NEW YORK TIMES
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: January 19, 2010
BOSTON — Scott Brown, a little-known Republican state senator, rode an old pickup truck and a growing sense of unease among independent voters to an extraordinary upset Tuesday night when he was elected to fill the Senate seat that was long held by Edward M. Kennedy in the overwhelmingly Democratic state of Massachusetts.
By a decisive margin, Mr. Brown defeated Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, who had been considered a prohibitive favorite to win just over a month ago after she easily won the Democratic primary.
With all precincts counted, Mr. Brown had 52 percent of the vote to Ms. Coakley’s 47 percent.
“Tonight the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken,” Mr. Brown told his cheering supporters in a victory speech, standing in front of a backdrop that said “The People’s Seat.”
The election left Democrats in Congress scrambling to salvage a bill overhauling the nation’s health care system, which the late Mr. Kennedy had called “the cause of my life.” Mr. Brown has vowed to oppose the bill, and once he takes office the Democrats will no longer control the 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome filibusters.
There were immediate signs that the bill had become imperiled. House members indicated they would not quickly pass the bill the Senate approved last month. And after the results were announced, one centrist Democratic senator, Jim Webb of Virginia, called on Senate leaders to suspend any votes on the Democrats’ health care legislation until Mr. Brown is sworn into office. The election, he said, was a referendum on both health care and the integrity of the government process.
Beyond the bill, the election of a man supported by the Tea Party movement also represented an unexpected reproach by many voters to President Obama after his first year in office, and struck fear into the hearts of Democratic lawmakers, who are already worried about their prospects in the midterm elections later this year.
Mr. Brown was able to appeal to independents who were anxious about the economy and concerned about the direction taken by Democrats, now that they control both Beacon Hill and Washington. He rallied his supporters when he said, at the last debate, that he was not running for Mr. Kennedy’s seat but for “the people’s seat.”
That seat, held for nearly half a century by Mr. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, will now be held for the next two years by a Republican who has said he supports waterboarding as an interrogation technique for terrorism suspects, opposes a federal cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions and opposes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants unless they leave the country. It was a sharp swing of the pendulum, but even Democratic voters said they wanted the Obama administration to change direction.
“I’m hoping that it gives a message to the country,” said Marlene Connolly, 73, of North Andover, a lifelong Democrat who said she cast her first vote for a Republican on Tuesday. “I think if Massachusetts puts Brown in, it’s a message of ‘that’s enough.’ Let’s stop the giveaways and let’s get jobs going.”
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Disastrous earthquake in Haiti; desperation, violence follow
STAR/TRIBUNE
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Food and water trickled to the stricken people of Haiti on Saturday, as a global aid operation struggled with frictions and confusion over how to bring relief to the crumbled, earthquake-ravaged nation. Only a fraction of relief supplies was reaching increasingly desperate Haitians who lack food, clean water and shelter. Reports of isolated looting and violence intensified as Saturday night approached, and there were reports of Haitians streaming out of the capital.
Still, recovery and aid efforts were widening. And even the distribution problems in the country stemmed in part from good intentions, aid officials said: Countries around the world were responding to Haiti's call for help as never before. And they are flooding the country with supplies and relief workers that its collapsed infrastructure and nonfunctioning government are in no position to handle.
Haitian officials instead are relying on the United States and the United Nations, but coordination is posing a critical challenge, aid workers said. An airport hobbled by only one runway, a ruined port whose main pier splintered into the ocean, roads blocked by rubble, widespread fuel shortages and a lack of drivers to move the aid into the city are compounding the problems.
Haiti's government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Saturday. A final toll of 100,000 would "seem to be the minimum," he said. The initial Red Cross estimate was 45,000 to 50,000.
Desperation was growing. On a back street in Port-au-Prince, a half-dozen men ripped water pipes off walls to suck out the few drops inside. "This is very, very bad, but I am too thirsty," one said. Outside a warehouse, hundreds of Haitians simply dropped to their knees when workers for the agency Food for the Poor announced they would distribute rice, beans and other supplies. "They started praying right then and there," said project director Clement Belizaire. The aid official was overcome by the tragic scene. "This was the darkest day of everybody living in Port-au-Prince," he said.
President Obama announced Saturday that former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton would lead a national drive to raise money to help the survivors. Later Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Port-au-Prince and met with President Rene Preval. Her plane brought soap, bottled water and other supplies.
A U.N. spokeswoman declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and U.N. capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva, it's worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: "Everything is damaged."
Troops from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division began setting up an aid station on a golf course in an affluent part of the city, but they had no supplies to hand out yet, and Capt. John Hartsock said it would be another two days before they could start distributing food and water. "We've got to wait until we've got enough established so we can hand it out in a civilized fashion," he said.
