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Support the San Francisco 8 on Friday April 27
850 Bryant, San Francisco
• Demonstration at 12noon Courthouse steps
• Court Hearing at 1:30pm Dept. 12
Demand the release of all Political Prisoners!

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March for Unconditional Amnesty
Celebrating International Workers Day
No Work, No Shopping, No School -- Join the March for Amnesty!
Tues. May 1, 12noon
Gather at Dolores Park, (Dolores & 18th St) San Francisco,
March to Civic Center, 1pm rally

then...

VIGIL FOR UNCONDITIONAL AMNESTY AND OPEN BORDERS
TUESDAY, MAY 1, 7-9:00 P.M.
24TH STREET AND MISSION STREET, SAN FRANCISCO
SPONSORED BY BARRIO UNIDOS
415-431-9925

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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King

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Hands Off Venezuela:
Jorge Martin Speaking Tour Date in San Francisco
When: Wednesday, May 9, 2007, 7:00 PM
Where: Center for Political Education,
3rd Floor Auditorium
522 Valencia, near 16th St.
(ring bell; not wheelchair accessible)
Cost: $5/$3 students, seniors, unemployed
Transit: BART station, 16th St.
Parking nearby: Mission & Bartlett Garage;
16th & Hoff Garage
Visit our websites at:
www.ushov.org
www.handsoffvenezuela.org

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ONE COURT DECISION:
EXECUTION OR THE ROAD TO FREEDOM

Stand with Mumia Abu-Jamal May 17 in Philadelphia
and San Francisco.

On May 17, 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal's lead attorney, Robert
R. Bryan, will present oral arguments to the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia. Despite
a mountain of evidence of his innocence, a U.S. criminal
"justice" system saturated with race and class bias has
reduced his case to just four issues: exclusion of Blacks
from the jury panel, racial bias, improper instructions
to the jury regarding the death penalty and prosecutorial
misconduct.

In a 1982 frame-up trial that has been condemned by groups
and individuals including Amnesty International, the
European Parliament, the NAACP, the National Lawyers
Guild, President Nelson Mandela of South Africa,
President Jacques Chirac of France, the Congressional
Black Caucus, hundreds of U.S. and international trade
unions and the Detroit, San Francisco, and Paris, France
city councils, Mumia was falsely convicted of the murder
of a Philadelphia police officer.

Six eyewitnesses stated that the real
killer fled the murder scene while
Mumia himself was found near dead next
to the slain police officer.
Critical evidence of Mumia's innocence
was destroyed or withheld.
"Witnesses" never at the murder scene
were coerced to state that they were
present. Police distorted events and
material evidence at the murder scene.
Mumia himself was excluded from the
majority of his own trial.

Mumia was the victim of a political
frame-up. He is an award-winning
journalist, whose widely-respected
social commentaries are today broadcast
on 124 radio stations. In 1981, as
a radio commentator and President of the
Philadelphia Association of Black
Journalists, he was a leading human
rights critic of the Philadelphia Police
Department, many of whose officers had
been indicted and convicted on charges
of corruption, witness intimidation and
the planting of evidence.

Mumia's judge, Albert Sabo, was overheard
by court stenographer, Terri
Maurer Carter, to say in his antechambers
about Mumia, "Yeah, and I'm going
to help 'em fry the n----r."

Mumia has been on death row nearly 25 years.
He has become a worldwide symbol in
the fight against the barbaric and
racist death penalty. Pennsylvania
authorities seek, for the third time,
to impose the death penalty and
murder Mumia by lethal injection. We must
make the political price of this
execution and continued incarceration
too high to pay. We stand with Mumia as
he fights for his legal right to a new
trial and for his life and freedom.

Join us in Philadelphia on Thursday,
May 17, 9:30 am at the U.S.
Courthouse, 6th and Market Streets,
Philadelphia. On the East Coast call:
215-476-8812. On the West Coast, we
mobilize at the U.S. Court of Appeals
Building, 7th Street and Mission, San
Francisco, 4-6 pm. Call: 415-255-1085

Pam Africa; Ed Asner; Harry Belafonte;
Heidi Boghosian, Exec. Dir, *National
Lawyers Guild; Angela Davis; Hari Dillon,
President, Vanguard Public Foundation;
Eve Ensler; Bill Fletcher Jr., Co-founder,
*Center for Labor Renewal; Danny Glover;
Frances Goldin; Rick Halperin, President,
*Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty;
Dolores Huerta; Barbara Lubin, Dir., *Middle
East Children's Alliance; Jeff Mackler; Robbie
Meeropol, Exec. Dir., *Rosenberg Fund for
Children; Michael Ratner, President, *Center
for Constitutional Rights; Lynne Stewart;
Alice Walker; Cornel West; Howard Zinn
*Organization listed for identification
purposes only.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE EFFORT TO SAVE MUMIA'S LIFE!

Please make checks payable to: Mobilization
to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, 298
Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. -
freemumia.org; alerts@freemumia.org

Sponsors: The Mobilization to Free Mumia
Abu-Jamal (Northern California);
International Concerned Family and Friends
of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Coalition (NYC); Chicago Committee to Free
Mumia Abu-Jamal; Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal

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ARTICLES IN FULL:

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1) Life expectancy in Cuba soon to be 80 years
BY NAVIL GARCIA ALFONSO—Granma International staff writer
Havana. May 19, 2006
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/mayo/vier19/longevity.html

2) Words as Weapons
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
April 23, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/opinion/23herbert.html?hp

3) Flight Patterns
By JONATHAN ROSEN
April 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22birds.t.html

4) Chávez arms community groups as he anticipates US invasion
By Alfonso Daniels in Caracas, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:59pm BST 21/04/2007
[VIA Email from: Greg McDonald sabocat59@mac.com...bw]

5) Controversial Michael Moore Flick "Sicko"
Will Compare U.S. Health Care with Cuba's
"The average health insurance premiums for a family of four
are $10,880, which exceeds the annual gross income of $10,712
for a full-time, minimum-wage worker."
By Don Hazen, AlterNet
Posted on April 23, 2007, Printed on April 23, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/50911/

6) Pentagon Challenged on Lynch and Tillman
By JOHN HOLUSHA
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/washington/24cnd-cong.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

7) Mr. Spitzer and Gay Marriage
Editorial
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/opinion/24tue1.html?hp

8) Frustration Over Wall Unites Sunni and Shiite
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/world/middleeast/24iraq.html

9) Jury Selection Is Slow Going in Padilla Terrorism Trial
By TERRY AGUAYO
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/us/24padilla.html

10) Drugs for Lethal Injection Aren’t Reliable, Study Finds
By REUTERS
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/us/24injection.html

11) Man Is Cleared of Rape Charges After Serving 25 Years
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/us/24dna.html

12) Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/science/24bees.html

13) First Mission to Explore Those Wisps in the Night Sky
By KENNETH CHANG
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/science/24cloud.html?ref=science

14) From an Angry Soldier
Date: 2007-04-10, 1:00PM PDT
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/309485032.html

15) PeaceMajority Report
Bill Moyers: "Buying The War"
Premiere Tonight, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - 9PM - PBS
[VIA Email from: PeaceMajority@mail.democracyinaction.org ...bw]

16) A Test for the Roberts Court
Editorial
[Have no fear. Either way, wealthy individuals--both capitalist
and worker--can make such contributions to the candidates
of their choice. But does anybody know a wealthy worker?...bw]
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/opinion/25weds1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

17) House Panel Seeks to Force Rice to Testify on Iraq Claims
By DAVID STOUT
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/washington/25cnd-subpoena.html?hp

18) For Indian Victims of Sexual Assault, a Tangled Legal Path
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/us/25rape.html?ref=us

19) Group Proposes Detailed Plan to Reduce Poverty by Half
By ERIK ECKHOLM
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/us/25poverty.html

20) Bush Presses Schools Plan During Trip to New York
[Bush pushes reauthorization of No Child Left Behind Law,
"...which, among other things, ties federal school financing
to performance-based results over time, measured by annual,
standardized tests." Unfortunately, it also ties Federal
school funds to allowing each branch of the military access
to the schools and the students--two recruiters
from each branch of the military, in fact--for the purposes
of recruitment--each time a College, University, Technical
or other schools such as beauty and culinary schools; or
Union apprentice programs; or special scholarship opportunities
are presented to students at any time. The military is also
allowed access to schools from kindergarten up. Just read
the U.S. Army School Recruiting Program Handbook available
at www.bauaw.org. There is also a link to the text of the
current No Child Left Behind Law at our site...bw]
By JIM RUTENBERG
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/washington/25bush.html?ref=us

21) New Planet Could Be Earthlike, Scientists Say
By DENNIS OVERBYE
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/science/space/25planet.html?ref=science

22) The Coming Attack Against Auto Workers--And You
April 25, 2007
http://workinglife.typepad.com/

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1) Life expectancy in Cuba soon to be 80 years
BY NAVIL GARCIA ALFONSO—Granma International staff writer
Havana. May 19, 2006
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2006/mayo/vier19/longevity.html

AGING with health is the maxim of the 4th International
Conference on Satisfactory Longevity: an Integral Vision,
which took place in Cuba’s Hotel Nacional, sponsored
by the Caribbean Medical Association and the 120 Years Club.

Doctor Eugenio Selman-Houssein Abdo highlighted the
conditions developed in Cuba to maintain good quality
of life conditions, including nutrition, health, physical
activity, culture, motivation and the environment.

"Cuba guarantees education and healthcare free of charge;
full access to sports and culture; it promotes healthy
eating and keeps elderly people motivated through their
association with senior citizen centers," Selman noted.
"We also have a high-quality health infrastructure that
includes 430 multi-disciplinary teams for gerontology
services and a pharmaceutical industry that produces
80 percent of the medications used in the country."

