Jury convicts 5 officers in post-Katrina shootings

Jury convicts 5 officers in post-Katrina shootings

Rebecca Glover, aunt of a victim of a separate civil rights case against New Orleans police officers, hugs supporters of victims and their families outside Federal Court after five current or former police officers were convicted in the deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans, Friday, Aug. 5, 2011. Former officer Robert Faulcon, Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, Officer Anthony Villavaso and retired Sgt. Arthur Kaufman were convicted of charges stemming from the cover-up of the shootings. All but Kaufman were convicted of civil rights violations stemming from the shootings. Kaufman, who investigated the shootings, was charged only in the cover-up.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A federal jury on Friday convicted five current or former police officers in deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina, a high-profile victory for the Justice Department in its push to clean up the city's troubled police department.

The case was a high-stakes test of the effort to rid the police department of corruption and brutality. A total of 20 current or former New Orleans police officers were charged last year in a series of federal probes. Most of the cases center on actions during the aftermath of the Aug. 29, 2005, storm, which plunged the flooded city into a state of lawlessness and desperation.

Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, Officer Anthony Villavaso and former officer Robert Faulcon were convicted of civil rights violations in the shootings that killed two people and wounded four others on the Danziger Bridge less than a week after the storm. They face possible life prison sentences.

Retired Sgt. Arthur "Archie" Kaufman and the other four men also were convicted of engaging in a brazen cover-up that included a planted gun, fabricated witnesses and falsified reports. The five men were convicted of all 25 counts they faced.

Shaun Clarke, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who moved from New Orleans to Houston after Katrina, said the verdicts are "critically important" to the Justice Department's reform efforts.

"It's a huge verdict for the government," he said. "Of all the cases concerning alleged misconduct by police officers after Katrina, this was the one that had the highest national profile."

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten echoed that, saying the verdicts send a message that "public officials, and especially law enforcement officers, that they will be held accountable and that any abuse of power will have serious consequences."

Faulcon was found guilty of fatally shooting Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man, but the jury decided his killing didn't amount to murder. Faulcon, Gisevius, Bowen and Villavaso were convicted in the death of 17-year-old James Brissette. Jurors didn't have to decide whether Brissette was murdered because they didn't hold any of the defendants individually responsible for causing his death.

Kaufman, who was assigned to investigate the deadly encounter on the bridge, wasn't charged in the shootings.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who invited the Justice Department last year to conduct a thorough review of the police department, said the verdicts "provide significant closure to a dark chapter in our city's history."

In March, the Justice Department issued a blistering report that said New Orleans police officers have often used deadly force without justification, repeatedly made unconstitutional arrests and engaged in racial profiling. Landrieu has said he expects the federal review to bring about court-ordered reforms.

Five former officers pleaded guilty to participating in cover-up of the bridge shootings and testified during the trial. Another former officer, retired Sgt. Gerard Dugue, has a separate trial scheduled to start in September.

Brissette's mother, Sherrel Johnson, said she was relieved by the verdict after "a long, hard six years" and would now try to move on. But she lamented what her son has lost.

"For him there will be no prom, no baby, no nothing. My child will never have nothing," she said.

Madison's relatives said in a statement the family had waited six years to "find out what really happened on that bridge."

Madison's sister Jackie Madison Brown read the statement, which also said that after an event like Katrina, "all citizens, no matter what color or what class, deserve protection."

After the verdict was read, Justice Department prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein became emotional, hugging the families of Madison and Brissette and holding hands with two of Madison's sisters.

Defense attorney Roger Kitchens, who represented Villavaso, said he believed negative media coverage of the case tainted jurors.

"At this point, I don't think it's possible for a New Orleans police officer to get a fair trial in the city of New Orleans. And I don't think they got one today," he said.

Prosecutors said police had no justification for shooting unarmed, defenseless people trying to cross the bridge in search of food and help mere days after Katrina struck.

Defense attorneys argued, however, that police were shot at on the bridge before they returned fire.

Faulcon, the only defendant to testify, said he was "paralyzed with fear" when he shot and killed Madison, as he chased him and his brother, Lance Madison. Faulcon didn't dispute that he shot an unarmed man in the back, but he testified that he had believed Ronald Madison was armed and posed a threat.

Prosecutors contended that Kaufman retrieved a gun from his home weeks after the shootings and turned it in as evidence, trying to pass it off as a gun belonging to Lance Madison. Police arrested Lance Madison on attempted murder charges, but a grand jury later cleared him.

Woman Commits Suicide In Jump At Atlantic City Casino

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Police in Atlantic City say a woman has died after jumping off the Resorts Hotel & Casino.

Sgt. Monica McMenamin says police have determined it was a suicide.

McMenamin says it happened around 7 a.m. Thursday.

Police are not releasing the identity of the woman or any further details, citing their policy on suicides.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

President Obama, Eric Holder Address National Association Of Black Journalists

Attorney General Eric Holder holds an impromptu newsmakers’ session at the National Association of Black Journalists’ Convention.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The National Association of Black Journalists is holding its convention this week in Philadelphia, where its founding chapter was formed back in 1975.

The gathering heard from two top people in the White House: President Obama, through a video, and Attorney General Eric Holder, in person.

Echoing the words of the president, Holder exhorted the journalists, “to speak truth to power by raising awareness of what is right and what is wrong.”

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

City Of Trenton Lays Off 150 Employees, Including Police Officers

TRENTON, NJ (CBS) – Layoff notices have gone out to some 150 employees of the city of Trenton, more than two-thirds of them are police officers.

New Jersey’s capital city has suffered through two rounds of municipal layoffs in as many years, but this is the first time cops are affected. One hundred eight of them will go, effective the middle of next month.

For full story go to:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Prosecutors Urge Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua To Testify In The Church

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Prosecutors in the priest sex abuse trial are trying to bring Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua to testify. They asked a judge to order the Cardinal to videotape his testimony, since his knowledge is critical in the trial of Monsignor William Lynn, his Secretary of Clergy.

Cardinal Bevilacqua led the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for fifteen years. But in 80 hours of testimony before the 2005 grand jury, member Jerry Corrento, says the Cardinal sounded more like a lawyer than a cardinal.

For full story go to:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Caught On Tape: Gunmen Open Fire On SEPTA Bus

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It’s like something out of the movies. But, in this case the guns are real and the victims are SEPTA passengers in the wrong place at the wrong time, although remarkably no one was hit.

In court, authorities show the video of two men opening fire on a SEPTA route 47 bus at 7th and Cecil B. Moore in North Philadelphia in June. Four people are held for trial.

For full story go to:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Polygamist leader convicted of child sex abuse

Polygamist leader convicted of child sex abuse

A law enforcement officer, left, escorts polygamist religious leader Warren Jeffs, right, into the Tom Green County Courthouse Thursday Aug. 4, 2011, in San Angelo, Texas. The defense rested Thursday in the sexual assault trial against Jeffs in which he served as his own defense.

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) -- A Texas jury convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs of child sexual assault on Thursday, in a case stemming from two young followers he took as brides in what his church calls "spiritual marriages."

The head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints stood stone-faced as the verdict was read. Jeffs, who acted as his own attorney, stood mostly mute for his closing argument, staring at the floor, for all but a few seconds of the half hour he was allotted.

