Sens. John Cornyn (R., Texas) and Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) introduced legislation Wednesday that would impose sanctions upon the government of Iran, according to a press release.

The Iran Export Embargo Act would expand existing U.S. sanctions law by prohibiting the purchase or transfer of goods and services from any entity owned or controlled by the government of Iran and banning all transactions on behalf of such entities for the purpose of exports from Iran. The bill would block all assets of entities deemed to be government of Iran and also prohibit any insurance or reinsurance for such entities. […]

“Put simply, countries and companies around the world will be forced to choose – stop doing business with the government of Iran or stop doing business in the United States of America,” Sen. Cornyn said.

The bill has already received support from 17 other Republican senators.

The staffs of the state’s top prosecutor and the governor’s office have been working in secret with General Assembly leaders on legislation to withhold records related to the police investigation into the Dec. 14 Newtown elementary school massacre — including victims’ photos, tapes of 911 calls, and possibly more.

The behind-the-scenes legislative effort came to light Tuesday when The Courant obtained a copy of an email by a top assistant to Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane, Timothy J. Sugrue. Sugrue, an assistant state’s attorney, discussed options considered so far, including blocking release of statements “made by a minor.”

“There is complete agreement regarding photos etc., and audio tapes, although the act may allow the disclosure of audio transcripts,” Sugrue wrote to Kane, two other Kane subordinates and to Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky, who is directing the investigation of the killings.The bill that’s being crafted has not been handled under routine legislative procedures — it hasn’t gone through the committee process, which includes a public hearing, for example. Sugrue’s email Tuesday indicated that a draft of the bill was being worked on by leaders in both the House and Senate, and might be ready as soon as the end of the day.He wrote: “I just received a call from Natalie Wagner” — a member of the legal counsel’s staff in the office of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

“She believes that draft language will be forthcoming today (the work of both houses) in the form of a special act. …” Sugrue wrote that Wagner “will send me the draft in confidence when she receives it, and I will immediately forward it.”

However, late Tuesday, the legislation proposed by Kane wasn’t ready to be acted on in either legislative chamber, said Malloy’s director of communications, Andrew Doba. He said he did not know when that might happen.

“A lot of people, including our office, have heard the concerns expressed by the families of Newtown victims, and are exploring ways to respect the families’ right to privacy while also respecting the public’s right to information,” gubernatorial chief of staff Mark Ojakian said in a statement released by Doba.

A major question yet to be settled is whether the legislation would apply only to the Newtown case, or to documents from other criminal cases that are now subject to public disclosure. A report on the police investigation into the Newtown shooting is expected to be released in June.

As envisioned by Kane, the bill wouldn’t be limited to the Newtown file.

“We are seeking legislation to protect crime scene photographs protecting victims and certain 911 tapes,” Kane told The Courant Tuesday. “It is something that I have been concerned about for years and years and the situation in Newtown brings it to a head. I don’t want family members seeing pictures of their loved ones publicized in a manner in which these are subject to be published.”

He said as he sees the legislation, it would apply to “basically crime scene photographs depicting injuries to victims and recordings, 911 recordings displaying the mental anguish of victims. Things like that, of that category. And it seems to me that the intrusion of the privacy of the individuals outweighs any public interest in seeing these.”

Sugrue said in his email that the “forthcoming” language would be “in the form of a special act, not an amendment to the [state's Freedom of Information Act].”

As originally discussed behind the scenes, the proposed legislation would have amended the state’s freedom of information law by adding a blanket exemption to disclosure of any “criminal investigation photograph, film, videotape, other image or recording or report depicting or describing the victim or victims.”

Colleen Murphy, the director of the state’s FOI Commission, said Tuesday that her staff had argued against the idea of such a blanket change. She said a couple of weeks ago the office of House Speaker Brendan Sharkey provided her agency with a draft including the blanket exception. She said she was advised that this draft would not be put to a vote, but she knew nothing abut the contents of the “forthcoming” draft.

Murphy said she’d urged that lawmakers be “thoughtful and careful about any legislation” and to “not be reactive to one situation” by making changes that could have long-term, unintended effects.

Murphy was unaware of Sugrue’s email when The Courant told her about it late Tuesday afternoon. She said she and her staff had not been receiving detailed updates. Asked if she would have liked to have been kept aware of developments such as Sugrue’s email, she said yes.

The killing of 20 first-graders and six women at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown has sparked a number of legislative proposals this year to protect the privacy of the victims’ families and spare them further pain. One example is a bill that would exempt the death certificates of minors from public disclosure for six months.

On Dec. 14, Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed his mother at their Newtown home then drove to the school, where he used a semiautomatic rifle in the massacre. He then killed himself. Most investigative records have yet to be released concerning Lanza, including any psychological reports.

If the proposed legislation ends up blocking the release of victims’ photos and tapes of 911 calls — on which Sugrue said “there is complete agreement” — it wouldn’t be a significant departure from normal procedures with regard to photos, but would be a major departure with regard to tapes of emergency calls.

As a matter of long practice, Connecticut police departments do not release grisly photos of victims. These only emerge in public when placed in evidence during criminal trials, and when they do they generally are not published in newspapers or on television.

“Our concern is the media and the Internet and all the bloggers,” Kane said. “If this stuff is FOI-able. … You’ve seen these pictures, which are sometimes introduced as exhibits in court at a trial. The print media certainly doesn’t print those. And normally the TV doesn’t. But this case rose to a whole different level. Subject to FOI, any member of the public can get them.”

Audio tapes of 911 tapes, on the other hand, are routinely released by police under FOI laws in Connecticut and across the country. Law enforcement officials have refused to release the 911 call tapes in the Newtown case so far. Those tapes were released after other recent major crimes, including the 2010 Hartford Distributors shootings in Manchester.

The release of such tapes are often used by the news media or lawyers to evaluate the police response to emergencies.

Sugrue’s email on Tuesday discussed, in vague terms, potential “consent” provisions under which victims’ family members apparently would have say over what information might be withheld or released. He mentioned a proposal to “allow the written consent of one immediate next of kin” – to accommodate one parent’s “desire to obtain records that relate to her son.” But, he added, that might be unfair to “the other families if one member thereof gives the consent.”

Also unclear Tuesday was the question of which government officials would decide whether to release or withhold information under the bill.

- What did the White House know about the IRS targeting conservative groups and when did it know it?

Crucial evidence needed to develop an accurate answer to that question would include the records of any communications that went back and forth between the IRS and the White House on the topic.

In a May 14 letter signed by Chairman Dave Camp and Ranking Member Sander Levin, the House Ways and Means Committee demanded precisely those records from the IRS. In the same letter, the committee also demanded the records of any communications between IRS and the Treasury on the matter, plus other information and records that would help the committee understand the facts about IRS actions that subjected to heightened scrutiny conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.

Chairman Camp and Ranking Member Levin gave the IRS a deadline of Tuesday, May 21 to comply with their committee’s demand for the information and records.

The IRS–which requires working Americans to file their tax returns by an April 15 deadline each year or else face penalties–did not comply with this deadline imposed by the congressional committee that has oversight over its activities.

“The Committee has not received a response to the Camp-Levin letter,” House Ways and Means Spokeswoman Sarah Swinehart told CNSNews.com late Tuesday after the IRS had closed for business for the day.

“Chairman Camp expects the IRS to comply and provide full and complete responses to the letter since many of these questions were asked, but went unanswered, in Friday’s hearing,” said Swinehart.

The letter that Camp and Levin sent to the IRS a week ago Tuesday asked the agency to answer thirteen questions about its targeting of conservative groups and, where relevant, provide all internal agency documents and communications substantiating its answers.

Two of the committee’s questions sought records of any communications between the IRS and the Treasury and the IRS and the White House about the targeting of conservatives groups.

“As the Committee on Ways and Means continues its investigation into these IRS practices,” Camp and Levin wrote the IRS, “we request that the IRS provide the following information by May 21, 2013: …”

“Did the IRS at any time notify the Treasury Department of the targeting of conservative or any other groups?” Camp and Levin asked. “Provide all documents and communications between the IRS and Treasury on this matter.”

“Did the IRS at any time notify the White House of the targeting of conservative or any other groups?” asked Camp and Levin. “Provide all documents and communications between the IRS and the White House on this matter.”

In their letter, Camp and Levin said the IRS had not been “completely truthful” with the committee in the past on this matter.

“We are deeply troubled by the recent admission of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that the agency has been singling out organizations for additional review based on their political beliefs,” Camp and Levin said in their letter to the agency. “Despite repeated calls for cooperation, the agency failed to be completely truthful in its responses to the committee during its nearly two-year long investigation of this matter, and in testimony before the committee.”

On Monday through Tuesday morning, CNSNews.com made multiple phone and email inquiries to the IRS press office asking if the agency intended to comply with this request for information and records from the House Ways and Means Committee. The IRS did not respond.

The US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Ronald C. Machen – the man responsible for the aggressive surveillance and phone record scrutiny at Fox News – is also a big donor to the Obama Campaigns. At the time of his appointment, the Washington Post wrote a profile on Machen including this tidbit:

Over the years, he has donated $4,350 to Obama’s campaigns. He gave $250 to Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign in 2003, a year before Obama, then an Illinois state senator, emerged on the nation’s political radar, according to campaign finance records.

Furthermore, in June of 2012, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) questioned Attorney General Eric Holder about the appointment of Mr. Machen to head-up the leaks investigation. During the questioning Sen. Cornyn revealed that not only was Machen a donor to the Obama campaign, he was also a volunteer for Obama for America. Cornyn called into question whether he could conduct the leaks investigation in a fair and non-partisan way.

Text part of new curriculum, which is expected to be introduced into the Gaza Strip schools next academic year.Hamas has begun preparing new school textbooks that teach children about “plans to liberate Palestine and the legitimacy and various forms of resistance [against Israel].” Jamal Abu Hashem, advisor to the Hamas-controlled education ministry, said new books would be introduced as part of National Education Studies for grades 8-10.

Abu Hashem was speaking during a workshop in Gaza City that was attended by senior officials of the education ministry and experts from a number of universities. His statements were published by several Hamas websites.Some of the new books will refer to the geographical significance of Palestine and its religious, strategic and security status, the Hamas official said. The books will also teach children about Jaffa, Jericho, Acre, Rafah, Nablus, Hebron, Jerusalem and Beersheba, he added.

The children will study the history and background of prominent Palestinian figures such as PLO founder Ahmed Shukairi, his successor, Yasser Arafat and slain Hamas spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin.

The new curriculum, which is expected to be introduced into the Gaza Strip schools next academic year, will also refer to the “Zionist project and ambitions, the Balfour Declaration, the 1948 Nakba and massacres, the 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars,” according to the Hamas official.

One teaching unit, he said, will talk about the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and the “project to liberate Palestine, including the issue of resistance and its legitimacy, and various forms.”

The new books will teach children about the Palestinian “resistance” groups such as Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine