Articles of Interest 2-23-07
620 Days until election day.
Escanaba to Newberry…and lots of God’s country in between. We had a day packed with meetings, press interviews and strategy sessions with Republican activists throughout the Upper Peninsula. Joel Westrom and I did a talk radio show together and had a chance to meet with excited activists who are ready for 2008.
Bart Stupak and state House seats dominated the conversations. You can’t compare the excitement and interest that has grown over the last two years that I have witnessed here in the U.P.. Activist have plans, ideas, candidates and the “fire” to make a difference.
Rumors of Bart Stupak’s retirement and move to a lobbying career…and just the realization that Republicans would have a chance with someone like Tom Casperson, has the First District a buzz. Joel Westrom and his team are off an running…keep an eye on the U.P.
Yesterday was one of those days at the Capitol that are all about paying back a special interest group. The Democrats might as well have just proclaimed yesterday to be “Trial Lawyers Payback” day in Michigan.
Yes, the same trial lawyers who shower money on the Democratic Party. And, yes, it was a festival of trial lawyer legislation on the floor in the Democratic controlled house yesterday.
Think about it. The budget is in crisis. The economy in Michigan is STILL in a single state recession. So what’s the first meaningful piece of business to come before the House? Declaring open season on the life sciences industry. The trial lawyers lawyers ordered up a bill to start rolling back the Republican tort reforms of the 1990s. But get this: it wasn’t enough to just repeal those reforms that prevent lawsuits against drug companies whose products have been approved by the FDA. They repeal those reforms RETROACTIVE to 1996!
CAN YOU THINK OF ANYTHING DUMBER? Or less constitutional? Uncorking a blizzard of lawsuits — 11 years worth — all at once?
In the Democrat House they can ALWAYS think of something dumber. They voted to allow complaints against drug companies under the Consumer Protection Act. The Democrats defeated, however, a Republican amendment to bring attorney misconduct under the Consumer Protection Act too. Naturally.
But guess what? While that’s the bad news, there’s even worse news: the Democrats are not done caving in to the demands of the trial lawyers. Next up: allowing more lawsuits under our no-fault auto insurance laws. The industry estimates that the Democrat’s plan will push up the cost of auto insurance roughly 15%.
Then, with the trial lawyers paid off (at least for a little while!), the Democrats will turn their full attention to...that’s right...raising your taxes.
So add it up folks. This is what a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives costs Michigan. Higher prescription drug prices. Higher auto insurance rates. Higher taxes. Higher unemployment. (And it’s only February!)
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/POLITICS/702230402/1050/SPORTS06
Friday, February 23, 2007
Granholm: Pay more to play in Michigan
Granholm proposes $115M in fee hikes for fishing, hunting licenses and business charges.
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Hunting fees would double and fishing licenses would cost 43 percent more under a $115 million package of fee increases proposed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm as part of her budget balancing plan.
The proposed fee hikes, detailed this week in budget analyses, are in addition to Granholm's call this month for a new, 2 percent tax on services, and higher taxes on liquor and cigarettes. The tax and fee increases are intended to balance the 2007-08 state budget, which goes into effect Oct. 1.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION03/702230310/1008/OPINION01
Friday, February 23, 2007
Iris Salters: Labor Voices
Two extra pennies can save Michigan
Granholm's tax plan helps economy and helps avoid devastating cuts
T wo pennies on the dollar. That's what Gov. Jennifer Granholm says it will take to turn Michigan's economy around and help close a nearly $3 billion budget hole.
The Michigan Education Association backs the governor's budget proposal, which includes a call for a 2 percent tax on services like lawn care and a new business tax to replace revenue lost with the repeal of the Single Business Tax. Her plan provides the right balance between investment, budget cuts, reforms and revenue increases.
Years of tax breaks and loopholes for big business have failed to produce the economic turnaround that tax-cut proponents promised. Instead, we've seen a stalled economy, job losses, fewer state services and continued threats to school funding.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/NEWS02/702230342
Sales tax could be waived at Cobo
Parents get break, too, under Ficano's plan
February 23, 2007
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano called on the state government Thursday night to waive the 6% sales tax on purchases made at Cobo Center in Detroit and on back-to-school items as a way of attracting more conventions to the city and giving families a financial break.
Ficano's proposals, outlined in his annual State of the County address, require the approval of the state Legislature and Gov. Jennifer Granholm, whose spokeswoman said the governor looks forward to hearing more about them, while acknowledging that the state is facing a budget crisis. It's not clear how much the plans would cost the state.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/METRO/702230347/1022/POLITICS
Friday, February 23, 2007
State targets evaders of cigarette tax
Michigan officials seek back taxes from about 9,000 who got tobacco products out of state.
Associated Press
OWOSSO -- Buying cigarettes out of state?
If Michigan officials find out about it, they'll try to collect state taxes on the tobacco anyway.
More than 9,000 Michigan residents have been ordered to pay back taxes after buying cigarettes without paying the state's $2 tobacco tax and 6 percent use tax.
"I wouldn't have done it if I had known," said Janet Jones, 64, of Shiawassee County's Owosso Township, who purchased cigarettes through mail orders from a New York-based company.
People who violate the state's Tobacco Products Tax Act can face fines, imprisonment, or both.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1172156090255870.xml&coll=5
Fair tax too much?
Other levies, needs already burden this suggestion
GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Thursday, February 22, 2007
With all the money woes facing local and state governments, talk of yet another tax on Genesee County property - this one to create a new fairground - calls for extreme skepticism if not outright resistance.
New tax proposals were inevitable in the wake of voters' handy approval of two countywide levies last year - 1 mill for health care for uninsured residents who don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare and 0.7 of a mill for senior citizen services. Talk of a "fair" tax is the first to surface publicly in the aftermath, but probably will not be the last.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1172156126255870.xml&coll=5
Road taxes, too
Politicians should face full scope of state's money crisis
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Thursday, February 22, 2007
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce's push for more revenue to fix roads deserves the same consideration as other government services Lansing must adequately fund.
We wish the chamber had equal sympathy for those needs for which it seems loathe to raise taxes, but that failing doesn't negate its point that the state's economy depends on a modern transportation network in good repair.
Alarmingly, budget projections show that goal will be unattainable without a boost in gasoline and diesel fuel levies, as well as other new money. By 2011, say Michigan Department of Transportation forecasts, only 77 percent of highways will be in good condition, down from 92 percent this year because revenues won't keep pace with construction and other costs.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION01/702230333/1069
State will pay for each day of budget solution delays
February 23, 2007
The state's downward budget spiral is costing Michigan more with each passing day. Knowing that makes it almost scary to watch the posturing in Lansing when it's past time for action.
State Treasurer Robert Kleine told a legislative committee this week that the state would need a short-term loan in May to meet its obligations. That kind of borrowing isn't unusual, but rarely until August.
