Thursday, April 30, 2009

SPB News for Thursday.



Rahm: We Inherited This Set Of Problems


Specter defection highlights GOP divide in South Carolina


Murphy Sworn In As NY-20's New Congressman

Obama Officials Push For More Cash For Pakistan Military

Vet wins $500k in sex-change lawsuit
Former commander re- jected from job while in process of sex change.

Exclusive: Utah's Republican Governor Warns GOP Leaders, “You Can't Just Say No” — It's Time for Party to Advance Workable Alternatives Rather Than Block the Door, Gov. Says — With the party reeling from Sen. Arlen Specter's defection, a prominent moderate Republican governor is warning …

Field Poll: California voters oppose five of six May 19 ballot measures — Voters strongly oppose five special election measures being sold as a budget-reform elixir for California's burgeoning $40 billion deficit. — But voters in a new Field Poll overwhelmingly support a measure …

Soldiers Claim KBR Exposed Them to Toxic Smoke in Lawsuit Filed in 3 States KBR was sued in three states on claims that the U.S.-based military contractor exposed American soldiers to poisonous smoke while they were stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Georgia, Alabama and Illinois by at least 20 current and former military personnel, contractors and the families of two men who allegedly died because of exposure to smoke, according to Reuters.

KBR sued for exposing soldiers to toxic smoke --Halliburton Co, which spun off KBR two years ago, was also named as defendant in lawsuits KBR Inc was sued on Tuesday in three states on accusations that the company exposed U.S. soldiers and contractors at U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to toxic smoke, court documents showed. KBR, an engineering and construction company that also manages military logistics, was paid by the U.S. government to dispose of waste on the bases, according to the complaints filed on behalf of soldiers who had been deployed in the two countries.

Taliban attacks as German FM visits Kabul A suicide bomber blew himself up in northern Afghanistan, injuring five German soldiers just as Germany's foreign minister was there for a surprise visit. The attacker approached a German Bundeswehr patrol some 10 miles south of Kunduz in his car and then blew himself up, the German Defense Ministry said Wednesday. The explosion injured five troops and severely damaged an armored vehicle. The attack happened shortly after German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had landed in Kunduz for an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, where Germany has some 4,000 troops serving with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Wexler Calls for Special Prosecutor on Torture --Letter from Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) to Attorney General Eric Holder Yesterday, I signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder urging the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate the Bush Administration and Justice Department's role in authorizing torture. With the release of the so-called "Torture Memos" last week, and the instrumental role that Bush Administration Justice Department and Executive Branch officials had in orchestrating and approving these techniques, it is evident to me that we need an independent investigation into this troubling series of events that have damaged our national security and diminished our nation before the eyes of the world.

Phone bills 'will rise' to pay for database --Companies will be given job of storing data on behalf of the state 28 Apr 2009 Ministers want to farm out a Big Brother database of everyone's emails, phone calls and internet use to private companies who will be given the job of storing the data on behalf of the state. The £2bn cost of the plans could add millions of pounds to phone and internet bills to help pay for new systems to collect and sort private information.

New York City-sized ice collapses off Antarctica An area of an Antarctic ice shelf almost the size of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a scientist said Tuesday. "The northern ice front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has become unstable and the first icebergs have been released," Angelika Humbert, glaciologist at the University of Muenster in Germany, said of European Space Agency satellite images of the shelf.


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