The Mercury News

Darfur rebel group agrees to make peace with Sudanese government
By Shashank Bengali
Knight Ridder Newspapers
NAIROBI, Kenya - Darfur's leading rebel group bowed to pressure from high-powered Western and African diplomats on Friday and accepted a peace agreement with the government of Sudan to end a bloody three-year war.
But analysts immediately raised doubts about whether the agreement would stop the fighting or end attacks on civilians by government-backed militias. The attacks have led to the deaths of more than 200,000 people in a campaign the United States has called genocide.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who brokered three days of talks that ended with an all-night session, said the agreement should pave the way for a United Nations peacekeeping force to arrive as early as this fall to stabilize the devastated region. But even he tempered his celebration with caution.
"This can be a very important day of hope and opportunity for the poor people of Darfur, who have been suffering, but it is only a step," he told reporters at the negotiations in Abuja, Nigeria.
The U.N. Security Council has approved sending a peacekeeping mission to Sudan as early as Sept. 30, but the Sudanese government so far has opposed the idea. Sudanese representatives to the negotiations said, however, that they would allow the U.N. mission once a peace agreement was in place.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14511868.htm


State probing Kaiser Permanente's kidney transplant program
PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - State regulators are investigating whether Kaiser Permanente mishandled a vast new kidney transplant program and put hundreds of patients' lives at risk, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Managed Health Care said Friday.
Kaiser failed to hold basic discussions with regulators on how to properly transfer up to 1,500 of its kidney patients from other programs to its new transplant center in San Francisco in 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported this week.
Paperwork errors and other administrative bungling stalled, and in some cases canceled, the processing of many patients waiting for transplants. Some patients were never told their transfers from other programs had not been processed.
The transfer for one patient, Ruben Porras, didn't come through until September - 10 months after he was put on inactive status by his previous program, the newspaper reported. Porras died less than a month later. His wife, Elizabeth Porras, said Kaiser had given her husband "a death sentence."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14512358.htm


Rep. Patrick Kennedy to enter drug rehab
ANDREW MIGA
WASHINGTON - Rep. Patrick Kennedy said Friday he was entering treatment for addiction to prescription pain drugs after a middle-of-the-night car crash near the Capitol that he said he had no memory of. "That's not how I want to live my life," he declared.
Kennedy, D-R.I., the son of Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, said he would seek immediate treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
His one-car accident about 3 a.m. Thursday was the talk of the capital, with police saying he appeared to be intoxicated but Kennedy saying later that day that he had had nothing to drink.
For Kennedy, who said he has suffered from depression and pain-medication addiction for years, the trip to the Mayo Clinic was his second in less than five months. He went there over Christmas and said he returned to Congress "reinvigorated and healthy."

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14503326.htm


Court: City must pay in vote backing gay unions
By John Woolfolk
Mercury News
San Jose's controversial attempt two years ago to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere will cost city taxpayers more than $145,000, a judge has ruled.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Mary Jo Levinger ordered San Jose in a ruling two weeks ago to pay the legal costs of traditional marriage advocates who had sued to overturn the city council's March 2004 vote granting spousal benefits to ``married'' gay employees.
Assistant City Attorney Bill Hughes said San Jose hasn't decided whether to appeal the judge's award of legal fees.
In an 8-1 vote over passionate public opposition, the San Jose City Council became the first in the state to recognize gay marriages performed by San Francisco or other jurisdictions for purposes of extending spousal benefits to same-sex employees. Councilman Chuck Reed, now a mayoral candidate, was opposed. Two other council members who had indicated opposition, Forrest Williams and Pat Dando, were traveling and unavailable to vote that day.
The move came weeks after San Francisco inflamed the nation's cultural divide by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The California Supreme Court later that year nullified San Francisco's same-sex marriages, finding that city officials had overstepped their authority. State voters in 2000 overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22, the ``Defense of Marriage Act'' stating that only marriages between a man and a woman are valid in California.
The lawsuit seeking to overturn San Jose's vote was filed by the Proposition 22 Legal Defense & Education Fund, which seeks to enforce the initiative's provisions.
Judge Levinger in December ruled in the group's favor, but by then it was a largely symbolic victory. The city council earlier that year had ``clarified'' its 2004 vote stating the city wasn't attempting to judge ``the legality of same sex marriages in California.'' And state legislation this year extended spousal benefits to registered domestic partners.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/the_valley/14507543.htm



