Friday, August 28, 2009

ted kennedy flag draped coffin

Boston mourns for Ted Kennedy

Edward Kennedy's body moved from family compound as Democrats plot next move in healthcare reform battle

Members of the US military honour guard carry a casket containing the body of Edward Kennedy outside of the Kennedy compound

Members of the US military honour guard carry Edward Kennedy's casket outside of the Kennedy compound. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Boston began three days of mourning for Ted Kennedy today after his body began the journey from the family compound in Cape Cod to the city that has been synonymous with the Kennedys for more than half a century.

Thousands are expected to pay tribute to Kennedy, whose closed casket will be placed in the John F Kennedy presidential library and museum. Across the country, flags were flown at half-staff at government buildings and military bases. At the home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, players lined up to pay homage last night as an air force bugler played the Last Post.

Kennedy, though he had been ill for a long time, only finalised the funeral details in the last week. He told friends he wanted a "good ending for myself".

Barack Obama is to deliver a eulogy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica - commonly known as the Mission Church - in Boston on Saturday and will be joined by former US presidents including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Kennedy's body will be flown from there to Arlington cemetery, where he is to be buried on the hillside overlooking Washington and close to his brothers John and Robert.

Family members gathered at the Kennedy compound today at Hyannis Port for a private mass before a motorcade left to carry his body the 70 miles to Boston, with mourners lining the route from early in the morning.

Kennedy's death had an immediate impact on the ferocious health debate that has engulfed the US. Kennedy championed Obama's healthcare reform plans and one of the leading lobbying groups opposing reform today temporarily suspended its advertising campaign. The Conservatives for Patients' Rights said it had taken the decision out of respect for the senator and his family.

Democrats who support reform hope that sympathy for Kennedy could help move opinion behind Obama's push to expand healthcare. Democratic senator Robert Byrd called for a more seemly, less hostile debate on healthcare and urged the reform bill to be named after Kennedy. He said: "Let us stop the shouting and name-calling and have a civilised debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American."

But the respite from the debate is likely to be short-lived, and Democrats are already plotting how to take advantage of the emotion surrounding Kennedy to help get healthcare reform onto the statute books.

The Democrats are planning to change the law to allow a replacement for Kennedy in the Senate as fast as possible. The Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick, a Democrat, told the Boston Globe: "I'd like the [Massachusetts] legislature to take up the bill quickly and get it to my desk and I will sign it."

A need to get back the Democrats' 60-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate has overridden any embarrassment at proposing to alter the law. The Democrats in Massachusetts changed the law in 2004, fearful that the then Republican governor would be able to appoint a successor to John Kerry in the Senate if he had won the presidency. But now the boot is on the other foot.

Under existing law, a special election would not be held until January, but a vote on the health reform bill has been tentatively scheduled for next month, and the Democrats anticipate needing every possible vote.

The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, phoned Deval soon after Kennedy's death that the party needed every vote they could get.

in local one iatse and elsewhere women face unequal treatment

Despite progress, women still face unequal treatment

According to state and national officials, women in the U.S. still aren't equal.

By Erica Peterson

Download MP3

August 25, 2009 · Wednesday is Women’s Equality Day, marking the 89th anniversary of the signing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which gave women the right to vote.

Three women who work on women’s issues in the state say women in the country, and in West Virginia, have made great progress, but still aren’t equal.

“Most people believe that U.S. women have one of the highest standards of equality in the world and that’s simply not true,” said Christina Vogt, the president of West Virginia’s chapter of the National Organization for Women. “We lag behind so many other countries.”

Compared to other states, women in West Virginia are even worse off, she said. They’re less likely to get a four-year college degree and more likely to become pregnant as a teenager.

“I think they’re almost last on every economic indicator that you can imagine,” Vogt said.

Also, women are not paid equally compared to men, Tara Martinez-Toney said. She’s the interim director of the West Virginia Women’s Commission and works to raise awareness about women’s issues.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the worst place [to be a woman] but it’s certainly not the best,” she said.

