Articles of Interest 4-23-07
561 Days until election day.
MORNING UPDATE:
Baghdad Harry shows Democrats true colors.
Will Governor Granholm show any leadership? Can the Democrats come up with a plan they can all agree on? Who should Republicans negotiate with?
So, what have we learned about John Edwards?
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/04/john_edwards_fe.html
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/04/john_edwards_ho.html
THE REST OF THE STORY:
First, Senator Reid of Nevada claims we have “lost” the war on terror. His flippant comments make Jane Fonda sound patriotic. Fellow Democrats refuse to condemn and/or retract his statements. Instead, they are “re-defining” what he meant.
Oh, don’t worry…we heard it, our enemies heard it…America heard it.
Between the Democrat leadership’s blunders…their relentless pandering for votes…they continue to re-define themselves as the same old Democrats that couldn’t win an election.
I find it fascination that the Democrats have to run as conservatives, promise fiscal restraint, strong defense and more traditional values…pull the wool over the voter’s eyes…and now they are back!
Pay attention folks…if it looks like a Democrats….spends like a Democrats….wants to raise taxes like a Democrat…and puts our country at risk like a righteous Democrats…it’s the same old Democrats that don’t deserve to get elected.
They will say one thing…and do another!
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
Michigan's state budget problems among nation's worst
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- A recent national report suggests Michigan's state government budget problems are among the worst in the nation.
Michigan is one of relatively few states where revenues coming into the government for this fiscal year trail the most recent official forecasts, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures report. While some states expect to spend more money on schools and other programs than they had first planned, Michigan may cut back in some of the same areas.
At least 11 states plan to spend more money on higher education. Michigan, however, plans to delay state aid payments to universities and community colleges and might cut per-pupil funding to K-12 schools this summer.
Several states plan to put more money in their rainy day funds, according to the NCSL. At least a dozen states are considering tax cuts.
http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1177026008254770.xml&coll=1
Foot-dragging on SBT threatens to trip up economy
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Peter Luke
Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- It's been nine months since lawmakers voted to kill Michigan's Single Business Tax effective Dec. 31, and there isn't a replacement to the $1.9 billion tax in sight.
Even though a July 1 deadline for action is now just weeks away. And alarmed business and economic development officials have no idea what the liability will be when a new tax takes effect Jan.1. Plus, lawmakers are passing budget bills that spend anticipated revenues from a business tax that doesn't even exist yet.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who first offered up her SBT replacement back in November, is not amused. Last week she and James Barrett, president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, issued a rare joint statement urging lawmakers to get going. Granholm said the delay is hurting the state's ability to entice employers undecided about coming to -- or leaving -- Michigan.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS06/704230377/1001
Granholm set to end state cars' private use
April 23, 2007
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Michigan appellate judges may end up leaving their state cars at the office even if they don't heed Supreme Court Chief Justice Clifford Taylor's plea to give them up. That's because Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration is preparing to ban the personal use of state vehicles.
Spokeswoman Liz Boyd said Sunday the governor expects to get a recommendation from state budget officials today that "will eliminate the personal use of state vehicles except in very limited circumstances." The exceptions likely would apply to first responders and investigators, not judges, Boyd said.
Boyd said administration officials do not believe the injunction against personal use of state vehicles would violate the constitutional prohibition on reducing the compensation of elected officials during their terms of office.
Boyd said she was uncertain how it might apply to the governor, who is generally driven in state-owned vehicles by State Police officers. Granholm and her husband have a personal car they use on nights and weekends, Boyd said.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS06/704230340/1001/NEWS
Chief: Shrink state's judiciary
And give up that car perk, he urges
April 23, 2007
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Clifford Taylor is calling on the state's appellate judges to give up their state vehicles and will recommend that the overall number of judges be reduced -- by attrition or a retirement inducement -- to address what he calls an unprecedented financial crisis.
Taylor, who will present his ideas to a conference of state judges today in Dearborn, said turning in the vehicles would show a willingness to sacrifice on the part of judges at a time when the appellate courts are facing a budget shortfall and possible staff layoffs.
Reducing the size of the state's judiciary would provide more substantive, long-term savings, he said in a weekend interview. Taylor said it should be possible to eliminate four of 28 appeals court positions and up to 14 local judges.
