NBC News Partner Feed, Allen Media Syndication

By Frank Ballard, Nancy Ferrone.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may be unable to match Barack Obama in the party’s delegate race even if she pulls off wins in the Texas and Ohio primaries next week.

While the math says she can still catch him, the odds are daunting because the Democratic Party doesn’t have winner-take- all contests. Clinton instead may need to rely on chemistry, a chain-reaction set off by big wins in the March 4 races and in Pennsylvania in April that will persuade wavering delegates that she’s the stronger candidate to face the Republican nominee in November.

“Because of proportional representation, if one candidate gets a significant lead of pledged delegates, it’s difficult — but not impossible — for the trailing candidate to make up the delegate disadvantage,” said Tad Devine, a strategist for Democratic Senator John Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid. It would take “overwhelming” victories in the remaining primaries. “You really need to beat someone by 20 percentage points.”

Obama is ahead of Clinton by as many as 156 pledged delegates, who will vote on the nomination at the Democratic convention in August, according to an unofficial count by NBC News. There are 370 delegates at stake on March 4, and party rules for how they are awarded make it unlikely Clinton will cut much, if at all, into his lead.

Superdelegates

Clinton, a senator from New York, continues to have an edge among superdelegates, Democratic officeholders and party officials who aren’t bound by primary and caucus votes, according to a tally by The Green Papers, a nonpartisan Web site. Still, Obama, an Illinois senator, has momentum on his side, gaining backing from superdelegates such as Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd, who dropped his own presidential bid in January, and Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota.

Next week’s contests, which include Rhode Island and Vermont, illustrate Clinton’s challenge. A narrow victory by her in Ohio will lead to an almost equal distribution of the state’s 141 delegates. In Texas, with 193 pledged delegates available, the arithmetic for Clinton is worse.

State party rules will “create some interesting distortions,” said Jack Martin, a Texas Democratic strategist.

Clinton, 60, could win statewide in Texas and still collect fewer delegates than Obama because 126 of them are awarded by state senate districts, and those won by Democrats in the last two elections get more delegates.

District Math

The most delegate-rich districts — those with five to eight delegates each — are in Houston, Dallas and Austin, many with concentrations of black voters. That will be Obama territory. Most of Clinton’s strongholds are among the heavily Hispanic districts along the Texas-Mexico border areas, most with no more than four delegates.

Even losing the “South Texas vote by as much as a 2-to-1 margin, Obama could be down as few as two delegates” statewide, Martin said.

The remaining 67 pledged Texas delegates are awarded in caucuses convened after polls close for the primary. Obama, 46, has beaten Clinton in all but two of the caucuses held so far. In one of those losses, Nevada, Obama still managed to gain one more delegate than Clinton.

Early voting has already started in both Ohio and Texas.

After March 4, with about a fifth of the pledged delegates still available, Obama may have the upper hand.

A private Obama delegate projection shows Clinton’s challenge even with victories next week. The calculations are conservative. For example, they showed Obama losing Maine on Feb. 10 and he ended up winning there.

Obama’s Projections

The Obama campaign’s projection assumes Clinton will win Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico. It shows Obama winning more states, including Wyoming, Mississippi, North Carolina, Indiana, Oregon, Montana and South Dakota.

Under that scenario, he would get slightly more delegates than Clinton, letting him build his lead in pledged convention votes and giving him an opportunity to win over more of the 795 superdelegates, only about half of whom have publicly taken sides. Still, it shows neither candidate with the 2,025 total delegates needed to win the nomination.

Democratic political strategists not associated with either campaign, independent experts and even some Clinton supporters concur in that outlook.

“I don’t think superdelegates are going to go against the flow,” said Stephen Wayne, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Washington. “Politicians hate to get on the wrong bandwagon.”

Momentum

Again, Obama has the momentum. In the 11 contests he has won since Super Tuesday on Feb. 5, he has pocketed 65 percent of the pledged delegates, according to William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Clinton will need to match that yield to pull even.

