Bailout, Take II: What the Feds Do Next

OK, so that didn't work.

After a bunch of all-nighters in Washington and some premature back-slapping, we're right back where we were a couple of weeks ago, after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy and the government lent AIG $85 billion. There's no one-size-fits-all bailout plan, after all. That $700 billion in taxpayer money remains under lock and key. Glum investors are now the ones bailing out, fleeing stocks and bonds and seeking safer ground.

But there are still some levers the government can pull. Working through the mess just won't be as orderly or predictable as it would if there were a single plan and a big pot of money. Here's what's likely to happen next:

Another try at a big bailout plan. A lot of those constituents who have been calling Congress to complain about rescuing fat cats are going to rethink their indignation as they watch the stock markets--and their own portfolios--sink. Lawmakers who voted against the bailout plan are going to have to explain why they're letting the markets collapse. The more uncomfortable voters get, the more likely Congress will be to pass some kind of sweeping relief plan. This is far from over.

More piecemeal bailouts. Before the big $700 billion bailout plan even existed, the Fed and the Treasury Department were already patching leaks in the financial system--one trouble spot at a time. The idea behind an umbrella bailout plan was to overhaul the whole system, establishing public standards and treating every ailing company more or less the same, before a bunch of leaks became a gusher. That would have eliminated the guesswork over whether a struggling company meets the criteria for a rescue--like AIG--or falls short, like Lehman Brothers.

Now we're back to guessing. The feds still have the wherewithal to lend money, buy bad assets, or take other measures to keep ailing companies afloat. What they don't have is a single plan that applies to all companies and the authority to soak up vast amounts of bad assets. So those weekend meetings at the New York Fed, with supplicant CEOs pleading for help, are likely to continue.

More failed companies. Duke University finance Prof. Campbell Harvey predicts there could be 750 to 1,000 bank failures over the next six months because of billions in bad assets stemming from the housing meltdown. Scarce credit also threatens other types of companies that are already struggling and desperately need capital, such as the Detroit automakers and some of the airlines. The government will be able to deal with some of those companies one at a time, but without a comprehensive plan, others will fall through the cracks.

Manic markets. Investors were hoping that a big bailout plan would offer some predictability about how the government will deal with struggling companies. Their crystal ball is once again very dark. That means wild swings in stock prices as big investors try to get out of the market ahead of bad news, and get back in if it looks like the feds will ride to the rescue. One of the most volatile sectors is likely to be regional bank stocks as investors worry that banks like Sovereign Bancorp and National City might be the next to fail.

Patchwork regulation. There's already a system in place for dealing with failed banks--led by the FDIC--but that may not be enough to handle the damage that's unfolding. Even without a big bailout bill, Congress may have to set up a new agency to deal with dozens or hundreds of bank failures, one similar to the Resolution Trust Corp. formed in the late 1980s. We could see a whole slew of lesser regulations, too, like restrictions on certain lending practices and higher federal coverage limits on bank deposits.

Continued government intervention. The Federal Reserve continues to pump huge sums of money into the global banking system in a desperate effort to prompt banks to loosen their grip on loans to companies, consumers, and one another. For now, that seems to be having little effect as banks absorb the startling news from Washington and hunker down. That may lead the Fed to pump out even more money and take other important steps, like cutting interest rates. Sooner or later, that will probably help loosen things up. Until then, however, it's apparently up to the markets to fix themselves. Plan accordingly.

Legendary actor Paul Newman dies at age 83

WESTPORT, Conn. - Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money" — and as an activist, race car driver and popcorn impresario — has died. He was 83.

Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.

In May, Newman had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.

He got his start in theater and on television during the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers. He was nominated for Oscars 10 times, winning one regular award and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including "Exodus," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Verdict," "The Sting" and "Absence of Malice."

Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting."

He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray. They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in "The Long Hot Summer," and Newman directed her in several films, including "Rachel, Rachel" and "The Glass Menagerie."

With his strong, classically handsome face and piercing blue eyes, Newman was a heartthrob just as likely to play against his looks, becoming a favorite with critics for his convincing portrayals of rebels, tough guys and losers. "I was always a character actor," he once said. "I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood."

Newman had a soft spot for underdogs in real life, giving tens of millions to charities through his food company and setting up camps for severely ill children. Passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights, he was so famously liberal that he ended up on President Nixon's "enemies list," one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.

A screen legend by his mid-40s, he waited a long time for his first competitive Oscar, winning in 1987 for "The Color of Money," a reprise of the role of pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson, whom Newman portrayed in the 1961 film "The Hustler."

Newman delivered a magnetic performance in "The Hustler," playing a smooth-talking, whiskey-chugging pool shark who takes on Minnesota Fats — played by Jackie Gleason — and becomes entangled with a gambler played by George C. Scott. In the sequel — directed by Scorsese — "Fast Eddie" is no longer the high-stakes hustler he once was, but rather an aging liquor salesman who takes a young pool player (Cruise) under his wing before making a comeback.

He won an honorary Oscar in 1986 "in recognition of his many and memorable compelling screen performances and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft." In 1994, he won a third Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his charitable work.

His most recent academy nod was a supporting actor nomination for the 2002 film "Road to Perdition." One of Newman's nominations was as a producer; the other nine were in acting categories. (Jack Nicholson holds the record among actors for Oscar nominations, with 12; actress Meryl Streep has had 14.)

As he passed his 80th birthday, he remained in demand, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the 2005 HBO drama "Empire Falls" and providing the voice of a crusty 1951 car in the 2006 Disney-Pixar hit, "Cars."

But in May 2007, he told ABC's "Good Morning America" he had given up acting, though he intended to remain active in charity projects. "I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to," he said. "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."

He received his first Oscar nomination for playing a bitter, alcoholic former star athlete in the 1958 film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Elizabeth Taylor played his unhappy wife and Burl Ives his wealthy, domineering father in Tennessee Williams' harrowing drama, which was given an upbeat ending for the screen.

In "Cool Hand Luke," he was nominated for his gritty role as a rebellious inmate in a brutal Southern prison. The movie was one of the biggest hits of 1967 and included a tagline, delivered one time by Newman and one time by prison warden Strother Martin, that helped define the generation gap, "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate."

Newman's hair was graying, but he was as gourgeous as ever and on the verge of his greatest popular success. In 1969, Newman teamed with Redford for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," a comic Western about two outlaws running out of time. Newman paired with Redford again in 1973 in "The Sting," a comedy about two Depression-era con men. Both were multiple Oscar winners and huge hits, irreverent, unforgettable pairings of two of the best-looking actors of their time.

Newman also turned to producing and directing. In 1968, he directed "Rachel, Rachel," a film about a lonely spinster's rebirth. The movie received four Oscar nominations, including Newman, for producer of a best motion picture, and Woodward, for best actress. The film earned Newman the best director award from the New York Film Critics.

In the 1970s, Newman, admittedly bored with acting, became fascinated with auto racing, a sport he studied when he starred in the 1972 film, "Winning." After turning professional in 1977, Newman and his driving team made strong showings in several major races, including fifth place in Daytona in 1977 and second place in the Le Mans in 1979.

