Prince Harry: New York trip has been 'fantastic'

As Britain's Prince Harry neared the end of his second and final day in New York City on Saturday, he described his experiences as "fantastic."

The 24-year-old visited the Harlem Children's Zone, a nonprofit organization that offers free programs and classes in a low-income area, then went to Governors Island in New York Harbor to play in the Veuve Clicquot Manhattan Polo Classic.

Profits from the match will benefit Sentebale, a charity for orphans in Lesotho, Africa, a cause Harry's mother, Princess Diana, had promoted. The prince was accompanied by Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, who also lost his mother when he was young.

The men toured the Children's Zone with founder Geoffrey Canada, and spent time in a classroom where some students were studying for a math test. A 10-year-old girl sitting at a desk covered with drawing paper and colored markers gave Harry a picture.

"Is this for me?" Harry asked as he accepted it. Pointing to the desk and pens, he then asked, "You find yourself very lucky to have all this?" When she nodded, he replied "Good."

A young boy gave Harry a bowl containing a dish he had prepared, and the prince ate it while the child sounded off the ingredients. Throughout the classroom visit, the prince smiled and chatted easily with students.

Cheering people lined the street as Harry entered the building. As he left, reporters shouted questions.

Asked how he liked his first official visit overseas and meeting the children, the prince responded, "It's been fantastic -- really, really worthwhile."

"It's my first visit to New York. I'm hopeful I'll come back to visit again."

He also was asked whether he thought his appearances would change any image the public might have of him, apparently referring to some of his wild exploits ways when he was younger.

Those incidents included a one-day stint in drug rehab in 2002 and accusations of racism in January.

"I don't know what the image is of me. There is always the image that's been given to me, but people have their own opinions, it's the media that likes to stamp on the image which isn't really me."

On Friday, the youngest son of Princess Diana offered his condolences to September 11 victims at the former site of the World Trade Center. The prince met New York Gov. David Paterson and briefly spoke with family members of 9/11 victims. The prince then laid a wreath at the site and bowed his head in a moment of silence.

He left a handwritten note tacked to the wreath, citing an "the courage shown by the people" of New York on September 11, 2001.

Harry later paid tribute to his fellow citizens at Lower Manhattan's British Garden at Hanover Square, where he honored the 67 British victims of the September 11 attacks, officials said.

The third in line for the British crown, Harry is active in the British Army. He received a promotion to lieutenant in April 2008 and is currently training for an Army Air Corps pilot position, according to the prince's Web site.

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Pillow Saves Girl, 8, From Bullet

MOORE, Okla. -- Police are investigating a shooting outside a Moore home where a bullet narrowly missed hitting an 8-year-old girl while she slept in her bed.

The bullet came through a window, shattered the glass and woke up the girl and her parents. They didn't find the bullet hole until the next morning.

"It was this small hole in the blinds, that stuck out at first," said the girl's stepmother, who asked to be identified only as "Jennifer". "I thought, 'What else could go through that and cause such a big hole?'

"The much larger hole in the window indicated that someone had fired a shot into her 8-year-old daughter's bedroom.

The bullet seemed to have disappeared until Jennifer's stepdaughter noticed a mark on her pillow."

The front of the pillow had a hole. The back of it didn't," she said. "I dug around and it was deep in there.

"The bullet had landed inside the pillow that was just inches away from her stepdaughter.

"It landed between her legs," Jennifer said. "There was a pillow at the bottom of the bed between her legs and it landed in that pillow.

"She said she thinks the shot may have come from an open field behind her home. Police said there's no way to know for sure.

"It was somebody just messing around, doing something for fun, shooting at a target," she said. "The bullet is going to go somewhere, and it could be into a person.

"Police said they got a call of shots being fired in that area early in the morning but didn't find anything when they arrived. Officers said they currently have no leads about who may have fired the shots.

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U.S. vows to keep using 'state secrets' defense

The Obama administration has informed a federal judge it will continue to invoke the "state secrets" privilege in a legal battle with an Islamic charity suspected of funding terrorism.

The United States has designated the Oregon-based al-Haramain Islamic Foundation as a terrorist organization. The group, which has sued the government over alleged warrantless wiretapping, is demanding classified information about the program.

