Natalie Nichols had never voted before she cast her ballot for John McCain and Sarah Palin in last year’s presidential race.
No offense to McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, but Nichols’ vote was for Palin.
"She inspired me," said Nichols, a 32-year-old mother of four from Texarkana. "Because of what I saw in her, I went back to school, and I’m running for county clerk in Texarkana. This is all because of her."
So about 1 a.m. Friday, she and her husband pulled into a parking lot near Legacy Books — the store where Palin signed copies of her book, Going Rogue — and slept for a few hours.
By 5 a.m., they joined a growing line of people waiting for hours in freezing weather for Palin’s book signing.
"To meet her was so intimidating," Nichols said. "I was on the verge of tears, in awe. It was the experience of a lifetime. I wouldn’t have traded it for the world."
Palin, former governor of Alaska, arrived around 11 a.m. Friday, shaking a few hands but not speaking publicly before she headed inside. The crowd chanted, "Sarah, Sarah" and "Palin, Palin." Those outside carried signs that read, "Palin Power 2012" and "Sarah: Welcome to Texas. Wish you could be in the White House."
On the second floor, she signed about 1,000 pre-sold copies of her book and about 100 more for people who had waited outside for a chance to see her. She left about 1:45 p.m. through a back door.
As she signed books, several of her relatives — including her parents and husband — walked through the store, taking photos with North Texans and even signing Palin’s book when asked. Baby Trig was also there.
"We’re trying to get some books out there and tell Sarah’s story," husband Todd Palin told the Star-Telegram.
First in line
David Ryan Lutz, 24, of North Richland Hills was first in line to get Palin’s signature on a book he bought as a Christmas gift for his 82-year-old grandmother.
He and his dad got to a nearby parking lot about 10 p.m. Thursday night and slept in their Ford Focus for a few hours before getting out and starting the line about 3 a.m. "It was cold," Lutz said with a grin. "Colder than I thought."
But it was all worth it when he told Palin about his grandmother.
Because he was first in line, Palin wrote "Grandma Lutz" before signing the book.
"It was such a rush — absolutely amazing," Lutz said. "Suddenly I’m right in front of her, and she was thanking me for coming and staying up all night."
Right behind him was Michelle McCormick, 26, of Fort Worth and her mother, Andrea, of Oklahoma. The McCormicks also slept in their car outside the bookstore.
"I wanted to see the rock star of the Republican Party," Michelle McCormick said. "I thought she was given an unfair shake during the campaign. They picked on her kids and clothes."
She told Palin, "Gov. Palin, welcome to Texas."
"Then she gave me a handshake and looked me right in the eye," McCormick said. "It was worth it — the 30-degree temperatures, the lines, for two seconds with Sarah Palin."
'Ordinary person like us’
Jeran Akers, a former Plano mayor, showed up about 7 a.m. to join the line and get three books signed. "This is the first time I’ve ever stood in line to meet anyone," he said. "She was everything she appears to be on TV — an ordinary person like us, bold enough to speak out."
Kyle Hall, Legacy Books’ director of marketing and events, said that the event had few problems and that more than 100 extra people who waited outside without a ticket were allowed in to buy a book and have it signed.
David Lambeth, 41, of Dallas showed up about 12:45 p.m. and was among those in the "hope" line.
"After reading the first chapter of her book, I had a feeling she would stay and sign a few more books," he said. "I have two daughters, and when they get old enough to read, I’m going to make them read this to show them they can do anything."
News Source: star-telegram.com
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Saturday, December 5, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
BofA sells $19.3 billion of securities for TARP repay
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp sold more than $19 billion of equity on Thursday amid strong investor interest as it races to shed government regulatory curbs that have bedeviled its CEO search.
The money raised will help repay $45 billion in government bailout funds the bank took at the height of the financial crisis as it struggled with heavy writedowns stemming from its acquisitions of mortgage lender Countrywide and investment bank Merrill Lynch.
The bank had previously said it planned to sell securities next Monday, but moved the sale forward because of demand. The size of the deal grew to $19.29 billion of common equivalent securities, from an originally planned $18.8 billion, according to a pricing document sent to investors and obtained by Reuters.
