Countdown Newsletter 4/27/06 No Keith tonight dammit

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Tonight on Countdown
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A Senate committee is urging that the Federal Emergency Management Agency be dismantled and restructured to deal with the problems exposed by its response to Hurricane Katrina, setting off a political fight in Congress over the agency's future. "We have concluded that FEMA is in shambles and beyond repair and that it should be abolished," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a press conference today. "The first obligation of government is to protect our people. In Katrina, we failed at all levels of government." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-042706fema_lat,0,2765440.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12505146/

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.
Keith is off today. Brian Unger anchors.

A federal judge refused Thursday to dismiss charges against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former top White House aide who was indicted on perjury and obstruction charges last year in the CIA leak scandal. The judge said Thursday he did not need to "look far" in the law to reject the claim by Libby's defense team. The judge said there is no question the attorney general can delegate any of his functions. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1897224

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether two contractors implicated in the bribery of former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham supplied him with prostitutes and free use of a limousine and hotel suites, pursuing evidence that could broaden their long-running inquiry. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114610728002837324-FnHaEYAFT_b7QFGwPxnAIiEcHEI_20060527.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

The wave of protest music. David Was, contributor to NPR's "Day to Day" and half of the musical duo "Was Not Was", joins us. Private investigator Anthony Pellicano allegedly searched confidential criminal databases for incriminating information on a Hungarian model after she asserted a paternity claim against comedian Chris Rock, court records and interviews show. The disclosure adds the biggest celebrity name thus far to the list of people whom Pellicano purportedly sought to help by intimidating courtroom foes. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-pellicano25apr25,0,3102116.story?coll=la-home-headlines

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
FRESNO, Calif. -- Lawyers for a woman who was spanked in front of her co-workers as part of what her employer said was a camaraderie-building exercise asked a jury Wednesday for at least $1.2 million for the humiliation she claimed to have suffered. Janet Orlando, 53, quit her job at the home security company Alarm One Inc. in Fresno and sued, alleging discrimination, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress. Employees were paddled with rival companies' yard signs as part of a contest that pitted sales teams against each other, according to court documents. The winners poked fun at the losers, throwing pies at them, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and swatting their buttocks. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SPANKING_TRIAL?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
Wow.

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

Other News...
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday he is considering legislation to cut off funding for the Bush administration's secret domestic wiretapping program until he gets satisfactory answers about it from the White House. "Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment," Specter, R-Pa., told the panel. "If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12515341/from/RS.2/

After spending months wrangling for control of buildings and money at ground zero, politicians and a private developer gathered Thursday as excavation trucks rolled out to mark the beginning of construction of the Freedom Tower, the symbolic skyscraper designed to replace the destroyed World Trade Center. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12513193/

Senate Republicans advocate sending $100 rebate checks to millions of taxpayers, and a Democrat is leading the campaign for a 60-day gasoline tax holiday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12509275/

More than 1,100 people wanted for violent sex crimes have been arrested in a weeklong roundup of fugitives, the Justice Department said Thursday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12514222/

A sister of Iraq's new Sunni Arab vice president was killed Thursday in a drive-by shooting in Baghdad, a day after the politician called for the Sunni-dominated insurgency to be crushed by force. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12506287/

Iran has received its first batch of North Korean-made surface-to-surface missiles that put European countries within firing range, Israel's military intelligence chief said in an interview published Thursday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12512391/

Trapped deep below ground by poisonous gases, the Sago miners realized at least four of their air packs did not work and were forced to share the devices as they desperately pounded away with a sledgehammer in hopes of letting rescuers know where to find them. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12515482/from/RS.1/