BRUCE FEIN, bruce at thelichfieldgroup.com Obama legal adviser Harold Koh is scheduled to testify on Libya and war powers this morning before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Koh maintains that the attack on Libya is legal because it does not amount to “hostilities,’ a position reportedly at odds with virtually every other legal view from within the administration itself; see: “Obama Rejects Top Lawyers’ Legal Views on Libya.”

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The Washington Post’s lead story today is “GOP Compromise on Debt: Cut Military Spending?” which reported: “As President Obama prepares to meet Monday with Senate leaders to try to restart talks about the swollen national debt, some Republicans see a potential path to compromise: significant cuts in military spending. “Senior GOP lawmakers and leadership aides said it would be far easier to build support for a debt-reduction package that cuts the Pentagon budget — a key Democratic demand — than one that raises revenue by tinkering with the tax code. Last week, Republicans walked out of talks led by Vice…

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KATHY KELLY, kathy at vcnv.org Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Kelly just wrote the piece “Staying Human: Preparing to Sail to Gaza,” which states: “Last week, newly-arrived in Athens as part of the U.S. Boat to Gaza project, our team of activists gathered for nonviolence training. We are here to sail to Gaza, in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade, in our ship, ‘The Audacity of Hope.’ Our team, and nine other ships’ crews from countries around the world, want Israel to end its lethal blockade of Gaza by letting our crews through to shore to meet with Gazans.…

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Today the New York Times published a piece titled “Behind Veneer, Doubt on Future of Natural Gas.” On Saturday it ran the article “Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush,” which reported: “Gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the [drilling] companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells.” WENONAH HAUTER, via Kate Fried, kfried at fwwatch.org. Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch, said today: “The fact is that the natural gas industry has…

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Reuters reports: “House rejects measure authorizing Libya mission.” JULES LOBEL, lobel at law.pitt.edu Vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, Lobel said today: “The House refusal to authorize the Libya war makes clear the president doesn’t have any authority under the Constitution or the War Powers Resolution to continue with the war in Libya.” Read CCR statement here.

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The New York Times reports: “More than two dozen residents of Michigan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against top officials in the state, contending that a new law broadly expanding the powers of emergency managers in the most financially troubled cities violates Michigan’s Constitution. The lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court, contends that the law approved by Michigan lawmakers this year improperly allows the state to place new costs on municipalities without paying for them and, in essence, bars local residents from picking their own elected representatives.”

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AP IMPACT began running a series of investigations into the safety of nuclear energy this week. The first part was titled “U.S. nuke regulators weaken safety rules” and stated: “Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation’s aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. “Time after time, officials at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and…

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The New York Times reports in a piece titled “Obama to Announce Plans for Afghan Surge Pullout” that: “Even after all 30,000 troops are withdrawn, roughly 68,000 troops will remain in Afghanistan, twice the number as when Mr. Obama assumed office.” GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy. He recently wrote the piece “Petraeus Pads Success Against Taliban.” Porter said today: “The historic pattern of the Bush and Obama administrations is that the military and the Pentagon seek to turn what is supposed to be a temporary ‘surge’ of…

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CBS reports: “In one of the most closely-watched cases of the Supreme Court’s current term, the justices have delivered a huge victory to businesses trying to fend off costly class action lawsuit filed by employees. It says lower courts were wrong to certify a class action in a case brought by a handful of women workers who accused Wal-Mart of discriminating against them as part of a company-wide policy of bias against females.” CHRISTINE OWENS, via Norman Eng, neng at nelp.org Owens is the executive director of the National Employment Law Project. She issued a statement today saying: “The Dukes…

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MICHAEL RATNER, mratner at michaelratner.com Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which just released a statement saying: “The Center for Constitutional Rights is deeply dismayed at the Obama administration’s claim that it can continue military attacks on Libya without Congressional approval as constitutionally required and in violation of the War Powers Resolution. … The Obama administration’s letter [of June 15] would permit the U.S. to engage in high altitude bombing of a foreign nation, or predator drone attacks (and the administration admits that such drone attacks are occurring against Libya) so long as there was no active…

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