Morning News Roundup (01 May)

• Happy May Day! Ususally, this is the day that strikes and protests shut down France and other European nations. But this year, it's our turn in the US, with the national Un Dia Sin Inmigrantes -- A Day Without Immigrants -- which covers a range of activities, from not showing up for work to not buying anything to joining protests:
  

  Los Angeles police expect the largest of the demonstrations to occur this afternoon on Wilshire Boulevard. Authorities are preparing for hundreds of thousands to march down one of L.A.'s most storied streets, following a route between MacArthur Park and the Miracle Mile that's a microcosm of the city's ethnic and economic diversity. [LATimes]
  
  In the country's midsection, the owners of Cargill Meat Solutions told some 15,000 workers that beef and pork plants in Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois and other states would close for the day, and, in the case of five of the seven Cargill facilities, open for business next Saturday instead. [NYTimes]
  
  For Seattleites: A march in support of immigration reform will begin around 4 p.m. at Judkins Park at 20th Avenue South and South Lane Street. Marchers will go to South Jackson Street and Fourth Avenue South, and end with a rally at the Jackson Federal Building at Second Avenue and Madison Street. [Seattle P-I]

  
  And there's disagreement between the main immigrant rights groups on level of participation:
  

  The disagreement over the boycott played out last week in a series of news conferences. Many leaders of the April 10 immigration rally on the Mall cautioned against participation in the boycott, and some activists from the Washington region and elsewhere encouraged immigrants to stay away from work, schools and stores.
  [...]
  The discord, Jaime Contreras [president of the National Capital Immigration Coalition] said, is not over whether boycotting is a valid tactic. But with Congress just back from a recess after a contentious debate on the subject -- and with a recent CNN poll showing that 77 percent of Americans favor allowing some illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship -- he said most local activists feel it is best to wait to see how Congress reacts.
  
  Some local Latino leaders said they worry about being associated with a Los Angeles-based group, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), that has been active in promotion of the boycott. They said they fear that the group's broad-based opposition to Bush administration policies could hinder attempts to win allies for immigration reform on Capitol Hill. [WaPo]

  
  
  
• Back in 2003, President Bush signed an executive order requiring all agencies and "any other entity within the executive branch" to provide an annual accounting of their classification of documents. More than 80 agencies have collectively reported to the National Archives that they made 15.6 million decisions in 2004 to classify information, nearly double the number in 2001. That's troubling. But equally troubling is the one office of the executive branch that's holding back on any reporting: Dick Cheney and the Office of the Vice President (from the Chicago Tribune):
  

  Explaining why the vice president has withheld even a tally of his office's secrecy when such offices as the National Security Council routinely report theirs, a spokeswoman said Cheney is "not under any duty" to provide it.
  
  That is only one way the Bush administration, from its opening weeks in 2001, has asserted control over information. By keeping secret so many directives and actions, the administration has precluded the public--and often members of Congress--from knowing about some of the most significant decisions and acts of the White House.

  
  
  
• 3,501: The number of U.S. citizens and legal residents whom the FBI secretly sought information about last year “from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court’s approval.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the U.S. official overseeing Iraq reconstruction funding -- whose recent audits have detailed a wide gap between the promise and result of rebuilding efforts -- said in a report published Monday that officials had made significant strides toward providing essential services to Iraqis. "Despite certain setbacks, chiefly caused by security problems, the overall picture conveys a sense of substantial progress in the relief, recovery and reconstruction of Iraq." [WaPo]
  
  
• A $243 million program led by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build 150 health care clinics in Iraq has in some cases produced little more than empty shells of crumbling concrete and shattered bricks cemented together into uneven walls, two reports by a federal oversight office have found. Focusing on Kirkuk, the reports say that none of the five clinics in Kirkuk and only 20 of the original 150 across the country will be completed without new financing. [NYTimes]
  
  
• On Saturday — two days prior to the three-year anniversary of “Mission Accomplished” — the “top U.S. general on the ground in Iraq warned…that a surge in violence was likely in coming months.” [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Mediators extended a deadline for a peace agreement in Sudan's war-torn Darfur province by 48 hours after rebels rejected a deal to end a conflict that has killed 300,000 people. [Agence France Presse]
  
  
• In front of thousands of people rallying on Sunday on the Mall, religious leaders, politicians and celebrities urged the American people and the Bush administration to do more to help end the ethnic and political conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Celebrities included Senator Barack Obama, the actor George Clooney, Olympic speed skater Joey Cheek, and Big & Rich, the country music group. [NYTimes]