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Consumer Confidence in Economy Improves
WASHINGTON - Consumer confidence in the economy's prospects improved in early April even as gasoline prices and borrowing costs marched higher.
The RBC CASH (Consumer Attitudes and Spending by Household) Index, based on results from the international polling firm Ipsos, showed confidence at 89.4 in early April, up from March's 86.2. The new reading also was better than a year ago, when consumer confidence clocked in at 84.5.
"It's a positive sign," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.
Overall, consumers are in a generally good frame of mind, economists said.
"I think we can take heart in the fact that even with all the worries - about energy prices, higher interest rates and a slowing housing market - confidence moved higher," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.
Analysts track consumer confidence for clues about consumers' willingness to spend, an important force shaping the country's economic health.
The confidence index is benchmarked to a reading of 100 on January when Ipsos started the gauge.
One of the things consumers feel really good about is the jobs climate, the Ipsos results suggested.
A measure tracking consumers' sentiments on this front jumped in early April to 124.5, the highest on record. In March consumers' feelings about jobs came in at 118.5, a buoyant reading. A year ago, this gauge stood at 116.2.
Employers boosted payrolls by a sizable 211,000 jobs in March, helping to push the nation's unemployment rate down to 4.7 percent, the Labor Department said in a report Friday that suggested the jobs market is on solid footing.
Analysts believe the economy emerged from an end-of-year funk and grew at an annual rate of 4.5 percent or higher in the just ended January- to-March quarter. The government's estimate of first-quarter economic growth will be released at the end of April.
In the current April-to-June quarter, economists believe the economic growth will probably be in the range of 3 percent, a slower but still healthy pace. That moderation is based in part on the expectation that consumers will turn a bit cautious in the second quarter as energy prices stay high and the housing market slows.
The record-breaking housing market over the last five years and escalating home values have made consumers feel wealthy and thus inclined to spend. They've taken cash out of their homes, which has helped to support brisk spending.
A cooling housing market and slower growth in home values probably would weigh on consumer spending, economists said. But an improving jobs market, on the other hand, would help to blunt some of that negative force, analysts said.
Concerns about the direction of the housing market _ along with rising gasoline prices, which are $2.59 a gallon on average nationwide _ probably played a role in consumers' assessment of current economic conditions, analysts said.
A measure of current conditions dropped to 98 in early April, from 103.9 in March. A year ago, this measure stood at 92.7.
Another gauge tracking consumers' feelings about making a purchase, saving and other investment decisions was 86.7 in early April. That marked a deterioration from March's reading of 98.6. Last year, the investment measure was 87.4.
The Federal Reserve on March 28 boosted a key interest rate to a five- year high to fend off inflation. That action pushed up other borrowing costs, including banks' prime lending rate, which is used for certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other loans.
Mortgage rates are rising, too.
Rates on 30-year mortgages averaged 6.43 percent this week, the highest in 2 1/2 years, Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, reported Thursday.
A measure looking at consumers' expectations over the next six months, including conditions where they live or work and their own financial positions, rose to 56.9 in early April. That marked an improvement from March's 40.7 and was better than 51.3 registered in April last year. Yet it is still at a level indicating some wariness among consumers, analysts said.
The RBC consumer confidence index was based on results of 1,003 adults surveyed Monday through Wednesday about their attitudes on personal finance and the economy. Results of the survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
On the Net: RBC CASH Index
Breitbart.com ~ Associated Press - Jeannine Aversa ** Consumer Confidence in Economy Improves
Posted by yaahoo_2006iest
at 3:09 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, 7 April 2006 3:23 PM EDT
don't ask
Unbelievable. Then again, when you kill for a living, maybe all those blobs of tissues just start looking the same...
Abortion Practitioner Who Killed Girl in Failed Abortion Hits Pro-Lifer With Car
Wichita, KS - A Kansas late-term abortion practitioner who killed a 19 year-old girl in a botched abortion last year has allegedly run over a pro-life person with his car who was praying outside his abortion business.