"Racing is the best way I know to get away from all the rubbish of Hollywood," he told People magazine in 1979.

Despite his love of race cars, Newman continued to make movies and continued to pile up Oscar nominations, his looks remarkably intact, his acting becoming more subtle, nothing like the mannered method performances of his early years, when he was sometimes dismissed as a Brando imitator. "It takes a long time for an actor to develop the assurance that the trim, silver-haired Paul Newman has acquired," Pauline Kael wrote of him in the early 1980s.

In 1982, he got his Oscar fifth nomination for his portrayal of an honest businessman persecuted by an irresponsible reporter in "Absence of Malice." The following year, he got his sixth for playing a down-and-out alcoholic attorney in "The Verdict."

In 1995, he was nominated for his slyest, most understated work yet, the town curmudgeon and deadbeat in "Nobody's Fool." New York Times critic Caryn James found his acting "without cheap sentiment and self-pity," and observed, "It says everything about Mr. Newman's performance, the single best of this year and among the finest he has ever given, that you never stop to wonder how a guy as good-looking as Paul Newman ended up this way."

Newman, who shunned Hollywood life, was reluctant to give interviews and usually refused to sign autographs because he found the majesty of the act offensive, according to one friend.

He also claimed that he never read reviews of his movies.

"If they're good you get a fat head and if they're bad you're depressed for three weeks," he said.

Off the screen, Newman had a taste for beer and was known for his practical jokes. He once had a Porsche installed in Redford's hallway — crushed and covered with ribbons.

"I think that my sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me sane," he told Newsweek magazine in a 1994 interview.

In 1982, Newman and his Westport neighbor, writer A.E. Hotchner, started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $175 million, according to its Web site.

"We will miss our friend Paul Newman, but are lucky ourselves to have known such a remarkable person," Robert Forrester, vice chairman of Newman's Own Foundation, said in a statement.

Hotchner said Newman should have "everybody's admiration."

"For me it's the loss of an adventurous freindship over the past 50 years and it's the loss of a great American citizen," Hotchner told The Associated Press.

In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He went on to establish similar camps in several other states and in Europe.

He and Woodward bought an 18th century farmhouse in Westport, where they raised their three daughters, Elinor "Nell," Melissa and Clea.

Newman had two daughters, Susan and Stephanie, and a son, Scott, from a previous marriage to Jacqueline Witte.

Scott died in 1978 of an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium. After his only son's death, Newman established the Scott Newman Foundation to finance the production of anti-drug films for children.

Newman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the second of two boys of Arthur S. Newman, a partner in a sporting goods store, and Theresa Fetzer Newman.

He was raised in the affluent suburb of Shaker Heights, where he was encouraged him to pursue his interest in the arts by his mother and his uncle Joseph Newman, a well-known Ohio poet and journalist.

Following World War II service in the Navy, he enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he got a degree in English and was active in student productions.

He later studied at Yale University's School of Drama, then headed to New York to work in theater and television, his classmates at the famed Actor's Studio including Brando, James Dean and Karl Malden. His breakthrough was enabled by tragedy: Dean, scheduled to star as the disfigured boxer in a television adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Battler," died in a car crash in 1955. His role was taken by Newman, then a little-known performer.

Newman started in movies the year before, in "The Silver Chalice," a costume film he so despised that he took out an ad in Variety to apologize. By 1958, he had won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for the shiftless Ben Quick in "The Long Hot Summer."

In December 1994, about a month before his 70th birthday, he told Newsweek magazine he had changed little with age.

"I'm not mellower, I'm not less angry, I'm not less self-critical, I'm not less tenacious," he said. "Maybe the best part is that your liver can't handle those beers at noon anymore," he said.

Newman is survived by his wife, five children, two grandsons and his older brother Arthur.

Bush warns 'entire economy is in danger'

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday that lawmakers risk a cascade of wiped-out retirement savings, rising home foreclosures, lost jobs and closed businesses if they fail to act on a massive financial rescue plan. "Our entire economy is in danger," he said.

"Without immediate action by Congress, American could slip into a financial panic and a distressing scenario would unfold," Bush said in a 12-minute prime-time address delivered from the White House East Room that he hoped would help rescue his tough-sell bailout package. "Ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession."

Said Bush: "We must not let this happen."

The unprecedented $700 billion bailout, which the Bush administration asked Congress last weekend to approve before it adjourns, is meeting with deep skepticism, especially from conservatives in Bush's own Republican Party who are revolting at the high price tag and massive private-sector intervention by government. Though there is general agreement that something must be done to address the spiraling economic problems, Bush has been forced to accept changes almost daily, based on demands from the right and left.

Seeking to explain himself to conservatives, Bush stressed he was reluctant to put taxpayer money on the line to help businesses that had made bad decisions and that the rescue is not aimed at saving individual companies. He tried to address some of the major complaints from Democrats by promising that CEOs of failed companies won't be rewarded, while warning he would draw the line at regulations he determined would hamper economic growth.

"With the situation becoming more precarious by the day, I faced a choice: to step in with dramatic government action or to stand back and allow the irresponsible actions by some to undermine the financial security of all," Bush said.

The president turned himself into an economics professor for much of the address, tracing the origins of the problem back a decade.

But while generally acknowledging risky and poorly thought-out financial decisions at many levels of society, Bush never assigned blame to any specific entity, such as his administration, the quasi-independent mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or the Wall Street firms that built rising profits on increasingly speculative mortgage-backed securities. Instead, he spoke in terms of investment banks that "found themselves saddled with" the toxic assets the government is now proposing to buy and banks that "found themselves" with questionable balance sheets.

Intensive, personal lobbying of lawmakers is not usually Bush's style as president, unlike some predecessors. He does not often make calls or twist arms on behalf of a legislative priority.

But with the nation facing the biggest financial meltdown in decades, Bush took the unusual step of asking Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, one of whom will inherit the financial mess in four months, and key congressional leaders of both parties to a White House meeting on Thursday to work on a compromise.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the senator would attend the meeting scheduled for the afternoon, and senior McCain advisers said he would, too. The plans of the other invitees were unknown. The White House said that the idea for the joint meeting was McCain's and that aides went about setting it up after Bush and McCain spoke Wednesday afternoon.

In another move welcome at the White House, Obama and McCain issued a joint statement using their own dire language to urge lawmakers to act. The two candidates — bitterly fighting each other for the White House but coming together over this issue — said the situation offers a chance for politicians to prove Washington's worth.

"The plan that has been submitted to Congress by the Bush administration is flawed, but the effort to protect the American economy must not fail," they said. "This is a time to rise above politics for the good of the country. We cannot risk an economic catastrophe."

However, the Oval Office rivals were not putting politics aside entirely. McCain asked Obama to agree to delay their first debate, scheduled for Friday, while Obama said it should go ahead.

White House and administration officials have warned repeatedly in recent days of a coming "financial calamity."

But that has not closed the deal, which for many recalls previous warnings of grave threats from Bush — such as before the Iraq war — that did not materialize. So Bush's goal with his speech, his first prime-time address in 377 days, was to frame the debate in layman's terms to show the depths of the crisis, explain how it affects the people's daily lives and inspire the public to demand action from Washington.

