NEWS BITS AND BITES

NEWS BITS AND BITES

ADMINISTRATION -- MEDIA WAITED 18 HOURS TO REPORT CHENEY SHOOTING INCIDENT: On Saturday, Vice President Cheney accidentally shot 78-year-old Harry Whittington on a quail-hunting trip in Texas. But the incident "was not reported publicly by the vice president's office for nearly 24 hours, and then only after it was reported locally by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times" six hours earlier. The reporter felt it was odd the local police had not notified her paper since "we often call law enforcement in area, even on weekends. We checked in and didn't hear anything about it." Editor & Publisher added, "It is not known for certain that Cheney's office, the White House, or anyone else intended to announce the shooting." "When a vice president of the U.S. shoots a man under any circumstance," the Chicago Tribune's Frank James noted, "that is extremely relevant information. What might be the excuse to justify not immediately making the incident public?
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POLL -- AMERICANS REJECT PRESIDENT'S RIGHT TO SUSPEND CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS: A new poll commissioned by the American Bar Association (ABA) found 52 percent of the American public say the president cannot suspend constitutional freedoms in the fight against terrorism. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents expressed deep reservations about Bush's secret domestic surveillance program. "[O]ur poll shows that average Americans and legal scholars alike agree that the awesome power of the government to penetrate citizens' most private communications must not be held in one set of hands," ABA President Michael Greco said. The ABA has also issued a policy proposal that, among other clauses, calls "on the President to abide by our constitutional system of checks and balances and respect the roles of Congress and the judiciary in protecting national security consistent with the Constitution."

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HURRICANES CHANGES NATURE AS WELL AS COMMUNITIES

AP - Last year's record hurricane season didn't just change life for
humans. It changed nature, too. Everywhere scientists look, they see
disrupted patterns in and along the Gulf of Mexico. Coral reefs, flocks
of sea birds, crab- and shrimp-filled meadows and dune-crowned beaches
were wrapped up in - and altered by - the force of hurricanes Katrina,
Rita and Dennis. "Nothing's been like this," said Abby Sallenger, a U.S.
Geological Survey oceanographer, during a recent flight over the
northern Gulf Coast to study shoreline changes. For him, the changes are
mind-boggling: Some barrier islands are nearly gone; on others, beaches
are scattered like bags of dropped flour. . .

"It may bring about a situation (in which) the change is so rapid, it's
something that's very different from what the ecosystem experienced over
the last three, four thousand years," said Kam-biu Liu, a Louisiana
State University professor and hurricane paleoscientist. "We may be
losing part of our beaches, we may lose our coastal wetlands, and our
coastal forests may change permanently to a different kind of
ecosystem."

Between 2004 and 2005, "we've basically demolished our coastline from
Galveston (Texas) to Panama City, Fla.," said Barry Keim, the state
climatologist in Louisiana. "It's getting to the point that we might
have to rethink what our coastal map looks like."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060130/
hurricane_season_060130/20060130?hub=SciTech
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INCOME INEQUALITY GROWING

CBPP - In most states, the gap between the highest-income families and
poor and middle-income families grew significantly between the early
1980s and the early 2000s, according to a new study by the Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. The
incomes of the country's richest families have climbed substantially
over the past two decades, while middle- and lower-income families have
seen only modest increases. This trend is in marked contrast to the
broadly shared increases in prosperity between World War II and the
1970s.

In 38 states, the incomes of the bottom fifth of families grew more
slowly than the incomes of the top fifth of families between the early
1980s and the early 2000s. In these 38 states, the incomes of the
richest grew by an average of $45,800 (62 percent), while the incomes of
the poorest grew by only $3,000 (21 percent) In only one state - Alaska
- did the incomes of the low-income families grow faster than the
incomes of the top fifth.

In 39 states, the incomes of the middle fifth of families grew more
slowly than the incomes of the top fifth of families between the early
1980s and the early 2000s. In no state did the income gap (degree of
income inequality) between middle- and high-income families narrow
during this period.

Within the top fifth of families, the wealthiest families enjoyed the
highest income growth over the past two decades. In the 11 states that
are large enough to permit this calculation, the incomes of the top 5
percent of families rose between 66 percent and 132 percent during this
period. This is faster than the income growth among the top fifth of
families as a whole in these states- and much faster than the income
growth among the bottom fifth of families in these states, which ranged
from 11 percent to 24 percent.

The five states with the largest income gap between the top and bottom
fifths of families are New York, Texas, Tennessee, Arizona, and Florida.
Generally, income gaps are larger in the Southeast and Southwest and
smaller in the Midwest, Great Plains, and Mountain states. Income gaps
tend to be larger in states where incomes in the bottom fifth are below
the national average, and to be smaller in states where incomes in the
bottom fifth are above the national average. The five states with the
largest income gaps between the top and middle fifths of families are
Texas, Kentucky, Florida, Arizona, and Tennessee.

http://www.cbpp.org/1-26-06sfp.htm