Wife of Edwards aide breaks down Wife of Edwards aide breaks down ADVERTISING GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — The wife of an ex-aide to John Edwards broke down on the witness stand Monday as she recounted how the candidate asked the
Wife of Edwards aide breaks down
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — The wife of an ex-aide to John Edwards broke down on the witness stand Monday as she recounted how the candidate asked the couple to hide an affair he was having and justified using wealthy donors’ money to do it.
Testifying at Edwards’ campaign corruption trial, Cheri Young said she huddled around a phone in her Chapel Hill home during December 2007 with her husband, Andrew Young, and Edwards’ pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter.
On the call, Edwards emphasized the need to preserve his campaign and keep the affair from his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, Cheri Young said. It was a couple weeks before the 2008 Iowa caucuses, and two suspicious tabloid reporters had already tracked Hunter from a doctor’s appointment to the Youngs’ home.
Edwards made the plan sound “as if it was for the good of the country,” Cheri Young said.
Asked by a prosecutor why she went along with it, Young put her hands together, pressed them to her chin and bowed her head as if in prayer. As she began to weep, U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles dismissed the jury to give her time to compose herself.
Consumers spent
less during March
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans increased their spending more slowly in March, a sign that scant pay increases may be causing consumers to become more cautious.
Their spending rose 0.3 percent last month, just one-third the increase in February. Slow wage growth and softer consumer spending gains are the latest evidence that the economy might be weakening. Economists say a warm winter made the economy look better because it caused some activity that normally occurs in spring — from hiring to home sales — to occur in January and February. That made March’s gain smaller.
A more troubling factor in the long run is that Americans are receiving little or no pay raises. “Real” income — income adjusted for inflation — has been growing too slowly to sustain healthy increases in consumer spending, economists say.
O’Shea’s casino is shutting doors
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A 23-year-old Irish-themed casino on the Las Vegas Strip is going dark to make way for a major entertainment district.
O’Shea’s Casino is set to close at noon Monday after urging patrons to “drink us dry” over the weekend. Officials plan to implode the casino’s parking garage early Tuesday.
The casino’s parent company is making way for a $500 million Linq Project, which will include an outdoor shopping and dining area and a giant observation wheel.
Caesars Entertainment executives say they’ll bring back the casino’s distinctive casual atmosphere, live music and beer pong in a reinvented O’Shea’s within the Linq project.
O’Shea’s employs about 300 people. Casino officials say they’ve been trying to place them in other jobs within the company.