U.S. officials have refused to tell the charity's lawyers whether the group was subjected to presidentially authorized, warrantless, foreign intelligence surveillance in 2004 and, if so, what information was obtained.

In a court document filed overnight in San Francisco and released early Saturday in Washington, the Justice Department said its case-by-case review of the government's use of the state secrets defense has not changed its position in the al-Haramain case.

The defense allows courts to block lawsuits against the government on grounds that the litigation could harm national security.

"An additional review was conducted at the highest levels of the Department of Justice to determine whether continued invocation of the privilege was warranted," the government told the court.

"Based on that review, it is the government's position that disclosure of classified information ... would create intolerable risks to national security."

The Obama administration has criticized President Bush's Justice Department for invoking the state secrets defense too quickly.

Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a review to determine whether the government's use of the state secrets privilege can be sharply narrowed. The government brief, however, reveals the legal tool will continue to be used despite strong objections from civil liberties groups and their political allies.

"The government does not take this position lightly," Justice Department lawyers told Judge Vaughn Walker, who has been unsympathetic to the government stance.

"An assertion of the state secrets privilege to preclude further litigation is an extremely significant step that requires in-depth consideration and debate at the highest levels of our government," the Justice document says.

All sides acknowledge the importance of the case.

"The government recognizes that the underlying dispute in this case raises the fundamental separation of powers question concerning whether the court has the ultimate authority under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to order the disclosure of state secrets to a private party over the government's objections," according to the justice filing.

The immediate issue is Walker's May 22 order to show cause as to why the government should not be sanctioned for "failing to obey the court's orders" to turn over classified information.

The government insists it has not yet received a direct court order to do that, and has only refrained from "agreeing" to do so. The government vowed a swift appeal once it receives such an order.

The Obama administration argument concludes with a direct challenge to the judge "to recognize that the imposition of discovery sanctions is not a lawful, appropriate, or productive alternative."

In 2007 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a ruling by Walker in the same case in which he had rejected the government's state secrets privilege. The ruling, however, left unanswered whether the FISA law could preempt the state secrets privilege, so al-Haramain went back to court to continue the fight on that issue.

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Hired! New Job, New State, New Start

The 2.3 million college grads in the class of 2009 are finding that starting a career in the current economic climate will require some sacrifice.

While 73% of recent graduates worry about finding work after graduation, 50% say they have already changed or plan to change their career path, according to the State of the Student Survey released recently by DeVry University.

But putting long-term goals on hold and taking a "bridge job" don't have to derail a grad's ambitions.

Shalyn Pugh, 21, was living in Vancouver, Washington, and working as an Americorp volunteer during her last year of college at Washington State University. With a degree in public affairs and environmental science, Pugh planned on a career in environmental education and outreach.

"I was set to graduate early. I thought that was a good thing. Having worked as a research assistant and an Americorps volunteer in Clark County, just north of Portland, Oregon, I figured finding a job in the non-profit world would be a snap," she said.

But after 8 months of searching, Pugh didn't land a single interview.

"It was a stalemate," she said.

With no leads and news of her sister's pregnancy, Pugh decided it was time for a change. She moved to Bend, Oregon, to be closer to her sister and brother-in-law. That's when her brother-in-law told her about a position at his company, G5 Search Marketing.

Although the position as a Web QA specialist was a far cry from what Pugh had intended on doing, it was a full-time job with benefits -- and it was available.

"After a couple rounds, I was on the team," she said. Now, "here I am, three hours from where I was job hunting, in a different industry than I intended."

Pugh also discovered that she loves her new job testing formatting and design changes for G5 clients as well as her place in Bend, which she shares with her dog, Lulu.

Eventually she plans to resume her pursuit of a career in environmental law or science, but for the time being Pugh is learning about HTML coding, search engine optimization and how to build web pages.

"I believe the skills I'm gaining now will be more than useful in the future regardless of the industry I'm working in," she says.

For now, her sights are set on the impending arrival of her niece or nephew, due any day.

Compromise is O.K.

For other job seekers trying to stay afloat in the worst job market in 25 years, our career experts agree that finding a job for the interim is a good idea -- even if it is outside your desired industry and region.

