(AP) – 19 hours ago

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to spend a long holiday weekend in Chicago.

The White House says Obama and his family will travel to their hometown on Thursday and stay through the weekend. It will be their first trip back home since a visit for Valentine's Day weekend in February 2009.

On Monday, Obama is scheduled to participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill.

In Obama's absence, Vice President Joe Biden will participate in the customary wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jKztv1qNMp84JBBjR_YQiypmvyRAD9FTET7O1

N Korea 'severs all ties' with Seoul

North Korea is to cut all relations with South Korea, Pyongyang's official news agency reports.

KCNA said the North was also expelling all South Korean workers from a jointly-run factory north of the border.

The move comes after an international report blamed North Korea for sinking a South Korean warship.

Pyongyang denies it torpedoed the Cheonan near the inter-Korean maritime border on 26 March, killing 46 sailors.

South Korea says it plans to refer North Korea to the UN Security Council, and is seeking a unified international response to the incident.

Seoul announced on Sunday it was ending trade relations with the North in response to the sinking.

It has also resumed propaganda broadcasts to the North, playing radio programmes that will soon to be broadcast via border loudspeakers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10156834.stm

NEW LONDON -- Rob Simmons ended his campaign for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate today, comparing a run against Linda McMahon's money to the futility of Pickett's Charge during the Civil War.

"As somebody interested in military history, it was a foolish waste of people and resources, with a tremendously demoralizing outcome," said Simmons, a retired Army officer and Vietnam veteran.

In another year, leaving his name on the ballot would be an extravagant gesture, forcing the expense of a primary. But this year the Republicans already face a three-way, statewide primary for governor.

http://www.ctmirror.org/story/6166/simmons-ends-campaign-yet-stays-ballot

U.S. to set deadline for Middle East peace

Posted By Barbara Slavin Monday, May 24, 2010 - 10:01 PM

George Mitchell, the Obama administration's special envoy for Middle East peace, plans to set a deadline for an Israel-Palestinian agreement, applying lessons learned from his successful mediation in a previous conflict.

Mitchell, delivering the keynote address Monday night to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Institute of Peace, said that "no two conflicts are the same." But he noted that he had "established a deadline" that led to the Good Friday agreement of April 10, 199,8 that ended the bloody, decades-long conflict between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

Asked after the speech whether he intended to set a similar deadline for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Mitchell said that he would do so after indirect talks between the two sides progress to direct negotiations.

"We will [have a deadline] once we do" make that transition, he said. He did not say how much time he would give the parties to agree.

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/24/us_to_set_deadline_for_middle_east_peace

Top Obama adviser says ‘no evidence’ that Sestak’s bribe charge is true

Private pay shrinks to historic lows

At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.

Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.

The trend is not sustainable, says University of Michigan economist Donald Grimes. Reason: The federal government depends on private wages to generate income taxes to pay for its ever-more-expensive programs. Government-generated income is taxed at lower rates or not at all, he says. "This is really important," Grimes says.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-05-24-income-shifts-from-private-sector_N.htm

Obama's Nominee to Run Medicare: 'The Decision is Not Whether or Not We Will Ration Care--The Decision is Whether We Will Ration Care With Our Eyes Open'
Monday, May 24, 2010
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs Medicare, is a strong supporter of the government-run health care system in Britain, who said in a 2009 interview about Comparative Effectiveness Research: “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care--the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”  

The $787-billion stimulus law signed by President Obama created a Federal Coordinating Coucil for Comparative Effectivieness research in health care that some critics argue was a step toward rationing of heatlh care in the United States. 
 
Donald Berwick, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the head of the non-profit Institute for Healthcare Improvement, was nominated by Obama on April 19, 2010.
 
In choosing Berwick, the Obama administration is implicitly admitting that the health care law passed by the Democrats in March will lead to the rationing of health care, said Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) in a May 19 press release.

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=66465

Will Barack Obama go an entire year without holding a formal news conference? He's getting close: The president's last full-scale session with the press was on July 22, 2009, which was 307 days ago.

When Obama last held a big news conference, there had not yet been terrorist attacks at Fort Hood, Detroit, and Times Square. Scott Brown was an unknown Massachusetts state senator. There was no national health care bill, much less national health care law. Tiger Woods appeared to be a model family man.

A lot can happen in 307 days, which is far longer than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton ever went between news conferences.

In its defense, the White House says Obama answers a lot of questions from reporters, just not in the traditional news-conference setting. In fact, the president does a lot of one-on-one interviews, frequently with sympathetic reporters. But even in terms of brief question-and-answer sessions with the White House press corps, he has still done fewer than Bush or Clinton.

More troubling is that Obama makes no secret of his disdain for the press. Just look at the scene in the Oval Office May 18, when Obama invited a few journalists to watch him sign a new bill -- it just happened to be the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act.

"Speaking of press freedom, could you answer a couple of questions on BP?" CBS's Chip Reid asked Obama after the signing.

"You're certainly free to ask them, Chip," Obama said.

"Will you answer them?" Reid continued. "How about a question on Iran?"

"We won't be answering -- I'm not doing a press conference today," Obama said. "But we'll be seeing you guys during the course of this week. OK?"

And that was that. In the spirit of the day, Obama conceded that the press had the freedom to ask questions -- he just didn't have to answer them. (By the way, Obama aides edited the exchange with Reid out of the video of the signing posted on the White House Web site.)

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Fawning-press-now-gets-cold-shoulder-from-Obama-94783304.html

The White House called for a new presidential power Monday to slash spending in a way that would be similar to a line-item veto.

The “expedited rescission authority” that President Barack Obama is sending to Congress this week would allow the president to propose a package of cuts to recently signed spending measures and then force Congress to take up-or-down votes on it. Those cuts would become law if they received majorities in both chambers. 

The Democratic leadership in the House and Senate said it would review the plan, but stopped short of endorsing it. 

“Here we are providing a way for the president to give the knife back to Congress for it to cut unnecessary fat,” White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said on a conference call.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/99469-obama-looks-for-spending-slashing-power

Congressional Democrats and the White House on Monday reached a deal on repealing the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law this year.

Under the deal, the ban on gays serving openly in the military would be repealed once a Pentagon working group studying repeal has completed its review.

In the Republican primary for US Senator, support for former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is up sharply in the past 2 weeks, from 24% on 05/10/10 to 46% today 05/24/10. Fiorina's support has more than doubled among women, seniors, Hispanics, the less educated, and in the Inland Empire. During these 2 weeks, Former Congressman Tom Campbell's support dropped 12 points, from 35% on 05/10/10 to 23% today 05/24/10.

http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=203d9267-8869-45c0-b3de-95ed057a54f9

Rep. Kennedy Says Mexican President 'Right On' in Criticizing Arizona Immigration Law
Monday, May 24, 2010
By Edwin Mora

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D.-R.I.) said last week that Mexican President Felipe Calderon had been “right on” in criticizing Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law.

CNSNews.com asked Kennedy (D-R.I.), a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs, for his thoughts on the criticisms Calderon made of the Arizona law while in Washington, D.C. last week.

“Well, he’s right on,” Kennedy told CNSNews.com. “I mean, it violates the spirit of our own Constitution.

"So, you know, we had a tragic history in this country," said Kennedy. "The most shameful parts of our history were when we had our slave trade, when we, when we, the Trail of Tears--what we did to our Native Americans.  And, you know, the proudest moments in our history are when we had the Civil Rights Act, when we moved forward on integration and expanding the opportunities for all of our citizens.