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HavenWorks.com/us/archive/2005 |
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US
- 
International
- 
Iraq
- 
Secret
- 
GOV
- 
Terrorism
- 
Intelligence
- Telecommunications
- E-Mail
- 
Privacy
- 
Politics
- 
Media
- 
Enforcement
- "US
investigates leak of spy program: Prosecutors focus
on disclosure to New York Times." ... "The Justice Department has opened
a criminal investigation into recent disclosures about a controversial
domestic eavesdropping program that was secretly authorized by President
Bush after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said yesterday."
... "Justice Department prosecutors will focus on whether classified information
about the program was unlawfully disclosed to The New York Times, which
reported two weeks ago that Bush had authorized the National Security Agency
to monitor the international telephone calls and e-mails of people in the
United States without court-approved warrants, officials said." ... "The
case is the latest in a series of clashes between the media and the Bush
administration, which has aggressively enforced restrictions on classified
information and has frequently complained about media disclosures related
to terrorism or the war in Iraq." -By Dan Eggen -WashingtonPost
via -BostonGlobe
Intel
- 
Computer
- Marketing
- 
History
- Consumer
- 
Entertainment
- 
CA
-
NV
- "Intel
Drops Logo After 37 Years; Seeks to Take Image Beyond PCs."
... "Intel Corp., whose marketing made its computer chips a household name,
is changing its logo for the first time in 37 years." ... "The dropped
``e'' in Intel will be shed in favor of a swoop around the company's name
with the tag line ``Leap Ahead.'' The ``Intel Inside'' phrase, a fixture
since 1991, will be dropped, Santa Clara, California-based Intel said yesterday."
... "Intel's image change, to coincide with next week's Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas [Nevada], is part of an effort by new Chief Executive
Officer Paul Otellini to push Intel into home entertainment. The company,
whose processors run more than 80 percent of personal computers, is trying
to gain a foothold in the consumer market to counter slowing growth in
PC chips." -By Ian King
-Bloomberg
Secret
- Government
- Intelligence
- Civil
Liberties - Privacy
- Politics
- Media
- "Justice
Dept. Opens Inquiry Into Leak of Domestic Spying."
... "The Justice Department said today that it had opened a criminal investigation
into the disclosure of classified information about a secret National Security
Agency program under which President Bush authorized eavesdropping on people
in the United States without a court warrant." ... "The investigation apparently
began in recent days following a formal referral from the agency regarding
the leak, federal officials said on condition of anonymity." ... "The program,
whose existence was revealed in an article in The New York Times on Dec.
16, has provoked sharp criticism from civil liberties groups, some members
of Congress and some former intelligence officials who believe it circumvents
the law governing national security eavesdropping." -By
Scott Shane -NYTimes
Pakistan
- Religious
- 
Schools
- Politics
- Terrorism
- London
bombings
- 
UK
- "Pakistan's
Islamic schools resist expulsion order: ·
Ban on foreign students followed London bombs · Leaders claim Musharraf
ruling is discriminatory." ... "Leaders of Pakistan's 13,000 madrasas have
vowed to defy a government deadline to expel foreign students by December
31, saying the regulations discriminate against religious schools." ...
"President Pervez Musharraf required Pakistan's madrasas to expel about
1,800 foreign students after the July 7 bombings in London highlighted
the extremist links of some schools. Three of the London bombers were of
Pakistani descent, and the Aldgate bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, attended a
Lahore madrasa that has since been linked to Islamist militants." -By
Imtiaz Gul -Guardian.co.uk
Guantanamo
Bay - 
Cuba
- US
- 
Military
- Prisons
- 
Food
- "Guantanamo
Hunger Strike More Than Doubles; 84 Inmates Involved."
... "The number of detainees on a hunger strike at the U.S. naval base
at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay has more than doubled in the past week, the U.S.
military said." ... "Forty-six detainees joined existing hunger strikers
on Dec. 25, to bring the total number of prisoners refusing food to 84,
the military said yesterday on the Southern Command's Web site. That's
about a sixth of the internment center's inmates." ... "The military said
the detainees are trying to put pressure on the U.S. to release them. Detainees'
lawyers have said the hunger strikers are protesting their continued detention
without trial and conditions at the base." -By Alex
Morales -Bloomberg
Auto
- 
Company
- 
Retiree
- History
- Government
- "How
Bedrock Promises Of Security Have Fractured Across America:
Companies are discarding traditional pensions -- or making government foot
the bill. Delphi workers struggle with the changing landscape." ... "[Oct.
8,] That's when Delphi Chief Executive Robert S. "Steve" Miller, citing
global competition and crippling "legacy costs," ushered the $28.6 billion-a-year
company into one of the largest industrial bankruptcies in U.S. history.
In short order, Miller called for slashing workers' compensation by almost
two-thirds, threatened to void the company's union contracts, and hinted
broadly that he would follow the playbook he had used elsewhere of pushing
responsibility for paying the firm's pensions to the federal government
and dumping its retiree health benefits altogether." ... "Delphi is at
the cutting edge of a crisis that's engulfing the U.S. auto industry, much
as it did steel and airlines. Its actions are adding to a gathering trend,
a shift of economic risks once largely borne by business and government
to the backs of working families." ... "Before the trouble is over, some
believe, a corporate icon such as Ford Motor Co. or GM could be swept from
the American landscape. So too could much of what remains of the already
frayed relationship between millions of working people and their employers."
-By Peter G. Gosselin
-LAtimes
Indonesia
- US
- Business
- Police
- "Indonesian
military admits being paid by US mining firm." ...
"Indonesia's military admitted yesterday that officers received payments
from a local subsidiary of the American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan to
guard its huge Grasberg copper and gold mine in Papua, the western, Indonesian,
half of New Guinea island." ... "The admission comes after a report in
the New York Times claimed that Freeport Indonesia paid military and police
officers, and several army units £11.7m from 1998 to 2004. Some officers
allegedly received tens of thousands of pounds. If they kept any of the
money themselves, it would be a criminal offence." -By
John Aglionby -Guardian.co.uk
Hackers
- 
Music
- Entertainment
- Computer
- Business
- 
Technology
- Consumer
- Privacy
- "Sony
BMG tentatively settles CD software suits." ... "Sony
BMG Music Entertainment has reached a tentative settlement with consumers
who filed a class action lawsuit over the music company's copy-protection
software on CDs, court papers show." ... "Consumers complained that the
technology -- known as XCP -- violated their rights by potentially leaving
computers vulnerable to hackers and allowing the company to track listening
habits." -Reuters
Business
- 
Accounting
- 
Law
- "SEC
calls for clarity in executive pay." ... "Public
companies in the US could have to provide investors with valuations of
the pensions and stock options of senior executives as part of a far-reaching
overhaul of the disclosure rules on executive pay by the Securities and
Exchange Commission." ... "The chief US financial regulator is preparing
the first update of its disclosure rules on executive pay in more than
a decade, because of concerns that investors do not receive adequate information
about compensation. An important requirement could focus on executives'
pensions and options." ... "The median total pay of chief executives increased
by 30 per cent in 2004, according to a survey of 1,522 chief executives
by the Corporate Library, a corporate governance watchdog, published in
October." -By Andrew Parker
-FT.com via
-MSNBC
Economy
- "U.S.
Economy: Home Resales Fall to Lowest in 8 Months (Update4)."
... "Sales of existing homes fell to an eight-month low in November, leaving
the number of houses on the market at the highest since 1986 and suggesting
one pillar of the U.S. economy will weaken next year." ... "Home sales
dropped 1.7 percent to a 6.97 million annual rate, the National Association
of Realtors said today in Washington. Mortgage rates are higher than a
year ago and today's report showed the median price rose 13.2 percent since
November 2004 to $215,000, making homes less affordable." ... "The housing
industry accounts for only about 5 percent of the U.S. economy and yet
generated half of the growth in this year's first six months and more than
half of the private jobs added since 2001, Merrill Lynch & Co. said
in an August report. Price appreciation helped add $5.2 trillion to Americans'
balance sheets during the current expansion, or 68 percent of all wealth
creation, according to the Federal Reserve." -By Courtney
Schlisserman and Andrew Ward -Bloomberg
People
- Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- Civil
Liberties - Politics
- 
Illinois
- 
Florida
- 
Virginia
- "U.S.
Defends Conduct in Padilla Case: Supreme Court Asked
To Overrule 4th Circuit." ... "A federal appeals court infringed on President
Bush's authority to run the war on terror when it refused to let prosecutors
take custody of "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla, the Justice Department
said yesterday, as it urged the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene." ... "The
sharply worded Justice Department filing was the latest salvo in an increasingly
contentious battle over Padilla, a U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago [Illinois]
in 2002 and initially accused of plotting to detonate a radiological "dirty
bomb." Padilla was held for more than three years by the military before
he was indicted last month in Miami [Florida] on separate criminal terrorism
charges." ... "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit refused last
week to allow prosecutors to take custody of Padilla from the military
and rebuked the Bush administration for its handling of the high-profile
case. The Bush administration took strong issue yesterday with the Richmond-based
[Virginia] court's decision and appealed it to the Supreme Court." -By
Jerry Markon-WashingtonPost
Military
- Auto
- 
Airplane
- "Corps
pays $100K for retooled jeep." ... "The Marine Corps
is paying $100,000 apiece for a revamped Vietnam-era jeep as part of its
program to outfit the hybrid airplane-helicopter V-22 Osprey, Pentagon
records show." ... "That's seven times what a deluxe commercial version
of the vehicle costs. It's also three times what U.S. Export-Import Bank
records show the Dominican Republic paid four years ago for a military
version of the vehicle, called the Growler, a recycled version of the M151
jeep." -By Steven Komarow
-USATODAY
EU
- Global
- 
Russia
- US
- Military
- Technology
- "Sky-High
Ambitions: Europe attempts to find its own place
in the world of satellite navigation with the launch of GIOVE-A." ... "Europe
has moved one giant step closer to operating its own long-awaited global
navigation satellite system, Galileo, designed to challenge the domination
of the U.S. military's GPS, or Global Positioning System." ... "GIOVE-A
(or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element) will be testing new technologies
— including atomic clocks, signal generators and user receivers — for what
has been a dream of the European Union since the early 1990s: a wide-ranging
navigation system that is faster and more precise than GPS, provides an
uninterrupted service under civilian control, and offers a commercial alternative
to the U.S. system and its Russian counterpart, GLONASS (Global Navigation
Satellite System)." -By Maryann Bird
-TIME.com
EU
- Global
- Russia
- US- Military
- Politics
- "EU
sends up 1st of 30 satellites in GPS network." ...
"The European Union on Wednesday launched the first satellite in its $4.5
billion Galileo global positioning system, a bid to enhance the world's
growing reliance on satellite navigation and to break the U.S. monopoly
on networks in space." ... "Many Europeans see political significance in
the project too: The world's only civilian-controlled system will give
Europe and its partner nations self-sufficiency from the United States,
which has warned it could diminish or cut off GPS satellite coverage to
countries considered enemies in times of national emergency." ... "The
launch comes at a time when Russia is moving forward with a positioning
system known as GLONASS. On Sunday it put into orbit three new satellites
for the network, which is scheduled to be operational in 2010." -By
Molly Moore-WashingtonPost
via -ChicagoTribune
Labor
- "Executive
pay to be new year's hot topic." ... "Investors plan
to make executive pay the number one issue at companies' annual meetings
this spring." ... "New evidence suggesting that executive pay growth is
accelerating, coupled with outrage at big severance packages for some bosses,
has pushed the issue to the top of investors' concerns." ... "The AFSCME
union, whose pension fund is worth $800m, is calling for UK-style votes
by shareholders on executive pay at the 2006 annual meetings of US Bancorp,
Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Home Depot and Countrywide Financial."
... "The union claims to have identified excessive compensation at these
companies and warns it may try to oust directors on their compensation
committees if they do not take steps to align bosses' pay with company
performance." -By Andrew Parker
-FT.com via
-MSNBC
Texas
- 
Oklahoma
- 
Homes
- Disaster
- "Five
die in wildfires sweeping US: At least five people
have died in the wildfires which have swept across parts of the US states
of Texas and Oklahoma." ... "The fires, fanned by strong winds and dry
weather, have destroyed nearly 200 homes and scorched thousands of acres
of land in the past two days." ... "An estimated 124 homes were destroyed
in Texas and 50 in the neighbouring state of Oklahoma." ... "Worst hit
was the central Texan town of Cross Plains, where the fires forced its
1,000 inhabitants to leave."-BBC
/News
Hawaii
- History
- 
Museum
- "Group
hides native Hawaiian artifacts: Judge jails leader,
holds three others in contempt of court." ... "Leaders of a Hawaiian group
vowed not to divulge the location of a cache of native artifacts obtained
from a museum and then buried, despite the jailing of their director."
... "One of the four, executive director Edward Halealoha Ayau, was taken
into custody after refusing [Chief U.S. District Judge David] Ezra's order
to reveal the exact location of the 83 artifacts from the Bishop Museum."
-AP via -CNN
US
- 
Mexico
- Migrant
- Labor
- 
Family
- Calif.
- 
Iowa
- "Channeling
the Remittance Flood: In 2005, migrant workers in
the U.S. sent $52 billion back to Latin America and the Caribbean." ...
"Alvaro RamÍrez is no stranger to back-breaking work: The 29-year-old
Mexican spent six years picking apples and grapes in Wasco, Calif., earning
less than $4.50 an hour. Four years ago, having heard that meat-packing
plants paid much higher wages, he moved to a small town in Iowa, where
his wife packages pork and he works the graveyard shift maintaining plant
machinery. They each earn $12 an hour, and after income and Social Security
taxes are withheld -- yes, they do pay U.S. taxes -- they clear about $3,500
a month (see BW Online, 7/18/05, "Embracing
Illegals")." ... "That's nearly 10 times what they would earn in Mexico,
and it's enough to buy a used two-bedroom trailer and a 1998 pickup truck
to cart their two preschool daughters around town. Once a month, Ramírez
wires $250 to his 50-year-old mother in Mexico City -- something he has
done almost without fail for the 11 years he has lived in the U.S. as an
illegal alien. "I'll keep sending her money as long as she lives," he vows."
... "Ramírez (not his real name) is one of an estimated 11 million
Mexicans living in the U.S. -- some legally and some illegally -- who are
expected to send a record $20 billion to Mexico in 2005, a 20% increase
over last year. Mexico is the world's largest recipient of "remittances,"
or funds sent home by migrant workers abroad (see BW Online, 10/18/05,
"Immigration:
Is Bush Fenced In?")." -By Geri Smith
-BusinessWeek
Texas
-Enron
- Accounting
- 
Energy
- Business
- "Enron's
Causey pleads guilty: Judge grants two-week delay
to Lay, Skilling trial." ... "Rather than face trial next month, Enron's
former chief accounting officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges
stemming from the scandal that brought down the energy company in late
2001." ... "Richard Causey's plea bargain, made in U.S. District Court
in Houston [Texas] before Judge Sim Lake, can't be welcome news for Kenneth
Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the two top ex-Enron executives federal investigators
claim were kingpins in one of the biggest scandals ever to rock corporate
America." ... "At the same time, the deal requires Causey to cooperate
with federal prosecutors honing their case against his onetime bosses and
raises the possibility of his taking the witness stand against them." -By
Jim Jelter -MarketWatch
Massachusetts
- Computer
- "Massachusetts
CIO quits amid OpenDocument furore." ... "The man
responsible for bringing OpenDocument to Massachusetts has resigned following
controversy and personal attacks over the initiative." ... "Peter Quinn
has resigned from his post as chief information officer for the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts to avoid further mudslinging over the state's controversial
move to OpenDocument." -By Ingrid Marson
-ZDNet.co.uk
NY- 
Internet
- Messaging
- Telecommunications
- 
Patent
- 
Search
Engine - Business
- "Google
Talk faces patent lawsuit." ... "A New York company
[Rates Technology (RTI)] is suing Google for patent infringement over the
voice-over-Internet portion of its Google Talk instant messaging and voice
chat program." ... "It alleges infringement on two of its patents for minimizing
the cost of long-distance calls using the Internet."" ... "RTI President
Jerry Weinberger returned a call seeking comment on Thursday and said his
firm also has sued Vonage and Cablevision over patent infringement." ...
""When a VOIP call can be transferred to the regular PSTN (telephone network),
the switching of that call infringes our patents," Weinberger said." -By
Elinor Mills -CNET
/News
Terrorism
- Business
- Politics
- "Sept.
11 loan recipients weren't hurt by attacks." ...
