PORTLAND REFUSES TO ASSIST FEDS; REQUEST VIOLATES RACIAL PROFILING LAWS - Police in Portland, Ore. said they could not assist federal authorities in interviewing Middle Eastern immigrants as part of the sweeping federal terrorism investigation.
     Andrew Kirkland, Portland's acting police chief, said his agency could not comply with the Department of Justice request because to do so would violate  an Oregon statute, passed in 1987, which prohibits local police from questioning immigrants when there is no evidence they are connected to a crime and
international citizenship is the only issue. Portland City Attorney David Lesh said the law also prohibits police from questioning people about
their social, political or religious views unless they are reasonably suspected of criminal activity.
     Portland is believed to be the first city to refuse to cooperate with the Justice Department in its anti-terrorism effort. Kirkland said he was working with federal prosecutors to find some common ground.
     "We would hope that we could get to a point where we could help, but would not violate state law," he told CNN. 
     The move came after the Justice Department distributed a list of 5,000 men it wanted to interview about the September 11 terrorist attacks, an effort that has been widely criticized by civil rights groups. Because of the length of the list, and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's desire to complete the interviews within 30 days, the justice department enlisted the help of local police.
     The decision by Portland does not hinder federal authorities, who still have authority to question and detain people as part of their investigation.
     Source: CNN.com

CONGRESSMEN TRY TO EXPLAIN REMARKs - Rep. C. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), chairman of the House subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security and a candidate for the Senate, sought to play down remarks to Georgia law enforcement suggesting they "just turn (the sheriff) loose and have him arrest every Muslim that crosses the state line."
     Chambliss contended that his remarks were taken "out of context" and "Should in no way be interpreted as my view of what should happen... If my remarks were offensive in any way, I apologize."
     Meanwhile, Rep. John Cooksey (R-La.) is facing an uphill battle in his Senate bid after he said police should question anyone wearing "a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper." Louisiana Republicans are recruiting an alternate candidate to challege sitting Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.)
      Source: Washington Post

HUNDREDS STILL DETAINED IN 9/11 ATTACKS - Nearly eight weeks into this country's largest criminal investigation, most of those detained remain in federal prisons, county jails and Immigration and Naturalization Service detention centers although no one has been charged with conspiracy. Most of them also remain anonymous, their status and whereabouts unknown to lawyers, families and their home governments.
      The Los Angeles Times has studied the cases of 132 detainees, interviewing defense lawyers, diplomatic officials and some of the released detainees, and reviewing court records and other documents.
     The analysis reveals a broad pattern in which federal agents are using the full extent of their law enforcement authority to sweep up individuals, question them and hold them for long periods. In many cases, when individuals are found to have no connection to terrorism, they are turned over to immigration authorities, where they often are held indefinitely.
     Sources: Los Angeles Times, Freedom Forum

JOURNALISTS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN - Four journalists, including two Reuters reporters, were killed Nov. 19 in an ambush by armed men on the road from Pakistan to the Afghan capital, Kabul, witnesses said. 
     Reuters reporters, television cameraman Harry Burton, an Australian, and Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan-born photographer, were shot in the ambush. The journalists were traveling in a convoy through the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar when armed men stopped them near a bridge at Tangi Abrishum some 55 miles east of Kabul, according to journalists who escaped the ambush.
      The province was taken over by anti-Taliban tribal leaders last week, but pockets of Taliban and Arab fighters loyal to the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden are believed to be roaming in many parts of the country.
      Source: Reuters, via The New York Times and SPJ PressNotes

BALLOT REVIEW FINDS BUSH WOULD HAVE WON RECOUNT IN FLA. -  A comprehensive review of the uncounted Florida ballots from last year's presidential election reveals that George W. Bush would have won even if he United States Supreme Court had allowed the statewide manual recount that the Florida Supreme Court had ordered to go forward. 
     A close examination of the ballots found that Bush would have retained a slender margin over Gore if the Florida court's order to recount more than 43,000 ballots had not been reversed by the United States Supreme Court. Even under the strategy that Gore pursued at the beginning of the Florida standoff — filing suit to force hand recounts in four predominantly Democratic counties — Bush would have kept his lead, according to the ballot review conducted for a consortium of news organizations. But the consortium, looking at a broader group of rejected ballots than those covered in the court decisions, 175,010 in all, found that Gore might have won if the courts had ordered a full statewide recount of all the rejected ballots. Eight news organizations formed the consortium
      Source: The New York Times

