BITS & BITES

IF ROE V. WADE IS REPEALED

Susan Page, USA Today

Twenty-two state legislatures are likely to impose significant new
restrictions on abortion. They include nearly every state in the South
and a swath of big states across the industrial Rust Belt, from
Pennsylvania to Ohio and Michigan. These states have enacted most of the
abortion restrictions now allowed.

Nine states are considering bans similar to the one passed in South
Dakota - it's scheduled to go into effect July 1 - and four states are
debating restrictions that would be triggered if the Supreme Court
overturned Roe.

Sixteen state legislatures are likely to continue current access to
abortion. They include every state on the West Coast and almost every
state in the Northeast. A half-dozen already have passed laws that
specifically protect abortion rights. Most of the states in this group
have enacted fewer than half of the abortion restrictions now available
to states.

Twelve states fall into a middle ground between those two categories.
About half are in the Midwest, the rest scattered from Arizona to Rhode
Island.

The result, according to this analysis, would be less a patchwork of
laws than broad regional divisions that generally reinforce the nation's
political split. All but three of the states likely to significantly
restrict abortions voted for President Bush in 2004. All but four of the
states likely to maintain access to abortion voted for Democrat John
Kerry.

The 22 states likely to enact new restrictions include 50% of the U.S.
population and accounted for 37% of the abortions performed in 2000, the
latest year for which complete data were available.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-04-16-abortion-states_x.htm

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APPEALS COURT SAYS L.A. CAN'T CRIMINALIZE HOMELESSNESS

LA TIMES - Los Angeles' policy of arresting homeless people for sitting,
lying or sleeping on public sidewalks as "an unavoidable consequence of
being human and homeless without shelter" violates the constitutional
prohibition against cruel and punishment, a federal appeals court ruled
today. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, decided
in favor of six homeless persons, represented by the American Civil
Liberties Union of Southern California. The suit challenged the city's
practice of arresting persons for violating a municipal ordinance, which
states that "no person shall sit, lie or sleep in or upon any street,
sidewalk or public way."

The appeals court ruled that the manner in which the city has enforced
the ordinance has criminalized "the status of homelessness by making it
a crime to be homeless," and thereby violated the 8th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution. . . In her ruling, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw said that
Los Angeles' Skid Row has the highest concentration of homeless
individuals in the United States. She said that about 11,000 to 12,000
homeless people live in Skid Row, a 50-block area, bounded by Third,
Seventh, Main and Alameda Streets.

"Because there is substantial and undisputed evidence that the number of
homeless persons in Los Angeles far exceeds the number of available
shelter beds at all times, including on the night" the plaintiffs were
arrested or cited, "Los Angeles has encroached upon" the plaintiffs' 8th
Amendment protections "by criminalizing the unavoidable act of sitting,
lying or sleeping at night while being involuntarily homeless," Wardlaw
wrote.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-041406sidewalk_lat,0,1735011.story?
coll=la-home-headlines


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TV NETWORKS, STATIONS SUE FCC TALIBAN

REUTERS - Major U.S. television networks and their affiliates said on
Friday they have asked appeals courts to overturn decisions by
regulators finding broadcasters violated decency standards by airing
profanity. News Corp.'s Fox Television Stations Inc. and CBS
Broadcasting Inc. asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
in New York to declare the decisions by the Federal Communications
Commission, or FCC, unlawful.

The FCC decisions were "unconstitutional, contrary to the relevant
statutes, arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law," the
broadcasters said in their filing. General Electric Co.'s NBC filed to
participate in the New York case siding with the broadcasters. Walt
Disney Co.'s ABC Inc. and Hearst-Argyle's Kansas City affiliate filed a
similar appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia. More than 800 television network affiliates joined the court
efforts.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=
2006-04-14T214450Z_01_N14104739_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-PROFANITY-FCC.xml


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U.S. PARANOIA DRIVING AWAY FOREIGN TOURISTS

ALJAZEERA - The US market share of international tourism trade is at an
all-time low and has dropped 35% since 1992, according to the Travel
Industry Association of America. At the 2006 summit of the World Travel
and Tourism Council this week, managers of tourism firms looked into the
reasons behind the slump which began with what they called "the
disastrous impact" of the attacks of September 11, 2001 on New York and
Washington.