That combination of factors will soon make it possible
for life expectancy in Cuba, currently at 77 years,
to reach 80 years, according to Doctor Alberto Fernández
Seco, director of the National Program for Attention
to Older Adults.

However, noted Fernández Seco, the aging of the population
increases the risks for disabilities and illnesses that
come with it, which requires specialized medical services
for long-term patient care.

Several seniors who are considered stars of Cuban sport
shared their experiences and the importance of physical
exercise for staying healthy.

They included boxer Orlando Martínez, the first Olympic
gold medalist of the Revolution’s sports programs, and
baseball players Máximo García and Pedro Almenares, who
left professional baseball to join the Revolution’s
sports movement.

José Ramón Fernández, president of the Cuban Olympic
Committee, noted that one main goal is for older athletes
to stay active, so that they can help develop the nation’s
sports with their valuable experience. Likewise, he
highlighted the importance of exercise as a guarantee
for reaching 120 years with a life that is pleasant,
lucid and useful.

For more information: redac2@granmai.cip.cu

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2) Words as Weapons
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
April 23, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/opinion/23herbert.html?hp

Just days after Don Imus was taken off the air for a slur
hurled at members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team,
a police sergeant conducting a roll call at a precinct
in Brooklyn is reported to have called the three female
officers in the room “hos” as he gave them an order
to stand up.

The women, two of whom are black and one a Latina,
refused to stand.

Another officer, unable to resist the great “fun” of
mocking his female colleagues, is reported to have called
out, “No, sergeant, not just hos, but nappy-headed hos.”

The women said they were stunned almost to the point
of disbelief by the comments. They were the only women
in the gathering of 17 police officers in the room,
including the supervising sergeant. There was a sickening
quality to the moment. The women said they felt violated,
hurt and humiliated.

The incident occurred on April 15, a Sunday, at the
70th Precinct, which gained national notoriety in 1997
as the precinct in which Abner Louima, a Haitian immigrant,
was sodomized by police officers with a broken broomstick.

The three women, Tronnette Jackson, 36, Karen Nelson, 31,
and Maria Gomez, 29, said they were attending a routine
roll call session when Sgt. Carlos Mateo, referring
to them, said, “Stand up, hos.”

The Imus controversy, in which Mr. Imus had referred to
the Rutgers players as “nappy-headed hos,” was still big
news and on everyone’s mind. The three women remained
seated.

They said another police officer, Ralph Montanez, then
chimed in: “No, sergeant, not just hos, but nappy-headed
hos.”

The women remained silent, and seated.

Sergeant Mateo is reported to have said, “Jackson and
Gomez, why aren’t you standing?”

Another police officer said to the sergeant, “They are
offended and they are protesting that you called them hos.”

This is just one example of the myriad ways in which
racist and sexist comments like Mr. Imus’s help to poison
the atmosphere all around us. Another example occurred
two days prior to this incident when a narcotics sergeant
in Queens is alleged to have “jokingly” said to a black
female officer, “Don’t give me no lip or I’ll have to call
you a nappy-headed ho.”

One of the toughest points to get across in this society
is that racism and sexism are always contemptible, and
are never harmless. The targets of racist and sexist
comments should not just swallow the insults. They should
react as if they’d been slapped in the face.

The three women in the 70th Precinct case have decided
to fight back. Their initial complaint to Sergeant Mateo,
immediately after the roll call, was brushed aside, they
said. They then complained to the precinct’s integrity
control officer and hired a lawyer, Bonita Zelman.

This morning they will file a complaint in federal court,
asserting that the degrading comments at the roll call
amounted to illegal discrimination against them based
on their gender and ethnic background. This is not
a small matter. It’s fair to wonder, for example, how
eager a supervisor might be to recommend a major promotion
for an employee he refers to as a “ho.”

“We have tremendous concern about the effect of language
like this on women police officers,” said Ms. Zelman,
“particularly women of color trying to make their way
in the largely white male bureaucracy of a police
department.”

Also concerned about the effect of language like this
is the police commissioner, Ray Kelly. Discussing the
70th Precinct case, he told me yesterday that he found
the comments “despicable.” He declined to go into much
detail because the matter is being investigated by the
department’s Equal Employment Opportunity division.

But the department let it be known that Sergeant Mateo
had been transferred out of the 70th Precinct and would
no longer be serving in a supervisory position. Both
he and Officer Montanez could be subject to disciplinary
charges.

Commissioner Kelly said he found the entire matter
“very, very disturbing” because the city had worked
hard over the past few years to make the Police Department
a place where women and minorities “could feel at home.”

The Queens narcotics sergeant is also likely to face
disciplinary action by the department, which has been
infected, like other organizations around the country,
with what Ms. Zelman calls the “Imus virus.”

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3) Flight Patterns
By JONATHAN ROSEN
April 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/magazine/22birds.t.html

European starlings have a way of appearing in unexpected
places — the United States, for example, where they are
not native but owe their origin to a brief reference in
Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1.” In 1890, a drug manufacturer
who wanted every bird found in Shakespeare to live in America
released 60 starlings in Central Park. After spending
a few years nesting modestly under the eaves of the American
Museum of Natural History, they went from a poetic fancy
to a menacing majority; there are now upward of 200 million
birds across North America, where they thrive at the expense
of other cavity nesters like bluebirds and woodpeckers,
eat an abundance of grain — as well as harmful insects —
and occasionally bring down airplanes.

In Europe, where the birds are native — Mozart had a pet
starling that could sing a few bars of his piano concerto
in G major — they still have the power to turn heads.
Each fall and winter, vast flocks gather in Rome. They spend
the day foraging in the surrounding countryside but return
each evening to roost. (Rachel Carson, author of “Silent
Spring,” called the birds reverse commuters.) They put
on breathtaking aerial displays above the city, banking
in nervous unison, responding like a school of fish to
each tremor inside the group.

The birds are beloved by tourists and reviled by locals
— understandably, since the droppings cover cars and
streets, causing accidents and general disgust. A flock
of starlings is euphoniously called a “murmuration,” but
there is nothing poetic about their appetites. Their ability
to focus both eyes on a single object — binocular vision —
allows them to peck up stationary seeds as well as insects
on the move. In the countryside outside Rome, they feast
on olives. Like us, the birds are enormously adaptable
but what we admire in ourselves we often abhor in our
neighbors.

Richard Barnes’s photographs capture the double nature
of the birds — or at least the double nature of our
relationship to them — recording the pointillist delicacy
of the flock and something darker, almost sinister in
the gathering mass. Many of Barnes’s photographs, which
will be shown at Hosfelt Gallery in New York this fall,
were taken over two years in EUR, a suburb of Rome that
Mussolini planned as a showcase for fascist architecture.
The man-made backdrop only enhances the sense of the vast
flock as something malign, a sort of avian Nuremberg rally.

It is, of course, natural for birds to surrender individual
autonomy to the flock; according to the Roman ornithologist
Claudio Carere, who has identified 12 basic flock patterns,
the starlings are primarily trying to evade falcons. But
we project onto the natural world a large measure of
ourselves. In ancient Rome, augurs studied the flight
patterns of birds to divine the will of the gods; part
of the fascination of the starlings is the way they seem
to be inscribing some sort of language in the air, if
only we could read it.

A consortium of ornithologists, physicists and biologists
in Italy and other European countries has in fact begun
studying the birds with the aim of learning not only
about the relationship of individual birds to the surrounding
flock but about human behavior as well. The project, named
StarFLAG, entertains hopes of using the birds to illuminate
herding responses in human beings with a particular eye
on stock-market panics.

The starling in “Henry IV” that inspired those first American
birds is a mimic, capable of tormenting a king by speaking
the name of Mortimer. Mozart’s bird sang his own music back
to him. But Mozart may also have smuggled a few of the bird’s
notes into his own compositions. When humans contemplate
animals, the question is always who is imitating whom.
The starlings that so plague us in America (where we kill
more than a million of the birds a year) grew out of our
desire for nature to be poetic, rather than truly wild;
they reflect the consequences of such self-serving fantasies.
It isn’t their fault that they treated an open continent
much as we ourselves did.

More and more, as surrounding habitat is flattened, we may
find fragments of the wild world coming home, literally,
to roost. The abundance of starlings in Rome is partly the
result of climate change — they used to go farther south
before Roman winters warmed up. Bird-watching thrives
on the recognition that the urban and the wild must be
understood together. We are, after all, urban and wild
ourselves, and still figuring out how to make the multiple
aspects of our nature mesh without disaster.

Jonathan Rosen is the editorial director of Nextbook. His
book about bird-watching, “The Life of the Skies,” will be
published next year.

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4) Chávez arms community groups as he anticipates US invasion
By Alfonso Daniels in Caracas, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:59pm BST 21/04/2007
[VIA Email from: Greg McDonald sabocat59@mac.com...bw]

A dozen people gather inside a rudimentary, two-storey brick house in
Catia, the most dangerous of all the slums that ring the Venezuelan
capital, Caracas.

They talk excitedly about plans to repair crumbling walls, clear
sewage and help local enterprises. It is the business of civic
leaders everywhere - yet this gathering is also the vanguard of
Leftist president Hugo Chávez's 21st-century "socialist revolution".

By the time they have been trained and armed, they will also be ready
to defend Venezuela against outside interference, including the US
invasion that Mr Chávez says he expects.

"El Comandante (Mr Chávez) told us to create communal groups and to
tackle problems ourselves," said Lenny Guerrero, 35, to nods of
assent from others in the room. "Some government officials came here
to help us create the groups. Power will now rest with the people."

On Mr Chávez's order, 17,000 communal councils have now been set up
across the country, and an estimated £1 billion earmarked to fund
them. As the official slogan, "Build power from below", proclaims,
their stated purpose is to promote grass-roots democracy and hand
power directly to the people - in particular the urban poor who make
up the bulk of his most fervent supporters.

