News of the World faces fresh phone hacking charge
• Calls for judicial inquiry after reporter is suspended
• Latest phone hacking allegation dates from earlier this year
• Four targets poised to sue police over failure to warn them
Nick Davies, Vikram Dodd and Nicholas Watt
Thursday 2 September 2010
The government tonight came under pressure to set up a judicial inquiry into the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World after the paper confirmed that it has suspended a journalist while it investigates new allegations of the unlawful interception of voicemail.
The prime minister's media adviser, Andy Coulson, has denied a report in the New York Times which claimed he freely discussed the use of unlawful news-gathering techniques when he was editing the paper and "actively encouraged" a named reporter to engage in illegal interception of voicemail messages. Coulson has always denied knowing of any illegal activity by his journalists.
Scotland Yard, too, found itself in the firing line after the New York Times quoted unnamed detectives alleging they had cut short their investigation because of their close relationship with the News of the World. A group of four public figures, including former deputy prime minister John Prescott, is poised to sue police over a failure to warn them they had been targeted by the private investigator at the centre of the scandal, Glenn Mulcaire.
The Guardian has learned that the Metropolitan police commissioner at the time of the original investigation, Sir Ian Blair, was among those whose names were found in material seized from Mulcaire, raising questions about whether officers who were directly involved in the investigation had discovered that they, too, had been targets of the newspaper. It is understood Blair was assured at the time that his phone had not been hacked.
The former Labour minister Tom Watson today called on the government to set up an inquiry into the relationship between Scotland Yard and Rupert Murdoch's News Group, which publishes the News of the World. In a letter which was addressed to the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, in the absence of the prime minister, who is on paternity leave, Watson wrote: "The testimony given to the New York Times is that the police did not share all the relevant information with the Crown Prosecution Service, and that, if they had done, the CPS would have reached a different conclusion. These are clear grounds for a judicial inquiry.
"I think that information should be made available to the people concerned." ...
Tredegar terror - Weeping residents angry at MP and police
Published: Saturday | August 14, 2010
Arthur Hall and Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Reporters
THE GRIEF was evident, and the tears flowed freely as residents of Tredegar Park, St Catherine, responded to the killing of eight of their neighbours yesterday morning.
But what was more evident was the anger, as the residents claimed that they had been abandoned by the security forces and their political representatives and left to the mercy of heartless criminals.
With five men and three females, including an 11-year-old girl dead, the residents of the east central St Catherine community had reason to mourn. ...
... The residents reported that about 12:30 yesterday morning, explosions were heard in the area.
On investigation, the residents saw a group of men numbering between 15 and 20, dressed in dark-coloured clothing, firing shots into a number of houses before setting fire to at least two premises.
According to residents, calls to the police went unanswered as the gunmen went on a rampage that lasted for between 30 and 45 minutes.
"As anything happen, the police come round here, but when gunmen come kill wi aff, wi caan si any police," said a young woman, as the tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Let this be a warning to all of you that we have to come together to protect each other because the police and soldiers nah protect we," said an obviously angry young man.
"If you did think we have any MP (member of Parliament) or police to protect wi, you can see wi nuh have none now. You nuh see all now the MP nuh reach yah so," the young man added angrily. ...
Published: Saturday | August 14, 2010
Arthur Hall and Rasbert Turner, Gleaner Reporters
THE GRIEF was evident, and the tears flowed freely as residents of Tredegar Park, St Catherine, responded to the killing of eight of their neighbours yesterday morning.
But what was more evident was the anger, as the residents claimed that they had been abandoned by the security forces and their political representatives and left to the mercy of heartless criminals.
With five men and three females, including an 11-year-old girl dead, the residents of the east central St Catherine community had reason to mourn. ...
... The residents reported that about 12:30 yesterday morning, explosions were heard in the area.
On investigation, the residents saw a group of men numbering between 15 and 20, dressed in dark-coloured clothing, firing shots into a number of houses before setting fire to at least two premises.
According to residents, calls to the police went unanswered as the gunmen went on a rampage that lasted for between 30 and 45 minutes.
"As anything happen, the police come round here, but when gunmen come kill wi aff, wi caan si any police," said a young woman, as the tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Let this be a warning to all of you that we have to come together to protect each other because the police and soldiers nah protect we," said an obviously angry young man.
"If you did think we have any MP (member of Parliament) or police to protect wi, you can see wi nuh have none now. You nuh see all now the MP nuh reach yah so," the young man added angrily. ...
Wrong again! Man 'killed' by police still on the run
Published: Saturday | August 14, 2010
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
ANOTHER POLICE report has been called into question less than three weeks after the police information arm was left with egg on its face when a private video recording contradicted its report about the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of a man in Buckfield, St Ann.
Early yesterday morning, the police claimed that they had engaged the gunmen who had killed eight persons in Tredegar Park, St Catherine, and fatally shot two of the men in the section of the community known as Brooklyn.
According to the police, the dead gunmen were identified as Kevin, otherwise called 'Bilbo', and Jerome Williams, otherwise called 'Crab', both members of the Clansman gang, which operates in Spanish Town.
But hours later, residents disputed the police reports and compounded this by identifying the two dead persons.
The residents identified one of the victims as 15-year-old Derrick Anthony Bolton, otherwise called 'Crabby'. The other victim was identified as Lemone Turner, otherwise called 'Frenchman'.
"Crabby is my son who is a dancer who stay in Brooklyn and practise him dancing, so me tell him not to come home until in the morning," Geraldien Williams, his mother, told The Gleaner.
"The police dem hold him and dem ask him what the people call him, and him say Crabby, and dem say a him shoot the people a Tredegar Park, and a so dem kill him. It was a case of mistaken identity," Williams argued.
Other residents were most upset that the police could have mistaken the young Crabby for the alleged gangster known as Crab who was recently released from state custody.
"The police dem should a know say a nuh him name Crab, and dem should a never kill the youth," an angry resident said. ...
Published: Saturday | August 14, 2010
Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter
ANOTHER POLICE report has been called into question less than three weeks after the police information arm was left with egg on its face when a private video recording contradicted its report about the circumstances surrounding the fatal shooting of a man in Buckfield, St Ann.
Early yesterday morning, the police claimed that they had engaged the gunmen who had killed eight persons in Tredegar Park, St Catherine, and fatally shot two of the men in the section of the community known as Brooklyn.
According to the police, the dead gunmen were identified as Kevin, otherwise called 'Bilbo', and Jerome Williams, otherwise called 'Crab', both members of the Clansman gang, which operates in Spanish Town.
But hours later, residents disputed the police reports and compounded this by identifying the two dead persons.
The residents identified one of the victims as 15-year-old Derrick Anthony Bolton, otherwise called 'Crabby'. The other victim was identified as Lemone Turner, otherwise called 'Frenchman'.
"Crabby is my son who is a dancer who stay in Brooklyn and practise him dancing, so me tell him not to come home until in the morning," Geraldien Williams, his mother, told The Gleaner.
"The police dem hold him and dem ask him what the people call him, and him say Crabby, and dem say a him shoot the people a Tredegar Park, and a so dem kill him. It was a case of mistaken identity," Williams argued.
Other residents were most upset that the police could have mistaken the young Crabby for the alleged gangster known as Crab who was recently released from state custody.
"The police dem should a know say a nuh him name Crab, and dem should a never kill the youth," an angry resident said. ...
This is well beyond tasteless.
Last Updated: August 05. 2010 9:12PM
$1.4M in drugs seized in Detroit party store bust
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Three men suspected of selling more than pop and potato chips from a party store in the city were arrested Tuesday evening as police seized more than $1.4 million worth of drugs.
An informant tipped a task force made up of Detroit police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration intercepted a shipment of drugs to the store about 5 p.m. Tuesday, said Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee.
Task force members found more than 700 grams of heroin with a street value of $1.4 million and 300 painkillers and 120 tranquilizer pills worth about $4,260. The task force also discovered eight guns and $18,000 in cash believed to have been generated by drug sales. ...
... Godbee did not identify the men, but said one was a 41-year-old Farmington Hills resident and the other two men, ages 45 and 49 years old, live in West Bloomfield Township.
Police said the party store had been in business for several years but would not say how long they suspect drugs allegedly were part of the operation. ...
$1.4M in drugs seized in Detroit party store bust
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Three men suspected of selling more than pop and potato chips from a party store in the city were arrested Tuesday evening as police seized more than $1.4 million worth of drugs.
An informant tipped a task force made up of Detroit police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration intercepted a shipment of drugs to the store about 5 p.m. Tuesday, said Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee.
Task force members found more than 700 grams of heroin with a street value of $1.4 million and 300 painkillers and 120 tranquilizer pills worth about $4,260. The task force also discovered eight guns and $18,000 in cash believed to have been generated by drug sales. ...
... Godbee did not identify the men, but said one was a 41-year-old Farmington Hills resident and the other two men, ages 45 and 49 years old, live in West Bloomfield Township.
Police said the party store had been in business for several years but would not say how long they suspect drugs allegedly were part of the operation. ...
FEDERAL BUREAU of Investigations (FBI) director, Robert Mueller, told Congress yesterday that he does not know how many of his agents cheated on an important test about the limitations of the bureau's powers to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime has been committed.
The Justice Department inspector general (IG) is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on the test, a brewing scandal that could be further embarrassment for the FBI as it continues cleaning up after years of collecting phone records without court approval. Asked by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, about an Associated Press report on the cheating, Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee he didn't know the exact number of agents involved. ...
The Justice Department inspector general (IG) is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on the test, a brewing scandal that could be further embarrassment for the FBI as it continues cleaning up after years of collecting phone records without court approval. Asked by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, about an Associated Press report on the cheating, Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee he didn't know the exact number of agents involved. ...
Vital leads 'ignored' in Natalya Estemirova murder investigation
One year on, many observers suspect cover-up over Russian human rights campaigner's murder in Chechnya
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Wednesday 14 July 2010
... Investigators now say they have solved Estemirova's murder, finding she was killed by a boyevik (rebel fighter) called Alkhazur Bashayev from Shalazhi village in central Chechnya. Bashayev was allegedly upset by reports Estemirova wrote about his armed group for the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, whose office she headed in Grozny.
This theory rests on investigators' claims earlier this year that they had found a rebel arms cache in Shalazhi including the pistol used in the killing, a car fitting descriptions of that used to kidnap Estemirova, part of a silencer in the boot of the car which fitted the pistol, and then the owner of the car, who said he had sold it to Bashayev.
Bashayev – too conveniently, say critics – cannot be questioned because he was killed in a shootout with security forces last autumn.
In fact, many observers suspect a cover-up. They think Estemirova, known to friends as Natasha, was killed for the reports she wrote on wayward law enforcement agencies – perhaps even those filed in the days before her death.
One report described how officers in the police department of Chechnya's Kurchaloy district had publicly executed Rizvan Albekov, an unarmed man suspected of helping the rebels, on 7 July.
"Natasha must have struggled with her captors because investigators obtained DNA samples of three people from under her fingernails," said Milashina. "Why have no samples been taken from the police officers in Kurchaloy for comparative study?"
Critics say there are other glaring errors: Estemirova never visited Shalazhi or wrote about Bashayev; and investigators have not questioned any of the witnesses who saw her being kidnapped near her home in Grozny.
Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial, said investigators must seek Estemirova's killers among those she exposed.
"Above all, the investigation needs to determine who were the guilty parties in the crimes that Natasha was examining," he said. "So far, they have not looked at a single case she handled in the year she died."
One year on, many observers suspect cover-up over Russian human rights campaigner's murder in Chechnya
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Wednesday 14 July 2010
... Investigators now say they have solved Estemirova's murder, finding she was killed by a boyevik (rebel fighter) called Alkhazur Bashayev from Shalazhi village in central Chechnya. Bashayev was allegedly upset by reports Estemirova wrote about his armed group for the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, whose office she headed in Grozny.
This theory rests on investigators' claims earlier this year that they had found a rebel arms cache in Shalazhi including the pistol used in the killing, a car fitting descriptions of that used to kidnap Estemirova, part of a silencer in the boot of the car which fitted the pistol, and then the owner of the car, who said he had sold it to Bashayev.
Bashayev – too conveniently, say critics – cannot be questioned because he was killed in a shootout with security forces last autumn.
In fact, many observers suspect a cover-up. They think Estemirova, known to friends as Natasha, was killed for the reports she wrote on wayward law enforcement agencies – perhaps even those filed in the days before her death.
One report described how officers in the police department of Chechnya's Kurchaloy district had publicly executed Rizvan Albekov, an unarmed man suspected of helping the rebels, on 7 July.
"Natasha must have struggled with her captors because investigators obtained DNA samples of three people from under her fingernails," said Milashina. "Why have no samples been taken from the police officers in Kurchaloy for comparative study?"
Critics say there are other glaring errors: Estemirova never visited Shalazhi or wrote about Bashayev; and investigators have not questioned any of the witnesses who saw her being kidnapped near her home in Grozny.
Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial, said investigators must seek Estemirova's killers among those she exposed.
"Above all, the investigation needs to determine who were the guilty parties in the crimes that Natasha was examining," he said. "So far, they have not looked at a single case she handled in the year she died."
McInnis' articles for foundation lift ideas, words from 20-year-old essay
By Karen E. Crummy
The Denver Post
Posted: 07/13/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 07/13/2010 02:57:26 PM MDT
Although GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis presented his "Musings on Water" for publication as original works, portions are identical and nearly identical to an essay on water written 20 years earlier by now-Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs.
A Clemson University expert who reviewed McInnis' work next to Hobbs' essay called it a clear case of plagiarism of both words and ideas.
McInnis' water articles were a required part of his two-year fellowship at the Hasan Family Foundation in 2005 and 2006. The former congressman, who left office in 2004, was paid $300,000 to do speaking engagements and "research and write a monthly article on water issues that can be distributed to media and organizations as well as be available on the Internet."
Totaling 150 pages over 23 installments, the articles discussing state water policy are devoid of footnotes, endnotes or other forms of attribution.
In at least four of those articles, McInnis' work mirrors Hobbs' 1984 essay published by the Colorado Water Congress, "Green Mountain Reservoir: Lock or Key?"
In one of his installments of the musings, titled "Pumpbacks and Roundtables," McInnis uses four full pages that are nearly reprinted verbatim from Hobbs' earlier work. ...
By Karen E. Crummy
The Denver Post
Posted: 07/13/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 07/13/2010 02:57:26 PM MDT
Although GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis presented his "Musings on Water" for publication as original works, portions are identical and nearly identical to an essay on water written 20 years earlier by now-Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory J. Hobbs.
A Clemson University expert who reviewed McInnis' work next to Hobbs' essay called it a clear case of plagiarism of both words and ideas.
McInnis' water articles were a required part of his two-year fellowship at the Hasan Family Foundation in 2005 and 2006. The former congressman, who left office in 2004, was paid $300,000 to do speaking engagements and "research and write a monthly article on water issues that can be distributed to media and organizations as well as be available on the Internet."
Totaling 150 pages over 23 installments, the articles discussing state water policy are devoid of footnotes, endnotes or other forms of attribution.
In at least four of those articles, McInnis' work mirrors Hobbs' 1984 essay published by the Colorado Water Congress, "Green Mountain Reservoir: Lock or Key?"
In one of his installments of the musings, titled "Pumpbacks and Roundtables," McInnis uses four full pages that are nearly reprinted verbatim from Hobbs' earlier work. ...
McInnis's Colo. gubernatorial bid derailed by plagiarism charges
By Aaron Blake
July 14, 2010; 3:06 PM ET
Former Rep. Scott McInnis's (R-Colo.) gubernatorial campaign is in a fight for its life as charges of plagiarism have led to questions of whether McInnis can stay in the race.
Republicans in Colorado say he's a dead man walking, and they are exploring the ins and outs of how to get another nominee.
The Denver Post this week uncovered two examples of alleged plagiarism by McInnis -- one in papers McInnis wrote for a fellowship a few years ago and another in a Washington Post column and speech he delivered in 1994.
Sources in Colorado Republican circles say it's likely a matter of when, not if, McInnis will exit the race.
"Almost without exception, they think he is done," said one senior Colorado Republican who spoke on the condition that his name not be used.
"He may be the last one to know it, but he's dead in the water," said another. "It's likely he will resist heavily, but at some point he's got to realize this is a fact of life." ...
By Aaron Blake
July 14, 2010; 3:06 PM ET
Former Rep. Scott McInnis's (R-Colo.) gubernatorial campaign is in a fight for its life as charges of plagiarism have led to questions of whether McInnis can stay in the race.
Republicans in Colorado say he's a dead man walking, and they are exploring the ins and outs of how to get another nominee.
The Denver Post this week uncovered two examples of alleged plagiarism by McInnis -- one in papers McInnis wrote for a fellowship a few years ago and another in a Washington Post column and speech he delivered in 1994.
Sources in Colorado Republican circles say it's likely a matter of when, not if, McInnis will exit the race.
"Almost without exception, they think he is done," said one senior Colorado Republican who spoke on the condition that his name not be used.
"He may be the last one to know it, but he's dead in the water," said another. "It's likely he will resist heavily, but at some point he's got to realize this is a fact of life." ...
McInnis should throw in the towel
After revelations of plagiarism and other cases of questionable judgment, it's clear the GOP candidate is not fit to be governor.
By The Denver Post
Posted: 07/14/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Revelations of extensive plagiarism in work that gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis claimed as his own call into question his fitness for public office.
The lifted work, examined in The Denver Post, constitutes inexcusable intellectual thievery. It is so damaging that we believe McInnis ought to drop out of the race.
Colorado's next governor should be a person of integrity, a trusted hand to lead the state through difficult times.
The Post revealed in Tuesday's paper that McInnis was paid to write essays on water in 2005 and 2006 yet turned in writings that had been plagiarized. Now we learn he did the same thing in a 1994 op-ed in the Rocky Mountain News.
We were astonished Tuesday to hear McInnis, in an interview with 9News, call the revelations over his water essays a "non-issue." Later, he did tell us he had made a mistake and that he should have checked the material. Yes, he should have.
The Hasan Family Foundation paid McInnis $300,000 over two years to give talks on water issues and write original, monthly articles on the topic. The plagiarism detailed by Post reporter Karen E. Crummy is extensive.
McInnis says he hired a consultant to serve as an expert for the writings. Yet the foundation hired McInnis as the expert, and McInnis' work never mentioned the help of anyone else. It was presented as his own.
The written work he submitted to the foundation included numerous instances of passages that were copied, with few changes, from scholarly work originated by Gregory J. Hobbs, who is now a Colorado Supreme Court justice.
The former congressman was paid handsomely for work that he said was "original and not reprinted from any other source." It was McInnis' obligation to ensure that was true.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time we've had questions about McInnis' judgment. ...
After revelations of plagiarism and other cases of questionable judgment, it's clear the GOP candidate is not fit to be governor.
By The Denver Post
Posted: 07/14/2010 01:00:00 AM MDT
Revelations of extensive plagiarism in work that gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis claimed as his own call into question his fitness for public office.
The lifted work, examined in The Denver Post, constitutes inexcusable intellectual thievery. It is so damaging that we believe McInnis ought to drop out of the race.
Colorado's next governor should be a person of integrity, a trusted hand to lead the state through difficult times.
The Post revealed in Tuesday's paper that McInnis was paid to write essays on water in 2005 and 2006 yet turned in writings that had been plagiarized. Now we learn he did the same thing in a 1994 op-ed in the Rocky Mountain News.
We were astonished Tuesday to hear McInnis, in an interview with 9News, call the revelations over his water essays a "non-issue." Later, he did tell us he had made a mistake and that he should have checked the material. Yes, he should have.
The Hasan Family Foundation paid McInnis $300,000 over two years to give talks on water issues and write original, monthly articles on the topic. The plagiarism detailed by Post reporter Karen E. Crummy is extensive.
McInnis says he hired a consultant to serve as an expert for the writings. Yet the foundation hired McInnis as the expert, and McInnis' work never mentioned the help of anyone else. It was presented as his own.
The written work he submitted to the foundation included numerous instances of passages that were copied, with few changes, from scholarly work originated by Gregory J. Hobbs, who is now a Colorado Supreme Court justice.
The former congressman was paid handsomely for work that he said was "original and not reprinted from any other source." It was McInnis' obligation to ensure that was true.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time we've had questions about McInnis' judgment. ...
Researcher: CO gov. campaign trying to pass blame
By STEVEN K. PAULSON
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 15, 2010; 12:40 AM
DENVER -- A researcher who Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis blamed for plagiarism allegations says he won't sign a letter from the campaign owning up to what happened because he claims McInnis is lying.
Researcher Rolly Fischer told KMGH-TV in an interview Wednesday that McInnis' campaign sent him a letter to sign in which Fischer would say the alleged plagiarism was "solely my own." A McInnis spokesman didn't immediately return a call for comment. ...
By STEVEN K. PAULSON
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 15, 2010; 12:40 AM
DENVER -- A researcher who Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis blamed for plagiarism allegations says he won't sign a letter from the campaign owning up to what happened because he claims McInnis is lying.
Researcher Rolly Fischer told KMGH-TV in an interview Wednesday that McInnis' campaign sent him a letter to sign in which Fischer would say the alleged plagiarism was "solely my own." A McInnis spokesman didn't immediately return a call for comment. ...
BP oil spill could be tip of the iceberg as a study questions the safety of abandoned oil wells
By Tim Edwards
LAST UPDATED 5:02 PM, JULY 7, 2010
A study has revealed there are more than 27,000 abandoned oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico - 4,600 of which may have been badly plugged and are at risk of leaking.
The investigation by Associated Press suggests the BP oil spill is just the tip of the iceberg and that abandoned wells may have been leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico for decades.
Abandonment of oil wells – both permanent and temporary – is common in the oil industry. BP was in the process of temporarily abandoning its Macondo well in April when its Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew and breached the pipe.
The process of abandonment typically involves installing in the well a number of plugs of cement 30-60m long. Temporarily abandoned wells will have fewer plugs installed and are therefore not as secure.
When a well is temporarily abandoned, a plan to reuse or permanently plug it is supposed to be presented within a year. AP claims the regulation is frequently ignored with three-quarters of 'temporarily' abandoned wells being left for more than a year and more than 1,000 of them left for over 10 years.
In this time, various processes can lead to the breach of a capped well. Exposure to seawater and pressure underground can corrode pipes and cement. Oil reservoirs can repressurise thanks to "changing geological conditions", according to Andy Radford, a petroleum engineer with the American Petroleum Institute.
History suggests badly sealed oil wells are common. State records show that Texas alone has had to plug more than 21,000 abandoned wells to control pollution. ...
By Tim Edwards
LAST UPDATED 5:02 PM, JULY 7, 2010
A study has revealed there are more than 27,000 abandoned oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico - 4,600 of which may have been badly plugged and are at risk of leaking.
The investigation by Associated Press suggests the BP oil spill is just the tip of the iceberg and that abandoned wells may have been leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico for decades.
Abandonment of oil wells – both permanent and temporary – is common in the oil industry. BP was in the process of temporarily abandoning its Macondo well in April when its Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew and breached the pipe.
The process of abandonment typically involves installing in the well a number of plugs of cement 30-60m long. Temporarily abandoned wells will have fewer plugs installed and are therefore not as secure.
When a well is temporarily abandoned, a plan to reuse or permanently plug it is supposed to be presented within a year. AP claims the regulation is frequently ignored with three-quarters of 'temporarily' abandoned wells being left for more than a year and more than 1,000 of them left for over 10 years.
In this time, various processes can lead to the breach of a capped well. Exposure to seawater and pressure underground can corrode pipes and cement. Oil reservoirs can repressurise thanks to "changing geological conditions", according to Andy Radford, a petroleum engineer with the American Petroleum Institute.
History suggests badly sealed oil wells are common. State records show that Texas alone has had to plug more than 21,000 abandoned wells to control pollution. ...
The former chief executive of a British chemical company faces the prospect of extradition to the US after the firm admitted million-dollar bribes to officials to sell toxic fuel additives to Iraq.
Paul Jennings, until last year chief executive of the Octel chemical works near Ellesmere Port, Merseyside, and his predecessor, Dennis Kerrison, exported tonnes of tetra ethyl lead (TEL), to Iraq. TEL is banned from cars in western countries because of links with brain damage to children. Iraq is believed to be the only country that still adds lead to petrol.
The company recently admitted that, in a deliberate policy to maximise profits, executives from Octel – which since changed its name to Innospec – bribed officials in Iraq and Indonesia with millions of dollars to carry on using TEL, despite its health hazards.
The firm's Lebanese agent, Osama Naaman, was extradited and agreed this week to plead guilty and co-operate with US prosecutors. Although the US department of justice has run much of the case, the Serious Fraud Office is keen to claim jurisdiction.
Senior Iraqi oil ministry officials are accused of taking British bribes throughout the UK-US occupation, up until 2008. Ahmad al-Shamma, the deputy oil minister in Iraq, told the Guardian he would investigate the charges. He strongly denied courtroom allegations that he himself had taken a free holiday in Thailand. He said he had never been to Thailand and that a middle man involved, now under arrest in the US, may have pocketed the alleged payment himself.
Both Jennings and Kerrison are identified in court statements by the US department of justice, which is conducting an expanding corruption investigation and may seek Jennings's extradition to the US, according to legal sources. ...
Paul Jennings, until last year chief executive of the Octel chemical works near Ellesmere Port, Merseyside, and his predecessor, Dennis Kerrison, exported tonnes of tetra ethyl lead (TEL), to Iraq. TEL is banned from cars in western countries because of links with brain damage to children. Iraq is believed to be the only country that still adds lead to petrol.
The company recently admitted that, in a deliberate policy to maximise profits, executives from Octel – which since changed its name to Innospec – bribed officials in Iraq and Indonesia with millions of dollars to carry on using TEL, despite its health hazards.
The firm's Lebanese agent, Osama Naaman, was extradited and agreed this week to plead guilty and co-operate with US prosecutors. Although the US department of justice has run much of the case, the Serious Fraud Office is keen to claim jurisdiction.
Senior Iraqi oil ministry officials are accused of taking British bribes throughout the UK-US occupation, up until 2008. Ahmad al-Shamma, the deputy oil minister in Iraq, told the Guardian he would investigate the charges. He strongly denied courtroom allegations that he himself had taken a free holiday in Thailand. He said he had never been to Thailand and that a middle man involved, now under arrest in the US, may have pocketed the alleged payment himself.
Both Jennings and Kerrison are identified in court statements by the US department of justice, which is conducting an expanding corruption investigation and may seek Jennings's extradition to the US, according to legal sources. ...
6. teabagger
A misinformed, right-wing corporate media consumer who often fails to understand that BOTH major parties represent a corrupt plutocracy that steals from the middle class by taxing labor and profiting from corporate tax subsidies.
A teabagger also often fails to acknowledge that George W. Bush and his neo-conservative minions perpetrated one of the boldest and most egregious executive power grabs in the history of the United States. Furthermore, teabaggers mistakenly continue to blame a newly elected President Obama for all that ails the United States of America, based on a grossly flawed perception of reality (including latent racial prejudice) and despite the fact the U.S. economy collapsed on the previous administration's watch.
Teabaggers are also known to base their misguided, right-wing-media-inspired beliefs about President Obama on stupid conspiracy theories about totalitarian takeovers, FEMA camps, etc., despite the fact these very same theories have been circulating around on the Internet for years, and were originally ascribed to neo-conservative cabalists at a time when Barack Obama had not even entered national politics. Teabaggers also are known to be particularly paranoid, xenophobic and intolerant, especially with regard to immigrants and anyone who isn't white.
Additionally, teabaggers generally echo stupid myths about entitlement spending (it actually only accounts for about 1% of federal budget spending), have no idea that most poor people in America are not lazy, actually do work and don't want to be on welfare, and have no idea what socialism actually means or that socialist reform in this country is actually what allowed a middle class to flourish and ultimately make the U.S. one of the most prosperous nations in human history.
Furthermore, teabaggers incorrectly equate socialism with Stalinism, think a system that rewards greed (capitalism) is the divine preference (despite Gospel evidence to the contrary), and are shameless champions of a misguided belief in American exceptionalism. Teabaggers also fail to recognize the inherently unpatriotic nature of their failed every-man-for-himself ideology that ultimately vilifies anyone who supports public policy aimed at reaching out to fellow Americans in need. They celebrate an exploitative corporatocracy (holy creator of jobs, blah blah blah) while denigrating the little guy for being "weak."
