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Des Moines , Iowa
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"Peace Officers Memorial Day"
May 15th

§ 136. Peace Officers Memorial Day

The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation—

(1) designating May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day in honor of Federal, State, and local officers killed or disabled in the line of duty;

(2) directing United States Government officials to display the flag of the United States at halfstaff on all Government buildings on Peace Officers Memorial Day, as provided by section 7 (m) of title 4, United States Code; and

(3) inviting State and local governments and the people of the United States to observe Peace Officers Memorial Day with appropriate ceremonies and activities, including the display of the flag at halfstaff. 

20080502
• Hillary Clinton - John McCain - Gas - Politics - Consumer - Memorial Day - Labor_Day - New York - 2008 Election - "Clinton, McCain Push Gas Tax Break Economists Panned (Update1)." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton and [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain are both pushing a ``gas-tax holiday'' to give consumers an 18.4- cent-a-gallon price break. Clinton says the plan will take excess profits from oil companies. McCain says it will help families buy school supplies." ... "Economists have a different take: They say the oil companies may end up the biggest beneficiaries, while the aid to families wouldn't be enough to buy a $35 backpack." ... "The trouble with the plan, they say, is that oil prices are rising because of low supplies, and companies will continue to charge the average $3.60 a gallon and just pocket the money that would have gone to federal taxes." ... "``That's $10 billion, and it's going into the pockets of oil refiners,'' said Leonard Burman of the Tax Policy Center in Washington. ``The last time I checked, they didn't need it.''" ... "Ethan Harris, chief U.S. [United States] economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said families would save only about $18 a month. Burman estimated the total savings from Memorial Day to Labor Day at $28." ... "New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the proposal was ``about the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time from an economic point of view.''" -By Alison Fitzgerald -Bloomberg

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20080429
• McCain - Clinton - Obama - Transportation - Infrastructure - Federal - Money - Arizona - New York - Illinois - 2008 Election - Labor_Day - Memorial Day - Consumer - Car - Gas - Politics - "What a gas: Candidates seem far less presidential when they talk about 'gas tax holidays' rather than the nation's ongoing needs." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain's idea to give Americans a summer holiday from federal gas taxes is about as weighty as a Barbie Dream Car, yet he can't stop driving it into the ground." ... "Neither can [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and New York Senator] Sen. Hillary Clinton. The two presidential contenders can't resist the chance to pander to voters and, as a bonus, paint [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama as an elitist. By doing so, they're missing an opportunity to show leadership on some major long-term challenges -- such as updating the nation's crowded roads and aging bridges." ... "In a speech on April 15, McCain proposed that the federal government suspend the 18.4-cent-per-gallon gas tax and the 24.4-cent-per-gallon diesel tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day. ... "McCain's idea is problematic on several levels. First, it would begin and end several months before the next president takes office, so it's more of a thought balloon than a plan. Second, the tax relief would save the typical American family only about $40 per car, while also siphoning $10 billion from the cash-strapped federal highway fund." ... "What's more, leading economists say the tax break would do little to lower the prices at the pump. More likely, the slightly lower prices would lead to higher demand, which would push the prices back up, allowing oil companies to make more money while federal tax coffers go hungry." ... "This is an election-year sop, not a plan for the future." -Oregonian

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20080331
• Oil - Politics - Government - US - Calif - Global - Climate - Environmental - Emissions - Memorial Day - Driving - "Gas prices put oil executives on the hot seat." ... "Oil executives return to the hot seat Tuesday as a House panel examines rising gasoline prices and the industry’s opposition to efforts to repeal $18 billion in tax breaks. The new money would be used to pay for the development of renewable energy." ... "For the industry’s critics, the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing Tuesday is another indication of the industry’s waning clout on Capitol Hill, as was the House vote earlier this year that repealed tax breaks the industry now receives." ... "But the army of lobbyists who represent the oil and gas industry has so far successfully fought back in the Senate, which has yet to pass a similar tax bill, forcing renewable energy advocates to lower their own expectations." ... "Executives from ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips were expected to testify before the House panel, which was created by [California Democratic Representative] Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.[Democratic-California]) to highlight her caucus’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the nation’s dependence on foreign oil." ... "Some oil lobbyists worried the hearing could turn raucous since prices at the pump have reached a new record — weeks before the traditional start of driving season on Memorial Day." ... "By coincidence or not, the hearing is being held the same day as “Fossil Fools’ Day,” a campaign by some environmental groups. They question the wisdom of continuing to use fossil fuels, which emit carbon dioxide when burned, as the mainstay for energy production when global temperatures are rising because of increasing greenhouse gas emissions." -By Jim Snyder -TheHill.com

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20070625
• Mitt Romney - Jay Garrity - Police - Politics - 2008 Election -Reporter - Car - Surveillance - New Hampshire - Massachusetts - "Fortune reporter: Garrity pulled me over, too." ... "After New York Times reporter Mark Leibovitch reported on June 16 that an aide to [2008 election Republican Presidential candidate] Mitt Romney -- later identified as Jay Garrity, Romney's director of operations -- had ordered him to stop following Romney's car on a campaign trip to New Hampshire, Romney's campaign denied that Leibovitch's car was ever pulled over." ... "Now another reporter is saying she had an experience similar to Leibovitch's account. Marcia Vickers, a senior writer with Fortune magazine, said that while trailing Romney in New Hampshire on Memorial Day for a forthcoming magazine piece, Garrity instructed her at one point to stop tailing Romney's car." ... "The incident with Leibovitch, in which Garrity, by Leibovitch's account, also told him he had run his license plate number, has prompted an investigation by the New Hampshire attorney general's office. State law prohibits private citizens from accessing license plate databases or pulling over fellow citizens. Garrity is now on paid leave amid an investigation by Massachusetts State Police into whether he impersonated a state trooper in a May 13 phone call to a Wilmington [Massachusetts] company." -By Scott Helman -Boston/Globe

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20060530
• US - Iraq - Britain - Memorial Day - Journalists - Law - Politics - "Bloody Memorial Day In Iraq: U.S. Military Death Toll Rises To 2,467 As 8 Bombs Shake Nation." ... "Memorial Day is not on the Iraqi calendar, but May 29, 2006, will be remembered by many in Iraq, U.S., and Britain, for years to come." ... "At least 37 people were killed Monday in eight bombings –including a blast that took the lives of two CBS journalists and critically wounded a third – an increase in violence that one Iraqi lawmaker blames on continued discord within the national government." ... "CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier, cameraman Paul Douglas, and soundman James Brolan were doing what they thought would be a Memorial Day story on U.S. soldiers in Iraq when a bomb exploded just a few feet away in Baghdad." ... "The wave of car bombings – most of them in Baghdad - and other attacks swept both Sunni and Shiite areas of Iraq as the trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein moved through another day and Iraqi politicians continued the struggle over who should occupy key posts in the new national government." -AP -CBSNews 

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20060518
• US - Memorial Day - Military - Homeless - Poverty - Health - Government - Money - Politics - Iraq - Calif. - "Number of Homeless Vets Called a 'Disgrace': A Third of Homeless Men in the U.S. Have Served in the Military." ... "One of every three homeless males in the United States is a veteran, and each night as many as 200,000 men and women veterans go to sleep with no place to call home, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs." ... "With Memorial Day approaching, Democratic members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee held a forum on homeless veterans." ... "Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chaired the forum, was blunt. "It's a disgrace that we let any of our vets get in this position. If we spend a billion dollars every 2½ days in Iraq, we can spend a lot more for those who have served us but will be out on the streets tonight."" ... "According to recent statistics, the VA provided health care services to more than 100,000 homeless veterans in 2004, and the agency spent more than $1 billion to assist tens of thousands of homeless and at-risk veterans." (1, 2) -By Dean Norland -ABCNEWS.com 

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20050530
• -  - Memorial Day -  - "America Lauds Fallen Soldiers." ... "The president's tribute at Arlington came in sharply different circumstances from the Memorial Day visit Mr. Bush made to the cemetery's Tomb of the Unknowns two years ago, just as the nation's problems stemming from the Iraq war were becoming apparent." ... "Before his Memorial Day remarks in 2003, Bush had declared major combat operations at an end, the U.S. government confidently predicted that weapons of mass destruction would be found and American generals said troops were in the process of stabilizing Iraq." ... "At that time, some 160 American soldiers had been killed in Iraq. Today, the total is over 1,650." (1, 2) -AP / -CBSNews

