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HavenWorks.com/north-carolina North Carolina News |
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North Carolina News, North Carolina State News, North Carolina capital: Raleigh, NC News |
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 US
States
North Carolina capital: Raleigh US
Capitals
NC: North Carolina State
Abbr.
North Carolina state is bordered by the states of South Carolina, Georgia (south), Tennessee (west), and Virginia (north). 
North Carolina state also borders the Atlantic Ocean (east). 
~~~~~~~~~~~~! |
 North
Carolina
NORTH CAROLINA News:
 Blackwater
-  Investigation
-  Corporate
-  Military
-  California
- North
Carolina -  US
-  Iraq
-  International
-  Politics
"Plea by Blackwater guard helps indict 5 others." ... "In the first public airing of an investigation that remains a source of international outrage, the Justice Department unsealed its case against five private security guards, built largely around the chilling testimony of a sixth guard about the 2007 shootings that left 17 unsuspecting Iraqi civilians dead at a busy Baghdad [Iraq's capital] traffic circle." ... "In pleading guilty to manslaughter, the sixth security guard, Jeremy Ridgeway of California, described how he and the other guards used automatic rifles and grenade launchers to fire on cars, houses, a traffic officer and a girls' school. In addition to those killed, at least 20 people were wounded." ... "The six guards were employed by Blackwater Worldwide, the largest security contractor in Iraq; the company, based in North Carolina, has not been charged in the case." ... "Ridgeway said in the court documents unsealed Monday that the episode in Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007, started when the guards opened fire on a white Kia sedan "that posed no threat to the convoy."" ... "The case remained a sore point during the [Republican President] Bush administration's negotiations with Iraq for an agreement setting new rules for the continuing presence of U.S. [United States] troops. Ultimately, a major provision of the agreement ended immunity for private contractors working in Iraq." (1, 2) -By Ginger Thompson -IHT.com
Blackwater
- Corporate
- Military
-  Federal
- Investigation
- NC
- US
- Iraq
"Blackwater likely to be fined millions in Iraq weapons case." ... "The State Department is preparing to slap a multi-million dollar fine on private military contractor Blackwater USA for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits." ... "Some of the weapons are believed to have ended up on the country's black market, department officials told McClatchy, but no criminal charges have been filed in the case." ... "The expected fine is the result of a long-running federal investigation into whether employees of the firm shipped weapons hidden in shrink-wrapped pallets from its Moyock, N.C. [North Carolina] headquarters to Iraq, where Blackwater is the State Department's largest personal security contractor." ... "Since the arms shipment allegations first became public 14 months ago, Blackwater, which has received $1.2 billion in federal contracts, according to the Web site fedspending.org, has consistently denied involvement in illicit arms trafficking." ... "However, the State Department found that Blackwater shipped 900 weapons to Iraq without the paperwork required by arms export control regulations, one department official said. Of that number, 119 were "particularly ... erroneous," he said." ... "Blackwater employees are also the subjects of a Justice Department probe into the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's [Iraq's capital] Nisoor Square on Sept. [September] 16, 2007." ... "A federal grand jury is weighing whether to indict the Blackwater guards who were involved in the killings." -By Warren P. Strobel -McClatchyDC.com 
 Barack
Obama - 2008
Election -Race
-  Terrorism
- Politics
-  New
Jersey -  New
York -  Michigan
-  Pennsylvania
- Calif
- North
Carolina -  Maine
"Local Newspapers Cover Rising Number of Racist Anti-Obama Actions in Small Towns." ... "Away from the spotlight, many local newspapers around the country have covered recent incidents of racially-motivated reactions to last week’s [2008] election, from flags hung upside down to the dangling of nooses and cross-burnings. As we noted last week, a couple in northern New Jersey who had an [Democratic President-Elect Barack] Obama sign on their front lawn woke up to find the charred remains of a cross out there. Local residents today announced a "unity march" to protest the still-unsolved incident." ... "Now come these fresh reports." ... "The Associated Press revealed today, "Police on eastern Long Island [New York region] are investigating reports that more than a dozen cars were spray painted with racist graffiti, reportedly including a message targeting President-elect Barack Obama. The graffiti included racist slurs and sexually graphic references. At least one resident in the quiet Mastic [New York] neighborhood told Newsday her son's car was scribbled with a message threatening to kill Obama."" ... "Employees at Hampel's Key and Lockshop in Traverse City, Michigan, flew an American flag upside down last Wednesday protesting of the new president-elect, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported." ... "Also in Michigan, in Midland, a man dressed in full Ku Klux Klan regalia walked around toting a handgun and waving an American flag. Initially denying it, the man eventually admitted to police that the display was a reaction to the Obama victory." ... "In Pennsylvania, an interracial couple in Apolacon Township discovered the remains of a burned cross in their front yard." ... "Authorities in Temecula, Calif. [California], found spray-painted graffiti on a city sidewalk containing a swastika and anti-Obama slogan." ... "Today, the NAACP called on North Carolina State University to expel four students who spray painted racist messages about Obama." ... "Another post-election noose incident happened in Maine. “More than 75 people rallied Sunday against an incident last week in which black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island the day after Barack Obama won the presidential election,” according to the Bangor Daily News." -By Dexter Hill -EditorAndPublisher.com
 Child
-  Labor
-  Safety
- Enforcement
- Employers
- Politics
-  Food
-  Agriculture
-  Plants
-  Construction
-  People
- Federal
- Immigration
- North
Carolina -  South
Carolina -  Iowa
"Child labor going largely unchecked." ... "Nery Castañeda tackled a job that was never intended for kids his age." ... "One afternoon last fall, the 17-year-old Guatemala native ran a machine to grind damaged pallets into mulch. When a co-worker at the Greensboro [North Carolina] plant returned from another task, he didn't see Nery – until he looked inside the shredder." ... "“A person shouldn't die like this,” said older brother Luis. “…He came with a dream and found death.”" ... "Decades after the enactment of regulations designed to prevent such tragedies, thousands of youths still get hurt on American jobs deemed unsafe for young workers. On a typical day, more than 400 juvenile workers are injured on the job. Once every 10 days, on average, a worker under the age of 18 is killed, federal statistics show." ... "Enforcement has waned, despite new evidence that many employers are ignoring child labor laws. U.S. [United States] Department of Labor investigations have dropped by nearly half since fiscal year 2000." ... "“There are lots of kids being asked to do work that's been prohibited for them – and it's been prohibited because it's dangerous,” said Carol Runyan, who heads UNC's Injury Prevention Research Center. “…Our system is failing them.”" ... "More than 3 million youths under age 18 have jobs. Regulations prohibit them from doing a variety of hazardous jobs, including most meat-processing work." ... "But last month, at an immigration raid at a House of Raeford Farms poultry plant in Greenville, S.C. [South Carolina], six juveniles were among the workers detained. Three young workers told the Observer they were under 18 when they held jobs at House of Raeford plants requiring them to make thousands of cuts a day with sharp knives. The company says it requires job applicants to present identification showing their age, but not all the documentation is accurate." ... "At Agriprocessors, a large meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, authorities recently charged owners with thousands of child-labor violations after finding that teenage employees were asked to use circular saws, clean floors with powerful chemicals and perform other dangerous tasks." ... "“The raids in Postville and Greenville show that 15- and 16-year-old kids are doing some of the most dangerous jobs in America,” says Reid Maki of the National Consumers League. “ … It's time for the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate slaughterhouses and poultry plants.”" ... "A study of 16- and 17-year-old construction workers in North Carolina, published in 2006, found that more than 80 percent did tasks that were clearly prohibited. A national survey of young retail and service workers, published in 2007, found that more than half of males and more than 40 percent of females performed prohibited tasks." ... "Runyan, who co-authored both studies, says much of the blame lies with employers." ... "“I suspect there are employers who flagrantly disregard the law,” she said. “And I suspect there are others who are clueless.”" ... "Total federal penalties for child labor violations dropped 29 percent from 2000 to 2007." -By Ames Alexander and Franco Ordonez -Observer 
Barack
Obama -  Madelyn
Lee Payne Dunham - Grandmother
-  Hawaii
- NC
- 2008
Election - Politics
"Obama's grandmother dies a day before election." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama's grandmother, whose personality and bearing shaped much of the life of the Democratic presidential contender, has died, Obama announced Monday, one day before the election. Madelyn Payne Dunham was 86." ... "Obama announced the news from the campaign trail in Charlotte, N.C. [North Carolina.] The joint statement with his sister Maya Soetoro-Ng said Dunham died peacefully late Sunday night after a battle with cancer." ... "They said: "She was the cornerstone of our family, and a woman of extraordinary accomplishment, strength, and humility. She was the person who encouraged and allowed us to take chances."" ... "Last month, Obama took a break from campaigning and flew to Hawaii to be with Dunham as her health declined." ... "Stanley Dunham [Obama's grandfather] died in 1992, while Obama's mother died in 1995. His father is also deceased." ... "When Obama was young, he and his grandmother toured the United States by Greyhound bus, stopping at the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park, Disneyland and Chicago [Illinois], where Obama would years later settle. " -By Herbert A. Sample with contributions by Nedra Pickler -AP via -Yahoo 
Barack
Obama - 2008
Election - Federal
-  Law
- Politics
- Investigation
-  Colorado
-  Indiana
-  Ohio
- Michigan
-  Nevada
- North
Carolina -  New
Hampshire -  Wisconsin
"Obama Campaign: Count Every Vote." ... "Republicans have been raising a huge stink about voter fraud in recent days, but the much bigger question on Election Day [2008] is whether every vote (or at least most of them) will actually be counted." ... "The New York Times published a shocking story last week, reporting that "tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law."" ... "The article continued: "Although much attention this year has been focused on the millions of new voters being added to the rolls by the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama, there has been far less notice given to the number of voters being dropped from those same rolls." The paper looked at six swing states: Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. "Michigan and Colorado are removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of a federal election, which is not allowed except when voters die, notify the authorities that they have moved out of state, or have been declared unfit to vote. Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio seem to be improperly using Social Security data to verify registration applications for new voters."" ... "The net effect: in Michigan 33,000 voters were removed from the rolls in August and in Colorado 37,000 voters were purged in three weeks since mid-July. Imagine this scenario--on Election Day thousands of voters will show up to the polls, only to be told they're not registered, leading to chaos and confusion, perhaps in large enough numbers to swing the results in crucial swing states." ... "It's a scary thought--and one the [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama campaign says they're preparing for. On a conference call today, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe and legal counsel Bob Bauer laid out their plans to ensure that every vote is counted." ... ""This has been an election of enormous interest to the American people and we think that's something that should be celebrated," Plouffe said. "Our opponents seem to have a different view."" ... "Obama counsel Bob Bauer pointed to examples in Montana, where Republicans have used change-of-address forms to improperly challenge new Democratic registrants (a federal judge called the GOP's tactics "political chicanery"); in Ohio, where Republicans challenged same-day registration and absentee voting (the 6th circuit court said the claim rested on "shaky ground"); in Michigan, where Republicans tried to use foreclosure lists to purge voters; and in Wisconsin, where the Republican Attorney General is suing the state's board of elections. (And just today, a GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] operative was indicted for lying to the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] about charges that he jammed the phones of the New Hampshire Democratic Party on Election Day 2002.)" -By Ari Berman -TheNation.com
 John
Edwards -  Elizabeth
Edwards - North
Carolina - Politics