“We have a lot of work to do. We have made some strides improving equal pay in the state. We’ve made strides in increasing women’s pay comparative to the male counterpart, but there’s still lots of work to be done in several other key areas.”

Delegate Bonnie Brown (D-Kanawha) has served in the Legislature off and on since 1983.

“I chair the women’s caucus and I oftentimes have people say ‘Why isn’t there a men’s caucus,’” she said. “And I say, ‘Oh there is. It’s called the Legislature.’”

In her time in office, she’s seen a huge shift in attitudes towards women. When she was first elected, she remembers discussing domestic violence with her colleagues.

“I remember distinctly talking to a male senator,” she said. “And he told me, ‘It’s nobody’s business if I beat my wife.’ And now that thinking, it’s not even there anymore.”

Women make up only 16 percent of the West Virginia Legislature – compared to about one-quarter of seats nationwide.

The 20 women in the West Virginia House and two in the Senate actually represent a slight decline from a peak in the 1990s.

“Women still aren’t equal, but we’re working on it,” Brown said.

Search :

ragtime revival in dc

August 27, 2009, 2:12 pm

Casting Announced for ‘Ragtime’ Revival

By Dave Itzkoff

Joan Marcus Cast members of “Ragtime” at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

You can’t tell the story of intertwining American families without an enormous cast: the Broadway revival of “Ragtime” announced its ensemble on Thursday, consisting of some 40 performers who will be sharing stairwells and dressing rooms at the Neil Simon Theater come this fall. The cast features Quentin Earl Darrington as Coalhouse Walker, Jr. and Stephanie Umoh as Sarah, both making their Broadway debuts, as well as Ron Bohmer (“Phantom of the Opera”) as Father, Christiane Noll (“Urinetown”) as Mother and Robert Petkoff (“Spamalot”) as Tateh. Playing some of the musical’s historical figures are Jonathan Hammond (as Harry Houdini), Donna Migliaccio (Emma Goldman), Eric Jordan Young (Booker T. Washington) and, late of “Rock of Ages,” Savannah Wise (Evelyn Nesbit). The musical, which ran at the Kennedy Center in Washington in the spring, is directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, and is adapted from the E. L. Doctorow novel with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. It is to begin previews on Oct. 23 and open on Nov. 15.

senator kennedy's wife holding steady

Edward M. Kennedy: 1932 - 2009

Liberal Champion Propelled Family's Political Legacy

The Senator's Wife, Holding Steady to the End

PHOTOS

Previous Next

Victoria Reggie Kennedy, with her husband's nephew Joseph Kennedy, greets well-wishers on Thursday. Friends credit her with stabilizing Ted Kennedy's life at a particularly low point. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

Buy Photo

Victoria Reggie Kennedy outside the JFK Presidential Library in Massachusetts. In supporting husband Ted Kennedy in his final months, "she was inspirational," a family friend says. (By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)

Buy Photo

COMMENT

4 Comments | View All »

POST A COMMENT
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register

Why Do I Have to Log In Again?

We've made some updates to washingtonpost.com's Groups, MyPost and comment pages. We need you to verify your MyPost ID by logging in before you can post to the new pages. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

By Lois Romano

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 28, 2009

She walked behind her husband's coffin Thursday at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library with the same single-minded purpose that friends say she has projected for the past year: unwaveringly forward-looking, no public tears, smiling warmly at friends and guarding her husband's surroundings until the end.

Victoria Reggie Kennedy has been known as the woman who rescued Ted Kennedy 18 years ago -- saved him from his drinking and womanizing, saved him from himself, saved his career. But from now on, she will be remembered as the widow who gracefully managed the last days of one the most revered -- and controversial -- political icons of the last four decades.

"What she accomplished and enabled him to do in the last 15 months is more than most people do in a lifetime," says Boston friend Heather Campion. "He started and finished his memoir. Everyone who wanted to see Ted in the past few months was able to do so in a meaningful way. She juggled very aggressive cancer treatment to prolong his life, and she opened her house to the entire family -- and cooked the meals. She never lost a sense of hope."

