Attn: Criminal justice reporters 

            Ordinarily, criminal aliens are deported to their native countries after completing their prison sentences. But what happens if their native countries won’t take them back? It turns out that, with no place to go, they are simply turned loose on the streets of America.

            An estimated 139,000 criminal aliens from eight countries—Laos, Iran, Eritrea, Vietnam, Jamaica, China, India and Ethiopia—are subject to deportation, but their countries won’t let them come home.

            Yesterday (April 10), U.S. Reps. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) and Mike Castle (R-Del.) introduced legislation to impose sanctions against countries that refuse to take back their citizens who have been convicted of crimes in the U.S.

            Under their legislation, which copies a bill introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), visa applications from those countries would not be approved and all foreign assistance funds would be withheld.

            “There must be consequences for not respecting our rule of law. America is a land of opportunity, but it’s not a dumping ground for lawbreakers,” Rep. Dent said in a press release.

            The criminal alien population in U.S. prisons is thought to be substantial, possibly more than 8%. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported there were a total of 1,570,861 prisoners being held in state and federal prisons at the end of 2006.

Attn: Government reporters 

            Washington-based lobbying was a $2.79 billion industry in 2007, reports the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog organization which calculated the amount from more than 42,000 disclosure reports that were filed for last year with the House and Senate. The amount was declared a “record,” surpassing the previous year’s lobbying expenditures of $2.59 billion by 7.7%.

            CRP executive director Sheila Krumholz described Washington’s lobbying industry—comprised of corporations, labor unions, trade associations and an endless array of advocacy groups—as “recession-proof.” At a time when the national economy is restricting, the lobbying industry is booming, she noted.  

            Meanwhile, six other watchdog groups led by the Campaign Legal Center urged U.S. Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.) to immediately relinquish his seat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Wynn, after failing to win his party’s nomination to seek re-election to his House seat, announced he would leave Congress to join the lobbying law firm of Dickstein Shapiro LLC.

            In their letter, the six groups listed several dozen of Dickstein Shapiro’s lobbying clients that have a direct interest in legislation falling under the committee’s jurisdiction. To avoid conflicts, Wynn would have to recuse himself from any matters relating to energy, telecommunications, tobacco, construction, higher education, information technology, gambling, environmental issues, and pharmaceuticals. “It is difficult to believe that any direct or indirect action you might take in an official capacity as a member of this committee, especially as chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, would not affect the interests of clients Dickstein Shapiro represents.”

Attn: Assignment editors

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
U.S. offshore leasing is premised on a future of $30-a-barrel oil

U.S. Geological Survey
Holy cow! Where did all that oil come from? There’s 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in North Dakota and Montana

Federal Trade Commission
Do Not Call Registry is made permanent, telemarketers to pay $54 per area code for list of telephone numbers that cannot be called

Government Accountability Office
Undercover purchases on eBay and Craigslist reveal a market for sensitive and stolen U.S. military items  Full report (35 pages)

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
Calls on National Archives and Records Administration to waive $50 fee charged to veterans who seek access to their own military files