Bruno Weighs Gay Marriage Directive

ALBANY — As New House Of House Of York lawmakers pondered a new directive from Gov. that state federal agencies get revising their policies to honour same-sex marriages conducted outside New York, the Legislature’s top Republican said he had yet to make up one's mind whether to dispute the governor.

Nathaniel Van Wyck Brooks for The New House Of York Times

Gov. Saint David A. Paterson, shown at a news conference on budget issues on Wednesday, may force to legalize same-sex unions.

Related (May 29, 2008)

Jesse James Rajotte for The New House Of House Of York Times

A lawsuit involving Patricia Martinez and Lisa Golden was cited in the directive changing policies on cheery labor unions in New York.

, the bulk leader of the State Senate, said Thursday morning time that he was surprised by the governor’s order but had not yet read it.

“I’m not going to second-guess it because I haven’t seen it,” Mr. Giordano Bruno said. “I don’t cognize the branchings of this.”

On May 14, Mr. Paterson’s legal counsel, Saint David Nocenti, wrote a memorandum to all state federal agency caputs that directed them to measure their policies and get rewriting them so they follow with a state entreaties tribunal determination that said New House Of York must acknowledge cheery matrimonies performed in other legal powers like Canada and California.

At a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Mr. William Patterson repeated the directive and said that although helium back ups cheery matrimony and will go on to force for it in the future, this was not an “end tally around the Legislature” but merely his reading of current laws on the books.

“I’m followers the law as it always have existed,” he said.

Asked to react to critics of the directive, helium said, “I would propose that if they went back and read the law, that they would come up to a different reading themselves, even if they differ with the conception of matrimony equality.

“If Iodine didn’t take this action,” he added, “I would go forth this state unfastened to law suits. I would go forth the state exchequer unfastened to pecuniary damages.” Mr. Giordano Bruno said Thursday that he and his staff would look at whether the governor had violated the bank checks and balances that base between the executive director and the legislative branches. But he stopped short of saying that Mr. Paterson, A Democrat, had overstepped his authority.

“There’s a constitutional inquiry here,” Mr. Giordano Bruno added. Relations between Mr. Giordano Bruno and Mr. William Patterson have got been especially affable since the governor took over from former Gov. inch March.

Mr. William Patterson reiterated his support for a cheery matrimony bill. “Some of those dizzy legislators who believe I’m doing an end run, maybe they should travel into the Legislature and actually work on it,” helium said. The policy alterations are most likely to affect as many as 1,300 legislative acts and ordinances in New House Of York government everything from joint filing of income taxation tax returns to transferring fishing licences between spouses.

In A videotaped message given to cheery community leadership at a dinner on May 17, Mr. William Patterson described the move as “a strong measure toward matrimony equality.” And people on both sides of the issue said it moved the state closer to fully legalizing same-sex labor labor labor unions in this state.

“Very shortly, there will be 100s and 100s and hundreds, and probably one one one thousands and thousands and thousands of cheery people who have got got their matrimonies recognized by the state,” said Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell, a Democrat who stands for the Upper Berth Occident Side and have pushed for legalisation of cheery unions.

Massachusetts and Golden State are the lone states that have legalized cheery marriage, while others, including New Jersey and Vermont, let civil unions. Forty-one state-supporteds have got laws limiting matrimony as a labor union between a adult male and a woman.

Legal experts said Mr. Paterson’s determination would do New House Of York the lone state that did not itself let cheery matrimony but fully recognized same-sex labor labor unions entered into elsewhere.

The directive is the strongest signaling yet that Mr. Paterson, who developed strong neckties to the cheery community as a legislator, programs to force aggressively to legalize same-sex unions as governor. His predecessor, Mr. Spitzer, introduced a measure last twelvemonth that would have got legalized cheery marriage, but even as he submitted it, doubted that it would pass. The Democratic-dominated Assembly passed the measure, but the Republican-led Senate have refused to name a ballot on it.

Short of an enactment by the Legislature, the directive ordered by Mr. William Patterson is the 1 of the strongest statements a state can make in favour of cheery unions.

“Basically we’ve done everything we can do on matrimony legislatively at this point,” said Sean Saint Patrick Maloney, a senior advisor to Mr. Paterson. “But there are tools in our tool kit on the executive director side, and this is one.” One

Danny Hakim contributed reporting from Capital Of New House Of York and Anahad O'Connor and Tina Kelley from New York.

Danish Prince Weds French Woman in Second Marriage (Update1)

Denmark's , the second
son of sovereign , married Marie Cavallier of
France, three old age after he divorced his first wife.

Joachim, 38, dabbed crying from his eyes and then kissed his
two boys as Cavallier, 32, entered the ,
located in southern Kingdom Of Denmark near the prince's manor. Guests at
the nationally televised ceremonial included Swedish , Norse and the British actor
.

Joachim divorced in 2005 from Hong Kong-born , World Health Organization subsequently have remarried and thus lost her royal
title. Today, Cavallier received the statute title ''Her Royal Highness
Princess Marie'' and joined Europe's oldest .

In his homily, said to the
couple that they ''have, inch different ways, experienced divorces,
and you have got got been in love with others before you met.'' Helium added:
''You naturally have deliberated carefully before deciding to say
'yes' to each other in the full visible light of publicity.''

Cavallier wore an off-white nuptial gown lined with ivory
silk faille that was designed by Saint David Arasa and Claudio Morelli
from the manner house Arasa Morelli, the royal tribunal said in a
statement. Joachim wore a formal Danish foot uniform. Medals
and a sky blueness window sash were draped across his naval forces blueness tunic.