Rally against amnesty for illegal immigrants draws dozens
By Julie Patel
Mercury News
About 100 opponents to amnesty for illegal immigrants rallied today -- Cinco de Mayo -- in Santa Clara's Central Park.
The almost all white group, some dressed from head to toe in red, white and blue, waved American flags and held up signs that read ``Protect our borders,'' and ``Enforce our laws.''
Santa Clara tech worker Jill Easton said her concern with illegal immigration was economic. ``Because of all the illegal immigrants, our hospitals are broke and are schools are broken because we're pouring all this money out,'' she said.
The protest was fairly quiet, but drew attention from drivers who honked their horns and yelled at the group as they passed. Some cruised past the park with American flags flying out their windows. A few drove by with Mexican flags.
Although the jeers from the passersby drew protester responses, nothing incendiary followed.
Off to the side was a group of a half a dozen immigrant-rights supporters, one holding a Mexican flag, who expressed anger that the rally was being held on Cinco de Mayo.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/14512400.htm


Cassidy: What happens to the hats?
By Mike Cassidy
Now it's time for the big question.
The San Jose Sharks are back in town after a short break in their National Hockey League playoff run. But forget about who has the fleetest offense, the fiercest defense or the most powerful power play. The big question for Sharks fans? What do they do with all the hats?
You know, The Hats. The hats that rain down on the ice when a home-team player scores three goals in one game.
Three goals is a hat trick, a rare feat that requires giddy fans to litter with lids the ice rink at HP Pavilion. Why lay a perfectly good accessory at the skated feet of our local heroes?
Because it's hockey, a funny game with funny traditions.
But funny or not, when the Sharks take the ice Sunday against the Edmonton Oilers, plenty of fans will wait in blissful anticipation of another lid-flipping celebration.
It happened last week when Patrick Marleau poked in his third puck against the Nashville Predators (which, oddly, a shark is). Obliging fans all over the arena showered the ice with hats. A cracker-jack crew scooped them up and away.
And then?
``We do try and put them to good use,'' says Ken Arnold, a Sharks spokesman.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/dispatch/14507538.htm


CBS leaps into online television
AD-SUPPORTED `INNERTUBE' WILL SHOW ORIGINAL PROGRAMS, RERUNS
By Charlie McCollum
Mercury News
CBS took a major step forward in online television Thursday by launching ``innertube,'' an advertising-supported broadband entertainment channel that will include original programming and repeats of network shows.
While all of the networks have tested the water on alternative ways of delivering content -- online, iPod downloads, video on demand -- the CBS venture marks the first attempt to establish a Web-based channel. The network has already had some recent success with video on revamped versions of cbsnews.
com, its news site, and cbssportsline.com, which recently attracted millions of viewers with its real-time Webcasts of the NCAA basketball tournament.
``We want our content to be all the places our viewers are -- and they are certainly on the Internet,'' said Nancy Tellem, president of the CBS Paramount Network Television Group. ``Creatively, we want this platform to be a content playground where new talent and ideas are discovered, and to give our existing talent a chance to extend their energies to a new medium.''

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/14507570.htm


Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mr. Porter Goss...

Click Image for 'FAHRENHEIT 9/11' Outtake

"The New Head of the CIA doesn't know how to use a computer."


