| Wall Street extends gains; Dow up 100 points
Bond insurers have been hurt in the fallout from the mortgage and credit crises, and news of their problems has shaken the market. But those seeking good news found some in a Labor Department report that said the number of people seeking unemployment benefits last week fell for a fourth straight week. Applications for benefits dropped 1,000 to 301,000, pushing claims down to the lowest level in four months. Investors also appeared pleased by a widely anticipated agreement between Congressional leaders and the White House on an economic stimulus package. The agreement calls for most tax filers to be given refunds of $600 to $1,200, and more if they have children. Bill Dwyer, chief investment officer at MTB Investment Advisors in Baltimore, said Wall Street found some relief from word of the economic stimulus plan as well as the efforts of regulators to help bond insurers.
Monday wild card
As you are all aware, a local newspaper printed an editorial that criticized our City for requiring Ironman USA to reimburse our City for services provided during the bike race through Post Falls. I wanted to give you some information on what some of the other Cities that host Ironman events require. Please do not think that I am picking a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. I would like to give you information about Ironman events in other areas and cities." For the rest of Cliff's memo to the mayor and council, click here. DFO: Cliff makes a good argument. .
Engineering the deep: UW students build a human-propelled submarine
While the hunt for Red October is over, a group of UW students continues to make submarines. Since 1990 a group of mechanical engineering students has entered a competition that requires knowledge from the classroom to be put to the test. They built a flooded submarine, which is propelled and navigated by human power. The project collectively is known as the Human Propelled Submarine (HPS). Matthew Kim, a student on the team, said that the project is a way for students to put theories to work. “You see practicality," he added. Kim works on the controls systems, which steer the sub. The HPS team includes 15 people, but the size varies according to the quarter. This year's competition takes place July 23-27 in Escondido, Calif., at the Offshore Modeling Basin.
Man dies after being hit by van in Mantua Township
MANTUA TWP., N.J. -- A man who was walking north on Glassboro Road near Lambs Road, carrying an umbrella and pushing a bicycle, was hit by a van and suffered fatal injuries early Wednesday. Jaglar Singh, 62, had a last known address in North Plainfield, but police believe he had been staying somewhere in Pitman. Singh, dressed in black, appeared to have been struck from behind by the 1999 Ford Econoline van, driven by Richard Mack, 41, of Pitman, said police. Mack stopped his van and dialed 911 for help at about 5:34 a.m. A Glassboro police officer, who was returning from transporting a prisoner, was first on the scene and he and other officers administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the victim until emergency medical technicians arrived to take over, police said.
Determined Milpitas woman returns $422 to man who dropped bank ...
And Monday afternoon, Patrick Schmitz, the Costco shopper who dropped a small bank envelope with mostly $20 bills inside, got his $422 back. Walsh, a former Milpitas business owner, found the envelope of cash - with a bank receipt, and two cash purchase receipts, but no personal identification - while shopping at Costco Friday evening. "I don't take no for an answer," she said with a smile. So she set out like a sleuth, determined to find the owner of the cash. Schmitz, who sports a long wild mane of curly, greying hair, and wore a knee-length blue lab coat, has an air of the absent-minded professor about him. He is a process engineer for Betatron, a north San Jose tech company that builds circuit boards. "I thought it was a man who lost this envelope," Walsh said.
American Opinion
In effect, the law is the fire blanket the government has thrown over all dissent, including press freedom. During his presidential campaign - the first in the country's history that allowed multiple candidates - President Mubarak vowed repeatedly to repeal the state of emergency in favor of a new anti-terrorism law. He received the enthusiastic support of civil society and human rights groups, journalists, lawyers, and other professional organizations, and even members of the political opposition. A typical civil society response came from the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and the Human Rights Association for the Assistance of Prisoners. They wrote the Prime Minister that they "consider the termination of the state of emergency by the Egyptian authorities as a step forward towards the respect of Human Rights in Egypt and the strengthening of democratic values in the country.
Dispatch / Our Woman in Thailand -- in Cambodia
She left Feb. 9 for two weeks in Thailand, with a side trip to Cambodia. Backpacking, staying in hostels, meeting scruffy travelers, chugging cheap beer, hanging on the beach ... And changing the diapers of her 8-month-old child, Sophia (who turned 9 months during the trip.) At least her husband, sculptor Tim Kaulen, tagged along to help. Suzanne asked us: "Don't you think people will want to read the travel journal of a 40-year-old tattooed woman taking her infant daughter to walk around Cambodian ruins and attend a two-day Thai Buddhist wedding of my friend from college?" We agreed. Updates have been appearing regularly in this space. Suzanne, by the way, is a Pittsburgh native who returned to the city in 2000. She launched the American Shorts Reading Series in 2003 and now works at Social Innovation Accelerator, which bolsters nonprofit organizations.
A New Moment? The Grassroots and the Party, 1964 and 2008
The past offers some hard-knocks lessons worth thinking about. Give this long primary season credit: It has, at least, turned that overused word "change" from a bumper slogan pooh-poohed by all knowledgeable pundits into a fact-based phenomenon. In the closest thing the nation has seen to a countrywide primary, first term Senator Barack Obama overcame Hillary Clinton's double-digit leads in major states and national polls to win a majority of states on February 5th and draw into a tight battle over the delegate count. The two candidates closed out the evening with their spinmeisters already talking up Beltway Tuesday — the next catch-phrase friendly multiple-primary day — while promising more debates. Now, their operatives are off to Ohio for a March 4th primary that everyone assumes will be crucial.
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