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<title>More than 300 possible illegal immigrants held after raid</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413891467/2008-10-07-illegal-immigrant_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Federal agents detained more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants Tuesday in a raid at a chicken processing plant that has been ...
]]></description>
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<title>No injuries reported in W. Ky. plant chemical leak</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/414098240/2008-10-07-chemicalplantleak_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Officials say a small leak of hydrochloric acid and a refrigerant from a western Kentucky plant Tuesday kept nearby residents ...
]]></description>
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<title>Widow sues US over Iraq vet-husband&#x27;s suicide</title>
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<description><![CDATA[The widow of a 23-year-old Iraq war veteran is suing the U.S. government over her husband's suicide.
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<title>No charges for most Tulane frat members</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/414002707/2008-10-07-tulane-frat_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Prosecutors are not pursuing criminal charges against seven Tulane University fraternity members accused of burning pledges with ...
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<title>Harvard alum donates record $125M</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/414075674/2008-10-07-harvard-donation_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Business school alumnus Hansjorg Wyss has given Harvard University its largest individual donation ever  $125 million to start ...
]]></description>
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<title>Gov.: Convicted pal Rezko must tell truth</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/414054108/2008-10-07-rezko_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Governor Rod Blagojevich is calling on Tony Rezko to tell the truth, the day after federal prosecutors indicated that the convicted ...
]]></description>
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<title>Bus driver in fatal Calif. crash investigated</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/414041142/2008-10-07-calif-crash_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Quintin Watts had a lengthy criminal record, a history of substance abuse and a string of motor vehicle offenses. Even his mother ...
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<title>Lizzie Borden name battle settled</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413979673/2008-10-07-lizzie-borden_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Two Massachusetts businesses battling over the use of the infamous "Lizzie Borden" name have settled out of court.
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<title>Sept. 11 memorial to open with limited access</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413949867/2008-10-07-sept11-memorial_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[The Sept. 11 memorial will open to the public on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, then will only allow limited ...
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413940577/2008-10-07-fort-dix_N.htm">
<title>Juror questioning begins in Fort Dix case</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413940577/2008-10-07-fort-dix_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Lawyers have begun to question potential jurors in the case of five men accused of plotting to kill soldiers at Fort Dix.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413917789/2008-10-07-tenn-van_N.htm">
<title>Police: 10-year-old driver flips van in Tenn.</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413917789/2008-10-07-tenn-van_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Tennessee sheriff's deputies say a 10-year-old was driving up to 90 mph when he crashed a van carrying two adults who had been ...
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413949868/2008-10-07-nyc-calorie-counting_N.htm">
<title>NYC calorie-counting ads hit subway </title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413949868/2008-10-07-nyc-calorie-counting_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Craving a burrito with sour cream and guacamole? What if you knew it had more than half the calories you should eat in a day?
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413811455/2008-10-07-girls-teen-active_N.htm">
<title>Study: Teen girls need to keep exercising</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413811455/2008-10-07-girls-teen-active_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Girls often become much less physically active during their teen years, but that's just when they should move into high gear ...
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413758678/2008-10-07-deputy-slaying_N.htm">
<title>Ky. deputy, wanted in slaying, captured in Iowa  </title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413758678/2008-10-07-deputy-slaying_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[Iowa authorities say they've captured a Kentucky sheriff's deputy accused of killing his ex-girlfriend.