"Most companies interviewed about the government-backed Sept. 11 loans
they received have told investigators they weren't hurt by the suicide
attacks and didn't know they were getting terrorism assistance, an internal
government investigation found." ... "The Small Business Administration's
inspector general also reported Wednesday that lenders who doled out billions
of dollars in such loans failed — 85% of the time — to document that recipients
were actually hurt by the terrorism attacks and therefore eligible for
the federal aid." -AP
via -USATODAY
Government
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Florida- 
Oregon
- 
Ohio
- Virginia
- "Defense
Lawyers in Terror Cases Plan Challenges Over Spy Efforts."
... "Defense lawyers in some of the country's biggest terrorism cases say
they plan to bring legal challenges to determine whether the National Security
Agency used illegal wiretaps against several dozen Muslim men tied to Al
Qaeda." ... "The lawyers said in interviews that they wanted to learn whether
the men were monitored by the agency and, if so, whether the government
withheld critical information or misled judges and defense lawyers about
how and why the men were singled out." ... "The expected legal challenges,
in cases from Florida, Ohio, Oregon and Virginia, add another dimension
to the growing controversy over the agency's domestic surveillance program
and could jeopardize some of the Bush administration's most important courtroom
victories in terror cases, legal analysts say." -By
Eric Lichtblau and James Risen (1, 2)
-NYTimes
Enron
- Accounting
- Business
- "UPDATE
5-Ex-Enron chief accountant pleads guilty to fraud."
... "Enron's former chief accountant, Richard Causey, on Wednesday pleaded
guilty to securities fraud in exchange for a maximum seven-year jail sentence
for his role in the financial scandal that led to the 2001 collapse of
the power-trading giant." ... "Causey, 45, had been scheduled to go on
trial next month with former Enron chief executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling,
facing the possibility of more than 20 years behind bars, but now may cooperate
with federal prosecutors against them in a switch legal experts said could
hurt his former bosses." ... "Causey pleaded guilty to a single count of
securities related to false filings and statements about Enron's financial
performance. He also agreed to forfeit $1.25 million as part of a sentence
that [U.S. District Judge Sim] Lake said would be set April 21." (1, 2,
3)
-By Jeff Franks with contributions by Deborah Charles
and Ben Berkowitz -Reuters
Government
- Military
- Psychology
-
Health
- "A
Political Debate On Stress Disorder: As Claims Rise,
VA Takes Stock." ... "The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder
among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited
fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally
scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan." ... "A total of 215,871
veterans received PTSD benefit payments last year at a cost of $4.3 billion,
up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of more than 150 percent." ... "Experts
say the sharp increase does not begin to factor in the potential impact
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, because the increase is largely the
result of Vietnam War vets seeking treatment decades after their combat
experiences." (1, 2)
-By Shankar Vedantam -WashingtonPost
Secret
- Government
-Law
Enforcement
- Law
- Privacy
- "U.S.
secret surveillance up sharply since Sept. 11." ...
"Federal applications for a special U.S. court to authorize secret surveillance
rose sharply after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the panel required
changes to the requests at a even greater rate, government documents show."
... "The Justice Department's reports to the U.S. Congress on the surveillance
court's activities show that the Bush administration made 5,645 applications
for electronic surveillance and physical searches through 2004, the most
recent year for which figures are available. In the previous four years,
the court received a total of 3,436." -AlertNet.org/Newsdesk
US
- Iraq
- Police
- "U.S.
Seeks To Escape Brutal Cycle In Iraqi City: 3rd Try
at Pullout Depends on Police." ... "On one of his last days in Iraq, Sgt.
Dale Evans looked out over the turbulent city from a rooftop tower piled
high with sandbags, manning a machine gun. Below him, rows of Bradley Fighting
Vehicles stood at the ready. Dusty streets were lined with coiled barbed
wire and abandoned houses pockmarked from gunfire -- a protective no-man's
land around a base that U.S. commanders describe as their "battleship"
in downtown Samarra." ... "This month, Evans and his company from the 3rd
Battalion, 69th Armor Regiment, will leave Patrol Base Uvanni, beginning
a third attempt in as many years by U.S. forces to hand this Sunni city
over to Iraqi police. It's a major test for the U.S. military in Iraq,
and one U.S. commanders here say they can't afford to fail." ... "Since
2003, Samarra has come to symbolize the trials and errors of U.S. strategy
in Iraq -- a cycle of military offensives, lulls and new waves of lethal
insurgent attacks." (1, 2)
-By Ann Scott Tyson -WashingtonPost
Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Secret
- Prisons
- Civil
Liberties - Privacy
-Law
- Media
- Politics
- "Fear
destroys what bin Laden could not." ... "One wonders
if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed
on 9/11. But he had help." ... "If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that
four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke
U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then
expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed
the girders of our very Republic had crumbled." ... "Had anyone said our
president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming
a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded
even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased
by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had
been eviscerated." ... "If I had been informed that our nation's leaders
would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for
years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such
procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed
at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them." ... "If someone
had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against
a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly
independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie
Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace
would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy
-- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy." -By
Robert
Steinback -Miami/Herald
US
- 
Iran
- 
Nuclear
- Military
- Politics
- Bill
Frist -
"Reining
in Iran." ... ""Iran's ruling mullahs have waged
a 26-year campaign to suppress dissent, support terror and pursue a nuclear
weapons program. In recent weeks, it has become clear that international
efforts to stop Iran's atomic program have failed to bear fruit. Unless
we act quickly, the United States will have a nuclear crisis on its hands."
... "If we let Tehran develop nuclear weapons covertly while IAEA negotiations
slog forward, Iran's theocrats will have little reason to negotiate with
anyone. The U.S. needs to act before a regime that has denied the real
Holocaust unleashes another. " -By Bill Frist
-LAtimes
Ocean
- Animals
- "Oregon
Surfer Punches Shark in the Nose." ... "A surfer
says he reacted on instinct when he punched a great white shark that grabbed
his leg near the northern Oregon coast." ... "He said he learned from television
shows including the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" that a shark's nose
is its most sensitive area." -AP
via -WashingtonPost
US
- Iraq
- "A
look at U.S. military deaths in Iraq." ... "As of
Sunday, Dec. 25, 2005, at least 2,168 members of the U.S. military have
died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an
Associated Press count." ... "Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared
that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 2,029 U.S. military members
have died, according to AP's count." -AP
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Government
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - Law
- Telecommunications
- Business
- Internet
- Privacy
- Politics
- "Spy
Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report."
... "The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes
of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United
States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity,
according to current and former government officials." ... "The volume
of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks,
without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has
acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly
into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they
said." ... "As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic
surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of
American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams
of domestic and international communications, the officials said." ...
"The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic
have raised questions among some law enforcement and judicial officials
familiar with the program." -By Eric Lichtblau and
James Risen
(1,
2)
-NYTimes
US
- 
Egypt
-Law
- "U.S.
Protests Jailing of Egyptian Opposition Leader (Update2)."
... "The U.S. government protested the conviction of Egyptian opposition
politician Ayman Nour on forgery charges and requested he be released from
jail." ... "Nour's conviction ``calls into question Egypt's commitment
to democracy, freedom and the rule of law,'' White House press secretary
Scott McClellan said in a statement. The U.S. calls on Egypt ``to release
Mr. Nour from detention.''" -By Carlos Torres -Bloomberg
Consumer
-Food
- Health
- "Labels
on food to list allergens more plainly: New federal
law intended to help consumers find ingredients that could sicken them."
... "A federal law effective Jan. 1 requires food labels to list ingredients
made from proteins derived from any of the eight major allergenic foods:
milk, eggs, fish, crustaceans, wheat, tree nuts, soybeans and peanuts.
The Food and Drug Administration says they account for 90 percent of all
food allergies." -AP
via -HoustonChronicle.com
Jerry
Lewis - 
Randy
"Duke" Cunningham
- Government
- Military
- Money
- Law
- Politics
- California
- "Close
ties make Rep. Lewis, lobbyist Lowery a potent pair."
... "From powerful positions on the House Appropriations Committee, California
[Republican Representative] Rep. Jerry Lewis has greenlighted hundreds
of millions of dollars in federal projects for clients of one of his closest
friends, lobbyist and former [Republican Represenatative from California]
state Congressman Bill Lowery." ... "Meanwhile, Lowery, the partners at
his firm [Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White] and their clients
have donated 37 percent of the $1.3 million that Lewis' political action
committee received in the past six years." ... "One of the defense companies
that received federal contracts with [convicted California Republican Representative
Randy "Duke"] Cunningham's support was a Lowery client [Brent Wilkes' ADCS
Inc.]. And some of the money was disbursed when Cunningham was a member
of the defense appropriations subcommittee and Lewis was the committee
chairman." ... "Lowery, his partners and their spouses have contributed
$135,000 to Lewis' campaigns and political action committee over the past
decade, routinely giving the maximum allowed by law. Lowery also organizes
and hosts Lewis fundraisers. And many of Lowery's defense-contractor clients
contribute to Lewis as part of their lobbying strategy." ... "Taken together,
they have contributed $480,000 to Lewis' political action committee since
2000." ... "Last year Lewis used some of that money to wow the Republican
leadership with checks for $650,000 in "excess campaign funds" to help
maintain Republican control of the House." ... "In 1999 Lewis became chairman
of the defense appropriations subcommittee, which oversees more discretionary
spending than any other congressional body." ... "Despite that early demonstration
of fiscal toughness, earmarks in the defense bills exploded on Lewis' watch."
... "Many of the earmarks went to clients of Lowery's firm, which grew
even more prosperous when Lewis' principal defense-earmarks gatekeeper,
Letitia White, joined the firm in 2003." -By Jerry
Kammer with contributions by Denise Davidson, Erin Hobbs and Peter Uribe
-CopleyNews.com
via -SignOnSanDiego.com
Samuel
Alito
- 
Women's
- Abortion
- Health
- History
- Law
- "Alito
Argued to Overturn Roe in 1985 Memo: Supreme Court
Nominee Samuel Alito Advocated Reversing Roe V. Wade in 1985 Memo." ...
"In paperwork released earlier from Alito's time in the Justice Department's
solicitor general's office, he recommended a legal strategy of dismantling
abortion rights piece by piece. And as part of an application for a job
as deputy assistant attorney general, Alito said the Constitution does
not guarantee abortion rights." -By Donna Cassata
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
Samuel
Alito
- Women's
- Abortion
- Health
- History
- Law
- "Alito
abortion memo drew cautionary response: Reagan administration
official said '85 correspondence should be kept quiet." ... "A June 1985
memo by Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito arguing that the Roe v. Wade
decision legalizing abortion should be overturned set off alarms in the
Reagan administration, prompting a senior official to caution that the
correspondence should be kept quiet, a new document released Friday shows."
... "In a recommendation to the solicitor general on filing a friend-of-court
brief, Alito said the government "should make clear that we disagree with
Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether,
and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled."" ... "The
June 3, 1985 document was one of 45 released by the National Archives on
Friday. A total of 744 pages were made public."
-AP via -MSNBC
Secret
- Government
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Law
- Privacy
- History
- Samuel
Alito
- "In
1984 memo, Alito defends domestic wiretaps." ...
"As a Reagan administration lawyer, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito
argued that federal officials can't be sued for damages for wiretapping
Americans without warrants in national security cases, a document released
Friday showed." ... "Alito's position may complicate his prospects for
confirmation because its disclosure comes amid an uproar over a four-year-old
Bush administration counterterrorism operation that's been eavesdropping
on Americans without court approval." ... "President Bush's argument that
he has the legal and constitutional authority to direct the National Security
Agency to conduct the secret domestic surveillance operation is almost
certain to end up before the Supreme Court." -By Jonathan
S. Landay -Knight
Ridder via -MercuryNews
Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- Civil
Liberties - Politics
- Florida
- "Terror
case challenges White House strategy: An appeals
court refused the government's request to have Jose Padilla transferred
to Florida for a criminal trial." ... "Suddenly, terror suspect Jose Padilla
seems a lot more dangerous to the Bush administration." ... "It has nothing
to do with his suspected involvement in Al Qaeda bomb plots, analysts say.
Rather, the administration worries that the US Supreme Court might agree
to hear Mr. Padilla's case and decide one of the most pressing constitutional
issues in the war on terrorism. And by all appearances, government lawyers
think they might lose." ... "The issue: Does President Bush have the power
as commander in chief to order the open-ended military detention of US
citizens that he deems enemy combatants?" -By Warren
Richey -CSMonitor
Travel
- Terrorism
- Law
Enforcement - "Airport
security changes create little noise: Guidelines
that now allow small scissors, sharp objects have little effect on travelers."
... "New airport security guidelines that allow passengers to carry small
scissors and other sharp objects were implemented Thursday at airports
nationwide, including Houston." ... "Security personnel will now focus
on detecting explosives rather than confiscating small sharp objects."
-By Armando Villafranca -HoustonChronicle.com
California
- WalMart
- Employees
- Business
- Food
- "Wal-Mart
hit with $172.3m lunch bill." ... "A jury in Oakland,
California on Thursday ordered Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, to pay
$172.3m to current and former employees, after finding that the company
had failed to respect their right to a 30-minute unpaid lunch break." ...
"The verdict is the largest penalty of its kind imposed by a court on the
retailer in a range of lawsuits that have accused it of deliberately allowing
its employees to work unpaid overtime, or to work during legally required
breaks." ... "State law in California requires employers to grant its workers
the 30 minute unpaid break, or to compensate them if they decline to take
the time." -By Jonathan Birchall
-FT.com via
-MSNBC
Italy
- EU
- US
- Egypt
-Intelligence
- "Italy
court issues EU arrest warrant for CIA team." ...
"A Milan court has issued a European arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents suspected
of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Italy's financial capital in 2003,
Prosecutor Armando Spataro said on Friday." ... "Milan magistrates suspect
a CIA team grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street and flew
him for interrogation to Egypt, where he said he was tortured."
-Reuters
Italy
- EU
- US
-Egypt
-Intelligence-
"Italy
court issues EU arrest warrant for CIA team." ...
"A Milan court has issued a European arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents suspected
of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Italy's financial capital in 2003,
Prosecutor Armando Spataro said on Friday." ... "Milan magistrates suspect
a CIA team grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street and flew
him for interrogation to Egypt, where he said he was tortured."
-Reuters
US
- Iraq
- "Rumsfeld
suggests some U.S. troops will be heading home from Iraq."
... "The reductions would bring U.S. troop levels down from about 158,000
to slightly under 130,000. But Rumsfeld warned that "until it's announced,
the government's decision hasn't been announced. Therefore it's not final.""
-By Richard Sisk -MercuryNews
South
Korea - Stem
Cells - Cloning
- Genetics
- Health
- US
- "S.
Korean's Stem Cell Data Fake, Panel Says." ... "A
panel investigating the work of South Korean cloning pioneer Hwang Woo
Suk has concluded that he deliberately fabricated key data in a landmark
paper this year, offering the first evidence of what is potentially one
of the greatest frauds in modern science." ... "The expert panel at Seoul
National University, where Hwang conducted his research, found that nine
of 11 stem cell lines he claimed to have created did not exist." ... "Hwang's
paper, published in May by the U.S. journal Science, purported to describe
the creation of 11 human embryo clones using DNA from patients suffering
from spinal cord injuries and genetic diseases. No other research group
has succeeded in cloning human embryos, though many have been trying."
... "Hwang's team claimed it used the embryos to create individualized
lines of stem cells that were perfect genetic matches to the 11 patients.
The achievement, known as therapeutic cloning, was believed to be the first
step toward creating personalized stem cell therapies for patients." (1,
2)
-By Barbara Demick and Karen Kaplan with contribution
by Jinna Park and -AP
-LAtimes
Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- Civil
Liberties - Politics
- Florida
- "Court
Bars Transfer of Padilla To Face New Terrorism Charges."
... "A federal appeals court yesterday refused to authorize the transfer
of "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla to face new criminal charges, issuing
a strongly worded opinion rebuking the Bush administration and its handling
of the high-profile terrorism case." ... "In issuing its denial, the court
cited the government's changing rationale for Padilla's detention, questioning
why it used one set of arguments before federal judges deciding whether
it was legal for the military to hold Padilla and another set before the
Miami [Florida] grand jury." ... "In requesting the transfer to Justice
Department custody, the government suggested that the 4th Circuit vacate
its ruling allowing Padilla to be held as an enemy combatant. But the 4th
Circuit yesterday also refused to lift the earlier decision and suggested
that the Justice Department request was made to avoid further judicial
scrutiny." ... "The judges said prosecutors had left "an appearance that
the government may be attempting to avoid consideration of our decision
by the Supreme Court." They said they welcomed Supreme Court intervention
because of the "enormous implications" of the Padilla case." -By
Jerry Markon -WashingtonPost
Jack
Abramoff
- Florida
-Political
- Business
- "Talk
of Plea by Lobbyist Has Hill on Edge." ... "[Jack]
Abramoff, a once-powerful lobbyist who is the subject of a federal influence-peddling
investigation, is considering a deal to plead guilty and cooperate with
prosecutors, according to sources familiar with the probe. That could open
the prospect that Abramoff will implicate any number of lawmakers and aides
who were part of his vast network of access." ... "Abramoff's former business
associate, Michael P.S. Scanlon, last month pleaded guilty to conspiring
to bribe public officials and to defraud tribes. He promised to cooperate
with the investigation." ... "In separate federal proceedings in Florida,
Abramoff has been indicted on fraud and conspiracy charges in connection
with his purchase of the Florida-based SunCruz Casinos gambling fleet.
