May 1, 2005. The Rivers Penosbcot and Piscatiquis were nearly even in water level.
Monday, May 02, 2005
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Rooster "Crowing"
"Okeydoke"
History
1808 Uprising against French occupation begins in Madrid
1865 President Johnson offers $100,000 reward for capture of Jefferson Davis
1903, Spock, Benjamin McLane (1903-1998), American pediatrician, author, and political activist. His best-selling book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), sharply redefined the course of child care during the baby boom after World War II. Author of "Sam I Am."
1932 Pulitzer prize awarded to Pearl S Buck (The Good Earth)
1933 In Germany, Adolf Hitler bans trade unions
1934 Nazi-Germany begins People's court
1941 Nazi occupied Netherlands layoff Jewish journalists
1941 Ted Williams lowest average (.308) in the year he hit over .400
1942 68th Kentucky Derby: Wayne D Wright aboard Shut Out wins in 2:04.4
1942 Japanese troops occupy Mandalay Burma 1943 German troops vacate Jefna Tunisia
1944 WABD (WNEW, now WNYW) TV channel 5 in New York NY (DUM/MET/FOX) 1st broadcast
1945 Allies occupy Wismar
1965 Early Bird satellite goes into commercial service
1965 Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Shreveport Kiwanis Golf Invitational
1965 Marilynn Smith wins LPGA Peach Blossom Golf Open
1972 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1974 Former Vice President Spiro Agnew is disbarred
1975 Apple records closes down
1976 Joanne Carner wins LPGA Lady Tara Golf Classic
1966 WOOD WALTER S. FORT BRAGG NC
1968 ENGLANDER LAWRENCE J. VAN NUYS CA
1969 MASCARI PHILLIP L. CALDWELL NJ
1970 CROWSON FREDERICK H. PENSACOLA FL 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG INJURED ALIVE IN 98
1970 GRIFFIN RODNEY L. CENTRALIA MO "HELO FOUND, NO TRACE OF SUBJ"
1970 MASLOWSKI DANIEL L. CHICAGO IL 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1970 PRICE BUNYAN D. JR. BELMONT NC "HELO FOUND, NO TRACE OF SUBJ"
1970 RICHARDSON DALE W. CASHTON WI "HELO FOUND, NO TRACE OF SUBJ"
1970 VARNADO MICHAEL B. FERRIDAY LA "09/70 DIED IN CAMBODIA, ON PRG LIST" REMAINS RETURNED 07/25/89
1970 YOUNG ROBERT M. NEW ALEXANDRIA PA 09/72 ON PRG DIC LIST (EGRESS MURDRD BY LACK OF RR 12/07/97 MED TREAT/COLD/CONVUL/DEATH/BURIED
1972 BERKSON JOSEPH MIKE CHICAGO IL 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 JESSE WILLIAM CLIFTON LAWTON OK 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 MORGAN CHARLES VERNON WARSAW KY 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 PETRILLA JOHN JOSEPH JR. PHILADELPHIA PA 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 PORTERFIELD DALE KYETTE LOS ANGELES CA 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
The DeLay Times
Desperate White House Wife, Episode 1: The Ranch Hand
ASHINGTON
When Laura Bush wisecracked at the White House Correspondents' Association's annual dinner on Saturday night that she was a "desperate housewife" married to a president who was always sound asleep by 9 p.m., the popular first lady accomplished two things. She brought down a very tough house, and she humanized her husband, whose sagging poll numbers are no match for her own.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/politics/02letter.html?hp
Golfing with Tom DeLay
Playing through campaign finance laws, corporations are buying time with the House leader by donating to his foundations for abused kids. Meanwhile, the charities are spending more on the golf fundraisers than on the children.
By Mark Benjamin
May 2, 2005 In the fundraising empire that has come to be known as "DeLay Inc.," few figures have been more central to filling the coffers than Warren RoBold. Last September, a Texas grand jury indicted RoBold and two other DeLay aides on charges of illegally raising political funds from corporations and funneling them through one of DeLay's political action committees.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/05/02/delay/index_np.html
Court date near for 3 DeLay associates
By Jay Root
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay can't go anywhere in Washington these days without a storm of ethics controversy hanging over him.
But next week in Austin, when a long-running criminal investigation of GOP fund-raising spills into state court for the most significant hearing to date, the Sugar Land Republican will be noticeably absent.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/11540093.htm
House ethics committee -- No delay
For political reasons or not, it's great to finally see some Congressional bipartisanship
A wave of cooperation over ethics issues appears to have swept over the nation's capital, and the country is better off for it.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, though, might get caught in the undertow.
There has been gridlock on the House Ethics Committee as Republicans have rallied around the embattled Texan to thwart Democrats' demands for an investigation into whether some of his overseas travel was financed by a lobbyist and his clients -- in violation of House rules. Also at issue are DeLay's fund-raising activities.
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/050205/opi_houseed.shtml
So DeLay set the standard for the Republicans to continue to abuse by permission of the majority leader who had payed off half the Ethics Committee.
State's politicos like to travel
And they like other people to pay for it
Saturday, April 30, 2005
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- Under normal circumstances, the 2003 trip that Rep. Jim McCrery's chief of staff took to Scotland wouldn't have garnered any more attention than the other 5,410 privately financed congressional junkets in the past five years.
What sets Bob Brooks' journey apart is that the itinerary for him, Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., and another House staffer, Mark Zachares, was almost identical to a trip taken three years earlier by Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Questions about who paid for the DeLay trip are a focal point of criticisms raised in the media and by Democrats against DeLay, now the House majority leader.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1114840838244340.xml
DeLay-linked lobbyist defends self publicly
2 interviews break months of silence
By David Finkel
The Washington Post
Published May 1, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist who is under federal investigation for his lobbying activities on behalf of Indian tribes and is a central figure in separate probes into alleged ethical improprieties by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), has begun publicly defending himself after months of silence.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0505010254may01,1,2642080.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
End Tom DeLay's power trip
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
(KRT) - The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, April 28:
X X X
The House Republican majority, which is full of honorable people, can do better than Tom DeLay.
A majority of Americans tell pollsters they've never heard of DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas. And he'd rather keep it that way. DeLay operates most effectively as a behind-the-scenes enforcer of party discipline, fund-raiser for GOP colleagues and engineer of the conservative agenda.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/11522199.htm
Do donations sway DeLay's GOP investigators?
REPUBLICANS ON PANEL SAY THEY CAN BE IMPARTIAL
By Carl Hulse
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., vigorously cultivates his low profile in the House, but as chairman of the Ethics Committee, he is about to become much more recognizable: The committee is about to embark on an investigation into the activities of Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, after the House on Wednesday overturned rules that had kept the panel in limbo.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/nation/11535609.htm
DeLay ally says fees for tribes were fair
10:57 PM CDT on Friday, April 29, 2005
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close associate of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, says his efforts on behalf of American Indian tribes were well worth the multimillion-dollar fees he charged.
Mr. Abramoff is under investigation for his work involving the tribes' casino interests.
In an interview with Time magazine, he also said he regretted the language he used to describe his Indian clients in e-mails, saying the words were "more common to a drill sergeant or a football coach."
In the messages, he referred to his Indian clients as monkeys, troglodytes, morons and the "stupidest idiots in the land."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/043005dnnatabramoff.5e17c8f9.html
The Korea Times
South Downplays N. Korean Missile Test
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South Korea on Monday played down the significance of Sunday’s missile test by North Korea, saying it was a common end-of-winter military drill, involving a short-range missile without nuclear capabilities.
The missile test is also unrelated to the dispute over the North’s nuclear ambition, a high-ranking government official said.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200505/kt2005050216223610220.htm
Opposition Sweeps By-Elections
Ruling Party Fails to Regain Majority
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
The main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) scored a resounding victory in Saturday's by-elections, sweeping five parliamentary seats out of the six up for grabs. The ruling Uri Party failed to win a single seat, yielding the remaining one to an independent.
While the ruling party retains control as the single largest force with 146 seats, the polls reshaped the general configuration of the 299-member National Assembly as the combined number of seats held by the opposition parties and independents exceeded the majority.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200505/kt2005050115062811950.htm
Visitors Asked Not to Damage Dokdo
By Kim Ki-tae
Staff Reporter
The head of the Cultural Heritage Administration on Monday called for visitors to the Dokdo islets to cooperate in preserving the environment of the nation’s easternmost outcropping.
``After making the Dokdo islets more accessible, some visitors have damaged the environment by violating a few rules. It is deplorable,’’ said Yoo Hong-joon, head of the administration, in a statement released to the media.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200505/kt2005050215481910230.htm
Bill to Punish Marital Rape to Be Submitted
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
Lawmakers of the ruling Uri Party plan to submit a revision bill on domestic violence to punish marital rape, party officials said Monday.
The bill will include sexual violence between husbands and wives under the definition of domestic violence, they said.
If the bill is passed, those who commit rape or indecent assault against their spouses could be subject to court punishment.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200505/kt2005050216020268040.htm>
Hasty Defense Reform
Long, Sufficient Debate Needed before Fixing Plan
Post-cold war global political changes and technological renovation have made military reforms major pending issues for most countries. The Roh Moo-hyun administration’s answer to this national task is the legislation of ``French-style’’ military reform by October. It is not certain whether the government would benchmark either the content or form _ or both _ of France’s model. In any case, however, the Defense Ministry’s plan unveiled last week seems to have persuasion in little more than the need for reform.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200505/kt2005050116070554050.htm
The Los Angeles Times
Bush 2.0
It seems like just yesterday that George W. Bush was bragging about all the political chips he'd accumulated on Nov. 2, and about how he was going to go about spending them. But in holding the first prime-time news conference of his second term on Thursday, just shy of its 100-day mark, the president was remarkably subdued. He came across as humble even, maybe on account of his plunging approval ratings. Or maybe it was because NBC made the president of the United States defer to "The Apprentice" and change the time of the conference.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-bush1may01,0,3453913.story
Peacekeeping's a Bargain
The U.N.'s peacekeeping operation has been dogged by scandals for years. Often, as in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica a decade ago, the scandal has been the timidity of the mission. More recently, in the inaptly named Democratic Republic of the Congo, the key distinction between the undisciplined blue helmets and the roving militias is that the peacekeepers pay young girls for sex with scraps of food, while the militias simply rape. In the early 1990s, the U.N.'s top official in Cambodia notoriously shrugged off allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers by saying, "Boys will be boys."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-peacekeep1may01,0,6772398.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials
Bomb Attacks Persist in Iraq
Six explosions shake the nation, including one at a funeral that kills at least 25. A video is released showing an Australian hostage.
By Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber on Sunday plowed his vehicle into a tent packed with mourners at a Kurdish funeral in the northern city of Tall Afar, killing at least 25 people and wounding 30 others as insurgents continued their campaign of violence.
The onslaught has included more than 20 car bombings since Thursday, when Iraqi lawmakers concluded months of tense negotiations by approving a Cabinet of three dozen ministers. It is the country's first elected government in decades. At least 100 Iraqis and 11 U.S. troops have been killed in the last four days.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-iraq2may02,0,4325651.story?coll=la-home-headlines
A Town's Hidden Threat
Asbestos, a mineral with lethal qualities found in veins throughout the Sierra foothills, may alter the future of an affluent community.
EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. — The boys of summer they were not. On a baseball diamond in this upscale suburb east of Sacramento, a federal team in blue and marshmallow-white moon suits gathered last October for a different sort of game.
Respirator masks jiggling, the oddball squad hit the diamond — batting, fielding, sliding into third. They also rode bikes and played hopscotch, kicked soccer balls and shot baskets. As dust rose, little air monitors quietly sampled what the earth dished up.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-asbestos2may02,0,6065015.story?coll=la-home-local
Haaretz
IDF soldier killed in gun battle near Tul Karm
By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press
An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed and another lightly wounded in a gun battle with wanted Palestinians near the West Bank city of Tul Karm before dawn Monday. An Islamic Jihad leader suspected of involvement in a February suicide bombing in Tel Aviv was also killed in the clashes.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571284.html
Minister Sharansky resigns in protest over disengagement plan
By Haaretz Service
Minister of Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky announced his resignation from the government Monday due in protest over the disengagement plan, Army Radio reported.
Sharansky submitted a letter of resignation with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday morning.
"We are standing before a terrible rift in the nation and to my regret I sense no effort by the government to prevent it," Sharansky wrote in his letter of resignation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571302.html
Cabinet may okay declaring West Bank college a university
By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
The cabinet Monday may approve conferring university status on Judea and Samaria College in Ariel, less than two weeks after a major British lecturers union sparked wide controversy by declaring a boycott against Bar-Ilan University for its links to the West Bank college.
The decision to act to upgrade the status of the Ariel college is twinned with a proposal to combine a number of northern colleges into a Galilee university.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571290.html
Government likely to drop Nitzanim relocation plan
By Yuval Yoaz and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents
A government forum is due to convene Monday evening for a "defining meeting" with settler representatives on the plan to relocate evacuees to the Nitzanim dunes near Ashdod and areas around Ashkelon.