"Do what you need to do to satisfy your needs today," said Gerry Crispin, co-owner of Careerxroads, a consulting firm based in New Jersey.

According to Ford Myers, president of Career Potential, LLC, a Pennsylvania-based career consulting firm, there are times when it is appropriate to get what he calls a "bridge job," when the opportunity you want may be out of reach.

"You've got to do something temporary until you can find the opportunity that you're really looking for," Myers said.

That's not always a bad thing. As in Pugh's case, sometimes trying different fields can uncover a new interest, or develop a valuable skill. "It may seem like a detour," said Kathy Robinson, the founder of TurningPoint, a career consulting firm in greater Boston, but "she's learning a skill set that may apply to the environmental field down the road."

"The important thing is to never lose sight of your real career goals," Myers added.

To that end, Crispin recommends that job seekers stay connected to their career of choice by joining professional associations, tracking colleagues in that industry and building a network of contacts.

"If you can't meet your dream today, then decide what it is you can do without necessarily giving up your dream forever," Crispin said

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American Dream Slipping Away

There was a time, not very long ago, when getting a job on the production line at a big automaker meant an instant ticket to the American dream, even for someone with little formal education. Not anymore.

"The minute you signed the paper, you were instantly vaulted into the middle class," said Mike Smith, director of Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library in Detroit, named for the founder of the United Auto Workers, the union that represents auto workers.

A shrinking paycheck. As the auto industry undergoes a sea change, the government has demanded that Chrysler and General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) bring their labor costs in line with foreign competitors operating non-union factories in the U.S.

Today, an entry-level autoworker in a "non-core" position will make $14 an hour, compared to the $28-an-hour "base rate" others make, according to a summary of Chrysler's contract agreement.

Workers' benefits have also taken a hit.

"Workers coming in will have good benefits and a good wages but not necessarily what they were 20 or 30 years ago," said Smith.

Anemic health care. New UAW employees will pay a much larger portion of their health care expenses and once they retire, carmakers won't pay for it, according to information from the Center for Automotive Research.

Fewer medical procedures and drugs will be covered and, under new agreements, Chrysler and GM retireees won't have dental and vision care covered.

Eroding unemployment benefits. As GM and Chrysler restructure, the UAW has agreed to give up salary protections that had cushioned laid off autoworkers... [Read More]

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How much cash should you have in your portfolio?

When the markets began to tank last fall, investors fled to cash and cash-like investments. No one cared if yields were paltry. The return of principal rather than the return on principal was the biggest priority.

The result today is that you may hold more cash in your portfolio than during the years leading up to the bear market. According to a recent survey of 401(k) plans by Hewitt Associates, investors added 11% to stable-value funds in 2008. (Stable value funds invest in short-term bonds that carry an insurance “wrapper.”)

But with the immediate crisis out of the way (let’s hope), how much cash do you need going forward?

Steven Romick, manager of FPA Crescent Fund, recently stopped by Money’s offices. He says FPA Crescent, which invests in both bonds and stocks, currently has little more than 20% allocated to cash, down from roughly 40% back in September. Romick’s shift makes sense from a long-term perspective. Consider: Today, the average rate on bank money market accounts is only 1.33%, according to Bankrate.com. Factor in inflation, and cash doesn’t give your portfolio the growth it needs.

But Romick also says this: “The idea that you’re invested at all times [in say, equities] presupposes there is no better deal coming down the road.” In other words, cash gives you flexibility, which you need if you want to be able to pounce on investment opportunities as they arise.

So how much cash should you have ? As always, you’ll have to consider your goals, time horizon and risk tolerance. You’ll also want to look at how much cash is held in the mutual funds you own. Many fund managers, such as Romick, loaded up on greenbacks last year.

If you need to scale back and build up say, your equity or bond allocation, make the shift gradually. And promise yourself you won’t abandon cash altogether during the next market boom.

Finally, remember that separate from your portfolio, you also want emergency savings to cover at least six months of living costs. That money should be kept in a safe, liquid spot, such as a bank savings account.

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Are U.S. bonds really a safe haven?

