Newsbriefs

---

Casino Trouble
Gov. George Pataki signed a major casino-land claim deal with a man who had no right to act on his tribe’s behalf, according to a majority of the Cayuga Nation of New York’s traditional government. The group, representing two of the three Cayuga claims, said the agreement signed with Pataki is invalid because the man who negotiated for the tribe, Clint Halftown, had no authority to do so.
Traditional Cayugas, tribal leaders are now saying, oppose gambling, and the tribal council has not reached any consensus on a pact with Pataki.
Pataki’s office insisted the agreement is valid, citing documents from 2003 that show Halftown was designated a tribal representative. But tribal leaders including Chief Chester Isaacs have made available a letter telling Halftown he has no right to represent the tribe in deals with other governments.
Pataki needs state and federal legislation for the Cayuga land claim, along with deals with four other tribes, to be approved.
The Nov. 17 deal was aimed at settling a nearly $250 million judgment against the state in the Cayuga land claim case. It would allow a tribal casino at Monticello Raceway, and the tribe would share slot machine revenues with the state.
Lobbyists are saying the state could borrow against future gambling income to close its current deficit. But with Pataki and five tribes reaching deals that would allow large casinos — all with about 3,000 slot machines – the stakes are high enough to have drawn intense opposition in Washington as well as Albany. Speculation now has Pataki using up to $5 billion in such revenues within the coming year’s budget proposal, due in the coming weeks.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a Republican whose district includes the Oneida land claim territory, and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, whose district would likely host the five proposed casinos, said they are not embracing the land claim settlements.

Cop Fade Away
The Shandaken town board, fearful of potential lawsuits, agreed not to fire a part time police officer, but to keep him suspended from duty until his appointment ends at the end of the year.
The part time police officer that was suspended from duty last spring will not be coming back to work in Shandaken.
In November, Shandaken's officer in Charge, James McGrath, sent a letter to the board asking it’s members to terminate Douglas Hoyt, 26, of Orchard Street Tillson, who was charged on May 7, 2004 with aggravated harassment, a misdemeanor, after deputies from the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office said he made threatening comments during a heated telephone conversation with a female acquaintance.
Earlier this week Hoyt was sentenced in Rochester Town Court to a conditional discharge by town Justice Ronald Keillor. Keillor said the conditional discharge was contingent on Hoyt honoring a one-year stay away order of protection for the victim and her family. Hoyt will also have to pay $665 in fines and court surcharges as a condition of his sentence.
McGrath’s letter indicated that he was aware of Hoyt being found guilty last month, and therefore believed that represented grounds for immediate dismissal.
But board member Paul VanBlarcum issued a word of caution. A member of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Department, VanBlarcum said another Ulster County town has found itself embroiled in a legal dispute involving Hoyt, and he feared that Hoyt might take some legal action against Shandaken if he were to be fired.
Instead, VanBlarcum suggested, Hoyt should just remain under unpaid suspension until the end of this year. This would, according to VanBlarcum, not give any opportunity for a potential,and perhaps costly, lawsuit.
“In January we just won’t reappoint him,” VanBlarcum said.
The rest of the Board agreed.
Hoyt was a part time officer for Shandaken for about two years. While on the force he was accused of being overzealous in carrying out his duties and at times found himself defending himself against harassment accusations in town court.

Jail Reprieve
A financial claim against Ulster County by contractors working on the late and over-cost new jail has been settled for under a quarter its original amount, leading some in county government to start talking about the whole project becoming less a financial burden than originally anticipated. A check was cut last week to electrical contractor J.D. Parella for $945,583, as opposed to the contractor’s original $4.4 million claim.
Other claims filed against Ulster County include firms seeking compensation for additional money they’ve had to spend because of 16 months of delay in completing the project: General contractor David Christa Construction, who are seeking $3.3 million, and Rotondo Weirich, seeking $4 million.
Current estimates call for the new jail and county sheriff’s office to be completed sometime next summer.

