SPB News for Saturday

NY Gov. Paterson Launches 2010 Reelection Web Site

Rahm: DOJ -- Not White House -- Makes Prosecution Decisions

Hint Hint: MN Dems Thank Tedisco For NY-20 Concession

CIA ordered to turn over more documents

UN envoy: US must prosecute Bush lawyers

North Korea to try US journalists

Accused of 'hostile intent,' may be used as bargaining chips.

Fed: Gov. will save stress-test banks

None will be allowed to fail, even if they performed poorly.

Mary Matalin signs on as CNN contributor

Treasury lends $2 billion more to GM

Post-Katrina levees too weak: Panel

$14 billion job only up to withstanding '100-year' storm, leaves city at risk.

Russia, US hold talks on nukes

Stockpile reduction negotations sign of improved relations.

Yoo alludes to his employer as 'People's Republic of Berkeley' Some critics of the Bush administration say John Yoo has taken a disproportionate share of the public condemnation over the memos. "It's important not to focus too much on scapegoating professor Yoo. He was a subordinate of Judge Bybee," said Katherine Darmer, a professor at Chapman University School of Law, where Yoo is a visiting professor this semester... Yoo alluded to his own uncomfortable situation at the liberal university where he has tenure, thanking the Chapman administration for giving him the opportunity to escape "the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of Berkeley."

Straight to the Top By Scott Horton The torture trail starts and ends in the White House. That is perhaps the most inescapable conclusion to be drawn from the flurry of documents released in the last week--first the OLC memoranda, then a newly declassified report of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and finally an amazing document that Attorney General Eric Holder released yesterday, which has still gained little attention. The Holder note presents a summary of CIA interaction with the White House in connection with the approval of the torture techniques that John Yoo calls the "Bush Program." Holder’s memo refers to the participants by their job titles only, but John Sifton runs it through a decoder and gives us the actual names.

ABC News: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh --Police in Uniform Join In as Victim Is Whipped, Beaten, Electrocuted, Run Over by SUV A video tape smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates shows a member of the country's royal family mercilessly torturing a man with whips, electric cattle prods and wooden planks with protruding nails. man in a UAE police uniform is seen on the tape tying the victim's arms and legs, and later holding him down as the Sheikh pours salt on the man's wounds and then drives over him with his Mercedes SUV. In a statement to ABC News, the UAE Ministry of the Interior said it had reviewed the tape and acknowledged the involvement of Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al Nahyan, brother of the country's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed.
Police caught on tape trying to recruit protester as spy --Climate change activist taped men who offered cash for information about group's members and activities Undercover police are running a network of hundreds of informants inside protest organisations who secretly feed them intelligence in return for cash, according to evidence handed to the Guardian. They claim to have infiltrated a number of environmental groups and said they are receiving information about leaders, tactics and plans of future demonstrations. The dramatic disclosures are revealed in almost three hours of secretly recorded discussions between covert officers claiming to be from Strathclyde police, and an activist from the protest group Plane Stupid, whom the officers attempted to recruit as a paid spy after she had been released on bail following a demonstration at Aberdeen airport last month.

Troops Could Be Sent to Border --Under $350M plan, National Guard would be aimed at drug war The Pentagon and Homeland Security Department are developing contingency plans to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border under a $350 million initiative that would expand the U.S. military's role in [fomenting] the drug war, according to Obama administration officials.

Regulators Shut Banks in Georgia, Michigan, California, Idaho Regulators seized banks in Georgia, Michigan, California and Idaho with total assets of $2.3 billion, bringing the tally of failures in the U.S. this year to 29, exceeding the total for all of 2008. American Southern Bank of Kennesaw, Georgia; Michigan Heritage Bank in Farmington Hills; and First Bank of Beverly Hills in Calabasas, California, were shut by state agencies. First Bank of Idaho in Ketchum was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver of all four.

Election 2010: Pennsylvania Republican Senate Primary — Pennsylvania Senate Primary: Toomey 51% Specter 30% — Incumbent Senator Arlen Specter trails former Congressman Pat Toomey by 21 points in an early look at Pennsylvania's 2010 Republican Primary.