Earthquake in Ontario June 23, 2010 5.5 Magnitude

A 5.5 magnitude earthquake shook Toronto and the rest of the eastern Ontario region and parts of Quebec, St.Catharines, Missisauga, Burlington and all of the Niagara Region  according to the United States Geological Survey. The earthquake did not cause any significant damage just minor tremblers throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

The earthquake was located 24 miles north of Cumberland, Ontario and 33 miles northeast of Ottawa. The quake’s depth was measured at 11.2 miles.
Many people in north Toronto felt the shakes in their offices.

Shelby: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Should Be Included In Financial Reform

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., ranking member on the Senate Banking committee, speaks about financial reform on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)Get Breaking News AlertsShareComments403

WASHINGTON — A Democratic plan to rein in the financial industry is flawed because it fails to tighten control over two large government-sponsored mortgage companies blamed for creating a demand for risky loans and inflating the housing bubble, a leading GOP senator on banking issues says.

The legislation “touches nearly every corner of the economy,” Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said in the GOP weekly radio and Internet address. “But these major contributors to the crisis are left unscathed,” he added, singling out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“For years, Democrats blocked meaningful reform of Fannie and Freddie, and not much has changed,” Shelby said.

The broadest changes in banking rules since the Great Depression are aimed to prevent a repeat of the near-meltdown that buckled Wall Street in 2008.

The Senate bill would create a council of regulators to oversee risks in the financial system and set up a mechanism to liquidate companies that are too large and interconnected to go through bankruptcy. It also would create an independent consumer protection bureau to police lending and bring previously unregulated complex securities under government oversight.

The Senate is debating the bill. The House passed similar legislation in December.

Obama administration officials have said that while the housing market remains unstable, it is too early to undertake wholesale changes in the housing finance system.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders and package them into bonds that are resold to global investors. When the housing bubble burst, the government had to step in and take them over.

Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and fellow Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire have proposed requiring the government to give up control of Fannie and Freddie within two years and then take steps to get out of the business of mortgage finance. This plan would also repeal the companies’ mandates to promote affordable housing.

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A vote on the amendment could come as early as Tuesday.

Shelby also criticized the bill’s consumer protection provisions, saying they overreach and could affect businesses that are not primarily financial companies. He also said the bill’s call for an independent consumer protection bureau within the Federal Reserve would pose risks because it would separate consumer protections from regulators who look out for the safety and soundness of banks.

An alternative consumer provision offered by Republicans last week failed, with two Republicans joining all Democrats in voting in down.

___

On the Net:

GOP address: http://tinyurl.com/22rjeyf

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Military Mother’s Day: A Bullet In Baghdad, A Son’s Need, A Mother’s Love

In this April 8, 2010 photo, Malerie Briseno, 22, left, talks to her brother, Joseph Briseno Jr., 27, as their mother Eva Briseno watches at their home in Manassas, Va. A bullet to the back of his head in a Baghdad marketplace in 2003 left Briseno Jr., paralyzed, brain-damaged and blind, but awake and aware of his condition. The family takes care of “Jay” in their suburban Virginia home where the family room has been transformed into an intensive care unit, with the breathing machine and tubes hGet Breaking News AlertsShareComments21

MANASSAS PARK, Va. — There are mothers who will spend today missing sons and daughters fighting overseas. There are women who have lost children in those wars, for whom Mother’s Day will never be the same.

And then there is Eva Briseno.

Joseph Briseno Jr., Eva’s 27-year-old son, is one of the most severely wounded soldiers ever to survive. A bullet to the back of his head in a Baghdad marketplace in 2003 left him paralyzed, brain-damaged and blind, but awake and aware of his condition.

Eva takes care of “Jay” in her suburban Virginia home where the family room has been transformed into an intensive care unit, with the breathing machine and tubes he needs to stay alive.

Try to imagine this life.

Each day starts with two hours of bowel care, an ordeal as awful as it sounds. She labors over his body, brushing his teeth, suctioning fluid from his lungs, exercising his limp arms and legs, and turning him every other hour to prevent bedsores.

She sleeps a few hours at a time, when the schedule says it is her turn, often slumped in exhaustion by his side.

She has been out to dinner with her husband, Joseph Sr., once in seven years.

She could have a better life if she put Jay in a nursing home. Or if she went back to using the home health care nurses the government provided. But one looked indifferently without wiping Jay’s mouth when he drooled. Others fell asleep on the night shift, inattentive while Jay suffered seizures.

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It’s hard for a mother to watch such lapses. The nurses don’t love Jay. His parents do. So they have chosen to care for him on their own, and you will not find them feeling sorry for themselves – only for him.

A lesser man would leave, Eva says of her spouse, whom she has known since grade school in their homeland, the Philippines. A lesser woman would cringe at the wound care and bodily indignities that Eva has learned to manage for her son, Joseph says.

“I can’t walk away from this. She can’t. I’m very proud of my wife,” he said.

What keeps Eva going is hope that stem cells or some future treatment advance will help her son.

“I do believe in miracles,” she says.

Yet desperation clouds her prayers. “Most of the time I ask God if I can take Jay’s place,” she confesses, unable to suppress a sob.

Hearing his mother, Jay cries too, the tears silently slipping from his blind eyes.

For Eva, the tears began the day Jay shipped out, on his 20th birthday in 2003. He was a student at George Mason University, hoping to become a forensic scientist. He had joined the Army Reserves and was surprised to be called up so soon. Eva took a cake to his unit before he left.

At first, she wasn’t very worried: Jay was assigned to civilian work, building community relations. A few months later, the call came. One of those civilians had shot Jay in the back of the head at point-blank range. His spinal cord was shattered, and cardiac arrests led to brain damage that left him unable to see or to speak more than an occasional word.

His family became a mass casualty of the wound.

His parents quit their jobs and drained their savings to take care of him after he came home from hospitals and rehabilitation centers. His younger sisters, Malerie and Sherilyn, help when they can, and Joseph does a big share. But much of the care falls to Eva, a small, doe-eyed woman who weighs 100 pounds to Jay’s 147.

At first, she took care of Jay in the basement, using a hoist that some charities provided to lift him into a wheelchair and the shower. But descending those stairs became a descent into hell. After a while, Eva could no longer bear caring for him in that cavelike setting.