It looked like a no-brainer. With a flight to quality last year pushing up U.S. Treasury bond prices and risky loans looking like losses waiting to happen, U.S. banks ploughed money into government bonds. And until about mid-May, when prices of 10-year securities topped 100 cents on the dollar, that looked like a good bet. Now, however, this safe haven isn't looking quite so secure.

A rebound in risk appetite and worries about Uncle Sam's credit rating has drained some air from the Treasury market bubble. A 10-year bond now fetches only a little over 95 cents on the dollar. That may not seem like much of a drop, but if you think of banks leveraging up their positions, it could result in some nasty losses.

How much so? Well, American depository institutions hold some $581 billion in various types of government obligations on reserve with the central bank, according to Federal Reserve statistics.

Of course, the cost of funding these positions has also plummeted. The London interbank offered rate (Libor) for three-month dollar borrowings is now a mere two-thirds of a percent. And a steeper yield curve is a boon for banks looking to earn their way out of trouble through fat net interest margins.

But one could argue that Libor is being artificially depressed by the U.S. government's interventions to prop up bank credit. Should they withdraw those measures -- say, by pulling its borrowing guarantees, its liberal discount window collateral requirements or other programmes -- Libor could easily rise to a level appropriate for the industry's average single-A to double-A credit. That was over 5% in 2006, for example.

Should that happen, and longer rates also struggle higher, banks run the risk of losing money on their hordes of Treasurys, just when their plummeting prices make them hardest to unload. If so, this port in the storm could turn out to be quite choppy.

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More U.S. airports add rail service to downtown

Riding the rails between downtown and the airport is becoming a reality for more U.S. travelers.

With their roadways jammed with cars and shuttles, a growing number of domestic airports are building or have plans for a rail link that will connect passengers from the terminals to regional metro-rail systems, allowing road warriors and vacationers to ditch their cars.

"There is a consensus building that this is a desirable piece of overall strategy to deal with ground transportation challenges," says Matthew Coogan, director of New England Transportation Institute who has written extensively about the subject.

Direct rail connections to Seattle-Tacoma and Dallas Love Field are expected to open later this year. Other large airports with an approved rail project that will be completed in the next few years: Salt Lake City, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth and Oakland.

Several other airports, including Denver, Washington Dulles and Los Angeles, have similar plans, but their projects are years from completion.

Airport rail links have long been popular in Europe and Asia. But only eight of the 20 largest U.S. airports, based on 2008 boardings, have rail service that drops passengers off within walking distance of the terminals: Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, New YorkJohn F. Kennedy, San Francisco, Newark, Minneapolis, Boston and Philadelphia.

But a confluence of operational and economic factors have pushed the airport rail agenda forward in recent years despite opposition from taxi and bus proponents and fiscally conservative lawmakers.

With air traffic rising rapidly in recent years, airports are learning that simply building more parking lots and enlarging roadways aren't sustainable practices, Coogan says. Many U.S. airports have also embraced the green movement, budgeting more for programs that reduce their carbon footprint.

Greater availability of federal funding sources for airport rail is helping the cause. After a rigorous application process, Phoenix Sky Harbor persuaded the Federal Aviation Administration to let it use the passenger facility charge — a fee added to air tickets — to partially fund its rail project. Oakland received $70 million for its rail project from the federal economic stimulus package this year.

Popular rail services

Experts cite Washington, D.C.'s metro service to Washington Reagan National, Bay Area Rapid Transit's (BART) connection to San Francisco International and New York JFK's 8-mile AirTrain that links to the local subway as the most heavily used and popular systems in the USA. They also feed into established and far-reaching regional metro systems that are easy to use for travelers who forgo rental cars. Since it opened in 2003, AirTrain ridership has grown steadily, and about 4.75 million paid to ride the JFK train in 2008, according to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

"When I fly to SFO, I always take the BART from the airport to my office in downtown San Francisco, and I love it," says business traveler Marc Belsher, a health care technology consultant. "It is inexpensive, reliable, relatively fast and ultraconvenient. It is the natural choice for me, especially in this economy."

Cleveland, St. Louis and Portland, Ore., run smaller rail systems that also provide direct-to-airport service. The number of travelers using Portland Metro's service to the airport grew 7.7% in 2008, says Steve Schreiber, aviation director for Portland International.

