deposit the proceeds.

Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist for Janney Montgomery Scott, an investment firm in Philadelphia, said his clients saw the move from stocks into cash as "a parking lot to sort things out."

"With the scars of 2008 still fresh," he said, "some clients don't want to miss the chance to pre-empt further damage should it come."

Wells Fargo Advisers, a financial management company in St. Louis, said clients were more nervous.

"I wouldn't say they're totally panicking. But obviously nerves are rattled," said Scott Marcouiller, chief technical market strategist there. "And I think that is simply because of the speed of the decline."

Other market indicators reinforced the risk-averse mood. Gold, which is seen as a safe investment when the stock market is turbulent, set a record price, $1,684.90 an ounce, before falling to finish the day at $1,659. Adjusted for inflation, gold is still far below the record reached in 1980.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.42 percent, its lowest of the year, and the yield on the 2-year Treasury note hit its lowest ever, 0.265 percent. Bond yields fall when demand for bonds increases.

The yield on the one-month Treasury bill fell to almost nothing - 0.008 percent. Investors were willing to accept paltry returns in exchange for holding investments they believed to be stable.

The sell-off was broad. All 10 industry groups in the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell. Energy companies lost almost 7 percent, materials companies were down 6.6 percent, and industrial companies lost more than 5 percent.

For a time, Kraft Foods was the only stock to rise among the 30 that make up the Dow industrials. Kraft announced Thursday that it would split in two, with one company focusing on snacks and the other groceries. But the selling eventually dragged Kraft under, too, and its stock finished down 52 cents, at $33.78.

Steep stock market losses like the ones of the past two weeks can be self-reinforcing. A drop in stocks erodes household wealth and raises doubts about the economic outlook.

The result can be what economists call a vicious cycle. Stock losses take a toll on consumer confidence and make people more reluctant to spend money. Consumer spending makes up 70 percent of economic output in the United States.

Kevin Cook, senior stock strategist for Zacks Investment Research in Chicago, said investors' worst fears probably won't come true.

"This is not 2008 again," he said. "We don't have a liquidity crisis, we don't have a credit crisis - this is just profit taking."

Cook said he believes the S&P 500, which closed Thursday at 1,200.07, will trade between 1,150 and 1,250 between now and Oct. 1, at least until investors have enough information to determine whether the economy is in recession again.

Even taking into account the recent declines, stocks are still considered to be in an impressive bull market that began March 9, 2009, when the market reached its recession low.

The Dow closed that day at 6,547. Since then, it is up about 74 percent.

One year ago, the Dow closed at 10,680. About a month later, the stock market began a rally that took the Dow almost to 13,000. The catalyst was an announcement by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the Fed was preparing to launch a program to buy $600 billion in government bonds to keep interest rates low and help stocks rally.

The sell-off now comes at a time when corporate profits are growing. For the S&P 500, a measure called the forward price-to-earnings ratio has fallen to about 12, well below its long-term average of 16. That means that investors who buy now are paying less for each dollar in profits.

Based on what an investor now pays for corporate profits, stocks are now trading at their lowest levels in 20 years, said Tim Courtney, chief investment officer of Burns Advisory Group in Oklahoma City.

But few companies were spared in the sell-off Thursday. Just three of the 500 stocks in the S&P 500 moved higher. General Motors fell 4 percent despite beating analyst estimates for its quarterly earnings.

Bed-ridden, caged, Egypt's Mubarak goes on trial

Bed-ridden, caged, Egypt's Mubarak goes on trial

This video image taken from Egyptian State Television showing 83-year-old former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak laying on a hospital bed flanked by his two sons Gamal and Alaa, inside a cage of mesh and iron bars in a Cairo courtroom Wednesday Aug. 3, 2011, as his historic trial began on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising that ousted him from office. The scene, shown live on Egypt's state TV, was Egyptians' first look at their former president since Feb. 10, the day before his fall when he gave a defiant speech refusing to resign.

