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WASHINGTON – President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid “massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters” and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

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Venice, Louisiana (CNN) — The Gulf of Mexico undersea gusher has already spilled more oil than the Exxon Valdez disaster — possibly more than twice as much, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. history — government scientists said Thursday.

Scientists observed 130,000 to 270,000 barrels of oil on the water’s surface on May 17, and think a similar amount had already been burned, skimmed, dispersed or evaporated.

That would mean 260,000 to 520,000 barrels had been leaked as of 10 days ago. The Exxon Valdez leaked about 250,000 barrels into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989.

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(CNN) — After 161 years of treating survivors of major catastrophes, from the sinking of the Titanic to the attacks of September 11, and leading early HIV treatments, New York’s St. Vincent’s Hospital closed Friday.

Faced with financial troubles and mounting debts, the historic hospital was forced to shutter its operations. By Friday, no patients were left, and about 3,500 employees were laid off.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — Former President Clinton said he sees parallels in the mood of the country now and on April 19, 1995, when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people while he was in the White House.

“There’s the same kind of economic and social upheaval now,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in an interview to air Friday on “The Situation Room.”

“Then, you had the rise of extremist voices on talk radio. Here, you have a billion Internet sites,” Clinton said.

The Goverment kept borrowing from SS because there was a surplus of money. They did not put it back.Now there is not enough money to pay the people that depend on it to live. They better find the money to help these older people out. Or do the not just care about the older people any more.
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The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hammered jobs, home prices and now Social Security.

This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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NEW YORK – Spurred by budget crises, California and Michigan together reduced their prison populations by more than 7,500 last year, contributing to what a new report says is the first nationwide decline in the number of state inmates since 1972.

The overall drop was slight, according to the Pew Center on the States — just 0.4 percent — but its report suggests there could be a sustained downward trend because of keen interest by state policymakers in curtailing corrections costs.

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Kansas City, Mo., plans to close nearly half its public schools by fall. Illinois’ governor wants to raise state income taxes by 1 percent to continue funding schools and prevent the layoffs of thousands of teachers. Hawaii, President Barack Obama’s home state, has whacked 17 days from the school year and says it’s not done with educational cost-cutting.

From Maine to Wisconsin, Florida to California, school districts across the country are taking drastic measures to deal with school budget cuts made severe by the recession and its aftermath. Msnbc.com asked readers how their school district is coping, and one clear lesson emerged — cuts in education make no one happy.

Full Story atCNN.com

Boston, Massachusetts (CNN) — A white van sits at a warehouse loading dock in Boston. Buckled in the front passenger seat is Eeyore, the donkey friend of Winnie the Pooh.

“This is the back seat driver,” says one of several volunteers removing the stuffed animal and other donated children’s items for the local Toys for Tots campaign.

The U.S. Marine Corps Reserve program, which began 62 years ago in Los Angeles, California, now gives Christmas presents to underprivileged children in nearly 700 cities and towns across the country.

Full Story at news.Yahoo.com

KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday it will be at least 15 years before his government can bankroll a security force strong enough to protect the country from the threat of insurgency.

Speaking at a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Karzai said Afghan security forces would take the lead in securing the nation within five years, but he said his nation would need financial help to pay the salaries and equip a growing army and police force.

“Afghanistan is looking forward to taking on our responsibilities in terms of paying for its forces with its own resources, but that will not be for another 15 years,” Karzai said.

Full Story atmoney.cnn.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Because oil prices have always been directly related to the strength of the economy, a recovery might have seen headlines like these:

• The recession ends: Get ready for $100 oil

• The economy roars: $140 oil, is there an end in sight?

• Everyone in China buys a Cadillac: World tapped out

But a growing number of experts are saying that you can forget all that. For the next couple of years, they say, oil prices will remain well below $100 a barrel as the economy remains fragile and efficiency measures kick in.

Full Story at CNN.com

(CNN) — About 70 students at UC Santa Cruz in California avoided arrest early Sunday morning when they surrendered the administration building they had occupied for three days, according to a school spokesman.

But, school officials said in a statement, “students who participated in this incident face possible criminal and/or student judicial sanctions.”

Kerr Hall, the Santa Cruz campus’ administration building, won’t be ready for its normal duties Monday, the officials said, because some areas — particularly the second floor, which school officials said might not be ready for several days — were damaged and left in disarray.

Full Story at CNN.com

The Belle Mead, New Jersey, resident runs the car-review Web site mpgomatic.com with a focus on fuel efficiency, but even he strays over to public transit every now and then. Nowadays, even the biggest car lovers are taking notice of energy conservation.

Readers may not realize a guy who revs engines for a living might need a ride back home after dropping off a test car in New York. In these cases, he typically takes a train most of the 55-mile trip and gets a car ride for the rest of the route.

Gray shared an iReport video explaining how he decided — for one day only, he emphasizes — to see whether he could go entirely without the assistance of an automobile on the return trip. His journey was successful, but he spent an extra hour fumbling around with local buses and taking an unintentional detour to a local mall.