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Republican supporters said their measure, which would freeze federal worker wages through 2013, would save taxpayers $26 billion. It would not apply to military personnel.

The nation’s 2.3 million federal civilian workers currently are in the second year of a wage freeze imposed as part of efforts to trim budget deficits. Sponsors said the two-year halt in wage increases will save the government $60 billion.

“We must act now to extend the pay freeze on federal workers and on members’ salaries until Washington finally gets its finances under control,” said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., the bill’s sponsor.

Republicans also have sought to add a year to the federal wage freeze and have federal workers contribute more toward pensions as ways to pay for legislation, now being negotiated between the House and Senate, to extend a payroll tax cut and federal unemployment benefits until the end of this year.

The pay freeze legislation could have difficulty moving through the Democratic-controlled Senate. In the House, most Democrats opposed the measure, saying deficit reduction should not be carried out on the backs of federal workers. Federal labor groups have strongly opposed an extended freeze.

Still, it was a tough election-year vote for some Democrats reluctant to be seen as supporting a raise for themselves. The salary of rank-and-file members of Congress has remained at $174,000 since 2009 and is unlikely to go up as long as the economy sputters.

“What we have here is a very clever political effort to have members vote either for their pay or against their pay being adjusted,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the second-ranking Democrat.

Democrats tried to bring up a separate bill that would have stated opposition to a congressional pay hike, but they were stopped by Republicans. The vote on the pay freeze bill was 309-117, with 72 out of 187 voting Democrats supporting it. Only two Republicans opposed it.

President Barack Obama has proposed ending the pay freeze in 2013, but with a modest 0.5 percent raise.

But Republicans pointed to a Congressional Budget Office report earlier this week that concluded that federal workers, on average, receive total compensation that is 16 percent higher than what their counterparts in the private sector get.

The study found that while federal workers earn about 2 percent more than comparable private sector workers, generous federal pension and other benefit programs boost that difference to 16 percent.

“Those who work hardest to pay taxes are the ones bearing the burden of a bloated federal government,” said Rep. Dennis Ross of Florida, like Duffy a Republican freshman. “The contrast between federal government and private sector is troubling.”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said there are now 450,000 federal employees earning at least $100,000 a year.

But Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said more accurate Bureau of Labor Statistics data dispute the CBO findings. “An enormous amount of time and energy is going into studies purporting to show that federal workers are overpaid,” said the head of the largest independent federal union. “It is just a foolish drive for the lowest common denominators.”

The House also passed, by voice vote, a resolution that would cut House committee budgets by an average of 6 percent in 2012. That reduction, combined with a 5 percent cut last year, would produce savings of $28 million.

The House also voted 395-27 for a bill that would ban use of welfare money in gambling casinos, liquor stores and adult entertainment places such as strip clubs. The House passed a similar provision in December, but it never made it through the Senate.

Many states issue welfare recipients Electronic Benefits Transfer cards with cash benefits. The cards are supposed to assist families with basic needs, including food, shelter and clothing. The cards also provide a way of tracking where benefits are withdrawn, and that’s how states discovered the withdrawals at casinos, liquor stores and strip clubs.

The legislation would require states to implement policies to prohibit use of the card in these venues. If a state failed to do that within two years, it would face a 5 percent reduction in its welfare block grant.

___

Associated Press writer Larry Margasak contributed to this report.

Republicans have pushed through the House a bill that would freeze the wages of federal workers for a third year and bar members of Congress from giving themselves a pay raise.

Republican sponsors said their measure, which would freeze federal worker wages through 2013, would save taxpayers $26 billion. It would not apply to military personnel.

Many Democrats objected to the freeze, arguing that federal workers already had done their part in reducing budget deficits. President Barack Obama is expected to propose a 0.5 percent hike in federal employee wages in this 2013 budget proposal.

But some Democrats were also reluctant to cast an election-year vote Wednesday that would suggest they support giving themselves a pay raise. The salaries of rank-and-file members of Congress has remained at $174,000 since 2009.

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said he was postponing a procedural vote set for Tuesday “in light of recent events.” Those events included a petition drive by Google that attracted more than 7 million participants and a one-day blackout by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith, a Republican, quickly followed suit, saying consideration of a similar House bill would be postponed “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

The Senate’s Protect Intellectual Property Act and the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act have strong support from the entertainment industry and other businesses that lose billions of dollars annually to intellectual property theft and online sales of counterfeit products. But they also have strong opposition from Internet-related companies that argue the bill would lead to over-regulation and censorship of the Internet.

Reid has also seen at least a half-dozen senators who sponsored the bill announce they now oppose it.

Reid said counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars every year and “there is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved.” He said he was optimistic about reaching a compromise in the coming weeks.

The main Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said he respected Reid’s decision to postpone the vote but lamented the Senate’s unwillingness to debate the bill.

“The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem,” he said.

Criminals in China, Russia and other countries “who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided” it was not worth debating the bill.

The Senate bill would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright infringement. It would bar online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as credit card companies from doing business with an alleged violator. It also would forbid search engines from linking to such sites.

