Obama signs debt ceiling bill into law

WASHINGTON D.C. , President Obama signed into law Tuesday legislation raising the United States' debt limit and reducing the federal deficit.

President has signed the bill and turned it into law," White House spokesman Jay Carney said during the daily briefing.

The Senate passed the compromise measure Tuesday on a 74-26 vote. The bill cleared the House of Representatives Monday on a 269-161 tally.

Now that the U.S. Congress has removed the threat of default, it's time for the next phase of the deficit reduction process, Obama said after the Senate OKd the measure.

"Congress has now approved a compromise to reduce the deficit and avert a default that would have devastated our economy," Obama said soon after the Senate passed the bill.

"This is, however, just the first step. This compromise requires that both parties work together on a larger plan to cut the deficit, which is important for the long-term health of our economy."

The measure gives the U.S. Treasury an immediate $400 billion in additional borrowing authority. The plan raises the $14.3 trillion debt limit $2.1 trillion to $2.4 trillion in three steps. Another $500 billion would be available in the fall, unless two-thirds of both chambers vote to prevent it, and a final increase would come early next year, giving the U.S. Treasury enough borrowing power to pay bills into early 2013.

The measure would cut $917 billion in spending over 10 years, starting with $21 billion in the fiscal year starting in October. The bill also creates a congressional committee charged with closing the deficit an additional $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion. If the panel deadlocks or Congress doesn't accept its plan, a prearranged set of spending cuts would kick in, including steep cuts to defense and entitlement programs poised as a guillotine to prod the committee and Congress to act.

"Since you can't close the deficit with just spending cuts, we'll need a balanced approach where everything's on the table," Obama said, laying down a gauntlet for Republicans. "Yes, that means making some adjustments to protect healthcare programs like Medicare so they're there for future generations. It also means reforming our tax code so that the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations pay their fair share."

It also means eliminating taxpayer subsidies and closing tax loopholes, he said.

"I've said it before, I will say it again: We can't balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have borne the biggest brunt of this recession," Obama said. "Everyone's going to have to chip in. That's only fair. That's the principle I'll be fighting for during the next phase of this process."

Before approved the debt ceiling compromise, senators gave impassioned speeches for or against the measure.

"This bill does begin the process of changing behavior," Sen. Roy Blount, R-Mo., said during debate leading up to the vote.

Recalling a sentiment observed by a former senator, Blount said the bill "is not the best possible bill, but it's the best bill possible."

"This bill does not solve the problem, but it at least forces Washington to admit that it has one," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. "And it puts us on a path of recovery … in restoring balance. We have changed the debate; we have headed in right direction."

While the world witnessed a "lot of political wrangling" during the past few weeks, observers also saw lawmakers reach a historic decision, Senate Majority Harry Reid said.

"The product we have here is one of compromise," Reid, D-Nev., said. "There's principally one winner here and that's the American people."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he couldn't support the bill, even though it had several aspects "conservatives could hang their hats on."

Hatch said the threat of a downgrade in the United States' credit rating "comes from a failure of will."

Obama "needs to accept responsibility for an economy that has worsened under his leadership," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said when announcing he would vote no.

Paul said the nation wouldn't go into default Tuesday, but it would default in "a more insidious" manner later because the dollar would be devalued as more money is needed to repay the U.S. debt.

Midwest and South, tropical storm approaches

The east coast could get its first brush with a tropical system over the next seven days as Tropical Storm Emily churns through the Caribbean.

Emily is forecast to move across the Dominican Republic and Haiti in the next few days and potentially target the southeast by the weekend, according to guidance from the National Hurricane Center.

What will this mean for New Jersey? It remains to be seen, but the impacts are likely to be minimal even if Emily can hold herself together and come ashore to our south.

In their morning forecast discussion, the National Hurricane Center says Emily remains disorganized despite looking more fearsome in recent satellite imagery. The system's top sustained winds are currently just above tropical depression status at 40 miles per hour while the pressure remains high for a tropical system at 1007 millibars.

Conditions to the north and west, where the storm is headed, aren’t currently ripe for development either, meaning Emily may have a tough time becoming more robust as she plows towards the United States.

