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AUSTIN — Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is suing to keep secret the details about his investigation of indicted former House majority leader Tom DeLay. The Houston Chronicle filed a request under Texas' open records law in March seeking vouchers, hotel and airfare receipts, budget documents, memos and e-mails describing the expenses for the DeLay inquiry and related investigations. DeLay, indicted last year on conspiracy and money laundering charges connected to the financing of 2002 state legislative races, resigned from Congress on June 9. Earle, in his attempt to keep details of his investigation out of public view, appealed...

A SCIENTOLOGY-run "detoxification" clinic in Manhattan is endangering patients because of its leaders' strict adherence to the church's teachings, a whistle-blowing former employee has told City Confidential. The source, who until recently worked at the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification program on Fulton Street, said he witnessed "strange practices" at the tax-funded center, which was co-founded by Tom Cruise.

Canada Red Cross Guilty in Blood Scandal May 30, 9:23 PM (ET)HAMILTON, Ontario (AP) The Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty Monday to distributing blood tainted with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1980s, and was fined $4,000 in the public health disaster that infected thousands. More than 1,000 Canadians contracted blood-borne HIV and up to 20,000 others were infected with hepatitis C after receiving the tainted blood products. About 3,000 people had died by 1997 and the death toll has grown, but recent estimates were not available. "(The) Canadian Red Cross Society is deeply sorry for the injury and death...

The Haemophilia Foundation of New Zealand has renewed calls for a public inquiry into the past management of the national blood system. The renewed call came after it was revealed three New Zealanders are among 1500 plaintiffs world-wide in a class action against major American pharmaceutical companies over the use of blood products taken from high-risk populations such as prison inmates, intravenous drug-users and urban homosexual communities, claiming they were exposed to HIV and hepatitis C. The haemophiliacs received the potentially contaminated imported blood-clotting agents in the 1970s and 1980s. Foundation president Mike Carnahan said it was high time the...

This question arises elsewhere and I'd be most grateful for good information. What's the fuel burning rate for a modern fighter jet? I suppose we'd need a couple of figures, for maximum power and for cruising. I'm just looking for ballpark figures so don't much care which U.S. fighter or which branch of service -- but pick one that's operational right now, e.g., ready for Iraq. P.S. I've heard some figures I cannot believe, so I'll be the more interested in a correction. Thanks in advance.

Chinese peasants take revenge after being given HIV By Damien McElroy in Beijing (Filed: 10/03/2002) CHINA is being swept by a wave of revenge attacks by victims of a government scheme that infected hundreds of thousands of peasants with the Aids virus before abandoning them without medical care or compensation. Major cities have been convulsed by fear as word has spread that innocent pedestrians are being attacked in the street by people with syringes said to contain HIV-tainted blood. Anxious residents of Beijing and Tianjin, the two largest northern cities, have besieged hospital clinics, demanding blood tests after saying that...

Caution: Mainly of interest to bloodhounds.Remarks by Lord Morris, from the Lords Hansard (a record of House Of Lords debates, much like our Congressional Record), March 12, 2002. "...to hasten the end of an injustice" [Title mine, excerpted from the text]Hepatitis C 12 Mar 2002 7.31 p.m. Morris of Manchester rose to ask Her Majesty's Government what new help they are considering for people with haemophilia who were infected with hepatitis C by contaminated National Health Service blood products and for the dependants of those who have since died. The noble Lord said: My Lords, the purpose of this debate-I...

March 12, 2002 Peer to call for tainted blood inquiry By Melissa Kite, Political Correspondent A LABOUR peer will accuse ministers today of ignoring the plight of haemophiliacs who are refusing blood transfusions because of fear of contracting vCJD. Lord Morris of Manchester will highlight disturbing new evidence that many patients have resorted to treatment strikes, even though they could die without regular transfusions. It is estimated that at least 100 men, all haemophiliacs, have been given blood containing variant CJD. Lord Morris will disclose that, in spite of this, only 43 per cent of patients are receiving a safer...

ANTI-WEF ACTIVIST ARRESTED: "LIVING TRANS IS NOT A CRIME!" By Elijah Crane New York On Feb. 2, protesters braved a force of more than 10,000 New York cops in order to confront the World Economic Forum. Oppressed people of many nationalities and genders were especially targeted as they asserted their legal right to demonstrate. As the anti-WEF protests were winding down for the day and head-counts were the theme of the hour among affinity groups and comrades in the struggle, the casualties of the day grew to include Dean Spade and his supporters. A gang of riot police arrested, assaulted ...

Hartford Courant: CONNECTICUT Ex-Professor Sentenced To 20 Years (Get This:) Academic Colleagues Plead In Vain For Leniency For Child Molester February 16, 2002 By JANICE D'ARCY, Courant Staff Writer NEW HAVEN -- The prosecutor stood before the judge and bluntly described the defendant's crimes: former Yale professor Antonio Lasaga had repeatedly raped a little boy and had obsessively collected tens of thousands of images depicting the sexual torture of children. The crimes are not in dispute. They were horrific enough that Lasaga's family wept in court Friday when they heard them recounted. They were horrific enough to merit, in the ...