The Tuesday vote was on whether to move the legislation to the Senate floor for debate. With the recent desertions and a statement Thursday by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell that it is too early to consider the bill, it appeared supporters lacked the 60 votes needed to advance the measure in the 100-member chamber.

McConnell on Friday applauded Reid’s decision, saying it would “prevent a counterproductive rush toward flawed legislation.”

In the House, Smith said he had “heard from the critics” and resolved that it was “clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.” Smith had planned on holding further committee votes on his bill next month.

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Washington — The tax bill that extends the Bush tax cuts and slashes the estate tax while extending unemployment benefits has passed the House House by a vote of 277-148 and is heading for the President to sign, according to The Huffington Post

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WASHINGTON — After a take-it-or-leave-it vote by the Senate, House Democrats face little choice but to drop billions in aid for schools, college students and others that they had hoped could ride on legislation paying for President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan.

The Senate rejected the House measure, passed earlier this month, by a 46-51 vote that fell short of a majority, much less the 60 votes required to defeat a filibuster.

Instead, the Senate on Thursday stripped out the $20 billion in House add-ons and returned to the House an almost $60 billion measure passed by a bipartisan vote in May. The Senate measure is limited chiefly to war funding, foreign aid, medical care for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and replenishing almost empty disaster aid accounts.

It would bring the amount of money appropriated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan above $1 trillion.

Eleven Senate Democrats and Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted against the House version of the bill. Not a single Republican supported it.

The moves repel a long-shot bid by House Democrats earlier this month to resurrect their faltering jobs agenda with $10 billion in grants to school districts to avoid teacher layoffs, $5 billion for Pell Grants to low-income college students, $1 billion for a summer jobs program and $700 million to improve security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Senate measure is likely to be grudgingly accepted by House Democrats next week despite opposition from liberals who oppose the war in Afghanistan, which many of them view as unwinnable.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wouldn’t comment on whether the House will simply approve the Senate measure and send it on to Obama for his signature.

But the pressure to do so is intense, especially after Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned lawmakers this week that unless the measure is enacted into law before Congress leaves for its August recess, the Pentagon could have to furlough thousands of employees.

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House Dems Pressured To Drop Funding For Schools, Students To Pay For Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan

ANDREW TAYLOR | 07/23/10 11:14 AM | AP
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WASHINGTON — After a take-it-or-leave-it vote by the Senate, House Democrats face little choice but to drop billions in aid for schools, college students and others that they had hoped could ride on legislation paying for President Barack Obama’s troop surge in Afghanistan.

The Senate rejected the House measure, passed earlier this month, by a 46-51 vote that fell short of a majority, much less the 60 votes required to defeat a filibuster.

Instead, the Senate on Thursday stripped out the $20 billion in House add-ons and returned to the House an almost $60 billion measure passed by a bipartisan vote in May. The Senate measure is limited chiefly to war funding, foreign aid, medical care for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and replenishing almost empty disaster aid accounts.

It would bring the amount of money appropriated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan above $1 trillion.

Eleven Senate Democrats and Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted against the House version of the bill. Not a single Republican supported it.

The moves repel a long-shot bid by House Democrats earlier this month to resurrect their faltering jobs agenda with $10 billion in grants to school districts to avoid teacher layoffs, $5 billion for Pell Grants to low-income college students, $1 billion for a summer jobs program and $700 million to improve security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Senate measure is likely to be grudgingly accepted by House Democrats next week despite opposition from liberals who oppose the war in Afghanistan, which many of them view as unwinnable.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wouldn’t comment on whether the House will simply approve the Senate measure and send it on to Obama for his signature.

But the pressure to do so is intense, especially after Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned lawmakers this week that unless the measure is enacted into law before Congress leaves for its August recess, the Pentagon could have to furlough thousands of employees.
Story continues below

The House bill also attracted a White House veto threat over $800 million in cuts to education programs to help pay for the additional domestic spending under a “pay-as-you-go” culture that the administration itself advocates.

The Senate measure blends about $30 billion for Obama’s 30,000-troop surge in Afghanistan with more than $5 billion to replenish disaster aid accounts, as well as funding for Haitian earthquake relief, and a down payment on aid to flood-drenched Tennessee and Rhode Island.

The measure contains $13 billion in benefits for Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange, but does not provide more than $4 billion requested by the administration to finance settlements of long-standing lawsuits against the government, including $1.2 billion to remedy discrimination by the Agriculture Department against black farmers and $3.4 billion for mismanaging Indian trust funds.

The measure contains $1.1 billion for mine-resistant vehicles, $657 million for military bases in Afghanistan and $6.2 billion in foreign aid for Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Haiti.

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Federal authorities searched the Las Vegas home of Michael Jackson’s personal doctor Tuesday and arrived at his medical office as part of a manslaughter investigation into the singer’s death.

Several Drug Enforcement Administration agents entered Dr. Conrad Murray’s sprawling home in a gated community, accompanied by uniformed Las Vegas police. A DEA agent and Las Vegas police also entered Murray’s medical offices in Las Vegas, Global Cardiovascular Associates.

Murray was Michael Jackson’s personal physician and was with Jackson when he died. Murray, who is based in Las Vegas and is licensed in California, Nevada and Texas, had his Houston office and a storage unit searched last week by DEA agents. Court records show they were seeking evidence of whether the doctor committed manslaughter.

