Articles of Interest 10-2-07
402 Days until election day.
MORNING UPDATE:
Granholm and the Democrats in the legislature blackmailed, cajoled and bullied in the largest TAX increase in Michigan’s history. Don’t blame me…I voted for DeVos!
Michigan voters got what they asked for? Check the rhetoric…not exactly what the Democrats promised…but what we all expected.
Right Michigan posted the Democrat Tax Hike Wall of Shame:
http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2007/10/1/9544/72279
Former Engler Deputy State Treasurer Gary Wolfram on the budget deal:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/10/granholm-worst-.html
A list of the Granholm/Democrats service tax hikes and how much they will raise:
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/10/new-granholmdem.html
Newt Gingrich spells out why he decided NOT to run for President:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22654
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Gail Morrison (formerly Gail Russell) daughter of Bee Isselhardt, who passed away Sunday morning. Gail was a long time Republican activist from Kent County who served her party, state and country well.
THE REST OF THE STORY:
So…how did they vote???
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/10/increasing-inco.html
http://migop.blogs.com/blog/2007/10/imposing-sales-.html
Saul Anuzis
STATE STORIES
http://info.detnews.com/nolanfinleyblog/index.cfm
Mon, Oct 1, 2007 at 11:03 AM
Granholm delivers for Democrats
For years the Holy Grail for Democrats has been repealing former Gov. John Engler's tax cuts. Those tax rollbacks gnawed at them, and they were tormented by the big spending programs and patronage the cuts represented.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm delivered a total obliteration of the Engler tax relief, and then some. In doing so, she becomes a hero of her party's hard core.
But she also seals her legacy as the worst Michigan governor of the past 50 years.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/POLITICS/710020403/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
How budget deal went down in Lansing
Mark Hornbeck and Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- It was 11:59 p.m. Sunday, literally the last minute before a state government shutdown, when House Speaker Andy Dillon first knew that he had a deal to avoid a crisis.
At that moment the 56th House vote was cast to approve a teacher health insurance reform bill. That busted open an 8-month logjam over balancing the cash-strapped state budget and made way for the Senate, led by Majority Leader Mike Bishop, to approve $1.35 billion in new taxes early Monday.
"Bishop had told me during the night that he wouldn't take up the revenue bills unless I moved MESSA (the insurance reform measure)," Dillon, D-Redford Township, told The Detroit News.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/METRO/710020402/1022/POLITICS
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Michigan wakes up to tax increases
Paychecks will shrink starting this week
Charlie Cain and Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Michiganians went to bed Sunday night with the state nearing its first government shutdown and awoke to a $1.35 billion tax hike, among the largest in state history.
An 11.5 percent income tax increase and expansion of the 6 percent sales tax to a strange brew of services will close most of the $1.75 billion hole in the state budget year that began Monday.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm billed it Monday as a $1 per person increase per week for the average state household.
"This is a solution, not one of celebration but one of resolve," Granholm said after the state avoided a full shutdown with a budget deal that called for the tax hikes and as-of-yet unspecified budget cuts of $440 million and long-range government reforms. The state constitution requires a balanced budget.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/NEWS06/710020326/1008
Tax talk
October 2, 2007
INCOME TAX
What happened: The state income tax rate was increased from 3.9% to 4.35%.
How much it will raise:
$744.8 million
Took effect: Monday
What it will cost you:
SERVICES TAX
What happened: The state's 6% sales tax was expanded to about 60 services.
How much it will raise:
$613.8 million
Takes effect: Dec. 1
What it will cost you:
Tanning
Now: 10 visits for $34.95 to $65
After Dec 1: 10 visits for $37.04 to $68.90
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/OPINION03/710020394/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Laura Berman: Service tax aims to skim off the cream
The new 6 percent tax on assorted, nonessential services will be a mild annoyance for most, like waiting in line at the Secretary of State's office.
It doesn't tax the refrigerator repair guy.
The dry cleaners are exempt. And in a display of reassuring legal lobby agility, the services of lawyers remain tax-free.
