Zak, owner of the Mohawk Trout Hatchery, had pleaded guilty on March 26 to two counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and one count of conspiracy.

His attorney, Vincent Bongiorni, said then his client was not willing to accept a guilty plea for the eagle charge.

"There was a factual basis to support those two counts and our claim is that it doesn't support the bald eagle count," he said.

Zak's employee, Timothy Lloyd, 30, of Easthampton, pleaded guilty March 23 to two counts of violating the migratory bird act and one count of conspiracy.

Federal investigators said they found more than 250 great blue heron carcasses, as well as carcasses of ospreys and a bald eagle on hatchery property. Tests showed the birds were killed by gunshots.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents say they staked out the hatchery periodically and saw Zak shoot at a heron with a scoped rifle and Lloyd shoot and kill an osprey.

The men are to be sentenced on June 27. Zak faces up to three years in prison and Lloyd faces up to 18 months.

The subpoena comes the day after four senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Gonzales, requesting additional undisclosed documents in that committee's investigation of the firings and claiming the DOJ failed to turn over relevant documents despite repeated calls from the Senate Judiciary Committee. The letter from US Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) suggests that the DOJ has been less than forthright in disclosing documents:

We are concerned that additional documents relevant to the Committees' investigations are missing or have been withheld.... Given that this was a process that extended over more than two years and involved staff from both the Department of Justice and the White House, and involved consideration of a number of U.S. Attorneys, there would seem to be other documents that would comment upon the reasons some U.S. Attorneys were chosen for removal and others were not. For example, there are press reports that the former U.S. Attorney in San Francisco had multiple evaluations and was the subject of significant discussions. Documents reflecting those multiple evaluations and significant discussions have not been produced to date. This raises a question about whether we have seen all similar documents about others selected for replacement or left in place.

In addition, the letter identifies specific undisclosed documents such as a chart provided by former Gonzales aide Monica Goodling to former chief of staff Kyle Sampson, who both resigned in the wake of the scandal, that was described in an e-mail that was turned over to the committee. The letter also outlines several document requests and poses questions from the committee concerning its disclosure procedures.

Last Thursday, Leahy sent a letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding seeking undisclosed documents relating to the firings from President George W. Bush. Last Monday, Leahy rejected attempts by the Bush administration to move up the date that Gonzales is scheduled to testify. In March, Sampson told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the prosecutors were fired for political reasons rather than for poor performance as the DOJ has claimed.

A 2006 US Department of Justice report said that sexual violence in US prisons, perpetrated by both inmates and prison staff, often goes unreported because abused inmates fear a reprisal. Last month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry appointed a commission to review the records of approximately 90 percent of the state's juvenile inmates following allegations by families and community activists that prison officials extended sentences in retaliation for inmates filing grievances. Staff-initiated sexual misconduct constituted 38 percent of allegations. The authors of the report also warned against placing juvenile inmates with the adult prison population, finding that the incidents of rape and abuse are five times higher against juveniles. The report, which was the second in an annual series required by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, showed a marked improvement over staff sexual misconduct and harassment since the initial 2004 study.

President George W. Bush will sign off on a bill providing funding for studies on embryos incapable of further development, but will refuse to endorse legislation that would subsidize stem cell research the White House announced Tuesday. The administration said in a formal policy statement sent to Congress that Bush would veto the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 because the law would "pay for research that relies on the intentional destruction of human embryos." The White House also said, however, that Bush would support the HOPE Act because it would provide funding for research into pluripotent stem cells that does not entail the destruction of embryos.

In July, Bush vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 saying he refused to provide federal funding for stem cell research because many people consider the destruction of embryos murder. Simultaneously, Bush signed the Fetus Farming Prohibition Act, intended to prohibit "fetal farming," the method of creating fetuses for the sole purpose of research, after both the House and Senate passed the bill unanimously.

According to the government complaint, Holcher, a certified public accountant (CPA), helped customers claim improper tax deductions for such non-deductible personal expenses as home maintenance expenses, vacations, and personal vehicle expenses. Holcher allegedly also prepared tax returns for customers falsely reporting employment income as royalties in order to evade Social Security taxes. The permanent injunction order was signed by Judge John Steele of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

The court order requires Holcher to mail a copy of the injunction to all persons for whom he has prepared a federal tax return or form since 2002 and to provide the government with a list of his customers' names, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers.

Since 2001, the Justice Department's Tax Division has obtained more than 230 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm.

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today appointed Melanie Ann Pustay as Director of the Office of Information and Privacy. Pustay is a 24-year career civil servant at OIP, starting in the Department in 1983 as an attorney advisor. She has served as Acting Director since January 2007 and replaces Daniel J. Metcalfe as Director.

Pustay manages the Department's responsibilities related to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which include developing policy guidance and ensuring compliance with the FOIA, responding to initial information requests made to the senior leadership offices, adjudicating all appeals from denials by any Department component under the FOIA, and handling FOIA litigation matters. "Melanie brings more than two decades of highly relevant experience and a record of both accomplishment and leadership to this position," said Attorney General Gonzales. "OIP and the Department of Justice will continue to benefit from her insight, expertise and dedication to public service. I'm pleased she has agreed to serve in this critical role."

During her tenure as Acting Director, OIP updated and completed the Department's March 2007 FOIA Guide, compiled the Department's report on compliance with Executive Order 13,392, and issued guidance for other agencies on proper reporting.

Before becoming Acting Director, Pustay served for eight years as Deputy Director of OIP. In that capacity, she oversaw the handling of responses to initial requests made under the FOIA for records of the senior leadership offices of the Department. Additionally, beginning in 2003 and continuing today, she has worked with government officials in China, Argentina, Chile and other countries to assist in implementing guidance for openness-in-government initiatives.

Pustay has extensive FOIA litigation experience and has argued cases before the District Court for the District of Columbia and the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, including handling a case in 1998 involving access to former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's official and confidential files. In 1992, she was responsible for the Department's senior leadership compliance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which required the federal government to make records of President Kennedy's assassination publicly available.

In 1987, Pustay was given primary responsibility for drafting Executive Order 12,600, which established procedures to provide notice to businesses when their information is sought under the FOIA.

Pustay has received the Attorney General's Distinguished Service Award for her role in providing legal advice, guidance and assistance on records disclosure issues. Pustay worked briefly at a Washington-area law firm before coming to the Department in 1983. She graduated from American University's Washington College of Law in 1982, where she served on Law Review. Pustay received her B.A. from George Mason University in 1979, graduating summa cum laude.

http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps9890/lps9890/www.usdoj.gov/ag/foia.htm

Jordan demonstrated a poor human rights record in 2006, according to a report released Tuesday by the Arab Organization for Human Rights. The report singled out for particular criticism the country's controversial Terrorism Prevention Law, passed last year in response to the Amman hotel bombing that killed 57 people in 2005. The AOHR joined opposition parties and UN officials in characterizing its provisions as tantamount to martial law, saying it imposes harsh penalties beyond the scope of the criminal code.

The report also denounced the decision to extradite suspected terrorist Mohammad Zaki Amawi, a dual citizen, to the United States without providing him a prior trial in Jordan. It additionally condemned Jordan's agreement with the US not to deliver any US citizen to the International Criminal Court at The Hague without prior written approval from Washington. According to both the AOCHR report and the 2006 US Department of State Country Report for Jordan, Jordanian officials obtained confessions from detainees by using physical abuse or threats of torture.