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In apparent first, North Korea airs beer commercial on state TV
KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer
3:56 AM PDT, July 3, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In an apparent first, North Korea — a country that struggles to feed its 24 million people — has aired a beer commercial on state television.

The advertisement, which lasted nearly three minutes after a news program on Thursday, showed a grinning Korean man with sweat on his face holding a glass of beer, with a caption that read, "Taedong River Beer is the pride of Pyongyang."

The commercial said the beer relieves stress and improves health and longevity. It also showed images of a pub it said was in the capital of Pyongyang, filled with people drinking.

Normally, there are no advertisements on television in North Korea, an isolated, communist country that tightly controls its economy and is wary of capitalistic influences.

Programming consists of news, factory descriptions, some children's animation shows, and documentaries on leader Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il Sung, interspersed with propaganda slogans and music, according to a South Korean Unification Ministry official.

The official, who has been monitoring the North's television for more than two decades, told The Associated Press that it was the first time he had seen any sort of advertisement for food, much less beer — although he has seen programs on North Korean cuisine. He asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to media.

The commercial assured viewers of the beer's quality and nutritional value, saying it was made of rice and contained protein and vitamin B2.

It was unclear how much the beer cost and how many North Koreans could afford it. The country is among the poorest in the world, with an average per capita income of $1,065 in 2008, according to the South's central bank.

The North faces chronic food shortages and has relied on food aid to feed its population since a famine that is believed to have killed as many as 2 million in the mid and late-1990s.

Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, apparently enjoys beer.

Kenji Fujimoto, a Japanese sushi chef for Kim, said in a 2003 memoir that he traveled the world for the leader, buying Czech beer as well as Chinese melons, Danish pork and Thai papayas.

Kim's wine cellar was stocked with 10,000 bottles, the chef said, and banquets often started at midnight and lasted into the morning.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will step down as Alaska's chief executive by the end of the month. She will not seek election to a second gubernatorial term in 2010.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announces she's stepping down this month.

As the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, Palin had been considered one of the front-runners for the GOP nomination in 2012.
"People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska," Palin said at an announcement from her home in Wasilla. "Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine."
Palin was elected governor in 2006. She was tapped as Arizona Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate last year.
Palin said she was transferring authority to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will be sworn in at the Governor's Picnic on July 26.
Palin added in a statement that she was "determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path. ... Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional lame duck status in this particular climate would just be another dose of politics as usual, something I campaigned against and will always oppose."
A Republican source close to her political team told CNN's John King that it was a "calculation" she made that "it was time to move on." The governor's "book deal and other issues" were "causing a lot of friction" in her home state, the source said, adding that he believes she is "mapping out a path to 2012."
Another source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Palin "thinks she has accomplished goals she has set forward. ... She sees what a positive influence she has had on people's lives from traveling the country in the last year."
Following Palin's announcement, the Democratic National Committee blasted what it called her "bizarre behavior."
"Either Sarah Palin is leaving the people of Alaska high and dry to pursue her long shot national political ambitions or she simply can't handle the job now that her popularity has dimmed and oil revenues are down," DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse said.
"Either way, her decision to abandon her post and the people of Alaska who elected her continues a pattern of bizarre behavior that more than anything else may explain the decision she made today."
Republican strategist and CNN contributor Ed Rollins said, to a certain extent, Palin's announcement makes her look "terribly inept."
"I think everyone is shocked by this, and I think to a certain extent everyone is going to assume there's another story. You don't just quit with a year and a half to go. You certainly don't do this as a stepping stone to run for president. You finish the job that you're in, and obviously she's not doing that," he said.
"I think people are going to be very suspicious because of the timing. You don't quit on the Friday of a three-day holiday. If you are going to do this, you think it through, you give a good speech," Rollins said.
However, CNN Republican Strategist Mary Matalin said she thought the move was "really brilliant" on Palin's part, though she admitted she was surprised when she first heard the news.
"Her delivery was incredible, if you're a less charismatic person, you probably couldn't pull it off," Matalin said. "[Now] she will be freed up and liberated the way Mitt Romney is to raise money and get political chips by spending it and getting political capital. And she is still raising the kinds of crowds and money she always did."
Now, Matalin says, Palin must focus on "putting up with the conventional wisdom" that this was a bad move and travel the country to drum up support for a presidential run.
"She takes that target off her back with a good record to launch from," Matalin said.
When asked about whether it's possible Palin stepped down because of something negative we hadn't heard yet, Matalin referenced Palin's own words that investigators have dug through research in the ethics investigation.
"We presume if there was anything else we would know it by now," Matalin said.
In an interview last month with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Palin said she was unsure about her re-election bid because she needed to focus on her state and her family.
"So, no decision yet on either 2010 or let alone 2012?" Blitzer asked.

"No decision that I'd want to announce today," Palin responded.

Palin catapulted on the national stage last August when McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, chose her as his running mate.

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Coffers Empty, California Pays With I.O.U.’s

LOS ANGELES — An ever-widening budget gap joined with intractable political paralysis to deliver California its biggest fiscal blow in decades on Thursday, when the state’s controller began printing i.o.u.’s in lieu of cash to pay taxpayers, vendors and local governments.

It was only the second time the state had adopted the emergency payment method since the Great Depression. The National Conference of State Legislatures had no record of any other state’s ever using them.

It was unclear whether the i.o.u.’s, known as warrants, would be accepted by all of the banks in California, which were caught off guard by the move and seemed hesitant to entrust the state to repay the them — at an interest rate of 3.75 percent — in October, as promised.

The controller, John Chiang, issued 28,742 warrants totaling $53.3 million. If state lawmakers fail to reach a budget agreement by the end of August, the amount would grow to $4.8 billion.

While the emergency move resulted from California’s combination of outsized budget gaps, unusual budget rules and a morass of financial obligations approved at the polls, the action was seen as a warning flag to other states that have failed to close their budgets this fiscal year because of the economic downturn.