Yes, the new tax wreaks havoc on the metaphysical industry (psychics, palm-readers, phrenologists and astrologers), goes after sex in the city (escort and dating services), frowns on festivity (party planners and balloonistas), but it is squarely aimed at a slender Michigan demographic.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/POLITICS/710020395/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Lobbyists influence tax on new services
Paul Egan and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Dating services are covered, but a round of golf is not.
Going skiing will be subject to the state's 6 percent sales tax but not going to see the Detroit Lions.
Consultants' services will be taxed, lawyers' won't be.
Businesses subject to the new tax complained Monday it is arbitrary and unfair. The sales tax on services, which takes effect Dec. 1, was part of a package of bills passed by the Legislature early Monday to resolve a budget impasse and end a brief government shutdown.
"Whoever screamed the loudest was overlooked is what it sounds like to me," said Terry Newman, president of commercial landscaper Superior Scape in Shelby Township.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/NEWS06/710020324/1008
Taxing services proves tricky
Business owners see unfairness in the selection of targeted firms
October 2, 2007
Kim Barno, a Rochester Hills astrologer, didn't see it coming.
She said she was floored to learn the Legislature added fortune telling early Monday to the expanded list of business services now covered by the state's 6% sales tax. Some of the other services for which customers will be taxed in order to help balance the state budget: massages, shoe shines, tanning salons, matchmaking, and baby shoe bronzing.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/NEWS06/710020323/1008
Analysts see windfall, downfall in revenue from tax on services
October 2, 2007
Just how do the state's economic forecasters know that putting a tax for the first time on commercial landscaping will yield $40.5 million?
The accuracy of that projection and those for about 60 other types of businesses whose customers will have to pay a 6% use tax beginning Dec. 1 is critical, because the state is relying on the new tax to fill $613.8 million of the budget deficit for the fiscal year that began Monday.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071001/NEWS06/71001101/1008
How the budget deal will affect you
Businesses say they’ll have to pass tax on to customers
October 1, 2007
Until late Sunday morning, it was the best kept secret in Lansing as lawmakers desperately sought to reach a deal to solve the state’s budget crisis and avoid a costly and embarrassing government shutdown.
But Monday, as details of a new law to extend the state’s 6% sales tax to many services became clear, businesses around the state, from the powerful auto companies to commercial landscapers to personal fitness trainers, expressed shock, confusion or both.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/OPINION01/710020323/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Editorial: Budget needed more reforms, fewer taxes
The Detroit News
When Michigan demanded a transformational budget crafted from innovative thinking and bold ideas, it got the same old, same old -- a massive tax increase and the continued denial that the structural costs of state government are unsustainable.
By the time budget negotiations reached the critical hour Sunday, the focus of lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm was solely on averting a government shutdown, rather than on delivering a budget that included the substantive spending reforms they promised nine long months ago when this process began.
The evidence suggests the governor and Legislature never intended to reinvent government. That was all talk to buy cover for what they really wanted -- protection of the status quo in Lansing.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/POLITICS/710020397/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
What's left? Slashing $440M from budget in 29 days
Cuts will likely touch all programs but revenue sharing, Medicaid coverage to be spared.
Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau
LANSING -- Having hammered through tax increases and a temporary extension of last year's budget, lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm now have 29 days -- and counting -- to make a slew of spending cuts needed to resolve the state's fiscal crisis.
Reductions totaling $440 million must be enacted, cuts that are likely to touch nearly all government programs.
But the axe won't fall on revenue sharing to local governments or government-funded Medicaid health coverage for low-income people, according to tentative agreements among leaders.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/NEWS06/710020319/1008
Granholm defends Medicaid
Governor says no removals from health program
October 2, 2007
LANSING -- With the politically perilous vote to raise taxes behind them, state lawmakers will turn their attention to cutting $435 million from the state budget.
It won't be much of a reprieve.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm threw down a gauntlet Monday: No cutting people off Medicaid to balance the budget.
"We are not going to cut people off Medicaid, we are not going to cut grandparents who care for children in their families, we are not going to cut people off health care," Granholm told reporters.