So they moved Jay upstairs, surrounding him with white walls, bright flowers and Washington Redskins gear so he will have cheerful things to look at in case he has glimmers of vision the doctors can’t detect.

Eva fills his days by reading him news stories, telling him how good he looks and how nicely he is dressed, and playing the “young people music” he likes on the radio. He grins when the Redskins win, or when Linkin Park, Eminem, Jay-Z or Beyonce are on. Others get a grimace.

“He doesn’t like Mariah Carey or Kelly Clarkson,” Eva laughs.

She reminisces about Jay as a teen who loved track and field, played pranks on his sisters, tested her nerves when he was learning to drive, and hosted parties with friends in that basement she now avoids.

Jay’s care requires a schedule with such military precision that trips to the grocery store or to church must be planned two days in advance.

It starts at 6 a.m., when Eva gives Jay medicines, logs his blood pressure and temperature, and begins his bowel care. That involves properly positioning him, giving suppositories and bathing him afterward. If it’s not done right, he can suffer obstruction or impaction, and they’ve been down that road before.

Next comes grooming, and cleaning the breathing tube that attaches to his respirator. By noon, Jay is dressed and into a wheelchair, a lunchtime sludge of nutrients draining into his feeding tube while he listens to the TV. Afternoons bring physical therapy and twice-weekly prayer sessions with a deacon who comes to their home.

At night, they give Jay breathing treatments, empty his urine bag and weigh its contents, because a change in volume can be a sign of trouble.

When taking care of such basic needs in babies, “you see them grow” and have the joy of watching them progress, Eva said. “Now, every day is the same,” and the only changes are bad ones, she said, starting to cry again.

A year ago, Jay had a setback and lost the ability to swallow. Two months ago, he suffered a nicked kidney and internal bleeding after an operation for kidney stones.

When the doctors showed Eva his big wound and how to care for it, “I thought at first, ‘I cannot do it,’” she said. But again, she rose to the occasion.

The degree of care the Brisenos provide is unusual, said Dr. Mitchell Wallin, one of Jay’s doctors and a neurologist at Georgetown University and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

“Most patients in this kind of condition would not be able to live at home,” Wallin said. The Brisenos “are doing an incredible job,” he said. “They don’t take enough breaks. They’re almost too dedicated.”

Jay’s father has a plan: forming his own home health care agency to supply nurses for Jay and other wounded veterans.

“The only way we can move on with our lives is to hire and interview, from the start, these nurses,” he said. “One of them straight up told us, ‘I’m in it for the money.’ We just looked at each other and said, ‘You’re in the wrong house. You’re not coming back here.’”

The Brisenos are proud of their son’s service despite the price they all pay for it now.

“This is the effects of war, its effects on families. War is ugly and the American people need to know this,” said Jay’s father, who spent 17 years in the Army himself.

Eva admits regret but also feels gratitude.

“Probably other mothers regret having their sons or daughters go to war, especially when they come home hurt. It’s not easy seeing your child be in this position,” she said. “We are so proud of Jay and we thank God every single day that we have him.”

___

On the Net:

Brisenos on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ya5rjfa

also http://www.caringbridge.org/va/jaysjourney/

Motherhood award nominees: http://tinyurl.com/ydnvpus

Charities: http://www.rebuildingtogether.org/

http://www.homefrontonline.com

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Magic DOMINATE Hawks, Widen Lead To 3-0

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ATLANTA — Orlando keeps on winning, even when Dwight Howard doesn’t stand out.

One more Magic victory will finish off the Atlanta Hawks.

Rashard Lewis scored 22 points and the backups helped Orlando pull away early with Howard on the bench as the Magic handed the Atlanta Hawks the worst home playoff loss in team history and moved to the brink of their second straight sweep with a 105-75 victory on Saturday.

Howard had 21 points and 16 rebounds but was hardly dominating. No problem for the Magic, who have so many complements to Superman and allowed many of them to shine in Orlando’s seventh straight postseason victory and 13th straight win overall.

Lewis knocked down four 3-pointers. Jameer Nelson scored 14 points. Mickael Pietrus chipped in with 13, hitting three shots from outside the arc. Marcin Gortat, Howard’s backup, grabbed six rebounds in less than 10 minutes. All 10 Orlando players who got on the court made it to the scoresheet.

The Magic are up 3-0 in the best-of-seven series, winning by an average margin of 29 points. Game 4 is Monday night, and about all the Hawks are playing for is pride. No NBA team has ever come back from such a daunting deficit, and the challenge looks even greater considering how well the Magic are playing.

Atlanta never led in this one and was trailing 24-16 when Howard picked up his second foul with 1:45 left in the opening quarter. Even with its big man on the bench, Orlando just kept adding to it lead.

Lewis hit a jumper and Gortat flew through the lane for a dunk that gave the Magic a 28-18 lead after one period. The Hawks never got the margin under double figures again.

Orlando dazzled with crisp passing, always seeming to find the open man. Nelson swished a 3-pointer to make it 33-20, prompting Atlanta to call an early timeout in hopes of finding something, anything to slow the Magic.

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No chance.

Even with only one starter on the court, Orlando kept the Hawks in check. By the time Howard returned to the game with just under 7 1/4 minutes left in the first half, the Magic were comfortably ahead 38-24. After Mike Bibby missed a 3-pointer, Howard grabbed the rebound and the Magic worked the ball to Pietrus for a 3-pointer that stretched the margin to 41-24.

The Magic went to the locker room with its biggest lead of the half, 52-33, after a most telling sequence. The Hawks failed to beat the 24-second clock and Orlando went to the other end for yet another trey from Lewis. Atlanta fired up one final miss ahead of the clock, leaving the court to a round of boos from the home crowd.

Showing his frustration, Josh Smith pushed away a cameraman who was attempting to follow him off the court.

The Hawks shot only 35 percent (29 of 83), and their best player was the biggest culprit. Joe Johnson made only 3 of 15 attempts to finish with eight points. Jamal Crawford led the Hawks with 22 points.

Late in the third quarter, Orlando stretched its lead to 26 points. At that point, Howard’s numbers looked rather mortal – 11 points and nine rebounds. He did the bulk of his scoring and rebounding after the game was long since decided.

