"Bush challenges hundreds of laws: President cites powers of his office." ... "President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution." -Boston/Globe "Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts." -NYTimes

& Law Enforcement

LAW News:
US Attorneys News

20080702
John McCain - Carl H Lindner Jr - Terrorism - Money - Illegal - Military - Politics - Federal - Investigation - International - Food - Colombia - US - Arizona - Ohio - 2008 Election
"McCain Backer's Firm Pleaded Guilty To Funding Terrorist Group In Colombia." ... "The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States." ... "Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati [Ohio] businessman, was CEO [Chief Executive Officer] of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company's board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University's National Security Archive as an "illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country's most notorious civilian massacres."" ... "Following a Justice Department indictment [pdf] last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita's payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001." ... "According to the Justice Department, the payments "were reviewed and approved by senior executives" of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 "that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization."" ... "Late last week, Lindner co-hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for McCain and the Republican Party in the wealthy Indian Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The event raised about $2 million; Lindner also serves on McCain's Ohio Victory Team." ... "While Lindner was CEO of Chiquita, the company began sending money to the AUC through its shipping subsidiary Banadex. A report by the Organization of American States states that Banadex also engaged in arms trafficking, helping to deliver 3,000 Nicaraguan AK-47 rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition to the AUC in 2001. According to federal prosecutors, when company officials realized the arrangement was illegal, they switched to making the payments in cash." -By Nico Pitney -HuffingtonPost.com

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20080702
Secret - Torture - War Crimes - Prisons - US - Guantanamo - Cuba - Chinese - Korean - History - Medical - Science - Psychological - Military - Intelligence - Politics - Investigators
"China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo." ... "The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”" ... "What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners." ... "The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency." ... "Some methods were used against a small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress banned the use of coercion by the military. The C.I.A. is still authorized by [Republican] President Bush to use a number of secret “alternative” interrogation methods." ... "Several Guantánamo documents, including the chart outlining coercive methods, were made public at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing June 17 that examined how such tactics came to be employed." ... "But committee investigators were not aware of the chart’s source in the half-century-old journal article, a connection pointed out to The New York Times by an independent expert on interrogation who spoke on condition of anonymity." ... "The 1957 article from which the chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War” and written by Alfred D. Biderman, a sociologist then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed American prisoners returning from North Korea, some of whom had been filmed by their Chinese interrogators confessing to germ warfare and other atrocities." ... "Those orchestrated confessions led to allegations that the American prisoners had been “brainwashed,” and provoked the military to revamp its training to give some military personnel a taste of the enemies’ harsh methods to inoculate them against quick capitulation if captured." ... "In 2002, the training program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape, became a source of interrogation methods both for the C.I.A. and the military. In what critics describe as a remarkable case of historical amnesia, officials who drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware that it had been created as a result of concern about false confessions by American prisoners." ... "The only change made in the chart presented at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”" (1, 2) -By Scott Shane -NYTimes

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PDF Documents via NYTimes:
"Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From the Air Force Prisoners of War (pdf) [September 1957 article by A. D. Biderman, Bull, N.Y. Acad. Med, Vol. 33, No.9, pp 616-625. 10 pages. NB: p. 4 (619), Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance]."
"Documents Released at Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on SERE Tactics (pdf)."

