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DETROIT  — General Motors Co. will add 2,500 jobs at a Detroit-area factory, investing $69 million so the plant can make two new Chevrolet sedans. The factory, which straddles the border between Detroit and the small enclave of Hamtramck, now makes the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera. GM announced on Wednesday that it will upgrade the plant so that it can run around the clock making the new Malibu midsize car and a revamped Impala, a large sedan. About 1,200 of the jobs will be new hires, since GM still has to recall about 1,300 laid-off workers in the U.S. But in Michigan, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, the jobs are big news. The company gave no time frame for hiring new people or recalling laid-off workers. It said new hires at the plant will get around $14 per hour, about half the pay rate of veteran United Auto Workers union members. GM To Hire 2500 Woirker In Michigan

The Internet has a lot of information for people wanting to better the quality of their lives. Sometimes it is difficult to know what to believe and what to be wary of. I am trying to look at human issues from the perspective of scientific psychology and its practical applications. Helping you find ways to live life at its most richest is my intention. I want to share with you the exciting developments in psychology that you can use as personal tools for your life journey. Enjoy! The Worry Free Life Blogged with the Flock Browser

The House failed to pass an extension unemployment insurance benefits for another three months Thursday afternoon. The vote was 258 to 154, short of the two-thirds needed for passage. House Republicans Block Unemployment Benefits Extension - NYTimes.com Blogged with the Flock Browser

The tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, known as the Bush tax cuts, are set to expire Dec. 31, and the fight over what to do is increasingly heated. Should the tax cuts expire, as some Democrats have said? Should they be extended, as most Republicans maintain? Or does the answer lie somewhere in between, as the Obama administration, led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, has argued in recent weeks? Five myths about the Bush tax cuts Blogged with the Flock Browser

Cutting defense is controversial, yet necessary. Our military spending is greater than the rest of the world combined. The largest organization of military air power is the U.S. Air Force. The second largest is the U.S. Navy. U.S. no longer needs large defense budget | desmoinesregister.com | The Des Moines Register Blogged with the Flock Browser

Dane Edward Rossman, 23, and Bryan Wayne Reavely, 24, were arrested for throwing rocks at police officers at the National Socialist Movement march, according to Sgt. Tommy Thompson with the Phoenix Police Department. Neo-Nazi march interrupted by riot in downtown Phoenix Blogged with the Flock Browser

Seven companies involved in the oil industry -- including Transocean (RIG), the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded and leaked oil into the Gulf of Mexico for three months earlier this year -- will pay the U.S. government a total of $236.5 million to settle charges that they bribed overseas officials to lower customs duties, extend drilling contacts and streamline permitting for oil-drilling rigs, among other things. Shell, Panalpina, Five Other Companies Fined $236.5 Million for Alleged Bribes - DailyFinance Blogged with the Flock Browser

If you look at the polls, Charlie Crist's U.S. Senate campaign is poised for a beating Tuesday. If you look at Crist campaigning across Florida in recent days, he's as upbeat as any frontrunner. Shrugging at Senate race polls, Crist remains upbeat Blogged with the Flock Browser

Liberals are a useless lot. They talk about peace and do nothing to challenge our permanent war economy. They claim to support the working class, and vote for candidates that glibly defend the North American Free Trade Agreement. They insist they believe in welfare, the right to organize, universal health care and a host of other socially progressive causes, and will not risk stepping out of the mainstream to fight for them. The only talent they seem to possess is the ability to write abject, cloying letters to Barack Obama—as if he reads them—asking the president to come back to his “true” self. This sterile moral posturing, which is not only useless but humiliating, has made America’s liberal class an object of public derision. Liberals Are Useless | CommonDreams.org Blogged with the Flock Browser

