Daily Democratic Wire 9-30-2009

George Wenschhof

Today, President Barack Obama will give a speech at NIH where he will announce 5 Billion in funding through the Stimulus bill for work toward cures in cancer and other diseases - the National Institutes for Health is located in Bethesda and the President will be accompanied by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The Washington Post has more here.

This afternoon,the president will meet with his entire foreign policy team to discuss U.S. strategy in Afghanistan.

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Michelle Obama arrives in Copenhagen to promote Chicago as the host of the 2016 Olympics - Rio de Janeiro appears the be the other main competitor. Michelle will be joined by her husband tomorrow. You can read more here.

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More economic good news - 2nd quarter revised numbers show the gross domestic product (GNP) drop for the second quarter to be only 0.7% which is significantly lower than the 6.4% drop in the first quarter. Analysts are predicting growth up to 3% for the third quarter ending today. You can read more here.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also released a statement yesterday saying the global economy had turned the corner. They called for financial restructuring of the financial system to prevent another crisis. The NY Times has more here.

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"Public Option" fails to survive Senate mark up of health care bill - the Senate Finance Committee defeated Senator Jay Rockefeller's (D-W.Va.) proposal 15-8 and Senator Charles Schumer's (D-NY) amendment 13-10. However, do not count the public option out yet as there are numerous ways it could still end up included in a final bill. Reuters.com has more here.

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