WASHINGTON – (USDOJ) Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced on Monday that the United States signed an Executive Agreement with Eurojust, the judicial cooperation unit of the European Union (E.U.), which will improve transatlantic law enforcement coordination and enhance the ability of the U.S. and the E.U. to fight international crime. The Agreement will foster the exchange of information between law enforcement communities in the U.S. and the E.U. and will strengthen cooperative efforts to prevent and prosecute organized crime, human trafficking, cybercrime and terrorism.

Specifically, the agreement establishes the position of U.S. Liaison Prosecutor to Eurojust. The Liaison Prosecutor will be based at Eurojust headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, and will facilitate law enforcement cooperation between the U.S. and the E.U. on a day-to-day basis. The Agreement particularly ensures the protection of personal information and individual privacy for both citizens of the U.S. and the E.U.

"This agreement is just one more example of the strong relationship that exists between the United States and the European Union on law enforcement issues," said Attorney General Gonzales. "It represents an important part of our ongoing efforts to combat transnational crime and international terrorism while protecting the civil liberties of our citizens."

The Executive Agreement was signed following troika meetings hosted by Attorney General Gonzales at the Department of Justice with Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Minister of Justice of Finland Leena Luhtanen, Minister of Interior of Finland Kari Rajamaki and Vice President of the European Commission Franco Frattini.

(VOA) - The Democratic Party appears to have regained control of both houses of the U.S. Congress from President Bush's Republican Party.

American media reports say that challenger Jim Webb has defeated Republican incumbent George Allen in the Senate race in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is the last Senate race from Tuesday's mid-term elections to be decided.

Allen has not yet conceded defeat, but major newspapers and television networks report that Webb holds more than a 7,000 vote lead.

Opposition Democrats have already swept to victory in the U.S. House of Representatives. Projections show that the party holds a majority of 229 seats in the 435-seat chamber.

If Webb indeed wins in Virginia, Democrats and Republicans will each hold 49 of the Senate's 100 seats. Two independents, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have pledged to vote with the Democrats, tipping the balance in the Senate to Democratic Party control.

The Democratic Party victory comes on the back of voter frustration with the war in Iraq and several political scandals. And it sets the stage for a number of policy battles with the White House. The Democrats have not controlled both chambers of Congress in 12 years.

President Bush has expressed disappointment with the election results, but he called on both political parties to work together. He is meeting separately Thursday, with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders.

Opinion polls showed that dissatisfaction with President Bush and his handling of the Iraq war drove many voters to vote for Democrats.

Meanwhile, California Democrat Nancy Pelosi is poised to become the first female Speaker of the House. She has pledged to work with congressional Republicans.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of the U.S. state of Nevada said the message from the electorate was clear, and that Americans voted for change.

WASHINGTON — Personal exemptions and standard deductions will rise, tax brackets will widen and income limits for IRAs will increase in 2007, thanks to inflation adjustments announced today by the Internal Revenue Service.

By law, the dollar amounts for a variety of tax provisions must be revised each year to keep pace with inflation. As a result, more than three dozen tax benefits, affecting virtually every taxpayer, are being adjusted for 2007. Key changes affecting 2007 returns, filed by most taxpayers in early 2008, include the following:

• The value of each personal and dependency exemption, available to most taxpayers, will be $3,400, up $100 from 2006.
• The new standard deduction will be $10,700 for married couples filing a joint return (up $400), $5,350 for singles and married individuals filing separately (up $200) and $7,850 for heads of household (up $300). Nearly two out of three taxpayers take the standard deduction, rather than itemizing deductions, such as mortgage interest, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.
• Tax-bracket thresholds will increase for each filing status. For a married couple filing a joint return, for example, the taxable-income threshold separating the 15-percent bracket from the 25-percent bracket will be $63,700, up from $61,300 in 2006.

In 2007, for the first time, inflation adjustments will raise the income limits that apply to the retirement savings contributions credit, contributions to a Roth IRA and deductible contributions to a traditional IRA where the taxpayer or the taxpayer’s spouse is covered by a retirement plan at work.  

(FDA) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced its action plan for strengthening the way it monitors the safety of medical devices after they reach the marketplace.

"Many of today's medical devices are smaller and more complex than ever, offering new medical opportunities that have benefited literally millions of people," said Scott Gottlieb, M.D., Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs, FDA. "But this technical sophistication sometimes means that the margin for error with device manufacturing shrinks and so we need to be working even harder, after devices and engineering changes are approved, to monitor for potential safety problems."

FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) last year completed a comprehensive assessment of the tools used to monitor the safety of medical devices after the agency approves them for marketing. In January, the agency formed a Postmarket Transformation Leadership Team to develop an action plan focusing on four main areas: enhancing the center's culture of collaboration; developing world class data systems; enhancing risk/benefit communication efforts; and collaborating on improved enforcement strategies and outcomes.

"The agency is committed to improving its medical device safety program and ensuring that medical devices and radiation-emitting products remain safe and effective once they are in the hands of health professionals and the public," said Daniel Schultz, M.D., Director, CDRH. "Postmarket systems that enable constant learning and feedback not only help support best medical practices to ensure safe use of devices with maximum effectiveness but they also spur continued innovation. This plan is a major step in that direction."

Today's Postmarket Transformation Leadership Team report outlines actions to transform the postmarket program. These efforts will increase the agency's ability to identify, analyze, and act on the risks that may be posed by the thousands of devices used by health professionals and consumers every day. The action items include the following:

• creating a cross-cutting organizational structure within CDRH to better integrate premarket, postmarket and enforcement efforts;
• developing internal performance measurements to track the center's handling of postmarket issues, such as recalls;
• pursuing the development of a unique identifier system to identify a device and the information associated with that device throughout its lifetime;
• proposing mandatory use of electronic reporting for required adverse event reports and revising the current system that records reported adverse events for devices (the Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience Database or MAUDE system);
• increasing the use of Medical Product Safety Device Network (MedSun) programs—a network comprised of more than 350 hospitals that have been recruited and specifically trained to identify and report device problems, and help provide "real time" data on signals and safety problems;
• enhancing risk/benefit communication efforts so health practitioners, patients and consumers receive clearer and more timely information on public health news; and
• increasing the coordination among the agency's compliance and enforcement programs.

The world's third largest publicly traded oil company BP Plc, agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman whose parents died in a Texas refinery explosion, woman's lawyer said.

Though the terms of the agreement were confidential, BP set aside $1.6 billion to resolve the claims.

The London based BP, has acknowledged safety shortcomings at the plant, and settled about 1,000 suits, including all death claims except the two filed by Eva Rowe, 22. She lost both her parents in the explosion and has refused to settle unless BP agrees to change safety procedures and equipment.

Roddy Kennedy, who heads BP's press office in London, said he couldn't comment on the reported settlement. BP will pay money to community groups as part of the settlement, attorney Brent Coon said.

If if the trial had gone forward, BP faced unlimited damages and harm to its reputation. The March 23, 2005, explosion killed 15 and injured hundreds at its Texas City, Texas, refinery led to more than 1,300 suits against BP, a record fine from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a finding by another safety agency that the company endangered workers by cutting costs.

The evidence to be introduced, including an internal study showing the company ignored safety problems at the Texas City refinery, could have produced sizable punitive damages. The trial was set to begin with jury selection today.

Breaking Legal News.com
Sheryl Jones
Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - (USDOJ) The Justice Department announced today that it has reached an agreement with Tallahassee Community College (TCC) to resolve an employment discrimination complaint that was filed on Nov. 2, 2006. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, alleged that TCC subjected an African-American applicant to racial discrimination by not selecting him for the position of HomeSafenet Trainer because of his race in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.

The African-American applicant originally filed a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which investigated the charge and found reasonable cause to believe a federal civil rights violation had occurred. After unsuccessfully attempting to resolve the matter, the EEOC referred the matter to the Justice Department.

Under the consent decree, which was approved by the court today, TCC has agreed to offer the applicant $34,363 which includes $32,490 in back pay and $1,873 in accumulated interest.

"Racial discrimination in employment is both unlawful and wrong, and the Department of Justice will vigorously enforce the requirements of Title VII," said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "We are pleased that TCC worked cooperatively with the Justice Department to reach an amicable settlement of this matter."

Additional information about the Employment Litigation Section within the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is available on the Department's Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/emp/index.html.

South Dakota voters Tuesday rejected a controversial law banning most abortions  passed by the state legislature earlier this year. With 818 out of 818 precincts reporting Wednesday, the final unofficial results for Referred Law 6 were:

NO 185948 56%
YES 148666 44%

The abortion ban, seen as a direct challenge to the US Supreme Court's abortion precedents, was placed on the South Dakota ballot after an advocacy group gathered more than 37,000 signatures on a petition to force a referendum. The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had already upheld a preliminary injunction against the law's enforcement pending a lawsuit.