Interestingly, teabaggers uphold an immoral, morbidly obese, twice divorced, draft-dodging, college dropout and known drug addict as their de facto leader, and are even known to advocate burning books. Of course, teabaggers fail to recognize the blatant hypocrisy within the GOP and tend to oversimplify all political debate and social issues, much like their pseudo-intellectual, fat-ass leader.
Finally, incredibly, teabaggers fail to recognize the hysterical double entendre associated with their proudly adopted teabag moniker.
Every village has its idiots, of course, but it's sad when citizens of any nation allow themselves to be whipped into a frenzy en masse by a state-run propaganda machine masquerading as a legitimate, fair, balanced and independent news organization. Teabaggers are right to believe the future of the U.S.A. is in jeopardy, but sadly they have not yet correctly identified the real enemy. Perhaps when teabaggers finally grow up and mature into thinking adults, they will see the right-leaning power establishment for the oppressive and cunning beast that it is.
Teabagger: We don't care that George Bush tripled the deficit and lied us into a war. The new administration only cut taxes for 90% of the population... fascists. Let's go throw some Lipton tea bags into a fountain!
tags: brainwashed misfit idiot fool foxlover
by deepshot Apr 20, 2009
Ta much, dear MSiegel
A misinformed, right-wing corporate media consumer who often fails to understand that BOTH major parties represent a corrupt plutocracy that steals from the middle class by taxing labor and profiting from corporate tax subsidies.
A teabagger also often fails to acknowledge that George W. Bush and his neo-conservative minions perpetrated one of the boldest and most egregious executive power grabs in the history of the United States. Furthermore, teabaggers mistakenly continue to blame a newly elected President Obama for all that ails the United States of America, based on a grossly flawed perception of reality (including latent racial prejudice) and despite the fact the U.S. economy collapsed on the previous administration's watch.
Teabaggers are also known to base their misguided, right-wing-media-inspired beliefs about President Obama on stupid conspiracy theories about totalitarian takeovers, FEMA camps, etc., despite the fact these very same theories have been circulating around on the Internet for years, and were originally ascribed to neo-conservative cabalists at a time when Barack Obama had not even entered national politics. Teabaggers also are known to be particularly paranoid, xenophobic and intolerant, especially with regard to immigrants and anyone who isn't white.
Additionally, teabaggers generally echo stupid myths about entitlement spending (it actually only accounts for about 1% of federal budget spending), have no idea that most poor people in America are not lazy, actually do work and don't want to be on welfare, and have no idea what socialism actually means or that socialist reform in this country is actually what allowed a middle class to flourish and ultimately make the U.S. one of the most prosperous nations in human history.
Furthermore, teabaggers incorrectly equate socialism with Stalinism, think a system that rewards greed (capitalism) is the divine preference (despite Gospel evidence to the contrary), and are shameless champions of a misguided belief in American exceptionalism. Teabaggers also fail to recognize the inherently unpatriotic nature of their failed every-man-for-himself ideology that ultimately vilifies anyone who supports public policy aimed at reaching out to fellow Americans in need. They celebrate an exploitative corporatocracy (holy creator of jobs, blah blah blah) while denigrating the little guy for being "weak."
Interestingly, teabaggers uphold an immoral, morbidly obese, twice divorced, draft-dodging, college dropout and known drug addict as their de facto leader, and are even known to advocate burning books. Of course, teabaggers fail to recognize the blatant hypocrisy within the GOP and tend to oversimplify all political debate and social issues, much like their pseudo-intellectual, fat-ass leader.
Finally, incredibly, teabaggers fail to recognize the hysterical double entendre associated with their proudly adopted teabag moniker.
Every village has its idiots, of course, but it's sad when citizens of any nation allow themselves to be whipped into a frenzy en masse by a state-run propaganda machine masquerading as a legitimate, fair, balanced and independent news organization. Teabaggers are right to believe the future of the U.S.A. is in jeopardy, but sadly they have not yet correctly identified the real enemy. Perhaps when teabaggers finally grow up and mature into thinking adults, they will see the right-leaning power establishment for the oppressive and cunning beast that it is.
Teabagger: We don't care that George Bush tripled the deficit and lied us into a war. The new administration only cut taxes for 90% of the population... fascists. Let's go throw some Lipton tea bags into a fountain!
tags: brainwashed misfit idiot fool foxlover
by deepshot Apr 20, 2009
Ta much, dear MSiegel
Arrests made amidst violent G20 protests
By Ashley Terry, Linda Nguyen and Mark Kennedy
Canwest News Service June 27, 2010 12:06 AM
TORONTO — Riot police arrested more than a hundred G20 protesters who rampaged through the city’s downtown core burning police cars and smashing windows on Saturday.
A small group of black-clad protesters were surrounded at a downtown intersection around 10 p.m. ET.
A police line in full riot gear began marching at the group, banging their batons on their shields, in hopes of preventing more protesters from moving towards the G20 security fence still located blocks away.
The mood was tense as a small number of protesters yelled obscenities. Helicopters could be heard overhead.
The officers loudly chanted: “Move, move,” as they marched.
One older man was pushed by police out of the way as he was seeking shelter from the pouring rain. ...
By Ashley Terry, Linda Nguyen and Mark Kennedy
Canwest News Service June 27, 2010 12:06 AM
TORONTO — Riot police arrested more than a hundred G20 protesters who rampaged through the city’s downtown core burning police cars and smashing windows on Saturday.
A small group of black-clad protesters were surrounded at a downtown intersection around 10 p.m. ET.
A police line in full riot gear began marching at the group, banging their batons on their shields, in hopes of preventing more protesters from moving towards the G20 security fence still located blocks away.
The mood was tense as a small number of protesters yelled obscenities. Helicopters could be heard overhead.
The officers loudly chanted: “Move, move,” as they marched.
One older man was pushed by police out of the way as he was seeking shelter from the pouring rain. ...
Media covering G20 caught up in arrests
Canwest News Service June 27, 2010 1:02 AM
TORONTO — Two National Post photographers were arrested Saturday night during anti-G20 demonstrations in downtown Toronto.
Brent Gundlock, a staff photographer for the Post, was tackled and taken away by several police officers in riot gear as they attempted to disperse protesters hanging around near the Ontario legislature.
Kier Gilmour, a photographer for Canwest News Service who witnessed the arrest, said the officers knocked Gundlock to the ground and then dragged him away. He had been standing with several other media photographers at the time.
"They slammed him down, onto his ass so to speak, then they dragged him back up and pulled him back to the police line," Gilmour said.
He said the photographer was not wearing his yellow media credentials at the time. He had taken the badge off because he was trying to stay close to members of the Black Bloc — the anarchist group believed to be behind many of the outbreaks of violence at the demonstrations — and they did not want members of the media among them.
Colin O’Connor, a freelance photographer working for the Post, was also apparently detained.
Gilmour said the police were being very aggressive in trying to disperse the remaining demonstrators near Queen’s Park, which is several blocks away from the secure zone where the G20 meeting is taking place. ...
Canwest News Service June 27, 2010 1:02 AM
TORONTO — Two National Post photographers were arrested Saturday night during anti-G20 demonstrations in downtown Toronto.
Brent Gundlock, a staff photographer for the Post, was tackled and taken away by several police officers in riot gear as they attempted to disperse protesters hanging around near the Ontario legislature.
Kier Gilmour, a photographer for Canwest News Service who witnessed the arrest, said the officers knocked Gundlock to the ground and then dragged him away. He had been standing with several other media photographers at the time.
"They slammed him down, onto his ass so to speak, then they dragged him back up and pulled him back to the police line," Gilmour said.
He said the photographer was not wearing his yellow media credentials at the time. He had taken the badge off because he was trying to stay close to members of the Black Bloc — the anarchist group believed to be behind many of the outbreaks of violence at the demonstrations — and they did not want members of the media among them.
Colin O’Connor, a freelance photographer working for the Post, was also apparently detained.
Gilmour said the police were being very aggressive in trying to disperse the remaining demonstrators near Queen’s Park, which is several blocks away from the secure zone where the G20 meeting is taking place. ...
Mission Accomplished: The Reagan Occupation and the Destruction of the American Middle Class
by David Michael Green | June 25, 2010
... If Americans understood the real ambitions of Ronald Reagan and his puppeteers, and if they knew the degree to which the supposed patriotism of those folks extended beyond falsity and into the far darker waters of being an irritating irrelevance put on purely for show, then they would not only stop seeing Reagan as some sort of national hero, but would also understand that he instead launched a process far more equivalent to an invasion and occupation of this country.
The goal of the right - which cares about America about as much as it does about Burkina Faso - has been to restore the economic order last seen under Herbert Hoover, in which a tiny minority possess vast sums of wealth and there is (therefore) essentially no remaining middle class. It is nothing short of a breathtaking display of a world class greed, worthy of the ages.
It has also been a work of strategic genius (in much the same way one might appreciate the Germans' engineering prowess in figuring out the logistics of how to mass murder ten or twelve million civilians in a year or two), one which has drawn upon deep psychological insights, absolutely sociopathic amoralism, and clever tactics that have all simultaneously pushed in the same direction. In plain English, they hired some politicians of hit-man level moral integrity, who then marshaled fear, insecurity, hate and deceit into a witch's brew of self-destruction that would prove highly attractive to a large segment of the population already sinking from the effects of a global economic order rebalancing after decades of post-war American dominance.
Of course, you couldn't just come right out and say, "Vote for me and I'll give your money to people so rich they can't even imagine what they'll do with it (but they still demand to have it anyhow)", so slightly more subtle tactics had to be employed. It is telling that the most honest thing Barack Obama ever said was when he thought there were no microphones in the room. But he was right when, at a presidential fundraiser in San Francisco he told the wine and cheese set that the right uses guns, god and gays (I would add Gaddafis) to scare people out of their money. I'll believe that Republicans are serious about protecting heterosexual marriage on the day that you can't find half of them prowling the gay bars of DC every night (and you don't even want to know what the other half are into).
This bait-and-switch tactic worked perfectly well whenever it was applied. It didn't hurt that the regressive Billy-Bobs who vote for these folks are as dumb as a tree. With bags of hammers for leaves. But stupid is really only the facilitating quality, and often one that is neither present nor required. What really drives this stuff is fear. If you can turn that into a loathing of fur'ners, fags, bitches, blackies and brownies, you got their vote. Then you can do what you really set out to accomplish in the first place. George W. Bush's 2004 campaign was the paradigmatic example....
by David Michael Green | June 25, 2010
... If Americans understood the real ambitions of Ronald Reagan and his puppeteers, and if they knew the degree to which the supposed patriotism of those folks extended beyond falsity and into the far darker waters of being an irritating irrelevance put on purely for show, then they would not only stop seeing Reagan as some sort of national hero, but would also understand that he instead launched a process far more equivalent to an invasion and occupation of this country.
The goal of the right - which cares about America about as much as it does about Burkina Faso - has been to restore the economic order last seen under Herbert Hoover, in which a tiny minority possess vast sums of wealth and there is (therefore) essentially no remaining middle class. It is nothing short of a breathtaking display of a world class greed, worthy of the ages.
It has also been a work of strategic genius (in much the same way one might appreciate the Germans' engineering prowess in figuring out the logistics of how to mass murder ten or twelve million civilians in a year or two), one which has drawn upon deep psychological insights, absolutely sociopathic amoralism, and clever tactics that have all simultaneously pushed in the same direction. In plain English, they hired some politicians of hit-man level moral integrity, who then marshaled fear, insecurity, hate and deceit into a witch's brew of self-destruction that would prove highly attractive to a large segment of the population already sinking from the effects of a global economic order rebalancing after decades of post-war American dominance.
Of course, you couldn't just come right out and say, "Vote for me and I'll give your money to people so rich they can't even imagine what they'll do with it (but they still demand to have it anyhow)", so slightly more subtle tactics had to be employed. It is telling that the most honest thing Barack Obama ever said was when he thought there were no microphones in the room. But he was right when, at a presidential fundraiser in San Francisco he told the wine and cheese set that the right uses guns, god and gays (I would add Gaddafis) to scare people out of their money. I'll believe that Republicans are serious about protecting heterosexual marriage on the day that you can't find half of them prowling the gay bars of DC every night (and you don't even want to know what the other half are into).
This bait-and-switch tactic worked perfectly well whenever it was applied. It didn't hurt that the regressive Billy-Bobs who vote for these folks are as dumb as a tree. With bags of hammers for leaves. But stupid is really only the facilitating quality, and often one that is neither present nor required. What really drives this stuff is fear. If you can turn that into a loathing of fur'ners, fags, bitches, blackies and brownies, you got their vote. Then you can do what you really set out to accomplish in the first place. George W. Bush's 2004 campaign was the paradigmatic example....
... The parents are Ashkenazi, originating from Europe, and are in a long-running battle to have their daughters educated separately from Sephardi girls originating from north Africa and the Middle East. ...
... The reason for wanting separate education, the parents claim, is not racism but a desire to remove their daughters from the influence of those they consider less strict in their religious observance. Watching TV at home, having access to the internet, and a laxer dress code among the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox have been cited.
The ultra-Orthodox school in the illegal West Bank settlement of Immanuel segregated the girls, a move that was subject to a legal challenge resulting in an order to reintegrate. The parents of the 43 girls refused to send them back to mixed classes, leading to sentences for contempt of court.
Underlying the case is the rejection of what the ultra-Orthodox community sees as state interference in their religious practice and life. "We don't give our girls all the knowledge that there is in the world," said Esther Bark, 50, a mother of seven daughters watching the male-only demonstration today. "We shelter them, and that's why they need a sheltered school. We can't mix a whole assortment of girls in one school." [Italics mine.]
As police helicopters throbbed over the mass of black-hatted demonstrators, Aaron Shuv, 28, said: "We only follow the rules of God. The Torah [scriptures] is above all government."
The issue had nothing to do with discrimination, said Dubin, a father of two. "No court in the world should have the right to tell me how to educate my sons or daughters. The court went against our rabbis."
Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community has swollen to a third of the Jewish population, assisted by a high birthrate and departure of thousands of secular residents. The secular population is increasingly resentful that its taxes support welfare benefits for the ultra-Orthodox, who reject paid work in favour of religious study. ...
So move to Saudi Arabia, you parasitical, racist, sexist morons!
... The reason for wanting separate education, the parents claim, is not racism but a desire to remove their daughters from the influence of those they consider less strict in their religious observance. Watching TV at home, having access to the internet, and a laxer dress code among the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox have been cited.
The ultra-Orthodox school in the illegal West Bank settlement of Immanuel segregated the girls, a move that was subject to a legal challenge resulting in an order to reintegrate. The parents of the 43 girls refused to send them back to mixed classes, leading to sentences for contempt of court.
Underlying the case is the rejection of what the ultra-Orthodox community sees as state interference in their religious practice and life. "We don't give our girls all the knowledge that there is in the world," said Esther Bark, 50, a mother of seven daughters watching the male-only demonstration today. "We shelter them, and that's why they need a sheltered school. We can't mix a whole assortment of girls in one school." [Italics mine.]
As police helicopters throbbed over the mass of black-hatted demonstrators, Aaron Shuv, 28, said: "We only follow the rules of God. The Torah [scriptures] is above all government."
The issue had nothing to do with discrimination, said Dubin, a father of two. "No court in the world should have the right to tell me how to educate my sons or daughters. The court went against our rabbis."
Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community has swollen to a third of the Jewish population, assisted by a high birthrate and departure of thousands of secular residents. The secular population is increasingly resentful that its taxes support welfare benefits for the ultra-Orthodox, who reject paid work in favour of religious study. ...
So move to Saudi Arabia, you parasitical, racist, sexist morons!
American troops going home from Iraq after seven painful years are leaving behind a legacy that is literally toxic.
An investigation by The Times in five Iraqi provinces has found that hazardous material from US bases is being dumped locally rather than sent back to America, in clear breach of Pentagon rules.
North and west of Baghdad, engine oil is leaking from 55-gallon drums into dusty ground, open acid canisters sit within easy reach of children, and discarded batteries lie close to irrigated farmland. A 2009 Pentagon document shown to The Times by a private contractor working with US soldiers mentions “an estimated 11 million pounds [5,000 tonnes] of hazardous waste” produced by American troops.
But even this figure appears to be only a partial estimate. Brigadier General Kendall Cox, who is responsible for engineering and infrastructure in Iraq, told The Times yesterday that he was in the process of disposing of 14,500 tonnes of oil and soil contaminated with oil. “This has accumulated over seven years,” he said. ...
An investigation by The Times in five Iraqi provinces has found that hazardous material from US bases is being dumped locally rather than sent back to America, in clear breach of Pentagon rules.
North and west of Baghdad, engine oil is leaking from 55-gallon drums into dusty ground, open acid canisters sit within easy reach of children, and discarded batteries lie close to irrigated farmland. A 2009 Pentagon document shown to The Times by a private contractor working with US soldiers mentions “an estimated 11 million pounds [5,000 tonnes] of hazardous waste” produced by American troops.
But even this figure appears to be only a partial estimate. Brigadier General Kendall Cox, who is responsible for engineering and infrastructure in Iraq, told The Times yesterday that he was in the process of disposing of 14,500 tonnes of oil and soil contaminated with oil. “This has accumulated over seven years,” he said. ...
David Cameron sought to distance himself from BP yesterday, dashing any hopes that he might intervene to repair the company’s appalling relations with Washington over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The US Administration is now pursuing a criminal investigation into BP. Yesterday a spokesman for the Prime Minister said: “Clearly Mr Cameron is concerned about the situation but it is primarily a matter for the company.”
It is understood that BP will meet Charles Hendry, the Energy Minister, today after a request by the company. It is also understood that the new Government has not asked to meet BP to discuss the spill. However, BP representatives briefed Energy Department officials at a recent event in Aberdeen.
BP said: “We have not approached No 10 for assistance but have had conversations with officials to keep them up to date. We could well be talking to ministers over the next week or so.”
Shares in BP have lost a third of their value since the rig exploded in April. The shares closed down just 0.25p to 429.75p yesterday as investors began to believe the company would hold to its pledge not to cut the dividend. There was also speculation that BHP Billiton, the mining giant, may emerge as a white knight if BP has to sell its Gulf of Mexico assets. ...
It is understood that BP will meet Charles Hendry, the Energy Minister, today after a request by the company. It is also understood that the new Government has not asked to meet BP to discuss the spill. However, BP representatives briefed Energy Department officials at a recent event in Aberdeen.
BP said: “We have not approached No 10 for assistance but have had conversations with officials to keep them up to date. We could well be talking to ministers over the next week or so.”
Shares in BP have lost a third of their value since the rig exploded in April. The shares closed down just 0.25p to 429.75p yesterday as investors began to believe the company would hold to its pledge not to cut the dividend. There was also speculation that BHP Billiton, the mining giant, may emerge as a white knight if BP has to sell its Gulf of Mexico assets. ...
Witter to probe army strike
Published: Friday | May 28, 2010
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
THE Golding administration has announced an independent enquiry into the security operation in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town in west Kingston which left at least 73 civilians dead and three members of the security forces killed.
Public Defender Earl Witter and a team to be selected by him will carry out a probe into what is being described by some as the largest casualty figure arising from a security-force operation in Jamaica.
"The Government will be having independent investigations on all police-military operations taking place to date. That will be the starting point," Information Minister Daryl Vaz told journalists yesterday at a press conference at the Hilton hotel in New Kingston.
The investigation comes as the Government yesterday expressed concern about alleged reports of misconduct in the security operation in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town.
"These vary from mistreatment of citizens to innocent persons being killed. The Government is committed and insistent that the rights of citizens be respected and observed," Vaz stated.
He said the public defender would set up office in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town to provide easy access to residents who wanted to make complaints. ...
Published: Friday | May 28, 2010
Edmond Campbell, Senior Staff Reporter
THE Golding administration has announced an independent enquiry into the security operation in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town in west Kingston which left at least 73 civilians dead and three members of the security forces killed.
Public Defender Earl Witter and a team to be selected by him will carry out a probe into what is being described by some as the largest casualty figure arising from a security-force operation in Jamaica.
"The Government will be having independent investigations on all police-military operations taking place to date. That will be the starting point," Information Minister Daryl Vaz told journalists yesterday at a press conference at the Hilton hotel in New Kingston.
The investigation comes as the Government yesterday expressed concern about alleged reports of misconduct in the security operation in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town.
"These vary from mistreatment of citizens to innocent persons being killed. The Government is committed and insistent that the rights of citizens be respected and observed," Vaz stated.
He said the public defender would set up office in Tivoli Gardens and Denham Town to provide easy access to residents who wanted to make complaints. ...
How far should we let Big Oil go?
An alternative annual report for the oil company Chevron looks at the deep costs paid for the world's oil addiction
Antonia Juhasz
Monday 24 May 2010
... As I prepare for the annual general meeting of the fourth largest global oil company – Chevron (BP is the third largest) – I am confronted daily by people who are looking around their own communities and out across the world with new-found attention to the deep costs paid every day for our oil addiction.
A new alternative annual report for Chevron, The True Cost of Chevron, of which I am an author and the editor, will be released at a press conference on 25 May in Houston, Texas – just a few hundred miles from the sites where oil is washing up on shore following the explosion on BP's rig. Written by dozens of authors from 16 countries and 10 states from across the US who either live in, or advocate on behalf of, communities where Chevron operates, the report criticises Chevron's record on human rights, the environment, the climate, public health, worker safety and treatment of indigenous populations.
From Chevron's coalfields in Alabama to its oil wells in Indonesia, the report examines operations mired in accusations of human rights abuse (Angola, Burma, Indonesia, Chad and Nigeria); mass environmental and human health devastation (including Ecuador, Kazakhstan and Canada); toxic abuse of its neighbours (including Alabama, California, Mississippi, Texas, Thailand and the Philippines); abuse of its workers (including Utah); threats to endangered species (including Australia and the US Gulf Coast); and, in Iraq, intensifying the violent insurgency and putting the lives of US and Iraqi service members at greater risk.
There is also a powerful silver lining. All of these authors are part of a global resistance movement bringing its message to Houston where Chevron is hosting its AGM.
It has likely been 40 years since the American public in particular, was so ready to hear and embrace this message. In 1969, a Unocal (now Chevron) oil platform off the coast of California experienced a massive blowout and the issue forced its way to the nation's attention. Activists organised against offshore drilling in their community, ultimately enlisting millions of supporters and advocates, spawning a massive environmental movement which, within just a few years, achieved the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the US Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. ...
An alternative annual report for the oil company Chevron looks at the deep costs paid for the world's oil addiction
Antonia Juhasz
Monday 24 May 2010
... As I prepare for the annual general meeting of the fourth largest global oil company – Chevron (BP is the third largest) – I am confronted daily by people who are looking around their own communities and out across the world with new-found attention to the deep costs paid every day for our oil addiction.
A new alternative annual report for Chevron, The True Cost of Chevron, of which I am an author and the editor, will be released at a press conference on 25 May in Houston, Texas – just a few hundred miles from the sites where oil is washing up on shore following the explosion on BP's rig. Written by dozens of authors from 16 countries and 10 states from across the US who either live in, or advocate on behalf of, communities where Chevron operates, the report criticises Chevron's record on human rights, the environment, the climate, public health, worker safety and treatment of indigenous populations.
From Chevron's coalfields in Alabama to its oil wells in Indonesia, the report examines operations mired in accusations of human rights abuse (Angola, Burma, Indonesia, Chad and Nigeria); mass environmental and human health devastation (including Ecuador, Kazakhstan and Canada); toxic abuse of its neighbours (including Alabama, California, Mississippi, Texas, Thailand and the Philippines); abuse of its workers (including Utah); threats to endangered species (including Australia and the US Gulf Coast); and, in Iraq, intensifying the violent insurgency and putting the lives of US and Iraqi service members at greater risk.
There is also a powerful silver lining. All of these authors are part of a global resistance movement bringing its message to Houston where Chevron is hosting its AGM.
It has likely been 40 years since the American public in particular, was so ready to hear and embrace this message. In 1969, a Unocal (now Chevron) oil platform off the coast of California experienced a massive blowout and the issue forced its way to the nation's attention. Activists organised against offshore drilling in their community, ultimately enlisting millions of supporters and advocates, spawning a massive environmental movement which, within just a few years, achieved the establishment of the US Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the US Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. ...
Posted: May 21, 2010
Raid footage in hands of State Police TV crew
BY JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The production company for the TV crew that was with Detroit police when an officer's gun went off, killing 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, said it has turned over its footage to Michigan State Police.
The crew following the Detroit Police Special Response Team early Sunday shot footage from outside the house only, according to a statement released Thursday on behalf of ITV Studios, which produces "The First 48" for A&E.
Earlier this week, a person familiar with the case told the Free Press that the film crew had turned over its video to Detroit police on Sunday.
A second source told the Free Press on Thursday that the tape turned over to Detroit police was a copy of the original. The film crew, though, had a second camera operator at the raid who did not surrender footage Sunday. In the days since the shooting, copies of footage from both cameras were turned over to the State Police.
The girl was shot in the neck during the raid after an officer threw a flash-bang grenade through the window of her east-side duplex. Police say the gun went off accidentally when a cop came in contact with the girl's grandmother. The grandmother denies any contact.
Detroit attorney Herschel Fink, who is representing ITV, said the footage turned over to State Police is not the footage referenced by Geoffrey Fieger, the lawyer for the girl's family. Fink also frequently represents the Free Press in First Amendment and other legal matters.
State Police "have the ITV footage, but ITV was not the source of the footage supposedly shown to the attorney for the family," Fink said. ...
Raid footage in hands of State Police TV crew
BY JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
The production company for the TV crew that was with Detroit police when an officer's gun went off, killing 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones, said it has turned over its footage to Michigan State Police.
The crew following the Detroit Police Special Response Team early Sunday shot footage from outside the house only, according to a statement released Thursday on behalf of ITV Studios, which produces "The First 48" for A&E.
Earlier this week, a person familiar with the case told the Free Press that the film crew had turned over its video to Detroit police on Sunday.
A second source told the Free Press on Thursday that the tape turned over to Detroit police was a copy of the original. The film crew, though, had a second camera operator at the raid who did not surrender footage Sunday. In the days since the shooting, copies of footage from both cameras were turned over to the State Police.
The girl was shot in the neck during the raid after an officer threw a flash-bang grenade through the window of her east-side duplex. Police say the gun went off accidentally when a cop came in contact with the girl's grandmother. The grandmother denies any contact.
Detroit attorney Herschel Fink, who is representing ITV, said the footage turned over to State Police is not the footage referenced by Geoffrey Fieger, the lawyer for the girl's family. Fink also frequently represents the Free Press in First Amendment and other legal matters.
State Police "have the ITV footage, but ITV was not the source of the footage supposedly shown to the attorney for the family," Fink said. ...
It is 19 years since Erin Brockovich first went into battle against corporate America. She was a small-town single mum who stood up to an industrial Goliath and won. Now, as she champions a new case with a depressingly similar plot, it is clear that she has lost none of her fighting spirit or trademark candour.
“Stand up to BP and say, ‘You know what, I’m not taking your shit any more’ ,” she tells an audience of more than 300 anxious individuals in Pensacola, Florida, who have gathered to hear how they can seek legal redress for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
“If you stand down and you say nothing and you get complacent and let them run over you, they will do that. They are already doing that. I’m telling you: Don’t let them,” she continues, and is greeted with applause.
But backstage, the 49-year-old former beauty queen whose grit helped to win hundreds of millions of dollars for wronged communities and made her a symbol of environmental activism seems momentarily beaten.
“In all my 19 years this is the first time I feel helpless,” she admits, wiping away a tear. “I’m the one that usually sends a message of hope and I’m feeling helpless in this scenario because it’s so big and so complex and so . . . just awful.”
It is a powerful confession for a woman whose life story is based on mental toughness, a “modern-day David who loves a good brawl with today’s Goliaths”, as she admits.
In 1991, as a filing clerk at a legal firm in California, she uncovered a scandal in which a utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, had been poisoning the small town of Hinkley by leaking toxic Chromium 6 into the ground water. The subsequent court settlement of $333 million was the largest of its kind and inspired a Hollywood film, with Julia Roberts winning an Academy Award for her portrayal of Ms Brockovich. ...
“Stand up to BP and say, ‘You know what, I’m not taking your shit any more’ ,” she tells an audience of more than 300 anxious individuals in Pensacola, Florida, who have gathered to hear how they can seek legal redress for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
“If you stand down and you say nothing and you get complacent and let them run over you, they will do that. They are already doing that. I’m telling you: Don’t let them,” she continues, and is greeted with applause.
But backstage, the 49-year-old former beauty queen whose grit helped to win hundreds of millions of dollars for wronged communities and made her a symbol of environmental activism seems momentarily beaten.
