Monday, July 14, 2008

14.The American Civil Liberties Union will announce today at the National Press Club that the U.S. government's terrorist watch list has added its 1 millionth name. The estimate stems from a Justice Department inspector general's report last year that put the watch list roster -- four years after its creation -- at more than 720,000 in April 2007, and growing by 20,000 records a month.

The list is used by the Transportation Security Administration in determining who may be blocked from flying on commercial airlines or who must undergo additional screening before boarding a plane. Critics such as the ACLU have accused federal officials of ignoring systemic problems with the list and say these errors mean far too many travelers are unfairly subjected to increased scrutiny by virtue of an incorrect listing.

16.U.S. trade with Africa will be discussed through Wednesday as officials and business executives come to Washington to take part in the seventh annual AGOA Forum.

The sessions are a legacy of the 2000 trade deal known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Currently, 41 sub-Saharan nations are eligible for trade benefits under the act, the State Department says, and more than 98 percent of imports from AGOA countries entered the United States duty-free in 2007.

This year's forum, "Mobilizing Private Investment for Trade and Growth," will bring together not only senior administration officials and African government ministers, but also U.S. and African civil society and business stakeholders to discuss the African business climate and access to capital.

Total trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa reached $81 billion last year, with most of that coming from AGOA countries. But oil accounts for too much of the imports to the United States, critics say, and forum participants will discuss ways to improve the flow of agricultural products, which has been hampered by the need to meet U.S. standards.

16.The NAACP convention continues through Thursday in Cincinnati, with both presumptive major-party presidential nominees scheduled to appear.

Sen. Barack Obama, the first African American to head a major-party presidential ticket, will address the conference tonight, following a "Youth Public Mass Meeting" on the state of young black America and its views on the 2008 elections. Sen. John McCain is expected to address a special plenary session Wednesday that will focus on the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.

McCain's appearance offers the opportunity to distance himself from President Bush, who in 2004 snubbed the convention, becoming the first sitting president since Herbert Hoover to do so, according to news reports at the time. Bush's snub led Kweisi Mfume, then the president of the civil rights group, to roundly castigate the president; his comments helped spark an IRS investigation of the organization's nonprofit status.

17.On Thursday, the third annual liberal blogger convention formerly known as Yearly Kos, and now called Netroots Nation, will kick off in Austin. Last year's convention in Chicago featured a presidential candidate forum that marked the emergence of lobbying as a major concern in the pre-primary period. The issue of candidates and committees taking money from or employing lobbyists has remained a significant point of contention in the year since.

This year, fewer sparks but more attendees are expected at the sprawling conference, which will draw Democratic and independent political technologists and activists to the Lone Star State's liberal capital.

-- Garance Franke-Ruta