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President Obama’s top economist, in her valedictory speech before stepping down Friday, urged Congress to “find the will and wisdom” to spend more money to create jobs - challenging the waning appetite for stimulus spending on Capitol Hill ahead of November’s elections.
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Describing the recession as “terrifying and so difficult to cure,” Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers, said the economy needs more government stimulus spending to tackle a stubbornly high unemployment rate. She told a National Press Club audience that she does worry about the nation’s long-term debt, which stood Tuesday at $13.45 trillion, but said that shouldn’t preclude additional short-term spending.

“Concern about the deficit cannot be an excuse for leaving unemployed workers to suffer,” she said. “We have tools that would bring unemployment down without worsening our long-run fiscal outlook, if we can only find the will and the wisdom to use them.”

Her call comes near the end of the administration’s much-touted “Recovery Summer,” an effort to try to rehabilitate the image of Mr. Obama’s signature $814 billion stimulus package, passed in the first weeks of his presidency last year.
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The administration says the spending and tax cuts are sustaining more than 3 million jobs, but polls show voters aren’t convinced. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate soared for a while past 10 percent and stands now at 9.5 percent, despite Mrs. Romer’s initial projections that it wouldn’t go past 8 percent if Congress approved the stimulus money.

Echoing other White House officials, Mrs. Romer said the administration knew the economy was bad when Mr. Obama took office in 2009 but that it was impossible to know the depth of the recession when officials were crafting the stimulus package.

That law remains contentious on both sides of the aisle, with liberals decrying it as too small and conservatives saying it spent too much and has too little to show for the expense.
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Mrs. Romer defended the bill as “unprecedented and pragmatic,” saying it is on track to accomplish what it was intended to do. Still, she acknowledged that current unemployment rates are not acceptable and underscore the need for more spending to create jobs.

Some Republicans have said that they are willing to work on specific spending. Sen. George V. Voinovich, an Ohio Republican who is retiring at the end of this year, sent a letter to Mr. Obama on Tuesday urging bipartisan work on a major road-building bill.

He called for paying for more projects by increasing the gas tax, which he said is a “user fee” that deserves to be boosted for the first time since 1993.
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The leader of the Roman Catholic church in New York City is trying to establish a regular meeting between Catholics and Muslim leaders, aiming to discuss and defuse contentious issues such as those raised by plans to build a mosque near Ground Zero.
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Archbishop Timothy Dolan said the church was not trying to tell or suggest to Muslims that they move the proposed mosque and Islamic community center, slated to be built two blocks from the former World Trade Center site.
Rather, he said the idea is to set up habitual meetings similar to those that have taken place for decades between Catholic clerics and rabbinical leaders, during which they hash out differences and try to build understanding between the two faiths.

“I’m afraid we have maybe not been as energetic with fostering relations with our Islamic brothers and sisters,” the archbishop said during an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday in his private office at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers. “Our coming together is not to say we can settle the mosque site issue,” he said, but “the wider issue of Church, Jewish, Islamic tensions.”

His goal, he said, is for leaders to know what to do “when conflict happens.”
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He said his staff is working with two rabbis and two imams to identify religious leaders, both clerics and lay people, who should be invited. He wants the first meeting to take place this month.

The imams who have been contacted by the archdiocese, as well as the developers of the mosque, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who has been criticized for questioning the appropriateness of situating a mosque near a sight attacked by Muslim terrorists, said the archbishop’s idea was “wonderful…. I think it’s appropriate and necessary.” Mr. Foxman said he would be honored to take part, if asked.
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The issue of erecting an Islamic center and mosque near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has divided the country, with some defending its placement as a religious-freedom matter and others decrying the plans as a sign of disrespect toward 9/11 victims and their families.

The archbishop made his comments less than two weeks after he offered to mediate in the dispute between proponents and critics of the Islamic center. At the time, he suggested that the developers consider moving the location, an aside that invited criticism from some who said the cleric was being indecisive.

On Wednesday he said he was “irritated” with himself for muddying the waters during that impromptu news conference.
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The archbishop said he has been distressed by bigoted comments uttered by both proponents and opponents of the mosque. “You can’t say that anyone opposed to putting up the mosque is driven by anti-Islamic bigotry,” he said.