“In all my 19 years this is the first time I feel helpless,” she admits, wiping away a tear. “I’m the one that usually sends a message of hope and I’m feeling helpless in this scenario because it’s so big and so complex and so . . . just awful.”
It is a powerful confession for a woman whose life story is based on mental toughness, a “modern-day David who loves a good brawl with today’s Goliaths”, as she admits.
In 1991, as a filing clerk at a legal firm in California, she uncovered a scandal in which a utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, had been poisoning the small town of Hinkley by leaking toxic Chromium 6 into the ground water. The subsequent court settlement of $333 million was the largest of its kind and inspired a Hollywood film, with Julia Roberts winning an Academy Award for her portrayal of Ms Brockovich. ...
May 22, 2010
Aiyana Jones murder turns spotlight on a nation hooked on reality TV
Giles Whittell in Washington
When police scooped up the limp body of Aiyana Jones, 7, last Sunday night they promised her father that she would be all right. They were wrong. She was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, the victim of a police Swat team member being filmed for a reality TV show.
Miss Jones went to sleep for the last time under the front window of her parents’ flat on Detroit’s violent and impoverished east side. A police bullet killed her later that night. The porch outside is now festooned with flowers, teddy bears and “you will be missed” balloons.
Her body went on display yesterday at a nearby funeral parlour. She will be eulogised at her funeral today by the Rev Al Sharpton, with the Rev Jesse Jackson in attendance — figures from an era of racial politics that millions of Americans hoped to consign to history two years ago by voting for Barack Obama.
Six days after police burst into the Jones’s flat — the wrong flat — Miss Jones’s death has acquired the dimensions of a national scandal. Black leaders in Washington have demanded a federal investigation into the use of paramilitary police units in poor neighbourhoods.
A white Republican candidate for governor of Michigan has condemned Mr Sharpton’s appearance at the funeral as disgusting. The family’s lawyer has accused police of a cover-up. All are being forced to confront the issue of whether the murder has been turned into entertainment for a nation addicted to reality TV.
There were 379 murders in Detroit last year alone. Miss Jones’s killing may yet be ruled manslaughter but it is her death that has focused national attention on “ridealong” TV crews and Detroit violence.
Police claim that she was struck by a bullet in the neck after her grandmother jostled a Swat team officer who was inside the flat with a search warrant for a separate murder hunt. The family’s lawyer insists that the only shot was fired from outside the building, and claims to have seen videotape that proves it.
No one denies the existence of the tape: it was shot by a film crew following the Swat team for “The First 48, a reality series for the A & E network that focuses on the crucial first two days of murder investigations. A Supreme Court ruling bars the media from following police inside private homes, forcing the crew to wait outside while the team went in.
Geoffrey Fieger, the family’s lawyer and a prominent Michigan Democrat, believes that the cameraman missed nothing. Flanked by tearful family members at a news conference this week he told reporters that the raid began with a flash-bang grenade — or bomb — being thrown through the front window to stun anyone inside. ...
Aiyana Jones murder turns spotlight on a nation hooked on reality TV
Giles Whittell in Washington
When police scooped up the limp body of Aiyana Jones, 7, last Sunday night they promised her father that she would be all right. They were wrong. She was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, the victim of a police Swat team member being filmed for a reality TV show.
Miss Jones went to sleep for the last time under the front window of her parents’ flat on Detroit’s violent and impoverished east side. A police bullet killed her later that night. The porch outside is now festooned with flowers, teddy bears and “you will be missed” balloons.
Her body went on display yesterday at a nearby funeral parlour. She will be eulogised at her funeral today by the Rev Al Sharpton, with the Rev Jesse Jackson in attendance — figures from an era of racial politics that millions of Americans hoped to consign to history two years ago by voting for Barack Obama.
Six days after police burst into the Jones’s flat — the wrong flat — Miss Jones’s death has acquired the dimensions of a national scandal. Black leaders in Washington have demanded a federal investigation into the use of paramilitary police units in poor neighbourhoods.
A white Republican candidate for governor of Michigan has condemned Mr Sharpton’s appearance at the funeral as disgusting. The family’s lawyer has accused police of a cover-up. All are being forced to confront the issue of whether the murder has been turned into entertainment for a nation addicted to reality TV.
There were 379 murders in Detroit last year alone. Miss Jones’s killing may yet be ruled manslaughter but it is her death that has focused national attention on “ridealong” TV crews and Detroit violence.
Police claim that she was struck by a bullet in the neck after her grandmother jostled a Swat team officer who was inside the flat with a search warrant for a separate murder hunt. The family’s lawyer insists that the only shot was fired from outside the building, and claims to have seen videotape that proves it.
No one denies the existence of the tape: it was shot by a film crew following the Swat team for “The First 48, a reality series for the A & E network that focuses on the crucial first two days of murder investigations. A Supreme Court ruling bars the media from following police inside private homes, forcing the crew to wait outside while the team went in.
Geoffrey Fieger, the family’s lawyer and a prominent Michigan Democrat, believes that the cameraman missed nothing. Flanked by tearful family members at a news conference this week he told reporters that the raid began with a flash-bang grenade — or bomb — being thrown through the front window to stun anyone inside. ...
ISP shuttered for hosting 'witches' brew' of spam, child porn
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
19th May 2010
A federal judge has permanently pulled the plug on a California web hosting provider accused of harboring a "witches' brew" of pernicious content on behalf of child pornographers, spammers, and malware purveyors.
San Jose, California–based 3FN.net, which also operated under the name Pricewert, was also ordered to liquidate all assets and surrender more than $1m in illegal profits. The ruling by US District Judge Ronald M. Whyte was in response to a complaint filed in June in which Federal Trade Commission lawyers portrayed 3FN as a haven for some of the internet's most objectionable content.
FTC attorneys cited a mountain of evidence to support their claims, including instant message transcripts from high-level 3FN employees and logs from NASA servers that showed attacks originating from IP addresses controlled by 3FN. They also submitted findings from computer-forensics expert Gary Warner of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, NASA's office of the inspector general, and researchers from Spamhaus and Symantec in proving the allegations.
"These experts had analyzed data derived from internet searches which establish that defendant, an internet service provider, was engaged in widespread illegal activity," Whyte wrote in his ruling, which was dated April 8 but not announced by the FTC until Wednesday.
The FTC's June 4 complaint wasn't made public until after authorities obtained a temporary restraining order shuttering the service. Attorneys sought the order in secret to prevent 3FN customers from destroying evidence or finding new hosts. After...alleged...representatives failed to respond to the allegations in court, Whyte ruled that the order should become permanent. ...
By Dan Goodin in San Francisco
19th May 2010
A federal judge has permanently pulled the plug on a California web hosting provider accused of harboring a "witches' brew" of pernicious content on behalf of child pornographers, spammers, and malware purveyors.
San Jose, California–based 3FN.net, which also operated under the name Pricewert, was also ordered to liquidate all assets and surrender more than $1m in illegal profits. The ruling by US District Judge Ronald M. Whyte was in response to a complaint filed in June in which Federal Trade Commission lawyers portrayed 3FN as a haven for some of the internet's most objectionable content.
FTC attorneys cited a mountain of evidence to support their claims, including instant message transcripts from high-level 3FN employees and logs from NASA servers that showed attacks originating from IP addresses controlled by 3FN. They also submitted findings from computer-forensics expert Gary Warner of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, NASA's office of the inspector general, and researchers from Spamhaus and Symantec in proving the allegations.
"These experts had analyzed data derived from internet searches which establish that defendant, an internet service provider, was engaged in widespread illegal activity," Whyte wrote in his ruling, which was dated April 8 but not announced by the FTC until Wednesday.
The FTC's June 4 complaint wasn't made public until after authorities obtained a temporary restraining order shuttering the service. Attorneys sought the order in secret to prevent 3FN customers from destroying evidence or finding new hosts. After...alleged...representatives failed to respond to the allegations in court, Whyte ruled that the order should become permanent. ...
May 17, 2010
Detroit police investigate grenade use in fatal raid
By AMBER HUNT and BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Detroit police are investigating whether officers were right to use a disorienting flash-bang grenade when executing a search warrant on an east-side home that turned deadly early Sunday, Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said.
He told reporters that the department and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office together agreed that the investigation into the shooting should be handled by Michigan State Police to address “community confidence concerns.”
But he said the investigation into the officers’ use of the flash-bang is under way in-house.
“This is not about egos,” Godbee said this afternoon. “This is about getting to the veracity of the truth, finding out what happened and taking the appropriate prosecutorial approach and taking the appropriate approach to assessing our tactics, our policies and our procedures.”
Godbee declined to discuss the specifics of the shooting that left 7-year-old Aiyana Jones dead of a gunshot wound to the neck.
The officer whose firearm was discharged during the incident is on administrative leave without gun access. The unnamed officer is a 14-year veteran who has worked on the Special Response Team – which handled the Sunday raid – for about six years, Godbee said. ...
Detroit police investigate grenade use in fatal raid
By AMBER HUNT and BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Detroit police are investigating whether officers were right to use a disorienting flash-bang grenade when executing a search warrant on an east-side home that turned deadly early Sunday, Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said.
He told reporters that the department and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office together agreed that the investigation into the shooting should be handled by Michigan State Police to address “community confidence concerns.”
But he said the investigation into the officers’ use of the flash-bang is under way in-house.
“This is not about egos,” Godbee said this afternoon. “This is about getting to the veracity of the truth, finding out what happened and taking the appropriate prosecutorial approach and taking the appropriate approach to assessing our tactics, our policies and our procedures.”
Godbee declined to discuss the specifics of the shooting that left 7-year-old Aiyana Jones dead of a gunshot wound to the neck.
The officer whose firearm was discharged during the incident is on administrative leave without gun access. The unnamed officer is a 14-year veteran who has worked on the Special Response Team – which handled the Sunday raid – for about six years, Godbee said. ...
May 17, 2010
Cop car crash kills Dearborn Heights woman
By ERIC D. LAWRENCE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Michigan State Police have been asked to investigate a collision between a Dearborn police officer and a Dearborn Heights woman that left the woman dead today.
State Police Capt. Harold Love, commander for southeast Michigan, said the request was made by Dearborn police, and that once completed, the investigation results would be reviewed by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
After the collision, the 55-year-old woman, identified by her neighbors on Hanover Street as Deborah Hodges, was taken to Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center in Dearborn, where she was pronounced dead. Police said her SUV collided with a Dearborn police cruiser on Outer Drive at Parker Street this morning.
Her 20-year-old daughter, who was a passenger in the 1994 Ford Explorer, and the officer who was driving the cruiser were both taken to Oakwood Hospital, where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad. The officer was later released from the hospital.
“It’s a tragedy for the family. It’s a tragedy for the community. It’s a tragedy for the police department,” Haddad said. ...
Cop car crash kills Dearborn Heights woman
By ERIC D. LAWRENCE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Michigan State Police have been asked to investigate a collision between a Dearborn police officer and a Dearborn Heights woman that left the woman dead today.
State Police Capt. Harold Love, commander for southeast Michigan, said the request was made by Dearborn police, and that once completed, the investigation results would be reviewed by the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
After the collision, the 55-year-old woman, identified by her neighbors on Hanover Street as Deborah Hodges, was taken to Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center in Dearborn, where she was pronounced dead. Police said her SUV collided with a Dearborn police cruiser on Outer Drive at Parker Street this morning.
Her 20-year-old daughter, who was a passenger in the 1994 Ford Explorer, and the officer who was driving the cruiser were both taken to Oakwood Hospital, where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad. The officer was later released from the hospital.
“It’s a tragedy for the family. It’s a tragedy for the community. It’s a tragedy for the police department,” Haddad said. ...
The Vatican will today make its most detailed defence yet against claims that it is liable for US bishops who allowed priests to molest children, saying bishops are not its employees and that a document from 1962 did not require them to keep quiet.
The Vatican will make the arguments in a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds filed in Louisville, Kentucky, but it could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See.
Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's lawyer in the US, said the Vatican would assert that bishops are not its employees because they are not paid by Rome, don't act on Rome's behalf and are not controlled day-to-day by the pope — factors courts use to determine whether employers are liable for the actions of their employees.
Mr Lena said he would suggest to the court that it should avoid using the religious nature of the relationship between bishops and the pope as a basis for civil liability because it entangles the court in an analysis of religious doctrine that dates back to the apostles. ...
The Vatican will make the arguments in a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds filed in Louisville, Kentucky, but it could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See.
Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's lawyer in the US, said the Vatican would assert that bishops are not its employees because they are not paid by Rome, don't act on Rome's behalf and are not controlled day-to-day by the pope — factors courts use to determine whether employers are liable for the actions of their employees.
Mr Lena said he would suggest to the court that it should avoid using the religious nature of the relationship between bishops and the pope as a basis for civil liability because it entangles the court in an analysis of religious doctrine that dates back to the apostles. ...
Scientists are calling for the long-term risks of GM crops to be reassessed after field studies revealed an explosion in pest numbers around farms growing modified strains of cotton.
The unexpected surge of infestations "highlights a critical need" for better ways of predicting the impact of GM crops and spotting potentially damaging knock-on effects arising from their cultivation, researchers said.
Millions of hectares of farmland in northern China have been struck by infestations of bugs following the widespread adoption of Bt cotton, an engineered variety made by the US biotech giant, Monsanto.
Outbreaks of mirid bugs, which can devastate around 200 varieties of fruit, vegetable and corn crops, have risen dramatically in the past decade, as cotton farmers have shifted from traditional cotton crops to GM varieties, scientists said.
Traditional cotton famers have to spray their crops with insecticides to combat destructive bollworm pests, but Bt cotton produces its own insecticide, meaning farmers can save money by spraying it less.
But a 10-year study across six major cotton-growing regions of China found that by spraying their crops less, farmers allowed mirid bugs to thrive and infest their own and neighbouring farms.
The infestations are potentially catastrophic for more than 10m small-scale farmers who cultivate 26m hectares of vulnerable crops in the region studied. ...
Ta much, dear Ar0cketman
The unexpected surge of infestations "highlights a critical need" for better ways of predicting the impact of GM crops and spotting potentially damaging knock-on effects arising from their cultivation, researchers said.
Millions of hectares of farmland in northern China have been struck by infestations of bugs following the widespread adoption of Bt cotton, an engineered variety made by the US biotech giant, Monsanto.
Outbreaks of mirid bugs, which can devastate around 200 varieties of fruit, vegetable and corn crops, have risen dramatically in the past decade, as cotton farmers have shifted from traditional cotton crops to GM varieties, scientists said.
Traditional cotton famers have to spray their crops with insecticides to combat destructive bollworm pests, but Bt cotton produces its own insecticide, meaning farmers can save money by spraying it less.
But a 10-year study across six major cotton-growing regions of China found that by spraying their crops less, farmers allowed mirid bugs to thrive and infest their own and neighbouring farms.
The infestations are potentially catastrophic for more than 10m small-scale farmers who cultivate 26m hectares of vulnerable crops in the region studied. ...
Ta much, dear Ar0cketman
Incident spurs call for school use review
A city School Committee member says she's 'appalled' at how GOP guests treated a classroom.
By Kelley Bouchard kbouchard@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
PORTLAND - One School Committee member, saying she's "appalled" by the behavior of some of the Republicans who used a room at King Middle School last weekend, wants to protect the city's public schools from future harm.
Sarah Thompson said she plans to raise the issue when the committee meets on May 19. She has asked Superintendent Jim Morse to contact City Manager Joe Gray so the committee will have a clear understanding of policies and legalities related to the rental and public use of school buildings.
"We allowed them to use the space and I'm appalled that they would go through a teacher's things, let alone remove something from a classroom," Thompson said Wednesday. "We want the public to use school spaces, but they need to respect that it's a school and understand that they should leave it the way they find it."
The Republican State Convention was held at the Portland Exposition Building, which is on Park Avenue, near the middle school. Party members from Knox County caucused in a classroom used by eighth-grade social studies teacher Paul Clifford.
When Clifford returned to school on Monday, he found that a favorite poster about the U.S. labor movement had been taken and replaced with a bumper sticker that read, "Working People Vote Republican."
Later, Clifford learned that his classroom had been searched. Republicans who had attended the convention called Principal Mike McCarthy to complain about "anti-American" things they saw there, including a closed box containing copies of the U.S. Constitution that were published by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Maine Republican Party leaders have issued a written apology to King students and teachers.
"King Middle School was kind enough to allow the (party) to use their facilities and we are deeply concerned about the lack of respect shown to the faculty," wrote Executive Director Christie-Lee McNally. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
A city School Committee member says she's 'appalled' at how GOP guests treated a classroom.
By Kelley Bouchard kbouchard@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
PORTLAND - One School Committee member, saying she's "appalled" by the behavior of some of the Republicans who used a room at King Middle School last weekend, wants to protect the city's public schools from future harm.
Sarah Thompson said she plans to raise the issue when the committee meets on May 19. She has asked Superintendent Jim Morse to contact City Manager Joe Gray so the committee will have a clear understanding of policies and legalities related to the rental and public use of school buildings.
"We allowed them to use the space and I'm appalled that they would go through a teacher's things, let alone remove something from a classroom," Thompson said Wednesday. "We want the public to use school spaces, but they need to respect that it's a school and understand that they should leave it the way they find it."
The Republican State Convention was held at the Portland Exposition Building, which is on Park Avenue, near the middle school. Party members from Knox County caucused in a classroom used by eighth-grade social studies teacher Paul Clifford.
When Clifford returned to school on Monday, he found that a favorite poster about the U.S. labor movement had been taken and replaced with a bumper sticker that read, "Working People Vote Republican."
Later, Clifford learned that his classroom had been searched. Republicans who had attended the convention called Principal Mike McCarthy to complain about "anti-American" things they saw there, including a closed box containing copies of the U.S. Constitution that were published by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Maine Republican Party leaders have issued a written apology to King students and teachers.
"King Middle School was kind enough to allow the (party) to use their facilities and we are deeply concerned about the lack of respect shown to the faculty," wrote Executive Director Christie-Lee McNally. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
Airplane bomber targeted in-laws in Soviet attack
30 Jul, 03:26 PM
Russian security services have declassified information concerning an incident in the 1970-s, when a Soviet pilot crashed his plane into an apartment block, seeking to kill his in-laws, but killing three neighbors instead.
According to the report published on the Life.ru web-site, the events happened in the city of Novosibirsk in 1976. On September 26, 24-year old Vladimir Serkov crashed his small AN-2 biplane into the residential building, killing himself and three more people and wounding seven more.
Investigators had established several weeks before the attack that the pilot had split with his wife. The woman took their 2-year old son and went to live with her parents. Serkov asked the in-laws to let him see his spouse and child, but they refused. Then he asked them to at least not file for divorce, as it would ruin his career, but was refused again.
Eventually, the strained aviator asked the airfield staff to prepare his plane for take off and, before closing the cockpit, told that they should look for him on Stepnaya street – the address of his in-laws. He then flew to the city, made two circles above the central square and rammed the apartment block on Stepnaya, aiming at the window of the kitchen where the family had breakfast every morning.
The plane missed the window in question, but it exploded on impact with the building and set fire to several apartments. Three people, including two small children, died in the ensuing blaze, and seven more were seriously injured. The pilot’s family and in-laws were not among the victims – they had left the building earlier in the morning.
Coroners also found out that Serkov died of heart failure seconds before the crash. ...
Ta much, dear Glenn321
30 Jul, 03:26 PM
Russian security services have declassified information concerning an incident in the 1970-s, when a Soviet pilot crashed his plane into an apartment block, seeking to kill his in-laws, but killing three neighbors instead.
According to the report published on the Life.ru web-site, the events happened in the city of Novosibirsk in 1976. On September 26, 24-year old Vladimir Serkov crashed his small AN-2 biplane into the residential building, killing himself and three more people and wounding seven more.
Investigators had established several weeks before the attack that the pilot had split with his wife. The woman took their 2-year old son and went to live with her parents. Serkov asked the in-laws to let him see his spouse and child, but they refused. Then he asked them to at least not file for divorce, as it would ruin his career, but was refused again.
Eventually, the strained aviator asked the airfield staff to prepare his plane for take off and, before closing the cockpit, told that they should look for him on Stepnaya street – the address of his in-laws. He then flew to the city, made two circles above the central square and rammed the apartment block on Stepnaya, aiming at the window of the kitchen where the family had breakfast every morning.
The plane missed the window in question, but it exploded on impact with the building and set fire to several apartments. Three people, including two small children, died in the ensuing blaze, and seven more were seriously injured. The pilot’s family and in-laws were not among the victims – they had left the building earlier in the morning.
Coroners also found out that Serkov died of heart failure seconds before the crash. ...
Ta much, dear Glenn321
As the federal and congressional probes continue into the causes of the Gulf oil rig explosion, new information is coming to light about the failure of a key device, the blowout preventer, to shut off the gushing well, which could have prevented the growing catastrophe.
And new questions are being raised about the testing of the preventers. At today's hearing before a House subcommittee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., revealed that the blowout preventer had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system and had failed a negative pressure test just hours before the April 20 explosion. And at a hearing in Louisiana on Tuesday, the government engineer who gave oil giant BP the final approval to drill admitted that he never asked for proof that the preventer worked.
In addition, an oil industry whistleblower told Huffington Post that BP had been aware for years that tests of blowout prevention devices were being falsified in Alaska. The devices are different from the ones involved in the Deepwater Horizon explosion but are also intended to prevent dangerous blowouts at drilling operations.
Mike Mason, who worked on oil rigs in Alaska for 18 years, says that he observed cheating on blowout preventer tests at least 100 times, including on many wells owned by BP.
As he describes it, the test involves a chart that shows whether the device will hold a certain amount of pressure for five minutes on each valve. (The test involves increasing the pressure from 250 pounds per square-inch (psi) to 5,000 psi.) "Sometimes, they would put their finger on the chart and slide it ahead -- so that it only recorded the pressure for 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes," he tells HuffPost.
Mason claims that a BP representative was usually present while subcontractors performed the tests. ...
Ta much, dear Zaxy
And new questions are being raised about the testing of the preventers. At today's hearing before a House subcommittee, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., revealed that the blowout preventer had a leak in a crucial hydraulic system and had failed a negative pressure test just hours before the April 20 explosion. And at a hearing in Louisiana on Tuesday, the government engineer who gave oil giant BP the final approval to drill admitted that he never asked for proof that the preventer worked.
In addition, an oil industry whistleblower told Huffington Post that BP had been aware for years that tests of blowout prevention devices were being falsified in Alaska. The devices are different from the ones involved in the Deepwater Horizon explosion but are also intended to prevent dangerous blowouts at drilling operations.
Mike Mason, who worked on oil rigs in Alaska for 18 years, says that he observed cheating on blowout preventer tests at least 100 times, including on many wells owned by BP.
As he describes it, the test involves a chart that shows whether the device will hold a certain amount of pressure for five minutes on each valve. (The test involves increasing the pressure from 250 pounds per square-inch (psi) to 5,000 psi.) "Sometimes, they would put their finger on the chart and slide it ahead -- so that it only recorded the pressure for 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes," he tells HuffPost.
Mason claims that a BP representative was usually present while subcontractors performed the tests. ...
Ta much, dear Zaxy
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has issued a recall of 43 children’s medications available over the counter, issued late Friday.
The FDA is recommending that parents throw away any of the products having lot numbers specified on the FDA website. There are over 1000 lot numbers listed on the site. The FDA is suggesting the use of generic equivalents of the products.
Johnson and Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit in Fort Washington, Pa. manufactured all of the recalled products.
The affected products are Children’s Tylenol, Children and Infants Motrin, Children’s Benadryl and Children’s Zyrtec. The FDA has stated that an inspection of the McNeil manufacturing facility uncovered broken equipment, heavy dust and grime, duct taped pipes and a hole in the ceiling. The FDA also found product ingredients contaminated by bacteria, products containing larger amounts of active ingredients than specified, inactive ingredients that did not meet testing requirements and small metallic particles in some products.
The FDA cited poor quality control procedures and inefficient employee training as problems.
Johnson and Johnson was denying that consumer complaints had lead to the inspection and subsequent recall but the FDA states that over 50 such complaints were received concerning dark spots in some of the liquid medicines. ...
The FDA is recommending that parents throw away any of the products having lot numbers specified on the FDA website. There are over 1000 lot numbers listed on the site. The FDA is suggesting the use of generic equivalents of the products.
Johnson and Johnson’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit in Fort Washington, Pa. manufactured all of the recalled products.
The affected products are Children’s Tylenol, Children and Infants Motrin, Children’s Benadryl and Children’s Zyrtec. The FDA has stated that an inspection of the McNeil manufacturing facility uncovered broken equipment, heavy dust and grime, duct taped pipes and a hole in the ceiling. The FDA also found product ingredients contaminated by bacteria, products containing larger amounts of active ingredients than specified, inactive ingredients that did not meet testing requirements and small metallic particles in some products.
The FDA cited poor quality control procedures and inefficient employee training as problems.
Johnson and Johnson was denying that consumer complaints had lead to the inspection and subsequent recall but the FDA states that over 50 such complaints were received concerning dark spots in some of the liquid medicines. ...
NPR and other outlets are reporting today that there seems to be a federal criminal probe into allegations of bribery by Massey Energy - Don Blankenship's company, the one involved in last month's horrible disaster - of federal mine-regulating officials.
Ken Ward, who writes the excellent Coal Tattoo blog for the Charleston (WV) Gazette, offers the best summary here. It's early on this story and still a bit fuzzy, but it's something we shall keep an eye on.
When last we spoke of this general matter, the subject of why MSHA, the mine safety and health administration, didn't do more to prevent such disasters was the topic of lots of down-thread discussion. Well, one answer might be that some officials took bribes. But let me take pains to say that we're a long long way from having that established as a fact, or even officially alleged.
Even so, here's another reason, from the AP:
The nation's top mine safety official told lawmakers earlier this week that the government will start going directly to federal court to shut down mines that make a habit of ignoring safety.
Joe Main, director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said his agency has had the power to seek federal injunctions for years, but has never tried to use it.
"I can't speak for past administrations," Main said during the Senate's first hearing on the accident that killed 29 men. "We're going to use it."
Main also called for a slew of other legal and regulatory reforms to beef up safety enforcement in the wake of this month's deadly explosion at a mine in West Virginia. ...
Ken Ward, who writes the excellent Coal Tattoo blog for the Charleston (WV) Gazette, offers the best summary here. It's early on this story and still a bit fuzzy, but it's something we shall keep an eye on.
When last we spoke of this general matter, the subject of why MSHA, the mine safety and health administration, didn't do more to prevent such disasters was the topic of lots of down-thread discussion. Well, one answer might be that some officials took bribes. But let me take pains to say that we're a long long way from having that established as a fact, or even officially alleged.
Even so, here's another reason, from the AP:
The nation's top mine safety official told lawmakers earlier this week that the government will start going directly to federal court to shut down mines that make a habit of ignoring safety.
Joe Main, director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, said his agency has had the power to seek federal injunctions for years, but has never tried to use it.
"I can't speak for past administrations," Main said during the Senate's first hearing on the accident that killed 29 men. "We're going to use it."
Main also called for a slew of other legal and regulatory reforms to beef up safety enforcement in the wake of this month's deadly explosion at a mine in West Virginia. ...
Vatican officials fear the clerical sex abuse scandal could have a devastating effect on the finances of the Italian church, undermining what until now has been a bastion of the faith.
Italian taxpayers have until the end of July to declare their income for 2009 and, under a system in force in several European countries, they can opt for a proportion of their taxes to be paid to the church.
In Italy, 0.8% of income tax revenue is divided between state-run aid organisations and recognised denominations and religions according to the preferences expressed by taxpayers on their returns.
"The media always talk of class actions, compensation for the victims of abuse by the clergy and the legal fees which, since 2001 have forced the American dioceses to sell schools, hospitals, convents and universities," the daily La Stampa quoted a Vatican source as saying. "But in fact the biggest economic damage is done by the collapse in donations."
In Italy, among those who expressed a preference, the proportion of taxpayers earmarking a share for the church rose to a peak of 90% in 2004. It fell slightly to 87% in 2008. That percentage was far higher than the proportion attending Mass each Sunday, perhaps because only predominantly middle-class non-wage earners have to fill in a tax declaration. Last year, they earned the church some €900m (£776m; US$1,188,536,322.46) from the state.
With many Catholics across Europe saying the scandals have robbed them of their faith, there is a risk that this year's income could be much lower. In Germany, where church membership is registered and has a direct impact on church funds, pollsters for Focus magazine this month found that 26% of Catholics were reconsidering their religious allegiance.
