Sotomayor Hearing -- Day 2: As the second day of the Sotomayor hearings gets underway,The National Law Journal's Tony Mauro reports on the first day of Sotomayor's hearing and her opening remarks, including her pledge of "fidelity to the law." The Washington Post examines the brief yet telling incident yesterday in which a protestor interrupted Sen. Al Franken's opening remarks by shouting that Roe v. Wade must be overturned. The name of the protestor? Norma McCorvey, 61 -- Jane Roe herself. She was arrested and charged with with unlawful conduct-disruption of Congress.
Secret CIA Program: The Secret program CIA Director Leon Panetta canceled as soon as he learned of it on June 23 involved plans to dispatch small teams overseas to kill senior Qaeda terrorists, The New York Times reports. The Agency says the plans were never carried out. Despite logistical problems, the plan had not been shelved completely since its inception in 2001 because the Bush administration sought an alternative to killing terror suspects with missiles fired from drone aircraft or seizing them overseas and imprisoning them in secret C.I.A. jails.
Palin's Problems with Cap-and-Trade: Outgoing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin writes in an op-ed in today's Washington Post that President Barack Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan "is an enormous threat to our economy." She writes that it will mean a loss of jobs and raise the cost of doing business.
Cracking the Whip: President Obama told Sen. Max Baucus he wants the Senate to have health care legislation ready by week's end in the Finance Committee that Baucus chairs, the Associated Press reports. The virtual deadline underscored Obama's determination to push
legislation through both houses of Congress before lawmakers go home
for their August summer break.
The Dreier Sentence: Disgraced attorney Marc Dreier was ordered to serve 20 years in prison Monday, seven months after he was arrested for defrauding investors of hundreds of millions of dollars and stealing from clients, The New York Law Journal reports. Southern District of New York Judge Jed Rakoff rejected an initial request by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter for 145 years in prison as well as Streeter's fall-back request for 30 years in prison, which would be the equivalent of a life sentence for the 59-year-old former head of Dreier.
Comments