Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday April 6 2007 - (813)

Friday April 6 2007 edition
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Billions In U.S. Rural Aid Goes To Urban Areas 2007-04-06 02:26:27 In a few weeks, artists, lawyers and bankers will begin arriving in Provincetown, Massachusetts, for the busy summer season on high-speed ferries that take 90 minutes to make the trip from Boston. They will land at a recently refurbished municipal dock that was built with the help of a $1.95 million low-interest loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A few blocks away, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum has used nearly $3 million in grants and loans from the Agriculture Department to add gallery space and renovate a historic sea captain's house. A short drive back down the Cape, the department is financing a new actors theater in Wellfleet and recently awarded a grant to a garden center in Hyannis to build a windmill. Although Cape Cod is only a short trip from Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, and is home to some of the wealthiest beach towns in the United States, to the Agriculture Department it meets the definition of rural America. That means it qualifies for aid originally intended for farmland and backwoods areas that were isolated and poor, struggling to keep their heads above water. "Provincetown is many things to many people, and to USDA we're rural," said Keith A. Bergman, the town manager. "We'll take it." Read The Full Story Senate Judiciary Committee, Justice Dept. In Fight Over Papers On Attorney Firings 2007-04-06 02:25:37 The Justice Department is refusing to release hundreds of pages of additional documents related to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, setting up a fresh clash with Capitol Hill in a controversy that continues to threaten Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales' hold on his position. The Senate Judiciary Committee, whose investigators have been allowed to view, but not obtain copies of, the records in question, is preparing subpoenas for those papers as well as for all e-mails or documents from the Justice Department and the White House connected to the dismissals of the prosecutors. The new sparring comes as Senate Democrats postponed a long-planned budgetary appearance by Gonzales that had been scheduled for next week. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (Maryland), chairman of the Appropriations Committee panel overseeing the Justice Department budget, Thursday blamed Gonzales' "leadership failures" for the postponement and demanded that the prosecutor controversy be settled before he makes his plea for a budget increase. Read The Full Story China Denies Role In U.S. Pet Deaths 2007-04-06 02:24:35 China has denied responsibility for several pet deaths in the United States which U.S. authorities blame on a batch of chemically contaminated wheat gluten from China, state media reported. But differing statements on whether China has even exported wheat gluten to the U.S. revealed confusion that points to serious problems in the regulation of China's exports and its dismal record on food safety. "China has nothing to do with the pet poisoning in the United States," said a report in the official newspaper of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which monitors the export of food, animals and farm products. The China Inspection and Quarantine Times said in a report on its Web site dated Tuesday that as of March 29, 2007, China had "never exported wheat or wheat gluten to ... the United States." This contradicted comments by two employees at the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Co., this week who said the company had shipped wheat gluten to the United States. Read The Full Story IRS Lax In Protecting Taxpayer Data, Risking Identity Theft For Thousands 2007-04-05 17:53:15 Thousands of taxpayers could be at risk of identity theft or other financial fraud because the Internal Revenue Service has failed to adequately protect information on its 52,000 laptop computers and other storage systems, a new government report concludes. The IRS did not begin to adequately correct the security problems until the second half of 2006, despite being warned about them in 2003 and again in February 2006, according to a report by the inspector general of the IRS, J. Russell George. "If taxpayers don't feel their personal information is protected, that could make them less likely to voluntarily file their taxes," said assistant inspector general Margaret E. Begg, whose auditing office studied IRS security policies and practices in place from January 2003 through mid-June 2006. Nearly 500 IRS laptops were lost or stolen during that 3 1/2-year period, many from the homes or cars of IRS workers but a significant number - 111 - from IRS offices, the report found. The IRS says one laptop typically contains information on 10 to 25 tax cases. Read The Full Story UPDATE: FBI Agent Killed In New Jersey Shootout 2007-04-05 17:52:32 An FBI agent was killed in a shootout with three bank robbery suspects Thursday in north central New Jersey, said a law enforcement official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the agent's family had not been told of his death, said the agent was alive when brought to University Hospital in Newark by helicopter, but efforts to save him failed. Other law enforcement officials, also speaking anonymously because the investigation was ongoing, said agents were investigating a string of recent bank robberies in central New Jersey when they came upon the suspects leaving a bank near Route 22 in Readington. A shootout ensued. Two suspects were captured and one was being sought in nearby woods, said officials. State and local authorities are searching for the suspects with helicopters and dogs. Read The Full Story Former Rebel Sworn In As Chechnya's New President 2007-04-05 17:51:09 A 30-year-old amateur boxer who is accused by human rights groups of murdering and kidnapping civilians was this morning inaugurated as the new president of the war-torn republic of Chechnya. Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel turned Moscow loyalist who has his own militia army, was installed as president in a lavish ceremony in Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city, 20 miles east of the capital, Grozny. In his acceptance speech, Kadyrov pledged to bring "lasting peace and prosperity" to Chechnya. He also promised to work "daily" to ensure what he called "human rights and freedom". Human rights groups allege that security forces under Kadyrov's control abducted and tortured civilians suspected of ties to Chechnya's separatist rebels. Some observers also suggest he was behind last year's murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the investigative journalist who had documented Chechnya's plight. Read The Full Story College Officers Profited By Sale Of Lender Stock 2007-04-05 14:13:37 The directors of financial aid at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California held shares in a student loan company that each of the universities recommends to student borrowers, and in at least two cases profited handsomely. The personal stake of the three university officials in the company, now known as Student Loan Xpress, is the latest revelation in an expanding investigation by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, of New York, into the relationships between student loan companies and universities. Student Loan Xpress is one of the “preferred lenders” recommended at all three universities. Government filings show that the three officials sold shares in a stock offering by the parent company of Student Loan Xpress in 2003 and held additional stock options in the company, known as Education Lending Group. One of the officials made more than $100,000, according to documents and lawyers in Cuomo’s office. In one case, that of Texas, the official says he was invited to invest in the company. Read The Full Story 7 Americans, 4 Britons Killed In Iraq In 2 Days 2007-04-05 14:13:06 Seven U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq in a spate of attacks over the last two days, and four British soldiers and an interpreter died in a single incident Thursday morning when their patrol near the southern city of Basra came under fire, according to American and British officials. Separately, U.S. officials said that an Army helicopter had crashed south of Baghdad. All nine people on board survived. On Tuesday, one U.S. soldier was shot to death while patrolling in eastern Baghdad, parts of which have long been strongholds for Shiite Muslim militiamen. Another soldier was killed and a third wounded that day by small arms fire while on a foot patrol in the southern outskirts of Baghdad. Read The Full Story Injured In Iraq, A Soldier Is Shattered At Home 2007-04-05 14:09:40 Blinded and disabled on the 54th day of the war in Iraq, Sam Ross returned home to a rousing parade that outdid anything this small, depressed Appalachian town in Pennsylvania had ever seen. “Sam’s parade put Dunbar on the map,” said his grandfather. That was then. Now Ross, 24, faces charges of attempted homicide, assault and arson in the burning of a family trailer in February. Nobody in the trailer was hurt, but Ross fought the assistant fire chief who reported to the scene, and later threatened a state trooper with his prosthetic leg, which was taken away from him, according to the police. The police locked up Ross in the Fayette County prison. In his cell, he tried to hang himself with a sheet. After he was cut down, Ross was committed to a state psychiatric hospital, where, he said in a recent interview there, he is finally getting - and accepting - the help he needs, having spiraled downward in the years since the welcoming fanfare faded. Read The Full Story Blair Welcomes Freed British Marines, Sailors Home 2007-04-05 14:08:12 British marines and sailors held captive for nearly two weeks in Iran landed back home in London Thursday morning, touching down at Heathrow airport on a commercial flight before being whisked by military helicopters to a debriefing on their time in custody. European and other television networks reported that the 14 men and one woman, whose March 23 capture in the Persian Gulf by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards triggered a tense diplomatic standoff, sipped champagne in their business class seats on the plane ride back, carrying gift bags given them on the way out of Tehran. Dressed again in military uniforms - they had been wearing suits during the announcement of their release in Tehran yesterday - the group stopped briefly before television cameras on the tarmac, then boarded the helicopters for a flight to a U.K. military base and a planned reunion with their families. British Prime Minister Tony Blair used the moment to welcome the 15 home - but also to emphasize that Britain, the United States and other allies should remain concerned about Iran, its pursuit of nuclear technology and its support for Iraqi Shiite Muslim militias and other militant groups. Read The Full Story FBI Agent Wounded In New Jersey Shootout 2007-04-05 14:07:32 An FBI agent was wounded in a shootout with three bank robbery suspects Thursday in north central New Jersey, said law enforcement officials. Details of the shooting and the agent's condition were not immediately released. A law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said FBI agents were investigating a string of recent bank robberies in central New Jersey when they came upon the suspects leaving a bank near Route 22 in Readington. A shootout ensued. Read The Full Story British Marines, Sailors Flying Home From Iran 2007-04-05 01:02:04 The 15 British service members held in Iranian custody for nearly two weeks flew out of Tehran Thursday aboard a British Airways plane bound for London, Iran's state-run IRIB network reported, according to Reuters. Britain's ambassador to Iran and other members of the British embassy were at Mehrabad Airport to see them off, IRIB reported. The flight departed shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday (12:30 a.m. ET). Earlier, the group shook hands and made small talk with Ahmadinejad Wednesday, thanking him shortly after he announced their pardon. Read The Full Story V.A. Removes Wrong Testicle From Patient 2007-04-05 01:01:30 An Air Force veteran has filed a federal claim after an operation at a Veterans Administration hospital in which a healthy testicle was removed instead of a potentially cancerous one. Benjamin Houghton, 47, was to have had his left testicle removed June 14 at the West Los Angeles V.A. Medical Center because there was a chance it could harbor cancer cells. It also was atrophied and painful. But doctors mistakenly removed the right testicle, according to medical records and the claim, which seeks $200,000 for future care and unspecified damages. He still hasn't had the other testicle removed. "At first I thought it was a joke," Houghton told the Los Angeles Times. "Then I was shocked. I told them, 'What do I do now?'" Read The Full Story	Saddam Hussein's Prewar Ties To Al-Qaeda Discounted 2007-04-06 02:25:58 Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides "all confirmed" that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, according to a declassified Defense Department report released Thursday. The declassified version of the report, by acting Inspector General Thomas F. Gimble, also contains new details about the intelligence community's prewar consensus that the Iraqi government and al-Qaeda figures had only limited contacts, and about its judgments that reports of deeper links were based on dubious or unconfirmed information. The report had been released in summary form in February. The report's release came on the same day that Vice President Cheney, appearing on Rush Limbaugh's radio program, repeated his allegation that al-Qaeda was operating inside Iraq "before we ever launched" the war, under the direction of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist killed last June. Read The Full Story Pentagon To Alert Several National Guard Brigades They're Going To Iraq 2007-04-06 02:25:08 Several National Guard brigades are expected to be notified soon that they could be sent to Iraq around the first of next year, according to a senior Defense Department official. If their assignment to Iraq is ultimately approved by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, it would be the first time full Guard combat brigades were sent back to Iraq for a second tour. The units would serve as replacement forces in the regular unit rotation for the war, and would not be connected to the recent military build-up for security operations in Baghdad. Gates is expected to sign the notices alerting the Guard troops shortly, said the official, who requested anonymity because the information has not yet been released. "You will start to see reserve component forces coming back into the rotation," said the official, adding that the notices are being done now in order to give the Guard units as much time as possible to prepare. Read The Full Story Former First Lady Betty Ford Hospitalized In California 2007-04-06 02:24:08 Former first lady Betty Ford was recovering Thursday from unspecified surgery, said the office of the late President Gerald Ford. The surgery occurred earlier in the week and she was "recovering well" at Eisenhower Medical Center, said the statement. No other information will be released for several days, said the statement. Mrs. Ford is 88. Her birthday is Sunday. Read The Full Story Global Warming Will Make Dust Bowl-Scale Droughts Common In U.S. Southwest 2007-04-05 17:52:54 Global warming will permanently change the climate of the American Southwest, making it so much hotter and drier that Dust Bowl-scale droughts will become common, a new climate report concludes. While much of the nation west of the Mississippi River is likely to get drier because of the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the greatest effect will be felt in the already-arid areas on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. By the end of the century, the climate researchers predict, rainfall in that region will have declined by a worrisome 10 to 20 percent annually. A similar drying out of the "subtropical" belt above and below the equator will hit the Mediterranean region and parts of Africa, South America and South Asia, the report says, as the overall warming of the oceans and surface air transforms basic wind and precipitation patterns around the Earth. The prediction of a drier Southwest was made by 16 of 19 climate computer models assembled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international scientific effort to assess the impact of global warming, which is releasing a new report Friday . The drought results were analyzed separately in a paper published on-line Thursday by the journal Science, which also predicted that regions outside the drying belt will get more rain. Read The Full Story 1,200 Rescued From Listing Cruise Ship 2007-04-05 17:51:26 A listing cruise ship carrying nearly 1,600 people was evacuated safely Thursday after it struck rocks and began taking on water off the Greek island of Santorini, said authorities. No injuries were reported aboard the Sea Diamond, which hit a reef in a lagoon near the main port of the island. The Merchant Marine Ministry said 1,195 passengers - most of them from North America - and 391 crew members were on board. About 20 crew members remained on the ship after the three-hour evacuation. "All the passengers are off the ship safely, and everything is OK," said Giorgos Stathopoulos, spokesman for Louis Cruise Lines, a Cyprus-based company that operates the 469-foot vessel. He said most of the passengers were from North America, with groups of U.S. college students on board. Read The Full Story After Thailand Objections, Offensive YouTube Clip Removed 2007-04-05 17:50:52 The anonymous creator of a 44-second video clip mocking Thailand's revered king removed it from the YouTube video-sharing Web site on Thursday after torrents of abuse from outraged Thai viewers. The relevant page on YouTube said simply the video had "been removed by the