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Quote of the Day. "I can tell you, whoever votes against 9/11 responders a couple of days before Christmas is truly un-American." John Feal, a former demolition supervisor who lost a foot when a steel beam fell on it during recovery efforts at the World Trade Center, on Members of Congress who are opposing a bill that would provide medical care for Sept. 11 attack responders and survivors. (Los Angeles Times)
RELIGION IN THE NEWS
Pope urges self-reflection on flaws that led to abuse "In a remarkable demonstration of public soul-searching, Pope Benedict XVI on Monday used a high-profile Christmas speech to Vatican cardinals and bishops to urge reflection on the flaws in the church's very message and culture that permitted a global sexual-abuse scandal."
Pope Says Sex Scandal Has Hit Unimaginable Dimension "Pope Benedict XVI said Monday that the continuing sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church had reached a "degree we could not have imagined" this year, and that the church must reflect on its failures, help the victims and prevent abusers from becoming priests."
Evangelicals, Human Rights Groups Decry Gov't Inaction on Refugees "Thousands of men and women are facing another holiday season apart from their families and uncertain of whether they will be granted asylum in the United States."
NEWS AT HOME
START. Senate Support Builds for Pact on Arms Control "The Senate moved closer on Monday to approving a new arms control treaty with Russia over the opposition of Republican leaders as lawmakers worked on a side deal to assure skeptics that the arms pact would not inhibit American plans to build missile defense systems." Mullen urges Senate to ratify arms treaty "The nation's top military officer appealed to the Senate on Monday to ratify a new nuclear arms treaty with Russia, as supporters attracted more Republican votes, making it increasingly likely that the pact would be approved." Support builds in Senate for approval of US-Russia nuclear treaty as more GOP senators join "President Barack Obama is moving closer to gaining Senate approval of a major arms control treaty with Russia as he builds support among reluctant Republican senators."
Net neutrality. FCC is set to assert authority over access to the Internet "Federal regulators are poised to enact controversial new rules affecting Internet access, marking the government's strongest move yet to ensure that Facebook updates, Google searches and Skype calls reach consumers' homes unimpeded." F.C.C. Is Set to Regulate Net Access "The proposed rules of the online road would prevent fixed-line broadband providers like Comcast and Qwest from blocking access to sites and applications."
Environmental strategy. Environmentalists plan to redirect strategies "As 2010 comes to a close, U.S. environmentalists are engaged in their most profound bout of soul-searching in more than a decade. Their top policy priority - imposing a nationwide cap on carbon emissions - has foundered in the face of competing concerns about jobs."
Spying on Americans. Monitoring America "Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators."
More low-wage families. Low-wage families on the rise, report says "The Great Recession, responsible for boosting unemployment to its highest levels in a generation, has sharply increased the percentage of working people who earn wages so paltry that they are struggling to survive, according to a new report."
State and city debt crisis. $2tn debt crisis threatens to bring down 100 US cities "Overdrawn American cities could face financial collapse in 2011, defaulting on hundreds of billions of dollars of borrowings and derailing the US economic recovery. Nor are European cities safe
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