It appears likely that the plan will be dropped, as the settlers and the panel, headed by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister's Office director general Ilan Cohen, have failed to reach an agreement. The government is opposed to establishing new towns on the Nitzanim dunes, which will then entail the establishment of a new regional council.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571010.html
COUNTDOWN / Grieving for Gaza
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
In Gush Katif, the death of a dream foretold
There is something charged and irrevocable in the air this month. A point of no return has been crossed without anyone moving an inch.
Nothing in Gush Katif has been touched, and yet nothing will ever be the same.
It is a sensation that Israelis know deep in their bones, a sixth sense of loss.
It is grief for the slow death of a dream.
Perhaps, as settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein has suggested, it is only fitting that the disengagement should be conducted close to Judaism's traditional three-week mourning period for national tragedies. The evacuations are seen as likely to begin on August 15, just after the solemn fast of Tisha B'Av.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=570260&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0
Putin: Abbas can't fight terror with slingshot and stones
By Aluf Benn and Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday promised to provide the Palestinian Authority with helicopters and other equipment and training to help maintain order after Israel's promised withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank this summer.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/570211.html
Barghouti: Israel's Gaza pullout is partial, won't bring peace
By The Associated Press
ROME - Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer won't be total and won't bring about peace and stability in the region, jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti told an Italian newspaper.
In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Barghouti, a leader of the Fatah movement, also said that militant groups did not get much in return for observing a truce with Israel that was declared in February.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/570550.html
Kofi Annan to meet with world Jewish leaders Monday
By Shlomo Shamir
NEW YORK - World Jewish leaders will meet for the first time Monday with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at his offices.
Some 40 leaders and Jewish activists from 24 countries are expected to meet with Annan at UN headquarters, as part of a joint project of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), and the UN Foundation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=570873
The New York Times
This is propagandizing PBS. If conservative cable stations flourish in bigotry and bias then liberal stations can exist as well. This is Bush's paranoid Nazism of the media. It further illustrates 'Journalism at Risk' and the sought after minds will ultimately be children. Where is Lion's Gate when you need them? I saw a commerical that was rather 'disturbed' to say the least during some 'cartoon' programming. It was a commerical for parents to be vigilant regarding the television their children watch with an undertone regarding drugs when all of a sudden at the end the 'punch' line is and this was about public schools, "Do you know the films they are showing in your child's Science Class?" That is a direct assault against Evolution. I don't regard American Television Media as reliable anymore. Much rather BBC.
Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases
WASHINGTON, May 1 - The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/arts/television/02public.html?hp&ex=1115092800&en=1085de148e09623c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bush's White Americana give permission for much.
The Sun Sentinel
Racist tabloid puts police on alert in West Palm
ADL seminar follows March incident
By Peter Franceschina
Staff Writer
Posted May 2 2005
West Palm Beach -- The tightly rolled cylinders of hate arrived one morning and residents in the north end of the city who found them on their driveways and lawns had never seen anything like it.
No doubt a number of the newspapers ended up in the trash without being read. Those who pulled off the blue rubber band and unwound the small tabloid in late March saw on the cover, "WAR, The Newspaper for Discriminating White People, Tolerance is Suicide!"
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pracist02may02,0,4850037.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
The Washington Times
Iran Plans Defense of Nuclear Program
U.S. Is Set to Deliver Ultimatum at Meeting
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 2, 2005; Page A01
Iran is planning to mount a staunch defense of its nuclear energy program at an international conference beginning today and will insist on rights to the same technology afforded to all members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a senior Iranian official said in an interview yesterday.
Pasted from <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100867.html>
Doubts About Mandate for Bush, GOP
By John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 2, 2005; Page A01
The day after he won a second term in November, President Bush offered his view of the new political landscape.
"When you win there is a feeling that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view," he said, "and that's what I intend to tell the Congress, that I made it clear what I intend to do as president . . . and the people made it clear what they wanted, now let's work together."
Pasted from <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100948.html>
Toward a Nuclear Strategy
By John J. Hamre
Monday, May 2, 2005; Page A17
America is sleepwalking through history, armed with nuclear weapons. The Cold War left us with a massive inventory of weapons we no longer need, an infrastructure we can no longer use or maintain, and no thought of where our future lies. A shrinking community of nuclear experts holds on to a massive and aging inventory as a security blanket for a future they cannot define. That same community now advocates the development of a weapon (the so-called Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, or RNEP) that commands no conviction from either the military or the broad policy community. In short, we are nowhere.
Last year Congress, led by Rep. Dave Hobson (R-Ohio), chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee, rejected the administration's plan for RNEP. Hobson rightly asked, "What is the administration's overall plan?" and he has yet to get an answer that makes any sense. The plan he seeks is not some micro-agenda for testing components of a new design but rather a comprehensive plan for keeping America a credible nuclear power in the future. We have now gone a decade without one.
Before we decide what new things to buy, the country needs a national debate about the role of nuclear weapons and their contribution to our security. The global security environment has changed dramatically, and we need new thinking, thinking that is not mired in the battles over nuclear forces that date from the 1980s and 1990s. To stimulate that national debate, I offer these points.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100833.html
Society's Toxins, Caught on Tape
By William Raspberry
Monday, May 2, 2005; Page A17
It's funny how the videotapes have divided us. Some of us saw the footage of the 5-year-old girl gone berserk in her St. Petersburg, Fla., classroom and decided we'd been too harsh in our judgment of the school officials for calling the police. Others saw the cops handcuffing the tiny child and decided it was the grown-ups who had gone nuts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100830.html
The Sierra Club
Save the Arctic Wildlife Refuge Now!
By narrow margins and in spite of strong bipartisan opposition, both the House and Senate last night passed a budget outline that opens the door for drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We have a moral responsibility to save wild places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations. There might still be a chance to keep the Refuge out of this budget. Now is the time to make your voice heard. Sign the Sierra Club's petition to protect our nation's largest intact wilderness.
http://www.sierraclub.com/
Climate Change
India, China discuss climate change related issues
May 1, 2005 01:33:00 PM
.BEIJING FGN8
Anil K Joseph
Beijing, May 1 (PTI) India and China, the fastest developing nations with spiralling energy needs, have recognised the importance of sustainable development and innovative technologies in addressing the issue of climate change, a key topic for discussion at the upcoming G-8 plus Five Summit in UK.
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, S K Joshi, and Deputy Director General, Department of Treaty and Law under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Gao Feng, held in-depth consultations on climate change here on Friday, official sources said here today.
The aim of the bilateral consultations was to discuss ways in which India and China could coordinate their stands at the G-8 Summit in Gleneagles, UK, in July where climate change has been identified as a major topic for discussion, the sources said.
The two sides also exchanged views on their respective activities relating to climate change since the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP10 to UNFCCC) held in Argentina.
They recognised the importance of sustainable development and innovative technologies in addressing the issue of climate change and discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in areas related to climate change, the sources said. PTI
Climate change poses threat to food supply, scientists say
Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:54:49 -0500
Summary:
Global warming, still not accepted as reality by the U.S. government, seems to affect crops moreso than previously believed. In light of Monsanto’s genetically modified crops, which work to eliminate diversity and are effectively changing the agricultural landscape, the results of global warming on our own food supplies could be catastrophic.
[Posted By alpinestar]
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Republished from The Independent
Grim news regarding food supplies as the earth heats up and it becomes a contest of Man vs. Mother Nature.
Worldwide production of essential crops such as wheat, rice, maize and soya beans is likely to be hit much harder by global warming than previously predicted, an international conference in London has heard.
The benefits of higher levels of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, will in fact be outweighed by the downsides of climate change, a Royal Society discussion meeting was told yesterday. It had been thought that the gas might act as a fertiliser to increase plant growth. Rising atmospheric temperatures, longer droughts and side-effects of both, such as higher levels of ground-level ozone gas, are likely to bring about a substantial reduction in crop yields in the coming decades, large-scale experiments have shown.
http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/2594/Climate_change_poses_threat_to_food_supply_scientists_say
Ben & Jerry's Launch Campaign to Tackle Climate Change
By John von Radowitz, PA Science Correspondent
Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s are hoping to lick global warming by launching the world’s first Climate Change College, it was disclosed today.
Over the next three years, 18 young people aged 18 to 25 from Britain and the Netherlands will graduate from the College to promote the cause of tackling greenhouse gas emissions.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4474792
continued...
"Okeydoke"
History
1808 Uprising against French occupation begins in Madrid
1865 President Johnson offers $100,000 reward for capture of Jefferson Davis
1903, Spock, Benjamin McLane (1903-1998), American pediatrician, author, and political activist. His best-selling book, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care (1946), sharply redefined the course of child care during the baby boom after World War II. Author of "Sam I Am."
1932 Pulitzer prize awarded to Pearl S Buck (The Good Earth)
1933 In Germany, Adolf Hitler bans trade unions
1934 Nazi-Germany begins People's court
1941 Nazi occupied Netherlands layoff Jewish journalists
1941 Ted Williams lowest average (.308) in the year he hit over .400
1942 68th Kentucky Derby: Wayne D Wright aboard Shut Out wins in 2:04.4
1942 Japanese troops occupy Mandalay Burma 1943 German troops vacate Jefna Tunisia
1944 WABD (WNEW, now WNYW) TV channel 5 in New York NY (DUM/MET/FOX) 1st broadcast
1945 Allies occupy Wismar
1965 Early Bird satellite goes into commercial service
1965 Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Shreveport Kiwanis Golf Invitational
1965 Marilynn Smith wins LPGA Peach Blossom Golf Open
1972 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1974 Former Vice President Spiro Agnew is disbarred
1975 Apple records closes down
1976 Joanne Carner wins LPGA Lady Tara Golf Classic
1994, South African President F. W. de Klerk concedes defeat and Nelson Mandela claims victory in the country's first multi-racial presidential election.
1997 Donald Trump & Marla Maples announce they are separating
1997 Mercury Mail announces its 1 millionth internet subscriber
1997 Police arrest transsexual hooker Atisone Seiuli with Eddie Murphy
1997 Republic of Texas security chief Robert Scheidt surrenders
Missing in Action1966 WOOD WALTER S. FORT BRAGG NC
1968 ENGLANDER LAWRENCE J. VAN NUYS CA
1969 MASCARI PHILLIP L. CALDWELL NJ
1970 CROWSON FREDERICK H. PENSACOLA FL 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG INJURED ALIVE IN 98
1970 GRIFFIN RODNEY L. CENTRALIA MO "HELO FOUND, NO TRACE OF SUBJ"
1970 MASLOWSKI DANIEL L. CHICAGO IL 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1970 PRICE BUNYAN D. JR. BELMONT NC "HELO FOUND, NO TRACE OF SUBJ"
1970 RICHARDSON DALE W. CASHTON WI "HELO FOUND, NO TRACE OF SUBJ"
1970 VARNADO MICHAEL B. FERRIDAY LA "09/70 DIED IN CAMBODIA, ON PRG LIST" REMAINS RETURNED 07/25/89
1970 YOUNG ROBERT M. NEW ALEXANDRIA PA 09/72 ON PRG DIC LIST (EGRESS MURDRD BY LACK OF RR 12/07/97 MED TREAT/COLD/CONVUL/DEATH/BURIED
1972 BERKSON JOSEPH MIKE CHICAGO IL 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 JESSE WILLIAM CLIFTON LAWTON OK 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 MORGAN CHARLES VERNON WARSAW KY 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 PETRILLA JOHN JOSEPH JR. PHILADELPHIA PA 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
1972 PORTERFIELD DALE KYETTE LOS ANGELES CA 07/72 REMAINS RECOVERED
The DeLay Times
Desperate White House Wife, Episode 1: The Ranch Hand
ASHINGTON
When Laura Bush wisecracked at the White House Correspondents' Association's annual dinner on Saturday night that she was a "desperate housewife" married to a president who was always sound asleep by 9 p.m., the popular first lady accomplished two things. She brought down a very tough house, and she humanized her husband, whose sagging poll numbers are no match for her own.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/politics/02letter.html?hp
Golfing with Tom DeLay
Playing through campaign finance laws, corporations are buying time with the House leader by donating to his foundations for abused kids. Meanwhile, the charities are spending more on the golf fundraisers than on the children.
By Mark Benjamin
May 2, 2005 In the fundraising empire that has come to be known as "DeLay Inc.," few figures have been more central to filling the coffers than Warren RoBold. Last September, a Texas grand jury indicted RoBold and two other DeLay aides on charges of illegally raising political funds from corporations and funneling them through one of DeLay's political action committees.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/05/02/delay/index_np.html
Court date near for 3 DeLay associates
By Jay Root
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau
AUSTIN -- U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay can't go anywhere in Washington these days without a storm of ethics controversy hanging over him.
