Life in OUR America, The Livyjr Files Volume 7 Options

[Livyjr]

"Bomb kills 9 at mosque in southern Iran"

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:12 p.m., Saturday, April 12, 2008

TEHRAN, Iran -- A bomb explosion in a mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers in southern Iran killed at least nine people and injured more than 100 Saturday, local media reported.

The semi-official Fars news agency said the explosion in the city of Shiraz went off as a cleric was delivering his weekly speech against extremist Wahabi beliefs and the outlawed Bahai faith.

The report said nine people were killed and 105 injured, some of them critically.

The force of the explosion shook houses more than a mile away, and ambulances and firefighters were rushing to the mosque, it said.

Officials urged the public to donate blood and called all nurses in the city in on duty.

A police official said a homemade bomb caused the explosion, Fars reported.

It also quoted a young woman who was there as saying some 800 worshippers were inside the mosque at the time of the explosion.

Bombings are unusual in Shiraz, a major draw for foreign tourists who come to see the ruins of nearby Persepolis, an ancient Persian kingdom that was a center for ceremonies and worship.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iran has faced several ethnic and religious insurgencies that have been behind rare but deadly attacks in recent years -- though none have amounted to a serious threat to the government.

In February 2007, a car loaded with explosives blew up near a bus carrying members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, killing 11 of them and wounding more than 30 in southeastern Iran.

A Sunni militant group that has been blamed for past attacks on Iranian troops claimed responsibility.

Some believe the group, known as Jundallah, is linked to al-Qaida.

Jundallah, or God's Brigade, has waged a low-level insurgency in southeastern Iran.

Besides the violence in the southeast, ethnic Arab Sunni militants have been blamed for bombings in the western city of Ahvaz near the border of Iraq -- including blasts in 2006 that killed nine people.

The mosque targeted is part of the Rahpouyan-e-Vesal cultural center in Shiraz, about 559 miles south of the capital, Tehran.

Fars said the mosque's cleric gives a weekly speech denouncing the Bahai faith and Wahabism -- an austere brand of Sunni Islam practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia.

Such speeches are not unusual in Iranian mosques.

The fundamentalist Wahabi strain of Islam considers Shiites heretics and Iran is dominated by Shiite Muslims.

Wahabis are suspected of having influence over some militants waging the insurgency in Iraq.

The Bahai faith was founded in the 1860s by a Persian nobleman, Baha'u'llah, who claimed to be a new prophet in the series that included Moses, Jesus and Muhammad.

Islam considers Muhammad to be the last of the prophets.

Iran had been the cradle of the Bahai faith in the middle of the 19th century.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution, the faith was banned and it is not recognized in the Iranian constitution as a religious minority.

Last year, Bahai communities abroad reported that a group of followers were detained in Shiraz while helping poor communities there.

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"Veterans smooth path for new immigrants who helped US in Iraq"

By MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press

Last updated: 1:42 p.m., Saturday, April 12, 2008

ALBANY -- Bullets whizzed past as "Sarah" translated for U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Shrapnel from a roadside blast hit her protective vest.

In her off hours, she worried about retribution for helping the Americans.

A sign reading "traitor" was posted on her family's door.

"I survived by chance," she said.

Now, she is in the United States under a visa program for Iraqis who have aided the U.S. military, and she is being helped by a network of Iraq veterans who try to make sure those new immigrants make a soft landing in this country.

Mathew Tully, an Albany-area lawyer who served in Iraq as a National Guard major, volunteered along with his wife to take in Sarah until she gets settled in a new culture and carves out a new life.

He didn't know Sarah in Iraq, but he feels a sense of duty.

"There's nobody else out there to help Sarah," Tully said.

"When you're confronted with the fact that there's somebody a half a world away who has no place to go when they get off the plane at JFK, I don't know how as a good American, as a good Christian, I could turn her away."

Sarah translated for soldiers patrolling violence-torn areas of Baghdad for four years.

For the safety of relatives still in Iraq, she still goes by Sarah, the nickname soldiers called her.

They would call and say "Sarah, be ready in five minutes," and she would slip out carefully to make sure militia members weren't following her.

Out on raids and patrols, she dressed like a soldier in camouflage and faced the same risks.

Sarah, 28, said she did it to help her country, even though she knew it placed her family in danger.

Every trip outside her home for errands became nerve wracking, every stranger a potential threat.

"Every time I go to the market I look at their eyes and think, 'Please don't kill me,'" she said.

The federal government in 2006 created Special Immigrant Visas for Iraqi and Afghan translators who worked with the military.

The program initially accepted 50 immigrants a year but legislation sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., will boost the number to 5,000 this year.

Overall, an estimated 2 million Iraqi refugees have fled their country since the war began.

The new immigrants face challenges in this country.

Arabic translators are not in high demand.

And even though they helped the United States in Iraq, they can have trouble finding jobs because people who think in stereotypes fear they are a threat.

The federal government provides the immigrants with training and assistance available to refugees.

But Charisse Espy Glassman of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Washington said the benefits were not available until recently and many of the Iraqi immigrants might not know about them.

Tully is providing what one aid worker calls a "temporary anchor" for Sarah during the difficult transition.

He volunteered after a call from Lt. Col. Robert Milmore, who knew him through the National Guard.

Milmore, through the Baghdad Roundtable of the Knights of Columbus, works to get the paperwork filed for the visas and helps the immigrants after they arrive.

An interpreter who worked for him in Baghdad lives in his Hudson Valley home.

On March 22, Sarah became the third Iraqi translator helped by the network.

A fourth is expected soon and 63 more are in the pipeline, Milmore said.

Sarah still jumps at loud noises and thinks often of her mother.

But she is eager to get out on her own.

Tully and Milmore recently escorted her on rounds to service agencies in the Albany area as she tried to arrange basics like medical insurance and a Social Security card.

Sarah -- dressing American in a black hoodie, jeans and white sneakers -- speaks English well, but let the two men do most of the talking.

Tully said Sarah will have a job in his law office as an assistant as soon as she gets a Social Security card.

"One thing Americans have to realize is that she's done more for the country than a lot of Americans," Milmore said.

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On the Net:

SIV Program: http://tinyurl.com/64c2ua

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"US GIs in Iraq suffer worst week of '08"

By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer

11 April 2008

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb killed an American soldier in Baghdad on Saturday, capping the bloodiest week for U.S. troops in Iraq this year.

Clashes persisted in Shiite areas, even as the biggest Shiite militia sought to rein in its fighters.

At least 13 Shiite militants were killed in the latest clashes in Baghdad's militia stronghold of Sadr City, the U.S. military said.

Iraqi police said seven civilians also died in fighting, which erupted Friday night and tapered off Saturday.

The U.S. military said the American soldier was killed in a blast Saturday morning in northwestern Baghdad but did not say whether Shiite militiamen were responsible.

The death raised to at least 19 the number of American troopers killed in Iraq since last Sunday.

American casualties have risen with an outbreak of fighting in Baghdad between U.S. and Iraqi forces and the largest Shiite militia — the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, repeated on Saturday his demand for American soldiers to leave the country and urged his fighters not to target fellow Iraqis "unless they are helping the (U.S.) occupation."

Al-Sadr also blamed the Americans and their Iraqi allies for the assassination Friday of one of his top aides, Riyadh al-Nouri, director of his office in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.

Gunmen ambushed al-Nouri as he was returning home from Friday prayers, and al-Sadr followers shouted anti-American slogans at his funeral in Najaf.

Despite the strident rhetoric, however, there were signs that al-Sadr was trying to calm his militia to avoid all-out war with the Americans.

Al-Sadr is also under pressure from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, also a Shiite, to disband the Mahdi Army or face a ban from politics.

Sadrist officials told The Associated Press they had received orders from their headquarters in Najaf to avoid confrontations with Iraqi and U.S. forces unless the Americans try to move deep into Sadr City, which has been under siege for two weeks.

The officials said the Sadrist leadership was concerned that the ongoing clashes were turning into a war of attrition that was weakening the movement and undermining support within its Shiite power base.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to discuss policy with outsiders.

