Free Internet Press Newsletter - Saturday April 21 2007 - (813)

Saturday April 21 2007 edition
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FDA Opens Criminal Probe In Pet Food Scare; Says People May Have Eaten Tainted Pork Confirmed In California 2007-04-20 23:57:35 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has opened a criminal investigation in the widening pet food contamination scandal, officials said Friday, as it was confirmed that tainted pork might have made its way onto human dinner plates in California. More than 100 hogs that ate contaminated food at a custom slaughterhouse in California's Central Valley were sold to private individuals and to an unnamed licensed facility in Northern California during the past 2 1/2 weeks. The hogs consumed feed that contained rice protein tainted with melamine, the industrial chemical that has sickened and killed dogs and cats around the world. Almost a dozen companies have found that they have used melamine-contaminated ingredients from China in their animal foods, either wheat gluten, corn gluten or rice protein concentrate. In the United States, more than 60 million containers of cat and dog food have been pulled from the market in the past five weeks. People who bought pork from the American Hog Farm, a 1,500-animal facility in Ceres, California, between April 3 and April 18 are being advised not to eat the meat, California health officials said Friday, although there have been no reports of illness in either people or the hogs. Authorities are tracking down all the purchasers. Read The Full Story Gunman Kills Hostage, Self, At Johnson Space Center 2007-04-20 18:46:52 A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building Friday at the Johnson Space Center and fatally shot a hostage before killing himself, said police. A second hostage escaped with minor injuries. The gunman shot himself once in the head more than three hours after barricading himself on the second floor of Building 44, which houses a laboratory. The slain hostage was probably killed "in the early minutes of the whole ordeal", said Houston Police Capt. Dwayne Ready. None of those involved were immediately identified. The man was believed to be an employee of Jacobs Engineering, which has a technical support contract with NASA. Read The Full Story U.S. Walls Off Baghdad Sunni Neighborhood 2007-04-20 18:46:10 U.S. soldiers are building a three-mile wall to protect a Sunni Arab enclave surrounded by Shiite neighborhoods in a Baghdad area "trapped in a spiral of sectarian violence and retaliation," said the military. When the wall is finished, the minority Sunni community of Azamiyah, on the eastern side of the Tigris River, will be gated, and traffic control points manned by Iraqi soldiers will be the only entries, the military said. "Shiites are coming in and hitting Sunnis, and Sunnis are retaliating across the street," said Capt. Scott McLearn, of the U.S. 407th Brigade Support Battalion, which began the project April 10 and is working "almost nightly until the wall is complete," said the statement. It said the concrete wall, including barriers as tall as 12 feet, "is one of the centerpieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence" in Baghdad. Read The Full Story Clashes Erupt Around Shiite Mosque In Baghdad 2007-04-20 14:36:16 U.S. ground forces and helicopters fought with gunmen around a Shiite mosque in western Baghdad before Friday prayers, killing two suspected insurgents, said the American military. The military first denied reports by witnesses and Iraqi TV that American helicopters had fired near the blue-domed mosque in Baiyaa, a religiously mixed neighborhood in western Baghdad. Several hours later, however, the military said a review of the firefight indicated that its helicopters had fired about 100 rounds of 30mm ammunition. Soldiers searching nearby buildings found chemicals believed to be bomb-making materials and detained an Iraqi civilian, said the military. Iraqi soldiers searched the Ali al-Baiyaa mosque, but found no weapons or suspects. The coalition suffered no casualties, and damage to the mosque was limited to several small bullet holes, said an A.P.  photographer on the scene. Read The Full Story U.S. Embassy In Germany Warns Of Terrorism Threat 2007-04-20 14:35:36 The U.S. embassy in Berlin warned Friday that Germany faced an increased threat of terrorism and that Americans in the country were particularly at risk. Although the State Department regularly issues warnings about dangers to U.S. citizens in Europe and elsewhere in the world, Germany has rarely been singled out as a potential security problem. In posting the warning, the embassy in Berlin said U.S. diplomatic and consular offices across Germany had increased their security in response to "a heightened threat situation". The embassy did not give details, but U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the warning was prompted by increased activity among Islamic extremists in the country instead of a specific plot. German authorities said they took the warning seriously and have taken extra measures to safeguard U.S. interests. "The German security authorities share this concern," the Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that "the degree of danger for U.S. institutions in Germany has increased in this concrete situation." Read The Full Story Home Sellers Owe More Than They Get 2007-04-20 02:37:22 Jeffrey Taylor and his