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Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/041307.htm
TOP STORIES
Leading Democrat says party leaders must not yield on war
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-12-us-iraq_N.htm
A memo from a top House Democrat says party leaders must not yield to White House pressure on Iraq and should cast President Bush as increasingly detached from public opinion. Bush has said he will not negotiate with Democrats on legislation that would finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September if it sets an end date for the Iraq war. Holding only a narrow majority in Congress, Democrats do not have enough votes to override the president's veto. In a memo to party leaders, Rep. Rahm Emanuel says that so long as Democrats continue to ratchet up the pressure on Bush, the president loses ground. If Bush continues to refuse to negotiate, his "continued insistence on a blank check for the war will only further damage his standing with the American people," wrote Emanuel, D-Ill., a member of the House Democratic leadership. Emanuel said he believes Democrats should continue to push to negotiate with the president. Despite differences, "there are areas of agreement that should offer fertile ground for negotiation and compromise," he wrote.
RELATED: Action on Troops Reshapes Bush’s Debate With Congress
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/washington/13cong.html?ref=washington
Rove E-Mail Sought by Congress May Be Missing
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202408.html?hpid=topnews
A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. GOP officials took issue with Rep. Henry Waxman's account of the briefing and said they still hope to find the e-mail as they conduct forensic work on their computer equipment. But they acknowledged that they took action to prevent Rove -- and Rove alone among the two dozen or so White House officials with RNC accounts -- from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server. Waxman (D-Calif.) said he was told the RNC made that move in 2005.
RELATED: Controversy escalates over missing e-mails
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-emails13apr13,0,6342131.story?coll=la-home-headlines
RELATED: Leahy says Bush aides lied about lost e-mails
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-12-fired-prosecutors_N.htm
RELATED: Subpoenas vowed over 'lost' e-mails
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/04/13/subpoenas_vowed_over_lost_e_mails/
FDA's Response to Tainted Pet Food Assailed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202372.html
A Senate panel took the Food and Drug Administration to task yesterday for its "inexcusable" response to pet food contamination and a month's worth of expanding recalls that have left Americans fearful about what to feed their cats and dogs. The Appropriations subcommittee, with a special appearance by the dean of the Senate, pressed the agency for better and faster reporting about tainted food and better and more-frequent inspections of pet food factories. "This is inexcusable," Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) said after a two-hour hearing in which an FDA official said he couldn't be sure that all the adulterated pet food has been recalled and is off store shelves. "The FDA's response to this situation has been wholly inadequate."
RELATED: Durbin calls safety procedures 'broken'
RELATED: Tainted pet food could still be on store shelves
SEC Shift May Lead To Lower Penalties
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/12/AR2007041202188.html
The Securities and Exchange Commission is changing how it negotiates settlements with companies in a way that could reduce the number and size of financial penalties that businesses pay, current and former officials said yesterday. Under the change, which has not been made public, SEC enforcement lawyers must seek approval from the agency's five commissioners before they begin settlement talks that involve fining corporations, including seeking ranges for possible fines. Currently, staff members have the authority to negotiate with businesses and draft settlements in principle before they take the deals to the agency leaders for final approval. The shift marks the latest development in a heated debate over whether companies or individual wrongdoers should bear the brunt of blame for legal violations. Penalties reached record proportions after destructive scandals at Enron, WorldCom and Adelphia Communications, creating concern among some commissioners that enforcement staff members are overreaching.
Today’s complete national news
Colorado
DNC organizers move closer to union solution
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5482083,00.html
Organizers of the Democratic National Convention made progress Thursday in resolving labor disputes that threatened to overshadow the event. Labor officials were granted a seat on the Denver 2008 host committee that they had sought since last summer. The leader of one of the state's largest unions said it was time to "move on," and national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney flew into Denver to "tone down the rhetoric" that has surrounded the debate over labor issues in Colorado. Other issues - such as the unionization of more downtown hotels - remain on the table.
