By Harry R. Weber, Jane Wardell

Posted July 27th 2010

American Bob Dudley sees challenges as he takes over for Tony Hayward

The American picked to lead oil giant BP as it struggles to restore its finances and oil spill-stained reputation pledged Tuesday that his company will remain committed to the Gulf region even after the busted well is sealed.

Robert Dudley will become BP PLC’s first ever non-British chief executive, the company said as it reported a record quarterly $17 billion loss and set aside $32.2 billion to cover costs from the spill.

Ending weeks of speculation, BP confirmed that gaffe-prone Tony Hayward will step down Oct. 1 as the London-based company seeks to reassure both the public and investors that it is learning lessons from the spill.

“There’s no question we are going to learn things from this investigation of the incident,” Dudley told reporters by phone from London after the announcement was made.

BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg echoed that during a webcast presentation on the company’s earnings, telling investors that BP will change as a result of the April 20 oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.

“We are taking a hard look at ourselves, what we do and how we do it,” he said. “What we learn will have implications for our ways of working, our strategy and our governance.”

Svanberg said the company’s priority was to stop the Gulf leak permanently and then to clean up miles of spoiled waters and beaches and compensate people whose livelihoods have been lost because of the accident.

But he added that the company was determined to restore value to shareholders, after a 35 percent, or $60 billion, drop in market value to around $116 billion since the explosion. Under U.S. political pressure, the company also axed dividends to shareholders this year.

The stock started out marginally higher on Tuesday, but dropped 3 percent to 404.2 pence in afternoon trade on the London Stock Exchange.

In New York, BP stock slumped about 2 percent to $37.87 after BP announced it would sell $30 billion in assets to help pay potential costs related to the spill.

Analysts said they were disappointed at how many assets BP was willing to sell, and its cost estimate was thought to be on the conservative side.

BP made its estimate on the assumption that it won’t be deemed “grossly negligent” in its handling of the well. If it is, then BP won’t be able to ask its partners to help pay for the cleanup, and federal fines will go up.

“The penalties are obviously going to be more than what they’re saying,” Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit said.

Dudley, BP’s managing director, was brought in to oversee the spill response after Hayward was vilified for a series of ill-timed moves, including saying that he would like his life back and attending a yacht race off the coast of England as Gulf residents struggled to cope with the spill.

Dudley spent some of his childhood in Mississippi and worked for 20 years at Amoco Corp., which merged with BP in 1998. He lost out to Hayward on the CEO slot three years ago.

“I don’t particularly like talking about myself, but I think you will find I listen hard and carefully to people and have worked with restructuring organizations to achieve change,” he said. “I did not seek out this job. I was asked to step into these shoes, and I firmly and deeply believe that BP is a company made up of great people and great businesses.”

Dudley will be based in London and will hand over spill response coordination to Lamar McKay, the chairman and president of BP America.

He also downplayed speculation that BP might pull back from the Gulf once the flow of oil is stopped permanently, which could happen as soon as mid-August.

“There’s no one thinking that way,” he said.

BP kicked off the revamp by announcing the sale of $30 billion in assets to streamline the company into a leaner, higher-quality business.

The company has already made a start with the $7 billion sale of gas assets in the United States, Canada and Egypt to Apache Corp.

Svanberg said the planned asset sales did not necessarily reflect a fear that spill costs could soar above the $32.2 billion set aside by the company. That charge includes the $20 billion compensation fund the company set up following pressure from President Barack Obama as well as costs to date of $2.9 billion.

Hayward, who will stay on BP’s board until Nov. 30, said the company had reached a “significant milestone” with the temporary capping of the leaking well, which stopped oil from spewing nearly two weeks ago. Before that, anywhere from 94 million to 184 million gallons had gushed into the Gulf.

In a mark of faith in its outgoing leader, the company said it planned to recommend him for a non-executive board position at its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP.

Hayward remains well-regarded in Europe and his appointment would be a benefit for Dudley, who, as the former head of TNK-BP, was forced to flee Russia and run the company in absentia after a flap with shareholders in 2008.

Hayward will receive a year’s salary of 1.045 million pounds ($1.6 million) as part of his severance package. He will also be entitled to draw an annual pension of 600,000 pounds from a pension pot valued at around 11 million pounds and retains his rights to shares under a long-term performance program which could eventually be worth several million pounds if BP’s share price recovers.

