The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, January 29, 2009 - 3A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, January 29, 2009 - 3A
NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Peanut recall
grows as feds find
problems at plant
The salmonella outbreak
spawned one of the largest ever
product recalls yesterday by a
Georgia peanut plant where federal
inspectors reported finding roach-
es, mold, a leaking roof and other
sanitary problems.
Managers at the Blakely, Ga.
plant owned by Peanut Corp. of
America continued shipping pea-
nut.products even after they were
found to contain salmonella.
Peanut Corp. expanded its recall
yesterday to all peanut products
produced at the plant since Jan.
1, 2007. The company is relatively
small, but its peanut paste is an
. ingredient in hundreds of other
food products, from ice cream, to
Asian-style sauces, to dog biscuits.
A senior lawmaker in Congress
and Georgia's agriculture commis-
sioner called for a criminal investi-
gation of the company, but the Food
and Drug Administration said such
a step is premature while its own
food safety investigation contin-
ues.
More than 500 people have got-
ten sick in the outbreak and at least
eight may have died as a result of
salmonella infection. More than
400 products have already been
recalled. The plant has stopped all
production.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill.
Prosecution rests
in Blagojevich
impeachment trial
The prosecution has rested in
the impeachment trial of Illinois
Gov. Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-
uh-vich).
Impeachment prosecutor David
Ellis is scheduled to make his clos-
ing arguments today after three
days of testimony.
In a surprise development,
Blagojevich has also asked to make
a closing statement. The governor
has boycotted the rest of the trial
and presented no defense. .
Blagojevich is accused of abus-
ing his power. The chaeges include
trying to auction off a U.S. Senate
seat, defying legislative decisions
and evading state hiring laws
Senators could vote on whether to
remove Blagojevich this afternoon.
PHILADELPHIA
Winter storm begins
barrage in Northeast
A destructive winter storm left
more than a million customers
in the dark before barreling into
the Northeast yesterday, delay-
ing flights and turning the morn-
ing rush into the morning slush as
communities braced for the worst.
The storm has been blamed for at
least23 deaths and aglaze of ice and
snow that caused widespread power
failures from the Southern Plains to
the East Coast. Authorities said it
could be a week before some com-
munities have electricity again.
Tree limbs encased in ice tum-
bled onto roads and crashed onto
power lines in hard-hit Arkansas,
Kentucky and Oklahoma on Tues-
day and overnight. In Arkansas
- where ice was 3 inches thick
in some places - people huddled
next to portable heaters and wood-
burning fires as utilities warned
electricity may be out for a week or
more.
SAN DIEGO
Mistrial after
defendant smears
feces on lawyer
A San Diego judge has declared a
mistrial in a kidnapping and assault
case after the defendant smeared
excrement on his lawyer's face and
threw it at jurors.
The judge boosted defendant
Weusi McGowan's bail from
$250,000 to $1 million after the
Monday incident.
Prosecutor Christopher Lawson
says McGowan was upset because
the judge refused to remove public
defender Jeffrey Martin from the
case.
McGowan had smuggled a bag
of feces into court and spread it on
Martin's hair and face before fling-
ing the excrement at jurors. No
jurors were hit.
McGowan has pleaded not guilty
to kidnapping for robbery, assault
with a deadly weapon and other
counts in connection with a 2007
home invasion.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
House passes
economic
stimulus bill
U.S Postmaster Gen. John Potter takes notes on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. yesterday, Jan. 28, 2009, while testifying
before the Senate Governmental Affairs subcommittee.
Postmaster general: Mail
days may need to be cut
Total mail volume
down 9 billion
from last year
WASHINGTON (AP) - Mas-
sive deficits could force the post
office to cut out one day of mail
delivery, the postmaster general
told Congress yesterday, in asking
lawmakers to lift the requirement
that the agency deliver mail six
days a week.
If the change happens, that
doesn't necessarily mean an end
to Saturday mail delivery. Previ-
ous post office studies have looked
at the possibility of skipping some
other day when mail flow is light,
such as Tuesday.
Faced with dwindling mail
volume and rising.costs, the post
office was $2.8 billion in the red
last year. "If current trends con-
tinue, we could experience a net
loss of $6 billion or more this fis-
cal year," Postmaster General
John E. Potter said in testimony
for a Senate Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs sub-
committee.
Total mail volume was 202 bil-
lion items last year, over 9 billion
less than the year before, the larg-
est single volume drop in history.
And, despite annual rate
increases, Potter said 2009 could
be the first year since 1946 that
the actual amount of money col-
lected by the post office declines.
"It is possible that the cost of
six-day delivery may simply prove
to be unaffordable," Potter said. "I
reluctantly request that Congress
remove the annual appropriation
bill rider, first added in 1983, that
requires the Postal Service to
deliver mail six days each week."
"The ability to suspend deliv-
ery on the lightest delivery days,
for example, could save dollars in
both our delivery and our process-
ing and distribution networks. I
do not make this request lightly,
but I am forced to consider every
option given the severity of our
challenge," Potter said.
That doesn't mean it would
happen right away, he noted, add-
ing that the agency is working to
cut costs and any final decision on
changing delivery would have to
be made by the postal governing
board.
If it did become necessary to
go to five-day delivery, Potter
said, "we would do this by sus-
pending delivery on the lightest
volume days."
The Postal Service raised the
issue of cutting back on days of
service last fall in a study it issued.
At that time the agency said the
six-day rule should be eliminated,
giving the post office, "the flex-
ibility to meet future needs for
delivery frequency.
