Obama focus stays on raising debt ceiling, cutting deficit

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama is scheduled to undertake domestic travel in the coming week according to a White House communique.

Obama is planning to hold town hall meetings in “Northern Virginia, Palo Alto, California and Reno, Nevada to speak directly to the American people about his vision for reducing our debt and bringing down our deficit, based on the values of shared responsibility and shared prosperity,” the White House said.

On the return flight from Chicago on Friday, Jay Carney, presidential spokesman called Obama’s two urgent tasks as one to pursue Congress to immediately raise the ceiling on U.S. debt and the other to move with urgency towards deficit reduction.

On the first task, Carney said, “That shouldn’t be linked or held hostage to any other action because the consequences of not raising the debt ceiling — those consequences would be catastrophic to the American economy, to the global economy and to America’s creditworthiness internationally.”

About efforts towards deficit reduction, Carney said the president, “asked the Vice President to oversee and leaders of Congress to appoint members to participate in where they can come together and begin to negotiate areas where we can agree to bring about further deficit reduction in a balanced way that can achieve the kind of results that we think are what America needs economically and for our future.”

Citing both as “urgent … but … not linked,” Carney reiterated, “With regards to the debt ceiling, it cannot be linked or held hostage to something that wouldn’t pass — couldn’t reach consensus. It has to be done. All the leaders of Congress of both parties have said that, and we obviously share that sentiment.”

Carney hinted that the president was ready for compromise on his targets while negotiating with Republicans, saying, “He recognizes he’s not going to get 100 percent of what he wants or that it’s not going to be his way only, and Republicans need to recognize that, which is how we ended up with an agreement last week on the funding for the 2011 budget.”

Carney noted that the president Obama believed Congressman Paul Ryan of the budget committee “is absolutely sincere and that he believes that this is the right — that that’s the right path, the one he put forward is the right path for America.”

On the disagreement part, Carney said, “He (Obama) doesn’t think that it’s (Ryan’s budget proposal) balanced.”

Explaining the disparities, Carney said, “He doesn’t think that we need to — that the price of deficit reduction needs to be ending the guarantee, the health benefits that Medicare has provided our seniors, cutting energy — clean energy investment by 70 percent, cutting education by 25 percent, cutting infrastructure by 30 percent — and all so that we can not just reduce the deficit but so that we can extend tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans and give new tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.”

With the count-down to 2012 presidential election ticking and Obama already an official candidate, the incumbent needs to sell his policies to voters who are not diehard rock star Obama fans.

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Supreme Court to decide states and private groups’ right to sue polluters

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments April 19 in a case that will decide whether states and private groups can sue utilities for their greenhouse gas emissions.

Additional legal briefs are due Monday in the case of American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut, which already was joined by seven other states, New York City and three land trusts.

They are suing five utilities, saying they created a “public nuisance” by violating federal Clean Air Act limits on their emissions.

Environmentalists say the Supreme Court’s decision on whether states, cities and private groups even have a right to sue will have a dramatic effect on the nation’s efforts to stop global warming.

A decision saying public interest groups and local governments can sue is likely to unleash a flood of lawsuits that would increase the courts’ authority over emissions.

A ruling for the utilities would mean only the federal government can clamp down on how they operate.

The environmentalists already have won before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a 2009 ruling.

The power companies appealed to the Supreme Court. A decision is expected by July.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman filed a brief for New York City and state governments of California, Connecticut, Iowa, Rhode Island and Vermont.

“Climate change threatens our economy, our health and our natural resources,” Schneiderman said. “This lawsuit protects New Yorkers and our environment from the serious harms caused by unrestrained greenhouse gas pollution. As some of the biggest global warming polluters in the country, these five companies produce 10 percent of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions. To protect our future, we must have the right to hold these polluters accountable in a court of law.”

Utilities named in the lawsuit are American Electric Power Co., Cinergy Corp., Southern Co., the Tennessee Valley Authority and Xcel Energy Inc.

