DeLay defends Disneyland fact-finding mission: Not a family vacation, congressman insists
As allegations of ethical lapses continued to swirl around Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas), the House Majority Leader lashed out at his critics today, insisting that a 2002 trip his family took to Disneyland was a “top-secret fact-finding mission.”
Toyota truck plant to open in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO — The Toyota plant that will be built and open for production here in approximately one year deserves special attention from the labor movement and the auto workers union.
AFL-CIO blasts CAFTA
WASHINGTON (PAI) — With hearings set to start on the controversial Central American Free Trade Agreement, the AFL-CIO issued a scathing critique of the trade pact, saying it would hurt Latin American workers as well as their U.S. colleagues.
Hold your ground, refuse to surrender
Two leading Democratic strategists, James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, publicly took their party to task for its “just say no” approach to President Bush’s proposed privatization and benefit cuts. “To say there is no problem simply puts Democrats out of the conversation for the great majority of the country,” they warned. “Voters are looking for reform, change, and new ideas, but Democrats seem stuck in concrete.”
World Notes
Côte d’Ivoire: Peace pact signed; Iraq: War doubles child malnutrition; Mexico: U.S., Mexican unionists rally; Nepal: Hundreds still detained
Famed attorney blasts U.S. Cuba policy
HOUSTON — Noted civil rights lawyer Leonard Weinglass blasted U.S. policy on Cuba at Texas Southern University here April 5, charging that the government has been “overtly or covertly attacking” the socialist island since 1960. Over the past 40 years, he said, more than 3,000 Cubans have been killed as a result of bombings and other attacks by right-wing Cuban exiles.
Latin America and the Caribbean move left
In 1913 President Woodrow Wilson, expressing his customary arrogance toward the peoples of Latin America, promised to “teach South American republics to elect good men.” The Bush administration’s attitude toward the newly elected left-leaning governments in South America, toward Haiti’s ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and toward socialist Cuba continues this chauvinistic tradition.
Survivors of Hiroshima to join no-nuke rally
NEW YORK—Sixty years after U.S. atomic bombs destroyed two Japanese cities, incinerating hundreds of thousands of civilians, mayors from around the world — led by the mayors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima — as well as survivors of the 1945 atomic destruction will join a massive rally in New York City’s Central Park to demand the worldwide abolition of nuclear weapons.
Devastating school closings hit Detroit
DETROIT — After the Board of Education announced that 34 public schools would close here by next fall parents, teachers and the community voiced their grave concern over the future of public education.
Labor & community rally for Social Security: Signing the pledge in California
Calling Social Security “the most profound and effective program in our history,” Congresswoman Diane Watson (D-Calif.) told an April 2 town hall meeting sponsored by the California Alliance of Retired Americans (CARA) that “with Social Security we weave together a safety net that guarantees our independence and economic security.” Watson pointed out that the investment firms pre-selected to participate in President Bush’s privatization scheme were his largest campaign contributors. “These Wall Street sharks will charge anywhere from 15 to 20 percent to ‘manage’ private accounts,” she warned, resulting in benefit cuts and loss of disability and survivors’ benefits.
