Free Internet Press Newsletter - Friday February 29 2008 - (813)

Friday February 29 2008 edition
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Bush Administration's Embrace Of Musharraf Irks Pakistanis 2008-02-29 03:55:28 The Bush administration’s continued backing of President Pervez Musharraf, despite the overwhelming rejection of his party by voters this month, is fueling a new level of frustration in Pakistan with the United States. That support has rankled the public, politicians and journalists here, inciting deep anger at what is perceived as American meddling and the refusal of Washington to embrace the new, democratically elected government. John D. Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, said Thursday during a Senate panel hearing that the United States would maintain its close ties to Musharraf. Pakistanis say the Bush administration is grossly misjudging the political mood in Pakistan and squandering an opportunity to win support from the Pakistani public for its fight against terrorism. The opposition parties that won the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections say they are moderate and pro-American. By working with them, analysts say, Washington could gain a vital, new ally. The American insistence that Musharraf play a significant role, they say, will only draw out a power struggle with the president and distract the new government from pushing ahead with alternatives to Musharraf’s policies on the economy and terrorism, which are widely viewed here as having failed. Read The Full Story Turkey Says No Timetable For Iraq Pullout 2008-02-29 03:54:57 Turkey said on Wednesday it had "no timetable" to withdraw troops fighting Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq, resisting pressure from the United States and other allies to end the offensive quickly. Thousands of Turkish troops crossed the border last Thursday to root out PKK fighters. The PKK has used remote mountainous northern Iraq as a base in their armed campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey. "Our objective is clear, our mission is clear and there is no timetable until ... those terrorist bases are eliminated," Turkish envoy Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference after talks in Baghdad with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari. Davutoglu, chief foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, was sent to Baghdad to explain Ankara's position on the offensive. He also met top U.S. officials in Iraq, including military commander General David Petraeus. Read The Full Story Outspoken Scientists Dismissed From EPA Panel On Chemical Safety 2008-02-28 21:47:40 Deborah Rice, an award-winning toxicologist, was removed from a group of experts researching a widely-used flame retardant after industry lobbyists complained that she was biased. Under pressure from the chemical industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed an outspoken scientist who chaired a federal panel responsible for helping the agency determine the dangers of a flame retardant widely used in electronic equipment. Toxicologist Deborah Rice was appointed chair of an EPA scientific panel reviewing the chemical a year ago. Federal records show she was removed from the panel in August after the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group for chemical manufacturers, complained to a top-ranking EPA official that she was biased. The chemical, a brominated compound known as deca, is used in high volumes worldwide, largely in the plastic housings of television sets. Read The Full Story U.S. House Speaker Pelosi Wants Bush Aides Investigated 2008-02-28 21:47:07 U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked the Justice Department on Thursday to open a grand jury investigation into whether President Bush's chief of staff and former counsel should be prosecuted for contempt of Congress. Pelosi, D-California, demanded that the department pursue misdemeanor charges against former White House counsel Harriet Miers for refusing to testify to Congress about the firings of federal prosecutors in 2006 and against chief of staff Josh Bolten for failing to turn over White House documents related to the dismissals. She gave Attorney General Michael Mukasey one week to respond and said refusal to take the matter to a grand jury will result in the House's filing a civil lawsuit against the Bush administration. The White House branded the request as "truly contemptible." The Justice Department said it had received Pelosi's request and anticipated providing further guidance after Mukasey's review. It noted "long-standing department precedent" in such cases against letting a U.S. attorney refer a congressional contempt citation to a grand jury or prosecute an executive branch. The top House Republican called it "a partisan political stunt" and "a complete waste of time," according to a spokesman. Read The Full Story City Of Vallejo, California, May File For Bankruptcy 2008-02-28 21:46:16 Vallejo, California, the one-time shipyard city turned Bay Area commuter village is considering a move that is rare both in California and across the nation - declaring bankruptcy. A somber City Council prepared to vote Thursday evening after putting the bankruptcy issue on the table earlier in the week during an emotional hearing that drew hundreds of concerned residents. City Manager Joseph Tanner has recommended the council file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, allowing the city to renegotiate its debt, but also substantially reduce services for years to come. For residents, the prospects are grim. Potholes left unfixed. Trees not trimmed. Longer waits for police. Civic leaders blame the city's current money woes - a looming $9.2-million shortfall - on a downturn in the housing market and the high cost of providing public safety. Read The Full Story Newsblog: Sprint Nextel Loses $29.5 Billion 2008-02-28 21:45:11 The depth of the challenge facing new Sprint Nextel chief executive Dan Hesse was laid bare Thursday when the wireless carrier announced a $29.5 billion loss for the fourth quarter of 2007 and warned of ongoing troubles. Sprint eliminated its dividend and wrote down the full value of Nextel Communications on its balance sheet. Sprint merged with Nextel in 2005 in a $70 billion deal, but the marriage has been a difficult one. Sprint also announced it had borrowed $2.5 billion to sustain business operations. Sprint said 1.2 million wireless subscribers are expected to drop their service by the end of March. In the whole of 2007, that many subscribers abandoned Sprint. Meanwhile, chief rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T gained subscribers. The loss of $29.5 billion ($10.36 per share) compared to a profit of $261 million (9 cents per share) in the fourth quarter 2006. The loss for all of 2007 was $29.6 billion ($10.31) compared to $995 million (34 cents) in 2006. Overall revenues for 2007 decline slightly from 2006. Read The Full Story U.S. Intelligence Chief: Afghanistan Mission Close To Failing 2008-02-28 20:28:16 After six years of U.S.-led military support and billions of dollars in aid, security in Afghanistan is "deteriorating" and President Hamid Karzai's government controls less than a third of the country, America's top intelligence official  admitted Thursday. Mike McConnell testified in Washington, D.C., that Karzai controls about 30% of Afghanistan and the Taliban 10%, and the remainder is under tribal control. The Afghan government angrily denied the U.S. director of national intelligence's assessment Thursday, insisting it controlled "over 360" of the country's 365 districts. "This is far from the facts and we completely deny it," said the defense ministry. McConnell's gloomy comments were echoed in even more strongly worded recent reports by thinktanks, including one headed by the former NATO commander General James Jones, which concluded that "urgent changes" were required now to "prevent Afghanistan becoming a failed state". Read The Full Story Scientists Warn Of New Jellyfish Plague 2008-02-28 20:27:49 Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, scientists in Spain are warning that the plagues of jellyfish that have been the scourge of Mediterranean swimmers in recent years will return this summer. In November, scientists at the Barcelona-based Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM) began studying the life cycles of jellyfish off the Costa Brava, and were alarmed to detect large numbers of the Pelagia noctiluca, commonly known as the "mauve stinger", growing in the winter, ready for an assault on Spain's beaches. The study revealed that jellyfish proliferate throughout the year, not just in the summer. Between November and January, scientists discovered 30 colonies, or blooms, ranging in size from four to 10 jellyfish per cubic meter of water, all along the Catalan coast. According to Josep-Maria Gili, research professor at the ICM, these groups were born last autumn, and the summer tides will carry them inland from deeper waters, causing the plagues that have seen millions of jellyfish wash up on Spain's beaches in recent years. "The problem seen on the beaches is not the main concern for scientists," said Professor Gili, "For us the major worry is the global disequilibrium in the sea caused by over-fishing." Read The Full Story Tax Whistleblower Sold Data To The U.S. 2008-02-28 03:50:21 The shadowy informant who blew the whistle on German tax cheats also sold data to U.S. authorities, Germany's news magazine Spiegel reported. The man, who was paid almost 5 million euros for DVDs full of information, has now been given a new identity by German intelligence. He was once kidnapped, the man told the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, to whom he was trying to sell several DVDs containing secret tax data. It was in 1997, in Argentina, he told the agents. The kidnappers, he said, locked him up for 10 days and mistreated him, sometimes by burning him with lit cigarettes; he still had the scars to prove it. He told the BND that he had had to come up with the ransom money himself, and that all of his and the Liechtenstein authorities' efforts to retrieve the money have failed. Read The Full Story Sunni Forces Losing Patience With U.S., Cite Lack Of Support 2008-02-28 03:49:25 U.S.