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Corruption trial begins for 'America's sheriff'
Headline News |
2008/10/30 02:41
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| Former Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona was a sharp, inspiring leader consumed by greed, a prosecutor said Wednesday as the federal corruption trial began for the lawman nicknamed "America's sheriff." The three-term sheriff took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, gifts and illegal loans for himself, his mistress and a close group of friends in exchange for political favors, get-out-jail-free cards and the power of his office, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Sagel told jurors. "This is the case of the two Michael Caronas: Sheriff Michael Carona, the bright, articulate, charismatic man who went from being the underdog candidate," Sagel said. "Then there's the Michael Carona ... who declared, 'We're going to be so rich, we're going to make so much money.'" The square-jawed Carona, once dubbed "America's sheriff" by CNN's Larry King after vowing to hunt down a child abductor, sat stoically through the prosecutor's opening statement. Carona, 53, has vigorously denied charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering. Also charged are his alleged mistress, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and bankruptcy fraud; and his wife, who has pleaded not guilty to a single count of conspiracy. |
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Bailout bill gains momentum on House floor
Headline News |
2008/10/03 14:15
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After a week of tumult, an unprecedented government bailout of the financial industry gained ground in the House on Friday and leaders in both political parties expressed optimism the $700 billion measure would clear Congress by day's end for President Bush's signature.
With the economy showing fresh signs of weakness, the measure advanced past a key hurdle on a 223-205 vote. An Associated Press tally showed 16 lawmakers who sent an earlier bailout bill to unexpected defeat on Monday had changed their minds and would vote in favor of the revised legislation, more than the dozen needed. Officials said changes made to the measure had sparked a far smaller number of defections among previous supporters. "I'm optimistic about today. We're not going to take anything for granted but it's time to act," said House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio. "I think it will pass," agreed Rep. Jim Clyburn, the chief Democratic vote-counter, as debate unfolded in the House chamber. The Senate passed the measure earlier in the week on a bipartisan vote of 74-25. "No matter what we do or what we pass, there are still tough times out there. People are mad -- I'm mad," said Republican Rep. J. Gresham Barrett of South Carolina, who opposed the measure the first time it came to a vote. Now, he said, "We have to act. We have to act now." Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., another convert, said, "I have decided that the cost of doing nothing is greater than the cost of doing something." |
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EPA Must Set Pollution Standards for Builders
Headline News |
2008/09/23 13:58
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The Environmental Protection Agency must develop pollution standards for storm water runoff from construction sites or risk violation of the Clean Water Act, the 9th Circuit ruled.
The EPA identified the construction industry as a "point-source category" of pollution in its 2000 environmental plan, but then exempted the industry from the plan in 2004, skipping a three-year deadline to develop standards after listing.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, along with the Waterkeeper Alliance, filed suit against the EPA and its administrator, Stephen Johnson, for violating their duty to "promulgate effluent limitation guidelines and new source performance standards" for toxic storm water runoff from construction sites.
The environmental groups have standing because the polluted storm water ran into waterways that the groups' members use for recreation, the appeals court ruled. The National Association of Home Builders and Associated General Contractors of America, intervening on behalf of the government, argued that even if the runoff contained pollutants, the water wasn't toxic. The 9th Circuit disagreed. "In fact, the EPA has explicitly stated that storm water runoff from construction sites includes toxic and non-conventional pollutants," Judge Smith wrote.
The Clean Water Act clearly outlines the EPA's responsibility to develop standards for polluters within three years of developing a plan, the ruling states. The Act does not give the EPA authority to remove a point-source category from its plan once it is identified, or the three-year deadline would be meaningless, the court ruled. Also, the intensive listing process, which allows for public review and comment, shows that the agency seriously considered adding the construction industry before its listing.
"The three-year delay ... is not to decide whether to list a point-source category," Smith wrote, "but to allow the EPA to consider what the substance of the (standards) should be." |
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Psychologist group bars participation in interrogations
Headline News |
2008/09/22 14:01
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The American Psychological Association announced Wednesday that it had adopted a measure prohibiting members from participating in interrogations of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay and other military prisons where suspects have allegedly been tortured. The resolution, approved by a vote of 8,792 to 6,157 members, represents a reversal in position by the group, which last year rejected a similar ban. The measure states:
Whereas torture is an abhorrent practice in every way contrary to the APA's stated mission of advancing psychology as a science, as a profession, and as a means of promoting human welfare.
Whereas the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Mental Health and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture have determined that treatment equivalent to torture has been taking place at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
Whereas this torture took place in the context of interrogations under the direction and supervision of Behavioral Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs) that included psychologists....
Be it resolved that psychologists may not work in settings where persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law or the US Constitution, unless they are working directly for the persons being detained or for an independent third party working to protect human rights. The resolution will take effect by the APA's next annual meeting, in August 2009.
Last year, APA members passed a resolution stating that the group opposed the use of torture and specifying which practices it found particularly inhumane, including mock executions, sleep deprivation and sexual humiliation. The American Medical Association in 2006 adopted ethical guidelines restricting physician participation in interrogations, following the approval of a similar policy by the American Psychiatric Association. According to a report by the US Defense Department [official website], psychologists have been involved in military interrogations since 2002. Mental health specialists were also reportedly involved in prisoner abuse scandals at Guantanamo and at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. |
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O.J. Team Says Cops Were Out To Get Him
Headline News |
2008/09/19 14:12
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The defense team in O.J. Simpson's burglary and kidnapping trial on Thursday tried to paint a picture that police were out to get him. Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, made Las Vegas Metro police Det. Andy Caldwell read a transcript of a secret recording made by Tom Riccio, the memorabilia broker who set up the meeting at the Palace Station Hotel between Simpson and memorabilia dealers Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong.