Two states – New Jersey and Wisconsin – have dropped out of the lawsuit since the dispute started in 2004.

Three land trusts, the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, Open Space Institute and Open Space Conservancy, also are suing the utilities.

Business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and major oil companies, are staunchly opposed to broader court authority over pollution.

They said in amicus briefs that judges would enforce a patchwork of rulings against them that ultimately would hurt businesses and the nation’s economy.

American Electric Power Co. made the same kind of argument in its brief, which says allowing public nuisance claims against utilities would authorize lawsuits “by anyone who claims to be affected by climate change against any source of greenhouse gas emissions. It would empower courts to determine the ‘reasonable’ level of global greenhouse gas emissions, allocate them among economic sectors, and order individual actors to conform their emissions to the court’s judgments.”

As a result, judges would be able to override authority that should rest with the Environmental Protection Agency, American Electric Power’s brief says.

The utility’s lawyers cited previous federal court rulings in saying, “These issues are wholly inappropriate for resolution by an unelected, unrepresentative judiciary … under the vague and indeterminate nuisance concepts of the common law.”

The Tennessee Valley Authority argues that allowing public nuisance lawsuits against polluters is impractical..

“… virtually every person, organization, company, or government across the globe also emits greenhouse gases, and virtually everyone will also sustain climate-change-related injuries,” the Tennessee Valley Authority’s brief says.

The EPA was set to announce new greenhouse gas reporting requirements for large polluters by March 31, but has delayed the date.

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Marching to Depresssion? Economists warn of U.S. federal shutdown impact: Real Consequences for Real Americans

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Economists warned that even if the effect of a U.S. federal government shutdown by Friday would initially be minor, it could have a significant and lasting impact on the recovering American economy, especially if the budget impasse extends for several weeks.

The immediate impact would be felt mostly by tourists who visit U.S. landmarks such as the Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo and national parks, and tourism-oriented establishments such as hotels and restaurants.

About 800,000 local and international tourists visit the 394 national park sites across the U.S. on a average April day. The visitors spend about $32 million a day, which is spread across the community where the parks are located.

In anticipation of the shutdown, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum – which draws 3.8 million tourists during April – announced the site would be closed, although the mall would be open.

However, should Congressional leaders continue to fail to reach an agreement on the 2011 budget, it would lead to about 800,000 federal employees not receiving their paychecks, and would create a multiplier effect. Economists pointed out families would hold on tighter to their wallets.

To be hit hardest by the shutdown will be the Washington D.C. area, which has 11 percent of its workforce employed by the federal government. Aside from the public workers’ families, the temporary closure would disrupt the business of thousands of contractors and other companies that deal with the federal government.

Also to be affected are American taxpayers waiting for the tax refunds, borrowers awaiting for the approval of their loans from the Small Business Administration and homebuyers whose applications for federal home loan guarantees would be placed on hold.

Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis, said a short federal shutdown of less than one week would have an economic impact similar to the negative economic effect of a major snowstorm. But if the budget problem extends to a longer period, the losses would likely never be recovered.

It would be the first shutdown in 15 years. In the last shutdown in 1995-96, the closure of the federal government took place in December and January – considered a lean tourist season. Only 260,000 federal workers were made to go on leave then.

Aside from almost triple the number of federal employees likely to be affected this time, there is no assurance that the furloughed workers will get back pay.

A late Wednesday night meeting at the White House among President Barack Obama, Senate leader Harry Reid and House Speaker John Boehner failed to produce an agreement after one hour of discussions.

After the talks, Obama said the Congressional staff for all sides will labor through the night and talks will resume Thursday with key Congressional leaders if there is still no progress on the 2011 budget.

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CBO: Seniors Would Pay Much More For Medicare Under Ryan Plan

Washington, D.C., United States (KaiserHealth) – Seniors and the disabled would pay sharply more for their Medicare coverage under a new plan by House Republicans aimed at curbing the nation’s growing deficit, a Congressional Budget Office analysis shows.

