Free Republic

... in need of more formal ethical guidelines or codes of conduct....

THE OVERVIEW WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - The Supreme Court on Wednesday transformed federal criminal sentencing by restoring to judges much of the discretion that Congress took away 21 years ago when it put sentencing guidelines in place and told judges to follow them. The guidelines, intended to make sentences more uniform, should be treated as merely advisory to cure a constitutional deficiency in the system, the court held in an unusual two-part decision produced by two coalitions of justices. In the first part, five justices declared that the current guidelines system violated defendants' rights to trial by jury by giving...

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 12 (HealthDayNews) -- Americans need to consume fewer calories and exercise more to maintain a healthy weight, according to new dietary guidelines released Wednesday by the federal government. "Let's face it. Every American is looking for a pill. It's not going to happen," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said at the Washington, D.C., news conference announcing the guidelines.

What are the ground rules for religious expression in public schools? Secretary of Education Richard Riley, at the direction of President Clinton, issued guidelines in 1995 and updated them in 1998 to reflect recent court decisions. A synopsis of the guidelines: • Students have the same right to engage in individual or group prayer and religious discussion during the school day as they do to engage in other comparable activity. • Local school authorities have "substantial discretion" to impose rules of order but may not structure the rules to discriminate against religious activity or speech. • Students may attempt to...

Here are some parameters for tipping valued-or not so valued-employees.

Another winter has come in Washington and brought with it another pork-laden omnibus spending bill. That's right. Thanks to Congress's continued inability to do its job, taxpayers are once again left holding the bag as billions of our hard-earned dollars are wasted. Countless others have authored columns detailing some of the most egregious of the thousands of pork barrel projects included in the spending bill passed this week. So instead of joining the chorus bemoaning the inclusion of $1 million for the World Birding Center in Texas, $100,000 for a swimming pool in Kansas, or $2 million to buy back...

LOS ANGELES – University of California regents approved general guidelines for their expectations yesterday, briefly addressing issues including attendance, participation and ethics. The proposal was initiated by Regent Ward Connerly, who said he is concerned about inconsistent attendance and levels of participation among board members. The guidelines lacked any specific rules or means for discharge. The issue of absenteeism was raised earlier this summer when The San Diego Union-Tribune published an analysis showing some regents were missing two-thirds of their assigned committee and board meetings. One regent, Haim Saban, who had not attended a full board meeting in more than...

Dear admin moderators: Why are some threads zotted, while others are simply and quickly removed? What's the guideline? Because some of us like to have fun with our little trolls before they're dispatched to the netherworld. It just seems there's more "removing" and less "zotting" going on these days. Yours truly, A concerned FReeper...

Members of an international panel studying United Nations' operations say the group hopes to lay down clear rules declaring when it is legal for a nation to use pre-emptive military force in its own defense. The issue grows out of the international controversy over the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq without a final U.N. Security Council resolution explicitly authorizing the war, said panel member Gareth Evans, a former foreign minister of Australia. "I expect the panel to be giving close consideration to what those rules are and how they should be applied and whether an effort should be made...

...On the docket are cases involving the constitutionality of capital punishment for teens, the detention of illegal immigrants in the age of terrorism, and age discrimination in the workplace. The Justices will hear an important eminent domain case -- whether a city can force citizens to sell their homes or businesses in favor of economic development -- and they'll decide whether oenophiles can import across state lines.... But the most significant cases may be the two the Court will hear this afternoon on the right to trial by jury. At stake are the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines mandated by Congress in...

The recommendations from the federal advisory panel revising Dietary Guidelines for Americans to help people improve their eating habits play down sugar and emphasize whole grains, two significant changes from the current guidelines, which were issued in 2000. On the recommendation of the 13-member panel, which held its final meeting yesterday in Washington, sugar has disappeared as a separate entry. Advice on modifying sugar consumption, which had appeared in the previous five editions dating to 1980, has been folded into the overall category of carbohydrates. For the first time, the guidelines recommend replacing consumption of some refined grains with whole...

CINCINNATI (AP) - A four-state appeals court ruled Wednesday that federal sentencing guidelines are only recommendations, adding to the judicial confusion created by a Supreme Court ruling last month. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a Tennessee case that federal judges do not need to adhere to guidelines that were designed to equalize sentences for similar crimes. The 6th Circuit hears federal appeals from Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. Wednesday's ruling ordered resentencing in a bank fraud case. Some lawyers said Wednesday's ruling could affect thousands of cases that were tried in the past 20 years under...

New federal guidelines recommend checking children for possible heart and blood vessel damage if they have high blood pressure -- a hazard increasing among the very young as Americans put on more and more weight. The new guidelines, like those issued eight years ago, urge doctors to begin checking children for high blood pressure at age 3 during routine office visits, just as they do for adults. "I think there is still a large proportion of pediatricians and family practitioners who are not routinely measuring blood pressure," said Ronald Portman of the University of Texas at Houston, a member of...

By ROB JOHNSON Staff Writer Federal judge weighs evidence of mental illness, weapons stashes to determine a defendant's fate Michael Smith had pulled his Ford Contour up a Bowling Avenue median and stopped. Outside his driver's-side window he could see a brick wall emblazoned with the words ''Gan Yeladim'' and ''The Abraham and Olga Heller Pre-School.'' ''Gan Yeladim'' means Garden of Children. On this leafy street in Nashville's Richland neighborhood, Smith could study the Jewish school while traffic was forced to squeeze past him awkwardly on the right. One of those passing motorists saw the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle on Smith's...

Accused Terrorist Wrote Public School Guidelines with ACLU [over 23 references linked below] Abdurahman Alamoudi, President of the American Muslim Council, supporter of Hamas, Hezbollah and accused of ties with Osama bin Laden, helped develop "Religious Expression in Public School" with the ACLU which holds the copyright. Launched by Clinton in 1995, these "Presidential Guidelines" greatly impact public schools today. Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU, refers to these guidelines as the authority to support the ACLU’s lawsuits restricting Christmas celebrations and removing Nativity scenes from public schools. School districts are pressured to utilize Clinton’s guidelines which he sold to...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration adopted a new plan and guidelines today for replacing swamps and bogs that have been filled or drained to make way for highway, housing or other projects.</p> <p>Administration officials said their approach, based on input from six agencies, will not diminish the role of wetlands in providing habitat to wildlife, flood control and water quality.</p>

Guidelines for Countering Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling Diversity > Guidelines for Countering Profiling On Oct. 6 at its National Convention in Seattle, the Society of Professional Journalists passed a resolution urging members and fellow journalists to take steps against racial profiling in their coverage of the war on terrorism and to redouble their commitment to: Use language that is informative and not inflammatory; Portray Muslims, Arabs and Middle Eastern and South Asian Americans in the richness of their diverse experiences; Seek truth through a variety of voices and perspectives that help audiences understand the complexities of the events in...

Laura Morgan at the Bottom of the Slippery Slope By Roger F. Gay, Men's News Daily, April 24, 2002 Laura Morgan chairs the Child Support Committee of the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association. She is also one of the world's most devoted advocates of the current child support system. Through a variety of activities she has turned this passion into an integral part of her career. Among her ongoing activities, is the maintenance of a sophisticated website that promotes acceptance of the new system, through information and advice on how the laws should be perceived. When...