Authorities suspend licence of jailed journalists' lawyer
Pays/Sujet: ChinaDate: 01 mars 2005Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Personne(s): Shi Tao, Zhang Lin, Huang JinqiuCible(s): journaliste(s) , cyberdissident(s) Type(s) d'infraction(s): emprisonnement Niveau de priorité: Menace
(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is a CPJ press release:
CHINA: Authorities suspend license of lawyer for jailed journalists
New York, March 1, 2005 - Authorities in Shanghai have suspended the law license of Guo Guoting, defense attorney for three jailed journalists as well as a number of other dissidents and members of the Falun Gong religious sect. The suspension throws into question the defense of imprisoned writers Shi Tao, Zhang Lin and Huang Jinqiu.
http://www.ifex.org/fr/content/view/full/65030?PHPSESSID=
1036
The 'out of control' egos of the Duke La Crosse team.
1038
The President and Page County
by Karen Kwiatkowskiby Karen Kwiatkowski
More precisely, this story could be called "The President’s Youngest Brother, Marvin Bush, and a Trail of Corrupt Government Officials from Page County, Virginia to Richmond."
For most people, Page County, in the Shenandoah Valley, is a lovely and tranquil place. For others, Page County is a criminal profit center, humming with illegal activity. As a result of this illegal activity, George Bush’s favorite brother is owed $34 million by the residents of Page County. And so far he’s getting his money, every damn penny of it.
Marvin Bush is partner and co-founder of the venture capital firm, Winston Partners, out of McLean, Virginia. Marvin’s company purchased Tellurian, the Page County’s waste management and landfill operator.
In Page County, companies like Tellurian were symbolized by the 18-wheelers that arrived around the clock laden with high-value garbage from out-of-state.
The permit for the Battle Creek landfill allows for 250 tons of garbage per day. The expected carry capacity for an 18-wheeler is about 20 tons, so 250 tons a day would bring a dozen big trucks every day into the Battle Creek facility.
Seriously folks, you can’t make money like that! So an under-the-counter deal was made between some Page County supervisors and Tellurian to illegally accept delivery of 1,500 tons/day at the Battle Creek landfill. The DEQ in Richmond, the Governor’s office (at the time this was Governor Mark Warner, now a 2008 Democratic presidential aspirant, and his Republican Attorney General Jerry Kilgore) and others were aware of the deal. 1,500 tons! That’s six-dozen big trucks a day, and the over-dumping began.
An illegal "amendment" to the Page County contract with Tellurian – increasing the garbage deliveries to 1,500 tons a day – was physically signed by the local County supervisors on 14 December 2001. Within hours of this illegal amendment, Tellurian was purchased by Winston Partners. Several months later, Tellurian was renamed National Waste Services of Virginia. Over-dumping continued, with help from the Virginia DEQ and the governor’s office for nearly two years.
After two years, the Battle Creek landfill was closed – not for felonious and fraudulent over-dumping by 600% – but instead for minor reasons that would be easily overturned in court, including failure to cover the garbage daily with only one inch of dirt instead of two, too-steep gradients, and the odd missing storm drain.
Upon the closure of the landfill, Marvin Bush’s NWS sued Page County supervisors. The lawsuit alleged that the closure violated the contract and had pushed NWS into bankruptcy. Even though Page County had the right to end the contract without penalty at any time, Page County supervisors agreed not only to have the County’s taxpayers clean up the environmental mess made at the Battle Creek Landfill, but for them to pay NWS’s landfill related debts.
Marvin Bush owed another company, Capitol Source, $34 million as a result of the alleged bankruptcy of NWS. Even though the court imposed no criminal or civil penalties, the settlement agreement deemed that Marvin Bush would receive $34 million, and that he would receive Battle Creek landfill profits until the debt is totally paid.
The general saga has been reported here and here. It is also well known to federal investigators.
In sum, Page County is handing over the first $34 million of profits from the recently re-opened Battle Creek landfill to Marvin Bush. Presumably, the bribes paid by NWS and Winston Partners to the various government officials – both Democrat and Republican – are covered by the $34 million.
One would think that this is enough criminality for local and state government. But there’s more! It is a Class IV felony – a crime – to falsify County financial records. Yet, according to the Page County Treasurer, the County financial records do not show the huge debt to Winston Partners. This debt, and the destination of years of future profits from the Page County landfill, remains hidden from taxpayers.
It is all so unnecessary. But it is a taste of the big city out here in the country. It is mafia politics in action, from the least of them in the 2001 and 2002 membership of the Page County Board of Supervisors, to the greatest of them in and near the White House.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski150.html
1042
It's time for "The Preacher Feature." Boy, I sure don't want to be a nun, do you?
More stuff.
1058
A fighter enraged by the racism of the US
Malcolm X
Kerri Parke opens our new series on Malcolm X by looking at his political development
More than 40 years after his death, Malcolm X is as relevant as he was in the 1960s. He remains a revered figure of defiance against all forms of racist oppression, especially among young people.
Young Muslim men can certainly identify with him. In fact, I’m sure if he were alive today the powers that be would be accusing him of being a terrorist.
So how did he go from his ordinary life in Michigan, US, to become one of the leading icons of the black civil rights movement?
He was born Malcolm Little in 1925, into intense poverty. He soon experienced the deep racism of US society.
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=8715
1100
More than one kind of racism
By Don Erler
Special to the Star-Telegram
Way back in the bad old days, state-supported racism was easy to detect. Jim Crow laws put the official sanction of government behind a pair of principles: Black folks are inferior and should be kept segregated from superior whites.
But well over half a century ago, our Congress, executive branch and courts began to dismantle such "de jure" racism. In the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case, for example, the Supreme Court declared: "Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
Yet earlier this month, the Nebraska Legislature voted to divide Omaha's public schools into three districts, one each dominated by African-Americans, Hispanics and whites.
That state's only black senator, Ernie Chambers, said that the plan would give minorities control over their own school boards. He noted that there "is no intent to create segregation."
Although this proposal will -- as it should -- almost certainly fall to court challenges, it is not as loony as it initially sounds. Chambers observed that because students attend neighborhood schools and because most neighborhoods are ethnically cohesive, Omaha's schools are already segregated. He thinks that letting each major group control its own educational resources could improve education for minorities.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/14422784.htm
1112
Legislature Votes For Ten Commandments
OKLAHOMA CITY (April 25, 2006) - Members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives approved legislation today that would give state support to counties that display the Ten Commandments on public property.
Senate Bill 1878, by state Sen. Harry Coates (R-Seminole) and state Rep. Kevin Calvey, would allow the state Attorney General to defend counties from lawsuits challenging public display of the Ten Commandments.
"The Ten Commandments has been one of the most important foundations of civilized law for centuries, but a few zealots want that information suppressed because of religious bigotry," said Calvey, R-Del City. "Senate Bill 1878 simply ensures that fringe groups filing lawsuits aren't allowed to restrict the free speech rights of all Oklahomans."
Provisions of Senate Bill 1878 developed by state Sen. James Williamson, R-Tulsa, would allow county commissioners to approve the display of the Ten Commandments on county property after having been advised by the Office of the District Attorney or the Office of the Attorney General how to do so in a constitutional manner, and would allow the state Attorney General to defend counties from lawsuits challenging such a display.
The legislation also allows money from the state's General Revenue Fund to go to district attorneys to cover the costs of defending legal challenges to displays of the Ten Commandments on public property when the Attorney General declines to provide the legal defense.
http://www.ksbitv.com/home/2691726.html
1117
Courts to decide if state can fund Baptist school's pharmacy project
By Jack Brammer and Frank Lockwood
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITERS
Fletcher takes veto pen to $370 million in projects
Partial list of budget cuts FRANKFORT — Gov. Ernie Fletcher will not veto $10 million for a pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands, but the said no money will be used on the project until courts determine if it’s constitutional for state dollars to go to the Baptist school.
Fletcher, on statewide television tonight, said, “I believe we need to answer once and for all in Kentucky the legality of funding private faith-based institutions for public purposes.”
The issue of state funding for private, religious schools grew more intense after the school expelled student Jason Johnson because he said on a Web site that he was gay. The Kentucky Fairness Alliance, which promotes gay rights, had urged Fletcher to veto.
“I think (Gov. Fletcher) chose to fund bigotry and discrimination rather than to promote equality throughout Kentucky,” Johnson said.
He said he was upset with Fletcher’s decision, “not only as a taxpayer, as a citizen of Kentucky.”
Although Fletcher said he would not veto the money, the school apparently won’t get it immediately.
“Before any money is released to the institution, I’m asking the courts to determine the constitutionality of such projects,” Fletcher said.
Senate President David Williams, who had placed in the state budget $10 million for the pharmacy school and $1 million for scholarships there, said he did not think Fletcher’s decision was bad. The legislature approved the budget last month.
A Fletcher veto yesterday would have removed the $11 million from the state budget.
Williams, R-Burkesville, noted that Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort, and the Fairness Alliance were planning to challenge the funding in court.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/14419705.htm
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BIRMINGHAM, AL, United States (UPI) -- The former leader of Aruba`s investigation of the disappearance of Alabamian Natalee Holloway says his son falsely accused a man who was released Monday.
Gerold Dompig said accusations of his son, Michael, against Geoffrey van Cromvoirt, 19, were part of a dispute among acquaintances that escalated out of control.
'He`s a kid; he got confused and frustrated and he said things he shouldn`t have said,' Dompig told the Birmingham (Ala.) News. 'It went too far.'
Dompig said his son -- angered by media accusations -- responded with talk he had heard about van Cromvoirt.
'One started talking about the other and the other talked back and it becomes something worse than a soap (opera),' Dompig said.
Dompig said he apologized to van Cromvoirt`s family and requested reassignment earlier this month since talk about Holloway`s nearly year-old disappearance adversely affected his family.
Holloway`s mother said she believes the three original suspects are at fault in Holloway`s disappearance.
enough