George Tiller (right), who may soon find himself subject to a grand jury investigation, apparently struck the protester with his vehicle yesterday.
According to eyewitnesses, Tiller was leaving his Women's Health Care Services (WHCS) abortion facility Wednesday afternoon, when he sped out of the parking lot and struck pro-life advocate Mark Geitzen in the leg.
In a statement provided to LifeNews.com, Geitzen said he was hit in the leg by Tiller's speeding Jeep Grand Cherokee and placed his hands on Tiller's vehicle to push himself further away to avoid being run over.
"I was measuring the driveway to insure that pro-lifers were complying with the law during their prayer times when I heard an engine rev," Geitzen explained.
"I turned to see Tiller coming right at me," Geitzen said. "In that moment I couldn't decide to jump to the right or to the left. I was kind of like a deer caught in the headlights."
Eyewitnesses said Tiller immediately fled the scene. Geitzen has filed a complaint with the Wichita Police Department.
Geitzen said he was not injured in the incident but feels some pain in his right leg. Another man who was with Geitzen at the time was not involved in the hit and run.
Geitzen indicated he was not blocking the exit and that Tiller had plenty of room to drive around him, as there is room for two vehicles to enter and leave the abortion facility parking lot exit at any time.
"There is no doubt that he intentionally hit me," he said. "He drove right down the center of the driveway."
Geitzen is the president of the Kansas Coalition for Life, a group that is part of a coalition of pro-life organizations working with the family of mentally disabled teenager Christin Gilbert to have a grand jury look into her abortion death.
Gilbert died after a third-trimester abortion in January 2005, done by Tiller at is abortion business. She was 28 weeks pregnant at the time.
Gilbert was rushed into the Wesley Medical Center ER, followed by Tiller moments later. In November, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts claimed neither he nor his staff were responsible for the botched abortion death and refused to press charges.
Gilbert's family, with the help of pro-life groups, are planning to file thousands of petitions on Friday asking the county court to call for a grand jury investigation into the abortion death
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Related: 
Scientists blame sun for global warming
The Sun is more active than it has ever been in the last 300 years
Climate changes such as global warming may be due to changes in the sun rather than to the release of greenhouse gases on Earth.
Climatologists and astronomers speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Philadelphia say the present warming may be unusual - but a mini ice age could soon follow.
The sun provides all the energy that drives our climate, but it is not the constant star it might seem.
Careful studies over the last 20 years show that its overall brightness and energy output increases slightly as sunspot activity rises to the peak of its 11-year cycle.
And individual cycles can be more or less active.
The sun is currently at its most active for 300 years.
That, say scientists in Philadelphia, could be a more significant cause of global warming than the emissions of greenhouse gases that are most often blamed.
The researchers point out that much of the half-a-degree rise in global temperature over the last 120 years occurred before 1940 - earlier than the biggest rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
Using ancient tree rings, they show that 17 out of 19 warm spells in the last 10,000 years coincided with peaks in solar activity.
Ancient trees reveal most warm spells are caused by the sun.
They have also studied other sun-like stars and found that they spend significant periods without sunspots at all, so perhaps cool spells should be feared more than global warming.
The scientists do not pretend they can explain everything, nor do they say that attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be abandoned. But they do feel that understanding of our nearest star must be increased if the climate is to be understood.
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d'oh
<<<<< Riot police officers detained students after they blocked the ring road in Paris. Laurence Parisot, head of the MEDEF employers' association, warned Friday that the labor protest movement could harm the French economy.
French government backs away from divisive labor law
PARIS (AFP) - France's ruling party held a final day of talks with unions on Friday over a divisive youth jobs reform, as business leaders called for a rapid end to the crisis to avoid harming the French economy.
Unions and student groups - in a position of strength after two months of demonstrations that have drawn millions into the street - have threatened more mass protests unless the measure is abandoned by the end of next week.