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20080628
US - Afghanistan - Pakistan - Military - Terrorism - Intelligence - Illegal - Drug - Money - Human Rights - Reconstruction - Police
"Pentagon report: Taliban regroups, likely to up pace of attacks in Afghanistan." ... "The Taliban has regrouped after its initial fall from power in Afghanistan and the pace of its attacks is likely to increase this year, according to a Pentagon report that offers a dim view of progress in the nearly seven-year-old war." ... "Noting that insurgent violence has climbed, the report said that despite U.S. and coalition efforts to capture and kill key leaders, the Taliban is likely to "maintain or even increase the scope and pace of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008."" ... "The Taliban, it said, has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency."" ... "Vast problems — corruption, the illegal poppy trade, human rights abuses and slow progress in reconstruction — were detailed, as well as the struggle to train and equip the Afghan Army and police." ... "The report described a dual terror threat in Afghanistan that includes the Taliban in the south, and "a more complex, adaptive insurgency" in the east. That fragmented insurgency is made up of groups ranging from al-Qaida and Afghan warlords such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's radical Hezb-i-Islami group to Pakistani militants such as Jaish-e-Mohammed." ... "Insurgents will continue to challenge the government in southern and eastern Afghanistan, and the may also move to increase their power in the north and west, the report predicted." (1, 2, 3) -By Lolita C. Baldor with contributions by Robert Burns -AP via -StarTribune

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-Defenselink.mil Publications[PDFs]:
"Report on Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan."
"United States Plan for Sustaining the Afghanistan National Security Forces." -Defenselink.mil/Pubs

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20080625
Faith - Politics - Justice - Obama - 2008 Election - "James Dobson Doesn't Speak For Me." ... "Dr. James Dobson recently attacked [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama for a 2006 speech that Obama gave on his Christian faith. Does he speak for you?" ... "James Dobson doesn't speak for me. He doesn't speak for me when he uses religion as a wedge to divide; He doesn't speak for me when he speaks as the final arbiter on the meaning of the Bible; James Dobson doesn't speak for me when he uses the beliefs of others as a line of attack; He doesn't speak for me when he denigrates his neighbor's views when they don't line up with his; He doesn't speak for me when he seeks to confine the values of my faith to two or three issues alone; What does speak for me is David's psalm celebrating how good and pleasant it is when we come together in unity; Micah speaks for me in reminding us that the Lord requires us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with Him; The prophet Isaiah speaks for me in his call for all to come and reason together and also to seek justice, encourage the oppressed and to defend the cause of the vulnerable; The book of Nehemiah speaks for me in its example to work with our neighbors, not against them, to restore what was broken in our communities; The book of Matthew speaks for me in saying to bless those that curse you and pray for those who persecute you; The words of the apostle Paul speak for me in saying that words spoken and deeds done without love amount to nothing. The apostle John speaks for me in reminding us of Jesus' command to love one another. The world will know His disciples by that love." ... "READ Barack Obama "Call to Renewal" Speech. [Barack Obama on Faith and Politics: WATCH: Barack Obama "Call To Renewal" (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) ... Barack Obama: "10 Questions: Religion in America."]" -By Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell et al -JamesDobsonDoesntSpeakForMe.com

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"Call to Renewal"

by Barack Obama

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20080624
Tom Ridge - John McCain - Money - Politics - Albania - US - Pennsylvania - 2008 Election
"Ridge lobbies for Albania, but doesn't report it." ... "[Republican President Bush's] Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge registered with the Department of Justice as a lobbyist for the government of Albania nearly two years after winning an almost half-million dollar lobbying contract, Roll Call reports this morning." ... ""I didn't think it was [necessary] to register," the Capitol Hill newspaper quotes the former [Republican] Pennsylvania governor and national co-chair of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain's presidential campaign as saying." -By Brett Lieberman -PennLive.com

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20080621
China - Hackers - US - GOV - Lawmakers - Human Rights - Politics - Military -Intelligence - Investigation - Va - NJ - Ill
"More congressional computers hacked from China." ... "More Members of Congress have had their computers infiltrated by hackers within China than initially suspected, a lawmaker has revealed." ... "[Representatives] Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va. [Republican-Virginia), Chris Smith (R-N.J. [Republican-New Jersey), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill. [Republican-Illinois]) admitted to having data removed from their Capitol Hill computers last week, but Wolf says there are more." ... "“I would suspect that the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, Intelligence, (and) Appropriations committees would all be top targets,” Kirk said." ... "Wolf and Smith said they believe the hackers focused on them because of their continued objections to China’s human rights violations, and suspected that the hackers were looking for information on dissidents." ... "The FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] asked the lawmakers not to speak publicly, fearing that if they did, they would be unable to track the IP addresses of the hackers, Kirk said." ... "“When you’re in the middle of a criminal investigation, you try not to alert the criminal of what’s happened so you can track it down,” he said." -By Jordy Yager -TheHill.com

