David Drake

A new poll of about 2,000 California residents reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's standing in her homestate is headed in the wrong direction: her approval rating has fallen 13 percentage points since March, to 39% from 52%.

That finding, in the new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, is of a piece with attitudes toward Congress in general in the state; 33% give the gang on Capitol Hill positive ratings, down 9 percentage points since the Democrats took control in January.

Opponents of the bipartisan immigration reform bill that stalled in the Senate after a 46-53 cloture vote this morning said foes of the bill had flooded Senate offices with phone calls.

“The Verizon telephone switch[board] serving the Senate is experiencing problems that are being exacerbated by this morning’s modest increase in call volume,” says the e-mail, which was sent at 9:45 a.m.

A former high school student has lost his case in what is the US Supreme Court's first major ruling on students' free speech rights in almost 20 years.

At issue was whether a school principal violated a student's right to free speech by suspending him for displaying a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus".

Joseph Frederick unfurled the banner near to his school as the Olympic flame passed through Juneau, Alaska, in 2002.

[...]

Head teacher Deborah Morse, who destroyed Mr Frederick's banner and suspended him for 10 days, argued that the banner's message went against the school's anti-drugs policy and was unfurled during a school event to watch the flame pass.

Justice Steven Breyer filed his own opinion, in which he concurred in part and partially dissented. Breyer claimed resolving whether Principal Deborah Morse could be given qualified immunity from any monetary damages first meant the Court would not have to consider the First Amendment issue.

Breyer dissented on the grounds that reviewing the constitutional question was not required. By denying Frederick's claims for monetary compensation and granting qualified immunity to Morse, there would be no need to visit potentially murky free speech claims, he said.

"It's an interesting point. He says first of all Frederick would never win damages because of qualified immunity, and I think that's right," said Ron Collins, a legal scholar at the First Amendment Center's Arlington, Va. office. "Given the facts of the case, Frederick might not even win injunctive relief, so he never reaches the constitutional question. Breyer's opinion...strikes me as reasonable, not compelling, but reasonable."

If you love playing golf and have always thought you'd love nothing more than to own a home right on a golf course, you may think again when you read a New York Times report on the downside of living near golf courses: Broken windows, and lots of them.

That might seem like an obvious problem, but thousands of homeowners say that at the time they bought their houses, few if any golfers could reach their windows. Now advanced golf club technology makes every weekend duffer a threat.

When she moved into her retirement condominium on a golf course, Eleanor Weiner admired the lush, pristine views of the fairways and greens, a landscape she never had to mow or maintain. Not long after, as she prepared dinner, a golf ball shattered the kitchen window, whistled past her head and crashed through the glass on her oven door. Ms. Weiner retrieved the ball from her oven and stalked outside to confront the golfer who had launched the missile.

“He told me that’s what I get for living on a golf course,” said Ms. Weiner.

Some people have become virtual prisoners in their homes [said Earla Smith].

PRINCETON, NJ -- The percentage of Americans with a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in Congress is at 14%, the lowest in Gallup's history of this measure -- and the lowest of any of the 16 institutions tested in this year's Confidence in Institutions survey. It is also one of the lowest confidence ratings for any institution tested over the last three decades.

Gallup's annual update on Americans' confidence in institutions shows that confidence ratings are generally down across the board compared with last year. The public's confidence ratings in several institutions, including Congress, are now at all-time low points in Gallup's history of this measure. These low ratings reflect the generally sour mood of the public at this time.

[...]

The current confidence rating for Congress -- 14% -- is the lowest in Gallup's history for that institution. Although ratings of Congress have never been high, they were at the 40% level at the time of Watergate in the 1970s, and again in 1986.

[...]

Americans' confidence in the presidency has dropped concomitantly with the drop in Bush's approval ratings. In 2002, 58% were confident in the presidency compared to the current 25%. President Bush's job approval ratings have fallen from 84% at the beginning of 2002 to 32% today.

Some health experts are criticizing a decision by the Minnesota Department of Health to withhold information about additional deadly cancers among Iron Range miners. But the state health commissioner is defending the delay.

The Star Tribune reported on Sunday that the Health Department suppressed the research for a year, finally releasing it last March.

