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Bush calls on Congress to promote new fuels
Law Center | 2007/04/03 19:40

President Bush urged Congress on Tuesday to adopt his proposed targets for alternative fuel use as a way of combating greenhouse gas emissions a day after the US Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency authority to regulate automobile emissions. Speaking at a Rose Garden press conference, Bush said:

First of all, the decision of the Supreme Court we take very seriously. It's the new law of the land. And secondly, we're taking some time to fully understand the details of the decision... My attitude is, is that we have laid out a plan that will affect greenhouse gases that come from automobiles by having a mandatory fuel standard that insists upon using 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels by 2017, which will reduce our gasoline usage by 20 percent and halt the growth in greenhouse gases that emanate from automobiles. In other words, there is a remedy available for Congress. And I strongly hope that they pass this remedy quickly.

Bush, who opposes mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions, also reiterated his belief that rapidly developing countries such as China and India must do more to control pollution. Scientific research suggests that man-made greenhouse gases contribute to global warming.

Efforts to establish national emissions limits have gained traction in Congress since the Democrats became the majority party. Last month, former CIA director John Deutch recommended in a report to international civic leaders that the United States enact an EU-style cap-and-trade program among other measures to control greenhouse gas emissions. In January, a coalition of US businesses and environmental groups called for federal legislation to limit emissions. Overseas, the British government last month introduced a draft environmental bill that could control greenhouse gas emissions through 2050.



Videographer Wolf Freed After Record Time In Jail
Court Watch | 2007/04/03 15:46

US District Judge William Alsup of the Northern District of California approved the release Tuesday of jailed video journalist and blogger Josh Wolf, who was imprisoned for 226 days, longer than any other journalist, for refusing to testify before a grand jury. The judge agreed to Wolf's release after he complied with a subpoena and turned over footage he took in 2005 of a San Francisco demonstration protesting the 2005 G8 Summit. Wolf also published the previously-unreleased video footage on his website Tuesday. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has repeatedly called for Wolf's release and issued a statement Tuesday welcoming news that Wolf was to be freed.

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) ranked the United States in 53rd place last October in its fifth annual Worldwide Index of Freedom. RWB mentioned Wolf's imprisonment among other factors contributing to the United States' slip of nine places in the rankings since the previous year.



FCC order strengthens pretexting regulations
Law Center | 2007/04/03 15:36

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted new privacy rules for telephone and wireless companies on Tuesday aimed at strengthening safeguards against pretexting, the disclosure of personal telephone records to unauthorized individuals. The new rules include carrier authentication requirements, additional notice requirements, and annual certification requirements. Commenting on the new rules, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in a prepared statement that the regulations significantly strengthen existing safeguards by requiring express consent before a carrier can give a customer’s phone records to other parties for marketing purposes.

In January, President Bush signed into law new federal legislation to protect telephone consumers from pretexting. The Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006 was approved by the US Senate in December in response to the Hewlett-Packard corporate spying scandal that broke last summer.



Two convicted of fraud in bankruptcy of cheese maker
Bankruptcy | 2007/04/03 14:30

Two top executives for a now-defunct cheese maker were convicted on all charges they faced in connection with a scheme that used nearly $400 million in fictitious sales to boost Suprema Specialties' stock price.

A federal jury on Monday convicted Mark Cocchiola and Steven Venechanos on 38 counts that included conspiracy, bank fraud, securities fraud, mail and wire fraud.

Cocchiola founded of the Paterson-based company; Venechanos was its chief financial officer and corporate secretary.

"These were corrupt businessmen," U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said in a statement. "They bankrupted a company that was in reality a myth built on phony sales. They were driven by unbridled greed without a thought to the investors they charmed with their illusion of Suprema's success."

Cocchiola, 51, of Englewood Cliffs, and Venechanos, 48, of New Milford, could face dozens of years in prison and millions of dollars in fines when sentenced July 10 by U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler. The heaviest penalties are for the 17 bank fraud charges, each of which carries up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Cocchiola and Venechanos were indicted in July 2005. They were convicted following an eight-week trial in which the jury deliberated eight days.

The former controller of Suprema, along with a former manager and four former customers, pleaded guilty to charges including securities fraud and food adulteration charges.

