Agency changes name of building to replace towers destroyed on 9/11
NEW YORK - The Freedom Tower is out. One World Trade Center is in.
The agency that owns the site says that the signature 1,776-foot skyscraper replacing the towers destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, will be known as One World Trade Center.
The building under construction at the site was named the Freedom Tower in the first master plan. Officials at the time said the tallest, most symbolic of five planned towers at the site would demonstrate the country’s triumph over terrorism.
WASHINGTON — Call it Round Two of the news conference, with a big Internet twist.
President Barack Obama took questions from the White House press corps on Tuesday in a prime-time, East Room session that represented the most formal and time-honored of president-and-reporter interactions. On Thursday, he is taking to that same room for another public grilling _ this time by regular folks armed with questions submitted via the Internet and in person, as part of a political strategy to engage Americans directly.
“It’s a way for the president to do what he enjoys doing out on the road, but saves on gas,” press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday.
There was more than one whip at last night’s Britney Spears concert in Washington DC.
GOP aides confirmed to the Huffington Post that House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) attended the pop concert at the Verizon Center, where Britney appeared on stage brandishing a leather lash.
One House GOP leadership aide said Cantor went at the request of a fundraiser. “If suffering through a Britney Spears concert will raise one more dime to help Republicans take back the House, then I’m glad Cantor’s willing to do it.”
A House Democratic aide shot back, “Looks like Eric Cantor’s not that innocent.”
The gossip blog Wonkette first reported the Cantor sighting on Wednesday afternoon, and subsequently ran a quote from Cantor’s office alleging that Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu was also in attendance.
But Landrieu’s office denies the charge. An aide insists that numerous witnesses can place the Senator at Matchbox during that time (a bar/restaurant that is suspiciously close to where Spears performed).
But the aide held firm. “I can assure you she was not at the concert,” he said. Nor did she attend the show after the meal. Instead, she went to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s annual spring reception, he said.
About 700 swimmers taking part in a race Sunday off Sydney, Australia, seemed oblivious that danger was lurking just a stone’s throw away. A hammerhead shark was swimming near them, and another, smaller shark was in the water under them.
This video below, from ITN, captures the drama. The camera was able to pick up the hammerhead, but it wasn’t able to get an image of the other interloper.
Most of the competitors appeared to be unaware of the sharks’ presence. Race winner Chris Allan did see authorities put up a shark signal as he was swimming, but he seemed to take it in stride. “I figure [the sharks] had 700 of us to choose from and they couldn’t decide, by the looks of things,” he told ITV.com.
The gallery below includes three shots from the race. Keep clicking for photos from recent and notable shark attacks, including information on a spate of attacks earlier this year off Australia’s coast.
White House officials and some members of Congress reacted strongly Sunday to news that insurance giant AIG had intended to pay out $165 million in bonuses and compensation. The company has received at least $170 billion in federal bailout money.
Under pressure from the Treasury, AIG scaled back the bonus plans and pledged to reduce 2009 bonuses — or “retention payments” — by at least 30 percent. That did little to temper outrage at the initial plan, however.
“There are a lot of terrible things that have happened in the last 18 months, but what’s happened at AIG is the most outrageous,” Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council, told ABC’s “This Week.”
He looked nervous, even flustered, at first, and some of the prepared comedy was surprisingly lame. That doesn’t matter. Jimmy Fallon’s first few days don’t really reveal how “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” will fare.
Monitoring the opening kinks and experiments of a new talk show is a spectator sport, and this entry comes with an added “American Idol” edge: NBC had the last word during the auditions, but Internet users are now expected to comment and cavil interactively and build — or diminish — Mr. Fallon’s television audience.
Mr. Fallon was cute and funny on “Saturday Night Live,” but he is not necessarily the ideal choice for the “Late Night” core audience of young males: his humor is mischievous, not anarchic. (If fans had a call-in vote, they might have elected Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.)
Still, Mr. Fallon is engaging and has an antic, quick-witted charm. He seemed more confident by the show’s third night and, oddly enough, had better comic chemistry with Cameron Diaz on Wednesday than with Tina Fey, his former “Weekend Update” co-anchor on “SNL,” the night before. Most of his skits and routines, however, seemed written for the Web, not for broadcast. Click Here To Continue Reading Fallon Faces the Camera, Conscious of the Web
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s push to reset U.S.-Russian relations took a huge stride when he signaled the Kremlin he might forgo an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe if Moscow uses its clout with a troublesome Iran and its nuclear ambitions.
The back-channel diplomatic gambit was one of the few tools Obama had for unknotting the stalemated relationship — one that suffered under former Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin.
Details of the Obama proposal, a letter responding to one from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, have not been disclosed, but the U.S. president has clearly enticed the Kremlin into a dialogue that could pay significant benefits to both sides.
While Medvedev said the two leaders were not negotiating a quid pro quo, improved relations rest on a deal that bundles the proposed missile shield and Iran, where Moscow holds considerable sway.
Obama concurred there had been no blatant trade offer, but he also said Tuesday that reducing Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons would lessen the need for a missile defense system. Given the three decades of U.S.-Iranian estrangement, Russia would serve as an obvious and powerful entree for putting the U.S. case to Tehran.
Until recently, the idea that the world’s most powerful nations might come together to tackle global warming seemed an environmentalist’s pipe dream.
The Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, was widely viewed as badly flawed. Many countries that signed the accord lagged far behind their targets in curbing carbon dioxide emissions. The United States refused even to ratify it. And the treaty gave a pass to major emitters in the developing world like China and India.
But within weeks of taking office, President Obama has radically shifted the global equation, placing the United States at the forefront of the international climate effort and raising hopes that an effective international accord might be possible. Mr. Obama’s chief climate negotiator, Todd Stern, said last week that the United States would be involved in the negotiation of a new treaty — to be signed in Copenhagen in December — “in a robust way.”
That treaty, officials and climate experts involved in the negotiations say, will significantly differ from the agreement of a decade ago, reaching beyond reducing greenhouse gas emissions and including financial mechanisms and making good on longstanding promises to provide money and technical assistance to help developing countries cope with climate change.
Aaron Hill and Vernon Wells each hit two-run homers and the Toronto Blue Jays spoiled Alex Rodriguez's return to the New York lineup, beating the Yankees 7-3 on Sunday to halt their eight-game winning streak.
Armed with multiple dressing rooms and costume changes, Gaga makes a memorable debut.By Mawuse Ziegbe Lady Gaga performs at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards Photo: Getty Images After the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Lady Gaga was no longer just another face in the pantheon of rising pop stars who occasionally hit the red carpet in a zany getup. She […]
Russ-Kat's backstage interactions are broken down in 'The VMAs: Revealed'By Mawuse Ziegbe Katy Perry and Russell Brand Photo: Jeff Vespa/ Getty Images MTV Video Music Award nominee and California Gurl Katy Perry has summed up the main reason why fans tune in to the madness every year: "The VMAs are always the best show to watch […]
The George Clooney thriller breaks away from the pack on the holiday weekend.By Mawuse Ziegbe George Clooney in "The American" Photo: Focus Features The Box-Office Top Five #1 "The American" ($12.9 million) #2 "Takers" ($11.4 million) #3"Machete" ($11.3 million) #4 "The Last Exorcism" ($7.5 milli […]
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White House officials and some members of Congress reacted strongly Sunday to news that insurance giant AIG had intended to pay out $165 million in bonuses and compensation. The company has received at least $170 billion in federal bailout money.
He looked nervous, even flustered, at first, and some of the prepared comedy was surprisingly lame. That doesn’t matter. Jimmy Fallon’s first few days don’t really reveal how “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” will fare.
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