NEW YORK: US stocks closed mixed on Tuesday, with the Dow creeping up to close at a new record high after mixed company results, while Apple dragged the Nasdaq lower.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 22.19 points (0.14 percent) at 15,567.74, scoring a new all-time high. The prior record was set last Thursday at 15,465.91.
The broad-based S&P 500 gave up 3.14 points (0.19 percent) at 1,692.39, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slid 21.11 points (0.59 percent) to 3,579.27.
Apple shed 1.7 percent ahead of its earnings, due after the market closed.
"US stocks ended the day mixed, as the unexpected contraction in regional manufacturing activity and the plethora of divergent earnings reports left traders on the fence," Charles Schwab & Company said in a market note.
Several leading companies, including Dow components DuPont, United Technologies and Travelers, reported profits that exceeded analyst expectations.
Yet revenues lagged forecasts at both DuPont and United Technologies, as well as at a number of smaller companies.
Chemical and biosciences giant DuPont edged down 0.1 percent after earnings came in one cent above expectations at $1.28 per share.
The company said it was exploring a possible sale of its performance chemicals division.
United Technologies, which works in the building and aerospace sectors, gained almost 3.0 percent after earnings exceeded expectations by 14 cents at US$1.71 per share.
But Travelers retreated 3.8 percent despite easily topping expectations with US$2.13 per share instead of the forecasted $1.61.
Some analysts said earnings were inflated by one-time items and pointed to a drop in book value per share due to the impact of increased interest rates on some investments.
Netflix tumbled 4.5 percent despite a fivefold increase in profits. Investors fretted that the company's subscriber base is growing more slowly than in the past.
Networking technology firm Cisco Systems, a Dow component, gave up 0.6 percent after announcing a US$2.7 billion acquisition of cybersecurity firm Sourcefire, pricing the smaller firm at US$76 per share. Sourcefire shares soared 27.8 percent to US$75.49.
Coffee retailer Starbucks dropped nearly 2.0 percent after announcing a tie-up with Danone to develop specialty Greek yogurt products to be sold initially only in the US market. -- AFP
LONDON It's Day One of parenting for William and Kate. After the excitement and fatigue and joy of childbirth -- emotions shared with a nation -- the young couple is expected to bring the prince home and start to care for him.
But the lad's name -- and his likeness -- remain a royal mystery. And as the infant child begins a long journey expected to see him someday become a king, Brits -- and people from around the world -- have been joining the royal family in celebration.
In a new statement released by Kensington Palace on Tuesday morning, Prince William and his wife Kate thanked the hospital staff for the "tremendous care the three of us have received," but gave no hint as to when they might leave the hospital or announce their son's name.
"Mother, son and father are all doing well this morning," a palace spokesman said.
The couple has also begun receiving visitors -- Kate's parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, were photographed arriving to St. Mary's Hospital on Tuesday afternoon.
Paying tribute to the young couple the evening before, Prime Minister David Cameron said "the whole country will celebrate," and predicted that William and Kate would "make wonderful parents."
Tourists and well-wishers flocked to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, lining up outside the gates to take pictures of the golden easel on which, in keeping with royal tradition, the birth announcement was displayed. A band of scarlet-clad guardsman at the palace delighted onlookers with a rendition of the song "Congratulations."
Other celebrations Tuesday included gun salutes by royal artillery companies to honor the birth and the ringing of bells at London's Westminster Abbey.
Riders in uniform trotted past the palace to Green Park, where six field guns fired 41 blank rounds. An additional 62 gun salute was fired off at the Tower of London, the medieval royal palace which sits on the north bank of the Thames in the capital.
At the same time, 10 bell ringers began sounding a royal salute to the new prince. The bell peal will last a full three hours, and will be the same one played to mark William and Kate's marriage. Three of the 10 bell ringers who will be in the Abbey on Tuesday were also on hand 31 years ago to do the same job when William was born.
The young prince was delivered at 4:24 p.m. in London on Monday, but the royal couple kept the world waiting another four hours to learn of the birth.
Even grandfather Prince Charles seemed clueless an hour after the birth. Asked by a reporter upon emerging from a public event in the northern English city of York if there had been any news, he laughed off the question and said, "none," as he got into a waiting car.
But news there was. The birth was announced via a formal press release issued by Kensington Palace, which stated that the duchess "was safely delivered of a son" at 4:24 p.m., local time, weighing 8 lbs., 6 oz.
CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reported that William, a truly modern dad, remained with the duchess throughout her labor. It was the prince who called the queen, Prince Charles, Prince Harry and the Middletons with the news at some point before the public was notified.
Halfway around the world, royalist group Monarchy New Zealand said it had organized a national lightshow, with 40 buildings across the island lit up in blue to commemorate the royal birth, including Sky Tower in Auckland, the airport in Christchurch, and Larnach Castle in the South Island city of Dunedin.
The baby isn't even a day old -- and may not even been named for days or even weeks -- but he already has a building dedicated to him.
In Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said an enclosure at Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo would be named after the prince as part of a gift from Australia. The government would donate 10,000 Australian dollars ($9,300) on the young prince's behalf toward a research project at the zoo to save the endangered bilby, a rabbit-like marsupial whose numbers are dwindling in the wild. The prince's name — when known — would be added to the bilby enclosure.
"I don't know if the royal family would need this, but we'll probably give them a free pass to Taronga Park Zoo as well," Rudd said.
British media joined in the celebration.
"It's a Boy!" was splashed across many U.K. front pages, while Britain's top-selling The Sun newspaper temporarily changed its name to "The Son" in honor of the tiny monarch-in-waiting.
Nearly 150 flights had been canceled at LaGuardia as of 10:25 a.m. ET on Tuesday, according to flight-tracking service FlightStats. And that's on top of the more than 350 cancellations that were reported Monday, which saw both the landing gear incident and stormy weather affect flights.
Delays averaging about 90 minutes were being reported as of 10:25 a.m. ET, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's flight delay map. The agency cited a "disabled aircraft" as the cause of the delays earlier in the morning. However, by 8 a.m. ET, the FAA had switched the cause of the delays to low clouds -- a frequent problem at delay-prone LaGuardia.
All that comes as NBC New York reports LaGuardia "fully reopened Tuesday morning (after) … the Boeing 737 was loaded onto a flatbed and hauled off the runway early Tuesday." NBC adds that the jets was "taken to a hangar where authorities plan to examine the physical damage and investigate the cause of the failed gear."
The landing gear collapsed after Southwest Airlines Flight 345 from Nashville landed around 5:40 p.m. ET on Monday.
Ten passengers were treated at the scene, with six of those ultimately taken to a hospitals with minor injuries, says Thomas Bosco, acting director of aviation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the area airports. Flight 345's six crew members were taken to another hospital for observation, Bosco adds to The Associated Press.
Bosco says the Southwest "aircraft skidded down the runway on its nose and then veered off and came to rest in the grass area" following the collapse of its landing gear.
Stay tuned for updates.
The general manager of New York's LaGuardia Airport says up to 10 people were treated after a jet's front landing gear collapsed as it arrived. (July 22)
Buckingham Palace has announced that Duchess Kate is in labor, and has gone to the hospital in London. Kate and her husband, Prince William, are expecting their first baby. (July 22)
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LONDON — At last, after weeks of waiting and on-the-edge anticipation (in a heat wave), the royal baby is ready to arrive. Duchess Kate of Cambridge is in the hospital and in the early stages of labor, Buckingham Palace confirmed early Monday.
"The Duchess traveled by car from Kensington Palace to the Lindo Wing at St. Mary's Hospital with the Duke of Cambridge," tweeted Clarence House, the press office for Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The couple's spokesman said, "Things are progressing normally" so far.
And not a moment too soon for everyone in the United Kingdom, from the queen and the prime minister down to each of the sweaty members of the media mob waiting for more than two weeks outside St. Mary's Hospital in Paddington.
As soon as the Clarence House tweet went out, the royals media piled onto Twitter.
"Duchess of Cambridge arrived at hospital at 5.45 am (local time). Believed to have used Cambridge wing entrance used by Princess Diana," tweeted David Brown of The Times of London.
"Writing on Twitter, Kate's uncle, Gary Goldsmith, says today is 'very very exciting,' " tweeted Peter Hunt of the BBC.
"What do you think — a boy or a girl?" is the refrain being heard in and around the streets of Paddington as the world waits for news.
Hospital workers, meanwhile, could be heard saying, "It's just ridiculous," referring to the hundreds of jostling journalists and photographers massed outside of St Mary's early on Monday morning.
Photographers paced back and forth outside the hospital in the mid-morning sun, on another hot day for London. Edward Cumming, 65, was sitting in the shade of a tree across from the entrance to the Lindo Wing.
"For one baby this seems a bit much," he said. "Although I guess you have to expect it for a royal baby."
Cumming, who hopes the monarchy in the U.K. persists for some time, said that the royal birth may help that effort.
Australian tourists Natasha and Diana (no last names or ages at their request) said they have been hanging around in London for about a week waiting for news of the royal birth, before heading to the British beauty spot of Cornwall in the far western edge of the island. When the news broke, they rushed over to see if they could spot anything. They couldn't, and were sitting in a shady spot wondering what to do next.
"We're kind of gutted it's happening today," Natasha said, before the two decided the wait for the baby was going to be too long and started making their way back toward Paddington station.
Kate and husband Prince William, both 31 and about to have their first baby, had been spending time at her parents' mansion about 50 miles away in rural Bucklebury, partly to escape the high temperatures (for London) in the city.
They had returned to Kensington Palace this weekend, according to the British media, although the palace had refused to confirm that, and said nothing until it confirmed she was in the hospital and in labor today.
She checked into the private Lindo Wing (Twitter jokesters had nicknamed it the "Limbo WIng" during what they called #GreatKateWait), where William and brother Prince Harry were born more than three decades ago.
And now everyone waits some more.
The palace said weeks ago that the duchess intends to have a natural birth, although that could change depending on circumstances. But the Cambridge press office is not discussing anything about that, nor whether labor was induced.