JOURNALISTS ARE REPORTING WHAT THEY DON'T SEE - In the war in Afghanistan, journalists report on events they do not witness. Most
war dispatches are based on what both U.S. and Taliban officials tell the reporters. 
     Quetta, the provincial capital of Pakistan's southern Baluchistan province which borders the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, is home to hundreds of Western journalists, both print and television. They depend on Pakistani commandos because it is not safe to move around without protection.
     "Most of us have no access to independent information and no means to verify what we are told," said one journalist. For news from Afghanistan, they mostly depend on the so-called "informed sources," meaning aid agencies, local Taliban officials, Pakistani authorities and U.S. officials in Islamabad. Even when they are taken inside Afghanistan, there is little that the journalists can see on their own.
     The Taliban keep a tight control over the territory from the Pakistani border to Kandahar, and nobody is allowed to talk to journalists.
     Source: UPI, via NewsAlert

EDITOR OF PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER RESIGNS OVER COVERAGE PRESSURE -  Robert J. Rosenthal, editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, resigned Tuesday amid staff cutbacks ordered by owner Knight Ridder and disagreements over how to attract new readers. 
     Walker Lundy, editor of Knight Ridder's Saint Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, has been named as Rosenthal's replacement. Rosenthal resisted pressures to make coverage more consistently local at the expense of regional, national and international coverage. 
     "There was a difference of opinion on some strategies," Rosenthal said in a story posted on the Inquirer's Web site. "It became harder and harder for me to be able to do what I do best, and it became time for a new leader." Rosenthal, for 18 years a reporter and editor at the Inquirer, became the newspaper's editor and executive vice president of Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. in January 1998.  The Inquirer's circulation declined by 8.8 percent, to 365,154, for the six months that ended Sept. 30, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
     Sources: The Associated Press, via Editor & Publisher, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The New York Times

BUSH OVERTURNS PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT IN EXECUTIVE ORDER - President Bush signed an executive order Nov. 2 allowing either the White House or former presidents to veto release of their presidential papers, drawing criticism from Bill Clinton and several historians. 
     The order reinterprets the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which put papers of future presidents in the public domain, following a court fight over President Nixon's papers. It envisioned the release of most sensitive records 12 years after a president had left office. 
     White House officials said Bush's order was prompted in part by a request for 68,000 pages of records of President Reagan, the first president whose records are subject to the act. 
     Under the order, either the incumbent president or the former president - and in some cases, the family of a deceased president - could withhold documents requested by scholars, journalists or others. It also provides that if a former president says the records are privileged, they will remain secret even if the sitting president disagrees. If the sitting president says they are privileged, they will remain secret even if the former president disagrees. The order also covers the records of vice presidents.
     White House counsel Alberto Gonzales said any decision to withhold documents could be challenged in court, and said the administration would lose if a particular decision did not have solid constitutional grounding. He acknowledged that process could take years. 
     Gonzales said the administration plans to ''give a lot of deference to the former president.'' But he said the incumbent president ''will be in a better position to decide whether or not the release of documents of a former president do, in fact, jeopardize, say, the national security of this country.'' 
     Critics, however, said national security is already protected by the 1978 act and other laws and regulations. 
      A Clinton aide said a representative of the president objected to the decision in a recent letter to the White House, arguing that sufficient protections are already on the books. ''A government's legitimacy is based on the trust of its people, and when decisions are made on behalf of the American people, citizens eventually have to be able to see the process of how those decisions came to be,'' the aide said. The letter was written by Bruce Lindsey, Clinton's deputy White House counsel and now the lawyer for the William J. Clinton Foundation. 
     The Society of Professional Journalists is one of many organizations that has protested the order, stating that the current 12-year waiting period and exceptions are sufficient to protect national security.
     However, Gonzales said a major reason for the new executive order, which rescinds one signed by Reagan, is that the previous one ''gives no deference whatsoever to the opinions of a former president.'' 
     Historians said vast troves of documents offering insight into presidential decision-making could be lost. The act applies to the papers of Clinton, Reagan, and Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush. 
     Many officials of the Reagan and first Bush administration are back in the White House, and critics contend that the executive order is motivated by a desire to protect them. A House Government Reform subcommittee headed by Representative Stephen Horn, Republican of California, will hold a hearing on the dispute Nov. 6. 
     Sources: Washington Post, Boston Globe and SPJ PressNotes

