News Headlines
Senate leaders reach down-to-wire agreement on extending payroll tax cuts, jobless benefits
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders agreed on compromise legislation to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts and jobless benefits for two months while requiring President Barack Obama to accept Republican demands for a swift decision on the fate of an oil pipeline that promises thousands of jobs.
A vote is expected Saturday on the measure, the last in a highly contentious year of divided government.
Any deal would also require House passage before it could reach Obama’s desk.
A senior administration official said on condition of anonymity that the president would sign the measure but almost certainly refuse to grant a permit for the oil pipeline project. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the deal.
Racing to adjourn for the year, lawmakers moved quickly to clear separate legislation avoiding a partial government shutdown threatened for midnight.
___
Penn St. coach says he saw Sandusky molest boy in shower, told Paterno and school officials
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — As soon as he walked into the Penn State locker room, Mike McQueary heard running water and rhythmic, slapping sounds of “skin on skin.” He looked in a mirror and saw a naked Jerry Sandusky, the former assistant coach, holding a young boy by the waist from behind, up against the wall in the campus shower.
“I just saw Coach Sandusky in the showers with a boy and what I saw was wrong and sexual,” McQueary recalled telling his father that night in 2002. He repeated it the next morning to coach Joe Paterno, who slumped deep into his chair at his kitchen table.
“He said, ‘I’m sorry you had to see that,'” McQueary said.
McQueary’s testimony Friday at a preliminary hearing for two Penn State officials accused of covering up the story was the most detailed, public account yet of the child sex abuse allegations that have upended the university’s football program and the entire central Pennsylvania campus. Paterno and the university president have lost their jobs, and officials Tim Curley and Gary Schultz are accused of lying to a grand jury about what McQueary told them.
A Pennsylvania judge on Friday held Curley, the university’s athletic director, and Schultz, a retired senior vice president, for trial after the daylong hearing.
___
6 ex-Fannie, Freddie executives charged with civil fraud over risky subprime mortgages
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former CEOs at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Friday became the highest-profile individuals to be charged in connection with the 2008 financial crisis.
In a lawsuit filed in New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought civil fraud charges against six former executives at the two firms, including former Fannie CEO Daniel Mudd and former Freddie CEO Richard Syron.
The executives were accused of understating the level of high-risk subprime mortgages that Fannie and Freddie held just before the housing bubble burst.
“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives told the world that their subprime exposure was substantially smaller than it really was,” said Robert Khuzami, SEC’s enforcement director.
Khuzami noted that huge losses on their subprime loans eventually pushed the two companies to the brink of failure and forced the government to take them over.
___
A torrent of bad financial news flows out of Europe; 6 nations face possible downgrade
DUBLIN (AP) — Alarming financial news flowed out of Europe in a torrent Friday, just a week after the EU leaders struck a deal they thought would contain the continent’s debt crisis.
The bombardment shredded hopes of a lasting solution to the turmoil that is endangering the euro — the currency used by 17 European nations — and threatening the entire global economy.
In quick succession:
— The Fitch Ratings agency announced it was considering further cuts to the credit scores of six eurozone nations — heavyweights Italy and Spain, as well as Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland and Slovenia. It said all six could face downgrades of one or two notches.
— Moody’s Investors Services downgraded Belgium’s credit rating by two notches. Belgium’s local- and foreign-currency government bond ratings fell to “Aa3″ from Aa1,” with a negative outlook. The ratings remain investment grade.
___
Commission says thousands suffered abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions, archbishop apologizes
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — As many as 20,000 children endured sexual abuse at Dutch Catholic institutions over the past 65 years, and church officials failed to adequately address it or help the victims, according to a long-awaited investigative report released Friday.
The findings detailed some of the most widespread abuse yet linked to the Roman Catholic Church, which has been under fire for years over abuse allegations in Europe, the United States and elsewhere.
Based on a survey of 34,000 people, the report estimated that 1 in 10 Dutch children suffered some form of sexual abuse — a figure that rose to 1 in 5 among children who spent part of their youth in an institution such as a boarding school or children’s home, whether Catholic or not.