British reporters were reminding readers and followers that when William was born at St. Mary's 31 years ago, it was after about 16 hours of induced labor.
The palace had earlier planned to inform the world once she was in the hospital and started labor. As soon as the baby is born, William will call his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, on an encrypted call to let her know the news.
However, if the birth is in the middle of the night, he will not wake her up, British media are reporting.
The queen, who returned as per usual to Buckingham Palace today from Windsor Castle where she usually spends weekends (her flag went up over the palace when she arrived), joked this week, in answer to a child's question, that she hoped the baby would arrive soon because she's going on her annual vacation next week to her Balmoral estate in Scotland.
Meanwhile, if it's still daylight, a royal courier will emerge from the hospital and, with a police escort and a news helicopter clattering overhead, will head to Buckingham Palace to post a notice of the baby's gender, size and weight on an easel at the palace front gates. (If the birth is in the middle of the night, this will wait until morning.)
Then the news will flood onto palace websites and social media and TV screens, and the celebrations will commence. Relief that it all went well will mix with joy, and pride that the British monarchy endures with another royal heir in hand.
This baby, whose name we will likely not learn for at least a few more days, will move to third-in-line to the throne, behind William at second and grandfather Prince Charles at first. Great-granny the queen is 87.
A girl would make for an especially historic royal baby, coming into the world with unprecedented expectations. For the first time in a 1,000 years of the English monarchy, the rules of succession have been changed so that birth order will trump gender. This princess of Cambridge, as she will be known, will be a future monarch even if she later has younger brothers.
The anticipation of the birth had built to a fever pitch, in part because it had been expected last weekend and nothing happened. This week, press reports had it, Prime Minister David Cameron, meeting with his Cabinet colleagues, was handed a note and gasped a little. Was it the royal baby? Nope, it was just a cricket score.
Today, he expressed the country's best wishes. "A very exciting occasion and the whole country is excited with them," he said. "So everyone is hoping for the best."
So it's big news for the Brits, certainly, and huge news for the world's ever-growing celebrity media universe, where celeb babies are click-magnets and royal babies even more so.
Which is why hundreds of journalists and photographers are still staking out St. Mary's: They're waiting for a first glimpse of the baby and parents when they emerge from the hospital.
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio – URGENT: Authorities charged a Cleveland man Monday with three counts of aggravated murder, after the bodies of three women were found over the weekend wrapped in trash bags.
Police charged 35-year-old Michael Madison with the deaths of three women -- one of whom was identified as a 38-year-old Angela Deskins of Cleveland. The other two women have not yet been identified due to advanced stages of decomposition, the medical examiner said.
"We are in the midst of tragedy," East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said at a press conference Monday. Norton said the women were killed "senselessly" by a man with "no regard for human life."
An odor led to the discovery Friday of one body in a garage. Two others were found Saturday -- one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house. The bodies of the three women were all wrapped in plastic bags in fetal positions.
Norton said a call to police led authorities to a home and a standoff with the man, who was eventually taken into custody. The mayor has said the suspect indicated he might have been influenced by the earlier case of Cleveland serial killer convicted in the deaths of 11 women.
Police and volunteers scoured about 40 empty homes Sunday until their search was suspended, with no immediate plans to resume.
Medical examiner Thomas Gilson also said he couldn't determine a cause of death because of the bodies' conditions. Gilson said one victim had distinctive tattoos on her body -- one of which said "Jean," and another "Lil Wayne," a reference to the famous rapper.
The bodies, all women, were found about 100 to 200 yards apart, and authorities say the victims were killed in the previous six to 10 days.
Police and volunteers scoured about 40 empty homes Sunday for more evidence until their search was suspended, with no immediate plans to resume, Police Chief Ralph Spotts said. Norton said Monday that no bodies were found, but Spotts stressed that the investigation remained open.
It's the third recent high-profile case in the Cleveland area that involves missing women.
In May, three women who separately vanished about a decade ago were found captive in a run-down house. Ariel Castro, a former school bus driver, has been charged with nearly 1,000 counts of kidnap, rape and other crimes and has pleaded not guilty.
Castro is accused of repeatedly restraining the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. The charges say one of the women tried to escape and he assaulted her with a vacuum cord around her neck. He also fathered a daughter with one captive, authorities said.
In 2009, Sowell was arrested after a woman escaped from his house and said she had been raped there. Police found the mostly nude bodies of 11 women throughout the home.
Sowell's victims ranged in age from 24 to 52, all were recovering or current drug addicts and most died of strangulation; some had been decapitated, and others were so badly decomposed that coroners couldn't say with certainty how they died.
He was found guilty in 2011 and sentenced to death.
FoxNews.com's Cristina Corbin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Reports: Woman killed riding coaster identified
Police have ruled out foul play as local media identified the woman who fell to her death while riding a 14-story roller coaster at a Six Flags amusement park in Arlington, Texas.
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Police have ruled out foul play as local media identified the woman who fell to her death while riding a 14-story roller coaster at a Six Flags amusement park in Arlington, Texas.
