World News // Current

Obama to name Richardson as Commerce Dept head

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama is expected to nominate New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to head the Commerce... more

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Oil falls to 3-year low on bleak US economic news of Recession

SINGAPORE – Oil prices fell to a 3-year low below $48 a barrel Tuesday in Asia, as more bleak U.S. economic news and... more

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RAYMONDVILLE, Texas – A judge dismissed indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Monday and told the southern Texas prosecutor who brought the case to exercise caution as his term in office ends.

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra had accused Cheney and the other defendants of responsibility for prisoner abuse. The judge's order ended two weeks of sometimes-bizarre court proceedings.

Guerra is leaving office at the end of the month after soundly losing in his March primary election.

"I suggest on behalf of the law that you not present any cases to the grand jury involving these defendants," Administrative Judge Manuel Banales said in court while ruling that eight indictments against Cheney, Gonzales and others were invalid.

He also set a Dec. 10 hearing on whether to disqualify Guerra from those cases.

Even in defeat, Guerra saw the outcome as confirmation of the very conspiracy he had pursued. "I expected it," he said. "The system is going to protect itself."

Banales withheld judgment on whether probable cause existed for the Cheney and Gonzales indictments because they were not represented in court and did not present any argument. For the other defendants, he found no probable cause to support the charges.

A White House spokeswoman said Monday night that Cheney's office had no comment. A call to Gonzales' attorney was not immediately returned.

Three of the eight indictments returned Nov. 17 targeted private prison operator The GEO Group, state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., Cheney and Gonzales, as part of an investigation into prisoner abuse at privately run federal prisons in the county.

Guerra ran the investigation into alleged prisoner abuse with a siege mentality. He worked it from his home, dubbed it "Operation Goliath" and kept it secret from his staff, he said. He gave all the witnesses biblical pseudonyms — his was "David."

Banales dismissed all eight indictments because GEO Group attorney Tony Canales showed that two alternate jurors were part of the panel that day but had not been properly substituted.

Five of the indictments — against two district judges, two special prosecutors and the district clerk — were dismissed because Guerra was the alleged victim, witness and prosecutor. The indictments accused the five of abusing their power by being involved in a previous investigation of Guerra.RAYMONDVILLE, Texas – A judge dismissed indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto... more

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12 hours ago

World AIDS Day 2008: To Respect and Protect

Today, December 1st, is the 20th annual World AIDS Day, a day when individuals and organizations from around the world come... more

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19 hours ago

Cheney, Gonzales indictments dropped

A judge in Raymondville, Texas has dropped indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto... more

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19 hours ago

Don’t Forget To Blame Yourself!

When I decided to do some research into the definition of responsibility I ran across Wikipedia and found this line.... more

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15 responses

1 day ago

The Destruction of Free Trade in North America:

Distinguishing Rhetoric from Actual Policy Under NAFTA The United States is traditionally well known for its steadfast belief... more

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9 responses

1 day ago

Bush Administration: Transition or Coup D'état?

and so let the cover-ups begin....

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During the transition period there is a silent coup d'état occurring inside the federal government in the form of last-minute firings and dubious personnel placements. The easy response to this practice is: "That always happens during the transition period and it isn't even newsworthy. That's how Washington works - always has, always will." Perhaps, but considering how pervasively the Bush administration has flouted every branch of government, from ignoring Congressional subpoenas, to ignoring Supreme Court rulings, to violating the Geneva Conventions, to profuse and legally feeble signing statements - it's clear that embedding operatives loyal to the party and policies jettisoned by the voters in the election is tantamount to laying mines throughout the government.

Also see :
Triumph, but Also Vulnerability •

As if this isn't enough, while the outgoing administration lays mine fields to sabotage President-elect Obama's initiatives that could threaten the status quo, it is also terminating outstanding federal employees whom the current administration can assume, correctly, would be supportive of the new president's policies. In the case of Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, who received her Notice of Proposed Removal from the Environmental Protection Agency on October 30, 2008, the message is clear: remove the person who has demonstrated like no other person within the EPA a determination to ensure that what the agency protects is the environment (as opposed to the corporations and other interests whose practices harm the environment but yield staggering profits) - and a chilling effect on other conscientious workers will have been achieved. Dr. Coleman-Adebayo's landmark court victory in Coleman-Adebayo v. Browner (former EPA Administrator Carol Browner,) represents the most serious challenge the status quo has ever seen. Thus, decapitate the head and the uncontrolled beast of conscientious federal workers will fall. Last week, this particular purge prompted a letter to beleaguered outgoing EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson from Congressional Liaison to the White House Chris Van Hollen, urging reconsideration of Dr. Coleman-Adebayo's firing, and the postponement of any further action until the transition is complete.

