Obama meets with Supreme Court candidate Sidney Thomas

Washington (News Terupdate) - President Obama has started meeting with possible Supreme Court nominees, including talks Thursday with federal Judge Sidney Thomas, a senior administration official told CNN.

Thomas serves on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and is from Billings, Montana.

The senior official would not disclose the other recent meetings, but acknowledged the activity is a sign the process has reached an important phase and Obama is edging closer to a selection.

Obama has said he intends to nominate a candidate to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens by the end of May, so the Senate can complete the confirmation process in time for the new Supreme Court session in the fall.

According to the senior administration official, Obama is still going through a lot of reading material as he considers contenders and has more one-on-one meetings planned.

The senior official said Obama has not recently met with two other known contenders -- Judge Diane Wood or Solicitor General Elena Kagan -- but added that Obama either met with them the last time there was a vacancy on the high court or already knows them well from other encounters.

The official would not comment on whether another contender, federal appellate Judge Merrick Garland, had met one-on-one with Obama in the past week.

Source : CNN

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Report: Trainer killed by whale momentarily freed herself in struggle

Orlando, Florida (News Terupdate) - The SeaWorld trainer killed by a whale in February fought to free herself from the animal after he caught her hair, a sheriff's report said.

Dawn Brancheau, 40, was working with a whale named Tilikum on February 24 when the animal pulled her underwater in front of shocked onlookers at SeaWorld of Orlando's Shamu Stadium.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that Brancheau and Tilikum interacted "nose-to-nose" when her hair floated on the water into the animal's mouth.

She briefly freed herself and tried to swim to the surface, but her efforts were thwarted when the 12,000-pound animal struck her.

An autopsy report confirms that Brancheau died of drowning and traumatic injuries.

Tilikum has been linked to two other deaths. In 1991, he and two other whales were involved in the drowning of a trainer at a Victoria, British Columbia, marine park. In 1999, Tilikum was blamed for the death of a 27-year-old man whose body was found floating in a tank at SeaWorld.

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Why let senior teachers get a free pass during layoffs?

San Diego, California (News Terupdate) - As a frequent critic of teachers' unions for standing in the way of education reform, perpetuating a culture of low expectations and defending the interests of teachers even to the detriment of students, I'm accustomed to having union officials call me "anti-teacher."

Of course, I would hope that most of us would understand that criticizing a labor union isn't quite the same thing as criticizing its members. If you don't understand this, you might when you look at one of the latest and most contentious battles in the world of public education. It's over teacher layoffs, and the question of who gets let go and who gets to stay.

Once again, it pits the education overhaul advocates against teachers unions trying to preserve the status quo. But this time, with more than 300,000 teacher layoffs expected around the country, it's teacher vs. teacher.

In one corner, older and more experienced teachers who, having spent their whole career accumulating power in their school district and influence with the union that represents them, are calling in those markers to save their own skins.

In the other, younger and less experienced but often more idealistic teachers, some of whom were sought out and recruited by districts only to be the first fired in times of layoffs. The unions are backing the older teachers and throwing their younger members to the wolves.

This struggle is playing out most dramatically in large urban school districts such as those in Los Angeles, California, or New York, and in those blue states where teachers unions are most powerful because they've supported scores of Democratic lawmakers with votes and contributions.

In California and New York, state lawmakers are looking at legislation that would give district administrators more power to decide who gets fired and who gets retained according to effectiveness and need, instead of having their hands tied by current laws that require these decisions to be made according to seniority.

In many school districts, longevity acts as a shield against layoffs. Younger teachers with less experience suffer as a consequence. They have almost no power, and so they have no say in what happens to them.

At first blush, that kind of policy would seem to make sense. Experienced teachers are often valuable and hard to come by, and a school district would obviously like to keep as many of them as possible. Also, younger teachers may have an easier time finding new employment, either at another school district or in another field altogether.

But with scrutiny, it becomes clear that automatically retaining senior teachers just because they've been in the classroom a long time is not a smart policy. For one thing, it's another blow against the principle of competition, because it puts one group on notice that they're protected and that they don't have to compete for their job. That won't do much to enhance performance. Teaching is one of those things where doing it for a long time doesn't automatically mean doing it well.

There is also the fact that these younger teachers are often assigned to disadvantaged and underperforming schools. So firing them en masse would have a disastrous effect on the most needy schools. They are often replaced by substitute teachers, paid by the day, without benefits.

That's not fair. And that's why the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles School District in defense of younger teachers and the poor schools they serve. That's also why civil rights groups such as the NAACP are demanding poor districts and wealthier ones share the burden of teacher layoffs more equally.

All this is part of the newest headache for unions, which these days are just as likely to war with liberals as with conservatives. A lot of credit goes to the Obama administration, which has not shied away from confronting teachers unions in defense of higher standards and greater accountability. In doing so, the administration has made it socially acceptable for liberals to criticize teachers unions, which deserve their share of criticism.

And it provides another unfortunate example of where the Democratic Party -- in falling in line behind teachers unions -- is working against the interests of the same poor minorities who, at election time, instinctively and blindly vote for Democrats. Go figure. Isn't that like a turkey voting for Thanksgiving? Some people never learn.

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Obama pushes wind power in Iowa visit

Fort Madison, Iowa (News Terupdate) - President Obama took his renewable energy push to the heartland Tuesday, trumpeting the merits of wind power during a visit to the state that launched him on the road to the White House a little over two years ago.

Obama's visit to the Siemens wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Fort Madison, Iowa, was the latest stop in his "White House to Main Street" tour, part of his pitch to middle-class workers hurt by the economic downturn.

"Lately, we've been able to report some welcome news after a hard two years. Our economy is finally growing again," Obama told workers at the plant.

But "times are still tough for middle-class Americans, who had been swimming against the current for years before the economic tidal wave hit."

While in Iowa, the president also toured an organic farm in Mount Pleasant and was scheduled to host a town hall meeting at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa.

"The country that leads the clean energy economy will be the country that leads the 21st century global economy," Obama said at the Siemens plant. "I don't accept second place for the United States of America. That's why our energy security has been a top priority for my administration since the day I took office."

The president cited his controversial $862 billion economic stimulus plan, which passed over solid GOP opposition early last year. The measure helped reverse the economic downturn and will create or save more than 700,000 jobs by 2012, he claimed.

It will do so in part by funding larger investments in renewable energy projects, according to the administration. Obama claimed that, if the proper investments are made, wind could generate up to 20 percent of America's energy two decades from now.

"Wind power isn't the silver bullet that will solve all our energy challenges," he said. "There isn't one. But it is a key part of a comprehensive strategy to move us from an economy that runs on fossil fuels to one that relies on more homegrown fuels and clean energy."

