Here is an easy to understand .pdf file outlining the problems with Class Action Suits.
WaPo on Class Action Suits
The WaPo appears to come out in favor of the House Bill to modify Class-Action litigation:
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES passed a bill last week that would take a modest but important step toward fixing America’s broken system of class action litigation. The bill’s passage is no surprise; the House has passed it in previous Congresses as well. The big question now is whether it can pass the Senate, where it has previously stalled. A class action bill has been reported by the Judiciary Committee and is awaiting action by the full body. But its prospects remain cloudy. Yet no area of U.S. civil justice cries out more urgently for reform than the high-stakes extortion racket of class actions, in which truly crazy rules permit trial lawyers to cash in at the expense of businesses. Passing this bill would be an important start to rationalizing a system that’s out of control.
Last week, Yglesias and others called this bill horrible:
Any thoughts?
Call Your Representative
This is an important piece of legislation:
If a coalition of congressmen has its way, the government’s temporary moratorium on Internet-access taxes could soon become permanent.
This week, a House of Representatives committee is expected to consider a proposal that would bar states from imposing levies on Internet service, but would not affect their ability to collect sales taxes.
The Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, introduced by Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), would make permanent a moratorium the congressman initially introduced in 1998. The current ban is set to expire in November.
Cox urged support for the measure, backed by more than 30 other representatives, partly on the grounds that taxes would make it harder for lower-income Americans to afford Internet service.
“The average American does not need new taxes, especially on their Internet access,” he said, citing a recent Commerce Department report that found families making less than $25,000 per year represent the fastest-growing segment of the Internet population.
Email your rep. Write your rep. Call your rep. Then do the same thing for your Senators.
Changes to Head Start
Some of the proposed changes in the House Bill to reform Head Start:
The $6.8 billion bill drops plans to transfer Head Start to the Education Department from the Department of Health and Human Services in what was probably the most visible signal of the new academic emphasis. The measure, however, would still require all Head Start teachers to have four-year college degrees by 2008.
The proposal would also scale back plans to permit states to take control of Head Start. Critics had contended that would lower the quality of Head Start and reduce the money available for children.
The federal administration of Head Start is now paid from a separate allotment. So essentially all the money that Congress appropriates for the program goes to the day care centers.
The bill now says that no more than eight states may take over Head Start in a demonstration project. Those states have to pledge not to reduce the number of children in the federal program and to provide services as extensive as the children now receive. The bill would also allow religion-based groups that run Head Start programs to consider religion in hiring, exempting them from antidiscrimination clauses in the bill.
The usual suspects are against the bill, and are actually being quite whiny:
On Wednesday, the National Head Start Association sued the Bush administration, saying it had violated First Amendment rights of Head Start providers. The administration has in recent weeks written to providers to warn them that the Hatch Act bars using federal money to lobby Congress. The Head Start Association accused the administration of trying to muzzle criticism.
Policy Changes
Federal authorities said today that they planned to use stricter standards for identifying and locking up terrorist suspects in light of concerns raised in a recent report that hundreds of illegal immigrants were mistreated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Law enforcement officials plan to make at least 12 structural changes that were recommended in a report issued last week by the Justice Department inspector general, according to interviews with officials at the agencies affected by the report. Nine other recommendations are being actively considered, they said.
They had an investigation into previous occurences and problems, they published it, and now they intend to make changes. Isn’t this how it is supposed to work? This does not excuse them for the past mistakes, but this is how government is supposed to work. I am assuming TalkLeft will keep us up-to-date on whether they follow through.
I Apologize
I take back everything bad I have ever said about John McCain:
“If anyone came to my hometown in Phoenix, AZ and set off a bomb on a bus and killed 18 people and injured 100 of them, my citizens would expect us to respond,” US Senator John McCain, R-Ariz, told reporters in answer to a question about whether he approved of Bush’s condemnation of Israel’s attempt on Hamas leader Rantisi’s life.
“Do you want to call that a cycle of violence? You can call it what you want, but these acts of terror, these organizations, funded by the Saudis, at least encouraged by Yasser Arafat, are inexcusable in their tactics
WTF?
This will go over like a lead balloon:
Sen. John Breaux expects to wrap up a bipartisan agreement soon to reform Medicare using private insurance plans and then, he said, he is ready to begin persuading his centrist colleagues on Capitol Hill to support the idea of mandatory health insurance for all Americans.
The Louisiana Democrat has teamed up with the New America Foundation, a non-partisan public policy group; the Commonwealth Fund, a non-partisan public health research group, and Blue Shield of California. Together, on Wednesday, they outlined a strategy to provide the nation’s 41 million uninsured with health care coverage — while preserving choice for consumers who want and can afford more, and making the private sector a key participant.
Mandatory insurance. Grumble.