[JURIST] The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] was pressured by the White House to lower disclosure requirements [EPA Toxic Release Inventory materials] for companies storing or emitting 500 or more pounds of toxins, the Government Accountability Office [official website] said in a report [PDF text; summary] released Wednesday. The White House Office of Management and Budget [official website] pushed for the lighter reporting requirements to reduce the paperwork burden on industry. As a result of the new regulations, more than 3,500 facilities will no longer be required to file detailed Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reports. In all, the GAO estimated that 22,000 fewer TRI reports will be available to environmental activists, industry watchdog groups, and the general public. The GAO also said that the EPA overestimated the amount of money that industries could be expected to save under the new requirements. AP has more.

The new EPA regulations require detailed disclosure only whenever companies store or release 5,000 pounds of toxins, while allowing companies to file an abbreviated form when they store or release between 500 and 4,999 pounds of toxins. The old Toxic Release Inventory law, established under the 1986 Emergency Planning & Community Right to Know Act [text], required detailed disclosure from any company dealing with 500 or more pounds of toxic materials, and was signed by President Ronald Reagan after the 1984 Union Carbide chemical disaster in Bhopal, India [Wikipedia backgrounder] caused the deaths of between 2,500 and 5,000 people. The EPA announced last year that it would push for the relaxed reporting requirements [JURIST report] after it abandoned plans to move reporting from an annual basis to every two years. In November, twelve states filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] against the EPA, seeking to invalidate the new regulations.

[JURIST] A US District Court judge Wednesday rejected [order, PDF] a lawsuit filed by automobile manufacturers [JURIST report] challenging California's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. Auto manufacturers, represented by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers [advocacy website], argued that by regulating the emissions standards of automobiles, California would in effect be regulating fuel economy standards, which can only be regulated by the federal government. The California standards would require car manufacturers to cut emissions by 25 percent from cars and light trucks, and 18 percent from SUVs, starting with the 2009 model year. California's Air Resources Board [official website] adopted the greenhouse gas standards in 2004 [press release], but it cannot mandate them unless the EPA grants a waiver of the lighter Federal Clean Air Act (CAA) [text] standards. California is the only state permitted to seek a waiver under the CAA, but if granted, other states have the option of choosing between the federal standards and those of California. At least 11 states have indicated that they would follow the California standard. AFP has more. AP has additional coverage.

California filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] in November in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] in an effort to force the EPA to come to a decision on whether California can impose greenhouse gas emissions standards on cars and light trucks. The EPA considered California's request for a waiver [JURIST report] of preemption for its greenhouse gas emission standards for new cars in May, but has not come to a decision.

[JURIST] CIA Director Michael Hayden [official profile] appeared before a closed door session of the US House Intelligence Committee [official website] Wednesday to testify about the CIA's destruction of videotapes [JURIST news archive] allegedly showing the harsh interrogation of "high value" terror suspects. Committee members complained that Congress had not been fully informed of the tapes' existence or of the decision to destroy them, and Hayden admitted that the agency could have done more to make Congress aware of the situation. On Tuesday, Hayden testified [JURIST report] about the tapes before the Senate Intelligence Committee; Senate panel members noted that major questions still remained following his testimony, including who actually authorized the tapes' destruction [JURIST report]. AP has more.

Hayden acknowledged [statement text] last week that the CIA had videotaped the interrogation [JURIST report] of two terror suspects in 2002, but said that the tapes had been destroyed in 2005 amid concerns that they could be leaked to the public and compromise the identities of the interrogators. Several probes into the tapes' destruction have been launched, including a joint DOJ-CIA preliminary investigation [DOJ letter; JURIST report] and multiple congressional inquiries.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism Martin Scheinin [official website; JURIST news archive] on Wednesday expressed "grave concern" [press release] over the "lack of judicial guarantees and fair trial procedures" for detainees facing military commission proceedings at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. In a report to the UN Human Rights Council, Scheinin also expressed concern regarding difficulties detainees face in presenting evidence in their defense. Last week, Scheinin attended hearings for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, alleged to have been a driver for Osama bin Laden, at the invitation of the United States as follow-up to his earlier May visit [JURIST reports] to Guantanamo. In May, he said that the US has committed human rights violations in its interrogations of terror suspects; in October, he called on the US to quickly prosecute or release terror suspects [JURIST report] so the detention center might be closed. Scheinin said Wednesday that he hopes to revisit Guantanamo to conduct unmonitored detainee interviews, a request the US has so far denied.

