4A THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN GOVERNMENT
NEWS
GOVERNMENT
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2005
Lawyer argues over financial disclosure
BY MARK SHERMAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON—As a Justice Department lawyer, Samuel Alito quarreled with the head of the government ethics office over proposed requirements on personal financial disclosures, according to documents released Monday.
Alito's 1987 letter was issued around the time the ethics office said his boss, Attorney General Edwin Meese III, had violated financial disclosure requirements over a $60,000 investment with a businessman who was tied to Wedtech, a Bronx, N.Y., defense contractor that was caught up in a wide-ranging federal investigation.
There was no suggestion that Alito, now nominated to be a Supreme Court justice, was aware of the ethics office's issues with Meese's disclosure.
Alito's letter to David H. Martin, director of the Office of Government Ethics, was among 120 documents from Alito's service as the deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel from 1985 to 1987 that were released by the Justice Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Associated Press and other news organizations.
Alito became the U.S. attorney for New Jersey after leaving Justice headquarters and then was appointed to the federal bench. President Bush has nominated him to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Some of the material in the newly released documents was blacked out for privacy reasons. An additional 60 documents were withheld because they contained classified information or confidential exchanges between government lawyers and their clients or for other reasons, said Paul B. Colborn, special counsel in the office where Alito worked.
In his February 1987 letter, Ali-
to, who served as his division's ethics officer, faulted Martin for failing to consult with the Justice Department before publishing proposed regulations on financial disclosures that upper-level government officials must submit annually.
"In this case, the need for such consultation was acute, since we made it abundantly clear to your office ... that we had serious legal objections," Alito wrote. The proposal increased the number of federal employees who would have to disclose their finances.
In the same period, the office was reviewing Meese's own report for 1985, which obscured how W. Franklyn Chinn invested the $60,000 Meese gave him, the ethics office said. Chinn, Meese's former financial adviser, later was convicted in the Wedtech scandal. Meese never faced criminal charges.
The documents generally paint a picture of Alito as a lawyer who gives great deference to governmental actions.
A September 1986 memo to the FBI, for instance, recommends that the bureau ignore a federal court decision restricting Education Department jobs that should require full background investigations for prospective hires. "The district court's opinion ... is subject to two interpretations, neither of which has a sound legal basis," Alito wrote of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Louis Oberdorfer.
A January 1986 letter to then-FBI Director William Webster concludes that the bureau may add to its files fingerprints, supplied by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, of Afghan and Iranian refugees without raising privacy concerns.
In another memo, dated January 1987, Alito raised concerns about a ban on capital punishment and other child welfare provisions that were part of a proposed international treaty on children's rights, noting that states, not the federal government, regulate those areas.
BUSINESS
Pedestrians walk past a store window display along State Street on Monday in Chicago. Some of the nation's retailers reported a strong opening to the crucial holiday sales period last weekend, but other merchants said shopper traffic fell back once Friday's bargains passed.
Stores may start sales early
BY ANNE D'INNOCENZIO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Now that the Thanksgiving weekend is over, how much will shoppers see in the way of markdowns — and how soon?
Monday started the quiet time for the holiday season at the nation's traditional retailers, and it was also the official start to the holiday period for online merchants. With fewer shoppers in the stores, many nervous merchants will be tempted to start extreme discounts early, beyond the markdowns already planned for the season.
Perkins, president of Retail Metrics LLC, a research firm in Swampscott, Mass. "If the traffic drops off a cliff, then stores will have to be more proactive. There were some clear lessons from last weekend. If you have bargains, then shoppers will flock to your store. If not, they will be more reluctant."
"My sense is that stores will take stock of how the weekend went and see how the first week progresses," said Ken
Amid an improving but still challenging economy, many retailers offered discounts over the weekend that were even more aggressive than at the start of last year's holiday season. But overall, the weekend's results were sluggish, according to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which monitors sales at more than 45,000 retail outlets and reported that sales for Friday and Saturday combined fell 0.5 percent from the same period a year ago.
The big winners were discounters including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and electronics chains, which attracted shoppers in the early morning hours Friday with discounted digital cameras and TVs. Mid-price stores like J.C. Penney Co. Inc., and Kohl's Corp., which also plied shoppers with early openings and big discounts on sweaters, pulled in the crowds as well. But plenty of other mall-based apparel stores were left behind, except for teen stores such as Abercrombie & Fitch Co., which has been
able to attract a loyal following without having to resort to such measures.