But next week in Austin, when a long-running criminal investigation of GOP fund-raising spills into state court for the most significant hearing to date, the Sugar Land Republican will be noticeably absent.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/11540093.htm
House ethics committee -- No delay
For political reasons or not, it's great to finally see some Congressional bipartisanship
A wave of cooperation over ethics issues appears to have swept over the nation's capital, and the country is better off for it.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, though, might get caught in the undertow.
There has been gridlock on the House Ethics Committee as Republicans have rallied around the embattled Texan to thwart Democrats' demands for an investigation into whether some of his overseas travel was financed by a lobbyist and his clients -- in violation of House rules. Also at issue are DeLay's fund-raising activities.
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/050205/opi_houseed.shtml
So DeLay set the standard for the Republicans to continue to abuse by permission of the majority leader who had payed off half the Ethics Committee.
State's politicos like to travel
And they like other people to pay for it
Saturday, April 30, 2005
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- Under normal circumstances, the 2003 trip that Rep. Jim McCrery's chief of staff took to Scotland wouldn't have garnered any more attention than the other 5,410 privately financed congressional junkets in the past five years.
What sets Bob Brooks' journey apart is that the itinerary for him, Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., and another House staffer, Mark Zachares, was almost identical to a trip taken three years earlier by Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Questions about who paid for the DeLay trip are a focal point of criticisms raised in the media and by Democrats against DeLay, now the House majority leader.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1114840838244340.xml
DeLay-linked lobbyist defends self publicly
2 interviews break months of silence
By David Finkel
The Washington Post
Published May 1, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Jack Abramoff, the Washington lobbyist who is under federal investigation for his lobbying activities on behalf of Indian tribes and is a central figure in separate probes into alleged ethical improprieties by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), has begun publicly defending himself after months of silence.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0505010254may01,1,2642080.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
End Tom DeLay's power trip
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
(KRT) - The following editorial appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, April 28:
X X X
The House Republican majority, which is full of honorable people, can do better than Tom DeLay.
A majority of Americans tell pollsters they've never heard of DeLay, the House majority leader from Texas. And he'd rather keep it that way. DeLay operates most effectively as a behind-the-scenes enforcer of party discipline, fund-raiser for GOP colleagues and engineer of the conservative agenda.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/editorial/11522199.htm
Do donations sway DeLay's GOP investigators?
REPUBLICANS ON PANEL SAY THEY CAN BE IMPARTIAL
By Carl Hulse
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., vigorously cultivates his low profile in the House, but as chairman of the Ethics Committee, he is about to become much more recognizable: The committee is about to embark on an investigation into the activities of Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, after the House on Wednesday overturned rules that had kept the panel in limbo.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/nation/11535609.htm
DeLay ally says fees for tribes were fair
10:57 PM CDT on Friday, April 29, 2005
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close associate of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, says his efforts on behalf of American Indian tribes were well worth the multimillion-dollar fees he charged.
Mr. Abramoff is under investigation for his work involving the tribes' casino interests.
In an interview with Time magazine, he also said he regretted the language he used to describe his Indian clients in e-mails, saying the words were "more common to a drill sergeant or a football coach."
In the messages, he referred to his Indian clients as monkeys, troglodytes, morons and the "stupidest idiots in the land."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/043005dnnatabramoff.5e17c8f9.html
The Korea Times
South Downplays N. Korean Missile Test
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South Korea on Monday played down the significance of Sunday’s missile test by North Korea, saying it was a common end-of-winter military drill, involving a short-range missile without nuclear capabilities.
The missile test is also unrelated to the dispute over the North’s nuclear ambition, a high-ranking government official said.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200505/kt2005050216223610220.htm
Opposition Sweeps By-Elections
Ruling Party Fails to Regain Majority
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
The main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) scored a resounding victory in Saturday's by-elections, sweeping five parliamentary seats out of the six up for grabs. The ruling Uri Party failed to win a single seat, yielding the remaining one to an independent.
While the ruling party retains control as the single largest force with 146 seats, the polls reshaped the general configuration of the 299-member National Assembly as the combined number of seats held by the opposition parties and independents exceeded the majority.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200505/kt2005050115062811950.htm
Visitors Asked Not to Damage Dokdo
By Kim Ki-tae
Staff Reporter
The head of the Cultural Heritage Administration on Monday called for visitors to the Dokdo islets to cooperate in preserving the environment of the nation’s easternmost outcropping.
``After making the Dokdo islets more accessible, some visitors have damaged the environment by violating a few rules. It is deplorable,’’ said Yoo Hong-joon, head of the administration, in a statement released to the media.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200505/kt2005050215481910230.htm
Bill to Punish Marital Rape to Be Submitted
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
Lawmakers of the ruling Uri Party plan to submit a revision bill on domestic violence to punish marital rape, party officials said Monday.
The bill will include sexual violence between husbands and wives under the definition of domestic violence, they said.
If the bill is passed, those who commit rape or indecent assault against their spouses could be subject to court punishment.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200505/kt2005050216020268040.htm>
Hasty Defense Reform
Long, Sufficient Debate Needed before Fixing Plan
Post-cold war global political changes and technological renovation have made military reforms major pending issues for most countries. The Roh Moo-hyun administration’s answer to this national task is the legislation of ``French-style’’ military reform by October. It is not certain whether the government would benchmark either the content or form _ or both _ of France’s model. In any case, however, the Defense Ministry’s plan unveiled last week seems to have persuasion in little more than the need for reform.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200505/kt2005050116070554050.htm
The Los Angeles Times
Bush 2.0
It seems like just yesterday that George W. Bush was bragging about all the political chips he'd accumulated on Nov. 2, and about how he was going to go about spending them. But in holding the first prime-time news conference of his second term on Thursday, just shy of its 100-day mark, the president was remarkably subdued. He came across as humble even, maybe on account of his plunging approval ratings. Or maybe it was because NBC made the president of the United States defer to "The Apprentice" and change the time of the conference.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-bush1may01,0,3453913.story
Peacekeeping's a Bargain
The U.N.'s peacekeeping operation has been dogged by scandals for years. Often, as in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica a decade ago, the scandal has been the timidity of the mission. More recently, in the inaptly named Democratic Republic of the Congo, the key distinction between the undisciplined blue helmets and the roving militias is that the peacekeepers pay young girls for sex with scraps of food, while the militias simply rape. In the early 1990s, the U.N.'s top official in Cambodia notoriously shrugged off allegations of sexual abuse by peacekeepers by saying, "Boys will be boys."
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-peacekeep1may01,0,6772398.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials
Bomb Attacks Persist in Iraq
Six explosions shake the nation, including one at a funeral that kills at least 25. A video is released showing an Australian hostage.
By Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber on Sunday plowed his vehicle into a tent packed with mourners at a Kurdish funeral in the northern city of Tall Afar, killing at least 25 people and wounding 30 others as insurgents continued their campaign of violence.
The onslaught has included more than 20 car bombings since Thursday, when Iraqi lawmakers concluded months of tense negotiations by approving a Cabinet of three dozen ministers. It is the country's first elected government in decades. At least 100 Iraqis and 11 U.S. troops have been killed in the last four days.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-iraq2may02,0,4325651.story?coll=la-home-headlines
A Town's Hidden Threat
Asbestos, a mineral with lethal qualities found in veins throughout the Sierra foothills, may alter the future of an affluent community.
EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. — The boys of summer they were not. On a baseball diamond in this upscale suburb east of Sacramento, a federal team in blue and marshmallow-white moon suits gathered last October for a different sort of game.
Respirator masks jiggling, the oddball squad hit the diamond — batting, fielding, sliding into third. They also rode bikes and played hopscotch, kicked soccer balls and shot baskets. As dust rose, little air monitors quietly sampled what the earth dished up.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-asbestos2may02,0,6065015.story?coll=la-home-local
Haaretz
IDF soldier killed in gun battle near Tul Karm
By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press
An Israel Defense Forces soldier was killed and another lightly wounded in a gun battle with wanted Palestinians near the West Bank city of Tul Karm before dawn Monday. An Islamic Jihad leader suspected of involvement in a February suicide bombing in Tel Aviv was also killed in the clashes.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571284.html
Minister Sharansky resigns in protest over disengagement plan
By Haaretz Service
Minister of Diaspora Affairs Natan Sharansky announced his resignation from the government Monday due in protest over the disengagement plan, Army Radio reported.
Sharansky submitted a letter of resignation with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday morning.
"We are standing before a terrible rift in the nation and to my regret I sense no effort by the government to prevent it," Sharansky wrote in his letter of resignation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571302.html
Cabinet may okay declaring West Bank college a university
By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
The cabinet Monday may approve conferring university status on Judea and Samaria College in Ariel, less than two weeks after a major British lecturers union sparked wide controversy by declaring a boycott against Bar-Ilan University for its links to the West Bank college.
The decision to act to upgrade the status of the Ariel college is twinned with a proposal to combine a number of northern colleges into a Galilee university.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571290.html
Government likely to drop Nitzanim relocation plan
By Yuval Yoaz and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondents
A government forum is due to convene Monday evening for a "defining meeting" with settler representatives on the plan to relocate evacuees to the Nitzanim dunes near Ashdod and areas around Ashkelon.
It appears likely that the plan will be dropped, as the settlers and the panel, headed by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister's Office director general Ilan Cohen, have failed to reach an agreement. The government is opposed to establishing new towns on the Nitzanim dunes, which will then entail the establishment of a new regional council.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/571010.html
COUNTDOWN / Grieving for Gaza
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz Correspondent
In Gush Katif, the death of a dream foretold
There is something charged and irrevocable in the air this month. A point of no return has been crossed without anyone moving an inch.
Nothing in Gush Katif has been touched, and yet nothing will ever be the same.
It is a sensation that Israelis know deep in their bones, a sixth sense of loss.
It is grief for the slow death of a dream.
Perhaps, as settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein has suggested, it is only fitting that the disengagement should be conducted close to Judaism's traditional three-week mourning period for national tragedies. The evacuations are seen as likely to begin on August 15, just after the solemn fast of Tisha B'Av.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=570260&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0
Putin: Abbas can't fight terror with slingshot and stones
By Aluf Benn and Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday promised to provide the Palestinian Authority with helicopters and other equipment and training to help maintain order after Israel's promised withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank this summer.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/570211.html
Barghouti: Israel's Gaza pullout is partial, won't bring peace
By The Associated Press
ROME - Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer won't be total and won't bring about peace and stability in the region, jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti told an Italian newspaper.
In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Barghouti, a leader of the Fatah movement, also said that militant groups did not get much in return for observing a truce with Israel that was declared in February.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/570550.html
Kofi Annan to meet with world Jewish leaders Monday
By Shlomo Shamir
NEW YORK - World Jewish leaders will meet for the first time Monday with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at his offices.
Some 40 leaders and Jewish activists from 24 countries are expected to meet with Annan at UN headquarters, as part of a joint project of the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), and the UN Foundation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=570873
The New York Times
This is propagandizing PBS. If conservative cable stations flourish in bigotry and bias then liberal stations can exist as well. This is Bush's paranoid Nazism of the media. It further illustrates 'Journalism at Risk' and the sought after minds will ultimately be children. Where is Lion's Gate when you need them? I saw a commerical that was rather 'disturbed' to say the least during some 'cartoon' programming. It was a commerical for parents to be vigilant regarding the television their children watch with an undertone regarding drugs when all of a sudden at the end the 'punch' line is and this was about public schools, "Do you know the films they are showing in your child's Science Class?" That is a direct assault against Evolution. I don't regard American Television Media as reliable anymore. Much rather BBC.
Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases
WASHINGTON, May 1 - The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/arts/television/02public.html?hp&ex=1115092800&amp;en=1085de148e09623c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bush's White Americana give permission for much.
The Sun Sentinel
Racist tabloid puts police on alert in West Palm
ADL seminar follows March incident
By Peter Franceschina
Staff Writer
Posted May 2 2005
West Palm Beach -- The tightly rolled cylinders of hate arrived one morning and residents in the north end of the city who found them on their driveways and lawns had never seen anything like it.
No doubt a number of the newspapers ended up in the trash without being read. Those who pulled off the blue rubber band and unwound the small tabloid in late March saw on the cover, "WAR, The Newspaper for Discriminating White People, Tolerance is Suicide!"
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-pracist02may02,0,4850037.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
The Washington Times
Iran Plans Defense of Nuclear Program
U.S. Is Set to Deliver Ultimatum at Meeting
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 2, 2005; Page A01
Iran is planning to mount a staunch defense of its nuclear energy program at an international conference beginning today and will insist on rights to the same technology afforded to all members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a senior Iranian official said in an interview yesterday.
Pasted from <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100867.html>
Doubts About Mandate for Bush, GOP
By John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 2, 2005; Page A01
The day after he won a second term in November, President Bush offered his view of the new political landscape.
"When you win there is a feeling that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view," he said, "and that's what I intend to tell the Congress, that I made it clear what I intend to do as president . . . and the people made it clear what they wanted, now let's work together."