The extra borrowing means the state will spend more on interest payments. A January downgrade in the state's credit rating means higher rates. The longer this drags on, the bigger the likelihood of additional cash flow problems and rating downgrades. Taxpayers have every right to expect better use of their money than watching lenders siphon more of it off while their elected officials dally.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/POLITICS/702230368/1022
Friday, February 23, 2007
Capital report
House bill opens drugmakers to lawsuits
Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- The first bill passed by the new Democratic House majority Thursday would repeal Michigan's 10-year-old law giving drugmakers broad protection from lawsuits over injuries that may have been caused by their medications.
The repeal, now headed for consideration in the Republican-controlled Senate, was approved on a 70-39 vote with 13 Republicans joining the majority -- and one Democrat voting against the bill. A spokesman said Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, was wrapped up in budget talks with Gov. Granholm on Thursday afternoon and hadn't had time to review the House legislation.
The bill would repeal a 1996 law, passed with Republicans in control of the Legislature, which was aimed at keeping pharmaceutical companies and their jobs in Michigan. This law blocks lawsuits against a pharmaceutical manufacturer, if the drug had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/NEWS06/702230332/1008
House passes bill to repeal drugmakers' immunity
February 23, 2007
Consumers would regain rights to sue drugmakers under the first package of bills approved this year by the new Democratic majority in the state House.
The vote Thursday would remove the section of Michigan law, enacted by Republican majorities and GOP Gov. John Engler in 1996, that prohibited most lawsuits against drugmakers if a product had been FDA-approved.
It would also allow lawsuits to be filed over alleged harm that resulted from taking approved drugs since 1996.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION01/702230319/1008
Friday, February 23, 2007
Opinion: Government mandates drive up cost of health insurance
Sally C. Pipes
E ver wonder why health insurance costs so much in Michigan? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that every insurance policy in the state must cover all kinds of services deemed unnecessary by many, including drug abuse treatment.
In fact, Michigan has 25 of these mandates. Should a resident want to buy a policy that doesn't cover, say, chiropractor visits, sorry -- the government has decided that everyone must have that coverage.
Recently, enthusiasm for universal healthcare coverage has swept the nation, with governors in Massachusetts and California leading the way. Maine and Vermont are revising their own systems of expanded health care coverage, and at least eight other states are pursuing similar reforms.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-2/1172161779208650.xml&coll=7
A bipartisan approach to health care reform
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Health care costs are eating up the state budget, as well as private employers who provide health insurance and families without insurance.
While Gov. Jennifer Granholm is seeking federal waivers to get her Michigan First health care plan off the ground, state Senate Republicans, joined by some Democrats, are offering their own ideas for expanding health care in Michigan for low-income people without health care coverage, and for encouraging healthier lifestyles.
State Sen. Tom George, R-Texas Township, is also a physician. He has announced the introduction of a bill designed to tackle health care costs, according to an analysis from the Senate Fiscal Agency, in a number of ways:
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1172162203254250.xml&coll=3
Cedar Knoll closing: Residents suffer loss
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Federal and state officials, acting in ostensible concern for the residents, have shut down the sub-standard Cedar Knoll nursing home. Question: Is that the law's intent -- to force old folks out of comfortable surroundings in mid-winter?
Cedar Knoll, a converted Grass Lake farmhouse, has been a chronically ill member in the state's fraternity of 437 licensed facilities. The 121-bed home has had a history of financial problems.
In 1981 and from 1990-92, it lost its Medicare status. In May 2005, Cedar Knoll had 15 violations recorded by state inspections, and again in March 2006. In December, that total jumped to 25 -- the state average being six or seven infractions.
http://www.mlive.com/columns/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1172072498246380.xml&coll=2
Wider vaccination for kids would help us all
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
FluMist vaccine, a nasal spray based on technology developed at the University of Michigan that has never quite caught on in the marketplace, turns out to do a better job of protecting young children than a standard flu shot.
This is a double blessing: better protection, and without those dreaded needles that send children into crying fits and turn parents into mush.
The good news came from a study involving some 7,800 children 6 months to 5 years old. The results, published last week in The New England Journal of Medicine, were striking. The children given FluMist came down with 55 percent fewer cases of the flu than did those given the standard shot.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION01/702230314/1008
Friday, February 23, 2007
Sell bonds to pay for school health care costs
Bonds would give state leverage to obtain reforms in coverage
The Detroit News
M ichigan should follow the advice of its former treasurer and sell bonds to cover the rising employee health care costs that are swamping school districts.
Doug Roberts, an economist who's served as state treasurer, head of the Senate Fiscal Agency and deputy state school superintendent, proposes the state issue $10 billion in pension bonds during the next several years.
The money raised would be invested in the stock market, and the state would use the proceeds to help pay health care costs.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/NEWS01/702230416
Detroit school down but not broken
Amid heaps of woes, a few fight to save it
February 23, 2007
Brown piles of tobacco from Blunt cigars litter the back stairwell at Redford High on any given day.
The cigars' plastic wrappers lie among Cheetos bags that teenagers have discarded. And the stench of marijuana is strong on the landing leading to the third floor, where nearly all of the classrooms are empty.
This school, attended decades ago by former Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara, was a jewel of the district when it was built in the 1920s. It's also the school attended until just weeks ago by a teenager charged with fatally shooting an Iraq veteran for his tax refund.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1172159704106520.xml&coll=6
Students deserve best leaders
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Effective leadership is most needed in times of crisis. In that light, Grand Rapids Schools Superintendent Bernard Taylor's decision to make high school and middle school assistant principals compete for positions in the city school district is bold and necessary. The jobs done by the principal and assistant principal set the bar -- and can move it up -- for teachers facing the daunting task of higher student achievement. A competitive process instills pride and accomplishment when the right people end up in the right places, setting a clear course and raising results as well as hopes.
The district should be trying to assemble powerful educational teams at schools for both high and low achievers. Mr. Taylor and the Board of Education are sending a strong message about accountability. Audits in December showed that one in three students drops out before graduation, 65 percent of freshmen are failing classes, most freshmen and sophomores carry less than a 2.0 grade-point averages and two-thirds of high-schoolers in the city are reading below grade level. Leadership is one of the factors that can be a catalyst for a turnaround.
http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/117215760314680.xml&coll=9
Chesaning offers teacher buyouts
Thursday, February 22, 2007
MIKE ROCHA
THE SAGINAW NEWS
Veteran teachers in the Chesaning Union Schools have until Tuesday,
May 1, to declare whether they want to take a $10,000 severance package.
Board of Education members have approved the plan that would help offset the more than $1 million budget deficit district leaders anticipate for the 2007-08 school year.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-34/117215130284030.xml&coll=6
Professor fears tenure change will stifle inquiry
Thursday, February 22, 2007
By Nardy Baeza Bickel
The Grand Rapids Press
GRAND RAPIDS -- Tenure is considered a key to academic freedom at universities and a powerful tool to recruit highly qualified candidates.
So when Cornerstone University President Rex Rogers announced recently the school will not offer a tenure track for future hires, professors were dumbfounded.
"We feel this will cause a serious decline in the quality of education at Cornerstone," said English professor David Landrum.
