Friday, Dec 06th
Last update02:23:27 AM GMT
Domestic Glance
Jack A. Abramoff, the once-powerful Republican super-lobbyist, was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for his role in a corruption scandal that rocked Congress and the Bush administration.
The sentence was far below the 121 months that Abramoff could have received under federal sentencing guidelines but more than either the Justice Department or his lawyers had requested.
TVNL Comment: Watch for the Presidential Pardon. Crime Pays!
In a statement released this afternoon, the NAHJ called on "police and local and federal officials to respect the First Amendment right to free speech and free press of journalists doing their job, especially as it relates to coverage of recent political conventions and the surrounding public protests. Reporters have a duty and a constitutional right to be present at sometimes volatile events and situations, and to inform the public."
"In this era of new technology and broader participation in citizen and independent journalism, it may become increasingly difficult for police to tell journalists from those who are not," the NAHJ statement continued. "But police must be aware it is their duty to try, and to respect the role of the press in a democracy.
A retired professor of electrical engineering at the University of Tennessee was convicted on Wednesday of violating U.S. arms export controls and passing sensitive data to a Chinese national, the U.S. Justice Department said.
The professor, Reese Roth, is a plasma scientist who was hired to work on a U.S. Air Force research contract by privately held firm, Atmospheric Glow Technologies Inc, of Knoxville, Tennessee.
The United States won the most medals of any country at the summer Olympic Games in Beijing, but it turned in a dismal performance at the Education Olympics. Americans took home only one medal from those games, for an embarrassing 20th-place finish, ahead of only Germany, Hungary, and Iceland. The top medal winners across all 58 education events were Finland (35 medals), Hong Kong (33 medals), and Singapore (16 medals).
Abuse of "probable cause holds" shows the importance of habeus corpus protections.
The 6 activists arrested during police raids in advance of the Republican National Convention are being held without charge by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office, the Minnesota Independent reports.
The arrestees are being held on probable cause holds. These holds give the authorities 36 hours to charge them or let them go. Holds are typically used to give investigators more time to gather evidence before filing formal charges.
"The thing is," he continued, "most people don't have cars to leave, don't have money for gas. Pay for a hotel for that long? I mean, you have to do whatever you have to do, and I guess I'm gonna stay and work."
Across town in the 9th Ward, a neighborhood decimated by Katrina, Sidney William climbs slowly out of his truck. He's 49 but moves like he's 20 years older.
"My legs hurt; my feet hurt a lot," he said. "It's not easy."
William wants desperately to leave his native New Orleans to avoid Gustav. He didn't leave for Katrina because he didn't have the money. He won't talk about what happened to him during that storm.
"I wish I had the money to go." Rejected for disability subsidies, he depends on his 23-year-old daughter, Gloria, to support the family.
TVNL Comment: America the beautiful. Right win Christians, you know the people who are taught to be merciful, believe that desperate people should not receive help from their government. They don't believe in entitlements. How Christian.
Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets.
TVNL Comment: Tell me again how we live in a democracy. Tell me how this is not a police state.
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