San Francisco Chronicle
'DIRTY BOMB' CASE SIDESTEPPED OVER TORTURE ISSUES
White House balked at having 2 al Qaeda detainees questioned at Padilla terror trial
Douglas Jehl, Eric Lichtblau, New York Times
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Washington -- The Bush administration decided to charge Jose Padilla with crimes unrelated to alleged plots to explode a "dirty bomb" and destroy apartment buildings because it was unwilling to allow testimony from two senior members of al Qaeda who had been subjected to harsh questioning, current and former government officials said Wednesday.
The al Qaeda members were the main sources linking Padilla to a plot to bomb targets in the United States, the officials said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/24/MNGUSFTMJU1.DTL
Craigslist founder planning Net-based news venture
Dan Fost, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Craig Newmark, the San Francisco engineer who created the popular Craigslist Internet site, is getting involved in the news game.
Newmark, whose free Web site listings have wreaked havoc with the newspaper business model over the past few years, acknowledged Wednesday that he is working with other people on a new media venture involving "technologies that promise to help people find the most trusted versions of the more important stories."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BUG2NFT6GR1.DTL
Hacker to try to attack state voting machines
John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005
A computer hacker will be trying to break into one of California's electronic voting machines next week, with the full cooperation of the secretary of state.
Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, will be trying to demonstrate that voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems are vulnerable to attacks by computer hackers seeking to manipulate the results of an election.
"This is part of our security mission,'' said Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office. "We want to make sure that every vote is counted and registered correctly.''
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/25/VOTING.TMP
Port chief rebukes Mills for tactics on piers project
Erstwhile ally raps developer for departing from positive PR and taking on supervisors
The developer behind a politically troubled proposal for a recreation, shopping and office complex on San Francisco's Embarcadero is now coming under fire from a key City Hall ally.
Port of San Francisco Executive Director Monique Moyer sent a letter to the project developer, Mills Corp., blasting the company for taking on foes in an aggressive media campaign before a key Board of Supervisors vote, and for not sticking to a mutually agreed upon strategy of trying to build support by talking up the project's potential benefits.
She also criticized Mills, a Virginia-based builder and operator of shopping malls, for preparing to bypass the supervisors altogether with a ballot measure next year that would seek voter approval of the development plan for Piers 27-31.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/23/BAGHPFSUTL1.DTL
U.S. Nears 1,000th Execution Since 1977
By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
(11-24) 19:12 PST New York (AP) --
"Let's do it." With those last words, convicted killer Gary Gilmore ushered in the modern era of capital punishment in the United States, an age of busy death chambers that will likely see its 1,000th execution in the coming days.
After a 10-year moratorium, Gilmore in 1977 became the first person to be executed following a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that validated state laws to reform the capital punishment system. Since then, 997 prisoners have been executed, and next week, the 998th, 999th and 1,000th are scheduled to die.
Robin Lovitt, 41, will likely be the one to earn that macabre distinction next Wednesday, Nov. 30. He was convicted of fatally stabbing a man with scissors during a 1998 pool hall robbery in Virginia.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/24/national/a134606S37.DTL
Southern California airports have worst runway safety records
By IAN GREGOR, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
(11-24) 10:20 PST Los Angeles (AP) --
Los Angeles International Airport and two others nearby have the worst runway safety records among the nation's busiest airports in recent years, a review of federal aviation data shows.
Federal officials are most concerned by the situation at bustling LAX, where commercial jets have come perilously close to crashing at least twice since 1999, the first year of data reviewed by The Associated Press.
The problem persists because, despite millions spent to reduce violations known as runway incursions, LAX's airfield has built-in flaws: It's too tightly packed and arriving aircraft must cross runways used for takeoffs.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/24/state/n102041S83.DTL
Slayings push death toll over last year's total
2 men shot in S.F.'s Western Addition -- 90 killings in 2005
Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Two men were shot to death Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco's Western Addition, just yards away from an elementary school where children were playing.
The Turk Street killings raised the city's homicide toll to 90 this year, two more than last year -- sparking outrage among city residents.
