The latest headlines from The Most Important News….

A top aide to Barack Obama is warning of catastrophic consequences if Republicans follow through on threats to reject an increase in the nation’s borrowing limit.

Soon after the 112th Congress convenes Wednesday, Republicans in the House plan to make good on a campaign promise that helped vault many new members to victory:voting to repeal Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid, have announced that they will block any attempt by the GOP to repeal the sweeping health care law, which is aimed at getting 32 million Americans insurance coverage.

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo will seek a one-year salary freeze for state workers as part of an emergency financial plan he will lay out in his State of the State address on Wednesday, senior administration officials said.

U.S. crude oil futures set a two year high on Monday, the first trading day of the year, as positive U.S. manufacturing and European data and cold weather forecasts spurred expectations of higher energy demand.

Roughly 1.53 million consumer bankruptcy petitions were filed in 2010, up 9 percent from 1.41 million in 2009, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, citing data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center.

College seniors graduating in 2009 had an average of $24000 in student loan debt, marking a 6 percent rise from the previous year.

The Project on Student Debt report puts the unemployment rate for recent college graduatesat 8.7 percent in 2009 (up from 5.8 percent in 2008), the highest annual rate on record for college students between the ages of 20 to 24.

Home prices will continue to decline for several years, Mort Zuckerman, the chairman and CEO of Boston Properties, told CNBC Monday.

Back in 1970, 25 percent of all jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs.

Net job loss due to the trade deficit with China from 2001 to 2008 affected every state in the U.S., with California, Texas and North Carolina incurring the most losses relative to population, according to a report released by the Economic Policy Institute.

U.S. private employers have recorded 11 consecutive months of job gains, yet the number of people who are so discouraged that they have given up searching for work stands at an all-time high.

Even if the U.S. economy grows at a 4 percent rate, it is being projected that the U.S. unemployment rate will still be above 8 percent at the end of 2012.

Millions of Americans are heading to food banks for the first time in their lives.

There are more indications than ever that America’s infrastructure is crumbling all around us.

One town in Michigan is pleading with the state to let them declare bankruptcy.

Investors are pulling money out of municipal bonds at a rate that is absolutely staggering.

Real GDP in the 3rd quarter of 2008 was $13.2 trillion. Real GDP in the 3rd quarter of 2010 was $13.3 trillion.  Think about these facts for one minute. Your leaders have borrowed $5.7 trillion from future unborn generations and have increased GDP by $100 billion.

European debt markets could be hit by a second credit crisis within months as fears grow over the huge volume of new bonds that must be sold by governments and banks in 2011.

Rising inflation in China is starting to alarm the rest of the globe.

A raft of new federal and local laws ring in the new year, governing a span of topics from health care and finance to texting, guns and smoking.

Californians welcomed the implementation of 725 new laws on January 1st.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republicans’ top congressional investigator in his role as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, says that Barack Obama is ”one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times”.

Delaware authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the recent discovery of the body of a former Pentagon official in a landfill, according to a statement released Monday by the Newark, Delaware, Police Department.

Janet Napolitano, the United States homeland security secretary, said Saturday that her department planned to triple the number of agents in Afghanistan to train border and customs workers — an effort that is partly aimed at curbing the smuggling of cash out of the country.

Iran has missiles that can reach Israel in 12 minutes, according to cables released by WikiLeaks.

Hizbullah would likely shoot between 400 and 600 missiles a day into Israel during a future war, a senior Mossad official told a congressional delegation to Israel in 2009, according to a US diplomatic cable published on Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Sunday to sit down with him in direct talks until “white smoke emerges” – an allusion to how popes are selected.

The U.S. administration is furious with Defense Minister Ehud Barak over the stalled peace talks, sources have told Haaretz. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama’s senior advisers say that for more than a year and a half Barak misled them about his persuasive powers with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the peace process.

The Palestinian Authority announced Sunday that Chile and Uruguay intend to declare recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

According to Debka, Saudi Arabia has arranged to have available for its use two Pakistani nuclear bombs or guided missile warheads.

