Obama's Austin Visit to Start With Perry Meeting

 photo by: Gage Skidmore / Talk Radio News Service

For President Obama and Gov. Rick Perry, Thursday morning should feel familiar.

In August 2010, Perry greeted Obama as his plane landed at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and gave him a letter urging the president to send more troops to the Texas-Mexico border.

Just after noon on Thursday, as Obama steps off Air Force One in Austin, Perry plans to be again waiting on the tarmac. This time, with a message about the economy.
“Gov. Perry simply plans to welcome the president to Texas and perhaps encourage him to implement Texas’ successful economic policies nationwide,” Perry spokesman Josh Havens said.

After his encounter with Perry, Obama has a busy afternoon scheduled. While that visit in 2010 centered on a speech on higher education at the University of Texas, this trip is about promoting Obama's efforts to spur economic growth.

His decision to come to Texas is notable, as Perry has worked to frame the state's strong economic performance in recent years as a result of Republican policies that keep taxes low and regulation light. And while Obama has struggled to pursue his economic agenda — hampered by a divided Congress and a large federal debt — Perry and the Republican-led 
Texas Legislature are debating what to do with a large budget surplus.

The president will first stop at Manor New Tech High School, where positive results with a collaborative teaching style have gained national attention. The school and student body spent the week preparing for the visit, including postponing some end-of-course exams.

Afterward, Obama will meet with technology workers at the Austin facility of Applied Materials, the world's largest maker of chip manufacturing equipment. Austin's city council plans to recess a scheduled meeting early so that the council and Mayor Lee Leffingwell can attend the meeting, said Amy Everhart, a spokeswoman for the mayor.  

The White House had not revealed additional details of Obama’s Texas trip as of Wednesday evening, but rumors swirled that the president may stop by elsewhere in the city. The Austin-American Statesman reported that the city plans to close unspecified streets downtown Thursday and detour some buses, suggesting Obama could make an unannounced appearance there.

What inspires Bill Gates?

What inspires a billionaire? In the case of Bill Gates, it's a 500-year-old manuscript penned by Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci. And at $30.8 million, it was probably a bargain to the Microsoft founder, who considers it a priceless symbol of knowledge. Charlie Rose talks to Gates about the historic document -- the world's most valuable -- for a 60 Minutes story to be broadcast Sunday, May 12 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Gates won't entertain comparisons of his life to that of da Vinci, who conceived of airplanes and helicopters hundreds of years before they were built, but says the great thinker was way ahead of his time. "He had an understanding of science that was more advanced than anybody else at the time," says Gates, referring to da Vinci's writings about water displayed in his private office in Seattle. "He's looking at how it flows when it hits barriers and it goes around and comes back together. He's actually trying to understand turbulence. How you build a dam, does it erode away?"

What makes the ancient text so priceless to Gates is what it stands for: a quest for knowledge he embraces completely and that continues to inspire him. "It's an inspiration, that one person off on their own with no positive feedback...that he kept pushing himself...found knowledge in itself to be a beautiful thing," Gates tells Rose.

Da Vinci's ideas were futuristic. Gates' may be realized much sooner. He shows Rose prototypes of inventions now being worked on that will help change the world for many, especially the world's poorest people.

Gates has invested in a nuclear reactor that would burn depleted uranium. He predicts the reactor, which is cheaper, cleaner and safer than those of today, could be built in a decade or less. But another invention, a thermos system that can keep vaccines cold and potent for 50 days, will soon be deployed to help eradicate preventable diseases.

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

139th Kentucky Derby: A Billionaire's Bonanza

By: Brian A. Shactman

CNBC Reporter

The 139th running of the Kentucky Derby will surely make history, and a lot of money, too.
Start with the horses and owners. Right now, the favorite is named Orb. Owners Stuart Janney and Dinny Phipps, first cousins whose families both have a long and distinguished history in horse racing, bought him for just $50,000. Orb has already won close to a million dollars. A Derby win would more than double that, and most likely, bring an annuity of riches in terms of breeding. Repole's horse is Overanalyze and at 15-1, he has a chance to do just that.

Derby's $1,000 Mint Julep

Thursday, 2 May 2013 | 2:00 PM ET

 

CNBC's Brian Shactman is at the home of Saturday's Kentucky Derby, where Brown-Forman has cooked up a mint julep with a $1,000 price tag. Tim Laird, Brown-Forman's "Chief Entertaining Officer" makes one for Brian and explains what makes it so expensive.