National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa and Arizona.

Heat advisories were issued for an additional seven surrounding states.

"High temperatures this afternoon should be 95 to 100 in most areas east of the Mississippi River - highs of 85 to 95 are expected in the mountains, along the central and eastern Gulf coast and in Florida," The Weather Channel's Kevin Roth said.

AccuWeather.com's Meghan Evans warned that Tropical Storm Emily may grow by the weekend.

"As the current forecast path stands, the heaviest rain and wind from Emily would impact the Bahamas on Friday. Southern and central Florida could be impacted by rain and winds from Emily as early as Saturday," Evans said.

In Kansas City, Missouri, the National Weather Service predicted a high of 109 on Tuesday, which would easily eclipse its all-time high of 104. Heat in Kansas City this summer is already suspected in the deaths of 21 persons, according to the city's health department.

Wichita, Kansas expected a high of 113 degrees Tuesday, according to the weather service. Temperatures are forecast to exceed 100 degrees there for at least another six days.

Omaha's trash hauler abandoned some routes Monday as 12 workers fell ill during the heat. Two workers were hospitalized and 10 were sent home. The temperature hit 98 degrees Monday afternoon in Omaha.

Temperatures in Tennessee are pushing toward 100. Heat advisories are in effect in West Tennessee, where real temperatures will reach triple digits.

In the middle of the state, around Nashville, the upper 90s and low 100s are forecasted, with heat indexes into the 100s. East Tennessee, where it is slightly cooler usually, is under an air quality warning.

President Obama Signs Debt Deal as Next Fight Looms

Senate voted 74-26 Tuesday to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling, sending the bill to President Barack Obama for his signature less than 12 hours before the U.S. was expected to run out of money to pay its bills.

Pennsylvania's senators were split, with Democrat Robert P. Casey Jr. voting for the bill and Republican Pat Toomey voting against it.

The House passed the bill Monday night. The legislation allows the president to raise the debt limit by up to $2.4 trillion in three stages, enough to allow the government to cover its obligations through the end of 2012. The bill also calls for federal budget deficits to be reduced by more than that amount over the next 10 years. Congress also will be required to vote on a constitutional amendment requiring it to balance its budget.

Obama said passage of the legislation was an "important first step to ensure that as a nation we live within our means." But he said Congress must take other steps to grow the economy and create jobs, such as passing patent reform, enacting trade deals and creating a national infrastructure bank.

"It shouldn't take the risk of default, the risk of economic catastrophe to get folks to work together and do their jobs," the president said.

The debt ceiling compromise was hashed out between Obama and congressional leaders over the past weekend. Even supporters of the deal said it fell short of what they wanted. But they contended it was necessary to avoid a government default on its debt, which would have led to higher interest rates and other problems for an already-weak economy.

Moments before his remarks, senators voted 74 to 26 to pass the Budget Control Act, the last hurdle for the controversial measure that was first approved by the House Monday night, making a $2.4 trillion down-payment on the federal deficit over the next 10 years.

Obama's signature ends a bruising Washington-made crisis that has gripped the country and lifts what the administration has called a "cloud of uncertainty hanging over the economy.

The uncertainty surrounding the raising of the debt ceiling for both businesses and consumers has been unsettling," Obama said, "and just one more impediment to the full recovery that we need, and it was something we could have avoided entirely."

But the 2011 fight over the debt and deficit is only half over, and plenty of economic uncertainty abounds.

Congress and the administration still need to agree on $1.5 trillion more in budget savings by the end of the year, a likely battle that will feature many of the same ideological and philosophical tensions that have defined the debate of the past few months.

Will there be additional spending cuts, and from where? Will the parties agree on closing corporate tax loopholes, eliminating deductions or revising income tax rates?

What about changes to federal entitlement programs, such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? Will they be in play?

A special bipartisan "super committee" of 12 lawmakers is tasked with considering those questions and making recommendations that will later be put before their peers in the House and Senate for a vote by December.

If they don't succeed, the new law would impose steep, automatic cuts across the federal budget, including defense programs and Medicare. Lawmakers also must consider whether to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits.

As members of Congress prepare to leave town for the August recess, Obama reiterated his position on the debate that will resume when they return this fall.

"I've said it before, I'll say it again," Obama said. "We can't balance the budget on the backs of the very people who have borne the brunt of this recession. Everyone has to chip in. It's only fair. That's the principle I'll be fighting for in the next phase."

How the process plays out next is anybody's guess given the course of the tense negotiations in the past few months and the persistent partisan atmosphere inside the Beltway.

But leaders on both sides of the aisle today claimed victory for their constituencies in the latest debt compromise.

American people sent a wave of new lawmakers to Congress in last November's election with a very clear mandate: to put our nation's fiscal house in order," McConnell said, "And I want to assure you today that although you may not see it this way, you've won this debate."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., concluded that the American people, not the Tea Party, are the real victors of the debate.

"There's one winner throughout all of this and that's the American people," Reid said on the Senate floor, adding that McConnell "boasted" about the Tea Party senators.

"I welcome them all," Reid said of the new Tea Party senators, "but as result of the Tea Party direction of this Congress, these last few months has been very very disconcerting and very unfair to the American people."

Meanwhile, the impact of the situation on the economy remains a matter of debate.

This agreement itself, on its own, doesn't create jobs. What it does is it avoids doing more damage in the short term, because the president refused to accept the types of deep spending cuts that many in Congress wanted," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on "Good Morning America."

"You're going to see this basic underlying growth we've see in the United States improve over time because people will be more confident we can live within our means," he said. "With more confidence we can get our arms around this long term. We will have more room to do the things we need to strengthen investment jobs now."

But some Democrats and liberal economists disagree, saying the cuts enacted today will have an immediate negative impact on the economy.

"The spending cuts in 2012 and the failure to continue two key supports to the economy [the payroll tax holiday and emergency unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed] could lead to roughly 1.8 million fewer jobs in 2012, relative to current budget policy," said John S. Irons, an economist with the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Kelly Killoren Bensimon

Kelly Killoren Bensimon, born May 1, 1968 is an author, jewelry designer, former model, and former editor of Elle Accessories. She currently appears on Bravo The Real Housewives of New York City.

Kelly Jean Killoren was born in Rockford, Illinois. She began working as a model at the age of 15.

Education

Killoren Bensimon initially attended Trinity College, Connecticut as a member of the Class of 1990, but left after a year. She graduated in 1998 from Columbia University School of General Studies with a degree in Literature and Writing.

Career

Killoren began her modeling career in New York City. She has appeared in magazines such as ELLE, Cosmopolitan, and Harper's Bazaar. She was once the face of Clarins. She is the editor at large for Hamptons Magazine,a free weekly with circulation of 40,000 to 50,000 and Gotham Magazine. Both publications are owned by Niche Media. She became the founding editor of Elle Accessories Magazine, and left after two issues. She authored several books including In The Spirit of the Hamptons, American Style, and The Bikini Book. American Style was edited on her blackberry. Kelly also wrote a column in Page Six Magazine called The Socializer: Kelly Killoren Bensimon. amNEWYORK, a local New York newspaper, which has a circulation of 1,000,000 readers a day, announced Bensimon's new column which will appear every Thursday in Keith Kelly's New York Post media column.

Killoren-Bensimon has been host of the IMG fashion week, and of the IMG swim shows in Miami. She was a spokesperson in 2006 for Wool as part of their Test Marketing Productions (TMP); Bensimon has hosted and modeled in menswear events with GQ magazine. She was also an "ambassador" for Spring 2007 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City. Killoren Bensimon's first line of jewelry was uniquely made with fishing lures and was sold exclusively at Barney's New York. Her second line of jewelry was sold at Bloomingdale's in fall 2007.

Bensimon appeared on the cover and in a six-page pictorial in the March 2010 edition of Playboy magazine, which was photographed by her ex husband Gilles Bensimon in August of 09 at Milk Studios in New York City. There has been a lot of speculation about when the photos were taken, but a younger version of Kelly was heavier and had short blond bobbed cut hair.

