President of Pa. charity linked to abuse resigns (AP)

PITTSBURGH – The youth charity at the center of the child sex-abuse charges against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky received donations in recent years from hundreds of corporations, community groups and individuals — including the judge who arraigned Sandusky earlier this month.

On Monday, The Second Mile's president resigned, saying he hoped his departure would help restore faith in its mission. The group also announced it had hired Philadelphia's longtime district attorney as its new general counsel.

Jack Raykovitz, a practicing psychologist, had led the group, which was founded by Sandusky in 1977, for 28 years.

Raykovitz had testified before the grand jury that recommended indicting Sandusky on child abuse charges. The panel said Sandusky found his victims through the charity's programs.

Annual reports show how widely popular the charity was before the scandal hit. Hundreds of corporations, community groups and individuals donated each year.

Among them was State College District Judge Leslie A. Dutchcot, who set Sandusky's bail earlier this month. She and her husband donated between $500 and $999 to The Second Mile in 2009, and she volunteered for the group, according to annual reports and her website.

The judge set bail for Sandusky at $100,000 unsecured — meaning he did not have to post collateral to be freed but would have to post $100,000 if he ever failed to show up for a hearing.

Dutchcot did not immediately respond to a question on whether she will recuse herself from the case because of those past ties to The Second Mile. She has also removed the mention of The Second Mile from her website.

Major companies and their foundations also have given to The Second Mile. Between 2008 and 2010, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Highmark Foundation, The Hershey Company and State Farm Companies Foundation all gave $50,000 or more to the charity.

Raykovitz said in a statement Monday that he hopes his resignation would mark the beginning of a "restoration of faith in the community of volunteers and staff" at The Second Mile.

Tax forms indicate that Raykovitz's wife, Katherine Genovese, was executive vice president of The Second Mile. She has been with the group since 1984. It's not clear if she still works at the charity, as the staff biography page has been removed from the website.

The Second Mile has said that its youth programs serve as many as 100,000 children a year.

Sandusky, who retired from Penn State in 1999, informed The Second Mile board in November 2008 that he was under investigation. The charity subsequently barred him from activities involving children, charity officials said.

The ex-coach allegedly assaulted eight children over a 15-year span. His attorney has said he's innocent.

Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and Senior Vice President Gary Schultz were charged with perjury. Both have denied wrongdoing and have left their university posts.

The scandal led to the departure of university President Graham Spanier and the dismissal of legendary head coach Joe Paterno after law enforcement officials said they didn't do enough to stop suspected abuse when it was reported to them in 2002.

The Second Mile also announced a new general counsel on Monday. Lynne Abraham is replacing Wendell Courtney, who resigned last week.

Abraham served as the top prosecutor in Philadelphia for nearly two decades, during which she was known for her no-nonsense approach. The city's first female district attorney, she earned the lasting nickname "one tough cookie" from former Mayor Frank Rizzo. She decided not to run again in 2009 and became a partner at the Philadelphia office of the Archer & Greiner law firm in early 2010.

The Second Mile board also said that it would conduct an internal investigation to assess policies and make recommendations regarding future operations. They hope to have those findings by the end of December.

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Yemen president says will leave power in coming days (Reuters)

SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he would leave power in the coming days, the closest the veteran leader has come to announcing he plans to step down after nine months of mass protests against his 33 year rule.

"I reject power and I will continue to reject it, and I will be leaving power in the coming days," Saleh said in a speech on state television.

Saleh has been clinging to his position while opposition and ruling party representatives cast about for a formula to see through a transition-of-power deal.

"I call on my supporters to persevere and to confront any challenge," Saleh said.

Protests against Saleh's rule have paralyzed Yemen, weakening government control over swathes of the country and fanning fears al Qaeda's regional wing may use the upheaval to expand its foothold near shipping routes through the Red Sea.

