Lawmakers here made it clear on Thursday that the inquiry into the possible impeachment of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich would extend beyond the federal criminal complaint against him, questioning witnesses on whether Mr. Blagojevich had abused his powers in the ordinary work of governing.
“These are not as sensational as the criminal charges,” State Representative Lou Lang said of instances in which Mr. Blagojevich had been accused of failing to heed legislative decisions or ignoring federal law. “But in terms of abuse of power, in terms of the running of the governor’s office and in terms of his ability to continue to serve, these are very critical issues.”
Mr. Lang, a Democrat, is among 21 legislators holding hearings here to determine whether the House should go ahead with impeachment proceedings against the governor. Some lawmakers had considered the possibility of an impeachment inquiry for months, but feared political fallout and that it would be stymied in the Senate, where the governor had a powerful ally. Mr. Blagojevich’s arrest last week on federal charges of conspiracy and soliciting bribes changed all that.
Mr. Blagojevich is accused, among other things, of trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. Through his lawyers, he has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr. Blagojevich was not in Springfield, and once again made no public statements Thursday. But his criminal lawyer, Edward Genson, attended the hearing for a second day, even as uncertainty grew about how the governor would pay his legal bills.
Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general, denied a request on Thursday by Mr. Genson that his fees be financed with public money, and federal authorities advised officials with Mr. Blagojevich’s campaign fund not to spend any of that money, which amounted to $3.6 million as of June 30, public filings show.
On Wednesday, Mr. Genson had argued that Ms. Madigan should appoint publicly financed lawyers, including himself, to represent Mr. Blagojevich, because under normal circumstances that job would fall to her office. Mr. Genson suggested Ms. Madigan could not represent the governor without conflict because she had sought to have Mr. Blagojevich removed by the State Supreme Court. On Wednesday, the court declined to consider her request.
In a sharply worded letter, Ann Spillane, Ms. Madigan’s chief of staff, called his request “meritless.”
“It is absurd to suggest that taxpayers must finance the defense of a criminal action against Governor Blagojevich who is accused of corruptly betraying the public trust for personal and financial gain,” Ms. Spillane wrote.
After the hearing on Thursday was adjourned, Mr. Genson brushed off Ms. Madigan’s response, saying he had known she would never agree to his request. He seemed unworried about how Mr. Blagojevich, who federal prosecutors say complained of financial difficulties, would pay him.
“At this point, this is a historic sort of thing,” he told reporters, adding, “I want to have some input.”
Much of the testimony before the special committee centered Thursday on the machinations behind two high-profile and controversial moves by the Blagojevich administration: to expand health care to middle-income parents unilaterally in 2007 after the proposal was defeated in the State Legislature, and to buy flu vaccine from a European supplier before receiving necessary federal approval during the shortage scare in 2004-5.
The health care expansion is now tangled in court, and the flu vaccines were blocked from entering the United States. The vaccines, worth $2.6 million, were donated to Pakistan, but The Chicago Tribune reported that Pakistani heath officials destroyed all 500,000 doses because they had expired.
In Chicago, Mr. Blagojevich reported to his downtown office on Thursday morning. He took action on about 60 clemency cases and signed a bill into law having to do with medical licensing provisions, said his spokesman, Lucio Guerrero.
“Our hard-working physicians are one of the most important resources to the people in Illinois,” Mr. Blagojevich said in a statement. “Ensuring that we have the adequate framework in place to properly license them is of utmost concern.”
The impeachment inquiry reconvenes Monday, by which time lawmakers hope that the United States attorney’s office will have provided them with a list of witnesses whose testimony here will not interfere with the criminal case.
High street banks and building societies are no longer offering personal loans with less than eight per cent APR, according to data released by uSwitch.com.
The price comparison website reported that six months ago, 23 per cent of loans on offer had interest rates of under eight per cent, whereas currently the lowest available rate is 8.2 per cent.
On average, interest rates have risen across the board by 0.13 per cent, despite the Bank of England's recent cuts in the base rate of interest.