On June 24, 2010, Bensimon announced the launch of her 4th jewelry collection, Kelly by Kelly Killoren Bensimon. The collection will mix metals, leather, feathers and crystals and will be sold at Intermix stores across the U.S to support FEEDING AMERICA.[10]For Spring 2011, Bensimon's jewelry collection is sold at Wink, W hotels, and Dash.

Personal life,Family

Killoren was the third wife of French fashion photographer Gilles Bensimon. The couple has two daughters: Sea Louise Bensimon (born 1998) and Thaddeus Ann "Teddy" Bensimon (born 2000). The couple divorced in July 2007. The former Mrs. Bensimon now resides in New York City and East Hampton according to the NYC ACRIS property record database

The Real Housewives of New York City

Killoren Bensimon appears in Season 2, 3,4 of Bravo's popular reality show, The Real Housewives of New York City. She famously appeared in the Season 3 episode "Sun, Sand and Psychosis", which was filmed in St. John. The altercation between Frankel and Bensimon is the highest rated episode in Real Housewives of New York's history, coming in at 2.4 million viewers.

Lawsuit

An assistant stylist claimed that a vintage owl design that Bensimon was shown on The Real Housewives of New York City was not designed by Bensimon, but by herself. The stylist initiated a legal case for copyright infringement and breach of contract, which was dropped.

Arrest

Killoren Bensimon was arrested on 5 March 2009 for alleged assault. An in-person criminal complaint was filed with the NYPD and was photographed as part of the complaint with visible facial wounds. The criminal complaint stated that Bensimon hit him "with a closed fist, thereby causing informant to suffer a laceration below informant's left eye and substantial pain." The case was dismissed.

Advertisement:Valentine's Day Celebrations And Gifts For Your Lovely Personality, Save 70.0% on select products from BALEAF with promo code 70FKOUX3, through 1/31 while supplies last.,  Jewellery and Clothes of First Ladies, 

LuAnn de Lesseps

LuAnn de Lesseps, known as Countess LuAnn or The Countess born May 17, 1965 is an American television personality, recording artist, and former fashion model best known for her appearances on the Bravo show The Real Housewives of New York City. Her courtesy title comes from her previous marriage to Frenchman Alexandre de Lesseps, a descendant of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the architect of the Suez Canal.

Early life

She was born LuAnn Nadeau and grew up with six siblings in the small town of Berlin, Connecticut, where her father owned a construction company. She has said her father is of Algonquian descent and that her mother is French Canadian.

Personal life

In 1993 she married Alexandre de Lesseps, becoming his fourth wife. Together, they have two children, Victoria and Noel. They divorced in 2009 as a result of reports of infidelity by her husband. She announced that she would retain her married name.

Career

Lesseps was a licensed vocational nurse from Connecticut, as well as a Wilhelmina model.

She is one of the main cast members on Bravo's reality series, The Real Housewives of New York City. Lesseps wrote a book, Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair (published by Gotham) released April 16, 2009, and released her first record, "Money Can't Buy You Class" (through Ultra Records), on May 25, 2010. She released her second single, "Chic, C'est La Vie" almost immediately thereafter, also in May 2010.

Critical reception

The New York Post featured a negative online review of "Money Can't Buy You Class" titled "Money can't buy you class, but it can pay for a whole bunch of autotune.

In its first month on YouTube, the official video for "Chic, C'est La Vie", posted by Ultra Record's official YouTube account, received over 1,400 "likes" and 4,000 dislikes.

Advertisement:Valentine's Day Celebrations And Gifts For Your Lovely Personality, Save 70.0% on select products from BALEAF with promo code 70FKOUX3, through 1/31 while supplies last.,  Jewellery and Clothes of First Ladies, 

Real Housewives of New York City

Real Housewives of New York City is an American reality television program on the Bravo cable TV network. A spin-off of the Bravo series The Real Housewives of Orange County, it is the second city featured in The Real Housewives of... franchise. While in production for Season 1, the show was tentatively titled Manhattan Moms. Every episode of the Real Housewives of New York City begins with the trademark opener of the The Real Housewives of... franchise, which features each woman with her name on-screen and family behind her.

