To the Point

Judicial Nominees Face Showdown in the US Senate

In the US Senate this week, Republicans are threatening the so-called "nuclear option," and Democrats are threatening to shut down the Senate. It-s all about President Bush's re-appointment of judicial nominees the Democrats blocked last year as "extremists.- The "nuclear option- would change the rules on filibuster, to prevent that from happening again. Not just partisan posturing, its a preliminary skirmish in what could become a major Constitutional battle over control of the US Supreme Court for decades to come. We hear more from political correspondents, historians, political watchdogs, and advocates on both sides, including the former While House counsel to President Bush, Sr. Making News: US Troops Deaths in Iraq Top 1,500 The number of American fatalities in Iraq reached 1500 yesterday, when a soldier died in combat south of Baghdad, in a placed nicknamed the "Triangle of Death.- Two others have died since then. Steve Kull, director of the Center on Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, considers what that milestone is likely to mean for US support for continued American presence in Iraq. Reporter-s Notebook: Asian Tsunami Doused Somalia with Radioactive Waste Somalia, on the northeast coast of Africa, was hard hit by December's tsunami. Some 300 people died and 54,000 were left in need. Now, it appears that hazardous materials were illegally dumped off the coast and on the beaches. Now, the United Nations says that toxic waste appears to be responsible for sickness on shore. Nick Nuttall, who works for the UN Environmental Program, headquartered in Kenya, has more.