]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413735986/2008-10-07-nevada-quake_N.htm">
<title>Moderate quake shakes rural northeastern Nevada</title>
<link>http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomNation-TopStories/~3/413735986/2008-10-07-nevada-quake_N.htm</link>
<description><![CDATA[A small-to-moderate earthquake has shaken rural northeastern Nevada, and there are no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342424&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The election campaign: Heard on the stump </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342424&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The election campaignGarage sale &#8220;We figured that instead of protesting this plan, we&#8217;d give regular Americans the same opportunity to sell their bad assets to the government.&#8221;A website allows Americans to offer unwanted items to Hank Paulson. Buymyshitpile.com ...]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342432&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Bail-out politics, continued: While Wall Street burns </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342432&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Lawmakers fiddle, then reach for the fire-hoseWHEN Congress does nothing, Americans usually breathe a sigh of relief. But when the House of Representatives failed to pass a rescue package for the financial system on September 29th, panic ensued. The stockmarket crashed: more than a trillion dollars in paper wealth evaporated in a single day. That, plus the shock waves that battered markets around the world, seems to have made lawmakers sit up and take notice. Before the vote, Barney Frank, the Democratic head of the House banking committee, observed that: &#8220;It is hard to get political credit for avoiding something that hasn&#8217;t yet happened.&#8221; Perhaps that is why the rescue plan was rejected, by 228 votes to 205. Some lawmakers simply weren&#8217;t convinced that disaster was imminent if they failed to act.  ...]]></description>
</item>

<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342127&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The Economist&#x27;s poll of economists: Examining the candidates </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342127&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[In our special report on the election we analyse the two candidates&#8217; economic plans. Here, we ask professional economists to give us their viewsAS THE financial crisis pushes the economy back to the top of voters&#8217; concerns, Barack Obama is starting to open up a clear lead over John McCain in the opinion polls. But among those who study economics for a living, Mr Obama&#8217;s lead is much more commanding. A survey of academic economists by The Economist finds the majority&#8212;at times by overwhelming margins&#8212;believe Mr Obama has the superior economic plan, a firmer grasp of economics and will appoint better economic advisers. Our survey is not, by any means, a scientific poll of all economists. We e-mailed a questionnaire to 683 research associates, all we could track down, of the National Bureau of Economic Research, America&#8217;s premier association of applied academic economists, though the NBER itself played no role in the survey. A total of 142 responded, of whom 46% identified themselves as Democrats, 10% as Republicans and 44% as neither. This skewed party breakdown may reflect academia&#8217;s Democratic tilt, or possibly Democrats&#8217; greater propensity to respond. Still, even if we exclude respondents with a party identification, Mr Obama retains a strong edge&#8212;though the McCain campaign should be buoyed by the fact that 530 economists have signed a statement endorsing his plans. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342448&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Lobbyists and the election: The war over lobbyists </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342448&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Or, pots denouncing kettlesLOBBYING in America is at least as old as the country&#8217;s constitution. In 1792 veterans of the American revolution hired William Hull to petition Congress for more compensation. These days fat-walleted lobbyists get much of the blame for gridlock and corruption in Washington, and both presidential candidates have made fighting &#8220;special interests&#8221; a central theme of their campaigns. Barack Obama does not let his audiences forget that he will not hire or take money from lobbyists. But he cheerfully collects donations from lobbyists&#8217; relations, lobbyists can volunteer to advise his campaign, and he rakes in tens of millions of dollars from lawyers. Mr Obama has certainly taken cash from lobbyists in the past; in a recent ad, John McCain cites Mr Obama&#8217;s previous connections to influence-peddlers such as the disgraced Tony Rezko in Chicago. He also accuses Mr Obama of taking more money from executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant mortgage companies that have just been taken over by the government, than any member of Congress save one.