Grin and Bear It

By the time President Obama sat down with House Republicans on June 1 to talk about the exploding public debt, the economic data had been grim for days: another decline in home values, a new dip in consumer confidence and, just that morning, the lowest manufacturing-sector growth rate in more than a year and a dismal payroll report showing job growth far below expectations. In another era, these sorts of numbers would have led to a predictable chain of events for either a Republican or a Democratic President: rush to the cameras, empathize with those suffering the pain and declare that help is on the way.

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Daddy’s Little Girl

All happy families are alike, wrote Tolstoy, but unhappy ones are unhappy in their own way. Perhaps none was unhappier last Thursday than the family of Eileen Franklin-Lipsker, who took the stand in municipal court in Redwood City, Calif., to accuse her father, George Franklin Sr., of sexually molesting and then beating to death her best friend, Susan Nason, in her presence more than 20 years ago.

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TAXATION: Spelling Bee

“Actually, any one who gives the matter unbiased consideration will realize that it is for the benefit of the rich to plug loopholes in tax laws, since this raises more revenues without raising rates.” With this neat bit of logic, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. last week opened the great 1937 hunt for rich tax dodgers launched so suddenly by him and Franklin Roosevelt early this month .

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American father in custody case released from Japanese jail

An American man who had been accused of trying to take his children from his ex-wife was released from jail on Thursday and charges against him were dropped. Police in the rural southern town of Yanagawa said Christopher Savoie was let go, but did not say whether authorities set any conditions for his release, such as requiring that he leave the country immediately.

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