He has also been criticized for not mentioning that Roman Catholics were persecuted by nativists in the early 1800s who said the immigrants would establish a papal “beachhead” in America.

He mentioned that history Wednesday. “We can’t let fanatics on either side take over” the debate, he said.
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At a time when illegal immigration has returned to the political spotlight, figures released Wednesday show a sharp decline in the number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S. border, in what researchers are calling the “first significant reversal” in 20 years.
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The total number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. dropped to 11.1 million in 2009, down from a peak of 12 million in 2007, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan Washington-based group that studies the nation’s Latino population. The report echoes the findings of a study released in February by the Department of Homeland Security.

About 300,000 illegal immigrants entered the U.S. each year from 2007 to 2009, down from the roughly 850,000 that entered annually from 2000 to 2005, according to the Pew report.
The number of illegal immigrants coming from Mexico has remained steady over the last several years, but there has been a significant drop in illegal immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America and South America, the study found.

California still holds the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the nation with 2.6 million, but has seen a steady decrease in this population in recent years as job-seeking migrants flocked to states such as Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Florida and Virginia. But those states are also reporting similar declines in their illegal migrant populations, according to the report.
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The Pew study is based on census and government labor statistics through March 2009. Researchers estimated the size of the illegal immigrant population by comparing the foreign-born population in the United States with the legal resident population and subtracting the difference.

Experts say there are a variety of reasons for the slowdown, including the recession and increased border enforcement.

The economy is the biggest driver for illegal immigration, said Frank Bean, director of UC Irvine’s Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy. In the economic downturn, jobs are harder to come by, Bean said, particularly in construction.
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“Those jobs have disappeared and have mostly stayed gone,” he said.

But Bean said he did not expect the downward trend to continue once the economy rebounds. “The same reason for illegal immigrants to come to the U.S. has always been there: the need for work,” he said. “As soon as work is available again, people will start coming again.”

The Obama administration cited the study’s figures as evidence that its efforts to strengthen border security are working. The government has cracked down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and recently 1,200 National Guard troops were deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border to deter unlawful entry.

“The administration’s unprecedented commitment of manpower, technology and infrastructure to the Southwest border has been a major factor in this dramatic drop in illegal crossings,” Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.
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The U.S. government has also stepped up removal of illegal immigrants, with 387,790 deported in fiscal 2009, compared with 291,060 in 2007.

Immigration control advocates said the decline in the number of migrants illegally entering the U.S. showed that tougher enforcement works.

“What this points to is that the illegal immigration population is not some unstoppable phenomenon,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that favors immigration restrictions. “Illegal immigrants are getting the message that the party may be over.”

Krikorian said the slowdown was evidence that illegal immigration can be reduced by restricting job opportunities and that legalizing the undocumented population was not necessary to solve the problem. The possibility of some type of amnesty program for illegal immigrants in the U.S. has long been a flash point in the heated debate over comprehensive immigration reform.
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“You don’t get rid of illegal immigration in one year,” Krikorian said. “You get it to start shrinking by making it hard to stick around. You make it as difficult as possible to get a job here and make it as hard as possible to make a living here as an illegal immigrant.”

Although some point to the Pew study as evidence that illegal immigrants are choosing to return to their home countries, the study’s researchers said that they saw no evidence that people were leaving the U.S. and that the decreased illegal immigration figures stemmed from less migration into the country.

Father Richard Estrada of La Placita church in Los Angeles, which has long served as a sanctuary for immigrants, said illegal migrants were continuing to enter the U.S. despite the recession. He said that although tougher enforcement at the border was making it harder for people to cross, it had created a ripe market for human smugglers. “This thing about increased border safety is an illusion,” he said.
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Raymundo Herrera, 46, who sells popsicles and ice cream sandwiches in East Los Angeles, said he had seen other vendors leave the United States because it was harder to make a living in the tough economy. Herrera, who is undocumented, sends money to his wife and 8-year-old daughter in Mexico every week, but he has also struggled to make ends meet. He said he would like to return to Mexico, but he cannot afford to do so.

