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The long-predicted crash has arrived with a vengeance in China's original ghost city. Home prices have plunged by one third recently, down 60% from 2006, in Kangbashi, the ambitious second city built on the outskirts of Ordos. Developers, investors and migrant workers are all giving up on Kangbashi. "Ordos is the first of a number of these ghost cities that will see similar magnitude price declines

U.S. growth accelerated in the third quarter as consumers and businesses ramped up spending, a report that shows the economy remained resilient in the face of strong headwinds. Gross domestic product in the July-through-September period expanded at a 2.5% annual rate, the government said Thursday. That’s nearly double the 1.3% rate of growth in the second quarter and much faster than the first quarter’s tepid increase of 0.4%.

Take away the Birth/Death adjustment of 206,000 and the Real NFP is: -150,000. This is the biggest monthly B/D adjustment in over a year. And if as all the pundit claimed last month, demanding the McDonalds addition of 62,000 janitorial, part-time jobs be added to the May number, the economy really lost over 200,000 in May.

The U.S. manufacturing sector slowed sharply in May, according to data released Wednesday by the Institute for Supply Management.

St. Louis - Rising demand for corn from ethanol producers is pushing U.S. reserves to the lowest point in 15 years, a trend that could lead to higher grain and food prices this year. The Agriculture Department on Friday left its estimate for corn reserves unchanged from the previous month. The reserves are projected to fall to 675 million bushels in late August, when the harvest begins, or roughly 5 percent of all corn consumed in the United States. That would be the lowest surplus level since 1996.The limited supply is chiefly because of increasing demand from ethanol makers, which

Underemployment surged to 19.9% in February from 18.9% at the end of January. Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, hit 10.3% in February -- up from 9.8% at the end of January. The U.S. unemployment rate is now essentially the same as the 10.4% at the end of February 2010. ... Underemployment, a measure that combines part-time workers wanting full-time work with those who are unemployed, surged in February to 19.9%.

On the recently announced soaring recidivism rate for Gitmo detainees returning to terror, State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said on Fox News that "we actually expected this to happen."

Sunday, September 05, 2010 Email to a Friend ShareThis Advertisement The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-seven percent (47%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -23 (see trends).

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Sunday the U.S. economy was expanding but not at a robust enough pace and there was no "magic bullet" that will fix its problems. Obama said in an NBC interview that the batch of grim economic data over the past few weeks was something his administration had anticipated. ... "The economy is still growing, but it's not growing as fast as it needs to," Obama told NBC in the interview in New Orleans, where he stopped after a vacation on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard. Obama faces a dilemma in trying...

Leadership: As Americans suffer economically, President Obama golfs, vacations, campaigns, appears on a frivolous talk show — and vacations some more. Gee, don't we have a war and other problems to attend to? Will history record that Barack Obama's only great achievement as president was getting his golf handicap down to the teens? The president played more than two dozen rounds of golf in his first year in office — as many as George W. Bush did over his entire eight years. This week, he traveled to New York City to be swooned at on ABC's daytime gal fluff-fest "The...

Crisis Imperils Liberal Benefits Long Expected by Europeans By STEVEN ERLANGER May 22, 2010 PARIS — Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II. Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism. Europeans have benefited from low...

PARIS — Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II. Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism. Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated...

(Reuters) - U.S. housing starts rose more than expected in March to their highest level since November 2008 and permits to build new homes scaled a 17- month high, according to a government report on Friday that offered hope the housing market recovery remained on course. The Commerce Department said housing starts rose 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 626,000 units. February's housing starts were revised up to show a 1.1 percent increase, which was previously reported as a 5.9 percent drop. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected housing starts to rise to 610,000 units. Compared to...

Young people will need to carry more of the burden of health care under the new health overhaul law. The new law limits an industry practice of charging older customers more.

<p>The number of newly laid-off workers requesting unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week as jobs remain scarce amid a sluggish economic recovery.</p> <p>The Labor Department said Thursday new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 444,000. Wall Street economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected an increase of only 3,000.</p>

WHAT: A new study shows that molecular similarities exist between the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus and other strains of seasonal H1N1 virus that have been circulating in the population since 1988. These results suggest that healthy adults may have a level of protective immune memory that can blunt the severity of infection caused by the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. The study team was led by Bjoern Peters, Ph.D., and Alessandro Sette, Ph.D., of La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, Calif., grantees of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The...

DETROIT — Autopsies were planned Monday a day after three half-marathoners collapsed during the Detroit marathon and died, organizers said.

