Obama: Budget squeeze may widen income gap
WASHINGTON – On the fifth anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse, President Barack Obama says the Republican focus on budget tightening could widen income disparities in the nation even as the economy climbs out of a debilitating recession.
Trying to lay claim to an economic turnaround, Obama acknowledged that despite progress, middle- and low-income Americans have not benefited as much as the top 1 percent in the country.
Some conservative Republicans say they will extend current spending levels or increase the debt ceiling only if Obama delays putting in place his health-care law, a condition Obama flatly has rejected.
As Congress prepares to raise the debt ceiling above $17 trillion, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has tried to keep the focus on spending reductions even as some on his right insist on defunding or delaying the unpopular health-care reform law.
Merkel’s conservatives triumph in Bavaria
BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative allies triumphed in Bavaria’s state election Sunday, a week before the whole country votes, though a painful setback for her coalition partners added to uncertainty over the outcome of the national election.
The Merkel-allied Christian Social Union, traditionally the dominant force in the prosperous southern region, won 47.7 percent of the vote, official results showed. It won back a majority in the state legislature it humiliatingly lost in 2008, gaining more than 4 percentage points.
“This election gives us tailwind for the national election,” said Hermann Groehe, the general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. But, he warned, “it is of course clear that the national election hasn’t yet been decided.”
Merkel’s national governing partners, the pro-market Free Democrats, won only 3.3 percent of the vote Sunday, losing more than half their support and all their seats in the legislature in Munich.
That’s a concern for Merkel as she seeks a parliamentary majority for her current center-right coalition in next Sunday’s election. She is heavily favored to win a third term, but her chances of continuing to govern with the Free Democrats – her partners of choice – look less rosy.
Hurricane, tropical storm threaten Mexico
XALAPA, Mexico — Tropical Storm Manuel bore down on Mexico’s southwest Pacific shoreline Sunday as thousands on the country’s Gulf rim sought shelter from approaching Hurricane Ingrid amid threats of heavy rains and dangerous flash floods and mudslides along both coasts.
Manuel and Ingrid appeared set to wallop Mexico with a one-two punch and mar several planned observances of the country’s Sept. 15 and 16 Independence Day celebrations. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Ingrid, the second hurricane of the Atlantic storm season, could reach the Mexican mainland early today after gathering strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It was packing top sustained winds of 85 mph. Manuel, sustaining maximum winds of 70 mph, was about 40 miles from the Pacific coast near the Mexican port city of Lazaro Cardenas early Sunday.
Forecasters said that storm was moving toward expected landfall. The Mexican government late Saturday issued a hurricane warning for the country’s Pacific Coast from Lazaro Cardenas to Manzanillo. That came as forecasters said early Sunday that Manuel still had a small possibility of becoming a hurricane before its center reached land. The storm was expected to rapidly weaken once it began heading into the Mexican interior.
Associated Press
