Obama's Numbers Continue Downward

Obama Polling shows More Strongly Disapporve than approve

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 31% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-three percent (33%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That matches the lowest level yet recorded (see trends).

Over the past two weeks, the Presidential Approval Index has stayed in a narrow range between +2 and -2. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Democrats Strongly Approve while 60% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. - Rasmussen Reports Story

North Korea Backing Down?

(CBS/AP) The North Korean ship Kang Nam has turned around and is heading back toward the south coast of China, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

The ship, which left a North Korean port on June 17, is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and weapons-related material.

It is currently in the vicinity of the Parcel Islands 100 miles off Vietnam, Martin reports, adding that there is no specified reason as of now for why it has changed course.

"With still no long range missiles on the launch pads and no time to get them ready for a July 4 launch, it would appear the temperature is being lowered," Martin said of North Korea's threats to launch missiles at Hawaii on the U.S.'s Independence Day.

"If the ship is on its way back, it would mean that Resolution 1874 is taking effect and causing the North to retreat," Kim Tae-woo, vice president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, told the Korea Herald. - CBS News Story

Ron Paul getting Support to Force Complete Audit of Federal Reserve

All of a sudden, Congress is paying close attention to Ron Paul.

The feisty congressman from Texas, whose insurgent "Ron Paul Revolution" presidential campaign rankled Republican leaders last year, now has the GOP House leadership on his side -- backing a measure that generated paltry support when he first introduced it 26 years ago.

Paul, as of Tuesday, has won 245 co-sponsors to a bill that would require a full-fledged audit of the Federal Reserve by the end of 2010. - FOX News Story

Why wouldn't you? This is a no-brainer. The absolute only reason for a no vote on this is that you know that there is something to hide.

Housing Prices Continue to Fall

Housing prices across the nation continued to decline in April, according to the benchmark S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, however the pace of decline moderated with some metro areas posting positive gains.

According to the Case-Shiller Index, home prices in the 20-city index fell 0.6% in April while home prices fell by 18.1% compared to the same period a year ago.

While a decline of home prices by 18.1% might be considered horrendous by any account, the pace of the decline has moderated considerably since record 19.4% decline in January.

“While one month’s data cannot determine if a turnaround has begun; it seems that some stabilization may be appearing in some of the regions,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the committee that oversees the index, said in a statement. - Fox News Story

I find this so fascinating. Just last Month, My City decided to send everyone a letter letting us know that we have all been re-accessed. My house has grown in value by $60,000 in the past 5 years. Pretty damn good since every house in my neighborhood is selling for far less than what they paid for it in the past 5 years.

Calls Begin for Investigation on EPA Suppression of Climate Report

A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.

The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the prospect of regulating gases like carbon dioxide as a way to reduce global warming. Carlin's report argued that the information the EPA was using was out of date, and that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, global temperatures have declined.

"He came out with the truth. They don't want the truth at the EPA," Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., a global warming skeptic, told FOX News, saying he's ordered an investigation. "We're going to expose it."

The controversy comes after the House of Representatives passed a landmark bill to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, one that Inhofe said will be "dead on arrival" in the Senate despite President Obama's energy adviser voicing confidence in the measure.

According to internal e-mails that have been made public by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Carlin's boss told him in March that his material would not be incorporated into a broader EPA finding and ordered Carlin to stop working on the climate change issue. The draft EPA finding released in April lists six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, that the EPA says threaten public health and welfare. - FOX News Story

EPA Buries 98 Page Report against Global Warming

The Environmental Protection Agency may have suppressed an internal report that was skeptical of claims about global warming, including whether carbon dioxide must be strictly regulated by the federal government, according to a series of newly disclosed e-mail messages.

Less than two weeks before the agency formally submitted its pro-regulation recommendation to the White House, an EPA center director quashed a 98-page report that warned against making hasty "decisions based on a scientific hypothesis that does not appear to explain most of the available data."

