Workers at a Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express in Loveland, CO voted 17-1 against joining a union. While Wal-Mart representatives observed the vote, no union observers were allowed.

The worker who pushed for the vote said he has been harassed by other Wal-Mart employees.

"When I rolled into the polling area, an associate actually harassed me and threatened to beat me up and he's actually a Wal-Mart's 'observer,'" said Josh Noble, the Wal-Mart employee who led the effort to unionize.

    

"During his trip to Germany on Wednesday, the main highlight of George W. Bush's trip was meant to be a "town hall"-style meeting with average Germans. But with the German government unwilling to permit a scripted event with questions approved in advance, the White House has quietly put the event on ice."

The informal meeting, with German citizens from various walks of life, was touted as one of the highlights of Bush's trip to Germany - in the interests of mending foreign relations with Europe. The White House seems to have canceled the event because their demands that questions be provided in advance were turned down.

    

TOPEKA, Kan. -- Attorney General Phill Kline is seeking the complete medical records of nearly 90 women who received late-term abortions to search for evidence of crimes, according to court documents.

The secret investigation began in October, according to written legal arguments filed Tuesday by two medical clinics that are opposing Kline's effort. They are asking the Kansas Supreme Court to intercede, saying if it doesn't, "a woman who exercised her constitutional right to privacy" could find government agents knocking at her door.

    

The government wants to make it more difficult for you to declare financial bankruptcy, no matter what the circumstances!

"Banks, credit card companies, and retailers have pushed since 1997 for a bill overhauling the bankruptcy laws. Consumer and civil rights groups and unions say the legislation is unfair to low-income working people, single mothers, minorities, and the elderly, and would remove a safety net for those who have lost their jobs or face mounting medical bills."

    

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Wednesday Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a "very destabilizing" force and that it was important for the world to speak with one voice against Tehran's program.

"The Iranians just need to know that the free world is working together to send a very clear message: Don't develop a nuclear weapon," Bush said.

"And the reason we're sending that message is because Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a very destabilizing force in the world," he said during a meeting with Poland's president.

    

Fearful U.S. scientists censor research
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Some U.S. scientists are thinking twice about doing or reporting certain research, reacting to political and social controversy in addition to legal restrictions.

"It appears that controversy shapes what scientists choose to study and how they choose to study it and we need to look a little bit more closely at the effects it might be having," said Joanna Kempner, a researcher at the University of Michigan.
....

    

NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it will close one of its Canadian stores, just as some 200 workers at the location are near winning the first-ever union contract from the world's largest retailer.

Wal-Mart said it was shuttering the store in Jonquiere, Quebec, in response to unreasonable demands from union negotiators that would make it impossible for the store to sustain itself.
...
Union leaders dismissed Wal-Mart's reasons for closing the store and promised to fight the move.

"Wal-Mart has fired these workers not because the store was losing money but because the workers exercised their right to join a union," Michael J. Fraser, national director of UFCW Canada, said in a written statement. "Once again, Wal-Mart has decided it is above the law and that the only rules that count are their rules."

    

Reporter quits amid credential questions
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- A conservative writer who attracted attention by asking President Bush a loaded question at a news conference last month has resigned amid questions about his identity and background.

James D. Guckert, who wrote under the name Jeff Gannon, said on his Web site that he was leaving "because of the attention being paid to me." He had been Washington bureau chief for Talon News, a conservative online news outlet associated with another Web site, GOPUSA.

    

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate was poised on Thursday to pass a bill curbing class action lawsuits after blocking attempts to weaken the measure.

The bill, sought by business and part of President Bush's drive to overhaul the legal system, would shift most class action lawsuits from state to federal courts, which have historically been less friendly to such cases.

Opponents, including many consumer and environmental groups and labor unions, fear that already overburdened federal courts won't take many of the cases, making it harder for ordinary citizens to hold big companies to account.

» ABC News: Senate Poised to Pass Class Action Suit Curbs

    

Reports had hijacking warnings
9/11 commission says air authorities' response was weak

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON -- In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission.

But aviation officials were "lulled into a false sense of security," and "intelligence that indicated a real and growing threat leading up to 9/11 did not stimulate significant increases in security procedures," the commission report concluded.

The report discloses that the Federal Aviation Administration, despite being focused on risks of hijackings overseas, warned airports in the spring of 2001 that if "the intent of the hijacker is not to exchange hostages for prisoners, but to commit suicide in a spectacular explosion, a domestic hijacking would probably be preferable."

    

BRUSSELS, Belgium Feb 9, 2005 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Iran on Wednesday that it risks U.N. action if negotiations with Europe over its nuclear program don't progress.
...
Rice said the United States had set no deadline on the Iran talks, but that they cannot go on forever. She added the Bush administration had not changed its view that the United Nations should step in to get tougher on Iran.

In Washington, President Bush said the Iranians needed to know that the free world was working together to send a clear message: Don't develop a nuclear weapon.

"And the reason we're sending that message is because Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a very destabilizing force in the world," Bush said.

