THE PROGRESS REPORT

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin with Nico Pitney and Mipe Okunseinde

May 10, 2005

JUDICIARY
Unclean Hands

Yesterday, President Bush marked the four-year anniversary of his first nominations to the federal court of appeals. Since that time, the Senate has confirmed 207 of Bush's judicial nominees. Just 10 nominees have not received a vote on the floor. It's an excellent record compared to those of past presidents. Sen. Chuck Hegel (R-NE) noted on Sunday that "[t]he Republicans' hands aren't clean on this.... What we did with Bill Clinton's nominees -- about 62 of them -- we just didn't give them votes in committee or we didn't bring them up." Nevertheless, the Washington Times reports that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist "plans for Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen to be the judicial nomination on which he uses the 'nuclear option,'" dispensing with 200 years of Senate tradition and abolishing the right of the minority party to filibuster judicial nominees.

GONZALES' REVISIONIST HISTORY: In a press conference yesterday, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales expressed his support for Priscilla Owen, adding, "I've never accused her of being an activist judge." Yet, when both Gonzales and Owen sat on the Texas Supreme Court, Gonzales called one of her opinions "an unconscionable act of judicial activism." In another case Gonzales accused Owen of attempting to "judicially amend the statute."

NO LICENSE TO COMPROMISE: In an effort to avoid a constitutional crisis, Minority Leader Harry Reid charitably offered "support for one of President Bush's judicial nominees" who had previously been blocked. Sadly, the least objectionable nominee from this group Reid could come up with was Thomas Griffith. Last summer the Washington Post reported that Griffith "has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the past four years," after his DC bar license expired for failure to pay dues. Mark Foster, an attorney who represents lawyers in ethics matters, "said Griffith's two licensing lapses should disqualify him from a lifetime appointment to one of the nation's most important federal benches."

FRIST'S HISTORY OF FILIBUSTERS: Majority Leader Bill Frist said Griffith wasn't enough. Yesterday, Frist noted there are "seven other highly qualified nominees who have been filibustered in the 108th Congress who deserve an up or down vote as well. I remain committed to this fundamental principle and the return to 214 years of Senate tradition." Just five years ago, Frist had a much different view. On 3/8/00 Frist participated in a judicial filibuster of Judge Richard Paez, Bill Clinton's nominee to the 9th Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals. A press release issued the following day confirmed that the purpose of the filibuster was to "block" Paez's nomination.

THE NUCLEAR FALLOUT -- CHIEF JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS: Ultimately, the nuclear option isn't about Priscilla Owen, Thomas Griffith, Terrence Boyle or any other nominee to the federal circuit courts. It's about the Supreme Court. Bush, Frist and their allies want to be able to install judges on the Supreme Court without even token support from the opposition. The "rule change also enhances the chances, for instance, of a conservative such as Justice Clarence Thomas being elevated to chief justice if William H. Rehnquist steps down after this session."

MEDICAID
Sickening Priorities

Washington conservatives are firmly placing their boot onto the necks of the most vulnerable Americans -- poor children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with HIV/AIDS. Under the cover of high-profile fights over Social Security privatization and judicial filibusters, Congress has voted to slash Medicaid -- the country's premier health program for the poor -- by $10 billion over the next five years. Now, with the budget-crunching over, governors and state legislators have devised "sweeping changes" to deal with Congress's cuts, under which many low-income Americans will have to pay more for care and states will have "more latitude" to reduce and limit services. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR) put these priorities in perspective: "[T]o balance the federal budget off the backs of the poorest people in the country is simply unacceptable. You don't pull feeding tubes from people. You don't pull the wheelchair out from under the child with muscular dystrophy."

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY A LA CARTE: Why target Medicaid to begin with? Conservatives claim it's all about reducing the federal deficit, and point to the fact that federal and state spending on Medicaid has "grown an average of 10 percent a year over the last five years -- much faster than federal or state revenues." But the reasons behind that growth show that targeting Medicaid is regressive and unnecessary. Medicaid has actually "contained spending, limiting annual per capita growth to 6.7 percent between 2002 and 2004," compared to 12.5 percent for private health insurance premiums. Its overall costs have increased because "enrollment grew by nearly 40 percent since 2000" thanks to the recession that "left many families without health coverage, squeezing states." Without Medicaid, the number of uninsured would have been much higher. Meanwhile, conservatives have cleared the way for $106 billion in new tax cuts over five years (as part of a budget that will "increase deficits over the next five years by $168 billion") while moving forward with pork-packed energy and transportation bills.

PICKING ON THE WEAK: So what's the real reason for going after Medicaid? Political analysts say "congressional leaders picked a program whose low-income beneficiaries were relatively less politically active. 'The poor and the disadvantaged do not vote,' said Rogan Kersh, a political science professor at Syracuse University who follows health-care issues."

THE DEEPEST CUTS: The severity of America's health care crisis is seen most vividly in the extreme moves some states are making to deal with cuts in Medicaid funding. A few states have pushed through wholesale cuts in coverage; Tennessee is dropping more than 300,000 people from its Medicaid rolls, while Missouri is cutting off 90,000. Meanwhile, New Hampshire yesterday became the first state in the nation to make "the poorest of the poor -- even families with no income at all -- contribute to their coverage." (Oregon tried a similar strategy two years ago, charging $6 to $20 a month for poor adults in an optional program, and "enrollment dropped by half in less than a year, from 100,000 to 51,000.") A newspaper in New Hampshire called the proposal an 'infamous moment' in the state history "comparable to the time a state senator suggested homosexuals should be allowed to donate blood 'as long as they donated all of it.'" (See American Progress's state-by-state analysis of the Medicaid cuts.)

IMPROVING MEDICAID THE RIGHT WAY: Plenty of options exist to improve Medicaid's performance without cost shifting to states or reducing coverage for people in need. A report by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured reveals that all fifty states and the District of Columbia enacted some form of cost-containment measures in response to the rising cost of Medicaid in the past two years. American Progress has compiled some of the most progressive of these measures, like basic drug reimportation programs, multi-state prescription purchasing pools, and small business health insurance pools. Read about them in our issue brief on "Improving Medicaid's Performance."

HEALTH -- EPA GIVES LEAD PAINT REGULATIONS A WHITEWASH: The Environmental Protection Agency is quietly sacrificing the health of kids in order to save businesses a few bucks. Exposure to lead paint, usually through home renovations, threatens the health of 1.4 million children every year. In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated almost half a million children had dangerous levels of lead in their blood; minority kids were disproportionately affected. Safety regulations were supposed to be in place by this year. The EPA, however, secretly decided to delay completing the regulations; instead, they want to make standards voluntary. Why? The EPA says it's worried about how much complying with regulations would cost businesses. Even if the agency is more concerned with cash than the health of children, that argument doesn't wash. Complying with the regulations would cost industries between $1.7 billion to $3.1 billion a year; a separate agency estimate shows implementing lead-paint regulations would provide health benefits from $2.7 billion to $4.2 billion annually.