At one point he mumbled, "I am peace," and said no more. The only noise in the courtroom was the creaking of wooden benches brimming with spectators.

Jeffs, 55, had claimed his religious rights were being trampled on and that God would seek revenge if the trial continued. He now faces up to life in prison. The sentencing phase of the trial was starting after the verdict, and Texas' attorney general said it could take three days.

Prosecutors used DNA evidence to show Jeffs fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl and played an audio recording of what they said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old. They also played audio recordings in which Jeffs was heard instructing young women on how to please him sexually.

The FLDS, which has at least 10,000 members nationwide, is a radical offshoot of mainstream Mormonism and believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. They see Jeffs as God's spokesman on earth.

Police had raided the group's remote West Texas ranch in April 2008, finding women dressed in frontier-style dresses and hairdos from the 19th century as well as seeing underage girls who were clearly pregnant. The call to an abuse hotline that spurred the raid turned out to be a hoax, and more than 400 children who had been placed in protective custody were eventually returned to their families.

But authorities brought charges against several men from the group, with Jeffs by far the highest-profile defendant.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said he expects the penalty phase to take three days.

"There will be a tremendous amount of evidence, showing a lot more detail to the jury," he said. "The jurors, and Texans in general, are going to learn a lot more about the background of Warren Jeffs."

Abbott and prosecutors said the case had nothing to do with Jeffs' church or his beliefs.

"You have heard the defendant make repeated arguments about religious freedoms," said lead prosecutor Eric Nichols. "Make no mistake, this case is not about any people, this case is not about any religion. It is about one individual, Warren Steed Jeffs, and his actions."

Prosecutors relied heavily on information seized from the compound, which is in the town of Eldorado, 45 miles south of San Angelo, and features a four-story temple of white limestone. Much of the material was discovered in a vault at the end of a secret passageway in the temple and another vault in an annex building.

"You might have asked yourselves," Nichols said, "a lot of people may ask, why would someone record sex? ... This individual considers himself to be the prophet. Everything he did, hour after hour, he was required to keep a record of that."

On one of the tapes played at the trial, Jeffs made a reference to "drawing close" or "being close," which authorities testified is how church members refer to sex. Two female voices said "OK."

"A good wife is trained for her husband and follows the spirit of peace," Jeffs was heard saying.

Another audio tape included Jeffs and the younger girl from a recording made in August 2006 at the Texas compound, according to testimony from Nick Hanna, a Texas Ranger involved in the 2008 raid.

Played in court, it was difficult to decipher, but Jeffs' and a female voice are heard. He says, "I perform this service in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen," then mentions the alleged victim by name. When she says something, he responds, "don't talk while praying." Several minutes of heavy breathing followed.

The jury wore headphones to better hear the recording and also followed a transcript. One female juror covered her face with her hand as she listened.

Jeffs represented himself after firing seven attorneys in the six months leading to the trial. He broke his courtroom silence with an objection marked by a nearly hourlong speech defending polygamy, and twice threatened the judge and the court with warnings of punishment from God.

He refused to cross-examine the state's witnesses, and delayed giving an opening statement until he began presenting his own defense. In that statement, he evoked images of the civil rights movement and mentioned former Mormon leader Joseph Smith Jr. He also asked the jury to remember constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.

The lone defense witness Jeffs called, church elder JD Roundy, spent about 10 minutes on the stand Thursday discussing FLDS history after 4 1/2 hours of testimony the previous evening.

One of Jeffs' many former defense attorneys, Deric Walpole, was asked if it was frustrating to watch him defend himself.

"It took me a while to get used to the idea, but it's about him, it's about what he wanted to do," Walpole said. "It's about that man doing what he sees fit."

Jeffs failed three times to remove state District Judge Barbara Walther from the case, the last rejection coming even without a hearing. He claimed Walther was biased because she issued the warrant for the original raid and was frequently updated as it progressed.

Eleven other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy. All seven of those who have been prosecuted were convicted, receiving prison sentences of between six and 75 years.

Reid: Congress reaches deal to end FAA shutdown

Reid: Congress reaches deal to end FAA shutdown

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011, to talk about the need to overcome the partisan standoff over a bill to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress has reached a bipartisan compromise to end the two-week partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that has idled 74,000 federal employees and construction workers and cost the government about $30 million a day in uncollected airline ticket taxes, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said Thursday.

The deal would allow the Senate to approve a House bill extending the FAA's operating authority through mid-September, including a provision that eliminates $16.5 million in air service subsidies to 13 rural communities. Passage of the bill is expected Friday. Senators have scattered for their August recess, but the measure can be approved if leaders from both parties agree to adopt it by "unanimous consent."

Republicans had insisted on the subsidy cuts as their price for restoring the FAA to full operation. But the cuts may become moot.

The bill includes language that gives Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood the authority to continue subsidized service to the 13 communities if he decides it's necessary.

"Only LaHood can decide how he will use his waiver authority," said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman for Reid.

But Democrats said they expect the administration to effectively waive or negate the cuts.

"I just know that the White House has provided assurances that they (the communities) will be held harmless," said a Senate Democratic leadership aide who asked not to be named because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the deal.

The shutdown began when much of Washington was transfixed by the stalemate over raising the government's debt ceiling. During that time, the FAA furloughed 4,000 workers but kept air traffic controllers and most safety inspectors on the job. Forty airport safety inspectors worked without pay, picking up their own travel expenses. Some 70,000 workers on construction-related jobs on airport projects from Palm Springs, Calif., to New York City were idled as the FAA couldn't pay for the work.

But airline passengers in the busy travel season hardly noticed any changes. Airlines continued to work as normal, but they were no longer authorized to collect federal ticket taxes at a rate of $30 million a day. For a few lucky ticket buyers, prices dropped. But for the vast majority, nothing changed because airlines raised their base prices to match the tax.

Some passengers will now be eligible for tax refunds if they bought their tickets before July 23 and their travel took place during the shutdown.

As the debt ceiling crisis passed and Congress headed home for its August recess without resolving the standoff, President Barack Obama spoke out Wednesday and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urged Congress to return to deal with the issues. Obama expressed dismay that Congress would allow up to $1.2 billion in tax revenue to go out the door - the amount that could have been lost by the time lawmakers return in September.

Reid announced the deal Thursday afternoon, saying it would put 74,000 transportation and construction workers back to work.

"This agreement does not resolve the important differences that still remain. But I believe we should keep Americans working while Congress settles its differences, and this agreement will do exactly that," Reid said.

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma won't attempt to block passage of the bill when it comes up on Friday, spokesman John Hart said. Coburn blocked several attempts by Democrats to pass an extension bill without the subsidy cuts.

"The delay was the result of members wanting to protect their parochial interests," Hart said in an email.

The partisan standoff that led to the shutdown began last month when Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, signaled his intention to attach the subsidy cuts to a bill to extend FAA's operating authority through mid-September. The agency has been operating under a series of 20 short-term extensions since 2007, when the last long-term FAA funding bill expired.