But she'll run into determined Republicans who aim to trim not just Medicaid costs, but just about every state department as well.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/POLITICS/710020391/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Teachers' health care plan draws opposition
Karen Bouffard / The Detroit News
Public school employees won't see any immediate changes in health care benefits from reforms approved Monday, but some teachers accustomed to the plans with low co-pays and premiums now fear losing them.
"I'm afraid you'll have to be knocking on death's door before you can get (health care)," said Dearborn Public Schools teacher Lynda Mualem. "I think we need personal choices -- I don't want other people making my health choices."
The bills will force release of group health claims data by public employee health plans including the Michigan Education Special Services Association (MESSA), which administers insurance claims for 45 percent of Michigan teachers and school employees.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/NEWS06/710020325/1008
Teachers to pay more for benefits
Health insurance to change, and new hires will pay more into pension plans
October 2, 2007
New teachers will pay more into their pension plans and could also end up paying more for health insurance as retirees, while existing teachers could see significant health insurance changes, as part of the budget deal reached early Monday morning.
Under the new legislation, teachers hired after June 30, 2008, will pay more into their pension fund: 6% instead of the 4% paid by current teachers.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/AUTO01/710020398/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Budget losers: Big 3, dealers
Automakers lose millions in refunds
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- General Motors Corp. stands to lose more than $100 million in state refunds under the budget deal approved by Michigan lawmakers early Monday -- in addition to paying tens of millions of dollars in new service taxes.
In all, automakers and Michigan car dealers will lose $350 million in refunds of sales taxes paid on demonstration vehicles and defaulted leases since 1999. The state has not reimbursed the automakers because the issues have been wrapped up in court.
In a pair of rulings earlier this year, the Michigan Supreme Court upheld two separate decisions awarding the automakers and dealers of hundreds of millions of dollars in back tax refunds. Specifically, automakers and dealers are owed $250.2 million for demonstration vehicles, and $93 million for sales taxes on defaulted leases.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/NEWS06/710020321/1008
Back to work
October 2, 2007
By Christina Hall
Secretary of State branches run smoothly
Michigan's 153 Secretary of State branch offices opened as usual Monday, thanks to phone trees for top-tier management and a toll-free number for employees to call.
"Our communication plans worked very, very well," said Secretary of State's Office spokeswoman Kelly Chesney.
Chesney said employees worked past normal shifts Friday and Saturday to accommodate everyone -- in some cases nearly two hours past closing. Large turnouts Friday were partly attributed to the pending government shutdown. Staffing was increased to handle the extra workloads, she said.
Hunters and campers return as grounds reopen
Michigan's archery deer hunting season opened Monday, along with the reopening of campgrounds and state parks following an overnight shutdown.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/OPINION01/710020321/1008
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Reaction: New budget doesn't fix structure
Reactions to the state budget deal, which expands the 6 percent sales tax to some services, increases the income tax to 4.35 percent from 3.9 percent and requires reforms in school and municipal employee health insurance practices to reduce costs:
Tax hikes should make residents fear for future
Michael LaFaive, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market research group in Midland: The state Legislature has kicked Michigan while it is down. Government is going to take another $1.48 billion out of the hands of residents and private job providers when they can least afford it -- and do so with a new tax on services, too.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/POLITICS/710020399/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Recall activists mobilize
Metro area anti-tax groups embark on tough road to oust Granholm, legislators over increases.
Robert Snell / The Detroit News
Taxpayers, from the politically connected to political fringe, launched or threatened recall campaigns Monday against Gov. Jennifer Granholm and legislators, hours after politicians approved an income tax hike and sales tax expansion.
There was plenty of tough talk but tough challenges ahead, as those pressing recalls must collect thousands, or in Granholm's case, almost 1 million, valid signatures supporting an election and then fund the fight.
Activists were confident Monday that outrage over tax increases will translate into a rare political feat. There has not been a successful recall of a state legislator since the early 1980s, when voters ousted Democratic state Sens. David Serotkin and Phil Mastin.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/NEWS06/710020322/1008
Governor, lawmakers face job threats
Talk of recall annoys Granholm, who says praise would be more appropriate
October 2, 2007
Reaction to Lansing's $1.4-billion weekend demand for more money was swift and furious Monday, as antitax advocates lashed Gov. Jennifer Granholm and pro-tax lawmakers on talk radio, in Internet forums and elsewhere as they plotted recall campaigns as punishment.
