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ARCHIVES NEWS Law News History Archives LAW ARCHIVES |
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- "Ashcroft
steps aside from CIA leak probe." ... "John Ashcroft,
US attorney-general, on Tuesday stepped aside from a politically charged
investigation into the leak of the identity of an undercover Central Intelligence
Agency officer." ... "Patrick Fitzgerald, the US attorney in Chicago, will
take over the inquiry and report to James Comey, Mr Ashcroft's deputy at
the Department of Justice, which is running the investigation, and Christopher
Wray, assistant attorney-general." -By Marianne Brun-Rovet
-FT.com
- 
- "Prison terms
for
female offenders now common in U.S.." ... "Nowhere
has there been more attention focused on that trend than in Oklahoma, where
the incarceration rate for women is more than double the national average.
The Legislature set up a task force this year to learn why. Nationally,
from 1993 through 2002, while overall crime was falling, the number of
women arrested rose 14.1 percent, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime
Report. In the same period, the number of men arrested fell 5.9 percent."
... "Some individual crimes show even more striking disparities. While
the number of men arrested on charges of aggravated assault fell 12.3 percent
in the decade, the number of women arrested on the same charge rose 24.9
percent. Drug arrests rose 34.5 percent a year for men in this period,
50 percent for women. And the number of women arrested on embezzlement
charges increased 80.5 percent, actually surpassing the number of men arrested
on the same charges, the only crime for which that is true." -By
Fox Butterfield -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
Sniper
- "Jury
sharply split in sparing sniper Malvo." ... "The
Virginia jury that spared the life of teen sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was apparently
sharply split, with five jurors favoring a death sentence but others saying
he was too young to be executed." ... "The jurors decided Tuesday -- after
nine hours of deliberation over two days -- to sentence the 18-year-old
to life without parole for his role in the Washington-area sniper slayings."-CNN
- 
- Anthrax
News
- "Judge
Halts Military's Required Anthrax Shots." ... "A
federal district judge ruled Monday that the Defense Department could not
compel members of the armed forces to be vaccinated against anthrax without
their consent." ... "The judge, Emmet G. Sullivan, issued a preliminary
injunction that prohibits Pentagon officials from "inoculating service
members without their consent."" ... "The judge found that the vaccine
in question, intended to protect military personnel against the potentially
deadly effects of inhaled anthrax, was "an investigational drug," being
used for an unapproved purpose." -By Robert Pear with
contributions by Thom Shanker -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
- 
- "Justice
Department endorses congressional redistricting by Texas Republicans."
... "The U.S. Department of Justice approved a Republican-backed congressional
redistricting map Friday, disappointing Democrats who staged two legislative
boycotts over redistricting and have sued over the new plan." ... "A federal
court panel considering legal challenges to the new map also gave Republicans
a victory Friday, ruling that that mid-decade redistricting is permissible
under state law." -By April Castro
-AP via -SFGate.com
- Sniper
- "Malvo
found guilty of capital murder." ... "Lee Malvo was
convicted Thursday of two counts of capital murder in the sniper attacks
that killed 10 people and terrorized the Washington, D.C., area just more
than a year ago." ... "Malvo was charged in the killing of Linda Franklin,
47, who was shot Oct. 14, 2002, in a Home Depot parking lot in Falls Church,
Va. In the first charge, the jury had to find that Malvo killed Franklin
and at least one other person within the past three years. Malvo also was
charged under Virginia's new anti-terrorism law, which makes killing while
committing a terrorist act a capital offense." -By
Laura Parker -USATODAY
- 
- 
- 
- Microsoft
News - "Microsoft
faces new antitrust battle." ... "A new front in
the Microsoft antitrust wars was opened on Thursday as rival software maker
RealNetworks accused the company of illegally trying to monopolise the
market for digital media software and said it would seek damages of more
than $1bn." -By Richard Waters and Scott Morrison
-FT.com
- 
- 
- "Court:
President cannot detain U.S. citizen as enemy combatant."
... "In a setback to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies,
a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the president does not have
the power to detain an American citizen seized on U.S. soil as an enemy
combatant." ... "In a 65-page decision, a three-judge panel of the 2nd
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 that the U.S. government must release
Jose Padilla from military custody within 30 days."
-CNN
-
- "Ex-Ill.
Gov. Ryan Indicted on Corruption." ... "Former Gov.
George Ryan, who gained a worldwide reputation as a critic of the death
penalty, was indicted Wednesday on charges of taking payoffs in a corruption
scandal that shadowed his entire four years in office and cut short his
political career." ... "Prosecutors said the 69-year-old Republican and
his family took cash, gifts, vacations and other favors to steer state
business to friends and associates while he was governor and, before that,
Illinois secretary of state." -By Mike Robinson
-AP via-AJC
- 
-
- Consumer
News
- "Calpers
files lawsuit against NYSE." ... "The largest U.S.
public pension fund is taking the unprecedented step of suing the New York
Stock Exchange, alleging the embattled exchange condoned fraudulent practices
by specialist trading firms that cost investors at least $155-million (U.S.)."