"California can't get him. Now we'll be able to blank got him," (sic) Caldwell read, quoting an unidentified civilian police employee who allegedly made the remark while questioning Riccio in his hotel room after the incident.
The person quoted seemed to be referring to Simpson's acquittal in 1995 in Los Angeles for the stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.
Caldwell also testified Thursday in Clark County District Court that he and his crew did not immediately arrest Simpson due to "the nature of the case," and said that they chose instead to conduct surveillance on the former football star. Simpson was arrested days after the incident.
Riccio had planted a recording device in his hotel room while being questioned by police after the alleged Sept. 13, 2007 heist. He's also responsible for the seven secret recordings admitted as evidence Wednesday, dealing with events leading up to, during and after the alleged hold-up.
Riccio testified on Thursday that he often secretly records things because, as a memorabilia broker, it's his best defense to ensure that people follow through on promises.
The colorful memorabilia broker was granted full legal immunity for his cooperation in the case.
He testified that he set up the meeting after receiving a phone call from Beardsley, who told him he had some of Simpson's items.
"He said, 'Don't call O.J. up because this stuff is stolen from his trophy room,'" Riccio testified.
When District Attorney Chris Owens asked what he did next, Riccio drew laughs from the courtroom with his blunt answer: "I called O.J. up."
Also Thursday, Brent Bryson, attorney for Simpson's co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart, made his daily plea to have his client tried separately from Simpson. Again, Judge Jackie Glass denied the request.
Here is a link to Clark County District Court Web site, which contains 202 pages of transcripts, dubbed the "Riccio Recordings," allegedly from Riccio's tapes (scroll down to Documents). |
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FBI anticipates review of anthrax investigation
Headline News |
2008/09/18 15:02
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FBI Director Robert Mueller told the US House Judiciary Committee Tuesday that the federal government would commission an independent review of the FBI's use of scientific evidence in its investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Mueller said during a hearing on FBI oversight that officials have been discussing such a review with the National Academy of Sciences, which would assemble a panel of experts. The review, which could begin within weeks, would be funded by the federal government.
The FBI used a new method of DNA fingerprinting to trace the anthrax to biodefense researcher Bruce Ivins, but Ivins committed suicide in July before he could be prosecuted. The Department of Justice had at one point identified former US Army researcher Dr. Steven Hatfill as a "person of interest" in the investigation, but Hatfill sued the agency and this year reached a multimillion-dollar settlement. Hatfill's attorneys plan to seek counsel fees from former USA Today reporter and past JURIST student staffer Toni Locy, who was found in contempt after refusing to divulge the names of sources for her reporting on the anthrax investigation. |
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ERISA Class Action Demands Zell's Ouster From Tribune
Headline News |
2008/09/17 14:43
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A federal class action accuses Sam Zell of conspiring with directors of the Tribune Company to use employees' retirement money to fund his takeover of the Tribune, an $8.2 billion acquisition in which Zell used only $315 million of his own money. "Zell conspired with insiders and aided and abetted the breach of fiduciary duties," according to the complaint. Zell did this, in part, by claiming that the Tribune's pension plans were "overfunded by more than $200 million."
"Sam Zell's plan could not be clearer," the complaint states. "He took the Tribune Company private with the intention of breaking up and selling the assets because he saw a collection of assets worth billions of dollars that he could purchase at a bargain price with a minimal outlay of his own money.
"To accomplish his plan, Zell enticed the members of the Tribune board and aided and abetted Dennis J. FitzSimmons, among others, in breaching their fiduciary duties by paying them millions of dollars. Indeed, the Tribune Company's SEC filing of Dec. 28, 2007 indicated that Zell and the Company created a $25 million pool for a management equity incentive plan to provide money for Tribune executives to complete the going-private transaction and retain them over a transition period. FitzSimmons received about $3 million this pool and a total of approximately $17.7 million in several and other payouts.
"Now, Zell and his accessories threaten to destroy the Tribune Company and its assets, which include some of the nation's oldest and best daily newspaper, including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun, along with several other great daily newspaper. They are doing so illegally, without consideration for the employee-owners, without respect for the institution, and with a focus on liquidating company assets to line their own pockets."
Zell's so-called employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) increased Tribune's debt from $4 billion to nearly $13 billion "overnight," the complaint states.
It adds: "The Tribune Company has cut more than 1,100 employees since the ESOP acquisition and, after declaring that the employees' pension fund is 'overvalued' by $400 million, has improperly funded their severance and buyout packages with money taken from the supposedly 'overvalued' portion of employees' pension fund."
The 67-page page includes 56 pages of attachments and exhibits.
Plaintiffs want the new Tribune board removed, an accounting of the "supposedly overfunded pension plan," and declaratory judgment that the defendants violated ERISA, among other things.
Plaintiffs are represented by Joseph Cotchett with Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy. |
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