Clippings for 5 March 2009

Documents referred to in our discussion of the downtown redevelopment lawsuit.
For a complete overview of the lawsuit and the efforts of Manhattan Citizens for Sustainable Downtown Redevelopment, visit their website at: www.mcsdr.info

June 10, 2008, Judge Wilson’s ruling is released following the final hearing on June 5, 2008.

On May 18, 2008, deposition of staff of the City of Manhattan:
Jason Hilgers, Assistant City Manager for the City of Manhattan, 1:15 p.m.

Mark Hatesohl, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Hatesohl’s discovery documents associated with the deposition.

Bruce Snead, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Snead’s discovery documents associated with the deposition.

Tom Phillips, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Phillips’ discovery documents associated with the deposition.

April 24, 2008, the following depositions of staff of the City of Manhattan:
Robert Strawn, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Strawn provided no discovery documents.

James E. Sherow, Commissioner for the City of Manhattan. Commissioner Sherow’s discovery documents associated with the deposition.

On January 9, 2008, 9:43 a.m. the Riley County Treasurer sent an e-mail to the Manhattan City Commissioners which informs them that Dial Realty, Inc. has not made timely payments of their property taxes.

Recommended Audio: Rethink Afghanistan


Conyers Cuts a Deal With Rove, Miers
Jason Leopold writes for Truthout: "The House Judiciary Committee cut a deal with lawyers for George W. Bush that will see his former aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers testify in Congress's long-running investigation into the firings of nine US attorneys in December 2006. But their testimony, at least for the time being, will not be conducted publicly. Democrats in Congress have been seeking testimony from Miers and Rove about the Bush administration's firing of nine US attorneys in 2006. To stymie the investigation, Bush barred the witnesses from cooperating and asserted a broad claim of executive privilege."

On Bush, Cheney Crimes Seek Truth and Accountability
John Nichols writes for The Nation: "Senate Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, deserves credit for pressing ahead with his modest proposal to establish a truth and reconciliation commission to review the assaults on the Constitution and general lawlessness of the Bush-Cheney administration. "

How Close the Bush Bullet
Robert Parry, Consortium News: "Earlier this decade when some of us warned that George W. Bush was behaving more like an incipient dictator than the leader of a constitutional republic, we were dismissed as alarmists, left-wingers, traitors and a host of less printable epithets. But it is now increasingly clear that President Bush and his top advisers viewed the 9/11 attacks as an opportunity to implement a series of right-wing legal theories that secretly granted Bush unlimited power to act lawlessly and outside the traditional parameters of the US Constitution."

Recommended Audio: John Steward Eviscerates CNBC


First Contractor Is Republican Donor
Michael Garbell reports for ProPublica: "A skeptical person might think the first contractor to benefit from President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package would have political connections to the Democratic Party. Not so. The chief executive of the construction company awarded the first recovery project is actually a big Republican donor -- and contributed to Obama's opponent John McCain."

Report: Cons, Convicts and Government Contracts
Christian Jewett reports for ProPublica: "As President Barack Obama today puts out a strong call for reform in government contracting, it’s worth taking a look back at last week’s congressional hearing, artfully titled: How Convicts and Con Artists Receive New Federal Contracts."

Pro-Union Workers Fired in Over One-Fourth of Union Election Campaigns
John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer write for The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "More than one-fourth of all union-representation elections in the 2000s have been marred by an illegal firing of a pro-union worker, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)."

Don't Disenfranchise Millions
Erika Wood reports for The Politico: "Last week the Poverty Forum, a new coalition of Christian leaders and policy experts from both conservative and liberal camps, convened in Washington. And in a rare instance of true bipartisanship, the group voiced support for legislation - including the Democracy Restoration Act - specifically tailored to meet the needs of the most marginalized Americans."

Pew Study: Cost of Locking Up Americans Too High
Reuters reports: "One in every 31 US adults is in the corrections system, which includes jail, prison, probation and supervision, more than double the rate of a quarter century ago, according to a report released on Monday by the Pew Center on the States. The study, which said the current rate compares to one in 77 in 1982, concluded that with declining resources, more emphasis should be put on community supervision, not jail or prison."

"Green" Funding for Coal Power Plants Criticized
Catherine Brahic reports for The New Scientist: "A clean tech fund that was the brainchild of George W. Bush has come under fire for promoting coal power plants in developing countries."

The Rebirth of Education
Paul Cummins writes for Truthdig.com: "stated that to revitalize our schools, engage our children and ultimately save our planet will require “the death of education and its rebirth.” Sometimes systems are so flawed that they need to be scrapped and replaced rather than fiddled with or fixed. "

Investing Wisely in Our Children
Cynthia G. Brown and Melissa Lazarin report for The Center for American Progress: "The president's blueprint, together with the education dollars in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provide an important opportunity to support state efforts in building rigorous and common academic standards, as well as building on states' bold approaches to benchmarking their standards with high-performing countries across the globe. The blueprint also points to dollars that will appropriately ensure that all students, including English-language learners and students with disabilities, are embraced by states' efforts to raise academic standards and improve state assessments."

KS House Passes Kinzer's Woman's Right to Know and See Act
From our friends at Kansas Jackass: "Another one of those sad days when I really wish our elected officials would focus their time and energy on, I don't know, things that matter and not legislating private medical decisions."

Scientists' Stem Cell Breakthrough Could End Ethical Dilemma
Ian Sample reports for The Guardian UK: "Scientists have found a way to make an almost limitless supply of stem cells that could safely be used in patients while avoiding the ethical dilemma of destroying embryos. In a breakthrough that could have huge implications, British and Canadian scientists have found a way of reprogramming skin cells taken from adults, effectively winding the clock back on the cells until they were in an embryonic form. The work has been hailed as a major step forward by scientists and welcomed by pro-life organisations, who called on researchers to halt other experiments which use stem cells collected from embryos made at IVF clinics."

The Costs of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Lawrence J. Korb writes for The Center for American Progress: "Since 1994, the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy has resulted in the discharge of more than 13,000 military personnel across the services, including approximately 800 with skills deemed 'mission critical,' such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists. These are the very specialties for which the military has faced personnel shortfalls in recent years."