... "The California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), which
has assets of $148-billion (U.S.), filed the suit in U.S. court yesterday,
and is asking other investors to join it in a class action." -By
Shawn McCarthy -GlobeAndMail
- 
- 
-
- 
- 
- "EU
Agrees to Share Airline Passenger Data." ... "The
European Union has agreed to share information about its airline passengers
with the United States, in a deal announced yesterday that ends year-long
negotiations over a new U.S. law intended to fight terrorism." ... "International
airlines will turn over data about their U.S.-bound passengers, such as
a traveler's name, e-mail address, telephone number and credit card number
to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection
unit." -By Sara Kehaulani Goo-WashingtonPost
- Consumer
News - "It's
not called 'Can' Spam for nothing." ... "After six
years of wrangling over legislative ways to stop spam, Congress was still
faced with a fundamental choice: Give consumers control over the growing
flood of unwanted spam e-mail that fills their in-boxes, or give in to
the powerful advertising and marketing industries who want to be the ones
filling consumer in-boxes." ... "In the end, consumers lost." ... "The
Can-Spam Act, signed
into law Tuesday, is being touted as relief for the millions of consumers
beset with unwanted e-mail. But careful readers will notice that the law
is not called the "Can't-Spam" Act. There's a good reason: The law is little
more than an instructional guide for how to keep pumping out millions of
e-mails per hour while avoiding legal liability." -By
Ray Everett-Church -CNET/News
-
- ELECTION
2004 - "Court
to enter fray over energy-policy task force: Supreme
Court will hear case alleging that industry leaders played a key role that
must be disclosed." ... "The US Supreme Court delivered a victory to the
White House Monday by agreeing to enter the long-running dispute over whether
Vice President Dick Cheney must publicly disclose details about the Bush
administration's energy policy task force." ... "The Supreme Court's decision
to take up the case is important for both political and constitutional
reasons. Even if a majority of justices rule against the White House, the
Supreme Court action could help the administration keep the task force
information under wraps for several more months and perhaps until after
the 2004 election, analysts say." -By Warren Richey
-CSMonitor
- 
-
- Execution
News - "Analysis:
Putting Saddam on trial: The Iraqi Governing Council
intends to put Saddam Hussein on trial by an Iraqi court." ... "It is determined
to resist calls for an international tribunal. Saddam Hussein could face
the death penalty. It has been suspended by the occupation authorities
but could be reinstated by an Iraqi government." ... "That in itself would
be controversial. Britain, as a coalition partner, objects to execution
on principle. But Iraqis may want it." ... "The British Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw said that Iraqis would "express a strong preference" for a trial
in Iraq. International law, he said, also called for a domestic trial in
such cases if possible." ... "The United States is firmly behind the Iraqi
desire to try Saddam Hussein themselves" -By Paul
Reynolds -BBC/News
- 
- GENETICS
- "DNA
meets Death Row: Testing guilt and the system." ...
"Inside a walk-in freezer in a Richmond, Calif., laboratory sits a tiny
vial that holds one-fifth of one drop of a 20-year-old sperm sample. It
is forensic DNA evidence extracted from the body of a brutally murdered
young bride, evidence that no one is permitted by law to touch, evidence
that-if tested-could determine whether an innocent man was executed in
Virginia 11 years ago." ... "Since DNA “fingerprinting” began to revolutionize
criminal forensics in the late 1980s with precise identifications, it has
freed more than 130 convicts, 12 of whom have walked off death row. But
in other cases, prosecutors have successfully blocked the testing of DNA
before an execution and then fought posthumous tests just as vigorously."
-By Lois Romano with contributions by researchers
Lucy Shackelford and Alice Crites -WashingtonPost
- 
-
-
- "Prosecutors
get delay in case against ex-chaplain." ... "The
criminal proceedings against Captain James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain
at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, charged with mishandling classified data,
fell into confusion and stalled as prosecutors asked for extra time to
determine whether documents found in Yee's luggage when he was leaving
the base were, in fact, classified." ... "The hearing was postponed Tuesday
until Jan. 19 to give the prosecutors time to review the documents that
set off a major investigation into whether Yee was a spy, a contention
from which the government has since distanced itself." -By
Neil A. Lewis -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
-
-
- "War
Crimes Court Established for Iraq." ... "Iraq's U.S.-appointed
interim government established a war crimes tribunal Wednesday to try former
members of Saddam Hussein's regime, and two U.S. soldiers were killed and
four wounded in a northern city." ... "Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, president of
Iraq's Governing Council, said the new tribunal will cover crimes committed
from July 17, 1968 the day Saddam's Baath Party came to power until May
1, 2003 the day President Bush declared major hostilities over."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- 
-
- ELECTION
2004 -
- "Supreme
Court upholds 'soft money' ban." ... "A sharply divided
Supreme Court upheld key features of the nation's new law intended to lessen
the influence of money in politics, ruling Wednesday that the government
may ban unlimited donations to political parties." ... "Those donations,
called "soft money," had become a mainstay of modern political campaigns,
used to rally voters to the polls and to pay for sharply worded television
ads." ... "The new rules have been in force during the early stages of
preparation for the 2004 elections for president and Congress."
