Obama seeks oil market control
Obama seeks oil market control
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama pushed Congress Tuesday to give oil market regulators more muscle to deter price manipulation by speculators, the latest White House response to determined Republican attacks on administration energy policies amid high gas prices at the pump.
Obama wants Congress to strengthen federal supervision of oil markets, increase penalties for market manipulation and empower regulators to increase the amount of money energy traders are required to put behind their transactions.
“We can’t afford a situation where some speculators can reap millions while millions of American families get the short end of the stick,” Obama said at the White House.
The plan is more likely to draw sharp election-year distinctions with Republicans than have an immediate effect on prices at the pump. The measures seek to boost spending for Wall Street enforcement at a time when congressional Republicans are seeking to limit the reach of federal financial regulations.
The president’s $52 million proposal comes as Republicans have been hammering Obama on his energy policies, recognizing the political cost of high gas prices on the president.
Tex. mom slain, newborn is taken
SPRING, Texas (AP) — A newborn boy was abducted from his dying mother after she was repeatedly shot outside a suburban Houston pediatric center on Tuesday, according to investigators searching for the suspected shooter who sped off with the infant in a blood-stained Lexus.
Kayla Marie Golden, 28, was leaving an afternoon checkup with her 3-day-old son, Keegan, when she had a verbal altercation with a woman in a Lexus parked next to her pickup truck, Montgomery County sheriff’s Lt. Dan Norris said.
Witnesses said the woman repeatedly shot Golden, took the infant and sped away, hitting the dying mother as she screamed “my baby” and tried to reach into the Lexus, Norris said. Witnesses also reported hearing as many as seven gunshots and said a man also was in the Lexus.