Though the Milky Way is taking a good beating from nearby mini-galaxies that sometimes slam into it, our galaxy is not likely to de destroyed by this process as some scientists had predicted, a new study finds. Circling around the Milky Way are between 20 and 25 known satellite dwarf galaxies, which are smaller clumps of stars bound in orbit around the Milky Way by gravitational attraction. Some pessimists predicted the Milky Way was doomed to a grizzly death by dismemberment if enough of these galaxies collide with it. In fact, scientists think many satellite galaxies have already rammed into...

A 17-year-old girl who fled to Florida after converting from Islam to Christianity will almost certainly be forced to return home to Ohio, experts say -- despite her fears that she will become the victim of an honor killing for abandoning her parents' faith. Rifqa Bary, who hitchhiked to an Ohio bus station earlier this month and took a charter bus to Orlando, remains in protective custody with Florida's Department of Children and Families. A judge is expected to rule Friday on the jurisdiction of the case, but several legal experts contacted by FOXNews.com say the girl is bound to...

WASHINGTON – Voter turnout will be the highest in decades, dwarfing recent presidential elections, experts predict. The only question dividing experts is how huge will it be. Will it be the largest since 1968, largest since 1960 or even, as one expert predicts, the largest in a century? Soaring early voting levels hint at a big turnout, but that could just be the same voters casting ballots earlier instead of more voters hitting the polls. Weather should generally be favorable, according to forecasts. --snip-- Michael McDonald of George Mason University is so optimistic he's predicting the highest level in a...

WASHINGTON - Congressional leaders and the White House agreed Sunday to a $700 billion rescue of the ailing financial industry after lawmakers insisted on sharing spending controls with the Bush administration. The biggest U.S. bailout in history won the tentative support of both presidential candidates and goes to the House for a vote Monday. The plan, bollixed up for days by election-year politics, would give the administration broad power to use taxpayers' money to purchase billions upon billions of home mortgage-related assets held by cash-starved financial firms.

WASHINGTON - When Tori Boyles, of Columbia, Mo., takes a test at school, an adult often reads the questions to her because the 9-year-old has learning disabilities that make reading difficult. That kind of accommodation generally is not allowed for the reading test that public school students take under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Also, skipping the exam is not permitted for Tori, who has spina bifida, a condition often accompanied by learning problems. "Why isn't there an option to opt out of that?" asks her mother, Becky Boyles. "She just has to stare at this piece of...

NEW YORK - U.S. officials had low expectations for the current U.N. meetings, marked by anti-American insults heaped on President Bush, and have scant accomplishments to show so far. The United States made few direct requests of other nations at the annual opening session and took minimal risks. Bush administration leaders did tone down the rhetoric that has played poorly abroad and refrained from criticizing the United Nations itself. The approach reflected an attempt at rapprochement with countries still at odds with the U.S. on many levels, and acknowledgment that several administration's goals and initiatives for the Middle East, North...

Charges expected within days over airline 'terror plot' By Sean Rayment, Security Correspondent (Filed: 20/08/2006) Terrorism charges against the suspects allegedly involved in a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners are "imminent", The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. The police are "hugely optimistic" that they will be able to bring charges against many of the suspects in the very near future, according to security sources. Police explore a section of woods where a cache of liquid explosive is believed to have been found It is also thought that anti-terrorist officers have found the liquid explosive which police believe was intended to...

A project aiming to create an easier way to measure cosmic distances has instead turned up surprising evidence that our large and ancient universe might be even bigger and older than previously thought. If accurate, the finding would be difficult to mesh with current thinking about how the universe evolved, one scientist said. A research team led by Alceste Bonanos at the Carnegie Institution of Washington has found that the Triangulum Galaxy, also known as M33, is about 15 percent farther away from our own Milky Way than previously calculated. The finding, which will be detailed in an upcoming issue...

WASHINGTON, August 1, 2006 -- Organizers expect 5,000 people top participate in the Aurora, Colo., Freedom Walk event Sept. 9. Freedom Walks around the country will commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and honor American servicemembers. Freedom Walks are part of the Defense Department’s America Supports You program, which highlights corporate and grassroots support for U.S. military members and their families. “Operation Hope,” part of the Beacon of Hope Outreach Center, will host the Aurora Freedom Walk. The nationwide military support program, launched in 2003, provides services to more than 10,000 troops and their families. Event organizer and Beacon...

This fall 4,852 freshmen are expected to enroll at UCLA, but only 96, or 2%, are African American — the lowest figure in decades and a growing concern at the Westwood campus. For several years, students, professors and administrators at UCLA have watched with discouragement as the numbers of black students declined. But the new figures, released this week, have shocked many on campus and prompted school leaders to declare the situation a crisis. UCLA — which boasts such storied black alumni as Jackie Robinson, Tom Bradley and Ralph Bunche, and is in a county that is 9.8% African American...