The Dallas Morning News and local TV station WFAA said the family of the woman who died has identified her as Rosy Esparza of Dallas. Relatives told the Dallas Morning News the accident occurred on her first visit to Six Flags Over Texas.
Arlington Police Sgt. Christopher Cook told The Associated Press there appears to have been no foul play in Friday's death.
Police say the Texas Department of Insurance, which approves amusement rides, is involved in investigating the accident. The Star Telegram in Fort Worth reported the coaster will remain closed until the end of the in-house investigation.
Park spokeswoman Sharon Parker confirmed that a woman died while riding the Texas Giant roller coaster — the tallest steel-hybrid coaster in the world — but did not specify how she was killed. However, witnesses told local media outlets that the woman fell.
John Putman told the Star-Telegram that he was in line awaiting his turn on the ride when the car from which the woman fell returned to the ground. Putman said a man and woman got out.
"They were screaming, 'My mom! My mom! Let us out, we need to go get her!' " Putman said.
Carmen Brown of Arlington was waiting in line as the victim was being secured in for the ride. She told The Dallas Morning News the woman had expressed concern to a park employee that she was not secured correctly in her seat.
"He was basically nonchalant," Brown said. "He was, like, 'As long as you heard it click, you're fine.' Hers was the only one that went down once, and she didn't feel safe. But they let her still get on the ride."
She said the victim fell out of the ride as it made a sudden maneuver.
"The lady basically tumbled over," she said. "We heard her screaming. We were, like, 'Did she just fall?'"
Contributing: Natalie DiBlasio; The Associated Press
The bodies were found about 100 to 200 yards apart and a 35-year-old man was arrested and is a suspect in all three deaths, although he has not yet been charged, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said Saturday. Officials identified the suspect as Michael Madison, according to CBS affiliate WOIO in Cleveland. Police say Madison alluded that there may be more bodies in the area, which prompted the ongoing search.
The East Cleveland chief of police gave descriptions of the bodies, which are all young black females, reports WOIO. Police suspect they were killed in the last six to ten days.
The suspect is a registered sex offender and has served prison time, the mayor said. Madison plead guilty to attempted rape in 2002 and struck a deal for a four year sentence, WOIO reports.Otherwise he's had a few drug convictions.
In police interviews, Madison led them to believe he might have been influenced by convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell, Norton said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"He said some things that led us to believe that in some way, shape, or form, Sowell might be an influence," the mayor said.
Sowell was found guilty in 2011 of killing 11 women and hiding their remains around his Cleveland home. He is in prison on a death sentence.
Asked if the suspect has a fascination with the Sowell case, the mayor said: "We believe so."
Brandon Trussell told WOIO he was recently incarcerated with Madison and that the suspect told him he admired convicted Sowell.
"Yeah, he said he respected him," said Trussell.
Police Commander Mike Cardilli said a woman's body was found Friday in a garage and two other bodies were found Saturday — one in a backyard and the other in the basement of a vacant house.
All three people are believed to have been killed in the last six to 10 days.
Police did not know the identities of the three victims. Norton said police believe the three were female, although the bodies had not yet been examined by the medical examiner.
Norton said the bodies were each in the fetal position, wrapped in several layers of trash bags. He said detectives continue to interview the suspect, who used his mother's address in Cleveland, the mayor said, in registering as a sex offender.
Cardilli said the man was arrested after a standoff with police Friday. Police did not immediately release the suspect's name. He was jailed in East Cleveland, the mayor said.
"The person in custody, some of the things he said to investigators made us go back today," the mayor said.
Police searched vacant houses over about three blocks in the neighborhood Saturday and planned to expand their search Sunday, Norton said.
The police, FBI, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department went through yards and abandoned houses and used dogs trained to find cadavers.
The neighborhood in East Cleveland, of some 17,000 residents, has many abandoned houses and authorities want to be thorough, the mayor said.
Helen Thomas, the tenacious and feisty dean of the White House press corps who covered 10 presidents and was a trailblazer for female journalists, has died. She was 92.
Thomas, who was a syndicated columnist for Hearst News Service after spending most of her career as a reporter for United Press International, died early Saturday at her apartment in Washington. Her friend Muriel Dobbin, a longtime Baltimore Sun reporter, said Thomas had been in declining health for some time and had recently been hospitalized.
In May 2010, Thomas was forced to give up her column after making anti-Israel remarks in a short videotaped interview. Days later she apologized for saying that Jews should "get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home," but she couldn't escape the controversy and resigned from Hearst.
In 2011 Thomas began writing a column for the weekly Falls Church (Va.) News-Press. "She's not bigoted or racist or anti-Semitic," owner-editor Nicholas Benton told the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot when Thomas was hired. "She has her differences about foreign policy, but you're allowed that."
She covered every administration from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama, and, as Gerald R. Ford put it, practiced "a fine blend of journalism and acupuncture." As the senior correspondent at the White House, it fell to Thomas to end presidential press conferences with the declaration, "Thank you, Mr. President."
Perhaps her most lasting achievement as a journalist was to shatter the glass ceiling in the press room. She was the first woman to serve as White House bureau chief for a wire service — UPI — and the first female officer of three Washington institutions that defined press power: the National Press Club, the White House Correspondents' Assn. and the Gridiron.
