Al Gore, U.N. panel win Nobel Peace Prize

Congrats! Well deserved. Nobody in the mainstream was talking about global warming until “The Inconvenient Truth” came out. Getting the message out about a problem is arguably more important than discovering the problem. Please run for president. We need a competent candidate who would do something to stop global warming.

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“OSLO, Norway - Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it.

World leaders, President Bush among them, congratulated the winners, while skeptics of man’s contribution to warming criticized the choice of Gore.

For his part, Gore in a statement said he was ” deeply honored … We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity.”

Gore won an Academy Award this year for his film “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary on global warming, and had been widely expected to win the prize.

“His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change,” the Nobel citation said. “He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.”

It cited Gore’s awareness at an early stage “of the climatic challenges the world is facing.”

Panel’s two decades
The Nobel Peace Prize committee also cited the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for two decades of scientific reports that have “created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming.”

The IPCC groups 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations and issued reports this year blaming human activities for climate changes ranging from more heat waves to floods. It was set up in 1988 by the United Nations to help guide governments.”

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How can the president get away with this atrocious abuse of power? What is happening to our democracy? Where are the checks and balances?

Bush challenges hundreds of laws

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“WASHINGTON — President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ‘’whistle-blower” protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush’s assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ‘’to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ‘’execute” a law he believes is unconstitutional.

Former administration officials contend that just because Bush reserves the right to disobey a law does not mean he is not enforcing it: In many cases, he is simply asserting his belief that a certain requirement encroaches on presidential power.

But with the disclosure of Bush’s domestic spying program, in which he ignored a law requiring warrants to tap the phones of Americans, many legal specialists say Bush is hardly reluctant to bypass laws he believes he has the constitutional authority to override.”

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Did text-messaging lead to N.Y. crash?

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“CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. - Text messages were sent and received on a 17-year-old driver’s cell phone moments before the sport utility vehicle slammed head-on into a truck, killing her and four other recent high school graduates, police said.

Bailey Goodman was driving her friends to her parents’ vacation home when her SUV, which had just passed a car, swerved back into oncoming traffic, hit a tractor-trailer and burst into flames. Five days earlier, the five teenagers had graduated together from high school in Fairport, a Rochester suburb.

Goodman’s inexperience at the wheel; evidence she was driving above the speed limit at night on a winding, two-lane highway; and a succession of calls and text messages on her phone were cited Friday by Sheriff Phil Povero as possible factors in the June 28 crash in western New York.

“The records indicate her phone was in use,” Povero said. “We will never be able to clearly state that she was the one doing the text messaging. … We all certainly know that cell phones are a distraction and could be a contributing factor in this accident.”

Several minutes before the first 911 call about the crash, Goodman talked briefly with a fellow graduate trailing her in another vehicle. Two minutes before the crash was reported, her phone was used to send a text greeting to a friend, Povero said.

He sent a reply less than a minute before the first 911 call, the sheriff added.

Routine tests ruled out alcohol as a factor in the 10 p.m. crash, and police don’t suspect drug use was involved. Goodman had only a junior driver’s license, making it illegal for her to be driving after 9 p.m. without supervision or to be carrying so many young passengers.

The victims, all 17 or 18, had been cheerleaders at Fairport High. In March, the team took first place in its category at a national competition in Orlando, Fla.”

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Judges OK warrantless monitoring of Web use

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“Federal agents do not need a search warrant to monitor a suspect’s computer use and determine the e-mail addresses and Web pages the suspect is contacting, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

In a drug case from San Diego County, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco likened computer surveillance to the “pen register” devices that officers use to pinpoint the phone numbers a suspect dials, without listening to the phone calls themselves.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the use of pen registers in 1979, saying callers have no right to conceal from the government the numbers they communicate electronically to the phone companies that carry their calls.

Federal law requires court approval for a pen register. But because it is not considered a search, authorities do not need a search warrant, which would require them to show that the surveillance is likely to produce evidence of a crime.

They also do not need a wiretap order, which would require them to show that less intrusive methods of surveillance have failed or would be futile.