But as well as grappling with the grim conditions in slums such as
Catia, members of these voluntary groups will constitute a nationwide
militia, schooled in Cuban-style tactics for both guerrilla warfare
and counter-insurgency.

Gen Alberto Mueller, an advisor to Mr Chávez, told The Sunday
Telegraph: "Some communal groups have already received military
training. They'll train in their own neighbourhoods and will be
equipped with any arms - guns, grenades, knifes - the community can
provide. We have a right to defend ourselves, like the UK has, and be
sure we'll do it."

advertisement
The move has caused alarm among Mr Chávez's critics, who claim the
groups will be used to repress internal dissent. They point out that,
unlike Venezuela's military reservists, the communal councils come
under Mr Chávez's direct control, including the appointments of their
oversight committees and allocation of funding.

They are being created in tandem with plans to expand Venezuela's
military reserve fivefold, from about 200,000 people to one million -
a move Mr Chávez has introduced in the belief that his sworn foe
America is planning some kind of military intervention.

Tensions with Washington and the West are likely to escalate further
next month, when the Chávez government plans to begin taking control
of the main European and American-owned oil fields in Venezuela - a
move ordered by presidential decree in February.

The communal councils project is being overseen by David Velasquez, a
communist who is the president's new "minister of the popular power
for participation and social development".

Although the favoured blueprint for the scheme is the Paris Commune
of 1871, under which socialism briefly reigned in the French capital,
critics say it is more reminiscent of "mini-Soviets", which will be
used to monopolise Venezuelan local politics.

Emilio Grateron, an opposition councillor from the rich Chacao area,
claimed that communal councils which did not toe the Chávez line were
usually denied permission to set up. "When we went to the ministry to
set them up, they asked us our political affiliation. When they saw
we're not Chavistas they didn't say no, but flooded us with requests
until you feel like giving up," he said.

Luis Enrique Lander, a sociologist at the Central University of
Venezuela, said that some official regulatory committee members were
pushing for "non-Chavista" groups to be denied acceptance and funding.

Ironically the new communal council in Catia has been devoting its
energy to fighting the expansion of the nearby Fabricio Ojeda
industrial complex, which is built with state oil money and which the
Chávez administration portrays as an example of its new socialist co-
operative model. Local residents are sceptical of promises to
resettle them in better conditions.

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5) Controversial Michael Moore Flick "Sicko"
Will Compare U.S. Health Care with Cuba's
"The average health insurance premiums for a family of four
are $10,880, which exceeds the annual gross income of $10,712
for a full-time, minimum-wage worker."
By Don Hazen, AlterNet
Posted on April 23, 2007, Printed on April 23, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/50911/

To state that controversy and Michael Moore go hand and hand
is to utter the obvious, and Moore's latest film Sicko will
clearly be no exception.

Sicko, which will be premiering at the Cannes Film Festival
in May, is a comic broadside against the state of American
health care, including the mental health system. The film
targets drug companies and the HMOS in the richest country
in the world -- where the most money is spent on health care,
but where the U.S. ranks 21st in life expectancy among the
30 most developed nations, obviously in part due to the fact
that 47 million people are without health insurance.

The timing of Moore's film is propitious. Twenty-two percent
of Americans say that health care is the most pressing issue
in America. Health care will clearly be a major issue
in the upcoming presidential campaign, as the problems
with America's health care system have mushroomed during
the Bush administration. For example, between 2001 and 2005
the number of people without health insurance rose 16.6 percent.
The average health insurance premiums for a family of four
are $10,880, which exceeds the annual gross income of $10,712
for a full-time, minimum-wage worker. In addition, the lack
of insurance causes 18,000 excess deaths a year while people
without health insurance have 25 percent higher mortality
rates. Fifty-nine percent of uninsured people with chronic
conditions such as asthma or diabetes skip medicine or
go without care.

Under wraps, but one surprise out of the bag

The details of Moore's new film are being kept under tight
wraps. According to inside sources, only a handful of
people have seen the film, and both the film maker and
Harvey Weinstein -- the film's distributor, who also
distributed Moore's hugely successful Fahrenheit 9/11
-- are remaining tight-lipped about the film's contents.

Nevertheless, one aspect of the film will not be a total
surprise. One of the film's segments, an increasingly
controversial boat trip to Cuba, exploded onto the pages
of The New York Post, the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid,
when at least one 9/11 cleanup worker who had been
invited to participate in a trip to Cuba for Moore's
Sicko went to the press.

The boat trip, according to sources who spoke to both
the NY Post and The Daily News, took ailing rescue
workers to Cuba for health treatment for respiratory
ailments which they suffer as a result of working at
Ground Zero, and for which a number of the workers have
no health insurance. The purpose of the trip, according
to some, was to show that the free health care in Cuba
is superior to the health care system in the U.S. Those
invited on the trip, as described by Janon Fisher in the
Post, were told the "Cuban doctors had developed new
techniques for treating lung cancer and other respiratory
illnesses," and that health care in Cuba was free.

Health care advances in Cuba

According to the Associated Press as cited in the Post
article, "Cuba has made recent advancements in biotechnology
and exports its treatments to 40 countries around the world,
raking in an estimated $100 million a year. ... In 2004,
the U.S. government granted an exception to its economic
embargo against Cuba and allowed a California drug company
to test three cancer vaccines developed in Havana."

Although trip participants signed confidentiality agreements
prohibiting them from talking about the trip, some thought
the trip a success. From the NY Post:

"From what I hear through the grapevine those people who
went are utterly happy, said John Feal, who runs the
Fealgood Foundation to raise money for responders and
was approached by Moore to find responders willing to
take the trip. "They got the Elvis treatment."

According to staff writer Bill Hutchinson from the Daily
News, Moore was praised for seeking medical alternatives.
Retired Firefighter Vinnie Forras, 49, said he's been going
to Ecuador and Bolivia for experimental treatments for
lung damage and severe headaches which he suffered at
Ground Zero. "For me, anyone who's looking to try to help
the guys and women who are sick is a good thing. I don't
care where you go for that treatment."

On the other hand, some balked at the idea of going:
"I would rather die an American than go to Cuba," Joe
Picurro told the NY Post. Picurro, an ironworker with
a laundry list of respiratory and other ailments, said,
"I just laughed. I couldn't do it. "

America's second-class health care system

Clearly one of the themes of Moore's films, highlighted
by the trip to Cuba, is to challenge the myth that the
U.S. has superior health care when compared with other
countries. In a recent AlterNet article, attorney Guy
Saperstein explained:

"The World Health Organization ranks health care systems
based on objective measures of medical outcomes: The
United States' health care system currently ranks 37th
in the world, behind Colombia and Portugal; the United
States ranks 44th in the world in infant mortality,
behind many impoverished Latin American countries.
While infant mortality in the United States is skewed
toward poor people, who have rates double the wealthy,
the top quintile of the U.S. population has infant
mortality rates higher than Canadians in the lowest
quintile of wealth.

"The United States has fewer physicians, nurses and
hospital beds than most developed nations. In the
United States, 28 percent say it is "difficult to
get care"; in most European countries, Japan, Australia
and New Zealand, 15 percent say that. In terms of
continuity of care (i.e., five-plus years with the
same doctor), the United States is the worst of all
developed nations. By every objective measure, the
United States has a second-rate health care system."

It is unclear how soon after Cannes Sicko will open
in U.S. theaters. But with the aggressive and often
Oscar hungry Weinstein at the distribution helm, there
is little doubt that the movie will make a big splash,
bubbling up many more controversies. Moore's film has
been a long time coming -- three years since his huge
success with Fahrenheit 9/11, which was awarded the
Palme d'Or (Golden Palm), the festival's highest
award, by an international jury in 2004.

Legend has it that while Moore has been critical
of Cuba, he became a hero there after a pirated
version of Fahrenheit 9/11 was shown on government-
controlled TV. It's ironic that Cuba showed a free
version, because the film has made boatloads of money.
According to the Wikipedia, "As of January 2005,
[Fahrenheit 9/11] had broken all box office records
for a documentary grossing nearly US $120 million
in U.S. box office, and over US $220 million worldwide,
an unprecedented amount for a political documentary;
Sony reported first-day DVD sales of two million
copies, again a new record for the genre."

Only time will tell if Moore can duplicate his success.

Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

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6) Pentagon Challenged on Lynch and Tillman
By JOHN HOLUSHA
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/washington/24cnd-cong.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Military and other administration officials created a heroic
story about the death of Cpl. Pat Tillman to distract
attention from setbacks in Iraq and the mistreatment
of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the slain man’s younger
brother, Kevin Tillman, said today.

Testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, Mr. Tillman said the military knew
almost immediately that Corporal Tillman, an Army Ranger
who left a career as a pro football player to enlist, had
been killed accidentally in Afghanistan in April 2004
by fire from his own unit. But officials chose to put
a “patriotic glow” on his death, he said.

Mr. Tillman said the decision to award his brother
a Silver Star and to say that he died heroically fighting
the enemy was “utter fiction” that was intended to
“exploit Pat’s death.”

Former Pvt. Jessica Lynch leveled similar criticism
today at the hearing about the initial accounts given
by the Army of her capture in Iraq. Ms. Lynch was rescued
from an Iraqi hospital in dramatic fashion by American
troops after she suffered serious injuries and was captured
in an ambush of her truck convoy in March 2003.

In her testimony this morning, she said she did not
understand why the Army put out a story that she went down
firing at the enemy.

“I’m confused why they lied,” she said.

Mr. Tillman and Ms. Lynch appeared at a hearing called
to examine why “inaccurate accounts of these two incidents”
were put out by the administration. Today’s session was
part of the Democratically-controlled Congress’s effort
to hold the Bush Administration accountable for its conduct
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other issues.

Ms. Lynch said she could not know why she was depicted
as a “Rambo from West Virginia,” when in fact she was
riding in a truck, not fighting, when she was injured.