Oh, no! Not that! Not less money for one of the world's biggest multi-death corporations and the world's biggest property owner!
Italian taxpayers have until the end of July to declare their income for 2009 and, under a system in force in several European countries, they can opt for a proportion of their taxes to be paid to the church.
In Italy, 0.8% of income tax revenue is divided between state-run aid organisations and recognised denominations and religions according to the preferences expressed by taxpayers on their returns.
"The media always talk of class actions, compensation for the victims of abuse by the clergy and the legal fees which, since 2001 have forced the American dioceses to sell schools, hospitals, convents and universities," the daily La Stampa quoted a Vatican source as saying. "But in fact the biggest economic damage is done by the collapse in donations."
In Italy, among those who expressed a preference, the proportion of taxpayers earmarking a share for the church rose to a peak of 90% in 2004. It fell slightly to 87% in 2008. That percentage was far higher than the proportion attending Mass each Sunday, perhaps because only predominantly middle-class non-wage earners have to fill in a tax declaration. Last year, they earned the church some €900m (£776m; US$1,188,536,322.46) from the state.
With many Catholics across Europe saying the scandals have robbed them of their faith, there is a risk that this year's income could be much lower. In Germany, where church membership is registered and has a direct impact on church funds, pollsters for Focus magazine this month found that 26% of Catholics were reconsidering their religious allegiance.
Oh, no! Not that! Not less money for one of the world's biggest multi-death corporations and the world's biggest property owner!
Sixty Russian officials should be banned from the United States over the torture and death in prison of a lawyer who exposed a $230 million (£149 million) fraud by corrupt policemen, a powerful US government body has urged Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State.
Senator Benjamin Cardin, the chairman of the Commission on Security and Co-operation in Europe, sent Mrs Clinton a list of security service agents, police, prosecutors, judges, tax officials and prison wardens who he said were implicated in the killing of Sergei Magnitsky.
The request threatens to cause a row between the Kremlin and the Obama Administration.
The list includes Viktor Grin, Russia’s Deputy General Prosecutor Viktor Grin, Aleksei Anichin, the Interior Ministry’s chief investigator Alexei Anichin, and 11 senior judges.
Mr Magnitsky, 37, died in November in Matrosskaya Tishina prison, Moscow, where he was held in pre-trial detention for almost a year for an alleged tax crime. He was refused medical treatment despite serious illnesses and denied access to his family.
Mr Magnitsky, a lawyer for the US firm Firestone Duncan, represented Hermitage Capital, a London-based hedge fund, in a battle with Kremlin officials allegedly involved in the theft of companies belonging to Hermitage and HSBC.
He was arrested on the orders of a group of Interior Ministry officers whom he had accused of fraudulently reclaiming $230 million in state taxes paid by Hermitage. ...
Senator Benjamin Cardin, the chairman of the Commission on Security and Co-operation in Europe, sent Mrs Clinton a list of security service agents, police, prosecutors, judges, tax officials and prison wardens who he said were implicated in the killing of Sergei Magnitsky.
The request threatens to cause a row between the Kremlin and the Obama Administration.
The list includes Viktor Grin, Russia’s Deputy General Prosecutor Viktor Grin, Aleksei Anichin, the Interior Ministry’s chief investigator Alexei Anichin, and 11 senior judges.
Mr Magnitsky, 37, died in November in Matrosskaya Tishina prison, Moscow, where he was held in pre-trial detention for almost a year for an alleged tax crime. He was refused medical treatment despite serious illnesses and denied access to his family.
Mr Magnitsky, a lawyer for the US firm Firestone Duncan, represented Hermitage Capital, a London-based hedge fund, in a battle with Kremlin officials allegedly involved in the theft of companies belonging to Hermitage and HSBC.
He was arrested on the orders of a group of Interior Ministry officers whom he had accused of fraudulently reclaiming $230 million in state taxes paid by Hermitage. ...
The Tories' chief spin doctor, Andy Coulson, faces more awkward questions about a phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World during his time as editor. The Observer understands that a leading football agent has launched a legal action alleging that his phone was hacked by private investigators working with the newspaper's journalists while Coulson was in charge.
More than 10 MPs and at least one former football star, ex-England midfielder Paul Gascoigne, are also in discussions with lawyers looking to bring similar cases against the newspaper's owner, News Group Newspapers (NGN), part of Rupert Murdoch's empire. The pending legal action will severely embarrass Coulson who, as director of communications and planning for the Conservative party, will wield significant influence if it comes to power after the election.
Sky Andrew, who represents Arsenal defender Sol Campbell and has acted on behalf of former Liverpool player Jermaine Pennant and Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe, issued proceedings last week. Andrew's move comes just weeks after the newspaper agreed to pay more than £1m to PR agent Max Clifford, who dropped an action in which he alleged that his voicemail messages had been intercepted.
A similar case involving Gordon Taylor, the former chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, was settled out of court in 2008 with a £700,000 payout.
Labour has been quick to use Coulson's past to embarrass David Cameron. Last week Lord Mandelson, Labour's election strategist, blamed Coulson for a "dirty tricks" campaign waged in some newspapers against the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.
"This is pure Andy Coulson-style News of the World territory turned into political form," Mandelson said. "It is cheap and rather squalid. If a Tory campaign is subcontracted to someone like Andy Coulson, it is no surprise that things like this are going to appear on the front pages of our newspapers." ...
More than 10 MPs and at least one former football star, ex-England midfielder Paul Gascoigne, are also in discussions with lawyers looking to bring similar cases against the newspaper's owner, News Group Newspapers (NGN), part of Rupert Murdoch's empire. The pending legal action will severely embarrass Coulson who, as director of communications and planning for the Conservative party, will wield significant influence if it comes to power after the election.
Sky Andrew, who represents Arsenal defender Sol Campbell and has acted on behalf of former Liverpool player Jermaine Pennant and Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe, issued proceedings last week. Andrew's move comes just weeks after the newspaper agreed to pay more than £1m to PR agent Max Clifford, who dropped an action in which he alleged that his voicemail messages had been intercepted.
A similar case involving Gordon Taylor, the former chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, was settled out of court in 2008 with a £700,000 payout.
Labour has been quick to use Coulson's past to embarrass David Cameron. Last week Lord Mandelson, Labour's election strategist, blamed Coulson for a "dirty tricks" campaign waged in some newspapers against the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.
"This is pure Andy Coulson-style News of the World territory turned into political form," Mandelson said. "It is cheap and rather squalid. If a Tory campaign is subcontracted to someone like Andy Coulson, it is no surprise that things like this are going to appear on the front pages of our newspapers." ...
A Belgian bishop has confessed to molesting a boy, becoming the first high-ranking prelate to be directly implicated in child sex abuse since the outbreak of the global scandal enveloping the Roman Catholic church.
Shortly after the Vatican announced that the pope had accepted his resignation , Roger Vangheluwe, the bishop of the Flemish city of Bruges, said that before he took over his diocese "and for a short time afterwards, I sexually abused a young boy close to me".
In a letter read to a press conference, the 73-year-old prelate, who was not present, said what he had done more than 25 years ago "marked the victim forever".
"The wound does not heal. Neither for me, nor for the victim," he said.
Vangheluwe, who was consecrated a bishop in 1985, said he had several times begged for the forgiveness of the victim and his family – apparently to no avail.
His voice shaking with emotion, the head of the Belgian church and archbishop of Brussels, André-Joseph Léonard, acknowledged that the affair would have a painful effect on Belgian Catholics. "We are aware of the crisis of confidence that this is going to engender in a number of people," he said. ...
Shortly after the Vatican announced that the pope had accepted his resignation , Roger Vangheluwe, the bishop of the Flemish city of Bruges, said that before he took over his diocese "and for a short time afterwards, I sexually abused a young boy close to me".
In a letter read to a press conference, the 73-year-old prelate, who was not present, said what he had done more than 25 years ago "marked the victim forever".
"The wound does not heal. Neither for me, nor for the victim," he said.
Vangheluwe, who was consecrated a bishop in 1985, said he had several times begged for the forgiveness of the victim and his family – apparently to no avail.
His voice shaking with emotion, the head of the Belgian church and archbishop of Brussels, André-Joseph Léonard, acknowledged that the affair would have a painful effect on Belgian Catholics. "We are aware of the crisis of confidence that this is going to engender in a number of people," he said. ...
Barely 6 1/2 months before the midterm elections, an internal investigation by the Republican National Committee has revealed that the organization is beset with questionable financial management and oversight and is spending more money courting top-dollar donors than it raises.
The investigation found that the Republican Party's national governing body is losing money on its major-donors' fundraising program -- spending $1.09 for each $1.00 raised, according to RNC members privy to the investigation's findings. It typically costs about 40 cents for every dollar raised from donors who give more than $1,000.
The investigation also found that the RNC has allowed employees to forge Finance Director Rob Bickhart's initials on expense-reimbursement request approvals, according to an RNC member who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The RNC's top elected and appointed management have united in defense of the committee's practices. RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele can withhold or increase RNC contributions to a state party.
The Washington Times obtained a copy of a report on the investigation -- prepared by RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen -- that he sent to the 28-member RNC Executive Committee before a conference call hastily scheduled for Wednesday afternoon by Mr. Steele's office. It includes some of the findings.
RNC communications director Doug Heye disputed the fundraising figures when reached for comment about the report. He said year-to-date the RNC has received $2,649,586 from major donors at a cost of $1,832,642, netting the organization more than $800,000.
The report says several RNC Finance Department employees have been forging Mr. Bickhart's signature for reimbursement for the purchase of clothing, wine and entertainment expenses, including some that were labeled as office supplies.
One such expense was the nearly $2,000 that a Finance Department employee named Allison Myers -- since fired -- received for money spent by a friend and non-employee at an Los Angeles nightclub that featured a sexual-bondage theme. Many small and large RNC donors alike were not amused. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
The investigation found that the Republican Party's national governing body is losing money on its major-donors' fundraising program -- spending $1.09 for each $1.00 raised, according to RNC members privy to the investigation's findings. It typically costs about 40 cents for every dollar raised from donors who give more than $1,000.
The investigation also found that the RNC has allowed employees to forge Finance Director Rob Bickhart's initials on expense-reimbursement request approvals, according to an RNC member who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The RNC's top elected and appointed management have united in defense of the committee's practices. RNC Chairman Michael S. Steele can withhold or increase RNC contributions to a state party.
The Washington Times obtained a copy of a report on the investigation -- prepared by RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen -- that he sent to the 28-member RNC Executive Committee before a conference call hastily scheduled for Wednesday afternoon by Mr. Steele's office. It includes some of the findings.
RNC communications director Doug Heye disputed the fundraising figures when reached for comment about the report. He said year-to-date the RNC has received $2,649,586 from major donors at a cost of $1,832,642, netting the organization more than $800,000.
The report says several RNC Finance Department employees have been forging Mr. Bickhart's signature for reimbursement for the purchase of clothing, wine and entertainment expenses, including some that were labeled as office supplies.
One such expense was the nearly $2,000 that a Finance Department employee named Allison Myers -- since fired -- received for money spent by a friend and non-employee at an Los Angeles nightclub that featured a sexual-bondage theme. Many small and large RNC donors alike were not amused. ...
Ta much, dear Anneliese
A US Muslim website has warned the creators of South Park they face death after once again depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed in an episode last week.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone celebrated the 200th episode of South Park with a storyline in which the actor Tom Cruise launches a class lawsuit against the animation’s townsfolk, uniting every celebrity that has ever been insulted by the cartoon.
During the episode, Cruise agrees not to pursue his lawsuit if the South Park characters can hand Mohammed over to him. It transpires Cruise and the other celebrities, who include Bono, the Pope, Mel Gibson, and George Lucas leading a ball-gagged Harrison Ford on a leash, only want Mohammed for his "goo", which they believe will lend them invulnerability to public ridicule. Mohammed eventually appears, but dressed in a bear suit. ...
Trey Parker and Matt Stone celebrated the 200th episode of South Park with a storyline in which the actor Tom Cruise launches a class lawsuit against the animation’s townsfolk, uniting every celebrity that has ever been insulted by the cartoon.
During the episode, Cruise agrees not to pursue his lawsuit if the South Park characters can hand Mohammed over to him. It transpires Cruise and the other celebrities, who include Bono, the Pope, Mel Gibson, and George Lucas leading a ball-gagged Harrison Ford on a leash, only want Mohammed for his "goo", which they believe will lend them invulnerability to public ridicule. Mohammed eventually appears, but dressed in a bear suit. ...
Last week, in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, more than a dozen radio stations switched off their music in accordance with an ultimatum from Islamist rebels.
Apparently seeking to bolster their global-jihadist credentials, Somali extremist groups Hezb al-Islam and their sometime-allies al-Shebab decreed that all music - Arab, East African or Britney Spears - is "un-Islamic", and ordered all radio stations to cease playing it, in any form, or face "serious consequences".
Broadcasters were quick to devise light-hearted alternatives to their scheduled music, re-recording ads and replacing bridging jingles with the sounds of car horns, frogs croaking, roosters crowing and, with grim irony, gunfire. The situation was bizarre enough to earn the beleaguered Somalis a spoof-tribute on America's National Public Radio.
The bigger picture, though, is less amusing. Of the 16 FM broadcasters in Mogadishu, all but two complied. The proud hold-outs were Radio Mogadishu, run by Somalia's Transition Federal Government (TFG) and protected by African Union forces, and Radio Bar-Kulan, funded by the UN and broadcast from Kenya.
Notwithstanding radio's vital role in Somalia as the principal medium of both entertainment and news broadcasting, media bosses have said they had little choice but to toe the hardline. In the capital, predominantly controlled by Islamist extremist groups, this is, very unmetaphorically, a matter of life and death: nine journalists were killed in Mogadishu last year, several others held for ransom.
The National Somali Journalists Association quotes one radio editor as saying that, however discomfiting the Islamists' musical edict may be to their professional ethics, the reality was crystal clear: to deny the ban outright could mean the end of journalism altogether in the capital, and of many journalists. ...
Apparently seeking to bolster their global-jihadist credentials, Somali extremist groups Hezb al-Islam and their sometime-allies al-Shebab decreed that all music - Arab, East African or Britney Spears - is "un-Islamic", and ordered all radio stations to cease playing it, in any form, or face "serious consequences".
Broadcasters were quick to devise light-hearted alternatives to their scheduled music, re-recording ads and replacing bridging jingles with the sounds of car horns, frogs croaking, roosters crowing and, with grim irony, gunfire. The situation was bizarre enough to earn the beleaguered Somalis a spoof-tribute on America's National Public Radio.
The bigger picture, though, is less amusing. Of the 16 FM broadcasters in Mogadishu, all but two complied. The proud hold-outs were Radio Mogadishu, run by Somalia's Transition Federal Government (TFG) and protected by African Union forces, and Radio Bar-Kulan, funded by the UN and broadcast from Kenya.
Notwithstanding radio's vital role in Somalia as the principal medium of both entertainment and news broadcasting, media bosses have said they had little choice but to toe the hardline. In the capital, predominantly controlled by Islamist extremist groups, this is, very unmetaphorically, a matter of life and death: nine journalists were killed in Mogadishu last year, several others held for ransom.
The National Somali Journalists Association quotes one radio editor as saying that, however discomfiting the Islamists' musical edict may be to their professional ethics, the reality was crystal clear: to deny the ban outright could mean the end of journalism altogether in the capital, and of many journalists. ...
How the Boston Globe exposed the abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic church
The tenacity of Boston Globe journalists in uncovering the scandal of widespread sexual abuse by priests led to the current crisis in the Catholic church. And there's more to come, as Jon Henley reports
Jon Henley
Wednesday 21 April 2010
In June 2001, Cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston, perhaps the most staunchly Catholic of all America's big cities, filed a routine court submission in response to a number of allegations contained in lawsuits brought against one of his former priests, Father John Geoghan.
At the time, sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic clerics was not a widespread topic of discussion, in the US or anywhere else. Cases would surface, and sometimes be quite extensively reported: in 1981, Father Donald Roemer pleaded guilty to child molestation in Los Angeles; in 1985, a Louisiana priest, Gilbert Gauthe, was convicted of similar offences against 11 boys. But they were seen, for the most part, as isolated incidents. There was no convincing evidence of any consistent pattern of clerical abuse, still less of a sustained attempt by the church to cover up such behaviour – by simply moving priests on without informing the authorities.
Cardinal Law's seemingly innocent court filing, though, was about to change that. Buried somewhere in it was the admission that when, in 1984, he had assigned Geoghan to St Julia's church in the Boston suburb of Weston, he had done so knowing that the priest had, in his previous parish, been accused of molesting seven boys from the same family.
With fresh allegations of abuse and cover-ups now surfacing almost daily, and calls in the UK for Pope Benedict to be arrested, something resembling the worldwide crisis facing the Catholic church would surely have happened sooner or later. But it is possible it would not be happening now, on such a large scale and with such potentially disastrous consequences for the church, had it not been for the work of a small group of journalists – the majority of them Catholic – from the Boston Globe newspaper, who were the first to spot Cardinal Law's startling admission. ...
The tenacity of Boston Globe journalists in uncovering the scandal of widespread sexual abuse by priests led to the current crisis in the Catholic church. And there's more to come, as Jon Henley reports
Jon Henley
Wednesday 21 April 2010
In June 2001, Cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston, perhaps the most staunchly Catholic of all America's big cities, filed a routine court submission in response to a number of allegations contained in lawsuits brought against one of his former priests, Father John Geoghan.
At the time, sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic clerics was not a widespread topic of discussion, in the US or anywhere else. Cases would surface, and sometimes be quite extensively reported: in 1981, Father Donald Roemer pleaded guilty to child molestation in Los Angeles; in 1985, a Louisiana priest, Gilbert Gauthe, was convicted of similar offences against 11 boys. But they were seen, for the most part, as isolated incidents. There was no convincing evidence of any consistent pattern of clerical abuse, still less of a sustained attempt by the church to cover up such behaviour – by simply moving priests on without informing the authorities.
Cardinal Law's seemingly innocent court filing, though, was about to change that. Buried somewhere in it was the admission that when, in 1984, he had assigned Geoghan to St Julia's church in the Boston suburb of Weston, he had done so knowing that the priest had, in his previous parish, been accused of molesting seven boys from the same family.
With fresh allegations of abuse and cover-ups now surfacing almost daily, and calls in the UK for Pope Benedict to be arrested, something resembling the worldwide crisis facing the Catholic church would surely have happened sooner or later. But it is possible it would not be happening now, on such a large scale and with such potentially disastrous consequences for the church, had it not been for the work of a small group of journalists – the majority of them Catholic – from the Boston Globe newspaper, who were the first to spot Cardinal Law's startling admission. ...
... The allegations came to light in a lawsuit filed by the family of Blake Robbins, which argues that the LANrev software illegally invaded his privacy. The family first learned of the surveillance in November when an assistant principal confronted the 15-year-old high school sophomore with a picture of him that was taken by the tracking software.
The image, Robbins has said, showed him with a handful of Mike and Ike candies that the principal had mistaken for illegal pills.
Robbins' $1,000 laptop was not believed to be missing, so the theft-tracking software never should have been activated, his attorney has argued.
School officials told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the software was turned on because Robbins' family had failed to pay a $55 insurance fee to cover the laptop, so he was not authorized to take it home. They also say there is no evidence to indicate school employees used any of the images inappropriately.
Still, the district acknowledged that the software has been activated 42 times since September and an undisclosed number of times the previous year. They have yet to say how many students were photographed or monitored.
According to documents filed by the Robbins' attorney on Thursday, more than 400 images were secretly snapped of Blake, some while he was sleeping or partially undressed.
"Thousands of webcam pictures and screenshots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes, many of which never reported their laptops lost or missing," the filing added.
The motion went on to recite the email exchange between two district employees who administered the laptops.
Viewing the images was like watching "a little LMSD soap opera," one of them said, referring to the initials of the school district.
"I know, I love it!" technology coordinator Carol Cafiero replied.
The image, Robbins has said, showed him with a handful of Mike and Ike candies that the principal had mistaken for illegal pills.
Robbins' $1,000 laptop was not believed to be missing, so the theft-tracking software never should have been activated, his attorney has argued.
School officials told The Philadelphia Inquirer that the software was turned on because Robbins' family had failed to pay a $55 insurance fee to cover the laptop, so he was not authorized to take it home. They also say there is no evidence to indicate school employees used any of the images inappropriately.
Still, the district acknowledged that the software has been activated 42 times since September and an undisclosed number of times the previous year. They have yet to say how many students were photographed or monitored.
According to documents filed by the Robbins' attorney on Thursday, more than 400 images were secretly snapped of Blake, some while he was sleeping or partially undressed.
"Thousands of webcam pictures and screenshots have been taken of numerous other students in their homes, many of which never reported their laptops lost or missing," the filing added.
The motion went on to recite the email exchange between two district employees who administered the laptops.
Viewing the images was like watching "a little LMSD soap opera," one of them said, referring to the initials of the school district.
"I know, I love it!" technology coordinator Carol Cafiero replied.
Lawyers for Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins are claiming that the teenager's school district has used built-in tracking software on students' laptops to take "thousands" of unauthorized images, "including pictures of Blake partially undressed and of Blake sleeping."
The motion, filed April 15 by Michael and Holly Robbins, is the latest salvo in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, PA earlier this year. The issue of remote laptop surveillance came to light after school administrators accused Robbins of "improper behavior in his home," based on a photograph that was taken through the school's remote-monitoring software, LANrev.
Around 2,300 students across two schools in the district have received $1,000 Macintosh laptops for use with said software preinstalled and, as allegedly confirmed by one of Harriton's assistant principals, it can be remotely activated at any time, for any reason.
According to the lawsuit, "By virtue of the fact that the Webcam can be remotely activated at any time by the School District, the Webcam will capture anything happening in the room in which the laptop computer is located, regardless of whether the student is sitting at the computer and using it." Consequently, the suit is accusing the school district of violating various federal and state statutes against surveillance and wiretapping, including the federal Electronics Communications Privacy Act. ...
The motion, filed April 15 by Michael and Holly Robbins, is the latest salvo in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, PA earlier this year. The issue of remote laptop surveillance came to light after school administrators accused Robbins of "improper behavior in his home," based on a photograph that was taken through the school's remote-monitoring software, LANrev.
Around 2,300 students across two schools in the district have received $1,000 Macintosh laptops for use with said software preinstalled and, as allegedly confirmed by one of Harriton's assistant principals, it can be remotely activated at any time, for any reason.
According to the lawsuit, "By virtue of the fact that the Webcam can be remotely activated at any time by the School District, the Webcam will capture anything happening in the room in which the laptop computer is located, regardless of whether the student is sitting at the computer and using it." Consequently, the suit is accusing the school district of violating various federal and state statutes against surveillance and wiretapping, including the federal Electronics Communications Privacy Act. ...
Lawyers for Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins are claiming that the teenager's school district has used built-in tracking software on students' laptops to take "thousands" of unauthorized images, "including pictures of Blake partially undressed and of Blake sleeping."
The motion, filed April 15 by Michael and Holly Robbins, is the latest salvo in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, PA earlier this year. The issue of remote laptop surveillance came to light after school administrators accused Robbins of "improper behavior in his home," based on a photograph that was taken through the school's remote-monitoring software, LANrev.
Around 2,300 students across two schools in the district have received $1,000 Macintosh laptops for use with said software preinstalled and, as allegedly confirmed by one of Harriton's assistant principals, it can be remotely activated at any time, for any reason.
According to the lawsuit, "By virtue of the fact that the Webcam can be remotely activated at any time by the School District, the Webcam will capture anything happening in the room in which the laptop computer is located, regardless of whether the student is sitting at the computer and using it." Consequently, the suit is accusing the school district of violating various federal and state statutes against surveillance and wiretapping, including the federal Electronics Communications Privacy Act. ...
The motion, filed April 15 by Michael and Holly Robbins, is the latest salvo in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Lower Merion School District of Ardmore, PA earlier this year. The issue of remote laptop surveillance came to light after school administrators accused Robbins of "improper behavior in his home," based on a photograph that was taken through the school's remote-monitoring software, LANrev.
Around 2,300 students across two schools in the district have received $1,000 Macintosh laptops for use with said software preinstalled and, as allegedly confirmed by one of Harriton's assistant principals, it can be remotely activated at any time, for any reason.
According to the lawsuit, "By virtue of the fact that the Webcam can be remotely activated at any time by the School District, the Webcam will capture anything happening in the room in which the laptop computer is located, regardless of whether the student is sitting at the computer and using it." Consequently, the suit is accusing the school district of violating various federal and state statutes against surveillance and wiretapping, including the federal Electronics Communications Privacy Act. ...
A new motion in the Lower Merion School School District Webcam-spying case has presented extraordinary suggestions as to the frequency and intimate nature of the photographs allegedly taken remotely by the cameras on school-issued laptops.
On Thursday, lawyers for 15-year-old Blake Robbins and his family claimed that thousands of images were taken by the laptop Webcams. Included in these were, according to the motion, "pictures of Blake partially undressed and of Blake sleeping." In addition, images of Web sites visited and snapshots of their instant messages were also allegedly captured.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, lawyers claim that each time the LANRev software took Webcam shots, it sent them back to school district servers, where employees found entertainment in "a little LMSD soap opera."
Two school district employees were placed on administrative leave in March, after the allegations surfaced, and the school agreed to immediately turn off the Webcams. ...
On Thursday, lawyers for 15-year-old Blake Robbins and his family claimed that thousands of images were taken by the laptop Webcams. Included in these were, according to the motion, "pictures of Blake partially undressed and of Blake sleeping." In addition, images of Web sites visited and snapshots of their instant messages were also allegedly captured.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, lawyers claim that each time the LANRev software took Webcam shots, it sent them back to school district servers, where employees found entertainment in "a little LMSD soap opera."
Two school district employees were placed on administrative leave in March, after the allegations surfaced, and the school agreed to immediately turn off the Webcams. ...
Gloating officials who spied on them said it was "like a soap opera", it is alleged. ...
April 17. 2010 3:07PM
Other militias told on Hutaree
FBI is told group is 'kind of creepy'
Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Long before they were charged with trying to start an anti-government war, members of the Hutaree militia group made enemies among a group they may have considered allies: the local militias with whom they occasionally trained.
Instead of being brothers-in-arms, those other groups became deeply suspicious of the religious and violence-tinged rhetoric of the Hutaree and warned the FBI about the group in late 2008.
Two members of the Southern Michigan Volunteer Militia said this week they provided the FBI with information on the Hutaree, identifying them as "kind of creepy" and considering them a threat that the FBI should keep an eye on.
A federal grand jury indictment unsealed March 29 alleges David Stone Sr. of Clayton in Lenawee County and eight followers belong to a radical militia called the Hutaree plotted to kill police officers and wage war against the U.S. government. Charges include seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.
"I saw them as damaging our organization in particular and the movement as a whole," said Mike Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southern Michigan Volunteer Militia.
Others sent e-mails to the FBI about the group. And ultimately one militia member was so concerned he joined the Hutaree to see what they were about. That man is now considered a "cooperating witness" in the case.
The revelations may surprise those who view militia members as a singular, tight-knit group that rallies around gun rights and anti-government attitudes.
But to the Southeast Michigan Militia, an umbrella group that represents hundreds of members, the Hutaree was different to a fault. No one in the southeast group advocated killing police officers as a way of sparking a revolution designed to protect the work of Jesus, they said.
"That's just rotten and wrong," said Lee Miracle, coordinator for the Southeast Michigan Militia. "What part of that is supporting the Constitution?" ...
Other militias told on Hutaree
FBI is told group is 'kind of creepy'
Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Long before they were charged with trying to start an anti-government war, members of the Hutaree militia group made enemies among a group they may have considered allies: the local militias with whom they occasionally trained.
Instead of being brothers-in-arms, those other groups became deeply suspicious of the religious and violence-tinged rhetoric of the Hutaree and warned the FBI about the group in late 2008.
Two members of the Southern Michigan Volunteer Militia said this week they provided the FBI with information on the Hutaree, identifying them as "kind of creepy" and considering them a threat that the FBI should keep an eye on.
A federal grand jury indictment unsealed March 29 alleges David Stone Sr. of Clayton in Lenawee County and eight followers belong to a radical militia called the Hutaree plotted to kill police officers and wage war against the U.S. government. Charges include seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.
"I saw them as damaging our organization in particular and the movement as a whole," said Mike Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southern Michigan Volunteer Militia.
