Think Progress

ETHICS -- LOTT ALLEGED TO HAVE URGED WITNESSES TO GIVE FALSE INFORMATION IN INSURANCE FRAUD SUIT: During a deposition last week, Jim Robie, an attorney for State Farm Insurance, alleged that former Mississippi senator Trent Lott (R) had "urged witnesses to give false information in a Hurricane Katrina lawsuit." Questioning Lott's nephew, Zach Scruggs, Robie asked if it had been his "custom" to have Lott "contact and encourage witnesses to give false information." Scruggs refused to answer, invoking the Fifth Amendment. Robie recently told Legal Newsline that Lott had "initiated contact with people surrounding this case, something unprecedented for a U.S. Senator." Lott has reportedly used his position in the Senate to pressure State Farm. "Charles Chamness, the C.E.O. of a national insurance trade association, has claimed that Lott had threatened him, in a telephone call, with 'bringing down State Farm and the industry,'" the New Yorker reported. A spokesman for Lott's lobbying firm told Legal Newsline that "the former senator had no interest in justifying the implication with a response," but Robie has said "he will continue his efforts to depose both Richard and Zach Scruggs, during which he will probe the influence of Lott." 

CONGRESS -- CONSERVATIVES PLAN POLITICAL THEATER TO PUSH OIL DRILLING: Repeating a political stunt from Friday, House conservatives plan to take to the House floor today -- despite the fact that Congress has adjourned for summer recess -- in order to hold a fake session on energy prices. Politico reports that conservative lawmakers "felt they got a lot of good press out of Friday's 'revolt,'" which took place in a dark chamber with no microphones, "so they will be back at it again." The office of Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) sent out a memo Saturday "asking for an energy 'call to arms' this week, to build on Friday's success." ABC reports that 30 members of Congress are "flying back to DC from their Districts today and tomorrow" to participate in the faux session. "We've called on the Speaker to call Congress back into an emergency session this month and schedule a vote on the American Energy Act," wrote Blunt in the memo. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the stunt "the war dance of the hand maidens of the oil companies." At the Wonk Room, Center for American Progress Action Fund Director of Climate Strategy Dan Weiss explains how House conservatives employed Tom DeLay-style tactics to block an up or down vote on oil profiteer legislation in order to set up their political theatrics.

HEALTH CARE -- STUDY SAYS U.S. HIV INFECTION RATE 40 PERCENT HIGHER THAN BELIEVED: A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that "the United States has significantly underreported the number of new H.I.V. infections occurring nationally each year." The study found that 56,300 people became newly infected with the virus in 2006, "compared with the 40,000 figure the agency has cited as the recent annual incidence of the disease." Though the information was available in October, the CDC waited to release the figures until they were published in a peer reviewed journal. Last week, the Black AIDS Institute reported,  "If black America were a country, it would rank 16th in the world in the number of people living with the AIDS virus." The group argued that the U.S. government has not provided enough resources to fight AIDS domestically, especially among black Americans. They said there are at least 500,000 African Americans with HIV, more than "in seven of the 15 'target countries' in the Bush administration's global AIDS initiative." Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) "pointed out that the HIV prevention budget, adjusted for inflation, had fallen over the past six years by 19%."

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) is opposing a decision by the Bush administration to allow a New England Little League team to visit Cuba this week, arguing such trips run counter to the U.S. policy of isolating the Cuban government. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) fired back at Diaz-Balart: "He should pick on someone his own size."

Planned layoffs at U.S. companies jumped 26 percent from June to July, which is an indication of "further deterioration in the labor market." In July, planned layoffs totaled 103,312, compared to 81,755 in June. "From January to July, planned layoffs totaled 579,260, up 33 percent from the same period a year ago."

Neither President Bush nor Congress "has acted to appoint members to a commission intended to boost U.S. energy independence in the three years since Congress enacted a law establishing the panel." During that time, "oil prices have more than doubled to $125 per barrel from $60, and the price of a gallon of gasoline has increased from about $2.25 to nearly $4."

After two years of spiraling defaults, "problems with mortgages made to people with weak, or subprime, credit are showing their first, tentative signs of leveling off." However, homeowners with good credit are now "falling behind on their payments in growing numbers."

"Iraqi lawmakers on Sunday failed to settle a dispute over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and pass a provincial elections bill viewed as vital for national reconciliation, despite intense pressure from the United States and the United Nations." One Kurdish legislator said President Bush “is pressing the Iraqi politicians to make a fast deal," but "[t]here's no way to find a solution to a 100-year-old problem in days."

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, "who was targeted in the 2001 anthrax attack," said "the American people deserve more of an accounting on this investigation," referring to the suicide of a reported suspect. Daschle said it is "unfortunate" he has not been briefed on the latest developments.

According to a new Government Accountability Office report, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "is putting millions of Medicare dollars at risk by authorizing fictitious sellers of wheelchairs, prosthetics and other medical supplies to submit reimbursement claims with only limited review," despite promises since "at least 2005" to fix the problems.

And finally: On Friday, rapper Jay-Z received "applause and wild cheers" from the crowd as he closed the Africa Rising Music and Fashion Festival at the Kennedy Center. The noise was the loudest though when the show turned political during "Minority Report," which criticized the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. The song concluded with an “expletive” about President Bush. When a "giant picture" of Bush flashed across the screen, the "crowd helped him boo" Bush.