Dr. Gene Bolles, a doctor who treated Ms. Lynch at a hospital
in Germany after she was rescued, said that her injuries,
while extensive, were not the result of bullet wounds,
as first described.

Mr. Tillman’s tone was more bitter than Ms. Lynch’s. He
described the early accounts of his brother’s death as
“deliberate and calculated lies” and “deliberate acts
of deceit,” rather than the result of confusion or
innocent error.

For her part, Ms. Lynch said in her testimony that other
members of her unit had acted with genuine heroism that
deserved the attention she received. “The bottom line
is the American people are capable of determining their
own ideas of heroes, and they don’t need to be told elaborate
tales,” she said.

Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, the
chairman of the committee, said the hearings were intended
to determine the “sources and motivations” for the erroneous
accounts and to see whether Administration officials had been
held accountable for them.

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7) Mr. Spitzer and Gay Marriage
Editorial
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/opinion/24tue1.html?hp

The news that Gov. Eliot Spitzer will soon introduce a bill
to legalize same-sex marriage — what he calls “a simple moral
imperative” — is welcome and could give new national momentum
to this important cause. Mr. Spitzer would be the first
governor in the nation to introduce a gay marriage bill.
But if he is going to make a real difference, rather than
simply checking off a box to fulfill a campaign promise,
he will have to fight for the law vigorously.

Even in a progressive state like New York, this will be
a steep political climb. So far, only Massachusetts has
enacted a gay marriage law — after its highest court held
that gay couples had a right under the State Constitution
— and while there is a similar bill working its way through
the Connecticut legislature, its prospects are uncertain.
Civil unions or domestic partnerships involving same-sex
couples are now recognized by a small but growing number
of states, including Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont,
California, Hawaii and Maine. It is an indication of how
big a challenge Mr. Spitzer faces that New York is not,
and hasn’t come close to being, on this list.

Mr. Spitzer is right to be fighting for gay marriage.
Civil unions and domestic partnerships are an important
recognition of gay relationships by a state. But they still
represent separate and unequal treatment. One federal study
identified more than 1,100 rights or benefits that are
accorded only to the legally married. That means that
even in states recognizing civil unions and domestic
partnerships, gay couples often have to use legal
contortions to protect their families in ways that
married couples take for granted. Gay couples may
also be discriminated against when it comes to taxes
and pension benefits.

The next step in building momentum for gay marriage
in New York will be to get the State Assembly, which
has a Democratic majority, on board. Speaker Sheldon
Silver has said he will not take a stand until he talks
with his fellow Democrats. But most of those Democrats
have already publicly expressed support for gay marriage,
so Mr. Silver has no excuse to delay. He should make
it clear that he will join Governor Spitzer and press
for the legislation’s swift passage.

The biggest stumbling block is likely to be, as it always
is for gay rights measures in New York, the State Senate,
which is controlled by Republicans. The majority leader,
Joseph Bruno, has made it clear that he is against same-
sex marriage, but he is also a pragmatist whose views
on these issues have evolved and become more humane
over the years.

Religious groups, particularly the Catholic Church,
are likely to be the bill’s most outspoken opponents.
It should be clear that these religious institutions
have the right to refuse to marry anyone within their
own religious houses. But they should not be allowed
to dictate who can and cannot be married by the state.

Mr. Spitzer did not make gay marriage a priority in his
first 100 days in office, and he did not mention it in
his State of the State address or, more recently, when
he laid out his agenda for the remainder of the legislative
session. That may simply have been a pragmatic assessment
that the bill would not pass right away.

Now that he is ready to move, we are eager to hear him speak
out more on this issue. There will be nothing easy about
championing this simple moral imperative. But it is a fight
well worth the governor’s full efforts.

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8) Frustration Over Wall Unites Sunni and Shiite
By ALISSA J. RUBIN
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/world/middleeast/24iraq.html

BAGHDAD, April 23 — The unexpected outcry about the proposed
construction of a wall around a Sunni Arab neighborhood has
revealed the depths of Iraqi frustration with the petty
humiliations created by the new security plan intended
to protect them.

American and some Iraqi officials were clearly taken aback
by the ferocity of the opposition to the wall, and on Monday
the United States was showing signs of backing away from
the plan. The strong reaction underscores the sense
of powerlessness Iraqis feel in the face of the American
military, whose presence is all the more pervasive as an
increasing number of troops move on to the city’s streets.

And it has proved to be an unlikely boon for Prime Minister
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, making the Shiite politician — at
least for now — into a champion for Sunnis because he
publicly opposed the wall’s construction.

At a rally on Monday, residents of the Sunni Arab neighborhood
of Adhamiya pledged support for Mr. Maliki because of his
declaration on Sunday in Cairo that construction of the
wall around their neighborhood must stop. Their endorsement
was all the more telling because many Sunnis see Mr. Maliki
as the representative of a government bent on Sunni oppression.

“My view of Maliki has changed since I heard of this news,
and we hope he would be able to carry out this decision,”
to stop the wall’s construction, said Um Mohammed,
a teacher in Adhamiya.

“We denounce the building of the wall, which will increase
the sectarian rift,” she said as she stood with more than
1,000 neighborhood residents at the peaceful protest.

By late in the day, the American military, under pressure
from the Iraqi government, appeared to be rethinking the
plan. “This one was obviously one in which the people in
the area expressed some concern,” said Bryan Whitman,
a spokesman for the Pentagon. “There are aspects of this
that the Iraqi government feels at this point are not
productive. We’ll continue to work with them on this and
other tactics,” he said.

Although the strategy of using barriers to safeguard
areas of Baghdad is not new, the Adhamiya plan to enclose
the neighborhood entirely was promoted as an advanced
security measure. About two years ago, the American
military erected a wall along the section of the Amiriya
neighborhood that borders the airport road. While hardly
foolproof, it reduced the number of attacks on American
convoys on the route. More recently, the military has
erected walls around marketplaces to safeguard them from
suicide bombers, said Brig. Gen. John F. Campbell, Baghdad’s
deputy commanding general, in a statement released Saturday
when questions began to emerge about the plan.

But the Adhamiya wall, only partly built, has fast become
a metaphor for the cumulative resentment that Iraqis
feel about the violence and disruption of daily life
that have brought so much misery to the country since
the American invasion in 2003.

The latest indignity is the new security plan, which has
snarled traffic with checkpoints that turn even the shortest
journeys into hourlong forays. And to the chagrin of many
Iraqis, even after four years, the Americans still seem
to be oblivious of the havoc they cause in Iraqis’ daily
lives by forcing traffic to stop, blocking roads and taking
property for military outposts.

Iraqis feel demeaned and infuriated when they find
themselves sitting in traffic for hours as it trickles
through checkpoints or standing in lines in the already
blazing spring sun waiting to be frisked to get into
government buildings.

A man who had waited in line for more than two hours to get
into the fortified International Zone, formerly known
as the Green Zone, on Monday said no one explained the reason
for the delay to the nearly 200 people standing there. “Why,
why? What did I do?” he said to no one in particular, as
a soldier who had briefly appeared near the front of
the line walked away.

On the outskirts of Adhamiya on Monday afternoon, a line
of cars stretched for more than half a mile, waiting to
go through an Iraqi Army checkpoint to enter the neighborhood.
The line of some 200 cars was moving so slowly that some
drivers had gotten out and were gesticulating and shouting
in frustration.

Although the decision to use tall concrete barriers to
cordon off the neighborhood was made jointly by Iraqi and
American forces, American soldiers are building the Adhamiya
wall, according to neighborhood residents and a news release
issued by the United States military. The wall is made of
concrete slabs weighing 14,000 pounds each, which, when set
next to each other, form a solid barrier. Cranes are used
to winch them into position.

Mr. Maliki’s decision to speak out against the wall was
read on the streets as a moment of defiant Iraqi sovereignty
in the face of the Americans, whom the vast majority
of Iraqis view as an occupying force. Despite his government’s
backing of the overall security plan, Mr. Maliki has managed
to appear to be a defender of the interests of the common
citizen.

Sameer al-Obeidi, the imam of the Abu Khanifa mosque, one
of the most influential Sunni Arab mosques in the city,
applauded Mr. Maliki. “We shake hands with the government
in such stands,” he said.

The American involvement in the wall’s construction has
united Iraqis of different sects. Sunni political parties,
as well as some Shiite groups, strongly oppose the wall.
Shiite groups fear that though Sunni Arab neighborhoods
are the ones being cordoned off this week, next month
it could be Shiite areas as well.

There was still confusion on Monday over whether
construction on the wall would proceed. Despite Mr. Maliki’s
declaration during his visit to Cairo on Sunday that
construction would be halted, the chief Iraqi military
spokesman said that there was no change in the plans
to build the 12-foot barrier.

“We will continue to construct the security barriers
in the Adhamiya neighborhood. This is a technical issue,”
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said.

Reporting was contributed by Iraqi employees of The New
York Times in Baghdad, Mosul, Diyala, Falluja and Hilla,
and David S. Cloud in Washington.

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9) Jury Selection Is Slow Going in Padilla Terrorism Trial
By TERRY AGUAYO
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/us/24padilla.html

MIAMI, April 23 — Finding an impartial jury in the trial
of Jose Padilla is proving to be a slow process, as expected,
as the second week of juror selection began Monday.

Many of the prospective jurors questioned since selection
started last Monday have expressed some knowledge of the
case against Mr. Padilla and two other defendants, all
accused of providing material support to terrorists.

“I understand that there are some accusations that the three
gentlemen were involved in plotting terrorist attacks,” one
female prospective juror said. “My understanding is that
Mr. Padilla was not charged for a while and he was imprisoned.”
When asked if she would be able to put that information aside
and base her decision only on the evidence presented, she
answered, “They look like you and me.”

Another prospective juror said she had heard Mr. Padilla
was “being tried for something about bombs” and expressed
her opinion about Muslims.

