Author: Personal Liberty News Desk

As the financial reform bill makes its way through Congress and the tug of war continues between the proponents and opponents of greater regulation, a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization has released a report that details the Washington lobbying efforts of the financial industry.

According to the report, the Senate Banking committee members received $41 million in contributions since 2005, and representatives of Wall Street banks and investment firms spent $336 million lobbying Congress in the first three quarters of 2009.

Those who received the highest contributions during 2005-2009 included Democratic Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut ($9 million), while the top grossing Republican was Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who netted more than $2.5 million.

Among the biggest contributors were the American Bankers Association ($1.26 million), Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, both of which donated more than $400,000.

The report also found that contributors in particular opposed the creation of The Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), preferring the authority to remain with the current regulators who failed to prevent abuses such as predatory mortgage lending that led to the near-economic collapse, according to Consumer Watchdog.

"To ordinary voters, this flood of dollars looks like Wall Street buying votes," said Carmen Balber, Washington director for organization.

"The fate of an independent consumer regulator is a test of whether politicians will rise above financial industry influence to enact meaningful regulatory reform that directly aids ordinary Americans," she concluded.

The administration’s decision to hold the 9/11 terrorism trial in New York City has met with much criticism over the last few months, but when the mayor of an impoverished upstate town invited the trial to be relocated there, the proposal did not satisfy everyone.

Newburgh is located some 60 miles north of New York and used to serve as George Washington’s headquarters during the American Revolution. Today, however, it is plagued by high unemployment, crime and poverty, according to media reports.

This has prompted Mayor Nick Valentine to propose that the controversial trial—which critics claim will endanger the security of millions of people in the densely populated New York area—be moved to his town.

He explained that his motivations are primarily economic. "There has to be a net result of economic stimulus and safety to your city, and making it visible around the world as a community that is really trying to be better," he said, quoted by the Times Herald-Record.

"We’re doing it by seizing an opportunity, and this is an opportunity," he added.

However, security experts Peter Bergen and Karen Greenberg have criticized the idea, suggesting the trial of five men—including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks—"belongs in New York."

In a commentary written for CNN they stated that it will bring a sense of justice for the families, restore the power of the rule of law and the criminal justice system, and boost confidence in America’s security apparatus.

Penn State University officials have cleared climate researcher Michael Mann of concealing information, falsifying data and misusing confidential information, following an investigation into the unauthorized release of more than 1,000 private emails that brought into question current global warming science.

However, the panel was not able to reach a conclusion on whether Mann’s research activities "seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community," according to the Los Angeles Times. Authorities at the university have put together a new committee of five science professors to review the allegations and report their findings within the next four months.

"Even though no evidence to substantiate the fourth allegation was found, the university administrators thought it best to convene a separate committee of distinguished scientists to resolve any remaining questions about academic procedures," said Mann.

"I fully support the additional inquiry, which may be the best way to remove any lingering doubts," he added.

Meanwhile, Representative Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) the top Republican on the House investigations committee, said that the university’s continued investigation calls into question Mann’s credibility as a global warming expert, The Washington Times reports. Issa has asked President Obama to freeze the professor’s $541,184 stimulus grant supplied by the National Science Foundation.

While speaking at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire last week, President Obama acknowledged that it is conceivable that an energy bill may be approved in the Senate without the cap-and-trade component that he has been pushing since taking office last year.

"The only thing I would say about it is this: We may be able to separate these things out," said Obama. "And it’s conceivable that that’s where the Senate ends up."

Also known as emissions trading, cap-and-trade legislation would set a limit on the amount of pollutants that a company can emit, and would then force that company to purchase credits if they exceed their allotment.

Senate moderates from both sides of the aisle have recently pushed Obama to accept an energy-only bill that does not include the emissions trading component, which exists in the House bill that was passed last year, according to The New York Times.

Meanwhile, a White House spokesman quickly downplayed the president’s remarks, stating that they were only an "observation" and that "nothing has changed" since his State of the Union address last week.

While speaking at a Democratic policy committee conference last week, President Obama urged Senate Democrats to stay aggressive and press ahead with their legislative agenda. He also took several shots at Republican lawmakers, stating that they have been unwilling to compromise and have been impeding progress.

While taking questions from Democratic senators who are up for re-election in November, Obama promised to "call (Republicans) out when (Democrats) extend a hand and get a fist in return," according to CNN.

The president also chided Senate Republicans for demanding that Democrats produce a 60-vote majority on every issue, no matter how arbitrary.

"You had to cast more votes to break filibusters last year than in the entire 1950s and ’60s combined," said Obama. "That’s 20 years of obstruction packed into just one." He added that a filibuster is justified only when there is a legitimate attempt to compromise.

The president also lashed out at members of the GOP for having an "if you lose, I win" mentality, citing examples of Republican maneuvering based solely on political considerations.