CIA Director Porter Goss Resigns
By Jennifer Loven / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly Friday, leaving behind a spy agency still battling to recover from the scars of intelligence failures before America's worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S. rationale for invading Iraq.
It was the latest move in a second-term shake-up of President Bush's team.
Making the announcement from the Oval Office, Bush called Goss' tenure one of transition.
"He has led ably," Bush said, Goss at his side. "He has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives."
Goss said the trust, confidence and latitude that Bush placed in him "is something I could have never imagined."
"I believe the agency is on a very even keel, sailing well," Goss said. "I honestly believe that we have improved dramatically."
The president did not name a successor, but said that person would continue Goss' reforms.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6740



Porter Goss resigns; is prostitution probe a factor?
Let the Hindenburg soar.
George W. Bush just announced that he has accepted the resignation of CIA Director Porter Goss. Goss, a former GOP congressman, has been on the job for less than two years, and neither he nor Bush gave any explanation for his departure.
The high-profile way in which Bush announced the news seems to suggest that there's nothing unseemly involved; you wouldn't expect the president to stand side by side with Goss and talk about their "very close, personal relationship" if he knew that a serious shoe were about to drop.
That said, there was a hasty, thrown-together quality to Bush's Oval Office remarks this afternoon, and the president clearly isn't ready to name a replacement for Goss yet. It's hard to think there isn't something going on behind the scenes here, especially after neither Bush nor Goss so much as mentioned a pretense -- more time with the family? -- for Goss' leaving.
So why the sudden move? Everyone is guessing now, but there's at least a whiff of scandal around Goss: As we noted last week, there's speculation that Goss may have attended poker parties organized by defense contractors implicated in the Randy "Duke" Cunningham corruption probe. One of those contractors has said that he didn't just bribe Cunningham but hired prostitutes for him as well.
The CIA has denied that Goss was a guest at the poker parties -- so far as we know, no one has asked about hookers yet -- but the timing of his resignation today is at least a little curious: TPMmuckraker reported yesterday that the Watergate Hotel, where some of the poker parties are said to have taken place, has received a number of subpoenas from federal investigators looking into the Cunningham case.
Meanwhile, keep an eye on Dusty Foggo, the man Goss installed in the No. 3 job at the CIA. As we've reported previously, the CIA's inspector general is looking into Foggo's oversight of contracts at the agency; NBC says the investigation includes allegations that Foggo steered a $2.4 million contract to Brent Wilkes, one of the contractors implicated in the Cunningham case. Wilkes and Foggo have been pals since college, and Foggo made the scene at -- and even hosted some of -- the contractors' poker parties.
-- Tim Grieve
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/05/05/goss/index.html



Santorum pushes for new rules, lives by old
The senator took flights sponsored by corporations while arguing against the perk.
By Carrie Budoff / Philadelphia Inquirer
Speaking from the Senate floor, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) urged his colleagues to curtail a popular perk: private corporate-sponsored flights at bargain rates for members of Congress.
"This is clearly a subsidy," he said March 8.
Two days earlier, he had taken a BellSouth plane from a runway near his home in Leesburg, Va., to fund-raising events in North Carolina and South Carolina. The jet ferried Santorum, two aides and Ward White, BellSouth's top Washington lobbyist.
Santorum paid $6,955 - first-class rates, as Senate rules require, but a fraction of what it costs to operate the plane.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=21



The Family Business
Two years since his son's beheading in Iraq, Michael Berg runs for Congress.
By Alexandra Zendrian / Philadelphia City Paper
Michael Berg's favorite song is "The Eve of Destruction" by The Turtles. The eve of Berg's personal destruction came in the spring 2004, when his son Nick went t Iraq for the second time. Nick, who took classes at Drexel University and th University of Pennsylvania, was an entrepreneur, and a risk-taking one at that. Hi company, Prometheus Towers Inc., was seeking contracts to build radio towers in war-torn country where big risk meant big profits.
But during this trip, something went terribly wrong. In late March, the U.S. military took Nick into custody. They were suspicious because he was an American alone in Iraq when there were few Americans alone in Iraq. While he was in custody, the FBI questioned Nick and ultimately released him. Soon, however, he would be captured by al-Qaida.
Then, on May 8, 2004, Nick's death would bring the war home to America like few casualties before: The military said it discovered his decapitated body on a Baghdad overpass. But to hear Michael tell it two years later, al-Qaida isn't to blame for his son's death. The president of the United States is.
"Another one of Bush's lies," says Berg of the official story of Nick's beheading. "Al-Qaida was not already in Iraq."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=20



