“The minimum wage rises 70 cents to $5.85 an hour today, the first increase in a decade. It ends the longest period without an increase since the federal minimum wage was enacted in 1938.”
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. “Armed with the president’s support, Gonzales has made clear that he does not intend to leave office before Bush does.” “This attorney general has a severe credibility problem,” said Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), adding that there is an “acute crisis of leadership that has gripped the department under his watch.”
Members of the Bancroft family, which “controls financial publisher Dow Jones & Co. is expected to decide within days whether it will relinquish its stake and let Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. get the company for $5 billion.” They assembled “for six hours Monday in Boston to hash out whether to accept Murdoch’s offer.”
“While Washington is mired in political debate over the future of Iraq,” Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker have “prepared a detailed plan that foresees a significant American role” through 2009.
“Huge, expensive and dogged by controversy,” the new U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad epitomizes to many Iraqis the worst of the U.S. tenure in Iraq. “It’s all for them, all of Iraq’s resources, water, electricity, security,” said one Iraqi man. “It’s as if it’s their country, and we are guests staying here.”
“Under a bill the House approved Monday, members of Congress would no longer be able to put their spouses on their campaign payrolls, a practice criticized as a way for lawmakers to profit from political donations.” The act would also require the disclosure of all other immediate family members who are employed by the candidate’s campaign.
“The campaign of the late congressman Charlie Norwood (R-GA) treated his supporters to a $63,000 thank-you weekend at a golf resort two months after he died — the same day that the candidate endorsed by Norwood’s family held a fundraiser at the same resort, reports and interviews show.”
“The worst flooding to hit England in at least 60 years has put tens of thousands of people to flight, many leaving their homes, cars and possessions to the ravages of rising water and looters. Forecasters warned yesterday that more rain is on the way.”
And finally: Ben Affleck stars in “corny” environmental ad. In a new ad for the Clean My Ride campaign, actor Ben Affleck “sports a pointy, yellow foam corn hat with leafy green ears and offers to take down Big Oil. ‘Congress bows to fear,’ Affleck hisses at the hero, who seeks to sweeten lawmakers on corn-based ethanol. ‘I bring the fear. Does big oil sleep around? Got bad credit? I’ll find the dirt. And I will make big oil regret the day it ever uttered the words price gouging!’”
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