Morning News Roundup (18 August)

It's just after 6am here in Hawaii (9am Pacific time, which I'm more used to) and I'm wide awake. So, let's take a swing 'round the news, starting here in the Islands:

• Hawai'i's jobless rate fell to 3 percent in July from 3.1 percent in June on a seasonally adjusted basis, reinforcing the view that Hawai'i's 10-year economic expansion remains on track.
  
  
• The city is cutting down and removing Hawaiian wiliwili trees that have been ravaged by the tiny erythrina gall wasp, which appeared in the state last year and quickly invaded all of the islands. Less than one-quarter the size of a mosquito, the gall wasp does not pose a threat to humans or animals but could destroy the native wiliwili tree population.
  
  
• Cameras rolled, shutters clicked and lights flooded the red carpet as cast members of Lost celebrated the DVD release of the second season of the show. Writer and executive producer Carlton Cuse said the third season would definitely go in a different direction. Season 1 was about discovering the island. Season 2 focused on the "tailies" and the hatch -- "metaphorically going deeper inside the island," with a lot of mythology -- and Season 3 will be "more fun, lighter," emphasizing the Others. Six new episodes will air in a row. The show will then take a break and resume for 17 new episodes in February. [Honolulu Star Bulletin]

Middle East Sturm und Drang

• France on Thursday rebuffed pleas by U.N. officials to make a major contribution to a peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon. French President Jacques Chirac said Thursday that France would contribute only 200 additional troops to the U.N. operation in southern Lebanon. Senior U.N. peacekeeping officials said they had hoped France would send thousands of troops, forming the backbone of a large and robust mission that would spur other countries to join. [WaPo]
  
  
• Israel balks at the possibility of Malaysia and Indonesia, two countries that do not recognize Israel, contributing troops to a UN force along the border. After France's disappointing pledge, Italy agrees to deploy up to 3,000 troops to the force. Mark Malloch Brown thinks the UN can have 5500 troops on the ground within 10 days. [Foreign Policy's Passport]

Enviro News

• Brazil may soon become the world's first biofuels economy. Indeed, Brazil has made kicking the oil habit a national priority. The degree to which Brazilians have embraced biofuels today is truly staggering. Brazil is a world leader in biofuel technologies. More than 40% of Brazil's energy comes from biofuels and renewables. This year, over 90% of all new cars sold in Brazil will be flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on either gasoline or biofuels. Those cars can fill up at over 30,000 biofuel filling stations across the country. It's all part of Brazil's "revolucao energetica" (energy revolution).
  
  
• Apparently, there is money to be made in saving the world. In its first year, the KLD Global Climate 100 Index outperformed the market by nearly five per centage points (up 22.2 versus 17.5 from July 2005 to 2006). [DeSmogBlog]

Domestic Potpourri

• Politicizing terror isn’t working. “White House strategists are disappointed that the arrest of alleged terrorist plotters in the United Kingdom hasn’t increased President Bush’s job-approval ratings very much.” President Bush’s job approval rating stands at 37%, virtually unchanged from July. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• The event was called "Soaring for the Senate," and the idea was to show off some of the high-profile endorsements Katherine Harris has received. The problem? As the Orlando Sentinel reports, not one of the nine endorsing officials listed on Harris' event flier showed up for Thursday's event, and one of them said that he actually supports somebody else in the race.
  [...]
  The candidate ended up speaking Thursday to a crowd of about 40 -- and that included her staff, security and press -- in a giant airplane hangar that seemed to mock her lack of drawing power. Harris says that turnout was hurt by a last-minute location change that was made necessary when a tree fell on the hangar where the event was supposed to have been held. The Sentinel checked with airport officials, however, and learned a) that no hangar had been damaged by a tree, and b) that the rally was held right where it was always going to be held. [Salon's War Room]
  
  
• A surge of unanticipated tax receipts will push this year's deficit down to $260 billion, a $58 billion improvement on last year's red ink. But the deficit will begin to rise again next year and will improve substantially only if President Bush's tax cuts are allowed to expire, the Congressional Budget Office said yesterday.
  [...]
  The budget office's figures provide ammunition for both sides. This year's deficit is not only projected to be lower than last year's, despite ongoing war expenditures and hurricane relief, but it is also $112 billion lower than the CBO estimated in March when it analyzed the president's budget proposals. Even after successive waves of tax cuts, tax revenue is rising faster than predicted, while spending, especially on Medicare and Medicaid, has been less than initially projected. The near-term budget picture "has improved significantly," analysts with the budget office concluded.
  
  But the longer term outlook -- clouded by baby boomers who will be retiring just as the reach of Bush's tax cuts begins to expand -- has "not changed materially," the report emphasized. [WaPo]
  
  
• On August 3, Bush appointed a new director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (FBCI). Bush called the new director, Jay Hein, a "leading voice for compassionate conservatism" and advocate for faith-based organizations. In the mid-90s, Hein served as Welfare Reform Policy Assistant to former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. Hein helped Thompson develop, pass, and implement changes to the state's welfare system.
  
  In 2001, The Nation reported that welfare reform in Wisconsin allowed for-profit institutions in Milwaukee alone to pocket $27 million intended for those in need, reduced the average income of low-income families by $2,000, and led the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare that Wisconsin welfare agencies "put illegal obstacles in the way of people trying to obtain food stamp benefits."
  
  It is both troubling and ironic that the man who President Bush appointed to lead an office supposedly aimed at helping organizations who have "a long tradition of helping Americans in need" was responsible for designing and implementing a program penalizing low-income families for taking themselves off of welfare in Wisconsin. [National Jewish Democratic Council via Crooks and Liars]