This month, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) began airing a race-baiting anti-immigrant campaign ad that the local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce found to be “totally abhorrent and shocking.” The ad targets the immigration stance of Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA), Vitter’s opponent: the narrator says “Thanks to him, we may as well put out a welcome sign for illegal aliens,” as footage of dirty, goofy-looking Latino men slipping through a hole in a fence displaying a neon welcome sign runs across the screen. The men step into a limo with a giant government check they defiantly hang out the window as they zoom away. “I’m going to use the ‘R’ word and say racist,” said the spokeswoman for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “We are saying you owe us an apology, we are offended, we expect an immediate apology and we expect this ad to be yanked from the airwaves immediately,” she continued. Cornyn Refuses To Denounce Vitter’s Race-Baiting Anti-Immigrant Campaign Ad Blogged with the Flock Browser

During the past two years, Congress  passed a total of $509 billion in tax cuts for American families and small businesses. The tax burden on Americans is now at its lowest level in 60 years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities . The most significant single change was a decrease in income taxes by up to $400 a year for individuals and $800 for married couples. Who knew? In a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll, fewer than one in 10 respondents knew that taxes were lowered for most Americans. A third even thought that their taxes had gone up. "We did a magnificent job of selling this tax break," Sanders deadpanned at an event last weekend in Hardwick, Vt., where he mentioned the poll. Taxes at Lowest Level Since 1950 Blogged with the Flock Browser

— which are scheduled to expire at the end of the year — will actually be good for the country’s bottom line, as the economic growth that results will more than offset the trillions of dollars in lost revenue. “ By extending tax cuts you pay down the deficit , you grow the economy by giving people more money,” said Colorado Republican Ken Buck. Today, on Fox News Sunday, Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate nominee Pat Toomey joined this club, telling Fox’s Chris Wallace that “ it’s not clear ” that extending the Bush tax cuts — while also lowering the corporate tax rate — would increase the deficit: Toomey: ‘It’s Not Clear’ That Extending Bush’s Tax Cuts Would Increase The Deficit Blogged with the Flock Browser

On Tuesday, nearly four dozen outside groups spent a staggering $38.2 million on independent expenditures across the country. It's one of the largest single influxes of outside money flowing into political ads this year, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Outside Groups Spend Millions of Dollars on Messages Targeting Embattled Congressional Candidates - OpenSecrets Blog | OpenSecrets Blogged with the Flock Browser

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is so extreme that he makes the rest of the Justices on the Supreme Court seen like moderates. This man has a twisted mine and he should be impeached because of his extreme interpretations of the law; he has no legal right to impose his political views on us. His’ interpretation on the Citizen United decision “That Corporations Are People, And That Money Equals Speech.” How ridiculous is this kind of thinking. This guy is KOOKY, and SO CRAZY. Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

T he stories ProPublica is publishing today on the pharmaceutical industry are part of a broader effort to expand the possibilities of collaborative journalism. The data were painstakingly assembled by Dan Nguyen, a ProPublica web developer whose talent for writing computer code is matched only by his persistence. Two ProPublica reporters, Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, tracked down the doctors identified as the biggest earners and vetted their backgrounds . Weber and Ornstein uncovered hundreds who had been disciplined by state boards or lacked credentials as specialists, calling into question the pharmaceutical companies’ assertions that they hire only the best and the brightest. Read more » Editor’s Note: Dollars for Docs Blogged with the Flock Browser

The telephone call came 19 years later, nearly to the day after one of America's most riveting scandals played out on national television. On Oct. 9, Virginia Thomas, wife to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, called Anita Hill at her office at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. Virginia Thomas asked Hill for an apology that she felt was nearly two decades overdue. Anita Hill call restirs Clarence Thomas hearing emotions - USATODAY.com Blogged with the Flock Browser

Speaker Pelosi pointed to three studies showing that the plan for Social Security preferred by Republicans – both privatization and progressive price indexing, a feature that the deficit commission has reportedly toyed with – would slash benefits for middle-income retirees. Chief Actuary of Social Security: Republican Plan Would Slash Benefits Blogged with the Flock Browser