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> Tue., Jan. 20, 2004
FSRN
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Today's lead stories:
Kerry Wins Iowa Caucus
Democrats Filibuster Appropriations Bill
WSF: Get-Rich-Quick on AIDS drugs?
The Case of Sherman Austin
LGBT Series: Part 1: Indonesia
FSRN Headlines
Cheney Impeachment
A Member of the U.S. Congress is calling for impeachment hearings
on Vice President Dick Cheney. More from Kellia Ramares.
Bush Administration Invasive Drug Testing
Government employees may soon have their mouths swabbed and
hair pulled by Bush administration officials aiming to curb
the use of illegal drugs among 1 point 6 million workers.
David Gruen reports from D.C.
South Africa Begins to Pay Reparations
The South African government is now paying out reparations
to victims of apartheid as recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. Na’eem Jinah reports from Johannesburg.
Nigerian Court Forbids Strike
A Nigerian court has ordered the country’s main workers
union to suspend a general strike planned for Wednesday. The
strike is to protest a controversial fuel tax imposed by the
government. Sam Olukoya reports from Lagos.
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Kerry Wins Iowa Caucus
The results of the first state caucus to be recognized by
the Democratic National Committee came in from Iowa late last
night. Senator John Kerry was declared the winner receiving
38 percent of the Iowa caucus votes with Senator John Edwards
in second place with 31 percent. Coming in third was former
Vermont Governor Howard Dean with 18 percent. Dean had been
widely viewed as the race's frontrunner. Congressman Richard
Gephardt received 11 percent and Congressman Dennis Kucinich
received one percent. Deepa Fernandes spoke with Pacifica’s
Senior Political Analyst, Larry Bensky, and began by asking
him if he thought this result was what was needed to get President
Bush out of the White House.
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Democrats Filibuster Appropriations Bill
On the first day of the Congressional Session of the new
year, today Senate Democrats blocked the omnibus appropriations
bill that would be much of the spending plan for this year.
Most Senate Democrats supported a filabuster because the bill
was stripped of an overtime protection provision and included
the relaxation of media ownership rules. The filabuster highlights
a divided Congress that President Bush will address tonight
in his state of the union address. Mitch Jeserich has more
from Capitol Hill.
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WSF: Get-Rich-Quick on AIDS drugs?
A hot topic at the World Social Forum, currently underway
in India, is the issue of drug costs to treat those with HIV/AIDS.
Grass-roots groups in India accuse cash-rich NGO’s of
exaggerating the numbers of people diagnosed with HIV in pursuit
of large amounts of money for treatment. And as our correspondent
Binu Alex reports, Indian activists say it is nothing more
than a get-rich-quick collaboration between the NGO’s
and multinational pharmaceutical companies while people with
AIDS continue to lack drugs.
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The Case of Sherman Austin
It is now six months since African-American anarchist Sherman
Austin was sentenced to one-year in Federal Prison and three
years probation for providing free web-hosting space to a
website with links to bomb-making information. Austin did
not author the material, only provided room on his server
for others to do so. One of the people who took advantage
of the free webspace was a suburban, young white male who
published The Reclaim Guide online, which furnished readers
with crude bomb making information. The author of The Reclaim
Guide was only questioned once and never charged with any
crime himself. After Austin’s home was raided, he left
for New York where he was apprehended and charged by local
and federal authorities and released. Upon returning to Long
Beach, California, he faced constant harassment from police
officers, who would routinely pull him over. Austin was eventually
charged with violating what his attorneys call an unconstitutional
law set into legislation by California Democratic Senator
Diane Feinstein. Feinstein applauded Austin’s arrest
and prosecution, and sent a letter to John Ashcroft urging
federal prosecutors to "aggressively enforce" the
law. KPFK’s Aura Bogado has more.
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LGBT Series: Part 1: Indonesia
Today we begin an FSRN special series looking at the world-wide
assault on the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender
communities. Recently the Indonesian government announced
that it is considering a ban on gay sex. The proposal, put
forward by the country's Islamic Minister for Justice and
Human Rights would be the first anti-gay law ever enacted
by the largest Muslim country in the world. And as Aaron Glantz
reports from Jakarta, the proposal has the country's sizable
but largely closeted gay population worried.
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