Others say that the lure of the U.S. economy, even in a downturn, is enough to make the journey. “When the economy picks up, people are going to start coming,” said Hector, a 35-year-old bike messenger who declined to give his last name. “They always have.”

As for those migrants coming from Central and South America, Bean, of UC Irvine, said increased violence in Mexico linked to the drug war was making it increasingly dangerous to cross the border, and could possibly deter some immigrants from making the journey. Last month, 72 migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Brazil trying to cross illegally into the U.S. were killed by suspected drug cartel hit men.
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Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said her agency will move quickly to create an interim rule to guide resolutions of systemically important financial

companies when they are on the brink of failure.
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The FDIC will release a rule “fairly quickly, and then we will use that as the vehicle to solicit more comments,” Bair said today at a roundtable discussion in Washington with

regulators, academics and executives from firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Bair’s agency, which acts as receiver for failed banks, was given authority to resolve non-depository firms under the Dodd- Frank financial-regulation law signed by President

Barack Obama last month. Lawmakers created the authority after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and near-collapse of American International Group Inc. roiled

markets during the 2008 credit crisis.
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The meeting — which included Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Securities and Exchange

Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro — was designed as a first step in the process of writing and implementing the rules, the FDIC said.

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As U.S. regulators create a regime for resolving complex financial companies, they will have to determine how to work with overseas authorities in winding down systemically

important firms with multinational operations, Bair said at the meeting.
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When such firms collapse, some assets may be held behind barriers that could make the companies difficult to dismantle. This kind of separation, known as “ring fencing,” will

have to be addressed as firms and regulators develop so-called living wills for how they should be taken apart in a crisis, Bair said.

“At least in the short term, ring fencing is going to be a reality,” she said. “That is going to be the instinct to foreign regulators, and we just have to deal with that.”

Executives at the meeting said they are changing their businesses to take such jurisdictional protections into account. For example, in some cases it now makes sense to hold

securities — not cash — as collateral against short-term loans, said Art Certosimo, executive vice president at Bank of New York-Mellon.
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“Contrary to very strong belief, cash as collateral was troublesome as opposed to a benefit,” Certosimo said. “It’s not easy to segregate cash.”

Certosimo was joined at the roundtable by 10 other industry representatives, including chief risk officers Barry Zubrow of JPMorgan and Craig Broderick of Goldman Sachs,

Citigroup Inc. vice chairman Hamid Biglari and representatives from Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., BlackRock Inc. and Morgan Stanley.

To contact the reporters on this story: Phil Mattingly in Washington at pmattingly@bloomberg.net; Rebecca Christie in Washington at rchristie4@bloomberg.net
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Microsoft has debuted a new Xbox 360 wireless controller that features new analog sticks, and a D-Pad that rises. The controller is due on November 9 for $65.
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Today on YouTube, Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb unveiled a new Xbox 360 controller, due out later this year. It isn’t exactly a radical change, but there are a few tweaks that

should be for the better.

The biggest change will be to the often neglected D-pad. The D-pad has long been the red headed step child of the controller accessories. More or less shuffled to the second

tier of controller functions, the once proud D-pad — which was always there, lovingly awaiting our thumb back in the old days of controllers — has since been relegated to the

occasional secondary weapon toggle, weapons selection wheel if it is lucky, or even the lowly power switch for a flashlight.
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The new changes to the Xbox360 controller hope to bring a little pride back into the D-pad, while making it more usable. With a twist, the D-pad will now rise up about a quarter

of an inch. It might not seem like a mind blowing alteration- and, well, it isn’t- but fans of fighting games should appreciate the change, plus the pad might now factor more

heavily into designers’ control schemes. Plus, who knows, this might be a renaissance for the D-pad, as more gamers switch back to it.
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The new controller will also feature a deeper concave design on the analog sticks, and the color scheme on the buttons has been replaced with a monochrome look to match the

silver and black colors. The controller will be packaged with the play-and-charge rechargeable battery kit only, and it will retail for $64.99. Expect it in stores on November 9

(coincidentally the same day as Call of Duty: Black Ops is released). Once it is released, expect all current Xbox 360 controllers to be replaced, once current stock is gone. It

should be released in Europe in February, but no word on when to expect the new controllers as part of the Xbox 360 console bundle.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A standoff was under way Sunday in a tiny southeast Alaska village after a man fatally shot two of the village’s four full-time police officers the night before, then barricaded himself in his home, local officials said.Vince Carter shoes

Hoonah police officers Tony Wallace and Matt Tokuoka died after the shooting late Saturday, said Bob Prunella, acting city administrator. Prunella didn’t know what led to the shooting but said it was witnessed by Wallace’s mother, who was visiting from Florida, and Tokuoka’s wife and children.

The suspect, 45-year-old John Marvin Jr., barricaded himself in his home, and Alaska State Troopers and other law enforcement agencies were at the scene, authorities said.

There was no sign of a quick end to the standoff, Prunella said Sunday evening.

“This could go on for a while,” he said. “They really want to get him alive.”Gilbert Arenas Shoes

Troopers were urging residents in the shoreline community of about 800 to stay away from the area.

“Sadly, two police officers lost their lives. We hope to end this standoff without any further tragedy,” Col. Audie Holloway, head of the troopers, said in a statement.

Tokuoka left the home of his father-in-law, George Martin, just before the shooting. The 39-year-old officer was off-duty and had spent the evening there before leaving with his wife and two children, Martin said.

Soon after they left, Martin heard two shots. Wallace went down and Tokuoka told his wife and children to get away and then he was shot as well, Martin said.

“I imagine he was trying to administer help to this other officer when he got hit,” Martin said.Dwight Howard shoes

Prunella didn’t know how Wallace’s mother happened to witness the shooting.

Wallace, 32, died during surgery in Juneau, 40 miles east of Hoonah, and Tokuoka died early Sunday at a clinic in the Native village, according to Martin.

“The whole town’s in shock,” he said. “I’ve been getting calls all day. It’s a bad situation.”Allen Iverson Shoes

Martin said his home is just a block and a half from Marvin’s. He didn’t know why the officers were ambushed but said police have had run-ins with Marvin in the past. He said Marvin lives alone.

Alaska State Troopers were leading a multi-agency response, and spokeswoman Megan Peters said a warrant was issued for Marvin’s arrest. The Coast Guard transported the Juneau Police Department’s SWAT team to the village, Peters said.

Prunella said the deaths leave the Tlingit community with just two full-time officers — the police chief and a trainee. He said the southeast Alaska town of Wrangell sent some officers to help out as needed.Other NBA Star Shoes

Wallace was originally from Ohio and one of the few hard-of-hearing officers in the nation, according to officials at Rochester Institute of Technology in upstate New York, where he attended the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. He also was a wrestler and was inducted into the RIT Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008.

He first joined the Hoonah police force in 2006, leaving for personal reasons after seven months, according to a September 2009 interview in the RIT University News. He rejoined the department in 2008, where he served as the small department’s evidence officer, and was recently designated as a breath-test maintenance technician.

“I have had tremendous support from my fellow police officers and have gained their confidence by proving every day that a person with my hearing deficiency poses no problems on the job,” Wallace said in the RIT interview. “I have always believed that I could do the job of a police officer and here I am.”
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After all this time, and despite all those warnings, the tea party’s boil still has the capacity to singe — and even shock — the Republican Party. Kevin Durant shoes
The overtime primary contest for Senate in Alaska — with tea party favorite Joe Miller up a shocking 1,700 votes pending the counting of absentee ballots — would mark perhaps the biggest upset of the election cycle, if Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, goes down in defeat.

National Republicans are pulling back in their support for Murkowski in a possible legal fight, in an acknowledgement of the likelihood of a Miller victory when the votes are counted.

That contest is unlikely to change the balance of power in the Senate, since either Republican would be a heavy favorite. But a Senator Miller would join a growing cohort of Republican senators — new tea partiers plus like-minded veterans led by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. — who owe little or nothing to GOP leadership and the party establishment.
Before we get there, tea partiers get a few more chances to exert their influence. Little-known Republican candidates for Senate in Delaware and governor in Maryland are hoping that, like Miller, a Sarah Palin endorsement plus tea party energy is a formula for beating far better-funded and better-known establishment candidates.
Then there’s the fall, when tea party action in primaries could jeopardize Republican chances for pick-ups in Senate races in Florida, Nevada, Kentucky and Colorado.Penny Hardaway Shoes

Republicans in Washington have long argued that tea party enthusiasm is an unabashed positive for them, particularly when set against President Obama’s lagging popularity, and the lack of excitement among rank-and-file Democrats this year.