Senate Democrats complained that Republicans were breaking precedent by using an extension bill to enact policy changes that hadn't been agreed upon. Even Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas called the measure a "procedural hand grenade." Senators refused to pass the House bill, saying to do so would be giving into legislative blackmail and inviting Republicans to up the ante on the next extension bill.

Obama, who had scolded Congress on Wednesday for not solving the standoff, expressed relief.

"I'm pleased that leaders in Congress are working together to break the impasse involving the FAA so that tens of thousands of construction workers and others can go back to work," Obama said in a statement. "We can't afford to let politics in Washington hamper our recovery, so this is an important step forward."

Both the House and Senate passed long-term funding bills for the FAA earlier this year, but negotiations on resolving differences and finalizing those bills are stalemated. The biggest holdup is a labor provision in the House long-term bill. Republicans want to overturn a National Mediation Board rule approved last year that allows airline and railroad employees to form a union by a simple majority of those voting. Under the old rule, workers who didn't vote were treated as "no" votes.

"The House has made it clear that the anti-worker piece is a priority for them and they also put us on notice that they don't intend to give in. So we are bracing for a new fight in September," said Vince Morris, a spokesman for Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of a committee that oversees FAA.

Last month, in comments to the House Rules Committee and separately to reporters, Mica said the labor provision was the only issue standing in the way of the House and Senate reaching an agreement on a long-term FAA bill. He said Reid, D-Nev., has refused to negotiate with Republicans on the issue.

"There is only one issue - have I not been clear? It's up to Mr. Reid," Mica told the committee. He added that including the subsidy cuts to the extension bill "forces the Senate's hand to act."

Mica has said that he's willing to take provisions from the long-term bill and attach them to future extensions to achieve the policy changes the GOP lawmakers want.

Democrats said they worried that if they give in to Republicans on relatively small items like the subsidy cuts, Republicans will be encouraged to demand concessions on the next extension bill, such as the labor provision.

Democrats and union officials say the proposed labor change puts airline and railroad elections under the same democratic rules required for unionizing all other companies. But Republicans say the new rule reverses 75 years of precedent to favor labor unions.

The GOP labor provision has the backing of the airline industry. The biggest beneficiary would be Delta Air Lines, the largest carrier whose workers aren't primarily union members.

Communities targeted for the proposed air service subsidy cuts are Morgantown, W.Va.; Athens, Ga.; Glendive, Mont.; Alamogordo, N.M.; Ely, Nev.; Jamestown, N.Y.; Bradford, Pa.; Hagerstown, Md.; Jonesboro, Ark.; Johnstown, Pa.; Franklin/Oil City, Pa.; Lancaster, Pa.; and Jackson, Tenn.

Philadelphia School District Cuts $18M From ‘Promise Academies,’ Ackerman’s Future Unclear

(L-R: Philadelphia schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman, SRC members Robert Archie and Johnny Irizarry, and SRC attorney Miles Shore. )

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Amid rumors swirling about the future of Philadelphia schools chief Arlene Ackerman, her administration today announced deep cuts in one of her signature programs.

Instead of eleven new “promise academies” in September, the district now plans only three, cutting $18 million from the program to partially offset the $35 million less in state money than had been previously expected.

For full story go to:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Former Blue Horizon Boxing Arena On N. Broad St. Will Become Restaurant-Hotel

(A boxing match at the Blue Horizon.)

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A $6-million state grant has been awarded to redevelop the historic site that once housed the legendary Blue Horizon boxing venue, on North Broad Street.

The proposed project will involve the hospitality industry, just blocks away from Temple University.

Mosaic Development Partners of West Philadelphia has teamed up with Orens Brothers Real Estate to develop the property, which started off as three mansions built back in 1865.

For full story go to:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Halladay Gets 14th Win As Phillies Sweep Rockies

DENVER (AP) – Roy Halladay fought through an erratic outing for his NL-leading 14th victory, Ryan Howard drove in four runs with a homer and a double and the Philadelphia Phillies completed a sweep of Colorado with an 8-6 win over the Rockies on Wednesday.

Halladay (14-4), pitching in his hometown, allowed five runs on eight hits in seven innings. He struck out seven and walked one as the NL East-leading Phillies won their sixth straight.

For full story go to:

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Health Watch: National HIV Rates Stable, But Philadelphia Rates On The Rise

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The number of Americans infected with HIV is holding steady according to a new government report released today. But that’s not the situation in Philadelphia. 3 On Your Side Health Reporter Stephanie Stahl has more.

The new federal health report says there are about 50,000 new HIV cases a year. While those number have been steady nationally, HIV in Philadelphia continues to grow. We have one of the highest rates in the country.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Buchanan: No slur intended with Obama 'boy' quip

Buchanan: No slur intended with Obama 'boy' quip

FILE - In this June 26, 2011 file photo, the Rev. Al Sharpton arrives at the BET Awards in Los Angeles. Whether MSNBC will hire Sharpton despite questions about his booster role for the cable channel's parent company is undecided. MSNBC President Phil Griffin said Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011, that Sharpton is doing a good job as a guest host for the 6 p.m. ET hour, the lead-in to MSNBC's primetime lineup that includes Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow. But a decision about hiring Sharpton has yet to be made, Griffin told a meeting of the Television Critics Association.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Pat Buchanan said that he didn't mean to slur President Barack Obama by referring to him as "your boy" during a discussion with Al Sharpton.

The former GOP presidential candidate and current MSNBC analyst appeared on "Morning Joe" Wednesday to explain remarks he made on that network's Sharpton show 12 hours earlier. They were discussing Obama's political strength when Buchanan said that "your boy" had caved in past negotiations and was likely to do so in the future.

"My what?" Sharpton responded. "My president, Barack Obama? What did you say?"

Buchanan, using a boxing analogy, answered that Obama was "your boy in the ring."

"He's nobody's boy," Sharpton said. "He's your president, he's my president, and that's what you have to get through your head."

During his initial "Morning Joe" appearance on Wednesday, Buchanan said he wanted to clarify what he had said to Sharpton during a "spirited discussion."

"Some folks took what I said as some kind of a slur," Buchanan said. "None was meant, none was intended, none was delivered."

On "Morning Joe," Buchanan was appearing alongside political analyst Mark Halperin, who was making his first appearance on MSNBC a month after being suspended for an off-color remark about Obama.

Going nowhere: Economy struggles to find footing

Going nowhere: Economy struggles to find footing

A trader work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011, in New York. With no clear sign of what will invigorate growth, there is mounting fear on Wall Street that the U.S. risks sliding into a long-term economic coma.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Shoppers won't shop. Companies won't hire. The government won't spend on economic stimulus - it's cutting instead. And the Federal Reserve is reluctant to do anything more.

Without much to invigorate growth, the economy may be in danger of slipping into a stupor like the one Japan has failed to shake off for more than a decade. And Wall Street is spooked.

The Dow Jones industrial average Wednesday barely broke an eight-day losing streak, finishing up about 30 points. A nine-day losing streak would have been the Dow's first since February 1978.

Even with the gain, the Dow has fallen 828 points, or 6.5 percent, over the past nine trading days. Investors didn't even pause to celebrate the resolution over the weekend of a dangerous debt standoff in Washington.

