Stocks bounce after battering

Stocks bounced Tuesday morning, one day after Congress's failure to pass a $700 billion bank rescue plan triggered a massive selloff that sent the Dow down nearly 778 points, in its biggest single-day point drop ever.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added 260 points or 2.5% over an hour into the session. The Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX) index rose 3.3% and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) gained 2.8%.
Stocks plunged Monday after the House of Representatives shot down the proposed $700 billion bank rescue plan, surprising investors who had thought that a bipartisan compromise on the deal had been reached over the weekend.
The plan involves the Treasury Department buying up bad mortgage bets from banks, enabling them to start lending to each other again and ultimately defrosting the credit markets. Lawmakers had fought to modify the plan with more taxpayer protections.
However, taxpayers were not entirely swayed, and voter complaints about the plan ahead of the election contributed to House Republicans largely voting against the proposal.

House debates bailout bill

The House started Monday what was expected to be a short debate ahead of a quick vote on a sweeping $700 bailout of the nation's financial system.
The vote comes after lawmakers and the Bush administration finalized legislation following a weekend of high-stakes negotiations over the controversial measure, which is designed to get battered U.S. credit markets working normally again.
"Today is the decision day," said Barney Frank, D-Mass., on the House floor. "If we defeat this bill today, it will be a very bad day for the financial sector of the American economy and the people who will feel the pain are not the top bankers and top corporate executives but average Americans."

Chris Rock: It's simple, vote for the guy with one house

Republican presidential candidate John McCain is just holding on like a boxer before he gets knocked out, comedian Chris Rock says.
Rock, an avid supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, spoke with CNN's Larry King on Thursday. He said Obama is more grounded with your average American -- not somebody like McCain with "12 houses."
"The other guy [McCain] can lose five houses," Rock said.
"I'll go with the guy with one house. The guy with one house is scared about losing his house."

Bush: Bailout plan necessary to deal with crisis

U.S. President George W. Bush, saying "our entire economy is in danger," urged Congress to approve his administration's $700 billion bailout proposal.
"We're in the midst of a serious financial crisis, and the federal government is responding with decisive actions," Bush said in a televised address Wednesday night from the White House.
Bush pointed out that the collapse of several major lenders was rooted in the subprime mortgage market that thrived over the past decade.
He said passage of the $700 billion bailout proposal was needed to restore confidence in the market.
"I'm a strong believer in free enterprise, so my natural instinct is to oppose government intervention," he said. But "these are not normal circumstances. The market is not functioning properly. There has been a widespread loss of confidence.
"Without immediate action by Congress, America can slip into a major panic."

Got an idea to help the world? Here's $10 million

Got an idea that could change the world, or at least help a lot of people? Google wants to hear from you and they'll pay as much as $10 million to make your idea a reality.
To help celebrate its 10th birthday, the ambitious Internet giant is launching an initiative to solicit, and bankroll, fresh ideas it believes could have broad and beneficial impact on people's lives.
Called Project 10^100 (pronounced "10 to the 100th"), Google's initiative will seek input from the public and a panel of judges in choosing up to five winning ideas, to be announced in February.
Google announced the project live on Wednesday morning.
"These ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or brilliantly simple but they need to have impact," said Google in a press release. "We know there are countless brilliant ideas that need funding and support to come to fruition."
Ideas such as the Hippo Water Roller, which Google cited as the kind of concept the company would be interested in rewarding. Developed in Africa, where it is most used, the Hippo Water Roller is a barrel-shaped container, attached to a handle, that holds 24 gallons of water and can be rolled with little effort, like a wheelbarrow, making it easier for villagers on foot to transport critically needed fresh water to their homes.

Commentary: Pay attention to the children in crisis

With the political season in full swing, much is at stake for America. The economy is in a downward spiral. We have an energy crisis. Our jobless rate is on the rise.
These are the subjects that generate headlines and much debate among the candidates.
But there is an underlying problem that we as a nation have not addressed, a situation that should concern any American with an eye on the future, regardless of party affiliation. It is the crisis affecting our children:
• Nearly 30 percent of this year's freshman class will drop out of high school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That number jumps to 40 percent in some urban areas.
• The obesity rate for our kids has gone up by as much as 300 percent since 1980, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, triggering a host of health-related problems, from diabetes to heart disease.
• Young people account for more than 20 percent of violent crimes in the United States, according to statistics cited by Duke University's Center for Child and Family Policy. Violent juvenile crime peaks between 3 and 4 p.m., at the end of the school day.
These facts are grim enough. Factor in persistent patterns of poverty, gang activity, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy, and you have a generation of Americans that will be unprepared -- indeed, unable -- to meet the challenges posed by a complex world.
We expect our leaders to lead. But as citizens, we shouldn't simply sit back and hope that politicians stand up to the test. We can participate in the political process, advocating for policies that will benefit the health, education and well-being of young Americans, because we must do a better job of preparing our youth to lead.