BOLTON -- A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON AN OLD PROBLEM: The hearty endorsement of John Bolton given by former Deputy Secretary Of State Richard L. Armitage certainly surprised Larry Wilkerson, chief of staff to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell. According to testimony by Wilkerson, Armitage had "frequent battles with Bolton over his diplomatic tone" until ultimately blocking Bolton "from delivering speeches and testimony unless they were personally approved by Mr. Armitage." It was two years ago that such tight restrictions were laid down -- and only on Bolton -- and "'if anything, they got more stringent' as time went on." In another interview, the former director of the National Intelligence Council described Bolton as an individual who "took isolated facts and made much more of them to build a case than [Hutchings] thought the intelligence warranted. It was a sort of cherry-picking of little factoids and little isolated bits that were drawn out to present the starkest-possible case." Though providing barely half the Bolton-related documents requested by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the State Department continues to stress that all of Bolton's speeches were cleared; however, "such battles create 'a climate of intimidation and culture of conformity that is damaging.'"

HEALTH CARE -- NO SUCH THING AS A SUBSIDIZED LUNCH: Under President Bush's new Medicare prescription drug benefit program, "elderly people with low incomes may lose some of their food stamps if they sign up." Though seniors are often forced to choose between their medication and other life necessities, administration officials are rationalizing the shortchanging by claiming that "older Americans will spend less of their own money on drugs and will therefore have more to spend on food, reducing their need for food stamps." It seems that the so-called Medicare prescription drug benefit savings is a fancy way of saying reshuffling to America's oldest and most vulnerable.

IRAQ -- SECURITY AS MAJOR ROADBLOCK TO RECONSTRUCTION: Conclusions from a report being released today by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction state "U.S. efforts to rebuild Iraq are being hindered by management lapses and security problems, including mounting casualties among foreign contractors." The "$18.4 billion rebuilding effort [is] the largest undertaken by the U.S. since the end of World War II," yet there is not much to show for it. "For example, while billions of dollars have been used to improve Iraq's power supply, the country's electric system remains unable to meet demand." A large part of the problem is also "widespread management failings and isolated instances of apparent corruption, fraud and embezzlement." It is believed that this "slow pace of restoring the country's infrastructure and essential services is considered a prime source of Iraqis' public anger at the U.S. and skepticism about Iraq's government." The report's final conclusion: "The threat to life and property continues to be a major barrier to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Iraq."

HOUSING -- AIN'T NOTHIN' UP BUT THE RENT: A new White House proposal recently introduced in Congress -- the "State and Local Housing Flexibility Act" -- could leave a lot of Americans out in the cold. The legislation will make "fundamental changes" to two major U.S. low-income housing assistance programs, the housing choice voucher program and public housing. And according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, these changes will dangerously lay the ground for "future cuts in funding for housing assistance and leave the more than 3 million low-income households assisted by these programs vulnerable to sharp rent increases and other harmful changes."


DAILY GRILL

"I've never accused her [Pricilla Owen] of being an activist judge." -- Alberto Gonzales, 5/9/05

VERSUS

"An unconscionable act of judicial activism." -- Alberto Gonzales, then a member of the Texas Supreme Court, on Pricilla Owen's opinion, 6/22/00


DAILY OUTRAGE

New York Times columnist John Tienery complains that the media spends too much time covering suicide bomb attacks. Tienery argues that if the media scaled back coverage, people would understand "that their odds of being killed by a terrorist are minuscule in Iraq."

Drell and Goodby Say Nuclear Stockpile is Reliable
(Washington Post - Letter to the Editor)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5050800728.html

Monday, May 9
John J. Hamre advocated building a new inventory of nuclear weapons. This policy, however, would damage U.S. interests.

The U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons already is robust and reliable. Further, the design margins of warheads could be increased to enhance reliability and effectiveness and to sustain confidence over longer periods. For example, the explosive energy of the primary stage of a nuclear weapon can be enhanced to ignite the secondary or main stage. This method is available now, and it is the appropriate focus for the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead Program.

It takes an extraordinary flight of imagination to postulate that a new arsenal of untested designs would be more reliable, safe and effective than the current U.S. arsenal, which is based on more than 1,000 tests since 1945. And if nuclear testing is resumed, as Mr. Hamre suggested, several nations undoubtedly will follow suit. The damage to U.S. national security interests that this would cause would far outweigh any conceivable advantages to be gained by new designs.

Carnegie News:

Washington Post Online Chat: Director for Non-Proliferation Joseph Cirincione will be participating in a Washington Post Online Chat on Wednesday, May 11 from 2:00-3:00pm on Iran's nuclear program.

Deadly Arsenals II: The second edition of Carnegie's proliferation atlas, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats, will be released in July 2005. The second edition is substantially revised and updated with new chapters on Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya and others. The original 2002 book was selected as a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title in 2003 as a "best of the best in published scholarship." The study is widely used in university graduate and undergraduate courses and is a staple on experts' bookshelves. Order now and be the first to receive when the publication appears in July 2005. For additional information, please email cdutto@carnegieendowment.org.

L.A. mayor's race signals new ethnic alliances
Polls show Antonio Villaraigosa is poised to become the city's first
Hispanic mayor in 133 years. By Daniel B. Wood
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0511/p01s01-uspo.html?s=hns

How unfilled posts affect US image abroad
The lack of a UN envoy and public-diplomacy czar is taking a toll on
the US at a time of UN reform and Mideast tension. By Howard LaFranchi
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0511/p02s01-usfp.html?s=hns

What's appropriate in cheerleading
A bill to tone down 'sexually suggestive' routines draws a deeper look
at a staple of Texas culture. By Kris Axtman
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0511/p03s01-ussc.html?s=hns

As United eyes pension default, unions threaten strikes
They charge that management is misusing the bankruptcy court to balance
its books on the backs of employees. By Alexandra Marks
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0511/p25s01-usec.html?s=hns

The issues beyond right-to-die
Maybe the guy who woke up from a coma is as responsible as Schiavo is
for the living will rush. By Mary Beth McCauley
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0511/p09s02-coop.html?s=hns

Army, Marines miss recruiting goals again:

The all-volunteer military is facing its toughest test yet. In April, the Army missed its recruiting goal for the third month in a row, short by nearly 2,800 recruits, or 42 percent off its target. For the first time in 10 years, the Marine Corps missed its recruiting goal for the last four months.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8798.htm

http://snipurl.com/esiw

Prisoner Rights and International Law:

Japanese and American Responsibility From World War II to Guantanamo
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article....24§ionID=17

http://snipurl.com/esj8

Blix Says Washington's Own Nuclear Moves Cost It Support :

The former chief U.N. weapons inspector also cited positions taken by Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton devaluing treaties and international law
http://www.local6.com/news/4469828/detail.html

Nuclear weapons, a mind boggling issue?: Doesn’t need to be.