Ohio Struggles to Fix Voting Problems
By Connie Mabin / Associated Press
CLEVELAND - Ohio's first election without punch card ballots was marred by a slew of problems with new voting machines, raising a crucial question: Can the state that decided the last presidential race get it together before November?
Election officials had trouble printing ballot receipts, finding lost votes and tabulating election results in Tuesday's primary. Some election workers were late or did not show up at all in Cleveland's Cuyahoga County, the state's largest. Others could not figure out how to turn on the machines.
"Ohio's quickly getting this reputation as most corrupt and maybe most incompetent," said Chris Link, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, which fielded dozens of complaints from voters.
Tuesday's primary was the first in which all 88 counties used either touch-screen machines or devices that scan ballots marked by voters.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=17



3 U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq Bombing
By Sinan Salaheddin / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A roadside bomb killed three American soldiers south of Baghdad on Friday as U.S. and Iraqi forces swept through a city to the north where three insurgents had been killed the day before after firing on U.S troops.
The three Americans died in the attack shortly before noon in Babil province, the U.S. military said, giving few other details. However, Iraqi police said the blast targeted a military convoy near Mahaweel, 35 miles south of Baghdad.
In Samarra, 60 miles north of the capital, American and Iraqi forces imposed a daytime curfew and searched neighborhoods looking for insurgents a day after three militants were killed after they opened fire on U.S. soldiers, police said.
Samarra was the scene of the Feb. 22 explosion at a Shiite shrine that enflamed sectarian tensions. It triggered reprisal attacks on Sunnis, forced tens of thousands of Iraqis to flee their homes and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.
American officials are hoping the new national unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds will eventually reduce sectarian tensions and lure disaffected Sunni Arabs away from the insurgency so U.S. and other foreign troops can begin to go home.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6743



Despite Upgrades, Humvee Deaths Up
(CBS/AP) Coming on the heels of insurgent violence in Iraq on Wednesday, a new report says that despite stronger armor on over 50,000 Humvees and other military vehicles throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs have killed more U.S. troops this year based on Pentagon records.
Most are dying in their Humvees, USA Today reports, as insurgents plant more powerful bombs and use different triggering methods to evade U.S. countermeasures, experts tell the newspaper.
According to Pentagon casualty reports, 67 U.S. troops have died this year in roadside bomb attacks on their Humvees, and another 22 troops were killed when IEDs hit other military vehicles, including more heavily armored tanks and troop carriers.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6728



Report blames top U.S. officials for alleged torture of detainees
By Matthew Schofield / Knight Ridder
BERLIN - Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees by U.S. forces is widespread and, in many cases, sanctioned by top government officials, Amnesty International charged Wednesday.
The allegations, contained in a 32,000-word report released in New York and London and posted on the human rights organization's Web site, are likely to influence a U.N. hearing on U.S. compliance with international torture agreements that begins Friday in Geneva. Amnesty International sent a copy of the report to the U.N. Committee Against Torture, which is holding the hearings.
"Although the U.S. government continues to assert its condemnation of torture and ill-treatment, these statements contradict what is happening in practice," said Curt Goering, the group's senior deputy executive director in the United States. "The U.S. government is not only failing to take steps to eradicate torture, it is actually creating a climate in which torture and other ill-treatment can flourish."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=6735



RNC Chairman Warns of Possible GOP Catastrophe
By Robert Novak / Human Events Online
RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman met with Republican members of Congress this week to impress upon them just how bad the opinion polls are looking for them, and warning that they face a possible catastrophe in November.
This warning contributed to GOP determination to pass a tax reconciliation bill that will extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts beyond their current expiration dates at the end of the decade.
On Tuesday, Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) were supposed to meet with President Bush in the Oval office to discuss the tax bill, which, if passed, will be one of the most important Republican accomplishments of 2006 leading into the midterm elections. But Grassley bowed out, giving the excuse that he had constituents in town from Iowa. Even in the face of disaster, Republicans seem unable to get their act together.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=19