The securities sold at $15 each, about 5 percent below where Bank of America shares closed on Thursday. The securities will convert to common stock once equity investors approve an increase in authorized Bank of America shares. The bank's shares fell to $15.58 in aftermarket trading.
The offering is the biggest yet in a year that has seen at least 100 U.S. banks sell stock to strengthen their capital as they sustained losses from mortgages, credit card debt and business loans.
Chief Financial Officer Joe Price said on a conference call with investors the bank was seeing signs of credit stabilization and that managed losses on credit cards had plateaued.
"Consumers continue to experience stress ... however we are seeing signs of stabilization," Price said.
ASSET SALES PLANNED
The bank also plans to sell $4 billion of assets as part of its plan to repay the funds borrowed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Price said on the call. The bank is looking at assets to sell, and to the extent it does not shed assets, the bank will issue more shares.
Repaying the money helps the bank's search for a successor to Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis by reducing government involvement, analysts said. Lewis is due to retire at the end of the year.
In testimony before a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Bank of America repaying TARP funds is "good news," adding that the real problems to the financial system have mostly been outside the bank holding companies.
But one top regulator cautioned that the government needs to be careful about letting big financial firms repay bailout money because there will not be more government support going forward. "I think, in general, they need to be very careful with it," said Sheila Bair, chairman of bank regulator the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
'AN INCREMENTAL POSITIVE'
Bank of America's surprise move to repay TARP funds may pressure rivals to follow suit, but many big banks may not rush to repay all the funds they borrowed.
Concerns about possible share dilution for other banks that may follow Bank of America's lead helped depress stock prices of PNC Financial Services Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, both cited as top candidates for TARP repayment.
PNC fell 6.4 percent to close at $52.89, while Wells Fargo fell 3.5 percent to close at $26.49. Bank of America shares rose 0.7 percent to close at $15.76 after earlier gaining as much as 6 percent.
A total of about 1.03 million option contracts changed hands in BofA, three times the average daily volume, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert.
"The full repayment of TARP is an incremental positive in the sense that it relieves the intense regulatory and political scrutiny tied to its receipt of government money," Credit Suisse analyst Moshe Orenbuch said in a note to clients on Thursday.
The equity offering listed Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and UBS AG's UBS Investment Bank as underwriters, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
News Source: reuters.com
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The money raised will help repay $45 billion in government bailout funds the bank took at the height of the financial crisis as it struggled with heavy writedowns stemming from its acquisitions of mortgage lender Countrywide and investment bank Merrill Lynch.
The bank had previously said it planned to sell securities next Monday, but moved the sale forward because of demand. The size of the deal grew to $19.29 billion of common equivalent securities, from an originally planned $18.8 billion, according to a pricing document sent to investors and obtained by Reuters.
The securities sold at $15 each, about 5 percent below where Bank of America shares closed on Thursday. The securities will convert to common stock once equity investors approve an increase in authorized Bank of America shares. The bank's shares fell to $15.58 in aftermarket trading.
The offering is the biggest yet in a year that has seen at least 100 U.S. banks sell stock to strengthen their capital as they sustained losses from mortgages, credit card debt and business loans.
Chief Financial Officer Joe Price said on a conference call with investors the bank was seeing signs of credit stabilization and that managed losses on credit cards had plateaued.
"Consumers continue to experience stress ... however we are seeing signs of stabilization," Price said.
ASSET SALES PLANNED
The bank also plans to sell $4 billion of assets as part of its plan to repay the funds borrowed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Price said on the call. The bank is looking at assets to sell, and to the extent it does not shed assets, the bank will issue more shares.
Repaying the money helps the bank's search for a successor to Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis by reducing government involvement, analysts said. Lewis is due to retire at the end of the year.
In testimony before a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Thursday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Bank of America repaying TARP funds is "good news," adding that the real problems to the financial system have mostly been outside the bank holding companies.
