WASHINGTON - August 25, 2010 - Top Democrats are growing markedly more pessimistic about holding the House; privately conceding that the summertime economic and political recovery they were banking on will not likely materialize by Election Day.

WASHINGTON - August 25, 2010 - A Republican civil war is raging, with righter-than-thou conservatives dominating ever more primaries in a fight for the party's soul; and the Democrats hope to benefit.

The latest examples of conservative insurgents' clout came Tuesday at opposite ends of the country. In Florida, political newcomer Rick Scott beat longtime congressman and state Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. In Alaska, Tea Party activists and Sarah Palin pushed Senator Lisa Murkowski to the brink of defeat, depending on absentee ballot counts in her race against outsider Joe Miller.

NEW YORK - August 24, 2010 - Five states - Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma and Vermont - go to the polls Tuesday, but only three of them can point to primary elections that are being closely monitored by a national audience.

DETROIT, Michigan - August 23, 2010 - This is your Sequoia touch-screen voting machine with Pac-Man hacked onto it without disturbing any of the "tamper-evident" seals supposedly meant to protect it from hackers.

DENVER, Colorado - August 14, 2008 - Hillary Clinton will have her name placed in nomination at this month's Democratic National Convention in what presumptive nominee Barack Obama's campaign says is a "show of unity" designed to allow Clinton's supporters to have their voice heard before getting behind his campaign.

HOUSTON, Texas - August 12, 2008 - The wife of Republican Representative Dr. Ron Paul was in serious but stable condition Monday at a Houston hospital, a spokesman for the congressman said.

SAN FRANCISCO, California - August 11, 2008 - Cindy Sheehan, an icon of the anti-war movement, has qualified to challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her seat in Congress.

Eligibility hinges on American citizenship

WASHINGTON - August 8, 2008 - Israel Insider is reporting that analysts working separately have determined the birth certificate posted on the Daily Kos website and later on Sen. Barack Obama's "Fight the Smears" campaign website is fraudulent, and now two different actions have been launched to try and obtain the truth about the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's birth.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan - August 6, 2008 - I am not a very political person. I just wanted to pass along that Senator Obama came to Bagram, Afghanistan, for about an hour on his visit to 'The War Zone'. I want to share with you what happened.

WASHINGTON - August 21, 2008 - U.S. consumers should brace for the biggest increase in food prices in nearly 20 years in 2008 and even more pain next year due to surging meat and produce prices, the Agriculture Department said on Wednesday.

TOKYO, Japan - August 19, 2008 - The Bank of Japan delivered its bleakest assessment of the economy since the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and 1998 in a sign that a global slump ignited by the tight credit market in the United States might be spreading too quickly for Japan to avert recession.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

LONDON, England - August 19, 2008 - The U.S. money supply has experienced the sharpest contraction in modern history, heightening the risk of a Wall Street crunch and a severe economic slowdown in coming months.

WASHINGTON - August 19, 2008 - The deepening toll from the global financial crisis could trigger the failure of a large U.S. bank within months, a respected former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund claimed today, fuelling another battering for banking shares.

WASHINGTON - August 17, 2008 - The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) reported Friday that the United States Mint has suspended sales of American Eagle gold coins to their network of authorized purchasers.

NEW YORK - August 16, 2008 - America's biggest banks have suffered unprecedented losses from the ongoing credit crisis, and that's made some investors question whether the big financial conglomerates should be broken up in order to survive.

NEW YORK - August 15, 2008 - Cookie retailer Mrs. Fields Famous Brands LLC said on Friday it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to help restructure its business, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - August 14, 2008 - Europe today edged closer to recession for the first time since the single currency was introduced in 1999, after the economy shrank by 0.2 per cent during the second quarter.

NEW YORK - August 14, 2008 - Banks repossessed almost three times as many U.S. homes in July as a year earlier and the number of properties at risk of foreclosure jumped 55 percent as falling prices made it harder to sell or refinance.

SADDLE BROOK, New Jersey - August 13, 2008 - Authorities said a son held Bergen County sheriff's officers at gunpoint as they tried to evict his 88-year-old mother from her foreclosed home.

NEW YORK - August 11, 2008 - The failure of IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. and seven other banks this year may erase as much as 17 percent of a government insurance fund and raise premiums for all banks, from Franklin National of Minneapolis to Bank of America Corp.

Road to Depression
(to the tune of “Road to Morocco”)
by Brent-Emory..Johnson

We’re off on the road to Depression
Where is it, it’s just south of Hell
Where poverty and sickness
Are a way of life
We’ve lost our inspiration
All we have left is strife
Our economic ship has run aground
Like a nation that’s gone bankrupt
We’re Depression-bound!

We’re travelin’ the road to starvation
Just moving as fast as we can
When the truckers who deliver
All our food and drink and more
Stop truckin’ due to high fuel costs
Oh, it will make us sore
‘Cause the shelves will all be empty
At the supermarket store
If we don’t stop fooling around
Then our children will go hungry
We’re Depression-bound!

We’re walking a path of destruction
Our country is going down for good
For years we’ve lived beyond our means
But now our debts are due
It’s time to pay the piper
Who so long supported you
If you listen you can hear the sound
Of America collapsing
We’re Depression-bound!

We’re making our way to extinction
There isn’t so much left for us to do
Our businesses have closed their doors
The manufactories
Have shut down operations
And moved them overseas
The king of despair has been crowned
He has wrapped us in his arms
Oh, we’re Depression-bound!

We’re off on the road to Depression
It isn’t a smooth running ride
Our hopes and dreams have gone away
We have no more time for those
Survival is at stake now
That’s just the way life goes
When our government controls us all
Tyranny then grows
If we ever hope to rebound
We’d better reverse course ‘cause
We’re Depression-bound!