Republicans have repeatedly slammed the economic stimulus plan, characterizing it as a pork-laden bill that failed to prevent unemployment from rising.

Obama is scheduled to spend Tuesday night in Des Moines, Iowa, resting up for stops Wednesday in Illinois and Missouri.

It was just a month ago that Obama spoke at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, to tout the health care reform bill he had just signed into law. In May 2007, the then-presidential candidate chose Iowa to unveil his health care plan, which the White House says "launched a grass-roots campaign for reform that led directly to the legislation passed" by Congress last month.

Obama made his first trip as president to Iowa on April 22, 2009. He marked Earth Day in Newton by announcing an initiative to lease federal waters for the purpose of generating electricity from wind and ocean currents.

Obama's victory in January 2008 in his party's Iowa caucuses boosted him into front-runner status along with Hillary Clinton in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, a fight he won when Clinton dropped out in June.

Obama ended up winning the state by 10 points, a switch in fortunes for the Democrats. Four years earlier, President George W. Bush narrowly won the state.

But the political climate has changed for the president and for the Democrats since those heady days of 2008. Iowans are now divided on the job Obama is doing in the White House.

According to a KCCI-Research 2000 poll conducted two months ago, 49 percent of Iowans approved of the president's performance in office, with 46 percent saying they disapprove. The same survey indicated that 35 percent of Iowa voters thought the country was headed in the right direction, with six in 10 saying it was headed the wrong way.

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What we do matters more than labels

(News Terupdate) - I am all that and yet I am none of it. These are the different ways people define me. They would relate to me in their own way -- see me in their own light -- and label me and box me as they see fit.

I have never been one to care much about what people think about me and how they label me. I don't preoccupy myself with it, since I have very little control over it.

Those who label me as an Iranian would argue with those who would label me as an American. Some would question why I should be called a Muslim and some would take offense if I wasn't. At the end of the day, none of it matters. At night, when I close my eyes and look back at my day, what matters is what I did and not what I was called doing it.

Who am I? I am a human -- plain and simple -- no labels attached. I would be honored if everyone would think of me and preferably others as such.

By labeling ourselves or others, we create boxes, boundaries and decide who belongs on what side of the line. We divide ourselves, and by dividing ourselves, one would determine which side of the line is better.

Sometimes each side believes that their side is better and sometimes one side can be so persuasive to make the other side believe that they are on the wrong side. At the end, it doesn't matter which side you are on because no one wins. The labels we put on ourselves and let others put on us are just that -- labels. And they can be removed. Once we are free, we can just be human, pure and simple.

I have lived my life fulfilling many roles, as mentioned above. Sometimes I did a great job at it and other times I came short. At the end, however, I filled each role with love.

As long as love was involved, it didn't matter what I was called -- I was doing something I loved, something I wanted to do and something that was important for me to do.

At my core, I am someone who is at awe of the universe and this mystery we call life. When I was floating freely in space and looking back on Earth from my safe haven amongst the stars, I saw a world without division -- just one Earth -- in this vast universe.

From my vantage point, the lines had been blurred and had become invisible. I knew that back on Earth, these imaginary lines were very much present and causing all of our problems. But up there, the lines did not matter. They did not exist. I made a promise to myself: Remind people of who they really are and not which box they are in, because those lines really do not exist.

So who am I? I am a human who loves to live my life to the fullest. That's who I am.

Source : CNN

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Sandra Bullock will return her Razzie

(News Terupdate) - Sandra Bullock was recently asked to return the Razzie she picked up for her rather ignominious turn in "All About Steve."

Apparently, since the awards show coordinators didn't know she was going to show up in person to receive her award, they had to give her the original Razzie prototype instead of the cheap $5 knockoff "winners" usually get, and now they want it back.

What should have been a quiet little exchange turned into a minor frenzy over nothing much at all, thanks to tabloid press, but the issue may finally be put to rest now Bullock's rep has told E! News that the Oscar-winner will indeed be returning her less-than-honorary award.

"We were never contacted by them to return the Razzie," Bullock's publicist, Cheryl Maisel, told E!. "I contacted them yesterday to check the validity of the story and was only told then that we had been given the wrong award. We will be returning the Razzie to them shortly."

My question is: Isn't this the one award which you'd be more than happy for someone to rescind? Does this brief kerfuffle, out of the harsh glare of awards season and with a newly super-sympathetic Bullock, make you reconsider the choice of her as Razzies' Worst Actress? Any other candidates you think deserved it more?

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Arizona governor signs immigration bill

Phoenix, Arizona (News Terupdate) - Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill Friday that requires police in her state to determine whether a person is in the United States legally, which critics say will foster racial profiling but supporters say will crack down on illegal immigration.

The bill requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there is reason to suspect that they're in the United States illegally. It also targets those who hire illegal immigrant day laborers or knowingly transport them.

The Republican governor also issued an executive order that requires additional training for local officers on how to implement the law without engaging in racial profiling or discrimination.

"This training will include what does and does not constitute reasonable suspicion that a person is not legally present in the United States," Brewer said after signing the bill.

"Racial profiling is illegal. It is illegal in America, and it's certainly illegal in Arizona," Brewer said.

The rules, to be established in by the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board, are due back to her in May. The law goes into effect 90 days after the close of the legislative session, which has not been determined.

What will Arizona's immigration law do?

Previously, officers could check someone's immigration status only if that person was suspected in another crime.

Brewer's executive order was in response to critics who argue that the new law will lead to racial profiling, saying that most police officers don't have enough training to look past race while investigating a person's legal status.

"As committed as I am to protecting our state from crime associated with illegal immigration, I am equally committed to holding law enforcement accountable should this stature ever be misused to violate an individual's rights," Brewer said.

She added that the law would probably be challenged in courts and that there are those outside Arizona who have an interest in seeing the state fail with the new measure.

"We cannot give them that chance. We must use this new tool wisely and fight for our safety with the honor Arizona deserves."

The bill is considered to be among the toughest immigration measures in the nation. Supporters say the measure is needed to fill a void left by the federal government's failure to enforce its immigration laws.

Its leading sponsor, state Sen. Russell Pearce, said this week, "Illegal is not a race; it's a crime."

"We're going to take the handcuffs off of law enforcement. We're going to put them on the bad guy," said Pearce, a Republican.

Fellow Republican state Sen. Frank Antenori said the biggest reason he supported the bill was because a rancher in one of the counties he represents was murdered by someone who crossed the U.S. border with Mexico illegally. He said the person of interest in the killing had crossed the border numerous times and cited other similar violent crimes.