"There is an epidemic in this city," said San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who represents the area where Wednesday's shootings occurred and went to the Pitts Plaza public housing development as police processed the crime scene. "We're just two blocks from Northern (police) Station."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGR9FTH8544.DTL
Slayings push death toll over last year's total
2 men shot in S.F.'s Western Addition -- 90 killings in 2005
Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Two men were shot to death Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco's Western Addition, just yards away from an elementary school where children were playing.
The Turk Street killings raised the city's homicide toll to 90 this year, two more than last year -- sparking outrage among city residents.
"There is an epidemic in this city," said San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who represents the area where Wednesday's shootings occurred and went to the Pitts Plaza public housing development as police processed the crime scene. "We're just two blocks from Northern (police) Station."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGR9FTH8544.DTL
A lifelong Republican's long winter
Joan Ryan
Thursday, November 24, 2005
As those who follow this column know, my father and I inhabit opposite ends of the political spectrum. I have found my geographic and ideological home in the liberal Bay Area. He is a lifelong Republican who loved Spiro Agnew and was not among the early waves of supporters for civil rights and women's rights (he came around).
He is one of those hardscrabble men from the Irish parishes of the Bronx who served in Korea, supported a wife and six children on his own sweat, never got a handout and never sought one. To him, Democrats were the ivory-tower elites who took increasing chunks of his paycheck to support the lazy and the irresponsible.
I… He regrets changing his mind about voting for him, he said.
"The guy's stupid," he said. "Such a disappointment. The worst administration I've ever seen. He just sounds confused. He doesn't sound like he knows what the hell he's doing."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGBNFTM7H1.DTL
George W. Bush Gives Me Hope
The astonishing collapse of the Bumbling One surely means healthy change is imminent, right?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, November 18, 2005
Here's the good news: It really can't get much worse.
We cannot afford any more wars. The environment has been sold to the bone. The national spirit has been beaten like an Alaskan baby seal and the GOP has worked our last nerve, passed through the karmic blood-brain barrier, reached saturation to the point where even moderate Repubs and gobs of intelligent Christians are finally saying, Oh my God, what have we done, and how did it all go so wrong, and how much Prozac and wine and praying to a very disappointed Jesus will it take to fix it?
Which is why I'm here to tell you hope abounds. In fact, George W. Bush gives me hope. He gives me hope because he has led the country into a zone where the only way to go -- morally, spiritually, economically -- is up. Is out. He gives me hope because after it has all appeared so bleak and ugly and lost for so many years, it would now appear that all laws of karmic and poetic and moral justice still hold true. And how reassuring is that?
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/
MISJUDGING THE JIHAD
Briefing Osama on all the war's wins and losses
Brian Michael Jenkins, Gregory F. Treverton
Sunday, November 13, 2005
We see the televised briefings in Washington, but what about the briefings on the other side of on the campaign against terror, perhaps in the mountains of Pakistan?
An aide briefing Osama bin Laden on the al Qaeda balance sheet today would have to admit to plenty of bad news:
"Our training camps in Afghanistan have been dismantled, and thousands of our brothers have been arrested worldwide, including some talented planners who are hard to replace; meanwhile, our cash flow has been squeezed," the aide could say. "The infidels occupy Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, the Emirates, Qatar and Oman, and they threaten Syria. We have been forced to decentralize our operations. We must beware of fragmentation and loss of unity. We face martyrdom."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/13/INGUPFLGKH1.DTL
The Jordan Times
Iraqi Sunni leader, sons killed in their beds
Khadim Sarhid Hemaiyem's nephew cries Wednesday near the coffin of his uncle during his funeral (AP photo by Hadi Mizban)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms shot dead an ageing Sunni tribal leader and three of his sons in their beds on Wednesday, relatives said, in the latest attack to highlight Iraq's deep sectarian rifts ahead of a December poll.
A defence ministry official denied Iraqi troops carried out the pre-dawn slayings in the Hurriya district of Baghdad and said the killers instead must have been terrorists in disguise.
"Iraqi army uniforms litter the streets and any terrorist can kill and tarnish our image, killing two birds with one stone," the official said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news1.htm
US edges toward prospect of troop drawdown
By Peter Mackler
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON — Under growing pressure in Iraq and at home, the United States is edging steadily toward the prospect of a drawdown of US troops from the country while resisting a fixed timetable.
