Friday, 4 May 2007, 20:59 GMT 21:59 UK | Brazil to break Aids drug patent
Brazil's president has authorised the country to bypass the patent on an Aids drug manufactured by Merck, a US pharmaceutical giant.
The country will import a cheaper, generic Indian-made version of the patented Efavirenz drug.
The decision came after talks between Brazil and the US company broke down.
Merck had offered Brazil a 30% discount on the cost of the drugs but the country wanted to pay the same price as Thailand, which gets a larger discount.
Small royalty
Merck offered Brazil almost a third off the cost - pricing the pills at $1.10 (£0.55) instead of $1.59.
But Brazil wanted its discount pegged at same level as Thailand, which pays just $0.65 per pill.
Now, though, it will source Indian-made versions of Efavirenz for just $0.45 each. ...
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Illegally push $MMs in addictive drugs? plead guilty today as individuals to misbranding charges ... or locked up for 20 years?
OxyContin Maker Expected to Plead Guilty Today | By BARRY MEIER | Published: May 11, 2007
ABINGDON, Va., May 10 —The company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin and three current and former executives are expected to plead guilty today in federal court here to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused, federal officials said.
To resolve criminal and civil charges related to the drug’s “misbranding”, the parent of Purdue Pharma, the company that markets OxyContin, has agreed to pay more than $600 million in fines, these officials said. That is the third-highest amount ever paid by a drug company in such a case.
Also, in a rare move, three executives of Purdue Pharma, including its president and it top lawyer, are expected to plead guilty today as individuals to misbranding charges, a criminal violation. They have agreed to pay a total of $34.5 million in fines, said these officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because court proceedings have not been completed. ...
ABINGDON, Va., May 10 —The company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin and three current and former executives are expected to plead guilty today in federal court here to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused, federal officials said.
To resolve criminal and civil charges related to the drug’s “misbranding”, the parent of Purdue Pharma, the company that markets OxyContin, has agreed to pay more than $600 million in fines, these officials said. That is the third-highest amount ever paid by a drug company in such a case.
Also, in a rare move, three executives of Purdue Pharma, including its president and it top lawyer, are expected to plead guilty today as individuals to misbranding charges, a criminal violation. They have agreed to pay a total of $34.5 million in fines, said these officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because court proceedings have not been completed. ...
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Rep. Renzi may resign. ... FBI raids of an insurance agency owned by his wife.
Rep. Renzi may resign.
“Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., could soon step down in the wake of a federal investigation into his involvement in a federal land swap deal and FBI raids of an insurance agency owned by his wife. His resignation could come as early as Friday or soon after, according to sources familiar with the matter. Top Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, have been meeting to discuss what they will do if Renzi resigns and his rural congressional seat opens up.” (Via War & Piece) April 26, 2007 11:57 pm | Comment (28) ...
“Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., could soon step down in the wake of a federal investigation into his involvement in a federal land swap deal and FBI raids of an insurance agency owned by his wife. His resignation could come as early as Friday or soon after, according to sources familiar with the matter. Top Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, have been meeting to discuss what they will do if Renzi resigns and his rural congressional seat opens up.” (Via War & Piece) April 26, 2007 11:57 pm | Comment (28) ...
Insider Trading? On Monday, 3,464 call options were traded ,,,, before Newscorp bid for Dow Jones ...
Subpoena Issued in Dow Jones Stock Inquiry | By REUTERS | Published: May 6, 2007
Dow Jones & Company said yesterday that the New York state attorney general and federal securities regulators were investigating unusual trading in its stock and options before it announced a takeover bid by the News Corporation last week.
Dow Jones, which runs a financial newswire service and publishes The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday that it had received a $5 billion bid from the News Corporation, after CNBC reported the bid that morning.
A Dow Jones spokesman said the company had received a subpoena from the attorney general and an inquiry from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A spokesman for the News Corporation said his company had received similar documents.
Leading up to the announcement, a surge in volume in Dow Jones’s June and September call options, which allow investors to buy shares at a specific price and time, suggested to some analysts that some investors knew an offer was in the works.
On Monday, 3,464 call options were traded betting that the company’s share price would reach $45 or above by September, said Michael Schwartz, chief options strategist at Oppenheimer & Company in New York. the same day, he said, 641 call options were traded betting that the price would hit $40 or above by June. ...
Dow Jones & Company said yesterday that the New York state attorney general and federal securities regulators were investigating unusual trading in its stock and options before it announced a takeover bid by the News Corporation last week.
Dow Jones, which runs a financial newswire service and publishes The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday that it had received a $5 billion bid from the News Corporation, after CNBC reported the bid that morning.
A Dow Jones spokesman said the company had received a subpoena from the attorney general and an inquiry from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A spokesman for the News Corporation said his company had received similar documents.
Leading up to the announcement, a surge in volume in Dow Jones’s June and September call options, which allow investors to buy shares at a specific price and time, suggested to some analysts that some investors knew an offer was in the works.
On Monday, 3,464 call options were traded betting that the company’s share price would reach $45 or above by September, said Michael Schwartz, chief options strategist at Oppenheimer & Company in New York. the same day, he said, 641 call options were traded betting that the price would hit $40 or above by June. ...
Whistelblower: department largely shut off the subsidies by sending a simple letter to lenders — the very measure Mr. Oberg had urged in 2003
Whistle-Blower on Student Aid Is Vindicated | By SAM DILLON | Published: May 7, 2007
WASHINGTON — When Jon Oberg, a Department of Education researcher, warned in 2003 that student lending companies were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies and suggested how to correct the problem, his supervisor told him to work on something else.
Jon Oberg, a former Department of Education researcher, warned that student loan companies were abusing a subsidy program and collecting millions in federal payments to which they were not entitled.
The department “does not have an intramural program of research on postsecondary education finance,” the supervisor, Grover Whitehurst, a political appointee, wrote in a November 2003 e-mail message to Mr. Oberg, a civil servant who was soon to retire. “In the 18 months you have remaining, I will expect your time and talents to be directed primarily to our business of conceptualizing, competing and monitoring research grants.”