The stricter US immigration policy introduced in the aftermath of the
attacks, such as stringent visa requirements and demands that foreign
countries issue biometric-enabled passports, has done little to
encourage tourism, they said.
The US has also been routinely fingerprinting and face-scanning foreign
visitors.

Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the American
Chamber of Commerce, said the US must "get over the paranoia and start
bringing people" to the country. "Because of US immigration laws, if you
want to do business with the Arab world you have to go to London"
because it is virtually impossible for Arabs to obtain a US visa,
Donohue added.

Disapproval of the US invasion of Iraq also translated into less
tourism. Jay Rasulo, the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts,
said: "Among Europeans, [the US] was the third favorite destination, now
it's the sixth and declining." Moreover, competition in the tourist
market has become stiffer as the European Union expands its borders and
emerging powers such as China become more attractive destinations.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D06E796B-1429-4F2E-A84A-
FC2114ADD8B5.htm

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DRUG BUSTS
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PERU WILL CHALLENGE ON U.S. DRUG POLICY IF HUMALA IS ELECTED

MONTE REEL WASHINGTON POST - The front-running presidential candidate in
Peru, having pledged to put a stop to coca eradication, represents the
latest challenge to a regional U.S.-financed counter-narcotics effort
that shows signs of fraying at its edges, according to U.S. and South
American analysts. Like the recently elected Bolivian president, Evo
Morales, Ollanta Humala has campaigned against the coca eradication
programs that are central to an anti-drug plan in the Andes. Humala says
much of the coca being cultivated is being used in teas and traditional
medicines, not being turned into cocaine.

Ollanta Humala, with his wife Nadine Heredia, says that coca is grown
largely for medicinal purposes. Eradication of the plant, which is also
used to make cocaine, is a major part of U.S.-funded anti-drug efforts
in the Andes. . .

The United States has poured about $5 billion into an Andean anti-drug
plan since 2000, including about $720 million in Peru. But if Humala
wins the decisive second-round election, to be held in May or early
June, the United States' main ally in its eradication efforts --
Colombia -- will stand as a virtual island in the Andes, surrounded by
countries with governments critical of Washington's policies. If
continued breakdowns in cooperation occur in Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia or
Ecuador, some U.S. officials say they fear that progress made to fight
coca cultivation in Colombia could be undermined as production migrates
across its borders.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/17/
AR2006041701360.html?nav=rss_world


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CITIES
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THE END OF URBAN FREE PARKING?

RICK ANDERSON, SEATTLE WEEKLY - The program to replace parking meters on
city streets with a pay-station system is a financial success no one at
City Hall wants to brag about. New figures show the ubiquitous curbside
kiosks, which issue time-stamped parking stickers that can be affixed to
a car window, are already earning about $3 more a day per parking
space-at $6.50, they're bringing in almost twice as much as the clunky
coin meters they replaced. The wireless, solar-powered kiosks will
collect $16 million in coin and credit-or debit-card revenue this year,
officials say. That's an impressive $6 million jump since 2003, when the
system was launched and parking meters collected $9.9 million.

Being a government program, there's a catch, of course, which might be
why politicos and bureaucrats don't seem to be talking up the big score.
A great deal of the added revenue is coming from hundreds of pay
stations that have been or will be installed at once-free downtown and
neighborhood parking spaces. The target is the citywide conversion of
2,000 free or time-limited parking spaces (30-minute and two-hour spots,
for example) to paid kiosk spaces.

With free parking going the way of the free lunch, another sly parking
revenue-maker is lurking: a rollback of after-hours free parking. City
Hall is mulling plans to extend paid-parking hours to nights and
weekends in some areas. . .
http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0615/parking.php