Local Growth?
The Hudson Valley saw unemployment figures stay relatively low at 4.3 percent, and growth pick up somewhat for the third quarter, according to new figures recently released by the Marist Bureau of Economic Research, with major increases in Ulster and Dutchess making up for losses elsewhere. Jobs in the larger valley region grew by 1.6 percent across all sectors except manufacturing, including trade, business, services and tourism. The average selling price for houses was up nearly 13 percent over a year ago and the rate of sales increased by 3.1 percent. The number of building permits also increased, up 8.1 percent for single family homes.
Nationwide, manufacturing has declined by 20 percent since 1977 - more rapidly over the past seven years. The report suggests a growing federal deficit may reduce availability of funds for needed infrastructure projects including local water and sewer systems, schools and roads, and warns that the dollar’s decline against other currencies may start hampering local growth in the coming year.
The debt-to-income ratio for households increased 1.2 percent - a record high relative to disposable income. The debt-to-asset ratio was 18 percent, the highest over the span of the 1990s.
A strong relationship was found between commuting time and income, with those boasting incomes greater than $200,000 more likely to commute more than 60 minutes, than those with incomes less than $50,000.

Get Vertical!
The Onteora Middle School is raising funds to build a climbing wall and ropes elements in their Middle School and High School gyms as part of their physical education program. For $10, supporters can buy a “Get Vertical” Savings Card that offers discounts and savings at local businesses. Savings can be found at Belleayre Mountain, Bread Alone, Resevoir Inn, Beyond the Gate, Dunkin’ Donuts, Olive’s Country Store, Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant, Anaconda Sports and Catskill Mountain Pizza. The card is valid for one year. Organizers hope to install the new physical education apparatus during the winter. For anyone interested in purchasing a “Get Vertical” Savings Card you may call the Onteora Middle School at 657- 7090 or contact PTSO member Kim Burgess 339-3164.

Failed Regents
Almost one-fourth of the state’s high school students in the Class of 2004 did not take all five Regents exams required to graduate, let alone pass them, according to data released recenty by the state Education Department. The achievement results for students who entered ninth grade in 2000 were requested by the state Board of Regents as it considers moving to 65 the passing grade required for graduation. At present, a score of 55 is needed to pass.
Among general education students who did take all five exams, 92 percent passed. If the passing score were raised to 65, the percentage passing would fall to 77. And although an overwhelming majority of students who dropped out of high school or entered general equivalency diploma programs never took Regents exams, the few who did take them mostly passed.
The state Education Department blamed poor preparation in middle school as the main cause for the shortcomings.

Backlash…
The federal Social Security Administration (SSA) is not accepting marriage licenses from New Paltz submitted on or after February 27, 2004, when village mayor Jason West solemnized 25 same-sex marriages. Since then, 123 heterosexual couples from New Paltz and the surrounding areas have received those marriage licenses from the town clerk. But it appears that these are not considered valid, at least according to the feds.
This news has incensed couples who were legally married in New Paltz as well as local officials, residents, and congressman Maurice Hinchey.

The new policy specifically directs SSA employees not to, under any circumstances, accept ANY marriage licenses from New Paltz as a valid form of identification. Under the Evidence of Identity for an SSA Card policy that can be found at http://policy.ssa.gov, a section lays out the policy for “Procedure-Questionable Marriage Documents.” Not only is New Paltz specifically identified as a “questionable” town for marriage documents, but it is the only one out of four in the nation whose invalidity is open-ended.
Congressman Hinchey has drafted a letter to the commissioner of the SSA asking that the policy be “immediately repealed.” “This policy is completely arbitrary, overreaching, and attempts to penalize innocent people who have been legitimately and legally married,” said Hinchey, who believes that this act is a symptom of a “neo-conservative administration” to try to penalize and ban same-sex marriages.
John Shallman, the regional communications director for the Social Security Administration, said that only legal documents are acceptable for use in changing an individual’s Social Security record. “And until the legal issues are resolved, local Social Security offices nationwide will not accept as evidence of identity any marriage documents issued in New Paltz after February 27, 2004,” he explained.

Drug Busted…
Local Mid-Hudson counties are poised to join New York City and Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties in suing 44 national pharmaceutical companies for inflating the prices of prescription drugs sold to Medicaid recipients that were partially funded by the counties. Greene County has already signed on to the lawsuit while Ulster, and neighboring Dutchess and Columbia counties, are still contemplating the move.
Federal law effectively allows drug companies to self-report the “average wholesale price” of drugs sold through the Medicaid program. Several lawsuits, including one filed by the state Attorney General’s Office, allege the firms charged government-funded programs far more than they charged hospitals and other health-care providers.
New York state and its counties each pay 25 percent of all Medicaid costs, with the remaining 50 percent paid by the federal government. The program provides health care coverage for the poor and disabled.
Decisions are expected in the coming month…