Condoleezza Rice Does Not Deserve a Boston College Honorary Degree
The following letter was signed by nearly 100 Boston College faculty:
We, the undersigned members of the faculty at Boston College, strongly disagree with the decision of the university's leadership to grant Condoleezza Rice an honorary Doctor of Laws degree and to invite her to address the 2006 commencement. On the levels of both moral principle and practical moral judgment, Secretary Rice's approach to international affairs is in fundamental conflict with Boston College's commitment to the values of the Catholic and Jesuit traditions and is inconsistent with the humanistic values that inspire the university's work.
As a matter of moral principle, Rice maintains that U.S. foreign policy should be based on U.S. national interest and not on what she calls the interests of an "illusory international community." This stands in disturbing contrast with the Catholic and humanistic conviction that all people are linked together in a single human family and that all nations in our interdependent world have a duty to protect "the common good of the entire human family."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=641


Impeachment Project Gets a Boost

http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2006/03/impeachment-project-gets-boost.html


Exxpose Exxon

As one of the world's most profitable companies, ExxonMobil has the power to move the world toward a more sustainable energy future. Instead, ExxonMobil has acted consistently to move our country backward on energy policy by opposing efforts to stop global warming, lobbying to drill in America's most pristine wilderness areas, and failing to promote renewable energy and fuel efficiency.

http://www.exxposeexxon.com/


Pro-American = Anti-BushCo
By Cindy Sheehan
I (and every single other individual on this planet working for peace and justice) am often accused of being "anti-American" for dissenting against my feral government that has gone wild with lawlessness and greed; even though dissent from our government is as American as apple pie. Some people believe that if one is critical of the Bush criminal regime, then one is anti-American.
I steadfastly believe that to be anti-BushCo means being pro-American; pro-life; and most of all: pro-peace.
In a recent article in the Boston Globe (Sun, April 30) the Bush regime is blamed for breaking or giving itself permission to break over 750 laws. George is the only sitting president to have admitted to breaking laws and for openly disdaining the constitution as an "old scrap of paper." How can we peaceniks be accused of being anti-American when the squatter in the Oval Office has no respect for the supreme law of the land? But of course, 9/11 changed the world and we are a nation "at war" so George thinks he can do whatever he wants even though he is the one who made us a nation at war with his lies and deceptions. I will stipulate that the constitution is a deeply flawed document, but the founders realized this and gave we future generations ways to amend it and one of the ways to amend it is not just "cuz the president says so." He may be the decider but he is not the amender.

Phttp://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=640



U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ:

2414

U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ:

17648

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS (MINIMUM):

34711



The Boston Globe


2 in Congress rip Bush on bypassing of laws
Frank and Markey seek resolution that would halt practice
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff May 5, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Two Massachusetts congressmen announced yesterday that they will sponsor a resolution to protest President Bush's assertions that he is not bound to obey more than 750 laws enacted over the past five years, saying that Congress must push back against the White House's expansive interpretation of executive authority.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/05/2_in_congress_rip_bush_on_bypassing_of_laws/



0 is the new 8
As waistlines grow, women's clothing sizes shrink incredibly
By Kate M. Jackson, Globe Correspondent May 5, 2006
Inside the dressing room at Ann Taylor, Wendy Chao found herself at a loss.
''I tried on a size 0 skirt and it was too big," said Chao, a 30-year-old graduate student of molecular biology at Harvard University. ''To me, a size 0 is antimatter; it's something devoid of any physical reality."
Chao was already mystified by how she'd shrunk from a size 8 in high school to a size 2 today, despite gaining 15 pounds in the interim. But now at size 0, she realized something curious was afoot.
''As far as I can see, size means nothing," she said. ''I am different sizes at different stores, but they're all remarkably smaller than what I wore as a scrawny teenager. In my closet, I have everything from a size 0 to a size 12." She added that a size 8 skirt she bought from Ann Taylor in 2000 is ''identical in cut" to the size 0 she bought at the store late last year.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/05/0_is_the_new_8/