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1172162152254250.xml&coll=3
Workers mull options as news starts to set in
Thursday, February 22, 2007
By Scott Hagen
shagen@citpat.com -- 768-4929
The 464 state corrections employees who learned this week their jobs in Jackson County will be eliminated are sorting through their options.
There are layoffs, of course. There is retraining and pursuing other careers. And there are possible transfers to other prisons, both near and far, once the closure of Southern Michigan Correctional Facility and job cuts at Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center take effect in the summer.
One corrections officer said if he is transferred far from Jackson County, he would likely try to rent a bare-bones apartment near his new workplace and commute to be with family on days off.
http://www.mlive.com/news/jacitpat/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1172162163254250.xml&coll=3
More prison closings possible
Thursday, February 22, 2007
By Chad Livengood
clivengood@citpat.com -- 768-4918
and Susan Demas
Jackson County's state prisons are old and expensive to operate.
Both are strikes against them as Michigan moves to shutter prisons and release inmates in an effort to slash $122 million the state's $800 million deficit.
Southern Michigan Correctional Facility -- one of five prisons carved out of the old Jackson prison as part of a court-ordered breakup -- was the first to get the ax Tuesday. The facility, which employs 425, will close in July.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/NEWS06/702230414/1008
Senators to scrutinize state corrections budget
Plan to shut down prison criticized
February 23, 2007
Stung by news that Gov. Jennifer Granholm will close a prison in Jackson, Senate Republicans announced a new subcommittee Thursday to examine the state's prisons.
They also criticized Granholm's plans to lay off 30 State Police troopers to help balance a state budget that faces an immediate $900-million shortfall.
Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for Granholm, said the Senate leaders should focus on solving the state's budget crisis.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION01/702230313/1008
Friday, February 23, 2007
Sensible inmate releases can reduce state costs
The Detroit News
Gov. Jennifer Granholm's proposal to close one old prison and cut the number of state prison inmates about 10 percent is drawing fire, but it shouldn't. The governor is taking an overdue step in getting a handle on this state's soaring Corrections costs.
Of course, the reduction in prison population has to be handled with care. The Corrections Department has had a bad record of lost paperwork and bungled paroles, which has had fatal consequences.
But as the governor's budget notes and this newspaper has long contended, we jail more people than our Midwest neighbors, but don't have a lower crime rate to show for it. We are not getting the best bang for our Corrections Department dollars.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION01/702230335/1069
JEFF GERRITT
Minor convictions shouldn't turn into life sentences
February 23, 2007
Whatever idea you have of a "convicted felon," it's not Roosevelt Smith. The soft-spoken, retired autoworker has lived a better life, and done no more serious wrong, than most of us. Still, because he carries the felon tag, the 52-year-old Detroiter is jammed up. Despite carrying a 3.7-grade point average at Wayne County Community College District, he can't enter the school's nursing program because Michigan law prohibits him from working as a nurse.
"It's painful and embarrassing for me to even talk about this," Smith told me over lunch last week in downtown Detroit. "But my life is being ruined, really, for a traffic violation."
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/BUSINESS01/702230346
Ford boss urges care in buyouts
February 23, 2007
As Ford Motor Co. works through thousands of employee buyouts, Executive Vice President Mark Fields sent a memo Thursday advising managers to handle the process with decency and humanity.
As the Free Press reported Tuesday, Ford had so many white-collar workers sign up for voluntary buyouts that the automaker has begun to revoke offers.
Some employees who wanted to leave Ford said their managers told them they no longer could take a buyout, and if they stayed, they could be demoted, relocated or have to take a pay cut. Some said Ford was trying to get them to quit without taking an expensive package.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/BUSINESS06/702230398
Cosmetic surgery, like economy, needs a lift
With money tight, procedures decline
February 23, 2007
In a new wrinkle for Michigan's battered economy, plastic surgeons are experiencing the worst downturn ever for cosmetic procedures -- while the treatments soar elsewhere in the country.
The pinch began two years ago and by mid-June of last year, "everything suddenly came to a standstill," said Dr. Michael Busuito, a Troy plastic surgeon. "Husbands told their wives, 'I don't care if you want a face-lift. I could lose my job.' "
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/BUSINESS06/702230334
Businesses crying ouch as customers pinch pennies
February 23, 2007
Customers at Berkley's Coffee Beanery have traded their large mocha lattes for less-expensive cups of fresh-brewed java. Some of the working lunch crowd is opting for the $5 Burger King meal over a $12 lunch tab at a sit-down restaurant.
At the upscale Bang Salon in West Bloomfield, some women are walking into the cold with wet hair to trim their bills up to $30 by skipping a blow dry.
"Everyone is suffering, but you can't give up everything that makes you feel good," said hairdresser Adria Bircoll of Bang. "Clients are going longer between services, leaving wet and going home to blow dry their own hair."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION03/702230389/1322/AUTO04
Friday, February 23, 2007
Daniel Howes
'Regional' shouldn't become a bad word
G ive Bob Ficano, the Wayne County executive, credit for a promising regional recipe -- ideas mixed with reality and a big dollop of audacity.
Promote a regional justice center to cut administrative costs and duplication, even if rivals laugh it off. See the possibility in an Aerotropolis linking Detroit Metro and Willow Run airports along I-94. Push a plan to renovate Cobo Center in Detroit without raising taxes and, as he said Thursday, declare a sales-tax-free zone around Cobo.
"As a region and as a state, we are in crisis," Ficano said in prepared remarks for his State of the County address. "As a region, we must stop the polarization that is strangling our ability to get things done. Let's make sure not to make interstate moving companies Michigan's largest employer."
http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-21/117215907680860.xml&coll=2
Developer eyes hotel
Condos may be replaced in William Street Station plans
Thursday, February 22, 2007
BY JOHN MULCAHY
News staff reporters
A hotel might replace 90 residential condominiums in one of two towers proposed for the William Street Station project downtown, the project's developer confirmed this morning.
But the 100 units of low-income affordable housing long planned for the $77 million project will stay in place, and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority will get a new, 25,500-square-foot enclosed transit center at the site under a deal approved Wednesday night.
Redevelopment plans for the old YMCA site, under discussion since the city bought the site in 2003 to preserve the low-income housing, include razing the old Y building and existing Blake Transit Center to make room for two connected towers at 13 and 14 stories.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION01/702230340/1069
IN OUR OPINION
Minnesota leads way on Lakes protection
February 23, 2007
Minnesota has put the first oar in the water by approving a Great Lakes-wide compact that limits diversions and makes sure the states and provinces abide by a common set of rules to protect the liquid wealth that holds the region together.
Michigan ought to be embarrassed that another state, especially one with only 189 miles of Lake Superior shoreline, took the plunge first. Minnesota's one advantage is that it already requires permits for major water users, and the compact is less restrictive than its current law. Tim Pawlenty, the state's Republican governor, signed the legislation Tuesday.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/columns-2/1172161787208650.xml&coll=7
Fighting fish virus will need help from everyone
Thursday, February 22, 2007
From The Alpena News
When you have an ecosystem constantly changing such as the Great Lakes, it should be no surprise new invasive species will surface from time to time. What is irritating, however, is the threat these new species pose to that ecosystem and the fact we can only conjecture how it was introduced.
