TheSunNews.com: Politics - Wire

Study: Sotomayor tough on white-collar criminals

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:45 EDT

High court nominee Sonia Sotomayor typically handed out tougher prison sentences than her colleagues in the federal courthouse in Manhattan, especially to white-collar criminals, a new study says.

Nearly half the people Sotomayor sentenced for financial fraud and other white-collar crimes received at least 6 months in prison, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

By contrast, roughly one out of three white-collar convicts received similarly lengthy prison terms from the other trial judges in the Southern District of New York, the study found.

Senate votes to block release of detainee photos

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:42 EDT

The Senate has again voted to allow the Obama administration to refuse to release new photos showing U.S. personnel abusing detainees held overseas.

The move by Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman and South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham reprises a huge fight with House liberals during action on a war-funding bill enacted last month.

Lieberman and Graham's move is aimed at trumping a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking detainee abuse photos. A federal appeals court last month withdrew its order to release the images after a White House appeal. The president and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates say release of the photos could inflame anti-American sentiment and put U.S. troops at risk.

Drug czar says Jackson's death a wake-up call

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:36 EDT

The government's drug czar says that Michael Jackson's death is a wake-up call to the nation about prescription drug abuse.

Gil Kerlikowske, chief of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, says more people are dying in the United States from drug overdoses than from gunshot wounds.

Kerlikowske said Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show" that parents are the key to addressing the problem of misuse of prescription drugs.

Obama phones flu meeting to say get ready for fall

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:56 EDT

President Barack Obama is adding his personal call to states to get ready for a possible swine flu resurgence in the fall.

Obama telephoned the National Institutes of Health all the way from Italy Thursday to tell a meeting of 500 flu officials not to promote panic - but to make sure "we are promoting vigilance and preparation."

Saying the potential for a significant fall outbreak is looming, Obama said steps taken now to prepare are crucial to protect "our neighbors and our friends and co-workers."

Internet drug purchases included in spending bills

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:59 EDT

The Senate dealt a blow to the drug lobby Thursday by voting to permit people in the United States to order lower-cost drugs from Canada over the Internet.

The prescription drug plan, by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., passed the Senate by a 55-36 vote that added it to a $42.9 billion bill funding the Homeland Security Department. The Senate then approved the homeland security measure by a 84-6 vote Thursday night.

Critics said Vitter's amendment would open a gaping loophole that would expose people to Internet scams and unsafe drugs, but the allure of importing U.S.-made drugs from other countries where government policies have driven prices lower has long had a pull on lawmakers.

Senate votes to permit drug imports from Canada

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:18 EDT

People in the United States could get lower-cost drugs from Canada over the Internet under a plan that has passed the Senate.

The plan, sponsored by Louisiana Republican David Vitter and approved 55-36, dealt a defeat to the powerful drug lobby, which has so far prevailed in defeating widespread imports of drugs from Canada and other places where prices are far lower than in the United States.

Vitter's plan was attached to a bill funding the Customs Department and other homeland security agencies. It's unclear whether the idea will survive House-Senate talks on a final version of the bill.

Health care overhaul suffers another setback

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:54 EDT

The drive to remake the nation's health care system suffered yet another setback in Congress on Thursday when a pivotal group of House Democrats demanded changes in legislation the leadership was drafting on a fast track.

The emerging bill "lacks a number of elements essential to preserving what works and fixing what is broken," 40 members of the Blue Dog Coalition of moderate to conservative Democrats wrote party leaders. To win their support, they said, any legislation would need to be much more aggressive in reining in health care costs as well as in addressing a disparity in Medicare payments they said adversely affects rural providers.

A group of the moderates met into early evening with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and arranged to sit down with committee chairmen on Friday to go over proposed changes. Officials said the public release of the bill, originally set for Friday, would occur no earlier than Monday.

White House: Brazil should press Iran on nukes

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:21 EDT

The White House says it is counting on Brazil to help convince Iran that it must keep its nuclear activities peaceful.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that President Barack Obama noted Brazil's close trading ties with Iran when he met Thursday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Gibbs says Obama told Silva that the relationship between Brazil and Iran offers a unique opportunity to reiterate the G-8's stance on Iran.

The leaders meeting in Italy have said Iran must not seek to create nuclear weapons and must loosen restrictions on its news media.

GOP to call on firefighter Sotomayor ruled against

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:18 EDT

Republicans will use next week's high-profile Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to raise concerns about her record on race, gun rights and abortion while Democrats work to defend President Barack Obama's first high court choice as a mainstream judge who sticks to the law.

The two parties offered glimpses Thursday of their strategy going into the weeklong Judiciary Committee hearings that open Monday, announcing outside witnesses who will testify about Sotomayor. Republicans' list of 14 includes New Haven, Conn., firefighter Frank Ricci, a white employee whose reverse discrimination claim was rejected by Sotomayor in an appeals court decision.

Ricci challenged the city's decision to scrap the results of a promotion test because too few minorities scored high enough to qualify. Sotomayor was part of a panel that rejected Ricci's challenge. The Supreme Court reversed that ruling last week.

US worried that freed Iranians could pose threat

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:55 EDT

The State Department is worried that release of five Iranian officials suspected of aiding Shiite insurgents in Iraq could present a security threat to American troops there.

Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters that the U.S. released the five to the Iraqi government because it was obliged to do so under a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement that took effect several months ago. Whether they are now set free is up to the Iraqis.

He described the five Iranians as being "associated with" the Quds force, an element of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. U.S. officials believe the five were involved in training Iraqi militant groups.

AP sources: Burris won't run for full Senate term

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:18 EDT

Sen. Roland Burris, whose deep ties to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich seemed to doom his Senate tenure from the start, will not run for a full Senate term in 2010. The move increases Democrats' chances of holding on to the former Senate seat of President Barack Obama.

Burris has begun informing fellow Democrats about his decision and is expected to make an announcement on Friday, a Democratic official and a friend of Burris' told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Burris has yet to discuss his decision publicly.

Burris issued a press release on Thursday evening that said he planned a "major announcement" at an event in Chicago on Friday.

Swine flu shots at school: Bracing for fall return

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:33 EDT

U.S. swine flu vaccinations could begin in October with children among the first in line - at their local schools - the Obama administration said Thursday as the president and his Cabinet urged states to figure out now how they'll tackle the virus' all-but-certain resurgence.

"We may end up averting a crisis. That's our hope," said President Barack Obama, who took time away from the G-8 summit in Italy to telephone another summit back home - the 500 state and local health officials meeting to prepare for swine flu's fall threat.

No final decision has been made on whether to vaccinate Americans, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stressed. That depends largely on studies with experimental batches that are set to start the first week of August - to see if they're safe and seem to work and to learn whether they require one or two doses.

Hastert son running for Congress

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:54 EDT

The Illinois congressional seat that former House Speaker Dennis Hastert once held for 20 years may see a Hastert comeback.

Hastert's son, Ethan, is running as a Republican for the seat now held by Democratic Rep. Bill Foster, a former physicist who succeeded the elder Hastert after a special election early in 2008.

Ethan Hastert said Thursday he initially had no interest in becoming a congressman, but his view changed after watching the federal budget deficit balloon. He acknowledged that his father was often criticized, even by fellow Republicans, for helping to increase the deficit. He said he shares that frustration about deficits.

Obama urges poorer nations to fight global warming

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:01 EDT

President Barack Obama said Thursday the global recession makes it harder to strike an international agreement to battle dangerous temperature increases, but he urged the poor emerging economies that rejected specific clean-energy goals to "fight the temptation toward cynicism" and embrace them soon.

"There is no contradiction between environmentally sustainable growth and robust economic growth," Obama said at the conclusion of a forum of the world's 17 major economies, which account for about 80 percent of emissions of heat-trapping gases blamed for global warming. "We can either shape our future or we can let events shape it for us."

The Group of Eight nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - agreed at their summit in this central Italian town to a goal of cutting the world's greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, and emissions from their countries by 80 percent by then to help get there. But developing nations, invited to join the summit of their wealthier industrialized counterparts to talk climate change, refused to sign on for specific emissions-reductions targets for their own countries.

Poll: World has little confidence in leaders' economic measures

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:59 EDT

As President Barack Obama and other world leaders meet in Italy, a global survey released Thursday reflects wide concern that governments won't meet their budgets in this economic climate - and a universal preference to respond by cutting services rather than raising taxes.

What kinds of cuts? The top choices internationally in the Ipsos/McClatchy poll were reducing aid to foreign countries (57 percent) and cutting the salaries and benefits of government workers (56 percent). However, people drew a distinction between general foreign aid and disaster relief, which few wanted to reduce.

Cutting military spending was the third most popular choice (43 percent), though less popular in the United States, where only 35 percent favored it.

Keep them playing: Stimulus money aids orchestras

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:44 EDT

Dozens of orchestras around the nation can keep playing for now, kept in tune by federal stimulus dollars aimed at saving jobs.

The League of American Orchestras said Thursday that the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded 64 orchestras one-time grants of $25,000 or $50,000 to preserve administrative and artistic jobs at risk of being eliminated amid the recession.

The money will also help save summer concerts and education programs, said the league, which is tracking the stimulus money heading to orchestras.

Pelosi shuts down resolution on Michael Jackson

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:45 EDT

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shut the door Thursday to a resolution honoring Michael Jackson because debate on the symbolic measure could raise "contrary views" about the pop star's life.

Lawmakers are free to use House speeches "to express their sympathy or their praise any time that they wish," said Pelosi, D-Calif. "I don't think it's necessary for us to have a resolution."

A resolution sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, cites some of the singer's charitable acts and proclaims him an American legend, musical icon and world humanitarian.

US admiral: NKorea threats could spark arms race

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:35 EDT

President Barack Obama's choice to lead U.S. forces in the Pacific warned Thursday that North Korea's missile and nuclear threats could spark an arms race in Asia.

Admiral Robert Willard also told senators at his confirmation hearing that China's huge military buildup remains a serious worry for the U.S. military.

North Korea's recent missile and nuclear tests and belligerent rhetoric aimed at the United States, Japan and South Korea have had northeast Asia on edge for months.

NYC school nurse recounts swine flu triage

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:00 EDT

The line of sick students outside school nurse Mary Pappas' door was too long. So she thrust thermometers and a pad of Post-It notes at a security guard: Take their temperatures and slap the numbers on their chests.

That was key to the triage the fateful April day that swine flu hit New York City's Saint Francis Preparatory School, site of the nation's most explosive school outbreak.

"I sent home 102 children that first day," Pappas said. As the only nurse in a school of 2,700, "you're it in a medical emergency."

HUD releases $1.2B in stimulus funds for homeless

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:00 EDT

The Housing and Urban Development Department is using $1.2 billion in stimulus money to fight homelessness in hundreds of locations across the country.

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced Thursday that cash from the Recovery Act will be distributed to more than 500 cities, counties and communities. The money will be used for rent relief, housing relocation and stabilization services, data collection and administrative costs.

"This program serves as a bridge to long-term stability for those who, without assistance, would be homeless," Donovan said on a conference call with reporters.