Two influential industry groups with close ties to Bush administration officials are hoping to swing the regulatory pendulum in the opposite direction.
The bursting housing bubble slowed economic growth in the third quarter to 1.6 percent, its slowest rate of expansion since the first quarter of 2003, according to a preliminary estimate by the Commerce Department. Economists were expecting growth of around 2.1 percent, down from 2.6 percent in the second quarter. There's no doubt that another huge drop-off in residential real-estate investment was again a prime culprit in the economy's sharp slowdown. Residential construction tumbled a whopping 17.4 percent, compared with a decrease of 11.1 percent in the second quarter. "The housing market did a real number on economic growth in the summer," says economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors.
Four record closes in a row of the Dow Jones industrial average can't help but grab the attention of investors. But longtime stock watchers say those headlines are drowning out two important–and conflicting–facets of this week's rally.
Lung cancer is rarely caught early, which is a big reason it kills more Americans than any other form of the disease; indeed, five-year survival rates hover around 15 percent. A study in this week's New England Journal of Medicine suggests that spiral computed tomography, or CT, which takes X-rays from many different angles and combines them into high-resolution images, is able to pick up small tumors early enough to cure patients. The test is controversial; the American Cancer Society, for example, doesn't yet endorse it, saying there aren't enough data to show that on the whole, CT screening actually saves lives.
AP - Embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Bush agreed Saturday to expedite the hand-over of full control of Iraq's army to the government as they seek to quell the insurgency and sectarian bloodshed.
AP - Calmer winds helped crews fighting a massive wildfire Saturday that killed four firefighters and critically injured a fifth, while investigators searched for the arsonist who set the blaze roaring through the canyons of Southern California.
AP - President Bush, campaigning aggressively ahead of the high-stakes Nov. 7 elections, said Saturday Democrats should not be trusted to control Congress because they have no idea how to win in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq, "I'm not America's man in Iraq," during a private meeting, a senior aide said. Al-Maliki made the same point to President Bush during a video conference Saturday, an Iraqi spokesman said. The White House said it agreed, adding there were no rifts with the Iraqi leadership.
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