Drop The Rock!
State lawmakers voted recently to scale back some of the mandatory sentences under New York’s infamously harsh “Rockefeller drug laws”, which could send a person to prison for life for possessing just a few ounces of heroin or cocaine. Among the reforms would be to change the current maximum sentence of 15 to 25 years to life to a sentence of eight years to 20 years, making offenders eligible for release in less than seven years. They currently have to serve the minimum of at least 15 years. The proposal would also eliminate the maximum term of life for the most serious offenses. A common sentence of three years to life for many offenders would become a determinate sentence of three years, making offenders eligible for release in just over 2 1/2 years. Under the Rockefeller drug laws, defendants could face up to life in prison for possession of just four ounces of cocaine or heroin.
The agreement would also make nonviolent drug offenders eligible sooner for treatment programs and double the amounts, by weight, of heroin and other controlled substances that defendants have to be caught with to qualify for the harshest of charges.
The Assembly approved the measure 96-41; the Senate passed it in a 53-6 vote. Gov. George Pataki helped negotiate the measure and said he would sign it into law.
Critics of the mandatory drug laws say the sentences are unduly long for many low-level offenders and addicts, and disproportionately affect minority offenders.

Winey Court
The Supreme Court is considering whether states such as ours may bar people from buying wine directly from out-of-state suppliers, a big-money question that could lead to sweeping changes in how alcoholic beverages are regulated and sold. Justices have heard arguments in three appeals involving bans in Michigan and New York on direct shipments that cross state borders. The dispute pits regulators and wholesalers against out-of-state wineries that want to sell alcohol to consumers, mostly over the Internet or by phone.
The case involves a clash between two parts of the Constitution, with lower courts divided over which section should rule. On one side is the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition in 1933 and explicitly granted states authority to regulate alcohol sales. Twenty-four states have laws that generally require outside wineries to sell their products through licensed wholesalers in the state. Michigan and New York allow instate Internet or telephone sales of alcoholic beverages. Some other states allow such sales, others do not. The Constitution also implicitly prohibits states from passing laws that discriminate against out-of-state businesses. That provision has been embraced by wine makers who hope to reach faraway Internet customers looking for favorite U.S. vintages unavailable in their home states.
While the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with New York in upholding the state restrictions, the 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, struck down Michigan’s laws as unconstitutionally protectionist.
Since 1980, the number of wineries has quadrupled nationally to more than 3,700 this year, and their survival depends on state laws that give them a fair shake, the National Association of American Wineries argues in a friend-of-the-court filing.
The Washington-based Institute for Justice says the 24 states that ban direct interstate shipments are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Vermont.

Got Your ID?
The United States Congress has passed legislation that requires the States to surrender their regulatory rights over driver’s licenses and birth certificates to The Department of Homeland Security. Beginning in 2005, the Department of Homeland Security will issue new uniformity regulations to the States requiring that all Drivers Licenses and Birth Certificates meet minimal Federal Standards with regard to US citizen information, including biometric security provisions. Added to currently existing Federal Laws and Supreme Court rulings that American citizens when born will be issued a Social Security Number that will be included on their Birth Certificates, along with DNA biometric markers, the rulings guarantee that all birth certificates will also now be registered in a Federal Government database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. No child will be allowed enrollment to schools or be entitled to either State of Federal Government benefits programs without first presenting a certified Homeland Security registered Birth Certificate. Drivers License4s holding Social Security Number will be required for receiving and applying for all State and Federal benefits programs. Supreme Court rulings have simultaneously upheld that State and Federal Law Enforcement authorities have the right to request Identification from any American citizen, for any reason and at any time as not being violations of their, the citizens, constitutionally protected rights.
Major Banks and credit card companies have applauded the adoption of a National ID system as being important to counter fraud and increasing instances of identity theft. National ID cards with biometric markers will eliminate them from having to issue Credit and Debit cards, which for the first time in US history have surpassed the usage of checks and cash. Utilizing The Department of Homeland Securities centralized federal database, Banks and credit card companies will only require the presentation of a citizens Driver’s License to make purchases as all of the persons financial information, including credit and cash balances, will already be known in “real time.”

