WASHINGTON - President Obama yesterday said he would nominate a pair of Northeastern judges to appeals court positions.
Judge Denny Chin, a district court judge for the Southern District of New York, and Rhode Island Superior Court Justice O. Rogeriee Thompson were tapped for positions. If confirmed by the Senate, Chin would serve as a judge in the Second Circuit, based in New York, and Thompson would serve in the Boston-based First Circuit.
“Judges Chin and Thompson have displayed exceptional dedication to public service throughout their careers,’’ Obama said in a statement. “They have served on the bench with distinction in New York and Rhode Island, and I am honored to nominate them today to serve the American people on the United States Court of Appeals.’’
Chin was born in Hong Kong and moved to the United States at age 2. A Princeton University and Fordham Law School graduate, he clerked in the Southern District of New York and worked in private practice. He was an assistant US attorney for four years before returning to private law.
When he was nominated and confirmed to his current position in 1994, he was the first Asian-American district court judge nominated outside the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit.
Thompson was born in Anderson, S.C., and earned degrees from Brown University and Boston University School of Law. She rose from staff attorney to chief litigation counsel for Rhode Island Legal Services. She then went into private law practice, focusing on Native American and civil rights law with her sister.
In 1988, she became the first African-American woman nominated to the Rhode Island District Court. She similarly was the first African-American woman elevated to the Rhode Island Superior Court, where she is an associate justice.
An Associated Press-GfK poll says 56 percent of those surveyed in the past week approve of Obama’s job performance, up from 50 percent in September. It’s the first time since he took office in January that his rating has gone up. People also feel better about his handling of the economy and his proposed health care overhaul.
But not about the war.
Support for the war in Afghanistan has declined, the poll said yesterday. And approval of Obama’s handling of it is holding steady - in contrast to his gains in other areas - as he considers a big troop increase there. Poll respondents narrowly oppose the increase.
Overall, 39 percent said they disapproved of Obama’s performance in office, down from 49 percent last month.
President Obama plans to host a concert next Tuesday to honor Hispanic musical heritage.
The White House says Marc Anthony, Gloria Estefan, and Jose Feliciano plan to join the event. Other entertainers will include Jimmy Smits, Pete Escovedo, George Lopez, Thalia, Los Lobos, Tito “El Bambino,’’ and Aventura. Sheila E. will lead the house band.
The concert will be taped for a PBS broadcast to air on Oct. 15. It will then air on Telemundo on Oct. 18 and on V-me on Dec. 25.
“No,’’ he told the Associated Press, when asked whether he intended to resign.
Reporters have trailed the embattled Nevada Republican all over the Capitol complex during a busy day of Senate business, amid a sex-and-influence scandal that has spawned a preliminary ethics committee inquiry and lots of questions about the two-term senator’s conduct.
The swirl intensified this week after the New York Times reported new details about the aftermath of his 2008 affair with former campaign aide Cynthia Hampton, the wife of Ensign’s former chief of staff, Doug. The couple left the senator’s staff in May 2008 but the affair continued three more months.
The questions surround Ensign’s efforts to find Doug Hampton a job as a lobbyist, whether either of the two men had contact in violation of a federal one-year ban on lobbying, and whether the senator illegally tried to influence Hampton’s clients.
