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Freezing of accounts by IMo state APGA candidate elect is illegal, Imo govt tells Okorocha

2011-05-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

The Imo State government has slammed the state’s governor-elect, Chief Rochas Okorocha, for instructing the state government’s bankers not honour cheques from the current government of Chief Ikedi Ohakim until after the handover on May, 29.

In a release signed by the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr. Elvis Agukwe, the government described the action as illegal as order was being issued from ‘the Office of the Governor-Elect’ which does not exist in the Nigerian constitution and that the action was causing tension in the state.
According to the statement, Chief Okorocha’s order was passed to the banks through his Chief of Staff, one Prince Eze Madumere.

The state said further: "The action of Chief Okorocha is already grinding government machinery to a halt. As I talk to you now, civil servants in the state are becoming restive because the banks, evidently acting under the instruction of Chief Okorocha, have refused to release cheques for their April salaries. Yet Chief Okorocha and his handlers are sending out text messages, telling the civil servants that salaries cannot be paid because the governor used all the money for his campaigns."

The statement further said that aides of Chief Okorocha with a Senator recently went to the office of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (I.B.C) to ransack computers and files in search of contract papers on projects handled at the corporation in the last four years."
The Imo State government described the actions as acts of perfidy and unconstitutional as there is no office of the governor-elect in the Nigerian constitution, saying the state government was unafraid of probe, but that the Chief Okocha should do that only when he assumes office on May 29.

Nigerian Police prepare for possible terrorist attacks in the North

2011-05-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

The death of Al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, has raised the fear of more terrorist attacks in the northern part of the country, sparking concern among the country’s security agencies.

SATURDAY PUNCH investigations during the week showed that the top security chiefs have ordered increased surveillance in the North, particularly on the radical Islamic sect, Boko Haram, which had carried out attacks that led to the death of hundreds of people in Borno, Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Plateau and other adjoining states.

The group is believed to be spreading its tentacles and recruiting miscreants in other parts of the North to carry out armed assaults in furtherance of its war against the government and Western education.

Only last week, the group turned down the offer of amnesty granted to its members by the Borno State Government, saying it did not believe in the Nigerian Constitution and would rather submit to pure Islamic laws (Shari’a).

The Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, had confirmed the security threat the group posed to the nation when he told journalists that the immediate concern of the police was to combat the menace of the Boko Haram insurgents.

He explained that security had been beefed up in some states like Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Plateau and Katsina, where Boko Haram activities were latent, as well as in Borno and Niger, where they enjoyed a measure of sympathy and support.

Ringim stated in Abuja during the week that massive security personnel would be deployed in these states, while intelligence work would be stepped up to root out the menace as soon as possible.

“With the elections over, we will tackle the menace of Boko Haram in the North,” Ringim said. “We will deploy the necessary personnel and equipment there and ensure that we end this threat once and for all. We’re collaborating with other security agencies to achieve this objective.”

Ringim did not give the specifics on how the objective would be accomplished, given the fact that the group had successfully outwitted security agencies several times, using urban guerrilla tactics the police were not fully trained in.

The group recently killed about 14 policemen that were participating in a ‘show of force’ parade in Maiduguri, while the militants lost six men during the surprise attack on the police officers a few days to the governorship election in the state on April 26, 2011.

A senior State Security Service operative told SATURDAY PUNCH that the security agencies were unable to exterminate the group because the issue had been politicised, adding that the objectivity of top security chiefs had been coloured by religious fanaticism and tribalism.

“That is why we have not been able to convict any of the arrested Boko Haram members and others arrested for involvement in security crises in the North. How many of the suspects are still being held now?

“The moment they are taken to Abuja, they are usually granted bail and that would be the end of the matter. For this singular reason, the Boko Haram and other security issues would be with us for a long time because there is no sincerity of purpose in the way the matters are being handled,” he said.

But a top police officer countered this allegation, saying the force had in custody over 200 Boko Haram members, pointing out that their trial was delayed because the Director of Public Prosecution was yet to give an advice on their case.

The officer said, “The suspects are in police custody but we can’t state their location for security reasons. We will like to inform the public when we take them to court, but for the security implications.

“In fact, it is one of the reasons the group has increased its attacks on security personnel, but we’re working to ensure that the arrested members face the law.”

Osama bin laden: Military retains troops in Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, others

2011-05-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

The military high command has decided to extend the deployment of soldiers to some states of the federation as a fallout of the killing of the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, by American troops in Pakistan.

SATURDAY PUNCH investigation showed that the leadership of the military decided to extend the original time frame for the deployment of troops in states such as Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi, Borno and Katsina, which were host to the post-election violence that followed the April 21, 2011 presidential election because of the killing of Osama.

An intelligence source, who confided in our correspondent, said that the military leadership had anticipated a rampage by Islamic fundamentalists loyal to the man reputed to be behind the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, which left over 3,000 people dead.

The source said that if not for the news of the killing of Osama and the subdued tension it had triggered, especially in the North, the soldiers who were deployed for internal security assignment during the elections would have been back in the barracks.

It was learnt that with the feeling in security circles that some groups, especially the Boko Haram and others, were uncomfortable with Osama’s death, an early withdrawal of the troops could pave the way for more violence in the North.

The source added that the country would have been plunged into another crisis if not for the readiness of security operatives to deal decisively with any unrest.

It was gathered that the murder of 10 corps members on election duty in Bauchi State and the public outcry that followed the acts were also said to have prevented fanatics opposed to the killing of Osama from carrying out any attack in the country.

On the effect of Osama’s death on the various fundamentalist groups in the country, the source said that the military would not jump into the immediate conclusion that such elements might not have the capacity to carry out attacks as a result of the death Osama.

The source said that while the death of Osama might have its impact, those in charge of security were not ruling out the fact that there might be individuals, who might be sponsoring and backing such incidents in the country.

He said, “Well, all I know is that the military has not and will not withdraw the soldiers who were posted out on election duty and contain the unrest that followed the declaration of President (Goodluck) Jonathan as the duly elected president of the country.

“I can say that those soldiers are still out there because of the killing of (Osama bin) Laden by the Americans in far away Pakistan.

“You know that both events follow each other closely. I mean the violence that resulted in the killing of those corps members and the death of Osama.

“If not for the public criticism of what happened in Bauchi and the fact that the issue is still on the front burner, maybe there would have been another rampage and wanton destruction of lives and property.

“Well, while one cannot rule out the fact that the death of Osama may weaken the operations of these people, it does not mean that they are out of circulation now. That is why the security agents are not leaving anything to chance.”

: Fresh crises hit PDP state chapters about Ministerial posts

2011-05-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

Fresh crises have hit many state chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party over the struggle for ministerial and other Federal Government appointments ahead of the May 29, 2011 inauguration of the Goodluck Jonathan Administration.

Countrywide investigations by SATURDAY PUNCH showed that the latest crises were triggered by Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party leaders’ directive to the state chapters.

The President and the PDP leaders, it was learnt, had directed each state chapter to submit 10 names for federal appointments.

It was gathered that in the PDP states, governors, state chairmen and ministers were expected to compile the lists.

Ministers and state chairmen of the party are doing the compilation in states where the PDP is not in control.

The lists were expected to be submitted to the President through the national chairman of the party, Dr. Haliru Muhammed.

But in spite of the compilation of the names, it was gathered that the President was keeping his plan on ministerial appointments close to his chest.

“Although the President has asked for names, he knows how to separate the wheat from the chaff. He is his own man. Nobody can dictate to him,” a party official told SATURDAY PUNCH on Friday in Abuja.

Investigations, however, showed that the members’ struggle for inclusion in the appointment lists had deepened the crises in many state chapters.

It was gathered that two lists emanated from the Lagos State chapter of the party. The lists, it was gathered, were compiled by the rival factions of the PDP in the state.

A source in the PDP stated that one of the lists was compiled by a former national official of the party, Chief Bode George, and the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga.

Top on George’s list is Aganga and all members of the PDP executive in the state.

But another group led a former Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, was said to have compiled another one.

Since the release of George from jail in February, the crisis in the state PDP has worsened with some leaders of the party, including Ogunlewe and another elder, Dr. Yomi Finnih, accusing him of seizing control of the party.

The crisis over the appointments came to the fore during the week when some members of the party under the aegis of the PDP Neutral Members wrote the President and the chairman (Muhammed) to intimate them of the developments.

The group had called for the suspension of all appointments until all the factions of the party in the state were united.

Besides Lagos, other states enmeshed in the crises caused by scramble for appointments include Ogun, Osun, Delta and Ondo.

In Ogun State, investigations showed that the ministerial list was compiled by the PDP leaders, including the state chairman, Chief Dayo Soremi; Minister of Commerce and Industries, Chief Jubril Martin-Kuye and the party’s governorship candidate, Chief Adetunji Olurin.

But it was learnt that the state governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, had started making moves to secure a place either in Jonathan’s cabinet or an ambassadorial appointment.

The governor was said to be making a case for the inclusion of at least two of his loyalists from the Peoples Party of Nigeria in Jonathan’s next government.

An aide of the governor, who pleaded anonymity, stated, “The governor, as a strong supporter of the President, can aspire for any appointment. Do not forget that the governor and the PPN members in the state had worked hard for the President in the election of April 16.”

But a source in the state chapter of the party, said, “If the governor and his cronies in the PPN are aspiring for ministerial appointments, they are day-dreaming. They were responsible for the losses suffered by the PDP in the state. They want to reap from where they did not sow.”

In Osun, a group led by a former governor of the state, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, is pitted against some elders of the party led by Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun.

Investigations showed that the two factions presented different lists to the national leadership of the party in Abuja. Oyinlola, who is said to be eyeing a ministerial appointment, is being opposed by the Oyedokun group.

A member of the group, Chief Abiola Ogundokun, had in an interview with our one of our correspondents said, “Abuja must not relate with us on an individual level. Abuja should relate with us as a party and (Alhaji Shuaib) Oyedokun is the leader of the Elders’ Forum of the Osun PDP.

“The Minister of Youth Development, Senator Akinlabi Olasuunkanmi, is the highest federal appointee in Osun. Therefore, no Osun PDP member should solicit federal appointments without carrying the Elders’ Forum along.”

The loss suffered by the Ondo State PDP, it was learnt, had triggered off a crisis in the party with the members trading blame.

The state chapter of the PDP early this month suspended the Defence Minister, Chief Adetokunbo Kayode, from the party.

He was suspended over alleged anti-party activities, an allegation the minister has denied.

It was learnt that a former governor of the state, Dr. Olusegun Agagu, and Senator Bode Olajumoke, who lost in the senatorial poll, were eyeing ministerial appointments.

“The root of the crisis in the party is the struggle for appointments. Do not be deceived, many members do not have the interests of the party,” said a top PDP member.

In Delta State, investigations showed that the struggle for ministerial appointments had rekindled the old rivalry between the PDP factions led by the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, and a former Minister of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, with the two groups opposing each other.

A PDP chief, Mrs. Gloria Adebajo-Fraser, in an interview with SATURDAY PUNCH, advised the President to set up a committee that would come up with the names of qualified Nigerians.

She said, “He needs the best. He needs those who can implement his blueprint to the letter.

“My feeling is that Mr. President should not allow himself to put under pressure. He should set up a committee comprising members of the academia, technocrats and people who have distinguished themselves in their fields to serve in his cabinet.”

South-west PDP meet and agrees on candidate for Speaker post

2011-05-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

The South-West Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} Thursday evening endorsed Ajibola Saubana Muraina to replace the out-going Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole in the next legislative session.

The resolution to endorse 47-year-old Mr Muraina, (Ibarapa central, Oyo State) took place at the party elders caucus meeting held at the residence of former president and Chairman, Board of Trustees of the PDP, Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital. The lawmaker, who trained as a lawyer, was first elected into the House of Representatives in 2007.

