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CORRUPTION UPDATES 63 Late May, Early June 2007: Draft Posting: Stay Tuned for More! The CORRUPTION UPDATES posts corruption news stories from California, the Nation and the World, and gives you the straight story. |
CORRUPTION UPDATES 63
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1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
Delta pumps halted
If shutdown is long, agencies may order conservation or rationing.
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDTFriday, June 1, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/201715.html
California water officials on Thursday halted water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta after rising numbers of a rare fish, the Delta smelt, were sucked to their deaths in the pumps.
State Department of Water Resources officials said the action is expected to last seven to 10 days, until water conditions allow the fish to move to safer areas. Shortages are not expected for the 25 million Californians who get water from the Delta.
But if the shutdown lasts longer, some water agencies, mainly in the Bay Area, may have to impose mandatory conservation or rationing measures. Many have called on customers to adopt extra voluntary conservation steps amid what is already one of the driest years on record in the state.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also has shut down all but one of the six pumps at its separate, federal Delta water export facility, an unprecedented step.
"We have never been in the situation we are right now," said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken.
Bureau engineers are working to further cut the flow while still sending enough water downstream to keep Tracy from running dry. The city takes about half its supply from the bureau's San Luis Canal.
This may be the first time state water exports have been halted to protect fish. The pumps were last silenced in 2004, and only for a couple of days, to protect water quality after a levee break in the Delta.
The smelt is a translucent, minnow-like fish that has little commercial or recreational value. But it is a fragile fish that lives for only one year. It is extremely sensitive to water quality, so it is considered a strong indicator of the health of the entire Delta.
The smelt has been in a steep decline for three years, along with other species that share similar habitat, including striped bass, threadfin shad and longfin smelt. Biologists have been unable to explain the decline, but blame a combination of water exports, water contamination, and competition from wildlife not native to Delta waters.
Politicians and biologists have struggled unsuccessfully for years to balance the competing needs of wildlife and water users, and it has become increasingly clear that a balance cannot be struck given how the Delta is used today.
"Given the numbers, I think it's clear the courts would have stepped in and turned the pumps off if they hadn't voluntarily turned them off," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
Jennings said his group planned next week to seek a restraining order against state pumping operations to protect the smelt.
About 2 million people in the Bay Area depend on that water for part of their supply. The East Bay cities of Livermore, Pleasanton and Dublin are most vulnerable, with as much as 80 percent of their drinking water coming from the Delta through their wholesaler, the Zone 7 Water Agency, which is ramping up wells and planning conservation measures.
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Assembly could vote again on phthalates in baby, toddler products.
By Jim Sanders - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDTWednesday, May 30, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/v-print/story/198562.html
Legislation to ban a potentially hazardous chemical from children's toys, teethers and other child-care products was rejected Tuesday by the California Assembly.
The measure, Assembly Bill 1108, would have prohibited phthalates from teethers, pacifiers, rubber duckies, plastic play books and other products designed for children younger than 3.
The Assembly voted twice on the measure Tuesday. The final tally was 36-31, five votes short of the majority needed for passage.
Most Republicans opposed the bill, but the fatal blow was dealt by 11 Democrats, most of them moderates, who abstained from voting.
AB 1108 was sponsored by Environment California and supported by numerous environmental groups. Opponents included the American Chemistry Council.
The European Union, Japan, France, Germany, Greece, Austria and various other countries have banned or placed partial prohibitions on use of phthalates in child-care products.
In California, numerous companies and retail outlets, including Disney and Wal-Mart, voluntarily have opted not to produce or sell children's products containing phthalates, Ma said.
Scientific studies on animals have linked phthalates to testicular injury, liver injury and liver cancer, according to a legislative analysis of AB 1108.
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'96 Migden accident recalled
State worker says her car was totaled and the lawmaker, who's been in recent driving trouble, was uncaring.
By John Hill - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDTWednesday, May 30, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/v-print/story/198560.html
State Sen. Carole Migden, who rear-ended a car this month after being seen driving erratically on Interstate 80, was involved in another accident in a state vehicle 11 years ago when she ran a stop sign near the Capitol, according to the woman whose car was hit.
Teresa Latham, a tax technician at the state Board of Equalization, said she still harbors bitter feelings about the accident that totaled the car she had paid off eight months earlier.
She said Migden barely spoke to her and didn't seem worried about her welfare after Latham's car was spun onto O Street from 15th Street, causing the air bag to go off.
On May 18, Migden rear-ended a car on Highway 12 in Solano County, slightly injuring the driver. Migden's office first said that she had been answering her cell phone at the time.
