Report: Paterson Directed Staff to Contact Woman

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. David Paterson personally directed two state employees to contact the woman who told police she was assaulted by her then-boyfriend, a top aide to Paterson, but later failed to press charges, The New York Times reported late Monday.

A Paterson administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the two employees were directed by Paterson to contact the woman, but denied that the state employees sought to persuade the woman to drop her charge or change her story.

The administration official said one of the workers, press officer Marissa Shorenstein, was directed by Paterson directly to contact the woman, Sherruna Booker, but only to seek Booker's public statement. The official who spoke wasn't authorized to speak for Paterson.

Paterson said he did nothing wrong.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/01/paterson-reportedly-directed-staff-contact-woman/

By Perry Bacon Jr.
Former congressman Harold Ford has decided against challenging incumbent Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a source close to Ford said Monday, ending a potential primary fight that Democrats in Washington had discouraged.

Ford had moved to New York after a failed Senate run in 2006 in his home state of Tennessee, and he had flirted for more than a month with running against Gillibrand, who was appointed last year to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. His decision could ease the path to victory this fall for Gillibrand, who was a popular House member from Upstate New York but was considered vulnerable to a strong challenger because she is not well known in much of the state.

Ford had spent the last month meeting with activists and potential supporters in the state, but he had drawn little support from key political figures in New York or in the Obama administration, which had said it still backed Gillibrand.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/03/ford-decides-not-to-run-for-ny.html?hpid=topnews

Some House foes eye switch to 'yes' on health care

WASHINGTON – Ten House Democrats indicated in an Associated Press survey Monday they have not ruled out switching their "no" votes to "yes" on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, brightening the party's hopes in the face of unyielding Republican opposition.

The White House tried to smooth the way for them, showing its own openness to changes in the landmark legislation and making a point of saying the administration is not using parliamentary tricks or loopholes to find the needed support.

Democratic leaders have strongly signaled they will use a process known as "budget reconciliation" to try to push part of the package through the Senate without allowing Republicans to talk it to death with filibusters. The road could be even more difficult in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi is struggling to secure enough Democratic votes for approval, thus the effort to attract former foes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100301/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul

McCain won’t reconsider ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ until military releases report, despite Mullen’s ‘personal belief’ on repeal of policy

Hoosiers and Health Savings Accounts

An Indiana experiment that is reducing costs for the state and its employees.

By MITCH DANIELS

As Washington prepares to revisit the subject of health-care reform, perhaps some fresh experience from Middle America would be of value.

When I was elected governor of Indiana five years ago, I asked that a consumer-directed health insurance option, or Health Savings Account (HSA), be added to the conventional plans then available to state employees. I thought this additional choice might work well for at least a few of my co-workers, and in the first year some 4% of us signed up for it.

In Indiana's HSA, the state deposits $2,750 per year into an account controlled by the employee, out of which he pays all his health bills. Indiana covers the premium for the plan. The intent is that participants will become more cost-conscious and careful about overpayment or overutilization.

Unused funds in the account—to date some $30 million or about $2,000 per employee and growing fast—are the worker's permanent property. For the very small number of employees (about 6% last year) who use their entire account balance, the state shares further health costs up to an out-of-pocket maximum of $8,000, after which the employee is completely protected.

The HSA option has proven highly popular. This year, over 70% of our 30,000 Indiana state workers chose it, by far the highest in public-sector America. Due to the rejection of these plans by government unions, the average use of HSAs in the public sector across the country is just 2%.

What we, and independent health-care experts at Mercer Consulting, have found is that individually owned and directed health-care coverage has a startlingly positive effect on costs for both employees and the state. What follows is a summary of our experience:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704231304575091600470293066.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Congress Tries to Break Hawaii in Two

A racial spoils precedent that could lead to new 'tribal' demands across the U.S.

By GAIL HERIOT AND PETER KIRSANOW

Last week, the House of Representatives, in a largely party-line vote, passed the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act. Popularly known as "the Akaka bill," this piece of legislation might turn out to be this Congress's single most calamitous decision.

The bill creates a complex federal framework under which most of the nation's approximately 400,000 ethnic Hawaiians can organize themselves into one vast Indian tribe. It endows the tribe with the "inherent powers and privileges of self-government," including the privilege of sovereign immunity from lawsuit. It also by clear implication confers the power to tax, to promulgate and enforce a criminal code, and to exercise eminent domain. Hawaii will in effect be two states, not one.

The method used to create this tribe should make everyone squeamish. The bill delegates the delicate task of deciding who may join the tribe to a federal commission appointed by the secretary of the Interior. Ultimately, the tribe itself will have the power to expel members or invite new ones.

