Jon Stewart Bids Farewell to Rumsfeld

KERRY TO TAKE TRIP TO MIDDLE EAST

JUSTICE ON KATRINA TIME

CONGRESS DEMANDS ANSWERS IN 5 YEAR OLD ANTHRAX INVESTIGATION

IRAQ AS A LIVING HELL

PHILLIPINES HIT WITH SECOND TYPHOON

CLUE TO HOW THE NSA SPIES ON AMERICANS

MERCURY MADNESS: FDA STILL IN DENIAL

POLICE HUNT SUFFOLK STRANGLER

SENATE PANEL CLEARS REID ON FREE TICKETS

IRAQIS HOPING FOR FOOTBALL GLORY

SAUDI U.S. AMBASSADOR QUITS

BUSH DECIDES DIRECTION OF IRAQ POLICY

A warm, fuzzy moment for you.

Appeals court to Skilling: Go directly to jail

Following a one-day reprieve, the former Enron CEO is ordered to report to prison immediately to begin serving a 24-year sentence.

HOUSTON (Reuters) — A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday ordered ex-Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling to begin immediately serving a 24-year prison sentence after a one-day reprieve, according to court documents.

Late on Tuesday, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Skilling’s request to remain free on bail while he appeals fraud and conspiracy convictions.

As a result of the Fifth Circuit’s ruling, the government is pleased that the jury’s verdict and the District Court’s sentence will now be carried out for defendant Skilling,” U.S. Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said in a statement.

Skilling’s attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, was not immediately available for comment.

Skilling had been scheduled to report to a Minnesota federal prison Tuesday, but the Fifth Circuit Court said late Monday that Skilling could stay out while a panel of the court’s judges gave “careful consideration” to his bail request.

Source: CNN Money

When I walked into Rose and Gary Singletary’s house in the black, middle-class Gentilly section of New Orleans in February, I saw the shell of a building. The floors, the walls, and all the fixtures-toilets, sinks, doors-had been removed. Floodwater from Hurricane Katrina had reached higher than the Singletarys- front door, and their home had to be stripped down to the frame to bleach out the mold. After months of on-again, off-again work, the house was finally ready to be rebuilt.

The couple had all but given up on getting any more than the $2,000 they had received from their insurance company. They had been insured under a state initiative called the Louisiana Citizens Fair Plan, administered by the American International Group. According to Americans for Insurance Reform and other watchdog groups-not to mention several class action suits-the group paid out $2,000 “advances” to its policy holders and then effectively disappeared through tactics such as not answering calls, constantly changing adjusters, and conflating wind/storm damage (covered) with flooding (not covered).

But the Singletarys were beaming. Nearly six months after the hurricane hit, their house was miles ahead of any others in the neighborhood. It got that way not with conventional charity or insurance, nor with government aid, but with a ragtag crew of amateurs. Were it not for a rotating group of young volunteers, the house probably would have been in the same state as those surrounding it: empty, only superficially cleaned, and growing more mold by the day.

“They-re a godsend,” Rose gushed. “You-ll find everybody down at Common Ground. They-ve got lawyers, child care, computers with Internet.”

Two giant spray-painted signs point to the Common Ground Collective’s headquarters in a church parking lot in the now infamous Ninth Ward, where the group houses its volunteers, takes names for house gutting, and gives away bleach, buckets, respirators, canned food, and other supplies. The collective was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by a former Black Panther and some street medics trained at mass protests.

Like most residents I talked to, the Singletarys had seen little of the Red Cross aside from an occasional food truck, and they evinced nothing but frustration when I mentioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It was a major coup that seven men from the city had actually arrived to pick up debris from their house on the day I visited. Of the seven, four were dedicated solely to detouring nonexistent traffic.

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Three years and nine months after the U.S.-led Coalition began its war against Saddam Hussein, researchers have quietly recorded another grim milestone in the cost of the conflict. American military casualties have now exceeded 25,000. Almost 3,000 U.S. soldiers are dead; 22,000 are injured. Some 245 other Coalition soldiers–mostly Brits–have also died, as well as at least 50,000 Iraqi civilians. Glenn Kutler, a researcher for the non-partisan iCasualties.org, has analyzed the patterns behind the numbers–and says he sees a conflict of gruesome logic and distinct phases.

Source: Newsweek

What kind of question is this?

CNN is losing it, and this is the proof. CNN QuickVote Question about race