Free Republic

Vows to fight charges; faced possible ouster By Richard Locker Contact May 29, 2005 NASHVILLE -- John Ford resigned Saturday from the state Senate seat he held for 31 years -- to fight, he said, the federal bribery and extortion charges levied against him Thursday. The Memphis Democrat's resignation came as the Senate was preparing to remove him from office next month, legislative leaders said Saturday. Senate Speaker and Lt. Gov. John Wilder read Ford's two-sentence resignation letter when the Senate convened at 1 p.m. for the last day of the legislature's 2005 session. Dated Friday, it said: "Dear Governor...

The man on the grainy black and white video tape peels off $10,000 from his wad of cash, $100 at a time, then passes it across state Sen. John Ford's desk. Idle chatter about shopping and women eventually gives way to Ford discussing how he'll push an electronic equipment recycling bill through the Senate for an interested company. But the man passing out the cash is an undercover FBI agent and the company is a sham. The tape starring the controversial Memphis Democrat debuted in federal court Friday as prosecutors fought to keep Ford in custody, and gave an early...

The old NRA slogan says, "Guns don't kill people. People do." That's no fun, if you're a "lawmaker" -- odious name for a representative, isn't it? U.S. Representative Stephen F. Lynch (D-South Boston), "has filed a bill seeking to pull the controversial drug [painkiller Oxycontin] from the market," reported the Boston Herald Saturday, May 7. In announcing his bill, Lynch referred to a recent robbery attempt in an Arlington, Massachusetts pharmacy. Two would-be thieves showed guns and demanded the druggist's Oxy stash. Lynch did not tell what happened next, which would have suited the NRA's purposes better than his. The...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - They might make you jump higher, but they're illegal. They're soccer cleats made from kangeroo hide and they're being sold in several California stores. Now a Democratic lawmaker who says retailers are losing revenue wants to rewrite state law to allow sales of the critter cleats. Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, wants to limit the state penal code prohibiting the importation of kangaroo body parts to cover only kangaroos protected by the Endangered Species Act. Most major athletic footwear manufacturers use hides of nonendangered kangaroo to make high-end soccer cleats, favored by dedicated players. But selling kangaroo...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - A government lawmaker advised people in northern Australia to bludgeon to death a species of toxic toad imported from Central America more than seven decades ago. Cane toads, which release noxious secretions when threatened, were imported to the northeastern state of Queensland in 1935 to control beetles on sugar cane plantations. They have since hopped all the way to Australia's northeastern coast and south into parts of the state of New South Wales, killing much of the native wildlife that eat them - particularly the endangered marsupials called quolls. Liberal Party lawmaker David Tollner said Monday...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The movement to sell a portion of IMF gold reserves to finance debt relief for poor nations hit a roadblock as a key US lawmaker said Congress and the Bush administration would block any such move. Jim Saxton, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, said the move to sell off gold of the International Monetary Fund is opposed by US lawmakers as well as the administration of President George W. Bush. "The potential profits on IMF gold sales rightfully belong to the original donor countries and their taxpayers," Saxton said in a statement. "Thus, these...

BRAINERD, Minn. -- Maybe it's all that fighting at the Legislature. A state senator said he used a wooden club to scare off two men who were trying to rob his liquor store here. Sen. Paul Koering said he was working around 8 p.m. Saturday when two men wearing hooded sweatshirts and scarves over their faces entered the store. When Koering asked the men what they wanted, they tapped the cash register with an aluminum baseball bat and said, ``This is what we'll have,'' the Republican from Fort Ripley recalled Monday. Koering said he grabbed the club left behind by...

In the latest public flaring of labor-management tensions at state prisons, the head of the California Department of Corrections on Wednesday called for Assemblyman Rudy Bermúdez, D-Norwalk, to step down from a position overseeing the department's budget. In a letter to Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, Corrections Director Jeannie Woodford charged that Bermúdez has a conflict of interest because he is on leave from a job as a state parole officer. At a hearing Tuesday, Bermúdez, who chairs the Assembly's budget subcommittee on prisons, complained about the department's investigation into the slaying of a correctional officer by an inmate last month...

China Shuts Down Press Conference Two days ago, a group of South Korean parliamentarians scheduled a press conference at the Sheraton in Beijing. Original announcement here. Once again, the short-sellers of stock in the morality and openness of China's government--me, for one--are cashing in their winnings. This was in my in-box from Norbert Vollertsen and Douglas Shin today: FOUR SK PARLIAMENTARIANS FROM THE OPPOSITION PARTY WERE TO SPEAK ON NK HUMAN RIGHTS AND NK REFUGEES AT A FIVE-STAR HOTEL MEETING ROOM IN BEIJING. Before 2PM, several men in plainclothes demanded that the press conference be stopped as it did not...

HELENA - A new member of the Montana House is sponsoring a bill that would require death certificates to be filed for all abortions that occur in the state. But abortion rights advocates called Rep.-elect Roger Koopman's bill "mean-spirited" and predicted it will be defeated. Koopman, a Bozeman Republican elected to the House in November, said he is introducing the measure because he believes women who choose to get an abortion should be made aware of the consequences. "It's a small way for our society to acknowledge that a life did exist, even if they didn't get to see a...

