Bush's EPA Is Pursuing Fewer Polluters ... down nearly 70 percent ... prosecutions, cases, convictions drop

Bush's EPA Is Pursuing Fewer Polluters | Probes and Prosecutions Have Declined Sharply | By John Solomon and Juliet Eilperin | Washington Post Staff Writers | Sunday, September 30, 2007; Page A01

The Environmental Protection Agency's pursuit of criminal cases against polluters has dropped off sharply during the Bush administration, with the number of prosecutions, new investigations and total convictions all down by more than a third, according to Justice Department and EPA data.

The number of civil lawsuits filed against defendants who refuse to settle environmental cases was down nearly 70 percent between fiscal years 2002 and 2006, compared with a four-year period in the late 1990s, according to those same statistics.
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The slower pace of enforcement mirrors a decline in resources for pursuing environmental wrongdoing. The EPA now employs 172 investigators in its Criminal Investigation Division, below the minimum of 200 agents required by the 1990 Pollution Prosecution Act, signed by President George H.W. Bush.
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The Massachusetts case is emblematic of the steep decline in criminal cases initiated by the EPA. The number of environmental prosecutions plummeted from 919 in 2001 to 584 last year, a 36 percent decline, according to Justice Department statistics collected by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
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Those same Justice Department data also show that the number of people convicted for environmental crimes dropped from 738 in 2001 to 470 last year.

Similarly, the number of cases opened by EPA investigators fell 37 percent, from 482 in 2001 to 305 last year, according to data the EPA provided congressional investigators. ...

Countrywide CEO Cashed Out ... $138 million in stock options over the last year ... as the mortgage company went into a tailspin

Report: Countrywide CEO Cashed Out | LA Times: Angelo Mozilo Cashed In $138 Million In Options Before Crash | LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29, 2007

(AP) Countrywide Financial Corp. Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo cashed in $138 million in stock options over the last year, switching his trading plans as the mortgage company went into a tailspin, it was reported Saturday.
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Hundreds of executives use similar trading plans, approved by federal regulators in 2000 as a way to defend against insider trading allegations. While not illegal, it is highly unusual for the plans to be changed so often in a short period, experts said.

"If a guy is changing his plan around, I would think that would send up a red flag. I wouldn't allow my clients to do it," said Thom F. Carroll, a financial planner with the Baltimore wealth management firm Carroll, Frank & Plotkin.

Mozilo adopted a new trading plan, added a second one and then revised it while the housing and mortgage industry slumped, the Times reported, citing regulatory findings.

The changes allowed him to sell hundreds of thousands of additional shares before Countrywide stock plunged. ...
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Calabasas-based Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender in terms of volume, faces a lawsuit claiming it failed to warn employees about the depth of its financial troubles, resulting in heavy stock losses in their 401k retirement accounts. ...

Congressional scandal figures ...and the yachts they live on

Congressional scandal figures ...and the yachts they live onRon Brynaert | Published: Friday September 28, 2007
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"When he is not at the Capitol, Senator Larry E. Craig spends much of his time aboard the Suz II, the 42-foot yacht that serves as his Washington home," Marilyn W. Thompson writes for the paper. "Further down D Dock at the Capital Yacht Club, his friend Senator Ted Stevens occasionally escapes the pressures of a federal investigation aboard his pleasure boat."

The article continues, "Former Representative Randy Cunningham, Republican of California, used to reside a few slips over on the Duke Stir before federal investigators built a bribery case against him. And at the Gangplank Marina next door, the disgraced congressmen Bob Ney, a Republican, and James A. Traficant Jr., a Democrat, both from Ohio, traded coveted slips for federal prison cells in bribery cases." ...

The Bush administration organized a stealth lobbying campaign, with the auto industry’s help, to oppose California’s ... fuel economy standards ....

Bush administration pushed states to lobby against California fuel rules | House Democratic chairman will hold hearings | September 24, 2007 | By JUSTIN HYDE | FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration organized a stealth lobbying campaign, with the auto industry’s help, to oppose California’s effort to set fuel economy standards, the chairman of the House Oversight committee said Monday.

In a letter to the top White House environmental official, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., asked the administration to repudiate the lobbying, saying it should have made its objections public rather than leaning on members of Congress and state governors to oppose California’s rules. Waxman has scheduled a committee hearing on the issue for Tuesday.
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Waxman said Peters and other officials should have made their opposition public rather than trying to work behind the scenes. Waxman also said the campaign could raise legal questions, noting that Republicans have said in the past that federal officials were barred from lobbying lawmakers.

