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TOP STORIES
Senate
to look at improper FBI spying
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-27-senate-fbi-spying_N.htm
A Senate panel wants
to know if the Patriot Act needs to be revised to keep the FBI from illegally
or improperly gathering telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans
and foreigners while pursuing terrorists. FBI Director Robert Mueller was to testify
Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was the panel's second
hearing into a report earlier this month by the Justice Department inspector
general that revealed abuses in the FBI's use of documents called national
security letters to gather data. The committee plans to hear April 17 from
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who is struggling to keep his job amid
criticism of the NSL abuses and the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
Ordinary
Customers Flagged as Terrorists
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032602088.html
Private businesses
such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of
customers against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made
publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to
ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the list. The Office of
Foreign Asset Control's list of "specially designated nationals" has
long been used by banks and other financial institutions to block financial
transactions of drug dealers and other criminals. But an executive order issued
by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has expanded the list and
its consequences in unforeseen ways. Businesses have used it to screen
applicants for home and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment,
according to interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights
of the San Francisco Bay Area to be issued today. "The way in which the
list is being used goes far beyond contexts in which it has a link to national
security," said Shirin Sinnar, the report's author. "The government
is effectively conscripting private businesses into the war on terrorism but
doing so without making sure that businesses don't trample on individual
rights."
Arab
Ministers Agree To Revive Initiative For Mideast Peace
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601805.html
Arab foreign ministers
agreed to relaunch a five-year-old peace initiative with Israel, including establishment of a working group to begin negotiations on the plan, according to
reports from Riyadh, the Saudi capital. "The initiative includes a
mechanism to promote it and gain its acceptance and especially registering it
officially at the United Nations," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal
told reporters. "That's what's going to happen, so that it becomes a basis
and a major reference point for peace in the Middle East." Under the plan,
Arab nations would recognize Israel if it gave up land occupied after the 1967
Middle East war and granted Palestinian refugees the right to return to their
homes lost six decades ago when Israel declared it was a state. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, traveling this week in the Middle East, has pushed
Arabs to back the long-dormant plan as the basis for negotiations, not a
take-it-or-leave-it proposition.
RELATED: Rice: Israeli, Palestinian Leaders Will Meet Every 2 Weeks
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032700421.html
RELATED: Thousands of
Settlers Return to West Bank Town
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/27/world/middleeast/27settlers.html?ref=world
9
Officers Blamed in Tillman Death, but No Coverup Found
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032600731.html
A Pentagon
investigation found yesterday that four senior Army officers -- including a
three-star general now in charge of the military's most elite man-hunting units
-- committed "critical errors" in judgment in handling the
"friendly fire" death of Cpl. Pat Tillman, a former pro football
star. A separate Army probe found no criminal wrongdoing in Tillman's death on
April 22, 2004, in a barrage of fire from fellow Rangers on a craggy
mountainside near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. The report by the
Pentagon inspector general recommended that four Army generals and five
lower-ranking officers face "corrective action" for serious
violations, including making false and misleading statements about what they
knew about the Tillman fratricide, as well as inaccuracies in recommending
Tillman, 27, for a Silver Star, the Army's third-highest combat award.
RELATED: Army lied about Tillman's death, report says
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tillman27mar27,1,4751107.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Today’s complete national news
Colorado
Mr.
Gibbs goes to Washington
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5527884
A Colorado bill
designed to reduce the impact of oil and gas drilling on wildlife could serve
as a model for federal law, state Rep. Dan Gibbs will tell a House committee
today. Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, is scheduled to appear at a House Natural
Resources Committee hearing on how a surge in oil and gas drilling in the West
is affecting the environment. Gibbs' bill, which passed the state House on
Monday, would require Colorado's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to consult
the Colorado Division of Wildlife on the effects of drilling on such things as
animal habitats and mating. Concerns about the effects of drilling have united
hunting and wildlife interests, who were previous political foes.
Lawmakers
unveil a record $17.8 billion state budget plan
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5445003,00.html
The Colorado
legislature unveiled a record $17.8 billion spending plan for next fiscal year,
but said that the state still must pinch pennies as needs and wants continue to
outpace a slight bump in state revenue. This week, the Senate will take up the
"long bill," the state budget for next year. The spending plan
reflects a $1.3 billion, or 7.9 percent, jump in revenue. If the plan is
approved, the biggest winners would include health care, public schools, higher
education, renewable energy, prisons and mental health needs. Under the plan,
spending would increase $185 million for public education, $52 million for
health care, $52 million for higher education and $51 million for prisons. The
budget also calls for opening three driver's license offices in Larimer,
Jefferson and Adams counties to ease long lines and a backlog.
RELATED: Budget plan totals $17.8B
http://www.durangoherald.com/asp-bin/article_generation.asp?article_type=news&article_path=/news/07/news070327_1.htm
RELATED: Lawmakers
want to raise state budget $1.25 billion
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5527137
RELATED: JBC submits
$17.8 billion budget
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175004391/5
Supreme
Court tightens rules in whistle-blower lawsuits
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CO_SCOTUS_WHISTLE_BLOWER_COOL-?SITE=COCAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
The Supreme Court made
it harder Tuesday for whistle-blowers to share in the proceeds from fraud
lawsuits against government contractors. The court ruled 6-2 that James Stone,
an 81-year-old retired engineer, may not collect a penny for his role in
exposing fraud at the now-closed Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant northwest of
Denver. Writing for the court, Justice Antonin Scalia said Stone was not an
original source of the information that resulted in Rockwell International, now
part of aerospace giant Boeing Co., being ordered to pay the government nearly
$4.2 million for fraud connected with environmental cleanup at the Rocky Flats
plant. Rockwell must pay the entire penalty anyway. The only question before
the court was whether Stone would get his cut.
'Massive
protests' planned
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5444632,00.html
Plans were unveiled
Monday for four days of "massive protests" during the 2008 Democratic
National Convention, including a four-day "festival of democracy"
that may be held in Civic Center. But even as plans were laid for protests,
concerns were raised about police spying on lawful dissent. The Recreate 68
Alliance, which includes several groups involved in the annual Columbus Day
protests in Denver, said it would work to bring thousands of activists here
during the August 2008 gathering. "You'll see large mass actions similar
to the immigration rallies" last spring, predicted Glenn Spagnuolo, of the
All Nations Alliance. Spagnuolo said activists had just begun meeting to plan
their actions.
RELATED: Group hopes to re-create '68: Spagnuolo, others plan to protest at
Democratic National Convention in 2008
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/mar/27/group-hopes-to-re-create68/
Today’s complete Colorado news
Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/032707.htm
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