Police say Murray is cooperating. They have not labeled him a suspect.

Toxicology reports are still pending, but investigators are working under the theory that the anesthetic propofol caused Jackson’s heart to stop, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Monday. Jackson is believed to have been using the powerful drug for about two years, and investigators are trying to determine how many other doctors administered it, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The official said Jackson regularly received propofol and relied on it like an alarm clock. A doctor would administer it when Jackson went to sleep, then stop the IV drip when the singer wanted to wake up.

The day Jackson died, Murray gave him the drug through an IV sometime after midnight, the official said.

Murray’s lawyer, Edward Chernoff, has said the doctor “didn’t prescribe or administer anything that should have killed Michael Jackson.” Asked about the law enforcement official’s statements he said: “We will not be commenting on rumors, innuendo or unnamed sources.”

In a more detailed statement posted online, Chernoff added that “things tend to shake out when all the facts are made known, and I’m sure that will happen here as well.”

Murray, 51, became Jackson’s personal physician in May and was to accompany him to London for a series of concerts starting in July.

He was staying with Jackson in the Los Angeles mansion and, according to Chernoff, “happened to find” an unconscious Jackson in the pop star’s bedroom the morning of June 25. Murray tried to revive him by compressing his chest with one hand while supporting Jackson’s back with the other.

The law enforcement official also provided a glimpse into how the pop star was living in the weeks before he died, describing the room in which Jackson slept in his rented Beverly Hills mansion as outfitted with oxygen tanks and an IV drip.

Police found propofol and other drugs in the home. An IV line and three tanks of oxygen were in the room where Jackson slept and 15 more oxygen tanks were in a security guard’s shack, the official said.

Using propofol to sleep exceeds the drug’s intended purpose. The drug can depress breathing and lower heart rates and blood pressure. Because of the risks, propofol is supposed to be administered only in medical settings by trained personnel.

Here Is Jamie Hector’s Statement Regarding The Incident

“I first want to make it clear that the shooting incident yesterday did not take place at my home, nor did it involve me, my wife, nor any of the invited guests.  Although none of the guests were hurt physically, the trauma of this experience is unforgettable.   My condolences go out to the families of the victims.

I grew up in Brooklyn and this kind of violence is one of the reasons I founded Moving Mountains, Inc., a non-profit youth organization that redirects talented youth through the arts. I focus their energy on positive alternatives in an effort to deter them from this type of violence, which takes place on the streets everyday.  We work to provide them with the life skills that allow them to make good choices for themselves and prepare them to lead positive, violence free lives.”

Jamie also adds,  ”to be honest it was a disturbing feeling, but it also showed that we have a lot of work to do, we have to change how people think in order to change what they do”

From The New York Daily News

A made-for-tv gun battle erupted outside a Brooklyn baby shower for the wife of a star of the HBO crime series “The Wire” Sunday, killing one teen and wounding two men, cops said.

Gunmen unloaded nearly 50 bullets outside the party for the wife of actor Jamie Hector – who played violent druglord Marlo Stanfield on the hit series – then tried to finish off one of the wounded men outside a hospital.

“What a gun battle,” a police source told the Daily News. “They have been watching too much TV.”

Police and paramedics raced to E. 93rd St. in East Flatbush about 1:20 a.m.

Cops found evidence of a running gun battle with at least 46 shell casings dotting about half the block beginning at Avenue B.

Two guns were recovered, but no suspects were arrested after the violence that spilled out from the party.

Linton Williams, 17, of Brooklyn, died at the scene.

As the smoke cleared, someone helped 32-year-old Andrew Filson into a car and raced him to Downstate Medical Center.

When the shooting victim got out of the car at the hospital, another vehicle rolled up and someone inside started firing.

Police sources said Filson was hit at least once at the hospital.

Emergency workers put him into an ambulance and rushed him to Kings County Hospital, a trauma center where he was listed in critical condition yesterday.

Walter Parker, 22, was shot in the leg outside the party. He flagged down an ambulance and was taken to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was in stable condition.

Hector, a Brooklyn native who has also starred in TV shows “Heroes,” “Jericho” and “The Game,” was said to be at the baby shower for some time.

It was unclear whether the actor was still there when the bullets started flying – or why the gunmen targeted the three victims. Hector’s spokesman didn’t respond to calls for comment.

Read The Whole Story

Court records show that former Chicago Bulls player Eddy Curry’s(notes) suburban Chicago mansion is in foreclosure.

It’s the same home where Curry was bound and robbed in 2007. He now plays for the New York Knicks.

Documents show that Curry was more than $217,000 behind on his $3.7 million mortgage as of Friday. Records reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times show that Curry and his wife, Patrice, took the 30-year mortgage out in July 2003 to buy the home. A court filing says the Currys’ initial interest rate on the home loan was 9.25 percent with a monthly payment of $28,675.

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Whitney Houston is countersuing her stepmother for $1.6 million.

The Grammy-winning singer claims Barbara Houston owes her the money for failing to make payments on the Fort Lee, N.J., condominium where she has lived since 1987.

