Daily News Feed 7.22.2010/Vocab: Morganatic

Thursday Jul 22, 2010 – by Clutch

Obama signs sweeping Wall Street overhaul into law
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama signed into law on Wednesday the most comprehensive financial regulatory overhaul since the Great Depression, vowing to stop risky behavior on Wall Street that imperiled the U.S. economy.

Influential business groups lined up to criticize the new law, underscoring Obama’s uneasy relationship with America’s business community. Some on Wall Street, however, welcomed the clarity offered by the law after months of wrangling in Congress over what should be in the legislation. (Continue Reading…)

Fired USDA official receives apologies from White House, Vilsack
Ousted Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, who was portrayed as a racist in a selectively excerpted Internet video, on Wednesday achieved something almost unheard of in overheated Washington: swift and utter vindication.

Two days after Sherrod was fired from her job overseeing rural development in Georgia, both the White House and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized to her. Vilsack also offered her another unspecified position with the department. Sherrod said she would consider it.

“This is a good woman,” Vilsack said. “She’s been put through hell. I could have done and should have done a better job. I’ll learn from that experience. I want this agency and department to learn from this experience, and I want us to be stronger for it.” (Continue Reading…)

Mandela grandchildren not hurt after gun attack
JOHANNESBURG – Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren underwent a harrowing ordeal with gunmen following the South African icon’s 92nd birthday party, but no one was hurt and the attackers fled after an exchange of gunfire, police said Thursday.

Police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said the grandchildren were returning to their Johannesburg home following the family birthday party Sunday when two gunmen approached their car. They ordered the occupants to lie down near the entrance to the home of Mandela’s daughter Zindzi.

One fired a shot and the family driver returned fire.(Continue Reading…)

Photo Source: Reuters, Jim Young

Professor at historically black college questions ‘black national anthem’
Study: Recession Tougher on Black Middle Class
Magic Johnson is also not impressed with LeBron James
Congressional Black Caucus releases statement on Sherrod firing

morganatic \mawr-guh-NAT-ik\, adjective;

1. Of or pertaining to a form of marriage in which a person of high rank, as a member of the nobility, marries someone of lower station with the stipulation that neither the low-ranking spouse nor their children, if any, will have any claim to the titles or entailed property of the high-ranking partner.

“Plans for a morganatic marriage, for Mrs Simpson to become Duchess of Cornwall, came to nothing. It is a mark of how much has changed in the intervening three-quarters of a century that the British press maintained a loyal silence about the crisis until the last moment, though the King’s affair with a married woman was common knowledge among the upper classes.”

– Adam Sisman, “The Last Dance: 1936 by Denys Blakeway: review,” The Telegraph, June, 2010.

Fallible Sage says:

July 22, 2010 at 11:30 am

I don’t think the financial overhaul went far enough, but like the healthcare bill, it’s a good start.

I’m disappointed in the way the administration handled the situation with Ms. Sherrod. It gives the impression, however untrue, of being weak and easily manipulated. I smell a defamation suit by someone, whether it be Ms. Sherrod of the NAACP.

Glad Mandela’s fam is OK.

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