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In his first year at the helm of the department, Mr. Cuomo, who spent four years at the agency as an assistant secretary, has earned high marks from members of Congress, the Clinton Administration and several housing industry insiders. They say he has moved quickly, decisively and innovatively to help resuscitate a sti...
But the department remains at ''high risk,'' according to the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, and Mr. Cuomo faces considerable challenges. The agency has antiquated technology, low morale and must deal with its failure to fully address the needs of poor people in urban centers.
And critics wonder whether Mr. Cuomo, in his zeal to right wrongs, may be moving too quickly to consolidate programs, handling matters too harshly and surrounding himself with inexperienced people who have little knowledge of the department.
The question remains: How can the department redefine itself?
The White House is proposing to give the department $1 billion to $2 billion more for the fiscal year 1999, which will begin Oct. 1, its first increase in three years and the healthiest rise in more than a decade. This year, the department's budget was $24 billion. The figures mean nothing without Congress's approval, ...
A prosecutor at heart, Mr. Cuomo tackles the job with analytical prowess and pragmatism, friends and critics say. He relishes the long hours, the homework and the debate. ''Peeling the onion'' is a favorite phrase. And he has experience in the field, which is uncommon for a Housing Secretary. In New York, Mr. Cuomo hel...
The agency has several large missions. It provides rental assistance to about 4.5 million low-income people, helps revitalize some 4,000 cities through grants, promotes fair housing and is responsible for billions of dollars in mortgage insurance.
Mr. Cuomo's strategy has been threefold: acknowledge the mess the agency is in, get tough on waste, fraud and abuse, and overhaul the department's structure.
To get tough, he brought in the Justice Department to help chase bad landlords who defraud taxpayers and operate slums. He is bolstering HUD's enforcement center, placing a full-time agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the helm, and cracking down on housing discrimination.
His proudest accomplishment this year, he said, is helping get through Congress the first major piece of housing legislation in five years, which, among other things, ends excessive rental subsidies to private landlords, saving taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
To get it passed, Mr. Cuomo spent countless hours on the telephone with members of Congress and their staffs, and, in the end, he compromised where his predecessors did not, said a House Republican aide familiar with the circumstances.
''Cuomo does back up with action,'' the aide said.
Mr. Cuomo has also tackled the dull but important issue of management reform, consolidating programs, improving automation and taking action to reduce the size of the staff to 7,500 from 9,500 by 2002, a process Mr. Cisneros started.
This downsizing, which the inspector general recently said appeared to be an arbitrary number that could exacerbate problems at the agency, has in fact contributed to low morale. But Mr. Cuomo, with the backing of unions that represent the department's workers, is trying to allay that by running a merit competition for...
Mr. Cuomo does not rest easy in his chair. He leans forward, he leans back, jabbing the air with his index finger. When he talks, he hits his syllables hard and quick, his voice sliding from a near whisper to a head-snapping hurl.
Results are what matter to him.
Yet, the same political astuteness he uses so deftly to get the job done lends him the air of a ''politico'' that some people find disconcerting, say some people on Capitol Hill.
''I have a feeling, as do many other people, that Andrew's mission is his own future political career,'' said Madeleine Hastings, a former official of the department who left it unhappily in September.
It is an image Mr. Cuomo cannot escape. He grew up, after all, under the tutelage of Mario Cuomo in a city known for its tough politics. He sounds just like his father. And like his father, he is sometimes seen as someone who is short-tempered and prickly about his reputation.
One example people cite of his political acumen took place last summer, when he announced that he would open a new enforcement center in New York City. The department's largest union fiercely opposed the move, which would have required several trial lawyers to move from Washington.
Mr. Cuomo eventually dropped the idea and made peace with the union. But the notion that the move had anything to do with his political ambition clearly unnerves him.
''People who assume I want to run for elected office may be dealing from a bad assumption,'' he said.
