By Chris Isidore

Posted February 7th 2012

Almost 2 million more people say they’ve got jobs now than in August, driving the unemployment rate sharply lower during that time.

NEW� YORK (CNNMoney) — Companies are saying the job market is getting better. Workers are saying it’s already kicked into high gear.

Friday’s jobs report showed a gain of 243,000 jobs. But a separate survey of households used to determine the unemployment rate shows much, much stronger job gains.

The number of people saying they were employed increased by 631,000 in January alone. That’s the biggest one-month gain since just before the Great Recession started in late 2007.

And the three-month and six-month increases are similarly impressive — 1.1 million more say they have jobs compared to October, and nearly 2 million more people say they’re working since July’s reading.

That is the best six-month job gain since August 2005, when the unemployment rate was a healthy 4.9%. January’s unemployment rate is still a painfully high 8.3%. But the unemployment rate has fallen from 9.1% in the last six months on the strength of the increasing number of those saying they have found work.

So the spike in Americans saying they’re working could be an early sign of much stronger-than-expected economic growth ahead.

Typically economists pay more attention to the jobs number produced by the survey of employers than to the households survey. But the employer survey can miss hiring by very small businesses, start-ups and self-employed workers.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, says the household survey serves as a better sign of where the economy is heading at turning points like when it’s going into recession and when it’s ready to take off.

He said one reason job growth has been so disappointing since the official end of the recession in June 2009 is that there has been weaker than expected new business start-ups during that period.

He and other economists said this employment reading, and other data showing a pick-up in demand for credit by small businesses, makes them hopeful we’re finally getting that long-overdue business creation.

The jump in those saying they found work “probably represents people finally feeling good enough, and credit is flowing freely enough, to start businesses,” Zandi said. “That augers very, very well.” 

By Scott Bauer

Posted November 14th 2011

By Ray Sanchez

Posted November 6th 2011

An unprecedented increase in the deportation of undocumented immigrants has left an estimated 5,100 children languishing in U.S. foster homes — a troubling figure that could triple in the coming years, according to a November report from a New York-based advocacy group.

The “Shattered Families” report from the Applied Research Center, which the activist group says is the first to analyze national data related to the separation of families involved in deportations, offers a look at the human dimension of the highly contentious immigration debate.

The Obama administration deported 46,000 parents of children who are U.S. citizens in the first six months of 2011, the ARC report says. Government data shows a total of 397,000 expulsions in fiscal year 2011, with half involving people with criminal records.

“This means that almost one in four people deported is the parent of a United States citizen child,” said Seth Freed Wessler, the report’s chief investigator and author. “ARC’s research has uncovered a troubling collateral effect of these deportations: Thousands of children enter the child welfare system and are often stuck there.”

Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency had not reviewed the report.

“Our agency does work with individuals in removal proceedings to ensure they have ample opportunity to make important decisions regarding the care and custody of their children,” Feinstein said. “Furthermore, as outlined in the agency’s June 2010 Civil Enforcement Priorities memo, ICE will typically not detain individuals who are the primary caretakers of children, unless they are legally subject to mandatory detention based on the severity of their criminal history or their risk of flight.”

But once separated, the “Shattered Families” report says, the children face enormous obstacles to rejoining their parents, even though child welfare agencies are required by federal law to reunify them with parents who are able to care for them. Because child welfare authorities lack formal policies for dealing with deported parents, the report says, children often fall through the cracks.

After parents are deported, the researchers found that families remain separated for long periods, with child welfare agencies and juvenile courts often moving to terminate the parental rights of deported immigrants. Children who don’t have other immediate family are then put up for adoption.

“One of the most common responses from the hundreds of caseworkers and child welfare attorneys that we interviewed all over the country … was something like, ‘When a parent is detained or deported, they basically fall off the face of the earth when it comes to the child welfare system,’” Wessler said.

The researchers concluded that controversial federal programs such as Secure Communities, which allows federal authorities to screen fingerprints of those arrested by local police in order to detect undocumented immigrants, had turned parts of the country into “deportation hot spots” where families were being torn apart. Critics have said that Secure Communities nets large numbers of noncriminal undocumented immigrants and takes the focus away from violent offenders.

“When we violate that commitment to keeping families together, when we take kids away from loving families, the result not only runs counter to the values that Americans place on families themselves,” said ARC President Rinku Sen. “It also starts to look a little too much like abduction to be tolerable.”