“I know that Muslims are willing to die for their religious
beliefs,” she said, later adding she did not believe that
to be the case with all Muslims.

Mr. Padilla and his co-defendants are accused of participating
in a “North American support cell” that provided money, goods
and recruits abroad to assist “global jihad.”

The selection of 12 jurors and 6 alternates is expected
to take about two more weeks. Judge Marcia G. Cooke of
Federal District Court has let court sessions run after-
hours in an effort to speed the process.

“With all of the sentiments towards terrorism in general,
I think it’s going to take a long time to get a panel,”
said Sanford H. Marks, president of Trial Technologies,
a jury consulting firm here. “People have opinions about
this case, unless they’ve been living in a hole.”

Mr. Padilla, who was born in Brooklyn and who converted
to Islam, was arrested in 2002 at O’Hare International
Airport and transferred to military custody shortly
afterward. He was described by the Bush administration
as a Qaeda operative on a mission to detonate a radioactive
“dirty bomb” and blow up apartment buildings. Those
accusations were not mentioned in his 2005 indictment.
He was designated an enemy combatant and held without
charges. In January 2006, the Supreme Court granted the
administration’s request to transfer Mr. Padilla to
civilian custody.

If convicted, Mr. Padilla, now 36, could face a life
sentence. The other defendants are Adham Amin Hassoun,
45, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, and Kifah Wael Jayyousi,
44, a Jordanian-born American citizen.

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10) Drugs for Lethal Injection Aren’t Reliable, Study Finds
By REUTERS
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/us/24injection.html

MIAMI, April 23 (Reuters) — Some prisoners executed
by lethal injection may die of suffocation while they
are still conscious and in pain, University of Miami
researchers said Monday in a study that concluded that
the drugs do not work as intended.

The study, published in the Public Library of Science
journal PLoS Medicine, raised new questions about whether
the lethal mixture violates the constitutional ban on
cruel and unusual punishment.

Lethal injection is the primary method of execution
for 37 states and the federal government, though more
than a dozen states have halted or suspended the procedure
because of legal or ethical questions.

The drugs used are the anesthetic thiopental; pancuronium
bromide, which paralyzes the muscles and lungs; and the
electrolyte potassium chloride, which stops the heart.

First adopted by Oklahoma lawmakers looking for a humane
alternative to the electric chair, the combination is
supposed to produce unconsciousness and then death by
respiratory and cardiac arrest.

The researchers studied drug dosages and time elapsed
until death in 42 lethal injections in North Carolina
and 8 in California. They concluded that thiopental
might have been insufficient to keep the prisoners
unconscious in some cases, based on concentrations
in their blood after death. They also said the potassium
chloride injection, which causes an intense burning
sensation, did not reliably hasten death because
prisoners given it died no faster than those who
got only the other two drugs.

The researchers concluded that pancuronium was the only
reliably fatal part of the cocktail, meaning the executed
may actually have died of suffocation as it paralyzed
their lungs.

In cases where the injection was botched and the drugs
were delivered into the muscle or under the skin rather
than into the veins, prisoners would by fully aware as
the paralysis took hold and the potassium chloride was
administered, said Teresa Zimmers, who led the study.

“It would sort of be the equivalent of slowly suffocating
while being burned alive,” Ms. Zimmers said.

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11) Man Is Cleared of Rape Charges After Serving 25 Years
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/us/24dna.html

CHICAGO, April 23 (AP) — A man who spent 25 years in prison
for rape was exonerated Monday as a judge threw out his
convictions because DNA evidence showed he could not have
committed the attack. An advocacy group said it was the
200th such case.

The man, Jerry Miller, smiled and the courtroom erupted
into cheers after Judge Diane G. Cannon of Cook County
Circuit Court read the ruling that cleared him of all
charges.

Mr. Miller, 48, had been found guilty of rape, robbery,
aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery even though
he testified he was at home watching television at the
time of the attack, in 1981. He was paroled in March 2006
and now works two jobs and lives with a family member
in a Chicago suburb.

“I want to get on with my life, start a life, have
a life,” Mr. Miller said after the hearing. “I’m just
thankful for this day.”

The Innocence Project, a group based in New York, persuaded
prosecutors last year to conduct DNA tests on a semen
sample taken from the rape victim’s clothes. Those results
excluded Mr. Miller as the attacker.

The case is the 200th in the United States in which
a person was convicted, then exonerated based on DNA
evidence, the group says. The first exonerations based
on DNA testing were in 1989, and in all, the 200 defendants
served about 2,475 years in prison for crimes they did
not commit, according to the group’s Web site.

“We look at this as a learning moment,” said Peter Neufeld,
a co-founder of the Innocence Project and one of Mr. Miller’s
lawyers. “What went wrong? We have to get the answer
for the future or there’ll be too many Jerry Millers.”

Mr. Miller was arrested in the attack on a 44-year-old
woman at a Chicago parking garage in September 1981.
The attacker raped her and put her in the trunk of her
car, but he ran away when two attendants approached
him as he tried to leave the garage.

The attendants helped the authorities make a sketch
and later picked Mr. Miller out of a lineup.

Now that he is exonerated, Mr. Miller no longer has
to register as a sex offender.

Mark Ertler, deputy supervisor of the Cook County
state’s attorney’s office DNA review unit, told The
Chicago Tribune that the case was “a good example
of what the DNA unit was intended to do.”

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12) Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/science/24bees.html

BELTSVILLE, Md., April 23 — What is happening to the bees?

More than a quarter of the country’s 2.4 million bee colonies
have been lost — tens of billions of bees, according to an
estimate from the Apiary Inspectors of America, a national
group that tracks beekeeping. So far, no one can say what
is causing the bees to become disoriented and fail
to return to their hives.

As with any great mystery, a number of theories have been
posed, and many seem to researchers to be more science
fiction than science. People have blamed genetically modified
crops, cellular phone towers and high-voltage transmission
lines for the disappearances. Or was it a secret plot
by Russia or Osama bin Laden to bring down American
agriculture? Or, as some blogs have asserted, the rapture
of the bees, in which God recalled them to heaven?
Researchers have heard it all.

The volume of theories “is totally mind-boggling,” said
Diana Cox-Foster, an entomologist at Pennsylvania State
University. With Jeffrey S. Pettis, an entomologist
from the United States Department of Agriculture,
Dr. Cox-Foster is leading a team of researchers who
are trying to find answers to explain “colony collapse
disorder,” the name given for the disappearing bee syndrome.

“Clearly there is an urgency to solve this,” Dr. Cox-Foster
said. “We are trying to move as quickly as we can.”

Dr. Cox-Foster and fellow scientists who are here at
a two-day meeting to discuss early findings and future
plans with government officials have been focusing
on the most likely suspects: a virus, a fungus or
a pesticide.

About 60 researchers from North America sifted the
possibilities at the meeting today. Some expressed
concern about the speed at which adult bees are
disappearing from their hives; some colonies have
collapsed in as little as two days. Others noted that
countries in Europe, as well as Guatemala and parts
of Brazil, are also struggling for answers.

“There are losses around the world that may or not
be linked,” Dr. Pettis said.

The investigation is now entering a critical phase.
The researchers have collected samples in several
states and have begun doing bee autopsies and genetic
analysis.

So far, known enemies of the bee world, like the
varroa mite, on their own at least, do not appear
to be responsible for the unusually high losses.

Genetic testing at Columbia University has revealed
the presence of multiple micro-organisms in bees from
hives or colonies that are in decline, suggesting that
something is weakening their immune system. The
researchers have found some fungi in the affected
bees that are found in humans whose immune systems
have been suppressed by the Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome or cancer.

“That is extremely unusual,” Dr. Cox-Foster said.

Meanwhile, samples were sent to an Agriculture Department
laboratory in North Carolina this month to screen for
117 chemicals. Particular suspicion falls on a pesticide
that France banned out of concern that it may have been
decimating bee colonies. Concern has also mounted among
public officials.

“There are so many of our crops that require pollinators,”
said Representative Dennis Cardoza, a California Democrat
whose district includes that state’s central agricultural
valley, and who presided last month at a Congressional
hearing on the bee issue. “We need an urgent call to arms
to try to ascertain what is really going on here with
the bees, and bring as much science as we possibly can
to bear on the problem.”

So far, colony collapse disorder has been found in 27
states, according to Bee Alert Technology Inc., a company
monitoring the problem. A recent survey of 13 states
by the Apiary Inspectors of America showed that 26 percent
of beekeepers had lost half of their bee colonies between
September and March.

Honeybees are arguably the insects that are most important
to the human food chain. They are the principal pollinators
of hundreds of fruits, vegetables, flowers and nuts. The
number of bee colonies has been declining since the 1940s,
even as the crops that rely on them, such as California
almonds, have grown. In October, at about the time that
beekeepers were experiencing huge bee losses, a study
by the National Academy of Sciences questioned whether
American agriculture was relying too heavily on one type
of pollinator, the honeybee.

Bee colonies have been under stress in recent years as
more beekeepers have resorted to crisscrossing the country
with 18-wheel trucks full of bees in search of pollination
work. These bees may suffer from a diet that includes
artificial supplements, concoctions akin to energy
drinks and power bars. In several states, suburban
sprawl has limited the bees’ natural forage areas.

So far, the researchers have discounted the possibility
that poor diet alone could be responsible for the widespread
losses. They have also set aside for now the possibility
that the cause could be bees feeding from a commonly used
genetically modified crop, Bt corn, because the symptoms
typically associated with toxins, such as blood poisoning,
are not showing up in the affected bees. But researchers
emphasized today that feeding supplements produced from
genetically modified crops, such as high-fructose corn
syrup, need to be studied.

The scientists say that definitive answers for the colony
collapses could be months away. But recent advances
in biology and genetic sequencing are speeding the search.