Not too many fans were around for the ending. When J.J. Redick swished a 3-pointer to make it 88-59 with more than 8 minutes remaining, many in the crowd popped out of their seats and headed for the exits.

The Magic led by as many as 31 in the final quarter – not quite as dominating as their 43-point win at home in Game 1, but not too far off considering this rout came on the road.

Orlando hasn’t lost in more than a month, and the Hawks – a 53-win team that claimed the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference – surely don’t look like a group that has any chance of ending that streak.

The Magic’s last defeat was a 112-100 setback at San Antonio on April 2. They have lost only three times in their past 30 games, showing they are very much a team that can challenge the two No. 1 seeds, Cleveland and the Los Angeles Lakers.

As for the Hawks, the end is near.

This is a team that could be headed for a major overhaul despite five straight years of steady improvement.

Johnson heads into free agency this summer, and there’s no assurance the Hawks will be willing to give up the maximum deal it will likely take to keep him. Coach Mike Woodson’s contract is up, as well, and the team has declined to even start talks on a new agreement until after the season.

NOTES: The Magic dominated the boards, finishing with a 51-34 rebounding edge. But their margin was largely piled up on all those Atlanta misses – Orlando had a 41-22 lead in defensive rebounds. … Three technicals were called, all in the third quarter: Smith for Atlanta, Nick Barnes and coach Stan Van Gundy for Orlando.

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Lakers Edge Jazz By One Point In Utah

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SALT LAKE CITY — Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher hit back-to-back 3-pointers during an 8-2 run in the final minute and the Lakers held on for a 111-110 victory over the Utah Jazz on Saturday night that put Los Angeles on the verge of sweeping the Western Conference playoff series.

The Jazz had two chances to win it in the final 4 seconds, but Deron Williams missed from the top of the key and Wesley Matthews’ tip just before the buzzer bounced off the rim.

Bryant finished with 35 points and Fisher scored 20 for the Lakers, who can close out the four-game sweep with a win Monday night in Game 4. Pau Gasol added 14 points and 17 rebounds for Los Angeles.

Williams scored 28 and Kyle Korver added a career playoff-high 23 points for the Jazz.

Ron Artest scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half for the Lakers, who never led by more than four but stayed close enough to win it in a thrilling final minute.

Bryant’s 3-pointer with 54 seconds left tied it at 106. After a jumper by Williams, Fisher hit another from beyond the arc to put the Lakers up 109-108 with 28.6 seconds left.

Carlos Boozer, who had 14 points and 14 rebounds, missed a putback attempt and the Jazz had to foul Bryant, who hit both free throws for a 111-108 lead with 7.8 seconds left. Williams drew a foul with 6.1 seconds and made both from the line to cut it to 111-110

Lakers couldn’t inbound the ball and called timeout. They tried again, but Fisher fell before he could get the pass from Artest, and Korver grabbed the loose ball and called timeout with 4.4 seconds left. Fisher thought he was fouled by Wesley Matthews and stood with his arms in the air asking why there was no call.

After the timeout, Williams’ shot from the top of the key bounced off the rim. There was still enough time for Matthews to get a hand on the rebound, but his tip also bounced off and the Lakers leaped off the bench to celebrate.

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This is the third straight playoffs the Lakers have played the Jazz and Los Angeles had lost Game 3 in Utah each of the previous two.

Andrei Kirilenko returned from more than a month out with a strained left calf and had eight points and six rebounds. Paul Millsap added 13 points for Utah.

Kirilenko got a standing ovation when he entered with 6:54 left in the first. He had three rebounds and two points in less than a minute, tipping in his own miss with 6:07 left. He added a block on Bryant with 5:24 left in the period.

NOTES: The Jazz shot 11 for 18 in the second quarter. … Bryant had 20 points at halftime – four more than the rest of the Lakers’ starters combined. … Bryant scored the Lakers’ first nine points. … Gasol had 10 points in the period after scoring just four in the first half. … Korver’s previous playoff high was 14 against the Lakers two years ago.

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Tiger Woods Falls Even Further Back At Players Championship

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — One round away from one of the biggest wins of his career, Lee Westwood of England knows what to expect on the final day of The Players Championship.

Not only because of his 16 years and his 30 victories worldwide, or his 54-hole lead last month at the Masters.

Saturday on the TPC Sawgrass was enough of a reminder.

Westwood watched a two-shot lead turn into a two-shot deficit. Over the final hour, Robert Allenby picked up three shots on the last three holes, while Heath Slocum dropped four shots on the last six holes.

The day ended with Westwood hitting a daring shot with a 6-iron through a gap in the trees for a par on the 18th hole for a 2-under 70 to finish the third round with a one-shot lead, same as he started. He has more company now – Masters champion Phil Mickelson included – but the course is as significant as the names behind him on the leaderboard.

“There was no real scope for thinking about anything else other than what I was doing,” Westwood said. “It’s that kind of golf course. If you play well, birdies are available. If you don’t hit good shots, they penalize you. That’s what good golf courses do to you.”

This day, there was a little of both.

Mickelson suddenly was back in the picture, along with that No. 1 ranking, because of his 66 that put him five shots behind.

Tiger Woods was not, courtesy of a bogey-bogey finish for a 71 that put him 10 shots behind.

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Allenby was five shots behind when he walked off the 13th tee. He made up ground quickly with a 6-iron to about 12 feet on the par-5 16th for eagle, then a 12-foot birdie on the island-green 17th that curled into the side of the cup. He shot a 67 to get in the final group.

“That’s the thing,” Allenby said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen out there. All you can do is just play your own golf. But I knew I had to push it a little bit just to try to get within reach. Obviously, the leaderboard changed a couple of times through the back nine. Luckily for me, I did well on the finishing holes.”

Westwood was at 14-under 202.

“The golf course changed a lot. It got really firm this afternoon,” Westwood said. “I thought I played well – gave myself a lot of chances, missed a couple, but all in all, I was pleased with the way I played. I didn’t make too many poor shots out there.”

He certainly didn’t on the 18th after his drive landed in a drain grate. He took a free drop, saw a gap in the trees and hit a 6-iron onto the green to give himself another shot at winning.