Thriving after surviving
Matz has contender, years after living through plane crash
By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff May 5, 2006
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The questions have come steadily all week, and Michael Matz has heard them before. He politely, but persistently, deflects them.
Not the time, nor the place, he says quietly.
Matz this week has gone about his business of training a prime contender, Barbaro, for tomorrow's 132d Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
For most of his brethren, training a Derby contender would be a career highlight, something to be savored and talked about for years -- especially if Barbaro, the third betting choice in the morning line behind Brother Derek and Lawyer Ron, makes his way to the winner's circle.
But for Matz, it would merely be another stop in a life's journey that has included appearances in three Olympics as a member of the US equestrian team, and the honor of carrying the American flag in the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Games, in which the team won a silver medal.

http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/horse_racing/articles/2006/05/05/thriving_after_surviving/



Big Dig probe expanding
6 managers at concrete firm facing fraud charges
By Raja Mishra and Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff May 5, 2006
A widening Big Dig investigation will examine a range of companies' construction practices, authorities said yesterday, as they announced federal fraud charges against managers at the region's biggest concrete supplier in allegedly delivering inferior concrete that was used in tunnels, ramps, and roadways.
Six managers from Aggregate Industries NE Inc. were indicted in federal court on charges of running a conspiracy that delivered 5,000 truckloads of tainted concrete -- 1.2 percent of the concrete used on the entire project -- to the Big Dig over nine years. The managers used a web of falsified documents to cover up their ploy, federal prosecutors said.
US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan said the investigation is in the early stages and did not rule out further indictments.
''I think we've just scratched the surface," Sullivan said, adding that other companies would face scrutiny now. ''I'm not confident that everybody else followed all the specifications and all the rules."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/05/big_dig_probe_expanding/



Subpar material could add to woes on tunnel project
By Michael Levenson, Globe Staff May 5, 2006
The use of 5,000 truckloads of diluted, old concrete in the Big Dig could cause its tunnels and roadways to crack and crumble, several independent engineers said yesterday, even as state and federal officials sought to reassure drivers that the massive highway project is safe.
Concrete has to be mixed and poured precisely and quickly for the material to endure, according to civil engineers.
But prosecutors say that Aggregate Industries NE Inc., the main supplier of concrete to the Big Dig, violated the project's specifications.
State and federal officials said the faulty concrete does not have to be replaced immediately, although it could pose long-term maintenance problems.
Aggregate is accused of waiting well beyond the required maximum 90 minutes to pour the material and in other instances of mixing old, hardening batches with fresh concrete. Prosecutors also say that workers diluted concrete with extra water to make it appear fresh. Engineers said that such dilution could weaken the concrete and cause it to disintegrate eventually.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/05/subpar_material_could_add_to_woes_on_tunnel_project/


Rep. Kennedy in 3 a.m. crash near Capitol
Says he didn't use alcohol, medicine disoriented him
WASHINGTON -- Representative Patrick J. Kennedy was involved in a car accident near the US Capitol at about 3 a.m. yesterday, reportedly nearly colliding head-on with a Capitol Police car before hitting a security barrier near the US Capitol.
In a statement released around 6 p.m., Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, said he had not been drinking. ''I was involved in a traffic incident last night at First and C St., SE, near the Capitol. I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident," he said. ''I will fully cooperate with the Capitol Police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake."
Three hours after that statement, Kennedy, the youngest son of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and his first wife, Joan, released another saying he had taken sleep medication and a prescription antinausea drug that can cause drowsiness. Kennedy said the attending physician for Congress had prescribed Phenergan on Tuesday to treat gastroenteritis.
He said he returned to his Capitol Hill home on Wednesday evening after a series of votes in Congress and took prescribed amounts of Phenergan and Ambien, another prescribed drug that he occasionally takes to fall asleep.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/05/rep_kennedy_in_3_am_crash_near_capitol/



CIA health questioned as Goss quits
By David Morgan May 5, 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The abrupt resignation of CIA Director Porter Goss raises disturbing questions about the U.S. flagship intelligence agency's health, amid growing concerns about a nuclear Iran, turmoil in Iraq and the al Qaeda threat.
More than four years after the September 11 attacks, critics of the Bush administration, including Democrats in Congress, also warned that problems at the CIA had parallels elsewhere in the 16-agency U.S. intelligence community including at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
Goss' departure capped months of unhappiness over his leadership of the CIA and efforts to rebuild the agency's key clandestine and analytical operations for the war on terrorism, analysts and former intelligence officers said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/05/cia_health_questioned_as_goss_quits/