"Transcript: John Edwards Interview: Read Selections of Bob Woodruff's Interview With John Edwards." ... "The following excerpts are from an interview by ABC News' Bob Woodruff of former [North Carolina Senator] Sen. John Edwards for ABC News "Nightline" on Aug. 8, 2008." ... "JOHN EDWARDS: In 2006 2 years ago, I made a very serious mistake. A mistake that I am responsible for and no one else. In 2006 I told Elizabeth about the mistake, asked her for her forgiveness, asked God for his forgiveness. And we have kept this within our family since that time. All of my family knows about this and just to be absolutely clear, none of them are responsible for it. I am responsible for it. I alone am responsible for it. And it led to this most recent incident at the Beverly Hilton. I was at the Beverly Hilton. I was there for a very simple reason, because I was trying to keep this mistake that I had made from becoming public." ... "BOB WOODRUFF: Is this affair completely over?" ... "JOHN EDWARDS: Oh yes, it's been over for a long time." ... "WOODRUFF: I know this is a very difficult question, but were you in love with [Rielle Hunter]?" ... "EDWARDS: I'm in love with one woman. I've been in love with one woman for 31 years. She is the finest human being I have ever known. And the fact that she is with me after this having happened is a testament to the kind of woman and the kind of human being she is. There is a deep and abiding love that exists between Elizabeth and myself. It's always been there, it in my judgment has never gone away. " (1, 2, 3, 4) -ABCNEWS.com 
US_Debt
- Government
- Money
- Countrywide
Financial Corporation -  Real
Estate - North
Carolina - New
York - US
-  United
Kingdom
"Fewest Treasury Traders Since 1960 Hit Taxpayers (Update4)." ... "For the first time since 1960, when it created the network of securities firms obligated to buy and sell Treasury bonds, the U.S. government has the fewest bond traders making markets in its debt and a bigger burden for American taxpayers financing record federal deficits." ... "The number of so-called primary government securities dealers declined to 19 last month when Bank of America Corp., based in Charlotte, North Carolina, acquired the troubled Countrywide Financial Corp. The sale was the climax of dozens of bank failures, triggered by the biggest decline in residential real estate since the Great Depression and the seizing up of credit markets from New York to London [United Kingdom's capital]. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the agent of the U.S. Treasury, plans to shrink the dealers again when JPMorgan Chase & Co. completes its takeover of Bear Stearns Cos." ... "The paucity of primary dealers coincides with the largest borrowing requirement in American history and the acknowledgment by the administration of [Republican] President George W. Bush that the U.S. will finance a budget deficit totaling a record $482 billion next year. When the dealer system began 48 years ago with 18 firms, the U.S. had a $300 million surplus. The group has shrunk from a peak of 46 in 1988. " -By Sandra Hernandez -Bloomberg 
Homes
- Nevada
-  Florida
- Phoenix
-  Arizona
- Los
Angeles - San
Diego - San
Francisco - California
- Florida
- Michigan
-  Minnesota
-  Illinois
- Ohio
-  Georgia
- New
York - Seattle
-  Washington
-  Massachusetts
-Portland
-  Oregon
- Colorado
-  Texas
- North
Carolina
"Home prices down 15.8% in past year, S&P says: Seven of 20 cities tally monthly price gains in May, Case-Shiller data show." ... "Prices in 10 cities fell 16.9% in the past year." ... "Prices thus are at the same levels as they were in the summer of 2004, which means four years of appreciation have been effectively wiped out. Prices are down 18.4% from peak levels seen two years ago." ... "Here's a list of the 20 cities in the Case-Shiller index with the annual decline through May: Las Vegas [Nevada], down 28.4%; Miami [Florida], down 28.3%; Phoenix [Arizona], down 26.5%; Los Angeles [California], down 24.5%; San Diego [California], down 23.2%; San Francisco [California], down 22.9%; Tampa [Florida], down 20.2%; Detroit [Michigan], down 17.4%; Washington [DC], down 15.4%; Minneapolis [Minnesota], down 14.8%; Chicago [Illinois], down 9.4%; Cleveland [Ohio], down 8%; Atlanta [Georgia], and New York [City, New York], both down 7.9%; Seattle [Washington], down 6.3%; Boston [Massachusetts], down 6.2%; Portland [Oregon], down 5.2%; Denver [Colorado], down 4.8%; Dallas [Texas], down 3.1%; and Charlotte, N.C. [North Carolina], down 0.2%." -By Rex Nutting -MarketWatch
Blackwater
- Corporate
- Military
- Federal
- Crime
- North
Carolina
"Blackwater using cache of AK-47s: Rifles given to sheriff in deal that skirts law." ... "The private military company Blackwater [owned by Erik Prince] has found an unusual way to skirt federal laws that prohibit private parties from buying automatic weapons. Blackwater bought 17 Romanian AK-47s and 17 Bushmasters, gave ownership of the guns to the Camden County [North Carolina] sheriff and keeps most of the guns at Blackwater's armory in Moyock [North Carolina]." ... "Tiny Camden County -- population 9,271 -- is one of the most peaceful in North Carolina. In the last 10 years, there have been two murders, three robberies and seven rapes reported. The sheriff has just 19 deputies." ... "Sheriff Tony Perry said his department has never used the 17 AK-47s outside of shooting practice at Blackwater. None of his 19 deputies are qualified to use the AK-47s, Perry said, and his department's need for automatic weapons is "very minimal."" ... "In the summer of 2005, Blackwater CEO Gary Jackson signed two agreements with [Major] Maj. Jon Worthington of the Sheriff's Office. Worthington has worked as a firearms instructor for Blackwater." ... ""Blackwater has financed the purchase of 17 Romanian AK-47 rifles for the Camden County Sheriff's Office for use by Sheriff's Office," the agreement says. "The Camden County Sheriff's Office will have unlimited access to these rifles for training and qualification, and state of emergency use." Worthington and Jackson also signed an agreement for the purchase of 17 Bushmaster XM15 E2S automatic rifles." ... "Why did Blackwater strike this deal with the Camden County sheriff?" ... ""Because they needed guns, I imagine," Jackson said." ... "Under federal law, it is illegal for a person to receive or possess an automatic weapon that is not registered to that person in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record." -By Joseph Neff -NewsObserver.com 
Barack
Obama -  John
McCain -  Hillary
Clinton - 2008
Election - North
Carolina -  Missouri
- Montana
-  Virginia
- Illinois
- Arizona
- New
York - Economy
-  History
-  Gasoline
- Unemployment
"Obama Maps a Nationwide Push in G.O.P. Strongholds." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois] Senator Barack Obama’s general election plan calls for broadening the electoral map by challenging [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona] Senator John McCain in typically Republican states — from North Carolina to Missouri to Montana — as Mr. Obama seeks to take advantage of voter turnout operations built in nearly 50 states in the long Democratic nomination battle, aides said." ... "On Monday, Mr. Obama will travel to North Carolina — a state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 32 years — to start a two-week tour of speeches, town hall forums and other appearances intended to highlight differences with Mr. McCain on the economy. From there, he heads to Missouri, which last voted for a Democrat in 1996. His first campaign swing after securing the Democratic presidential nomination last week was to Virginia, which last voted Democratic in 1964." ... "With [New York] Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton now having formally bowed out of the race and thrown her backing to him, Mr. Obama wants to define the faltering economy as the paramount issue facing the country, a task probably made easier by ever-rising gasoline prices and the sharp rise in unemployment the government reported on Friday." (1, 2) -By Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny with contributions by Jim Rutenberg -NYTimes
[NYTimes photo]  WATCH
full video: "John Edwards Endorses Barack Obama."
|
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John
Edwards
- Consumer
- Marketplace
- Politics
- Government- Law
- 2008
Election - North
Carolina - South
Carolina - "Health
Care Up to Public, Edwards Says." ... "[2008 Election
Democratic Presidential Candidate and North Carolina's] Former Senator
John Edwards does not discount the possibility that his health care proposal,
which would allow Americans to buy new government insurance packages modeled
on Medicare, could evolve into a federalized system like those in Canada
and many European countries. And if it does, Mr. Edwards said he would
be just fine with that." ... "But Mr. Edwards, of North Carolina, emphasized
in a 40-minute interview on health policy that the choice would be made
not in Washington, but by consumers in an open marketplace where private
insurance competes with government plans." ... "“American health consumers
will decide which works best,” Mr. Edwards said Wednesday afternoon while
traveling through South Carolina on his campaign bus. “It could continue
to be divided. But it could go in one direction or the other, and one of
the directions is obviously government or single-payer. And I’m not opposed
to that.”" ... "If the government is able to undercut private insurers
on price — by forgoing profit, reducing overhead, and maximizing economies
of scale — it theoretically could put the private system out of business
and become the de facto insurer for the nation." ... "Republican candidates
and policy strategists have raised the specter of “socialized medicine”
and depicted the Democratic plans as a back-door route to a so-called single-payer
government system." ... "Mr. Edwards brushed off that critique. “There
is nothing back-door about it,” he said. “It’s right through the front
door. We’re going to let America decide what health care system works for
them.”" (1, 2)
-By Kevin
Sack -NYTimes
John
Edwards
- 
Entertainment
- 
TV
- Politics
- 2008
Election - North
Carolina - "John
Edwards, Funny Guy." ... "Former Senator [of North
Carolina and 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards
did not receive an endorsement from David Letterman on CBS’s “The
Late Show” Tuesday night, but he did receive eight valuable minutes
to woo voters." ... "Mr. Edwards’ jokes earned several rounds of applause
from an approving audience." ... "Mr. Letterman, who had a long feud and
subsequent truce with Ms. [Oprah] Winfrey, extolled the talk show’s virtues,
saying: “She’s admired and she’s beloved and she’s a role model for men
and women all over the world now.” With the timing of a stand-up comedian,
Mr. Edwards interrupted: “You think you’re not?”" ... "The line gave Mr.
Letterman an uproarious laugh and a nod of approval. “Oh my God,” the host
said, “he’s a funny guy, isn’t he?”" -By Brian
Stelter -NYTimes
John
Edwards
- Barack
Obama
- Hillary
Clinton
- 
Radio
- Ad
- Nevada
- Illinois
- Iowa
- North
Carolina - "Edwards
hits Obama on independent ads." ... "[2008 Election
Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards said Friday that [2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama needs to “speak
up, if he really means what he says” about ending divisive politics and
denounce a Nevada ad funded by an independent group that supports the Illinois
senator’s presidential bid." ... ""Everyone pledged that this kind of divisive
politics that divides the Democratic Party, and could divide America, would
come to an end. [Senator] Sen. Obama made that pledge, I was sitting five
feet from him when he made it," Edwards told the crowd at a Nevada campaign
event." ... "“And now it turns out that in the last 24 hours there's a
radio ad, a malicious radio ad, attacking [Senator] Sen. Clinton. That
is exactly the kind of divisive politics. It's being run right here, in
Las Vegas [Nevada]. I denounce it. This kind of ad, I don't care who's
doing it — in this case it's [Senator] Sen. Obama's supporters — but this
sort of thing needs to stop.["]" ... "“And from what I've seen, [Senator]
Sen. Obama has not said a single word about this. Nothing. When two days
ago, three days ago, he said on a stage in front of America and said, 'This
kind of politics has no place in America,’” said Edwards." ... "“He should
speak up, if he really means what he says, and this is not just talk, he
should speak up and denounce this type of divisive politics.”" ... "John
Edwards was criticized by Obama in Iowa for not calling an independent
group that supported the former North Carolina senator to demand they pull
ads they were running in support of his candidacy." -By
Rebecca Sinderbrand -CNN
Hillary
Clinton
- John
Edwards
- Barack
Obama
- Race
- Language
- Radio
- Ads
- Nevada
- Union
- Money
- 2008
Election - Iowa
- North
Carolina - "Clinton,
Edwards campaigns blast radio ads backing Obama."
... "The campaigns of [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidates]
Hillary Clinton and John Edwards took aim at [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama Thursday over radio ads in Nevada
funded by a third-party group that is backing his candidacy." ... "The
buy is allegedly being funded by the Unite Here Campaign Committee on behalf
of the Culinary Workers Union, which has endorsed Obama." ... "On a conference
call with reporters late this afternoon, Hispanic supporters of Clinton’s
presidential candidacy criticized the union for incorrectly implying that
“Si Se Puede” – a slogan associated with the late activist Cesar Chavez
– was also the Obama campaign’s official slogan." ... "John Edwards was
criticized by Obama in Iowa for not calling an independent group that supported
the former North Carolina senator to demand they pull ads they were running
in support of his candidacy. “When Sen. Obama says ‘turn the page,’ he
obviously means turn to whatever page is most convenient. He loudly and
repeatedly attacked independent ads by unions in Iowa as the product of
special interests,” said Edwards Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince."
... "“But when a different outside group starts running ads on his behalf
in Nevada, there's not a peep from him or his campaign. It must be because
he's burning up the phone lines calling the head of Unite Here personally
to demand he pulls the ads down right away.”" -By
Rebecca Sinderbrand -CNN
John
Edwards
- 
Environmental
- Law
- South
Carolina - Coal-Plant
- Corporation
- US
- Global
- 
Climate
- North
Carolina - 2008
Election - "Edwards
Calls for Ban on Coal Plants." ... "[2008 Election]
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Monday said a proposed
coal-fired power plant shouldn't be built in northeastern South Carolina,
continuing his call for a ban on those facilities." ... ""My view is that
needs to stop," Edwards said of the $1 billion, 600-megawatt plant set
to be built along the Pee Dee River in this early voting state. Santee
Cooper officials are awaiting a final permit from state environmental regulators."
