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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Idaho Investments Linked to Darfur Genocide Under Scrutiny

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007   

Members of Idaho's state retirement plan are telling their fund managers today they want to divest ownership in companies that support a government-sponsored genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

Members of the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI) will hold a rally today at PERSI headquarters, demanding managers closely scrutinize investments for any that are linked to the genocide. Members also plan to speak at today's board meeting about their concerns, moved by reports from several faith groups and the Idaho Human Rights Education Center, that their retirement money is invested in companies with documented links to the genocide.

John Sullivan is with the Idaho Task Force for Divestment.

"The real issue here is it's morally reprehensible to be enabling the genocide, and to profit from it."

Sullivan says inspiration for exerting international financial pressure came from former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Republican Senator Bill Frist, who has visited the Darfur region several times and documented the humanitarian crisis there.

"We need to remove the fuel for this genocidal engine. Sudan is highly dependent on foreign direct investment."

Oregon, California, Colorado and Texas already have pulled genocide-linked investments out of Darfur. A PERSI staff report has concluded there is "no investment rationale" for changes because Sudanese investments are profitable.

The demonstration at PERSI headquarters, 607 N. 8th St., begins at 7:30 a.m. A PERSI member addresses the board at 8:30 a.m. A news conference will be held at 11 a.m. An example of Senator Bill Frist's accounts on Darfur at www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070221/NEWS02/70221049.




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