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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — After months of efforts to craft a bipartisan bill, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd plans to introduce a revised version of sweeping bank reform legislation on Monday, most likely without Republican support.

Dodd had hoped to release a bipartisan bill, after working furiously with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., to reach a solution. However, Dodd said that time was running out to pass a bill in 2010.

(Reuters) - A California sushi chef and the restaurant in which he worked have been charged with illegally serving meat from an endangered Sei whale, the Justice Department said on Thursday.

Officer Thomas Lucasiewicz followed his nose and it led him to the largest pot-growing bust in New Jersey history.
On February 12, the Monroe County officer was patrolling the streets when he smelled burning marijuana and followed the smell until he saw smoke rising from a chimney in a Middlesex County home.

The state was one of five, along with Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, that reached their highest unemployment rates since the government began keeping track in 1976, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. California’s was 12.5% in January, up from 12.3% in December.

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — Bank of America customers will no longer complain about that $40 cup of coffee because they won’t be able to buy it if there’s not enough money in their debit account.

Socialism will not ensure the flourishing of our nation. It is no surprise that the prescription for our success as authored by President Obama is just that.

Our current president has never held a real job, and he is the direct product of an indoctrination that places a premium on government intervention. It is the sole source of his trust. He lies prostrate at the foot of this almighty god of the state and simply does not understand the contrary, for it is not within his philosophical DNA.

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Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are headed to the White House for a meeting on jobs Thursday, and they’ll have a few words to say about how President Barack Obama is doing his.

The 43-member caucus is fighting through one of the most difficult periods in its 39-year history, and some members and aides said they’re getting far too little support from the nation’s first black president - a man they once believed would be their strongest champion.

The euro is under attack like never before, as the promises on which it was based turn out to be lies. Hedge funds are speculating against Greek debt, while euro-zone politicians work behind the scenes to cobble together rescue packages. But fundamental flaws in the monetary union need to be fixed if Europe’s common currency is to survive. By SPIEGEL staff.

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When legislative leaders count votes before a bill comes to the floor they call it a “whip check.” It’s an old English phrase referring to those who kept the dogs in line during a foxhunt.

With all the barking about health care these days, Speaker Pelosi will need some pretty stout lashes to hold Democrats in the pack. But she and President Obama also possess more tools than you think to flog wavering lawmakers.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Last week New York Times columnist Frank Rich called the health care bill “an up or down vote on the Obama presidency.” And as a result, the arm-twisting leading up to the vote will require the mother of all whip checks. Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics updates the count daily.

WASHINGTON — There are legislative miles to go before the government will be emancipated from its health care myopia, but it is not too soon for a summing up. Whether all or nothing of the legislation becomes law, Barack Obama has refuted critics who call him a radical. He has shown himself to be a timid progressive.

His timidity was displayed when he flinched from fighting for the boldness the nation needs — a transition from the irrationality of employer-provided health insurance. His progressivism is an attitude of genteel regret about the persistence of politics.

But after Chief Justice John Roberts made some entirely reasonable remarks yesterday — and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs just had to respond — it’s now getting ridiculous.

Whether the White House has a short-term or long-term strategy or no strategy at all, it’s flat-out absurd and ill-advised for the administration to think it should always have the last word. It’s like my 6-year-old: “I don’t LIKE your idea. I like MY idea.”

In September 2006, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislative leaders treated AB 32’s enactment as a huge milestone. Meant to reduce the emissions that contribute to global warming, the law forced a shift to cleaner-but-costlier forms of energy. This shift would be accomplished with a “cap-and-trade” system in which companies would buy and sell their emission rations, creating market incentives to reduce pollution.

The landmark legislation was meant to inspire other states, the federal government and the rest of the world to follow suit with similar laws. The governor was so sure this would happen that he declared the bill “will change the course of history.”

Seven new no votes would be enough to kill the Senate bill, and several more fence-sitting lawmakers are under pressure from both sides of the aisle.

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RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden publicly scolded Israel on Wednesday over a Jewish settlement plan, saying it was undermining peace efforts after Palestinians agreed to U.S.-mediated talks.

President Barack Obama obviously has no qualms about slandering people or industries that interfere with his agenda. In the same creepy manner he defamed the Cambridge Police Department without the benefit of the facts, he is scapegoating the insurance companies based on his distorted version of facts.

In the past week, he has ratcheted up his war on insurance companies, who, he apparently figures, must be destroyed if he is to accomplish his Utopian dream of socialized healthcare. He made them the focus of his wrath again, in his umpteenth healthcare speech, Monday in Philadelphia.

I believe I was the first person, in the National Review cover story “The Carrie Effect,” to publicly credit the impact of Carrie Prejean. Pre-Carrie, even most conservative media outlets avoided gay marriage. Carrie gave Fox News and major radio talk show hosts a vehicle for talking about the issue that they understood and liked. The general public was exposed to the truth that the majority continue to oppose gay marriage and that gay marriage advocates are not about tolerance but about imposing their views and punishing dissent, I argued.

But now, a polling expert, Patrick Murray, founding director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, agrees about the Carrie Effect: “So what momentous event occurred in April 2009 to cause this shift in opinion? It was the Miss Universe contest, when Miss California, Carrie Prejean, announced that she was personally opposed to gay marriage. The ensuing media storm was fast and furious, with the number of press articles on gay marriage doubling during those weeks.” (He opines that public opinion has since reverted, but offers no specific numbers.)

March 8 (Bloomberg) — Solar-energy stock prices have been falling for about two years.

Once viewed as the newest and greenest energy source, solar power has become less popular with investors. They gradually realized that it is far from competitive with conventional energy sources on price, and that it accounts for less than 1 percent of U.S. electricity generation.