In recent months, the administration has come under fire from the GOP for what the party saw as the majority’s attempt to push through healthcare reform legislation behind closed doors, without consulting the Republicans. "I take some fault for this," Obama admitted, quoted by Fox News. "Some of [the] transparency got lost and I think we paid a price for it."

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been in the news lately with some progressives calling for his dismissal and blaming him for trying to accommodate the conservatives. However, a new revelation has railed some GOP members.

The Wall Street Journal has recently reported that in a closed-door meeting last summer, Obama’s top aide called liberal special-interest groups that wanted to run ads against conservative Democrats who did not support healthcare reform "f—— retarded," according to media reports.

When informed about the comment, Sarah Palin, whose child has Down syndrome, posted a note on Facebook alleging Emanuel’s words amounted to a "racial slur."

"Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities is unacceptable," she wrote, adding that President Obama should "show decency" by removing the Chicago politician from his inner circle.

In the meantime, Emanuel reportedly called Tim Shriver, chairman and CEO of the Special Olympics, to apologize.

Last month, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee urged its members not to support the former Illinois congressman if he runs for public office again. It said Emanuel allowed the Democrats to give up the public option, helped to put together deals with drug companies in exchange for their support and argued against a bigger stimulus package.

Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week, the nation’s top military and civilian leaders argued for a repeal of the 1993 Act of Congress that banned openly gay and lesbian Americans from serving in the military.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen testified together with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and said that overturning the policy known as "don’t ask don’t tell" would be "the right thing to do."

"I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy that forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens," said Mullen.

Several prominent Republicans, including former Secretary of State and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Colin Powell, have expressed their support for the overhaul.

"In the 17 years since the legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed," Powell stated after the hearing, quoted by The New York Times.

However, a significant group of GOP lawmakers, led by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), have declared themselves to be against it. McCain has been quoted as saying he was "disappointed" with the administration’s push.

The Department of Defense is putting together a working group that will conduct a year-long study on troops’ feelings about lifting the ban on openly gay people serving in the military.

More than 10,000 service members have had to leave the armed forces due to the ban.

At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates declined to say whether he agrees with Attorney General Eric Holder’s prosecution strategy of trying self-proclaimed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in New York City.

When pressed by Senator John McCain (R-AZ.) for a "candid answer," Gates replied that Holder was better suited to make the decision and again reserved comment, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Later in the meeting, McCain continued to push for the defense secretary’s point of view, asking him whether he agreed with the Obama administration’s decision to question attempted Christmas Day airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab using civilian interrogators for only 50 minutes before reading him his Miranda rights.

Gates responded, "I think we did not have the high-level interrogators there that we now have protocols in place" to guarantee their presence, quoted by the news source. However he added: "I believe that a team of highly experienced FBI and other interrogators could be as effective in interrogating the prisoner as anyone operating under the (Army) field manual."

The defense secretary did admit that it is within the legal rights of an interrogator to delay "mirandizing" a suspect, if the person "is deemed to be a threat to national security."

A new study has found that an extract from green tea may be a useful treatment for uterine fibroids, a condition that affects 40 percent of women of reproductive age, commonly causing vaginal bleeding, anemia and fatigue.

Dr. Ayman Al-Hendy, director of clinical research at Meharry Medical College, and his colleagues found that a polyphenol in green tea known as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) was capable of killing human leiomyoma cells in tissue cultures and was able to shrink fibroid lesions in lab animals.

After eight weeks of treatment with EGCG, lab mice with induced uterine fibroids experienced significantly smaller fibroid growths than control subjects who were given a placebo. In fact, one mouse showed no signs of uterine fibroids at the end of the trial.

The researchers state that green tea extract "might be particularly useful for long-term use in women with a low fibroid tumor burden to arrest tumor progression and avoid the development of severe symptoms that necessitate major surgery."

The next step for the team is to conduct controlled trials using human participants.

The Republican Party response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, given by Virginia Governor Bob McConnell last week criticized the current administration’s policies regarding the economy, healthcare reform and unemployment.

McConnell, a rising star in the GOP, applauded Obama on his government spending freeze proposal, but condemned the president’s response to the rising deficit and high unemployment rate.

"Good government policy should spur economic growth, and strengthen the private sector’s ability to create new jobs," said the Virginia Governor. "What government should not do is pile on more taxation, regulation and litigation that kill jobs and hurt the middle class."

McConnell also said that Americans want an affordable, high-quality healthcare system, but "do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government."

In his address, in front of a crowd of supporters in Richmond, Va., McConnell agreed with several of the president’s initiatives, including education reform and the decision to deploy more than 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. The governor’s oldest daughter was an Army platoon leader in Iraq, according to Fox News.

Although the climate summit in Copenhagen took place in December, it has recently emerged that the large congressional delegation headed by Nancy Pelosi charged taxpayers some $1 million for the trip.

