A driving message coming from the 10,000+ activists assembled at the U.S. Social Forum is that our country needs a new kind of politics.

Not politics in the traditional sense. Most of the grassroots activists, non-profit leaders, progressive journalists, socially-engaged scholars and others here in Atlanta aren't the kind that would go to, say, the Take Back America confab of progressive electoral leaders that happened in D.C. earlier this month.

The Social Forum goes beyond "politics as usual." The issues being discussed -- from profit-driven health care to U.S. imperial wars -- are those routinely ignored by Big Media. The voices given a platform -- people of color, poor and working-class activists -- are those typically locked out of the debate. The strategies are more aimed at challenging the imbalances of wealth and power in our society than how to impact the 2008 elections.

As a result, it's no accident that the make-up of conference attendees is so different from most progressive events (and more closely resembles the realities of our country): my quick and unscientific estimate is that about half the participants are people of color, and judging from last night's excellent plenary on immigrant rights, a sizable number are new immigrants -- just like the U.S.

My friend John Nichols, who's covering the Forum for The Nation and also covers establishment politics in Washington, gives his take of the political spirit here:

Instead of imagining what might be, contemporary politicians spend most of their time talking, at best, about treating existing wounds to the body politic and, at worst, about "threats" that no longer exist. In the former category, place all the Democratic and Republican politicians who promise a "new direction" with regard to the Iraq quagmire but never get around to rejecting the neo-conservative -- or more precisely, neo-colonial -- policies that got us into the mess in the first place. In the latter category, place all the partisans who suggest that the problem with our health-care system is too much government involvement -- which is a little like claiming that the problem with a headache is too much aspirin.

At a certain point, you just want to say: "Get over it! At a point when only one in five Americans think the country is headed in the right direction, isn't it time we changed course?"

That's the message of the thousands of Americans who have gathered in Atlanta in recent days for the U.S. Social Forum.

I think it would be interesting if the people who came to the U.S. Social Forum were put in the same room -- or mega-convention center -- with people more closely involved in progressive electoral politics. In 1972, Julian Bond -- the civil rights veteran (and co-founder of the Institute for Southern Studies) -- argued in his book "A Time to Speak, A Time to Act" that it was imperative for 1960s activists to "transform our movement into an electoral instrument," to translate the era's grassroots base-building into political power.

The disconnect between the amazing display of activist energy here in Atlanta, and the decisions being made in Washington, make clear that this is also an issue today.

But it's also clear that our political establishment needs shaking up -- and that, as always, there's a need for powerful movements outside conventional politics that tackle the hard questions, and force new issues and ideas into the national consciousness (and in the process, help us realize that ideas now dismissed as the fringe -- like universal health care -- are actually mainstream).

As Nichols at The Nation says:

There is no question of the need for such a movement. Our electoral processes are a shambles, as evidenced by the dubious results of the last two presidential elections. Our campaign finance system is a crime. Our media aids and abets all that afflicts the nation. And working families find it harder and harder to make their voices heard on the job, in the school or in the community. The crisis is clear. What's exciting about the U.S. Social Forum is that the solutions -- fundamental structural and policy changes in foreign and domestic policies, rather than tinkers around the edges -- are coming into focus.

Labels: u.s. social forum

For the over 10,000 people across the country who have come to the U.S. Social Forum now underway in Atlanta -- the largest U.S. gathering of social change activists in decades -- the event is a chance to build community, share ideas, to feel like they are part of a larger movement.

But the Forum's impact is felt beyond this country's borders. At a time when the U.S.'s image in the world is eroding, the Social Forum is being closely watched by activists abroad who are looking for signs that America's drive to war and empire are being challenged from within.

Dennis Brutus, a South African poet who was imprisoned along with Nelson Mandela in the anti-apartheid struggle, came to the Forum precisely for that reason, as he related in an interview with Democracy Now!:

[F]or many people outside in other countries, they'll talk of the United States as the “belly of the beast.” It's where the oppressive process begins. But that's only half the story, because there are so many people in the United States, activists, people in the churches, trade unions, community organizations. There is a different thrust. That thrust is for social justice, of course, in the United States, but also social justice in the other countries, which are part of this global process of repression: the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. We're challenging that.

If the Social Forum succeeds, it will be not only in building a stronger social change movement in the United States -- but in giving hope for change to the world.

Labels: u.s. social forum

Refuse to talk about or look seriously at race. Condemn anyone who dares to challenge the racism of what is going on – accuse them of "playing the race card" or say they are paranoid.

By Bill Quigley
Guest Blogger

Step One. Delay. If there is one word that sums up the way to destroy an African-American city after a disaster, that word is DELAY. If you are in doubt about any of the following steps – just remember to delay and you will probably be doing the right thing.

Step Two. When a disaster is coming, do not arrange a public evacuation. Rely only on individual resources. People with cars and money for hotels will leave. The elderly, the disabled and the poor will not be able to leave. Most of those without cars – 25% of households of New Orleans, overwhelmingly African-Americans – will not be able to leave. Most of the working poor, overwhelmingly African-American, will not be able to leave. Many will then permanently accuse the victims who were left behind of creating their own human disaster because of their own poor planning. It is critical to start by having people blame the victims for their own problems.

Step Three. When the disaster hits make certain the national response is overseen by someone who has no experience at all handling anything on a large scale, particularly disasters. In fact, you can even inject some humor into the response – have the disaster coordinator be someone whose last job was the head of a dancing horse association.

Step Four. Make sure that the President and national leaders remain aloof and only slightly concerned. This sends an important message to the rest of the country.

Step Five. Make certain the local, state, and national governments do not respond in a coordinated effective way. This will create more chaos on the ground.

Step Six. Do not bring in food or water or communications right away. This will make everyone left behind more frantic and create incredible scenes for the media.

Step Seven. Make certain that the media focus of the disaster is not on the heroic community work of thousands of women, men and young people helping the elderly, the sick and the trapped survive, but mainly on acts of people looting. Also spread and repeat the rumors that people trapped on rooftops are shooting guns not to attract attention and get help, but AT the helicopters. This will reinforce the message that "those people" left behind are different from the rest of us and are beyond help.

Step Eight. Refuse help from other countries. If we accept help, it looks like we cannot or choose not to handle this problem ourselves. This cannot be the message. The message we want to put out over and over is that we have plenty of resources and there is plenty of help. Then if people are not receiving help, it is their own fault. This should be done quietly.

Step Nine. Once the evacuation of those left behind actually starts, make sure people do not know where they are going or have any way to know where the rest of their family has gone. In fact, make sure that African-Americans end up much farther away from home than others.

Step Ten. Make sure that when government assistance finally has to be given out, it is given out in a totally arbitrary way. People will have lost their homes, jobs, churches, doctors, schools, neighbors and friends. Give them a little bit of money, but not too much. Make people dependent. Then cut off the money. Then give it to some and not others. Refuse to assist more than one person in every household. This will create conflicts where more than one generation lived together. Make it impossible for people to get consistent answers to their questions. Long lines and busy phones will discourage people from looking for help.

Step Eleven. Insist the President suspend federal laws requiring living wages and affirmative action for contractors working on the disaster. While local workers are still displaced, import white workers from outside the city for the high-paying jobs like crane operators and bulldozers. Import Latino workers from outside the city for the low-paying dangerous jobs. Make sure to have elected officials, black and white, blame job problems on the lowest wage immigrant workers. This will create divisions between black and brown workers that can be exploited by those at the top. Because many of the brown workers do not have legal papers, those at the top will not have to worry about paying decent wages, providing health insurance, following safety laws, unemployment compensation, workers compensation, or union organizing. They become essentially disposable workers – use them, then lose them.

Step Twelve. Whatever you do, keep people away from their city for as long as possible. This is the key to long-term success in destroying the African-American city. Do not permit people to come home. Keep people guessing about what is going to happen and when it is going to happen. Set numerous deadlines and then break them. This will discourage people and make it increasingly difficult for people to return.

Step Thirteen. When you finally have to reopen the city, make sure to reopen the African-American sections last. This will aggravate racial tensions in the city and create conflicts between those who are able to make it home and those who are not.

Step Fourteen. When the big money is given out, make sure it is all directed to homeowners and not to renters. This is particularly helpful in a town like New Orleans that was majority African-American and majority renter. Then, after you have excluded renters, mess the program for the homeowners up so that they must wait for years to get money to fix their homes.

Step Fifteen. Close down all the public schools for months. This will prevent families in the public school system, overwhelmingly African-Americans, from coming home.

Step Sixteen. Fire all the public school teachers, teacher aides, cafeteria workers and bus drivers and de-certify the teachers union – the largest in the state. This will primarily hurt middle class African Americans and make them look for jobs elsewhere.

Step Seventeen. Even better, take this opportunity to flip the public school system into a charter system and push foundations and the government to give extra money to the new charter schools. Give the schools with the best test scores away first. Then give the least flooded schools away next. Turn 70% of schools into charters so that the kids with good test scores or solid parental involvement will go to the charters. That way the kids with average scores, or learning disabilities, or single parent families who are still displaced are kept segregated away from the "good" kids. You will have to set up a few schools for those other kids, but make sure those schools do not get any extra money, do not have libraries, nor doors on the toilets, nor enough teachers. In fact, because of this, you better make certain there are more security guards than teachers.

Step Eighteen. Let the market do what it does best. When rent goes up 70%, say there is nothing we can do about it. This will have two great results. It will keep many former residents away from the city and it will make landlords happy. If wages go up, immediately import more outside workers and wages will settle down.

Step Nineteen. Make sure all the predominately white suburbs surrounding the African-American city make it very difficult for the people displaced from the city to return to the metro area. Have one suburb refuse to allow any new subsidized housing at all. Have the Sheriff of another threaten to stop and investigate anyone wearing dreadlocks. Throw in a little humor and have one nearly all-white suburb pass a law which makes it illegal for homeowners to rent to people other than their blood relatives! The courts may strike these down, but it will take time and the message will be clear – do not think about returning to the suburbs.

Step Twenty. Reduce public transportation by more than 80%. The people without cars will understand the message.

Step Twenty One. Keep affordable housing to a minimum. Use money instead to reopen the Superdome and create tourism campaigns. Refuse to boldly create massive homeownership opportunities for former renters. Delay re-opening apartment complexes in African American neighborhoods. As long as less than half the renters can return to affordable housing, they will not return.

Step Twenty Two. Keep all public housing closed. Since it is 100% African-American, this is a no-brainer. Make sure to have African-Americans be the people who deliver the message. This step will also help by putting more pressure on the rental market as 5000 more families will then have to compete for rental housing with low-income workers. This will provide another opportunity for hundreds of millions of government funds to be funneled to corporations when these buildings are torn down and developers can build up other less-secure buildings in their place. Make sure to tell the 5000 families evicted from public housing that you are not letting them back for their own good. Tell them you are trying to save them from living in a segregated neighborhood. This will also send a good signal – if the government can refuse to allow people back, private concerns are free to do the same or worse.

Step Twenty Three. Shut down as much public health as possible. Sick and elderly people and moms with little kids need access to public healthcare. Keep the public hospital, which hosted about 350,000 visits a year before the disaster, closed. Keep the neighborhood clinics closed. Put all the pressure on the private healthcare facilities and provoke economic and racial tensions there between the insured and uninsured.

Step Twenty Four. Close as many public mental healthcare providers as possible. The trauma of the disaster will seriously increase stress on everyone. Left untreated, medical experts tell us this will dramatically increase domestic violence, self-medication and drug and alcohol abuse, and of course crime.

Step Twenty Five. Keep the city environment unfriendly to women. Women were already widely discriminated against before the storm. Make sure that you do not reopen day care centers. This, combined with the lack of healthcare, lack of affordable housing, and lack of transportation, will keep moms with kids away. If you can keep women with kids away, the city will destroy itself.

Step Twenty Six. Create and maintain an environment where black on black crime will flourish. As long as you can keep parents out of town, keep the schools hostile to kids without parents, keep public healthcare closed, make only low-paying jobs available, not fund social workers or prosecutors or public defenders or police, and keep chaos the norm, young black men will certainly kill other young black men. To increase the visibility of the crime problem, bring in the National Guard in fatigues to patrol the streets in their camouflage hummers.

