President Barack Obama packed an economic speech with a political punch on Tuesday, blaming Republicans for creating high deficits, mismanaging bank bailouts and obstructing efforts to reform healthcare.
The number of children in the state's subsidized child-care program hit a 14-month low in October and November - dropping by roughly 6% from the same time last year and by nearly 8% since September.
The cost per child has also dropped, a fact state regulators attributed Tuesday to the recent crackdown on fraudulent parents and providers.
In recent weeks, regulators cut public funding to more than 130 child-care providers suspected of scamming the state's troubled Wisconsin Shares program. The program was designed to help low-income parents get jobs by covering the cost of child care.
In an ongoing investigation extending more than a year, The Journal Sentinel has uncovered rampant fraud within the $350 million-a-year program as well as shoddy oversight.
In August, the newspaper published a story detailing how one provider amassed nearly $3 million in taxpayer dollars, and built a mansion in Menomonee Falls with an indoor swimming pool and indoor basketball court - all while regulators ignored numerous warning signs that she was conning the system.
The story, coupled with another one revealing how government has frequently overlooked fraud in the program, triggered a flurry of responses from lawmakers and regulators. New laws have been enacted, stiffer rules implemented and several child-care providers have since been criminally charged.
"What that means is that providers are more accurately reporting children coming to their child-care centers," said Reggie Bicha, secretary of the Department of Children and Families, of the drop in numbers. "The deterrent effect is beginning to pay off."
The state issued $23.9 million in child-care subsidies last month to cover the cost of care for 56,550 children. That compares with $28.2 million in November 2008 for care for 60,417 children, according to data released by the state.
On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Ralph Laedtke was working on a medical support vessel in Pearl Harbor when the sound of nearby torpedoing rumbled through his ship.
"I scrambled up the ladder and I saw bombs and ships exploding and smoke belching into the sky," said the former pharmacist's mate third class on the USS Solace.
Laedtke, 89, of Grayslake, and eight other Chicago-area Pearl Harbor survivors met Monday at Navy Pier to mark the 68th anniversary of the attack by Japanese forces that prompted the United States to join World War II.
The commemoration, which drew more than 300 people, included a bell-ringing ceremony to honor seven Chicagoans who died on the USS Arizona, one of several ships moored at the Hawaiian port that were sunk or severely damaged in the attack. Attendees included members of the Illinois Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and their families.
"You cannot forget the sacrifice that men and women have made, not just for Pearl Harbor Day, but for this country continually," said Mayor Richard Daley, alluding to the current U.S. conflicts in the Middle East.
Our video team also spent time talking with Governor Palin about leadership. "I believe our country has been touched by God," said Palin, "because when we formed our union, leaders back then dedicated our country to God and said that we would seek His will for our great nation.Our nation was founded on religios freedoms. When watching this video, I remembered a quote by the "Godfather" of the Constitution, James Madison.
"I think if we could get back to that humbleness," she added, "with that kind of contrite spirit, I think that we would be able to be provided more of the answers to so many of the great challenges that we’re facing."
Gov. Palin noted that it takes Godly counsel, prayer and "a collective humble heart of a nation seeking God’s hand of protection and His blessings and prosperity. I think if we could get back to that, our country will be a safer, more prosperous and healthier nation."
"The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded."
Anna Burger of Change to Win, who is invited to attend Thursday's White House job summit, is secretary treasurer of Service Employees International Union Committee on Political Education or SEIU COPE, a political action committee that gave $29,442,016 to Obama between February 2008 and September 2009.
A large number of union executives and academics who were heavy donors to President Obama's 2008 campaign will be at the table for his White House jobs summit Thursday.
But few big Obama donors are among the top corporate executives on the list -- and they are the ones who will bear the burden of creating the jobs that are needed to bring down the staggering unemployment rate.
And the Chamber of Commerce, with whom the Obama administration has battled over health care and climate change policies, and the National Federation of Independent Business confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that they were not invited to attend the forum on expanding job creation.
Just as we have done in Iraq, we will execute this transition responsibly, taking into account conditions on the ground. We will continue to advise and assist Afghanistan's Security Forces to ensure that they can succeed over the long haul. But it will be clear to the Afghan government - and, more importantly, to the Afghan people - that they will ultimately be responsible for their own country.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry.
The average monthly premium for a Medicare prescription drug plan will increase 11% next year - and it has increased 50% nationally since 2006.
Those figures make clear why shopping for the best Medicare Part D plan should be an annual chore for people who want to save money.
"Everybody needs to check their plan and make sure it's still right for them," said Tom Frazier, executive director of the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups.
The same holds true for the Medicare Advantage plans run by private companies that are an alternative to traditional Medicare.
Heading into December and Tuesday’s announcement of our nation’s strategy in Afghanistan, I ask the President to reassure us that the administration is in this War on Terror to win.
And I’ll pass along the following from Harold B. Estes, a 95-year-old member of the Greatest Generation: “I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you’re the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you’re not in this fight to win, then get out.”
Thank you, Mr. President. Please tell us on Tuesday that America is in it to win.
You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president. You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now. And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle.
Sincerely,
Harold B. Estes
McAlpin , FL
Mr. Obama’s own credibility is so diminished (his approval rating in Israel is 4 percent) that serious negotiations may be farther off than ever.
Peacemaking takes strategic skill. But we see no sign that President Obama and Mr. Mitchell were thinking more than one move down the board. The president went public with his demand for a full freeze on settlements before securing Israel’s commitment. And he and his aides apparently had no plan for what they would do if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no.
For Obama, going back home from a weeklong Asia trip with little more than hopes that he's laying groundwork for better cooperation could sour, fast, on Americans. He was elected in part because of his promises to restore the battered U.S. image abroad. But if the cost of that is too much listening and too little getting, the public could well grow impatient.
One sign, albeit small, that people are growing weary with Obama's pragmatic humility overseas: A mini-furor erupted in the U.S. when he bowed to greet the emperor of Japan in Tokyo on Saturday. Conservative commentators are calling it another instance of groveling before a foreign leader.
Despite fomenting by comments like Bachmann's "enough is enough" (as seen in the video at right), Sparkman's death having come on September 12 (the day which Beck had called for his "9/12 Movement" Teabagger protests in D.C.), and the letters scrawled on Sparkman's chest, there is not yet definitive evidence that the hanging was tied to the Bachmann/Beck movement, though the blogosphere is understandably abuzz about it today.
That's the detail that makes you stop and think. If this was a revenge murder for stumbling upon a meth lab or pot plantation, it's hard to understand why such a big deal would be made out of his census identification card. It's possible, I suppose, that anger at the feds in general could make a drug dealer murder a census worker. But the most worrying possibility - that this is Southern populist terrorism, whipped up by the GOP and its Fox and talk radio cohorts - remains real. We'll see.