The administration of President George W. Bush is facing not only a growing chorus of politicians here clamouring for an exit strategy, but grumblings among its Iraqi allies as well.
So the timing may have been no accident when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went on CNN and Fox television Tuesday to venture that a reduction in force levels might be possible "fairly soon." She said that as Iraqi security forces were trained to face an insurgency raging 31 months after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the number of outside troops "is clearly going to come down."
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news2.htm
Errant hang glider prompts new Israeli-Hizbollah fighting
An Israeli soldier on Wednesday arrests a slightly injured schoolboy, who took part in a demonstration against the closure of a route to his school in the West Bank town of Hebron (AFP photo by Hazem Bader)
BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli hang glider inadvertantly floated into south Lebanon Wednesday, sparking renewed clashes between Hizbollah and Israeli troops as the fighters tried to grab him and the soldiers covered his dash back across the border.
The brief hostilities reflected the increased volatility in the area, two days after the worst crossborder clashes in years — violence that has been fuelled by tensions on another front: The disputes between Lebanon and Syria.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news3.htm
Warning on Jazeera bombing report
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has warned media organizations they are breaking the law if they publish details of a leaked document said to show U.S. President George W. Bush wanted to bomb Arabic television station Al Jazeera.
The government's top lawyer warned editors in a note after the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Tuesday that a secret British government memo said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of bombing the broadcaster in April last year.
Several British newspapers reported the attorney general's note on Wednesday and repeated the Mirror's allegations, which the White House said were "so outlandish" they did not merit a response. Blair's office declined to comment.
Al Jazeera, which has repeatedly denied U.S. accusations it sides with insurgents in Iraq, called on Britain and the United States to state quickly whether the report was accurate.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4991
Al Jazeera urges probe into Bush bomb plot report
British government threatens to prosecute newspapers if they reveal further details
DOHA (AFP) — The Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera urged the White House and Downing Street on Tuesday to challenge a British newspaper report that US President George W. Bush had planned to bomb the Qatar-based station.
“We sincerely urge both the White House and Downing Street to challenge the Daily Mirror report,” the Qatar-based network said in a statement.
The British tabloid, citing a Downing Street memo marked “Top Secret,” reported Tuesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station.
“Before making any conclusions, Al Jazeera needs to be absolutely sure regarding the authenticity of the memo and would hope for a confirmation from Downing Street as soon as possible,” it said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news5.htm
Iran referral to Security Council seen unlikely
VIENNA (AFP) — The UN nuclear watchdog is expected to hold off Thursday on hauling Iran before the UN Security Council as the United States and Europe want to give Russia time to get Tehran to agree to a compromise on its atomic programme.
Iran on Wednesday voiced optimism about Thursday's meeting in Vienna of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki vowed to continue standing up to pressure from the West to abandon sensitive nuclear technology and said he considered "the circumstances of the next IAEA meeting to be more constructive and positive than the previous one."
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news7.htm
UN report highlights upsurge in Darfur killings, rape
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — A monthly UN report on the situation in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region spotlighted an upsurge in killings of civilians, including children, and rape of women during the month of October.
The report by UN chief Kofi Annan, which was unveiled here this week, said that despite government pledges to launch joint military and police patrols on highways to improve security, "lawlessness and banditry have reached dangerous levels."
It said the upsurge in violence against civilians seriously affected children, with several killed or abducted in the region.
The violence also hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid and reduced initially improved prospects for the return of internally displaced people in some areas.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news8.htm
Getting out of Iraq
By Norman Solomon
This week began with the New York Times noting that “all of Washington is consumed with debate over the direction of the war in Iraq”. The debate — long overdue — is a serious blow to the war makers in Washington, but the US war effort will go on for years more unless the anti-war movement in the United States gains sufficient momentum to stop it.
A cliché goes that war is too important to be left to the generals. But a more relevant assessment is that peace is too vital to be left to pundits and members of Congress — people who have overwhelmingly dismissed the option of swiftly withdrawing US troops from Iraq.