French Father

Joachim, the little blood brother of Danish , have dated Cavallier since 2005. They announced their
engagement in October. She have go a Danish citizen and
converted to Denmark's state faith, Lutheranism, from Roman-
Catholicism.

Marie, born in Paris, is the youngest of five siblings. She
moved to Swiss Confederation as a adolescent to go to a boarding school
and have lived in that state for most of her grownup life. Since
2001, she have worked at her father's Geneva-based investment
company, according to Danish broadcaster TV2. Her parents are
divorced.

, whose father is from France,
speaks fluent French.

''In malice of great differences in the manner you grew up, you
share much in your backgrounds that volition lend to a rich and
stimulating life for the two of you,'' Bishop Svendsen said in
his remarks. ''You already share the Gallic linguistic communication and you both
take pleasance in Gallic culture.''

Royal Wages

The Danish parliament last calendar month decided to increase the
prince's annual pay by 40 percentage to 2.9 million kroner
($612,000) to assist him back up his new wife.

After the ceremony, the couple were scheduled to throw a
private dinner response at Joachim's Schackenborg manor. Joachim's and Manley's 1995 response was televised and held at
the Fredensborg palace North of Copenhagen, where Denmark's
traditionally throw their greatest household events.

Joachim have joint detention with Manley of their two sons
, 8, and Prince Felix, 5.

Joachim's blood brother Frederik, 39, married Australian-born
inch 2004 and have two children.

To reach the newsmen on this story:
in Kobenhavn at

Trash and Politics Italian Style

Trash and Politics Italian Style
Friday May 23, 3:00 americium ET

Syngenta and Monsanto end legal dispute over crop technologies

: Swiss agrochemicals company Syngenta said Friday it have resolved a legal difference with U.S.-rival Monsanto over their several maize and soyabean businesses.

Syngenta said it will retreat antimonopoly and violation lawsuits related to Monsanto's usage of herbicide-tolerant and insect-protected corn technologies, and herbicide-tolerant soybean technology.

In return, Monsanto will licence Syngenta's engineering for making harvests immune to the weedkiller Dicamba.

Syngenta will also licence one of Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" engineerings for increasing soyabean yield.

The two companies agreed to collaborate in developing new herbicide-tolerant and insect-protection products for the cultivation of corn, cotton wool and soybeans. Today in Business with Reuters

Syngenta shares rose 1.5 percentage to 324.75 Swiss francs (US$315.80; €200.44) on the Zurich exchange.

Polk Co. files response in same-sex marriage case

DES MOINES, Ioway (AP) -- The James Polk County attorney's business business office states in new written documents that a lawsuit challenging the state's same-sex matrimony prohibition is trying to change the manner populace policy is made.The lawsuit have got led to a series of filings in which the county attorney's office and a New York-based cheery rights organisation have answered one another's legal arguments.Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of six cheery and gay woman couples from Ioway who were denied matrimony licenses, as well as three of the couples' children. It name calling former James James Polk County recording equipment and registrar Timothy Brien.The lawsuit prompted a opinion last August by Polk County District Court Judge Henry Martin Robert Hanson, who said the state law allowing matrimony only between a adult male and a adult female go againsts the constitutional rights of owed procedure and equal protection.The next day, Hanson stayed the decision, and the lawsuit is now before the Ioway Supreme Court.Challengers of the same-sex matrimony prohibition postulate it go againsts gays' rights. Opponents said the issue should be left up to the Legislature to do up one's mind -- not the courts.In its answer legal little filed on Tuesday, the county attorney's business office said that Lambda Legal seeks to have got got the judicial subdivision set populace policy, instead of leaving it to lawmakers."Plaintiffs seek to have this tribunal set up that the tribunals and not the Legislature should make public policy for the State of Ioway by redefining matrimony to be something totally different from what it have ever seen," the little said.Among its arguments, the brief criticises Lambda Legal's analogy between homosexuals seeking the right to get married and Iowa's judicial history of guaranteeing rights for achromatic Americans. The little said other tribunals have got rejected similar arguments."This is because the histories of achromatic Americans simply are not remotely the same as plaintiffs," the little said. "The fundamental laws of the United States and the state of Ioway make not advert homosexuality."The little also reasons that the tribunal erred in rejecting some of the county's witnessers who were to have got testified about the nature of matrimony and the best state of affairs in which to raise children. It said the witnessers should be allowed because their testimony is something the Legislature could believe as portion of statements to continue procreative marriage, which it called "a rational footing for the (Iowa) law."The county attorney's business office said Lambda Legal also tried to asseverate that the county's statements are simply based on morals."Plaintiffs mistake culture, history and spiritual beliefs," the little said. "Defendant (Brien) have addressed that his witnessers testified from historical and anthropological research, not a substance of faith."Camilla Taylor, the Lambda Legal lawyer representing the same-sex couples, issued a statement about the county's brief."We've heard all of these statements before, yet James Polk County have still given no valid justification for excluding same-sex couples and their children from marriage," she said.Oral statements will be scheduled by the Ioway Supreme Court in coming months, but a determination this twelvemonth is unlikely.

The Public Pressures Publicizing Your Love for Someone

So, hot on the flat, comfy heels of Golden State overturning the cheery matrimony ban, Ellen DeGeneres announced on her show, that she's marrying the stunningly hot Portia Delaware Rossi.