Saleh has thrice backed out of signing a Gulf-mediated power transition deal. The opposition says the government is holding up negotiations after Saleh's return from Saudi Arabia, where he had gone for treatment after a June assassination attempt.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon)

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Witness: With President Bush after the planes hit on Sept 11 (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Reuters reporters traveled with George W. Bush on September 11, 2001 on what began as a feel-good trip to Florida to promote education.

Here are some of their memories of that day, and those that followed, as they watched Bush's evolution from the leader of a country enjoying peace and prosperity to a wartime president.

Arshad Mohammed:

"Mr. President, are you aware of the reports of a plane crash in New York?"

I called out that question to Bush in the Florida classroom where, unbeknownst to me, he had just learned the second World Trade Center tower had been hit by an airplane.

Those minutes in the Emma E. Booker Elementary school, where Bush silently came to grips with the attack on the United States illustrate the blessings and the frustrations of being in the media pool that travels everywhere with the president.

On the one hand, we witness history in real time -- watching White House chief of staff Andrew Card whisper into Bush's ear as he sat with second graders, and enjoying direct access to the president to lob questions at will.

On the other, as in every White House, the information flow is tightly controlled and our questions often go unanswered.

Standing in the classroom, we knew the first tower had been hit, but not the second and we had no idea what Bush had been told by Card, nor any clear sense of what might happen next.

Bush brushed off my question and emerged a short while later in the school library to say: "Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country."

Caught off guard by the hijacked plane attacks, Bush gave an initially halting response, and spent the day flying across the country on Air Force One fleeing some unseen enemy instead of returning immediately to Washington, moves that raised doubts about his leadership in the tumult of the crisis.

Only days later, when he visited the smoking remains of the downed World Trade Center towers would the new president seem to regain his footing with a dramatic, impromptu speech atop a crumpled firetruck and a vow to punish the attackers.

AIR FORCE ONE HEADS FOR POINTS UNKNOWN

Bush sped away from the school in a long motorcade.

According to the 9/11 Commission Report, the president learned of the attack on the Pentagon on his way to the airport and he grudgingly accepted the Secret Service's advice that he not return to Washington as he wished.

Before we boarded the plane, a team of security agents and sniffer dogs checked the media pool at the foot of the stairs -- an unusual step as we'd already been screened once -- and one that suggested the Secret Service was taking no chances.

Near the back stairs, a White House official, in a rare display of emotion, bellowed out to ask if everyone was on board.

Virtually everyone else -- from the security personnel who protect the plane to the news photographers who track the president -- had their game faces on.

Within minutes of takeoff, it was clear we were not flying home along the Florida seaboard on the route we had taken the day before, with beaches and blue water beneath us.

Instead, we flew over land, made at least one sharp turn, and climbed steeply to an altitude far beyond normal.

In the back cabin, the press pool was on edge but unaware of the frantic attempts to remain in touch with the White House from the front of the plane.

Like most passengers, we were riveted by live images of the attacks broadcast on a TV screen at the front of our cabin, at one point watching in disbelief and horror as one of the twin towers collapsed.

'GET TO THAT WINGTIP -- NOW!'

We had no idea where we were going until a young press aide told us our destination was Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, that Bush would make a statement, and that we could report what he said but not where he said it.

On landing, there was none of the pomp and ceremony that normally awaits the president.

Instead, before Bush descended from the Boeing 747, soldiers encircled it, with an officer at one point brusquely ordering one to "get to that wingtip -- now!"

It was as if the military, in all its might, feared that the president's plane was not safe sitting in the middle of a vast tarmac at a base where his very presence was a secret.

Barred from using our mobile phones so that the calls could not be traced to give away Bush's location, reporters were taken to a windowless conference room. Aides scurried to set up a podium and two flags for Bush to make a statement we could later report from "an undisclosed location."

As we waited, someone said news of Bush's arrival had been broadcast on local TV. Quickly confirming this with an Air Force officer, an aide told us we could call our editors.