But one top regulator cautioned that the government needs to be careful about letting big financial firms repay bailout money because there will not be more government support going forward. "I think, in general, they need to be very careful with it," said Sheila Bair, chairman of bank regulator the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
'AN INCREMENTAL POSITIVE'
Bank of America's surprise move to repay TARP funds may pressure rivals to follow suit, but many big banks may not rush to repay all the funds they borrowed.
Concerns about possible share dilution for other banks that may follow Bank of America's lead helped depress stock prices of PNC Financial Services Inc and Wells Fargo & Co, both cited as top candidates for TARP repayment.
PNC fell 6.4 percent to close at $52.89, while Wells Fargo fell 3.5 percent to close at $26.49. Bank of America shares rose 0.7 percent to close at $15.76 after earlier gaining as much as 6 percent.
A total of about 1.03 million option contracts changed hands in BofA, three times the average daily volume, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert.
"The full repayment of TARP is an incremental positive in the sense that it relieves the intense regulatory and political scrutiny tied to its receipt of government money," Credit Suisse analyst Moshe Orenbuch said in a note to clients on Thursday.
The equity offering listed Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and UBS AG's UBS Investment Bank as underwriters, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
News Source: reuters.com
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
Congress may subpoena White House party crashers
WASHINGTON — This time they're invited, but they don't want to come.
Congress wants to talk to the husband and wife who slipped through security into last week's state dinner at the White House. But on the eve of Thursday's hearing by the House Homeland Security Committee about how they did it, Tareq and Michaele Salahi declined to show up for questions.
Their decision brought an immediate threat from a lawmaker to force their appearance under a subpoena.
"The Salahis' testimony is important to explain how a couple circumvented layers of security at the White House on the evening of a state dinner without causing alarm," Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, said in a late-evening statement. "If the Salahis are absent from tomorrow's hearing, the committee is prepared to move forward with subpoenas to compel their appearance."
The statement swiftly followed one by the couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones, who said the Salahis had already provided information to Thompson and the committee's top Republican, as well as to the Secret Service.
The Salahis believe "there is nothing further that they can do to assist Congress in its inquiry regarding White House protocol and certain security procedures," the statement said. "They therefore respectfully decline to testify."
Jones said the couple's information makes clear they broke no laws, that White House protocol at the dinner "was either deficient or mismanaged" and that "there were honest misunderstandings and mistakes made by all parties involved."
Lawmakers wanted to explore those questions and more for themselves. The committee "must understand the full scope of what went so terribly wrong on Tuesday night (Nov. 24) to ensure that security gaps are sealed," Thompson said. "This can only be achieved by hearing both sides of the matter."
As well, the White House refused to send its social secretary to answer questions about the dinner debacle.
Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan agreed to testify before the committee. He's said the security breach was his agency's fault.
The White House also took some responsibility for the foul-up. "After reviewing our actions, it is clear that the White House did not do everything we could have done to assist the United States Secret Service in ensuring that only invited guests enter the complex," Jim Messina, deputy chief of staff, wrote in a memo to staff Wednesday.
Still, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs cited the separation of powers and a history of White House staff not testifying before Congress in explaining why social secretary Desiree Rogers, herself a guest at the dinner, wouldn't be coming.
Copies of e-mails between the Salahis and a Pentagon official have undermined the couple's claims that they were invited to the state dinner honoring the visiting Indian prime minister.
The Salahis pressed their friend, Pentagon aide Michele Jones, for four days to score tickets to the big event. By their own admission in the e-mails, the Salahis showed up at the White House gates at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 24 without an invitation — "to just check in, in case it got approved since we didn't know, and our name was indeed on the list!"
The Salahis have been trying to land a part on a Bravo reality show, "The Real Housewives of D.C.," and were filmed by the TV show around town as they prepared for the White House dinner.
At past state dinners and similar invitation-only events, a member of the White House social office or other staff stood with the Secret Service as guests entered the event. No one from the White House was with the Secret Service on Nov. 24. There were no plans for a White House staff member to be there, and it was the Secret Service's responsibility to make sure the guests were on the approved list.
From now on, the White House says, someone from the social office will be present to help the Secret Service if questions arise.
