| Black farmer takes to the streets to protest KKK activity on his farm
A black farmer in Western Kentucky took his message to the street Saturday, fielding a protest in front of the federal building in Owensboro, Kentucky. Eighty-year old Harry Young protested racist vandalism on his land, trying to get the world to pay attention to his plight and the plight of hundreds of black and white farmers nationwide. Harry Young has seen a lot in his 80 years. He has seen the federal government auction his ancestral farm. He has heard a federal marshal tell him to his face, "I can’t read", when Young presented papers to the marshal at the auction of his farm, showing he had paid on his farm loan, this, despite the federal government’s claim that he hadn’t paid a dime in 20 years. He has been part of a historic meeting between black and white farmers who realize that their family farms are at risk, regardless of what race they are.
Fed cuts interest rate in emergency meeting
Despite the Fed's bold move, Wall Street plunged at the opening with the Dow Jones industrial average down 465 points before stocks began to rebound. The Dow was down 120 points in afternoon trading, an indication that the Fed's effort to calm markets was having an impact. In a brief statement explaining its move, the Fed said that "appreciable downside risks to growth remain" and officials pledged to "act in a timely manner" to deal with the risks facing the economy. The action was approved on an 8-1 vote. Analysts said the fact that the Fed did not wait until its meeting next week to cut rates underscored the seriousness of the situation. "The world's stock markets are in meltdown so the Fed came in with an inter-meeting move to try to stop the panic," Christopher Rupkey, senior economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.
EGYPT: Poverty driving young to risk deadly boat journeys
Would-be migrants often sell everything they own, borrow from friends and family and sometimes even sell family land, to collect this amount of money in the hope of winning it back in Europe. "They are risking their money and their lives," Abdel Aziz said. "They are selling everything they have. If his wife or his mother has some gold, she will sell it for him." Dire economic situation The drastic measures that a large number of Egyptians are taking attest to the dire economic situation at home, said John Salevurakis, an assistant professor of economics at the American University in Cairo. In Egypt, it is common to meet taxi drivers with engineering degrees and office clerks with salaries as low as 150 LE ($27) a month. "People are unlikely to engage in that illegal immigration without some sort of desperation," said Salevurakis.
Pryor won't dis Limbaugh
Forty-one Democratic senators signed a letter castigating Rush Limbaugh for his remark that military who criticized the war in Iraq were "phony" soldiers. Mark Pryor was one of nine who didn't sign. Here's Joe Conason's description of the episode in event any trolls try to claim Limbaugh has been misquoted. More good anti-Rush stuff here, including a link to Wesley Clark's petition to get Limbaugh off taxpayer-financed armed forces radio, where he's free to trash Democrats as traitors and talk about phony soldiers and belittle a vet wounded in Iraq as suicide bomber. .
The defence sector goes from strength to strength
Perhaps more pertinent is the extent to which aerospace and defence has prospered since the onset of the credit crunch. Since June, Citigroup shows, the sector has outpaced the UK stock market by 13 per cent. That makes it the sixth best performer out of 36 sectors, and ranks it alongside gas and water utilities - a niche commonly cited as the defensive play par excellence. The likes of Ultra Electronics, Chemring, which makes flares that ward off surface-to-air missiles, and QinetiQ, the former defence research group, have all held their level of late June. BAE Systems has even risen in the interim - up 6 per cent. But the issue for investors who have seen their capital preserved, if not modestly enhanced, amid a seven-month sell-off, is for how long the sector can maintain its fortress-like stand.
October 2006
The Boston Globe average daily circulation declined 7% to 386,000 from 414,000 and on Sunday the drop was 10% from 652,146 to 587,292. The Boston Herald fell 12%, to 203,000 from 230,000 and on Sunday 13% from 115,214 to 131,833.MetroWest down 7%. Worcester Telegram & Gazette was down 11%. Patriot Ledger down 4%.Bockton Enterprise down 4%. Daily News Tribune down 6%. Daily News Transcript (Watham) down 17%. Springfield Republican down 3%. The New York Times lost about 3.5% both daily and Sunday. The Washington Post’s declines were nearly the same. The Wall Street Journal’s daily paper fell by less than 2% (still not a happy result for Dow Jones), but its Weekend (Saturday) Edition was down 6.7%.The Philadelpia Inquirer which has bought last June by local businessmen, lost 7.6% of its daily circulation and 4.5% on Sunday.
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