Posted July 8th 2011

Under-fire David Cameron announces inquiries into phone hacking, press ethics; paper’s ex-royals editor re-arrested; rival newspaper’s offices raided!

LONDON — A former senior aide to British Prime Minister David Cameron was arrested Friday in connection with a phone-hacking scandal that prompted media mogul Rupert Murdoch to close Britain’s biggest-selling Sunday newspaper.

Andy Coulson, 43, was detained over allegations he knew about or was involved in phone hacking during his time as editor of the News of the World from 2003-2007.Police are also investigating whether he was involved in alleged illegal payments to police officers.

Meanwhile, police were trying to determine whether a senior executive at the News International may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive, in an attempt to hinder Scotland Yard’s inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal, The Guardian reported Friday.

In an earlier statement, London’s Metropolitan Police Service said a man had been taken into custody “in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking.”

“At 10:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. ET) officers from the MPS’ Operation Weeting together with officers from Op Elveden … arrested a man on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications … and on suspicion of corruption allegations,” it said. British police practice is to not name suspects until they are charged with a crime.

Operation Weeting is a new investigation into phone hacking; Operation Elveden is “the investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police,” the statement said.

Police did not name the arrested individual but offered the information when asked about Coulson, The Associated Press reported.

The Press Association news agency later reported that Clive Goodman, the former News of the World royal editor who served a jail term in 2007 for hacking into the phones of royal aides, was re-arrested Friday on suspicion of making illegal payoffs to police for information.

London police confirmed that a 53-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of corruption. Detectives were searching his house south of London. Goodman is 53.

In addition, police were reported to have raided the offices of the Daily Star, a rival tabloid that is part of Express Newspapers, an organization headed by controversial pornography publisher Richard Desmond.

Scotland Yard officials said Friday that they were searching a business in central London. In British convention, they did not name the business, but offered the information when asked about the Daily Star.

Venerable tabloid to shut down
In a startling response to the scandal engulfing Murdoch’s media empire, the British newspaper arm of his company, News Corporation, announced it would publish the 168-year-old News of the World for the last time this weekend .

As allegations multiplied that its journalists hacked the voicemail of thousands of people, from child murder victims to the families of Britain’s war dead , the tabloid hemorrhaged advertising, alienated millions of readers and posed a growing threat to Murdoch’s hopes of buying broadcaster BSkyB .

The scandal also has become an embarrassment for Cameron.

The prime minister chose Coulson as his communications director, even though one of Coulson’s reporters and a private investigator had been convicted of hacking into the phones of royal aides.

Coulson insisted he knew nothing about it, but as new allegations surfaced, Coulson resigned from Cameron’s team in January.

‘Simply disgusting’
Speaking to journalists Friday, Cameron announced a judicial inquiry into phone hacking by the New of the World and payments allegedly made by journalists to police officers.

He said there would be a second inquiry into press ethics.

Cameron described some of the phone-hacking allegations as “simply disgusting” and “despicable.”

“I cannot think what was going through the minds of the people who did this,” he said.

“Action will be take to get to bottom of the specific revelations and allegations,” Cameron added. “Action will be taken to learn the wider lessons for the future of the press in our country.”

Cameron said that the reported offer of resignation by News International chief executive officer Rebekah Brooks should have been accepted. Brooks and Cameron, whose country houses are close, are friends and have been reported to have gone horse-riding together.

Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband attacked Cameron over the revelations, saying he had made an “appalling error of judgment” in hiring Coulson, The Guardian newspaper said.

He added that Cameron should apologize for “bringing him in to the center of the government machine,” and detail any conversations he had with Coulson “before and after his appointment about phone hacking.”

The announcement on Thursday that the News of the World was to close was one of the most dramatic in the 80-year-old Murdoch’s controversial career and is widely seen as an effort to prevent the crisis spreading beyond the tabloid to more lucrative parts of his empire.

Murdoch’s son James, who chairs the British newspaper arm of News Corporation, said the News of the World, which his father bought in 1969, had been “sullied by behavior that was wrong.”

“Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company,” he said in a statement.

Sensational journalism
The announcement that the paper’s final issue will be on Sunday came as a complete shock to the 200 staff at the paper, which from its earliest days in the Victorian era sought to titillate blue-collar Britons with sensational stories about sex and crime.

“No one had any inkling at all that this was going to happen,” said Jules Stenson, its features editor.