The department discovered in March 2006 that a rare, asbesetos [sic]-related cancer had stricken 35 more miners. Seventeen cases had been previously known. All the miners have died.

According to documents obtained by the Star Tribune, officials had planned last year to disclose the information. But state Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach rejected those plans last fall.

Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, said the Senate Health Committee will take up the issue during a hearing next week.

Bob Bratulich, director of District 11 of the United Steelworkers, said the Legislature and attorney general must determine whether there was a cover-up.

"It is unconscionable, unethical, and probably criminal for a public agency to withhold information about a potential health risk to workers," he said.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty backed up Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach on Wednesday, even as Iron Range lawmakers called for her resignation over the yearlong delay in the release of data on nearly three dozen cancer cases among miners.

[...]

Iron Range legislators are incensed, and two of them - Rep. Tom Rukavina and Sen. David Tomassoni - held a news conference outside Pawlenty's office to call for her resignation. They were joined by Sen. John Marty, who heads a Senate health policy committee.

[...]

Union leaders and Iron Range politicians said the public, including 4,000 current miners, should have been told sooner about the new findings. Iron Rangers have long worried about health problems related to the mining industry, and male residents of northeastern Minnesota have come down with mesothelioma at unusually high rates since the late 1980s.

"If it had been known a year ago we could have got a jump start on this," said Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, one of nine lawmakers to push for Mandernach's resignation. "I mean, these are people's lives on the line, and to delay it for a year makes no sense. I don't understand."

Mandernach issued a statement apologizing for the tardy release of the data.

"As the head of Minnesota’s lead public health agency, I want to apologize for delaying the release of information about the deaths of 35 miners from mesothelioma.

With the benefit of hindsight, we should have provided this information earlier. It was clearly the right thing to do."

"June 21 and December 22 each year, Satanist, perform Human Sacrifices as part of their Satanic rituals. These are known as the "Summer and Winter Solstice".

During these rituals an Human Infant is killed and sacrificed to Satan (Baphemet-the Goat Headed Demon), and the Satanist drink the blood of the Infant Human they sacrifice, and Baphemet appears before them and goes out to kill the enemies of those satanist who perform this Human Sacrifice."

"EX-PRESIDENT GEORGE H.W. BUSH ORDERED THE MURDER OF ROSS PEROT During the 1992 Presidential Election."

Or could it be the 150 mgs of prozad [sic] he takes daily?

Hillary Lesbian Rodenhurst Clinton a.k.a 3rd Degree Witch has Incurable Herpies [sic]. Rumor has it Lesbian Rodenhurst was caught in [sic] bathroom stall with Carolina Panther cheerleaders. George W. Bush has Lethal Gonorrhea contracted from Jeff Gannon. Both Clinton and Bush considered major Biological Health Terrorists. Rumor has it Matt Dreck aka Matt Drudge operates as their pimp.

George W. Bush signed an executive order allowing NATO aircraft to fly over the United States of America. Every day these aircraft are spraying viruses, chemicals, antibodies, Aluminum, Barium Oxide, Nichol, known dried blood samples, and various other unknown disease causing chemicals upon the American people. This further is being done under U.S. Air Force "Operation Cloverleaf". Just look into the skies, contrails dissipate in a few minutes after hitting moisture. Chemtrails are left for hours and come down to the ground, poisoning our soil and American's health. Chemtrails spread as clouds. This is intentional and knowingly, causing death, and diseases, upon Americans.

The Tribune has conducted extensive research in trying to attain hard evidence leading to any information that could substantiate claims and theories related to chemical trails being laid in the wake of military planes in the guise of condensation trails.

Parties on both sides of the fence are entrenched that their view is the correct one in this controversial debate. Chemtrail believers consist mainly of the “average Joe” and amateur sky watchers, while those who refute chemtrails, arguing that the cirrus formations are harmless contrails, consist primarily of physicists, NASA researchers, and other such scientists.

[...]

In Executive Order 13128, Clinton stated that disclosure of such military information would not be permitted if it were "contrary to national security or law enforcement needs."

Some health experts are criticizing a decision by the Minnesota Department of Health to withhold information about additional deadly cancers among Iron Range miners. But the state health commissioner is defending the delay.

The Star Tribune reported on Sunday that the Health Department suppressed the research for a year, finally releasing it last March.