Said another Kennedy friend on the condition of anonymity: "She was inspirational. She was vigilant in making sure that his remaining time was spent comfortably with friends and family in fellowship. She didn't want him isolated."

It was a remarkable scene Thursday, watching this relative newcomer to the Kennedy tribe in her simple black suit and pearls leading the pack of 85 family members, along with Kennedy's sister, Jean Smith, from the house in Hyannis Port, Mass., to the library. There has been much speculation about where Vicki Kennedy will find her place now that her husband is gone.

A lawyer, she has been mentioned as a possible successor to him in the Senate, but she has told friends that she is not interested. She has made her home at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port in recent years. But it is a house with a history and much sentiment attached to it, and not likely to be her permanent home. CNN has reported that her husband was interested in turning the property into a museum. She and Sen. Kennedy bought a fancy house in Washington's Kalorama neighborhood, where friends suspect she will return.

Intimates have downplayed recent reports that she had been in a push-pull with Joseph Kennedy III, Robert Kennedy's oldest son, over who had the final word on Teddy's care. She did. By all accounts, she was his soul mate, closest political adviser and, after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year, his primary caregiver. Long interested in medical advocacy, Vicki called doctors all over the country, anxious to try the newest cutting-edge treatments.

When it became clear in the spring that they were running out of options, Vicki helped her husband say goodbye to those closest to him, and together they planned the funeral. There was a steady stream of friends and family through the house every day, eating her meals and reminiscing and singing Irish songs with her husband. She brought his beloved sailboat to a dock close to the house so he could be brought on board in a wheelchair. She chose who would be allowed to see him so frail in his last days.

Vicki was a 37-year-old lawyer and divorced single mom when she re-met Ted at family party. Her Louisiana family had known him for years, and she briefly interned in his office as a young woman. Her father, Edmund, a retired judge, helped deliver his state for vice presidential candidate John F. Kennedy at the 1956 Democratic convention and remained close to the Kennedys.

Ted was at a low point in 1991 when Vicki came back into the picture. A particularly unflattering portrait of him as hard-drinking and juvenile was emerging at the sensational rape trial of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith. After years of public carousing, Ted's popularity in his own state was plummeting to the point where he was in danger of losing his seat to a Mormon businessman named Mitt Romney.

As Ted was preparing to testify at Smith's Florida trial in late 1991, he felt compelled to publicly take responsibility for his own behavior: "I recognize my own shortcomings," he said in an extraordinary speech at Harvard's Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government. "I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them."

Sitting unobtrusively in the audience was Vicki, whom he had been quietly dating for four months. The couple married in July 1992, went from their honeymoon straight to the Democratic convention, and have been inseparable ever since.

"The two shared a tremendous Catholic faith," says Campion. "I think that's what got her through this."

jaycee lee dugard abducte 18 years ago found/where were the police for th elast 18 years

Abducted girl turns up after 18 years

By Robert Salonga

CONTRA COSTA (CALIF.) TIMES

08/28/2009

CONCORD, Calif. — Eighteen years ago, 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped as a child near her South Lake Tahoe, Calif., home. On Thursday, she was reunited with her family.

What happened since that day in 1991 and her recovery is fodder for a TV mystery show.

According to authorities, Dugard had been hidden in an Antioch, Calif., backyard compound, where she lived with two children fathered by her abductor, Phillip Craig Garrido, a registered sex offender. She resurfaced in Concord on Wednesday when she accompanied the man accused of kidnapping her to a parole interview.

For St. Louisans, Dugard's story was reminiscent of the Shawn Hornbeck case, the teen found two years ago after being missing for the previous four.

On Thursday, Pam Akers, the mother of Shawn Hornbeck, expressed delight on the news that another missing child had been found.

"I was just as surprised as the rest of the world," Akers said. "It had to be pure hell for them. I only had to go through four and a half years. I don't know how it would have been to go 18 years."

Unlike Hornbeck, who was hidden in plain sight, authorities say Dugard, now 29, was held prisoner in an elaborate backyard compound made up of sheds, tents and outbuildings — one soundproofed — that were undetectable, even to the parole agents charged with checking on Garrido.

"You could walk through the backyard … and never know there was another set of living circumstances," said El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar.

Dugard and her two daughters, ages 15 and 11, spent most of their lives there with little contact with the outside world.

A parole agent brought Garrido to his office Wednesday for questioning after University of California-Berkeley police spotted him the previous day with two young girls. Kollar said police grew suspicious when Garrido tried to enter campus to distribute literature and a background check turned up his status as a parolee.

Accompanying Garrido to the interview were his wife, Nancy Garrido, the two girls and another woman. During questioning, the parole agent called Concord police to help identify the girls and the unknown woman, whom he had never seen during previous visits to Garrido's home. Authorities soon learned that the woman was Dugard, and that Garrido had kidnapped her.

Garrido and his wife were booked into the El Dorado County Jail on Thursday afternoon on kidnapping and other charges.

Jaycee Dugard and her mother, Terry Probyn, were reunited Thursday morning in an undisclosed location. They made no statements.

Akers, who runs the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, which aims to prevent child abduction and help families of missing children, said Dugard's appearance after so long a time proved that even if the chances are small, parents of missing children should remain hopeful.

Hornbeck parents react to found girl

Photos from the scene

Video from police station

For stepfather, Dugard's resurfacing lifts heartache, suspicion

Dugard kidnapping suspect has long criminal record

"She proved to everybody that miracles happen," Akers said. "They don't all come home alive, but some do."

And she had this advice for Dugard's parents: "Sit back. Listen. Don't ask the questions. I know they've got so many questions, but in time the answers will come."

Greg Jonsson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

For stepfather, Dugard's reappearance lifts cloud of suspicion.

models car covered in blood

Condition of Dead Model Jasmine Fiore's Car Suggests Bloody Fight

Police: Car Belonging to Model Found in Suitcase Was Covered With Blood

By MICHAEL S. JAMES and DEAN SCHABNER
Aug. 27, 2009

The interior of a white Mercedes-Benz that belonged to the brutally murdered ex-model Jasmine Fiore was found covered with blood, police said.

Husband of Slain Model Charged With Murder After 'Blow-Out Fight'

Ryan Alexander Jenkins, the reality TV contestant charged with murdering his wife, model Jasmine Fiore, was found dead Sunday in a Canadian motel.

(AP Photo)

"There was a significant portion of blood, that it would appear a violent struggle did occur in the vehicle," Buena Park, Calif., police Sgt. Roger Powell told the media today.

The blood was found on Fiore's passenger seat, backseat and rear windshield, Powell said, and there was evidence of attempts to wipe it away.

"The blood loss appears to be more significant in the backseat area, so it would appear that the injuries that we had originally seen Miss Fiore sustain are consistent with the blood loss that would have been in that vehicle," Powell said.

"There was some hair evidence taken from inside the vehicle on the floor," he added. "So there, obviously, some hair pulling did take place. That's still being processed. We don't know whether that's from the victim or the suspect."

In addition, the car found Wednesday in West Hollywood, Calif., had mud, weeds and twigs on the undercarriage, suggesting it went off road, police said.

Murdered Model's Volatile Relationships

How Forensics Revealed Model's Identity

Cops Know ID of Blonde Who Helped Jenkins

The body of Fiore, 28, was discovered stuffed in a suitcase in Buena Park, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, Aug. 15. Fiore had her fingertips cut off and her teeth pulled out, apparently to make it difficult to identify her.

Fiore subsequently was identified by the serial number on her breast implants.

Reality TV star Ryan Alexander Jenkins, 32, Fiore's husband and the prime suspect in her murder, was found hanged in a Canadian motel room Sunday following a massive manhunt.

The manager of the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, British Columbia, who said he found the body, said Jenkins hung himself from a coat rack.

Local police answered a call regarding a dead body found at the Thunderbird Hotel in the town, which is east of Vancouver, and after seeing the person, they called in investigators involved in the manhunt for Jenkins.

