It's Christmas Tree Time

By Tim Young

A crowd of a few hundred gathered on Capitol Hill Tuesday night to attend the ceremony to light the Capitol’s Christmas Tree. 

Speaking at the ceremony were Architect of the Capitol Stephen Ayers, Thomas Coleman, chairman of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society’s Board of Trustees and Tom Tidwell, chief of the U.S. Forest Service. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Reps. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and Jeff Denham, (R-Calif.) were also present representing the state that donated the tree.

U.S. Army Band and Jazz@8 — an a cappella choir from Summerville High School in Tuolumne, Calif. — performed holiday songs at the event. 

The Speaker of the House ceremoniously lights the tree every year. This year, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) was joined by Johnny Crawford, a 7-year-old home-schooled student from Sonora, Calif.

“Christmas is not some distant historical event,” said Boehner. “It is a spirit, always bringing us closer to each other and closer to the peace of which the angels sang.”

The tree will be on display until Jan. 1 and will be lit from dusk until 11 p.m. each day.

California Campuses Rocked By Student Protests

By Laurel Brishel Prichard -University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Students held protests at over 100 California college campuses Thursday in response to the state’s proposal to raise tuition by 32 percent and a series of significant budget cuts.

“Today’s the day that the students are on strike and standing up in solidarity with our fellow brothers and sisters, who are facing cuts in K-12, community colleges and the California state university system," activist Don Kingsbury, a teaching assistant and former graduate of University of California Santa Cruz, told Talk Radio News Service. "No more business as usual. We’re changing things."

Kingsbury said the administration at UC Santa Cruz has misplaced its priorities, as has the California state government.

“We think it's ridiculous that the UC president makes more than the President of the United States,” he said.

The students are urging the UC's Board of Regents to return to “The Master Plan,” which was a 1960 document that would allow for free, high quality and universally accessible education for all citizens of California.

“My students are telling me daily that they aren’t sure what they are going to do. Some of them are literally being priced out of their education,” said Kingsbury.

Anthem Customers Say Their Provider Began Raising Premiums In 2009

By Chingyu Wang - Talk Radio News Service

WellPoint, Inc., California's largest individual health insurer, as well as the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross, was accused of profiteering during a hearing on Wednesday before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Though the news that Anthem Blue Cross in California had decided to raise premiums broke recently, several witnesses from the state of California testified that their provider has been raising its premiums since March 2009.

"In March 2009, Anthem raised those premiums to $231 per month, or $2772 or year - an increase of 26%," said Jeremy Arnold, a self-employed writer from Los Angeles. "In January 2010, Anthem informed me that my rates were going up again, to $319 per month, or $3828 per year - a further increase of 38%."

Committee Members expressed alarm over the fact that WellPoint increased some rates as much as 64% to help pay for large executive salaries and employee retreats.

"Between 2007 and 2008, WellPoint spent over $27 million to host 103 executive retreats," said Congressman Gene Green (D-Texas). "In 2008, during the high of the recession, WellPoint paid over $1.3 million to host 360 attendees at the Four Season Hotel in San Diego."

The committee cited data showing that WellPoint paid its top executives over $347 million in 2007 and 2008 combined. In 2008, WellPoint paid $115 million to 85 senior executives, according to the data.

WellPoint President/CEO Angela Braly, who received stock compensation valuing $8.5 million, and a salary of $1.1 million in 2009 alone, defended the rate increases, attributing them to market conditions.

"The increases in premium costs are driven by prices charged by clinicians, hospitals, medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies and other suppliers in health care that are accelerating much faster than general inflation," Braly said.

Braly also invoked the struggling economy during her defense of the rate hikes, explaining that because younger and healthier policyholders have dropped their insurance, "there are fewer policyholders among whom to spread risk, and those remaining have higher health care costs. The result is higher premiums for those left in the pool."

Pelosi Trumpets Democrats' House Wins

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

While Republicans celebrated their parties numerous victories from Tuesday’s elections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that she was not disappointed by the results.

"From our standpoint, we picked up votes last night, one in California and one in New York," Pelosi said during a press appearance, referencing the special elections held in New York's 23rd Congressional district and California's 10th.

"From our perspective, we won last night," Pelosi added. "From our standpoint...a candidate was victorious who supports health care reform.”

The Speaker did not acknowledge the fact that Democratic gubernatorial losses in New Jersey and Virginia may have a negative political impact on her efforts to win votes to pass the America’s Healthy Choices Act, the bill to reform the health care system, through the House.

Pelosi instead focused on the Democratic wins in the two special elections for House seats.

Unemployment high in March, Officials say

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service

A day after President Barack Obama's budget was passed by a Congress boiling with partisanship, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing unemployment at its highest since 1983. There are now 13.2 million Americans out of work.

The pouring rain in Washington mirrored the sobered mood in the room, as the Joint Economic Committee heard the testimony of Keith Hall, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

March was one of the worst Months on record for unemployment, and when asked outright, Hall told the committee that there were no "bright spots" in the report.

National unemployment climbed to 8.5 percent in March, rising from the level of 8.1 percent in February and 7.6 percent in January.

Hall said that two-thirds of the job loss has happened in the past 5 months. Every state is in recession for the first time in 30 years, according to Carolyn Maloney (D-NY).

Official unemployment numbers do not encompass underemployed Americans or those who have officially left the workforce. It is reported that 16 percent of the country is out of work or underemployed. One in four of those unemployed have been out of work for more than six months, and of those, half have been looking for work for over a year, Hall said.

Maloney highlighted that last month, 8,000 jobs were lost in the news publishing industry. Those losses total 70,000 job cuts since Dec. 2007, Hall said, adding that most job losses have been see in the manufacturing, construction, and temporary services industries. The only area to see any growth in March was the Healthcare industry, Hall said.

Ranking Committee member Senator Sam Brownback (R-KA) noted that the impact of the ongoing recession was not severe for almost a year after it began in December 2007. Brownback attributed recent dramatic jumps in job losses over the past five months to the lockup in the credit markets and the government bailouts that followed.

The Federal Reserve believes that unemployment will peak at 8.8 percent this year, but Ranking House Committee Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) said that the unemployment rate is already higher than what the administration anticipated for 2009. Brady said that the Obama Administration's "optimistic assumptions" would not get the country out of its current mess.

President Obama’s Economic Stimulus package was passed by Congress earlier this year, and saw an unprecedented amount of money placed into public works meant to put people back to work. Obama has pledged the legislation will save or create three to four million jobs over the next two years.

Read the report here: Bureau of Labor Statistics Report