*HAPPY NEW YEAR*

Congress To Automakers: No Plan, No Money
Congressional leaders told Detroit's Big Three automakers Thursday that they have until Dec. 2 to submit a plan to Congress on how they will use billions of taxpayer funds to bring their companies from the brink of destruction.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the House and Senate would hold hearings as necessary the week and move forward with a vote on a loan package the following week if the plan proved logical and able to be done.  Reid said the auto industry executives that testified on Capitol Hill this week did not "convince the Congress or the American people that this bailout will be their last" or stop the bleeding from the troubled industry.  Fox News

Obama To Tap Arizona Gov. As Homeland Security Chief
President-elect Barack Obama's top choice to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.  According to other reports, Obama has also selected billionaire Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker as commerce secretary. She was his campaign finance chairwoman, and is credited with Obama's breaking all political fundraising records.  Gov. Napolitano, whose handling of immigration issues brought her praise from fellow governors, was an early supporter and campaigner for Obama's presidential campaign and was reported to be on a short list of people to fill cabinet posts in the new administration. Fox News

Senate Votes To Extend Jobless Benefits
Responding to the worsening economic climate, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday in favor of a measure to extend unemployment benefits by at least seven weeks in every state.  The bill calls for benefits to be extended by 13 weeks in states with an unemployment rate of at least 6 percent.  President Bush announced Thursday that he will sign the bill, which was approved by the House in October.  White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement that Bush will sign the legislation "because of the tight job market." CNN

Federal Judge Orders Release Of 5 Guantanamo Detainees
A federal judge ordered the release of five Guantanamo Bay detainees Thursday, saying the government failed to show that they were "enemy combatants."   Judge Richard Leon issued the order in the case of six detainees who were challenging their detention after the Supreme Court ruled in June that all Guantanamo detainees could fight their detentions.  On Thursday, Leon ruled that five of the six should be released because the government failed to show by a preponderance of evidence that any of them, other than one man identified as bin Saeed, had planned to travel to Afghanistan to take up arms against the United States and its allies, as the government claimed. CNN

Obama's AG Choice Was Key Figure In Clinton Terrorist Clemency Controversy
Eric Holder, the long-time Washington lawyer chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next attorney general, was a central figure in the controversy surrounding the clemency petitions of 16 convicted terrorists during the Clinton administration.  Holder, who was deputy attorney general from 1997 until 2001, oversaw all of the requests for clemency filed during those years, including requests from former domestic terrorists, drug traffickers and a number of disgraced politicians.  Most notable among the petitions for clemency granted during Holder’s tenure is the request from 16 members of a Puerto Rican Marxist terrorist group, the Armed Forces of National Liberation, known by its Spanish acronym FALN, which engaged in a robbery and terror campaign in both the U.S. and Puerto Rico during the 1970s and 1980s. CNS

Amnesty Bill For Illegals Unlikely To Pass Senate
A comprehensive “amnesty” bill to provide illegal aliens a path to citizenship is unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate next year because Republicans will be more united in opposition and Democrats will be reticent to burn political capital on the issue, according to a public policy group that tracks population growth in the U.S.  In October, Numbers USA updated its report card on U.S. senators in regard to key votes cast from 2005 to 2008 on immigration policy. Numbers USA favors policy changes that would reduce the annual flow of immigration to where it was historically prior to the late 20th century. CNS

Credit Crisis Rears Its Ugly Head Again
Just when investors and companies thought the credit crunch was behind them, it's starting to torture them all over again.
While the government's efforts to ease the credit crunch last month soothed some corners of the debt markets for short-term loans between banks and big companies, new signs of strain intensified Thursday for longer-term loans. Worries the recession will make it harder for companies to repay loans are constricting credit in a brutal replay of last month's panic. USA Today

Mukasey Collapses During Speech
Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed and lost consciousness while delivering a speech last night, a Justice Department official said. The attorney general was delivering a speech to the Federalist Society at a Washington hotel when he started shaking, then collapsed, Associate Attorney General Kevin O'Connor said. Mukasey was 15 to 20 minutes into a speech about the Bush administration's successes in combating terrorism when he began slurring his words. He collapsed and lost consciousness, said O'Connor, who was traveling at the time and was alerted to what had occurred. Mukasey's security detail called emergency services. Boston Globe

