Poll: Americans believe world leaders respect Obama

WASHINGTON -- More than eight out of 10 Americans think Barack Obama will do a good job representing their country to the world, according to a new national poll published as the U.S. president set off on his first overseas trip since taking office.

Obama's itinerary includes Thursday's key G-20 meeting in London, followed by a NATO summit on the French-German border and visits to the Czech Republic and Turkey.
Seven in 10 people questioned in the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Tuesday, believe that leaders of other countries respect Obama -- a figure in sharp contrast to predecessor George W. Bush's poll ratings at the equivalent stage of his presidency.
Just 49 percent of Americans believed that foreign leaders respected Bush shortly after he assumed office in 2001.

A poll indicates eight in 10 Americans think President Obama will represent the United States well to the world.
"Except for the period following the 9/11 attacks, that number never got any better for Bush," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Even among Republicans, a majority believes that other world leaders respect Obama."
Obama's popularity in Europe was highlighted last year during a pre-election visit to Germany, France and the UK when hundreds of thousands turned out to hear the then-presidential candidate speak in Berlin. His election success in November was widely celebrated across the continent.
But analysts say Obama is now under pressure to deliver on that popularity -- and will be held to higher standards than previous White House incumbents. Watch how Obama-mania gripped Europe »
"If there is a trade war between America and Europe and, as a result, European jobs are lost, that would make Barack Obama unpopular," British political commentator Peter Kellner told CNN.
"Secondly if there was a sign to return the type of arrogance, as Europeans see it, under George W. Bush and other U.S. presidents that would damage his popularity."

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted March 12-15, with 1,019 adult Americans questioned by telephone.
The survey's sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points. (CNN)

Obama: Safety of world at stake in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON -- President Obama, saying "the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks are in Pakistan and Afghanistan," announced a new strategy Friday to confront the growing threat in the two countries.

He said the "situation is increasingly perilous" in the region, and 2008 was the deadliest year for U.S. forces in the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. And he announced plans for 4,000 more troops in Afghanistan, new legislation that would help the economies in Pakistan and Afghanistan, more training to bolster Afghan security forces and an increase in civilian expertise to help develop Afghanistan's economic, social and governmental institutions.
Flanked by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in the Executive Office Building, Obama called the problem in the volatile region an "international security challenge of the highest order." He stressed soberly that "the safety of people around the world is at stake."
"The United States of America did not choose to fight a war in Afghanistan. Nearly 3,000 of our people were killed on September 11, 2001, for doing nothing more than going about their daily lives," said Obama, who has vowed to make Afghanistan the central front in the war on terror.

President Obama on Friday called the situation in Afghanistan "increasingly perilous."
"So let me be clear: Al Qaeda and its allies -- the terrorists who planned and supported the 9/11 attacks -- are in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Multiple intelligence estimates have warned that al Qaeda is actively planning attacks on the U.S. homeland from its safe haven in Pakistan. And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban -- or allows al Qaeda to go unchallenged -- that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can." Watch Obama tell terrorists U.S. will defeat them »
Obama said it is key that Americans understand Pakistan "needs our help" in the fight against al Qaeda.
"Al Qaeda and other violent extremists have killed several thousand Pakistanis since 9/11. They have killed many Pakistani soldiers and police. They assassinated Benazir Bhutto. They have blown up buildings, derailed foreign investment, and threatened the stability of the state. Make no mistake: al Qaeda and its extremist allies are a cancer that risks killing Pakistan from within."

He called on Congress to pass a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, and Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, authorizing "$1.5 billion in direct support to the Pakistani people every year over the next five years -- resources that will build schools, roads, and hospitals, and strengthen Pakistan's democracy."
He is also urging Congress to pass a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, and Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, and Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, "that creates opportunity zones in the border region to develop the economy and bring hope to places plagued by violence. And we will ask our friends and allies to do their part -- including at the donors conference in Tokyo next month."
"After years of mixed results, we will not provide a blank check. Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders. And we will insist that action be taken -- one way or another -- when we have intelligence about high-level terrorist targets. "
Obama said the United States must work with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and others to help Pakistan get through the economic crisis.
"To lessen tensions between two nuclear-armed nations that too often teeter on the edge of escalation and confrontation, we must pursue constructive diplomacy with both India and Pakistan."
As for Afghanistan itself, Obama said the country "has been denied the resources that it demands because of the war in Iraq," and now, a commitment must be made.
Obama said he is sending another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan along with hundreds of civilian specialists. The troops -- which are in addition to the 17,000 the president announced earlier would be sent to Afghanistan -- will be charged with training and building the Afghan army and police force.
Obama said the soldiers and Marines "will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and east" and will work with Afghan troops to fight insurgents along the border. He said such an effort will bolster "security in advance of the important presidential election in August."
"We will shift the emphasis of our mission to training and increasing the size of Afghan security forces, so that they can eventually take the lead in securing their country," he said.
Obama said the coalition will accelerate efforts to "build an Afghan army of 134,000 and a police force of 82,000 so that we can meet these goals by 2011 -- and increases in Afghan forces may very well be needed as our plans to turn over security responsibility to the Afghans go forward."
Obama also stressed that there needs to be a dramatic increase in America's civilian efforts.
He said Afghanistan's government has been "undermined by corruption and has difficulty delivering basic services to its people," and its economy is undercut by a booming narcotics trade that encourages criminality and funds the insurgency." Watch Obama's remarks on the situation in Afghanistan »
"To advance security, opportunity and justice -- not just in Kabul, but from the bottom up, in the provinces -- we need agricultural specialists and educators; engineers and lawyers. That is how we can help the Afghan government serve its people, and develop an economy that isn't dominated by illicit drugs. That is why I am ordering a substantial increase in our civilians on the ground. And that is why we must seek civilian support from our partners and allies, from the United Nations and international aid organizations -- an effort that Secretary Clinton will carry forward next week in The Hague."
Obama said the United States will set clear benchmarks for international assistance and won't ignore attention to corruption.
"As we provide these resources, the days of unaccountable spending, no-bid contracts and wasteful reconstruction must end. So my budget will increase funding for a strong inspector general at both the State Department and USAID, and include robust funding for the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction. "

The United States is seeking to work with the United Nations to develop "greater progress for its mandate to coordinate international action and assistance, and to strengthen Afghan institutions."
He said the U.S. will develop a new Contact Group for Afghanistan and Pakistan that will include "not only NATO allies and other partners, but also the Central Asian states, the Gulf nations and Iran; Russia, India and China." (CNN)

Obama to meet bank CEOs to discuss economic crisis

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will quiz top U.S. bankers on Friday about developments in the economy and their businesses as his administration seeks broader authority to regulate the financial system.
Obama, who will pitch his plans to combat global recession and reform regulation at next week's G20 meeting of major economies, is set to host leaders of the biggest U.S. financial institutions at the White House around noon EDT (1600 GMT).
The meeting will come just days after the U.S. Treasury Department provided details on a government plan to cleanse banks' balance sheets of up to $1 trillion in distressed loans and securities.
The Obama administration also announced on Thursday its plan to rewrite financial rules, including creating a single regulator to monitor any firm whose failure could threaten the financial system.
Senior White House officials said Friday's meeting would not be a sales job by the president, however, who has walked a fine line with bankers -- chastising them for taking big bonuses while encouraging them to increase lending to help turn the economy around.
"This is a meeting about the broad approach to restoring our economy and our national economic strength," top White House economic adviser Larry Summers told reporters.
"Our future is inextricably linked to these financial institutions and theirs is to ours, and so it makes all the sense in the world that they come together and have this conversation," said Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president.
Officials said about 15 CEOs were expected to attend, including chief executives from JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.
Other invited financial institutions, according to a financial sector source, include: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bank of New York/Mellon, Northern Trust, PNC Financial, State Street, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, USBancorp, Wells Fargo, American Bankers Association and the Financial Services Roundtable.
Summers said the president would have a back-and-forth conversation with the banking leaders. "I think he'll want to understand and I expect they'll want to tell him about things they're doing that are supportive of our economy," he said.
He said those topics could include, "the way they treat highly indebted consumers or the way they're going to think about monitoring the risks better in the future or the steps they're going to take to assure a continuing and strong flow of capital."
Obama flies to Europe next week for a summit of leaders from the Group of 20 leading emerging and industrial economies, which will try to coordinate their strategies to address the global economic crisis. (Reuters)

FACTBOX: Banks, trade groups meeting with Obama on Friday

The following is a list of banks and trade groups that have been invited to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday, according to a source familiar with preparations:
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - Seized by regulators when the cost of failing home loans pushed the mortgage-finance companies toward insolvency. Since being nationalized in September, the companies have been turned into tools to aid the housing market.
JPMorgan Chase - One of three national lenders that hold a large share of consumer deposits and received a $25 billion injection of capital from the Treasury Department in October. Last year, regulators helped JPMorgan buy Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual before they collapsed under the weight of bad housing bets.
Citigroup - One of three national lenders that hold a large share of consumer deposits and received a $25 billion injection of capital from the Treasury Department in October. Since that initial investment, Treasury has pumped another $20 billion into the company, promised to shoulder losses on bad investments and otherwise helped prop-up the global lender.
Wells Fargo - One of three national lenders that hold a large share of consumer deposits and received a $25 billion injection of capital from the Treasury Department in October. That same month, the bank with a strong presence on the West Coast bought North Carolina-based Wachovia before that lender collapsed under the weight of mortgage losses.
Bank of America - The bank received a $15 billion injection of capital in October along with many large financial services companies. In early January, the Treasury Department pumped $20 billion more into the lender and agreed to shoulder some losses in order to preserve its buyout of Merrill Lynch.
Bank of New York/Mellon - In October, the Treasury bought a $3 billion stake in the financial services firm under its Troubled Asset Relief Program meant to buttress banks' balance sheets. The government's investment was one of the smallest under that first phase of the aid program.
State Street - The Treasury bought a $2 billion stake in the Boston-based financial services company in October -- its smallest investment under the initial phase of the TARP. The other eight firms that received an initial capital injection absorbed $123 billion in federal money.
Merrill Lynch - The investment bank received a $15 billion boost from the Treasury Department in October in order to preserve its buyout by Bank of America. Deep losses at the company have continued to weigh on Bank of America's balance sheet.
Goldman Sachs - The investment bank took a $10 billion investment from the Treasury Department in October but has since said it wants to return that government money. Now operating as a traditional bank accepting deposits.
Morgan Stanley - The investment bank received a $10 billion investment from the Treasury Department in October and soon thereafter applied to accept consumer deposits to help stabilize its balance sheet.
PNC Financial Services, USBancorp and Northern Trust - The three financial services companies have accepted $7.7 billion, $6.6 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively, under the TARP program. All three have said that they want to return the money soon. PNC and USBancorp are large, regional lenders.
American Bankers Association and Financial Services Roundtable - Two Washington-based trade groups that represent many of the large lenders and finance companies that have received billions of dollars in federal aid.

Obama's economic remedies may face pushback at G20

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama will make his debut as president on the world stage next week with calls for global economies to use government spending to jumpstart growth and work on a reshaping of the chaotic financial system.
The U.S. president's popularity will likely elicit a warm greeting Europeans when he travels to London for the summit of the Group of 20 major economies on April 2. His remedies for fixing the world economy could face a chillier reception.
European leaders have made clear they will not heed the U.S. call for deficit spending and may prod the United States to move further and more quickly to tighten financial rules.
China has talked of a possible alternative to the U.S. dollar's status as a global reserve currency, in a signal of weakening confidence in America's economic leadership.
"The United States has been the champion of the open free-market global system and that is now under threat from various directions," said Reginald Dale, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"So it's really up to President Obama to step in and confirm that the United States is still the guardian of the global system," Dale said.
The Obama administration is touting its $787 billion economic stimulus plan as a model for what other countries could do. The global economy is expected to shrink this year for the first time since World War Two.
"No one can deny the urgency of action," Obama said this week in an opinion piece published in several newspapers abroad.
Obama urged "bold, comprehensive and coordinated action" among G20 countries to reignite growth but also said that countries should work together on regulatory reforms to ensure that they prevent a repeat of the financial catastrophe.
Britain, among the nations hardest hit by the crisis, has joined the U.S. calls for aggressive economic stimulus steps.
FRANCE, GERMANY
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have said more spending would not rescue the world economy and could create unsustainable deficits. They have urged an emphasis on tightening regulations, blaming lax oversight for the financial crisis.
One area where the leaders are likely to find common ground is bolstering the International Monetary Fund.
Analysts said the Obama administration is worried that imbalances in the world economy may be reinforced if the stimulus succeeds in reviving U.S. growth but economic activity overseas continues to sink. Such a scenario could spur lopsided consumer demand in the United States.
Still, experts said the G20 leaders were likely to play down their differences on issues like economic stimulus.

Obama is well regarded in much of Europe due to his left-leaning policies and rise as the first African-American U.S. president. It would seem unwise politically for European leaders to allow tensions to bubble to the surface.
Simon Johnson, a former IMF chief economist, said the summit was unlikely to bridge differences on the issue of fiscal stimulus.
"All of the stuff is so choreographed in advance that if they were going to have any agreement on something like that, you would see it coming," Johnson said.
But he said there could be agreement on regulatory issues, "not, I think, real substance or immediate changes but on the rhetorical level."
"The Americans have become more pro-regulation, even quite recently," Johnson said.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner this week unveiled proposals for new oversight of hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds with assets above a certain level. Such funds are loosely regulated in the United States.
The move is in line with an anticipated European Union proposal.
Geithner has also called for a more systematic government approach to problems at financial institutions, including insurance companies such as American International Group, which are so large they can threaten the stability of the economy. (Reuters)

IBM draws criticism for job cuts, outsourcing

IBM's reported plans to lay off thousands of U.S. workers and outsource many of those jobs to India, even as the company angles for billions in stimulus money, doesn't sit well with employee rights advocates.IBM employees are being dealt a double blow, said Lee Conrad, national coordinator for Alliance@IBM, a pro-union group that has been fighting IBM's outsourcing for years.
Business Week reports that IBM's workforce increased from 386,558 in 2007 to 398,000 at the end of 2008.
"We're outraged that jobs cuts are happening in the U.S. and the work is being shifted offshore," Conrad said. "This comes at the same time IBM has its hand out for stimulus money. This to us is totally unacceptable."
IBM wants a share of the money in President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for projects updating power grids, creating electronic health care records and furthering the use of broadband.
"In the research we've done working with the transition team, we know that $30 billion could create 1 million jobs in the next 12 months," IBM CEO Sam Palmisano said in January. Watch how IBM hopes to benefit from the stimulus »
The problem is where those jobs would be, said Ron Hira, a professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
"This is really a question of policy," Hira said. "IBM is doing what's in its best interest, and in this case it's not in the best interest of America. And that's why you need policymakers to step in to ensure that this money gets spent to create American jobs." Watch the outcry generated by IBM »
IBM has not responded to multiple requests for comment from CNN after the Wall Street Journal's report that the IT giant would be shipping 5,000 U.S. jobs overseas.
"We have no problem with job creation in other countries," Conrad said. "We have no problem with global expansion. We realize IBM is a global company and has been for many years. But this is different. This is cutting jobs in the U.S. and shifting the work offshore. This isn't job creation. It's job shifting."
According to Business Week, IBM has indeed been shifting jobs. The magazine reported that the company's workforce went up from 386,558 at the end of 2007 to 398,000 at the end of 2008. But U.S. employment fell from 121,000 to 115,000 during the same time.
Hira, author of the book "Outsourcing America," said it's not just IBM moving jobs out of the United States.