“It’s difficult to imagine that Clinton can win” in the March 4 states “with sufficiently large margins to appreciably close her delegate deficit with Obama,” said Charlie Cook, an independent political analyst in Washington. “She’d have to win with landslide margins.”

“The powers that be in the Democratic Party” won’t call on Clinton to leave the race before March 4, said Cook. Starting on March 5, “you will hear a chorus calling for her to drop out.”

Clinton however has told Allen Media that she plans to stay in the race, and has opened offices in the remaining states she plans to run the entire race, and is already holding organizational meetings in Pennsylvania in the coming weeks, she is also planning local visits to various North East Pennsylvania areas, and major metro areas, but has yet to release any specific venues for those meetings.

Philadelphia’s last major league sports championship came in 1983, when the National Basketball Association’s Philadelphia 76rs won the league title.It’s the longest drought for a U.S. city that has major league baseball, basketball, football and hockey teams.

So Philadelphia fans are ready for the soccer team awarded to the city yesterday by Major League Soccer. The yet-unnamed expansion team will begin play in 2010 in Chester, Pennsylvania, about 13 miles (21 kilometers) to the south.

“Any kind of championship at this point would raise the morale of Philadelphia sports fans,” said Mark Haggerty, a salesman with an electrical-products distributor in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, 10 miles north of downtown Philadelphia. “We’ve been disappointed in the past with the major franchises in town, so maybe this MLS thing will bring some hardware home.”

The new franchise’s chief executive officer, Nick Sakiewicz, said he believes his team can win a championship in its first year, like the league’s Chicago Fire and Houston Dynamo did in their initial seasons.

“If you have a strong coach and a strong organization, you can quickly put together a team that is talented enough to compete for the championship in this league,” Sakiewicz said in an interview. “So we feel we have an equal shot at winning the championship the first year out as some of the teams with a longer-tenure with the league.”

Sakiewicz, a 47-year-old native of Passaic, New Jersey, is a founding executive of Major League Soccer and former general manager of the league’s now-defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny and New York/New Jersey MetroStars.

Title-Starved

The city’s fans are starving for a title, having been jilted by the Phillies’ 1993 World Series loss, the 1997 sweep of the Flyers in the National Hockey League finals, the 76ers’ loss in the 2001 NBA Finals and the Eagles’ loss in the National Football League’s Super Bowl after the 2004 season.

In the 25 years since the Sixers won the NBA championship, only Villanova University, the Major Indoor Soccer League’s Philadelphia Kixx and the National Lacrosse League’s Philadelphia Wings have won national sports championships for the city.

“This ain’t Baltimore,” Haggerty said. “Nobody gives a crap about lacrosse here. I’m not saying people care that much about soccer, but there’s a lot more people playing soccer around here than playing lacrosse.”

Even the local horse Smarty Jones choked in some Philly sports’ fans’ eyes — winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 2004 before coming up short at the Belmont Stakes and missing racing’s Triple Crown.

Soul Survivor

A quick championship by the new Philadelphia soccer team probably wouldn’t be enough to satiate the Philadelphia region’s die-hard sports fans. Joe Bohley, an Eagles season-ticket holder from Palmyra, New Jersey, likened soccer’s arrival to that of the Arena Football League’s Philadelphia Soul in 2004.

“It didn’t phase me,” said Bohley, 25, a financial analyst with Marlin Leasing in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. “The soccer team coming is the equivalent of the Soul. It’s something to pass the time on Sundays when there is no Eagles or baseball.”

The Linesville Food Pantry is in need of you’re help, in response to that call for action, Curves or Linesville will take your non-perishable food, and can goods to help others in the community. Drop off items at center during business hours.

A chicken pie supper is planned in clark mills at the  Clark Mills UM Church at 3813 Hadley Road on march 2nd, from 4-6PM, cost  is $8.00 for adults, and $6.00 for children, call 724-253-2424, benefits the youth camp fund.

Sen. Clinton's new campaign ad

NYSE Market Wrap

The Voice of Pittsburgh’s Steelers was silenced but his spirit moves on in the hearts and minds of Steeler fans, who came to the steps of City Hall today to pay respect for the Myron Copes Life, his invention, the Terrible Towel, which went on to be the primary item know by steeler fans globally, and a fund raising tool for the children’s home where Myron’s son has lived since 1982.