She appeared confused after the accident, a witness said. The California Highway Patrol ruled out the possibility that she was under the influence of alcohol with a field sobriety screening. The CHP has not yet issued the results of its investigation into the crash.
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Fundraiser's timing questioned
S.F. lawmaker holds event a day before panel he chairs will deal with billions in spending.
By Jim Sanders - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDTThursday, May 31, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/v-print/story/200161.html
Assemblyman Mark Leno sparked ethical questions Wednesday by holding a $1,000-per-person fundraising event just one day before the committee he chairs decides the fate of more than 600 bills totaling $8 billion in spending.
Carmen Balber, of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, said the group is pushing legislation in Leno's committee to slow health insurance rate hikes.
"You have to raise the question: Is health-insurer money that goes into that fundraiser going to influence whether or not that bill (survives)?" Balber asked.
Leno, as chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, works closely with Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez in determining which of more than 600 spending-related bills will die without an Assembly floor vote.
The panel, dominated by Democrats, will reveal its decisions today in a flurry of roll-call votes on its "suspense file," which contains bills calling for new state spending of $150,000 or more.
Leno is not the first leader of the Appropriations Committee to spark complaints about ill-timed fundraising.
Migden, who held the Assembly post several years ago, was known to hold midday fundraisers on the very day that votes were cast. She did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
"Over the years that I've been in Sacramento, I've been one of the top fundraisers for the (Democratic) caucus -- and I'll be doing my best to continue," Leno said.
He has contributed more than $500,000 to Democratic causes the past two years, records show.
Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles, said there is no need for significant fundraising in this non-election year.
Leno might not be influenced by campaign contributions, but money is given by special interests who hope he will be, Stern said.
"People don't make campaign contributions in a non-election year unless they basically are trying to influence a governmental decision," he said.
Stern said Wednesday's fundraiser "looks like it's timed to ensure maximum turnout."
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All prison-bound in ring that sold 5,000 fake IDs
Sacramento police, federal officials joined forces to break it up.
By Denny Walsh - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDTFriday, June 1, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/201634.html
A Sacramento ring that collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of at least 5,000 fraudulent identification documents has been broken up, federal and local officials said Thursday.
"In less than two years, the conspiracy -- taken down through the cooperative work of the U.S. State Department, the Sacramento Police Department and the FBI -- sold more than 5,000 false identification documents, including green cards, birth certificates and Social Security cards," U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said at a news conference.
Most of the buyers were in the United States illegally, Scott said.
"In our modern society such documents tell all the world who a person is, entitling him or her to certain rights and privileges, including the ability to move freely about our country," Scott said.
As an example, the top prosecutor said a false birth certificate, if accepted as legitimate, could be used to acquire a U.S. passport, which would enable the holder to travel in and out of the country and entitles the holder "to all the privileges of U.S. citizenship."
The ring sold fraudulent green cards -- the identification document for permanent resident immigrants -- Social Security cards and, less frequently, birth certificates, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Beckwith, who prosecuted the ring's members. He said many of the Social Security cards bore valid numbers.
He said word was out on the streets of Sacramento that high-quality fraudulent identification documents were available from the ring.
Castiglia said the documents were sold at prices ranging from $50 to thousands of dollars, "depending on the type of document and what the market would bear." He estimated the gang's total take in the two years leading up to the March 2006 arrests of five members "in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."
According to the sergeant and court records, the ring manufactured the documents in two rooms at the Sky Riders Motel on Freeport Boulevard, and peddled their wares primarily at shopping centers along Franklin Boulevard.
However, Castiglia said, "they were customer-friendly and would go wherever to make a sale."
Martinez, 31, who has a long criminal record, was sentenced on March 13 by U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. to three years and four months in prison.
Martinez's sister, Loretta Arrendondo, 24, and his girlfriend and mother of his two children, Jessica Mayoral, 29, each were sentenced by England on Feb. 27, to 15 months in prison. That same day the judge sentenced Jaime Hernandez, 33, to 18 months in prison.
Joann Ramirez, 48, who is Martinez's mother, was sentenced Thursday by England to 15 months in prison.
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Immigration screening could snag too many workers
A system to verify the legality of every employee within 3 years -- key to the Senate's measure -- is controversial and little-used.
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Jim Puzzanghera
Times Staff Writers
May 29, 2007
From the Los Angeles Times
The screening system, called Basic Pilot, is run by the Department of Homeland Security. So far, it's being used by only about 16,700 employers — 2,100 or so in California — out of 7 million nationwide.