GREEN PARTY USA COORDINATOR DETAINED AT AIRPORT - Government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party USA coordinating
committee member, on Nov. 1 at Bangor (Maine) International Airport as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight to Chicago.
     "An official told me that my name had been flagged in the computer," Oden said. "I was targeted because the Green Party USA opposes the
bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan."
     Oden was ordered away from the plane, according to a press release from the Green Party. Military personnel with automatic weapons surrounded Oden and instructed all airlines to deny her passage on any flight. "I was told that the airport was closed to me until further notice and that my ticket would not be refunded," Oden said.
     Oden is scheduled to speak in Chicago Friday night on a panel concerning pesticides as weapons of war. She had helped to coordinate the Green Party
USA's antiwar efforts these past few months, and was to report on these to The Greens national committee. "Not only did they stop me at the airport
but some mysterious party had called the hotel and cancelled my reservation," Oden said.
     "I am shocked that US military prevented one of our prominent Green Party members from attending the meeting in Chicago," said Elizabeth Fattah, a
GPUSA representative from Pennsylvania who drove to Chicago. "I am outraged at the way the Bill of Rights is being trampled upon."
     Chicago Green activist Lionel Trepanier concluded, "The attack on the right of association of an opposition political party is chilling. The harassment
of peace activists is reprehensible."
     Source: Green Party statements - no news media has run this story yet.

PBS CUTS 10 PERCENT OF JOBS, CLOSES MIDWEST OFFICE - Facing tough economic times, the Public Broadcasting Corp. on Monday
announced it would reduce its 565-person workforce by 10 percent and close its Midwest programming office. 
      PBS president-CEO Pat Mitchell said the network regretted having to cut jobs, but that the move was necessary to preserve programming integrity. ''Along with many of our stations and most other media companies, we have made these decisions in order to bring operating costs to levels more sustainable in difficult times,'' she said. Mitchell said the various changes were, in large measure, the result of a yearlong internal review.
     Source: Variety, via Yahoo!

MINNESOTA JUDGE ORDERS REPORTER TO REVEAL SOURCES - A judge in Ramsey County, Minn., on Friday gave a reporter 21 days to
reveal the names of his sources from a 4-year-old story about a decision not to keep the head football coach at Tartan High School. 
     If he doesn't appeal the decision or comply, he'll be fined $200 a day. "The fine is not only severe, but I think it sets an extremely bad precedent," said
the longtime reporter, Wally Wakefield, 71.  He said he hasn't made a decision whether to appeal. 
     The state's Free Flow of Information Act gives news organizations protection from having to divulge their sources, with some exceptions. "The people talked to me in confidence that their names not be released," said Wakefield, who has partially retired but still writes a weekly column for the paper.
     Source: The Associated Press, via SPJ PressNotes

REPORTER DETAINED, FORCED TO DESTROY PHOTOGRAPHS FOR TAKING NOTES IN AN AIRPORT - R.V. Scheide, working for the Sacramento News and Review, was forced to delete digital news photographs and later detained for questioning by the FBI after a National Guardsman observed Scheide taking notes at the Los Angeles International Airport.
     Scheide was forced to deplane from his return flight, was detained and questioned by the FAA and FBI, and was refused flight service by Southwest Airlines, all because he was observed by passengers to be taking notes. His notebook was temporarily confiscated.
     "I had purchased a roundtrip ticket from Sacramento International to LAX to observe firsthand the unprecedented measures being taken to combat terrorism," Scheide said. "I didn't expect to be ordered to destroy photographs by an irate National Guardsman. I didn't expect the Los Angeles Police Department to confiscate and read the notes I'd taken on my trip. I didn't expect to be questioned by the FBI and detained for nearly three hours for no probable cause."
      Source: Sacramento Newsand Review (click for link to story.)