SIERRA VISTA — The “S.O.S. Borders” organization expects more than 100 people at its rally at the Palominas Trading Post today The rally is scheduled to go from 9 a.m. to noon. At noon, demonstrators will form a human fence, intending to send a message to the U.S. Congress about the need for proper border security. “We want Congress to understand that we want border security and enforcement of our laws, first and foremost. The purpose of this rally is strictly to focus on border security,” S.O.S. Borders Co-executive Director Kimberly Fletcher said during a phone interview Friday as she...

WASHINGTON - Parts of New Orleans are sinking far more rapidly than scientists first thought, more than an inch a year, new research suggests. That may explain some levee failures during Hurricane Katrina and raises more worries about the future. The research, being published Thursday in the journal Nature, is based on new satellite radar data for the three years before Katrina struck in 2005. The data show that some areas are sinking — from overdevelopment, drainage and natural seismic shifts — four or five times faster than the rest of the city. And that, experts say, can be deadly....

WASHINGTON - The operator of the state's power grid said Wednesday that it expects to have ample power to meet peak summer demands. "We are fine, but it is going to be tight in the south," Yakout Mansour, chief executive of the Folsom-based California Independent System Operator, said at a news conference at the National Press Club. He said Southern California customers can expect conditions similar to last year ... --snip-- Mansour said that overall, conditions have improved dramatically over the 2000-2001 period when the state faced tight supplies, escalating prices, rolling blackouts and market manipulation. ... --snip-- Growth in...

New terror attacks 'must be expected' (Filed: 02/02/2006) The Government's anti-terror watchdog has warned there is a "a real and present danger" of new terror attacks in Britain. Lord Carlile said he could not predict targets Lord Carlile, the Government's independent reviewer of counter-terrorism laws, said documents shown to him by the Home Office were "sufficiently alarming" for him to conclude that suicide bombings similar to the July 7 attacks "must be expected". The Liberal Democrat peer said: "The nature of the activities of which I have seen information is sufficiently alarming for me to re-emphasise ... the real and...

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Hamas made a stronger-than-expected showing in the Palestinians' first parliamentary election in a decade Wednesday, and the ruling Fatah Party may have to include the Islamic militants in a coalition government, according to exit polls. The impressive results for Hamas, competing in its first election ever, reflected popular discontent with Fatah, the secular party that has led the Palestinian Authority since its creation 12 years ago and has been accused of widespread corruption and mismanagement. The election was the Palestinians' first truly competitive vote, and officials hoped it would help cement democracy in the post- Yasser...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed more than expected in November to $64.2 billion as shipments of aircraft, cars and other capital goods propelled exports to a new record and lower oil prices helped trim imports, a government report showed on Thursday. The monthly trade gap fell 5.8 percent from the record set in October and was significantly below Wall Street's median forecast of $66.25 billion. October's record deficit was trimmed slightly to $68.1 billion from an initially reported $68.9 billion gap. Separate reports showed new claims for jobless benefits rose less than expected last week, while import...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 10, 2005 – Iraqi forces have the lead in providing security for national elections Dec. 15, officials said here today. This is a huge job, military and embassy officials said on background. Some 230,000 Iraqi soldiers and police will provide security for more than 6,500 election sites and polling centers in the nation. The election will select members of the first permanent democratic government in Iraq's history. More than 3,800 people are running for office, officials said. They can run as individuals or as members of parties, and parties may be connected to larger coalitions. Iraqi airwaves are...

WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to announce a new nominee for the Supreme Court on Monday, and conservatives close to the White House said the leading candidates appeared to be federal appeals judges Samuel Alito and J. Michael Luttig. The expected nomination comes just four days after the withdrawal of Harriet Miers in the face of intense conservative opposition. Alito and Luttig both have strong conservative credentials and would be warmly welcomed by Bush's political base. Others who were under consideration were federal judges Karen Williams, Priscilla Owen, Alice Batchelder and Michael McConnell as well as Michigan Supreme Court...

WASHINGTON - President Bush, closing in on another nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, has completed his consultations with the Senate about who should fill the seat of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a White House spokesman said Friday. Bush was expected to announce his choice in the next few days. White House press secretary Scott McClellan ruled out an announcement Friday but otherwise indicated the nomination could come anytime. The president, leaving the White House Friday afternoon for a weekend at Camp David, offered reporters only a slight grin and a shrug when asked if he had made...