Barbara Houston initiated the legal tussle last year when she claimed the 45-year-old singer improperly kept proceeds from John Houston’s $1 million insurance policy after he died in 2003.

Barbara Houston claimed the singer was supposed to subtract $723,000 from the insurance money to provide her stepmother with a clear title.

The singer says she provided her father with a mortgage loan to purchase the condo and was still owed most of the principal and all the interest when he died.

For sale: the remains of an American success story gone horribly wrong.

On a peaceful cul-de-sac in Atlanta’s prosperous northern suburbs, a behemoth of a home sits empty and lifeless at 2927 Darlington Run. Four towering columns greet those who enter through a double set of thick, wooden doors. Out back, an idyllic lake laps at the edge of the yard. Within the walls, all the telltale signs of wealth and luxury — a pool room, a movie theater, an indoor golf range, assorted-sized statues of black panthers throughout.

This was Michael Vick’s abode, a stucco-and-gated-community testament to his amazing rise from the rough streets of Virginia to NFL superstar.

But Vick’s spectacular career was sacked by a dogfighting scandal. While he sits behind bars, serving out the remainder of a nearly two-year sentence, his three-storied former house — now eerily quiet — is about to go on the auction block.

The proceeds from Tuesday’s sale, which requires a minimum bid of $3.2 million, will help pay down the quarterback’s gargantuan debts. That’s the cold, hard business of bankruptcy.

But before the title to eight bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and a four-car garage passes off to a new owner, it’s worth taking one last look at a most tangible monument left by this former star, a once-in-a-generation athlete who had it all before hubris brought him down.

Come on, let’s show you around.

___

The first impression is stunning. Two curved staircases bend gently along the walls on each side of the enormous foyer. A glistening chandelier — which, real estate agent Lance Hempen points out, can be lowered on a winch for cleaning — hangs from beneath a domed ceiling.

It looks like something out of “Gone With The Wind,” with a dash of Versailles thrown in for good measure.

“One thing you’ll notice is the detail of the trim work and tray ceilings throughout the whole house,” said Hempen, who works for Funari Realty. “They really did some great work in here.”

The foyer empties into an even larger living room, which has a flat-screen television mounted above the fireplace and three rows of windows, stacked one on top of the other, providing a view of the lake where Vick and his buddies once fished, or used as the target for striking golf balls.

Step to the left into another living room (c’mon, no self-respecting millionaire would have only ONE formal living room), which empties into a large kitchen with all the expected conveniences. Top-of-the-line appliances such as Thermador, Bosch and Sub-Zero. Those little extras, too, including a warming drawer and vegetable steamer. Not that cooking was Vick’s thing.

“The kitchen is not the biggest and best gourmet kitchen,” said Hempen, almost sounding apologetic. “It’s got everything you need, but it’s not a cooker’s kitchen, per se.”

But the “board room” — a two-storied, dark-wooded enclave — looks as though it’s ready to host a Fortune 500 meeting. There’s a large conference table in the middle, and two full floors of intricate bookcases. This is where Vick kept his sporting prizes.

Now, the shelves are barren.

“I remember coming in here for the first time,” Hempen said. “We met with his associates here at this table. It was quite an experience. At that time, all of this room was decorated with his sports memorabilia. … It was kind of neat seeing all that stuff. He had balls signed by a lot of different sports stars.

The master bedroom is also on the main floor, featuring a huge sunken tub, a shower that doubles as a steam room, a small closet devoted strictly to Vick’s shoes, and a massive two-room closet where he kept the rest of his attire.

“His girlfriend had a small corner over here,” said Hempen, stepping inside. “But everything else was his.”

The triple-tray ceiling is adorned with recess lighting that creates a mesmerizing effect after dark. There’s also a double-sided fireplace facing both the canopied bed and a small sitting room that apparently was very popular with Vick and his buddies. This is where they hung out, playing video games and watching TV with the lake at their back.

“He had a piece of furniture in here that was one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen,” Hempen said. “It was a giant elephant table.”

That particular piece has been shuffled off to a closet downstairs, so as not to scare off potential buyers, but the thin-legged chairs that used to surround it left behind permanent pocks in the carpet, thin grooves that look as though — could it be? — they were made by scratching dogs.

“Yep, I’ve gotten that question,” Hempen said. “But that’s not it.”

___

Upstairs, there are four large bedrooms, each accompanied by its own bathroom. One is decorated for a child, a Minnie Mouse doll still resting on the small bed. This is where Vick’s young daughter slept, a sobering reminder that even those who had nothing to do with that grisly dogfighting operation up in Virginia were affected by the case.

And the rest of those rooms? Hotel Vick apparently had few vacancies.

“There was a crew, an entourage,” Hempen said. “These were their rooms.”

Getting tired? There’s no stopping now. The bottom floor is a must-see, and you can save some energy by hopping on the elevator that stops at all three floors.

“You’ve got to have an elevator in a house this size,” Hempen pointed out. “It only costs about $30,000 to put one in. If you’re buying a million-dollar-plus home, $30,000 is not going to hurt you.”