Myron started his career in Print, then Radio, and Then Talk Radio, his annoying voice his trademark, a sound we will be with out forever forward.

Ironically, many would turn the radio on, and watch TV, just to hear Cope’s play by play. His stories we’re always funny, his integrity important to him to the end. Always the writer, he became lucid hours before his death, asked for his secretary, and wanted to go to work on his next book, a book that will not be coming.

On the steps of the City County Building, Steeler Owners, managers, Radio Personalities, and The Mayor Luke Ravenstahl Spoke on Myron’s Behalf, and in his memory. The Terrible Towel’s Waiving in the air in his memory. 

By A W Allen, and Kim-Mai Cutler in London

The dollar fell to the lowest level in three years versus the yen and touched the weakest ever against the euro on signs the Federal Reserve sees a cheaper dollar as helping the U.S. economy.

The U.S. currency dropped below 104 yen, to its lowest level since March 2005, after Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the weaker currency helps cut the trade deficit. The slide deepened as a report showed Chicago-area business shrank this month, fueling bets on a bigger Fed interest-rate cut in March. The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the currency against six major counterparts, sank to the lowest since its start in 1973.

“It’s broad dollar weakness because of concerns about the U.S. economy, U.S. yields, expectations of rate cuts and financial markets,” said Tom Fitzpatrick, global head of currency strategy at Citigroup Inc. in New York. “They don’t care about the weak dollar. I absolutely believe the market is disappointed” by Bernanke’s comment.

The dollar fell as low as 103.83 yen, then settled at 104.21 yen at 11:30 a.m. in New York, from 105.37 late yesterday and 107.17 a week ago. Today’s drop was its biggest in six weeks. It touched $1.5239 per euro, the weakest since the euro’s inception in 1999. It then recovered to trade at $1.5187, from $1.5193 yesterday. The dollar will touch $1.55 in coming weeks, Fitzpatrick said.

The U.S. currency has lost 2.1 percent against the euro this month, the most since September. The euro is 30 percent above its debut level of about $1.17 in 1999, and is up 84 percent from an all-time low of 82.30 U.S. cents in 2000.

Fed `Indifference’

The yen gained against all 16 most-active currencies today as stocks fell. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 1.6 percent. The yen rose 1.1 percent to 158.32 per euro, the largest gain in five weeks, from 160.10 yesterday as investors exited so-called carry-trade bets on higher-yielding assets funded with cheap loans in Japan.

While Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson reiterated yesterday he favors a strong dollar and President George W. Bush said the currency should reflect the economy’s “fundamentals,” Bernanke told a Senate panel the declines have resulted in “some improvement” in the trade deficit, which “is a positive.”

“The Fed is breaking new ground in expressing indifference to the U.S. dollar’s decline,” analysts led by Daniel Tenengauzer, New York-based head of global currency strategy at Merrill Lynch & Co., wrote in a research note today. Merrill forecasts the euro to “peak” at $1.57 around the end of March.

The U.S. currency’s decline has made U.S. goods cheaper abroad, boosting exports to a record and shrinking the nation’s trade deficit last year for the first time since 2001. It can also make it less attractive to hold onto U.S. assets. Foreign holdings of U.S. stocks, notes and bonds rose a net $56.5 billion in December, slowing from an increase of $90.9 billion in November, Treasury Department data showed this month.

Chicago Report

Bernanke also said a housing slump may cause smaller U.S. banks to fail and increase unemployment, fueling speculation Fed policy makers will increase the pace of interest-rate cuts.

The National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said today its business barometer dropped to 44.5 in February, the lowest since December 2001, from 51.5 a month earlier. Figures less than 50 signal a contraction.

The chances of a 75 basis-point Fed cut to 2.25 percent by March 18 have risen to 62 percent, from 2 percent a week ago, according to futures on the Chicago Board of Trade. The balance of bets is on a half-point reduction.