Thomas had a reputation for asking questions with an edge and was so vociferous in her criticism of the war in Iraq that for three years President George W. Bush never called on her. When he finally did, she rose and said, "You're going to be sorry," before launching into a tirade-turned-question about the war.
She broke news — Lyndon Johnson was enraged when Thomas reported his daughter Luci's engagement before Patrick Nugent had asked LBJ's permission. She made history as the only female journalist to accompany President Nixon on his historic trip to China. She made foes — "I'm persona non grata," she said of her relationship with George W. Bush. But when she left the UPI news service to become a columnist, the White House Correspondents Assn. decreed that she should still sit in the front row during press briefings, explaining that she was "the dean of the White House press corps."
Born Aug. 4, 1920, in Winchester, Ky., where her parents had moved after arriving at Ellis Island from Lebanon in 1903, Thomas was the seventh of nine children, all encouraged to express opinions — and to go to college. Growing up in Detroit, she discovered journalism on the Eastern High School newspaper, and enrolled in Wayne University (now Wayne State University), where she earned money working in the college library and at her brother's gas station. She devoted the rest of her spare time to the student newspaper.
Earning a bachelor's degree in English in 1942, she headed to Washington. It was wartime, and with men in the service women were getting career chances once unheard of in the workplace. She worked briefly as a copy girl at the gritty Washington Daily News. When she was laid off, she headed to the National Press Building, where she knocked on doors until United Press, later UPI, hired her for $24 a week to write copy for radio broadcasters. She held the job for 12 years.
She got her break in 1956, when UPI gave her a beat covering the Justice Department. Finally, when she was 40, UPI sent Helen Thomas to the White House to cover the stylish first lady, Jackie Kennedy.
It was a mismatch from the start. Joining forces with the Associated Press' Fran Lewine, the two staked out the Georgetown house where the Kennedys lived before the inauguration, ditto at Georgetown University hospital when John Kennedy Jr. was born and shadowed Jackie on her shopping trips. The first lady called them her "harpies" and once tried to lose them by complaining to the Secret Service that "two strange-looking Spanish women" were trailing her. In her 1975 book "Dateline: White House," Thomas wrote that Jackie Kennedy even asked the president to get her news organization to transfer Thomas overseas.
By then, Thomas had worked her way onto the men's side of White House coverage, clamoring to end gender discrimination at the National Press Club where foreign dignitaries and other visiting notables spoke to reporters and often made news. She, Lewine, Elsie Carper of the Washington Post and others lobbied the State Department — which was complicit in booking foreign leaders at the club — and embassies.
Change came to the tradition-bound club reluctantly. In 1956, the club deigned to allow women to sit in the balcony without asking questions or eating lunch. Thomas called the balcony "purdah," referring to the Hindi and Muslim practice of shielding women from strangers. In 1959, visiting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev refused to speak at the Press Club unless women were allowed to cover his speech. The club allowed a one-time only exception: 30 female reporters could sit on the main floor, eat lunch and cover the address, during which Khrushchev told the West, "We will bury you." Finally, in 1971, the club opened its doors to women. Thomas was its first female member.
Similar stories applied to the other two organizations. The White House Correspondents Assn. black-tie dinner was not open to women until 1962, when Kennedy, at Thomas' prodding, threatened not to attend unless women were allowed in. Thomas and Lewine broke through the Gridiron's male-only policy in 1974, when they attracted big-name guests to a counter-gridiron party that stole the original's thunder. The next year, they were in.
By then Thomas was a fixture in Washington, and at the White House. She was named UPI's Washington Bureau Chief in 1974. She liked to get to work early, starting the day at 5:30 a.m. with the newspapers and some coffee, parking herself outside the press secretary's office by 8 a.m. "to see if I could buttonhole them early." She liked routine, often dining at Lebanese restaurant Mama Ayesha's in Washington's Adams-Morgan neighborhood.
She worked for UPI from more than half a century, until 2000, when the news service was sold to Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. She quit, and went to work as a columnist for Hearst, trading in her reporter's dictated facts for the opinions that had long dominated her thinking — and her family tradition.
""I wrote dull copy because I was afraid even a verb would sound pejorative or judgmental," she said in a 2004 interview with Progressive magazine. "But now I go for broke." After 57 years of playing it straight, she could say it out loud. "I was a liberal the day I was born, and I will be until the day I die."
At 51, Thomas married a colleague, Douglas Cornell. Four years later he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and she cared for him until his death in 1982 with help from a sister who was a nurse. Choosing a career over family in an era when most women left the workplace to raise children, Thomas called her romance and marriage "the most unexpected and wonderful thing that ever happened to me."
She was the author of several memoirs, including "Dateline: White House" and "Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President."
President Barack Obama speaks on the Trayvon Martin case during remarks in the White House briefing room on Friday.
Six days after a Florida jury acquitted a Hispanic man in the shooting death of an African-American teen, President Barack Obama made his first extensive comments on the case, speaking in personal terms about his own experience of being black in America.
" Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago," the president said in the remarks, made Friday during a surprise appearance in the White House press room. Mr. Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, was shot and killed in Florida last year in a case that riveted millions of Americans and sparked debate over the state of race relations in the country.
In rarely made comments about race, Barack Obama discussed the Trayvon Martin case, saying the slain 17-year-old "could have been me 35 years ago" and explaining why the case is so painful to African Americans.
Saying he would leave arguments about the verdict to legal analysts, Mr. Obama didn't critique last Saturday's acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who faced various charges related to the killing.
But he tried to explain the lens through which black Americans may see the case, saying that their own experiences and the country's history with race inform how many view what happened to Mr. Martin.
"There are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars," Mr. Obama said. "That happens to me—at least before I was a senator."
The remarks, delivered without a teleprompter, were a striking example of America's first black president seeking to guide the country's thinking on race without inflaming racial tensions or undermining the judicial system. They also amounted to Mr. Obama's most pointed comments about race since his 2008 presidential campaign.
Mr. Obama issued a brief statement the day after the Martin verdict was handed down. He urged calm and compassion, noting that "a jury has spoken." Missing, though, was any personal reflection from a president with a unique perspective on the matter.
As the week wore on, the drumbeat from civil-rights groups asking Mr. Obama to speak out and take action continued.
In recent days, the president had conversations with a number of people about this issue before offering a detailed reaction, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Privately, the president had outlined ahead of time the gist of his remarks.
"He knows what he thinks, and he knows what he feels, and he has not just in the past week, but for a good portion of his life, given a lot of thought to these issues," Mr. Carney said. The president spoke just before a series of planned weekend protests over the verdict.
The president's comments won praise from Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who called it a powerful moment. "That our president has been profiled should encourage all Americans to think deeply about both the depth of this problem and how our country moves beyond it," he said in a statement.
Still, underscoring the tensions that continue to fester, Abigail Thernstrom, vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Mr. Obama's original statement on the case struck the right tone and that Friday's follow-up could have the unintended consequence of ratcheting up racial tension.
"Mr. President, you said what should have been said: A verdict has been rendered," she said. "Leave it at that."
In Friday's remarks, Mr. Obama appeared to be trying to use the megaphone of the White House to affect the national discussion, and particularly to infuse it with a greater appreciation of African-American viewpoints. He didn't propose any formal government reaction, and didn't weigh in on the decision his administration still has to make, which is whether to pursue a case against Mr. Zimmerman using federal civil rights laws.
Mr. Obama did, however, propose an examination of state and local laws to consider whether some encourage altercations such as the one that took Mr. Martin's life. He said the Justice Department should work with local law enforcement to reduce mistrust in the system, and said that, in the long term, more needs to be done to support African-American boys.
Reuters
Protesters march in Orlando, Fla., this week in the aftermath of the not-guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman.
Mr. Obama questioned whether "stand your ground" laws in Florida and other states, which allow individuals to use reasonable force to defend themselves, are contributing to the peace and security communities want.
Responding to calls to launch a national dialogue on race, Mr. Obama said such discussions often are more productive in churches and workplaces and within families.
"I haven't seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations," he said. "They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have."
As president, Mr. Obama has taken a careful tack on racial issues, picking his spots carefully after delivering a detailed exploration of race in Philadelphia at a pivotal moment in his 2008 campaign. Then, he said that race is an issue the nation can't afford to ignore, noting that the country had yet to work through the complexities of the subject.
"If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American," he said.
Since then, Mr. Obama has shied from sweeping speeches focused on race, saying in 2009, "I'm not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions."
On Friday, Mr. Obama noted that African-Americans are disproportionately victims as well as perpetrators of violence. And while he called for soul-searching on matters of race, he said he sees signs of improvement.
"Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race," he said. "It doesn't mean that we're in a postracial society. It doesn't mean that racism is eliminated. But you know, when I talk to [daughters] Malia and Sasha and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they're better than we are."
A version of this article appeared July 19, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Obama Speaks Frankly On Race.
Is Detroit's bankruptcy a canary in the coal mine?... Hey, get this: Congress did get something done this week… Cruz and Paul head to the Hawkeye State… Peter King to run for president?... This week's 2016 round-up… Colorado's recall races are set for September… And previewing the first Cuccinelli-McAuliffe debate.
By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Brooke Brower
*** A canary in the coal mine? The news on Thursday that the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy probably isn't an isolated incident. While a variety of factors put the Motor City in the fast lane to bankruptcy -- chief on the list is the city's steep decline in population (and thus tax base) -- its pension and other liabilities are concerns that plenty of mayors and governors have across the country. The question they are all asking: How do they provide retirement security and health care for their employees without busting their budgets? Answering the question is one of the hardest tasks in politics. But Detroit's bankruptcy -- as sad as it is for one of America's iconic cities -- could end up being a blessing in disguise for mayors and governors, who find themselves stuck in negotiations with their public-sector unions on these pension and health-care plans. Just like we saw with automotive industry in 2008-2009, does it give all parties across the country (governments, unions, employees) an incentive to work out deals that they could accept? Because it's likely that Detroit isn't the only community on the path to bankruptcy.
