Think Progress

JUSTICE -- ROVE BACKTRACKS FROM PLEDGE TO TESTIFY ON SIEGELMAN CASE: Yesterday, House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI), joined by members Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Artur Davis (D-AL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), wrote to former White House aide Karl Rove and requested that he testify before the committee about the politicization of the Justice Department, including the prosecution of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman. On April 7, MSNBC's Dan Abrams reported that when he asked Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, if Rove would agree to testify to Congress, Luskin said "Sure." Today, however, Roll Call reports that Rove's lawyer has reversed his position. "'Whether, when and about what a former White House official will testify...is not for me or my client to decide,' but is part of an ongoing negotiation between the White House and Congress over executive privilege issues, Luskin said." Rove has denied his alleged ties to the Siegelman case, calling it "a lie."

ENVIRONMENT -- EPA REFUSES TO ANSWER TO CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENA: This month marks one year since the Supreme Court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin regulating greenhouse gases, which EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson had refused to do. On April 2, the House Global Warming Committee, in a unanimous vote, issued a subpoena for documents relating to the agency's refusal to follow the Supreme Court mandate. On April 11, the agency asked for an extension on answering the subpoena. However, in a follow-up letter yesterday, the EPA declined to respond to the active subpoena and instead asked the committee to withdraw it. The EPA is also currently defying a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee for related documents. According to a statement by the committee, "If the EPA fails to comply with [the] deadline, Johnson will have triggered a potential contempt process."

ECONOMY -- STATES TAKE THE LEAD IN POVERTY REDUCTION: A recent report released by two prominent poverty-reduction groups highlights the efforts of more than a dozen states to reduce poverty and lift Americans into the economic mainstream. The report's lead author, Jodie Levin-Epstein of the Center for Law and Social Policy, explains that there are many new factors forcing state lawmakers to take action, including "growing income inequality, a general economic insecurity, and the realization that to stay globally competitive we need a workforce that is skilled and agile. ... These add up to a new political awareness that we can not allow poverty -- and a lack of economic opportunities for people in poverty -- to continue to be largely ignored." Connecticut, Delaware and Vermont have pledged to cut child poverty by 50 percent in the next 10 years; Michigan will be holding its first statewide child poverty summit this fall; Minnesota has commissioned a legislative group to end poverty in the state by 2020; and Colorado and Iowa have established legislative caucuses devoted to eradicating poverty around the state. As the economic downturn intensifies, poverty is gaining traction in the 2008 presidential race, with all three remaining contenders pledging to take action if elected. On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) have called for naming a high-level poverty point person. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has pledged to make the "eradication of poverty a top priority." The Center for American Progress has developed a strategy to cut poverty in half in the next 10 years.

According to a new Washington Post-ABC poll, nine in 10 Americans "now give the economy a negative rating, with a majority saying it is in 'poor' shape, the most to say so in more than 15 years." Moreover, more than 60 percent reject "the notion that the United States needs to win" in Iraq "to effectively battle terrorism," and "56 percent of Americans say the United States should withdraw."

"The Justice Department is investigating whether agency lawyers improperly advised the military it could use harsh interrogation methods and concluded that President Bush's wartime authority could not be limited by domestic law or international bans on torture." A recently released March 2003 memo is being "included in an ongoing internal review about the CIA's use of waterboarding."

"Trying to stem the infiltration of militia fighters, American forces have begun to build a massive concrete wall that will partition Sadr City, the densely populated Shiite neighborhood in the Iraqi capital. The construction, which began Tuesday night, is intended to turn the southern quarter of Sadr City" into "a protected enclave, secured by Iraqi and American forces," where the Iraqis can focus on reconstruction.

A company of Iraqi troops in Sadr City abandoned their posts today, after "they came under attack from Shiite militiamen who used the cover of a sandstorm." This latest setback comes after "more than 1,300 Iraqi soldiers and police deserted or refused to fight" against Shiite militias during recent fighting in Basra.

An Air Force inspector general's report says Maj. Gen. Stephen Goldfein and others "worked inside the Air Force contracting system to favor" Strategic Message Solutions and its owners, "despite an offer by the company that was more than twice as expensive as a competing bid." As part of Goldfein's efforts to help the company, he "arranged for President Bush to record a video testimonial" on the company's behalf.

"Suicide bombers conducted 658 attacks around the world last year, including 542 in U.S.-occupied Afghanistan and Iraq." The bombings, in dozens of countries on five continents, "killed more than 21,350 people and injured about 50,000 since 1983, when a landmark attack blew up the U.S. Embassy in Beirut" 25 years ago today.

The Senate approved "a resolution asking the Justice Department to look into the circumstances surrounding the $10 million expenditure for a highway interchange in Florida backed by Rep. Don Young [R-AK]." Young has "denied that he pushed the provision as a result of receiving $40,000 in campaign donations from developers who owned 4,000 acres of land next to the proposed interchange."

With Americans focusing on the increasing job losses, "the less-noticeable shrinking of hours and pay for millions of workers around the country appears to be a bigger contributor to the decline" of the economy. Total hours worked dropped last month compared to six months earlier, the first such drop since "February 2001, when the economy was on the doorstep of recession."

An internal survey of employees at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "found that only 58 percent were satisfied with their jobs, the same as results from a 2006 survey that measured job satisfaction across the government." DHS employee satisfaction ranked at the bottom of the 2006 poll.

And finally: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is looking forward to the next president. Yesterday he talked to reporters about the three remaining presidential candidates: "Some of the things they will be in favor of I will agree with, some of the things they will be in favor of I won't. But at least we'll have an adult in office who can lead and can accomplish something." Bloomberg refused to say whether he was criticizing President Bush.