The bottom floor is known as a terrace — “We don’t call them basements anymore,” the agent said — and it’s the place where Vick apparently spent most of his time and left behind a sense of his decorating touch. Only one room had been completed when he bought the place for $3.2 million, so he added another half-million dollars to the loan to finish off the rest in style.

The carpet of one room has a giant “7″ right in the middle — Vick’s number. Another room is completely swallowed up by a simulated golf game, in which the quarterback could strike balls into a padded video screen that showed what looked to be an actual course. Hundreds of sensors hooked to a computer accurately gauged the strength and accuracy of his swing.

There’s also a weight room, where Vick worked out, and a mini-theatre where movies and games could be watched in plush, reclining chairs. The sound system is top of the line — in fact, Hempen said, the entire house is wired with an elaborate electronics package worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Vick also converted a bathroom into his own personal barber shop, complete with a chair and hair-washing station.

A custom-made bar has four lion heads carved in the wood, looking out on an ornate pool table, an old-school Pac-Man video game (hmmm, wonder if “Pacman” Jones ever stopped by?) and yet another area devoted mainly to watching a massive flat-screen TV. Unfortunately, there’s only a bracket on the wall — one of Vick’s cohorts snatched the television on his way out, claiming it belonged to him.

Still, it gives a sense of how Vick lived away from the field.

“You can imagine having a Super Bowl party in here,” Hempen said. “You’ve got a group over here watching TV, another group over there at the bar, another group playing pool, another group playing golf.”

As an added bonus, the Sugarloaf Country Club neighborhood includes a championship golf course that once hosted Atlanta’s PGA Tour event. Vick’s home isn’t far from the 18th hole.

___

Vick was only in this house about two years. He moved in during 2005, about the same time he landed what was then the richest contract in NFL history. By October 2007, when Hempen’s company got the listing, he had already moved back to Virginia. Shortly after that, the fallen star was sentenced to prison.

Now, the home that once epitomized Vick’s good life will be handed off to another owner, assuming someone steps forward in a brutal economy to at least meet the minimum price.

Out in the garage, where Vick once parked his luxury cars, some of his more personal items are boxed up and largely hidden from view. A picture of Bob Marley smoking a joint. Another photo that shows Muhammad Ali standing over a fallen Sonny Liston. Several radio-controlled toy cars. A child’s car seat. A gumball machine.

Hempen’s company, which has been trying for a year and a half to sell this house, tried to make sure it wasn’t too obvious who once lived here.

“We didn’t want this house to scream Vick at somebody,” he said. “I’m not saying we would ever lie or hide the fact. It’s public knowledge. But we’re not going to advertise it, either. We want the home to sell itself.”

The House has passed a $787 billion plan to resuscitate the economy, handing President Barack Obama a big victory.

It’s not bipartisanship that’s on life support in Washington. It’s trust.

The government this week was all about projecting reasons to believe things will get better:

Lawmakers will be able to handle the economic rescue quickly and effectively. President Barack Obama can handle the crisis with his competent and steady team. He can work productively with a Congress controlled by his own party. Indeed, Democrats in Congress can work with each other.

Instead, the rollout of Obama’s economic plan bombed. His treasury secretary was pilloried for a less-than-surefooted debut. His second nominee for commerce secretary said, on second thought, no thanks.

And on Capitol Hill, the Democratic leader of the House let her Senate counterpart announce a deal on the history-making economic stimulus plan and convene negotiators to work out the last differences _ and then stood him up.

Why? She was following Ronald Reagan’s famous dictum: Trust but verify.

“We wanted to see the language” of the bill before endorsing it, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters the next day.

Pelosi and Reid did finally agree on the package _ $787 billion to get consumers spending and companies rehiring. And Congress moved to pass it Friday so Pelosi and other lawmakers could split for official trips around the globe.

Like anything that becomes the law of the land, this legislation was succeeding because it was in a lot of people’s interest. Perhaps, as White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel suggested, it’s very passage should reassure investors and consumers.

But in the process, Washington did not exactly radiate the confidence its leaders are trying to inspire.

Obama’s presidency and the 111th Congress are only a few weeks old, wrestling with an economic meltdown beyond the experience of anyone charting the course to recovery.

Lawmakers are ill-tempered because their constituents are angry and letting them know about it. Some key relationships are new or rejiggered because of last fall’s elections.

The jitters are showing everywhere, from the false starts to not-for-attribution sniping.

Obama asked the nation to trust him to slow the economic slide. But three weeks into his administration, he’s still getting his footing.

Timothy Geithner, the chief of Obama’s economic team, looked nervous and younger than his years this week when he rolled out a bank bailout plan that lacked the details Wall Street wanted. The stock market tanked.

And late Thursday, Obama’s second nominee for commerce secretary, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, abruptly withdrew from consideration, citing “irresolvable conflicts” on key policy items. Obama’s first choice for commerce, his nominee for health secretary and his pick as a federal efficiency overseer all had withdrawn earlier.

Obama joked about the latest problem, wondering aloud in Springfield, Ill., if Abraham Lincoln had ever thought about the commerce job. White House chief of staff Emanuel acknowledged that some might see the administration’s hiring problems as amateur hour, but he suggested Bill Clinton’s transition, which included Rahm, was even shakier.

