Katty Pien of Häagen Dazs talks about the diminishing honeybee population. Pien notes that the honeybees have mysteriously disappeared and that the company is committed to helping with their return. (0:45)
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties met for a third time to discuss interrogation tactics authorized for Guantanamo Bay prison detainees and whether these tactics constituted torture. Committee member Jerry Nadler, Chairman of the Subcommittee( D-Ny.) presided over the hearing and said that the morals of the U.S. have been “besmirched” by techniques used by interrogators at Guantanamo. He said the more he learns about these techniques and the secretive way they were authorized, the more appalled he becomes. The witnesses included John Yoo, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and David Addington, Chief of Staff to the Vice President.
Yoo deflected a number of specific questions regarding his involvement with the creation of guidelines for interrogation techniques, specifically his involvement with the Bybee memo of 2008, which some committee members believed he was significantly involved in. He said that he was not at liberty to discuss certain issues because he was bound both by attorney/client privilege and the inability to reveal classified information. Yoo said that neither Congress nor the judicial system had provided guidelines which defined torture or acceptable interrogation techniques. He said that because of that he had no template to draw from while making the regulations for interrogation and the definitions of torture. He fell under immediate criticism from members of the committee for not consulting with the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees in 2002, who were Senator Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) and Congressmen James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.).
Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, showed his obvious frustration when both Yoo and Addington tried to evade his questions. He raised his tone of voice and interrupted the witnesses multiple times. He was not the only one to express frustration; Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) also raised his voice a number of times and demanded straight answers from the witnesses.
Dr. Edward Knipling from the Department of Agriculture said that numerous factors have been suggested as possible factors to this problem. According to Knipling, these include “increased pressures from viruses and other pathogens, parasites, environmental stresses, poor nutrition, transport stresses and pesticides.” (0:16)
This morning at a House Committee on Agriculture held a hearing on the decreasing honeybee population. Honeybees are used for producing honey but are also necessary for the annual pollination of other plant life. Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) the chairman of the committee said that top agriculture researchers, in conjunction with the US Department of Agriculture, termed this massive decline in honeybees as “Colony Collapse Disorder” (CCD) and set out to pinpoint the cause of this problem.
Adding their voice to the debate was Häagen Dazs ice cream company which says that more than 40 percent of their flavors are dependent on honeybees for the nuts, fruits and berries that go into their products. According to Häagen Dazs, one of every three bites the average American eats is directly attributed to honeybee pollination. (more…)
On a conference call, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Luke Swarthout, a higher education advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Group, talk about the benefits of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which takes effect July 1st.
On a conference call, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Luke Swarthout, a higher education advocate from the U.S. Public Interest Group, and Quin Gonell, president of the Student Government Association at Salem State College, discussed the many benefits of the upcoming College Cost Reduction and Access Act for students who are struggling to pay off debts. (more…)
Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel Coalition says Congress can help small businesses and airlines by cracking down on oil speculation, strengthening the US dollar, pressuring OPEC to increase oil supplies, and suspending taxes and fees on US airlines until March 2009. (0:56)
Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) says airlines are being forced to eliminate destinations, increase fares, and downsize due to oil costs that have increased $45 billion dollars in eight years. (0:53)
Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) says a lack of runway capacity has forced small airlines into bankruptcy, leaving passengers with fewer choices and less access for small firms to diverse markets. (0:34)
James H. Schwartz, Chief of the Arlington Country Fire Department, says that the federal government needs to reach out more to state and local governments regarding emergency responses to nuclear terrorism at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (0:41)
