NOTE: some news sites require free registration in order to read their stories. Send your tips and feedback to alan@progressnow.org.
To subscribe to the daily news digest, click here.
Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/032907.htm
TOP STORIES
ProgressNow in the news
Westword
Best of Denver 2007: Best Blog -- Political
www.progressnowaction.com
http://www.westword.com/bestof/award.php?award=379210&year=2007
All of politics is
personal -- very, very personal -- for the folks over at ProgressNow.org. Since
lawyer (and former Westword intern) Michael Huttner started his troublemaking
squad of truth-seekers, they've made news as often as they've reported it,
creating the catchy "Both Ways Bob" campaign that gubernatorial
candidate Bob Beauprez could never escape, offering a stylish video response to
Marilyn Musgrave's disabled-vet ads, jumping so fast on inconsistencies in
Scott McInnis's campaign that the former congressman took a pass on the 2008
U.S. Senate race, and now running a Presidential March Madness elimination. But
ProgressNowAction.com isn't all fun and games; the blog's home is full of
information and position papers, and its get-out-the-vote campaign just won a
Golden Dot award from the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.
Turn on and tune in. Readers' Choice: www.coloradopols.com
RELATED: Best
Political Campaign Souvenir: "Both Ways Bob" Flip-Flops
http://www.westword.com/bestof/award.php?award=379230&year=2007
RELATED: Westword's
Best of Denver 2007
http://www.westword.com/bestof/index.php?year=2007
Officials
may face firing over 'security letters'
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-03-28-fbi-security-letters_N.htm
Democrats and
Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday called for
sweeping changes in how "national security letters" are issued and
tracked, including firing and prosecuting FBI officials responsible for
allowing hundreds of such letters to be issued without authorization.
"It's very rarely that a bureaucrat is prosecuted," said Rep. Terry
Everett, R-Ala., who called himself a "longtime supporter" of the
FBI. "We've reached a point where someone has to be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law." The reaction came during a hearing on a March
9 inspector general report that found that the FBI issued over 143,000 NSL
requests from 2003 through 2005, including many that appeared to violate laws
and the bureau's own guidelines. The letters, authorized by the Patriot Acts of
2001 and 2006, allow the FBI to access subscriber information for telephone and
e-mail accounts as well as some credit information in national security
investigations without resorting to a subpoena or a court order.
Rights
Group Challenges Assurances On Torture
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032802119.html
Human Rights Watch on
Wednesday challenged the value of "diplomatic assurances" routinely
obtained by the United States from other governments that inmates returned home
from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be treated humanely. The New York-based
advocacy group said governments with records of torture "don't suddenly
change their behavior" because of agreements with Washington. The group
called on the United States "to establish screening procedures so that a
person being transferred from Guantanamo Bay has an effective opportunity to
challenge his transfer before an impartial body."
RELATED: 7 Were Abused, Group Says
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/world/europe/29russiagitmo.html
Gunmen
Go On Rampage In Iraqi City
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032800166.html
A day after twin truck
bombings laid waste to predominantly Shiite neighborhoods in the northern Iraqi
city of Tall Afar, marauding Shiite gunmen and police executed dozens of Sunnis
in retaliatory attacks that many Iraqis feared might precipitate a resurgence
of open sectarian warfare. The killings took place in a city once cited by
President Bush as a sign of the U.S. military's success in pacifying the
insurgency. Bush said in a speech almost exactly a year ago that the
"example of Tall Afar gives me confidence in our strategy." But parts
of the city reverted to chaos and carnage Wednesday as gunmen went door to door
assassinating as many as 60 people in revenge for the previous day's truck
bombings, Iraqi military and government officials said.
RELATED: Dozens die in revenge spree Shiites, Sunnis clash in once-pacified
city
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0703281078mar29,1,2375352.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
GSA
Chief Grilled on GOP Political Presentation
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/28/AR2007032801808.html
The chief of the
General Services Administration testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that she
could not recall details of a Jan. 26 videoconference in which a White House
official briefed top political appointees at the agency about targeting 20
congressional Democrats in 2008. Lurita Alexis Doan, the GSA's administrator,
appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to answer
questions about her 10-month tenure at the government's premier contracting
agency, including her attempt to award a no-bid job to a business associate and
her alleged intervention in a contract dispute with a technology company.
Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) said the committee was focusing on the
videoconference at GSA facilities because it might have violated the Hatch Act,
a federal law that restricts government agencies and employees from engaging in
political activity on the job.
RELATED: PowerPoint Targeting 20 Democrats
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/20070328151840-07177.pdf
Today’s complete national news
Colorado
Needy's
hopes fade as energy aid dwindles
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5542660
A faulty furnace has
left Chris Eikenberg struggling through the winter to keep her house, two kids
and a husband warm. With space heaters blasting, a stoked fireplace and an
electric stove providing the only sources of warmth, it wasn't long before
energy expenses easily exceeded the family's income. Now, like thousands of
other Coloradans, the disabled 46-year-old former surgical nurse is relying on
government help with the bills. That help, however, is dwindling. Federal
dollars used to supplement state aid through the Low Income Energy Assistance
Program, known as LIEAP, haven't been allocated and Colorado officials say they
are resigned to not getting them. As a result of the $13.5 million loss in
federal aid, state officials estimate they will drop the average
energy-assistance grant to $202 this year from $545 in 2006. For families like
the Eikenbergs, who live in Pierce, just south of the Wyoming border in Weld County, it could be the difference in keeping the heat turned on.
Lawmaker's
alleged threat sparks review of ethics rules
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5449527,00.html
It's a she-said,
they-said dilemma that has the House looking at changing its ethics rules. Rep.
Debbie Stafford, of Aurora, said that a fellow Republican in the House told her
she would be a target in future elections if she supported a
construction-defects bill that the homebuilders industry opposed. Republican
leadership said the exchange never happened, that Stafford's story has changed
several times and that she is simply mad at the homebuilders for helping kill
an unrelated measure she introduced this session. Stafford stands by her story,
but said she doesn't plan to file any sort of complaint. After hearing about
the hubbub, Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said he asked staffers to review
the rules. "There is a specific House rule that says a lobbyist cannot
threaten a legislator, for that matter any other public employee, with violence
or economic or political reprisal," he said. "There is no
corresponding rule in the House with respect to threats made by lawmakers, and
I think there should be." Stafford said that a number of people lobbied
her to vote against House Bill 1338, including Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial,
the assistant minority leader. She said Balmer told her that she would receive
heat from the Colorado Association of Homebuilders if she ran for another
office. And she said Balmer mentioned that the group has been generous to
Republican candidates in the past.
CSU's
bid to raise tuition expelled
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5544364
The state Senate on
Wednesday rejected Colorado State University's last-minute bid for permission
to collect an extra $34 million in tuition from some students. CSU officials
wanted lawmakers to change the state budget to allow the university to collect
more money from middle- and high-income students so it could offer free
admission to lower-income students. The effort caught budget-writing lawmakers
and CSU students by surprise. The proposal was initially added to the budget
and later stripped on an 18-15 vote. A final vote on the budget is set for
today in the Senate.
RELATED: Senate says no to CSU free tuition proposal
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5450061,00.html
RELATED: Dems want
free college for all low-income students
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5448596,00.html
Salazar
wants full study on Aurora deal
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/2
A full environmental
impact statement is needed on the proposed contract between the Bureau of
Reclamation and Aurora, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said Wednesday. The
3rd Congressional District’s representative in Washington said the expanded
look at the environmental, social and economic impacts is needed to get the
full picture of how water transfers have affected the Arkansas Valley. “I can’t understand why people are sweeping things under the rug,” Salazar said. “How
can they say there’s not going to be an economic impact on the Arkansas Valley by taking water out of it?”
RELATED: Water contract a bargain for Aurora
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1175177852/10
Today’s complete Colorado news
Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/032907.htm
|
ProgressNow.org
You received this mailing because you subscribed to the ProgressNow.org daily news digest list, which is strictly opt-in. We hope you have enjoyed this mailing; but if you have received it in error, or if you prefer not to receive any future news digest mailings, please visit http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/unsubscribe and your address will be removed from the list within 24-48 hours.
|