WASHINGTON (CN) - Reverting to the Clinton Administration's policies on federalism, President Obama has admonished his departments and agencies not to steam-roll over states' rights without a sufficient legal basis, and has asked them to review all federal regulations in the last 10 years intended to preempt state law.
     Quoting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brandeis, the president asserted that states have the privilege to try "novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country," and that the federal government should stay out of it without legal justification, which includes principles outlined in President Bill Clinton's Executive Order 13132.
     President George W. Bush's administration had scattered preemption provisions throughout federal regulations whether legally justified or not, often aiding businesses in getting around unfavorable state laws. Bush's agencies also included in some introductions to regulations that the agency planned to preempt state law, even when the federal regulation's having precedence over state laws actually was not part of the regulation.

Download Memorandum of May 20, 2009:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/05/28/LeadRegMay2609%20preemption.doc

The combined average global land and ocean surface temperatures for April 2009 ranked fifth warmest since worldwide records began in 1880, according to an analysis by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Temperature Highlights

• April’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature was 1.06 degree F above the 20th century average of 56.7degrees F. The most significant warmth occurred in northern and northeastern Asia, Europe, and much of the planet’s southern oceans.
• The global combined land and ocean surface temperature of 55.8 degrees F is tied with 2003 for the sixth-warmest January-through-April period on record. This value is 0.97 degree F above the 20th century average.
• The global land surface temperature for April was 1.80 degrees F degrees above the 20th century average of 46.5 degrees F degrees.

Global Highlights

• Arctic sea ice coverage of 5.6 million square miles was the tenth-lowest April extent since satellite records began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.  This value is 2.8 percent below the 1979-2000 average. In contrast, the April Southern Hemisphere sea ice extent of 3.2 million square miles was 13.5 percent above the 1979-2000 average.  April is early in the melt season for Arctic sea ice, and early in the growth season for Antarctic sea ice.
• Based on NOAA satellite observations, April snow cover extent was below the 1967-2009 average for the Northern Hemisphere. This marked the hemisphere’s sixth consecutive April with below-average snow cover extent. Warmer-than-normal conditions over Eurasia contributed to that region’s fourth-smallest April snow cover extent during the period. North American snow cover extent was slightly above average during the month.

Satellite images show that icebergs have begun to calve from the northern front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf – indicating that the huge shelf has become unstable. This follows the collapse three weeks ago of the ice bridge that had previously linked the Antarctic mainland to Charcot Island.
 
The ice bridge, which effectively formed a barrier pinning back the northern ice front of the central Wilkins Ice Shelf, collapsed on 5 April removing about 330 sq km of ice. As a consequence of the collapse, the rifts, which had already featured along the northern ice front, widened and new cracks formed as the ice adjusted in the days that followed. 


Satellite Images:
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMWZS5DHNF_index_0.html

Report:
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMRAVANJTF_index_0.html

“When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule,”  Horsley once said, adding, “You experiment with anything that moves when you are growing up sexually.”  The longshot Georgia candidate for governor now says he’d kill his own son to secede.

Prison guards jailed for abuses at Abu Ghraib jail  are planning to appeal against their convictions on the ground that recently released CIA torture memos prove that they were scapegoats for the Bush Administration.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article6207484.ece

April was Wall Street's best month in 9 years, Standard & Poor's 500 index climbed 9.4%, the Dow average  up 7.4%.

Jay Severin the right-wing radio talk show host on Boston’s WTKK-FM radio station, was suspended today after calling Mexican immigrants "criminaliens," “primitives,” “leeches,” and “women with mustaches and VD,” among other incendiary comments.


Heidi Raphael, a spokeswoman for the station, said Severin had been suspended indefinitely from his afternoon drive-time show. She declined to say which of his comments – made since an outbreak of swine flu was linked to Mexico in recent days – sparked the suspension.

  First and most important: wash your hands. Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/swineflu_you.htm

The GOP has continued its decline since 2004; today just 21% (down from 25% just last month) identify themselves as Republicans, the fewest since September 1983 in ABC/Post polls. Similarly, just 21% say they're confident in the Republicans in Congress "to make the right decisions for the country's future."

http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Obama100days/Story?id=7429261&page=2

Nearly two-thirds of Minnesotans surveyed think Coleman should concede the Senate race to Franken, but just as many believe the voting system that gave the state its longest running election contest needs improvement.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/43699772.html

Gov.Perry has asked for anti-viral swine flu medicine from that meddling, intrusive, too-expensive federal government!

The CIA inspector general in 2004 found no conclusive proof that "interrogation techniques" helped thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66895.html

Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, has been arrested for threatening politically-motivated mass murder. Among his writings, "WAR will start on the steps of the Oklahoma State Capitol. I will cast the first stone. In the meantime, I await the police." Sounds like he got his wish!



http://www.docstoc.com/docs/5648778/daniel_knight_hayden_charges

"Every (green) penny I have made I put back into a non-profit to spread awareness....I've been wiling to put my money where my mouth is. Do you think there's something wrong with being active in business in this country?" he asked."

Answering Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), "Well then, is it true that you're pushing all this climate change stuff because you're trying to get rich?"


http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=285474-1&showVid=true&clipStart=9596.70&clipStop=9806.12