Hayward said it was right that BP embark on its next phase under new leadership, and expressed his condolences for the families of the workers killed in the explosion.

“The Gulf of Mexico explosion was a terrible tragedy for which — as the man in charge of BP when it happened — I will always feel a deep responsibility, regardless of where blame is ultimately found to lie,” he said.

Posted July 25th 2010

Shirley Sherrod played phone tag with President Barack Obama, finally reaching him on the phone after missing his calls, according to CNN.

“It was a very good conversation,” Sherrod told CNN.

Sherrod spoke with Obama after he texted her saying he had tried to reach her, said CNN’s Julie O’Neill, who was with her. The former USDA official called the president back in 10 minutes, O’Neill said.

“The conversation went on for a few minutes,” O’Neill said. “She was very, very pleased with the conversation. She gave me a few details afterwards, saying that the president conveyed that Secretary Vilsack was indeed very, very apologetic and very sincere in that apology. She said the president compared some of the things he spoke about in his book, some of the instances of things she’s been talking about over the past two days.”

O’Neill said Sherrod didn’t get around to discussing whether it was the White House that wanted her to resign in a racial flap that stemmed from out-of-context remarks shown on a conservative website. However, she did invite Obama to visit her in Georgia.

O’Neill said Obama had been trying to reach her since Wednesday night.

Sherrod made the call after appearing on NBC’s “Today” show this morning, when she said she thought she deserved a phone call from Obama.

“He’s the president of the United States of America. I’ve received the apologies that are important. I really would not want the president to apologize to me, but [I'd] love to have a conversation with him though,” she told NBC.

“I”d like to talk to him a little bit about the experiences of people like me,” she continued, “people at the grassroot level, people who live out there in rural America, people who live in the South. I know he does not have that kind of experience. Let me help him a little bit about how we think, how we live and the things that are happening.”

Sherrod, 62, resigned Monday as the USDA’s director of rural development in Georgia after a conservative website posted a clip of a speech that included her saying that she didn’t help a white farmer as much as she could have because of his race. She said the clip excluded her comments that she did help the farmer keep his farm. The farmer and his wife came to her defense Tuesday and said she should have kept her job.

Before the incident, Sherrod said during the “Today” interview, she didn’t even know the name of the conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart, who posted the partial video clip online.

“He knew that his actions would take Shirley Sherrod down,” she said. “He didn’t mind doing that. He probably hoped, it would also deal with the NAACP, but what he did was getting me. And that, I cannot — well, he’s never offered to apologize for what he’s done — but it would be hard for me to forgive him at this point.”

On Wednesday, Sherrod did receive apologies from the White House and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for her forced resignation.

“This is a good woman,” Vilsack told reporters. “She’s been put through hell. I could have done and should have done a better job. I’ll learn from that experience. I want this agency and department to learn from this experience, and I want us to be stronger for it.”

Earlier Wednesday, Sherrod was in CNN’s studio — sitting on camera and watching White House spokesman Robert Gibbs apologize on national TV. “Decisions were made based on an incomplete set of facts,” he told reporters at the daily briefing.

Sherrod smiled and nodded her head.

“It makes me feel better,” she told CNN later. “This shouldn’t have happened. It took too long, but it makes me feel better that the apology has finally come.”

The apologies came after the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which at first condemned Sherrod but then said it had been “snookered” by conservative activists, put the full video of Sherrod’s speech on its site Tuesday night.

Vilsack said he had asked Sherrod to come back to work at a different position at the USDA. Sherrod said the position would be in the agency’s office of outreach to combat racial discrimination within its ranks.

She told NBC this morning she was inclined not to return to the agency, adding: “The secretary said he would e-mail it to me. I have not seen it yet, so before I say no totally, I would like to look at that to weigh it.”

By Lonnie White

Posted July 22nd 2010

The idea of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh manipulating today’s NBA free agency world has certainly generated a great deal of negative feedback.

And now add Earvin “Magic” Johnson to the list of former NBA players who have questioned how James, Wade and Bosh decided this summer to become teammates together with the Miami Heat.

“We didn’t think about it ’cause that’s not what we were about,” Johnson said at Baruch College in New York, according to Bloomberg News. “From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird.”

Johnson, who won five NBA championships playing for the Lakers after he led Michigan State to an NCAA title victory over Bird and Indiana State in 1979, said it was never a real possibility for him to play with Michael Jordan and Bird.

“It was never a question in our mind because nobody has ever done that,” Johnson said when looking back to his era.