After vowing to "hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts," Bush got back on Air Force One with a much-reduced entourage -- leaving behind aides, Secret Service agents and members of the media, including me, to be flown back to Washington on a back-up Air Force jet.

Steve Holland:

Most members of the White House press corps who were in Florida to cover Bush found themselves abandoned. Civilian aviation had been grounded, and it was not until the next day that we gave up on flying home, chartered buses and loaded up on snacks for an overnight drive back to Washington.

Enmeshed in a traffic jam the next morning, the first sense we got of the devastation beyond TV images was a view of the Pentagon from the I-395 highway. Tendrils of smoke were still rising from a long scar in the building left by a hijacked airliner.

The White House itself was ringed by a military cordon. Helicopters whickered overhead. Soldiers carried rifles and confronted passersby. There was a sense of an America at war.

Years later Americans would remark on Bush's ability to study the facts at hand and quickly reach a decision -- too quickly, some would say. But this leader, "the decider," had not yet emerged in September 2001.

After all, this was a president who had taken months to decide on his stem-cell policy and, after winning a big tax cut from Congress the previous spring, he seemed more intent on defining himself on domestic issues.

SMOKE TRAILS PAST STATUE OF LIBERTY

Bush completed his transformation to war leader on September 14, on a visit to Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

Air Force One landed in New Jersey, instead of New York, for security reasons, and Bush and his entourage flew in helicopters to Manhattan. The smell of the smoldering twin towers was obvious from miles away, and a trail of smoke that passed the Statue of Liberty, symbol of America's openness to the world, was a painful image.

On the ground, a thick coating of ash lay on sidewalks and roads for blocks around Ground Zero. A ghostly line of firefighters, their coats covered with ash, stood in silence along the motorcade route, stopping briefly in their struggle to find the remains of their fallen colleagues. The stability of nearby buildings was uncertain, adding to the unease.

Where there had once been soaring twin towers, there was only death and destruction. Girders rose up in awkward angles. Piles of rubble were all around.

Bush had no plans to speak to the rescuers gathered around him as he toured with New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but chants of "USA, USA" from the emotional crowd changed his mind.

He clambered up on the remains of a firetruck, put his hand on the shoulder of firefighter Bob Beckwith, and spoke into a bullhorn the words that would define the rest of his White House tenure.

"I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" he said.

(Editing by Warren Strobel and Christopher Wilson)

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Will Sarah Palin run for president as Tea Party candidate? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Washington – Sarah Palin may or may not be inching closer to an actual presidential run.

But watching her appearances in Iowa and New Hampshire over the long weekend, Decoder was reminded of how savvy her political instincts can be. Palin’s attacks on “crony capitalism” and the “permanent political class” may sound like just another set of talking points, but they tap directly into a very real vein of frustration among voters with the political system as a whole - a frustration that could create an opening for an unconventional, possibly even a third party, candidate.

It got us wondering: What if Palin decided to buck ties to the GOP and run as a Tea Party candidate instead?

Palin herself opened the door to just such a possibility back in June, when she told conservative TV host Sean Hannity that although a year ago she would never have even considered it, “conditions have changed in this last year.”

And it might not be so crazy. Current polling shows levels of approval for both parties at historic lows. The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out this morning found that 54 percent of voters want to throw out every member of Congress. And while the tea party is much more closely aligned with Republicans than Democrats, the original movement was first fueled by anger toward President George W. Bush.

More broadly, the notion that this campaign is unfolding amid a unique set of challenges that could give rise to a legitimate third-party bid is generating steam from a variety of quarters.

The group Americans Elect is working to get space on presidential ballots in all 50 states ahead of a national nominating convention for an independent ticket to be held on the Internet next summer.