Rebecca Cook / REUTERS
A large "Opportunity Made In Detroit" banner is seen on the side of a building in downtown Detroit, Michigan in this January 30, 2013 file photo.
*** Detroit to become the new rhetorical weapon: On the rhetorical front, prepare for Detroit to be used as a new political weapon, whether it's fiscal conservative hawks in Washington wanting to jumpstart the conversation about long-term debt liabilities for the federal government, or Democrats who want more money spent on rebuilding American cities rather than rebuilding Kabul. Bottom line: Detroit's bankruptcy has been telegraphed for some time, but it'll be interesting whether it's treated as a problem unique to Detroit and the auto industry, or whether it's used to have the larger conversation that every actual responsible local elected official is facing: budget shortfalls, pension expectations from another era, and (most importantly) no easy answer to what the next economic revival looks like.
*** Hey, Congress did get something done this week: For as bad as last week was in Washington's dysfunction, this week turned out to show some progress in Congress actually getting things done. Senate Democrats and Republicans reached a deal to avert a change in the chamber's filibuster rules, which led to the confirmation of President Obama's picks to head the EPA, the Labor Department, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (That said, the final confirmation vote for new Labor Secretary Tom Perez was a straight party-line vote, the first time that's happened for a cabinet secretary in a long, long time. And for a Labor secretary!!! No offense to the Department of Labor, but as Seth Myers might ask, "Really?") What's more, Senate Democrats and Republicans also reached a deal on student loans, and a vote on that could come as early as this Tuesday. Are we seeing green shoots in reducing Washington's gridlock? Or is this week's progress just an exception? Of course, the bar has been set INCREDIBLY low when confirming executive-branch appointments and reaching a deal on student loans are signs of progress. And we're not even talking about the U.S. House of Representatives….
*** Yet McConnell had a rough week: But while this week seemed like a decent one in reducing gridlock, there is a larger developing story inside the Republican Senate conference that shouldn't go unnoticed: Republican critics of McConnell no longer fear him, especially in speaking with reporters. Politico: "Some think the leadership is ducking the tough votes and allowing the rank-and-file to shoulder the burden. 'This leadership team has adopted the Obama "lead-from-behind" approach to governing,' said a senior Senate Republican source, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly. 'It hasn't worked for the president and it doesn't appear to be working here either.'" Ouch. McConnell's leadership style is clearly rubbing a minority of senators the wrong way. McConnell's decision to essentially make decisions to appease the conservative base over and the old bulls or the "legislating/business wing" of the conference is starting to grate on some folks. Bob Corker clearly isn't hiding his disgust. And others seem more comfortable criticizing.
*** Cruz and Paul head to the Hawkeye State: Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) are in Des Moines, Iowa today to speak at a gathering of state evangelical Christians. "Cruz … will speak during breakfast today. Paul … is the guest speaker during lunch," the Des Moines Register writes. Cruz, who's making his first-ever visit to the Hawkeye State, also headlines an Iowa Republican Party fundraiser today. And he spoke by phone with the Des Moines Register, defending his co-sponsorship of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's legislation to curb sexual assaults in the military. "In my view, we owe our men and women in uniform a solemn duty to protect them," he told the paper. "And to allow a young man or young woman who has stepped forward to defend our nation to be the victim, not of hostile fire from the enemy, but by a sexual assault from her colleagues, is a fundamental violation of that trust." By the way, a Ted Cruz timeline reminder: It hasn't even been a year since he's run the Texas Senate run-off. A year later, he's off to Iowa. Now THAT's fast-tracking things.
*** Peter King in 2016? Rep. Peter King (R-NY) says he is considering a presidential bid after "a number of Republicans both in New York and around the country" have approached him about running, NBC's Frank Thorp reports. King says he would run to draw more attention to national security, something he thinks the current prospects don't speak about enough. "[The field] is sort of defined by Rand Paul, who's more worried about some guy sitting at Starbucks getting killed by a CIA drone than about Islamic terrorism," King told Thorp. "I consider him an isolationist who has no real concept of the threats facing us in the world today. I think it would dramatically weaken America's power in the world." King wasn't as harsh on Sen. Marco Rubio's (R-FL) foreign policy chops, saying that the senator is "very able and very articulate." But King said that he still takes issue with Rubio's opposition to supplemental aid for Superstorm Sandy victims. "The fact that he voted against the aid to New York after we sent billions and billions of dollars to Florida, that's really hard to accept," King said. But can he win? "If I go, I think I could, otherwise I wouldn't do it. But we'll see what happens," he said, "It's a great country." King also talked about his 2016 intentions on "Morning Joe" this morning, and in the first two minutes of talking about the idea of running, he mentioned Rand Paul negatively three times. Something to watch: King's comments were VERY personal about Paul.