“It is not an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars to organize a lobbying campaign to politicize this vital regulatory decision,” Waxman said in a letter to James Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Waxman said the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the trade group that includes General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., Chrysler and Toyota, gave a list of plants to Transportation department officials to help them target lawmakers and governors.

Ex-Veco Corp. CEO Bill Allen ... company employees worked on Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) home

Allen says Veco staff worked on Ted Stevens home remodel | By DAN JOLING | The Associated Press | Last Modified: September 14, 2007 at 02:30 PM

Ex-Veco Corp. CEO Bill Allen admitted in court Friday that he had company employees work several months on a remodeling project at the Girdwood home of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

The former head of the oil field services company made the admission Friday while testifying in the federal corruption trial of a former state lawmaker.

Allen and former Veco vice president Rick Smith in May pleaded guilty to extortion, conspiracy and bribery of legislators.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney James Wendt, representing former state Rep. Pete Kott, Allen acknowledged that the more than $400,000 he admitted spending in the bribery charge was for other legislators - and for work done at the Girdwood home of Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the U.S. Senate. ...

"whether industry lobbyists or White House politics unduly influenced" the [Justice] Department's Sept. 6 filing against "net neutrality."

Advocacy group files FOIA request seeking answers about DOJ 'net neutrality' ruling | Jason Rhyne | Published: Thursday September 13, 2007

A public interest group has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Justice Department seeking details about "whether industry lobbyists or White House politics unduly influenced" the Department's Sept. 6 filing against "net neutrality."
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Free Press, the "non partisan media reform group" that organizes the Save the Internet coalition, filed the request, stating in a press release that "The most recent anti-Net Neutrality filing came during Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' last days at the helm of the Justice Department. It followed recent revelations that the government and AT&T had conspired in far-reaching efforts to spy on Americans without legal warrant -- efforts for which the Bush administration is now seeking to give immunity from prosecution to AT&T and other phone companies." ...

unprecedented attack on the American medical establishment for its failure to condemn unethical practices by medical practitioners ... thoughout world

Doctors accuse US of 'unethical practices' at Guantanamo Bay | By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor | Published: 07 September 2007

More than 260 doctors from around the world have launched an unprecedented attack on the American medical establishment for its failure to condemn unethical practices by medical practitioners at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba.

In a letter to The Lancet, the doctors from 16 countries, including Britain and America, say the failure of the US regulatory authorities to act is "damaging the reputation of US military medicine".

They compare the actions of the military doctors, whom they accuse of being involved in the force-feeding of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and of turning a blind eye to evidence of torture in Iraq and elsewhere, to those of the South African security police involved in the death of the anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko 30 years ago.
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... The doctors wrote: "No healthcare worker in the War on Terror has been charged or convicted of any significant offence despite numerous instances documented including fraudulent record-keeping on detainees who have died as a result of failed interrogations ... The attitude of the US military establishment appears to be one of 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'."

The US introduced the policy of force-feeding, in which prisoners are strapped to a chair and a tube is forced down the throat into the stomach, after more than 100 prisoners went on hunger strike in 2005.

"Fundamental to doctors' responsibilities in attending a hunger striker is the recognition that prisoners have a right to refuse treatment," the doctors wrote.
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... lodged formal complaints with two medical boards, in California and Georgia in the United States. He also lodged a complaint with the American Medical Association, of which John Edmondson, the former hospital commander at Guantanamo Bay, was a member.

Writing in today's Lancet, Dr Nicholl and his co-signatories, say: "After 18 months there had been no reply from the AMA, the Californian authorities stated that they 'do not have the jurisdiction to investigate incidents that occurred on a federal facility/military base', and the authorities in Georgia stated that the 'complaint was thoroughly investigated', but 'the Board concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to support prosecution'."

When the same complaint was considered by the Royal College of Physicians in the UK, the college concluded: "In England, this would be a criminal act." ...

AWOL soldier: The isolation and fear of being attacked, harassed, molested and raped was a huge part of her life in Iraq.

A Moment of Silence Is Not Enough | By Sara Rich | t r u t h o u t | Statement | Monday 20 March 2006

... Then, a few weeks later, she got her readiness papers - that 6 months after she hopefully returned from Iraq the second time, she was scheduled to go over for yet another year. Making it three deployments to Iraq in less than four years.