Check out this quick loading 90-second movie we made to explain what’s going on and what’s at stake.
http://www.truemajorityaction.org/site/pp....UJdP8H&b=611597

http://snipurl.com/esjn

Nuclear leak enough to make 20 bombs :

A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in enough concentrated nitric acid to half-fill an Olympic-size swimming pool has forced the closure of a controversial British reprocessing plant.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10124710

http://snipurl.com/esjp

Bush, Posada & Terrorism Hypocrisy:

The New York Times has finally put the case of fugitive terrorist Luis Posada Carriles on Page One, observing that the violent anti-Castro Cuban’s presence in Florida “could test” George W. Bush’s universal condemnation of terrorism. But that principle already appears to have been tested and failed.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/051005.html

Appeals court sides with Cheney in task force lawsuit :

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously found that two private groups that sued Cheney failed to establish that the federal government had a legal duty to produce documents detailing the White House's contacts with business executives and lobbyists.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/051...nergy10-ON.html

http://snipurl.com/esjy

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...eak_reporters_2

Supreme Court Urged to Protect Reporters

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5051001264.html

Bolton Office E-Mails Spotlight Tensions

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/n...ush_bolton_dc_5

Bolton aide targets State Dept. bureau

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/20...ts_x.htm?csp=34

Ridge reveals clashes on alerts

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156152,00.html

Senate Panels Share Bolton Info

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheH...105/report.html

Report could hurt Bolton

http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=5907

Neocons Exploiting Domestic Unrest in Iran?
Jim Lobe

___________________________________
THE MORNING BRIEF

May 11, 2005 -- 6:32 a.m. EDT

___________________________________

United Airlines was able to drop a considerable amount of uncertainty from its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection thanks to a judge's approval of parent UAL's bid to transfer four employee pension plans to a federal guarantor. But the future of the already burdened Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. and the rest of the airline industry is now that much cloudier.
UAL's Lighter Pension Load
Weighs on Rest of Industry

By JOSEPH SCHUMAN
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE


United Airlines was able to drop a considerable amount of uncertainty from its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection thanks to a judge's approval of parent UAL's bid to transfer four employee pension plans to a federal guarantor. But the future of the already burdened Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. and the rest of the airline industry is now that much cloudier.

The ruling by federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Eugene Wedoff will save the cash-strapped United Air an estimated $645 million a year, part of the $2 billion in annual savings it says it needs to line up enough financing to emerge from bankruptcy protection, the Chicago Tribune notes. But the addition of the pension plans' current shortfall of $9.8 billion would further strain the PBGC, which guarantees corporate pension plans and pays benefits to workers whose plans fail in exchange for premiums from employers with defined-benefit plans. Since accounting for United's obligations last year in anticipation it would assume them, the agency has taken on obligations exceeding its assets by $23.3 billion. So far, the agency hasn't had to use any taxpayer funds, but some analysts warn a bailout funded by taxpayers could be on the horizon if the agency's deficit keeps growing, The Wall Street Journal says. Under the agreement approved by the judge, the PBGC will have to make a final determination soon that the United plans meet its takeover requirements.

The decision was already taking flak from unions representing the 120,000 current and retired United workers affected, who stand to lose thousands of dollars annually from their pensions. Unions representing flight attendants, ramp workers and customer-service representatives said they would appeal, and the flight attendants union said it was considering legal options against the PBGC, the Journal reports. Two unions are threatening to strike if their entire contracts are annulled by the court in a hearing scheduled to begin today. Any the labor disruptions would severely hurt UAL as it seeks to emerge from Chapter 11 later this year after more than two years in bankruptcy-court protection.

In addition to the prospect of strikes at United, Judge Wedoff's decision has significant implications for the airline industry, which has lost more than $30 billion since 2000, and perhaps for other industries like automobiles, which have similarly heavy legacy costs, the New York Times reports. "Analysts have predicted that if United won its case, there could be a domino effect as other airlines are forced to seek bankruptcy protection to bring their pension costs down to United's levels," the Times says. Delta and Northwest Airlines are backing a bill introduced recently in Congress that would allow them to stretch out payments on their pension shortfalls for 25 years -- if they freeze the plans in question and ensure that the deficit wouldn't grow any larger, the Journal notes. But the bill has run into resistance from lawmakers reluctant to give airlines a special break.

Heightening such worries, Delta Air Lines said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday that continuing losses were forcing it to renegotiate the conditions of financing deals that helped it avert a bankruptcy filing last fall, adding that it may have to resort to a filing if the talks don't succeed, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Hedge-Fund Worries Erupt in Markets
Fears that hedge funds suffered losses in the wake of last week's credit-rating downgrade of General Motors rattled stock and bond markets yesterday, with investors worried that some funds might be struggling to meet margin calls. Shares in investment banks slipped and Treasury-bond prices rose as investors shifted into safe haven assets, the Financial Times reports. The complex trades struck by many hedge funds mean any troubles risk drawing in the counterparties, particularly banks, with which they conducted the trades, the FT says. And many funds are believed to have bought GM bonds in the belief that the debt was oversold, following the GM bonds' sharp decline in the wake of a profit warning in March. As it is, hedge funds' holdings declined by 1.75% in April, Bloomberg reports, citing Hennessee Group, which tracks the industry.

The rumors of GM-related losses couldn't be substantiated, the New York Times notes. But that didn't seem to matter to traders. Hedge funds have been a source of concern for investors because the recent flood of money into the funds seems to have the earmarks of a bubble, the Times says. Their growing influence is due in part to the fact that they have been a huge source of profits for Wall Street, with banks lending them money, trading for them and helping to devise the complex derivative transactions that are their meat and drink. And some of the hedge funds involved in the rumors yesterday have sold ownership stakes to the investment banks in recent months, the Times says.

Scarcity of Detail From Morgan Stanley
Morgan Stanley's highly anticipated presentation at the UBS Global Financial Services Conference was thin on details of the firm's future strategy, The Deal.com says, adding that the presentation was nonetheless a well-received coming-out party for Co-Presidents Zoe Cruz and Stephen Crawford, who impressed analysts and investors with a forthright discussion of the firm's challenges. UBS analyst Glenn Schorr said last week that Morgan Stanley Chief Executive Phil Purcell had previously indicated that he, Ms. Cruz and Mr. Crawford would share details about their strategic plan. And it was the first time Purcell was expected to tell investors the firm's strategy since the Group of Eight dissident ex-employees questioned his leadership, the Deal notes. But analysts said it yielded nothing new.