Others say his plan to open a center in New York and other major cities was Politics 101; an unsolicited gift to important members of Congress who control the housing committees and whose districts were scheduled to lose jobs in the effort to downsize the department.
''It's not illogical to pay attention to the politics that affect those people who are the key policy people you deal with,'' Mr. Lewis, the California Congressman, said.
Despite all the talk of ambition, the fact is, Mr. Cisneros said, Mr. Cuomo chose to stay committed to the task of fixing the ailing agency.
As Mr. Cuomo describes it, being Housing Secretary epitomizes the dignity of public service. It is about helping poor people, he said, adding that he would not trade away the job any time soon.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, has scheduled a press conference this morning in Chicago.
What will Hastert, who faces mounting pressure to quit over his mishandling of the scandal surrounding former Congressional Mark Foley, have to say?
Chances are, Hastert may not know.
But it wasn’t just Democrats who were telling Hastert to fold the tent.
Another conservative publication, the Washington Times, called earlier in the week for Hastert’s resignation.
But the real measure of Hastert’s troubles may be coming from the ranks of his own caucus. Congressman Ron Lewis, a Kentucky Republican who is waging a tough reelection campaign, announced on Wednesday that he had cancelled a fundraiser that was to have featured Hastert.
Lewis is unlikely to be the only Republican in a close race to distance himself or herself from Hastert, who is under fire for failing to respond adequately when concerns were raised about sexually-explicit communications between Foley and congressional pages and who, since the scandal broke last week, has repeatedly b...
As conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote late Wednesday, “a dysfunctional House leadership” – led by Hastert – is now a key factor threatening GOP control of the House. “The anger by rank-and-file Republican House members over the incompetence of their leaders is palpable,” explained Novak.
All of this points to the prospect of a Hastert resignation. What argues against that prospect?
One big argument that key Republicans are making for keeping Hastert is the challenge of finding another leader who is not tarnished by the scandal. Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, is at least as closely tied to the scandal as Hastert, as are other top Republicans such as New York Congressman Tom Reynolds, the ch...
The former Foley aide who has come forward to challenge Hastert’s version of events had served as chief of staff for Reynolds until the aide abruptly resigned Wednesday.
One suggestion that seems to be gaining traction is a proposal that Illinois Congressman Henry Hyde, a senior Republican who is not seeking reelection, might replace Hastert for the short term.
But many Republicans fear that even a shuffle of leadership that put the reasonably well-regarded Hyde in charge would not be enough to make the party’s problems go away. Indeed, there is concern that a Hastert resignation would bring so much additional attention to the scandal that disenchantment among religious conse...
NEXT year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will move out of their Kensington Palace home and into Frogmore Cottage in the Windsor Estate.
But it has now been revealed that the 10-bedroom cottage actually has a very poignant history within the Royal Family... and it all dates back to Queen Victoria.
Last week, The Sun exclusively revealed that Prince Harry will be splitting from older brother William and setting up home in the grounds of Windsor Castle with Meghan Markle.
However, it has now been revealed that cottage in Windsor - which is currently undergoing extensive renovations - is where Queen Victoria's trusted aide Abdul Karim once lived.
The first Indian member of the Royal household shared a close relationship with the late monarch, which inspired the 2017 film Victoria & Abdul starring Judi Dench.
Unsurprisingly, the Queen's relationship with Abdul caused tension among the Royal court and senior members of the Royal Family.
According to author Shrabani Basu, Queen Victoria's family raided Frogmore Cottage just hours after her funeral in 1901 and insisted Abdul's correspondence with the monarch be destroyed.
In her book Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant, the Royal expert claims: "It was early morning and just hours after her funeral.
"Queen Alexandra and Princess Beatrice were standing there and a lot of guards, and they ordered a raid on his house and all of his letters were taken and burned."
According to People, Abdul lived in Frogmore house for over a decade before he was sent back to India by Queen Victoria's family.
The author added: "It was a heartbreaking moment in Abdul's life. It was a bit of dark history."
While Shrabani claims there is nothing left of Abdul's living quarters, the author added: "I imagine it was very beautiful and he filled it with beautiful objects he was given by European royalty."
In even more Royal Family news, Prince Harry "fell out" with William for "not rolling the red carpet out for Meghan."
And Meghan Markle "left Kate Middleton in tears" over her strict demands for Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid's dress.
Plus here's the story of how Prince Harry fell for Meghan Markle.
The Wolves manager, Mick McCarthy, has revealed his desire to sign the on-loan Tottenham midfielder Jamie O'Hara on a permanent basis. But any deal for a player valued in excess of £5m would be dependent on Wolves maintaining their Premier League status.
The 24-year-old moved to Molineux last month with a view to completing a permanent move if it suited both parties. He has netted twice in four games and has already played an important part in the battle for survival.
McCarthy told the Wolverhampton Express and Star: "I want to sign him and I think Jamie would be happy to come. It will all be dependent on whether we can offer him Premier League football, though.
"If we were safe there would be no doubt that a deal would be done. Jamie wants to come and we want to sign him."
McCarthy is keen to complete the deal after losing out in the race to sign Steve Sidwell from Aston Villa in January. Sidwell had agreed to move to Wolves but was prised away at the 11th hour by Fulham.
Microsoft plans to open a new online PC game store called Games for Windows Marketplace in the middle of November, it said Monday.
Microsoft will ready over 100 titles from various game makers for the launch, including many of the biggest hits from Microsoft Game Studios, including "Fable: The Lost Chapters," "Flight Simulator," "Gears of War," "Halo" and "Age of Empires Online." Other big titles in stock include "Grand Theft Auto III," and "Max P...
PC game lovers will be able to access the store at any time to buy games or to download them again if necessary, Microsoft said. Special deals will be used to lure gamers to the site, such as weekly and seasonal deals.
"The Games for Windows Marketplace will offer PC gamers a robust lineup of games they love, easier navigation and purchase, and recurring specials such as Deal of the Week," Microsoft said.
It will launch Nov. 15 at www.gamesforwindows.com.
Anyone with a Windows Live ID, including Windows Live, Xbox Live, Games for Windows -- Live or Zune account, can login to the new Games for Windows Marketplace. Microsoft Points can also be used at the store.
Catherine Ashton, P5+1 lead negotiator, announces further discussions next month as Baghdad meeting ends without a deal.
Iran and world powers will meet in Moscow next month for more talks to try solve a longstanding dispute about Iran's nuclear energy programme, Catherine Ashton, the European Union foreign-policy chief, has said.
Speaking in Baghdad on Thursday, the last of two days of discussions between envoys from Iran and six leading powers to try to defuse Western fears of a covert Iranian effort to develop nuclear bombs, Ashton said it was clear both sides wanted progress and had some common ground, but they also had significant differenc...
"We will maintain intensive contacts with our Iranian counterparts to prepare a further meeting in Moscow," she announced in the Iraqi capital.
The Moscow meeting is set to take place on June 18 and 19.
Ashton, who leads the negotiations for the P5+1 (the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany), said the bloc wanted practical steps from Iran to address concerns over its nuclear work.
Chief among such concerns is Iran's ability to enrich uranium to a fissile purity of 20 per cent. That is the nuclear advance most worrying to the West since it hurdles technical obstacles to reaching 90 per cent, or bomb-grade, enrichment.
Iran says it will not exceed 20 per cent and the material will be made into fuel for a research reactor.
including their assertion that we recognise their right to enrichment," Ashton said.
The Baghdad talks failed to reach any deal, despite reports indicating that the P1+5 had made several offers if Iran would halt enrichment, including fuel plates for a reactor producing medical isotopes, relaxing restrictions on aircraft parts and nuclear safety assistance.