LEGGETT HITS 100 DAYS IN PRISON -  In the more than 100 days since a novice crime writer was jailed for refusing to surrender her interviews for a book about a Houston society murder, what she's missed most is what prompted a judge to issue a contempt citation against her. 
     Vanessa Leggett longs to write again, but also misses other aspects of the life she led before refusing to turn over her notes to a federal grand jury. Even so, Leggett says she's prepared to remain behind bars until January, perhaps beyond. She holds the record for the most time spent in jail by a journalist for failing to turn over information to authorities. Last weekend, she spent her 100th day at the Houston Federal Detention Center.
     A federal judge ruled that Leggett was not protected by shield laws because she was not a "legitimate" journalist. Journalism groups have protested, statin that it is not the government's place to decide who is and is not a legitimate journalist.
     Source: Freedom Forum (click for link to story)

OCTOBER 2001

NEWS CHOPPER BAN FRUSTRATES MEDIA - While the Federal Aviation Administration is allowing most privateplanes to return to the skies, except in Boston, New York and Washington, the agency has still banned news helicopters and blimps in 30 metropolitan areas. 
     Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, criticized the continuing ban, first established after the Sept. 11 attacks. "The bottom line is, you can fly the type of flight identical to most news helicopters in all but three cities, but if your purpose is to report news, you're grounded," Cochran said. Cochran testified on Oct. 17 before a House subcommittee, asking that the ban be lifted. 
     FAA public affairs spokesman Hank Price said that news reporting, traffic-watch and blimp aircraft are not allowed in any area within about 23 miles of a major metropolitan airport -- "for national security reasons." 
     FAA spokesman William Shumann added, "The issue isn't so much what they're flying as how they're flying." He said a news helicopter would be allowed to fly a straight, point-to-point path using "instrument flying," which enables a control tower to track it. Visual flying, in which no flight path is
established, is still not allowed, Schumann said.
     Sources: Freedom Forum and the Associated Press.

CONSTITUTIONAL ADVOCATES PROTEST ANTI-TERRORISM BILL - Critics of the anti-terrorism legislation that sped through Congress say it doesn't do enough to protect the civil liberties of immigrants or citizens. Some civil libertarians, however, are hailing a safeguard added regarding the FBI’s tracking of e-mail. 
     The bill, which passed the Senate on a 98-1 vote, now goes to President George W. Bush for his expected signature. The House overwhelmingly
approved it. Human rights and privacy advocates contend many problems remain in the final compromise. 
     "This bill goes light years beyond what is necessary to combat terrorism," said Laura Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington National Office. "Included in the bill are provisions that would allow for the mistreatment of immigrants, the suppression of dissent and the investigation and surveillance of wholly innocent Americans."
     But some First Amendment advocates are hailing as a victory a provision added to the legislation that would require a judge to monitor the FBI's use of a powerful e-mail wiretap system. The clause could help ensure that the system, once known as Carnivore, doesn't collect more information than allowed by a warrant. Carnivore critics worry that the device goes beyond traditional telephone wiretap laws and can gather data about people who are not criminal suspects. 
     The e-mail system is a device installed at an Internet company to capture e-mails sent or received by criminal suspects. The clause inserted in anti-terror legislation by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, would require investigators to tell a judge every detail about a Carnivore installation, including who installs and has access to it, its configuration and what it collects. 
     The report required by the Armey clause would go to the judge no more than 30 days after expiration of a wiretap order. It would be kept secret but could be used as a basis for the judge to consider whether police overstepped their authority. 
     One of the most contentious portions of Bush's anti-terrorism proposal would have allowed the attorney general to detain indefinitely until deportation any immigrant suspected of terrorism. House and Senate negotiators placed safeguards on that proposal by forcing the attorney general to start deportation procedures immediately, charge the person with a crime or release the foreigner in seven days. 
     Some human rights advocates want it changed even more so that immigrants would not have to stay in jail while their cases go through the deportation process. 
     That "can result in a virtual life sentence, and the bill provides only the barest of judicial oversight of the attorney general's new power," said Elisa
Massimino, director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. 
     In order to get a deal with the Senate, House leaders dumped the House Judiciary Committee's Republican-Democratic compromise with more civil
liberties and privacy provisions for a modified Senate version negotiated with the Justice Department and the White House. 
     The legislation expands the federal government's power to inspect educational records, wiretap all of a person's telephone conversations instead of just certain telephone numbers, track e-mails, seize voice mails and detain immigrants suspected of being terrorists.
     More provisions of the bill include:

                    INCREASING PENALTIES Criminal sentences for committing acts of terrorism or for
                    harboring or financing terrorists or terrorist organizations are increased. Committing an act of
                    terrorism against a mass transit system becomes a federal crime.