*** This week's 2016 round-up: In other 2016 news, Nancy Pelosi told NBC's Andrea Mitchell that she's fully aboard the "Hillary Clinton for President" train -- if Clinton runs… Joe Biden talked about 2016 in an interview with GQ. "I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn't mean I won't run."… Speaking to an African-American sorority group, Clinton invoked Trayvon Martin's death. "No mother, no father, should ever have to fear for their child walking down a street in the United States of America," she said…. In the battleground state of Virginia, a Quinnipiac poll found Clinton leading Chris Christie by five points, 45%-40%, and Rand Paul by 14 points, 51%-47%. But Christie tops Biden by eight points, 46%-38%, while Biden beats Paul, 47%-40%... On Wednesday, Marco Rubio delivered a speech criticizing Obama Labor Secretary pick Tom Perez. (Perez cleared the Senate by a party-line 54-46 vote on Thursday.)… Cruz and Paul signed on to Kirsten Gillibrand's legislation on sexual assaults in the military… And Rick Perry on Thursday signed the anti-abortion legislation into law in Texas.
*** This week's 2016 round-up, Part 2: And there's more: Scott Walker came out with a new budget that has angered conservatives because it increases spending and borrowing… Rand Paul came out strongly in support of Mike Enzi in the Enzi-Cheney primary race in Wyoming… And Paul Ryan will just so happen to be in Iowa for Terry Branstad's birthday in November, where he'll keynote the event.
*** The recall races of 2013: Mark your calendars for Sept. 10, the date of recall elections for two Colorado elected officials over their support for stricter gun laws. "For the first time in Colorado history, two state lawmakers will face recall elections for their support of tougher gun control measures," Politico writes. "Colorado's Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an executive order on Thursday setting the date for the recall elections of the pair of Democratic state senators. Under pressure of a campaign by the NRA, Senate State President John Morse and Pueblo Sen. Angela Giron will face the first recall effort in Colorado history." The Denver Post: A Denver judge Thursday ruled petitions submitted to oust a pair of Democratic senators from office are valid, a pivotal ruling that sets in motion Colorado's first-ever recall election of state lawmakers. … In total, Second Amendment activists tried to recall four Democratic state lawmakers because of their gun votes. But signature-gathering efforts against Sen. Evie Hudak of Westminster and Rep. Mike McLachlan of Durango failed." The elections will costs between $150,000 and $200,000. These recalls could tell us a lot about just how vulnerable Gov. Hickenlooper (D) may be in 2014…
*** Previewing the first Cuccinelli-McAuliffe debate: Finally, Ken Cuccinelli (R) and Terry McAuliffe (D) will participate on Saturday in their first debate in Virginia's gubernatorial contest. The Fredericksburg (VA) Free Lance-Star sets the stage. "PBS' Judy Woodruff will moderate the debate, which starts at 11 a.m. Relatively few will see it in person—it is sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association and held at the remote Homestead resort in the western edge of the state. But for the first time, PBS has agreed to live-stream the debate online, meaning that anyone dedicated enough to watch a political debate on the Internet on a Saturday morning in July can see how the candidates fare in their first matchup."
Calling it the lowest point in Detroit history but a chance to stabilize a city spiraling into decline for decades, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced Friday that the state-appointed emergency manager had filed for Chapter 9 protection.
The move makes Detroit the largest city in the nation to file for bankruptcy. The former auto industry powerhouse is now being closely watched by debt-ridden and cash-strapped municipalities across the United States.
"Let's get Detroit on the path to be a great city again," Snyder said in a morning news conference. "Today is a major step on getting on that path .... It's time to move forward."
The news conference came one day after Snyder authorized Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to seek federal bankruptcy protection for the city, which has an estimated $18 billion in debt. For decades, Detroit has suffered job losses in the auto industry, plummeting population and the inability to provide decent basic services to its residents because there aren't enough people paying taxes.
The city has also ranked among the top 10 most violent in the United States for 24 of the last 27 years, Snyder noted. He went on to reiterate a long list of city troubles, such as an average police response time of about 58 minutes. The national average is about 11 minutes.
"That's a tragic situation. If you look at the history, it's been a large period of decline .… It's time to say enough is enough," Snyder said.
Despite the bankruptcy, he made it a point to say that life in the city is business as usual and that normal operations will continue. The bankruptcy will give Detroit the chance to do better and come out stronger, he repeated. A sign reading "Reinventing Detroit" hung from the lectern from where he spoke.
"People are still going to work and still are getting paid," he said.
A couple of days ago, Orr sent a letter to Snyder declaring that he believed there was no alternative to filing for bankruptcy. Fiscal mismanagement, population decline, poor services and crumbling infrastructure are all to blame, Orr wrote.
"This has been a decision that in one fashion or another has been working its way through the city for the better part of six decades," Orr said to a room full of reporters. "We're finally at the point that we simply cannot kick the can down the road any further."
In its heyday of the 1950s, Detroit touted a population of 1.8 million, making it one of the five largest cities in the nation. Migration to the suburbs, a race riot in the 1960s and the shrinking auto industry contributed to the population losses.
Now, thousands of abandoned buildings with neglected lots can be found throughout the city and only 713,000 residents remain.
Orr filed for bankruptcy with those citizens in mind, he said. Still, city officials plan to be reasonable with those they're indebted to, such as unrepresented retirees with government pensions, Orr said.
"We will be fair," he said, "Even under the guise of Chapter 9."
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