Season 1, which premiered on March 4, 2008, starred Bethenny Frankel, LuAnn de Lesseps, Alex McCord, Ramona Singer, and Jill Zarin. Contrary to the series title, the women featured were not all actually housewives. Frankel was unmarried and had her own business; McCord, Singer, and Zarin all had jobs outside the home; and Singer owned her own business.

Kelly Killoren Bensimon was added to the cast for Season 2, which premiered on February 17, 2009.

With the exception of Frankel, the cast appeared on Who Wants to be a Millionaire in February 2010 to promote the series' third season, which premiered on March 4, 2010. Event planner Jennifer Gilbert joined the cast but was not featured as one of the housewives in the show's trademark open. Her appearances were extremely limited and her own footage was never shown because she arguably did not create enough drama and was not involved with the central conflict of the show. However, Sonja Morgan joined the cast in the middle of Season 3 as The Real Housewives of New York City's seventh housewife. The Season 3 reunion show, filmed on May 26, 2010, aired as a three-part special.

Bethenny Frankel's spinoff, Bethenny Getting Married?, premeired on June 10, 2010 and features appearances by former housemates Ramona Singer and Alex McCord. On August 31, 2010, Frankel made an official announcement that she would not be returning to the Real Housewives of New York City series for its fourth season.

In September 2010, Season 4 began filming with Cindy Barshop as the series' newest "housewife". Filming finished, however, only two weeks before February 15, 2011 - the season's slated premiere date. Not wanting to miss anything, Bravo pushed the Season 4 premiere back until April 7, 2011 and instead premiered The Real Housewives of Miami on February 15, 2011.

Current Housewives

"To a certain group of people in New York, status is everything." (Season 1 - 3)

"I've always had opinions, but now people know it." (Season 4 - present)

Alex McCord, (born October 1, 1973; Washington, D.C.) has lived in New York City since 1996. She was raised in Kansas, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and attended Northwestern University but never graduated. McCord was a graphic designer for over nine years.

McCord is married to Simon van Kempen, who was the General Manager of Hotel Chandler in New York City throughout the first three seasons, but has since left to start his own social media business within the hotel sector. As of 2010, she and van Kempen reside in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. They have two boys together, Francois and Johan, who were named for Simon's late father, Francois Johan Walter van Kempen.

In March 2009, she was laid off from her job in visual merchandising for Limited Brands/Victoria’s Secret.

McCord and her husband have written a book together titled Little Kids, Big City, which was released in spring 2010.

LuAnn de Lesseps

Main article: LuAnn de Lesseps

(Season 1 - present)

"I never feel guilty about being privileged." (Season 1 - 3)

"I thought I had it good before, but I'm just getting started." (Season 4 - present)

LuAnn de Lesseps née Nadeau (born May 17, 1965 in Berlin CT, an industrial town in the center of the state) was born to a concrete manufacturer (whose Berlin, CT firm, Nadeau Concrete, is  still owned by two of her brothers), but she quickly wanted to leave her working class life behind. She formerly modeled with Wilhelmina Models and is an LPN. She is of Algonquin and French descent. and was the fourth wife of "Count" Alexandre de Lesseps, a descendant of Ferdinand de Lesseps of the Suez Canal family. They have two children, Victoria and Noel. De Lesseps and her husband were divorced in 2010 amid reports of infidelity and drug and alcohol abuse by both parties.

De Lesseps is listed as the author of a book released in 2009 titled Class With The Countess, although, as she admitted during the filming of Season 2 when Diane Reverand appeared on the show, Reverand actually wrote the book. In April 2010, de Lesseps released a music single titled "Money Can't Buy You Class". She released her second single, "Chic, C'est La Vie" in May 2010.

