Democratic News Chatter 4-15-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

The First Family's new dog receives Presidential treatment - the new family dog promised to their daughters after Barack Obama had won the Democratic party nomination has finally arrived at the White House. The Portuguese water dog has been named "Bo". If you missed his appearance on television last night, CNN.com has a clip you can watch here. I must say, he handles all the attention very well.

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President Obama prepares for next international summit - this time it is the Summit of the America's hosted in Trinidad and Tobaga. He will leave Friday to attend the fifth annual meeting with the leaders of these countries. He will meet for the first time some Latin America Leaders who have not exactly been on the friendly side of the U.S. - among them Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, and Evo Morales of Bolivia. The Washington post has more here.

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Consumer Price Index falls 0.1% in March - good news for the consumer as the figures reported by the Labor Department show consumer prices have now fallen 0.4% over the last year. This is the first decline since 1955. Declines in the costs for food and fuel led the decrease in prices. Bloomberg.com has more here. This should not be surprising as people are spending less money. It is only logical that prices would be reduced during a recession.

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Napolitano to name "Border Czar" today - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to name Alan Bersin to the post. A former prosecutor, he will oversee efforts dealing with the drug cartels and illegal immigration along the border of Mexico. You can read more here.

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NY District 20 special election update - all of the absentee ballots have not been counted but currently Democrat Scott Murphy has a 47 vote lead over Republican Jim Tedisco. Interestingly, the Tedisco campaign who is challenging many of the absentee ballots, has even challenged the vote of Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand is the Democrat who held the seat before being named by NY Governor David Paterson to fill the vacant Hillary Clinton U.S. Senate seat. Politico.com has more here.

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