No word on price

"I have no money or time to shop," said Tina Morabito, who just started her holiday shopping on Friday

"The panic button has been pushed, particularly in department stores."

"When people think they are in a recession, they spend like they are in a recession," Slater said.

higher gas prices, an escalating credit crisis and a slumping housing market —weighed on shoppers' minds.

nvestment company that is partially or wholly-owned and funded by a country's government.

require automakers to cut greenhouse gas emissions nationwide, despite President Bush's rejection of mandatory national standards.

states represent nearly half the U.S. population

Johnson said Congress' passage of an energy bill this week that raises fuel economy standards for all cars and trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 made the state laws unnecessary

"It's important to put this in perspective - (the new law) applies to all 50 states," Johnson said. "Not 12 states, not 17 states, all 50 states. That is great from an environmental perspective."

Auto industry executives have argued

lead to a patchwork of laws.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, have been preparing for weeks to sue EPA to get the decision overturned

state did not specify how the reductions were to be accomplished

auto trade groups, manufacturers and dealers argued that the California statute conflicts with federal law

only practical way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to increase gas mileage, a subject regulated exclusively by the federal government.

Environmentalists described today's ruling as part of a long-standing effort by the Bush administration to stall action on climate change regulations.

EPA was trying to minimize the media impact of the decision

press call to announce the decision was held at 6:30 p.m. EDT, long after the major broadcast networks finished work on their evening broadcasts.

renews the Milk Income Loss Contract program at a higher rate

when prices fall below a baseline level, the federal government pays dairy farmers cash to cover

amendment that would have banned payments to full-time farmers who make more than $750,000 a year, and part-time farmers who make more than $250,000 a year. The vote was 48-47, but 60 votes were needed for passage.

would have limited overall farm payments to $250,000 a year - down from the current limit of $360,000.

would have required that farmers be "actively engaged" to receive subsidies, fell four votes short of the 60 needed.

urged his fellow Republicans to drop a filibuster of the legislation last week,

"followed his party's leadership, and supported subsidies given to wealthy millionaires who do not farm."

The focus here was to keep the money and the subsidies and the help in the hands of family farmers," she said, "and not to multimillionaire real estate developers in Florida or art collectors in San Francisco."

sets an agenda and schedule for negotiators to find ways to reduce pollution and help poor countries adapt to environmental changes

speeding up the transfer of technology and financial assistance.

European Union to include specific emissions reduction targets for industrial nations

eliminated after the United States

targets should come at the end of the two-year negotiations, not the beginning

lead to widespread drought, floods, higher sea levels and worsening storms.

lacked specific emissions targets and did not include strong commitments for rich countries to provide poorer ones with green technology.

embark on at least two years of talks to fashion a more effective and widely accepted successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol

more inclusive, effective successor to Kyoto, which commits 37 industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gases by an average of 5% between 2008 and 2012.

Bush has argued that the cuts required by Kyoto would hurt the U.S. economy

encouraged monitoring of technological transfer to make sure rich countries were meeting that need.

United States objected, calling for further talks

"If you are not willing to lead, then get out of the way!"

Canada lodged its complaint Jan. 8, claiming that some $9 billion paid out by the United States annually in export credit guarantees and other subsidies unfairly and illegally deflated international corn prices.

already has ruled that some cotton subsidies are illegal, and the administration of President George W. Bush has been coming under pressure to reform a number of its farm support programs.

challenged whether the billions of dollars in overall farm subsidies paid out by the U.S. government comply with international commerce rules.

U.S. subsidy levels for a number of years on farm products including wheat, sugar and soybeans were illegal

United States said it has offered cuts

largely artificial, addressing only permitted levels of government subsidies and failing to cut what Washington actually gives to its farmers.

40 percent of global production and nearly 60 percent of all exports

difficult to get Russia and China and the reluctant Europeans to go for tough sanctions,

Bush called the National Intelligence Estimate released Monday a "warning signal" and said it lent support to his unyielding approach to Iran.

made saltwater catch fire.

potential for desalinization or cheap energy

cancer breakthrough is what he's really after

seed a person's cancerous cells with nanoscopic metal particles and blast them with radio waves, perhaps he could kill off the cancer while sparing healthy tissue

bombarding a saline-filled test tube with radio waves and bumped the tube

Kanzius struck a match. "The water lit like a propane flame,"

sodium chloride in the water may weaken the bonds between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms, which are broken free by radio waves. It's these gas molecules that are igniting, he explains, not the liquid itself

reaction disappears once the radio waves stop

Iran is continuing to enrich uranium, and that it could acquire enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon after 2010, and possibly not until after 2015.

report's authors went on to say that Iran could likely be persuaded to abandon the program further.

conclusions were contained in a highly classified document, but its key judgments were declassified and released

"good news" that a dispute over Iran's nuclear program might be resolved without the use of force

said that the Bush administration had not sought to manipulate the information to help shape U.S. policy on Iran.