Granholm and dozens of state representatives and senators who voted for one or both of the sales and income tax hikes were named as potential targets of recall campaigns by various groups.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/METRO/710020396/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Budget drama angers Metro Detroiters
Lawmakers' spectacle as well as tax hikes elicit mostly negative reviews, worries about finances.
Jim Lynch, Doug Guthrie and Shawn D. Lewis / The Detroit News
State legislators may have avoided a dreaded government shutdown, but Metro Detroit residents' reviews of the weekend drama were harsh and, in many cases, unprintable.
To keep state workers on the job, lawmakers boosted the income tax to 4.35 percent from 3.9 percent, levied the 6 percent sales tax on 23 new services, forced the Michigan Education Special Services Association to open its medical records in an attempt to save money on teacher health care -- and postponed a slew of cuts still needed to balance the budget.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/OPINION01/710020320/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Taxpayers unload on state budget deal
Elect, don't tax, palm readers
Our state leaders showed what they're made of during the budget crisis ("State government back in business," Oct. 1). They plan on balancing the state budget by taxing singing telegrams, palm reading and astrology services. Perhaps they should hire a few palm readers themselves to figure out what to do in the future. I suspect we'd come up with a better solution.
Jeff Counts
Livonia
Don't blame Granholm
Unlike President Bush, Gov. Jennifer Granholm inherited a state in recession, with auto industry jobs flying out the door, the budget deficit being higher and the GOP House and Senate obstructing her at every turn for four years. Most of the people getting hysterical about this are all for government cuts, but can never seem to be specific about which programs they would be willing to do without.
Wally Boltson
Westland
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/OPINION01/710020319/1008
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Metro Detroit's fallen fortunate may need some compassion, too
Rabbi Aaron Bergman
There is an interesting discussion in the Talmud about the obligation of the community to support someone who had once been well-off, but is now impoverished. One opinion is that circumstance should not matter and that everyone should receive the same assistance. The community would set a certain amount for each person. There are no gray areas to this approach. This seems to be the fairest way of dealing with these situations.
Another opinion says a person should be sustained in the way they were used to living, at least until they can adjust to their loss of comfort and status.
On the surface this seems ridiculously unfair. Why should a formerly wealthy person who lived on delicacies his or her whole life still get them when someone poor, who never had these things, still gets none?
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/OPINION01/710020322/1008
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Editorial: Detroiters' purchasing power can be exploited
Report says Detroiters spend $4.6 billion in retail purchases
The Detroit News
Detroit's renaissance relies heavily on convincing businesses to locate in the city, and a report released Monday may help it get there.
Not only is there significantly more purchasing power among the existing population than most everyone suspects, but there are nearly 62,000 more people living in the city than what the U.S. Census Bureau reports, according to the study by Social Compact Inc., a non-for-profit group from Washington, D.C., that spent six months crunching numbers for the city.
NATIONAL STORIES
October 2, 2007
Democrats Surpass Republicans in Fund-Raising
The Democratic presidential candidates continued to raise significantly more money during the last three months than their Republican counterparts, according to official and unofficial third-quarter fund-raising tallies that were released yesterday.
Senator Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat, raised at least $20 million over the summer, more than $19 million of which could be spent on the primary — showing that he continued to be a formidable fund-raiser. It was unclear whether he still led in fund-raising, as he did this spring, because Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton did not release her tally. (Her aides had said that they expected to raise a similar amount.) John Edwards raised $7 million, and Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico raised $5.2 million.
By comparison, Mitt Romney, who has been one of the strongest Republican fund-raisers this election, raised only about half of what Mr. Obama raised this summer, according to a senior adviser who was granted anonymity to discuss the campaign’s finances. The adviser said that Mr. Romney brought in about $10 million from donors, and that he used more than $6 million of his own money for his campaign.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22654
Why I Decided Not to Run For President
by Newt Gingrich
Posted: 10/01/2007
Last Saturday, my family and I faced a big decision about how we can best serve America.