And while the group has its work cut out for it, it has drawn support from media types like New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who wrote in a recent column that the nation’s current set of challenges calls for a

a€?new, hybrid politics that mixes spending cuts, tax increases, tax reform, and investments in infrastructure, education, research and production. But that mix is not the agenda of either party. Either our two parties find a way to collaborate in the center around this new hybrid politics, or a third party is going to emergea€|a€

The desire among voters to do something dramatic, something that would turn the entire system on its head, is clearly out there. The question is, which candidate (or potential candidate) is best poised to capitalize on it?

Want more?

Become a delegate for Americans Elect.

Read Martin Peretz’s piece in The New Republic about why third-party candidacies don’t work.

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President announces deal to boost fuel economy (AP)

By DINA CAPPIELLO and TOM KRISHER, Associated Press Writers Dina Cappiello And Tom Krisher, Associated Press Writers – 2?hrs?7?mins?ago

WASHINGTON – Ushering in the largest decrease in auto fuel consumption since the 1970s, President Barack Obama and automobile manufacturers Friday announced a deal that will save drivers money at the pump and dramatically cut heat-trapping gases coming from tailpipes.

The agreement pledges to double overall fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, bringing major under-the-hood changes for the nation's automobiles starting in model year 2017. Cars and trucks on the road today average 27 miles per gallon.

"This agreement on fuel standards represents the single most important step we have taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil," Obama said, sharing the stage with top executives of the major auto makers before a backdrop of some of the most cutting-edge cars on the road.

"Just as cars will go further on a gallon of gas, our economy will go further on a barrel of oil," Obama said.

When achieved, the 54.5 mile-per-gallon target will reduce U.S. oil consumption from vehicles by 40 percent and halve the amount of greenhouse gas pollution coming out of exhausts.

For American families, the president said the agreement — which will be subject to a mid-course review — means filling up the car every two weeks, instead of every week. That would save $8,000 in fuel costs over the life of a vehicle, he said.

The deal was less than what environmentalists and public health advocates wanted, but more than the Detroit Three automakers desired. In a letter to the president last week, Michigan lawmakers called the higher proposal "overly aggressive," after automakers had said they'd work to get vehicles averaging 42.6 to 46.7 miles per gallon. Green groups, meanwhile, had pushed for a 62 miles-per-gallon target by 2025.

For Obama, who watched his campaign promise on this issue die when Republicans retook control of the House, the compromise provides a way around political roadblocks and offers an opportunity to affect climate change.

The deal also provides an answer on the issue of oil dependency. It promises reduced demand at a time when Republicans in Congress have criticized Obama for being too slow to drill and not opening up more areas to oil and gas exploration after the massive Gulf oil spill last year.

And at a time when a consensus in Congress is elusive on the debt ceiling and curbing the federal deficit, the president said the fuel economy deal was a "valuable lesson to" Washington.

"You are all demonstrating what can happen when people put aside differences," Obama said. "These folks are competitors, you've got labor and business. But they said we are going to work together to achieve something important and lasting for the country."

For automobile manufacturers, particularly the Detroit Three, the deal signals a turnaround from the days when they resisted boosting fuel economy targets, arguing that consumers would not buy smaller and more efficient cars, and the technology to reduce fuel dependency was too expensive.

The dynamics were also changed by the $62 billion bailout of GM and Chrysler by taxpayers, making it harder for automakers to say no to the White House.

Some environmentalists lauded the agreement Friday, but said that manufacturers owed taxpayers a bigger deal after the multibillion-dollar bailout.

"An auto industry that owes its survival to taxpayer bailouts ungratefully flouted the public's demand for fuel efficiency and less pollution, fighting for loopholes until the bitter end," said Dan Becker, Director of the Safe Climate Campaign. "We will use every opportunity, including the midterm review that the automakers demanded, to strengthen the standards."

For consumers, the new requirements are well beyond the gas mileage of all but the most efficient cars on the road today.

By the time the new standards take effect, the government expects gas-electric hybrids to make up about half the lineup of new vehicles, with electric vehicles making up about 10 percent of the fleet.