Stunned by news last week that the economy barely grew in the first half of 2011, economists are lowering their forecasts for the full year and recalculating the odds that the economy will slide back into recession.

Kurt Karl, chief U.S. economist at Swiss Re, has cut his 2011 forecast for growth this year to 1.8 percent from 2.6 percent. And he has bumped up the likelihood of another recession to 20 percent from 15 percent.

"The last week has made it much more likely that corporate profit estimates will be revised lower," said Nick Kalivas, a vice president of financial research at MF Global.

The stocks that have fallen the furthest have been those of companies that fare best in economic expansions. Industrial companies like Caterpillar and Boeing, energy companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, and retailers like Amazon and Coach have all fallen by more than the broader stock market.

Investors have pushed government bond yields to their lowest level of the year. The 10-year Treasury note now yields 2.6 percent. Bond yields typically fall when the economy is weak because nervous investors view bonds as a safe place to park their money, and there's less chance that inflation will erode their value.

The economy started sputtering early in the year. Economists at first thought the slowdown would be temporary, the result of a short-term rise in gasoline prices and an earthquake in Japan that disrupted shipments of auto parts and electronics.

But the weakness persisted. And it worsened as a political fight over debt and deficits raised the risk that the U.S. government would not be able to pay all its bills.

"It now seems fairly clear that those shocks have done a lot more damage than we expected," says Leo Abruzzese, global forecasting director for the Economist Intelligence Unit. "They seem to have had a devastating effect on confidence."

After the government reported that the economy grew at an annual pace of 0.4 percent in the first quarter and 1.3 percent in the second, Abruzzese is cutting his estimate for 2011 growth from 2.4 percent to less than 2 percent.

It's hard to see anything lifting growth to the 2.5 percent needed to keep unemployment from rising, let alone the 5 percent needed to bring the rate down significantly from June's 9.2 percent.

"Sales are what keeps the market moving higher, and there's not much demand when there's only 0.4 percent growth," said Andrew Goldberg, U.S. market strategist at JP Morgan Funds.

When the economy grows less than 2 percent over a 12-month period, it risks slipping into recession, says Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities. Over the most recent such period, the economy grew just 1.6 percent.

Few economists are predicting another recession, despite a series of weak economic reports. Gasoline prices have come down from their high of almost $4 a gallon in May. And Japanese factories are starting to crank up again after the March earthquake.

At the heart of the economy's problems are the debts that consumers built up during the early and mid-2000s. Many borrowed against the equity in their homes, convinced that house prices would rise forever.

When housing prices collapsed, people were left owing more than their homes were worth. Others charged up their credit cards. Now it's payback time, and Americans are spending less or spending cautiously as they slash their debts.

Companies are reluctant to hire until they're convinced enough customers are ready to buy their products or services. Corporate profits are booming, though, because companies laid off millions of workers, learned to operate more efficiently with smaller staffs and expanded in growing markets overseas.

"If companies were inclined to hire, they could," Abruzzese says.

So companies are waiting for consumers to spend, and consumers are waiting for companies to hire them or offer generous pay raises and job security. It's a tough cycle to break.

In the past, the government has helped by spending on infrastructure projects or jobs programs. This time, it's cutting at all levels. In the second quarter, government cutbacks reduced economic growth by 0.2 percentage points.

More cuts are coming. The deal to raise the debt limit calls for $917 billion in federal spending cuts. Those won't do much immediate damage to the economy because they mostly kick in after 2013, but a special congressional committee is supposed to find at least another $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade, and no one knows where the ax will fall.

"You're not sure if there are going to be huge spending cuts or tax increases. Or are they just going to wrangle?" Swiss Re economist Karl says. "If you're a supplier to any part of the government, you certainly are not rushing to hire people or buy equipment. There's definitely a damper on growth."

To some economists, the United States is starting to look eerily like Japan. The Japanese economy fell into a recession in the early `90s. It has never fully returned to health, largely because of policy mistakes. The government raised taxes after declaring victory over the downturn prematurely. And U.S. economists, including current Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, criticized the Japanese central bank, the Bank of Japan, for being too passive to turn the economy around.

The Fed has kept short-term interest rates near zero since December 2008 to stimulate the economy. But at the end of June, it ended a $600 billion program to buy government bonds and keep long-term rates - the ones that determine the rates people pay on cars and houses - low.

It was the second round of what economists call quantitative easing, or QE2 for short. But the Fed has no plans for a third, fearing it would lead to higher inflation.

Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economist, says that in this economy, QE3 - and, if necessary, QE4 and beyond - is the only hope.

"Yes, we are starting to look like Japan," he says. "But it is not too late."

Anthony won't have to return to Florida on Thurs.

Anthony won't have to return to Florida on Thurs.

FILE - In this July 7, 2011 photo, Casey Anthony smiles before the start of her sentencing hearing in Orlando, Fla. Anthony’s lawyer Jose Baez says bringing Anthony back to Florida from an undisclosed location would just add to what he called the “circus-like atmosphere” around her case. Anthony has disappeared from public view since her acquittal last month on charges of murdering her 2-year-old daughter. A judge this week ordered Anthony to come back to Orlando to serve probation for check fraud that she plead guilty to in an earlier case.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Casey Anthony can continue her undercover life for now, after a judge ruled Wednesday she does not have to immediately return to Florida to start serving her probation for check fraud.

A hearing on her probation was set for Friday, Judge Belvin Perry said. Anthony won't have to show up for that either.

A different judge ordered Anthony to report to Florida on Thursday for her probation, but the judge later recused himself and turned the case over to Perry, who presided over Anthony's murder trial.

Anthony has been out of the public eye since she was acquitted last month in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. The jury's decision angered many people online and elsewhere, and threats were made on Anthony's life. She vanished after leaving jail July 17.

Anthony's attorneys said local authorities would have to provide security if she was forced to return. To back up that claim, they included a flyer in their arguments that showed a doctored photo of Anthony with a bullet mark on her forehead. Underneath the photo reads in part: "With a forehead that big, the headshot will be easier."

Anthony was convicted of lying to detectives but released because of time served.

Judge Stan Strickland sentenced Anthony in January 2010 to probation after she pleaded guilty to using checks stolen from a friend. The state Department of Corrections had interpreted the sentence to mean that Anthony could serve the probation while she was in jail awaiting trial, but Strickland said last week he intended the probation to be served after her release.

On Monday, Strickland signed a "corrected" version of Anthony's probation order to make clear she was supposed to start the one-year term after her release from jail. Strickland recused himself Wednesday without giving a reason, although defense attorneys accused him of showing prejudice against Anthony in television interviews he gave after her murder trial.

Strickland said he was "shocked" by the verdict in a July interview with cable television host Nancy Grace, a chief Anthony critic who gave her the moniker "Tot mom." In another interview with Orlando television station WESH, Strickland said jurors may not have understood that "circumstantial evidence is evidence."

"There are very seldom cameras running at the time somebody kills somebody or a child is abused," he said.

In a motion filed Tuesday, Anthony's defense attorneys said she had already served her probation. They also said Florida law stipulates the judge cannot amend his sentence more than 60 days after it was signed.

Karin Moore, a law professor at Florida A&M College of Law, said an inmate can't serve probation while in jail, so Strickland has the ability to correct the sentence.