In Friday’s ruling, the court said computer users should know that they lose privacy protections with e-mail and Web site addresses when they are communicated to the company whose equipment carries the messages.

Likewise, the court said, although the government learns what computer sites someone visited, “it does not find out the contents of the messages or the particular pages on the Web sites the person viewed.”

The search is no more intrusive than officers’ examination of a list of phone numbers or the outside of a mailed package, neither of which requires a warrant, Judge Raymond Fisher said in the 3-0 ruling.

Defense lawyer Michael Crowley disagreed. His client, Dennis Alba, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being convicted of operating a laboratory in Escondido that manufactured the drug ecstasy.

Some of the evidence against Alba came from agents’ tracking of his computer use. The court upheld his conviction and sentence.

Expert evidence in Alba’s case showed that the Web addresses obtained by federal agents included page numbers that allowed the agents to determine what someone read online, Crowley said.

The ruling “further erodes our privacy,” the attorney said. “The great political marketplace of ideas is the Internet, and the government has unbridled access to it.” ”

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Nev. Couple Blame Internet for Neglect

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“RENO, Nev. (AP) - A couple who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.

The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing “Dungeons & Dragons” series, to give their children proper care.

“They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games,” Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

The Straws have been given public defenders. Jeremy Bosler, head of the county public defender’s office, declined to comment to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Michael Straw is an unemployed cashier, and his wife worked for a temporary staffing agency doing warehouse work, according to court records. He received a $50,000 inheritance that he spent on computer equipment and a large plasma television, authorities said.

While child abuse because of drug addiction is common, abuse rooted in video game addiction is rare, Viloria said.

Last month, experts at an American Medical Association meeting backed away from a proposal to designate video game addiction as a mental disorder, saying it had to be studied further. Some said the issue is like alcoholism, while others said there was no concrete evidence it’s a psychological disease.”

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Battle Fatigue

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“July 13, 2007 - President Bush may be trying to rally support for his strategy in Iraq, but his efforts are not faring well with the American public, according to the latest NEWSWEEK Poll. Nearly two thirds of Americans believe that the president’s troop “surge” has been a failure, poll respondents said. The survey also found broad public support for cutting the number of troops deployed on the battlefield. But in a bright spot for the president, less than 20 percent favored immediate withdrawal.

Nearly seven in 10 (68 percent) Americans disapprove of the way the president is handling the war in Iraq. Public approval of the president’s handling of Iraq has remained below the 30 percent mark since January, when he announced his plans to increase the number of troops deployed there. (The public’s approval of Bush’s overall handling of the war has been below the 50 percent mark since February of 2004).

Sixty-four percent of Americans feel the surge in troops has been a failure, while less than a quarter (22 percent) deem it a success. Nearly a third of Republicans surveyed (31 percent) declare the surge a failure, which may help to explain why several high-profile senior Republicans have defected from the White House on support for the war. While Bush’s overall approval rating remains low—just 29 percent—it is up 3 points from another NEWSWEEK sounding earlier this month.”

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NY teens charged with school plot

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“YAPHANK, N.Y. - Two teenagers were charged with conspiring to attack their Long Island high school after a chilling journal and videotape surfaced in which one teen identifies several potential victims by name, authorities said Friday.

“I will start a chain of terrorism in the world,” a 15-year-old suspected of planning the assault allegedly wrote in the journal, which led to his arrest. “This will go down in history. Take out everyone there. Perfecto.”

Police found that the teen had already tried several times to buy weapons online, including five pounds of explosive black powder and an Uzi. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said Friday that officers were still trying to determine “if any weapons have been acquired over the Internet.”

The two teens planned to attack Connetquot High School in Bohemia, about 50 miles east of New York City, Dormer said.

Both were charged with misdemeanor conspiracy, punishable by up to a year in jail.

School authorities obtained the handwritten journal on July 6 and helped police connect it to the 15-year-old, who had been suspended from the school, authorities said.

Written inside were “numerous terrorist threats and plans to attack the school on a future date,” police said in a statement. It said the plans included threats to shoot students and staff and to ignite homemade explosions.”