... "Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, told about 150 people at
a campus of Coastal Carolina University that coal-fired plants are "taking
a bad situation and making it worse."" ... "He also said he was opposed
to new nuclear power plants and that the U.S. has no credibility in global
warming discussions. "We are the worst polluter on the planet," Edwards
said." ... ""We have to have a president willing to stand up to the oil
and gas industry," Edwards said." -By Page Ivey
-AP via -Forbes
Corporate
Money - Politics
- Ads
- 2008
Election - 2004
Election - Workers
- Homes
- John
Edwards
- Hillary
Clinton
- Barack
Obama
- 
Mike
Huckabee - North
Carolina - New
York
- Illinois
- 
Arkansas
- Iowa
- US
- Consumer
- Litigation
- Globalization
- "Chamber
of Commerce vows to punish anti-business candidates:
The group indicates it will spend in excess of the approximately $60 million
it put out in the last [2004 Election] presidential cycle." ... "Alarmed
at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 [Election] political campaign,
the president of the U.S. [United States] Chamber of Commerce is set to
issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates
deemed to be anti-business." ... ""We plan to build a grass-roots business
organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,"
chamber President Tom Donohue said." ... "The warning from the nation's
largest trade association came against a background of mounting popular
concern over the condition of the economy. A weak record of job creation,
the sub-prime mortgage crisis, declining home values and other problems
have all helped make the economy a major campaign issue." ... "Presidential
candidates in particular have responded to the public concern. Former [2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Senator] Sen. John Edwards
of North Carolina has been the bluntest populist voice, but other front-running
Democrats, including [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and
Senator] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate and Senator] Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, have
also called for change on behalf of middle-class voters." ... "On the Republican
side, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and] former Arkansas
Gov. [Governor] Mike Huckabee -- emerging as an unexpected front-runner
after winning the Iowa caucuses -- has used populist themes in his effort
to woo independent voters, blasting bonus pay for corporate chief executives
and the effect of unfettered globalization on workers." ... "Reacting to
what it sees as a potentially hostile political climate, Donohue said,
the chamber will seek to punish candidates who target business interests
with their rhetoric or policy proposals, including congressional and state-level
candidates." ... "In advance of today's news conference, Donohue told The
Times of his plans to be active in 140 congressional districts this year,
as well as the presidential contest." ... "At the state level, Donohue
said his organization would be active in nearly four dozen contests for
attorney general and state supreme courts. Both state courts and attorneys
general are involved in decisions affecting business, including consumer
protection and a wide range of litigation." ... "Under Donohue, the organization
has also frequently aligned itself with GOP [Grand Old Party=Republican]
priorities." ... "Under a system Donohue pioneered, corporations contribute
money to the chamber, which then finances attack ads targeting individual
candidates without revealing the name of the businesses involved in the
ads." -By Tom Hamburger
-LAtimes
John
Edwards
- New
Hampshire - Iowa
- North
Carolina - California
- Teenager
- 
Health
- Company
- 
Drug
- 
Christmas
- Working
- People
- 2008
Election - "Underdog
Edwards says he won't give up the fight for the White House."
... "The former senator from North Carolina [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate John Edwards] sought to bring added emotional wallop to his message
before Tuesday's primary by campaigning with the family of a Northridge
[California] teenager who died after her insurance company delayed approval
for a liver transplant." ... "The newest participants in the Edwards campaign
were the Sarkisyans of the San Fernando Valley [California], whose 17-year-old
daughter, Nataline, died just before Christmas of complications from leukemia.
After much debate, the family's insurance company had approved a liver
transplant, but she died hours later." ... ""When I talk about what insurance
companies and drug companies are doing to America, this is what I mean,"
Edwards said to a crowd of about 500 in Manchester [New Hampshire], where
some were moved to tears by the family's story. "This has real effects
on real people's lives."" ... "Grigor Sarkisyan told the audience how he
had promised to buy his daughter a white car after she got out of the hospital,
but had to buy a white coffin instead. He said he thought he had done everything
he was supposed to as a father: working hard, supporting his family and
buying health insurance he thought would take care of them if they got
sick." ... "His wife, Hilda Sarkisyan, had heard Edwards' speech Thursday
after his second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and called the candidate's
campaign. The family arrived in New Hampshire on Sunday morning." ... "The
couple urged voters to support Edwards, saying he is the lone candidate
who will fight for Americans against such powerful interests as insurance
companies." ... ""They cannot tell us who's going to live and who's going
to die," Hilda Sarkisyan said." -By Seema Mehta and
James Rainey -LAtimes
John
Edwards
- Hillary
Clinton
- Barack
Obama - Health-Care
- New
Hampshire - Iowa
- North
Carolina - New
York- 2008
Election - "Edwards
rebukes Clinton in Democratic debate." ... "[2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Democrat Hillary Clinton, attempting
to slow [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama's
surging campaign, went on the attack on Saturday and drew a sharp rebuke
from [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards for
defending the status quo." ... "In a combative debate three days before
a too-close-to-call New Hampshire primary, Clinton questioned Obama's health-care
plan and cast doubt on his ability to deliver on his calls for change in
Washington." ... "Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, upbraided the
New York senator for criticizing Obama and noted her third-place finish
in Iowa on Thursday, when Obama captured the first big prize of the presidential
campaign and Edwards finished second." ... ""I didn't hear these kinds
of attacks from Senator Clinton when she was ahead," Edwards said. "Every
time he speaks out for change, every time I fight for change, the forces
of status quo are going to attack -- every single time."" ... "Clinton
criticized Obama for shifting in recent years from supporting a single-payer,
government-run health-care plan to one that does not mandate insurance
coverage for all Americans." (1, 2,
3)
-By John Whitesides with contributions by Peter Cooney
-Reuters
John
Edwards
- Barack
Obama
- Corporate
- Drug
- Legislation
- Iowa
- North
Carolina - Illinois
- 2008
Election - Health-Care
- "Edwards
Campaign Asserts Obama Once A Sellout To Corporate Interests."
... "Roughly twelve hours after a second-place finish in the Iowa caucus,
[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and former North Carolina
Senator] Sen. John Edwards' campaign went on the attack against the winner,
[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator]
Sen. Barack Obama, asserting that the Illinois Democrat was once a sellout
to corporate interests." ... "In an appearance on MSNBC, David Bonior,
Edwards' campaign manager, ripped into Obama's record on health care from
the time when he served in the Illinois State Senate." ... ""Barack Obama's
kind of change is where you sit down and you cut a deal with the corporate
world," Bonior said. "If you look at his record in Illinois when he had
a major -- sponsored a major health bill that's what he did. He watered
down with the help of the corporate lobbyist and they got a weak product
out of that."" ... "MSNBC host Joe Scarborough interjected: "Are you saying
that Barack Obama is a sellout to corporate interests?"" ... "Bonior responded,
"He was four years ago in Illinois. All you have to do is look at the legislation
I'm referring to."" ... "The Obama campaign was quick to respond, defending
their candidate's credentials both on health care policy and his ability
to stand up to lobbyists. " ... "But as the
Boston Globe reported on September 23, 2007, in the process of crafting
the legislation, Obama consulted with "insurers and their lobbyists" and
amended the bill "more to their liking."" ... ""The wrangling over the
healthcare measure, which narrowly passed and became law in 2004, illustrates
how Obama, during his eight years in the Illinois Senate, was able to shepherd
major legislation by negotiating competing interests in Springfield, the
state capital," the Globe reported. "But it also shows how Obama's own
experience in lawmaking involved dealings with the kinds of lobbyists and
special interests he now demonizes on the campaign trail."" ... "On the
campaign trail Edwards has railed against the disproportionate influence
corporations and lobbyists have had on the formulation of health care policy.
In a
recent television ad, he blamed the lack of universal health care in
the United States on "drug companies, insurance companies and their lobbyists
in Washington, D.C." " -By Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
Hillary
Clinton
- Barack
Obama
- John
Edwards
- Iowa
- New
York
- Illinois
- North
Carolina - 2008
Election - Opinion
- History
- 
Accounting
- "The
Tyranny of Super-Delegates." ... "And now that Iowans
have spoken – the first citizens in the nation to do so – here's the Democratic
delegate count for the top three candidates (2,025 delegates are needed
to secure the nomination):" ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate Hillary] Clinton – 169" ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate Barack] Obama – 66" ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate John] Edwards – 47" ... ""Huh?" you say. "vanden Heuvel, you
made a MAJOR typo."" ... "In fact, those
numbers are correct: the third-place finishing [New York Senator] Sen.
Hillary Clinton now has over twice as many delegates as [IllinoisSenator]
Sen. Obama, and more than three times as many delegates as the second-place
candidate, [North Carolina Senator] Sen. John Edwards. Why? Because the
Democratic Party uses an antiquated and anti-democratic nominating system
that includes 842 "super-delegates" – un-pledged party leaders not chosen
by the voters, free to support the candidate of their choice, and who comprise
more than forty percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination.
Many have already announced the candidate they will support." ... "In a
clear attempt to protect the party establishment, this undemocratic infrastructure
was created following George McGovern's landslide defeat in 1972." -By
Katrina vanden Heuvel -TheNation.com
John
Edwards
- Barack
Obama
- New
Hampshire - Iowa
- North
Carolina - Illinois
- Money
- 2008
Election - Jobs
- "Edwards
Vows to Fight on in NH." ... "[2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate] John Edwards tried to put the best face on a disappointing
loss in the Iowa Democratic caucus, but vowed a vigorous campaign against
winner Barack Obama in New Hampshire." ... "``The status quo lost and change
won,'' Edwards told a crowded ballroom of supporters. He said he would
go to New Hampshire, which votes Tuesday, ``to determine who's best suited
to bring about the change this country so desperately needs.''" ... "The
former North Carolina senator made clear that he will portray himself as
more willing than [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and
Illinois Senator] Sen. Obama of Illinois to battle the ``corporate greed''
that Edwards has condemned repeatedly." ... "``Corporate greed has got
a stranglehold on America,'' he said. The nation needs a president like
Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman ``who will stand
up to these people,'' he said." ... "In an interview with The Associated
Press, Edwards said, ``we were grotesquely outspent in Iowa, five-to-one,
and the fact that I'm as strong as I am now under these circumstances indicates
that this message of change and standing up'' and ``fighting for the middle
class and jobs really matters.''" ... "``I'm going to fight for that change,''
he said by telephone from his hotel room. ``I've fought for it my entire
life. I have a long history of fighting powerful interests and winning.''"
-By Charles Babington
-AP via -Guardian.co.uk
John
Edwards
- Iowa
- Families
- Jobs
- Money
- Attorney
General - North
Carolina
- 2008
Election - "Edwards
the orator energizes audience." ... "Dayton Countryman
said he's been around long enough to know what it means when a supposedly
underdog presidential candidate can pack more than 500 folks into a social
hall in this town [Boone, Iowa] of 12,000 people." ... ""This ought to
scare the hell out of the other campaigns," Countryman said Sunday as he
watched more and more people come in from the cold to hear [2008 Election
Democratic Presidential Candidate] Democrat John Edwards speak." ... "The
89-year-old lawyer is a former Iowa attorney general who recently became
a Democrat after more than 50 years as a Republican. He said he's fed up
with what's going on in Washington, D.C., and he'll caucus for Edwards
because he believes the former North Carolina senator will stand up." ...
"Edwards has been drawing increasingly large and energetic crowds in recent
weeks as he presses his case that America needs a fighter in the White
House. His audiences are filled mainly with people who are middle age or
older, and he's banking that such Iowans have been most likely to show
up in caucuses." ... ""The corporate greed that's stealing your children's
future, that's destroying middle-class jobs in this country, it's not just
destroying the middle class for Democrats. It's destroying the middle class
for independents. It's destroying the middle class for Republicans," Edwards
said." -By Tony Leys -DesMoinesRegister
John
Edwards
- Iowa
- North
Carolina - Barack
Obama
- Hillary
Clinton
- Corporate
- Government
- Illinois
- New
York
- 2008
Election - "Edwards
in Iowa's Spotlight as Finish Line Nears." ... "With
the sounds of the Bruce Springsteen song "America Rising" as a backdrop,
former North Carolina [Senator and 2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate] Sen. John Edwards walked into the [Iowa's] Sioux City Convention
Center and stood before hundreds of people to deliver his closing argument."
... ""Thank you for coming. There's an incredible energy and momentum behind
this campaign. We can feel it everywhere we go, everywhere," he said."
... ""My job as president is to work with the Congress to unify America,"
Edwards told the crowd. "I will do that as president of the United States,
but we have a huge battle with these entrenched moneyed interests. Those
people have a stranglehold on your democracy, an iron-fisted hold on your
democracy. Nothing will change until we break that hold."" ... "Edwards
compares himself on the stump to former presidents such as [Republican
President] Teddy Roosevelt, who fought the big trusts, or [Democratic President]
Franklin Roosevelt, who faced down corporate bullies." ... "Edwards has
also stopped playing Mr. Nice Guy, as he did four years ago. He recently
took a thinly veiled swipe at Democratic rivals Illinois [Senator and 2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Sen. Barack Obama and New York
[Senator and 2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Sen. Hillary
Clinton." ... ""We have very good presidential candidates. I know them
and I respect them," he said, but admonished that "the first time the tough
fight comes, they will do the political thing. You can take that to the
bank."" -By David Welna-NPR
Bill
Richardson
- John
Edwards
- Iowa
- Energy
- 
- 
New
Mexico - North
Carolina - 2008
Election - "Iowa
caucus can elevate second choice." ... "Bill Grove
is a [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Bill Richardson
man. He thinks the New Mexico governor, with his background as a United
Nations ambassador and secretary of the U.S. [United States] Department
of Energy, is well seasoned for the White House." ... "But Grove has a
backup plan." ... "If Richardson fails to qualify under Iowa's complicated
system of counting Democratic caucus votes, Grove says he will switch his
vote to former North Carolina Sen. [Senator and 2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate] John Edwards." ... "Second choices usually don't
fare well in politics. In Iowa, though, being second could be critical
to success." ... "When Iowa Democrats caucus on Jan. 3, candidates who
receive less than 15 percent of the vote are considered nonviable. Their
backers have the choice of either going home or casting their ballots for
their second choice." ... "Grove picked Edwards as his second choice because
he likes Edwards' emphasis on helping restore rural America and his populist
message about the declining middle class." ... ""I like his fighting spirit,"
he said." ... ""His message really resonates with you. I just personally
like him."" -By Rob Christensen
-McClatchy via
-KansasCity.com
John
Edwards
- Working
- Family
- 
College-Education
- Money
- Race
- Des-Moines
- Iowa
- NC
- Barack
Obama
- Hillary
Clinton
- 2008
Election - "The
Road Warrior: Even if he loses in Iowa's bigger cities,
[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John] Edwards can still
win by wrapping up smaller, far-flung precincts." ... "For months, Edwards
has been rounding up support in the state's rural precincts where the front
runners have paid less attention. While [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate Barack] Obama and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate
Hillary] Clinton have drawn crowds in the thousands in places like Des
Moines [Iowa] and Ames [Iowa], Edwards has been winning over people in
tiny towns like Sac City [Iowa] (population: 2,189). That's important,
the strategists say, because under Iowa's arcane caucus rules, a precinct
where 25 people show up to vote gets the same number of delegates as a
place that packs in 2,500. In other words, even if he loses to Obama and
Clinton in the state's bigger cities, he can still win by wrapping up smaller,
far-flung precincts that other candidates have ignored. "The bulk of our
support is in small and medium counties," says Jennifer O'Malley, Edwards's
Iowa state director. O'Malley says Edwards has visited all 99 counties
in the state; the campaign has so far trained captains covering 90 percent
of all 1,781 precincts. Rural voters are sometimes reluctant to caucus,
so the campaign has been enlisting respected community leaders to encourage
first-timers to get past their apathy or fear." ... "This could be wishful
thinking from an ailing campaign. But it's worth keeping in mind just how
wrong the media echo chamber can be when it comes to predicting winners
and losers. At about this time four years ago, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean
was the press-anointed darling who could seemingly do no wrong in Iowa.
Dour John Kerry was scorned by reporters as the should-have-been who had
blown it and couldn't possibly win. But on caucus night, Kerry wound up
the victor—and Dean wound up screaming. Reporters were left to wonder what
they had missed. One story the talking heads may be missing this time:
just how badly John Edwards hates to lose." ... "The desire to get ahead—to
win—is no small thing for Edwards. He was raised in the depressed town
of Robbins, N.C. [North Carolina], where his father, Wallace, worked in
a now long-gone textile mill. It's a biographical detail the candidate
mentions so often in speeches and campaign ads that it can sometimes border
on self-parody. Yet his father's story is what Edwards's campaign, and
political career, is all about. His dad worked his way up in the mill and
was promoted to supervisor. But without a college degree, there was only
so far he could rise. "He heard his mother and I talk about it at the dinner
table, so he knew what I was faced with," his father tells NEWSWEEK. Money
was scarce. Wallace was determined that John and his younger brother and
sister, Wesley Blake and Kathy, would attend college. He set an example
of self-improvement. He took classes offered by the mill, and tuned in
to the education channel on TV early each morning when the station aired
lessons in statistics and probability." ... "Tall and good-looking—and
he knew it—John Edwards was a popular student and a star football player,
skinny but fast. His high-school friend John Mashburn remembers Edwards
as a leader. "In a little redneck town, he was different," he says. There
was still racial tension in Robbins in the early 1970s, and black students
were sometimes mistreated. In protest, several of them once held a sit-in.
Edwards persuaded his white friends to join in. "Johnny got a lot of the
athletes, myself, our girlfriends … he was instrumental in encouraging
us," Mashburn says. John Frye, another high-school friend, says it was
a gutsy thing to do. He "stuck his neck out," Frye recalls. "There was
a price to pay in how some folks treated him after that. We had people
who didn't embrace desegregation even though it had been a bridge crossed
years earlier."" (1, 2,
3,
4,
5)
-By Arian Campo-Flores and Suzanne Smalley Dec
24, 2007 Issue -Newsweek
John
Edwards
- Barack
Obama
- Hillary
Clinton
- North
Carolina - Illinois
- New
York
- 2008
Election - Government
- Oil
- Drug- Companies
- Health-Care
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Iowa
- Fields
- "Edwards
cuts sharper edge in Iowa trail speeches." ... ""The
few, the powerful, the well-financed, they now control the government,"
[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John Edwards told a tight
crowd of about 350 last week. "They've taken over your democracy. And it
affects everything that happens in this country."" ... ""Everything," he
emphasized." ... "During an 18-minute span, the former North Carolina senator
took aim and fired freely at insurance, oil and drug companies and failed
chief executives rewarded with golden parachutes. He described the Republican
field as [Republican President] "George Bush on steroids" and said his
Democratic competitors are talkers, not fighters." ... "In what has often
been portrayed as a two-Democrat battle between [2008 Election Democratic
Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois
and [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and New York Senator]
Hillary Clinton of New York the populist Edwards is making an eight-day
blitz across the frozen fields of Iowa, a sort of red-meat express to convince
the middle class that he is the one who will wrest the country from the
clutches of "corporate power and greed."" ... ""I know some people suggest
we'll be able to sit at the table with drug companies and oil companies
and think they can get their power away. Right," Edwards said dismissively,
indirectly referring to the approaches he says Obama and Clinton would
take." ... ""I'll tell you when they'll [corporations] lose their power:
when we take it away from them," he told a cheering crowd at the [Iowa]
Grinnell Eagles Club." ... ""There's been a change in America. We have
greater concentration of wealth and power in a few. We have an increasingly
dysfunctional health-care system. We have this war in Iraq that has gotten
much worse," he said. "I think we need a president who's willing to be
tough and to go after these things."" -By Tim Jones
-ChicagoTribune
John
Edwards
- 
Online
- Finance
- Law
- Politics
- History
- North
Carolina - 2008
Election - "FEC
Rules Against Online Fundraiser ActBlue and John Edwards."
... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and] Former North
Carolina senator John Edwards can't match up the more than $4 million he's
raised from thousands of individuals through an innovative online raising
hub because of an outdated 1971 campaign finance law." ... "The Federal
Election Commission [FEC] on Friday decided that the more than $4.2 million
raised for the Democratic presidential candidate by ActBlue
doesn't conform to what's defined as individual contributions under federal
regulations, and thus can't be eligible for matching funds under the public
financing system that the candidate opted for earlier this year." ... ""A
matchable contribution consists of 'a gift of money made by a written instrument
which identifies the person making the contribution by full name and mailing
address,'" wrote FEC attorneys in an opinion that the commission approved
Friday afternoon. "The Matching Payment Act specifically excludes from
the definition of matchable contribution 'funds received by a political
committee which are transferred to that committee from another committee.'""
... "ActBlue is registered as a political action committee." ... "The problem
is that the money that ActBlue sent along to John Edwards was sent as a
weekly agglomerated check rather than funneled along marked from individuals."
-By Sarah Lai Stirland
-Wired
John
Edwards
- John
McCain
- Barack
Obama
- Hillary
Clinton
- 
Rudy
Giuliani
- 
Mitt
Romney
- Mike
Huckabee - Arizona
- Massachusetts
- North
Carolina - 2008
Election - Poll
- "Poll:
Huckabee would lose to top Democrats by double digits."
... "While [2008 Election Republican] presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee
is surging in new polls of GOP candidates, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp.
poll released Tuesday shows he would lose to all three leading Democratic
candidates by double digits in hypothetical contests." ... "The poll also
shows that [2008 Election] Republican [Presidential Candidate and Arizona
Senator] Sen. John McCain of Arizona would do best against leading Democrats.
He beats [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary] Clinton
by 2 percentage points (50 percent to 48 percent), ties [2008 Election
Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama (48 percent to 48 percent)
and loses to [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate John] Edwards
by a smaller margin (8 points) than the other Republican candidates do."
... "In addition to Huckabee, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
Rudy] Giuliani and former Massachusetts [Governor, 2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] Gov. Mitt Romney lose to all three top Democrats
in the survey." ... "On the Democratic side, Edwards performs best against
each of the leading Republicans. In addition to beating Huckabee by 25
percent and McCain by 8 percent, the North Carolina Democrat beats Romney
by 22 percentage points (59 percent to 37 percent) and Giuliani by 9 percentage
points (53 percent to 44 percent)." ... ""Edwards is the only Democrat
who beats all four Republicans, and McCain is the only Republican who beats
any of the three Democrats," [CNN's polling director, Keating] Holland
said." -By Alexander Mooney
-CNN
US
- Iraq
- Blackwater
- Corporate
- Military
- Politics
- Steroids
- North
Carolina - "Witnesses
testify in Blackwater lawsuit." ... "A federal grand
jury investigating Blackwater Worldwide heard witnesses Tuesday as a private
lawsuit accused the government contractor's bodyguards of ignoring orders
and abandoning their posts shortly before taking part in a Baghdad [Iraq's
capital] shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead." ... "Filed this week
in U.S. District Court in Washington, the civil complaint also accuses
North Carolina-based Blackwater of failing to give drug tests to its guards
in Baghdad — even though an estimated one in four of them was using steroids
or other "judgment altering substances."" ... "Before the shootings in
Baghdad last September, the three teams of an estimated dozen Blackwater
bodyguards had already dropped off the State Department official they were
tasked with protecting when they headed to Nisoor Square, according to
the lawsuit filed by lawyers working with the Center for Constitutional
Rights." ... "Blackwater and State Department personnel staffing a tactical
operations center "expressly directed the Blackwater shooters to stay with
the official and refrain from leaving the secure area," the complaint says.
"Reasonable discovery will establish that the Blackwater shooters ignored
those directives."" ... "Additionally, the lawsuit notes: "One of Blackwater's
own shooters tried to stop his colleagues from indiscriminately firing
upon the crowd of innocent civilians but he was unsuccessful in his efforts.""
-By Lara Jakes Jordan with contributions by Matthew
Lee and Matt Apuzzo -AP
via -Yahoo
Michael
B Mukasey
- US
- Iraq
- Blackwater
- Business
- Military
- Law
- Politics
- North
Carolina - "F.B.I.
Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause." ...
"Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater
security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at
least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules
in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military
officials briefed on the case." ... "The F.B.I. investigation into the
shootings in Baghdad [Iraq's capital] is still under way, but the findings,
which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force,
are already under review by the Justice Department." ... "Prosecutors have
yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed
pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any
Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice
Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter." ... "The case
could be one of the first thorny issues to be decided by Michael B. Mukasey,
who was sworn in as attorney general last week. He may be faced with a
decision to turn down a prosecution on legal grounds at a time when a furor
has erupted in Congress about the administration’s failure to hold security
contractors accountable for their misdeeds." ... "Representative David
E. Price, a North Carolina Democrat who has sponsored legislation to extend
American criminal law to contractors serving overseas, said the Justice
Department must hold someone accountable for the shootings." ... "“Just
because there are deficiencies in the law, and there certainly are,” Mr.
Price said, “that can’t serve as an excuse for criminal actions like this
to be unpunished. I hope the new attorney general makes this case a top
priority. He needs to announce to the American people and the world that
we uphold the rule of law and we intend to pursue this.”" (1, 2)
-By David Johnston and John M. Broder with contributions
by Paul von Zielbauer -NYTimes
John
Edwards
- US
- Iraq
- 
Afghanistan
- Military
- Counseling
- Money
- Politics
- New
Hampshire - North
Carolina - 2008
Election - "Edwards
unveils plan for vets with PTSD." ... "[2008 Election
Democratic] Presidential contender John Edwards is introducing a $400 million
plan Monday to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, including
those recently returned from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan." ... "Under
Edwards' plan, veterans could seek counseling for post-traumatic stress
disorder outside the Veterans Health Administration system; the number
of counselors would increase; and family members would be employed to identify
cases of PTSD." ... "Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, was scheduled
to introduce the five-point plan during a speech at New Hampshire's Plymouth
State University." ... ""I strongly believe we must restore the sacred
contract we have with our veterans and their families, and that we must
begin by reforming our system for treating PTSD. We also must act to remove
the stigma from this disorder," Edwards said in prepared remarks his campaign
provided to The Associated Press. "Warriors should never be ashamed to
deal with the personal consequences of war."" -By
Philip Elliott -AP
via -Yahoo
Edwards
- Obama
- Hillary
- Giuliani
- Military
- Money
- Terrorism
- Safety
- Des-Moines
- Iowa
- North
Carolina - Illinois
- 2008
Election - "Edwards
Picked Over Obama as 'The Un-Hillary': Former North
Carolina Senator Nabs Coveted Iowa Endorsement." ... "Caucus4Priorities,
a group seeking to redirect spending from the Pentagon to domestic needs,
plans to endorse [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John
Edwards Friday in Des Moines [Iowa]." ... "The decision to endorse Edwards
over Illinois [Senator and 2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate] Sen. Barack Obama came down to "courage versus caution," according
to the group's executive director." ... "He impressed the group on Oct.
26 when he demonstrated during an Iowa town-hall meeting that he would
not back down in the face of Republican attacks. The day before, during
an interview with a conservative talk-show host, [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate Rudolph] Giuliani said that Democratic support for
lower Pentagon spending showed a lack of concern for what Giuliani calls
"the terrorists' war on us."" ... ""Edwards gave an excellent answer,"
said Huppert. "He said we have to stop buying into their frame which equates
spending money on the Pentagon with keeping us safe. He also said we can't
have a Democratic candidate who cowers and runs away from this issue.""
... ""For whatever reason," she said, "John Edwards has decided he is going
to take this on and he has staked out the position quite convincingly of
being the un-Hillary."" (1, 2)
-By Teddy Davis -ABCNEWS.com
Edwards
- Obama- Hillary
- Giuliani
- Military
- Money
- Terrorism
- Safety
- Des-Moines
- Iowa
- North
Carolina - Illinois
- 2008
Election - "Edwards
Picked Over Obama as 'The Un-Hillary': Former North
Carolina Senator Nabs Coveted Iowa Endorsement." ... "Caucus4Priorities,
a group seeking to redirect spending from the Pentagon to domestic needs,
plans to endorse [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John
Edwards Friday in Des Moines [Iowa]." ... "The decision to endorse Edwards
over Illinois [Senator and 2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate] Sen. Barack Obama came down to "courage versus caution," according
to the group's executive director." ... "He impressed the group on Oct.
26 when he demonstrated during an Iowa town-hall meeting that he would
not back down in the face of Republican attacks. The day before, during
an interview with a conservative talk-show host, [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate Rudolph] Giuliani said that Democratic support for
lower Pentagon spending showed a lack of concern for what Giuliani calls
"the terrorists' war on us."" ... ""Edwards gave an excellent answer,"
said Huppert. "He said we have to stop buying into their frame which equates
spending money on the Pentagon with keeping us safe. He also said we can't
have a Democratic candidate who cowers and runs away from this issue.""
... ""For whatever reason," she said, "John Edwards has decided he is going
to take this on and he has staked out the position quite convincingly of
being the un-Hillary."" (1, 2)
-By Teddy Davis -ABCNEWS.com
Ron
Paul
- Military
- Law
- History- MA
- NC
- TX
- 
MD
- 2008
Election - "Ron
Paul co-sponsoring Constitutional War Powers Resolution."
... "At a press conference last Thursday, [Massachusetts Democratic] Congressmen
Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and [North Carolina Republican] Walter Jones (R-NC)
announced the introduction of House Joint Resolution 53, the Constitutional
War Powers Resolution. Joined by co-sponsors [Texas Republican] Ron Paul
(R-TX) and [Maryland Republican] Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), the resolution
attempts to curtail what some believe to be the expanding war powers wielded
by presidents since the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin resolution[.]" ... "H. J. Res.
53 looks to modify the 1973 War Powers Resolution, itself a response to
President's Nixon assertive stance as commander-in-chief, by requiring
Congressional approval for military action that is not a direct result
of attack. It also allows for greater oversight by Congress by providing
avenues for judicial review and by permitting federal funding for action
approved by Congress." ... "Speaking from the House floor on Saturday,
Rep. Jones said "our Constitution states that – while the commander-in-chief
has the power to conduct wars, only Congress has the power to declare war.
Too many times this Congress has not met its constitutional duty of oversight
and has abdicated its constitutional authorities to the executive branch.""
-KCRG.com
Mitt
Romney
- Religion
- 2008
Election - South
Carolina - Salt
Lake City - 
Utah
- North
Carolina - Virginia
- History
- "Romney
Shouldn't Equate Mormons, Christians, Evangelicals Say."
... "As [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Mitt Romney scours
the South for endorsements from evangelical leaders, he is getting some
unusual advice on how to explain his Mormon faith: Don't try to be one
of us." ... "``I told him, you cannot equate Mormonism with Christianity;
you cannot say, `I am a Christian just like you,''' said [Republican] Representative
Bob Inglis of South Carolina, which is scheduled to hold the first primary
among the Southern states. ``If he does that, every Baptist preacher in
the South is going to have to go to the pulpit on Sunday and explain the
differences.''" ... "This advice, which reflects the views of many Southern
Baptists and other evangelicals, makes Romney's co-religionists bristle.
``The fact that we are Christians is non-negotiable,'' said Kim Farah,
a spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City[Utah]-based Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-Day Saints." ... "Yet for [evangelical] conference-goers such
as Noah Crowe, a Southern Baptist pastor from Robbinsville, North Carolina,
there's nothing Romney can do to overcome their distrust of Mormonism.
``His faith is not the faith I believe in, teach and preach,'' said Crowe,
who added that he studied Mormonism at his Bible college in a course called
``Cults and False Religions.''" ... "Yet for conference-goers such as Noah
Crowe, a Southern Baptist pastor from Robbinsville, North Carolina, there's
nothing Romney can do to overcome their distrust of Mormonism. ``His faith
is not the faith I believe in, teach and preach,'' said Crowe, who added
that he studied Mormonism at his Bible college in a course called ``Cults
and False Religions.''" ... "For evangelicals, many of whom believe the
Bible is the literal word of God, the Mormons' founding text, the ``Book
of Mormon,'' makes it impossible for them to be considered Christians,
according to Fred Smith, associate professor of Theology at Liberty University
in Lynchburg, Virginia. " -By Hans Nichols and Christopher
Stern -Bloomberg
Barack
Obama
- Hillary
Clinton
- John
Edwards
- 2008
Election - Polls
- Des-Moines
- Iowa
- North
Carolina - "Polls
don't reflect Obama's star power: The Democrat [2008
Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama] creates a stir
wherever he goes, but runs far behind [2008 Election Democratic Presidential
Candidate Hillary] Clinton nationally. Some observers are puzzled; others
say he's too gentle." ... "Crowds coo, strain to shake his hand, get his
autograph, take his picture. In town meetings, supporters testify with
religious fervor. At a Des Moines [Iowa] forum on global climate change,
high school physics teacher Bill Cox lobbed the ultimate love bomb: "You
remind me of John Kennedy," Cox said. "Are you going to be the person to
. . . lead us to true energy independence?"" ... ""I am the man," Obama
replied confidently, prompting an ovation." ... "So why isn't Obama doing
better in the polls?" ... "No candidate in recent memory has swept onto
the national political scene with greater fanfare. Obama has been on magazine
covers and talk shows. Oprah Winfrey endorsed him, and Obama Girl's unrequited
urges turned him into a YouTube sensation. He has raised nearly as much
money as Clinton, and in Iowa, at least, has advertised twice as much (4,244
TV spots versus 2,192, according to the Nielsen Co.)" ... "Yet he has been
unable to translate the relentless, often fawning attention into anything
approaching a surge, especially in the crucial state of Iowa. Here, where
the nation's first contest is scheduled to take place the first week of
January, polls show him in a tight three-way race with Clinton and former
North Carolina Sen. [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] John
Edwards, though Clinton has recently pulled ahead." (1, 2)
-By Robin Abcarian -LAtimes
2008
Election - John
Edwards
- NC
- NY
- Georgia
- "2008
and counting: Edwards hits Clinton on red-state credibility."
... "[2008 election] Democratic presidential candidate and former [North
Carolina Senator] Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) is stepping up his attacks
on front-runner [New York Senator] Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (N.Y.)
ability to compete in so-called red states, implicitly accusing her of
being a drag on the ticket next year." ... "The Edwards campaign on Thursday
announced its “True Blue Majority” initiative, which will start next week
and feature events with elected officials from red and battleground states
talking about why only Edwards can “ensure that Democrats maintain and
expand Democratic majorities in Congress” from the top of the ticket."
... "“We need a leader who can compete anywhere in America, and win,” former
Georgia [Governor ] Gov. Roy Barnes said in a statement. “Some pundits
say that a Democrat can’t win in some places in the South, Midwest or West.
But they’re wrong. The right Democratic presidential nominee — one who
shares our values, understands our issues and offers real and bold solutions
— can win these states. That candidate is John Edwards.”" -By
Sam Youngman -TheHill.com
Water
- Emergency
- Weather
- Environment
- History
- Farm
- Animals
- Food
- Georgia
- 
Alabama- North
Carolina - 
Tennessee
- 
Kentucky
- "Southeast
drought hits crisis point." ... "Outdoor watering
bans already cover the northern third of Georgia and dozens of cities,
counties and towns in surrounding states. Farmers are selling cattle because
pastures have dried up. Alabama's Elmore County had to bring in floating
pumps and barges to extend its water intake pipe farther out into shrinking
Lake Martin. Georgia might have to do the same at Lake Lanier, Atlanta's
main water source." ... "Although rain is due today across parts of the
region, it will barely dampen the 16-month drought. Through September,
it is the region's driest year in 113 years of record-keeping. In five
of the six worst-hit states, rain totals this year are close to a foot
below normal." ... "It is the driest year on record for North Carolina
and Tennessee, second-driest in Alabama and third-driest in Kentucky. A
tree-ring study this summer of Tennessee's rainfall history shows this
is the third-driest year for the state in at least 350 years, behind only
1839 and 1708." -By Patrick O'Driscoll and Larry Copeland
with contributions by Jordan Schrader, Marty Roney, Leon Alligood, Ron
Barnett, Jessie Halladay, Matt Reed, and Jennie Coughlin
-USATODAY
US
- Iraq
- 
Howard
Krongard
- Blackwater
- Money
- Employees
- Military
- Law
- Enforcement
- Politics
- North
Carolina - Virginia
- "Rules
of engagement are sketchy when private security firms are deployed in war."
... "The fog of war keeps getting thicker." ... "Iraq's decision to temporarily
ban Blackwater USA after a fatal shooting of civilians in Baghdad [Iraq's
capital] reveals a growing web of rules governing weapons-bearing private
contractors but few signs U.S. agencies are aggressively enforcing them."
... "Nearly a year after a law was passed holding contracted employees
to the same code of justice as military personnel, the [Republican President]
Bush administration has not published guidance on how military lawyers
should do that, according to Peter Singer, a security industry expert at
the Brookings Institution in Washington." ... "Blackwater, based in Moyock,
North Carolina, is one of three private security firms employed by the
State Department to protect its personnel in Iraq. The two others, both
of which are headquartered in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, are Dyncorp,
based in Falls Church, Virginia, and Triple Canopy of Herndon, Virginia."
... "In a letter to Howard Krongard, the State Department inspector general,
the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Krongard impeded
a Justice Department probe into claims that a "large private security contractor
was smuggling weapons into Iraq."" ... "Although the security company is
not named in the letter, several senior administration officials confirmed
it is Blackwater." (1, 2)
-AP via -IHT.com
US
- Iraq
- Military
- California
- Nevada
- NC
- "Petraeus,
Crocker Face Skepticism on Drawdown." ... "Plans
by [Republican] President Bush to announce a withdrawal of up to 30,000
U.S. troops from Iraq by next summer drew sharp criticism yesterday from
Democratic leaders and a handful of Republicans in Congress, who vowed
to try again to force Bush to accept a more dramatic change of policy."
... "A second day of testimony by Gen. [General] David H. Petraeus, the
U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker yielded some of
the most biting GOP [Republican] objections since the president announced
his troop buildup in January. Several Republicans joined Democrats in saying
that Petraeus's proposal to draw down troops through the middle of next
summer would result only in force levels equivalent to where they stood
before the increase began, about 130,000 troops." ... "[House Speaker,
California Democratic Representative Nancy] Pelosi said she told Bush that
he was essentially endorsing a 10-year "open-ended commitment." [Senate
Majority Leader, Nevada Democratic Senator Harry] Reid said the president
wants "no change in mission -- this is more of the same."" ... "Even [North
Carolina Republican Senator] Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.), a mainstream
conservative who has never publicly strayed from the administration's position
on Iraq, made it clear that she would now support "what some have called
action-forcing measures."" ... ""The difficulty of the current American
and Iraqi situation is rooted in large part in the Bush administration's
substantial failure to understand the full implications of our military
invasion and the litany of mistakes made at the outset of the war," Dole
said." (1, 2)
-By Michael Abramowitz and Jonathan Weisman
-WashingtonPost
Labor
- 
Fire
Fighters - Corporations
- Elections
- Illinois
- Iowa
- New
York
- North
Carolina - John
Edwards
- Election
2008 - "Labor
still has clout in political arena." ... "Union households
make up roughly a quarter of the electorate in most elections." ... "Seven
of the 2008 [election] Democratic presidential contenders will gather Tuesday
night at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, to try to woo that support."
... "Former [Democratic Senator] Sen. John Edwards, D-North Carolina, called
for "smart and safe" trade policies that would put workers' jobs and wages
ahead of benefits for corporations in a speech Monday to a union in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa." ... "[Democratic Senator] Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois,
joined the picket line at Chicago's Congress Hotel, where workers have
been striking for more than four years. Obama promised to come back, even
as president." ... "[New York Democratic Senator Hillary] Clinton called
collective bargaining "absolutely essential to the way America works" in
a March speech to the International Association of Fire Fighters." ...
"[AFL-CIO President John Sweeney explained,] "There's no question that
John Edwards has been raising the issues that are very close to the hearts
of workers and has been I think motivating some of the debate that's going
on, on those issues, but we have other candidates that are articulating
well on those issues that are important to workers. But it's safe to say
that any one of the seven candidates would be a hell of a lot better than
the present occupant of the White House."" -By Sasha
Johnson with contributions by Candy Crowley
-CNN
US
- 
China
- Children
- Brain
- Health
- Safety
- Consumer
- Law
- Government
- North
Carolina - 2008
Election - John
Edwards
- "Edwards
calls for tougher scrutiny of imported toys." ...
"[2008 election Democratic] U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards on
Friday called for tougher scrutiny of imported toys in the wake of a huge
recall of lead-tainted toys from China." ... "The former North Carolina
senator said the government should take steps to crack down on "unsafe
trade," citing the recall on Wednesday of 1.5 million Chinese-made Fisher-Price
toys." ... ""The recall of Fisher-Price toys highlights the need for smarter,
safer trade and consumer protection policies in this country," Edwards
said in a statement." ... "Specifically, Edwards raised the idea of stricter
penalties for safety violations and possible independent testing of imported
toys. He also called for changes at the Consumer Product Safety Commission
that he said were needed to put the federal agency "back on the side of
consumers ..."" ... "Lead paint has been linked to health problems in children,
including brain damage." -By Peter Kaplan
-Reuters via -WashingtonPost
Karl
Rove
- 
Sara
Taylor
- North
Carolina - Political
- Sheriffs
- Government
- Drug
- 
Media
- 2006
Election - "Drug
czar's visit questioned." ... "A visit from the White
House drug czar to western North Carolina last year has raised questions
in a congressional investigation into the politicization of the national
drug policy office." ... "Drug czar John Walters met with [North Carolina
Represenative] Republican Reps. Patrick McHenry and [North Carolina Republican
Represenative] Charles Taylor in their home districts in August." ... "The
meetings, each with local sheriffs, were held behind closed doors but highlighted
in local newspapers at the time." ... "According to a memo and e-mails
obtained by a House oversight committee, the visits appeared to be part
of a larger program to have officials from the Office of National Drug
Control Policy visit districts of vulnerable GOP [Republican] members of
Congress [before the 2006 election]." ... "The memo, authored in part by
White House political affairs director Sara Taylor, describes 31 suggested
or completed visits by Walters to Republican districts around the country."
... "In a follow-up e-mail, a White House official passed along praise
from Karl Rove, [Republican] President Bush's top political advisor, for
the work of Walters and his deputies." -By Barb Barrett
-NewsObserver.com
Health
- Worker
- 
Safety
- Environment
- Civil
Rights - 
Privacy
- Law
- Politics
- NC
- "House
Balks at Bush Order for New Powers." ... "[Republican]
President Bush this month is giving an obscure White House office new powers
over regulations affecting health, worker safety and the environment. Calling
it a power grab, Democrats running Congress are intent on stopping him."
... "The House voted last week to prohibit the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs from spending federal money on Executive Order 13422,
signed by Bush last January and due to take effect July 24." ... "The order
requires federal officials to show that private companies, people or institutions
failed to address a problem before agencies can write regulations to tackle
it. It also gives political appointees greater authority over how the regulations
are written." ... "The House measure "stops this president or any president
from seizing the power to rewrite almost every law that Congress passes,
laws that protect public health, the environment, safety, civil rights,
privacy and on and on," said [North Carolina Democratic Representative]
Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., its sponsor." (1, 2)
-By Jim Abrams -AP
via -WashingtonPost
2008
Election - John
Edwards
- Family
- Health
- North
Carolina - "Perspective
on Her Side, Mrs. Edwards Enters Fray." ... "Three
months after Elizabeth Edwards said that her cancer had returned in inoperable
form, her role and influence in [2008 election Democratic Presidential
candidate] John Edwards’s presidential campaign is undiminished. She has
made a flurry of charged public appearances, become a regular presence
advising Mr. Edwards on the campaign trail, and wields behind-the-scenes
influence in many internal campaign decisions, aides said." ... "Mrs. Edwards
has also become a free operator on behalf of her husband of 29 years, a
development that her friends suggest reflects the clarity and perspective
that come from her cancer diagnosis, and her increasingly confident political
instincts as she advises Mr. Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, in his
second White House bid." ... "When Mrs. Edwards called in to a television
talk show this week to confront the [Republican] conservative commentator
Ann Coulter who had attacked Mr. Edwards this year, it was a decision that
Mrs. Edwards said she made impulsively and on her own. The resulting dramatic
four minutes of television created a surge of attention that at least momentarily
electrified her husband’s campaign, winning applause from the left and
apparently spiking contributions in the critical final days of this second-quarter
fund-raising period." ... "A noted lawyer in her own right until she retired
in 1996 after the couple’s teenage son died in a car accident, she said
the burdens of her life these days made it impossible for her to be as
involved as she was in 2004, when by all accounts she was Mr. Edwards’s
most influential adviser." ... "Her stamina on the campaign trail appears
steady, and she and her husband frequently say that her cancer has proved
no encumbrance on her daily life." (1, 2)
-By Adam Nagourney and Patrick Healy
-NYTimes
Military
- Families
- Water
- Environment
- History
- North
Carolina - "Marines
drank tainted water for 30 years: CDC." ... "As many
as 75,000 people may have drunk water contaminated by dry cleaning fluid
at the U.S. Marine base at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday." ... "The contamination
lasted for 30 years until the affected wells were closed. Marines and their
families drank the contaminated water during base assignments of an average
of 2 years, the CDC said." -Reuters
North
Carolina - Families
- Water
- History
- Military
- Employees
- Business
- Environmental
- Lawmakers
- Michigan
- "Toxins,
cancer link probed at Marines' base." ... "Some 75,000
Marines and their families at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were exposed
to toxic tap water that may have caused cancer and birth defects, a federal
health official testified Tuesday." ... "Results of a new study of the
base's water were released Tuesday, the same day lawmakers heard emotional
testimony from families who were affected by the water, which contained
40 times the amount of toxins considered safe by today's standards." ...
"Camp Lejeune's water supply was polluted from 1957 until 1987 by TCE,
a degreasing solvent, and PCE, a dry cleaning agent. The chemicals apparently
came from a dry cleaning store near the base, according to the government."
... "The substances are possible carcinogens." ... "The chairman of the
committee, Democratic [Representative] Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, said
he will examine handling of the water investigation in 2005 by the Environmental
Protection Agency's criminal division." ... "An EPA investigator, Tyler
Amon, acknowledged Tuesday that officials had considered accusing some
civilian Navy employees of obstruction of justice." ... "Amon, who testified
despite objections from the [Republican President] Bush administration,
said some employees interviewed during the criminal investigation appeared
coached and were not forthcoming with details."
-CNN
US
- Iraq
- Military
- 2008
Election - John
Edwards
- North
Carolina - New
York - Illinois
- "Iraq
Is Flash Point as 8 Democratic Rivals Clash." ...
"The three leading candidates for the [2008 election] Democratic presidential
nomination attacked each other overtly and subtly Sunday over Iraq and
their judgment, honesty and leadership in handling that war." ... "[Democratic]
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, the front-runner in national
polls, both drew fire and calmly returned it in the second nationally televised
Democratic debate, arguing that the differences among the Democrats were
minor compared with their differences with President Bush." ... "But former
[Democratic] Senator John Edwards of North Carolina repeatedly went after
Mrs. Clinton and [Democratic] Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, accusing
them of being followers in Congress — not leaders — in the effort to bring
an end to the war." ... "“There are differences between us,” said Mr. Edwards,
who has campaigned hard for the support of antiwar Democrats. “And I think
Democratic voters deserve to know the differences between us. I think there
is a difference between making very clear when the crucial moment comes,
on Congress ending this war, what your position is, and standing quiet.”"
-By Robin Toner and Jeff Zeleny
-NYTimes
2008
Election - John
Edwards
- Iowa
- North
Carolina - Illinois
- New
York - New
Mexico - "Democrats
prefer Edwards in new [Iowa] poll." ... "[Democratic]
Presidential candidate John Edwards leads [Democratic] rivals Barack Obama
and Hillary Clinton in a new Des Moines Register poll of Iowans likely
to take part in the Democratic caucuses." ... "The Iowa Poll shows Edwards,
a former U.S. senator from North Carolina, is the first choice of 29 percent
of those who say they definitely or probably will attend the January caucuses,
which kick off the nominating process for the nation." ... "Obama, a U.S.
senator from Illinois, edges out [New York Democratic Senator] Clinton
for second place in the poll — 23 percent to 21 percent." ... "Also in
double digits at this early stage of the race is New Mexico [Democratic
Governor] Gov. Bill Richardson, the choice of 10 percent of likely caucus
participants. Presidential" -DesMoinesRegister
2008
Election - Military
- Terrorism
- 
Intelligence
- Money
- Osama
bin Laden
- Religion
- North
Carolina - "AP
Interview: Romney says he's not the only one switching positions, [Republican]
rivals do it too." ... "[Republican Mitt Romney]
said the country would be safer by only "a small percentage" and would
see "a very insignificant increase in safety" if al-Qaida leader Osama
bin Laden was caught because another terrorist would rise to power. "It's
not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying
to catch one person," Romney said. Instead, he said he supports a broader
strategy to defeat the Islamic jihad movement." ... "The Romney campaign
said Thursday that a former counterterrorism chief who served during the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has joined the campaign as a senior adviser."
... "Cofer Black served as the director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center
during the attacks and was singled out for especially harsh criticism by
the agency's inspector general in a 2005 report on faulty intelligence
efforts before the attacks." ... "Black has worked for the past two years
as vice chairman of Blackwater USA, a North Carolina-based security firm
which specializes in private security and private military services." ...
"Earlier this year, Black announced he had formed a new company called
Total Intelligence Solutions, which focuses on providing intelligence gathering
to companies." -By Liz Sidoti with contributions by
Michael R. Baker -AP
via -SFGate.com
Homeless
- People
- Food
- Poverty
- Religious
- Politics
- FL
- TX
- NV
- NC-
"Cities
set limits on serving food to homeless people." ...
"Cities are cracking down on charities that feed the homeless, adopting
rules that restrict food giveaways to certain locations, require charities
to get permits or limit the number of free meals they can provide." ...
"Orlando [FL], Dallas [TX], Las Vegas [NV] and Wilmington, N.C., began
enforcing such laws last year. Some are being challenged." ... "Last November,
a federal judge blocked the Las Vegas law banning food giveaways to the
poor in city parks. In Dallas, two ministries are suing, arguing that the
law violates religious freedom." -By Emily Bazar
-USATODAY
US
- 
Mexico
- US
Immigration - 2006
Election - Politics
- California
- New
York - Texas
- Florida
- New-Jersey
- Illinois
- Georgia
- North
Carolina - Indiana
- 
South
Dakota - 
Delaware
- Missouri
- Colorado
- New
Hampshire - Ohio
- "Census
Shows Growth of Immigrants." ... "The number of immigrants
living in American households rose 16 percent over the last five years,
fueled largely by recent arrivals from Mexico, according to fresh data
released by the Census Bureau." ... "Coming in the heart of an election
season in which illegal immigration has emerged as an issue, the new data
from the bureau’s 2005 American Community Survey is certain to generate
more debate." ... "By far the largest numbers of immigrants continue to
live in the six states that have traditionally attracted them: California,
New York, Texas, Florida, New Jersey and Illinois." ... "Immigrants also
continue to flow into a handful of states in the Southeast, like Georgia
and North Carolina, a trend that was discerned in the 2000 census." ...
"But it is in the less-expected immigrant destinations that demographers
find the most of interest in the new data." ... "Indiana saw a 34 percent
increase in the number of immigrants; South Dakota saw a 44 percent rise;
Delaware 32 percent; Missouri 31 percent; Colorado 28 percent; and New
Hampshire 26 percent." ... "“It’s the continuation of a pattern that we
first began to see 10 or 15 years ago,” said Jeff Passel, senior research
associate at the Pew Hispanic Center, who has examined the new census data.
“But instead of being confined to areas like the Southeast, it’s beginning
to spill over into some Midwestern states, like Indiana and Ohio. It’s
even moving up into New England.”" ... "Over all, immigrants now make up
12.4 percent of the nation’s population, up from 11.2 percent in 2000.
That amounts to an estimated 4.9 million additional immigrants for a total
of 35.7 million, a number larger than the population of California." (1,
2)
-By Rick Lyman -NYTimes
Minnesota
- Wisconsin- Kentucky
- North
Carolina - Massachusetts
- "Police
groups to hold summit on rising crime." ... "Citing
increasing concerns about violent crime, law enforcement authorities are
convening a national summit here next month to deal with sudden spikes
in homicides, robberies and assaults." ... "Local police officials and
municipal authorities from more than a dozen cities, including Minneapolis
[Minnesota], Milwaukee [Wisconsin], Louisville [Kentucky], Charlotte [North
Carolina] and Boston [Massachusetts] will meet Aug. 30 in Washington, where
the mayor and police chief recently declared a "crime emergency."" ...
""What we've seen happen in the past year across this country deserves
all of our attention," said Charlotte Police Chief Darrel Stephens, referring
to the first significant jump in homicides and other major crimes in more
than a decade. "We need to get a better sense of what is going on."" -By
Kevin Johnson -USATODAY
- John
Edwards - Cheney
- Noteworthy
- 2008
Election - "Edwards
Bashes Cheney, Bush: 2004 vice presidential contender
blasts Bush and readies to run again." -With George
Stephanopoulos -ThisWeek-ABCNEWS.com
US
- Iraq- Edwards
- Cheney
- Disaster
- Energy
- Health
- Government
- Intelligence
- Law
- History
- 2008
Election - NC
- "Edwards:
Bush Worse than Nixon." ... "Former Sen. John Edwards,
D-N.C., says George W. Bush is the "worst president of our lifetime," and
"absolutely" worse than Watergate-tainted President Richard M. Nixon."
... "In an exclusive appearance on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos,"
the former presidential and vice presidential contender said of Bush, "He's
done a variety of things -- things which are going to take us forever to
recover from." ... ""You have to give Bush and Cheney and gang credit for
being good at politics -- you know, good at political campaigns," Edwards
added. "They're very good at dividing the country and taking advantage
of it. What they're not good at is governing, and it shows every single
day in this administration. And the country is paying a huge price for
that."" ... ""It is not an accident that he's [Vice President Cheney] unbelievably
poorly thought of," Edwards said. "He is one of -- if not the --principal
architects of this disaster in Iraq. He put us on an energy path that the
American people are paying an enormous price for right now. He paid little
to no attention to making sure the government was prepared to respond to
the kind of disaster that hit our Gulf Coast. We've got a health care crisis
going on, he's had no proposal of any kind that I know of. And people don't
trust him anymore, which is understandable. I wouldn't trust him."" ...
"Edwards made the pitch for a Democratic president in 2008, claiming the
Bush has "intentionally ignored" the law and constitution in the NSA wiretapping
controversy." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By Ed O'Keefe-ABCNEWS.com
US
Immigration - Law
- Politics
- Food
- Workers
- 
Nebr.
- NC
- "Immigration
rallies begin to take toll on US workplace." ...
"Amid calls for a nationwide work stoppage and economic boycott, throngs
of immigration-reform advocates rallied across the U.S. again Monday."
... "Several meatpacking plants either temporarily shut down or operated
on a reduced schedule because of a lack of production-line workers, many
of whom are immigrants." ... "Industry giant Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) said
some of its facilities, including a plant in Madison, Neb., will be closed,
partly because of the planned rallies and partly because of poor livestock
market conditions." ... "Futures traders and other meat-industry sources
reported that at least two Swift & Co. beef plants were operating at
reduced speeds Monday, apparently because of employee shortages. Also,
a large Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD) pork plant in North Carolina [NC] wasn't
operating, industry sources said." ... "The full brunt of immigrants' economic
power could be felt May 1. That's when some advocate groups are calling
for a national "Day Without an Immigrant" that could involve millions of
workers taking the day off to show solidarity behind the reform movement."
-By Richard Gibson -MarketWatch
Government
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Phone
- E-Mail
- Privacy
- Law
- Opinion
- North
Carolina - "Bush
refuses apology for surveillance program: President
told during speech he should be 'ashamed' for eavesdropping." ... "President
Bush, told by a critic he should be ashamed of his policies, defended the
government's secret eavesdropping program Thursday and said he would not
apologize for listening in on the phone and e-mail conversations of Americans
talking to people with suspected al-Qaida links." ... "A man who identified
himself as Harry Taylor rose at a forum here [Charlotte, North Carolina]
to tell Bush that he's never felt more ashamed of the leadership of his
country. He said Bush has asserted his right to tap phone calls without
a warrant, to arrest people and hold them without charges, and to revoke
a woman's right to an abortion, among other things."
-AP via -MSNBC
North
Carolina - 2004
Election - 
Computer
- Web
- Law
- "North
Carolina defends e-voting certifications." ... "It
has been a turbulent week for electronic voting systems in North Carolina."
... "Watchdog groups say the state "illegally" certified systems built
by two e-voting vendors just days after one admitted it couldn't meet stringent
new laws about disclosing its source code. Meanwhile, a voting-systems
manager defended the decision to award the contracts." ... "The rules were
aligned with actions taken this summer by the state legislature, which
passed changes to election laws that set new standards for e-voting machines
and decertified all the state's existing systems. Those changes came in
response to glitches encountered by one of the state's counties during
the 2004 presidential elections, resulting in the
loss of more than 4,500 votes." -By Anne Broache
-CNET
/News
US
- North
Carolina - Legal
- History
- World
- "N.
Carolina carries out 1,000th execution." ... "Double
murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United
States since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was put to
death by lethal injection on Friday." ... "Boyd, who was 57, died at 2:15
a.m. (0715 GMT) at Central Prison in North Carolina's state capital, Raleigh,
spokeswoman Pamela Walker of the Department of Corrections said." ... "Boyd,
a Vietnam war veteran with a history of alcohol abuse, was sentenced to
death for the murder in 1988 of his wife and father-in-law committed in
front of two of his children." ... "His execution drew world attention
because of its symbolism since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death
penalty to be brought back in 1976 after a nine-year unofficial moratorium."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Andy Sullivan -Reuters
Virginia
- Execution
- Law
- Politics
- North
Carolina - South
Carolina - "UPDATE
1-Virginia governor stops milestone U.S. execution."
... "Virginia Gov. Mark Warner halted the execution of a convicted murderer
who would have been the 1,000th person put to death in the United States
since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, a spokesman
said on Tuesday." ... "Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty
in 1976 and executions resumed in 1977, 999 people have been executed in
the United States. North Carolina and South Carolina have scheduled executions
later in the week." -By Andy Sullivan
-Reuters
US- Iraq
- GOV
- Business
- North
Carolina - Prison
- "Ex-Convict
Took Bribes in Iraq, U.S. Says." ... "A North Carolina
man who was charged yesterday with accepting kickbacks and bribes as a
comptroller and financial officer for the American occupation authority
in Iraq was hired despite having served prison time for felony fraud in
the 1990's." ... "The job gave the man, Robert J. Stein, control over $82
million in cash earmarked for Iraqi rebuilding projects." ... "Along with
a web of other conspirators who have not yet been named, Mr. Stein and
his wife received "bribes, kickbacks and gratuities amounting to at least
$200,000 per month" to steer lucrative construction contracts to companies
run by another American, Philip H. Bloom, an affidavit outlining the criminal
complaint says." (1, 2)
-By James Glanz -NYTimes
North
Carolina -
-
- "Ophelia
lashes North Carolina coast: 15 inches of rain expected
in some places; storm surges could reach 11 feet." ... "Hurricane Ophelia
lashed the North Carolina coast with high winds and heavy rains Wednesday,
beginning an anticipated two-day assault that threatened serious flooding
and an 11-foot storm surge." ... ""If you have not heeded the warning before,
let me be clear right now: Ophelia is a dangerous storm," Gov. Mike Easley
said from Raleigh, appealing especially to those in flood-prone areas to
evacuate." ... "More than 120,000 homes and business were without power
in eastern North Carolina, electric utilities said."
-AP via -MSNBC
-
- Ohio
- North
Carolina - "Unit
had asked for more Marines." ... "A Marine regiment
that took heavy casualties last week in western Iraq — including 19 killed
from a Reserve unit headquartered in Ohio — had repeatedly asked for about
1,000 more troops. Those requests were not granted." ... "Regimental Combat
Team 2 began asking for additional troops to police its volatile 24,000-square-mile
territory before most of its Marines deployed in February, said operations
officer Lt. Col. Christopher Starling, 39, of Jacksonville, N.C. [North
Carolina]" -By Kimberly Johnson with contributions
by Andrea Stone -USATODAY
-
- -
- North
Carolina - July
4th - "Bush
Insists Iraq War Is 'Worth It' In Sober Speech: President
invoked 9/11 terror attacks, called on Americans to join military." ...
"Invoking the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 five times, President
Bush took to the airwaves Tuesday night in an attempt to bolster sagging
support for the war in Iraq." ... "At times contradicting recent statements
by his own vice president and secretary of defense, the president gave
a sober, stern-faced assessment of how long U.S. troops could remain in
the conflict and urged Americans to support their military over the July
4 holiday weekend by flying flags and writing to soldiers." ... ""I recognize
that Americans want our troops to come home as quickly as possible," said
the president in his 30-minute speech. "So do I." Standing in front of
more than 740 uniformed members of the military at Fort Bragg in North
Carolina, the speech comes as the president's approval rating has hit an
all-time low and polls show that a majority of Americans feel the war was
not worth starting and that it has not made the country safer from terrorist
attacks." -By Gil Kaufman
-MTV.com/News
- North
Carolina -
-
- - 
- "D.C.
Scare Puts Alert System to the Test: Washington's
Terror Alert System Put to the Test by Plane Scare; Ridge Praises Quick
Response." ... "The terror alert system in the nation's capital was put
to the test by a small plane that flew within three miles of the White
House [Wednesday, May 11th], leading to the frantic evacuation of government
buildings." ... "Alert levels at the White House and Capitol were raised
to their highest state Wednesday when the Cessna 152 crossed into restricted
air space and failed to respond to a Homeland Security helicopter scrambled
to stop it. Military jets fired four warning flares at the single-engine
aircraft, which was carrying a pilot and a student pilot flying from Pennsylvania
to North Carolina, before it turned away from the national landmarks."
(1, 2,
3)
-By Lara Jakes Jordan, Mark Scolforo, Erin Gartner
and Mark Sherman -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- North
Carolina - "Pastor
Accused of Running Out Dems Quits: North Carolina
Pastor Who Urged Parishioners to Vote for Bush Resigns, Leaving Cultural
Chasm." ... "A Baptist pastor accused of threatening to banish from his
church anyone who didn't vote for President Bush has himself chosen to
depart, leaving in his wake a divided community and a cultural chasm."
... "The Rev. Chan Chandler, 33, walked out of the church he had led for
three years Tuesday night after delivering a brief statement of resignation.
With him went many of the young congregants he had attracted to the modest
brick church on the outskirts of this small mountain town in western North
Carolina." ... "In leaving, Chandler did not apologize for the controversy
that made him a national lightning rod the claims by some church members
that they were told to leave if they voted for Democratic nominee John
Kerry." (1, 2,
3)
-By Tim Whitmire -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- North
Carolina- Mother's-Day
- "Ousted
worshippers stand their ground on Mother's Day."
... "On Sunday, when many churchgoers were celebrating the blessing of
mothers, some members of a Haywood County Church were sitting in pews for
a different reason — to stand their ground." ... "Nine members of East
Waynesville Baptist Church, including some who had been members there for
more than 30 years, claim they were recently voted out of the church because
they didn’t agree with Pastor Chan Chandler’s politicizing of the pulpit.
The ousted members, including one who is a registered Republican, said
they wanted to be there because it was their church home." ... "The expulsion
of the members for apparent political differences has many wondering what
the situation will do to the church’s tax-exempt status." -By
Andre A. Rodriguez -Citizen-Times.com
- North
Carolina
- "Baptists
Oust Non-Bush Backers." ... "Calling it a "great
misunderstanding," the pastor of a small church who led the charge to remove
nine members for their political beliefs tried to welcome them back Sunday,
but some insisted he must leave for the wounds to heal." ... "The Rev.
Chan Chandler didn't directly address the controversy during the service
at East Waynesville [North Carolina] Baptist Church, but issued a statement
afterward through his attorney saying the church does not care about its
members' political affiliations." ... ""No one has ever been voted from
the membership of this church due to an individual's support or lack of
support for a political party or candidate," he said."
-AP via -CBSNews
- North
Carolina
- ELECTION
2004 - "Members
voted out of church weigh steps: Allege pastor told
them to back Bush." ... "Members of the congregation said [North Carolina
pastor Chan] Chandler told them during last year's presidential campaign
that anyone who planned to vote for the Democratic nominee, Senator John
F. Kerry of Massachusetts, needed to leave the church." ... "Longtime member
Selma Morris, who was treasurer at the church, said Chandler's sermons
remained political after Bush won reelection. This past week, his comments
turned to politics again at a church gathering that ended with nine members
voted out." -By Paul Nowell
-AP via -Boston/Globe
- North
Carolina
- ELECTION
2004 - "Democrats
voted out of church because of their politics, members say."
... "Some in Pastor Chan Chandler's flock wish he had a little less zeal
for the GOP." ... "Members of the small East Waynesville [North Carolina]
Baptist Church say Chandler led an effort to kick out congregants who didn't
support President Bush. Nine members were voted out at a Monday church
meeting in this mountain town, about 120 miles west of Charlotte." ...
"During the presidential election last year, Chandler told the congregation
that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic Sen. John Kerry should either
leave the church or repent, said former member Lorene Sutton."
-AP via -USATODAY
Gordon
Smith - Money
- Politics
- 
Travel
- Lawmakers
- Oregon
- 
Okla
- NC
- Ky- Fla
- US
- 
Ireland
- "Smith
trip to Ireland paid for by lobbyist, records show."
... "The Hill, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, reported Wednesday
that [Oregon Republican Senator Gordon] Smith and four other GOP [GOP=Grand
Old Party=Republican] lawmakers traveled to Ireland at the expense of a
Washington lobbying firm, Kessler & Associates Business Services Inc."
... "Smith, former [Oklahoma Republican Senator] Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla.[Republican-Oklahoma],
and [Republican Representatives] Reps. Howard Coble, R-N.C.[Republican-North
Carolina], Harold Rogers, R-Ky.[Republican-Kentucky], and Clay Shaw, R-Fla.[Republican-Florida],
attended a four-day international trade seminar at Ashford Castle in Ireland's
County Mayo in August 2003, the newspaper said." ... "Disclosure reports
for the five lawmakers show that Kessler & Associates footed the $25,000
bill, even though congressional ethics guidelines bar lobbying firms from
paying for lawmakers' travel. " -By Matthew Day
-AP via -kgw.com
Mother's-Day
- Homes
- Florida
- Georgia
- Austin
- TX
- IL- Des-Moines
- IA
- Connecticut
- Oklahoma
- WA
- Nebraska
- Phoenix
- AZ
- Virginia
- CA
- Utah
- North
Carolina - "Women
helping build homes." ... "Women Build is a partnership
of Habitat for Humanity and the Lowe's chain of home improvement stores.
It is an annual event that gives women a chance to help needy families.
Female crews have built 650 Habitat houses in the United States." ... "[Along
with Pensacola, Florida] Other cities with Mother's Day Women Build projects
are Atlanta [Georgia]; Austin, Texas; Chicago [Illinois]; Des Moines, Iowa;
Hartford, Conn. [Connecticut]; Oklahoma City [Oklahoma]; Olympia, Wash.
[Washington]; Omaha, Neb. [Nebraska]; Phoenix [Arizona]; Richmond, Va [Virginia].;
San Francisco [California]; Salt Lake City [Utah]; Tacoma, Wash. [Washington];
and Winston-Salem, N.C. [North Carolina]" -By Bill
Kaczor -APvia
-NJ.com
-
- Alabama
- Georgia
- North
Carolina
- Executions
- "Rudolph
set to plead guilty in 4 blasts: Victims expected
in Birmingham [Alabama], Atlanta [Georgia] courtrooms." ... "Eric Robert
Rudolph is scheduled to appear in two courtrooms in two cities Wednesday
to plead guilty to four bombings, including a deadly blast during the 1996
Olympics in Atlanta." ... "Rudolph's plea deal with prosecutors spares
Rudolph the death penalty." ... "Rudolph, a survivalist who avoided capture
for more than five years by hiding in the woods of North Carolina, is expected
to appear in federal court in Birmingham around 8 a.m. (9 a.m. ET) to plead
guilty to a January 1998 bombing of a women's clinic that killed a policeman
and injured a nurse." -CNN
- "CIA
Jets Fly the War on Terror: Rendition Program Ships
Suspects Abroad." ... "It is supposed to be top secret, but ABC News found
plenty of people who said they knew the true purpose of the airplane hangars
at the end of a private two-lane road in rural North Carolina." ... ""That's
the CIA hangar," said one airport maintenance worker, pointing out one
of the two operating bases in North Carolina for the executive jets used
by the CIA to move dozens of suspected terrorists over the last few years
to countries well-known for using brutality and torture." ... "The two
jets, one a Gulfstream V and the other a Boeing 737, have been spotted
at airports around the world, and flight logs shown to ABC News show trips
to Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and
Uzbekistan." ... "The CIA would not officially comment on its operation,
known as "extraordinary rendition." The program began under an executive
order signed by President George H.W. Bush in December 1992. Former senior
government officials say the program initially involved only a select few
terror suspects, but was vastly expanded after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks."
(1, 2)
-By Brian Ross with contributions by David Scott,
Vic Walter and Hoda Osman -ABCNEWS.com
- "Inside
Out: Terror War Considers Threats From Abroad,
But What About From Within?" ... "Since Sept. 11, 2001, the specter of
international terror has haunted many Americans, but the capture of suspected
serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph serves as a grim reminder of the dangers
that could be lurking at home." ... "Rudolph, the 36-year-old outdoorsman
arrested this weekend in the mountains of North Carolina, is accused of
carrying out a string of bombings including the blast at the 1996 Atlanta
Olympics." -By Andrew Chang
-ABCNEWS.com
- "Lessons
from a factory fire: Plant explosion in North
Carolina raises questions of workplace safety in the South." ... "Despite
a horde of new workplace regulations, critics say the South's anti-union
workforce and pro-industry government continue to "wink and nod" at hazardous
manufacturing conditions. "It's dangerous to go to work for most of the
people in this state," says Alyce Gowdy Wright, director of the North Carolina
Occupational Safety and Health Project in Durham, a nonprofit workers'
advocacy group." ... "So far, investigators are focusing on two possible
causes - a newly installed natural-gas line and a cloud of rubber dust
- in the blast that killed four and injured 37. No negligence has been
found with West [Pharmaceutical Plant], a manufacturer based in Pennsylvania."
-By Patrik Jonsson
-CSMonitor
ELECTION
2004 - "Senator
Edwards Enters Race for President." ... "Senator
John Edwards of North Carolina said yesterday that he intended to run for
president in 2004, promising that he would "champion the cause of regular
people," while harshly condemning President Bush's White House as being
"run for the benefit of insiders."" ... ""If I am the nominee of the Democrats
in 2004, what I will be is somebody who champions the cause of regular
people," Mr. Edwards, 49, said in a telephone interview from Raleigh, N.C.
"Not insiders, regular people —people who don't have lobbyists."" ... "Asked
if he was drawing a contrast with the current White House, Mr. Edwards,
a personal injury lawyer, responded with a burst of criticism of Mr. Bush."
... ""I don't think President Bush represents that," he said. "The president
— I'm afraid his administration often is controlled and run too much by
insiders and too often for the benefit of insiders."" -By
Adam Nagourney -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
- "National
Guard aids North Carolina: Tens of thousands
are still without electricity." ... "In a region left dark and cold by
a major ice storm, National Guard volunteers went door to door yesterday
to show residents how to heat their homes safely after two people died
of carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to keep warm." ... "More than
200 people have sought medical help for carbon monoxide poisoning since
the ice storm downed trees and power lines Thursday." -By
Emery P. Dalesio -AP
via -Boston/Globe
- USS-Monitor
- "Divers
readying cables to raise USS Monitor." ... "A Navy
diver worked Monday to position the cables needed to haul up the gun turret
of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor after nearly 140 years on the ocean
floor." ... "A 500-ton crane aboard a barge moored above the Monitor wreckage,
16 miles off Cape Hatteras [North Carolina], is to pull up the revolving
turret." -AP
via -CNN