French President Jacques Chirac has already effectively suspended the contested First Employment Contract (CPE), asking the ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) to draw up a new law after consulting leaders of the protest movement.
Several commentators said Chirac's government appeared to have all but given up on the youth contract, which makes it easier to fire under-26 year-olds, but was looking for a way to repeal it without losing face.
"How to come up with a measure that looks, tastes and acts like an abrogation, but is not called an abrogation?" summed up an editorial in the left-wing Liberation newspaper.
UMP lawmakers on Friday were wrapping up three days of meetings with unions and student groups, as well as the MEDEF employers' association and the CGPME small business federation, before deciding on the contents of the new law.
The government was expected to decide on action in the coming days. Lawmakers close to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said one possible way out might be drawing up measures with labor leaders to replace the law.
"We are moving toward the opening of negotiations," said lawmaker Dominique Paille. Another lawmaker, Yves Jego, said the idea had the backing of many in parliament. But it was unclear whether it would satisfy unions, or whether it had Chirac's backing.
One union, Solidaires, said after meeting the UMP that the party "understood the urgency" of the situation, but that no announcement would be made before Monday.
MEDEF head Laurence Parisot warned Friday that the protest movement - in which students have targeted transport and industry - could harm the French economy.
"We must do everything to quickly end this crisis, which is costing our country dearly," she told France 2 television."It is time to end this colossal disruption, which harms not only our image but our very social fabric."
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin's authority has been badly undermined by the labor conflict and some observers believe his chances as a presidential candidate have been destroyed, although on Thursday he ruled out resigning over the crisis. Responsibility for negotiating a way out of the crisis has been handed to his chief political rival, UMP chief and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Commentators say that many supporters of Sarkozy in the UMP are angry at Villepin's handling of the reform and feel little attachment to the CPE.On Friday, former minister Roselyne Bachelot - a Sarkozy ally and senior UMP official - became the latest party figure to call openly for the CPE to be scrapped.
"Speaking in my own name, I want an abrogation, so that we can put this behind us," she said on Canal Plus television.
Conceived as a tool against youth unemployment, which runs at 22% in France, the CPE is a contract for under 26-year-olds that can be terminated by the employer without explanation during a two-year trial period.
It provoked a massive backlash, with Villepin accused of trampling on labor rights, and a sometimes violent protest movement in which more than 3,500 people have been arrested.
Students have been staging wildcat protests to keep up the pressure on the government - blocking two factories belonging to the aircraft manufacturer Airbus on Thursday - but there were signs of the movement fizzling out.
Friday marks the start of the academic holidays in around a third of the country, with other regions to follow, and there are mounting calls for work to resume at disrupted schools and universities in time for end-of-year exams.
Wildcat protests continued in some areas, however, such as in Nantes in the west, students blocked bus and tramway depots for several hours.In Le Havre in the north, around 400 students occupied the offices of a UMP deputy before heading to the courtroom and city hall to press their demands.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Motorist Drives Through Crowd in Paris
PARIS - A motorist drove through a crowd of students protesting the government's new youth jobs law Friday near the Sorbonne University, injuring seven people.
Furious demonstrators overturned the car and tried to kick its windows out, while police in riot gear and helmets worked to disperse the crowd.
The incident came after high school students spent the afternoon disrupting traffic outside the Sorbonne by picnicking on a busy boulevard. They were heading away when a frustrated motorist tried to burst through the crowd
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Several dozen youths turned the car over and unsuccessfully attempted to drag the driver out before police and onlookers intervened.
Firefighters said seven people suffered light injuries.
French students have been protesting for weeks over a new law that will make it easier for companies to hire and fire people under age 26. While most demonstrations have been peaceful, some have seen violence from a radical fringe.
An internal document prepared by a top Democratic strategist warns that a majority of African American voters in Maryland are open to supporting Republican Senate candidate Michael S. Steele and advises the party not to wait to "knock Steele down."
