Nov. 13, 2008
Authorities are bracing for possible mudslides and road closures after extreme rain in Oregon and Washington State. KGW's Teresa Yuan reports.

If General Motors declares bankruptcy, industry watchers say, the entire domestic auto industry could be badly hurt.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If General Motors really does run out of money by the end of the year, as it predicted was possible, the impact would be felt far and wide - to hundreds of suppliers, rival automakers and ultimately dealers across the nation.

"Once the first domino falls, it rapidly takes out all the other dominoes," said Dennis Virag, president of the Automotive Consulting Group.

Suppliers would be among the first to feel those effects since GM only manufactures the body, the engine and the transmission used in its cars.

In the United States alone, GM spends $31 billion on parts from 2,100 different suppliers. These include the "direct suppliers" involved in producing a vehicle - those that provide everything from steering wheels and seatbelts to brakes and airbags - as well as "indirect suppliers" - those that make things such as gloves, protective eyewear, shop rags and lightbulbs.

Although lawmakers appear to be souring on providing a $25 billion bailout to automakers, the impact of a GM failure on the industry as a whole - and therefore the economy as a whole - is weighing heavily in their decisions.

So far this year, 23 major auto-related companies, most of them parts suppliers, have filed for bankruptcy, according to consulting firm Grant Thornton. They are struggling since car makers have cut back as sales have slowed and raw-material prices have risen.

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The Amish farmers claim (.pdf) Michigan regulations requiring them to use radio frequency identification devices on their cattle "constitutes some form of a 'mark of the beast' and/or represents an infringement of their 'dominion over cattle and all living things' in violation of their fundamental religious beliefs," according to the farmers' lawsuit filed in September in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In response to the charges, the United States Department of Agriculture wrote (.pdf) Thursday that its RFID tagging program is a voluntary measure to help agricultural officials track bovine and other livestock diseases. The USDA said the lawsuit should be directed at Michigan, which adopted RFID requirements last year.

The case should be dismissed, the administration wrote, "because plaintiffs cannot establish that any rule issued or action taken by the USDA either mandates the use of RFID tags on livestock located within Michigan, or, conversely, prevents the Michigan Department of Agriculture from granting appropriate religious exemptions imposed by that department."

The farmers, however, contend the program is a USDA mandate because the Michigan law was adapted last year as part of a multi-million dollar, federally backed grant program to help eradicate livestock disease.

As radio frequency identification devices become a daily part of the electronic age, RFID technology is increasingly coming under fire for allegedly being the mark of Satan. The technology is fast becoming a part of passports, payment cards, locking devices and is widely expected to replace bar-code labels on consumer goods.

The Virginia-based Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, a 1,400-member group, brought the case. Some of its members so staunchly oppose the program that "they may have to quit farming," according to the lawsuit.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Europe officially fell into recession on Friday and the U.S. economy suffered thousands more layoffs and the biggest retail sales dip on record as world leaders headed to Washington to address the worst financial crisis in 80 years.

Leaders of the world's 20 most important economies are not expected to make any breakthroughs at the meeting in the U.S. capital, given the absence of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, whose involvement will be key to any global initiatives.

The financial crisis continues to wreak havoc on the world's major economies, with official data showing the 15-nation euro zone economy had shrunk by 0.2 percent for the second quarter in a row, meaning it technically is in recession.

The United States is probably already in recession, most economists agree, but official data showing that will not come out until January.

"Frankly, we at Dow are looking at an '09 that looks like a pretty protracted global recession, probably going into 2010," Andrew Liveris, the chief executive of Dow Chemical Co, the largest U.S. chemical maker, told Reuters.

Signs for the U.S. economy worsened on Friday. Retail sales fell a record 2.8 percent in October, according to government data, the biggest decline since comparable numbers were first collected in 1992.

Citigroup Inc, one of the hardest-hit financial companies, will soon announce job cuts of up to 10 percent of its staff, according to a source familiar with the matter. That could affect more than 30,000 employees.

Sun Microsystems Inc said it would slash up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its workforce, as it looks to save money while demand wanes for its high-end business computers.

Fidelity Investments, the world's biggest mutual fund company, told employees it will cut a further 1,700 jobs on top of 1,300 already announced.

