Democratic News Chatter 4-22-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

Today, President Barack Obama will be in Newton, Iowa - Here. on Earth Day, Obama will talk about his Energy Plan. Newton is a small town which was hit hard with job losses by the closure of a Maytag plant a year ago. Trinity Structures Wind energy plant is now opening and plans to hire over 100 workers. The plant builds the structures for wind turbines. Time.com has more here.

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CFO of Freddie Mac dies from apparent suicide - David Kellerman was found dead in his home this morning. Freddie Mac is a government owned company that owns and guarantees home mortgages. They and Fannie Mae have both suffered huge losses due to mortgage defaults. Kellerman was named chief financial officer after the government took over the company in September of 2008. You can read more here.

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Government Stress-Test Reports on Banks due out Friday - reportedly the first round of the stress tests conducted by the government on the financial health of many Banks will be shared with them at the end of this week. The reports will be made public next week. The wall Street Journal has more here.

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Christopher Hill confirmed by Senate to be U.S. Ambassador to Iraq - Republicans had argues the career diplomat did not have direct experience in Iraq and did not speak Arabic. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) who is the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee supported Hill saying his experience made him the right person for the job. the vote was 73-23 with all of the opposing votes being Republicans. CNN.com has more here.

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Kathleen Sebelius to receive confirmation as Health and Human Services secretary within the next week - finally, the Obama Cabinet will be complete. The Kansas Governor received a 15-8 vote from the senate Finance Committee yesterday with all eight who opposed her nomination being Republicans. Tom Daschle was originally nominated for the position by the President but withdrew due to tax issues. MSNBC.com has more here.

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Prosecution possible for those who ok'd harsh interrogation techniques - President Obama left open the possibility of prosecution when he recently replied to the question this would mostly be up to the Attorney General to decide. Rueters.com has more here.

Recently released memos point out the huge number of times waterboarding was used on various individuals, some over 100 times, leading even more to question the validity of any confession obtained under these circumstances. Today, the NY Times has an article that describes how those involved in approving the harsh methods knew little about the techniques they were approving. You can read this article here.

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