On Nov. 17, a high-profile military booster in the US Congress suddenly shattered the conventional wisdom that immediate withdrawal is unthinkable. “The American public is way ahead of us,” Rep. John Murtha said in a statement concluding with capitalised words that shook the nation's capitalised political elites: “Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the US cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME.”
Murtha's statement has broken a spell. But the white magic of the US' militarism remains a massive obstacle to bringing home the US troops who should never have been sent to Iraq in the first place.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion3.htm
'Trapped in the dark with no exit sign'
Michael Jansen
George W. Bush is a lame duck with more than three years to serve in his second term. Although he adopted policies which have contributed to his destruction, this did not become apparent in the US itself until the disaster produced by his mishandling of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina at the end of August.
Hurricane Katrina exposed all the faults of the Bush administration: Bush's inability to empathise with folks in trouble, his constant repetition of empty phrases which resolve nothing, his appointment of cronies to jobs they cannot perform, and his dependence on favoured US firms which are not only corrupt but inefficient.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion2.htm
Stop coddling Belarus
By Aldis Kuskis
Lenin once said that capitalists were so cynical that they would sell the Soviets the rope with which they would hang them. Lenin and communism have passed away, but that cynical indifference to suffering when profits are involved remains.
Belarus provides a glaring example. The European Parliament has consistently denounced Belarus as Europe's last dictatorship, yet EU member governments continue business as usual with Aleksander Lukashenka, the country's wayward and near lunatic despot.
This is especially true when there is a chance to save or make money. For example, for more than a decade, Germany's police forces, customs service, and even the Bundeswehr have been ordering uniforms from a state-owned factory in the city of Dzherzinsky, named after the father of the Red Terror and founder of the Soviet KGB, Feliks Dzherzinsky. Similar examples of such indifferent cynicism abound.
This absurd situation must change. It is the duty of all members of EU national parliaments to reject this affront to their democratic dignity. Only democratic parliaments should sit as equals in Europe's democratic forums. The goal is not to ensure Europe's democratic purity, but to change the nature of Belarus' government. For that to happen, Europe's democratic voice must be heard within Belarus.
That won't be easy. Of the 1,500 different media outlets in Belarus today, only a dozen or so retain any form of independence. Even that small number is likely to diminish, as Lukashenka keeps up political, financial, and legal pressure on them. Indeed, Belarus' last independent daily newspaper recently went out of business.
The European Commission has allocated two million euros to establish an independent radio station for Belarus, which must operate outside of the country because of Lukashenka. Working with the Belarussian association of journalists, this independent media outlet will broadcast from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and perhaps Ukraine.
This meagre effort, however, is an insufficient response by Europe's democracies to the full panoply of Lukashenka's dictatorship: his docile courts, brutal jails, and corrupt police. Are a few hours of radio broadcasting really all Europe and the democratic West can muster? If so, Lukashenka must be laughing aloud.
Parliamentarians across Europe and the West must join their voice together in a well-defined, united and ringing declaration that forces Western leaders to apply real pressure to Europe's last dictator. Such pressure brought results a year ago, with the success of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Nothing less than a united position against the despot of Belarus is necessary if Lukashenka — and his Russian backers — are to be forced to change their ways.
The writer, a member of the European Parliament from Latvia, is vice-chairman of its Delegation for Relations with Belarus. ©Project Syndicate, 2005. www.project-syndicate.org
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion4.htm
Polish Dailies Black Out Front Pages Over Belarus
The Associated Press
Boris holding Gazeta Wyborcza.
WARSAW -- Poland's two leading newspapers blacked out large sections of their front pages Wednesday in an eye-catching protest against media repression in neighboring Belarus.
The main pages of Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita looked as if a censor had taken a black marker to them, with most text and photographs crossed out. The two papers were joining a protest led by Amnesty International.
At the bottom of both front pages, the human rights group wrote: "This is what freedom of speech looks like in Belarus." The papers then printed their front page in full on page three, and carried commentaries and reports of humans rights abuses in Belarus.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/24/015.html
World Bank advises Belarus to liberalise trade
11.23.2005, 08:10 AM
MINSK (AFX) - World Bank experts said the Belarus government should review its trade legislation, which it says is characterised by extensive non-tariff barriers, in order to liberalise trade, BelaPAN news wire reported.