Freddie Mac, the second-largest provider of U.S. home loan financing, reported a $25 billion quarterly loss as the housing slump worsened, forcing it to draw on a $100 billion Treasury Department lifeline.

Meanwhile, approval of a bailout for the big U.S. automakers was in doubt, increasing the possibility of a wave of mass layoffs at General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC. READ MORE

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says the city is implementing the plan because sexuality "has a lot to do with quality of life and our happiness."

City Health Secretary Armando Ahued said Thursday that the government will start handing out doses of one or two Viagra, Levitra or Cialis pills on Dec. 1.

Ahued says an estimated 112,000 men 70 or older live in the Federal District, which has a population of 8.7 million.

Some 20 million people live in the greater Mexico City area.

BOSTON – Zeituni Onyango came to the United States seeking asylum from her native Kenya but was turned down and ordered to leave the country in 2004.

Four years later, she is still here. And her nephew is about to become president of the United States.

Onyango's family connection to Barack Obama has thrown a spotlight on a phenomenon many Americans might find startling: An estimated half-million immigrants are living in the United States in defiance of deportation orders.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stepped up efforts to catch fugitive aliens, as they are known, and now has about 100 "fugitive operations teams" around the country. In the past year, the teams have made 34,000 arrests, more than double the number two years ago. But there are still 560,000 such immigrants in the U.S.

Fugitive aliens include people who, like Obama's aunt, sought asylum in the United States but were rejected and ordered to leave the country. Others were caught entering or living in this country illegally, and failed to show at their deportation hearings.

Often, illegal immigrants who have been issued deportation notices are given a certain amount of time to get out of the country on their own. They are not forcibly put aboard a plane; these deportations essentially operate on the honor system.

Generally, if these immigrants stay out of trouble — if they don't get pulled over by police or swept up in a workplace raid, for example — they are in little danger of being thrown out of the country.

That galls many immigration reform advocates, who say the practice breeds disrespect for the law and emboldens immigrants to sneak in and stay.

"We are strong believers of enforcement of our immigration laws, and this is a priority area for getting the message across to this country, that if they've been convicted of committing crimes or if they have been ordered deported, that they will be apprehended if they try to hide and continue to stay in the country," said Jack Martin of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Government officials say that they do the best they can with the money and manpower available to them, and that they focus on the most serious cases, including those involving illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country.

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Russia condemns Ukraine for distorting history

Dmitry Medvedev sent a message to his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko in which he harshly criticized his approach to famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933. Medvedev also refused to participate in the commemoration of the 75^th anniversary of Holodomor. The Ukrainian administration believes that the Soviet Union deliberately provoked famine in the country to exterminate the Ukrainian nation.

The Russian administration realizes that the subject of Holodomor has become one of the key issues of Ukraine’s foreign politics during the recent years. “We believe that a part of the political elite and administration of Ukraine intends to use the attitude to this issue as a test for patriotism and loyalty,” Itar-Tass quoted Medvedev.

Medvedev wrote that President Yushchenko urged to clear history of the ideological layering. “I definitely share such an approach. However, Ukraine uses the tragic events of the 1930s as a tool to achieve certain political goals,” the Russian president wrote.

Ukraine ’s parliament passed the law on November 28, 2006, which said that Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine was an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation. Yushchenko offered to introduce criminal responsibility for denying the legally provided description of the historical events.

“It just so happens that those who disagree with the law will fall under criminal persecution, like it used to be during the totalitarian era. In other words, any citizen of Ukraine who says that there were not only Ukrainians, but also Russians, Kazakhs and Belarusians who died during that period from hunger, becomes a criminal,” Medvedev wrote.

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U.S. economic mettle is tested as emboldened leaders from throughout the world gather in Washington.

Some European leaders are hailing the summit as the next Bretton Woods - a reference to the historic talks in the latter days of WWII that, in effect, made the dollar the world's dominant currency and laid the foundation for the economic order of the past 60 years.

The United States basically ran those meetings. Close to prevailing in the war, it was the world's undisputed military and economic leader.

But today, with the current credit crisis partly rooted in America, and with the rising economic might of China and a unified Europe, that dominance is being challenged.