In a move to bolster its image among Sadr City residents, the government Saturday lifted a ban on entering and leaving the district, home to some 2.5 million people.

Police announced that one of the entrances had been opened to motor traffic.

Army patrols warned residents through loudspeakers to keep off the streets, saying the rebels had planted roadside bombs which needed to be cleared by the security forces.

Elsewhere, Iraqi soldiers acting on tips from detained Shiite militiamen found 14 bodies that had been buried in a field south of Baghdad, officials said Saturday.

It was the second discovery this week of mass graves in the area, raising to 45 the number of bodies located there.

The victims are believed to have been killed more than a year ago as part of a cycle of retaliatory violence between Shiites and Sunnis that has since ebbed.

Recent clashes in the Baghdad area have severely strained a unilateral truce which al-Sadr imposed on the Mahdi Army last August.

He ordered the standdown to allow time to reorganize the force and purge criminal factions that had tarnished the image of his movement.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that al-Sadr's truce, along with the Sunni Arab revolt against al-Qaida, had played a major role in reducing American and Iraqi deaths, especially in the Baghdad area.

With renewed Shiite militia fighting, Baghdad is now accounting for a growing number of American casualties.

Last month, 61 percent of the U.S. military deaths occurred in Baghdad, compared with 28 percent in February and 47 percent in April, 2007, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.

Fighting in Baghdad broke out following last month's ill-prepared Iraqi government offensive against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in the southern city of Basra.

The offensive stalled in the face of fierce resistance by the militias, whose allies in the capital showered rockets and mortars on the U.S.-controlled Green Zone.

Although fighting has eased in Basra, U.S. and Iraqi troops have been pressing militias in Baghdad's Sadr City to drive them beyond rocket range to the Green Zone.
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Associated Press reporter Sameer N. Yacoub in Baghdad and the AP's News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

"1,300 Iraqi troops, police dismissed"

By BUSHRA JUHI, Associated Press

Last updated: 8:03 a.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra, officials said Sunday.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said 921 police and soldiers were fired in Basra.

They included 37 senior police officers ranging in rank from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general.

The others were dismissed in Kut, one of the Shiite cities where the fight had spread.

Last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the security forces to confront armed groups in Basra, Iraq's second largest city.

But they met fierce resistance and the attack quickly ground to a halt as fighting flared across the Shiite south and Baghdad.

Since then, government officials have revealed that about 1,000 members of the security forces -- including an entire infantry battalion -- had mutinied, on some cases handing over vehicles and weapons to the militias.

The majority of Iraqi soldiers and police are Shiites.

Speaking in Basra, Khalaf said those dismissed included 421 police officers and 500 soldiers who had not returned to duty in the southern port city and would be tried by military courts.

"Some of them were sympathetic with these lawbreakers, some refused to (go into) battle for political or national or sectarian or religious reasons," Khalaf said.

But he said that those who returned in coming days and could prove they had been prevented from doing so by the militias would be reinstated.

In Kut, a senior police officer said 400 local policemen have been sacked for refusing orders to combat the militias, including the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the Interior Ministry in Baghdad had ordered the policemen removed from duty on Saturday.

Although fighting in Basra eased in late March, security operations are continuing.

A senior military commander said Sunday that Iraqi forces in Basra were expanding their sweep of six neighborhoods, with army and police cordoning off the areas while searching for illegal weapons, ammunition and criminal elements.

Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji said the operation, which started on Saturday, had netted significant amounts of weapons, roadside bombs and drugs.

He said a large number of suspects had been detained, but he provided no figures.

Al-Sadr, who is believed to be in Iran, repeated on Saturday his demand for American soldiers to leave the country and urged his fighters not to target fellow Iraqis "unless they are helping the (U.S.) occupation."

Despite the strident rhetoric, however, there were signs that al-Sadr was trying to calm his militia to avoid all-out war with the Americans.

Al-Sadr is also under pressure from al-Maliki, also a Shiite, to disband the Mahdi Army or face a ban from politics.

Meanwhile, an Apache helicopter accidentally destroyed a U.S. Humvee in eastern Baghdad when a Hellfire missile missed its target and struck the armored vehicle instead, the military said Sunday.

Two U.S. soldiers and three Iraqi civilians were injured in the incident on Saturday, the statement said.

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"Iran dismisses sabotage in mosque blast"

By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:02 a.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian officials on Sunday ruled out an attack as the cause of an explosion that killed 11 people inside a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz.

The explosion ripped through the mosque packed with hundreds of worshippers late Saturday as a cleric delivered his weekly speech against extremist Wahabi beliefs and the outlawed Bahai faith, the semiofficial Fars news agency said.

Authorities said besides the 11 killed, 191 people were wounded, some of them critically, the state IRNA news agency reported.

On Sunday, the deputy interior minister in charge of security, Abbas Mohataj, said the explosion was "the result of an incident."

He didn't elaborate.

The police chief of the southern Fars Province, Gen. Ali Moayyedi, said he "rejects" the possibility of an intentional bombing and "any sort of insurgency" in the blast.

Moayyedi, in comments carried by state IRNA news agency, said the initial investigation found remnants of ammunition from a military exhibition that was held recently at the mosque.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Sunday that no group has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Earlier, the Fars agency quoted a local police official as saying a homemade bomb had caused the explosion and indicated the attack could been religiously motivated.

But the agency backed off those speculations on Sunday.

A witness to the blast, Mostafa Nazari, told The Associated Press that some 1,000 worshippers had gathered at the mosque grounds to hear a cleric speak.

He said it was fortunate the blast happened at a part of the building far from the podium, around which most of the audience had crowded.

Shiraz, some 440 miles south of Tehran and the capital of Fars province, is a major draw for foreign tourists who come to see the ruins of nearby Persepolis, the capital of ancient Persia.

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"8 police killed in Afghan attacks"

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press

Last updated: 4:43 a.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Militants launched two attacks against Afghanistan's vulnerable police, killing eight officers, including four who were destroying a field of opium poppies, officials said Sunday.

Kandahar provincial police chief Sayed Agha Saqib said the militants killed four eradication police in the province's Maiwand district on Saturday.

The attack is at least the third time militants have targeted such teams in the last several weeks and comes one week after fighters killed seven officers who were eradicating poppies.

Saqib has said police would increase the teams' protection.

Around 100 officers on the country's poppy eradication force were killed in the line of duty over the last year, the Interior Ministry has said.

Militants or criminal gangs who attack the eradication teams are trying to protect a business that provides them with tens of millions of dollars a year.

Afghanistan supplies more than 90 percent of the world's illicit opium, the main ingredient in heroin.

Taliban fighters and other criminals charge taxes on farmers' harvests and for safe passage of the crop.

Farmers cultivated a record 477,000 acres of opium in 2007, a 14 percent increase over the previous year.

Total production, spurred by unusually high rainfall, increased even further, by 34 percent, to 9,000 tons, the U.N. has said.

Elsewhere in the south, Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpoint in the Gereshk district of Helmand province overnight, said district police chief Khair Uddin Shuja.

Police dispatched backup to the checkpoint, but Taliban militants ambushed one of the police trucks, killing four officers and wounding seven, he said.

Militants killed more than 900 police officers last year.

Police are inviting targets because they have less training and weaponry and work in smaller teams than Afghan or NATO soldiers.

Last year was the most violent in Afghanistan since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban.

More than 8,000 people, mostly militants, died in insurgency related violence, according to the U.N.

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"Port aims for ethanol project - Alternative energy plant is commission's pick for site; plan faces hurdles"

By ERIC ANDERSON, Deputy business editor, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Tuesday, April 1, 2008

ALBANY -- An ethanol production plant costing up to $350 million and capable of producing 165 million gallons of the corn-based fuel annually is planned for 18 mostly vacant acres at the Port of Albany.

The project was selected from among four submitted to the Albany Port District Commission, which has been seeking proposals for the land that would also make use of port facilities.

The developer, Albany Renewable Energy LLC, would bring in 60 million bushels of corn annually -- about what is produced in all of New York state -- from regional and Midwest farmers.

And the plant could consume as much as 900 million gallons of water annually, producing additional revenue for the city of Albany, said Cross, who is also the city's water commissioner.

"Public funds fuel for ethanol plant - Empire Zone aid, tax breaks, other incentives likely to boost facility"

By ERIC ANDERSON, Deputy business editor, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Wednesday, April 2, 2008

COLONIE -- The ethanol production plant to be built by Albany Renewable Energy LLC at the Port of Albany likely will receive public support from a number of sources.

Other incentives also might be available from state agencies.

Ed Stahl, president of BioPro, said Tuesday afternoon that he didn't yet know how much of the $350 million investment might come from grants and other public assistance.

"We will certainly be exploring every opportunity to enhance the long-term viability, including state incentives, absolutely," he said.

"Focus on world food prices, market woes"

By HARRY DUNPHY, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:53 a.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Finance ministers and central bankers are focusing their spring meetings on ways to deal with the unfolding financial crisis that has roiled economies around the world and led to higher food and energy prices.

Sessions of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank end Sunday with a look by the bank's policy-setting committee at the effect on developing countries, especially poor ones where the bank is trying to reduce poverty.

"We must respond to the immediate emergency situation," Robert Zoellick, the bank president, said before the meeting, but in a way that helps developing countries achieve objectives such as improved health care and reduced malnutrition and infant mortality.

The officials are also talking about climate change, investment in Africa and rising food prices.

"In the U.S and Europe over the last year we've been focused on the prices of gasoline at the pump," Zoellick said.

"While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs."

"And it's getting more and more difficult every day."

The poor already spend up to 75 percent of their income on food in many developing countries, he said.

Zoellick has said that to deal with the immediate crisis, the international community must fill a food shortage valued at a minimum of $500 million by the U.N. World Food Program.

A similar warning was sounded Saturday by the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

He said there would be dire consequences if food prices remain high in developing countries, especially in Africa.

He added that the problem could also create trade imbalances that would hurt advanced economies, "so it is not only a humanitarian question."

Governments in Haiti, Egypt and the Philippines are among those already facing social unrest because of food prices and shortages.

If the price increases continue, Strauss-Kahn said, "Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving."

"Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives."

The development group Oxfam, a frequent IMF critic, said rich countries are largely responsible for the food crisis because they have been cutting aid to developing countries and encouraging biofuel production, which the IMF says is responsible for almost half the increase in the demand for food crops.

"Rich countries demand for biofuel is driving up food prices and is a big part of the problem," said Elizabeth Stuart, an Oxfam policy adviser.

"Meanwhile, by cutting aid levels, they are doing precious little to be part of the solution."

Germany's development minister urged greater regulation of the global biofuels market to prevent its expansion from driving up food prices.

"It is unacceptable for the export of agrofuels to pose a threat to the supply situation of the very people already living in poverty," Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said in a statement.

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Associated Press writer Desmond Butler contributed to this report.

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"Reports: UK lender mulls selling shares"

Associated Press

Last updated: 7:42 a.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

LONDON -- Major British mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley PLC was considering selling shares to raise cash as it tries to weather a punishing credit market, newspapers reported Sunday.

The lender, which has seen its share price fall by more than a third since the beginning of the year, has asked Citigroup Inc. to help with a possible rights issue, The Sunday Telegraph said, citing unidentified people close to the company.

Both it and The Sunday Times reported that no decision had yet been made on selling shares, although the Times said a final decision was likely within days.

A phone call by The Associated Press to Bradford & Bingley went unanswered Sunday, but the Times quoted the company as saying it did not comment on speculation.

Bradford & Bingley, which specializes in buy-to-let loans, has some 200 branches across Britain.

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"Returning vets face new struggle - Increasing number of soldiers returning from Iraq, Afghanistan are falling into homelessness upon discharge"

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, April 13, 2008

BALLSTON SPA -- Army Spc. Timothy Martin sustained a triad of misery -- severe injury, mental illness and substance abuse -- stemming from his 2003 tour in Iraq.

Then, the shaky 25-year-old has fallen into a category he never imagined for himself: homeless veteran.

Medically discharged from the military, Martin's tough travels led him to near-alcoholic ruin on the streets of Albany before he realized he was eligible for care at Veterans Affairs hospitals.

The VA referred him to a homeless shelter in Ballston Spa, where Martin writes poetry in an upstairs bedroom he shares with two other vets.

He works on a desk with the Bible and Quran on it.

Above his modest bed is an outstretched American flag and a poster of a soaring eagle.

He now speaks best through his poems.

"I just got mixed up, made wrong choices to forget things, and it progressed into something worse," said Martin, who still looks and sounds like the young man from Wisconsin he was when he deployed to Iraq with the Army's 567th Cargo Transfer Company, 24th Battalion.

He helped transport cargo to the front lines.

Martin is now part of a new wave of veterans turning up homeless.

As America enters its sixth year in Iraq, the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking help from the VA for homelessness has leaped 600 percent -- 300 to 1,800 -- just from 2007, according to the latest department findings.

"I think we'll see a new generation of homeless vets," said Glenn Gilbert, who oversees all mental health programs at the Stratton VA Medical Center in Albany.

At least 103 of almost 120 beds for homeless veterans in Albany, Ballston Spa and Glens Falls were filled in March, Gilbert said.

And, throughout last year, the agency helped about 357.

Compare that with the VA's national statistics that show members of the armed forces make up about a third of homeless adults, who are defined by the VA as lacking a fixed, adequate nighttime residence.

"But, hopefully, in the last 25 years, we've learned some things so we can give people the help they need," Gilbert said.

SAFETY NET GONE

Many homeless veterans have chronic mental health and addiction problems, have lost contact with family or have exhausted their support system, Gilbert said.

Pair that with an economy in which, according to a report six months ago from The National Alliance to End Homelessness in Washington, about 500,000 veterans are paying more than half their incomes for rent.

Look at that number another way.

In New York, most tenants -- 46.3 percent last year -- pay less than a third of their household income for rent, according to the U.S. Census.

That leaves low-income veterans highly vulnerable, said Mary Cunningham, the report's author.

Several veterans at the shelter in Glens Falls mismanaged their finances, said executive director Jeff Varmette, who explained some vets especially suffer when they lose a spouse who took care of the family budget.

"Mismanagement of money is the biggest downfall," Varmette said.

The shelter, the nine-bed Adirondack Vets House, is one of a handful of veterans shelters in the Capital Region.

It and the Ballston Spa home, which was founded by Dottie Nixon and run by the Saratoga County Rural Preservation Company, are always full with a waiting list.

Most of the region's VA-funded beds are in Albany and operated by the Albany Housing Coalition.

The coalition provided a home, counseling and employment for 298 homeless vets last year at a per-veteran cost of about $7,700 annually, coalition executive director Joseph Sluszka said.

Besides the VA, the coalition also receives money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state Homeless Housing and Assistance Program and donations.

A third of vets stay one to six months; a third need help for seven to 12 months; and the other third remain 13 to 24 months, Sluszka said.

"Some feel they should pull themselves up by the bootstraps and get on with life," Sluszka said.

"What they don't realize is how devastating combat can be."

It's a tough readjustment, said Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Glenn Read, also with the coalition and assigned to the 42nd Infantry Division in Troy.

"The Army fed you, clothed you, gave dentistry," Read said.

"Then the uniform comes off, and so does the safety net."

When Martin returned, he was confused, injured and had no job or transportation.

Over two stretches of homelessness that lasted more than 16 months, he followed a woman who also was homeless through the South Side of Chicago to the Capital Region, where she had connections.

Martin turned to alcohol and drugs to tamp down the feelings of guilt and trauma he brought back.

It led him down a road he knew was wrong, but he found impossible to halt the behavior.

Martin displays a brittle soul, unwilling or unable to discuss the circumstances surrounding the injuries he sustained in Iraq.

He says only that he suffered wounds across his body -- in his back, shoulder and feet -- and underwent multiple operations.

"I went over scared and adjusted to deal with scary situations."

"It didn't work out, but nothing ever does," Martin said in a January interview.

His poems that grew from the war and his subsequent personal battles reflect his suffering: "If I Die Tonight," "Massacre," "Guilt" and "Alcohol."

PREPARING FOR A WAVE

Martin sought help from the Stratton VA last year, when he had nothing left and was lying "in a house he shouldn't have been."

The VA referred him to the Ballston Spa shelter about six months ago.

The VA does not presently fund the facility, and the several vets who live there pay the $250 monthly rent through public assistance or military disability payments and survive with the help of food stamps, case manager Terence Clare said.

The VA acknowledges its homeless programs reached only 25 percent -- about 100,000 of some 400,000 homeless veterans -- of those needing help in 2006.

Others had to seek help from state or local government agencies and donation-based service organizations.

The agency says community-based shelters, like those in the Albany Housing Coalition, are most successful.

The VA started that approach in the 1980s, trying to help veterans get a bed, counseling, help with addictions and the chance to speak with other vets.

The effort, according to the VA, actually helped decrease the numbers of homeless veterans over the last decade.

In 2007, an average 154,000 veterans lived on streets or in shelters -- down from 250,000 in 1996, according to VA statistics.

But last year's surge is troubling.

To prepare for the expected "wave" of new Iraq and Afghanistan vets, the Albany Housing Coalition hired Read, 43, as director of veterans services.

Read knows firsthand the challenges facing the new generation of returning men and women: He served in Iraq two years ago.

For Martin, when he first arrived at the Ballston Spa shelter, things in his life were still too raw, and he quickly deserted the home.

"I didn't want to depend on anyone," he said.

Yet, he eventually made his way back.

And Nixon, its executive director, accepted him.

As did James Gray, an Air Force veteran of Vietnam, and Michael Brown, who saw fighting with the Navy in Grenada and Beirut during the 1980s.

They are Martin's roommates and are helping coach him through his feelings.

"I hate seeing anybody have any troubles," said Brown, 45, who called the new generation of homeless vets "disconcerting."

DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE

In helping veterans become independent, Sluszka discovered that housing was only part of the answer.

They also require employment opportunities, health care and drug treatment.

Returning to the shelter was one of the best decisions Martin ever made, he said in a follow-up interview this month.

After the initial struggles, he entered counseling for his trauma-related stress and alcohol abuse.

He attends several sessions and support meetings a week.

And he's staying clean.

The military recently turned down his disability claims, he said, but the combination of housing, therapy and discussion with others has effectively turned things around.

"Get help right away, don't wait," Martin said for others like him.

"Finding your own medications and solutions through drugs and alcohol does not work."

A few weeks ago, with his injuries slowly healing, Martin started working 38 hours a week at a store in Wilton.

He takes the bus to work.

He is enjoying the company of a 22-year-old girlfriend from Ballston Spa, and relations with his parents in Wisconsin recently improved.

His poems have a more positive feel and, should all go well, he could move out of the shelter and into an apartment by July.

"I'm slowly pulling myself toward independence," he said.

Dennis Yusko can be reached at 454-5353 or by e-mail at dyusko@timesunion.com.

Helping hands

The Stratton VA Medical Center funds a handful of independent contractors who provide shelter for homeless veterans:

Adirondack Vets House, Glens Falls, nine beds

Saratoga County Rural Preservation Company, Saratoga, eight beds

Schuyler Inn, Menands, 60 beds

Turner House Center for Veterans, Williamstown, Mass., nine beds

Vet House, Albany (part of the Albany Housing Coalition), 28 beds

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"Investors await bank earnings this week"

By MADLEN READ, Associated Press

Last updated: 2:32 p.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

NEW YORK -- Investors knew the first three months of the year were bad for companies, but now it looks like they were downright abysmal -- and that there might be more pain to come.

With the nation's banks releasing their quarterly results this week, anxiety has returned to the stock market.

Last week ended on a grim note, with the Dow Jones industrials falling 256 points Friday after General Electric Co. reported a profit decline and lowered its forecast for the year.

The disappointing data from GE arrived on the heels of downbeat earnings and outlooks from companies ranging from chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to home furnishings retailer Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.

"The biggest risk to the market is earnings," said David Chalupnik, head of equities at First American Funds, adding that profit forecasts for 2008 appear too optimistic at this point.

"We do expect April to be a volatile month -- we expect earnings and guidance to be poor."

The Dow finished last week down 2.25 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 index ended 2.74 percent lower, and the Nasdaq composite index slid 3.41 percent.

This week, the banks open their books.

Roiled by a mortgage industry that went haywire when homeowners started defaulting on their loans, the nation's financial centers are struggling.

When banks struggle, they get tight with their lending -- which in turn dampens the economy.

Citigroup Inc., the nation's largest bank by assets, and Merrill Lynch & Co., the world's biggest brokerage, are each believed to have suffered losses in the first quarter, although narrower than those they reported in the fourth quarter.

Washington Mutual Inc., the nation's largest savings and loan, is also anticipated to post a loss.

Analysts predict JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. will report profits, but below the level seen a year ago.

Meanwhile, investors will scrutinize first-quarter results from Bear Stearns Cos. to see how wise it was for JPMorgan to buy the struggling firm.

Beyond the actual earnings from these institutions, however, investors will examine how much the banks' assets lost value in the first three months of the year and seek clues about whether those values could fall further.

"The good news is, the credit markets do look to be improving a bit," Chalupnik said, pointing to the shrinking spread between the rates for high-risk and low-risk debt.

"But I think it will still be rough going for the financial sector."

The torpid economy is making the consumer lending industry a tough one to navigate.

Economic reports will probably take a back seat to earnings this week, but any hint that consumers are spending even less than individual retailers' dismal March sales figures implied last week could influence investors in the long term.

On Monday, the Commerce Department reports on March retail sales.

According to the median estimate of economists surveyed Friday by Thomson Financial/IFR, the market forecasts a flat reading, following a drop in February.

"If it's flat, that means that real spending has declined," said Bill Hampel, chief economist for the Credit Union National Association and Affiliates.

For retail sales to actually increase, growth needs to be at least about 0.3 percent, he pointed out.

"The last four months, we've essentially had no growth in retail sales when adjusted for inflation."

Some analysts say the market is at or near its bottom, having already taken into account a recession.

A severe recession could mean sluggishness in the stock market for several months, if not longer.

"This is a consumer-led recession," Hampel said, noting that households are paring back spending because their debt is unmanageable, and that drop in spending is dragging down the economy.

"How long they do this is how long the recession ends up being."

The soaring cost of necessities, like food and gasoline, is also dampening spending.

The Commerce Department reports this week on producer prices and consumer prices in March.

Both are expected to increase, but fairly modestly -- and furthermore, the Fed's main concern right now is economic growth.

"Although the Fed cannot say this, I think for the most part, as a group, it doesn't matter to them what happens to inflation this week," Hampel said.

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"Groups press for WaMu board ouster"

By JESSICA MINTZ, Associated Press

Last updated: 2:22 p.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

SEATTLE -- Activist shareholders' attempts to unseat several Washington Mutual Inc. board members will come to a vote Tuesday when the thrift, badly battered by the subprime mortgage crisis, holds its annual meeting and reports what are expected to be abysmal first-quarter results.

Ousting directors charged with managing WaMu's exposure to risky mortgages won't restore the $28 billion or so in shareholder value that has evaporated between the end of 2006 and the close of trading Friday.

But groups representing government and union pension funds say some board members should be held accountable for not acting to protect the company amid mounting evidence that housing prices were set to collapse.

And others should be punished for doling out fat bonuses to executives while shareholders lost money, they say.

The shareholders' case was underscored a week ago when WaMu, the country's biggest savings and loan, announced it would take a $7 billion cash injection from private equity group TPG and other investors.

The company also disclosed it would post a wider-than-expected loss for the first quarter and set aside $3.5 billion for mortgage defaults and foreclosures, $1.5 billion more than previously expected.

Washington Mutual is one of several financial institutions under fire for risk management and executive compensation issues this year from shareholder groups, which have also called for changes at Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co., and Wachovia Corp.

The chair of Citigroup's audit and risk committee, C. Michael Armstrong, is expected to step down in response, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

CtW Investment Group has asked shareholders to vote against the re-election of Mary Pugh, chairwoman of WaMu's finance committee.