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Soldier shoots himself to avoid Iraq

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“NEW YORK - A soldier who recently returned from Iraq has admitted he paid someone $500 to shoot him in the leg so he could avoid returning for another tour.

Jonathan Aponte, 20, claimed he had been robbed and shot but changed his story when police questioned him, authorities said. Aponte, who was facing another eight-month tour, had been scheduled to leave last Monday.

“As far as being shot at every day, I think it’s better,” Aponte told WCBS-TV in an interview that aired Friday. “Mentally I can’t do it anymore. I can’t handle it anymore.”

Aponte was charged with conspiracy and falsely reporting an incident, according to the criminal complaint.

Joke became reality
Apone had joked with his wife about getting shot in the leg so he could avoid another tour, according to the complaint. His wife took the remark seriously, and said she knew a man named who could do the job.

Early Monday morning, the pair met with the man, who agreed to do the job for $500. Aponte told an investigator that he smoked a cigarette and closed his eyes before he was shot.

His lawyer has said Aponte suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the military will evaluate him and decide whether he is fit for duty, provide counseling if needed and then send him back overseas, or discharge him.

Aponte’s wife, Alexandra Gonzalez, 22, was charged with assault, conspiracy and harassment.

The couple was arraigned Thursday and released on their own recognizance. The suspected shooter was also arraigned and charged with assault, weapon possession, conspiracy and harassment.”

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What does he have to hide?

Bush uses privilege to deny ex-aides’ testimony

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“WASHINGTON - President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides about the firings of federal prosecutors.

The White House, however, did offer again to make former counsel Harriet Miers and one-time political director Sara Taylor available for private, off-the-record interviews.

In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers’ demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege.

“You may be assured that the president’s assertion here comports with prior practices in similar contexts, and that it has been appropriately documented,” the letter said.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers offered a stinging response. “Contrary what the White House may believe, it is the Congress and the courts that will decide whether an invocation of executive privilege is valid, not the White House unilaterally,” the Michigan Democrat said in a statement.

The exchange Monday was the latest step in a slow-motion legal waltz between the White House and lawmakers toward eventual contempt-of-Congress citations. If neither side yields, the matter could land in federal court.”

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Is the punishment too harsh in this case? Double standards?

Libby Case May Aid Hamas Suspect

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“An alleged Hamas operative is likely to be among the first criminal defendants to try to capitalize on President Bush’s commutation of the 2 1/2 year prison sentence imposed on a former White House aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr., for obstructing a CIA leak investigation. Mohammed Salah, 57, is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge in Chicago next week on one count of obstruction of justice. In February, a jury convicted Salah and a co-defendant, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, of obstruction, but acquitted the pair of a far more serious charge of racketeering conspiracy in support of Hamas’s terrorist campaigns in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

“What the president said about Mr. Libby applies in spades to the case of Mohammed Salah,” Salah’s defense attorney, Michael Deutsch, told The New York Sun yesterday. “We’ll definitely be bringing it up to the judge. … It’s going to be a real test, a first early test of whether we’re a nation of laws or a nation of men.”

Mr. Deutsch is seeking a sentence of probation for his client. Prosecutors contend that federal sentencing guidelines call for Salah to be sentenced to up to almost 22 years. However, the prosecution acknowledges that the maximum sentence the law allows on a single obstruction count is 10 years.”

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Bush won’t supply subpoenaed documents

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“WASHINGTON - President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.

Bush’s attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.

“With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation,” White House counsel Fred Fielding said in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. “We had hoped this matter could conclude with your committees receiving information in lieu of having to invoke executive privilege. Instead, we are at this conclusion.”

Thursday was the deadline for surrendering the documents. The White House also made clear that Miers and Taylor would not testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas, which were issued June 13. The stalemate could end up with House and Senate contempt citations and a battle in federal court over separation of powers.

In his letter, Fielding said Bush had “attempted to chart a course of cooperation” by releasing more than 8,500 pages of documents and sending Gonzales and other senior officials to testify before Congress. The White House also had offered a compromise in which Miers, Taylor, White House political strategist Karl Rove and their deputies would be interviewed by Judiciary Committee aides in closed-door sessions, without transcripts. Democrats Patrick Leahy of Vermont and John Conyers of Michigan, the chairs of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, have rejected that offer.