-backed Sunni volunteer forces, which have played a vital role in reducing violence in Iraq, are increasingly frustrated with the American military and the Iraqi government over what they see as a lack of recognition of their growing political clout and insufficient U.S. support. Since Feb. 8, thousands of fighters in restive Diyala province have left their posts in order to pressure the government and its American backers to replace the province's Shiite police chief. On Wednesday, their leaders warned that they would disband completely if their demands were not met. In Babil province, south of Baghdad, fighters have refused to man their checkpoints after U.S. soldiers killed several comrades in mid-February in circumstances that remain in dispute. Some force leaders and ground commanders also reject a U.S.-initiated plan that they say offers too few Sunni fighters the opportunity to join Iraq's army and police, and warn that low salaries and late payments are pushing experienced members to quit. The predominantly Sunni Awakening forces, referred to by the U.S. military as the Sons of Iraq or Concerned Local Citizens, are made up mostly of former insurgents who have turned against extremists because of their harsh tactics and interpretation of Islam. The U.S. military pays many fighters roughly $10 a day to guard and patrol their areas. Thousands more unpaid volunteers have joined out of tribal and regional fealties. Read The Full Story German State-Owned Bank Concealing Total Extent Of Subprime Losses 2008-02-28 03:47:06 German state-owned bank BayernLB is concealing the true extent of its losses incurred as a result of the subprime crisis in the United States. Now the Bavarian savings banks are threatening to give up their 50-percent stake in the bank. Erwin Huber's banishment lasted exactly nine years. When the Bavarian state cabinet was formed in 1998, Huber, a 61-year-old veteran Bavarian politician from the town of Reisbach, was forced to leave his beloved Bavarian Finance Ministry and switch first to the state Chancellery and later to the state Economics Ministry. Huber, who is an expert on tax issues, suffered in silence. He has a cool head for figures, so much so that he could probably rattle off the individual items from the state's budget plan off the top of his head. Huber was only allowed to return from exile last October. He was elected chairman of Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. What may have actually been more important for him was the fact that he also regained the position of finance minister of the prosperous state of Bavaria. Read The Full Story	Blood Thinner Might Be Linked To More Deaths 2008-02-29 03:55:15 Amid indications that more people may have died or been harmed after being given a brand of the blood thinner heparin, federal drug regulators said Thursday that they had found “potential deficiencies” at a Chinese plant that supplied much of the active ingredient for the drug. Baxter International, which makes the brand of heparin associated with the problems, and buys supplies from the Chinese plant, announced that it was expanding a recall to include virtually all its heparin products. Though Baxter produces much of the heparin used in the United States, regulators said the other major supplier would be able to meet the demand. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the number of deaths possibly associated with the drug, made from pig intestines, had risen to 21 from 4, but it cautioned that many of those patients were already seriously ill and that the drug might not have caused their deaths. The F.D.A. emphasized that it had yet to identify the root cause of the problem, and that it had not concluded that the Chinese plant was responsible. The agency also said it was investigating two Chinese wholesalers - also called consolidators - that supplied crude heparin to the Chinese plant, Changzhou SPL, as well as those that sold raw ingredients to the consolidators. Read The Full Story Iraq Approves 'Chemical Ali' Execution 2008-02-29 03:54:45 Iraq's presidency endorsed the execution of Saddam Hussein's cousin known as "Chemical Ali," who was sentenced to death for his role in the 1980s scorched-earth campaign against Kurds, a government adviser said Friday. The backing by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and two vice presidents is the final step for the approval of Ali Hassan al-Majid's death sentence, which must be carried out within 30 days of the decision. Al-Majid was one of three former Saddam officials sentenced to hang in June after being convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for their part in the Operation Anfal crackdown that killed nearly 200,000 Kurdish civilians and guerrillas. An appeals court upheld the verdict in September. Read The Full Story More Than 1 In Every 100 Americans In Jail Or Prison 2008-02-28 21:47:23 More than one in 100 adults in the United States is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released Thursday. With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of 2008, the United States leads the world in both the number and the percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving even far more populous China a distant second, noted the report by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States. The ballooning prison population is largely the result of tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Minorities have been hit particularly hard: One in nine black men age 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women age 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 white women in the same age group. While studies generally find that imprisoning more offenders reduces crime, the effect is influenced by changes in the unemployment rate, wages, the ratio of police officers to residents, and the share of young people in the population. Read The Full Story Democrats Raise $80 Million, With Obama In The Lead 2008-02-28 21:46:43 Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton both had a record-breaking month of fundraising in February, bringing in more than $80 million combined, but with Obama again raising significantly more than his opponent. Obama’s campaign did not release an official estimate of its February fundraising on Thursday, but several major donors estimated it is about $50 million based on their calculations and knowledge of tallies during the month, when on many days the campaign took in as much as $2 million. The unprecedented sum is sure to make it that much harder for Obama to agree to accept public financing for the general election and abide by the spending limits that come with it, something he indicated last year he would do if the Republican nominee also signed up for the campaign finance program. Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has recently hammered Obama for wavering on the issue. Obama campaign officials said they are still tabulating their final numbers and would only say that their total was “considerably more” than the $35 million that Senator Clinton’s campaign announced Thursday it had raised in February. Read The Full Story Gun Rules May Be Eased In U.S. National Parks 2008-02-28 21:45:37 Visitors to some U.S. national parks would be able to start packing heat along with their tents and picnic baskets under a proposal being considered by the Interior Department  that would ease restrictions on loaded firearms in the parks. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said last week that officials would review long-standing regulations that require firearms in most national parks to be unloaded and inoperable - through the use of trigger locks, for example, or storage in a car trunk or a special case. The department intends to propose new rules by April 30. The review pits the National Rifle Association and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers against park rangers and advocates who decry the move as election-year posturing that could make the parks more dangerous. Kempthorne's action comes in response to two recent letters from 51 senators - 44 Republicans and seven Democrats - requesting that the National Park Service align its gun rules with state laws. If a state permits citizens to carry concealed weapons, the national parks in that state should, too, they argued. Read The Full Story Israel Kills 20 Palestinians In Gaza 2008-02-28 21:44:37 A bloody spike in Israel-Hamas fighting put the Israeli city of Ashkelon and its 110,000 residents at the center of an intensifying militant rocket barrage Thursday - and Israel's defense minister warned he would invade Gaza, if necessary, to halt the attacks. Israel launched nearly a dozen airstrikes, killing 20 Palestinians, said Gaza hospital officials. The attacks included a not-so-veiled warning to Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - a missile strike on a guard post outside his home. Hamas leaders have been in hiding in recent weeks, though Israel has so far only targeted militants, not Hamas politicians. The dead Thursday included members of rocket squads, as well as five children, ranging in age from 8 to 12, who their relatives said were playing soccer when they were killed in a missile strike. Israel has been reluctant to invade Gaza, amid concerns of getting bogged down there, but Defense Minister Ehud Barak told his security chiefs Thursday that an offensive is a definite option. "The major ground operation is real and tangible. We are not afraid of it," said Barak, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the top-level session was held in secrecy. Read The Full Story Prince Harry: 'I Think This Is As Normal As I'm Ever Going To Get' 2008-02-28 20:28:06 For the past 10 weeks, Britain's Prince Harry has been in Afghanistan directing airstrikes on the Taliban. The quotes in this article came from a pooled interview carried out by a reporter from the U.K.'s Press Association who was given access to Harry during his deployment. Widow Six Seven had just given them the signal over the radio: "Cleared hot." Seconds later, a roaring could be heard as the U.S. F15 fighter jets dropped two 500-pound bombs on their targets. As one dropped a third bomb on a Taliban bunker, men could be seen on the ground scrambling out from their cover. To