He said that more banks could fail, the stock market could plummet and erase retirement accounts, businesses could find it hard to get credit and be forced to close, wiping out jobs for millions of Americans.

He ended on a positive note, predicting lawmakers would "rise to the occasion" and that the nation's economy will overcome "a moment of great challenge."

With so many crises hitting the United States at once, the presidential race has taken a back seat and so has Bush's involvement in politics. Bush canceled a campaign trip to Florida on Wednesday to deal with the problem, the third time in a week that he has scrapped his attendance at out-of-town fundraisers, either because of the market turmoil or Hurricane Ike.

The economic crisis also is almost certain to overshadow the rest of Bush's four months left in office and could hugely impact his legacy. It has been assumed that the long-term view of Bush's presidency was to be shaped largely by Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Now, the dire economic problems and the aftermath of the government's attempted solution will certainly be added to that list.

Sept. 15-22: Good News & Bad News

This week was marred by the deaths of two legends--starting with Pink Floyd founder and keyboardist Richard Wright, who succumbed to cancer on Monday, followed by Motown veteran Norman Whitfield, who died Wednesday at age 67 after a long battle with diabetes. They both will always be missed, and their huge contributions to music will never go unappreciated.In much, MUCH lighter news, Britney Spears solidified a certain, different type of legendary status herself, when she was declared "The Most Searched Person On The Internet" in the new 2009 Guinness Book Of World Records--reclaiming the title

from last year's most-searchable record-holder, Paris Hilton.Is this as admirable or legendary an accomplishment as playing keyboards on Pink Floyd's pioneering recording of "Interstellar Overdrive" (Wright) or co-writing the Temptations' "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" (Whitfield)? Well, um, NO. Of course not. But it was another bit of good post-VMAs news for the oft-troubled Britney's oft-troubled career...especially since it came the same week it was announced that Britney's new "comeback" album, Circus, is being rush-released on December 2 (Brit's 27th birthday). It was also revealed this week that Madonna's upcoming directorial-debut movie, Filth & Wisdom, features a pivotal scene inspired by Britney's classic "Baby One More Time" video. Now that's the stuff of legend, right there.

Britney is usually the one causing a underwear-less scandal these days, but this week it was Ciara who had her (removed-by-airbrushing) panties in a knot, so to speak. Ciara understandably expressed outrage over the fact that the editors at Vibe magazine allegedly digitally underdressed her without her consent. The R&B starlet claims she posed for the mag's October cover photo with her clothes on, but that an intrepid Photoshopper stripped her down so that she appears to be nude in the published pic. Now sources say Ciara is taking Vibe to court. Wow, the Vibe folks should have known better than to mess with Ciara. Didn't they listen to her when she said her goodies stay in the jar?

American-Idol-turned-Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson is no stranger to Photoshop scandals herself--just a couple months ago, the "digital diet" she appeared to have undergone in her slimmed-down album cover caused a major public outcry. But it was all good news for J.Hud this week, as she announced her engagement to hunky lawyer David Otunga--whom some readers may recognize as rebuked suitor "Punk" from VH1's I Love New York 2. Yes, only about a year ago, Punk was getting his heart broken on basic-cable TV by loudmouthed "Celebreality" D-lister Tiffany "New York" Pollard, and now he's officially betrothed to an Oscar-winning actress and American Idol alum--a woman who's about to release her major-label debut album AND hit the big screen in The Secret Life Of Bees alongside Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah. Yep, that's definitely an upgrade. Looks like Punk got his dreamgirl after all.

Meanwhile, another reality-TV also-ran, aspiring country singer Justin Gaston of Nashville Star, has been romantically linked in the tabloids with Miley Cyrus this week. Miley and Justin reportedly met when her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, hosted Nashville Star earlier this year. But a Cyrus family spokesperson assures People that Justin is "just a friend from Nashville." Well, we HOPE he's "just a friend"--Justin is 20, and Miley is only 15! But maybe it is just an innocent friendship--so far, their public outings have involved wholesome activities like going to church and Disney's Concert For Hope, which isn't really very scandalous at all. In other "it girl" news, Carla Bruni, aka the First Lady of France and a former model/rock star girlfriend, made her U.K television debut this week when she sang live on the BBC's Later With Jools Holland alongside fellow musical guests Metallica and Kings Of Leon.

She crooned her new tune "Tu Es Ma Came"--which translates as "You're my junk, you're my type, you're my cup of tea"--and revealed in an on-air interview with host Jools that the song is about being addicted to someone in a "toxic way, and in a lovely way." Jools then asked Carla if she'd actually been in that situation, to which she answered, "Yes, indeed. Have you?" (That Nicolas Sarkozy is one lucky guy.) Sales of Carla's third album, Comme Si De Rien N'Etait, have of course skyrocketed in Britain since Carla's Jools appearance.And finally, we will sign off by wishing Nate Dogg a speedy recovery from his recent stroke. It was revealed this week that he was hospitalized on September 5 after suffering his second stroke in less than a year--and that at one point the 39-year-old rapper was on life support with a feeding tube in his mouth. "He has suffered another stroke from his bad eating habits and unhealthy lifestyle," said

Nate's rapping cousin, Donald "Lil' Half Dead" Smith. "All we can do now is pray for him."

And on that downer note, thus concludes another week in news. Come back next Friday, and until then, goodnight and good music.

Love

Love is a word, not from the mind
If you look into my eyes,
My love you will find.
As I look in yours eyes
I see us together
And I know this is forever
As I kiss your lips
I feel your love
It's heaven sent from above.
As I hold you near I feel the love
Without a single fear.
In my arms you will be
From this moment
Until all eternity
Take my hand and
I'll show you the way
Our love will grow stronger
Each and every day
I'll love you forever and always.

Another poem

Last night I had a dream-
I dreamt I was in his arms.
I simply stood there gazing,
Completely wrapped up in his charms.

The night sky was the deepest blue,
Stars by the thousands gave the brightest glow,
And wind moved soundlessly around us.
The moon-it hung so low.

With his arms wound 'round my waist,
He softly kissed my ear.
"I love you," he whispered.
"I promise that I'll always be near."

As my heart beat badly,
I put my arms around his neck.
Standing on my tip toes,
I went to give him a gentle peck.

Before I got a chance to, he captured my mouth in his-
Our kiss was slow and long.
As he brushed my hair from my face I thought,
"This is exactly where I belong."

He placed his hands, slightly curled, on the small of my back,
And pressed our hips together.
I laid my hands upon his chest.
We stood there dancing, which felt wonderfully like forever.

Slowly it began to rain,
And soon we were drenched- drops dripping from our hair.
He took my chin with his hands and whispered,
"There's something I must share."

"I'll love you for forever."
I've loved you from the start."
"No matter what happens,
You'll always have my heart."

"You mean the entire world to me."
"You're my shinning star-
Because everything I wish for,
Is everything you are."

He took my hands in his,
As he stared at me with a twinkle in his eye.
"You are so beautiful you make the angels envious."
"The rain we feel are tears they cry."