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• -  -  -  - Memorial Day - "Parades, solemn events to mark Memorial Day: Parades, official ceremonies and solemn visits will mark Memorial Day 2005 across the United States." ... "At Arlington National Cemetery, the formal wreath-laying ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. ET at the Tomb of the Unknowns. President Bush will be among those paying respects to the nation's war dead." ... "Elsewhere, many cities across the nation will be holding their own Memorial Day parades, honoring veterans and those still serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other spots around the globe." -AP via -CNN 

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20050529
• - Memorial Day - "Early history of Memorial Day closely tied to mourning rituals." ... "Marta Vincent is preparing for the holiday, so she dresses herself, bonnet to floor-length skirt, in the dull black of an 1870s widow in "high mourning." Her jewelry is of lusterless black gutta percha. Even the fan she carries is black." ... "It's all in keeping with the occasion, which was once called Decoration Day, but is now known as Memorial Day." ... "Although the holiday now commemorates the fallen of all of America's wars, its birth in the grieving of the Civil War period still resonates." -AP via -USATODAY 

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20050527
• -  - Memorial Day -  - Florida - Nevada - New York - "Holiday Exodus In Full Stride." ... "Anyone who took an early flight for a Memorial Day getaway has already gotten a taste of what summer air travel will be like: full planes, crowded airports and weather delays." ... "Airlines said they carried more passengers than usual Thursday, the kickoff of the summer season." ... "Despite rising prices, the travel industry predicts Americans will be traveling in record numbers this summer with Florida, California, Nevada and New York the top preferred destinations." (1, 2) -AP / -CBSNews

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20050417
• -  -  - Tom DeLay -  Travel - "When Tom Met Jack: Inside the cozy relationship between Tom DeLay and D.C.'s most notorious lobbyist. Could it take the leader down?" ... "It was congress's holiday for memorial Day 2000, and majority whip Tom DeLay's staff thought the boss and two top aides deserved a respite from the arduous hours they had been putting in doing the people's business. They wanted to make sure DeLay's little delegation had the finest of everything on its weeklong trip to Britain—from lodgings at the Four Seasons Hotel in London to dinners at the poshest restaurants with the most interesting people, right down to the best tickets for The Lion King—at the time, one of the hottest shows playing on the West End and one for which good seats usually meant a six-month wait. So DeLay's congressional office turned to someone they trusted far more than any travel agent or concierge: lobbyist Jack Abramoff. "He ran all the trips," recalls a former top DeLay aide. "You ask where the itineraries came from, who made all the travel arrangements—it all came out of Jack's shop." ... "Previous trips had taken DeLay and members of his staff all over the world, but none had been planned quite as meticulously as this one."" (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Karen Tumulty -TIME.com 

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20030526
• -  - "Several towns say they observed Memorial Day first." ... "It was a somber show of respect and love that brought three women to the village cemetery [of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania] in 1864 to lay flowers and ferns on the graves of Civil War soldiers." ... "Residents say that act 139 years ago marked the nation's first Memorial Day observance. But some two dozen communities in the nation -- from Columbus, Miss., and Macon, Ga., to Richmond, Va., and Carbondale, Ill. --also claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day." ... "The official distinction, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, is held by the village of Waterloo, N.Y. [which had its first observance of what's become the Memorial Day tradition on May 5th, 1866.]" -By Lara Jakes Jordan -AP via -Boston/Globe 

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20020525
• - "Terror alerts on small planes, scuba divers:  Americans head into their three-day Memorial Day weekend with alerts about terrorism ringing in their ears." ... "FBI investigators asked dive training industry officials for the names of all people who had been trained in the use of sophisticated "rebreathers," one industry official said." ... "Unlike recreational scuba gear, the closed circuit rebreathers and semi-closed rebreathers produce very few or no bubbles, and some do not have magnetic signatures." -CNN

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