The embattled border city of Ciudad Juarez had its bloodiest year ever with 3,111 people killed in drug violence, an official said Saturday.

A strong earthquake has shaken central Chile, disrupting power and communications but causing no casualties or serious damage. The quake had a magnitude of 7.1 and its epicenter was 70km (45 miles) northwest of Temuco with a depth of 25km, the U.S. Geological Service said.

A strong earthquake measuring 7.0-magnitude hit a sparsely populated region of northern Argentina early on Saturday (local time), officials said.

Swine flu has spread more rapidly in Britain than in the rest of Europe, the World Health Organization has revealed, as the Government faces growing criticism over the country’s preparations for an epidemic.

An Ohio sheriff says a 10-year-old boy is in juvenile custody after telling a neighbor he had shot and killed his mother.

More than 20 towns in Queensland have been cut off or flooded across an area larger than France and Germany, with more than 200,000 people affected.

According to a recent report in The Australian, both Europe and Japan may cancel their non-GMO grain contracts with Australian growers because of GM contamination, including the recent case of Steve Marsh who lost his organic certification due to GM canola invading his fields.

A secret £7 million weather project in Abu Dhabi has resulted in dozens of man-made rainstorms, according to reports.

According to recent studies, field workers and their children who live in the Salinas Valley of California, also known as the world’s “salad bowl” because of its massive produce exports, are experiencing significant developmental and other health problems as a result of continual pesticide exposure.

A mysterious event that caused thousands of redwing blackbirds to rain down from the sky New Year’s Eve in the Arkansas town of Beebe most likely occurred when loud noises and fireworks frightened a flock that roosts in a neighborhood, causing them to die when they flew into buildings and other obstacles, says a state ornithologist.

State officials on Monday were investigating why 80,000 to 100,000 fish washed up dead on the shores of the Arkansas River last week.

The Diversity Committee of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is undertaking an educational campaign against the term “illegal immigrant,” seeking to inform reporters that the term “illegal immigrant” is “offensive” to Latinos.

Saving up this years gift cards to make a large purchase? You better use them up fast because state governments like New Jersey think they have a better use for that money.

The momentum to remove fluoride from America’s water supplies is picking up steam, thanks to mounting evidence that the toxic chemical byproduct of the aluminum and phosphate fertilizer industries causes brain damage, thyroid problems and cancer. Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens) recently told those attending a city council meeting that he plans to introduce legislation to remove fluoride from the nation’s most populous city.

Canadian pro-life advocates are concerned a recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada could pave the way for grisly research involving cloning and merging different species.

Investigators in New York said Sunday they are looking into a report that four sanitation supervisors assigned to clean up after last week’s monster blizzard instead bought beer and sat in their car.

Italy has joined an increasing number of countries and U.S. cities that ban stores from handing out plastic shopping bags.

A starving North Korea is reportedly spending more than £100 million on new offices and villas for Kim Jong-un, the country’s heir-apparent.

Less than half of all Americans said they will make New Year’s resolutions for 2011, a new survey has revealed.

Planned Parenthood’s website has announced that the group is preparing to launch a nationwide “social change initiative” to end the “stigma and shame about sex” in American culture.

By unanimous consent in the Senate, Chai Feldblum, a lesbian law professor and the primary author of the pro-homosexual Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), was recently confirmed as a member of the powerful Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which wields enormous power over the nation’s employers.

At least 21 people were killed and more than 70 injured in Egypt in a suspected suicide bombing outside a church in Alexandria as worshippers left a new year service.

Christians throughout the Middle East are facing more persecution today than at any other time in the modern era.

Pope Benedict XVI has said that he will organize a summit in Assisi with religious heads to discuss how they can promote world peace.

In November, the U.S. State Department announced a new $2 million grant to begin work to preserve the surviving ruins of the ancient city of Babylon.

The Navy has opened an investigation into how a series of raunchy videos were produced and shown to the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise while on deployment supporting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lastly, why do all the crazies get all the attention from the mainstream media?  From her Subaru, a car painted as white as the fourth horse of Revelation, Allison Warden proclaimsthat Jesus shall return on May 21.

source : themostimportantnews.com