Jenkins, 32, was a Canadian citizen who police believe fled to his home country as he fell under suspicion for Fiore's murder.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Clinton Says Liberia Making Progress in Fighting Corruption

Clinton Says Liberia Making Progress in Fighting Corruption
By Scott Stearns Monrovia 14 August 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (r) with Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Monrovia, 13 Aug, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's government is making significant progress in the fight against corruption. Secretary Clinton addressed Liberia's National Assembly in Monrovia.

Secretary Clinton says President Sirleaf's administration is taking action to increase transparency with a strong Anti-Corruption Commission at the center of efforts to rebuild from years of civil war.

"Today, Liberia is a model of successful transition from conflict to post-conflict, from lawlessness to democracy, from despair to hope," said Hillary Clinton. "In the last three years, the people of this country have been working to promote reform, reconstruction, and reconciliation. Liberia has adopted sound fiscal policies and seen strong economic growth."

Liberia ranks 138 on the 180-nation corruption index established by the good-governance group Transparency International. Reigning-in corruption is crucial to attracting foreign investment to a nation where 80 percent of people are unemployed.

President Sirleaf says strengthening Liberia's General Auditing Commission and complying with the Norwegian-based Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has reduced corruption.

"I am pleased that corruption, long entrenched, long covered, is now being exposed," said Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. "We have to expose it so that we can deal with it."

With those legal and regulatory frameworks in place, President Sirleaf says the challenge now is making sure that they continue to be implemented properly. She says a new team at the Justice Ministry is committed to punishing those responsible for corruption both inside and outside of government.

"We have also reduced people's vulnerabilities by increasing civil service pay, by settling arrears, all of which have contributed to corruption," she said. "We now need for the public and the media to recognize the progress and to join us in this fight which is not limited to government but has taken root in all of the society."

At Liberia's National Assembly, Secretary Clinton spoke of the need to create institutions that are strong enough to engender the faith and confidence of the people and will survive both good leaders and what she called not-so-good leaders.

"Ending corruption is necessary to growing and sustaining such institutions and restoring the public's trust," she said.

She suggested that Liberian lawmakers establish a code of conduct to hold each other accountable.

"You have to have codes of conduct, regulatory frameworks, ethical standards that guide the pursuit of the common good," she said.

Former rebel leader and Liberian President Charles Taylor used embezzled timber revenues to fund conflict in both his own country and neighboring Sierra Leone. He is now in The Hague facing war crimes charges for his involvement in Sierra Leone's civil war.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

PAULA RETURNING TO AMERICAN IDOL?

Michael Becker/FOX

It's February 2010. The first singer from American Idol's first live show of the season—let's call him Obligatory Husky Guy (Who Can't Decide If He's Country or Pop)—has hit his last shaky note. Ryan Seacrest leads the poor fellow to face the judges.

Randy Jackson says the performance didn't do it for him, dawg. Kara DioGuardi says something valid but forgettable. Paula Abdul tells him she loves the color of his inner child, but that she preferred the song he sang next week.

Wait a second. Didn't Abdul tweet that she was leaving Idol? Didn't Fox issue the old "wish her the best" kiss of death?

Uh-huh. The leading and latest Idol conspiracy theory says Abdul's not going anywhere except back to Idol, while the two sides act out the greatest hoax since Elvis Presley's "death."

Why It Could Be True:

• Within an hour of Abdul's Tuesday night bombshell, tabloid maven Bonnie Fuller, late of HollywoodLife.com, tweeted that "Abdul has already signed her new deal with Idol. The whole sob story of not getting a deal was a pure publicity stunt." In another entry, Fuller further alleged, "Everyone was into the Paula PR stint [sic]."

• When asked to comment if there was no way Abdul wouldn't be back on Idol come the winter and the launch of the new season, Fox reps didn't respond.

• On his radio show this morning, Seacrest said Abdul's departure was real—"as far as I know." Jackson, meanwhile told Extra, "It looks to be true [emphasis added]."

• When asked to comment if it was possible for a star and a network to cook up such a scheme, entertainment attorney John J. Tormey III told us, "Anything's possible."

Why It Isn't True:

• Tormey finished his thought by adding, "I would hope that a major network would not play a game like that…I think that's a real jump."

• By this morning, Fuller was having second-tweets. She wrote that her sources were now informing her that the Fox/Idol camp was "stunned" by Abdul's exit announcement. "Guess Paula Abdul is as loopy as she appears."

• Seacrest ended his opening remarks on the Abdul matter with a blanket "Not a publicity stunt."

But Wait! Why It Could Be Partly True:

• Unnamed "television industry executives" told the New York Times that they believed "Ms. Abdul's combative stance was simply a negotiating position." Or to put it another way, if this is a stunt, it's a one-sided stunt—and good luck to you, Ms. Abdul.

• Tormey likewise didn't think it was a reach to suggest Abdul would appear to walk away from a deal in order to sweeten it. "In television," he said, "it's not uncommon for talent to take a hiatus in the event of negotiations." To that end, old folks might remember the "fake" Duke boys on The Dukes of Hazzard. Or, less old folks might recall buzz about Nicole Richie being replaced by Kimberly Stewart on The Simple Life.

How We'll Know for Sure, One Way or the Other:

• "The only way we'll know is with the passage of time," Tormey said. "I don't know if we're there yet."

• According to Tormey, the second Idol hires a new judge or Abdul gets a new gig, we'll be there—and we'll know: Not a publicity stunt.

________

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

JUDGE SONIA SWORN IN WILL SHE BE JUDGING OUR CASE AGAINST LOCAL ONE IATSE VIOLATING OUR RIGHTS?

Sotomayor Sworn In as 111th Justice

Tony Mauro
The National Law Journal
August 10, 2009

Sonia Sotomayor at her confirmation hearing
Image: Diego Radzinschi/The National Law Journal

Now she can be addressed as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The 55-year-old native of the Bronx, the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, was sworn in at noon Saturday before a nationwide television audience by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., with her mother Celina holding the Bible. As soon as Sotomayor repeated the final phrase of her judicial oath, "so help me God," Roberts said, "Congratulations and welcome to the Court." Sotomayor embraced her proud mother and her brother Juan.

It was a brief ceremony in the Court's east conference room, with portraits of the early chief justices looming above, and about 60 friends and family in the audience. She entered with Roberts after taking the constitutional oath in private at the justices' conference room. Roberts explained to the crowd that Sotomayor's formal investiture would take place Sept. 8, but she was being sworn in now "so she can begin work as an associate justice without delay."

Also among those attending, according to a press pool report, was White House Counsel Gregory Craig and assistant counsel Cynthia Hogan, as well as Judge Robert Katzmann of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a longtime colleague, and Rep. Nydia Velasquez, D-NY.

The judicial oath, which has remained roughly the same since the Judiciary Act of 1789, was full of phrases that seemed to resonate for Sotomayor in particular, given the confirmation debate over the role of empathy in her decision-making. She pledged to administer justice "without respect to persons," and to "do equal right to the poor and to the rich." Roberts seemed nervous at times in prompting the oath for Sotomayor. He read the text from a piece of paper -- unlike the presidential oath he administered from memory for President Barack Obama on Jan. 20, with mixed results.

After the oath, Sotomayor shook hands with Justice Anthony Kennedy -- the only other justice in attendance -- and others in the front row, and she exited the room with Roberts, now part of the nation's highest court.

Friday, August 7, 2009

SARAH SANCHEZ IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE CONFIRMATION OF SONIA SOTOMAYER AS HISPANIC SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

Sonia Sotomayor confirmed as first Supreme Court Hispanic

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has become the first Hispanic justice of the United States Supreme Court after nine Republican senators broke ranks to join 59 Democrats and vote for her confirmation.

By Toby Harnden in Washington
Published: 9:41PM BST 06 Aug 2009

Sonia Sotomayor confirmed as first Supreme Court Hispanic Photo: AFP/GETTY

With Democrats enjoying a 20-seat majority in the Senate, President Barack Obama had been assured of a major victory and notching up the historic landmark of successfully nominating the first Latino justice.

