The Week
Terrorism: Showtime
Still wondering why President Bush didn't react more aggressively to an Aug. 6, 2001, briefing memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S."? So are members of the commission investigating the 9/11 attacks, who will quiz him and Vice President Cheney at the White House this week. "The president will be pressed hard" in the private session, says a commission insider, "on why the bells didn't go off." Bush last month said he "never saw any intelligence that indicated there was going to be an attack on America--at a time and a place." Also on the hot seat: commission member Jamie Gorelick.
Eleven GOP lawmakers sent a letter last week to the panel cochairs requesting that Gorelick, who was the Clinton administration's No. 2 at the Justice Department, tell what she knows under oath about the so-called wall that discouraged intelligence sharing.
Terrorism: Terror Case On Track
A federal appeals court last week paved the way for alleged would-be hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui to be tried in a criminal court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, overturning a trial judge's order, agreed with the feds that Moussaoui should be barred from interviewing three al Qaeda detainees but said he could introduce statements made by the trio.
The three-judge panel, 2 to 1, also ruled that prosecutors could present evidence from the 9/11 strikes and seek the death penalty.
Health: Smoking Gun
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the first time last week warned that people with heart trouble should steer clear of restaurants and other places that allow indoor smoking. The reason: Secondhand smoke can significantly up the risk of having a heart attack, says a CDC advisory in the current British Medical Journal .
The alert accompanies a study that shows the number of heart attacks in Helena, Mont., plummeted after the city banned indoor smoking but jumped again after the law was dumped.
Health: Sick? Leave
Well, this is a fine how-do-you-do. Are you one of those troopers who slog into work even when you feel lousy? Don't expect any Brownie points. A new study says workers who come in sick cost their employers an average of $255 a year. That's because, says the report in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, they have trouble concentrating, operate more sluggishly, and often have to repeat tasks, reducing overall productivity. What's more, they can make their coworkers sick.
So much for dedication.
advertisement