One thing Mr. Purcell did do was defend his strategy for integrating the retail and institutional divisions of Morgan Stanley, the New York Times notes, even as he warned that his firm faces deteriorating market conditions that could put a dent in its earnings. He also acknowledged the primary complaint of dissident retired Morgan Stanley executives: that the firm is undervalued and has trailed its peers in recent years. And he addressed head-on the issue of his lack of popularity within parts of the firm, saying morale problems still existed in the investment-banking and equity divisions, the Times reports. But the scarcity of new strategic detail and a warning about a weak second-quarter business environment caused Morgan Stanley shares to fall, The Wall Street Journal observes.

Did Greenberg Order Late AIG Trade?
The latest government inquiry of acts by Maurice "Hank" Greenberg when he was still chief executive of American International Group concerns his order to a reluctant AIG trader to buy 250,000 of AIG's sinking shares near the market close on the day the insurer disclosed it had received regulatory subpoenas into its accounting, a person familiar with the matter tells The Wall Street Journal. News of recordings of the conversation Mr. Greenberg had with the trader surfaced last week, and that trading order and at least two others by Mr. Greenberg are the subject of state and federal probes into whether he sought to manipulate AIG's share price. The AIG trader informed Mr. Greenberg the transaction could be viewed as improper, because it was too close to the market close, the person familiar with the matter tells the Journal. Under securities law, a company loses a "safe harbor" of buying its own shares if it makes the transaction in the final 10 minutes of market trading. And the trading firm on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange that oversees trading of AIG shares refused to accept the order. It is unclear whether the AIG trade was ever done.

The inquiry is in the early stages and may not result in any charges, people familiar with the probe tell the Journal. The key will be the timing of the order and Mr. Greenberg's intent. Meanwhile, New York regulators proposed overhauling rules for the accounting of nontraditional reinsurance transactions such as those at the center of investigations into improper accounting at AIG, the Journal says. The changes would be aimed at eliminating many opportunities for misuse by insurers of favorable insurance-accounting rules. At the heart of the inquiries into the use of nontraditional reinsurance is one such transaction between AIG and Berkshire Hathaway unit General Re. And the Securities and Exchange Commission has now notified a third executive of General Re that he faces a civil fraud complaint as part of its investigation of financial manipulation in the insurance industry, a person briefed on the matter tells the New York Times.

Boeing Ramping Up Production
For the first time since 2001, business seems to be booming at Boeing's Puget Sound-area factories, and the company plans to open an additional production line at its Renton plant that will push output there to a record 31 planes a month, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Some of the additional production will be for the 737 model, which garnered a 45-jet order from Asia today. China Southern Airlines, one of mainland China's three largest carriers, and its regional subsidiary Xiamen Airlines agreed to buy 45 Boeing 737-700s and 737-800s airplanes in a deal valued at $2.8 billion at list prices.

Get Ready for Self-Heating Latte
The next big thing? A new line of canned lattes that heat themselves at the touch of the button, with the culinary pedigree of Wolfgang Puck stamped on the outside and costing $2.25 a pop, according to the New York Times. It took California company OnTech seven years and $24 million to create the self-heating cans, which are activated by pushing a plastic button on the bottom, the Times says. "Water flows into a sealed inner cone filled with quicklime, which is mostly calcium oxide. A chemical reaction heats the coffee to a pleasant 145 degrees Fahrenheit in six to eight minutes, the amount of time it might take to order, pay for and receive a latte from a barista," the paper explains. The prospects for self-heating latte and any number of other self-cooking foods could be strong in a "mobile society with a technology fascination and a taste for culinary innovation," the Times says. OnTech is working with a food manufacturer on self-heating soup and has plans for hot chocolate and other offerings. "I'm not trying to replace your dinner, but when you're on your way to work and you need some oatmeal and you can't get to the microwave, we will be there for you," OnTech Chief Executive Jonathan Weisz says.

Wall Street Journal: Cisco Systems posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results and reaffirmed its forecast for continued strong growth, results that suggested the world's largest maker of computer-networking equipment largely avoided a March hiccup in corporate technology spending that hurt several rivals.

USA Today: The Bush administration periodically put the country on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Mr. Ridge said.

Financial Times: Maersk of Denmark unveiled an agreement to buy P&O Nedlloyd for about $3 billion, in a move that would give it control of almost one-fifth of the world's container shipping capacity.

Variety: Warner Music Group priced its initial public offering at $17 a share - well below the $22-$24 range it anticipated earlier this year, and at a price that values the company at $2.4 billion.

Los Angeles Times: Internet powerhouse Yahoo is expected to launch a deeply discounted music service today, betting that low prices and personalized features will lure customers away from the troves of free but illicit music online.

Ad Age: In a move that appears to take on TV at its own game, Mark Burnett Productions and Yahoo will produce a live boxing bout that will be exclusively available to online viewers, and sponsored by Intel and Toyota Motor Sales USA.

Quote of the Day
"Today in Europe in the 21st century, when one country is making territorial claims against another and at the same time wants to ratify border treaties, this is complete nonsense -- soft-boiled boots," said Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a slap at Baltic nations for clinging to historic grievances over Soviet domination, the New York Times reports.


TODAY'S MARKETS
The Dow Jones industrials fell 103.23 points, or nearly 1%, to 10281.11, amid lingering uncertainty about the economy and trepidation ahead of Cisco's earnings. Rumors of a large hedge-fund collapse weighed on the market.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1115723...tml?mod=djemTMB


After facing one of the biggest legal assaults in corporate history, the smoke is clearing for Philip Morris as its new, pugnacious legal strategy begins to pay off.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1115759...tml?mod=djemTMB

Bahrain remains more open than its neighbors -- and freer than it was in the 1990s -- but it's more notable today as a showcase of how democratization can falter amid escalating expectations and a conservative backlash.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1115776...tml?mod=djemTMB

Artists working for Alternative Prosthetic Services make arms, legs and the occasional finger or ear for accident victims and wounded soldiers. The flood of amputees returning from the Iraq war has seen demand skyrocket.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1115771...tml?mod=djemTMB

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United Airlines Cleared to Shed Pension Plans
--------------------

A bankruptcy judge allows the carrier to transfer $6.6 billion of liabilities to a U.S. agency. Some retirees' benefits may be affected.

By James F. Peltz
Times Staff Writer

May 11 2005

A bankruptcy judge Tuesday approved United Airlines' historic plan to dump its underfunded pension plans on a federal agency, a move United said it needed to survive but one that could trigger a damaging strike against the airline.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-unit...0,4692143.story

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fluo...ack=1&cset=true

Fluor to Leave Southland for New Home in Dallas

--------------------
Frist Pushes Toward Showdown on Judges
--------------------

The GOP leader plans to bring a Bush nominee for a vote after a bill passes as early as this week. 'Now is the time' to face the issue, he says.