"He can correct an illegal sentence anytime, which he thinks he is doing now," Moore said.

Anthony's lawyers also argued that Strickland is no longer qualified to issue the amended order since he recused himself and that the amended order was fraudulently filed since there was no court proceeding attended by Anthony or her attorneys.

"This thing is over and done. And for some reason things seem to keep coming up again for no apparent reason, for absolutely no apparent reason, other than let's just keep this thing going, let's just keep this madness going and engage in the circus-like atmosphere that is called the Casey Anthony case," defense attorney Jose Baez said on NBC's "Today" show.

Baez did not say where she was located, only that she was not in Florida when the judge's order was signed Monday.

Dems say Congress could reopen FAA during recess

Dems say Congress could reopen FAA during recess

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., left, accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011, to talk about the need to overcome the partisan standoff over a bill to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama urged Congress on Wednesday to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, which began nearly two weeks ago because of a partisan standoff over air service to rural communities and union organizing.

Obama noted that nearly 4,000 FAA workers have been furloughed, another 70,000 workers involved in airport construction projects are affected and the country stands to lose more than $1 billion in revenue from uncollected airline ticket taxes during the shutdown if Congress leaves the problem hanging until lawmakers return in September.

"So this is a lose-lose-lose situation," he said.

Republican leaders responded that the whole problem can be resolved almost immediately if Senate Democrats will only accept a mere $16.5 million in air service subsidy cuts that the House last month attached to a bill to extend FAA's operating authority. "The only reason so many jobs are at stake is Senate Democratic leaders chose to play politics rather than pass the House bill," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement.

But Democratic leaders, speaking at a Capitol Hill news conference, said the cuts are a sham. The real issue, they said, is that Republicans are provoking crisis after crisis to get Democrats to accept policy changes that the GOP wouldn't be able to achieve through normal legislative negotiations.

That strategy was successful during the debt limit negotiations, but Democrats said they are drawing a line on the FAA shutdown.

"When you look back at their (Republican) threats to shut down the entire government - remember that? - unless they got tax breaks for the rich, followed by holding the full faith and credit of this government hostage, to their desires to cut government spending. And now here we are a third time ... I hope the American people wake up. This is their modus operandi: government by crisis that they make up," Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said.

Democrats offered bills in the House and Senate to extend FAA's operating authority with no strings attached, but action on the measures was blocked by Republicans. It's still possible for Congress to pass those bills by unanimous consent without lawmakers returning to work if the leaders of both parties agree, Democrats said.

Obama also noted Congress has a procedural way of ending the shutdown without coming back.

"And they can have the fights that they want to have when they get back (in September)," he said. "Don't put the livelihoods of thousands of people at risk, don't put projects at risk, and don't let $1 billion at a time when we're scrambling for every dollar we can, get off the table because Congress did not act."

The president said his "expectation, and I think the American people's expectation is that this gets resolved before the end of this week."

If Congress doesn't work on a deal, White House spokesman Jay Carney said "we will look at the measures the president may be able to take."

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told The Associated Press that House GOP leaders will only agree to their own bill with $16.5 million spending cuts to subsidies for air service to rural communities.

But Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Mica's counterpart in the Senate, said Boehner told Democrats several days ago that House Republicans would agree to an FAA with no subsidy in exchange for Democratic concessions on changing a labor rule to make it more difficult for airline workers to unionize. He said Democrats refused to accept that condition.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid added: "The issue is the labor issue: an anti-worker agenda of one airline, Delta Airlines. That's what this is all about."

Republicans want to overturn a National Mediation Board rule approved last year that allows airline and railroad employees to form a union by a simple majority of those voting. Under the old rule, workers who didn't vote were treated as "no" votes.

Democrats and union officials say the change puts airline and railroad elections under the same democratic rules required for unionizing all other companies. But Republicans complain that the new rule reverses 75 years of precedent to favor labor unions. Delta is the largest airline whose workers aren't primarily union members. Unions have made four recent attempts under the new rule to organize workers, but haven't been successful.

Obama also raised the specter of safety being compromised, even though Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has repeatedly offered reassurances that safety workers like air traffic controllers and maintenance crews were on the job. Forty airport safety inspectors were supposed to be furloughed but have volunteered to continue to work without pay and pick up their own travel expenses, although officials expected them to be compensated when the shutdown is over. The shutdown hasn't affected air traffic controllers, who are paid from a different pool of funds.

Pressed on what options Obama had if Congress doesn't act, Carney said fixing the crisis was Congress' job.

"We are intently interested in assuring that these 74,000 Americans who had jobs get them back," he said. Because they were essentially "thrown out of work by a failure of Congress to act," the simplest solution was for lawmakers to come back to Washington and fix the problem.

The next deficit deal: There's a rough road ahead

The next deficit deal: There's a rough road ahead

FILE - In this July 23, 2011 file photo, President Barack Obama meets with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. The struggle to head off a national debt default played out on two tracks, as do most big things in the capital. One was for show. The other was for real. The two tracks finally came together, in the knick of time, on Tuesday, when the Senate granted final passage to legislation raising the debt ceiling, trimming spending and punting the most painful decisions on deficits down the road. President Barack Obama's pen sealed the deal.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The special panel's goal is lofty: concoct a deal both parties will embrace to slash federal deficits by a mammoth $1.5 trillion or more over the next decade.

Yet from the moment House and Senate leaders appoint the 12 members until the 2012 elections, hurricane-force political pressures are going to make it tough to produce anything substantial.

All sides will fiercely defend core priorities, Republicans opposing tax increases and defense cuts and Democrats protecting benefits for Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid recipients. Those happen to be exactly where nonpartisan analysts say savings must occur for any serious deficit-cutting package to emerge.

The decisions - at least the next big ones - rest with the committee set up by the agreement that defused the debt-limit crisis this week.

Every choice will have implications for President Barack Obama's re-election, for Republican hopefuls jockeying to unseat him and for Democrats and Republicans struggling for control of the House and Senate.

If the special committee of lawmakers fails to produce a savings plan by Thanksgiving or if Congress rejects it by Christmas, this week's compromise debt limit accord between Obama and Congress will automatically trigger cuts of $1.2 trillion from much of the budget, with half from the military.

That would mean "dangerous across-the-board defense cuts that would do real damage to our security, our troops and their families and our ability to protect the nation," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta declared on Wednesday.

Here's a map of the road ahead, based on interviews with two dozen lawmakers, aides and lobbyists.

APPOINTING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Within two weeks, Democratic and GOP leaders of the House and Senate will each name three lawmakers to form the new 12-member committee.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are sure to name members who will be unquestionably loyal to them and their party's interests.

The special committee will need approval by just seven members to send a package to Congress for a vote with no changes allowed. No leader can afford to appoint a wild card who might stray.

The leaders have another incentive to name loyalists who follow party orthodoxy: self-preservation. None wants to lose seats in the next election, or risk a rebellion by rank-and-file lawmakers that might cost them their leadership posts because a committee agreement abandons party priorities.

"People's political survivability might be at stake here, both for members and control of each chamber," said Robert Reischauer, president of the nonpartisan Urban Institute.