Louise Bond, personal finance manager at uSwitch.com, said: "We have already seen six loan providers increasing rates over the last month by as much as two per cent.
"This has marked the death of the sub-eight per cent best-buy loan era which is really bad news for consumers trying to consolidate debts."
Earlier this month the Bank of England cut the base rate of interest to two per cent, a move aimed at enabling banks to reduce the interest rates charged on their loans and mortgages.
moneynews.co.uk
Heat is more likely to kill an American than an earthquake, and thunderstorms kill more than hurricanes do, according to a "death map" published on Tuesday.
Researchers who compiled the county-by-county look at what natural disasters kill Americans said they hope their study will help emergency preparedness officials plan better.
Heat and drought caused 19.6 percent of total deaths from natural hazards, with summer thunderstorms causing 18.8 percent and winter weather causing 18.1 percent, the team at the University of South Carolina found.
Earthquakes, wildfires and hurricanes combined were responsible for fewer than 5 percent of all hazard deaths.
Writing in BioMed Central's International Journal of Health Geographics, they said they hoped to dispel some myths about what the biggest threats to life and limb are.
"According to our results, the answer is heat," Susan Cutter and Kevin Borden of the University of South Carolina wrote in their report, which gathered data from 1970 to 2004.
"I think what most people would think, if you say what is the major cause of death and destruction, they would say hurricanes and earthquakes and flooding," Cutter said in a telephone interview. "They wouldn't say heat."
"What is noteworthy here is that over time, highly destructive, highly publicized, often-catastrophic singular events such as hurricanes and earthquakes are responsible for relatively few deaths when compared to the more frequent, less catastrophic such as heat waves and severe weather," they wrote.
The most dangerous places to live are much of the South, because of the heat risk, the hurricane coasts and the Great Plains states with their severe weather, Cutter said.
The south central United States is also a dangerous area, with floods and tornadoes.
California is relatively safe, they found.
"It illustrates the impact of better building codes in seismically prone areas because the fatalities in earthquakes have gone down from 1900 because things don't collapse on people any more," Cutter said.
"It shows that simple improvements in building codes in high-wind environments like hurricane coasts, and the effectiveness of evacuation in advance of hurricanes, has reduced the mortality from hurricanes and tropical storms," she added.
"So there are some things we are pretty good at in getting people out of harm's way and reducing fatalities."
Cutter said there is no national database on such deaths and this was a first try at getting one together.
yahoo.com
Homeowners around the country are scrambling to refinance their mortgages at the lowest rates since the early 1960s as the economy staggers through what's likely to be the worst recession in decades.
Mortgage brokers are already reporting a surge of calls from borrowers trying to take advantage of the Federal Reserve's extraordinary actions this week.
The central bank, aiming to free up lending and jolt the economy back to life, on Tuesday cut the federal funds rate from 1 percent to a target range of zero to 0.25 percent and pledged to keep funneling money into the market for mortgage investments.
On Wednesday, some mortgage brokers were quoting mortgage rates of close to 4.5 percent for people with strong credit and hefty down payments.
"This is beautiful, oh my gosh!" said Patti Mazzara, a mortgage broker in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina, who was surprised when she looked up rates and found them well below 5 percent, down at least three-quarters of a percentage point from earlier in the week. "This is a whole new game now. Hopefully it's going to give people some relief."
The national average rate on 30-year, fixed mortgages was 5.06 percent on Wednesday, according to financial publisher HSH Associates — the lowest since the 1960s and down from 5.3 percent Tuesday.
It was the best news in months for anyone looking to lock in a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage. But it was not expected to be a cure-all, and borrowers already in danger of foreclosure probably won't be able to take advantage.
"It's a call to action for homeowners looking to get out of adjustable-rate mortgages," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. "Unfortunately, it's not an equal-opportunity party."
Analysts say the Fed's moves to buy up mortgage debt are designed to reduce the an unusually large difference, or spread, between mortgage rates and yields on government debt.
In recent years, there has been about a 1.8 percentage point difference between the yield on a 10-year Treasury note and 30-year mortgage rates, but gap currently hovers around 3 percentage points.
Falling interest rates mean Americans could suddenly find billions of extra dollars in their pockets at a time when consumers have sharply cut back on spending amid rising unemployment and declining household wealth. But many experts believe that the interest rate cuts alone won't be enough to jump-start the economy.
"It's a tall order to get (people) to go out and spend again," said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. "That's why you also need a stimulus."
President-elect Barack Obama's advisers are currently contemplating an economic recovery plan that could cost as much as $1 trillion over two years.
Meanwhile, government data to be released Thursday is expected to show that new claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week but remain near a 26-year high, and a monthly forecast of economic activity is forecast to fall for the second straight month in November, in two signs of a deepening recession.
The Labor Department's tally of initial jobless benefit claims for the week ending Dec. 13 is expected to drop by 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 558,000, according to a survey of Wall Street economists by Thomson Reuters.
Last week, the government said claims jumped by almost 50,000 to 573,000, the highest level since 1982, though the labor force has grown by about half since then.
Later in the morning, the New York-based Conference Board's index of leading economic indicators is expected to fall 0.5 percent, according to the consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The index posted a 0.8 percent decline in October.
The index is designed to forecast economic activity in the next three to six months based on 10 economic components, including stock prices, building permits and initial claims for unemployment benefits. And Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, is also scheduled to release its weekly survey of mortgage rates Thursday.
Wall Street stocks finished moderately lower Wednesday, as further signs of economic deterioration dampened investors' earlier enthusiasm about the Fed's record interest rate cut.
Stocks declined in the early going after a larger-than-expected loss from Morgan Stanley offered fresh evidence of the sizable obstacles the battered financial industry still faces. The company posted a loss of $2.37 billion, or $2.34 per share, for the fiscal fourth quarter. The report came a day after rival Goldman Sachs Group Inc. posted its first quarterly loss since going public in 1999.
yahoo.com
Chrysler is closing all its North American manufacturing plants for at least a month, the starkest move yet taken by U.S. automakers as they anxiously await word about government loans.
The shutdown comes as The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Chrysler has restarted talks with General Motors about combining the two ailing automakers.
Chrysler, GM and Ford have been taking dramatic steps as they struggle to survive the recession and U.S. sales have dipped to their slowest rate in 26 years. Chrysler and General Motors fear they might not have enough money to pay their bills in a matter of weeks.
Attempting to cut costs, GM was halting construction of a plant tied to one of its most important projects, the Volt. Ford also said it will shut down 10 plants for an extra week in January because of sluggish sales.
Chrysler said Wednesday it would extend the normal two-week holiday shutdown that begins Friday to at least Jan. 19 at all 30 of its factories due to slumping sales.
The lack of consumer credit is hampering sales and forcing the production cuts, Chrysler LLC said in a statement. Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers say they have willing buyers for vehicles, but they can't close the deals, Chrysler said.
The news of the shutdown was another blow to the company's employees already nervous about their future in the industry.
"I haven't even bought any Christmas presents yet because I don't know what's going to happen next," said Jerry Fogarty, a 48-year-old married father of three who lives in the Detroit suburb of Wyandotte. He has worked at the Chrysler Trenton engine plant for nearly 16 years.
Fogarty said even though state unemployment and supplemental unemployment benefits will maintain much of his weekly income during the shutdown, it's little consolation if the company that once gave employees profit sharing checks soon goes out of business.
"I don't want to be laid off," Fogarty said. "I want to go to work tomorrow. ... We all want to work. That's all we want to do. It's scary, man. It's really scary."
Chrysler and GM had been in merger talks earlier this year that stalled, with financing emerged as one of the biggest obstacles.
The Journal, citing people familiar with the discussions, said the talks have been rekindled after Cerberus Capital Management LP, the majority owner of Chrysler, signaled it is willing to part with some of its stake in the automaker.
Messages seeking comment were left early Thursday with spokesmen for GM and Chrysler.
The Bush administration is mulling ways to help the automakers after Congress failed to reach a deal on $14 billion in loans for GM and Chrysler. Ford has applied for a $9 billion line of credit but says it has enough cash to make it through 2009.
Funding for the loans is expected to come from the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund, but many Republicans have objected.
"It's clear that the automakers are in a very fragile financial condition and they're taking steps to deal with it," White house press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement. "We're aware of their financial situation and are considering possible policy options to provide assistance in an appropriate way."
House Democrats have encouraged Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to adopt accountability provisions included in a House-passed auto bailout bill — the product of a deal with the White House — as a condition to get the loans.
The measure would have given a Bush-appointed "car czar" oversight over any major business decisions by the automakers.
The Bush administration has signaled that concessions would likely be required of stakeholders in the deal — auto companies, the United Auto Workers union, bondholders and others.
Chrysler spokesman Dave Elshoff said four plants will be temporarily closed beyond Jan. 19: two plants in Toledo, Ohio, and one each in Ontario and Detroit.
Toledo North, which makes the Dodge Nitro and Jeep Liberty, and Toledo Supplier Park, which makes the Jeep Wrangler, will be closed until Jan. 26. The Windsor, Ontario, plant, which makes minivans, and Detroit's Conner Avenue plant, which makes the Dodge Viper roadster, will be closed until Feb. 2, Elshoff said.
Chrysler sales were off 47 percent last month and are down 28 percent through the first 11 months of the year.
At Ford, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday it will shut down 10 of its North American assembly plants for an extra week in January, also due to lower U.S. sales.
Spokeswoman Angie Kozleski says the normal two-week holiday shutdown will be extended to Jan. 12 at all operating assembly plants except those in Claycomo, Mo., near Kansas City, and the Dearborn, Mich., truck plant.
Ford will also extend the shutdown at some engine, transmission and parts stamping plants, or temporarily shut portions of them to match cuts at the assembly plants, she said.
The extra week of down time has been planned for several months as part of the company's first-quarter production schedule, Kozleski said.
Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. sales were down 31 percent in November and are off 20 percent through the first 11 months of the year.
Laid-off workers at Ford and Chrysler get vacation pay for the normal holiday shutdown, then will receive unemployment benefits and supplemental pay from the company that total about 85 percent of their normal pay.
General Motors Corp. said last week it will temporarily close 20 factories across North America and make sweeping cuts to its vehicle production. Many of those plants will be shut down for the entire month of January.
GM said Wednesday it was delaying construction of a new engine factory in Flint, Mich., in an effort to conserve cash. The plant is to make 1.4-liter engines for the Chevrolet Cruze and the Chevy Volt plug-in electric car, two key products in the century-old automaker's plan to turn itself around after relying on highly profitable truck and SUV sales.
The plant's engines will extend the range of the rechargeable Volt, GM's high-profile next-generation vehicle that will be able to travel 40 miles on electricity alone. They will also power the Cruze, GM's new small car that is supposed to get around 40 miles per gallon.
Also Wednesday, Chrysler Financial, the company's dealer and consumer finance arm, warned dealers that it may temporarily stop financing vehicle inventories if dealers keep pulling large amounts of their money out of an account that helps fund those loans.
Chrysler Financial said in a letter to dealers dated Dec. 12 that recent withdrawals from the company's cash management account have been "unusual and unprecedented."
Sluggish auto sales worldwide are taking a toll on foreign automakers as well. Honda Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it would halt expansion in Japan, Turkey and India and cut 450 temporary workers in Japan through February.
Nissan Motor Co. said it would reduce Japanese production by 78,000 vehicles and also cut 500 temporary workers there.
yahoo.com
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki say British forces will complete their tasks in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq.
The two leaders made the announcement in a joint statement released as they held talks in Baghdad on Wednesday.
The pair said the partnership between the two countries would continue. Brown -- on his fourth trip to Iraq as prime minister -- said British troops had made a huge contribution and given people an economic stake in the future of Iraq.
Brown's previously unannounced visit comes three days after a similar trip by U.S. President George W. Bush -- who had a pair of shoes thrown at him by an Iraqi journalist during an appearance with al-Maliki on Sunday.
Britain was the leading U.S. ally during the invasion of Iraq, and still has about 4,000 troops based outside the southern city of Basra.
In their statement, Brown and al-Maliki said: "The role played by the UK combat forces is drawing to a close. These forces will have completed their tasks in the first half of 2009 and will then leave Iraq."
On Tuesday, the Iraqi council of ministers agreed a new resolution allowing troops to remain in the country until the end of July. It sets the end of May as the final date for combat operations.
Speaking at a press conference after the talks, Brown said: "We have agreed today that the mission will end no later than May 31 next year," he said. "Our troops will be coming home within the next two months (after that)."
"The biggest reduction will be at the end part of the period we are talking about."
Brown said: "It is important to remember we have been engaged in the most difficult and challenging of work. The tasks of overthrowing a dictatorship, the task of building a democracy for the future and defending it against terrorism.
"We have made a huge contribution and of course given people an economic stake in the future of Iraq. We leave Iraq a better place.
"I am proud of the contribution British forces have made. They are the pride of Britain and the best in the world."
Al-Maliki confirmed that the agreement included a provision for the Iraqi government to request an extension of the British military presence. However, both leaders indicated that it was not expected to be used.
Shortly after Brown landed in Baghdad, a car bomb detonated in a commercial district of central Baghdad, followed by a roadside bomb. At least six people were killed an 18 others wounded, an Interior Ministry official said.
Like the United States, Britain has been negotiating with the Iraqi government on the future of its military presence there. Ahead of Brown's arrival, Britain's Ministry of Defence said those talks were making "good progress."
cnn.com
Microsoft will release an emergency patch on Wednesday to fix a perilous software flaw allowing hackers to hijack Internet Explorer browsers and take over computers.
The US software giant said on Tuesday that in response to "the threat to customers" it immediately mobilized security engineering teams worldwide to deliver a software cure "in the unprecedented time of eight days."
According to researchers at software security firm Trend Micro, attacks based on the vulnerability in the world's most popular Web browser are spreading "like wildfire" with millions of computers already compromised.
Microsoft typically releases patches for its software on the second Tuesday of each month and rushing this fix to computer users out-of-cycle is testimony to the severe danger of the threat, according to Trend Micro.
"When the patch is released people should run, not walk, to get it installed," said Trend Micro advanced threat researcher Paul Ferguson.
"This vulnerability is being actively exploited by cyber-criminals and getting worse every day."
Trend Micro has identified about 10,000 websites that have been infected with malicious software that can be surreptitiously slipped into visitors' unprotected IE browsers to take advantage of the flaw.
A major Internet portal in Taiwan is among the legitimate websites unknowingly tainted with malicious software aimed at IE's weak spot, according to Ferguson.
Hackers can take control of infected computers, steal data, redirect browsers to dubious websites, and use machines for devious activities such as attacks on other networks, according to security specialists.
"What makes this so insidious is it takes advantage of a big gaping hole of IE, which has the largest install base of any browser on the market," Ferguson said.
IE is used on nearly three-quarters of the world's computers, according to industry statistics from November.
"At this time, we are aware only of attacks that attempt to use this vulnerability against Windows Internet Explorer 7," said Microsoft security response communications head Christopher Budd.
"Microsoft encourages customers to test and deploy this update as soon as possible. Microsoft's teams worked around the clock."
Ferguson said the flaw is being taken advantage of in "multiple versions" of IE not just the most current.
Trend Micro urges IE users to heed precautionary advice from Microsoft, or avoid using the browsers, until the patches are applied.
"There is a working flaw circulating in the criminal underground," Ferguson said. "It opens the window of opportunity that much wider to take advantage and there has not been real protection against it."
The "exploit" is similar to one used recently to steal user names, passwords and other information from people playing online games in China, according to Trend Micro.
A Chinese computer security firm that had discovered attacks taking advantage of the IE flaw released details last week after evidently thinking Microsoft had fixed the problem with routinely released software patches.
"It spread like wildfire from there," Ferguson said. "I guess they were trying to be responsible and share what they knew about what was going on, but they were mistaken about it being patched."
yahoo.com