The group is part of the Change to Win federation of U.S. labor unions that includes the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union.

In letters to the thrift and shareholders, CtW argued that Washington Mutual's shift away from traditional mortgages and toward subprime, adjustable-rate and other higher-risk mortgages was ill-advised.

"We believe the finance committee ought to have been pushing back much harder than it did," said Richard Clayton, CtW's research director, in an interview.

CtW questioned Pugh's independence, given her investment management company's business relationship with WaMu.

Washington Mutual Chief Executive Kerry Killinger and Stephen Frank, a board member, responded in a letter to shareholders that the company balanced risk by focusing more on the retail banking business starting in 2004.

WaMu made fewer subprime mortgages and sold other risky loans in 2006, and cut back on all types mortgage lending in 2007.

At the end of last year, WaMu announced it would exit the subprime business completely.

Killinger and Frank also said WaMu and Pugh Capital Management ended their business relationship in 2006.

CtW and others also objected to the way WaMu's board formulated executive bonuses for 2007 and 2008.

In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, WaMu said 2007 bonuses excluded charges related to the subprime crisis, as would those awarded in 2008.

The board will base its awards in 2008 in part by "subjectively (evaluating) company performance in credit risk management," according to one document.

CtW asked shareholders to vote against James Stever, chairman of the human resources committee.

"Mr. Stever and other directors stressed the difficulty of determining an objective target for credit loss and foreclosure cost mitigation, and the importance of retaining talented executives," the group said.

"We find these arguments unconvincing."

A second group, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, has asked shareholders to withhold votes from the board's entire five-member human resources committee, including Stever.

The WaMu board has 14 members, including Killinger.

AFSCME, a 1.5 million-member-strong public service employee union, also questioned the board committee's decision to exclude charges related to the subprime crisis when calculating bonuses.

"We find this approach difficult to understand, since subprime credit losses are the biggest problem the bank is facing."

"What's more, they're a problem for which current management is responsible," AFSCME Chairman Gerald McEntee wrote in a letter.

Killinger and Frank explained in their own letter that 2008 bonuses don't take into account mortgage-related costs because housing prices and homeowner delinquencies "are affected by important and currently unpredictable sector-wide factors in the broader market and economy."

Proxy advisers including RiskMetrics Group's ISS Governance Services, Glass Lewis & Co. and Egan Jones Proxy Services have joined CtW and AFSCME's campaign.

Richard Ferlauto, director of corporate governance for AFSCME, said in an interview that after informal conversations with shareholders he expects "significant support."

CtW's Clayton said he was "guardedly optimistic" that a majority of voters will oppose Pugh and Stever's re-election.

The efforts by shareholders predated WaMu's startling news that it would receive $7 billion in cash from TPG and a number of existing investors, in a deal that would significantly dilute existing shareholders' stakes.

Clayton said that regardless of Tuesday's outcome, shareholders should be pressing the company about why it accepted the TPG offer instead of one from JP Morgan Chase & Co., and why other shareholders were not invited to participate in a stock offering.

According to a person familiar with the matter, WaMu realized in recent weeks it would need more cash than expected to cover credit losses.

The company approached JP Morgan, TPG and other banks and private equity groups, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the situation and asked not to be named.

WaMu's intent was to raise money "swiftly and with certainty" before it announced first-quarter earnings, the person said.

The need to move quickly ruled out a public stock offering, according to the person, who also said that JP Morgan's offer, reported to be worth as much as $8 per share, was rejected because it was actually significantly lower and was made with a number of conditions.

WaMu's shares fell 47 cents to $10.95 Friday.

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"35 firms OK'd to bid on Iraq oil deals"

Associated Press

Last updated: 1:32 p.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

AMMAN -- Thirty-five international oil companies have qualified to bid for future oil and gas contracts to develop one of the world's largest oil fields, an Iraqi oil ministry statement said Sunday.

"The total number of the companies and consortia that participated in the prequalification process was 120 from various nationalities," said the ministry's petroleum contracts and licensing office.

The office listed 35 companies that it said were qualified.

They include, among others, BP PLC, Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Lukoil Holdings, China National Petroleum Corp., Edison International SpA and Eni SpA.

The contracts office, however, said it would continue updating the process of qualifying companies "especially those that didn't pass (the qualification process) by updating their information with the view to allowing as many as possible of the IOCs to participate in the next licensing round."

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"Groups press for WaMu board ouster"

By JESSICA MINTZ, Associated Press

Last updated: 2:22 p.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

SEATTLE -- Activist shareholders' attempts to unseat several Washington Mutual Inc. board members will come to a vote Tuesday when the thrift, badly battered by the subprime mortgage crisis, holds its annual meeting and reports what are expected to be abysmal first-quarter results.

Ousting directors charged with managing WaMu's exposure to risky mortgages won't restore the $28 billion or so in shareholder value that has evaporated between the end of 2006 and the close of trading Friday.

Washington Mutual is one of several financial institutions under fire for risk management and executive compensation issues this year from shareholder groups, which have also called for changes at Citigroup Inc., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co., and Wachovia Corp.

"Wachovia 1Q loss, to raise $7B capital"

By IEVA M. AUGSTUMS, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:52 a.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Wachovia Corp. will slash its dividend and raise $7 billion in a share sale after reporting a surprising first-quarter loss on Monday of $393 million.

The first-quarter loss for the Charlotte-based bank works out to 20 cents a share.

That compared with profit of $2.3 billion, or $1.20 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding merger-related and restructuring charges, the bank lost $270 million, or 14 cents a share.

Revenue fell 4.5 percent to $7.89 billion from $8.27 billion last year.

The results, tainted by exposure to credit markets, were worse than analysts had expected.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected Wachovia to earn 40 cents per share on revenue of $7.98 billion.

The earnings estimates typically exclude one-time items.

The nation's No. 4 bank said it will cut its dividend by 41 percent to 37.5 percent per share from 64 cents per share.

The move is expected to save $2 billion in capital annually "to build capital ratios and provide more operational flexibility."

The bank also said it plans to cut 500 jobs within its corporate and investment bank, an area that has been hit by the drying up of the issuing of complex securities.

Since October, Wachovia has cut more than 260 jobs in corporate and investment banking, which had about 6,100 employees as of Dec. 31.

In premarket trading, Wachovia shares were down $2.89, or more than 10 percent, at $24.92.

The share sale will involve common stock and convertible preferred stock.

Wachovia said it intends to use the net proceeds from the sale for general corporate purposes.

The cash infusion would be Wachovia's second of the year.

In January and early February, Wachovia added $8.3 billion in capital by issuing preferred stock and other securities to investors.

Wachovia's troubles with the housing slump have been compounded by its 2006 acquisition of California-based Golden West, a $25.5 billion deal whose timing, chief executive Ken Thompson has acknowledged, "was not the best."

"With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the timing was poor for this expansion in the mortgage business," Thompson wrote in a letter to shareholders in February.

Golden West's loans were concentrated in California, one of the hardest-hit housing markets in the United States.

Wachovia said this month that it was considering halting the making of loans, including its signature Pick-A-Payment mortgage loans, in 17 California counties heavily affected by falling home prices and rising foreclosures.

Last week, it announced a new set of lending guidelines that appeared to be a broader step to help manage losses at the bank.

Wachovia said Monday it took market-disruption valuation losses of $2 billion during the quarter.

"The precipitous decline in housing market conditions and unprecedented changes in consumer behavior prompted us to update our credit reserve modeling and rely less heavily on historical trends to forecast losses," Thompson said.

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On the Net:

Wachovia Corp.: http://www.wachovia.com

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"Fewer large corporations audited by IRS"

By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:33 a.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

WASHINGTON -- The tax audit rates of the largest companies are less than half what they were 20 years ago while more small and mid-size businesses are coming under scrutiny, according to an organization that monitors the Internal Revenue Service.

The Syracuse University-based Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse described what it said was a "historic collapse" in audits for corporations holding assets of $250 million or more.

