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> Wed., Oct. 20, 2003
FSRN
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS
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Today's lead stories:
Supreme Court Back in Session
Oakland Riders Acquitted
Colombian Amnesty for Paramilitaries?
FTAA March to Miami
FDA Rejects Cheaper Drugs from Canada
FSRN Headlines by Nell Abram
Chicago opposes USA Patriot Act -- Rita Sand
Superfund goes broke -- Kevin Little
Israel to expand fence in Gaza Strip -- Mohammed Ghalayini
Buddhist group alledges harassment by Vietnamese -- Ngoc Nguyen
Florida extends DNA deadline -- Sally Watt
[top]
Supreme Court Back in Session
The U.S. Supreme Court is back from recess, and yesterday
the Bush administration told the Court that Vice President
Dick Cheney’s records on the Energy Task Force should
remain confidential. Last month a lower court ruled that the
documents should be made public, agreeing with the conservative
group Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club that the public has
a right to know the genesis of the Bush administration’s
energy policy. The Supreme Court also announced it will hear
50 cases in the upcoming session, three of which deal with
the death penalty. As Mitch Jeserich reports, one case in
particular could over turn dozens of death sentences.
[top]
Oakland Riders Acquitted
In one of the most notable police misconduct cases in the
Bay Area, four Oakland police officers known as “the
riders” were acquitted of conspiracy by a jury yesterday
in the county’s longest ever jury trial. The officers
were accused of assaulting and falsely persecuting residents
in the city's poorest neighborhoods. After 56 days of deliberation,
the jurors returned a not guilty verdict on 8 counts and were
unable to agree on the remaining 27 charges, prompting the
presiding judge to call a mistrial. KPFA’s Tori Taylor
reports from Oakland.
[top]
Colombian Amnesty for Paramilitaries?
Yesterday Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe Velez
addressed the UN General Assembly in New York where he defended
his amnesty proposal for the right wing paramilitary group,
the United Self Defense Forces of Colombia or the AUC. If
passed, the amnesty would allow paramilitary leaders on trial
to pay in cash as retribution for crimes committed against
humanity instead of receiving prison sentences. Last July,
factions of the AUC, often accused of working alongside the
Colombian army, agreed to a ceasefire and to demobilize13,000
combatants by 2005. Yet last week, one AUC group broke the
cease-fire as it battled a dissident front. The combat forced
more than 700 campesinos to flee the region. From Colombia’s
North-west region of Apartado, Nicole Karsin has more on Uribe’s
proposed paramilitary amnesty
[top]
FTAA March to Miami
Members of a labor-environmentalist alliance are bussing
across the nation, recruiting activists for a march to Miami,
site of the hemispheric ‘Free Trade Area of the Americas’
(FTAA) talks in November. The Alliance for Sustainable Jobs
and the Environment is targeting environmental destruction
and oppressive working conditions that they say will only
increase if the FTAA talks result in an agreement between
governments. Leigh Robartes caught up with the alliance at
a stop in Spokane, Washington yesterday, and files this report.
[top]
FDA Rejects Cheaper Drugs from Canada
Springfield Mayor Michael Albano is in the spotlight as
he yesterday began a campaign to have the city of Springfield
divest monies from drug companies that he accuses of manipulating
markets to protect high prices in the United States. Albano
is asking the Springfield Retirement Board to sell all the
city pension investments in drug stocks, representing about
$6 million, or 2.6 percent of the $223 million fund. This
as last week, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich flew to Washington
to press the Food and Drug Administration to reverse its policy
prohibiting state and local governments from importing drugs
from Canada, where prices are 30 to 50 percent lower than
drugs in the United States. But the FDA has rejected his request,
saying they can't guarantee the safety of Canadian drugs.
Meanwhile, yesterday drug store giant Walgreen’s announced
record profits -- largely driven by increased spending on
prescription drugs. Chris Geovanis reports from Chicago
[top]
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