Before the opening of Solutions Day on Thursday, the success of Solutions Day and the American Solutions movement to create real change with real solutions was unknowable. But by Saturday morning, the verdict on the American people's desire to actively participate in creating the next generation of solutions to the daunting challenges America faces was in.
American Solutions had resonated with and had captured the imagination of the American public, and it became clear Saturday that American Solutions would be an active and successful voice in the American dialogue going forward.
http://www.miamiherald.com/367/story/256844.html
McCain criticized for religious remarks
Posted on Mon, Oct. 01, 2007
By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer
Several Jewish organizations criticized John McCain on Monday after the Republican candidate said he would prefer a Christian president over someone of a different faith.
In an interview with Beliefnet, a multi-denominational Web site that covers religion and spirituality, the White House hopeful was asked if a Muslim candidate could be a good president.
"I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles ... personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith," McCain said. "But that doesn't mean that I'm sure that someone who is Muslim would not make a good president."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/POLITICS01/710020332/1022/POLITICS
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Obama rakes in $19 million
Thompson raises $11.5M, Edwards $7M in cash for primaries.
Jim Kuhnhenn / Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama raised more than $19 million this summer for the presidential primaries, holding his lead in the race for campaign cash though trailing Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in national polls.
Fred Thompson, the GOP newcomer, has collected more than $11.5 million since June when he began exploring a run, Republicans familiar with his fundraising said Monday.
Obama's Democratic rival John Edwards reported raising $7 million during the July-September quarter for a total of $30 million for the year. Aides said he would show $12 million cash on hand and was on track to meet his goal of raising $40 million by the time the first presidential contests begin in January.
October 2, 2007
Obama to Urge Elimination of World’s Nuclear Weapons
By JEFF ZELENY
WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 — Senator Barack Obama will propose on Tuesday setting a goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons in the world, saying the United States should greatly reduce its stockpiles to lower the threat of nuclear terrorism, aides say.
In a speech at DePaul University in Chicago, Mr. Obama will add his voice to a plan endorsed earlier this year by a bipartisan group of former government officials from the cold war era who say the United States must begin building a global consensus to reverse a reliance on nuclear weapons that have become “increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective.”
Mr. Obama, according to details provided by his campaign Monday, also will call for pursuing vigorous diplomatic efforts aimed at a global ban on the development, production and deployment of intermediate-range missiles.
Oct 1, 7:27 PM EDT
Washington state's primary system argued
WASHINGTON (AP) -- To Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, Washington's long tradition of a wide-open primary system represents the old-fashioned individual freedoms championed in the West.
To the major political parties, the state's attempt to create a "top two" primary system infringes on their right to select a nominee of their choosing.
The U.S. Supreme Court considered those competing views Monday as the court, meeting on the first day of its new term, took up a case challenging Washington's primary system. The 3-year-old law - which has never taken effect because of legal challenges - would allow voters to choose any candidate on the ballot regardless of political affiliation.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PRESIDENTIAL_RECORDS?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Oct 1, 7:22 PM EDT
Former presidents can't withhold records
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Presidents don't have indefinite veto power over which records are made public after they've left office, a federal judge ruled Monday.
In a narrowly crafted ruling, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly invalidated part of President Bush's 2001 executive order, which allowed former presidents and vice presidents to review executive records before they are released under the Freedom of Information Act.
By law, the National Archives has the final say over the release of presidential records and Kollar-Kotelly ruled that Bush's executive order "effectively eliminates" that discretion. It allows former presidents to delay the release of records "presumably indefinitely," she said.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/democrats-go-after-limbaugh-2007-10-01.html
Democrats go after Limbaugh
October 01, 2007
Democrats on Monday called on the chief executive of Clear Channel Communications to denounce remarks by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, whom they say made a “hateful” and “unpatriotic” attack on U.S. troops opposed to the war in Iraq.
At issue is a remark from Limbaugh that characterized such troops as “phony soldiers.” Democrats have seized on the issue, allowing them to hit back at Republicans who similarly latched onto a MoveOn.org ad that referred to Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray Us.”