Hadley said that the intelligence community "assessed with high confidence that Iran currently was determined to develop nuclear weapons."

May 2005 report

hand majority control of their local operations over to the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA

broke Chavez's string of more than a dozen electoral victories since 1998, rejecting 50.7% to 49.3% dozens of amendments to the 1999 constitution

Chavez acknowledged the outcome

would have expanded the presidential term of office to seven years, up from its current six years, while scrapping term limits.

ended the autonomy of the central bank and made it easier to seize private property.

overhauled the country's military, giving more power to a civilian reserve

cut the workweek by 25%.

the opposition may run into trouble if it interprets this victory as a mandate to push Chavez from office.

no medical evidence to suggest a spider bite could be responsible for anger and hatred

previous high of 20.8% set in 2000

down from 13.4% in 2004 and a bit less than their 13% share in 2000

bottom 50% earned 12.8%

technological change that favors those with more skills

globalization and advances in communications that enlarge the rewards available to "superstar" performers

Bush said, "First of all, our society has had income inequality for a long time. Secondly, skills gaps yield income gaps. And what needs to be done about the inequality of income is to make sure people have got good education, starting with young kids. That's why No Child Left Behind is such an important component of making sure that America is competitive in the 21st century."

30-year trend of increasing inequality

twice as many such Wall Street professionals in the top 0.5%

highest-earning hedge-fund manager earned double in 2005 what the top earner made in 2003,

25 hedge-fund managers earned more in 2004 than the chief executives of all the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, combined

profits per equity partner at the top 100 law firms doubling between 1994 and 2004

median tax filer's income

many Americans think the economy is in or near a recession

top 1% grew 3%, to $364,657

fell 2% between 2000 and 2005 when adjusted for inflation, to $30,881

4,600 species of bivalves that occurred in more than 200 locations worldwide.

known in every latitud

Anomalodesmata and dubbed the Anomalos

dipped in the tropics.

Anomalo diversity peaked in the mid-latitudes of both hemispheres

move beyond federal regulators in Washington

“I believe that states have to step into a void created by a failure of federal action,” Mr. Spitzer

“The global warming issue is one where the current administration has first denied the scientific evidence and only recently begun to discuss the matter in a serious way.”

sue the Environmental Protection Agency is aimed at prodding the Bush administration to remove obstacles to more than a dozen states seeking to regulate global warming emissions

implement the first regulation in the United States requiring reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from cars. The E.P.A. has not yet granted the waiver, keeping the regulation from taking effect.

federal court in Vermont rejected attempts by automakers to block the regulation

United States Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide.

E.P.A. has violated legal requirements that federal agencies act on such requests within a reasonable time.

cut global warming emissions from power plants 16 percent by 2015, but that reduction is based on 1990 emissions levels

regulations will favor alternative energy approaches, like wind power, and will not be favorable for coal producers

cap the amount of emissions permitted and force producers to purchase allowances for their carbon emissions

involves nine other states in principle

Independent Power Producers of New York

“We don’t want to put more burden on the rate payers of New York, and the last thing I would think this governor wants to do is send the message that investment should go in other states,” said Gavin J. Donohue

urged Congress to maintain the 45-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba's regime

fails to acknowledge that American citizens are the greatest ambassadors of democracy, freedom and hope to the Cuban people

Our policies make such contact virtually impossible, and threaten to make the United States irrelevant on the island.

As long as we demand that the Cuban regime reform before we help, we allow Raul Castro a veto over empowering the Cuban people

Bush said the U.S. is prepared to help the Cuban people

`freedom fund'

assist the Cuban people when the time comes for the government to change.

put aside its differences and prepare for Cuba's transition to a future of freedom and progress and promise,'' Bush said.

Once such changes are underway, the fund would grant Cuban entrepreneurs access to grants, loans and debt relief to help rebuild the country

kept in the smoker in a storage facility after he lost his home

an auction held by the storage company because Wood had missed his monthly payments.

Whisnant initially gave it to police

charging adults $3 and children $1 for a look, now wants the leg back.

genetic comparison only being made between a child seeking to join a mother

immigrants take a language test and an exam on fundamental French values

sets a minimum income level for the relative in France