Most people don't know the name Mike Repole. But he's a billionaire. Repole co-founded Glaceau—most known for Vitamin Water—and he sold it to Coke for $4.1 billion in 2007. Now, he's out to dominate horse racing like he did the beverage industry.

Repole's horse is Overanalyze and at 15-1, he has a chance to do just that.
There's also a great deal of buzz surrounding the horse Goldencents. It was originally purchased for $62,000 and has won even more than Orb. However, there are two elements of Goldencents' story that make the horse one to watch.

First, it's part owned by Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino. He just won the national championship, and a hoops/Derby double would absolutely be unprecedented. Then, there's the jockey. Kevin Krigger is an African American from the U.S. Virgin Islands. No African American jockey has won the Derby since 1902.

While on the subject of jockeys and history, Rosie Napravnik is mounted on Mylute, and she could become the first female to ever win the Kentucky Derby.

Those are the headline history-making possibilities, and if any of them win, huge money would follow.

The truth is that huge money is everywhere at the Derby: from the $8,000 per ticket new luxury area called the "Mansion," to the $500 hats and $1,000 mint julep.

Not everyone will pony up $1,000 for a gold-leafed mint julep, but plenty will buy the cheaper versions. Approximately 120,000 will be served, and that translates into more than a ton of mint and 7,800 litres of bourbon.

You might need a few to swallow the cost of staying in Louisville on Derby weekend. Put it this way, a Hampton Inn 10 miles away in Indiana is charging $550 a night...and they're full. Normally, that room-rate is $90.

If you come through on a nice 50-1 long shot, it might all be worthwhile. To see the spectacle, it might still be worth it even if you lose.

The 139th Kentucky Derby will take place on Saturday, May 4 at Churchill Downs.
—By CNBC's Brian Shactman. Follow him on Twitter: @bshactman

Stars Share Memories of George Jones at Memorial Service

WRLTHD Music News

Photo Credit: Ray Tharaldson & Rick Diamond/Getty Images

Kenny Chesney, Charlie Daniels, Brad Paisley and Many Others Eulogize the Late Singer

May 2, 2013; Written by Chris Parton

Alan Jackson

 

George Jones' funeral at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville was a somber yet uplifting ceremony of music and remembrances of the Country Music Hall of Fame member who is widely considered the greatest country singer of all time.

Jones passed away Friday (April 26) at age of 81.

Numerous country stars, politicians and other celebrities were in attendance Thursday (May 2) to pay their respects to Jones and his wife Nancy. Some provided musical tributes while others offered eulogies and fond memories about the late singer's talent and friendships.

Tanya Tucker, Randy Travis, the the Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Daniels, Travis Tritt, Barbara Mandrell, Kid Rock, Vince Gill, Patty Loveless, Brad Paisley, Ronnie Milsap, Kenny Chesney, Wynonna and Alan Jackson all spoke or performed a song in Jones' memory.

Also speaking were Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, CBS chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer, former first lady Laura Bush and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The Rev. Mike Wilson, Jones' pastor, offered opening prayers and the ceremony's closing benediction.

Stars who did not take the stage but were in the audience for the event included Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Dierks Bentley, Trace Adkins, Jamey Johnson, Rodney Crowell, Troy Gentry of Montgomery Gentry, Bill Anderson, Marty Stuart, Little Jimmy Dickens, Joe Diffie, Bobby Bare, producer Buddy Cannon and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean.

Thousands of Jones' fans lined up hoping to secure a seat in the Opry House, filling the theater's upper deck and outer flanks after friends and family were allowed to take their seats closer to the stage.

Tucker opened the proceedings with a poem before giving the stage over to Gov. Haslam, who remarked about a trip he took to Tokyo, Japan, in which he found himself in the city's only "country bar" listening to the house band play George Jones covers. Jones was truly a worldwide star, he said.

Travis spoke in a shaky voice about playing a concert with Jones in which the elder demanded to take the stage first -- a common occurrence in Jones' later years of performing -- saying he "would have [paid] all those people to leave" rather than follow the star.

The Oak Ridge Boys spoke of trusting in God's word as they performed "Farther Along," then made way for Schieffer to take the podium. The Texas-born newsman has been a lifelong country music and George Jones fan.

  Photo by Ray Tharaldson all rights reserved 2013

"Nobody could sing like George Jones," Schieffer said, "You couldn't because you hadn't been through what he had been through."

Then Schieffer explained what it was that made Jones such a hero to his fans.

