 VECO
Scandal
 China
 EADS
|
 Manufacturing
MANUFACTURING News:
20080630
 John
McCain -  Tom
Loeffler -  Susan
E Nelson -  Gordon
England - EADS
-  European
-  Military
-  Aircraft
- Manufacturing
-  Politics
-  Government
-  Auditors
-  US
-  2008
Election
"McCain’s
Boeing Battle Boomerangs." ... "Government auditors
ruled that the Air Force made "significant errors" when it rebid the [aerial
refueling tanker] contract and awarded the $35 billion project to Boeing's
chief rival, partners European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. [Company]
(or EADS) and Northrop Grumman. It's likely the Air Force will have to
redo the bid yet again, which analysts say will delay the replacement of
the fleet's 1950s-era refueling tankers. The auditors' ruling has also
cast light on an overlooked aspect of [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate John] McCain's crusade: five of his campaign's top advisers and
fund-raisers—including Tom Loeffler, who resigned last month as his finance
co-chairman, and Susan Nelson, his finance director—were registered lobbyists
for EADS." ... "Critics, including some at the Pentagon, cite in particular
two tough letters McCain wrote to Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England
in 2006 and another to Robert Gates, just prior to his confirmation as
Defense secretary. In the first letter, dated [September] Sept. 8, 2006,
McCain wrote of hearing from "third parties" that the Air Force was about
to redo the tanker competition by factoring in European government subsidies
to EADS—a condition that could have seriously hurt the EADS bid. McCain
urged that the Pentagon drop the subsidy factor and posed a series of technical
questions about the Air Force's process. "He was trying to jam us and bully
us to make sure there was competition by giving EADS an advantage," said
one senior Pentagon official, who asked for anonymity when discussing a
politically sensitive matter. The assumption within the Pentagon, the official
added, was that McCain's letters were drafted by EADS lobbyists. "There
was no one else that would have had that level of detail," the official
said." -By Michael Isikoff
-Newsweek
20080612
 Health
-  Science
-  Environmental
-  Safety
-  Laws
- Manufacturing
-  Industries
- EU
- US
-  Global
- Consumers
- Government
- Politics
-  Computer
-  Privacy
-  Newborns
"Chemical
Law Has Global Impact: [European Union's] E.U.'s
New Rules Forcing Changes By [United States] U.S. Firms." ... "Europe this
month rolled out new restrictions on makers of chemicals linked to cancer
and other health problems, changes that are forcing U.S. industries to
find new ways to produce a wide range of everyday products." ... "The new
laws in the European Union require companies to demonstrate that a chemical
is safe before it enters commerce -- the opposite of policies in the United
States, where regulators must prove that a chemical is harmful before it
can be restricted or removed from the market. Manufacturers say that complying
with the European laws will add billions to their costs, possibly driving
up prices of some products." ... "The changes come at a time when consumers
are increasingly worried about the long-term consequences of chemical exposure
and are agitating for more aggressive regulation. In the United States,
these pressures have spurred efforts in Congress and some state legislatures
to pass laws that would circumvent the laborious federal regulatory process."
... "Adamantly opposed by the U.S. chemical industry and the [Republican
President] Bush administration, the E.U. laws will be phased in over the
next decade. It is difficult to know exactly how the changes will affect
products sold in the United States. But American manufacturers are already
searching for safer alternatives to chemicals used to make thousands of
consumer goods, from bike helmets to shower curtains." ... "The European
Union's tough stance on chemical regulation is the latest area in which
the Europeans are reshaping business practices with demands that American
companies either comply or lose access to a market of 27 countries and
nearly 500 million people." ... "From its crackdown on antitrust practices
in the computer industry to its rigorous protection of consumer privacy,
the European Union has adopted a regulatory philosophy that emphasizes
the consumer. Its approach to managing chemical risks, which started with
a trickle of individual bans and has swelled into a wave, is part of a
European focus on caution when it comes to health and the environment."