Appointees will probably have budget expertise. It could be risky to name legislators who were members of the Simpson-Bowles commission or the Senate's "Gang of Six," bipartisan groups that proposed budget plans that included higher taxes and benefit cuts, because they might embrace a compromise that party leaders oppose.

So far, names floated as possible Republican members include Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 GOP leader who is retiring after this term, Rob Portman of Ohio, White House budget chief under President George W. Bush, and Mike Johanns of Nebraska, a first-termer and former governor.

Other possibilities include House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.; House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Senate No. 2 Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., who is not seeking re-election.

For fear of a committee populated by 12 white men, Pelosi seems likely to name appointees who reflect gender or racial diversity, Democrats say. Boehner might feel a need to appoint a member of the Republican Study Committee, an organization of House conservatives, or one of the 87 GOP freshmen.

THE COMMITTEE'S WORK

No one contests that it will be hard to produce a package that is due a month before the start of a presidential and congressional election year and just two months before Iowa caucus voters have a say on the Republican presidential nominee.

Party leaders are already laying down markers.

On Tuesday, McConnell said on Fox News that the odds of the committee endorsing tax increases were "pretty low," adding, "I'm comfortable we aren't going to raise taxes coming out of this joint committee."

Reid expressed a different view.

"We will have no legislation that will come out of that joint committee unless revenues are part of the mix," he said on NPR radio. "It's a fact of life."

A big bipartisan deal would doubtless be greeted with popular approval and both parties could claim credit for it. It would also be touted by Obama months before he faces voters for a second term.

But other incentives could complicate efforts to reach an agreement.

With the weak economy, the anti-incumbent mood of voters and Democrats defending 23 of 33 Senate seats up for election next year, Republicans have an excellent chance of winning control of that chamber. A deal that lets Senate Democrats boast of an accomplishment might not help McConnell's chances of becoming majority leader.

Pelosi and Reid may not be helped by a deal in which Democrats agree to Medicare benefit cuts in exchange for tax increases. Many Democrats think the House-passed Republican budget, which completely reshapes Medicare, is a winning political issue for them that they don't want to surrender.

Boehner, whose command of the House is both fueled and threatened by anti-tax tea party lawmakers, has little incentive to bless a deal that raises taxes. But if an agreement includes Medicare cuts, he could be tempted to embrace it because it might neutralize that issue for Republicans.

Pushing the committee to produce an agreement are the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts that will be triggered if the panel deadlocks or Congress rejects its work. Obama and congressional leaders made the automatic cuts truly unappealing to both parties, with half of the $1.2 trillion hitting the military - anathema to Republicans - and the other half slamming domestic programs popular with Democrats.

"I understand the nuclear option. It cuts both ways," said freshman Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., a tea partyer, retired Army lieutenant colonel and member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Democrats hope the prospect of steep defense cuts will give them leverage in the special committee, forcing the GOP to consider what they have soundly rejected - revenue from taxes.

"It puts us in a much better position than we were using the debt ceiling debates to get taxes into the equation," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md.

Even so, many freshmen and tea party-backed lawmakers are less protective of the Pentagon than some of the more senior lawmakers in Congress.

OUTSIDE PRESSURE

Outside groups are trying to influence the composition of the committee and its end product. Health care providers, labor unions, conservative and liberal groups and others are sure to intensify pressure on panel members as their work proceeds.

In one warning shot, a would-be tea party challenger to Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, sent an email to supporters chastising her for voting for the debt limit bill on Tuesday.

"Snowe betrayed us," wrote Scott D'Amboise.

The Aerospace Industries Association was already pressing for appointment of members of the congressional committees that oversee the military to serve on the special bipartisan panel.

Marion C. Blakey, president and CEO of the association, said spending cuts "would weaken the defense industrial base that is responsible for thousands of high-paying jobs and billions of dollars in exports."

Panetta, in a message to Defense Department employees, said the automatic cuts are "designed to be unpalatable to spur responsible, balanced deficit reduction and avoid misguided cuts to our security."

THE END GAME

Should the special committee's work prove unsuccessful, the two parties will have all of 2012 to continue their battle.

The $1.2 trillion in automatically triggered budget cuts don't take effect until January 2013. That is exactly when broad tax cuts worth trillions of dollars, enacted under President George W. Bush, expire. Those two events could push lawmakers to strike a deal that marries spending reductions with the renewal of some of those tax cuts.

A complete deadlock that leaves the spending cuts in place and fails to renew Bush's tax cuts would save the government huge sums.

"If everybody does nothing, it could have a very good result for the budget," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the nonpartisan Concord Coalition, which advocates a balanced budget.

Another possibility for 2012: If the automatic spending cuts have been triggered, Congress could restore the money in an irresistible election-year vote to beef up Pentagon spending.

GOP presidential candidates stand ready to criticize Obama should a deal fall through and automatic budget cuts whack Pentagon spending.

That would give the hopefuls at least one issue for 2012 - Obama as commander in chief oversaw steep cuts in defense spending while waging war in Afghanistan, perhaps Libya and possibly keeping troops in Iraq.

Meanwhile, both parties will be focused on influencing the November elections.

"All this is going to be litigated in the next election, and that's where I think the final verdict will be rendered," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

72 charged in probe of child sexual abuse network

72 charged in probe of child sexual abuse network

Attorney General Eric Holder listens at left as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano speaks at the Justice in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2011, to discuss the results of the largest U.S. prosecution of an international criminal network organized to sexually exploit children.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seventy-two people have been charged with participating in an international child pornography network that prosecutors say used an online bulletin board called Dreamboard to trade tens of thousands of images and videos of sexually abused children.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday a 20-month law enforcement effort called Operation Delego targeted more than 600 Dreamboard members around the world for allegedly participating in the private, members-only Internet club created to promote pedophilia.

Numerous participants in the network sexually abused children ages 12 and under, produced images and video of the abuse and then shared it with other club members, according to court papers released in the case.

At a news conference at the Justice Department, the attorney general called the criminal activity a "nightmare" for the children and said that some of the children featured in the images and videos were just infants.

In many cases, the children being victimized were in obvious, and intentional, pain - even in distress and crying, just as the rules for one area of the bulletin board mandated, the attorney general said.

Fifteen arrested Dreamboard participants personally created child pornography, according to the Justice Department.

Napolitano said the amount of child porn swapped by participants in the network was massive, the equivalent to 16,000 DVDs. Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who heads Justice's criminal division, called the criminal enterprise "a living horror."

Of the 72 charged in the United States, 43 have been arrested in this country and nine abroad. Another 20 are known to authorities only by their Internet names and remain at large.

Authorities have arrested people in 13 other countries - Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, Kenya, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Qatar, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland, but some of those were arrested on local rather than the U.S. charges.

The U.S. indictments were unsealed in Shreveport. La.

To conceal their conduct, members used screen names rather than actual names and accessed the bulletin board via proxy servers, with Internet traffic routed through other computers to disguise a user's location, according to the court papers.

Participants were required to continually upload images of child sexual abuse to maintain their membership.

Participants who molested children and created new images of child pornography were placed in a "Super VIP" category that gave them access to the entire quantity of child porn on the bulletin board, the court papers stated.