But whatever the spin, the situation hardly was a confidence builder for the nation.

Neither was the way Congress was dealing with the bank bailout.

The first, deeply unpopular $700 bailout bill last year contained no strong requirements for recipients to account for the taxpayer money. That was Congress’ doing.

But members of the House Financial Services Committee took it out this week on eight CEOs of the nation’s biggest banks who had been the first to receive the bailout money.

It almost didn’t matter what the banking titans had to say for themselves at a televised hearing. They were the faces behind a housing crisis that escalated into a recession that makes it hard to raise any kind of cash, let alone campaign contributions. And every member of the House is up for re-election in 2010.

House members ripped into the former masters of the universe.

One suggested they should be thrown in prison.

“America doesn’t trust you anymore,” railed Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass.

Many Americans feel the same way about Congress. And some members of Congress feel that way about each other.

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, his leadership team and moderate Republicans at his side, triumphantly announced on live television that the House and Senate had agreed on new legislation to bail out troubled industries and boost homeowners.

Pelosi did not respond.

Reid then lit the stately parlor named for Lyndon Baines Johnson for television and instructed his Senate negotiators to meet there with their House counterparts to iron out any remaining issues.

The senators waited. And waited. Pelosi, meanwhile, summoned Reid to her office for a talking-to. Finally, she signed onto the agreement, though that didn’t stop the sniping between her aides and Reid’s.

“One person’s understanding of a spoken description might vary from another’s,” she said. “We wanted to see it. We wanted to remove all doubt that the purpose of the money was reflected in the language that was there.”

Reagan, or the government’s euphemistic “abundance of caution.”

“I don’t want to come to you later and say, ‘We thought it said yes and it said no,’” Pelosi said. “It said what we want it to say, and we’re very pleased with that outcome.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announces agreement on stimulus.

Congressional negotiators are closing in on a final version of a sweeping economic recovery package, and the bill could be voted on by both the House and Senate by Friday.

Multiple sources have confirmed that the new plan is budgeted at $789 billion, a figure smaller than in the bill that emerged from the House last month and the one approved by the Senate on Tuesday.

It appears that House Democrats have succeeded in restoring some funds that were stripped out by a group of Senate moderates last week, including $44 billion in aid to struggling state governments and $6 billion for school construction and modernization. Both line items were important to the White House.

Those additions ostensibly will be offset by reductions in tax breaks in the Senate plan, although Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said this afternoon that 35% of the bill would still be devoted to tax cuts.

“There are the votes there for passage, that is clear,” Baucus said during a break in negotiations. He said there had been compromise on all sides and described the process as “nip and tuck” and “shaving here and there.”

Added Baucus: “Everybody is working toward an agreement.”

But Sen. Tom Harkin, a liberal Democrat from Iowa, said fellow Democrats had surrendered too much in a bid to accommodate three moderate Republicans who can ensure passage in the Senate.

“I think our side gave in too much in order to appease a few people,” he said in a hallway interview in the Capitol. Harkin said Democrats should have dared Republicans to filibuster and “see what the public outcry” would have been. “I think the people are getting shortchanged.”

Negotiators have scheduled a public session later today, when the outline of a deal may be presented. And the House could vote on the package as early as Thursday, with the Senate following on Friday.

What remains unclear is whether the three moderate Republicans who supported the $838-billion Senate bill — Susan M. Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania — would support the agreement. They, along with some moderate Democrats, have suggested that if the bill deviates too much from the Senate package, they will not vote for it.

Two members of Obama’s town halls have had their fortunes reversed. Henrietta Davis who asked a question to Obama after she revealed she was homeless has been offered a house.

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Julio Osegueda who’s extatically greeted Obama at a town hall and then told him about his struggles working at McDonalds has been offered several internships.

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In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night with spending increases and tax cuts at the heart of the young administration’s plan to revive a badly ailing economy.

The vote was 244-188, with Republicans unanimous in opposition despite Obama’s pleas for bipartisan support.

“We don’t have a moment to spare,” Obama declared at the White House as congressional allies hastened to do his bidding in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The vote sent the bill to the Senate, where debate could begin as early as Monday on a companion measure already taking shape. Democratic leaders have pledged to have legislation ready for Obama’s signature by mid-February.

A mere eight days after Inauguration Day, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday’s events heralded a new era. “The ship of state is difficult to turn,” said the California Democrat. “But that is what we must do. That is what President Obama called us to do in his inaugural address.”

With unemployment at its highest level in a quarter-century, the banking industry wobbling despite the infusion of staggering sums of bailout money and states struggling with budget crises, Democrats said the legislation was desperately needed.

“Another week that we delay is another 100,000 or more people unemployed. I don’t think we want that on our consciences,” said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and one of the leading architects of the legislation.

Republicans said the bill was short on tax cuts and contained too much spending, much of it wasteful and unlikely to help laid-off Americans.

The party’s leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, said the measure “won’t create many jobs, but it will create plenty of programs and projects through slow-moving government spending.” A GOP alternative, comprised almost entirely of tax cuts, was defeated, 266-170, moments before the final vote.