... "A study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found an average
of 200 industrial chemicals in the cord blood of newborns." (1, 2)
-By Lyndsey Layton -WashingtonPost
20080523
-
 Oceans
- Global
-  Climate
- Science
- Environmental
-  Atmospheric
- Industrial
- Factories
-  Cars
-  History
-  Animals
- Seattle
-  Washington
-  California
-  Oregon
- US
-  Canada
-  Mexico
- "Acidified
seawater showing up along coast ahead of schedule."
... "Climate models predicted it wouldn't happen until the end of the century."
... "So a team led by Seattle [Washington] researchers was stunned to discover
that vast swaths of acidified seawater already are showing up along the
Pacific Coast as greenhouse-gas emissions upset the oceans' chemical balance."
... "In surveys from Vancouver Island [British Columbia, Canada] to the
tip of Baja California [Mexico], reported Thursday in the online journal
Science Express, the scientists found the first evidence that large amounts
of corrosive water are reaching the continental shelf — the shallow sea
margin where most marine creatures live." ... "Off Northern California,
the acidified water was only four miles from shore." ... ""What we found
... was truly astonishing," said oceanographer Richard Feely, of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory in Seattle. "This means ocean acidification may be seriously
impacting marine life on the continental shelf right now."" ... "All along
the coast, the scientists found regions where the water was acidic enough
to dissolve the shells and skeletons of clams, corals and many of the tiny
creatures at the base of the marine food chain. Acidified water also can
kill fish eggs and a wide range of marine larvae." ... ""Entire marine
ecosystems are likely to be affected," said co-author Debby Ianson, an
oceanographer at Fisheries and Oceans Canada." ... "Though it hasn't received
as much attention as global warming, ocean acidification is a flip side
of the same phenomenon. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from
power plants, factories and cars that is raising temperatures worldwide
also is to blame for the increasing acidity of the world's oceans." ...
"Normally, seawater is slightly alkaline. When carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere dissolves into the water, it forms carbonic acid — the weak
acid that helps give soda pop its tang. The process also robs the water
of carbonate, a key ingredient in the formation of calcium carbonate shells."
... "Since the Industrial Revolution, when humans began pumping massive
amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, Feely estimates the oceans
have absorbed 525 billion tons of the man-made greenhouse gas — about one-third
of the total released during that period." ... "By keeping some of the
carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the oceans have blunted the temperature
rise due to global warming. But they've suffered for that service, with
a more than 30-percent increase in acidity." ... "The acidified water upwelling
along the coast today was last exposed to the atmosphere about 50 years
ago, when carbon-dioxide levels were much lower than they are now. That
means the water that will rise from the depths over the coming decades
will have absorbed more carbon dioxide and will be even more acidic." -By
Sandi Doughton -SeattleTimes
20080517
-
John
McCain
- Thomas
Loeffler - Foreign
- Politics
-
 Saudi
Arabia -  French
- Aerospace
- Military
- Manufacturing
-  Texas
- US
- 2008
Election - "Mccain
vs. Lobbyists." ... "Stung by the news that two aides
once lobbied for the Burmese junta, [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate] John McCain last week rolled out a sweeping new conflict-of-interest
policy for his campaign, requiring all staffers to fill out questionnaires
identifying past or current clients that "could be embarrassing for the
senator."" ... "One top campaign official affected by the new policy is
national finance co-chair Tom
Loeffler, a former Texas congressman whose lobbying firm has collected
nearly $15 million from Saudi Arabia since 2002 and millions more from
other foreign and corporate interests, including a French aerospace firm
[EADS] seeking Pentagon contracts. Loeffler last month told a reporter
"at no time have I discussed my clients with John McCain." But lobbying
disclosure records reviewed by NEWSWEEK show that on May 17, 2006, Loeffler
listed meeting McCain along with the Saudi ambassador to "discuss US-Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia relations."" ... "Another potential problem: Loeffler's
firm started paying $15,000 a month last summer to one of its lobbyists,
Susan Nelson, after she left to become McCain's full-time finance director,
said a source familiar with the arrangement (who asked not to be identified
talking about sensitive matters)." -By Michael Isikoff
-Newsweek
20080513
-
Corporate
- Environmental
- Health
- Politics
-
 Investigation
- Manufacturing
- Water
-  Michigan
-  Illinois
-  Indiana
-  Minnesota
-  Ohio
-  Wisconsin
- "U.S.