-AP via -CNN
-
- ELECTION
2004 - "Campaign
Finance Law's Key Parts Upheld." ... "The U.S. Supreme
Court on Wednesday upheld the two key parts of landmark campaign finance
law designed to curb the influence of money in politics, a ruling affecting
the 2004 and future presidential and congressional elections." -By
James Vicini -Reuters
via -Wired
- 
- Water
- "High
Court Rules For Va. Over Md. In Water Dispute: Potomac
Battle Dates Back Centuries." ... "The Supreme Court yesterday settled
a centuries-old dispute over control of the Potomac River in favor of Virginia,
ruling that Maryland has no right to regulate the commonwealth's withdrawals
of drinking water from the river." ... "By a vote of 7 to 2, the justices
essentially affirmed what a court-appointed special master had already
decided: that although an 1877 arbitration decision affirmed Maryland's
sovereignty over the entire riverbed, it also preserved Virginia's rights
to extend water-intake pipes into the middle of the stream -- and Virginia
had not forfeited those rights by submitting to some Maryland regulation
in recent years." (1, 2)
-By Charles Lane and Maria Glod with contributions
by Craig Whitlock -WashingtonPost
-
-
- 
- 
- 
-
"Rigging
election boundaries: When does it go too far? The
Supreme Court Wednesday takes up a case on political gerrymandering that
could affect districts across the US." ... "Now, for the first time in
17 years, the US Supreme Court has taken up a case to determine whether
at some point political gerrymandering becomes so egregious as to violate
safeguards in the Constitution." ... "There are alternatives to heavily
partisan gerrymandering. Four states -Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey, and Washington
- use commissions to draw congressional districts. But the combination
of increasingly detailed census information and mapping software has made
gerrymandering too attractive to party leaders." -By
Warren Richey -CSMonitor
- - 
-
- "Effects
of Pennsylvania remap case may ripple to Texas: High
court to hear arguments on whether state's lines too partisan." ... "Along
the banks of the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, there's a street
called Lincoln Avenue in a town called Charleroi. And improbable as it
seems, the future of Texas politics could reside there." ... "On one side
is the home of Frank Mascara. On the other is the rest of the U.S. House
district he used to represent. Such craftsmanship cost Mr. Mascara and
three other Democratic congressmen their jobs last year." ... "The Supreme
Court has never thrown out a redistricting plan on the grounds of partisan
gerrymandering. But it will hear arguments Wednesday on the Pennsylvania
map, and the implications could be huge for Texas, whose own new districts
are under assault in federal court this week." -By
Todd J. Gillman -DallasNews.com
-
-
- "Exceptions
to Miranda rule: Are they constitutional? The Supreme
Court hears three cases this week that could clarify the scope of defendant
rights." ... ""You have the right to remain silent. If you give up this
right, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of
law; you have a right to counsel ..."" ... "Although such warnings have
become widely known, they have remained a source of controversy within
the law-enforcement community ever since the US Supreme Court endorsed
the practice in the 1966 landmark case Miranda v. Arizona. This week, the
US Supreme Court takes up three cases all dealing with police attempts
to bypass the Miranda warnings at crucial stages of an investigation."
-By Warren Richey -CSMonitor
- "Justices
sympathetic to execution appeal: Criticize prosecutors
in 1980 Texas trial." ... "Even conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin
Scalia, a staunch death penalty supporter, couldn't help the lawyer for
the state of Texas on Monday to defend the conduct of prosecutors during
a 1980 capital murder trial." ... "In the end, it appeared to be a very
good day for Delma Banks Jr., one of the country's longest-serving death
row inmates and whose execution the high court halted with 10 minutes to
spare earlier this year." ... "The justices will decide Banks' case by
next summer." -By Patty Reinhart
-HoustonChronicle.com
- "Bush
Signs $400B[illion] Medicare Overhaul Bill." ...
"Overall, the new law will carry out the most extensive changes since Medicare's
creation in 1965. It adds a prescription drug benefit beginning in 2006.
At the same time, it encourages insurance companies to offer private plans
to millions of older Americans who now receive health care benefits under
terms fixed by the federal government. Leading Democrats have charged this
would lead to the destruction of the Medicare program as it was designed
at its inception during the Johnson administration."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "No
Exams Required: Pharmacist Nailed for Online Drug Sales."
... "Francine Haight will never forget the day she found her son Ryan,
a high school senior, lifeless, in his bed." ... "It turned out that some
of the drugs that killed the La Mesa, Calif., teen on Feb. 12, 2001 came
from nationpharmacy.com, a Norman, Okla.-based Internet drug store owned
by pharmacist Clayton Fuchs, who also ran other similar Web sites." ...
"In October, a federal jury convicted Fuchs, 33, on six felony offenses
including conspiracy to dispense a controlled substance, operating a continuing
criminal enterprise and money laundering. Prosecuted under the Drug Kingpin
Statute, he faces 20 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Feb.
11." (1, 2,
3)
-By Greg Hunter -ABCNEWS.com
- 
- Civil
Liberties News
- "Outkast
Denied By U.S. Supreme Court In Rosa Parks Case."
... "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition by Outkast and
their record labels asking the court to intervene in a lawsuit involving
civil-rights icon Rosa Parks and the rap duo's Grammy-nominated single
bearing her name. The move clears the way for Parks to sue Outkast for
what she claims is false advertising." -MTV.com
/ News
-
-
-
- "Arizonans
to visit Cuba base: McCain, Flake to inspect Guantanamo."
... "Sen. John McCain and U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake will make separate visits
next week to the U.S. detention center where suspected terrorists are being
held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." ... "The trips by the two Republican lawmakers
from Arizona come as the government, under increasing domestic and international
pressure, moves toward releasing 100 or more prisoners and putting others
on trial in military courts after as long as two years." -By
Billy House and Jon Kamman -azcentral.com
-
- -
-
- "Guantanamo
Bay Detainee Is First to Be Given a Lawyer: Move
Is Sign That Australian Alleged Al Qaeda Fighter May Be Tried by Tribunal."
... "An Australian detainee at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba last night
became the first prisoner there to be given a lawyer, a strong indication
that he is on track to be the first alleged al Qaeda fighter in detention
to go before a military tribunal, according to informed sources." ... "But
a source said Muslim adventurer and former cowboy David Hicks may never
be tried before one of the special military courts because the U.S. government
is working on a plea bargain with him. He has been accused of associating
with al Qaeda and other terrorist groups." -By John
Mintz -WashingtonPost
-
- Tucson
News - "High
court clears Raytheon in refusal to rehire worker:
Drug user accused Tucson [Arizona] plant of bias." ... "[U.S. Supreme Court]
Justices ruled 7-0 that a Raytheon Co. plant in Tucson has a legitimate
reason to refuse to rehire workers who break rules, including former employees
with addictions." ... "But the court dodged the more significant question,
whether the more than 5 million workers with substance-abuse problems have
workplace protection under the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act."
-By Gina Holland -AP
via -azcentral.com
-
- ELECTION
2004 - "Colo.
justices overturn voter districts: Redistricting
case could influence 2004 national elections." ... "In a decision that
could have national implications, the Colorado Supreme Court threw out
the state’s new congressional districts Monday because the GOP-led Legislature
redrew the maps in violation of the constitution. The General Assembly
is required to redraw the maps only after each census and before the ensuing
general election — not at any other time, the court said in a closely watched
decision. A similar court battle is being waged in Texas."
-AP via -MSNBC
- 
- Free-Speech
- "Texas
court to rule: Can fiction be libel?" ... "Shortly
after a Texas county judge had 13-year-old Christopher Beamon jailed for
five days for writing a Halloween essay about the shooting of a teacher,
the Dallas Observer parodied the news item with a fictional account of
its own." ... "In a satirical piece, the same judge, Darlene Whitten, was
portrayed jailing a 6-year-old girl for writing a book report on Maurice
Sendak's children's classic "Where The Wild Things Are," said to contain
"cannibalism, fanaticism, and disorderly conduct."" -By
John C. Ryan -CSMonitor
- 
-
-
- "Officer
charged with Guantanamo security breach." ... "Col.
Jackie Duane Farr is the fourth man assigned to intelligence operations
at Guantanamo Bay accused of mishandling classified information." ... "Until
recently, Farr was director of the intelligence collection operation in
the so-called Joint Interrogations Group, said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, a
Guantanamo spokeswoman. The group has teams of interrogators and analysts
who weekly question about half of the 660 prisoners being held at Camp
Delta, a sprawling prison camp for captives taken in Afghanistan in the
War on Terror." -By Carol Rosenberg-Miami/Herald
-
- "Battle
lines are drawn in Chrysler's 'takeover' case." ...
"When Kirk Kerkorian (pictured) steps into the witness box on Monday or
Tuesday, the billionaire casino magnate will make an extraordinary claim:
Daimler-Benz, Germany's oldest carmaker, tricked him into selling his stake
in Chrysler, one of the biggest names in US automobile making, on the cheap."
... "He is seeking $1.2bn in damages, with a possibility of $3bn in punitive
damages." -By James Mackintosh
-FT.com
- "Turkish
Court Charges 9 in Bombings Probe: Turkish Court
Charges Nine Suspected Accomplices in Suicide Bombings Probe, Defense Lawyer
Says" ... "The charges came just five days after the bombings of the British
consulate and a London-based bank in Istanbul. Fifty-seven people, including
the bombers, died in those attacks and the bombings of two synagogues in
the city on Nov. 15." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- "Ex-Security
Trust CEO faces charges: Federal regulators order
that bank be shut down." ... "New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed
felony charges Tuesday against the former chief executive of Security Trust
and two other ex-executives, while U.S. regulators ordered that the company
be shut down." ... "The complaint alleges that former CEO Grant Seeger
as well as William Kenyon, Security Trust's former president, and Nicole
McDermott, formerly senior vice president of corporate services, acted
as middlemen and helped hedge funds engage in late trading of mutual funds."
-By Luisa Beltran
-CBSNews /MarketWatch
- "US
regulators shoot to kill in fund probe." ... "Federal
regulators are to close down Securities Trust, an Arizona-based company
accused of mutual fund fraud, in the first action of its kind against a
tainted institution." -FT.com
- "House
Approves Antispam Bill: First nationwide antispam
law expected by year's end." ... "Lawmakers are one step closer to enacting
the first nationwide antispam law. The House of Representatives on Saturday
overwhelmingly approved a bill that would fine spammers who violate restrictions
on unsolicited commercial e-mail." ... "The Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act was approved by
a vote of 392-5. The move follows the U.S. Senate's approval
of its version of the CAN-SPAM Act in October with a 97-0 vote." -By
Rita Chang and Laura Rohde -IDG.net
via -PCWorld.com
- 
-
- "US
to review police body armor: Justice Dept.
to assess reliability of material that's used in vests." ... "One day after
Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against
the manufacturer of a popular bulletproof vest, the United States Department
of Justice has launched an intensive review of the reliability of police
body armor, which officials say may lose strength over time and potentially
put police officers' lives at risk." ... "The review will focus on vests
made with the bullet-resistant material called Zylon, manufactured by the
Japanese-based company Toyobo." -By Jared Stearns
-Boston/Globe
-
- Civil
Liberties News
- "Court
reviews 'combatant' label: US power is debated
in case of detainee in 'dirty bomb' plot." ... "A federal appeals court
yesterday sharply questioned the Bush administration's decision to classify
a US citizen suspected in an alleged "dirty bomb" plot as an enemy combatant,
thus denying him access to legal counsel." ... "A member of the three-judge
panel
called placing Jose Padilla in military custody a "sea change in the constitutional
life of the country." US District Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr. said the
result could lead to changes that "have been unprecedented in civilized
society."" -By John J. Goldman-LAtimes
via -Boston/Globe
- -
"14
states fight EPA maneuver that weakens Clean Air Act."
... "More than a dozen state attorneys general yesterday sought to block
the federal government from implementing a rule change they argued would
lead to more air pollution from the nation's power plants." ... "They want
to block the EPA's loosening of Clean Air Act regulations that would allow
older power plants, refineries, and factories to modernize without having
to install expensive pollution controls. "If these rules go into effect
even temporarily," said New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer,
"utilities will get the green light to spew forth pollution and violate
the clear meaning of a statute that has for decades protected the quality
of the air that we breathe."" -By Devlin Barrett
-AP via -Boston/Globe
- Sniper
- "Sniper
John Muhammad guilty on all counts." ... "John Allen
Muhammad faces the death penalty after being found guilty Monday of capital
murder and terrorism for his role in the sniper-style shootings that terrorized
the Washington, D.C., area last fall." ... "The Virginia jury returned
the decision after only a few hours of deliberation. Mr. Muhammad, 42,
was found guilty of all four counts, including conspiracy and using a firearm
in a crime." -By Oliver Moore
-GlobeAndMail
-
- "Yemeni
court frees 92 militants: A court in Yemen
has freed 92 Muslim militants, including some suspected of having links
with al-Qaeda." ... "Yemeni judge Hammoud al-Hatar told the court the prisoners
had repented and promised not to attack embassies in the capital, Sanaa."
... "Mr al-Hatar said the president had decided to release them "in light
of the results of a dialogue through the committee of ulemas, [Islamic
scholars]"." ... "A further 54 al-Qaeda suspects who surrendered to the
authorities have been pardoned by the president, the agency said."
-BBC/News
- 
- 
-
- Civil
Liberties News
- "U.S.
calls him a Qaeda pawn; ex-deportee calls himself a victim."
... "Maher Arar has been back from Syria for five weeks now, with his wife
and two children in their simple [Canadian] apartment, earnestly pleading
to all who will listen that he is an innocent casualty of the Bush administration's
war on terror." ... "As Arar tells it, U.S. officials detained him on circumstantial
evidence during what was supposed to be a brief stopover at John F. Kennedy
International Airport in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. Within days, they
packed him off to Syria, where, he says, he was locked in squalor and tortured
for nearly a year. Though he holds dual Canadian and Syrian citizenship,
he had not lived in Syria for 16 years." -By Clifford
Krauss -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
Sniper-
"Malvo
pleads innocent." ... "Sniper supsect Lee Boyd Malvo
pleaded innocent to murder Monday as his trial was opening in the slaying
of an FBI analyst shot to death during the three-week sniper spree in the
Washington, D.C., area last fall." ... "The 18-year-old responded, "Not
guilty," in a clear voice each time when asked for his plea to two counts
of capital murder and to one count of using a firearm in a felony." -By
Adrienne Schwisow -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
- "Federal
judges in New York, San Francisco halt abortion ban."
... "With the ink barely dry on legislation banning a controversial abortion
procedure, federal judges in San Francisco and New York yesterday put a
halt to the measure and set the stage for the most important legal tussle
over abortion rights in three decades." ... "The judges found that the
congressional ban on the procedure — known medically as "intact dilation
and extraction" but referred to by opponents as "partial-birth abortion"
— is likely to be unconstitutional because it provides no exceptions for
a woman's health, thus running afoul of a 2000 Supreme Court ruling that
struck down a similar Nebraska statute. President Bush signed the latest
ban into law Wednesday." -By Howard Mintz -Knight
Ridder via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
- "Washington
State Man Admits to 48 Murders." ... "A truck painter
pleaded guilty on Wednesday to strangling 48 drug addicts and prostitutes
to death -- in a killing spree known as the Green River murders -- and
said in a confession, "I killed so many women I have a hard time keeping
them straight."" ... "Gary Leon Ridgway, 54, said in a confession read
by a prosecutor in open court that he murdered the women because he hated
prostitutes and knew that they would not be missed." (1, 2)
-By Chris Stetkiewicz-Reuters
- Microsoft
News - "Probable
last gasp on Microsoft antitrust case still matters."
... "On Tuesday, an appeals court in Washington heard arguments that the
so-called ``remedies'' for what everyone agrees were illegal acts were
not adequate to punish the crime or prevent its recurrence. The state of
Massachusetts and two technology trade organizations asked the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to tell U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
to stiffen her order that, by virtually all accounts, has led to almost
no change of behavior on Microsoft's part." ... "Robert Bork, formerly
a judge on that appeals court, argued on behalf of the trade groups, calling
the infamous settlement with the Justice Department ``utterly inadequate,''
according to news reports." -By Dan Gillmor
-MercuryNews-BayArea
-
- "Federal
Judge Blocks New Abortion Law for Some Doctors."
... "A federal judge in Nebraska on Wednesday blocked a new anti-abortion
law from being enforced against some doctors and their affiliates, minutes
after it was signed by President Bush." ... "Citing constitutional concerns,
U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf issued a temporary restraining order barring
U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft and the Justice Department from enforcing the
new law banning so-called partial birth abortions against four doctors
who practice in or are affiliated with practices in more than a dozen states."-Reuters
-
- Microsoft
News - "Web
patent critics spotlight old technology." ... "If
Web technologists can find the right example, they believe they can help
set aside a federal jury's recent finding that Microsoft had violated a
patent held by tiny Web developer Eolas Technologies. The so-called '906
patent describes a way that a Web browser can call up a separate application
from within a Web page." ... "Eolas gained international attention with
its $521 million patent infringement victory over Microsoft, a judgment
that has focused the attention of the software industry in a way few other
patent cases have. Microsoft has already detailed plans to change its Internet
Explorer browser, which could force countless Web developers to rewrite
their Web pages." -By Paul Festa-CNET/News
- "Russian
stocks plunge after Yukos arrest By Ivar Simensen."
... "The Moscow stock market plunged more than 10 per cent on Monday after
the arrest of the head of Yukos, the oil major, prompted fears about investing
in the country - just one week after the market hit an all-time high."
... "The arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the Yukos chief executive, on
Saturday morning and the seven charges brought against him by the Kremlin,
ranging from tax fraud to theft against the state, rattled investor sentiment."
-By Ivar Simensen -FT.com
- "Senate
votes unanimously for do-not-spam list: A registry
would block unwanted e-mail solicitation." ... "The Senate voted unanimously
Wednesday to · build on the new do-not- call registry's success
by adopting a plan for a national do-not-spam list to block the tidal wave
of e-mail solicitations for everything from get-rich schemes to pornography
that threatens to engulf the Internet." ... "But the effort faces an uncertain
future in the House and the marketing industry pledged to fight the creation
of an anti-spam registry -- even if it is technically feasible." -By
Edward Epstein -SFGate.com
-
- -
"Senate votes
to ban abortion practice: Body, 64-34, joins
House in barring controversial ‘partial birth’ procedure." ... "The Senate
on Tuesday voted to ban the practice that critics call partial birth abortion,
sending President Bush a measure that supporters and foes alike said could
alter the future of U.S. abortion rights. A court challenge is certain."
... "Years in the making, the bill imposes the most far-reaching limits
on abortion since the Supreme Court in 1973 confirmed a woman’s right to
end a pregnancy." -AP
via -MSNBC
- 
- "Targets
of File-Sharing Lawsuits Warned: Recording
Industry Sends Out Warnings Before Next Wave of Lawsuits Over Illegal File
Sharing." ... "The record industry's trade group has warned 204 people
suspected of illegally swapping music over the Internet that it plans to
file lawsuits against them." ... "The letters give the recipients 10 days
to contact the RIAA to discuss a settlement and avoid a formal lawsuit.
The RIAA declined to identify the individuals, but said they were sharing
an average of more than 1,000 songs on their computers."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- "A
Young Hacker Buys Options, Borrowing an Investor's Identity."
... "A Pennsylvania youth has been accused of a complex scheme to unload
worthless stock options by hacking into another investment account and
using it to buy the securities from him." ... "According to court filings
yesterday by the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors
in Boston, Van Dinh, 19, a college student, used a singular blend of computer
crime, securities fraud and identity theft to dump stock options in Cisco
Systems last July, about a week before they were scheduled to expire
and cost Mr. Dinh as much as $100,000." -By John Schwartz
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
-
-
- "Evicted
Diego Garcia Residents Lose Case." ... "Hundreds
of people who were evicted from an Indian Ocean island chain 30 years ago
to make way for a U.S. military base have no right to return home or get
compensation, a British judge ruled Thursday." ... "Still, Judge Duncan
Ouseley at London's High Court said he was ``acutely conscious''
of the position of at least some of the claimants from the Chagos Islands.
They were removed from the British territory between 1967 and 1973 to make
way for the U.S. base on the island of Diego Garcia." ... "``It does appear
that, in the absence of unexpectedly compelling evidence to the contrary,
at least some claimant Chagossians could show that they were treated shamefully
by successive U.K. governments,'' he said. " -By Michael
McDonough -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
- "House unit
votes for sanctions on Syria: As White House
ends opposition, test for Arab ties is seen." ... "The House International
Relations Committee voted 33-2 for the Syria Accountability Act, which
demands that Damascus halt support for terrorism, end any programs to develop
weapons of mass destruction and withdraw its troops from Lebanon." ...
"The full House, where 275 of 435 members co-sponsored the bill, is expected
to pass the measure next week. The bill also has strong bipartisan support
in the Senate, where the Foreign Relations Committee is planning to examine
the measure this month." -By Brian Knowlton
-IHT.com
- 
-
- Tucson
News - "Limits
of disability act tested: The high court considers
Wednesday whether a former addict should be afforded employment protections."
... "Would a company that refuses to rehire somebody who says he's overcome
his drug and alcohol addiction be guilty of violating the Americans With
Disabilities Act (ADA)?" ... "That is the question the US Supreme Court
takes up Wednesday in an Arizona case with major implications for companies
with zero-tolerance hiring and firing policies." ... "The case stems from
a lawsuit filed by Joel Hernandez, a 25-year employee of the Hughes Missile
Systems Company in Tucson." -By Warren Richey
-CSMonitor
-
-
-
- "White
House stops blocking Syria bill." ... "Rep. Eliot
Engel, D-N.Y., the chief author of the Syria Accountability Act, says he
was told on Friday that the legislation had been put on the calendar for
a vote Wednesday by the House International Relations Committee. The measure
has support from a majority in both the House of Representatives and the
Senate." ... "The legislation had been blocked by the White House in the
run-up to the Iraq war while the administration sought to blunt Syrian
opposition to overturning Saddam Hussein's regime." -By
Barbara Slavin -USATODAY
-
-
-
- "Panel
Fires Shot Across FCC's Bow: Stevens Amendment
Maintains Cap on TV Networks' Size." ... "The Senate Appropriations Committee
dealt another potential setback to the Federal Communications Commission's
new media ownership rules yesterday, adding an amendment to a spending
bill that would prevent the agency from raising its cap on the size of
large broadcast television networks." ... "The Senate action follows similar
action by the House in July, in defiance of a threatened presidential veto.
It comes one day after a federal appeals court issued an emergency stay
preventing the new rules from taking effect until the court hears briefings
and conducts a review of the rules' merits." -By Frank
Ahrens -WashingtonPost
-
- "Consensus
to fix power grid, but no unity on how: Blackout
has led to calls for more regulation and for Congress to pass long-delayed
energy bill." ... "The worst blackout in US history has moved improvement
of the nation's electrical grid to the top of Washington's fall policy
agenda." ... "Congress is already planning a range of hearings into what
went wrong, while administration officials are calling again for passage
of the mammoth energy bill now plodding through the legislative process."
... "But agreement about the issue's importance doesn't mean consensus
about what should be done. The politics of electricity are so complicated
they make, say, Medicare reform look routine by comparison." -By
Peter Grier and Faye Bowers with contributions from Gail Russell Chaddock
-CSMonitor
- Microsoft
News - "Microsoft
Vows To Crush The Mouse That Roared." ... "A federal
jury ruled that Microsoft should pay tiny Eolas Technologies and the University
of California $521 million for infringing on their patent for sending software
applications over the Internet. But Microsoft, as is its habit, insists
that the jury verdict is not the end of the story but the beginning, that
it did nothing wrong and even if it did that the remedy is out of whack
with the wrong. This is what Microsoft often says after losing a trial
and before the inevitable appeals." -By Dan Ackman
-Forbes
Karl
Rove - 
Gordon
Smith - 
Environmental
- Science
- Politics
- 
River
- 
Animals
- 
Agricultural
- Corporation
- Government
- 
Hatch
Act - 
Law
- 2002
Election - 
WVa
- California
- Portland
- 
Oregon
- "Oregon
Water Saga Illuminates Rove's Methods With Agencies."
... "In a darkened conference room, [Republican President Bush] White House
political strategist Karl Rove was making an unusual address to 50 top
managers at the U.S. [United States] Interior Department. Flashing color
slides, he spoke of poll results, critical constituencies -- and water
levels in the Klamath River basin." [The Klamath River runs from Oregon
into California] ... "At the time of the meeting, in January 2002, Mr.
Rove had just returned from accompanying [Republican] President Bush on
a trip to Oregon, where they visited with a Republican senator facing re-election
[2002]. Republican leaders there wanted to support their agricultural base
by diverting water from the river basin to nearby farms, and Mr. Rove signaled
that the administration did, too." ... "Three months later, Interior Secretary
Gale Norton stood with [Oregon Republican Senator] Sen. Gordon Smith in
Klamath Falls and opened the irrigation-system head gates that increased
the water supply to 220,000 acres of farmland -- a policy shift that continues
to stir bitter criticism from environmentalists and Indian tribes." ...
"Though Mr. Rove's clout within the administration often is celebrated,
this episode offers a rare window into how he works behind the scenes to
get things done. One of them is with periodic visits to cabinet departments.
Over the past two years Mr. Rove or his top aide, Kenneth Mehlman -- now
manager of Mr. Bush's re-election campaign -- have visited nearly every
agency to outline White House campaign priorities, review polling data
and, on occasion, call attention to tight House, Senate and gubernatorial
races that could be affected by regulatory action." ... "On [January] Jan.
5, Mr. Rove accompanied the president to an appearance in Portland [Oregon]
with Mr. Smith. The president signaled his desire to accommodate agricultural
interests, saying "We'll do everything we can to make sure water is available
for those who farm."" ... "The next day, Mr. Rove made sure that commitment
didn't fall through the cracks. He visited the 50 Interior managers attending
a department retreat at a Fish and Wildlife Service conference center in
Shepherdstown, W.Va. [West Virginia] In a PowerPoint presentation Mr. Rove
also uses when soliciting Republican donors, he brought up the Klamath
and made clear that the administration was siding with agricultural interests."
...
"His remarks weren't entirely welcome -- especially by officials grappling
with the competing arguments made by environmentalists, who wanted river
levels high to protect endangered salmon, and Indian tribes, who depend
on the salmon for their livelihoods. Neil McCaleb, then an assistant Interior
secretary, recalls the "chilling effect" of Mr. Rove's remarks. Wayne Smith,
then with the department's Bureau of Indian Affairs, says Mr. Rove reminded
the managers of the need to "support our base."" [note: the Hatch Act prohibits
political activities in federal offices.] ... "A National Marine Fisheries
Service biologist, Michael Kelly, has asked for protection under federal
"whistle-blower" laws, saying he was subjected to political pressure to
go along with the low-water plan and ordered to ignore scientific evidence
casting doubt on the plan. This month, a federal judge ruled the administration
violated the Endangered Species Act in the way it justified the water diversion."
-By Tom Hamburger -