James, the two-time reigning NBA Most Valuable Player, has been the main target since he left the Cleveland Cavaliers on July 8 to join Wade and Bosh as free agents. Johnson said James, who failed to win an NBA title in seven seasons playing for Cleveland, will feel the pressure to win even more now.

“I think he will be, one day, a great businessman,” Johnson said about James. “The first order of business for LeBron is to win championships. If you build your brand on the court, then that will take care of the off-the-court brand.”

Johnson’s comments come only days after Jordan told reporters at a weekend golf event that he’d rather beat Johnson and Bird than become their teammates.

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team’, ” said Jordan, the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships.

“But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

Even Charles Barkley, who never played on an NBA championship team, recently chipped in on the debate.

“Mike and I are in 100 percent agreement on this,” Barkley told the Arizona Republic. “If you’re the two-time defending NBA MVP, you don’t leave anywhere. They come to you. That’s ridiculous. I like LeBron. He’s a great player. But I don’t think in the history of sports you can find a two-time defending MVP leaving to go play with other people.”

By Andrew Taylor

Posted July 22nd 2010

7 weeks after benefits started lapsing, aid for the unemployed is reinstated!

WASHINGTON — State unemployment agencies are gearing up to resume sending unemployment payments to millions of people as Congress moves to ship President Barack Obama a measure to restore lapsed benefits.

After months of increasingly bitter stalemate, the Senate passed the measure Wednesday by a 59-39 vote. Obama is poised to sign the measure into law after a final House vote on Thursday.

It’s a welcome relief to 2½ million people who been out of work for six months or more have seen their benefits lapse.

Under best-case scenarios, unemployed people who have been denied jobless benefits because of a partisan Senate standoff over renewing them can expect retroactive payments as early as next week in some states. In other states, it will take longer.

State unemployment and labor agencies have been preparing for weeks for Congress to restore jobless payments averaging $309 a week for almost 5 million people whose 26 weeks of state benefits have run out. Those people are enrolled in a federally financed program providing up to 73 additional weeks of unemployment benefits.

About half of those eligible have had their benefits cut off since funding expired June 2. They are eligible for lump sum retroactive payments that are typically delivered directly to their bank accounts or credited to state-issued debit cards.

In states like Pennsylvania and New York, the back payments should go out next week, officials said. In others, like Nevada, it may take a few weeks for all of those eligible to receive benefits, said Mae Worthey, a spokesman for the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

In North Carolina, Employment and Income Department spokesman Andrew James says to expect a wait of two to six weeks.

The Senate continued debating the measure a full day after a GOP filibuster was defeated by a 60-40 vote. Senate rules required 30 hours of debate, but missing no opportunity to seize a political edge, Democrats attacked Republicans for not waiving them and requiring an additional day of debate.

“Republicans are declaring an all-out war on unemployed Americans,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Even though Democrats have the votes to give unemployed workers the safety net they deserve, Republicans are callously delaying the vote for an entire day.”

In fact, the measure could have been passed months ago had Democrats not insisted on coupling it with a host of other, more controversial legislation, such as tax increases on hedge fund managers and on some small businesses that were used to pay to renew a popular package of tax breaks for individuals and businesses.

The resulting delays required two temporary unemployment insurance extensions — one came only after a lapse in coverage because Reid adjourned the Senate for its two-week Easter recess rather than engage in a time-consuming battle with Republicans. Benefits were restored retroactively.

Democrats have become more aggressive in attacking the GOP for opposing the measure, which has been stripped down so that it’s essentially limited to a $34 billion, six-month renewal of unemployment insurance for the chronically jobless.

Republicans say they support the benefits extension but insist any benefits be financed by cuts to programs elsewhere in the $3.7 trillion federal budget. Maine GOP moderates Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins were the only Republicans to support the bill Wednesday.

Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the only Democrat to break with his party to oppose the bill.

Many Republicans have voted in the past for deficit-financed benefits extension, including as recently as March and twice in 2008, during the Bush administration. But now they are casting themselves as opposing out-of-control budget deficits, a stand that’s popular with their core conservative supporters and tea party activists whose support they’re courting in hopes of retaking control of Congress.

Democrats tout the economy-boosting effect of unemployment checks since most beneficiaries spend them immediately, and they say that paying for them with cuts to other programs dilutes the stimulative effect.

“Extending unemployment insurance isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s also the smart thing to do for our economy,” said Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

But a proposals but Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to spread the spending cuts over the upcoming decade garnered 54 votes — including 14 Democrats — only to fail because Reid had placed Coburn in a parliamentary situation requiring a two-thirds supermajority to prevail.

Economists say the measure will likely have a modest beneficial effect on the economy. It represents less than one-quarter of 1 percent of the size of the $14.6 trillion economy, and is far smaller than last year’s $862 billion stimulus legislation. Republicans have blocked Democratic add-ons, such as aid to state governments, that could have meant a greater economic boost.

Gap Productions

By Gina Hobbs

Posted July 21st 2010

Cleveland Indians, Kid Cudi, NFL Player Lee Evans and Greater Cleveland Community Come Together  to Support 4-Day Event to Include “Happy 214^th Birthday Cleveland” Celebration

Cleveland, Ohio – Since “you know who” has left Cleveland, it looks like a lot of people think it’s time to move on and celebrate all of the other great things about Cleveland.  “This year, Cleveland will be 214 years old and we’re going to have a big birthday party”, said Alonzo Mitchell, Bedford High School graduate and Founder of the new “Ohio Homecoming” movement.  “Enough of Cleveland and other cities in Ohio suffering from low self esteem due to comments from people or organizations who have not appreciated or personally experienced the rich culture, history, diversity and beauty that our city has to offer. It’s time to celebrate.”

Ohio Homecoming will launch a four-day event, July 22 through July 25, 2010, and promises to celebrate many of the opportunities that the City and state have to offer.  Festivities will include:  an Opportunity Fair, Health Fair and the “Happy 214^th Birthday Cleveland” Party and Variety Show on Thursday; The Ohio Homecoming/WEWS-TV Focus on Ohio Town Hall Forum featuring Cuyahoga County Executive Candidates, and the Step Up to Step Out –College and Alumni Greek Step Show on Friday; The Lee Evans Celebrity Flag Football Game and High School Battle of the Bands on Saturday; The March on Ohio Wellness and Unity Walk and “Ohio Homecoming Day at the Park” with the Cleveland Indians on Sunday.

“The events will be a lot of fun,” said Mitchell.  On July 22 at 5:00 p.m., Kid Cudi (a native of Shaker Heights) and Chip Tha Ripper, who, when teamed together, will become Almighty GloryUS, will be headlining Cleveland’s 214th Birthday party and Variety show, rocking a stage that will be built at Mall C (next to City Hall). What many say is the top High School band in Cleveland, having played for the last Olympics, Shaw High School will go up against the top High School band in Chicago, King College Prep, who performed for President Obama.  The winner will receive $5,000.  “We will also have several NFL Players playing in our Flag Football Game, including Lee Evans (Buffalo Bills), Dante Whitner (Buffalo Bills), Sendric Steptoe (Cleveland Browns), Terrence Whitner (Pittsburgh Steelers) and Steve Sanders (former Cleveland Browns player).  Gerald “Hurricane” Harris, “ultimate fighter” and former Cleveland State star wrestler, will also play,” he said.

According to Mitchell, the March on Ohio will be a 3.5 mile “wellness walk”, designed to bridge the well-known, but unfortunate social divide that exists between Cleveland East-siders and West-siders.  The March will begin at the West Side Market and end at Progressive Field, where participants will be encouraged to join the Ohio Homecoming marchers for “Kid’s Fun Day” at the Cleveland Indians vs. Tampa Bay Rays game at 1:05 p.m.  Also, Cleveland Indians Mascot, “Slider”, will celebrate his 20^th birthday on July 25^th as part of the Kid’s Fun Day.  Free Birthday party activities include cupcakes for all kids on the Gateway Plaza, pregame Kids birthday party games hosted by Radio Disney, and a visit from all of Slider’s Mascot Friends.  All kids in attendance will be invited to run the bases postgame on Progressive Field. “We are very proud and excited to be involved in the Ohio Homecoming event, said Curtis Danburg, Director of Communications and Creative Services, The Cleveland Indians. “We will not only be celebrating Ohio Homecoming Day, but also Kid’s Day, so we encourage everyone to come out for this big celebration”.