“Had to go under one limb and then over the next lot of trees,” Westwood said. “It just looked perfect for the trajectory.”

Mickelson began the day nine shots out of the lead, same as Woods.

They went opposite directions, however. Mickelson didn’t make a bogey until the final hole for a 66 to put himself back into the picture, just five shots behind Westwood. The 10 players ahead of him have a combined 14 victories on the PGA Tour.

“I feel like things started to click a little bit today, and I think I’ve got one more low round in me,” Mickelson said. “I just hope that it will be enough, that I’ll be within striking distance.”

To reach No. 1 for the first time in his career, Mickelson has to win and have Woods finish out of the top five. Woods did hit part with a bogey-bogey finish for a 71 that put him 10 shots behind in a tie for 45th. Woods final bogey came after he popped up another 3-wood and had to hit fairway metal to the green.

It was the second time this week he hit a fairway metal for his second shot to a par 4.

“I had it going for a little bit,” Woods said. “I thought if I could have birdied 16 and 17, I’d have been right back in the tournament.”

Even for the 14 players separated by five shots, so much depends on Westwood and Allenby.

U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover, the only player in the top 10 with a major, didn’t make a birdie until the ninth hole in his round of 69. He was at 12-under 204, along with Torrey Pines winner Ben Crane (68) and Francesco Molinari of Italy, who had a 71.

Slocum, who won the opening playoff event last year against a cast of stars, ran off three birdies in four holes around the turn to reach 15 under until a three-putt from the fringe below a steep ridge on the 13th changed everything. Slocum also bogeyed the 15th, then dumped his tee shot into the water on the par-3 17th for a double bogey. After all that work, he shot 72.

“What I’m going to have to do tomorrow is play perfect and finish strong,” Slocum said.

His poor finish put him at 11-under 205, three shots behind and tied with Tim Clark (66), Charley Hoffman (69) and Chris Stroud (66), a newcomer to this stage.

Westwood closed out both of his nines well. He hit a towering 5-wood over the trees on the par-5 ninth for a simple up-and-down for birdie, then the 6-iron on the 18th through the trees. His lone birdie on the back required a small break when his tee shot went through some pines and left him only an 8-iron to the green at the par-5 16th.

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Deb McNally: Wisconsin Mom Dedicated To Building Library In Ghana

In honor of Mother’s Day, HuffPost Impact presents It Just Takes One, a series on children and the tutors, mentors, guardians and others who have made a difference in their lives. Read the complete series and have a Happy Mother’s Day!

This is not your typical “helping Africa” story. No Sally Struthers infomercial. No pleas from Bono (though if you want that, here you go!).

Not to say that celebrities aren’t doing fantastic work in Africa, but this story takes place out of the spotlight. It’s about Deb McNally, a mother and wife from Wisconsin. She spent the majority of the last 20 years raising and educating her two sons. She home-schooled them both through 8th grade, and then they went off to high school. Finding herself alone in her home during the day, she realized something was missing.

“When my youngest went off to high school, I found myself without the need to teach, but still a great desire to teach,” she said. “I decided to get creative and see if there was a way to combine my love of teaching and travel and I started looking around for volunteer opportunities.”

She discovered Global Volunteers, an organization that connects individuals with volunteer opportunities around the world, where they can work with communities, provide health care, take care of children, or an assortment of other tasks. When Deb saw a photo of children in Senchi Ferry, a village in Ghana, making her decision was easy. She decided to spend two weeks there with Global Volunteers, teaching children English. That was in April 2007.

“I went for two weeks, but I never imagined that my life would be turned around by that first experience,” she told me. “The kids just came in droves — they would walk a mile and a half to two miles just to have an opportunity to be taught.”

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‘Iron Man 2′ Box Office Outdoes ‘Iron Man’ Opening Day

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LOS ANGELES — Robert Downey Jr. is packing a bigger box-office punch with his second “Iron Man” movie.

“Iron Man 2″ took in $52.4 million domestically on its opening day Friday. That’s nearly a 50 percent increase over the $35.2 million first day of the original “Iron Man” two years ago.

That puts the Paramount release based on the Marvel Comics superhero on track for a debut weekend of $125 million to $135 million, which would make it the fifth-biggest opening weekend on the box-office charts.

The first “Iron Man” movie had a $98.6 million debut weekend.

“Iron Man 2″ has taken in nearly $150 million overseas since it debuted in many international markets last week. Worldwide, the movie has climbed to a $200 million total.

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Hottest Female Actions Stars: Who Got In The Best Shape? (PHOTOS)

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Joe Biden Touts Stimulus At Longmont-Area Company

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Boulder Daily Camera:

UQM Technologies is proof that the federal recovery act is working, Vice President Joe Biden said Friday at the company’s new facility just east of Longmont.

Last year, UQM won a $45 million grant that was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to ramp up its production of propulsion systems for electronic vehicles.

Read the whole story: Boulder Daily Camera

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Chad Wunschel, Substitute Teacher, Poisoned His Own Coffee, New Bedford Police Say

Police in New Bedford, Mass., say a substitute teacher who was taken to a hospital after drinking tainted iced coffee has admitted lacing the drink himself.

The teacher, 27-year-old Chad Wunschel, became sick after taking a sip of the drink and spitting it out. That happened Wednesday during a welding class at Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical Regional High School.

Police had been investigating whether a student might have spiked the coffee.

Police Chief Ronald Teachman said Friday that Wunschel told a detective he was depressed over a recent breakup and was looking for attention. Teachman said Wunschel will likely be charged with filing a false report.

Wunschel didn’t immediately return a phone message.

Police haven’t specified what the chemical was.

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Information from: The Standard-Times, http://www.southcoasttoday.com

NEW BEDFORD, Mass.

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Stop Robert Rubin Before He Kills Again

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Robert Rubin is poisoning Washington again.

The former Treasury Secretary who presided over the nearly-fatal deregulation of the financial industry — then made $126 million nearly killing Citigroup — had been keeping an appropriately low profile in the nation’s capital ever since everything he wrought went pear-shaped.

But now he’s back, and once again trying to influence public policy.

On Friday he made his third major (and apology-free) Washington appearance in two weeks, delivering opening remarks at a conference that his pet think tank, the Hamilton Project, co-sponsored with the liberal Center for American Progress.