Maryland Democratic Party Executive Director Derek B. Walker said the study verified what, internally, party strategists had already concluded: that African American voters who have served as a reliable base for generations cannot be taken for granted.
"It confirms that in this day and age, everyone expects us to do more than just rest on history," Walker said. "We knew we were going to have to engage. But we also know it will be easier for us to forge that relationship because we're right on the issues."
If the findings of the poll are correct, they paint a somewhat different vision of the black electorate from what has been commonly understood to this point, said David Bositis, a senior research associate at the D.C.-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Bositis said nothing in his research suggests that an African American Republican will be able to grab a significant segment of the black vote.
The DNC survey finds that 22 percent of black voters support Steele when matched against a "generic" Democrat.
"There's just no way it's that high," Bositis said, noting that Steele's performance among black voters in the 2002 election did not approach that number. "If he was that much of a draw then it's doubtful he would only have received 13 percent of the black vote."
There are other aspects of the survey, though, that Bositis says are consistent with national findings. Among them: that young black men represent a voting bloc far less loyal to Democrats. It also finds more support for Steele in Baltimore than in Prince George's County, more backing among churchgoers, and stronger support among those without a college degree.
In an interview in his State House office yesterday, Steele clutched the DNC report like a football coach who just got his hands on the opposing team's playbook. He said a copy "landed on our doorstep" in the past week.
"This explains everything," he said. "They're afraid of what I represent. They're afraid of the fact that African American voters have options, and I'm one of them."
Steele focused on two aspects of the document: the finding that a high percentage of black voters have connected with his message and the recommendation that the Democrats attack him early.
"Voters need to know they're trying to make me into something I'm not," Steele said.
He deflected questions about a potential vulnerability exposed in the report. A message that resonated with black voters identified Steele as "George W. Bush's hand-picked candidate," the survey found. It's a message Democrats have tried to exploit. Even as Walker discussed the findings, he pointed to a photograph hanging in his office -- it shows Steele and Bush arm in arm.
The poll finds that only 8 percent of black voters in Maryland approve of the president's performance. And it signals that early support Steele has received from Bush and his advisers will rub black voters the wrong way.
"Connecting Steele to national Republicans ... can turn Steele into a typical Republican in the eyes of voters, as opposed to an African American candidate," it says.
That has been the aim of the Democrats in the race. In a statement yesterday, an aide to Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin said he found "no surprises in this poll."
"Like the vast majority of Marylanders, African Americans know that the Bush-Steele agenda is wrong for our state and our nation," said Oren Shur, the Cardin campaign spokesman.
Mfume advisers, however, said the survey should sound alarms.
"There's significance there," said Mfume strategist Walter Ludwig. "Everybody up and down the ticket needs to make sure African Americans don't feel like they're being taken for granted."
Other Democrats in the race include A. Robert Kaufman, Allan Lichtman, Josh Rales, Dennis Rasmussen and Lise Van Susteren.
Steele says he will fight Democratic efforts to frame the campaign around national issues. His campaign Web site and literature do not identify his political party and do not mention his long and close ties to the White House.
"I am independent in thought," he said. "What I'm about is what's important to Marylanders."
From The Drudge Report: 
suave
Coach disciplined for distributing flier at school
Instructor urged Latino students to attend rally on immigration
Rudy Rios was stripped of his duties as junior varsity baseball coach at Chavez High School last week after using a district copying machine to make a flier encouraging Latino students to attend a rally protesting restrictions on illegal immigration.
Rios, who still retains his duties as an English-as-a-second-language teacher, was copying and distributing a flier that read: "We gots 2 stay together and protest against the new law that wants 2 be passed against all immigrants. We gots 2 show the U.S. that they aint (expletive) with out us (sic)," according to district officials.
"Mr. Rios used taxpayer-funded school equipment to copy and distribute to children an offensive statement," said Houston Independent School District spokesman Terry Abbott. "The principal exercised his authority to remove Mr. Rios as junior varsity baseball coach, and it certainly was an appropriate decision."