In its new economic memorandum on Belarus, the World Bank said there are a large number of restrictions on trade in Belarus which are limiting the import of consumer goods.
The report also said that while Belarus has made considerable progress in its WTO membership bid, the country has not yet signed a single market access agreement.
The government should reduce its subsidisation of agriculture and industry, including exporters, the report said. 'In addition, much more progress is needed in liberalising and de-monopolising a number of sectors such as financial services and telecommunications', the World Bank said.
cz/cmr
http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/afx/2005/11/23/afx2351599.html
The Arizona Republic
So whose memory is the shortest?
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
I find the two back-to-back letters to the editor on Monday ("Iraq war a just effort," defending the president, and "Democrats have short memories," criticizing the Democrats about their reversal on their vote for war in Iraq) quite ironic and revealing.
In the first, the writer says President Bush "oversold WMDs and undersold the need for culture change." In my memory, those who start wars and invade countries for culture change have usually been labeled demagogues and imperialists, not admirable leaders.
In the second, I seem to remember that most Democrats voted to give the president the authority to use war in order to give him a serious threat to force Iraq's leader to comply with U.N. and U.S. demands to cooperate. However, rather than threaten, we immediately went to war.
Indeed, who has the short (and selective) memories? - Stephen Sapareto, Mesa
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets243.html
Government destroying rail service
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
I'm reading the Sunday Viewpoints section and lo and behold, I see a column by Jon Talton pertaining to Amtrak ("Running Amtrak off the track"). I could not believe my eyes. Amtrak? Why would a Phoenix paper write about Amtrak?
It is a crying shame what the powers of both political parties are doing. They wish to dismember our rail system.
There is no cheaper way of shipping than by rail, unless you use barges. All European countries depend on rail systems for goods and passenger service, too.
I remember when the cities were sold a bill to eliminate trolley lines and switch to buses. They are still kicking themselves for losing control of the right of way in many cities and towns.
Jon Talton's columns are always informative. He's far ahead of the present thinking. - Seymour Pollock, Surprise
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets245.html
18-year-old mayor is a source of inspiration
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
What an inspiration!
I was glad, impressed and inspired by the article, "Michigan 18-year-old elected town mayor" (Republic, Nov. 13).
It's hard to believe that an 18-year-old boy will become mayor of a town. I wish I had that confidence when I was 18 and in high school.
The only obstacles are the ones you allow to get in your way.
- Yara Lopez, Tucson
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets241.html
Mining-land change may alter West
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
In a late-night vote overshadowed by sexier sound bites about war and taxes, the U.S. House rewrote parts of a 133-year-old mining law, stoking a decades-old battle over who should control vast open spaces across the West.
The stakes are high: billions of dollars in mining revenues, $2.4 billion a year in Arizona alone, and millions of acres of public land spread out among forests and rangelands or nestled next to national parks and monuments.
The House measure would allow mining companies or other private interests to buy the land and develop it, even if there was nothing there to mine. It could open impoverished areas to economic investment but close scenic spots to recreational users and strip those spots of environmental protection.
Backers of the rewrite say it's an attempt to modernize outdated laws and protect the economic health of rural mining communities, which have suffered with the ebb and flow of ore prices. They insist the bill includes strong protection for sensitive lands and enough mining-related requirements to fend off speculators. It also creates a richer revenue source, they say, raising the purchase price of a mining claim from as little as $2.50 an acre to at least $1,000 an acre.
But even at that price, the result is a near-giveaway of public lands, opponents say, who paint a darker picture, one rife with abuse of already weak laws. They say the proposed changes are not so much about mining as about opening valuable land to developers, who would build ski resorts, housing developments and shopping centers on the back doorsteps of "special places" like the Grand Canyon.
One environmental group produced an illustration depicting a sprawling subdivision on the Canyon's North Rim, a community they named "Pombotown," after Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., the committee chairman who ushered the bill to the House floor last weekend.
The revisions were tacked on to a huge deficit-reduction package that survived by two votes, but the changes were not included in the Senate version. Both sides are girding for a final fight when negotiators try to reconcile differences after the Thanksgiving recess.