Computers can decipher information from DNA and match
pieces of genetic code with particular organisms. Luckily,
a project to sequence some 11,000 genes of the honeybee
was completed late last year at Baylor College of Medicine
in Houston, giving scientists a huge head start on
identifying any unknown pathogens in the bee tissue.

“Otherwise, we would be looking for the needle in the
haystack,” Dr. Cox-Foster said.

Large bee losses are not unheard of. They have been
reported at several points in the past century. But
researchers think they are dealing with something new
— or at least with something previously unidentified.

“There could be a number of factors that are weakening
the bees or speeding up things that shorten their lives,”
said Dr. W. Steve Sheppard, a professor of entomology
at Washington State University. “The answer may already
be with us.”

Scientists first learned of the bee disappearances in
November, when David Hackenberg, a Pennsylvania beekeeper,
told Dr. Cox-Foster that more than 50 percent of his bee
colonies had collapsed in Florida, where he had taken
them for the winter.

Dr. Cox-Foster, a 20-year veteran of studying bees,
soon teamed with Dennis vanEngelsdorp, the Pennsylvania
apiary inspector, to look into the losses.

In December, she approached W. Ian Lipkin, director
of the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia
University, about doing genetic sequencing of tissue
from bees in the colonies that experienced losses.
The laboratory uses a recently developed technique for
reading and amplifying short sequences of DNA that has
revolutionized the science. Dr. Lipkin, who typically
works on human diseases, agreed to do the analysis,
despite not knowing who would ultimately pay for it.
His laboratory is known for its work in finding the
West Nile disease in the United States.

Dr. Cox-Foster ultimately sent samples of bee tissue
to researchers at Columbia, to the Agriculture
Department laboratory in Maryland, and to Gene Robinson,
an entomologist at the University of Illinois. Fortuitously,
she had frozen bee samples from healthy colonies dating
to 2004 to use for comparison.

After receiving the first bee samples from Dr. Cox-Foster
on March 6, Dr. Lipkin’s team amplified the genetic
material and started sequencing to separate virus,
fungus and parasite DNA from bee DNA.

“This is like C.S.I. for agriculture,” Dr. Lipkin said.
“It is painstaking, gumshoe detective work.”

Dr. Lipkin sent his first set of results to Dr. Cox-Foster,
showing that several unknown micro-organisms were present
in the bees from collapsing colonies. Meanwhile,
Mr. vanEngelsdorp and researchers at the Agriculture
Department lab here began an autopsy of bees from
collapsing colonies in California, Florida, Georgia
and Pennsylvania to search for any known bee pathogens.

At the University of Illinois, using knowledge gained
from the sequencing of the bee genome, Dr. Robinson’s
team will try to find which genes in the collapsing
colonies are particularly active, perhaps indicating
stress from exposure to a toxin or pathogen.

The national research team also quietly began a parallel
study in January, financed in part by the National Honey
Board, to further determine if something pathogenic could
be causing colonies to collapse.

Mr. Hackenberg, the beekeeper, agreed to take his empty
bee boxes and other equipment to Food Technology Service,
a company in Mulberry, Fla., that uses gamma rays to
kill bacteria on medical equipment and some fruits.
In early results, the irradiated bee boxes seem to have
shown a return to health for colonies repopulated with
Australian bees.

“This supports the idea that there is a pathogen there,”
Dr. Cox-Foster said. “It would be hard to explain the
irradiation getting rid of a chemical.”

Still, some environmental substances remain suspicious.

Chris Mullin, a Pennsylvania State University professor
and insect toxicologist, recently sent a set of samples
to a federal laboratory in Raleigh, N.C., that will screen
for 117 chemicals. Of greatest interest are the “systemic”
chemicals that are able to pass through a plant’s circulatory
system and move to the new leaves or the flowers, where they
would come in contact with bees.

One such group of compounds is called neonicotinoids,
commonly used pesticides that are used to treat corn and
other seeds against pests. One of the neonicotinoids,
imidacloprid, is commonly used in Europe and the United
States to treat seeds, to protect residential foundations
against termites and to help keep golf courses and home
lawns green.

In the late 1990s, French beekeepers reported large losses
of their bees and complained about the use of imidacloprid,
sold under the brand name Gaucho. The chemical, while not
killing the bees outright, was causing them to be disoriented
and stay away from their hives, leading them to die of
exposure to the cold, French researchers later found.
The beekeepers labeled the syndrome “mad bee disease.”

The French government banned the pesticide in 1999 for use
on sunflowers, and later for corn, despite protests by the
German chemical giant Bayer, which has said its internal
research showed the pesticide was not toxic to bees.
Subsequent studies by independent French researchers
have disagreed with Bayer. Alison Chalmers, an eco-
toxicologist for Bayer CropScience, said at the meeting
today that bee colonies had not recovered in France as
beekeepers had expected. “These chemicals are not being
used anymore,” she said of imidacloprid, “so they certainly
were not the only cause.”

Among the pesticides being tested in the American bee
investigation, the neonicotinoids group “is the number-
one suspect,” Dr. Mullin said. He hoped results of the
toxicology screening will be ready within a month.

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13) First Mission to Explore Those Wisps in the Night Sky
By KENNETH CHANG
April 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/science/24cloud.html?ref=science

Two hundred seventy thousand feet above the ground, higher
than 99.9 percent of the earth’s air, clouds still float
around — thin, iridescent wisps of electric blue.

NASA is launching a small satellite to take a closer look
at these clouds at the edge of outer space and to try to
understand why, in recent years, they are appearing more
often over more parts of the world. They are also becoming
brighter.

The clouds are called noctilucent or “night shining,” because
from the ground they can be seen only at night as they float
about 50 miles above the surface, illuminated by light from
a Sun that has already set below the horizon. (That is
essentially the same effect that makes moonlight.)

The clouds form in the polar regions from mid-May to
mid-August in the Northern Hemisphere, mid-November
to mid-February in the Southern Hemisphere.

“They’re beautiful,” said James M. Russell III, co-director
of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Hampton University
in Virginia and principal investigator of the NASA mission.
“The pictures do a good job, but it’s not like seeing them.”

A British sky watcher named Thomas William Backhouse was
perhaps the first to notice the odd blue wisps in 1885, and
many scientists thought that the phenomenon was an atmospheric
effect caused by ash thrown up by the gigantic volcanic
eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia two years earlier.

Although the ash settled out of the air, the noctilucent
clouds persisted and spread.

At first they were seen only at higher latitudes in places
like Norway, Russia and England. Now they can be seen as
far south as Colorado, at about 40 degrees latitude.

The essential ingredients are temperatures from minus 225
to minus 190 degrees Fahrenheit, water vapor and particles
of dust that serve as seeds for the ice crystals that
form the clouds.

Since 1980, when regular space-based observations of
noctilucent clouds began, their number has increased
about 28 percent per decade, and they are reflecting more
light, because the ice crystals are bigger.

“The most plausible and leading theory is CO2 buildup,
which causes global warming,” Dr. Russell said. Increasing
temperatures near the surface actually cause the upper part
of the atmosphere to cool, and cooler temperatures could
spur the formation of more clouds. “If that’s true and we
are changing the atmosphere in a remote location like this,
that means we’re changing the entire atmosphere,” he said.

The satellite, called Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere,
or AIM, is 55 inches high by 43 inches wide and weighs 430
pounds. As early as tomorrow, a modified jetliner will take
off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., with a rocket
plane holding the satellite attached on its underside.
At 40,000 feet, the rocket plane will drop away and,
after igniting its engine, shoot upward.

When the AIM reaches its orbit 370 miles above the Earth,
its three instruments will photograph noctilucent clouds,
measure the size of the ice crystals and note conditions
like temperature, air pressure and moisture levels. The
$140 million mission is the first dedicated to studying
noctilucent clouds.

Among the questions scientists hope to answer are these:
Where is the dust seeding the clouds coming from? Is it
composed of tiny meteors from outer space, particles
wafting up from the lower atmosphere, or possibly charged
atoms created in that part in the atmosphere?

Another mystery: noctilucent clouds in the Southern
Hemisphere are about half a mile higher than in the north.

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14) From an Angry Soldier
Date: 2007-04-10, 1:00PM PDT
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/309485032.html

I'm having the worst damn week of my whole damn life so I'm
going to write this while I'm pissed off enough to do it right.

I am SICK of all this bullshit people are writing about
the Iraq war. I am abso-fucking-lutely sick to death of it.
What the fuck do most of you know about it? You watch it on
TV and read the commentaries in the newspaper or Newsweek
or whatever god damn yuppie news rag you subscribe to and
think you're all such fucking experts that you can scream
at each other like five year old about whether you're right
or not. Let me tell you something: unless you've been there,
you don't know a god damn thing about it. It you haven't
been shot at in that fucking hell hole, SHUT THE FUCK UP!

How do I dare say this to you moronic war supporters who
are "Supporting our Troops" and waving the flag and all
that happy horse shit? I'll tell you why. I'm a Marine
and I served my tour in Iraq. My husband, also a Marine,
served several. I left the service six months ago because
I got pregnant while he was home on leave and three days
ago I get a visit from two men in uniform who hand me a
letter and tell me my husband died in that fucking festering
sand-pit. He should have been home a month ago but they
extended his tour and now he's coming home in a box.

You fuckers and that god-damn lying sack of shit they
call a president are the reason my husband will never
see his baby and my kid will never meet his dad.

And you know what the most fucked up thing about this
Iraq shit is? They don't want us there. They're not
happy we came and they want us out NOW. We fucked up
their lives even worse than they already were and they're
pissed off. We didn't help them and we're not helping
them now. That's what our soldiers are dying for.