We’re keeping the home fires burning
Each day is much harder than the last
There still remain a vaunted few
Who tirelessly aspire
To help restore our way of life
To standards that are higher
All that we’ve lost must be found
If we’re ever gonna fix this
We’re Depression-bound!

WASHINGTON - August 11, 2008 - The Federal Reserve is reporting that more banks are tightening lending standards on home mortgages, consumer, and business loans as a deepening credit crisis exerts a heavier toll on the economy.

NEW YORK - August 11, 2008 - Five of North America's largest credit unions are reporting big paper losses on mortgage-related securities, a sign that housing-market distress is spreading even to the most risk-averse financial sectors, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said on Monday.

LONDON, England - August 10, 2008 - The CBI, the UK's largest employers' organization, has warned that the UK economy is deteriorating faster than it previously thought.

NEW YORK - August 7, 2008 - Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, reported July sales at stores open a year or more rose 3%, short of analysts' expectation that sales would grow 3.4%. Wal-Mart shares fell over 5%.

• Ann Taylor is closing 117 stores nationwide.
• Eddie Bauer will close more stores after closing 27 stores in the first quarter.
• Cache, a women’s retailer, is closing 20 to 23 stores this year.
• Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug, Catherines are closing 150 stores nationwide.
• Talbots, J. Jill are closing stores. Talbots will close all 78 of its kids and men's stores plus another 22 underperforming stores. The 22 stores will be a mix of Talbots women's and J. Jill.
• Gap Inc. is closing 85 stores.
• Foot Locker will close 140 stores.
• Wickes Furniture is going out of business and closing all of its stores. The 37-year-old retailer that targets middle-income customers, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
• Levitz, the furniture retailer, announced it was going out of business and closing all 76 of its stores in December. The retailer dates back to 1910.
• Zales, Piercing Pagoda plan to close 82 stores by July 31 followed by closing another 23 underperforming stores.
• Disney Store owner has the right to close 98 stores.
• Home Depot is closing 15 more stores amid a slumping U.S. economy and housing market. The move will affect 1,300 employees. It is the first time the world's largest home improvement store chain has ever closed a flagship store.
• CompUSA (CLOSED).
• Macy's has closed 9 stores.
• Movie Gallery video rental company plans to close 400 of 3,500 Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores in addition to the 520 locations the video rental chain closed last fall as part of bankruptcy.
• Pacific Sunwear is closing 153 Demo stores.
• Pep Boys, auto parts supplier, is closing 33 stores.
• Sprint Nextel is closing 125 retail locations, with 4,000 employees following 5,000 layoffs last year.
• J. C. Penney, Lowe's and Office Depot are all scaling back.
• Ethan Allen Interiors plans to close 12 of 300 stores to cut costs.
• Wilsons the Leather Experts is closing 158 stores.
• Bombay Company will close all 384 U.S.-based Bombay Company stores.
• Dillard's Inc. will close another six stores this year.

NEW YORK - August 4, 2008 - Wall Street takes a look at 8 larger retailers that are in real trouble. Some are at risk for bankruptcy and each of them could have to cut operations so much that their revenue would be a fraction of what it is now.

WASHINGTON - August 4, 2008 - Consumer spending, after adjusting for inflation, fell in June as shoppers were hit with the biggest increase in prices in nearly three decades.

NEW YORK - August 1, 2008 - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation revealed on Friday that it had issued warnings to four small U.S. banks that lacked sufficient reserves to cover potential loan losses.

ALBANY, New York - July 30, 2008 - Warning of an approaching economic calamity, Gov. Paterson yesterday called an emergency session of the state Legislature - and raised the specter that New York may have to sell off roads, bridges and tunnels to close a massive budget deficit.

CHICAGO, Illinois - July 29, 2008 - Customers showing up for lunch at Bennigan's restaurants in Chicago and across the country found quite a surprise Tuesday morning, when all the corporate-owned locations had signs on display reading "closed for business."

NEW YORK - July 28, 2008 - The duds say it all - and it's depressing.

Taking a cue from the grim economy, this fall's fashions at Banana Republic, Gap and H&M are featuring a distinctly Depression-era trend of cloche hats, pencil skirts, conductor caps and baggy, vintage-style dresses.

WASHINGTON - July 28, 2008 - U.S. regulators took over two banks on Friday and sold them to Mutual of Omaha Bank, the sixth and seventh bank failures this year as financial institutions struggle with a housing bust and credit crunch.

NEW YORK - July 28, 2008 - According to The New York Times, Financial Times, and other noteworthy publications, hedge funds and other investors are buying up farms, farmland, fertilizer, grain elevators, shipping equipment and other necessities for producing food.

WASHINGTON (PNN) - August 25, 2014 - Illegitimate dictator President Barack Obama is reportedly set to unlawfully give temporary amnesty to nearly 5 million invaders, and White House officials reportedly believe that it is not a big deal.

KIEV, Ukraine (PNN) - August 25, 2014 - An apparent incursion of tanks and person­nel carriers into southeastern Ukraine on Monday, one day before a high-stakes summit, demonstrated just how difficult it will be for Ukraine to reestablish control over its own territory.

Even as Russian-backed separatists are losing ground on the battlefield, provocations launched from the Russian side of the two countries’ long border remain a constant threat.

HOUSTON, Texas (PNN) - August 25, 2014 - The 1,000 National Guard deployment at the border has begun. Though previous reports stated that the surge had started earlier in August, it had not yet begun at that time.

EDINBOROUGH, Scotland (PNN) - August 25, 2014 - Scotland's referendum on independence - a vote to decide whether Scotland should stay in the United Kingdom or secede - is less than one month away. The political leaders of each side will participate in the last televised debate before the Sept. 18 referendum on Monday night. Here's what you need to know.