The Supreme Court cannot change the number of judges, although it is charged with supervision of Michigan courts; the number of judges falls to the governor and Legislature.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/BUSINESS07/70423004/1002/BUSINESS
LaSalle Bank to be sold in international bank merger
April 23, 2007
By ARTHUR MAX
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- ABN Amro NV and Barclays PLC announced Monday they have agreed to merge in the largest cross-border combination in European banking history.
Barclays offered $49.25 for each ABN share, slightly lower than Friday's closing price of $49.38, the banks said. As part of the deal, ABN announced it is selling its U.S. unit LaSalle Bank to Bank of America Corp. for $21 billion in cash.
LaSalle has 261 branches in Michigan.
The proposed chief executive of the new group, John Varley, said the deal was worth $91.16 billion, a 33 percent premium from ABN's share price when talks began last month.
Varley called the deal "the largest merger ever in global financial industry," and said it holds out the promise of growth at a rate twice as fast as global GDP.
http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/peter_luke/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1177026004254770.xml&coll=1
Column: Prison status quo safest bet for nervous lawmakers
Sunday, April 22, 2007
By Peter Luke
The adage that it takes years to dig out of a problem that has been years in the making is particularly true with Michigan's $2 billion prison system.
The Michigan Department of Corrections has dozens of prisons, a third of state government's work force and more than 50,000 inmates, so it's a pretty big organization to change. Even Gov. Jennifer Granholm's modest plan to finally begin trimming annual growth in prison costs may turn out to be overly ambitious.
Back in February, Granholm said the state should begin to downsize its prison population to the size of those in neighboring states such as Illinois and Ohio.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/LIFESTYLE03/704230363
MIChild helping more adults
Program for uninsured kids providing coverage to 65K grown Michiganians.
Kim Kozlowski / The Detroit News
A public program designed for some of Michigan's 160,000 uninsured children is providing more health coverage for adults than youths.
The federal-state initiative is spending more than three times the amount of money for adult coverage as it does for the purpose of the program, according to figures from the Michigan Department of Community Health.
The $198 million program, known as MIChild, is designed to provide insurance to children whose families don't qualify for Medicaid but can't afford private insurance.
State tackles problem of foster children missing out on college
ALBION, Mich. (AP) -- College student Stacey Kline was depressed and out of money, ignoring phone calls and staring at an empty refrigerator when she got a much-needed knock on her apartment door a month ago.
It was Lynda Naylor, a student services administrator at Wayne County Community College. Naylor and her husband stocked Kline's apartment in Detroit with groceries and gave the 22-year-old money for the bus.
"She was the first person to believe in me," says Kline, a victim of sexual abuse who was kicked out of a foster care home at 14 before selling drugs, working multiple jobs, living at friends' houses and bouncing around countless high schools. "They're like the family I never had."
Kline is one of the 450 teenagers who each year "age out" of Michigan's foster system when they turn 18. These teens are legal adults with neither an adoptive nor a blood-relation family to support them, financially or emotionally.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/COL06/704220683/1019/BUSINESS06
TOM WALSH
Manufacturing alive, well in Holland area
Furniture, powerboats fuel growth
April 22, 2007
BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
HOLLAND -- Thinking of Holland and nearby towns along the Lake Michigan shoreline naturally conjures images of tulips -- festival time is near -- and artsy shops and summer tourists in beachwear.
Look a little closer, though, and you'll see the cranes and bulldozers in and around Holland, Zeeland and the other corners of Ottawa County. Listen for the hum of factories churning out chairs, desks, windows and doors, million-dollar powerboats and 97% of the world's auto-dimming mirrors for cars and trucks. These are the sights and sounds of an emerging growth region in a Michigan economy that sorely needs the boost.
It's not a story of one hot new company or industry sector, but rather a concerted effort by private industry and civic leaders to revive a diverse local economy that was badly shaken at the start of this decade.
And it's an uptick in manufacturing, not service jobs or the seasonal influx of tourists, that's helping to drive the growth. Some examples of what's going on there:
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/OPINION01/704230308/1069
IN OUR OPINION
Get more uninsured people covered
April 23, 2007
Strange bedfellows have become the norm. States are pushing to experiment. Presidential candidates have it on their agendas.
The subject: health insurance and the 47 million people in this country who don't have it. In a variety of occasionally odd alliances, some of the biggest corporations, unions and other groups are raising the clamor for change.
Yet even as wholesale reform becomes a widely agreed upon goal, Congress and the states must not ignore the differences they can make now. Chief among them is the opportunity Congress has this year -- as it renews the 10-year-old State Children's Health Insurance Program -- to help even more youngsters grow into strong, productive adults.
S-CHIP provides coverage to children and some parents in low-income families, who pay modest monthly fees and co-pays. In Michigan, it helps about 90,000 people. But that still leaves about 160,000 uninsured children here, two-thirds of whom are in households where at least one adult works full-time but does not have access to health insurance or simply can't afford it.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS06/704230329/1001/NEWS
Student aid probe widens
Do lenders benefit schools? N.Y. query prods Cox
April 23, 2007
BY LORI HIGGINS
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
The Michigan Attorney General's Office is requesting meetings with representatives from the state's 15 public universities to talk about financial aid practices, a response to an expanding investigation that nationwide has revealed improper relationships between officials at some colleges and the companies to which they steer students for loans.
"Right now we're assessing. The attorney general wants to ... learn more about the issue and make sure that the best interests of Michigan students and families are protected," said Matt Frendewey, a spokesman for Mike Cox's office.
The requests come after the New York State Attorney General's Office asked other states' attorneys general last week for help in expanding its efforts to spotlight improper relationships between financial institutions and universities across the country.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/POLITICS/704230374
Stupak uses new clout to look into key issues
Deb Price / The Detroit News
WASHINGTON -- Like a lot of fortunate pets in America, Joe Cocker has a protective owner who's carefully reading the labels on pet food cans at stores to try to make sure the cocker spaniel doesn't become the latest victim of deadly pet food.
But what distinguishes Joe Cocker is that his owner is one of the players investigating the unfolding tainted pet food scandal, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee.
The eight-term Upper Peninsula congressman is the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. That role -- Stupak's first chairmanship since he began serving first being elected in 1992 -- gives the former Michigan state trooper broad investigative powers. He's holding a hearing Tuesday to try to answer how something as basic as being able to trust the safety of food, whether for people or their pets, has become a life-and-death issue.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/OPINION01/704230309/1008
Editorial
Free Michigan researchers to pursue cures
New legislation would broaden stem cell research opportunities
The Detroit News
Some Democratic lawmakers in the state House of Representatives have revived legislation to allow embryonic stem cell research in Michigan. The bills renew a necessary debate. Embryonic stem cell research should be allowed in this state.
Under current law, Michigan has some of the toughest restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the country. Yet the state is attempting to position itself as a site for biomedical research as one way out of its economic freefall.
Opponents say researchers should focus on adult stem cell research, but scientists in the field say embryonic cells provide the most hope for medical breakthroughs in spinal cord injury, diabetes and other maladies.
Stem cell biologist Sean Morrison of the University of Michigan noted to The News last year that it is legal for fertility clinics to discard human embryos, but not to use them for research that could cure disease and injury. If the goal is to protect human embryos, the fact that they can simply be discarded makes the research ban a fruitless exercise.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/METRO/704220321/1003
Volunteers clean up Detroit's Delray neighborhood
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Residents and concerned citizens came together Saturday to clean up the city's Delray neighborhood.
Peoples Community Service, a nonprofit that focuses on Detroit and Hamtramck, held Delray Family Heritage Day. The Saturday event highlighted Delray's roots and reminded residents of the ongoing fight for environmental justice.
Volunteers walked through the neighborhood picking up trash and loading it into a red grocery cart. Another volunteer filled a truck with large chunks of wood and furniture and other debris that he drove to a trash bin.
Maurice Molden, a 15-year-old who shoots hoops at the area's community center, helped with the clean up.
"I want to help the center," he said while lugging a large wood board to a steel trash bin. "They support me there. I come here everyday after school."
http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS01/704220568/1001/news
Published April 22, 2007
[ From Lansing State Journal ]
Edwards opposes trade pact with S. Korea
Dem candidate says deal is bad for auto industry
David Eggert
Associated Press
DETROIT - Presidential candidate John Edwards on Saturday opposed a free trade agreement between the United States and South Korea, as he was expected to tell Michigan Democrats the deal would be bad for the auto industry.
