Corrina_Sullivan's Blog

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- InBev SA formed the world's largest brewer Tuesday when it completed its $52 billion (euro41 billion) takeover of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. The new company, named Anheuser-Busch InBev, will be headed by InBev CEO Carlos Brito and will be headquartered at Leuven, Belgium.

InBev promises to keep Anheuser-Busch's St. Louis base as the company's North American headquarters but the takeover ends 150 years of family rule at Anheuser-Busch. Anheuser-Busch President and CEO August A. Busch IV joins the new company's board as a non-executive director.

Anheuser-Busch shares stopped trading Monday and will now be swapped for $70 each in cash. The Belgian-Brazilian takeover of Anheuser-Busch comes after a bitter battle turned sweeter with a higher offer in July, despite protests in St. Louis that saw politicians criticize the deal and Web sites call for Bud to be saved from "the waffle guys."

Anheuser-Busch provides half of America's beer but it has not managed to expand around the world as fast as InBev -- a Belgian-Brazilian hybrid that owns hundreds of local brands but few real stars.

InBev has promised to keep all 12 North American breweries open as long as the company faces no new U.S. taxes. Anheuser-Busch already plans to shed 1,185 jobs -- mostly by offering early retirement and not filling vacancies.

What do you think?  Few products are more American than Budweiser.

Thanks for blogging,
Corrina

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House is throwing support behind a plan to speed release of $25 billion in loans to troubled automakers but is rejecting a Democratic proposal to use money from a financial bailout for car companies. Spokeswoman Dana Perino says the Democratic proposal would lead to partisan gridlock because the $700 billion rescue package was never intended to help automakers and shouldn't be now. For that reason, she told The Associated Press that the White House is now actively asking Congress to accelerate loans it first approved in September. Those loans were meant to help automakers build more fuel-efficient vehicles. The administration now supports allowing it to be used for more urgent purposes as the companies struggle to stay afloat.

What do you make of this?

Thanks for blogging,

Corrina

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven law. She was also running out of time: She knew that state lawmakers would soon meet in a special session to amend the ill-fated law so that it applies to newborns only. "Where am I going to get help if they change the law?" said the mother, who lives in Lincoln and asked to not be identified by name to protect her adopted child.

To the state's surprise and embarrassment, more than half of the 31 children legally abandoned under the safe-haven law since it took effect in mid-July have been teenagers. But state officials may have inadvertently made things worse with their hesitant response to the problem: The number of drop-offs has almost tripled to about three a week since Gov. Dave Heineman announced on Oct. 29 that lawmakers would rewrite the law.

The safe-haven law was intended to save "Dumpster babies" by allowing desperate young mothers to abandon their newborns at a hospital without fear of prosecution. But lawmakers could not agree on an age limit, and the law as passed uses only the word "child." All states have safe-haven laws, but in every state but Nebraska, the law applies to infants only.

What do you make of lawmakers hesitant response to the problem?  How about parents giving up their teens?

Corrina

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic aides say Speaker Nancy Pelosi intends to seek legislation to provide relief to the battered auto industry, and wants it done in a post-election session of Congress likely to convene in the next few days. Pelosi is not expected to specify how large a bailout she wants. The aides who described her views Tuesday did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The speaker's decision comes a few days after General Motors warned it is rapidly running out of cash, and Ford announced its situation was only slightly better. President Bush would have to agree to sign the legislation, which would be passed well before President-elect Obama takes office.

Think this is a good or bad idea?

Thanks for blogging,
Corrina

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The senator overseeing Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony is writing to Internet sites like eBay asking them not to sell scalped inauguration tickets.

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California is also writing a bill that would make it a federal crime to scalp tickets to the historic event January 20.

Feinstein, who chairs the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, says she foresees overwhelming demand for the 240,000 available tickets and has heard reports of them being sold for as much as $40,000 online.

The tickets are supposed to be free to the public and distributed through congressional offices. The offices won't get the tickets until shortly before the inauguration, to try to prevent scalping.

Feel free to share your thoughts.

Happy Monday,
Corrina

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration's assurances that a controversial chemical is safe for use in food containers are badly flawed, an independent panel of scientific advisers concluded in a report released Tuesday. The chemical, known as bisphenol A, is used to make plastic for food packaging, baby bottles and other consumer and medical goods. Environmental groups want to ban BPA in products for infants because of concerns that it can interfere with their development. But the FDA recently said there is no harm from the low doses of that babies, children and most adults get by eating foods from containers made with the chemical. Asked by the agency to review that conclusion, a panel of outside advisers delivered what amounts to a scientific rebuke. "The margins of safety defined by FDA as 'adequate' are, in fact, inadequate," said the report, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press. The advisers found that the FDA had not considered all available, credible scientific evidence, and urged the agency to essentially go back to the lab. The report came as a welcome surprise to environmentalists and their supporters in Congress. Citing some of the advisers ties to industry, critics had initially questioned the objectivity of the panel.

Parents, are you confused or what?  Share your thoughts with us.

Have a nice night~ stay warm...

Corrina

OCALA, Fla. (AP) -- Authorities say an Ocala woman was found passed out behind the wheel of her truck with her 4-year-old son in the front seat.

The Marion County Sheriff's Office says a motorist on Monday reported a woman asleep in a vehicle, parked on the shoulder near an intersection.

Deputies asked 42-year-old Kimberly Gae Equatore to take a field sobriety test, but she refused to take the test at first.

She eventually agreed to cooperate but then refused to finish the test.

Deputies reported finding three small, half-empty bottles of vodka in the truck.

Equatore was charged with DUI and taken to jail, where she refused to take a breath test.

The Department of Children and Families and the Equatore's husband were notified about her son.

What do you make of all this?