Step Twenty Seven. Strip the local elected predominately African American government of its powers. Make certain the money that is coming in to fix up the region is not under their control. Privatize as much as you can as quickly as you can – housing, healthcare, and education for starters. When in doubt, privatize. Create an appointed commission of people who have no experience in government to make all the decisions. In fact, it is better to create several such commissions, that way no one will really be sure who is in charge and there will be much more delay and conflict. Treat the local people like they are stupid, you know what is best for them much better than they do.

Step Twenty Eight. Create lots of planning processes but give them no authority. Overlap them where possible. Give people conflicting signals whether their neighborhood will be allowed to rebuild or be turned into green space. This will create confusion, conflict and aggravation. People will blame the officials closest to them – the local African-American officials, even though they do not have any authority to do anything about these plans since they do not control the rebuilding money.

Step Twenty Nine. Hold an election but make it very difficult for displaced voters to participate. In fact, do not allow any voting in any place outside the state even we do it for other countries and even though hundreds of thousands of people are still displaced. This is very important because when people are not able to vote, those who have been able to return can say "Well, they didn't even vote, so I guess they are not interested in returning."

Step Thirty. Get the elected officials out of the way and make room for corporations to make a profit. There are billions to be made in this process for well-connected national and international corporations. There is so much chaos that no one will be able to figure out exactly where the money went for a long time. There is no real attempt to make sure that local businesses, especially African-American businesses, get contracts – at best they get modest subcontracts from the corporations which got the big money. Make sure the authorities prosecute a couple of little people who ripped off $2000 – that will temporarily satisfy people who know they are being ripped off and divert attention from the big money rip-offs. This will also provide another opportunity to blame the victims – as critics can say "Well, we gave them lots of money, they must have wasted it, how much more can they expect from us?"

Step Thirty One. Keep people's attention diverted from the African-American city. Pour money into Iraq instead of the Gulf Coast. Corporations have figured out how to make big bucks whether we are winning or losing the war. It is easier to convince the country to support war – support for cities is much, much tougher. When the war goes badly, you can change the focus of the message to supporting the troops. Everyone loves the troops. No one can say we all love African-Americans. Focus on terrorists – that always seems to work.

Step Thirty Two. Refuse to talk about or look seriously at race. Condemn anyone who dares to challenge the racism of what is going on – accuse them of "playing the race card" or say they are paranoid. Criticize people who challenge the exclusion of African-Americans as people who "just want to go back to the bad old days." Repeat the message that you want something better for everyone. Use African American spokespersons where possible.

Step Thirty-Three. Repeat these steps.

Note to readers. Every fact in this list actually happened and continues to happen in New Orleans after Katrina.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach Bill at Quigley@loyno.edu.

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina, louisiana, new orleans, race and racism

The U.S. Social Forum -- this country's version of the World Social Forums of that have been gathering since 2001 -- kicked off yesterday here in Atlanta, bringing together over 10,000 activists, community leaders, scholars on others on the left from all 50 states and beyond. Facing South will be braving the Atlanta and heat covering the Social Forum into Saturday.

The forum launched with a march in downtown Atlanta aimed at issues from the Iraq war to universal health care (see here for an unflattering news clip; and here for news about a smaller demonstration aimed at public housing).

Today, a wide range of workshops are showcasing the range and depth of social movement activism happening in the country, work that often flies below the mainstream media radar. But some questions are also being raised in the intense hallway discussions of the Atlanta Civic Center: how do the pieces of activism come together to impact the broader political and media debate? And while community-building events like the Social Forum is vital for any movement(s), how do they help the left break out of its isolation and help it avoid just talking to itself?

Labels: u.s. social forum

A recent article in the Mississippi Sun Herald highlights a growing crisis among state employee pension funds, particularly in Mississippi where the state's pension fund is $6 billion short.

The article quotes the Wall Street journal as saying "State and local governments are amassing huge obligations in the form of unfunded retirement benefits from their workers," calling states' unfunded retiree and health benefits "a $2 trillion fiscal hole."

The most recent annual study of state pension funding by Wilshire Associates, an investment consulting and management company, found the following:

• The ratio of pension assets-to-liabilities, or funding ratio, for all 125 state pension plans was 88% in 2006, up from an estimated 87% in 2005.

• Of the 64 state retirement systems which reported actuarial data for 2006, 80% have market value of assets less than pension liabilities, or are underfunded. The average underfunded plan has a ratio of assets-to-liabilities equal to 79%.

• Of the 108 state retirement systems which reported actuarial data for 2005, 84% are underfunded. The average underfunded plan has a ratio of assets-to-liabilities equal to 82%.

In slogging through the most recent annual reports for state retirement systems around the South, we found that North Carolina and Florida are the only two states reporting fully funded pension plans. We also found that Mississippi's retirement system is not the only one struggling. Louisiana's is in worse shape, and Kentucky's is dead last.

Here are the states, ranked by pension funding ratio:

North Carolina	107%
Florida	107%
Tennessee	97%
Georgia	92%
West Virginia	87%
Alabama	84%
Arkansas	83%
Virginia	81%
South Carolina	72%
Mississippi	72%
Louisiana	64%
Kentucky	60%

Kentucky's annual report sums up the laundry list of challenges facing retirement system pension fund managers:

In recent years, funding levels for the pension funds have fallen dramatically in response to investment returns less than the actuarially assumed rate, higher than anticipated retirement rates, the 2006 assumption changes, and increasing expenditures for retiree Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA). Within the [State Employee and State Police Retirement] plans, employer contribution rate reductions enacted by the State Legislature have limited the plans ability to correct the declining funding levels.

To make up the shortfall, states are resorting to a variety of measures, such as increasing taxes, issuing bonds, and requiring employee payroll contributions to their pension plans.

One solution being discussed is to move away from defined benefit programs to defined contribution programs such as 401(K)s. Already the generally accepted standard in the corporate world, defined contribution plans shift the financial risks and management responsibility from the state and its taxpayers to individual employees. Some states are offering defined contribution plans in addition to the state's existing defined benefit plan, others offer a choice, still others are phasing in defined contribution plans for new hires.

