USA
Like drivers, passengers have a constitutional right to challenge vehicle stops by police, the US Supreme Court said Monday. Justice David Souter, writing for a unanimous court, stated, "A traffic stop necessarily curtails the travel a passenger has chosen just as much as it halts the driver." Most state and federal courts already permit challenges by passengers, with the exceptions of California, Colorado, and Washington.
Stabilizing Iraq could take as long as a decade, said Gen. David Petraeus on Sunday. the comments by the US commander in Baghdad preceded the Monday meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the Iraqi foreign minister in Washington.
Several governors and Medicaid directors are pressuring Congress to triple the funding for children's health insurance to $15 billion, allowing for the coverage of 5.5 million uninsured children. Challenging federal guidelines that deny insurance to children of recent legal immigrants and those whose incomes are above the poverty level, the National Governors Association asked Congress to allow states to decide who the program should serve.
Brooklyn's industrial coastline has been listed as one of the nation's most endangered historic places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Residents expressed support and hope to see the fabled waterfront rehabilitated rather than demolished to make way for luxury residential developments. Above, Charles Johnson, left, and David Sharps, meet on Sharp's residential barge on the Red Hook waterfront in Brooklyn.
Worried that a News Corp. takeover of the Dow Jones & Co.'s The Wall Street Journal would inhibit the paper's coverage, Pearson Plc and General Electric Co. may challenge the media conglomerate's $5 billion bid for the newspaper. If they were to succeed, the Dow Jones' controlling Bancroft family would keep a minority interest in the company, according to The Financial Times.
In an initiative that is raising eyebrows in Southwestern communities, La Plata County, Colo., is developing a database to identify potential fire risks. The county, which has thousands so homes in wildfire zones, will include information about vegetation around homes, access, and water availability.