Senators Probe Departure of EPA Midwest Administrator."
... "The circumstances surrounding the resignation of Mary Gade, formerly
the U.S. [United States] EPA's [Environmental Protection Agency's]
regional administrator for the Midwest, are under investigation by an environmental
committee of the U.S. Senate." ... "On May 2, the "Chicago Tribune" reported
that two top aides to Johnson demanded that Gade resign or be fired by
June 1, 2008. She has since submitted her resignation and is currently
on administrative leave." ... "According to the Tribune's story, Gade believed
her forced resignation was due to her efforts to push Dow Chemical Company
to clean up dioxin contamination in Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron stemming
from its Midland, Michigan chemical manufacturing plant. Dioxin is a known
carcinogen." ... "The paper also reported that officials from Dow Chemical
had met with EPA officials in Washington in January 2008 because they were
unhappy with Gade's approach, and that Gade's handling of this issue became
the subject of criticism from her superiors in Washington." ... "On January
4, 2008, Gade terminated negotiations with Dow Chemical aimed at a settlement
to conduct a study and interim cleanup actions for dioxin contamination
along the Tittabawassee River system, the Saginaw River and the Saginaw
Bay. The negotiations under the Superfund Act began in October 2007 with
the participation of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality."
... ""I am extremely disappointed with this outcome," said Gade on January
4. "EPA approached negotiations with high hopes and realistic expectations.
Our team put in many long hours of good faith efforts that came to an unfortunate
end today. EPA is now reviewing its options for ensuring that dioxin contamination
in the river system and the Midland area can be fully addressed."" ...
"An environmental attorney, Gade was appointed regional administrator of
EPA Region 5 in October 2006 to oversee federal environmental programs
in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin."
-ENS
20080507
-
Water
-
 Infrastructure
-  Human
- Health
- Safety
- Enforcement
- Environment
-  Underground
- Money
- History
- Weather
- Animals
-  Plants
- "Aging
systems releasing sewage into rivers, streams." ...
"America's aging sewer systems continue to dump human waste into rivers
and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned
agencies responsible for sewage overflows, a Gannett News Service analysis
shows." ... "The analysis of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data
found that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been
fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten
local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants." ... "DATABASE:
Sewer
treatment plant reports by state[.]" ... "Local governments across
the USA plan to spend billions modernizing failing wastewater systems —
some of which are more than 100 years old — over the next 10 to 20 years,
EPA, state and local sewer authority officials said." ... "Those improvement
efforts face a huge challenge mitigating problems in what the EPA estimates
to be 1.2 million miles of sewers snaking underground across the USA."
... "Waste gurgles from manholes and gushes down streams and rivers somewhere
in the USA almost every day, the EPA estimates." ... "Gannett News Service
analyzed enforcement and compliance records compiled by the EPA and state
regulators from January 2003 to February 2008." ... "The analysis found
that at least one-third of the nation's large, publicly owned sewage treatment
systems were the subject of formal enforcement actions by the EPA or state
regulators for sewage spills or other violations. Those enforcement actions
included fines as well as orders to fix problems or expand treatment capacity.
Fines totaling $35 million were assessed against 494 of the nation's 4,200
municipal facilities that treat at least 1 million gallons of sewage daily,
the analysis shows." ... "An EPA 2004 report to Congress estimated that
850 billion gallons of storm water mixed with raw sewage pour into U.S.