Declaring rising pension debt a "ticking time bomb," a California legislator proposes converting public employee retirements from a traditional defined-benefit system to the 401(k)-style plans held by most American workers. Employees hired by a public agency after July 1, 2007, would automatically be enrolled in the new contribution plan proposed by Assemblyman Keith Richman (R-Northridge). The plan would make pension payments for public agencies more predictable and potentially lower costs, he said. Although the measure would not affect the 1 million workers now employed by the state, local governments and school districts, Richman expects the bill to meet stiff resistance...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal corruption probe swirling around state Sen. Don Perata won't prevent him from becoming the Senate's leader next month, his former rival for the position said Friday. "The caucus voted on this August 24. Sen. Perata is the pro tem. That election will stand on December 6, period," said Sen. Martha Escutia, D-Norwalk. Perata, a fellow Democrat from Oakland, defeated Escutia, 13-11, in that August vote to become the Democrats' designee to replace Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, a San Francisco Democrat who is being forced from office by term limits. The Senate leadership post...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A Fresno assemblywoman, her campaign committee and campaign treasurer were fined $23,000 Thursday by the state's elections watchdog for violating contribution disclosure requirements. The Fair Political Practices Commission said Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes, her Friends of Sarah Reyes campaign committee and campaign treasurer Gustavo Corona failed to properly disclose $80,000 in donations made to other Democrats and $105,000 in late contributions received by the campaign in 2000. Reyes acknowledged the violations in a stipulation that she signed on July 12. --- On the Net: www.fppc.ca.gov/agendas

RAPID CITY, S.D. -- After getting involved in a fight in the Legislature over a bill to ban civil unions, Tom Murphy decided to reveal a secret he had kept for four decades, through school, an Air Force career and then as a member of the City Council: He feels more like a woman than a man. In fact, he plans to undergo a sex-change operation. Tom will become Marla. "I hope to be happy," the never-married, 48-year-old retired master sergeant said in an interview. He said he feels as if he has deprived himself for a long time. Murphy...

RAPID CITY, S.D. - After getting involved in a fight in the Legislature over a bill to ban civil unions, Tom Murphy decided to reveal a secret he had kept for four decades, through school, an Air Force career and then as a member of the City Council: He feels more like a woman than a man. In fact, he plans to undergo a sex-change operation. Tom will become Marla. "I hope to be happy," the never-married, 48-year-old retired master sergeant said in an interview. He said he feels as if he has deprived himself for a long time. Murphy...

<p>AUGUSTA, Maine -- A state representative has been summonsed for operating her Jeep under the influence.</p> <p>Augusta police stopped Rep. Susanne Ketterer, D-Madison, around 1:45 a.m. on Thursday after officers noticed she was driving erratically. Police reports said she had a 0.20 percent blood alcohol content; Maine's legal limit is 0.08 percent.</p>

Israel has decided to deport four foreigners arrested at a protest against a West Bank barrier, among them a member of the Swedish Parliament, Israeli radio stations have reported. Police said four Israelis were also arrested at the protest near a Palestinian village in the Ramallah area of the West Bank, and that 10 Palestinians and an Israeli were wounded in the confrontation. It was the second violent protest in five days against the barrier which Israel says is needed to keep suicide bombers from reaching its cities, but which Palestinians say is a land grab. The barrier has been...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - The U.S. military will investigate whether regulations were violated when a Missouri state senator was granted leave from duty in Cuba so he could return home to cast the deciding vote to override a veto of concealed guns legislation. State Sen. Jon Dolan, a Republican and a major in the Army National Guard, had been serving at Guantanamo Bay for only two weeks, and military regulations say a newly deployed soldier must be on duty at least two months before getting a leave. Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Burfeind, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Friday that the matter...

Debra Bowen may hail from a Southern California coastal enclave a few hundred miles south of Silicon Valley, but that's just the right distance from which to lob a few bombs at an out-of-state software company the Redondo Beach state senator says has a bad attitude when it comes to spam: Microsoft. As a California legislator for the past 10 years, Bowen has drafted and introduced bills intended to tie spammers' hands and better protect consumers' privacy. But more recently, she has criticized Microsoft for lobbying against certain spam bills, including one she championed. Bowen has gone so far as...

9/11 Repeat Would be Fault of Bush, Congress, GOP Lawmaker Charges By Steve Brown CNSNews.com Staff Writer June 27, 2003 (CNSNews.com) - If another terrorist attack is conducted on U.S. soil by illegal aliens, the fault will lie with Congress and the president, one lawmaker asserted Thursday. "If we have another event, and it's perpetrated by someone coming into this country illegally, and we've done no more to protect our borders and actually enforce our immigration policy...then the blood of the people that are killed will be on our hands and the president's," Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) told CNSNews.com. Tancredo...