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12341613&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Lexington: Reaping the whirlwind </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12341613&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[George Bush's presidency is ending in disasterPLENTY of people can be blamed for the calamity on Capitol Hill on September 29th. Two-hundred and twenty-eight congressmen decided they were ready to risk another Great Depression. Nancy Pelosi made an idiotic speech damning the Republicans. Sheriff McCain claimed that he was going to ride into town to sort out the mess&#8212;and promptly fell off his horse. But there is no doubt where the lion&#8217;s share of the blame belongs: with George Bush. The dismal handling of the financial crisis over the past fortnight is not only a comment on Mr Bush&#8217;s personal shortcomings as a leader. It is a comment on the failure of his leadership style over the past eight years.The convenient excuse for Mr Bush&#8217;s performance is that he is at the fag-end of his presidency. Public attention has shifted to the presidential candidates, and the members of the House face the electorate in a month. But this rings hollow: there is nothing about the political cycle that dictates that an outgoing president should have an approval rating of 27% and an army of enemies on Capitol Hill. Bill Clinton ended his two terms with ratings of close to 70%. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342440&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>After the storm: Politics and petrol problems </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12342440&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The Gulf coast is still recovering from hurricane seasonTHE end of September saw a crisis on Wall Street and a garbled response from Congress. No wonder, then, that all eyes were trained on New York and Washington. But the south-eastern states were dealing with more immediate problems: petrol panics, property damage and missing people. The Gulf coast was hit by two hurricanes in September, Gustav and Ike. Neither was catastrophic, as forecasters had feared. But they were bad enough. In Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, petrol was the issue. Most of the Gulf of Mexico&#8217;s crude-oil production halted before Gustav, and after the hurricanes hit the refineries were slow to recover. As of September 29th, according to the Department of Energy, more than half of production was still shut down. Two pipelines serve most of the south-east, and severe shortages resulted. People started to fill up whenever they could, sometimes queuing for hours. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, said that in Atlanta and Charlotte and Chattanooga the situation was &#8220;like a third-world country.&#8221; People contemplated public transport and telecommuting.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12304692&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Lexington: President Hank </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12304692&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Henry Paulson is the most important man in WashingtonTHE Treasury was always intended to be at the heart of the American government. George Washington&#8217;s first Cabinet appointment was his treasury secretary. The Treasury building is connected to the White House by an underground tunnel. Yet for most of the Bush years the Treasury has been a backwater. Paul O&#8217;Neill disagreed with the Bush administration about the central thrust of its economic policy&#8212;deficit-boosting tax cuts&#8212;and was first neutered and then sacked. John Snow went to the other extreme and functioned as a travelling salesman for policies cooked up in the White House. The people who mattered in Washington were the war hawks, not the money men.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305417&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Swing states: Michigan: The centre of the storm </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305417&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Michigan is at the heart of the debate over the economyECONOMIC gloom is no stranger to Michigan&#8217;s cities. A house in Detroit was recently sold for one dollar. But now despair extends to the suburbs, too. Orchard Lake, a main drag of shops in Farmington Hills, has &#8220;for lease&#8221; signs planted like tombstones on the side of the road. The national unemployment rate reached a dismal 6.1% in August. Michigan&#8217;s rate is almost three points higher, at 8.9%. It is not surprising then, that in the war over which candidate can revive America&#8217;s economy, Michigan is the front line. On a recent rainy night in Farmington Hills, Barack Obama tried to persuade voters that Michigan could be pulled out of the gloom. The crowd cheered wildly&#8212;&#8220;I&#8217;m absolutely positively sold on Obama!&#8221; gushed Ninevah Lowery. But not everyone is so convinced. Al Gore won Michigan by five points, John Kerry by just three. Mr Obama leads in the polls, but victory is by no means certain. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305349&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Campaign finance: And the money came rolling in</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305349&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Surprisingly, John McCain is doing as well as Barack ObamaDESPITE America&#8217;s complex campaign-finance laws, the country&#8217;s presidential candidates still bring in a lot of money. More than $1 billion dollars (a record) has found its way to the candidates so far in this election.  Mr Obama&#8217;s fund-raising machine gets much of the credit. His success even convinced him to reject public financing for his campaign, leaving him to raise and spend as much as he likes. Mr McCain, meanwhile, took $84m in public funds at the beginning of the month and cannot raise another dollar for himself. But that hasn&#8217;t stopped him. To the surprise of pundits, Mr McCain&#8217;s team has creatively managed to catch up with Mr Obama.  ...]]></description>