By Maura Reynolds
Times Staff Writer

May 11 2005

WASHINGTON; Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist moved the chamber closer Tuesday to a long-threatened showdown between Republicans and Democrats over President Bush's controversial judicial nominations.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...=la-home-nation

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Next Round of Military Base Closings May Favor West, South
--------------------

Possible threats from North Korea and China, as well as access to the sea and open land, could shape Pentagon's list, expected Friday.

By John Hendren
Times Staff Writer

May 11 2005

WASHINGTON; The new round of military base closings expected to begin with a Pentagon announcement this week is shaping up in part as a struggle between base advocates in the Northeast and the Sun Belt.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/na...0,3088575.story

THE PROGRESS REPORT

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin with Nico Pitney and Mipe Okunseinde

May 11, 2005

UNITED NATIONS
Bolton Unfit to Serve

Tomorrow, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote on the nomination of John Bolton to be U.N. ambassador. Ranking Member Joe Biden (D-DE) will not delay the vote even though "the Bush administration did not fully cooperate with the panel's investigation." At this late date, members from both parties on the committee have still "declined to say they would vote for [Bolton]." Their hesitation is well founded. John Bolton's record -- characterized by repeated professional failure and unethical behavior -- makes it abundantly clear he is unfit to serve as U.N. ambassador.

A KNOWN LIABILITY IN NONPROLIFERATION EFFORTS: USA Today notes this morning that as U.N. ambassador, Bolton would be charged with leading international efforts to address emerging proliferation threats in North Korea, Iran and elsewhere. Bolton has repeatedly demonstrated that he is a liability in that role. Newsweek reports that a U.S.-British effort in 2003 to force Libya to surrender its nuclear program "succeeded only after British officials 'at the highest level' persuaded the White House to keep Bolton off the negotiating team." Bolton's unbending position nearly compromised the effort until the Bush administration "agreed to keep Bolton 'out of the loop.'" In November 2003, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw complained to Colin Powell that Bolton "was making it impossible to reach allied agreement on Iran's nuclear program" by insisting on a hard-line position. An aide to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell was forced to interview experts in Bolton's own Nonproliferation Bureau to glean their actual recommendations and resolve the issue. In July 2003, just before crucial six-nation talks with North Korea, Bolton so insulted the country that the State Department was forced to call him home.

THE SYRIA STONEWALL: At the State Department Bolton may have "improperly sought to toughen intelligence assessments of Syria as late as the summer of 2003, after the American failure to find illicit weapons in Iraq had raised alarms about the danger of inflated intelligence." Sen. Biden requested documents related to Bolton and Syrian intelligence from the State Department. The State Department refused to comply with the request because it wasn't approved by committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN). While the State Department has showed some signs of softening its position, as of Tuesday afternoon, it had still not supplied the requested documents.

NO SILVER LINING: Bolton sought to replace two intelligence officials -- Fulton Armstrong and Christian Westermann -- angry that they wouldn't back Bolton's false claims that Cuba had a bioweapons program. Outraged, Bolton tried to have them "reassigned." This Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation, Lugar said that after 31 interviews, he understood why people would say that Bolton was "intimidating, abusive ... [and] tried to get people fired." But Lugar said he wasn't concerned because "at the end of the day nobody was fired." True, but Bolton shouldn't get credit. It took interventions from then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin to save the analysts' jobs.

THE $110,000 MYSTERY CONSULTANT: In his current post as under secretary for arms control and international security, Bolton has a man named Mathew Freedman on the payroll. Freedman describes himself as an "intermittent part-time expert foreign-affairs consultant." For that, Bolton pays him $110,000 a year in taxpayer money. Perhaps more troubling is that he also maintains private clients for his own consulting company, Global Impacts. Freedman refused to tell the Foreign Relations Committee who his private clients were because "[s]ome of them have confidentiality agreements on non-releasing of their -- of their information." There is considerable confusion about what Freedman did at the department because, by his own admission, he is not a policy expert. He describes his function as "related to staffing, skill sets, the activities that were being undertaken in-house."

ETHICS
The Isles that Bind

Ah, the tropical Northern Marianas Islands. About three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines, with a population of just over 80,000, these U.S. territories acquired after World War II are the central locale of a "dirty drama of bondage" that enmeshes disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, House leader Tom Delay, President Bush, and scores of conservative lawmakers, journalists, and activists. That's because the Marianas (and particularly the main island, Saipan) are also the site of America's most shoddy labor practices. Human "brokers" bring thousands there to work as sex slaves and in cramped sweatshop garment factories where clothes (complete with "Made in the U.S.A." tag) have been produced for all the major brands: Tommy Hilfiger, Gap, Calvin Klein, Liz Claiborne, The Limited, J.C. Penney, and -- surprise, surprise -- Wal-Mart. The workers are "paid barely half the U.S. minimum hourly wage," and are "forced to live behind barbed wire in squalid shacks minus plumbing, work 12 hours a day, often seven days a week, without any of the legal protections U.S. workers are guaranteed." And if DeLay, Abramoff, and President Bush get to decide, that's how things will stay.

THE 'BIGGEST SUPPORTER' OF SWEATSHOPS ON CAPITOL HILL: That award goes to Tom DeLay, according to Abramoff. And for good reason. In the 1990s, the Clinton administration, with bipartisan support, "tried to crack down" on the worker abuse in the Marianas. DeLay wouldn't stand for it. According to the Los Angeles Times, "DeLay helped lead the fight beginning in 1997 to keep Congress from enacting reforms opposed by Abramoff and his clients that would have required garment manufacturers to pay their workers the higher federal minimum wage." In June of '97, DeLay, then majority whip, and Majority Leader Dick Armey also "promised to block any legislation to increase federal regulation on garment manufacturers." In 1998, DeLay helped kill a "congressional fact-finding trip that was being planned as part of an investigation of sweatshop conditions" at the islands. And three years later, DeLay refused to allow a vote on a bill that "would have barred the use of 'Made in USA' by the island's apparel industry," even though it was co-sponsored by 234 representatives, more than a majority.