Many, though, cannot wait. A violent scuffle broke out among several hundred people jostling to be first in line as three U.S. military helicopters were landing at the golf course with food and water. The chopper pilots decided it was too dangerous to remain and took off with their precious cargo still inside. "People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy," said an accountant who was among the crowd.
Scuffles also erupted at a downtown stadium transformed into a rescue center as Navy helicopters dropped food rations and Gatorade. The worst violence broke out in a central warehouse district, where at least 1,000 rioters with makeshift weapons fought over whatever goods they could loot from shuttered houses and shops. Witnesses said the police left as things got worse. Fred Lavaud, who works on Preval's security detail, described scenes of women who had received food being assaulted. "The problem is there's no control," he said.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Food and water trickled to the stricken people of Haiti on Saturday, as a global aid operation struggled with frictions and confusion over how to bring relief to the crumbled, earthquake-ravaged nation. Only a fraction of relief supplies was reaching increasingly desperate Haitians who lack food, clean water and shelter. Reports of isolated looting and violence intensified as Saturday night approached, and there were reports of Haitians streaming out of the capital.
Still, recovery and aid efforts were widening. And even the distribution problems in the country stemmed in part from good intentions, aid officials said: Countries around the world were responding to Haiti's call for help as never before. And they are flooding the country with supplies and relief workers that its collapsed infrastructure and nonfunctioning government are in no position to handle.
Haitian officials instead are relying on the United States and the United Nations, but coordination is posing a critical challenge, aid workers said. An airport hobbled by only one runway, a ruined port whose main pier splintered into the ocean, roads blocked by rubble, widespread fuel shortages and a lack of drivers to move the aid into the city are compounding the problems.
Haiti's government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said Saturday. A final toll of 100,000 would "seem to be the minimum," he said. The initial Red Cross estimate was 45,000 to 50,000.
Desperation was growing. On a back street in Port-au-Prince, a half-dozen men ripped water pipes off walls to suck out the few drops inside. "This is very, very bad, but I am too thirsty," one said. Outside a warehouse, hundreds of Haitians simply dropped to their knees when workers for the agency Food for the Poor announced they would distribute rice, beans and other supplies. "They started praying right then and there," said project director Clement Belizaire. The aid official was overcome by the tragic scene. "This was the darkest day of everybody living in Port-au-Prince," he said.
President Obama announced Saturday that former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton would lead a national drive to raise money to help the survivors. Later Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Port-au-Prince and met with President Rene Preval. Her plane brought soap, bottled water and other supplies.
A U.N. spokeswoman declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and U.N. capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva, it's worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: "Everything is damaged."
Troops from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division began setting up an aid station on a golf course in an affluent part of the city, but they had no supplies to hand out yet, and Capt. John Hartsock said it would be another two days before they could start distributing food and water. "We've got to wait until we've got enough established so we can hand it out in a civilized fashion," he said.
Many, though, cannot wait. A violent scuffle broke out among several hundred people jostling to be first in line as three U.S. military helicopters were landing at the golf course with food and water. The chopper pilots decided it was too dangerous to remain and took off with their precious cargo still inside. "People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy," said an accountant who was among the crowd.
Scuffles also erupted at a downtown stadium transformed into a rescue center as Navy helicopters dropped food rations and Gatorade. The worst violence broke out in a central warehouse district, where at least 1,000 rioters with makeshift weapons fought over whatever goods they could loot from shuttered houses and shops. Witnesses said the police left as things got worse. Fred Lavaud, who works on Preval's security detail, described scenes of women who had received food being assaulted. "The problem is there's no control," he said.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Groundbreaking gay marriage trial gets going in San Francisco court
STAR/TRIBUNE
By LISA LEFF , Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - The first federal trial to determine if the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from outlawing same-sex marriage gets under way Monday, and the two gay couples on whose behalf the case was brought will be among the first witnesses.
The proceedings, which are expected to last two to three weeks, involve a challenge to Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban approved by California voters in November 2008. Regardless of the outcome, the case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it ultimately could become a landmark that determines if gay Americans have the right to marry.
The judge who will render a decision, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, has asked lawyers arguing for and against the ban to present the facts underlying much of the political rhetoric surrounding same-sex marriage. Among the questions Walker plans to entertain are whether sexual orientation can be changed, how legalizing gay marriage affects traditional marriages and the effect on children of being raised by two mothers or two fathers.
"The case is intriguing, exciting and potentially very significant because it addresses multiple important questions that, surprisingly to many, remain open in federal law," said Jennifer Pizer, marriage director for the gay law advocacy group Lambda Legal. "Can the state reserve the esteemed language and status of marriage just for heterosexual couples, and relegate same-sex couples to a lesser status? Are there any adequate public interests to justify reimposing such a caste system for gay people, especially by a majority vote to take a cherished right from a historically mistreated minority?"