waters every year from older, combined sewer systems that were designed
to overflow in wet weather. These combined systems, built by cities in
the 19th and early 20th centuries, are now considered antiquated and a
threat to public health and the environment, according to the EPA and environmental
groups." ... "The EPA's 2002 Clean Water and Drinking Water Infrastructure
Gap Analysis reported the nation's municipal sewer authorities' capital
needs to meet clean water requirements from 2000 to 2019 ranged from $331
billion to $450 billion. Based on that data, the National Association of
Clean Water Agencies now puts that range at $350 billion to $500 billion
for the next 20 years, association spokeswoman Susan Bruninga said." -By
Larry Wheeler and Grant Smith with contributions by Robert Benincasa and
Dan Klepal -USATODAY
20080502
-
 Stephen
Johnson - Corporate
- Government
- Politics
- Fetal
- Human
- Health
- Science
- Environmental
- Safety
- Enforcement
- Emergency
- Wildlife
- Soil
- Water
- Law
- Manufacturing
- History
- Michigan
- Illinois
- "EPA's
top Midwest regulator forced out: Mary Gade, based
in Chicago [Illinois], says [Republican President] Bush administration
made her quit over Dow Chemical case." ... "The Bush administration forced
its top environmental regulator in the Midwest to quit Thursday after months
of internal bickering about dioxin contamination downstream from Dow Chemical's
world headquarters in Michigan." ... "In an interview with the [Chicago]
Tribune, Mary Gade said two top officials at the U.S. [United States] Environmental
Protection Agency headquarters in Washington stripped her of her powers
as regional administrator and told her to quit or be fired by June 1."
... "Gade said she had told the agency she would resign her position, based
in Chicago [Illinois]." ... "For the past year, Gade has been locked in
a heated dispute with Dow about long-delayed plans to clean up dioxin-saturated
soil and sediment that extends 50 miles beyond its Midland, Mich. [Michigan],
plant into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron." ... "Gade, a former corporate attorney
appointed by Bush in September 2006, invoked emergency powers last year
to force Dow to clean up four hot spots of dioxin, including the largest
amount of the cancer-causing chemical ever recorded in the United States."
... "In January, Dow urged officials at the EPA's [Environmental Protection
Agency's] headquarters to intervene after Gade broke off negotiations intended
to renew the terms for a more comprehensive cleanup. Neither side would
reveal details, citing confidentiality agreements, but Gade said Dow resisted
taking steps needed to protect human health and wildlife." ... "Though
regional EPA administrators typically have wide latitude to enforce environmental
laws, Gade drew fire from officials in Washington last month after she
sent contractors to test soil in a Saginaw [Michigan] neighborhood where
Dow had found high dioxin levels." ... "She said top lieutenants to Stephen
Johnson, the national EPA administrator, repeatedly questioned her aggressive
action against Dow, which long ago acknowledged it is responsible for the
dioxin contamination but has resisted federal and state involvement in
cleanup plans." ... "Dow dumped dioxin-contaminated waste into the waterways
for most of the last century. The chemical, which is so toxic that it is
measured in trillionths of a gram, was a manufacturing byproduct of the
Vietnam-era herbicide Agent Orange and other chlorinated herbicides." ...
"Company documents show Dow knew by the mid-1960s that it could make people
sick or even kill them." ... "Citing years of independent studies, the
EPA says dioxin can cause cancer, disrupt the immune system and alter fetal
development." ... ""We have a responsibility to make sure people are living
in a healthy and safe environment," Gade said. "This problem has been out
there for more than 30 years, and it's unconscionable that action hasn't
been taken."" (1, 2)
-By Michael Hawthorne
-ChicagoTribune
20080430
-
 Hillary
Clinton - Indiana
-  Workers
- 2008
Election - US
- China
- Military
- Technology
- Manufacturing
- Corporation
- "Clinton
blasts Bush for not stopping a project Bill OK'd."
... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Hillary Clinton
loves to tell the story about how the Chinese government bought a good
American company in Indiana, laid off all its workers and moved its critical
defense technology work to China." ... "It’s a story with a dramatic, political
ending. Republican President George W. Bush could have stopped it, but
he didn’t." ... "If she were president, Clinton says, she’d fight to protect
those jobs. It’s just the kind of talk that’s helping her win support from
working-class Democrats worried about their jobs and paychecks, not to
mention their country’s security." ... "What Clinton never includes in
the oft-repeated tale is the role that prominent Democrats played in selling
the company and its technology to the Chinese. She never mentions that
big-time Democratic contributor George Soros [who also contributed to Republican
John McCain's 2000 Presidential Candidacy] helped put together the deal
to sell the company or that the sale was approved by her husband's [former
Democratic President Bill Clinton's] administration." ... "In response,
the Clinton campaign said that Bill Clinton's administration had gotten
assurances at the time it approved the deal that production would remain
inside the United States, and that the shift of jobs to China didn't occur
until under the Bush administration." ... "In 2001, it [the Chinese manufacturing
company] closed its original plant in Anderson, Ind[Indiana]." ... "And
in 2003, it decided to close the Valparaiso [Indiana] plant, laying off
its 225 workers." ... "Indiana politicians asked the Bush administration
to intervene." ... "The [Republican President Bush] administration didn't
block the move." -By
Steven
Thomma -McClatchyDC.com
-
Agriculture
- Factory
- Companies
- Poor
- People
- Nutrition
- Health
- US
-
- World
-  Biofuel
- Air
- Soil
- Water
- Environment
- Animals
- Plants
- Science
- "Shortages
Threaten Farmers’ Key Tool: Fertilizer." ... "Some
kinds of fertilizer have nearly tripled in price in the last year, keeping
farmers from buying all they need. That is one of many factors contributing
to a rise in food prices that, according to the United Nations’ World Food
Program, threatens to push tens of millions of poor people into malnutrition."
... "Rising demand for food and biofuels prompted farmers everywhere to
plant more crops." ... "Fertilizer companies are confident the shortage
will be solved eventually, noting that they plan to build scores of new
factories. But that will probably create fresh problems in the long run
as the world grows more dependent on fossil fuels to produce chemical fertilizers."
... "The demand for fertilizer has been driven by a confluence of events,
including population growth, shrinking world grain stocks and the appetite
for corn and palm oil to make biofuel. But experts say the biggest factor
has been the growing demand for food, especially meat, in the developing
world." ... "Fertilizer is plant food, a combination of nutrients added
to soil to help plants grow. The three most important are nitrogen, phosphorus
and potassium. The latter two have long been available. But nitrogen in
a form that plants can absorb is scarce, and the lack of it led to low
crop yields for centuries." ... "That limitation ended in the early 20th
century with the invention of a procedure, now primarily fueled by natural
gas, that draws chemically inert nitrogen from the air and converts it
into a usable form." ... "Environmental groups fear increased use, particularly
of nitrogen fertilizer made using fossil fuels. Because plants do not absorb
all the nitrogen, much of it leaches into streams and groundwater. That
runoff has long been recognized as a major pollution problem, and it is
growing." ... "A barometer of the pollution is the rising number of dead
zones where rivers meet the sea. In the Gulf of Mexico, for instance, nitrogen
runoff from fields in the Corn Belt washes downstream and feeds plant life
in the gulf. The algae blooms suck oxygen from the water, killing other
marine life." (1, 2)
-By Keith
Bradsher and Andrew
Martin -NYTimes
20080423
-
 Mary
Peters - Covert
- Language
- Law
- Politics
- Greenhouse
Gases - Clean
Air Act - Environmental
- Transportation
- Auto
- Makers
- Fuel
- Economy
- San
Francisco - California
-  Massachusetts
-  US
- Global
- Climate
- "Bush
fuel economy rules swipe at California." ... "When
the [Republican President] Bush administration announced proposed regulations
Tuesday to raise fuel economy standards for cars and trucks to 31.6 miles
per gallon by 2015, even some environmentalists applauded. But then they
read the fine print." ... "Tucked deep into a 417-page "Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking" was language by the Transportation Department stating that
more stringent limits on tailpipe emissions embraced by California and
17 other states are "an obstacle to the accomplishment" of the new federal
standards and are "expressly and impliedly preempted" by federal law."
... "California Attorney General Jerry Brown called it a covert assault
on California's rules. Environmentalists said the language will be used
by automakers in their legal challenges to two recent federal court rulings
that sided with the states." ... "The language showed that beneath the
bipartisan veneer of support for new fuel economy standards - approved
by [the Democratic controlled] Congress and signed by [Republican] President
Bush in December - the conflict is still raging between the White House
and the states over who will set the nation's first limits on greenhouse
gases." ... "Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who announced the proposed
rules Tuesday, acknowledged that the preemption language was included in
the document." ... "The Supreme Court ruled in the Massachusetts vs. EPA
case last year that the Transportation Department's authority to set fuel
economy standards should not impede other efforts under the Clean Air Act
to reduce greenhouse gases." ... "[California Democratic Representative
and] House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D[Democratic]-San Francisco [California],
responded: "The administration is continuing to block climate change progress
by asserting that California doesn't have the right to move forward with
its own global warming regulations. That is completely unjustified."" -By
Zachary Coile -SFGate.com
20080422
-
John
McCain - Corporate
- Politics
- Ohio
- Factory
- History
- People
- Poverty
- 2008
Election - "McCain
picks failing Ohio factory to laud free trade." ...
"Standing before a nearly shuttered factory pocked with broken windows
in a city devastated by the erosion of its industrial base, John McCain
on Tuesday urged Americans to reject the "siren song of protectionism"
and embrace free trade." ... "The hardships are all too real in Youngstown
[Ohio]. The city has lost more than 40,000 jobs since its signature steel
industry collapsed in the 1970s and '80s. Its population is less than half
its peak of 170,000 in the 1950s. About 25 percent of those who remain
live below the poverty line." ... ""It may be a photo op for John McCain
but people in Youngstown and cities across America are really hurting from
the Bush economy and are looking for real help," Democratic National Committee
Chairman Howard Dean said. "McCain's only plan is to continue Bush's failed
economic policies but the American people are saying enough is enough.""
-By Matt
Stearns -McClatchyDC.com
20080421
-
Corporate
- Hackers
- Manufacture
- Electronics
- Technology
- California
- Texas
- US
- Global
-
 TV
-  Telecom
-  Media
-  Copyright
- Enforcement
-  German
- Canada
-  UK
-  Israeli
-  Intelligence
- Spying
- "Rupert
Murdoch Firm Goes on Trial for Alleged Tech Sabotage."
... "Did a Rupert Murdoch company go too far and hire hackers to sabotage
rivals and gain the top spot in the global pay-TV war?" ... "This is the
question a jury will be facing in a spectacular five-year-old civil lawsuit
that is finally being tried this month in California but which has, oddly,
received little notice from U.S. [United States] media." ... "The case
involves a colorful cast of characters that includes former intelligence
agents, Canadian TV pirates, Bulgarian and German hackers, stolen e-mails
and the mysterious suicide of a Berlin [Germany's capital] hacker who had
been courted by the Murdoch company not long before his death." ... "On
the hot spot is NDS Group, a UK-Israeli firm that makes smartcards for
pay-TV systems like DirecTV. The company is a majority-owned subsidiary
of Murdoch's News Corporation. The charges stem from 1997 when NDS is accused
of cracking the encryption of rival NagraStar, which makes access cards
and systems for EchoStar's Dish Network and other pay-TV services. Further,
it’s alleged NDS then hired hackers to manufacture and distribute counterfeit
NagraStar cards to pirates to steal Dish Network's programming for free."
... "NagraStar and one of its parent companies, EchoStar, are seeking about
$101 million for damages for piracy, copyright infringement, misconduct
and unfair competition. The list of witnesses in the case includes EchoStar's
founder and CEO Charlie Ergen; several hackers and pirates; and Reuven
Hazak, an Israeli who heads security for NDS and is a former deputy head
of Shabak, or Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency (the equivalent
of Britain's MI5)." ... "According to court documents, the scheme began
to unravel in 2000 when law-enforcement agents in Texas seized suspicious
packages containing CD and DVD players stuffed with more than $40,000 in
cash. Parcels similar to this were being sent almost daily from Canada,
via Texas, to a hacker in California named Christopher Tarnovsky, who was
working for NDS as an engineer. The money was allegedly part of the conspiracy
between Tarnovsky and NDS Group to sabotage NagraStar's cards." -By
Kim Zetter -Wired
20080420
-
 Don
Young -  Abramoff
-  Bob
Schaffer - Money
- Politics
- Mariana
Islands
- Chinese
-  Garment
- Factory
- Industry
- Labor
-  Women
- Abortion
- Human
Rights - Investigations
- Government
- Immigration
- Law- History
- US
-  Colorado
-  Alaska
- "Records
expose Young-Abramoff ties: MARIANA ISLANDS." ...
"[Alaska Republican Represenative] Rep. Don Young has said he never allowed
convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to be an influential force over him in
Congress." ... "But now a trove of old billing records from two of Abramoff's
firms show that his team of lobbyists had more than 120 contacts with Young's
personal and committee staffs over 25 months, including at least 10 with
Young himself." ... "The available records cover a single Abramoff client,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. [United States]
territory in the Pacific that Young oversaw when he chaired the House Resources
Committee from 1995 to 2001." ... "The records show that one of the looming
concerns of Abramoff and his fellow lobbyists at the time was a bill introduced
by Young's fellow Alaskan, [Republican Senator] Sen. Frank Murkowski, to
reform labor and immigration practices feeding the island's notorious Chinese-owned
sweatshops. In 2000, Murkowski's bill passed the Senate unanimously, but
Young stopped it cold in his committee, refusing to hold even a hearing."
... "Investigations by the government, media and human rights groups uncovered
widespread abuses in the garment industry and among sex workers there starting
in the mid-1990s, but Young asserted those investigations were bogus."
... "As a member of Young's Resources Committee, [Colorado Republican Representative
and 2008 Election Colorado Senator Candidate Bob] Schaffer took a free
trip to the Mariana Islands arranged by Abramoff's law firm, then played
a central role in a 1989 committee hearing investigating Interior department
officials in the [Democratic President Bill] Clinton administration who
were trying to rein in the Saipan government [Saipan is the Commonwealth
of the Northern Mariana Islands' capital]." ... "A growing number of reports
spoke of near slave-labor conditions, with workers kept in sealed compounds,
required to work seven days a week without overtime, and sometimes getting
no paycheck at all. There were widespread reports of women coerced into
getting abortions to keep their jobs. Some women hired abroad found themselves
working not in garment factories at all, but sex clubs." -By
Richard Mauer -ADN.com
20080416
-
Global
- Climate
- Coal
- Plant
- Greenhouse
Gas - Science
- Politics
- "Bush
Announces Greenhouse Gas Strategy -- Surprise! It's Bad."
... "[Republican] President Bush delivered a speech today in which he outlined
a new strategy to "effectively combat climate change." Unfortunately, on
my initial read of excerpts
from his speech, it seems deeply, deeply flawed." ... "Bush is finally
publicly admitting that emissions should be curbed because they affect
the climate. That's fine, but his proposed response doesn't logically follow
from that statement of fact. If you think the greenhouse gas emissions
are a problem, then you should craft a solution that reduces them. But
Bush, instead, is suggesting that no mandatory caps be put in place, that
no specific targets be fixed in the near term, and that no moratorium be
called on coal plant production." ... "Essentially, he just says, let's
wait ten years and then do something." -By Alexis
Madrigal -Wired
20080412
-
Secret
- Jack
Abramoff - Bob
Schaffer - Money
- Politician
- Travel
- Garment
- Factories
- Lawmaker
- History
- Colo
- California
- American
-
 Northern
Mariana Islands
- Labor
- Investigations
- "Schaffer,
lobbyist strategies meshed: The Coloradan's acts
align with an Abramoff plot; he denies any link." ... "In early 1998, now-jailed
[Republican] lobbyist Jack Abramoff sent a secret memo to a textile tycoon
on the Northern Mariana Islands, an American protectorate whose garment
factories had been heavily criticized for squalid working conditions and
abusive labor practices." ... "The lobbying plan focused on using congressional
oversight hearings to change the subject from factory conditions to political
shenanigans by the [Democratic President] Clinton administration. Abramoff's
lobbying team would prepare questions and "factual backup" for friendly
lawmakers. Trips to the island for congressmen and staff would be a key
tool to "build permanent friends," the memo said." ... "The linchpin would
be an attack on the Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs (OIA),
which was the lead agency pushing for reform." ... "Twenty months later,
Republicans on the House Resources Committee, including [Colorado Republican
Representative] Rep. Bob Schaffer, R-Colo., turned what was supposed to
be an oversight hearing into an attack on OIA officials, suggesting that
federal employees were paying workers to protest and providing them signs,
cars and other resources." ... "Schaffer was one of the key players in
the hearing, grilling a young worker who had been called before the committee
to talk about the desperate conditions faced by some laborers, suggesting
instead that he was agitating in exchange for money and came to Washington
to seek political asylum." ... "The hearing provides a key context for
a trip to the islands that Schaffer had taken a month before, partly arranged
by Abramoff's lobbying firm and now an issue in Schaffer's campaign for
the U.S. [United States] Senate." ... "By the time Schaffer had flown to
the islands with his wife the month before, the protectorate's textile
industry had been the subject of dozens of government and journalistic
investigations, which documented abuses including debt servitude, coerced
abortions and squalid living conditions." ... "Preston-Gates, Abramoff's
firm, made the travel arrangements for Schaffer's August 1999 trip, according
to a memo to Schaffer from his staff. The $13,000 trip was paid for by
the Orange County[California]-based Traditional Values Coalition, which
later investigations showed was often used by Abramoff in his lobbying
operations." -By Michael Riley
-DenverPost.com
20080410
-
Jack
Abramoff - Bob
Schaffer - Criminal
- Money
- Politician
- Vacation
- Colorado
- US
- Mariana
Islands
- Textile
- Factory
- Immigration
- Human
Rights - Law
- 2008
Election - "Abramoff
ties cloud [Bob] Schaffer's '99 fact-finding trip."
... "Just before boarding a plane to the [Northern] Mariana Islands in
1999, [Colorado Republican Representative] then-Congressman Bob Schaffer
announced he was embarking on a fact-finding mission to get to the bottom
of repeated allegations of labor abuse in the American protectorate." ...
"What he didn't say was that the trip was partly arranged by the firm of
now-jailed [Republican] lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who represented textile
factory owners fighting congressional efforts to reform labor and immigration
laws on the islands and who was being handsomely paid to keep the islands'
cherished exemptions." ... "Schaffer and his wife stayed for free at a
palm-studded beach resort and, besides factories, also toured historical
sites and met with clients of Preston-Gates, Abramoff's firm, according
to a copy of the trip's agenda archived in Schaffer's congressional papers."
... "In a recent interview with The Denver Post, the Republican candidate
for Colorado's open Senate seat described the protectorate's guest-worker
program as a "model" lawmakers could use as they overhaul the U.S. [United
States] immigration system." ... "It has left Schaffer defending a guest-worker
program criticized in more than a decade of government reports and journalistic
exposés; and it links him to what Abramoff later boasted was an
incredibly successful lobbying effort to quash reform by cashing in on
ties to key House Republicans, including those on the House Resources Committee,
on which Schaffer sat." ... ""Given that many Republican members, including
Tom DeLay, Bob Ney and Conrad Burns, have lost their seat or gone to prison
based on their association with this criminal, it's pretty remarkable that
Schaffer seems to be proud of his association with these sleazy Abramoff-sponsored
junkets," said Taylor West, a spokeswoman for Schaffer's [2008 Election]
Democratic opponent, Mark Udall." ... "At heart of the issue is the islands'
massive textile industry, which is exempted from the U.S. minimum wage
as well as most American immigration laws. The Northern Marianas economy
is built on thousands of workers from China, the Philippines and Bangladesh,
some of whom pay labor recruiters as much as $7,000 to land a job on U.S.
soil." ... "A class-action lawsuit filed the year Schaffer toured the islands
alleged that many of those workers lived in slum conditions, housed seven
to a room in barracks surrounded by barbed wire designed to keep the workers
in. Workers in some factories labored 12 hours a day, seven days a week,
the suit alleged — without pay if they fell behind set quotas." ... "A
U.S. Interior Department investigation found that pregnant workers were
forced to get illegal abortions or lose their jobs. Some were recruited
for factories but forced into the sex trade instead." ... "Said Matthew
Miller, spokesman for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee: "The fact
that (Schaffer) sided against the human rights of those workers, not just
then, but still today, shows he was more interested in doing the bidding
of the people who set up the trip than in actually investigating abuses.""
-By Michael Riley -DenverPost.com
20080409
-
Bob
Schaffer - Jack
Abramoff - Criminal
- Money
- Politician
- Abortion
- Child
- Labor
- Female
- Textile
- Factory
- Immigration
- Human
Rights - Law
- History
- US
-
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