She got a standing standing ovation — and Iodine could state Ellen hasn't been this happy since she professed the same love for Ann Heche, also on TV, a decennary ago. As you know, seeing Ellen happy, do me happy — for everyone should beryllium happy with the 1 they love — be they straight, gay, transgendered, bi-curious, master-slave, S and M, or even Belgian. Especially Belgian. Those suffering assholes rate it.

But Ellen already cognizes that once you publicise your love, it uses undo pressure level on that human relationship to last — even if it's not meant to be. And then, bitterness grows, leading inevitably to something named Coley Laffoon. Such a stupid, stupid name.

The fact is if you ever desire to dwell "happily ever after," you necessitate to close the Hell up about it. Profession one's love publicly only works in sappy commercials, bad movies and perhaps keeps in the East Village where the endurance of your scrotum depends on it. For me, public exhortations of love are no different than telling everyone how great your intestine motions are since switching to All-Bran. No 1 gives a sh_t, except you. Related
Column Archive

Show Info Airs Weekdays at 2 a.m. ET

And so, this is why I never discourse my matrimony with anyone — which is the chief ground why Toilet Stamos and I are so happy together.

And if you differ with me, then you sir are worse than Hitler!

hosts weekdays at 3 a.m. ET. Send your remarks to:

Hurrah for Gay Marriage

Erica Erica Jong
Sun May 18, 3:25 Prime Minister ET

I've never understood the expostulation to cheery marriage. We world are pair-bonding creatures and we look to experience safest when coupled. It's not true for everyone, of course, but most of us eventually desire a spouse to unify our books and lives with. Marriage supplies certain extremely utile perks: a spouse to be with you when you are ill, person to share your poorness or wealthiness with, person to share your jubilations and devastations, person to raise children with. You'd believe the right wing would be pleased that cheery people share the same demands as other Americans.

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In the past, cheery people had to follow their lovers to go forth them their goodies. Or they had to travel without a next-of-kin to depend on in hospital. All kinds of legal mumbo-jumbo was required because matrimony was forbidden. And why? Because a bigoted old Book seemed to connote that Supreme Being made Adam and Eve -- not Adam and Steve -- as the anti-gay faction wishes to say.

I've often establish that cheery people are better at matrimony than consecutive people. They don't acquire all set out of form about sexual activity for sex's sake. At least this is true for cheery men. And they don't run to flop up a perfectly cosy labor union because one member of the couple -- or both -- have a fling. Some couples are faithful and some not. And they look to drill this without the territoriality and lip service of mixed-sex couples. Actually, they should be our function theoretical accounts in marriage. They take it far more than seriously than consecutive people -- perhaps because it was forbidden for so long.

So hooray for Golden State and Massachusetts. Let's hope the anti-gay moonstruck periphery eventually sees cheery matrimony as a approval not a curse. It certainly advances stableness and family. And it's certainly good for kids.

But the truth is the anti-gays don't believe rationally. They necessitate their wedge shape issues to deflect the public from reality. Anti-gay rhetoric is a utile political smokescreen. It befogs the fact that the rich are getting richer and that cipher gives a hoot about the poor. Whenever people acquire exercised about sexual activity -- fishy the truth: they desire to pick your pocket.

Free Criminal Background Check - Yes A Background Check Can Be Done Online

If you have got got ever tried to make a free criminal background bank check online, I have a inquiry for you, how did it work out? I'm willing to wager that, it simply did not work out at all. Typically, the scenario travels something like this, you necessitate to see if person have a criminal record or not so you head off to the cyberspace to acquire the information. Free is always our first pick so, certainly no organic structure can fault you for trying to acquire this information for nothing.

What haps adjacent is repeated twenty-four hours after day. You travel to a website and come in in all of the information that they bespeak only to be taken to a gross sales page where you are required to pay for the information that you are searching for. So, you go forth that land site and then reiterate the procedure over and over again only to vow to yourself that tomorrow you will seek again.

Smarten up people, there is no charming piece of software system or website out there that is going to take a people name and then bring forth a study for you free of charge. I am asked inquiries about this repeatedly. What people necessitate to understand is, you can acquire a transcript of people criminal past times but, you simply can not acquire it for free. Now, the rates that are charged are nominal by nature and are little adequate that anyone can afford them however, there is a fee.

If a free criminal background bank check is the lone thing that you will accept then sadly, you will not ever acquire the information that you need. You can however, pass as much clip as you desire searching online because it is your clip to waste. If you are looking for this type of information to guarantee the safety of your household or even to check up on out a possible employee the couple vaulting horses it be should be well deserving the piece of head that it conveys to have got all the facts. If it is an employee background check, the solution is simple, you can go through the cost onto the individual you necessitate the criminal study on.

MAKING HISTORY | SAME-SEX MARRIAGE DECISION / THE COURT

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(05-15) 12:40 PDT SAN FRANCISCO --
The seven justnesses on the Golden State Supreme Court and how they voted in Thursday's opinion legalizing same-sex marriage:

Chief Justice Ronald George, 68, a moderate Republican appointive by Gov. Pete Harriet Wilson in 1991. He wrote the 4-3 sentiment dramatic down the state prohibition on same-sex marriage, which he said go againsts the "fundamental constitutional right to constitute a household relationship."

Justice James Joyce Kennard, 67, a Republican appointive by Gov. Saint George Deukmejian in 1989. She is considered a moderate and joined the bulk opinion.

Justice Kathryn Batch Werdegar, 72, a Republican appointive by Harriet Wilson in 1994. She is considered a moderate and was portion of the bulk in the ruling.

Justice Carlos Moreno, 59, the court's lone Democratic appointee, named to the bench by Gov. Gray Davys in 2001. He is considered a moderate and voted with the majority.