His co-defendant, Adam R. Kidan, last week pleaded guilty and agreed to
testify against Abramoff. Abramoff's trial is set to begin Jan. 9." -By
Janet Hook and Chuck Neubauer
-LAtimes
US
- 
Arizona
- Mexico
- Drugs
- Terrorism
- Law
- Intelligence
- "Surprise
- terror war aids drug war: One Arizona border unit
sees marijuana haul triple." ... "As Congress and President Bush wrangle
over the USA Patriot Act, the Border Security bill, and other tools of
the war on terror, they may want to keep another law-enforcement group
in mind - the nation's drug-fighters." ... "That's because the war on terror
is proving to be a boon to the war on drugs. Drug seizures are up all along
the US-Mexico border. Nowhere is the trend clearer than along a desolate
118-mile patch of Arizona desert across the border from the Mexican state
of Sonora." ... "In what is rapidly becoming one of the highest drug-trafficking
and people- smuggling sectors along the border, US Customs and Border Protection
(CBP) officers there have seized 13,000 pounds of marijuana since Oct.
1, triple the amount captured in the same period last year. That year,
fiscal 2005, also set a record. The reasons for the success? Better intelligence-sharing,
increased manpower, and improved technology that border officials have
received in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks." -By
Faye Bowers -CSMonitor
Secret
-Government
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Telecommunications
- EMail
- Privacy
- Politics
- "Judges
on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program."
... "The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance
in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for
her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality of President
Bush's domestic spying program, according to several intelligence and government
sources." ... "Several members of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Court said in interviews that they want to know why the administration
believed secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails of
U.S. citizens without court authorization was legal. Some of the judges
said they are particularly concerned that information gleaned from the
president's eavesdropping program may have been improperly used to gain
authorized wiretaps from their court." (1, 2)
-By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer with contributions
by Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
Religion
- 
Christmas
- History
- "Christmas
and Hanukkah have fallen on the same day only 4 times in the past 100 years."
... "When traditions overlap Interfaith families face the dilemma of how
to celebrate with respect, understanding." ... "For this first time since
1959, Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah fall on the same day."
... "The number of families trying to respect two religions is growing.
According to the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01, 47 percent
of Jews who wed since 1996 have married people of other faiths." -By
Barbara Karkabi -HoustonChronicle.com
Oregon
- 
Kansas
- Religious
- Science
- Education
- [satire alert!-] "Passion
of the Spaghetti Monster." ... "Bobby Henderson is
holed up in the boonies -- Corvallis, Oregon -- hard at work on his next
entry into the fray over just what students should learn about the origin
of species." ... "When the Kansas Board of Education proposed balancing
evolution instruction by teaching intelligent design, said to be a scientific
theory that supports an "intelligent creator" of all life, the decision
outraged many, including 38
Nobel laureates (.pdf)." ... "Henderson responded with a satirical
letter
to the Kansas board demanding equal time for a different, "equally scientific"
theory of intelligent design, in which a Flying Spaghetti Monster created
the world." -By Kathleen Craig
-Wired
Government
- Law
- Military
- Terrorism
- 
Alaska
- Oil
- 
Environment
- Health
- Education
- Jobs
- Money
- "Senate
Extends Patriot Act, Kills Alaska Drilling (Update1)."
... "The U.S. Senate broke a legislative logjam and cleared the way for
its holiday departure last night with a series of short-term compromises
that extended the Patriot Act and blocked drilling for oil in Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." ... "Democrats prevailed in getting Senate
Republican leaders to abandon the oil-drilling plan, which was attached
to the defense budget." ... "[House] Lawmakers passed a $142.5 billion
budget for health, education and jobs programs that cuts funding from last
year's spending plan, sending the measure to Bush for his signature. The
House approved the measure 215-213 on Dec. 14." ... "The health budget
reduces funding for the No Child Left Behind education initiative, special
education and job training. It freezes funding for the National Institutes
of Health and low- income heating assistance." -By
Catherine Dodge -Bloomberg
Science
- California
- Los
Angeles - Hawaii
- "Man-Made
"Star" Illuminates Milky Way's Mysterious Center."
... "[...] even on the clearest night, the earth's atmosphere obscures
the true brilliance of our galaxy and astronomers have long struggled with
images blurred by its mix of gases and turbulence. Now researchers have
used a new laser-generated star to obtain the clearest pictures yet of
the Milky Way's center. " ... "Astronomer Andrea Ghez of the University
of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues used the 10-meter Keck 2
telescope in Hawaii, which has a laser attached to it, to observe our galaxy.
The skywatchers employed the 14-watt laser to generate a fake star. By
continuously imaging this false star along with the real ones, they could
correct any fuzziness or other distortions introduced by the earth's atmosphere."
-By David Biello -ScientificAmerican
People
- Psychology
- New
Jersey - "Dancing
advertises sexual quality: Study of Jamaicans shows
symmetrical dancers shake it better." ... "Researchers led by William Brown
of Rutgers University in New Jersey filmed more than 180 teenagers shaking
it down, and converted the films into computer-animated, androgynous dancing
figures. When shown the animated dancers, viewers gave higher ratings to
dances performed by people who in reality had more symmetrical bodies and
were generally more attractive." ... "The effect was stronger for women
watching male dances than for men watching women. And the dances performed
by men scored more highly overall than those by women, Brown and his colleagues
report in Nature." -By Michael Hopkin
-Nature
Pennsylvania
- Religious
- Science
- Law
- Kansas
- "Advocates
of 'Intelligent Design' Vow to Continue Despite Ruling."
... "A federal judge's ruling in Pennsylvania that "intelligent design"
is religious fundamentalism dressed in the raiment of science has wounded
a politically influential movement." ... "Some politically influential
backers of intelligent design warned that U.S. District Judge John E. Jones
III, who was appointed by President Bush, so overreached that his ruling
will outrage and inflame millions of conservative and religiously observant
Americans." ... "Jones's expansively written decision incorporated the
scientific critique of intelligent design as pseudoscience in almost every
detail. Legally, that decision is not binding in other states, such as
Kansas, where the state school board is debating incorporating a critique
of Darwinian evolution into its state standards." -By
Michael Powell -WashingtonPost
Karl
Rove
- Dick
Cheney - Military
- Environmental
- Political
- Business
- "Department's
Mission Was Undermined From Start." ... "[Department
of Homeland Security Secretary Tom] Ridge, who had won a Bronze Star as
an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, knew he might be stepping into another
quagmire at DHS. "Part of him was excited," said then-EPA [Environmental
Protection Agency] Administrator Christine Todd Whitman. "Part of him thought
it was a no-win situation."" ... "Clearly, he could not count on unlimited
financial support. And working in the White House, he was already learning
he could not count on absolute political support, either." ... "One stark
example was the White House's blockade of a Ridge-supported plan to secure
large chemical plants. After Sept. 11, Whitman had worked with Ridge on
a modest effort to require high-risk plants --especially the 123 factories
where a toxic release could endanger at least 1 million people -- to enhance
security. But industry groups warned Bush political adviser Karl Rove that
giving new regulatory power to the Environmental Protection Agency would
be a disaster." ... ""We have a similar set of concerns," Rove wrote to
the president of BP Amoco Chemical Co." ... "In an interagency meeting
shortly before DHS's birth, White House budget official Philip J. Perry,
who also happens to be Cheney's son-in-law, declared the Ridge-Whitman
plan dead." (1, 2,
3,
4,
5)
-By Christopher Lee with contributions by Spencer
S. Hsu and Julie Tate -WashingtonPost
Secret
- Government
- Intelligence
- "Surveillance-court
judge quits in protest." ... "A federal judge has
resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence
cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic
spying program, according to two sources." ... "U.S. District Judge James
Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret court set up by the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts
Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation."
... "Two associates familiar with his decision said Tuesday that Robertson
privately expressed deep concern that the warrantless surveillance program
authorized by the president in 2001 was legally questionable." -By
Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer -WashingtonPost
via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Government
- Political
- Intelligence
- Privacy
- Law
- History
- "Limits
to power: Restrictions on domestic spying were put
in place for a reason." ... "It's an old argument. Back during the Vietnam
War, government photographers went to the anti-war demonstrations and took
pictures of the demonstrators. Protest leaders thought, probably correctly,
that their phones were tapped. Even I, a reporter covering the protests,
heard some odd clicking noises when I picked up the phone to make some
calls. And, of course, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, who made his own laws,
eavesdropped on Martin Luther King Jr., among others, though we didn't
know it at the time." ... "Outside the law? John Mitchell, who was President
Richard Nixon's Attorney General, argued that the government didn't need
a warrant to tap the phone of any political dissenter it thought was a
threat to national security, which certainly does sound like the secret
police at work. But in 1972, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Mitchell
was wrong. Justice Lewis Powell, a Nixon appointee, wrote for the unanimous
court that the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects Americans
from "unreasonable searches and seizures" and that that freedom "cannot
be properly guaranteed if domestic security surveillances are conducted
solely at the discretion of the executive branch."" ... "President Bush
obviously thinks the court was wrong, since he ordered the National Security
Agency (NSA) in 2002 to begin eavesdropping on American citizens without
a court-issued warrant." -By Bruce Morton
-CNN
Florida
- Business
-Disaster
- Water
- Divers
- "Chalk's
grounds fleet for inspection after fatal crash off Miami Beach."
... "An airline voluntarily grounded its fleet Wednesday for inspection
after investigators said cracks in the support beam of a wing apparently
caused it to fall off a seaplane that then crashed, killing all 20 people
aboard." ... "Chalk's Ocean Airways operates four other seaplanes, all
the same model that crashed. The grounding came the same day federal investigators
said they were trying to determine why the airline had apparently not discovered
the cracks." ... "Salvage crews and divers worked for a second day Wednesday
to haul up the plane's wreckage from about 35 feet of water in a channel
off the southern tip of Miami Beach [Florida], where it went down Monday."
-By Curt Anderson -Sun-Sentinel
via -Newsday.com
Dick
Cheney - Seniors
- Health
- Education
- "Senate
passes budget cuts: Cheney passes tiebreaking vote."
... "The Senate Friday morning passed a $40 billion deficit reduction bill,
but only after Vice President Cheney cast the tie-breaking vote." ... "Opponents
and supporters of the measure in the Senate were deadlocked 50-50 on the
bill, until Cheney cast the deciding vote." ... "For the first time in
eight years, the spending measure cuts funding for several entitlement
programs." ... "Programs affected include Medicaid and Medicare, and funding
for student loans." -By Greg Robb
-MarketWatch
Iran
- Secret
- Nuclear
- Military
- Politics
- EU
- US
- 
UN
- "The
West's patience wears thin with Iran's hard line."
... "When European nations resume talks with Iran in Vienna Wednesday over
that country's nuclear ambitions, two dangerous new factors are in play.
On the one hand, the patience of the Europeans and the United States with
Iran is running thin. On the other hand, Iran's newly elected president
has shocked a string of nations with some megalomanic pronouncements that
if supported by his people would plunge Iran back into isolation. The stage
is not set for compromise and consensus." ... "At issue is whether Iran's
suspected pursuit of nuclear technology for military purposes is purely
for peaceful purposes, as it claims. The European nations and the US doubt
that, pointing to a string of deceptive Iranian actions, including hiding
from the International Atomic Energy Agency its secret installations to
enrich uranium and produce plutonium." -By John Hughes
-CSMonitor
Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Total
Information Awareness
- Secrecy
- Consumer
- Telecommunications
-Databases
- Privacy
- Law
-
West-Virginia
- Dick
Cheney - Terrorism
- "Bush,
Democrats swap charges over his approval of wiretaps."
... "The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller
of West Virginia, released a letter he wrote to Vice President Dick Cheney
on July 17, 2003, the day he learned of the surveillance in a meeting with
Cheney, three other lawmakers and the heads of the CIA and NSA. Rockefeller
expressed deep misgivings and said the program reminded him of Total Information
Awareness, a controversial Pentagon effort to mine credit-card data, cellphone
calls and even bank withdrawals to spot terrorist activity." ... ""These
concerns were never addressed, and I was prohibited from sharing my views
with my colleagues" by secrecy laws, Rockefeller said Monday. He accused
the president and his aides of "repeatedly misrepresenting the facts" in
recent days and demanded a "full investigation into the legal and operational
aspects of the program" now that the program has come to light." -By
Todd J. Gillman -DallasNews.com
via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Pennsylvania
- Religious
- Science
- Education
- "'Breathtaking
Inanity': How Intelligent Design Flunked Its Test Case:
A federal judge minces no words as he comes down against evolution's rival."
... "Intelligent design is a religious idea and a Pennsylvania school board
may not introduce it into the classroom, a federal judge ruled today. Judge
John E. Jones III ruled that the Dover Area School Board improperly introduced
religion into the classroom when it required science teachers to read a
brief statement during the 9th grade biology class telling students that
evolution was “Just a theory” and inviting them to consider alternatives.
The only alternative specifically mentioned was “intelligent design,” the
notion that life is so complex that it could not possibly have been the
work of natural selection alone and must have been the work of an unspecified
creative intelligence. “We find that the secular purposes claimed by the
Board amount to a pretext for the Board's real purpose, which was to promote
religion in the public school classroom,” Jones wrote." (1, 2)
-By Sean Scully
-TIME.com
Environment
- Animals
- Terrorism
- Civil
Righs - Law
- Politics
- 
Indiana
- "F.B.I.
Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show." ... "Counterterrorism
agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance
and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly,
groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and
poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show." ... "But the documents,
coming after the Bush administration's confirmation that President Bush
had authorized some spying without warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted
charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly
blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful
protest." ... "One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis
[Indiana] planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community
Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic
ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location
of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals." (1, 2)
-By Eric Lichtblau -NYTimes
Government
- Telecommunications
- EMail
- Intelligence
- Law
- West-Virginia
- Cheney,
Dick - "Democrats:
Briefings weren't approvals for wiretapping." ...
"Some Democrats say they never approved a domestic wiretapping program,
undermining suggestions by President Bush and his senior advisers that
the plan was fully vetted in a series of congressional briefings." ...
""I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse, these activities,"
West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the Senate Intelligence Committee's
top Democrat, said in a handwritten letter to Vice President Dick Cheney
in July 2003. "As you know, I am neither a technician nor an attorney.""
... "Rockefeller is among a small group of congressional leaders who have
received briefings on the administration's four-year-old program to eavesdrop
— without warrants — on international calls and e-mails of Americans and
others inside the United States with suspected ties to al-Qaeda."
-AP via -USATODAY
Alaska
- Gas
- Business
- Consumer
- "Alaska
sues BP, Exxon Mobil over natural gas: State claims
oil giants conspired to keep prices high." ... "An antitrust lawsuit filed
against Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC claims the two oil giants are restricting
the nation's supply of natural gas and keeping prices at record highs."
... "The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, says
the two companies acted together to eliminate competition for the exploration,
development and marketing of natural gas from Alaska's North Slope to U.S.
markets." ... ""The only reason for them to collusively not to sell is
to try to continue the scarcity that has driven natural gas prices to historic
highs," said David Boies, the attorney for the Alaska Gasline Port Authority,
which filed the lawsuit." (1, 2)
-AP via -MSNBC
Afghanistan
- US
- Military
- "Afghanistan
Convenes Newly Elected Parliament." ... "An elected
Afghan parliament was sworn in today for the first time in more than 35
years, and will face threats from drug lords, rampant corruption and a
surge in suicide bombings." ... "President Hamid Karzai, his voice breaking
with emotion, said Afghans had won the world's respect with their difficult
struggle to build a democracy, but he cautioned that a lot of hard work
still lay ahead." ... "Vice President Dick Cheney, and his wife, Lynne,
had front-row seats to the opening of parliament, along with U.S. Ambassador
Ronald E. Neumann and Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, who commands about 20,000
U.S. troops here. Many of those soldiers are still battling Taliban and
other insurgents four years after a U.S. and Afghan forces toppled the
Islamic extremists' regime." -By Paul Watson
-LAtimes
Secret
- Intelligence
- Telecommunications
- EMail
- Privacy
- Law
- "President
Bush Defends Secret Wiretaps, Urges Patriot Act Renewal."
... "In his final news conference of the year, President Bush offered a
stern defense of his ordering of secret wiretaps within the United States
and made a spirited plea for the renewal of the Patriot Act." ... "The
president's top priority was to quell the growing outrage over the revelation
on Friday by The New York Times of a widespread, ongoing domestic
eavesdropping program by the National Security Agency that has targeted
phone conversations and e-mail exchanges within the U.S." ... "Though the
disclosure of the covert domestic spying program has caused concern among
both Democrats and Republicans, with some calling for hearings into whether
it violates the Constitution, Bush vigorously defended his right to order
the program, which he said he has renewed more than 30 times."
-MTV.com /News
Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Privacy
- Law
- Politics
- "Bush's
Snoopgate: The president was so desperate to kill
The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor
and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about
national security." ... "The problem was not that the disclosures would
compromise national security, as Bush claimed at his press conference.
His comparison to the damaging pre-9/11 revelation of Osama bin Laden's
use of a satellite phone, which caused bin Laden to change tactics, is
fallacious; any Americans with ties to Muslim extremists-in fact, all American
Muslims, period-have long since suspected that the U.S. government might
be listening in to their conversations. Bush claimed that "the fact that
we are discussing this program is helping the enemy." But there is simply
no evidence, or even reasonable presumption, that this is so. And rather
than the leaking being a "shameful act," it was the work of a patriot inside
the government who was trying to stop a presidential power grab." ... "No,
Bush was desperate to keep the Times from running this important story-which
the paper had already inexplicably held for a year-because he knew that
it would reveal him as a law-breaker." -By Jonathan
Alter -MSNBC/Newsweek
Secret
- Government
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Civil
Liberties - Privacy
- Law
- "Bush
strongly defends eavesdropping program." ... "President
Bush on Monday forcefully defended his administration's eavesdropping program
for terror suspects living in the United States as an essential element
of protecting Americans from a new enemy, and he said whoever unmasked
the secret plan had committed a "shameful act."" ... "As Republicans joined
Democrats in calling for a congressional inquiry into the domestic spying
program, the president insisted he had the legal and constitutional authority
to order surveillance. He said he was concerned about citizens' civil liberties
but denied suggestions that he had abused the power of the presidency,
and he vowed not to abandon the plan he approved after the 2001 terror
attacks." ... ""To say `unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind
of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject," Bush
said. "I am doing what you expect me to do, and at the same time, safeguarding
the civil liberties of the country.""
-ChicagoTribune via -MercuryNews
Entertainment
- People
- Secrets
- "At
Inland Base, Scientologists Trained Top Gun: Tom
Cruise studied intensively at the remote compound near Hemet while becoming
a passionate messenger for the church." ... "In his own spiritual life,
Cruise has continued to climb the "Bridge to Total Freedom," Scientology's
path to enlightenment. International Scientology News, a church magazine,
reported last year that the actor had embarked on one of the highest levels
of training, "OT VII" — for Operating Thetan VII." ... "At these higher
levels — and at a potential cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars —
Scientologists learn Hubbard's secret theory of human suffering, which
he traces to a galactic battle waged 75 million years ago by an evil tyrant
named Xenu." ... "According to court documents made public by The Times
in the 1980s, Hubbard espoused the belief that Xenu captured the souls,
or thetans, of enemies and electronically implanted false concepts in them
to keep them confused about his dirty work. The goal of these advanced
courses is to become aware of the trauma and free of its effects." (1,
2,
3)
-By Claire Hoffman and Kim Christensen
-LAtimes
Secret
- Government
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Privacy- Law
- 
Wisconsin
- "Bush,
under fire, defends spy program: President says eavesdropping
policy is 'vital'." ... "President Bush acknowledged yesterday that he
has repeatedly authorized secret eavesdropping within the United States
without obtaining warrants, a policy that some critics called illegal.
The admission came one day after the president refused to address the issue."
... "Bush yesterday said he reauthorized the program more than 30 times
since the Sept. 11 attacks and vowed to continue it despite criticism by
some members of both political parties." ... "But Senator Russell Feingold,
a Wisconsin Democrat, urged the president to suspend the program immediately.
Feingold said the program violates a law that requires a court order for
such surveillance." -By Michael Kranish
-Boston/Globe
Intelligence
- Politics
- "Robert
Novak Leaving CNN for Fox News." ... "Robert Novak,
the gruff-voiced political pundit and occasional loose cannon in a three-piece
suit, is leaving CNN and going to work for Fox News." ... "In the recent
past, Novak has been making news more than commenting on it. In a controversial
move, he printed the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame in a 2003 newspaper
column, which triggered a full-fledged, multilayered investigation into
who leaked that information. In August he cursed at fellow analyst James
Carville and abandoned the set of a CNN political talk show mid-broadcast.
Just recently he suggested to a group in North Carolina that President
Bush knows the source of the CIA leak. Asked if these incidents led to
his departure, he laughed and said he doesn't think so." -By
Linton Weeks-WashingtonPost
Secret
- Government
- Terrorism
- Privacy
- Politics
- Civil
Liberties - Law
- "Update
3: Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping." ...
"President Bush said Saturday he has no intention of stopping his personal
authorizations of a post-Sept. 11 secret eavesdropping program in the U.S.,
lashing out at those involved in revealing it while defending it as crucial
to preventing future attacks." ... "Angry members of Congress have demanded
an explanation of the program, first revealed in Friday's New York Times
and whether the monitoring by the National Security Agency without obtaining
warrants from a court violates civil liberties."
-AP via -Forbes
Iraq
- US
- Intelligence
- "Official:
Al-Zarqawi Caught, Freed." ... "Iraqi security forces
caught terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Fallujah area last year
but released him because they didn't realize who he was, the deputy interior
minister said in an interview broadcast Friday." ... "CNN broadcast a similar
report late Thursday, but it could not be confirmed. But a U.S. official
said in Washington that American intelligence believed it was plausible."
-AP via-CBSNews
Secret
- Government
- Military
- Terrorism
- EMail
- Telecommunications
- Law
- Politics
- History
- "Bush
Authorized Domestic Spying: Post-9/11 Order Bypassed
Special Court." ... "President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing
the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign
nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against
such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night."
... "For more than four years, the NSA tasked other military intelligence
agencies to assist its broad-based surveillance effort directed at people
inside the country suspected of having terrorist connections, even before
Bush signed the 2002 order that authorized the NSA program, according to
an informed U.S. official." ... "The effort, which began within days after
the attacks, has consisted partly of monitoring domestic telephone conversations,
e-mail and even fax communications of individuals identified by the NSA
as having some connection to al Qaeda events or figures, or to potential
terrorism-related activities in the United States, the official said."
... "It has also involved teams of Defense Intelligence Agency personnel
stationed in major U.S. cities conducting the type of surveillance typically
performed by the FBI: monitoring the movements and activities -- through
high-tech equipment -- of individuals and vehicles, the official said."
-By Dan Eggen with contributions by Dafna Linzer and
Peter Baker -WashingtonPost
Government
- Secrets
- Civil
Liberties - Privacy
- "Official:
Bush authorized spying multiple times: Senior intelligence
officer says President personally gave NSA permission." ... "President
Bush has personally authorized a secretive eavesdropping program in the
United States more than three dozen times since October 2001, a senior
intelligence official said Friday night." ... "The disclosure follows angry
demands by lawmakers earlier in the day for a congressional inquiry into
whether the monitoring by the highly secretive National Security Agency
violated civil liberties." (1, 2)
-AP via -MSNBC
US
- Mexico
- US
Immigration - Drugs
- Law
- California
- 
New
Mexico - Texas
- Arizona
- "House
Votes for 698 Miles of Fences on Mexico Border."
... "House Republicans voted on Thursday night to toughen a border security
bill by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to build five fences
along 698 miles of the United States border with Mexico to block the flow
of illegal immigrants and drugs into this country." ... "The amendment
to the bill would require the construction of the fences along stretches
of land in California, New Mexico, Texas and Arizona that have been deemed
among the most porous corridors of the border." ... "The vote on the amendment
was a victory for conservatives who had long sought to build such a fences
along the Mexican border. But the vote was sharply assailed by Democrats,
who compared the fences to the Berlin Wall in Germany. Twelve Republicans
also voted against the amendment." -By Rachel L. Swarns
-NYTimes
US
- World
- Government
- Secret
- Telecommunications
- Intelligence
- Privacy
- Terrorism
- Law
- "Bush
Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts." ... "Months
after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National
Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United
States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved
warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government
officials." ... "Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence
agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international
e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United
States without warrants over the past three years in an effort to track
possible "dirty numbers" linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency,
they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications."
... "The previously undisclosed decision to permit some eavesdropping inside
the country without court approval was a major shift in American intelligence-gathering
practices, particularly for the National Security Agency, whose mission
is to spy on communications abroad. As a result, some officials familiar
with the continuing operation have questioned whether the surveillance
has stretched, if not crossed, constitutional limits on legal searches."
(1, 2,3,
4,
5)
-By James Risen and Eric Lichtblau with contributions
by Barclay Walsh -NYTimes
Secrecy
- Politics
- "Bush
Issues Order to Ease Access to Government Information."
... "President Bush has issued an executive order directing federal agencies
to improve public access to government information." ... "The order, signed
by the president late Wednesday, follows five years of often bipartisan
criticism of his administration on grounds of excessive secrecy, particularly
since the 2001 terrorist attacks. It mandates some of the changes that
have been proposed by members of Congress from both parties to strengthen
the Freedom of Information Act." -By Scott Shane
-NYTimes
Government
- Terrorism
- Law
- Civil
Liberties - Wisconsin
- 
Idaho
- "Senate
may decide fate of Patriot Act's expiring provisions."
... "The Senate was still weighing a proposed accord with the House to
extend the expiring 16 provisions of the law enacted in the wake of the
Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. But that compromise appeared to lack the
necessary votes to succeed." ... "The White House and its congressional
allies prefer to let the provisions expire and hold Democrats responsible
in next year's midterm elections rather than let opponents whittle away
at the law." ... "But the critics, who include senators with such wide-ranging
views as Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Republican Larry Craig
of Idaho, say they don't want the Patriot Act to expire — they just want
enough time to improve the bill to the point where it doesn't infringe
on American liberties." -USATODAY
Richard
Pombo
- 
Abramoff
- Money
- Lawmaker
- California
- Massachusetts
- US
- Northern
Mariana Islands
IP
- Microsoft
- Wireless
- EMail
- Computer
- Net
- Business
- Texas
- "Microsoft
Sued Over Mobile E-Mail Patents: Mobile E-mail vendor
Visto has sued Microsoft, claiming Windows Mobile violates its patents.
Visto also teamed with NTL, which sued RIM." ... "Mobile e-mail technology
vendor Visto Thursday claimed that Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 platform
violates its patents and has signed a licensing agreement with NTP, which
has sued Research In Motion for alleged patent violations." ... "In addition,
NTP has acquired an equity stake in Visto, the company said in a statement."
... "Visto said in a statement that it has filed a patent infringement
lawsuit against Microsoft in U.S. District Court in Texas that covers three
specific patents owned by Visto. The complaint asks the court to prohibit
Microsoft from improperly using Visto's intellectual property and asks
for compensation." -MobilePipeline.com
via -InformationWeek
Books
- 
Library
- Languages
- "Study:
1 In 20 Can't Read English." ... "An estimated in
one in 20 U.S. adults is not literate in English, which means 11 million
people lack the skills to perform everyday tasks, a federal study shows."
... "The 11 million adults who are not literate in English include people
who may be fluent in another language, such as Spanish, but are unable
to comprehend text in English." -AP
via -CBSNews
US
- Iraq
- Military
- Intelligence
- "Bush
Admits Mistakes but Defends War: He accepts responsibility
for acting on flawed intelligence but says the invasion was justified.
Aides hope his candor will boost his ratings." ... "President Bush said
Wednesday that he accepted responsibility for deciding to wage war in Iraq
in part on the basis of faulty intelligence, but that he remained convinced
history would conclude he had done the right thing." ... "Speaking hours
before Iraqis began arriving at the polls to elect a new government, Bush
acknowledged miscalculations and mistakes before and after the U.S.-led
coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003." ... ""It is true that much of the
intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush told a group of political leaders
and scholars at the nonpartisan Woodrow Wilson Center. "As president, I'm
responsible for the decision to go into Iraq, and I'm also responsible
for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities.""
-By Warren Vieth-LAtimes
Government- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Prisons
- Law
- Arizona
- "Bush
backs down on proposed torture ban." ... "President
Bush on Thursday abandoned his opposition to an anti-torture amendment
by Sen. John McCain in the face of overwhelming support for the measure
in Congress." ... "Bush backed down from a veto threat after being unable
to muster support from one-third of either the House or Senate, even though
his own Republican Party controls both chambers. The measure by McCain,
R-Ariz., is attached to the annual defense spending bill that funds the
war on terrorism." ... "The amendment says no one in U.S. government custody,
whether prisoner of war or terrorist," shall be subject to cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment," regardless of where the prisoner
is being held." -By John Diamond with contributions
by David Jackson -USATODAY
US
- World
- Prisons-Florida
- 
Georgia
- "House
Defies Bush and Backs McCain on Detainee Torture."
... "In an unusual bipartisan rebuke to the Bush administration, the House
on Wednesday overwhelmingly endorsed Senator John McCain's measure to bar
cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners in American custody anywhere
in the world." ... "Although the vote was nonbinding, it put the Republican-controlled
House on record in support of Mr. McCain's provision for the first time,
at the very moment when the senator, a Republican, is at a crucial stage
of tense negotiations with the White House, which strongly opposes his
measure." ... "Representative C. W. Bill Young of Florida, head of the
House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, was one of 121 Republicans who
voted against Mr. McCain's language. One Democrat, Jim Marshall of Georgia,
voted against it; 200 Democrats and one independent supported it." -By
Eric Schmitt -NYTimes
Iran
- US
- Alaska
- 
Canada
- 
Germany
- History
- "Iranian
leader: Holocaust a 'myth'." ... "Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has described the Holocaust as "a myth" and suggested
that Israel be moved to Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska." ...
"Ahmadinejad sparked widespread international condemnation in October when
he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."" ... "Last week, he also
expressed doubt about the killing by the Nazis of six million Jews during
World War II, but Wednesday was the first occasion when he said in public
that the Holocaust was a myth." ... "In Berlin, German Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his government had summoned the Iranian charge
d'affaires to make "unmistakably clear" its displeasure, The Associated
Press said." -CNN
Canada
- US
- World
- Drugs
- Internet
- Privacy
- "Meth
addicts' other habit: Online theft." ... "Hot on
the trail of identity thieves, veteran [Alberta, Canada] Edmonton Police
Service detectives Al Vonkeman and Bob Gauthier last winter hustled to
a local motel, a cinder-block establishment where rooms rent by the hour."
... "Inside Room 24 the detectives found meth pipes, stolen credit cards,
notebooks with handwritten notations about fraudulent transactions and
printouts of stolen identity data." ... "Evidence in the motel room would
ultimately lead them to a much bigger revelation: The Edmonton ring had
gone global." ... "It no longer relied solely on dumpster-diving, mailbox-pilfering
street addicts to supply stolen credit cards, checks and account statements,
the grist for local thefts. Instead, it had advanced to complex joint ventures,
conducted over the Internet, in partnership with organized cybercrime rings
outside the country." ... "What's happening in Edmonton is happening to
one degree or another in communities across the USA and Canada — anywhere
meth addicts are engaging in identity theft and can get on the Internet,
say police, federal law enforcement officials and Internet security experts."
-By Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz
-USATODAY
Privacy
- Law
- Terrorism
- "An
11th-hour drive to amend Patriot Act: Congress is
set to vote Friday on extending parts of the law, but some say privacy
needs protecting." ... "An unusual coalition of lawmakers and activists
opposed to parts of the USA Patriot Act is mounting a last push to persuade
Congress to take more time before voting to extend some of the law's most
controversial provisions." ... "At issue is whether Congress has been rigorous
enough in assessing how the Patriot Act - which the White House calls vital
to its war on terror - has been implemented. Many lawmakers were stunned
by recent press reports, denied but not corrected by the Justice Department,
that the FBI has issued as many as 30,000 "national security letters" since
the law was passed nearly unanimously in 2001. The letters order private
and public entities to turn over records and other private data about Americans
- and remain silent about it." -By Gail Russell Chaddock
-CSMonitor
Military
- Intelligence
- Law
- Secrets
- Arizona
- "New
Army Rules May Snarl Talks With McCain on Detainee Issue."
... "The Army has approved a new, classified set of interrogation methods
that may complicate negotiations over legislation proposed by [Arizona
Republican] Senator John McCain to bar cruel and inhumane treatment of
detainees in American custody, military officials said Tuesday." ... "The
techniques are included in a 10-page classified addendum to a new Army
field manual that was forwarded this week to Stephen A. Cambone, the under
secretary of defense for intelligence policy, for final approval, they
said." ... "The addendum provides dozens of examples and goes into exacting
detail on what procedures may or may not be used, and in what circumstances.
Army interrogators have never had a set of such specific guidelines that
would help teach them how to walk right up to the line between legal and
illegal interrogations." -By Eric Schmitt with contributions
by Joel Brinkley -NYTimes
US
- World
- Oil
- "Oil
imports help push trade gap to record high." ...
"The U.S. international trade deficit jumped to a record $68.9 billion
in October, the government said Wednesday, prompting economists to warn
that growth could be slower than forecast in the fourth quarter of 2005."
... "Still, stock markets rallied on a separate Labor Department report
showing prices for imported goods fell 1.7% in November, as oil prices
dropped from post-hurricane highs. Tamer inflation could relieve pressure
on the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates. Also Wednesday,
a group of top CEOs predicted strong growth ahead." -By
Barbara Hagenbaugh -USATODAY
US
- World
- Iraq
- Death
Penalty -UN
- "Rice
Scolds Holdouts on Iraq Trial: Nations not aiding
the Hussein proceedings are ducking duty to law and human rights, she says."
... "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sharply criticized other nations
Tuesday for failing to provide support for the trial of Saddam Hussein,
saying that the world community's "effective boycott of Saddam's trial
is only harming the Iraqi people."" ... "U.S. officials have differed with
many other governments almost from the outset of the war on how to conduct
trials of Hussein and top aides. The U.S. and its Iraqi allies wanted the
trials to be overseen by national authorities in Iraq, whereas officials
with the U.N. and from many other countries favored hybrid proceedings
with a larger international component." ... "Officials of other governments,
including many in Europe, have said they would avoid a proceeding they
feared could be seen as an American-run show trial. They also have been
put off by the possible death penalty, which is legal in Iraq and the United
States but banned in much of the world." -By Paul
Richter with contributions by Richard Boudreaux
-LAtimes
US
- 
Taiwan
- "US
diplomat had affair with spy: A former top US diplomat
has pleaded guilty to not disclosing a relationship with a Taiwanese intelligence
officer." ... "Donald Keyser, 62, also pleaded guilty to illegally removing
classified documents from the US State Department where he was employed
until 2004." -BBC
/News
Washington
- Animals
- Water
- Science
- "Efforts
to protect orcas may have wide impact: Public urged
to comment on the conservation plan." ... "Early next year comes the first
step in determining how much punch the "endangered" label will carry for
the oft-ogled orcas [in Washington state's Puget Sound]. Federal officials
are asking the public to speak up in the next few weeks." ... "But the
agency isn't likely to do anything soon about an expanding whale-watching
fleet, and what orca advocates call a growing underwater cacophony of boat
noise hobbling the whales' ability to find prey and communicate." ... "Orca
advocates want all that dealt with under the new endangered designation,
but that's unlikely, according to Fisheries Service spokesman Brian Gorman."
... "Environmentalists, who had to sue the Fisheries Services to force
the endangered species listing, say that's exactly what they're afraid
of." -By Robert McClure
-SeattlePI.NWsource
Internet
- Media
- "AOL
founder calls for breakup of Time Warner: Merger
weighed online company down, Case says." ... "Steve Case, architect of
the $112 billion merger of Time Warner Inc. and America Online, joined
Carl Icahn this week in pressing for a breakup of the company." ... "Case,
who holds about $250 million of Time Warner shares, wrote that he hasn't
spoken with Icahn or his advisers." -Bloomberg
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Water
- US
- 
Turkey
- Police
- 
Connecticut
- "Congress
turns attention to cruise safety." ... "George Allen
Smith IV vanished from a Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ship in the Mediterranean
10 days after his wedding last summer. His family says he was a victim
of foul play covered up by the cruise ship line to avoid bad publicity."
... "Smith's wife, Jennifer Hagel Smith, says ship officials forced her
from the vessel after her husband's disappearance and abandoned her in
Turkey, where she ended up at a police station and later a hospital with
no food, money, clothing or ticket home." -AP
via -USATODAY
California
-Los
Angeles - History
- Politics
- "Stanley
Tookie Williams executed: Crips gang co-founder put
to death for 4 murders." ... "Stanley Tookie Williams -- the cofounder
of the violent Crips street gang who became an anti-gang crusader while
on death-row -- died by lethal injection early Tuesday for the 1979 killings
of four people in two Los Angles [California] robberies." ... "Williams'
case set off intense debates over the death penalty and redemption, with
celebrities, activists and anti-death penalty advocates saying his initiatives
and anti-gang message from behind bars had proven his life was worth saving.
He had even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize
in Literature by an array of college professors, a Swiss lawmaker and others."
... "Before Williams went to the execution chamber, the stepmother of one
of the men Williams was convicted of killing said she felt "justice is
going to be done tonight."" ... "[...] Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic
nun and a prominent death penalty opponent, compared the death penalty
to "gang justice."" ... ""Gang justice is, if you kill a member of our
gang, we kill you -- and don't tell me anything about how you changed your
life or what you're going to do," she said. "You kill, and we kill you.
And that's what the United States of America is doing with this."" -With
contributions by Ted Rowlands, Kareen Wynter, and Bill Mears
-CNN
Hurricane
Katrina - Disaster
- Government
- Politics
- "Battle
brews over a bigger military role: The Pentagon tilts
toward taking more authority in major disasters - worrying governors, lawmakers."
... "The lessons learned from hurricane Katrina appear to be putting the
Pentagon on a collision course with governors and lawmakers worried about
the expanding role of the military in disaster response." ... "Gaining
currency at the highest levels of the Pentagon is the idea that during
a catastrophic event - either natural or terrorist - the Department of
Defense should replace the Department of Homeland Security as the agency
in charge of the federal response." ... "In many ways, the notion is limited,
affecting only how the federal government deploys its own resources. Yet
in a nation founded on a distrust of military control, any suggestion of
giving the armed forces greater authority on American soil faces centuries-old
skepticism. Moreover, it comes at a time when governors are already feeling
besieged by an administration that, they feel, is too eager to wrest power
from them." -By Mark Sappenfield -CSMonitor
Psychology
- Drugs
- Science
- 
Alabama
- "Parkinson's
hope over 'implants': US scientists have moved a
step closer to developing a brain implant therapy for Parkinson's disease
symptoms." ... "The most common drug treatment for the brain condition
is levodopa, but the pills can leave people susceptible to involuntary
movements such as twitches." ... "The Alabama University team found in
tests on six patients, eye cells which produce levodopa can be implanted
safely and without the side effects." ... "The study was published in the
Archives of Neurology journal."-BBC
/News
Wireless
- Telecommunications
- Business
- Law
- "Cellphone
rulings could mean billions in tax refunds." ...
"Phone customers are due $9 billion in tax refunds and a 3% cut in wireless
phone and long-distance bills, according to a series of federal court decisions."
... "But the federal government continues to collect the tax and requires
so much paperwork for refunds that only big corporations are likely to
benefit." ... "The Bush administration has not said whether it will appeal
to the Supreme Court." -By Dennis Cauchon
-USATODAY
Money
- Texas
- California
- Florida
- Opinion
- "Can
Congress police its ethics? Criminal probes are exposing
corrupt practices in Congress, prompting calls for reform of ethics standards."
... "With a flurry of corruption indictments and related plea agreements
threatening to become a storm, Congress is feeling the heat on ethics reform."
... "Criminal investigations in Texas, California, and Florida are shining
a bright light on standards of conduct in Congress, helping sink public
confidence in the institution to its lowest point in more than a decade."
... "Since 1998, lobbyists report spending some $13 billion to influence
Congress, the White House, and federal agencies, according to the Center
for Public Integrity. Over the same period, more than 200 former members
of Congress and 42 former agency heads have registered as federal lobbyists."
... "Nearly 90 percent of Americans say that political corruption is a
serious problem, according to an AP-Ipsos poll." -By
Gail Russell Chaddock -CSMonitor
US
Immigration - History
- Legal
- "Study:
Immigration grows, reaching record numbers." ...
"Despite tougher border scrutiny after 9/11, a total of 7.9 million immigrants
have come to the USA since 2000, more than in any other five-year period
in the nation's history, figures released Monday show." ... "Almost half,
or 3.7 million, entered illegally, according to an analysis of Census data
by the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., group that advocates
controlling the flow of legal and illegal immigrants." ... "An estimated
11 million immigrants live illegally in the USA." -By
Haya El Nasser and Kathy Kiely -USATODAY
US
- Iraq
- World
- Intelligence
- Politics
- "Peace-making
a core mission in new Pentagon policy." ... "After
years of internal debate, the Pentagon has embraced a fundamental change
in policy which calls for the U.S. armed forces to be equally adept at
waging war and making peace." ... "The new course, announced in a Pentagon
directive, follows widespread criticism of the conduct of the war in Iraq,
where U.S. forces scored a swift, decisive victory over conventional opponents
but found themselves ill-equipped to deal with post-combat chaos and an
increasingly effective insurgency." ... "The directive says that establishing
order and security, restoring essential services and meeting the humanitarian
needs of the population of a vanquished country were a "core U.S. military
mission.""" ... "The directive specifies the need for better language skills,
more regional expertise, better intelligence and counterintelligence, more
emphasis on studying foreign cultures and more coordination with foreign
governments, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations."
(1, 2) -By Bernd Debusmannn -Reuters
Alaska
- Oil
- Business
- Environment
- Law
- "White
House pushes Congress on Alaska drilling." ... "Bush
administration officials on Monday urged Congress to include opening Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling in a broad budget-cutting
bill that could see a vote this week." ... "The Senate included ANWR in
its package of spending cuts. But the House-passed budget bill dropped
the ANWR drilling provision after a group of moderate Republicans threatened
to vote against the measure if the drilling language was included." ...
"The Bush administration stepped up its lobbying efforts to give oil companies
access to the refuge." (1, 2)
-By Chris Baltimore with contributions by Richard
Cowan -Reuters
Texas
- Tom
DeLay - Political
- 
Maps
- 2004
Election - "Supreme
Court to rule on Texas poll maps case." ... "The
US Supreme Court said on Monday it would rule on controversial maps for
electoral districts in Texas that were engineered by Tom DeLay, the former
majority leader in the House of Representatives, to increase Republican
strength in Congress." ... "The new maps, drawn in 2003, played a key role
in the 2004 congressional elections, when five incumbent Democrats in Texas
lost their seats in the House, boosting Republicans' majority on Capitol
Hill and enhancing Mr DeLay's image as a powerful political force." ...
"The high court review is also likely to draw fresh attention to recent
disclosures that staff attorneys at the US Department of Justice objected
to the Texas maps, arguing that they would disadvantage minority voters.
Those criticisms were over-ruled by senior political appointees at the
department." -By Holly Yeager
-FT.com
Samuel
Alito
- Bill
Frist
- 
Tennessee
- West-Virginia
- Law
- "Fight
looms if Republicans change Senate rules." ... "Democratic
Sen. Robert Byrd warned on Monday that he would bring the U.S. Senate to
a virtual standstill if Republicans carry out a threat to change its rules
by outlawing filibusters on judicial nominations." ... "Byrd of West Virginia,
a staunch defender of the Senate's often arcane rules and procedures, was
responding to a comment by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist [Republican,
Tennessee], who said Sunday he might move to restrict filibusters if Democrats
try to block the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court."
(1, 2)
-By Richard Cowan -Reuters
California
- Los
Angeles - Law
- History
- "Gov.
Schwarzenegger Denies Clemency for Crips Co-Founder."
... "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that he would not grant
clemency to Stanley Tookie Williams, whose bid to avoid being put to death
shortly after midnight tonight has gained wide attention." ... "Governor
Schwarzenegger's decision not to halt Mr. Williams' execution by injection
at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday is his third rejection of a petition for a stay of
execution or clemency since he took office in 2003. Clemency has not been
granted to a death row inmate in California since 1967." ... "Mr. Williams,
51, is the co-founder of the Crips gang of Los Angeles and has been on
death row since 1981, following his conviction for murdering four people
in 1979." -By Sarah Kershaw and Shadi Rahimi .NYTimes
Death
Penalty
- Law
-California
- Illinois
- "Putting
Tookie in Context." ... "While I have opposed the
death penalty as long as I have been aware of it, the media attention generated
by the Tookie Williams case has left me with more ambivalence than outrage,
raising issues for me about the death penalty, the so-called criminal justice
system, gang violence, and the peculiar manner by which Black leaders set
priorities." ... "Stanley Tookie Williams is just one of the 3,415 people
on death row in the United States, just one of nearly 650 on death row
in California. More than 40 percent of those awaiting execution are
African American, even though we are less than 13 percent of the nation's
population." ... "The death penalty isn't fair – too many death row inmates
have been unrepresented or inadequately represented. Too many have been
convicted on faulty circumstantial or eyewitness evidence. Too many
mistakes have been uncovered after conviction, so many that the state of
Illinois has suspended executions indefinitely." -By
Julianne Malveaux -BET.com
US
- Iraq
- Military
- Politics
- "Bush
Estimates 30,000 Iraqis Killed in War." ... "In a
rare, unscripted moment, President Bush on Monday estimated 30,000 Iraqis
have died in the war, the first time he has publicly acknowledged the high
price Iraqis have paid in the push for democracy." ... "``I would say 30,000,
more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing
violence against Iraqis,'' Bush said. ``We've lost about 2,140 of our own
troops in Iraq.''" ... "The U.S. military does not release its tally of
Iraqi dead, but there is some consensus from outside experts that roughly
30,000 is a credible number. White House counselor Dan Bartlett said Bush
was not giving an official figure but simply repeating public estimates."
-By Nedra Pickler -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
Iraq
- Law
- US
- Military
- "Early
Voting Begins in Iraq; Nine Killed." ... "Thousands
of Iraqi forces will be protecting polling stations, with U.S. and other
coalition troops ready to help in case of a major attack." ... "Most attention
has focused on Sunni Arabs, who largely boycotted the Jan. 30 election
to protest the continued U.S. military presence. That enabled the Shiites
and Kurds to dominate parliament, a move that sharpened communal tensions
and fueled the Sunni-dominated insurgency." ... "This time, more Sunni
Arab candidates are in the race, and changes in the election law to allocate
most seats by province instead of based on a party's nationwide total all
but guaranteed a sizable Sunni bloc in the next assembly." -By
Qassim Abdul-Zahra -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
Secret
- Government
- Wireless
- Telecommunications
- Technology
- Law
Enforcement - Law
- New
York - Texas
- 
Maryland
- Noteworthy
- "Live
Tracking of Mobile Phones Prompts Court Fights on Privacy."
... "Most Americans carry cellphones, but many may not know that government
agencies can track their movements through the signals emanating from the
handset." ... "In recent years, law enforcement officials have turned to
cellular technology as a tool for easily and secretly monitoring the movements
of suspects as they occur. But this kind of surveillance - which investigators
have been able to conduct with easily obtained court orders - has now come
under tougher legal scrutiny." ... "In the last four months, three federal
judges have denied prosecutors the right to get cellphone tracking information
from wireless companies without first showing "probable cause" to believe
that a crime has been or is being committed. That is the same standard
applied to requests for search warrants." ... "The rulings, issued by magistrate
judges in New York, Texas and Maryland, underscore the growing debate over
privacy rights and government surveillance in the digital age." (1, 2)
-By Matt Richtel -NYTimes
Illinois
- Transportation
- Disaster
- "Southwest
plane slides off Chicago runway, 1 dead." ... "A
Southwest Airlines plane landing in a snowstorm in Chicago slid off a runway
on Thursday and crashed through a fence and onto a busy road, colliding
with two cars. A boy in one of them was killed." ... "The Boeing 737, which
had flown to Midway Airport from Baltimore with 98 passengers and five
crew, ended up in an intersection with its nose on the ground after the
front gear collapsed, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said."
(1, 2)
-By Andrew Stern -Reuters
Government
-Disaster
- Hurricane
Katrina - "FEMA
Chief Was Warned In 2004." ... "FEMA's top official
was told more than a year before Hurricane Katrina that the agency's emergency
response teams were unprepared for a major disaster and were operating
under outdated plans, documents show." ... "An 11-page memo to Michael
Brown, former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, from June
2004 described teams of national response managers that were not prepared
and were getting "zero funding for training, exercise or team equipment.""
... "Those responders "provide the only practical, expeditious option for
the (FEMA) director to field a cohesive team of his best people to handle
the next big one," wrote William Carwile, one of FEMA's federal coordinating
officers." ... "Carwile told Senate aides in a meeting this week that his
memo largely was ignored at FEMA's headquarters, as were four budget requests
over an 18-month period for money for the teams."
-AP via
-CBSNews
US
- Iraq
- "A
tale of 2 scarred cities: Najaf and Mosul." ... "Although
President Bush said Wednesday that residents in Najaf and Mosul are "gaining
a personal stake in a peaceful future," critics in the two Iraqi cities
cite corruption, undemocratic institutions, persistent violence and stalled
reconstruction." ... "Najaf is a largely peaceful Shiite city 100 miles
south of Baghdad that has not suffered from the sectarian attacks ravaging
other parts of the country. But rivalries between Shiite factions have
occasionally become violent, and many complain that militant political
parties and militias dominate city government and security forces." -By
Alaa al-Morjani and Sindbad Ahmed -AP
via -ChicagoTribune
Nebraska- Police
- "Biker
cleared after 128mph chase: A US motorcyclist who
zoomed through Nebraska at over 128mph (205kph) has been cleared of reckless
driving." ... "Judge John Steinheider reluctantly ruled that speed alone
was not enough to prove reckless driving under Nebraska law." ... "Biker
Jacob Carman accelerated away from a traffic policeman after he was clocked
at 82mph (131km/h)." ... "State prosecutors admitted that they could have
won a conviction for speeding, but had opted to pursue a charge of reckless
driving." -BBC
/News
US
- Iraq
- Politics
- Police
- "Bus
bombing kills 30 in Baghdad: A suicide attacker has
detonated a bomb on a bus in Baghdad, killing at least 30 people, Iraqi
police said." ... "The vehicle was leaving al-Nahda bus station heading
south for the Shia town of Nasiriya when the attack occurred." ... "Witnesses
said the bus was gutted and left in flames by the explosion. Another 25
people are reported injured." ... "Iraq has been bracing for an increase
in violence by anti-US insurgents ahead of the election next Thursday for
the first full-term post-Saddam parliament." ... "Police believe the attacker
waited until the bus was pulling away slowly from the station and jumped
on board to avoid security checks." -BBC
/News
Bill
Frist
- Rick
Santorum - Tom
DeLay
- Medical-Law
- "Terri
Schiavo's widower takes aim at politicians." ...
"Terri Schiavo's widower launched a political action committee on Wednesday
aimed at defeating elected officials he accused of exploiting a tragedy
for political gain by trying to block court orders that allowed his brain-damaged
wife to die." ... "Michael Schiavo said in a news release that the group,
TerriPAC, would raise money to campaign against members of Congress, mostly
Republicans, who drafted and voted for legislation to intervene in the
case." ... "Among Republicans it is targeting are Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist of Tennessee, Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Rep. Tom
DeLay of Texas." -By Jane Sutton
-Reuters
Florida
- Airline
- Terrorism
- "Man
who threatened to blow up bomb killed by federal marshal."
... "As dozens of passengers exited from an American Airlines flight at
[Florida's] Miami International Airport this afternoon, one male passenger
who threatened to blow up a bomb in the gateway was shot and killed by
a federal air marshal, a government official said." ... "The 44-year-old
U.S. citizen, whose name was not immediately released, claimed he had the
bomb in a carry-on bag and tried to run away from a team of federal air
marshals after they ordered him to the ground, according to the Transportation
Security Administration." ... "One of the air marshals opened fire as the
man reached into the bag." -AP
-MercuryNews
Christmas
- Religion
- "'Holiday'
Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List." ...
"What's missing from the White House Christmas card? Christmas." ... "This
month, as in every December since he took office, President Bush sent out
cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his
close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season."" ... "Religious
conservatives are miffed because they have been pressuring stores to advertise
Christmas sales rather than "holiday specials" and urging schools to let
students out for Christmas vacation rather than for "winter break." They
celebrated when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) insisted that
the sparkling spectacle on the Capitol lawn should be called the Capitol
Christmas Tree, not a holiday spruce." ... "Then along comes a generic
season's greeting from the White House, paid for by the Republican National
Committee. The cover art is also secular, if not humanist: It shows the
presidential pets -- two dogs and a cat -- frolicking on a snowy White
House lawn." (1, 2)
-By Alan Cooperman-WashingtonPost
Virginia
- Religion
- Politics
- Seniors
- "Mayor
charged with defrauding charity." ... "The mayor
of the south-central Virginia city of Lynchburg was indicted over allegations
that he looted a church charity of more than $30,000 and defrauded two
people of their Social Security disability benefits." ... "Mayor Carl B.
Hutcherson Jr. was charged with fraud, making false statements to federal
officials and bank representatives, and obstruction of justice." ... "The
federal indictment, issued Dec. 1 and unsealed Wednesday, alleges that
Hutcherson was struggling to pay the bills at a funeral home he runs as
he took money from the disability recipients and a charity connected to
Trinity United Methodist Church, where he is pastor." -By
Sue Lindsey -AP
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
US
-Iraq
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Opinion
- Economy
- "Poll:
Bush's Ratings Bump Up." ... "The President’s overall
approval rating has risen from 35 percent in October to 40 percent now,
and his ratings on handling the economy and the war in Iraq have also improved."
... "The Bush Administration continues to face criticism from many Democrats
and other war opponents about the way pre-war intelligence was handled,
and whether there truly was a compelling connection between Iraq and the
terror threat to the United States. Fifty-two percent of Americans think
the Bush Administration deliberately misled the public in making the case
for war, while 44 percent say it did not." ... "An overwhelming majority
of Americans think this Congress should be asking questions about pre-war
intelligence. Fifty-six percent call it a very important line of questioning,
and another 24 percent call it somewhat important."
-CBSNews
Washington
- Gay
- "Spokane
voters oust mayor embroiled in sex scandal: Recall
vote - James West, accused of offering city jobs and other favors to entice
dates, will leave office Dec. 16." ... "Mayor James West was recalled from
office Tuesday in a special election prompted by news accounts that he
offered City Hall jobs and perks to young men he met in a gay Internet
chat room." ... "West, 54, a Republican and former state legislator who
voted against gay-friendly bills, must leave office when the election results
are certified Dec. 16." ... "The Spokesman-Review newspaper conducted an
undercover investigation and reported in a series of articles beginning
May 5 that West visited gay chat rooms on his city-owned computer and offered
internships and other favors to young men he hoped to have sex with." -By
John K. Wiley -OregonLive.com/Oregonian
School
- Military
- Gay
- Free
Speech - "Military
Recruiting Bans Seem Doomed: The high court frowns
on law schools' claims that free speech and gay rights would be violated."
... "The Supreme Court justices signaled Tuesday that they would uphold
the military's right to recruit on college campuses and at law schools,
despite its policy of excluding openly gay people from its ranks. The justices
gave a thoroughly skeptical hearing to the position of some law faculties
that they have a free-speech right to bar military recruiters, a claim
that was upheld by a lower court." ... "U.S. Solicitor General Paul D.
Clement urged the justices to reverse that ruling and to enforce a measure
passed by Congress that says colleges and universities that take federal
funds must give the military the same right to recruit on campuses as other
employers." -By David G. Savage-LAtimes
California- US
Immigration - "Campbell
Defeats Anti-Immigration Candidate to Win House Seat."
... "California Republican State Senator John Campbell won election to
the U.S. Congress representing the 48th District in Orange County, defeating
Jim Gilchrist, one of the founders of the Minutemen border security group."
... "The campaign in the Republican-dominated district highlights a split
within the party between those, such as Gilchrist, who demand tighter controls
on immigration, and those who would match improved border enforcement with
the creation of a new guest- worker program for immigrants, as President
George W. Bush has endorsed." ... "Campbell backs allowing undocumented
immigrants in the U.S. to apply for temporary-worker status if they first
pay a fine and return for a time to their country of origin." -By
Nicholas Johnston -Bloomberg
Government
- Education
- Money
- Seniors
- "Court:
Disabled Can't Escape Student Loans." ... "America's
seniors and disabled cannot escape debts from old student loans, the Supreme
Court ruled Wednesday, freeing the government to pursue Social Security
benefits as part of an effort to collect billions in delinquent loans."
... "The Bush administration had argued that the ability to withhold Social
Security benefits is an important tool in the pursuit of $5.7 billion in
student loan debt that is over 10 years old. Overall, outstanding loans
total about $33 billion." -By Gina Holland
-AP via -SFGate.com
US
-South
Korea - Microsoft
- Computer
- Business
- "Microsoft
To Appeal Korean Antitrust Ruling: The company said
it will appeal the decision, a process that could take years, and added
that it does not plan to leave the Korean market as it had previously threatened
to do." ... "Microsoft said Wednesday that it plans to appeal a sweeping
decision leveled against it by the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC)
and added that it does not plan to leave the Korean market as it had previously
threatened." ... "The KFTC's six-page findings were replete with complaints
of "tying" of various Microsoft products. The regulatory agency also leveled
a $31 million fine against the firm." ... "A translated version of the
findings said, "The KFTC found that the tying practices by Microsoft proved
to have eliminated competition and exacerbated monopolization of tied product
market including streaming media server, streaming media player and instant
messenger."" (1, 2)
-By W. David Gardner-InformationWeek
Global
- Environment
- US
- Canada
- EU
- UN
- Technology
- "UPDATE
2-U.S. comes under pressure at climate talks." ...
"The European Union and host Canada piled pressure on the United States
on Wednesday to join an international pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions
and limit the predicted chaos from global warming." ... "But the United
States defended its policy of investing billions of dollars in cleaner
technology to reduce emissions, brushing aside calls for it to commit to
long-term U.N. discussions on slowing climate change,." ... ""One size
does not fit all," said Paula Dobriansky, the U.S. under secretary for
global affairs, who leads the American delegation to the Nov.28-Dec.9 U.N.
climate talks in Montreal [Canada]." -By David Fogarty
and Timothy Gardner -Reuters
Massachusetts
- Parents
- "Strange
Twist In Right-To-Die Case." ... "Lawyers for the
stepfather of an 11-year-old girl tried to convince Massachusetts' highest
court on Tuesday that he should have a say on whether his stepdaughter
is removed from life support. If the girl dies, he could face a murder
charge for allegedly taking part in the beating that left her comatose."
... "Jason Strickland is asking the Supreme Judicial Court to overturn
a juvenile court judge's decision allowing the state to remove Haleigh
Poutre from her ventilator and feeding tube." ... "CBS News correspondent
Sharyn Alfonsi reports that the girl's biological mother, Allison Avrett,
gave up her parental rights years ago and now she has no say in what happens
to Halleigh – but she wants life support to be removed." ... ""I want her
to rest," Avrett told Alfonsi. "Being kept alive like that, it's not a
life."" (1, 2)
-AP -CBSNews
US
- Iraq
- 
Niger
- Lewis
Libby
- Dick
Cheney - Military
-Politics
- Law
- "Plame
Is Set to Leave the CIA." ... "[Valerie] Plame, 42,
worked undercover for the CIA tracking weapons proliferation but saw her
clandestine career imperiled after she was identified as an agency operative
in the summer of 2003 in a syndicated column by Robert Novak." ... "Plame
is married to Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former ambassador, who was sent by
the CIA to Africa in February 2002 to evaluate claims that Saddam Hussein
was trying to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger. Wilson found the claims
unverifiable and publicly criticized the intelligence used by the administration
to justify the war against Iraq." ... "Administration officials began a
campaign to discredit Wilson and identified Plame in conversations with
several journalists, potentially violating a law against unmasking undercover
agents. A federal grand jury recently indicted former [Vice President Dick]
Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby on charges that he repeatedly lied
to investigators." -By Richard B. Schmitt
-LAtimes
Christmas
- "Some
megachurches closing for Christmas." ... "This Christmas,
no prayers will be said in several megachurches around the country. Even
though the holiday falls this year on a Sunday, when churches normally
host thousands for worship, pastors are canceling services, anticipating
low attendance on what they call a family day." ... "The churches closing
on Christmas plan multiple services in the days leading up to the holiday,
including on Christmas Eve. Most normally do not hold Christmas Day services,
preferring instead to mark the holiday in the days and night before. However,
Sunday worship has been a Christian practice since ancient times." -By
Rachel Zoll -AP
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Florida
- Terrorism
- "Ex-professor
cleared on some terror charges." ... "In a stinging
defeat for prosecutors, a former Florida professor accused of helping lead
a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel
was acquitted on nearly half the charges against him Tuesday, and the jury
deadlocked on the rest." ... "The case against Sami Al-Arian, 47, had been
seen as one of the biggest courtroom tests yet of the Patriot Act's expanded
search-and-surveillance powers." ... "Al-Arian, a former University of
South Florida computer engineering professor, wept after the verdicts,
and his attorney, Linda Moreno hugged him. He will return to jail until
prosecutors decide whether to retry him on the deadlocked charges." ...
"Two co-defendants, Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut, were acquitted
of all charges. A third, Hatem Naji Fariz, was found not guilty on 24 counts,
and jurors deadlocked on the remaining eight." -By
Mitch Stacy -MercuryNews
California
- Entertainment
- Media
- Photos
- Privacy
- "Aniston
Sues Over Topless Photos: The actress accuses a paparazzo
of shooting images while she was in the privacy of her home." ... "A suit
filed by actress Jennifer Aniston accuses a paparazzo of invading her privacy
last month by using a powerful telephoto lens to take photos of her topless
or partially undressed in her home." ... "The suit filed Friday in Los
Angeles County Superior Court is the latest counterattack by Hollywood's
top stars against paparazzi, who are accused of becoming increasingly aggressive
as competition for images and the number of celebrity magazines has increased."
... "Aniston, star of the longtime NBC television hit "Friends," alleges
that Peter Brandt used "a high-powered telephoto lens" to capture images
of her partially clothed within her property in violation of California's
privacy laws." -By Richard Winton
-LAtimes
US
- Germany
- Intelligence
- "‘Abduction’
case tarnishes Rice’s efforts to repair ties with Berlin."
... "Attempts to repair strained relations between the US and Germany backfired
on Tuesday after Angela Merkel, Germany’s new chancellor, said Condoleezza
Rice, the US secretary of state, had admitted that in the case of a German
citizen [Khaled el-Masri] who says he was abducted and detained for several
months two years ago the US had made “a mistake”, a claim swiftly denied
by US officials." ... "“We talked about the case, which the US government
has accepted as a mistake,” Ms Merkel said after meeting Ms Rice in Berlin.
“I am very glad that the secretary of state has repeated again here that
when mistakes happen they must of course be corrected immediately.”" ...
"Ms Rice gave a more circumspect account of the meeting. “As I told the
chancellor, I cannot comment on specific aspects of our intelligence activities.
. . I have also stressed that on the political area, mistakes sometimes
happen,” she said. -By Bertrand Benoit and Hugh Williamson
-FT.com
US
- Germany
- Afghanistan
- Secret
- Military
- Terrorism- Intelligence
- Prisons
- Law
-Politics
- VA
- "German
citizen held in secret prison sues ex-CIA director."
... "A German citizen whom the CIA abducted from Macedonia and held in
a secret prison in Afghanistan for five months sued former CIA Director
George Tenet on Tuesday, saying he'd been tortured." ... "[Khaled] Al-Masri's
lawsuit, filed by ACLU lawyers in Alexandria, Va. [Virginia], sheds light
on the CIA's secret practice of "extraordinary renditions," using special
teams to capture suspected terrorists and transport them to countries that
practice torture or to one of the agency's reported secret prisons in Eastern
Europe or Asia." ... "In the four years since the Sept. 11 attacks, the
CIA has captured about 3,000 people, including some top al-Qaida leaders,
according to a Washington Post report. Intelligence committees in Congress
have been told that the CIA's inspector general is investigating possible
"erroneous renditions."" ... "U.S. officials refuse to confirm or deny
the existence of secret prisons." -By Frank Davies
and Warren P. Strobel -MercuryNews
GOV
- 
Air
- Water
- Health
- Politics
- Business
- 
Kentucky
- "A
fight over easing rules for reporting toxic emissions:
The EPA plan would help small businesses reduce paperwork." ... "Gracie
Lewis is on a crusade to save the Toxics Release Inventory, a trove of
federal pollution data vital to helping her - and activists nationwide
- win community battles for cleaner air and water." ... "Until a couple
of years ago, Mrs. Lewis was at her wits' end over the stew of chemical
odors wafting into her home from nearby factories in the industrial heart
of Louisville, Ky. [Kentucky], a neighborhood known as "Rubbertown."" ...
"Though she still smells them today, the city now has a plan for beating
back toxic emissions, in part because of TRI data gathered annually by
the Environmental Protection Agency, she says. With those crucial numbers
in hand, she and other activists can ferret out companies releasing harmful
chemicals. "Once we smell it, we call the odor hot line," she says." ...
"But that ability to check the numbers may be changing as the EPA mulls
over whether to lower the TRI reporting requirements. Small businesses
have welcomed the proposal because it eliminates extra paperwork. But Lewis,
environmentalists, and first responders have become part of a vocal national
backlash since the changes were first proposed in September. These groups
argue they would lose vital data and would not be able to hold polluters
accountable." -By Mark Clayton -CSMonitor
Government
-Military
-Intelligence
- Prisons
- Telecommunications
- Politics
- "Government
gets 5 "F's," 12 "D's" in last 9/11 report." ...
"The federal government received failing and mediocre grades Monday from
the former Sept. 11 commission, whose members said in a final report that
the Bush administration and Congress have balked at enacting numerous reforms
that could save American lives and prevent another terrorist attack on
U.S. soil." ... "The group also said there has been little progress in
forcing federal agencies to share intelligence and terrorism information
and sharply criticized government efforts to secure weapons of mass destruction
or establish clear standards for the proper treatment of U.S. detainees."
... "The panel also sharply criticized Congress for failing to enable first
responders to communicate easily by setting aside part of the broadcast
spectrum for their use. A pending budget bill would open part of the spectrum
for first responders in 2009, but the Sept. 11 panel said that date is
"too distant given the urgency of the threat."" -By
Dan Eggen-WashingtonPost
via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Government
- Politics
- Nuclear
- "9/11
Panel Criticizes U.S. Terror Response." ... "The
members of the Sept. 11 commission gave dismal grades to the Bush administration
and Congress on Monday in measuring the government's recent efforts to
prevent terrorist attacks on American soil, concluding that the government
deserved many more F's and D's than A's." ... "The new report by the 9/11
Public Discourse Project, a private group established by the commission's
five Republicans and five Democrats when the panel formally went out of
business last year, graded the government's response to the 41 recommendations
made in the commission's final report 17 months ago." ... "There were 17
F's or D's - including an F to Congress for its failure to allocate the
domestic antiterrorism budget on the basis of risk and a D for the government's
effort to track down and secure nuclear material that could be used by
terrorists." -By Philip Shenon
-NYTimes
Kazakhstan
- Russia
-
China
- United
States - Oil
- "Foes
call Kazakh poll invalid: Observers also see flaws
in figures." ... "Opposition leaders yesterday called for President Nursultan
Nazarbayev's election victory to be declared invalid, while Western-led
observers said the vote that gave him 91 percent support was flawed." ...
"An array of exit polls had indicated Nazarbayev would win with 70 to 80
percent of the vote." ... "Kazakhstan, which is four times the size of
Texas and borders both Russia and China, has vast oil and gas reserves
that are a potential alternative to Middle East petroleum, and its stability
matters greatly to the United States and Western Europe." -By
Jim Heintz -AP
via -BostonGlobe
Iran
- EU
- 
France
- Russia
- US
- UN
- Politics-
"Iran
stays course on nukes: The EU has also drawn a firm
line against allowing Iran to enrich uranium." ... "Iran says it is ready
for "constructive and serious" talks over its controversial nuclear program,
but Monday spelled out a bedrock position on enriching uranium that European
negotiators deem "unacceptable."" ... "But just as Iran draws its red line,
Europeans are sticking to theirs, insisting that no enrichment can take
place in Iran." ... "France's foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy,
expressed dismay at Iran's stance Monday, saying that its insistence on
enriching uranium was a "unilateral" rejection of a Russian proposal to
resolve the standoff." ... "The Europeans and the US will support action
against Iran by the UN Security Council unless there is compromise over
what they see as a proliferation risk. But on Saturday, Iran approved a
bill that would halt international inspections of its atomic facilities
if Iran were taken before the Security Council." -By
Scott Peterson -CSMonitor
Christmas
- Family
- Religious
- 
TV
- Entertainment
- Business
- History
- "The
Christmas classic that almost wasn't." ... "When
CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November
1965, they hated it." ... ""They said it was slow," executive producer
Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. There were concerns that the show
was almost defiantly different: There was no laugh track, real children
provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince
Guaraldi." ... "Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez fretted about the
insistence by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz that his first-ever
TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of
Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus." ... "The first broadcast was
watched by almost 50% of the nation's viewers." ... "And when the program
airs today at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, it will mark its 40th anniversary — a run
that has made it a staple of family holiday traditions and an icon of American
pop culture. The show won an Emmy and a Peabody award and began a string
of more than two dozen Peanuts specials." -By Bill
Nichols -USATODAY
US
- Pakistan
- Egypt
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Aircraft
- 
Robots
- "Drone
said to have killed Al Qaeda's No. 3: If true, Abu
Hamza Rabia would be the third to hold the post and be taken out." ...
"In the dead of night, the US Predator aircraft swooped in over the [Pakistan]
hamlet of Haisori, locking in on an abandoned house five travelers had
quietly entered just hours before, according to neighbors. Then, they say,
the drone fired on the stone and mud dwelling for about eight minutes,
reducing it to rubble." ... "Pakistani officials say the airstrike, which
took place last Thursday in tribal region of North Waziristan, killed five
people, including Al Qaeda's No. 3 man, Egyptian Abu Hamza Rabia. Conflicting
reports cast some uncertainty on Mr. Rabia's death and his exact rank,
however." ... "If Islamabad's account holds true it would represent the
third Al Qaeda "No. 3" to be killed or captured in as many years. Taking
out the terrorist network's operations manager represents an intelligence
victory with obvious short-term gains in disrupting terrorist planning,
but also points to Al Qaeda's ability to bounce back from these losses
in the past, say analysts." -By Gretchen Peters -CSMonitor
US
- World
- Prison
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Law
- Arizona
- "McCain
won't concede on torture ban: Insists on language
prohibiting cruel, inhumane treatment." ... "[Arizona Republican] Senator
John McCain, a prisoner of war who was tortured in Vietnam, yesterday said
he will refuse to yield on his demands that the White House agree with
his proposed ban on the use of torture to extract information from suspected
terrorists." ... "''I won't," he said on NBC's ''Meet the Press" when asked
whether he would compromise with the Bush administration." ... "He is insisting
on his language that no person in US custody should be subject to ''cruel,
inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment."" -By
Jim Abrams -AP
via -BostonGlobe
Tom
DeLay
- Texas
- Political
- Money
- "Judge
Upholds Most Serious Charges Against DeLay." ...
"A judge in Texas today dismissed part of a state indictment against Representative
Tom DeLay, who was forced out of his post as leader of the Republican majority
in the House two months ago after he was charged with conspiracy and political
fund-raising abuses." ... "Judge Pat Priest dropped conspiracy from Mr.
DeLay's indictment, but let stand for trial the more serious accusation
of money-laundering." ... "The judge said Mr. DeLay could not be prosecuted
on the charge of conspiracy to violate the state election code because
the applicable law did not take effect until Sept. 1, 2003, and the illegal
activity alleged by prosecutors occurred in 2002." -By
David Stout with contributions by Mark J. Prendergast and Shadi Rahimi
-NYTimes
US
- Iraq
- Politics
- "Saddam's
defense team walks out of resumed trial." ... "The
court in the Saddam Hussein trial allowed former U.S. Attorney General
Ramsey Clark and another foreign defense lawyer to address the session
Monday, reversing a ruling that had led the defense to walk out." ... "After
a 90-minute recess, Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin allowed Clark and
ex-Qatari Justice Minister Najib al-Nueimi to speak on the questions of
the legitimacy of the tribunal and safety of the lawyers."
-AP via -USATODAY
California- Religion
- Library
- Law
- "Bush
administration backs prayer services at library."
... "The Bush administration is siding with a Christian group in its lawsuit
demanding rights to conduct prayer services at public libraries." ... "The
case concerns a [California] Contra Costa County policy allowing the public
to use free meeting rooms at its libraries, but prohibits "religious services
and activities."" -By David Kravets -AP
via -MercuryNews
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
Samuel
Alito
- Employee
- Consumer
- Business
- Civil
Righs - Politics
- "Alito
wary of individual rights: Review's portrait of judge:
A non-partisan conservative who steadily backs authority." ... "During
his 15 years on the federal bench, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr.
has worked quietly but resolutely to weave a conservative legal agenda
into the fabric of the nation's laws." ... "A Knight Ridder review of Alito's
311 published opinions on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals -- each now
part of federal case law used to establish legal precedent and set public
policy -- found a clear pattern. Although Alito's opinions are rarely written
with obvious ideology, he has seldom sided with a criminal defendant, a
foreign national facing deportation, an employee alleging discrimination
or a consumer suing a large business." ... "A review of Alito's work on
dozens of cases that raised important social issues found that he rarely
supports individual-rights claims." -By Stephen Henderson
-KnightRidder via -MercuryNews
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
US
- Iraq
- Politics
- "10
Marines killed near Falluja: Marines conducting 'counter-insurgency'
operations in Falluja, Ramadi." ... "A roadside bomb Thursday killed 10
Marines while they were on "foot patrol near Falluja," the Marine Corps
said Friday." ... "Eleven Marines were also wounded in the incident, and
four of them have not yet returned to duty." ... "Marines have been conducting
"counterinsurgency operations" in the Falluja and Ramadi areas ahead of
the December 15 elections." ... "This brings the number of U.S. military
deaths in Iraq to 2,123." -Contributed to by Arwa
Damon and Mohammed Tawfeeq -CNN
Illinois
- Web
-Business
- Consumer
- "Lawsuit:
AOL cheats customers with illegal billing." ... "A
lawsuit seeking to potentially cover hundreds of thousands of America Online
subscribers accuses the Time Warner (TWX)
unit of illegally billing customers by creating secondary accounts for
them without their consent." ... "The lawsuit, filed last month in [Illinois']
St. Clair County Circuit Court on behalf of 10 AOL customers in six states
says the company confused and deceived customers about the charges, stalled
them from canceling unauthorized accounts and refused to return questioned
fees." -AP
via -USATODAY
Louisiana
- New
Orleans - Hurricane
Katrina - Environment
- Science
- Parents
- "New
Orleans unhealthy, groups say." ... "Federal and
state environmental agencies are downplaying long-term health dangers posed
by chemicals in sediment that covers much of the New Orleans area, several
environmental groups charged Thursday." ... "The Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), one of the nation's largest environmental groups, and several
local Louisiana environmental groups said that heavy metals, petroleum
components and pesticides in the dusty residue left behind by Hurricane
Katrina's floodwaters pose such a risk that families with children shouldn't
return until it is cleaned up." -By Tom Kenworthy
-USATODAY
Samuel
Alito
- Abortion
- Medical
- Politics
- "Alito
File Shows Strategy to Curb Abortion Ruling." ...
"As a lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department, the Supreme Court nominee
Samuel A. Alito Jr. played an integral role in devising legal strategy
to pare back the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade, documents disclosed
Wednesday show." ... "Judge Alito argued in a 1985 memorandum to the Reagan
administration's solicitor general that two pending Supreme Court cases
were an "opportunity to advance the goals of overruling Roe v. Wade and,
in the meantime, of mitigating its effects."" ... "And in a strongly worded
17-page legal analysis, he recommended advancing the administration's ultimate
case against Roe by defending state regulations requiring doctors to provide
women seeking abortions with information about fetal development, the risks
and "unforeseeable detrimental effects" of the procedure and the availability
of adoption services or paternal child support." (1, 2)
-By David D. Kirkpatrick
-NYTimes
Samuel
Alito
- Abortion
- Politics
- Pennsylvania
- History
- "Alito's
role in trying to overturn Roe v. Wade detailed in papers."
... "As a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, Supreme
Court nominee Samuel Alito helped devise a legal strategy to persuade the
high court to restrict and eventually overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic
decision legalizing abortion." ... "In a memo disclosed Wednesday that
he wrote in 1985 as an assistant to the solicitor general, Alito recommended
that the administration submit a brief to the Supreme Court, asking it
to uphold a Pennsylvania law that imposed a variety of abortion restrictions
and "make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade."" ... "Alito argued
that stepping into the case, Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists, would be a more effective strategy for President Reagan
than a "frontal assault" on the landmark case and would not "even tacitly
concede Roe's legitimacy." Disagreeing with the administration's position,
the court struck down the law the following year." -By
Amy Goldstein and Jo Becker-WashingtonPost
via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Louisiana
- New
Orleans - Hurricane
Katrina - "Last
section of New Orleans reopens." ... "The last neighborhood
in New Orleans that had remained closed after Hurricane Katrina reopened
Thursday, with some residents of the Lower 9th Ward saying they planned
to abandon the area and others vowing to rebuild." ... "Residents were
allowed in for the day to gather what belongings they could. Until now,
people had been able to view the destruction only on bus tours. Residents
still cannot stay in the neighborhood, which has no electrical power."
... "Decisions to rebuild hinge in part on the extent of damage, whether
insurance will require a new home to be elevated and whether the owners
qualify for federal aid." -AP
via -CNN
Australia
- US
- Business
- Home
- Health
- History
- "James
Hardie to Sign Asbestos Compensation Deal Today (Update3)."
... "James Hardie Industries NV, whose top executives quit last year amid
an asbestos probe, will today sign a A$1.6 billion ($1.2 billion) agreement
to compensate Australians sickened by its products." ... "James Hardie
is the biggest seller of home siding in the U.S., where it gets 80 percent
of its profit. In February, the company said it doesn't expect a significant
number of compensation claims in the U.S., where its subsidiaries never
used the asbestos." ... "James Hardie started using asbestos in Australia
in the 1920s. It began to phase out blue asbestos in 1968, and all products
were asbestos-free by 1986. The fibrous mineral has been linked to lung
cancer and mesothelioma, a form of cancer affecting the chest or abdomen."
-By Miriam Steffens -Bloomberg
US
- Iraq
- Prison
- Politics
- "General:
Americans Must Stop Iraqi Abusers." ... "The nation's
top military man, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, said American troops in Iraq
have a duty to intercede and stop abuse of prisoners by Iraqi security
personnel." ... "When Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld contradicted
Pace, the general stood firm." ... "Rumsfeld told the general he believed
Pace meant to say the U.S. soldiers had to report the abuse, not stop it."
... "Pace stuck to his original statement." ... ""If they are physically
present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation
to try to stop it," Pace told his civilian boss." -By
William C. Mann -AP
via -WashingtonPost
John
Roberts
- 
New
Hampshire - Parent
-Abortion
- Woman
- Health
- "Roberts
signals support for abortion curbs: In high court
argument, chief justice hints at upholding New Hampshire law." ... "The
news in Wednesday's Supreme Court argument over New Hampshire's parental
notification abortion law was that the John Roberts era may be one in which
the right to get an abortion is further curtailed." ... "At least at first
blush, Roberts - hearing his first case as chief justice on abortion restrictions
- seemed to be trying hard to save the New Hampshire law from being declared
unconstitutional, as it was by two lower courts." ... "The U.S. Court of
Appeals for the First Circuit had ruled the entire New Hampshire law invalid,
partly because it did not provide an exemption for cases in which the doctor
decided that abortion was needed to prevent damage to the girl's health."
-By Tom Curry -MSNBC
Samuel
Alito
- Abortion
- Politics
- "Alito
proposed anti-abortion strategy in 1985." ... "U.S.
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, as a Reagan administration lawyer 20
years ago, outlined ways to limit abortion rights without overturning a
1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, a memo released on Wednesday
showed." ... "This strategy, Alito wrote as an assistant in the U.S. Solicitor
General's Office, could curb the landmark ruling without generating headlines
about a "stinging rebuke" of it." ... "The 1985 memo by Alito was a road
map on how to expand states' ability to regulate certain aspects of abortion."
(1, 2)
-By Thomas Ferraro and Joanne Kenen with contributions
by Richard Cowan and Donna Smith -Reuters
via -ABCNEWS.com
US
- Iraq
- Police
- Politics
- "Bush
Offers 'Strategy for Victory' in Iraq: The president
again rejects a timetable for troop withdrawal." ... "Moving to deflect
criticism of the war in Iraq and lay out new conditions that would allow
the departure of U.S. troops, President Bush said today he would settle
for "nothing less than complete victory" there, and defined that success
as creating an Iraq in which Iraqis could live in peace protected by their
own security forces." ... "The president devoted much of the roughly 35-minute
speech to presenting a picture of Iraqi police and military units increasingly
being able to carry on the campaign against those he called "rejectionists,
Saddamists and terrorists."" ... "But he did not address three ongoing
concerns about the security forces: their de facto division into three
segments made up separately of Kurds, Shiites and Sunni; the fact that
some Sunnis are accepting the U.S. training and then joining the insurgency;
and the infiltration of the Iraqi government's security forces by members
of ethnic militia loyal to leaders other than those of the government."
