On Monday Feb. 2 President Obama released a $4 trillion budget that relies on large tax increases for corporations and the wealthy in order to support efforts to improve education, infrastructure construction and workforce development, all things President Obama claimed have waited too long. While some elements are in agreement with Republican ideas that could help President Obama to work with the Republican Congress, the large tax increases on the rich and corporations have little chance at satisfying Republicans. The plan includes an increase of more than 33 percent for transportation and infrastructure over six years, but the back-and-forth agreements between the White House and Congress could overshadow either party’s goals.
After Brian Williams, NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor, admitted to leading the public astray in a report about a helicopter incident in Iraq, he announced that he would be stepping away from the nightly news temporarily with Dateline’s Lester Holt taking his place. This time will allow NBC to conduct a full investigation into the incident which has caused major criticism towards Williams. The incident threatens NBC’s average of 9.3 million viewers nightly compared to 8.7 million and 7.3 million for ABC and CBS, respectively. Williams’ decision to embellish an account from 2003 has lead people to question his reporting in general as his work is thrown under a microscope for review.
After almost 17 months, the Islamic State claimed that Kayla Mueller, whose name had been kept a secret by U.S. officials and the press, had been killed by falling rubble in Syria as Jordanian warplanes attacked. It is still unclear what exactly Mueller was doing in Turkey since she was not a member of any organization there, but on Feb. 10, 2015 Mueller’s family, who had previously remained hopeful that she was alive, confirmed that Mueller had been killed.