On the final vote, the legislation drew overwhelming support among Democrats while all but a few Republicans opposed it.

The White House-backed legislation includes an estimated $544 billion in federal spending and $275 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses.

Included is money for traditional job-creating programs such as highway construction and mass transit projects. But the measure tickets far more for unemployment benefits, health care and food stamp increases designed to aid victims of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Tens of billions of additional dollars would go to the states, which confront the prospect of deep budget cuts of their own. That money marks an attempt to ease the recession’s impact on schools and law enforcement. With funding for housing weatherization and other provisions, the bill also makes a down payment on Obama’s campaign promise of creating jobs that can reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

The centerpiece tax cut calls for a $500 break for single workers and $1,000 for couples, including those who don’t earn enough to owe federal income taxes.

The House vote marked merely the first of several major milestones a for the legislation, which Democratic leaders have pledged to deliver to the White House for Obama’s signature by mid-February.

Already a more bipartisan — and costlier — measure is taking shape in the Senate, and Obama personally pledged to House and Senate Republicans in closed-door meetings on Tuesday that he is ready to accept modifications as the legislation advances.

Rahm Emanuel, a former Illinois congressman who is Obama’s chief of staff, invited nearly a dozen House Republicans to the White House late Tuesday for what one participant said was a soft sales job.

This lawmaker quoted Emanuel as telling the group that polling shows roughly 80 percent support for the legislation, and that Republicans oppose it at their political peril. The lawmaker spoke on condition of anonymity, saying there was no agreement to speak publicly about the session.

In fact, though, many Republicans in the House are virtually immune from Democratic challenges because of the makeup of their districts, and have more to fear from GOP primary challenges in 2010. As a result, they have relatively little political incentive to break with conservative orthodoxy and support hundreds of billions in new federal spending.

Also, some Republican lawmakers have said in recent days they know they will have a second chance to support a bill when the final House-Senate compromise emerges in a few weeks.

That gave an air of predictability to the proceedings in the House, as Democrats defended the legislation as an appropriate response to the specter of double-digit unemployment in the near future.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, sought to strip out all the spending from the legislation before final passage, arguing that the entire cost of the bill would merely add to soaring federal deficits. “Where are we going to get the money,” he asked, but his attempt failed overwhelmingly, 302-134.

Obey had a ready retort. “They don’t look like Herbert Hoover, I guess, but there are an awful lot of people in this chamber who think like Herbert Hoover,” he said, referring to the president whose term is forever linked in history with the Great Depression.

President Barack Obama says he is confident that an economic stimulus bill will be approved as the legislation heads toward a key vote in the House.

The president met Wednesday with business leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House as he builds support for a legislative plan to spur the struggling economy. The $825 billion stimulus bill is all but certain to clear its first hurdle in the House, but Republican support is in doubt.

Asked if he was confident he would get Republican support, Obama said: “I’m confident we’re going to get it passed.”

President Barack Obama’s expansive and expensive plan to jump-start the economy is all but certain to clear its first hurdle when the Democratic-controlled House votes on a $825 billion version that melds new spending and tax cuts.

Republican support, however, is in doubt when voting takes place Wednesday.

With Democrats enjoying a comfortable majority and expected to fall in line behind Obama, they don’t need help from GOP lawmakers to win House passage of his top priority of economic recovery. But Obama wants Republican support to illustrate his promise of a new style of politics that rejects partisan gridlock.

Despite his desire for partisan backing, the House was moving the bill toward a passage vote that was expected to be largely along party lines.

House Minority Leader John Boehner wouldn’t say Wednesday morning how he thought the vote would turn out. He did emphasize anew that GOP members are worried about billions in domestic spending that “has nothing to do with creating jobs or preserving jobs.”

“We’re for more than just cutting taxes,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told CNN that “where we have differences with the House Democrats is that the package just doesn’t seem to reflect our priorities, nor the president’s.”

McConnell said the proportion of tax cuts versus spending increases in the version being pushed by Democrats has been “crammed down” to about 20 percent of the total instead of the 40 percent envisioned by both Republicans and Obama.

Senate committees were working on a separate version of the measure that enjoyed only slightly more support from Republicans. Congressional leaders have promised Obama they would send him the measure, which could be the single largest bill ever to go through Congress, by mid-February.

In the hours ahead of the House vote, Obama was to make his case for swift passage after meeting at the White House with a group of business CEOs to discuss the plan — just as debate on the measure is in full swing up Pennsylvania Avenue.

The president’s first days in office have been dominated by his efforts to drum up bipartisan support for the sweeping plan to help pull the country out of the year-old recession that he inherited from former President George W. Bush. The increasingly troublesome economy — and the federal government’s response to it — is the first major test of Obama’s presidency; how he handles the volatile situation, and the effect of his stimulus package on the economy, could well set the tone for his first year in office, if not his entire term.

He is casting the measure as the first step toward turning around the moribund economy while laying the foundation for long-term objectives, like developing alternative energy sources and rebuilding the country’s highways.

The House measure includes about $550 billion in spending and roughly $275 billion in tax cuts in hopes of spurring the economy and helping those directly affected. Much of the spending would be for items such as health care, jobless benefits, food stamps and other programs that benefit victims of the downturn.