But it would dramatically expand into a national electronic employment verification system under the Senate proposal; within 18 months, it could be used to check every new hire in the country. As the legislation is written, all 150 million workers in the U.S. would have to submit to the checks within three years.
Supporters call Basic Pilot an efficient blueprint to increase enforcement of laws that bar the hiring of illegal immigrants. It is a central component of what has been dubbed the "grand bargain" between Democrats and Republicans on immigration; in fact, the bill's proposed guest worker program couldn't begin until the verification system was capable of screening every new hire in the country.
"That's going to be very hard. It's complex," said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a leading backer of the bill. "It's going to have to work."
But opponents — who include conservatives, small businesses, human resource managers and civil liberties groups — are dubious. They say the current program infringes on privacy, doesn't stop identity fraud and will become more expensive and cumbersome as it expands, bogged down by technical problems and a database with inaccurate information.
Businesses check eligibility by submitting information from an I-9 form, required of all new hires, which includes Social Security and other documentation showing an employee's right to live and work in the U.S.
If the information is valid, the system sends the business a confirmation. If not, a "tentative nonconfirmation" is returned, and the business asks the employee to provide additional proof of identity or citizenship. Files are even checked by hand before the government finally identifies an employee as illegal.
This year, lawmakers in 41 states are considering legislation to strengthen workplace enforcement of immigration laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Tennessee Senate approved a bill this spring mandating the use of Basic Pilot by all employers in the state; Rhode Island lawmakers are considering a similar measure.
Proponents say it is the most affordable way to crack down on illegal immigrants.
"The best thing we can do in terms of workplace enforcement is expanding electronic verification," said Jessica Vaughan, a senior policy analyst at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, calling the program "a bargain when you look at what we spend on unmanned drones and sensors along the southern border."
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Justice Dept. Expands Probe To Include Hiring Practices
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 31, 2007; A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/30/AR2007053001499_pf.html
Justice Department investigators have widened an internal probe of the firings of U.S. attorneys to include a broader examination of hiring practices at the sprawling department, including the troubled Civil Rights Division and programs for beginning lawyers, officials said yesterday.
"We have expanded the scope of our investigation to include allegations regarding improper political or other considerations in hiring decisions within the Department of Justice," Inspector General Glenn A. Fine and H. Marshall Jarrett, head of the Office of Professional Responsibility, wrote in joint letters to the House and Senate Judiciary committees.The expansion comes in the wake of claims by former Justice officials that selections by the Attorney General's Honors Program and the department's Summer Law Intern Program were rigged in favor of candidates with connections to conservative or Republican groups. In response, the department this spring agreed to place them back under the control of career officials.
The programs were overseen last year by Michael J. Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, and both Elston and McNulty approved the recent change.
The inquiry will also look at hiring practices within the Civil Rights Division, from which dozens of career lawyers have departed. The career personnel repeatedly clashed with Bush administration political appointees, who overruled them on pivotal voting-rights cases in Georgia and Texas.
One former senior official in the Civil Rights Division, Bradley Schlozman, replaced one of the fired U.S. attorneys -- Todd P. Graves of Kansas City, Mo. -- and attracted controversy by indicting four workers involved in a voter registration drive sponsored by a liberal group days before the November elections.
Justice officials said yesterday that a prosecutor at the center of the firings scandal, interim U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin of Little Rock, is leaving office effective tomorrow. Griffin, a former Republican National Committee researcher and aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove, replaced fired prosecutor Bud Cummins.
Griffin withdrew his nomination as a permanent replacement amid uproar over his appointment.
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Hispanic Groups Reconsider Their Support for Gonzales
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 29, 2007; A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052801139_pf.html
Two years ago, major Hispanic groups broke with other civil rights organizations and supported Alberto R. Gonzales's nomination for attorney general, primarily because he would become the highest-ranking Latino ever in a presidential Cabinet.
Now, these groups say they are suffering from buyer's remorse.
"I have to say we were in error when we supported him to begin with," said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.Janet Murguia, president and chief executive of the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic rights group, called Gonzales "a follower, not a leader." In the Hispanic community, she said, "people are conflicted. They are excited that a Latino had a chance to serve as the attorney general." But, she added, "I think we've been disappointed with his record so far."
Activists have criticized La Raza and LULAC for backing Gonzales. Critics questioned how these groups could support, in the name of ethnic solidarity, a man who had a role in permitting more aggressive interrogation techniques to be used on terrorism suspects held in Cuba and elsewhere.
A few rights organizations that once backed Gonzales now refuse to talk about him. Gilbert Moreno, president of the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, said, "We're not really in a position to comment." Gonzales once sat on his organization's board.