The newest threat is a virus -- viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS), and it has been confirmed both in last fall's fish kill in Lake Huron at Ossineke as well as Rogers City's Swan River egg taking station.
The virus has been found in Chinook salmon, walleye and whitefish from those locations. The virus takes no prisoners and, as evidenced above, cares not the species of fish it attacks.
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1172160959191180.xml&coll=4
New fish rules could limit water Consumers Energy pulls from river
Thursday, February 22, 2007
By JEFF KART
TIMES WRITER
About a third of the Saginaw River flows each day through the Karn-Weadock power complex in Hampton Township, where the water is used to cool generators.
But a recent federal court ruling means the water flow could be shut off in coming years, as plant operator Consumers Energy makes costly changes to its cooling system to keep from killing fish.
''This may be the most significant decision from a court that we've had in terms of enforcing environmental protection,'' said Eddie Scher, a spokesman for Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental nonprofit in New York that sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over the issue.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-34/1172159528106520.xml&coll=6
Driver will be ticketed in Secchia crash
Thursday, February 22, 2007
By Barton Deiters
The Grand Rapids Press
LANSING -- Saying mistakes were made, a Lansing-area police chief is reversing an earlier decision and said a driver will be cited for the crash that injured former U.S. ambassador Peter Secchia, Press editorial page editor Joseph Crawford and their spouses.
"A lot of it was rookie mistakes," DeWitt Township Chief Brian Russell, adding there was a lack of consistency about what was being told to the public following the January crash. "We're not used to this kind of press attention. Live and learn, I guess."
Russell, who earlier backed an officer's decision not to ticket the 55-year-old Owosso woman, said he will decide in a few days the exact citation.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/POLITICS/702230373/1022
Friday, February 23, 2007
Grand Rapids
Mich. resort aids immigrant probe
Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- An investigation that began with the arrest of an immigrant by Grand Rapids police and led to a probe of cleaning crews at a famous northern Michigan resort concluded Thursday with a federal sweep that picked up more than 220 alleged illegal immigrants.
It also prompted federal conspiracy charges against the owners of the Florida company that employed them.
Federal officials in Washington and Grand Rapids -- where three executives of RCI Inc. were charged with conspiring to harbor illegal workers and defraud the federal government of more then $18 million in payroll and income taxes -- announced the immigration sweep, part of a federal crackdown against companies employing illegal immigrants.
Feb 23, 2:24 AM EST
U.S. to exempt kids from passport rules
DETROIT (AP) -- U.S. and Canadian children will be exempt from new rules that will require travelers to show passports when entering the U.S. at land or sea borders, a move the Bush administration said Thursday is aimed at helping families and school groups.
The new passport requirements will take effect as soon as January 2008. In a change from earlier plans, U.S. and Canadian citizens ages 15 or younger with parental consent will be allowed to cross the borders at land and sea entry points with certified copies of their birth certificates rather than passports.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff discussed the relaxation in rules at a speech Thursday to the Detroit Economic Club before touring the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, a link with Windsor, Ontario under the Detroit River.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/NEWS06/702230322
Young travelers won't need passports
February 23, 2007
Some American teenagers crossing the Canadian or Mexican borders by car or boat won't need a passport to get back into the United States next January, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Detroit audience Thursday.
Under a policy change, people under 15 could re-enter the United States with a certified copy of their birth certificate. People from 16 to 18 traveling with sports teams and school groups, church or cultural groups and supervised by adults also will be allowed to re-enter with a birth certificate.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1172161598208650.xml&coll=7
Class opens computer world to Spanish-speaking parents
Thursday, February 22, 2007
By Julie Mack
jmack@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8578
Sisters Cristina and Claudia Carrillo envied their children for their computer skills.
So when the Mexican immigrants heard that Kalamazoo Public Schools was offering a free computer class for Spanish-speaking parents, the two quickly signed up.
Now they're using computers at the Kalamazoo Public Library to check on their children's schoolwork as well as to read Mexican newspapers online. Maybe they'll buy home computers now, they say. Or maybe put their newfound skills to use in the job market.
Political bloggers fear publicists will infiltrate sites
By Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | February 23, 2007
Bloggers and campaign consultants said the fear of getting caught should be a major disincentive for campaigns considering the use of underhanded tactics. Many blogs check IP, or Internet protocol, addresses to catch people opening multiple accounts, one of the ploys used by public relations firms to give the appearance of widespread support for a candidate or position. In addition, blog commenters are quick to accuse others of deception and led the effort to expose the deceptive posts in the Hodes-Bass race.
"The blogger community very rightfully protects its authenticity and its ability to get to the truth without filtering it," said Saul Anuzis , chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, who recently started a blog on the party's website.
"A lot of people like the anonymity so they can say what they want," Anuzis said. "But I think there is an ethical line crossed when someone is actually being paid to sound like they're not being paid."
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1172159412106730.xml&coll=8
Father, fiancee struggle with tragic war loss
Thursday, February 22, 2007
By Cindy Fairfield
cfairfield@muskegonchronicle.com
SHELBY -- The bedroom in Brett Witteveen's simple rural home is just as he left it when he went to Iraq. Dirty clothes he shed after a day of tagging trees with his forester father, Rick, remain piled high in a corner.
A shelf with a layer of dust displays all of his favorite things -- a signed football from his playing days at Hart High School, a picture of Trisha Kokx, the woman he proposed to last July, and a faded silk rose in a solitary vase.
Over the doorway is a shiny license plate that reads: U.S. Marine Corps.
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1172159261106730.xml&coll=8
Close friends stunned to lose 'joyful person'
Thursday, February 22, 2007
By Heather L. VanDyke
hvandyke@muskegonchronicle.com
Anyone who knew Brett Witteveen was aware that he was part of an unusually "close-knit" group of friends -- so tight it's difficult for some of them to imagine he's no longer a part of it.
"He had a group of good kids in his life," said Jamie Woodall, an associate pastor for First Baptist Church in Hart, who has been counseling some of Witteveen's friends and family since his death in Iraq Sunday.
"Brett had this really close-knit group of football buddies and they just hung together all the time," Woodall said. That group included Trisha Kokx, his fiancee.
NATIONAL STORIES
February 22, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
So You Want to Run ...
By DAVID BROOKS
I want you to know I’ve shelved the idea of writing a book called "The Idiot’s Guide to Winning the Republican Presidential Nomination." But that doesn’t mean I don’t have ideas. Here are a few rules the G.O.P. contenders should follow if they want to sweep this thing.
First: Be the Snowball. The conventional view is that Feb. 5 is going to be the decisive day of the race, when California, New Jersey, Illinois and a bunch of other states will probably have their primaries. That’s wrong.
