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Saturday, July 20, 2019

The United States House of Representatives voted to hold two current Cabinet officers, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Attorney General William Barr, in contempt of Congress, citing their refusal to disclose to Congress documents related to President Donald Trump’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The vote passed primarily along party lines, 230-to-198. Historically, the Department of Justice has not pursued criminal charges against those held in contempt of Congress.

In April, the House Oversight and Reform Committee authorized subpoenas for documents relating to the administration’s decision to try to add a question about citizenship to the census, attempting to discern the true reason for the addition of the citizenship question. Barr and Ross, however, refused to hand over the documents. On June 12, minutes before the Oversight Committee voted to refer them to the full House to be held in contempt, Trump formally claimed the documents were subject to executive privilege.

For weeks, the Trump administration has been trying to add the question, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”, to the upcoming 2020 census, with the stated rationale of improving enforcement of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. In late June, the United States Supreme Court ruled against its initial attempt, saying the justification presented for the question was “contrived.” A few days later, on July 2, Trump announced he would drop his bid to add the question, before reversing course the next day and pressing forward. A few days later the administration said he would use an executive order to add the citizenship question to the census, disregarding the Supreme Court’s ruling. The administration finally gave up on July 11, arranging instead to provide citizenship information to the Census Bureau from other government agencies.

Only once before has Congress voted to hold a Cabinet officer in contempt while they were in office: Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt in 2012 for refusing to turn over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. People held in contempt of Congress are referred to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution. As Attorney General, Barr leads the Department of Justice. Kerri Kupec, spokeswoman for the Trump administration’s Department of Justice, sharply criticized the House’s decision, which Ross has referred to as “gamesmanship” and a “stunt”.

The citizenship question was last included in the general census in 1950.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

United Kingdom prime minister Gordon Brown and Irish premier Brian Cowen have left Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, where they had been attending talks on justice and the recent Northern Ireland crisis regarding the devolution of policing and justice powers from London to Belfast. No agreement has yet been reached, and the main parties have been given two more days to attempt to broker a deal.

Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister and member of the republican party Sinn Féin, was “deeply disappointed” by the lack of an agreement on the possible devolution of Northern Ireland’s policing and justice powers from Westminster, London to Stormont, Belfast. Brown, however, believes the discussions are salvageable. He said that there is the “prospect of a reasonable agreement” being reached within the next two days, and that they “have the pathway to an agreement” in place. The British unionist Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin—Northern Ireland’s two largest parties—have been arguing over the issue for some time.

On Monday, Brown and Cowen travelled to Hillsborough Castle to meet with delegates of Northern Ireland’s major parties in an attempt to forge an agreement, and—before he left—Brown gave the remaining delegates 48 hours to find a mutually beneficial solution. He said that the governments of the UK and Ireland will publish their plans if no such agreement is reached. He also said that the devolution could occur “around the beginning of May” this year. Sinn Féin want the devolution to occur as soon as possible, but the DUP argues that “community confidence” is required before the process, which would give Northern Ireland its first justice minister, can begin.

McGuinness said, “We have not concluded a deal today and I am deeply disappointed about that. We intend to study the governments’ statement.” He said that his party would refuse to give its support to anything that subjected “citizens’ rights” to a “unionist veto”. Peter Robinson, the leader of the DUP who has been forced to temporarily stand aside as first minister due to a sexual and financial scandal involving his wife, said that his party would not accept a “second-rate deal” in order to keep to “someone else’s time limit”. He is also reported as saying, “We are not prepared to buy a pig in a poke. We will do what is right for our community.” Sinn Féin has accused the DUP of stalling for time, though Robinson denied this, saying that “[t]he party has always wanted to see the devolution of policing and justice and has always wanted it to happen without undue delay but it has to happen on a basis that we believe is sustainable”.

It is thought that a failure to come to an agreement could trigger a re-election in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and damage the delicate peace process, which began with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Margaret O’Callaghan, of Queen’s University Belfast said, “It’s difficult to overestimate just how bad relations are between them. They really do not get on. On the other hand people have too much invested in this to allow it to collapse.”

A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, March 1, 2010.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Wikinews held an exclusive interview with Jeremy Hanke, editor of MicroFilmmaker Magazine. The magazine, which is free to read online, was started as a resource for the low budget moviemaker and features book, independent film, equipment and software reviews as well as articles on film distribution, special effects and lighting.

He says that one of the goals of the magazine is to “connect low-budget filmmakers via a feeling of community, as many…..often compete so viciously against one another in film festivals for coveted “shots” with Hollywood, that they can quickly forget their similarities.”

When asked if films made on a shoestring budget can really compete with those made for millions of dollars, he replied, “no…yes…and absolutely. Allow me to explain.” And so he does in the interview below.

Monday, March 12, 2007

24 of 26 Swiss Cantons rejected the proposal for a single health insurance system, in which premiums would be based on income and wealth. The vote on Sunday was the latest in a series of attempts to cut rising costs and ease the financial burden on citizens.

Around 71% of voters rejected the reform. Turnout was at about 46%, slightly above the Swiss average.

As expected, voters in the main German-speaking part of the country turned down the planned reform, which was supported by the centre-left but opposed by the centre-right as well as the business community, parliament and the government.

Opposition in the French and Italian speaking regions was less pronounced. The cantons Jura and Neuchâtel in the French speaking regions voted in favor of the proposed reforms.

Health insurance premiums are higher in southern and western Swiss cantons than in German-speaking areas.

The Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin said an important part of the Swiss Population appeared to be opposed to “a revolution” in health insurance but he said that he wanted current reforms currently under discussion in the Swiss Parliament to go ahead. He called on all sides, especially health insurers and the cantonal authorities, to make efforts to reduce spending on health insurance and aim for a greater cost efficiency. Currently Switzerland has 87 private insurers providing mandatory basic health care coverage for Swiss residents under a 1996 law. But costs have sky-rocketed. Over 100,000 people are not covered by health insurance due to non payment.

Opponents to the initiative argued that a single insurance system would lead to complacency and create a two-tier system, in which the wealthy would be the only ones available to afford to have additional private insurance coverage.

Supporters of the initiative said a single health insurer would increase the system’s efficiency and allow for annual savings of at least 300 million Swiss Francs (about $245 million) in administrative costs. Currently, the funding system is unbalanced, since many clients on low incomes use state subsidies to pay their premiums, according to the Green Party and the Social Democrats.

The initiative to unite all the insurance companies and introduce premiums based on wealth and income was the most recent in a series of attempts over the past ten years to reduce the public spending on health care. A proposal, similar to this recent proposal, to modify the funding system of the health insurance companies was rejected by 73% of voters in 2003.

Switzerland has the most expensive health system in Europe. Switzerland’s expenditure on health care was 11.6% in 2005, in front of Germany and France but behind the United States.