About 26 percent of them were audited in the 2007 budget year compared with 34 percent in 2006 and 43 percent in 2005.

The IRS did not dispute the numbers, based on agency data.

But it strongly disagreed with suggestions it was easing oversight of the biggest corporations.

Enforcement revenues from large companies rose by one-third in 2007 from the previous year, from $10.6 billion to $14.2 billion, said IRS Deputy Commissioner Barry Shott, who heads the Large and Mid-Size Business Division.

While the number of examinations has declined, "what we are doing is focusing our resources better on where the noncompliance is," Shott said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Shott said the focus in recent years has been on tax shelters and 'extraordinarily complicated" partnerships and S corporations where shareholders, rather than the company, must report income or losses.

Last year the IRS examined 17,700 S corporations, compared with 14,000 the previous year, and 12,200 partnerships, compared with 9,800.

But the TRAC report concluded that the IRS also was concentrating on regular small and mid-sized companies to boost audit numbers.

"Moving the focus of the corporate auditors away from the large corporations and toward the smaller ones has been quite effective when it came to increasing the overall number of these kinds of audits but actually was counterproductive in financial terms," the researchers said.

The new IRS commissioner, Douglas Shulman, said in a response that he intends to make "targeting noncompliance with our tax laws ... a high priority."

According to IRS statistics, 15 percent, or 4,473, of companies with $10 million to $50 million in assets were examined in 2007.

That compares with 12.3 percent, or 3,535 companies, that were audited in 2005.

In the same two years, the percentage of audits of corporations in the $50 million to $100 million range fell from 16.4 percent to 11.4 percent.

For corporations in the $100 million to $250 million range, the percentage dropped from 17.5 percent to 12.1 percent .

Among the largest corporations above $250 million in assets, 3,424 were audited in 2007, down from a peak of 4,859 in 2005.

TRAC also questioned the financial benefits of the shift.

The group said that last year the government uncovered $682 in additional recommended taxes for every revenue agent hour spent auditing the smallest corporations, compared with $7,498 in additional taxes for audits of the largest corporations.

Dean Zerbe, national managing director for Houston-based alliantgroup, which provides tax services for medium-sized companies, said his fear was that "in the IRS' zeal to show Congress improved numbers in corporate audit, it is America's small and medium businesses that are taking it on the chin."

Shulman told the Senate Finance Committee last week that audits of businesses in general rose from 52,000 in 2006 to 59,500 in 2007.

He acknowledged that audits of the largest corporations were down.

But he said that "in times of flat budgets, the agency cannot increase activity across the board, but must address the areas where there is growth and potential risk."

Shott also cited a new program where larger companies work with the IRS during the year so there will not be disputes at tax-filing season.

Participants in this program rose from 17 in 2005 to 73 this budget year, he said.

The returns of these companies do not show up in enforcement statistics, he said, but the collaboration can avoid controversies that can go on for years.

Having more money was not necessarily an advantage for individual taxpayers.

The IRS said that last year it audited 9.25 percent of those with incomes of more than $1 million, compared with 6.3 percent in 2006.

For those earning less than $100,000, the chances of getting audited were less than 1 percent.

The tax agency said total enforcement revenues in the 2007 budget year, from collections and appeals activities, were $59.2 billion, up from $48.7 billion the previous year.

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On the Net:

TRAC: http://trac.syr.edu/

IRS: http://www.irs.gov/

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"Stock futures down amid earnings worries"

By MADLEN READ, Associated Press

Last updated: 8:02 a.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

NEW YORK -- Wall Street was poised to open lower Monday as investors grew more concerned about companies' earnings power after the U.S. bank Wachovia Corp. and the Dutch conglomerate Royal Philips Electronics NV posted disappointing quarterly results.

Wachovia surprised investors Monday with a first-quarter loss of $393 million, after preferred dividends, and cut its quarterly dividend to shareholders by 41 percent to 37.5 cents a share.

The bank, which analysts had expected to post a profit, said it plans to raise $7 billion through a stock offering.

Wachovia shares tumbled about 10 percent in pre-market trading.

And in a sign that the slumping U.S. economy is hurting companies overseas, Royal Philips Electronics reported a sharp drop in first-quarter profit as a decrease in television sales in North America offset growth in its health care and lighting industries.

The reports preceded Monday's anxiously anticipated Commerce Department reading on March retail sales.

Analysts are expecting sales to come in flat following February's drop.

After a sharp drop in the stock market on Friday, Dow Jones industrial average futures were down 56, or 0.45, at 12,283.

Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 5.30, or 0.40 percent, to 1,330.30.

Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 9.25, or 0.51 percent, to 1,797.00.

Bond prices edged higher.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.44 percent from 3.48 percent late Friday.

In dealmaking news, Northwest Airlines Corp. pilots have threatened to oppose a combination with Delta Air Lines Inc., but officials were nonetheless mobilizing to announce a deal to create the world's biggest airline as early as Tuesday -- provided the boards of the two companies give final approval to the deal, people familiar with the talks said Sunday.

Meanwhile, Blockbuster Inc. said it is taking its unsolicited $1 billion-plus bid for Circuit City Stores Inc. directly to shareholders.

The movie rental chain said the consumer electronics chain is dragging its feet on a deal that's been discussed for months.

Light, sweet crude rose 74 cents to $110.88 a barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gold prices turned higher, and the dollar fell against other major currencies.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 3.05 percent.

Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.77 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 1.09 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.68 percent.

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On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

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"Local news loss focus of new commission"

By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press

Last updated: 12:22 a.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

WASHINGTON -- As people turn increasingly to the Internet for their news, there is concern whether they are learning enough about what goes on in their communities.

With "the thinning down of newspapers and local television in America, there is measurably less local, civic information available," said Alberto Ibarguen, president and chief executive of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

"So what are the consequences of that?"

The foundation and the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, hope to find out.

They are setting up a commission, funded by the foundation, to analyze whether people are getting the local news they need to make decisions in their communities.

The panel will make recommendations that might include actions by the Federal Communications Commission or tax policies aimed at helping communities better meet their information needs, said Ibarguen, former publisher of The Miami Herald.

The commission will be led by Theodore Olson, former solicitor general who represented George W. Bush before the Supreme Court in the contested 2000 presidential election, and Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google.

The foundation said Olson was selected for his expertise in First Amendment issues and Mayer for her experience with new media and technologies.

About a dozen other members, including those with a journalism background, will be chosen.

The latest Pew Research Center Poll on the changing news landscape found 31 percent of people in the United States regularly got their news online in 2006, compared with 23 percent in 2000.

The poll said newspaper readership slipped, from 47 percent in 2000 to 40 percent in 2006.

Creation of the commission comes as the newspaper industry faces some of the toughest economic times in years.

Print advertising revenues have taken a major hit, as advertisers follow readers to the Internet.

Last year, newspaper print advertising fell 9.4 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America, marking the biggest percentage drop on record.

Circulation also is down, most recently declining 2.6 percent at major U.S. daily newspapers, leading to buyouts or layoffs in recent months at some of the biggest papers -- The New York Times, USA Today, The Seattle Times, the San Jose Mercury News, The Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times in California.

TV stations have cut jobs, too.

This month, CBS laid off dozens of staffers at several stations it owns in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Boston.

CBS News, run separately from the company-owned local stations, also said it would cut about 1 percent of its 1,500 employees.

The commission, expected to run for about a year, will be funded by $1.7 million in grants from Knight.

The foundation compared the new commission to ones from the 1960s, such as the Kerner Commission and the Carnegie Commission on Educational Television.

The Kerner Commission report in 1968 looked at racial conditions in the United States, concluding that the nation is moving toward "two societies, one black, one white -- separate and unequal."

In 1967, the Carnegie Commission concluded that an educational television system, bigger and more effective than the one that existed must be created.

The report set the course for today's public broadcasting system.

The Knight Foundation, based in Miami, is a nonprofit philanthropic organization that promotes excellence in journalism and invests in 26 communities where the founding Knight brothers owned newspapers.