No Relief Seen In Global Economic Crisis
The global economy saw more signs of distress on Thursday with U.S. stocks plunging for a second consecutive day, oil prices falling, a surprise rate cut in Switzerland, export woes in Japan and rescue loans to Turkey and Iceland.  Wall Street was hostage to the rapidly changing news of a possible rescue for the U.S. auto industry, with the stock market rising on news of a tentative bipartisan deal in Congress for a $25 billion package for Detroit and then falling to new lows when the deal ran into trouble. Automakers held out hope.  Reuters

Americans Still Giving, Despite Economic Meltdown
As more Americans turn to charity amid worsening economic gloom, operators of food banks and other aid groups are relying on the surprisingly resilient generosity of their neighbors and finding that even when times are tough, people still give. In Seattle, Boeing Co. employees tripled their cash donations this year to Northwest Harvest, operator of Washington's largest food bank. And every week, Northwest Harvest spokeswoman Claire Acey says, companies call to say their employees have decided to skip their holiday party and buy food for the hungry instead.Philadelphia Inquirer

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Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Suspend Some Foreclosures
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009, as the government moves to stem the tide of home losses plaguing the economy.  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said the hiatus on foreclosures -- which will run from November 26 through January 9 -- will give mortgage servicers more to work out easier borrowing terms for troubled homeowners. Reuters

CELL WORKERS SPIED ON OBAMA
Verizon Wireless employees gained unauthorized access to President-elect Barack Obama's personal cellphone account and viewed his records, the company revealed yesterday. An Obama aide said his voice-mail messages and e-mails were not breached in the incident. The company said the device in question was a simple voice phone, not a BlackBerry or other unit designed for e-mail or other data services. Verizon President Lowell McAdam apologized to Obama and said all employees who had had access to the president-elect's account, whether authorized or not, were put on immediate leave with pay. NY Post

Once Obscure, Hank Paulson Now Nearly A Household Name
Before the stock market tanked, before prominent banks collapsed, before home foreclosures and shrinking 401(k) plans became a national obsession, most Americans would have been hard-pressed to name the man responsible for leading the country out of its latest financial crisis.  But these days, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is practically a household name.  No wonder. He's everywhere, it seems. He's the bald guy who was standing to President Bush's left when Bush strolled into the White House Rose Garden last September and laid out the government's plans for a financial rescue package of historic proportions. SHNS

Federal Judge In Utah Won't Be Disciplined For Donating To Obama Campaign
 Utah's chief federal judge will not be disciplined for donating money to Barack Obama's campaign. Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Henry cleared U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell in a decision posted last week. He did say the donation was unethical but noted that Campbell had promised no similar donations in the future. The Federal Elections Commission says Campbell made the $100 contribution to the Obama campaign in August 2007. Campbell had earlier said she thought she was prohibited only from taking "public action" supporting a candidate, not from making private contributions. Sun-Sentinel

Investigation Ties Pet Chain To Puppy Mills
After an eight-month investigation, the Humane Society of the United States accused Petland, the national pet store chain, of selling dogs bred under appalling conditions at puppy mills around the country. The animal protection group made the charges at a news conference in Washington Thursday. The investigation involved 21 Petland stores and dozens of breeders and brokers. The Petland stores are being supplied by large-scale puppy mills, although customers are routinely informed that the dogs come only from good breeders, the Humane Society said. Dogs from puppy mills are sold at Petland stores for as much as $3,500 each, according to the Humane Society. MSNBC

Gotti Wants Racketeering Trial Moved To N.Y.
Making John A. "Junior" Gotti stand trial on racketeering charges in Tampa instead of New York would be like "cutting off the supplies he needs to fight the fight," his attorney told a federal judge Thursday. Charles Carnesi, attorney for the New York Mafia scion, argued that a Tampa trial would be a "crushing burden" for Gotti and his family and make it difficult to get already reluctant defense witnesses to testify.  MSNBC

