Word: augusts
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...During the summer, despite high gas prices and swings in the real estate market, consumer confidence edged upward to hover at a fairly strong level, considering the mounting bad economic signs. The Conference Board put its consumer confidence rating at 59.8 for September, a slight improvement from 58.5 in August. Compare that with the index's nearly 20-year low of 55.3 in 1991, when the U.S. fell into recession following the first war in Iraq. (In good times, the index can be well above 100 points.) But the latest series of events on Wall Street and in Washington...
...Perhaps one of the most prominent of these stars is Kobe Bryant. At an Olympic press conference in August, he said that he would leave the Los Angeles Lakers for Europe if he received around $50 million dollars from a foreign team to play for one season. Another possibility for the three-time NBA champion is to be both an owner and player for a team in Milan. Twenty-four year-old sensation and Nike cover-boy Lebron James has also expressed interest in such lucrative contracts. With Kobe Bryant and Lebron James leading the pack, other players may follow...
...prodigiously as Obama's. Some Democrats worry about the huge overhead - Obama is reported to have 350 paid field workers in Florida - in light of the Republican Party's fund-raising prowess and sharper focus. Nationwide, Obama is massively outspending McCain on payroll: $2.7 million for salaries in August alone, compared with $1.1 million for McCain, according to federal election reports...
...massive undertaking. It took 25 years to complete the current U.S. embassy in Moscow; a first effort was scrapped after it was discovered in 1985 that the Soviets had planted bugs throughout the facility. With that in mind, a U.S. Embassy building in Beijing, which opened in August, was reportedly built entirely by American workers using American supplies. It's unclear such measures will have to be resorted to in London, where the U.S. still prides itself on maintaining a Special Relationship. But it will take many years before Nine Elms resounds with quite the prestige of Grosvenor Square; indeed...
...especially confusing time. Last month, reports emerged that North Korea's paramount leader, Kim Jong Il, may have suffered a stroke, and he vanished from sight for several weeks. (In early October, North Korean media reported that Kim attended a university soccer match, his first public appearance since August.) Then Pyongyang abruptly backtracked on its agreement with the U.S. and four other countries to dismantle its nuclear program. U.S. negotiator Christopher Hill flew to Pyongyang in an attempt to get the agreement back on track, but his talks with the North Koreans didn't produce a breakthrough. By alienating...