CAIRO (AP) -- An ailing, 83-year-old Hosni Mubarak, lying ashen-faced on a hospital bed inside a metal defendants cage with his two sons standing protectively beside him in white prison uniforms, denied charges of corruption and complicity in the killing of protesters at the start of his historic trial on Wednesday.

The spectacle, aired live on state television, was a stunning moment for Egyptians. Many savored the humiliation of the man who ruled with unquestionable power for 29 years, during which opponents were tortured, corruption was rife, poverty spread and political life was stifled.

After widespread skepticism that Egypt's military rulers would allow one of their own - a former head of the air force - to be prosecuted in front of the world, the scene went a long way to satisfy one of the key demands that has united protesters since Feb. 11, when Mubarak fell following an 18-day uprising.

"This is the dream of Egyptians, to see him like this, humiliated like he humiliated them for the last 30 years," said Ghada Ali, the mother of a 17-year old girl in the city of Alexandria who was shot to death during the crackdown.

"I want to see their heart explode like my daughter's heart exploded from their single bullet," Ali told The Associated Press, breaking down in sobs.

It was the first time Egyptians have seen Mubarak since Feb. 10, when he gave a defiant TV address refusing to resign.

In the courtroom, a prosecutor read the charges against Mubarak - that he was an accomplice along with his then-interior minister in the "intentional and premeditated murder of peaceful protesters" and that he and his sons received gifts from a prominent businessman in return for guaranteeing him a lowered price in a land deal with the state.

"Yes, I am here," Mubarak said from his bed, raising his hand slightly when the judge asked him to identify himself and enter a plea. "I deny all these accusations completely," he said into a microphone, wagging his finger. His sons also pleaded not guilty.

The emotions swirling around the trial were on display outside the heavily secured Cairo police academy where the trial was held.

A crowd of Mubarak supporters and hundreds of relatives of slain protesters and other Mubarak opponents massed at the gates, scuffling sporadically as they watched the proceedings on a giant screen. They threw stones and bottles at each other while riot police with shields and helmets tried to keep them apart. Officials said 53 people were hurt, most lightly.

About 50 supporters pounded on the steel gate trying to get into the compound, chanting "We Love you, Mubarak!" until police charged at the with electrified batons and dispersed them. "We will demolish and burn the prison if they convict Mubarak," they screamed. Some of the supporters had bandaged heads from beatings, and many wore t-shirts with the slogan, "I am Egyptian and I reject the insulting of our leader."

But the father of a slain protester, among those sweltering in the heat outside on the third day of fasting in the Muslim month of Ramadan, was ecstatic. "We are here to tell Hosni, 'Happy Ramadan, congratulations on your new cage,'" Mohammed Mustafa el-Aqad said.

Wednesday's court session was largely taken up by procedural measures as lawyers from both sides filed motions.

But no matter how dry the action, the sight of Egypt's one-time most powerful man inside the defendants' cage, made of iron bars and metal mesh was riveting. Defendants are traditionally held in cages during trials in Egypt.

Mubarak was flown in just before the session from Sharm el-Sheikh, the Red Sea resort where he has been under arrest at a hospital since April. A sheet pulled up to his chest, he was wheeled into the defendants cage on a hospital bed at the session's start. After weeks of reports from Sharm that he was in a coma, unable to speak and refusing to eat, he looked less frail than many had imagined he might. Though he was pale and his eyes were ringed with red, his hair was dyed black, he was awake, alert and even had a moment of his characteristic defiance, wagging his finger as he denied the charges.

With him in the cage were his nine co-defendants, including his two sons - one-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa - his former interior minister Habib el-Adly, and six top former police officials.

From time to time, Mubarak craned his head to see the proceedings. Other times, he crooked his elbow over his face as if in exhaustion. While the other defendants sat on wooden benches in the cage, the 47-year-old Gamal and 49-year-old Alaa in their white prison uniforms stood next to their father's bed, at one point with their arms crossed on their chest seemingly trying to block the court camera's view of their father. The two sons each carried a copy of the Quran and leaned over to talk to their father.