U.S. Influence Will Fade By 2025
Analysts gazing into what amounts to an intelligence-based crystal ball see a future world marked by dwindling resources, more people and diminished power for the United States.  The grim assessment, entitled "Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World", comes from the National Intelligence Council, an independent government body. The report concludes that by 2025, "The U.S. will remain the single most important actor but will be less dominant." CBS

Americans Don't Dnow Much About Civics
From high-school dropouts to college graduates to elected officials, Americans are "alarmingly uninformed" about the nation's history, founding principals and economy -- knowledge needed to participate wisely in civic life, a report released Thursday says. The study, the third in a series by the nonprofit Intercollegiate Studies Institute, finds that half of U.S. adults can name all three branches of government, and 54% know that the power to declare war belongs to Congress. Almost 40% incorrectly said that it belongs to the president. Detroit Free Press

U.S. Panel Warns Of Chinese Espionage
A congressional advisory panel said Thursday that China has stepped-up computer espionage attacks on the U.S. government, defense contractors and American businesses.  The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to lawmakers that aggressive Chinese space programs are allowing Beijing to target U.S. military forces better.  "China is stealing vast amounts of sensitive information from U.S. computer networks," said Larry Wortzel, chairman of the commission set up by Congress in 2000 to advise, investigate and report on U.S.-China affairs.  CBS

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Lawmaker Accuses CIA Of Coverup
A classified CIA report shows the agency operated a drug interdiction program outside of the law and that officials lied to Congress in an attempt to cover it up, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday.  Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., is pushing for the declassification of the report, issued by the CIA inspector general, which is critical of the Narcotics Air Bridge Denial program, an agency initiative designed to shoot down suspected drug smuggling aircraft in South America.  The report, according to a congressional source, harshly criticizes the program, which dates back to the mid-1990s. ABC

CIA Implicated In plane Crash
The CIA tried to cover up its negligence in the 2001 downing of a private plane that caused the deaths of two Michigan residents, according to an audit by the agency's inspector general. The agency's inspector general concluded that CIA officers in Peru consistently ignored rules of engagement in connection with the downing of at least 10 aircraft suspected of carrying narcotics over the South American country. CIA managers covered up the problems and knowingly gave false accounts to government officials investigating whether agency employees committed crimes. An August 2001 State Department report said a Peruvian Air Force plane, in coordination with a CIA surveillance aircraft, shot down the Bowers plane over Peru after mistakenly suspecting it to be carrying illegal drugs. Language problems between CIA and Peruvian officials contributed to confusion that led to targeting the plane, the State Department report said. Detroit News

Stevens Gives Last Senate Speech As Staffers Weep
"Uncle Ted" Stevens, an old-style Senate giant and the chamber's longest-serving Republican, delivered his swan song address and yielded the floor for the final time Thursday. He was saluted by his colleagues as a staunch friend and teacher.  "My mission in life is not completed," Stevens said in his farewell speech on the Senate floor, as perhaps a quarter of the chamber's 100 members gathered to hear him and the gallery filled with his friends and family. ABC

Texas Governor Criticizes Federal Response To Ike
Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday called the federal government's efforts to help Texas recover from Hurricane Ike "underwhelming" and announced the formation of a state commission to help move the process along.  Hurricane Ike slammed into the Texas coast on Sept. 13, but more than two months later, there are still thousands of displaced residents without homes and counties with debris fields as long as 30 miles. Las Vegas Sun

Pill As Good As Chemo On Lung Cancer,
Some advanced lung cancer patients already treated with chemotherapy might be able to skip some of the bad side effects of another series of chemo by taking a pill instead, a study suggests. An international study showed patients on Iressa, an expensive, newer targeted treatment, survived about as long as those on another course of chemotherapy.  Few treatments for lung cancer exist, and most patients die within a few years of diagnosis. Lung cancer kills about 1.4 million people every year.  Iressa, made by AstraZeneca PLC, is one of several new targeted drugs that attack specific growth receptors on cancer cells, doing less harm to patients. Las Vegas Sun