cont.....and so let the cover-ups begin.... ... more

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1 day ago

Obama, Ask the Kremlin about Gates

Robert Gates during a confirmation hearing for his nomination to be CIA director in 1987. (Photo: Paul Hosefros / The New York... more

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1 day ago

Nine headless bodies found in Mexican 'drug war' city

Nine decapitated bodies were discovered on Sunday in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, a hot spot in an increasingly gruesome... more

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1 day ago

Ten top wine choices for Christmas gifts

A bottle of wine says so much more about the giver than a pair of socks or a tie: and it's bound to be the right size... ... more

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1 day ago

Israel Approves Prisoner Release

Mr Olmert promised to release prisoners earlier this month The Israeli cabinet has approved the release of 250 Palestinian... more

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1 day ago

Expert: Small Ark. Earthquakes Could be Warning

- A series of small earthquakes that rattled central Arkansas in recent weeks could be a sign of something much bigger to come.

By this weekend, seismologists hope to install three measurement devices to gather data about future temblors in the area. That information could show whether the rumbles come from heat-related geological changes or from an undiscovered fault - which could mean a risk of substantial earthquakes in the future.

"The potential for generating a high-magnitude earthquake is real," said Haydar Al-Shukri, director of the Arkansas Earthquake Center at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Five earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 2.2 to 2.7 have hit central Arkansas this month. Quakes with a magnitude of 2.5 to 3 are typically the smallest felt by people.

While hundreds of earthquakes occur each year, including several in Arkansas, the location of the recent ones give Al-Shukri pause. Arkansas quakes generally occur in the state's northeast corner, part of the New Madrid Seismic Zone, where three temblors with magnitudes of around 8 struck during the winter of 1812 and smaller ones continue today.

But central Arkansas does not have any seismic history, Al-Shukri said.

"It is abnormal. It is significant," he said. "We need to carefully watch this activity."

The area does not have any permanent seismograph, so researchers asked the University of Memphis in Tennessee if they could use its portable equipment. The nearest seismographs aren't close enough to provide the detailed readings scientists need to determine what could be causing the tremors or properly locate their origin, said Scott Ausbrooks, the geohazard supervisor for the Arkansas Geological Survey.

"I don't know if you've looked at a map of where these events are located, but they've got a scatter on them," he said. "We're thinking this is probably the inherited error built in when you try to locate events of this small a magnitude from that far away."

Ausbrooks said officials would install the three seismographs around Magnet Cove, a Hot Spring County community near where a magnitude-2.7 earthquake hit on Nov. 1. Residents told police dispatchers they heard what sounded like an explosion.

One possible culprit could be a hydrothermal quake, caused by extremely hot fluid pushing into rocks under the surface. The hot fluid percolates into the cracks of the rocks and causes movement, Al-Shukri said.

cont....- A series of small earthquakes that rattled central Arkansas in recent weeks could be a sign of something much bigger to come. ... more

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1 day ago

What Constitution?

There is an open letter from the We The People Foundation to Mr. Barack Obama that will appear in the Chicago Tribune on December... more

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2 days ago

Arctic Sea ice is at an all-time low

This image shows Markham Fiord, in August, after the Markham Ice Shelf broke away. "In the last couple of years, Arctic Sea... more

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2 days ago

Creating a Memory Device Out of Paper

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As technology continues to shrink, and as memory needs become more demanding, the industry dealing with microelectronics requires devices that are cost-efficient and lightweight. And, while organic materials have shown some promise, they still lack some of the essential qualities needed for application in a wide variety of fields. “The longest time that has lasted from organic memories,” Rodrigo Martins tells PhysOrg.com, “is about 5,000 seconds. This just doesn’t allow for practical use in many cases as a memory device.”

What we are doing is exploiting the memory effect,” Martins explains. “We have a sort of type of integrated foam composed of fibers set up that increases the capability of storing carriers – or charges – in our paper.” These charges allow the paper to display information that is also erasable – and the paper is rewritable so that additional information can be added.

One of the attractive features of this memory paper is that it is produced at room temperature, meaning that it does not need special conditions for its manufacture. To create the paper, long fibers from pine and polyester were mixed together and put into an ionic resin matrix. The fibers were then coated with gallium indium zinc oxide, using magnetron sputtering. “We have integrated discrete fibers, and contacts are applied on the extremes of the channel region to allow the induced carriers to move,” Martins says. “Electrons move along the fibers.”

Martins points out that another of the attractive features of this paper is its ability to hold multiple layers of information. “If I want my paper to catch information,” he explains, “I can apply a signal of, say, five volts. And it writes on the paper. If I want to erase the information, I basically apply minus five volts – the opposite. But, at the same time, I can write another layer of information using 10 volts. The paper can distinguish between the two, and even if I erase the five volt information, the 10 volt information remains.”

cont.....“ As technology continues to shrink, and as memory needs become more demanding, the industry dealing with microelectronics... more