Judge Sotomayor, 55, who grew up in poverty in New York's Bronx as the daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, attended Princeton and Yale and has spent the past decade as an appeals court judge.

She will become the third woman to sit on the nine-member bench that serves as the final arbiter of the US constitution. Her appointment will be for life, giving her the opportunity to shape issues like gun rights and abortion for a generation.

Senator George Voinovich of Ohio became the ninth Republican to say he would back her.

But the 68 to 31 vote largely broke down along partisan lines with most Republicans criticising Mr Obama's comment that he sought a judge with "empathy" and Miss Sotomayor's public remarks over the years that a "wise Latina" could be a better judge than a white male.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican Minority Leader, said that strict fidelity to the letter of the constitution was needed: "Empathy is a fine quality. But in the courtroom, it's only good if the judge has it for you."

SARAH SANCHEZ THANKS PRESIDENT CLINTON FOR FREEING 2 FEMALE JOURNALISTS

SKorea doing everything to free citizens in North

Former President Bill Clinton reatcs as he speaks to the media about freed reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee during a news conference Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

By Jae-Soon Chang Associated Press Writer / August 7, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea—South Korea's president said Friday the country is "doing everything it can" to win the release of its citizens detained in North Korea, after former President Bill Clinton brought home two American journalists.

The release of reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling raised calls for Seoul to do more for five South Koreans being held in the North, one since late March.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Marcos Children Pay respect to Former Phillipine President Corazon Aquino

Rival families move to reconcile after death of Corazon Aquino

Maria Imelda Josefa Marcos, daughter of the late former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, views the casket of the late former Philippine President Corazon Aquino at Manila Cathedral August 4, 2009. Aquino, whose ouster of one of the 20th century's most corrupt dictators Ferdinand Marcos made her a global icon of democracy, died on Saturday after a 16-month battle against colon cancer. She was 76. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>

MANILA, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Children of late strongman president Ferdinand Marcos on Tuesday briefly attended the wake of former president Corazon "Cory" Aquino, showing signs of reconciliation between two powerful Philippine families who are in rivalry over apolitical assassination and then a mass revolt that re-wrote the country's history two decades ago.

Congressman Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and his sister Imee Marcos were among thousands of Filipinos filing in the Manila Cathedral to pay their last tribute to the late president, who died last Saturday after a 16-month battle with colon cancer.

Housewife Aquino was propelled into politics in 1983 when her late husband Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, a harsh critic of the authoritarian rule of President Marcos, was shot dead upon his return from exile in the United States. The murder remains a mystery today but popular theories accuse the Marcos camp for calling the shot.

Maria Imelda Josefa Marcos (R) and Ferdinand Marcos Jr., children of the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, leave after viewing the remains of the late President Corazon Aquino at Manila Cathedral August 4, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo Gallery>>>

Aquino, replacing her husband as the opposition leader, led a military-backed mass revolt in 1986 to topple the Marcos' administration. She took over and served as the country's top executive for six years. Marco, on the other hand, died on his exile to Hawaii, the United States in 1989. For decades, members of the two families, especially the elderly, shunned each other inmost public occasions.

But signs of reconciliation showed as the Marcoses, led by former First Lady Imelda Marcos, offered prayer when the ailing Aquino was battling cancer and after she died.

The Marcoses were "graciously" welcomed by Aquino's children and they stayed briefly to condole with the family, local television ANC reported. "We have our own beliefs as Filipinos. I thank them for coming," Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, son of "Cory" Aquino, said.

"I can feel the pain, the loss of a loved one, so I am in prayer," said Marcos, who is in her 80s. "If these two families reconciled, there will be a miracle for the Philippines."

The remains of the former president are expected to be buried Wednesday in the Memorial Park in suburban Manila. The family has turned down the offer of a state funeral.

sarah sanchez broadway shows

TPU LOCAL ONE IATSE FAIRPLAY FOR ALL CARD MEN AND WOMEN

Sarah for Local ONE Elected Office!

sarah luv your new blog

Blog Archive

local 1 iatse end the discrimination