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Second Try to ban Aspartame in New Mexico
Breaking Legal News | 2007/01/08 11:24
The “good” people are alienated to a large extent from the political process, preferring to dismiss all of it as corrupt and/or impossible; that
perception drives them into a feeling of powerlessness and further alienation, and this  is exactly what the corporations want, so they can continue their control and manipulation through lobbyists’ pressures on particular committees.

This was ghastly last year in terms of the Aspartame bill to ban Aspartame/Methanol/Formaldehyde/Diketopiperazine, sponsored by Senator Ortiz y Pino. The Japanese manufacturer of Aspartame and another neurotoxic food additive, Monosodium Glutamate, Ajinomoto, in fact the largest in the world, hired a lobbying firm, Butch Maki and Associates, for indiscernible amounts of money. They hired  a lobbyist, Richard Minzner, former Majority Leader in the House, to put the screws to the bill in the place it was most vulnerable, its first committee hearing in Senate Public Affairs.

Despite two excellent physicians being there to testify for banning Aspartame, Pediatric Cardiologist, Grant La Farge, and Pediatrician Ken Stoller, and despite massive amounts of articles and letters from Aspartame poisoning victims, the corporations won with a vote of 5-2 to table the bill,  killing it for 2006. Minzner told the Committee it was irresponsible and illegal to even think about challenging an FDA
approved chemical. Antonio Anaya, Vice President of Coca Cola New Mexico told the Committee a monstrous lie, that Coca Cola would lose 600 jobs in New Mexico if aspartame were banned. No one on the committee even challenged the specious illogic of such a perfidious statement. Several members continued to guzzle their Diet Sodas and eat their ham sandwiches while the testimony continued. ( Perhaps it is absurd to even try to entrust decisions about the effects of formaldehyde on New Mexico's children to people who can't even recognize that harm they are doing to themselves ).

Other lobbyists chimed in their predictable objections: the Calorie Control Council, Altria Corporate Services, Pepsi Cola, etc.

No victims were able to change their schedule to be able to sit through many other items in order to speak; no parents concerned about autism or
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; no one from the New Mexico Department of Health was there to encourage the committee to at least use
the precautionary principle to move the bill forward, to take an obviously harmful chemical off the market. Only the paid lobbyists could
wait to speak, and they were quick to maintain that it has been on the market for 25 years, since its approval was forced through the FDA by Donald Rumsfeld, when he was CEO of G.D. Searle, and is now used in hundreds of nations.

No statisticians nor epidemiologists from the Health Department or Medical School were there to talk about the mountain of evidence that the methanol and formaldehyde as metabolic by-products from aspartame cause serious
neurodegenerative harm, which might have something to do with the spike in statistics for many afflictions in the USA, including Multiple Sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

No one came in 2006 from the Attorney General’s office to say that it was the AG’s opinion that our state could challenge an obviously flawed FDA
approval, and that we didn’t have to continue to slavishly capitulate to multinational corporations having rammed the approval through, nor their subsequent efforts to silence and eviscerate any real efforts to protect the
health of New Mexicans.

No one came from the Governor’s office to note that 22 out of 42 New Mexico State Senators had signed a letter to him asking him to put the bill on the Legislative Call for the short session, the Agenda for which Gov. Richardson
controlled in 2006. This was again the result of intense private lobbying efforts from Maki, Minzner, and Michael Stratton of Colorado, also a
member of the Presidential Nominating Commission, another lobbyist, whose specific job was to remind the Governor that he shouldn’t make such large corporations angry about putting the bill to ban Aspartame on the “call.”

Several hundred members of the Organic Consumers’ Association responded to one of their Action Alerts and sent so many emails to Governor Richardson asking him to support the bill to ban Aspartame by putting it on his "call” over one weekend that the entire email capacity for the Governor’s web page was entirely filled.

We distributed many copies of Cori Brackett's film, Sweet Misery, still the most compelling compilation of evidence damning aspartame, to the
legislators, and it soon became clear that more was so much more at stake internationally, especially in 3rd world and developing nations, which totally rely on the perceived integrity and ostensible high standards of the FDA, and that these excellent videos/DVD's should be in the hands of heads of state, with the real power to reject Aspartame for an entire nation.

So, still, despite a massive unpaid consumer protection effort, the corporate lobbyists won the day by eviscerating the bill, thus giving the corporations carte blanche to continue to poison hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans for
yet another year.

