Newscast for Monday, August 16, 2010

Risk of disease spreads as Pakistan flooding continues
Today the UN warned that 3.5 million children in Pakistan are at risk for water-borne diseases in the coming days as flood waters continue to wreak havoc throughout the country. The World Health Organization is asking the Pakistani government to investigate a reported case of cholera over the weekend and a UN official said a "second wave" of deaths could be approaching. Aid agencies are struggling to reach people cut off by harsh weather - in order to distribute critical food, water and medical services - to the more than two million who are now homeless. Pakistan's government estimates that 20 million - or one in ten Pakistanis - are affected by the disaster.

For more details - we're joined by Sonia Walia, regional coordinator for Asia at the International Medical Corps, an international humanitarian organization. She's directing relief efforts in Pakistan and joins us from Washington DC.

US officials debate Afghanistan withdrawal dates, use of contractors
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he plans to retire next year. The only holdover from the Bush Administration, Gates has overseen the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for President Obama. His timing would allow for a new secretary to be in place by the time of the 2012 presidential election.

Meanwhile, Gates said he stands by a deadline to begin troop drawdown in Afghanistan. He says the July, 2011 date is set in stone and that there’s “no doubt in anybody’s mind” that the withdrawal will begin next summer. But in a series of interviews over the weekend, General David Petraeus disagreed, opening the possibility of an extended US force to remain in the country. Tanya Snyder has more.

In Russia, disaster spurs support for climate change action
Today, a Russian government official said the record heat that has created a lethal ripple effect of wild fire, drought and smog is due to man-made climate change. The acknowledgment is being viewed as a shift in the country's position on climate change -- though the effect could only be temporary. Jenny Johnson reports.

Americas Social Forum targets militarization in Latin America
Ten thousand people gathered in Paraguay this past week for the Americas Social Forum. Social forums began as a response of civil society to neoliberal economic policies and militarization. Even under sympathetic leftist governments, the struggle for demilitarization in Latin America still remains a key issue at these forums. From Asuncion, Paraguay, Marc Becker reports.

Judicial campaign contributions on sharp rise across US
A new report by a team of legal experts finds that tens of millions of dollars have been poured into state judicial elections over the past decade. The report released today by the Justice at Stake Campaign, the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, and the National Institute of Money in State Politics looks at the past five elections cycles and documents a surge of spending that has more than doubled from the previous decade, to more than $200 million. The report says the influence of money threatens judicial impartiality, due process and the public's support for the US court system.

James Sample is an associate professor at Hofstra University School of Law and coauthor of the report. In an interview with FSRN, Sample summed up the inherent conflict in election money and the judicial process.

“We have a situation where single individuals or single businesses, single stakeholders, really – in litigation before the very judges who are their beneficiaries are spending millions of dollars and then appearing before the beneficiaries of that largesse.”

The study says that out of 29 elections in the nation’s 10 most expensive states a small group of “super spender groups” emerged, each spending close to half a million dollars to influence the outcome of the election. Professor Sample said that the record spending undermines the constitutional role of the judicial branch, pointing to one case in which a West Virginia coal executive spent three million dollars to help elect a single justice.

“We insist, as a matter of constitutional law and as a matter of sound and functioning government, that people really do enter the courtroom, as – to use the phrase that is engraved in many of those courthouses – equals under the law. And nobody wants to be in a situation where they are in litigation – whether you’re a business or individual or whatever – looking across the court room aisle and knowing that your adversary spent a million dollars, let’s say – or in the case of a West Virginia scenario just a few years ago, 3 million dollars – supporting the judge who may ultimately cast the deciding vote in your case.”

The report did note some success in states that adopted public financing, but called for more reforms, such as stronger financial disclosure laws and more rigorous judicial performance evaluations.

You can find the full report, “The New Politics of Judicial Elections, 2000-2009” here: http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource