Cain's Accuser Reacts To His Campaign "Suspension"

Sharon Bialek, the first woman to go public with sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain, will hold a press conference later today.

Bialek will appear with her attorney, celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, to respond to the former pizza executive’s decision to suspend his presidential campaign.

At the news conference, Bialek plans to directly respond to attacks made against her by Cain and his supporters. Allred plans to discuss Cain’s claims that all of the sexual harassment allegations against him are false as well as his decision to “suspend” rather than terminate his campaign.

The news conference will be held at 3 pm eastern time at the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago, Illinois.

GE Aviation Kills F-35 Engine

GE and Rolls Royce announced Friday that they are abandoning plans to fund the development of the F136 Alternative Engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The engine was a source of friction between lawmakers and the Defense Department. While the Pentagon argued that the engine was both costly and unnecessary, members of Congress, primarily those whose districts the engine would have been made in, pushed aggressively to maintain funding.

In a statement, the President of the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team, Dan McCormick, thanked the supporters the program had garnered over the years.

“GE and Rolls-Royce are deeply grateful to our many Congressional supporters on both sides of the aisle over these many years as well as the military experts who have supported competing engines for JSF,” McCormick said.

Congress scrapped funding for the engine earlier this year.

Trump To Moderate GOP Presidential Debate

Real-estate mogul and reality TV host Donald Trump has worked his way back into the political arena by teaming up with Newsmax, the conservative magazine and news website, to moderate a Dec. 27 GOP presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa. 

“Our readers and the grass roots really love Trump,” said Newsmax Media chief executive Chris Ruddy according to the New York Times. “They may not agree with him on everything, but they don’t see him as owned by the Washington establishment, the media establishment.” 

Trump’s new role as debate moderator is sure to ruffle some feathers and add to an already circus-driven primary race. 

“We are pleased to cordially invite you to ‘The Newsmax Ion Television 2012 Presidential Debate,’ moderated by a truly great American, Mr. Donald J. Trump,” the invitation reads, according to Newsmax. 

Candidates were sent formal invitations Friday afternoon for the debate set to be broadcast on Ion Television two days after Christmas. Jon Huntsman’s campaign has already declined to participate, but no word yet from the remaining candidates. 

“Lol. We look forward to watching Mitt and Newt suck-up to The Donal with a big bowl of popcorn,” said Tim Miller, Huntsman’s campaign spokesman, in an email to Business Insider. 

Obama Pledges $4 Billion In Energy Upgrades

The White House announced a nearly $4 billion plan Friday morning aimed at improving the energy efficiency of buildings in both the public and private sector.

The project will require $2 billion in energy upgrades across all federal agencies and includes a commitment from 60 CEOs as well as local officials and labor leaders to invest an additional $2 billion within the private sector.

“Upgrading the energy efficiency of America’s buildings is one of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest ways to save money, cut down on harmful pollution, and create good jobs right now,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Playing a strong role in the project is former President Bill Clinton, who through the Clinton Global Initiative was able to secure a commitment last summer to invest $500 million from private financing to improve energy efficiency and to improve efficiency across 300 million square feet.

A coalition of labor organizations including AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers and the Building and Construction Trades Department applauded the announcement.

“It will create profitable investment opportunities for worker pension funds, create badly needed good jobs, increase America’s competitiveness around energy savings, and address the dangers of climate change,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.

The initiative is part of the President’s We Can’t Wait campaign, which is centered on spurring job creation on an executive level without going through Congress.

White House Acknowledges Shrinking Workforce

The White House is fully aware that a sharp drop in the total labor force is largely to credit for the fact that the nation’s unemployment rate has fallen below 9 percent.

In a blog post, White House Council of Economic Advisors Chairman Alan Krueger noted that “about half of the drop in unemployment in the household survey was due to a decline in the labor force (-315,000) and about half to employment growth (+278,000).”

Krueger went on to add that although the official national jobless rate is now at 8.6 percent, “the pace of improvement is still not fast enough given the large job losses from the recession that began in December 2007.”