The Golden Report

34 DAYS UNTIL IOWA

JUST IN: Virginia Attorney Governor Ken Cuccinelli will announce that he is running for governor in 2013, the Washington Post reports tonight.

Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General in 2009 and has become a hero among tea party conservatives for his positions on health care, immigration and gay rights.

Incumbent Republican Governor Bob McDonnell is not eligible to run for re-election in 2013 due to term limits. Cuccinelli is expected to face Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling in a primary.

On the Democratic side, former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe is reportedly considering a second attempt at the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

CAMPAIGN 2012:

NEWT GINGRICH ON FOX NEWS TONIGHT: “And it’s clear that across the country, people are saying, you know, I think we need Newt Gingrich,” he said. “Whereas I would have thought originally it was going to be Mitt and not-Mitt, I think it’s going to — it may turn out to be Newt and not-Newt.”

RON PAUL ATTACKS GINGRICH: In a new web video out today (that only has 301 views), the Ron Paul campaign attacks Gingrich for what they call “serial hypocrisy” and applies the same flip-flopping charge that is more often leveled against Mitt Romney, to Gingrich.

HERMAN CAIN ON FOX NEWS THIS AFTERNOON: “I can only conjecture that maybe I am the Democrats’ worst nightmare if I win the nomination … Maybe the Democrats want Newt Gingrich to win the nomination, so they can then go after his personal life.” Officially, Cain is still “reassessing” his candidacy.

AND THEN, Cain said this, via POLITICO, “On the many, many phone calls between him and the woman accusing him of having a 13-year affair Ginger White, Cain said: “I talked to a lot of people 61 times.”

STILL TONIGHT, Cain had more to say, in a 9pm news conference, he said he could not guarantee that more allegations could come forward.”I can’t say that someone won’t drum up another accusation. It just comes with the territory, he siad.

MITT ROMNEY UP WITH NH AD: The second ad of the campaign cycle put up by the Romney Campaign. Their first, last week, was widely criticized for a misleading quote from President Obama during the 2008 campaign. The ad is straightforward and attacks the President’s economic policy.

PRESIDENT OBAMA is in New York City tonight, attending four campaign fundraisers. Earlier today, the President was in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of Vice President Joe Biden (who is in Baghdad today) urging Congress to extend & expand the payroll tax cut passed last year for in 2012. He is due back at The White House at 12:30am Thursday.

ON CAPITOL HILL, there is some movement on extending the payroll tax cut, with GOP leadership emerging generally in favor of doing so, resisting the opposition of some more conservative members.

In a closed-door House Republican caucus meeting today, The Hill reports that Majority Leader Eric Cantor laid down the gauntlet, saying, “taxes are a Republican issue and you aren’t a Republican if you want to raise taxes on struggling families to fund bigger government.”

THE REPUBLICAN PLAN as it is currently being floated, would freeze pay for federal workers an additional year (it has already been frozen for two years), trim the federal workforce by roughly 10% and introduce some means-testing for federal programs such as Medicare and unemployment insurance.

Ordinarily, these proposals would be dismissed out of hand by Democrats (much like their proposal, to pay for the tax extension by charging a surtax on millionaire taxes, is being by Republicans), however, the proposals in the Republican plan are taken from the bi-partisan Simpson/Bowles Committee recommendations that many Democrats see as the basis for long-term deficit reduction.

COORDINATED ACTION BY THE FED and other central banks around the world this morning was designed to increase the amount of US dollars in circulation around the world and act as a buffer to continued anxiety over the European debt crisis.

As the New York Times reports:

“The banks announced that they would reduce by roughly half the cost of an existing program under which banks in foreign countries can borrow dollars from their own central banks, which in turn get those dollars from the Fed.  The banks also said that loans will be available until February 2013, extending a previous endpoint of August 2012.”

“The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity,” the banks said in a statement. The participants in addition to the Fed were the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank.”

WALL STREET reported its best day of 2011 as a result of the Fed’s announcement:

• DOW up 490 to 12,045
• NASDAQ up 105 to 2,620
• S&P 500 up 52 to 1,247

BILLY GRAHAM was admitted to a hospital today in North Carolina, reportedly suffering from pneumonia-like symptoms. The iconic Evangelical minister is 93-years old and has been in declining health in recent years.