RELATED: Dean: Denver convention shows West is way to White House
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5481178,00.html
RELATED: Guess you really had to be there
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5482073,00.html
RELATED: DNC to make strange bedfellows
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/other_business/article/0,2777,DRMN_23916_5481602,00.html
RELATED: Labor peace elusive
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5655556
RELATED: Dean rallies his Western team
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5655576
RELATED: Dean supporters pack hall
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5651383
RELATED: THEY SAID IT (EXTRA, April 13)
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5482074,00.html
Lawyers argue Bush can eject protesters
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5481779,00.html
The case involves two people ejected from a taxpayer-funded Bush speech two years ago. Leslie Weise and Alex Young were removed from a Bush address on Social Security after a staffer for Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., pointed them out as suspicious because they had arrived in a car with an anti-war bumper sticker. Weise and Young sued, arguing that the ouster violated their First Amendment right to free speech. Attorneys for Michael Casper and Jay Klinkerman, who were involved in removing them, have filed an appeals brief saying the ouster was legal. "The president's right to control his own message includes the right to exclude people expressing discordant viewpoints from the audience," states the brief, filed by attorneys Sean Gallagher, Dugan Bliss and others representing Casper and Klinkerman. The White House declined comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit. Three White House staffers have also been sued in the case for ordering the ouster. Gallagher said the White House was not involved in developing the argument. The appeal centers on "whose speech is at issue - the president's or the plaintiffs'?" the brief says. Weise responded, "My read of the Constitution does not give the president free speech rights greater than the citizens he serves."
Drilling bill's life may be short
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/energy/article/0,2777,DRMN_23914_5481342,00.html
Dee Hoffmeister broke down before state lawmakers last month recalling her ordeal with oil and gas drilling. Noxious fumes, bright lights and continuous hum from a drilling rig next to her property in Silt made her sick about two years ago. She ended up moving in with her daughter in Glenwood Springs for six months. Hoffmeister, 69, told her story to the House Agriculture, Livestock & Natural Resources Committee during debate of a bill that would require oil and gas regulators to work with health officials to minimize the impact of drilling on human health and the environment. The House committee approved the bill, but it could be short-lived. The oil and gas industry, which opposes the bill, is negotiating with the administration of Gov. Bill Ritter on another bill on how to best reform the state oil and gas commission that regulates the industry. That could result in killing off the House bill and including some of its stipulations in the commission reform bill. "That's a possible outcome," said Greg Schnacke of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association, which represented industry in the discussions. A compromise on the commission reform bill is expected early next week.
RELATED: Senate approves oil, gas measure
REALTED: Oil and gas panel expansion survives
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/04/13/4_13_1b_COGCC_reform_update.html
Effort to stiffen seat-belt law dies again
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5480896,00.html
A bill that would have allowed police to stop and ticket motorists solely for not using seat belts narrowly died for the second straight year Thursday. Senate Bill 151 would have allowed drivers to be stopped and given a $25 ticket for being unbuckled or failing to have children secured in a properly sized booster seat. Currently, Colorado motorists can be ticketed for no seat belt only if they are stopped for another traffic violation. It was killed on a 33-31 vote; a similar measure failed by one vote last year in the House. House sponsor Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, argued it would save more than 30 lives each year, spare taxpayers $1.8 million in annual Medicaid costs for passenger injuries and earn the state $12 million in one-time federal transportation funding. But opponents countered that allowing police to pull folks over under the pretext that adults or children weren't properly buckled in would fuel traffic stops based on racial profiling. They also said that safety education — by parents and public awareness campaigns — is the best way to ensure seat-belt use.
RELATED: Seat-belt bill dies; could harm civil liberties
RELATED: House kills seat belt bill after fiery debate
http://www.gazette.com/onset?id=21185&template=article.html
Today’s complete Colorado news
Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/041307.htm
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