All of our hearts were heavy. Three days before her actual redeployment, she was packed and ready to go, she had her car keys in her hand, and she turned to me and said, "I don't think I can do this." I was shocked but knew any type of coercion on my part would not help, so I said, "Are you serious?" She replied, "I just can't do it, Mom." She could not go back there to the misery. She told me that being separated from her family and living and breathing Army for a year at a time in a war zone was a constant source of distress for her. Where nobody cares whether you live or die as long as you do what you are told and they look good afterwards. Nor could she handle another deployment, dealing with the daily hour-to-hour sexual harassment that she endured from 99% of her male officers and fellow soldiers. The isolation and fear of being attacked, harassed, molested and raped was a huge part of her life in Iraq. She was always full of anxiety and stress just keeping herself safe when her commanding officers would show up banging on her door in the middle of the night, intoxicated and wanting to have sex with her. The intimidation and sexual harassment that our female soldiers are enduring is leading to massive stress and in some cases even death for our military women in Iraq. They are not supported but shamed when they bring these to the attention of their superiors.
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My daughter tells me, "Mom, while I was in Iraq, the children were never in school, they were out in the street begging for candy. They were never being watched or supervised, just allowed to run wild. I was never sure what we were or still are trying to accomplish in Iraq. I never saw the US do anything to make things better while I was there. My unit would go out on useless missions and end up being shot at in the dark by our supposed allies because communication between the US and our allies was so poor. We need to get the hell out of Iraq and let them solve their own problems. Most Iraqis don't want us there anyway. We should have done this years ago, but I guess our government saw it as making us money in some weird way. I think the reason that post traumatic stress syndrome is so huge is because this was an invasion/war without a purpose. NO one benefited from us being there. Except that Saddam Hussein got a free ticket out of Iraq.... Why do we think we should be liberating all these countries when we can't even feed or house our own children in the United States. How about working on oppression and racism here in the US? Maybe we need someone to come liberate us!!" I could tell that my daughter felt liberated herself and finally touched on some of her anger for the Army as she went on. Here are some more thoughts for us here today. ...

DoD often doesn’t like to talk about is that depleted uranium is both radioactive and toxic ... aerosolizes into a ceramic dust that can enter soil ..

Depleted Uranium, Increased Risk | Weapons the Department of Defense claims are harmless have serious and lasting effects. | Perry O’Brien, Cornell University | September 5, 2007
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The thing the DoD often doesn’t like to talk about is that depleted uranium is both radioactive and toxic, putting its use in violation of some basic tenets of the Geneva Conventions. Defenders of DU (mainly the United States and Britain) have argued that it’s perfectly safe to hold a sabot round in your hand. That’s probably true, but when a sabot round hits its target, much of the shell aerosolizes into a ceramic dust that can enter the soil. This dust contaminates food and water supplies and can be inhaled or absorbed into the body through open wounds. A variety of critics, including veterans’ organizations, independent researchers, and the European Parliament, have charged that this dust has created serious health problems for exposed soldiers and civilians. If it’s as toxic as they say, then the use of DU violates at least three international laws.

The Hague Convention of 1907 prohibits the use of "poison or poisoned weapons," and DU could fit that description. A recent study on rats shows that exposure to depleted uranium can cause damage to the central nervous system, kidneys, and reproductive systems. This latter effect has been cited by independent researchers as the cause of unusually high rates of infertility and birth defects in both Gulf War veterans and civilians in Iraq, where U.S. forces fired over 300 tons of DU ammunition. A 2005 study concluded that the risk to both groups from DU exposure was nominal, though the report admitted to "fairly large calculational uncertainties." Ultimately, not enough research has been done on DU’s effect on human populations. Despite admitting that thousands of Gulf War veterans were exposed to the substance, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has tested fewer than 100.
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Given the evidence linking DU exposure with numerous health problems, it is shameful that the United States continues to field such weapons without further research on their human impact. For the sake of our own soldiers, not to mention the citizens of countries such as Iraq, Americans should join the international community and call for an immediate moratorium on the use of all DU weapons.

Consumer products safety: “He was distorting the numbers in order to benefit industry and defeat the petition.

Safety Agency Faces Scrutiny Amid Changes | By ERIC LIPTON | Published: September 2, 2007

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 — In March 2005, the Consumer Product Safety Commission called together the nation’s top safety experts to confront an alarming statistic: 44,000 children riding all terrain vehicles were injured the previous year, nearly 150 of them fatally.