Mitchell, who splits his residency between Cleveland and the Nation’s capitol, said there were a couple of key factors that contributed to him starting this movement.  “When I got to D.C., I was hearing all kinds of negative things about Cleveland.  So it made me want to figure out what I needed to do to change the mindset, because Cleveland is a great city.  Then the Forbes “Misery” study came out ranking Cleveland the “Most Miserable City.  So, that gave me even more determination to do this.  In view of what has transpired over the last several weeks in the sports arena, it is time for Cleveland to stand proud now, more than ever.”

“Look at what we have to offer:  We’ve got the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Browns; we are a cultural arts mecca with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, the Science Museum, University Circle, the Cleveland Orchestra and Playhouse Square; we’re a top foodie destination; we are surrounded by Lake Erie; we are a melting pot of so many unique cultures; we house one of the top health centers in the world; we are home to several fortune 500 companies; we have many notable educational institutions, and our beautiful Cleveland Metroparks system – ‘the emerald necklace’, is the envy of many states and considered one of the best park
systems in the U.S.  And we’re down on Cleveland…why?” Mitchell asks.  “So I want to encourage everyone to come out and show appreciation for your city, and Ohio, in general.  But we need everyone involved.  Ohio Homecoming is the ‘comeback’ movement.  It’s time for the people to come back and give back to their communities.”

A variety of sponsors and partners of Ohio Homecoming are involved in the event, including the Cleveland Indians,  Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen, LLC, WEWS-TV/Newschannel 5, Clear Channel Radio, Radio One Cleveland, The Gund Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland Clinic, RPM, Hot Cards, The Hispanic Alliance, Forest City Enterprises, The Goldstein Caldwell Group, Positively Cleveland, The Crowne Plaza, Tenable Security, GAP Communications Group, Consortium of African American Organizations, Hughies Audio Video, Aris Rentals, Crowne Plaza  C.O.B Foundation, Lee Evans (Evans, Inc.) and Ultimate Fighter Gerald “Hurricane” Harris.

For more information on “Ohio Homecoming Week” festivities, visit www.ohiohomecoming.com.

Posted July 21st 2010

The woman ousted from the Agriculture Department over racially tinged remarks that sparked a firestorm in the media said she was uncertain if she would return to her job if invited back.

SHIRLEY SHERROD INTERVIEW WITH MATT LAUER ON TODAY SHOW

On Monday, Shirley Sherrod resigned from a senior position with the USDA in Georgia after edited video clips surfaced appearing to show her admitting to racial bias toward a white farmer.

However, when the full video of her speech at an NAACP event was made public, the civil rights group retracted a previous statement condemning her for acting in a racist manner, and said she had been treated unfairly. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack then said in the early hours of Wednesday that he would reconsider the USDA’s decision to ask for her resignation.

“I am of course willing and will conduct a thorough review and consider additional facts to ensure to the American people we are providing services in a fair and equitable manner,” Vilsack said.

But Sherrod, who said on Tuesday that she was pressured to resign, said on NBC’s TODAY show that she might not want her job back.

“I am just not sure how I would be treated there,” she said, adding that she couldn’t get coworkers to listen to her side of the story about a speech she made in March, edited clips of which were recently shown on a conservative website.

Sherrod said her comments were part of a larger story about learning from her mistakes and racial reconciliation. They were not racist, she said, and were taken out of context.

“That’s not my message. That’s not me,” she said on TODAY. “If you look at my life’s work, you would know that that’s not me.”

NAACP was ’snookered’
On Tuesday, NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said that the group was “snookered” into believing that Sherrod expressed racist sentiments at a local NAACP meeting in Georgia earlier this year. After initially supporting her ouster, Jealous changed his mind and said she should keep her job.

The Obama administration’s move to reconsider her employment was a reversal on the position just hours earlier, when a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Barack Obama had been briefed on Sherrod’s resignation after the fact and stood by the Agriculture Department’s handling of it.

However, the white farming family that was the subject of the story came to Sherrod’s defense and said she should stay in her job.

“We probably wouldn’t have (our farm) today if it hadn’t been for her leading us in the right direction,” said Eloise Spooner, 82, the wife of farmer Roger Spooner of Iron City, Ga. “I wish she could get her job back because she was good to us, I tell you.”

She told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she considered Sherrod a “friend for life,” saying that “the federal official worked tirelessly to help” them hold onto their farm as they faced bankruptcy in 1986.

“Her husband told her, ‘You’re spending more time with the Spooners than you are with me,’” Spooner told the Journal-Constitution. “She took probably two or three trips with us to Albany just to help us out.”

