Author Archive

"A homeless Chicago woman who has been arrested 396 times in the past 35 years has been ordered by a judge to get mental health and substance abuse treatment. Shermain Miles, 51, appeared in a Cook County court on Monday, accused of attacking a city alderman. She pleaded guilty to trespassing and public drinking in separate cases. Judge Peggy Chiampas sentenced Miles to time served after she agreed to undergo a mental health evaluation and get follow-up treatment, The Chicago Sun-Times reported. Miles has been held at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, 65 miles west of Champaign, since December for violating parole." (06/11/13)

"The US state department failed to fully investigate allegations against its officials involving prostitution, a drug ring and assault, media report. A leaked internal document obtained by CBS News said staff protecting ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regularly solicited sex workers. The reports also allege a drug ring may have provided narcotics to state department contractors in Iraq. But it is suggested officials may have tried to cover up the misconduct. According to CBS, a draft copy of a state department inspector general's report alleges eight specific examples of improper behavior by US officials." (06/11/13)

"The national organization that manages organ transplants rejected making emergency rule changes Monday for children under 12 who are waiting on lungs, but created a special appeal and review system to hear such cases. The executive committee of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network held a teleconference to consider children who seek to qualify for adult lungs, and many members voiced serious ethical and medical concerns about a recent federal judge's ruling that questioned the existing system." [editor's note: OPTN's chief role seems to be maximizing fatalities by keeping the market out of organ procurement - TLK] (06/11/13)

"Far fewer prisoners will be tried in the Guantanamo war crimes tribunals than the Obama administration originally planned after a recent court ruling cast doubt on the viability of some charges, the chief prosecutor for the tribunals told Reuters. U.S. President Barack Obama's Guantanamo Review Task Force had said 36 detainees could be prosecuted, but the tribunal's chief prosecutor put the figure at 20 at most. The number set by the task force after a review completed in 2010 was 'ambitious' in light of a recent court ruling, Army Brigadier General Mark Martins said." (06/11/13)

"Two prominent civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency over its program that reportedly collects the telephone records of millions of American customers of Verizon. The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union say in a lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday that the program violates First Amendment rights of free speech and association. It also alleges the program violates Fourth Amendment rights to privacy. The lawsuit additionally alleges the government's program exceeds Congress' authority." (06/11/13)

"A coalition of Internet and civil liberties groups launched a campaign Tuesday protesting the huge US online surveillance program revealed in the past week. Joining the effort were the Mozilla Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, Greenpeace USA, the World Wide Web Foundation and more than 80 other organizations or companies. The coalition launched a website, StopWatching.us, and called on Congress to launch a full probe and urging more disclosure from US officials about the National Security Agency’s vast program Internet surveillance program. An online petition was also launched on the website." (06/11/13)

"California Governor Jerry Brown and top Democrats in the legislature have agreed to a state budget deal that gives them some increased spending in exchange for accepting his more cautious revenue outlook, a lawmaker involved in budget talks said on Monday. The state Assembly and Senate must still approve the budget deal, but the agreement means the legislature will likely meet its June 15 deadline for approving a new spending plan. Few details were available but Brown last month proposed general fund spending of $96.4 billion, up from this year’s $95.7 billion." (06/10/13)

"An Illinois businessman convicted of bank fraud won an opportunity to receive a lighter sentence on Monday as the US Supreme Court ruled that his 70-month prison term violated the Constitution’s ban on ex post facto laws. The high court ruled that the businessman, Marvin Peugh, was entitled to be sentenced under a version of the sentencing guidelines in effect at the time he committed his crimes, not the more punitive guidelines later enacted. In a 5-to-4 decision, the high court said a federal judge’s reliance on the tougher guidelines in fashioning Mr. Peugh’s sentence violated the concept of 'fundamental justice.'" (06/10/13)

"If the Troika that handles bailouts of distressed euro zone countries were a soccer team, it would probably be looking for a new manager after achieving a track record of one win, one loss and one draw. The uneasy trio of European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank was assembled in haste in March 2010 after Greece's public debt and deficit exploded and it was about to lose access to market funding." (06/10/13)

"The federal government on Monday told a judge it will reverse course and take steps to comply with his order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions. The Department of Justice, in the latest development in a complex back-and-forth over access to the morning-after pill, notified U.S. District Judge Edward Korman it will submit a plan for compliance. If he approves it, the department will drop its appeal of his April ruling." (06/10/13)

"The ex-CIA employee who leaked details of US top-secret phone and internet surveillance has disappeared from his hotel in Hong Kong. Edward Snowden, 29, checked out from his hotel on Monday. His whereabouts are unknown, but he is believed to be still in Hong Kong. Earlier, he said he had an 'obligation to help free people from oppression.' It emerged last week that US agencies were gathering millions of phone records and monitoring internet data." [editor's note: We can only hope he stays "missing" at least until efforts by the Obombya folks to track him down and silence him are thwarted! - SAT] (06/10/13)

"Nepotism is alive and well at the Department of Energy, according to a new report by a government watchdog group. A senior official in the department used his position to secure competitive internships in 2012 for his three college-aged children. In addition, the report found, the senior staffer didn’t think he had done anything wrong and defended his actions to investigators, saying doling out favors for family members is a common practice in the department. The report did not identify the senior official by name." (06/10/13)