Justice Marvin Baxter, 68, a Republican appointive by Deukmejian in 1990. He is considered a conservative and wrote a dissentient sentiment that accused the tribunal of substituting "its ain societal policy positions for those expressed by the people."

Justice Ming Dynasty Chin, 65, a Republican appointive by Harriet Wilson in 1996. He is considered a conservative and joined Baxter's dissentient opinion.

Justice Carol Corrigan, 59, a moderate Republican appointive by Gov. Matthew Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005. Her separate dissent said that the tribunal should not invalidate the prohibition but that "Californians should let our cheery and gay woman neighbours to name their labor unions marriages."

E-mail Demian Bulwa at .

The Dumbing Down Of Higher Education - It's All Business

As adults, we necessitate expression no additional than a child's prep to cognize that each coevals is being pushed to larn more, faster. Today's children are learning topic substance in 3rd class that I didn't analyze until 5th and aged generations, let's state babe boomers, probably didn't larn until 7th or 8th grade.

This looks to be a common subject from class school through high school but when it come ups to college, the narrative alterations quite a bit.

It used to be that lone a little per centum of those who attended colleges and universities actually graduated. Today, it looks that a huge bulk gain their degree. Why this alteration in statistics? Well, I can state you it's certainly not because of the quality of the institutions.

Basically, the norm cost of a college instruction have skyrocketed every decade. And today, colleges and universities are more than concerned than ever with making a profit. They've go businesses, giant corps that would rather go through pupils through with a poor instruction than lose the tuition they could milk out of them.

Don't acquire me wrong, not every establishment runs this way. There are still some with higher standards, mostly the nationally and internationally known establishments with a century or so of educating under there proverbial belts. Ivy League schools like Princeton and Yale, major universities like the University of North Carolina and the University of Pittsburgh, and many other schools are still quite reputable. However, they expression to be the huge minority these days.

To see the "dumbing down" procedure first hand, one demand look no additional than two of the newest rages, online courses of study and speeded up programs. These courses of study are largely geared toward grownup professionals. And in my experience, this section of the population basically acquires their classes handed to them on a Ag platter. Alumnus programmes are ill-famed for this. For crying out loud, many of them don't even necessitate thesis undertakings anymore.

When it come ups to online courses, the greatest jobs lie it the facts that teachers cannot monitoring device cheating or even who is doing the coursework. So in essence, these social classes are basically worthless. And in the lawsuit of what schools like to name "accelerated programs," pupils acquire the same amount of recognition for taking courses of study for shorter clip periods of time. For example, instead of attending social classes respective modern times per hebdomad for an full semester, pupils necessitate only go to 1 social class per hebdomad for about one-half of a semester - what a crock!

Maybe the decreasing value of a college grade is just one of the many grounds for our states economical problems.

12 arrested in alleged marriage-for-citizenship scheme

DALLAS — Type A twelve household members spanning three coevals were arrested Tuesday in connexion with a matrimony fraud ring in which foreign subjects paid up to $12,000 each to get married U.S. citizens, government said.

Eleven people were arrested in the Dallas country and the 12th was arrested in Principal Christi, functionaries said. Four others stay at large.

Authorities said the matrimonies allowed the foreign subjects to use for lasting residence and citizenship.

The alleged confederacy involved assorted strategies to do the deceitful matrimonies look legitimate. Couples filed applications for lasting residence using fraudulently obtained legitimate documents. Some couples used bogus names, birth days of the month and Sociable Security numbers, functionaries said.

Some of the sham matrimonies day of the month to the early 1970s, functionaries said.

The four-year investigation was led by the Document and Benefit Fraud Undertaking Force, which is portion of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Also working on the lawsuit was the Office of Fraud Detection and National Security, which is portion of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"We will not endure matrimony fraud, or fraud of any kind," said Lisa Kehl, the Dallas territory manager for in-migration services. "We will go on to spouse with other federal agencies to guarantee that in-migration benefits are granted only to eligible applicants."

Warren Jeffs Taught His Flock that Wrong is Right

Four hundred 16 children were removed from the Longing for Sion (YFZ) Ranch in early April of 2008. The remotion had been triggered by allegations of physical and sexual maltreatment taking topographic point among occupants of the ranch. It was alleged that this polygamist cult assigned under-aged misses to get married aged men. It was believed that for a polygamist society to boom there must be a grammatical gender ratio that is strongly female. Consequently, immature male children were routinely expelled from the community. These "lost boys" as they came to be known, had no skills, education, vocation, topographic point to dwell or intends to back up themselves.

What can do parents disregard the social welfare of their children? The misses were married to aged men, some, as soon as they reached puberty. Many of the adolescent male children were barred from the community with no manner to care for themselves. Part of the reply may lie in examining Robert Penn Warren Jeff's sliver spiritual grouping as a cult. As more than information goes available, it looks that this FDLS spiritual sect rans into the criteria of an abusive/destructive cult, similar to that of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple and Saint David Koresh's Branch Davidian Sect.

A cult is a new spiritual grouping (NRG) which is outside of the mainstream of religious practices. All cults have got similar characteristics. Destructive or insulting cults are distinct:


• Followers are placed in physically or emotionally nerve-racking situations. (At any clip Robert Penn Warren Jeffs could take a household from one adult male and "give" them to another.)


• The leader cut downs all jobs to a simple account that is continually repeated. (Complete obeisance to Jeffs, multiple wives, and many children were the ways to heaven.)


