Day: February 5, 2010

A judge declared Friday that a former aide to John Edwards was in contempt of court, demanding that he turn over a “personal” videotape being sought by Edwards’ former mistress.

Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones reprimanded Andrew Young in a court hearing Friday but declined to put him in custody. The contempt ruling will be lifted if Young turns over a videotape “of a personal nature” and other items by Wednesday, Jones said.

“These items are to be produced and turned over to the court,” Jones said. “The court will put them under lock and key — and under seal — until the lawsuit is resolved.”

The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent, while employers shed 20,000 jobs, according to a report that offered hope the economy will add jobs soon.

The unemployment rate dropped from 10 percent because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000, the Labor Department said Friday. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.

Former Alaska Gov. and defeated GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin did not report construction of two new cabins built on property she partially owns and has failed to pay taxes on the new construction.

Local tax officials haven’t issued tax assessments for the two-story, house-sized cabins, a workshop and a sauna spotted Thursday in an aerial survey. Palin did pay $156.13 in property taxes in 2009 — but did not notify the local about the new construction nearly 100 miles north of Anchorage.

Chief executives at some of the biggest financial institutions are on a mission to repair their image with Congress and the public, part of a strategy to gain more influence over legislation that would overhaul financial regulations and intrude further into their business.

Top bankers fanned out across Capitol Hill on Thursday, meeting with House and Senate members involved in banking policies. They were led by Richard Davis, the chairman and CEO of U.S. Bancorp, and Robert Kelly, chairman and CEO of Bank of New York Mellon.

“The No. 1 goal we have is to be relevant to this fix,” said Davis, who is also chairman of the Financial Services Roundtable, an industry group.

Job losses during the Great Recession have been huge and they’re about to get bigger.

When the Labor Department releases the January unemployment report Friday, it will also update its estimate of jobs lost in the year that ended in March 2009. The number is expected to rise by roughly 800,000, raising the number of jobs shed during the recession to around 8 million.

The new data will help illustrate the scope of the jobs crisis. Analysts think the economy might generate 1 million to 2 million jobs this year. And they say it will take at least three to four years for the job market to return to anything like normal.

“It’s going to take a long time to dig out of this hole,” said Julia Coronado, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.