The AFL-CIO is also monitoring the situation, and has this state-by-state "pension threat level" map. The map shows a "red alert" for Kentucky, and "yellow alerts" for South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Labels: economic justice, labor

Located in North Carolina's Nantahala National Forest, the Tellico Off-Road Vehicle Area is one of the most heavily used ORV zones on public lands in the Southeast, with twice as many designated ORV trails as allowed by the U.S. Forest Service in addition to many illegal trails. Some of those trails lie with 100 feet of streams, which violates Forest Service rules. Many of those streams also flow into the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee.

Heavy use has turned some of the area's trails into ditches as deep as 7 feet, and when it rains they send muddy water into nearby creeks and streams in violation of state and federal water laws. The runoff is destroying one of the last strongholds for brook trout, a native species in decline.

Sportsmen and conservation groups have repeatedly asked the Forest Service to take steps to halt the damaging ORV traffic, to little avail. So now Trout Unlimited's North Carolina and Tennessee councils, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project have announced their intent to sue the agency to take action.

"The Forest Service has come up short in taking decisive action to fix this problem," says attorney DJ Gerken of the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents the groups. "We are letting them know that the law is unambiguous -- water quality and mountain trout come first."

The groups are calling on the Forest Service to permanently close the most environmentally damaging trails and to temporarily close the entire system during the wettest months. To read the groups' letter announcing their intent to sue and for other details on the case, click here.

(Photo by Barry Sulkin courtesy of SELC's Web site.)

Labels: environment, north carolina, regulatory oversight, Tennessee

Thomas Ravenel -- suspended from his post as South Carolina Treasurer and fired from his job as state chair of the Giuliani presidential campaign after being indicted last week on federal cocaine charges -- has borrowed a page from the playbook of numerous celebrities facing legal trouble by announcing plans to enter an addiction treatment facility.

But apparently illicit drugs were not the only vice that led the millionaire real estate developer to break the law. According to Marlaina Abbott-Ross, a South Carolinian who writes a blog called Cultural Revolutionary, Ravenel's 2004 Senate campaign also broke federal election laws. Abbott-Ross reports:

I worked for him the first part of 2003. I was being paid by Ravenel Development Company. However, I was actually working on his US Senate campaign. He had not declared his candidacy at the time I went to work for him. But, within several months he did. Yes, I now realize that according to FEC guidelines that he should not have been paying us (there were 3 of us working full-time on the campaign) out of his business funds. He should have had campaign accounts set-up before hiring people. But, I didn't know that at the time.

Do they have some sort of treatment facility for that sort of problem?

Labels: election law, politics, South Carolina

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) held a hearing yesterday on the adequacy of labor law enforcement in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Among those testifying was Jennifer Rosenbaum with the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which helped bring several successful lawsuits against employers who stole wages from workers in the wake of the storm.

Not surprisingly, Rosenbaum concluded that enforcement was not adequate:

In my view, the [Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division] failed to provide a reasonable level of resources to the region, given the enormous scale of the disaster. Because of this failure, the DOL-WHD, through its New Orleans and Gulf Coast offices, had a limited ability to intervene and address the well-reported, epic wage theft that accompanied the reconstruction. The DOL-WHD thus allowed chains of subcontracted corporations to profit on the backs of the underpaid workers, particularly vulnerable migrant workers. In addition, the DOL-WHD failed to competently record and investigate many of the complaints that it did receive. In the resulting lawlessness, DOL-WHD utterly failed to protect migrant workers from minimum wage and overtime violations and from retaliation.

Other workers' advocates who testified at the hearing were Saket Soni and Jacob Horowitz with the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, Tracie Washington of the Louisiana Justice Institute, Catherine Ruckelshaus with the National Employment Law Project and Ted Smukler of Interfaith Worker Justice.

IWJ recently released a report titled "Working on Faith: A Faithful Response to Worker Abuse in New Orleans." Based on interviews with 218 workers -- domestic and migrant -- in New Orleans last summer, the report reveals that:

* 47 percent reported not receiving all the pay they were entitled to while working in the region since Katrina;

* 55 percent said they received no overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week;

* 58 percent said they were exposed at work to dangerous substances including mold, contaminated water and asbestos; and

* workers were unaware that the U.S. Department of Labor was an agency charged with protecting their rights.

Labels: economic justice, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, immigration, labor, new orleans, regulatory oversight

Faced with an explosion of home foreclosures this spring -- jumping 90% in May alone -- the course of action prescribed by Wall Street and Washington has been simple: do nothing. Allow the magic of the "market" to do its thing, they say; lenders will pull back, borrowers will stop borrowing, and everything will turn out fine.

But as is so often the case, the "invisible hand" of the market appears to not be getting the right signals -- or those hands are too busy grabbing the short-term profits that come from continuing to dole out loans that gouge consumers.

As the Center for Responsible Lending reports today, despite the foreclosure crisis, banks are continuing to churn out bad loans:

As home foreclosures continue to rise and homeowners struggle to pay abusive subprime mortgages, subprime lenders and some policymakers keep assuring us that the market will correct itself—in other words, that skyrocketing foreclosures and poor loan performance will be enough to make subprime lenders stop marketing and approving risky loans.

We wish. The truth is, subprime brokers and lenders continue to advertise and approve loans with abusive terms that are known to significantly increase the chances of foreclosure.

This week, the Center for Responsible Lending examined subprime loans included in recent mortgage-backed securities (subprime loans that are bundled together and sold as investments on Wall Street). We found these securities—consisting overwhelmingly of mortgages made in 2007—contained a high share of subprime loans with terms that have been key drivers in the current epidemic of foreclosures.

On average, 77% of the loans included in these subprime securities came with adjustable-interest rates, and nearly all of these -- 94% -- were dangerous "exploding" mortgages with large scheduled interest rate increases. The securities also included a high share of subprime loans with prepayment penalties and loans that were made without fully verifying the borrower's income.

You can read the full Congressional testimony of Mike Calhoun, the center's president, speaking on a Senate bill to rein in predatory and abusive lending in the subprime market, supported by groups like ACORN.

Labels: Work and Community

Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear have proposed adding two new reactors to the existing two at the Alvin Vogtle nuclear power plant on the Savannah River near Waynesboro, Ga. But environmental health advocates warn that the plan could worsen existing radiation pollution from the facility -- as well as possibly related public health problems.