"People in Arizona should be very concerned about it," said Don Steuter, who watches mining issues for Arizona's Sierra Club chapter. "There has been so much abuse in the past with these laws. There's a long history of it, and they're pointing us even more in that direction. It could turn into a fire sale."
Industry still lucrative
The bill has put Arizona's conservationists at odds with one of the state's oldest industries, which is still among its most lucrative. Arizona regularly leads the nation in copper production and ranks among the top five states in silver, gemstones, sand and gravel, and other metals and minerals. In 2003, the state's mineral production topped $2.4 billion; the copper industry alone produced $2.7 billion in direct and indirect economic impacts.
The Environmental Working Group estimates that there are nearly 642,000 acres of existing mining claims on public lands in Arizona, with nearly a third of the land in Yavapai, Pinal and Mohave counties. Thousands of those claims are inside a national forest, park or wilderness area or within five miles of one.
What worries many conservationists is that, with the change, mining companies could not only buy the land but develop it without the public environmental impact studies required under existing laws. The changes could also derail land exchanges that returned some value to the public, Steuter said.
The bill's author, Rep. Jim Gibbons, said that's not his intent. Gibbons, R-Nev., said the measure was written to promote economic development in the rural West, largely by privatizing the land where mining claims are filed.
Under his proposal, a mining company could skip some of the costliest environmental studies required before digging into public lands. And once the ore was exhausted, they could leave behind for local communities the roads, power lines and other infrastructure they now must erase.
"Without this measure, the jobs and infrastructure of these communities can literally disappear when a mine closes," he said.
His bill lifts an 11-year moratorium on mining claim patents, the term for the purchase of land where ore is found, and gives companies more leeway in staking their claims, adding economic development as an allowed use. Companies would also face less-stringent standards on what constitutes a mining operation. Simple "mineral development work" would validate a claim under the Gibbons measure.
The National Mining Association and other lobbying groups endorsed the rewrite. Association President Kraig Naasz said the measure would "give mining communities greater opportunities for sustained economic growth and help attract investments." If the mining companies can't purchase the public land outright, "these critical assets must be removed."
Parks threatened?
Even some opponents concede the idea doesn't sound nefarious, but they say the consequences of the bill are buried in language that has confounded experts on both sides.
For example, in one section the measure specifically bars the sale of lands within national parks, wildlife refuges, national conservation areas or wilderness areas. In another section, that ban is apparently modified with the phrase "subject to valid existing rights."
Environmental groups say that would let a company dust off an old mining claim inside a park or a monument, buy the land and develop it, a charge Gibbons dismisses as a scare tactic.
Other proposals that look good on the surface are similarly flawed, foes say. The bill's supporters trumpet the increase in price to purchase a mining claim from as low as $2.50 an acre, a rate that survived from 1872, to $1,000 an acre or the appraised market value, whichever is higher.
The problem, according to several groups, is that appraisals on mining claims are usually low, sometimes as low as $100 to $200 an acre, in part because of the typically rugged location and in part because the value of any minerals is not included. As a result, a claim would rarely cost more than $1,000 an acre.
Open space at issue
Equally troubling to the conservation groups is the loss of open space. The law would let mining companies buy not only parcels with mining claims but land adjacent to such claims or operations. Backers say that provision would promote better management, but opponents say it unfairly locks up too much land.
"This is a loss for Arizonans," said Tucson resident Mary Kidwell, who has fought mining proposals in the Empire-Fagan Valley area southeast of Tucson. "We could soon find 'private property' signs blocking the trailhead of favorite hunting grounds or picnic spots."
Conservation groups say that at the very least, Gibbons and Pombo should have introduced the bill separately, instead of attaching it to such a wide-ranging and politically sensitive measure. Some groups suspect the mining rewrites fell victim to other deals and they fear it could survive talks with the Senate in the same way.
But Gibbons said he held several hearings on the proposal and has hidden nothing.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124landsale.html
Kolbe won't run in 2006
Billy House and Pat Flannery
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Rep. Jim Kolbe, dean of Arizona's eight U.S. House members, a leading centrist voice on issues such as Social Security reform and immigration and a strong backer of free trade, announced Wednesday that he will not run for re-election in 2006.