Earlier versions of the bill demanded that the secretary appoint only ethnic Hawaiians as commissioners. In the current version, only those with "10 years of experience in the study and determination of Native Hawaiian genealogy" and "an ability to read and translate . . . documents written in the Hawaiian language" may serve on the commission. These commissioners will examine an applicants' backgrounds to ensure that only "qualified Native Hawaiians" with the right amount of Hawaiian blood join the tribe.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703411304575093180795586118.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

But that, of course, was not why Barack Obama convened this unique colloquy. He did so as part of an attempt to pass some Democratic health care bill, somehow, through both houses of Congress -- and to discredit the Republicans who opposed the bills passed by the House in November and the Senate in December.

In that he seems to have failed. The Atlantic's Clive Crook, who supports the Democratic bills, concluded that "the Republicans did not come across as the party of no. They looked well-informed, pragmatic and engaged in the discussion. It was the Democrats who leaned more heavily on talking points and seemed evasive and unspecific."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Dems_-health-strategy-doesn_t-add-up-to-a-win-85566007.html

Closing Arguments: Finally, an end to Justice Dept. investigation

By John Yoo

Inquirer Columnist

The Justice Department's internal ethics watchdog, known as the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), has waged a witch-hunt against Bush administration lawyers who developed policies to protect the nation after Sept. 11. OPR lawyers - and the Obama administration - disagreed with the policy choices made by President Bush on the detention and interrogation of terrorists. But instead of arguing against those policies honestly and openly, they decided to fight them under the pretext of a cooked-up ethics investigation.

David Margolis, one of the Justice Department's most distinguished civil servants, was able this month to stop the politicization of our national security. He properly found that our work in the Office of Legal Counsel on the lawfulness of interrogation methods did not violate standards of professional conduct.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20100228_Closing_Arguments__Finally__an_end_to_Justice_Dept__investigation.html

FARR WEST -- Hazmat crews were called to the IRS building in Farr West Monday.

The crews arrived sometime after 11 a.m. at 1973 N. Rulon White Blvd.

Two people were removed from the building on stretchers.

Details are few right now. Phone calls to the IRS are being directed to the FBI. It released a statement that said in part: "The FBI continues to investigate the incident along with its federal and local partners. The area where the threat was received was isolated by removing employees from that area. Some individuals did suffer medical emergencies which, at this time, do not appear to be related to this incident."

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9856060

Deal to Quit Congress

The announcement was first reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The newspaper said a special election will have to be scheduled to fill out the rest of Deal's term in the House.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/eyeon2010/2010/03/whats-the-deal-with-deal.html

McDonnell’s team doubled savings goal during transition

Court dismisses appeal of Uighurs detained at Guantanamo Bay

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a major separation of powers case that would have determined what rights judges have to free detainees at Guantanamo Bay who have been found not to be enemy combatants.

The justices, without recorded dissent, agreed with the Obama administration that changed circumstances meant that the challenge brought by a group of Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs was not ripe for the court's consideration.

At the same time, the justices wiped out a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that had been challenged by attorneys for the detainees. The ruling said that the judicial branch had no power to release into the United States detainees who had been cleared of wrongdoing who cannot be returned to their home countries for fear of persecution.

The Obama administration has been working to find a neutral country to accept the Uighurs and thus avoid another showdown at the Supreme Court on detainee rights. It recently persuaded Switzerland to take two of the men, and said the others had been offered, but turned down, the chance to go to the island nation of Palau.

The court was convinced.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/01/AR2010030101140.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

Campbell Defended Muslim Donor Who Rallied Support for Hamas, Hezbollah

By Philip Klein on 2.27.10 @ 3:35PM

The Los Angeles Times editorial page has decided to give U.S. Senate candidate Tom Campbell the benefit of the doubt -- for now -- on his past voting record on Israel and his numerous past associations with terrorist-linked radicals. But the editorial acknowledges that "His positions are fair game" and urges those who are concerned to challenge him within the confines of reasonable debate. I'm happy to oblige.

The editorial board was not pursuaded by Campbell's relationship with Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor who donated to the Campbell campaign and later pled guilty to conspiring to help associates of the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. (More on their relationship here, here, here and here.) But in the Al-Arian case, Campbell defenders can claim that when he defended Al-Arian on civil rights and academic freedom grounds, Campbell didn't know the full extent of the evidence that would later link Al-Arian to terrorism. It's much harder to make that excuse, however, in the case of many other radicals with whom Campbell was connected. Let's take the example of another supporter, Abdurahman Alamoudi of the American Muslim Council, whose views in support of Hamas and Hezbollah were well known -- and captured on videotape back in 2000. Yet Campbell was still defending him even as other politicians were running for cover.

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/02/27/campbell-defended-muslim-donor

Arizona Tea Partiers stand down in GOP primary

John McCain's unapologetic rightward tack, and his all-out assault on J.D. Hayworth -- a case study in how to handle a primary in an anti-incumbent year -- seem to be paying off on the right.

Four big Arizona Tea Party groups just put out a release saying they wouldn't endorse in the race, despite McCain's longtime status -- made worse, if anything, by the presidential campaign -- as object of conservative suspicion. The basic explanation: McCain's success in denying Hayworth the chance to (re)define himself.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0310/Arizona_Tea_Partiers_stand_down_in_GOP_primary.html?showall