Currently hybrid and electric vehicles combined amount to less than 3 percent of U.S. vehicle sales, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

The standards also could force auto companies to get rid of some less-efficient models as they try to boost the gas mileage of their lineups. But that depends on how quickly new technology can be developed.

Automakers already are moving toward boosting gas mileage by cutting weight and with new engine and transmission breakthroughs. They're also adding electric cars to their lineups. General Motors and Nissan are selling mass-market electric vehicles, while Mitsubishi, Ford, Toyota and others are about to enter the market.

Nissan's vice president Scott Becker in a statement said the Obama administration has issued some extremely challenging greenhouse gas reduction and fuel economy improvement targets, but Nissan was "up to the task."

Nissan introduced the LEAF - the world's first and only 100-percent electric car for the mass market - in December 2010. More than 4,000 of the 99 miles-per-gallon vehicles are already on the road.

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Krisher contributed reporting from Detroit

Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter: (at)dinacappiello

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President Obama not giving up on big debt deal (AP)

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama hasn't given up on getting congressional leaders to accept a $4 trillion debt reduction deal that Republicans have rejected for its tax increases and Democrats dislike for its cuts to programs for seniors and the poor, administration officials said hours before talks resumed Sunday.

"He's not someone to walk away from a tough fight," presidential chief of staff William Daley said. "Everyone agrees that a number around $4 trillion is the number that will ... make a serious dent in our deficit."

But House and Senate Republican leaders now say the largest of three proposals under consideration would not pass the GOP-led House because of its tax increases, an abrupt shift in negotiation over the terms of raising the nation's debt ceiling before an Aug. 2 deadline.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced late Saturday that he was rejecting that proposal. Heading into the talks at 6 p.m. EDT, the top Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, suggested the deal was dead.

"I think it is," McConnell said. Raising taxes amid 9.2 percent unemployment, he added, "is a terrible idea. It's a job killer."

The back-and-forth on the Sunday morning talk shows came hours before Obama and eight lawmakers of both parties were to convene at the White House over a plan to raise the nation's borrowing capacity from $14.3 trillion before next month's deadline, when administration officials say the nation would default on its debts.

Republicans have demanded that any plan to raise the borrowing limit be coupled with massive spending cuts to lighten the burden of government on the struggling economy. Higher taxes, Republicans have said from the start, are deal-killers if not offset elsewhere.

But Obama has a long way to go to satisfy lawmakers in his own party, too. Many Democrats are unnerved by the president's $4 trillion proposal because of its changes to Medicare and Medicaid.

Political pain is part of the deal, too, and should be worth bearing, Daley said, adding that Obama was calling on lawmakers to "step up and be leaders."

He cast Obama as uninterested, for now, in two more modest proposals to raise the debt limit for a shorter time, in exchange for smaller spending cuts. But Daley and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner used rhetoric that appeared to acknowledge the prospects for the $4 trillion deal could be in doubt.

"We're going to try to get the biggest deal possible," Geithner said.

He cautioned that a package about half the size of the one Obama prefers would be equally tough to negotiate because it, too, could require hundreds of billions in new tax revenue.

Expectations for Sunday's meeting took an abrupt turn after Boehner informed Obama that a package of about $2 trillion identified but not agreed to by bipartisan negotiators was more realistic.

In a statement, Boehner said: "Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes."

A bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Vice President Joe Biden had already identified, but not signed off on, about $2 trillion in deficit reductions, most accomplished through spending cuts.

"I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase," Boehner said.

After holding a secret meeting with Boehner last weekend, Obama and aides said they believed an even bigger figure was attainable if both parties made politically painful, but potentially historic, choices.

A Republican official familiar with the discussions said taxes and the major health and retirement entitlement programs continued to be sticking points.

Obama wanted Republicans to accept closing some corporate tax loopholes and subsidies to corporations, ending a tax friendly inventory accounting system for businesses, as well as reducing the value of tax deductions for wealthy taxpayers.