6 ex-guards face charges in shocking of prisoners CATHY FRYE ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE Six former prison guards were indicted Wednesday on federal charges that they repeatedly shocked inmates with electrical devices over a period of 18 days in January 1998. The inmates were handcuffed and confined within a captain's office at the Cummins Unit when the assaults occurred, according to the indictment. "Obviously, we do have equipment like that, but it is to be used sparingly when there is a threat of physical harm to staff or inmates," said Dina Tyler, spokesman for the Department of Correction. "This was not an ...

Red Cross official was cited by Krever inquiry ANDRÉ PICARD Tuesday, January 30, 2001 Martin Davey, one of the central figures in Canada's tainted-blood scandal, died after falling down the stairs of his apartment in Chatham, Ont., last Wednesday. He was 64. Earlier this month he had started a new job as Medical Officer of Health in Chatham-Kent. As assistant director of the Canadian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service from 1981 to 1986, and national director in 1986-87, Dr. Davey was second-in-command in the blood system at a time when thousands of people were transfused with tainted blood. In the ...

Ashcroft's view of Southern Patriots gets support from the New York Times New York Times Lauds Confederate General Robert E. Lee For Gallantry, Patriotism and Greatness (Excerpts from Times editorial) There could not be a greater contrast than that between the two great generals of the Civil War and each typified his section and his cause. Lee personified that gallant gentlemanly nature that is the South's ideal. Grant too, pondering, taciturn, suggesting more the business man that the soldier. But he was transcendently efficient and he visibly personified the North. The North as well as the South saw the South ...

"Campaign Postcard" #7 Al Gore's Other Scandals By T'wit Everybody hears about the Buddhist Temple gig, or Al "inventing" the Internet, but an incident or two of this sort doesn't do Al Gore justice. Some point out that Al was born exactly nine months after that flying saucer crashed in Roswell, N.M. in 1947. Even the sweet, courteous columnist Ann Coulter had to admit that Gore is "lifelike." For more of the real Gore flavor, I've collected fifteen less-known Gore scandals, gaffes, bumbles, flubs and snotty elitisms for you. This post, like my other "postcards," is a Free Republic exclusive. ...

"Campaign Postcard #6" - Freeper exclusives you can still email around to get in a few more whacks :-) Gorebasms Some Highlights in Al Gore's Second Term as VEEP By T'wit * February, 1996 See the Republicans. Their scheme is risky. They want to cut your taxes. Oh, oh, oh. Risky, risky, risky, risky, risky, risky, risky, risky. Scheme, scheme, scheme. They say it's your money. Bad, bad Republicans! Al. Gore. talks. like. this. Why, why, why? * April, 1997 Ooooh, there are presidents Clinton and Bush and Carter! Ahhh, there are Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Carter and Vice President ...

Campaign "Postcard" #5 -- items you can still e-mail around to get in a few more thumps For the truth about Al Gore, Read his book: "Earth in the Balance" By T'wit    Here are five very revealing passages from Gore's book, with some comments of my own. Before you look at these, remember: Al Gore has repeatedly said during THIS campaign that he stands by every word in his book. He believes this stuff. If so, he ought to stop pretending to be Christian. The book is a paean to paganism -- earth-worship -- and it is bitterly anti-Christian. It ...

Here's a good way to work off some Election Eve nerves Three Brain Teasers By T'wit CONTEST 1 Background. A New York Magazine contest asked readers to take a well-known phrase in a foreign language, change a single letter, and provide a definition for the new expression. Here, for the flavor, are five of my favorite responses: RESPONDEZ S'IL VOUS PLAID: Honk if you're Scottish COGITO EGGO SUM: I think; therefore I am a waffle RIGOR MORRIS: The cat is dead MON AGE A TROIS: I am three years old ALOHA OY: Love; greetings; farewell; from such a pain you ...

"Campaign email postcard" #4 - - - Remember when they "delicately" threatened to nuke Los Angeles? [Reuters, 10/17] "China fears that Republican George W. Bush would upset the delicate ties between Beijing and Washington if he is elected U.S. president, a Chinese government magazine seen Tuesday reported." Rush Limbaugh take: The Chinese Communists have endorsed Gore! T'wit take: The Chicoms purchased Clinton-Gore fair and square -- and for about two cents on the dollar. Just to sweeten the deal, Clinton and Gore threw in the Panama Canal, a naval base in Los Angeles, free 24/7 access to our nuclear labs, ...

"Campaign email postcard" #3 - - - AIDS Scandal Could Taint Gore By Wayne Turner ACT UP/DC FEBRUARY 15, 2000 A top official with Al Gore's presidential campaign is at the center of an under-reported fundraising scandal, where millions of federal taxpayer dollars intended to help AIDS victims were embezzled, and diverted to political campaigns. Gore's man, Governor Pedro Rosello of Puerto Rico, has been directly implicated and twice subpoenaed to testify in the corruption case, which last week yielded another two convictions by the US Attorney's Office. The scandal centers upon the now defunct San Juan AIDS Institute, which ...

"Campaign email postcard" #2 - - - Washington POST: Vote for the guy who's morally imperfect and a bad leader, who's beholden to special interests, and who offers dubious policies for education, foreign policy, taxes and the economy. Washington, D.C. has only one big industry but that one's a killer: extracting $2 trillion in taxes from the rest of the country. Washingtonians love to get your money, so they overwhelmingly support the high-tax Democrat Party. The powerful voice of this Democrat stronghold is the Washington POST. Did the POST endorse Gore? Of course. There is no possibility it would favor ...