Since so many states will be voting then, the candidates will be stretched thin in all of them. As a result, the Republican candidate who does best in the first three states — Iowa, New Hampshire and, on Feb. 2, South Carolina — will sweep on Feb. 5 through sheer momentum.
You want to be that snowball rolling downhill. Focus your efforts on the first three, especially New Hampshire. Win those, and the big states will take care of themselves.
Second: Remember the Rule of Three. When three big candidates go up against one another, two of them often get into a mutually destructive grudge match and the third skates through to victory. (Right now, the McCain and Romney camps seem set to brawl, leaving Giuliani alone.) Whatever you do, don’t let yourself become one of the duelists.
Third: Don’t Be a University. Most campaigns organize their policy experts like academic departments — economists on one committee, social policy types on another, religious leaders on a third. They come up with utterly conventional recommendations.
You want to organize your committees according to priorities. For example, create a Flourishing Families Committee. Get economists, religious activists and psychologists in one room to figure out how government can reduce stress on struggling families. You’ll be surprised by how much interdisciplinary creativity you can unleash and how much closer you get to the problems of real people.
Most of all, you’ll break free from the useless categories most pundits use to define Republicans: social conservative, free market libertarian, neoconservative. If you define yourself by those categories, you’re dead.
Fourth: Be the Change. You are running to lead a traumatized party. Many Republicans think their party can recover from recent setbacks by returning to the old verities: cutting spending, cutting taxes, attacking government bureaucrats.
That’s wrong. The world has changed since the glory days of the 1980s, and no amount of Reagan nostalgia will bring those conditions back.
For example, Republicans in the 1980s could win by promising to expand freedom and reduce overbearing government. But today, post-9/11, most Americans aren’t anxious because their freedoms are being impinged. They’re anxious because there’s chaos all around: foreign policy chaos, fiscal chaos, cultural chaos. The authority structures they rely on have let them down.
You need to lead the party to a new definition of Republicanism. This is a Republicanism that can provide safety, order and authority, so people can feel secure enough to pursue their dreams. This doesn’t mean championing a big government. It means championing a strong government that can do the jobs it is supposed to do.
Your main job over the next few months is to come up with a governing philosophy that explains how individual freedom can be enhanced by a strong, limited and energetic federal government.
Fifth: Make an Offer They Can’t Refuse. If your last name is Giuliani, McCain or Romney, social conservatives are never going to love you. Don’t try to pander to gain their devotion. Instead, offer them a deal.
Tell them: You social conservatives may not agree with me on everything.
You may doubt my recent conversions on your issues. You may not even like me. But I’m the guy who can deliver on four programs you want. Then pick out four programs you and they can agree on and repeat them in every speech for the next year.
Sixth: Get Ready for Phase II. Over the next several months, the surge in Iraq will dominate debate. But by late summer, the surge will either have succeeded or failed. A new, broader debate will start. One candidate will define the landscape by coming up with a new Grand Strategy for the war against extremism. Be that guy.
Seventh: Win the T.R. Primary. Many of you admire Theodore Roosevelt.
You’ve got his picture on your walls. Every day, as the campaign madness swirls around, wake up and ask, Would T.R. be proud of what I’m doing? If not, take a risk. Do something else.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2863.html
The New GOP Attack Machine
If you suddenly start hearing a lot about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., having a “calculating nature” and “political baggage,” or being a “lifelong liberal,” it won’t be a coincidence. Similarly, get ready to see Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., strafed for his “short political timeline” (a euphemism for “rookie”), for being “arrogant and insulated” and a liberal rubberstamp. John Edwards? “New negative tone,” “running to the far left” and “hypocritical.”
The put-downs – some clever, some blunt -- are part of an attack-o-matic that the Republican National Committee is encouraging its supporters to use in preparing for their appearances on cable television and talk radio. The 69-page playbook, posted on the national party’s Web site (GOP.com) on Wednesday as “Meet the Real Dem Candidates,” devotes 10 pages each to Clinton, Edwards and Obama; nine each to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut; and seven each to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2896897
Romney Calls on N.Y. to Screen Pensions
Romney Calls on New York Officials to Divest State Pension Funds From Iran
By GLEN JOHNSON
BOSTON Feb 22, 2007 (AP)— Republican Mitt Romney, seeking to make U.S. policy toward Iran his issue, on Thursday urged several elected New York officials to divest any state pension funds from Iran.
"With your new responsibilities overseeing one of America's largest pension funds, you have a unique opportunity to lead an effort to isolate Iran as it pursues nuclear armament," the 2008 presidential contender wrote to New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat.
Romney, who also wrote to New York Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chuck Schumer, said screening pension investments and divesting from companies linked to Iran could have an effect.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MCCAIN_DAY_JOB?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Feb 23, 2:06 AM EST
McCain's day job limits his campaigning
WASHINGTON (AP) -- John McCain has a day job - and it may make getting a promotion all the more difficult.
The four-term Arizona senator's top rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, are out of office, and, thus, can travel the country each day courting voters and raising money.
Not McCain.
"He does have a job. He has to do it," said Lud Flower, the Grafton County GOP chairman in New Hampshire, home of the nation's first primary. "The other two guys don't have jobs so, sure, they've been around more."
Encumbered by the demands of the Senate, McCain has had to spend plenty of time in Washington as the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, focused largely on the Iraq war. It's a post that serves as a platform for his presidential run but one that also could severely limit his time to campaign and, thus, threaten his position as the Republican to beat.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201730.html
Fundraiser to Help Underwrite S.C. Primary
By Chris Cillizza
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A08
South Carolina may be a new addition to the early days of Democrats' presidential nomination fight, but the state is already showing veteran savvy when it comes to collecting cash for its Jan. 29, 2008, primary.
Witness a fundraiser set for March 7 in Washington. The featured guests? The bulk of the 2008 Democratic field, including Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Joe Biden (Del.) and Chris Dodd (Conn.), as well as former senator John Edwards (N.C.) and former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack. Reps. Jim Clyburn and John Spratt -- the only Democrats in South Carolina's congressional delegation -- are also set to appear.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110009700
A Surmountable Hill
Mrs. Clinton seems less inevitable after this week.
Friday, February 23, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
Republicans and conservatives have been trying to sink Mrs. Clinton for years, but she keeps bob-bob-bobbing along. "Oh those Clinton haters, what's wrong with them?"
Only a Democrat could hurt her, and a Democrat just did. Hollywood titan David Geffen, who now supports Barack Obama, this week famously retagged the Clintons as an Ivy League Bonnie and Clyde. Bill is "reckless," Hillary relentless--"God knows, is there anybody more ambitious than Hillary?" In an interview that seemed like an audience, with the New York Times's Maureen Dowd, Mr. Geffen said, "Everybody in politics lies, but they do it with such ease, it's troubling." In this he was, knowingly or unknowingly, echoing Bob Kerrey, the former Nebraska senator, who said in 1996 of the then-president, "Clinton's an unusually good liar. Unusually good. Do you realize that?" Mr. Kerrey suffered for the remark and was shunned within his party for a while, but didn't retract.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201457.html
Clinton and Obama's Hollywood Scene
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A19
It was a good day for Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Tom Vilsack -- and, what the heck, Dennis Kucinich.