Pasted from <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100948.html>
Toward a Nuclear Strategy
By John J. Hamre
Monday, May 2, 2005; Page A17
America is sleepwalking through history, armed with nuclear weapons. The Cold War left us with a massive inventory of weapons we no longer need, an infrastructure we can no longer use or maintain, and no thought of where our future lies. A shrinking community of nuclear experts holds on to a massive and aging inventory as a security blanket for a future they cannot define. That same community now advocates the development of a weapon (the so-called Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, or RNEP) that commands no conviction from either the military or the broad policy community. In short, we are nowhere.
Last year Congress, led by Rep. Dave Hobson (R-Ohio), chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee, rejected the administration's plan for RNEP. Hobson rightly asked, "What is the administration's overall plan?" and he has yet to get an answer that makes any sense. The plan he seeks is not some micro-agenda for testing components of a new design but rather a comprehensive plan for keeping America a credible nuclear power in the future. We have now gone a decade without one.
Before we decide what new things to buy, the country needs a national debate about the role of nuclear weapons and their contribution to our security. The global security environment has changed dramatically, and we need new thinking, thinking that is not mired in the battles over nuclear forces that date from the 1980s and 1990s. To stimulate that national debate, I offer these points.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100833.html
Society's Toxins, Caught on Tape
By William Raspberry
Monday, May 2, 2005; Page A17
It's funny how the videotapes have divided us. Some of us saw the footage of the 5-year-old girl gone berserk in her St. Petersburg, Fla., classroom and decided we'd been too harsh in our judgment of the school officials for calling the police. Others saw the cops handcuffing the tiny child and decided it was the grown-ups who had gone nuts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/01/AR2005050100830.html
The Sierra Club
Save the Arctic Wildlife Refuge Now!
By narrow margins and in spite of strong bipartisan opposition, both the House and Senate last night passed a budget outline that opens the door for drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We have a moral responsibility to save wild places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for future generations. There might still be a chance to keep the Refuge out of this budget. Now is the time to make your voice heard. Sign the Sierra Club's petition to protect our nation's largest intact wilderness.
http://www.sierraclub.com/
Climate Change
India, China discuss climate change related issues
May 1, 2005 01:33:00 PM
.BEIJING FGN8
Anil K Joseph
Beijing, May 1 (PTI) India and China, the fastest developing nations with spiralling energy needs, have recognised the importance of sustainable development and innovative technologies in addressing the issue of climate change, a key topic for discussion at the upcoming G-8 plus Five Summit in UK.
Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests, S K Joshi, and Deputy Director General, Department of Treaty and Law under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Gao Feng, held in-depth consultations on climate change here on Friday, official sources said here today.
The aim of the bilateral consultations was to discuss ways in which India and China could coordinate their stands at the G-8 Summit in Gleneagles, UK, in July where climate change has been identified as a major topic for discussion, the sources said.
The two sides also exchanged views on their respective activities relating to climate change since the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP10 to UNFCCC) held in Argentina.
They recognised the importance of sustainable development and innovative technologies in addressing the issue of climate change and discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation in areas related to climate change, the sources said. PTI
Climate change poses threat to food supply, scientists say
Fri, 29 Apr 2005 13:54:49 -0500
Summary:
Global warming, still not accepted as reality by the U.S. government, seems to affect crops moreso than previously believed. In light of Monsanto’s genetically modified crops, which work to eliminate diversity and are effectively changing the agricultural landscape, the results of global warming on our own food supplies could be catastrophic.
[Posted By alpinestar]
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Republished from The Independent
Grim news regarding food supplies as the earth heats up and it becomes a contest of Man vs. Mother Nature.
Worldwide production of essential crops such as wheat, rice, maize and soya beans is likely to be hit much harder by global warming than previously predicted, an international conference in London has heard.
The benefits of higher levels of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, will in fact be outweighed by the downsides of climate change, a Royal Society discussion meeting was told yesterday. It had been thought that the gas might act as a fertiliser to increase plant growth. Rising atmospheric temperatures, longer droughts and side-effects of both, such as higher levels of ground-level ozone gas, are likely to bring about a substantial reduction in crop yields in the coming decades, large-scale experiments have shown.
http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/2594/Climate_change_poses_threat_to_food_supply_scientists_say
Ben & Jerry's Launch Campaign to Tackle Climate Change
By John von Radowitz, PA Science Correspondent
Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s are hoping to lick global warming by launching the world’s first Climate Change College, it was disclosed today.
Over the next three years, 18 young people aged 18 to 25 from Britain and the Netherlands will graduate from the College to promote the cause of tackling greenhouse gas emissions.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4474792
continued...
Morning Papers - continued
The People's Daily
Lien Chan: Taiwan, mainland can enjoy prosperity
Visiting Kuomintang (KMT) Party of China Chairman Lien Chan said in Shanghai Sunday that Taiwan and the mainland can jointly create peace, promote development and enjoy prosperity.
In a meeting with Chen Liangyu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Shanghai municipal committee, Lien said, "The past cannot be changed. What can be changed is the future. To face up to the current days and jointly create the future is the most worthwhile direction that we strive for," he said.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/02/eng20050502_183489.html
Hu-Lien meeting evokes worldwide applause
The international community has made warm responses since General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hu Jintao and visiting Chairman Lien Chan of the Kuomintang (KMT) party of China held their historic meeting in Beijing Friday.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "We believe cross-Straits dialogue is important to promoting peace and stability in the region" and the United States will "continue working with the parties in the region and continue to encourage them to engage in dialogue to promote peace and stability in the region."
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/01/eng20050501_183419.html
KMT Chairman pays nostalgic visit to birthplace
Visiting Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party Chairman Lien Chan made a nostalgic visit Saturday to Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, as well as the city where Lien was born and spent his childhood.
Flocks of local people, waving flags and banners, lined the streets to welcome the KMT leader.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/01/eng20050501_183420.html
3,000 model workers honored
The Chinese government commended a total of 2,969 national labor heroes and advanced workers, including basketball player Yao Ming and track and field athlete Liu Xiang, at a grand rally held here Saturday on the eve of May 1,the International Labor Day.
President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other Chinese leaders attended the rally in Beijing and awarded the winners.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183400.html
China not planning to revalue yuan
China does not plan to revalue its currency, the yuan, during next week's Labor Day holiday, a central bank spokesman said Friday, quashing rumors that such a change was imminent.
"As far as we know, there's no adjustment expected in the yuan exchange rate," Bai Li, spokesman for the People's Bank of China, told Dow Jones Newswires.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183349.html
UN peacekeepers start deployment in Sudan: spokeswoman
The United Nations announced in Khartoum Sunday it has started deploying the first group of its peacekeeping force in Sudan, Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported.
Radia Achouri, spokeswoman for the UN mission in Sudan, was quoted as saying that the first group of the UN force was 30-strong Nepalese out of total of 225, who arrived in Kassala town in eastern Sudan earlier in the day.
Achouri said that El-Obeid town in Kordofan region will be the center of deployment for the 10,000-strong UN forces.
Pasted from <http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/02/eng20050502_183505.html>
May Day rallies held across Europe, as protests mar celebrations
People cross Europe rallied on Sunday to mark May Day or Labor Day, as clashes among political rivals in a number of countries marred the celebrations.
In Sweden, Denmark and Norway, left-wing parties and labor unions held rallies and street parties to mark the traditional Labor holiday and government leaders delivered speeches vowing to improve employment and social welfare.
Meanwhile, street demonstrations across the continent largely marred the May Day celebrations.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/02/eng20050502_183522.html
Sandstorms, downpours for holiday
Northern China is likely to encounter more sandstorms during the forthcoming May Day holiday, forecasters in Beijing warned on Friday.
"Bad weather is forecast for parts of North, Northwest and Northeast China including Beijing around May 3 to 4," Xiao Ziniu, director of China central observatory, said at a press conference.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183330.html
China to experience rain, wind in coming ten days
Most parts of China will experience rain and wind in the coming ten days, according to Friday's forecast from Chinese Central Meteorological Station.
Due to active warm and cold currents, north China, northeast China, southwest China and south China will receive several bouts of rain in the coming ten days. The rain will linger especially longer in south China, according to the forecast.
Gales will hit northwest China, north China and northeast China next Tuesday and Wednesday.
A cold current is expected to hit north China from Friday to Sunday and will cause more rain in south China, according to the forecast.
Source: Xinhua
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183309.html
Russia confers medals to Chinese veteran sold
A total of 27 Chinese veteran soldiers were conferred National Medals by Russia in memory of the 60th anniversary of victory of the war of defending the Soviet Union in Beijing April 29. Among the veteran soldiers are Mao Zedong's son Mao Anqing, Liu Shaoqi's daughter Liu Aiqin and Zhu De's daughter Zhumin.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183367.html
The Gulf News
Police arrest 200 people from Cairo bomber's village
Agencies
Cairo: Police have arrested around 200 people for questioning over the two attacks targeting Cairo tourist sites yesterday.
The detainees are from the villages of the three people responsible for the suicide bombing and tour bus shooting.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=163100>
Terrorists target Cairo tourists
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Special to Gulf News
Cairo:
A suicide bomber wounded four foreigners in Cairo yesterday shortly before his sister and fiance died in an abortive attack on a tourist bus.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=163050
Violence threatens Egypt tourism
Agencies
Cairo: A group calling itself the Brigades of the Martyr Abdullah Azzam said it carried out twin attacks on tourist targets in the Egyptian capital yesterday in a statement posted on the internet.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=163009
Fossilised skeleton of primitive whale found
Reuters
Cairo: Eyad Zalmout, a Jordanian palaeontologist with a US excavation team from the University of Michigan, examines the teeth of a 40-million-year-old whale in the natural reserve area of Wadi Hitan, valley of the whales, about 200km west of Cairo.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=162996
Iraqi mass grave found
EPA
A forensic specialist brushes dirt away from a human skull at a mass grave discovered in Al Samawa desert in Muthanna province, 270km south of Baghdad.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=163002
Muslims hit out against discrimination
By Chris Sands, Staff Reporter
London: Thousands of Muslims marched through central London yesterday in protest at the treatment they are receiving across the world.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163085
Poll indicates Quebec wants sovereignty
AP
Montreal:
A decade after Quebec's failed referendum on defection from the rest of Canada, people in the French-speaking province are once again fired up about the possibility of going their own way.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163069
Arnold criticisedfor praising border patrols
Reuters
San Francisco: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has added Hispanic politicians to a growing list of political enemies by praising attempts to curb immigration across the US-Mexico border.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163065
Murdered son turns up to free mother serving life term
AP
Dhaka:
A Bangladeshi woman, who spent nearly eight years in prison for murdering her son, has been freed after the boy turned up alive, a newspaper reported yesterday.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163052
Five killed in separate clashes in Kashmir
AP
Srinagar: Three suspected militants and two civilians were killed yesterday in separate clashes in Jammu and Kashmir, an army spokesman said.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163080
Massacre 'has no role in EU talks'
AP
Istanbul, Turkey: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has sought to assure Turkey that a German opposition push for Turkey to examine its role in the massacre of Armenians at the time of the First World War will not become a condition to the start of EU membership talks.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163068
International Blairism will simply fade away
By John O'Sullivan, Special to Gulf News
Don't mention the war!" is the rule of the hotelier-from-hell, Basil Fawlty, in the old British sitcom, Fawlty Towers, when he is trying to control his temper and to treat German visitors with discreet sympathy.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=162982
Bush has little to celebrate
By Holly Yeager
This has not been the kind of week President George W. Bush hoped for when he was sworn in for his second term just 100 days ago.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=162983
The Boston Globe
Protesters carried signs as they walked up Sixth Avenue (left) and 42nd Street (right) during a rally Sunday in New York City. Several thousand demonstrators marched past the United Nations and onto Central Park for a rally calling for nuclear disarmament and the end of the US presence in Iraq. (Stephen Chernin / Getty Images Photos)
Activists rally at U.N., Central Park
By Karen Matthews, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
NEW YORK -- Thousands of activists marched past the United Nations on Sunday, urging diplomats reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to remember the horrors of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki six decades ago and not allow them to be repeated.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/05/01/anti_nuclear_activists_rally_in_new_york/
Group pushes restricting of cold medicine
By Lou Kesten, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
WASHINGTON -- An association representing more than 36,000 pharmacies is issuing guidelines for possible federal legislation to restrict sales of cold medications containing a substance often used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine -- or "speed."
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2005/05/01/group_pushes_restricting_of_cold_medicine/
A woman's place in the lab
Harvard studies efforts to boost female faculty at U-Wisconsin
By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff May 1, 2005
MADISON, Wisconsin -- The electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison had a lackluster record on gender equality for many years.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/05/01/campus_strives_to_boost_female_faculty/
Group marks anniversary of early gay rights demonstration
By Janice Podsada, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
PHILADELPHIA -- Hundreds of gay rights supporters crowded into a historic church near Independence Hall to hear gay minister Irene "Beth" Stroud and the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop call for an end to discrimination against gays and lesbians.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/05/01/group_marks_anniversary_of_early_gay_rights_demonstration/
Minister speaks at Pa. gay rights rally
By Janice Podsada, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
PHILADELPHIA -- A Methodist minister who had been defrocked for being in a lesbian relationship, then was reinstated, called for an end to discrimination against gays in a speech to hundreds of supporters Sunday.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/05/01/minister_speaks_at_pa_gay_rights_rally/
Thousands brave rain, raise $3 million to fight hunger
May 1, 2005
BOSTON -- A steady rain on Sunday couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of about 35,000 people who raised an estimated $3 million to help fight hunger across the state.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/05/01/thousands_brave_rain_raise_3_million_to_fight_hunger/
Obama praises U.S. civil rights pioneers
By Adrienne Schwisow, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
DETROIT -- Sen. Barack Obama praised the courage of America's civil rights pioneers Sunday and urged younger generations to find the same boldness in addressing the future of education.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/05/01/obama_praises_us_civil_rights_pioneers/
Locals offer insight into Egypt terrorist
By Maamoun Youssef, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
SHUBRA EL-KHEIMA, Egypt -- Once the cheerful leader of a school singing group, Ehab Yousri Yassin underwent a drastic change a few years ago, mingling with Islamic extremists, talking only about religion and forcing his sisters to wear head-to-toe veils.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/05/01/locals_offer_insight_into_egypt_terrorist/
Karzai urges caution in militant search
By Stephen Graham, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai on Sunday urged U.S.-led forces to use "extreme caution" in their pursuit of Taliban and al-Qaida militants after at least two civilians were killed in an airstrike.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/05/01/karzai_urges_caution_in_militant_search/
The Guardian
Battle for the middle classes
Patrick Wintour and Tania Branigan
Monday May 2, 2005
Labour was last night locked in an unprecedented eve of poll dogfight with Charles Kennedy, as the Liberal Democrats angrily rejected "mendacious" Labour claims that a big Iraq protest vote would end in an unintended back door victory for Michael Howard in four days' time.
With the battle for the progressive middle class now vital to the eventual outcome, the Lib Dems insisted that, at most, a big shift by disillusioned Labour voters would end in a hung parliament - but even this was unlikely.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1474692,00.html
GIs return to end 30 years of pain for Vietnam's children of the dust
Plight of the war babies pricks consciences of ageing veterans
Jonathan Watts in Ho Chi Minh City
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
'I remember the last night I was with you. I put my hand on your stomach and felt our son kicking and moving. I did not write you as I should have done. I was young and immature in 1968 and I am sorry I was not there to take care of you both."
Nguyen Thi Hien, a middle-aged woman who lives in one of Ho Chi Minh City's poorest neighbourhoods, had been waiting more than 30 years for the letter that contained these words.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1474578,00.html
Hassan murder suspects held in Iraq raid
· Breakthrough in hunt for aid worker's killers
· At least 116 killed in weekend of bombings, and Australian is abducted
Rory Carroll in Baghdad
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
American and Iraqi forces yesterday detained a group of men suspected of abducting and murdering the British aid worker Margaret Hassan last year.
The arrests followed three days of bombings and shootings by insurgents, which claimed at least 116 lives and wounded dozens more in a bloody first few days for the new government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1474669,00.html
'His authority was extraordinary. He was charming' - Hitler's nurse on his final hours
Survivor of bunker tells of admiration for Goebbels' wife and hatred for Eva Braun
Read a transcript of the interview with Erna Flegel
Luke Harding in Berlin
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
She is the last witness. For 60 years, Erna Flegal said nothing about her starring role in the Third Reich. Her family knew that in the last, desperate weeks of the second world war she had lived in Berlin. But she never spoke of her job as Hitler's nurse and of her time in the Führer's Berlin bunker.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,14058,1474601,00.html
THE MORE CONTROVERSY Bush/Cheney can create, the more turmoil over ANY issue. The dialogue must go forward without the USA.
Deadlock looms over spread of nuclear arms
Rift between America and Iran threatens to stymie attempts to update non-proliferation treaty
Julian Borger in Washington
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
The global spread of nuclear weapons is at stake today as delegates from 190 countries convene in an attempt to salvage the 1970 non-proliferation treaty, but the chances of success look dim.
The rift between nuclear and non-nuclear states, and between the US and Iran in particular, is so serious that a final agenda had still not been agreed on the eve of the month-long conference in New York, despite frantic shuttle diplomacy by its Brazilian chairman, Sergio de Queiroz Duarte.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1474609,00.html
Russian moguls eye up Rover ruins
The owner of Volga cars and the 'baby oligarch' behind TVR could be interested in Longbridge assets
Mark Milner, industrial editor
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
The future of MG Rover could be decided in Russia following reports that administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers have received approaches from metals mogul Oleg Deripaska and Nikolai Smolenski, owner of sports carmaker TVR.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cars/story/0,15383,1474757,00.html
Children's diet link to disorders
Study shows dramatic effect of fish oil supplement
Felicity Lawrence
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
British children are suffering behavioural and learning disorders because their diets are deficient in vital nutrients needed for their brains to function normally, a study reveals today.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,1074,1474691,00.html
Negative campaign a turn-off for voters
Research highlights lack of tabloid coverage of election
Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
The tone of campaigning during this election has been the most "personalised and negative" to date, according to new analysis of television and newspaper coverage.
Even the Liberal Democrats, whose leader, Charles Kennedy, repeatedly claimed he would rise above the negative sparring, have been predominantly featured attacking their rivals.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1474748,00.html
Meditation 'leads to longer life'
David Adam, science correspondent
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
The Beatles were right: researchers have found that hanging out with the Maharishi may make you live longer.
A new study shows that transcendental meditation, a relaxation technique developed by the Indian guru and made famous when the fab four dabbled with it in the late 60s, can reduce death rates by nearly a quarter.
Robert Schneider, who led the research, said: "The study found that in older people with mild high blood pressure, those practising transcendental meditation had a 23% lower risk of death from all causes."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/science/story/0,12996,1474549,00.html
The Cheney Observer - some are 'dated' but an odd look back about 100 days ago
Jeb Bush Hires Writer Who Left Paper After Sex-Harassment, Plagiary Charge
By E&P Staff
Published: January 07, 2005 2:15 PM ET
NEW YORK Just days after Florida Gov. Jeb Bush fired a top official over sexual-harassment allegations, Bush's office confirmed it has hired Lloyd Brown, former editorial-page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, who resigned from the paper in November following public allegations of sexual harassment and plagiarism.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000748621
Jeb Bush and election 2008
JIMMY HALL Contributing Columnist
January 10, 2005
Many editorialists and columnists, myself included, have already begun speculating about the 2008 Presidential Election. To read what we've written, it would appear to be a slam dunk that either former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Arizona Sen. John McCain will square-off against New York Senator Hillary R. Clinton in the general election. Are we really so sure? No, we aren't.
Amid the 'what ifs,' one scenario is receiving surprisingly little attention. What about another Bush versus Clinton contest? It could happen, and it would be interesting.
http://www.gsusignal.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/01/10/41e1ef9d8ebaa
Governor Jeb Bush outlines Medicaid reform proposal
By MICHAEL PELTIER, mpeltier1234@comcast.net
January 12, 2005
TALLAHASSEE — Calling Florida's Medicaid system an expensive yet "inflexible maze," Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday proposed allowing private insurers to manage much of the $15 billion health-care program.
Flanked by health-care officials, Bush unveiled a package of reforms that make fundamental changes to the state/federal safety net now serving about 2.2 million of the state's elderly and low-income residents.
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_3463779,00.html
TennCare Cuts Benefits for 700,000+
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has announced he will be slashing TennCare coverage for adults, according to Anita Wadhwani in “The Tennessean.” The cuts will drop the expected increase in TennCare spending from an additional $650 million to just $75 million. Altogether, the program will drop 323,000 adults, and nearly 400,000 other enrollees will have their benefits limited. The article quotes the governor as saying, “When this is all done and over, we should still end up with one of the broadest, most generous [Medicaid] programs in the country.” Enrollees being dropped from the program will have only 30 days to find other coverage. Tennessee has been paying only one-third of the cost with the rest picked up by the federal government.
SOURCE: www.tennessean.com
Clinton Thinks TennCare is Just Swell
TennCare has been a nightmare, not only from a fiscal point of view, but for enrollees as well. The people of Tennessee would have been better off had it never been adopted because they would have continued their private coverage.
Now they have only 30 days to find private coverage, and many of them are likely now to be uninsurable. But former President Bill Clinton is undeterred. “The Tennessean” reported just before Christmas that Mr. Clinton thinks the program is just swell and only needs to be federalized. And former Vice-President and Tennessee Senator Al Gore blames TennCare’s problems on President Bush. “TennCare was sandbagged by failure at the national level to deal with health care,” he maintains.
SOURCE: www.tennessean.com
Jeb Bush Proposes Health Accounts in Medicaid
In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush is also tackling the problem of Medicaid costs, which are expected to consume one-third of the state budget by 2009. An article in "The News-Press” quotes him as saying, “We want to empower the people in the Medicaid program to control their own health care, to choose their coverage, their doctors and their treatments.”
He would privatize the system by providing a risk-adjusted premium to each recipient who would then shop for coverage from private vendors. The article says that “Bush’s plan would let some patients set up their own health care accounts, and is designed to persuade more specialty providers to take Medicaid patients.” The program covers 2.2 million individuals and costs the state $14 billion.
SOURCE: www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005501120454
New Hampshire HHS Commissioner Wants HSAs in Medicaid
Florida is not the only state looking at health accounts for Medicaid recipients. The Commissioner of Health and Human Services in New Hampshire has an “ambitious plan to reform Medicaid that would … give low-income families a health savings account for their children’s care,” according to the "Nashua Telegraph." Commissioner John Stephen estimates that his plan, combined with restrictions on nursing home admissions, would save the state $13 million over two years, but the savings would grow to $142 million by 2010. The concept was supported by out-going Governor Craig Benson, but attacked by Governor-elect John Lynch during the campaign. More recently, the governor-elect has said he would consider the idea.
SOURCE: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050106/NEWS01/101060090/-1/news
South Carolina Proposes HSAs in Medicaid
South Carolina predates Florida and New Hampshire in looking at HSAs and Medicaid. Writing in "The Post and Courier"
on November 20, Jonathan Maze reports that “South Carolina’s Medicaid agency is proposing a major overhaul of the government health care program by giving recipients a limited number of dollars each year over which they would have direct control.” The article says that Commissioner Robert Kerr “would give most of the state’s 850,000 Medicaid recipients a debit card good to use for doctor visits and prescription drugs.” He said the program could save money by “turning Medicaid recipients into smarter health care consumers,” and lowering administrative costs. Mr. Kerr says that Governor Mark Sanford would like to see the changes “tomorrow.” But he acknowledges there are “lots of things we don’t know. What we do know is that if we don’t talk about it, we won’t move anywhere.”
SOURCE: archives.postandcourier.com
Maine’s DirigoChoice Enrollment Only One-Third of Expected
Meanwhile, Maine’s DirigoChoice plan “is confusing for both employers and employees,” according to The Maine Heritage Policy Center. In the Winter, 2005 issue of DirigoWatch, the Center reports only 2,700 people have enrolled as of January, as compared to a projection of 8,267 by the state. Why so few? Well, for one thing the coverage is expensive, costing from $4,666 for a $250 deductible to $3,718 for a $1250 deductible. That is for a single employee.
The employer is required to pay $2,231 of that with either taxpayers or the worker making up the difference. The program is bafflingly complex with income-based benefit structures (the higher the income, the lower the benefits).
So each person at a work site could have a different set of benefits as determined, not by the consumer, but by the state. The tax subsidies are based on total household income and assets, requiring workers to reveal to a state agency great detail about their financial condition. There are also drastic marriage penalties, fertility inducements and leaps in cost as income rises. It is the kind of program only a very well-educated bureaucrat could design.
SOURCE: The newsletter is available at the Center’s web site http://www.mainepolicy.org
Maryland Legislature Overrides Malpractice Veto
In Maryland, the Democratic-controlled legislature overrode Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich’s veto of a malpractice bill that essentially taxes consumers to pay for physician malpractice premiums without doing anything significant about the underlying problem. The trial lawyers, hospitals and medical association all thought it was just swell to have taxpayers subsidize their gravy train. Watch for this model to roll out in a state near you. Other than the governor and a few out-gunned legislators, about the only voice objecting to this fleecing of taxpayers was the Maryland Public Policy Institute that released a report on malpractice reform and has written a number of op-eds as the issue progressed.