Relatives of the defendants sat near the cage. A fence running through the middle of the chamber divided them from the rest of the audience of around 300 people, including a few relatives of protesters killed in the uprising, kept far enough that they cannot shout or throw anything at the former leader.

During the session, Mubarak's lawyer filed a motion that Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi - the head of the council of generals that now runs Egypt - be called to testify in the trial. He argued that Tantawi was in control of security after Jan. 28, three days into the protests. The motion signals an attempt by the defense to drag the military into the case.

After several hours, the judge adjourned Mubarak and his sons' trial until Aug. 15, though hearings in el-Adly's case would continue Thursday. The judge ordered Mubarak held at the International Medical Center, a military hospital on the outskirts of Cairo, and that an oncologist be among the doctors monitoring him. That was one of the strongest indications yet that the 83-year-old Mubarak has cancer after months of unconfirmed reports.

Up to the last minute, many Egyptians had doubted that Mubarak would actually appear at the trial, expecting health issues would be used as an excuse for him to stay away.

His healthier than expected appearance could raise demands that he be held in prison like his sons rather than "in the cushy hospital," the anti-Mubarak activist group "We are all Khaled Said" wrote in a posting on its Facebook page. The group is named after a young man killed by police in 2009.

Mostafa el-Naggar, one of the leading youth activists who organized the anti-Mubarak uprising, called the scene of the trial "a moment no Egyptian ever thought was possible."

"I have many feelings. I am happy, satisfied. I feel this a real success for the revolution, and I feel that the moment of real retribution is near," he told The Associated Press.

The trial came only after heavy pressure by activists on the now ruling military - one of the few demands that still unites the disparate protest movement. It answers, at least partially, a growing clamor in Egypt for justice not only for the wrongs of Mubarak's authoritarian regime but also for the violent suppression of the largely peaceful uprising, in which 850 protesters were killed.

In February, as protests raged around him, Mubarak vowed he would die on Egyptian soil. The last time Egyptians saw him, he appeared on state TV, handing most of his powers to his vice president but refusing to resign. He proclaimed he was "adamant to continue to shoulder my responsibility."

The next day, his resignation was announced and Mubarak fled to a palatial residence in Sharm el-Sheikh. The ruling generals who took power from him - and who were all appointed by Mubarak before the uprising - appeared reluctant to prosecute him, but protests flared anew, pressuring action.

In April, Mubarak was moved to the Sharm el-Sheikh hospital and put under arrest while his sons and former cronies were held in Cairo's Torah Prison.

The prosecution is an unprecedented moment in the Arab world, the first time a modern Mideast leader has been put on trial fully by his own people.

The closest event to it was former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's trial, but his capture came at the hands of U.S. troops in 2003 and his special tribunal was set up with extensive consultation with American officials and international experts. Tunisia's deposed president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, has been tried and convicted several times since his fall several weeks before Mubarak's, but all in absentia as he remains in exile in Saudi Arabia.

Mubarak, el-Adly, and six top police officers are charged in connection with the killings of protesters. All eight could face the death penalty if convicted. The charge sheet said that Mubarak "allowed (el-Adly) to use live ammunition" in the crackdown on protesters.

Separately, Mubarak and his two sons face charges of corruption. According to the prosecutors, the father and sons received five villas worth nearly $7 million from prominent businessman Hussein Salem in return for using their influence to get him a lower price for state land to build a resort complex in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Near Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protesters, a dozen people swarmed around newspapers at a stand, reading headlines about the trial. One man spit on a picture of Mubarak on a front page.

"When he is in the cage and we know he is there, then we know we have started to put our feet on the path of justice," said the newspaper seller, Nabil Hassan, 65. "If he and his accomplices are in court, he becomes one of the people no different from anyone else facing justice. I have faith in Egyptian judges."