The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, which offered enthusiastic support for Gonzales, also declined to discuss him. William Ramos, director of the organization's Washington office, said, "We provided a support letter, yes," then hung up.
At a lavish award ceremony in March 2005, Murguia, of La Raza, praised the new attorney general while introducing him as the guest speaker. "We want to make sure that people understand that we are reaching out to this administration," she said of her liberal group. "We see this as an opportunity to get things done."
In return, Gonzales acknowledged La Raza, saying he had "this organization to thank for supporting my nomination for attorney general."
Other Hispanic organizations say he has. The U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the National Latino Peace Officers Association, the Latino Coalition and the Hispanic Alliance for Progress Institute all wrote letters supporting Gonzales when he became embroiled in the scandal over the prosecutor firings.
"We strongly oppose what is nothing but patently political calls for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales," the Latino Coalition wrote. "He has been, and continues to be, a leading example to all in the Hispanic community of what we can accomplish through hard work and keeping true to our dreams."
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Foreigners Break Laws Coming Here, Why Not Support Gonzales and Bush's Crimes? Recnquesta? No, reapplication as Bitches for the White Man. "I want to be a white Fascist" Gonzales is emblamatic of Immigrant Whorishness for wealth and power, "a better way of life."
Obedient Foreigners to Fascist Corporate America getting Cold Feet?
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Pakistan: 4 Arrested in Killing of Judge’s Aide
By SALMAN MASOOD
May 31, 2007
World Briefing | Asia
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/31/world/asia/31briefs-killing.html?pagewanted=print
The police arrested four men in the killing of Syed Hammad Raza, who worked as the chief of staff to Pakistan’s suspended chief justice. The interior minister, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, said the four belonged to a gang of robbers from Kashmir and shot Mr. Raza when they broke into his house in Islamabad on May 14. The police, who said they had recovered the gun used in the shooting and a stolen watch, maintained from the start that the killing was robbery-related. Mr. Raza’s wife denied there had been a robbery attempt and termed the shooting politically motivated because of Mr. Raza’s close association with the suspended justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
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China Says 2 of Its Companies Played a Role in Poisonings
By JAKE HOOKER and WALT BOGDANICH
June 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/world/asia/01panama.html?pagewanted=print
BEIJING, May 31 — Chinese regulators acknowledged for the first time Thursday that two Chinese companies had “engaged in some misconduct” in the way they labeled and sold a poisonous ingredient that ended up in cold medicine, killing at least 100 people in Panama last year.
Chinese companies sold the ingredient as 99.5 percent pure glycerin, even though it contained about 24 percent diethylene glycol, a poison commonly used in antifreeze, according to the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Chinese authorities also said that Chinese-made toothpaste containing small amounts of diethylene glycol was safe, and that its manufacturer had broken no laws.Tens of thousands of tubes of tainted Chinese-made toothpaste were recently seized in Panama and at least three other Latin American countries. The F.D.A. is now testing samples of all toothpaste imported into the United States from China.
American officials recently accused two Chinese companies of intentionally shipping pet food ingredients contaminated with an industrial chemical, melamine, to the United States, leading to one of the largest pet food recalls in history. After initial denials, Beijing officials banned the use of melamine and have promised to improve food safety regulations and export controls.
Chinese authorities reopened an investigation of the Panama poisonings in response to a report last month by The New York Times that traced 46 barrels of the mislabeled poison from the Panama port city of Colón through Barcelona, Spain, to a Beijing trading company and finally to its origin at the Taixing Glycerine Factory in the Yangtze Delta.
Wei Chuanzhong, the head of investigation and deputy director of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, acknowledged that the factory had labeled the barrels as glycerin even though they contained significant amounts of diethylene glycol. An official confirmed that they had passed through Chinese customs as glycerin.
Mr. Wei did not explain why the Chinese companies had exported barrels with a false certificate of analysis, listing their content as 99.5 percent glycerin. Both companies remain under investigation, according to Chinese authorities.
The F.D.A. said China’s explanation sidestepped a critical fact: the deception had begun with the false certificate of analysis. “If the drums had been 99.5 percent glycerin, the deaths in Panama would never have occurred,” the agency said.
Ascensión Criado, manager of the Spanish trading company Rasfer International, said China was wrong to blame her company. “We ordered glycerin and they sent us something else,” she said.
Valentín Jaén, a lawyer for Medicom, the Panamanian importer, said, “The Chinese state has no reason or justification to blame Medicom for anything.”
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China Openly Lies about Poisoning: China Breaks no Laws While Poisining our Kids and Dogs
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