Archive - Sep 2, 2009

• Financial regulation laws sidelined by health care reform, energy bill
• Green job coalitions develop weatherization industry
• Colombian bill facilitates Uribe re-election
• Colombia´s AWA Indians threatened by army, paramilitaries and guerrilla groups
• Montana reviews right to die with dignity
• Listener letters; In defense of the right to bear arms

• DOJ announces largest pharmaceutical settlement in history
• Afghan voter fraud investigated
• Commonwealth of Nations suspends Fiji’s membership
• Pittsburgh activists threaten to sue city over G20 protest permits

President Obama asked Congress to pass new regulations to overhaul the financial system by the end of this year. But with a busy fall schedule looking at healthcare reform and energy legislation, financial regulation could be one issue too many. FSRN’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reports.

Across the country, new coalitions are forming around the “green” economy.  Today residents of Washington, DC´s Trinidad neighborhood met with environmental groups, trade-workers, politicians and union members to weatherize a townhouse.   FSRN’s Matt Pearson reports on how these groups are working together to create more green jobs.

In Colombia, lawmakers passed a bill that that might lead to President Uribe running for an unprecented third term. The Colombian constitution currently bans presidents from serving more than two four-year terms. But last night Colombia´s Congress approved a referendum through which citizens will decide if their president can run for a third term.

Opposition leaders are outraged by the decision. Presidential candidate Carlos Gaviria says this is the second time Colombian laws would be changed to extend Uribe´s stay in power.  He accused the government of granting Congressmembers special favors to get their votes.

“This is shameful. People must realize that this is a simulation of democracy, a simulation that is greater and greater.  We are getting farther away from the decent rule of law.”

Uribe has not yet said if he will run for re-election although he admits its an issue that “torments his soul.”  Uribe´s one of several Latin American leaders who have recently extended term limits during their tenure.  Colmbia´s Interior Minister Fabio Valencia Cossio justified his government´s efforts to change term limits.

“This is not about the government getting its way. This is about the Colombian people using congress to get their way.  Congress has been able to interpret how most people feel in this country.”

Uribe is widely popular in Colombia, where many citizens praise him for improving security conditions and decreasing attacks by FARC guerrillas. His approval ratings are consistently around 70 percent and pollsters say he could easily win presidential elections next May.

Not everyone in Colombia is happy with the Uribe administration or how the president has handled the war against drug traffickers and the FARC. Indigenous groups widely oppose the President, saying that his efforts to destroy the FARC guerillas, have harmed many rural communities, forcing people off their lands and fueling violence against local indigenous leaders.

One of these groups is the AWA people of southwestern Colombia.  They say they´re caught in the crossfire between the army, the guerrillas and paramilitary groups.  FSRN´s Natalia Viana has their story.

The right to dignity and privacy was center stage Wednesday at a Montana Supreme Court hearing about physician-assisted suicide.  Last year, Montana district-court judge Dorothy McCarter ruled in favor of Robert Baxter, a 76 year old with terminal cancer who sought physician-assisted suicide. McCarter ruled that denying Baxter´s request would have violated Montana´s constitution.   

Mr. Baxter died before he could implement this right. But McCarter´s ruling encouraged other Montana residents to seek physician-assisted suicide. The state of Montana is now appealing Judge McCarters decision at the Montana Supreme Court.

FSRN contacted University of Montana law professor Jeff Renz, to learn more about the legal arguments on both sides of this case.