It was a bad day for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and David Geffen.
It was a good day for the Republican Party, particularly George W. Bush, John McCain and Dick Cheney.
It was a bad day for the Democratic Party, opponents of the Iraq war and advocates of national health insurance.
The petty feud was started by big-time producer Geffen's brutal remarks about the Clintons, which appeared after he helped raise a ton of Hollywood money for Obama. The grudge match revived those depressing cliches about the Democrats: their affection for circular firing squads and their habit of never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022202189.html
For Clinton, New Wealth In Speeches
Fees in 6 Years Total Nearly $40 Million
By John Solomon and Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A01
Former president Bill Clinton, who came to the White House with modest means and left deeply in debt, has collected nearly $40 million in speaking fees over the past six years, according to interviews and financial disclosure statements filed by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Last year, one of his most lucrative since he left the presidency, Clinton earned $9 million to $10 million on the lecture circuit. He averaged almost a speech a day -- 352 for the year -- but only about 20 percent were for personal income. The others were given for no fee or for donations to the William J. Clinton Foundation, the nonprofit group he founded to pursue causes such as the fight against AIDS.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201344.html
Sidebar
Quotes About Former President Bill Clinton
The Washington Post
Thursday, February 22, 2007; 6:15 PM
The following quotes were gathered by The Washington Post from people involved in bringing former president Clinton to speak before their organizations:
Andrew Wilding, Catholic Family Counseling Center, Kitchener, Canada: "He has a way of compelling the entire audience. The whole place went silent. He was able to speak for an hour and a half without any notes at all. We were raising money to accentuate our domestic violence services. He was able to talk about domestic and family violence on a personal level, talking about his step father, about suicide bombers and their families. I had never heard anyone speak as eloquently and intelligently."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009705
Bill Clinton's AMT Bomb
Why millions in the middle class may see their tax bill explode.
Friday, February 23, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
As tax season nears, Democrats in Congress are discovering they have an urgent political bomb to defuse--the alternative minimum tax. The AMT already hits four million Americans, and without new legislation this year it will explode in the pocketbooks of 23 million taxpayers come April 15, 2008.
What's amazing is that many Democrats and reporters are trying to blame this looming tax increase on the 2001-2003 tax cuts. See if you can follow their argument: Taxpayers are obliged to pay the higher of their tax bill under either the regular IRS code or the AMT. And because the tax cuts reduced the regular income tax of the average family by $2,000 a year, more middle-class families are being bounced to the AMT system. Ergo, it's all President Bush's fault.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Feb 22, 9:42 PM EST
Bush touts energy plan in North Carolina
FRANKLINTON, N.C. (AP) -- Trying to draw attention to his domestic agenda, President Bush on Thursday extolled the science of turning grasses and wood chips into ethanol to lessen the U.S. thirst for foreign oil.
"If you really want to reduce the amount of oil that you consume, you have to reduce the amount of gasoline you use," Bush said on a road trip to push energy initiatives he announced last month in his State of the Union address.
Bush has proposed ramping up the production of alternative fuels such as ethanol made from something other than corn. The president wants to require the use of 35 billion gallons a year of ethanol and other alternative fuels, such as soybean-based biodiesel, by 2017 - a fivefold increase over current requirements.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/BIZ/702230387/1022/POLITICS
Friday, February 23, 2007
Bush to try out electric pickup
White House photo op of plug-in hybrid aims to charge up campaign to reduce nation's dependence on gas.
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- President Bush plans to inspect a fully electric pickup truck and a yet-to-be identified plug-in hybrid model on the south lawn of the White House today as the administration touts electric vehicles as part of the solution to lowering the nation's reliance on foreign oil.
Bush is trying to drum up support for his plan to reduce the nation's gasoline usage 20 percent by 2017. The proposal -- which includes forcing automakers to dramatically increase the fuel efficiency of their vehicles -- faces its first test during a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday. Bush, who drives a Ford F-250 pickup on his ranch in Crawford, Texas, will look over a fully electric pickup built just three weeks ago by California-based Phoenix Motorcars Inc., said chief financial officer Dennis Hogan. A123 Systems, of Watertown, Mass., will display a plug-in hybrid, but spokeswoman Kate Aldinger did not know the make or model of the vehicle.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201722.html
Bush Stresses Fuel Technology
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A08
FRANKLINTON, N.C., Feb. 22 -- President Bush touted his plan Thursday to reduce the projected consumption of gasoline by 20 percent over the next decade, predicting that alternative fuels such as ethanol made from wood chips and switch grass will play a major role in powering the country's automobiles.
Bush said the goal, which he outlined last month in his State of the Union address, is vital to the nation's future. "We are on the verge of breakthroughs to allow a pile of wood chips to become the raw materials for fuels that'll run your car," Bush said during a visit to a plant here that makes enzymes critical to ethanol production.
http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/editorials/article_1587037.php
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Union jobs trump public safety
Prison guards, fearing privatization, get judge to stop use of private jails to ease overcrowding
When we complain that public employees seem to be running the state, we usually are referring to the way they pressure legislators to constantly sweeten their pay, health care and pension deals regardless of the effect on the budget or taxpayers. But excessive union influence has other troubling results.
In the latest instance, criminals might literally be released because of a lawsuit by the state's prison guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. The union objected to the Schwarzenegger administration's policy of sending some inmates from the state's overcrowded prison system to private prisons out of state, a move that it views as jeopardizing civil service jobs in California. So far, about 360 prisoners have voluntarily agreed to serve time in prisons in Arizona and Tennessee, although prison officials had planned to send about 5,000 prisoners out of state, voluntarily or not, according to published reports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23fri1.html
Trapped on an Airplane
Published: February 23, 2007
JetBlue’s horrendous performance during the recent ice storms that paralyzed New York City’s airports has reinvigorated calls for a “passengers’ bill of rights” to protect air travelers against what can only be deemed abusive treatment. JetBlue has moved rapidly to make amends, but its shocking failures and those of other airlines in recent months make a federal law the best solution.
At the storm’s worst, JetBlue had nine planes sitting on the tarmac at Kennedy Airport for six to 10 hours while passengers were trapped in sweltering cabins with only snacks for food and stinking toilets. The company’s first big mistake was betting that the weather would quickly improve. It failed to cancel outgoing fights that were unable to take off while it allowed incoming flights to keep landing — creating gridlock at its gates. Meanwhile, some planes’ wheels froze to the ground along with the equipment that moves and de-ices them.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrasselpw/?id=110009706
Senator Lott Floods the Zone
A house is lost and now a senator wants revenge.
BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Friday, February 23, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
One big question when Democrats took over Congress was which industry would be first to feel the new majority's populist rage. Oil? Pharma? Banks? Corporate America just got its answer, direct from the angriest man to have been empowered in the past election: Republican Sen. Trent Lott.
