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Rejecting calls to spread out a looming jump in premiums, a state pension board panel on Tuesday endorsed an average 33.6 percent increase in long-term care insurance rates for 170,000 government workers and retirees in California. The boost would help the giant California Public Employees' Retirement System establish a reserve and generate additional capital to cover a projected $600 million deficit over the next five to six decades. If adopted today by the full CalPERS board, the move would be the second increase since 2003, when trustees boosted rates an average of 17 percent. "We're better off to get it...

U.S. Army Capt. Michael Baka, from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, speaks with a local man about his concerns during a patrol in Adhamiyah, Aug. 28. Baka is conducting an operation in Adhamiyah jointly with Iraqi Army Soldiers from 1st Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division and 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. Department of Defense photo by Navy Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Keith W. DeVinney. In July, the news editor’s old axiom “If it bleeds it leads” was tragically justified by record-setting violence in the streets of Baghdad. The increase in daily attacks and civilian deaths led...

WASHINGTON, April 6, 2006 – Protection of America in the near term and trying to lay a foundation for peace in the long term make the war in Iraq worthwhile, President Bush told a Charlotte, N.C., audience today. Speaking at Central Piedmont Community College in a town-meeting format, the president said he believes future generations will be grateful for the world that will result from victory in the global war on terror. "I believe that one day an American president will be talking about the world in which he is making decisions, or she is making decisions, and they'll look...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq, Dec. 23, 2005 – The United States has not discussed basing American troops in Iraq, and would do so only following negotiations with the new Iraqi government, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today. "At the moment, there are no plans for long-term bases in the country," Rumsfeld told a Marine during a question and answer session here today. The secretary said the subject has not been discussed because until the most recent election, there was no one to speak with. He said the United States has been working with successive transitional governments in Iraq about...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2005 – Al Qaeda terrorists hope to drive American influence from the Middle East and install a global Muslim leader in Saudi Arabia, Army Gen. John Abizaid said today. Speaking during Senate testimony, Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, said al Qaeda's objectives are clear. "They believe in a jihad, a jihad to overthrow the legitimate regimes in the region," he said. "In order to do that, they first must drive America from the region." Al Qaeda believes the most important prize is Saudi Arabia, which is home to the holy shrines in Mecca and Medina. If...

In Kelo v. New London, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that that Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution did not bar the city of New London, CT, from using its eminent domain power to transfer ownership of land from homeowners to economic developers so long as the transfer furthered a valid “public purpose.” The Court accepted the argument of New London that transferring the property from the current homeowners to private developers would increase the number of jobs in New London and increase the tax revenues available to the city. This, in the Court’s mind, was enough to satisfy the...

Greenspan Can't Explain Rates Divergence By MARTIN CRUTSINGER WASHINGTON - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Monday he does not have a good explanation for why long-term interest rates have been falling at a time when he and his Fed colleagues have been raising short-term rates. Greenspan called the pronounced decline in long-term interest rates over the past year at the same time the Fed was boosting short-term rates "clearly without recent precedent." Speaking by satellite to a monetary conference in China, Greenspan rejected the suggestion that U.S. rates have been held down by a massive flow of foreign investment...

SACRAMENTO - California has put a lot of expenses on plastic lately and may add billions more next year. In March 2004, voters approved $27 billion worth of borrowing, including a $15 billion bond to refinance state debt. Last fall, they passed a $3 billion bond to pay for research into stem-cell technology, along with $750 million for seismic improvements at children's hospitals. Since then, legislation to place almost $30 billion in new borrowing on next year's fall ballot has passed initial committee tests. The bonds -- which could pay for projects ranging from a new courthouse in downtown San...

Is the United States stingy? When Jan Egeland, the head of the UN's humanitarian relief operations, suggested so in the wake of the Asian tsunami catastrophe, he was only the latest foreign aid advocate to judge the effectiveness of aid by its intent, rather than by its actual impact. But disaster aid of the kind required in Asia is quite different from development aid. Egeland's "stingy" statement was sadly the first of a series of calls by those using the crisis in Asia to advocate increases in worldwide development funds. Writing about the disaster, the New York Times described Washington's...

Now that President Bush has twice gotten himself to the White House, the question is whether he wants to try for Mount Rushmore. One of the luxuries of a second term is an opportunity to think about the long run, not simply for one's own "legacy," but for the future of the nation as a whole. Even during his first term, George W. Bush's long-run strategic view, exemplified by the war on terrorism, contrasted sharply with former President Bill Clinton's preoccupation with short-run political tactics, though this contrast seemed to be little noticed in most of the media....Too often Republicans...

The Nexus of Culture and Foreign PolicyBy Herbert London In policy disputes culture – however ambiguously defined – trumps most other characteristics including money, enthusiasm, even courage. By culture I’m referring to the habits of mind that are cultivated by the institutions in a given society. If one relies on a Tocquevillian interpretation of national character, the U.S. he observed was a nation that encouraged liberty and individualism, but it also fostered associations and communal ties. More recently, David Putman argued that Americans have been so seduced by television viewing they are accustomed to watching alone and “bowling alone”....

<p>Rarely in the course of market events have so many been so wrong about so much. Two months ago, the pundits warned us that Japanese-style deflation was upon us in the form of collapsing bond yields. When the 10-year Treasury yield jumped to an intraday peak of 4.6% on Aug. 1 from close to 3%, we heard that soaring interest rates endangered the financial markets. Now the 10-year yield has settled down at the benign level of around 4.25%.</p>

This is only one battle in a long war for control of the destiny of the United States. If the government under the Republicans fails to do something IMMEDIATELY about illegal immigration and education of the recent legal immigrants about living in a free, capitalistic society and helping them become a part of that society, all will be lost. Look at California. Governor Gray Davis gives an award to Los Tigres del Norte, an immigrant music group which is extremely popular with the Hispanic population in the U.S. AND Mexico. They sing a song Somos mas Americanos in which they...