Oh while I'm good and worked up, the government doesn't
even have the decency to help out the soldiers whose lives
they ruined. If you really believe the military and the
government had no idea the veterans' hospitals were so
fucked up, you are a god-damn retard. They don't care
about us. We're disposable. We're numbers on a page and
they'd rather forget we exist so they don't have to be
reminded about the families and lives they ruined while
they're sipping their cocktails at another fund raiser
dinner. If they were really concerned about supporting
the troops, they'd bring them home so their families
wouldn't have to cry at a graveside and explain to their
children why mommy or daddy isn't coming home. Because
you can't explain it. We're not fighting for our country,
we're not fighting for the good of Iraq's people, we're
fighting for Bush's personal agenda. Patriotism my ass.
You know what? My dad served in Vietnam and NOTHING HAS
CHANGED.

So I'm pissed. I'm beyond pissed. And I'm going to go
to my husband's funeral and recieve that flag and hang
it up on the wall for my baby to see when he's older.
But I'm not going to tell him that his father died for
the stupidity of the American government. I'm going to
tell him that his father was a hero and the best man
I ever met and that he loved his country enough to die
for it, because that's all true and nothing will be
solved by telling my son that his father was sent to
die by people who didn't care about him at all.

Fuck you, war supporters, George W. Bush, and all the
god damn mother fuckers who made the war possible.
I hope you burn in hell.

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15) PeaceMajority Report
Bill Moyers: "Buying The War"
Premiere Tonight, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 - 9PM - PBS
[VIA Email from: PeaceMajority@mail.democracyinaction.org ...bw]

Four years ago on May 1, President Bush landed on the aircraft
carrier USS Lincoln wearing a flight suit and delivered
a speech in front of a giant "Mission Accomplished" banner.
He was hailed by media stars as a "breathtaking" example
of presidential leadership in toppling Saddam

Hussein. Despite profound questions over the failure to locate
weapons of mass destruction and the increasing violence in
Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim
that the war was won. MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're
all neo-cons now;" NPR's Bob Edwards said, "The war in Iraq
is essentially over;" and Fortune magazine's Jeff Birnbaum
said, "It is amazing how thorough the victory in Iraq really
was in the broadest context."

How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the
evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass
destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11
continue to go largely unreported? "What the conservative
media did was easy to fathom; they had been cheerleaders
for the White House from the beginning and were simply
continuing to rally the public behind the President — no
questions asked. How mainstream journalists suspended
skepticism and scrutiny remains an issue of significance
that the media has not satisfactorily explored," says
Moyers. "How the administration marketed the war to the
American people has been well covered, but critical
questions remain: How and why did the press buy it,
and what does it say about the role of journalists in
helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?"

On Wednesday, April 25 at 9 p.m. on PBS, a new PBS
series BILL MOYERS JOURNAL premieres at a special time
with "Buying the War," a 90-minute documentary that
explores the role of the press in the lead-up to the
invasion of Iraq. Two days later on April 27, BILL
MOYERS JOURNAL airs in its regular timeslot on Fridays
at 9 p.m. with interviews and news analysis on a wide
range of subjects, including politics, arts and culture,
the media, the economy, and issues facing democracy.
"Buying the War" includes interviews with Dan Rather,
formerly of CBS; Tim Russert of MEET THE PRESS; Bob
Simon of 60 MINUTES; Walter Isaacson, former president
of CNN; and John Walcott, Jonathan Landay and Warren
Strobel of Knight Ridder newspapers, which was acquired
by The McClatchy Company in 2006.

In "Buying the War" Bill Moyers and producer Kathleen
Hughes document the reporting of Walcott, Landay and
Strobel, the Knight Ridder team that burrowed deep
into the intelligence agencies to try and determine
whether there was any evidence for the Bush
Administration's case for war. "Many of the things
that were said about Iraq didn't make sense," says
Walcott. "And that really prompts you to ask, 'Wait
a minute. Is this true? Does everyone agree that this
is true? Does anyone think this is not true?'"

In the run-up to war, skepticism was a rarity among
journalists inside the Beltway. Journalist Bob Simon
of 60 Minutes, who was based in the Middle East,
questioned the reporting he was seeing and reading.
"I mean we knew things or suspected things that perhaps
the Washington press corps could not suspect. For example,
the absurdity of putting up a connection between Saddam
Hussein and Al Qaeda," he tells Moyers. "Saddam…was
a total control freak. To introduce a wild card like
Al Qaeda in any sense was just something he would not
do. So I just didn't believe it for an instant." The
program analyzes the stream of unchecked information
from administration sources and Iraqi defectors to the
mainstream print and broadcast press, which was then
seized upon and amplified by an army of pundits. While
almost all the claims would eventually prove to be
false, the drumbeat of misinformation about WMDs went
virtually unchallenged by the media. THE NEW YORK TIMES
reported on Iraq's "worldwide hunt for materials to make
an atomic bomb," but according to Landay, claims by the
administration about the possibility of nuclear weapons
were highly questionable. Yet, his story citing the
"lack of hard evidence of Iraqi weapons" got little
play. In fact, throughout the media landscape, stories
challenging the official view were often pushed aside
while the administration's claims were given prominence.
"From August 2002 until the war was launched in March
of 2003 there were about 140 front page pieces in THE
WASHINGTON POST making the administration's case for war,"
says Howard Kurtz, the POST's media critic. "But there
was only a handful of stories that ran on the front
page that made the opposite case. Or, if not making
the opposite case, raised questions."

"Buying the War" examines the press coverage in the
lead-up to the war as evidence of a paradigm shift
in the role of journalists in democracy and asks, four
years after the invasion, what's changed? "More and more
the media become, I think, common carriers of administration
statements and critics of the administration," says THE
WASHINGTON POST's Walter Pincus. "We've sort of given
up being independent on our own."

BILL MOYERS JOURNAL is supported by an extensive companion
Web site at pbs.org/moyers where visitors can interact,
give feedback and sign up for the Moyers podcast, which
was listed in iTunes Best of 2006 People's Choice top 100
new podcasts. After the broadcast, each episode will be
available in its entirety for viewing online.

email address: we sent this email to you at
bauaw2003-owner@yahoogroups.com

your address is on our list because we believe
you share our concerns about peace and security.

PeaceMajority Report
387 Northgate Rd
Lindenhurst, IL 60046-8541
Editor@PeaceMajority.US

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16) A Test for the Roberts Court
Editorial
[Have no fear. Either way, wealthy individuals--both capitalist
and worker--can make such contributions to the candidates
of their choice. But does anybody know a wealthy worker?...bw]
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/opinion/25weds1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The campaign finance system is like an overburdened dam:
it holds back a flood of special-interest money, but there
is a constant struggle to keep it from springing leaks.
The Supreme Court hears arguments today in a case that
could determine whether a major new leak opens up, one
that would allow corporations and unions to pour
unprecedented amounts of money into political campaigns.
It is important that the court continue to keep
this money out.

Corporations have been prohibited since the early
1900’s from contributing to political campaigns. This
ban and a similar one imposed later on unions prevents
these wealthy entities from buying elections and elected
officials. The Supreme Court, in upholding these bans,
has recognized that Congress has a compelling interest
in preventing the “corrosive and distorting effects”
of corporate and union contributions.

Corporations and unions have, not surprisingly, tried
to get around the ban. One tactic they have used is
bankrolling phony “issue ads”: commercials that purport
to educate the public about a policy issue, but are
actually intended to elect or defeat a particular
candidate. Today’s case involves phony issue ads run
on radio and television by a group called Wisconsin
Right to Life, which accepted major contributions
from corporations against Senator Russell Feingold,
Democrat of Wisconsin.

The ads attacked Mr. Feingold and Wisconsin’s other
senator, Herb Kohl, for blocking President Bush’s
judicial nominees, and urged the public to contact
the two men to complain. Clearly the ads’ purpose
was to try to prevent Mr. Feingold’s re-election.
Wisconsin Right to Life had made it clear that it
was targeting him for defeat. Mr. Feingold’s opponents
were using the issue of judicial nominees against him.
The ads ran shortly before the election, while the
Senate was in recess and no votes on judges were
being held. And they did not provide contact information
for Mr. Feingold and Mr. Kohl.

The court ruled in 2003 that bogus issue ads like
these were the “functional equivalent” of campaign
ads, and upheld Congress’s ban on the use of corporate
and union money to pay for them. That case should be
controlling, but since 2003, two new members — Chief
Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito — have
joined the court. Today’s case will be a test of their
respect for Congress’s authority to regulate campaign
finance practices, and for the court’s recent precedents.

In last year’s election, the voters clearly showed
they are unhappy with the role special interests play
in Washington. That frustration has grown with each
new scandal involving Congress or the Bush administration.
It would be disturbing if the court now changed the
rules to make it easier for special interests to
corrupt American democracy.

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17) House Panel Seeks to Force Rice to Testify on Iraq Claims
By DAVID STOUT
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/washington/25cnd-subpoena.html?hp

WASHINGTON, April 25 — A House committee voted this afternoon
to subpoena Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as it presses
an inquiry into the claims, long since discredited, that Iraq
sought uranium from Niger.

The vote by the House Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform was 21 to 10. All the “yes” votes were cast by Democrats,
and all the “no” votes by Republicans.

The vote to subpoena Ms. Rice, coupled with a vote by the House
Judiciary Committee vote a short time earlier to grant immunity
to a former Justice Department official involved in the
dismissals of eight United States attorneys, reflect the
new power of Democrats as they fulfill their desire to subject
the Bush administration to closer scrutiny than it had in the
years that Republicans were in control.

But the oversight committee chairman, Representative Henry
A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said before the vote
that he took no pleasure in authorizing a subpoena against
the Secretary of State.

“For four years, I have been trying to get information
from Condoleezza Rice on a variety of issues, including
the reference to uranium and Niger in the president’s
2003 State of the Union speech,” Mr. Waxman said,
alluding to the assertion that preceded the American-
led military campaign that toppled Saddam Hussein.

