Newscaster

By Elizabeth 2B

State the Union Address• Bush delivered his final State Of the Union address

on Monday night.• The 53-minute speech called for the quick passage

of his tax rebate package, a modest concluding agenda, and patience with the Iraq situation.

• Bush spent little time talking about the struggling economy, though this issue is a top concern for voters in this year’s election. Instead, much of the time was spent discussing Iraq.

Bush delivers his final State Of the Union address.

• Compared to previous addresses, the plans discussed in this one weren’t very ambitious- which is realistic considering that Bush has only 51 weeks left in office.

• A small amount of new initiatives were offered• Mostly slightly older ones were mentioned; such as

amending the tax code to make private health insurance more affordable. This plan was unveiled last year.

• Also brought up in the SOU address: stem cells and Hurricane Katrina

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Riots In Kenya• Tuesday morning, Mugabe Were, a new member of the

Kenyan parliament, was shot to death outside of his home

• When chaos took over in Kenya after the controversial December 27 election, Were, an opposition politician, went between leaders of different ethnic groups and tried to organize a peace march.

• The shooting is believed to have been a hit, rather than a robbery. Opposition supporters have been rioting across Nairobi, and it is said that the chaos is escalating.

“Kenyans are now literally ripping their country apart, uprooting miles of railroad tracks, chopping down telephone poles, burning government offices, and looting schools.”

-www.nytimes.com

• More than 800 have been killed since the election on December 27.

• “The police are not in control,” said Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. “Actually, nobody is in control.”

• Many prominent Kenyans are receiving death threats.

• Opposition supporters see Were’s killing as a political assassination, intended to intimidate Kenya’s opposition movement.

Stocks Rise• Wall Street averages went up on Tuesday (DJIA

rose .78%).• Rate cuts are just one part of the central bank’s

plan to boost the struggling economy. A coming Federal Reserve meeting is expected to bring another interest rate cut.

• Since Christmas, averages have declined about 10%- a significant amount.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

NYSE

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SourcesAll cartoons from www.cagle.com

All images from Google Images

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Wall-Street.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=stock+market&st=nyt&oref=slogin

(story has since been updated)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/world/africa/30kenya.html?ref=world

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/us/29bush.html