The department discovered in March 2006 that a rare, asbesetos [sic]-related cancer had stricken 35 more miners. Seventeen cases had been previously known. All the miners have died.

According to documents obtained by the Star Tribune, officials had planned last year to disclose the information. But state Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach rejected those plans last fall.

Mandernach told the newspaper that the department had needed time to plan new studies of mining and disease. She said that releasing the findings -- without having a plan for further studies -- could "excite and cause tremendous concern before you have all of your ducks in a row."

But public-health experts say the department should not have waited.

"Whether or not they had a plan in place is neither here nor there," said Dr. Ian Greaves, an associate professor of environmental health at the University of Minnesota who is an expert in lung diseases.

"They're a public agency that serves the public, and I think it's overreaching to think they should take an attitude that they know best," Greaves said.

The deadly cancer -- mesothelioma -- strikes the lung lining and develops decades after exposure to asbestos fibers. The findings have renewed concern about taconite dust and lung cancer among the 4,000 workers in Minnesota's iron-ore industry.

Mine dust has long been a concern because some taconite fibers are chemically identical to asbestos. Mine operations also used commercial asbestos on such things as pipes and boilers, creating another source of exposure.

In 2003, Health Department researchers found that 17 miners had developed mesothelioma between 1988 and 1996, and that commercial asbestos -- not taconite dust -- was a more likely culprit. Some critics said the Health Department didn't look hard enough at mine dust.

According to department e-mails, memos and notes released under the state public-records law, the Star Tribune reported, officials worried about public reaction to the latest research, which covered 1997 to 2005.

The Health Department has regularly released public-health research. Last month, the department quickly released another study based on the same cancer-tracking registry used in the Iron Range research. That study found no cancer clusters in Washington and Dakota counties, where groundwater pollution is a growing concern.

State Rep. Denny McNamara, R-Hastings, serves on a committee that reviewed the Iron Range findings in April. He said he didn't know the release of the mesothelioma research had been delayed a year until a reporter called him. He said the Legislature should have been told earlier.

"I know in the Dakota County one, we pushed for that in a very expedited manner," McNamara said. "I wouldn't want them to do anything different in the same situation, no matter what geographic area."

According to the Star Tribune, internal documents show that the Health Department drafted a news release in June 2006 about the 35 additional cases of mesothelioma, but planned to release it only if word of the findings leaked out.

The newspaper reported the documents reveal that department officials were so concerned about a possible leak that they excluded two prominent University of Minnesota researchers from scientific consultation because they had been critical of the Health Department in the past.

The two scientists are Greaves, the lung-disease expert, and Professor William Toscano, head of the division of environmental health sciences in the School of Public Health. In interviews, the scientists said they had never leaked anything.

"People need to know this," Toscano said of the mine-disease findings. "I can't imagine people not wanting to know this information."

The United Steelworkers, which represents many miners, shares that view.

"It is a basic right to know what the government knows about exposures and problems that can affect your health," said Mike Wright, the union's director of health, safety and environment.

"Minnesotans can take pride in knowing we live in one of the healthiest states in the country. Our good health is due to many factors, including a strong public health system, excellent medical care, a clean environment, and health-conscious Minnesotans.

We're continuing to work on measurable goals that will help us remain one of the healthiest states for years to come. We look forward to working with our many valuable partners in achieving these goals."

- Dianne Mandernach,
Commissioner

President [sic] (...shouldn't that be "Ex"-President?) Bill Clinton Business Keynote Luncheon

The Power Within Leadership Conference

Join us on June 18th for what thousands of CEO's, Professionals, Entrepreneurs, Community Leaders and Achievers have described as the event of a life time. Also appearing: Stephen J. Dubner, author of the national best seller "Freakonomics" Event Hours: 12:30pm to 2:00pm Ticket Prices: $150.00, $250.00 & $1,500.00.

The Democrat from Nevada discussed the Senate Democrat's energy legislation during a speech at the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.

And how are they going to do it? By telling you what kind of cars you can drive and what fuels you can use, of course.

Reid said the Democrat's plan calls for new cars and trucks to get 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020. To cut down on imported oil, the proposal also requires an increase in the production of ethanol and other renewable fuels used by vehicles in the United States.