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On the Net:

Knight Foundation: http://www.knightfoundation.org

The Aspen Institute: http://www.aspeninstitute.org

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"Roadside bomb ignites Baghdad blaze"

By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:52 a.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

BAGHDAD -- A bomb exploded next to a convoy of U.S. military vehicles driving down a commercial street in eastern Baghdad on Monday, setting dozens of stalls in a market ablaze.

The U.S. military said none of the soldiers involved was seriously hurt in the 2 a.m. blast.

More than a dozen U.S. and Iraqi firefighting vehicles rushed to the scene to put out the fire, which continued until morning.

A Humvee was damaged in the blast, said an Iraqi police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Another bomb placed under a parked car near Tayaran Square in downtown Baghdad killed four people and wounded six Monday morning, police said.

The blast missed a police patrol but hit a passing minibus, a police officer said.

The officer also asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Monday's explosions were two in a series of attacks on security forces in Baghdad in the past two weeks.

Dozens have died in the daily clashes with Shiite militants in the capital's eastern districts.

The U.S. military said militants firing rocket-propelled grenades ambushed an American patrol in eastern Baghdad late Sunday night.

Armed helicopters and an Abrams tank repulsed the attack, killing six of the gunmen, the statement said.

The government is demanding that radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr disband his Mahdi Army militia, which has strongholds in Baghdad's sprawling Sadr City neighborhood, the port city of Basra and other locations in southern Iraq.

Clashes in Basra have abated since a failed government offensive last month to dislodge militia groups.

But sporadic violence has been continuing in the country's oil capital.

Late Sunday, unknown gunmen assassinated police Maj. Ali Haider, a commander in the department's serious crimes directorate, said Col. Salim Zaydi.

Haider was a member of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a Shiite political party that is part of al-Maliki's governing coalition, Zaydi said.

Elsewhere in Iraq, U.S. soldiers discovered a mass grave near Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, the military said Monday.

The grave site, which was unearthed Sunday, contained 20 to 30 badly decomposed bodies that appeared to have been buried nearly eight months, according to the statement.

It said the remains would be moved to a nearby cemetery.

It was the latest in a series of mass graves discovered as U.S. and Iraqi troops clear former insurgent strongholds amid improved security, allowing stepped up patrols.

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Associated Press Writer Bushra Juhi contributed to this report.

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"Investors await bank earnings this week"

By MADLEN READ, Associated Press

Last updated: 2:32 p.m., Sunday, April 13, 2008

NEW YORK -- Investors knew the first three months of the year were bad for companies, but now it looks like they were downright abysmal -- and that there might be more pain to come.

With the nation's banks releasing their quarterly results this week, anxiety has returned to the stock market.

Economic reports will probably take a back seat to earnings this week, but any hint that consumers are spending even less than individual retailers' dismal March sales figures implied last week could influence investors in the long term.

On Monday, the Commerce Department reports on March retail sales.

According to the median estimate of economists surveyed Friday by Thomson Financial/IFR, the market forecasts a flat reading, following a drop in February.

"If it's flat, that means that real spending has declined," said Bill Hampel, chief economist for the Credit Union National Association and Affiliates.

For retail sales to actually increase, growth needs to be at least about 0.3 percent, he pointed out.

"The last four months, we've essentially had no growth in retail sales when adjusted for inflation."

"This is a consumer-led recession," Hampel said, noting that households are paring back spending because their debt is unmanageable, and that drop in spending is dragging down the economy.

"How long they do this is how long the recession ends up being."

The soaring cost of necessities, like food and gasoline, is also dampening spending.

The Commerce Department reports this week on producer prices and consumer prices in March.

Both are expected to increase, but fairly modestly -- and furthermore, the Fed's main concern right now is economic growth.

"Although the Fed cannot say this, I think for the most part, as a group, it doesn't matter to them what happens to inflation this week," Hampel said.

"Stock futures down amid earnings worries"

By MADLEN READ, Associated Press

Last updated: 8:02 a.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

NEW YORK -- Wall Street was poised to open lower Monday as investors grew more concerned about companies' earnings power after the U.S. bank Wachovia Corp. and the Dutch conglomerate Royal Philips Electronics NV posted disappointing quarterly results.

Wachovia surprised investors Monday with a first-quarter loss of $393 million, after preferred dividends, and cut its quarterly dividend to shareholders by 41 percent to 37.5 cents a share.

And in a sign that the slumping U.S. economy is hurting companies overseas, Royal Philips Electronics reported a sharp drop in first-quarter profit as a decrease in television sales in North America offset growth in its health care and lighting industries.

"Stocks end lower amid earnings concerns"

By TIM PARADIS, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:42 p.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

NEW YORK -- Stocks finished a quiet session moderately lower Monday as investors grappled with concerns about the health of corporate profits after Wachovia Corp. posted disappointing quarterly results.

Investors paused following a sell-off Friday and ahead of a raft of quarterly results and economic data arriving this week.

Wachovia surprised investors by posting a first-quarter loss of $393 million and cutting its quarterly dividend by 41 percent to 37.5 cents.

The bank, which analysts had expected to post a profit, also said it plans to raise $7 billion through a stock offering.

But investors appeared to find some encouragement in the session from a better-than-expected report on retail sales.

The Commerce Department's reading on March retail sales, which showed a modest 0.2 percent rise following February's 0.6 percent decline, appeared to quell some unease about the economy.

The March figure bested the flat reading analysts had predicted.

Excluding a 1.1 percent rise at gasoline service stations, retail sales would have been flat last month -- and possibly negative when adjusted for inflation.

"We obviously came out with more bad financial news," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research, referring to the Wachovia report.

"The flip side is we had retail sales come in a little better than expected."

"It seems like they kind of negated each other."

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 23.36, or 0.19 percent, to 12,302.06.

Broader stock indicators also declined.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.51, or 0.34 percent, to 1,328.32, and the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index fell 14.42, or 0.63 percent, to 2,275.82.

Declining issues outpaced advancers by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 3.42 billion shares, compared with 3.59 billion shares traded Friday.

Bond prices edged lower.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.51 percent in late trading from 3.48 percent late Friday.

Light, sweet crude rose $1.62 to settle at a record $111.76 per barrel as the dollar fell, helping drive prices higher.

Gold prices turned higher, and the dollar was mixed against other major currencies.

Investors sold off shares of financials, led by Wachovia, which fell $2.26, or 8 percent, to $25.55.

Citigroup Inc., which is due to report its quarterly results Friday, fell 85 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $22.51.

Detrick noted that the Wachovia news compounded investors' concerns about the banking sector following a report Friday from General Electric Co. GE, seen as a bellwether of big business and the broader economy, said its financial services business was challenged in the first quarter by the slowing U.S. economy and difficult capital markets.

The conglomerate's disappointing first-quarter numbers sent the major indexes down by more than 2 percent Friday.

"This is just more bad news for financials."

"It just confirms that the financials are by no means out of the woods yet," Detrick said of Wachovia.

He contends many investors are holding off any major moves ahead of corporate results and economic figures on inflation due later in the week.

"Today just seems like just a break from the massive selling we saw Friday."

"We want more confirmation from companies reporting earnings this week if indeed earnings are going to weak or if the first inning was just a bad start to the game," he said in reference to the early flow of first-quarter results.

In dealmaking news, Blockbuster Inc. said it is taking an unsolicited $1 billion-plus bid for Circuit City Stores Inc. directly to shareholders.

Blockbuster said the consumer electronics chain has dragged out a deal that has been under negotiations for months.

Circuit City jumped $1.07, or 27 percent, to $4.97, while Blockbuster fell 32 cents, or 10 percent, to $2.81.

Meanwhile, Northwest Airlines Corp. pilots have threatened to oppose a combination with Delta Air Lines Inc., but officials were nonetheless mobilizing to announce a deal to create the world's biggest airline as early as Tuesday -- provided the boards of the two companies give final approval to the deal, people familiar with the talks said Sunday.

Northwest rose 26 cents to $11.22, while Delta advanced 47 cents, or 4.7 percent, to $10.48.

And in a sign that the slumping U.S. economy is hurting companies overseas, Royal Philips Electronics reported a sharp drop in first-quarter profits as a decrease in television sales in North America offset growth in its health care and lighting businesses.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 2.09, or 0.30 percent, to 686.07.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 3.05 percent.