National associations of pediatricians, consumer advocates and emergency room doctors were urging the commission to ban sales of adult-size A.T.V.’s for use by children under 16 because the machines were too big and fast for young drivers to control. But when it came time to consider such a step, a staff member whose name did not appear on the meeting agenda unexpectedly weighed in.
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Robin L. Ingle, then the agency’s hazard statistician and A.T.V. injury expert, was dumbfounded. Her months of research did not support Mr. Mullan’s analysis. Yet she would not get to offer a rebuttal.

“He had hijacked the presentation,” Ms. Ingle said in an interview. “He was distorting the numbers in order to benefit industry and defeat the petition. It was almost like he still worked for them, not us.”
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At a time when imports from China and other Asian countries surged, creating an ever greater oversight challenge, the Bush-appointed commissioners voiced few objections as the already tiny agency — now just 420 workers — was pared almost to the bone.
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At the agency’s cramped laboratory, a lone employee is charged with testing suspected defective toys from across the nation. At the nearby headquarters, safety initiatives have been stalled or dropped after dozens of jobs were eliminated in budget cutbacks.

Other workers quit in frustration. The head of the poison prevention unit, for example, resigned when efforts to require inexpensive child-resistant caps on hair care products that had burned toddlers were delayed so industry costs could be weighed against the potential benefit to children.
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The guns were flawed, the agency staff had argued, because a BB could become lodged within the barrel even when the chamber appeared to be empty, a condition that agency research showed had caused at least 15 deaths and 171 serious injuries, most of them involving children.

Citing Daisy’s “precarious financial condition,” Mr. Stratton rejected the recall plan — and the court proceeding that is necessary any time the commission wants to force a company to accept a recall — saying, “I consider this administrative legal proceeding to be burdensome and inefficient.”

In an unusual step, he personally negotiated an agreement with the company to put a bigger warning label on its guns and spend $1.5 million on a safety education campaign. William B. Moran, the administrative law judge hearing the case, condemned Mr. Stratton’s alternative as toothless and said the deal would “create the risk that the public could perceive its decision as driven by its political makeup.” But the commission approved the settlement in a two-to-one vote in November 2003.
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In that role, he argued against a ban on sales of A.T.V.’s for use by children, and a staff report concurred. Adults could still buy the machines and permit children to ride them, Mr. Mullan said, and the agency did not have enough staff to enforce the mandate. Agreeing, the commission rejected a ban.
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Unlike other mandates, new rules in involving poison prevention could be set by the agency without conducting a cost-benefit study, according to federal law. But Ms. Barone was told that the economic analysis was being pushed by the White House Office of Management and Budget, agency documents show.

“We are talking one to two cents per package here for something that we know is toxic,” said Ms. Barone, who now works for the F.D.A. “The other option is just to wait for more children to get hurt. It is just kind of sad.”
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Mr. Moore, the commissioner appointed by Mr. Clinton, told Congress in March that it would take years to recover from the loss of employees with expertise in toys, fire-related hazards, drowning prevention and chemical risks, among others.

A senior agency official was more blunt. “It is a complete disaster,” said the official, one of nearly a dozen who spoke anonymously because the agency had instructed employees not to talk to reporters. “There is just no other word for it.”
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And cigarette lighter manufacturers, finding themselves at a competitive disadvantage to Chinese companies that ignore the voluntary standard, are seeking safety rules for lighters. The consumer commission, though, has declined so far to move ahead, saying the 90 injuries and 10 deaths linked to fires caused by defective lighters were not enough to justify the mandate.

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ... donor ... pushing ..revamp the way California awards its electoral votes .. to help GOP

California Ballot Proposal's GOP Ties | The Associated Press | Tuesday 04 September 2007

Los Angeles - Lawyers behind a California ballot proposal that could benefit the 2008 Republican presidential nominee have ties to a Texas homebuilder who financed attacks on Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Charles H. Bell and Thomas Hiltachk's law firm banked nearly $65,000 in fees from a California-based political committee funded almost solely by Bob J. Perry that targeted Democrats in 2006. Perry, a major Republican donor, contributed nearly $4.5 million to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that made unsubstantiated but damaging attacks on Kerry three years ago.

Hiltachk has been pushing a proposal to revamp the way California awards its electoral votes, a change Democrats claim would rig the 2008 race. He and Bell are the sole officers of a new political committee, Californians for Equal Representation, that is raising money to place the plan on the ballot in June.

Their success could hinge on whether they get the financial backing to collect more than 400,000 petition signatures needed to qualify the proposal for the ballot. And while Perry has not donated to their cause, his wealth and connections make him a potential financier for a drive that could cost more than $1 million. Running a statewide campaign would cost millions more. ...