the American pilots, the English public school voice responding to their "in hot" request and guiding their missile fire gave no clue that the army officer with whom they were communicating was a member of the British royal family. The soldier they knew as call sign Widow Six Seven was Prince Harry, working in Afghanistan as a forward air controller [FAC] identifying Taliban forces on the ground, verifying coordinates and clearing them as targets for attack. Read The Full Story Former Military Prosecutor To Testify For Detainee 2008-02-28 03:50:34 Until four months ago, Col. Morris D. Davis was the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay and the most colorful champion of the Bush administration’s military commission system. He once said sympathy for detainees was nauseating and compared putting them on trial to dragging “Dracula out into the sunlight.” Then in October he had a dispute with his boss, a general. Ever since, he has been one of those critics who will not go away: a former top insider, with broad shoulders and a well-pressed uniform, willing to turn on the system he helped run. Still in the military, he has irritated the administration, saying in articles and interviews that Pentagon officials interfered with prosecutors, exerted political pressure and approved the use of evidence obtained by torture. Now, Colonel Davis has taken his most provocative step, completing his transformation from Guantanamo’s chief prosecutor to its new chief critic. He has agreed to testify at Guantanamo on behalf of one of the detainees, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden.  Read The Full Story In Leadville, Mine Water Poses Danger Of A Toxic Gusher 2008-02-28 03:49:40 In a snowswept trailer park, Emily Medina wakes each morning wondering whether she will be washed away by toxic water that local officials fear could burst from a decaying mine tunnel near her home. Like many of the 2,800 people in the old mining town of Leadville, Colorado, where wealthy prospectors and infamous gunslingers once flocked, Ms. Medina, a housekeeper at a hotel in Vail, is afraid of losing her property, or worse. “They should get us out of here,” she said. “They need to do something before it’s too late.” This month, Lake County commissioners declared a state of emergency over concerns that rising levels of contaminated water could burst from the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel and flood the town. Read The Full Story Commentary: Russia's Dangerous Double Act 2008-02-28 03:49:00 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Christian Neef and was posted on the German news magazine Der Spiegel's online edition for Wednesday, February 27, 2008. Mr. Neef's commentary follows: After Sunday's elections in Russia, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin are expected to form a governing duo. But why assume that a czar duo can ensure stability? Shared leadership has never worked in Russia. On Sunday, roughly 109 million Russians will vote on who they want to see in the Kremlin as the country's next president in May. Of course, if voting means selecting, then voting isn't exactly what Russian citizens will be doing. Russia has no televised debates, Clinton tears or Obama hype. And while Europeans may find the American election circus amusing, it unquestionably reflects a fundamentally democratic system. What we are experiencing in Russia, on the other hand, is a one-man play. The outcome of the vote has been clear ever since President Vladimir Putin anointed his confidant Dmitry Medvedev to be his successor. And it has only one function: to legitimize the Kremlin leader's decision. In other words, only one Russian will be voting on March 2: Vladimir Putin. Muscovites are calling it a historic vote. "Medvedev - this is the most stable, quietest and least surprising option" to succeed the president, says Mikhail Leontyev, a journalist closely aligned with the Kremlin. According to Leontyev, Russia's future duo of leaders - Medvedev as president and Putin as prime minister - represents an "absolutely organic" solution. The historic aspect of what Putin aims to achieve with this procedure, writes Leontyev, is the attempt to break out of a vicious circle: namely to finally settle the power issue without triggering some sort of violence, and without allowing Russia to descend into a new era of confusion. Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Thursday February 28 2008 - (813)

Thursday February 28 2008 edition
Free Internet Press is operated on your donations. Donate Today
Former Military Prosecutor To Testify For Detainee 2008-02-28 03:50:34 Until four months ago, Col. Morris D. Davis was the chief prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay and the most colorful champion of the Bush administration’s military commission system. He once said sympathy for detainees was nauseating and compared putting them on trial to dragging “Dracula out into the sunlight.” Then in October he had a dispute with his boss, a general. Ever since, he has been one of those critics who will not go away: a former top insider, with broad shoulders and a well-pressed uniform, willing to turn on the system he helped run. Still in the military, he has irritated the administration, saying in articles and interviews that Pentagon officials interfered with prosecutors, exerted political pressure and approved the use of evidence obtained by torture. Now, Colonel Davis has taken his most provocative step, completing his transformation from Guantanamo’s chief prosecutor to its new chief critic. He has agreed to testify at Guantanamo on behalf of one of the detainees, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden.  Read The Full Story In Leadville, Mine Water Poses Danger Of A Toxic Gusher 2008-02-28 03:49:40 In a snowswept trailer park, Emily Medina wakes each morning wondering whether she will be washed away by toxic water that local officials fear could burst from a decaying mine tunnel near her home. Like many of the 2,800 people in the old mining town of Leadville, Colorado, where wealthy prospectors and infamous gunslingers once flocked, Ms. Medina, a housekeeper at a hotel in Vail, is afraid of losing her property, or worse. “They should get us out of here,” she said. “They need to do something before it’s too late.” This month, Lake County commissioners declared a state of emergency over concerns that rising levels of contaminated water could burst from the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel and flood the town. Read The Full Story Commentary: Russia's Dangerous Double Act 2008-02-28 03:49:00 Intellpuke: The following commentary was written by Christian Neef and was posted on the German news magazine Der Spiegel's online edition for Wednesday, February 27, 2008. Mr. Neef's commentary follows: After Sunday's elections in Russia, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin are expected to form a governing duo. But why assume that a czar duo can ensure stability? Shared leadership has never worked in Russia. On Sunday, roughly 109 million Russians will vote on who they want to see in the Kremlin as the country's next president in May. Of course, if voting means selecting, then voting isn't exactly what Russian citizens will be doing. Russia has no televised debates, Clinton tears or Obama hype. And while Europeans may find the American election circus amusing, it unquestionably reflects a fundamentally democratic system. What we are experiencing in Russia, on the other hand, is a one-man play. The outcome of the vote has been clear ever since President Vladimir Putin anointed his confidant Dmitry Medvedev to be his successor. And it has only one function: to legitimize the Kremlin leader's decision. In other words, only one Russian will be voting on March 2: Vladimir Putin. Muscovites are calling it a historic vote. "Medvedev - this is the most stable, quietest and least surprising option" to succeed the president, says Mikhail Leontyev, a journalist closely aligned with the Kremlin. According to Leontyev, Russia's future duo of leaders - Medvedev as president and Putin as prime minister - represents an "absolutely organic" solution. The historic aspect of what Putin aims to achieve with this procedure, writes Leontyev, is the attempt to break out of a vicious circle: namely to finally settle the power issue without triggering some sort of violence, and without allowing Russia to descend into a new era of confusion. Read The Full Story Federal Appeals Court Ruling Could Allow Class Action Lawsuits Against Mortgage Firms 2008-02-27 21:07:31 A federal appeals court is nearing a decision on a battle between Chevy Chase Bank and a Wisconsin couple that could for the first time enable homeowners across the country to band together in class-action lawsuits against mortgage firms and get their loans canceled. The case is alarming Wall Street's biggest banks, which could bear the hefty cost of reimbursing all mortgage interest, closing costs and broker fees to groups of homeowners who uncover even minor mistakes in their loan documents. After a federal judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, ruled last year that the Wisconsin couple had been deceived and other borrowers could join their suit, Chevy Chase Bank appealed to the circuit court in Chicago, Illinois. Kevin Demet, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, said a decision by the appeals court is imminent, though others involved in the case said it could be a matter of weeks. "It's one of the most important cases for the mortgage industry right now," said Louis Pizante, chief executive of Mavent, which provides consumer protection law services to major lenders. "The case was somewhat interesting a couple years ago when it started, but its ramifications and impact have completely changed given the current environment." Read The Full Story Citing Corporate Link To Global Warming, Alaska Village Files Suit 2008-02-27 21:06:47 Lawyers for the Alaska Native coastal village of Kivalina, which is being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by the changing Arctic climate, filed suit in federal court in San Francisco, California, Tuesday arguing that 5 oil companies, 14 electric utilities and the country’s largest coal company were responsible for the village’s woes. The suit is the latest effort to hold companies like BP America, Chevron, Peabody Energy, Duke Energy and the Southern Company responsible for the impact of global warming because they emit millions of tons of greenhouse gases, or, in the case of Peabody, mine and market carbon-laden coal that is burned by others. It accused the companies of creating a public nuisance. In an unusual move, those five companies and three other defendants - the Exxon Mobil Corporation, American Electric Power and the Conoco Phillips Company - are also accused of conspiracy. “There has been a long campaign by power, coal and oil companies to mislead the public about the science of global warming,” the suit says. The campaign, it says, contributed “to the public nuisance of global warming by convincing the public at large and the victims of global warming that the process is not man-made when in fact it is.” Read The Full Story News Blog: Fannie Mae Reports $3.6 Billion 4th Quarter Loss 2008-02-27 21:06:01 Fannie Mae, the mortgage funding giant, Wednesday reported that it lost $3.