McCain 'deeply uncomfortable' with lack of bailout oversight

Sen. John McCain on Monday told voters he was "greatly concerned" about the government's proposed rescue plan because it gives Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson too much power.
"Never before in the history of our nation has so much power and money been concentrated in the hands of one person," McCain said at a town hall meeting in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The senator from Arizona said that while he admires and respects Paulson, "this arrangement makes me deeply uncomfortable."
McCain said a high-level oversight board should be created to shepherd the government's proposed $700 billion bailout plan.
Sen. Barack Obama also is expected to keep the focus on the economy Monday. He will discuss his plan to reform the "greed and excesses of Washington," his campaign said.
McCain on Monday criticized Obama for not putting up a plan to address the financial situation.
"At a time of crisis, when leadership is needed, Sen. Obama has simply not provided it," he said.
Obama has said he supports the government's bipartisan efforts, but he said he would hold off on detailing his own fix to avoid "partisan wrangling."
McCain said a bipartisan oversight board would be able to "impose accountability and establish concrete criteria for who gets help and who doesn't."
The Republican presidential candidate said the board should be made up of "qualified citizens who have no agenda." He pointed to Warren Buffett, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as potential board members.
Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, supports Obama. Romney backs McCain, and Bloomberg is an independent.

McCain wants new agency to fix financial crisis

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said Friday morning that he would establish a new agency to deal with the U.S. financial crisis that many experts say is the worst since the Great Depression.
That agency, a Mortgage and Financial Institutions trust, would work with the private sector and regulators to identify institutions that are weak and fix them before they go broke.
"The underlying principle of the MFI or any approach considered by Congress should be to keep people in their homes and safeguard the life savings of all Americans by protecting our financial system and capital markets," McCain told the Green Bay Chamber of Commerce in Wisconsin.
McCain said the agency would be an early intervention program to help financial institutions avoid bankruptcy, expensive bailouts and damage to their customers.
McCain's campaign announced his speech Thursday night after Wall Street witnessed the federal government take unprecedented steps this week to stabilize the economy, including the takeover of the insurance giant American International Group Inc. in exchange for an $85 billion loan from the Federal Reserve.
In his speech, McCain blamed the current crisis on "the corruption and manipulation of our home mortgage system" and blasted Congress and the administration for not addressing the problems at the two mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which he said "led our housing system down a path where quick profit was placed before sound finance."

U.S. student, husband among dead in embassy attack in Yemen

Eighteen-year-old Susan El-Baneh and her husband of three weeks died holding hands, her brother said, victims of a terrorist attack Wednesday on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen.
The Lackawanna, New York, native, a high school senior, had gone to the Arabian Peninsula country a month ago for an arranged marriage. She and her husband were in the waiting area of the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, trying to find out the procedure to bring her spouse back to the United States. Susan El-Baneh was the only American killed in the attack.
Some of El-Baneh's family members, who had traveled from Lackawanna with her for the wedding, heard the blasts of the coordinated terrorist attack echo through the city's walls.
When they called to find out what happened, the relatives were told that 17 people, including the attackers, had been killed, her brother Ahmed El-Baneh told CNN on Thursday. Among them were an unidentified man and his wife.
Susan El-Baneh's uncle rushed to the hospital to see the bodies.
"He just knew it was them," Ahmed El-Baneh said. The couple was still holding hands, he said.
Officials said al Qaeda-linked insurgents disguised as Yemeni forces bombed the outer wall of the embassy, and snipers opened fire on first responders heading toward the scene.

Candidates talk tough on economy as financial fears grow

Sen. Barack Obama tells Americans in a two-minute message that he is the candidate who can fix the financial crisis, while Sen. John McCain says in a new ad he's the one who will reform Wall Street.
The two candidates have been pushing their economic plans all week as voters deal with the failures of major investment banks on Wall Street and fears of a recession.
"This isn't just a string of bad luck. The truth is that while you've been living up to your responsibilities Washington has not. That's why we need change. Real change," Obama says in the ad, which begins airing Wednesday nationally and in battleground states.
Obama gives a brief overview of his economic plan and encourages voters to read it in detail.
"I approved this message because bitter, partisan fights and outworn ideas of the left and the right won't solve the problems we face today. But a new spirit of unity and shared responsibility will," he says.
After a week of being on the defensive, the economic crisis has given Obama an opportunity to go on offense. Most Americans see Obama as better equipped to handle the economy, polls show.
In McCain's new ad, he praises American workers as "the best in the world" and says, "Your economic security has been put at risk by the greed of Wall Street."