“It’s become all one-way traffic against the dollar,” said Neil Mellor, a currency strategist in London at Bank of New York Mellon Corp.

Yen Climbs

The slump in the U.S. currency helped push the price of oil to a record of $103.05 and gold to an all-time high of $978.50 an ounce in London.

The U.S. Dollar Index traded on ICE Futures in New York, which tracks the currency against six major counterparts, declined to 73.56 today. The dollar dropped to 3.1845 versus Malaysia’s ringgit and 28.88 Thai baht, both the weakest in more than a decade, on speculation U.S. rate cuts will prompt fund managers to shift investment into Asia.

The baht rose the most in at least a year as the central bank said it will lift restrictions on capital inflows on March 3.

Japan’s currency climbed 2.7 percent to 97.31 per Australia’s dollar, 2.9 percent to 83.40 per New Zealand dollar and 3.9 percent to 13.40 per South Africa’s rand.

The currencies are favorites for so-called carry trades, in which investors get funds in a nation with low borrowing costs and invest in one with higher rates. The risk in that strategy is that swings in exchange rates erase those profits.

Volatility Jumps

“Bernanke’s comments heightened negative sentiment on U.S. economic fundamentals,” said Joseph Kraft, head of capital markets in Japan at Dresdner Kleinwort, the investment bank owned by Germany’s Allianz SE. The possibility of bankruptcies among local banks “may have reduced investors’ tolerance for risk, prompting yen-buying,” he said. The yen may rise to 102 per dollar in a month, Kraft said.

Implied volatility on one-month dollar-yen options rose to 14.1 percent, the highest since January, from 11.48 percent yesterday. Traders quote volatility, a gauge of expectations for currency moves, as part of pricing options. Japan’s 0.5 percent benchmark rate compares with 7 percent in Australia, 8.25 percent in New Zealand and 11 percent in South Africa.

After trading between $1.43 to $1.49 per euro since November, the dollar decline gained momentum when Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn said on Feb. 26 that credit-market turmoil posed a “greater threat” than inflation. The comments drove the euro above $1.50 for the first time. The dollar fell past $1.51 on Feb. 27 after Bernanke told a House panel policy makers “will act in a timely manner” to support growth.

The euro also got a boost yesterday after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said “price stability is a necessary condition” for ongoing economic expansion. The ECB next meets on March 6 to set its key rate, now at 4 percent.

Stocks fell sharply today after a series of depressing reports and high oil prices stoked concerns about the health of economy around the Globe and here in the USA. The major  indexes fell more than 2 percent, with the Dow Jones industrials at times giving up more than 300 points.

Investors were rattled by disappointing Q1 results from American International Group Inc. and Dell Inc. And the index of regional business activity that Wall Street regards as a precursor to a broader report registered its weakest reading in more than six years.

Adding to Wall Street’s list of worries, oil prices continued to stir concern about inflation after topping $103 per barrel overnight for the first time.

While stocks made sharp gains in the first three days this week even amid lackluster economic readings, the litany of concerns investors succumbed to Friday reflected the undercurrent of uncertainty that has kept Wall Street on edge for months.

In midafternoon trading, the Dow fell 313.10, or 2.33 percent, to 12,269.08, after sinking more than 356 points.

Broader stock indicators also tumbled. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 36.35, or 2.29 percent, to 1,330.37, and the Nasdaq composite index declined 60.09, or 2.10 percent, to 2,271.49.

Bond prices rose sharply as stocks lost ground, as margin calls forced the sale and purchase of other investment items. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, fell to 3.54 percent from 3.67 percent late Thursday.

The dollar showed a slight rebound after hitting a record low against the euro Thursday. The slide in the dollar has sent commodities prices soaring.

Light, sweet crude fell 75 cents to $101.84 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after spiking to $103.05 overnight.

Over all, stocks performed better in February than in January, when credit market turmoil took a heavy toll on the major averages. But disappointing earnings results released late Thursday cast a pall over the market and meant stocks would likely end the month on a wary note.

