2008 April archive at The Head-On Radio Network America’s Liberal Voice!

Archive for April, 2008

Bush crony who violated the Hatch Act resigns

Published by

April 30, 2008 in Government, Newz and The GOP. 0 Comments

By Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Scott Higham, Washington Post Staff Writers

At the request of the White House, General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan resigned last night as head of the government’s premier contracting agency, ending a tumultuous tenure in which she was accused of trying to award work to a friend and misusing her authority for political ends.

A White House spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Doan’s resignation came almost a year after Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said he believed Doan could no longer be effective because of the allegations about her leadership.

Waxman’s committee began investigating Doan after stories in The Washington Post showed that she had approved a $20,000, no-bid arrangement last July with a business run by a friend and had tried to reduce the budget of the agency’s inspector general.

Doan had been under scrutiny by the inspector general, Brian Miller, as well as members of Congress and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which protects federal employees from prohibited personnel practices.

The committee investigation turned up evidence that Doan might have violated the Hatch Act in January 2007 by asking political appointees how they could “help our candidates” at an agency briefing conducted by a White House official, according to several of the appointees present for the briefing. After a more extensive probe, the Office of Special Counsel concluded that those remarks violated the Hatch Act. The act generally prohibits employees of federal agencies from using their positions for political purposes.

In a letter in June, Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch urged President Bush to discipline Doan “to the fullest extent,” which would include removing her from office. In the ensuing 10 months, the White House said it was considering Bloch’s recommendation but made no further comment. More…

Share This

Judge orders Bush admin. to make listing decision on polar bears

Published by

elophan

April 29, 2008 in Animal Rights, Extinction, Government, Newz and The Environment. 0 Comments

ANCHORAGE (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to decide within 16 days whether polar bears should be listed as a threatened species because of global warming.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken agreed with conservation groups that the department missed a Jan. 9 deadline for a decision. She rejected a government request for a further delay and ordered it to act by May 15.

“Defendants have been in violation of the law requiring them to publish the listing determination for nearly 120 days,” the judge, based in Oakland, wrote in a decision issued late Monday. “Other than the general complexity of finalizing the rule, Defendants offer no specific facts that would justify the delay, much less further delay.”

Allowing more time would violate the Endangered Species Act and congressional intent that time was of the essence in listing threatened species, Wilken wrote.

The ruling is a victory for conservation groups that claim the Bush administration has delayed a polar bear decision to avoid addressing global warming and to avoid roadblocks to development such as the transfer of offshore petroleum leases in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast to oil company bidders.

Summer sea ice shrank last year to a record low, about 1.65 million square miles in September, nearly 40% less ice than the long-term average between 1979 and 2000. Some climate models have predicted the Arctic will be free of summer sea ice by 2030. A U.S. Geological Survey study generated in response to the listing petition predicted polar bears in Alaska could be wiped out by 2050.

A decision on the proposed listing was due Jan. 9, but Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall said in January that a delay was needed to make sure it came in a form easily understood. He promised a decision within a month, but that deadline also passed and the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace sued in March. More…

Share This

K-9 cop trainer fired for kicking dog wants his job back - Video

Published by

elophan

April 29, 2008 in Animal Rights, Law and Justice and Newz. 4 Comments

RALEIGH (WTVD) — Former Trooper Charles Jones, seen in a video kicking his K-9 partner, was fired for mistreating his dog named Ricoh.

At a hearing in Raleigh Monday, the trooper was trying to get his job back.

In a training video from last summer, the dog is seen hanging by its leash from a deck railing. But according to testimony, what got the former Highway Patrol Sergeant fired was leaving the dog hanging too long.

After seeing the video Highway Patrol Captain Ken Castelloe recommended Jones be fired.

“There is no training value in leaving the dog hanging,” Castelloe said.

Castelloe also told the judge that he knew Jones to be a good and respected trainer.

“I can understand what Charles was trying to do. He was trying to gain compliance from his dog,” Castelloe said. “I don’t believe Charles Jones would ever hurt that dog.”

