Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne spent up to $235,000 of taxpayer money on renovations to his office bathroom, the Washington Post reports. The General Services Administration approved the project because the office is in a government building and renovations to aging plumbing would have to have been made eventually. Additions included a shower, refrigerator and freezer, and monogrammed towels. (Washington Post)
The corruption trial of state Sen. Vincent Fumo of Pennsylvania continued Monday with new testimony regarding solicitations made to a phone company. The retired head of Verizon Pennsylvania alleged that Fumo had delivered a list of $50 million worth of demands during deregulation negotiations. Fumo has been indicted on 139 counts of corruption. (Associated Press)
A federal judge has renewed the case of an Islamic charity suing the government over illegal wiretaps. Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation had originally been barred from filing the case due to national security interests but says it now has enough access to evidence to prove it was potentially the target of surveillance under the Terrorist Surveillance Program. The Saudi Arabian charity is currently listed as a terrorist organization. (Associated Press)
The constitutionality of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to be reviewed by a federal appeals court in February. The Oregon court will review a 2007 ruling that found the act to be unconstitutional after it was challenged by an American man falsely connected to the 2004 terror attacks in Madrid, Spain. (Federation of American Scientists)
A new ruling by a federal appeals court in Manhattan allows the government to conceal the identities of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay in the event that they claim abuse. A three-judge panel decided that detainees and their families have an interest in their privacy. The ruling essentially accepts the government’s argument that revealing identities could result in harm. (Associated Press)
The National Archives will be tested by the volume of records to be transferred from the Bush administration to its files, Archives officials say. More importantly, the integrity of the transfer has come into question as the Archives admits that there is no way to know for sure that all appropriate and eligible documents have been turned over. (Federation of American Scientists)
A former detainee at Guantanamo Bay detailed his captivity to the New York Times, describing both rendition and torture at the hands of the CIA. Muhammad Saad Iqbal claims that he was beaten and sleep deprived for six months, among other interrogation methods. After five years at Guantanamo, the detainee was released without ever being charged with a crime. (New York Times)
Seven New York hospitals have been accused of fraudulently billing Medicaid for over $50 million dollars. The hospitals claimed that their detox services were part of a government treatment program, despite not having the required state licenses.(Associated Press)