Others sent e-mails to the FBI about the group. And ultimately one militia member was so concerned he joined the Hutaree to see what they were about. That man is now considered a "cooperating witness" in the case.
The revelations may surprise those who view militia members as a singular, tight-knit group that rallies around gun rights and anti-government attitudes.
But to the Southeast Michigan Militia, an umbrella group that represents hundreds of members, the Hutaree was different to a fault. No one in the southeast group advocated killing police officers as a way of sparking a revolution designed to protect the work of Jesus, they said.
"That's just rotten and wrong," said Lee Miracle, coordinator for the Southeast Michigan Militia. "What part of that is supporting the Constitution?" ...
April 12, 2010
Arrest the Pope? I rather think we should
The sin of making victims and the community complicit in the abuse cover-up is still not acknowledged
Libby Purves
... From Ireland, America, Australia, Austria, the story is always the same: a brave complaint, an admission of guilt including other crimes, followed only by weak supervision and an exaggerated concern for the perpetrator. The wolf retains his clerical dress and status, making other children and their parents feel safe when they are not. Higher authority deplores the sin, takes the confession but won’t risk corporate reputation by handling it properly. As the Murphy Commission scathingly put it, the priority was always “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the Church and the preservation of its assets”.
What troubles me even more is that in doing this, church authorities repeatedly dragged other people into collusion and thus into what — in more convenient circumstances — they themselves would call sin. Young victims, particularly of sexual crimes, badly need to know that they are absolutely accepted as innocents betrayed: the crime is not their burden and does not define them. One of the ways in which societies achieve this is by openly punishing the perpetrator. Too often, that didn’t happen. In some of the most infamous Irish cases the children who suffered were sworn to secrecy, with all the dusty, incense-smelling, habit-rustling impressiveness of canonical process. They were made to collaborate in the shame, by men round whose necks hung the cross they had been taught to revere.
Even when there was no such formality, testimonies of the young victims tell us again and again how they would be ordered not to speak of it, often by shocked Catholic parents, and that keeping the invasive memory locked in their breasts bred guilt and shame that festered for a lifetime. Some killed themselves. Many speak of the particular misery of knowing that their silence — their collusion with the lie that all was well — condemned other younger children to the same ordeal.
Nor is it only children who were stained by secrecy. The respect for church authority and wisdom in homogenous Catholic communities — schools, slums, villages — bred another horror. Not only did it make parents unwittingly betray their raped children by disbelieving them, but if you read memoirs of victims, such as Colm O’Gorman, you hear how in later years they would find that many of the adults around them always “sort of knew” — that there were jokes about the priest’s little ways, that you’d do well not to get too close. From Ealing Abbey now we learn that the criminal Father Pearce was widely giggled about as “gay Dave” by the boys. People knew, but knew they mustn’t speak. ...
Arrest the Pope? I rather think we should
The sin of making victims and the community complicit in the abuse cover-up is still not acknowledged
Libby Purves
... From Ireland, America, Australia, Austria, the story is always the same: a brave complaint, an admission of guilt including other crimes, followed only by weak supervision and an exaggerated concern for the perpetrator. The wolf retains his clerical dress and status, making other children and their parents feel safe when they are not. Higher authority deplores the sin, takes the confession but won’t risk corporate reputation by handling it properly. As the Murphy Commission scathingly put it, the priority was always “the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the Church and the preservation of its assets”.
What troubles me even more is that in doing this, church authorities repeatedly dragged other people into collusion and thus into what — in more convenient circumstances — they themselves would call sin. Young victims, particularly of sexual crimes, badly need to know that they are absolutely accepted as innocents betrayed: the crime is not their burden and does not define them. One of the ways in which societies achieve this is by openly punishing the perpetrator. Too often, that didn’t happen. In some of the most infamous Irish cases the children who suffered were sworn to secrecy, with all the dusty, incense-smelling, habit-rustling impressiveness of canonical process. They were made to collaborate in the shame, by men round whose necks hung the cross they had been taught to revere.
Even when there was no such formality, testimonies of the young victims tell us again and again how they would be ordered not to speak of it, often by shocked Catholic parents, and that keeping the invasive memory locked in their breasts bred guilt and shame that festered for a lifetime. Some killed themselves. Many speak of the particular misery of knowing that their silence — their collusion with the lie that all was well — condemned other younger children to the same ordeal.
Nor is it only children who were stained by secrecy. The respect for church authority and wisdom in homogenous Catholic communities — schools, slums, villages — bred another horror. Not only did it make parents unwittingly betray their raped children by disbelieving them, but if you read memoirs of victims, such as Colm O’Gorman, you hear how in later years they would find that many of the adults around them always “sort of knew” — that there were jokes about the priest’s little ways, that you’d do well not to get too close. From Ealing Abbey now we learn that the criminal Father Pearce was widely giggled about as “gay Dave” by the boys. People knew, but knew they mustn’t speak. ...
Ireland's embattled Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady was taken to hospital tonight with a suspected heart attack.
The Catholic primate was taken to Craigavon Area hospital in Northern Ireland after being taken ill at a confirmation ceremony in Co Tyrone this evening.
A spokesman for the hospital said the 70-year-old cardinal was in a stable condition.
Brady faces demands from clerical abuse victims to stand down over his role in silencing two young victims of the paedophile priest Brendan Smyth. Smyth was one of Ireland's most notorious paedophiles whom the Catholic church continually moved around the country, Northern Ireland, England and the US even after it knew about the allegations against the Norbertine priest. ...
The Catholic primate was taken to Craigavon Area hospital in Northern Ireland after being taken ill at a confirmation ceremony in Co Tyrone this evening.
A spokesman for the hospital said the 70-year-old cardinal was in a stable condition.
Brady faces demands from clerical abuse victims to stand down over his role in silencing two young victims of the paedophile priest Brendan Smyth. Smyth was one of Ireland's most notorious paedophiles whom the Catholic church continually moved around the country, Northern Ireland, England and the US even after it knew about the allegations against the Norbertine priest. ...
The great happy Vatican death spiral
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
... I wasn't kidding above. I firmly believe we have this apocalypse thing all wrong, backwards. The Second Coming has nothing whatsoever to do with some melodramatic return of a bearded, sandal-wearing hippie anarchist who comes back to take away all the booze, porn and tattoos as he whisks away the trembling "true believers" to a land of harps, minivans and horrible sex.
Wrong. The Rapture is when the major karmic roadblocks of man -- all the Vaticans, popes, temples, cults, megachurches and even most organized religions all stagger and collapse under the weight of their inherent hypocrisy, all the oppressed sexuality, the homophobia, misogyny, fear of science, the denial of true spiritual source.
You could call it one of the greatest ironies of man: Only when our supposedly "holy" dogmas, institutions and leaders fail, can the human soul ever truly be free.
Ta much, dear Anneliese
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
... I wasn't kidding above. I firmly believe we have this apocalypse thing all wrong, backwards. The Second Coming has nothing whatsoever to do with some melodramatic return of a bearded, sandal-wearing hippie anarchist who comes back to take away all the booze, porn and tattoos as he whisks away the trembling "true believers" to a land of harps, minivans and horrible sex.
Wrong. The Rapture is when the major karmic roadblocks of man -- all the Vaticans, popes, temples, cults, megachurches and even most organized religions all stagger and collapse under the weight of their inherent hypocrisy, all the oppressed sexuality, the homophobia, misogyny, fear of science, the denial of true spiritual source.
You could call it one of the greatest ironies of man: Only when our supposedly "holy" dogmas, institutions and leaders fail, can the human soul ever truly be free.
Ta much, dear Anneliese
A furious transatlantic row has erupted over quotes that were attributed to a retired Italian bishop, which suggested that Jews were behind the current criticism of the Catholic church's record on tackling clerical sex abuse.
A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism, considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is.
The comments, which have been denied by the bishop, follow a series of statements from Catholic churchmen alleging the existence of plots to weaken the church and Pope Benedict XVI.
Allegedly speaking to the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers."
The interview was spotted on Friday by the American Jewish Committee, which said Babini was using "slanderous stereotypes, which sadly evoke the worst Christian and Nazi propaganda prior to world war two".
On its website, the American Jewish Group Committee quoted bishop Vincenzo Paglia, an official at the Italian Bishops' Conference, as saying Babini's remarks were "entirely contrary to the official line and mainstream thought of the Catholic church".
As the interview appeared on Italy's main newspaper sites today, complete with the American reaction, the Bishops' Conference rushed out a statement quoting Babini denying he had ever given the interview in the first place. "Statements I have never made about our Jewish brothers have been attributed to me," he said.
Babini has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticising homosexuality. ...
A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism, considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is.
The comments, which have been denied by the bishop, follow a series of statements from Catholic churchmen alleging the existence of plots to weaken the church and Pope Benedict XVI.
Allegedly speaking to the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers."
The interview was spotted on Friday by the American Jewish Committee, which said Babini was using "slanderous stereotypes, which sadly evoke the worst Christian and Nazi propaganda prior to world war two".
On its website, the American Jewish Group Committee quoted bishop Vincenzo Paglia, an official at the Italian Bishops' Conference, as saying Babini's remarks were "entirely contrary to the official line and mainstream thought of the Catholic church".
As the interview appeared on Italy's main newspaper sites today, complete with the American reaction, the Bishops' Conference rushed out a statement quoting Babini denying he had ever given the interview in the first place. "Statements I have never made about our Jewish brothers have been attributed to me," he said.
Babini has previously been quoted on the Pontifex website accusing Jews of exploiting the Holocaust, as well as criticising homosexuality. ...
Pope Benedict XVI was dragged directly into the scandal engulfing the Roman Catholic Church when a letter with his signature emerged implicating him in the failure to defrock a known paedophile priest.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger resisted pleas from a Californian diocese to defrock a priest with a record of molesting children, putting “the good of the universal Church”, above other considerations, according to the 1985 letter.
The correspondence, obtained by the Associated Press, undermines the repeated insistence from the Holy See that Benedict XVI has had no personal involvement in covering up the sins of paedophiles.
The letter, bearing the then Cardinal Ratzinger’s signature, was typed and in Latin, and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed laicisation [defrocking] of Father Stephen Kiesle. ...
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger resisted pleas from a Californian diocese to defrock a priest with a record of molesting children, putting “the good of the universal Church”, above other considerations, according to the 1985 letter.
The correspondence, obtained by the Associated Press, undermines the repeated insistence from the Holy See that Benedict XVI has had no personal involvement in covering up the sins of paedophiles.
The letter, bearing the then Cardinal Ratzinger’s signature, was typed and in Latin, and is part of years of correspondence between the Diocese of Oakland and the Vatican about the proposed laicisation [defrocking] of Father Stephen Kiesle. ...
The World Bank approved a controversial $3.75bn loan to build one of the world's largest coal-fired power plants in South Africa yesterday, defying international protests and sharp criticism from the Obama administration that the project would fuel climate change.
The proposed Medupi power station, operated by South Africa's state-owned Eskom company, was fiercely opposed by an international coalition of grassroots, church and environmental activists who said it would hurt the environment and do little to help end poverty. As planned, it would put out 25m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and would prevent South Africa making good on a promise to try to curb future emissions.
The bank said it had acted to help South Africa escape a crippling power shortage. "Without an increased energy supply, South Africans will face hardship for the poor and limited economic growth," said Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank's vice president for Africa.
But the bank's approval for the Medupi plant, though expected, was overshadowed by dissatisfaction from American and European donors, as well as a groundswell of protests. ...
There is no sane reason to use anything but wind and solar power in Africa, you idiots.
The proposed Medupi power station, operated by South Africa's state-owned Eskom company, was fiercely opposed by an international coalition of grassroots, church and environmental activists who said it would hurt the environment and do little to help end poverty. As planned, it would put out 25m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and would prevent South Africa making good on a promise to try to curb future emissions.
The bank said it had acted to help South Africa escape a crippling power shortage. "Without an increased energy supply, South Africans will face hardship for the poor and limited economic growth," said Obiageli Ezekwesili, the World Bank's vice president for Africa.
But the bank's approval for the Medupi plant, though expected, was overshadowed by dissatisfaction from American and European donors, as well as a groundswell of protests. ...
There is no sane reason to use anything but wind and solar power in Africa, you idiots.
Exclusive: Phone-tapping inquiry over John Terry affair
Vanessa Perroncel, in her first interview since news of her affair with ex-England captain emerged, reveals how her refusal to talk to the tabloids caused a prolonged campaign of vilification
Saturday 10 April 2010
An official inquiry has been launched into the suspected interception of voicemail messages around the tabloid newspaper story of the former England football captain John Terry and his alleged affair with a French model.
The inquiry, which is being led from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), will cause concern in Fleet Street, where newspapers and the Press Complaints Commission have insisted that this kind of illegal activity has been stamped out since the jailing of a News of the World reporter in January 2007.
The evidence focuses on the phone records of Vanessa Perroncel and of one of her close friends, Antonia Graham. Perroncel was accused by tabloids of having an affair with Terry.
One allegation involves the interception of a live telephone call between the two women, a more serious offence than listening to phone messages.
In her first interview since the story broke, published in the Guardian today, Perroncel, the former partner of the Manchester City and England footballer Wayne Bridge, says of her experience at the hands of the tabloid pack: "It is horrible. It is like a nightmare. Every day you think: 'What else are they going to say about me?' It is so intrusive and so false. Every day, so many lies – and then people making judgments because of the lies."
Her lawyers this week formally warned seven national newspapers that she is moving to sue them for breach of privacy over reports that claimed to expose her personal life, including her sexual relationships, her medical history, her finances and her wider family's personal problems. ...
... Perroncel says she refused to speak to journalists but that the quote is an accurate account of what she said – in a private phone call to Antonia Graham.
Perroncel told the Guardian: "Antonia did not sell that quotation. I know she does not do that. So how did they get it? There have been other times when the same thing has happened: a conversation with a friend ends up word for word in the paper." ...
Vanessa Perroncel, in her first interview since news of her affair with ex-England captain emerged, reveals how her refusal to talk to the tabloids caused a prolonged campaign of vilification
Saturday 10 April 2010
An official inquiry has been launched into the suspected interception of voicemail messages around the tabloid newspaper story of the former England football captain John Terry and his alleged affair with a French model.
The inquiry, which is being led from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), will cause concern in Fleet Street, where newspapers and the Press Complaints Commission have insisted that this kind of illegal activity has been stamped out since the jailing of a News of the World reporter in January 2007.
The evidence focuses on the phone records of Vanessa Perroncel and of one of her close friends, Antonia Graham. Perroncel was accused by tabloids of having an affair with Terry.
One allegation involves the interception of a live telephone call between the two women, a more serious offence than listening to phone messages.
In her first interview since the story broke, published in the Guardian today, Perroncel, the former partner of the Manchester City and England footballer Wayne Bridge, says of her experience at the hands of the tabloid pack: "It is horrible. It is like a nightmare. Every day you think: 'What else are they going to say about me?' It is so intrusive and so false. Every day, so many lies – and then people making judgments because of the lies."
Her lawyers this week formally warned seven national newspapers that she is moving to sue them for breach of privacy over reports that claimed to expose her personal life, including her sexual relationships, her medical history, her finances and her wider family's personal problems. ...
... Perroncel says she refused to speak to journalists but that the quote is an accurate account of what she said – in a private phone call to Antonia Graham.
Perroncel told the Guardian: "Antonia did not sell that quotation. I know she does not do that. So how did they get it? There have been other times when the same thing has happened: a conversation with a friend ends up word for word in the paper." ...
A retired army brigadier general is among six suspects arrested by Israeli police investigating an organ-trafficking ring, police say.
The organisation offered as much as $100,000 (£65,600) for kidneys, which were transplanted by doctors in poor countries, a sting operation uncovered.
Police said they had been "shocked" by the extent of the smuggling ring.
Retired Gen Meir Zamir, arrested in connection with the trafficking, won a medal of valour in the Yom Kippur War. ...
Ta much, dear Edosan
The organisation offered as much as $100,000 (£65,600) for kidneys, which were transplanted by doctors in poor countries, a sting operation uncovered.
Police said they had been "shocked" by the extent of the smuggling ring.
Retired Gen Meir Zamir, arrested in connection with the trafficking, won a medal of valour in the Yom Kippur War. ...
Ta much, dear Edosan
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.
The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.
Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.
General Powell, who left the Bush Administration in 2005, angry about the misinformation that he unwittingly gave the world when he made the case for the invasion of Iraq at the UN, is understood to have backed Colonel Wilkerson’s declaration. ...
The accusations were made by Lawrence Wilkerson, a top aide to Colin Powell, the former Republican Secretary of State, in a signed declaration to support a lawsuit filed by a Guantánamo detainee. It is the first time that such allegations have been made by a senior member of the Bush Administration.
Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell’s chief of staff when he ran the State Department, was most critical of Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld. He claimed that the former Vice-President and Defence Secretary knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was “politically impossible to release them”.
General Powell, who left the Bush Administration in 2005, angry about the misinformation that he unwittingly gave the world when he made the case for the invasion of Iraq at the UN, is understood to have backed Colonel Wilkerson’s declaration. ...
Unemployment benefits and GOP principle
Michael Tomasky Monday 5 April 2010
... You may remember a few weeks ago that it was Republican Senator Jim Bunning who held up extension of these benefits because the Senate wasn't coming up to any way to pay for them and make the extension deficit neutral thereby. This time around it's Oklahoma's Tom Coburn:
"The legitimate debate is whether we borrow and steal from our kids or we get out of town and send the bill to our kids for something that we're going to consume today," Coburn said on the Senate floor.
The cost is $10 billion, so I can see that if you're concerned about the deficit it's a fair point. But here's the thing that gets me.
Somehow, Republicans don't manage to raise these objections about deficit neutrality when the question involves tax cuts heavily weighted toward the rich. The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 increased the deficit. I don't remember many Republican protestations about that. As you can see from this roll-call vote from 2006, extending the tax cuts (well after their deficit-augmenting reality was known), all 51 (at the time) Republican senators voted for them, Coburn and Bunning among them.
Rich people are rich because they're good, so by definition the deficit isn't their fault. Working-class unemployed people, well, hard luck.
Michael Tomasky Monday 5 April 2010
... You may remember a few weeks ago that it was Republican Senator Jim Bunning who held up extension of these benefits because the Senate wasn't coming up to any way to pay for them and make the extension deficit neutral thereby. This time around it's Oklahoma's Tom Coburn:
"The legitimate debate is whether we borrow and steal from our kids or we get out of town and send the bill to our kids for something that we're going to consume today," Coburn said on the Senate floor.
The cost is $10 billion, so I can see that if you're concerned about the deficit it's a fair point. But here's the thing that gets me.
Somehow, Republicans don't manage to raise these objections about deficit neutrality when the question involves tax cuts heavily weighted toward the rich. The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 increased the deficit. I don't remember many Republican protestations about that. As you can see from this roll-call vote from 2006, extending the tax cuts (well after their deficit-augmenting reality was known), all 51 (at the time) Republican senators voted for them, Coburn and Bunning among them.
Rich people are rich because they're good, so by definition the deficit isn't their fault. Working-class unemployed people, well, hard luck.
Why we must break up the banks
Paul Krugman says it isn't necessary – but breaking up financial giants would at least give us hope that things can change
Dean Baker
Wednesday 7 April 2010
It's not often that I disagree with Paul Krugman, but there are occasions where at least one of us is wrong. And the treatment of too big to fail (TBTF) banks is one of them.
Krugman argued in a column last week that breaking up the TBTF banks is not a necessary part of financial reform. Krugman pointed to the example of Canada as a country with a well-regulated financial system. Canada did not experience a financial crisis in 2008 in spite of the fact that five big banks essentially account for the whole of the Canadian banking system. On the other side, Krugman noted that the collapse of large numbers of small banks can also create a crisis, pointing to the chain of bank collapses at the start of the Great Depression.
These are valid points, but to paraphrase Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: "we're not in Canada anymore." While Canadian banking regulation appears to have been effective thus far (we may want to see how they cope with a yet to deflate housing bubble before pronouncing it a success), Canada is a very different country from the United States. In Canada, they have had universal Medicare for 40 years. As the first President Bush used to say, it is a kinder, gentler, country.
This matters for financial regulation, because there is a level of independence and integrity on the part of the regulators in Canada that does not exist in the United States. The line in Washington is that if you want to talk to someone from Goldman Sachs, call the treasury department. ...
Paul Krugman says it isn't necessary – but breaking up financial giants would at least give us hope that things can change
Dean Baker
Wednesday 7 April 2010
It's not often that I disagree with Paul Krugman, but there are occasions where at least one of us is wrong. And the treatment of too big to fail (TBTF) banks is one of them.
Krugman argued in a column last week that breaking up the TBTF banks is not a necessary part of financial reform. Krugman pointed to the example of Canada as a country with a well-regulated financial system. Canada did not experience a financial crisis in 2008 in spite of the fact that five big banks essentially account for the whole of the Canadian banking system. On the other side, Krugman noted that the collapse of large numbers of small banks can also create a crisis, pointing to the chain of bank collapses at the start of the Great Depression.
These are valid points, but to paraphrase Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: "we're not in Canada anymore." While Canadian banking regulation appears to have been effective thus far (we may want to see how they cope with a yet to deflate housing bubble before pronouncing it a success), Canada is a very different country from the United States. In Canada, they have had universal Medicare for 40 years. As the first President Bush used to say, it is a kinder, gentler, country.
This matters for financial regulation, because there is a level of independence and integrity on the part of the regulators in Canada that does not exist in the United States. The line in Washington is that if you want to talk to someone from Goldman Sachs, call the treasury department. ...
When rightwing hate goes mainstream
The Republican party is indulging extremists, hoping they'll put down their guns long enough to vote for them this November
Dan Kennedy
Wednesday 7 April 2010
... The first warning came a year ago, when the department of homeland security predicted a rise in rightwing extremism fuelled by economic calamity and the election of our first black president. News of the report, and especially about a warning contained therein that military veterans might be pulled into the movement, set off criticism among conservative bloggers. Yet it proved prescient.
The most recent and oddest manifestation was last week's arrest of nine people involved in what authorities have referred to as a "Christian militia" intent on sparking revolution. But there have been other examples, each treated by the media as isolated incidents. The murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, whose killer was sentenced to life in prison last week. The pilot who crashed his plane into an Internal Revenue Service facility in Austin, Texas, in February. Protesters whipped into a frenzy during the healthcare debate who yelled racist and homophobic slurs at members of Congress, who spat upon one and who phoned in threats of violence.
According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, the number of rightwing extremist groups has risen exponentially during the past 18 months. And in an interview with National Public Radio's On the Media last week, he was unstinting in placing at least some of the blame for that with their enablers in the Republican party and in the media....
The Republican party is indulging extremists, hoping they'll put down their guns long enough to vote for them this November
Dan Kennedy
Wednesday 7 April 2010
... The first warning came a year ago, when the department of homeland security predicted a rise in rightwing extremism fuelled by economic calamity and the election of our first black president. News of the report, and especially about a warning contained therein that military veterans might be pulled into the movement, set off criticism among conservative bloggers. Yet it proved prescient.
The most recent and oddest manifestation was last week's arrest of nine people involved in what authorities have referred to as a "Christian militia" intent on sparking revolution. But there have been other examples, each treated by the media as isolated incidents. The murder of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller, whose killer was sentenced to life in prison last week. The pilot who crashed his plane into an Internal Revenue Service facility in Austin, Texas, in February. Protesters whipped into a frenzy during the healthcare debate who yelled racist and homophobic slurs at members of Congress, who spat upon one and who phoned in threats of violence.
According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, the number of rightwing extremist groups has risen exponentially during the past 18 months. And in an interview with National Public Radio's On the Media last week, he was unstinting in placing at least some of the blame for that with their enablers in the Republican party and in the media....
The Great Barrier Reef scandal
The Great Barrier Reef is threatened by the worst environmental disaster in Australia's history after a ship ran aground. So why are giant coal carriers allowed to use this well-known shipping hazard as a shortcut?
Ellen Connolly and Jon Henley
Tuesday 6 April 2010
On 11 June 1770, six weeks or so after becoming the first European to make landfall on the east coast of Australia, Lieutenant James Cook unexpectedly ran aground. His ship, the Endeavour, had struck a reef now known as the Endeavour Reef, within a manifestly far bigger reef system, nearly 25 miles from shore. Only the urgent jettisoning of 50 tonnes of stores and equipment (including all but four of the ship's guns), a delicate operation known as fothering (in which an old sail was drawn under the hull, effectively plugging the hole), Cook's expert seamanship and a great deal of hard pumping saved the vessel and her crew.
It would be another 30-odd years before the great Lincolnshire explorer and cartographer Matthew Flinders, having circumnavigated the entirety of Terra Australis Incognita, the Unknown Southern Land, gave the vast reef system its name. But despite his astonishing success in charting a safe passage through its treacherous waters, mainly by the expedient of sending small boats ahead to sound the depths, Flinders himself was later stranded on it while heading home for England in 1803.
For nearly 250 years, the Great Barrier Reef has been a hazard to shipping. It is the world's largest reef system, made up of more than 2,900 coral reefs and 900 islands scattered over 344,400sq km off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia. Covering an area bigger than the United Kingdom, it is also a priceless and unimaginably fragile world heritage site, home to 30 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises; six species of sea turtles; 125 species of shark, stingray and skate; 5,000 species of mollusc; nine species of seahorse; 215 species of birds; 17 species of sea snake; 2,195 known plant species and more than 1,500 species of fish.
And it is still a hazard to shipping. In recent years, its pristine waters, in theory protected by the statutes of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, have become known as the "coal highway", a busy thoroughfare for foreign-owned bulk carriers bound for Asia. Laden with coal and fuel oil from Australia, thousands of ships, such as the Chinese-owned Shen Neng 1, which ran aground off the country's eastern seaboard on Saturday, continue to jeopardise the largest marine conservation site in the world. Last night, as salvage teams worked to prevent what would be the biggest environmental disaster in Australian history, environmentalists were not slow to accuse the government of turning a blind eye to the problem. ...
The Great Barrier Reef is threatened by the worst environmental disaster in Australia's history after a ship ran aground. So why are giant coal carriers allowed to use this well-known shipping hazard as a shortcut?
Ellen Connolly and Jon Henley
Tuesday 6 April 2010
On 11 June 1770, six weeks or so after becoming the first European to make landfall on the east coast of Australia, Lieutenant James Cook unexpectedly ran aground. His ship, the Endeavour, had struck a reef now known as the Endeavour Reef, within a manifestly far bigger reef system, nearly 25 miles from shore. Only the urgent jettisoning of 50 tonnes of stores and equipment (including all but four of the ship's guns), a delicate operation known as fothering (in which an old sail was drawn under the hull, effectively plugging the hole), Cook's expert seamanship and a great deal of hard pumping saved the vessel and her crew.
It would be another 30-odd years before the great Lincolnshire explorer and cartographer Matthew Flinders, having circumnavigated the entirety of Terra Australis Incognita, the Unknown Southern Land, gave the vast reef system its name. But despite his astonishing success in charting a safe passage through its treacherous waters, mainly by the expedient of sending small boats ahead to sound the depths, Flinders himself was later stranded on it while heading home for England in 1803.
For nearly 250 years, the Great Barrier Reef has been a hazard to shipping. It is the world's largest reef system, made up of more than 2,900 coral reefs and 900 islands scattered over 344,400sq km off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia. Covering an area bigger than the United Kingdom, it is also a priceless and unimaginably fragile world heritage site, home to 30 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises; six species of sea turtles; 125 species of shark, stingray and skate; 5,000 species of mollusc; nine species of seahorse; 215 species of birds; 17 species of sea snake; 2,195 known plant species and more than 1,500 species of fish.
And it is still a hazard to shipping. In recent years, its pristine waters, in theory protected by the statutes of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, have become known as the "coal highway", a busy thoroughfare for foreign-owned bulk carriers bound for Asia. Laden with coal and fuel oil from Australia, thousands of ships, such as the Chinese-owned Shen Neng 1, which ran aground off the country's eastern seaboard on Saturday, continue to jeopardise the largest marine conservation site in the world. Last night, as salvage teams worked to prevent what would be the biggest environmental disaster in Australian history, environmentalists were not slow to accuse the government of turning a blind eye to the problem. ...
New nuke policy and old political idiocy
Pentagon chief Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton just announced the new US nuclear policy, which is a middle-of-the-road kind of thing in which we say we won't use nukes against non-nuke countries unless they're Iran.
On top of this of course, Obama is going to Prague Thursday to sign a new treaty with Medvedev to reduce nuclear stockpiles.