Beating Man
A Greene County man from neighboring Hunter was convicted of beating his former girlfriend unconscious in a bar last April and will spend the next 11 years in prison. At his sentencing, Joseph Krom, 41 of Haines Falls, apologized to his former girlfriend, Kimberly Elder of Kingston, and said he would do his best to change his life while he is incarcerated.
Krom pleaded guilty to one count of felony assault on Nov. 9. Under an agreement with the Greene County District Attorney’s Office, his plea satisfied the five-count indictment against him, which had included charges of attempted murder and four counts of assault, all felonies. Krom also waived his right to an appeal.
The charges stem from an early morning incident April 7 at the Silver Springs Ranch on County Route 25 in Haines Falls. According to the Greene County District Attorney’s Office, Krom got into an argument with Elder, 26, and brutally attacked her, striking her on the head and face with a pool stick and a metal urn. Elder, seriously injured and rendered unconscious, was airlifted to Albany Medical Center for treatment of injuries that included a ruptured right eye socket and severely damaged right eye as well as facial cuts and fractures, authorities said.
Krom was arrested the following day after he turned himself in at the Catskill state police barracks. He was indicted April 19. Nothing ever happened to the others in the bar who witnessed the savage beating.
Krom previously served three months probation on a 1994 conviction of possession of a weapon, criminal impersonation and criminal trespass, all misdemeanors.

EPA Sewage…
Millions of Americans will face an increased threat of bacteria, viruses and parasites in their water thanks to a new federal policy allowing sewer operators to dump inadequately treated sewage into the nation’s waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency’s new plan, which reverses a current rule requiring sewer operators to fully treat their waste in all but the most extreme circumstances, will allow operators to routinely dump sewage anytime it rains. EPA is expected to issue the policy sometime in the next few weeks.
Scenic Hudson and Environmental Advocates of NY, two groups that have worked closely on state water quality issues in the past, recently called on the New York Congressional Delegation to stop EPA from implementing this official guidance, which would be particularly harmful for New York drinking water supplies.
Currently sewer operators are allowed to blend partially treated sewage only in extreme cases, such as hurricanes and tropical storms, and when there is no feasible alternative, such as adding more capacity to handle sewage or storing it until it can be fully treated. The new policy will allow plants to dump partially treated sewage anytime it rains or snows.
Untreated sewage contains a variety of dangerous pathogens, including bacteria (such as E coli), viruses (such as hepatitis A), protozoa (such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia) and helminth worms. The pathogens in sewage can cause illnesses ranging from diarrhea and vomiting and respiratory infections to hepatitis and dysentery. Even with the current, stronger sewage treatment standard, experts estimate that there are 7.1 million mild-to-moderate cases and 560,000 moderate-to-severe cases of infectious waterborne disease in the United States annually.
Besides the obvious threat to public health, allowing inadequately treated sewage in our nation’s waters will have dire long-term environmental and economic consequences, Scenic Hudson and Environmental Advocates said. More sewage in our waterways will close beaches along the Hudson River, in New York’s Great Lakes Basin area and throughout the state. This would in turn kill fish and destroy shellfish beds, resulting in irreparable damage to the fishing and tourism industries. Sewage is the second largest known cause of U.S. beach closures and advisories every year.

Flu Shots…
Two months after the government recommended that scarce flu shots be reserved for people most at risk, health officials are now worried that tens of thousands of doses could go to waste, and they are considering easing the restrictions.
The demand for flu shots has turned out to be lower than expected because the flu season has been mild so far. Also, it turns out that more than half of all elderly or chronically ill adults have not even tried to get vaccinated because they figured no shots would be available, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
The problem is that a flu shot is only good for the flu season it is made for. Any excess must be disposed of at the end of the season. The flu season begins in the fall and can last through April.
The surplus already has prompted some states to loosen their immunization restrictions, allowing people as young as 50 to get a shot. Others are considering allowing flu shots for anyone who has close contact with those in a high-risk group.
The government in October recommended that healthy adults delay or skip a flu shot this season to save vaccine for the estimated 98 million people in the country who need it most - the elderly, infants or those with chronic conditions. Those people are at highest risk of severe complications or death from the flu, which kills on average 36,000 people and hospitalizes 200,000 each year in the country.
The recommendation was made after health officials learned that nearly half of the country’s flu shot supply would be cut off because of contamination at vaccine maker Chiron Corp.’s plant in Liverpool, England.
Only about 65 million doses of vaccine will be available this season in the United States, including a nasal vaccine that is safe for only healthy people.
Although there were long lines of people seeking flu shots after the nationwide shortages were announced in October, demand has substantially dwindled in recent weeks. One reason is the flu season has been mild so far. New York is the only state with major flu activity, although flu cases are being found all over the country, the CDC has noted
Locally, additional doses of flu vaccine have been received by local health departments and health-care providers, giving senior citizens and other high-risk individuals another chance to be inoculated against influenza before winter takes hold. Ulster County residents can make appointments for flu shots and will be inoculated at the Health Department’s Kingston offices in the coming month. Only those over 65 years old, and individuals 18-64 who have proof of a high-risk medical condition, can get the shots. Senior citizens who have Medicare Part B will be able to obtain their vaccinations through Medicare. The recipient must be entitled to Part B coverage on the date of service, Medicare Part B must be the primary insurance coverage, and the Medicare card must be presented on the date of service. For those not eligible for Medicare Part B coverage, there will be a $20 charge for the flu shot and a $25 charge for pneumococcal vaccine, payable at the appointment.
Call the county Health Department at (845) 340-3070 to schedule an appointment for a flu shot that will be administered at the Health Department’s Kingston office on subsequent days. For more information, call the county’s flu hotline at (845) 340-3093 or visit the Health Department’s Web site at www.co.ulster.ny.us/health.

Guard Down
In the latest signs of strains on the military from the war in Iraq, the Army National Guard announced recently that it had fallen 30 percent below its recruiting goals in the last two months and would offer new incentives, including enlistment bonuses of up to $15,000. In addition, the head of the National Guard Bureau, Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, has said that he needed $20 billion to replace arms and equipment destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan or left there for other Army and Air Guard units to use, so that returning reservists will have enough equipment to deal with emergencies at home.
The sharp decline in recruiting is significant because National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers now make up nearly 40 percent of the 148,000 troops in Iraq, and are a vital source for filling the ranks, particularly those who perform essential support tasks, like truck drivers and military police.
In an effort to halt the slide, the Army National Guard this week approved recruiting incentives that triple the enlistment bonuses to $15,000 for soldiers with prior military experience who sign up for six years (tax-free if soldiers enlist overseas), Guard officials said. Bonuses for new enlistees will increased to $10,000 from $6,000.
General Blum’s remarks come just a few days after the chief of the Army Reserve, Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, said that the Army Reserve recruiting was in a “precipitous decline” that if unchecked could inspire renewed debate over the draft. General Helmly told the newspaper that he personally opposed reviving the draft.

Muslim Rights?
Nearly half of all Americans believe the U.S. government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a nationwide poll. The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims’ civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious. Researchers also found that respondents who paid more attention to television news were more likely to fear terrorist attacks and support limiting the rights of Muslim Americans. The survey found 44 percent favored at least some restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight percent said liberties should not be restricted in any way. The survey showed that 27 percent of respondents supported requiring all Muslim Americans to register where they lived with the federal government. Twenty-two percent favored racial profiling to identify potential terrorist threats. And 29 percent thought undercover agents should infiltrate Muslim civic and volunteer organizations to keep tabs on their activities and fund-raising.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan opened the first U.N. seminar on confronting Islamophobia with a plea not to judge Muslims by the acts of extremists who target and kill civilians. “We should not underestimate the resentment and sense of injustice felt by members of one of the world’s great religions, cultures and civilizations,” he said. “And we must make the re-establishment of trust among people of different faiths and cultures our highest priority,” Annan added, saying that failure to do this threatens world peace and development.
Seyyed Hussein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, said Islamophobia was a question not only of fear but also of hatred - often by people who know little about the religion. Nasr said most people view Islam as an intolerant, monolithic religion bent on ruling the Western world when in reality, there are various schools of Islamic thought, the religion is not anti-Western and the Islamic dynasties over the centuries accepted both Jews and Christians fleeing persecution.