$9 GAS? it looks like that’s a possibility this winter in NOME, ALASKA. A historic winter storm earlier this month prevented a barge from reaching the Alaskan city best known the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and now officials are coming up with a plan to fly small quantities of gasoline into the community of 3,500 residents, at an extraordinarily high cost.

The Associated Press reports on the predicament:

“A gallon of gas was selling for $5.98 and jet fuel $6.77 a gallon on Wednesday. The next barge delivery wouldn’t be until next June. In the meantime, flying fuel to the city could increase the cost per gallon by $3 to $4, officials said.”

“We are going to have to have fuel drivers picking up fuel 24 hours a day as flights are available to fly into Nome,” said Jason Evans, board chairman of Sitnasuak Native Corp., which provides services to the region.”

“Sitnasuak arranged in May with petroleum distributor Delta Western Inc. to have three barges deliver fuel to Nome, but only one arrived early in the summer, Evans said. That barge carried home heating fuel.”

“The storm that barreled into Alaska’s western coastline in mid-November, zeroing in on Nome, prevented the arrival of a barge carrying 1.6-million gallons of gasoline and diesel.”

FINALLY...the 2011 Rockefeller Christmas Tree is lit! This year’s tree is a 74-foot tall Norweigan Spruce from Miffinville, Pa. Over 34,00 lights- stretching some five miles- illuminate the tree.

The first Christmas Tree was placed in Rockefeller Plaza in 1931 and the first tree lighting ceremony was held in 1933. The 2011 tree will be illuminated each evening- and all day Christmas Day- until January 07, 2012.

FOLLOW THE EVENING REPORT ON TWITTER: @EVENING_REPORT

LIKE THE EVENING REPORT ON FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/EVENINGREPORT

SUBSCRIBE TO THE EVENING REPORT: EVENINGEMAIL.COM

BREAKING NEWS- SUPREME COURT DENIES STAY OF EXECUTION FOR TROY DAVIS- Within the past few minutes, the Supreme Court has issued a decision in the case of Troy Davis, the Georgia inmate who is scheduled to be put to death tonight by lethal injection for the 1989 murder of an off-duty police officer. The Court has refused to issue a stay of the execution. Prison officials have not yet said whether the execution will go forward as planned tonight, but that is expected. CBS is reporting there were no dissents in the decision, which was issued by Justice Clarence Thomas, of Georgia. For the past few days public attention has been focused on the Davis case- it increased through the day as first a Circuit Court, then the State Supreme Court and now the US Supreme Court have rejected emergency appeals.

TOP STORY- The House of Representatives failed this afternoon to adopt a continuing resolution that would keep the government funded beyond next Saturday’s end of the fiscal year. 48 Republicans joined a majority of Democrats in voting against the CR. Opposition came from Democrats for two reasons: a lower level of funding for FEMA than the Senate has proposed- and an offset that would pay for that increased funding by scrapping grants for a renewable energy program. Conservative Republican opposition came because the CR actually sets a higher level of annual spending than the original House passed FY2012 budget, but is consistent with the bi-partisan discretionary spending caps agreed to in the Budget Control Act of August. Congressional leaders still have over a week to come to a resolution on the funding dispute to prevent a shutdown- but today’s vote was a rare public defeat for the House Speaker, John Boehner

FREE AT LAST- Americans Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal, jailed in 2009 after hiking across the Iranian border, were released from Iranian custody this morning and have now been reunited with their families in the Arab nation of Oman. They were detained on July 31, 2009; a third hiker, Sarah Shroud, Bauer’s fiance, was also detained in 2009 and released almost a year ago. Eight days ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC’s Ann Curry in an interview that the hikers would be released “in a mater of days,” and this action comes one day before Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the Untied Nations General Assembly in New York. Bauer and Fatel, now both 29, first met and became friends at the University of California Berkeley

STATEMENT FROM THE PRESIDENT: “I welcome the release of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal from detention in Iran and am very pleased that they are being reunited with their loved ones.  The tireless advocacy of their families over these two years has won my admiration, and is now coming to an end with Josh and Shane back in their arms.  All Americans join their families and friends in celebrating their long-awaited return home.”