On the other hand, Fielding said Bush “was not willing to provide your committees with documents revealing internal White House communications or to accede to your desire for senior advisors to testify at public hearings.

“The reason for these distinctions rests upon a bedrock presidential prerogative: for the President to perform his constitutional duties, it is imperative that he receive candid and unfettered advice and that free and open discussions and deliberations occur among his advisors and between those advisors and others within and outside the Executive Branch,” Fielding said.

“The doctrine of executive privilege exists, at least in part, to protect such communications from compelled disclosure to Congress, especially where, as here, the president’s interests in maintaining confidentiality far outweigh Congress’s interests in obtaining deliberative White House communications,” Fielding said.

“Further, it remains unclear precisely how and why your committees are unable to fulfill your legislative and oversight interests without the unfettered requests you have made in your subpoenas,” Fielding said. “Put differently, there is no demonstration that the documents and information you seek by subpoena are critically important to any legislative initiatives that you may be pursuing or intending to pursue.”

It was the second time in his administration that Bush has exerted executive privilege, said White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto. The first instance was in December, 2001, to rebuff Congress’ demands for Clinton administration documents.”

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Worst 3 months for U.S. in Iraq since war began

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“BAGHDAD - A huge bomb exploded near an American patrol and five U.S. soldiers died in the blast and the hail of gunfire and grenades that followed, the U.S. military said Friday. The attack came as the Pentagon tallied up the deadliest three-month period for Americans since the war began.

Seven soldiers were wounded in the attack Thursday in the Rasheed district, a mixed Sunni-Shiite area of southern Baghdad where U.S.-led forces recently stepped up pressure on extremists. The commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad suggested the ambush could be part of an escalating backlash by Sunni insurgents.

Those deaths brought to 99 the number of U.S. troops killed this month, according to an Associated Press count. The toll for the past three months — 329 — made it the deadliest quarter for U.S. troops in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. That surpasses the 316 soldiers killed during November 2004 to January 2005.”

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Hopefully other conservatives will soon follow and this war will end.

GOP shows growing skepticism on Iraq conflict

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“WASHINGTON - Republican support for the Iraq war is slipping by the day.

After four years of combat and more than 3,560 U.S. deaths, two Republican senators previously reluctant to challenge President Bush on the war announced they could no longer support the deployment of 157,000 troops and asked the president to begin bringing them home.

“We must not abandon our mission, but we must begin a transition where the Iraqi government and its neighbors play a larger role in stabilizing Iraq,” Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter to Bush.

Voinovich, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released his letter Tuesday — one day after Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the panel’s top Republican, said in a floor speech that Bush’s strategy was not working.

“The longer we delay the planning for a redeployment, the less likely it is to be successful,” said Lugar, who plans to meet later this week with Stephen Hadley, Bush’s national security adviser.

Significant break with Bush
Lugar and Voinovich are not the first GOP members to call for U.S. troops to leave Iraq.

Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Gordon Smith of Oregon made similar remarks earlier this year.

But their public break is significant because it raises the possibility that Senate Democrats could muster the 60 votes needed to pass legislation that would call for Bush to bring troops home.

Their remarks also are an early warning shot to a lame duck president that GOP support for the war is thinning. The administration is not expected until September to say whether a recent troop buildup in Iraq is working.

“Everyone should take note, especially the administration,” said Snowe, R-Maine, noting Lugar’s senior position within the GOP. “It certainly indicates the tide is turning.”"

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Dry cleaner wins in $54 million suit for pants

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“WASHINGTON - A judge ruled Monday in favor of a dry cleaner that was sued for $54 million over a missing pair of pants.

The owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the city’s Consumer Protection Act by failing to live up to Roy L. Pearson’s expectations of the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign once displayed in the store window, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled.

Bartnoff ordered Pearson to pay the court costs of defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung.

Pearson, an administrative law judge, originally sought $67 million from the Chungs, claiming they lost a pair of suit trousers and later tried to give him a pair that he said was not his. He arrived at the amount by adding up years of alleged law violations and almost $2 million in common law claims.