"The citizens of this state are tired of the catch and release that is going on by the federal government where they grab people, they process them, and they take them back and drop them on the other side of the border," Antenori said. "They just come back, and we have no border security down here."

After the signing, the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police, which had opposed the measure, issued a statement saying, "law enforcement professionals in the State of Arizona will enforce the provisions of the new law to the best of their abilities."

The state's largest police union, the Arizona Police Association, is in favor of the law.

In the hours leading up to the bill's signing, about 2,000 people rallied at the Arizona capital, and President Barack Obama, in the nation's capital, called the legislation "misguided" but said the federal government must act on the immigration issue.

Read excerpts from remarks Friday by Obama and Brewer

"Our failure to act responsible at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," the president said at a naturalization ceremony for 24 members of the military.

Brewer's counterpart in neighboring New Mexico, Gov. Bill Richardson, called the new law "a terrible piece of legislation."

"It's against the democratic ideals of this country," he told CNN's "Situation Room." "It's a step backwards. It's impractical."

He said the law would not combat the problem of illegal immigration or take the place of comprehensive reform.

iReport: Share your thoughts on immigration policy

Latino members of Congress also slammed the bill.

"When you institutionalize a law like this one, you are targeting and discriminating at a wholesale level against a group of people," Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, said Tuesday.

Grijalva closed his two district offices Friday when an unidentified caller threatened to blow up his Tucson office and kill his staff members. The caller also said he was going to be "exercising my civil liberties, and I'm shooting Mexicans at the border," according to Grijalva's district director, Ruben Reyes, who fielded one of the calls.

Grijalva and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, had called on Brewer to veto the measure.

Gutierrez is a leading supporter of a proposed overhaul of U.S. immigration laws and said the Arizona issue shows why an overhaul is necessary. He has urged Obama to "put his back into the push" and to let Arizona know that federal law trumps state legislation on immigration.

The Virginia-based Hispanic Leadership Fund also criticized the law, saying in a written statement, "Having to 'carry your papers' is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes -- not of the Constitutional Republic that our Founding Fathers wisely passed on to us. Arizonans and all Americans deserve an immigration system that works, not a draconian big government desecration of the Bill of Rights."

Brewer said that "decades of federal inaction and misguided policies" have created "a dangerous and unacceptable situation."

The governor said Arizona's law mirrors federal statutes on immigration enforcement, "despite the erroneous and misleading statements suggesting otherwise."

Asked what criteria will be used to establish reasonable suspicion of someone's legal status, Brewer said, "I don't know. I do not know what an illegal immigrant looks like."

However, she added, her executive order requires the Arizona Peace Officers Standards and Training Board to address the issue.

"I know that if AZPOST gets [itself] together, works on this law, puts down the description, that the law will be enforced civilly, fairly and without discriminatory points to it."

Source : CNN

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Judge removed from Ohio serial killings case

(News Terupdate) - The Ohio Supreme Court has removed a Cleveland judge from a case after attorneys for serial killer suspect Anthony Sowell accused her of bias as a result of postings about their client on a newspaper website.

Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold was removed from the case Thursday, and it has been turned over to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for reassignment to another judge.

Sowell faces murder, attempted murder, rape and attempted rape charges in connection with the killings of 11 women and attacks on five other women. He was arrested after the bodies of the slain women were found at his house last fall, and he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Read the indictment (PDF)

Sowell's attorneys, John P. Parker and Rufus Sims, filed an affidavit Monday seeking Saffold's disqualification, according to court documents.

They alleged that Saffold had "improper," ex parte conversations with the former judge on the case, Timothy McGinty, and a newspaper reporter from The Cleveland Plain Dealer. They also said that e-mails from the judge's personal and office accounts allegedly were sources of information for a March 26 Plain Dealer article and that the judge has a financial interest in the case because she and her daughter have sued the newspaper over the apparent use of her e-mails as sourcing for that article.

The defense said someone using the moniker "lawmiss" posted derogatory comments on the newspaper's website about attorney Sims and Sowell.

Those comments were linked to Saffold's account, but she has denied posting them and has said her court computer was not used to make them.

Saffold could not be reached for comment Thursday.

However, she filed a response to the defense, insisting she harbors no bias in the case and denying she had any improper conversations about it with others. She also said her civil suit against the newspaper has nothing to do with the case against the defendant.

Still, acting Chief Justice Paul E. Pfeifer found the concerns over Saffold's e-mail accounts and the public postings particularly troubling.

"Although Judge Saffold denied that she was the source of these online comments, she has admitted that the comments originated from the online account shared by her and members of her family and that the comments were posted by her daughter," Pfeifer said in his ruling.

He said the "unfortunate postings" impede Saffold's ability to resolve legal issues in the case that would appear to be objective and fair.

While there's no evidence of Saffold's actual bias, Pfeifer said, "disqualification is appropriate where the public's confidence in the integrity of the judicial system is at stake."

Source : CNN

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Does the U.S. still care about the UK?

WASHINGTON(News Terupdate) - Winston Churchill, the great British wartime prime minister with a knack for a catchy phrase, declared in 1946 that there was a "special relationship" between the United States and Great Britain: strands of culture, language, world view -- as well as military cooperation and intelligence-sharing -- that knit the two countries so closely together.

But that was generations ago, and Washington is now focused on the financial crisis, health care, China and other issues that have little to do with America's cousins across the pond. So does the special relationship still exist?

At least some ordinary British people think it does.

Watching a Liverpool vs. West Ham soccer match at a pub in Washington, Mark Dronsfield, a sales manager from Manchester, northern England, grounded in the U.S. capital by the Icelandic volcano, said: "It's a really good relationship that we have with the general population of the USA -- the U.S. people. And I think that carries on no matter what political persuasion you are."

Many British people were turned off by President George W. Bush, and Tony Blair, the prime minister for much of the Bush era, who was regularly portrayed as Bush's poodle.

But Dronsfield said that didn't kill the special relationship.

"I think special relationships are defined by the trouble that you can go through, like in a marriage," he said. "I think the Bush era was some trouble with going into Iraq, weapons of mass destruction and all that kind of stuff and we came through that," he said.

"The trust of that relationship went down because of what they did with Iraq, and I think the people generally came through that, and then now we're looking for some definition of [U.S. President Barack] Obama with the next political leader in the UK." British voters go to the polls on May 6 to determine if Prime Minister Gordon Brown will keep his job.

Full coverage of the UK general election

Brown and Obama both insist the "special relationship" is "rock solid."

"The United States and the United Kingdom have stood together through thick and thin, through war and peace, through hard times and prosperity," Obama said in London in April. Brown echoed him: "Today we are renewing our special relationship for new times."

