Rain Check (postpone)

Vocabulary 2008. 9. 16. 14:13
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
rain check
–noun
1. a ticket for future use given to spectators at an outdoor event, as a baseball game or concert, that has been postponed or interrupted by rain.
2. an offered or requested postponement of an invitation until a more convenient, usually unspecified time: Since you can't join us for dinner, we'll give you a rain check.
3. a ticket, coupon, or the like, entitling a customer to purchase at a later date and for the same amount a sale item that is temporarily out of stock.
Also, raincheck.


[Origin: 1880–85]

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She accused of improperly firing public safety commissioner.
Obama campaign says charge is "complete paranoia", though.

Why?

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will not cooperate with a legislative investigation into the firing of her public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin presidential campaign announced Monday, accusing supporters of Democratic rival Barack Obama of manipulating the inquiry for political motivations.

Gov. Sarah Palin is fighting allegations she improperly tried to force the firing of her former brother-in-law.

Gov. Sarah Palin is fighting allegations she improperly tried to force the firing of her former brother-in-law.

Former Palin Press Secretary Meg Stapleton told reporters in Anchorage that the investigation has been "hijacked" by "Obama operatives" for the Democratic presidential nominee -- namely, Alaska state Sen. Hollis French, the Democratic lawmaker managing the investigation and an Obama supporter. French has denied working on behalf of the Obama campaign.

The Obama campaign described Stapleton's charge as "complete paranoia." It has denied sending campaign staff to Alaska to work with the legislative committee's investigation.

McCain campaign spokesman Ed O'Callaghan said Palin will not cooperate with "that investigation so long as it remained tainted and run by partisan individuals who have a predetermined conclusion," referring to a comment by French earlier this month that the case could produce criminal charges or an "October Surprise" for the GOP ticket.

Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, is battling allegations that she and her advisers pressured then-Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan to fire a state trooper going through a bitter custody dispute with her sister -- and that Monegan was terminated when he refused. Palin says she fired Monegan over budget issues and denies wrongdoing.

Monegan has said that while no one directly demanded Trooper Mike Wooten's dismissal, he felt pressured to do so by Palin, her husband and staff. He said he believes his refusal to fire the trooper led to his own firing. Upon the dismissal, Monegan was offered a position as executive director of the Alcohol Beverage and Control Board, but turned it down.

Palin's lawyers say the investigation -- which the Legislature commissioned on a bipartisan basis in July -- belongs before the state Personnel Board, which met to consider the request Thursday. On Friday, Alaska lawmakers voted to subpoena Palin's husband, several aides and phone records in their investigation.

Stapleton said Palin's attorneys have turned over to the board e-mails that contain "new information that exonerates Palin and proves Monegan's egregious insubordination."

Monegan allegedly worked against Palin over his department's budget, making repeated requests to Congress "for funding that was out of line for every other commissioner and agency," she said.

"The final straw came in late June, when Commissioner Monegan arranged for another unauthorized trip to D.C. to request more money from Congress," Stapleton said.

The campaign also disputed recent comments Monegan made to ABC News, in which he accused Palin of lying during her wide-ranging interview with ABC's Charles Gibson last week.

Palin told Gibson, "I never pressured him to hire or fire anybody." She said she welcomed the investigation and did not worry about the subpoena of her husband, Todd Palin.

"There's nothing to hide," she said. "I know that Todd, too, never pressured Commissioner Monegan. He did, very appropriately, though, bring up those concerns about a trooper [Wooten] who was making threats against the first family, and that is appropriate."

Monegan rebutted Palin's comments, saying, "She's not telling the truth when she told ABC neither she nor her husband pressured me to fire Trooper Wooten," according to an interview posted on ABC News.com. "And she's not telling the truth to the media about her reasons for firing me."

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Stocks Plunge as Crisis Intensifies

AIG at Risk; $700 Billion In Shareholder Value Vanishes

As U.S. stocks plunged this morning, Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection -- a move that signifies a major shakeup of the financial sector that has yet to recover from the mortgage crisis.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; Page A01

The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department struggled yesterday to contain the fallout from an upheaval among the country's largest investment banks as they moved on to their next challenge -- engineering a $75 billion private rescue of the nation's largest insurance company.

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The insurer, American International Group, faces a cash crunch that grew more severe last night when the major credit-rating agencies warned investors that the company could have greater difficulty in meeting its obligations. It was unclear whether the downgrades by the agencies would force AIG to post additional collateral at a time when it is having difficulty raising money.

Investors sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging more than 500 points, or 4.4 percent, for the biggest point loss since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks seven years ago. About $700 billion in shareholder value disappeared in a single day of trading.

The wrenching reshaping of Wall Street -- which over the weekend included the demise of one big firm and the sale of another -- also pushed the value of the dollar lower. It sent the price of crude oil below $100 a barrel for the first time since Feb. 15 as traders bet a global downturn would reduce the demand for energy.

Wall Street's biggest shakeout since the Great Depression stems from a collapse in housing prices, which spread losses among firms that bet on securities linked to mortgages. Twice in the past year, regulators intervened to save financial firms and prevent further erosion in the housing markets. But over the weekend, officials drew the line at rescuing the storied investment bank Lehman Brothers, which yesterday filed for bankruptcy protection.

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"We had a very, very tough day on the market," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "Investors are anxious about the spillover effect of Lehman and what is the next shoe to drop."

As investors digested the news, some economists worried whether Wall Street's troubles were spilling over into other parts of the economy, renewing pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates when it meets today.

Fed leaders, however, believe it is too early to tell what the impact might be, and they are unlikely to cut rates for now.

In the meantime, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. signaled yesterday that taxpayer funds could still be used broadly to "maintain the stability and orderliness of our financial system" but that he was pressing healthier Wall Street firms and commercial banks to join together to assist in rescuing individual firms -- much like the purchase of Merrill Lynch on Sunday by Bank of America.

Goldman Sachs, for instance, was asked by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to help AIG, a $1 trillion-asset insurance company that serves 74 million consumers in 130 countries. AIG had been heavily involved in the business of issuing complex insurance contracts to investors in securities backed by mortgages, and the collapse of subprime and other home loans threatened to hobble the company and trigger a chain reaction in the financial system.

J.P. Morgan Chase, which is serving as AIG's financial adviser, was seeking support for a credit line of $70 billion to $75 billion that would involve multiple lenders, spreading the risk, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

New York's governor, meanwhile, said his state would allow AIG to use $20 billion from its own insurance subsidiaries to ease a financial crunch. By posting the assets as collateral, AIG can borrow money to run its day-to-day operations, Gov. David A. Paterson (D) said. The move required special dispensation from state insurance superintendent Eric R. Dinallo, who is responsible for protecting the stability of AIG insurance companies in New York and their policyholders

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