Pearson later dropped demands for damages related to the pants and focused his claims on signs in the shop, which have since been removed.

Chris Manning, the Chungs’ attorney, argued that no reasonable person would interpret the signs to mean an unconditional promise of satisfaction.

The Chungs said the trial had taken an enormous financial and emotional toll on them and exposed them to widespread ridicule.

The two-day trial earlier this month drew a standing-room-only crowd and overshadowed the drunken driving trial of former Mayor Marion Barry.”

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U.S. military: 14 troops killed in Iraq

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“BAGHDAD - The U.S. military said 14 American troops have died in multiple attacks, including five killed Thursday in a single roadside bombing in Baghdad.

Elsewhere, a suicide truck bomber struck the Sulaiman Bek city hall in a predominantly Sunni area of northern Iraq, killing at least 16 people and wounding 67, an Iraqi commander said.

Thousands of protesters also rallied in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 100 miles south of Baghdad, waving Iraqi flags and the black and green Shiite banners with slogans such as “Death to al-Qaida” in a show of unity following the bombing that brought down the twin minarets of a revered mosque in Samarra.

The latest U.S. deaths raised to at least 3,545 the number of American troops who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.”

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McAllenites want D.C. wall

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“LAREDO — In response to the Department of Homeland Security’s plans to construct hundreds of miles of fencing along the border with Mexico, the McAllen Chamber of Commerce started a campaign of their own: build a wall around Washington, D.C.
Steve Ahlenius, president and CEO of the chamber, inaugurated the tongue-in-cheek campaign through a news release Tuesday.

“It’s frustrating to no end that Washington, which has no idea of what’s happening here and along the border with Mexico, is proposing to build a wall,” Ahlenius said by phone. “My response is: Why don’t we just build around Washington, D.C.? It can protect us from some bad characters, some bad legislation and bad ideas.”

Additional materials related to the campaign will be forthcoming, he said.

The call for a wall in Washington comes as distrust between federal and local authorities appeared to widen over the planned border fence.

“We want people to think about how absurd (a Washington wall) sounds,” to make a point, he said.

Local officials are upset at what they see as secrecy regarding construction of a fence.

They have lobbied, with few results, to have a say over where fencing along the border would go.

A fence could cut off farmers from the Rio Grande, disrupt wildlife and ruin relations with the Mexican shoppers and businesses who form part of the South Texas economy, local leaders say.

No one from Washington had reacted to the chamber campaign on Tuesday, Ahlenius said.

The chamber’s 1,600 members supported the idea, he said.”

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Lawmakers used campaign funds to pay relatives

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“WASHINGTON — Seventy-two members of the House of Representatives spent $5.1 million in campaign funds to pay relatives or their relatives’ companies or employers during the past six years, a liberal watchdog group says in a report to be released Monday.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) found nearly $3.5 million in campaign payments to relatives during the past three election cycles, from 2001 to 2006. Campaigns paid about $1.6 million to firms owned by or employing the lawmakers or their relatives, the group found.

RELATED RECIPIENTS: Who got paid?

It is not illegal for federal candidates to pay family members for political work, as long as they are paid fair market value, the Federal Election Commission has ruled. Some would like to change the law because of recent investigations.

Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Mike Castle, R-Del., introduced a bill this month that would prohibit congressional candidates from paying their spouses with campaign funds and require campaigns to disclose family relationships with close relatives on the payroll.

“I think the ban on spouses drawing campaign checks is needed because there’s simply been too much abuse of the practice,” Schiff says.

The House member cited in the CREW report as spending the most campaign funds on a spouse says she supports that proposal.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., paid her husband’s firm, Collins and Day, $285,481 over the past six years, the report says.

Lofgren says her husband, John Marshall Collins, has dissolved the firm, which provided accounting, fundraising and regulatory compliance services.

In addition, Lofgren’s campaign paid John Marshall Collins PC, a second company controlled by her husband, $62,705 for rent and office services, the report found.

Campaign records show that neither company received any payments this year.

“It was good, because the work was done right,” Lofgren says of her campaign’s relationship with Collins and Day. “But people didn’t feel comfortable with it. … If you have to use more than two sentences to explain it, that doesn’t work.”