$819 billion stimulus
package passes with
244-188 vote
WASHINGTON (AP) - In a
swift victory for President Barack
Obama, the Democratic-controlled
House approved a historically huge
$819 billion stimulus bill yesterday
night, filled with new spending and
tax cuts at the core of the young
adminstration's revival plan for the
desperately ailing economy.
The vote was 244-188.
"We don't have a moment to
spare,"Obamadeclared attheWhite
House as congressional allies has-
tened to do his bidding in the face of
the worst economic crisis since the
Great Depression.
ThevotesentthebilltotheSenate,
where debate is expected to begin
as early as this week on a compan-
ion measure already taking shape.
Democratic leaders have pledged to
have legislation ready for Obama's
signature by mid-February.
A mere eightdays after Inaugura-
tion Day, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said
Tuesday's events heralded a new
era. "The ship of state is difficult to
turn," said the California Democrat.
"But that is what we must do. That is
what President Obama called us to
do in his inaugural address."
With unemployment at its high-
est level in a quarter-century, the
banking industry wobbling despite
the infusion of staggering sums of
bailout money and states strug-
gling with budget crises, Democrats
said the legislation was desperately
needed.
"Another week that we delay is
another 100,000 or more people
unemployed. I don't think we want
that on our consciences," said Rep.
David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of
the House Appropriations Commit-
tee and one of the leading architects
of the legislation.
Republicans said the bill was short
on tax cuts and contained too much
spending, much of it wasteful and
unlikely to help laid-off Americans.
The party's leader, Rep. John
Boehner of Ohio, said the mea-
sure "won't create many jobs, but it
will create plenty of programs and
projects through slow-moving gov-
ernment spending." A GOP alter-
native, comprised almost entirely
of tax cuts, was defeated, 266-170,
moments before the final vote.
On the final vote, the legisla-
tion drew overwhelming support
among Democrats while all but a
few Republicans opposed it.
The White House-backed legisla-
tion includes an estimated $544 in
federal spending and $275 billion
tax cuts for individuals and busi-
nesses.
Included is money for traditional
job-creating programs such as high-
way construction and mass transit
projects. But the measure tickets
far more for unemployment ben-
efits, health care and food stamp
increases designed to aid victims of
the worst economic downturn since
the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Tens of billions of additional dol-
lars would go to the states, which
confront the prospect of deep bud-
get cuts of their own. That.money
marks an attempt to ease the reces-
sion's impact on schools and law
enforcement. With funding for
housing weatherization and other
provisions, the bill also makes a
down payment on Obama's cam-
paign promise of creating jobs that
can reduce the nation's dependence
on foreign oil.
The centerpiece tax cut calls for
a $500 break for single workers and
$1,000 for couples, including those
who don't earn enough to owe fed-
eral income taxes.
The House vote marked merely
the first of several major milestones
a for the legislation, which Demo-
cratic leaders have pledged to deliv-
er to the White House for Obama's
signature by mid-February.
Already a more bipartisan - and
costlier - measure is taking shape
in the Senate, and Obama person-
ally pledged to House and Senate
Republicans in closed-door meet-
ings on Tuesday that he is ready to
accept modifications as the legisla-
tion advances. Rahm Emanuel, a
former Illinois congressman who
is Obama's chief of staff, invited
nearly a dozen House Republicans
to the White House late Tuesday
for what one participant said was a
soft sales job.
Schwarzenegger seeks end
to prison system oversight
California Gov.
h.
sought to throw out
$8 billion spending p
package 0
a
SACRAMENTOCalif.(AP) -A it
fightoverCalifornia'sprisonhealth a
care system escalated yesterday r
as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ti
sought to throw out an $8 billion
spending plan for inmate medical r
facilities, saying it's illegal and too c
costly. a
Attorney General Jerry Brown a
and Schwarzenegger administra- p
tion officials filed a motion in U.S. d
District Court in San Francisco
asking a judge to stop plans for
seven prison medical facilities.
They also called for the ter-
mination of a court-appointed
receiver overseeing health care
improvements at the state's 33
adult prisons.
"It's time to return the man-
agement of our prisons to the
people who are authorized by
the voters to do that," Brown
said at a press conference.
"What the receiver has become
is a parallel government operat-
ing virtually in secret, not sub-
ject to government scrutiny."
He askedthe court to replace
the receiver with a less-pow-
erful special master until the
state could regain control.
.T t
Thereceiver, J. ClarkKelso, said
e was ready to compromise.
"Let's be clear," Kelso said. "The
tate is just about to authorize ...
rison construction and yet I'm the
only one who's taking scrutiny."
Cost has been at the heart of
long-running legal battle over
nmate health care in California's
dult prisons. A federal court has
uled the quality of care unconsti-
utional.
Subsequent reports have
evealed an inmate who reported
hest pains died of a heart attack
fter waiting eight hours to see
doctor and another who com-
lained for days of stomach pain
lied of acute pancreatitis.
Kelso has proposed the state
sell $8 billion in bonds to build
seven medical facilities to treat
some 10,000 inmates. The repay-
ment costs taxpayers $14 billion
over 25 years.
Kelso wants an immediate $250
million for a down payment.
Schwarzenegger and state law-
makers have recoiled at the cost,
especially as the state faces a $42
billion deficit through June 2010.
"The receiver will never get
that money," Schwarzenegger
said. "That's important to know
because I will not give it to him.
I don't think the controller will
give it to him, and I don't think the
legislators will give it to him."
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