Jill Zarin

(Season 1 - present)

"I run with a fabulous circle of people." (Season 1 - 3)

"Good or bad I know who I am...and I own it." (Season 4 - present)

Jill Zarin (born 30 November 1963; Woodmere, New York (a NYC suburb and part of the affluent Five Towns of Long Island's South Shore in Nassau County) is married to Bobby Zarin, who owns Zarin Fabric Warehouse and Home Furnishings, a home furnishing and fabric store on Manhattan's Lower East Side started by his father. Zarin, who attended Simmons College, does marketing for her husband's store and holds a real estate license. She currently lives on the Upper East Side with her husband and daughter, Allyson, from a previous marriage.

The Zarins' summer home in the Hamptons, featured on the show, was sold in 2009.

Ramona Singer

(Season 1 - present)

"I like making my own money, I find that an aphrodisiac." (Season 1 - 3)

"If people can't handle the truth, it's really not my problem." (Season 4 - present)

Ramona Singer (born November 18, 1956 in Rhinebeck, NY, about 100 miles north of NYC) lives in Manhattan with her husband Mario and their teenage daughter, Avery. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Singer began her career as a buyer for Macy's and then moved into the wholesale clothing business with French Connection and Calvin Klein. She is the owner of RMS Fashions, a company that purchases excess goods from clothing manufacturers and resells them to discount stores. (In the apparel industry, Ramona is known as a jobber - a middleman to whom manufacturers sell their surplus fabric.)

She developed her own line of jewelry, which is sold through the Home Shopping Network (HSN), and she markets the line herself. She also developed and launched a skin care line, TruRenewal, in 2009. Further, Season 4 indicates that Singer recently launched her own brand of Pinot grigio.

Kelly Killoren Bensimon

(Season 2 - present)

"I've created a great life and I love living it" (Season 2 - 3)

"I'm living the American dream one mistake at a time" (Season 4 - present)

Kelly Killoren Bensimon (born May 1, 1968; Rockford, IL) is a former model, equestrian, jewelry designer, and magazine editor. She has two daughters, Sea and Thaddeus "Teddy", whom she had with her ex-husband, photographer Gilles Bensimon.

She is the author of three books published by Assouline: In the Spirit of the Hamptons, American Style, and The Bikini Book (2005). She also has a jewelry line, which she has been selling for the last six years. She appears on many morning shows talking about fashion and style.

Sonja Morgan

(mid-Season 3 - present)

"I have a taste for luxury, and luxury has a taste for me." (Season 3 - present)

Sonja Morgan (born November 25, 1963 in Albany, NY as Sonja Tremont) is the ex-wife of John Morgan. John, 33 years her senior, is one of five children of Henry S. Morgan (a great-grandson of J. Pierpont Morgan) and Catherine Adams (a great-great-granddaughter of John Adams, the second President of the United States). Sonja and John have a daughter together. Prior to getting married, Sonja was hostess/phone receptionist at an Italian restaurant in New York City called San Pietro (located at Madison Ave. and 54th St.)

According to the New York Post, Morgan agreed to finance a motion picture in 2006 but backed out at the last minute because she had just been served with divorce papers. As a result, a federal jury in California awarded the production company $7.06 million in damages in September 2009.

According to the New York Daily News, Morgan filed for bankruptcy in November 2010 (while Season 4 was filming), claiming to be $19.8 million in debt.

Morgan is currently working on a screenplay that she describes as "a Candace Bushnell society novel."

Cindy Barshop

(Season 4 - present )

"I have everything I've ever wanted, and it's all on my own terms." (Season 4 - present)

Cindy Barshop is the owner of Completely Bare, a chain of hair-removal spas. She previously worked in telecommunications for IBM. She opened her first spa in New York City in 1998. A single mother, Barshop has 15-month-old twin girls, Jessie and Zoe, whom she chose to have on her own. She is close to her brother Howie, who also sometimes appears on the show. She is from Long Island, NY.