As people came to her defense and Sherrod reached out to media to plead her case, the administration faced criticism that officials, nervous about racial perceptions, had overreacted to her comments and made her a political sacrifice amid dueling allegations of racism between the NAACP and the “Tea Party” movement.

In the clip posted on BigGovernment.com, Sherrod described the first time a white farmer came to her for help. It was 1986, and she worked for a nonprofit rural farm aid group. She said the farmer came in acting “superior” to her and she debated how much help to give him.

“I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland, and here I was faced with helping a white person save their land,” Sherrod said.

Initially, she said, “I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do” and only gave him enough help to keep his case progressing. But eventually, she said, his situation “opened my eyes” that whites were struggling just like blacks, and helping farmers wasn’t so much about race but was “about the poor versus those who have.”

The full video of Sherrod’s speech showed that while she took some shots at conservatives and spoke of continued racial inequities, she focused on encouraging blacks, particularly the younger generation, to do more to help themselves.

“We have to overcome the divisions that we have,” she told the audience. “Change has to start with us. … Our young people, I’m not picking on you, but y’all gotta step up to the plate. … You are capable of being those doctors and lawyers.”

ACORN prostitute video
The two-minute, 38-second video clip posted Monday by BigGovernment.com was presented as evidence that the NAACP was hypocritical in its recent resolution condemning what it calls racist elements of the Tea Party movement.

The website’s owner, Andrew Breitbart, said the video shows the civil rights group condoning the same kind of racism it says it wants to erase.

BigGovernment.com is the same outfit that gained fame last year after airing video of workers at the community group ACORN counseling actors posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend.

The Huffington Post said after Breitbart posted the YouTube video of the speech, it was then aired on Fox News and Sherrod’s resignation came shortly after.

Jealous said Breitbart deceived millions of people by releasing only partial clips. He said the full video makes clear that Sherrod was telling a story of racial unity.

“The tape of Ms. Sherrod’s speech at an NAACP banquet was deliberately edited to create a false impression of racial bias, and to create a controversy where none existed,” Jealous said Tuesday afternoon. “This just shows the lengths to which extremist elements will go to discredit legitimate opposition.”

Newsvine: Was USDA official unfairly forced out?

Sherrod said she was on the road Monday when USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her and told her the White House wanted her to resign because her comments were generating a cable news controversy.

“They called me twice,” she told the AP in an interview. “The last time they asked me to pull over to the side of the road and submit my resignation on my BlackBerry, and that’s what I did.”

‘It hurts me’
Sherrod said administration officials weren’t interested in hearing her explanation. “It hurts me that they didn’t even try to attempt to see what is happening here, they didn’t care,” she said. “I’m not a racist … Anyone who knows me knows that I’m for fairness.”

The administration gave a slightly different version of events.

Vilsack — not the White House — made the decision to ask Sherrod to resign, said USDA spokeswoman Chris Mather. She said Sherrod willingly resigned when asked.

In a previous statement, Vilsack said the controversy surrounding Sherrod’s comments could, rightly or wrongly, cause people to question her decisions as a federal employee and lead to lingering doubts about civil rights at the agency, which has a troubled history of discrimination.

The decision by the NAACP Tuesday afternoon to support Sherrod was in stark contrast to its initial reaction to the incident Monday night in a statement: “Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race.”

In that statement, Jealous said the organization was “appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers.”

“Her actions were shameful. While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man,” he said.

However, the NAACP reversed its position after seeing the full video of the speech.

By Jaywon Choe

Posted July 20th 2010

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich criticized President Obama this morning on NBC’s “Today,” likening the president’s approach to the economy and unemployment to that of a “teenager with a credit card.”

Gingrich issued the barb in response to Mr. Obama’s comments yesterday criticizing Republicans for opposing a bill extending benefits for the unemployed. Gingrich said the bill would do little for job creation and complained its $33 billion price tag would simply add to an already inflated deficit.

“The second biggest concern of the American people after jobs is deficit spending,” Gingrich said.

He added: “The president’s very shallow politics [is] assuming the American people are dumb enough to follow the latest headline and don’t realize the real problem with unemployment is, this is a job killing administration and a job killing Democratic Congress and that’s why those people are unemployed.”

Gingrich’s harsh assessment of the administration will add to speculation that he may seek the Republican nomination in the 2012 presidential elections. Gingrich has already said that’s he’s “never been this serious” about a bid, though he made similar claims in the 2008 cycle and declined to run.

