50 million telephone customers in the U.S. could soon face higher phone bills after the Bush administration announced that it no longer supports a law that requires the four regional Bell companies who control the phone lines to give their rivals access to the lines at discounted prices in order to spur competition. The Supreme Court is currently reviewing whether the four companies, Verizon, SBC Communications, BellSouth and Qwest must allow competing companies to use their phone lines at a subsidized cost since the Bells have a near monopoly on the phone lines. Not everyone in the Bush administration is in agreement of the policy change. President Bush’s chief advisor Karl Rove fears customers who face larger phone bills may be less likely to vote for Bush.

Haitian Singer So Anne Jailed For Month
The popular Haitian folk singer and voodoo priestess Anne Auguste, who was a backer of ousted President Aristide, has now spent a month in a Haitian jail after U.S. Marines arrested her. She is commonly known as So Anne, Creole for Sister Anne. On May 10 Marines raided her house in the middle of the night. Marines used explosives to break down her front door, killed her two pet dogs, handcuffed her 5-year-old grandson and arrested Auguste along with 10 others. In a statement from jail she said was being held as a political prisoner. “I think none of us will ever be able to forget the inhumane treatment we were subjected to in the course of this violent action undertaken in the name of the Bush government for what he calls 'building democracy' in my homeland.” According to Newsday, the Marines allege that the singer met with a small group of Muslims in Haiti to organize attacks on the U.S. forces who have been in Haiiti since the coup that ousted the democratically elected President Aristide. Auguste lived in Brooklyn, New York for 20 years before returning in 1994 when Aristide returned to power after the first coup against him. In Brooklyn she regularly sang at massive gatherings including one event in Central Park that attracted 25,000 people. She writes from jail “They may imprison my body but they will never imprison the truth I know in my soul. I will continue to fight for justice and truth in Haiti until I draw my last breath.”