The ACLU, which has sued to overturn retroactive immunity for telephone companies that illegally cooperated with the Bush administration’s domestic surveillance program, appeared to receive support Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, according to Wired. Vaughn said that the law being challenged gave “attorney general carte blanche to immunize anyone” and was unprecedented. The trial began yesterday in San Francisco. (Wired)
President Bush issued an executive order Tuesday loosening the regulation of coal mining waste, a decision that was quickly condemned by environmentalists. Miners had lobbied heavily for the change, but greens say the new rule will endanger “mountains, forests and streams throughout Appalachia.” The new law is one of a series of “midnight orders” issued by the president, many of which loosen environmental or labor standards.(New York Times)
Give credit where it’s due. The CEOs of Ford, GM, and Chrysler said Tuesday they would accept $1 salaries in return for federal bailout funds. (Ford CEO Alan Mulally told the Wall Street Journal earlier, “I think I’m ok where I am.”) Two weeks ago, the auto executives retreated home with their tails between their legs after their decision to fly private jets to Washington doomed their bid for federal funds. This time they drove or flew commercial. (CNN)
Nearly 1,000 workers for a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military protested their conditions Tuesday, saying they have been living without pay in warehouses near the Baghdad airport. The living conditions of the men, who are from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, “appear to violate guidelines the U.S. military handed down in 2006 that urged contractors to deter human trafficking to the war zone by shunning recruiters that charged excessive fees,” reports McClatchy. (McClatchy)
President-elect Barack Obama meets today with high-ranking retired military officials, who will ask him to end the Bush administration’s interrogation practices. The Bush administration has asserted that the CIA can use harsh tactics including sleep deprivation and waterboarding. (AP)
Two American soldiers were investigated Tuesday for “detainee abuse” at a hearing held in Afghanistan by the U.S. military. (New York Times)
Naji Hemdan, a Muslim American who is the subject of an ACLU lawsuit claiming that the U.S. used the Abu Dhabi prison system to detain and torture him on terrorism charges, got a phone call through to his brother Tuesday. Hemdan told his brother, Hossam, that the torture –including serious beating and sleep deprivation — had been used to extract a false confession. (McClatchy)
Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday alleging that at least five candidates, in addition to failed GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, used campaign funds to buy clothes. During the campaign, the impeccably turned-out Palin received flack for the GOP’s purchase of thousands of dollars of fancy duds, which the Alaska governor then promised to return. The fashion police points the finger at Reps. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) and Rob Andrews (D-NJ),GOP candidates Bill Dew of Utah and William Breazeale of North Carolina, and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr. None of their expenses come close to Palin’s $150,000. (AP)
Chicago fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko, convicted in June on corruption charges, will be sentenced Jan. 6. The six-month delay had led to speculation that Rezko was cooperating with the government, which is investigating corruption throughout the Illinois state government, in an effort to lessen his punishment. Rezko, who also faces trial for allegedly bilking $10 million from General Electric Corp., was a top contributor to Barack Obama’s Illinois campaigns for Senate and state legislature. He did not give during the presidential race. (AP)
Prosecutors added charges Tuesday to the indictment of former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, Bush’s Secretary for Homeland Security candidate until revelations of dodgy 2000 tax returns and an avalanche of muck buried his bid. The new indictment accuses Kerik of falsely reporting tax returns in 2002 and 2005. Kerik has pleaded not guilty and will go to trial in Jan. (AP)
New York Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel fired back at the New York Times Monday for a story it published last week reporting that he had helped retain a tax loophole even as one of the law’s primary beneficiaries helped finance a school supported by the lawmaker. A spokesman for the Ways and Means Committee, which Rangel chairs, said the Times “repeatedly ignored facts and statements provided by tax policy experts that Chairman Rangel played no role in defending this tax loophole.” The Times did not comment. Rangel is already the subject of an ethics committee investigation into unreported income on a Caribbean villa and dealings with low-rent apartments in New York. (Politico)