Blushing and smiling I shook my head.
He took my face between his hands and said, "You know it's true."
"You are the point of light amid my darkness."
"The only one I want is you."

There we lay side by side,
Together on the grass.
As he put his arm under my head,
I prayed this moment would never come to pass.

Poem

It breaks my heart in two,
just thinking i might lose you,
in front of you i will continue to hide,
that i really am hurting on the inside,

if you ever left town,
you would turn my life upside down,
you would leave me behind,
and i would lose my mind,

but something i hope you do not see,
that you really are everything to me,
you have no idea how much i care,
no idea i NEED you there,

it feels so hard to explain,
but without you it would forever cause me pain,
i never want to hear you say,
that your gonna stay away,

all this you will never know,
because i hope to never let it show,
i know i have fallen way to deep,
and you i want to keep,

but it is all up to you,
and i want to know what to do,
what would i do if you go?
i just wish i could know,

i know my heart would break,
and i would make the biggest mistake,
if you wanted to leave - i would let you go,
but i would love you forever without you to know,

your the one i will always need,
because without you my heart would continuously bleed,
i cannot live without you there,
i do not even know if you care,

would you stay to be with me?
or would you leave and say goodbye?
would you want a new beginning?
or would you stay with me forever?

would you stay to hold me tight?
would you stay with me every night?
would i have a forever lasting love?
are you my angel sent from above?

4 killed in SC plane crash; drummer, DJ injured

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and celebrity DJ AM were critically injured in a fiery Learjet crash in South Carolina that killed four people, authorities said Saturday.

Officials said the plane carrying six people was departing shortly before midnight Friday when air traffic controllers reporting seeing sparks. The plane hurtled off the end of a runway and crashed through antennas and a fence. It came to rest on an embankment across a five-lane highway and was engulfed in flames, said Debbie Hersman, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Barker and DJ AM, whose real name is Adam Goldstein, were in critical condition at a burn center in Augusta, Ga., about 75 miles southwest of Columbia, hospital spokeswoman Beth Frits said.

Two other passengers — Chris Baker, 29, of Studio City, Calif., and Charles Still, 25, of Los Angeles — died, as did pilot Sarah Lemmon, 31, of Anaheim Hills, Calif., and co-pilot James Bland, 52, of Carlsbad, according to the county coroner.

The plane was headed for Van Nuys, Calif. It is owned by Global Exec Aviation, a California-based charter company, and was certified to operate last year, Hersman said. The company said it had no immediate comment.

At the crash site Saturday, the air was still heavy with the odor of jet fuel. A trail of black soot led off a runway. The nose of the aircraft was gone and the roof was missing from two-thirds of the charred plane.

Barker and Goldstein had performed together under the name TRVSDJ-AM at a free concert in Columbia on Friday night.

"It's absolutely terrible and tragic," Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said.

The show, which included performances by former Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell and singer Gavin DeGraw, drew 10,000 people into the streets of Five Points, the neighborhood near the University of South Carolina, Coble said.

One concertgoer said TRVSDJ-AM's performance was unique and different.

"It was literally one of the best shows I've ever seen," said Brett Flashnick, a freelance photographer who works for The Associated Press and attended the concert for a local newspaper.

Barker, 32, was one of the more colorful members of the multiplatinum-selling punk rock band Blink-182, whose biggest album was 1999's CD "Enema of the State," which sold more than five million copies in the United States alone.

After Blink-182 disbanded in 2005, Barker went on to form the rock band (+44) — pronounced "plus forty-four." He also starred in the MTV reality series "Meet the Barkers" with former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, to whom he was married at the time. The show documented the former couple's lavish wedding and life. Their later split, reconciliation and subsequent break up made them tabloid favorites.

Goldstein is a popular DJ for hire who at one time was engaged to Nicole Richie.

He spun a mix of hip-hop and dance beats for the hottest nightclubs and had a string of dates set up for the next few weeks. He reached the peak of his celebrity perhaps during his highly publicized romance with Richie a few years ago.

DJ AM also dated singer/actress Mandy Moore, and while he became a gossip favorite for his romances, he drew respect from music aficionados for his DJ skills.

Barker and Goldstein performed as part of the house band at the MTV Video Music Awards earlier this month.

America's Worst Breakfast Foods

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of eating breakfast. Studies show that people who take time for a morning meal consume fewer calories over the course of the day, have stronger cognitive skills, and are 30 percent less likely to be overweight or obese. Beyond that, people who skip breakfast are more likely to drink alcohol and smoke, and they’re less likely to exercise.

But just because breakfast is the most important meal of the day doesn’t grant you permission to go into a feeding frenzy. But that’s exactly what many of the country’s most popular breakfast joints are setting you up for, by peddling fatty scrambles, misguided muffins, and pancakes that look like manhole covers.

These foods are loaded with unhealthy fats, added sugars, and refined carbohydrates, which catapult your blood sugar, sap your energy levels, and tell your body to store fat.

To help you avoid the morning mishaps, we searched out the good, the bad, and the greasy, and uncovered some of the worst breakfast foods in America. We’ve presented a sampling of the worst offenders below. It’s like a lineup down at the local police station, except in this case, they’re all guilty as charged.

Worst Side Dish
Burger King Hash Browns (large)
620 calories
40 g fat (11 g saturated; 13 g trans)
1,200 mg sodium
60 g carbs

Yes, you’re ingesting more than a meal’s worth of calories from a side dish, but the real cause for concern here is that these little potato cakes pack seven times more trans fats than you’re supposed to eat all day! Until BK learns to cut out the partially hydrogenated oils, avoid encounters with potatoes of any kind at that fatty food joint.

Eat This Instead!
Burger King Egg & Cheese Croissan’wich
300 calories
17 g fat (6 g saturated; 2 g trans)
740 mg sodium
26 g carbs

Worst Breakfast Sandwich
Hardee’s Monster Biscuit
710 calories
51 g fat (17 g saturated)
2,250 mg sodium
37 g carbohydrates

When they say “Monster,” they mean it. This 700-calorie behemoth should be enough to scare anyone: It contains nearly a full day’s worth of sodium and saturated fat. Instead try the Sunrise Croissant with Bacon. It’s not exactly diet-friendly, but if you’re stuck at Hardee’s, it’s a way to escape without too much damage.

Eat This Instead!
Hardee’s Sunrise Croissant with Bacon
450 calories
29 g fat (12 g saturated)
900 mg sodium
28 g carbs

Worst Kids Meal
Denny’s Big Dipper French Toastix with margarine and syrup
770 calories
71 g fat (13 g saturated)
107 g carbs

As important as it is for mom and dad to eat a good breakfast each morning, it’s even more critical that their kids do. After all, breakfast affects their energy levels, metabolism, and performance in school. Better think twice before feeding them these dubious little sticks. For more healthy kids’ choices, check out Eat This, Not That! for Kids.

