A new study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds that child poverty in the U.S. has grown by 18 percent over the past decade. The U.S. currently has 20 percent of its children in poverty, totaling 15 million kids.
The latest Gallup poll finds that 71 percent of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the economy. When the poll was last taken, in mid-May, 60 percent disapproved.
Top donors to the Rick Perry presidential campaign — those bundling more than $500,000 — will earn the title “Patriots.” Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute said Perry’s decision to label his top fundraisers as Patriots “implies that your opponents’ donors are not patriotic.”
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Texas’ school systems “have really struggled” under Gov. Perry (R), leading to substandard schools because of cuts in funding and overcrowded classes. “I feel very, very badly for the children there,” Duncan said during a Bloomberg Television interview.
The Justice Department is investigating rating agency Standard & Poor’s to see if it improperly rated dozens of mortgage securities in the years leading up to the financial crisis, the New York Times reports. Two sources familiar with the investigation said it began before S&P downgraded U.S. debt from its AAA rating, but is nonetheless likely to fuel concern and controversy over the agency’s process and credibility.
Bashing the Environmental Protection Agency has become an emerging theme among GOP presidential hopefuls. Nearly all the candidates have taken aim at the EPA as a symbol of the Obama administration’s “over regulation” that they say is strangling job creation. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Newt Gingrich (R-GA) have called for the agency to be shut down entirely.
Syrian pro-democracy activists say that military operations against them have not stopped, despite President Bashar al-Assad’s claim before the U.N. yesterday that the crackdown had ended. President Obama and leaders of several other countries will likely call today for Assad to step down, marking a significant escalation in pressure on the Syrian regime since the conflict began.
And finally: Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is promoting his new book about the importance of the Sabbath, but the former vice presidential candidate may have gotten a little too personal in interview with the Washington Post’s Sally Quinn when the senator discussed the need for “intimate sexual relations” on the Jewish day of rest. “The rabbis have been pretty clear in interpreting that ‘you ought to be doing this more often, but if you’re not for some reason the other six days of the week, be with your spouse on the Sabbath,’” Lieberman said.
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