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20080620
John McCain - Criminal - Financing - Lawyering - Politics - Federal - 2008 Election
"McCain Breaking the Law in Plain Sight." ... "I mentioned earlier today that it was quite a thing to see John McCain denouncing Barack Obama for breaking his word on public financing when McCain himself is at this moment breaking the law in continuing to spend over the spending limits he promised to abide by through the primary season in exchange for public financing. (By the FEC's [Federal Election Commission's] rules, we're still in the primary phase of the election and will be until the conventions.)" ... "I want to return to this subject though because this is not hyperbole or some throw away line. He's really doing it. McCain opting into public financing, accepted the spending limits and then profited from that opt-in by securing a campaign saving loan. And then he used some clever, but not clever enough lawyering, to opt back out. And the person charged with saying what flies and what doesn't -- the Republican head of the FEC -- said he's not allowed to do that. He can't opt out unilaterally unless the FEC says he can." ... "The most generous interpretation of what happened is that McCain's lawyer came up with an ingenious legal two step that allowed him to double dip in the campaign finance system, eat his cake and spend it too. But even if you buy that line, successful gaming of the system doesn't really count as strict adherence. And the point is irrelevant since the head of the FEC -- a Republican -- says McCain cannot do this on his own. " -By Josh Marshall -TalkingPointsMemo.com

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WATCH: "TPMtv: [McCain] Campaign Finance Deformed" -By Josh Marshall -Veracifier

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20080619
John McCain - Barack Obama - Iowa - Flood - Disaster - Law - Enforcement - 2008 Election
"Culver aides: McCain ignored request to cancel Iowa visit." ... "An aide to [Iowa Democratic Governor] Gov. Chet Culver said Thursday that [2008 Election] Republican presidential candidate John McCain ignored the governor's request to cancel a campaign visit amid a massive flood recovery effort in the state." ... "Patrick Dillon, Culver's chief of staff, said the governor was concerned that McCain's trip would divert local law enforcement from the flood recovery effort to provide security for McCain." ... "[2008 Election] Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama canceled a scheduled visit to eastern Iowa last week at the request of state officials." -By Mike Glover -AP via -Google

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20080618
War Crimes - Criminal - Politicians - US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba - Military - Intelligence - Prison - Torture - Human - Human Rights - Law - Medical - Psychological - Science
"General who probed Abu Ghraib says [Republican President] Bush officials committed war crimes." ... "The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the [Republican President] Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account." ... "The remarks by [Major General] Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that [United States] U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices." ... ""After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."" ... "Taguba, whose 2004 investigation documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior official to have accused the administration of war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," he wrote." ... "The group Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled the new report, described it as the most in-depth medical and psychological examination of former detainees to date." ... "Also this week, a probe by the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed how senior Pentagon officials pushed for harsher interrogation methods over the objections of top military lawyers. Those methods later surfaced in Afghanistan and Iraq." -By Warren P. Strobel -McClatchyDC.com

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Special Report - Noteworthy - US - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba - Military - Intelligence - Torture - War Crimes - Prison - Investigation - Legal - Rights - Religious - Terrorism - School - Politics
"Guantanamo Bay detainees investigation." ... "An eight-month McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the [September] Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the [United States] U.S. imprisoned innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba into a school for jihad."
• "We got the wrong guys."
• "'I guess you can call it torture'."
• "A school for Jihad."
• "'Due process is legal mumbo-jumbo'."
• "'You are the king of this prison'."
• +"Archive of investigation documents."
" -McClatchyDC.com

