Thursday, August 22, 2002

Secret Court Rebuffs Ashcroft Justice Dept. Rebuked on Misinformation Washington Post, 8/23/02 Pg A01: The secretive federal court that approves spying on terror suspects in the United States has refused to give the Justice Department broad new powers, saying the government had misused the law and misled the court dozens of times, according to an extraordinary legal ruling released yesterday.... The opinion itself -- and the court's unprecedented decision to release it -- suggest that relations between the court and officials at the Justice Department and the FBI have frayed badly. 9:39:42 PM    comment []  trackback []

FINDINGS CHALLENGE BIOLOGICAL TENET Newsday In a discovery that upsets one of the central dogmas of biology, scientists in Denmark have determined that a 28-year-old man inherited a disease from his father that until now was believed transmissible only through women.... The finding zeros in on the components of cells called the mitochondria, the main sources of the body's energy. These tiny bean-shaped constituents, found in each cell, carry their own DNA, apart from the body's nuclear genes inherited from both parents. Mitochondrial DNA has been believed passed from one generation to the next only along a maternal line of inheritance. Fathers, scientists long believed, did not transmit them.... Making the genetic engineering / gene therapy 'magic bullet' just a wee bit more complicated than folks might have assumed. 9:54:29 AM    comment []  trackback []

House Whip DeLay Calls Republican Critics 'Apologists' Washington Post, 8/21/02, p A13: House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) will issue a muscular defense Wednesday of President Bush's proposal to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, criticizing prominent Republicans who have counseled restraint. Wow! Now even Dick Armey's an 'apologist'?!? 9:46:16 AM    comment []  trackback []