Headlines | 3-11-09

Some of the most important stories of the day . . .

Economy and Business

• Obama to sign $410 billion dollar spending bill; admits it was stuffed with pork by Congress, vows to limit pork next time
  

• Big banks strike again: Didn't pay their FDIC premiums for 10 years
  

• Bloomberg: Libor creep says credit markets risk freezing on distrust of policymaking (background)

• CFR: The shadow financial system – as illustrated in three new papers that cut through the London fog
  

• Geithner: U.S. "in a deep mess" but we will fix it
  

• Greenspan refuses to take blame for housing bubble (background)

• Overvalued euro set to plunge "within months"?

• US companies pull out of retirement contributions

• In 2006 interview, Jim Cramer admitted to market manipulation

• Chinese exports fell sharply in February (background)

Politics

• Pulitzer-Prize Winning Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: Military Ran an "Executive Assassination Ring" Throughout the Bush Years Which Reported Directly to Cheney (background)
  

• Terrorist watch list now over one million (background)

• Iran nuclear plant to open for tourists to highlight peaceful intentions

• Poll: Americans evenly divided between liberals/progressives and conservatives/libertarians (background)
  

• Ron Paul: Obama foreign policy identical to bush

• AIPAC kills nomination of Charles Freeman as Chair of National Intelligence Council (Freeman's own statement)

• Pelosi using air force planes as her "personal airline", according to Fox news

Science and General Interest

• Ocean said to be more acidic than at any time since dinosaurs, and rising twice as fast as forecast 2 years ago

• A bug in cat poop may cause schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (background)

• Google tests service that examines what its users do on other Web sites to help it target advertising, raising privacy concerns.

• Big spenders are becoming frugal; the already-frugal are becoming even more frugal
  

This roundup may be updated periodically throughout the day.