A new report written by Joseph Mangano of the nonprofit Radiation and Public Health Project and released by the North Carolina-based Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League has documented a significant rise in radioactivity levels in drinking water, river water and sediment at or downstream from the Vogtle plant. From 1987-1990, when the plant began operating, to 1991-2003, during full operation, beta radiation rose by 37.1 percent in raw drinking water and 17.8 percent in treated drinking water. In sediment, radioactive beryllium-7 increased by 39.5 percent and cesium-137 by 37.4 percent. And in river water, levels of tritium -- a radioactive isotope of hydrogen -- increased by 44.6 percent.

During that same period, the national cancer death rate for children and adolescents declined by 14.1 percent. But in Georgia's Burke County, where the plant is located, the death rate for all cancers rose sharply -- especially for young people. For Burke residents ages 0 to 24 years, the cancer death rate rose by 55.5 percent, while for residents ages 25 to 54 it rose by 55.1 percent. The report states:

The findings suggest that some factor(s) introduced since the late 1980s has raised cancer risk in the area, particularly in Burke County. Because radioactive chemicals are known to cause cancer, the startup of Vogtle 1 and 2 should be considered as one contributing factor.

Lou Zeller, BREDL's clean air campaign coordinator, received a rebuttal from Georgia Power that accuses Mangano of resorting to a "scare tactic" even while acknowledging company officials "have not had an opportunity to review the ... study in detail." It continues:

Both Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear Operating Company are confident that Plant Vogtle is operated safely and does not pose a health risk to the people living in the vicinity of the plant. The NRC's licensing requirements ensure that two additional units would also not pose a risk to public health and safety.

So how then do they account for the rise in radiation pollution and cancer deaths in the area since the plant began operating? The company's rebuttal offers no alternative explanation.

Labels: energy policy, environment, Georgia, public health

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has come under fire for falsely assuring New York City residents that the air was safe to breathe after the destruction of the three World Trade Center buildings on 9/11. In fact the demolition of those structures released to the environment numerous toxic chemicals including benzene, PCBs, dioxin and lead, and as a consequence many nearby residents, first responders and recovery workers are suffering health problems related to their exposure.

It turns out that the EPA also made false assurances to victims of another disaster: Gulf Coast residents after Hurricane Katrina.

That's the finding of a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress. For example, the GAO found that while EPA told Gulf Coast residents that their health was protected from the risks associated with asbestos inhalation, it failed to deploy air monitors in and around New Orleans neighborhoods -- including predominantly African-American communities -- where demolition and renovation activities have been concentrated:

While EPA took steps to monitor asbestos after the hurricane -- for example, more than doubling the number of ambient (outdoor) monitors and monitoring emissions at debris reduction sites -- monitors were not placed in areas undergoing substantial demolition and renovation, such as the Ninth Ward. This is problematic because monitors effectively detect releases of asbestos from demolition activities only if they are located immediately adjacent to demolition sites. Further, many thousands of homes being demolished and renovated by or for individual homeowners are generally not subject to EPA's asbestos emissions standards aimed at limiting releases of fibers into the air.

The GAO also criticized information the EPA offered on post-Katrina environmental health risks, noting that it was at times unclear and inconsistent on how to protect against exposure to some contaminants, particularly asbestos and mold. Furthermore, three key reports on EPA's environmental sampling in New Orleans were marred by a lack of timeliness and insufficient disclosures:

For example, EPA did not state until August 2006 that its December 2005 report -- which said that the great majority of the data showed that adverse health effects would not be expected from exposure to sediments from previously flooded areas -- applied to short-term visits, such as to view damage to homes. In addition, the summaries do not disclose an important EPA assumption -- that the results of sediment samples from streets and other outdoor public access areas can be extrapolated to private properties, such as yards and the inside of homes. This is important because, for example, environmental contamination levels inside buildings can be significantly higher than and different from the contamination outside, potentially causing more adverse health effects.

And that's not all: The EPA also failed to promptly remove clearly visible chemical drums from several national wildlife refuges in Louisiana, leading to a costlier and more complicated cleanup, which is not yet completed. The agency also lacked an effective role in emergency debris disposal decisions that could lead to pollution, the report found. Finally, the lack of clarity in federal debris management plans impeded the safe disposal of some appliances and electronic waste.

The GAO has called on the EPA to implement an asbestos monitoring plan in New Orleans, improve its future communications to the public on disaster-related environmental risks, and take action to minimize those risks. It also recommended that EPA work with the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Coast Guard and federal land management agencies to address environmental contamination of federal lands in future disasters.

(Photo of EPA contractors entering a polluted building after Hurricane Katrina by Wim Henderson for FEMA)

Labels: environment, environmental justice, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina, new orleans, regulatory oversight

The Washington Post's four-part profile of Dick Cheney offers a fascinating glimpse into the most powerful vice presidency in U.S. history. The reporting by Barton Gellman and Jo Becker sheds light on many heretofore unreported aspects of Cheney's two terms in office -- including an intriguing account of the role he played in brokering a compromise over the seizure of files from the office of Rep. William Jefferson, the Louisiana Democrat now under indictment for charges related to allegedly illegal schemes involving African business interests.

As it turns out, Cheney sided with fellow Republican House leaders who objected on constitutional grounds to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's search of Jefferson's congressional office. With top Bush administration officials threatening to resign if made to hand over evidence collected under warrant, Cheney came up with a compromise that still had the effect of keeping the files out of the hands of federal investigators, the Post reports:

When the FBI seized files from the office of Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) as part of a bribery investigation, House Republican leaders erupted. With a number of their own members under investigation for other matters, they charged that the search violated the Constitution. They demanded the return of the files.

Cheney quickly gravitated toward the House's position, aides said, but Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales; his top deputy, Paul J. McNulty; and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III threatened to resign if forced to hand over evidence they believed had been properly collected under a warrant.

White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten called a meeting on May 25, 2006, to resolve the political and legal crisis. The president's lawyers and congressional liaison were in the room, and so was Cheney. Once again, it was the vice president who came up with a solution, according to a participant. Cheney's plan met his goal of keeping the files from federal investigators. The files would be placed under seal for 45 days. Within hours of the meeting, Bush made Cheney's recommendation official. As often happens in government, delay was decisive. Jefferson was indicted earlier this month on 16 counts of bribery, racketeering, fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. But nearly half of the files remain off-limits, tied up in legal disputes.