SOURCE: For a "Baltimore Sun" article on the veto override -- http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.assembly12jan12,1,2804538.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
For a copy of the MPPI report, go to their web site at http://www.mdpolicy.org
For an example of an op-ed on the issue, go to -- http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=101186&format=print
State Policy Network – Essential Resource
In the two stories above, the role of the local free-market think tank has been essential. They are able to stay on top of these important and potentially nationally significant developments far better than any national group can, and they can provide a detailed analysis of the issue that can help people in other states deal with it when it rears its ugly head. Both of these groups are members of the State Policy Network, which helps launch similar organizations and provides essential expertise on fundraising, management, networking, and issues resources. Be sure to check out the SPN website to locate the think tank nearest you. These organizations are always eager to work with people who can bring experience, expertise and contacts to the group. Many have advisory committees, boards of directors, or visiting scholars programs you might be able to tap into.
SOURCE: http://www.spn.org
AHIP Finds Half-Million in HSAs
Finally, AHIP has become one of the biggest boosters of HSAs. It has launched a web site that is terrific, and just today released a survey of its members on HSA enrollment. The number it released was 438,000 people covered by September, 2004. There are a few things to keep in mind about this number. First, it goes only to September.
It is characteristic of HSAs that enrollment will be very low in the third quarter of a year because the individual is subject to 100% of the deductible even though only a fraction can be contributed to the HSA. It is very likely that the number doubled or tripled in November and December as people got ready for the 2005 calendar year. Second, the survey is of AHIP members only and is based on responses from only 29 companies. Many (most?) Blue Cross Blue Shield companies are not AHIP members, for instance, so would not have been captured by this information. Also, many self-insured employers would not be captured here. I believe the number at year’s end is much higher than this number, possibly three times as much (1.5 million).
SOURCE: http://www.hsadecisions.org
Bush family has helped reshape GOP
By DAVE MONTGOMERY
Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram
WASHINGTON - The man of the hour, of course, is George W. Bush. But, to a larger extent, his second-term inauguration today is also a family affair, another passage in a decades-long journey by one of America's most enduring political dynasties.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/10690852.htm
Jeb Bush loses appeal in right-to-die case
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court has dealt a setback on Monday to Florida Governor Jeb Bush's
efforts to keep a severely brain-damaged woman on life support despite the wishes of her husband.
Without comment, the justices rejected Bush's appeal of a Florida Supreme Court ruling that struck down a state law
which had allowed him to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, who has been on a feeding tube since a 1990 heart
attack. Doctors have testified she is in a "persistent vegetative state."
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5489944
Jeb Bush talks up Florida military bases in Washington
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush led a delegation of business and retired military leaders in meetings Wednesday with top Pentagon officials and members of Florida's congressional delegation as part of a mission to save the state's military bases from possible closure or downsizing.
Protecting the 21 installations and three unified commands during the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, round is a one of Bush's core priorities.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10858599.htm
Bush the Latino lover splits his party
Tony Allen-Mills, Homestead, Florida
BERNARDO VILLELA tells a story about a fellow Guatemalan immigrant who found a job in New York and prospered for more than a decade until he was recently involved in a car accident. When the police discovered that he had no driver’s licence and had entered the country illegally, deportation proceedings began.
...Just as Bill Clinton liked to be called America’s first black president — on account of his support among African-Americans — so Bush has launched a bid to be remembered as a friend to Hispanics. But a series of measures aimed at America’s 37m Hispanics has divided the Republican party, upset immigrant activists and added a new word to Washington’s political lexicon — “hispandering”, or sucking up to Latinos.
At a recent White House lunch, Bush was introduced to a Mexican businesswoman who has just become engaged to one of his old friends from Texas — Antonio Garza, the US ambassador to Mexico.
Bush stumbled over the future Mrs Garza’s name — which was excusable, given that her name is Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala. Perhaps less excusable was that Bush did not know that she is the billionaire owner of Mexico’s Corona beer empire and the country’s richest woman.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1481765,00.html
Jordan fears loss of US favour
By Jon Leyne
BBC News, Amman
Jordan has not always been talking Washington's language recently
Of all America's allies in the Arab world, Jordan must surely be one of the closest and most trusted - or so it seemed until recently.
But all that has changed, and King Abdullah's government does not seem to know what to do about it.
Things came to a head after an incident in Salt - a small town just outside the capital with a reputation for sending its sons to take part in the Iraqi insurgency.
Last month the family of one of them, Raed al-Banna, held three days of mourning following his death as a suicide bomber in Iraq.
It was thought, probably wrongly, that he carried out the massacre in Hilla in which 125 people died.
The event caused a rupture in Jordan's relations with Iraq and led the US to question if Jordan really was such a reliable ally.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4472833.stm
I love this one. Foreign governments need to worry about fossil fuel consumption but the USA doesn't. Real good.
Bush calls for efficient use of fossil fuels
Sridhar Krishnaswami
WASHINGTON: Driving home the importance of reducing dependence on imported oil, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, said that one of the ways this could be achieved was by helping growing energy consumers overseas like China and India to use energy more efficiently.
At a prime time press conference at the White House, the President argued that the "root causes" of the current oil price rise would have to be addressed.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/02/stories/2005050201121500.htm
Federal salaries go up in US
AGENCIES
[ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2004 09:50:45 AM]
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TEXAS: President George W Bush has spelled out in greater detail the pay raise that takes effect January 1 for federal workers, members of Congress, judges _ even Vice President Dick Cheney.
Congress passed the pay raises earlier this year, but Bush was required to sign an executive order detailing the pay hikes before the end of the year. He did so Thursday. The president's annual salary of $400,000 is not affected by the legislation.
The cost-of-living raise lifts salaries for members of the House and Senate from $158,000 this year to $162,100 in 2005. The measure provides civil servants with 3.5 per cent raises _ the same that military personnel will receive next year.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/976783.cms
JON CARROLL
So many stories in the newspaper right now are looking back on the dreadful and yet terrible year 2004, with critical appraisals and timelines and the usual hoorah. I decided to step it up a notch and look back on the year 2005, so that we can all experience pre-need nostalgia.
The Iraq elections: The January "Depressed Voter Turnout Due to Carnage" election was swiftly followed by the February "Give the Sunnis an Even Break" election, followed by the April "Hey, the Shiites Are the Majority; Is This a Democracy or What?" election, followed by the June "The Kurds Are Really Mad Now" elections, followed by the August "Everyone Is Resigning; Why Not Vote for Yourself?" elections, followed by the November "The Hell With It; Let's Elect an American" elections, which finally installed Colin Powell as the new president of Iraq. Powell pledged to "continue the policies of my predecessors. "
...This drastic step had last been taken more than 30 years ago, when all announcements from the Pentagon about the war in Vietnam were also declared "beyond parody." Then, the triggering mechanism had been the statement "We are destroying this village in order to save it."
He lives, he lives!: In October, doctors announced the transplanting of an entirely different man into the body of Cheney. The man, whose name was not revealed, was said to be healthy and in his mid-30s. The White House press office said that the "newish" vice president would continue to vigorously support the president's policies.
"Cheney" was said to enjoy racquetball, scuba diving and sexual contact with multiple partners.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/12/31/DDGAB9AEE21.DTL
Tasers pose potentially lethal danger to heart, doctor warns
By SABIN RUSSELL
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
When 50,000 volts of electricity from a Taser surge across the body, it can instantly incapacitate a person -- more safely than a blow from a police baton or a blast of pepper spray, its manufacturer contends.
But cardiologists are concerned that, in certain cases, the device might also interrupt the rhythm of the human heart, throwing it into a potentially fatal chaotic state known as ventricular fibrillation.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/207168_tasers10.html
Commentary: Iraq war forum needed some different perspectives
2005-01-10
By Terry Smith
Athens NEWS Editor
It's too bad planners of Thursday's forum on Iraq -- "whether we should stay or go" -- couldn't have rounded up some diversity of opinion. Whether for the organizers' want of effort or just bad luck, the event unwound like an argument between shades of the same color. None of the other colors showed up.
The discussion featured well-meaning, intelligent people -- some of Athens' best and brightest. But nobody arrived to represent the Bush/Cheney end of things, much less the fickle mainstream that throws around so much weight.
http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=19357
Reno lawyer attempting to sue President Bush over Iraq war
A retired Reno attorney is attempting to sue President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over the war in Iraq.
Attorney Doug Wallace says he filed the suit in US District Court last Friday. His suit alleges that the president and vice president have acted outside the scope of their jobs in waging a war against Iraq.
Wallace claims the two entered into a private treaty without the approval of Congress.
http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2819947&nav=8faOVHlL
Nevada couple among top donors to Bush inauguration
(01-19) 15:19 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
Sheldon Adelson, who owns The Venetian hotel-casino in Las Vegas, and his wife, Dr. Miriam Ochshorn Adelson, are among the major donors to the committee organizing President Bush's inauguration.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/01/19/state1819EST0118.DTL
continued...
Lien Chan: Taiwan, mainland can enjoy prosperity
Visiting Kuomintang (KMT) Party of China Chairman Lien Chan said in Shanghai Sunday that Taiwan and the mainland can jointly create peace, promote development and enjoy prosperity.
In a meeting with Chen Liangyu, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Shanghai municipal committee, Lien said, "The past cannot be changed. What can be changed is the future. To face up to the current days and jointly create the future is the most worthwhile direction that we strive for," he said.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/02/eng20050502_183489.html
Hu-Lien meeting evokes worldwide applause
The international community has made warm responses since General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hu Jintao and visiting Chairman Lien Chan of the Kuomintang (KMT) party of China held their historic meeting in Beijing Friday.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "We believe cross-Straits dialogue is important to promoting peace and stability in the region" and the United States will "continue working with the parties in the region and continue to encourage them to engage in dialogue to promote peace and stability in the region."
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/01/eng20050501_183419.html
KMT Chairman pays nostalgic visit to birthplace
Visiting Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) party Chairman Lien Chan made a nostalgic visit Saturday to Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, as well as the city where Lien was born and spent his childhood.
Flocks of local people, waving flags and banners, lined the streets to welcome the KMT leader.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/01/eng20050501_183420.html
3,000 model workers honored
The Chinese government commended a total of 2,969 national labor heroes and advanced workers, including basketball player Yao Ming and track and field athlete Liu Xiang, at a grand rally held here Saturday on the eve of May 1,the International Labor Day.
President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and other Chinese leaders attended the rally in Beijing and awarded the winners.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183400.html
China not planning to revalue yuan
China does not plan to revalue its currency, the yuan, during next week's Labor Day holiday, a central bank spokesman said Friday, quashing rumors that such a change was imminent.
"As far as we know, there's no adjustment expected in the yuan exchange rate," Bai Li, spokesman for the People's Bank of China, told Dow Jones Newswires.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183349.html
UN peacekeepers start deployment in Sudan: spokeswoman
The United Nations announced in Khartoum Sunday it has started deploying the first group of its peacekeeping force in Sudan, Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reported.
Radia Achouri, spokeswoman for the UN mission in Sudan, was quoted as saying that the first group of the UN force was 30-strong Nepalese out of total of 225, who arrived in Kassala town in eastern Sudan earlier in the day.
Achouri said that El-Obeid town in Kordofan region will be the center of deployment for the 10,000-strong UN forces.
Pasted from <http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/02/eng20050502_183505.html>
May Day rallies held across Europe, as protests mar celebrations
People cross Europe rallied on Sunday to mark May Day or Labor Day, as clashes among political rivals in a number of countries marred the celebrations.
In Sweden, Denmark and Norway, left-wing parties and labor unions held rallies and street parties to mark the traditional Labor holiday and government leaders delivered speeches vowing to improve employment and social welfare.
Meanwhile, street demonstrations across the continent largely marred the May Day celebrations.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200505/02/eng20050502_183522.html
Sandstorms, downpours for holiday
Northern China is likely to encounter more sandstorms during the forthcoming May Day holiday, forecasters in Beijing warned on Friday.
"Bad weather is forecast for parts of North, Northwest and Northeast China including Beijing around May 3 to 4," Xiao Ziniu, director of China central observatory, said at a press conference.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183330.html
China to experience rain, wind in coming ten days
Most parts of China will experience rain and wind in the coming ten days, according to Friday's forecast from Chinese Central Meteorological Station.
Due to active warm and cold currents, north China, northeast China, southwest China and south China will receive several bouts of rain in the coming ten days. The rain will linger especially longer in south China, according to the forecast.
Gales will hit northwest China, north China and northeast China next Tuesday and Wednesday.
A cold current is expected to hit north China from Friday to Sunday and will cause more rain in south China, according to the forecast.
Source: Xinhua
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183309.html
Russia confers medals to Chinese veteran sold
A total of 27 Chinese veteran soldiers were conferred National Medals by Russia in memory of the 60th anniversary of victory of the war of defending the Soviet Union in Beijing April 29. Among the veteran soldiers are Mao Zedong's son Mao Anqing, Liu Shaoqi's daughter Liu Aiqin and Zhu De's daughter Zhumin.
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200504/30/eng20050430_183367.html
The Gulf News
Police arrest 200 people from Cairo bomber's village
Agencies
Cairo: Police have arrested around 200 people for questioning over the two attacks targeting Cairo tourist sites yesterday.
The detainees are from the villages of the three people responsible for the suicide bombing and tour bus shooting.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=163100>
Terrorists target Cairo tourists
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Special to Gulf News
Cairo:
A suicide bomber wounded four foreigners in Cairo yesterday shortly before his sister and fiance died in an abortive attack on a tourist bus.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=163050
Violence threatens Egypt tourism
Agencies
Cairo: A group calling itself the Brigades of the Martyr Abdullah Azzam said it carried out twin attacks on tourist targets in the Egyptian capital yesterday in a statement posted on the internet.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=163009
Fossilised skeleton of primitive whale found
Reuters
Cairo: Eyad Zalmout, a Jordanian palaeontologist with a US excavation team from the University of Michigan, examines the teeth of a 40-million-year-old whale in the natural reserve area of Wadi Hitan, valley of the whales, about 200km west of Cairo.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=162996
Iraqi mass grave found
EPA
A forensic specialist brushes dirt away from a human skull at a mass grave discovered in Al Samawa desert in Muthanna province, 270km south of Baghdad.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=163002
Muslims hit out against discrimination
By Chris Sands, Staff Reporter
London: Thousands of Muslims marched through central London yesterday in protest at the treatment they are receiving across the world.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163085
Poll indicates Quebec wants sovereignty
AP
Montreal:
A decade after Quebec's failed referendum on defection from the rest of Canada, people in the French-speaking province are once again fired up about the possibility of going their own way.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163069
Arnold criticisedfor praising border patrols
Reuters
San Francisco: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has added Hispanic politicians to a growing list of political enemies by praising attempts to curb immigration across the US-Mexico border.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163065
Murdered son turns up to free mother serving life term
AP
Dhaka:
A Bangladeshi woman, who spent nearly eight years in prison for murdering her son, has been freed after the boy turned up alive, a newspaper reported yesterday.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163052
Five killed in separate clashes in Kashmir
AP
Srinagar: Three suspected militants and two civilians were killed yesterday in separate clashes in Jammu and Kashmir, an army spokesman said.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163080
Massacre 'has no role in EU talks'
AP
Istanbul, Turkey: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has sought to assure Turkey that a German opposition push for Turkey to examine its role in the massacre of Armenians at the time of the First World War will not become a condition to the start of EU membership talks.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=163068
International Blairism will simply fade away
By John O'Sullivan, Special to Gulf News
Don't mention the war!" is the rule of the hotelier-from-hell, Basil Fawlty, in the old British sitcom, Fawlty Towers, when he is trying to control his temper and to treat German visitors with discreet sympathy.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=162982
Bush has little to celebrate
By Holly Yeager
This has not been the kind of week President George W. Bush hoped for when he was sworn in for his second term just 100 days ago.
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=162983
The Boston Globe
Protesters carried signs as they walked up Sixth Avenue (left) and 42nd Street (right) during a rally Sunday in New York City. Several thousand demonstrators marched past the United Nations and onto Central Park for a rally calling for nuclear disarmament and the end of the US presence in Iraq. (Stephen Chernin / Getty Images Photos)
Activists rally at U.N., Central Park
By Karen Matthews, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
NEW YORK -- Thousands of activists marched past the United Nations on Sunday, urging diplomats reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to remember the horrors of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki six decades ago and not allow them to be repeated.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/05/01/anti_nuclear_activists_rally_in_new_york/
Group pushes restricting of cold medicine
By Lou Kesten, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
WASHINGTON -- An association representing more than 36,000 pharmacies is issuing guidelines for possible federal legislation to restrict sales of cold medications containing a substance often used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine -- or "speed."
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2005/05/01/group_pushes_restricting_of_cold_medicine/
A woman's place in the lab
Harvard studies efforts to boost female faculty at U-Wisconsin
By Marcella Bombardieri, Globe Staff May 1, 2005
MADISON, Wisconsin -- The electrical and computer engineering department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison had a lackluster record on gender equality for many years.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/05/01/campus_strives_to_boost_female_faculty/
Group marks anniversary of early gay rights demonstration
By Janice Podsada, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
PHILADELPHIA -- Hundreds of gay rights supporters crowded into a historic church near Independence Hall to hear gay minister Irene "Beth" Stroud and the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop call for an end to discrimination against gays and lesbians.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/05/01/group_marks_anniversary_of_early_gay_rights_demonstration/
Minister speaks at Pa. gay rights rally
By Janice Podsada, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
PHILADELPHIA -- A Methodist minister who had been defrocked for being in a lesbian relationship, then was reinstated, called for an end to discrimination against gays in a speech to hundreds of supporters Sunday.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/05/01/minister_speaks_at_pa_gay_rights_rally/
Thousands brave rain, raise $3 million to fight hunger
May 1, 2005
BOSTON -- A steady rain on Sunday couldn't dampen the enthusiasm of about 35,000 people who raised an estimated $3 million to help fight hunger across the state.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/05/01/thousands_brave_rain_raise_3_million_to_fight_hunger/
Obama praises U.S. civil rights pioneers
By Adrienne Schwisow, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
DETROIT -- Sen. Barack Obama praised the courage of America's civil rights pioneers Sunday and urged younger generations to find the same boldness in addressing the future of education.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/05/01/obama_praises_us_civil_rights_pioneers/
Locals offer insight into Egypt terrorist
By Maamoun Youssef, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
SHUBRA EL-KHEIMA, Egypt -- Once the cheerful leader of a school singing group, Ehab Yousri Yassin underwent a drastic change a few years ago, mingling with Islamic extremists, talking only about religion and forcing his sisters to wear head-to-toe veils.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/05/01/locals_offer_insight_into_egypt_terrorist/
Karzai urges caution in militant search
By Stephen Graham, Associated Press Writer May 1, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai on Sunday urged U.S.-led forces to use "extreme caution" in their pursuit of Taliban and al-Qaida militants after at least two civilians were killed in an airstrike.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/05/01/karzai_urges_caution_in_militant_search/
The Guardian
Battle for the middle classes
Patrick Wintour and Tania Branigan
Monday May 2, 2005
Labour was last night locked in an unprecedented eve of poll dogfight with Charles Kennedy, as the Liberal Democrats angrily rejected "mendacious" Labour claims that a big Iraq protest vote would end in an unintended back door victory for Michael Howard in four days' time.
With the battle for the progressive middle class now vital to the eventual outcome, the Lib Dems insisted that, at most, a big shift by disillusioned Labour voters would end in a hung parliament - but even this was unlikely.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/election/story/0,15803,1474692,00.html
GIs return to end 30 years of pain for Vietnam's children of the dust
Plight of the war babies pricks consciences of ageing veterans
Jonathan Watts in Ho Chi Minh City
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
'I remember the last night I was with you. I put my hand on your stomach and felt our son kicking and moving. I did not write you as I should have done. I was young and immature in 1968 and I am sorry I was not there to take care of you both."
Nguyen Thi Hien, a middle-aged woman who lives in one of Ho Chi Minh City's poorest neighbourhoods, had been waiting more than 30 years for the letter that contained these words.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1474578,00.html
Hassan murder suspects held in Iraq raid
· Breakthrough in hunt for aid worker's killers
· At least 116 killed in weekend of bombings, and Australian is abducted
Rory Carroll in Baghdad
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
American and Iraqi forces yesterday detained a group of men suspected of abducting and murdering the British aid worker Margaret Hassan last year.
The arrests followed three days of bombings and shootings by insurgents, which claimed at least 116 lives and wounded dozens more in a bloody first few days for the new government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1474669,00.html
'His authority was extraordinary. He was charming' - Hitler's nurse on his final hours
Survivor of bunker tells of admiration for Goebbels' wife and hatred for Eva Braun
Read a transcript of the interview with Erna Flegel
Luke Harding in Berlin
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
She is the last witness. For 60 years, Erna Flegal said nothing about her starring role in the Third Reich. Her family knew that in the last, desperate weeks of the second world war she had lived in Berlin. But she never spoke of her job as Hitler's nurse and of her time in the Führer's Berlin bunker.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,14058,1474601,00.html
THE MORE CONTROVERSY Bush/Cheney can create, the more turmoil over ANY issue. The dialogue must go forward without the USA.
Deadlock looms over spread of nuclear arms
Rift between America and Iran threatens to stymie attempts to update non-proliferation treaty
Julian Borger in Washington
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
The global spread of nuclear weapons is at stake today as delegates from 190 countries convene in an attempt to salvage the 1970 non-proliferation treaty, but the chances of success look dim.
The rift between nuclear and non-nuclear states, and between the US and Iran in particular, is so serious that a final agenda had still not been agreed on the eve of the month-long conference in New York, despite frantic shuttle diplomacy by its Brazilian chairman, Sergio de Queiroz Duarte.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1474609,00.html
Russian moguls eye up Rover ruins
The owner of Volga cars and the 'baby oligarch' behind TVR could be interested in Longbridge assets
Mark Milner, industrial editor
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
The future of MG Rover could be decided in Russia following reports that administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers have received approaches from metals mogul Oleg Deripaska and Nikolai Smolenski, owner of sports carmaker TVR.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cars/story/0,15383,1474757,00.html
Children's diet link to disorders
Study shows dramatic effect of fish oil supplement
Felicity Lawrence
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
British children are suffering behavioural and learning disorders because their diets are deficient in vital nutrients needed for their brains to function normally, a study reveals today.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/children/story/0,1074,1474691,00.html
Negative campaign a turn-off for voters
Research highlights lack of tabloid coverage of election
Owen Gibson, media correspondent
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
The tone of campaigning during this election has been the most "personalised and negative" to date, according to new analysis of television and newspaper coverage.
Even the Liberal Democrats, whose leader, Charles Kennedy, repeatedly claimed he would rise above the negative sparring, have been predominantly featured attacking their rivals.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1474748,00.html
Meditation 'leads to longer life'
David Adam, science correspondent
Monday May 2, 2005
The Guardian
The Beatles were right: researchers have found that hanging out with the Maharishi may make you live longer.
A new study shows that transcendental meditation, a relaxation technique developed by the Indian guru and made famous when the fab four dabbled with it in the late 60s, can reduce death rates by nearly a quarter.
Robert Schneider, who led the research, said: "The study found that in older people with mild high blood pressure, those practising transcendental meditation had a 23% lower risk of death from all causes."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/science/story/0,12996,1474549,00.html
The Cheney Observer - some are 'dated' but an odd look back about 100 days ago
Jeb Bush Hires Writer Who Left Paper After Sex-Harassment, Plagiary Charge
By E&P Staff
Published: January 07, 2005 2:15 PM ET
NEW YORK Just days after Florida Gov. Jeb Bush fired a top official over sexual-harassment allegations, Bush's office confirmed it has hired Lloyd Brown, former editorial-page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, who resigned from the paper in November following public allegations of sexual harassment and plagiarism.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000748621
Jeb Bush and election 2008
JIMMY HALL Contributing Columnist
January 10, 2005
Many editorialists and columnists, myself included, have already begun speculating about the 2008 Presidential Election. To read what we've written, it would appear to be a slam dunk that either former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Arizona Sen. John McCain will square-off against New York Senator Hillary R. Clinton in the general election. Are we really so sure? No, we aren't.
Amid the 'what ifs,' one scenario is receiving surprisingly little attention. What about another Bush versus Clinton contest? It could happen, and it would be interesting.
http://www.gsusignal.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/01/10/41e1ef9d8ebaa
Governor Jeb Bush outlines Medicaid reform proposal
By MICHAEL PELTIER, mpeltier1234@comcast.net
January 12, 2005
TALLAHASSEE — Calling Florida's Medicaid system an expensive yet "inflexible maze," Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday proposed allowing private insurers to manage much of the $15 billion health-care program.
Flanked by health-care officials, Bush unveiled a package of reforms that make fundamental changes to the state/federal safety net now serving about 2.2 million of the state's elderly and low-income residents.
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_3463779,00.html
TennCare Cuts Benefits for 700,000+
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has announced he will be slashing TennCare coverage for adults, according to Anita Wadhwani in “The Tennessean.” The cuts will drop the expected increase in TennCare spending from an additional $650 million to just $75 million. Altogether, the program will drop 323,000 adults, and nearly 400,000 other enrollees will have their benefits limited. The article quotes the governor as saying, “When this is all done and over, we should still end up with one of the broadest, most generous [Medicaid] programs in the country.” Enrollees being dropped from the program will have only 30 days to find other coverage. Tennessee has been paying only one-third of the cost with the rest picked up by the federal government.
SOURCE: www.tennessean.com
Clinton Thinks TennCare is Just Swell
TennCare has been a nightmare, not only from a fiscal point of view, but for enrollees as well. The people of Tennessee would have been better off had it never been adopted because they would have continued their private coverage.
Now they have only 30 days to find private coverage, and many of them are likely now to be uninsurable. But former President Bill Clinton is undeterred. “The Tennessean” reported just before Christmas that Mr. Clinton thinks the program is just swell and only needs to be federalized. And former Vice-President and Tennessee Senator Al Gore blames TennCare’s problems on President Bush. “TennCare was sandbagged by failure at the national level to deal with health care,” he maintains.
