Newscast for Thursday, November 6, 2008

• Pro Business Democrat to be Obama Top Aide
• Campaign Dollars Key in Election Victory
• Kenya Parties on Obama's Behalf
• Cuba and Brazil React to Obama
• Colombia Mixed on Obama Win
• Mexico Reacts to Obama
• Bush Attempts to Relax Environmental Protection, Worker Protections
• 40th Anniversary of SF Protests That Brought Validity to Ethnic Studies

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Pro Business Democrat to be Obama Top Aide
President-elect Barack Obama is moving forward with his transition to the White House.  He and Michelle will meet with President and Laura Bush Monday to discuss the transition. Tomorrow Obama will meet, in Chicago, with an economic team. They include former Progressive Congressman David Bonior, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, Warren Buffet, and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Obama has named his Chief of Staff. Rahm Emanuel, former aid to President Clinton and current US Representative of Illinois. He is the fourth highest-ranking member of the Congress. Emmanuel is also a member of the New Democratic Coalition which tends to be moderate in ideology and friendly to business.  Opensecrets.org shows that Emmanuel is one of the top recipients of campaign contributions from the financial industry.

Campaign Dollars Key in Election Victory
Now we take a close look at who else, other than the financial industry, that donated political money… This was the most expensive campaign season in US political history.  According to the Center for Responsive Politics,  Presidential and congressional campaigns spent 5.3 billion dollars.  The non-partisan group that tracks money in politics found that, in most cases, the candidates with the most money won. FSRN's Karen Miller takes a look at the money behind the victories.

Kenya Parties on Obama's Behalf
After Obama's victory, in Kenya, where Obama's father is from, President Kibaki immediately announced that today, November 6, will be Obama day.  Many Kenyans, however, began celebrating long before the national holiday, especially around Obama's family hometown of Kogelo in the Western part of the country. FSRN's Arusha Topazzini was in Nairobi. She brings us this report.

Cuba and Brazil React to Obama
FSRN continues our coverage of this week's historic presidential election by examining the reaction throughout Latin American. Today we'll go to five counties, and we'll start with a country that has tense relations with the US for many decades, Cuba and then go to Brazil, where the atmosphere is of great optimism and sympathy for the new president-elect of the United States, Barack Obama. Juan Jacobson reports from Havana; followed by Natalia Viana from Sao Paulo.

Colombia Mixed on Obama Win
From Brazil, we'll now travel to Colombia where reaction to Obama's win was mixed.  Colombia is the largest recipient of US military aid in the western hemisphere and its government is currently seeking a free trade agreement with the US, which Obama has been critical of. Manuel Rueda 9Ru-a-da) reports

Mexico Reacts to Obama
And we'll end our look at Latin America's react to the election of Barack Obama as President by going just south of the US border to Mexico.  Mexicans in general appeared pleased with an Obama victory. Tim Russo brings us more from Mexico City.

Bush Attempts to Relax Environmental Protection, Worker Protections
While the country is looking forward to an Obama Administration, 75 days remain in the Bush Presidency.  In the waning days, the current Administration is looking to relax regulations and alter rules at the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Labor Department and more.  I spoke with Jeff Ruch, Executive Director at PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Reform.

40th Anniversary of SF Protests That Brought Validity to Ethnic Studies
Today is the 40th Anniversary of student led strikes at San Francisco State University - strikes that led to the creation of the first College of Ethnic studies in the world. Africa Jones reports.