Nation, World Briefs: Surveillance bill protects phone firms from lawsuits
Published 10:16 pm Friday, June 20, 2008
WASHINGTON — The House on Friday approved a sweeping new surveillance law that extends the government’s eavesdropping capability and would shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits for cooperating with the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. Ending a yearlong battle with President Bush, the House passed, 293 to 129, an overhaul of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The bill provides a legal avenue for AT&T, Verizon Communications and other telecommunications firms to ward off lawsuits alleging that they violated customers’ privacy by helping the government conduct a warrantless spying program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Obama raises $22 million in May
Democrat Barack Obama raised $22 million in May for his presidential campaign, his weakest fundraising month this year, and ended the month with $43 million cash on hand, the campaign reported Friday. Though Obama has been the fundraising leader in the presidential contest, his May totals are just slightly above Republican rival John McCain’s fundraising for the month. Overall, Obama has raised more than $287 million during the past 17 months, while McCain has raised a total of $115 million.
FDA has clue on tainted tomatoes
There may be a break in the salmonella case: Food and Drug Administration inspectors headed for farms in Florida and Mexico on Friday, as new clues emerge to the possible source of salmonella-tainted tomatoes that have now sickened 552 people. The FDA wouldn’t say where in Florida and Mexico the hunt is centering. But officials said the clues don’t necessarily mean that a particular farm will turn out to be the culprit.
Louisiana: Corruption case pleas
A sister, brother and niece of indicted U.S. Rep. William Jefferson pleaded not guilty in federal court in New Orleans on Friday to fraud charges accusing them of pocketing grant money earmarked for charitable and educational programs. New Orleans tax assessor Betty Jefferson, her brother Mose Jefferson and her daughter Angela Coleman were arraigned on charges they stole more than $600,000. The charges are separate from a bribery case against the congressman.
California: Text message loophole
Call it a loophole, but California’s ban on driving while talking on a hand-held cell phone does not extend to text messaging. Put simply, adult motorists who can’t hold a phone to their ear beginning July 1 can use the same device to type out messages. But they’d better hurry. Legislation proposed this week by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, would add texting to the cell phone ban he championed.
Arkansas: ‘You killed Grandma’
A woman with a blood-alcohol level more than three times the legal limit for driving backed over her mother and left the scene even though loved ones yelled, “You killed Grandma,” police said. Lisa Ann Casteel, 40, was charged with negligent homicide and driving while intoxicated. She was booked Wednesday in Hot Springs in the May 17 accident and released on $3,000 bond. The affidavit said a breath test showed Casteel had a blood-alcohol content of 0.243 percent.
Brazil: New Indian reservation
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva decreed a new 3.8 million-acre Indian reservation Friday in the heart of the Amazon rain forest’s logging frontier. The Bau reservation in Para state had been sought by the Kayapo Indians in their ancestral territory since 1994, but resistance from settlers and loggers slowed its official creation. Brazil’s 1988 constitution declared that all Indian ancestral lands be demarcated and turned over to tribes within five years. Studies show that Indian reservations tend to be the best preserved areas of the rain forest because the tribes protect the borders.
Mexico: Deadly club stampede
Mexico City police said 10 people were trampled to death during a raid on a nightclub in the capital. The police chief said three officers and seven youths, two of them minors, were killed. He said police went to the News Divine club in northeastern Mexico City on Friday evening to check reports of drugs and alcohol being sold to minors. He said the club’s owner announced to the crowd of about 1,000 that police were there to arrest them, and a stampede ensued.
Britain: Solstice at Stonehenge
The summer solstice drew thousands of revelers to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise over the ancient monument today for the first time in the new season. Beating drums and wearing rainbow cloaks, the celebrants walked through light rain Friday to talk, dance and meditate as they awaited the start of the event. Organizers expect 25,000 people to journey to the ancient site. They will be allowed access to the stone circle, which is usually closed to visitors. Representatives of English Heritage, the monument’s caretaker, will be on hand to make sure no one carried away with the celebratory spirit climbs on or vandalizes the stones.
From Herald news services