SOURCE: www.tennessean.com
Jeb Bush Proposes Health Accounts in Medicaid
In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush is also tackling the problem of Medicaid costs, which are expected to consume one-third of the state budget by 2009. An article in "The News-Press” quotes him as saying, “We want to empower the people in the Medicaid program to control their own health care, to choose their coverage, their doctors and their treatments.”
He would privatize the system by providing a risk-adjusted premium to each recipient who would then shop for coverage from private vendors. The article says that “Bush’s plan would let some patients set up their own health care accounts, and is designed to persuade more specialty providers to take Medicaid patients.” The program covers 2.2 million individuals and costs the state $14 billion.
SOURCE: www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005501120454
New Hampshire HHS Commissioner Wants HSAs in Medicaid
Florida is not the only state looking at health accounts for Medicaid recipients. The Commissioner of Health and Human Services in New Hampshire has an “ambitious plan to reform Medicaid that would … give low-income families a health savings account for their children’s care,” according to the "Nashua Telegraph." Commissioner John Stephen estimates that his plan, combined with restrictions on nursing home admissions, would save the state $13 million over two years, but the savings would grow to $142 million by 2010. The concept was supported by out-going Governor Craig Benson, but attacked by Governor-elect John Lynch during the campaign. More recently, the governor-elect has said he would consider the idea.
SOURCE: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050106/NEWS01/101060090/-1/news
South Carolina Proposes HSAs in Medicaid
South Carolina predates Florida and New Hampshire in looking at HSAs and Medicaid. Writing in "The Post and Courier"
on November 20, Jonathan Maze reports that “South Carolina’s Medicaid agency is proposing a major overhaul of the government health care program by giving recipients a limited number of dollars each year over which they would have direct control.” The article says that Commissioner Robert Kerr “would give most of the state’s 850,000 Medicaid recipients a debit card good to use for doctor visits and prescription drugs.” He said the program could save money by “turning Medicaid recipients into smarter health care consumers,” and lowering administrative costs. Mr. Kerr says that Governor Mark Sanford would like to see the changes “tomorrow.” But he acknowledges there are “lots of things we don’t know. What we do know is that if we don’t talk about it, we won’t move anywhere.”
SOURCE: archives.postandcourier.com
Maine’s DirigoChoice Enrollment Only One-Third of Expected
Meanwhile, Maine’s DirigoChoice plan “is confusing for both employers and employees,” according to The Maine Heritage Policy Center. In the Winter, 2005 issue of DirigoWatch, the Center reports only 2,700 people have enrolled as of January, as compared to a projection of 8,267 by the state. Why so few? Well, for one thing the coverage is expensive, costing from $4,666 for a $250 deductible to $3,718 for a $1250 deductible. That is for a single employee.
The employer is required to pay $2,231 of that with either taxpayers or the worker making up the difference. The program is bafflingly complex with income-based benefit structures (the higher the income, the lower the benefits).
So each person at a work site could have a different set of benefits as determined, not by the consumer, but by the state. The tax subsidies are based on total household income and assets, requiring workers to reveal to a state agency great detail about their financial condition. There are also drastic marriage penalties, fertility inducements and leaps in cost as income rises. It is the kind of program only a very well-educated bureaucrat could design.
SOURCE: The newsletter is available at the Center’s web site http://www.mainepolicy.org
Maryland Legislature Overrides Malpractice Veto
In Maryland, the Democratic-controlled legislature overrode Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich’s veto of a malpractice bill that essentially taxes consumers to pay for physician malpractice premiums without doing anything significant about the underlying problem. The trial lawyers, hospitals and medical association all thought it was just swell to have taxpayers subsidize their gravy train. Watch for this model to roll out in a state near you. Other than the governor and a few out-gunned legislators, about the only voice objecting to this fleecing of taxpayers was the Maryland Public Policy Institute that released a report on malpractice reform and has written a number of op-eds as the issue progressed.
SOURCE: For a "Baltimore Sun" article on the veto override -- http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-te.md.assembly12jan12,1,2804538.story?coll=bal-home-headlines
For a copy of the MPPI report, go to their web site at http://www.mdpolicy.org
For an example of an op-ed on the issue, go to -- http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=101186&format=print
State Policy Network – Essential Resource
In the two stories above, the role of the local free-market think tank has been essential. They are able to stay on top of these important and potentially nationally significant developments far better than any national group can, and they can provide a detailed analysis of the issue that can help people in other states deal with it when it rears its ugly head. Both of these groups are members of the State Policy Network, which helps launch similar organizations and provides essential expertise on fundraising, management, networking, and issues resources. Be sure to check out the SPN website to locate the think tank nearest you. These organizations are always eager to work with people who can bring experience, expertise and contacts to the group. Many have advisory committees, boards of directors, or visiting scholars programs you might be able to tap into.
SOURCE: http://www.spn.org
AHIP Finds Half-Million in HSAs
Finally, AHIP has become one of the biggest boosters of HSAs. It has launched a web site that is terrific, and just today released a survey of its members on HSA enrollment. The number it released was 438,000 people covered by September, 2004. There are a few things to keep in mind about this number. First, it goes only to September.
It is characteristic of HSAs that enrollment will be very low in the third quarter of a year because the individual is subject to 100% of the deductible even though only a fraction can be contributed to the HSA. It is very likely that the number doubled or tripled in November and December as people got ready for the 2005 calendar year. Second, the survey is of AHIP members only and is based on responses from only 29 companies. Many (most?) Blue Cross Blue Shield companies are not AHIP members, for instance, so would not have been captured by this information. Also, many self-insured employers would not be captured here. I believe the number at year’s end is much higher than this number, possibly three times as much (1.5 million).
SOURCE: http://www.hsadecisions.org
Bush family has helped reshape GOP
By DAVE MONTGOMERY
Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram
WASHINGTON - The man of the hour, of course, is George W. Bush. But, to a larger extent, his second-term inauguration today is also a family affair, another passage in a decades-long journey by one of America's most enduring political dynasties.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/politics/10690852.htm
Jeb Bush loses appeal in right-to-die case
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court has dealt a setback on Monday to Florida Governor Jeb Bush's
efforts to keep a severely brain-damaged woman on life support despite the wishes of her husband.
Without comment, the justices rejected Bush's appeal of a Florida Supreme Court ruling that struck down a state law
which had allowed him to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, who has been on a feeding tube since a 1990 heart
attack. Doctors have testified she is in a "persistent vegetative state."
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5489944
Jeb Bush talks up Florida military bases in Washington
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Jeb Bush led a delegation of business and retired military leaders in meetings Wednesday with top Pentagon officials and members of Florida's congressional delegation as part of a mission to save the state's military bases from possible closure or downsizing.
Protecting the 21 installations and three unified commands during the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, round is a one of Bush's core priorities.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10858599.htm
Bush the Latino lover splits his party
Tony Allen-Mills, Homestead, Florida
BERNARDO VILLELA tells a story about a fellow Guatemalan immigrant who found a job in New York and prospered for more than a decade until he was recently involved in a car accident. When the police discovered that he had no driver’s licence and had entered the country illegally, deportation proceedings began.
...Just as Bill Clinton liked to be called America’s first black president — on account of his support among African-Americans — so Bush has launched a bid to be remembered as a friend to Hispanics. But a series of measures aimed at America’s 37m Hispanics has divided the Republican party, upset immigrant activists and added a new word to Washington’s political lexicon — “hispandering”, or sucking up to Latinos.
At a recent White House lunch, Bush was introduced to a Mexican businesswoman who has just become engaged to one of his old friends from Texas — Antonio Garza, the US ambassador to Mexico.
Bush stumbled over the future Mrs Garza’s name — which was excusable, given that her name is Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala. Perhaps less excusable was that Bush did not know that she is the billionaire owner of Mexico’s Corona beer empire and the country’s richest woman.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1481765,00.html
Jordan fears loss of US favour
By Jon Leyne
BBC News, Amman
Jordan has not always been talking Washington's language recently
Of all America's allies in the Arab world, Jordan must surely be one of the closest and most trusted - or so it seemed until recently.
But all that has changed, and King Abdullah's government does not seem to know what to do about it.
Things came to a head after an incident in Salt - a small town just outside the capital with a reputation for sending its sons to take part in the Iraqi insurgency.
Last month the family of one of them, Raed al-Banna, held three days of mourning following his death as a suicide bomber in Iraq.
It was thought, probably wrongly, that he carried out the massacre in Hilla in which 125 people died.
The event caused a rupture in Jordan's relations with Iraq and led the US to question if Jordan really was such a reliable ally.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4472833.stm
I love this one. Foreign governments need to worry about fossil fuel consumption but the USA doesn't. Real good.
Bush calls for efficient use of fossil fuels
Sridhar Krishnaswami
WASHINGTON: Driving home the importance of reducing dependence on imported oil, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, said that one of the ways this could be achieved was by helping growing energy consumers overseas like China and India to use energy more efficiently.
At a prime time press conference at the White House, the President argued that the "root causes" of the current oil price rise would have to be addressed.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/02/stories/2005050201121500.htm
Federal salaries go up in US
AGENCIES
[ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2004 09:50:45 AM]
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TEXAS: President George W Bush has spelled out in greater detail the pay raise that takes effect January 1 for federal workers, members of Congress, judges _ even Vice President Dick Cheney.
Congress passed the pay raises earlier this year, but Bush was required to sign an executive order detailing the pay hikes before the end of the year. He did so Thursday. The president's annual salary of $400,000 is not affected by the legislation.
The cost-of-living raise lifts salaries for members of the House and Senate from $158,000 this year to $162,100 in 2005. The measure provides civil servants with 3.5 per cent raises _ the same that military personnel will receive next year.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/976783.cms
JON CARROLL
So many stories in the newspaper right now are looking back on the dreadful and yet terrible year 2004, with critical appraisals and timelines and the usual hoorah. I decided to step it up a notch and look back on the year 2005, so that we can all experience pre-need nostalgia.
The Iraq elections: The January "Depressed Voter Turnout Due to Carnage" election was swiftly followed by the February "Give the Sunnis an Even Break" election, followed by the April "Hey, the Shiites Are the Majority; Is This a Democracy or What?" election, followed by the June "The Kurds Are Really Mad Now" elections, followed by the August "Everyone Is Resigning; Why Not Vote for Yourself?" elections, followed by the November "The Hell With It; Let's Elect an American" elections, which finally installed Colin Powell as the new president of Iraq. Powell pledged to "continue the policies of my predecessors. "
...This drastic step had last been taken more than 30 years ago, when all announcements from the Pentagon about the war in Vietnam were also declared "beyond parody." Then, the triggering mechanism had been the statement "We are destroying this village in order to save it."
He lives, he lives!: In October, doctors announced the transplanting of an entirely different man into the body of Cheney. The man, whose name was not revealed, was said to be healthy and in his mid-30s. The White House press office said that the "newish" vice president would continue to vigorously support the president's policies.
"Cheney" was said to enjoy racquetball, scuba diving and sexual contact with multiple partners.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/12/31/DDGAB9AEE21.DTL
Tasers pose potentially lethal danger to heart, doctor warns
By SABIN RUSSELL
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
When 50,000 volts of electricity from a Taser surge across the body, it can instantly incapacitate a person -- more safely than a blow from a police baton or a blast of pepper spray, its manufacturer contends.
But cardiologists are concerned that, in certain cases, the device might also interrupt the rhythm of the human heart, throwing it into a potentially fatal chaotic state known as ventricular fibrillation.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/207168_tasers10.html
Commentary: Iraq war forum needed some different perspectives
2005-01-10
By Terry Smith
Athens NEWS Editor
It's too bad planners of Thursday's forum on Iraq -- "whether we should stay or go" -- couldn't have rounded up some diversity of opinion. Whether for the organizers' want of effort or just bad luck, the event unwound like an argument between shades of the same color. None of the other colors showed up.
The discussion featured well-meaning, intelligent people -- some of Athens' best and brightest. But nobody arrived to represent the Bush/Cheney end of things, much less the fickle mainstream that throws around so much weight.
http://www.athensnews.com/issue/article.php3?story_id=19357
Reno lawyer attempting to sue President Bush over Iraq war
A retired Reno attorney is attempting to sue President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over the war in Iraq.
Attorney Doug Wallace says he filed the suit in US District Court last Friday. His suit alleges that the president and vice president have acted outside the scope of their jobs in waging a war against Iraq.
Wallace claims the two entered into a private treaty without the approval of Congress.
http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2819947&nav=8faOVHlL
Nevada couple among top donors to Bush inauguration
(01-19) 15:19 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
Sheldon Adelson, who owns The Venetian hotel-casino in Las Vegas, and his wife, Dr. Miriam Ochshorn Adelson, are among the major donors to the committee organizing President Bush's inauguration.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/01/19/state1819EST0118.DTL
continued...
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