General Motors gives the world an up-close look at its new electric car.

General Motors unveiled the Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle on Tuesday, allowing outsiders their first full look at the car GM says will go on sale in 2010.
"The Volt symbolizes GM's commitment to the future," said Rick Wagoner, the company's chairman and CEO.
The Volt will be driven by electricity stored in a large T-shaped lithium-ion battery pack running the length of the car. After charging for several hours, the Volt will be able to run for up to about 40 miles without using gasoline.
GM did not announce pricing for the car, which will have the equivalent of about 150 horsepower and a top speed of 100 mph, the automaker said.
To charge the batteries, drivers will plug a cord into one of the ports just ahead of each of the side mirrors. The cord can then be attached to an ordinary home electrical outlet.
The car will cost "less than purchasing a cup of your favorite coffee" to recharge, and use less electricity annually than a refrigerator. The Volt should cost less than 2 cents per mile to drive on electricity, GM said, compared to 12 cents a mile on gasoline at a price of $3.60 a gallon.
As the battery begins to run down as the car is in use, a small gasoline engine will turn on and generate enough electricity to drive the car about 300 miles.

O.J. Simpson in court for 'bad sequel' robbery trial

O.J. Simpson's robbery and kidnapping trial begins today with the attorneys outlining in opening statements what they expect to prove.
Simpson, perhaps the most notorious criminal defendant in modern history, smiled and gave a thumb's up as he entered the Clark County Regional Justice Center.
Witnesses say Simpson and five men burst into a Las Vegas hotel room brandishing guns on September 13, 2007.
They allegedly made off with pillowcases containing O.J. Simpson memorabilia, signed Pete Rose baseballs and Joe Montana lithographs.
Simpson's defense attorneys are expected to argue that he was merely trying to recover property that had been taken from him years earlier.
A jury of nine women and three men promised they could disregard Simpson's past and solely consider the evidence against the 61-year-old football hero and his 54-year-old co-defendant, Clarence "C.J." Stewart.
Simpson and Stewart are charged with a dozen offenses stemming from an alleged sports memorabilia heist a year ago. The charges include conspiracy to commit a crime, robbery, assault and kidnapping with a deadly weapon. If convicted of the most serious charges, both could face life in prison.

Sea floods Texas island; get out or 'certain death'

Floodwaters surged into Galveston Island neighborhoods Friday morning with the center of Hurricane Ike still more than 200 miles from landfall.
On the Bolivar Peninsula, northeast of Galveston, the Coast Guard was rescuing stranded motorists by helicopter.
A U.S. military official told CNN that Texas anticipates 37,000 people may need to be rescued.
Texas has asked for help, and the active-duty military has 42 search-and-rescue helicopters on standby, the official said.
On Galveston Island, waves washed for blocks inland, the beginning of a storm surge that forecasters warned could reach up to 22 feet and bring "certain death" to anyone who remained in Galveston Bay homes.

New polls show tight races in battleground states

Barack Obama and John McCain each hold slim leads in a key battleground state while the two are statistically tied in a third, according to a new set of Quinnipiac polls released Thursday morning and conducted entirely after the Republican convention.
Obama holds a narrow lead in Ohio (49-44 percent), a state hard-hit by the nation's economic woes but one that hasn't voted Democratic since 1996 and one no Republican has lost and gone on to win the presidency.
McCain, on the other hand, is on top in Florida (50-43 percent), the state that handed him a decisive primary win in January which ultimately led to his party's nomination.

Texans get ready as Hurricane Ike heads their way

Residents along part of the Texas Gulf Coast have been told to leave Wednesday morning after Hurricane Ike left Cuba and began to gain strength in the warm Gulf of Mexico.
Officials in the Galveston area's Brazoria County ordered mandatory evacuation for one ZIP code and for people with special needs, beginning at 10 a.m. CT.
Perhaps more important to many in Texas, dozens of high school football games in cities and towns along the coast were rescheduled from Friday to Thursday night to avoid playing in the storm.

Bush to trim U.S. troops in Iraq by 8,000

U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday announced a plan to withdraw about 8,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by February and to beef up the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.
Bush said in a speech on Tuesday morning that improving conditions in Iraq will allow a "quiet surge" of American troops to Afghanistan, where there has been a resurgence of the Taliban and a growth in violence.
The troop cut -- smaller than many had expected due to a desire not to jeopardize recent security gains made in Iraq -- will mark one of Bush's final decisions on a war that has defined his presidency.
Speaking at the National Defense University in Washington, Bush said he is making the move based on a recommendation from top military officers, including Gen. David Petraeus, the highest-ranking U.S. military officer in Baghdad.

