Homeland audit says Katrina contracts were mismanaged – The Boston Globe WASHINGTON — FEMA exposed taxpayers to significant waste, and possibly violated federal law, by awarding $3.6 billion worth of Hurricane Katrina contracts to companies with poor credit histories and bad paperwork, investigators say. Great. Just great. We know this went on, of course, but farther down in the article, FEMA admits it has no action plan for the coming hurricane season. So if there's another big hit, it will be more screwed-up contracting on an unprecedented scale. [tags]Katrina, Fema[/tags]
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Rove, celebs have heated debate | Chicago Tribune Here's this week's hot topic on the liberal/conservative punditblogs: Sheryl Crow picks a fight with Karl Rove. She tells him "You work for me." He tells her "No, I work for the American people." Um, dude, you told her to her face that you don't think she's an American. This is the root problem that the neoconservatives have foisted on the rest of our country – they think they're more American than the rest of us.
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Police: Gunman in JSC shooting feared losing his job | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle At the time, it looked like the "man with a gun at NASA" story would end peacefully, so I made a bad joke and turned to other stories in the news. It didn't. It's not so funny now, I readily admit. I'm don't know if the NASA gunman snapped because of all the news this week about the shootings at Virginia Tech, but if he was that close to the edge, the incessant coverage couldn't have helped his mental state. Yes, there've been a lot of…
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NASA evacuates Houston building – Space News – MSNBC.com A building at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston was evacuated Friday amid reports that an armed person was barricaded there, the space agency said. Other employees at the center were told to remain in lockdown as authorities surrounded the scene. Does somebody need some Huggies?
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Teen charged in suburban school bomb rumor | Chicago Tribune A 16-year-old Schaumburg High School student was cited as a juvenile with disorderly conduct today after he allegedly made statements he wanted to plant a bomb at the school on the 8th anniversary of the Columbine massacre. It's the time of year for spring flings, senior sluff day, and copycat bomb/campus shooter reports. Which is a pretty sick joke, y'all, but it doesn't stop kids from pulling it.
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Gunmans Writings Were Disturbing | World Latest | Guardian Unlimited Lots of people knew Cho. Lots of people thought he was a little weird. Some people called him "the question mark guy" because on the first day of an English lit class, he put a question mark next to his name on an introductory signup sheet for class members. He could not put a name to himself. There were opportunities to reach him that were missed, but who could have known? Cho's aspect was impenetrable; if you called out a greeting to him, he would not reply or respond. Dorm…
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Pastor must answer important questions Question: What is thy duty toward thy neighbor? Answer: My duty toward my Neighbor is . . . to do to all men as I would they should do unto me: . . . To be true and just in all my dealings: . . . To keep my hands from picking and stealing, and my tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering: . . . Not to desire other men’s goods; But to learn and labor truly to get my own living. — The Book of Common Prayer 1928. We are 19 former vestry…
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I read just now on her blog that Holly Mullen will now be an editor at the City Weekly, a Salt Lake alternative newspaper. She had been a well-regarded columnist at the Salt Lake Trib, but left in a disagreement over the direction the paper was taking. She is happy about this development. Very happy! And before the news was even official, a former collegue called and got the scoop. And somehow, the Trib has even discovered Holly's unofficial new duty: she is now apparently in charge of editing names. The City Weekly's blog noticed this fact in an early…
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FDA: Chemical Found in Pet Food Recall | Chicago Tribune The Food and Drug Administration said it found melamine in samples of the Menu Foods pet food, as well as in wheat gluten used as an ingredient in the wet-style products. The FDA was working to rule out the possibility that the contaminated wheat gluten could have made it into any human food, but was not aware of any risk to people. It wasn't immediately clear whether the melamine was the culprit in the deaths of more than a dozen cats and dogs and the illnesses of hundreds more, said…
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Tsvangirai appeals for international support | International News | News | Telegraph Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said:"Yes, they brutalised my flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free. "Democratic change in Zimbabwe is within sight. Far from killing my spirit, the scars they brutally inflicted on me have re-energised me. "Of course we need the support of the world, and please do support us in achieving democratic change in Zimbabwe." Mr Tsvangirai described how a peaceable meeting organised by local churches was broken up by police…