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, compared with a profit of $604 million in the comparable period a year earlier. The deepening red ink reflected rising mortgage defaults, falling home prices, and "extraordinary disruptions in the credit markets," Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd said in a news release. The fourth quarter woes helped drive Fannie Mae's annual loss for 2007 to $2.1 billion, compared with a profit of $4.1 billion for 2006. The outlook for housing prices in general and Fannie Mae's financial performance in particular is worse than the company has been predicting, Fannie Mae said Wednesday. Read The Full Story Update: Biggest Quake In 24 Years Shakes And Stirs U.K. 2008-02-27 21:05:03 It was like a bomb, a plane crash or even a giant lizard from a Hollywood blockbuster on the rampage, according to startled residents at the epicentre of Britain's worst earthquake for 24 years. A carved stone cross which tumbled from the roof of Market Rasen's medieval church may have been the only local casualty, but everyone in the Lincolnshire town had stories of judders, roars and terrifyingly visible wobbles in their houses' old stone walls overnight. "It was like the most awful fairground ride you can imagine," said Adrian Campbell, 56, a DVD and video producer who initially thought that his tumble dryer had somehow come on at 1am. "It just got worse and worse. We went to see a film last week about a giant lizard loose in New York, and I honestly started to wonder if something like that had come for us." The quake rippled across Market Rasen for at least 10 seconds, according to sixthformers Thea Garratt and Kirstie Silson, both 16, who recently went on the Natural History Museum's earthquake simulator on a school visit to London. Read The Full Story U.S. Supreme Court May Split On Exxon Damages 2008-02-27 14:29:18 U.S. Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Wednesday on whether to uphold a record $2.5 billion verdict to punish Exxon Mobil Corp. for the Valdez oil spill in 1989. Several justices said the court might well lower the amount of the award to keep it in line with other legal limits on punishing corporate wrongdoing. Only eight justices heard the case, creating the possibility of a tie vote. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., withdrew because he holds Exxon stock. His move could cost the company dearly, since a tie vote would have the effect of affirming the $2.5 billion award. When the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground almost 20 years ago, it spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. Exxon admitted that its captain, Joseph Hazelwood, was drunk at the time of the accident, and the company agreed to pay $900 million to clean up the environment. It also paid out about $287 million to compensate those whose jobs were lost or whose business was destroyed. Read The Full Story William F. Buckley, Jr., Is Dead At 82 2008-02-27 14:27:26 William F. Buckley, Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. Mr. Buckley, 82, suffered from diabetes and emphysema, his son Christopher said, although the exact cause of death was not immediately known. He was found at his desk in the study of his home, his son said. “He might have been working on a column,” said Christopher Buckley. Mr. Buckley’s winningly capricious personality, replete with ten-dollar words and a darting tongue writers loved to compare with an anteater’s, hosted one of television’s longest-running programs, “Firing Line,” and founded and shepherded the influential conservative magazine, “National Review.” He also found time to write at least 55 books, ranging from sailing odysseys to spy novels to celebrations of his own dashing daily life, and to edit five more. His political novel “The Rake” was published last August, and a book looking back at the National Review’s history in November; a personal memoir of Barry Goldwater is due to be publication in April, and Mr. Buckley was working on a similar book about Ronald Reagan for release in the fall. Read The Full Story European Regulators Fine Microsoft $1.3 Billion 2008-02-27 14:26:18 European antitrust regulators on Wednesday fined Microsoft $1.3 billion for failing to comply with a 2004 judgment that the company had abused its market dominance. The new fine by the European Commission was the largest it has ever imposed on an individual company, and brings the total in fines imposed on Microsoft to about $2.5 billion, in current exchange rates. Microsoft had earlier been fined after the commission determined in 2004 that the company had abused the dominance of its Windows operating system to gain unfair market advantage. The commission imposed the new fine Wednesday, it said, because the company had not met the prescribed remedies after the earlier judgment. “Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision,” the European competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said in a statement. “I hope that today’s decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft’s record of noncompliance with the commission’s March 2004 decision,” Ms. Kroes said. The commission is the executive arm of the European Union. Read The Full Story Gas Prices Soar, Posing A Threat To Family Budget 2008-02-27 03:45:34 Gasoline prices, which for months lagged behind the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts saying they could approach $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily, and oil settled at a record high of $100.88 a barrel on Tuesday. The increases could not come at a worse time for the economy. With growth slowing, energy increases that were once easily absorbed by consumers are now more likely to act as a drag on household budgets, leaving people with less money to spend elsewhere. These costs could worsen the nation’s economic woes, piling a fresh energy shock on top of the turmoil in credit and housing. “The effect of high oil prices today could be the difference between having a recession and not having a recession,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist. The depth of the nation’s economic problems became clearer Tuesday with the release of figures showing that prices at the producer level rose 1 percent in January from December, driven in large measure by energy costs. Compared with a year ago, prices were up 7.4 percent, the worst producer price inflation in the United States since 1981. Read The Full Story Florida Power Outage Affects Millions 2008-02-27 03:45:05 Commuter trains stopped on their elevated tracks, elevators halted between floors, traffic lights went dark, and two nuclear power reactors were shut down Tuesday afternoon as a cascading power outage left millions of Floridians without electricity, according to state officials. Power was restored to most customers within four hours, but not before the outage had prompted bouts of panic, particularly as the extent of the problems became known. The state's largest electric company said the disruption was caused by a small malfunction in a transmission substation west of Miami,where a fire erupted. City and federal officials quickly rejected the possibility of a terrorism or criminal link. Florida Power and Light officials could not readily explain how the minor glitch could cause extensive outages as far away as Tampa and Daytona Beach.Safeguards built into the electrical system, they said, should have contained the trouble. "That's the part we don't have an answer for yet," said FP&L President Armando Olivera. Read The Full Story	Tax Whistleblower Sold Data To The U.S. 2008-02-28 03:50:21 The shadowy informant who blew the whistle on German tax cheats also sold data to U.S. authorities, Germany's news magazine Spiegel reported. The man, who was paid almost 5 million euros for DVDs full of information, has now been given a new identity by German intelligence. He was once kidnapped, the man told the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, to whom he was trying to sell several DVDs containing secret tax data. It was in 1997, in Argentina, he told the agents. The kidnappers, he said, locked him up for 10 days and mistreated him, sometimes by burning him with lit cigarettes; he still had the scars to prove it. He told the BND that he had had to come up with the ransom money himself, and that all of his and the Liechtenstein authorities' efforts to retrieve the money have failed. Read The Full Story Sunni Forces Losing Patience With U.S., Cite Lack Of Support 2008-02-28 03:49:25 U.S.-backed Sunni volunteer forces, which have played a vital role in reducing violence in Iraq, are increasingly frustrated with the American military and the Iraqi government over what they see as a lack of recognition of their growing political clout and insufficient U.S. support. Since Feb. 8, thousands of fighters in restive Diyala province have left their posts in order to pressure the government and its American backers to replace the province's Shiite police chief. On Wednesday, their leaders warned that they would disband completely if their demands were not met. In Babil province, south of Baghdad, fighters have refused to man their checkpoints after U.S. soldiers killed several comrades in mid-February in circumstances that remain in dispute. Some force leaders and ground commanders also reject a U.S.-initiated plan that they say offers too few Sunni fighters the opportunity to join Iraq's army and police, and warn that low salaries and late payments are pushing experienced members to quit. The predominantly Sunni Awakening forces, referred to by the U.S. military as the Sons of Iraq or Concerned Local Citizens, are made up mostly of former insurgents who have turned against extremists because of their harsh tactics and interpretation of Islam. The U.S. military pays many fighters roughly $10 a day to guard and patrol their areas. Thousands more unpaid volunteers have joined out of tribal and regional fealties. Read The Full Story German State-Owned Bank Concealing Total Extent Of Subprime Losses 2008-02-28 03:47:06 German state-owned bank BayernLB is concealing the true extent of its losses incurred as a result of the subprime crisis in the United States. Now the Bavarian savings banks are threatening to give up their 50-percent stake in the bank. Erwin Huber's banishment lasted exactly nine years. When the Bavarian state cabinet was formed in 1998, Huber, a 61-year-old veteran Bavarian politician from the town of Reisbach, was forced to leave his beloved Bavarian Finance Ministry and switch first to the state Chancellery and later to the state Economics Ministry. Huber, who is an expert on tax issues, suffered in silence. He has a cool head for figures, so much so that he could probably rattle off the individual items from the state's budget plan off the top of his head. Huber was only allowed to return from exile last October. He was elected chairman of Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. What may have actually been more important for him was the fact that he also regained the position of finance minister of the prosperous state of Bavaria. Read The Full Story U.S. House Votes To End Big Oil's Tax Breaks 2008-02-27 21:07:12 The U.S. House of Representatives brushed aside threats of a White House veto Wednesday and voted 236 to 182 in favor of an $18 billion tax package that would rescind a tax break for the five biggest oil companies and use the revenue to boost incentives for wind and solar energy and energy efficiency. The measure now heads to the Senate, where Democrats face a challenge in getting enough support to bring the bill to a vote. This is the fourth time in the past year that Democrats have tried to get the package adopted. The Bush administration, Republican lawmakers and big oil companies condemned the bill, which they said would raise fuel prices for consumers, discourage oil and gas exploration in the United States and unfairly discriminate against a single industry while other manufacturers continue to enjoy tax breaks. Hours after crude oil hit a new high of $102 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, most lawmakers said they saw no reason why the oil industry couldn't pay an additional $1.8 billion a year in taxes over the next 10 years. Read The Full Story Up To 70% Of U.S. $5.4 Billion In Aid To Pakistan 'Misspent' 2008-02-27 21:06:26 America's massive military aid package to Pakistan has come under scrutiny after allegations that as much as 70% of $5.4 billion in assistance has been misspent. Since 2002, the U.S. has paid the operating costs of Pakistan's military operations in the tribal belt along the Afghan border, where Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are sheltering. Pakistan provides over 100,000 troops and directs the fight; the U.S. foots the bill for food, fuel, ammunition and maintenance. The cash payments - averaging $80 million a month - have been a cornerstone of U.S. support for President Pervez Musharraf. Over the past 18 months, as militants seized vast swaths of the tribal belt and repelled a string of Pakistani offensives, the funding has come under the microscope. Read The Full Story China Cracks Down On Polluters As River Foams Red 2008-02-27 21:05:32 Bosses in China could be fined up to half their annual income if their companies are convicted of polluting water under new laws. With China keen to step up the pressure on environmental offenders before the Olympic games, legislators told the state news agency Xinhua that the law was likely to be agreed at next week's full session of the National People's Congress (NPC). News of the legislation, which would also increase maximum fines for the companies, emerged shortly after authorities cut water supplies to as many as 200,000 people after a stretch of a river system in central China turned red and foamy. Officials in Hubei initially blamed high levels of pollutants, saying tests showed high levels of ammonia, nitrogen and permanganate. But Wednesday night water supplies to most residents resumed, with the authorities saying that non-toxic algal bloom due to weather changes was to blame for the problems along tributaries of the Han river, a branch of the Yangtze. Read The Full Story U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke Warns Of More Economic Trouble 2008-02-27 14:29:33 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress Wednesday that nearly every corner of the U.S. economy was in danger of running into more trouble, suggesting that Americans were in for a period of tough economic sledding. He signaled that the central bank was likely to cut interest rates further when it meets again next month. Bernanke said the nation might also have to cope with more inflation, a sign that the economy could be caught in the crossfire of "stagflation," a troubling mix of faltering growth and rising prices. Fed policymakers "will be carefully evaluating incoming information bearing on the economic outlook and will act in a timely manner ... to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks," Bernanke said in his semiannual congressional testimony about the state of the economy. "Acting in a timely manner to support growth" is Fed-speak for reducing interest rates. Read The Full Story Rice Offers Deep Regret Over Alleged Rape In Japan 2008-02-27 14:28:58 Hoping to prevent outrage here from harming ties with Tokyo, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed deep regret on Wednesday over a case in which an American marine is accused of raping a 14-year-old Japanese girl. Rice stopped in Tokyo on the final leg of an Asian trip intended to find ways to contain North Korea’s nuclear program. On the trip, she also visited South Korea and China, where she ordered her top Asia adviser, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, to remain to study China’s new proposals on the North Korea issue. In Japan, Rice spent much of her time trying to control diplomatic damage from the rape case and other more minor incidents on the island of Okinawa, where most of the 50,000 American military personnel here are based. Tokyo is a major ally in Washington’s bid to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. While the marine, Staff Sgt. Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, has denied raping the girl, the case has inflamed anger here at the American military presence. It has also revived bitter memories of the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three American servicemen in Okinawa, which set off huge protests and forced Washington to consider relocating some of its forces on the island. Read The Full Story U.S. Defense Secretary To Turks: End Iraq Incursion Soon 2008-02-27 14:26:36 U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday that Turkey should remove its troops from northern Iraq in the next few days, sending a strong message to Ankara that U.S. patience is running out on the operation targeting Kurdish insurgents. Gates said he will ask Turkish leaders in a series of meetings Thursday to address some of the complaints of the Kurds, and move from combat to economic and political initiatives to solve differences with them. "It's very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave," Gates said late Wednesday from India before leaving. "They have to be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty. I measure quick in terms of days, a week or two, something like that, not months." It was the first time that the Pentagon chief put any time limit on the Turkish incursion launched into Iraq last Thursday against separatist rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. The rebels are fighting for autonomy in the largely Kurdish region of southeastern Turkey, and have carried out attacks from northern Iraq. Overnight, Turkish troops killed more than 70 Kurdish rebels, the Turkish military said. Read The Full Story Clinton, Obama Clash In Ohio Debate 2008-02-27 03:45:47 In their final debate before critical primaries in Ohio and Texas, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton  clashed sharply on familiar ground, arguing Tuesday night over who has the better health-care plan, who has been right about Iraqand who would move most aggressively to rethink trade policy as president. In contrast to their debate five days ago in Texas, Clinton and Obama butted heads from the opening moments, starting with a clash over whether the senator from Illinois had mischaracterized her plan for universal health care in his campaign mailings, and continuing throughout the 90-minute session. "We should have a good debate that uses accurate information, not false, misleading and discredited information, especially on something as important as whether or not we will achieve quality, affordable health care for everyone," said Clinton (New York). Obama pushed back with equal aggressiveness. "Senator Clinton has, in her campaign at least, has constantly sent out negative attacks on us, e-mail, robo-calls [prerecorded telephone messages], fliers, television ads, radio calls, and we haven't whined about it, because I understand that's the nature of this campaign," he said. Read The Full Story Democrats Propose Initiatives To Solve Mortgage Crisis, Bush Threatens Veto 2008-02-27 03:45:23 Congressional leaders Tuesday gathered support for aggressive changes to bankruptcy laws that would help troubled homeowners, even as the Bush administration threatened to veto the plan and emphasized its opposition to any program that would risk tax dollars. Democrats are calling for the government to do more than what the administration has done to date. They propose a range of initiatives that include the purchase of troubled mortgage securities by a federal agency and the empowering of bankruptcy judges to change the terms of high-interest loans held by homeowners facing foreclosure. The Bush Administration said that changing mortgage terms retroactively for a select group of troubled borrowers would only add to lenders' woes and lead to higher mortgage rates for everyone. The clash highlighted the sharp differences between Democrats and the Bush administration over how to solve the nation's worst mortgage crisis since the Great Depression. "Homeowners at risk of foreclosure are floating 50 feet from shore, and the Bush administration has thrown them a 30-foot rope," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Illinois), the author of a proposal that would allow bankruptcy judges to change the interest rates on subprime, adjustable and other nontraditional loans for homeowners facing foreclosure. Read The Full Story Britain Told To Release Blair Cabinet's Minutes On Iraq War 2008-02-27 03:44:52 A British official on Tuesday ordered the government to release minutes from two meetings of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet in March 2003, saying they could shed light on "uncertainties and controversies" surrounding Britain's decision to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq.  "There is a widespread view that the justification for the decision on military action in Iraq is either not fully understood or that the public were not given the full or genuine reasons for that decision," Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said in his ruling on a request made under the Freedom of Information Act. The case illustrates how sensitive the Iraq war remains five years after the invasion. The war is extremely unpopular in Britain and was a key factor in Blair's departure after a decade in office. Many people in Britain remain skeptical and suspicious about the government's motivations for becoming the Bush administration's chief ally in Iraq. Thomas rejected government arguments that the minutes should be exempt from public release because they deal with the formulation of public policy and ministerial communications. The Cabinet Office had argued to him that public disclosure of minutes would inhibit free and candid debate about sensitive issues in future cabinet sessions. Thomas, who was allowed to inspect the minutes as part of his deliberations, said that while he respected the government's position, "arguments for the withholding of the information are outweighed by the public interest in its disclosure." Read The Full Story
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Free Internet Press Newsletter - Wednesday February 27 2008 - (813)

Wednesday February 27 2008 edition
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Clinton, Obama Clash In Ohio Debate 2008-02-27 03:45:47 In their final debate before critical primaries in Ohio and Texas, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton  clashed sharply on familiar ground, arguing Tuesday night over who has the better health-care plan, who has been right about Iraqand who would move most aggressively to rethink trade policy as president. In contrast to their debate five days ago in Texas, Clinton and Obama butted heads from the opening moments, starting with a clash over whether the senator from Illinois had mischaracterized her plan for universal health care in his campaign mailings, and continuing throughout the 90-minute session. "We should have a good debate that uses accurate information, not false, misleading and discredited information, especially on something as important as whether or not we will achieve quality, affordable health care for everyone," said Clinton (New York). Obama pushed back with equal aggressiveness. "Senator Clinton has, in her campaign at least, has constantly sent out negative attacks on us, e-mail, robo-calls [prerecorded telephone messages], fliers, television ads, radio calls, and we haven't whined about it, because I understand that's the nature of this campaign," he said. Read The Full Story Democrats Propose Initiatives To Solve Mortgage Crisis, Bush Threatens Veto 2008-02-27 03:45:23 Congressional leaders Tuesday gathered support for aggressive changes to bankruptcy laws that would help troubled homeowners, even as the Bush administration threatened to veto the plan and emphasized its opposition to any program that would risk tax dollars. Democrats are calling for the government to do more than what the administration has done to date. They propose a range of initiatives that include the purchase of troubled mortgage securities by a federal agency and the empowering of bankruptcy judges to change the terms of high-interest loans held by homeowners facing foreclosure. The Bush Administration said that changing mortgage terms retroactively for a select group of troubled borrowers would only add to lenders' woes and lead to higher mortgage rates for everyone. The clash highlighted the sharp differences between Democrats and the Bush administration over how to solve the nation's worst mortgage crisis since the Great Depression. "Homeowners at risk of foreclosure are floating 50 feet from shore, and the Bush administration has thrown them a 30-foot rope," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Illinois), the author of a proposal that would allow bankruptcy judges to change the interest rates on subprime, adjustable and other nontraditional loans for homeowners facing foreclosure. Read The Full Story Britain Told To Release Blair Cabinet's Minutes On Iraq War 2008-02-27 03:44:52 A British official on Tuesday ordered the government to release minutes from two meetings of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet in March 2003, saying they could shed light on "uncertainties and controversies" surrounding Britain's decision to join the United States in the invasion of Iraq.  "There is a widespread view that the justification for the decision on military action in Iraq is either not fully understood or that the public were not given the full or genuine reasons for that decision," Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said in his ruling on a request made under the Freedom of Information Act. The case illustrates how sensitive the Iraq war remains five years after the invasion. The war is extremely unpopular in Britain and was a key factor in Blair's departure after a decade in office. Many people in Britain remain skeptical and suspicious about the government's motivations for becoming the Bush administration's chief ally in Iraq. Thomas rejected government arguments that the minutes should be exempt from public release because they deal with the formulation of public policy and ministerial communications. The Cabinet Office had argued to him that public disclosure of minutes would inhibit free and candid debate about sensitive issues in future cabinet sessions. Thomas, who was allowed to inspect the minutes as part of his deliberations, said that while he respected the government's position, "arguments for the withholding of the information are outweighed by the public interest in its disclosure." Read The Full Story Earth Tremor Felt Across England 2008-02-26 21:18:33 People from across large parts of England have reported an earth tremor. The BBC has received calls from people in Yorkshire, the West Midlands, Manchester, Berkshire, London and Gloucestershire about a "quake". The tremor could be felt in central Birmingham at about 0100 GMT but it is unclear if it has caused any damage. The U.S. Geological Survey's website reported a quake of the magnitude of 4.7 and said the epicenter was 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Kingston-upon-Hull. Read The Full Story New U.S. Data Show Rising Inflation And Slumping Home Values 2008-02-26 14:29:20 Two worrisome trends for the economy - falling house prices and the rising cost of everything else - picked up speed in data reported on Tuesday, putting policy makers in an increasingly tough position. If they move too aggressively to cut interest rates and stimulate the economy, they might stoke inflation at a time when consumers are already squeezed by higher prices for food, energy, clothing and other goods. But if they chose more austere measures, the economy may weaken substantially faster. “The Fed is now having to walk a very fine line,” said Jane Caron, chief economic strategist at Dwight Asset Management, an investment firm that specializes in bonds. “We have clearly seen an acceleration in inflation pressure in the last couple of months and the risk is that the markets are going to react negatively to aggressive easing going forward.” Not surprisingly, a measure of consumer confidence fell to its lowest level in nearly five years. But the stock market was up slightly in midday trading after falling modestly at the open. Energy and technology stocks led the market higher after oil prices surged above $100 again and I.B.M. announced that it would buy back an additional $15 billion of its stock and improved its profit forecast. Treasuries moved slightly higher, indicating that bond investors were not overly fearful of inflation. Read The Full Story Editorial: A Little Help For His Friends 2008-02-26 14:28:52 Intellpuke: The following editorial appeared in the New York Times edition for Tuesday, February 26, 2008. Congress is looking into the decision by the United States attorney for New Jersey, Christopher Christie, to hand former Attorney General John Ashcroft a hugely lucrative job monitoring a wayward company. The issue, however, is larger than any one appointment. Congress should conduct a broader inquiry into prosecutors’ selection of richly rewarded monitors and require that appointments are made based on merit. United States attorneys are supposed to be nonpartisan and beyond favoritism. But we have already seen how federal prosecutors appointed by the Bush administration used their offices to help Republicans win elections. Congress needs to ensure that they are not using their positions to throw patronage to friends and political allies. The Ashcroft appointment came in a “deferred prosecution