Cut to the News . . . Your Daily News Briefing
Friday, February 13, 2009 Make us your homepage
Leading the News
Plane Crash in Buffalo Kills 49 . . . Continental Express plane crashes into a house Thursday night, setting off a huge fire. First fatal crash since August 2006. Buffalo News
Gregg Withdraws Commerce Nomination . . . Republican is latest Cabinet pick to drop out. Unable to reconcile his views on stimulus, census with Obama's. Washington Post
Politics
Obama Meets Skepticism in Peoria . . . Word of layoffs and dampens spirits at the rally with Caterpillar workers in East Peoria, Ill.
Los Angeles Times
Obama Calls On Nation to Learn From Lincoln . . . During an appearance in Springfield, Ill., adopts Lincoln theme of unity as his own. Chicago Sun-Times
Economists Say Stimulus Won't Boost Economy . . . Plan is short on incentives to increase consumer spending and long on social goals that won't stimulate. McClatchy Newspapers
Gregg Move Presages Census Debate . . . Republicans say Obama wanted to bypass Gregg at Commerce and put census in White House. White House denies it. Washington Times
Stimulus Challenge: Spending the Money . . . Energy Department and other agencies may need an overhaul to handle the huge workload heading their way. Wall Street Journal
The Stimulus: What's in it For You . . . Tax credit of $800 for couples; new benefits for unemployed; money for retirees, homebuyers and new car purchases. New York Times
National Security
U.S. Predator Drones Flown Out of Pakistan . . . Intel panel chair Sen. Feinstein lets news slip. Closer cooperation than Pakistan would like to admit. Los Angeles Times
Intel Director: Economy Top Security Threat . . . A signal Obama is broadening definition of national security beyond military and terrorism concerns. McClatchy Newspapers
U.S., Pakistan Move to Secure Afghan Border . . . Sharing intel and conducting offensives on both sides of border to try to seal it.
Christian Science Monitor
Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 30 in Iraq . . . Woman detonates herself amid group of Shia pilgrims. Most of dead are women and children. BBC
Panetta Confirmed as CIA Director . . . A government veteran valued for his skills as a lawmaker and policy manager rather than as an expert at intelligence. Associated Press
Business
Retail Sales Rose in January . . . Reverses six-month decline. Just a blip, or a sign on better days to come? Associated Press
European Economies Contract . . . Shrank by 1.5 percent in the previous quarter and 1.2 percent on the year. Some countries register worst figures in decades. BBC
Microsoft to Start Chain of Stores . . . Latest front in war with Apple. Financial Times
Administration Close to Foreclosure Plan . . . Markets rise on news $50 billion could be set aside to help homeowners meet payments.
Financial Times
Economists' Hopes for Recovery Recede . . . Economists more bearish on U.S. outlook, revising downward GDP forecasts for the second half of 2009. Wall Street Journal
International
Man Charged With Setting Australian Fire . . . A 39 year old man charged with causing deaths by arson. More suspects sought. Blazes continue to burn. Courier-Mail (Australia)
Kadima May Join Likud Government . . . Livni's Party would first sit in opposition but eventually join with Netanyahu. Haaretz
Hamas Ready to Sign Truce . . . Deal would include release of long-sought abducted Israeli soldier. Haaretz
Also Today. . .
Putrid Waste Found at Texas Peanut Plant . . . Dead Rodents, feces found at plant of company at center of salmonella outbreak. Recall ordered. Houston Chronicle
Scientists Crack Genetic Code of Colds . . . But vaccine unlikely since viruses differ. May lead to better treatments, though.
Los Angeles Times
We're Not Neanderthals! . . . Scientists decode Neanderthals' genome and find they contributed very little to gene pool of modern humans.
Deutsche Welle
The Day the Muzak Died . . . Muzak Holdings LLC files for bankruptcy. The Independent
Today's Video
Final Minutes of Flight 3407 . . . Daily Telegraph
The 31-minute recording features conversations between the cockpit, air traffic control and other aircraft in the vicinity, following the 74-seat commuter jet's take-off from Newark Airport in New Jersey. A female voice in the cockpit of the plane, which was operated under a Continental Airlines flight number, is heard informing authorities that her aircraft was turning on approach to landing, and repeated instructions when told to maintain an altitude of 2300 feet. The air traffic controllers then tried to contact the pilots of the jet for 12 minutes before apparently realizing that the plane - Colgan 3407 - had gone down. 17 minutes and 20 seconds into the recording, air traffic control officers start calling for the plane, requesting the assistance of a Delta Airlines flight 1998 pilot in trying to locate the aircraft. At 20 minutes and 27 seconds, authorities are heard requesting emergency services' help to find out 'if anything was on the ground". "This aircraft was 5 miles out, all of a sudden we have no response from that aircraft", the controller declares. 21 minutes and 45 seconds into the recording, the control tower informs a JetBlue Airlines pilot: "...apparently we have an emergency, I'll have to get back to you".