For example, by 2030, under the plan, typical 65 year olds would be required to pay 68 percent of the total cost of their coverage, which includes premiums, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket costs, according to CBO. That compares with the 25 percent they would pay under current law, CBO said.

The GOP budget proposal also would raise the eligibility age for the politically popular program – and repeal big chunks of the health care overhaul law approved by Congress last year.

Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin unveiled the fiscal 2012 budget at a packed press conference where he was flanked by Republican members of the budget panel. The proposal comes amid growing concern over the federal budget deficit and is part of an overall GOP effort to reduce federal spending by at least $5 trillion over the coming decade.

“Washington has been making empty promises for a government going broke,” Ryan said. Unless something is done, “the red ink is going to destroy our economy.”

Besides overhauling Medicare, his 10-year budget proposal also would give states more control over Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor, but cut the amount states would receive for the program from federal coffers by hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade.

Americans would not be required to buy health insurance, under the proposal – and employers would not have to offer it either. States would not be on the hook to set up new insurance marketplaces.

The changes immediately drew criticism from Democrats and advocates for the elderly and the poor. Many zeroed in on proposed changes to the Medicare program. The Ryan proposal would do away with the traditional Medicare program and shift beneficiaries into private insurance plans in 2022, under a model called “premium support.”

Medicare enrollees would be given a set amount from the government to purchase private plans. Those plans would cost considerably more than traditional Medicare, the CBO says, partly because private plans pay hospitals, doctors and other providers more and have higher administrative costs. At the same time, enrollees would also pay a higher percentage of the overall cost of their coverage.

“What CBO is saying is beneficiaries would pay much less under traditional Medicare for two reasons. The overall cost of the plan would be much cheaper and they would pay a lesser share of that less costly plan,” said Edwin Park of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Ryan’s proposal also would scrap the health care law’s Medicaid expansion and repeal a voluntary long-term care insurance program as well as cancel an advisory board created in the law to recommend changes to Medicare spending.

Ryan appears to have retained the health law’s Medicare payment cuts to hospitals and Medicare Advantage plans.

Chip Kahn, president and chief executive officer of the Federation of American Hospitals, said that Ryan’s plan to repeal the law’s coverage expansions but keep the provider cuts “will severely impact access to essential medical care for seniors, as well as the lowest income Americans.” In last November’s elections, Republicans criticized the Democrats for the Medicare provider cuts, saying they would jeopardize seniors’ access to care.

“They’ve taken those savings – the same ones that they’ve criticized – in their plan,” Budget Committee ranking member Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D.- Md. said, adding that “the health care reforms enacted in the Affordable Care Act, which they say they’re repealing, they’re not repealing at all.”

The CBO highlighted key features of the proposal, based on information from Ryan’s staff and its own analysis, including:

• Starting in 2022, the eligibility age for Medicare would increase by two months per year until it reached 67 in 2033.

• The so-called “doughnut hole” in the Medicare prescription drug benefit – in which beneficiaries pay 100 percent of drug costs – would continue under the Ryan plan. The health law passed last year calls for the coverage gap to be ended by 2020.

• The private plans offered to Medicare enrollees starting in 2022 would have to comply with a standard for benefits set by the Office of Personnel Management, and would have to charge the same premiums for all enrollees of the same age.

• The premium support payments would vary depending on the health status and the incomes of the beneficiaries.

The CBO report also said that in 2022 the average government payment for a 65 year old in Medicare would be $8,000. In each successive year, it would increase to reflect inflation and the enrollee’s age. Patients’ share would rise sharply. Higher-income beneficiaries would get a lower premium support payment.

– Provided by Kaiser Health News.

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Health Insurance Exchanges Already Making Waves

Washington, D.C., United States (KaiserHealth) – It seems like a simple idea: create new marketplaces, called “exchanges,” where consumers can comparison shop for health insurance, sort of like shopping online for a hotel room or airline ticket.

But, like almost everything else connected with the health overhaul law, state-based insurance “exchanges” are embroiled in politics. Some Republican governors are threatening to refuse to set up exchanges unless they get more flexibility over Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor. Others say they don’t want to implement any part of the federal health care law.

Last week, Louisiana officials decided against setting up an exchange. And in Montana, GOP lawmakers killed a GOP-sponsored Senate bill to set up an exchange. Still, some Republican officials are embracing them. And consumer advocates, disease groups and industry lobbyists are jockeying for influence over how the exchanges will be regulated.

If done well, proponents say, exchanges could make it easier to buy health insurance and possibly lead to lower prices because of increased competition. But, if designed poorly, experts warn, healthy people could avoid the exchanges, leaving them to sicker people with rising premiums.

Here are some common questions:

Q. What is an exchange, as envisioned by the health law?

A. It’s a marketplace where individuals and small employers will be able to shop for insurance coverage. They must be set up by Jan. 1, 2014. The exchanges will also direct people to Medicaid if they’re eligible.

Q. Will all states have exchanges?

A. States have the option of setting up their own exchanges, forming coalitions with other states to create regional exchanges – or opting out altogether. In that case, the federal government will run the exchanges for their residents.

Q. Will anyone be allowed to buy from the exchanges?

A. No. Initially, exchanges will be open to individuals buying their own coverage and employees of firms with 100 or fewer workers (50 or fewer in some states). Most Americans will continue to get insurance through their jobs, not via the exchanges. The Congressional Budget Office estimates 8 million people will use the exchanges in 2014 and 24 million in 2018. Most will be people who are eligible for subsidies, which will average an estimated $5,700 a person. Undocumented immigrants will be barred from the exchanges.

Q. What about federal workers?

A. Members of Congress and their staffs will be required to buy through exchanges if they want coverage from the federal government. Other federal employees won’t be required to use an exchange.

Q. Will exchanges be like travel websites or some existing health insurance sites?

A. In some ways. People will be able to compare policies sold by different companies. But information on the plan benefits will be standardized to make it easier to compare cost and quality. Plans will be divided into four different types, based on the level of benefits: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

Q. What will the coverage sold on the exchanges look like?

A. Plans will have to offer a set of “essential benefits.” Those details, still being developed by the Obama administration, will include hospital, emergency, maternity, pediatric, drug, lab services and other care. Annual deductibles, or the amount consumers must fork over before insurance payments kick in, will be capped at the amounts allowed for health savings accounts — currently, nearly $6,000 for individual policies and $12,000 for family plans.

Q. How much will the policies cost?

A. The premiums will vary by type of plan and location. Insurers won’t be able to charge more based on gender or health status. They will be able to charge older people up to three times more than younger ones.

Q. Will the states negotiate premiums with the insurers?

A. The law doesn’t require states to set or negotiate premiums. However, states may have some influence over prices. For example, states can decide whether to open exchanges to all insurers, or to limit the number. State insurance commissioners will be able to recommend whether specific insurers should be allowed to sell in the exchange, partly based on their patterns of rate increases.

Q. What if I can’t afford the premiums?

A. People who earn less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, $14,484 this year, will qualify for Medicaid in all states, under the law. Above that, sliding scale subsidies for private insurance on the exchanges will be available for residents who earn up to 400 percent of the poverty level, about $43,560 this year. Most people will be required to have coverage of some sort beginning in 2014.

Q. Will all insurers have to offer policies through the exchange?

A. No. Insurers won’t be required to sell through the exchanges.

Q. Will all state exchanges be the same?

A. No. States can design their exchanges differently, an issue that’s sparking debate in statehouses nationwide. Some states may choose to set additional standards for insurers beyond the federal law. Another important issue: The makeup and power of the governing boards overseeing the exchanges. Some states, such as Maryland, are considering barring insurance industry and sales agents from their governing boards. Others, like North Carolina, have pending legislation that includes representatives from those groups on their governing boards.

jappleby@kff.org

– Provided by Kaiser Health News.

