News
Somali Insurgents Reportedly Fire Mortars at U.S. Congressman in Mogadishu
Front Page News:
Captain Richard Phillips Rescued!
4.13.09
Captain Richard Phillips, whose ship was taken over by Somali pirates was taken hostage but has since been released.
The other three pirates were killed Sunday in a military operation that rescued Capt. Richard Phillips, who had been held hostage aboard a lifeboat for days. A fourth pirate was in discussions with naval authorities about Phillips’ fate when the rescue took place. The United States has yet to announced what charges will be filed against the other 16 year old pirate. Importantly, the captain will be reunited with his family.
G.M. Prepares for Surgical Bankruptcy
4.13.09
General Motors coroporation is laying the ground work in order to declare bankruptcy on June 1, 2009. General Motors is being pushed by the treasury department to decare the bankruptcy. General Motors feels it can continue to operate without having to declare bankruptcy. With the bankrupcty, it is expected General Motors will be able to use equity to pay off those it owes such as the American Auto Union. General Motors management is hesitant to make the move because they are worried about bond holder fall out.
Auto Bailout Crisis Hits New Turn
3.30.09 General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has resigned amid pressure from the government. Futhermore, the government announced it would be giving General Motors two months to continue to reshape. President Obama’s aids gave GM a failing grade thus far for its restructuring efforts. It also appears that Chrysler will be declaring bankruptcy soon as they have one month to reach an agreement with Fiat or they will stop receiving government money.
3.30,09
North Korea announced it will again be attemping to test long range missiles. These missiles have the potential of striking the United States via Alaska or Hawii. THe launch is scheduled for next month. North Korean officials announced that any attempt to disrupt the launch will be viewed as a hostile act. The United Nations countered with the threat of imposing additional sanctions on North Korea if it fails to comply with resolutions to which it is bound by.
3.30.09
In National News, good news for North Dakota. THe flood waters are diminishing but fear still remains due to a potential snow storm coming in.
Eight people are dead in a nursing home shooting in North Carolina. They have captured the shooter. The nursing home was found to have no security. Most nursing homes do not have any security. The debate is now being raised whether nursing homes should hire security on hand.
Question of the Day: Should the government have asked GM CEO Rick Wagoner to resign?
Recession To End In 2009? 3.16.09 America’s recession “probably” will end this year if the government succeeds in bolstering the banking system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Sunday in a rare television interview.In carefully hedged remarks in a taped interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Bernanke seemed to express a bit more optimism that this could be done.Still, Bernanke stressed — as he did to Congress last month — that the prospects for the recession ending this year and a recovery taking root next year hinge on a difficult task: getting banks to lend more freely again and getting the financial markets to work more normally.“We’ve seen some progress in the financial markets, absolutely,” Bernanke said. “But until we get that stabilized and working normally, we’re not going to see recovery.
“But we do have a plan. We’re working on it. And, I do think that we will get it stabilized, and we’ll see the recession coming to an end probably this year.”
Obama Seeks to Help Small Businesses
3.16.09 Seeking to counter a chorus of unhappy Republicans and nervous Wall Street investors, President Barack Obama and his economic team are taking a cheerier tone while making billions in federal loans available to the nation’s struggling small businesses.Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday planned to announce a broad package that includes reduced small-business lending fees and an increase on the guarantee to some Small Business Administration loans. A day earlier, the president’s advisers said in television interviews that they remained confident in the nation’s economic fundamentals, at times adopting upbeat rhetoric the president once mocked.“The fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology,” said Christina Romer, who heads the White House Council of Economic Advisers.Obama, for his part, has embraced the role of “confidence-builder in chief,” as one business leader asked him to become. One week after his budget director declared “fundamentally, the economy is weak,” Obama’s economic advisers offered up a buoyant assessment.3.1.09
Developing: Iran has Means to Make Nukes
Iran is reported to have the materials necessary to build a nuclear bomb. It is also reported that they have the amount of materials needed to make the bomb as well. This information is based on the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report information was revealed by defense secretary Robert Gates. Due to the fact that Iran is suffering economically, they are unable to focus full resources on their uranium enrichment program. It is believed the country is still not close to developing the weapons.
3.1.09
Stimulus Signed by Obama
It appears that a deal has finally been reached out of Washington regarding the massive stimulus bill. While the democrats may have domination over the senate, they desperately needed support of a few republicans to eliminate debate and advance the bill. President Obama has asked the senate numerous times to pass the bill as soon as possible.
The cost of the bill after negotiations is at a projected $827 billion. There is a combination of massive spending, tax cuts, and numerous incentives. All of this is geared to jump start the ailing economy. Republicans are worried about the amount of spending contained in the bill. Part of the delay in passing the bill was eliminating the high amount of spending.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Pennsylvania’s Arlen Specter have all agreed to support the bill. The announcement of the senators came after the stimulus was amended after some agreements on Thursday and Friday. These projected votes give the democrats the necessary number of votes to pass the bill without republican opposition.
Lawmakers met today to further discuss the bill and a vote is expected to be carried out on either Monday or Tuesday. Very little has been said out of the White House besides encouragement to lawmakers to act quickly.
The bill itself will offer families a $1000 tax cut and single person incomes $500. In addition, billions are guaranteed for schools, Medicare, unemployment and energy.
NH Sen. Gregg in Middle of 2010 Census
2.26.09
New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg is in the middle of a controversy surrounding the 2010 census. Amid concerns of minority groups that do not trust the soon to be nominated commerce secretary Sen. Gregg to be fair in conducting the census, the White House announced it would be supervising the census. Normally, the census bureau director reports to the commerce secretary. However, now the that position will also report to the White House.
The White House defends this action relying on the fact that the same policy was followed in the Clinton administration. Republicans see the action as a way to have a powerful say in determining the results of the census.
The controversy over the census is an important one as the census largely determines how congressional lines are drawn. It shows the demographic changes of the nation of the past 10 years, which could shift billions of dollars in federal funding for things like schools and roads and job training.�
Campus Currents
Stimulus has Money for Students
2.28.09
The stimulus bill that is being proposed by President Obama contains billions of dollars for college students. The idea is to allow college students to stay in school to ride out the recession. The money would also go to state to prevent increases in tuition costs during these tough economic times. Students are big winners. Both the House and Senate bills call for the largest-ever funding increase for Pell Grants, the government’s chief college aid program for low-income students.
In a day when more students are enrolling in higher education and the economy continues to struggle, finding means to go to college are becoming harder than ever. There is a $15.6 billion increase in the stimulus bill which is the estimated funding needed to meet all students.
The package would also add onto next year’s maximum Pellum grant award allowing students $5,350 which would be available on July 1, 2009. The extra maximum award would be the largest increase in history. It would also cover an estimated three-quarters of the cost of the average public four-year college.
*Statistics provided by the Associate Press
Sports
A-Rod Proved Positive
2.23.09
Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steriods in 2003 as reported by Sports Illustrated Selena Roberts on Saturday. While details are still coming out about the testing, it can be assured A-Rod will no longer be looked at as a clean player. The news comes as a shock to many in the baseball community.
News Current as of 9:58 p.m. on 3.16.09
Welcome to the official News Page of Radio SNHU!
Radio SNHU is starting a complete news broadcast coming soon. The news broadcast will air every day and will be updated on Monday and Thursday each week. The transcript of the news broadcast will be accessable via the news page on the Radio SNHU website.
Each broadcast and transcript will feature a detailed account of relevant news happening around the world, in the nation, and the buzz around campus as well.
If you have any questions or are interested in joining the Radio SNHU news team feel free to email the news director.
Jason Bays
News Director, Radio SNHU