But the continuing impact of tea party candidacies on elections strongly suggests that this is not a political phenomenon that will work itself out with no lingering damage to the GOP.

Many tea party activists contend that their movement does not adhere to either particular party — and it may be that it doesn’t boost either party substantially.Carmelo Anthony shoes

After a week of spoiled dinners, missed recitals and frustrating delays, riders on the Long Island Rail Road are to be greeted on Monday morning with the first day of full service since a fire in an antiquated switching machine snarled nearly every route on the railroad.Tracy McGrady shoes

The railroad, one of the biggest commuter networks in the country, had been running three-quarters of its usual morning service since last Monday, when a pair of track cables short-circuited in Queens, setting fire to a 1920s-era lever-and-pulley machine that controlled track switches at Jamaica Station, a critical juncture point. The railroad ran about two-thirds of its normal afternoon service while repairs took place.

The switching machine had been scheduled to be replaced with a modern computerized system in late October. Transit officials said they believed the equipment upgrades would go on as scheduled, although the $56 million project is already behind schedule and over budget. Service disruptions are likely to occur again on the weekends when the railroad carries out the upgrade.

In the meantime, the old system has been restored, and on Monday, “we’re anticipating a normal rush hour, a.m. and p.m.,” said Joe Calderone, the railroad’s chief spokesman.Jason Frederick Kidd Shoes

More than 100,000 daily commuters struggled last week with delays, canceled trains and altered connections, underscoring the fragility of a mass transit system still dependent on technology developed before the Great Depression.

Railroad workers, who had been manually routing trains with mallets and spikes, completed repairs to the switching machine on Sunday, replacing about 100 burned wires and repairing 100 others that had been damaged.

“I appreciate the challenges our customers faced during the past week, and I thank them for their patience during what has been a difficult time,” the president of the railroad, Helena E. Williams, said on Sunday.

About 20 percent fewer customers used the railroad last week, officials said, although they said they did not know whether the decline was related to the service disruptions. “You have to figure it’s the end of August and people are on vacation,” Mr. Calderone said. Tony Parker Shoes

CHICAGO — By dropping all charges against Rod Blagojevich’s brother on Thursday, the federal government removed what had become an obstacle to their primary mission: convicting the impeached Illinois governor in a retrial now set for early next year.Dwight Howard shoes

Jurors who deadlocked last week on all but one of 24 charges in the first trial described the case against Robert Blagojevich as by far the weaker of the two. And they said the former Army officer presented an earnest, sympathetic figure when he insisted on the witness stand that he and his brother did nothing wrong.

Robert Blagojevich’s attorneys said prosecutors first signaled their desire to simplify their strategy on Wednesday when they privately offered to separate his case from the former governor’s. Still, he was surprised when the government dropped the charges instead.

“When it comes to my brother I’ve become accustomed to being an afterthought,” Robert Blagojevich said while celebrating at his son’s Chicago condo. “I’ve been an afterthought in this whole trial, this whole process. I was a very small part of the six-year investigation.”

Legal analysts said it was a rare but strategic step by the government.Allen Iverson Shoes

“It is a very smart move on the part of prosecutors,” said Bill Healy, a Chicago-based jury consultant. “This should really worry Rod, because they can focus like a laser on him now. The prosecution’s going to have a stronger case the second time ’round.”

Judge James Zagel said Rod Blagojevich’s retrial will start the week of Jan. 4, but did not set a specific date. He said he probably won’t allow the former governor more than two taxpayer-funded lawyers when the case begins anew — though he might allow more if lawyers volunteered or were financed by a benefactor.

Rod Blagojevich’s attorneys argued that he needed the half-dozen attorneys he had during the first trial, and said afterward they would meet with him before deciding on any changes to the defense team.Other NBA Star Shoes

In court, prosecutors said their decision to drop charges against Robert Blagojevich was based on his less central role in alleged schemes to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat and to pressure people for campaign donations.

Some jurors said the panel was close to acquitting Robert on at least one count and were split on another three. A few said they did not want to see him retried.

Robert Blagojevich’s first reaction to the news was, “Oh my god, you’re kidding!” his lawyer, Michael Ettinger, said. Blagojevich’s wife broke down in tears when she heard.Dirk Nowitzki Shoes

He had not heard from his brother three hours after the charges were dropped, though the former governor left a voicemail about an hour later. While the two have had a strained relationship, Robert Blagojevich said he felt bad for his sibling.

“The government failed to prove their case against my brother,” he added. “With the exception of one charge, he’s now a convicted felon. … He’s been impeached, he’s been shamed, he’s been disgraced as a governor — I don’t know how much more you can do to a guy.”

Robert Blagojevich worked as his brother’s campaign manager for only four months in 2008. The Republican had been a successful banker and retired Army officer living in Nashville, but said he went to work for the Democratic governor out of family solidarity.Steve Nash Shoes

He was seldom heard on the FBI wiretaps that were central to the case. Testifying at the trial, he denied allegations that he helped his brother scheme to benefit from his public office, and portrayed himself as left out of his brother’s most intimate dealings. Another witness, noting Robert’s relative lack of importance, said his desk was the corner of a conference table facing a sink.

“What happened to my brother should have never happened, and I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am for my brother and for his family that this nightmare for them is finally over,” Rod Blagojevich told reporters.

Robert Blagojevich said he had an inkling that prosecutors were wavering when they called to propose separating the cases. He said his attorneys declined, but were encouraged by it.

“I know that he and I did nothing wrong together,” Robert Blagojevich said when asked if he believed his brother was innocent of the charges against him. He added that it will be up to a jury to determine.Nike Air Flight 95 premium

Another of Robert Blagojevich’s attorneys, Cheryl Schroeder, speculated that prosecutors were eager to have Robert out of the way when they tried his brother because he distracted jurors and made a conviction against Rod more difficult.

The former governor’s attorneys have raised the possibility of Robert testifying on behalf of his brother.

Ettinger said Robert Blagojevich does not want to testify against his brother. While he would have to obey any subpoena, Ettinger said he could invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination.

The jury foreman from the first trial said he was pleased about prosecutors dropping the charges.Nike Air Zoom Flight Club

“I didn’t think he was innocent by the letter of the law — but as far as justice is concerned, I am relieved,” said James Matsumoto. “For two years he had suffered and I think that’s enough.”

Matsumoto agreed that it now could be easier for jurors to convict the former governor.

“There wouldn’t be the sympathy for Robert — and that complicated deliberations at the first trial,” he said.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Hundreds of union members celebrating the 90th anniversary of women’s suffrage rallied Thursday at the state Capitol, holding signs that said “Women vote for women who vote” - an attack on the state’s first female Republican nominee for governor.

The signs were criticizing the abysmal voting record of former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, who has acknowledged that she failed to vote for most of her adult life. The rally was organized by the California Nurses Association, a vocal Whitman critic.Carmelo Anthony shoes

Many marchers wore wide-brimmed hats adorned with flowers, long skirts and high necklines, in reference to the attire of the era of suffragettes. While some speeches focused on the struggles women went through to secure the passage of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, other speakers touched on a modern political issue: the upcoming November election.

A group of California Teachers Association members chanted “Teachers vote without fail, California’s not for sale.”

Whitman, a billionaire businesswoman, has contributed $104 million to her campaign to date, breaking all previous state spending records.

At a campaign event Thursday in the City of Industry, Whitman called the rally a distraction from the most pressing issues facing the state.Vince Carter shoes

“That is the union bosses trying to distract from the fact that I will go to Sacramento and I will change Sacramento,” she said. “I will get the public pension under control. I will fix our K-12 education system. So in my view, my voting record isn’t perfect, but the main issue here is how are we going to turn California around, and I think I have a plan.”

Whitman has been a vocal critic of public employee unions, which largely support her Democratic challenger, state Attorney General Jerry Brown. He re-emerged on the campaign trail this week after a quiet summer spent fundraising for a costly campaign this fall.
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