As debate on the measure began Tuesday, most Democrats trumpeted it as the elixir for what ails their jobless constituents and pressed for passage; Republicans generally griped about “insane” programs that would be funded in the plan and “minuscule” tax relief for small businesses as they urged opposition.

The legislation “isn’t an economic stimulus bill but a rampant spending spree,” said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.

Democrats made one small change, voting to delete $20 million intended for renovating the National Mall. Republicans had criticized the expenditure as wasteful.

Across Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 21-9 to support a $366 billion spending portion of the plan.

Senate Democrats also accepted attaching to the bill a one-year extension of the Alternative Minimum Tax fix aimed at saving primarily higher-income taxpayers about $70 billion. That would increase the Senate bill’s total to about $900 billion.

In both the House and Senate, Obama has reached out to Republicans who want less spending and more tax cuts in the legislation, and he has promised to consider their concerns — and alternative proposals — as it winds its way through Congress.

From EURweb.com:

The nation’s foreclosure crisis has arrived on the doorstep of Wyclef Jean’s Miami property.

According to TMZ.com, Miami-Dade County will auction off the house he was still building on Dec. 12 because the singer owes $2 million in mortgage payments.

Click here for the full report.

Ten years ago Damon Dash was an upcoming mega mogul. His artist Jay-Z had just dropped the album, Hard Knock life, which would go on to sell 4 million records. He would organize the Hard Knock Life tour which would become one of the biggest grossing Hip Hop tours of all time and launch Roc-A-Wear clothing, which would become one of the hottest fashion labels. The sky was the limit.

Dash would come to represent the unapologetic materialism of Hip Hop, epitomized by the video for Big Pimpin where he poured Chrystal on bikini clad models on a yacht to Trinidad. Dash and Jay-Z would bring materialism to a new level, gold chains were no longer good enough, now you needed platinum, it wasn’t cool to drink Hennesy anymore, now you needed Chrystal, Polo clothes? Nope you needed Versace now, that 50,00 dollar Mercedes you had, not poppin, you needed a Bentley.

Hip Hop had become a vessel for arrogant opulence, a way for people who had grown up with nothing to show off their hard earned wares. Hip Hop became influenced by the flossy gangstas such as Frank Lucas, AZ and Alpo who had to spend their dirty money someway and decided on using it to turn themselves into walking billboards for expensive European clothing companies.

Today Dash is being evicted from his house because he owes 7.3 million dollars in mortgage payments, which begs the question; where did all the money go? He can’t even make the $700 payments. According to the Daily News, A bank wants his Tribeca condos, the city is seizing his SUV and his lawyer dropped him for not paying his legal bills.  As recently as 2004, Dash was claiming that he was earning 200 million annually.

Hip Hop has never been financially responsible. In 1990, Will Smith declared bankruptcy and wound up owing the IRS 2.8 million dollars. MC Hammer also managed to squander 30 million dollars he made and wound up being 14 million dollars in debt.

What lead to Smith and Hammer’s debt? Outlandish vacations, huge houses and large entourages. Luckily, after his bankruptcy Will Smith was offered a role in a new NBC sitcom and was able to vastly out earn the money he made as a rapper by turning into a movie star.  Hammer was not as lucky and had to fight bankruptcy for years before joining the cast of the “Surreal Life.”

In 1995, TLC also claimed bankruptcy despite selling over 10 million records that year. Jermaine Dupri was another rapper known for his arrogant opulence, who would eventually file for bankruptcy.

These days the number of rappers in debt is at an all time high. Despite selling millions of records in the Nineties, Suge Knight and Death Row records would go bankrupt. Master P’s No Limit Label would also file for bankruptcy. Even today’s top selling, hottest rapper, Lil Wayne owes almost a million in taxes and owes 80,000 for a Bentley he bought. Young Buck had to have 50 Cent pay off his taxes, turning himself into 50’s indentured servant.

Hip Hop’s materialism and lack of fiscal responsibility does not only affect black rappers. Despite negative stereotypes about Jewish people and money, producer Scott Storch has also been a victim of Hip Hop’s lack of regard for taxes or bills. Storch owes half a million dollars in Florida property taxes and has had artwork and his Rolls Royce repossessed.

Why are rappers so bad with money? Is Hip Hop that materialistic where people can buy unnecessary luxury items without worrying about the IRS, their children or their futures?

It’s embarrassing how much money hip hop has wasted in the past 10 years. None of the money was reinvested in the community and most of it went to European luxury goods, cars, clothes and mansions. Fast cars, fast women, lavish houses, entourages and expensive liquor were the death of Hip Hop. Rappers also set a bad example for kids who were trying to be like them, outspending their means.

Record labels need to have mandatory Finance classes for rappers,. It’s a shame how much money hip hop has wasted. Money that could’ve bought real estate, businesses and been used to rebuild communities.

I guess it’s cool to have a Bentley, Rolex, and Italian luxury clothes but it’s not cool to pay your taxes and bills. It’s cooler to show something off than to actually own it. The bling bling era is over. Try watching an old episode of MTV Cribs, I bet you that rapper doesn’t live there anymore.