But the last thing Washington needs right now is another infusion of Rubinomics — by which I mean the combination of deregulatory zeal, deficit obsession, free tradeism and general coziness with fat-cat Wall Street bankers that Rubin epitomizes.

It’s long been troubling that so many of Obama’s top economic advisers are former Rubin proteges, but the return and rehabilitation of the man himself is particularly unwelcome right now. Mild signs of recovery aside, we remain very much in the midst of an unemployment crisis that is devastating American families and that requires active, urgent government intervention — not hand-wringing about the federal budget deficit. Financial regulation, to be effective, needs to limit what Rubin and his friends want to be able to do.

The Rubin effect could be felt at Friday’s event, which was ostensibly about “The Future of American Jobs,” but which — with a few notable exceptions — lacked a sense of urgency about the current unemployment crisis, focusing instead on long-terms “structural problems.”

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Asked by feisty moderator Chrystia Freeland of Reuters to explain why, if our capital markets are the best in the world, job creation is so weak, panelist and Berkeley economics professor Alan Auerbach instead launched into a disquisition on tax policy and the need to reduce corporate income taxes.

The centerpiece of Friday’s event, a new report by MIT economist David Autor, did a commendable job of relating the polarization of job opportunities and contraction of the middle class to the feeble state of the America’s public education system, but it glossed over the key role played by rapacious financial titans.

Panelist Ron Blackwell, chief economist for the AFL-CIO, was almost alone in giving more than lip service to the current jobs crisis. Blackwell said he had never seen a labor market “in worse condition than exists at present.” He pointed out that the U.S. is an outlier country — “No other country is experiencing anything like this,” he said. He decried the way “globalization and financialization” has “changed the balance of power between workers and employers.” And generally speaking, he made no bones about the government’s essential role in both creating and fixing America’s unique economic problems.

What’s needed, he said, is nothing less than a “sustained public-investment led recovery that rebuilds the capacity of the American economy.”

His cause was not taken up by his fellow speakers, however — including Larry Summers, President Obama’s chief economic adviser, and one of the event’s two headliners (along with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.)

Summers began his remarks with an acknowledgment of the terrible trauma being caused by high unemployment. Then he pivoted.

“This is a profoundly important problem for our society, but it’s the task of economists to analyze it in a more bloodless way.”

And bloodless he was. For the next several years, he said, “What I think is safe to say is that even on optimistic assumptions, there is going to be substantial unused capacity in this economy,” measured by, among other things, the unemployment rate.

Asked when that high unemployment would abate, he explained that it would depend upon “the pace of the economic recovery in terms of GDP”

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Obama Interviews Elena Kagan For Supreme Court Nominee

Solicitor General Elena Kagan met with Obama about the Supreme Court nomination, Newsweek reports.Get Breaking News AlertsShareComments171

Newsweek:

NEWSWEEK has learned that President Obama interviewed Solicitor General Elena Kagan at the White House on Friday for the open seat on the Supreme Court created by Justice John Paul Stevens’s impending retirement.

Read the whole story: Newsweek

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Derby Day Food & Drink Guide: Eat (& Drink) Like A Horse (RECIPES, TIPS, PHOTOS)

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Belgium Poised To Ban Muslim Veil

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By Elizabeth Bryant
Religion News Service

PARIS (RNS) Belgium is poised to become Europe’s first country to ban the face-covering Islamic veil, after lawmakers approved such a measure Thursday (April 29) — just a week after the French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered similar legislation in France.

Deputies in Belgium’s lower house of Parliament voted almost unanimously for banning the face veil, known in Afghanistan as the burqa and in the Arab world as the niqab. The measure must still be passed by the Belgian Senate before becoming law, and some critics suggest it may face legal obstacles.

The law would ban the face veil in many public spaces. Violators could be fined up to $34 dollars or face short jail sentences.

Human rights groups swiftly condemned the measure as violating freedom of expression.

“Clearly this is not a welcoming message,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s expert on discrimination in Europe. “It’s an attempt by certain parts of the population, certain political parties, to draw a line in the sand as it were — and say, ‘beyond this point, we shan’t be accepting your cultural or religious practices.”‘

Belgium is not the only European country to consider a veil ban, reflecting widespread uneasiness about the continent’s booming Muslim community. Politicians in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland have all pushed for some kind of law — but none have gone as far as Belgium.

Story continues below

In France, Sarkozy wants to submit a face-veil ban bill to parliament in May, following lengthy debate on the subject.

In Belgium, a ban has drawn widespread political support, as advocates argue that it is critical to uphold women’s rights and as a security measure against extremists. It is also critical for social integration, says the bill’s chief sponsor, deputy Daniel Bacquelaine of the liberal Reformist Movement party.

“We think that this measure is essential to promote living together in our society. And if we live together, we have to be recognized — that’s not possible if I can’t see the other’s face,” he said.

But critics in France and Belgium argue such a ban is unnecessary, since so few Muslim women actually wear a face veil. The issue has also divided Muslims, who feel unfairly targeted.

“Even in that part of the Muslim community in which there is no support for the niqab and burqa, the reaction is quite negative toward the law because it’s seen as additional stigmatization,” said Marco Martiniello, an immigration expert at the University of Liege, in
Belgium.

In Belgium as in France, a veil ban law may also face legal hurdles. France’s State Council, the country’s highest administrative body, has warned it might be unconstitutional. Others say the legislation may violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

Get HuffPost Religion OnTwitter! By Elizabeth BryantReligion News ServicePARIS (RNS) Belgium is poised to become Europe’s first country to ban the face-covering Islamic veil, after lawmakers approved such a measure Thursday (April…By Elizabeth BryantReligion News ServicePARIS (RNS) Belgium is poised to become Europe’s first country to ban the face-covering Islamic veil, after lawmakers approved such a measure Thursday (April… Loading…

Belgium’s lower house votes to ban burqa – CNN.com

France’s Model Muslim: ‘Imam for Peace’ Sows Discontent – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News …

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Is Supreme Court’s Cross Ruling Good For Christians?

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By Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) Evangelicals cheered when a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday (April 28) allowed a cross to remain as a war memorial in California’s Mojave Desert.

Some Christians, however, caution that a celebration may not be in order.

The high court’s decision was largely based on Justice Anthony Kennedy’s determination that “one Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion.” Rather, he said, it “evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles.”

In other words, the cross is more than a Christian symbol.

That line of thinking is, at best, “a mixed blessing,” said Carl Esbeck, a professor at University of Missouri’s law school.

“I’m concerned about the government co-opting the symbol for its own purpose, which among other things, has a detrimental effect on evangelistic religion, such as Christianity,” said Esbeck.

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“You get people who look at the cross who say, ‘Well, it’s just part of American culture.’ Well, no, a Christian wants to look at the cross and say, ‘No, that’s a symbol of where Christ died for our sins.”‘

Esbeck has an unlikely ally in retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, a stalwart church-state separationist. In a dissenting opinion, Stevens said, “Making a plain, unadorned Latin cross a war memorial does not make the cross secular.”

The debate over the cross’s symbolism had already made an appearance during the Supreme Court’s oral arguments last October. When Peter Eliasberg, an attorney for the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, argued that “a cross is the predominant symbol of Christianity,” Justice Antonin Scalia called his contention that the cross only memorializes dead Christian veterans “outrageous.”

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court remanded the case to a California district court, which must now decide whether the cross belongs on federal land. In the meantime, Christian leaders — particularly evangelicals — continue to debate Kennedy’s interpretation of the cross’s symbolism.

Secularizing the cross worries leaders of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. K. Hollyn Hollman, general counsel of the committee, said there is a “danger” that people in favor of piety on public property will downplay the spiritual significance of the symbol.

But another prominent Baptist said evangelicals can be comfortable with Kennedy’s perspective on the cross.

“I think that most American evangelicals would acknowledge that it probably is, in our culture, more than a Christian symbol,” said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

That’s fine, he said, “as long as it’s not less than a Christian symbol.”

Land said he’d rather have the cross stay up under Kennedy’s line of argument than have authorities eradicate crosses from cemeteries.

David Neff, the editor in chief of Christianity Today magazine, said evangelicals can accept broader meanings of the cross.

“We need to be comfortable with the fact that this is, on the one hand, a strong Christian symbol; but it also has taken on all sorts of layers of meaning for different people in different contexts,” he said — from biker tattoos to pop artists’ jewelry.

“I think Justice Kennedy is right that in the context of a war memorial, it evokes notions of sacrifice, which is part of the Christian message.”

When a Supreme Court justice says the cross is not just about Christianity, it diminishes Jesus’ charge to his followers to “take up their cross and follow me,” said Read Schuchardt, an expert on symbolism and iconography at Wheaton College in Illinois.

But the cross’s meaning has already changed from the early centuries when it was known as a Roman tool of power and execution.

“Like all symbols, they go through an evolutionary process that almost always drains them of their original meaning by adding secondary and tertiary meanings,” he said.

Christian ethicist David Gushee said the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the multiple meanings of the cross shows that it is not a clear legal win for Christians who want to see crosses erected in the public square.

“The conservative Christians … would see this as a victory for their kind of long-standing fight in the culture wars,” he said. “It’s not as unambiguous as that.”

Get HuffPost Religion OnTwitter! ReligionBy Adelle M. BanksReligion News ServiceWASHINGTON (RNS) Evangelicals cheered when a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday (April 28) allowed a cross to remain as a war memorial in California’s Mojave D…By Adelle M. BanksReligion News ServiceWASHINGTON (RNS) Evangelicals cheered when a Supreme Court ruling on Wednesday (April 28) allowed a cross to remain as a war memorial in California’s Mojave D… Loading…

Justices’ Ruling Blocks Cross Removal – NYTimes.com

Lewis Praises Supreme Court Decision Supporting Land Transfer to Save Mojave Cro…

U.S. Supreme Court supports Mojave cross

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Pope Meets With Investigators Of Disgraced Legion

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By Francis X. Rocca
Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met on Friday (April 30) with the leaders of a Vatican investigation of the Legion of Christ, a conservative Catholic movement whose founder fathered at least one illegitimate child and sexually abused minors.

Five prelates from Europe and the Americas, including Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, met with Benedict to discuss the results of their probe into the Legion, also known as the Legionaries of Christ, which began in July 2009 and concluded last March.

The investigation was prompted by revelations last year that the Rev. Marcel Maciel, founder of the Legion, had fathered an illegitimate daughter.

Controversy around Maciel dates at least as far back as 1997, when nine former Legionaries accused him of sexually abusing them decades earlier, while they were studying to become priests under his authority.

Maciel was not disciplined during the reign of Pope John Paul II, who favored the Legion and its lay arm Regnum Christi.

But in 2006, under Benedict, the Vatican announced that Maciel had been ordered to lead a “life reserved to prayer and penitence, renouncing all public ministry.”

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In an interview published Thursday in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the Legion’s No. 2 official said that he learned about Maciel’s daughter only in 2006.

The Legion continued to honor Maciel in its official literature and to deny the allegations against him until last year.

Earlier this year, two Mexican men also stepped forward to claim that Maciel was their father.

The Legion claims to have 800 priests and more than 2,500 seminarians in 21 countries, including the United States. Regnum Christi claims 70,000 lay members in 45 countries.

Get HuffPost Religion OnTwitter! By Francis X. RoccaReligion News ServiceVATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met on Friday (April 30) with the leaders of a Vatican investigation of the Legion of Christ, a conservative Catholic mo…By Francis X. RoccaReligion News ServiceVATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI met on Friday (April 30) with the leaders of a Vatican investigation of the Legion of Christ, a conservative Catholic mo… Loading…

Pope says ’sorry’ for Irish church abuse – CNN.com

Child abuse claims sweep Catholic Church in Europe – Yahoo! News

For Years, Deaf Boys Tried to Tell of Priestâ

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Louisiana Oil Spill: Who Made The Bigger Mess, BP Or Federal Government?

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New York Times:

NEW ORLEANS — Officials in the Obama administration began for the first time Friday to publicly chastise BP America for its handling of the spreading oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, calling the oil company’s current resources inadequate to stop what is unfolding into an environmental catastrophe.