News Source: The Associated Press
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Congress wants to talk to the husband and wife who slipped through security into last week's state dinner at the White House. But on the eve of Thursday's hearing by the House Homeland Security Committee about how they did it, Tareq and Michaele Salahi declined to show up for questions.
Their decision brought an immediate threat from a lawmaker to force their appearance under a subpoena.
"The Salahis' testimony is important to explain how a couple circumvented layers of security at the White House on the evening of a state dinner without causing alarm," Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, said in a late-evening statement. "If the Salahis are absent from tomorrow's hearing, the committee is prepared to move forward with subpoenas to compel their appearance."
The statement swiftly followed one by the couple's publicist, Mahogany Jones, who said the Salahis had already provided information to Thompson and the committee's top Republican, as well as to the Secret Service.
The Salahis believe "there is nothing further that they can do to assist Congress in its inquiry regarding White House protocol and certain security procedures," the statement said. "They therefore respectfully decline to testify."
Jones said the couple's information makes clear they broke no laws, that White House protocol at the dinner "was either deficient or mismanaged" and that "there were honest misunderstandings and mistakes made by all parties involved."
Lawmakers wanted to explore those questions and more for themselves. The committee "must understand the full scope of what went so terribly wrong on Tuesday night (Nov. 24) to ensure that security gaps are sealed," Thompson said. "This can only be achieved by hearing both sides of the matter."
As well, the White House refused to send its social secretary to answer questions about the dinner debacle.
Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan agreed to testify before the committee. He's said the security breach was his agency's fault.
The White House also took some responsibility for the foul-up. "After reviewing our actions, it is clear that the White House did not do everything we could have done to assist the United States Secret Service in ensuring that only invited guests enter the complex," Jim Messina, deputy chief of staff, wrote in a memo to staff Wednesday.
Still, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs cited the separation of powers and a history of White House staff not testifying before Congress in explaining why social secretary Desiree Rogers, herself a guest at the dinner, wouldn't be coming.
Copies of e-mails between the Salahis and a Pentagon official have undermined the couple's claims that they were invited to the state dinner honoring the visiting Indian prime minister.
The Salahis pressed their friend, Pentagon aide Michele Jones, for four days to score tickets to the big event. By their own admission in the e-mails, the Salahis showed up at the White House gates at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 24 without an invitation — "to just check in, in case it got approved since we didn't know, and our name was indeed on the list!"
The Salahis have been trying to land a part on a Bravo reality show, "The Real Housewives of D.C.," and were filmed by the TV show around town as they prepared for the White House dinner.
At past state dinners and similar invitation-only events, a member of the White House social office or other staff stood with the Secret Service as guests entered the event. No one from the White House was with the Secret Service on Nov. 24. There were no plans for a White House staff member to be there, and it was the Secret Service's responsibility to make sure the guests were on the approved list.
From now on, the White House says, someone from the social office will be present to help the Secret Service if questions arise.
News Source: The Associated Press
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Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Democratic US Rep. John Tanner says he's retiring
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Democratic Congressman John Tanner of Tennessee says he will retire next year after 11 terms.
The 65-year-old was a co-founder in 1994 of the Blue Dog coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats.
Tanner is an attorney from Union City and former state lawmaker. He was first elected to the 8th House District representing rural northwestern Tennessee in 1988.
He has not faced a serious challenge since first being elected to Congress. In 2006, he defeated Republican John Farmer with 73 percent of the vote. He faced no Republican opposition last year.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is touting farmer Stephen Fincher's candidacy as it targets Democrats in rural districts.
News Source: The Associated Press.
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The 65-year-old was a co-founder in 1994 of the Blue Dog coalition of fiscally conservative Democrats.
Tanner is an attorney from Union City and former state lawmaker. He was first elected to the 8th House District representing rural northwestern Tennessee in 1988.
He has not faced a serious challenge since first being elected to Congress. In 2006, he defeated Republican John Farmer with 73 percent of the vote. He faced no Republican opposition last year.
The National Republican Congressional Committee is touting farmer Stephen Fincher's candidacy as it targets Democrats in rural districts.
News Source: The Associated Press.
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