The PDP recently agreed that the southwest retains the post of Speaker while the holder of the post, Dimeji Bankole lost his re-election bid last month.

The meeting, which had in attendance all former and outgoing PDP governors of the South west, excluding the Ogun state governor, Gbenga Daniel, also deliberated on the crisis in the party within the region. While the meeting was on-going, Mr Daniel was at a government function few meters away from the venue where he was commissioning the OPIC building located in Oke-Ilewo area of the town.

Mr Muraina's choice was linked to his experience as a member of the House, as it is believed that politicking within the house will not be strange to him. A source said there was no opposition to his choice, as he was described as level headed and a responsible party member.

Other contentious issue that was addressed at the meeting was how to prosecute the appeals instituted by the party against some recently declared election results in the region that are presently before the Election Petitions Tribunal.

However, Chairman of the South west PDP, Tajudeen Oladipo declined comments on the purpose of the meeting, advising journalists to speak with Mr Obasanjo.

Former Ekiti State governor, Segun Oni however told journalists that the meeting was "only a continuation of the past meetings on how to move the party forward."

Hidden and undiscovered secrets of former president of nigera UMARU MUSA YARADUA

2011-05-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

Last week, when the Federal Government and, indeed, Nigerians marked the first anniversary of the death of the late President Umar Musa Yar’Adua, not many knew that for the family, there was not much to cheer about the former number one citizen of the country. This is so because he did not leave anything, in terms of material acquisitions.

For many, this will appear shocking, going by the positions Yar’Adua held. But it’s true. Yes, between 1999 and 2007, Yar’Adua was the governor of Katsina State. While in office, he was hardly in the news. The reason being that apart from his health challenges, he was not given to rabble-rousing or attention seeking.
After his eight years as governor, Yar’Adua became president in 2007. Even as president, he still maintained a low profile and austere lifestyle. All these are common knowledge. But what many may not know is that despite all the years he was in high public offices, controlling enormous public resources, Yar’Adua did not build or buy even a single house. While his colleagues were acquiring magnificent mansions all over the world, he was contented with the family inheritance.

Saturday Sun investigation in Katsina revealed that the late president had only one house when he was alive. The house, it was gathered, was a gift from his late elder brother, General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. It is located in the Government Reserved Area (GRA), Katsina, near the Customs and Excise office.
Checks revealed, however, that while Yar’Adua did not build a house, his wife, Turai, acquired one when the former president was governor. The property, a white bungalow, located on Queen Amina Road, Katsina, is where the former First Lady and her children now live.

Sources revealed that before Yar’Adua died, some friends and associates, apparently scandalised that the president of the country did not have a befitting house, was building one for him behind Katsina Government House. The project, an elegant duplex, which is only waiting for fittings, was abandoned shortly after his death last year.

Those close to Yar’Adua told Saturday Sun that the late president’s simple lifestyle was legendary. Particularly, they say that he was not infested with the theft syndrome. They linked this to his background, having grown up in a family, where his grandfather and father, though comfortable, did not believe in excessive wealth.

It was gathered that when Yar’Adua was governor, he could hardly be distinguished from ordinary folks. Top government officials in the state, who worked with him when he was governor, revealed that the late president used to stroll out of the Government House to maitaba (cigarette shop) to buy Benson and Hedges cigarette. They said that he would light the cigarette and smoke leisurely, as he returned to his office or residence.

Offering insightful perspectives into Yar’Adua’s life, a former aide, who wished to be identified simply as Alhaji Bako, said: “When he was governor, he used to send his caps for re-treading, due to old age. Rather than buying caps all the time, which he considered a waste, he used to send his worn caps to be refurbished. He was that sort of person.”

Bako also said: “At the time Yar’Adua started to campaign for the office of president, he did not have more than 10 pairs of babanriga. It was a Katsina businessman, who sewed dozens of babanriga and gave to him. Even things as ordinary as clothes meant nothing to him.”

52 Parties listed to be removed soon from nigerian parties

2011-05-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

By the time cases at election petitions tribunals are determined, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will invoke a section in the amended Electoral Act to deregister more than 50 political parties, Saturday Sun can authoritatively reveal. When this provision is invoked, only 10 political parties would survive.
Part V, Section 7 of the Electoral Act 2011, as amended, stipulates: “The Commission (INEC) shall have powers to de-register political parties on the following grounds: (i) breach of any of the requirements for registration, and (ii) for failure to win a seat in the National Assembly or state Assembly election.”
A very reliable source in INEC confirmed to Saturday Sun that the Electoral Act is clear on this. But INEC will not take a definite action on the deregistering of the parties until the pending petitions at the tribunals are handled.
The caution is to enable the party know the parties that would not make the survival list and those that would be weeded off.

In the last elections, 63 political parties participated and were expected to win at least one seat in the National Assembly or state Houses of Assembly or risk deregistration. Results of the elections showed that only 10 parties fulfilled the requirement. They include Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Labour Party (LP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Accord Party (AP), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP) and KOWA Party.

About 53 other parties did not meet the requirement and, therefore, maybe deregistered by the time cases at the election petitions tribunal are concluded in 180 day, as stipulated by the Electoral Act. The parties include Action Alliance (AA), Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), African Democratic Congress (ADC), African Liberation Party (ALP), African Political System (APS), African Renaissance Party (ARP), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Better Nigeria Progressive Party (BNPP), Change Advocacy Party (CAP), Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Community Party of Nigeria (CPN), Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Democratic Alternative (DA), Democratic Front for Peoples Federation (DFPF) and Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA).

Others are Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Freedom Party of Nigeria (FPN), Fresh Democratic Party (FRESH), Hope Democratic Party (HDP), Justice Party (JP), Liberal Democratic Party of Nigeria (LDPN), Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN), Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP), Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJ), Movement for the Restoration and Defence of Democracy (MRDD), National Action Council (NAC), National Conscience Party (NCP), National Democratic Liberty Party (NDLP), National Democratic Party (NDP), National Majority Democratic Party (NMDP), National Movement of Progressive Party (NMPP) and National Reformation Party (NRP).

Yet other parties that will be affected are National Solidarity Democratic Party (NSDP), National Transformation Party (NTP), National Unity Party (NUP), New Democrats (ND), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Nigeria Advance Party (NAP), Nigeria Elements Progressive Party (NEPP), Nigeria Peoples Congress (NPC), People for Democratic Change (PDC), Peoples Mandate Party (PMP), Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Peoples Salvation Party (PSP), Progressive Action Congress (PAC), Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN), Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP), United Democratic Party (UDP), United National Party for Development (UNPD) and United Nigeria Peoples Party (UNPP).
Investigation revealed that the realisation that INEC may wield the big stick has caused a division in the polity. While some sections ask INEC to bare its fangs and delist the erring political parties, others, especially the beneficiaries, urge INEC to cause no harm to the offending parties, in the interest of democracy. Those in the latter group have also threatened to drag INEC to court if it dares implement the law.
Barrister Sonnie Ekwowusi, who contested the 2011 election as the deputy governorship candidate of National Transformation Party in Lagos State, told Saturday Sun that his party will drag INEC to court if it goes ahead to implement the provision of the Electoral Act. He further said that democracy is not about winning elections but rather a forum for propagating developmental ideas.

His words: “The late Chief Gani Fawehinmi went to court over this issue and got a favourable judgment from the Supreme Court, which led to the opening of democratic space. We shall go to court again to test the validity of the new law. Democracy is not about winning elections. Democracy is about contributing ideas that nurture democratic culture. There are many political parties in US that have not won election and they still exist.”

He warned INEC not to play into the hands of PDP and ACN, which are agitating for two party-state. He said: “If INEC goes ahead to implement the law, it will lead to one or two party state, which does not augur well for our democracy. This is what PDP and ACN want, but we shall resist it.”
The NCP, which led the crusade for registration of more parties in 2002, has also declared the provisions of the Electoral Act on deregistration of political parties as illegal and threatened to go to court again. Speaking through its national chairman, Chief Femi Falana, the party argues: “The law is illegal. You cannot abort a child that has been born. Parties that are already in existence cannot be destroyed by the law because the interest of the members and their fundamental right to associate has accrued. You cannot wipe out such fundamental right.”

Other Nigerians disagree with some of the submissions of Ekwowusi and his group. They argue that the proliferation of political parties has given rise to an unintended evil of resort to primordial tendencies, as political parties are formed not on issues but religious and ethnic proclivities. According to Joe Igbokwe, Lagos State publicity secretary of ACN, INEC would be doing the polity well if it goes ahead to de-list these parties, as democracy will grow faster taking a cue from the era of NRC and SDP.

He said: “During the NRC and SDP period, both parties won almost equal number of governorship and legislative election. Such situation will create a ruling power but also an equally stronger opposition party.”
Igbokwe added: “All these me-and-my-wife parties should be allowed to go into oblivion, where they belong because they came into existence because INEC was giving them subventions. Now that INEC has stopped doing that, they have no business existing. The only thing they do is to endorse a candidate and PDP has been using them to win election by giving them money to cause division, while PDP run away with rigged victory.”
Other analysts are of the view that parties “without sustainable structures” should be allowed to die natural death, since INEC has stopped funding the parties.
On whether INEC will have the courage to implement the law, some analysts believe that the commission has no discretion in this matter, since it is the requirement of the law. However, they added that INEC’s power to deregister must be supported by an equal power to regulate registration of political parties, otherwise as you deregister, more parties will spring up based on the judgment of the Supreme Court in 2002.

At the dawn of civil democracy in 1999, the Electoral Commission registered only three political: PDP, All Peoples Party (APP) (which later became ANPP) and Alliance for Democracy AD. After the 1999 elections, politicians began agitations for the political space to be increased to accommodate more political parties. When INEC released the guidelines for the registration of parties on May17, 2002 these politicians were disappointed, as they claimed the guidelines were stifling. Some of the provisions of the guidelines demanded that a group seeking to be registered as a political party must have offices in at least 24 states of the federation. Also, the party must submit “the names, residential addresses, and states of origin respectively of the members of its national and state executive committees and the records of the proceedings of the meetings, where the officers were elected.”

Fawehimni and his unregistered party, NCP, headed to court to challenge some of the provisions of the 2002 Electoral Act that empowered INEC to issue such guidelines. The NCP was later joined by PRP led by Alhaji Balarabe Musa, M.D Yusuf’s MDJ, NPC and CP. The suit progressed from Federal High Court and eventually to the Supreme Court then headed by Justice Mohammadu Uwais. On November 8, 2002, Justice Uwais, in a lead judgment, held, among others, that the INEC power to issue the guidelines contravened the 1999 Constitution and thus pronounced the guidelines as invalid. This epochal judgment opened the democratic space, leading to 28 political parties contesting the 2003 elections.

Political analysts believe that as good as the judgment was, in terms of removal of restrictions on party registration, it gave room for mushrooming of parties for political showmanship and self-aggrandizement. The 2006 Electoral Act did not help matters, as it compelled INEC to give yearly subvention to registered political parties. The number of registered political parties moved from 28 to about 54, as parties were formed mainly on the pecuniary interest, with politicians interested only in the subvention doled out by INEC.