-By James Gerstenzang, Tyler Marshall and Mark Mazzetti
-LAtimes
Science
- History
- "Busiest
Hurricane Season on Record Ends." ... "The busiest
hurricane season on record ends today with 26 named storms, including a
tropical system that formed on Tuesday over the central Atlantic." ...
"At 4 p.m. Eastern time, the center of Tropical Storm Epsilon was about
650 miles southeast of Bermuda and turning slightly south at a rate of
7 miles per hour." ... ""This hurricane season shattered records that have
stood for decades-most named storms, most hurricanes and most Category
5 storms," the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, retired
Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., said in a statement issued by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Arguably, it was the
most devastating hurricane season the country has experienced in modern
times."" -By Jennifer Bayot
-NYTimes
US
- EU
- Secret
- Intelligence
- Prisons
- Terrorism
- "U.S.
to Respond to EU Questions on Prisons." ... "The
European Union has formally requested answers from the Bush administration
about reports of secret U.S.-run prisons for terrorism suspects in Europe,
and the United States will reply "to the best of our ability," the State
Department said Wednesday." ... "It would be illegal for the U.S. government
to hold prisoners in isolation and difficult conditions in secret prisons
in the United States. It has long been assumed that the CIA operates overseas
sites to get around U.S. law and to keep terrorism suspects out of the
jurisdiction of U.S. courts." -By Anne Gearan
-AP via-WashingtonPost
US
- Iraq
- Military
- GOV
- Secrets
- "U.S.
Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press:
Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object to
the practice." ... "As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S.
military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written
by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission
in Iraq." ... "The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations"
troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with
the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials
and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times." ... "Many of the articles
are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and
reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S.
and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild
the country." ... "Though the articles are basically factual, they present
only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly
on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said." (1, 2,
3)
-By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi
-LAtimes
Samuel
Alito
- Law
- History
- Pennsylvania
- "Alito
to face questioning on affirmative action, voting rights."
... "[Pennsylvania] Sen. Arlen Specter, serving notice that he intends
to take up contentious issues raised in years-old writings by Judge Samuel
A. Alito Jr., asked the Supreme Court nominee Wednesday to be prepared
to clarify his views on affirmative action and voting rights." ... "In
a 1985 memo Alito wrote while seeking a promotion in the Reagan administration's
Justice Department, he said he disagreed with Supreme Court reapportionment
decisions in the 1960s that enforced the doctrine of "one person, one vote.""
... "Specter also noted that the case that established "one person, one
vote" had been "instrumental to ensuring that all people's votes are weighted
equally in our representative democracy."" -By Steve
Goldstein -KnightRidder
via -MercuryNews
Samuel
Alito
- Abortion
- Politics
- "Alito
Pushed Abortion Fight Under Reagan: Alito Pushed
for Step-By-Step, 'Eventual Overruling' of Abortion Rights As Reagan Lawyer."
... "As a young government lawyer opposed to abortion rights, Samuel Alito
argued for a legal strategy of chipping away at the landmark Supreme Court
ruling rather than mounting an all-out assault likely to inflict a defeat
on the Reagan administration, according to documents released Wednesday."
... ""No one seriously believes that the court is about to overrule Roe
v. Wade," the current Supreme Court nominee wrote in an internal Justice
Department memo on May 30, 1985. Referring to a high court decision to
review two abortion-related cases at the time, he asked, "What can be made
of this opportunity to advance the goals of bringing about the eventual
overruling … and in the meantime, of mitigating its effects."" (1, 2,
3)
-By David Espo -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
US
- Mexico
- US
Immigration - 2006
Election - Politics
- Police
- Worker
- Tucson
- Arizona
- "Bush
revives immigration reform push: Switching priorities,
he only touches on guest-worker plan." ... "President Bush promised a renewed
push for changes in immigration law Monday, reversing the priorities he
had set out nearly two years ago by emphasizing tougher border enforcement
and mentioning his controversial guest-worker program almost as an afterthought."
... "Bush joins several congressional Republicans in Congress, including
several likely presidential candidates, who intend to make an overhaul
of the nation's immigration laws a priority heading into the 2006 midterm
elections." ... ""Illegal immigration is a serious challenge," Bush told
a gathering of border enforcement officials in Tucson [Arizona]. "And our
responsibility is clear. We are going to protect the border."" -By
Carolyn Lochhead -SFGate.com
Samuel
Alito
- Police
- Privacy-
"Alito
Memos Supported Expanding Police Powers." ... "As
a lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department, Samuel A. Alito Jr., the Supreme
Court nominee, played an active role in advancing the administration's
efforts to expand law enforcement powers and limit restrictions on prosecutors,
documents released Monday by the Justice Department show." ... "The 470
pages of documents, which consist mainly of memorandums Mr. Alito wrote
as a deputy assistant attorney general in the office of legal counsel in
1986 and 1987, generally address routine matters or highly technical legal
issues. In several of the memorandums, however, Mr. Alito makes a series
of arguments espousing a broad view of law enforcement authority and a
skeptical view of proposals to protect individuals from legal investigations."
-By David D. Kirkpatrick
-NYTimes
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
- 
Zimbabwe
- Law
- "US
labels Zimbabwe Senate election a 'nonevent'." ...
"In a sign of growing U.S. animosity toward Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe, a senior U.S. official dismissed as "a nonevent" last weekend's
Senate poll victory by the ruling party in the southern African nation."
... "Asked to comment on the election of a new upper chamber of parliament,
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Zimbabwe's new Senate was
created by Mugabe as a "source of patronage for ruling party politicians.""
... "Final results announced on Monday showed Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party
won a broad majority in the 66-seat Senate, which will have the final word
on any new laws." -Reuters
New
Jersey - Health
- Drugs
- Business
- "Merck
to cut 7,000 jobs: World's third-largest drugmaker
says it will close 5 plants in the wake of 6,400 lawsuits over heart medicine
problems." ... "Merck & Co. announced yesterday it will eliminate 7,000
jobs, the biggest reduction in the company's 114-year history, and said
it still has "work to do" after a three-year earnings decline." ... "Chief
executive Richard Clark said the world's third-largest drugmaker will close
five plants to trim costs by as much as $4 billion through 2010 and will
seek acquisitions to boost product offerings. The job cuts represent about
11 percent of Whitehouse Station, N.J.[New Jersey]-based Merck's global
workforce of 62,000 and will be completed by the end of 2008."
-Bloomberg via -Newsday.com
Florida
- Terrorism
- "Miami
Police Take New Tack Against Terror." ... "Police
are planning "in-your-face" shows of force in public places, saying the
random, high-profile security operations will keep terrorists guessing
about where officers might be next." ... "Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez,
who announced the program Monday, said as an example, officers might surround
a bank, check the IDs of everyone going in and out, and hand out leaflets
about terror threats." -By Curt Anderson
-AP via-WashingtonPost
Samuel
Alito
- Law
- "Advocacy
Groups Targeting Vulnerable Senators on Alito Vote."
... "Groups on both sides began mobilizing supporters hours after Bush
announced Alito's nomination on Oct. 31. But the brewing battle has been
largely obscured by the decorum of Alito's courtesy calls to senators,
to whom he has offered reassuring words about his 15 years as an appeals
court judge. The effort has earned praise from many senators, including
some Democrats, who are impressed by Alito's intellect, judicial experience
and professed respect for legal precedent." ... "But if the ritual visits
to senators are mostly smiles, small talk and carefully calibrated promises
to interpret the law, not make it, the street-level campaign is something
else altogether. Both sides are framing their arguments in urgent and emotional
words -- hoping to sway what polls suggest is substantial but hardly insurmountable
sentiment for Alito to be confirmed. With a quarter to a third of Americans
still uninformed or undecided, both sides are working hard to win converts."
(1, 2)
-By Michael A. Fletcher-WashingtonPost
Virginia
- History
- "McDonnell
Wins Va. Vote, Pending Recount." ... "The closest
statewide election in modern Virginia history headed for a recount Monday
after Republican Bob McDonnell was certified as the winner of the attorney
general's race by 323 votes out of more than 1.9 million cast."
-AP via-WashingtonPost
Hurricane
Katrina - New
Orleans - Louisiana
- "First
New Orleans Public School Reopens: First New Orleans
[Louisiana] Public School Reopens, Allowing All Students to Attend Selective
Magnet School." ... "On Monday, Franklin Elementary became the first regular
public school in New Orleans to reopen since [Hurricane] Katrina devastated
the city on Aug. 29." ... "Some private schools in New Orleans began reopening
in October, but no public schools had opened, with the exception of two
charter schools that are outside the local board's control." (1, 2)
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
California
- Military
- Business
- Politics
- "Bribed
congressman resigns, pleads guilty to charges." ...
"The co-conspirators are not named in the charging documents. Public records
show relationships between [California Republican Randy "Duke"] Cunningham
and two contractors whom he helped get Pentagon work: MZM and ADCS. MZM's
former president, Mitchell Wade, bought Cunningham's former house, allowing
him to buy a more expensive house in Rancho Santa Fe. Brent Wilkes, founder
of ADCS, raised $105,250 in personal, company and employee campaign contributions
for Cunningham during the past decade. Neither Wade nor Wilkes has been
charged with a crime. Their lawyers declined to comment." ... "ADCS landed
more than $90 million in government contracts since 1997, when Cunningham
helped the company get one of its first Pentagon contracts. Wilkes also
provided a corporate jet for Cunningham to use on fundraising trips, campaign-finance
records show." -By Jim Drinkard and Matt Kelley
-USATODAY
Architecture
- Law
- "Piece
of Supreme Court building falls: Chunk of marble
falls onto where tourists normally enter; no one hurt." ... "A basketball-sized
piece of marble molding fell from the facade over the entrance to the Supreme
Court Monday, landing on the steps near visitors waiting to enter the building.
No one was hurt." ... "The chunk of Vermont marble was part of the dentil
molding that serves as a frame for nine sculptural figures completed in
1935. The piece that fell was over the figure of Authority, near the peak
of the building's pediment, and to the right of the figure of Liberty,
who has the scales of justice on her lap."
-AP via -MSNBC
Samuel
Alito
- New
York
- Government
- Military
- Business
- Politics
- Secrets
- "Alito dueled with
government ethics chief: As Justice Department lawyer,
court nominee fought over disclosure rules." ... "As a Justice Department
lawyer, Samuel Alito quarreled with the head of the government ethics office
over proposed requirements on personal financial disclosures, according
to documents released Monday." ... "Alito's 1987 letter was issued around
the time the ethics office said his boss, Attorney General Edwin Meese
III, had violated financial disclosure requirements over a $60,000 investment
with a businessman who was tied to Wedtech, a Bronx, N.Y. [New York], defense
contractor that was caught up in a wide-ranging federal investigation."
-AP via -MSNBC
California
- Political
- Military
- Business
- "Rep.
Randy 'Duke' Cunningham Pleads Guilty, Resigns."
... "[California Republican] Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned his
office today after pleading guilty to fraud, conspiracy to commit bribery
and tax evasion in a political corruption case." ... "U.S. District Judge
Larry Burns accepted the pleas from Cunningham, 63, including the congressman's
admission in federal court that he had accepted bribes in exchange for
performance of his official duties." ... "According to court papers, Cunningham
"demanded and received" a bribe from a defense contractor who paid an inflated
price for Cunningham's home in exchange for official favors." -By
Tony Perry -LAtimes
via -Newsday.com
California
- Military
- Politics
- "San
Diego-area Rep. Cunningham pleads guilty to bribery, resigns."
... "[California Republican] Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham tearfully resigned
Monday after pleading guilty to bribery and admitting he took $2.4 million
to steer defense contracts to conspirators using his leadership position
on a congressional subcommittee." ... "Authorities said Cunningham secured
defense contracts worth tens of millions of dollars for the people who
bribed him. The case grew from an investigation into the sale of his home
in wealthy Del Mar to a wide-ranging conspiracy involving payments in cash,
vacations and antiques from unidentified conspirators." -By
Elliot Spagat with contributions by Erica Werner
-AP via -MercuryNews
Government
- Military
- Intelligence
- Terrorism
- Privacy
- Law
-Civil
Liberties - Politics
- Oregon
- "Pentagon
Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity: Fears
of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers." ... "The Pentagon
has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence
exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information
gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence
agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence.
Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism
or weapons of mass destruction." ... "The proposals, and other Pentagon
steps aimed at improving its ability to analyze counterterrorism intelligence
collected inside the United States, have drawn complaints from civil liberties
advocates and a few members of Congress, who say the Defense Department's
push into domestic collection is proceeding with little scrutiny by the
Congress or the public." ... ""We are deputizing the military to spy on
law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional]
hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore. [Oregon]), a member of the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview." (1, 2)
-By Walter Pincus with contributions by Dan Eggen
-WashingtonPost
Ohio
- Texas
- 
Montana
- California
- Jack
Abramoff
- Tom
DeLay
- Political
- Business
- "Corruption
probe swells in Congress, lawyers say." ... "Justice
Department prosecutors investigating former lobbyist Jack Abramoff are
beginning to move on evidence pointing to possible corruption in Congress
and executive-branch agencies, lawyers involved in the case said." ...
"Prosecutors have told one lawmaker, Rep. Robert Ney, R-Ohio, and his former
chief of staff that they are preparing a possible bribery case against
them, according to two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity."
... "Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican now facing
separate campaign-finance charges in his home state, is one of the members
under scrutiny, the sources said. Others include Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.
[Montana], Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif. [California], and several other
members of Congress involved with Indian affairs, one of Abramoff's key
areas of interest." -By Susan Schmidt and James V.
Grimaldi -WashingtonPost
via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
Ohio
- Florida
- Political
- Business
- "Feds
probing SunCruz links to GOP: Federal investigators
are scrutinizing a $10,000 donation made five years ago by SunCruz Casinos
to a Republican campaign committee on behalf of an Ohio congressman." ...
"When U.S. Rep. Bob Ney assailed the owner of SunCruz Casinos in 2000,
it seemed puzzling that an Ohio lawmaker would go out of his way to attack
a South Florida businessman who was trying to sell his floating gaming
empire." ... "It turns out, according to federal investigators, Ney publicly
called SunCruz founder Konstantinos ''Gus'' Boulis a ''bad apple'' in exchange
for the company's new owners contributing $10,000 -- in his name -- to
a national campaign fund to help elect Republicans to Congress." -By
Jay Weaver-Miami/Herald
Texas
- 
Thanksgiving
- US
- Iraq
- Military
- Politics
- Cindy
Sheehan
- "Sheehan
Back in Texas for War Protest." ... "The mother of
a fallen soldier whose vigil against the war in Iraq outside President
Bush's ranch returned to Texas, saying she is "heartbroken" that the troops
are not home." ... "[Cindy] Sheehan asked protesters to return to Crawford
this week during Bush's family Thanksgiving gathering. She was unknown
when she set up camp outside Bush's ranch during his August vacation, but
as the vigil drew thousands, she attracted national attention."
-AP via
-CBSNews
Samuel
Alito
- Family
-Woman
- Privacy
- Law
- Politics
- Advertising
- Pennsylvania
- Drugs
- "Alito
ad flap centers on strip search of woman, daughter."
... "When police in a small Pennsylvania coal town went to the home of
a suspected methamphetamine dealer, they sent for a female meter maid to
search the suspect's wife and 10-year-old daughter." ... "The woman took
the two to an upstairs bathroom, had them lift their shirts and drop their
pants and patted them down. Then she directed them downstairs, where they
sat on a couch while a Schuylkill County drug squad searched the home."
... "As a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge, Alito found it acceptable
to search family members even if they were not specifically named in the
warrant. But his view came in a dissent to the 2-1 majority opinion written
by colleague Michael Chertoff then a judge, now the nation's Homeland
Security secretary who said that officers went beyond the terms
of the search warrant and were liable for potential damages."
-AP via -USATODAY
US
-Zimbabwe
- Money
- "Bush
widens sanctions against Zimbabwe." ... "U.S. President
George W. Bush has widened economic sanctions against Zimbabwe, blocking
the assets of an additional 128 people and 33 entities Washington says
undermine democratic reform in the southern African state." ... "The executive
order, which took effect on Wednesday, expands sanctions imposed by the
United States against 77 Zimbabweans in March 2003."
-Reuters via -ABCNEWS.com