Newly filed congressional expense reports indicated that more than 150 people—including legislators, staff and even some family members—made the trip at a cost of $2,200 a day, CBS News reported.

Further CBS investigation found that 59 House and Senate staff flew commercial to the Danish capital, costing taxpayers $408,064, while the rest used three military jets, which cost $168,351 for the flight time.

This type of spending in the face of an escalating federal deficit and during a prolonged recession has spurred critics to question the judgment of the congressional leadership.

CNN’s Jack Cafferty wrote that "we have skyrocketing deficits and national debt in this country," and asked "where Nancy Pelosi gets her sense of entitlement to simply blow hundreds of thousands of dollars of our money at Christmas time so she and her colleagues can take a little trip to Copenhagen."

According to media reports, Pelosi has refused to answer journalists’ queries about the Copenhagen expenses and explain why the congressional delegation ended up being so large.

A recent study suggests that the consumption of blueberries can improve memory in older adults and may offer an alternative treatment for cognitive decline.

Blueberries, which contain antioxidants and anti-inflammatory phytochemicals known as anthocyanins, have long been thought to boost memory in the aged. However, this is one of the first studies to examine the fruit’s memory-enhancing effect on humans.

Scientists at the University of Cincinnati and the U.S. Department of Agriculture studied a group of volunteers with a median age of 70 who were suffering from early stage cognitive decline.

Study participants drank the equivalent of two cups of commercially available blueberry juice each day for a two-month period, while a control group consumed a placebo beverage.

Researchers found that patients who drank the fruit juice on a daily basis showed significant improvement on memory and learning tests as well as evidence of enhanced neuronal signaling.

"These preliminary memory findings are encouraging and suggest that consistent supplementation with blueberries may offer an approach to forestall or mitigate neurodegeneration," concluded the authors of the study.

The researchers added that more comprehensive human trials need to be conducted to study the preventative potential of blueberries.

To help subsidize the $3.8 trillion proposed budget for fiscal year 2011, President Obama will increase taxes on some businesses and upper-income households by nearly $2 trillion during the next decade, a plan that will still leave the nation with $8.5 trillion in added debt in 2020, The Wall Street Journal reports.

By allowing the cuts introduced by the previous administration to expire, Obama will increase taxes on families with a household annual income above $250,000 by as much as 3.6 percent. Oil companies will also lose $35.5 billion in tax breaks over the next 10 years.

Some of Obama’s other initiatives include limiting the tax deductions that the wealthy can claim for charitable donations, mortgage payments and local taxes, according to Fox News.

The president’s new increases have drawn the ire of many fiscal conservatives, including several top Republicans in the House.

"This budget features too many new taxes, too much new spending and too much new debt," said Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the lead Republican on tax-writing for the House Ways and Means Committee, quoted by the news source.

Through various programs and credits, the current administration will also cut taxes for some workers and other businesses by approximately $330 billion.

Last Wednesday’s State of the Union speech was more than an hour long, but President Obama devoted only one sentence to immigration, promising to fix a "broken" system by securing borders and enforcing the laws. For both opponents and proponents of immigration, this was not nearly enough.

In a commentary written for CNN, Ruben Navarrette Jr. stated that he was "disappointed" that Obama did not lay a more detailed plan for a comprehensive immigration reform that would give illegal immigrants a chance to regulate their status and would define the role of guest workers.

However, Navarette acknowledged that immigration reform "was always going to be an especially tough issue for Democrats since it splits the liberal coalition with Latinos on one side and organized labor on the other."

Meanwhile, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a conservative group, has attacked the president for putting emphasis on the need to create jobs while disregarding the fact that some 8 million jobs are currently held by illegal immigrants that could go to U.S. citizens.

"These jobs could be immediately transferred to American workers if the administration were to vigorously enforce laws against employers who hire illegal aliens and remove those workers from the country," said Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

Stein also chastised the government for allegedly abandoning worksite enforcement efforts.

Four men have been arrested and charged by the FBI with trying to wiretap the phones in the New Orleans office of Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, according to media reports.

Identified as James O’Keefe, Stan Dai, Robert Flanagan and Joseph Basel, all in their 20s, the men are known for their GOP ties. O’Keefe gained notoriety last year for making undercover videos of the liberal community-organizing group ACORN.

On January 25, the four allegedly attempted to gain access to Landrieu’s office while posing as telephone repairmen, and the event has already been dubbed "Louisiana’s Watergate."

"The individuals responsible have been charged with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purposes of committing a felony," Landrieu stated.

She added, "I am as interested as everyone else about their motives and purpose, which I hope will become clear as the investigation moves forward."

On account of some of the men’s ties to Republican Senator David Vitter, the latter has been called upon to denounce their actions, but the lawmaker refused, citing pending investigation.