Vermont Legislator Plans To Push For Gay Marriage
A Vermont legislator plans to introduce a bill to allow gay marriage in the state that first approved civil unions for same-sex couples.  State Sen. John Campbell, a Democrat, says he will sponsor the bill in the legislative session beginning in January. He acknowledges it is unlikely to gain ground unless Gov. Jim Douglas signals support.  The Republican governor said Thursday that the civil union law is sufficient but wouldn't say whether he would veto a gay-marriage bill.  Only Massachusetts and Connecticut allow gay marriage. California voters recently overturned a ruling allowing the practice there.  Newsday

Leaks Dampen Obama's Plans
Barack Obama was famously able to impose discipline and control over his presidential campaign, but it didn't take long for him to discover running a transition is quite different. Top aides to the president-elect had hoped to take a methodical approach to selecting and unveiling their new team, starting with the announcements of top national-security and economic players shortly after Thanksgiving. But leaks and rumors have disrupted that plan, suggesting the "no drama Obama" mantra may not be as operational in Washington as it was at campaign headquarters in Chicago. Seattle Times

JPMorgan May Fire 10 Percent Of Investment Bank
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank, plans to fire about 10 percent of its investment banking staff, or about 3,000 people, as the global economy slides into recession, a person familiar with the bank said.  The reductions are in line with New York-based JPMorgan's rivals, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which said it will eliminate about 10 percent of staff. JPMorgan's cuts will be global and include various groups within the investment bank, the person said, speaking anonymously because the news isn't yet public. Bloomberg

Obama To Delay Repeal Of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military's decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say. Repealing the ban was an Obama campaign promise. However, Mr. Obama first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus and then present legislation to Congress, the advisers said. Washington Times

Disputed Senate Ballots Hold Key To Minn. Win
A recount watchdog for Norm Coleman flagged a ballot because the voter put a check next to Al Franken's name instead of blacking in the oval. A Franken monitor challenged an apparent vote for Coleman because Franken's name was also marked. And representatives of both men invoked challenges because of marks elsewhere on the ballot that could make them identifiable. The pile of disputed ballots in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race is growing at a pace sure to dwarf the 215-vote margin prior to the recount, making it tough to tell whether Coleman, the Republican incumbent, or Franken, his Democratic challenger, is gaining an edge as the recount progresses. Washington Post

Wal-Mart Holds The Key To Holiday Success For Dell
Move over Best Buy. Wal-Mart will determine the fortunes of Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. this holiday season.  The number of consumers planning to shop for electronics at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. rose 50 percent from a year ago, according to a survey this month by ChangeWave, a market researcher in Rockville, Maryland. At the same time, 14 percent fewer shoppers said they would go to Best Buy Co., the survey found.  Bargain hunters will rule this holiday season as consumers look for savings amid a global recession, squeezing margins on personal computers. Dell, which has trailed Hewlett-Packard in the PC market for the past two years, is trying to boost profitability after expanding into 15,000 retail outlets. Bloomberg

Bush Attacked Over Wildlife Plan
US environmentalists have accused President George W Bush of trying to rush through changes to the Endangered Species Act in his last days in office.  They say the changes could take away protection for animals and plants facing possible extinction.  The Bush administration wants to make it easier for drilling, mining and major construction projects to go ahead without a full scientific assessment.  Under current rules, the impact of such projects must be assessed by experts.  The changes proposed by the Bush administration would let federal agencies make the decisions without a full scientific assessment as to the likely impact on the environment.  BBC

'Joe The Plumber' Lands Book Deal
The man who shot to fame in the recent US presidential election as "Joe the Plumber" is set to become "Joe the Published" after signing a book deal.  Samuel Wurzelbacher's book, Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream, will address his ideas about American values, his publisher says.  Mr Wurzelbacher sprang to fame when he challenged President-elect Barack Obama about his tax proposals in October. BBC

