Barack Obama may be the president of the United States during the worst economic crisis in recent history, but most Americans don’t blame him, a new poll shows. When asked who’s responsible for the current economic mess, an overwhelming eight in 10 people point to banks, financial institutions and corporations, according to the Washington Post/ABC News poll published Tuesday. Seven in 10 respondents said that consumers took on too much debt and that the Bush administration was too lax with borrowing regulations, the poll revealed. Read the rest.

Obama’s economic team tries to reassure Americans. Understanding the overwhelming public sentiment against throwing hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars at the slumping economy, President-elect Barack Obama’s top economic advisers are promising that the money will not be wasted. “It’s important for the American taxpayer to know that . . . this is not going to be politics as usual,” Vice-president-elect Joseph Biden said. “And we will not tolerate business as usual in Washington. There will be – I will say it again – there will be no earmarks in this economic recovery plan. I know it’s Christmas. I know it’s the Christmas season. But President-elect Obama and I are absolutely determined that this economic recovery package will not become a Christmas tree.” He was referring to the common practice by members of Congress to stuff bills with special-interest, big money measures that target initiatives within their respective districts. Members often demand inclusion of the measures, which curry them favor at home, before they will vote for a bill. Biden met with seven advisers for an hour in Hawaii as Obama vacationed in the state. Among the plans discussed by the team were initiatives to shore up decaying bridges, roads and schools that have long been neglected. The Obama administration will inherit the worst economic mess in recent memory. Last month, sales prices for existing homes fell 13 percent over the same period last year, the most dramatic price drop since the Depression, according to the National Association of Realtors. The median price for an existing home is now $181,300. And retailers sent a letter to Obama’s economic team Tuesday proposing that up to $25 billion in stimulus money be set aside for sales-tax holidays stretched over 30 days in 2009. Under the plan, the federal government would use stimulus money to reimburse states for suspending sales taxes during these periods, under the plan laid out by the National Retail Federation. “At this point it appears the economy is going to remain weak well into 2009,” said Rachelle Bernstein, a federation official. “So doing this can provide that additional boost that may be needed.” During the meeting, Obama’s director of the National economic council, Lawrence H. Summers, said: “Without substantial policy action, we would almost certainly face the worst economic downturn since the Second World War. That’s why it is imperative that we take action to maintain demand, to maintain jobs, to maintain incomes.”

Obama urges Americans to “come together” after anti-gay criticism. After hearing criticism from much of the gay community that helped elect him, Barack Obama is asking citizens to “come together.” The president-elect’s plea follows an outcry over his invitation of author and pastor Rick Warren to perform the invocation prayer at Obama’s January inauguration. Warren, author of the best-selling book The Purpose Driven Life, rallied against gay marriage legislation in California this election year. “We’re not going to agree on every single issue, but what we have to do is be able to create an atmosphere where we can disagree without being disagreeable, and then focus on those things that we hold in common,” Obama says. “There are going to be a wide range of viewpoints that are presented, because that’s what America is about.” Obama’s latest controversy is the second time he drew significant criticism for association with clergy since he started on the road to the White House. His former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was thought to be a threat to Obama’s entire candidacy after comments by Wright that some called anti-American received widespread media attention.

Americans are not getting their flu shots. Fewer than a third of U.S. adults have received a flu vaccine so far this year and only about half said they intended to get one, according to a survey released on Wednesday. The Rand Corp. survey showed that 30 percent of the 4,000 adults had already been vaccinated, 17 percent planned to get one before the season ended and 53 percent said they would not get a flu shot this year.  For moore on why teens need flu, go here

More Americans struggle with medical bills.

Significantly more people are skipping vital care or delaying paying for prescription drugs because they can’t afford them, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s final election 2008 tracking poll.  Paying for health care retains a solid hold on the public’s list of their top economic concerns, according to the poll. About one in three Americans now say their family has had problems paying medical bills in the past year, up from about a quarter who said the same thing two years ago. Almost one in five (18 percent) of Americans report household problems with medical bills amounting to more than $1,000 in the past year. The survey found that medical issues are much more extensive than they were in previous years. Nearly half (47 percent) of the public says someone in their family is not taking their medication, postponing or cutting back on medical care they said they needed in the past year due to the cost of care. For example, just over one-third say they or a family member put off or postponed needed care and three in 10 say they skipped a recommended test or treatment. The numbers show are 7 percent higher than they were in last April’s tracking poll which asks the same question.
Suicides are increasing among Baby Boomers. For the first time in a decade, suicides in the United States are increasing, a new study finds. Suicides have declined for middle-age Blacks and remained stable for Asians and Native Americans, the study found. But, increasingly more middle-aged White women are taking their lives, the researchers found. “This is a group we haven’t had as much focus on in terms of suicide, because the death rates were higher in elderly White males, and there has been a lot of attention to teenagers and young adults,” said lead researcher Susan P. Baker, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “This 40- to -64 age group has been neglected.” Baker said it’s not clear what might be causing the rising suicide rates among middle-aged Whites. “We need to study the individual people who have committed suicide and see what were their living circumstances. Were they depressed, was this impulsive? A lot more specific information is needed,” she told HealthDay. One possible explanation is that doctors may not be paying enough attention to the mental health of their middle-aged White patients to spot the risk of suicide, Baker said.