Eat This Instead!
Kid’s D-Zone Smiley Alien Hotcakes
340 calories
12 g fat (5 g saturated)
49 g carbs

Worst Pastry
Cinnabon Classic Cinnamon Roll
813 calories
32 g fat (5 g trans fat)
117 g carbs

You wouldn’t start your day with three brownies, would you? As far as your body knows, that’s exactly what you’ll be doing if you wake up with this cinnamon-swirled disaster area. In fact, because Cinnabon offers no healthy alternatives, you’ll have to invite friends (or enemies?) to share the risky roll, or steer clear of Cinnabon altogether.

Worst Smoothie
Smoothie King Grape Expectations II (40 oz.)
1,102 calories
256 g sugars
740 mg sodium

Why Smoothie King would even offer a 40 oz. serving size is beyond us. With more than half the calories you need in a day and the sugar equivalent of 12 Haagen Dasz ice cream bars, this “drink” should be renamed "diabetes in a glass." Just goes to show you the importance of drinking responsibly.

Drink This Instead!
Smoothie King Low Carb Strawberry Smoothie (20 oz.)
268 calories
3 g sugars
176 mg sodium

Worst Combo Meal
McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast
1,360 calories
64 g fat (22 g saturated)
2,325 mg sodium
160 g carbs
49 g sugars

With four vehicles for refined carbohydrates (biscuit, hash browns, hotcakes, syrup), this “deluxe” disaster will send your blood sugar soaring. Why blow nearly an entire day’s calories under the arches, when a perfectly satisfying Egg McMuffin will save you more than 1,000 calories?

Eat This Instead!
McDonald’s Egg McMuffin with coffee
310 calories
12 g fat (5 g saturated)
820 mg sodium
30 g carbs
3 g sugars

Worst Omelet
IHOP Big Steak Omelet
1,490 calories
(No additional nutrition information available)

IHOP doesn’t provide nutritional information aside from calorie counts, but with a boatload of steak, a bucket of cheese, and handfuls of hash browns, this omelet’s fat and sodium numbers are surely just as appalling.

Eat This Instead!
IHOP For Me Garden Scramble
440 calories

The Worst Breakfast in America
Bob Evans Stacked and Stuffed Caramel Banana Pecan Hotcakes
1,543 calories
77 g fat (26 g saturated; 9 g trans)
2,259 mg sodium
198 g carbs
109 g sugars

It’s not a good sign when it takes you nearly five seconds to spit out the name of your breakfast. This bad boy packs in more than 75 percent of your calories for the day, along with more sugar and fat than nine glazed Dunkin’ Donuts, and nearly as much sodium as five Bloody Marys.

Eat This Instead!
3 Scrambled Egg Beaters with 2 slices of bacon and fresh fruit
314 calories
19.5 g fat (5 g saturated)
700 mg sodium
21 g carbs
18 g sugars

To steer clear of the quickest way to pack on pounds — by sipping them through a straw — check out the 20 Unhealthiest Drinks in America.

And see how all of these restaurants (and 34 others of your favorites!) stack up nutritionally by checking out our definitive Restaurant Report Card.

Have your own big offenders — and secrets for protecting your waistline? Share them with the rest of us here.

Treasury, Fed move to bolster money market funds

Treasury, Fed announce steps to support nation's money market funds industry

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department says it will tap into a Depression-era fund to provide guarantees for the nation's money market mutual funds while the Federal Reserve says it will expand its emergency lending program to help support the $2 trillion in assets of the funds.

Seeking to deal with a severe financial crisis, the Treasury and the Fed announced separate actions on Friday designed to bolster the huge money market mutual fund industry, which has come under stress in recent days.

The Fed said it expanding its emergency lending efforts to allow commercial banks to finance purchases of asset-backed paper from money market funds. The central bank should help the funds to meet demands for redemptions.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department announced Friday it will tap into a Depression-era fund to provide guarantees for the nation's money market mutual funds.

Seeking to deal with a severe financial crisis, the department said that for the next year the U.S. Treasury will insure the holdings of eligible money market mutual funds.

The money to insure the mutual funds will come from the Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund which was created in 1934 to provide support for the dollar.

Fears were raised about the giant money market mutual fund industry earlier this week when Primary Fund announced that the value of its fund's assets had dropped to 97 cents for each $1 put in by investors, exposing them to losses.

This instance of "breaking the buck" marked only the second time since money market mutual funds were begun in the United States in 1970 that a fund couldn't assure clients of the full value of their investments.

President Bush has authorized Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to use up to $50 billion from the Exchange Stabilization Fund to provide the guarantees, Treasury said in a statement.

"Maintaining confidence in the money market fund industry is critical to protecting the integrity and stability of the global financial system," Treasury said in its statement.

Treasury said its decision to provide guarantees "should enhance market confidence and alleviate investors' concerns about the ability for money market mutual funds to absorb a loss."

When the assets in a fund fall below the $1 redemption level, investors in that particular fund would receive a notification that their fund would be covered by the insurance program.

During the next year, Treasury said it will insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds including both retail and institutional funds.

Possible financial crisis fix sends stocks soaring

WASHINGTON - The stock market finally found reason to rally Thursday, and Congress promised quick action as the Bush administration prepared a plan to rescue banks from the bad debt at the heart of the worst crisis on Wall Street since the Great Depression.

Details of the plan were still being worked out, but Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson emerged from a nighttime meeting on Capitol Hill to say he hoped to have a solution "aimed right at the heart of this problem."

As word of a government plan began to reach Wall Street earlier in the day, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped 410 points, its biggest percentage gain in nearly six years.

The rebound also came after an infusion of billions of dollars by the Federal Reserve and world governments aimed at getting nervous banks to stop hoarding money and lend again.

Stocks had fluctuated throughout the day, without severe swings in either direction, until CNBC reported the administration might back a new agency to take bad assets off the books of struggling financial institutions, much like it did in the aftermath of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s.

After the discussions Thursday night, Paulson said the goal was to come up with a "comprehensive approach that will require legislation" to deal with the bad debts, or illiquid assets, on bank's balance sheets. He did not provide any details, but the plan taking shape called for Congress to give the administration the power to buy distressed bank assets.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said that probably would not mean creating a new government agency.

"It will be the power — it may not be a new entity. It will be the power to buy up illiquid assets," Frank said. "There is this concern that if you had to wait to set up an entity, it could take too long."

Frank said his committee could begin drafting legislation as early as Wednesday.

Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and other officials planned to work through the weekend on a solution. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that once the administration had presented its proposal, "we hope to move very quickly" to come to an agreement.

There was no immediate word how much the rescue plan might cost.

The banks still standing are staggering under the weight of billions of dollars of bad loans and mortgage debt arising from the wave of home foreclosures in the United States, and lending has tightened around the world in response.

Before the sun rose on Wall Street on Thursday, the Fed said it would boost by as much as $180 billion the amount of cash it would supply to foreign counterparts that are short on dollars. For banks in the United States, the Fed supplied $105 billion in short-term loans later in the day.

But, at least initially, those efforts did little to unfreeze the global credit markets. Banks remained extremely reluctant to lend money.

The No. 2 official at the International Monetary Fund, John Lipsky, said the past few days were "searing manifestations of a financial crisis that has expanded to historic proportions." He predicted the turbulence would continue for "some time to come."