Deputy Legal Adviser to the US Mission to the UN in Geneva Melanie Khanna responded to Scheinin's comments [detailed response, PDF; press release] with "extreme" disappointment, saying that "a large part of the report again repeats unfair and oversimplified criticisms of the United States." Khanna called on Scheinin to focus on practical solutions rather than "well-worn" criticism in future reports. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Wednesday sentenced [judgment summary; press release] former Bosnian Serb general Dragomir Milosevic [ICTY case backgrounder] to 33 years in prison after convicting him of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Milosevic, not related to former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive], was convicted for his role in the shelling of civilians in Sarajevo during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war [Wikipedia backgrounder]. The ICTY found that the Bosnian Serb Army under Milosevic used snipers, mortars, and modified air bombs throughout Sarajevo such that "one could be killed or injured anywhere and anytime," without regard to accuracy or civilian protection. The Trial Chamber wrote that Milosevic, "through his orders, planned and ordered gross and systematic violations of international humanitarian law."

Milosevic surrendered to the ICTY in 2004, and his trial began [JURIST reports] in January. He was initially indicted in 1998 with Stanislav Galic [ICTY case backgrounder], commander of the Sarajevo Romanija Corps before Milosevic. Galic was convicted [judgment] and sentenced to life in prison [JURIST report] in November 2006. AP has more.

[JURIST] SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told [testimony, PDF; press release] said Wednesday that he intends to propose that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] grant a further one-year grace period to small businesses before requiring that they comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [PDF text; SEC materials]. Cox's comments came during testimony [PDF text; press release] before the House Committee on Small Business. Committee Chairwoman Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) [official website] had previously called for at least a 12-month delay in implementation [press release], citing concerns over the "hard dollar" amount that new guidelines would cost small companies.

Section 404 requires public companies to continually evaluate the internal controls they have in place to ensure that external auditors provide accurate financial reports to investors. In May, the SEC approved [JURIST report] new interpretive guidelines for Section 404, relaxing previous guidelines for smaller, public companies which critics have called inflexible, burdensome, and wasteful. A report [PDF text; JURIST report] released in May 2006 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) [official website] found that many small business have gone private [JURIST report] to avoid the costs of compliance. The relaxed guidelines will apply to businesses with a market value of under $75 million and will focus on areas more prone to potential fraud.

[JURIST] The legal advisor to the Convening Authority [official backgrounder] for Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay testified before members of Congress [text] Tuesday that evidence gathered from interrogation techniques such as waterboarding [JURIST news archive] may be admissible during military commission proceedings if it is "reliable and probative." Speaking before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W.Hartmann [official profile] declined to answer senators' questions regarding whether waterboarding is illegal when used by or against Americans.

Hartmann's testimony came a day after retired CIA agent John Kiriakou confirmed the use of waterboarding [JURIST report] during the interrogation of top al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah [BBC profile]. Kiriakou said that the tactic's efficacy in helping to disrupt "a number of attacks, maybe dozens" outweighed its harshness. An upcoming intelligence funding bill [JURIST report] reportedly aims to restrict CIA interrogators to using only those interrogation techniques explicitly authorized by the 2006 Army Field Manual. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] US President George W. Bush granted pardons to 29 people on Tuesday, including some convicted for drug crimes, fraud, or kickback schemes. In addition, Bush reduced the sentence of another man who had been convicted for dealing crack cocaine. He did not pardon former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense website; JURIST news archive], despite having previously said that the possibility was open [JURIST report] that he would do so. Bush commuted Libby's sentence [JURIST report] in July.