The Mississippian was "infuriated" by the insurance industry's refusal to shell out for certain Katrina claims, most notably his own. So Mr. Lott is spearheading a ferocious campaign of political revenge that would make even Henry Waxman envious--replete with investigations, voracious trial lawyers, ambitious state attorneys general and threats of punitive federal legislation. And like most personal grievances that get morphed into policy battles, it's ending badly for consumers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23fri3.html
Profiteering Colleges
Published: February 23, 2007
The Democratic leadership in Congress plans to make college affordability a central theme of this legislative session. The pending bills that would increase federal aid to low-income students and lower the costs of student loans are good, as far as they go. But Congress must do more to ensure that scarce federal aid dollars are legitimately spent and not gobbled up by for-profit diploma mills that bilk the government and students alike.
Legitimate, well-run commercial colleges provide a crucial service for poorly prepared students who do not qualify for admission to traditional colleges. But not all schools are up to the job. Some rake in state and federal aid by recruiting marginally literate students who have no hope of ever graduating. Students who exhaust their aid find themselves burdened with debt and no closer to the degrees or the better lives they had hoped for.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSHS_NEW_LAWYER?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Feb 22, 9:41 PM EST
White House brings in Nixon-era lawyer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In his first job at the White House, Fred Fielding, barely in his 30s, broke the news to President Nixon's top lawyer about the Watergate break-in.
In 1981, when President Reagan was shot and lying on an operating table, it was Fielding who helped settle a dispute about who was in charge of the nation. A few years later, Reagan's counsel stood at the president's bedside, making sure he was competent to reclaim his authority after cancer surgery.
Now, more than two decades later, President Bush has brought the 67-year-old lawyer back to handle legal fights the White House expects with the new Democratic Congress.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CIA_LEAK_TRIAL?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Feb 22, 9:43 PM EST
Still no verdict in CIA leak trial
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jurors reached no verdict Thursday on whether former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby obstructed the investigation into who leaked the identity of a CIA operative married to a prominent Iraq war critic.
The jury went home until Friday.
In a day and a half of deliberations, the eight women and four men have issued only two brief written notes, which suggested they are methodically reviewing the evidence against the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.
They requested a large flip chart, masking tape, Post-it notes and a document with pictures of the witnesses.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CIA_LEAK_NOTES?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Feb 23, 2:11 AM EST
Leak trial reveals flaws in note-taking
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Write this down: Your notes aren't as reliable as you think. That's true whether they're scrawled in the margins of a business meeting agenda, typed on a secretary's laptop, scribbled on a patient's chart or carefully recorded from a lecture hall blackboard.
And, as the monthlong trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has shown, they're no more reliable if the notes belong to FBI agents, journalists or White House aides.
That's a somewhat disconcerting thought. People are charged, front-page articles are written and public policies are decided in part based on those notes. If they are flawed, whose can be believed?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201935.html
A Nonpartisan Reputation at Stake
For Prosecutor, Libby Verdict May Mean Vindication or Political Taint
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A03
When the jury in I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's perjury trial returns with its verdict, its decision also will intensify the debate over whether Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald should have brought the case in the first place.
For Fitzgerald, who has led the CIA leak investigation for more than three years, an acquittal for Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff would be a blow to a reputation as a nonpartisan prosecutor with a record of high-profile successes. Some say it would vindicate critics who think Fitzgerald went too far by charging Libby with perjury when no one was indicted for the original offense investigated, the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name.
Feb 22, 9:55 PM EST
Miller making land deals despite probe
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Gary Miller grew up poor. Even though he's now worth more than $13 million, he says he's still worried about his family's financial security.
So, while federal authorities investigate some of his real estate transactions, he says he'll keep on making deals.
Miller, a fifth-term Republican representing conservative inland Southern California, said in an interview that he had put his real estate investment activities on hold upon entering politics, only to find that "I was worth less money every year."
"Some people are arguing I shouldn't have the opportunity to make an investment that every other American citizen has an opportunity to make," he said. "I've got kids, I've got grandkids, and it'd be nice, when I get ready to go, when they're older, if I can help them."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CANADA_MEXICO?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Feb 23, 2:27 AM EST
N.American officials to discuss security
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thwarting cross-border security threats, coping with a potential bird flu outbreak and boosting North American trade loom large over ties between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
They top the agenda as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez meet their Canadian and Mexican counterparts in Ottawa on Friday.
The officials were meeting as concerns mount that new U.S. border restrictions, imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, may cripple thriving intra-continental flows of commerce and people.
With a combined gross domestic product of $15 trillion - overwhelmingly from the U.S. - the three nations exchange goods and services worth nearly $1 trillion and see about 500 million legal border crossings a year, U.S. statistics indicate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201752.html
A Congressional Duty
Legislators should not expect courts to undo the lawmakers' error of depriving foreign detainees of a fundamental right.
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A18
ON THE FIRST day of the new Congress, two leading senators announced they would join in an attempt to reverse the hasty and ill-considered decision of the previous Congress to deprive foreign prisoners at Guantanamo Bay of the ancient right of habeas corpus, which allows the appeal of imprisonment to a judge. One of the senators, Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), predicted that the courts would rule that the provision of the Military Commissions Act eliminating habeas corpus was unconstitutional; he nevertheless joined the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), in sponsoring a bill restoring the appeal right.
Now Mr. Specter's prediction is looking less sure: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled this week that Congress's act was constitutional, and it threw the cases of dozens of Guantanamo detainees out of federal court. That ruling will almost certainly be reviewed by the Supreme Court on appeal, but Congress should not wait for its decision. It should move quickly on the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/OPINION03/702230309/1008/OPINION01
Friday, February 23, 2007
Frank Beckmann
U.S. history shows there's no substitute for victory
T he controversy over the conduct of the Iraq War is often portrayed as a first-of-its-kind debate. But a new book provides important historical perspective and might suggest some guidance regarding the U.S. military surge. After all, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
In "Power, Faith and Fantasy," author Michael Oren takes us back to the 1780s, when the 13 colonies/states debated how best to respond to attacks on Americans and their shipping trade in the Mediterranean Sea.
Instead of al-Qaida terrorists, Barbary Coast pirates were killing, imprisoning or forcing American crew members and passengers into a life of slavery. The radical Muslims, like today's fascists, cited verses of the Quran to justify their actions.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Feb 23, 4:34 AM EST
Democrats move to limit Bush's authority
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Four years ago, Congress passed legislation authorizing President Bush to go to war in Iraq. Now Senate Democrats want to take it back.
Key lawmakers, backed by party leaders, are drafting legislation that would effectively revoke the broad authority granted to the president in the days Saddam Hussein was in power, and leave U.S. troops with a limited mission as they prepare to withdraw.
Officials said Thursday the precise wording of the measure remains unsettled. One version would restrict American troops in Iraq to fighting al-Qaida, training Iraqi army and police forces, maintaining Iraq's territorial integrity and otherwise proceeding with the withdrawal of combat forces.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201743.html
Democrats Seek to Repeal 2002 War Authorization
By Shailagh Murray and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A01
Senate Democratic leaders intend to unveil a plan next week to repeal the 2002 resolution authorizing the war in Iraq in favor of narrower authority that restricts the military's role and begins withdrawals of combat troops.
House Democrats have pulled back from efforts to link additional funding for the war to strict troop-readiness standards after the proposal came under withering fire from Republicans and from their party's own moderates. That strategy was championed by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) and endorsed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201453.html
No Way To End A War
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A19
The United States has fought many wars since 1941 but has never again declared one. No one abroad declares war anymore either, perhaps because it has the anachronistic feel of an aristocratic challenge. Whatever the reason, today Congress doesn't declare war; it "authorizes" the "use of force."
In October 2002, both houses of Congress did exactly that with open eyes and large majorities. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democratic member of the Senate intelligence committee who had access to all the relevant information at the time, said, "I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the threat posed to America by Saddam's weapons of mass destruction is so serious that despite the risks -- and we should not minimize the risks -- we must authorize the president to take the necessary steps to deal with that threat."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201833.html
Insurgents Broaden Arsenal in Battles With U.S., Iraqi Forces
By Ann Scott Tyson and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A15
Insurgents in Iraq are employing a variety of new tactics -- from an unprecedented string of helicopter shoot-downs to unusual chlorine bomb attacks and direct assaults on U.S. military bases -- that American commanders say are intended to create chaos and undermine the U.S. and Iraqi military push to quell violence in Baghdad.
Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday that he believed a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that went down Wednesday north of Baghdad had been shot down -- which would make it the eighth U.S. military or civilian aircraft to be downed by insurgents since Jan. 20.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201837.html
U.S. Unit Shoulders Burden At Police Station in Baqubah
Ill-Equipped Iraqis Find Little Trust Among Cavalry Troops
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A16
BAQUBAH, Iraq -- It took nearly a month to build the tiny bunker on the roof of this Iraqi police station. The U.S. soldiers worked at night to avoid snipers, carrying sandbags up four flights of stairs in the dark.
One day last week, several American soldiers arrived to begin their shift here, using the roof to scan the surrounding area for attackers. The soldiers were well armed, and they had cigarettes, coffee and soda with them, even beef jerky. But there was one thing missing from the roof of the station, and from the ranks of those who were there to defend it: members of the Iraqi security forces.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022200309.html
Rape of Second Sunni Woman by Iraqi Security Forces Alleged
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A16
BAGHDAD, Feb. 22 -- An Iraqi police official in the northwestern city of Tall Afar said Thursday that a military officer and three soldiers had admitted to raping a Sunni woman and recording the act with a cellphone camera.
The four soldiers told an investigative committee convened by the Iraqi army that they sexually assaulted the woman nearly two weeks ago, according to Gen. Najem Abdullah, a police spokesman in Tall Afar.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022300331.html
Soldier Gets 100 Years for Rape, Killing
By ROSE FRENCH
The Associated Press
Friday, February 23, 2007; 5:54 AM
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- A U.S. soldier sentenced to 100 years in prison for the gang rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and killing of her family said he was sorry but that he couldn't explain why he did it.
Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, 24, wept as he apologized at his sentencing hearing Thursday for raping 14-year-old Abeer Qassim al-Janabi and taking part in killing her and her family.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23fri2.html
Damaged and Adrift in the Shadows
Published: February 23, 2007
When the Senate next debates whether to debate the Iraq war, members would do well to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center, just five miles to the north. There they can run a stark reality check on how the country is failing the war’s wounded despite all those Capitol orations about unstinting support of our fighting troops.
As fine as the surgery wards have been through a five-year torrent of battle casualties, Walter Reed has seen the shameful growth of a parallel village of almost 700 traumatized and maimed outpatients. Far too many of these souls wait lost and wasted, abandoned by the post’s and the Army’s shambling bureaucracy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022200849.html
Rice Warns Iran It Risks Further U.N. Sanctions
Report Finds Continued Nuclear Defiance
By Colum Lynch and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A01
UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 22 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Thursday that it will face further punishment and isolation if it forges ahead with efforts to develop a uranium-enrichment program, but she said the United States and other powers are prepared to restart talks aimed at ending the standoff if Iran suspends its most controversial nuclear activities.
The remarks came hours after the International Atomic Energy Agency issued a report saying Iran has defied yet another U.N. Security Council demand to halt its most sensitive nuclear activities. R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, plans to travel to London on Monday to press Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany to slap additional penalties on Iran.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022300319.html
Ahmadinejad Vows to Defend Nuke Program
By NASSER KARIMI
The Associated Press
Friday, February 23, 2007; 5:25 AM
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Friday that Iran would defend its nuclear program, describing his country as a potential role model for others trying to develop advanced technology.
State television reported the hard-liner's speech to a crowd in a northern Iranian town, delivered a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog reported that Iran had not heeded the world body's demand to roll back its nuclear program.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201454.html
Signals From Tehran
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A19
The title of the two-page Iranian document is "Gentlemen's Agreement." In convoluted English, it lists 11 points of understanding supposedly reached in September between Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani and his European counterpart, Javier Solana, on a temporary, partial, not-quite suspension of uranium enrichment.
What's interesting isn't the purported agreement -- Solana's spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, insists there wasn't one -- but the fact that the Iranians are circulating the document and signaling through various channels that they want to restart dialogue. Indeed, when Larijani met Solana in Munich this month, "he expressed the willingness to resume talks to prepare final negotiations," according to a source close to Solana.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/opinion/23milani.html
What Scares Iran’s Mullahs?
By ABBAS MILANI
Published: February 23, 2007
Stanford, Calif.
IRAN has once again defied the United Nations by proceeding with enrichment activities, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported yesterday. And yet, simultaneously, Iranian officials have been sending a very different message — one that has gone largely unremarked but merits close attention.
After a meeting with the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader’s chief foreign policy adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, declared last week that suspending uranium enrichment is not a red line for the regime — in other words, the mullahs might be ready to agree to some kind of a suspension. Another powerful insider, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said much the same thing in a different setting, while a third high-ranking official acknowledged that the Islamic Republic is seriously considering a proposal by President Vladimir Putin of Russia to suspend enrichment at least long enough to start serious negotiations with the United Nations.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201650.html
Park Sentenced to 5 Years in U.N. Oil-for-Food Bribery Scandal
South Korean Businessman Had Promised to Get Sanctions Eased for Hussein's Government
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 23, 2007; Page A11
NEW YORK, Feb. 22 -- South Korean businessman and influence peddler Tongsun Park was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for his role in the bribery scandal surrounding the United Nation's oil-for-food program for Iraq a decade ago.
Park, 71, admitted taking more than $2.5 million from Saddam Hussein's government to bribe senior U.N. officials to persuade them to ease economic sanctions against Iraq after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He was convicted in July of acting as an unregistered agent of Iraq; he was to have set up a back channel between then-U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and then-Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.
