WASHINGTON (AP) -- Brace yourself: The recession is projected to worsen this year.
The country stands to lose a sizable chunk of economic activity in 2009 as consumers at home and abroad retrench in the face of persistent economic troubles. And the U.S. unemployment rate -- now at 7.6 percent, the highest in more than 16 years -- is expected hit a peak of 9 percent this year. . . .

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest ranking Black member of Congress, has asked President Barack Obama to consider the public health-oriented president of a historically Black university for the post of secretary of Health and Human Services.
Clyburn is pushing New Orleans native Wayne J. Riley, a specialist in internal medicine, who has been president of Nashville's Meharry Medical College for two years. He says Riley would be ideal for the job, in part because of his consistent focus on the disparate rates of health care coverage, illness, and death in Black and other racial minority communities. . . .

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama promised quick help for strapped Medicaid programs Monday as he brought in advisers and adversaries to discuss keeping entitlement programs from exploding the federal deficit.
Obama's summit at the White House, which was coming at close of a three-day meeting of the nation's governors, was the first such forum of his young presidency designed specifically to get at problems threatening the long-term fiscal health of the nation. It came as Obama gets ready to disclose ambitious plans to slash the federal deficit in half within four years. . . .

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI has rescued more than 45 suspected teenage prostitutes, some as young as 13, in a nationwide sweep to remove kids from the illegal sex trade and punish their accused pimps.
Over a three-night initiative called Operation Cross Country, federal agents working with local law enforcement also arrested more than 50 alleged pimps, according to preliminary bureau data. . . .

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Sheriffs around Oregon have been sending an unusual letter to holders of concealed weapons permits with this message: If you don't want the public to know you've got a permit, we'll try to help you out.
The letter from the sheriffs says newspapers and others are trying to get lists of people who have concealed handgun permits, sparking a legal challenge that's pending in the Oregon Court of Appeals. . . .

Amidst crisis, President Obama spoke to his first joint session of Congress Tuesday night. He is flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Credit: White House photo

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – In his first speech before Congress, filled with the soaring inspiration reminiscent of his campaign, President Barack Obama Tuesday night promised the nation, "We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before."  [To see the video . . .

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama introduced former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his nominee for Commerce secretary Wednesday, trying a third time to fill a key Cabinet post for a country in recession.
"I'm sure it's not lost on anyone that we've tried this a couple of times. But I'm a big believer in keeping at something until you get it right. And Gary is the right man for this job," Obama said, standing with the fellow Democrat in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House.
The president's two top earlier choices for the post dropped out — one a Democrat facing questions about a donor and the other a Republican who had a change of heart about working for a president from the opposition party — well before the Senate had a chance to confirm them.
Obama praised Locke, a Chinese-American . . .

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- School districts throughout Oregon are concerned that teachers and other staff will have to be cut before the start of next school year, according to a pair of state education organizations.
The state faces an $850 million shortfall for the budget year that ends June 30, and the projected deficit for the following two years is nearly $3 billion. While the situation has led to expectations of a shortened school year, surveys compiled by the Oregon Education Association and Confederation of Oregon School Administrators show many of the 199 school districts fear jobs will have to go to make ends meet.
Portland Public Schools has yet to discuss staff cuts for next school year, though it might have to cut as much as $20 million for 2009-2010, depending on how the district fares with federal stimulus dollars and the state's budget, said Robb Cowie, district spokesman. . . .

SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. reiterated Tuesday its belief that the economic crisis will persist at least into the second half of 2009 but attempted to reassure analysts that it will continue to cut costs and spend wisely.
Microsoft shares fell 3 percent in midday trading.
Speaking at a meeting in New York, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said Microsoft is looking to the television maker RCA as a role model. RCA spent money on research and development through the Great Depression, then dominated its market, he said.
Ballmer pointed to areas of Microsoft's business that will be hit hardest by the downturn and sketched out the products and projects that will get the bulk of the company's $27.5 billion in annual operating expenses.
Microsoft, which recently resorted to its first mass layoffs ever, will feel the economic pain most acutely in its businesses that sell the Windows operating system and Office desktop software . . .

Evelyne Ello-Hart with her co-worker, Shariff Mohamed, the youth coordinator for the African Women's Coalition, strategize on how to improve access to community services for African immigrants.
... not only are immigrant families under-served by area health providers, but by lumping them together in statistical studies as "Black" and "African American," the immigrants' actual population isn't really counted by local government agencies ...