Spellings Promotes Access To Student Loans
The U.S. Education Department is working to ensure student access to federal loans during the financial crisis, Secretary Margaret Spellings said Thursday.  Spellings said the department would buy Federal Family Education Loan Program loans to ensure students have continued access to federal student loans. The purchase program is designed to minimize potential disruption in student lending by providing liquidity.  The department expects to purchase up to $500 million in loans each week, up to a total of $6.5 billion during the designated time frame, Spellings said. While the price and types of types of eligible loans won't change, some other terms may have to be adjusted to ensure cost neutrality, she said. UPI

3 US Airports Open New Runways Amid Economic Woes
Planes began taking off from new multimillion-dollar runways at three U.S. airports on Thursday with aviation officials heralding the increased capacity as crucial to reducing delays, even in the face of a slumping economy and a projected decline in domestic flights this winter. More than $450 million was spent on the runway at Chicago's O'Hare International; approximately $350 million went into the runway at Dulles International, just outside Washington, D.C.; and more than $1 billion went toward Seattle-Tacoma International's new strip. Indy-Star 

Russia Will Not Sell Iskander Missiles To Syria In Near Future
Months after offering Russia to deploy long-range ballistic missiles in his country, Syrian President Bashar Assad was informed this week that Moscow will not sell Iskander missiles to foreign clients due to production delays.  According to a report by the Russian news agency Novosti, the state arms exporter Rosoboronexport has decided that despite interest from a number of countries - including Syria, the United Arab Emirates and India - Moscow will not export the Iskander missile until the Russian Armed Forces are fully equipped with the system.  Jerusalem Post

'Iran Has Enough Material For One Bomb'
Iran will have enough highly enriched uranium by the end of 2009 to produce its first nuclear weapon, a former top official in the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission told The Jerusalem Post Thursday, refuting a New York Times article which claimed that the Islamic Republic already had sufficient nuclear material to create a weapon.  Both the article and veteran Israeli nuclear expert Ephraim Asculai's remarks came in response to a report released Wednesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in which the United Nations nuclear watchdog claimed that, as of early this month, Iran had amassed 630 kilograms of low-enriched uranium (LEU).  Jerusalem Post

UN Imposes Fresh Sanctions On Somalia After Piracy Talks
The United Nations Security Council unanimously imposed fresh sanctions on Somalia Thursday amid calls for armed peacekeepers to be sent to the Horn of Africa.  The diplomatic initiative came as Arab countries held a crisis meeting on how to tackle piracy, as the gang who hijacked a Saudi supertanker demanded a $25m ransom to be paid within 10 days.  The 15-nation Security Council in New York adopted a British plan for enhanced sanctions aimed at freezing the assets of those involved in piracy and undermining Somalia's weakened national government. Guardian

Extra 3,100 UN Troops To Be Deployed To Congo
An extra 3,100 peacekeeping troops will be sent to Congo, the UN Security Council said Thursday, even though rebels said they remained committed to a pullback from the front lines. There are currently 17,000 peacekeepers in the central African nation - the world's largest UN peacekeeping mission - but they have been unable to stop the fighting.  Guardian

Gas Plant To Overshadow Greek Temples
They are among the finest survivors of ancient Greek civilisation in the Mediterranean: a line of imposing Doric temples on the southern coast of Sicily which have been listed as a Unesco World Heritage site since 1997.  But now the Italian government plans to build a huge liquid gas terminal less than a mile away from the famous Agrigento site, to the fury of environmentalists.
Independent

Taliban Issue Threat Over US Strikes
A leading Taliban warlord has threatened to pull out of a ceasefire agreement with the Pakistan government if US missile strikes inside the country are not immediately halted.  In a move that threatens to create fresh turmoil for the country, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a Taliban leader in the North Waziristan, said the ceasefire that has been working since 2006 would be scrapped and that attacks on foreign and government targets would begin if the missile strikes were allowed to continue. Independent

Bolivian President Wants Btter U.S. Ties
Bolivian President Evo Morales said in Washington he hoped to establish strong relations with the United States and President-election Barack Obama.  During his visit to Washington this week, where he spoke at the Organization of American States and American University, the leftist Bolivian leader said the Bush administration's policies in Latin America have led to the near collapse of relations with his country. UPI

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