COX Newspapers Washington Bureau

Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2006 > November > 10

Friday, November 10, 2006

Study: Rural America Paying High Price In Iraq

By Bob Deans | Friday, November 10, 2006, 04:19 PM

Rural Americans are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan at a far higher rate per capita than urban dwellers, though overall cities continue to suffer greater losses in the conflict, a study released Friday found.

The study, by the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute, found that rural America has lost 24 people per million so far in the two conflicts. That’s 63 percent more than the 15 losses per million in metropolitan areas.

Nationally, the country has lost 17 Americans for every million between the ages of 18 and 59. Cities accounted for far more of the fatalities overall. Of the 3,095 U.S. troops that had died in Iraq and Afghanistan as of the end of October, 2,270 came from cities and 825 were from rural areas, the study found.

The higher death rates for rural areas reflect the fact that city dwellers enlist in the military in far lower proportions than do people living outside of metropolitan areas.

The states suffering the heaviest losses are California, with 319 of the total; Texas, with 266; New York, 150; Pennsylvania, with 149; Florida, 144; and Ohio, 138. Tiny Rhode Island has lost 9, as has thinly-populated Wyoming. Georgia has lost 90.

Permalink | | Categories: Washington

Corruption Case Resurfaces For Alcee Hastings

By Julia Malone | Friday, November 10, 2006, 11:06 AM

With Rep. Alcee Hastings a frontrunner to be House Intelligence Committee chairman, he’s already facing unpleasant publicity stemming from his involvement in a corruption case years ago.

The Florida Democrat, a former federal district judge, was acquitted of conspiring to solicit a bribe from criminal defendants in 1982. But after a jury found attorney William Borders guilty of being his co-conspirator, Hastings was impeached and removed from the federal bench by Congress in 1989.

Hastings then won a seat in the House of Representatives. Borders, who refused to testify against him in the bribery case, went to prison and won a pardon from President Clinton in 2001.

The case didn’t die there. Borders has twice petitioned the District of Columbia Office of Bar Counsel to reinstate him to practice law. His latest request went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the facts of the bribery conspiracy, the Hastings role and Borders’ refusal to testify were laid out once again.

The high court in September 2003 declined to grant a hearing on the Borders disbarment.

Permalink | | Categories: Washington