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Torture - Crimes - Unlawful - US - Iraq - Afghanistan - Guantanamo Bay - Cuba -Military - Intelligence - Prison - Terrorism - War Crimes - Politics - Human - Rights - Medical - Psychological - Science
"Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by the US." ... "About: Broken Laws, Broken Lives shows the human consequences of harsh and unlawful US interrogation practices. This landmark report reveals the excruciating pain and continued suffering of men who, never charged with any crime, endured torture at US detention facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay [Cuba]. Based on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture claims, the report documents practices used to bring about long-lasting pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end." -Physicians for Human Rights -BrokenLives.info

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20080616
Kevin Jeffrey Martin - Corporate - Government - Politics - Satellite - Spectrum - History - Communications - Media - Minorities - Women - Lawmakers - Md
"Radio Merger Under Fire From Black Lawmakers: Caucus, FCC [Federal Communications Commission] Chair Differ On Setting Aside XM, Sirius Channels for Minorities." ... "Senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus yesterday criticized a compromise plan for the proposed merger of the XM and Sirius satellite radio companies, saying the deal does not provide enough opportunities for minority-owned programming." ... "[Republican President Bush's] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin said over the weekend that he would support the merger after XM Satellite Radio Holdings and Sirius Satellite Radio voluntarily agreed, among a series of other concessions, to lease 4 percent of their radio spectrums, or 12 channels, for programming run by minorities and women." ... "Members of the black caucus on Capitol Hill have been arguing for the merged company to lease five times that amount of spectrum to companies owned by racial minorities." ... "[Maryland Democratic Representative Elijah E. Cummings:] "It's shocking to the conscience in this day and age, where the minority populations comprise a significant part of the satellite radio audience, that Mr. Martin would settle for what I deem to be crumbs that have fallen off the table," Cummings said." ... "If the merger is approved, it would be a major reversal of FCC rules. The agency distributed licenses to XM and Sirius in 1997 on the condition the two companies never combine." -By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum -WashingtonPost

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Electricity - Market - Law - Enforcement - Texas
"Power firms’ treatment angers Texans." ... "Prices aren’t the only thing skyrocketing in the state’s deregulated electricity market." ... "Amid continuing company failures — and the resulting forced transfer of tens of thousands of ratepayers to default electric companies — Texans in growing numbers are griping about their ill treatment by power companies." ... "According to the Texas Public Utility Commission, complaints related to the electric market jumped from 704 in January to 1,123 in May. Complaints against three of the four recently failed electric companies jumped about 2,400 percent, from about 20 at the beginning of the year to 508 in May." ... "E-mails and phone calls also continue streaming into the Star-Telegram. Frustrated consumers tell stories of poor treatment by their regular electric competitors, confusing PUC rules, uninformed marketers and the near impossibility of obtaining reliable information about the financial status of companies seeking their business." ... "One company has collected payments from customers but not delivered any electricity, according to some complaints." -By R.A. Dyer -Star-Telegram.com

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20080615
John McCain - Hillary Clinton - Women - Health - Abortion - Money - Law
"Angry Clinton Women [HEART] McCain?" ... "Ten years ago [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain had to apologize for regaling a Republican audience with a crude sexual joke about Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno. Last year he had to explain why he didn’t so much as flinch when a supporter asked him on camera, “How do we beat the bitch?” But these days Mr. McCain just loves the women." ... "You’d never guess that Mr. McCain is a fierce foe of abortion rights or that he voted to terminate the federal family-planning program that provides breast-cancer screenings. You’d never know that his [McCain's] new campaign blogger, recruited from The Weekly Standard, had shown his genuine affection for Mrs. Clinton earlier this year by portraying her as a liar and whiner and by piling on with a locker-room jeer after she’d been called a monster. “Tell us something we don’t know,” he wrote." ... "But while the McCain campaign apparently believes that women are easy marks for its latent feminist cross-dressing, a reality check suggests that most women can instantly identify any man who’s hitting on them for selfish ends. New polls show Mr. Obama opening up a huge lead among female voters — beating Mr. McCain by 13 percentage points in the Gallup and Rasmussen polls and by 19 points in the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News survey." ... "... the notion that all female Clinton supporters became “angry white women” once their candidate lost — to the hysterical extreme where even lifelong Democrats would desert their own party en masse — is itself a sexist stereotype. That’s why some of the same talking heads and Republican operatives who gleefully insulted Mrs. Clinton are now peddling this fable on such flimsy anecdotal evidence." -By Frank Rich -NYTimes