Britain's FTSE 100 closed down 1.08 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.74 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.66 percent.

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On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

[Livyjr]

"Bear Stearns 1Q profit misses views"

By JOE BEL BRUNO, Associated Press

Last updated: 6:52 p.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

NEW YORK -- Bear Stearns Cos. said Monday its profit plunged 79 percent in the fiscal first quarter that ended just two weeks before speculation about a liquidity crisis forced its sale to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The nation's fifth-largest investment bank posted results just shy of Wall Street projections.

Earnings for the quarter ended Feb. 29 showed Bear Stearns was able to stay profitable as the credit crisis roiled on.

That supports Bear Stearns Chief Executive Alan Schwartz's assertion in early March that the investment bank's books were in order despite rumors to the contrary.

However, speculation about possible financial constraints ultimately caused a crisis of confidence in the bank -- and the Federal Reserve orchestrated its fire sale to JPMorgan on March 17.

The company posted a profit of $110 million, or 86 cents per share, down from $548 million, or $3.82 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $1.48 billion from $2.48 billion a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial projected a profit of 87 cents per share on $1.35 billion of revenue.

The results were released in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The investment bank did not disclose anything about how its business is doing so far during the second quarter.

However, on Friday the bank said in another regulatory filing that assets under management have shrunk 20 percent since the end of November, and stock and fixed-income trading has plummeted to "well less" than half of activity levels in 2007 and the first quarter of this year.

Bear Stearns also said it faces a rapid loss of trading partners and customers and may be forced to file for bankruptcy protection and liquidate its assets if the company's deal to sell itself to JPMorgan does not close.

With the bank's stock trading at about $30, JPMorgan stepped in with a $2 per share offer that was later raised to $10.

The sale is expected to be completed by June.

Already this week, JPMorgan has begun to approach some 4,500 front office workers at Bear Stearns about the possibility of layoffs once the two sides combine operations.

JPMorgan declined to comment about how many positions would be eliminated in the acquisition.

But, more information might be available when the nation's third-biggest retail bank posts quarterly results on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Bear Stearns also declined to comment.

Bear Stearns also announced in its most recent filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering a civil injunctive action or an administrative hearing regarding the company's bidding process with municipal securities.

The company said it would respond to the so-called "Wells notice" and will discuss the matter with staff before its official response to the regulator.

In addition, Bear Stearns said its EMC Mortgage Corp. subsidiary has been cooperating with an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over its business practices.

Bear Stearns shares fell 11 cents to $10.11 Monday before the results were released.

The shares were worth more than $150 a year ago.

[Livyjr]

"Stocks end lower amid earnings concerns"

By TIM PARADIS, Associated Press

Last updated: 5:42 p.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

NEW YORK -- Stocks finished a quiet session moderately lower Monday as investors grappled with concerns about the health of corporate profits after Wachovia Corp. posted disappointing quarterly results.

Wachovia surprised investors by posting a first-quarter loss of $393 million and cutting its quarterly dividend by 41 percent to 37.5 cents.

The bank, which analysts had expected to post a profit, also said it plans to raise $7 billion through a stock offering.

Investors sold off shares of financials, led by Wachovia, which fell $2.26, or 8 percent, to $25.55.

Detrick noted that the Wachovia news compounded investors' concerns about the banking sector following a report Friday from General Electric Co. GE, seen as a bellwether of big business and the broader economy, said its financial services business was challenged in the first quarter by the slowing U.S. economy and difficult capital markets.

The conglomerate's disappointing first-quarter numbers sent the major indexes down by more than 2 percent Friday.

"This is just more bad news for financials."

"It just confirms that the financials are by no means out of the woods yet," Detrick said of Wachovia.

"Wachovia posts 1Q loss, to raise $7B"

By IEVA M. AUGSTUMS, Associated Press

Last updated: 7:02 p.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Wachovia Corp. is getting a lesson in "timing is everything."

The nation's fourth-largest bank reported a $393 million first quarter loss and has been forced to cut its dividend and seek a $7 billion cash injection to make up for a poorly timed expansion of its mortgage business.

The company also said it plans to cut 500 jobs in its corporate and investment bank.

"I'm deeply disappointed with our first-quarter results," Chief Executive Ken Thompson told analysts Monday on a conference call.

"I know these actions aren't without cost."

"I wish they weren't necessary, but they are."

Shares in Wachovia fell $2.26, or 8.1 percent, to $25.55 on Monday.

It's the second time this year the Charlotte-based bank has gone to the well for cash, a move analysts say more banks large and small will do to brace themselves against further loan losses.

"This isn't surprising and we'll see more of it," said Donn Vickrey, an analyst with Gradient Analytics Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Even larger outfits, like Citigroup Inc., the No. 1 U.S. bank by assets, may have to have to raise more cash by selling additional stakes in themselves to outside investors or by slashing their dividends.

Like Wachovia, other banks may miss earnings expectations as the housing market worsens and the credit crisis deepens into mortgages beyond subprime consumers to include even prime borrowers and commercial real estate.

Vickrey said others like Midwestern bank National City Corp. and regional bank holding company Chemical Financial Corp. are among those due to the rate of growth in nonperforming loans and charge-offs.

Last week, Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. said that a consortium of investors led by TPG would invest $7 billion into the struggling thrift.

"There's a number of banks out there that are really high-risk for this same thing," Vickrey said.

Wachovia's troubles with the housing slump have been compounded by its 2006 acquisition of California-based Golden West Financial Corp., a $25 billion deal whose timing, Thompson has acknowledged, "was not the best."

"With the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that the timing was poor for this expansion in the mortgage business," Thompson wrote in a letter to shareholders in February.

But in an interview Monday, Thompson reaffirmed Wachovia's commitment to the mortgage industry, saying "we see mortgage as a big opportunity for us."

"We think it's a market that's going to be dominated by a few large banks and we see Wachovia being a player in that," Thompson said.

Golden West's loans were concentrated in California, one of the hardest-hit housing markets in the United States.

Wachovia said this month that it was considering halting the making of loans, including its signature Pick-A-Payment mortgage loans, in 17 California counties heavily affected by falling home prices and rising foreclosures.

Last week, it announced a new set of lending guidelines that appeared to be a broader step to help manage losses at the bank.

Wachovia's loss for the quarter works out to 20 cents a share.

That compared with profit of $2.3 billion, or $1.20 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding merger-related and restructuring charges, the bank lost $270 million, or 14 cents a share.

Revenue fell 4.5 percent to $7.89 billion from $8.27 billion last year.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected Wachovia to earn 40 cents per share on revenue of $7.98 billion.

The earnings estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Wachovia also said it took write-downs of $2 billion during the quarter related to the credit crunch.

It also set aside $2.8 billion to cover problem loans, up from $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter.

To shore up its balance sheet, Wachovia plans to cut its dividend by 41 percent to 37.5 cents per share from 64 cents per share.

It said the move is expected to save $2 billion annually in order "to build capital ratios and provide more operational flexibility."

The bank also said it plans to cut more jobs in its corporate and investment bank, an area that has been hit by a drop in issuance of complex securities.

Since October, Wachovia has cut more than 260 jobs in corporate and investment banking, which had about 6,100 employees as of Dec. 31.

Its share sale will involve 145.8 million shares of common stock at $24 each, raising roughly $3.5 billion.

Wachovia also expects net proceeds from a convertible preferred stock offering of about $3.4 billion.

The bank said it intends to use the money it raises for general corporate purposes.

Brian Foran of Goldman Sachs said Wachovia will gain $11 billion in cash over the next two years, enough to cover losses from the company's loans.

He lowered his profit estimates for the next three years, and trimmed his price target to $32 per share from $33.

Thompson said that the fresh capital will be enough to cover the bank's needs and more through 2009 even if Wachovia's worst-case scenario for the housing market proves true.

"We think we are now one of the best-capitalized major banks in the country and we think that will help us get through the credit cycle over the next couple of years," Thompson said.

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On the Net:

Wachovia Corp.: http://www.wachovia.com