Daily News Digest

the latest news on Economy-Mainstreet, Economy-housing, Economy-Wall Street, Gore-climate change, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Catholics, Iraq, Zimbabwe, NATO-Afghanistan, Iran, Israel-Palestine, North Korea, and Opinion.

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Economy-Mainstreet. States Are Hit Hard by Economic Downturn "At least half of the nation's states are facing budget shortfalls, some of them severe, and policymakers in most of the states affected are proposing and passing often-painful measures to trim costs and close the gaps." Food Stamp Use at Record Pace as Jobs Vanish"Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s."

Economy-housing. Democrats prod Bush on mortgage crisis "As the economic downturn deepens, congressional Democrats are turning up the heat on the White House and Republicans in Congress to respond more aggressively to the mortgage crisis when lawmakers return next week from their spring recess." As owners default, lenders move in "Once a relatively obscure slice of the real estate business, foreclosed homes that are now in the possession of lenders loom much larger as the economy flattens and housing sales stagnate." The Foreclosure Machine "Behind the scenes in these dramas, a small army of law firms and default servicing companies, who represent mortgage lenders, have been raking in mounting profits."

Economy-Wall Street. Regulatory overhaul "Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will reveal in full sweeping new plans on Monday for streamlining a hodgepodge of regulation faulted for permitting the U.S. mortgage crisis to balloon into a full-blown economic threat." Time ripe for financial overhaul, experts say "Coming in the midst of an economic crisis that has shaken Main Street homeowners and Wall Street investment bankers, the Bush administration's sweeping proposal to overhaul the financial regulatory system sounds like an emergency measure, but it is the culmination of a longer-running debate about how best to nurture American free-market capitalism."

Gore-climate change. Gore Launches Ambitious Advocacy Campaign on Climate "Former vice president Al Gore will launch a three-year, $300 million campaign aimed at mobilizing Americans to push for aggressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, a move that ranks as one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history."

Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright's sermons fueled by complex mix of culture, religion "Examining the full content of Wright's sermons and delivery style yields a far more complex message, though it's one that some will still find objectionable." Rev. Jeremiah Wright's words: Sound bite vs. sermon excerpt "Here are several of the most notorious snippets, followed by longer excerpts for context."

Catholics. Vatican Sees Pope's Visit as Chance to Soften Image "When Pope Benedict XVI makes his first papal trip to the United States in April, he will be guided by a seasoned Vatican ambassador who sees the visit as an opportunity to introduce a little-known pope to a complex set of audiences: American Catholics, Americans in general and global opinion leaders." Mugabe defiant in face of losses "The delay in official results of Zimbabwe's presidential vote today fuelled international fears that Robert Mugabe was resorting to electoral fraud to hang on to power."

NATO-Afghanistan Bush to Meet NATO Allies Divided Over Adding Troops in Afghanistan "President Bush heads to Europe today to try to rescue the faltering mission in Afghanistan, and key NATO allies plan to meet his demands for more forces with modest troop increases, though not by as much as U.S. military officers say is needed to put down a stubborn Taliban insurgency." Afghanistan 'most important issue' for NATO "President Bush will seek more help against the resurgent Taliban from NATO allies reluctant to put troops at risk, particularly when public sentiment in Europe runs against a long-term commitment."

Iran. CIA chief asserts Iran nuclear threat CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said Sunday that he believes Iran is still pursuing a nuclear bomb, even though the U.S. intelligence community, including his own agency, reached a consensus judgment last year that the Islamic Republic had halted its nuclear weapons work in 2003

Israel-Palestine. Israelis Agree to Reduce West Bank Roadblocks "Israel agreed Sunday to remove about 50 roadblocks in the West Bank and promised Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is visiting here, that it would upgrade checkpoints to reduce the waiting time for Palestinians who have been hampered in their efforts to go about their daily lives." Rice: U.S. to ensure Israel removes West Bank roadblocks "Rice vowed that the United States will step up its efforts to ensure that Israel carries through the implementation of promised measures that aim to improve living conditions for the Palestinian population in the West Bank." Rice trumpets progress in Middle East "The announcement came as part of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's three-day visit here, during which she has been working to push Israeli and Palestinian leaders toward reaching an agreement on Palestinian statehood before President Bush leaves office."

North Korea. North Korea Threatens to Reduce South Korea to 'Ashes' at Slightest Provocation "North Korea continued to lash out at the new conservative government in Seoul, threatening to reduce the South to "ashes" if the South Korean government made the "slightest move" to attack."

Opinion.

Is God silenced on college campuses? (Tom Krattenmaker, USA Today) "Students open to a conversation about Christianity, even on a campus with an ultrasecular reputation? Such is the state of affairs at the nation's colleges and universities, where religion is experiencing something of a renaissance, although not necessarily in the shapes and forms older generations are used to seeing."

The Smart Way Out of a Foolish War (Zbigniew Brzezinski, Washington Post) "The case for U.S. disengagement from combat is compelling in its own right. But it must be matched by a comprehensive political and diplomatic effort to mitigate the destabilizing regional consequences of a war that the outgoing Bush administration started deliberately, justified demagogically and waged badly."

Forty years after Vietnam, a reckoning (James Carroll, Boston Globe) "Forty years ago, America was in the grip of the foundational violence of its war against Vietnam, which, while killing thousands in Southeast Asia, was causing massive divisions in the United States, divisions that were increasingly violent. There was no separating that distant war from the broad social, political, and racial discord that made 1968 America's annus terribilis. On this date in that year, the man most responsible made a valiant attempt both to turn away from violence and to reckon with his own role as its instigator."