The Daily MuckAmong the many problems in Iraq, officials there have decided seat belt laws are lax and will now crackdown on offenders. Add that to the other distractions while on the morning commute. (New York Times)
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was found to have misreported over $440,000-worth of campaign donations and spending. Blackburn blamed the discrepancies on a credit card company that she claims botched online donations and inexperienced workers who didn’t know how to properly record contribution checks with the FEC. (The Tennessean)
Pentagon documents reveal the 2003 prisoner abuse of Afghan detainees at the Gardez Detention Facility. Among other abuses, prisoners were forced to kneel outside in wet clothing while they were hit repeatedly if they moved. (Associated Press)
In light of the White House’s horrendous policy on retaining staff e-mails (of which they have lost millions), House Democrats are pushing legislation to enhance government standards for e-mail preservation. But CREW has denounced the plan as simply a “print-and-save policy,” and urges Congress to bring electronic record-keeping into the 21st century. (Washington Post)
Some of the usual suspects, such as Reps. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and William Jefferson (D-LA) among others, didn’t dish out big campaign money to their lawyers for a change in the first quarter of 2008, according to campaign finance reports. But don’t count Alaska Republican Don Young in that mix: His legal bill has exceeded $1 million. (Roll Call)
The controversial trial of officials involved in the 2003 rendtion of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar from Milan to Egypt resurfaces after numerous delays, among those being the refusal by the U.S. to give up the names of almost two dozen CIA officials that bungled the rendition. (Mother Jones)
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has praised developer Forest City Enterprises as a key player in the revitalization of the old Navy Yard in Southeast Washington. In turn, Forest City and other real estate companies have given her nearly half of the $218,000 she’s raised, as of March 31.(Politico)