agreement,” a fast-growing arrangement ripe for abuse. Rather than file criminal charges against corporations, federal prosecutors - looking to dispose of cases efficiently and to avoid damaging companies needlessly - increasingly are striking deals. These agreements are done without court supervision and sometimes in secret. Read The Full Story 'Doomsday' Seed Vault Opens In Arctic 2008-02-26 14:28:13 A "doomsday" seed vault built to protect millions of food crops from climate change, wars and natural disasters opened Tuesday deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. "The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is our insurance policy," Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told delegates at the opening ceremony. "It is the Noah's Ark for securing biological diversity for future generations." European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, of Kenya, were among the dozens of guests who had bundled up for the ceremony inside the vault, about 425 feet deep inside a frozen mountain. "This is a frozen Garden of Eden," Barroso said, standing in one of the frosty vaults against of backdrop of large discs made of ice. Read The Full Story Step-up In Drug Alerts Signals FDA Bid For Renewed Trust 2008-02-26 14:27:42 If it seems as though the Food and Drug Administration has been issuing a new drug safety warning almost every week, that's because, for the past three months, it has. Since early November, the agency has sent out 14 advisories, more than it has issued in some entire years. Wall Street health-care analyst Les Funtleyder recently quipped that the agency should have a color coding system, as the Department of Homeland Securitydoes, so consumers could determine the severity of the risk. The uptick in advisories doesn't mean that drugs are more dangerous, says Paul Seligman, director of the FDA's Office of Drug Safety; it simply marks the fulfillment of a 2005 promise by Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt to notify the public sooner when the agency learns of adverse reactions to approved drugs. "We are trying to act in a responsible way," says Seligman. FDA critics, including Rep. John Dingell (D-Michigan), head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have complained that the agency's responses are too few and too late. As a case in point, they cite the recall of the pain reliever Vioxx four years ago. Some critics said the FDA had long known of concerns about Vioxx and delayed taking any action on the drug, including requesting that the company add information on heart disease risk to the label. Read The Full Story Sen. Warner Is Hospitalized 2008-02-26 14:26:38 Sen. John Warner, R-Virginia, was in a Virginia hospital Tuesday for observation of a heart condition. Warner, 81, has suffered atrial fibrillation, which can cause an irregular heartbeat, since last fall, his office said. On Monday, he ''consulted with the capitol physician, completed his office appointments and left for a scheduled admission to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he remains for observation,'' the office said in a statement Tuesday. Warner's heart rate and rhythm have been normal in recent months, the statement said, but he ''recently experienced a return of atrial fibrillation'' and is ''pursuing a re-evaluation and readjustment of medications.'' The treatments ''require regular monitoring and observation'' in a hospital, it said. Read The Full Story Did Ex-Alabama Governor Get A Raw Deal? 2008-02-26 02:52:15 Intellpuke: There are three related items here. The following transcript is from the "60 Minutes" program that aired on CBS on Sunday, February 24, 2008. Below the "60 Minutes" transcript, there are two more articles relating to Siegelman's case. 60 Minutes reports on bribery conviction of Don Siegelman in a case criticized by Democrats and Republicans. Is Don Siegelman in prison because he's a criminal or because he belonged to the wrong political party in Alabama? Siegelman is the former governor of Alabama, and he was the most successful Democrat in that Republican state. But while he was governor, the U.S. Justice Department launched multiple investigations that went on year after year until, finally, a jury convicted Siegelman of bribery. Now, many Democrats and Republicans have become suspicious of the Justice Department's motivations. As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, 52 former state attorneys-general have asked Congress to investigate whether the prosecution of Siegelman was pursued not because of a crime but because of politics. Ten years ago life was good for Don Siegelman. After he became governor, many believed he was headed to a career in national politics. In 1999, Siegelman's pet project was raising money to improve education, so he started a campaign to ask voters to approve a state lottery. He challenged Republicans to come up with a better idea. "You tell us how you're going to pay for college scholarships. You tell us how you're going to put state of the art computers inside every school in this state," he said. But now the applause has long faded. Today, Siegelman is at a federal prison camp in Louisiana. He's doing seven years. The main charge against him was that he took a bribe, giving a position on a state board to businessman Richard Scrushy, who had made a big donation to that lottery campaign. There was a star witness, Nick Bailey, a Siegelman aide who had a vivid story to tell. Read The Full Story FCC Head Eyes World Wide Web Controls 2008-02-26 02:50:57 The chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Monday sharply questioned Internet service providers who control consumers' Web access over their networks, and suggested the agency could intervene against the practice. Kevin J. Martin made his remarks at an unusual off-site hearing to address complaints that cable provider Comcast  restricts the flow of content - such as video and music clips - through file-sharing service BitTorrent. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts),chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet and a proponent of so-called net neutrality rules barring online traffic controls, offered opening remarks. "While carriers will assert the need to manage networks in their current state of evolution, we need to remember that Internet freedoms are most properly thought of as consumer-centric," he said. The hearing, held at Harvard University, pit Comcast and DSL provider Verizon against legal scholars and public interest advocates who have pushed for open-Internet rules. The issue is among the most hotly debated in technology. Comcast and other service-providers say they must be able to control the flow of information over their networks in order to ensure quality service and to protect their multi-billion dollar investments. Proponents of openness rules said Comcast's admission that it controls its own network unfairly restricts what users can do online. Read The Full Story	Gas Prices Soar, Posing A Threat To Family Budget 2008-02-27 03:45:34 Gasoline prices, which for months lagged behind the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts saying they could approach $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily, and oil settled at a record high of $100.88 a barrel on Tuesday. The increases could not come at a worse time for the economy. With growth slowing, energy increases that were once easily absorbed by consumers are now more likely to act as a drag on household budgets, leaving people with less money to spend elsewhere. These costs could worsen the nation’s economic woes, piling a fresh energy shock on top of the turmoil in credit and housing. “The effect of high oil prices today could be the difference between having a recession and not having a recession,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist. The depth of the nation’s economic problems became clearer Tuesday with the release of figures showing that prices at the producer level rose 1 percent in January from December, driven in large measure by energy costs. Compared with a year ago, prices were up 7.4 percent, the worst producer price inflation in the United States since 1981. Read The Full Story Florida Power Outage Affects Millions 2008-02-27 03:45:05 Commuter trains stopped on their elevated tracks, elevators halted between floors, traffic lights went dark, and two nuclear power reactors were shut down Tuesday afternoon as a cascading power outage left millions of Floridians without electricity, according to state officials. Power was restored to most customers within four hours, but not before the outage had prompted bouts of panic, particularly as the extent of the problems became known. The state's largest electric company said the disruption was caused by a small malfunction in a transmission substation west of Miami,where a fire erupted. City and federal officials quickly rejected the possibility of a terrorism or criminal link. Florida Power and Light officials could not readily explain how the minor glitch could cause extensive outages as far away as Tampa and Daytona Beach.Safeguards built into the electrical system, they said, should have contained the trouble. "That's the part we don't have an answer for yet," said FP&L President Armando Olivera. Read The Full Story Britain To Push Pills Aside, Train More Therapists To Combat Depression 2008-02-26 21:18:50 The British government Tuesday released details of its £170 million ($340 million) plan to train 3,600 more psychological therapists in the wake of a study showing that antidepressant drugs such as Prozac are no more effective than a placebo. About 900,000 more people will be treated for depression and anxiety under the plan, according to the Department of Health, which predicts that 450,000 of them will be completely cured. The department also believes that 25,000 fewer people will claim sick pay and benefits because of mental health problems. "The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies program has already captured the imagination of primary care trusts up and down the country and is transforming the lives of thousands of people with depression and anxiety disorders in the areas that have been involved so far," said Alan Johnson, the health secretary. A study published in the open access