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20080613
John McCain - Clayton Williams - Money - Politics - Family - Abortion - Law - Texas - 2008 Election
"McCain Cancels Fundraiser with Oilman Who Joked About Rape." ... "Clayton Williams, who ran unsuccessfully against the late Texas [Governor] Gov. Ann Richards (D [Democratic]), sparked controversy nearly two decades ago when he joked women should give in while being raped. "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it," the oilman remarked at the time." ... "The Planned Parenthood Action Fund, which has sharply criticized [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain for his opposition to abortion rights and other family planning programs, first contacted the Post about Williams' remarks. The group's president, Cecile Richards, is the daughter of the late Texas governor." ... ""It's shocking that John McCain would choose to fundraise with Clayton Williams, who made his political career saying completely inappropriate and disrespectful remarks about women," Richards wrote in an e-mail. "This is a real misstep for the McCain campaign, who is having a hard time getting support from women."" -By Juliet Eilperin -WashingtonPost

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John McCain's contributor Clayton Williams "in His Own Words".

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John McCain - Rick Davis - Foreign - Money - Politician - Law - Ukraine - Russia - US - 2008 Election
"Alleged Russia Ties Entangle McCain Campaign Manager." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain's presidential campaign is blasting a New York Times report suggesting that the candidate may have known since 2005 that his campaign manager's [lobbying] firm worked for a Kremlin[citadel in Moscow, Russia's capital]-backed politician." ... "The McCain campaign is strongly denying the paper's reporting that in 2005, a White House National Security Council staffer called John McCain's Senate office to complain that Rick Davis' lobbying firm was "undercutting American policy on Ukraine" by representing a Kremlin-backed politician [Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovich]." ... "If the account of the NSC [National Security Council] staffer's call is true, it suggests McCain should have known about the work by Davis' business -- but installed him as campaign manager anyway." ... "The story also raises the possibility that Davis' firm may have violated the anti-espionage Foreign Agents Registration Act, by failing to register work for Yanukovich with the [United States] U.S. government." -By Justin Rood -ABCNEWS.com

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J Robert Flores - Crime - Political - Juvenile - Justice - Science -Sports - New Jersey - Texas - "Football Charity Says It Deserved a $500,000 Govt Grant: Despite Not Even Applying, the Charity Was Awarded a Grant; Some [Department Of Justice] DOJ Staffers Objected." ... "A group that promotes leadership through football says it doesn't know how it was awarded a $500,000 federal grant to help stop juvenile crime, but that it "wasn't political."" ... "The grant is one of a number for the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) that has come under scrutiny after current and former employees said the official who awarded the money ignored professional staff recommendations and played favorites with groups connected to the [Republican] Bush White House. ABC News conducted an investigation into the OJJDP, which aired earlier this week on "Nightline"." ... "The National Football Foundation (NFF), formerly based in New Jersey and now in Texas, says they did not apply for the grant and have had no contact with J. Robert Flores, the official who awarded the money." ... "Some OJJDP staffers said this program did not deserve the funding." ... ""The football program, like the World Golf Foundation, has lots of private resources and outside funding. They have wealthy powerful people on the board," one staffer said." ... "The staffer added that by law the OJJDP's primary focus is to fund programs that intervene and protect kids who are on the cusp of entering into the juvenile justice system or who are already in the system, and there is no research that shows this program targets the most at-risk kids." (1, 2) -By Anna Schecter -ABCNEWS.com