Photo Gallery: 2012 Republican Contenders

In the interview, Gingrich was asked how he would approach the deficit if he were elected president.

“I would start and I’d go through this budget pretty dramatically, and I would eliminate a great deal of federal bureaucracy,” he said. “I would reform unemployment compensation. I would reform workman’s comp at the state level. I would have a very pro jobs, very pro savings, very pro take-home pay policy.”

He continued: “We proved with Reagan, with the three-year tax cuts in the 1980s, we proved again with the Contract with America, the first tax cut in 16 years that, in fact, job creating principles of cutting taxes are far better than job killing principles of big government and regulation

By Garrett Downing

Posted July 19th 2010

LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – Since LeBron James announced he was ‘taking his talents to South Beach,’ people have questioned what kind of impact that decision would ultimately have on his legacy. Some have argued that the by joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, James has removed himself from the discussion of the game’s most elite players.

Michael Jordan, one of the best players ever, weighed in on the discussion at a celebrity golf outing in Nevada Sunday.

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’” Jordan said. “Things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six titles. And while he had Scottie Pippen, there is little question the Bulls were Jordan’s team.
Jordan said he had more interest playing against the game’s best players, rather than with them.

“Obviously, when you look at the Dream Team, they were on my team and it wasn’t too much of a competitive thing,” he said said. “I’m a competitive guy, and I like to play against competitive players.”

Another slight against James may have come as Jordan discussed how he would have liked to pay against some of the elite players of the current era. During that discussion, Jordan did not even mention James in that group.

“I’m pretty sure that those guys (Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley), along with myself, wish that we could have played against the Kobe Bryant’s of this era and Tim Duncan’s of this era.”

Posted July 19th 2010

State, county and local officials will be on hand Monday morning for a news conference and celebration at Cleveland’s Hugo Boss plant. Workers are set to celebrate the ‘First suit off the line.”

Nearly 200 employees are back to work after the plant nearly shut down last December. In April, Hugo Boss workers ratified an agreement to keep the facility open. The local facility is the company’s only production plant in the United States.

The plant nearly closed in April, but efforts from celebrities, lawmakers and workers helped keep the facility open. Actor Danny Glover was one of the individuals who helped champion the movement to keep the Brooklyn plant from closing.

The news conference is scheduled for 10:45 a.m., at the Hugo Boss plant on Tiedeman Road in Cleveland.

By David Runk, Associated Press Writer

Posted July 18th 2010

DETROIT – States have the authority to enforce immigration laws and protect their borders, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said Wednesday in a legal brief on behalf of nine states supporting Arizona’s immigration law.

Cox, one of five Republicans running for Michigan governor, said Michigan is the lead state backing Arizona in federal court and is joined by Alabama, Florida, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia, as well as the Northern Mariana Islands.

The Arizona law, set to take effect July 29, directs officers to question people about their immigration status during the enforcement of other laws such as traffic stops and if there’s a reasonable suspicion they’re in the U.S. illegally.

President Barack Obama’s administration recently filed suit in federal court to block it, arguing immigration is a federal issue. The law’s backers say Congress isn’t doing anything meaningful about illegal immigration, so it’s the state’s duty to step up.

“Arizona, Michigan and every other state have the authority to enforce immigration laws, and it is appalling to see President Obama use taxpayer dollars to stop a state’s efforts to protect its own borders,” Cox said in a statement.

Arizona’s Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, in a statement released by Cox’s office, said she was thankful for the support.

In a telephone interview, Cox said the nine states supporting Arizona represents “a lot of states,” considering it was only Monday that he asked other state attorneys general to join him. The brief was filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona on the same day as the deadline for such filings.

“By lawsuit, rather than by legislation, the federal government seeks to negate this preexisting power of the states to verify a person’s immigration status and similarly seeks to reject the assistance that the states can lawfully provide to the Federal government,” the brief states.

The brief doesn’t represent the first time Cox has clashed with the Obama administration. Earlier this year, he joined with more than a dozen other attorneys general to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of federal health care changes signed into law by the Democratic president.

Like with his stance on health care, the immigration brief again puts Cox at odds with Democratic Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Granholm, who can’t seek re-election because of term limits, disagrees with the Arizona law, her press secretary Liz Boyd said. The Michigan primary is less than three weeks away on Aug. 3.

“It’s a patently political ploy in his quest for the Republican nomination for governor,” Boyd said.