MACTV Weekend Wrap

Deal Reached to Prevent Government Shutdown

MACTV News: Down to the "COUNT" for the Govenment shutdown, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The White House News: Update on Budget Negotiations, Posted by Menelik Zeleke

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release                              April 7, 2011

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON BUDGET TALKS

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

9:33 P.M. EDT

     THE PRESIDENT:  I just completed another meeting with Speaker Boehner and Leader Reid, and I wanted to report again to the American people that we made some additional progress this evening.  I think the staffs of both the House and the Senate, as well as the White House staff, have been working very hard to try to narrow the differences.  We made some progress today.  Those differences have been narrowed.  And so once again the staff is going to be working tonight around the clock in order to see if we can finally close a deal. 

But there is still a few issues that are outstanding.  They’re difficult issues.  They’re important to both sides.  And so I’m not yet prepared to express wild optimism.  But I think we are further along today than we were yesterday.

     I want to reiterate to people why this is so important.  We’re now less than 30 hours away from the government shutting down.  That means, first of all, 800,000 families -- our neighbors, our friends, who are working hard all across the country in a whole variety of functions -- they suddenly are not allowed to come to work.  It also means that they’re not getting a paycheck.  That obviously has a tremendous impact. 

You then have millions more people who end up being impacted because they’re not getting the services from the federal government that are important to them.  So small businesses aren’t seeing their loans processed.  Folks who want to get a mortgage through the FHA may not be able to get it, and obviously that’s not good as weak as this housing market is.  You’ve got people who are trying to get a passport for a trip that they’ve been planning for a long time -- they may not be able to do that.  So millions more people will be significantly inconvenienced; in some ways, they may end up actually seeing money lost or opportunities lost because of a government shutdown. 

And then finally, there’s going to be an effect on the economy overall.  Earlier today one of our nation’s top economists said -- and I’m quoting here -- “The economic damage from a government shutdown would mount very quickly.  And the longer it dragged on, the greater the odds of a renewed recession.”

We’ve been working very hard over the last two years to get this economy back on its feet.  We’ve now seen 13 months of job growth; a hundred -- 1.8 million new jobs.  We had the best report, jobs report, that we’d seen in a very long time just this past Friday.  For us to go backwards because Washington couldn’t get its act together is unacceptable.

So, again:  800,000 federal workers and their families impacted; millions of people who are reliant on government services not getting those services -- businesses, farmers, veterans; and finally, overall impact on the economy that could end up severely hampering our recovery and our ability to put people back to work.

That’s what’s at stake.  That’s why it’s important to the American people.  That’s why I’m expecting that as a consequence of the good work that’s done by our staffs tonight, that we can reach an agreement tomorrow. 

But let me just point out one last thing.  What I’ve said to the Speaker and what I’ve said to Harry Reid is because the machinery of the shutdown is necessarily starting to move, I expect an answer in the morning.  And my hope is, is that I’ll be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted, that a deal has been completed that has very meaningful cuts in a wide variety of categories, that helps us move in the direction of living within our means, but preserves our investments in things like education and innovation, research, that are going to be important for our long-term competitiveness. 

That’s what I hope to be able to announce tomorrow.  There’s no certainty yet, but I expect an answer sometime early in the day.

All right.  Thank you very much, everybody.

END                9:38 P.M. EDT

Government Shutdown Showdown

WORLD NEWS LATEST, FRIDAY APRIL 8, 2011, Posted By Meosha Eaton

**TOP STORIES**

JAPAN-

QUAKE A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.4 shook the northeast of Japan late on Thursday, and a tsunami warning was issued for the coast already devastated by last month's massive quake and the tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant.

EXPECTED:

JAPAN-EVACUEES/IMPERIAL GARDENS - The Imperial gardens are opened up for the evacuees in Tokyo.

CHINA-AIRPORT FOOD INSPECTION - Hong Kong's Legislative Council Panel on Food Safety and Environmental Hygiene conducts a site visit to the Airport Food Inspection Office for members to better understand the inspection of radiation of food products imported from Japan.

JAPAN-CABINET SECRETARY - Japan's chief spokesman Yukio Edano talks twice a day about the latest development in the aftermath of the nation's triple disaster.

JAPAN-NUCLEAR PLANT - Latest from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant where engineers are battling to contain a crippled nuclear reactor.

JAPAN-AFTERSHOCK CLEAN - Major aftershock hits northern Japan. (0332)

JAPAN-STOCK MARKET OPEN - Tokyo stocks open down in morning trade after a strong aftershock hits northern Japan. (0247)

JAPAN-QUAKE/SUPERMARKET MORNING - Memories of previous Japan quake triggers rush on supermarket.

IVORY COAST

IVORY COAST-UNREST French strikes hit Gbagbo forces in Ivory Coast.

EXPECTED:

TBC

IVORY COAST-OUATARRA - Ivory Coast presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara asks EU to lift sanctions, announces measures to bring life back to normal and claims incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo is blockaded at his residence. (2314)

USA-IVORY COAST AMBASSADOR - The Ivory Coast ambassador to the United Nations, Youssoufou Bamba and other Ivorian politicians hold a press conference about the situation on the ground in Ivory Coast. (2109)

IVORY COAST-EVACUATION - Journalists are evacuated from the Novotel in Abidjan.

IVORY COAST/FRANCE-EVACUATION/PROTEST - French army evacuates nationals from Abidjan hotel, Gbagbo supporters protest in Paris.

UN-IVORY COAST - U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos reports hundreds of bodies in Ivory Coast.
IVORY COAST-TROOPS/PRISONERS - Hundreds of Gbagbo's men captured by forces loyal to Ouattara.

LIBYA-CONFLICT AND DIPLOMACY - A NATO air strike killed at least five rebels near the Libyan port of Brega on Thursday, medics said, and insurgents reported Muammar Gaddafi's forces killed five more in a bombardment of besieged Misrata.

EXPECTED:

TBC

DELIVERED (in past 12 hours):

4281WD-LIBYA-REBELS NEWSER - Rebel commander says NATO mistakenly hit Libyan rebels. (2042)

4268WD-TURKEY-ERDOGAN/LIBYA - Turkey works on 'roadmap' to end Libya war. (1839)

4243WD-LIBYA-US/WELDON - U.S. ex-Republican in Libya warns Gaddafi time is running out. (1639)

4221WD-USA-GENERAL-LIBYA - Libyan fighting a likely stalemate, top U.S. general says. (1615)

4198WD-LIBYA-REBELS/ROCKETS - Rebels set up rocket launchers east of Ajdabiyah. (1351)

4176WD-LIBYA-REBELS RETREAT - Rebels retreat as Gaddafi forces bomb the entrance to Ajdabiyah. (1233)

4166WD-LIBYA-AIRSTRIKE/WOUNDED/REACTIONS - Rebels blame NATO for Libya air strike; five dead. (1218)

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BRAZIL

BRAZIL-SHOOTING - A gunman fatally shot 12 people at a Rio de Janeiro school before killing himself, police said.

EXPECTED:

BRAZIL-SHOOTING/LATEST - Rio governor says school gunman planned to kill more students.

BRAZIL-SHOOTING UPDATE - Helicopter ambulances take injured away from school after gunman opens fire and kills 12 people.

BRAZIL-SHOOTING/CLEAN - Brazil gunman kills 12 in Rio school massacre.

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OTHER STORIES AROUND THE WORLD

OMAN-FRIDAY PROTEST - Following last week's crack down by police which left one protester dead, Omanis in the city of Sohar, say they will go out again on Friday demanding jobs, better pay and end to arrest of protesters.

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EGYPT-PRO-REFORM PROTEST - Large numbers of protesters are expected to gather in Tahrir square to declare their support for the speedy prosecution of ex-regime officials and an end to the longstanding Emergency Law.

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RUSSIA-GAGARIN DOCUMENTS - New archive documents to be released ahead of the 50th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's first manned flight into space (Apr 12). An exhibition opens at the All-Russian Exhibition Centre (VDNKH) and veteran cosmonauts attend lay wreaths at the Cosmos memorial.

----


NETHERLANDS-KENYA - Three Kenyan suspects are set to appear at the International Criminal Court on day two of the preparatory phase of a trial into the deadly violence that followed Kenya's 2007 election. The trial is set to start trials in 2012. Among the accused are former and current senior government officers including deputy Prime Minister and Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta.

----

KENYA-ICC REACTIONS - The initial appearance hearing of William Samoei Ruto, Henry Kiprono Kosgey and Joshua Arap Sang is scheduled to take place before Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Courtroom I. The hearing is being held in order to verify the identity of the suspects and to ensure that they have been informed of the crimes which they are alleged to have committed as well as of their rights under the Rome Statute, founding treaty of the ICC

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Republican leads after Wisconsin vote count gaffe, Posted by Meosha Eaton

MADISON, Wis, April 7 (Reuters) - Thousands of uncounted votes have been uncovered in a closely watched Wisconsin Supreme Court election, officials said on Thursday in a move that tilted the contest to the Republican incumbent.

The apparent error, found by a Waukesha County official in a final review of records, gave Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser a net additional 7,582 votes in his statewide race against union-backed challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.

Prosser had trailed Kloppenburg by 204 votes, according to unofficial results on Wednesday.

Waukesha County is a Republican stronghold.

News of the uncounted votes came as officials throughout Wisconsin were conducting county canvasses, a final review of voting records that allows the state to certify this week's bitterly contested vote.

The Supreme Court contest was widely seen as a referendum on Republican Governor Scott Walker and the controversial curbs on collective bargaining that he and his allies passed in the legislature.

Opponents had portrayed Prosser, a former member of the state assembly, as a proxy for Walker and the anti-union policies that triggered massive protests and 16 recall campaigns targeting lawmakers.

Kathy Nickolaus, the Waukesha County clerk, apologized for the uncounted votes and blamed "human error." She said at a news conference that she had failed to properly save a spreadsheet showing one town's voting results.

"I'm thankful that this error was caught early in the process and during the canvass," Nickolaus said. "The purpose of the canvass is to catch these kinds of errors."

A statewide recount could begin next week. If it happens, it will be the first such recount in Wisconsin in more than 20 years.

To help officials prepare, the state's Government Accountability Board sent out a memo stressing that local officials needed to "maintain all memory device and programming for the April 5, 2011 Spring Election in its original form."

"We are in unprecedented times in many respects," the memo read, "but particularly with regard to a potential statewide recount, which has not occurred since 1989 ... A thorough completion of the County Board of Canvass at this time may reconcile inconsistencies and issues that will likely save you time and effort in the pending recount process."

(Reporting by Jeff Mayers and James B. Kelleher; Editing by Tim Gaynor, Ellen Wulfhorst and Paul Simao)

Obama, Congress struggle to find budget deal, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Obama says aides will work through night to get deal

* Boehner, Reid say differences have narrowed

* Fourth White House meeting in three days

* Midnight Friday deadline looms
* (Updates after Obama, Reid, Boehner talks)

By Richard Cowan and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and congressional leaders failed to reach a deal but narrowed their differences on Thursday in a bitter budget dispute that could lead to a government shutdown.

Obama said negotiators would work all night and he expects an answer on Friday morning on whether it is possible to avoid a government closure at midnight on Friday that would idle hundreds of thousands of workers and potentially put a crimp on the U.S. economic recovery.

He met for an hour with Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, Speaker John Boehner at the White House. It was their fourth meeting in three days.

"I'm not prepared to express wild optimism," Obama told reporters after the nighttime meeting, the second night in a row he has made an evening foray into the White House briefing room to talk about the difficult search for a budget deal.

Neither side seemed willing as yet to make the final compromise necessary for an agreement.

"We have narrowed the issues, however, we have not yet reached an agreement. We will continue to work through the night to attempt to resolve our remaining differences," Reid and Boehner said in a joint statement.

Democrats blamed the impasse on a Republican push for policy provisions that would block public funding of birth control and stymie environmental protection efforts.

But Boehner said the divisions did not stop there.

"There are a number of issues that are on the table. And any attempt to try to narrow this down to one or two just would not be accurate," he said.

Their deadline to avoid a shutdown: Midnight on Friday night. Some cable television news broadcasts included a shutdown clock ticking the time down. (Additional reporting by Kim Dixon, Donna Smith, David Alexander, Andy Sullivan, Thomas Ferraro and David Morgan; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Vicki Allen and Deborah Charles)

Obama, Congress leaders do not reach US budget deal, Posted by Meosha Eaton

WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and U.S. congressional leaders have "narrowed their differences" but have not reached a budget deal aimed at averting a government shutdown, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on Thursday.

Their statement came following an 80-minute meeting at the White House with Obama.

"We will continue to work through the night to attempt to resolve our remaining differences," the two leaders said in a statement. (Reporting by Richard Cowan and Kim Dixon; Editing by Eric Beech)