                    BIOTERRORISM PROVISION It becomes illegal for people or groups to possess substances
                    that can be used as biological or chemical weapons for any purpose besides a "peaceful" one.

                    DETENTION The attorney general or the commissioner of immigration may now certify an
                    immigrant as being under suspicion of involvement in terrorism. Those individuals may then be
                    held for up to seven days for questioning, after which they must be released if they are not charged
                    with violations of the criminal or immigration codes. 

                    ROVING WIRETAP Law enforcement officials may now obtain from the special intelligence
                    court the authority for roving wiretaps on a person suspected of involvement in terrorism so that
                    any telephone used by that person may be monitored. Currently, officials need separate
                    authorizations for each phone used by the person.

                    SEARCH WARRANTS Federal officials will be allowed to obtain nationwide search warrants for
                    terrorism investigations.

                    MONITORING OF COMPUTERS Officials will be allowed to subpoena the addresses and
                    times of e-mail messages sent by terrorism suspects. E-mail communications will then be equal to
                    those made by telephone, for which the authorities can use a subpoena to obtain records of
                    numbers called and the duration of calls.

                    SHARING OF INTELLIGENCE AND CRIMINAL INFORMATION Intelligence officials and
                    criminal justice officials will be allowed to share information on investigations.

                    MONEY LAUNDERING The Treasury Department will be able to require banks to make much
                    greater efforts to determine the sources of large overseas private banking accounts. The Treasury
                    will also be able to impose sanctions on nations that refuse to provide information on depositors to
                    American investigators. Monitoring of American dealings by the nearly paperless banks, or
                    hawalas, of the Middle East will be allowed.

                    SHELL BANKS American banks will be barred from doing business with offshore shell banks,
                    which have no connection to any regulated banking industry.

                    PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATIONS National security investigators will be able to obtain from a
                    special intelligence court the authority to wiretap suspects in terrorism cases if they assert that
                    foreign intelligence operations are a significant purpose of the investigation. Currently, foreign
                    intelligence has to be the only purpose of the investigation to win such authorization.

                    SUNSET PROVISIONS The bill's sections expanding surveillance powers for tapping
                    telephones and computers will expire in four years, but any information learned from expanded
                    wiretaps in those four years will still be usable in court even if the case are brought years later.

                    DISCLOSURE SUITS The government may now be sued for leaks of information gained
                    through the new wiretapping and surveillance powers.

Sources: Freedom Forum, New York Times, ACLU

AUGUST 2001

JOURNALIST JAILED FOR REFUSING TO HAND OVER NOTES - The Society of Professional Journalists has awarded its biggest grant ever to Texas writer Vanessa Leggett, currently in jail for contempt of court after refusing to hand over notes and tapes of an interview.
     According to the Washington Post, Leggett has been in a Houston jail since July 19 for refusing to turn over her research materials concerning a 1997 murder case. U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon ruled that Leggett has no right to take refuge behind laws protecting journalists' notes because she is not a "legitimate reporter." Leggett is a freelance writer who was researching the 1997 murder for a book.
     James Gray, executive director of the Society of Professional Journalists, said the SPJ Legal Defense Fund is contributing $12,500 - half Leggett's legal expenses - for her appeals, the largest grant in the history of the fund. The Houston Chronicle has donated another $1,000, and SPJ is encouraging other news organizations to chip in as well.
     "We see this case as monumentally important because of the implication that the government would be able to make the determination about who is and who is not a journalist," Gray said. "We all should remember that press freedom is not something granted only to journalists. It is a right granted to all citizens by the First Amendment." Sources: SPJ, Washington Post