'PERFECT PETRI DISH OF CAPITALISM': In Newsweek, Marie Cocco writes that of all the "qualified candidates" for the "worst thing [Tom DeLay] has ever done," one "stands out for its squalor." Likewise, CNN's Mark Shields notes that while many of DeLay's scandals "represent only degrees of avarice," his efforts in Saipan allow one to truly "grasp the moral bankruptcy" of the House leader. Maybe this is because DeLay didn't keep his lobbying for sweatshops secret, but wore it right on his sleeve. DeLay told the Washington Post the islands were a "perfect Petri dish of capitalism. It's like my Galapagos island." And with ABC cameras rolling, DeLay toasted the sweatshop owners and their supportive Saipan officials as "a shining light" who represented "everything that is good about what we are trying to do in America and leading the world in the free-market system." Responding to DeLay's offensive remarks, then-Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) told Shields, "The last time we heard a justification that economic advances would be jeopardized if workers were treated properly was shortly before Appomattox."

ABRAMOFF'S TREASURE CHEST: As if the Marianas didn't have it bad enough. Though they proved "to be a veritable treasure chest for Abramoff," an adviser to the islands' governor told the New York Times that Abramoff's policy was "to play both sides against the middle and take the Marianas for millions of dollars in fees." For instance, Abramoff would say the island government "needed his services because it was the only American territory without a nonvoting delegate to Congress." Except, as documents revealed by the Times show, "he worked hard to kill a bill in Congress that would have given the islands a delegate."

THE BUSH CONNECTION: Ties between Abramoff, President Bush, and Saipan go back as far as 1997, when Abramoff "charged the Marianas for getting then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush to write a letter expressing support for the Pacific territory's school choice proposal." It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. "Our standing with the new administration promises to be solid as several friends of the [Marianas] will soon be taking high-ranking positions in the Administration," Abramoff wrote island officials in January 2001. He was right. Two members of Abramoff's lobbying team subsequently received positions in the Bush White House, as assistant secretary of labor and head of federal procurement policy in the Office of Management and Budget. In the president's first 10 months, Abramoff and his lobbying team "logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration." They pressed for "friendly hires" and lax labor laws with officials as high up as Attorney General John Ashcroft and policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, and it apparently worked: the islands "fended off proposals in 2001 to extend the U.S. minimum wage to island workers and gained at least $2 million more in federal aid from the administration." By mid-2003, Abramoff "had raised at least $100,000 for Mr. Bush's re-election campaign, becoming one of Bush's famed 'pioneers.'"

BASKING IN THE GLOW OF CORRUPTION: The Marianas soon became a kind of petting zoo for right-wing cognoscenti, who were curious to gaze upon the creations of DeLay's "perfect Petri dish." Abramoff's team "arranged many trips to the Marianas for conservative editorial writers and members of research groups" like the Heritage Foundation, Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, and the Institute for Justice. "This all-out public relations and lobbying blitz brought the [Marianas] back from the brink of legislative disaster," Abramoff wrote in 2001. Abramoff also flew dozens of lawmakers and their aides for luxurious vacations to the balmy islands, including one 1997-98 New Year's trip for DeLay and his wife. It was then that DeLay offered Abramoff this now infamous toast: "When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made."

Under the Radar

IRAQ -- ADD $82 BILLION TO THE TAB, AND KEEP IT OPEN: The bill for the war in Iraq continues to skyrocket. Yesterday, "the Senate gave final passage ... to an $82 billion emergency war-spending bill, sending President Bush a measure that will push the cost of the Iraq invasion well past $200 billion." According to Army officials, "more money will be needed as early as October." According to the Congressional Research Service by 2010, costs for the war "are likely to exceed half a trillion dollars." The bill includes "$1.28 billion to construct and operate a U.S. embassy in Baghdad." To put that in perspective, it's about as much as the Freedom Tower that will be built on ground zero, which will be the tallest building in the world.

MEDIA -- MORE 'JOURNALISTS' ON ADMINISTRATION PAYROLL: Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher were just the beginning. Documents obtained by USA Today reveal the Agriculture Department paid freelance writer Dave Smith $9,375 in 2003 to "write articles for hunting and fishing magazines describing the benefits of NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) programs." None of the articles "identified Smith as having been paid by the government."

HOMELAND SECURITY -- RIDGE GOES COLOR BLIND: Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge is making some interesting -- and potentially controversial -- accusations as of late. During a recent forum, Ridge stated that the Bush administration, against the protests of the Homeland Security department, had "periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though ... there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level." Ridge recalled several cases in which administration officials were "'really aggressive' about raising it, and we said, 'For that?'" He continued on to claim that "he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or 'high' risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled." In fact, according to Ridge, "More often than not [the Department of Homeland Security] were the least inclined to raise it." Since Ridge's resignation earlier this year, the DHS has been considering alternatives to the color-coded warning system.

ENVIRO -- PENTAGON LAUNCHES ATTACK ON NATURE: The Pentagon is on its fourth try at getting Congress to "loosen major environmental laws to allow military training exercises around the country to proceed unimpeded." Pentagon officials are claiming that the changes are "essential to preserve the quality of training and to avoid lawsuits over possible violations of [environmental] statutes." In congressional testimony from last year, however, a senior Pentagon official was unable to provide any "examples of complaints involving existing environmental laws." Furthermore, the Defense Department is already "widely regarded as one of the nation's leading polluters, producing vast amounts of chemicals from ordnance that leach into groundwater, as well as air pollution from military vehicles. The Environmental Protection Agency lists more than 130 Superfund sites on military bases." A spokesperson with the Natural Resources Defense Council noted that, "Congress would never consider letting the nation's biggest corporate polluter off the hook. Why, then, would Congress grant immunity to America's, and the world's, largest polluter?"

HALLIBURTON -- BONUSES FOR EVERYBODY!: It must be nice being Halliburton, the company once run by Vice President Cheney. Halliburton can lose radioactive material. Halliburton can overcharge (or charge for work never done) without having to justify any of its charges. Halliburton can even keep any negative, image-damaging news from getting out. And what is the punishment? Yesterday, the Army announced that "it had awarded $72 million in bonuses to Halliburton Co. for logistics work in Iraq." In a second slap to the face of the American taxpayer, the Army claimed to have "protected the taxpayer first" since at least it "had denied $10.1 million more in bonuses to Halliburton ... and had not paid the maximum allowed on any of six task orders it reviewed." Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) put it best: "It is outrageous that the Bush administration would give Halliburton a bonus after we have seen its overcharges, sloppy accounting and kickback schemes in Iraq. Giving Halliburton a bonus is like giving your worst employee a raise."

DAILY GRILL

"There were 20 or 25 Republicans who wanted to defeat Berzon and Paez with a filibuster." -- Mitch McConnell, 5/11/05

VERSUS

"Filibuster, cloture, it gets confusing -- as a scheduling or to get more information is legitimate. But no to kill nominees." -- Bill Frist, on why he voted to filibuster Paez in 2000, Face the Nation, 11/21/04


DAILY OUTRAGE

If Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) has his way, Americans are going to lose access to free weather data that was collected with their own tax dollars. Why? Private, for-pay weather providers based in his state are tired of the competition, so Santorum has introduced a bill to "severely limit the public and law enforcement's access to the National Weather Service."