Bush has issued a total of 142 pardons in his seven years as president, among the fewest of any president [US DOJ clemency statistics] since World War II. Former Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Reagan issued 457, 77, and 406 respectively during their terms in office. Former President Truman granted the most pardons, at 2,031. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website] granted a motion [PDF text] Tuesday compelling the US government to preserve all evidence of torture against Majid Khan [GlobalSecurity profile], the first "high-value" Guantanamo Bay detainee to be allowed to meet privately with attorneys. Khan, a 27-year-old Pakistani detainee and the only US resident among the 15 high-value detainees [profiles, PDF] at Guantanamo, says he was "subjected to state-sanctioned torture" [JURIST report] in secret overseas CIA prisons after being seized in Pakistan by officials in 2003 due to allegations that he plotted to attack both the United States and Pakistan. The CIA held him in secret custody overseas until his transfer to Guantanamo in September 2006. J. Wells Dixon [advocacy profile] filed the motion last month, and Khan's legal team says preservation of evidence of his torture could help show Khan had no ties to al Qaeda. AP has more.

Wells' statement is not the first allegation of torture made in connection with Khan. In April, Khan's father submitted an affidavit to a Combatant Status Review Tribunal convened to determine whether Khan was an "enemy combatant" [JURIST report]. In the affidavit, he wrote that "the Americans tortured him [Majid] for eight hours at a time, tying him tightly in stressful positions in a chair until his hands, feet and mind went numb." The CIA has denied the accusations and reiterated its position that the US does not torture suspects.

[JURIST] The US Sentencing Commission [official website] voted unanimously Tuesday to give retroactive effect to an earlier amendment to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines [USSC materials] that will reduce penalties for crack cocaine offenders [press release]. The amendment, which took effect November 1, was intended to narrow the disparity between sentences for powder and crack cocaine offenses. Under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the Sentencing Commission is authorized to retroactively apply amendments to the Guidelines that reduce penalties for classes of offenses or offenders. As outlined in the Commission's vote, the final decision whether and how much to reduce a crack cocaine offender's sentence will rest with a federal sentencing judge, who will weigh public safety concerns. Retroactivity will take effect on March 3, 2008. AP has more.

Under the current federal sentencing guidelines, one gram of crack cocaine is treated the same as 100 grams of powder cocaine, leaving crack cocaine dealers to face much harsher sentences. On Monday, the US Supreme Court overturned a federal appeals court ruling [JURIST report] on whether a federal judge has discretion to sentence a defendant to a prison term less than what is recommended by federal guidelines when the lower sentence "is based on a disagreement with the sentencing disparity for crack and powder cocaine offenses." US District Judge Raymond A. Jackson had sentenced crack and powder cocaine dealer Derrick Kimbrough to 15 years in prison, despite the 19- to 22-year standard found in the Federal Guidelines. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated Kimbrough's lesser sentence [opinion, PDF] and remanded for resentencing, holding that the lower than recommended sentence was per se unreasonable as it was based on the judge's disagreement with the sentencing disparity. The Supreme Court reversed [opinion text], ruling that the appeals court erred in holding that the sentencing disparity was effectively mandatory.

[JURIST] Robert Pickton [profile], accused of the deadliest string of serial killings in Canadian history, was sentenced by a British Columbia judge Tuesday to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. The sentence was the maximum authorized by Canadian law for second-degree murder. Pickton was convicted [JURIST report] Sunday in connection with the deaths of six women [CBC backgrounder] lured from Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside to his pig farm in the 1990s. He remains charged with the killings of 20 other women. Pickton's defense lawyer had sought leniency and parole eligibility in 10 to 20 years, but Judge James Williams rejected that option, saying that Pickton had shown no remorse for his actions.

Pickton's second trial on the outstanding charges could begin early next year, although BC Attorney General Wally Oppal has said that no official decision on whether to proceed with that had been made. Pickton was arrested in 2002 and his imprisonment since then will be counted as time already served. AFP has more. CBC News has local coverage.