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Once again we have a politician who is indicted on corruption charges and once again we have a news organization who "conveniently" neglects to mention his party label. You will look in vain for the party name of Puerto Rico Governor Anibal Acevedo Vila in this United Press International report: SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Dec 29, 2008 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Puerto Rico's governor, indicted on corruption charges, posted a video on the popular social networking site Facebook admitting to making mistakes.

Immigration officials have allowed violent criminals to leave the Houston jail despite being told they were illegal immigrants, an investigation found. The Houston Chronicle reported Sunday that records shows Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn't file the necessary paperwork to detain about 75 percent of the more than 3,500 inmates who told jailers during the booking process that they were in the U.S. illegally.

The U.S. government is considering sending envoys to Iran for the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution to boost contact between the two nations. The U.S. State Department was considering opening a so-called interests section in Tehran to handle such issues as visa processing and other consular services, Financial Times reported Tuesday.

MONTREAL, March 30 (UPI) -- A poll in Quebec is bad news for both the nationalist Bloc Quebecois and the Liberal Party. The Conservative Party, now the governing group in Canada, has gained at the expense of the other two, CTV reported. Support for the Bloc has dropped to 30 percent, the CROP poll found, while the Conservatives are now at 29 percent. Liberals are down to 20 percent, and the New Democratic Party is at 15 percent. Among Francophones, about 85 percent of the population of Quebec, support for the Bloc is at 35 percent, for the Conservatives at...

MOSCOW, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Russia's top military commander said Tuesday his country has no obligation to defend other countries against "the evil Americans." "Today, there is no need to be afraid of the Russian armed forces," said Russian army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky. "However, I do not believe that the Russian military is obliged to defend the world from the evil Americans."

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- More than six years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, America is a country with more physical security to defend against terrorism. Much of that has been focused on preventing hijackings so that airplanes cannot be used as missiles as they were on Sept. 11. Most recently, Department of Homeland Security officials announced that remote-control toys may be subject to additional security screening because the government “is aware that remote control toys can be used to initiate devices used in terrorist attacks.” Buildings have also been...

CHICAGO, July 31 (UPI) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in China and elsewhere around the world. The EPA, along with the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday to collaborate on international sustainable development projects. The initial focus will be on China, where the EPA and the council will collaborate with the China Business Council for Sustainable Development and the Chinese State Environmental Protection Agency in three areas:

WASHINGTON, July 31 (UPI) -- U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman-nominee Adm. Michael Mullen told his confirmation hearing in Washington Tuesday he is increasingly perturbed about Iran. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mullen, who would replace Marine Gen. Peter Pace, warned strife in the Arab and Islamic worlds "bear directly on the safety of the United States." "I'm especially concerned about the increasingly hostile role played by Iran," Mullen said. "I support diplomatic efforts to counter Iran's destabilizing behavior and hope their leaders will choose to act responsibly, but I find their support for terrorism and their nuclear ambitions...

NEW YORK United Press International is cutting 11 positions from its Washington, D.C., bureau, including its lone White House correspondent, Richard Tomkins. The move marks the first time in its history that UPI will have no one on that beat. "I have been expecting it for some time," said Tomkins, a seven-year UPI veteran who has covered the White House since 2003. "The company is not doing well. For the first time in UPI history, there is no White House correspondent." Tomkins, 61, also served as UPI's lead reporter during the 2003 Iraq invasion. He said he will leave his...

WASHINGTON, June 8 (UPI) -- Iraqi union leaders met with a U.S. congressman they say is their biggest friend in Washington, urging a united front against Iraq's draft oil law. "We believe this is a new invasion of our economy and especially to take over our oil fields," Umara told Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, in a private meeting Thursday in the congressman's inner office, which UPI was allowed to attend. Kucinich is a presidential candidate and Congress' most vocal war opponent.