user". However, Thai Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said Bangkok's army-backed administration would continue to block YouTube (www.youtube.com) as two images deemed offensive remained. "We want those photos off the site too," he told Reuters. Earlier, Sitthichai accused YouTube, owned by Internet search engine Google, of being heartless and culturally insensitive for refusing to remove the file. Read The Full Story U.N. Climate Panel Confident Global Warming Is Already Underway 2007-04-05 14:13:21 The newest international assessment of the consequences of Earth's warming climate has concluded with "high confidence" that human-generated greenhouse gases are already triggering changes in ecosystems on land and sea across the globe. The second working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was charged with tracking the impact of global warming on specific regions and species, plans to release its final report tomorrow in Brussels. The Washington Post obtained a near-final draft of the report Wednesday. That document - which follows an IPCC study in February that concluded with at least 90 percent certainty that humans are responsible for Earth's recent warming - provides a more detailed look at how emissions from automobiles, industry and other sources are affecting life around the world. The draft says "much more evidence has accumulated over the past five years" to indicate that changes such as longer growing seasons and earlier leaf-unfolding and earlier egg-laying by birds are traceable to human activities. Read The Full Story Pet Food Recall Expands As Dog Biscuits Added To List 2007-04-05 14:12:48 The recall of pet foods and treats contaminated with an industrial chemical expanded Thursday to include dog biscuits made by an Alabama company. The Food and Drug Administration said Sunshine Mills Inc. is recalling dog biscuits made with imported Chinese wheat gluten. Testing has revealed the wheat gluten, a protein source, was contaminated with melamine, used to make plastics and other industrial products. Also Thursday, Menu Foods, a major manufacturer of brand- and private-label wet pet foods expanded its original recall to include a broader range of dates, said the FDA. Menu Foods was the first of at least six companies to recall pet foods and treats made with the contaminated ingredient. Read The Full Story Gonzales Prepares To Fight For His Job When He Testifies 2007-04-05 14:09:09 Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has retreated from public view this week in an intensive effort to save his job, spending hours practicing testimony and phoning lawmakers for support in preparation for pivotal appearances in the Senate this month, according to administration officials. After struggling for weeks to explain the extent of his involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, Gonzales and his aides are viewing the Senate testimony on April 12 and April 17 as seriously as if it were a confirmation proceeding for a Supreme Court or a Cabinet appointment, said officials. Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, and Timothy E. Flanigan, who worked for Gonzales at the White House, have met with the attorney general to plot strategy. The department has scheduled three days of rigorous mock testimony sessions next week and Gonzales has placed phone calls to more than a dozen GOP lawmakers seeking support, said officials. Read The Full Story U.S. Unemployment Claims Increased At End Of March 2007-04-05 14:07:55 Newly laid-off workers signed up for unemployment benefits at a faster pace last week as companies try to cope with sluggish growth in the national economy. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for jobless benefits rose by a seasonally adjusted 11,000, to 321,000, for the work week ending March 31. Although the increase left jobless claims at their highest level since the beginning of March, the report suggested that the labor market is holding up fairly well to strains from the troubled housing market and struggles faced by the automotive industry and other manufacturers. Read The Full Story Kerkorian Offers $4.5 Billion For Chrysler 2007-04-05 14:06:58 The Tracinda Corporation, the investment arm of the billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, offered Friday to pay $4.5 billion in cash to buy the Chrysler Group, 12 years to the month after an earlier attempt by Kerkorian to buy the company, which was instead acquired later by Daimler-Benz of Germany. Kerkorian, who was once Chrysler’s biggest shareholder, disclosed his offer in a news release that came a day after DaimlerChrysler'schief executive, Dieter Zetsche, acknowledged that the American carmaker was for sale. “Tracinda believes by taking a long-term approach to solving Chrysler’s problems it can become a robust and lasting standalone entity,” said the company. Read The Full Story U.S. Lets Red Cross See Seized Iranians 2007-04-05 01:01:49 The U.S. military has allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit five Iranian officials who were detained in Iraqnearly three months ago on suspicion of plotting against American and Iraqi forces. A Red Cross delegation that included one Iranian citizen visited the detainees, and a request for a formal consular visit with them is "being assessed at this time" by the U.S. military, said Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. In a briefing for reporters Wednesday, Caldwell did not say when the visit took place or whether it was connected to the case of the 15 British sailors and marines detained by Iran on March 23; Iran subsequently announced that they would be released. (Editor: There are news reports that the British Marines and Sailors are now enroute back to Britain. You can read a separate article on this elsewhere on Free Internet Press' mainpage today.) The Iraqi government has called for the release of the five Iranians, who were captured during a U.S. military raid in January on an office providing consular services in the Kurdish city of Irbil. Read The Full Story
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