6/30 Roundup: Bern, Baby Bern!, New Haven Firefighters, You Are What You Drive

Submitted by Sam duPont on 6/30/09

Daily Roundup

Leader: Bern, Baby, Bern!

- Bernard Madoff, the maestro of a Ponzi scheme that swindled $13 billion from unsuspecting investors, has been sentenced to 150 years in prison-- should be long enough. The defense pled for leniency on account of Madoff's cooperation with investigators, but District Judge Denny Chin was unmoved, saying he didn't get the sense that Madoff had shared all there was to share, and described Madoff's actions as "extraordinarily evil."

- The sentence, which is three times longer than what the federal probation office suggested, has offered some solace but little relief for Madoff's victims, many of whom lost much of their life savings to his scheme.

Politics

- The Supreme Court ruled on the New Haven firefighters case yesterday, overturning a ruling endorsed by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, nominee for the SCOTUS. Our highest court decided that white New Haven firefighters were unfairly denied promotions when the city cancelled the results of a test that skewed to the disadvantage of minority firefighters.

- The White House is seeking to move the health care debate off the Hill and out to the people, the NY Times reports. President Obama met yesterday with a bipartisan group of governors, who are presumably closer to the people they represent than their counterparts in the Capitol, and more in tune with the need for serious health care reform.

- President Obama announced yesterday that his administration would be focusing like a laser on energy efficiency standards, to end the light bulb as we know it. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar stepped up yesterday as well, announcing that he would hasten the development of solar power fields in the West.

Economy

- The British economy shrank faster in the first quarter of this year than at any point in the last 50 years.

International

- Iran's Guardian Council certified the results of the June 12 elections yesterday, saying there was minimal evidence of fraud, and ending the recount more quickly than many had predicted. The announcement touched off protests throughout Tehran, as people took to the streets to protest what they see as the theft of the election.

- Protests broke out in the streets of Honduras yesterday, as demonstrators demanded the return of the deposed President, Manuel Zelaya. They were chased and beaten back by the government's security forces.

- Today, the US concludes its withdrawal of troops from urban centers in Iraq. Writes the WaPo: "This is no longer America's war."