Growing popular and political anger over the phone hacking saga had spurred concerns that there could be snags in securing government approval for News Corp’s $14-billion bid for BSkyB, of which it already owns 39 percent.

Cameron’s government has given an informal blessing to the takeover, despite criticism on the left that it gave Murdoch too much media power.

News Corp’s U.S. shares fell more than 5 percent on Wednesday, and edged 0.23 percent lower on Thursday in a rising overall market.

“I don’t see how this deal can go ahead. It’s politically totally unacceptable now,” said Alex Degroote, media analyst at Panmure Gordon.

Others said any attempt to block the BSkyB deal at this late stage would likely spark a legal challenge from News Corp, one the company would likely win.

It is not yet clear if the scandal will damage James Murdoch, the presumed successor to his 80-year-old father, and other News Corp executives.

‘Pure hatred’
Speculation is rife that the company will turn The Sun, its best-selling tabloid daily, into a seven-day operation to tap the Sunday market. Despite difficult times for newspapers, the News of the World sold 2.6 million copies a week.

Journalists said an emotional News of the World editor Colin Myler had read out the announcement at the east London newsroom where Murdoch changed the face of British journalism in the 1980s by breaking the power of the printing unions.

But news that Brooks would remain in place as News International’s chief executive brought fury from staff. James Murdoch told Sky News he was satisfied Brooks knew nothing of the crimes allegedly committed when she was News of the World editor.

Asked how staff felt toward Brooks, one reporter said there was a sense of “seething anger” and “pure hatred” directed toward her: “We think they’re closing down a whole newspaper just to protect one woman’s job.”

Investigations into phone hacking at the tabloid have been bubbling for several years. Until recently only celebrities and other public figures were believed to have been victims.

But the scandal exploded earlier this week after revelations that an investigator working for the paper may have listened to — and deleted — the voicemail messages of a missing 13-year-old schoolgirl, later found murdered.

The scandal deepened on Thursday with claims News of the World hacked the phones of relatives of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Several major brands pulled advertising from the title.

Police have also been criticized over allegations officers took money from the News of the World for information.

Roger Alton, executive editor of The Times newspaper, which is also owned by Murdoch, told Sky News on Thursday that it was an “extraordinarily sad day.”

Churchill’s role
Alton pointed out that Winston Churchill, the former British prime minister, had worked as a war correspondent for the News of the World.

“People shouldn’t forget that it had a terrific history,” said Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors.

Satchwell told Sky News that he was “absolutely shocked” by the decision to close the paper, which has a lengthy track record of campaigning, in-depth investigations and exclusive stories.

“It won awards last year,” he added. “There are a lot of good journalists there who are losing their jobs. They’re not to blame.”

But Ivan Lewis, an opposition lawmaker, said the paper’s closure was necessary. “The British people have said ‘enough is enough,’” he told Sky News.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

By Alex Wagner, White House Correspondent

Posted February 2nd 2011

Following Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s announcement that he would step down from office in September, President Obama rejected the Egyptian leader’s timetable and called for an immediate transition to a new government in advance of fall elections.

“Change must take place,” Obama said in remarks Tuesday evening at the White House. “My belief is that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.”

Obama said he had spoken with Mubarak earlier and reported that the Egyptian leader “recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable.”

The president’s statement capped another tumultuous day in Egypt, which saw the largest demonstrations since the anti-government movement took shape last week.

Earlier Tuesday Obama urged Mubarak, who has run the country for nearly 30 years, not to seek another term. The message was delivered by former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner, who was dispatched by the State Department Monday to help Egyptian officials plan elections for fall.

Later, in a televised address, Mubarak announced he would not seek reelection but would serve out the rest of his term, defying demonstrators who want him to leave now. Televised news reports featured protesters greeting the news with boos and shouts of “Go away!” and “Not enough!”

At the White House, Obama affirmed that it “is not the role of any other country to determine Egypt’s leaders. Only the Egyptian people can do that.”

Obama said he believes any transition government should include “a broad spectrum of voices and opposition parties. It should lead to elections that are free and fair. And it should result in a government that is not only grounded in democratic principles, but is also responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people.”

But with little sign as to who might fill the leadership vacuum once Mubarak leaves office, Obama addressed the uncertainty facing the Egyptian people — and their allies around the world.

“There will be difficult days ahead,” he cautioned. “Many questions about Egypt’s future remain unanswered. But I am confident that the people of Egypt will find those answers.”

