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UN Drug Officer Urges Enforcement Against Kingpins
"Go after the piranhas, not the minnows," the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said at a June 24 Newsmaker, where he and the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy released the 2009 UN World Drug Report. Antonio Maria Costa, who also is a UN under secretary general, was encouraging law enforcement agencies to focus on what he called "high-profile, high-volume and violent" drug traffickers as opposed to "petty offenders." Devoting time and manpower to the latter, he said, "is a waste of money for the police, and a waste of lives for those thrown in jail…
Type: News
Next 12 to 18 Months Critical in Afghanistan, Joint Chiefs Chairman Says
It will be 12 to 18 months before it is known how long American troops will be required to fight in Afghanistan, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Club Luncheon July 8. “My expectation is that we will have a long-term relationship” in Afghanistan, the nation’s top military leader said. Within that 12- to 18-month time frame, he said, “we have to start to turn the tide against the Taliban.” Only after that, he said can he project a date for a U.S. pullout. Meanwhile, he warned, the American public should brace for a higher injury and death toll among U.S.…
Type: News
Group Kicks Off Campaign to Repeal Military Ban on Gay Servicemembers
A law banning gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military is diminishing U.S. capacity to meet the demands of conducting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to advocates seeking to repeal the restriction. “The policy is not working for the armed services, and it hurts our national security,” said Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., at a July 8 Newsmaker. “This is not something that we can punt down the road, when our troops are spread so thin in the Middle East.” Murphy, an Iraq veteran, is the lead sponsor of a bill that would end the "don’t-ask-don’t-tell" policy toward gay and…
Type: News
DeMint Says "Private Ryan" Inspired "Saving Freedom"
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said he was inspired to write a book about saving free enterprise after he saw "Saving Private Ryan." Just as the American Army worked together to save Private Ryan from the Nazis, DeMint said at an NPC book event July 8, “all generations of a free and prosperous American people” need to join together to save freedom from socialism. His book, "Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America’s Slide Into Socialism," was recently published. “Republicans betrayed the trust of the American people” when the Bush administration increased government spending, DeMint said, calling for…
Type: News
Longtime Club Member Austin Kiplinger Honored by SPJ
Longtime NPC member Austin Kiplinger has been named a Fellow of the Society by the Society of Professional Journalists. It is the highest honor SPJ bestows on a journalist for extraordinary contributions to the profession. He and two other recipients (the late Stanley Hubbard, founder of Hubbard Broadcasting, and Nelson Poynter, founder of Congressional Quarterly) will be recognized Aug. 29 at the SPJ convention in Indianapolis. SPJ described Kiplinger as "an enthusiastic entrepreneur and journalist who, at age 90, serves as chairman of his family’s booming business, Kiplinger Washington…
Type: News
Author Describes Dramatic Struggle over Supreme Court
“Not being a lawyer helped in writing this book,” said Burt Solomon in discussing his book, “FDR vs. the Constitution: The Court-Packing Fight and the Triumph of Democracy” at the Club July 9. It enabled Solomon to do extensive research on both the political and legal aspects of what he described as a “titanic battle over Roosevelt’s attempt to pack the Supreme Court” with six more justices. In the mid-1930’s, the high court, dominated by a 5-4 conservative majority, had struck down a dozen New Deal laws and state legislative attempts to end the Depression and protect the poor. Average age…
Type: News
Morris Dees: Congress, Nation Must Guard Against Domestic Terrorism
Key congressional committees should review Pentagon policies on extremist groups to determine if they prevent the U.S. military from “inadvertently training future domestic terrorists,” the chief trial counsel for a civil rights watchdog group told a National Press Club audience July 10. Morris Dees, cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, released a letter he sent to the House and Senate Armed Services and homeland security committees. He called for an investigation into Pentagon rules designed to keep racial extremists from joining and serving in the military where they have access to…
Type: News
Club Honors Journalism Excellence in Annual Contest
Small journalism outlets captured prestigious honors alongside some of the biggest names in the industry in the 2009 National Press Club Awards. Reporters Todd Bensman and Guillermo Contreras of the San Antonio Express-News won the Edwin M. Hood Award for Diplomatic Correspondence for a three-part series tracing the trail of high-powered guns smuggled from the United States into Mexico and the mounting body count in Mexico’s drug cartel war. Meanwhile, Juliet Macur of The New York Times won the Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award, print and online category, for following up on the fate…
Type: News
Poll Indicates Ambivalence Toward Health Insurance Reform
As Congress works to meet a summer deadline for producing House and Senate health care reform legislation, Americans are expressing ambivalence, according to a new poll released at a July 15 Newsmaker. The online survey of 3,862 conducted by the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Zogby International Inc. shows that 46 percent support a “public option” government-sponsored insurance plan and 44 percent back an expanded government role in health care. The public option, which has been called Medicare for people younger than 65, is a key component of the House health care…
Type: News
Envoys Discuss Priorities of Swedish EU Presidency
The Swedish and European Union ambassadors to the U.S., Jonas Hafstrom and former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, took turns at a July 16 Newsmaker in discussing and answering questions about Sweden's EU presidency, which runs through the end of the year. Hafstrom quoted Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in saying that the two main priorities which "will dominate our presidency" are managing the global financial crisis and unemployment and climate change. He said other themes and priorities include preparing the 27 EU nations for the December UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen;…
Type: News