THE DESTRUCTION OF THOMAS BUTLER

Dr. Thomas C. Butler, the distinguished physician and specialist in
infectious disease who was sentenced to prison last year for
improperly transporting medical samples, is the subject of an
extraordinary profile in the latest issue of the medical journal
Clinical Infectious Disease.

"Thomas Campbell Butler, at 63 years of age, is completing the first
year of a 2-year sentence in federal prison, following an
investigation and trial that was initiated after he voluntarily
reported that he believed vials containing Yersinia pestis were
missing from his laboratory at Texas Tech University," the article
begins.

"We take this opportunity to remind the infectious diseases
community of the plight of our esteemed colleague, whose career and
family have, as a result of his efforts to protect us from
infection by this organism, paid a price from which they will never
recover."

Dr. Butler is credited with having saved literally millions of lives
in developing countries through his pioneering work on oral
hydration as a treatment for diarrheal diseases.

See "Destroying the Life and Career of a Valued Physician-Scientist
Who Tried to Protect Us from Plague: Was It Really Necessary?" by
Barbara E. Murray and 13 colleagues, Clinical Infectious Disease,
vol. 40, no. 11, 1 June 2005:

http://tinyurl.com/7khsx

Further background on the Butler case is available from the
Federation of American Scientists here:

http://www.fas.org/butler/index.html

VICE PRESIDENT WINS ENERGY TASK FORCE CASE

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed that the Vice
President's Energy Task Force was within its rights to meet behind
closed doors with industry participation since the industry
participants were not, strictly speaking, members of the Task
Force.

The ruling is a victory for the Bush White House and a new
constraint on open government.

See "D.C. Circuit Narrows Advisory Committee Openness," an analysis
from the National Security Archive here:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20050510/index.htm

AN ORDINARY FOIA STORY

Many FOIA requesters are likely to have unrealistic expectations
about how the Freedom of Information Act process should work, and
may be disappointed when voluminous responsive records do not
appear on their doorstep free of charge within a few days.

But increasingly, even experienced requesters with modest hopes and
low expectations are frustrated with the performance of government
agencies.

In a statement prepared for a House hearing on FOIA today, a
requester named Charlotte Dennett recounted her efforts to obtain
60 year old records from the Central Intelligence Agency concerning
her late father, Daniel C. Dennett, a counterintelligence officer
with the OSS and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG).

Although the Agency did release hundreds of routine personnel
records to her, "the CIA did not provide me with anything remotely
connected with my father's last months or with his death (along
with six other Americans) in a March, 1947 plane crash. The CIA
justified its actions by citing FOIA exemptions based on protection
of Agency sources and methods and reasons of national security."

For reasons explained in her statement, Ms. Dennett did not find
this claim persuasive. Her appeal of the matter extended
inconclusively for several years, and it is now in litigation.
See:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2005/051105dennett.pdf

INTELLIGENCE BUDGET DISCLOSED IN NETHERLANDS

In the United States, where intelligence budget secrecy is a deeply
rooted dogma that defies rational criticism, it takes a court order
to compel the disclosure even of a forty-two year old budget figure
(Secrecy News, 05/09/05).

But in other mature democracies such as the United Kingdom, Canada
and elsewhere, annual publication of intelligence spending figures
has now become the norm.

In the Netherlands, the General Intelligence and Security Service
(AIVD) included budget data in its latest annual report as a matter
of course.

Thus, in 2004, the AIVD spent 52.2 million Euros on personnel, 32.2
million on material costs, and 3.1 million on secret expenditures.

See the 2004 AIVD annual report here (in Dutch, at pp. 109-110; 750
kb PDF file; thanks to Prof. Cees Wiebes):

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/netherlands/aivd2004.pdf

A recent AIVD report analyses the threat posed by radical Islam.
See "From dawa to jihad - the various threats from radical Islam
to the democratic legal order," English translation dated March
2005, here:

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/netherlands/dawa.pdf

(Dawa refers to the propagation of Islam by missionary activity, and
is perhaps something like the Islamic counterpart of Christian
evangelism.)

HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS (CRS)

Current and proposed funding for the Department of Homeland Security
is described in a recent Congressional Research Service report with
somewhat greater clarity than in DHS budget documents themselves.

See "Homeland Security Department: FY2006 Appropriations," April 14,
2005:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL32863.pdf

Where Lawlessness May Roam

By Richard Morin

We're certainly not encouraging it, but if you're thinking about going on a crime spree and you're scouting for locations, you might want to check out a 50-square-mile sliver of western Idaho.

In this remote corner of Yellowstone National Park, a quirky confluence of constitutional technicalities and a goof by Congress more than a century ago may have produced a lawless oasis smack in the heart of God's Country, claims Brian C. Kalt, an associate professor of law at Michigan State University.

Kalt insists that his reading of the law is correct -- at least in theory. "The courts may or may not agree that my loophole exists," he acknowledged in his essay "The Perfect Crime" in the forthcoming issue of the Georgetown Law Journal.

Kalt says he's not interested in trying to help crooks, but rather in forcing Congress to tidy up the law books. "Crime is bad, after all. But so is violating the Constitution. If the loophole . . . does exist it should be closed, not ignored," he writes in an article that mixes serious scholarship with humor.

At the heart of the problem is an obscure bit of legalese buried in the Sixth Amendment known as the "vicinage" requirement. (For non-lawyers, vicinage refers to the neighborhood where the crime took place, while venue refers to the location of the trial itself.)

The amendment requires that jurors be "of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law." From a legal perspective, the problem with Yellowstone Park is that it does not quite fit in Wyoming: Nine percent of the park spills into Montana (about 260 square miles' worth) and Idaho (about 50 square miles). The park was established in 1872, well before the three states were added to the union, and Congress put the entire park in the judicial district of Wyoming -- the only federal court district that includes land in more than one state.

At the same time, Kalt said, legislators unwittingly created a potential "Zone of Death." Here's how it might work:

"Say that you are in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, and you decide to spice up your vacation by going on a crime spree. You make some moonshine, you poach some wildlife, you strangle some people and steal their picnic baskets. You are arrested, arraigned in the park and bound over for trial in Cheyenne, Wyo., before a jury drawn from the Cheyenne area.

"But Article III, Section 2 [of the Constitution] plainly requires that the trial be held in Idaho, the state in which the crime was committed. Perhaps if you fuss convincingly enough about it, the case would be sent to Idaho. But the Sixth Amendment then requires that the jury be from the state (Idaho) and the district (Wyoming) in which the crime was committed. In other words, the jury would have to be drawn from the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park, which, according to the 2000 Census, has a population of precisely zero. . . . Assuming that you do not feel like consenting to trial in Cheyenne, you should go free."

