POTUS is golfing with Mayor Bloomberg today, and they prefaced their game with a 15-minute discussion of the economy in the clubhouse at the Vineyard Golf Club. Seeking more details. CBS’s Mark Knoller, hailed by many including the WH for his command of presidential data, says the two men have not golfed together before. After their conversation they headed to the driving range, and then the links. Also in the foursome: Vernon Jordan and trip director Marvin Nicholson.”
The President and Mayor Bloomberg took the opportunity to discuss plans for short- and long-term economic growth at a pivotal point in our recovery,” said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin. POTUS invited the Mayor about a week ago. The mayor met POTUS at the golf club — he did not travel with him in the motorcade.
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Obama meets with Bloomberg to discuss economy… while playing golf
WikiLeaks founder defends publication of war documents
Julian Assange, founder of the website that published more than 91,000 secret U.S. military reports from Afghanistan, says he’s revealing injustices. President Barack Obama says he’s concerned that disclosure of sensitive information may harm military operations.
Conceived as an electronic dead-drop for confidential documents, WikiLeaks.org receives material that governments and businesses seek to keep secret and publishes them so that they remain in the public domain forever.
“We want to produce positive reform,” Assange, a 39-year- old Australian, said in a telephone interview from London yesterday. “An efficient way to do that is to selectively go after material that organizations are trying to conceal.”
North Korea warns of nuclear response to naval exercises
North Korea said it would counter U.S. and South Korean joint naval exercises with “nuclear deterrence” after the Obama administration said the government in Pyongyang shouldn’t take any provocative steps.
North Korea will “legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises to be staged by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces,” the National Defense Commission said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The maneuvers, which involve 20 vessels and 200 aircraft from the U.S. and South Korea, pose a threat to the country’s sovereignty and security, Ri Tong Il, an official with North Korea’s delegation to the Asean Security Forum, told reporters in Hanoi yesterday.
UK raids dormant bank accounts to pay for community projects
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to use “hundreds of millions of pounds” from dormant bank accounts to fund community projects, while Business Secretary Vince Cable said lenders “ripped off” customers.
Cameron said he will press ahead with a proposal set out in the coalition government’s program to establish a “Big Society Bank” to finance moves by charitable groups and not-for-profit companies to take over jobs currently done by the government.
“These unclaimed assets, alongside the private-sector investment that we will leverage, will mean that the Big Society Bank will over time make available hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance to some of the most dynamic social organizations in our country,” Cameron said in a speech in Liverpool, northwest England, today.
New Jersey passes real-estate tax cap in compromise with Christie
Assembly lawmakers in New Jersey, the state with the highest property taxes in the U.S., approved a plan endorsed by Governor Chris Christie to cap annual increases in real-estate levies at 2 percent.
The measure, which cleared the Democratic-controlled house 73-4 today, would lower the current restriction from 4 percent and reduce exceptions. The taxes are the prime source of funding for cities, schools and counties.
New Jersey property taxes climbed 72 percent from 1999 to 2009, to an average of $7,281. Taxpayer anger helped Christie become the first Republican elected governor in the state since 1997. Checking the increases will make the state more affordable and attractive to businesses and residents, he has said.
Fannie-Freddie fix could cost $1T
Bloomberg, “Fannie-Freddie Fix at $160 Billion With $1 Trillion Worst Case”
by Lorraine Woellert and John Gittelsohn
The cost of fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage companies that last year bought or guaranteed three-quarters of all U.S. home loans, will be at least $160 billion and could grow to as much as $1 trillion after the biggest bailout in American history.
Fannie and Freddie, now 80 percent owned by U.S. taxpayers, already have drawn $145 billion from an unlimited line of government credit granted to ensure that home buyers can get loans while the private housing-finance industry is moribund. That surpasses the amount spent on rescues of American International Group Inc., General Motors Co. or Citigroup Inc., which have begun repaying their debts.
“It is the mother of all bailouts,” said Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer at Fannie Mae, who is now a consultant to the mortgage-finance industry.
Bloomberg article continues here.
North Korea threatens ‘all-out military strike’ on South’s loudspeakers
Bloomberg, “North Korea Threatens `All-Out Military Strike’ on South’s Loudspeakers”
by Jungmin Hong
North Korea warned of an “all-out military strike” to destroy South Korean loudspeakers and other propaganda tools along their fortified border, according to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
South Korea’s preparation for psychological warfare, is a “direct declaration of a war” against the North, the general staff of the communist state’s military said today in a statement on KCNA. The North’s military retaliation may turn Seoul into “a sea of flame,” the statement said.
The South has already installed loudspeakers in 11 places along the border and is attempting to set up electronic displays, according to the statement.
Bloomberg article continues here.
China may shield North Korea
Bloomberg, “China May Shield North Korea as Lee, U.S. Seek Action”
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is likely to resist pressure to acknowledge that North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship when he flies to Seoul tomorrow to meet President Lee Myung Bak and Japan’s Yukio Hatoyama.
China hasn’t followed South Korea, Japan and the U.S. in blaming North Korea for the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors. Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun yesterday repeated a call for “restraint” by both sides and said China had no “firsthand information” on the sinking.
China wants to avoid a conflict on the Korean peninsula, and is concerned that taking South Korea’s side may provoke North Korea into further escalations and even lead to war, said Shen Dingli, vice dean of the Institute of International Affairs at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
Bloomberg article continues here.
