Obama shines stimulus spotlight on urban economy

President Obama met Friday with 85 mayors from across the country to discuss the implementation of city-related funding from the $787 billion stimulus package. “You shouldn’t have to succeed despite Washington; you should be succeeding with a hand from Washington, and that’s what you’re getting now,” Obama said at a White House reception. “This plan does more to lay a new foundation for our cities’ growth and opportunity than anything Washington has done in generations.” The economic stimulus package sets aside billions of dollars for highway construction, transit improvements, school modernization and community development block grants

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After the Stimulus, Can Obama Tame the Deficit?

Barack Obama calls them the Propeller-Heads, the cheerful band of financial nerds he has charged with saving America’s economy. And on the Friday before Presidents’ Day weekend, they were ready to show him the latest piece of their rescue plan: the 2010 federal budget. Having just squeezed through Congress what may be the largest spending bill in history, the President now needed to do something that would make the stimulus fight look easy: show the country and the world that he was as serious about preventing waste as he was about promoting growth

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Down day for global markets

Major markets across the world were sliding Friday with low confidence leading to near-record lows in the United States. European stocks were taking a beating as investors become increasingly anxious over the state of the global economy. Mining and banking shares fell sharply with mining giant Anglo-American leading the losses.

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Afghan supply base eviction prompts U.S. access scramble

Kyrgyzstan said Friday its president has ordered the closure of U.S. military’s only base in Central Asia, further squeezing access for troops and supplies heading into Afghanistan. However, the closure comes as two other central Asian nations — Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – reportedly agreed to allow transit of U.S

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New York Post apologizes for, yet still defends, chimp cartoon

A day after publishing a cartoon that drew fire from critics who said it evoked historically racist images, the New York Post apologized in a statement on its Web site — even as it defended its action and blasted some detractors. Many of those critical of the cartoon said it appeared to compare President Barack Obama to a chimpanzee in a commentary on his recently approved economic stimulus package. “Wednesday’s Page Six cartoon — caricaturing Monday’s police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut — has created considerable controversy,” the paper said about the drawing, which shows two police officers standing over the body of a chimpanzee they just shot

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