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20080612
Health - Science - Environmental - Safety - Laws - Manufacturing - Industries - EU - US - Global - Consumers - Government - Politics - Computer - Privacy - Newborns
"Chemical Law Has Global Impact: [European Union's] E.U.'s New Rules Forcing Changes By [United States] U.S. Firms." ... "Europe this month rolled out new restrictions on makers of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems, changes that are forcing U.S. industries to find new ways to produce a wide range of everyday products." ... "The new laws in the European Union require companies to demonstrate that a chemical is safe before it enters commerce -- the opposite of policies in the United States, where regulators must prove that a chemical is harmful before it can be restricted or removed from the market. Manufacturers say that complying with the European laws will add billions to their costs, possibly driving up prices of some products." ... "The changes come at a time when consumers are increasingly worried about the long-term consequences of chemical exposure and are agitating for more aggressive regulation. In the United States, these pressures have spurred efforts in Congress and some state legislatures to pass laws that would circumvent the laborious federal regulatory process." ... "Adamantly opposed by the U.S. chemical industry and the [Republican President] Bush administration, the E.U. laws will be phased in over the next decade. It is difficult to know exactly how the changes will affect products sold in the United States. But American manufacturers are already searching for safer alternatives to chemicals used to make thousands of consumer goods, from bike helmets to shower curtains." ... "The European Union's tough stance on chemical regulation is the latest area in which the Europeans are reshaping business practices with demands that American companies either comply or lose access to a market of 27 countries and nearly 500 million people." ... "From its crackdown on antitrust practices in the computer industry to its rigorous protection of consumer privacy, the European Union has adopted a regulatory philosophy that emphasizes the consumer. Its approach to managing chemical risks, which started with a trickle of individual bans and has swelled into a wave, is part of a European focus on caution when it comes to health and the environment." ... "A study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found an average of 200 industrial chemicals in the cord blood of newborns." (1, 2) -By Lyndsey Layton -WashingtonPost

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J Robert Flores - Political - Federal - Juvenile - Justice  - Health - Science - "Questions Surround Govt Funded Abstinence Program: Why Did a Lower-Ranked Organization Get Money While Higher-Ranked Groups Were Denied Funding?" ... "An organization that promotes sexual abstinence for teens received a federal grant of over a million dollars, twice what it had requested, despite the skepticism Department of Justice staffers had about the group and the fact that it refused to participate in a congressionally mandated study." ... "So why did the Best Friends Foundation receive the grant from the Justice Department's juvenile justice office even though dozens of competing organizations were rated higher by the office's own reviewers? Current and former staffers say it was because of Best Friends' powerful president and founder, Elayne Bennett." ... "Not only is Bennett the wife of Bill Bennett, a former [Republican President] Reagan and [Republican President] Bush administration official and conservative political commentator, but she is also personally close to the chief administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), J. Robert Flores." ... "DOJ staffers were deeply skeptical when Best Friends applied for a grant of around a half-million dollars last summer. For one thing, the organization had backed out of a congressionally mandated study to examine whether or not abstinence programs are effective." ... "Then there were the DOJ staffers own internal reviews, which placed Best Friends behind dozens of other competing organizations. Out of 104 grants in their category, Best Friends ranked 53rd." ... "But those other organizations didn't have Elayne Bennett. Bennett, say current and former DOJ staffers in the OJJDP, often spoke on the phone with Flores and had access to him and his aides that other juvenile organizations ordinarily wouldn't have." ... "Meanwhile, competing with Best Friends for a federal grant from the OJJDP was a Washington non-profit, the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), an advocacy group for victims of rape and sexual assault." ... "In the category of OJJDP grants for which both organizations applied, Best Friends ranked 51st, while RAINN came in at 14th. RAINN did not receive a grant from the OJJDP." (1, 2, 3, 4) -By Murray Waas -ABCNEWS.com

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