DEVELOPING TONIGHT- The United States continues to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority over their plans to introduce a measure asking for statehood recognition at the UN on Friday. France has joined the United States in pressuring Palestine to drop their proposal and rejoin negotiations with Israel- with France proposing a new one-year negotiation deadline, that the Palestinian Authority has rejected. President Obama met with both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders today- and also addressed the General Assembly, saying, “One year ago, I stood at this podium and I called for an independent Palestine. I believed then, and I believe now, that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own. But what I also said is that a genuine peace can only be realized between the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves.”

A BUSY DAY FOR THE PRESIDENT- who held meetings with the leaders of ISRAEL, JAPAN, THE UNITED KINGDOM and FRANCE, addressed the UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, a luncheon hosted by Secretary-General BAN KI-MOON, and went across town to deliver a speech at the CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE. He has just left a UN LEADER RECEPTION with the First Lady at the NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY and was driven my motorcade to JFK Airport because bad weather grounded Marine One. The President will return to the White House overnight. 

TOMORROW, the President travels to OHIO to stand on a bridge on the OHIO/KENTUCKY Border to highlight an infrastructure project that would be funded in the American Jobs Act. Ohio is the home state of Speaker Boehner; Kentucky the home state of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The FEDERAL RESERVE announced today a plan to invest $400 billion in long-term Treasury Securities over the next 9 months, a stimulus measure designed to increase economic growth and a sign that the Central Bank does not see another option for the struggling American economy. From the Fed Statement, “Growth remains slow. Recent indicators point to continuing weakness in overall labor market conditions and the unemployment rate remains elevated..Household spending has been increasing at only a modest pace in recent months.” The lower interest rates are meant to spur investments, but, as the New York Times reports, “The new effort is an experiment without a direct precedent, although the Fed tried something similar in the 1960s. Essentially, the Fed hopes to drive down rates not by expanding its portfolio, as it has done twice in recent years, but by shifting its money into riskier long-term investments.”

WALL STREET responded to the move by the Federal Reserve:

• DOW down 283 to 11,124
• NASDAQ down 52
• S&P 500 down 35

WHAT WE MISSED ON TUESDAY- President Obama will travel to Mountain View, CA next week for the First Presidential LinkedIn Town Hall Meeting. Previously, the President has used YouTube, Facebook and Twitter as platforms to answer questions directly from Americans, online

CORRECTION FROM TUESDAY- In last night’s final item on the acquisition of social networking platform Ning, I misstated the terms of an earlier deal- that of MySpace. As an eagle-eyed reader pointed out: “NewsCorp sold MySpace for $35M (and it was actually plus a 5% stake in Specific Media). NewsCorps originally bought MySpace for $580M (although only $327M was attributed to MySpace as the $580M was for its parent company)”

RUMORS- Hewlett Packard may be considered Meg Whitman, the former Chief Executive of eBay- and 2010 California Republican Gubernatorial Candidate, as its next CEO

2012:

• A must-watch campaign video released online by the Perry Campaign today (already has nearly 35,000 YouTube views) depicts President Obama as “President Zero”- using Obama’s words, as a candidate and President, against him and overlaid with the recent news of no new jobs created in August and record poverty rates 
• A McClatchy/Marist Poll that everyone is talking about: Obama 49%/ Palin 44%
• Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson has cracked 1% in the polls and thus has claimed a spot in tomorrow night’s Republican Presidential Candidates Debate, sponsored by FOX News and Google, in Orlando. 

THREE THINGS TO WATCH in the debate, the third in as many weeks:

1/ The Romney attack on Perry. It was more difficult than expected last week because of a Tea Party audience. Will Romney come out swinging at Perry? Which issues he decides to attack on will show the areas he believes Perry remains vulnerable2/ Can any of the other 7 candidates break through what has been deemed a two-man race? Any signs of traction by a second or third tier candidate will attract a lot of attention. 3/ Which candidate will be the first to mention the $16 Muffin? 

FINALLY- Facebook unveiled significant changes to its platform today, a move that has sparked anxiety and angst among some users. According the Facebook, the changes come in order to make the News Feed- on the Home Page- continually interesting. “Now, News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won’t have to worry about missing important stuff. All your news will be in a single stream with the most interesting stories featured at the top,” Facebok’s Mark Tonkelowitz blogs. Among the other changes: a real-time ticker of friend updates on the right hand bar, a wider photo display (with higher resolutions) and faster photo upload times. 

AND COMING TOMORROW: Watch for Facebook Music to be announced