CREW analyzed campaign-finance reports from 337 House members: Democratic and Republican leaders, as well as chairpersons and ranking members of all committees and subcommittees. Fifty-three paid one or more relatives with campaign funds; eight paid firms owned by or employing relatives; and 11 did both, the report found.

Of those 72 House members, 41 are Republicans and 31 are Democrats.

Under House rules, lawmakers cannot put relatives on their office payroll. Exemptions have been granted when staff members become relatives after they have already been employed by a House member.”

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‘This Is Not Right’

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“DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist.
“This is not right,” she told us. It’s not right!”

This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. The trip included two days at Disneyland.

During the stay she made sandwiches for the kids and was careful to pack the knives she used to prepare those sandwiches in her checked luggage. She says she even alerted security screeners that the knives were in her checked bags and they told her that was OK.

But Beaman says she couldn’t find a third knife. It was a 5 1/2 inch bread knife with a rounded tip and a serrated edge. She thought she might have lost or misplaced it during the trip.

On the trip home, screeners with the Transportation Security Administration at Los Angeles International Airport found it deep in the outside pocket of a carry-on cooler. Beaman apologized and told them it was a mistake.

“You’ve committed a felony,” Beaman says a security screener announced. “And you’re considered a terrorist.”

Beaman says she was told her name would go on a terrorist watch-list and that she would have to pay a $500 fine.

“I’m a 57-year-old woman who is taking care of 37 kids,” she told them. “I’m not gonna commit a terrorist act.” Beaman says they took information from her Washington drivers license and confiscated and photographed the knife according to standard operating procedure.

She says screeners refused to give her paperwork or documentation of her violation, documentation of the pending fine, or a copy of the photograph of the knife.

“They said ‘no’ and they said it’s a national security issue. And I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said ‘not at this point … you don’t have any’.”"

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Cost of Gas and Food Rose Sharply Last Month

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“Americans felt the pinch of higher gas prices and eroding wages last month, even as an important gauge of inflation drifted lower, government figures showed yesterday.

Over all, the Consumer Price Index rose 0.7 percent in May, the Labor Department reported. The core rate, which excludes food and energy, was up just 0.1 percent, a welcome development that encourages the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady.

The news on the core rate, which has been inching steadily downward, cheered investors, who continued a stock rally that started midweek.

But for consumers, the news was hardly reassuring. Prices for staple household purchases like gasoline and food rose to even higher levels last month, effectively causing most Americans to take a pay cut. After taking inflation into account, the average weekly earnings for workers in nonmanagement jobs — some 80 percent of the work force — fell for the second consecutive month in May.

Consumer sentiment readings are reflecting some of that unease. A closely watched survey by the University of Michigan released yesterday found that consumer confidence this month dropped to the lowest level in 10 months. Americans also now expect significantly higher inflation than they expected a few months ago, the survey said.”

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Tell me what? Is the country in a better condition now versus before we invaded and after resources were diverted to Iraq? The Taliban is still around and so is al-Qaeda. Two wars at the same time and maybe another soon?
35 killed in Kabul suicide bomb attack

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“KABUL, Afghanistan - The deadliest insurgent attack since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 destroyed a bus full of police instructors at Kabul’s busiest transportation hub on Sunday, killing 35 people and wounding 52, officials said.

The enormous suicide blast, which raised the specter of an increase in Iraq-style bombings with heavy casualties, was at least the fourth attack against a bus carrying Afghan police or army soldiers in Kabul in the last year. The blast sheared off the bus’ metal sidings and roof, leaving a charred frame.

“Never in my life have I heard such a sound,” said Ali Jawad, a 48-year-old who was selling phone cards nearby. “A big fireball followed. I saw blood and a decapitated man thrown out of the bus.”

The explosion was the fifth suicide attack in Afghanistan in three days, part of a sharp spike in violence around the country. In the south, in Kandahar province, a roadside bomb killed three members of the U.S.-led coalition and an Afghan interpreter. The soldiers’ nationalities were not released, but most in the coalition are American.”

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