Multibillion-dollar experiment to probe nature's mysteries

Deep underground on the border between France and Switzerland, the world's largest particle accelerator complex will explore the world on smaller scales than any human invention has explored before.

The Large Hadron Collider will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions. Some have expressed fears that the project could lead to the Earth's demise -- something scientists say will not happen. Still, skeptics have filed suit to try to stop the project. It even has a rap dedicated to it on YouTube.
Scientists say the collider is finally ready for an attempt to circulate a beam of protons the whole way around the 17-mile tunnel. The test, which takes place Wednesday, is a major step toward seeing if the the immense experiment will provide new information about the way the universe works.
"It's really a generation that we've been looking forward to this moment, and the moments that will come after it in particular," said Bob Cousins, deputy to the scientific leader of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment, one of six experiments inside the collider complex. "September 10 is a demarcation between finishing the construction and starting to turn it on, but the excitement will only continue to grow."
The collider consists of a particle accelerator buried more than 300 feet near Geneva, Switzerland. About $10 billion have gone into the accelerator's construction, the particle detectors and the computers, said Katie Yurkewicz, spokewoman for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which is host to the collider.
In the coming months, the collider is expected to begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions. It will operate at higher energies and intensities in the next year, and the experiments could generate enough data to make a discovery by 2009, experts say.

Unemployment surges to 5-year high as employers cut workers for eighth straight month. Total job losses for 2008: 605,000.

The unemployment rate soared to a nearly five-year high in August as employers trimmed jobs for the eighth straight month, the government reported Friday.
The unemployment rate rose to 6.1%, the highest level since September 2003. That's up from 5.7% in July and 4.7% a year ago.
In addition, the economy suffered a net loss of 84,000 jobs in August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, compared to a revised reading of a 60,000 job loss in July.
The U.S. economy has lost 605,000 jobs so far this year.
The jobs report immediately drew comment from the presidential candidates as well as the Bush administration.
The White House pointed to other economic readings, including last week's gross domestic product report. It showed second quarter growth jumping to a 3.3% annual rate, helped by economic stimulus checks and strong exports.
"While these (jobs) numbers are disappointing, what is most important is the overall direction the economy is headed," said the White House statement.
But the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said the report points out the failure of Republican policies.
"John McCain showed last night that he is intent on continuing the economic policies that just this year have caused the American economy to lose 605,000 jobs," Obama said in a statement. "John McCain's answer is more of the same: $200 billion in tax cuts to big corporations and oil companies, and not one dime of tax relief to more than 100 million middle-class families."
The McCain campaign argued that Obama's economic policies would cause more job losses in the future.
"Sadly there are those who believe that to grow this economy we must raise taxes, impose costly new mandates and isolate America from the global economy," McCain said in a statement. "When our economy is hurting, the last thing we should do is raise taxes as Barack Obama plans to do and has done."

Palin comes out throwing punches

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin introduced herself to the world Wednesday by calling herself a "hockey mom" and then asking what the difference was between a hockey mom and a pit bull.
"Lipstick," the Republican vice presidential nominee said.
She promptly went on to prove the point, tearing into Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama as two-faced, inexperienced and intoxicated by the sound of his own voice.
"This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word 'victory' except when he's talking about his own campaign," she said.
She slammed Obama for "saying one thing in Scranton and another in San Francisco," argued that he had written two memoirs but never authored a major piece of legislation and asked what he would do "when those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot," a reference to the stage where Obama gave his acceptance speech last week.

Poll gives Obama edge in two of three key states

A new poll suggests that Barack Obama is widening his lead over John McCain in two battleground states but indicates the race is dead even in Ohio, the state that decided the last presidential election. In a survey 55 percent of Iowa registered voters who were questioned said that Obama, D-Illinois, is their choice for president, with 40 percent backing McCain, R-Arizona. That's more than double the lead Obama had in a University of Iowa poll taken early last month.
"Obama is winning in all regions of the state, even in the western counties where George W. Bush beat John Kerry by 17 points. Obama is winning rural voters in Iowa, not something you see in many other states.
Iowa's caucuses kicked off the presidential primary season and launched Obama towards the Democratic presidential nomination.
"Iowa was Barack Obama's breakthrough state. He won the Democratic caucuses with a powerful organization. John McCain barely competed in the Iowa Republican caucuses.