HAITI'S FORMER DICTATOR RETURNS

A few days ago the world looked to Haiti as it remembered the devastating earthquake that rocked the small country a year ago. The world had to face the fact that even after millions of dollars were raised to aid Haiti there is still not a lot of difference between now and a year ago. As if Haiti is not dealing with enough between picking up the pieces from the earthquake and alleged fraudulent activity in a presidential election, the former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier has suddenly returned from exile. Many people are asking why has he decided to return now and what will this mean for Haiti's future.
MeaLee

via CNN.com


Port-Au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, Haiti's former dictator, returned unexpectedly Sunday to the country after some 25 years in exile, adding uncertainty into an already turbulent situation.

He arrived in the Haitian capital as the nation is grappling with a political crisis, sparked by fraud allegations in a presidential election. It was not immediately clear why the former leader returned.
Duvalier, wearing a dark suit and tie, greeted supporters at the busy Port-au-Prince airport. He was traveling with his wife.

The Duvalier family ruled Haiti for three decades starting in 1957, when Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier was elected president. He later declared himself president for life. When he died in 1971, he was succeeded by his 19-year-old son, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNS MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUT BILL

After weeks of compromise between both bodies of Congress, the president has signed in to law the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 (H.R. 4853), extending the Bush-era tax cuts for two years and unemployment insurance benefits for jobless Americans for 13 months.

Despite opposition from some Democrats, the House worked late into the evening Thursday, passing it by a vote of 277-148.


House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) vowed to push for a bill next year that would fund the government at 2008 levels during a press conference held earlier todaye praised the Senate for dropping plans last night to pass a package of spending bills, known as the omnibus. The incoming House Speaker also talks about the Republican majority’s agenda for the 112th Congress and other economic measures.

White House White Board: Tax Cuts, Unemployment Insurance & Jobs

 

SOURCE: C-Span White House

Who brings a rifle to a Presidential speech?

Obama Selects Sotomayor for Court

President Obama has chosen Hispanic Judge Sonia Sotomayor of a Federal Court of Appeals based in New York as his nominee for the Supreme Court. Her background reads much like the President's.

Judge Sotomayor’s father died when she was 9 years old and she was raised by her mother, who worked six-day weeks to earn enough money to send her and a brother to Catholic school. She got into Princeton University, where she once said she felt like “a visitor landing in an alien country,” but graduated summa cum laude.

After Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. The first President Bush nominated her in 1991 to the federal district court on the recommendation of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, and she was confirmed a year later. President Bill Clinton decided to elevate her to the appeals court in 1997 and she was confirmed a year later.

Indeed, in nominating the first Hispanic justice, Mr. Obama may appeal to a large and growing constituency whose party loyalty is still very much in play. Hispanic groups have expressed excitement about the idea of one of their own serving on the high court.

On the appeals court, Judge Sotomayor has not been involved in many hotly disputed decisions, but one that she participated in is before the Supreme Court right now. As part of a panel, she voted to uphold New Haven’s decision to throw out a set of fire department promotion tests because no minority candidates made the top of the list. White firefighters who scored high but were denied promotion are appealing that ruling.

As a district judge, she briefly earned fame in 1995 by ending a Major League Baseball strike, ruling in favor of players and against the owners, who she said were trying to subvert the labor system.

The president reached his decision over the long Memorial Day weekend, aides said, but it was not disclosed until Tuesday morning when he informed his advisers of his choice less than three hours before the announcement was scheduled to take place.

Mr. Obama telephoned Judge Sotomayor at 9 p.m. on Monday, officials said, advising her that she was his choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. Later Monday night, Mr. Obama called the three other finalists — Judge Diane P. Wood of Chicago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Solicitor General Elena Kagan — to inform them that he had selected Judge Sotomayor.





Information cited from http://www.nytimes.com