Feds won't buy anti-prop 2 ads until end of September

[LeftyMom]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/21/BA0912G90F.DTL&tsp=1

Federal officials have agreed to wait at least a month before spending any of the money they collect from egg producers on advertising against a California ballot measure that would ban the cramped caging of hens and other farm animals.

In papers filed Wednesday in San Francisco, the U.S. Department of Agriculture denied accusations in a lawsuit that it planned illegal political spending. But the agency said it would not spend any of the disputed funds in California until a hearing Sept. 22.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel will then decide whether to issue an injunction that would prohibit any spending of government-controlled money on the ballot measure campaign.

The suit was filed Aug. 13 by sponsors of Proposition 2, a Nov. 4 measure that would prohibit the confinement of egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs or veal calves in cages that prevent them from standing up, lying down or turning around freely...