New Egyptian President’s Biggest Worry?

From: To: Date: Date:

Why the New Egyptian President’s Biggest Worry Could Be the Economy

Rising debt and lower growth threaten to detail Egypt’s revolution as much as grasping generals
By MICHAEL SCHUMAN | @MichaelSchuman | June 27, 2012
The newly elected President of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy, has taken on one of the most daunting jobs in the world. He’ll have to restore stability to a country ravaged by political upheaval, wrest control of Egypt’s fading revolution from the country’s old guard and convince doubters at home and abroad that an Islamist can manage the Arab world’s most populous nation with tolerance and pragmatism. Yet in the end, Morsy’s political fate may depend on whether or not he can turn around a staggering Egyptian economy.

Though there have been many causes of the uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world – most of all decades of political repression – economic woes also played a key role in sparking the Arab Spring. While other developing regions of the world, especially East Asia, have witnessed

Stockton, California, To File For Bankruptcy Protection

Stockton, California, To File For Bankruptcy Protection

By Steven Church and Alison Vekshin - Jun 27, 2012
Stockton, California, said it will file for bankruptcy after talks with bondholders and labor unions failed, making the agricultural center the biggest U.S. city to seek court protection from creditors.
“The city is fiscally insolvent and must seek chapter 9 bankruptcy protection,” Stockton said in a statement released yesterday after its council voted 6-1 to adopt a spending plan for operating under bankruptcy protection. “In addition to the bankruptcy petition, the city will file a motion with the courts to share information from the confidential mediation.”
The budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 calls for defaulting on $10.2 million in debt payments and cutting $11.2 million in employee pay and benefits under union contracts that could be voided by

Queen Elizabeth II, ex-IRA chief Martin McGuinness shake hands in reconciliation landmark

From: To: Date: Date:

Queen Elizabeth II, ex-IRA chief Martin McGuinness shake hands in reconciliation landmark

by cbs news

June 27, 2012.


(AP) BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Queen Elizabeth II and a former Irish Republican Army commander have offered each other the hand of peace in a long-awaited encounter symbolizing Northern Ireland's progress in achieving reconciliation after decades of violence.

Northern Ireland Office officials say the monarch and Martin McGuinness met privately Wednesday inside a Belfast theater during a cross-community arts event. Media were barred from the event, but the two are expected to have a public handshake later.

Obama Tops Romney In Poll Of Three Swing-State Voters

From: To: Date: Date:

Obama Tops Romney In Poll Of Three Swing-State Voters

By Kristin Jensen - Jun 27, 2012
President Barack Obama holds an edge over presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the election battleground states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, a Quinnipiac University poll shows.
Obama leads Romney by 9 percentage points in Ohio, 6 points in Pennsylvania and 4 points in Florida, according to the June 19-25 “swing-state” survey released today. Obama has gained ground in Ohio and Florida while his lead in Pennsylvania diminished slightly, compared with a comparable Quinnipiac poll released on May 3.

Colorado Waldo Canyon Fire forces 32K to flee homes, partially closes Air Force Academy

June 27, 2012

Colorado Waldo Canyon Fire forces 32K to flee homes, partially closes Air Force Academy

(AP) WOODLAND PARK, Colo. - A stubborn and towering wildfire jumped firefighters' perimeter lines in the hills overlooking Colorado Springs, forcing frantic mandatory evacuation notices for more than 9,000 residents, destroying an unknown number of homes and partially closing the grounds of the sprawling U.S. Air Force Academy.

Ryan Lochte beats Michael Phelps again, this time in semis

From: To: Date: Date:

Ryan Lochte beats Michael Phelps again, this time in semis

Jun. 26, 2012
OMAHA (USA TODAY) — A high-rise image of Michael Phelps hovers over these Olympic trials on a hotel building across the street from the CenturyLink Center. What's missing is a paired image of Ryan Lochte.

Once upon a time, Phelps stood alone. These days, his name flows with Lochte's as easily as Gilbert and Sullivan — or Ali and Frazier.

Tonight we get Round Two of the slugfest that is Phelps-Lochte — or is it Lochte-Phelps? — when they meet in the finals of the 200-meter freestyle, an event in which Lochte beat Phelps at the world championships in Shanghai a year ago.

Lochte beat Phelps in their semifinal heat of the 200 free Tuesday night, too — by a hair, 1:46.25 to 1:46.27.

Best Buy Founder Is Said to Consider a Takeover Bid

From: To: Date: Date:

Best Buy Founder Is Said to Consider a Takeover Bid

BY MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED AND STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
June26, 2012
Richard Schulze, the founder of Best Buy, is exploring putting together a bid to take the struggling electronics retailer private, according to people briefed on the matter.

Mr. Schulze, who resigned from the company’s board this month, has been begun working with bankers from Credit Suisse to consider such a move, these people said. They said he would probably team up with a private equity firm or other deep-pocketed investor. With a 20.1 percent stake, he is the company’s largest shareholder.

But Mr. Schulze may instead sell his stake, these people cautioned. On the same day that he said he had resigned from the board a year ahead of schedule, Mr. Schulze made public his intention to sell. The resignation helps free him to explore a takeover bid for the company he founded more than 40 years ago.

What's really, truly going on with Facebook?

What's really, truly going on with Facebook?