"The problem here, though, is that these companies have an inordinate influence over the political process," he said. "They have a huge, disproportionate amount of power, political power, and can influence the process."
For that reason, he said, "you really do need the American public to sort of stand up and say, 'Wait a second. This is just not right.' ... I certainly hope that there's a backlash, because there should be. This is bad for America."

Obama to send 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan, officials say

WASHINGTON -- President Obama plans to send another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan along with hundreds of civilian specialists in an effort to confront what he considers "the central challenge facing [that] country," senior administration officials said Thursday.The president also will call on Congress to pass a bill that triples U.S. aid to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year over five years, the officials said.
Obama is expected to announce new strategies for both countries Friday.
The troops, which are in addition to the 17,000 the president announced earlier would be sent to Afghanistan, will be charged with training and building the Afghan army and police force. The plans include doubling the army's ranks to 135,000 and the police force to 80,000 by 2011, the officials said.
Military officials earlier told CNN that the Afghan government had requested the additional troops.

President Obama is expected to announce new strategies for Afghanistan and Pakistan on Friday.
In a background briefing with reporters, one official painted a somber picture of the situation.
"Al Qaeda's central leadership has been moved from Kandahar, Afghanistan, to a location unknown somewhere in Pakistan," he said. "And in that location they're plotting against the United States. They are working with their friends and partners, the Taliban, against American interests."

The plan marks a new strategy, focusing on the growing threat in Afghanistan and now Pakistan, the officials said.
The goal, said one official, is to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and destroy the safe haven that has developed in Pakistan and prevent it from rebuilding in Afghanistan."
Earlier Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told reporters that the United States needs to improve its level of intelligence support for military operations in Afghanistan. Blair also said a lot more work is needed to get Pakistan on the same page as the United States in fighting terrorists along the border.
The plan does not include an exit strategy. A senior administration official said commanders on the ground would make periodic assessments.
"This is a strategy, not a straitjacket," the official said.
Obama has spoken with the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said, and was "gratified by their reception."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to attend a U.S.-backed international conference on Afghanistan next week at The Hague, State Department officials said. (CNN)

U.S. destroyers on move as N. Korea prepares rocket launch

WASHINGTON -- As North Korea prepares for an expected rocket launch next month, the U.S. Navy says it is moving to the Sea of Japan ships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.

Later Thursday, Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said that debris from the North Korean rocket would be fired on and destroyed if the launch fails and fragments fall into Japanese territory, ministry spokesman Yuichi Akiyoshi said.

The USS Chaffee is one of two destroyers headed to South Korea for an upcoming ceremony, the Navy said.
The U.S. ships, with powerful Aegis radar that can track ballistic missile launches, are on regularly planned deployments but are "prepared to track a launch or more, if afforded," according to a U.S. Navy official who could not be named because of the sensitivity of the information.
The United States generally has a number of Aegis-capable ships in the Sea of Japan because of the threat by North Korea to launch missiles. The ships monitor the region and are designed to track and if need be shoot down ballistic missiles.
North Korea says it will launch a commercial satellite on top of a rocket sometime between April 4 and April 8. But Western governments fear the North Koreans will put a long-range missile on top of the rocket.
If North Korea launches, the Obama administration may have has little as five minutes to decide whether it is a threat and, if necessary, try to shoot it down.

The USS Hopper, a destroyer with the Aegis radar system aboard was scheduled for a port call in Japan in coming days. But the port call was canceled and the ship will remain in the Sea of Japan ahead of the launch, the official said.
Two other U.S. Navy Aegis-capable destroyers, the USS Chaffee and USS McCain, are leaving the port in Sasebo, Japan, and are heading to South Korea for a ceremony in the coming days, according to the U.S. Navy official with direct knowledge of the operations.
The U.S. Navy just wrapped up military exercises with the South Korean military that brought a number of U.S. ships into the region. (CNN)

Hidden homeless emerge as U.S. economy worsens

SACRAMENTO, California - Emergency shelters brimming with homeless people in California's capital are quietly turning away more than 200 women and children a night in a sign of the deteriorating U.S. economy.
The displaced individuals on waiting lists at St. John's Shelter and other facilities often turn instead to relatives or friends for temporary living quarters, perhaps moving into a spare room, garage or trailer. The less fortunate might sleep in their cars or a vacant storage unit.
They are the hidden homeless. And their ranks appear to be growing as rising joblessness and mortgage foreclosures take their toll in Sacramento and other U.S. cities, experts say.
U.S. President Barack Obama recognized the trend in his televised news conference this week, saying, "the homeless problem was bad even when the economy was good," and he vowed to bring greater government resources to bear to deal with it.
"It is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours," he said.
A "tent city" of up to 200 homeless in Sacramento was thrust into the media spotlight last month as a symbol of the battered U.S. economy. California authorities said this week they would shut down the illegal settlement and find other shelter for its residents, most of them chronically homeless.
Homeless advocates say they expect such encampments, which already exist around the country, to spread as the housing crisis worsens and shelters fill up.
"I think there's a slight trickle of people who've been at risk of homelessness who are winding up in tent cities or knocking on shelter doors," said Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington. "I expect a tremendous increase in homelessness over the next couple of years."
Stoops, who has worked with the homeless for 35 years, said the newly dispossessed often retain some income and seek initially to downsize or find cheaper accommodations.
WORST NIGHTMARE
"Their worst nightmare would be winding up on the streets, in a tent city or a shelter," he said. "That's the last stage. They will do everything they can before that happens to them."
Maria Romero, 52, who held a series of low-paying jobs over the years before steady work became hard to find, said she lived out of her automobile for a year before reluctantly moving to St. John's Shelter in January.
"I'd rather be by myself. My car was my own space," she said, adding she would never consider living in a tent city.
"It wouldn't be safe, especially for a single female," said Romero, a high school dropout forced by circumstance to live in a car or shelter more than once in her life.
Her experience illustrates the complexity of homelessness in America, where the most economically vulnerable are often the first to fall through the cracks during hard times.

The latest national figures, in a January report by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, actually showed a 10 percent decline in the homeless population two years ago -- from about 744,000 per night in January 2005 to nearly 672,000 per night in January 2007.
But 36 of the 50 states reported increases and homeless advocates worry that the national trend will be reversed because of the deepening recession and housing crisis.
As of 2007, the report said, 42 percent of homeless people in the United States, and 70 percent of those in California, slept on the streets, in cars, tents or abandoned buildings.
The "Skid Row" area of Los Angeles is thought to have the nation's highest concentration of homeless, with more than 5,000 counted in that 50-block area in 2007.
Experts say it typically takes six to eight months to go from losing one's home to turning up at a shelter doorstep. Some already have noticed more than a trickle.
RUN ON THE SHELTERS
"I've never seen it like this before, and I have 30 years of experience working with the homeless," said Darlene Newsom, head of the UMOM Day Centers emergency housing project in Phoenix, Arizona, where the number of homeless families seeking services has doubled in the past three months.
Loaves & Fishes, a Sacramento charity that supports the homeless, now provides a free lunch to about 650 people a day, up about 10 percent from a year ago, but private donations to the organization have been flat.
"We are struggling to keep our doors open," director Joan Burke said.
Nearby St. John's Shelter, which caters to women and children, has been running at or near capacity for months -- filling roughly 100 beds a night -- with a waiting list well over twice that long, case manager Kellie Dockendorf said.
This is up from the daily average of 80 women and children turned away in 2008. And getting in can take up to 45 days.
The mix of clientele is changing too, she said.
"We're getting a lot more working people. We're getting more people with education. We're getting a lot more people who are working part-time or not getting enough hours to pay their bills," she said.
Keysia Bell, 38, had made a living as a caregiver for the elderly until full-time work became harder to find.
After a period of paying to stay with friends or relatives for weeks or months at a time, then renting a house she could no longer afford, she ended up at St. John's two months ago with her 17-year-old and 10-month-old daughters.
"I'm out of a job. I'm out of a place to stay. I have a baby daughter, and it all just became overwhelming," she said. (Reuters)

U.S. economy shrinks, profits plunge in Q4

WASHINGTON - U.S. corporate profits plunged a record $120.1 billion in the fourth quarter as the economy shrank at its fastest pace since 1982, depressed by a slump in consumer spending and exports, government data showed on Thursday.
In another snapshot of the distressed economy, the number of workers collecting state jobless benefits rose to a record 5.56 million earlier this month, while new claims climbed to 652,000 last week, according to a separate government report.
"It is indicative of the sharp decline in overall economic activity experienced in the fourth quarter," said Joseph Brusuelas, an economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, speaking of the drop in corporate profits.
The Commerce Department said after-tax corporate profits dropped 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter, the largest decline since the first quarter of 1994. Profits fell $5.2 billion in the third quarter.
Domestic profits of financial firms skidded $178.7 billion, compared with a $75.5 billion decline in the third quarter. Non-financial corporations' domestic profits tumbled $89.1 billion in the fourth quarter after increasing $52.1 in the prior period.
Shrinking profits came as gross domestic product, which measures the total output of goods and services within U.S. borders, fell at an annual rate of 6.3 percent in the October-December quarter, the steepest decline since the first quarter of 1982.
But analysts said the October-to-December quarter was probably the worst of the 15-month recession and they expect the economy to start stabilizing, although first-quarter output would still show another deep fall.
"We think that the decline in GDP reached its trough in the fourth quarter. GDP will not decline again as fast as it did in the fourth quarter," said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities International in New York.
The government last month estimated the drop in fourth-quarter GDP at 6.2 percent and the modest revisions to the output estimates reflect adjustments to business inventories and investment figures.
U.S. stocks rose on relief that the decline in GDP was not worse than market expectations of a 6.5 percent contraction. The Dow Jones industrial ended up 174.75 points at 7,924.56, while the S&P 500 closed 18.98 points higher at 832.86.
Government bond prices firmed, breaking a five-session losing streak, ahead of the Federal Reserve's purchases of long-dated U.S. Treasuries on Friday. These are part of a broader plan to halt the downward economic spiral triggered by the collapse of the housing market.
WORST MIGHT BE OVER
The economy expanded 1.1 percent in 2008, the smallest advance since 2001, after growing 2.0 percent in the prior year, the Commerce Department said.
Recent data, such as housing and retail sales, have been surprisingly upbeat, raising cautious optimism that the recession is probably close to reaching a bottom. The economy is widely expected to start growing in the fourth quarter as the government's $787 billion stimulus filters through.
"The worst might be behind us in terms of the contraction in economic output," said Moody's Economy.com's Brusuelas.

"We are starting to see a slight uptick in some of the high frequency data. That suggests we are approaching a level where the economy could stabilize. We are still going to see another three quarters of contraction in output."
During the fourth quarter, private business inventories fell $25.8 billion as business responded to the slump in demand by cutting output.
Business investment, typically made when companies are planning production increases, fell at a 21.7 percent rate, the biggest fall since the first quarter of 1975.
Residential investment fell 22.8 percent in the fourth quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of domestic economic activity, dropped at a 4.3 percent rate. Exports were down 23.6 percent.
"We are still of the belief that the first quarter will be the last awful quarter and the second quarter could be the last significantly negative quarter," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed the number of workers on state unemployment benefits surged 122,000 in the week ended March 14, from 5.44 million the prior week.
That pushed the insured unemployment rate to 4.2 percent from 4.1 percent the prior week, the highest since May 1983.
"The duration of unemployment is extending along with the increase in the incidence of unemployment. Workers are finding the labor market much more difficult to re-enter after they have been laid off from their previous employment," said Nomura's Pandl. (Reuters)

Obama answers handful of 104,000 Web questions

In an appeal to the tech-savvy public, the White House's Web site opened itself to Internet-submitted questions for President Obama's online town hall meeting Thursday morning. The virtual meeting -- which was a new take on President Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats -- reached out to online followers as Obama tries to rally an anxious country in support of his solutions to the economic crisis.
Obama began his address by trying to draw a clear line between what he sees as the political games of Washington and the actual needs of the American people.

Obama began taking your questions in an online town hall meeting at 11:30 a.m. ET.

"What matters to you and your families and what people here in Washington are focused on are not always" the same, he said, criticizing the winner-loser mindset of the politicians in the nation's capitol.

"This isn't about me, it's about you," he said. "It's about the families whose letters I read every single day, and, for the American people, what's going on is not a game."
After the call for questions closed at 9:30 a.m., more than 90,000 people had submitted more than 104,000 questions for the president. The questions largely focused on the economy but spread across several categories. Online users ranked the questions more than 3.6 million times, according to WhiteHouse.gov. Watch how the questions for President Obama were chosen »
Obama had promised to answer popular questions from the site.
The idea that a president would want to talk directly to the American people has been around since the days of FDR, but what was new about Obama's online town hall is that it encouraged members of the public to interact with each other, said Julie Moos, director of Poynter Online, a nonprofit journalism site.

"By allowing [Internet users] not just to submit questions but to see the other questions ... and to rank the questions continues to connect them in the same way that the [Obama] campaign did," Moos said. "And I think that's one of the most innovative things that they're doing."
Flanked by a flat-screen TV and backed by a 100-person audience in the White House's East Room, the president answered text questions and those submitted in video format. Read a CNN blog on the event
Obama answered seven of the most popular online questions, according to a CNN tally. That included a paraphrase of a question asked by several people online: would legalizing marijuana help jumpstart the economy. Watch Obama say no to marijuana »
The president grinned through his answer: "I don't' know what this says about the online audience," he said, adding: "The answer is, 'No,' I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy." iReport.com: Is it time to legalize marijuana?
Other questions -- some of which came from the live audience -- focused primarily on health care, job loss, mortgage payments and energy.
A video question from three bubbly college students was well received by the audience. In it, the young women asked how Obama will make college more affordable and when a national program may start.
Obama said too many college students finish school while drowning in debt. He said a public service program will begin in a matter of weeks.
"If you come out of college with $50,000 worth of debt it's then hard for you to start making a decision about wanting to be a teacher or wanting to go into social work," he said.
In one video question, a woman asked the president if manufacturing jobs that have gone overseas will come back.
No, Obama answered.
America needs to create new jobs "that can't be outsourced," he said. Many of those will be in the renewable energy sector, he said.
During the address, the online community commented on Obama's answers and the format of the town hall. Users could watch streaming video of the question-answer session online at WhiteHouse.gov as well as on CNN.com.
On the social media site Twitter, a user named kfoggy1 wrote: "[I] didn't vote for Obama, but I really like what he is doing with technology. Good for democracy."
A user called BeaconOfLight was less impressed.
"Another chance for Obama to get TV time. Get your glass the 'kool aid' will flow," the user wrote.
A quick survey of the more than 104,000 questions submitted at WhiteHouse.gov revealed an America troubled by the state of the economy and struggling to make ends meet.
The White House asked the public to submit questions only about the economy, but the site divided them into several subcategories.
In education, several popular questions came from people who criticized the state of the nation's educational system, or were having trouble paying off college debt.
"The Founding Fathers believed that there is no difference between a free society and an educated society. Our educational system, however, is woefully inadequate. How do you plan to restore education as a right and core cultural value in America?" asked Takeok, from Boston, Massachusetts.
In the "home ownership" category, several users wrote that they feel they've been making all the right financial moves and still find themselves in turmoil.
"Why aren't you helping the people who want to PREVENT foreclosure?" asked MistyLee, from Providence, Rhode Island.
Some health care submissions questioned why more Americans aren't covered.
Richard from California asked why this nation can't have universal health care like countries in Europe, "where people are treated based on needs, rather than financial resources." Watch Obama call for Health Care reform »
Questions filed under green jobs and energy prodded the president to reconsider ethanol subsidies and asked him to explain how the stimulus plan will affect green jobs and home weatherization.
Larkin, a user from Gaithersburg, Maryland, was one of several people to raise the issue of public transit.
"Will we ever see high-speed passenger rail service in the U.S.?" the user asked.
In the finance category, Web users wanted to know more about why the government couldn't break up large financial institutions into smaller entities.
Adrian, of Collinsville, Illinois, worried about businesses that have survived the economic collapse.
"What rewards are there for those people and businesses that chose to live and operate within their means?" the user asked.
The site began taking questions on Tuesday and stopped on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. ET. The Web service was hosted by Google, but the White House said it will protect user information in accordance with its own privacy guidelines.

Questions asked on the site were made public immediately, the White House said. Users could flag questions they deemed inappropriate.
Moos, of Poynter, said one of the biggest take-aways from the event is that it connected these audiences to the president and a sense that they're part of a valued online community -- an engaged citizenry. (CNN)

Economy: Worst in 26 years

The nation's gross domestic product declined by 6.3% in the fourth quarter -- the biggest drop since 1982.

NEW YORK -- The government confirmed Thursday that the U.S. economy suffered its largest drop in 26 years during the fourth quarter.
The nation's gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic activity, fell at an annual rate of 6.3% during the final three months of 2008. That's slightly worse than the government's previous estimate of a 6.2% drop in the period.
Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast that GDP would fall at a 6.6% rate in the latest reading.
The drop is the biggest one-quarter decline in this key measure since the first three months of 1982.
The report showed broad based declines across various measures of economic activity. Spending by consumers fell at a 4.3% rate, with purchases of large ticket items plunging 22%. Investment in housing fell 23% from already depressed levels, completing three straight years of declines in that sector.
Investment in equipment and software, taken as a measure of business spending, plunged at a 28% rate. Exports tumbled at a 24% rate.

The economic problems have obviously not ended with the fourth quarter report. Economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics forecast a 5% rate of decline in the first quarter, which ends Tuesday, followed by a 1.7% drop in the second quarter.
Still, Bernard Baumohl, executive director of The Economic Outlook Group, said that some recent economic readings on housing and retail sales that have come in better than expected in the last couple of weeks suggest that the recession may be approaching a bottom.
"I'm much more encouraged than I was at the end of 2008," he said. "I think it's winding down."
Baumohl added there could be a slight improvement in GDP the second half of this year, but the economy is likely to stay sluggish well into 2010.
But other economists say it's too soon to say the worst is over. Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist at Global Insight, said there needs to be signs of a more widespread economic recovery in the auto and retailing sectors before banks start lending again. He doesn't expect even a modest pick-up in GDP until the fourth quarter of this year.
"The underlying economy is still very precarious," said Bethune. "Even if housing is showing signs of a turnaround, there are several more boxes to check before we get to the point where the overall economy starts to revive." (CNNMoney.com)

First-time U.S. homebuyers likely to purchase: poll

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Buying a home has never been more affordable by some measures, and potential first-time U.S. buyers said they are likely to buy a home in the next two years, a survey released on Thursday found.
Record low mortgages rates and a new first-time homebuyer tax credit are large incentives, despite obstacles that include greater difficulty getting loans approved, according to the poll conducted for Century 21 Real Estate.
All of the 1,000 potential U.S. homebuyers surveyed in an online survey conducted March 2-7 by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, said they were likely to buy a house for the first time in the next two years.
More than three-quarters of those polled said this is a good time to buy a home, and almost 70 percent said now is a better time than six months ago.
"Most prospective first-time home buyers feel that housing prices will continue to fall throughout the next six months, but will begin rising within two years," the study said. "This explains why most are not in a hurry to buy immediately, but would like to do so within the next two years."
Nine of 10 people surveyed said they also were worried about the economy, and 42 percent were "very worried," with unemployment at a 25-year high and seen rising.
However, more than three-quarters of those polled said the $8,000 federal tax credit makes them more likely to buy a house in the next six months.
Eighty-five percent said current home prices are affordable, and 25 percent said they are very affordable.
Home loan rates hover near all-time lows, around 4-3/4 percent, and are headed toward 4-1/2 percent.
Prices have tumbled more than 26 percent since peaking nearly three years ago, based on Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller indexes.
"The first-time homebuyer is a group of folks that doesn't have to get rid of a home to make a purchase," and thus play a key role in the early stages of a housing upturn, Tom Kunz, chief executive of Century 21 Real Estate, said in an interview on Wednesday.
The survey shows "we have ready, able and willing buyers sitting on the fence," many of whom had been priced out of the market during the record sales and price spike earlier this decade. "There has never been a better buyer's market than right now."
INCENTIVES VS OBSTACLES
But three-quarters of the potential buyers also said they view it is harder to get a mortgage than over the last year.
And nearly 30 percent said they are less likely to buy now because of economic and financial concerns.

Having the money for a down payment and getting an affordable mortgage are among top concerns for potential buyers, the survey found.
More than half of potential first time buyers are seriously considering a property in distress. Foreclosures are at a record high.
Nearly all renters said they would probably buy if they could got a mortgage comparable to their current monthly payments.

U.S. analyst warns of N. Korea missile

WASHINGTON -- North Korea has positioned what is thought to be a long-range missile on its launch pad, a U.S. counter-proliferation official said on Wednesday.The official confirmed a Japanese media report.
North Korea recently informed a pair of U.N. agencies that it plans to launch a satellite. The launch is slated for sometime between April 4-8, according to Yonhap, South Korea's state-sponsored news agency.
North Korea is technically capable of launching a rocket in as little as two to four days, according to Kim Taewoo, an expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, but who doubts a launch will come that soon.
It would not make sense for Pyongyang to make such a move after going through official channels with its plans, Kim said.

A North Korean soldier stands guard in the border village of Panmunjom on December 1, 2004 in South Korea.
"The North could delay the launch if they experience problems with the weather, or within the leadership, but I don't see any reason why they would fire it ahead of time," Kim said.

North Korea's announcement has triggered international consternation. U.S. and South Korean officials have long said the North is actually preparing to test-fire a long-range missile under the guise of a satellite launch. Watch what might motivate Pyongyang to pursue missile tests »
Japan said this month that it could shoot down the satellite that North Korean officials said they plan to launch. What the North Koreans would be testing may not be known until an actual launch.
A U.N. Security Council resolution in 2006 banned North Korea from conducting ballistic missile activity. Japanese officials said they could shoot down the object whether it is a missile or a satellite.
"As the U.N. resolutions prohibit (North Korea) from engaging in ballistic missile activities, we still consider it to be a violation of a technical aspect, even if (the North) claims it is a satellite. We will discuss the matter with related countries based on this view," Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said this month.
The United States has no plans to shoot down the North Korean rocket, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday, but will raise the issue with the U.N. Security Council if Pyongyang carries out a launch.
"We are doing our best to dissuade the North Koreans from going forward, because it is provocative action," Clinton said. "It raises questions about their compliance with the Security Council Resolution 1718. And if they persist and go forward, we will take it up in appropriate channels."
South Korea echoed Clinton's statements.
"The South Korean government believes that if the North conducts its launch despite continuous warnings of the South Korean government and the international community, it is a provocative action that constitutes a serious threat to the security of northeast Asia and the Korean peninsula," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-Young.

"The launching of the long-range rocket is a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution No. 1718, and we strongly urge North Korea to immediately stop such measures."
The North Korean Taepodong-2 missile is thought to have an intended range of about 4,200 miles (6,700 kilometers) that -- if true -- could strike Alaska or Hawaii. (CNN)

Senators: Obama border initiative good step, but insufficient

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration's initiative to deploy additional federal resources in the fight against rising drug-related violence along the Mexican border was criticized as insufficient in a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.

The administration's plan to send hundreds of extra federal agents and new crime-fighting equipment to the border "represents a significant step forward" but is not enough, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, said.

Sens. John McCain, left, and Joe Lieberman attend a committee hearing on Mexico border violence.

Mexican drug cartels, believed to be operating in more than 230 American cities "from Appalachia to Alaska," represent a "clear and present" danger to the United States, Lieberman said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on border violence.
"I think you're going to need more resources to get this job done," he told Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The United States needs to "make life miserable" for the drug cartels so "life is better for us," he said.
Committee member Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, also praised the Obama administration's plan, but agreed more needs to be done.
The cartels are believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 6,000 Mexicans last year. Some of that violence has spilled over into the United States as traffickers purchase American firearms and fuel a high U.S. demand for illegal narcotics. Watch Napolitano discuss the plan to curb border violence »
Lieberman, who chairs the committee, called for an additional $250 million to be used for the hiring of 1,600 additional customs and border protection officers. He said that another $50 million should be allocated to immigration and customs agents investigating firearms distribution and violence near the border.
He also called on Congress to close "the gun show loophole ... that allows purchasers to circumvent background checks that occur at gun stores."
Finally, he argued that U.S. laws need to be updated to help authorities better track money from American drug sales, "the lifeblood" of the cartels.
Drug sale proceeds, he noted, are "increasingly being smuggled back to Mexico in stored-value cards. A single card can hold thousands of dollars, is far less conspicuous than bundled cash and does not have to be, as a matter of law, declared at the border," he said.
The cards are "not considered legal monetary instruments," he noted, and officials therefore have little authority to police them.
Lieberman said additional funds and legal reforms are necessary to combat cartel violence that has started to resemble tactics used by extremists in the war on terror.
The cartels are "attacking police stations and other government facilities (and) kidnapping and killing family members or associates," he said.
Lieberman's remarks came one day after Napolitano announced the Obama administration's plan to combat drug-related violence along the border. Watch Obama discuss the plan »
The Obama plan calls for doubling the number of border security task force teams, as well as moving a significant number of other federal agents, equipment and resources to the border. It also involves greater intelligence sharing aimed at cracking down on the flow into Mexico of money and weapons that help fuel the drug trade.
The plan commits $700 million to bolster Mexican law-enforcement and crime-prevention efforts. It also calls for tripling the number of Department of Homeland Security intelligence analysts dedicated to stopping Mexican-related violence.

In addition, it calls for increasing the number of U.S. immigration officials working in Mexico, strengthening the presence of border canine units and quadrupling the number of border liaison officers working with Mexican law enforcement agencies.
McCain voiced praise in Wednesday's hearing for Mexican President Felipe Calderon's efforts to combat the cartels. He said Calderon is facing an uphill struggle in part because "corruption penetrates to literally the highest levels of (the Mexican) government."
The drug war "is an existential threat to the government of Mexico," McCain said. "If the Mexican government fails and is taken over by the drug cartels ... it not only has profound consequences for Mexico, it certainly has the most profound consequences for the United States of America."
McCain noted that the city of Phoenix, Arizona, now has the second-highest kidnapping rate in the world, behind only Mexico City. A recent rise in the number of kidnappings in Phoenix has been tied to the drug cartels.
On Tuesday, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called the administration's initiative "a great first step," but added, "it's a drop in the bucket in terms of what is needed."
Phoenix finds itself at the center of a "perfect storm" of drug runners and human smugglers, he said. While most traditional crimes are down, crimes such as drug-related kidnappings and torturing are overwhelming Gordon's police department.
"Most nights we have over 60 Phoenix police officers (and) some federal agents rushing to rescue those on a reactive basis," Gordon said.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also issued a mixed response on Tuesday to the administration's announcement.
"While we appreciate the additional investigative resources, what we really need are more border patrol agents and officers at the bridges to conduct increased northbound and southbound inspections, as well as additional funding for local law enforcement along the border to deny Mexican drug cartels access to the United States," he said in a statement.
"I have asked the administration for an immediate deployment of 1,000 additional National Guard troops to support civilian law enforcement and border patrol agents and remain hopeful that we will get the resources we need. The state of Texas will continue to fill in the gaps until the federal government provides adequate resources necessary to secure our border and protect our citizens from those seeking to do us harm."
The Homeland Security Committee hearing was held as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a visit to Mexico on Wednesday for two days of meetings with top officials. Watch more on Clinton's mission »
Clinton said the United States takes responsibility for its role in the drug wars and is committed to working with Mexico and helping it come out of the drug war stronger.

"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," she said en route to Mexico City, Mexico, according to pool reports.
"Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians. So, yes, I feel very strongly we have a co-responsibility." (CNN)

Questions pour in for Obama's online town hall meeting

During the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt reassured anxious Americans through his famous fireside chats over the radio.Now, in the 21st century, President Obama has found his own fireside equivalent, launching an online town hall meeting Thursday where he will answer citizens' questions about the troubled economy and his efforts to fix it.
"We're going to try something a little different. We are going to take advantage of the Internet to bring all of you to the White House to talk about the economy," he says in an introductory video on the site.
Americans can submit questions on WhiteHouse.gov for President Obama to answer live online Thursday.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, more than 30,000 people had submitted more than 32,000 questions on the official administration Web site, WhiteHouse.gov.
Americans may submit questions, and vote on others' queries, until 9:30 a.m. ET Thursday. Obama has promised to answer the most popular questions through a live video stream on WhiteHouse.gov. beginning Thursday at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The site had recorded more than 1 million votes as of late Wednesday afternoon.
The White House's Web site asks people to agree to post "only questions related to the economy (including topics essential to long-term economic growth, such as education, fiscal responsibility, green jobs and energy, health care reform, and home ownership)."
A quick review of questions revealed deep concerns among Americans trying to make ends meet.
"What is the government doing to make higher education more affordable for lower and middle class families?" asked James of Bloomington, Indiana, who described himself as a full-time student who also works full time, "only to break even at the end of the month."
"Why do I have to be to the point of foreclosure to get any help with my mortgage? Why aren't you helping the people who want to prevent foreclosure?" asked another questioner from Providence, Rhode Island.
Observers say Obama, who revolutionized the use of technology as a political tool during his campaign, will be the first president to address questions from the public live on the Internet. By allowing people to submit any question they want and answering them live on the Web for the entire world to see, the administration hopes to create a more transparent style of governing that will help win public support.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Don Tapscott, author of "Growing Up Digital," a book exploring the generation that has grown up on the Web. "It turns out that the Internet is a new medium of human communication that not only helps you get elected, it changes the way you govern."
Along the presidential campaign trail, Obama was praised for his innovative use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to announce events, rally volunteers and raise money.
Nine years ago, when George W. Bush ran for president, Internet media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube didn't exist.
Bush and former President Bill Clinton engaged in online chats with citizens, but neither relied on the Internet as a platform for reaching the American public as Obama does, said Andrew Rasiej, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum and the techPresident blog.
"It's changing the relationship between the president and the country," Rasiej says. "It's building on a 21st-century information age platform. We want to make sure our president isn't stuck in a bubble."
Some observers wondered whether Obama's creative social media initiatives, dubbed Obama 2.0, would continue once he entered office. But Thursday's online meeting -- the first of many, according to the government -- reaffirms his commitment to engaging with Americans through technology, Rasiej said.
While Obama's staffers have stopped posting updates on social networking sites since the election, they are sill reaching constituents through WhiteHouse.gov, which is more interactive than previous administrations' Web sites.
Launching an online town hall meeting will allow more effective communication with citizens, said Ellen Miller, executive director at the Sunlight Foundation, a group that advocates government transparency. Americans can submit their own questions and receive direct responses without questions or answers being filtered by the media, she said.
"There might be a question asked that wouldn't have been asked at a press conference," she said. "It's a significant step forward for new-media communications."
Adam Ostrow, editor of Mashable.com, a guide to social media, said the online town hall-style meeting will encourage Americans to get involved beyond the election.
"It gives people a sense of participation and what is going on and to be able to shape some of the decision that will be made," he said

House ignores Obama's homebuilder tax break

NEW YORK - Democrats in the House of Representatives did not include in their budget proposal a request by President Barack Obama to expand a key tax break sought by struggling homebuilders
The provision under Obama's fiscal 2010 budget proposal would expand the "net operating loss carryback" window, which enables businesses to use recent losses to offset taxable profits from previous tax years.
Obama's budget did not offer specific details about how the break would apply or which businesses would qualify, but the revenue estimates suggest it would apply to all businesses and they could carry back losses from 2008 and 2009.
The builders almost succeeded in getting the expansion included in the $787 billion stimulus package approved last month, but Congress ultimately limited the break to small businesses with gross receipts of $15 million or less.
The National Association of Home Builders is actively lobbying for an expanded provision that would apply to businesses of any size, NAHB Chief Executive Jerry Howard told Reuters.

IBM to cut 5,000 jobs in U.S.

NEW YORK - IBM will cut about 5,000 jobs in the United States, adding to similarly large cuts in the past few months, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
The job cuts will account for over 4 percent of IBM's U.S. workforce, which totaled around 115,000 at the end of 2008. The sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue, said the cuts will mostly be in IBM's global services business, which includes outsourcing and consulting services.
An International Business Machines Corp spokesman declined to comment. The company, which had a total workforce of 398,455 as of end 2008, has not disclosed how many jobs it has cut so far this year, but has said it was making "structural changes" to reduce spending and improve productivity.
IBM, which now earns around two-thirds of its revenue from outside the United States, has been expanding its workforce in emerging markets like India and China.
At the end of 2008, employment in the BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China-- totaled around 113,000.
IBM has been hit by slower U.S. technology spending, although it has fared better than many rivals thanks to its global footprint and a decreased emphasis on hardware sales.
A month ago, IBM affirmed its full-year forecast of $9.20 earnings per share, and said contract signings for its business services had grown so far this year.
Wednesday's news also comes as IBM is in exclusive talks to buy Sun Microsystems Inc, according to sources familiar with the matter, a move that would create a clear leader in the high-end computer server market.
IBM shares fell 0.42 percent to close at $97.95 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reuters)

Weak U.S. economy influencing college choices

BOSTON - Nearly 70 percent of graduating American high school students say the economic downturn has directly influenced where they applied to college, a study released on Wednesday showed.
About 38 percent of those students said they had applied to colleges with lower tuition than they would have otherwise, while 34 percent applied to schools they were confident they could afford, according to the Princeton Review, a test-preparatory firm.
The survey of 12,715 college applicants comes as the United States faces one of the worst economic downturns since the 1930s.
About 28 percent of the students said they were applying to "schools closer to home" to save on travel costs, while 85 percent said financial aid -- education loans, scholarships or grants -- will be extremely or very necessary.
The survey also asked students and parents to name their "dream college" if cost were not a factor. Students picked Stanford University and the parents chose Harvard University.
The survey can be found here. (Reuters)

Laid off U.S. workers seek future in college

PHOENIX - Realtor and mortgage broker Jullisa Kalish thrived in the property boom. Now that it has turned to bust, she is back in college working toward what she hopes will be a more robust career -- as a bookkeeper.
"With an accounting degree ... I can work in a lot of different places - any company -- as a financial officer," said Kalish, 39, who recently started a two-year business degree at the Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix.
Kalish is not alone. Thousands of workers and professionals are flocking back to retrain at more than 1,100 community colleges across the United States as the recession pulverizes the working landscape.
Community colleges offer low-cost, open-access education to adults seeking retraining or transfer to universities, and count more than 11 million students nationwide. The American Association of Community Colleges say provisional figures show enrollments up between 5 percent and 26 percent in the past six months as the economy dived.
Authorities say that the rise is cyclical -- the colleges fare better in a recession when people have more time to study and a clear incentive to remake their careers -- although a new pattern is emerging as the downturn deepens.
"We are seeing ... a lot of adult learners," said Norma Kent of the AACC. "Maybe from an industry that's on the wane and are looking for some new skills, or a new kind of a program that will allow them to get back into the job market."
FROM CARS TO WIND ENERGY
Some 4.4 million jobs have vanished since the recession began in December 2007, as the U.S. economy deteriorates at the worst rate in decades.
As part of a $787 billion economic stimulus bill pushed by President Barack Obama last month, $31 billion was set aside to boost tuition tax credits and increase grants for students seeking further education. For many laid-off workers, the time is ripe to decide what training will likely put them in the best shape for the future. For some, it is quite a leap.
Until he lost his job in February, Robert Kups, 52, worked as a contractor in Detroit, setting up production lines at wobbling car giants General Motors, Ford and Chrysler LLC for more than three decades.
With uncertainty hanging over U.S. automakers, he has pinned his hopes on a new course offering training to install and maintain wind turbines that starts at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, in west Michigan, in October.
"Renewable energy -- everything from wind, to geothermal, solar and tides -- is going to be a big factor in our energy use over the next generations ... and I want to get in on the ground floor," Kups said.
President Barack Obama has made developing alternative energy sources a centerpiece of his administration. He has pledged to double U.S. renewable energy production in three years and wants 10 percent of electricity to come from clean energy sources by 2012.
In Ohio, unemployed construction superintendent Jim Bell has been thinking along similar lines.
Since being laid off by one of the United States' largest home builders, he started a two-year course in electrical mechanical engineering and renewable energies last month at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.

"In my industry I've never considered it reliable so you pretty much have to be adapting to whatever is thrown at you," said Bell, 45, who will pay about $20,000 to retrain.
MANUFACTURING TO NURSING
Even before the current downturn, some areas of the U.S. labor market -- such as manufacturing -- have been in a long and painful period of readjustment.
In Union, South Carolina, mother-of-two Crystal Boulware, 38, worked for a textile company that made tassels, cords and decorative braids until 2006, when the firm moved its production facilities to India and laid her off.
After talking with family and career advisers, she opted to study nursing at Spartanburg Community College.
"At first I was like a fish out of water ... It had been over 20 years since I'd been in a classroom environment, and it's all very fast-paced," Boulware said.
But as she prepares to graduate in May, Boulware says her gamble appears to have paid off. With health care one of the few sectors hiring in the battered economy, she will have her pick of several jobs when she qualifies as a cardiac nurse.
"It's wonderful," she said. "It's great to have someone looking for you to work, rather than you looking for a job." (Reuters)

Americans say too early to judge Obama performance

CINCINNATI - Americans are furious at Wall Street bonuses and wearied by job losses, but many seem ready to give President Barack Obama more time to deal with the nation's economic crisis.
After his second prime-time news conference to defend the decisions he's made since taking office two months ago, Obama appears to enjoy the confidence -- or at least the patience -- of ordinary Americans anxious about the economy.
"I think he's done a pretty good job so far, and I didn't vote for him," said Jack Sizer, a Connecticut physician and management consultant, as he read the morning paper in a Cincinnati coffee shop. "Doing something, even if it doesn't work out, is probably a good thing. He's taking action versus inaction," said Sizer, 71, a self-described conservative.
Across the country in Phoenix, Arizona, former mortgage banker Sean Klasen said he was not expecting miracles in Obama's first 100 days in office -- the traditional time frame many use to judge new American presidents.
"I think right now people are going to be willing to give him a chance, especially considering what we went through with the last administration," said Klasen, who has returned to college to train as an accountant after the housing meltdown cut short his mortgage career.
Obama has gone on the offensive in recent days to explain his economic goals and decisions, appearing on a popular late-night talk show last week in addition to his high-profile televised news conference.
The communications effort seems to have helped preserve the Democratic president's approval ratings, which two separate polls show are hovering near a healthy 63 percent or 64 percent some 60 days after Obama took over the Oval Office.
Obama won 52 percent of the popular vote in November's presidential election, defeating Republican John McCain.
In San Francisco, paralegal Sean O'Brien said he thought Obama's performance on Tuesday night was "pretty good," especially given the challenges that face the country.
Since the recession began in December 2007, some 4.4 million jobs have been lost. More than half disappeared in the last four months alone.
'A TREMENDOUS JOB'
"I think he is doing a tremendous job under extremely adverse circumstances. Yeah, the AIG thing was kind of a real disaster, but I anticipated there would be a few disasters," said O'Brien, 48. "With time things will get better."
Obama and others have come under fire for allowing employees at failed insurance giant American International Group to give out $165 million in bonuses after the company received a $180 billion government bailout, an example of Wall Street excess that hit a nerve across America.
In Overland Park, Kansas, financial manager Kimberly Tassone said that while she was disappointed Obama made little mention of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, she was pleased with his moves so far to address the financial crisis.

"I do think there has been a substantial amount of progress in the short duration of his presidency so far, but to say 'Problem solved' ... I think that will take a long time," said Tassone, 32, a registered independent who voted for Obama.
But even supporters of Obama said it was difficult to know whether the decisions he has taken were doing any good.
Democrat Angela Shogren, out walking her dog Moby near the White House in Washington, said she watched Obama's news conference with her husband and isn't sure whether she is more or less encouraged by the actions of the president.
"It was a lot of the same, a lot of talk here and everywhere on what's getting done and people are anxious to see results and I don't think we are yet," said Shogren, 28, who is looking for a job in public relations, adding that her job hunt was going "slow."
And not everyone was willing to give Obama more time.
"I strongly disapprove of his actions so far," said Boston business executive Randy Waters, arguing that Obama didn't seem to be able to collaborate with lawmakers in Congress.
"He says the Republicans have not provided alternatives. I've heard lots of alternatives from Republicans and even Democrats, but he discounts them as unacceptable," said Waters, who has a son in the Army due to be deployed to Afghanistan.
In a suburb of Dallas, McCain supporter and retired civil servant Robert Schultz said he didn't bother to watch Obama's news conference.
"I had no interest in what he was going to say. To me it doesn't make any difference what he says. The only thing that's constant from his campaign is that he's going to tax some people, somehow, to increase welfare payments in the country," said Schultz, who watched a hockey game instead.
But even Schultz, who worries Obama is a socialist, said Obama needs more time before his presidency can be judged.
"It's way too early." (Reuters)

PTIUS announces USD 5 million reward for Baitullah Mehsud

Lalit K Jha Washington, Mar 25 : The US today announced a USD 5 million award for information on Pakistani terrorist leader Bitullah Mehsud, the mastermind behind the assassination of the former Premier Benazir Bhutto and a host of other terror attacks inside Pakistan and Afghanistan. "The US Department of State has authorised a reward of up to USD 5 million for information leading to the location, arrest, and/or conviction of Baitullah Mehsud, the senior leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban (Taliban Movement of Pakistan)," State Department Deputy Acting Spokesman Gordon Duguid said in a statement.
"Mehsud is regarded as a key al-Qaida facilitator in the tribal areas of South Waziristan in Pakistan," it said. "Pakistani authorities believe that the January 2007 suicide attack against the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad was staged by militants loyal to Mehsud.
Press reports also have linked Mehsud to the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the deaths of other innocent civilians," Duguid said. PTI

Four receive organs from slain California officer

Organs donated by a slain Oakland, California, police officer saved four lives, and his donated tissue will enhance the lives of up to 50 others, the California Transplant Donor Network said Wednesday.

Officer John Hege, 41, was pronounced brain dead on Sunday but was kept on life support pending a decision on organ donation. He was the fourth Oakland officer to die after a gunman fired on police in two weekend incidents.

Officer John Hege was one of four police officers fatally shot Saturday in Oakland, California.
"Officer Hege was registered on the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Registry, which his family also supports," the donor network said in a news release. "He chose in death as he did in life to help those in need. His organ donations saved the lives of four adult males from California."
Hege's liver, kidneys and heart were donated, the network said, and the transplants were successfully completed Tuesday and early Wednesday.
In a written statement, Hege's family said, "Our son John never met a stranger."

Sgt. Daniel Sakai, from left, Sgt. Mark Dunakin and Sgt. Ervin Romans were killed in the shootings.
"John's courage and strength was enhanced by his ability to perceive the realities of life," the family said in the statement. "In June 2008, he registered on the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry. We completely and proudly support his decision, and it gives us a great deal of comfort to know that four individuals have received the gift of life because of our selfless and beloved John.
"Even in death he gave to the lives of those in our community whom he had always loved and supported."
Hege had been with the Oakland police force about 10 years.
The man accused of shooting the officers -- Lovelle Mixon, 26, of Oakland -- was fatally shot in a gun battle with SWAT officers in an apartment complex where he was hiding, police said. Authorities said Saturday night that Mixon had an extensive criminal history and was in violation of parole for assault with a deadly weapon.

The incidents began about 1 p.m. Saturday in east Oakland, when two motorcycle officers tried to pull over a car for a "fairly routine traffic stop," said Dave Kozicki, deputy police chief.
Emergency dispatchers received reports that two officers had been shot and needed help, he said. Those officers were Hege and Sgt. Mark Dunakin, 40, an 18-year veteran of the force. Dunakin died Saturday.
Police launched an intense manhunt to track down the gunman. An anonymous caller directed authorities to a building on an adjacent street where the man was believed to be barricaded, acting Police Chief Howard Jordan said.

Lovelle Mixon, 26, was killed in a shootout with police in an apartment complex.
The gunman fired on SWAT officers who entered the apartment, hitting two of them before police shot and killed the man, Jordan said. Those two officers -- Sgt. Ervin Romans, 43, and Sgt. Daniel Sakai, 35 -- died. Police said Romans had been with the department since 1996 and Sakai since 2000.
A fifth officer who was grazed by a bullet was treated at a hospital and released, police spokesman Jeff Thomason said Saturday.