Read the whole story: New York Times

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Louisiana Oil Spill Brings New Questions About Regulation, Self-Policing After Accident

huffingtonpost.com RegulationBarack ObamaWASHINGTON — Suddenly, everything changed.For days, as an oil spill spread in the Gulf of Mexico, BP assured the government the plume was manageable, not catastrophic. Federal authorities were…WASHINGTON — Suddenly, everything changed.For days, as an oil spill spread in the Gulf of Mexico, BP assured the government the plume was manageable, not catastrophic. Federal authorities were… Loading…

Oil Leak in Gulf of Mexico May Be 5 Times Initial Estimate – NYTimes.com

Crews try to protect wildlife from Texas oil spill – Yahoo! News

‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ Champions Silent On Gulf Oil Spill

Gulf oil spill ‘five times’ larger than estimated

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Suns Finish Off Blazers, Face Spurs In Round 2

huffingtonpost.com NBAPORTLAND, Ore. — Jason Richardson scored 28 points, including five 3-pointers, and the Phoenix Suns advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 99-90 victory over the Portland Trail Blaz…PORTLAND, Ore. — Jason Richardson scored 28 points, including five 3-pointers, and the Phoenix Suns advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 99-90 victory over the Portland Trail Blaz…

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Drew Brees, Switch Hitter: Baseball Skills Come Natural To NFL QB (VIDEO)

Eminem RIPS Ben Roethlisberger In ‘Despicable,’ His…   Comments 2 Pending Comments 0 View FAQ You must be logged in to comment. Log in  or connect with 

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HUFFPOST HILL – APRIL 29, 2010

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TRENDING

2010 TREND – WaPo’s Garance Franke-Ruta: “Record numbers of GOP women campaigning for House seats” http://bit.ly/bvcbMk

DEBATE BEGINS ON FINANCIAL REFORM, FOR REAL – It’s here! It’s here! After three days of unending obstinacy from Senate Republicans, the upper chamber began debate on financial reform with a great big helping of meh. The proceedings began with a whole lot of back patting and consideration of a derivatives amendment introduced by Chris Dodd and Blanche Lincoln. Debate is expected to stretch for over two weeks, with the objective of passing a bill by mid-May. http://bit.ly/bEDFRd

HOLES IN DERIVATIVES AMENDMENT? – AlterNet calls into question the efficiency of the Dodd-Lincoln amendment: “Lincoln would have banned any derivatives that constitute outright gambling. Some derivatives help companies hedge risks, but others are just straightforward bets that a Las Vegas bookie could set up for you. This is the kind of trading that got Goldman Sachs into trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission…The biggest source of trouble with derivatives is the fact that the entire market operates in secret. Banks trade with each other, and that’s the end of it. Nobody else in the market verifies the trade, and no regulator supervises it…

“Lincoln’s bill required central clearing for almost every derivatives trade, and the Dodd-Lincoln mash-up includes that language. Unfortunately, it also includes a brief section that completely undercuts that new rule (for wonks, its Section 739, paragraphs A and B). Under the current bill, there is no penalty for anybody who fails to centrally clear their trades–even though the bill labels this activity illegal. What’s more, even though this behavior is illegal, the trade itself is still valid. In other words, banks are required to bring their trading into the open. But if they don’t shed light on their trades, nothing will happen to them. I wonder what banks will choose.” http://bit.ly/8YE6c0

FRIGHTENING PENTAGON REPORT: AFGHAN TALIBAN GETTING STRONGER – LA Times’ Julian E. Barnes writes, “A Pentagon report presented a sobering new assessment Wednesday of the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, saying that its abilities are expanding and its operations are increasing in sophistication, despite recent major offensives by U.S. forces in the militants’ heartland. The report, requested by Congress, portrays an insurgency with deep roots and broad reach, able to withstand repeated U.S. onslaughts and to reestablish its influence, while discrediting and undermining the country’s Western-backed government.” http://bit.ly/a2V6gV

Full Pentagon report (pdf): http://bit.ly/bs8sUx — Central Asia analyst Joshua Foust tweets, “Page 129 of this document succinctly summarizes why we will lose the war in Afghanistan” http://bit.ly/9LCrl2

SCOTUS WATCH: KAGAN ENDORSED HOT-BUTTON BUSH NOMINEES – HuffPost’s Sam Stein: “The current Solicitor General and leading choice for the Supreme Court signed her name to letters of recommendation for two controversial Bush picks: Peter Keisler, the co-founder of the conservative Federalist Society whose various nominations were blocked in the Senate; and Michael McConnell, a conservative law professor who was nominated and confirmed to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.In offering her support, Kagan explained that she did not agree with every aspect of the respective nominee’s jurisprudence, merely the character and integrity they brought to the bench. Several prominent progressive figures and many academics made similar assessments.” http://huff.to/dw32cB

CONAN BLASTS LENO – Early peek at Conan O’Brien’s first post-NBC interview on Sunday’s 60 Minutes: ‘He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know– I know me, I wouldn’t have done that,’ O’Brien says. ‘If I had surrendered The Tonight Show and handed it over to somebody publicly and wished them well– and then…six months later. But that’s me, you know. Everyone’s got their own, you know, way of doing things,’ he tells Kroft. Asked by Kroft what he would have done, O’Brien says, ‘Done something else, go someplace else. I mean, that’s just me.’”

GRAHAM: “I CARE EQUALLY ABOUT IMMIGRATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE” – Ezra Klein spoke with Lindsey Graham, who has been in the center of the Senate scheduling kerfuffle: “I care equally about immigration and climate change. But if you stack them together this year you’ll compromise climate and energy. You’ll compromise my ability to get votes on climate change. When I told everyone I would do climate, in fact, I was assured we also wouldn’t be doing immigration. And on immigration, Arizona has made comprehensive reform very difficult this year. And the manner in which it’s coming up, where Sen. Reid brings it up at a rally because he’s down 15 points in Nevada, is bad for immigration reform.” http://bit.ly/d5H7la

DEPORTING-YER-OFFSPRING WATCH, DAY SIX – Despite the best efforts of Duncan Hunter, American-born children are not being deported…YET.