Still, airport-rail ridership in the USA is woefully low compared with other countries, says Andrew Sharp, director general of the U.K.-based International Air Rail Organisation. In many European and Asian airports, 20% to 30% of travelers get to and from the airport using rail. In the USA, ridership typically ranges from 2% to 5%, he says.

Airports actively pursuing a rail connection have several options:

•Add to existing systems.Seattle's Sound Transit, a voter-approved initiative passed in the late 1990s to create a regional light-rail system, is close to finishing its latest line. The Central Link, a 16-mile line running between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac airport, will launch later this year. Its airport station is scheduled to open in December.

About a decade ago, Salt Lake City had no public rail. The Utah Transit Authority has since built a system that covers about 150 miles. A 5-mile downtown-to-airport connection is under construction and scheduled to open in 2012, says Michael Allegra of UTA. He expects about 6,000 riders daily when it opens.

One of the largest construction projects in the nation's capital is a 23-mile extension of the region's Metro to Washington Dulles. The new line will also serve the Tysons Corner area, Virginia's largest employment center. The completion date hasn't been determined.

•People-mover rail. Some airports have a metro station nearby but not within walking distance. To close the gap, they are looking to automated people-mover trains as a solution. Because people-movers typically run within airport grounds, airport authorities can tap funding sources that are available only for airport projects.

Phoenix Sky Harbor will use passenger facility charges to partially fund its Sky Train, a people-mover that will open in 2012 and connect to a nearby light-rail station. One airport station will contain an enclosed and air-conditioned moving walkway that will take travelers directly to the terminals.

BART this month approved funding for a 3.2-mile elevated people-mover that will connect BART's Coliseum station to Oakland International, replacing the current bus connection. It's scheduled to enter service in 2013. About 4,300 Bay Area passengers a day are expected.

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Transit broke ground last week on a people-mover extension from the Earlington Heights station — the nearest stop to Miami International— to a ground transportation hub that's being built next to the airport. The rail link and the ground transportation hub are both expected to be completed in 2012.

Ongoing debates

Like most large construction projects, airport rail proposals face stiff headwinds. Opponents challenge funding sources and new taxes and cite preferences for cars and buses. But the central argument in most debates has centered around ridership, specifically whether airports have enough demand to justify millions in cost.

BART's connection to SFO, completed in 2003, has yet to reach BART's initial ridership forecast and is still not profitable. Prior to construction, BART projected there would be 17,800 average daily boardings to and from the airport by the year 2010. As of this month, SFO ridership was at about 11,000.

Frank Sterling and Juliet Ellis, activists in the Bay Area, also questioned BART's plans to spend $500 million for Oakland International's people-mover and its decision to charge $6 for the service vs. $3 for the current shuttle bus.

"The proposal to charge double that for the new connector might drive away customers, unless it delivers twice the value," they wrote in a recent newspaper commentary, "Can East Bay residents afford this?"

These are appropriate debates, Coogan says. Some cities are better off sticking to buses, he says. For example, LAX's FlyAway Bus, which provides non-stop rides to various neighborhoods in Southern California, is more convenient for many travelers than the metro.

For some cities, it'd be wiser to spend scarce funds for extending metro to public transportation-friendly suburbs before considering airports, Coogan adds.

"How often does a person go to work? And how often does a person go to Paris in a year?" he says.

In Seattle, where light-rail coverage is still growing, expectations are modest, with 3,000 riders a day expected at the airport station initially. "We're at the beginning. It's a step-by-step process," says Ron Lewis of Sound Transit. "But there are other neighborhoods that will be served by the line along 15 miles."

By Roger Yu, USA TODAY

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Bush: White House pressure made marriage stronger

Former President Bush said that if Laura Bush hadn't been first lady, he isn't sure he could have counted on her vote.

"I can promise you that her life dream when she was growing up was not to be first lady of the United States," Bush told a Michigan audience Thursday in one of his first major domestic speeches since leaving the White House.

"Frankly, I am not so sure that if we hadn't married she'd have voted for me. There's a lot of pressure in the White House, as I'm sure you can imagine. Pressure sometimes can make a marriage stronger or weaker. In my case because of her patience and her enthusiasm, it made our marriage a really good marriage."

