Republican presidential candidate John McCain spoke to a rally of a few thousand supporters on the hockey rink of St. Anselm College -- a Catholic, liberal arts college in Manchester, N.H. -- early Wednesday morning. McCain told the crowd that if elected President, Democratic candidate Barack Obama will raise taxes for the middle class and small businesses in an attempt to redistribute wealth. McCain did not mention Obama's pledge to cut taxes and offer tax credits to 95 percent of Americans, according to the Associated Press. McCain currently trails Obama by 9.4 percent in New Hampshire, despite having won the state's primaries in 2000 and 2008, according to Real Clear Politics. McCain said he likes being the underdog and expects his supporters in New Hampshire to rally behind him "one more time."
Steve Huber '79 is running for the House District 54 seat in the Maine House of Representatives, according to The Morning Sentinel. Huber, a Democrat, is challenging Republican incumbent Rep. Kenneth Fletcher, who is currently serving his third term. Huber, a chemistry teacher at Lawrence High School in Maine, was an educator for 23 years prior to entering politics. Huber has centered his campaign on education reform, advocating consolidation of public school districts in order to reduce administrative costs. Huber's initiatives focuses mostly on the middle class, he told The Morning Sentinel. He hopes to make Maine more "self-sufficient" by helping farmers raise food production, increasing energy efficiency and lowering the property tax, he said.
Cornell University graduate Ratan Tata has donated $50 million to Cornell University, according to The Ithaca Journal. The 1959 graduate is now the Chairman of Tata Sons, a branch of the Tata Group, which The Ithaca Journal called "one of India's largest businesses." The business conglomerate's philanthropic arm, the Tata Education and Development Trust, divided the gift into two $25 million endowments. One of the endowments will provide scholarships for top Indian students regardless of their financial situations and the other will establish the Tata-Cornell Initiative in Agriculture and Nutrition, which aims to improve India's food system. Cornell President David Skorton announced news of the endowment on Friday in his State of the University address, calling it "one of the most generous endowments ever received from an international benefactor by an American university," according to domain-b.com.
