• Economic Uncertainty Leads to Partisan Finger Pointing
• Federal Appeals Court Blocks Release of Uiger Prisoners from Guantanamo
• New Bill Seeks to Protect Traveler's Privacy
  
• What the Global Financial Crisis Means for Economically Developing Nations
• Day Labor Series: Part One

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Economic Uncertainty Leads to Partisan Finger Pointing
A large chunk of the debate about what to do about the faltering economy has to do with what allowed it to happen – and this is where the discussion becomes political and partisan. Democrats tend to point to de-regulation as the cause, and Republicans blame Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two entities Republicans have long despised. Washington Editor Leigh Ann Caldwell explains.

Federal Appeals Court Blocks Release of Uiger Prisoners from Guantanamo

For the first time ever, a federal court ruled this week that a group of 17 Guantanamo detainees should be released into the United States. All 17 are minority Muslim Uigers from China, and the US acknowledges they face prosecution, torture or even death if they are repatriated to China. A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that if the US government asserts no evidence against them, they must be set free. The men were supposed to be on their way to Washington today to re-start their lives – instead, it looks like they'll spend even more time in Guantanamo: a federal appeals court has blocked the original order, and then men are once again being held indefinitely, despite the fact the US government agrees it has no charges against them. They have been held since 2001. Emi Maclean, Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, says that it is clear the men pose no threat to national security, and that the case is simply about the Bush administration's continued assertion that federal courts do not have the right to order the release of anyone indefinitely detained at Guantanamo. Maclean speaks to FSRN about what the latest decision means for the prisoners:

New Bill Seeks to Protect Traveler's Privacy
Some travelers entering and leaving the United States are having their laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras searched and copied by customs and border patrol agents. Recently released documents indicate that the Department of Homeland Security quietly reversed a decades old restriction on extreme border searches without probable cause. Now there's a new bill introduced in Congress to protect U.S. citizens' privacy when they travel. Eric Klein has the story:

What the Global Financial Crisis Means for Economically Developing Nations
The Federal Reserve and European central banks cut interest rates Wednesday, in an effort to contain the current global financial crisis. And although rate cuts may grant some global finance relief, developing countries may still be in the lurch. Today at the World Bank annual meeting in Washington DC, which includes leaders from the International Monetary Fund and Finance Ministers from the world's most powerful nations, World Bank President Robert Zoellick painted a bleak picture, saying the financial crisis cannot become a human one – but some say that is already happening. FSRN's Karen Miller has more.

Day Labor Series: Part One
Two years ago, statistics indicated that on any given day, some 120,000 workers are either looking for day labor, or working as a day laborer. But now that a weakening economy is beginning to put construction, home improvement and landscaping projects on hold, day laborers are finding their job opportunities drying up and incomes dwindling. In the first of a two-part series, Max Pringle reports on how San Francisco Bay day laborers are coping.