• Access to the "outside" human race is eliminated so regulations will not be questioned. (Contact with the outside world, including TV, was forbidden at the YFZ Ranch.)


• The leader shows unconditional love for all followers. (Warren Jeffs expressed unconditional love for all of his followers, had 80 wives and 200 children, and was very charismatic.)


• Followers are very dependent on the community and the leader. (Jeffs and FDLS ruled every facet of the lives of community members)

Jeffs, like other cult leadership was reported to be magnetic and a self-serving psychopath. Robert Penn Warren Jeffs promised following the community and sense of belonging they had been seeking. The vehicle to pull them in was faith which was then used to implement extremely stiff regulations and routines. As in most insulting cults, the least misdemeanors were harshly punished and questioning the leader was never allowed. Sexual maltreatment and tearing households apart was a agency to command his followers. Following were ruled by the fearfulness that deficiency of obeisance to Jeffs meant that a follower would lose his/her ageless psyche . Before the YFZ raid, there was no 1 to inquiry Jeffs' control and brainsick thinking. Cut off from the remainder of the human race without television or radiocommunication or visitors, there was nil to demo FDLS following that their lives were not like the lives of others.

Sect members were encephalon washed into thought that sexual maltreatment was right and that parents make not have got to care for the well being of their children. FDLS following were in a injury chemical bond with a sub-culture that anguishes children because their leader was no different than any other sexual offender. He taught them that incorrect was right. Sexual Activity wrongdoers would be drawn to a grouping like this. Sexual Activity wrongdoers make not care about anyone's demands but their own. It makes not substance to them that children or women were mistreated. It is simply a big aggregation of sexual activity wrongdoers and their households cut off from the remainder of the human race so their "secrets" would not be discovered.

Jefferson County lacks debt management policy- al.com

Sunday, May 11,
2008RUSSELL HUBBARD

News staff writer

When it come ups to managing its debt and recognition situation,
Jefferson County have pretty much just been winging it.

The state's most thickly settled county, teetering toward
bankruptcy after amassing $3.2 billion of sewerage debt, lacks
a modern and comprehensive policy covering the sale of
bonds, the hiring of investment bankers and tons of other facets
of municipal finance.

A comprehensive debt direction policy is a common thread
among the country's best-run cities, counties and
states. The best of the policies take most of the judgment
calls from the influence of politicians, specifying
fail-safe procedures on merchandising investings that tin prove
risky, like the floating-rate enslaveds that have got pushed
Jefferson County to the edge.

"It's one of the most of import subjects in
government finance right now," said Jeff Esser,
executive manager of the Government Finance Officers
Association, the professional development organisation for
those employed in the field. "You could compose 300 pages
on effectual debt direction and still not abrasion the
surface."

Thomas Jefferson County Committee President Bettye Fine Collins
said the county's fiscal advisors have got researched
the substance and told her the county enacted a rudimentary
debt direction program old age ago, but that it is inadequate in
modern times.

"We haven't established a thorough policy, to my
knowledge," Wilkie Collins said. "We are working on a lot
of things right now, and that should be one of them."

In 1999, Thomas Jefferson County made a thrust at a policy,
adopting a modest, 12-page written document that sets up a committee
to supervise fiscal hedgerows called interest-rate swaps. Those fiscal contracts were supposed to protect the
county from swinging involvement rates. They didn't work,
and now Thomas Jefferson County is not only paying higher interest
rates, it owes $300 million to trade holders who came out
ahead at the county's expense.

It all stems from the sewer. The county sold $3.2 billion
of chemical bonds to do sewerage fixes and expansions. Rising
short-term involvement rates have got added more than than $3 million a
week to the county's interest payments, leaving some
bondholders unpaid as commissioners scramble to avoid
bankruptcy.

The county also have about $1.4 billion in other debt,
mostly for a countywide school-construction program.

A stopping point expression at the chemical bond gross sales shows Jefferson
County's debt direction all too often flew in the face
of what the municipal finance community footing "best
practices."

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New York Rep. Fossella Admits Fathering Child Outside Marriage

WASHINGTON — Rep. Vito Fossella of New House Of York acknowledged on Thursday that he fathered a kid from an adulterous affair, answering inquiries that arose from his apprehension on drunken drive complaints last week.

"My personal weaknesses and imperfectnesses have got caused tremendous hurting to the people I love and I am truly sorry," said Fossella, a Republican, who have three children with his married woman in Staten Island, N.Y.

Fossella is the lone Republican member of United States United States Congress from New House Of York City, and the fatherhood disclosure could take to the loss of a place in Congress at a clip when the House Republican Party confronts the possibility of a 2nd inexorable November of election setbacks.

Fossella's private life came under examination after he was arrested last hebdomad in the Old Dominion suburbias of Washington.

When Fossella was pulled over, police force said he told military officers that he was going to see his girl in the area. That prompted inquiries about who the girl was.

"I have got got had a human relationship with Laura Fay, with whom I have a 3-year-old daughter," Fossella said in his statement. It was Fay who got him out of jailhouse after the arrest. She is a former Air Military Unit lieutenant colonel and worked for a clip as a affair to Congress.

Police said Fossella's blood-alcohol degree was twice the legal limit, and he could confront a compulsory five years in jailhouse if convicted. A tribunal visual aspect on the drunken drive apprehension that had been planned for adjacent hebdomad was canceled, and he is now not expected back in tribunal until June.

Fossella said he had no contiguous programs to resign. The revelations are a crushing blow to the calling of a lawmaker once seen as a possible campaigner for city manager of New House Of York City. He faced a surprisingly tough re-election challenge in 2006, and Democrats have got been hoping to unseat him this year.

