| Latest news from the wires: |
|
Scalia takes to stage to tell lawyers how to win
It's a pretty good crowd for a summer Friday morning at Kennedy Center. From stage right (where else?) Justice Antonin Scalia enters. (AP, 4:59 p.m.)
FDA: Avoid jalapenos from Mexico, not US
Only jalapeno peppers grown in Mexico seem to be implicated in the nationwide salmonella outbreak, the government announced Friday in clearing the U.S. crop. (AP, 5:39 p.m.)
Bush critics get an unimpeachable forum
Call it the un-impeachment hearing. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Friday it insisted was not about removing President Bush from office. But critics of Bush's policies couldn't pass up the chance to charge the president with a long list of impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors." (AP, 3:29 p.m.)
Audit finds serious hazards from abandoned mines
The government has endangered the public's health and safety by failing to clean up abandoned mines on federal land in the West, according to a scathing audit released Friday. (AP, 5:39 p.m.)
Effort to curb oil speculation stalls in Senate
Senate Democrats failed Friday to advance a measure to rein in oil market speculators, one of a series of efforts to tell voters they are serious about addressing $4-a-gallon gasoline, and they rejected Republican calls to expand offshore oil production. (AP, 2:45 p.m.)
Bush expands sanctions against Zimbabwe
President Bush signed an executive order on Friday to expand sanctions against what he calls the "illegitimate" regime of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and his supporters. (AP, 12 p.m.)
Housing rescue on track to pass Senate by Saturday
The Senate cleared the last hurdle Friday to passing a housing rescue aimed at sparing hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure and bolstering troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac . (AP, 3:55 p.m.)
Report urges overhauling how passports are issued
The State Department insisted Friday it can handle the growing demand for passports, despite congressional investigators' findings that the agency has not overhauled the system to avoid repeating last summer's backlog fiasco. (AP, 12:40 p.m.)
Analysis: GOP chose base, not Bush in housing vote
President Bush pulled the rug out from under Republicans this week when he abruptly dropped his opposition to a massive housing rescue. (AP, 12:10 p.m.)
Food industry bitten by its lobbying success
The food industry must drop any remaining opposition to electronic record-keeping and back an effective system for tracing contaminated food to its source, a lawmaker investigating food safety said Friday. (AP, 3:09 p.m.)
2002 Justice memo OKs CIA interrogation tactics
The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed "in good faith" that harsh techniques used to break prisoners' will would not cause "prolonged mental harm." (AP, 1:38 a.m.)
Rice: Pakistan should do more to end violence
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Pakistan needs to do more to prevent Taliban militants from launching attacks into Afghanistan from its territory. (AP, 7:35 a.m.)
Air Force missile launch crew fell asleep
Three ballistic missile crew members in North Dakota fell asleep while holding classified launch code devices this month, triggering an investigation by military and National Security Agency experts, the Air Force said Thursday. (AP, 1:31 a.m.)
Condoleezza Rice can't wait to shop
Forget long-winded foreign policy sessions, White House meetings, traveling the globe and talks with world leaders. What Condoleezza Rice really wants to do is shop. (AP, 7/24/08)
State Department investigating Iraqi oil contracts
The State Department's inspector general is investigating Iraqi oil contracts after four Democratic senators complained that department employees may have encouraged lucrative oil deals between Iraq and several Western companies. (AP, 7/24/08)
Bush nominates judge for 3rd US appeals court
President Bush on Thursday nominated Paul S. Diamond to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, withdrawing his earlier pick for the job after she drew opposition in the Senate. (AP, 7/24/08)
How they voted: House roll call on AIDS bill
The 303-115 roll call Thursday by which the House passed a bill that would triple the money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world. (AP, 7/24/08)
Democrats avoid battle over entitlement spending
Congressional efforts to deal with growing Medicare spending will be set aside for another year under a rule change approved by the House on Thursday. (AP, 7/24/08)
A look at key parts of the global AIDS bill
The global AIDS bill Congress is preparing to send President Bush would: --Approve $48 billion over the next five years for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs in Africa and other afflicted areas of the world. It also would approve $2 billion for American Indian health, water and law enforcement programs. (AP, 7/24/08)
Report urges overhauling how passports are issued
The State Department urgently needs to overhaul the way it handles passport applications to avoid a repeat of the massive backlogs last summer that frustrated countless travelers, congressional investigators concluded. (AP, 7/24/08)
Immigration raid tactics draw congressional ire
Lawmakers on Thursday questioned the legality and effectiveness of the government's tactics in a May raid that led to the arrest of nearly 400 immigrants. (AP, 7/24/08)
Cantwell blocks nominations over oil trading rules
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has blocked three nominations to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, saying the agency has failed to regulate oil markets. (AP, 7/24/08)
EPA chief won't explain climate choices
Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson has declined to explain before Congress how a conclusion he made last year that global warming put the public in danger could lead to a decision not to regulate greenhouse gases. (AP, 7/24/08)
Bush urges more countries to recognize Kosovo
President George W. Bush on Monday told leaders of Kosovo he would urge more countries to recognize the former Serbian province and he opposed partition of the newly-independent state. (Reuters, 2:03 a.m.)
Iran, N. Korea still part of "axis of evil": W.House
U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002 branded Iraq, Iran and North Korea part of an "axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world" -- and he believes two of them still are, the White House said on Monday. (Reuters, 2:02 a.m.)
U.S. says Iraq pact unlikely by July 31 deadline
The United States and Iraq were unlikely to meet a July 31 deadline for completing a long-term security pact, but intensive negotiations were under way on an agreement that will help dictate the role of U.S. forces after year-end, the White House said on Monday. (Reuters, 2:02 a.m.)