Insurer AIG announced a $5.29 billion quarterly loss after booking a big charge to account for its exposure to credit derivatives. The loss caught analysts off guard, as many had expected the company to report a profit. AIG was the steepest decliner among the 30 stocks that make up the Dow industrials, falling $3.41, or 6.8 percent, to $46.74.

Computer maker Dell posted a 6 percent decline in its quarterly profit, falling below analysts’ expectations, and warned that its business could suffer from reduced customer spending. Dell slid 91 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $19.96.

Bill Shultz, chief investment officer at McQueen, Ball & Associates, said AIG’s report left investors uneasy about the prospect of further sizable write-downs of bad debt.

He expects Wall Street will continue to proceed with “fits and starts” until investors sense that the bad debt from faltering mortgages has been accounted for and that balance sheets are on the mend.

Some relief for the ailing bond insurance industry is on the way, though the news did little to dislodge Wall Street’s glum mood Friday. Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross agreed to invest up to $1 billion in Bermuda-based reinsurer Assured Guaranty Ltd. Assured Guaranty rose $2.32, or 10.2 percent, to $25.10.

In economic news, the Chicago purchasing managers index for February came in at 44.5, a weaker reading than the 48.5 that had been expected, according to Dow Jones Newswires. The report indicated the factory sector is shrinking in that region. The figure is seen as a precursor of the national Institute for Supply Management report expected Monday.

The Reuters-University of Michigan final consumer sentiment reading for February came in at 70.8, better than the figure of 69 that had been expected. Still, the index was well off the level of 78.4 seen in January.

A government report showed that personal spending, when stripping out the effects of inflation, stood unchanged in January. The findings offered support to the notion that consumers are more hesitant to reach into their wallets amid the uncertainties facing the economy.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 6 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 953 million shares.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 16.95, or 2.40 percent, to 688.77.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average closed down 2.32 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.36 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 1.67 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 1.67 percent.

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Once again the republican party is creating an impasse in legislation that will help over 5 million home owners keep there property. Part of the legislation would allow judges to reset interest and terms of loan payments, and would allow a time period to be built in to the system to stall foreclosure.

But, is the loss of 5,000,000 homes really that bad for banks. The answer to that question is no. Banks who foreclosed do not actually lose money in the long run, they still have the home, just not the loan repayment. Many banks will rent the homes, or sale them, and recover between 90% and 110% of their investment. Those banks who lose money will then be able to go after former property owners  for what is called a deficiency balance, legal fees, costs and other essentials that are related to the resell. Those owners who go bankrupt will still be required by law to pay the balance, and those who don’t file can be garnished in 47 of the 50 states, not including Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas.

In the long run, banks may in-fact be able to rewrite the loans with higher interest rates than those originally agreed upon, and banks can sell lucrative insurance policies for the mortgage of those homes.

Banks and lending companies can also charge clients large re-write fees, and with the extension of contracts the banks can earn an additional 50% of the value of the home in interest fees for every 10 years the loan is extended.

While losing a home is traumatic, it’s not the end of the world. Politician on the republican party say that most of the home owners should of never qualified for a home, and they don’t feel sorry for the banks. Traditionally home owners had to save 20 to 30% for a down payment, have good credit, and a level of income to support the payment as no more than 28% of the monthly income after bills and expenses.

Congress pointed out that the legislation was going to benefit those who helped speculators and profited from bad business deal, and hence blocked it earlier today. 

Banks and lenders anticipate a 2.5% to 4.0% annual loan loss, and maintain a reserve of cash to meet the needs of the customer’s withdrawal of cash from the banks system, the problem  for the banks is a simple one, with anticipated losses in the short term rising, they have to stop lending, and put money coming in to the system in to reserve accounts so bank customers will have access to funds upon withdrawal.

As such, they report losses, this loss is in both current, and the more important future profits on the books of accrual based banking accounting systems.

However, when the homes are sold, the reserves lowered, and the loans that were written off added back to the balance sheet of the banks, the banks will once again show very large profits.

Now is a good time to buy bank, and financial stocks, and while losing a home is bad for the bank and home owner, companies who work to fix up homes, sell homes, refinance home owners, or provide seller services and counseling are also good financial bets once the market shakes out.