Recently in Washington, D.C. Category

Tipoffs: The mayor and his advisors have close ties to new Obama administration.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, angered over accounts that some web sites are offering inaugural tickets for sale, called Monday for a measure making it illegal to scalp the tickets.
Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC), saud the tickets are provided free through
Congressional offices and any sale of them should be banned.
"The Inauguration of the President is one of the most important rituals of our democracy. The chance to witness this event should not be bought and sold like tickets to a football game," Feinstein said.
"This legislation is meant to immediately stop the unscrupulous behavior of those who obtain these tickets for free and then seek to profit by selling them, often at dramatically inflated prices. This bill also would target those duping the public with fraudulent tickets or promises of tickets they don't actually have.
"It is my hope that Congress will pass this legislation during this week's lame-duck session so that we can stop scam artists and profiteers from maligning this historic event," Feinstein added.
Those who violate the law would face fines of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to one year.

E-Bay announced it would ban anyone trying to sell inaugural tickets on any of ts site, drawing praise from Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Feinstein, who is chairing the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, had voiced concern about reports that some web sites were offering the tickets _ which are distributed free by members of Congress.
"I want to thank eBay/StubHub for not allowing the sale of inaugural swearing-in ceremony tickets on any of its websites," Feinstein said. "They have led the way and I hope other Internet companies will follow. "

He had answered prayers that America elect its first African-American president. Dana Bartholomew in the Daily News.

And on Sunday, jubilant African-Americans prayed God would reduce the days until his wisdom would pour out on a President Barack Obama administration.

"This morning we sincerely heed God's prayers," said a beaming Rev. Ira Woodfin Dickason to a congregation of early risers at Parks Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the first Sunday service following the election.

The number of homeowners ensnared in the foreclosure crisis grew by more than 70 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007, according to data released Thursday. AP in the Daily News.

Nationwide, nearly 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, up 71 percent from a year earlier, said foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc.

By the end of the year, RealtyTrac expects more than a million bank-owned properties to have piled up on the market, representing around a third of all properties for sale in the U.S.

If Congress rejects the $700 billion bailout plan today, California and local governments might have to postpone voter-approved road, school and other projects for lack of money. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Turmoil in the financial markets has made it difficult and expensive for government agencies to sell bonds that generate the cash needed to pay for large-scale construction projects.

In a letter to Congress this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged action on a bailout plan, warning that the state won't be able to fund highway, school, housing and water projects in the current financial climate.

With the Dow closing down a record 777 points on Monday after Congress thumbed down a $700 billion bailout package for the financial industry, take a look at how the California delegation -- the nation's largest -- voted. Sacrramento Bee.

Overall, the delegation cast 29 aye votes and 24 no votes. A majority of both Republican (10 to 9) and Democratic lawmakers (19 to 15) from the state supported the bailout package.

The Bush administration insisted Sunday that Congress must move quickly to approve what one lawmaker called the "mother of all bailouts" - a $700 billion proposal to buy a mountain of bad mortgage debt in an effort to unfreeze the nation's credit markets. New York Times in the Daily News.

Congressional leaders endorsed the plan's main thrust, saying passage might occur in a matter of days. But they said it must be expanded to include help for people on Main Street as well as the big Wall Street financial firms who have lost billions of dollars through their bad investment decisions.

The proposal "does not include the necessary safeguards," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

She called for "independent oversight, protections for homeowners and constraints on excessive executive compensation."

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stressed that time is critical to get the proposal passed and that changes to the administration's measure, which was sen

A run on IndyMac Federal Bank intensified Monday as a flood of anxious depositors descended on its 33 branches, worried about the fate of their accounts in the failed thrift. Gregory J Wilcox in the Daily News.

Lines snaked around IndyMac offices in the San Fernando Valley and throughout Southern California, with customers waiting hours under the scorching sun. Many had accounts totaling more than $100,000 - the amount guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. - and wondered whether they could get their money.

"I didn't think this could happen," said Charles Tengeri, a retired schoolteacher who emerged from the bank with a check for $171,000 - an amount he said represented most of his savings.

Pink slips piled up and jobs disappeared into thin air in May as the nation's unemployment rate zoomed to 5.5 percent in the biggest one-month jump in decades. Wall Street swooned, and President Bush was considering new proposals to revive the economy.AP in the Daily News.

Help-wanted signs are vanishing along with jobs. The unemployment rate is likely to keep climbing, a government report indicated.

Adding to the pain, oil prices soared to a new record high, while the value of the dollar fell.

Thousands of Los Angeles teachers wearing red T-shirts left their classrooms Friday and marched in front of their campuses in a one-hour protest against state budget cuts. Daily News.

The walkouts triggered none of the campus disruptions feared by Los Angeles Unified School District administrators, who had sought a court order to block the protests on grounds they would put students in harm's way.

At schools across the city, teachers, parents and students waved signs and chanted opposition to a budget that could cut as much as $353 million this year from the district's $13.9 billion budget.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Cal., who became America's best known hostess this week with the sitdown at her home between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, will talk about the presidential campaign on the Sunday talk shows.
Feinstein is scheduled to appear on "This Week with George Stephanapoulos" on ABC and follow that with an appearance on "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" on CNN.

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California got the call from Hillary Rodham Clinton Thursday afternoon: Could she, would she let Mrs. Clinton use her home in Northwest Washington for a little sit-down with a certain senator from Illinois, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States? New York Times.

Mrs. Feinstein had made the offer before and it was still good. And so a few hours later, at just about 9 p.m., Mrs. Clinton and Senator Barack Obama arrived for a face to face chat. No staff. No spouses. Just the two of them in Mrs. Feinstein's living room.

The California senator had set up two chairs facing each other. She served them water. Nothing else. Two aides were sent to Mrs. Feinstein's study. And Secret Service agents stayed outside.

After breakfast at the White House today, Art Herriford, along with representatives of each of the armed forces, will join the president of the United States in laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery. Dennis McCarthy in the Daily News.

The 86-year-old national vice president of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association - now down to just 16 members in the San Fernando Valley and less than 4,000 nationally - will bow his head and pay his respects to all the men he served with in World War II who never made it home to start a family, have a career, or grow old gracefully.

Art says he may not remember all their names, but he still sees their faces as clearly as if it was just yesterday.

The Van

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Howard Berman keeps a big Thermos behind his desk. That way, he never has to ask anyone to fetch coffee for him.

The new House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman also picks up his own dry cleaning and drives his own car.

It is a self-sufficiency that Berman has carefully nurtured over his 13 terms in Congress. Now that he has ascended to one of the most influential posts on Capitol Hill, succeeding the late Chairman Tom Lantos, he still rejects the trappings of power, and prefers to keep operating as a behind-the-scenes player. AP in the New York Times.

He even barred an Associated Press photographer from taking his picture for this story.

''Sometimes the best things are done when the media doesn't know about it, because then a lot of other people don't know about it,'' Berman said. ''The media is a conduit of information to the people who wouldn't like what I was doing.''

It's not that Berman has anything to hide, friends say.

''He's much more interested in accomplishing things than being out front and visible,'' said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who's known Berman since their college days at the University of California, Los Angeles. They presided over a famously effective Democratic machine in Southern California in the 1970s and 1980s that helped elect like-minded politicians to local and state offices.