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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Daily Democratic Wire 6-11-2009

George Wenschhof

Today, President Barack Obama will travel to Green Bay Wisconsin - as I reported earlier in the week, the president will attend a town hall meeting at Southwest High School this afternoon to discuss his health care proposal. The Washington Post has more here. On Monday in Chicago, Obama will speak to the American Medical Association about needed health care reform. The Chicago Tribune has more here.

Meanwhile, back in capitol hill, Democrats continue to battle among themselves on the best plan for health care reform. Politico.com has a good read here.

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Vice President Joe Biden kicks off "Road to Recovery" Tour today - the vice president will be promoting the Stimulus Bill by attending groundbreaking ceremonies on projects in different states. This morning he will be in Carlisle, Pennsylvania joined by Governor Ed Rendell and new Democratic Senator Arlen Specter for the Route 34 Bridge project. Then, it is off to Overland Park. Kansas for the US 69 project. Tomorrow, Biden will be in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the groundbreaking of the widening of Interstate 94. The Boston Globe has more here.

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Retail sales up after three months of decline, Unemployment Claims drop - the increase was 0.5% and while not huge, some speculate it signals a bottoming out. Bloomberg.com has more here.

The Labor department reported a drop of 24,000 unemployment claims from the previous week. MSNBC.com has more here. Before everyone starts believing the worst is behind us, summer is a time when many seasonal jobs are added to the workforce. 6.8 million are still receiving unemployment benefits, the highest number on record.

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Republican members of Senate Judiciary Committee request more information from Sotomayor - in a combined show of grandstanding and obstructionism, they requested information on over 200 speeches given by the supreme court nominee. CNN.com has more here.

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WHO to give update on H1N1 Flu today - Dr. Margaret Chan, director of the World Health Organization will speak at a news conference today. It is speculated, the rating will be moved from 5 on the 6 point scale to 6 indicating a pandemic flu, the first since 1968. The rating does not indicate the severity, but rather the flu has spread worldwide. So far, the majority of the cases have been mild. Reuters.com has more here.

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Iran holds Presidential election tomorrow - incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces three challengers; Moshen Razai, Mehdi Karoubi and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi. If no candidate receives 50% of the vote, a runoff election will be held within a week between the top two candidates. This will be interesting to watch. The Boston Globe has more here.

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1 comment:

Helen said...

I saw him at Southwest High, George and he was just as "good" as always!

We "all" should support him by encouraging our friends and relatives to get behind him; write to our local papers, and, our representatives, our State Leaders too. A letter directly to President Obama from time to time too, will help him. He says he's "all ears", to anything constructive that anyone has to offer!

Helen