Jones’ attorney said he believes his client was fired because the governor’s office feared the video would be released to the public amid adverse publicity about misdeeds by several other State Troopers. More…

Share This

Housing prices post record declines

Published by

elophan

April 29, 2008 in Economy, Housing and Newz. 0 Comments

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Home prices posted another record decline, as most of the nation’s largest markets suffered double-digit drops over last year, a survey released Tuesday shows.

The S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index, which tracks 20 of the largest housing markets, showed prices plummeting by 12.7% in the 12 months ending February. That’s the biggest fall since the index began tracking prices in 2000.

Of those 20 metro areas, 17 posted their largest year-over-year declines ever. Ten of the 20 cities posted double-digit dips.

The 10-city Case/Shiller index is down 13.6% year-over-year, the biggest drop since its launch in 1987. More…

Share This

How low will lake levels go?

Published by

Gene Shinai

April 29, 2008 in Foreign, Newz, Resources, State/Local Government and The Environment. 0 Comments

Courtesy MLive

West Michigan residents concerned about sinking Great Lakes water levels will get a chance to share their views this week when U.S. and Canadian officials studying the issue visit Muskegon.

The International Joint Commission, a U.S.-Canadian panel that advises the two nations on Great Lakes issues, is studying water levels in lakes Michigan, Huron, Superior and Erie. A committee working on the IJC’s International Upper Great Lakes Study will host a public hearing on lake levels Sunday, from 10 a.m. to noon, at Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute, 740 W. Shoreline.

“We want to hear lots of people come out and squawk at this public meeting,” said John Nevin, an IJC spokesman. “We want to hear what this issue means to people when the water is really high or really low.”

IJC officials might get an earful.

Lake Michigan’s water level has dropped nearly four feet since 1997, according to federal data. The low lake level has widened beaches but created safety hazards for recreational boaters and caused freighters to run aground in Muskegon, Grand Haven and other ports around the lake.

On the flip side, record-high lake levels in 1986 caused severe beach erosion that sent several Grand Haven cottages tumbling into the lake.

The IJC study is focused on two issues: Whether dredging in the St. Clair River over the past century has caused excessive lowering of water levels in lakes Michigan and Huron; and if the volume of water flowing out of Lake Superior daily through control structures in the St. Marys River should be adjusted to account for below-average precipitation and global warming, which some studies suggest could lower lake levels by several feet over the next century.

The study could prompt changes, such as the construction of a water control structure in the St. Clair River, that would affect water levels in lakes Michigan and Huron, said Gene Stakhiv, co-chair of the International Upper Lakes Study Board.

“There are a whole range of changes in the regulation of flow and physical structures in the (Great Lakes) system that could help us control water levels,” Stakhiv said. “But we don’t know yet if there is a need for that.”

A growing chorus of critics — from scientists and shoreline property owners in Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay, to marina owners and shipping interests — want the U.S. and Canadian governments to plug what amounts to an unnaturally large drain hole in the St. Clair River.

Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

Share This

Supreme Court upholds Indiana’s voter disenfranchisement law

Published by

elophan

April 28, 2008 in Election Fraud, Newz and The Courts. 0 Comments

From Bill Mears, CNN Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Monday backed Indiana’s law requiring voters to show photo identification, despite concerns thousands of elderly, poor and minority voters could be locked out of their right to cast ballots.

The 6-3 vote allows Indiana to require the identification when it holds its statewide primary next week. It also will give most state legislatures time to revise their voter laws for the November elections.

This was perhaps the biggest voter rights case taken up by the justices since the 2000 dispute over Florida’s ballots, in which George W. Bush prevailed to gain the presidency.

At issue was whether state laws designed to stem voter fraud end up disenfranchising large numbers of Americans who might lack proper documents to prove their voting eligibility. The case raised important constitutional questions, but also involved race and partisan politics.

Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said any political issues considered by the state were mitigated by its desire to stop voter fraud.

“The state interests identified as justifications for [the law] are both neutral and sufficiently strong to require us to reject” the lawsuit, he wrote.

But in a toughly worded dissent, Justice David Souter said “Indiana has made no such justification” for the statute “and as to some aspects of its law, it hardly even tried.”

Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita has conceded the state has never presented a case of “voter impersonation,” which the law was designed to safeguard against. The 2005 Indiana law requires that a valid photo identification be presented by a person casting a ballot at a polling stations. Previously, most citizens needed only to sign a poll book to vote.

For those lacking a driver’s license or other government-issued photo ID such as a passport, the state provides a free voter ID card, issued through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Even so, Souter said, such a law “threatens to impose nontrivial burdens on the voting right of tens of thousands of the state’s citizens.”

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer also dissented.

Stevens candidly noted the “real-world impact” of a statute passed by a GOP-controlled state Legislature and signed by a Republican governor. More…

Share This

Updated: Oil strikes new record near $120

Published by

Gene Shinai

April 28, 2008 in Business/Finance, Energy, Labor, Newz, Terrorism and The Markets. 0 Comments

From The International Herald Tribune:

PERTH: Oil struck a record high at $119.93 a barrel on Monday, extending the previous session’s rally, as a strike closed a major oil pipeline and as new violence in Nigeria reignited supply fears.

Simmering tensions between the United States and Iran also helped boost oil prices.

U.S. light crude for June delivery rose 88 cents to $119.40 by 2324 GMT, after striking a lifetime high of $119.93 a barrel shortly after electronic trading resumed after the weekend.

London Brent crude rose 66 cents to $117.

“Supply side concerns underpinned the oil price,” David Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a note to clients.

“Oil supplies from Nigeria have been disrupted by militant attacks and a strike by some oil workers. A strike at the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland has caused significant disruption to supplies from the North Sea,” he said.

The 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) Fortis pipeline, which carries nearly half of Britain’s oil, was closed on Sunday as a strike over pensions began at the neighbouring 210,000 bpd Grangemouth refinery in Scotland, operator BP said.

The refinery, owned by international chemical company Ineos, produces a tenth of Britain’s petrol and diesel but also supplies vital steam and power to BP’s Kinneil plant that processes the crude oil coming ashore from 70 North Sea fields.

The government has said that there will be no overall shortages of fuel but conceded that there may be some local supply problems, particularly in Scotland and northern England.

Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

Share This

Soldier Aquitted In Shooting Death Of Unarmed Iraqi

Published by

elophan

April 27, 2008 in Law and Justice, Military, Newz and The War in Iraq. 0 Comments

WHEELER ARMY AIR FIELD, Hawaii — A court-martial panel on Friday found a Schofield Barracks-based soldier not guilty of killing an unarmed Iraqi last year.

The court-martial panel started deliberating on Friday morning. After seven hours, Sgt. 1st-Class Trey Corrales was acquitted of all charges.

A panel of soldiers and officers from Schofield Barracks and Wheeler acquitted Corrales of three charges, including pre-meditated murder. Corrales of San Antonio, Texas, would have faced a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole if he had been convicted.

Prosecution witnesses said Corrales told them to kill military-aged men at a suspected insurgent house in Iraq last year. Witnesses claimed the sergeant shot an unarmed Iraqi to death.

The defense argued Corrales was acting on reflexes in the heat of war.

His wife and two children were in court, and the family is planning a trip to Disneyland. More…

Share This

Consumer Confidence At 26-Year Low

Published by

elophan

April 27, 2008 in Economy and Newz. 0 Comments

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Consumer confidence sank to its lowest level in 26 years, according to a survey published Friday.

The University of Michigan Consumer Confidence survey revealed that high food and fuel prices, coupled with shrinking incomes and falling home values, have driven consumers to save their money rather than spend it.

The survey’s Index of Consumer Sentiment, a closely watched indicator of the economy’s current health, fell to 62.6 in April, a drop of 6.9 points from the previous month and the lowest level since 1982.

The Index of Consumer Expectations, which economists use to help determine the economy’s future direction, fell to 53.3 in April, a decline of 6.8 points from the previous month.

According to the survey, only 30% of consumers plan to spend their upcoming tax rebate, while the rest said they would use it to pay off debt or put it into savings. More…

Share This