By Christopher Webber

Posted January 24th 2011

While Republicans’ first act after taking over the House was to vote on repealing the health care reform law, a new poll suggests the public would rather lawmakers focus on jobs.

A CBS News/New York Times survey out Thursday found 43 percent of Americans believe the most important thing for the new Congress to deal with is job creation — compared to just 18 percent who say the top priority should be health care.

Fourteen percent said the massive federal budget deficit should be foremost on the minds of lawmakers. Most Americans believe the deficit is a very serious problem that will create hardships for future generations, according to CBS/Times pollsters.

Asked how Congress should deal with the deficit, a strong majority said by cutting government programs, not raising taxes. Respondents were given three programs — the military, Medicare and Social Security — from which to cut. Fully 55 percent chose the military. Twenty-one percent cited Medicare, and 13 percent said Social Security.

The CBS/Times survey had similar findings to a Gallup poll that also noted that concerns over the deficit were inching up. But in that poll as well, the deficit still ranked far behind the economy and jobs when voters listed priorities for Congress.

When it comes to the landmark health care reform legislation passed last year, a CBS/Times poll found more Americans now say they want to keep the law in place rather than repeal it. Forty-eight percent of respondents said the law should stand, compared to 40 percent who want to see it repealed.

Along party lines, fully 73 percent of Republicans favor repeal, while only 16 percent of Democrats do. Seventy-seven percent of Democrats want to keep the law, compared to just 16 percent of Republicans.

Among voters who favor repeal, 50 percent say they want the law rolled back completely. Forty-four percent want only certain parts of it repealed.

House Republicans voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to repeal President Obama’s health care reform law, keeping a campaign promise that helped them retake the majority in November. The vote was a largely symbolic exercise because it’s doomed to fail in the Senate.

Posted July 2nd 2010

CLEVELAND — An arbitrator’s ruling means more than 600 Cleveland public school teachers won’t have to reapply for their jobs.

Thursday’s decision is final. School district CEO Eugene Sanders says in a statement that officials are disappointed with the ruling but remain committed to transforming the school system.

The district wanted to remove teachers at 14 elementary schools and eight high schools and force them to reapply for their positions.

The schools had been identified as weak, primarily because of low test schools, and Sanders wanted more leeway to shake up staffing.

Union leaders filed a lawsuit, arguing that the district needed to follow procedures spelled out in the teachers’ contract.

By Nicole Norfleet

Posted June 12th 2010

Posted May 31st

Cutting pipe to fit cap might mean temporary increase, scientists say!

WASHINGTON – Preparing the country for the possibility of even worse news, the Obama administration on Sunday warned that BP’s next effort to contain the oil spewing from a damaged well in the Gulf could result in a temporary 20 percent increase in the flow.

BP’s latest attempt to stem the leak involves cutting and removing a damaged pipe.

White House energy czar Carol Browner said in a news release Sunday that government scientists believe the oil gusher could increase as much as 20 percent from the time the pipe is cut to when a containment valve is in place.

BP spokesman John Curry did not know how much time would pass between the procedures. The operation began Saturday and is expected to take four to seven days.

BP PLC Chief Operating Office Doug Suttles said Saturday that cutting off the damaged pipe wasn’t expected to cause the flow to increase significantly.

Video BP director May 30: BP’s Managing Director Robert Dudley explains why BP thinks the new containment method will work when previous containment attempts did not. Meet the Press

Earlier Sunday, BP’s managing director said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that BP is optimistic its latest attempt could show results by the end of the week.

The new strategy is being tried after company abandoned its most ambitious bid yet for a temporary fix Saturday when BP said the “top kill” option — an attempt to overwhelm the broken well with heavy fluids and junk — had failed.

That strategy, which sought to stop the flow of oil, was always a long shot, Robert Dudley, the company’s managing director and head of disaster management, told NBC’s David Gregory on Sunday.

The probability is “much better” that the new approach, which seeks to contain the spread of the oil, will show good results this week, he said.

“I think the engineering on this is more simple than the top kill,” Dudley said.

BP hopes to use a diamond-cut saw to slice through a pipe leading out from the well and cap it with a funnel-like device using the same remotely guided undersea robots that have failed in other tries to stop the gusher, Dudley said.

“We have to do everything by robot” because the leak originates 5,000 feet below the surface, he said. “They have to go down and construct a small city.”