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<title>New York City finances: Economic fallout</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305341&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[When Wall Street sneezes, New York catches coldDESPITE a bit of grumbling that the federal bail-out of Wall Street is a handout to the wealthy, most New Yorkers realise the crisis affects everyone, from the trader making a six figure salary to the coffee vendor stationed outside the old Lehman Brothers building. As David Paterson, New York&#8217;s governor recently said, &#8220;every time you hear Wall Street&#8217;s having a bad day, just know that New York is having a worse day.&#8221;The securities industry, according the city&#8217;s Independent Budget Office (IBO), accounts for 25% of the wages paid in the city. It generates 27% of its direct tax revenue. The city&#8217;s unemployment rate rose last month to 5.8% from 5% in July, the largest monthly increase on record. Some 40,000 of the city&#8217;s 185,700 Wall Street jobs could be lost. Doug Turetsky, of the IBO, says every thousand jobs lost on Wall Street translates into a roughly $50m loss in tax revenue.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305147&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Rural voters: Bucolic ballots</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305147&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Could the economy trump the Palin effect?THE population of Whitesburg, Kentucky is &#8220;1,534 friendly people plus two grouches&#8221;, according to the sign outside. The people here are warm and talkative and wry. They are also quite conservative.Astor Blair sits on an old deck chair in his front yard, with a majestic view of the Appalachian mountains and a pile of cigarette butts on the ground beside him. He says he will not vote for Barack Obama because liberals are always trying to change things, and &#8220;when you shake things up too bad, bad things happen.&#8221; ...]]></description>
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<title>Early voting: The beginning of the end</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305139&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The polls are opening; soon this election will be decidedELECTION day is on November 4th, more than a month away. Anything could happen between now and then. There is a crisis unfolding on Wall Street, and Congress is not sure what to do about it. Barack Obama and John McCain meet for their first debate on September 26th. There is still plenty of time for the running-mates to get in trouble. Joe Biden might make one of his famous gaffes. Sarah Palin might even give her first press conference. All of this is irrelevant to the thousands of Americans who have already cast their votes, and the millions who will do so before election day. No fewer than 34 states are allowing early voting in person this year, and only a handful require an excuse. Campaigns can find this a challenge. A prolonged voting season requires a sustained effort, not just a last-minute frenzy of phone calls and ads. But the early option is good for voters. It lets them avoid queues on election day itself, and, should a problem arise, they can just come back later. Paul Gronke, who runs the Early Voting Information Centre at Reed College in Oregon, reckons that a third of all voters will vote early this year, up from 20% in 2004.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305131&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The politics of the bail-out: The candidates intervene</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305131&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The battle to save the financial system has now become part of the presidential raceJOBS will be lost, homes will be foreclosed, America will stumble into a recession and the economy will not recover in a normal, healthy way. All this will happen, Ben Bernanke warned members of Congress, if they do not approve a $700 billion bail-out for the financial sector. Mr Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and Hank Paulson, the treasury secretary, spent this week trying to persuade lawmakers to stump up the cash. But they met angry resistance from both parties. The plan (see article) is for the Treasury to spend up to $700 billion to buy up mortgage-related assets, with the aim of getting credit flowing again. Given the urgency of forestalling a financial meltdown, a rescue package of some sort is likely to emerge, but the details are unclear. Will the government simply mop up toxic securities, or will it buy equity in ailing institutions? Will Congress sign a cheque for $700 billion, or start with a smaller sum and see how it goes? With the election&#8212;for all of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate, not just for the presidency&#8212;barely a month away, no one wants the blame for failing to prevent a deep recession. But no one wants to be accused of showering taxpayers&#8217; cash on bankers in $5,000 suits, either.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305123&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The election campaign: Heard on the stump</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305123&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Candyman&#8220;I called him John, but also my dear and my coconut sweet.