But this falls short of the lifting of the whole raft of UN Security Council and unilateral Western sanctions that have been directed at Iran for years.
Iran is threatened with an EU oil embargo, due to take full effect from July 1, which will ensure EU firms from heading crude tankers to countries such as India, South Korea and Japan, all major buyers of Iran's oil.
Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief negotiator, emphasised that Iran had the right to continue to enrich uranium.
emphasise this right," he said in Baghdad on Thursday.
"This is an undeniable right of the Iranian nation ... especially the right to enrich uranium."
Earlier, an Iranian delegation official had complained that world powers were hindering the talks in Baghdad, creating a "difficult atmosphere".
"We believe the reason P5+1 is not able to reach a result is America," the official told Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.
"[P5+1] came to Baghdad without a clear mandate so we think the atmosphere is difficult."
Iran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful, but Western powers suspect it is masking attempts to join the elite club of nations with nuclear weapons.
The powers' overall goal is an Iranian agreement to curb uranium enrichment in a transparent, verifiable way to ensure it is for peaceful purposes only.
Iran's priority is to secure an end to sanctions isolating the country and damaging its economy.
The Baghdad talks were the second round in the latest series between the P5+1 and Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, with earlier negotiations held in Istanbul, Turkey, last month.
The clock is ticking on the demise of some downgrade rights for Windows 7, acccording to analyst group IDC.
Last year, Microsoft said that customers could downgrade new machines purchased with Windows 7 Professional to the older Windows XP Professional for a limited period. The deal ends 18 months after the introduction of Windows 7 - in other words, in late April 2011 - or when Microsoft launches Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (S...
Nearly two months ago, Microsoft acknowledged it's working on Windows 7 SP1. It has not yet set a release timetable, however.
"So the clock is ticking down on that offer, after which time the only option for non-Software Assurance customers to deploy Windows XP is to use Windows XP Mode," said Al Gillen, an analyst with IDC, referring to Windows 7 Professional's built-in virtualised version of Windows XP.
Corporations that subscribe to Software Assurance (SA) - MIcrosoft's annuity-like upgrade guarantee programme - or purchase Windows through volume licensing plans have downgrade rights from any edition, including Windows 7, to any previous version going as far back as Windows 95.
"Historically, classic customer deployment behaviour for new Windows client operating systems was to wait for the first service pack to arrive," Gillen said in a research note published last week.
"The Windows patching process... has changed the rules of the game for many customers," Gillen argued. "The continuous stream of patches, over time, delivers a significant portion of service pack content."
Although Microsoft originally wanted to limit Windows 7-to-Windows XP downgrade rights to just six months after the release of the former, it quickly backtracked last June after another analyst, Michael Silver of Gartner Research, called the plan a "real mess". Instead, said Microsoft, it would allow downgrades to Wind...
Although consumers may have little reason to want to downgrade Windows 7 - the operating system has received favourable reviews and by all accounts has been a huge success - businesses often want to standardise on a single operating system edition to simplify machine management.
Several major computer makers continue to sell new PCs with a factory-installed downgrade to Windows XP from Windows 7. Dell, for example, offers downgrades on some Latitude notebooks as well as its Vostro line of business desktops.
Meet Kazuki Yamamoto. He's a latte artist. You've probably seen the work of latte artists before and how they can draw things like hearts or leaves in steamed milk. But you've probably never seen anything like this.
Yamamoto draws anime, manga, and video game characters in latte—as well as celebrities and animals. Whether it's Pokémon or Ringo Starr, Yamamoto can bring them to life in hot, delicious, and milky coffee. Keep your eye out for a three dimensional latte recreation of Nyanko-sensei from Japanese manga Natsume's Book of ...
Currently in Osaka, Yamamoto pops up at coffee events around the city and in nearby Kobe. He one day dreams of opening his own cafe in Tokyo. You might one day dream of ordering a serving of Yamamoto's latte art.

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