Labels: louisiana, politics

• There's good news from the North Carolina Legislature regarding a proposed renewable energy bill. The bill would require utilities to get 12.5% of their power from renewable sources and efficiency measures by 2021. The bill was passed today by the Senate Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, is the committee chair.

The bill gained support of utilities such as Duke Power owing to a compromise that allows utilities to charge customers for generating facilities before they come online. The next stop is the Senate Finance Committee, then on to the full Senate and the House. If it passes, North Carolina would be the first Southeastern state to require use of renewable resources.

• In other good news from Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a $62 million energy bill last week that included funding for a variety of alternative energy measures. Why is this good news? Gov. Crist vetoed the bill because it didn't go far enough in creating a comprehensive energy policy for the State of Florida.

In vetoing the bill, Gov. Crist said it would "result in further delays to advance an energy policy that addresses conservation, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas emission reductions. We can do better. We must do better." Funding for the alternative energy programs had already been approved in the budget so it will remain intact.

• In other news, renewable energy provisions in the CLEAN Energy Act passed by the U.S. Senate last week met with opposition from somewhat surprising quarters. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), usually a an outspoken advocate for conservation and environmental issues, opposed measures that would require utilities to generate 15% of their power from renewable sources. The renewable energy mandates were dropped from the bill before it passed. Sen. Alexander was pleased with this outcome, saying the provisions would have "raised our taxes, run away jobs and ruined our mountaintops."

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said earlier that Sen. Alexander's remarks were misleading, and questioned which was worse -- ruined mountaintops as a result of mountaintop removal coal mining or windmills. They also noted that the clean energy technologies would bring thousands of good jobs to the State of Tennessee.

Labels: energy policy, environment

After passing the U.S. House in March, today the Employee Free Choice Act -- which guest blogger Tula Connell covered at Facing South last week) faltered in the Senate, with supporters failing to end a Republican-led filibuster:

Democrats were unable to get the 60 votes needed to force consideration of the Employee Free Choice Act, ending organized labor's chance to win its top legislative priority from Congress.

The final vote was 51-48.

The outcome was not a surprise, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying for months that he would stop the legislation in the Senate. The White House also made it clear that if the bill passed Congress it would be vetoed.

Most notable fact: the vote was nearly party-line, which meant that even Southern Democrats like Sens. Landrieu (LA), Lincoln and Pryor (AR) -- sometimes skittish about lining up with labor, given anti-union hostility in the region -- voted for it.

Read more at the AFL-CIO blog.

Labels: labor, Work and Community

Tim Griffin -- a former aide to top Bush adviser Karl Rove and a key player in the U.S. attorney politicization scandal -- has long been haunted by charges that he was part of an illegal scheme to keep black Florida residents from voting in the 2004 elections. Appointed last year by President Bush to serve as a U.S. attorney in Arkansas, Griffin resigned earlier this month amid growing controversy over his role in possible voter suppression efforts.

Now a fresh analysis of voter data by the excellent TPMmuckraker blog suggests that the allegations against Griffin may be true.

The analysis started with a spreadsheet of names and addresses of more than 1,800 voters in Duval County, Fla. sent in an August 2004 e-mail obtained by BBC reporter Greg Palast. Griffin -- then the Republican National Committee's head of opposition research -- was copied on the e-mail, the subject line of which was "caging." That's a direct-marketing term for processing returns from a mailing. The technique has been used by Republicans in the past to generate a list of potentially ineligible voters by sending mail to them stamped "do not forward"; any returned mail is then used at the polls to challenge their residence.

To ascertain whether the "caging" list was made up mostly of African Americans, TPMmuckraker compared the names with the 2007 voter rolls from Duval County. As it turns out, most of those on the list were Democrats -- and most of those Democrats were African-American. Under the Voting Rights Act, it's against the law to target voters on the basis of race.

Michael McDonald, a George Mason University professor and elections statistics expert, says there's a very low chance that those results could come from a random sample of voters. But he also tells TPMmuckraker that there are other possible explanations for the findings:

If, for example, the list was generated in response to a mailing to new registrants as Republicans have argued, the skew might result from a disproportionate number of those new registrants being African-American Democrats. The results, he said, do not provide "a smoking gun" of a Republican attempt at voter suppression.

However, that's not how Griffin has defended himself from the charges, the blog points out:

Speaking two weeks ago, Griffin focused on the term 'caging,' saying that it's simply a direct mail term. "I didn't cage votes, I didn't cage mail, I didn't cage animals," he added. The allegations that he was involved in voter suppression, he said, were "ridiculous" and "so untrue" that he couldn't even respond to a question about them ... ."

But as TPMmuckraker asks:

If the "caging" list was really nothing more than a catalogue of returned mail, why were senior Republican officials concerning themselves with such clerical matters?

The revelation comes amid growing concern over other possible GOP voter suppression tactics elsewhere in the South. That includes an effort we've reported on extensively by the North Carolina Auditor, Republican Les Merritt, and his spokesperson, Chris Mears, to challenge legislation designed to boost voter participation by raising baseless allegations of possible voter fraud. Mears previously served as the political director of the state GOP, where he was involved in his own voting scandal.

ADDENDUM: Here's another excellent analysis of what happened in Duval County posted over at Daily Kos. Though the author has found serious weaknesses with Greg Palast's reporting, he confirms that the 2004 caging was racially biased in its effect. He also makes the point that documents obtained as part of a caging case in Ohio "revealed indisputable RNC involvement in caging (Tim Griffin and others), as well as concern about 'GOP footprints' if the caging efforts were brought to light." And he points out that a high-level official in the Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign "suggested use of caging lists to challenge absentee ballots in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico."

(Tim Griffin photo from U.S. Department of Justice)

Labels: Florida, voting rights

Federal agencies responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita doled out more than $2.4 billion in contracts that guaranteed profits for big companies, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based investigative journalism nonprofit:

Unlike a fixed-price contract, which generally pays contractors a set amount -- thus pressuring them to keep costs down because they are responsible for any overruns -- cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts allow contractors to bill the government for all of their costs, plus an extra profit based upon a guaranteed amount.

Critics argue that cost-plus contracts often offer companies no incentive to save money or keep costs from ballooning. Industry officials counter that companies often have no idea what the costs will be in a disaster and that sometimes cost-plus is the most sensible choice for the government and taxpayers.