If INEC deregisters political parties, this would be the second time this is happening in the country. During the General Abdulsalami Abubakar government, parties were registered based on their ability to win local government elections, which were first conducted. The political associations that did not win any local government seat were not registered to contest the general elections of 1999. In the exercise, only PDP and APP met the provisions, but the government added AD, to appease the South West.
Likely victim parties

10. Better Nigeria Progressive Party (BNPP)
11. Change Advocacy Party (CAP)
12. Citizens Popular Party (CPP)
13. Community Party of Nigeria (CPN)
14. Congress for Democratic Change (CDC)
15. Democratic Alternative (DA)
16. Democratic Front for Peoples
Federation (DFPF)
17. Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA)
18. Freedom Party of Nigeria (FPN)
19. Fresh Democratic Party (FRESH)
20. Hope Democratic Party (HDP)
21. Justice Party (JP)
22. Liberal Democratic
Party of Nigeria (LDPN)
23. Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN)
24. Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP)
25. Movement for Democracy
and Justice (MDJ)
26. Movement for the Restoration
and Defence of Democracy (MRDD)
27. National Action Council (NAC)
28. National Conscience Party (NCP)
29. National Democratic Liberty Party (NDLP)
30. National Democratic Party (NDP)
31. National Majority Democratic
Party (NMDP)
32. National Movement of Progressive
Party (NMPP)
33. National Reformation Party (NRP)
34. National Solidarity Democratic
Party (NSDP)
35. National Transformation Party (NTP)
36. National Unity Party (NUP)
37. New Democrats (ND)
38. New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP)
39. Nigeria Advance Party (NAP)
40. Nigeria Elements Progressive Party (NEPP)
41. Nigeria Peoples Congress (NPC)
42. People for Democratic Change (PDC)
43. Peoples Mandate Party (PMP)
44. Peoples Progressive Party (PPP)
45. Peoples Redemption Party (PRP)
46. Peoples Salvation Party (PSP)
47. Progressive Action Congress (PAC)
48. Republican Party of Nigeria (RPN)
49. Social Democratic Mega
Party (SDMP)
50. United Democratic Party (UDP)
51. United National Party for
Development (UNPD)
52. United Nigeria Peoples Party (UNPP)

: Gadaffi Whereabouts Unknown after NATO Air Strikes

2011-05-14T08:54:00.000-07:00

FOLLOWING NATO strikes on Tripoli yesterday, there were unconfirmed reports that Libyan strongman, Muammar Gaddafi may have fled the Tripoli after sustaining injury in the strikes.
Reuters reported that Gaddafi left the Libyan capital and probably had been wounded by NATO air strikes, a report that Tripoli immediately dismissed as “nonsense.”
“It’s nonsense,” Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said in Tripoli. “The leader is in high morale. He’s in good spirits. He is leading the country day by day. He hasn’t been harmed at all.”
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he heard the report on Gaddafi from the bishop of Tripoli, Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli.
“I tend to give credence to the comment of the bishop of Tripoli, Monsignor Martinelli, who has been in close contact over recent weeks, when he told us that Gaddafi is very probably outside Tripoli and is probably also wounded. We don’t know where or how,“ Frattini said.
NATO allies including the United States, Britain and France are bombing Libya as part of a U.N. mandate to protect civilians and they say they will not stop until the Libyan leader’s 41-year rule ends.
Gaddafi faces a three-month-old uprising by rebels who control Benghazi and the oil producing east of the country.
The government accuses the rebels of being armed criminals and supporters of al Qaeda and says NATO air strikes are an act of colonial aggression.
There was no independent confirmation of Frattini’s report. The Libyan government poured scorn on it, with Libyan government spokesman calling it ‘nonsense.’
The insurgents were to meet senior White House officials in Washington on Friday to seek cash and diplomatic legitimacy in their battle. Rebels are also making a plea for funds they say will help them cling on to besieged positions on the ground.
Libyan state television said a NATO strike on the eastern city of Brega on Friday killed at least 16 civilians and wounded up to 40. It showed footage of at least nine bodies with multiple wounds, wrapped in blankets at an unknown location.
A NATO official in Naples said they did not have any information on the report.
Missile strikes by Gaddafi forces stationed in positions around the rebel-held city of Misrata killed 10 and injured 20, a doctor said.
“Five homes were destroyed, two babies were killed. Their mother was injured and their 4-year-old sister is being operated on now and risks amputation of one of her legs,” the doctor, who gave his name as Khalid, said by telephone from Misrata.
His account could not be independently verified.

How Gunmen Kill Policeman, Others In Borno

2011-05-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

TWO suspected Boko Haram gunmen yesterday killed an inspector of police, Mai Kaidai, Borno Government House duty post.
Also, three gunmen killed the District Head of Mairari, Abba Mukhtar Tijjani at his Budum ward palace on Thursday.
The gunmen hid Kalashnikov rifles under their traditional flowing gowns. They shot the police inspector in the head and Tijjani was shot severally in the head and chest while his brother, Musti, was injured in the leg and arm.
Confirming the killings in Maiduguri, the Borno State police chief, Mohammed Abubakar said: “We have lost another senior police officer attached to the Maiduguri Government House this morning Friday, at 8 a.m. when two Islamic armed sect members on a motorcycle opened fired at Inspector Mai Kaidai in broad daylight at the railway junction.”
He said Kaidai was trailed right from his Madori ward residence, before the suspects shot him in the head and chest .
He said the armed suspects continued to adopt the “guerrilla warfare” in their serial attacks and killings, stating that when the suspects shot and killed the district head, his brother Musti was also shot in the arm and leg before they fled to the neighbouring wards of Abaganaram and Customs Area.
Abubakar, however, said there were no arrests by the police in the Thursday and Friday attacks and killings, adding that the general public should continue to assist the police by providing useful information on the hideouts and modus operandi of the suspected armed sect.

Why Kids Evacuated Over Bomb Scare In Enugu School

2011-05-14T08:47:00.001-07:00

AN unexploded substance suspected to be a bomb was discovered on the premises of a church housing a nursery school in Enugu yesterday.
The school, which is located on the premises of Our Saviour Anglican Church, One Day Road Awkunanaw, Enugu South Local Council Area was in session when workmen digging a sewage pit discovered the suspected explosive. The workmen immediately abandoned their work and left the scene.
The children were immediately evacuated, while the resident priest of the church, Rev. Chukwudi Eneasato alerted security operatives including the police and the State Security Services (SSS).
The Divisional Police Officer for Awkunanaw division, CSP Bassey Ewa who rushed to the scene with his men had on sighting the explosive cordoned off the area and invited the anti-bomb squad of the state police command to recover the object, while men of the SSS carried out a preliminary investigation at the scene.
Upon arrival at the panic-soaked area about an hour later, the anti-bomb squad moved close to the pit where the suspected bomb was discovered and scanned the entire premises before taking away the substance.
Speaking with reporters at the scene, the Zonal Commander of the Police anti-bomb squad who led the operation, ASP Dappa Sogbere said the object was recovered as an ordinance, noting that it would be taken for analysis.
“For now, the much I can say is that what we have is an ordinance which will be taken for laboratory analysis after which the commissioner of police will make the finding public,” Sogbere noted.
Also, the Archdeacon of Achara Layout Arch-deaconry, which controls Our Saviour Anglican Parish, the Venerable Honest Nwosu described the discovery of the suspected explosive as divine.
He, however, allayed fears that the object might have been planted by unknown persons saying that “from what I’ve observed, this object may have been buried there since after the civil war long before we acquired this place but all the same, let’s allow the police to do their work and tell us their findings.”
One of the workmen said he alerted other workers when he discovered the suspected explosive, giving thanks to God that none of the workers was hit by the object.

Nigerian 77 Senators Okay Mark For Senate Presidency

2011-05-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

North Central Caucus Offers Block Vote
Ex-Senate Whip Backs S’East For Reps Speaker
A GROUNDSWELL of support has developed for the bid of David Mark to assume a fresh presidency of the Senate.
Already, no fewer than 77 senators across the six geopolitical zones of the country have endorsed him while senators from the North Central zone have assured him of block vote But, the former Chief Whip of the Senate, Rowland Owie, yesterday criticised moves by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to cede the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to the South West.
He said the position should rather be ceded to the South East where the PDP won “convincingly” in the just-concluded general elections.
Speaking with journalists yesterday, Owie said Mark deserved to remain as president so as to stabilize the system but that the position of the Speaker of the House of Representatives should be ceded to the South East which supported the PDP more than the South West.
“Nigerians should recall that when Obasanjo was President from the South West, one of the other zones from the South produced the Senate President, that was the South East. When Yar’Adua came from North West, one of the other two zones in the North, North Central produced the Senate President. Now the President is from the South South, therefore the logical thing is for one of the two zones in the South to take the Senate President.
“The ideal zone to take it should have been the South East. The Speaker of the House of Reps would have then gone to the zone that is not producing the National Chairman in the North. However, Senator David Mark has performed creditably as the leader of the National Assembly and he needs to be there to give stability to the system.
“The midway alternative that the PDP must adopt will be to retain Mark as Senate President and then zone the Speakership of the House of Reps to the South East. South West must not be in contention at all. After all, the Chairman Board of Trustees, is from South West,” he said.
Addressing a press conference in the National Assembly yesterday where they announced their support for Mark’s ambition, senators from the North Central zone led by Smart Adeyemi said the president of the Senate had performed well by stabilising the polity and deserved to be encouraged to continue in office.
They said Mark had the ability and experience required to steer the ship of the Senate, adding that his leadership in the last four years stabilised the chamber and the entire country.
They listed the “doctrine of necessity”, which pulled the country from the brink of chaos last year when the late President Umaru Musa YarÁdua died as one of the great achievements of the president of the Senate.
“We believe that it’s our responsibility to support him because, we feel he is the best man for that position. He has done an excellent job as Senate president,” Senator Adeyemi said.
“He played a very statesmanlike role in steering the ship of the Senate and he is a listening person who carries every one along. He is also patient and has shamed our critics as far as his military background is concerned.
“He allows for fairness and equality. He also accommodates all views in the chamber, irrespective of party lines. Many did not believe that it would happen but because of his ability and experience, we were able to record success, which also led to the free and fair elections we have had,” they said.
They continued: “ Our standing rules in the Senate favour Senator David Mark and let us also inform you that this representation cuts across party lines and we are sure that at the end of the day, we are all going to have the kind of Senate president that we would all be proud of.”
They maintained that a lot of reforms were introduced in the polity and it would only be favourable for the country if Mark remained in office for the sake of continuity.
“There are a lot of reforms that are ongoing and democracy would suffer should we drop Mark because the speaker of the House of Representatives is not coming back,” they posited.
Some other senators-elect, including former governor of Nassrawa State, Dr. Abdullahi Adamu, spoke glowingly about Mark: “I am not here by accident. I am here because I believe that he has the ability and experience. I knew him as a captain in the Nigerian army. I have also followed his activities since he became a senator in 1999 and I was elected governor of Nassrawa State.
“I have worked closely with him and I know he is competent. I also believe that off-loading parliamentarians cannot help the system.”
Adeyemi who is also one of Mark’s campaign managers disclosed that as at the last count, 77 senators-elect had signed for Mark. “We are here this afternoon to address the press on our position. I remember in 2007, we addressed a similar press conference even though we did not have any idea of the ability of distinguished senator David Mark ability.
“Now we are talking to you because we cannot afford not to support David Mark because we feel he is the best with very outstanding qualities.
“We, as senators from the north central zone feel that he is the best choice for now. We also believe that some of the speculations that some people may contest the position of the senate may be put to rest there might be no contest at all. As we speak to you, 77 senators have endorsed the candidature of David Mark for Senate president’’, he declared.
Former governor of Plateau State and senator-elect, Joshua Dariye said: “This project is such that would move this country forward. I am part of this process and the project would work.”