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_100107/content/01125112.guest.html
Rush’s Challenge to Senator Reid
October 1, 2007
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, in the last half hour, Harry Reid took to the floor of the Senate and proceeded to spend five-to-seven minutes denouncing me, spreading the smear that started last week on this phony soldiers business. He has prepared a letter to be sent to the CEO of the company that syndicates this program, and that letter he asked as many senators as possible to sign, offering them the opportunity to demand of my syndicator that I be condemned for something that I did not say, which Harry Reid knows I did not say. The House of Representatives, I have just learned, is going to introduce a resolution this afternoon along the lines of the MoveOn.org resolution that was introduced last week, tit-for-tat, they want a vote in the House to condemn me, a private citizen, for something I did not say. These people have had three, four days now to learn the truth about this, and they no doubt know the truth, which doesn't matter. What they are trying to do is flood a false story into the Drive-By Media and have that survive and suffice as the evidence and as the story of what I said when it wasn't.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071002/POLITICS/710020329/1022
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
High Court declines two church-state cases
Mark Sherman / Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court returned to work Monday by sidestepping two church-state cases that social conservatives had hoped the justices would use to chart a rightward course.
The justices decided not to consider a challenge by religious groups to a New York law requiring health plans to cover birth control pills, and a California case in which an evangelical group was denied use of a public library for religious services.
"We were hoping the Supreme Court would provide broader protections for religious liberties, and both these cases were excellent vehicles to do that," said Jordan Lorence, an attorney representing the evangelical group that was turned away from the library in Antioch, Calif.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SCOTUS_CRACK_COCAINE?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Oct 2, 3:15 AM EDT
Crack sentence gets high court review
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge's decision to slice a few years off a lengthy prison term has brought to the Supreme Court the racially tinged issue of harsh sentences for dealing crack cocaine.
Derrick Kimbrough, a black veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, received a 15-year-prison term for selling both crack and powder cocaine, as well as possessing a firearm in Norfolk, Va. Most crack defendants in federal court are black.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for a range of 19 years to 22 years in prison, but U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson said the higher range was "ridiculous."
Whether Jackson has the discretion to ignore the guidelines is the issue before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FBI_MISSED_SPYING?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Oct 1, 7:03 PM EDT
Report: FBI still vulnerable
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Six years after arresting turncoat Robert Hanssen, the FBI remains vulnerable to espionage from within, the parent Justice Department said in a report Monday.
The reason for this, said the Justice's Office of Inspector General, is that the bureau has failed to fully adopt security measures to track suspicious behavior involving its own employees.
The investigation by the IG's office sought to examine the extent of internal security at the nation's lead law enforcement and domestic spy agency following the 2001 capture of Hanssen, who admitted spying for Moscow for cash and diamonds over two decades.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_BLACKWATER?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Oct 1, 11:43 PM EDT
Congress wants to curb war contractors
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Emboldened by the Blackwater scandal, congressional Democrats are moving aggressively to tighten the reins on private contractors in Iraq.
The House will consider a bill this week by Rep. David Price that would make all contractors subject to prosecution by U.S. courts. This would close what he says is a dangerous loophole that leaves State Department contractors immune to prosecution.
In the Senate, lawmakers passed a $672 defense policy bill on Monday that would require detailed administration reports on the government's reliance of security contractors. The bill also would establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate waste, fraud and abuse in wartime contracts.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BLACKWATER_IRAQ?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Oct 2, 6:39 AM EDT
Blackwater chief set to testify
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The founder of Blackwater USA says he is looking forward to telling his side of the story to members of Congress who labeled his private security firm an out-of-control outfit indifferent to Iraqi civilian casualties.
Blackwater, which has been paid more than $1 billion in federal contracts since 2001, is embroiled in a host of controversies over the conduct of its guards that have prompted some Iraqis to demand its expulsion.
Blackwater's 38-year-old founder and chairman, Erik Prince, was to be one of the witnesses as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing Tuesday into private security contracting.
"We look forward to setting the record straight on this issue and others tomorrow when Erik Prince testifies before the committee," Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said Monday.