Chavez Principal Dan Martinez made the decision, but referred questions on the issue to Abbott. Rios could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
According to district records, Rios has been with HISD since August 2002. He earned about $42,000 a year.
Last week, Reagan High School Principal Robert Pambello was disciplined for putting a Mexican flag below the U.S. and Texas flags that fly at his school.
Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said many educators are struggling to keep their opinions on the controversial changes to the immigration laws out of the classroom.
"It's a very tough one for a lot of the teachers because it's a highly emotional issue," she said. "A teacher's role is to be informative, but not persuasive. They need to talk to students. They need to make sure they know the issues, but like any other political issue, their role is not to express a specific opinion."
Teachers would be allowed to demonstrate on their own time, including during duty-free lunches, she said. "A teacher is a citizen. A teacher has every right to — on their own time — be as public as they want, no matter how popular or unpopular their views," she said.
chatty
Arizona Poll: Make English Official State Language
More than four-in-five Arizona residents support making English the official language of the state according to a new poll conducted by Zogby International from March 30 to 31, 2006.
The poll of 510 likely voters in the Grand Canyon State found that 82 percent of Arizonans favor official English legislation, with more than two-thirds of respondents strongly favoring such a measure.
"Arizona residents have once again declared that they want the government to embrace our official language – English," said Mauro E. Mujica, chairman of U.S. English, Inc. "They understand that English remains the great unifier in a diverse state and that fluency in English is the key to economic self-sufficiency and personal growth."
Official English legislation in Arizona calls for government to conduct official business in English and ensures that the state does not have an obligation to provide foreign language services. The bill takes into account numerous common sense exceptions to ensure the constitutional rights of all Arizonans. Public health and safety information, law enforcement and courtroom translation are all exempted from the law.
Last month, the Arizona House passed HCR 2036, legislation that would allow the citizens of Arizona to vote on making English the official language of the state. The measure, approved on March 23 by a margin of 34 to 22 in the House, is now in the Senate for consideration. If passed, the citizens of Arizona would cast their vote in November.
Last year, the House and Senate both passed legislation that would make English the official language of Arizona, only to have it vetoed by the governor. A subsequent poll by KAET-TV/Channel 8 and Arizona State University found that the majority of Arizonans disagree with the governor's action.
Congresswoman's husband gets 5 months
The husband of an Illinois congresswoman was sentenced to five months in federal prison Wednesday for writing rubber checks and failing to pay withholding taxes.
Robert Creamer, 58, husband of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., also was ordered to serve house arrest for 11 months after he finishes his prison term.
Prosecutors had wanted a three-year sentence, but U.S. District Judge James B. Moran said five months was fairer because no one suffered "out of pocket losses" and Creamer acted not out of greed but in an effort to keep his community action group going without cutting programs.
Schakowsky sat stoically with her hands folded in her lap, often looking out the window, as Moran imposed the sentence.
Afterward she read a statement to reporters and left without answering questions.
"I am obviously disappointed that Bob's sentence included incarceration, but we accept the judge's decision and look forward to the day that we can finally put this nearly decade-long chapter behind us," Schakowsky said.
She said she was proud that her husband "has for his entire adult life devoted himself to fighting for a better future for others-- he has been a constant crusader for social and economic justice in this country and beyond."
The case, which has been dragging on for years, has had no discernible impact on Schakowsky's political career. She is an odds-on favorite to win reelection in November from an overwhelmingly Democratic city and suburban district.
Creamer is one of Chicago's best-known political consultants. He has worked for the campaigns of both Mayor Richard M. Daley and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Creamer told reporters he was disappointed that he must go to prison but accepted it.
He promised that "for the rest of my life I will continue to do whatever I can to work for social and economic justice."
"And I will never again allow my passion for that goal to overwhelm my good judgment or my respect for the law," Creamer added.
