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The Associated Press found that most inner cities targeted by the federal government's primary urban economic programs lost jobs... In fact, the best-performing cities were not part of the federal empowerment zone and renewal community programs, which provide businesses with billions of dollars in tax incentives to expand and hire workers. A HUD-commissioned assessment of the first empowerment zones found mixed results from 1995 to 2000. Although many individual projects were creating jobs and reviving neighborhoods, the study found no widespread, sustained job creation. "There is little evidence to indicate that major reform or 'reinvention' occurred," the assessment said.

ATTA IN PRAGUE [Andy McCarthy] Ed Epstein has stayed on the case and has done the 9/11 Commission one better: he has actually conducted something resembling an investigation into whether the top hijacker met with in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence agent five months before 9/11. Ed’s report on what he found out, after traveling to the Czech Republic and meeting with the BIS (i.e., Czech Intelligence) officials who were personally involved in the matter is featured in the Wall Street Journal this morning (registration required). His article will not be good news for the Richard Clarkes of Clinton revision-world,...

Morning Edition, December 15, 2004 · Commanders on the ground in Iraq are forced to weigh the risks of civilian casualties against the need to complete their objective. If they make the wrong decision, they could end-up violating the Geneva Conventions or in front of a military tribunal. To prevent this, the Pentagon has started putting lawyers on the battlefield. Kristian Foden-Vencil of Oregon Public Broadcasting reports.

The three ambassadors who died violent deaths were Cleo Noel Jr.,killed in March 1973 when Palestinian terrorists struck an embassy in Sudan; Adolph Dubs, killed in 1973 when Afghan police stormed a hotel room where he was being held by terrorists; and Arnold Raphel, who died in 1988 when a plane crashed. Receiving waivers as longtime diplomats with military service were William Rivkin and Philip Crowe. Rivkin, who died in 1967, served as ambassador to Senegal, Gambia and Luxembourg and spent five years of in the Army during World War II, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Crowe, who...

Kerry - 'I'm pretty tough on Castro, because I think he's running one of the last vestiges of a Stalinist secret police government in the world,'' `And I voted for the Helms-Burton legislation to be tough on companies that deal with him.'' Reality - Kerry voted against it.

Email from Dave - Jun 2, 04 Dad - Some interesting developments out of Falluja and Iraq in general that I wanted to share with you.  Since we have agreed to stay at arms reach with Falluja, we have been able to focus our efforts on the surrounding towns and villages.  The result is that we have made great inroads in breaking up insurgent cells through ambushes and raids.  Even more important, we have began to establish an early and still fragile rapport with the people of these areas.  The areas are historical sanctuaries for terrorists so they are important....

The secretive Task Force 121, charged with finding Osama bin Laden, is now actively hunting for suspected terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as well, intelligence sources tell ABC News. ABC News has learned the Office of Counterterrorism at the State Department is going to recommend that the reward for his capture be increased from $10 million to $25 million — the same amount offered for bin Laden. U.S. officials believe that bin Laden is still the greatest threat to the United States, but say they are now convinced that Zarqawi has global capability to match anyone's. U.S. intelligence officials say...

MUNICH - It's proving hard for German fans to swallow - the 2006 football World Cup looks likely to go ahead without German beer. Now shocked politicians are seeking talks with tournament organizers after it emerged that a US brewer has the exclusive right to sell its beer in and around World Cup stadiums. A World Cup in Germany without traditional German beer is almost as inconceivable for Germans as the country's football team failing to qualify for the tournament - or losing to England on penalties. But the Germans may have scored an own goal in allowing football's world...

Former counterterrorism official and now tell-all author Richard Clarke was at it again yesterday, scorching Bush administration officials in testimony before the national Sept. 11 commission.       We'd like to know how Clarke squares his contention that he was the only one in the Bush administration truly committed to thwarting terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks with this: It was Clarke who personally authorized the evacuation by private plane of dozens of Saudi citizens, including many members of Osama bin Laden's own family, in the days immediately following Sept. 11.       Clarke's role was revealed in an October 2003 Vanity...

THE HAGUE -- The prosecution in Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial moved yesterday to rest its case two days early as the chief prosecutor conceded her team had not produced "the smoking gun" to convict the former Yugoslav president of genocide, the most serious charge against him. ADVERTISEMENT   "I know that I don't have the smoking gun on the count of genocide, and we will see what the trial chamber decides," chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte said in an interview only minutes after she signed a motion to end the prosecution's two-year case. "The facts are not in dispute...

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SACRAMENTO -- Last year's most controversial bill -- a measure to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants -- has returned to the Legislature, and its author said Wednesday he fully expects it will incite a flood of opposition on conservative talk radio. And state Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, has reason to worry, says a Sacramento-area radio personality. "I think he's right," said Eric Hogue, a drive-time talk-show host who predicts strong opposition from his listeners. Cedillo said he's willing to meet his critics halfway. He's negotiating with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and expects to enact a compromise law that will...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States east of the Rocky Mountains will see extreme cold in the next two to three weeks with at least one forecaster calling it the coldest in 25 years, meteorologists said on Tuesday. "In the next six to 10 days, it will be colder than normal north of a line from Washington, D.C. to Denver," said Joe Bastardi of AccuWeather. "In the next 15 to 20 days, everybody is extremely cold including freezes into Florida and Texas. "In the worst-case scenario, in much of the energy consuming areas of the country, from the Rockies...

Officials at a Jewish girls middle school in Mount Washington told parents last week that the FBI is investigating a Middle Eastern couple who were spotted videotaping the Smith Avenue campus and pupils. Shlomo Spetner, president of Bais Yaakov School for Girls, wrote to parents on Oct. 31 that a parent had spotted a car with a man and woman who appeared to be Middle Eastern. The man is a Saudi national who is a student at a local college, Spetner said. According to a police report, he lives in the Fallstaff neighborhood of Northwest Baltimore.

We are in a cabin deep down below decks on a Navy ship jam-packed with troops that’s pitching and creaking its way across the Atlantic in a winter gale. There is a man in every bunk. There’s a man wedged into every corner. There’s a man in every chair. The air is dense with cigarette smoke and with the staleness of packed troops and sour wool. “Don’t think I’m sticking up for the Germans,” puts in the lanky young captain in the upper berth, “but…” “To hell with the Germans,” says the broad-shouldered dark lieutenant. “It’s what our boys have...

October 16, 2003 How to Fix California's Fiscal Problems: A Guide for Schwarzenegger by Michael New Michael New is an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute and a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard-MIT Data Center. Now that the recall election has ended, Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger needs to turn his attention to California's deteriorating fiscal condition. Resolving California's $8 billion deficit should definitely be his top priority. However, the governor-elect and his aides also need to give serious consideration to long-term strategies for keeping California fiscally solvent. One idea that has received broad support is a constitutional spending limit. Indeed, a...

<p>Rep. David Dreier, the man leading California Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition team, may next be tapped to try to unseat Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer next year, Republican strategists say.      Mr. Dreier's statewide visibility rose when he took the high-profile role of co-chairman of Mr. Schwarzenegger's successful campaign to replace Gov. Gray Davis.</p>

<p>Trying to divine Gov.-elect Schwarzenegger’s likely moves on fiscal policy is a little bit like the old practice of Kremlinology, where analysts had to parse vague statements, watch personnel shifts and consider history to figure out what might happen next. One of the major stories of the campaign was that Schwarzenegger was being vague about his ideas on the budget. I said so many times myself. But now that he has been elected governor and I am trying to assess where he is going from here, I find myself coming back to his many statements during the campaign that gave us broad hints about the direction he intended to take. It turns out that he was more specific than we sometimes gave him credit for, if only you had time to use a careful ear and a bit of imagination. Stitched together and filled in by informed speculation, his fragmentary statements can be used to make some educated guesses about the near future. Would I prefer a candidate, or a governor-elect, who speaks more clearly, directly and specifically about his plans? Absolutely. But this is what we’ve got at the moment, so I let’s make the best of it.</p>

Davis - Oracle of Denial - May 8, 2002 By James L. Hirsen, J.D., Ph.D. contributor to Newsmax.com It's got it all. Document shredding, a payment handed over in a bar, secret side deals, scapegoats taking the heat, a big-bucks contract with no independent bidding, a conflicted consultant, some disregarded warnings, potential criminality, and a chief executive who claims he didn't have a clue. The $25,000 to the Davis campaign, given five days after a questionable $95 million contract with Oracle was finalized, has more pizzazz than your run-of-the-mill campaign finance violation. The circumstances have placed Gray Davis on defense...

Why Gray Davis wants to sue me Oct. 16, 2002, was like any other day on the campaign trail for Gray Davis. His schedule included a live interview with Lou Dobbs' "Moneyline," broadcast from UCLA's Anderson School of Management. Students were invited to question Gov. Davis during the 10-minute segment that centered on the governor's business ethics. According to the UCLA student newspaper, the students were generally disappointed by the governor's roundabout and evasive answers. But when the cameras stopped rolling, a different Gov. Davis emerged for his college hosts, as UCLA student Jonathan Young told me. Davis was surrounded...