Former Housewives

Bethenny Frankel (born November 4, 1970; Port Washington, Long Island, NY, where she grew up), daughter of Bernadette Parisella and the late thoroughbred race horse trainer and horse racing hall-of-famer Robert Frankel, is a natural foods chef. She graduated from Pine Crest School (a high school in Boca Raton, Florida) and attended New York University (but did not graduate) and The Natural Gourmet Institute in New York. She created BethennyBakes, a company that offered a line of wheat, egg and dairy-free baked goods that was carried in hundreds of retail outlets. BethennyBakes ceased production in 2010 when Frankel launched the Skinnygirl brand, the flagship product of which is the Skinnygirl Margarita, a premixed drink lower in calories than a traditional margarita. On March 28, 2010, Frankel married Jason Hoppy at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York City. She and Hoppy now star in Bravo TV's spinoff series, Bethenny Ever After..., which premiered on June 10, 2010. On May 8, 2010, Bethenny gave birth to a baby girl, Bryn, who weighed approximately 4 lbs, 13 ounces at birth.

She was a regular contributor to NBC's coverage of the 2009 Kentucky Derby and 2009 Preakness Stakes, and Bravo's coverage of the 2009 Kentucky Oaks. Before she appeared in The Real Housewives of New York City, Frankel starred in the 1994 movie Hollywood Hills 90028 and acted in the 1995 movie Wish Me Luck. In 2005, Frankel was a contestant and the first runner-up on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.

In 2009, Frankel posed nude for animal rights group PETA's anti-fur campaign; her photo was featured on a billboard in Times Square.

Frankel is the author of Naturally Thin: Unleash Your Skinnygirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting (2009), a New York Times Best Seller in the Paperback Advice & Misc. List category. She has since authored The Skinnygirl Dish, The Skinnygirl Rules, and released an exercise DVD, Body by Bethenny. Frankel’s fourth book, A Place of Yes: 10 Rules for Getting Everything You Want Out of Life, was published on Touchstone March 22, 2011,  and entered the New York Times Best Seller List in the Hardcover Advice & Misc. List category on April 10, 2011.

Real Housewives of New York City: Who's an Alcoholic

After Monday's epic showdown on "The Real Housewives of New York Reunion Part 2" everyone was asking which of the ladies would be invited back for another season and who would be shown the door.

“No one knows at the moment who is in or out, but the second the contracts go to our representatives we all email and call each other immediately. So if someone does not get a letter we know within hours,” one Housewife tells me. "All the cast will now be glued to their iPhones as they wait for the call from Bravo on whether they are being invited back."

The ladies should be receiving their letters of do or die very soon, as producers have indicated they hope to be back in production for the 5th season by Labor Day. But if a Housewife does not receive a letter, that doesn't mean she's stuck with a pink slip. Instead, the ladies who do not receive an offer are merely "not invited back."

“What’s happened with other casts in the franchise is offers go out to the women they want and those [they] don’t do not hear a word," two of the ladies explain. "Technically no one gets fired they are just not invited back.”

Although this has never happened to any of the ladies of the New York cast (it has happened in Atlanta, Orange County and New Jersey), this year even the cast members of New York expect a shake-up. The only New York departure to date has been Bethenny Frankel, who left the show to collect $120 million in Skinnygirl Margarita satchels of gold.

During the reunion, [Ramona was] hitting below the belt. I tried to be a friend to Ramona. And I thought that she was acting a little bit erratic, more so than before. I was trying to help her and point it out," JIll said.

"A lot of times people who have problems don't see it themselves. That's why there are interventions ... I really wanted to try to help her. And instead she tried to turn it around on me."

When the topic of alcohol – particularly, Ramona's Pinot Grigio – came up at the reunion, Ramona responded to Jill's accusation that her drinking sets a bad example.

"Jill, I really respect you. I think you're a fabulous woman," said Ramona. "I know at times you had problems. You went to AA. You had an alcoholic problem. Just because you did doesn't mean I do."

Jill, who denied she ever had a drinking problem, believes outing someone about going to Alcoholics Anonymous is unacceptable. "Whether it is true or not, is irrelevant," says Jill, who claims she received a letter from a woman who's been trying to get her daughter to seek help for addiction.

"The mother tells me the daughter is scared to go in the program because she's worried that a friend of hers might out her," Jill says. "It's destructive to people and the damage that Ramona caused is going to prevent people from getting help."

In fact, according to Jill, Ramona should apologize. "She should really retract that," she says, "and try to figure out how to go back out there and say, 'I'm sorry.

