Obama signals N.Y. Fed chief Treasury pick
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- New York Federal Reserve Bank chief Timothy Geithner is President-elect Barack Obama's Treasury secretary pick, a person close to the transition team said.
Wall Street reacted favorably to the leaked information Friday, jumping several hundred points in a late-afternoon rally, The New York Times reported.
Obama is expected to announce the Geithner appointment, as well as the rest of his economic team, Monday. Geithner's appointment would be subject to congressional approval.
Geithner, 47, has been a subject of speculation for the top economic post for weeks. Also mentioned was Geithner's one-time Treasury boss, Lawrence Summers, who was former President Bill Clinton's final Treasury secretary.
Sources: Sen. Clinton accepts State offer
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has accepted President-elect Barack Obama's offer to be the Secretary of State nominee, two Clinton confidants said Friday.
Clinton reached the decision after lengthy discussions with Obama about the nature of her role and his plans for foreign policy, one confidant told The New York Times.
Senior Obama advisers said Friday morning the offer had not been formally accepted and an announcement wouldn't be made until after Thanksgiving.
Clinton's apparent decision came after days of intense negotiations and vetting of former President Bill Clinton to remove any obstacles his global business and charitable activities may raise. Lawyers for the Obama transition team and the former president examined his finances and developed guidelines for his future activities to avoid any appearances of conflict of interest should Hillary Clinton take the top diplomatic job, the Times reported.
Clinton turned over names of 208,000 donors to his foundation and library and agreed to the conditions sought by Obama's transition team, people close to the situation told the newspaper.
Witness: Stevens prosecutors swayed him
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- A witness in the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, told a federal judge that help from U.S. prosecutors changed his testimony.
Stevens' defense lawyers disclosed the allegation in a motion asking permission to quiz the witness, David Anderson, and to schedule a hearing to consider a letter Anderson wrote to U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who presided in the case, The Washington Post reported.
In the filing, the attorneys accused federal lawyers of "suborning perjury and making intentionally false statements" tied to the witness's testimony.
In the letter Anderson said he also believed he had an agreement of immunity from the prosecution but during the trial he testified that there was no deal.
Stevens was convicted in October on seven felony counts of failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts and home renovations on Senate financial disclosure forms. Federal prosecutors accused Stevens of accepting many of the gifts and renovations from the oil services firm Veco and its top executive, Bill Allen, a close friend of Stevens'. Anderson is Allen's nephew, lives in Alaska and worked for Veco.
"Without the preparation from the prosecution and the reminders from them about my activities and the agreement I had with them about my family and myself," he wrote, "I would not have given the same testimony."
Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney told the Post the department wouldn't comment.
Ruling could delay executions in Calif.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- A California appeals court ruled Friday that the state did not allow proper public review when it revised its execution protocol.
The decision, which upholds a ruling by a judge in Marin County, is expected to delay Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's effort to resume executions, the San Jose Mercury News reported. A legal challenge to the new execution procedure cannot begin until the state has the protocol officially in place.
California has executed 13 people since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme Court threw out all existing death penalty laws while declining to outlaw the death penalty. The state now has 670 people on death row, including some who have exhausted their appeals.
A federal judge found the state's procedure to be "broken" in December 2006. The state held its most recent execution Jan. 17, 2006.
The administration can appeal Friday's ruling to the state Supreme Court.