A senior administration official said the discussion on taxes broke down over the administration's desire to have the wealthy pick up a bigger share of the tax revenue load than Republicans were willing to accept.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said the $2 trillion to $2.4 trillion in deficit reduction identified by the Biden-led negotiations remains under negotiation and will also require some new tax revenue of up to $400 billion.

Daley was on ABC's "This Week," McConnell appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and Geithner was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS' "Face the Nation."

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Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

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U.S. official meets Yemen president Saleh in Riyadh (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism official, John Brennan, urged Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Sunday to sign a transition plan that will lead to Saleh's departure.

Brennan met Saleh in the Saudi capital Riyadh, where Saleh had flown for medical treatment after the June 3 attack on his presidential compound.

Veteran leaders in Egypt and Tunisia bowed to popular pressure to resign, but Saleh has refused to do so and has hung on to power despite international pressure and six months of protests against his 33-year rule.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement that Brennan wished Saleh a speedy recovery and reiterated U.S. condemnation of the attack against him.

He called on Saleh to fulfill quickly his pledge to sign a Gulf-brokered deal for a peaceful handover of power in Yemen.

"Mr. Brennan emphasized the importance of resolving the political crisis in Sanaa so that the Yemeni government and people can successfully confront the serious challenges they face, including the terrorist attacks carried out by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which have claimed the lives of hundreds of Yemeni citizens," Carney said.

He said Brennan told him the United States is working closely with Yemen's allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council, Europe, and elsewhere to ensure that much needed assistance will flow to Yemen as soon as the GCC proposal is signed and implemented.

"The United States believes that a transition in Yemen should begin immediately so that the Yemeni people can realize their aspirations," said Carney.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Yemen's president addresses nation in video (AP)

SANAA, Yemen – Yemen's embattled president has appeared publicly for the first time since he was in injured in a blast at his palace compound early last month.

In a brief video aired on Yemen state TV, Ali Abdullah Saleh lashed out Thursday at those who have sought to drive him from power, saying they have an "incorrect understanding of democracy."

More than four months of popular uprising seeking to push the longtime ruler from power have shaken the impoverished corner of the Arabian Peninsula.

Saleh has been in treatment in Saudi Arabia since June 5.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Suspected al-Qaida militants killed 10 Yemeni soldiers after stopping them at a fake checkpoint in the country's restive south, security officials said Thursday.

The militants ordered the soldiers off a bus as they returned from leave to rejoin their units and shot them execution style, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

The Wednesday killings show the growing strength of Islamic militants across Yemen, where security has largely collapsed during more than four months of mass protests seeking to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Islamists have seized control of two towns in the southern province of Abyan, where Wednesday's attacks occurred. For weeks, Yemeni forces have fought unsuccessfully to push them out of Zinjibar and Jaar, leading to regular casualties on both sides.

Yemen state TV said it would broadcast a recorded message later Thursday from Saleh, who left the country for treatment in neighboring Saudi Arabia after he was injured in a rocket attack on his palace in early June.

Saleh has not been seen publicly since the attack, sparking widespread speculation about the severity of his wounds. He last address the nation in an audio recording on Yemen state TV shortly before he flew to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment June 5.

Yemeni officials said last week that Saleh remains bedridden and has difficulty breathing and talking. Still, his aides insist he will soon return to Yemen.

On Tuesday, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said Saleh's health is "generally good."

A ruling party leader close to Saleh said the new message was recorded Thursday in a Saudi hospital. Yasser Yemani said he had seen the video and that Saleh uses it to "reassure the people about his health."

Yemani said Saleh also uses to the video to support a U.S.-backed peace initiative proposed by Yemeni's Gulf Arab neighbors as the only way to end the country's political crisis.

Before leaving the country, Saleh repeatedly refused to sign the proposal after saying he would.

Yemani said it had not yet been decided if both the audio and video of the message would be aired, or just coothe audio.

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