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Senate hopeful Marco Rubio's father dies at 83

Sun, 2010-09-05 11:17

MIAMI (AP) — The father of Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio has died after a long illness. He was 83.

Mr. Rubio's campaign announced Saturday night that Mario Rubio died at Baptist Hospital in Miami after suffering from emphysema and lung cancer.

The campaign announcement said Mario Rubio was surrounded ...

Categories: Politics

Boehner, speaker in waiting, balances GOP factions

Sun, 2010-09-05 10:55

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, could walk down most American streets without turning a head.

But the perpetually tanned, chain-smoking Mr. Boehner might be the next House speaker and a huge force in national politics, trying to manage an increasingly libertarian-leaning Republican caucus while leading the ...

Categories: Politics

Official: Obama backing research tax credits

Sun, 2010-09-05 10:44

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking ways to spur economic growth ahead of the November elections, President Obama will ask Congress to increase and permanently extend research and development tax credits for businesses, a White House official said Sunday.

Mr. Obama will outline the $100 billion proposal during a speech on the ...

Categories: Politics

JetBlue: Flight attendant's big exit was for good

Sun, 2010-09-05 09:30

NEW YORK (AP) — Sometimes there's no going back.

JetBlue Airways says there will be no second exits for famed flight attendant Steven Slater, who captured the nation's imagination with his profanity-laced loudspeaker tirade and jump down a plane's emergency chute, beer in hand.

Spokeswoman Jenny Dervin said Saturday that Mr. ...

Categories: Politics

Smoke in cockpit before UPS Boeing 747 crashed

Sun, 2010-09-05 09:14

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Pilots on board a UPS cargo plane faced radio problems and smoke in the cockpit as they struggled to maintain altitude before crashing into the desert outside Dubai last week, investigators said Sunday.

What exactly caused Friday's crash remains under investigation. The UAE's General Civil Aviation ...

Categories: Politics

Craigslist closes adult services section

Sat, 2010-09-04 16:30

Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says "censored."

The move comes just over a week after a group of state attorneys general said ...

Categories: Politics

Muslims take to Minn. State Fair to repair image

Sat, 2010-09-04 09:33

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — Despite the smells of fried dough and roasted meat wafting from the Minnesota State Fair, Salim and Zuleyha Ozonder were focused on the people who were leaving, not the food or festivities beckoning from across the street.

Each time a new wave of people ...

Categories: Politics

Report: Blackwater created shell companies

Sat, 2010-09-04 08:47

WASHINGTON (AP) — The security company Blackwater Worldwide formed a network of 30 shell companies and subsidiaries to try to get millions of dollars in government business after the company faced strong criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, The New York Times reported Friday.

The newspaper said that it ...

Categories: Politics

Key oil spill evidence raised to surface

Sat, 2010-09-04 08:03

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO (AP) — A crane hoisted a key piece of oil spill evidence to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, giving investigators their first chance to personally scrutinize the blowout preventer, the massive piece of equipment that failed to stop the gusher four ...

Categories: Politics

Jobless rate rose to 9.6 percent in Aug.

Fri, 2010-09-03 09:46

Growth in jobs last month was not fast enough to prevent the unemployment rate from ticking up to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday morning.

Businesses added another 67,000 jobs in areas from health care to business services, but that was overwhelmed by 121,000 layoffs ...

Categories: Politics

Former egg farm workers say complaints ignored

Fri, 2010-09-03 09:05

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Department employees worked full-time at two Iowa egg farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive recall, but two former workers said they ignored complaints about conditions at one site.

The USDA employees worked next to areas where roughly 7.7 million ...

Categories: Politics

Unemployment rate rises to 9.6 as 54,000 jobs are lost

Fri, 2010-09-03 08:37

WASHINGTON (AP) — Private employers hired more workers over the past three month than first thought, lifting hopes for the weak economy ahead of the Labor Day weekend. But the unemployment rate rose in August for the first time in four months as more people entered the market looking for ...

Categories: Politics

Scientist in '03 plague scare sets off airport shutdown

Fri, 2010-09-03 08:21

MIAMI (AP) — The suspicions airport security officials had when they saw the metal canister grew when they learned about the man who brought it in from the Middle East: a scientist who sparked a bioterrorism scare after he reported missing vials of plague samples seven years ago.

Officials shut ...

Categories: Politics

Earl's biggest damage so far: Business

Fri, 2010-09-03 07:28

YARMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Tropical Storm Earl's worst damage in New England has been to seasonal businesses hoping to end their summer on a high note.

The storm was far less intense than feared. It dumped heavy rain on Cape Cod cottages and fishing villages Friday but caused little ...

Categories: Politics

Eastern Seaboard hunkers down as hurricane nears

Thu, 2010-09-02 22:45

BUXTON, N.C. | The last ferry left for the mainland, and coastal residents hunkered down at home as Hurricane Earl closed in with 110 mph winds Thursday on North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks, the first and potentially most destructive stop on the storm's projected journey up the Eastern Seaboard.

...
Categories: Politics

Bernanke out of moves, critics say

Thu, 2010-09-02 20:54

With interest rates near zero and the Federal Reserve already owning a large share of the mortgage and Treasury securities markets, many investors fear the central bank may be out of ammunition should the economy take a serious turn for the worse.

But Fed-watchers say the central bank, despite its ...

Categories: Politics

Justice Dept. sues Arizona sheriff

Thu, 2010-09-02 20:31

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday against "America's toughest sheriff," Joe Arpaio in Phoenix, accusing him, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the county of refusing to fully cooperate in a federal investigation into allegations that he and his deputies are guilty of racial discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed in ...

Categories: Politics

Amtrak hired private lawyers for executives

Thu, 2010-09-02 20:01

Top Amtrak officials declined to participate in an internal investigation until they were provided private lawyers on the government-owned company's dime, an unusual request considering they were not even targets of the probe.

Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that Amtrak Treasurer Dale Stein, General Counsel Eleanor ...

Categories: Politics

Groundbreaking begins Howard Theatre's second act

Thu, 2010-09-02 19:48

Entertainer and philanthropist Bill Cosby says the Howard Theatre is a gem "in our community's crown," and on Thursday, D.C. officials and well-wishers held a groundbreaking ceremony to restore that jewel of a historic playhouse.

Having slipped into darkness since integration and the 1968 D.C. riots ripped through the U ...

Categories: Politics

Crew saved, spill appears small after oil-platform blast in Gulf

Thu, 2010-09-02 19:16

NEW ORLEANS (AP) | An oil platform exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water in protective "Gumby suits."

The Coast Guard initially reported that an ...

Categories: Politics