Who else is suffering from too many scandals, not enough time to keep up with it all? I've been mixing up my Safavians and my Brownies, my Fluors and my Ashbritts.
I've started putting together a news digest with the hopes of keeping things straight. It's available below the fold...
FEMA, Hurricanes & Civil Defense
The Washington Post reports (on A21, of course) that a private contractor, Michael Baker Corp, that staffs FEMA's Map Assistance Center filled it with "college students, many from Florida State University, studying fields such as fashion merchandising and music education. Their previous jobs included work as lifeguards, and as cashiers for Winn Dixie stores and at McDonald's, Tropical Smoothie and Mr. Taco," according to a "confidential assessment" drafted last February. The Map Assistance Center is charged with answering questions that property owners and residents may have about flood risks -- including whether they're eligible and in need of flood insurance. Even were a professional staff in place, the maps the agency uses "are riddled with obsolete information."
The Post also reports (this time all the way up on A15) on FEMA's neglect of its "reserve" employees -- people who go through emergency response training and pledge to go wherever disaster strikes. The database wasn't updated, credit cards weren't sent out, and bureaucracy took over. Rather than the trained reservists, Bush's FEMA prefers -- you guessed it -- private contractors.
The New York Times takes a look at the first disclosures on the post-Katrina contracting orgy. The litany of no-bid contracts to politically connected firms has a new entry, Ashbritt, which "paid about $40,000 in the first half of 2005 to Barbour Griffith & Rogers, the Washington lobbying firm co-founded by Governor Barbour of Mississippi, who is also a former chairman of the Republican National Committee." Ashbritt is getting a premium rate on debris removal, with a contract value of $568 million.
The NYT stakes out a strong editorial position on the Katrina Inquiry, or lack thereof. Noting that administration cronyism must be examined as a factor in the tragedy, the paper argues "there is no way to whitewash a hurricane; a government dominated by one party should be disqualified from investigating itself."
The Wall Street Journal's Theo Francis and Michael Schroeder report that insurance industry executives will have a conference call next week to discuss political strategy on a federal bailout on hurricane charges. Allstate will host. "The current push fits in with the industry's history of seeking to avoid big risks in favor of smaller, more profitable ones, like house fires, said Robert Hunter, insurance director for the Consumer Federation of America and a former Texas insurance commissioner. "When risk got high, the industry said, 'We're not going to do it,'" he said."
Reuters reports that Louisiana Governor Blanco has asked for $32 billion to rebuild Louisiana. That includes $11.5 billion for transportation infrastructure and $20.2 billion for levees and flood protection for New Orleans and the surrounding areas. The Washington Post has more details on the larger request put together by Louisiana Senators Landrieu and Vitter. Sadly, their request is laden with pork.
ABC News begins to look at the threat bankrupcy presents to hurricane victims. I'd alert Elizabeth Warren, but she's quoted in the article.
The "Hatrick"
Michael Froomkin notes that the GOP has achieved a political hatrick -- its White House, Senate Leader, and House Leader are all embroiled in serious criminal investigations.
The Frist insider trading scandal is the most recent addition. David Kirkpatrick picks up the story in the NYT by looking at "blind trust" phenomenon, which is looking increasingly like a political gimmick, rather than real protection against conflicts of interest. USA Today catches people up on the details of the scandal.
The Delay/Ney/Abramoff scandal investigation is also in full swing, with details on the David Safavian arrest still coming to light. Michael Isikoff at Newsweek reports on both emails that heavily implicate Ney in the Scotland junket and the collapse of Ney's dishonest explanation for the trip.
Business News
As part of an SEC investigation into "finite risk" reinsurance, "federal investigators are seeking to determine if Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. improperly burnished its financial statements with nontraditional insurance pacts, including contracts with affiliated, offshore reinsurers," according to the Wall Street Journal's Ian McDonald and Theo Francis. The reinsurance investigation is "concerned that some finite-risk pacts are disguised loans, booked with favorable insurance accounting."
Damage to oil refineries was minimal, according to acting FEMA director David Paulison. Hopefully they'll be back in production very soon," said Texas Governor Rick Perry. President Bush will be briefed on the oil industry this morning, according to AP.
Boeing has reached a tentative agreement with its machinists, which should allow a work resumption. Details are available on the local's site; a vote is scheduled for Sept. 29.
Political News
Washington Post: Oklahoma Republican Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. will not run for Congress in 2006, choosing to challenge Democratic Gov. Brad Henry. Americans United to Protect Social Security intends to capitalize on its victory over Social Security privatizers by broadening its mission to other progressive causes.
The Unite to Win labor faction begins its founding convention tomorrow. Kris Maher reports on some of the organizational details in the Wall Street Journal: "The group will be governed by a 10-member council, including presidents from the seven participating unions, according to union leaders. That compares with the executive council of the AFL-CIO, which has 47 members. Leaders also will announce that 75% of the new federation's budget will be spent on organizing, which is dramatically more than the roughly 30% the AFL-CIO devotes to such initiatives."
Newt Gingrich resurfaces in the WSJ editorial pages, arguing with Chief Privateer/Abramoff stooge Peter Ferrara that federal agencies don't score the budget properly, to the detriment of the conservative ideological agenda. It includes the stirring call to action: "President Bush should start reform by ordering the OMB and Treasury to utilize whatever dynamic scoring methods are available to maximize accuracy."
AP: The Roberts nomination is headed to the Senate floor. "A floor vote is planned for no later than Thursday." 12 Democrats have announced their intention to vote for Roberts, most recently Colorado's Ken Salazar.
Republicans hold out hope for picking up the Michigan governor's seat and Debbie Stabenow's Senate seat in 2006, according to Nina Easton in the Boston Globe. "'Michigan is one of the opportunities -- and there's not a lot of them when overall the numbers don't look good,' said Matthew Dowd, Bush's pollster in 2004."
Jury selection began last week in the corruption trial of former Illinois Governor, Democrat George Ryan. Ryan, charged with accepting at least $167,000 worth of bribes, "also is accused of mail fraud, tax fraud, filing false tax returns, and making false statements to agents investigating corruption in his administration.".
Science News
Climate Change
Reuters: "Spring snowmelt in Alaska's Arctic is occurring progressively earlier, accelerating the region's climate change and helping produce its warmest summers in at least 400 years, according to a new study." The study, funded by the National Science Foundation and published at Science Express, concludes that "spring snowmelt had been occurring about 2 1/2 days earlier per decade."
Evolution
Washington Post: Chimp DNA confirms evolution. Again. Say Rick Weiss and David Brown: "Evolution's repeated power to predict the unexpected goes a long way toward explaining why so many scientists and others are practically apoplectic over the recent decision by a Pennsylvania school board to treat evolution as an unproven hypothesis, on par with "alternative" explanations such as Intelligent Design (ID), the proposition that life as we know it could not have arisen without the helping hand of some mysterious intelligent force."
The Dover School district begins its defense of Intelligent Design in court today.
Sadly, my home town is building the creation science museum, vegetarian T-Rex's in the Garden of Eden and all.
You can always come visit me at Slingshot.org.
- Dave Meyer