John Forte's Prison Sentence Commuted

President Bush commuted the remainder of John Forte's prison sentence today along with one other prison sentence commute and fourteen Presidential pardons.

John Forte is a hip-hop artist and a backup singer for singer and children's book writer Carly Simon.

John was arrested in 2001 for trying to transport a briefcase with 31 pounds of liquid cocaine worth $1.4 million at the Newark international Airport. He was convicted of aiding and abetting in the distribution of liquid cocaine and received the mandatory 14 year minimum sentence.

$35 Million Movie Debut for Twilight

Topping the box office this weekend is Twilight, the new vampire movie. So far Twilight has grossed around $35 million on Friday. With $7 million of that from Friday's 12 a.m. Showing.

Twilight's Friday take is bigger than the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that brought in $25 million on its Friday debut and when all the counting is done it may rank as the 14^th or 15^th biggest grossing movie opener of all time.

Going into Friday, Twilight was expected to gross $60 million at the most for the weekend. But now prediction are going as high as $75 million by the end of Sunday.

Napolitano Top Contender For Homeland Security

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano is emerging as President-elect Barack Obama's top contender for the head of the Homeland Security Department.

Fifty year old Janet Napolitano is a former United States attorney for Arizona and state attorney general. Being the governor of a border state, Janet is closely involved in immigration issues, which also falls under the Department of Homeland Security's jurisdiction.

With over 200,000 employees and a budget of $52 billion, The Department of Homeland Security is the third largest cabinet department, after the Department of Defense and the Department of veteran Affairs. As head of the Homeland Security Department Napolitano will be responsible for protecting the United States from terrorist attacks and responding to natural disasters.

Unemployment Extension Passes Senate

The Senate voted today overwhelmingly today in favor of a bill extending federal unemployment benefits. Having already been approved by the House, the bill now goes to the White House. Where President Bush is expected to sign it after White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement that President Bush will sign the legislation "because of the tight job market."

In most states, unemployment benefits are paid for a maximum of 26 weeks. This new measure calls for extending unemployment benefits by at least 7 weeks and up to 20 weeks in states that have the highest unemployment rates.

The Senate vote came on the same day the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of people filing for unemployment insurance had reached a 16-year high. Initial filings for state jobless benefits increased by 27,000 to 542,000 for the week ending November 15. This marks the third time since 1992 that initial claims have exceeded 500,000. This time last year initial filing claims stood at 333,000.

U.S. job losses have been mounting for months. This month, the Department of Labor reported that the economy lost over 240,000 jobs in October, bringing the total number of jobs lost in 2008 to nearly 1.2 million. The unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent, a 14-year high, last month.

Several companies reporting layoffs in past week include Citigroup, which cut 20 percent of its work force, or 50,000 jobs, the biggest cut by a corporation in 15 years. Fidelity Investments announced that it will cut 1,700 jobs, and Sun Microsystems reported that it would lay off 6,000 people, or 18 percent of its work force.

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