Needless to say, in Republicanland, all this means Obama is the Disarmer-in-Chief who wants the terrorists to win or whatever nonsense they're cooking up. Here, for example, is Rudy Giuliani:
President Obama's revamping of American nuclear policy is the mark of an "inept" leader intent on living a "left-wing dream," says Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, in an interview with National Review Online. "A nuclear-free world has been a 60-year dream of the Left, just like socialized health-care. This new policy, like Obama's government-run health program, is a big step in that direction."
"President Obama thinks we can all hold hands, sing songs, and have peace symbols," Giuliani says. "North Korea and Iran are not singing along with the president. Knowing that, it just doesn't make sense why we would reduce our nuclear arms when we face these threats."
Every hallmark of irresponsible right-wing posturing exists in those words, and it's this kind of thing that has driven the polarization in this country to such awful extremes.
If Giuliani -- who you'll notice tried to be president but is in fact not -- can guess the US nuclear stockpile within 1,000, I'd be surprised (it's about 5,700 in the active stockpile). He also probably conveniently forgets, if he ever knew, that just 18 or so years ago, we had about 24,000 active warheads. ...
Pentagon chief Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton just announced the new US nuclear policy, which is a middle-of-the-road kind of thing in which we say we won't use nukes against non-nuke countries unless they're Iran.
On top of this of course, Obama is going to Prague Thursday to sign a new treaty with Medvedev to reduce nuclear stockpiles.
Needless to say, in Republicanland, all this means Obama is the Disarmer-in-Chief who wants the terrorists to win or whatever nonsense they're cooking up. Here, for example, is Rudy Giuliani:
President Obama's revamping of American nuclear policy is the mark of an "inept" leader intent on living a "left-wing dream," says Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, in an interview with National Review Online. "A nuclear-free world has been a 60-year dream of the Left, just like socialized health-care. This new policy, like Obama's government-run health program, is a big step in that direction."
"President Obama thinks we can all hold hands, sing songs, and have peace symbols," Giuliani says. "North Korea and Iran are not singing along with the president. Knowing that, it just doesn't make sense why we would reduce our nuclear arms when we face these threats."
Every hallmark of irresponsible right-wing posturing exists in those words, and it's this kind of thing that has driven the polarization in this country to such awful extremes.
If Giuliani -- who you'll notice tried to be president but is in fact not -- can guess the US nuclear stockpile within 1,000, I'd be surprised (it's about 5,700 in the active stockpile). He also probably conveniently forgets, if he ever knew, that just 18 or so years ago, we had about 24,000 active warheads. ...
Saturday, April 03, 2010
Pity The Pedophile Priests, Pleads Pope.
The Pope pleaded "pity the pedophile priests;
Protect the poor padres, please pray"
They've sinned, but since Eden, we're nothing but beasts
These men--why, they're victims, I say
It's Satan, or sickness, not something they choose
When they lust after children, God knows
They're clearly as blameless as Holocaust Jews
(As the rhetoric reaches new lows)
With your staff and your ring, with your mitre and cape,
And with millions that heed your command
This is not just P.R.; this is forcible rape--
What's the part that you don't understand?
The fact that your coverup now comes to light
Has you pacing the Vatican floors--
And the grim realization must fill you with fright:
These sins are not Adam's; they're yours
Ta much, dear Anneliese
Pity The Pedophile Priests, Pleads Pope.
The Pope pleaded "pity the pedophile priests;
Protect the poor padres, please pray"
They've sinned, but since Eden, we're nothing but beasts
These men--why, they're victims, I say
It's Satan, or sickness, not something they choose
When they lust after children, God knows
They're clearly as blameless as Holocaust Jews
(As the rhetoric reaches new lows)
With your staff and your ring, with your mitre and cape,
And with millions that heed your command
This is not just P.R.; this is forcible rape--
What's the part that you don't understand?
The fact that your coverup now comes to light
Has you pacing the Vatican floors--
And the grim realization must fill you with fright:
These sins are not Adam's; they're yours
Ta much, dear Anneliese
April 4, 2010
I believe you’ve killed the church, Holy Father
Only a morally bankrupt Pope could call news of his role in a child abuse cover-up ‘petty gossip’
Andrew Sullivan
We know two things about Pope Benedict XVI this Easter that we didn’t know last Easter. We know that he was implicated in covering up two cases of multiple child rapes and molestations, one in Germany and one in the United States. His record on this makes it hard to distinguish his career from that of many other bishops and cardinals who were indirectly but clearly guilty of ignoring or covering up their underlings’ violation of the bodies and souls of the young and the vulnerable.
The Vatican has spent Holy Week fighting back against those facts, but it cannot abolish or undo them. The German case is the most clear-cut — because it was so glaring and so directly connected to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as the Pope was then known. The facts are these: a priest, Peter Hullermann, was found guilty of raping children in at least three families under Ratzinger’s authority in the late 1970s. The local priest indicated that the families would “not file charges under the current circumstances”, and the case went to Ratzinger, who decided not to report the priest to the criminal authorities, nor to strip him of his office, but to send him for therapy and retain him as an active priest, capable of molesting again. The priest subsequently raped many more children; he was found guilty in 1986 and was given a suspended sentence.
The Pope’s first defence was that he knew nothing about it and that his subordinate at the time, Gerhard Gruber, took full responsibility. We then discovered that the psychiatrist in the case had contacted Ratzinger’s office on several occasions, warning him of the “danger” the priest represented. “I said, ‘For God’s sake, he desperately has to be kept away from working with children’,” the psychiatrist told The New York Times. ...
I believe you’ve killed the church, Holy Father
Only a morally bankrupt Pope could call news of his role in a child abuse cover-up ‘petty gossip’
Andrew Sullivan
We know two things about Pope Benedict XVI this Easter that we didn’t know last Easter. We know that he was implicated in covering up two cases of multiple child rapes and molestations, one in Germany and one in the United States. His record on this makes it hard to distinguish his career from that of many other bishops and cardinals who were indirectly but clearly guilty of ignoring or covering up their underlings’ violation of the bodies and souls of the young and the vulnerable.
The Vatican has spent Holy Week fighting back against those facts, but it cannot abolish or undo them. The German case is the most clear-cut — because it was so glaring and so directly connected to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as the Pope was then known. The facts are these: a priest, Peter Hullermann, was found guilty of raping children in at least three families under Ratzinger’s authority in the late 1970s. The local priest indicated that the families would “not file charges under the current circumstances”, and the case went to Ratzinger, who decided not to report the priest to the criminal authorities, nor to strip him of his office, but to send him for therapy and retain him as an active priest, capable of molesting again. The priest subsequently raped many more children; he was found guilty in 1986 and was given a suspended sentence.
The Pope’s first defence was that he knew nothing about it and that his subordinate at the time, Gerhard Gruber, took full responsibility. We then discovered that the psychiatrist in the case had contacted Ratzinger’s office on several occasions, warning him of the “danger” the priest represented. “I said, ‘For God’s sake, he desperately has to be kept away from working with children’,” the psychiatrist told The New York Times. ...
Senior Catholics across Europe today apologised for the way the church had dealt with paedophile priests and acknowledged the damage the scandal had caused to its moral authority.
In Easter sermons that revealed penitence, shame and shortcomings, archbishops in Armagh, Dublin, Edinburgh, Vienna and Westminster asked congregations for their forgiveness and urged them not to abandon the church because of past sins.
But there was no apology from Rome, as Benedict XVI maintained a steadfast silence about the crisis in his annual Urbi et Orbi – To the City and the World – address. ...
In Easter sermons that revealed penitence, shame and shortcomings, archbishops in Armagh, Dublin, Edinburgh, Vienna and Westminster asked congregations for their forgiveness and urged them not to abandon the church because of past sins.
But there was no apology from Rome, as Benedict XVI maintained a steadfast silence about the crisis in his annual Urbi et Orbi – To the City and the World – address. ...
"We are now very worried we might see further oil discharged from this ship," Ms Bligh said. Local emergency crews were on standby to clean any oil that reached mainland beaches, she added.
It emerged today that the 755ft (230m) vessel should not have been in the area where it ran aground.
Ms Bligh said that the vessel hit the reef at full speed in a restricted zone 9 miles (15km) outside the shipping lane.
Its presence outside the shipping channel would be subject to a probing inquiry, she said.
Aircraft have been spraying chemical oil dispersant on to two small patches of oil about 2.5 miles from the ship.
The spill is within the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef but it will not be known for some days whether it is large enough to have a damaging impact on the reef.
Peter Garrett, the Environment Minister, said that it was too early to say whether there would be any lasting effect. "We don't have advice at present as to whether the oil is going to threaten any part of the ecology of the reef," he said.
"The Government is very conscious of the importance of the Great Barrier Reef environment and ensuring that impacts on its ecology are effectively managed." Conservationists said the fact that there was no legal requirement to have marine pilots on board ships in the area to guide them safely through the 1,500 mile (2,500km) reef system put it in grave danger.
Ian Herbert, the Capricorn Conservation Council spokesman, said he feared that the latest incident was a “sign of things to come". ...
It emerged today that the 755ft (230m) vessel should not have been in the area where it ran aground.
Ms Bligh said that the vessel hit the reef at full speed in a restricted zone 9 miles (15km) outside the shipping lane.
Its presence outside the shipping channel would be subject to a probing inquiry, she said.
Aircraft have been spraying chemical oil dispersant on to two small patches of oil about 2.5 miles from the ship.
The spill is within the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef but it will not be known for some days whether it is large enough to have a damaging impact on the reef.
Peter Garrett, the Environment Minister, said that it was too early to say whether there would be any lasting effect. "We don't have advice at present as to whether the oil is going to threaten any part of the ecology of the reef," he said.
"The Government is very conscious of the importance of the Great Barrier Reef environment and ensuring that impacts on its ecology are effectively managed." Conservationists said the fact that there was no legal requirement to have marine pilots on board ships in the area to guide them safely through the 1,500 mile (2,500km) reef system put it in grave danger.
Ian Herbert, the Capricorn Conservation Council spokesman, said he feared that the latest incident was a “sign of things to come". ...
Pope Benedict XVI ignored calls for a mea culpa over the growing crisis of clerical sex abuse yesterday as a senior prelate insisted the Church would not be intimidated by “petty gossip”. In his Easter Day address, Urbi et Orbi (To the city and world), made to a crowd in St Peter’s Square in Rome, the Pope insisted he would continue his “pilgrimage” and spoke of the need for “a spiritual and moral conversion” and an examination of consciences. ...
Easter became a festival of apology across the Christian world today as church leaders issued mea culpas for grievous sins committed against children and God.
The Pope was one of the few who failed to refer at all to the crisis that is tarnishing the image of the Church worldwide — and that has even embroiled the leader of the Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.
In Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, acknowledged his own role in putting the reputation of the Church before justice for abused children, apologising "with all my heart" but stopped short of the resignation that many believe is inevitable.
Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, admitted that "serious sins" had been committed within the Catholic community. Preaching at Westminster Cathedral, he said: "Talk of sin is not always popular - unless we are talking about other people’s sins. In recent weeks the serious sins committed within the Catholic community have been much talked about. ..."
The Pope was one of the few who failed to refer at all to the crisis that is tarnishing the image of the Church worldwide — and that has even embroiled the leader of the Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury.
In Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, acknowledged his own role in putting the reputation of the Church before justice for abused children, apologising "with all my heart" but stopped short of the resignation that many believe is inevitable.
Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, admitted that "serious sins" had been committed within the Catholic community. Preaching at Westminster Cathedral, he said: "Talk of sin is not always popular - unless we are talking about other people’s sins. In recent weeks the serious sins committed within the Catholic community have been much talked about. ..."
Some of the suppressed fury of German Catholics about the handling of the child abuse scandal spilled over into an attack on a bishop during Easter Sunday High Mass.
Bishop Felix Genn had to hold aloft an incense container to fend off the blows from a broomstick wielded by an angry parishioner trying to beat him on the altar of Germany's ancient Münster Cathedral.
The attack was the first act of physical violence in a highly emotional Easter festival that has been overshadowed by months of child molestation accusations against priests.
The 44-year-old assailant ran forward at the beginning of the service and toppled the large Easter candle, then turned on the bishop. ...
Nice try.
Bishop Felix Genn had to hold aloft an incense container to fend off the blows from a broomstick wielded by an angry parishioner trying to beat him on the altar of Germany's ancient Münster Cathedral.
The attack was the first act of physical violence in a highly emotional Easter festival that has been overshadowed by months of child molestation accusations against priests.
The 44-year-old assailant ran forward at the beginning of the service and toppled the large Easter candle, then turned on the bishop. ...
Nice try.
The late Tucson Bishop Manuel D. Moreno, often characterized as a poor advocate for sexual abuse victims, struggled with both canon law and Vatican mandates in his efforts to defrock two local priests, documents obtained by the Arizona Daily Star show.
In one case, Moreno pleaded with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, for help in removing the Rev. Michael Teta, who was convicted by the church in 1997 of five crimes including sexual solicitation in the confessional.
"I make this plea to you to assist me in every way you can to expedite this case, because the accused was a priest in whom I had great confidence at one time, but who, unfortunately, worked among our former seminarians, and, terrible to say, evidently corrupted many of them," Moreno wrote in an April 1997 letter to Ratzinger.
Ratzinger's office oversaw Teta's case because the crimes allegedly occurred in the confessional. His office did not handle the case of the other priest, Monsignor Robert C. Trupia, until 2001, when jurisdiction over such cases changed.
Teta's case, Moreno wrote, had already gone on for seven years. Teta was first suspended in 1990.
Teta and Trupia were defrocked in 2004. The diocese suspended Trupia in 1992 after a Tucson mother told the diocese her young son had been sexually abused by Trupia.
The diocese did not notify police about allegations against Trupia until 2000, when mandatory- reporting policies were adopted here. ...
In one case, Moreno pleaded with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, for help in removing the Rev. Michael Teta, who was convicted by the church in 1997 of five crimes including sexual solicitation in the confessional.
"I make this plea to you to assist me in every way you can to expedite this case, because the accused was a priest in whom I had great confidence at one time, but who, unfortunately, worked among our former seminarians, and, terrible to say, evidently corrupted many of them," Moreno wrote in an April 1997 letter to Ratzinger.
Ratzinger's office oversaw Teta's case because the crimes allegedly occurred in the confessional. His office did not handle the case of the other priest, Monsignor Robert C. Trupia, until 2001, when jurisdiction over such cases changed.
Teta's case, Moreno wrote, had already gone on for seven years. Teta was first suspended in 1990.
Teta and Trupia were defrocked in 2004. The diocese suspended Trupia in 1992 after a Tucson mother told the diocese her young son had been sexually abused by Trupia.
The diocese did not notify police about allegations against Trupia until 2000, when mandatory- reporting policies were adopted here. ...
The Vatican has moved to block an attempt to force the Pope to appear in court in the United States, after a lawyer filed a motion seeking his sworn testimony on what the Vatican knew about paedophile scandals.
Giuseppe dalla Torre, head of the Vatican City Tribunal, said that Benedict XVI had diplomatic immunity as a head of state. The Vatican lawyers are also expected to argue that US bishops who oversaw priests who committed abuse were not Vatican employees.
The Kentucky action by William McMurry comes after a lawsuit filed in 2004 by three men who allege that they were abused by priests in the state.
The Vatican tried to get the case dismissed, but in 2007 a judge approved a process under which both sides can request information and documents, including the questioning of witnesses. ...
Giuseppe dalla Torre, head of the Vatican City Tribunal, said that Benedict XVI had diplomatic immunity as a head of state. The Vatican lawyers are also expected to argue that US bishops who oversaw priests who committed abuse were not Vatican employees.
The Kentucky action by William McMurry comes after a lawsuit filed in 2004 by three men who allege that they were abused by priests in the state.
The Vatican tried to get the case dismissed, but in 2007 a judge approved a process under which both sides can request information and documents, including the questioning of witnesses. ...
The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has lost all credibility because of the child abuse scandal, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
In a rare breach of ecumenical protocol, Dr Rowan Williams criticised the Catholic Church over its handling of the paedophile priests crisis and made plain his anger over the Pope’s plans for a new ordinariate to tempt dissatisfied Anglicans over to Rome.
His comments will add to the cloud gathering over the Pope’s four-day visit to Britain in September, when he is expected to give an address in Westminster on moral values in society. More than 10,000 people have signed a “Protest the Pope” petition on Downing Street’s website against the £15 million cost of the visit, which is to be shared by the Government and the Church.
The Vatican’s troubles mounted when Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher likened criticism of the Church over the sex abuse scandal to “collective violence” suffered by the Jews. At a Good Friday ceremony at St Peter’s Basilica, Father Raniero Cantalamessa told the congregation, with the Pope listening, that a Jewish friend had said that the accusations reminded him of the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism”.
The attempt to equate criticism of the Church with the suffering of Jews is particularly controversial given the accusation that the Church failed to do enough to stop the Holocaust, in which millions of Jews perished.
The Pope later followed a candle-lit procession to commemorate Christ’s suffering amid tighter security than usual. His spokesman said that Father Cantalamessa’s remarks were not the official position of the Church. ...
Yeah, well, a C of E eejit accusing the catholics of having no credibility is the pot calling the kettle black.
In a rare breach of ecumenical protocol, Dr Rowan Williams criticised the Catholic Church over its handling of the paedophile priests crisis and made plain his anger over the Pope’s plans for a new ordinariate to tempt dissatisfied Anglicans over to Rome.
His comments will add to the cloud gathering over the Pope’s four-day visit to Britain in September, when he is expected to give an address in Westminster on moral values in society. More than 10,000 people have signed a “Protest the Pope” petition on Downing Street’s website against the £15 million cost of the visit, which is to be shared by the Government and the Church.
The Vatican’s troubles mounted when Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher likened criticism of the Church over the sex abuse scandal to “collective violence” suffered by the Jews. At a Good Friday ceremony at St Peter’s Basilica, Father Raniero Cantalamessa told the congregation, with the Pope listening, that a Jewish friend had said that the accusations reminded him of the “more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism”.
The attempt to equate criticism of the Church with the suffering of Jews is particularly controversial given the accusation that the Church failed to do enough to stop the Holocaust, in which millions of Jews perished.
The Pope later followed a candle-lit procession to commemorate Christ’s suffering amid tighter security than usual. His spokesman said that Father Cantalamessa’s remarks were not the official position of the Church. ...
Yeah, well, a C of E eejit accusing the catholics of having no credibility is the pot calling the kettle black.
German Catholic leaders openly admitted for the first time today that the Church betrayed and abused children in its care.
The admission by Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, came as Catholic priests across the country called on their congregations to pray for abused children.
But in many churches worshippers took the unusual step of expressing their unhappiness with the Church's management of the crisis.
Archbishop Zollitsch said that the Church had committed serious mistakes and done too little to help the victims of priestly abuse. “The caring responsibility towards the victims was insufficient in the past because of our own disappointment at the painful failure of the perpetrators, and out of a falsely understood concern for the standing of the church," he said. ...
The admission by Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, came as Catholic priests across the country called on their congregations to pray for abused children.
But in many churches worshippers took the unusual step of expressing their unhappiness with the Church's management of the crisis.
Archbishop Zollitsch said that the Church had committed serious mistakes and done too little to help the victims of priestly abuse. “The caring responsibility towards the victims was insufficient in the past because of our own disappointment at the painful failure of the perpetrators, and out of a falsely understood concern for the standing of the church," he said. ...
It may yet become known as the Good Friday Rebellion. Across Germany, Roman Catholic priests admitted from the pulpit that the Church had betrayed and abused children in its care — and quietly but firmly many believers let the Church know that they were deeply unhappy.
At the Jesuit-run Saint Canesius church in Berlin, worshippers were asked in the customary Good Friday High Mass to pray for Pope Benedict XVI and the bishops of the Church. The congregation duly knelt. Then the priest appealed: “Let us pray for the children who have been done great injustice within the Church community, who were abused.” The congregation made to bend their knees but the priest was not finished. “And for those who have sinned against children,” he added. Half of the congregation, perhaps 150 people, remained silently standing — a rare flash of defiance. The cause could have been a nasty outbreak of rheumatism — St Canesius has a cold stone floor — but similar scenes were reported across the country.
More than 20 out of 27 dioceses had agreed to integrate the prayers into the service. The formula had been worked out by Stephan Ackermann, Bishop of Trier, charged with investigating the abuse claims. Last week he introduced a hotline for victims and found that 20 callers said that they had been abused in his diocese.
“No, the prayer for the children wasn’t a surprise,” said one of the Berlin worshippers, “it was relief. But did you notice there were only three families in the congregation? That was unusual here but at the moment churches are not places you take children.” ...
At the Jesuit-run Saint Canesius church in Berlin, worshippers were asked in the customary Good Friday High Mass to pray for Pope Benedict XVI and the bishops of the Church. The congregation duly knelt. Then the priest appealed: “Let us pray for the children who have been done great injustice within the Church community, who were abused.” The congregation made to bend their knees but the priest was not finished. “And for those who have sinned against children,” he added. Half of the congregation, perhaps 150 people, remained silently standing — a rare flash of defiance. The cause could have been a nasty outbreak of rheumatism — St Canesius has a cold stone floor — but similar scenes were reported across the country.
More than 20 out of 27 dioceses had agreed to integrate the prayers into the service. The formula had been worked out by Stephan Ackermann, Bishop of Trier, charged with investigating the abuse claims. Last week he introduced a hotline for victims and found that 20 callers said that they had been abused in his diocese.
“No, the prayer for the children wasn’t a surprise,” said one of the Berlin worshippers, “it was relief. But did you notice there were only three families in the congregation? That was unusual here but at the moment churches are not places you take children.” ...
OOOOOOOH!
Get her!
Get her!
March 28, 2010
DPS: Scam cost $57M
FBI investigates ex-risk manager; district sues to recover money
BY JENNIFER DIXON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
A former department chief at Detroit Public Schools and his assistant used secret offices and their own computer system to improperly divert more than $57 million in school funds to vendors who provided little, if anything, in return, according to sworn records reviewed by the Free Press.
Documents in a Wayne County Circuit Court lawsuit brought by DPS allege that Stephen Hill of Detroit -- director of DPS risk management from 2001-05 -- received luxury vehicles and other kickbacks. Some of the vendors who benefitted were friends or associates of Hill's or relatives of Hill's assistant, Christina Polk-Osumah of Detroit, court records allege.
When Hill left the district in September 2005, he received a champagne-and-tenderloin farewell bash that cost the impoverished school system $40,000, according to the suit.
The FBI now is investigating the alleged fraud scheme.
Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, said in a statement that the case is another example of how "DPS has been a place where people use the district as their personal banker and where there has been a cesspool of corruption, and in cases such as this one, both national corporations and local individuals took advantage of Detroit Public Schools."
Hill could not be reached for comment. His former attorney denied that Hill acted improperly and said he will be vindicated. ...
DPS: Scam cost $57M
FBI investigates ex-risk manager; district sues to recover money
BY JENNIFER DIXON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
A former department chief at Detroit Public Schools and his assistant used secret offices and their own computer system to improperly divert more than $57 million in school funds to vendors who provided little, if anything, in return, according to sworn records reviewed by the Free Press.
Documents in a Wayne County Circuit Court lawsuit brought by DPS allege that Stephen Hill of Detroit -- director of DPS risk management from 2001-05 -- received luxury vehicles and other kickbacks. Some of the vendors who benefitted were friends or associates of Hill's or relatives of Hill's assistant, Christina Polk-Osumah of Detroit, court records allege.
When Hill left the district in September 2005, he received a champagne-and-tenderloin farewell bash that cost the impoverished school system $40,000, according to the suit.
The FBI now is investigating the alleged fraud scheme.
Robert Bobb, the district's emergency financial manager, said in a statement that the case is another example of how "DPS has been a place where people use the district as their personal banker and where there has been a cesspool of corruption, and in cases such as this one, both national corporations and local individuals took advantage of Detroit Public Schools."
Hill could not be reached for comment. His former attorney denied that Hill acted improperly and said he will be vindicated. ...
March 31, 2010
$57-MILLION ALLEGATIONS
Ex-official facing DPS suit loses job offer
Ill. county rescinds proposal for top spot after troubles found
BY JENNIFER DIXON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
On Sunday, the Free Press reported that a former Detroit schools official was accused of running a $57-million scam and accepting kickbacks while at Detroit Public Schools.
On Monday, Cook County, which covers Chicago and its environs, announced that the former official, Stephen Hill, had been offered a job as that county's director of risk management.
Oops.
When the Free Press called to inquire Tuesday, Cook County officials -- hours later -- confirmed the job offer. But they said the offer was rescinded after someone performed a Google search, which turned up the Free Press article, and other material on the DPS lawsuit against Hill, set for trial this summer. ...
$57-MILLION ALLEGATIONS
Ex-official facing DPS suit loses job offer
Ill. county rescinds proposal for top spot after troubles found
BY JENNIFER DIXON
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
On Sunday, the Free Press reported that a former Detroit schools official was accused of running a $57-million scam and accepting kickbacks while at Detroit Public Schools.
On Monday, Cook County, which covers Chicago and its environs, announced that the former official, Stephen Hill, had been offered a job as that county's director of risk management.
Oops.
When the Free Press called to inquire Tuesday, Cook County officials -- hours later -- confirmed the job offer. But they said the offer was rescinded after someone performed a Google search, which turned up the Free Press article, and other material on the DPS lawsuit against Hill, set for trial this summer. ...
Pope faces fresh wave of child abuse scandals in Italy
The head of the Catholic church is bracing himself for a new round of allegations by victims of paedophile priests — in Italy
Tom Kington in Rome and Henry McDonald in Dublin
Sunday 28 March 2010
Pope Benedict XVI is facing growing pressure over his handling of paedophile priests as new cover-ups come to light in Italy, the country with the greatest concentration of Roman Catholic clerics.
After the latest allegations – that Benedict took no action in the US when he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's enforcer – the church is now "terrified" as more victims stand up to be counted in Italy, according to Roberto Mirabile, head of La Caramella Buona, an Italian anti-abuse group. "With the scandals erupting abroad, we will see a huge growth in victims' groups in Italy in coming weeks," said Mirabile yesterday. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict handled abuse cases at the Vatican for 24 years before he became pope in 2005.
"We are likely to discover that the Vatican worked even harder in Italy with bishops than elsewhere to hide cases, simply because the contact was closer and the church is so powerful in Italy," Mirabile added.
Sergio Cavaliere, an Italian lawyer who has documented 130 cases of clerical paedophilia, also believes that the Vatican's backyard could follow Ireland, the United States and Germany in producing a wave of abuse revelations. "The cases I have found are just the tip of the iceberg given the reluctance of many victims to come forward until now," said Cavaliere. "And in no single case did the local bishop alert police to the suspected abuse."
Another startling development is how recent most of the allegations are, unlike the decades-old cases in Munich and Milwaukee that Benedict was last week accused of failing to act on.
Monsignor Charles Scicluna, who investigates abuse accusations passed on to the Vatican, denied this month that abuse had reached "dramatic proportions" in Italy, but he was concerned about "a certain culture of silence" among Italy's 50,000 priests.
In February, the Vatican opened an investigation into allegations by 67 former pupils at a school for the deaf in Verona that 24 priests, brothers and lay religious men abused pupils from the 1950s to the 1980s. Three of the accusers repeated their claims on Italian prime-time television on Friday. ...
The head of the Catholic church is bracing himself for a new round of allegations by victims of paedophile priests — in Italy
Tom Kington in Rome and Henry McDonald in Dublin
Sunday 28 March 2010
Pope Benedict XVI is facing growing pressure over his handling of paedophile priests as new cover-ups come to light in Italy, the country with the greatest concentration of Roman Catholic clerics.
After the latest allegations – that Benedict took no action in the US when he was head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican's enforcer – the church is now "terrified" as more victims stand up to be counted in Italy, according to Roberto Mirabile, head of La Caramella Buona, an Italian anti-abuse group. "With the scandals erupting abroad, we will see a huge growth in victims' groups in Italy in coming weeks," said Mirabile yesterday. As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict handled abuse cases at the Vatican for 24 years before he became pope in 2005.
"We are likely to discover that the Vatican worked even harder in Italy with bishops than elsewhere to hide cases, simply because the contact was closer and the church is so powerful in Italy," Mirabile added.
Sergio Cavaliere, an Italian lawyer who has documented 130 cases of clerical paedophilia, also believes that the Vatican's backyard could follow Ireland, the United States and Germany in producing a wave of abuse revelations. "The cases I have found are just the tip of the iceberg given the reluctance of many victims to come forward until now," said Cavaliere. "And in no single case did the local bishop alert police to the suspected abuse."
Another startling development is how recent most of the allegations are, unlike the decades-old cases in Munich and Milwaukee that Benedict was last week accused of failing to act on.
Monsignor Charles Scicluna, who investigates abuse accusations passed on to the Vatican, denied this month that abuse had reached "dramatic proportions" in Italy, but he was concerned about "a certain culture of silence" among Italy's 50,000 priests.
In February, the Vatican opened an investigation into allegations by 67 former pupils at a school for the deaf in Verona that 24 priests, brothers and lay religious men abused pupils from the 1950s to the 1980s. Three of the accusers repeated their claims on Italian prime-time television on Friday. ...
March 28, 2010
Holy Father, I can stay no longer in this Church of Disgust
India Knight
... It is simply not possible, having read the papers or watched the news over the past couple of weeks, to stick with the programme. Like many of my generation, I could hardly be described as a good, or even decent, Catholic, but I’d managed to hang on in there, in the vaguest way imaginable.
Vague because it’s hard to pay lip-service to a faith that you feel hates you; a faith that would rather let you die in childbirth than have an abortion, won’t let you take the contraception necessary to prevent said abortion, hates gay people despite having many homosexual priests; a faith that talks ignorant nonsense about HIV and Aids, that would rather watch people die in Africa than let them use a condom; a faith that is unbelievably slow to say sorry about the fact that some of its members are habitual rapists of children.
I mean, you know, at some point you just give up. Not one of these things is defensible taken individually. Collectively, they are beyond comprehension.
A faith based on central authority and infallibility must understand that failure immediately to condemn the rape of children — in Ireland, in America, in Austria, in Germany, in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Brazil, so far — is essentially to allow it. ...
Holy Father, I can stay no longer in this Church of Disgust
India Knight
... It is simply not possible, having read the papers or watched the news over the past couple of weeks, to stick with the programme. Like many of my generation, I could hardly be described as a good, or even decent, Catholic, but I’d managed to hang on in there, in the vaguest way imaginable.
Vague because it’s hard to pay lip-service to a faith that you feel hates you; a faith that would rather let you die in childbirth than have an abortion, won’t let you take the contraception necessary to prevent said abortion, hates gay people despite having many homosexual priests; a faith that talks ignorant nonsense about HIV and Aids, that would rather watch people die in Africa than let them use a condom; a faith that is unbelievably slow to say sorry about the fact that some of its members are habitual rapists of children.
I mean, you know, at some point you just give up. Not one of these things is defensible taken individually. Collectively, they are beyond comprehension.
A faith based on central authority and infallibility must understand that failure immediately to condemn the rape of children — in Ireland, in America, in Austria, in Germany, in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Brazil, so far — is essentially to allow it. ...
This idiot can't even tell which is God and which is da Debbil.
A nonprofit run by Kwame Kilpatrick's family paid more than $100,000 to a consulting firm formed by Christine Beatty after she resigned as his chief of staff during the text message scandal.
State records show that Beatty incorporated Maiyen Consulting the morning of Jan. 28, 2008 -- within hours of resigning from her $142,813 a year city job.
A federal tax report filed by the Kilpatrick Civic Fund says the fund -- whose mission was voter education and community improvement -- paid at least $100,000 to Maiyen Consulting as a "publication and print consultant." The report does not list the exact amount paid to the firm.
Beatty, who pleaded guilty to two felony charges in the text message scandal but refused to cooperate with prosecutors investigating Kilpatrick, didn't respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Her lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, said Beatty was hired to work on publications for the civic fund and spent some of her fee on subcontractors, including printers. He said Beatty disclosed the payments to probation officials in her criminal case and declared it on her tax return.
In light of the Free Press' findings, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office plans to examine the civic fund's dealings with Maiyen Consulting.
"There was some preliminary research regarding this particular consulting contract, however, we focused on other matters connected to the civic fund," prosecutor spokeswoman Maria Miller said Wednesday. "Given this information, we will be looking into this further." ...
State records show that Beatty incorporated Maiyen Consulting the morning of Jan. 28, 2008 -- within hours of resigning from her $142,813 a year city job.
A federal tax report filed by the Kilpatrick Civic Fund says the fund -- whose mission was voter education and community improvement -- paid at least $100,000 to Maiyen Consulting as a "publication and print consultant." The report does not list the exact amount paid to the firm.
Beatty, who pleaded guilty to two felony charges in the text message scandal but refused to cooperate with prosecutors investigating Kilpatrick, didn't respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
Her lawyer, Mayer Morganroth, said Beatty was hired to work on publications for the civic fund and spent some of her fee on subcontractors, including printers. He said Beatty disclosed the payments to probation officials in her criminal case and declared it on her tax return.
In light of the Free Press' findings, the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office plans to examine the civic fund's dealings with Maiyen Consulting.
"There was some preliminary research regarding this particular consulting contract, however, we focused on other matters connected to the civic fund," prosecutor spokeswoman Maria Miller said Wednesday. "Given this information, we will be looking into this further." ...
Last Updated: March 26. 2010 1:00AM
Ex-Kilpatrick aide Beatty under scrutiny over civic fund contract
Prosecutors give her 90 days before review of her restitution
Doug Guthrie and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Detroit --Wayne County prosecutors who put Kwame Kilpatrick's personal finances under a microscope at a probation violation hearing this week are giving the former mayor's criminal co-defendant and lover Christine Beatty 90 days before also reviewing her ability to pay restitution.
Kilpatrick's high lifestyle in Texas and claims that he is unable to meet the court's demands for payment on $1 million restitution have been spotlighted in court by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. Meanwhile, Beatty, who promised to pay the city $100,000, has faced no public pressure from authorities while paying just $2,302 so far. She was allowed in January to move to Georgia to search for work.
"Christine Beatty recently moved to Atlanta to begin a new job. We will review her case in 90 days," Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller said about the possibility of asking her sentencing judge for a restitution hearing where Beatty's ability to start making regular payments would be established.
"Until then, she will continue being supervised by probation authorities there (in Georgia)," Miller said.
Both Beatty and Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony charges of obstruction of justice for committing perjury during a 2007 trial. Their extramarital affair was revealed in Kilpatrick's infamous text messages. Both went to jail and both promised to pay the city hefty restitution.
Beatty, who now lives in a condominium near the heart of Atlanta, has made seven payments toward her $100,000 restitution. Her last payment of $350 was made Jan. 4, a week before she asked permission of the court to move. No more payments have been made since, according to Wayne Circuit Court records. ...
Ex-Kilpatrick aide Beatty under scrutiny over civic fund contract
Prosecutors give her 90 days before review of her restitution
Doug Guthrie and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Detroit --Wayne County prosecutors who put Kwame Kilpatrick's personal finances under a microscope at a probation violation hearing this week are giving the former mayor's criminal co-defendant and lover Christine Beatty 90 days before also reviewing her ability to pay restitution.
Kilpatrick's high lifestyle in Texas and claims that he is unable to meet the court's demands for payment on $1 million restitution have been spotlighted in court by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. Meanwhile, Beatty, who promised to pay the city $100,000, has faced no public pressure from authorities while paying just $2,302 so far. She was allowed in January to move to Georgia to search for work.
"Christine Beatty recently moved to Atlanta to begin a new job. We will review her case in 90 days," Assistant Prosecutor Maria Miller said about the possibility of asking her sentencing judge for a restitution hearing where Beatty's ability to start making regular payments would be established.
"Until then, she will continue being supervised by probation authorities there (in Georgia)," Miller said.
Both Beatty and Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony charges of obstruction of justice for committing perjury during a 2007 trial. Their extramarital affair was revealed in Kilpatrick's infamous text messages. Both went to jail and both promised to pay the city hefty restitution.
Beatty, who now lives in a condominium near the heart of Atlanta, has made seven payments toward her $100,000 restitution. Her last payment of $350 was made Jan. 4, a week before she asked permission of the court to move. No more payments have been made since, according to Wayne Circuit Court records. ...
Last Updated: March 26. 2010 1:00AM
Dozens allege brutality by Gang Squad
West side residents say police officers beat, harassed victims
George Hunter / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Dozens of people packed Thursday's meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners to describe what they called a night of terror last week at the hands of the Detroit Police Gang Squad.
Police officials promised to look into the allegations that on March 18 members of the Gang Squad beat a man while he was handcuffed, assaulted the man's son and harassed other neighbors on Abington Street on the city's west side.
Members of the squad also came back the next day to hassle residents, according to several people at the emotional, standing-room-only meeting.
One of the alleged beating victims, Gerald Evans, is the grandfather of an 8-year-old girl whose anguished 911 call was released by police earlier this month after two gunmen shot and killed her mother, Monica Botello, and her boyfriend.
"I was talking to my neighbor about the incident with my daughter being killed, when two officers came out of nowhere and asked me what I was doing," said Evans, 44. "Then, for no reason, they put me in handcuffs and started beating me. A man with a mask just started socking me in my face. Then another officer with steel-toed boots started kicking me."
Family members and neighbors, some in tears, told the board that when they asked the officers why they were beating a man who was in handcuffs, they also were hassled or beaten.
"I came outside and saw them beating my daddy," said Maurice Evans, 21. "I asked the officers why they were doing that and they beat me, too. Then they said I had a gun on my person, which I didn't have. I just don't understand it." At that point, Maurice Evans started sobbing.
Alice Evans, wife and mother of the alleged beating victims, said her husband's shirt was covered with blood after police were through thrashing him.
"The police threw the shirt away," she said. "I asked why they did that, but they didn't answer. I know why -- they wanted to get rid of the evidence." ...
Dozens allege brutality by Gang Squad
West side residents say police officers beat, harassed victims
George Hunter / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Dozens of people packed Thursday's meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners to describe what they called a night of terror last week at the hands of the Detroit Police Gang Squad.
Police officials promised to look into the allegations that on March 18 members of the Gang Squad beat a man while he was handcuffed, assaulted the man's son and harassed other neighbors on Abington Street on the city's west side.
Members of the squad also came back the next day to hassle residents, according to several people at the emotional, standing-room-only meeting.
One of the alleged beating victims, Gerald Evans, is the grandfather of an 8-year-old girl whose anguished 911 call was released by police earlier this month after two gunmen shot and killed her mother, Monica Botello, and her boyfriend.
"I was talking to my neighbor about the incident with my daughter being killed, when two officers came out of nowhere and asked me what I was doing," said Evans, 44. "Then, for no reason, they put me in handcuffs and started beating me. A man with a mask just started socking me in my face. Then another officer with steel-toed boots started kicking me."
Family members and neighbors, some in tears, told the board that when they asked the officers why they were beating a man who was in handcuffs, they also were hassled or beaten.
"I came outside and saw them beating my daddy," said Maurice Evans, 21. "I asked the officers why they were doing that and they beat me, too. Then they said I had a gun on my person, which I didn't have. I just don't understand it." At that point, Maurice Evans started sobbing.
Alice Evans, wife and mother of the alleged beating victims, said her husband's shirt was covered with blood after police were through thrashing him.
"The police threw the shirt away," she said. "I asked why they did that, but they didn't answer. I know why -- they wanted to get rid of the evidence." ...
The Vatican is investigating 14 cases of alleged child sex abuse committed within the Spanish Catholic Church over the past nine years it emerged today.
The incidents of abuse are alleged to take have taken place between January 2001 and March 2010. Charles Scicluna, the promoter of justice in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said today they amounted to "less than one case every year". ...
The incidents of abuse are alleged to take have taken place between January 2001 and March 2010. Charles Scicluna, the promoter of justice in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said today they amounted to "less than one case every year". ...
An Irish Catholic bishop who served as personal secretary to three popes has become the latest casualty in the child sex abuse scandal that is convulsing the Church in Europe.
The Vatican said that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the resignation of Bishop John Magee of Cloyne.
Magee, 73, was accused in a 2009 investigation of mishandling reports of sexual abuse in his diocese. He quit his daily administrative duties a year ago and offered his resignation to the Pope this month.
"To those whom I have failed in any way, or through any omission of mine have made suffer, I beg forgiveness and pardon," Magee said in a statement after the Vatican announced that the Pope had accepted his resignation.
The cleric, from Newry, Co Down, faced scathing criticism after the Church's own watchdog found that he took minimal action on accusations against two of his priests and branded his child protection inadequate and dangerous. ...
The Vatican said that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the resignation of Bishop John Magee of Cloyne.
Magee, 73, was accused in a 2009 investigation of mishandling reports of sexual abuse in his diocese. He quit his daily administrative duties a year ago and offered his resignation to the Pope this month.
"To those whom I have failed in any way, or through any omission of mine have made suffer, I beg forgiveness and pardon," Magee said in a statement after the Vatican announced that the Pope had accepted his resignation.
The cleric, from Newry, Co Down, faced scathing criticism after the Church's own watchdog found that he took minimal action on accusations against two of his priests and branded his child protection inadequate and dangerous. ...
Couldn't have happened to a righter guy.
... The Most Rev Joseph Duffy admitted that he had known about allegations of abuse against a priest in his diocese in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, in 1989, but failed to tell the police or civil authorities. He had been informed that Father John McCabe had abused a young boy in his care, but he failed to report the incident to the police or social services in Northern Ireland. In spite of complaints from the boy’s mother, the Enniskillen school at which McCabe taught wrote him a reference to help him to get a job at an integrated, non-denominational school in Belfast. Six years later McCabe was jailed for 20 months on abuse charges.
Bishop Duffy said in a statement that he regretted how he handled the McCabe case and accepted that he should have told police about the family’s allegations. Bishop Duffy is the third Irish bishop in a week to admit to his role in covering up the activities of paedophile priests.
The latest admission is likely to undermine Vatican efforts to contain the scandal in Ireland. The Catholic hierarchy is trying to draw a line under similar accusations of abuse and cover-ups involving the Church in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Brazil in a growing scandal that has even drawn in the Pope. ...
Bishop Duffy said in a statement that he regretted how he handled the McCabe case and accepted that he should have told police about the family’s allegations. Bishop Duffy is the third Irish bishop in a week to admit to his role in covering up the activities of paedophile priests.
The latest admission is likely to undermine Vatican efforts to contain the scandal in Ireland. The Catholic hierarchy is trying to draw a line under similar accusations of abuse and cover-ups involving the Church in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Brazil in a growing scandal that has even drawn in the Pope. ...
... In Detroit, there have been no charges to date from the East Coast sting, but federal documents portray the father of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and a mayoral aide as front men in a deal that would have resulted in payoffs to the Detroiters in exchange for the city hiring the fake company.
The deal never went through. But documents contend that over a period of months in 2007, Bernard Kilpatrick, mayoral aide Marc Cunningham and others were eagerly courted by officials with Coastal Solutions. Cunningham allegedly had Coastal Solutions send a $3,000 Super Bowl ticket to him at City Hall.
Bernard Kilpatrick's meetings with Coastal took him from the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City to a championship fight in Las Vegas. Also in Vegas were Kwame Kilpatrick and Cunningham.
After the fight, the documents say, Cunningham left a voice mail with Coastal Solutions saying Kwame Kilpatrick favored the deal. The FBI interpreted that to mean the mayor and others were willing to do a deal in return for bribes.
Bernard Kilpatrick did not return messages over recent weeks. James Thomas, a criminal attorney for Kwame Kilpatrick, said: "Mr. Kilpatrick has not been charged and to my knowledge, he's not been indicted. Of course, he denies the allegations. It's always been my practice that I'd rather discuss this case in court, if it comes to that."
Cunningham, the mayoral aide, could not be reached for comment. Cunningham quit his job in July 2008, on the same day the Free Press reported that a cell phone assigned to him had been tapped by federal agents. Cunningham said then that he quit to pursue other opportunities.
The FBI briefly listened in on conversations on that phone in June 2007. By then, the sting operation using Coastal Solutions was in full swing. ...
The deal never went through. But documents contend that over a period of months in 2007, Bernard Kilpatrick, mayoral aide Marc Cunningham and others were eagerly courted by officials with Coastal Solutions. Cunningham allegedly had Coastal Solutions send a $3,000 Super Bowl ticket to him at City Hall.
Bernard Kilpatrick's meetings with Coastal took him from the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City to a championship fight in Las Vegas. Also in Vegas were Kwame Kilpatrick and Cunningham.
After the fight, the documents say, Cunningham left a voice mail with Coastal Solutions saying Kwame Kilpatrick favored the deal. The FBI interpreted that to mean the mayor and others were willing to do a deal in return for bribes.
Bernard Kilpatrick did not return messages over recent weeks. James Thomas, a criminal attorney for Kwame Kilpatrick, said: "Mr. Kilpatrick has not been charged and to my knowledge, he's not been indicted. Of course, he denies the allegations. It's always been my practice that I'd rather discuss this case in court, if it comes to that."
Cunningham, the mayoral aide, could not be reached for comment. Cunningham quit his job in July 2008, on the same day the Free Press reported that a cell phone assigned to him had been tapped by federal agents. Cunningham said then that he quit to pursue other opportunities.
The FBI briefly listened in on conversations on that phone in June 2007. By then, the sting operation using Coastal Solutions was in full swing. ...
I briefly knew the guy ferguson threatened; we were kids.
... The Free Press has learned that at least nine businesspeople have testified to a grand jury or told federal investigators in interviews that they paid Bernard Kilpatrick, who ran a consulting firm called Maestro Associates, tens of thousands of dollars to try to get contracts from the city run by his son, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
FBI agents don't believe Bernard Kilpatrick actually was consulting. They think he was paid for access to Detroit's mayor.
The revelations, from documents and interviews by the Free Press, paint the most detailed portrait yet of the slow-building, cat-and-mouse game between FBI agents and their quarry.
They detail payoffs and perks that investigators say Bernard Kilpatrick received from contractors and other people seeking city business, including tickets to a prizefight in Las Vegas, Cristal champagne and a $7,000 discount on a leased Cadillac Escalade.
The investigation, some five years old, is still ongoing. There have been no charges against either Kilpatrick in the federal corruption probe. Kwame Kilpatrick declined to comment when reached on his cell phone Friday. Bernard Kilpatrick didn't respond to requests for comment in recent weeks.
The FBI has not gone away. ...
FBI agents don't believe Bernard Kilpatrick actually was consulting. They think he was paid for access to Detroit's mayor.
The revelations, from documents and interviews by the Free Press, paint the most detailed portrait yet of the slow-building, cat-and-mouse game between FBI agents and their quarry.
They detail payoffs and perks that investigators say Bernard Kilpatrick received from contractors and other people seeking city business, including tickets to a prizefight in Las Vegas, Cristal champagne and a $7,000 discount on a leased Cadillac Escalade.
The investigation, some five years old, is still ongoing. There have been no charges against either Kilpatrick in the federal corruption probe. Kwame Kilpatrick declined to comment when reached on his cell phone Friday. Bernard Kilpatrick didn't respond to requests for comment in recent weeks.
The FBI has not gone away. ...
Last Updated: March 22. 2010 1:00AM
N.J. FBI case led to Detroit
Ex-mayor's father linked to two corruption investigations in 2007
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The father of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was a subject of not just one -- but two -- FBI public corruption investigations in 2007.
FBI agents investigating political corruption in New Jersey followed leads in late 2006 that led them to Bernard N. Kilpatrick and raising concerns about upsetting a separate probe by the FBI in Detroit, a person familiar with the investigation said Sunday.
Bernard Kilpatrick had been under investigation by the FBI in Detroit for about two years when he came to the attention of FBI agents in New Jersey conducting Operation Broken Boards, a corruption probe that would lead to convictions of 14 New Jersey officials, including state assemblymen and school board officials.
The New Jersey FBI snagged corrupt politicians by setting up a dummy company called Coastal Solutions LLC and offering bribes in return for insurance-related contracts.
Those agents were put in touch with Marc Andre Cunningham, a former Kilpatrick aide, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2007. Cunningham, who was a fraternity brother of Kilpatrick and former city treasurer and pension fund official Jeff Beasley at Florida A&M University, left City Hall in 2008 after media reports said his phone had been briefly tapped by the FBI. ...
... Both Kilpatricks remain under federal investigation in Detroit, amid allegations they were involved in a "pay to play" scheme in which contractors seeking city work were pressured to hire Bernard Kilpatrick as a consultant or make other illegal payments. Former Cobo Center contractor Karl Kado has told federal officials he made close to $100,000 in illegal payments to Kwame Kilpatrick and paid close to $300,000 to Kilpatrick's father, according to court records and a person familiar with the investigation.
Bernard Kilpatrick has not returned phone calls. James C. Thomas, an attorney for Kwame Kilpatrick, has denied his client took illegal payments from Kado.
Also Sunday, Detroit-area contractor Andrew Housey confirmed an incident in 2003 at a political fundraiser for Kilpatrick in which contractor and close Kilpatrick friend Bobby Ferguson allegedly threatened Housey with a handgun. ...
N.J. FBI case led to Detroit
Ex-mayor's father linked to two corruption investigations in 2007
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The father of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was a subject of not just one -- but two -- FBI public corruption investigations in 2007.
FBI agents investigating political corruption in New Jersey followed leads in late 2006 that led them to Bernard N. Kilpatrick and raising concerns about upsetting a separate probe by the FBI in Detroit, a person familiar with the investigation said Sunday.
Bernard Kilpatrick had been under investigation by the FBI in Detroit for about two years when he came to the attention of FBI agents in New Jersey conducting Operation Broken Boards, a corruption probe that would lead to convictions of 14 New Jersey officials, including state assemblymen and school board officials.
The New Jersey FBI snagged corrupt politicians by setting up a dummy company called Coastal Solutions LLC and offering bribes in return for insurance-related contracts.
Those agents were put in touch with Marc Andre Cunningham, a former Kilpatrick aide, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2007. Cunningham, who was a fraternity brother of Kilpatrick and former city treasurer and pension fund official Jeff Beasley at Florida A&M University, left City Hall in 2008 after media reports said his phone had been briefly tapped by the FBI. ...
... Both Kilpatricks remain under federal investigation in Detroit, amid allegations they were involved in a "pay to play" scheme in which contractors seeking city work were pressured to hire Bernard Kilpatrick as a consultant or make other illegal payments. Former Cobo Center contractor Karl Kado has told federal officials he made close to $100,000 in illegal payments to Kwame Kilpatrick and paid close to $300,000 to Kilpatrick's father, according to court records and a person familiar with the investigation.
Bernard Kilpatrick has not returned phone calls. James C. Thomas, an attorney for Kwame Kilpatrick, has denied his client took illegal payments from Kado.
Also Sunday, Detroit-area contractor Andrew Housey confirmed an incident in 2003 at a political fundraiser for Kilpatrick in which contractor and close Kilpatrick friend Bobby Ferguson allegedly threatened Housey with a handgun. ...
... Victims criticised Benedict XVI's letter of apology because it did not directly address the long history of concealment by Irish bishops of sexual, physical and emotional abuse by priests, nuns and Catholic orders.
The campaigning group One in Four condemned the pope for failing to acknowledge that the church hierarchy had attempted to suppress the scandal.
"Victims were hoping for an acknowledgement of the scurrilous ways in which they have been treated as they attempted to bring their experiences of abuse to the attention of the church authorities," the group's director, Maeve Lewis, said.
"Pope Benedict has passed up a glorious opportunity to address the core issue in the clerical sexual abuse scandal: the deliberate policy of the Catholic church at the highest levels to protect sex offenders, thereby endangering children."
Lewis also accused the Pope of dodging Vatican responsibility for failing to tackle child abuse.
"If the church cannot acknowledge this fundamental truth, it is still in denial," she added.
Andrew Madden, who in 1995 became the first person in Ireland to go public with an abuse lawsuit against the church, said he did not need to hear the pope say that clerical sex abuse was a crime and a sin.
"The apology today is not for the cover-up, it's for the abuse and for the most part they didn't commit the abuse – but they caused some because of the cover-up," he said. "That's the bit they should say sorry for." ...
The campaigning group One in Four condemned the pope for failing to acknowledge that the church hierarchy had attempted to suppress the scandal.
"Victims were hoping for an acknowledgement of the scurrilous ways in which they have been treated as they attempted to bring their experiences of abuse to the attention of the church authorities," the group's director, Maeve Lewis, said.
"Pope Benedict has passed up a glorious opportunity to address the core issue in the clerical sexual abuse scandal: the deliberate policy of the Catholic church at the highest levels to protect sex offenders, thereby endangering children."
Lewis also accused the Pope of dodging Vatican responsibility for failing to tackle child abuse.
"If the church cannot acknowledge this fundamental truth, it is still in denial," she added.
Andrew Madden, who in 1995 became the first person in Ireland to go public with an abuse lawsuit against the church, said he did not need to hear the pope say that clerical sex abuse was a crime and a sin.
"The apology today is not for the cover-up, it's for the abuse and for the most part they didn't commit the abuse – but they caused some because of the cover-up," he said. "That's the bit they should say sorry for." ...
Detroit -- A top city lawyer accused of keeping the public, two judges and the City Council in the dark about former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's text messages lost her copy of the agreement and forgot it existed, her attorney told a lawyers' panel Friday.
"It was not only out of sight, it is out of mind," Donald Campbell, the attorney representing Assistant Corporation Counsel Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, told the panel.
Colbert-Osamuede, whose hearing before the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board began Friday, faces penalties from reprimand to disbarment if the board determines she violated ethics rules for lawyers. ...
"It was not only out of sight, it is out of mind," Donald Campbell, the attorney representing Assistant Corporation Counsel Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, told the panel.
Colbert-Osamuede, whose hearing before the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board began Friday, faces penalties from reprimand to disbarment if the board determines she violated ethics rules for lawyers. ...
Calamity for pope as the past – and case of Peter Hullermann – returns to haunt him
Child abuse by German cleric among claims causing crisis for Vatican
Riazat Butt and John Hooper
Friday 19 March 2010
For Father Rupert Frania it seemed the best way. His parishioners in the Bavarian spa town of Bad Tölz had just learned a terrible secret.
It had been reported that one of their curates was a convicted paedophile, Peter Hullermann. The curate who had officiated at the children's mass. The one who had been with their sons and daughters the year before at a campsite in the mountains over their medieval town.
Frania decided to tackle the issue from an angle. In his sermon at the main mass last Sunday morning, he began with the parable of the prodigal son – and was stopped dead in mid-sentence.
"I cannot listen to that," shouted a man who was soon to have been married by Hullerman. "You just cannot dodge the issue any longer," he continued as other parishioners broke into applause and some began shouting "shut your mouth" at their parish priest.
It was a raucously rebellious start to a week in which the disclosure of hundreds of cases of alleged clerical sex abuse in the Roman Catholic church's European heartlands shook the allegiances of millions and forced their pastors to make unprecedented admissions of guilt and mortification.
In Armagh on St Patrick's Day the primate of All Ireland, Sean Brady, told the congregation in his cathedral that the clergy should admit "the full truth of our sinfulness".
Brady, who in 1975 was involved in the swearing to silence of two young victims of Ireland's most notorious clerical paedophile, was one of scores of prelates bowing their heads in disgrace in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.
So far almost 700 new cases have come to light. It was a week of unmitigated calamity for Benedict XVI, who became pope pledging to shore up Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe. ...
Child abuse by German cleric among claims causing crisis for Vatican
Riazat Butt and John Hooper
Friday 19 March 2010
For Father Rupert Frania it seemed the best way. His parishioners in the Bavarian spa town of Bad Tölz had just learned a terrible secret.
It had been reported that one of their curates was a convicted paedophile, Peter Hullermann. The curate who had officiated at the children's mass. The one who had been with their sons and daughters the year before at a campsite in the mountains over their medieval town.
Frania decided to tackle the issue from an angle. In his sermon at the main mass last Sunday morning, he began with the parable of the prodigal son – and was stopped dead in mid-sentence.
"I cannot listen to that," shouted a man who was soon to have been married by Hullerman. "You just cannot dodge the issue any longer," he continued as other parishioners broke into applause and some began shouting "shut your mouth" at their parish priest.
It was a raucously rebellious start to a week in which the disclosure of hundreds of cases of alleged clerical sex abuse in the Roman Catholic church's European heartlands shook the allegiances of millions and forced their pastors to make unprecedented admissions of guilt and mortification.
In Armagh on St Patrick's Day the primate of All Ireland, Sean Brady, told the congregation in his cathedral that the clergy should admit "the full truth of our sinfulness".
Brady, who in 1975 was involved in the swearing to silence of two young victims of Ireland's most notorious clerical paedophile, was one of scores of prelates bowing their heads in disgrace in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.
So far almost 700 new cases have come to light. It was a week of unmitigated calamity for Benedict XVI, who became pope pledging to shore up Christianity in an increasingly secular Europe. ...