"We’re blessed with an extremely competent U.S. attorney’s office in New Orleans, and I know they’ll handle this as aggressively as they have other serious cases," according to his official statement.

The men posted a $10,000 unsecured bond and were released. Their next court date is expected to be on February 12, CNN reported.

If convicted, the men would each face a possible maximum penalty of a $250,000 fine and 10 years in prison.

According to a recent study, a naturally occurring steroid found in pomegranate seed extract may be able to stimulate uterine contractions and could help women who experience difficulty during labor.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool and the Suranaree University of Technology in Thailand found that beta-sitosterol, the main constituent of pomegranate extract, was able to increase the muscle activity of tissue cells found in the uterus. The team believes that the increase is due to a rise in calcium, which is necessary for any muscle to contract.

"The next step is to investigate how beta-sitosterol in pomegranate extract could increase calcium, but it could prove to be a significant step forward in identifying new ways of treating dysfunctional labor," said lead researcher Sajeera Kupittayanant.

She added that there is only one drug that is currently being used to treat women who experience difficulty during labor, and that it only works approximately 50 percent of the time.

It should be noted that the researchers used the fruit’s seed extract, which has a significantly higher level of concentration than pomegranate juice. Further study is needed to understand whether drinking pomegranate juice will have an impact on uterine contractions.

On Monday, President Obama sent his $3.8 trillion budget to Congress for fiscal year 2011, a plan that will add $1.3 trillion to the already ballooning deficit.

The proposal includes spending approximately $100 billion on a job creation plan that will help supplement the $862 billion economic stimulus package that was approved last year. Other additions to federal spending include a $20 billion increase in education funding and a tax credit for small businesses that create jobs.

"The definition of insanity is doing the wrong thing over and over again and expecting change," said Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH.), quoted by Time Magazine. "Eight years out the president is projecting a trillion dollar deficit…that’s not acceptable."

Officials with the administration have stated that they will reduce the deficit in coming years by freezing discretionary government spending, imposing new fees on banks and allowing tax cuts on families making more than $250,000 to expire. Obama has also targeted 120 programs for termination or reduction, a plan that would save $20 billion if passed by Congress.

According to White House estimates, the budget’s deficit would fall to $700 billion in fiscal year 2013, although uncertainty surrounding Obama’s proposed healthcare bill leaves many questions still to be answered regarding future federal spending.

According to a recent study, women who regularly practice yoga can reduce inflammation that is commonly associated with normal aging and stress.

The research, conducted at Ohio State University, showed that women who practiced restorative yoga at least twice a week had lower amounts of cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) in their blood. IL-6 is a key part of the body’s inflammatory response and has been linked to stroke, heart disease, diabetes and many other age-related diseases.

Respondents who regularly did yoga also showed less inflammation after stressful periods than women of the same age who did not participate in the meditative exercise.

"Hopefully, this means that people can eventually learn to respond less strongly to stressors in their everyday lives by using yoga and other stress-reducing modalities," said lead author Janice Kiecolt-Glaser.

The study also found that "expert" practitioners had healthier levels of IL-6 than respondents who described themselves as "novice" yoga participants.

"People need to be educated about this," said Bill Malarkey, co-author of the study. "They need to be taking responsibility for their health and how they live. Doing yoga and similar activities can make a difference."

House Minority Leader John Boehner said last week that Republican leaders are determined to prevent suspected terrorists from being tried in a civilian court in New York City.

"There is not going to be a trial in New York, I guarantee it," said the Ohio Representative, quoted by Fox News. "There is no appetite for the trials in Congress."

Boehner added that Obama does not have the necessary votes to change the law to move Guantanamo Bay detainees to U.S. soil or to spend the $500 million necessary to upgrade the Thompson prison in Illinois, the facility to which the administration plans to move all Gitmo prisoners in the near future.

"The Justice Department is confident that it can safely prosecute this case in the Southern District of New York while minimizing disruptions to the community to the greatest extent possible, consistent with security needs," said department spokesman Dean Boyd.

Meanwhile, many conservatives have heavily criticized the administration’s treatment of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the suspected Christmas Day airline bomber, who is currently being prosecuted in a criminal court instead of being held in military custody.

During his first State of the Union address on Jan. 27, President Obama said he will push for overturning the ban on openly gay people serving in the military. But his former rival John McCain criticized the proposal.

Obama called for abolishing the 1993 "don’t ask, don’t tell" law, saying that "this year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are."

The president’s words echoed his campaign promises from 2008, although he came under criticism from gay rights groups during his first year in office for not pushing the issue. In fact, many were not satisfied with last night’s reference, either, as Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said that "the next time the president speaks about our community, we expect him to provide a concrete blueprint."

On the other end of the opinion spectrum, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he believed the law should remain in place.

"At a time when our armed forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy," he told reporters after the speech.