Star entrepreneur staged attack on himself, DA says
By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff May 5, 2006
CAMBRIDGE -- Former MIT professor John J. Donovan Sr., who amassed a $100 million fortune as a businessman, executive mentor, and consultant, once proclaimed of his talents: ''I tell the future." Yesterday, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said Donovan told a lie to Cambridge police and charged him with filing a false police report after he allegedly staged his own shooting.
Donovan is accused of falsely claiming that two men attacked him on the night of Dec. 16 as he left his Cambridge company and then telling investigators that he believed his son James orchestrated the shooting. Instead, law enforcement officials say, Donovan, 64, of Hamilton, carefully composed the crime scene -- in which a car window was shattered by a bullet and spent .22-caliber cartridges were scattered in the parking lot -- to make it appear that he had been targeted for murder by his family.
The indictment on the single misdemeanor charge has a maximum penalty of one year in jail, Coakley said. But the indictment seems likely to further damage Donovan's controversial reputation.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/05/05/star_entrepreneur_staged_attack_on_himself_da_says/



Mild winter raises Lyme disease risk, doctors say
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff May 5, 2006
Lyme disease season has begun on Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape Cod, and physicians and health officials there and in other affected areas of Massachusetts are preparing for a possible heavier-than-usual onslaught of disease-carrying ticks.
The region had one of the warmest winters in recent history, with more ticks than usual likely to have survived and reproduced. Some specialists have warned that New England will face a heavy Lyme disease season.
Other physicians and specialists say that if the next few weeks bring considerable amounts of the moisture and precipitation that ticks thrive in, the Lyme-disease season could be nasty.
''If it's moist and cloudy and foggy in the next few weeks, we're going to have a ton of ticks," said Dr. Timothy Lepore, medical director of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, located in one of the state's Lyme-disease hot spots. ''But if it's dry, that may not be the case."
The National Weather Service forecast rain for today, but sun or partial clouds for the next six days.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/05/05/mild_winter_raises_lyme_disease_risk_doctors_say/



Boy, 3, dies after falling into tank
Taunton family had just moved in
TAUNTON -- A 3-year-old boy whose family moved into their home on Sunday, died yesterday after falling into a septic tank in his backyard, police said.
Emergency personnel found the body of Jason Cambronero after his mother, Jana, frantically called police to say that her son was missing.
Officials responded to the Richmond Street home about 3:30 p.m. and searched for 25 minutes until Officer Shawn Silvia thought to check the sewage drain, authorities said.
Officer William Rutherford, who remained at the scene last night, said he then stepped on the cover of the tank, causing it to open. The officers looked in and saw the boy.
''It's a sad tragedy, I don't really know what else to say," said Rutherford, who has been on the Taunton police force for 18 years and has two children, ages 10 and 14. ''A lot of times, parents call and their kids are hiding underneath the bed. You never expect this. You feel for the parents."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/05/05/boy_3_dies_after_falling_into_tank/


Cheney criticizes Russia in speech
Faults limits on rights, using gas as 'blackmail'
By Paul Richter and David Holley, Los Angeles Times May 5, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney, in the toughest critique of Russia yet delivered by the Bush administration, accused the government of Vladimir Putin yesterday of rolling back human rights and using the country's oil and gas reserves as ''tools of intimidation or blackmail."
Cheney told East European leaders in Lithuania that the Russian government had ''unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of her people" and had taken other actions that may adversely affect relations with other countries.
The remarks, which drew swift denunciations from some Russian politicians, are likely to increase tensions in the run-up to a July summit of leading industrial nations that will be hosted by Russia in St. Petersburg. Cheney's criticism also could complicate the Bush administration's effort to win Russian cooperation in its effort to persuade Iran to halt its controversial uranium enrichment program.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/05/05/cheney_criticizes_russia_in_speech/

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