But the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said earlier this year the phrase is "potentially misleading," and "should be avoided."

The committee points to the run-up to the invasion of Iraq and the perception that Blair's government was a subservient "poodle" to the administration of George Bush.

It calls that perception "deeply damaging to the reputation and interests of the UK. "

David Manning, Britain's former ambassador to the United States, who testified before the committee, said his country may have to use "sharp elbows" to get its voice heard by the Obama administration. "I don't think we should take it for granted that just because Britain says it, people in Washington are going to have time to stop and say we better listen to this," he tells CNN. "We've got to have something serious and important to say."

"I think you also have to be realistic," Manning said.

The Obama administration came into office facing a massive list of problems: the financial crisis, Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East, relations with China. "If there is a sense ... that Europe doesn't get all the attention it might like, I don't think this should be read as a downgrading of the relationship so much as a recognition of the fact that the U.S. administration has got some tremendously tough priorities that it has got to address in a very urgent way," Manning said.

Foreign policy expert Robert Kagan, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, agrees that Obama is focused on countries other than the United Kingdom.

"He's devoted most of his energy toward the so-called 'reset' of relations with Russia. He's focused on working things out with China, whether it's on Iran, or the international economy," Kagan said.

"Europe in general has taken a lower place in Obama's attention," and "Britain in particular, which is used to having a prominent place within Europe, doesn't enjoy that at the moment," he said.

Personal relations among leaders do play a role too, he said. "His relationship with Gordon Brown is not a warm one. His relationship with European leaders in general is not warm. I just don't think Obama thinks about Britain particularly when he thinks 'I have problems to solve.' "

The White House is quick to point out that Washington and London work hand-in-hand in Afghanistan and Iraq, on climate change and on the world economic crisis, fighting terrorism and nuclear proliferation.

Asked about the "special relationship," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs initially avoided using the word "special."

"I don't have a special relationship with the phrase 'special relationship,' " he said, before adding: "We have a special relationship with Britain."

Andrew Hemingway, a sales manager from Yorkshire in northern England, who lives and works in the United States, thinks relations between the United States and the United Kingdom have changed, "with the economic uncertainty and general uncertainty in the world right now.

Britain is trying to decide whether to align itself more with the United States or Europe and London is dealing with the fact that it's not the world power it once was, he said.

"Things have changed quite a lot since the imperial days when the UK was quite a powerful nation," he said. "I guess now we feel dominated in a certain way, and I guess some people are trying to rebel against that, like in most other countries in the world -- so it's an interesting time."

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Vatican says sex abuse suit lacks merit

Rome, Italy (News Terupdate) - The Vatican said a lawsuit accusing it and Pope Benedict XVI of covering up sexual abuse by a priest at a Catholic school in the United States has no merit.

"While legitimate lawsuits have been filed by abuse victims, this is not one of them," Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Lena said Friday. "Instead, the lawsuit represents an attempt to use tragic events as a platform for a broader attack."

The lawsuit by an unnamed Illinois man demands the Vatican release the names of thousands of Catholic priests that the suit says have "credible allegations of sexual misconduct" against them.

The alleged victim, who is now an adult, says he was molested by the Rev. Lawrence Murphy while a student at St. John's School for the Deaf, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"The defendant, [the] Holy See, has known about the widespread problem of childhood sexual abuse committed by its clergy for centuries, but has covered up that abuse and thereby perpetuated the abuse," the suit says.

"The case against the Holy See and its officials is completely without merit," Lena said. "Most of the complaint rehashes old theories already rejected by U.S. courts."

Lena added, "With regard to Murphy himself, the Holy See and its officials knew nothing of his crimes until decades after the abuse occurred, and had no role whatsoever in causing plaintiff's injuries."

Benedict was named as a defendant because he has the ultimate authority to remove priests and because of his involvement in reviewing sex abuse cases when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the suit says.

Peter Isely, Midwest director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, estimated the Vatican is investigating 4,000 cases of sex abuse by church employees.

The lawsuit aims to change church policies and practices that conceal sex offenders, Isely said.

"It's going to protect children, we hope, around the world," he said, "This is a historic day and hopefully this is going to result in historic changes."

Arthur Budzinski, a deaf man who said he was sexually assaulted and raped by Murphy, stood with Isely at a news conference Thursday.

He said the priest "may have stolen our bodies," but higher clerics such as cardinals, archbishops and the pope "stole our voices."

Budzinski, who is not a party to the lawsuit, made his comments in sign language and his daughter, Gigi, interpreted his words.

Murphy, who died in 1998, is believed to have molested up to 200 boys, Isely said.

The lawsuit said the church "knew that there was a high probability that these clerics would sexually molest more children, but sought to protect itself from scandal, sought to keep its income stream going, at the peril of children."

Murphy, it says, was a "top fundraiser and recruiter" for the church and the "Holy See wanted to retain Murphy's services."

The same Minnesota law firm representing the Illinois plaintiff also filed suit Wednesday on behalf of a Mexican resident who says he was sexually abused by a priest.

The suit alleges Catholic officials in Los Angeles, California, aided and abetted the abuse by moving the priest to different dioceses as allegations piled up against him.

Source : CNN

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At least 61 dead in Iraq bombings

Baghdad, Iraq (News Terupdate) - A wave of bombings targeting Shiites, a market in Baghdad and a neighborhood in Anbar province killed at least 61 people and wounded more than 100 others Friday, police said.

The strikes conjured memories of the bloodshed that once engulfed both the capital city and the vast province every day.

No one has claimed responsibility for the string of attacks, but authorities believe that such coordinated bombings bear the hallmarks of al Qaeda in Iraq.

The bombings come days after Iraqi and U.S. officials announced that they had killed the two most wanted al Qaeda leaders in the country. Although the deaths hurt the insurgents, military officials don't discount insurgents' continued ability to carry out attacks.

This week, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Baghdad Military Operations Command, boasted about the killings of insurgent leaders Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

He said security forces must capitalize on this "great victory" but cautioned about the possibility of reprisals.

Of the Iraqi-U.S. joint operation Sunday that killed the two leaders, Atta said, "We had information that they were planning attacks that would target churches, Shiite mosques and bridges, and the security forces took precautions and prepared security plans specifically for this."

Former Deputy Minister of Health and Sadrist politician Hakim al-Zamili said he thinks Friday's bombings could be retaliation for the killing of the al Qaeda in Iraq leaders.

"This political and government vacuum led to such bombings and will lead to many disasters for the Iraqi people," he said.

The strikes occur during the delay in the formation of a government, and many observers fear that a political vacuum could portend an increase in violence, such as the sectarian bloodshed that took place in early 2006 while the government was being formed.