DOJ TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST ARIZONA? – High-ranking officials in the Obama administration think the DOJ should get litigious on Arizona for its take-no-prisoners by taking-a-lot-of-prisoners immigration law. From WaPo’s Markon and Kornblut: “‘The president had strong words to say and the attorney general had strong words to say,’ said one law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no decision has been made. ‘Considering that it’s signed into law, and Arizona is doing a lot of pomp and circumstance, do you see a friendly way out of this?’ A key legal ground being considered, officials said, is the doctrine of ‘preemption — arguing that the state’s law illegally intrudes on immigration enforcement, which is a federal responsibility.” http://bit.ly/cikV7L

GRIJALVA IN HUFFPOST: “Turning immigrants into scapegoats for every social and economic setback is not what America should be about. The new Arizona law has introduced the unspoken word ‘race’ into the debate. By promoting racial profiling as a legal tool, it has effectively unmasked a very real motivation for some people to oppose meaningful immigration reform,” writes Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona in HuffPost this evening.

OH, AND ONE MORE THING DUNCAN HUNTER… – If they’re American citizens, would foreign countries even be required to take the kids? If not, would we just jail them?

BECAUSE YOU’VE READ THIS FAR – Here’s Darius, the world’s largest rabbit: http://bit.ly/8Z8QfM

OBAMA TO FILL FED BOARD OF GOVERNORS VACANCIES – Today the President formally nominated Janet Yellen to fill the number two spot at the Fed and also proposed Peter Diamond and Sara Bloom Raskin for board vacancies. HuffPost Hill says this at the risk of tanking their nominations, but we really like Diamond and Raskin. Yellen kinda blew it on the housing bubble, the biggest economic-management blunder in decades, but she says she’s learned from it. And if you’re not convinced yet on Raskin, let’s leave it at this: She lives in Takoma Park.

COMFORT FOOD

- Floridians can’t stop schtupping animals and now a legislator there is trying to ban bestiality…for the second time. http://bit.ly/9NHh24

- Never-before-published images of Hitler’s bunker. http://bit.ly/cRhieL

- “How I Met Your Motherboard” compiles peoples’ stories of their first computer experiences. http://bit.ly/cFFaI7

- The worst American oil spills. http://huff.to/bB8iFX

- Why do these khakis cost $500? http://nyti.ms/9ADPDa

- The most bizarre beauty treatments. http://bit.ly/cdMPiJ

- From the makers of the Snuggie comes the Spankie. Complete with easy access for…um… http://bit.ly/cStNUx

TWITTERAMA

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Eminem RIPS Ben Roethlisberger In ‘Despicable,’ His Latest Song (VIDEO)

huffingtonpost.com VideoNFLPITTSBURGH — Eminem mentions Ben Roethlisberger in his latest song: “Despicable.”The million-selling rapper refers to the Steelers’ troubled quarterback in explicit lyrics and with the lines, …PITTSBURGH — Eminem mentions Ben Roethlisberger in his latest song: “Despicable.”The million-selling rapper refers to the Steelers’ troubled quarterback in explicit lyrics and with the lines, … Related News On Huffington Post:  

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Mississippi Tornado Victims Get Gifts, New Wedding Dress

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Oil spill threatens already fragile Louisiana ecosystem

Tornado Couple Receives Wedding Dress, Trip – Jackson Weather News Story – WAPT …

Miss. tornado couple receives wedding dress, trip – Yahoo! News

The Associated Press: Miss. tornado couple receives wedding dress, trip

Report CorrectionsWhat’s Your Reaction?Inspiring
Motivating
Moving
Scary
Outrageous
Amazing
Innovative
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More in Impact…

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Suns Finish Off Blazers, Face Spurs In Round 2

huffingtonpost.com NBAPORTLAND, Ore. — Jason Richardson scored 28 points, including five 3-pointers, and the Phoenix Suns advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 99-90 victory over the Portland Trail Blaz…PORTLAND, Ore. — Jason Richardson scored 28 points, including five 3-pointers, and the Phoenix Suns advanced to the second round of the playoffs with a 99-90 victory over the Portland Trail Blaz…

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Upper Big Branch Miners’ Families Offered $3 Million Settlement By Massey Energy

huffingtonpost.com EnergyWest Virginia Mine DisasterEllen DegeneresCHARLESTON, W.Va. — Massey Energy Co. is offering $3 million to each of the families of 29 men killed in an explosion at its Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, the daughter of one of t…CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Massey Energy Co. is offering $3 million to each of the families of 29 men killed in an explosion at its Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia, the daughter of one of t… Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:

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Oklahoma Immigration Law: Conservative Lawmakers Want Bill Like Arizona

huffingtonpost.com ImmigrationCivil RightsArizona PoliticsOKLAHOMA CITY — Not to be outdone by Arizona, some conservative lawmakers in Oklahoma say they plan to introduce a bill similar to that state’s controversial new immigration law.Republican sta…OKLAHOMA CITY — Not to be outdone by Arizona, some conservative lawmakers in Oklahoma say they plan to introduce a bill similar to that state’s controversial new immigration law.Republican sta… Related News On Huffington Post:  

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Sidney Thomas Interviews With Obama For Supreme Court Nomination

huffingtonpost.com Supreme CourtJoe Biden WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday interviewed federal appeals court Judge Sidney Thomas of Montana for an opening on the Supreme Court, a person familiar with the conversation told…WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday interviewed federal appeals court Judge Sidney Thomas of Montana for an opening on the Supreme Court, a person familiar with the conversation told… Related News On Huffington Post:  

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Goldman Sachs Case Sent To Justice Department Prosecutors By SEC

gmail.com Goldman SachsEric HolderThe Securities and Exchange Commission has referred the ongoing investigation of Goldman Sachs to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, according to a source familiar with the matt…The Securities and Exchange Commission has referred the ongoing investigation of Goldman Sachs to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution, according to a source familiar with the matt… Related News On Huffington Post:  

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Kate Hudson Flaunts Figure With Gwyneth Paltrow & Christina Ricci (PHOTOS)

Kate Hudson’s Poncho & What’s Underneath: Hit Or Miss? (PHOTOS, POLL) Amid breast implant rumors (about which supermodel and blogger Paulina Porizkova had a lot to say), Kate Hudson attended the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of…

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