This story was produced in collaboration with The Washington Post

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Revised estimate shows economy grew faster than thought during end of 2010

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Economic growth was slightly better toward the end of 2010 than officials had previously estimated, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis announced Friday.

In its third estimate of the nation’s gross domestic product for the fourth quarter of 2010, the BEA said the economy grew by 3.1 percent from the end of Q3 to the end of Q4.

GDP is a measure of the output of all goods and services produced by labor and property located in the nation.

BEA’s third estimate is based on more complete data than was available when the BEA issued its second estimate of 2.8 percent growth.

“The fourth-quarter acceleration in real GDP primarily reflected a sharp downturn in imports, an

acceleration in PCE, an upturn in residential fixed investment, and an acceleration in exports that were

partly offset by downturns in private inventory investment, in federal government spending, and in state

and local government spending, and a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment,” BEA officials said in a statement.

“Final sales of computers added 0.35 percentage point to the fourth-quarter change in real GDP

after adding 0.29 percentage point to the third-quarter change. Motor vehicle output subtracted 0.27

percentage point from the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.49 percentage point to the

third-quarter change,” the agency concluded.

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US Postal Service announces voluntary buyouts to trim 7,500 administrative jobs

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. postal With the national unemployment rate running at 9.5 percent The U.S. Postal Service announced Thursday it is offering buyouts to eligible employees in an effort to cut 7,500 administrative jobs.

Postal officials hope the $20,000 buyout packages encourage enough workers to retire early to achieve the reduction of 7,500 employees.

The Voluntary Early Retirement plan and financial incentives is being made available only to employees who work as career nonbargaining personnel at “headquarters, headquarters-related field units, area offices and administrative personnel at customer service district offices,” USPS officials said in a statement.

Employees can choose to leave by May 31. But with the nation’s unemployment rate running at 9.5 percent, this buyout might not achieve its target, which was the case in 2009 when a buyout expected to encourage 30,000 workers to voluntarily retire only drew 21,000 takers.

USPS officials also said they wanted to close seven struggling district offices located around the country.

The postal service has seen a decline in mail volume and revenue as it competes with use of the Internet, as well as competition from companies such as UPS and FedEx.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe put the situation into perspective.

“It’s critical that we adjust our workforce to match America’s changing communications trends as mail volumes continue to decline,” Donahoe said. “At every step and with every change, our focus remains on our customers and continuing to provide outstanding customer service.”

The district offices are not used for mail delivery or collection. The offices slated for closing are located in Columbus, Ohio; Troy, Mich.; Carol Stream, Ill.; Providence, R.I.; Macon, Ga.; Big Sky, Mont.; and Albuquerque, N.M.

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Many states face problems with unemployment compensation funds

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The nation’s jobless economic recovery has kept workers who lost their jobs on unemployment compensation longer, draining state coffers and leading many states to consider curbing benefits.

When state unemployment funds ran dry, many states had to borrow money from the federal unemployment compensation fund. About 32 states owe the federal fund a combined $45.7 billion, with California alone owing nearly $10 billion of that amount. The interest states pay on that debt runs about $1.4 billion per year.

States face having to increase their tax on employers in order to continue to issue checks to jobless workers as well as to repay the federal government or merely pay interest on what they already owe.

Jobless workers in hard-hit Florida, where the unemployment rate remains stubbornly high at 11.9 percent, 3 percent over the national average, might soon have additional challenges.

The Florida House of Representatives passed a bill that would decrease the amount of unemployment taxes employers pay, as well as cut benefits to unemployed workers.

The bill would keep the maximum benefit amount at $275 but cut the maximum number of weeks a worker could collect from 26 to 20 weeks. In addition, if employment falls below 5 percent workers could only collect benefits for a maximum of 12 weeks with additional weeks added for every 0.5 percent increase in the unemployment rate.

