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Got kicks? Every Detroit student who shows up on the cash-crucial Student Count Day will be able to answer “yes” thanks to a donation from Bob’s Classic Kicks in midtown. BCK, 4717 Woodward, made an arrangement with the school district to give away a free pair of black leather Nikes to every student who comes to class on Oct. 3, the day when students are counted and their numbers used as the basis for per-pupil funding from the state and federal government. The more bodies in class, the more money schools have all year.

The troubled insurance giant American International Group already has consumed three-quarters of a federal $123 billion rescue loan, a little more than a month after the government stepped in to save the company from bankruptcy. AIG has borrowed $90.3 billion from the Federal Reserve's credit line as of yesterday, the bulk of it to pay off bad bets the company made in guaranteeing other firms' risky mortgage investments. That's up from roughly $83 billion AIG had borrowed a week ago, and the $68 billion level it reached a week before that. The news comes as the company's new chief executive...

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Future generations. The bill to the government for Katrina -- $62 billion so far with untold billions to come -- will be added directly to the $7.9 trillion national debt. President Bush said Friday, "We're going to have to make sure we cut unnecessary spending" and that his administration will "work with Congress" to find cuts elsewhere in the budget, but such offsets are likely to be mostly symbolic. With tax cuts, terrorist attacks and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past four and a half years, the national debt already is $1.2 trillion higher than when President Bush...

NEW ORLEANS – Faced with the nation's costliest natural disaster, President Bush said Thursday the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast will be one of the largest reconstruction projects the world has ever seen and the federal government will cover most of the costs – estimated at $200 billion or beyond. "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," the president said in remarks prepared for an address to the nation. Bush committed the federal government to covering "the great majority of the costs" of rebuilding critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges,...

WASHINGTON – It wasn't just a speech commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations that President Bush delivered in New York yesterday. Instead, he laid out an ambitious program of increased U.S. foreign aid to tackle worldwide problems of poverty and disease. Think of it as Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" plan gone global. And he characterized this plan as an extension of his war on terrorism. "Confronting our enemies is essential, and so civilized nations will continue to take the fight to the terrorists," Bush said. "Yet we know that this war will not be won by force...

Bush to Request More Aid Funding Analysts Warn of Spending's Impact By Jonathan Weisman and Jim VandeHei Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, September 15, 2005; Page A01 President Bush will call tonight for an unprecedented federal commitment to rebuild New Orleans and other areas obliterated by Hurricane Katrina, putting the United States on pace to spend more in the next year on the storm's aftermath than it has over three years on the Iraq war, according to White House and congressional officials. With the federal tab for Katrina already nearly quadruple the cost of the country's previous most expensive natural...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Tuesday signed legislation aimed at removing a roadblock to major construction projects by ensuring companies can obtain terrorism insurance. The legislation will boost the economy by allowing billions of dollars worth of construction projects to proceed that had been stalled by a lack of insurance, Bush said. But independent economists said the initial impact is likely to be minor. "Today we're taking action to strengthen America's economy, to build confidence with America's investors and to create jobs for America's workers," Bush said at a White...