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TOP STORIES
Rice Meets With Syrian Counterpart
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050300716.html
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met here Thursday with her Syrian counterpart in the first high-level talks between the two governments in more than two years. Rice characterized the 30-minute session, held on the sidelines of a two-day international conference on Iraq at this Egyptian Red Sea resort, as "businesslike" and "very constructive." Senior Bush administration officials said that she would not hold a widely anticipated meeting with Iran's foreign minister, but that the United States plans to hold direct talks with Tehran in the near future. Conversations will be limited, as were the talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, to the subject of Iraq, they added. Officials said the decision to end the U.S. isolation of Syria and Iran -- which the administration accuses of facilitating insurgent and militia violence in Iraq -- was made in Washington in the days leading up to the conference. President Bush has long rejected calls from administration critics and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to begin talks.
RELATED: U.S. and Syria are talking
RELATED: U.S. and Syria Discuss Iraq in Rare Meeting
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/world/middleeast/04diplo.html?ref=washington
RELATED: U.S.-Iranian contacts brief, awkward in Egypt
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-05-04-rice-iran_N.htm
Projectile Bomb Attacks Hit Record High in Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302530.html
Attacks in Iraq involving lethal weapons that U.S. officials say are made in Iran hit a record high last month, despite efforts to crack down on networks supplying the armor-piercing weapons known as explosively formed projectiles, according to a senior U.S. commander. The number of attacks with the projectiles rose to 65 in April, said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, who oversees day-to-day U.S. military operations in Iraq. "The overwhelming majority" were in predominantly Shiite eastern Baghdad, Odierno said in an interview this week. Officials have said the projectiles are used almost exclusively by Shiite fighters against U.S. military targets.
RELATED: Pentagon: 300 Iraqi Troops Killed in April
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050301561.html
Bush Wants Phone Firms Immune to Privacy Suits
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302323.html
The Bush administration is urging Congress to pass a law that would halt dozens of lawsuits charging phone companies with invading ordinary citizens' privacy through a post-Sept. 11 warrantless surveillance program. The measure is part of a legislative package drafted by the Justice Department to relax provisions in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that restrict the administration's ability to intercept electronic communications in the United States. If passed, the proposed changes would forestall efforts to compel disclosure of the program's details through Congress or the court system. The proposal states that "no action shall lie . . . in any court, and no penalty . . . shall be imposed . . . against any person" for giving the government information, including customer records, in connection with alleged intelligence activity the attorney general certifies "is, was, would be or would have been" intended to protect the United States from terrorist attack. The measure, which has not yet been filed, is contained in a proposed amendment to the fiscal 2008 intelligence authorization bill.
FBI May Probe Use of Force by L.A. Police at Immigration Rally
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050302363.html
The FBI will open a civil rights inquiry into the Los Angeles Police Department's actions at an immigration rally where officers cleared a city park by wielding batons and firing rubber bullets, the bureau said Thursday. The preliminary inquiry seeks to determine "whether the civil rights of protesters taking part in the May 1st immigration rally were violated," according to an FBI news release. Police Chief William J. Bratton said earlier Thursday he planned to meet next week with the head of the FBI's Los Angeles office, Assistant Director in Charge J. Stephen Tidwell, to determine whether Tuesday's clashes at MacArthur Park were "something the bureau would become involved with."
RELATED: LAPD cut back forces at park rally
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd4may04,0,3944742.story?coll=la-home-headlines
RELATED: Action by Police at Rally Troubles Los Angeles Chief
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/us/04immig.html?ref=us
Today’s complete national news
Colorado
Schaffer reportedly announces Senate run
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070504/NEWS01/705040332/1002
Former Congressman Bob Schaffer made his long-expected Senate announcement during the weekend in tiny Teller County. Or maybe he didn't. "He was invited as our speaker (at a Republican dinner) and said he had decided to run and that a formal announcement would follow but that he wanted us to be the first ones to know," said Mark Sievers, the chairman of the Teller Republican Central Committee who was among the 100 people who attended. "I think Bob has been thinking about a run for a long time and maybe he decided on his way down that this was the right time and place to do it." Schaffer said he hasn't announced whether he'll be a candidate to replace Sen. Wayne Allard, in Teller County or elsewhere.
RELATED: Schaffer: Dems are vulnerable
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=16136
Colo. elections IT mgr. selling "voter data" to GOP candidates
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2007/5/3/213841/7860
An IT manager for Colorado's state-wide voter database has been selling "targeted voter data" through a "GOP Campaign help" web site at PoliticalLiveWires.com. According to his online resume, Dan Kopelman is currently "Elections Technology Manager" with "oversight and guidance of the State Wide Voter Database" in the office of Colorado's newly elected Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman. Returning ePluribus Media's request for information, a spokesperson for Colo. Secretary of State Mike Coffman confirmed Kopelman's employment, but said the office was unaware of his "side business" selling voter lists and other web-based campaign tools. Furthermore, after learning about the IT manager's "conflict of interest," Deputy Secretary of State William A. Hobbs met with the Kopelman and directed him to take down his campaign web site immediately.
Ritter signs Pinon Canyon, school safety bills
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/0,2777,DRMN_23906_5519077,00.html
Gov. Bill Ritter signed House Bill 1069 today that withdraws consent given by the state to the federal government to acquire land through eminent domain that would be used for military training. The bill is meant to block an expansion of the 238,000 training site southwest of La Junta by adding 418,000 acres, and destroying a number of ranches in the area. "The military is a very important part of Colorado," Ritter said. "It's a tremendous economic engine for our state ... (but) the goal for any expansion of a military base or training site must be a win for the military and a win for the community." Ritter said his conversations with the Army have all focused on the desire to expand Pinon Canyon without the use of eminent domain.
RELATED: Ritter says "no" to Army move
http://www.denverpost.com/newsheadlines/ci_5810613
RELATED: Ritter signs bill against Piñon
http://www.gazette.com/articles/bill_21887___article.html/ritter_colorado.html
RELATED: Ritter signs bill aimed to stop Army land condemnation
http://pueblochieftain.com/metro/1178290672/1
'Pro-environment' session pleases greens
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5518746,00.html
Colorado green activists celebrated what one called "the most pro-environment legislature in Colorado history" today, citing passage of more than 20 bills related to renewable energy, more tightly regulating oil and gas exploration and protecting the state's water. "My how times have changed in the Colorado legislature," said Will Coyne of Environment Colorado, reflecting on more difficult times getting their issues through the legislature and past Republican Gov. Bill Owens over the past eight years. Too often in recent years, environmentalists ended the session with "a sigh of relief (from bills they stopped) or sense of disappointment, or both," said Elise Jones, of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. "What a wonderful change of pace."
RELATED: Conservation advocates praise Legislature’s work
http://www.gazette.com/articles/energy_21915___article.html/water_renewable.html
Today’s complete Colorado news
Today’s complete daily news: http://media.progressnowaction.org/digest/050407.htm
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