‘Worst environmental disaster’
The spill has dumped 18 million to 40 million gallons into the Gulf, according to government estimates, exceeding even the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska. The leak began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 people.

“This is without doubt the worst environmental disaster in our history,” Browner said on “Meet the Press.”

Experts have said a bend in the damaged riser likely was restricting the flow of oil somewhat, so slicing it off and installing a new containment valve is risky.

“If they can’t get that valve on, things will get much worse,” said Philip W. Johnson, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama.

Johnson said he thought BP could succeed with the valve, but he added: “It’s a scary proposition.”

News that the top kill fell short drew a sharply worded response Saturday from Obama, a day after he visited the Gulf Coast to see the damage firsthand.

“It is as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up and until the people unjustly victimized by this manmade disaster are made whole,” Obama said.

In the days after the spill, BP was unable to use robot submarines to close valves on the massive blowout preventer atop the damaged well. Then, two weeks later, ice-like crystals clogged a 100-ton box the company tried placing over the leak. Earlier this week, engineers removed a mile-long siphon tube after it sucked up only 900,000 gallons of oil from the gusher.

BP CEO disputes plumes reports
Also Sunday, BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward disputed claims by scientists that large undersea plumes have been set adrift by the Gulf oil spill and said the cleanup fight has narrowed to surface slicks rolling into Louisiana’s coastal marshes.

During a tour of a company staging area for cleanup workers, Hayward said BP’s sampling showed “no evidence” that oil was suspended in large masses beneath the surface. He didn’t elaborate on how the testing was done.

“The oil is on the surface,” Hayward said. “Oil has a specific gravity that’s about half that of water. It wants to get to the surface because of the difference in specific gravity.”

Scientists from several universities have reported plumes of what appears to be oil suspended in clouds stretching for miles and reaching hundreds of feet beneath the Gulf’s surface.

Those findings — from the University of South Florida, the University of Georgia, Southern Mississippi University and other institutions — were based on initial observations of water samples taken in the Gulf over the last several weeks. They continue to be analyzed.

One researcher said Sunday that their findings are bolstered by the fact that scientists from different institutions have come to similar conclusions after doing separate testing.

“There’s been enough evidence from enough different sources,” said Marine scientist James Cowan of Louisiana State University, who reported finding a plume last week of oil about 50 miles from the spill site that reached to depths of at least 400 feet.

By Cynthia Dysikes

Posted May 27th 2010

Applicants did not wait too long to sue the city over a 1995 hiring test that they deemed discriminatory, court finds

After more than a decade of legal wrangling, thousands of black applicants for Chicago firefighting jobs celebrated a Supreme Court ruling Monday that found they did not wait too long to sue the city over a 1995 hiring test they deemed discriminatory.

At the same time, city officials sought to temper the jubilation, insisting that the fight was not over and complaining that the ruling may put public employers in a legal bind.

“The employer is placed in a Catch-22,” said city Corporation Counsel Mara Georges at a news conference Monday. “Use the exam results, which have an adverse impact, and risk lawsuits from the group adversely impacted. Or disregard the exam results and risk lawsuits from those who stand to benefit from the results.”

The decision deals a potentially costly defeat to the city of Chicago. Earlier this year, a lawyer for black applicants estimated the total damages in the case could reach $100 million. City officials estimated Monday that damages could be $45 million.

In the 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court decided that the 6,000 black applicants had properly sued the city over an entry-level test that they claimed discriminated based on race.

In 1995, about 26,000 applicants took a written test to become firefighters. Faced with the large number of applicants for only several hundred jobs, the city decided it would consider only those who scored 89 or above.

This cutoff score excluded a high percentage of the minority applicants. In 2005, U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall ruled that the test had an illegal “disparate impact” because the city had not justified use of the cutoff score.

The city did not appeal the “disparate impact” finding but said the firefighters had waited too long to file their lawsuit. The high court disagreed.

“This is an outcome that we anticipated despite the long road it has taken us to get here, and indeed the city was warned before they administered the test” that it would not withstand a legal challenge, said Matthew Piers, the lead trial attorney for the plaintiffs.

The unanimous decision stands in sharp contrast to the 5-4 split in the Supreme Court last year over a case involving white firefighters in New Haven, Conn. The court found that New Haven unfairly treated whites by throwing out the results of a promotion test because minorities scored lower.

In the case of Lewis v. Chicago, the legal fight will continue.