The empire strikes back—against California. From the Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 21:

The Environmental Protection Agency's decision to refuse California's request to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles is all but certain to provoke lawsuits that could tie the matter up in court, potentially delaying action to curb those emissions for years.

Another development in the ongoing church-vs.-state conflict over the Orthodox patriarchate in the Holy Land, with (as ever) the struggle over West Bank lands and the future of Jerusalem in the background. From the Jerusalem Post, Dec. 19, emphasis and interjections added:

The Technical Investigative Corps (CTI) of Colombia's Fiscalía General has opened an official probe of Chiquita and the local banana companies Probán, Unibán and Sunisa-Del Monte for their links to paramilitary groups in the conflicted banana-growing zone of Urabá. Those named in the investigation include current and former Chiquita officials Robert Fisher, Steven G. Wars, Carl H. Linder, Durk Jaguer, Jeffrey Benjamin, Morten Amtzen, Roderick Hills, Cyrus F. Freidheim (ex-general director), and Robert Olson (ex-corporate lawyer). (El Tiempo, Bogotá, Dec. 20)

Panama's National Assembly Dec. 20 voted unanimously to declare the anniversary of the 1989 US invasion a day of "national mourning," and established a commission to determine how many people were killed in the episode. "This is a recognition of those who fell on Dec. 20 as a result of the cruel and unjust invasion by the most powerful army in the world," said Rep. Cesar Pardo of the ruling Democratic Revolutionary Party. The measure, likely to be signed by President Martin Torrijos, also calls for a monument to honor the dead, most likely in El Chorrillo neighborhood, which was destroyed aerial bombardment.

On Dec. 15, tens of thousands took to the streets of La Paz to cheer President Evo Morales and celebrate Bolivia's new constitution. Simultaneously, tens of thousands took to the streets of the eastern lowland cities Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando to celebrate declarations of local autonomy—in defiance of Morales. These departments announced signature drives to get the legal 8% quorum to approve referendums on the local rule. The governors of Cochabamba and Chuquisaca have also announced such proposals. Bolivia's three remaining western highland departments—La Paz, Oruro and Potosi—stand firmly behind Morales. In La Paz, Morales warned that "the armed forces...are here to make sure that the country never disintegrates."

The White House is hoping Congress will pass the Bush administration's request for an initial $550 million for narcotics enforcement in Mexico and Central America before the fast-approaching holiday recess. The proposed aid package, known as the "Merida Initiative," has been hailed by the Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón as "a new paradigm" of bilateral cooperation in the war on drugs and terrorism. Some 40% of the $550 million is slated to pay for eight new helicopters and two new airplanes for Mexico. The funds are attached to a $50 billion supplemental military funding package the administration is seeking to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2008.

The Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) agreed Dec. 14 to postpone demolition of three public housing projects pending a hearing before City Council. Opponents of the demolition had filed a suit contending the Council's consent was required by the city charter. Work crews were to start demolition over the weekend in a plan to replace 4,500 public housing units with "mixed-income, mixed-use" development. "We knew the law, HANO knew the law, maybe they forgot it," said civil rights lawyer Tracie Washington. Demolition at a fourth complex, BW Cooper, continued because the Council had approved its demolition four years ago.

A Dec. 12 Daily Kos piece resurrecting the old CIA-cocaine connection is rapidly making its way around the Internet conspirosphere. Below a YouTube video showing a private jet flying over a tropical landscape and footage of Mexican troops guarding seized cargo, it states: "This Florida based Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA crash landed on September 24, 2007 after it ran out of fuel over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula it had a cargo of several tons of Cocaine on board now documents have turned up on both sides of the Atlantic that link this Cocaine Smuggling Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA that crashed in Mexico to the CIA who used it on at least 3 rendition flights from Europe and the USA to Guantanamo's infamous torture chambers between 2003 to 2005." (Link and bad grammar from original.)