journal PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine on Tuesday revealed that Prozac, Seroxat and other antidepressants of the same class had performed no better than dummy pills in the earliest trials in the 1980s. No such analysis has been done before because of the reluctance of the pharmaceutical companies to hand over the full trial results. Read The Full Story How Britain's Tesco Avoided Paying $2 Billion In Taxes 2008-02-26 21:17:28 U.K. supermarket chain Tesco has created an elaborate corporate structure involving offshore tax havens which enables it to avoid paying what could be up to £1 billion ($2 billion) of tax on profits from the sale of its U.K.  properties. The complex new structures uncovered by a six-month Guardian investigation include a string of Cayman Island companies, each named after a different color, from aqua to violet. These are being used by the supermarket giant as it proceeds with its announced program to sell and lease back £6 billion worth of its U.K. stores. The stores are being sold to external investors providing Tesco with a big one-off gain which, ordinarily, would be liable to tax, while allowing it to remain in the stores and pay rent to the new owners. The first two deals, worth £445 million ($890 million) and £650 million ($1.3 billion), have already used the companies set up in the Cayman Islands - where the rate of corporation tax is zero - allowing Tesco to avoid tax on about £500 million ($1 billion) profit. Large corporations are increasingly developing strategies to cut tax bills and Tesco is not alone in its tax planning. Read The Full Story U.S. Wholesale Prices Jumped In January, Feeding Inflation 2008-02-26 14:29:06 Battered by bad economic news, consumer confidence plunged while wholesale food, energy and medicine costs soared, pushing inflation up at the fastest pace in a quarter century. The Labor Department said Tuesday that wholesale inflation jumped by 1 percent in January, more than double the increase that analysts had been expecting. Meanwhile, the New York-based Conference Board reported that its confidence index fell to 75.0 in February, down from a revised January reading of 87.3. The drop was far below the 83 reading that analysts had forecast and put the index at its lowest level since February 2003, a period that reflected anxiety in the leadup to the Iraq war. Consumers have been shaken by a prolonged slump in housing that has pushed the country close to a recession. A third report Tuesday showed that home prices, measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller Index, dropped by 8.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the steepest drop in the 20-year history of the index. Read The Full Story Ashcroft Shifts, Will Now Testify On Oversight Deal 2008-02-26 14:28:40 Former Attorney General John D. Ashcroft agreed Monday night to appear at a House hearing to discuss his lucrative arrangement overseeing a medical equipment company, averting a showdown with committee members who had planned to meet Tuesday to authorize a subpoena. The move marks an about-face for Ashcroft, who told lawmakers earlier this month that "discussing the details of my legal responsibilities, as requested, in this pending criminal case and related ongoing criminal investigation would violate my ethical obligations." Ashcroft, who left public service three years ago to start a private consulting firm, won the contract under a settlement the company reached with federal prosecutors in New Jersey. Under a recent government policy, companies facing criminal investigation can accept such outside supervision to avoid indictment. Ashcroft's consulting firm stands to collect between $28 million and $52 million over 18 months for reviewing the operations of Zimmer Holdings, an Indianacompany that makes replacement hips and knees. Zimmer last year settled government charges over kickbacks it allegedly provided doctors in exchange for using its products. Read The Full Story Sen. Dodd Endorses Obama For President 2008-02-26 14:27:54 Senator Christopher Dodd, a leading Democrat and an early candidate for the party’s presidential nomination, announced Tuesday that he is endorsing Senator Barack Obama. Both Obama and his rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, sought Dodd’s support after Dodd dropped out of the race following the Iowa caucuses last month. The endorsement comes as polls show Obama’s campaign is gaining strength. According to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, Obama has moved ahead of Clinton nationally, with 54 percent of Democratic voters supporting him compared with 38 percent for Clinton. “He is ready to be president and I am ready to support him in this campaign,” Dodd said at a news conference in Cleveland, the Associated Press reported. Read The Full Story Iraq Demands That Turkey Withdraw 2008-02-26 14:27:17 In northern Iraq, fighting continued for a fifth day as Turkish forces attacked P.K.K. rebel bases, while the Iraqi cabinet in Baghdad condemned the incursion and, in a statement, demanded its immediate halt. "The cabinet expressed its rejection and condemnation for the Turkish military interference, which is considered a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty," the cabinet said in a statement , according to Reuters. "The cabinet stresses that unilateral military action is not acceptable and threatens good relations between the two neighbors." That was echoed by Falah Mustafa, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Department of Foreign Relations in an interview on Tuesday. “The Turkish incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan is a violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” he said. Elsewhere in Iraq, an explosion aboard a crowded bus traveling to the Syrian border from Mosul killed at least nine passengers on Tuesday morning, according to Iraqi officials. Read The Full Story The Three Trillion Dollar War 2008-02-26 02:52:37 The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have grown to staggering proportions. The Bush Administration was wrong about the benefits of the war and it was wrong about the costs of the war. The president and his advisers expected a quick, inexpensive conflict. Instead, we have a war that is costing more than anyone could have imagined. The cost of direct U.S. military operations - not even including long-term costs such as taking care of wounded veterans - already exceeds the cost of the 12-year war in Vietnam and is more than double the cost of the Korean War. And, even in the best case scenario, these costs are projected to be almost ten times the cost of the first Gulf War, almost a third more than the cost of the Vietnam War, and twice that of the First World War. The only war in our history which cost more was the Second World War, when 16.3 million U.S. troops fought in a campaign lasting four years, at a total cost (in 2007 dollars, after adjusting for inflation) of about $5 trillion. With virtually the entire armed forces committed to fighting the Germans and Japanese, the cost per troop (in today's dollars) was less than $100,000 in 2007 dollars. By contrast, the Iraq war is costing upward of $400,000 per troop. Most Americans have yet to feel these costs. The price in blood has been paid by our voluntary military and by hired contractors. The price in treasure has, in a sense, been financed entirely by borrowing. Taxes have not been raised to pay for it - in fact, taxes on the rich have actually fallen. Deficit spending gives the illusion that the laws of economics can be repealed, that we can have both guns and butter. But of course the laws are not repealed. The costs of the war are real even if they have been deferred, possibly to another generation. Read The Full Story EPA May Relax Farm Emission Reporting Rules 2008-02-26 02:51:15 Under pressure from agriculture industry lobbyists and lawmakers from agricultural states, the Environmental Protection Agency wants to drop requirements that factory farms report their emissions of toxic gases, despite findings by the agency's scientists that the gases pose a health threat. The EPA acknowledges that the emissions can pose a threat to people living and working nearby, but it says local emergency responders don't use the reports, making them unnecessary. But local air-quality agencies, environmental groups and lawmakers who oppose the rule change say the reports are one of the few tools rural communities have for holding large livestock operations accountable for the pollution they produce. Opponents of the rule change say agriculture lobbyists orchestrated a campaign to convince the EPA that the reports are not useful and misrepresented the effort as reflecting the views of local officials. They say the plan to drop the reporting requirement is emblematic of a broader effort by the Bush-era EPA to roll back federal pollution rules. "One of the running themes we have seen is they have taken numerous industry-friendly actions that are shot down in the courts, but they buy time for industry" in appeals and reviews that could extend years into the next administration, said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a nonprofit environmental group based in Washington. Read The Full Story Pfizer To End Lipitor Ads Featuring Jarvik 2008-02-26 02:50:19 Under criticism that its ads are misleading, Pfizer said Monday that it would cancel a long-running advertising campaign using the artificial heart pioneer Robert Jarvik as a spokesman for its cholesterol drug Lipitor. Pfizer has spent more than $258 million advertising Lipitor since January 2006, most of it on the Jarvik campaign, as the company sought to protect Lipitor, the world’s best-selling drug, from competition by cheaper generics. The campaign had come under scrutiny from a Congressional committee that is examining consumer drug advertising and has asked whether the ads misrepresented Dr. Jarvik and his credentials. Although he has a medical degree, Dr. Jarvik is not a cardiologist and is not licensed to practice medicine. One television ad depicted Dr. Jarvik as an accomplished rower gliding across a mountain lake, but the ad used a body double for the doctor, who apparently does not row. Read The Full Story
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