By John D. Sutter, CNN
June 26, 2012
(CNN) -- Every week, there's a new Facebook thing to gripe about.
This week, there have been two -- and it's only Tuesday.
On Sunday, it was discovered that the 900 million-person social network was "testing" a feature that would let people see a digital list of the people who were nearby in real life. Called "Find Friends Nearby," the app was pulled down by Tuesday morning after the Internet freaked out. Commenters said things like "Hell to the naw" and "BAD FACEBOOK!!" and generally complaining that the feature, which was difficult to find, much less use, invades privacy and will lead to stalking.
If that's not enough, a company named Friendthem reportedly threatened a lawsuit, saying Facebook stole its idea for the location-aware feature. Apparently, Friendthem would like to share the heat.

Item two: A blogger noticed over the weekend that Facebook, without asking permission, had changed the default e-mail addresses of all of its digital residents to @facebook.com accounts. It's easy enough to change back, as the site Lifehacker and others have detailed, but that little invasion of the hub of digital identity -- the Facebook Timeline -- was enough to make quite a few Facebookers fire back at their digital overlords. Security researchers called the move dangerous. Normal people felt violated.

On the red carpet, John Travolta kisses but doesn’t tell

On the red carpet, John Travolta kisses but doesn’t tell

By Bill Zwecker June 26, 2012
As Travolta and wife Kelly Preston made a big show of affection on the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of his new film “Savages,” the actor’s attorney Marty Singer was fighting off yet another lawsuit — one the top Hollywood lawyer called “ludicrous.” This latest suit was filed by ex-Royal Caribbean Cruise steward Fabian Zanzi, claiming the actor propositioned him sexually on a 2009 cruise and then, when turned down, offered Zanzi $12,000 to keep quiet.

“John is adamant about fighting these allegations he made inappropriate sexual advances to all those men, but it’s certainly taking a big toll. … I don’t know how he can deal with all of it,” my source said.

“If it’s untrue, I can understand his anger, but these people keep coming out of the closet, so to speak.”

† Many at the “Savages” premiere were very cynical about Travolta and Preston’s smooching, with several witnesses saying it looked “very staged.” The couple only posed for photos and took no questions from the assembled media. Travolta also avoided questions at the earlier “Savages” press junket by doing most of his interviews paired with other cast members — insuring there would be no personal questions, only ones related to the Oliver Stone movie Travolta was contractually required to promote.

Rob Portman: Zombie Hunter

Rob Portman: Zombie Hunter

By Chris Moody
June 27, 2012
In the War on Drugs, it's Rob Portman 1, Flesh-Eating Zombies 0.

Following a recent string of attacks around the country involving people who ingested the synthetic drug known as "bath salts" and then attacked victims and ate their flesh, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman introduced an amendment to a Senate FDA bill that would implement a federal ban on the substance.

The bill passed the Senate 92-4 on Tuesday and is on its way to the White House, where the president is expected to sign it.

Romney's amazing hypocrisy

From: To: Date: Date:

Romney's amazing hypocrisy

By Donna Brazile, CNN Contributor
updated 7:36 AM EDT, Tue June 26, 2012
Editor's note: Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and a Democratic strategist, is vice chairwoman for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee. She is a nationally syndicated columnist, adjunct professor at Georgetown University and author of "Cooking With Grease." She was manager for the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000.
(CNN) -- Recently, we learned two important things about Mitt Romney.
First, he would rather see the American economy fail than President Barack Obama win.
Second, the extent of his hypocrisy is amazing. While he laments the toll that outsourcing has taken on our workers and economy, he amassed a fortune by investing in companies that outsourced American jobs.
In word and deed, Romney roots for failure, and his insincerity reveals a disdain for the common good and disregard for people's common sense. Americans deserve better.

Home price index rises in April

Home price index rises in April after seven months of declines

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large cities climbs 1.3% in April over March, signaling that the housing slump may be turning a corner nationally.
By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times
June 27, 2012
A key index of home prices in American cities turned positive in April, signaling that the housing slump may be turning a corner nationally despite considerable weakness in some hard-hit metropolitan areas.

Notching the first gain after seven months of declines, the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large cities rose 1.3% in April over March. The index was still down 1.9% compared with April 2011, although that was the smallest year-over-year decline since November 2010.
Economists were optimistic that the uptick in prices was significant and that real estate may be contributing again toward building American wealth. But the rise in housing values also comes at a tenuous time for the U.S. economy, with fears about an impending fiscal crisis at the end of the year beginning to hurt job growth domestically and concerns abounding over a broader global slowdown.

"The pieces of the housing recovery are falling into place," said Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate. "But it is a housing recovery in the context of synchronous slowing in the major global economies, and that is where the trickiness lies."

A healthy recovery will require improvements in jobs, incomes and consumer confidence, Gabriel said, and those underpinnings don't look as strong as they did just a few months ago. On Tuesday, an index of national consumer sentiment showed a decline to 62 in June from 64.4 in May, the fourth consecutive drop.

Home sales this year have surged after last year's lackluster performance. Rock-bottom interest rates and cheap prices have helped boost affordability, even as homeownership has sunk to levels not seen in 15 years.

Nora Ephron dead at 71

Reports: Nora Ephron dead at 71

Jun 26, 2012
By Maria Puente, USA TODAY
Nora Ephron, the journalist-turned-successful Hollywood screenwriter/director, is dead. She was 71. The Washington Post was the first to report Ephron's death following some confusion this afternoon about the status of her health.

She died of complications from the blood disorder myelodysplasia, according to the Post.

Born in New York and raised in Beverly Hills, Ephron was the eldest daughter of two Hollywood screenwriters; two of her sisters also are screenwriters, and a third is journalist and author.

Ephron is best known for her romantic comedies, such as When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle, but also as the ex-wife of Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, her second husband and father of her two sons. His cheating during their marriage inspired her 1983 laughing-through-tears novel Heartburn and the 1986 movie of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.