wife bought their dream home in Purcellville for $538,000 last August. Now they have to sell it because they are getting divorced and neither one can afford the mortgage alone. The most they could get for it was $430,000. After paying all the real estate commissions and taxes, they will still owe the bank $118,000. "Five months later, I lose $100,000," said Taylor, a high school teacher. "I don't think I can take $100,000 into the stock market and lose it faster." Such a scenario, known as a short sale, was unthinkable during the real estate boom of recent years. In the course of five months, a person could buy and sell a property and walk away with tens of thousands of dollars. Now, instead of receiving large checks at the settlement table, many sellers are writing them. "It was unheard of three years ago," said Kevin Connelly, a mortgage banker for Pinnacle Financial in Vienna, Virginia. "Everyone was doubling their money, and suddenly the tide has turned." Read The Full Story Congressman Quits Appropriations Committee After FBI Raid 2007-04-20 02:36:39 Less than a week after the FBI raided the Northern Virginia home of his wife, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-California) gave up his coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee Thursdayamid concerns that he had used that post to advance the interests of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and other allies. "I understand how the most recent circumstances may lead some to question my tenure on the Appropriations Committee," the conservative nine-term congressman wrote in a letter to House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). "Therefore, I feel it may be in the best interest of the House that I take a temporary leave with seniority from this Committee until this matter can be resolved." Boehner accepted the decision, saying in a statement that it "is in the best interest of the House and the American people." Read The Full Story Army General Says Baghdad Security Has Lost Traction 2007-04-20 02:36:01 A day after a wave of car bombings killed more than 150 civilians and injured almost 200 others in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates asserted Thursday that the U.S. commitment to the Iraq war is not open-ended. Gates, at a news conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, before he made a surprise visit to Baghdad, said the debate in Congress over war funding underscores the need for Iraqi lawmakers to pass legislation that addresses political reconciliation and sharing of oil revenues. "Frankly, I would like to see faster progress," said Gates. " ... The president has said that our patience is not unlimited. I don't think we've been very subtle in communicating these messages to the Iraqis." A few hours after Gates arrived in Baghdad, a top Pentagon official said it's still too early to tell whether the nine-week-old American troop surge in the Iraqi capital is working. Read The Full Story	Update: Gunman Kills NASA Worker, Himself, 2nd Hostage Escapes 2007-04-20 23:57:21 A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building Friday at the Johnson Space Center and fatally shot a hostage before killing himself, police said. A second hostage escaped with minor injuries. The gunman was able to take a snub-nosed revolver past NASA security and barricade himself in the building, which houses communications and tracking systems for the space shuttle, authorities said. NASA and police identified him as 60-year-old William Phillips. He had apparently had a dispute with the slain hostage, police said. NASA spokesman Doug Peterson said the agency would review its security. Read The Full Story U.S. Database Exposes Social Security Numbers Of Tens Of Thousands Of Americans 2007-04-20 18:46:35 The Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people who received loans or other financial assistance from two Agriculture Department programs were disclosed for years in a publicly available database, raising concerns about identity theft and other privacy violations. Officials at the Agriculture Department and the Census Bureau, which maintains the database, were evidently unaware that the Social Security numbers were accessible in the database until they were notified last week by a farmer from Illinois, who stumbled across the database on the Internet. “I was bored, and typed the name of my farm into Google to see what was out there,” said Marsha Bergmeier, president of Mohr Family Farms in Fairmount, Illinois. The first link that appeared in the search results was for her farm’s Web site. The second was for a site that she had never heard of, FedSpending.org, which provides a searchable database of federal government expenditures. The site uses information from the Census database. Read The Full Story A Grieving Virginia United In Mourning 2007-04-20 14:36:40 Silence fell across the Virginia Tech campus at noon Friday and bells tolled in churches nationwide in memory of the 32 victims of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. On the Virginia Tech campus, much of the shock from Monday's killings had given way to grief. Hundreds of somber students and area residents, most wearing the school's maroon and orange, stood with heads bowed at a memorial on the Drillfield in front of Norris Hall. Along with the bouquets and candles was a yellow sign covered in maroon and orange handprints, bearing the words "Never forgotten." The governor declared Friday a statewide day of mourning for the victims as experts pored over the twisted writings of the shooter, student Cho Seung-Hui, and parents urged everyone else to focus on healing. Read The Full Story World Bank Group To Discuss Wolfowitz's Fate 2007-04-20 14:35:59 The World Bank's board on Friday ordered an ad hoc group to discuss the fate of President Paul Wolfowitz, whose leadership has been thrown into turmoil by revelations that he helped his girlfriend get a high-paying job. The 24-member board, in a statement released in the early morning, expressed its "great concern" and instructed the ad hoc group to take up the matter "immediately." Officials believed the group - whose representatives were not identified - would convene later Friday. Wolfowitz, who said he made a mistake and has apologized, said he "welcomes the decision of the board to move forward and resolve this very important issue." He also said he "looks forward to implementing the recommendations of the board." The White House renewed its support for the embattled president on Friday. Read The Full Story Senators Of Both Parties Chastise Gonzales At Hearing 2007-04-20 02:37:36 U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales came under withering attack from members of his own party Thursday over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, facing the first resignation demand from a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and doubts from others about his candor and his ability to lead the Justice Department. Gonzales appeared frustrated, weary and at times combative during a five-hour Senate panel hearing that was widely considered crucial to his bid to hold on to his job. He sought to present a careful defense of the firings, apologizing for the way they were handled but defending them as the "right decision." "While the process that led to the resignations was flawed, I firmly believe that nothing improper occurred," Gonzales said. "It would be improper to remove a U.S. attorney to interfere with or influence a particular prosecution for partisan political gain. I did not do that. I would never do that." Yet the attorney general, who spent the past three weeks preparing for his testimony, struggled to recall key details of his involvement in the firings, including a pivotal conversation with President Bush. Read The Full Story Growing Numbers Of Americans See Global Warming As Leading Threat 2007-04-20 02:37:03 A third of Americans say global warming ranks as the world's single largest environmental problem, double the number who gave it top ranking last year, a nationwide poll shows. In the new poll, conducted jointly by the Washington Post, ABC News and Stanford University, most of those surveyed said that climate change is real and that they want the federal government to do more about it. But the survey also shows there is little public agreement about the policies the United States should adopt to address it. The findings come weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government has the right to regulate carbon dioxide, the largest contributor to human-caused warming. Congress is pressing to enact limits on all greenhouse-gas emissions linked to climate change, but it remains unclear how soon the House or the Senate could pass such legislation. According to the poll, seven in 10 Americans want more federal action on global warming, and about half of those surveyed think the government should do "much more" than it is doing now. Read The Full Story Wolfowitz Backed Companion For Iraq Contract In 2003 2007-04-20 02:36:25 Paul D. Wolfowitz, while serving as deputy secretary of defense, personally recommended that his companion, Shaha Ali Riza, be awarded a contract for travel to Iraq  in 2003 to advise on setting up a new government, says a previously undisclosed inquiry by the Pentagon’s inspector general. The inquiry, as described by a senior Pentagon official, concluded that there was no wrongdoing in Wolfowitz’s role in the hiring of Ms. Riza by the Science Applications International Corporation, a Pentagon contractor, because Ms. Riza had the expertise required to advise on the role of women in Islamic countries. The investigators also found that Wolfowitz, now president of the World Bank, had not exerted improper influence in Ms. Riza’s hiring. Earlier this week, Science Applications International said an unnamed Defense Department official had directed that she be hired. She had been a World Bank employee for five years at the time. Read The Full Story Al-Qaeda In Iraq Chief Appointed 'Minister Of War' 2007-04-20 02:35:01 A Sunni insurgent coalition posted Web videos on Thursday naming the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq as ''minister of war'' and showing the execution of 20 men it said were members of the Iraqi military and security forces. The announcement unveiling an ''Islamic Cabinet'' for Iraq appeared to have multiple aims. One was to present the Islamic State of Iraq coalition as a ''legitimate'' alternative to the U.S.-backed, Shiite-led administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki - and to demonstrate that it was growing in power despite the U.S. military push against insurgents. It also likely sought to establish the coalition's dominance among insurgents after an embarrassing public dispute with other Iraqi Sunni militants. Read The Full Story
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