“In the last seven weeks, I have sent four letters
to Secretary Rice and received three responses from
her staff,” Mr. Waxman said. “My request is simple. I
would like Secretary Rice to suggest a date that would
be convenient for her to testify before our committee.”

Mr. Waxman said Ms. Rice had already testified on
Capitol Hill seven times this year, and that there
was “nothing extraordinary” about his panel’s request.
“I regret — I deeply regret — that the secretary of
state is giving us no choice but to proceed with
a subpoena,” he said.

The vote by Mr. Waxman’s committee came just after
the House Judiciary Committee voted to grant immunity
to Monica Goodling, a former top aide to Attorney General
Alberto R. Gonzales, to force her to testify in the
inquiry into the dismissals of eight United States
Attorneys.

The vote was 32 to 6, easily surpassing the two-thirds
necessary to confer immunity on a witness. The committee
then authorized a subpoena against Ms. Goodling by voice
vote, although the panel’s chairman, Representative John
Conyers of Michigan, said he hopes Ms. Goodling will
appear voluntarily.

“I do not propose this step lightly,” Mr. Conyers told
the panel, according to The Associated Press. “We can
always stop the process before the court issues an order.”

As the House committee voted, the Senate Judiciary
Committee was also meeting to consider subpoenas in
the continuing investigation of the firings. The Senate
panel voted to authorize a subpoena of Sara Taylor, the
White House political affairs director, to get around
what Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who
heads the panel, called White House “stonewalling.”

The vote to ask a federal court to grant immunity to
Ms. Goodling — so long as she tells the truth — was not
exactly a surprise, since she notified the Senate
Judiciary Committee through her lawyer on March 26
that she would invoke her constitutional right against
self-incrimination and decline to appear.

The lawyer said Ms. Goodling was invoking her Fifth
Amendment right not because she had anything to hide,
but because she did not expect fair treatment in the
current climate of political hostility.

Those House Judiciary members who voted to grant her
immunity hope that Ms. Goodling, who resigned on
April 6, will offer details into the role of the
White House political adviser Karl Rove in the
prosecutors’ firings. Ms. Goodling acted as a liaison
between the Justice Department and the White House.

United States attorneys serve at the pleasure of the
president and can be dismissed at any time. But even
Republicans have complained that the eight firings
were handled clumsily at best, and Democrats have
said improper political motives may be behind the
dismissals — that those fired may have been too
vigorous in going after Republicans, or not vigorous
enough in pursuing Democrats.

The House Judiciary Committee has 22 Democrats and
17 Republicans. The vote to confer immunity on
Ms. Goodling attracted considerable Republican support.

Mr. Waxman has made no secret of his eagerness to investigate
the Bush administration. “My goal is to conduct investigations
without subpoenas,” he said today. “But if we are stonewalled,
we can’t hesitate to use the power was have.”

The Waxman committee postponed consideration of two other
subpoenas, of the former White House chief of staff Andrew
H. Card Jr. and of documents related to contacts between
the White House and a federal contractor implicated in
bribery charges. Mr. Waxman said the White House had shown
some cooperation on those issues, so there was no immediate
need to seek subpoenas.

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18) For Indian Victims of Sexual Assault, a Tangled Legal Path
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/us/25rape.html?ref=us

As a Cherokee woman charging rape by a non-Indian, Jami Rozell
could not go to the tribal court, which handles only crimes
by Indians against Indians in Indian country. So after five
months of agonizing, she went to the district attorney in
Tahlequah, Okla., and testified at a preliminary hearing.

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, get up there in
front of my family with all these men I’ve grown up with
all my life,” said Ms. Rozell, now 25 and a first grade
teacher in another town. But that was not the worst of it.
The police, she said she was soon told, had cleaned up
the evidence room and thrown out her rape kit, and with
it all chances of prosecution.

However, Chief Stephen Farmer of the Tahlequah police
says the department had received permission to destroy
the evidence after Ms. Rozell initially declined to press
charges.

Human rights advocates say such troubled cases involving
Indian victims are common. And, American Indian women
are voicing growing anger at what they call their
disproportionate victimization in crimes of sexual
assault, most often committed by non-Indians, and
attitudes and laws that they say deter many from even
reporting an attack.

“Indian women suffer two and a half times more domestic
violence, three and a half times more sexual assaults,
and 17 percent will be stalked — and I’m a victim of
all three,” said Pauline Musgrove, executive director
of the Spirits of Hope Coalition, an advocacy group
in Oklahoma.

Now Amnesty International has taken up the issue,
calling on Congress to extend tribal authority to
all offenders on Indian land, not just Indians, and
to expand federal spending on Indian law enforcement
and health clinics.

In a report released yesterday, the American arm
of the organization said sexual violence against
American Indians had grown out of a long history
of “systematic and pervasive abuse and persecution.”

Chris Chaney, deputy director of the office of
justice services at the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
and a member of the Seneca-Cayuga tribe of Oklahoma,
said that Indians fell victim to crime at a higher
rate than members of any other ethnic group and
that domestic violence was on the rise because
of methamphetamine abuse.

But Mr. Chaney said that the bureau recognized the
problem and that the new federal budget proposed
an increase of $16 million to aid Indian law
enforcement agencies.

With just over 4 million American Indian and Alaska
Native people in 550 federally recognized tribes
scattered over Indian and non-Indian lands throughout
the United States, jurisdictional questions often
throw cases into limbo, Amnesty International found.
In cases where tribal courts have jurisdiction, they
can only impose punishments of up to a year in jail
and a $5,000 fine. The report cited Justice Department
figures suggesting that more than one in three American
Indian and Alaska Native women would be raped in their
lifetime, almost double the national average of 18 percent.

In 86 percent of the cases, the report said, the
perpetrators were non-Indian men, while in the population
at large, the attacker and victim are usually from
the same ethnic group.

Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International
USA, said the organization had been studying violence
against women worldwide “and then somebody said why
not look at what’s happening here.”

The 73-page report focused on Indian communities in
Alaska, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

Alaska has the highest incidence of forcible rapes
of all women, the report said, and Native Alaskans
in Anchorage were nearly 10 times more likely to be
victims of sexual assault than non-natives. Oklahoma’s
401,000 American Indians (according to 2005 Census
estimates that include people listing mixed racial
heritages) share 39 tribal governments and a patchwork
of Indian and non-Indian lands; there are no reservations
in Oklahoma, which is second only to California in
its Indian population.

At Help in Crisis, a shelter for Indian women and
their children in Tahlequah in eastern Oklahoma,
many told of suffering assaults, often by husbands,
without filing complaints.

Among them was Kendra Hunter, 25, who said she had
been raped by three white men who held her captive
for three days in 2001. Ms. Hunter said that she did
report it, but that police officers turned away the
complaint, saying that the sex was consensual and
that with three witnesses against her, there was
no chance of a case. “I had cigarette burns on me,
and they called it consensual,” she said.

Deana Franke, director of the shelter, showed off
an exercise room she had built for the women but added,
“I should be building a shooting range.”

Nearby in Tahlequah, at offices of the United Keetoowah
Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, the director,
Sonya K. Cochran, and two advocates, Lois Fuller and
Sue Gaytan, displayed the legal records of a local Indian
woman who complained of having been raped and sodomized
by a brother-and-sister team of attackers in Fort Smith,
Ark., in 2004, only to have the charges dropped after
a prosecutor said the woman had repeatedly missed court
dates. The woman contends she was in court.

Culturally, some advocates said, Indians, fearing
humiliation, are often reluctant to press a complaint,
seeing it as a test of faith or preferring to “let the
creator take care of it,” as one said.

The jurisdictional complexities were evident outside
the offices of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation in Shawnee.
A nearby fast-food drive-in stands on state land, the
north lane of the road is on city land and the south lane
is Potawatomi land, where Jason O’Neal, chief of the
Lighthorse Police of the Chickasaw Nation, has
jurisdiction.

Chief O’Neal said that increasingly, Indian and non-Indian
police departments are recognizing each other with cross-
designations of authority.

But even on Indian land, if a crime is committed by,
or suffered by, a non-Indian, federal law applies — except
in states (not including Oklahoma) where such jurisdiction
has been ceded to the state. Yet tribal courts enjoy
concurrent jurisdiction when the crime is committed by
an Indian, regardless of the victim, on Indian land. And
the federal government retains jurisdiction over 14 major
crimes, including rape, committed by Indians in Indian
country. Another problem is figuring out just who is an
Indian — an enrolled member of a tribe, for sure, and
less certainly, anyone a tribe considers Indian, but beyond
that definitions blur.

“I can’t get a U.S. attorney to take a domestic violence
case unless there’s severe physical harm or use of
a deadly weapon,” said Kelly Stoner, director of the
Native American Legal Resource Center at the Oklahoma City
University School of Law. “If you just knock a tooth out
it’s not enough.”

Renée Brewer, a child welfare and family violence counselor
at the Potawatomi Nation and a member of the Creek Muskogee
tribe, said she recently had four agencies arguing over
jurisdiction after a woman from the Absentee Shawnee Nation
called 911 to say she had been raped.

“The D.A. was so confused,” Ms. Brewer said. The woman
eventually left the state. And the accused rapist?
“Oh, he walked,” Ms. Brewer said.

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19) Group Proposes Detailed Plan to Reduce Poverty by Half
By ERIK ECKHOLM
April 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/25/us/25poverty.html

With a large increase in the minimum wage and a handful
of other measures to raise the income of low-end workers,
the United States could cut the number of people living
in poverty by half within a decade, a report from
a liberal research group says.

The antipoverty strategy, which would cost the government
$90 billion a year, was developed over the last year by
a group of economists, poverty experts and leaders of labor
and community groups. It is to be issued today by the Center
for American Progress in Washington. It is likely to be
a fount of ideas for Congress, where Democratic control
has led to new interest in fighting poverty and for
candidates, especially Democrats