Black Republicans are calling African Americans back “home.”

Saying that Sen. John McCain is the better candidate, some high-profile Black Republicans say that if African Americans check their values, they’ll see that they line up precisely with the Grand Old Party. Should Black folks be hooking their collective wagon to an elephant instead of a donkey? Find out more at Pamela On Politics.

Americans, Jamaican compete in British Grand Prix.

Tyson Gay has won the 200-meter dash in 20.26 seconds, while Asafa Powell grabbed a 9.87 victory in the 100 at the British Grand Prix. The sprinters, who both missed individual golds at the recent Beijing Olympics, shined during Sunday’s competition in London . Powell had anchored Jamaica ’s world-record-breaking, gold relay team in China , but was disappointed with his fifth-place finish in the 100. American Lauryn Williams, who was involved in the baton-dropping fiasco of the women’s 4×100 relay at Beijing , beat Olympics champ Shelly-Ann Fraser in the Grand Prix’s 100, a race that featured five Beijing finalists.

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Damon Dash dropped from deal.

More bad news for the Roc-a-Fella Records co-founder who recently had news of his pending home foreclosure hit headlines: Damon Dash recently lost his licensing agreement with Pro-Keds. Dash had actually given the impression that he bought the old-school sneaker company. He spoke of plans to make the lesser-name brand hip for a new generation. But now the brand has terminated Dash’s deal. The entrepreneur has yet to strike gold as he did when he helped found the record label that helped make his ex-partner, Jay-Z, a superstar.

HIV  increase in New York is three times the national rate. The virus that causes AIDS is spreading in New York City at three times the national rate, according to a study released on Wednesday by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The study, reports The New York Times, shows that in New York there are 72 new cases of HIV infections for every 100,000 people, compared with 23 per 100,000 nationally. The findings, based on a new formula developed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimated that 4,762 New Yorkers contracted HIV in 2006, the most precise estimate the city has ever offered. But city officials stress that because the method of estimating infections was new, it could not be said definitively whether the number of new infections in the city had increased or decreased from previous years. Blacks, and men who have sex with other men, are the groups at greatest risk of contracting HIV, the study found. Blacks made up 46 percent of the newly infected; Hispanics, 32 percent; and Whites, 21 percent. Men accounted for 76 percent of new HIV infections and women for 25 percent. (The figures exceed 100 percent because of rounding.) Sex between men was the main cause in 50 percent of new infections; high-risk heterosexual sex in 22 percent; intravenous drug use in 8 percent; and unknown or uncertain causes in 18 percent. Over all, the study found some interesting differences between national and local rates of new HIV infections. Nearly two-thirds of the city’s new infections occurred in people 30 to 50 years old. Nationally, people under 30 accounted for 41 percent of new infections, compared with 28 percent in New York City. Also, within New York City, Whites were infected at four times the national rate, Hispanics at three times the national rate, and Blacks at almost twice the national rate.  
The number of uninsured Americans drops. The number of Americans without health insurance dropped by more than 1 million people in 2007, the first yearly decline in seven years, U.S. Census Bureau officials announced Tuesday. The drop was driven largely by an increase in the number of children covered by government-funded programs. The overall number of uninsured dropped from 47 million in 2006 to 45.7 million in 2007, David Johnson, chief of the Census Bureau’s Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, said during a morning teleconference. The number of children with health insurance increased to 8.7 million in 2007, up from 8.1 million in 2006. “The number of children covered by government health insurance programs increased to 31 percent from 29.8 percent in 2006,” Johnson said. “This is the main reason for the fall in the uninsured rates in children and for the fall in uninsured rates in the general population,” he said. Among Blacks, the number of uninsured dipped from 20.5 percent in 2006 to 19.5 percent in 2007. The number of people with private health insurance did not change. However, the number of people covered by government health insurance such as Medicaid increased from 80.3 million in 2006 to 83 million in 2007. People getting their health insurance through Medicaid increased from 38.3 million in 2006 to 39.6 million in 2007. Karen Davis, president of The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that seeks to promote a high-performing health care system for all Americans, thinks that the drop in the number of uninsured supports the argument for government-sponsored health insurance programs. “When you look at what’s really going on, the number of uninsured dropped by 1.3 million, and the increase in coverage under Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) went up by 1.3 million,” she said. This shows the importance of government-funded safety nets, she said.