The EPA official, Al McGartland, said in an e-mail message to a staff researcher on March 17: "The administrator and the administration has decided to move forward... and your comments do not help the legal or policy case for this decision."

The e-mail correspondence raises questions about political interference in what was supposed to be a independent review process inside a federal agency -- and echoes criticisms of the EPA under the Bush administration, which was accused of suppressing a pro-climate change document.

Alan Carlin, the primary author of the 98-page EPA report, told CBSNews.com in a telephone interview on Friday that his boss, McGartland, was being pressured himself. "It was his view that he either lost his job or he got me working on something else," Carlin said. "That was obviously coming from higher levels." - CBS News Story

High Court Overturns Sotamayer Decision Rules in Favor of Firefighters

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a group of white firefighters in Connecticut were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision endorsed by high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

The 5-4 ruling poses a potential complication to Sotomayor's nomination, with confirmation hearings set to start in July. Already, supporters and critics of Sotomayor are seizing on the decision in an effort to defend their stance.

In the high-profile, controversial case, white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., argued they were discriminated against when the city tossed out the results of a promotion exam because too few minorities scored high enough on it.

Justice Anthony Kennedy authored the opinion in favor of Frank Ricci and his fellow firefighters who sued the city of New Haven.

"The city's action in discarding the tests violated (federal law)," the Supreme Court majority wrote Monday, adding that the city's "race-based rejection of the test results" could not be justified.

The city argued its action was prompted by concern that disgruntled black firefighters would sue. But that reasoning didn't hold sway with the court's majority.

"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify the city's reliance of race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," the court ruled. - FOX News Story

Obama's Polling Numbers Still Down and Falling

Over the past few weeks, Obama has watched his polling numbers slide as more people strongly disapprove and fewer people strongly approve of him.

He still however holds a relatively high Approval, but it is a bad time to be slipping in the polls when he wants to push his agenda.

Violence Increases Greatly as Troops Prepare for Withdrawl in Iraq

(CBS/AP) On June 30, U.S. troops will withdraw from patrolling Iraqi cities. This is making many Iraqis and the American troops nervous. In the last week more than 250 have died in various attacks and bombings, and fears are growing about increased sectarian violence and terrorism once U.S. troops pull back.

Iraqi security forces bolstered checkpoints and banned motorcycles from the streets of Baghdad as they prepared today for more violence before this week's withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from the capital and other cities and towns.

Despite the increased checks, a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. convoy in eastern Baghdad wounded six bystanders. It was unclear if anyone in the convoy was injured, police said. A car bomb also exploded in the parking lot of a police academy in western Baghdad, killing one police officer and wounding six others, police said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iraq's main Sunni political bloc joined Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in describing the June 30 deadline for the U.S. withdrawal from urban areas as a turning point for the country. For the U.S., June 30 is also a turning point, and despite the uptick in violence, U.S. officials stand firm the withdrawal date.

"Iraqi forces are ready to take over this nation," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill told CBS News correspondent Chip Reid. "What we are doing is implementing our obligation under the security agreement with Iraq," Hill continued. "We have worked very hard for this day. The U.S. has the world's greatest fighting force and the greatest trainers. We have every confidence we can do this."

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top military commander in Iraq, said the attacks ahead of Tuesday's pullout were aimed at diverting attention from the progress made by Iraqi security forces as well as local and national government. "We've seen constant improvement in the security force. We've seen constant improvement in governance. And I believe this is the time for us to move out of the cities and for them to take ultimate responsibility," Odierno said.

Reporting from Baghdad, CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan found that there is a lot of "grey area" in the security agreement.

"After a week of talking to U.S. and Iraqi soldiers on the ground here, it's stunning how much hasn't been worked out this close to the deadline," Logan said. "One example is what will happen to the U.S. trainers that will still be embedded with Iraqi forces in the cities. The U.S. military insists it still has the right to defend itself under the agreement, but if these U.S. trainers are attacked, in theory the U.S. would have to ask for Iraqi permission to send in reinforcements to help them. - CBS News Story