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Corruption crisis creates confusion in Illinois
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2008/12/29 09:12
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| Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has made a point of regularly going to work at his office in Chicago. He has signed legislation and issued pardons. He has sent out press releases about predatory lending and fighting poverty.pBut his arrest on federal corruption charges has clearly complicated his work as the state's chief executive and already cost the state some $20 million. The state is facing a potential $2.5 billion budget deficit and the governor doesn't have the same horsepower — or clout — to address the problem that he had just a month ago./ppNo one in the state capital trusts Blagojevich enough to give him authority to trim the budget on his own, as he requested in November. Any other idea he advances would probably be rejected out of hand. Yet no other official can take the lead./ppEverything just comes to a halt. You have complete paralysis, said House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego./ppBlagojevich, a second-term Democrat, was arrested Dec. 9 on charges accusing him of scheming to swap President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for profit, shaking down a hospital executive for campaign donations and other wrongdoing./ppThe governor has defiantly insisted he's done nothing wrong and that he will not resign. His aides say he is going about business as usual./p |
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Germany vs Italy in World Court over WWII claims
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2008/12/26 09:14
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| Germany has filed suit at the World Court asking Italy to stop its legal system from awarding damages to victims of Nazi war crimes.pThe complaint, filed Tuesday in The Hague, follows a ruling by Italy's top criminal court ordering Berlin to pay euro1 million (US$1.4 million) in damages to nine relatives of victims of a June 1944 massacre in the Tuscan town of Civitella./ppIn the atrocity, German soldiers killed more than 200 civilians to avenge a deadly attack by partisans./ppIn its filing with the World Court, Germany argued that as a sovereign state it has immunity in Italian courts, and that any decision rendered in the Italian judiciary is unenforceable./ppGermany, which says it has paid reparations for Nazi crimes under international treaties with Italy, rejected the ruling handed down by Italy's Court of Cassation two months ago./ppGerman Foreign Ministry spokesman Jens Ploetner said seeking compensation for World War II crimes was morally understandable but it is, in judicial terms, the wrong way to address this injustice, and so this ruling is not acceptable for us./ppCompensation claims against Germany have been winding through the Italian judiciary since the late 1990s, when Luigi Ferrini sought restitution for his arrest and deportation to Germany in 1944 to work as a slave laborer in the Nazi armaments industry./ppGermany fought the case, pleading immunity. Ferrini lost in two lower courts before the Court of Cassation overturned the previous decisions in 2004 and recognized Italian jurisdiction./p |
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Prosecutors to court: Get on with Jefferson trial
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2008/12/26 09:13
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| Federal prosecutors are urging an appeals court to get on with Rep. William Jefferson's corruption trial, saying his appeal to the Supreme Court does not have enough chance of success to justify further delays.pJefferson. D-La., was indicted on bribery charges after agents found $90,000 in his freezer. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers argue that his trial should be delayed pending his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court./ppJefferson argues that the charges are invalid because a grand jury got access to information about his actions as a member of Congress. That, Jefferson claims, runs afoul of a constitutional clause that shields members of Congress from civil or criminal action stemming from the performance of their legislative duties./ppBut in a brief filed this week in Richmond, Va., with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, prosecutor Mark Lytle said delaying the trial would cause further prejudice, or harm, to the government's case against the nine-term congressman. The government brought the charges 18 months ago./ppJefferson, Lytle wrote, has not shown the required reasonable probability of success with the high court on the merits of his case./p |
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Conservatives win court case in Va. church dispute
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2008/12/20 09:18
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| Nearly a dozen conservative church congregations in Virginia have won a lawsuit in which they sought to split from the U.S. Episcopal Church in a dispute over theology and homosexuality.pThe final rulings came Friday from a Fairfax County judge who said the departing congregations are allowed under Virginia law to keep their church buildings and other property as they leave the Episcopal Church and realign under the authority of conservative Anglican bishops from Africa./ppSeveral previous rulings had also gone in favor of the departing congregations. The diocese said it will appeal./ppEleven Virginia congregations were involved in the lawsuit, including two prominent congregations that trace their histories to George Washington — Truro Church in Fairfax and The Falls Church in Falls Church./ppThe congregations voted to realign in late 2006. Since then, the rift in the Episcopal Church has grown, and entire dioceses have voted to leave the denomination. Similar property disputes are expected there as well./ppThe Episcopal Diocese of Virginia argued it was the true owner of the church property and that the congregations' votes to leave the Episcopal Church were invalid./p |
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