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Roberts calls for salary raise for judges

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 1, 2007

On what he called a "historically slow news day," Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will release a report today calling for a raise for federal judges. "This is usually the point at which many will put down the annual report and return to the Rose Bowl," he conceded, but he asked readers to "bear with me long enough to consider" some comparisons. Since 1969, he said, the average U.S. worker's wage, when adjusted for inflation, has risen by about 18 percent. By contrast, the pay for a federal judge has declined by about 24 percent. Judges should not have to accept salaries that "fall further and further behind the cost of living. ... The time is ripe for our nation's judges to receive a substantial salary increase," he said.

Edwards: Social plans trump deficit

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Sunday that his proposals to provide universal health insurance, boost energy conservation and reduce poverty are more important than reducing the federal budget deficit. Edwards, who announced last week that he is seeking his party's nomination, acknowledged that his goals of shrinking the deficit and providing new benefits for poor and middle-class Americans are at odds. "There's a tension between those two," Edwards said on ABC's This Week. "If I were choosing now, I think the investments are more important." In order to help fund his proposals, Edwards has said, he would roll back tax cuts enacted by the Republican-controlled Congress under President Bush.

[Last modified January 1, 2007, 00:32:03]