"Social Insecurity": Newsletter 4/29/05

[Patsy Stone]

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Tonight on Countdown
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President Bush on Friday pitched his new proposal to fix Social Security's finances by cutting the benefit now promised to future retirees for all but the lowest-income recipients, and warned Democratic opponents not to "play politics as usual" with it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7659512/

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

Insurgents staged a series of car bombings and other attacks on Friday, killing at least 27 Iraqis and wounding dozens a day after the country's first democratically elected government was approved. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7629770/

A posting on an Islamist Web site stirred speculation over the fate of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and prompted a flurry of denials on Friday that the world's most wanted man was dead. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7677513/

Michael's No. 1. fan. Jackson, Debbie Rowe and a marriage full of mysteries. On the stand, she ended up helping the defense. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7673163/

Eleven-year-old Thomas Adams thought Warner Bros. had gone daffy when he saw the company's plans for a new cartoon called ''Loonatics,'' based on Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes pals. Now, nearly two months after starting an Internet petition drive against the WB series' fall debut, Thomas is getting results. http://www.suntimes.com/output/entertainment/cst-ftr-looney28-w.html

Two men who made national headlines by claiming they found a buried treasure in the back yard of a home were charged Friday with stealing the collection of old currency from a house where they were working. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7677130/

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
An 80-year-old woman rescued her 67-year-old neighbor from an apartment fire, carrying the ailing woman down two flights of stairs. Madalene Lindill put Grace Brayman's arms around her neck and carried her on her back out of their elderly housing complex Wednesday after Brayman accidentally ignited a fire in her apartment. Lindill told WJAR-TV there was "nothing to it." http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ELDERLY_HEROINE?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
Awesome.

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

More:
An internal Environmental Protection Agency report estimates the Southeast alone could reap up to $2 billion a year in benefits from reducing mercury pollution - 40 times more than the $50 million in benefits the agency projected publicly for the entire nation. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7677494/

NASA on Friday delayed by another two months the first space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster, saying it needs more time to ensure that the fuel tank does not shed dangerous pieces of ice at liftoff. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7668159/

Taiwan's opposition leader met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Friday, capping a historic reconciliation between his party and mainland communists whose civil war split China in 1949. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7640845/

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, who became the world's richest men on very separate paths, will be working together after this weekend to help guide one of the world's most successful conglomerates. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7670056/

Kids, blogs and too much information. Children reveal more online than parents know. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7668788/