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Geithner confident U.S. economic recovery can withstand Middle East turmoil

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner tried to reassure the Senate Thursday about the risk to the U.S. oil supply from political turmoil in the Middle East. He said international oil production capacity and U.S. oil reserves are adequate to prevent spikes in prices that could potentially devastate the nation’s economic recovery from recession.

“If necessary, those reserves could be mobilized to help mitigate the effect of a severe, sustained supply disruption,” Geithner told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The committee is considering what actions it should take to secure the U.S. economy amid revolution in Libya and Egypt, as well as standoffs with China over its import-export policy.

“In the United States, rising gasoline prices have left consumers with less money to spend, but underlying inflation across all goods and services is still modest,” Geithner said.

In addition, the U.S. economy continues to lose jobs to foreign competitors in China and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate remains at 9 percent despite the fact the recession that started three years ago is officially over, the Labor Department reported this week.

Gasoline prices have risen steadily all this year, hitting an average of $3.39 per gallon this week.

Geithner’s testimony followed by one day Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recommendation to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that international aid should not be cut.

Otherwise, U.S. strategic interests worldwide could be damaged, she said.

Clinton’s testimony was timed to influence Congress as it seeks to balance the federal budget by cutting spending.

Some State Department programs could lose their funding under the next fiscal year’s budget, which begins Oct. 1.

Congress already voted last month to reduce the State Department budget by 16 percent this year. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides humanitarian aid to underdeveloped countries, also suffered a 16 percent budget cut this year.

Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) said hundreds of thousands of people worldwide could die if a proposal to cut U.S. humanitarian aid by half wins approval.

Now is not the time to “pull back from the world,” Kerry said.

Clinton said further reductions in the State Department budget would make China an even greater threat to the U.S. economy.

The United States is competing with China for energy projects in the Asia Pacific region, where major oil reserves were discovered recently.

A drop in foreign aid to the region could give China the political upper hand in negotiations to win the projects, Clinton said.

“Let’s put aside the humanitarian, do-good side of what we believe in,” Clinton told the Senate committee. “Let’s just talk straight real politik. We are in competition with China.”

Anyone who believes the United States can diminish its influence in countries where it competes with the Chinese and still maintain international leadership is following “a mistaken notion,” Clinton said.

Her warnings are similar to an economic report this week from the financial giant Citigroup.

Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citigroup, said the world’s wealth is likely to increase through the first half of this century but the United States will lose its place as the biggest economy.

“China should overtake the U.S. to become the largest economy in the world by 2020, then be overtaken by India by 2050,” he wrote in an economic report.

Oil prices in the Middle East are likely to continue rising, creating unknowns for economic trends, Buiter said.

“Expect booms and busts,” he wrote. “Occasionally, there will be growth disasters, driven by poor policy, conflicts, or natural disasters. When it comes to that, don’t believe that ‘this time it’s different.’”

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Federal Reserve open to direct intervention if oil prices cause inflation

D.C., Washington, United States (AHN) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the U.S. House on Tuesday that the Fed is open to direct intervention of prices of oil and other commodities increase too much and cause inflation.

However, Bernanke said at the Senate Banking Committee hearing that he does not expect the surge in oil prices – which breached $100 per barrel – last week due to the political turmoil in Libya to have a major impact on consumer prices in the U.S.

He cautioned that concerns about inflation could become self-fulfilling as consumers buy more goods that increase demand and trigger higher prices. Business owners, in turn, hike prices in anticipation of inflation.

Among the measures that the Fed would consider to address runaway prices are to raise interest rates or tighten money supplies. Bernanke acknowledged these two fiscal and monetary measures could slow the already weak American economy.

The chairman said that while there is more evidence of a self-sustaining recovery in consumer and business spending, the recovery cannot be considered truly established until proven by a sustained period of stronger job creation.

Bernanke said the Fed is more concerned with the recovery, which is at the risk of faltering, than inflation. He estimated the country’s consumer price index would remain at 2 percent until 2013.