"While I understand that there will be many questions, including those about my political future, making any political determinations right now are furthest from my mind. Over the approaching hebdomads and months, I will go on to make my occupation and I will work difficult to mend the deep lesions I have got caused," he said.

If he was looking for public support to stay in office, there was small in the aftermath of his announcement.

A spokeswoman for the House Republican Party political campaign commission said only that they anticipate the territory to go on to elect conservative-minded lawmakers. A spokeswoman for the Democratic political campaign commission declined to comment.

Fossella, 43, was elected to United States Congress in 1997 in a particular election to replace Rep. Susan Molinari, who resigned. His socially conservative places squared nicely with his largely Catholic district. He functions as a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Fossella's work in United States Congress shifted dramatically following the Sept. 11, 2001, panic attacks.

Hundreds of Staten Island occupants died in the attacks, and Fossella became a outstanding advocator for households of those killed.

As more than recovery and deliverance workers got ill after toiling at the land nothing site, Fossella pushed for American Capital to pay for their wellness attention — Associate in Nursing attempt that have met with short-term success but no long-term program.

Obama, Clinton battle for votes on eve of primaries

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(05-05) 17:54 PDT --
Tuesday's primary elections in Hoosier State and North Carolina could be the last opportunity for Edmund Hillary Bill Clinton and Barack Obama to demo if either of them have the upper manus in the three M's of presidential politics: message, impulse and math.

Just hours before electors were set to travel to the polls in the Pitch Heel State and the Indianan State, Obama and Bill Clinton clashed over economical issues like the gas taxation vacation while aiming for a "game changer" to support their cause, encouragement their delegate count and carry important superdelegates to put them over the top.

Both have got blanketed the important states with carefully planned events that underline what have been called the "Bubba" entreaty to rural and working social class electors - sipping Budweiser with veteran soldiers (Obama), hitting gas stations (Hillary Clinton) and horseback riding in pickup truck motortrucks (Bill Clinton).

Polls propose the "must win" competitions for 187 delegates are practical toss-ups arsenic Obama and Bill Clinton seek to turn out their political resiliency and electability against Republican Party presumptive campaigner Toilet McCain in the fall.

The Prairie State senator - despite his campaign's early anticipations of a large win in neighbour Hoosier State - is now running as an norm of polls there demo him being around 5 points behind Clinton.

And his Pb in North Carolina have been cut in one-half to about 7 points, polls show.

For Obama, wins in both states would give him a needful shot of front-runner energy and take away the perceptual experience that he's off his game. It also would set up a formidable barrier to Clinton's thrust to win the end game with superdelegates.

Oakland lawyer Tony West, a prima Obama fundraiser and volunteer, said Monday from Hoosier State that the Obama political campaign have gotten a tangible new encouragement since last week, when it was battered by the Jeremiah Willard Huntington Wright controversy.

"I've been here for 36 hours, and I came in here having seen a couple of polls, that we were eight points down," Occident said. "I got on the land here and talked to people working the field ... and it experiences better. There's no inquiry that (the Willard Huntington Wright controversy) was a important event, but people look to be refocusing on the core issue of the economical system and working-class family economic relief."

But an Hoosier State win also is cardinal to Clinton, essential, in fact, to her thrust to go on the fight.

She still confronts tremendous hurdling in her way to the nomination, but a North Carolina come-from-behind win would be "the disquieted of the century," states her political campaign manager, Averell "Ace" Smith. "We clearly have got momentum," he said. "But ... our point of view is anything other than 15 points, we'll be very happy with."

A split determination in Hoosier State and North Carolina could drag the competition for the nomination all the manner to the August Democratic National Convention, especially since - from this point on - there will be more than open superdelegates up for catches than pledged delegates winnable in the seven concluding primaries.

And some further key factors could determine the race on Tuesday.

For Obama, they include his former curate Jeremiah Wright, who dominated news insurance for hebdomads and damaged his upward trajectory; superdelegates like Joe Andrews, the influential former DNC chair who have got switched Equus caballuses and endorsed him; and his immature daughters, who have joined the political campaign trail as a ocular reminder that he's not an "elitist," as Bill Clinton have charged, but a household cat with low roots.

For Clinton, household also have played a portion as former President Bill Bill Bill Clinton have emerged as a practical 3rd candidate, candidacy non-stop for his married woman in tons of rural countries in both states, urging electors to "bring United States back" by vote for his wife.

The New House Of York senator also could still acquire some improbable aid from conservative observer Haste Limbaugh, whose phone call for Republicans to re-register, vote for Bill Clinton and make "chaos" in the approaching unfastened primary elections is continuing to stir up buzz. His effort, reported in The History last week, have been directly addressed by the former first lady, who have suggested playfully that it was a consequence of a "crush" that the radiocommunication star have harbored for her for years.

Aside from the sheer drama, the two primary elections have got provided a important window for the Democrats regarding messages resonating with electors in this first contested presidential election of the 21st century.

In a race dominated by economical issues, both Obama and Bill Clinton have got got tussled over the gas taxation holiday, one country where the two Democrats have a deep difference on policy.

Clinton said Monday that she hears from electors who acquire "sick to their stomach" every clip they have got to fill up up a gas tank, and she have argued that no substance what "elite" economic experts believe, the workings people desire oil companies to pay more than of the freight.