&#8221;Maria Gracinda Teixeira de Jesus, a former Brazilian beauty queen, met John McCain in 1957. O Globo, September 20th ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305357&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Giving: Billanthropy squared </title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12305357&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[A big week for Bill Clinton and Bill Gates AROUND this time every year, New York&#8217;s traffic grinds to a halt as the police make the city safe for an influx of global dignitaries. It was bad enough when the visitors were limited to heads of state attending the annual United Nations General Assembly, but for the past four years they have been accompanied by a gathering of business leaders and philanthropists pledging to save the world at the Clinton Global Initiative. This year, the UN is reviewing progress (mostly slow) towards the various Millennium Development Goals it wants to achieve by 2015. Bill Gates is flying in to tell the delegates that, thanks not least to his giving, he now believes that malaria is likely to be eradicated ahead of schedule. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12262221&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>The financial crisis and the election: The politics of despair</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12262221&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Wall Street&#8217;s meltdown readjusts the race in unexpected waysWITH an investment bank failing, an insurance giant needing a bail-out, the Dow tumbling and panic gripping Wall Street, Barack Obama spoke graciously about his opponent. &#8220;I certainly don&#8217;t fault Senator [John] McCain for these problems,&#8221; he said. He also refrained from blaming him for global warming and Hurricane Ike. But he did fault Mr McCain for his economic philosophy, &#8220;a philosophy that says even common-sense regulations are unnecessary and unwise, and one that says we should just stick our heads in the sand and ignore economic problems until they spiral into crises.&#8221;Both candidates doubtless wish to tackle the crisis. But they cannot, since neither will be in charge until January and the crisis must be tackled immediately. So each is trying to sound as if he would knock some sense into Wall Street, while tut-tutting that the other fellow supported the policies that got America into this mess in the first place. ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12263106&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Hurricane Ike: Please send ice</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12263106&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[The Gulf coast of Texas is slowly picking up after another hurricaneIT WAS a beautiful, breezy afternoon, and Jeff and Lisa Frechette were determined to enjoy it. Granted, they were sitting on a patch of grass beside a petrol station, in the shadow of a jammed freeway. They had been sleeping in their car for several days, after evacuating Galveston Island as a hurricane hurtled straight towards them. For that matter, they had barely been settled in Galveston; the couple moved to Texas after Mr Frechette was laid off from his job at a Ford plant in Minneapolis. Still, things could have been worse. &#8220;Actually, you know, we&#8217;re getting used to it,&#8221; said Mr Frechette. A pair of cockatiels whistled quietly in a cage beside them. A man from Abilene had just given them a tent. There was a makeshift shower rigged up on the other side of the building. The night before someone came by with a propane grill and cooked brisket for everyone. They did not miss Minnesota. &#8220;We&#8217;ve had a lot of stuff happen there, too,&#8221; said Linda.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12263114&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Ballot initiatives: Goading the enemy</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12263114&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Some proposals will fall victim to their own outrageousnessONE of the entertaining things about the American political system is the hearing it affords cranks and zealots. In about half of the states, many of them in the West, ordinary people can put measures on the ballot if they manage to gather enough signatures. This year about 60 have made the cut, while politicians have added another 70 or so. So on November 4th, the same day they choose the world&#8217;s most powerful man, Californians will decide whether to grant more room to battery chickens. Residents of Missouri, 95% of whom speak English at home, will rule on whether to declare English the official state language. Many of the measures are mundane, allowing governments to issue bonds or subtly tweaking state constitutions. Voters in Ohio, Maine and Maryland will be able to approve or block new casinos. But some measures aim dramatically to increase or curtail personal liberties. These can affect national campaigns.  ...]]></description>
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<item rdf:about="http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12263124&#x26;fsrc=rss">
<title>Swing states: Virginia: Of pigs and polls</title>
<link>http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12263124&#x26;fsrc=rss</link>
<description><![CDATA[Barack Obama and John McCain are evenly matched in the Old DominionTHE crowd in the school gym was ecstatic. Barack Obama won them over long before he even showed up. But the locals watching on television were a different matter. Lebanon is a small town in rural south-western Virginia. The folks round here are suspicious of big-city liberals. How would they respond to a smooth-talking Democrat from Chicago? Mr Obama strolled in wearing a suit that looked as if it cost more than some of the cars parked outside. Sensing perhaps that he was overdressed, he took off his jacket and faced the crowd in his shirtsleeves. He reprised his usual themes: people are hurting, it&#8217;s time for a change, I won&#8217;t take away your guns and this campaign is not about me, it&#8217;s about you.  ...]]></description>
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