“Sexual abuse of minors,” it said bluntly, “occurs widely in Dutch society.”
The findings prompted the archbishop of Utrecht, Wim Eijk, to apologize to victims on behalf of the Dutch church, saying the report “fills us with shame and sorrow.”
___
Judge tosses Utah company’s $1B lawsuit against Microsoft after jury fails to reach verdict
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal judge on Friday dismissed a Utah company’s $1 billion federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in a case so important to the computer giant that it put Bill Gates on the stand for two days last month.
Novell Inc. sued the software giant in 2004, claiming Microsoft duped it into developing the once-popular WordPerfect writing program for Windows 95 only to pull the plug so Microsoft could gain market share with its own product.
Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.
The trial began two months ago with jurors getting the case on Wednesday. After much confusion, and some perplexing questions from the panel, they told U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz they were deadlocked by early Friday evening.
He repeatedly asked them if they could keep trying.
___
Take that Icarus: Comet shows you can get really close to sun and survive, amazing astronomers
WASHINGTON (AP) — A small comet survived what astronomers figured would be a sure death when it danced uncomfortably close to the broiling sun.
Comet Lovejoy, which was only discovered a couple of weeks ago, was supposed to melt Thursday night when it came close to where temperatures hit several million degrees. Astronomers had tracked 2,000 other sun-grazing comets make the same suicidal trip. None had ever survived.
But astronomers watching live with NASA telescopes first saw the sun’s corona wiggle as Lovejoy went close to the sun. They were then shocked when a bright spot emerged on the sun’s other side. Lovejoy lived.
“I was delighted when I saw it go into the sun and I was astounded when I saw something re-emerge,” said U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams.
Lovejoy didn’t exactly come out of its hellish adventure unscathed. Only 10 percent of the comet — which was probably millions of tons — survived the encounter, said W. Dean Pesnell, project scientist for NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which tracked Lovejoy’s death-defying plunge.
___
Christopher Hitchens, militant pundit, essayist and author dies after long battle with cancer
Cancer weakened but did not soften Christopher Hitchens. He did not repent or forgive or ask for pity. As if granted diplomatic immunity, his mind’s eye looked plainly upon the attack and counterattack of disease and treatments that robbed him of his hair, his stamina, his speaking voice and eventually his life.
“I love the imagery of struggle,” he wrote about his illness in an August 2010 essay in Vanity Fair. “I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.”
Hitchens, a Washington, D.C.-based author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right, died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer, according to a statement from Vanity Fair magazine. He was 62.
“There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar,” said Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. “Those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.”
He had enjoyed his drink (enough to “to kill or stun the average mule”) and cigarettes, until he announced in June 2010 that he was being treated for cancer of the esophagus.
___
Beach Boys announce a reunion tour, with Brian Wilson, to mark 50th anniversary
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s almost winter, but get ready for some surf and sun: The Beach Boys are reuniting.
The founding members of the classic rock group — Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine — announced Friday they are getting back together to celebrate their 50th anniversary. They’re working on a new album and also plan a 50-date tour that will take them around the world.
Wilson said in a statement that he misses “the boys” and it will be a thrill to be on stage with them again.
The group also includes Bruce Johnston and David Marks, who had been with the band for decades.
The Beach Boys first concert is scheduled for April 27 at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
___
Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, files for divorce from Los Angeles Lakers star
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Kobe Bryant’s wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce on Friday from the Los Angeles Lakers star, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split.
Vanessa Bryant filed papers in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana.
A representative for the couple released a statement saying, “The Bryants have resolved all issues incident to their divorce privately with the assistance of counsel and a Judgment dissolving their marital status will be entered in 2012.”
The couple have been married for 10½ years and have two daughters, ages 8 and 5.
In the statement, the Bryants “ask that in the interest of our young children and in light of the upcoming holiday season the public respect our privacy during this difficult time.”
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In