Obama and his supporters, like Rep. Saint George Glenn Miller of Martinez, have got been vocal in resistance to cutting the federal gas taxation for the summertime - an thought first recommended by Republican presidential campaigner Toilet McCain - as "more of the same old negative politics" that volition make nil to repair gas terms or salvage consumers money.

That subject could explicate why both Obama and Bill Clinton have got opted to stress old-fashioned, face-to-face appeals to attain working social class electors who might do the difference.

"I believe the most absorbing thing occurrence is that the old paradigm is really going out other window," said Smith, who directed Clinton's wins in both Golden State and Texas. Only recently dismissed as too small-potatoes to do a difference, barnstorming is back in a large way, Ian Smith said. The Clintons have got been making their lawsuit by buttonholing electors in the town square, sitting with them in the local public house and checking out the terms of commodity at the local pig farm.

Former President Clinton, who bear downs $100,000 to talk to large crowds in fancy locations, have been the maestro in this venue: He have delivered more than than four tons such as negotiation from the dorsums of pickup truck motortrucks and the stairway of presence porches in rural Hoosier State and North Carolina. Even his married woman joked this hebdomad that every event "has my hubby going into a barbeque articulation ... I trust his heart specialist isn't reading that."

Oakland lawyer West, a prima Obama protagonist and fundraiser, said Monday from Hoosier State that the Prairie State senator have got also favored direct entreaties in little scenes to attain American households who have been hit difficult by economical problems and high gas prices.

"We've had him in littler events, particularly town hallway scenes where he have an chance to really interact with electors in a 1 on one bosom way, and it's been really effective," Occident said.

The payoff, Ian Smith said, will be seen on Tuesday.

"Because of cell telephones and digital photographic cameras and textual matter messaging, you have got an consequence where you can travel to a topographic point and talking to 1,000 and by the clip you're done, you're talking to 100,000," he said. "We did an event in The Queen City (N.C.) ... and the nighttime before in Wilmington, and in both these events, you see everyone will pick up their cell telephones and be textual matter messaging their friends, who are sending the images on to their friends and their relatives.

"It's modern technology, a stone-in-the-pond consequence that you never had before ... a profound rippling consequence that, all of a sudden, do old-fashioned speechmaking a powerful, relevant tool," he said. "Successful political campaigns are still about people, "the sort of political relation that's been going on since Saint George Washington."

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Nigeria: Afenifere And Politics of Succession - AllAfrica.com

Ademola AdeyemoLagos

Last week, Afenifere leader, Head Abraham Adesanya departed to the human race beyond, leaving a leading vacuity in the group. In this report, Ademola Adeyemo composes on the sequence competition which attaches to Adesanya's decease and the machinations and contentions between two cabals of the group

Afenifere, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, was established in Owo, in the old Ondo State in 1951 by the late Head Obafemi Awolowo and his political associates as a platform for the chase of the well being and extremist socio-political transmutation of the Yoruba state in all its ramifications.

Besides, the introduction of the arrangement also aimed at providing a cultural umbrella for the people of Yoruba race. Indeed, the grouping played active roles, fighting the Yoruba cause and simultaneously achieving a extremist transmutation of its people in footing of education, agribusiness and industrialization.

When Awolowo, the group's first leader eventually died in 1987, the mantle of leading drop on the late Head Adekunle Ajasin, the first executive director governor of the Ondo State. In the dark years of military rule, Ajasin led the National Democratic Alliance (NADECO), a pro-democracy group, which fought the military authorities of the late General Sani Abacha to a base still.

However, the decease of Ajasin resulted in the outgrowth of Head Abraham Adesanya as Afenifere leader, while the late Head Bolo Tie Immunoglobulin E served as his deputy. And because of Adesanya's resolute stance on the well being of the Yoruba, he earned for himself fame. To this end, a figure of people referred to him as Yoruba leader. During Adesanya's tenure, Afenifere clamoured for political agenda, true federalism, important control of resources by the states concerned as well as the convocation of a Autonomous National Conference (SNC).

Like his predecessor, the contiguous past times Afenifere leader was always at the head of the fighting against dictatorship, especially during the dark old age of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and Abacha's regime.

But when Adesanya was 81 years old, the courageous octogenarian took ill. And because of the strength of his illness, the vivacious Adesanya could no longer supply the effectual leading for the group. The development created crises of monumental proportionality in the group, which resulted in a division in the rank and register of the organisation.

Although Adesanya had earlier marked Head Reuben Fasoranti as the acting leader of the group, this new assignment did not travel down well with some other members of the group. Other members of the group, notably Senator Ayo Fasanmi, the then Lagos State governor, Bolo Tie Ahmed Tinubu and former governors on the platform of Alliance for Democracy (AD), described Fasoranti's assignment as a breach of Afenifere's fundamental law and went ahead to make their ain faction. As at the clip the late Adesanya made the pronouncement, Fasanmi was the deputy sheriff leader of the group.

Since then, things have got got fallen apart in the group, while respective efforts to accommodate the two cabals have failed. The up-to-the-minute of such as moves was the fundamental law of a rapprochement panel led by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Kayode Eso in Ibadan. Like other former moves, it also drop through.

The degree of division within the grouping reached an alarming charge per unit recently, when members of the two cabals drew a line of limit at the entombment of the married woman of Afenifere's former leader, Mrs Babafunke Ajasin, in Owo.

The division within the grouping became conspicuos as members of the two cabals refused to neither sit down nor confabulate together. Outstanding members of the Fasanmi grouping are former Tinubu and his opposite number former governors such as as Segun Osoba (Ogun), Bisi Akande (Osun), Otunba Niyi Adebayo (Ekiti), Alhaji Getaway Adesina (Oyo).