Meanwhile, in cyberspace, free shipping and heavier price cutting that started early in November has helped lure shoppers, said Heather Dougherty, an analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings, an Internet research firm. According to comScore Networks Inc., consumers spent $305 million online on Friday, up 22 percent from $250 million a year earlier.
But Monday was seen as the real beginning of the online shopping season, and so retailers were offering even better deals.
The University of Kansas Chapter of
All-academic honor society is proud to announce new member initiates
Phi Kappa Phi
5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 29, Woodruff Auditorium (initiates should assemble at 5 p.m. in the Jayhawk Room) Keynote speaker: Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway Congratulations to the 2005 Phi Kappa Phi initiates, KU's Best!
Faculty
Richard T. DeGeorge
Department of Philosophy
Mary Lee Hummert
Department of Communication Studies
Philip A. Schrodt
Department of Political Science
Students College of Liberal Arts & Science
Kelly Abrams
Laney Allbritten
Emily Andrezik
Jason Arribas
Damien Baranski
Travis Barnicle
Joshua Baruth
Katey Birge
Trevor Blattner
Tyler Bron
Valerie Chermok
Larissa Ejazk
Hannah Fiechtner
Miles Garrett
Abbie Gilmore
Dennis Golden
Angela Gray
Jennifer Grode
Megan Higley
Nicole Holmes
Cody Hoss
Susan Johnson
David Jones
Tracy Jones
Heasuk Kim
Yujie Li
Christopher Lintecum
Bridget Livers
April Lorrett
Lindsey Matson
Anne McEnroe
Steve Munch
Suong Nguyen
John O Donnell
Andrew Payne
Brian Pitts
Sridhar Reddy
Tricia Rock
Lindsey Rohwer
Devdeep Sarkar
Matthew Schoonover
Tara Schupner
Daniel Stanhope
Kyle Stearns
Zachary Taylor
Blair Thompson
Lucas Thompson
Luis Vargas
Alice Walkiewicz
Christine Walters
Travis Warner
Mark Webster
Sean Whittier
Karyn Wilson
Meredith Winner
Lucas Wohlford
Richard Yang
School of Architecture & Urban Design
School of Allied Health
Arjun Bhat
Justin Dorsey
Matthew Keys
Andrew Wright
Kimberly Hadley
Patrick Harper
Kara Hopkins
Christina King
Nancy McKenna
School of Business
Jacquelyn Bowlin
Weng Hong Chan
Kristin Conklin
Allison Dietrich
Kimberly Elliott
Ryan Gehbauer
Ji Hong
Todd Kitchens
Stephanie Kot
Joseph Loner
Edwin Mitchell
Joseph Onofrio
Olivia Pfannenstiel
Charles Rose
Dave Shandler
Scott Shorten
Lauran Smith
Tad Thompson
Jennifer Worthington
School of Education
Michael Faggella-Luby
Jill Hundley
Tina Shea
Karrie Shogren
Nina Zuna
School of Engineering
Kyle Adams
Samer Adra
Susan Enneking
Daniel Flanigan
Jake Foiles
Julie Goehring
Amanda Harris
Mehrdad Hosni
Rebecca Huff
Travis Johnston
Benjamin Ku
Mei Liu
Russell Mailen
Mark Mattione
Todd McDonald
William Miller
Katherine Molstad
Tristan Moody
Laura Nolle
Jon Novak
Heather Owen
Grant Robertson
Angela Sanders
Braden Sutton
Brent Uhrig
Andrew Wooten
School of Fine Arts
Meghan Bahn
Brian Bondari
Brett Ebeling
Steven McDonald
Gregory Ramsdell
Meggi Sweeney
School of Journalism & Mass Communications
Daniel Blom
Tamara Dugard
Kayvon Sarraf
Kaitlan Shamet
Lauren Taylor
Ashley Thompson
School of Law
Jacob Hecker Christopher Reed Kristen Van Saun
School of Nursing
Shanna Albright
Mary Alfonsin
Patricia Alingh
Stephani Almai
Susan Andersen
Kelsey Bryaver
Sarah Bryant
Danelle Hake
Katie Hall
Kristin Hall
Brenda Hollander
Carol Kemper
Tona Leiker
Janice Smith
Julie Smith
School of Social Welfare
Lisa Crook Sandra Culig Grace Hoyt Christopher Veeh
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