Tuesday Top Stories: 11/23-11/29

Tuesday 11/23:

• (NYT) The nation’s workers may be struggling, but American companies just had their best quarter ever. American businesses earned profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter, according to a Commerce Department report released Tuesday. That is the highest figure recorded since the government began keeping track over 60 years ago, at least in nominal or noninflation-adjusted terms.
• (HuffPost) North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire Tuesday after the North shelled an island near their disputed sea border, killing at least two South Korean marines, setting dozens of buildings ablaze and sending civilians fleeing for shelter.The clash, which put South Korea's military on high alert, was one of the rivals' most dramatic confrontations since the Korean War ended, and one of the few to put civilians at risk, though no nonmilitary deaths were immediately reported. Sixteen South Korean soldiers and three civilians were injured and the extent of casualties on the northern side was unknown

Wednesday 11/24:

• (Reuters)- A Texas jury on found former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, dubbed "The Hammer" for his hard-driving style, guilty of money laundering and conspiracy. DeLay was accused of conspiring to illegally funnel $190,000 in corporate campaign donations to Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature in the 2002 elections
• (CNN)- Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Costa has won his bid for a fourth term representing California's 20th Congressional District, according to updated vote totals released Wednesday by the California Secretary of State.Costa defeated Republican candidate and farmer Andy Vidak.

Thursday 11/25:

• (HuffPost) Goodbye danger defined as yellow, orange and red. The Homeland Security Department is looking to scrap the five-tiered color-coded terror warning system in favor of a streamlined one with as few as two alerts. The post-9/11, Bush-era system has been criticized as too vague to be useful in communicating the terror threat to the public, either ignored or the butt of jokes. One option under consideration is to go to two threat levels instead of five: elevated and imminent.
• (PolinMN) Minnesota political funds can make unlimited contributions to the recount operations of candidates Tom Emmer and Mark Dayton, the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board ruled on Wednesday. The board held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue after a request from Dayton's campaign for legal guidance.

Friday 11/26:

• (AP) Five Chicago residents have filed petitions seeking to push mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel off the February ballot by challenging his status as a city resident.Emanuel still owns a home in Chicago but rented it out when he moved to Washington to become President Barack Obama's chief of staff two years ago.
• (LATimes) President Barack Obama needed 12 stitches in his lip after taking an errant elbow during a pickup basketball game Friday with a group of family and friends visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House said.

Weekend:

• (CBS) The U.S. Department of State has been working overtime to warn its allies that Wikileaks could be releasing this weekend highly sensitive details about the inner workings of government and diplomatic relations. The released documents held embarassing information mostly concerning foreign relations of the State Department.
• (CSMonitor) Twelve of the 19 presidential candidates held a Sunday afternoon press conference calling for the Haiti election to be canceled. They accused the Inite Party, backed by President Rene Preval, of 'massive fraud. Hundreds of voters said they were prohibited from voting because their names did not appear on rolls at the polling places. Angry voters threw rocks and bottles at United Nations peacekeeping forces and shut down polling places.

Monday 11/29:

• (GovExec) Federal employees will not receive any pay increases for two years, Obama administration officials announced on Monday. President Obama's proposed pay freeze for 2011 and 2012 will apply to all civilian workers, including Defense Department employees, but not to military personnel. Workers who are promoted to a higher General Schedule grade still will be eligible for pay raises, officials said.
• (Chicago Tribune) Republican Mark Kirk, newly sworn in Monday as the junior U.S. senator from Illinois, told supporters that "sad chapters" in Illinois history were over.Kirk was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden on the Senate floor. He succeeds Democrat Roland Burris, who was appointed amid controversy late in 2008 by then- Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The seat was open because of Barack Obama's election to the White House.