Punishing…
The US government is quietly threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars of foreign aid aimed at combating terrorism, resolving conflicts, and building democracy unless countries agree to shield Americans from prosecution at the UN permanent war crimes tribunal. An amendment to the 3,000-page budget bill before the House of Representatives would punish countries, even close allies in the war on terrorism, that have joined the International Criminal Court and have declined to promise they would not send American citizens to the court without US permission.
Since 2002, the US government has withheld military aid from countries that refused to sign such a bilateral agreement. But the new amendment in this year’s budget bill goes a step further, revoking other nonmilitary assistance to governments. The amendment targets an economic support fund designed to foster democracy and human rights around the world, as well as promote the rule of law in Muslim countries to bolster counterterrorism efforts.
Supporters of the amendment are “so irrationally paranoid of the International Criminal Court that they are literally willing to shoot themselves in the foot in opposing it,” said William Pace, head of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, based in New York, a global network of more than 2,000 organizations that support the tribunal. “It will completely cut the legs out from underneath US credibility on peace initiatives, antiterrorist activities that the US is trying to fund, and support.”
US officials say they have a right to punish countries who refuse to protect Americans from the court. Although the United States is not a party to the court, US officials worry that American soldiers could be prosecuted for war crimes in politically motivated proceedings when an alleged crime is committed on the territory of a nation that is a member.
“US dollars are not free,” a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.


Evolution Games
The Pennsylvania American Civil Liberties Union plans to file a federal lawsuit Tuesday against one of their state’s school districts that is requiring students to learn about alternatives to the theory of evolution. The ACLU said its lawsuit will be the first to challenge whether public schools should teach “intelligent design,” which holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by some higher power.
The Dover Area School District was believed to be the first in the nation to mandate intelligent design when it voted 6-3 in October in favor of including the concept in the science curriculum. Administrators have declined to comment on the mandate, which applies to ninth-grade biology classes in rural south-central Pennsylvania.
The ACLU has said intelligent design is a more secular form of creationism, a Biblical-based view that credits the origin of species to God, and may violate the constitutional separation of church and state.


AMA Rules!
The American Medical Association is weighing support of importing prescription drugs from outside the United States as the nation’s physicians address pleas from patients over the high cost of medicines. The largest U.S. doctors group, representing a quarter million physicians, is being asked by members to put its considerable lobbying clout behind federal legislation that would find a way to safely import drugs from outside the United States. Already, several states have bucked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy against importation and set up state-sponsored initiatives to purchase lower-cost drugs from Canada or elsewhere. The issue is expected to come before Congress early next year and could gain momentum should the AMA’s 545-member policy-making House of Delegates back some form of importation.
The nation’s tab for prescription drugs continues to rise 10 to 15 percent a year by most estimates, and an increasing number of patients seek relief by buying drugs from Canada and other countries where prices can be 20 to 80 percent cheaper. Because various resolutions supporting safe importation have the support of large state delegations, including the California Medical Association, a measure putting the AMA on record in support of importation is seen as having a good chance to pass.
Currently, less than an estimated $1 billion worth of prescription drugs are purchased by U.S. citizens from Canada and elsewhere each year. That number is rising, although still dwarfed by U.S. drug purchases of more than $230 billion a year. Some doctors have said they shared concerns of the pharmaceutical industry that legalized importation would merely bring drug price controls of other countries to the United States.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry lobbying organization that includes drug giants Pfizer Inc., Merck & Co. and North Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories among its members, said price controls in the United States would hurt the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to fund research and therefore hurt development of potentially life-saving medicines.


Inaug-Ur-funds
The energy industry and some of its executives have contributed over a million dollars to President Bush’s inauguration fund. In all, 26 donors gave over $4.5 million.
Occidental Petroleum Corp., whose business stands to benefit from the president’s actions in regard to Libya, donated $250,000, as did Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company. Other donors from the energy sector included Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who gave $250,000; and former Enron President Richard Kinder, who left the firm five years before it collapsed and now is CEO of one of the largest energy transportation and storage companies in the country. Kinder also gave $250,000.
Energy provider Southern Co., which owns utility companies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, gave $250,000. The Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization of the nuclear industry, gave $100,000.
Outside the energy sector, New Orleans Saints football team owner Tom Benson gave $50,000 and his companies gave $200,000. Northrop Grumman Corp., the world’s largest shipbuilder and second-largest U.S. defense contractor, gave $100,000. Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., the world’s largest personal computer maker, gave $250,000.
Meanwhile, peace and justice activists from the Mid-Hudson region have chartered buses to Washington Jan. 20 to bring local residents to a protest at the inauguration, even though it’s looking like the capital will be locked down for the occasion. The 55-seat buses will leave from Kingston, Poughkeepsie and New Paltz early
in the morning, returning in late evening. A round-trip ticket costs $40. For reservations email jacdon@earthlink.net or call (845) 255-5779.
The major national antiwar group ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is negotiating for a permit to hold a rally along the Inaugural Parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue but is already facing difficulties.