British financial regulators also banned short-selling the stock of financial companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. U.S. regulators tightened rules on short-selling Wednesday.

Christopher Cox, chairman of the securities and Exchange Commission, told lawmakers the SEC may put in a temporary emergency ban on all short-selling — not just the aggressive forms it already has targeted, according to a person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity because no final decision had been made.

The ban might apply to stocks of selected financial companies, to all financial companies or even possibly to all public companies. Short-selling, which has been practiced on Wall Street for decades, is not illegal per se.

The Fed said it had authorized the expansion of swap lines, the process by which it supplies reserves to other central banks, to include amounts up to $110 billion for the European Central Bank and up to $27 billion for the Swiss National Bank.

The Fed also said new swap facilities had been authorized with the Bank of Japan for as much as $60 billion, $40 billion for the Bank of England and $10 billion for the Bank of Canada.

For more than a year, investors around the world have watched with growing alarm as the U.S. economy, the world's largest, has struggled to right itself amid massive home foreclosures, many of them from mortgages issued to homeowners with bad credit.

The turmoil has swallowed some of the most storied names on Wall Street. Three of its five major investment banks — Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch — have either gone out of business or been driven into the arms of another bank.

The Dow's gain of nearly 4 percent on Thursday sent the average back above 11,000 and nearly erased its losses from a day before.

But as the uncertainty wore on, investors continued to flock to Treasury securities, considered a haven in times of crisis, and the price of gold rose yet again. And worries about even the safest investments intensified as Putnam Investments abruptly closed a $15 billion money market fund because institutional investors had pulled their cash.

Bush canceled out-of-town fundraising trips to Alabama and Florida to stay in Washington and huddle with Paulson and the heads of the Fed and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an appearance earlier in the day, the president acknowledged "serious challenges" in the markets and said: "The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence."

The credit troubles reverberated around the globe. Asian stocks closed lower. European stocks rose but struggled to hold on to the gains. Russia closed its stock exchanges for a second day, and President Dmitry Medvedev pledged a $20 billion injection into financial markets.

In the United States, investors worried for another day about the health of the banks still standing. Earlier in the week, venerable Lehman Brothers was forced into bankruptcy, and Merrill Lynch was driven into the arms of Bank of America.

On Thursday, Morgan Stanley scrambled to strike a major deal or raise more cash that will reassure investors and prevent more damage to its battered stock. Its CEO, John Mack, reached out to China's Citic Group overnight about a possible investment, according to a person familiar with the talks.

Morgan Stanley is also considering a combination with retail bank Wachovia Corp. and an investment from Singapore Investment Corp., one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were still ongoing.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers in both parties became increasingly vocal about their concerns with the Bush administration's handling of the current crisis.

Administration officials refused to attend a closed-door briefing with House Republicans this morning, leaving their congressional allies in the dark about the government's $85 billion emergency loan to insurer American International Group, House GOP leader John A. Boehner said.

And Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman, was irritated that Paulson twice canceled appearances he was to have made before the panel this week.

Bush says he's working hard on economic turmoil

WASHINGTON - Eager to show that he feels people's pain, President Bush told the country Thursday his administration is working feverishly to calm turmoil in the financial markets. With reports swirling of possibly imminent new government action, the president met with his treasury secretary and the head of the Federal Reserve.

Nothing was announced immediately after the 40-minute meeting at the White House, which included Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox, along with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto would not comment on whether any decisions were made at the session, or whether any announcements would be forthcoming later Thursday. News reports said Paulson was considering having the government create an entity to take over banks' bad debt.

"The president and his senior economic advisers had a very good discussion about the serious conditions in the financial markets," Fratto said.

Bush was supposed to spend the day in Alabama and Florida raising money for Republicans and talking energy policy. He canceled his trip and sent Vice President Dick Cheney to sub for him at the fundraisers to focus on the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression.

"The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy," Bush said. "And I share their concerns."

The tumult in financial markets and the disappearance of corporate giants have shaken people's faith in the economy. On Wall Street, the fear is that more significant financial companies will fall, causing a spillover effect within the United States and on world markets.

In brief formal remarks outside the Oval Office, Bush sought to show that the administration is moving swiftly and aggressively by taking "extraordinary measures."

Earlier this month, the administration took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. At the start of this week, the Federal Reserve rescued American International Group Inc., an insurance giant, from bankruptcy by granting an emergency $85 billion loan that gives the government an 80 percent stake in the company.

On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission tightened rules on short selling, the practice of betting that a stock will fall.

And Thursday, the Federal Reserve pumped $55 billion in temporary reserves into the markets after coordinated action with the central banks of other nations.

The White House says the moves will help protect the broader economy and therefore everyday life. But the president used language that resonates more with market analysts than the public.

He promised that the "markets are adjusting" — a term suggesting the White House hopes that a temporary correction is under way, not a sustained slide.

"The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence," the president said.

Bush did not specify what those steps might be. White House press secretary Dana Perino said she could not comment on them, either. "That's something I'm not at liberty to talk about," she said.

The White House gave little detail of how Bush spent the day, other than the Paulson meeting and staying in regular touch with other economic advisers.

What the president called "serious challenges" facing the markets placed the White House in crisis mode.

But Bush has behaved very differently than in previous crises, such as around the start of the Iraq war, after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 or after last month's invasion by Russia of tiny neighbor Georgia. In those cases, Bush would talk nearly every day. This week, he has kept a lower profile.

His remarks Thursday were his first since Monday. And he has spurned every attempt by reporters to ask questions about the developments, including again on Thursday. As he finished his very brief statement and turned to walk back into the Oval Office, a reporter asked if he believed the economy was still sound. The president kept walking.

Despite the government's extensive actions, Lehman Brothers, the country's fourth-largest investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection this week. A weakened Merrill Lynch, deciding it couldn't go it alone anymore, found help in the arms of Bank of America.

A private business group reported Thursday that the economy's health deteriorated for the second consecutive month in August as building permits dropped and unemployment claims rose. Oil prices are rising again as investors eye U.S. financial turmoil. Employers are cutting payrolls. New applications for unemployment benefits are up, partly due to Hurricane Gustav. The housing market remains unstable.

Amid the bad news, lawmakers from both parties are becoming increasingly vocal about their concerns with the information they're getting from the administration.

Administration officials refused to attend a closed-door briefing with House Republicans Thursday morning, said Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House GOP leader. "Members of Congress have a responsibility to their constituents and to the American taxpayers to have a better understanding of what's happening," Boehner said.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman, was similarly peeved when Paulson twice canceled appearances he was to have made before the panel this week. Senators will have to wait until Tuesday to hear from the Treasury secretary and Bernanke.

"The Treasury Department tried as hard as they could to get information up to members of Congress as quickly as possible, but, granted, more and better and earlier communication between us is always a better thing," said Perino.

McCain, Obama scramble to shift economic message

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - With economic anxiety rising, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama scrambled Wednesday to adjust their messages to connect more directly with financially struggling voters.