For three more years, the vast overpayments continued. Education Secretary Rod Paige and his successor, Margaret Spellings, argued repeatedly that under existing law they were powerless to stop the payments and that it was Congress that needed to act. Then this past January, the department largely shut off the subsidies by sending a simple letter to lenders — the very measure Mr. Oberg had urged in 2003. ...
WASHINGTON — When Jon Oberg, a Department of Education researcher, warned in 2003 that student lending companies were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies and suggested how to correct the problem, his supervisor told him to work on something else.
Jon Oberg, a former Department of Education researcher, warned that student loan companies were abusing a subsidy program and collecting millions in federal payments to which they were not entitled.
The department “does not have an intramural program of research on postsecondary education finance,” the supervisor, Grover Whitehurst, a political appointee, wrote in a November 2003 e-mail message to Mr. Oberg, a civil servant who was soon to retire. “In the 18 months you have remaining, I will expect your time and talents to be directed primarily to our business of conceptualizing, competing and monitoring research grants.”
For three more years, the vast overpayments continued. Education Secretary Rod Paige and his successor, Margaret Spellings, argued repeatedly that under existing law they were powerless to stop the payments and that it was Congress that needed to act. Then this past January, the department largely shut off the subsidies by sending a simple letter to lenders — the very measure Mr. Oberg had urged in 2003. ...
Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used ...
Most Katrina Aid From Overseas Went Unclaimed | By John Solomon and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writers | Sunday, April 29, 2007; Page A01
As the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina were receding, presidential confidante Karen Hughes sent a cable from her State Department office to U.S. ambassadors worldwide.
Titled "Echo-Chamber Message" -- a public relations term for talking points designed to be repeated again and again -- the Sept. 7, 2005, directive was unmistakable: Assure the scores of countries that had pledged or donated aid at the height of the disaster that their largesse had provided Americans "practical help and moral support" and "highlight the concrete benefits hurricane victims are receiving."
Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina's victims.
Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent. ...
Washington Post Staff Writers | Sunday, April 29, 2007; Page A01
As the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina were receding, presidential confidante Karen Hughes sent a cable from her State Department office to U.S. ambassadors worldwide.
Titled "Echo-Chamber Message" -- a public relations term for talking points designed to be repeated again and again -- the Sept. 7, 2005, directive was unmistakable: Assure the scores of countries that had pledged or donated aid at the height of the disaster that their largesse had provided Americans "practical help and moral support" and "highlight the concrete benefits hurricane victims are receiving."
Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina's victims.
Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent. ...
stinging report that said she violated federal rules by giving industry lobbyists internal agency documents and rode roughshod over agency scientists
Interior Official Steps Down Over Rules Violation | By FELICITY BARRINGER | Published: May 2, 2007
WASHINGTON, May 1 — A deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department resigned Monday, a month after the department’s inspector general issued a stinging report that said she violated federal rules by giving industry lobbyists internal agency documents and rode roughshod over agency scientists. ...
..
Even as environmental groups issued statements of satisfaction with the departure of an official who had become a magnet for accusations of political interference with the work of federal biologists, they and Congressional critics said they were not convinced that the interference would end.
Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Tuesday in a statement, “The problems at the Fish and Wildlife Service are not merely a matter of people and personalities; the faults run much deeper than Julie MacDonald.”
...
Among other actions that drew the ire of wildlife biologists and lawyers, Ms. MacDonald had heavily edited biologists’ reports on sage grouse, a species that in the end was not placed on the threatened or endangered lists. Their habitat overlaps with vast parts of the Rocky Mountain West, where oil and gas drilling and cattle ranching are prevalent; listing the grouse as endangered or threatened could have curbed those industries’ access to federal lands.
In another case in the inspector general’s report, Ms. MacDonald demanded that scientists reduce the nesting range for the Southwest willow flycatcher to a radius of 1.8 miles, from a 2.1-miles, so it would not cross into California, where her husband has a ranch....
WASHINGTON, May 1 — A deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department resigned Monday, a month after the department’s inspector general issued a stinging report that said she violated federal rules by giving industry lobbyists internal agency documents and rode roughshod over agency scientists. ...
..
Even as environmental groups issued statements of satisfaction with the departure of an official who had become a magnet for accusations of political interference with the work of federal biologists, they and Congressional critics said they were not convinced that the interference would end.
Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said Tuesday in a statement, “The problems at the Fish and Wildlife Service are not merely a matter of people and personalities; the faults run much deeper than Julie MacDonald.”
...
Among other actions that drew the ire of wildlife biologists and lawyers, Ms. MacDonald had heavily edited biologists’ reports on sage grouse, a species that in the end was not placed on the threatened or endangered lists. Their habitat overlaps with vast parts of the Rocky Mountain West, where oil and gas drilling and cattle ranching are prevalent; listing the grouse as endangered or threatened could have curbed those industries’ access to federal lands.
In another case in the inspector general’s report, Ms. MacDonald demanded that scientists reduce the nesting range for the Southwest willow flycatcher to a radius of 1.8 miles, from a 2.1-miles, so it would not cross into California, where her husband has a ranch....
largest yet in a renewed effort by the Justice Department ...to root out fraud that puts average investors at a disadvantage in the stock market
Guilty Pleas Expected in Big Insider Trading Case | By Carrie Johnson | Washington Post Staff Writer | Tuesday, May 8, 2007; Page D01
A former Morgan Stanley executive responsible for making sure that employees obey the law is preparing to plead guilty this week for her role in one of the largest Wall Street insider-trading rings in more than two decades, according to court papers.
Randi E. Collotta and her husband, Christopher, are scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York on Thursday. The negotiations between the Collottas and federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York became public yesterday upon the release of correspondence from a government lawyer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew L. Fish asked the judge to delay a prior court session because "the parties are very close to completing plea negotiations."