Creamer pleaded guilty to failing to pay withholding taxes and bank fraud involving check kiting-- writing checks on accounts without sufficient funds to cover them while moving money between accounts and playing the so-called float to prevent the checks from bouncing.
All of the money was repaid and Creamer had been hoping for no prison time.
Ferguson said Creamer's statements suggested that while he admitted his check kiting was "legally improper it was somehow morally acceptable."
"He shouldn't have taken money from banks, he shouldn't have taken tax money," he said.
Scores of Creamer friends and well-wishers had written to Moran describing what they called his lifetime of fighting for civil rights and justice for the poor.
All the same, Moran said some prison time was warranted. He did say Creamer had been "a champion of the little folks."
Tom DeLay: Victim of GOP Timidity
The most stunning aspect of Tom DeLay's resignation from Congress isn't that he was forced out by a wave of bad publicity that began with his indictment last September for breaking a law that wasn't even on the books when DeLay allegedly violated it.
The real surprise of the DeLay debacle is that his fellow Republicans allowed him to be ripped apart by Democrat-friendly media piranha - without firing a shot in return.
Democrats would have surely backed off on their "Culture of Corruption" mantra had the GOP made even a minimal effort to fight fire with fire.
Instead, Hill Republicans looked the other way on one Democrat scandal after another - and will likely end up paying the price by losing control of Congress in November.
Here's a short list of investigations the GOP should have launched - not for reasons of partisan revenge - but because they warranted the full oversight of the party in control of Congress:
♣ Bergergate: The theft and destruction of top secret national security documents by former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger in a blatant attempt to obstruct the 9/11 Commission investigation.
Berger's crime was easily one of the most serious ever committed by a top government official. Yet the GOP Congress declined to probe further after the Bush Justice Department cut such an embarrassingly light plea bargain that even the Berger case judge was appalled.
♣ Rathergate: You'd never know it from the lethargic Republican reaction, but when a mysterious Texas source supplied forgeries of President Bush's military records to CBS News just weeks before the 2004 election, it was a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Compounding the political intrigue, CBS tipped a top staffer in the Kerry campaign on the coming Bush document assault.
But after Texas authorities declined to pursue a request for a criminal investigation from several GOP House members, the matter was promptly dropped. Republican congressional interest in getting to the bottom this scheme to steal the 2004 election after Texas authorities opted out: Zippo.
♣ Schumergate: The illegal purloining of Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's credit report by staffers on Sen. Chuck Schumer's Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee certainly seemed like a ripe topic for some congressional oversight. But like the Bergergate case, it appears that Bush Justice will let the guilty parties off with a slap on the wrist - without fingering any higher ups.
In fact, Schumer's committee is now insisting that it acted in an "exemplary manner" by not using the illegal info against Steele. GOP interest in further investigation? Bubkiss.
♣ Nukegate: We've already had several hearings into President Bush's so-called illegal NSA terrorist surveillance program, which was first revealed in James Risen's new book: "State of War."
But there's been little interest in the other bombshell development revealed by Risen: President Clinton's decision to give Iran doctored blueprints for key nuclear components that allowed the Iranians, in Risen's words, to "leapfrog one of the last remaining engineering hurdles blocking its path to a nuclear weapon."
With Sen. John McCain now predicting "Armageddon" as a result of the Iranian nuclear threat, one might think that a report like this might be ripe for congressional investigation.
But one would be wrong. Republican interest to date in a Clinton Nukegate probe: Zilch.
The list of Democrat scandals passed up by Republicans could probably fill a book. But others that deserve honorable mention are the surpression of the Barrett Report, media leaks by anti-Bush CIA insiders and a probe into Sen. Robert Byrd's activities while he was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan.
Compare those unexploited nuggets to the psuedo-scandals that supposedly drove DeLay from office - and it becomes abundantly clear why Republicans now stand an excellent chance of being forced to turn over the keys to Capitol Hill this November.