"I think it was the honesty in George's voice that gave it such universal appeal," Schieffer said. "He was as honest and open in his music as he was about himself. He knew what it was like to make a hard living -- the kind of job that some parts of your body are going to hurt when you go home that night. He knew about heartbreak, he knew about disappointment, he knew about betrayal. He was more than a country singer. He was a country song. And it was never an easy song. ... God made just one like him, but aren't we glad He did."

Daniels received a rousing applause after remarking that Jones refused to follow trends and fads in country music, staying true to himself and old-school country instead.

Throughout the event, speakers and performers did not shy away or lessen the truth of Jones' troubles during the '60s and '70s -- from his tendency to miss shows to his well-known love of drink.

Opry announcer Keith Bilbrey commented on such trials but reminded the crowd that Jones was an honest man and that "if he did it, he admitted it and he made it right."

Tritt offered the repeated refrain that all of Jones' friends, family and fans owed Jones' wife Nancy a debt of gratitude, crediting her with pulling him out of alcoholism and various other personal issues that most thought would eventually kill him.

Fighting back tears, Barbra Mandrell spoke of Jones as a kind and caring man who helped out younger artists whenever possible.

Kid Rock, who became close with Jones toward the end of his life and visited the singer in the hospital before he died, delivered a poignant speech, much of it directly to Nancy.

"Quite frankly, I know how difficult it can be to be with one of us," he said. "We give so much of our self to the people, to the fans, to the crowds and to the business that sometimes when you come home, it can be a little empty there because you don't have so much left to give. ... But no matter what we got of George Jones, [Nancy] got the best of him."

He then performed an original tune titled "Best of Me" that echoed the sentiment.

Vince Gill and Patty Loveless brought the Opry house to tears, partially for their soaring rendition of Gill's "Go Rest High on That Mountain" but mostly because Gill could not sing much of the song through his own crying. Loveless consoled the singer as he omitted one verse in favor of a guitar solo for lack of a voice.

"It is my belief that they don't make those shoes anymore," he said before the performance, referring to Jones' song about the changing times of country music, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes."

Former first lady Laura Bush remarked that Jones' voice had made an impression on countless Americans, herself included.

"Pain and Love," she said. "George Jones spoke of them both whenever he sang a note."

Paisley used his time onstage to encourage young people watching on TV to discover Jones if they hadn't already. He also spoke of the redemption Jones achieved in his life and what an inspiration it was for others.

Huckabee said that when he was younger, men were not supposed to cry. It was Jones' songs, he said, that did the crying on their behalf.

Kenny Chesney, who was clearly shaken, said he looked up to Jones like a father, while Wynonna contended that America had lost a national treasure.

But perhaps the most powerful speech of the night was not a speech at all. To close the ceremony, Jackson strode the microphone and seemed to will himself to get through Jones' signature song, "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Forceful with the song's heartbreaking lyrics but with quivering lips, Jackson removed his cowboy hat as the Opry house joined him for the song's final line.

"We love you, George," was all that was left to say.

Israeli Jets Bombs Syrian Chemical Weapons Site Near Damascus…

DAMASCUS, Syria, April 28 (UPI) — The Free Syrian Army says Israeli air force jets flew over President Bashar Assad’s palace and bombed a chemical weapons site near Damascus, Maariv reported.

The report said the Israeli jets entered Syria’s airspace close to 6 a.m Saturday and flew over Assad’s palace in Damascus and other security facilities before striking a chemical weapons compound near the city.

The Hebrew language daily said a Syrian army air defense battery positioned in the city fired at the Israeli jets that left Syria’s airspace unscathed. FSA rebels posted a video showing smoke rising up from the headquarters for chemical weapons. There were no reports of the extent of damage or casualties.

Neither Damascus or Jerusalem responded to the report.

In January, foreign media reported Israeli jets bombed a weapons convoy parked outside a military research institute near Damascus allegedly en route to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

Fewer See Better Life North of the Border, but 35% Would Migrate

 
On the eve of President Barack Obama’s visit to Mexico, the United States is enjoying a resurgence of good will among the Mexican public, with a clear majority favorably inclined toward their northern neighbor and more now expressing confidence in Obama.

A national opinion survey of Mexico by the Pew Research Center, conducted March 4-17 among 1,000 adults, finds that roughly two-thirds (66%) of Mexicans have a favorable opinion of the U.S. – up from 56% a year ago and dramatically higher than it was following the passage of Arizona’s restrictive immigration law in 2010, when favorable Mexican attitudes toward the United States slipped to 44%.

Obama also receives higher ratings than he did in recent years. About half (49%) of Mexicans express confidence in the American president to do the right thing when it comes to world affairs, compared with 42% who said the same in 2012 and 38% in 2011. Still, Mexicans’ confidence in Obama has yet to return to the level in his first days in office in 2009, when 55% gave him a high rating.