Corrina

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Alan Crotzer already has received $1.25 million in compensation for spending more than 24 years in prison for crimes he didn't commit, and Tuesday he was pardoned for two other offenses.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet unanimously forgave him for stealing beer in 1979 when he was 18 years old and introducing contraband -- marijuana -- while he was in prison in 1991.

"I just think it's important that when somebody obviously has changed their life that you recognize that, you give them a second chance," Crist said. "I'm very proud of Alan Crotzer."

Crist had urged the Legislature to pass Crotzer's compensation bill and he signed it into law earlier this year.

Crotzer was released after 24 years, 6 months and 13 days when DNA evidence in 2006 proved he was innocent of abducting and raping two women from a Tampa home during a robbery.

He doesn't need a pardon for those 1982 convictions because they have been overturned in court. He hopes the pardon will help him achieve his dream of returning to prison as an inspector for the Department of Corrections.

"I put so much behind me, but there's so much in front of me I've got to do," Crotzer said afterward. "Prison offers nothing but corruption and chaos and mayhem. They can hardly feed them, clothe them or house them, and there needs to be some reform."

Blog us with your thoughts.  24 years is a very long time to spend in prison for crimes he didn't commit. 

Thanks for blogging,

Corrina

NEW YORK (AP) -- Dow Jones industrials rise 400 as easier credit markets feed investor optimism.

Feel free to blog us with your thoughts.

Corrina

BLUE ASH, Ohio (AP) -- Police in Ohio say an 89-year-old woman is facing a charge of petty theft because neighborhood children accuse her of refusing to give back their football.

Edna Jester was arrested last week in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash. Police say one child's father complained that Jester kept the youngsters' ball after it landed in her yard. Police Capt. James Schaffer says there has been an ongoing dispute in the neighborhood over kids' balls landing in the woman's yard.

Jester said Monday she has received many calls and didn't have time to discuss the matter any more.

Jester is to appear in court next month. The maximum penalty for a petty theft conviction in Ohio is six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

Think the possible punishment fits the crime in this case?

Happy Monday,

Corrina

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Facts went astray on tax cuts, negative campaign advertising and oil exports when Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain engaged Wednesday in their third and final presidential debate.

Some examples:

OBAMA: "Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut, so that it matches."

THE FACTS: The bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that his programs would add $281 billion to the deficit at the end of his first term. The analysis includes Obama's proposals for saving money.

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McCAIN: "We have to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much."

THE FACTS: This is a reference to U.S. spending on oil imports. McCain has repeatedly made this claim. But the figure is highly inflated and misleading. According to government agencies that track energy imports, the United States spent $246 billion in 2007 for all imported crude oil, a majority of it coming from friendly nations including neighboring Canada and Mexico. An additional $82 billion was spent on imported refined petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel and fuel oil. A majority of the refined products come from refineries in such friendly countries as the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, Trinidad-Tobago and the Virgin Islands.

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OBAMA: "One hundred percent, John, of your ads -- 100 percent of them -- have been negative."

THE FACTS: The statement is true when it comes to McCain's current commercial spots. But by saying McCain's ads "have been" 100 percent negative, Obama ventures into misleading territory. McCain is currently running all negative ads, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But he has run a number of positive ads during the campaign.

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McCAIN: "Sen. Obama is spending unprecedented amounts of money in negative attack ads on me."

THE FACTS: Obama is spending unprecedented amounts of money on ads, period -- negative or otherwise. Obama is outspending McCain and the Republican Party by more than 2-to-1 in presidential ads. At one point in August, 90 percent of the ads Obama was airing were against McCain. A study conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that about 34 percent of Obama's ads are now negative.

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OBAMA: "I want to provide a tax cut for 95 percent of working Americans, 95 percent."

THE FACTS: Obama constantly says this. But the independent Tax Policy Center says his plan cuts taxes for 81.3 percent of all households in 2009.

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McCAIN: Said of Obama's running mate Sen. Joe Biden: "He had this cockamamie idea of dividing Iraq into three countries."

THE FACTS: Biden actually proposed dividing Iraq into three semiautonomous regions, not separate countries. He was a prime sponsor of a nonbinding Senate resolution that called for Iraq to have federal regions under the control of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis in a power-sharing agreement similar to the one that ended the 1990s war in Bosnia.

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McCAIN: "Now, we have allocated $750 billion. Let's take 300 of that billion and go in and buy those home loan mortgages and negotiate with those people in their homes, 11 million homes or more, so that they can afford to pay the mortgage, stay in their home."

THE FACTS: Ordering the government to buy up bad mortgages to cut homeowners' monthly payments might sound good, but experts are skeptical. They say the plan McCain is promoting is unlikely to solve the housing crisis that's pushing the economy toward recession. One big problem: The vast majority of the toxic home loans that are clogging financial markets and freezing up credit have been repackaged into complex investments that the government would be hard-pressed to unravel and buy. And the government could end up paying far more than they would ever be worth. That could primarily help banks and lenders with taxpayer money.

Who do you think won Wednesday night's debate?

Thanks for blogging,
Corrina

MIAMI (AP) -- A Miami judge has agreed to modify bail conditions on tax charges so Helio Castroneves can race later this month in Australia. The Brazilian race car driver and 2007 "Dancing With The Stars" champ had been barred from leaving the United States. A judge granted Castroneves' request Friday to travel to Brisbane, Australia so he can drive in the Oct. 26 race. Prosecutors may still appeal that order. Castroneves was indicted last week on federal conspiracy and tax evasion charges and is free on $10 million bail. Prosecutors say Castroneves used offshore accounts to hide millions of dollars in income from the Internal Revenue Service. Castroneves insists he is innocent and that he relied on advice from tax experts for his financial dealings.

Think Castroneves should be able to race later this month?

Thanks for blogging,

Corrina