Debt is a done deal, but peace truce already fades

Debt is a done deal, but peace truce already fades

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, accompanied by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., left, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.,smiles after final passage of the emergency legislation to prevent a default on government debt obligations, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011 on Capitol Hill in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With scant time to spare, President Barack Obama signed legislation Tuesday to avoid an unprecedented national default that he said would have devastated the U.S. economy. But the truce with Republicans that defused the crisis seemed to be fading already.

Wall Street crumpled, dismayed by reports of new economic weakness and unimpressed by Congress' prescription. The Dow Jones industrial average sank by 266 points, its eighth straight losing session, and biggest.

The compromise deal to persuade GOP lawmakers to raise the federal debt limit - U.S. borrowing was to collide with it at midnight - will cut federal spending by $2.1 trillion or more over the next decade. But Obama immediately challenged Republicans to accept higher taxes on the wealthy in a second round of deficit cuts this fall. They adamantly refused to accept that idea during the past months' dispute.

A stern-faced Obama said at the White House that action to raise the debt limit had been essential but more - and different - steps were badly needed.

"We've got to do everything in our power to grow this economy and put America back to work," the president said, arguing forcefully for including revenue increases as well as spending cuts in the next round of efforts to trim huge government deficits.

It was the same call the GOP successfully resisted in the bill just approved, and there was little evidence of a change in position.

"The American people agreed with us on the nature of the problem. They know the government didn't accumulate $14.3 trillion in debt because it didn't tax enough," said the party's leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Obama placed his signature on bill in the privacy of the Oval Office less than two hours after a bipartisan 74-26 vote in the Senate. The House approved the measure Monday night on a 269-161 roll call that also reached across party lines and was sealed by a rap of the gavel by Speaker John Boehner.

The bill allows a quick $900 billion increase in borrowing authority as well as a first installment on spending cuts amounting to $917 billion over a decade.

Without legislation in place by day's end, the Treasury would have been unable to pay all the nation's bills, leading to a potential default for the first time in history. Administration officials warned of disastrous consequences for an economy that shows fresh signs of weakness on a near-daily basis as it struggles to recover from the worst recession in decades.

The White House and congressional leaders said legislation was important to reassure investors at home as well as overseas, and also to preserving the nation's AAA credit rating. Following passage of the debt deal, Moody's Investors Service, one of the three main ratings agencies, said it was retaining its triple-A rating on U.S. bonds but with a negative outlook to show there is still a risk of a downgrade.

This week's peace pact between the two parties is unlikely to be long-lived.

The bill sets up a powerful 12-member committee of lawmakers with authority to recommend fresh deficit savings from every corner of the federal budget.

Politically sensitive benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare will be on the table as the panel of six Republicans and six Democrats works against a Thanksgiving deadline. So, too, an overhaul of the tax code. Congress will have until Christmas to vote on the recommendations without the ability to make changes.

As an incentive for Congress to act, failure to do so would trigger $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts, affecting the Pentagon as well as domestic programs.

Even before the president signed the legislation, he and Republicans were maneuvering for political position on the next stage.

"We can't balance the budget on the backs of people who have borne the biggest brunt of this recession," the president said, renewing his call for higher taxes on the wealthy. "Everyone is going to have to chip in. It's only fair."

Senate Republicans say it will not happen.

"I'm comfortable we aren't going to raise taxes coming out of this joint committee," McConnell said in an interview with Fox on Monday.

In a speech shortly before the vote, he predicted instead a renewal of the most recent struggle over spending cuts.

The debt limit will have to be raised shortly after the 2012 election, he said, predicting that no president of either party will be "allowed to raise the debt ceiling without ... having to engage in the kind of debate we've just been through."

He conceded that Republicans got only part of what they wanted in the deal, and he pointed to next year's elections with control of the White House and Congress at stake as a chance to gain greater clout.

"Republicans only control one half of one third of the federal government, but the American people agree with us," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the period immediately ahead "is going to be painful," particularly if Republicans insist they will not raise any taxes.

Numerous Democrats have complained about the concessions Obama accepted in the deal, and Reid and other Democrats sought immediately to change the subject.

"We now have the chance to pivot away from budget battles to jobs," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "We can reset the debate, and that's what we intend to do."

Obama spoke in less partisan terms at the White House.

"Both parties share power in Washington, and both parties need to take responsibility for improving this economy," he said.

This week's legislation ratified an agreement that took shape slowly. For months there had been partisan flare-ups and internal disagreements within each party, then suddenly things changed last weekend when McConnell and Vice President Joe Biden bargained by telephone.

The immediate impact is to raise the debt limit by $400 billion, giving the Treasury what it needs to avoid exceeding the current $14.3 trillion cap. An additional $500 billion increase will be available, subject to disapproval by Congress.

In exchange, spending is to be cut by $917 billion over a decade from Cabinet-level agencies and the thousands of federal programs they administer.

The bill's second phase begins with the creation of the special committee of lawmakers. Depending on its success in recommending savings that Congress ratifies by Christmas, the nation's borrowing authority will rise by $2.1 trillion or as much as $2.5 trillion.

Either way, it is estimated to be enough to avoid a rerun of the current crisis before the 2012 elections.

That was Obama's bottom-line demand in a negotiating endgame, and while Republicans ridiculed him over it, they consented.

Yet Boehner and McConnell were able to wring key concessions of their own.

The maneuvering began hours after Congress convened last January, the House under control of Republicans for the first time in four years.

At a news conference then, Boehner announced the administration had notified him an increase in the debt limit would be needed, and he said any change must include "meaningful action" to cut spending.

Initially, the White House resisted the linkage, then relented.

On May 9, Boehner laid down a second condition - any debt limit increase must occur in tandem with spending cuts that were greater in size.

Obama wanted a balanced plan that included both spending cuts and higher revenues, and for a brief time, it appeared that might be in the offing.

Months later, he and Boehner sought a sweeping agreement that would have trimmed deficits by $4 trillion or more, possibly including curbs on the rise on Social Security benefit checks and an increase in the age for Medicare benefits from 65 to 67.

By Boehner's own account, he agreed to consider an overhaul of the tax code under which government revenues would rise from current levels. It was carefully framed - the increase would result from assumed greater economic expansion.

Then a group of bipartisan senators unveiled a plan of their own, calling for even higher additional revenues.

In response, Obama raised his demand, and Boehner announced a little more than two weeks ago he was calling off those talks.

That set the stage for a partisan endgame in which House Republicans and Senate Democrats drafted rival bills - then watched them rejected by the other side - before McConnell and Biden worked out a final deal.

House OKs debt; Giffords brings down the House

House OKs debt; Giffords brings down the House

In this image from House Television, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., appears on the floor of the House of Representatives Monday, Aug. 1, 2011, in Washington. Giffords was on the floor for the first time since her shooting earlier this year, attending a vote on the debt standoff compromise.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Emergency legislation to avoid an economy-rattling government default sped through the House Monday night, a scant day before the deadline for action - the dramatic vote made all the more memorable by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' first appearance in Congress since suffering a head wound in a shooting six months ago.

The vote was 269-161, but all eyes were on Giffords, who drew thunderous applause as she walked into the House chamber and cast her vote in favor of the bill.

A final Senate sign-off for the measure is virtually assured on Tuesday.

"If the bill were presented to the president, he would sign it," the White House said, an understatement of enormous proportions.

After months of fiercely partisan struggle, the House's top Republican and Democratic leaders swung behind the bill, ratifying a deal sealed Sunday night with a phone call from House Speaker John Boehner to President Barack Obama.

"The legislation will solve this debt crisis and help get the American people back to work," Boehner said at a news conference a few hours before the vote.