Mexicans are also now more of the view that the U.S. takes their country’s interests into account when deciding international policy. About half (51%) say Washington considers their country’s interests, while 45% say it does not. In 2012, opinion leaned in the opposite direction – 56% said the U.S. did not consider Mexico’s interests, compared with 40% who said it did.
 
Bilateral issues, particularly the deepening of economic and commercial relations between the U.S. and Mexico, are expected to be among the key items on the agenda when Obama meets with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto this week. The survey finds that, overall, 70% of Mexicans consider the deep economic ties between the two countries to be good for Mexico, down slightly from 76% in 2009, when Pew Research last asked this question.

When asked specifically about the influence the U.S. is currently having on economic conditions in their country, views are more mixed. One-third of Mexicans say the U.S. is having a positive impact on national economic conditions in Mexico, while 28% think the U.S. is having a bad impact on their country’s economy.

Views on Immigration

 
More than 11 million Mexicans live in the U.S., including about 6 million who are in the country illegally.¹ Mexicans are divided on whether this is good or bad for their country; 44% say it is good for Mexico that many of its citizens live in the U.S., and an equal share say this is bad for Mexico.

About six-in-ten Mexicans (61%) say they would not move to the U.S. even if they had the means and opportunity to do so. However, a sizable minority (35%) say they would move to the U.S. if they could, including 20% who say they would emigrate without authorization.
 
Mexicans are less likely than they were a year ago to say that people from their country who move to the U.S. have a better life there; 47% say life is better in the U.S., compared with 53% in 2012. About one-in-five (18%) say Mexicans have a worse life in the U.S., while 29% say it is neither better nor worse. However, among those who have close friends or relatives living in the U.S., 70% say these friends or relatives have achieved their goals, while just 25% believe they have been disappointed.
Three-in-ten Mexicans say they personally know someone who went to the U.S. but returned to Mexico because the person could not find work. About a quarter (27%) know someone who has been deported or detained by the U.S. government for immigration reasons in the last 12 months.

Fewer See Progress on Drug War

 
Less often than a year ago, Mexicans say their government is making progress in its campaign against drug traffickers; 37% say this is the case, compared with 47% in 2012. An additional 29% now say the government is losing ground against the cartels, and 30% see no change in the way things are going. As in the past, Mexicans overwhelmingly support the use of the Mexican army to fight drug traffickers; 85% are in favor of this approach.
 
There is also support for some cooperation from the U.S. in the fight against Mexican drug cartels. About three-quarters (74%) would welcome U.S. assistance in training Mexican police and military personnel. A majority (55%) would also approve of the U.S. providing money and weapons to the country’s police and military, although this position has lost some support in recent years; 61% backed this form of U.S. assistance in 2012 and 64% did so in 2011. However, there is little enthusiasm for the deployment of U.S. troops to Mexico to fight drug traffickers; just 34% of Mexicans would welcome this approach, while 59% would oppose it.

 Most Mexicans (56%) blame both the U.S. and their own country for the drug violence in Mexico;  
20% say the U.S. is mostly to blame and 17% blame Mexico. When Pew Research first asked this question in 2009, far more blamed the U.S. (25%) than blamed Mexico (15%), while about half (51%) said the countries shared responsibility.

Mixed Ratings for Peña Nieto on Key Issues

 
Peña Nieto, whose election as president in 2012 marked the return to power of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) after 12 years in the opposition, is generally viewed positively in Mexico; 57% say he is having a good influence on the way things are going in the country, while 38% see his influence as bad.

However, Mexicans expressed mixed views of Peña Nieto’s handling of some key issues. In particular, the same share approves as disapproves of the way the president is dealing with the economy (46%). Similarly, 47% approve of his handling of organized crime and drug traffickers, while 45% disapprove. And when it comes to dealing with corruption, 44% approve of Peña Nieto’s approach and 48% disapprove.

Not surprisingly, on all three issues, those who are affiliated with the PRI offer more positive ratings of the president than do those who are affiliated with Felipe Calderón’s National Action Party (PAN). At least six-in-ten supporters of the PRI approve of the president’s handling of the economy (68%), organized crime and drug traffickers (62%) and corruption (62%). In contrast, 46% of PAN supporters approve of the way he is dealing with the economy and corruption, and 51% give him high marks for his handling of drug cartels.

The survey in Mexico is part of the larger cross-national Spring 2013 Pew Global Attitudes survey conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International.

