The G's really started back in 1975, when you had six countries get together. That was the G6, and there you had the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France, Japan and Italy. And they were the first. They were the six. And they got together actually to talk about what was then the oil crisis that was going on and to have a bit of a confab about it. And then from there, it became an annual thing.They thought why not continue this on? They found it worthwhile. The next year they added Canada, so became the G7. And then a little bit later on, Russia came along and was admitted. And there you ahve G8. The groups have always attracted critics, and in many cases, as we've seen in the past, violence as well, protesters from trades unions to environmentalists and * as well. A lot of the more extreme protesters blame the members of the G8 for pretty much all the world's ills, from debt and poverty in Africa, all the way through the global warming.And they show up pretty much to make *and say that it is an * group an elite group that actually far from solving some of the world's problems is causing a lot of the world's problems. Another critism the G8 has faced is that it's not really representative of the world's great economies. There are those who say you got Canada in the G8.But at the same time, you don't have India. You don't have China. The cause partly of that criticism we saw in 1999, the formation of G20. They added in another 11 countries, and to be more inclusive like Australia. And 11 and 8 equals 19. What's the 20? The European Union. They came along for the ride as well. 

 

Untied Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to be at the G20 meeting today. Yesterday, he was in Libya. Ban and the current president of the U.N. General Assembly met with representatives from Libya's National Transitional Council.This is the group that's running Libya's government, now that the country's civil war is over. The fighting hasn't completely stopped. Different militias who fought against former leader Moammar Gadhafi's troops are now facing off against each other. Some of these militais are rivals. Some don't trust other, settling those disputes is a top priority for Libya's new leaders. 

 

Today's shout out goes out to Ms. Westgard's geography class from Dilworth Glyndon Felton Junior High in Dilworth Minnesota. What is the currect cost of a first class U.S. postage stamp? You know what to do.Is it 27 cents, 35 cents, 44 cents or 50 cents? You got three seconds, go.Right now a first class stamp will cost you 44 cents. That's your answers and that's your shout out.

 

Stamps are one way the U.S. Postal Service makes money. But since fewer people are using the government service, it's ended up in some pretty bad financial shap. Yesterday a group of lawmakers released a plan aimed at saving the Postal Service. It would close some post offices, cancel Saturday mail delivery and let the Postal Service buy out thousands of empoyees, meaning they'd give them some money to leave their jobs.These ideas come up before. People have gotten angry at the idea of their local post offices closing. And postal worker unions don't like the buyout idea. Congress also have to pass the plan. That could be a long way off. 

 

It's been five days since a massive snowstorm hit the northestern United States. Thousands of people still don't have power. Utlity companies are rushing to get things running again, but some folks are getting frustrated.

 

Cold. Our food went bad. * power went bakc on for a few minutes and then it like the transformer box blew. We want our home back and to be able to stay in our house and let our kids play there.