The Daily MuckEmbattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will not be allowed to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Kilpatrick is restricted to the Detroit metro area due to his assault charges. In another blow, the state’s governor, Jennifer Granholm, said Thursday that she cannot legally pardon Kilpatrick. (AP)
A federal appeals court is set to reconsider tossing out the case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar based around Arar’s claims of torture while in U.S. custody. Born in Syria, Arar was detained by the U.S. in 2002 and sent to a prison in Syria for nearly a year after falsely being accused of links to al-Qaeda. Arar’s lawyers did not ask for the federal appeals court to reconsider the increasingly high profile case, but rather the court has come to the decision on its own. (AP)
A lobbyist in Alaska is facing criminal charges accusing him of persistently failing to file lobbying disclosure reports. Prominent lobbyist Ashley Reed faces seven misdemeanors, each punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to a year, or both. (Anchorage Daily News)
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sent a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding rebuking the administration’s continued stonewalling of congressional investigations. The letter is in response to the stay requested on Harriet Miers, Joshua Bolten and Karl Rove’s testimony, while the parties appeal the court’s recent ruling that they must appear before Congress in answer to subpoenas. (SJC Press Release)
Governor Jim Gibbons (R-NV) is set to appear before a two-member ethics panel on September 11th. The appearance revolves around a complaint filed by state Democrats charging Gibbons of using his position to get a tax break on land he owns in Elko County. Gibbons has derided the complaint as “baseless.” (PolitickerNV)
A military judge at Guantanamo Bay on Thursday banned a general at the Pentagon from serving as a legal adviser in the trial of Mohammed Jawad. The judge argued that the general was too biased and aggressive to serve in the court. In addition, the judge ordered a review of the charges against Jawad, who is accused of throwing a grenade that wounded two U.S. soldiers and a translator in Afghanistan. (McClatchy)