Asked to comment on two studies by leading economic forecasting groups that the $60 billion cut on the U.S. federal budget proposed by the Republicans would weaken further the American economy, Bernanke said that the spending cuts would result in smaller economic losses and job losses smaller than the 700,000 estimate of Moody’s research.

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Democrats choose Charlotte for 2012 national convention

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The first presidential nominating convention will be held in North Carolina when Democrats converge in the state next year.

First Lady Michelle Obama announced on Tuesday that the 46th Democratic National Convention will take place in Charlotte, a city marked by “an ‘up by the bootstraps’ mentality that has propelled [it] forward as one of the fastest-growing in the South.”

Charlotte beat other sites such as St. Louis, Minneapolis and Cleveland.

“All the contending cities were places that Barack and I have grown to know and love, so it was a hard choice,” the first lady said.

The convention will be held in the week of September 3rd, after the Republican National Convention in the week of Aug. 27th in Tampa, Florida.

Democrats hope to have the participation of grassroots supporters during their convention, just like they did in 2008. The party is gathering ideas from supporters to ensure they have a successful “people’s convention.”

The first three days of the 2008 Democratic National Convention was held at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado.

President Barack Obama accepted the nomination crowd of 80,000 at Invesco Field at Mile High, an event that set precedent in may ways, including having the first outdoor acceptance speech in more than in half a century.

The president won North Carolina that year by a 50 to 49 percent margin against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

“We will finance this convention differently than it’s been done in the past, and we will make sure everyone feels closely tied in to what is happening in Charlotte,” the first lady said. “This will be a different convention, for a different time.”

David Parker, who was elected chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party only three days ago, told local television station WRAL his party expects to carry the state for Obama in 2012.

The state GOP has responded with a web video warning that the president and Gov. Beverly Perdue were elected in 2008 on the promise of change.

“Instead, they gave us historic unemployment and the largest debt in our nation’s history,” an announcer in the ad says. “In 2010, the people of North Carolina rejected the Obama-Perdue agenda and elected new leadership… When the nation looks to North Carolina in 2012, Republicans will unite and deliver the real change.”

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Egyptian Protests Threaten U.S. Economic Recovery

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – International markets were hurting Monday as political turmoil in Egypt threatens to disrupt trade.

The U.S. stock market suffered its biggest one-day loss in six months last week as fear spread that oil prices might spike upward.

Protesters are demanding the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who they accuse of human rights violations and dictatorial political policies.

“The principal concern is that civil unrest spreads to Middle Eastern and North African oil producers, producing significant reverberations in financial asset prices and confidence,” the financial firm J.P. Morgan said in a research note to investors.

Surging oil prices now could hurt the U.S. economic recovery from recession and depress employment rates, according to industry analysts.

The economies of some European trading partners of the United States are even more dependent on oil prices.

About 2 percent of world oil production passes through the Suez Canal along Egypt’s shores and through a pipeline that runs through the country, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Closing the Suez Canal would add 10 days to trips by barge from the Middle East to the United States and 18 days to Northern Europe.

In addition to oil, about 8 percent of the world’s seaborne trade passes through the Suez Canal.

Shipping companies are warning their customers to be prepared for delays.

Egypt is the Arab world’s most populous nation with an economy of $217 billion a year. Its stock market remained closed Monday after suffering a 17 percent drop late last week.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government began evacuating its citizens on chartered flights Monday after more than 100 Egyptians were killed in rioting over the weekend.

Egypt receives about $1.3 billion in foreign aid from the United States annually.

State Department officials are calling for a smooth transition in Egypt’s government.

“We want to see this peaceful uprising on the part of the Egyptian people to demand their rights to be responded to in a very clear, unambiguous way by the government, and then a process of national dialogue that will lead to the changes that the Egyptian people seek and that they deserve,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” television show.

The U.S. government has maintained good relations with Mubarak throughout most of his three-decade administration.