"The Europeans see themselves as taking a position equal to the U.S.," said Irene Finel-Honigman, an international affairs professor at Columbia University specializing in international banking. "We're looking at a different composition of players and a different powerplay. It's going to be fascinating to watch."

Pittsburgh, PA (AHN) - United States Steel Corp. announced Thursday it has cut 675 production workers in North America. The cuts are effective immediately as the company aims to cut costs as steel demand continues to slow.

The job cut effects 500 U.S. based employees and 175 Canadian employees. All of the affected workers are union members.

"We regret having to do this, but it's necessary in order to control costs and maintain our competitiveness in this difficult environment," said company spokesman John Armstrong, according to the Associated Press.

The layoffs are spread out among workers in U.S Steel plants in Pittsburgh; Gary, Indiana; River Rough, Michigan and Granite City, Illinois.

Layoffs in Canada were spread between the company's two Ontario based plants.

U.S. steel is cutting back as it sees demand for flat-rolled steel decline. The product is used when building appliances and autos, two products that are experiencing very weak demand in the current economy.

The company said in its third quarter earnings report that it reduced production late in the quarter as order rates had declined for flat-rolled steel.

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has issued a heightened security alert a day after Ethiopia's government warned of an imminent terrorist attack. VOA's Peter Heinlein in the Ethiopian capital reports the alert coincides with a government roundup of ethnic Oromos, including several prominent citizens, on suspicion of collaborating with terrorists.

An e-mail sent by the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia advises Americans in the country to avoid public gatherings and public places. The message specifically mentions hotels as places to avoid.

The message was sent less than 24 hours after Ethiopia's Anti-Terrorism Task Force warned of an imminent terrorist attack and urged citizens to be vigilant.

Police recently rounded up about two dozen members of Ethiopia's largest ethnic community, the Oromos, and charged them with aiding terrorists. Among those arrested were the top managers of two of Addis Ababa's finest hotels, as well as the leader of one of the largest Oromo political parties.

Witnesses say those detained were told during a courtroom proceeding that they were suspected of collecting money and sending it to known members of the Oromo Liberation Front, an armed insurgent group.

Bereket Simon, senior adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was quoted earlier as saying the leader of the Oromo Federal Democratic Movement, Bakele Jirata, had been working 'hand in glove' with terrorists. READ MORE

LONDON, England -- Many people think of tuberculosis as being a disease from the past. The truth is far from it: Tuberculosis is mutating into dangerous new strains for which there is no known cure.

A mother comforts her young son who is suffering from TB meningitis.

more photos »

One of the most frightening strains is XDR-TB, which stands for extensively drug-resistant TB.

Unlike less virulent strains, XDR-TB does not respond to the antibiotics that are usually used to treat TB. The disease is virtually incurable and threatens to become a pandemic.

About 40,000 new cases of XDR-TB emerge every year, the World Health Organization estimates.

Award-winning photojournalist James Nachtwey, who has chronicled the death and devastation the disease is bringing to many countries around the world, describes XDR-TB as "a merciless, man-eating predator lurking in the shadows."

He warns: "If it's not contained, the consequences could be dire."

Nachtwey, who has been covering humanitarian crises for more than 30 years, was awarded a TED prize in 2007 which gave him $100,000 and one wish to change the world.

His wish centered on spreading awareness of this deadly form of TB and the images are borne out of Nachtwey's frustrations with the underreporting of what is potentially a global health crisis.

His photos tell the grim stories of impending death. In one, a man's suffering is so palpable that it is almost impossible to tear your eyes away from him.

Another image shows a woman in a Thai hospital staring vacantly, as if resigned to the fact that death is soon approaching. See Nachtwey's arresting photos »

Back in September, Paulson's unprecedented $700 billion bailout plan was pushed through with such urgency because everything in the U.S. financial system appeared to be on the verge of collapse. Immediate action was needed to give stability to the stock markets.

However, only six weeks later the secretary of the treasury has just announced a dramatic switch: His original plan was to use the $700 billion to buy "toxic" assets from banks. Yet since then, Paulson and his team have not used the unprecedented power Congress gave them to buy as much as one such asset. Instead, Paulson declared Wednesday he now wants to buy bank stocks.