"I believe in trade deals that make sense for American workers," Edwards said in a statement released before a scheduled address to about 2,000 Democrats gathered at their annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner in Detroit. "But that does not include a trade deal with a country that refuses to open its market to American cars. We buy 100 times more cars from South Korea than they buy from us."
The trade deal, which was wrapped up earlier this month, needs to be ratified by both countries' lawmakers.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/AUTO04/704230346
Carmakers converge on China
Rapidly growing market has piqued global players' interest
Elaine Kurtenbach / Associated Press
SHANGHAI, China -- Global automakers are putting their hottest new products on display in Shanghai, counting on design, quality and technology to give them an edge against newcomer Chinese carmakers in the world's fastest-growing major market.
All the big global names are in China's biggest city for the Shanghai Auto Show, a biennial event showcasing the onetime bicycle kingdom's newfound devotion to the motor vehicle.
"This may be the most exciting automotive market on the planet," said Eric Ridenour, Chrysler's chief operating officer, last week as he announced a lineup of models due to be put on sale in China, including an updated version of the Caravan minivan and the Caliber small sport utility vehicle.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/AUTO02/704230367
Daniel Howes
Chrysler bidding heats up this week
Suitors to jockey for position with 'refined' offers as DCX board meets in Germany.
Another round of bids for the Chrysler Group are expected to be submitted this week, as DaimlerChrysler AG's leaders begin gathering in Stuttgart as early as today for high-level management and supervisory board meetings.
According to a source familiar with the process, "refined offers" likely to include firm financial details are due by mid-week -- just in time for DaimlerChrysler's governing supervisory board, including United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, to potentially discuss details at its Wednesday meeting.
Bidders are expected to include Cerberus Capital Management, whose team includes former Chrysler COO Wolfgang Bernhard and former Ford Motor Co. executives. Until last week, Cerberus was set to be a leading investor in bankrupt Delphi Corp.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/OPINION01/704230303/1008
Editorial: Fuel economy costs
Ease oil dependence by marketing diesels
The Detroit News
Alternative fuels are all the rage, and they may play a major part in reducing America's addiction to oil. But a less glamorous alternative already available -- diesel fuel -- ought to get more respect.
The elements are all in place. The infrastructure exists to deliver it to vehicles; new, cleaner diesel fuel is now standard across America; and the immediate supply could be expanded quicker and easier than ethanol or any other alternative fuel.
In addition, diesel fuel is more efficient than gasoline, so drivers get more miles out of a tank. Though the vehicles cost more up front, recovering that cost is achievable in three or four years. Gasoline-electric hybrids, by comparison, even with the tax breaks the government offers, can take up to 10 years to recover the added costs.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/OPINION03/704230308
Paul W. Smith:
Massacre's lesson: Face mental health
Outta' my mind on a Monday moanin'
I have nothing more to say about Virginia Tech. It's all been said. And said.
And shown. And shown again and again.
Even a news spokesman in the middle of the grotesque frenzy of video and audio that, in my opinion, had no reason to see the public light of day, called the coverage, "practically pornographic as it is just repeated ad nauseam."
Thankfully, the overwhelming backlash finally caused a pullback in the frenzied display of hate-filled video, pictures and written messages.
We grieve for all those personally touched by this horrific story and for all of the families of the nearly 400 children (from infant to young adult) who die every day in this country and don't necessarily make the news.
http://www.ourmidland.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18244991&BRD=2289&PAG=461&dept_id=472542&rfi=6
Camp: Taxpayer protection bill 'ho hum'
By Stuart Frohm
04/22/2007
U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland, weighed in on taxpayer protection and on abortion this week.
A House-passed taxpayer protection bill is "ho hum" legislation which "protects taxpayers about as much as a leather helmet would in today's NFL," he said in one prepared statement.
He also reminded voters, in another news release, that he was an original co-sponsor of legislation against what some call partial birth abortion.
The Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 to let the legislation stand, "confirmed what most Americans have known for years: The practice of partial birth abortion is gruesome, unnecessary and has no place in our society," said Camp.
The federal law "does not prohibit partial-birth abortions that are necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself," Camp's statement added.
http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS01/70422008/1002
Walberg joins legislation to protect Liberian refugees
Congressman Tim Walberg (R-MI) Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy (D-RI) and Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) introduced bipartisan legislation, the “Liberian Refugee Immigration Protection Act of 2007,” which would allow Liberians in the United States on Temporary Protected Status the opportunity to apply for Permanent Residency status.