» ABC News: Rice: Iran Can't Delay Nuke Accountability

    

U.S. urges resistance to Iran's nuclear ambitions
Tue Feb 8, 2005 10:05 PM GMT

PARIS (Reuters) - World leaders must stand firm against Tehran's nuclear ambitions and reject Iranian attempts to dictate its own terms for fulfilling a pledge not to develop atomic weapons, the United States has said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday talks with Britain, France and Germany were a chance for Iran to demonstrate it was ready to respect the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which proscribes development of atomic weapons.

"We have diplomatic tools before us, but what we need is unity of purpose and unity of message to the Iranians," Rice said after talks with French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.

    

Condoleezza Rice turned Washington's rhetoric on Iran up another notch yesterday, telling Iranians they would have to "live up to their international obligations" to avoid a conflict with Israel.
...
The Bush administration has sent mixed signals to Tehran in the past week, mixing bellicose and reconciliatory remarks, amid reports that the Pentagon is already sending special operations teams into Iran to spot potential targets.

In an interview on BBC's Breakfast with Frost, recorded on Friday but broadcast yesterday, Ms Rice was asked about remarks last month by Vice-President Dick Cheney, who warned of a possible pre-emptive strike against Iran by Israel - which already has a nuclear arsenal - if the latter felt threatened.

In response, Ms Rice put the onus on Iran, saying: "Obviously, anything that would lead to conflict in this region would be a terrible, terrible thing. And the Iranians need to live up to their international obligations so we don't face any such point."

    

LONDON, Feb 6: Diplomacy and unity among the world's "great democracies" are key to ensuring Iran meets its international obligations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Iran has become a major obstacle to peace and stability in the Middle East and must be prevented from developing nuclear weapons, she told BBC television.

"We believe dealing with the Iranians diplomatically is the key and that is why I am here for discussions," Ms Rice told the BBC on Friday at the start of her first diplomatic mission to Europe and the Middle East since taking office.

"We do need a strong message to Iran. We need a united front on the Iranian nuclear programme. We need us great democracies to tell the Iranian people that they deserve a better future than the present they currently have," she said.

    

World, Rice to press Russia over nuke fuel for Iran
Saturday, February 05, 2005

[World News]: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press her hardline case over Iran's nuclear ambitions with Russia on Saturday after saying the United States has no plans for an imminent attack on the Islamic republic.

On her first trip abroad as the top U.S. diplomat, the Soviet specialist will meet her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Turkey as the Bush administration pressures Moscow to keep on hold a fuel supply deal for an Iranian reactor.

"We, of course, have worked ... with the Russians. And their efforts to cooperate with the Iranians on civilian nuclear power have been much more attuned recently to (our) concerns about the proliferation risk," Rice said on Friday in Britain on the first leg of a 10-stop trip to Europe and the Middle East.

"While it does not eliminate the proliferation risk, it certainly does help to mitigate (it)," she added.

    

Rice denies Iran threat
By Joe Murphy, Political Editor, Evening Standard
4 February 2005

George Bush's right-hand woman played down the prospect of war with Iran after talks in London today.

However, Condoleezza Rice pointedly refused to rule out a future military attack to prevent the Islamic state getting hold of nuclear weapons.

She said an attack was "not on the agenda at this point".

    

LONDON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeks on Friday to repair ties with Europe over Iraq but her tough line on Iran risks undermining transatlantic attempts to heal the rift on her first trip as the top U.S. diplomat.

En route to London, where she will meet on Friday with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Rice made clear the United States was unwilling to become involved in Europe's nuclear arms talks with Iran as the region wants.

"The Iranians know what they need to do. It's not the absence of anybody's involvement that is keeping the Iranians from knowing what they need to do," she told reporters aboard her plane.

"They need to live up to their obligations, they need to agree to verification inspection, they need to stop trying to hide activities under cover of civilian nuclear power."

    

LONDON, Feb 2 (IranMania) - Iran is under growing international pressure to renounce its suspected nuclear arms programs, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday, but she refused to rule out seeking UN action.
...
Secretary of State sidestepped a question about reported impatience among some of the Europeans who think the United States should be more directly involved in the negotiations. She said Washington has been in close touch.

"We've made clear that we hope for the best, but the Iranians have not demonstrated over time that they have been particularly good about living up to their international obligations," she said.

» Iran News - Rice sees pressure increasing on Iran

    

Republicans write rules
New GOP majority locks in power as Democratic unity noticeably erodes

Republicans began making the rules for the Georgia House of Representatives on Monday, leaving once dominant Democrats little recourse but to howl as they adjust to the new order of things.
...
Republicans wasted little time consolidating their newly won power. The new House rules let Richardson appoint legislative "hawks" who can swoop in to any committee with the authority to vote the way the speaker wants them to.

The rules do not specify how many "hawks" Richardson can name, but he said there will probably be no more than two or three. Democrats immediately bristled, arguing the move guarantees Republicans can win any dispute in committee. "I hear them crying," Richardson told reporters later. "I promise we're not going to abuse this."