First gay marriages held in New York
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on July 25th, 2011 4:35 am by HL
First gay marriages held in New York
Hundreds of gay couples — dressed in formal suits and striped trousers, gowns and T-shirts — recited vows in emotion-choked voices and triumphantly hoisted their long-awaited marriage certificates Sunday as New York became the sixth and largest state to recognize same-sex weddings.
Couples began saying “I do” at midnight from Niagara Falls to Long Island, though New York City became the sometimes raucous center of action by daybreak as couples waited on a sweltering day for the chance to exchange vows at the city clerk’s office.
Showdown encourages citizens to give gifts to reduce debt
As President Obama and Congress struggle to tame the nation’s runaway borrowing, a stream of checks, cash and even gold coins is pouring into a post office box in West Virginia where, for years, people who want to help pay down the national debt have been able to send gifts.
“I love my country. I don’t want it in debt like this. I don’t want it having a financial crisis,” said Jane Olive, a retired teacher in Las Vegas who sent $100 to the PO box this month.
But the contributions don’t specifically go to pay off existing debt. The government deposits them in the Treasury Department’s general fund, in essence the government’s main checking account.
POW/MIA groups criticize U.S. efforts
A coalition of groups representing veterans and the families of missing U.S. service members has accused the Defense Department of undercutting a joint U.S.-Russian program that seeks answers to the fate of Americans who disappeared behind the Iron Curtain.
The U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs, established in 1992, has given investigators from the United States access to Russia’s central military archives and opportunities to interview potential eyewitnesses about U.S. service members who may have perished in the former Soviet Union or the territory of its allies during World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War.
Obama takes political, policy gamble on ‘big deal’
When President Obama last spoke to the nation, he said he was ready to make Republicans an offer they couldn’t refuse. In exchange for trillions of dollars in cuts, including to Medicare and Social Security, Republicans would have to agree to a fraction of that in increased tax revenue.
“Even a deal that is not as balanced as I think it should be is better than no deal at all,” Obama said on Friday.
Obama’s political advisers have long believed that securing such an agreement would provide an enormous boost to his 2012 campaign, according to people familiar with White House thinking. In particular, they want to preserve and improve the president’s standing among political independents, who abandoned Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections and who say reining in the nation’s debt is a high priority.