In short, Congress goofed back in 1890 when they made Wyoming the 44th state. "It should either have shrunk the park or made Wyoming bigger to include all of the park," Kalt said. Ah, legal hindsight is always 20/20.

Kalt said the vagaries of venue and vicinage requirements have let people get away with murder before. He quotes an English legal scholar who complained in 1548 that it "often happene[d]" that a murderer would strike his victim in one county, and "by Craft and Cautele [caution]" escape punishment by making sure that the victim died in the next county. "An English jury could only take cognizance of the facts that occurred in its own county, so no jury would be able to find that the killer had committed all of the elements of murder," Kalt wrote. (Rest easy. England closed that loophole centuries ago.)

But, professor, that was then. Could you really get away with murder today in your Zone of Death? Perhaps not -- at least not completely. Kalt notes that it "would be hard to limit your criminality to that small space," so you could be charged with conspiracy for things you did elsewhere to further your rampage. Prosecutors also could charge you with lesser crimes punishable by less than six months in jail, which do not require a jury trial. Or the victims' families could sue the pants off you.

But the biggest deterrent may be the loophole that allowed your crime binge in the first place. If friends and families of your victims got wind of your plans, they might turn the tables before you left the crime scene, giving you -- in Kalt's words -- "a dose of your own medicine, administering vigilante justice with similar impunity."

We all know it's tough being a boy named Sue. Now it turns out it's also a problem to be a classmate of a boy named Sue, according to Universi ty of Florida economist David N. Figlio.

Figlio found that boys with first names typically given to girls were more likely to misbehave in junior high school than students with less distinctive monikers. He also discovered that boys in classes with boys with feminine-sounding names were more likely to have discipline problems and lower standardized test scores. He reports his findings in a new working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Figlio made news in this column two months ago with his finding that children with unusual names don't fare as well in class. In his latest analysis, he used detailed data collected on more than 76,000 students in the late 1990s from a large school district in Florida. In exchange for access to student records, including names and disciplinary histories, Figlio promised not to reveal the school district or otherwise identify individual students.

Overall Figlio found that nearly 2 percent of all boys in his sample had names that were overwhelmingly given to girls. That means the typical Florida middle-schooler will share about one out of every three classes with a boy named Sue . . . or Ashley, Courtney or Shannon.

But as the father of three boys, the Wiz just has to ask: How about girls with guy-sounding names? Any effects on the other students from going to school with a girl named Tyler or Sidney?

"I did not look as carefully at the girl-named-Brad angle, in part because this is much more common," Figlio wrote in an e-mail. "Indeed, Ashley, Courtney and Shannon were all once boys' names!"

Men and women may disagree on a lot of things, but in one area of life they're in near-perfect agreement. If they had the choice, they would work fewer hours than they do now, according to a Washington Post-ABC News national poll conducted last month.

Equal majorities of working men (55 percent) and women (56 percent) said they'd spend less time on the job if they could continue to have the same standard of living. Fewer than three in 10 said they wouldn't reduce the number of hours they spend on the job.

But few men and women want to join the leisure class entirely: Slightly fewer than one in five women and men said they would quit working if they could afford to.

For the survey, 650 working women and men were interviewed April 21-24. Margin of sampling error for the overall results is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

morinr@washpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/e...er=emailarticle

US towns brace for base-closing wave
The Pentagon is expected to announce a large number of closings among
its 425 domestic bases. By Sara B. Miller and Mark Sappenfield
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p01s01-usmi.html?s=hns

Why NASCAR has so many female hearts racing
An ESPN Sports poll shows that 42 percent of racing fans are women. By
David Kirby
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p01s02-ussc.html?s=hns

New evangelism: mini loans
Churches in Africa and elsewhere see small loans as a higher form of
charity. By Michael D. Kerlin
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p01s03-woaf.html?s=hns

Developer tactics to avoid housing bust
Home-building communities are trying to quell speculation in the
housing market. By Ron Scherer
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p01s04-usec.html?s=hns

In a tribute to DeLay, a bid for party loyalty
Amid ethics questions, the powerful House leader seeks anchor in his
GOP base as he headlines a gala event. By Gail Russell Chaddock
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p02s01-uspo.html?s=hns

Pension ruling boosts United, but also raises new strike risks
Workers threaten a walkout after a federal judge said this week the
airline can default on its retirement obligations. By Alexandra Marks
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p02s02-usec.html?s=hns

Limits of pulpit politics tested in N.C.
First, the pastor told Democrats to leave the church. Now he has left,
leaving simmering debate in his wake. By Patrik Jonsson
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p03s01-ussc.html?s=hns

United's Pension Sinkhole
United's default on pensions should be a warning for Congress to reform
the pension-insurance agency. The Monitor's View
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p08s03-comv.html?s=hns

This country needs a real national ID card
In an age of terrorism and the need to control immigration, a driver's
license is a flimsy substitute. By Todd Crowell
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p09s02-coop.html?s=hns

A top-100 list roils high schools
Do best-of lists encourage schools to excel or simply feed an American
obsession with rank? By Teresa Mendez
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0512/p11s01-legn.html?s=hns

Video: "Confronting the Architects Of Torture"

By Sister Dianna Ortiz, OSU

Sister Ortiz relates her personal experiences and tell us that U.S. personnel were present in interrogation and torture rooms,” in Guatemala in 1989 when she was kidnapped, taken to a secret prison and repeatedly raped and tortured by troops commanded by General Hector Gramajo (a CIA asset and graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas).

Watch it here
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8807.htm

http://snipurl.com/etiz

Ridge reveals clashes on alerts: —


The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8813.htm

http://snipurl.com/etjl

Halliburton lands $72 million in bonuses:

The U.S. Army said on Tuesday it had awarded $72 million in bonuses to Halliburton Co. for logistics work in Iraq but had not decided whether to give the Texas company bonuses for disputed dining services to troops.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7806065/

Guantanamo abuses show U.S. needs a dose of truth :

Saar's account illustrates the long road that many Americans must travel to accept truths about how far our nation's military has fallen during this global war on terror from the ideals we thought defined our nation.
http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/index.p...=39475&ntpid=12

http://snipurl.com/etjw

Judge limits discussion of Middle East conflict in Al-Arian trial:

Attorneys for former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian argued that jurors must understand the 50-year conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis to put Al-Arian's public statements and some of his activities into context.
http://snipurl.com/etkf

Report says Bush administration targets refugees instead of terrorists:

President Bush's War on Terror has transgressed into a war on immigrants, including those asylum-seekers fleeing terror," the report said in its executive summary.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/...ws/11614504.htm

http://snipurl.com/etkl