Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/pers-j25.shtml

The White House has in recent days gone out of its way to make clear that tonight’s State of the Union Address will outline an agenda tailored to the demands of the American financial aristocracy. A video preview of the address distributed by the administration to supporters has been the subject of numerous media reports and commentaries. In the name of making the US competitive and creating jobs, Obama will call for an even closer relationship with big business, outline a program of deeper cuts in social spending, and signal further reductions in corporate taxes and the lifting of regulations that impede profit making.

Link: http://www.redress.cc/americas/mmurphy20110125

Maureen Murphy explains why she prefers to risk imprisonment than testify before a grand jury in Chicago, USA, insisting that she will not be forced to account to the government for exercising her constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and association. ”We have done nothing wrong and risk being jailed because we have exercised our rights to free speech, to organize and to hold our government accountable. It is a dark day for America when people face jail for exercising the rights that we hold so dear.” Maureen Murphy

Link: http://dailybail.com/home/fdic-takes-455-million-weekend-hit-2010-worst-year-for-bank.html

CEO 'Shocked' At Western United Closure. The biggest? The banking subsidiary of United Western Bancorp. Denver-based United Western Bank had about $2.05 billion in total assets and $1.65 billion in total deposits with eight branches as of Sept. 30. First-Citizen Bank & Trust Co. agreed to assume all the deposits and entered a loss-share deal with the FDIC on $1.11 billion of the assets. The acquiring company started in North Carolina but now has 370 branches in the Southeast as well as California, Colorado—where it will now have 11 branches—and Washington state.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8282354/Bank-of-England-chief-Mervyn-King-standard-of-living-to-plunge-at-fastest-rate-since-1920s.html

Households face the most dramatic squeeze in living standards since the 1920s, the Governor of the Bank of England warned, as he reacted to the shock disclosure that the economy was shrinking again. Families will see their disposable income eaten up as they “pay the inevitable price” for the financial crisis, Mervyn King warned. With wages failing to keep pace with rising inflation, workers’ take- home pay will end the year worth the same as in 2005 — the most prolonged fall in living standards for more than 80 years, he claimed.

Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/41252294

The Labor Department says the unemployment rate rose in 20 states and fell in 15. It was unchanged in another 15 states. That's nearly the same as in November, when the rate rose in 21 states, fell in 15 and was the same in 14. The report is evidence that the job market is barely improving even as the economy grows. Most economists expect hiring to pick up this year, although the unemployment rate will likely remain high.

Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1350123/Worlds-largest-volcano-Yellowstone-National-Park-wipe-thirds-US.html

The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been rising at a record rate since 2004. It would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the Mount St Helens eruption in 1980. Spewing lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.

Link: http://www.rense.com/general92/tick.htm

Authorities Fear Cops Being Targeted After at Least 11 Officers Shot in 24 Hours Authorities are worried a recent wave of police officer shootings may not be a coincidence. In just 24 hours, at least 11 cops were shot around the country. For instance cops no longer keep records of the number of people they routinely Taser, torture or sometimes kill in custody: So far they have murdered over 200 people, in cold blood. That tends to stay with the families and friends of those victims, just as what our "troops" routinely do to those they arrest, torture and sometimes murder in our unilateral and illegal wars abroad: There too we have generated a huge number of additional enemies by how we conduct ourselves in foreign places.

Link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27337.htm

While scholars dispute whether Tunisia serves as model Arab world uprising, many agree that it was near-perfect US ally. Almost six years ago, President George W. Bush's otherwise inconsequential Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, gave a speech at the American University in Cairo that grabbed headlines. While lauding the autocratic leadership of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Rice indicated a new approach to the Arab world by the United States in these much-quoted words: "For sixty years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither. Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/25/us-boy-accused-murder-appeals

Jordan Brown, who was 11 when he allegedly killed his father's pregnant fiancee, could face life sentence with no parole. Jordan Brown, 13, may stand trial as an adult in the US Judges are to rule on whether Jordan Brown, who has been charged with homicide, should be tried as an adult. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty Images Lawyers for a child in Pennsylvania who was 11 when he allegedly shot and killed his father's pregnant fiancee attempted today to persuade an appeals court not to try him as an adult under America's harsh system of juvenile justice. Unless the lawyers for Jordan Brown who is now aged 13, can convince the judges to change tack, he will be tried in adult court and if convicted will serve an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole. He would become the youngest child in US history to be sentenced to be incarcerated forever.

Link: http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/missile-defense-changing-nato-russia-relations-4277/

The US and its NATO allies remain at loggerheads with Russia over missile defense in Europe, threatening to shutter fledgling NATO-Russian cooperation. However, an agreement on a cooperative missile system would transform the Moscow-NATO relationship from that of military stand-off to substantive, sustainable partnership.

Link: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/25/hot_coffee_doc_explores_how_corporations

Hot Coffee, a new documentary that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, looks at the stories of four people whose lives were devastated when they were denied access to the courtroom after being injured. The film documents how corporations have spent millions to promote the case for tort reform.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8281125/UN-human-rights-official-claims-911-was-US-plot.html

A UN human rights official has been roundly condemned for suggesting that the US government may have orchestrated the September 11 terrorist attacks. Ban Ki-moon described the comments as 'an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in the attack'. Richard Falk, a retired professor from Princeton University, wrote on his blog that there had been an "apparent cover up" by American authorities. He added that most media were "unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events" on 9/11, despite it containing "gaps and contradictions".

Link: http://www.infowars.com/ventura-lawsuit-to-re-ignite-tsa-revolt/

News that Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura is striking back against being personally subjected to TSA harassment by suing the federal agency is sure to re-ignite a TSA revolt that has led many airports to consider abandoning the TSA altogether and replacing them with private security, while the TSA has until the end of today to respond to a FOIA request filed by former Congressman Bob Barr that could send further shockwaves through the Homeland Security-controlled federal body.

Link: http://mycatbirdseat.com/2011/01/is-america-rubberstamping-apartheid-in-palestine/

It is not because of their strengths that they have been able to do this… it is because of the weakness of the non-existent anti-Zionist “opposition” in the American Government and American Media. By Debbie Menon “More and more, Americans from all walks of life are talking about Israel’s influence in Washington, looking for someone to blame. Americans are angry, feeling powerless, victimized by their own government. Some of that blame takes the form of Antisemitism, although it is not anti-Semitism but most of it is expressed in healthy skepticism, skepticism of a government showing signs of having been bought. ”Bought” is a harsh word but no other word applies, not anymore. There is no other explanation, not for the policies we are seeing, policies steeped in bias, policies based on support of apartheid, of continual violations of human rights, of International Law, and, now obvious to all, policies that have endangered American security.”

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110126/ap_on_re_us/us_state_of_union_fact_check_5

The ledger did not appear to be adding up Tuesday night when President Barack Obama urged more spending on one hand and a spending freeze on the other. Obama spoke ambitiously of putting money into roads, research, education, efficient cars, high-speed rail and other initiatives in his State of the Union speech. He pointed to the transportation and construction projects of the last two years and proposed "we redouble these efforts." He coupled this with a call to "freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years."