FEMA was responsible for nearly 94 percent of all of the hurricane-related cost-plus contracts, the Center's analysis found. Most of those contracts were for installing and arranging for emergency temporary trailers for evacuees. Those contracts were awarded to four large corporations: Bechtel National Inc., Fluor Enterprises Inc., Shaw Environmental & Infrastructure Inc. and CH2M Hill Inc.

Of the $3.3 billion awarded for those contracts, about $1.97 billion was cost-plus, according to the Center's analysis of figures from the Federal Procurement Data System. The agencies responsible for issuing the bulk of the remainder of the cost-plus contracts were the U.S. Air Force and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Center found that 27 percent of the $8.4 billion in Katrina and Rita contracts awarded by FEMA through Jan. 31, 2007 were cost-plus, as were almost 21 percent of the EPA's $212 million in contracts and 36 percent of the Air Force's $167 million in contracts.

In March, the House voted 347-73 to pass the Accountability in Contracting Act, which would limit the use of cost-plus and no-bid contracts and require that overcharges of more than $10 million be disclosed to Congress. The bill's sponsor is Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a longtime critic of such contracts.

The measure is currently awaiting action in the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, which is chaired by Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent Democrat from Connecticut.

Labels: contracting, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina, investigative reporting

It's summer -- peak season for military recruiters, with curious high school grads looking at their options. But the Associated Press reports that interest in military careers among African-American youth is taking a nose dive:

The number of blacks joining the military has plunged by more than one-third since the Afghanistan and Iraq wars began. [...]

According to data obtained by The Associated Press, the decline covers all four military services for active duty recruits. The drop is even more dramatic when National Guard and Reserve recruiting is included.

Why the big drop-off? The Pentagon believes the role of black leaders, parents and other "influencers" on black youth are a leading cause:

[T]he growing dissatisfaction with the war among black political and community leaders, as well as parents and teachers, is a major factor, too.

"The influencers of these youth have a larger effect on African-Americans," [DoD's Curt] Gilroy said. "Some have argued that, because of the makeup of African-American families and the relatively more significant roles (the families) play, moms have a greater influence on their families. And we know that moms, in general, do not support the war."

Labels: peace and security

Drip by drip, more evidence is emerging about the great North Carolina "voter fraud" scandal. To recap the story so far: on June 5, the N.C. State Auditor's office sent an 11th-hour email to the N.C. senate, warning that they had "sensitive information" about voting problems that should cause the legislature to think twice about passing same-day voter registration at early voting sites.

So far, the auditor's office has been less than forthcoming about two items:

(1) The role of Chris Mears, an auditor's office staffer who as late as spring 2006 was Political Director of the NC Republican Party, where he was involved in his own voting scandal; and,

(2) How much the auditor's cries of "voter fraud" were linked to the same-day registration bill (Note: Reader B writes to clarify an item from our previous post: the auditor's office has never denied that they sought to intervene on the election bill; they've just claimed they did not intend to influence the outcome , for what it's worth).

The Raleigh News & Observer's "Under the Dome" blog now has more information that both proves Mears' direct involvement, and confirms the auditor's intent was to "impact" the fate of election reform by raising the specter of "voter fraud." Ryan Teague Beckwith reports:

Auditor Les Merritt's spokesman played a key role in briefly halting a voting bill, according to e-mails received under a public records request.

At 10:12 a.m. on June 5, Chris Mears forwarded a Dome item on a bill to allow North Carolinians to register to vote the weekend before an election to Merritt, Chief Deputy Kris Bailey, Executive Assistant James Forte and legal counsel Tim Hoegemeyer.

"If we want to have an impact on voter registration legislation, we should get Sen. Berger information sooner rather than later," he wrote. "This is a significant opportunity to safeguard our democracy that I don't think we should pass-up."

Merritt agreed, saying that "time will pass us by." In a reply sent at 10:17, he wrote, "We may need to speak even if our audit is not complete."

At 2:34 p.m., Merritt e-mailed Sen. Dan Clodfelter to ask him to pull the bill. Senate leaders agreed, but they put the bill back up for a vote after a hearing with Merritt. It passed and is now back in the House.

Labels: north carolina, voting rights

We've all heard the worrisome reports recently about the disappearance of honey bees to a mysterious malady known as Colony Collapse Disorder. While that's obviously bad news for bees and those of us who depend on the crops they pollinate, it does offer a good opportunity to better educate ourselves about the important ecological role pollinators play.

To that end, this Sunday, June 24 marks the start of National Pollinator Week, sponsored by the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign and the Coevolution Institute. There will be events taking place all week long throughout the country, including several events taking place across the South, where colony losses have been widespread:

* This Sunday, June 24, the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia will host an event at the Long Branch Nature Center in Arlington that will include a presentation on the natural history of bee pollination and tips to attract pollinators, as well as a workshop on building houses for bees.

* On June 26 and 28, the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville, Ark. will be offering educational presentations on bats, bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

* Also on June 26, the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee, Fla. will host a day-long event featuring lectures, a living bee hive and a display of beekeeping tools.

* Monarchs Across Georgia is using the week to publicize its Pollinator Garden Certification for Peach State residents interested in making their backyard, schoolyard, workplace, or community a pollinator-friendly habitat.

And on Friday, June 29, the U.S. Postal Service will release its beautiful new Pollination stamp series (see above). Related to that, noted artist Stan Herd will create a one-acre crop art version of the stamp's dogface butterfly in a farm field in Kansas.

For more information on these and other events, click here.

Labels: agriculture, environment

This week, our coverage of the mythic NC "voter fraud" scandal, racists in Tennessee, the cause of workers' rights and other burning issues has brought a lot of traffic our way. Welcome to Facing South! Please, make yourself at home.

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Labels: institute for southern studies

Over at DailyKos, MeteorBlades -- one of my favorite bloggers -- offers an insightful account of the murders of civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were killed while registering voters in Mississippi, 43 years ago this week.