The sponsors of Proposition 8, which passed with 52 percent of the vote, won permission to defend the law in court after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to. The attorney general and the governor are defendants in the case because of their positions in state government.
Lawyers for the measure's backers plan to argue that because same-sex marriage still is a social experiment, it is wise for states like California to take a wait-and-see approach. Their witnesses will testify that governments historically have sanctioned traditional marriage as a way to promote responsible child-rearing and that this remains a valid justification for limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
While other courts have wrestled with the constitutional issues raised by prohibiting same-sex marriages — the Supreme Court last took a look at the issue 38 years ago — Walker's court is the first to employ live witnesses in the task. Among those set to testify are the leaders of the Proposition 8 campaign, academic experts from the fields of political science, history, psychology and economics, and the two plaintiff couples — Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, who live in Berkeley, and Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, who live in Los Angeles.
Chad Griffin, a political consultant who helped spearhead the lawsuit, said the four were recruited to represent California couples who say they would get married were it not for Proposition 8 because they lead lives indistinguishable from those of other couples, gay or straight, who have jobs, children and a desire for the social stamp of approval that matrimony affords, Griffin said.
"Our story, I think, is pretty ordinary," said Perry, 45, the title plaintiff in the case registered on legal dockets as Perry v. Schwarzenegger. "We fell in love, we want to get married and we can't. It's pretty simple." The women have been together for almost 10 years and since 2004 have been registered domestic partners, a legal relationship that in California carries most of the benefits and obligations of a full-fledged marriage.
By LISA LEFF , Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - The first federal trial to determine if the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from outlawing same-sex marriage gets under way Monday, and the two gay couples on whose behalf the case was brought will be among the first witnesses.
The proceedings, which are expected to last two to three weeks, involve a challenge to Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban approved by California voters in November 2008. Regardless of the outcome, the case is likely to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it ultimately could become a landmark that determines if gay Americans have the right to marry.
The judge who will render a decision, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker, has asked lawyers arguing for and against the ban to present the facts underlying much of the political rhetoric surrounding same-sex marriage. Among the questions Walker plans to entertain are whether sexual orientation can be changed, how legalizing gay marriage affects traditional marriages and the effect on children of being raised by two mothers or two fathers.
"The case is intriguing, exciting and potentially very significant because it addresses multiple important questions that, surprisingly to many, remain open in federal law," said Jennifer Pizer, marriage director for the gay law advocacy group Lambda Legal. "Can the state reserve the esteemed language and status of marriage just for heterosexual couples, and relegate same-sex couples to a lesser status? Are there any adequate public interests to justify reimposing such a caste system for gay people, especially by a majority vote to take a cherished right from a historically mistreated minority?"
The sponsors of Proposition 8, which passed with 52 percent of the vote, won permission to defend the law in court after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to. The attorney general and the governor are defendants in the case because of their positions in state government.
Lawyers for the measure's backers plan to argue that because same-sex marriage still is a social experiment, it is wise for states like California to take a wait-and-see approach. Their witnesses will testify that governments historically have sanctioned traditional marriage as a way to promote responsible child-rearing and that this remains a valid justification for limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
While other courts have wrestled with the constitutional issues raised by prohibiting same-sex marriages — the Supreme Court last took a look at the issue 38 years ago — Walker's court is the first to employ live witnesses in the task. Among those set to testify are the leaders of the Proposition 8 campaign, academic experts from the fields of political science, history, psychology and economics, and the two plaintiff couples — Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, who live in Berkeley, and Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, who live in Los Angeles.
Chad Griffin, a political consultant who helped spearhead the lawsuit, said the four were recruited to represent California couples who say they would get married were it not for Proposition 8 because they lead lives indistinguishable from those of other couples, gay or straight, who have jobs, children and a desire for the social stamp of approval that matrimony affords, Griffin said.
"Our story, I think, is pretty ordinary," said Perry, 45, the title plaintiff in the case registered on legal dockets as Perry v. Schwarzenegger. "We fell in love, we want to get married and we can't. It's pretty simple." The women have been together for almost 10 years and since 2004 have been registered domestic partners, a legal relationship that in California carries most of the benefits and obligations of a full-fledged marriage.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Los Angeles doctor gets 5 years in prison for road rage incident
Star/Tribune
LOS ANGELES - A former emergency room doctor who deliberately braked so that two bicyclists rammed into his car in a road rage assault was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison. Christopher Thompson, 60, wept and apologized to the two injured riders before he was sentenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Thompson, who worked at Beverly Hospital in Montebello, has been jailed since he was convicted in November of assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious bodily injury, reckless driving and mayhem. Thompson deliberately hit his brakes, causing the bicyclists to hit the back of his Infiniti sedan on July 4, 2008, prosecutors said. One rider smashed through the back window, breaking his nose and front teeth. The other crashed to the pavement, separating his shoulder.