Obama talks directly into the camera in a new, two-minute television ad on how he'll fix an economy in which "paychecks are flat and home values are falling." McCain and running mate Sarah Palin softened opposition to government bailouts, accepting the U.S. takeover of the nation's largest insurer as unfortunate but necessary to protect ordinary Americans.

"The shot that has been called by the Feds — it's understandable but very, very disappointing that taxpayers are called upon for another one," Palin told reporters during a visit to delicatessen in Cleveland.

Both McCain and Obama advocated cracking down on freewheeling Wall Street practices and for tough new regulations on financial institutions.

Obama ridiculed McCain's calls for more regulation as an eleventh-hour conversion for one who has long championed deregulation.

Too many in Washington and on Wall Street "weren't minding the store. They sat on their hands until it was too late," Obama told a rally in Elko, Nev. He challenged McCain's vow to take on the "old boy's network...He hasn't taken them on for the last 26 years."

The increased emphasis on the faltering economy came on a day when stocks resumed their downward plunge following Tuesday night's government takeover of American International Group Inc. with an $85 billion two-year loan from the Federal Reserve in return for a majority stake in the company.

"The focus of any such action should be to protect the millions of Americans who hold insurance policies, retirement plans and other accounts with AIG," McCain said in a statement. "We must not bail out the management and speculators who created this mess."

The turnabout came a day after McCain strongly opposed additional government relief and praised the government's decision not to rescue Lehman Brothers after it had intervened to help investment bank Bear Stearns and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

His Democratic rival addressed the AIG takeover in Elko, saying the government acted "to prevent an even larger crisis." Arguing that the U.S. housing market was "in a shambles," Obama said it was important now for the Federal Reserve to ensure that families with AIG insurance are protected. "It must not bail out the shareholders or the management of AIG that were making big profits when times were good."

Obama, in his own change of tactics, speaks directly to voters in a new commercial to air Wednesday on national cable and in some battleground states.

"In the past few weeks, Wall Street's been rocked as banks closed and markets tumbled. But for many of you — the people I've met in town halls, backyards and diners across America — our troubled economy isn't news," Obama says in the ad, taped Tuesday in a living room-like setting.

"Paychecks are flat and home values are falling. It's hard to pay for gas and groceries and if you put it on a credit card, they've probably raised your rates," he adds.

Obama also laments rising health insurance costs. He details major elements of his economic plan, including its proposal for a $1,000 tax cut for working couples, steps to reduce reliance on imported oil, bringing a "responsible end" to the war in Iraq and ending an "anything goes culture on Wall Street."

"Doing these things won't be easy. But we're Americans," Obama says.

Obama also discussed the AIG takeover

McCain campaigned in Michigan, one of the states hardest hit by eight straight months of rising unemployment.

At the General Motors Orion assembly plant, he told workers: "We are going to fight the special interests and corruption in Washington. We are going to fight the greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street."

While both presidential candidates have called for tougher regulation of financial institutions and cracking down on Wall Street abuses, neither has come up with a detailed plan, nor gone so far as to endorse a proposal for the kind of massive federal intervention that took place in the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and the early 1990s.

Then, the Resolution Trust Corp. was established by Congress to acquire the real estate, mortgages and other assets of thousands of failed S&Ls.

Some lawmakers suggest such a strategy may be needed to stabilize financial markets, rather than the ad hoc interventions the government has been doing.

A day after extending a helping hand to AIG, the White House on Monday called the U.S. economy a mixed picture that would ultimately weather the current turmoil. Press secretary Dana Perino said help for other endangered companies would be considered on a "case-by-case basis."

Both candidates have been adjusting to keep pace with a fast-changing situation in which financial markets have been buffeted by one jolt after another.

The weak economy would normally be expected to benefit Democrats, since voters often punish the party in the White House for bad economic times, and McCain's Republican party has been in power for the past eight years.

But an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted last week suggests McCain and Obama now are trusted equally on the economy, with 34 percent of voters saying each would do a better job. Previously, Obama had held a solid advantage on the issue.

Meanwhile, an advocacy group for older Americans questioned McCain's recent railing against Wall Street excesses at the same time he supports a plan to allow younger workers to divert some of the Social Security payroll tax they would pay into private investment accounts, much as President Bush would do.

McCain "continues to support plans to turn Social Security money over to the same Wall Street financiers he now criticizes," said Barbara B. Kennelly, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

Stocks end higher after Fed keeps rates unchanged

NEW YORK - Wall Street ended another tumultuous session with a sizable gain Tuesday, partly recovering from its worst sell-off in years after the Federal Reserve said it was keeping interest rates steady. The central bank soothed fears of a worsening financial crisis even as the market waited to learn the fate of troubled insurer American International Group Inc.

In a statement accompanying its decision, the Fed noted the growing strains in the financial markets a day after the Dow Jones industrials plunged 504 points in reaction to continuing turmoil in the financial sector. The Fed also noted the ongoing weakening of the labor market. But it also sought to give some reassurance by saying it expected its policy moves to foster moderate economic growth over time.

The Fed has cut its target federal funds rate by 3.25 percentage points to its current level of 2 percent over the past year. Many on Wall Street expected the Fed to keep rates steady but there was some hope that the central bank would try to calm uneasy financial markets with a rate cut.

Still, the fact that the Fed didn't lower rates was a sign that it doesn't believe the economy needs that type of stimulus. It reiterated that it believed its moves to inject more liquidity into the banking system to help struggling financial institutions would help them, and in turn the economy overall.

"This was the right thing to do," said Tom Higgins, chief economist at Payden & Rygel Investment Management in Los Angeles. "I just don't think the Fed should be responding to the financial market crisis at this stage."

He contends other moves, like broadening the type of collateral the Fed accepts from banks and adding money to the banking system are more effective at addressing credit troubles.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 141.51, or 1.30 percent, to 11,059.02, after falling about 100 points immediately after the Fed announcement. The Dow at turns rose and fell as much as 175 points in fractious trading; on Monday, it suffered its largest drop since the September 2001 terror attacks.

Broader stock indicators advanced. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 20.90, or 1.75 percent, to 1,213.60, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 27.99, or 1.28 percent, to 2,207.90.

On Monday, the Dow fell 4.4 percent, the S&P gave up 4.7 percent and the Nasdaq fell 3.6 percent.

Bond prices fell sharply Tuesday as investors turned away from the safety of government debt. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.52 percent from 3.41 percent late Monday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell $3.70 to settle at $92.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, bringing its two-day decline to $10, as investors placed bets that a slowing economy will crimp demand. Gas prices continued to following the disruption to supplies brought by Hurricane Ike, though they were expected to moderate in the coming weeks.

Worries about AIG's well-being have intensified this week after several ratings agencies downgraded the company. Investors fear that a failure by the world's largest insurer would touch off a wave of financial turmoil.

But speculation that the company might be working out a loan from the government corralled some of the market's worries about the company and the stock finished well off its lows. The stock fell $1.01, or 21 percent, to $3.75 after trading as low as $1.25.

Markets around the world have been reeling this week from the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the quickly assembled weekend sale of Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp. Investors worry that tectonic shifts in the power structure of Wall Street signal that the financial sector's trouble with imperiled credit are far from over.

But the partial recovery in shares of AIG as well and some of the other financial stocks that led the market lower Monday were a welcome boost to investor sentiment. JPMorgan Chase & Co. rose $3.74, or 10 percent, to $40.74, while Wells Fargo & Co. rose $3.93, or 13 percent, to $34.93.

Steven Goldman, chief market strategist at Weeden & Co., said investors are starting to examine even troubled sectors like banks to pluck out those that have managed to sidestep the worst of the credit troubles.

"There are some silver linings in a dire picture," he said, referring to some of the gainers.

Names that investors often rely on as safe bets in a weak economy also rose. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. advanced 51 cents to $62.14, while McDonald's Corp. rose 57 cents to $64.29.

The market showed little reaction to the first drop in the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index in nearly two years. The CPI fell 0.1 percent last month, while the index excluding food and energy costs edged up a mild 0.2 percent. Both figures were in line with analyst expectations.

In corporate news, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the largest of the two big independent investment banks on Wall Street, posted its sharpest decline in earnings since becoming a public company in 1999. The company said quarterly earnings fell 70 percent from a year earlier and that it saw a marked decrease in client activity. The profit results were better than Wall Street had been expecting, though revenue fell short. The stock fell $2.49 to $133.01.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman's smaller rival, fell $3.49, or 11 percent, to $28.70 and reported better-than-expected results after the closing bell.

Dell Inc. warned that it sees a further softening in global demand in the current quarter. The computer manufacturer fell $2.01, or 11 percent, to $15.98.

Hewlett-Packard Co. announced plans Monday to cut 24,600 jobs, or about 8 percent of its work force, over the next three years as it works through its acquisition of technology-services company Electronic Data Systems Corp. HP shares were little changed early Tuesday. HP rose $3.08, or 6.8 percent, to $48.41.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 20.89, or 3.03 percent, to 710.65.

Overseas, markets in Asia fell sharply Tuesday after being closed Monday. Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 4.95 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index lost 5.44 percent.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 3.43 percent, Germany's DAX index lost 1.63 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.96 percent.

Ellen DeGeneres a CoverGirl!

Ellen DeGeneres is getting ready for that close-up.

On Tuesday's Ellen DeGeneres Show, she confirms that she is the new face of CoverGirl.

"You know how I always like to share what's going on in my life with you all, and I was going to give you some news, and unfortunately rumors started circulating all over the Internet," she tells the audience.

"I am here to set the record straight right now. I am not pregnant. It just turned out to be a bump. I went and had it checked out," she cracks. "That's not the news. I am the new face of CoverGirl."

See Ellen DeGeneres' wedding photo.

She then jokingly poses as a model. "That's the first thing they teach you when you're a CoverGirl," she quips.

Although her campaign is not set to launch until January, "somehow people found out about it," she says.

She then gives her audience a glimpse at what goes on behind the scenes at a CoverGirl shoot.

See photos of your favorite 90s models - then and now.

"Theyre putting some lip liner on me man, they love lip liner!" she says. "I got hours and hours."

She says she's "very, very excited" about the new gig.

She adds, "Its a very cool thing Im honored and the photo shoot was 'easy, breezy, beautiful CoverGirl'"

Can you believe Ellen -- and these stars -- are 50?

Yost is toast for Brewers

Milwaukee Brewers ownership drew the line at 1½ late-summer collapses, which is Mark Attanasio’s prerogative, even if the Brewers have only 12 games left and nobody can remember anything quite so September panicky and/or bold.

Manager Ned Yost was fired Monday and replaced for now by third-base coach Dale Sveum. Yost was afforded half-a-collapse more than Willie Randolph was with the New York Mets, so there was that. And while the Brewers weren’t yet done with a mortifyingly bad September (which was beginning to resemble last season’s mortifyingly bad August), their postseason prospects had been reduced to wild card or nothing, with the latter appearing more likely.

Remember, this isn’t just some mid-market team hoping to puff up and grab a postseason run. The Brewers haven’t sniffed October since 1982 and this could be their last shot for a while. CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets will be free agents, casting the Brewers in with the pool of teams trying to rebuild the top ends of their rotations. That’s not easy and that’s not cheap, and the shame of it is the Brewers – with Sabathia and Sheets out front – would be a real challenge in a playoff series, assuming they hit, which they haven’t done much of lately, either.

Just as we were lining them up against whatever came out of the NL East, Yost’s ballclub nose-dived into September, winning three games in 15 days. The Brewers scored more than four runs once, allowed at least four runs 11 times and, by the time they held a news conference in a Chicago Westin on Monday evening (Randolph, coincidentally, got it in a Westin, too, that one in Costa Mesa, Ca.), they’d given away every bit of a 5½-game lead in the wild card race.

Worse, over two weeks, they’d been swept by the Mets (three) and Philadelphia Phillies (four), meaning they were giving the lead away in big enough chunks that Yost probably wouldn’t have been managing a contender in the final week of September whether he’d stayed on or not.

In case Attanasio and general manager Doug Melvin didn’t recognize what was going on, the team’s left fielder spelled it out after the Brewers were kicked around for two games in Philadelphia on Sunday.

He told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “This series was a complete and total disaster,” adding, “The only good thing is we have been here before. This isn’t the first time all year we’ve played bad.”

Even after a 20-7 August that seemed to solidify the Brewers as walk-in playoff contestants, even after successfully camouflaging Eric Gagne in the bullpen, even after they’d become hearty enough to win 28 one-run games, the Brewers were still remarkably fragile. They were 10-5 against the St. Louis Cardinals, for months their nearest wild-card competition, and 7-8 against the Cincinnati Reds, done since May. They were 11-1 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and a combined 5-11 against the Mets and Phillies.

Unable to wring everybody’s necks – though Prince Fielder infamously started with Manny Parra, an incident condescendingly dismissed by Yost – management regretfully dismissed Yost, seven months after exercising his 2009 option. If we’re able to read that correctly, last season wasn’t his fault, this season is.

So, they turn to Sveum, a sturdy baseball man whose postseason glories are as third-base coach for the 2004 Boston Red Sox (you may know him as “Send ‘em Sveum”) and, more poignantly, as bullpen coach/catcher for the 1998 New York Yankees. Sveum was released by the Yankees in August of that season but so adored the team he returned to warm up relievers through the end of that World Series run. The following year he played 49 games for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Fittingly, Sveum was the Brewers’ first draft pick in 1982, the last time a regular season ended well for them. Also in that season, the Brewers swapped out managers, removing Buck Rodgers and becoming Harvey Kuenn’s wall-bangers, though Kuenn had 115 games to make them wall-bangers, not 12. Yost played on that team. So did Ted Simmons, who was part of Monday’s shakeup. And so did Cecil Cooper, whose Houston Astros’ second half was in part responsible for Yost’s firing.

Attanasio had nothing to lose, as it had all been lost by Sunday evening. The Brewers open the Sveum Interim Era on Tuesday night with three games in Chicago, the Cubs no longer there to be caught, but a season still there to be saved. And they open with Sabathia and Sheets, which is as good a place as any to continue their September, both panicky and bold, and to restart their season, whatever might be left of it.