U.S. stocks have dropped about $1 trillion in value the last three days -- about $600 billion after Paulson's news conference Wednesday.

Paulson's credibility with investors, financial institutions and the markets has now melted down to zero. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,388.44 on Sept. 19, when the bailout was announced. It closed at 8,282.66 Wednesday.

Paulson said the original plan to buy bad loans would take too much time. His new idea is to buy bank stocks and encourage the banks to resume their normal lending practices. But there is no provision to direct any of the money to the three big carmakers in Detroit, which together directly influence around 10 percent of the U.S. economy. General Motors (NYSE:GM) has asked for an urgent $25 billion bailout. Huge as that appears, it is less than 3 percent of the funds Congress approved for Paulson in September that he has not yet used.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday accused the United States of standing by as the U.S. dollar falls, warning that risks of an "economic war" in global trade were rising.

"Those who admire the nation that has built the world's greatest economy and has never ceased trying to persuade the world of the advantages of free trade expect her to be the first to promote fair exchange rates," Sarkozy said in a speech to a joint session of U.S. Congress.

"The (Chinese) yuan is already everyone's problem. The dollar cannot remain solely the problem of others. If we're not careful, monetary disarray could morph into economic war. We would all be its victims," Sarkozy said.

His comments came as the U.S. dollar dropped to a record low against the euro. European businesses and some officials have complained that the euro's strength is threatening to undermine growth in the euro zone.

A group of thugs, six white and one black, attacked and killed an Ecuadoran immigrant in Long Island. It is not only a major national news story, hundreds of major media outlets are falsely reporting that all the attackers were white. Even so-called conservative FOX News falsely reported “7 white teens arrested.”

More Americans are killed by illegal aliens each year than all the people who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

However, none of these victims are ever called “hate crime victims” or sensationalized by the mainstream media.

Had the victim been one of the thousands of whites murdered by a Chicano, it would have never made it past the local paper. Instead, this murder has generated over 1,000 stories in the press nationwide. This murder is reported on CNN and blamed on “talk radio.” As if the street thugs who carried out the murder really listened to talk radio.

Californian queers are still burning up over this week's passage of Proposition 8, which overturned gay marriage in the Golden State.

In addition to Wednesday's protests, die-hard activists are now turning their attention on the Church of Latter-day Saints, which played a pivotal role in rallying their troops behind the discriminatory ballot measure.

Crowds of gays gathered yesterday outside a Mormon temple in Westwood, California, where they brandished signs decrying the group's anti-gay lobbying. Then, as the sun went down, about 3,000 people flooded into the street and tangling traffic. Though the action was mostly peaceful, there were three arrests, according to the Associated Press.

In addition to these protests - and three lawsuits - gay marriage activists are also hoping to hit the Mormon church where it hurts: they've launched a petition to strip the group of their tax-exempt status. That status stipulates that religious groups not use their organization and power for political purposes.

To restore the right stolen from us, we must correct the amendment to California's constitution. To do this requires another statewide proposition. Yet how will we avoid another election season of deception, when the Mormon Church can pour limitless, tax-free money into advancing their platform?
…
In this country, you can be a church. You can be a political action committee. You cannot be both. The Mormon Church stands in direct defiance of the spirit of our laws by actively campaigning to change California law.

You can be sure California hasn't heard the last of these cries - in fact, there are scores of protests planned for this weekend. We gays are tenacious - as we should be!

WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday financial markets are under severe stress and central bankers around the world are ready to do more to ease credit strains and support faltering economic growth.

"The continuing volatility of markets and recent indicators of economic performance confirm that challenges remain," he said in remarks prepared for delivery to a European Central Bank conference in Frankfurt.

"For this reason, policymakers will remain in close contact, monitor developments closely, and stand ready to take additional steps should conditions warrant," he said.

Mr. Bernanke said steps that central banks have taken to ease liquidity strains and ensure short-term dollar funding around the world have led to improvements in credit market functioning, although he described those gains as "tentative."

"Financial markets remain under severe strain," he said.

The Fed has cut interest rates by 4.25 percentage points since September 2007 to 1% to counter the credit crisis and support the faltering U.S. economy. In addition, the U.S. central bank has launched numerous lending and currency swap facilities to ensure ready access to funds by financial institutions.