MIAMI - Federal prosecutors are seeking bank fraud charges against lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a key figure in investigations involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, The Associated Press learned Thursday. The charges stem from the 2000 purchase by Abramoff and his partners of SunCruz Casinos and the alleged use of a fake wire transfer of $23 million aimed at influencing lenders to provide millions of dollars for the deal. Exact details of the charges were not immediately available. A grand jury, meeting in Miami, could hand up indictments against Abramoff as early as Thursday, federal law enforcement sources said. They spoke...

Official IDF sources predict that the withdrawal from Gaza will lead to Palestinian terrorism and violence worse than the previous intifadas, writes Yediot Acharonot's senior military correspondent. IDF sources predict that immediately after the disengagement, the ceasefire is expected to end with terrorist attacks in and from Judea and Samaria. Among the threats are mortar and Kassam rockets on Israel's new toll-way Highway 6, as well as other areas in the coastal plain and the Afula area. The "regular" ambush attacks on roads, as well as attacks on army bases and towns in Judea and Samaria, are also expected. The...

A new initiative seeks to provide housing for the hundreds of individuals and families who want to move to Gush Katif to strengthen veteran Jewish residents in the face of expulsion. In recent months the communities of Gush Katif have been inundated with requests by people who want to move there. This despite the fact that according to the expulsion/compensation legislation they would not be compensated for the destruction of their property if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan is implemented. While aides to Prime Minister Sharon have confided that the plan largely relies on inducing the willful evacuation by...

SAN FRANCISCO – Zach W. Hall, a veteran neuroscientist and associate dean of medical research at the University of Southern California's medical school, was recommended Monday to become interim president of California's new $3 billion stem cell research institute. The recommendation by a subcommittee was passed on to the full 29-member committee appointed to oversee the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was widely expected to approve it Tuesday during its monthly meeting at Stanford University is widely expected. Hall would take over the interim president slot from Robert N. Klein, who would remain as the committee's chairman. Hall, 67,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Iraq (news - web sites) war that might have been President Bush (news - web sites)'s defining glory may instead turn out to be his Achilles heel -- or Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s complex inheritance. No matter who wins the White House, the next U.S. leader will be dogged by Iraq and its repercussions for years to come. "I think all the trends that we see in the insurgency are that it's not going to be defeated or perhaps not even contained in the coming one or two years regardless of...

N.J. to pay McGreevey legal bills More than $64,000 has been billed, and more is expected. Republicans blasted the expense. By Mitch Lipka Inquirer Trenton Bureau Posted on Sun, Sep. 19, 2004 TRENTON - More than $64,000 in legal bills racked up by Gov. McGreevey between March and June in a federal extortion case are being picked up by taxpayers, according to records released Friday. Additional bills are expected for work done on McGreevey's behalf in that matter, as well as another that led to his announced resignation in August. The governor's chief counsel hired former federal prosecutor William E....

SEATTLE – President Bush is coming to Western Washington on Friday. He is expected to get a lot of support during a fundraiser, but he will also get a lot of grief from protestors. A lot of energy is being generated by critics of the president, who is paying his first visit to Washington state since he became president. Environmentalists, peace activists and Democrats are gearing up for a mighty protest. Protests are planned for midday Friday in Bellevue and Seattle. State Democrats and the machinists and metal trades unions will rally at Bellevue's Crossroads Park. Then they plan to...

<p>Mother Ruby Muhammad had hoped to get her watermelons and summer annuals into her Sacramento County garden before a trip to Chicago. But there hadn't been enough time.</p> <p>And she'd like to write another poem.</p> <p>At 106, Mother Ruby is downright vivacious. She was sad for a friend who confided to her that she was just waiting for the Lord to take her to heaven.</p>

<p>Nearly four years ago, Gov. Gray Davis signed a little-noticed piece of legislation that allowed state agencies, cities and counties to boost the retirement benefits of their employees, particularly peace officers and firefighters.</p> <p>Now that law, debated for only a few minutes in the frenetic closing days of the 1999 legislative session, has come back to haunt California. Those greatly improved retirement benefits -- and a stock market in the tank -- are about to devour billions of dollars that could otherwise be used for education, police and fire protection and road improvements.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - More bad news is expected to roll out of the governor's office about noon on Wednesday, as the administration releases its revised budget proposal.</p> <p>Insisting most of the big decisions were still being debated until a Friday deadline, Gov. Gray Davis declined late last week to share any details about the new spending plan. The only thing for certain, staff members say, is that a lot more money needs to be trimmed from the near-$100 billion state budget.</p>