Stephen Fox
For more information:
<unitednationsundersecretarygeneralfornutrition.org>


Philip J. Berg, Esq. Seeking the “Truth of 9/11”
Breaking Legal News | 2007/01/08 11:19

 
Philip J. Berg, Esq. Seeking the “Truth of 9/11” 
Calls on World Community
To Arrest and Try Bush & Cheney for
Global Crimes of 9/11

Philip J. Berg, Esquire, [Berg is a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania; former candidate for Governor and U.S. Senate; an attorney with offices in Montgomery County, PA and an active practice in Philadelphia, PA, who prior hereto has filed a RICO lawsuit against Bush and others for the events of 9/11 and plans to re-file shortly] announced today that he was issuing a call for world leaders to arrest and try Bush and Cheney for the global crimes of 9/11/01.

Philip J. Berg, Esquire stated in a letter to the nations throughout the world:

“It is time for the nations of the world to come forth and take the leadership because of the failure of the United States Government and the States where crimes were committed on 09/11/01, where no thorough investigation and indictments occurred, to investigate, arrest and prosecute the people responsible for the murders on 9/11/01, specifically including George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. “

Berg continued there is overwhelming evidence that:

“Bush and his cronies made 9/11 happen or let it happen.  And, if they let it happen, then they made it happen.  Either way, they are responsible; and more important, they have completely and unequivocally covered-it-up!”

Berg’s letter went on to say:

“The trial and execution of Saddam Hussein marks the "end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops" according to President Bush.

Now, it is time for world leaders to take the lesson learned from Iraq and issue a warrant for the arrest of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney; arrest them; take them to a neutral country; try them for the murder of over 2,800 people from more than 80 countries on 9/11/01 and, when found guilty, sentence them appropriately.  Jurisdiction would be proper in any of the more than 80 countries whose citizens were murdered on 9/11.

Despite a near-complete corporate media embargo on the wealth of evidence indicating that the 9/11 attacks were caused or knowingly permitted to happen by top figures in the Administration and the military, 84 % of the U.S. public, according to an October 2006 CBS/NY Times poll, is unconvinced by the "Official Story," and agrees that the President and others caused or allowed the attacks to happen.

That an event such as 9/11 was desired by powerful Administration figures, including Cheney and Jeb Bush, the President's brother, is a matter of record, as the Project for the New American Century's [PNAC] blueprint for worldwide U.S. dominance entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses," stated that the program they advocated could win popular support only with the help of a "catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor" which ( we are supposed to believe to be coincidence ) came to pass just 8 months after many of the co-signers of the PNAC document assumed high positions in the new Bush Administration in January 2001.

As President John F. Kennedy stated, "Things do not just happen; they are made to happen."  There has never been an investigation of 9/11 that had not concluded, before it even began, that the Official Story convicting Osama bin Laden and absolving the Administration and the military of complicity of anything worse than "intelligence failures," which thereby made the outcome a foregone conclusion.

It is time that the men who had the motive, means and the opportunity to commit the terrible crimes of 9/11, and who have profited by it politically as well as financially, be exposed for their role and held to account.

The world has suffered since the horrific acts of Bush and his cronies on 9/11, that being the events of 9/11 and the aftermath, the illegal act of war against Afghanistan and Iraq that has caused the death and injury of hundreds of thousands, including thousands of U.S. troops; the destruction of property and the enormous costs involved.

Saddam was tried, found guilty and sentenced to death after being convicted of murder in the killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from an Iraqi town where assassins tried to kill him in 1982.  This number of killings that Saddam Hussein was found guilty of is far less than Bush and his cronies caused to die on 9/11.

The 148 Iraqi deaths for which Saddam was tried pales in number to the 750,000 dead at the hands of George W. Bush as a result of this illegal invasion of that country which includes babies, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, elderly grandmothers and grandfathers, killed without remorse by George W. Bush and his war profiteering supporters.

Bush continues the war in Iraq to keep the world’s attention there and not on the atrocities caused by him on 9/11, including the possibility of Bush sending up to 40,000 more troops to Iraq, even though a majority of the American people are against this increase.

The world must act now because our own government has failed us.  We cannot relent until real justice is reached.  Only by exposing the truth of 9/11 and revealing how it was used as the “trigger event” to justify the neocon’s imperial policy can we put these events in proper prospective.”
                                      



Supsected Terrorist's Lawsuit Allowed to Proceed
Breaking Legal News | 2007/01/08 11:08


Karim Koubriti, a Moroccan national, was convicted in 2003 of document fraud and conspiracy to aid terrorists after he and three others were accused of establishing a terrorist "sleeper cell" in Detroit. The convictions were later overturned after the US Department of Justice agreed that federal prosecutors were not forthcoming with evidence which would have benefited Koubriti and his co-defendants. Today a federal judge has ruled that Koubriti can sue a county in Detroit for alleged abuse while he was in jail.

Koubriti has alleged that he was unnecessarily strip searched, denied exercise, and isolated for 23 hours a day during his three years in the Wayne County, Michigan jail. US District Judge Bernard Friedman rejected the county's bid to dismiss Koubriti's lawsuit last week but no trial date has yet been scheduled. Meanwhile, the US government is working to retry Koubriti on insurance fraud charges.



Oprah's Studio Sued over Fall
Breaking Legal News | 2007/01/06 12:58

A woman is suing Oprah Winfrey's studio, claiming she was injured in a rush for seats before a taping in Chicago.

The Chicago Tribune's Web site reports Tayna Milner is seeking more than 50-thousand dollars in damages.

Her lawsuit alleges Milner was pushed down the stairs between a waiting area and audience seating at Harpo Studios, causing her to fall and suffer unspecified injuries. Milner accuses the studio of failing to properly control the crowd.

No comment yet from Milner's lawyer or Harpo Studios.



Supreme Court to hear Coca-Cola appeal
Breaking Legal News | 2007/01/06 02:53

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider a discrimination case in which a Coca-Cola bottling company fired a black employee.

Coca-Cola asked the Supreme Court to hear the lawsuit, which involves allegations that a supervisor of employee Stephen Peters was motivated by racial bias and influenced a human resources manager to fire the worker.

Such circumstances are sometimes referred to as "cat's paw" or "rubber stamp" liability. Coca-Cola fired Peters for insubordination after he refused a request to work on a weekend during his scheduled days off.

A federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit brought on Peters' behalf by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The appeals court said a federal judge placed too much emphasis on the fact that Peters' immediate supervisor made no express recommendation to fire him.

In asking the court to hear the case, the company asked the justices to consider when an employer may be held liable for intentional discrimination when the person who fired an employee harbored no discriminatory bias. Peters worked at the Coca-Cola facility in Albuquerque, N.M.



The Catholic Diocese to settle abuse claims
Breaking Legal News | 2007/01/05 12:54

The Catholic Diocese of Spokane has agreed to settle molestation claims against priests on Thursday for $48 million as part of a Chapter 11 reorganization plan. Victims and a federal bankruptcy judge must still approve the deal, however, Judge Gregg W. Zive of the Nevada Bankruptcy Court, who is mediating the settlement, said he believes the settlement would provide "closure and allow to move forward and continue with the healing process." The diocese filed for Chapter 11 in 2004 stating that the sexual abuse claims far exceeded its $11 million in assets. Last May, a $45.7 million settlement offered by the diocese was rejected by the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Washington because it only covered 75 of approximately 185 abuse complaints against the diocese.

The Spokane diocese came up with this plan in order to avoid bankruptcy and also offer succor to people by allowing them "closure" for their sufferings. Around 150 claims have been filed against the diocese and this settlement provision gives the Church a chance to avoid insolvency as well.

The Archdiocese of Portland filed for Chapter 11 in 2004, and the dioceses of Tuscon, Spokane, and Davenport soon followed suit in the wake of hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits against clergy. Last month, the Portland archdiocese filed a new bankruptcy plan including a $75 million settlement of the sexual abuse claims.

Federal bankruptcy Judge Gregg Zive said that the settlement would allow the victims to gain some "measure of closure and allow them to move forward and continue the healing process”. However the plan still needs to be approved by the victims as well as another judge.

Zive said that the money would be put up by six insurance companies and would also be collected through selling off the bishop's office building. However he added that the specific amount to be disbursed to specific victims was not yet determined.

The judge also added that the settlement would allow the diocese “to continue its ministry and to begin its own journey of renewal, healing and hope”. It may be recalled that the Spokane diocese bankruptcy protection in 2004 after the claims against it increased to $81.3 million.



Settlement Reached in Disney Suit
Breaking Legal News | 2007/01/04 19:49

Walt Disney Co. has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a woman that said her fatal aneurysm was triggered by the Indiana Jones Adventure ride in Disneyland.

Both sides refused to release the settlement terms, agreed to Friday. The trial was set to start Thursday in Los Angeles.

"Safety always has been, and continues to be, our top priority," said Rob Doughty, a Disneyland spokesman, in a prepared statement.

Barry Novack, the plaintiff's attorney, declined to comment about the family's reaction.

Cristina Moreno, of Barcelona, Spain, was a 23-year-old newlywed on her honeymoon when she and her husband rode the Indiana Jones attraction in Anaheim on June 25, 2000, court documents state. Within a few hours, she collapsed from a bleeding cerebral aneurysm. She died a few months later.

Her estate filed the lawsuit in 2001, seeking more than $1 million in damages. The plaintiff alleged that that the jerky moves and emotional stress from the ride prompted the pre-existing aneurysm to rupture, court documents state.

At least three other lawsuits related to Indiana Jones-ride injuries were filed then settled.

The Moreno case might have made it easier for visitors to successfully sue over ride-related injuries. In a ruling last year tied to the case, the California Supreme Court found that Disney must apply "the utmost care and diligence" related to passenger safety, allowing the case to go forward.



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