WASHINGTON, DC – 92,000 total payroll jobs were created in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today, which is less than financial market predictions of 125,000 jobs and less than the 125,000-150,000 needed each month to keep pace with the expanding workforce. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.4 percent but remains higher than it was when President Bush took office in January of 2001.

Queens, NY – Today, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-Queens, Manhattan) and NYC Department of City Planning Director Amanda Burden and Queens Borough President Helen Marshall announced that the City has obtained all the funding it needs, including $19.05 million from the federal government, to complete the long-awaited renovation of Queens Plaza.  The City of New York will allocate the rest of the funding for the approximately $22 million project.  Maloney and Burden also announced that construction on the project is expected to begin in late 2007.

NEW YORK, NY – A nun who was a dedicated volunteer at Ground Zero for six months has died of the illnesses she contracted from breathing the toxic air there. Sister Cindy Mahoney passed away in South Carolina yesterday. She had asked before she died that an autopsy be performed on her body to aid in the upcoming 9/11 health effects lawsuit.

WASHINGTON, DC - The Bush Administration has allowed the United States to become increasingly dependent on foreign purchases of U.S. Treasury securities to finance the federal budget deficit, and future U.S. national income will be depressed by payments to foreign holders of U.S. debt, according to a new study by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) and the House Committee on Financial Services.