STROLLERS RECALLED - Kolcraft Enterprises is recalling about 115,000 strollers. Lock mechanisms, found on both sides of the stroller, can break and cause the stroller to suddenly collapse. 
     Kolcraft has received 124 reports of the lock mechanisms breaking including 31 reports of the stroller collapsing. There were 22 reports of injuries, including abrasions, cuts and bruises to children's faces, arms, hands and legs.
     The recall includes only the Kolcraft LiteSport strollers, model number 36122. A label with the word "LiteSport" can be found on the front of the footrest. The model number can be found on a label on the back leg frame of the stroller. These strollers were manufactured from December 1997 through December 1999. The manufacture date is below the model number on the back leg frame label. "Kolcraft" is written on the front of the stroller. 
     Consumers should stop using the strollers immediately and call Kolcraft to receive a free repair kit. For more information, call Kolcraft toll-free at (800) 922-2130 anytime. Source: CSPC

JUNE 2001

REPORTER ARRESTED FOR ASKING QUESTIONS - A Virginia reporter was arrested last week for asking questions apparently too tough for a school principal.
    Kelly Campbell, reporter for The Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger newspaper in Virginia, was arrested last week and charged with
misdemeanor trespassing after an interview with the principal of Woodbridge High School abruptly ended. The charge, if Campbell is convicted, is punishable by up to a year in jail.
     "We hope that this was a one-time error of judgment that won't be repeated," said Ray Marcano, president of the Society of Professional Journalists and an assistant managing editor at the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News. "Journalists should always be treated with professionalism and respect as they go about their jobs of informing the public."
     Campbell was arrested after principal Karen Spillman halted an interview about a controversial biology class project. Campbell said she was not
given an opportunity to leave peacefully before a school resource officer removed her from the building, arrested her and took her to the county
lockup. Police said the reporter would not leave the school until physically removed and justified the arrest to local media.
     "Our reporter was caught off guard by the principal ending the interview. Her surprise made her hesitant to just walk out the door," said Susan
Svihlik, executive editor of The Potomac News and Manassas Journal Messenger. "Expressing surprise and hesitation is not against the law, nor
is it trespass. It's a shame that Kelly ended up behind bars just for rying to do her job, and it's especially a shame that such a thing happened over what was supposed to be a fairly simple story about a school program."
     Campbell is scheduled to appear in court July 31, and the newspapers have hired an attorney for the case.
     When arrested, Campbell was interviewing Spillman about a biology project in which students took ducklings home to see if the baby ducks would learn to follow students as they do a mother duck.
     "Members of the public don't know that many newspapers work at maintaining solid professional relationships with the agencies they cover. That was the case in Prince William County, where both the school system and the police department have a history of working with the news media," said Louise
Seals, SPJ Virginia Pro Chapter president and managing editor of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch. "In that spirit, we would hope the parties could resolve this short of court. But if not, Virginia's SPJ pro chapter will be solidly behind Kelly Campbell. A reporter has to be able to ask questions without fear of being arrested." Source: SPJ

BURGER KING TO REPLACE NETTING IN PLAYGROUNDS AFTER CHILD'S DEATH - Burger King Corporation has begun a voluntary safety program to replace the nets on its enclosed indoor and outdoor play structures throughout the United States with no-climb nets. The restaurants will install "no-climb" nets from the floor up to 7 feet to prevent children climbing into areas not meant for play.
     Burger King Corporation is taking this action following the death of a 4-year-old boy who was playing in a net-enclosed play structure in a St. Louis Burger King on April 29, 2001. The boy gained access to an area of the enclosed playground not intended for play, became entrapped between parts of the structure, and died.
     The "no-climb" nets, which have holes that are about one-quarter inch, will be installed on the sides of the play structures that are accessible to children. "No-climb" nets will replace box-type nets, which have two-inch square holes. The smaller holes in the "no-climb" netting prevent children from climbing the nets. 
     Of the approximately 3200 Burger King playgrounds, only those playgrounds that do not have "no-climb" netting around the entrance and exit tubes, and do not have ceiling nets or other barriers to prevent access into non-play areas, will be temporarily closed until "no-climb" netting is installed. (Source: CPSC)

CPSC SLAPS FISHER-PRICE WITH BIGGEST FINE IN HISTORY - Fisher-Price has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.1 million to settle  charges that it failed to report serious safety defects with Power Wheels toy vehicles. This is the largest fine against a toy firm in the history of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
     Under federal law, companies are required to report to CPSC if they obtain information that reasonably suggests that their products could
present a substantial risk of injury to consumers, or creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death. 
     CPSC charges Fisher-Price  failed to report 116 fires involving the Power Wheels ride-on toy vehicles and reports of more than 1,800 incidents of the vehicles' electrical components overheating, short-circuiting, melting or failing. These incidents resulted in at least nine minor burn injuries to children, and up to $300,000 in property damage to 22 houses and garages. Additionally, CSPC claims that Fisher-Price was aware of at least 71 incidents involving the products' failure to stop, resulting in six minor injuries when the vehicles hit a car, truck, pole, window or fence.
     In agreeing to settle this matter, Fisher-Price denies CPSC allegations and denies it knowingly violated the Consumer Product Safety Act. In cooperation with CPSC, Fisher-Price recalled up to 10 million Power Wheels ride-on vehicles on October 22, 1998. Source: CPSC

MAY 2001

ASHCROFT HOLDS PRAYER MEETINGS AT JUSTICE - Attorney General John Ashcroft, whose conservative religious views came under fire during his confirmation, has been holding prayer meetings each day in the Justice Department office.
     The Washington Post reported that Ashcroft and staff members meet each morning to read the Bible and join in prayer. Ashcroft held similar meetings among his staff as a senator.
     Although Ashcroft insists the meetings are open to all and not required, the Post quoted several staffers who wished to remain anonymous who felt it was an inappropriate use of a public space and infringed on the religious beliefs of others.
     First Amendment groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State are blasting the attorney general for the meetings, which they contend violate the Guidelines on Religious Exercise & Religious Expressions in the Federal Workplace.
     The act contends that a person holding supervisory authority over an employee may not, explicitly or implicitly, insist that the employee participate in religious activities as a condition of continued employment, promotion, salary increases, preferred job assignments, or any other incidents of employment. Nor may a supervisor insist that an employee refrain from participating in religious activities outside the workplace except pursuant to otherwise legal, neutral restrictions that apply to employees' off-duty conduct and expression in general.
     Americans United told CNN.com that the very fact that the attorney general was holding these meetings would create pressure for the staff to join them, for fear of being denied advancement.
     Justice Department spokesmen said there have been no formal complaints brought against the department because of the meetings. - Sources: Associated Press, CNN.com, Washington Post, CyberFeds.com

GSA SAYS THERE'S NO TRUTH TO WHITE HOUSE VANDAL SCANDAL — Without a hint of fanfare, the General Services Administration found that the White House vandalism flap earlier this year was a flop.
     The agency concluded that departing members of the Clinton administration had not trashed the place during the presidential transition, as unnamed aides to President Bush and other critics had insisted. Responding to a request from Rep. Bob Barr, a Georgia Republican, who asked for an investigation, the GSA found that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
     "The condition of the real property was consistent with what we would expect to encounter when tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy,’’ according to a GSA statement. In other words, no wholesale slashing of cords to computers, copiers and telephones, no evidence of lewd graffiti or pornographic images. 
     The vandal scandal, however, was the hottest story in town during the early days of the Bush administration. "I think it was this calculated effort to plant a damaging story,’’ said Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. ‘‘There was a sort of fertile ground for believing anything bad.’’
     And it worked. Clinton’s critics went ballistic. Typical was Tony Snow, a syndicated columnist and former presidential speechwriter for President Bush’s father, who wrote that the White House "was a wreck." He also said that Air Force One, after having taken former President Clinton and some aides to New York following the inauguration ‘‘looked as if it had been stripped by a skilled band of thieves — or perhaps wrecked by a trailer park twister.’’
     He went on to list all manner of missing items, including silverware, porcelain dishes with the presidential seal and even candy.
     Except none of it happened. An official at Andrews Air Force Base, which maintains the presidential jets, told Knight Ridder Newspapers at the height of the controversy that nothing was missing. President Bush himself acknowledged that a few days later.
     "They told me that there were papers that were not organized laying on the floor and on desks, there were some scratches here and there, but the bottom line was they didn’t see anything really in their view that was significant and that would appear to some as real extensive damage,’’ said Bernard Unger, director for physical infrastructure for the General Accounting Office, which asked GSA to look into the allegations.
     Barr’s office refused to return calls about the GSA findings. Snow was somewhat contrite. ‘‘I’m perfectly willing to admit my error on the aircraft,’’ he said, but added that he still believed his sources who told him about damage at the White House. Source: Associated Press