Ron Peterson, who crashed through the window, told the judge that he was permanently scarred. "My nose was nearly torn from my face. ... I've had plastic surgery," he said. "The scars on my face remind me of the pain and trauma I went through because Dr. Thompson didn't like cyclists riding on his road."
At trial, Thompson said that he and other Brentwood residents were angry because some bicyclists were ignoring stop signs or riding abreast, impeding cars on narrow Mandeville Canyon Road. Thompson said several cyclists who were riding side by side had sworn at him and made a rude gesture after he told them to ride single file. The physician said he didn't intend to hurt anyone and only stopped to photograph the riders.
The bicyclists, however, said Thompson had aggressively honked and driven past them, then pulled in front and suddenly braked. A police officer testified that Thompson said he hit the brakes to "teach them a lesson." Prosecutors said Thompson had braked suddenly in front of other bicyclists four months earlier but nobody was hurt.
The case prompted a deluge of letters and e-mails to the court. About 160 people wrote to support Thompson while more than 270 messages, including some from bicyclists and doctors as far away as China, urged a tough sentence.
Judge Scott T. Millington said he did not take into account the hundreds of letters and e-mails from bicyclists when considering the sentence. However, the judge said he believed Thompson had not shown remorse during the case.
LOS ANGELES - A former emergency room doctor who deliberately braked so that two bicyclists rammed into his car in a road rage assault was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison. Christopher Thompson, 60, wept and apologized to the two injured riders before he was sentenced in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Thompson, who worked at Beverly Hospital in Montebello, has been jailed since he was convicted in November of assault with a deadly weapon, battery with serious bodily injury, reckless driving and mayhem. Thompson deliberately hit his brakes, causing the bicyclists to hit the back of his Infiniti sedan on July 4, 2008, prosecutors said. One rider smashed through the back window, breaking his nose and front teeth. The other crashed to the pavement, separating his shoulder.
Ron Peterson, who crashed through the window, told the judge that he was permanently scarred. "My nose was nearly torn from my face. ... I've had plastic surgery," he said. "The scars on my face remind me of the pain and trauma I went through because Dr. Thompson didn't like cyclists riding on his road."
At trial, Thompson said that he and other Brentwood residents were angry because some bicyclists were ignoring stop signs or riding abreast, impeding cars on narrow Mandeville Canyon Road. Thompson said several cyclists who were riding side by side had sworn at him and made a rude gesture after he told them to ride single file. The physician said he didn't intend to hurt anyone and only stopped to photograph the riders.
The bicyclists, however, said Thompson had aggressively honked and driven past them, then pulled in front and suddenly braked. A police officer testified that Thompson said he hit the brakes to "teach them a lesson." Prosecutors said Thompson had braked suddenly in front of other bicyclists four months earlier but nobody was hurt.
The case prompted a deluge of letters and e-mails to the court. About 160 people wrote to support Thompson while more than 270 messages, including some from bicyclists and doctors as far away as China, urged a tough sentence.
Judge Scott T. Millington said he did not take into account the hundreds of letters and e-mails from bicyclists when considering the sentence. However, the judge said he believed Thompson had not shown remorse during the case.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Nigerian attempts to blow up airplane
Star/Tribune
WASHINGTON - President Obama said Tuesday that the government had sufficient information to uncover the terror plot to bring down a commercial jetliner on Christmas Day, but that intelligence officials had "failed to connect those dots."
"This was not a failure to collect intelligence, it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had," Obama said after meeting with his national security team for nearly two hours. He added, "We have to do better, we will do better and we have to do it quickly. American lives are on the line."
The tone of the president's remarks --the sharpest of any of his statements since the incident nearly two weeks ago -- underscored his anger over the lapses in intelligence and his efforts to minimize any political risks from his administration's response.
WASHINGTON - President Obama said Tuesday that the government had sufficient information to uncover the terror plot to bring down a commercial jetliner on Christmas Day, but that intelligence officials had "failed to connect those dots."
"This was not a failure to collect intelligence, it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had," Obama said after meeting with his national security team for nearly two hours. He added, "We have to do better, we will do better and we have to do it quickly. American lives are on the line."
The tone of the president's remarks --the sharpest of any of his statements since the incident nearly two weeks ago -- underscored his anger over the lapses in intelligence and his efforts to minimize any political risks from his administration's response.