At the other end is the Fasoranti-led cabal which consists Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Head Olu Falae, Head Ayo Adebanjo, Senator Femi Okurounmu, Head Supo Shonibare, Alhaji Adegbenga Kaka, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Yinka Odumakin among others.

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However, the decease of Adesanya have thrown up the inquiry of who steps into his place as the significant leader of the group, who will also get by with the duty of uniting the factions. From every indication, the pick procedure will be tasking, in place of machinations and political maneuverings among members struggling for the position

The choice of a leader in Afenifere will no doubt be a herculean undertaking because the three past times leadership of the grouping - Awolowo, Ajasin and Adesanya commanded the love and regard of the Yoruba, which the present harvest of leadership lacks, at least for now. When Awolowo held sway, anybody who claimed association with him would win election in Yoruba land. But today, this is all tense as Afenifere, the hitherto vivacious platform looks to have got lost focus. The grouping no longer bids the regard of the Yoruba as was the lawsuit when it served as a consolidative military unit in the full South-west zone.

This became much more than evident when barely 24 hours after the decease of Adesanya, the two cabals of Afenifere commenced ill will on the issue of succession.

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Mali: New Family Law Faces Opposition - AllAfrica.com

Bamako

A new household law codification waiting to be adopted by Parliament is facing resistance from some Muslim groupings who claim it travels against Islamic principles, particularly when it come ups to projected alterations to the country's matrimony laws.

The new codification takes to convey more than equality between work force and women in relation to matrimonial status, parental rights, ownership of land and inheritance, reward and pensions, employment laws and education.

"The codification is a important measure towards grammatical gender equality while reflecting the world of Malian civilization today," the curate of women, children and the family, Maiga Sina Damba told IRIN.

The current codification have seen small alteration since it was first passed in 1962, three old age after Republic Of Mali gained independence, and according to Oumor Cissé, communication theory advisor at the ministry for women, children and the family, it is heavily influenced by "outmoded" French laws, and a hard-and-fast reading of Koranic texts.

Opposition

When the measure of exchange codification went out to civil society groupings for the up-to-the-minute unit of ammunition of audiences in early 2008, some Muslim groupings started candidacy difficult against the projected alterations to matrimony laws, heritage laws and place rights.

In early April the Muslim Redemption Association (AISLAM) called for the bill to be withdrawn from Parliament.

"All the proposals we made in the audience form of the new codification were rejected," said Mohamed Kimbiri, president of AISLAM.

The most controversial sticking points associate to displacements in matrimony laws. Today in Republic Of Mali traditional or 'religious marriages' as opposing to civil marriages, are legally accepted but the new codification will discontinue to legally recognise spiritual marriages.

"Despite much resistance to this change, legalising spiritual matrimonies have got been dropped from the measure altogether," Kimbiri complained to IRIN.

But Member Of Parliament Mountaga Tall elective in Segou a town North of Bamako, said spiritual or 'traditional' matrimonies deny some women their basic rights.

"Widows who have only had a traditional matrimony are legally excluded from any heritage rights and their children must travel through expensive, drawn-out and often demeaning processes to come into the basic household allowances owed to them."

In rebelliousness of the soon-to-be-adopted law, Islamic groupings are continuing to publish matrimony certificates.

"For the moment, the issue is unresolved. But if [these marriages] travel ahead it will be in misdemeanor of the law, and the matrimony certification will not be legal. No 1 can appropriate a powerfulness that is not legally bestowed," said Cissé.

Further controversy

In another vein, under the current law when two people get married if they perpetrate to monogamousness they must lodge to it in theory, but in world a hubby can re-marry without the consent of his wife.

"Men can besiege the law by making a new matrimony without any legal consequences," said Daouda Cissé, a legal advisor to the women's ministry.

The codification also gives more than heritage rights to illicit children, and enables them to take either their mother's or their father's name, but according to Kimbiri, "Islam can not accept that. [Illegtimate children] can only come into their mother's name, they make not have got a right to their father's."

And finally, some churchmen are concerned about alterations the new codification do to giving couples joint rights to set down and place - currently separate rights are maintained for property. But one Imam told IRIN, "under Islamic law partners must accept separation of ownership of possessions."

Compromise solution?

The codification have already faced many holds and some fearfulness it will stagnate altogether. Redrafting began in 1996 but it was slow to derive impulse in Parliament.

"Many Parliamentarians didn't desire to see change... or else they didn't trouble oneself to read the draft," Oumor Cissé told IRIN.

But in 2007 a grouping of women Parliamentarians - there are about a dozen, said Cissé - formed a grouping with lawyers and human rights militants to support the code's alterations and to force it through Parliament.

"If Republic Of Mali desires to be a fully-functioning democracy it is of import to go through this code," Omar Touri, caput of a women's rights network, Association of Women's NGOs (CAFO), told IRIN. "People have got got got to alteration their behavior and they have to accept change."

The codification conveys Republic Of Mali in line with a figure of international communications protocols it have signed up to, including the African Charter on Person and People's Rights, and the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Given this, she said, "We have no pick but to go through it."

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But Abdoulaye Dembélé, deputy sheriff of the National Assembly, believes it much more than than likely that a via media trade will have got to be struck, ensuring yet more delays.

"In this ambiance of misunderstanding it is hard for deputy sheriffs to vote for this codification at the hazard of agitative a mass-uprising. We have got to take into business relationship the concerns and aspirations of all groupings before passing it through Parliament."

[ This study makes not necessarily reflect the positions of the United Nations ]