A food allergy action plan helps protect children.  Parents, teachers and school staff need to take measures to ensure the safety of the more than 2.2 million American students with food allergies, says the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. “Open and frequent communication between parents and school staff is a key ingredient to keeping food-allergic students out of harm,” Dr. Michael Pistiner, a member of the Academy’s  Adverse Reactions to Foods Committee, said in an academy news release. “It takes a partnership to establish effective avoidance strategies and emergency plans.” The academy’s sample action plan and checklist of safety tips:  Inform the school cafeteria, teachers and other staff of what foods your child must avoid. Pack bag lunches. Your child should avoid classroom snacks and refrain from sharing food with friends. When there’s a classroom party, provide your child with safe snacks he or she can eat during the party. And push for “no-eating” policies on buses and in other settings where there’s no supervision of children. “Parents should be aware of expiration dates and keep in contact with their allergist to insure that all medication, especially self-injectable epinephrine, is replaced prior to expiration,” adds Pistiner, whose own nut-allergic son enters kindergarten this fall. Visit the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology for more on food allergies and their management.

Plane crash in Guatemala kills 10. A Guatemalan plane carrying 14 people crashed Sunday, killing 10 people, reports CNN. Eight Americans are among the dead.  About 45 minutes after the Cessna Caravan 208 took off, the pilot started making calls about engine failure, according to the country’s director of civil aeronautics. But the air-traffic tower lost contact with the plane at 9:45 a.m. and it crashed in Zacapa, killing the pilot, co-pilot and the Americans on board. The other four passengers were taken to a hospital after the crash. “It seems like the pilot tried her best to make a safe landing in an open field but was not successful. On impact, the aircraft was split into pieces,” a Zacapa firefighter told reporters at the scene.  

Civilians killed by Sudan’s government forces, witnesses say. Sudanese forces attacked a refugee camp in Darfur, killing at least 32 civilians early Monday, witnesses say. The witness accounts of the attack are chilling. More than 50 vehicles “packed with armed men wearing police and security forces’ uniforms … hit us with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns,” resident of the refugee camp, Mandela Abdullah Mohammed, told The Associated Press. He also said the victims included many women and children. One rebel group spokesman from the Sudan Liberation Army claimed an even higher death toll – 45 people dead and 135 people wounded – due to the Sudanese soldiers “storming” the camp and attacking. “The government sent a strong military force and attacked the camp with the intentions of killing civilians,” another spokesman for the group told AP.  A Sudanese military spokesman, though, insists they had good reason to fire on the camp. “They were surprised by heavy gunfire from within the camp. There was an exchange of fire and a number of victims,” the spokesman, Sawarmy Khaled, said.  But the United Nations say they received reports about Sudanese police surrounding and attacking the camp in southern Darfur, which resulted in “injuries and deaths of civilians.” The United Nations would not give an estimate on the death toll, but a coordinator for nearby clinic run by Doctors Without Borders says that at least 65 people were admitted for treatment for gunshot wounds. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is facing genocide charges brought on by the International Criminal Court for allegedly supporting attacks against the nation’s ethnic Africans. Since fighting started in Darfur in 2003, about 300,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been made homeless.

In the primaries, their candidate of choice was Hillary Clinton.

Latino Americans, who overwhelmingly backed Sen. Hillary Clinton in the primary election, now appear to be flocking to Sen. Barack Obama as their choice for president. In fact, more than three in four Latinos who voted for Clinton last time – 77 percent, according to a new Pew Hispanic Center survey – say that Obama is their man in November. Fifty-five percent of all Latinos said they believe Obama is better for their people, while about one in 10 believe Sen. John McCain is a better choice. When it comes to education, Latinos like Obama over McCain 66 percent to 19 percent; on jobs, it’s Obama 65 percent to 19 percent; health care, Obama over McCain 64 percent to 19 percent; crime, Obama 50 percent to McCain 26 percent. Twice as many Latinos prefer Obama over McCain on the issue of the war in Iraq, 58 percent to 27 percent. And while Obama did not fair well against Clinton in the primaries, the fact is, Latinos overwhelmingly identify with the Democratic Party. Only 26 percent of Latinos say they identify with Republicans the Pew survey shows. Latinos comprise about 15 percent of the U.S. population but only 9 percent of eligible voters, but as their numbers in society rise, they are becoming the most sought-after political bloc.