GENERAL
Roswell Daily Record
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
A3
Weiner admits he sent lewd picture NEW YORK (AP) — After days of denials, a choked-up New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner confessed Monday that he tweeted a photo of his bulging underpants to a woman and admitted to “inappropriate” exchanges with six women before and after getting married. He apologized for lying but said he would not resign. Weiner said at a news conference that he had never personally met any of the women he corresponded with online and sometimes via telephone, and was not even sure of their ages. He also said he had never had sex outside of his marriage. “This was me doing a dumb thing, and doing it repeatedly, and lying about it,” he said. He said he did not feel the scandal affected his work as a lawmaker but would understand if his constituents decided not to re-elect him. “I’m going to work very hard to win back their trust,” he said at the half-hour-long news conference. A conservative website that last week started a furor over the underwear photo sent from Weiner’s Twitter account posted new photos Monday purportedly from a second woman who said she received shirtless shots of the congressman. Weiner had earlier said of the underwear photo that his account was hacked and that he’d hired a lawyer and a private security firm to get to investigate the incident involving the underwear shot. But he could not say for sure if the underwear photo was of him. Weiner called the underpants photo a joke and a “hugely regrettable mistake.” “I haven’t told the truth and have done things I deeply regret,” he said. “I brought pain to people I care about.” BigGovernment.com, the website run by conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, had posted the latest photos and said they were in a cache of intimate online photographs, chats and email exchanges the woman claimed to have. The website did not identify the woman. One photo showed Weiner on a couch with two cats nearby. The website said Weiner sent the photo using the anthonyweiner(at)aol.com account with the subject line “Me and the pussys.” The celebrity website RadarOnline.com said a woman claimed to have 200 sexually explicit messages from Weiner through a Facebook account that Weiner no longer uses. It was not clear whether the woman who claimed to have the new photo was the person who claimed to have received the text messages. In a strange turn before Weiner’s planned news conference, Breitbart took to the podium, defending the accuracy of his posts and saying his reputation was being smeared by the congressman.
AP Photo
U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., addresses a news conference in New York, Monday. After days of denials, a choked-up New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner confessed Monday that he tweeted a bulging-underpants photo of himself to a young woman and admitted to "inappropriate" exchanges with six women before and after getting married.
The photo showing Weiner shirtless was reminiscent of a photo of former Rep. Chris Lee, a New York Republican who resigned from office earlier this year after a shirtless photo he sent a woman on Craig’s List became public. Weiner, 46, married Hillary Rodham Clinton aide Huma Abedin last July, with former President Bill Clinton officiating. Before that, Weiner had been known as one of New York’s most eligible bachelors. Weiner began his career as a legislative assistant to then-Rep. Chuck Schumer, who is now the state’s senior
senator. He was elected to the New York City Council before winning Schumer’s House seat in 1998, representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens. He gained a national profile during the debate over President Barack Obama’s health care plan when he outspokenly professed support for a government-run “singlepayer” program for everyone and later a “public option” to compete with private health insurance. He got the notice of liberals even though both proposals failed to make it into law.
AP Sources: Edwards emails acknowledge payments
AP Photo
Former presidential candidate John Edwards looks at his daughter Cate, right, after making a statement to the media following a court appearance in Winston-Salem, N.C., Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors have obtained emails between John Edwards and a former aide to use as evidence at
trial that he knew about payments to his pregnant mistress even while he was publicly denying it, people familiar with the
case told The Associated Press on Monday. Dozens of emails were exchanged between Edwards and his former speechwriter Wendy Button as they worked on a never-released draft statement to acknowledge paternity of his out-of-wedlock child, according to people who have seen the messages and requested anonymity because they have not been made public yet. The messages, draft statements and notes of their related phone conversations are key evidence prosecutors are using against Edwards, indicted on charges he failed to report nearly $1 million allegedly spent to keep his mistress out of the public eye as he pursued the White House. The former senator was still denying he was the baby’s father and publicly maintained he knew nothing about any money that may have been spent when the emails were sent in summer 2009. Prosecutors must prove the 2004 vice presidential nominee had knowledge of the payments to convict him in the campaign finance case. Edwards proclaimed his innocence of any crime after being indicted Friday. His attorneys declined to comment on the evidence revealed to the AP. The six felony charges came after intense negotiations in which prosecutors first insisted Edwards plead to a felony, but they ultimately offered him the chance to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges and serve a jail sentence, according to peo-
ple with knowledge of the talks who requested anonymity to discuss the private discussions. Edwards, a single father since his estranged wife’s death in December, was interested in reaching a deal but refused to accept anything that would take him away from his children, according to a person close to the talks. By definition, a misdemeanor could carry jail time of no more than one year. During the talks, prosecutors presented their evidence to Edwards to encourage him to take a deal. A person who has seen the e-mails described the following context: Button worked on the 2004 Edwards presidential campaign, continued to write his speeches between his two White House bids and was brought on to help with some drafts toward the end of the 2008 campaign. She reached out to her former boss in July 2009, when he had yet to admit he fathered a child with his former videographer, Rielle Hunter. The presidential race was long over by then, but the reports continued to dog Edwards. News media reported that Edwards’ former aide Andrew Young was writing a book about how he falsely claimed paternity of the child at Edwards’ request. Edwards’ former campaign finance chairman Fred Baron had come out a year earlier to admit that he sent Young and Hunter money to keep them out of the media, but claimed Edwards hadn’t known about the payments.
Usually a job engine, localities slow US economy
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a healthy economic recovery, states and localities start hiring, expand services and help fuel the nation’s growth. Then there’s the 2011 recovery. The U.S. economy is moving ahead, however fitfully. Yet state and local gover nments ar e still stuck in recession. Short of cash, they cut 30,000 jobs in May, the seventh straight month they’ve shed workers. Rather than add to U.S. economic growth, they’re subtracting from it. And ordinary Americans ar e feeling it — fr om reduced services to fewer teachers, police of ficers and firefighters. The Gr eat Recession officially ended two years ago this month. By the same point during previous recoveries, state and local gover nments were engines of growth: In the
two years after the 199091 recession ended, for example, they’d added 430,000 jobs. At the same point after the 2001 recession ended, they had added 249,000. This time is dif ferent. More than 467,000 state and local government jobs have vanished since the recession officially ended in June 2009, including 188,000 in schools. Few see the pain subsiding soon. Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, expects state and local gover nments to slash 20,000 to 30,000 jobs a month thr ough the middle of 2012. Joel Nar of f of Nar of f Economic Advisors notes that when states cut spending to balance their budgets, as r equir ed annually, a ripple effect multiplies the damage: Companies that do business with states and local-
ities suffer. These companies, in turn, scale back their own hiring. “There’s a whole slew of private companies that have to cut back when they don’t get the (government) contracts they had been getting,” Naroff said. “You can’t balance a budget and say everything’s going to be beautiful.” Moody’s Analytics estimates that each job in state and local gover n-
ment supports an additional 1.3 jobs elsewhere in the economy. The cutbacks str etch across the country: — Monticello, Ga., has cut its police force in half — to five. It had planned to eliminate the for ce entirely until it found the money to keep some officers, says Police Chief Bobby Norris.
“Real Estate Corner”
“MAKE SURE IT’S A GOOD FIT”
by Connie DeNio of Roswell 622-7191 or 626-7948
Many people “eyeball” a house for size and floor plan. Later they find there is no place for the piano, or storage is woefully inadequate. Room dimensions can be deceiving, especially if viewed unfurnished. Measure, making note of the placement of windows, doors, built-in features and the clear wall space between them.
Take special care to assess your storage needs. It’s surprising how much accumulates in a few years. Be realisitc and put your findings in writing. This information will be invaluable in screening out unsuitable houses. ©
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