UPI Poll: Attack on U.S. 'likely' WASHINGTON, April 26 (UPI) -- Some 80 percent of UPI-Zogby International poll participants said a deadly terrorist attack on the United States is "likely" within five years. Some 79.2 percent of those asked said it was either "very likely" (42.5 percent) or "somewhat likely" (36.7 percent) there would be a terrorist attack in the next five years that will claim U.S. lives within the country's borders. Some 10.5 percent of participants said such an event is "somewhat unlikely" and 3.1 percent found such a scenario "very unlikely." The opinions are only slightly better in...

C-Span's Brian Lamb had UPI war correspondent Pamela Hess on as his Friday "close the show guest". The interview lasted some time, she took calls and I got to see about half of it.

UPI Poll: Character counts in election WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- The "values, morals and character" of a candidate top the pre-election selection process of participants in a UPI-Zogby International poll. The 8,086 likely U.S. voters who participated in a Zogby interactive poll were asked to select two areas of consideration as they prepare for Tuesday's election in the United States. The option "their values, morals and character" topped the results with 42.6 percent of those asked giving that response. That choice was first among Republican respondents -- 63.2 percent choose it -- and self-described independents, 39.2 percent of whom...

CHICAGO, June 19 (UPI) -- The cost of online content continues to climb, but Internet retailers are not paying the full price for producing it, sources are telling United Press International's Networking column. Rather, they are getting it wholesale, acquiring "syndicated" Web content, produced by product manufacturers, like Estee Lauder, Sony, Palm and others, and customizing and integrating it on to their own sites, with just one line of HTML code. The content includes not only product descriptions -- as in a catalog -- but also interactive demos, buying guides and educational content. By Gene Koprowski http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20060619-084736-7451r

Sex trafficking, almost non-existent under Saddam Hussein, reportedly has resurfaced in Iraq, where an estimated 2,000 women have gone missing since 2003. The collapse of law and order and the absence of a stable government have allowed criminal gangs, alongside terrorists, to run amok, Time magazine reports. Meanwhile, some aid workers say, bureaucrats in the ministries have either paralyzed with red tape or frozen the assets of charities that might have provided refuge for the girls. The U.S. State Department's June 2005 trafficking report says the extent of the problem in Iraq is "difficult to appropriately gauge" but cites an...

Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy Had Racial Covenants It's particularly ironic that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee would try to smear Samuel Alito as racist for his 1980s membership in a Princeton organization that was against affirmative action - especially given the backgrounds of Alito's leading critics on the Committee. In fact, Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden have some significant exposure of their own on the racial sensitivity front, given the fact that both their families owned homes that were restricted by "racial covenants" from being sold to blacks, Jews or other minorities. The startling news emerged in 1986,...

(UPI) NBC's controversial new series, "The Book of Daniel," had just 23 commercials spanning 12.5 minutes during its two-hour premiere, it was reported Wednesday. The number adds up to about half the usual commercial load for two hours in primetime, MediaWeek reported. Conservative and religious groups mounted a vigorous attack against the series starring Aidan Quinn as a priest addicted to prescription drugs -- and struggling with an alcoholic wife, gay son and brother -- who embezzles funds from the church. Quinn's character is seen having conversations with a modern "Jesus" figure, who only he can see. Five NBC affiliates...

IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely."

With the all-but-corporate death of the UPI, the AP is the main American source for news in the United States. Associated Press articles are mindlessly quoted by newspapers across the nation. Many local radio and TV stations rip and read either directly from the AP, or indirectly from local newspapers which use the AP. Therefore, it’s reprehensible that the AP, three weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit, has not found out that there WAS an Evacuation Plan for New Orleans and southern Louisiana which was not followed. The Plan is on the Internet and available to anyone who can push a...

Let’s talk about the stupidity of Senators. Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) is our Poster Child. First, there is no known lower limit on the stupidity of an individual Senator. For gross public dumb, it’s hard to beat a one-term Iowa Senator who went to a local massage parlor to have his ashes hauled. He was dumb enough to pay with a credit card. And dumb to have a staffer who was living in sin with an Iowa reporter. As a result, the credit card slip was published in a paper, and the gentleman’s career ended at six years. This...