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Senate set to confirm two of President Bush's long-delayed nominees

By wire services
Published June 8, 2005

WASHINGTON - Two Alabama natives whose appointments to the federal bench have been stalled for months are expected to finally win Senate confirmation in back-to-back days this week.

Today, senators plan to confirm Janice Rogers Brown's nomination to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Immediately after that vote, they are expected to limit further debate on 11th Circuit Judge William Pryor to 30 hours, setting a vote Thursday on whether to make his appointment permanent.

Brown and Pryor will be the second and third of President Bush's blocked nominees to get votes as part of a deal senators worked out last month to avert a showdown over the use of judicial filibusters.

Senators voted 65 to 32 Tuesday to allow Brown's confirmation vote to proceed, ending the filibuster. She currently sits on the California Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is seeking to expand the nation's fish farming industry by allowing the farms to operate in the open ocean.

Officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association unveiled the new regulatory proposal Tuesday, saying it would transform the way Americans raise and consume fish.

The proposal would establish a permitting process for farms in federal waters between three miles and 200 miles off the coast, creating commercial zones that would operate under 10-year renewable leases.

WASHINGTON - The Air Force ignored legal requirements and violated its own rules as U.S. officials pushed for a now-canceled deal to lease and buy refueling tankers from the Boeing Co., the Pentagon's inspector general said Tuesday.

The report identified a half-dozen top Pentagon and Air Force officials as accountable in the $23.5-billion deal.

The report did not accuse the officials of illegal activity, although Inspector General Joseph Schmitz told Congress that as many as five laws would have been broken if the Boeing deal had been signed as officials intended.

The report is the most sweeping in a series on the failed tanker deal, which military and Boeing officials have long sought to blame on Darleen Druyun, a former Air Force acquisitions official now serving a nine-month federal prison term. Druyun admitted giving Boeing an inflated price on the tanker contract as a "parting gift" before retiring from the military and taking a job with the Chicago-based aerospace giant.

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel issued subpoenas to the Pentagon on Tuesday asking for more information on the decisions to close military installations.

The legal move comes after weeks of complaints from members of Congress and state officials about the slow release of information and the lack of backup material being provided. Officials have also objected that much information is classified and therefore cannot be discussed in public or at any of the upcoming hearings on the newest round of proposed base closures.

[Last modified June 8, 2005, 01:08:09]