Ousting governor leads Illinois officials’ to-do list

Ousting governor leads Illinois officials’ to-do list

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Officially, Illinois lawmakers will gather soon to consider a special election to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate — but it was already clear Sunday that ousting disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich was at the top of many to-do lists.

“On a scale of one to 10, impeachment is 25 and everything else is a two,” said Rep. Jack Franks, a fellow Democrat from Woodstock.

A legislative session beginning today will be the first since Blagojevich was arrested last week on charges that he tried to profit from his power to choose Obama’s replacement and shook down businesses seeking state deals.

Republicans said Sunday that they plan to put intense public pressure on Democrats to move against Blagojevich.

Fed to slash interest rate

WASHINGTON — With the country spiraling deeper into recession, the Federal Reserve is ready to slash its key interest rate — perhaps to an all-time low— in hopes of cushioning some of the economic fallout felt by many struggling Americans.

To battle the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues already have ratcheted down the federal funds rate to 1 percent, a level seen only once before in the last half-century.

The Fed opens a two-day meeting today. Many economists predict the Fed will cut its rate in half — to just 0.50 percent. A few think the Fed could opt to lower rates by a whopping three-quarters percentage point or more. If that larger cut occurs, it would be the lowest on records that track the monthly average of the targeted funds rate going back to 1954.

Mumbai terrorist victims honored at Va. service

FABER, Va. — A Virginia man and his teenage daughter were remembered Sunday as loving, peaceful spirits whose lives at an isolated spiritual community were in contrast to their violent deaths at the hands of terrorists while on pilgrimage to India.

About 200 people attended a memorial service for Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, who were killed during the attacks at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, India, on Nov. 26.

The service was held at Synchronicity Foundation, a meditation community in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where the Scherrs have lived for 11 years.

Global warming grows into ticking time bomb

WASHINGTON — When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can’t avoid.

Since Clinton’s inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton’s second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating.

Obama is pushing changes in the way Americans use energy and produce greenhouse gases, as part of what will be a massive economic stimulus. He called it an opportunity “to re-power America.”

Ex-Justice lawyer says he revealed secret program

WASHINGTON — A former Justice Department lawyer says he tipped off the news media about the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program because it “didn’t smell right,” Newsweek magazine reported Sunday.

Thomas Tamm, whose suburban Washington home was searched by federal agents last year, told the magazine he leaked the existence of the secret program to The New York Times 18 months before the newspaper broke the story.

Tamm, 56, told the magazine he called the Times from a subway station pay phone in Washington.

Bush in Afghanistan to rally the troops

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — President George W. Bush is in Afghanistan, a surprise stop to rally U.S. troops and review the deteriorating military and political situation in the 7-year-old war.

Bush’s unannounced visit today was his first in over 21‚Ñ2 years and only the second of his presidency. It was accompanied by extraordinary security.

The president flew here from Iraq. The two-day whirlwind trip through the two war zones that define Bush’s presidency came as he prepares to hand the Oval Office to President-elect Barack Obama next month.

Bush was holding a rally with U.S. and foreign troops at this massive U.S.-run base north of the capital of Kabul.

Associated Press