Greece considering legal action against U.S. banks for crisis
Boomberg, “Greece Considering Legal Action Against U.S. Banks for Crisis”
by Timothy R. Homan
Greece is considering taking legal action against U.S. investment banks that might have contributed to the country’s debt crisis, Prime Minister George Papandreou said.
“I wouldn’t rule out that this may be a recourse,” Papandreou said, in response to questions about the role of U.S. banks in the crisis, in an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” The program, scheduled for broadcast today, was taped on May 13. Neither Papandreou nor Zakaria mentioned any banks by name.
U.S. stocks fell and the euro slumped on concern that Europe wouldn’t be able to contain the debt crisis stemming from Greece. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index declined 1.9 percent May 14, while the euro fell below $1.24 for the first time since November 2008.
Boomberg article continues here.
Kagan’s lack of judicial experience draws Republican questions
Bloomberg, “Kagan’s Lack of Judicial Experience Draws Republican Questions”
by James Rowley and Laura Litvan
Republicans served notice they will highlight Elena Kagan’s lack of experience as a judge, and the little time she has worked as a courtroom lawyer, when the Senate considers her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court.
That lack of judicial and litigation background — 14 months as U.S. solicitor general and two years as a private lawyer after finishing law school — leaves opponents without much of a record from prior cases with which to criticize President Barack Obama’s second high-court nominee.
While some Republicans questioned Kagan’s support for university protests against the Defense Department ban on acknowledged gays and lesbians, or pointed to her work with judges they consider too liberal, Democratic leaders said the former Harvard Law School dean would win approval.
“She will be confirmed,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, calling Kagan a “superb nominee.”
Bloomberg article continues here.
Bloomberg wants ‘Big Brother Britain’ for NYC
WCBSTV, “Bloomberg Wants ‘Big Brother Britain’ For NYC”
by Charlie D’Agata
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has his eye on more security against terror attacks. He went to London Tuesday to check out their surveillance camera system, one of the largest in the world.
Ever since the Times Square car bomb scare on May 1, the mayor’s been looking to build up New York’s camera network.
That means adding to the ring of steel in Times Square, similar to central London’s. The mayor said more NYPD surveillance cameras may prevent another terror scare.
London has 500,000 surveillance cameras, more than any other city in the world.
Bloomberg visited London’s mayor to see how these help Britain fight terror.
WCBSTV article continues here.
Greece bailed out
Bloomberg, “Greece Gets $146 Billion Rescue in EU, IMF Package”
by Gabi Thesing and Flavia Krause-Jackson
Euro-region ministers agreed to a 110 billion-euro ($146 billion) rescue package for Greece to prevent a default and stop the worst crisis in the currency’s 11-year history from spreading through the rest of the bloc.
The first payment will be made before Greece’s next bond redemption on May 19, said Jean-Claude Juncker after chairing a meeting of euro-region finance ministers in Brussels yesterday. The 16-nation bloc will pay 80 billion euros at a rate of around 5 percent and the International Monetary Fund contributes the rest. Greece agreed to budget measures worth 13 percent of gross domestic product.
“It’s an ambitious program, it’s austere but it’s absolutely necessary,” Juncker told reporters. European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, speaking at the same press conference, said Greece’s plan will “help to restore confidence and safeguard financial stability in the euro area.”
Bloomberg article continues here.
Goldman employees donated $1 million to Obama campaign
Bloomberg, “Goldman Employees Donated $1 Million to Obama Campaign”
by John McCormick
U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias pushed his Republican opponent in Illinois to give back donations from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. without saying whether President Barack Obama should return almost $1 million that bank employees contributed to his White House bid.
Obama, a political mentor and basketball buddy to Giannoulias, received the money from employees and their family members, making Goldman Sachs second only to the University of California as his biggest single source for donors in 2007 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Mark Kirk, the congressman competing against Giannoulias for the seat once held by Obama, ranks sixth for donations from Goldman employees, the center’s data shows. The top five are Democratic Congressman Michael McMahon of New York, Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, and three other New York Democrats: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Representative Scott Murphy and Senator Charles Schumer.
Bloomberg article continues here.
Enter iPad
Bloomberg, “Apple IPad a ‘Winner,’ ‘Game Changer,’ Reviewers Say”
by Kevin Cho
Apple Inc.’s iPad touch-screen tablet is a winning product that threatens to replace laptops as the dominant format for personal computers, reviewers said.
The iPad, which will begin selling this weekend, is “wicked fast” and has a battery life that’s longer than Apple’s claim of 10 hours, Walt Mossberg, technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal, wrote in a review yesterday. It can be used as a replacement for a laptop for most data communication and content consumption, he wrote.
“The iPad is an advance in making more-sophisticated computing possible via a simple touch interface on a slender, light device,” Mossberg wrote. The tablet “has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop.”
Bloomberg article continues here.
Dems only have 6 more votes to buy
Bloomberg, “Democrats Gain Support as They Move on Health-Vote”
by Laura Litvan and Kristin Jensen
U.S. House Democrats, who cleared a big hurdle in their effort to overhaul the health-care system by producing compromise legislation, picked up fresh support for a likely showdown vote this weekend.
Democrats need about six more votes from House members to pass the 10-year, $940 billion bill, Obama administration officials said today.
White House and Democratic leaders aim to collect those votes from a pool of about 14 to 15 undecided lawmakers to get to the 216 votes needed to pass the measure, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Obama has met or called about three dozen lawmakers in the last five days and has cleared his schedule today for more last- minute appeals, including a campaign-style rally in nearby Fairfax, Virginia.
Bloomberg article continues here.