"The Government anticipates that both defendants will be ready to enter guilty pleas on May 10, 2007," Fish wrote.
The case is the largest yet in a renewed effort by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to root out fraud that puts average investors at a disadvantage in the stock market. ...
A former Morgan Stanley executive responsible for making sure that employees obey the law is preparing to plead guilty this week for her role in one of the largest Wall Street insider-trading rings in more than two decades, according to court papers.
Randi E. Collotta and her husband, Christopher, are scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York on Thursday. The negotiations between the Collottas and federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York became public yesterday upon the release of correspondence from a government lawyer.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew L. Fish asked the judge to delay a prior court session because "the parties are very close to completing plea negotiations."
"The Government anticipates that both defendants will be ready to enter guilty pleas on May 10, 2007," Fish wrote.
The case is the largest yet in a renewed effort by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to root out fraud that puts average investors at a disadvantage in the stock market. ...
group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year
Doctors Reap Millions for Anemia Drugs | By ALEX BERENSON and ANDREW POLLACK | Published: May 9, 2007
Two of the world’s largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses.
The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size. Critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients’ risks of heart attacks or strokes.
Industry analysts estimate that such payments — to cancer doctors and the other big users of the drugs, kidney dialysis centers — total hundreds of millions of dollars a year and are an important source of profit for doctors and the centers. The payments have risen over the last several years, as the makers of the drugs, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson, compete for market share and try to expand the overall business.
Neither Amgen nor Johnson & Johnson has disclosed the total amount of the payments. But documents given to The New York Times show that at just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year.
Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration added to concerns about the drugs, releasing a report that suggested that their use might need to be curtailed in cancer patients. ...
Two of the world’s largest drug companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to doctors every year in return for giving their patients anemia medicines, which regulators now say may be unsafe at commonly used doses.
The payments are legal, but very few people outside of the doctors who receive them are aware of their size. Critics, including prominent cancer and kidney doctors, say the payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients’ risks of heart attacks or strokes.
Industry analysts estimate that such payments — to cancer doctors and the other big users of the drugs, kidney dialysis centers — total hundreds of millions of dollars a year and are an important source of profit for doctors and the centers. The payments have risen over the last several years, as the makers of the drugs, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson, compete for market share and try to expand the overall business.
Neither Amgen nor Johnson & Johnson has disclosed the total amount of the payments. But documents given to The New York Times show that at just one practice in the Pacific Northwest, a group of six cancer doctors received $2.7 million from Amgen for prescribing $9 million worth of its drugs last year.
Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration added to concerns about the drugs, releasing a report that suggested that their use might need to be curtailed in cancer patients. ...
Monday, May 07, 2007
Senate blocks bid to allow drug imports: Sen. Thad Cochran (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., a "poison pill" for the drug-imports legislation
Senate blocks bid to allow drug imports | By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - In a triumph for the pharmaceutical industry, the Senate on Monday killed a drive to allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from abroad at a significant savings over domestic prices.
On a 49-40 vote, the Senate required the administration to certify the safety and effectiveness of imported drugs before they can be imported, a requirement that officials have said they cannot meet.
"Well, once again the big drug companies have proved that they are the most powerful and best financed lobby in Washington," said Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), a Louisiana Republican.
The vote neutralized a second amendment, later passed on a voice vote, that would legalize the importation of prescription drugs manufactured in Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan and New Zealand.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the certification amendment, introduced by Sen. Thad Cochran (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., a "poison pill" for the drug-imports legislation. Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., acknowledged it nullified his bid to allow the purchase of drugs abroad. ...
WASHINGTON - In a triumph for the pharmaceutical industry, the Senate on Monday killed a drive to allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from abroad at a significant savings over domestic prices.
On a 49-40 vote, the Senate required the administration to certify the safety and effectiveness of imported drugs before they can be imported, a requirement that officials have said they cannot meet.
"Well, once again the big drug companies have proved that they are the most powerful and best financed lobby in Washington," said Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), a Louisiana Republican.
The vote neutralized a second amendment, later passed on a voice vote, that would legalize the importation of prescription drugs manufactured in Canada, Australia, Europe, Japan and New Zealand.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called the certification amendment, introduced by Sen. Thad Cochran (news, bio, voting record), R-Miss., a "poison pill" for the drug-imports legislation. Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., acknowledged it nullified his bid to allow the purchase of drugs abroad. ...
the racial disparities in infant mortality rates are criminal: [black]infant mortality rate almost two-and-a-half times higher
Conservative Infant Death Syndrome
The rate at which infants are dying has begun to creep upward in several Southern states. This is an entirely predictable—and deadly—outcome of a systematic squeezing of federal and state health programs under conservative rule.
The report in The New York Times Sunday that outlined some of the effects of cuts in federal and state health programs on infant care, particularly in Mississippi under Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, certainly was no surprise to Julie Winokur, an independent filmmaker. She has spent the past few months investigating health care problems in Tennessee, where Democratic governor and former health care executive Phil Bredesen took a page from the conservative playbook and slashed a Medicaid program that had been hailed as one of the most inclusive in the country.
Should the life of a child depend on where they are born and the politics of their state? ...
The rate at which infants are dying has begun to creep upward in several Southern states. This is an entirely predictable—and deadly—outcome of a systematic squeezing of federal and state health programs under conservative rule.
The report in The New York Times Sunday that outlined some of the effects of cuts in federal and state health programs on infant care, particularly in Mississippi under Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, certainly was no surprise to Julie Winokur, an independent filmmaker. She has spent the past few months investigating health care problems in Tennessee, where Democratic governor and former health care executive Phil Bredesen took a page from the conservative playbook and slashed a Medicaid program that had been hailed as one of the most inclusive in the country.
“There is absolutely no question,” Winokur says, that the tragedies caused by Bredersen’s actions in Tennessee, Barbour in Mississippi or by governors and legislators where health care is deteriorating, especially among the poor and among people of color, are caused by the inherent flaws of a conservative ideology that turns its back on public investment and forces people to fend for themselves against a rapacious insurance industry.
In Mississippi, Barbour, like Bredesen, rode into office with a promise to cut Medicaid, and he delivered on that promise: about 54,000 fewer non-elderly people are enrolled in the Medicaid and children’s health insurance program under Barbour’s policies, which force those who remain eligible for Medicaid to jump through more bureaucratic obstacles to get it. “The philosophy was to reduce the rolls and our activities were contrary to that policy,” Maria Morris, who resigned last year as head of an office—which was sharply cut under Barbour—that informed the public about eligibility, was quoted in The Times as saying.
While the infant mortality rates are terrible, the racial disparities in infant mortality rates are criminal. Nationwide, the infant mortality rate among black people, 13.6 per 1,000 live births, was almost two-and-a-half times the rate among white people, 5.7 per 1,000, when it was last measured in 2003. In Mississippi, the rate is 6.6 percent among white people, among black people it is 17, about three times higher. Such sharp racial disparities do not only show up in areas where conservatives dominate government, but neither can conservatives show where their policies have dramatically narrowed the racial gap. In fact, the evidence suggests the opposite. ...
Should the life of a child depend on where they are born and the politics of their state? ...
U.S. Fights Off Bid to Punish [ex-Republican congressman] UNESCO Official: opposing an initiative to improve accountability at UN [!!]
U.S. Fights Off Bid to Punish UNESCO Official | Former Congressman Accused of Giving 'Preferential Treatment' on Contract to Chicago Firm | By Colum Lynch | Washington Post Staff Writer | Sunday, May 6, 2007; Page A08
UNITED NATIONS -- The United States and its key allies last week fended off a campaign by developing countries to discipline UNESCO's highest-ranking U.S. official, Peter Smith, a former Republican congressman from Vermont. Smith resigned in March after an audit found he granted "preferential treatment" to a Chicago-based consulting firm that received $2.15 million in contracts -- often without competitive bidding.
The move placed the United States -- which has long called for greater transparency and accountability at the United Nations -- in the awkward position of opposing an initiative to improve accountability and fiscal integrity in the global body. Louise Oliver, the U.S. representative to UNESCO, recently told foreign delegates it is time to put the matter to rest and implement reforms Smith put in place before he left the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. ...
Friday, May 04, 2007
Occidental Petroleum ... dumping an estimated 9 billion barrels of toxic waste ... widespread lead and cadmium poisoning
4 May 2007 17:14 | Oil company accused of dumping waste in Amazon | By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles | Published: 04 May 2007
A US oil company has been accused of contaminating an area of the Peruvian Amazon where it and its successor company have drilled for oil for the past 32 years, creating misery for the local Achuar people and widespread lead and cadmium poisoning.
A report issued by a coalition of protest groups including Amazon Watch and EarthRights International yesterday accused the company, Occidental Petroleum, of violating Peruvian and international law by dumping an estimated 9 billion barrels of toxic waste in the area since it started prospecting in the early 1970s.
The "produced waters", as the waste is technically known, were allegedly dumped directly into rivers and streams used by the Achuar for drinking, bathing, washing and fishing. Medical research documented in the report showed dangerously elevated levels of lead and cadmium in the Achuar population.
"Oxy's activities fell far short of the accepted industry standards throughout the course of their operations, as the company discharged massive quantities of contaminated waters into local streams, stored wastes improperly, and caused periodic oil spills," the report alleges. ...
A US oil company has been accused of contaminating an area of the Peruvian Amazon where it and its successor company have drilled for oil for the past 32 years, creating misery for the local Achuar people and widespread lead and cadmium poisoning.
A report issued by a coalition of protest groups including Amazon Watch and EarthRights International yesterday accused the company, Occidental Petroleum, of violating Peruvian and international law by dumping an estimated 9 billion barrels of toxic waste in the area since it started prospecting in the early 1970s.
The "produced waters", as the waste is technically known, were allegedly dumped directly into rivers and streams used by the Achuar for drinking, bathing, washing and fishing. Medical research documented in the report showed dangerously elevated levels of lead and cadmium in the Achuar population.
"Oxy's activities fell far short of the accepted industry standards throughout the course of their operations, as the company discharged massive quantities of contaminated waters into local streams, stored wastes improperly, and caused periodic oil spills," the report alleges. ...
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Interior Official Quits Ahead of Hearing: "betrayed the mission she swore to uphold,"
Interior Official Quits Ahead of Hearing | May 1, 5:18 PM (ET) | By MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON (AP) - An Interior Department official accused of pressuring government scientists to make their research fit her policy goals has resigned.
Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday.
MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
MacDonald was recently rebuked by the department's inspector general, who told Congress in a report last month that she broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups.
Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery confirmed MacDonald's resignation but declined to comment further.
Environmentalists cheered the departure of MacDonald, who they say tried to bully government scientists into altering their findings, often without scientific basis.
"Julie MacDonald's reign of terror over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finally over," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Endangered species and scientists everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief."
MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, had served in her post since 2004. She was a senior adviser in the department for two years before that.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said MacDonald had "betrayed the mission she swore to uphold," adding that her actions "undermined both the work and the integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and its many dedicated employees." ...
WASHINGTON (AP) - An Interior Department official accused of pressuring government scientists to make their research fit her policy goals has resigned.
Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday.
MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
MacDonald was recently rebuked by the department's inspector general, who told Congress in a report last month that she broke federal rules and should face punishment for leaking information about endangered species to private groups.
Interior Department spokesman Hugh Vickery confirmed MacDonald's resignation but declined to comment further.
Environmentalists cheered the departure of MacDonald, who they say tried to bully government scientists into altering their findings, often without scientific basis.
"Julie MacDonald's reign of terror over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is finally over," said Kieran Suckling, policy director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Endangered species and scientists everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief."
MacDonald, a civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, had served in her post since 2004. She was a senior adviser in the department for two years before that.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said MacDonald had "betrayed the mission she swore to uphold," adding that her actions "undermined both the work and the integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Service and its many dedicated employees." ...
Student Loans: Bush Aides Derailed New Rules in 2001: problem that this year has grown into a major controversy
Warnings On Student Lenders Unheeded | Bush Aides Derailed New Rules in 2001 | By Amit R. Paley | Washington Post Staff Writer | Tuesday, May 1, 2007; Page A01
The Bush administration killed a proposal to clamp down on the student loan industry six years ago following allegations that companies sought to shower universities with financial favors to help generate business, according to documents and interviews with government officials.
The proposed policy, which Education Department officials drafted near the end of the Clinton presidency and circulated at the start of the Bush administration, represented an early, significant but ultimately abortive government response to a problem that this year has grown into a major controversy.
Now, as the $85 billion-a-year student loan industry faces an array of investigations into questionable business practices that some officials believe could have been curtailed by the 2001 proposal, ...
The Bush administration killed a proposal to clamp down on the student loan industry six years ago following allegations that companies sought to shower universities with financial favors to help generate business, according to documents and interviews with government officials.
The proposed policy, which Education Department officials drafted near the end of the Clinton presidency and circulated at the start of the Bush administration, represented an early, significant but ultimately abortive government response to a problem that this year has grown into a major controversy.
Now, as the $85 billion-a-year student loan industry faces an array of investigations into questionable business practices that some officials believe could have been curtailed by the 2001 proposal, ...
Monday, April 30, 2007
Corps asked to explain pump contract: copied specs from MWI, who employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the '80s
Corps asked to explain pump contract | By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer 39 minutes ago
NEW ORLEANS - When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, it copied the specifications — typos and all — from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract, a review of documents by The Associated Press found.
The pumps, supplied by Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla., and installed at canals before the start of the 2006 hurricane season, proved to be defective, as the AP reported in March. The matter is under investigation by the
Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
In a letter dated April 13, Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., called on the Corps to look into how the politically connected company got the post-Hurricane Katrina contract. MWI employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush,
President Bush's brother, to market its pumps during the 1980s, and top MWI officials have been major contributors to the Republican Party.
While it may not be a violation of federal regulations to adopt a company's technical specifications, it is frowned on, especially for large jobs like the MWI contract, because it could give the impression the job was rigged for the benefit of a certain company, contractors familiar with Corps practices say. ...
NEW ORLEANS - When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, it copied the specifications — typos and all — from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract, a review of documents by The Associated Press found.
The pumps, supplied by Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla., and installed at canals before the start of the 2006 hurricane season, proved to be defective, as the AP reported in March. The matter is under investigation by the
Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
In a letter dated April 13, Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., called on the Corps to look into how the politically connected company got the post-Hurricane Katrina contract. MWI employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush,
President Bush's brother, to market its pumps during the 1980s, and top MWI officials have been major contributors to the Republican Party.
While it may not be a violation of federal regulations to adopt a company's technical specifications, it is frowned on, especially for large jobs like the MWI contract, because it could give the impression the job was rigged for the benefit of a certain company, contractors familiar with Corps practices say. ...
Friday, April 27, 2007
Justice Dept official resigns over investigation connected with Abramoff
Fri, Apr. 27, 2007 | Justice Dept official resigns over investigation connected with Abramoff | by Marisa Taylor and David Whitney | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - A senior Justice Department official has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the Department’s expanding investigation of convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a Justice Department official with knowledge of the case.
Making the situation more awkward for the embattled Department, the official, Robert E. Coughlin II, was deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the Department’s probe of Abramoff.
He stepped down effective April 6 as investigators in Coughlin’s own division ratcheted up their investigation of lobbyist Kevin Ring, Coughlin’s long-time friend and a key associate of Abramoff.
When contacted at his home in Washington, Coughlin said he resigned voluntarily because he was relocating to Texas. “I was not asked to resign,” he said in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers. “It’s important to me that it's made clear that I left voluntarily.” ...
WASHINGTON - A senior Justice Department official has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the Department’s expanding investigation of convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to a Justice Department official with knowledge of the case.
Making the situation more awkward for the embattled Department, the official, Robert E. Coughlin II, was deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the Department’s probe of Abramoff.
He stepped down effective April 6 as investigators in Coughlin’s own division ratcheted up their investigation of lobbyist Kevin Ring, Coughlin’s long-time friend and a key associate of Abramoff.
When contacted at his home in Washington, Coughlin said he resigned voluntarily because he was relocating to Texas. “I was not asked to resign,” he said in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers. “It’s important to me that it's made clear that I left voluntarily.” ...
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Republicans in the Senate blocked a proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans
Bill to Let Medicare Negotiate Drug Prices Is Blocked | By ROBERT PEAR | Published: April 18, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 18 — A pillar of the Democratic political program tumbled today when Republicans in the Senate blocked a proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans, a practice now forbidden by law.
Democrats could not muster the 60 votes needed to take up the legislation in the face of staunch opposition from Republicans, who said that private insurers and their agents, known as pharmacy benefit managers, were already negotiating large discounts for Medicare beneficiaries. ...
WASHINGTON, April 18 — A pillar of the Democratic political program tumbled today when Republicans in the Senate blocked a proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans, a practice now forbidden by law.
Democrats could not muster the 60 votes needed to take up the legislation in the face of staunch opposition from Republicans, who said that private insurers and their agents, known as pharmacy benefit managers, were already negotiating large discounts for Medicare beneficiaries. ...
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Of 24 tests approved by the committee, seven were tied to members of the panel.
Key Initiative Of 'No Child' Under Federal Investigation | Officials Profited From Reading First Program | By Amit R. Paley | Washington Post Staff Writer | Saturday, April 21, 2007; Page A01
The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.
The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million off textbooks and tests toward which the federal government steered states.
"That sounds like a criminal enterprise to me," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House education committee, which held a five-hour investigative hearing. "You don't get to override the law," he angrily told a panel of Reading First officials. "But the fact of the matter is that you did."
...
One official, Roland H. Good III, said his company made $1.3 million off a reading test, known as DIBELS, that was endorsed by a Reading First evaluation panel he sat on. Good, who owns half the company, Dynamic Measurement Group, told the committee that he donated royalties from the product to the University of Oregon, where he is an associate professor.
Two former University of Oregon researchers on the panel, Edward J. Kame'enui and Deborah C. Simmons, said they received about $150,000 in royalties last year for a program that is now packaged with DIBELS. They testified that they received smaller royalties in previous years for the program, Scott Foresman Early Reading Intervention, and did not know it was being sold with DIBELS.
Members of the panel said they recused themselves from voting on their own products but did assess their competitors. Of 24 tests approved by the committee, seven were tied to members of the panel. ...
The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.
The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million off textbooks and tests toward which the federal government steered states.
"That sounds like a criminal enterprise to me," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House education committee, which held a five-hour investigative hearing. "You don't get to override the law," he angrily told a panel of Reading First officials. "But the fact of the matter is that you did."
...
One official, Roland H. Good III, said his company made $1.3 million off a reading test, known as DIBELS, that was endorsed by a Reading First evaluation panel he sat on. Good, who owns half the company, Dynamic Measurement Group, told the committee that he donated royalties from the product to the University of Oregon, where he is an associate professor.
Two former University of Oregon researchers on the panel, Edward J. Kame'enui and Deborah C. Simmons, said they received about $150,000 in royalties last year for a program that is now packaged with DIBELS. They testified that they received smaller royalties in previous years for the program, Scott Foresman Early Reading Intervention, and did not know it was being sold with DIBELS.
Members of the panel said they recused themselves from voting on their own products but did assess their competitors. Of 24 tests approved by the committee, seven were tied to members of the panel. ...
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Congressman resigns committee post after home searched in corruption probe
Calif. Congressman resigns committee post after home searched in corruption probe | Rep. John Doolittle temporarily leaves Appropriations Committee as FBI investigates wife's fundraising business and ties to Jack Abramoff. | From Associated Press | 2:12 PM PDT, April 19, 2007
Rep. John Doolittle, whose house was searched by the FBI in an influence-peddling investigation, said today he will step down temporarily from the House Appropriations Committee.
The announcement by the nine-term California Republican came one day after the disclosure that agents had raided his home in Oakton, Va. In the search last Friday, the FBI had a warrant for information connected with a fundraising business run by Doolittle's wife, Julie, that had done work for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"I understand how the most recent circumstances may lead some to question my tenure on the Appropriations Committee," Doolittle wrote House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
...
Doolittle's ties to Abramoff have come under scrutiny in the corruption investigation that has sent one former Republican congressman, Bob Ney of Ohio, to prison on a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy and making false statements, and produced convictions against two senior Bush administration officials and several congressional aides. ...
Rep. John Doolittle, whose house was searched by the FBI in an influence-peddling investigation, said today he will step down temporarily from the House Appropriations Committee.
The announcement by the nine-term California Republican came one day after the disclosure that agents had raided his home in Oakton, Va. In the search last Friday, the FBI had a warrant for information connected with a fundraising business run by Doolittle's wife, Julie, that had done work for convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"I understand how the most recent circumstances may lead some to question my tenure on the Appropriations Committee," Doolittle wrote House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
...
Doolittle's ties to Abramoff have come under scrutiny in the corruption investigation that has sent one former Republican congressman, Bob Ney of Ohio, to prison on a guilty plea to charges of conspiracy and making false statements, and produced convictions against two senior Bush administration officials and several congressional aides. ...
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
H1-B visas used to depress the wages of American workers ... mean IT H1-B hmakes $50k ... less than new US graduates ...
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - New threat to skilled U.S. workers
The master plan, it seems, is to move perhaps 40 million high-skill American jobs to other countries. U.S. workers have not been consulted.
Princeton economist Alan Blinder predicts that these choice jobs could be lost in a mere decade or two. We speak of computer programming, bookkeeping, graphic design and other careers once thought firmly planted in American soil. For perspective, 40 million is more than twice the total number of people now employed in manufacturing.
...
What America can do to stop this is unclear, but it certainly doesn't have to speed up the process through a government program. We refer to the H-1B visa program, which allows educated foreigners to work in the United States, usually for three years. Many in Congress want to nearly double the number of H-1B visas, to 115,000 a year.
...
Ron Hira has studied the dark side of the H-1B program. A professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he notes that the top applicants for visas are outsourcing companies, such as Wipro Technologies of India and Bermuda-based Accenture.
...
In other cases, companies ask their U.S. employees to train H-1B workers who then replace them at lower pay. "This is euphemistically called, 'knowledge transfer,' " Hira says. "I call it, 'knowledge extraction.' "
Another rap against the program is that it's used to depress the wages of American workers. The program's defenders argue that the law requires companies to pay "the prevailing wage."
But "prevailing wage" is a legalism, Hira says. It does not translate into "market wage."
The median pay for H-1B computing professionals in fiscal 2005 was $50,000, which means half earn less than that. An American information-technology worker with a bachelor's degree makes more than $50,000 in an entry-level job.
Businesses bemoan the alleged shortage of Americans trained to do the work. But wait a second — the law of supply and demand states that a shortage of something causes its price to rise. Wages in information technology have been flat.
The companies fret that not enough young Americans are studying science and technology. Well, cutting the pay in those fields isn't much of an incentive, is it?
The master plan, it seems, is to move perhaps 40 million high-skill American jobs to other countries. U.S. workers have not been consulted.
Princeton economist Alan Blinder predicts that these choice jobs could be lost in a mere decade or two. We speak of computer programming, bookkeeping, graphic design and other careers once thought firmly planted in American soil. For perspective, 40 million is more than twice the total number of people now employed in manufacturing.
...
What America can do to stop this is unclear, but it certainly doesn't have to speed up the process through a government program. We refer to the H-1B visa program, which allows educated foreigners to work in the United States, usually for three years. Many in Congress want to nearly double the number of H-1B visas, to 115,000 a year.
...
Ron Hira has studied the dark side of the H-1B program. A professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he notes that the top applicants for visas are outsourcing companies, such as Wipro Technologies of India and Bermuda-based Accenture.
...
In other cases, companies ask their U.S. employees to train H-1B workers who then replace them at lower pay. "This is euphemistically called, 'knowledge transfer,' " Hira says. "I call it, 'knowledge extraction.' "
Another rap against the program is that it's used to depress the wages of American workers. The program's defenders argue that the law requires companies to pay "the prevailing wage."
But "prevailing wage" is a legalism, Hira says. It does not translate into "market wage."
The median pay for H-1B computing professionals in fiscal 2005 was $50,000, which means half earn less than that. An American information-technology worker with a bachelor's degree makes more than $50,000 in an entry-level job.
Businesses bemoan the alleged shortage of Americans trained to do the work. But wait a second — the law of supply and demand states that a shortage of something causes its price to rise. Wages in information technology have been flat.
The companies fret that not enough young Americans are studying science and technology. Well, cutting the pay in those fields isn't much of an incentive, is it?
Bush appointed Paul D. Wolfowitz: viewed the administration’s best-known neoconservative as a symbol of American unilateralism and arrogance ...
Wolfowitz Fight Has Subplot | April 14, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 13 — When President Bush appointed Paul D. Wolfowitz as the president of the World Bank two years ago, the White House had to put down an insurrection among European nations that viewed the administration’s best-known neoconservative as a symbol of American unilateralism and arrogance.
For a while, Mr. Wolfowitz seemed to defuse those fears, even taking on the Bush administration over how best to aid the poorest nations of Africa. But now it is clear that the chorus of calls in recent days for Mr. Wolfowitz’s ouster is only partly about his involvement in setting up a comfortable job, with a big pay raise, for a bank officer who is Mr. Wolfowitz’s companion.
At its core, the fight about whether Mr. Wolfowitz should stay on at the bank is a debate about Mr. Bush and his tumultuous relationship with the rest of the world, particularly the bank, the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which have viewed themselves — at various moments since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — as being at war with the Bush White House and its agenda.
As finance ministers gathered in Washington on Friday for the bank’s weekend meeting, Mr. Wolfowitz worked behind the scenes, seeking support for keeping his job. But there were few endorsements of his leadership beyond those offered by the Bush administration. ...
WASHINGTON, April 13 — When President Bush appointed Paul D. Wolfowitz as the president of the World Bank two years ago, the White House had to put down an insurrection among European nations that viewed the administration’s best-known neoconservative as a symbol of American unilateralism and arrogance.
For a while, Mr. Wolfowitz seemed to defuse those fears, even taking on the Bush administration over how best to aid the poorest nations of Africa. But now it is clear that the chorus of calls in recent days for Mr. Wolfowitz’s ouster is only partly about his involvement in setting up a comfortable job, with a big pay raise, for a bank officer who is Mr. Wolfowitz’s companion.
At its core, the fight about whether Mr. Wolfowitz should stay on at the bank is a debate about Mr. Bush and his tumultuous relationship with the rest of the world, particularly the bank, the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which have viewed themselves — at various moments since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 — as being at war with the Bush White House and its agenda.
As finance ministers gathered in Washington on Friday for the bank’s weekend meeting, Mr. Wolfowitz worked behind the scenes, seeking support for keeping his job. But there were few endorsements of his leadership beyond those offered by the Bush administration. ...
Wolfowitz's big cause at the bank? Fighting corruption.: ... ordered VP for HR to raise romantic interests salary ... after warning by ethics commitee
April 17, 2007 | Wolfie's Piggy Bank | by Patrick J. Buchanan
Barracks language edited out, Tommy Franks once referred to the Pentagon's No. 3, Doug Feith, as "the dumbest guy on the planet."
It now appears Gen. Franks' honorific better applies to Feith's boss, the Pentagon No. 2, Paul Wolfowitz. For a man once hailed as the brightest of the neocons, Wolfie has behaved with a stupidity born of the arrogance of power.
Hailed in 2003 as architect of the Iraq victory, Wolfowitz, by late 2004, was being singled out as the bumbler of postwar planning and the man most responsible for what Gen. William Odom was already calling the greatest strategic blunder in U.S. history.
With the roster of U.S. dead and wounded rising, Wolfie was looking for a place to hide. George Bush, who had heeded his cawing for war on Iraq from the first hours after 9/11, took pity. And more than pity. Bush made him president of the World Bank, the post to which Robert McNamara retreated after seven years at the Pentagon plunging us into a another war, a war we later learned McNamara had come to believe we could not win. ...
...
A few weeks in Eden, and Wolfie went straight for the apple tree. From memos unearthed by the Financial Times, he gave bank officials specific instructions on the care and feeding of his romantic interest, a mid-level Libyan bank bureaucrat by the name of Shaha Riza.
Warned by the bank ethics committee he was to have no role in deciding Shaha's salary, Wolfie brushed the ethics rules aside.
He ordered Xavier Coll, bank vice president for human resources, to assign Riza to the State Department and raise her salary by some 50 percent, to $193,000 today, tax-free. She would take home more than Condi Rice. Coll was then directed to assure that Riza receive annual pay hikes of 8 percent and be put on a glide path to the highest position of any civil servant at the bank. By 2010, she would be making $245,000, tax-free.
And what has been Wolfowitz's big cause at the bank? Fighting corruption. ...
Barracks language edited out, Tommy Franks once referred to the Pentagon's No. 3, Doug Feith, as "the dumbest guy on the planet."
It now appears Gen. Franks' honorific better applies to Feith's boss, the Pentagon No. 2, Paul Wolfowitz. For a man once hailed as the brightest of the neocons, Wolfie has behaved with a stupidity born of the arrogance of power.
Hailed in 2003 as architect of the Iraq victory, Wolfowitz, by late 2004, was being singled out as the bumbler of postwar planning and the man most responsible for what Gen. William Odom was already calling the greatest strategic blunder in U.S. history.
With the roster of U.S. dead and wounded rising, Wolfie was looking for a place to hide. George Bush, who had heeded his cawing for war on Iraq from the first hours after 9/11, took pity. And more than pity. Bush made him president of the World Bank, the post to which Robert McNamara retreated after seven years at the Pentagon plunging us into a another war, a war we later learned McNamara had come to believe we could not win. ...
...
A few weeks in Eden, and Wolfie went straight for the apple tree. From memos unearthed by the Financial Times, he gave bank officials specific instructions on the care and feeding of his romantic interest, a mid-level Libyan bank bureaucrat by the name of Shaha Riza.
Warned by the bank ethics committee he was to have no role in deciding Shaha's salary, Wolfie brushed the ethics rules aside.
He ordered Xavier Coll, bank vice president for human resources, to assign Riza to the State Department and raise her salary by some 50 percent, to $193,000 today, tax-free. She would take home more than Condi Rice. Coll was then directed to assure that Riza receive annual pay hikes of 8 percent and be put on a glide path to the highest position of any civil servant at the bank. By 2010, she would be making $245,000, tax-free.
And what has been Wolfowitz's big cause at the bank? Fighting corruption. ...
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Wolfowitz [personally] Dictated Girlfriend's Pay Deal ... got $200,000 tax free, more than Condi Rice
Wolfowitz Dictated Girlfriend's Pay Deal | World Bank Board Weighs Its Options | By Karen DeYoung and Krissah Williams | Washington Post Staff Writers | Saturday, April 14, 2007; Page A01
World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz personally dictated the terms under which the bank gave what it called his "domestic partner" substantial pay raises and promotions in exchange for temporarily leaving her job there during his tenure, according to documents released by the bank's executive board yesterday. ...
World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz personally dictated the terms under which the bank gave what it called his "domestic partner" substantial pay raises and promotions in exchange for temporarily leaving her job there during his tenure, according to documents released by the bank's executive board yesterday. ...
Friday, April 13, 2007
'Independent Contractor': beyond calling it a dodge ... how to use misclassification to exploit undocumented immigrants.
Union Leader, Construction Company: 'Independent Contractor' Dodge Costly to Workers, States, Firms | Wednesday, April 11, 2007
(Press Associates, Inc.)
WASHINGTON (PAI)--The “independent contractor” dodge--a tactic unscrupulous construction companies use to avoid treating their workers legally, paying
taxes and following workers’ comp and other laws--is costly to workers, governments and even other construction firms, two witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee.
In one of a series of hearings on the state of U.S. workers, Bricklayers President John J. Flynn and Cliff Horn, a Chicago-area masonry contractor testifying for
his industry’s trade association, told lawmakers on March 27 that widespread use of “independent contractors” in the construction industry hurts everyone.
Flynn went beyond calling it a dodge. He said it is a “crisis” in the workplace that citizens--and even congressmen--are largely unaware of. Horn said the honest firms that treat workers right, like his own, have to compete against the shady characters.
The anti-union anti-worker Associated Builders and Contractors opposed any changes.
Under federal law, an “employee,” whose work is guided by supervisors and who is paid by the company and adheres to company rules and standards, is protected by a variety of federal and state laws. But an “independent contractor” is not. ...
...
“They found this network would teach employers about how easily they could cheat the system. Accountants would actually coach employers how to use misclassification to exploit undocumented immigrants.
“And the most amazing part of it all was how easy it was to get this network to give up their tricks. It was as if they had no fear of being caught, of being exposed as part of a conspiracy to evade labor and tax laws. Our organizers’ story is chilling–because it illustrates how commonplace misclassification has
become. And that’s why we’re here today–asking this committee to fight for the basic right to be recognized as an employee, with all of the rights of an employee,” he concluded.
...
(Press Associates, Inc.)
WASHINGTON (PAI)--The “independent contractor” dodge--a tactic unscrupulous construction companies use to avoid treating their workers legally, paying
taxes and following workers’ comp and other laws--is costly to workers, governments and even other construction firms, two witnesses told the House Education and Labor Committee.
In one of a series of hearings on the state of U.S. workers, Bricklayers President John J. Flynn and Cliff Horn, a Chicago-area masonry contractor testifying for
his industry’s trade association, told lawmakers on March 27 that widespread use of “independent contractors” in the construction industry hurts everyone.
Flynn went beyond calling it a dodge. He said it is a “crisis” in the workplace that citizens--and even congressmen--are largely unaware of. Horn said the honest firms that treat workers right, like his own, have to compete against the shady characters.
The anti-union anti-worker Associated Builders and Contractors opposed any changes.
Under federal law, an “employee,” whose work is guided by supervisors and who is paid by the company and adheres to company rules and standards, is protected by a variety of federal and state laws. But an “independent contractor” is not. ...
...
“They found this network would teach employers about how easily they could cheat the system. Accountants would actually coach employers how to use misclassification to exploit undocumented immigrants.
“And the most amazing part of it all was how easy it was to get this network to give up their tricks. It was as if they had no fear of being caught, of being exposed as part of a conspiracy to evade labor and tax laws. Our organizers’ story is chilling–because it illustrates how commonplace misclassification has
become. And that’s why we’re here today–asking this committee to fight for the basic right to be recognized as an employee, with all of the rights of an employee,” he concluded.
...
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