On Oct. 8, central banks around cut interest rates in their first broadly coordinated policy action in history, as fears of a deep recession pushed aside recent worries over inflation. The central banks of the United States, the eurozone, Britain, Switzerland, Canada and Sweden all lowered official rates by a half-percentage point.

Mr. Bernanke said on Friday the joint action had been motivated by an easing of inflationary pressures and increased indications of economic slowing in each country.

"The coordinated rate cut was intended to send a strong signal to the public and to markets of our resolve to act together to address global economic challenges."

Job loss or unemployment has been triggering the rise of repo home listings, defeating old reasons like bad loans and its effects. So far this year, Americans who lost their jobs reached almost one million; resulting to lots of foreclosures due to non-payment. Economists believe that this number will still increase and national delinquency rate has a long way to go.

In answer to the economic crisis that hit the country, lots of private companies cut cost. Reducing its employees will obviously mean leaving too many people unemployed. Of course, they would not be able to pay their monthly dues, including their mortgages.

People who recently lost their jobs have had a hard time finding at least a same-paying job compared to what they have recently - a job that can accommodate their monthly mortgage payments. Worse, they have already used-up almost all of their savings and investments. As a result, they cannot pay anymore leading to foreclosure.

Depleting home prices and increasing number of job less people are two contributing factors to foreclosure. Case in point, in Florida where housing meltdown is worse than other states, the unemployment rate struck from 3.3 percent (May 2006) to 6.6 percent to-date. On the other hand, Freddie Mac reported 45.5 percent cases of delinquencies due to unemployment.

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Chicago, The City That Works is facing a new reality. Mayor Daley has been warned by CEOs to Prepare For Mass Layoffs.

The warning is out – Mayor Richard M. Daley says a parade of corporate chief executives have told him huge layoffs are planned around the city and will carry into next year.

The news is especially alarming because the discussion concerns not just city jobs, but the private sector. Thus, it seems the City That Works is about to become the city that gets laid off.

Mayor Daley says corporate leaders told him huge layoffs will impact the city this month and next, and into the new year. He also says city, county and state governments should be prepared for their revenue to fall dramatically because of the souring economy.

"This is going to be all year, so it's going to be a very frightening economy," Mayor Daley said. "Each one tells me what they're laying off, and they're going to double that next year. We're talking huge numbers of permanent layoffs for people in the economy. It's going to have a huge effect on all businesses."

The mayor said the gravity of the situation cannot be underestimated.

"We never experienced anything like this except people who came from the Depression," Mayor Daley said. "When you have that many layoffs early – and they're telling me this is only the beginning of their layoffs – that is very frightening."

The City Council will take a vote on the 2009 city budget Nov. 19. The budget contains layoffs, a slowdown in police hiring, and new taxes and fines – some bad news for Chicagoans who remain employed.

(IsraelNN.com) Vice President-elect Joe Biden has appointed former Clinton administration aide Ran Klain as his chief of staff, one week after President-elect Barack Obama tapped Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel to head the White House as chief of staff.

Both appointees are Jewish, but while Emanuel is an observant Jew, Klain intermarried more than 20 years ago and his family observes Christmas.

Klain, like Emanuel, promoted the Oslo Peace Accords, which eventually exploded into the Oslo War that has been raging since September, 2000. Emanuel choreographed the handshake between Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn in 1993.

Vice President-elect Biden's new top aide also served in the same position for Clinton's vice president Al Gore.

The reliance on Clinton administration officials endows the Obama-Biden government leaders with strong organizational skills but also with a legacy of handshaking and making declarations as a way to solve the Israeli-Arab struggle.

Klain was not directly involved in developments in the Middle East, in contrast to Emanuel. A public relations consultant who worked with Emanuel stated last year said that Emanuel "would like nothing more than to participate in another peace agreement signing."

Klain's religious background is light years from that of Emanuel, whose father was in the underground Irgun resistance movement during the British Mandate and who is an observant Jew.

Klain grew up in the Midwestern state of Indiana where Jewish identity meant not having a Christmas tree, he stated in a New York Times article last year. He is married to a non-Jew with an agreement that they celebrate Christmas but raise their children as Jews.

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