News is what you make it.

Justice Dept. Clears Torture Memo Authors

The Bush administration lawyers who wrote the “torture” memos have been officially cleared of allegations of professional misconduct. In a report released Friday, the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility said attorneys John Yoo and Jay Bybee had “exercised poor judgment” but will not face discipline for their actions justifying the use of waterboarding and other forms of torture. Questions still remain over the role of the White House in the drafting of the memos. Investigators admitted they had unsuccessfully tried to access John Yoo’s email messages during his time at the Justice Department but were told that most of Yoo’s email records had been deleted and were not recoverable. The report also sheds new light on John Yoo’s radical view on presidential power. When a Justice Department investigator asked him if the president had the constitutional power to order a village of civilians to be “massacred,” Yoo replied, “Yeah.

Toyota Cited $100 Million Savings by Delaying Safety Regulations

In business news, a newly disclosed internal memo shows a Toyota executive boasted last July that the company saved $100 million by convincing US regulators to end a 2007 investigation of sudden acceleration complaints by issuing a limited recall of floor mats in some vehicles. The document cites millions of dollars in other savings by delaying safety regulations, avoiding defect investigations and slowing down other industry requirements. Since then, Toyota has recalled over eight million vehicles. Toyota’s President Akio Toyoda is scheduled to testify before on Capitol Hill Wednesda

House Panel to Probe Natural Gas Drilling

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce has launched an investigation into potential environmental impacts from the natural gas drilling practice known as hydraulic fracturing. This according to report from ProPublica. Last week, Congressman Henry Waxman revealed two of the largest companies involved in natural gas drilling have acknowledged pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel-based fluids into the ground.

Penn. School Admits to Remotely Activating Webcams on Student Computers

A suburban Philadelphia school district has admitted it secretly switched on laptop computer cameras inside students’ homes, but officials say the cameras were only remotely activated to find missing or stolen laptops. The Lower Merion School District issued Apple laptops with webcams to all 2,300 students at its two high schools, but students were never informed the school had the ability to remotely activate the laptop cameras to watch them at home. The policy came to light after a student named Blake Robbins and his family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the school system. Blake Robbins’ family said the school activated his webcam when he was eating Mike & Ike candy at home and mistook the sweets for drugs.

Attorney Mark Haltzman: “They’re trying to allege that when Blake was holding two Mike & Ikes in his hand, which he apparently loves and eats religiously, that those were pills, and somehow he’s involved in selling drugs.”

Activists Interrupt Israeli Ballet Performance in Vermont

Human rights activists interrupted a performance by the Israeli Ballet in Burlington, Vermont on Friday. During the performance, demonstrators held up a sign reading “No tutu is begin enough to cover up war crimes.” A coalition of pro-Palestinian groups have called for a boycott of the Israeli ballet and other Israeli cultural and academic institutions. Protesters also rallied over the weekend outside performances of the Israeli Ballet in Worcester, Massachusetts and Brooklyn, New York. A video of the Burlington protest was posted on YouTube by the filmmaker Sam Mayfield, but YouTube removed the video, claiming it was in “violation of the YouTube Community Guidelines.