“I am proud to work with my colleagues to help Liberian refugees who left their war torn homeland to escape death and pursue the American dream,” said Congressman Tim Walberg. “These Liberian refugees abide by our laws, work hard, know English and raise their families with strong values in America, many for over a decade. It is time for us to end their political limbo and allow them to continue following the American dream here in the communities where their children have grown up.”
Congressman Walberg participated in an interview with the Voice of America radio program, broadcast across Africa, about the legislation. The interview is available here.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS05/704230316/1007/NEWS
MICHIGAN'S BAND OF BROTHERS
Soon, 1/24th Marines will be home
After 7 months in Iraq, they are back in the U.S.
April 23, 2007
BY JOE SWICKARD
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
TWENTYNINE PALMS, CALIF. -- Salutes, softball and a brass band -- the 1/24th Marine Reserves are back in America.
"You're on the bus from the air base and you look out the window and -- wow! We're home," said Cpl. Steven Oliver, 23, of Plymouth.
After seven months of patrolling and fighting in and around Fallujah, the unit headquartered at Selfridge Air National Guard Base returned in a series of flights leading to Twentynine Palms, the sprawling base in the Mojave Desert where it trained for its mission to Iraq.
And along the way the Marines, whose deployment has been chronicled as Michigan's Band of Brothers in the Free Press, saw that America is glad to see them and other troops returning from Iraq.
Veterans arrived to salute and shake their hands during 3 a.m. layovers in Bangor, Maine.
NATIONAL STORIES
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/22/AR2007042201552.html?hpid=topnews
Democrats Craft New Tax Rules, New Image
Plan Tries to Shield Middle Class From Paying High Rates
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 23, 2007; Page A01
House Democrats, aiming to seize taxes from Republicans as a political issue, have come up with a plan to shift the burden of the hated alternative minimum tax onto the shoulders of the nation's richest households.
The proposal, still in its preliminary stages, would attempt to restore the original purpose of the parallel tax structure, which was created in 1969 to nab 155 super-rich tax filers who were using loopholes and deductions to wipe out their tax bills.
Because it was not indexed for inflation, the AMT delivered a significant tax increase to an estimated 3 percent of households this year. Unless the law is changed, it is projected to strike nearly 20 percent of taxpayers when they file returns next spring, many earning as little as $50,000 a year.
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070422/NEWS/70422007
Democrats consider next steps in Iraq showdown
Posted Sunday, April 22, 2007 at 7:37 pm
WASHINGTON -- Democrats are considering their next step after President Bush's inevitable veto of their war spending proposal, including a possible short-term funding bill that would force Congress to revisit the issue this summer.
Another alternative is providing the Pentagon the money it needs for the war but insisting that the Iraqi government live up to certain political promises. Or, the congressional Democrats could send Bush what he wants for now and set their sights on 2008 spending legislation.
The options are being weighed as Bush and Congress head toward a showdown this week on his Iraq policy. House and Senate appropriations committees meet Monday to negotiate a final bill that, if approved by both chambers, could reach the president's desk as early as the end of the week.
Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Iraq war, is expected to brief lawmakers behind closed doors as they cast their final vote.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/opinion/23mon1.html
Editorial
Deadlines, War Money and Pork
Published: April 23, 2007
President Bush is taking every opportunity to rail against the troop withdrawal deadlines in the war-spending bills that Congress is readying for passage. He warns that Congressional attempts to set deadlines will harm the troops in Iraq, because a political fight over timetables will delay money needed for the frontlines.
The assertion is completely contrived. Mr. Bush voiced no such misgivings last year, when the Republican-led Congress took until June to complete a war financing bill. The $103 billion Mr. Bush wants— and Congress is ready to provide — is for spending through the end of September. It’s not needed in a lump sum or on any particular date in the near future. In the end, the real obstacle to getting the money promptly to the troops will be the veto that the president has threatened to issue on the final bill.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070423/NEWS07/704230361/1001/NEWS
New Supreme Court may next loosen reins on election ad donors
April 23, 2007
BY MICHAEL DOYLE
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON -- There seems to be a new Supreme Court in town.
Last week's ruling banning partial-birth abortions revealed it. Coming up next, campaign reform will further clarify how President George W. Bush's appointments and the departure of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have reshaped the court.
There's a seismic shift taking place," said Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice. The justices, she said, "have done nothing to disappoint President Bush."
On Wednesday, the court returns to a battleground last visited in 2004 when O'Connor was still on the bench. At that time, she was crucial in upholding a law that restricted pre-election ads funded by unions and corporations.
Now, Wisconsin Right to Life is challenging those advertising restrictions as an infringement on free speech. Oral arguments Wednesday will give O'Connor's replacement, Justice Samuel Alito, a chance to tip his own hand.
Lawmakers Want to Close Gaps in Gun Laws
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Grappling with the deadliest shooting spree in U.S. history, lawmakers said Sunday they want to eliminate a gap between state and federal laws that can allow someone with a history of mental illness to buy guns.
Members of Congress have shown little political appetite, however, for attempting to expand federal gun control in response to the massacre at Virginia Tech.
Seung-Hui Cho, who gunned down 32 people on campus and killed himself Monday, was evaluated at a psychiatric hospital in late 2005 and deemed by a judge to present "an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness." That should have disqualified him from purchasing a gun under federal law, experts say.
But Virginia court officials insist that because the judge ordered only outpatient treatment - and did not commit Cho to a psychiatric hospital - they were not required to submit the information to be entered in the federal databases for background checks.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/21/AR2007042100999.html?nav=hcmodule
GOP Troubles May Hurt Bid To Retake Congress in 2008
Two Committee Resignations Put Spotlight Back on Ethics
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 22, 2007; Page A03
The abrupt resignations last week of two Republican House members from their sensitive committee assignments have thrust lingering legal and ethics issues back into the limelight, potentially complicating GOP efforts to retake Congress next year.
On successive days, Wednesday and Thursday, Reps. John T. Doolittle (Calif.) and Rick Renzi (Ariz.) disclosed FBI raids on their wives' businesses. The men proclaimed their innocence, but the raids exposed their legal jeopardy. The announcements were only the most recent in a series of developments that have kept the focus on the old ethical and legal clouds that helped chase the Republican Party from power on Capitol Hill.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2007/04/april_22_should_guns_be_allowe_1.html
April 22: Should guns be allowed on campuses?
Also on the Sunday shows: Specter says Gonzales harms Justice; '08ers Dodd and Brownback speak
Days after a Virginia Tech student fatally shot 32 people on campus before killing himself, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) suggested that the tragedy could have been stopped earlier if students and teachers were allowed to carry guns on the college campus.
"I would just suggest here that the professor who gave his life to save a class, who himself was a Holocaust survivor, had he been in a position to stop this deranged person, would have saved an awful lot of lives, including his own," Gingrich said on ABC's "This Week." He was referring to Liviu Libresco, a professor who died while trying to protect his students from the gunman, Seung Hui Cho.
Rove Debates Warming With Crow, David
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Their college tour ended, Sheryl Crow and Laurie David describe their efforts to stop global warming as part of the "most important mission" of the times. That's the hope of Grammy-winning rocker Crow and David, who produced "An Inconvenient Truth," the global warming movie that won the Oscar for best documentary.
"It's great to go out and play music, and I love that, too. And it's also nice to make money. But this is not that," Crow said in an interview on Sunday. "This is a whole bunch of people dedicating their time, their lives, working for free, for a mission. And it is the most important mission."
Presidential Debates Set for Cyberspace
NEW YORK (AP) -- The 2008 presidential contenders may soon be slugging it out in cyberspace, with pioneering online-only debates being planned for early next fall, a new media partnership says.
The political blog Huffington Post, online portal Yahoo and Slate Magazine will host the debates - one for Democratic candidates, one for Republicans - sometime after Labor Day, with PBS host Charlie Rose serving as moderator, the sponsors planned to announce Monday.
Voters will be invited to submit questions, and can blog in real time to share their opinions on the candidates' answers.
Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, said the idea for online debates was hatched earlier this year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which bloggers and citizen journalists had been invited to cover.
"It was clear to me, the 2008 campaign was going to be dominated by what's happening on line - new technologies, new media like never before," Huffington said. She then contacted Rose and Slate editor Jacob Weisberg to form a partnership to produce the forums.