Among the string of attacks:

• Two car bombs targeted worshipers in Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, killing 39 and wounding 56 people. Also, a car bomb exploded outside one of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's offices there, wounding five people.

The attacks enraged Sadr City residents, who say the government is turning a blind eye to militants. Al-Sadr's office distributed a statement Friday afternoon calling for his followers to show restraint and called for three days of mourning. Al-Sadr has a political movement and a large grass-roots following.

• In southeastern Baghdad, eight people died and 23 were wounded when a car bomb and a roadside bomb detonated outside Muhsin al-Hakim mosque.

• In the northwestern Baghdad neighborhood of Hurriya, a car bomb explosion outside Hadi al-Chalabi mosque killed five people and wounded 10.

• A roadside bomb outside the Sadreen mosque in the Zafaraniya neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad killed two people and wounded seven.

• One person was killed and six people were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded in an outdoor market in the southern Baghdad district of Dora.

• A car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque in the Ameen neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad, wounding two people.

• West of Baghdad, in the Anbar province town of Khaldiya, six people were killed and 10 were wounded when six roadside bombs exploded in a residential area where a police officer and a judge lived. Authorities imposed a curfew.

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Obama to discuss Supreme Court pick with party leaders

(News Terupdate) - President Obama is expected to meet with key Republican and Democratic leaders Wednesday to discuss a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Obama has been privately reaching out this week to candidates for the pending Supreme Court vacancy, an administration source said Tuesday.

The president's conversations with potential candidates were conducted over the phone. Specifics of the discussions were not disclosed by the source.

Stevens announced he would retire shortly after the court's current term ends in late June.

White House officials have said they expect the president to pick his nominee by early May.

It was unclear which names on the White House short list of about 10 people are being given the most serious scrutiny.

Three names had an early edge: Solicitor General Elena Kagan and federal appeals judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland, government sources had said earlier. But officials stressed that the president in recent days has expanded the list of names he wanted his staff to vet before he makes his decision.

Others being considered include Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Montana-based federal appeals judge Sidney Thomas.

A new national poll released this week suggests that a majority of Americans expect Obama to appoint a liberal to the Supreme Court, but only one in four want that to happen.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey indicates that 61 percent of the public expect the president to nominate a liberal to replace Stevens on the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, 21 percent said the president will name a moderate and 16 percent predicted that Obama will nominate a conservative.

On Tuesday Obama took time to pen a birthday letter to the retiring judge for his 90th birthday.

"Our system of justice and our Nation are stronger and fairer because of your sterling contributions. On behalf of the country, I thank you for your distinguished service," Obama wrote.

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Civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks to be buried Wednesday

(News Terupdate) - With the Tennessee House canceling its activities so lawmakers can attend the funeral, civil rights icon Benjamin L. Hooks will be buried Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, his hometown.

The 85-year-old Hooks, who led the NAACP from 1977 to 1992, died last week after a lengthy illness, according to NAACP officials.

Hooks, who grew up in the segregated South, was "a vocal campaigner for civil rights in the United States," the NAACP said in announcing his death.

Hooks was a lawyer and an ordained Baptist minister who joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and led the NAACP for 15 years.

The organization "was suffering from declining membership and prestige when Hooks assumed his role as executive director," a University of Memphis biography says. The NAACP added several hundred thousand new members during his tenure, it says.

The civil rights organization worked with Major League Baseball on a program that expanded employment opportunities for African-Americans in baseball, including in positions as managers, coaches and in franchise executive offices, the NAACP said.

He also worked with colleagues to set up a program in which more than 200 corporations agreed to participate in economic development projects in black communities, the NAACP said.

President George W. Bush awarded Hooks the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in November 2007.

"As a civil rights activist, public servant, and minister of the gospel, Dr. Hooks has extended the hand of fellowship throughout his years," Bush said.

"It was not an always ... easy thing to do. But it was always the right thing to do."

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London's Heathrow receives flights

London, England (News Terupdate) - More than two dozen planes landed at Europe's busiest airport early Wednesday, as restrictions began easing after five days of disruptions caused by last week's volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Twenty-five planes from around the world touched down at London's Heathrow Airport by 7:25 a.m. local time Wednesday (2:25 a.m. ET), but none has yet taken off. The airport said it is coordinating with airlines before the first flight takes off. Most passengers are heeding the advice of the airport to call their airline first before heading to the airport.

The new arrivals followed the landing of the first commercial airliner -- a British Airways flight from Vancouver, British Columbia -- there late Tuesday.

Passengers aboard British Airways Flight 084 broke out in applause as the plane landed shortly before 10 p.m. (5 p.m. ET), just over an hour after Britain's Civil Aviation Authority announced that it would reopen British airspace.

No commercial flight had landed at Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world, since Thursday afternoon. All other British airports were also set to reopen at 10 p.m., Transport Secretary Lord Andrew Adonis said after the aviation authority's announcement.

Airspace will reopen in phases, and some "no-fly zones" will remain in place where concentrations of ash are at unsafe levels, the CAA said. The restrictions, however, will be much less than what commercial airliners faced in the past week.

NATS, the country's air traffic control agency, issued a statement late Tuesday saying that most restrictions on British airspace had been lifted "with the exception of an area over the northwest of Scotland which continues to be affected by a dense concentration of volcanic ash."

The flight from Vancouver was one of more than two dozen British Airways flights already in the air bound for London when the CAA announcement was made.

They took off hoping there would be a window of opportunity to land the planes at Heathrow or Gatwick airports, a company representative said.

The 25 planes took off from the West Coast of the United States, Africa, India and other locations in Asia. A 26th plane that had hoped to reach London was sent to Brussels, Belgium, instead, British Airways said.

"We are very pleased that the aviation authorities have opened U.K. airspace to enable us to begin in earnest the task of bringing our stranded customers home," British Airways said in a statement.

But the airline warned it would take "some considerable time" before it can get its full schedule back on track.

The airline said it hopes to operate all long-haul flights out of Heathrow and Gatwick airports by Wednesday.

"This will help to get more aircraft, pilots and cabin crew back who are currently in the United Kingdom out to cities around the world to help customers still awaiting a flight," BA said.

Eruptions from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano are weakening, authorities in Iceland reported, but volcanic ash already in the air continued to blow toward Britain.

The decision to reopen airspace came after the CAA issued new guidance on the massive ash cloud snarling air traffic.

Data analysis and testing of flights through the ash cloud determined that aircraft have a higher tolerance to low-density ash levels than previously thought, allowing for the reopening of airspace, the CAA said.

Elsewhere, half of all Europe's flights were back in the air Tuesday.

Latest air travel developments

About 14,000 flights were expected to operate in European airspace Tuesday -- half of scheduled air traffic, according to Eurocontrol, the intergovernmental body that manages European air travel. Two-thirds of scheduled flights were canceled Monday, and nearly 80 percent did not fly over the weekend.

Flights on Monday were restricted to those above 20,000 feet, Eurocontrol said. Lower airspace is closed or severely restricted across Europe, it said.

Planes were back in the air in France, Germany and Italy. Around 75 percent of scheduled flights were expected from France's two main airports: Charles de Gaulle and Orly, French Minister for Ecology Jean-Louis Borloo told French radio network RTL.

Germany's air authority, DFS, allowed flights to take off and land in German airports at low altitude under visual flight rules to reduce the risk of damage to airline instruments. The country's main carrier, Lufthansa, said it hoped to operate as many as 330 flights, including some long-haul flights, Tuesday.

Italy has reopened its airspace nationwide, the Italian aviation authority ENAC announced.

While airports were open in Spain, the ban on flying in British airspace left thousands of Britons trapped there. A British Navy vessel, HMS Albion, was dispatched to pick up 300 civilians from Santander, Spain, along with hundreds of British military personnel who were returning from Afghanistan, Britain's Ministry of Defense said.

Is your government doing enough to help stranded travelers?

Some countries opened their airspace to travel, while keeping airports closed.

Norway opened part of its airspace near Bergen briefly Tuesday and predicted Gardermoen, just north of Oslo, would be open all day, the country's air traffic control service AVINOR said.

Meanwhile, Finland confirmed that all Finnish airports would remain closed until 9 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) Wednesday.

Would you be afraid to fly through the ash cloud?

Meteorologist Derrick Ryall of the Met Office in London said there is no "defined safe limit" for volcanic ash.

"No one has said what a safe limit for aircraft is, so therefore it's very difficult for these judgments to be made," he said.

We really need to work out what the minimum ash concentration is ... for safe flight. We need to establish what that is, because if we don't, we can expect to see repeats of this sort of disruption," said Simon Day, a volcanologist at University College London.

Since the volcanic eruption worsened last week, sending an ash cloud into the skies, airlines have been losing at least $200 million a day, according to the International Air Transport Association, the trade group representing airlines.

Airports had lost close to 136 million euros ($184 million) as of Sunday, said Olivier Jankovec, director general of Airports Council International, Europe.

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More than 6.8 million passengers had been affected, Jankovec said in a statement, adding that the effect is worse than after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Thousands of people have been living in airports.

"I have been living out of my carry-on for five days," said Paulo Wu, stranded in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

After two nights sleeping on a cot at the airport, he was able to get into a hotel with an actual bed, he said.

"I have no bags. My bags are somewhere, I think, at the airport. I just have my carry-on," he said.

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Haiti quake victims to receive knock-off goods

(News Terupdate) - At times, counterfeiting can be a good thing. Just ask the district attorney in Brooklyn, New York.

Seven truckloads of confiscated counterfeit designer duds and shoes -- Ed Hardy, Nike and Diesel among the imitation brands -- are headed to earthquake victims in Haiti.

The 125,000 tons of clothing and shoes, valued at $10 million, were seized by New York police and would normally be destroyed, but in this case, the contraband will go to good use.

"Permission was obtained from manufacturers, including Nike, Timberland, Antik Denim Jeans, Black Label and Christian Audigier, to allow the knockoffs to be donated to charity," Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes told CNN affiliate WPIX.

Hynes' office came up the idea. It was decided the goods, warehoused for a while, would come to better use in Haiti.

The powerful January 12 earthquake rendered more than 1 million people homeless in the Caribbean nation. Many are eking out a meager existence, living in tents and underneath tarps.

The international charity World Vision has agreed to deliver the items donated by the Brooklyn authorities.

But there's one catch: All brand identifiers like labels and logos will be removed in order to avoid trademark issues.

That left one New York blogger to ponder this, given one manufacturer's penchant for outsized patterns and designs: What would even remain of a faux Ed Hardy shirt?

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Woman, children make rare appearance in Gambino indictment

(News Terupdate) - New York's Gambino crime family might have hit a new low by allegedly introducing underage prostitution into its operations, authorities say, but just as shocking to some was the appearance of a female among the list of defendants in a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Suzanne Porcelli, 43, was the only female among 14 reputed Gambino crime family members and associates indicted on charges including racketeering, murder, sex trafficking of a minor, extortion and drug trafficking. Thirteen defendants including Porcelli entered not guilty pleas on Tuesday, according to the U.S. attorney's office, and they are expected to appear Wednesday before a federal judge who has been appointed to the case.

"It's extremely rare to grab up a woman in an organized crime case because it's a male-oriented criminal society," said FBI special agent Richard Holko. "It's certainly unusual, but as you can see in the indictment, she allegedly committed a serious crime and will face those charges."

Fifteen FBI agents showed up at the door of the single mother's home in Brooklyn to arrest her at 6 a.m. Tuesday, said her lawyer, Vincent Romano. She was released on bond.

Porcelli's name appears only six times in the 60-page document detailing a litany of accusations against suspected members and associates of the Gambino crime family. The list runs the gamut, from murder to OxyContin trafficking to defrauding high-end restaurants with inflated invoices for meat orders.

Porcelli is charged with four counts in a sex trafficking ring involving some underaged girls, and not for charges of murder or RICO-related activity.

"It's a very unfortunate situation for her. Obviously she's not a member or associate of any crime family. She's charged in a very limited conduct in the indictment," Romano said. "I'd like to get discovery and see what the evidence is against her, who's allegedly cooperating with the government against her to see what they have to say and assess the situation."

However slight her alleged role, having a woman caught up in a underaged prostitution ring with the Gambino crime family marks a turn for the worse in organized crime, said Joe Coffey, a former commanding officer of the New York Police Department's organized crime unit.

"The mob as we know it historically holds very few things sacred, but they do hold women and children sacred," said Coffey.

"Women have been girlfriends and wives and mothers but never has there been any case where a female becomes an influential person in mob operations, because it's seen as men's work, something that women and children should be protected from and kept out of."

Porcelli's name appears alongside the likes of 69-year-old Daniel Marino, a longtime member and current Gambino family boss, according to court documents. She is also accused of working with alleged Gambino family soldier Thomas Orefice, who is accused of a "staggering crime spree" related to most of the criminal enterprises in the indictment.

Porcelli faces four charges, including sex trafficking and sex trafficking of a minor, for her role in an interstate sex trafficking ring in 2008 and 2009.

Orefice is accused of devising and executing the business plan for the prostitution ring, in which underage girls, including at least one 15-year-old, were offered up to paying customers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Staten Island, according to court documents.

The defendants advertised their service on Craigslist and other websites, and had customers call a phone line operated by Porcelli to arrange appointments, the documents state.

"Orefice and the other defendants also made the young women available for sex to the players at regular poker games that Orefice and his crew ran."

Porcelli faces a potential life sentence on one count of sex trafficking of a minor.

Sex and drugs are nothing new to organized crime, says Coffey, but their expanding prominence within day-to-day operations reflects the weakening mores of the mafia and society.

"The mafia, as we know it today, is no longer what it was. Although they've always been ruthless, greedy, unlawful, murderous, they always had a certain amount of respect, i.e., for women and children," he said.

A law enforcement crackdown in the 1970s and 1980s targeting organized crime's leadership left a power vacuum that has been filled by leaders with a greater appetite for sex and drugs, he said.

"The mob, as we see it today, has lost all respect, lost all the historical culture that it was intended to have since 1931 and that's because they're becoming their own best customers within the drug culture."

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Iraqi officials: Gunmen kill family of Awakening Council leader

(News Terupdate) - Gunmen stormed a house north of Baghdad, killing the family of a local Awakening Council leader, police officials said Tuesday.

The attackers killed the man's wife, their 22-year-old daughter and their three sons, who were beheaded, according to police. The father was not home when the attack took place Monday night in the Salaheddin province town of Tarmiya, about 30 miles (45 kilometers) north of Baghdad, police said.

The attack is the latest targeting Awakening Council or Sons of Iraq members and their families.

Earlier this month, gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed houses and killed 25 people in a Sunni village near Baghdad.

Five of the dead were women. Most of the victims were shot in the head, and all were found handcuffed, police officials in Baghdad said.

The attack, involving at least 20 gunmen, took place in a village in Arab Jabour, a predominantly Sunni region about 15 miles southeast of the capital, authorities said.

The area was once a hotbed of insurgents until the birth of Awakening Councils or the Sons of Iraq, which were established to reduce violence and provide security for residents in certain areas of the country.

Most of the victims in the April 2 attacks were local Sons of Iraq members.

Authorities said at the time that the mass shooting appeared to be the work of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Iraqi security forces initially arrested 25 suspects but released several due to insufficient evidence, police said.

Military uniforms are relatively easy to purchase in Iraq. In Baghdad, several shops sell police and army uniforms for less than $15.

Officials said Monday that the two most senior leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq had been killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation. The deaths of Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi deal "a potentially devastating blow" to the terrorist group, the U.S. military said.

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14 alleged members of Gambino crime family charged

(News Terupdate) - Fourteen alleged members of the Gambino crime family have been indicted on charges including murder, racketeering, prostitution of minors and trying to locate and intimidate a sequestered jury, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Manhattan, New York, said Tuesday.

"Today, the Gambino family has lost one of its leaders, and many of its rising stars have now fallen," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said. "We will continue to work with our partners at the FBI to eradicate the mafia and to keep organized crime from victimizing the businesses and the people of this city."

Twelve people, including Daniel Marino, named by the U.S. attorney as the current boss of the Gambino crime family, were arrested Tuesday morning. One was arrested last week, and another was at large Tuesday afternoon, Bharara's office said.

Marino has been charged with murder in various cases, including the 1989 killing of Thomas Spinelli, a member of the family who testified before a federal grand jury about the mafia's members and activities.

The other defendants, who authorities say include some high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family, also have serious charges brought against them.

Onofrio Modica is charged with jury tampering, which stems from 1992, when then-boss John J. Gotti was on trial on federal racketeering and murder charges. According to the U.S. attorney, Modica and other members of the Gambino family tried to locate the anonymous, sequestered jurors sitting on the trial. Modica was able to penetrate security measures and locate the hotel where the jury was sequestered, but the plan was called off after Gotti decided that the jury would not convict him, authorities allege.

The U.S. attorney alleges several of the defendants also operated a prostitution business from 2008 to 2009, where young women and girls as young as 15 allegedly were recruited to be prostitutes and advertised on websites such as Craigslist. According to Bharara, the defendants drove the women to their appointments and kept approximately half the money paid to them. The women allegedly were made available for sex to gamblers at weekly high-stakes poker games that authorities say were run by the defendants.

A press release from Bharara's office detailed the other charges against the defendants, including extortion; assault; trafficking of narcotics, such as cocaine, OxyContin and marijuana; wire fraud, which includes the alleged defrauding of several high-end New York restaurants by inflating invoice costs; loansharking; and gambling.

"This case shows that it's still about making money illegally, by whatever means," FBI Special Agent-in-Charge George Venizelos said. "No crime seemed too depraved to be exploited if it was a money-maker, including the sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old."

According to the U.S. attorney's office, the fourteen defendants are Marino, Modica, Thomas Orefice, Dominick DiFiore, Anthony Manzella, Michael Scotto, Michael Scarpaci, Thomas Scarpaci, David Eisler, Salvatore Borgia, Steve Maiurro, Keith Dellitalia, Suzanne Porcelli and Anthony Vecchione.

Maiurro remains at large. The 13 arrested defendants are expected to appear in court Wednesday.

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Angry at government, voters may revolt in November, survey shows

Washington (News Terupdate) - The party in power often suffers in midterm elections, but a recent survey suggests that "epic" discontent has created an angry and energized electorate.

And while things might look bleak for Democrats who control Congress, some Republicans tied to the establishment might also suffer the consequences.

History has shown that Americans' trust in government has declined during times of turmoil or when one party controls the White House and both chambers of Congress.

With Congress showing no signs of bipartisanship and Americans not yet feeling economic relief, the midterm elections outcome for incumbents -- especially Democrats -- may be bleak.

According to a Pew Research Center poll released this week, based on polling conducted in March and April, a growing segment of the American public holds intense anti-government views, with those surveyed describing themselves as angry with the federal government.

The reason? A "perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government -- a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter partisan-based backlash, and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials," the report concluded.

The poll showed that "Distrust of government soars when the public is unhappy with the way things are going in the country" and sad the recent downturn in trust began in the fall of 2008, "when public satisfaction plunged amid the financial crisis."

One of President Obama's top aides said Monday that there are "legitimate" reasons for Americans' anger.

"When the middle class in this country has seen their incomes lost and their costs of living go up, and the sense of those who are at the top act with a sense of irresponsibility that led to the worst economic crisis ... there's a reason for that frustration, and it's totally legit," White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told PBS' Charlie Rose.

That rising anger may sway voter turnout in November.

"Hostility toward government seems likely to be a significant election issue and an important element in both midterm voting intentions and turnout," the report said. "Consistent with this pattern of partisanship, anti-government sentiment appears to be a more significant driver of possible turnout among Republicans and independents than among Democrats."

Read more of the poll

The poll found that 83 percent of Republican voters who are highly dissatisfied with the government said they are "absolutely certain" to vote in November, compared with 67 percent of Republicans who have lower discontent with the government.

Democrats should be worried, especially when it comes to the connection between anger at government and voting intentions by independents, the poll found.

"Independents who are highly dissatisfied with government are far more committed to voting this year than are independents who are less frustrated (78% vs. 58%)."

Independents are a fast-growing voting bloc that tends to lean toward Republicans' fiscal ideology and Democrats' social policies, polls have shown.

John Avlon, author of "Independent Nation" and a CNN contributor, said anger is especially high with independents who feel that only Wall Street is benefiting from the recovering economy.

"We are seeing a situation where Wall Street's rebounded but Main Street is still feeling the pain and there's a great deal of frustration and anger about that," he said.

The rising national debt and federal spending are major factors behind the anger, added Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia.

"There's a tremendous national debt that just keeps growing no matter which party is in charge," he said.

Sabato said there have been many times when government has lost the trust of the people, usually over some scandal, such as Watergate, or during times of one-party rule, as was the case when Bill Clinton took office in 1993.

Noting their 1994 midterm losses, Democrats, he said, have reason to worry about what the Pew poll says.

"They're the incumbent party, and people are unhappy during a period when they're governing," he said. "The people's only recourse is to vote against incumbents in the governing party when they're unhappy."

But it's too soon to tell. It is April, after all, and the election is seven months away.

"Anybody that tells you that [Democrats will lose Congress] ... doesn't know what they're talking about because you couldn't answer that at this time in April," Emanuel said. "If they think the economy in the future is getting better, and we make this a choice about what led us into the worst recession and the set of policy changes we made to help us lead us out of it, I think we have a chance of turning this election around."

Avlon's recommendation for the top Democrat: changing voters' minds.

"Fundamentally, he [Obama] has got to get serious about the deficit," he said. "That's a lot of what this is all about -- independents' desire for checks and balances and divided government. ... There's nothing Democrats can do about that at this point."

If the economy continues to improve in a way that affects Main Street as well as Wall Street, that would be good for the party in power and incumbents in general, Avlon added.

The anti-incumbent feeling may also spill over to Republicans. Sabato said Tea Partiers and independents may turn against incumbent Republicans viewed as being a part of the establishment.

He cited the heated Florida Senate GOP primary race, where Gov. Charlie Crist, a one-time GOP establishment favorite, is trailing in the polls behind Marco Rubio, a candidate who has received numerous endorsements by Tea Party groups and conservatives.

"If you're identified with the establishment, you're not going to necessarily do well, assuming you have real competition," Sabato said.

But it's not all bad news for incumbents.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released last week indicated that if elections for Congress were held today, 50 percent of the public would back the Democratic candidate in their congressional district, with 46 percent supporting the Republican candidate.

That's a switch from CNN's last poll, conducted in late March, when the GOP had a 4-point advantage. The margins are within the poll's sampling error.

"Some core Democratic groups -- chiefly women and lower-income Americans -- may be coming back, and since those groups are the ones most affected by health care, it's possible that is a delayed reaction to new law," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.

Read more about the poll

Democrats hold a 253-177 advantage in the House, with four seats that they once held vacant and one seat that the GOP held vacant. Republicans need to win 40 seats to take back control of the chamber.

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My life: the playlist

New York (News Terupdate) - I was geared up to complete my census form. I sat. I put on my headphones. I grabbed a pen, something I rarely use in my digitally mediated life. I took a deep breath. By the time I had exhaled, I had completed the form. I turned the pages over and under, thinking, "That's all!?"

I've waited 10 years for the chance to tell the government that I'm a 32-year-old black man named Baratunde Thurston who lives alone in a rented apartment in Brooklyn? Facebook demands more from me for the right to manage a fake farm!

I wanted to say so much more, so I'm going to use this essay to finish my census entry, to say something about my identity. I'm geared up. I'm sitting. I've got on my headphones. I'm poised over my keyboard, and I'm taking deep breaths.

First, the current song on my playlist: "Adade" by Hugh Masekela.

My mother, who passed in 2005, was a huge Masekela fan and discovered his music during her rabble-rousing days in Washington during the '60s and '70s. I still have a lot of her original vinyl records from that era, and to commemorate Malcolm X this February, I live-streamed several of his speeches via UStream.

(My iPhone is ringing. It's my manager, and she says an IHOP in Austin, Texas, has my wallet. Thank God!)

I travel a lot and work several jobs: web editor for The Onion, blogger at Jack & Jill Politics, stand-up comedian, television host of "Popular Science's Future Of" on Science Channel. My mother used to call me "The Jamaican" of the family because I've never had just one job.

I was in Austin for the South by Southwest Interactive conference, where I presented, among other things, a talk called "How to Be Black (Online)." In it, I talked about the different ways African-Americans access and use the Internet and raised the question: Are we merely consumers of the new technologies that abound, or are we also creating them?

The current song on my playlist: "Jesus Loves Me" by CocoRosie.

I discovered this group during the summer of 2006 while living in Chicago, Illinois, and studying at the Improv Olympic. I had taken a road trip to visit my older sister in Lansing, Michigan, where she teaches yoga, runs digital strategy for the Lansing State Journal newspaper and doesn't own a car. I repeat: My sister lives in Michigan, and she has chosen not to own a motor vehicle.

Back to Austin. I was out ridiculously late one night at the conference. When I awoke, my wallet was missing. I used the location-based mobile application Foursquare to retrace my steps and saw that I was at IHOP just after 5 a.m. Despite returning there when I was in Austin, they couldn't find the wallet until today, as I write this essay from my office in SoHo.

By "wallet" I mean a binder clip that holds some cash and several cards: credit cards, New York City Metrocards, health insurance card and my Massachusetts driver's license (birthdate September 11, 1977). I lived in Boston for 12 years, and without the need to drive in New York, I've been slow to replace the license. Besides, Massachusetts and I are close. I went to school in Cambridge (at Harvard), held my first real job in Boston (business consulting for telecom and media) and got married in the town of Lenox (though I'm single now).

But if you'd just read my census entry, all you'd know is that I'm a 32-year-old black man named Baratunde Thurston who lives alone in a rented apartment in Brooklyn.

The current song on my playlist: "Dumb" by Nirvana.

Source : CNN

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