President Obama will announce today “tough new nationwide rules for automobile emissions and mileage standards,” embracing those that the auto industry and the Bush administration have rejected for years. The new national standard takes effect in 2012 and will create a U.S. car and light truck fleet that is “almost 40 percent cleaner and more fuel-efficient by 2016 than it is today, with an average of 35.5 miles per gallon.”
A Pentagon spokesperson said yesterday that “he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible,” but that the Pentagon no longer includes such quotes on the cover of the daily reports. The officer responsible for including the quotes, Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, retired in 2003.
President Obama will expand a Bush-era program with the goal of “checking the immigration status of virtually every person booked into local jails.” Over the next four years, the program is estimated to “result in a tenfold increase in illegal immigrants who have been convicted of crimes and identified for deportation.”
“The Obama administration has decided to accept an appeals-court ruling that could undermine the military’s ban on service members found to be gay.” Though the administration let pass a May 3 deadline to appeal a lower-court ruling on the blanket application of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to the Supreme Court, administration officials said they will continue to defend the law when it is returned to a district court.
Former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad is in talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about assuming “a powerful, unelected position inside the Afghan government.” Khalilzad, an American citizen who was born in Afghanistan, had considered challenging Karzai for the presidency, but is now considering a role “described as the chief executive officer of Afghanistan.”
Former President Bill Clinton has been named a special envoy to Haiti on behalf of the United Nations in an effort “to raise global attention to the country’s halting efforts to rebuild following a string of storms that wreaked havoc on the Haitian economy.” “It is an honor,” Clinton said, adding, “Last year’s natural disasters took a great toll, but Haiti’s government and people have the determination and ability to ‘build back better.’”
With the Employee Free Choice Act languishing in Congress, labor groups say they “have been outmaneuvered so far on their top priority by their opponents in the business community.” “‘We were outspent, outhustled and outorganized,’ said one chagrined union advisor who was not authorized to speak by name.”
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that John Ashcroft and Robert Mueller may not be sued by a Pakistani man seized after 9/11 who alleged harsh treatment because of his religion and ethnicity. Reversing a Second Circuit decision, the court said that “top officials were not liable for the allegedly discriminatory actions of their subordinates unless they had ordered the measures.”
And finally: Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) took to the House floor last week to sing the praises of American Idol contestant Adam Lambert, who is the favorite to win the show’s finale on Wednesday. Commending Lambert for “his amazing journey” and for being “such a great star on American Idol,” Bilbray read his name into the congressional record last week. “As one of Adam’s favorite artists, Lenny Kravitz, once said: ‘I just need to know that I did the very best I could and that I was true to myself,” Bilbray noted. “Adam, we will be rooting for you and looking forward to your next unique and creative performance.”
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