Kolbe said he is confident he could win a 12th two-year term in Congress but, "at some point, you have to say it's time to hang up the spurs."
"I'm 63, not getting any younger, and I always wanted to teach and do some other things," said Kolbe, who has not ruled out doing consulting work in Washington. "I'm very comfortable with this announcement."…
… Mood in Washington
Kolbe, who is the only openly homosexual House Republican, said he considered retiring two years ago but had been talked into finishing his current term as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, which ends at the close of next year. But the idea of losing the chairmanship of the panel that decides such things as the amount of foreign assistance to other nations was a key factor in his decision, he said.
He also said in a telephone conference call from Arizona with reporters that another factor was "the mood" in Washington now, a level of divisiveness that he described as not being seen "in a long time."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124kolbe-retire.html
Assaults on border agents double in '05
Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Assaults on U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors averaged about one a day in the past year, and the number of attacks there more than doubled compared with the previous year.
Nationwide, the number of assaults nearly doubled, with attacks on agents based in Arizona making up more than half the incidents.
From Oct. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, the Border Patrol registered 687 assaults on its agents, up from 349 during the same period along the Southwest and Canadian borders. All but one of the attacks occurred on the Southwest border, officials said. In Tucson and Yuma, there were 365 assaults during the past fiscal year, up from 179 the year before.
The increase reflects the growing influence of organized criminal syndicates in border trafficking, officials said, and the higher profits involved in smuggling migrants across the border for as much as $2,000 per trip.
"Smuggling organizations have now shifted resources to areas that are very rural and isolated, and with that the prices that the smugglers are charging the aliens now rivals drug smuggling," said Border Patrol spokesman Mario Villarreal, based in Washington. "It's a big business."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124assaults.html
Toyota to boost U.S. output by 100,000 to dethrone GM
Hans Greimel
Associated Press
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. is quickening its quest to unseat ailing General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker with reported plans to start manufacturing up to 100,000 Toyota vehicles at a Subaru factory in Indiana.
Word of Toyota's ramped-up production schedule comes just days after GM said it will close 12 plants and cut 30,000 jobs by 2008 in a move that will slash the number of vehicles it is able to build in North America by about 1 million a year.
The combined developments could help Toyota surpass GM in worldwide production.
Toyota expects to produce 8.1 million vehicles this year, while GM expects 9 million, according to Greg Gardner of Harbour Consulting, a manufacturing consulting firm.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1124toyota24.html
Rock Burglar on long hiatus
But residents urged to take care over holidays
Michael Ferraresi
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
NORTHEAST VALLEY - Twelve years and 337 burglaries later the most notorious thief in the Northeast Valley - the Rock Burglar - is still eluding police.
Despite the 12-year hunt, police are not sure how or when the Rock Burglar is casing luxury homes, or when the unidentified burglar or burglars will strike again.
The Rock Burglar's erratic patterns have long stumped investigators, who have tried to anticipate the window-smashing heists that have netted the culprit more than $10 million, mostly in stolen jewelry and cash.
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Scottsdale police Detective Sgt. Eric Rasmussen said the Rock Burglar is no more active during the holidays than any other time, though homeowners leaving town for Thanksgiving or Christmas are urged to take extra precautions to safeguard their properties.
The Rock Burglar primarily targets residents of affluent neighborhoods in Paradise Valley, Scottsdale and Carefree for expensive jewelry.
"If you meet those criteria, you should be a little more alert coming home at night," said Rasmussen, who oversees Scottsdale's burglary unit.
"If you hear glass break in your neighborhood you might think about calling police to take a look," he said.
Since January 2003, the Rock Burglar has hit 41 homes in Scottsdale, as many as 10 near Carefree, and two in Paradise Valley, police said.
The most recent incident in Scottsdale was March 12, on 124th Street south of Shea Boulevard.
Paradise Valley was hit the hardest by the Rock Burglar from 1993 to 2002, but investigators said the suspect's focus has seemingly shifted to Scottsdale.
The Rock Burglar has struck every month of the year, and does not seem to follow any specific patterns.
Investigators describe the suspect as organized, dedicated and meticulous about the robberies.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/1124sr-burglars24Z8.html
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