Results for the survey in Mexico are based on 1,000 face-to-face interviews conducted
March 4 to 17, 2013. The survey is representative of the country’s adult population. It uses a multi-stage cluster sample stratified by region and proportional to population size and urban/rural population. All interviews were conducted in Spanish.

The margin of sampling error is ±4.1 percentage points. For the results based on the full sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is plus or minus the margin of error. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.

Bush library exhibits: 9/11, war, Katrina, recount

By JAMIE STENGLE
Associated Press

AP Photo/Benny Snyder

Buy AP Photo Reprints

DALLAS (AP) -- A tour of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum begins in a bright area representing his early domestic agenda, but with one turn, visitors find themselves in a darkened room surrounded by chilling reminders of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

This contrast, symbolizing Bush's abrupt shift in priorities less than eight months into his first term, is among the most poignant exhibits at a museum being dedicated this week that also chronicles the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the Florida recount and various other historical events.

Bush told The Associated Press last week that he wanted to make sure the part of the museum devoted to 9/11 was powerful enough to remind visitors of how much the world changed that day.

"It's very emotional and very profound," Bush said. "One of the reasons it has to be is because memories are fading rapidly and the profound impact of that attack is becoming dim with time, and we want to make sure people remember not only the lives lost and the courage shown but the lesson that the human condition overseas matters to the national security of our country."

 The George W. Bush Presidential Center, which includes the library and museum along with Bush's policy institute, will be dedicated Thursday on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. All the living presidents, including President Barack Obama and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, plan to attend. It will open to the public on May 1.

The museum uses everything from news clips to interactive screens to artifacts to tell the story of Bush's eight years in office. A container of chads - the remnants of the famous Florida punch cards - is part of an exhibit about the 2000 election, which Bush won after the Supreme Court ordered Florida to stop its recount process more than a month after Election Day.

In the 9/11 display, called the "Day of Fire," video images from the attacks flash around a twisted metal beam recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. The exhibit also includes the bullhorn Bush used days later to address a crowd of rescue workers at ground zero: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."

Longtime Bush adviser Karen Hughes was standing just a few feet away from the president when he began making the unplanned speech. Hughes said she remembers turning to Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh and saying, "That's going to be in his library someday."

Brendan Miniter, who served as the liaison for the Bushes as the museum's exhibits were developed, said the idea was to present the facts and "let them speak for themselves." He said they also did not want to shy away from more controversial aspects of the administration.

 "I suspect that people would have thought that we wouldn't have talked about say enhanced interrogation techniques or the decision to create the prison in Guantanamo," he said, adding that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is featured in a video about why the administration felt both were necessary.

Visitors also are taken through a timeline of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A display at the end makes the case against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, including that he ignored 17 United Nations Security Council resolutions demanding he disclose his weapons programs and fired at British and American pilots monitoring the U.N.-imposed no-fly zone.

The exhibit also acknowledges the biggest controversy about the justification for war: No weapons of mass destruction were found.

A "Decision Points Theater," lined with rows of interactive screens, seeks to put visitors in the shoes of a president. It provides facts for them to decide such questions as whether to invade Iraq or provide bailout money during the financial crisis.

"It's conflicting," Miniter said. "You go to the Capitol Hill and somebody will say you need to provide some resources to stabilize the financial industry, and then somebody else will say no, let it work itself out, don't do anything."

A "Freedom Wall" in the museum features pictures including a soldier greeting children, former first lady Laura Bush supporting women's rights and the Bushes meeting with freedom advocates.

The impact of AIDS around the world - a focus of Bush's international outreach efforts - is illustrated with a large map of the world. Small photographs of the faces of those suffering from the disease are placed into the shapes of the continents of the world, with those with more AIDS cases, including Africa, looming larger.

The museum also features a section on life at the White House, displaying a ball that obviously got some heavy use by the Bushes' late dog Barney. A full-scale replica of the Oval Office leads outside to an actual rose garden. The center also features a 15-acre park recreating a Texas prairie.

Bush said his focus will continue to be the George W. Bush Institute, which has featured programs focused on education, economic growth, global health and human freedom. Through the institute, his activities have included yearly bike rides with wounded military veterans and traveling to Africa as part of an effort among several groups to fight cervical and breast cancer in sub-Saharan Africa.

He also recently took up oil painting, inspired by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Bush, who was the 43rd president, signs his works "43."

"I'm a beginner and I tell people that the signature on my paintings is worth more than the paintings," Bush said.

---

George W. Bush Presidential Center, http://www.bushcenter.org

George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, http://www.georgewbushlibrary.smu.edu