With just one week to go until the debt ceiling deadline, there's still no agreement on the horizon. Congressional leaders are trying to gain support for their competing plans, but with so little time, will a workable deal be worked out? Glenn Thrush covers the White House for Politico.com. He outlined the plans put forward by Republican House Speaker, John Boehner and Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid.
In an unusual move, the maid allegedly raped by the former chief of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss Kahn, is speaking out. Nafissatou Diallo, 32, from the West African nation of Guinea has given interviews to ABC's Good Morning America and Newsweek. She describes her version of what happened in a New York hotel room last May, denying allegations that the encounter with DSK was consensual, that she was a prostitute or that she was after Strauss Kahn's money. Newsweek reporter John Solomon spoke with Diallo for this week's publication and joins Madeleine to discuss their conversation and the future of the case.
The Los Angeles county suburb of Lancaster has some serious problems, including high rates of unemployment and home foreclosure, and more than its share of violent crime. Lancaster’s outspoken mayor is trying to remake his troubled city, but critics say his attempts to keep Section 8 recipients out of town discriminates against poor people of color. The California Report's Krissy Clark has the details.
It's been over three months since an earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a tidal wave that nearly caused nuclear meltdown. American news teams had heavy coverage of the devastation and threat to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, but according to Japanese-American author Roland Kelts, the U.S. media missed the point. Kelts joined us in the U.S. right after the disaster in Japan. Now he and ABC News correspondent Akiko Fujita explain from Tokyo.
A post mortem is being carried out today to determine what caused the death of British singer, Amy Winehouse. She died on Saturday at the age of 27. Hailed as a musical genius, Winehouse's battle with drug and alcohol addiction often made the headlines more than her work. NPR Music Critic Ann Powers met and interviewed Amy Winehouse back in 2007 and shares her memories of the troubled musician.