WHY 80 Die In Pakistan Blasts

2011-05-14T08:19:00.000-07:00

It’s Revenge For Bin Laden’s Death, Says Taliban
AMID global doubts about the capability of Pakistain to contain terrorism, a fresh wave of terror attacks swept through the country yesterday, claiming 80 lives.
The 80 persons were killed when suicide bombers attacked recruits leaving a paramilitary training centre in Pakistan .The Pakistani Taliban claimed it carried out the attacks to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden.
The blasts in the northwest were a reminder of the savagery of al-Qaida-linked militants in Pakistan. They occurred even as the country faces international suspicion that elements within its security forces may have been harbouring bin Laden, who was killed in a raid in Abbottabad, about a three hours’ drive from the scene of the bombing.
“We have done this to avenge the Abbottabad incident,” Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told the Associated Press in a phone call.
The bombers blew themselves up at the main gate of the facility for the Frontier Constabulary, a poorly equipped but front-line force in the battle against al-Qaida and allied Islamist groups like the Pakistani Taliban close to the Afghan border. Like other branches of Pakistan security forces, it has received U.S. funding.
Sixty-six of the dead were recruits, said police officer Liaqat Ali Khan. The scene of the blast was littered with shards of glass mixed with blood and human flesh. The explosions destroyed at least 10 vans the recruits were boarding to go home for a break at the end of a recent training session.
Khan said at least 80 people died in the attack, while around 120 were wounded. It was the first major militant attack in Pakistan since bin Laden’s death in a May 2 U.S. raid in the city of Abbottabad, and one of the deadliest to hit the country ever.
Militants had pledged to avenge the killing and launch reprisal strikes in Pakistan.
Ahsan, Taliban spokesman, suggested the attack was aimed as punishment against Pakistani authorities for failing to stop the unilateral U.S. raid that killed bin Laden, something that has sparked popular nationalist anger.
“Also, the Pakistani army has failed to protect its land,” he said.
The explosive vests were packed with ball bearings and nails, police said.
A vegetable vendor at the site said some recruits were seated in white minivans and others were loading luggage atop the vehicles.
“There was a big blast,” he said. “I saw smoke, blood and body pieces all around.”
Police official Nisar Khan said a suicide bomber in his late teens or early 20s set off one of the blasts.
“The first blast occurred in the middle of the road, and after that there was a huge blast that was more powerful than the first,” said Abdul Wahid, a 25-year-old recruit whose legs were wounded in the blasts.
He said he was knocked to the ground by the force of the explosions.
“After falling, I just started crawling and dragging myself to a safer place ... along the wall of a roadside shop,” he said.
The September 11, 2001 mastermind and at least four others were killed by U.S. Navy SEALs who raided bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, a garrison city not far from the capital. Bin Laden is believed to have lived in the large house for up to six years.
Pakistani officials have denied knowing he was there but have criticized the American raid ordered by President Barack Obama as a violation of their country’s sovereignty.
To counter allegations it had harbored bin Laden, they have pointed out that tens of thousands of their own citizens have died in suicide and other attacks since September 11, 2001, when Islamabad became an ally of the U.S. in taking on Islamist extremists.
Many of the attacks in Pakistan have targeted security forces, but government buildings, religious minorities, public places and Western targets have also been often hit.

70 Boko Haram Suspects Moved To Kirikiri •Kill Police Inspector, District Head •Security Beefed Up

2011-05-14T08:13:00.000-07:00

Following transfer of about 70 suspected Boko Haram Islam sect members from northern part of the country, security measures around the Maximum Security Prison, Kirikiri, Apapa, Lagos State, may have been tightened on the orders of the Federal Government.
Saturday Tribune gathered that the suspects, who are awaiting trials, were said to have been recently transferred to Lagos from different prison custodies and police stations in parts of the northern Nigeria to ensure maximum security.
It was further learnt that the Federal Government might have instructed both the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) and the Nigeria Police High Command to take the suspected Islamic fundamentalists to the Maximum Security Prisons, Lagos in order to prevent further attacks on the prisons and police stations by some members of the sect who are still at large.
A visit by the Saturday Tribune to the Kirikri on Thursday revealed that the prisons authorities and their Naval counterparts had instructed their personnel to tighten security measures around the prison because of unforeseen circumstances.
At the Nigeria Prison Co-operative Society’s multipurpose shop along Kirikiri Road, stern looking prison guards were seen conducting stop and search routine duty on motorists and commercial motorcyclists.
They were asking motorists to identify themselves as well as open the booths of their cars for a search to be conducted before they were allowed to proceed on their journey towards the Nigerian Navy Town, Ojoo.
However, none of the officials of the prisons service could speak on the matter when Saturday Tribune visited on Friday as they all claimed that they were not allowed to talk with the press for security reasons.
A source informed Saturday Tribune that the measure was to ensure that no strange objects were taken to the prison premises without a proper check being conducted on such a person or groups of persons who might have brought the objects.
The source, who craved for anonymity, stated that since the awaiting trial Boko Haram suspects were brought to Lagos, every prison officials and their counterparts Naval personnel had reinforced security in their respective areas of responsibilities, with the view that no one breaks into the prisons custody to forcibly release the suspects from protective custodies.
Meanwhile, A police inspector, Maina Kadai, was, on Friday morning, in Maiduguri, Borno State, shot dead by gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram religious sect.
The officer, attached to the convoy of the state governor, was reportedly gunned down at about 7.00 a.m. while he was on his way to his duty post at the Government House.
An eyewitness said the assailants waylaid the deceased at a railway crossing around the state Low Cost Housing Estate and opened fire on him as soon as he got to the location on his motorcycle.
A police source said that the gunmen might have had the movement of the inspector monitored before carrying out the act.
The district head of Mairari in the metropolis was also reportedly killed in a separate attack on Thursday night.
Saturday Tribune observed that the police intensified the stop-and-search operation on Friday in some parts of the state, especially Maiduguri, even as pedestrians were frisked.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abdullahi Lawal, told journalists that the checkpoints were mounted in an effort to curb the menace of Boko Haram.

Those Who Will Not Make Jonathan's Cabinet •As Women Lobbyists Mount Pressure On First Lady

2011-05-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

As President Goodluck Jonathan continues to grapple with intense pressure on constitution of his next cabinet,
indications are rife that he has set the standard for anyone who craves to make list of nominees for ministerial appointment, else such person should forget about being appointed.
Saturday Tribune checks in the Presidential Villa revealed that the new cabinet will comprise of both old and new members, with criteria already listed for whoever will eventually make the list.
According to findings, few of the current ministers will be retained by the president and their retention will be based on performance in the positions they currently occupy and whether they will add value to the new government.
It was learnt that President Jonathan is really searching for technocrats, well experienced key players as well as goal-getters to be part of his new cabinet, believing that Nigerians are currently impatient and want people who will deliver as ministers.
“The president is looking at whether the persons to be made ministers have requisite qualifications and whether they will be big players. He wants those who will not be pre-occupied with self interest, but would consider Nigeria’s interest as paramount,” a source said.
Finding also revealed that the president is looking for a team player to drive the goals of his administration and not people with solo mission, even as it was gathered that successful candidates for ministerial position must not have cases of fraud against them or be involved in shady deals.
Based on the standards set and high expectations Nigerians have of the in-coming cabinet, Saturday Tribune learnt that the presidency has set up a high-powered committee, even unknown to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leadership, to conduct rigorous screening of a list of over 360 nominees forwarded by state chapters of the party from across the country.
According to a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, President Jonathan will likely unveil his new ministers a week or two after his inauguration on May 29, 2011.
Meanwhile, the manner of short-listing of nominees in some states of the federation have started generating ripples as stakeholders in some of the states are accusing the party of failing to carry along most members.
This is coming as more women, who crave to get ministerial appointments, have continued to hover around the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, inundating her with their curriculum vitae which they had submitted through party elders from different states.
The pressure on the First Lady had stemmed from the vows by President Jonathan to uphold the promise of 35 per cent appointment for women as she had all along demonstrated strength to make good the promise on her own account.
Some top officials in the First Lady’s office confided in Saturday Tribune that the manner Dame Patience brought into the cabinet the current Minister of Women Affairs, Josephine Anenih and former Minister of Information and Communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili, elicited women’s confidence, a reason many of them have been pressurising her through wives of their respective governors.

Google AdSense: Facts, FAQs and Tools

2011-03-12T04:10:00.001-08:00

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Google AdSense: Facts, FAQs and Tools

Google AdSense is probably one of the most popular revenue generators in the Web. We hear the stories about bloggers-genies, who manage to turn their blogs into cash machines overnight. However, it’s not that simple to find the actual tips, which stick to Google policies, might increase your revenues and don’t try to trick out the readers of your weblog.
We’ve spent several hours, trying to find out, what might increase your Google AdSense income and which tools you can use to observe and track your revenues. We’ve selected the key-points of successful stories and useful tips as well as Google AdSense sites and services you can use on a daily basis. Let’s take a look.

Things You Probably Don’t Know About Google AdSense

“AdSense Earning = Impression-count x Click-though-rate x Cost-per-click x smart-pricing-factor. Viewing your on website will not get you banned. Just make sure you don’t click on the ads.
However, repeatedly reload your page to jack up page impressions can get you banned. Click-through-rate (CTR) is ratio of clicks per impressions. It can range from 0.1% to 30%, but most commonly around 1% to 10%.”
[100 Google Adsense Tips]
“First impressions count: make sure the ad unit with the highest CTR is the first ad unit in the HTML code of your page. Keep in mind that the first ad unit in the source code is not always the first ad unit that your users will see when the page finishes loading in their browser.”
[Inside AdSense: First impressions count]
“Ads placed near rich content and navigational aids usually do well because users are focused on those areas of a page. on pages where users are typically focused on reading an article, ads placed directly below the end of the editorial content tend to perform very well.”
[Where should I place Google ads on my pages?]
“Format is important for multiple ad units, display your ad units where repeat users will notice them, place a leaderboard immediately after the last post.”
[Six AdSense optimization tips for forums]
“The middle, above the fold location performs the best. Best performing ad format is the large rectangle, 336×280. So the wider ad formats are doing better than the other ones and the reason is that they actually take up fewer lines. And so with every additional line, you have a chance of losing that interested user.
So the wider formats do best so specifically, the top three formats are the 336×280 that you see on the page; the 300×250 medium rectangle; and then the 160×600 wide skyscraper.
We have a feature in the AdSense account where you are able to multi-select different color palettes that blend with your site to add some variety and freshness to the ads. And that also will help decrease ad blindness.”
[Google AdSense Optimization Webinar]
“The second most active placement in terms of click-throughs tends to be the right-hand rail or margin”. “Skyscrapers” and vertical banners do well when placed next to the content in the main body. Square and rectangle ads placed within the center column also do well, provided they are placed in context to the content. Ads placed below the fold tend to perform least well, although that isn’t a hard-and-fast rule.”
[Yahoo! Publisher Network: Location, location, location...]
“I found the most success in placing the Google Adsense medium rectangle either right in the middle of the page or in a middle right column as long as it has content above and below the ad unit. Its is fine to use Adsense Ads on a forum however expect a very low CTR.”
[Google Adsense Tips for Webmasters]
“Post Adsense ads on text rich pages, avoid titles like the approved ‘Sponsored Links’ and ‘Advertisements’, place Ads above the fold, Match the colors of your ads with the colour scheme of your site, Blend ads with your page – remove the borders by having a similar color as your background.”
[How to Increase Google Adsense CTR]
“To remove Public Service Ads (PSA) in Google Adsense develop sufficient good content with keywords, Ensure that META tags like ‘title’ & ‘description’ and the headings tags like h1, h2 etc. have content which matches the rest of your site.”
[How to Remove Public Service Ads (PSA) in Google Adsense]
“You can now run AdSense on the same page as other contextual ad programs.” (January 2007)
[It's official! You can now run AdSense on the same page as other contextual ad programs]
“Google AdSense Policy: We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads.”
[Inside AdSense: Ad and image placement: a policy clarification]
“Section targeting uses certain html tweaks to force the google adsense bot to focus on specific content. Section targeting is the latest and most effective addition to AdSense”.
[Display Relevant Adsense Ads Using Section Targeting]
“Over the weekend, I decided to change the number of ads units on my blog based upon where the traffic is coming from. I have a small PHP function that checks to see if the referrer is a search engine, and if it is, I display and additional 2 ad units. My Adsense revenue increasing by 284% on Saturday, Sunday and Monday!”
[Positive Adsense Experiment]
“Never click your own adsense ads or get them clicked for whatever reason. Never change the Adsense code. Do not run competitive contextual text ad (2006) or search services on the same site. Do not mask ad elements. Avoid excessive advertising and keyword stuffing.”
[ 15 Common Mistakes that Violate Google Adsense TOS ]
“Putting ads on your site won’t hurt your traffic. There are 6 sorts of bloggers’ income: Google Adsense, Donations (e.g. PayPal), Text Link Ads (sold for a fixed amount per month), Chitika eMiniMalls ads (pay per click), affiliate programs like Amazon, Advertising sold to individual advertisers (three-month campaigns or longer)
[How to Make Money From Your Blog - a VERY extensive article]
“A number of factors come into play when AdSense tries to determine what the page is about: The URL of the page, the page title, the anchor text of links, the keywords that appear most frequently within the page, search engine queries that lead to the page or to another page that links to the page”.
[How to Get Relevant AdSense Ads (Especially For Bloggers)]
“Ask yourself if you are willing to compromise your blog’s layout and over-all feel by adding ads in them. Look at your traffic and see if it’s enough to draw the crowd. Make good use of the Ad Channels. Give it time.”
[Tips on Blog Adsensification]
“You can put upto 3 AdSense units on a page. For short articles, CTR is best when ads are placed just above the content. For long articles, CTR improves if ads are placed somewhere in middle of the content. Go Wide – the large rectangle 336×280 is the best paying adsense format.”
[Adsense Tips, Layout Optimization Tricks for HigherCTR]
“Google AdSense folks have unveiled another useful feature for Adsense publishers – Section Targeting. The concept is simple but the advantages and possibilities are endless.”
[Display relevant Ads in Blogs: Just suggest Google]

Google AdSense: Google’s Information and Tools

Google AdSense FAQ
the Adsense support for official guidelines.
Google AdSense Help Page provides a very detailed FAQ about Google AdSense. Learn optimization essentials, how to design successful ads, savvy ad placement and how to use features wisely.
Google Adsense Program Policies.
Google AdSense Ad Formats
an overview.
Google AdSense Success Stories provided by Google itself. Many interesting insights in concrete decisions, which helped to increase Google AdSense revenues.
Google AdWords: Keyword-Tool
The Keyword Tool generates potential keywords for your ad campaign and reports their Google statistics, including search performance and seasonal trends. Start your search by entering your own keyword phrases or a specific URL. You can then add new keywords to the green box at the right.

Google AdSense Tools, Services

Getting The Most Out Of Adsense: Top 10 Adsense Tools
Contextual Ads Preview/Comparison Tool (for Google Adsense, Yahoo YPN, Chitika eMiniMalls), AdSense Calculator, AdSense SandBox, AdWords Bidding Tool/Traffic Estimator.
List of AdSense Trackers
15 AdSense trackers.
AdWords and AdSense tools directory
1200 tools and services for Google AdWords and Google AdSense.
Google Adsense Tips and Tools Collection
a compilation of common Google tips and tools to make more money from Google Adsense. Among them dozens of AdSense Tools.
AdLogger » Open-Source Click Fraud Prevention and Click Monitoring
intends to prevent click-fraud on your websites by tracking visitors clicks and limiting the number of clicks one may make. AdLogger tracks AdSense clicks in real time and compiles the data for you to review.
AdsBlackList.com – Filter them and increase your revenue !
increase your adsense revenue up to 50%, increase the reputation of your website by NOT linking to Made for Adsense sites, save the quality of contextual advertising in global.
Adsense Notifier
displays your Adsense earnings on the Firefox statusbar.
AdSense Tracking Software | The Cutting-Edge Ad Tracking Solution
reveals the precise AdSense Ads that are being clicked most frequently on your site, the exact pages that your AdSense Ads are being clicked on, the actual Ad Formats that are bringing you the most clicks and more.
Free Charts Generated from your Google Adsense Reports
Charts include: total earnings, clickthru-rate, earnings per click, number of clicks, earnings per impression, number of page impressions, earnings by day of week and earnings by day of month. Most of charts include 7-day moving averages which allow you to spot trends within your results.
Using The Competitive Ad Filter To Increase AdSense Earnings
The purpose of the Competitive Ad Filter is to enable you to block specific ads, such as competitor’s ads, from appearing on your pages.

Google AdSense Tips, Resources

Adsense Tips for Bloggers
an extensive series of articles on how to make money from the Google Adsense Program. By Problogger Darren Rowse.
16 Adsense Optimized WordPress Themes to Maximize your Contextual Ad Earnings
Ads Minded, Typo XP Reloaded, Seo AdSense and Problogger Clean.
10 Best WordPress Plugins for Google Adsense
among them AdSense Deluxe, AdRotator WordPress Plugin.
Monetizing WordPress Plugins
an overview of 8 AdSense-Plugins you can use with WordPress blog engine. AdSense Widget WordPress Sidebar, AdSense Paster, AdSense Injection and more.
What are alternatives to Google AdSense?
46 alternatives, among them Yahoo Publisher Network. Over 70 more services can be found on Other Advertising Networks Besides Google AdSense
AdSense Forum
is one of the most popular AdSense-related forums in the Web with thousands of questions and answers.
How To Market Your Blog in 2007
41 ways to kickstart your marketing efforts.
AdSense Niches
If you want to make money with Adsense, NicheGeek’s free AdSense niches will show you exactly what niche you need to be in if you want to make 20, 30, 50, 70 cents per click or even more.

Sven LennartzThe Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine. Former writer, web designer, freelancer and webworker. Author of several books. Runs the business.

Tags: adsense, advertising, google

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Philip Arthur Moore
March 22nd, 2007 9:36 amYou’ve outdone yourselves this time around guys.

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Dave
March 22nd, 2007 10:34 amExcellent references, thanks for the compilation!

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Keith
March 22nd, 2007 12:13 pmSmashing Magazine rules. Thanks

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Uzbek
March 22nd, 2007 3:22 pmGreat compilation.
PS. Adding a del.icio.us button to your posts would make my life so much easier :))
Thanks yet again.

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Michael M
March 22nd, 2007 8:57 pmThanks for gathering all this useful information in just one place.

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Chris James
March 22nd, 2007 9:41 pmYour lists rule :)

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Avinash
March 22nd, 2007 10:53 pmAwesome! It’s nice to see so many great tutorial links on a single page!
Thanks for your great efforts!

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deepimage
March 22nd, 2007 11:10 pmThank you for the fantastic information and links. This site is one of he first rss feeds I read every day. Keep up the good work.

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H Man
March 23rd, 2007 12:45 amWhile this article is about where to place your google ads to get the most clicks, it also promotes the most annoying usability issue on the web right now (besides those annoying ads the float into the content area) people who place there google ads front and center on the top of the page, in the middle of the content area with a white background are just trying to attempt to get people to mistakenly click on the google ad verses actually finding the content they come to the page for in the first place. It’s annoying, silly and sadly done by this very site :(
Great another .05 to annoy your users, GREAT!?

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Mac
March 23rd, 2007 2:27 amGreat… there goes my productivity for the rest of the day… Thanks a lot.. :)

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Sherif Mansour
March 23rd, 2007 7:58 amSmashing Magazine, thanks once again. Great list

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Pensador
March 23rd, 2007 8:50 amGreat list–I shall apply these tips to my own blog!

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Hoowa!
March 23rd, 2007 9:14 amI wonder what the mysterious “smart-pricing-factor”… is?

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Sergio Gandrus
March 23rd, 2007 2:21 pmVery good tips.
I didn’t know about the Firefox extension

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Bastiaan
March 23rd, 2007 4:37 pmAwesome tips. Means i have to start coding again. Nevermind.

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Cruz
March 23rd, 2007 5:49 pmThanks for the tips!!!

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Domester.NET
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geekMethod
March 24th, 2007 10:20 amGreat resource for just about any AdSense user, beginner or not. We’ll be passing this along to our listeners.

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19
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Milan Kryl
March 24th, 2007 10:04 pmNice bunch of links and all information about Google AdSense. I prefer especially tip – to modify page for visitors from search engines.

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20
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Everyday Weekender
March 26th, 2007 2:57 amwow!.. great post!

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Vern from Blog Simply
April 18th, 2007 6:36 pmGreat tips – I’m still reading them – only 30% done! I like the theme of your site – is it a custom?

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Motorcycle Guy
April 22nd, 2007 11:19 amThis is a really good list. I’m still debating on whether to try out adlogger. I’m not really sure if the data it provides will be worth it, or if it’ll be just another pointless set of data I analyze often.

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Pablo Rosales
May 6th, 2007 10:18 amWow, great collection, love this web site, just smashing

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Francois
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Baldai
June 6th, 2007 5:03 pmVery good tips, but if some one want to make money from adsence it need a lot of work.

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26
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J.F. Lucero
June 17th, 2007 11:18 amI am having problem making Adsense Injection work for my blog and looking for a tutorial. Look what I have found…. lots of great stuff that I can use and refer to… Great compilation!

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androo
June 22nd, 2007 12:48 amawesome and interesting content… good post!

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CL
June 24th, 2007 1:37 pmBookmarked…this is invaluable – thanks!

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moto
July 21st, 2007 4:06 amThanks for the tips!
see u

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30
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tibnee
August 7th, 2007 11:19 amhi,
can you please refer me to a URL or give me tips on how to add adsense ads on webpage like you have added one infront of text on this page.Thanks

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31
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Robotics
August 17th, 2007 6:40 amvery good tips.
now, I know why I had not been genrating revenue from my site
Thanks smashingmagazine.

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32
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Mark's Backup
September 1st, 2007 9:52 pmThis is a Smashing article witch I bookmarked! I have been using Adsense now for a few months and the suggestions from Goolge are in contradict of some of these above. I just integrated some of these suggestions and hope to see the revenue rise. Thanks!

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yosax
September 8th, 2007 3:27 amThe article and web sources is a good source for me.

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tuvie
September 14th, 2007 4:33 pmthe wider format doesn’t work quite good in my case, the CPC is very low, after replaced it with smaller ads, then I see an increasing on the per click revenue

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35
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tobey canobie
November 13th, 2007 9:41 ami cant believe the plethora of free information you provide this is awesome! a person could save alot of time going thru trial and error trying to figure out what you already know. and its in easy to learn english, unlike the online2income one i read, was confusing, but this ones for dummies. thanks!

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good for beginner
January 9th, 2008 6:54 amgood for beginners

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Google Adsense Tips
January 11th, 2008 11:09 amExcellent tips. Thanks!

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momoy
January 12th, 2008 1:48 amYeah I’m the adsense beginner and I read this useful articles thanks.

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Rajeev Edmonds from Adsense Primer
February 2nd, 2008 1:34 amThe clarification of not repeatedly refreshing the web pages is very important tip for new Adsense publishers. Although if your site or blog is new or in the process of revamp the page impressions may increase, but Google is smart enough to detect that.

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anglictina
February 7th, 2008 12:50 amVery nice for begginer with adsense, thank you

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azlio
March 5th, 2008 12:44 pmAlready bookmarked !
Thanks

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42
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cexut
March 5th, 2008 12:48 pmI’m adsense beginner too and I think it’s very useful articles.

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Bjorn
March 14th, 2008 1:54 amAlot of great info to find here on this website, such as this adsense stuff!
I’m working on a website too that contains heaps of info about Google, Adsense, Internet and such

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44
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goldy
March 15th, 2008 8:08 amAs an AdSense newbie I found these articles very inspiring! Thanks

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Supplements Canada
May 5th, 2008 8:16 pmI find Google adsense and pay per click advertising to be an invaluable marketing tool. Great post!
That google is a monster hey?

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RONZAN
May 13th, 2008 4:27 pmme too!

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Pradeep
August 24th, 2008 11:07 amHello
Sir
I have a website & submit the URL address & submit the website in google adsence but your respone is zero.plz reply me why?

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48
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aroon
October 5th, 2008 8:25 pmwhat a complete list, i would rather create a delicious button to simplify my visitor to add my blog to their reading list

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Godfrey
November 12th, 2008 2:45 amI am new in adsense,how could one benefit immensely from adsense in terms of financial rewards as a publisher.

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Hot-lyts
November 23rd, 2008 9:27 pmNice tips =)

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Danyela999
December 23rd, 2008 12:50 amInteresting article!

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Jafri
February 13th, 2009 11:04 pmGr8 information, thanks for sharing

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March 16th, 2009 10:11 amwow…………..!!!!!!!!!!

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Sereyboth
June 14th, 2009 5:09 pmThankk! Googd

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Ali Qayyum
October 29th, 2009 3:21 amawesome sharing

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sanbik
June 11th, 2010 3:11 amhttp://www.sanbik.co.cc/2010/04/free-download-untold-adsense-facts-that.html
free download google adsense untold facts

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lucifershanbin721
July 18th, 2010 11:38 pmThe time for lovers is always precious and easily elapses from fingers. Since then, why not record the happy time with chic accessory. Designer couple watch is the best keepsake for lovers to memorize their happiness. However, the original high-end couple watches are all sold at hefty prices which are usually far beyond the reach of many

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leon
November 2nd, 2010 12:37 amThis is wonderfull!!!I just integrated some of these suggestions and hope to see the revenue rise. Thanks!

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59
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Irena Goin
January 20th, 2011 4:18 amI do agree with all the ideas you have presented in your post. They’re very convincing and will certainly work. Still, the posts are too short for newbies.Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thanks for the post

Reply

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Hot-car deaths rise for children in 2010

2011-01-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

Hot-car deaths rise for children in 2010At least 49 children died last year of heatstroke while trapped in hot cars, trucks, vans or SUVs, according to meteorologist Jan Null of San Francisco.This is the most deaths nationwide in a year since Null began keeping track in 1998.

"I really wish we knew why this year was so horrific," says Null, an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University.

Parts of the country may have been hotter than normal, but such fatalities can happen even at relatively normal temperatures.

The year's final death was on Oct. 3, in Miramar, Fla., when a 1-year-old girl died after being left inside a vehicle for several hours, according to The Miami Herald.

Null says at least 494 children have died since 1998 from heatstroke (also known as hyperthermia) in vehicles in the USA. In an average year, 38 children die from being trapped in hot vehicles.

Although July is the deadliest month for children in cars, it's not strictly a summertime issue. Null's research shows that children have died as early as February and as late as December.

"One of the take-aways from my research is that it does not have to be an extremely hot day for these incidents to happen," he says.

Texas had the most such deaths last year with 13, followed by Florida with six deaths and Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky with three each.

Cars transform into ovens when direct sunlight heats objects inside. Temperatures can soar to 120 or 130 degrees even when the outdoor temperature is only in the 80s. "Hyperthermia can sneak up on you," Null says.

People can lose consciousness. The body's natural cooling methods, like sweating, can shut down once the core body temperature reaches 104 degrees; death occurs at 107 degrees, Null says.

Children are particularly vulnerable, Null says, because they have difficulty escaping from a hot vehicle on their own, and their respiratory and circulatory systems can't handle heat as well as adults'.

Null says children should never be left in vehicles for any period of time.

"I'm an advocate for zero time," he says. "You don't leave a child in the car for a 10-minute run into the bank because it ends up being 30 minutes because the person in front of you has 14 foreign checks to cash."

Since the mid-1990s, the number of children who died of heat exhaustion inside vehicles has risen dramatically. Null says one reason for that was the requirement for children to sit in back seats after juvenile deaths from air bags peaked in 1995. Children are more easily forgotten in the back seat instead of the front.

There have been no children's deaths from front-seat air bags since 2003, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Null has been working recently with the National Weather Service about raising awareness as it issues heat alerts. Last summer, he says, the weather service started mentioning not to leave children in hot vehicles and adopted the slogan "Beat the Heat, Check the Back Seat."

Contributing: Associated Press

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.

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Afghanistan watchdog fires 2 top deputies

2011-01-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Criticized for incompetence and mismanagement, the U.S. official assigned to combat corruption in the multibillion-dollar effort to rebuild Afghanistan on Tuesday announced the firing of two top deputies and pledged to focus on financial fraud and waste.The moves come a few months after key members of Congress urged President Barack Obama to dismiss Arnold Fields, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who chairs the Senate contracting oversight subcommittee, and other senators have said that Fields' office has failed to aggressively oversee the $56 billion the U.S. has committed since 2002 to improving schools, roads, electricity and medical facilities in Afghanistan.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Fields said that the organization's upper ranks needed "new blood," and he rejected the idea that the changes were made to keep him from being fired. "This is not about saving Arnie Fields' job. This is about making SIGAR a better organization," he said, using the shorthand name for his office.

Fields said he removed John Brummet, the assistant inspector general for audits, and Raymond DiNunzio, the assistant inspector general for investigations. Their deputies will serve in acting capacities while Fields searches for replacements. DiNunzio will remain with the organization for 60 to 90 days as an adviser, Fields said. Brummet may also stay on for a limited period in a different capacity, he said.

Brummet joined the office in January 2009. Prior to that, he spent 35 years at the Government Accountability Office. DiNunzio, a former FBI special agent, was hired in September 2009. Brummet and DiNunzio did not immediately respond to telephone calls and e-mails seeking comment.

McCaskill said Tuesday that she's glad Fields is acknowledging improvements are needed in his office, but she said she still wants Obama to dismiss him. "SIGAR's shortcomings start at the very top and the changes need to happen there, as well," she said in an e-mailed statement. "Until there is new leadership, my concerns remain."

At a hearing in November, McCaskill sharply criticized Fields, telling him he was not the right person for the job. She said his office had completed only a few audits of Afghanistan reconstruction contracts even though thousands of contracts worth billions of dollars had been awarded for rebuilding work.

Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., the contracting oversight subcommittee's top Republican, echoed McCaskill's concerns.

"I just want you to follow the money," Brown said at the hearing. "I want to know if there's any bribes or payoffs going on."

On Tuesday, Fields said the organizational moves will make the office more efficient at monitoring how U.S. tax dollars are spent in Afghanistan. There will be more emphasis on contract oversight and financial corruption, he said, and added that an ongoing review of the office's operations could result in more staff changes.

In a letter to Obama in late September, McCaskill, along with Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, called SIGAR a "failing organization" in need of new leadership.

An analysis by Coburn's staff showed that the inspectors general at the Pentagon, State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development and for Iraq reconstruction have all been much more efficient than SIGAR at generating savings and recoveries through their audit and investigative work.

View the original article here

John Wheeler seen day before body found in landfill

2011-01-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

By Chad Livengood The (Wilmington, Del.) News JournalNEWARK, Del. — Police said Tuesday that they had narrowed down the last location where a slain former Pentagon official was believed to have been seen before his body was found at a landfill on New Year's Eve.John Wheeler III, 66, a military consultant who served three Republican presidents, was last seen in Wilmington about 3:30 p.m. Thursday by a member of the public, said Lt. Mark Farrall, the Newark police spokesman.

Farrall said police were able to verify the tipster's information but would not say how.

Wheeler's body was uncovered Friday when a garbage truck emptied its contents at the Cherry Island landfill in Wilmington. The truck had collected the trash from about 10 commercial disposal bins in Newark, several miles from Wheeler's home in the historic district of New Castle, but police said they aren't sure which container his body came from.

Farrall said the crime scene has not yet been determined. The location where Wheeler was last seen is about six blocks from the office of an attorney representing Wheeler and his wife in a property dispute, and about a mile from the Wilmington Amtrak station.

Wheeler had been scheduled to take an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington on Dec. 28, but it's not clear if he ever made the trip, said police, who labeled Wheeler's death a homicide. Family members may not have reported him missing because they were out of town, Farrall said.

A Newark police crime-scene unit was inside Wheeler's home in New Castle all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to neighbor Ron Roark.

Roark, who lived next door to Wheeler for seven months, said he had met Wheeler only once and rarely saw him. But for four days around Christmas, he said he and his family heard a loud television in Wheeler's home that was constantly on, but no one appeared to be home.

"It was so loud, we could hear it through the walls, and we found that strange," Roark said.

Police do not consider the home a crime scene, Farrall said.

Wheeler attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduating in 1966, he served five years in the Army, including as a staff officer at the Pentagon. He retired from the military in 1971.

Wheeler served as special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force during the George W. Bush administration. He also worked in the administrations of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

He had a prominent role in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in the 1980s.

Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.

View the original article here

Issa targets 'broken bureaucracy'

2011-01-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration can expect congressional hearings this year on WikiLeaks, foreclosures, corruption in Afghanistan and food safety as Republicans take over the House oversight committee.That's the agenda that Rep. Darrell Issa, the incoming chairman of the committee, laid out Monday.

His "Initial Oversight Investigations Lineup," which the California Republican rolled out via Twitter and later outlined in a written statement, is his most detailed indication of where and how he intends to use Congress's subpoena power after taking the helm of the committee on Wednesday.

Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella said in a written statement that all the hearings will "advance an agenda focused on reforming a broken bureaucracy and addressing waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement."

Among the topics for hearings:

•The impact of government regulations on job creation. "Why hasn't the economy created the private sector jobs the president promised?" Bardella said.

•The role of government-sponsored mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the housing crisis.

•The failure of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to agree on a root cause of the financial meltdown.

•Corruption in Afghanistan.

•How to combat the release of classified information via the website WikiLeaks.

•The Food and Drug Administration, which Issa calls "a broken bureaucracy."

The Democrat in line to become the committee's ranking minority member, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., acknowledged that Republicans are in control and can set the agenda.

"I think the thing that concerns me most is not so much the subjects, but how they will be addressed," he said.

Foreclosures, he said, should be a top priority — but Congress should also look at the failure of lenders to modify mortgage terms, and the "robo-signing" scandal in which banks foreclosed on homeowners without verifying they were in default.

"Now it sounds like a how-do-we-attack-Fannie-Mae-and-Freddie-Mac hearing," Cummings said. "I don't see how you can have true oversight and true reform if you only look at one piece of the puzzle. I have no problem looking at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but I know — and Congressman Issa knows — that's not the only cause of the financial crisis."

Danielle Brian, director of the independent good-government advocacy group Project on Government Oversight, said the lineup mostly avoided obvious partisan bludgeons.

One topic did give her pause: Hearings on jobs, which will invite business leaders to talk about how regulations are hurting job growth. "That was at the top of the Chamber of Commerce's priority list," she said.

But hearings on corruption in Afghanistan are "a brilliant topic" for oversight hearings, she said. Those subjects have previously gone to Foreign Affairs or Armed Services, "and those committees don't have the culture to do serious oversight," she said.

The agenda is for the first three months of the year. "If something's not on the list, it doesn't mean we're not doing it," Bardella said.

View the original article here

States make gains in taxes

2011-01-05T11:22:00.000-08:00

Tax collections are surpassing projections, the clearest sign yet that state and local government finances are on the mend as the economy improves.Sharp rises in tax collections since July, especially in the last three months, have boosted tax revenues to levels not seen since 2008, a review of tax reports shows. Including federal aid, state and local government revenue is running at a record high.

States have added workers each of the last three months and now employ more people than when the downturn started, although local governments continue to trim.

Serious challenges remain: financing long-term pension obligations, rebuilding budget reserves and repaying funds raided for unrelated expenses.

In the short term, though, the outlook is brightening. Nearly every state is reporting tax collections above what it expected and higher than a year ago:

•Georgia. State tax collections are up 7.4% in the first five months of the fiscal year, through November. The state had budgeted for a 4% increase.

•California. Tax collections are up 8.6% — $2.5 billion in the five months ended Nov. 30. State Controller John Chiang says the state shouldn't face a cash crisis for the rest of the budget year.

•Ohio. The hard-hit state reported tax revenue up 7%. "November was another month of strong tax performance," said the state's budget report.

Other solid gains: New York, Illinois, Florida, Michigan, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Hawaii.

"We're getting revenue growth that you'd see in a reasonable expansion," says Wisconsin Department of Revenue chief economist John Koskinen.

State and local revenue rose more than 6% nationwide in the first nine months of 2010, the biggest increase over inflation since 1999, Bureau of Economic Analysis data show.

The $200 billion in federal stimulus aid received since February 2009 offset declines in tax revenue, making Washington the No. 1 source of money.

The federal government will provide $50 billion more in state aid in the next six months. The extra aid declines in the budget year that starts July 1.

State and local government spent a record $2.1 trillion in 2010 — about two-thirds by states. Elected officials would have to make immediate payments of $600 billion for pensions and $1 trillion for retiree health care to make those programs solvent.

Forty-three legislatures start work this month on budgets that must be finished by June 30. "We have marching orders from the public for fiscal austerity," says Indiana state Sen. Brandt Hershman, a Republican who chairs the tax and fiscal policy panel.

View the original article here

Obama to increase engagement with Africa in 2011

2011-01-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

HONOLULU (AP) — President Obama is quietly but strategically stepping up his outreach to Africa, using this year to increase his engagement with a continent that is personally meaningful to him and important to U.S. interests.Expectations in Africa spiked after the election of an American president with a Kenyan father. But midway through his term, Obama's agenda for Africa has taken a backseat to other foreign policy goals, such as winding down the Iraq war, fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan and resetting relations with Russia.

Obama aides believe those issues are now on more solid footing, allowing the president to expand his international agenda. He will focus in Africa on good governance and supporting nations with strong democratic institutions.

Obama delivered that message on his only trip to Africa since taking office, an overnight stop in Ghana in 2009, where he was mobbed by cheering crowds. In a blunt speech before the Ghanaian parliament, Obama said democracy is the key to Africa's long-term development.

"That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long," Obama said. "That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans."

The White House says Obama will travel to Africa again and the political calendar means the trip will almost certainly happen this year, before Obama has to spend more time on his re-election bid. No decision has been made on which countries Obama will visit, but deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said stops will reflect positive democratic models.

The administration is monitoring more than 30 elections expected across Africa this year, including critical contests in Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

"The U.S. is watching and we're weighing in," Rhodes said.

John Campbell, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, said the different elections give the Obama administration the opportunity to establish clear policies.

The administration "should be less willing to cut slack when those elections are less than free, fair and credible," Campbell said.

The White House can send that message right now as it deals with the disputed election in Ivory Coast and an upcoming independence referendum in Sudan, which could split Africa's largest country in two.

Rhodes said the president has invested significant "diplomatic capital" on Sudan, mentioning the referendum in nearly all of his conversations with the presidents of Russia and China, two countries which could wield influence over that Sudan's government.

When Obama stopped in at a White House meeting last month of his national security advisers and United Nations ambassadors, the first topic he broached was Sudan, not Iran or North Korea. And as U.S. lawmakers neared the December vote on a new nuclear treaty with Russia, Obama called southern Sudan leader Salva Kiir by telephone to offer support for the referendum.

White House officials believe the postelection standoff in Ivory Coast could be the model for Obama's stepped-up engagement in Africa.

The president tried to call incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo twice last month, from Air Force One as Obama returned from Afghanistan and then a week later. Neither call reached Gbagbo; administration officials believe the Ivorian leader sought to avoid contact. So Obama wrote Gbagbo a letter, offering him an international role if he stopped clinging to power and stepped down.

But Obama also made clear that the longer Gbagbo holds on, and the more complicit he becomes in violence across the country, the more limited his options become, said a senior administration official. The official insisted on anonymity to speak about administration strategy.

Human rights groups have accused Gbagbo's security forces of abducting and killing hundreds of political opponents. The U.N. says it also has been barred entry from two suspected mass graves.

Rhodes said the White House understands that U.S. involvement in African politics can be viewed as meddling. But he said Obama can speak to African leaders with a unique level of candor, reflecting his personal connection to Africa and that his father and other family members have been affected by the corruption that plagues many countries there.

Officials also see increased political stability in Africa as good for long-term U.S. interests — a way to stem the growth of terrorism in east Africa and counterbalance China's growing presence on the continent.

The U.S. was caught off guard during the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen when several African countries voted with China and not the U.S., the administration official said. The official said the administration must persuade African nations that their interests are better served by aligning with the U.S.

View the original article here

Obama signs legislation to improve food safety

2011-01-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

President Obama signed into law Tuesday legislation that represents the first major overhaul of the nation's food-safety infrastructure since 1938, but the presumed incoming Republican chairman of the agriculture subcommittee says he may not fund it.The Food Safety Modernization Act moves the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) away from its early-20th-century role of responding to adulterated food to a more modern one of requiring companies to stop contamination before it happens by looking for the places where things can go wrong and fixing them.

It also allows the agency to issue mandatory recalls and hire more food-safety inspectors. The FDA oversees most of the nation's food supply, except for meat, poultry and processed eggs, which are the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Much of the food industry had supported the new rules, saying they would "raise the bar for the entire food industry" in the words of a statement signed by 20 organizations, including the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the National Restaurant Association.

Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., in line to become chairman of the agriculture appropriations subcommittee that would fund the measure, said he isn't sure the new act — and its $1.4 billion price tag over five years — is necessary.

"In the face of a deficit that's now $1.4 trillion and a debt that's 96% of GDP, is this really the way we need to be spending our money?" he said.

Citing the latest food-borne-illness figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Kingston said that although one in six Americas is estimated to be sickened by food every year, if the numbers are divided by the number of meals we eat a day, 99.99% of those meals are safe "We're moving in the right direction under the existing state and federal and self inspections."

Republicans will control the House of Representatives when Congress reconvenes today.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who currently chairs the committee, called the new law "a significant step forward in modernizing our country's antiquated food-safety systems."

DeLauro, who first proposed food-safety legislation in 1999, noted the food system still makes people sick. At the same time as Kingston is questioning the money for the FDA's enhanced food-safety oversight, the FDA announced "that a salmonella outbreak involving alfalfa sprouts had sickened nearly 100 people in at least 15 states," she said.

Food safety isn't a partisan issue, said Carol Tucker-Foreman, with the Consumer Federation of America.

"Members of Congress don't want their constituents to suffer because they were exposed to peanut butter, spinach, eggs or some other food that looked great but was tainted by dangerous bacteria," she said.

What's in the new food-safety law

Each year, according to the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, 48 million people — or one in six Americans — are sickened by food-borne illnesses. Of those, 180,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die.

The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 overhauls the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for everything in the U.S. food supply except for meat, poultry and processed eggs (i.e. not including raw eggs in their shells). Those are overseen by the Department of Agriculture. Food-safety advocates and the food industry have been working on the overhaul for more than a decade.

Some of the changes it puts into place:

Under the FDA's original statute from 1938, the focus was on responding to adulterated food once it was discovered. Under the new rules, FDA's focus shifts to stopping outbreaks before they start, by requiring farmers to address places in production where contamination might occur and to require processors to implement written food safety plans.FDA could not require a company to recall tainted food; it could only ask for a voluntary recall. When needed, FDA can order the recall of tainted food.FDA had to treat all foods the same, despite the fact that some are more likely to become contaminated than others. FDA can develop regulations that focus on the highest risk foods, including fruits, vegetables and imports.FDA was able to inspect less than 20% of domestic food facilities and 1% of foreign food imports. More than half of food facilities have gone five or more years without federal inspection, according to a 2010 report from the Health and Human Services inspector general. FDA will be able to hire 2,500 more field safety inspectors and food safety experts by 2014 and increase substantially domestic and foreign inspections. The riskiest domestic facilities will be inspected every three years beginning in 2015.For most plants, when FDA conducted an inspection, it could only require a spot check of what was happening that day. FDA will have access to the food safety plan, records and test results that are linked to the safety plan.Big and small farms and producers were treated the same under the statute. Farmers who primarily sell to farmers' markets or to restaurants, and who sell less than $500,000 a year, don't have to follow the new regulations.Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.

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Louisiana has mass bird deaths just days after Arkansas

2011-01-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It isn't easy being a blackbird in the South.First, New Year's Eve fireworks were blamed in central Arkansas for making thousands of blackbirds confused, crashing into homes, cars and each other. Then 300 miles to the south in Louisiana, power lines likely killed about 450 birds, littering a highway near Baton Rouge.

It's almost certainly a coincidence the events happened within days of each other, Louisiana's state wildlife veterinarian Jim LaCour said Tuesday. "I haven't found anything to link the two at this point."

Mass bird deaths aren't uncommon. The U.S. Geological Service's website listed about 90 mass deaths of birds and other wildlife from June through Dec. 12. There were five deaths of at least 1,000 birds, with the largest near Houston, Minn., where parasite infestations killed about 4,000 water birds between Sept. 6 and Nov. 26.

In Louisiana, the birds died sometime late Sunday or early Monday in the rural Pointe Coupee Parish community of Labarre, about 30 miles northwest of Baton Rouge. The birds — a mixed flock of red-winged blackbirds, brown-headed cowbirds, grackles and starlings — may have hit a power line or vehicles in the dark, LaCour said. Two dozen of them had head, neck, beak or back injuries.

About 50 dead birds were near a power line 30 or 40 feet from Louisiana Highway 1. About a quarter-mile away, a second group of 400 or more stretched from the power line and across the highway, he said.

Dan Cristol, a biology professor and co-founder of the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary, said the Louisiana birds may have been ill or startled from their roost, then hit the power line.

"They don't hit a power line for no reason," he said.

In Beebe, New Year's revelers spent the holiday weekend cleaning up dead red-winged blackbirds. Some speculated that bad weather was to blame. Others said one confused bird could have led the group in a fatal plunge. A few spooked schoolkids guessed the birds committed mass suicide.

Officials acknowledged, though, they may never know exactly what caused the large number of deaths.

Cristol was skeptical of the fireworks theory, unless "somebody blew something into the roost, literally blowing the birds into the sky."

Wildlife officials in both Arkansas and Louisiana sent carcasses to researchers at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. and the University of Georgia.

LaCour said he didn't expect results for at least two or three weeks.

In 1999, several thousand grackles fell from the sky and staggered about before dying in north Louisiana. It took five months to get the diagnosis: an E. coli infection of the air sacs in their skulls.

"I hope things go faster than that," said Paul Slota, branch chief for the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. He said necropsies of the Arkansas birds began Tuesday afternoon.

"If it isn't strictly trauma, it may take more time to get results back," he said. "When nothing shows up, you run the tests longer and let it incubate longer."

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New Congress makes compromise crucial for Obama

2011-01-05T11:05:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON — Nearly a decade ago, a little-known Republican lawmaker sat down with a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat and negotiated the most sweeping overhaul of federal education policy in a generation.When the new Congress starts work Wednesday, that Republican, John Boehner, will become speaker of the House. Ten years after he and then-senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts advanced the "No Child Left Behind" law, Boehner's party faces a similar challenge: Can it honor its conservative values but also find common ground with Democrats on major legislation?

The answer to that question — bipartisanship or battleground — will determine whether lawmakers in the next Congress can work with President Obama to address soaring deficits and a stubbornly high unemployment rate, or whether they are doomed to have gridlock as the politics of the 2012 presidential and congressional elections take over.

"The country faces enormous problems," Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., says. "Bipartisanship is necessary if we're going to get anything done."

Congress finished a surprisingly productive "lame duck" session last month, in which lawmakers extended tax cuts for millions of Americans, repealed the ban on gays serving openly in the military and ratified a nuclear arms treaty with Russia. The debates were contentious, but Obama ultimately secured bipartisan support for much of his agenda.

He did so, in part, through compromise: The White House negotiated directly with Republicans on extending Bush-era tax cuts and agreed to continue the cuts for high-earners, which Obama had opposed, to win enough support to keep the cuts in place for the middle class.

Those opportunities may be harder to find in the 112th Congress. Republicans captured control of the House in the November elections, picking up 63 seats and expanding their majority to 242 out 435 seats. Many incoming Republicans, such as Florida's Allen West and Idaho's Raul Labrador, support the conservative, anti-tax Tea Party movement and ran against Obama's policies.

Democrats kept control of the 100-seat Senate, but their majority shrunk by six to 53 members.

The path to a deadlocked Congress is easy to see. House Republicans want to repeal the nation's new health care law — a guaranteed flashpoint with Democrats. The law provides insurance to 32 million more Americans, but Boehner criticizes its cost and a requirement that nearly everyone buy health coverage.

As the national debt approaches $14 trillion, lawmakers also must decide whether to raise the $14.3 trillion cap on government borrowing — a controversial task that usually falls to the party in power. Republicans made trimming budget deficits and slashing spending a centerpiece of the 2010 election.

"Anything of substance is almost by definition going to be divisive," predicts Mike Franc of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Ugly fights are inevitable, but a few other major proposals waiting in the legislative queue offer some openings for bipartisan deals on par with what Boehner, Kennedy and others accomplished with the federal education overhaul in 2001.

Republicans and Democrats have an opportunity to leave a mark on high-profile legislation in the next Congress — from updating that same 2001 education law, which members of both parties say includes unrealistic deadlines, to rewriting the federal tax code, one step in addressing the nation's spiraling debt. Lawmakers and analysts also see the potential for breakthroughs on a free trade agreement with Korea and a multibillion-dollar farm bill.

"When stuff gets done, a rising tide lifts all boats," says Jim Kessler with the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. "That helps Republicans, too."

A focus on education

Boehner, then chairman of the House education committee, spent days negotiating with Democrats over the final details of the education law in 2001. The law, a priority for then-President George W. Bush, pushes school improvements through annual testing in reading and math.

Now the Obama administration wants significant changes to the law during the next Congress, and at least some of what's proposed has bipartisan support.

"No matter who you talk to — parents and teachers, superintendents and governors, Republicans and Democrats — everyone agrees this law needs reform," says Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the incoming chairman of the House education committee. "My goal is to pull back federal involvement in the day-to-day operation of our classrooms."

The current law sets a 2014 deadline for all students to be "proficient" in math and reading. Both Democrats, such as Obama, and Republicans, such as Kline, say the target is unrealistic.

In February, Democrats and Republicans on the education committee signed a letter agreeing to take a bipartisan approach to updating the law. But that was before an election in which some Republican candidates, such as Sen.-elect Rand Paul of Kentucky, said they favor abolishing the U.S. Department of Education. Paul was one of dozens of successful candidates embraced by the conservative Tea Party movement, which defined the 2010 election by calling for a more limited government.

"People will be paying attention and looking to it as a bellwether" for what the next Congress will accomplish, says Russ Whitehurst, an education specialist at the Brookings Institution. "It's going to be on the agenda."

Trade agreement ready

Before the first gavel falls in the new Congress, Republicans and the Obama administration will have one bipartisan deal poised to move quickly: a free trade agreement with South Korea.

The agreement, which Obama and Korean leaders announced last month, would boost U.S. exports by $11 billion annually, according to the non-partisan U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). The deal has support from many Republicans, such as Rep. Dave Camp, as well as some Democrats, including Rep. Sander Levin — both from Michigan.

"The rules of engagement on trade in Asia are being set as we speak," says Tami Overby with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which supports the deal. "While we're not doing anything, the rest of the world is moving forward."

An earlier version of the pact, which must be approved by both the House and Senate, was negotiated by President George W. Bush. Obama won new provisions that make it easier for U.S. auto companies to export vehicles but temporarily keep tariffs in place on Korean auto imports.

Some Democrats, including Rep. George Miller of California, say the agreement would undermine manufacturing jobs by lifting import tariffs in other sectors even as the nation's unemployment rate has climbed to 9.8%. The ITC said the agreement would have a "negligible" effect on employment.

"Our folks feel pretty strongly that this is the wrong deal at the wrong time," says Thea Lee with the AFL-CIO, a lead opponent of the deal.

Changing the tax code

In the "lame duck" session of Congress, lawmakers fought for weeks over $858 billion in Bush-era tax cut extensions. But deficit hawks such as Maya MacGuineas say the messy, bitter debate largely was beside the point.

The real problem is an overly complex tax code that carves out $1.1 trillion a year for special interests and includes loopholes for corporations, says MacGuineas, president of the non-profitCommittee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Fix the tax code, she says, and Washington might be able to lower tax rates for everyone.

"There's no question that tax reform will get started in earnest" in 2011, MacGuineas predicts.

A bipartisan deficit commission created by Obama recommended a major overhaul of the nation's tax code, including the elimination of carve-outs for specific industries such as coal mining and railroads. Among the largest exemptions, though, are breaks on mortgage interest and employer-provided health insurance.

Though the details will provoke debate, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle share broad goals.

"What we need is a comprehensive reform of the tax code that expands the tax base and lowers rates by being fairer," says Camp, the incoming chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which will oversee the effort in the House.

In the Senate, changes to the tax code would be led by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. "There are few examples of a more direct interaction between Americans and their government than paying taxes," Baucus said in a statement. "So it should not take a post-graduate degree to figure it all out."

Cut farm subsidies?

Many incoming Republicans ran for office on a platform of slashing spending. But a few new GOP lawmakers personally benefited from one of the government's most controversial aid programs: farm subsidies.

Rep.-elect Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., a Tea Party favorite, collected more than $774,000 in farm subsidies from 1995 to 2009 for a farm she owns with her family, according to Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit that opposes the aid. Rep.-elect Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., received nearly $1 million. Stutzman has said he favors eliminating the subsidies while Hartzler has defended them. Both were assigned to the House Agriculture Committee, which oversees the farm bill.

Bipartisan acceptance of farm subsidies, particularly among rural delegations, underscores the debate that often plays out as the multibillion farm bill works its way through Congress: Subsidies are easy to criticize, but also are easy to dole out.

The farm bill approved in 2008, which also pays for food stamps and other non-farm assistance, expires in 2013. That means lawmakers could start wrestling with the subsidies and other issues in this Congress.

"I just see a lot of grounds here for compromise," says Dan Glickman, who served as the secretary of agriculture under President Clinton and is now with the Bipartisan Policy Center. "This affects every consumer."

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, of Georgia, the top-ranking Republican on the Senate's agriculture committee, says he expects some Republicans and Democrats to target farm subsidies for cuts. But he says he thinks lawmakers can find a compromise.

First, Chambliss warns, lawmakers must put the partisan rhetoric in check.

"I'm hopeful that the atmosphere is going to be much more positive when we get back," he says. "Right now, it's headed in the opposite direction."

New lawmakers set to make their mark

When Congress returns Wednesday, it will include 94 new members of the House of Representatives and 16 new senators. Here?s a look at some of the new lawmakers who are rising stars in their party or have been appointed to key committees for the 112th Congress:

Sen.-elect Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

Age: 39

Election highlight: Beat independent Gov. Charlie Crist 49% to 30%.

What to watch: The young, Hispanic former state lawmaker was named by RealClearPolitics as the top rising star in the new Congress.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

Age: 63

Election highlight: Won the seat long held by the late Robert Byrd.

What to watch: Manchin, who took his seat in November, will chart his own course. He recently bucked his party by opposing the repeal of the ban against gays serving openly in the military.

Sen.-elect Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Age: 47

Election highlight: In his state's primary, beat a candidate supported by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, also of Kentucky.

What to watch: Paul, the son of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, became a hero of the anti-tax Tea Party movement, setting him up as a conservative standard bearer.

Rep.-elect Alan Nunnelee, R-Miss.

Age: 52

Election highlight: Knocked off incumbent Democrat Travis Childers.

What to watch: He was named to the powerful Appropriations Committee at the center of Republican efforts to trim federal spending.

Rep.-elect Allen West, R-Fla.

Age: 49

Election highlight: First black Republican elected to Congress from Florida in more than a century.

What to watch: An Iraq veteran, West will sit on the House Armed Services Committee as the U.S. fights in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rep.-elect Kristi Noem, R-S.D.

Age: 39

Election highlight: Backed by Sarah Palin, Noem beat Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, leader of the centrist-Democrat Blue Dog Coalition.

What to watch: Appointed to the House education committee, Noem will have a hand in efforts to update the "No Child Left Behind" education law.

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Pelosi says 'no regrets' on last day as speaker

2011-01-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Nancy Pelosi said she had no regrets on her last day as House speaker Tuesday, a reign that lasted four years and is ending after the November elections.Pelosi said Tuesday she looks forward to leading a loyal but tenacious opposition in the House. She started by calling Republicans hypocrites for trying to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, saying it would add to the federal budget deficit.

Republicans won the House majority in the November elections and John Boehner of Ohio will be sworn in as the new speaker on Wednesday. Pelosi — the first female speaker — will be demoted to minority leader.

"I don't really look back, I look forward, and we look forward to, as I said before, being a willing partner and solving the problems of the American people," Pelosi said at a news conference with other House Democrats. "When our Republican colleagues have positive solutions, again, they will have a willing partner in solving the problems of the American people."

Pelosi said House Democrats will focus on creating jobs, improving the economy and shrinking the federal budget deficit. The deficit hit $1.3 trillion in the budget year that ended in September — a year in which Democrats controlled Congress and the White House.

Republicans took exception.

"The House Democratic leadership's utter failure to stop Washington's runaway spending spree — which included failing to pass a budget for the first time in modern history — was one of the biggest examples of their utter refusal to listen to the American people," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. "We have pledged to do better, and we will."

With unemployment stuck above 9%, Pelosi was asked whether she regretted not doing more to improve the nation's still-struggling economy while she was speaker. Pelosi said the nation's economy was in a "near-depression" two years ago, when Obama first took office.

Since then, she said, the House passed numerous bills designed to create jobs that were ultimately blocked in the Senate, usually because the two chambers couldn't agree on how to pay for them.

"We have no regrets," Pelosi said. "This administration and this Congress inherited a near-depression. And so the initiatives that we took were positive for the American people. It's not enough to save people from a depression, though. Nine-and-a-half% unemployment is intolerable and as long as we have that we have to continue to fight for job creation."

Pelosi chided House Republicans for scheduling a vote next week on a bill to repeal the new health care law. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the massive law will slightly reduce the federal deficit over the next 10 years. Repealing the law would therefore increase the deficit, Pelosi said.

Republicans say repealing the law is one of their top priorities, but they are sure to fail in the Senate, where Democrats still have a majority.

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