• Europe Begins A Round of Financial Bailouts
• How Will the Treasury Use the $700 Billion?
• Civil Libertarians Denounce New FBI Investigation Guidelines
• Voter Registration or Voter Disenfranchisement?
• Are Florida Vets Being Denied Opportunity to Register to Vote?
• Remembering Chile's Historic Plebiscite

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Europe Begins A Round of Financial Bailouts

One European government after another is scrambling to pull itself out of the financial crisis that is now global. In Iceland, where the currency is now rated the world's third-worst performing, the financial markets were suspended today while the government comes up with a bailout. In Germany, the government is spending $68 billion to bail out Hypo Real Estate. French Bank BNP Paribas will take over finance group Fortis's operations in Belgium and Luxembourg. Meanwhile governments are raising the amount of personal savings they will guarantee, and the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will hold up some banks through some $74 billion in short-term loans. European leaders are in the process of developing more long-term solutions, with representatives of several countries saying they would not implement the blanket $700 billion bailout pushed through in the US.

How Will the Treasury Use the $700 Billion?

As Europeans weigh in on the US bailout, the US stock market is responding to the crisis now gripping Europe: the Dow dipped some 800 points today – but closed down 350.  Meanwhile in the capital today, Congress heard testimony that even as Lehman Brothers was asking the Feds to rescue it from collapse, it was bundling millions of dollars to its executives. A House panel pressed Lehman Brothers CEO in the first Congressional hearing attempting to make sense of the financial crisis. Now that Congress has approved a massive economic recovery package, Treasury officials are getting down to business. But what are they going to do with 700 billion dollars? What are the first concrete steps toward restoring the economy? FSRN's Tanya Snyder has the answers.

Civil Libertarians Denounce New FBI Investigation Guidelines

The Department of Justice has issued a new set of guidelines for the FBI, which will make it easier to begin investigating people, even if there is no suspicion of an actual crime or a threat to national security. Despite reports of internal abuses at both the FBI and the DOJ, the new guidelines replace current rules for five kinds of investigations: general criminal, national security, foreign intelligence, civil disorders and demonstrations. FSRN spoke with ACLU lawyer and former FBI agent Michael German about the new policies.

Voter Registration or Voter Disenfranchisement?

About half of the states have voter registration deadlines today with more deadlines looming in coming days. The presidential campaigns and voter outreach groups have worked to register new voters; and with the election just 29 days away, States are reporting increased voter registration, with Democrats out registering Republicans. As Washington Editor Leigh Ann Caldwell reports, some call the concept of voter registration a form of voter disenfranchisement.

Are Florida Vets Being Denied Opportunity to Register to Vote?

Florida's voter registration deadline is today. But will all eligible voters in the country's largest swing state have the opportunity to register? One non-partisan group which registers voters is raising concerns. Veterans for Peace says that the Department of Veterans Affairs is preventing the group from going into VA hospitals to register vets to vote. From WMNF Community Radio in Tampa, Seán Kinane reports.

Remembering Chile's Historic Plebiscite

Chileans celebrated a landmark referendum this Sunday, which resulted in the ouster of then-dictator Augusto Pinochet from 20 years ago. From Santiago, Chile, FSRN's Jorge Garretón looks at some ways the country has changed after two decades of democracy.