Both Georgia Republican senators David Perdue and Johnny Isakson on Tuesday backed a bid write the Obama administration's ban on torture into law.
The U.S. Senate voted, 78-21, on an amendment by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John McCain, R-Ariz., to a defense authorization bill that would ban torture -- as President Barack Obama did by executive order -- and allow the Red Cross access to U.S. detainees, which is also current policy.
Feinstein said the measure would extend a 2005 Senate-backed provision banning interrogation techniques that are not in the Army Field Manual. Said Feinstein in a floor speech:
"However, this amendment is still necessary because interrogation techniques were able to be used, which were based on a deeply flawed legal theory, and those techniques, it was said, did not constitute 'torture' or 'cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.'
"These legal opinions could be written again."
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South Carolina officials approved $123 million bonds for Volvo as part of the incentive package to lure the automaker. But our AJC colleague Scott Trubey notes a warning lobbed by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to lawmakers before the vote: If they refused to borrow the money, she said, Volvo "would have been in Georgia."
During a board meeting last month of the state Department of Economic Development, the agency's head of global commerce likened the Volvo pursuit to being in a "championship game" that featured "lead changes" but didn't break Georgia's way.
Georgia officials have declined to release the state's offer of incentives, citing the recruitment as being open. Georgia officials have declined to say much more about the recruitment effort because they consider the project to be ongoing in case Volvo runs into environmental roadblocks that could prompt it to reconsider.
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U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Monroe, took aim Tuesday at one of the easiest political targets imaginable: Illegal immigrant sex offenders.
The freshman dropped a bill to require the Department of Homeland Security to let local law enforcement know when it releases any immigrants living in the country illegally who have been convicted of sex crimes.
Said Hice, via a spokeswoman:
"My bill would do away with the current lenient 'self-reporting' requirements whereby illegal aliens may or may not register themselves after committing sex crimes, and instead place the responsibility on the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to protect victims."
Here's more background from the Boston Globe:
Immigration officials say they already are making the notifications, one of several policy changes following the discovery that the agency was releasing sex offenders without making sure they registered with law enforcement. ICE says it had to release the offenders, and thousands of other criminals, because their homelands refused to take them back.
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