Egypt “has been a partner of the United States over the last 30 years, has been instrumental in keeping the peace in the Middle East between Egypt and Israel, which is a critical accomplishment that has meant so much to so many people,” Clinton told CNN.

U.S. support of Mubarak is sparking criticism among the Egyptian president’s opponents.

“Your policy right now is a failed policy, is a policy that is lagging behind, is a policy that is … having the effect here in Egypt that you are losing whatever (is) left of credibility,” Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a CNN interview Sunday.

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World Bank: slow growth in developed nations, rapid growth in developing nations

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Global growth will slow for developed nations in 2011 while developing nations with emerging markets will experience faster growth and account for half of all global economic growth, Word Bank officials say.

The 187-nation institution World Bank outlined its expectations for global growth in its Global Economic Prospects issued on Wednesday.

World Bank officials said developed nations would see slower growth but more stable growth of around 3.3 percent, versus the 3.9 percent in 2010, which likely will not be enough to reduce unemployment rates significantly. Emerging markets will likely growth of around 6 percent in 2011 after experiencing growth of around 7 percent in 2010.

“On the upside, strong developing-country domestic demand growth is leading the world economy, yet persistent financial sector problems in some high-income countries are still a threat to growth and require urgent policy actions,” said Justin Yifu Lin, the World Bank’s chief economist and senior vice president for development economics.

The World Bank also said that the gross domestic product in most developing countries had regained the levels those countries would have seen without a “boom-bust cycle.”

However, the World Bank also said that the recovery of economies in “emerging Europe and Central Asia and in some high-income countries is tentative. Without corrective domestic policies, high household debt and unemployment, and weak housing and banking sectors are likely to mute the recovery.”

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Obama picks Bill Daley for White House chief of staff

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama has selected Bill Daley to serve as his White House chief of staff, filling the shoes of Rahm Emanuel who left the Oval Office to run for mayor of Chicago.

Daley has a background in law, commerce, and politics. In 1993, Daley was a special counsel to President Bill Clinton, working with the commander in chief to persuade lawmakers into passing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Later, Daley would serve as Secretary of Commerce in the second Clinton administration before becoming a chairman on Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign.

Recently, Daley has been serving on the executive committee of J.P. Morgan Chase.

“Few Americans can boast the breadth of experience that Bill brings to this job,” Obama said. “He served as a member of President Clinton’s Cabinet as Commerce Secretary, and took on several other important duties over the years on behalf of our country. He’s led major corporations. He possesses a deep understanding of how to create jobs and how to grow our economy. And, needless to say, Bill also has a profound awareness of how our systems of government and politics work. You might say it’s a genetic trait.”

“But most of all, I know Bill to be someone who cares deeply about this country, believes in its promise, and considers no calling higher and more important than serving the American people. He will bring his tremendous experience, his strong values and forward-looking vision to this White House. I’m convinced that he’ll help us in our mission of growing our economy and moving America forward. And I very much look forward to working with Bill in the years to come,” Obama added.

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Obama To Speak With Chinese Counterpart Hu About Human Rights, Yuan

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama is putting on his agenda to address global economy, China’s currency and human right issues when he hosts Chinese President Hu, according to Robert Gibbs, the outgoing spokesman of the White House.

On China’s currency issue and on human rights, Gibbs told journalists, “(Those two) will be on the agenda and will be tremendously important,” adding, “China plays an enormously important role in our global economy and China has to take steps to rebalance its currency, and the President will continue to make that point when President Hu is here, as he did with the Foreign Minister.”

In addition to “human rights, the global economy, and currency,” Gibbs stated, “I won’t go through all the topics, but of course the situation in North Korea I anticipate will also take up some amount of that time.”

On the question of accusations that President Obama soft-pedals on human rights when it comes to China, Gibbs said, “I think if you speak directly to the President of China about your concerns about their record on human rights, I don’t think that’s soft-pedaling.”

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