As someone involved in the movement's voting rights drives, MeteorBlades offers a level of insight and nuance in his telling of the story that one doesn't find in the sound-bite hagiographies that surround many movement martyrs. For example, he places the three men's deaths in the context of the movement's strategy and violence that ran throughout the region:

Like the bus strikes, and diner sit-ins and Freedom Rides that had begun 10 years before, the tactics of Freedom Summer had both a real and symbolic value. Our job was to register black voters in Mississippi. The presence of outsiders, especially white outsiders, was seen as a way to focus more attention from parts of the nation – and the media - where Jim Crow’s consequences were more likely to be viewed with distaste, disgust or rage.

Long before our arrival, a number of blacks had been murdered in Mississippi for trying to do exactly what we were preparing to do. Herbert Lee was one of them. A farmer who was nearly 50 years old when SNCC tried unsuccessfully to register him, Lee was shot on September 25, 1961, in Liberty, Mississippi, by E.H. Hurst, a local white politician. At trial, he claimed self-defense, and the all-white jury agreed. Lewis Allen, another African-American, said later it wasn't self-defense. He, too, was murdered.

Before him, and before SNCC, there was the Rev. George Lee, no relation, a minister, grocer and printer, who started a local chapter of the NAACP. He persuaded nearly 100 blacks to register and got the feds to intervene so he could vote after he was refused that right in Belzoni, Mississippi. On May 7, 1955, Lee was driving home when someone shotgunned him from a passing car. The Humphreys County sheriff said Lee was killed in a traffic accident, and claimed the lead pellets in his face and head were probably dental fillings. The coroner ruled Lee had died from "unknown causes." No one was ever arrested in the case.

He also helps us understand how -- both symbolically and literally -- the Mississippi murder case isn't "old news" -- they're part of the struggle for racial justice today:

Two years ago today, [Edgar Ray] Killen was convicted of planning and orchestrating the killings of the three men. Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon sentenced him to 60 years in prison, 20 years for each of his manslaughter convictions in the case. The jury said there was reasonable doubt as to whether this Klan "kleagle" intended for the Klansmen to kill the three.

Some say justice delayed is justice denied, and while there's often truth in that, it can also be an excuse for letting bygones be bygones. But our legal system, whatever its flaws, doesn't take that view, which is why there is no statute of limitations on murder.

To back that up, however, often requires extra effort. The Killen case wouldn't have returned to the courts had it not been for a journalist [Jerry Mitchell of the Clarion-Ledger] hammering away. Which is why it's shameful that H.R. 923, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, has been placed on hold by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn. But then what's a little justice to someone with his record on civil rights?

As someone said: "The past isn't forgotten ... it's not even passed."

Labels: civil rights, mississippi, race and racism

As the Washington "immigration debate" begins to look more and more like "political theater," it's refreshing to hear some new ideas. Here's one from officials in Texas, who live the immigration issue every day:

In response to the Department of Homeland Security's plans to construct hundreds of miles of fencing along the border with Mexico, the McAllen Chamber of Commerce started a campaign of their own: build a wall around Washington, D.C.

Steve Ahlenius, president and CEO of the chamber, inaugurated the tongue-in-cheek campaign through a news release Tuesday.

"It's frustrating to no end that Washington, which has no idea of what's happening here and along the border with Mexico, is proposing to build a wall," Ahlenius said by phone. "My response is: Why don't we just build around Washington, D.C.? It can protect us from some bad characters, some bad legislation and bad ideas."

So far, no one in Washington has responded to the proposal. But Ahlenius says that the chamber's 1,600 members support the idea.

UPDATE: Speaking of walls, Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) is insisting that he meant no harm in his suggestion earlier this week that immigrant families be contained by an electrified goat fence:

“If the answer is ‘build a fence’ I’ve got two goats on my place in Mississippi. There ain’t no fence big enough, high enough, strong enough, that you can keep those goats in that fence.”

“Now people are at least as smart as goats,” Lott continued. “Maybe not as agile. Build a fence. We should have a virtual fence. Now one of the ways I keep those goats in the fence is I electrified them. Once they got popped a couple of times they quit trying to jump it.”

“I’m not proposing an electrified goat fence,” Lott added quickly, “I’m just trying, there’s an analogy there.”

Asked for clarification as to what exactly the analogy was, Lott spokesman Lee Youngblood said…”A fence in and of itself is not enough… You can have technology to support the fence and to supplement the fence.”

Bizarre, but not original. As Think Progress points out, Lott likely stole the idea from his GOP colleague Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who last year displayed a prototype for an electric fence in the House chambers. "We do this with livestock all the time," King said.

Great minds think alike.

Labels: immigration

A former accounting executive with Halliburton Inc. says the company engaged in illegal accounting practices, ignored his warnings about them, and then retaliated against him when he took his concerns to federal authorities.

Anthony Menendez -- former director of accounting research and training for Halliburton -- made the allegations in a complaint filed with a U.S. Department of Labor administrative law judge in Covington, La. and recently made public in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Menendez claims Halliburton was booking product sales before they occurred, distorting its revenue numbers.

The company has denied the allegations.

Menendez also charges that Halliburton improperly accounted for income taxes, off-balance-sheet entities, and foreign-currency adjustments. He first made his allegations to the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2005, and three months later alerted the company's audit committee, reports Bloomberg News columnist Jonathan Weil:

In a Jan. 3 court filing, Halliburton said the SEC had closed its inquiry into the company's accounting practices.

Menendez told me, though, that he met with SEC investigators at the agency's Fort Worth, Texas, office as recently as March 28. He also shared a March 14 letter from an enforcement-division attorney there, which shows the travel itinerary the SEC arranged for him to attend that meeting. Mann, the Halliburton spokeswoman, declined to comment on whether the company has been notified of further SEC inquiries into Menendez's allegations.

A Houston-based company that recently announced it was moving its corporate headquarters to Dubai, Halliburton holds multimillion federal reconstruction contracts in Iraq as well as the post-Katrina U.S. Gulf Coast.

The company is already under investigation in the U.S. for bribery, bid rigging, defrauding the military and illegal business ties with Iran. It's currently divesting ownership in its KBR subsidiary, which among other things has come under fire for serving contaminated food and water to U.S.troops in Iraq. It was also criticized after one of its subcontractors hired illegal immigrants to perform Katrina-related work.

Before being elected vice president, Dick Cheney was Halliburton's CEO and chairman, a position he took after serving as defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush. Cheney remains a major stockholder in the company, holding 100,000 shares of unexercised stock options worth some $3 million.

Labels: contracting, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina