Israel votes in tight election race
(AFP)
AFP - Israel voted Tuesday in a tight race between hawkish former premier Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, with the far-right set for major gains on the back of the Gaza war.
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US relies on states for food safety inspections
(AP)
AP - The U.S. government has increasingly relied on food-safety inspections performed by states, where budgets for inspections in many cases have remained stagnant and where overburdened officials are trained less than their federal counterparts and perform skimpier reviews, an Associated Press investigation has found.
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Obama heads to Florida to rally stimulus support
(Reuters)
Reuters - President Barack Obama on Tuesday traveled to a Florida city hard hit by mortgage foreclosures to rally Americans around a huge stimulus plan he says is needed to stave off an even deeper recession.
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Costly bank rescue plan aims to increase trust
(Politico)
Politico - Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on Tuesday unveiled a new bank rescue plan that includes a "new consumer business lending initiative to leverage up to $1 trillion dollars to kick start the secondary lending markets."
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Obama spokesman touts bailout relief initiative
(AP)
AP - President Obama's top spokesman is promising that an overhaul of the financial system rescue plan introduced by the Bush administration will provide much greater spending accountability to the American people.
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Bettye LaVette's Journey To The National Stage
If you've never heard of Bettye LaVette, the soul singer who belted out "A Change Is Gonna Come" with Jon Bon Jovi at the Inauguration Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on Jan 18., you may be wondering why.
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Analyzing The Text Of Obama's Inaugural Address
Although many Americans heard Barack Obama's inauguration speech, they probably weren't listening for plyptotons and catachresis — but Geoff Nunberg was.
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Natasha Trethewey: If My Mom Could See Us Now
Natasha Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book
Native Guard. Her parents had an interracial marriage while it was still illegal in Mississippi, and Tretheway's poetry often draws on her childhood as a biracial child in the south.
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Eric Foner On Post-Civil War Disappointments
Eric Foner, author of
Our Lincoln, talks about the era following the Civil War in which former slaves were promised equal rights and citizenship. Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University.
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Spreading The Hope: Street Artist Shepard Fairey
Street artist Shepard Fairey created the iconic red, white and blue Obama illustration that became the unofficial poster of the campaign. Although his campaign poster never became official, Fairey has been commissioned to design the official poster for the inauguration.
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Transcript: Barack Obama's Inaugural Address
"Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met," President Barack Obama said in his inaugural address.
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Chuck Todd Examines 'How Barack Obama Won'
NBC's newly appointed chief White House correspondent talks with Dave Davies about his new book,
How Barack Obama Won: A State-by-State Guide to the Historic 2008 Presidential Election.Read Article
Obama says leave gov. choice to state
(AP)
AP - President-elect Barack Obama says he'll let the Illinois legislature decide whether a special election should be held to choose his successor.
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Obama names Chicago school chief to Education Dept.
(AP)
AP - President-elect Barack Obama announced Arne Duncan, the head of the Chicago school system, as education secretary Tuesday and said failing to improve classroom instruction is "morally unacceptable for our children."
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Administration says it's still working on bailout
(AP)
AP - The White House sought Tuesday to play down prospects for an imminent bailout for distressed U.S. automakers and suggested any deal requiring taxpayer money will require major concessions by the parties involved.
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