The pressure of the presidency, he said, weighs most on family members.

"It's much harder to be the son of the president than to be the president. And it's much harder to be the father of the president than to be the president," he said in a reference to his dad, former President George H.W. Bush.

"And I used to have to admonish him not pay attention to what they were writing on the editorial pages about his son. I had gone through the same agony myself. And so I am confident that the end of the presidency is a great relief because of our strong love."

Something else Bush called a great relief: having a vice president, Dick Cheney, who had no plans to run for the top spot.

"I was pleased to have someone serve as my vice president who was not running for president, because someone who is running for president, at times, will try to distance themselves," Bush said. "... If things got tough, [he] could be one of the first persons off the ship, and that would be really unpleasant in the White House."

Bush said he wasn't surprised to lose public support for some of the main elements of his national security agenda.

"I was frustrated because the stakes were so high in some of the decisions that I had to make. I wasn't surprised that people would forget the feeling of how they felt after September 11. I was grateful that people were moving beyond September 11. As a president you don't want your nation to be so worried about an attack that people don't go about their lives. ... The psychology of the nation concerned me. Which then made it harder to get people to listen to you, to some of the decisions I made."

The fact that Americans tuned out media coverage of the risk of terrorism wasn't surprising to him either, he said -- he ignored most news coverage himself.

"The truth of the matter is, I never watched the nightly news, because it was predictable, I thought. Nor did I ever pay attention to the editorial pages, good editorials or bad," he said. "I knew what was in the news. When you're president, you can get so obsessed with this stuff that I felt it would cloud your vision.

"The truth of the matter is there is so much attention paid to you, I thought it was important even in the toughest moments to be upbeat and not to be so worried about myself that I couldn't convey a sense of confidence."

He mused on the transition to a far calmer existence after the presidency.

"People ask, what is it like? Well, I have never stopped at a traffic light for eight years," he said. "...The neighborhood we live in is nice. You know Laura bought this house sight unseen. At least she saw. I didn't. It was like a faith-based initiative."

Bush will take the stage Friday night with former President Clinton in Toronto, Ontario, for what's being termed a "conversation."

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Obama creates top job for guarding online security

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama announced Friday he is creating the post of cyber security coordinator to oversee "a new comprehensive approach to securing America's digital infrastructure."

The president said he will personally select the person who takes on that post.

"I'll depend on this official in all matters relating to cyber security, and this official will have my full support and regular access to me as we confront these challenges," he said.

The economic crisis cannot be tackled without ensuring the safety of the nation's online activities, Obama said. "America's economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security," he said.

"Our technological advantage is a key to America's military dominance," he added. "But our defense and military networks are under constant attack. Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have spoken of their desire to unleash a cyber attack on our country -- attacks that are harder to detect and harder to defend against."

The country is not adequately prepared, he said, to defend against a possible "weapon of mass disruption."

"From now on ... the networks and computers we depend on every day will be treated as they should be: as a strategic national asset," Obama said. "Protecting this infrastructure will be a national security priority."

Obama vowed that these efforts "will not include monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic. We will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans."

"I know how it feels" to have online privacy violated, the president said.

He referred to last year's hacking of computers at his campaign headquarters. The hackers did not access databases containing information about campaign donors, but did gain access to policy position papers and travel plans, Obama said.

CNN reported in November that computers at the headquarters of Obama's rival for the presidency, Sen. John McCain, had been broken into with similar results.

Obama's announcement Friday followed a 60-day review of the government's cyber security efforts, conducted by the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council.

The results of the review are posted at www.whitehouse.gov, along with links to more than 100 documents that helped inform the review.

The military has said it is working to create a Cyber Command. Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the command would initially be under the U.S. Strategic Command.

The president is expected, within weeks, to sign a classified order officially creating the command, defense officials told CNN.

The Department of Homeland Security reports the number of cyber attacks on government and private networks increased from 4,095 in 2005 to 72,065 in 2008.

This month, a Transportation Department audit -- carried out after hackers got into a support system containing personnel records -- indicated the nation's air-traffic control system could be at risk.

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