Suprema was liquidated after filing for bankruptcy protection in March 2002.

Prosecutors said that Suprema used the illusion of its growth to conduct a series of secondary stock offerings, netting Suprema millions from investors. Meanwhile, Cocchiola got over $2.5 million, and Venechanos over $1 million, from selling their holdings.

Prosecutors also said that in the second half of 2001, nearly 20 percent of Suprema's reported inventory was imitation cheese that had been relabeled as higher-priced real cheese.



Alameda man gets prison for groping girl
Criminal Law | 2007/04/03 13:51

An Alameda man will spend seven months in prison for groping a 14-year-old girl he was sitting next to on a flight home from the Philippines last July, U.S. Attorney Scott Schools announced today. Benjamin Caniaveral, 48, was sentenced today in San Francisco federal court by Judge William Alsup and must report to prison by the end of the month.

Caniaveral pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of simple assault on a juvenile in October. In doing so, he admitted to intentionally touching the girl, who was sleeping in the window seat covered by a blanket.

The U.S. Attorney's office reports that Caniaveral first stroked the girl's arm with his hand, then he touched her on the stomach below the navel. The tip of his fingers reached below the waist of her pants, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

The girl awoke during the incident, according to the U.S. Attorney's office, and she alerted a flight attendant.

"I laud the victim's courage in reporting and pursuing this case," said Schools. "Too often this type of attack is not reported or not punished."

The incident, which was investigated by the FBI, took place on a Philippine Airlines flight to San Francisco from Manila.



Ex-city cab Guilty Plea In New York Terror Case
Court Watch | 2007/04/03 13:45

A Baltimore man who attended an Islamist guerrilla training camp in Pakistan pleaded guilty in New York to a terrorism charge.

Mahmud Faruq Brent, 32, faces up to 15 years in jail at his July 10 sentencing, The Washington Post reported.

Brent, who is also known as Mahmud Al Mutazzim, was scheduled to go on trial April 24 with two other defendants. His lawyer, Hassen Ibn Abdellah, told the Post Brent didn't plan to testify against the other defendants.

Brent pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to conspiring to aid a group on the U.S. terrorism list, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, by attending one of its training camps. He was arrested in 2005 and has admitted attending the camp in 2002, the Post reported.

Federal officials tied Brink, an Ohio native and former Washington taxi and ambulance driver, to Seifullah Chapman, a member of what prosecutors called the "Virginia jihad network," the Post said. Chapman was sentenced to 65 years in prison on charges that included conspiring to support Lashkar-e-Taiba.



California emissions law could still face hurdles
Environmental | 2007/04/03 13:32

Despite winning the Supreme Court's support for its efforts to cut emissions, California, a front runner in regulating greenhouse gases, still faces hurdles, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and automakers would pose challenges to the state before it implemented its landmark law slashing greenhouse gas emissions from car exhaust, the paper noted.

The automakers argue in several pending cases that state regulation of greenhouse gases is illegal, because it amounts to regulating the fuel efficiency of cars, which only the EPA can do.

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that greenhouse gases can be regulated as air pollutants. For the EPA to regulate, it must first determine that science shows global warming is harmful to human health and welfare.

But even if the EPA decides greenhouse gases should be regulated to protect public health, the agency could still deny California's long-delayed request to implement its own law by saying that the problem is global and not unique to the state, the paper quoted Harvard University environmental law professor Jody Freeman as saying.

"Even if California prevails, Congress could end up passing weaker national legislation that would supersede the state's," the paper said.

"I think it's a very tough call right now," said Freeman. "I don't think the chances are great, because I think there's reason to believe Congress will act before EPA."

To get a waiver, California must show compelling and extraordinary conditions, Freeman said.

"California is special. It's the only state in the country that can set tailpipe standards separate from federal standards," she said. "Everything depends on that waiver."

California has mandated that its emissions standards for cars would begin in 2009 and pledged to cut global warming emissions nearly 30 percent by 2016.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who broke with President George W. Bush by endorsing California's Democratic-sponsored emissions law, wrote to the president and the EPA a year ago for asking them to grant the state's request to implement its own law.



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