Advertisement:Valentine's Day Celebrations And Gifts For Your Lovely Personality, Save 70.0% on select products from BALEAF with promo code 70FKOUX3, through 1/31 while supplies last.,  Jewellery and Clothes of First Ladies, 

Stocks drop as economic worries resurface‎

NEW YORK— The stock market stumbled again Tuesday and is on pace for its longest losing streak in two years.

The Dow Jones industrial average dipped below 12,000 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost nearly all of its gains for the year by midday.

Even as the debt-ceiling bill passed in the Senate, all three major indexes added to their losses as investors reacted to more signs of weakness in the U.S. economy and poor corporate earnings from several big companies.

The Commerce Department reported that consumers cut spending in June by the biggest amount in nearly two years. Analysts had predicted a slight increase. Incomes also rose by the smallest amount since September, reflecting a weak job market. The report comes a day after a weak manufacturing report and last Friday's report that in the first half of the year the economy grew at its slowest pace since the recession ended in June 2009.

The S&P 500 fell 20 points, or 1.6 percent, to 1,267 in afternoon trading. It is now up only 0.7 percent for the year.

The Dow lost 157 points, or 1.3 percent, to 11,976. The Nasdaq composite fell 44, or 1.6 percent, to 2,701.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. dropped nearly 4 percent after the agricultural conglomerate said that it missed Wall Street's profit forecasts. And upper-end retailer Coach Inc. lost 6 percent after the company said margins declined, cutting into profits. With the company already making less from each purchase, if consumers cut back further, companies with lower margins stand to be hurt more than others.

The consumer spending pullback was the latest sign that the U.S. economy may be slowing. On Monday an early stock rally over relief that the House had passed a debt limit compromise was halted by a report that U.S. manufacturing barely grew last month, a much weaker showing than analysts had expected.

Many economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, have said the U.S. economy would gain momentum in the second half of the year as gas prices fall and Japan's factories recover from the earthquake disaster in March. Slow U.S. manufacturing growth, a weak job market and concerns about spending cuts in the debt deal have cast doubt on those predictions.

The growth of China's and India economies have also slowed recently after their respective central banks raised interest rates. American corporations have counted on increasing profits in China as a way to make up for slower revenue growth in the U.S. Companies in the S&P 500 index are expected to make nearly half of their profits overseas in 2011.

"The market is starting to wonder where the growth is going to come from," said Nick Kalivas, a vice president of financial research at MF Global. "It hasn't hit the panic button yet, but that's where we're drifting."

The latest signs of economic weakness pushed government debt prices higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury again fell to a new low for the year of 2.68 percent from 2.75 percent Monday. Yields fall when bond prices rise. Gold, another asset investors buy when they're worried about the direction of the economy, gained 1.2 percent to $1,641 an ounce.

Stocks took a wild ride Monday, with the Dow finishing lower for the 7th straight session. A report showing poor manufacturing activity quickly deflated the optimism earlier in Monday's session. Stocks ended just below the break even line.

Economy: The Monday's dour manufacturing report came on the heels of last week's GDP report, that the U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of just 1.3% in the second quarter. More disturbingly, the first-quarter reading was revised down to 0.4%.

Investors will get a number of fresh data points on the economy this week, with the most important coming Friday in the July jobs report.

The U.S. economy is expected to have created 84,000 jobs last month, according to a consensus of analysts surveyed by Briefing.com. In June, the economy added a paltry 18,000 jobs. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 9.2%.

Companies: Shares of NYSE Euronext (NYX, Fortune 500), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, fell 3.3% in mid-daytrading. The stock exchange operator posted a 19% drop in second-quarter profit from a year ago, due in part to costs associated with its Deutsche Boerse merger.

General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) said its July auto sales rose 7.6%, which was mostly in line with analysts' expectations. Shares were down 2%.

Meanwhile Ford (F, Fortune 500) posted a 8.9% increase in its July sales. While that was better than expected, shares were down 2.7%.

Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500)'s stock slid 3%, after the Dow component and pharmaceutical maker posted earnings and sales that slightly beat expectations, but fell from a year earlier.