STUDY: AS CHILD POPULATION GROWS, CHILD WELFARE BIGGER ISSUE - The class of 2014 will be the biggest class in history, according to the Children's Defense Fund.
     The child advocacy group Children's Defense Fund has announced that 53 million children started kindergarten last year, the largest class in history. The class of 2014 outstrips even the baby boomers in size, but the advocacy group says that progress in areas of child welfare and poverty has been slim.
     The annual State of America's Children study shows that one in six children lives in poverty, 10.8 million children lack health insurance and poor families are spending an average of 35 percent of their income on child care, compared with 7 percent for more affluent families.
     "It's time to build a mighty movement for children in the richest and most powerful nation on earth," said Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. "It's a time of political transition with a new president who repeatedly has used CDF's trademarked mission words and has promised to Leave No Child Behind.®" 
     The study provided the following statistics:

• HEALTH: 80 percent of 2-year-olds are fully immunized, compared to only 55 percent in 1992. 
• CHILD CARE: 7 million school-age children are left alone after school without supervision.
• INCOME: 78 percent of poor children live in households where someone works, up from 61 percent in 1993.
• ABUSE: Nearly 3 million children are reported abused or neglected each year. Nearly 589,0000 children are in foster care in the U.S. 
• JUVENILE JUSTICE: 22 percent of violent crime victims are children, while juvenile  crime rates have dropped 23 percent since 1995.
• ENTERTAINMENT: The average child watches 28 hours of television a week, and by age 18 will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence.
• EDUCATION: Approximately 31 percent of fourth-graders read at proficient levels.
• FUNDING: The average cost of a year of Head Start is $5,403. The average cost of one year of prison is $20,000.

HORROR AUTHOR DONATES ROYALITES TO DOWN'S SYNDROME RESEARCH - All the author's royalties for the recently-released "Naomi" are being donated to the National Down Syndrome Society, according to author Douglas Clegg. 
     The paperback is being released by Leisure Press. Clegg is the author of several horror novels and, along with Stephen King, has experimented with e-books and Internet publishing. "Naomi," like several of Clegg's books, was originally released in an e-serial format in 1999, before e-serials became popular. 
     King's e-serial, "The Plant," furled its leaves earlier this year, though King has said he will take it up again after he completes other projects. Sources: The Labyrinth, Stephen King Inc.

EVENFLO CAR SEAT RECALLED - Evenflo Co. Inc. is recalling about 3.4 million Joyride® infant car seats/carriers. When the seat is used as an
infant carrier, the handle can unexpectedly release, causing the seat to flip forward. When this happens, an infant inside the carrier can fall to the ground and suffer serious injuries. 
     The recall involves all Evenflo Joyride® car seats/carriers, which are white or gray plastic with seat pads of various colors and patterns. "Evenflo Joyride Car Seat/Carrier" is written on the outside of the handle locks. The seats have model numbers beginning with 203, 205, 210, 435 or 493, which can be found on a label underneath or on the side the car seat/carrier. The seats were sold  from January 1998 through December 1998. 
     Evenflo will provide consumers with a free easy-to-install repair kit that helps secure the handle. Consumers should not carry the seat by the handle until it has been repaired.  To receive a free repair kit, call Evenflo toll-free at (800) 557-3178 anytime, or visit the website. Consumers should have the car seat in front of them when they call or access the website. Source: CPSC

APRIL 2001

NORTH CAROLINA CONSIDERS ELECTORAL CHANGE - North Carolina may become the third state (after Maine and Nebraska) to allocate  Presidential Electors by Congressional District, rather than on a  state-wide winner-take-all basis. 
      In 2000, Bush won the state, but Gore won  3 of the 12 Congressional Districts. If NC's Electors had been allocated by  CD, Gore would have won the Electoral College by 270-268, even without  Florida. NC has voted for Republican Presidents since 1980, but Democrats  control the state legislature and see this as a way to help future  Democratic presidential candidates. Source: Charlotte Daily Observer and SPJ pressline.