A "Super Hardcore" section of the bulletin board was limited to posts showing adults having violent sexual intercourse with "very young kids" subjected to physical and sexual abuse.

All 72 U.S. defendants are charged with conspiring to advertise and distribute child pornography, and 50 of them are also charged with engaging in a child pornography enterprise. Thirteen of the 52 defendants who have been arrested have pleaded guilty in the conspiracy. Of the four who have been sentenced, the least amount of prison time was 20 years behind bars and the most was 30 years.

Phils Win In Extras After Late Game Heroics

DENVER (AP) — Pinch-hitter John Mayberry Jr. hit a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth inning and Shane Victorino homered to lead off the 10th as the Philadelphia Phillies overtook the Colorado Rockies 4-3 on Monday night for their fourth straight win.

Down to their last out and trailing 3-1 in the ninth, the Phillies rallied against Rockies closer Huston Street. Carlos Ruiz hit a two-out double and Mayberry pinch-hit for reliever Michael Stutes. Mayberry worked the count full before putting Street’s 83 mph slider into the bleachers in left for his seventh homer. It was Mayberry’s first pinch-homer of the year and the third of his career. It was the third pinch-homer by the Phillies this season.

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Black Journalists’ Group Holds National Convention This Week In Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Thousands of journalists from all over North America will be in Philadelphia this week for the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists.

The NABJ was started in Philadelphia in 1975, so Philadelphia, as the founding city and this year’s host city for the convention and career fair, is really putting on the show.

“We’ll be here from August 3rd to the 7th with a variety of activities and community events. We’ll be bringing newsmakers like Arianna Huffington and Eric Holder. We’ll also be bringing entertainers like Terrence Howard and Eric Benet,” says Deirdre Childress, the NABJ’s vice president for print.

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Eagles Agree To Terms With Veteran RB Ronnie Brown

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) – The Eagles agreed to contract terms Tuesday with veteran running back Ronnie Brown, who spent his first six seasons with the Dolphins.

The 29-year-old Brown rushed for 4,815 yards and 36 touchdowns and caught 184 passes for 1,491 yards with Miami. He ran for 1,000 yards in 2006 and made his only Pro Bowl team in 2008.

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Americans cut spending for first time in 20 months

Americans cut spending for first time in 20 months

In this June 23, 2011 photo, Billy Garlin, left, a sales and leasing consultant at the Big Two Toyota Scion of Chandler car dealership, shows Lacey Rivera, right, and her sister Shelbey Kearns a new car Rivera had just purchased, in Chandler, Ariz. Americans cut back on their spending in June for the first time in nearly two years and their incomes grew by the smallest amount in nine months, a troubling sign for an economy that is barely growing.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans cut their spending in June for the first time in nearly two years after seeing their incomes grow by the smallest amount in nine months. The latest data offered a troubling sign for an economy that is adding few jobs and barely growing.

Consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in June, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. It was the first decline since September 2009.

Some of the decline was the result of food and energy prices moderating after sharp increases earlier this year. When excluding spending on those items, consumer spending was flat.

Still, consumers also cut back on big-ticket items, such as cars and appliances, which help drive growth.

Incomes rose 0.1 percent, the smallest gain since September. Many people are also pocketing more of their paychecks. The personal savings rate rose to 5.4 percent of after-tax incomes, the highest level since August 2010.

The data confirmed last week's report that showed the economy expanded at an annual rate of just 1.3 percent in the spring after only 0.4 percent growth in the first three months of the year. It also highlighted that consumer spending softened at the end of the April-June quarter, which could mean the sluggish economy is worsening.

Stocks fell after the report was released. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 100 points in morning trading. Broader indexes also declined.

"The recent run of weak economic news has made us more concerned that any rebound will be more modest than previously looked likely," said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

High gas prices and unemployment have squeezed household budgets this spring. Many Americans are cutting back on purchases of cars, furniture, appliances and electronics. Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Employers have responded by reducing hiring. The economy added just 18,000 net jobs in June, the fewest in nine months. The unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, the highest level this year.

The government issues its July employment report on Friday.

Businesses are creating fewer jobs despite reporting strong earnings and sitting on large cash reserves.

"What worries me is that businesses are deriving their strong earnings growth through productivity gains, limited wage increases and foreign activities," said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. "While that may be good for an individual firm, when most companies do that, income gains become so limited that spending and ultimately growth fades. That is the problem we are now facing."

The biggest drop in spending occurred in such items as food and gasoline. Spending on such non-durable goods fell 5.5 percent, reflecting price declines after spikes early this year. An inflation gauge tied to consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in June, the biggest one-month decline since September 2009. Outside of food and energy, prices were up 0.1 percent.

Still, spending on durable goods, such as autos, also fell in June 1.1 percent. One reason for the decline may be the shortage of popular car models in showrooms. Supply chain disruptions caused by the March earthquake in Japan have limited production of auto and electronic parts.

Many analysts are still hopeful that growth will rebound in the second half of the year. They expect auto production and sales to pick up once supply chain disruptions ease.

But the turnaround may not come for a while. Manufacturers had their weakest growth in two years in July, according to the Institute for Supply Management.

And gas prices remain high, even after coming down from their peak of nearly $4 a gallon in early May. The average price for a gallon was $3.70 on Tuesday - 14 cents higher than a month ago and almost a dollar more than the same month last year.

Some economists have begun to trim their forecasts for the second half of the year. Dales and his colleagues at Capital Economics have cut their outlook for second half growth to 2 percent, down from a previous forecast of 2.5 percent growth in the second half of this year.

Ibanez Lifts Phillies To Win, Sweep Of Pirates

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Raul Ibanez homered twice and hit the game-winning double in the 10th inning to lift the Philadelphia Phillies to a 6-5 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

The Phillies trailed 5-3 in the eighth when Ibanez hit a two-run shot for his second homer of the game. He doubled to right off Tony Watson (0-2) in the 10th to score Hunter Pence and help the Phillies complete a three-game sweep.

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Tug Boat Pilot Pleads Guilty In Fatal ‘Ride The Ducks’ Crash

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The tug boat operator involved in last year’s Duck Boat crash that killed two people, pled guilty to federal charges Monday afternoon.

The former tug mate had been on his cell phone with family after learning that his 5-year-old son had trouble breathing during surgery.

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Health Watch: Swimmer’s Ear Office Visit

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – We’re making an Office Visit. Answering questions about topics that you want to hear about. Health Reporter Stephanie Stahl is On Your Side with more on swimmer’s ear.

2.4 million doctor visits each year are for swimmer’s ear. The painful infection can develop when water stays in the ear canal for a long time and germs develop. If the ears coating is gone, the skin can be infected. We’re checking in with Dr. Beth Duncan… from Cooper University Hospital.

We asked, “How do people get the infection?”

For full story go to:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

CB Asante Samuel Returns To Eagles

Eagles Training Camp

BETHLEHEM, Pa. (CBS) – Asante Samuel returned to the Eagles Monday after being away for personal reasons.

Now that Samuel has returned to the Eagles, newly Acquired Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is eager to work with his new teammate:

“I sit back and just think about it with us three. The pressure is going to be on because of the high level we play at, but the main thing is just to get out there and do what we’re supposed to do.”

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Missing NH girl's body found in river near home

Missing NH girl's body found in river near home

This 2010 photo provided by the New Hampshire State Police shows Celina Cass of West Stewartstown, N.H., in a basketball team uniform in Canann, Vt. Law enforcement officials are searching for Cass, who they say was last seen at her home the night of Monday, July 25, 2011.

STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. (AP) -- The body of an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl who disappeared almost a week ago was discovered Monday in a river less than half a mile from her home, and authorities said they considered her death suspicious.

Celina Cass was reported missing July 26. New Hampshire and Game divers found her body late Monday morning near a hydroelectric dam that spans the Connecticut River between her hometown of Stewartstown and Canaan, Vt., ending a massive search, Senior Assistant Attorney General Jane Young said. It was recovered from the river Monday evening.

"We have brought Celina home, obviously not the way we wanted to bring her home," said Young, her voice breaking with emotion.

Authorities had said that Celina, who lived with her older sister, mother and stepfather a mile from the Canadian border, was last seen at her home computer around 9 p.m. on July 25 and was gone the next morning. Police said there was no sign of a struggle, and there was no indication she ran away or that someone took her.

Young declined to say whether there were any suspects in the girl's death. "We have made no determination on where her body was eventually put in the river," she said.

An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday to determine the cause and manner of death. "Based on what we have seen visually, we are treating it as suspicious," Young said.

According to several media outlets, Celina's stepfather was taken to a hospital Monday morning. MSNBC reported that Wendell Noyes was taken by ambulance after repeatedly laying down in the family's driveway and rolling around, and video showed him dropping to his knees in the driveway and then laying face-down, with his head resting on his hands.

At the peak of the search, more than 100 federal, state and local law enforcement officers descended upon the town of 800 residents, searching a mile-wide area around her home, including woods and ponds.

Because of its remote location, law enforcement officers went so far as to have a cellphone tower erected to assist in communications.

Fliers featuring pictures of the girl with a gap-toothed smile had been put up throughout Stewartstown and neighboring communities.

"People don't tend to think it's going to happen up here," said Karen Ramsey of Lancaster, who has family in the area and helped pass out fliers. "It doesn't just happen in the city."

State police and FBI agents from as far away as New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia turned the local school into a bustling command post and searched a mile-wide area around the home. The FBI brought in a special team specializing in child abductions.

In 2003, Noyes was involuntarily committed to New Hampshire Hospital in Concord after he entered his girlfriend's house in the middle of the night and threatened to throw her down stairs, according to court documents. An order signed by a probate judge indicated Noyes suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and believed corrections officials implanted a transmitter in his body to keep track of him.

A court motion filed by his attorney at the time indicated Noyes served in Operation Desert Shield before receiving a medical discharge from the Air Force because of schizophrenia. The attorney didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

A spokeswoman for Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital, in Colebrook, N.H., said she couldn't comment on whether Noyes was taken to the hospital on Monday.

Deal would have little impact on economy till '14

Deal would have little impact on economy till '14

Specialist Michael Pistillo, left, works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, Aug. 1, 2011.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The deal reached by Congress to raise the debt ceiling and cut more than $2 trillion in public spending should have only a minor impact on the economy for the next two years.

Almost all the cuts would be made in 2014 or beyond. The approach heeds a warning by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and many private economists: Cutting too much too soon could harm the weak economic recovery.

Yet the deal won't do much to help the economy, either, at least in the short term, economists said.

Under the debt deal, discretionary spending, which excludes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, would be cut $21 billion in 2012 and $42 billion in 2013, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

Combined, those cuts come to less than 1 percent of the nation's $14 trillion economy. The impact "should be relatively minor," says Brian Gardner, senior vice president at Keefe, Bruyette and Wood, an investment bank.

The spending cuts would increase to $75 billion in 2015 and $156 billion in 2021, the CBO estimates.

Overall, the first phase of cuts would reduce spending by $917 billion over 10 years. A congressional committee would decide on a second phase of cuts totaling $1.5 trillion.

Reduced government spending could mean less money for highway construction, housing assistance, government-sponsored scientific research or any number of other federal programs.

Companies that work on Defense Department contracts could suffer, too. The stocks of Lockheed Martin Corp., General Dynamics Corp. and Raytheon Co. all sank about 1 percent Monday.

If lawmakers fail to reach a deal on a second round of cuts, the Pentagon's budget would be cut automatically by about $500 billion. That measure is designed as a threat, to make sure congressional negotiators have strong incentives to compromise.

Delaying the deepest cuts buys time for the economy to recover. Right now, it can't absorb shocks very well: Unemployment is still 9.2 percent, people are spending less, worker pay has stagnated, and economic growth is the slowest since the end of the recession in June 2009.

Worries about the economy, including the weakest manufacturing in two years, were one reason the stock market couldn't sustain a rally after the debt deal was struck. The market was flat Monday.

The Federal Reserve meets next week. Economists will watch for any signals that the Fed is considering new steps to help the economy, such as re-investing its government bond holdings indefinitely to keep interest rates down.

The debt deal could restore some confidence among individuals and businesses by removing the fear that the U.S. government would default on its debt for the first time, says Troy Davig, an economist at Barclays Capital.

Overall, the deal could subtract about 0.2 percentage point from economic growth in 2012, Davig estimates. While that is a relatively light blow, the economy only grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in April, May and June.

In the first three months of the year, the economy grew even more slowly, at a rate of 0.4 percent. The third straight quarterly drop in government spending contributed to the slower growth.

While Bernanke and other economists had warned against cutting too much in the first few years, they also urged Congress to reduce spending over the long term, arguing that solidifying the nation's finances would help the economy.

"Bernanke will be pleased at least with the direction of the agreement," says David Jones, chief economist at DMJ Advisors, a Denver economic consulting firm. "There are no major cuts in the early years but at least a determination to make significant cuts over the 10 years of the deal."

Democratic lawmakers favored smaller cuts over the next two years to avoid hurting the fragile economic recovery, said staffers from both parties with knowledge of the negotiations. Republicans wanted upfront cuts totaling tens of billions of dollars more. The staffers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations.

Republicans insisted on cuts in exchange for allowing an increase in the limit on how much money the government can borrow. Without the increase, the government would not have been able to pay all its bills after Tuesday, the White House said.

While the deal enables the government to avoid a default, credit agencies could still downgrade their ratings of U.S. debt. That would make it more expensive for the government to finance its debt, and lead to higher interest rates for everyone.

There is little in the debt package to promote economic growth, economists say. A "grand bargain" with reforms to the tax code, cuts in entitlement spending and more long-term deficit reduction would have put the U.S. debt on a sounder footing, they say.

Some other measures meant to stimulate the economy expire at year's end. For example, a 2 percentage-point cut in the Social Security tax that will give most American households $1,000 to $2,000 to spend is set to expire after this year.

Obama wants to extend the Social Security tax cut, White House spokesman Jay Carney says. That could prove difficult with a committee focused on finding up to $1.5 trillion in budget cuts at the same time.

Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase, forecasts that cuts in federal spending and the end of the tax cut could reduce economic growth by 1.5 percentage points in 2012.