 The new year will dawn with an array of state laws taking effect across the country, offering a snapshot of issues that matter to Americans from identity theft & sex offenders to dangers on the road. Perennial challenges such as taxes & health care crop up among the new measures, as do steps to improve elections & enforce ethical behavior among politicians. Newer issues are being raised, too, including an Illinois law that targets human trafficking. Legislation approved in 2005 formally becomes law in many states on New Year's Day (though some measures take effect upon a governors' signature, or July 1). Its real hard finding something new to tax or make a law that isn’t already a crime, or find a new regulation to cover something they might have overlooked. In this once free country they have made it imposable to live a normal life without breaking laws as they have succeeded in making the essentials of life something you have to pay a permit or beg them permission beforehand. ...
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 22:31:00 12-30-05
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 Bush signs anti-terrorism, prisoner treatment laws |
Bush on Friday signed legislation extending key provisions of the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act until February 3 and a bill that bans cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners, despite initial resistance to both measures. The United States has been criticized for its handling of prisoners after the abuse scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, harsh interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and reports of secret CIA prisons overseas for terrorism suspects. The provision on the treatment of detainees was included in a defense spending bill. Bush had initially threatened to veto legislation that contained that measure, but backed off after congressional votes showed overwhelming support for the amendment pushed by Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), an Arizona Republican who was a former prisoner of war in the Vietnam conflict. "U.S. law and policy already prohibit torture," Bush said in a statement. They obey laws in the same fashion they tell the truth. ...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051231/pl_nm/bush_patriot_dc
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Editor - 22:14:00 12-30-05
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| Widespread flu outbreaks in western U.S. |
Four western states are the nation's hotspots for flu, and an epidemiologist predicts infections will grow after the holidays as children return to school and adults go back to work.Arizona, Utah, California and New Mexico report widespread flu infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's weekly flu report. "Widespread" is the CDC's highest designation for flu activity."We think the worst is still yet to come," said David Engelthaler, epidemiologist for the Arizona Department of Health Services. The nation's flu season typically peaks in January, February or March.The number of flu cases is not known. Many patients do not report cases to doctors, and doctors may not test specifically for flu in people who do seek treatment, officials said....
http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/12/30/flu.season.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us
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Editor - 21:58:00 12-30-05
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| Prisoner's list proves Gurkha lifeline |
In November 2003 the British government decided to pay £10,000 ($17,000) to each of its soldiers who were interned in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps during World War II. Among those who were eligible were the Gurkhas of Nepal, who fought for Britain. But the team sent to Kathmandu to discover which Gurkhas were eligible faced an almost insuperable task of identifying who had served in the war. Many looked as if they would never benefit from the payout, since few had the papers necessary to prove that they had been captured. And there the story might have ended, had an article outlining the problem not appeared in the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper. The sad tale of the Gurkhas was read almost by accident by Veronica O'Neal, the widow of Captain Peter O'Neal, who had served with the Gurkhas. "I don't usually read newspapers," says Mrs O'Neal, "so it was quite extraordinary that I saw the article at all. But having seen it, I realised that I had a list of Gurkhas that my husband had kept ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4554870.stm
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Editor - 20:54:00 12-30-05
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| War without end: Only justice, not bombs, can make our dangerous world a safer place |
This was the year the "war on terror" - an obnoxious expression which we all parroted after 11 September 2001 - appeared to be almost as endless as George Bush once claimed it would be. And unsuccessful. For, after all the bombing of Afghanistan, the overthrow of the Taliban, the invasion of Iraq and its appallingly tragic aftermath, can anyone claim today that they feel safer than they did a year ago? We have gone on smashing away at the human rights we trumpeted at the Russians - and the Arabs - during the Cold War. We have perhaps fatally weakened all those provisions that were written into our treaties and conventions in the aftermath of the Second World War to make the world a safer place. And we claim we are winning.Where, for example, is the terror? In the streets of Baghdad, to be sure. And perhaps again in our glorious West if we go on with this folly. ...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11416.htm
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Editor - 18:03:00 12-30-05
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| Boston Archdiocese seeks to settle abuse cases |
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has offered to settle about 200 lawsuits from the pedophile priest scandal there, offering average payments of $75,000, lawyers for the accusers said on Friday. The payments are worth about half the $155,000 average payment made to more than 500 other area parishioners in a landmark 2003 settlement, the lawyers said. Mitchell Garabedian, a lawyer representing 55 of the cases, called the offer "cold and callous." "As far as the church is concerned, the sexual abuse scandal has blown over," he said. The Archdiocese of Boston confirmed it is in talks to settle the cases but declined further comment. Claims of sexual abuse by priests surfaced in Boston in 2002, then spread to other U.S. parishes, prompting a drop in donations at churches across America. Squeezed by the cost of settlements, the Boston diocese has shut more than 60 churches and schools, triggering protests by churchgoers. It is not yet clear how many of the 200 plaintiffs would ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1456515
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Editor - 17:55:00 12-30-05
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