Penta-Deceit
The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians and military officers say. Such missions, if approved, could take the deceptive techniques endorsed for use on the battlefield to confuse an adversary and adopt them for covert propaganda campaigns aimed at neutral and even allied nations. Critics of the proposals say such deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon’s credibility, leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of anything the Defense Department and military say - a repeat of the credibility gap that roiled America during the Vietnam War.
The efforts under consideration risk blurring the traditional lines between public affairs programs in the Pentagon and military branches - whose charters call for giving truthful information to the media and the public - and the world of combat information campaigns or psychological operations. The question is whether the Pentagon and military should undertake an official program that uses disinformation to shape perceptions abroad. But in a modern world wired by satellite television and the Internet, any misleading information and falsehoods could easily be repeated by American news outlets.
The military has faced these tough issues before. Nearly three years ago, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, under intense criticism, closed the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Influence, a short-lived operation to provide news items, possibly including false ones, to foreign journalists in an effort to influence overseas opinion. Now, critics say, some of the proposals of that discredited office are quietly being resurrected elsewhere in the military and in the Pentagon.
Pentagon and military officials directly involved in the debate say that such a secret propaganda program, for example, could include planting news stories in the foreign press or creating false documents and Web sites translated into Arabic as an effort to discredit and undermine the influence of mosques and religious schools that preach anti-American principles.
Administration officials say they are increasingly troubled that a nation that can so successfully market its cars and colas around the world, even to foreigners hostile to American policies, is failing to sell its democratic ideals, even as the insurgents they are battling are spreading falsehoods over mass media outlets like the Arab news satellite channel Al Jazeera.
“In the battle of perception management, where the enemy is clearly using the media to help manage perceptions of the general public, our job is not perception management but to counter the enemy’s perception management,” said the chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita.
Meanwile. the Bush administration has dozens of intercepts of Mohamed ElBaradei’s phone calls with Iranian diplomats and is scrutinizing them in search of ammunition to oust him as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to three U.S. government officials.


No Discussion
Republicans say that Democrats have abused the filibuster by blocking 10 of the president’s 229 judicial nominees in his first term — although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan. Describing the filibusters as intolerable, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has hinted he may resort to an unusual parliamentary maneuver, dubbed the “nuclear option,” to thwart such filibusters. At issue is a seldom-used, complicated and highly controversial parliamentary maneuver in which Republicans could seek a ruling from the chamber’s presiding officer, presumably Vice President Cheney, that filibusters against judicial nominees are unconstitutional. Under this procedure, it would take only a simple majority or 51 votes to uphold the ruling — far easier for the 55-member GOP majority to get than the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster or the 67 votes needed to change the rules under normal procedures.


Negative Views
President Bush’s re-election was viewed negatively by a majority of people in several European countries - including those in Britain, America’s strongest ally in the war in Iraq, Associated Press polling recently found. And the president was not the only one viewed unfavorably. Americans generally were seen in an unfavorable light by many in France, Germany and Spain, countries not supportive of U.S. Iraq policies.
At least seven in 10 in France, Germany and Spain said they have an unfavorable view of President Bush. Just over half of the French and Germans said they have an unfavorable view of Americans in general, and about half of Spaniards felt that way.
Especially inclined to have an unfavorable opinion of Bush in those countries were people between ages 18 and 24. A majority of all respondents in France, Germany and Spain said they were disappointed that Bush won a second four-year term, defeating Democrat John Kerry.
Polling found that Bush is viewed favorably by a majority of people in the United States. But that is not the case in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. A majority of people in Britain, America’s strongest ally in the Iraq war, have an unfavorable view of Bush. Six in 10 Britons said they were disappointed he was re-elected. In Canada, about the same number of Canadians said they were disappointed with the re-election.
Just over half of the people in France, Germany and Spain had an unfavorable view of Americans, but a solid majority in Australia (69 percent), Britain (60 percent), Canada (80 percent) and Italy (56 percent) expressed a favorable opinion.
Australia, Britain and Italy are U.S. allies in the Iraq war. Canada did not send troops to support the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq but did send them to Afghanistan.