Posted: March 6, 2010
Will Kilpatrick face jail time?
Some say it is possible, but there are defenses
BY BEN SCHMITT and JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
... "It seems that Judge Groner has lost his patience with Mr. Kilpatrick," Dubin said. "Judge Groner, in his opinions, has expressed the fact that the court has been offended by the nature of Kilpatrick's testimony, or the disingenuousness of Kilpatrick's testimony. For those reasons, the possibility of sending him to jail for a period of time so that he can contemplate the seriousness of abiding by his terms of probation seems real."
The state Court of Appeals said Kilpatrick and his lawyers do have defenses.
"At the probation violation hearings, defendant can raise the issue of ability to pay," Presiding Judge Karen Fort Hood wrote.
But Kilpatrick still could be in trouble over other allegations including: that he failed to provide a complete financial accounting for himself and his wife, Carlita Kilpatrick; did not surrender all tax refunds as ordered by the court, and did not disclose any gifts or benefits as ordered by the court.
Kilpatrick testified during previous restitution hearings that he received $240,000 in loans from local businessmen Peter Karmanos, Roger Penske, Dan Gilbert and Jim Nicholson.
"The trial court did not abuse its discretion by concluding that the $240,000 transfer of the loan from the defendant to his wife constituted a fraudulent conveyance," the appellate judges wrote.
In 2008, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and no contest to assault, and resigned from office.
The plea came after the Free Press broke the text message scandal in January 2008 with a series of stories showing that Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff Christine Beatty perjured themselves during a 2007 civil whistle-blowers trial involving police officers.
Kilpatrick served 99 days in jail and was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to the City of Detroit. He lives in a Dallas suburb and works at a $120,000-a-year sales job for Covisint, a subsidiary of Detroit-based Compuware. ...
Will Kilpatrick face jail time?
Some say it is possible, but there are defenses
BY BEN SCHMITT and JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
... "It seems that Judge Groner has lost his patience with Mr. Kilpatrick," Dubin said. "Judge Groner, in his opinions, has expressed the fact that the court has been offended by the nature of Kilpatrick's testimony, or the disingenuousness of Kilpatrick's testimony. For those reasons, the possibility of sending him to jail for a period of time so that he can contemplate the seriousness of abiding by his terms of probation seems real."
The state Court of Appeals said Kilpatrick and his lawyers do have defenses.
"At the probation violation hearings, defendant can raise the issue of ability to pay," Presiding Judge Karen Fort Hood wrote.
But Kilpatrick still could be in trouble over other allegations including: that he failed to provide a complete financial accounting for himself and his wife, Carlita Kilpatrick; did not surrender all tax refunds as ordered by the court, and did not disclose any gifts or benefits as ordered by the court.
Kilpatrick testified during previous restitution hearings that he received $240,000 in loans from local businessmen Peter Karmanos, Roger Penske, Dan Gilbert and Jim Nicholson.
"The trial court did not abuse its discretion by concluding that the $240,000 transfer of the loan from the defendant to his wife constituted a fraudulent conveyance," the appellate judges wrote.
In 2008, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and no contest to assault, and resigned from office.
The plea came after the Free Press broke the text message scandal in January 2008 with a series of stories showing that Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff Christine Beatty perjured themselves during a 2007 civil whistle-blowers trial involving police officers.
Kilpatrick served 99 days in jail and was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to the City of Detroit. He lives in a Dallas suburb and works at a $120,000-a-year sales job for Covisint, a subsidiary of Detroit-based Compuware. ...
The US Senate is known as the body where legislation goes to die, and a Republican senator from Kentucky has spent several days illustrating that point at the expense of nearly 500,000 out-of-work Americans.
Since last week Senator Jim Bunning [an ex-baseball player] has used his privilege under the chamber's parliamentary rules to hold up a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits, health insurance assistance, funding for road and infrastructure projects across the country, and other aid.
In exchange for lifting his objections he demands the senate come up with a way to pay for the $10bn extension package by reducing spending elsewhere, eliciting scoffs from Democrats who note that he voted for President Bush's $1.7tn tax cuts for the wealthy.
Nearly every major item on President Barack Obama's agenda, from health insurance reform to cap-and-trade climate regulation, has stalled in the Senate after passing the House of Representatives. ...
Since last week Senator Jim Bunning [an ex-baseball player] has used his privilege under the chamber's parliamentary rules to hold up a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits, health insurance assistance, funding for road and infrastructure projects across the country, and other aid.
In exchange for lifting his objections he demands the senate come up with a way to pay for the $10bn extension package by reducing spending elsewhere, eliciting scoffs from Democrats who note that he voted for President Bush's $1.7tn tax cuts for the wealthy.
Nearly every major item on President Barack Obama's agenda, from health insurance reform to cap-and-trade climate regulation, has stalled in the Senate after passing the House of Representatives. ...
One of the biggest bonuses seen this year for any London-based banker was revealed today as HSBC announced it had given Stuart Gulliver, its head of investment banking, a £9.8 million package.
Mr Gulliver was awarded a £9 million bonus on top of his £800,000 base pay for his "exceptional performance" in trebling the profits of his division to $10.5 billion, HSBC said.
The payment came as Michael Geoghegan, HSBC chief executive, confirmed that he will give his £4 million bonus to charity.
HSBC disappointed investors after full-year profits fell by 24 per cent to $7.1 billion (£4.7 billion) following a big write down of the value of its own bonds. Its shares lost more than 5 per cent, down 37.1p, to 682.46p. ...
Mr Gulliver was awarded a £9 million bonus on top of his £800,000 base pay for his "exceptional performance" in trebling the profits of his division to $10.5 billion, HSBC said.
The payment came as Michael Geoghegan, HSBC chief executive, confirmed that he will give his £4 million bonus to charity.
HSBC disappointed investors after full-year profits fell by 24 per cent to $7.1 billion (£4.7 billion) following a big write down of the value of its own bonds. Its shares lost more than 5 per cent, down 37.1p, to 682.46p. ...
... Buffett has been criticizing overreaching corporate managers and complaisant directors for decades. But the question of how to motivate good corporate behavior has taken on new weight as Washington debates reining in the financial giants whose missteps brought the economy to its knees two years ago.
The Obama administration last month proposed separating banks' proprietary trading activities from their federally subsidized deposit-gathering and lending ones. Other proposed rules would increase the amount of capital banks hold against losses and how much cash they carry to deal with a surge of withdrawals.
But Buffett said there's a simpler way to cap risk-taking: Forcing lavishly compensated CEOs to take responsibility for assessing the risks at their firms -- and putting their own wealth at stake, to boot.
"It is the behavior of these CEOs and directors that needs to be changed," he wrote. "They have long benefitted from oversized financial carrots; some meaningful sticks now need to be employed as well."
The comment reflects a theme that has run through Buffett's letters to investors over the years: Shareholders are best served by managers who think like owners. More often, he has said, they are ill served by executives who instead pursue value-destroying mergers or pile up debt in a bid to boost returns. ...
The Obama administration last month proposed separating banks' proprietary trading activities from their federally subsidized deposit-gathering and lending ones. Other proposed rules would increase the amount of capital banks hold against losses and how much cash they carry to deal with a surge of withdrawals.
But Buffett said there's a simpler way to cap risk-taking: Forcing lavishly compensated CEOs to take responsibility for assessing the risks at their firms -- and putting their own wealth at stake, to boot.
"It is the behavior of these CEOs and directors that needs to be changed," he wrote. "They have long benefitted from oversized financial carrots; some meaningful sticks now need to be employed as well."
The comment reflects a theme that has run through Buffett's letters to investors over the years: Shareholders are best served by managers who think like owners. More often, he has said, they are ill served by executives who instead pursue value-destroying mergers or pile up debt in a bid to boost returns. ...
Research the history of ancient Kurdistan, and you'll see why they're hated. Their country/empire was vast. They were also ahead of the times, had fabulous art, learning, and good science.
February 26. 2010 1:00AM
Prosecutors fight Michigan's freeing of violent offenders
Mike Martindale and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Hundreds of Michigan prison inmates convicted of violent crimes -- including 40 killers in Wayne County alone -- are eligible for release in the next two months as the state accelerates paroles to cut costs.
A recently compiled list of thousands of potential parolees obtained by The Detroit News provides a snapshot of who is on deck as the state seeks to trim its corrections budget by 6 percent in 2010. It includes some of the state's worst criminals, as well as hundreds of sex offenders, drug dealers, drunken drivers and bank robbers.
The list, demanded by Metro Detroit prosecutors and released only after a judge's order, provides a rare glimpse inside a process that has been going on routinely for years -- but is now under fire from law enforcement officials worried they don't have the time or resources to challenge potential parolees they believe pose a threat to public safety.
Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper led the fight to sue for the information because she said her office was repeatedly denied information about planned interviews of parole candidates in sufficient time to appeal certain cases.
The state argued that names of eligible parolees were only available a month in advance, but it was later determined the Parole Board's database included information on interviews scheduled months ahead of time.
"The Michigan Department of Corrections says 'trust us' in releasing criminals on parole to save money," said Cooper, who has called the state's effort "reckless."
"If (state officials) are so trustworthy, why did we have to sue them to obtain the list of individuals they are seeking to release?" ...
Prosecutors fight Michigan's freeing of violent offenders
Mike Martindale and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News
Hundreds of Michigan prison inmates convicted of violent crimes -- including 40 killers in Wayne County alone -- are eligible for release in the next two months as the state accelerates paroles to cut costs.
A recently compiled list of thousands of potential parolees obtained by The Detroit News provides a snapshot of who is on deck as the state seeks to trim its corrections budget by 6 percent in 2010. It includes some of the state's worst criminals, as well as hundreds of sex offenders, drug dealers, drunken drivers and bank robbers.
The list, demanded by Metro Detroit prosecutors and released only after a judge's order, provides a rare glimpse inside a process that has been going on routinely for years -- but is now under fire from law enforcement officials worried they don't have the time or resources to challenge potential parolees they believe pose a threat to public safety.
Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper led the fight to sue for the information because she said her office was repeatedly denied information about planned interviews of parole candidates in sufficient time to appeal certain cases.
The state argued that names of eligible parolees were only available a month in advance, but it was later determined the Parole Board's database included information on interviews scheduled months ahead of time.
"The Michigan Department of Corrections says 'trust us' in releasing criminals on parole to save money," said Cooper, who has called the state's effort "reckless."
"If (state officials) are so trustworthy, why did we have to sue them to obtain the list of individuals they are seeking to release?" ...
Power companies have been accused of profiteering from the coldest winter for 30 years after a surge in corporate profits.
ScottishPower, which has more than 5 million British customers, saw profits rise by 7.9% last year amid fears that many people could not afford to heat their homes during the bitter winter. Results tomorrow from British Gas, the country's biggest supplier of gas and electricity with 15.6 million customers, are expected to show that operating profits rose 46% to £554m, up from £379m in 2008.
The increases were condemned by unions, customer groups and charities representing the elderly, and follow warnings this week from the regulator Ofgem that companies boosted margins by £30 for each dual fuel customer in the last three months as wholesale costs fell.
Gary Smith, national officer at the GMB union, said: "Buying cheap and selling dear will always add up to high profits in a natural monopoly. No great managerial elan or skills are needed. It is long overdue that the government should step in and take control of the energy sector and put in place proper plans for secure supplies at reasonable prices as happens in the rest of Europe."
David Hunter of McKinnon & Clarke, which buys energy for businesses across Britain, said: "Despite wholesale prices going into freefall, ScottishPower hasn't cut domestic standard tariffs in almost a year. Failure of the big six suppliers [British Gas, EDF, npower, ScottishPower, Scottish and Southern, and E.ON] to pass on to customers the massive reductions in wholesale energy prices which they have been enjoying since 2008 is scandalous." ...
Hey, our utilities are doing the same thing to us in Yankistan - and why the fuck haven't gasoline prices plummeted either?
ScottishPower, which has more than 5 million British customers, saw profits rise by 7.9% last year amid fears that many people could not afford to heat their homes during the bitter winter. Results tomorrow from British Gas, the country's biggest supplier of gas and electricity with 15.6 million customers, are expected to show that operating profits rose 46% to £554m, up from £379m in 2008.
The increases were condemned by unions, customer groups and charities representing the elderly, and follow warnings this week from the regulator Ofgem that companies boosted margins by £30 for each dual fuel customer in the last three months as wholesale costs fell.
Gary Smith, national officer at the GMB union, said: "Buying cheap and selling dear will always add up to high profits in a natural monopoly. No great managerial elan or skills are needed. It is long overdue that the government should step in and take control of the energy sector and put in place proper plans for secure supplies at reasonable prices as happens in the rest of Europe."
David Hunter of McKinnon & Clarke, which buys energy for businesses across Britain, said: "Despite wholesale prices going into freefall, ScottishPower hasn't cut domestic standard tariffs in almost a year. Failure of the big six suppliers [British Gas, EDF, npower, ScottishPower, Scottish and Southern, and E.ON] to pass on to customers the massive reductions in wholesale energy prices which they have been enjoying since 2008 is scandalous." ...
Hey, our utilities are doing the same thing to us in Yankistan - and why the fuck haven't gasoline prices plummeted either?
David Cameron's communications director, Andy Coulson, will come under fresh pressure to defend his editorship of the News of the World and his knowledge about the illegal activities of his journalists amid new allegations about the paper's involvement with private detectives who broke the law.
The Guardian has learned that while Coulson was still editor of the tabloid, the newspaper employed a freelance private investigator even though he had been accused of corrupting police officers and had just been released from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail.
The private eye was well known to the News of the World, having worked for the paper for several years before he was jailed, when Coulson was deputy editor. He was rehired when he was freed.
Evidence seen by the Guardian shows that Mr A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was blagging bank accounts, bribing police officers, procuring confidential data from the DVLA and phone companies, and trading sensitive material from live police inquiries.
Coulson has always insisted he knew nothing about the illegal activity which took place in the News of the World newsroom, telling MPs last year: "I have never had any involvement in it at all."
Mr A cannot be named now because he is facing trial for a violent crime, but his details will emerge once he has been dealt with by the courts. Coulson tonight refused to say whether he was aware of Mr A's criminal background, or of his return to the paper following his prison term. He said: "I have nothing to add to the evidence I gave to the select committee." ...
The Guardian has learned that while Coulson was still editor of the tabloid, the newspaper employed a freelance private investigator even though he had been accused of corrupting police officers and had just been released from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail.
The private eye was well known to the News of the World, having worked for the paper for several years before he was jailed, when Coulson was deputy editor. He was rehired when he was freed.
Evidence seen by the Guardian shows that Mr A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was blagging bank accounts, bribing police officers, procuring confidential data from the DVLA and phone companies, and trading sensitive material from live police inquiries.
Coulson has always insisted he knew nothing about the illegal activity which took place in the News of the World newsroom, telling MPs last year: "I have never had any involvement in it at all."
Mr A cannot be named now because he is facing trial for a violent crime, but his details will emerge once he has been dealt with by the courts. Coulson tonight refused to say whether he was aware of Mr A's criminal background, or of his return to the paper following his prison term. He said: "I have nothing to add to the evidence I gave to the select committee." ...
February 24. 2010 1:00AM
Judge expected to expand charges against Kilpatrick
Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News
Detroit --When former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick returns from Texas on Friday for arraignment on criminal probation violation charges, he will face far more accusations than missing a single restitution payment.
Wayne County prosecutors Tuesday were ordered by Circuit Judge David Groner to assist Michigan Department of Corrections authorities in expanding the single charge recommended by agents overseeing Kilpatrick's probation to include numerous alleged violations revealed during six days of recent hearings on Kilpatrick's finances.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's spokeswoman, Maria Miller, declined to provide details, but legal experts say the charges could include perjury and fraud.
"We are prepared to proceed on Friday," Miller said. "We have assisted the probation department in their preparation of the warrant. The allegations will be contained in that petition."
With the charges broadened beyond Kilpatrick's failure to meet a deadline last week to pay $79,000 toward the $1 million restitution in the text message scandal, his lawyers' efforts to get the Michigan Court of Appeals to overturn Groner's recent restitution orders will likely have no impact on the coming proceedings, said Curt Benson, professor at Cooley School of Law. The higher court is likely to focus only on Kilpatrick's complaint that the judge overstepped his authority in ordering him to make more than $300,000 in accelerated restitution payments, because he determined Kilpatrick hid assets from the court.
The Court of Appeals agreed to consider Kilpatrick's appeal, but only after receiving transcripts of the lengthy restitution hearings. Groner's court reporter has almost a month to prepare the transcripts. The appeals court refused to delay payment deadlines. The first deadline, for $79,011, passed last Friday. The second, for $240,000, comes in April. ...
Judge expected to expand charges against Kilpatrick
Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News
Detroit --When former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick returns from Texas on Friday for arraignment on criminal probation violation charges, he will face far more accusations than missing a single restitution payment.
Wayne County prosecutors Tuesday were ordered by Circuit Judge David Groner to assist Michigan Department of Corrections authorities in expanding the single charge recommended by agents overseeing Kilpatrick's probation to include numerous alleged violations revealed during six days of recent hearings on Kilpatrick's finances.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's spokeswoman, Maria Miller, declined to provide details, but legal experts say the charges could include perjury and fraud.
"We are prepared to proceed on Friday," Miller said. "We have assisted the probation department in their preparation of the warrant. The allegations will be contained in that petition."
With the charges broadened beyond Kilpatrick's failure to meet a deadline last week to pay $79,000 toward the $1 million restitution in the text message scandal, his lawyers' efforts to get the Michigan Court of Appeals to overturn Groner's recent restitution orders will likely have no impact on the coming proceedings, said Curt Benson, professor at Cooley School of Law. The higher court is likely to focus only on Kilpatrick's complaint that the judge overstepped his authority in ordering him to make more than $300,000 in accelerated restitution payments, because he determined Kilpatrick hid assets from the court.
The Court of Appeals agreed to consider Kilpatrick's appeal, but only after receiving transcripts of the lengthy restitution hearings. Groner's court reporter has almost a month to prepare the transcripts. The appeals court refused to delay payment deadlines. The first deadline, for $79,011, passed last Friday. The second, for $240,000, comes in April. ...
'Terminator' carp threatens Great Lakes
Environmentalists say Asian carp, an invasive species of food-guzzling fish, could cause an ecological disaster if it enters Lake Michigan
Ed Pilkington, Chicago
Tuesday 23 February 2010
The fight looks utterly unequal. In the red corner: the combined might of North America, including the US and Canadian governments, the US army, the governors of eight American states, two Senate committees and the supreme court. In the blue corner: one fish.
The way things are looking, the fish is winning.
At stake is the health of the Great Lakes, the world's largest body of fresh water. Environmentalists warn of ecological disaster, courtesy of Asian carp, an invasive species of food-guzzling fish that is within miles of entering Lake Michigan.
If they do, they would have the potential to spread throughout the lakes, wreaking havoc to their ecosystem and with it the $7bn (£4.7bn) fishing and recreation industries on which millions of jobs depend. "This is an intense threat, and people are just waking up to how big the danger is," said David Ullrich of the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Cities Initiative, which represents 70 waterfront cities in the US and Canada with a joint population of 13 million.
Asian carp were first introduced to southern states of the US from China in the 1970s to help clean tanks in fish farms. They escaped and for more than 30 years have steadily worked their way up the Mississippi river system, devouring food and devastating native fish populations along the way. Last December, DNA of the carp was found just a few miles from the Great Lakes outside Chicago, a discovery that Ullrich described as "a major shock to everyone". ...
Environmentalists say Asian carp, an invasive species of food-guzzling fish, could cause an ecological disaster if it enters Lake Michigan
Ed Pilkington, Chicago
Tuesday 23 February 2010
The fight looks utterly unequal. In the red corner: the combined might of North America, including the US and Canadian governments, the US army, the governors of eight American states, two Senate committees and the supreme court. In the blue corner: one fish.
The way things are looking, the fish is winning.
At stake is the health of the Great Lakes, the world's largest body of fresh water. Environmentalists warn of ecological disaster, courtesy of Asian carp, an invasive species of food-guzzling fish that is within miles of entering Lake Michigan.
If they do, they would have the potential to spread throughout the lakes, wreaking havoc to their ecosystem and with it the $7bn (£4.7bn) fishing and recreation industries on which millions of jobs depend. "This is an intense threat, and people are just waking up to how big the danger is," said David Ullrich of the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Cities Initiative, which represents 70 waterfront cities in the US and Canada with a joint population of 13 million.
Asian carp were first introduced to southern states of the US from China in the 1970s to help clean tanks in fish farms. They escaped and for more than 30 years have steadily worked their way up the Mississippi river system, devouring food and devastating native fish populations along the way. Last December, DNA of the carp was found just a few miles from the Great Lakes outside Chicago, a discovery that Ullrich described as "a major shock to everyone". ...
Posted: Feb. 21, 2010
Feds have evidence ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick took bribes
Contractor said Kilpatrick got up to $100K, his father up to $290K; Kilpatrick's lawyer says he knows nothing of bribery accusation
BY JENNIFER DIXON and JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
A contractor who pleaded guilty in an ongoing corruption probe in Detroit has told investigators that he handed as much as $100,000 in bribes to then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2002, according to interviews and sworn documents reviewed by the Free Press.
The contractor, Karl Kado of West Bloomfield, also told the FBI he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the mayor's father, and thousands more to a close mayoral aide, according to the records and interviews.
Kado told authorities he paid Kwame Kilpatrick in four or five installments of about $20,000 each. Kado, who is awaiting sentencing for paying bribes to protect multimillion-dollar Cobo Center contracts, said he sometimes delivered the money in envelopes to Kilpatrick's office on the 11th floor at City Hall, and sometimes Kilpatrick dropped by Cobo to get the cash.
The allegations are significant because they show, for the first time, that the government has secured the cooperation of someone who says he gave payoffs directly to Kilpatrick.
Authorities obtained the information as part of a years-long, complex and wide-ranging investigation in Detroit and Southfield that has produced a series of public corruption charges and 10 guilty pleas.
In pursuing Kilpatrick, investigators tracked cash moving in and out of bank accounts and wiretapped the phone of his father, among others, while slowly trying to build a case.
FBI agents also contend in sworn statements that they have grounds to believe Kilpatrick and his associates used the mayor's office to run a criminal enterprise, a term the FBI reserves for organized crime and racketeering cases. ...
Feds have evidence ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick took bribes
Contractor said Kilpatrick got up to $100K, his father up to $290K; Kilpatrick's lawyer says he knows nothing of bribery accusation
BY JENNIFER DIXON and JIM SCHAEFER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
A contractor who pleaded guilty in an ongoing corruption probe in Detroit has told investigators that he handed as much as $100,000 in bribes to then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2002, according to interviews and sworn documents reviewed by the Free Press.
The contractor, Karl Kado of West Bloomfield, also told the FBI he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the mayor's father, and thousands more to a close mayoral aide, according to the records and interviews.
Kado told authorities he paid Kwame Kilpatrick in four or five installments of about $20,000 each. Kado, who is awaiting sentencing for paying bribes to protect multimillion-dollar Cobo Center contracts, said he sometimes delivered the money in envelopes to Kilpatrick's office on the 11th floor at City Hall, and sometimes Kilpatrick dropped by Cobo to get the cash.
The allegations are significant because they show, for the first time, that the government has secured the cooperation of someone who says he gave payoffs directly to Kilpatrick.
Authorities obtained the information as part of a years-long, complex and wide-ranging investigation in Detroit and Southfield that has produced a series of public corruption charges and 10 guilty pleas.
In pursuing Kilpatrick, investigators tracked cash moving in and out of bank accounts and wiretapped the phone of his father, among others, while slowly trying to build a case.
FBI agents also contend in sworn statements that they have grounds to believe Kilpatrick and his associates used the mayor's office to run a criminal enterprise, a term the FBI reserves for organized crime and racketeering cases. ...
Last Updated: February 22. 2010 1:00AM
Feds plan Kilpatrick charges
Ex-mayor, dad expected to face felonies in 'pay to play' probe
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Federal officials are preparing felony charges against former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick, The Detroit News has learned.
For at least five years, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office have been investigating an alleged "pay to play" system at City Hall under Kilpatrick and allegations that contractors wanting City Hall business were directed to hire the former mayor's father as a consultant.
Now there are new allegations that former Cobo Center contractor Karl Kado, who has been cooperating with the FBI since 2005, not only paid close to $300,000 to the mayor's father but made about $100,000 in illegal cash payments directly to the former mayor.
Those allegations are contained in sworn statements that are part of the evidence in the wide-ranging corruption probe, a person familiar with the investigation said Sunday. Charges are expected against both Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, though the timing and specific nature of those charges are still being determined, the source said.
It's the first time a source close to the investigation has said corruption charges against the former mayor are planned, though there have been strong signals Kilpatrick was the ultimate target of a long-running investigation that has netted nine guilty pleas.
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed records and testimony related to possible abuses in fundraising and expenditures connected with the former mayor's nonprofit foundation, the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, and possible felony income tax violations are being examined, people familiar with the investigation said. ...
Feds plan Kilpatrick charges
Ex-mayor, dad expected to face felonies in 'pay to play' probe
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- Federal officials are preparing felony charges against former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick, The Detroit News has learned.
For at least five years, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office have been investigating an alleged "pay to play" system at City Hall under Kilpatrick and allegations that contractors wanting City Hall business were directed to hire the former mayor's father as a consultant.
Now there are new allegations that former Cobo Center contractor Karl Kado, who has been cooperating with the FBI since 2005, not only paid close to $300,000 to the mayor's father but made about $100,000 in illegal cash payments directly to the former mayor.
Those allegations are contained in sworn statements that are part of the evidence in the wide-ranging corruption probe, a person familiar with the investigation said Sunday. Charges are expected against both Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, though the timing and specific nature of those charges are still being determined, the source said.
It's the first time a source close to the investigation has said corruption charges against the former mayor are planned, though there have been strong signals Kilpatrick was the ultimate target of a long-running investigation that has netted nine guilty pleas.
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed records and testimony related to possible abuses in fundraising and expenditures connected with the former mayor's nonprofit foundation, the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, and possible felony income tax violations are being examined, people familiar with the investigation said. ...
Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty joined the teleprompter wing of Republican Hypocrisy Caucus during his speech at CPAC on Friday when he used a teleprompter to promulgate the hoax that Pres. Obama uses teleprompters more than other politicians. Worse, however, Pawlenty’s attack against the president was quickly determined to be a lie:
“President Obama was in a grade school classroom speaking to elementary school children and he was using a teleprompter,” Pawlenty said Friday in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he added. “That’s not a joke. That’s a real story.”
Actually, it’s not. The tale spread by bloggers over the Internet and in some media, including the Comedy Channel’s Jon Stewart, blended together two Obama appearances Jan. 19 at the Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia, to make it appear he used the teleprompter when speaking to a classroom of 30 pupils.
In reality, Obama sat on a chair and spoke with the pupils without the device.
In a different classroom, he used the teleprompter to give scripted remarks on education to television cameras.
At CPAC just one day earlier, Marco Rubio, Florida’s tea bagger candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, read what was supposed to be a joke about Obama and teleprompters from a teleprompter.
But neither of these new members of the GOP Hypocrisy Caucus can hold a candle to the chairwoman, Sarah Palin, whose promotion of the Obama teleprompter hoax at the tea bagger ball in Nashville earlier this month prompted us to catalog 20 separate incidents in which she used teleprompters during her campaign for vice president in 2008.
“President Obama was in a grade school classroom speaking to elementary school children and he was using a teleprompter,” Pawlenty said Friday in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he added. “That’s not a joke. That’s a real story.”
Actually, it’s not. The tale spread by bloggers over the Internet and in some media, including the Comedy Channel’s Jon Stewart, blended together two Obama appearances Jan. 19 at the Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia, to make it appear he used the teleprompter when speaking to a classroom of 30 pupils.
In reality, Obama sat on a chair and spoke with the pupils without the device.
In a different classroom, he used the teleprompter to give scripted remarks on education to television cameras.
At CPAC just one day earlier, Marco Rubio, Florida’s tea bagger candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate, read what was supposed to be a joke about Obama and teleprompters from a teleprompter.
But neither of these new members of the GOP Hypocrisy Caucus can hold a candle to the chairwoman, Sarah Palin, whose promotion of the Obama teleprompter hoax at the tea bagger ball in Nashville earlier this month prompted us to catalog 20 separate incidents in which she used teleprompters during her campaign for vice president in 2008.
Tax the church into extinction, please.