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(snip)....Under a three-year contract that went into place Feb. 1, state agencies are directed to buy all their office supplies from Atlanta-based Office Depot. In the past, agencies had been allowed to choose from several companies, including several North Carolina suppliers. "The small businesses are the ones who pay the most taxes back to the state," said Christopher Sharpe, vice president of Piedmont Office Suppliers in Greensboro. "It won't put us out of business, but it will definitely hurt the bottom line." He estimated the contract will cost six independent suppliers in the state more than 100 jobs and $24.5...

MADISON, WI (AP) -- Employees of at least seven companies donated to Gov. Jim Doyle's re-election campaign around the same time the state picked their firms for no-bid contracts totaling more than $36.1 million, according to an Associated Press review.They include two IBM salesmen who gave Doyle more than $11,000 over a three-year period as the business won more than a dozen contracts worth more than $6 million. Also, three Oracle Corp. employees gave Doyle $3,250 within days of the company winning a contract that could be worth up to $29 million to provide software and technical support to the...

Marines award contract for IED jammers WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- The Marine Corps has awarded a $289 million contract to General Dynamics for a system to foil roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices. Known by the acronym IED, such bombs have vexed U.S. troops in Iraq and have accounted for the lion's share of U.S. casualties. The contract awarded by the Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico calls for the design production and installation of General Dynamic's Remote Controlled Explosive Improvised Device (RCEID) Electronic Counter Measure systems, a technology that will basically jam the signals used to trigger...

Karen Durham-Aguilera takes a “hands-on” approach to inspecting a reconstruction site in Iraq last year. Last week she explained how she helped women-owned firms in Iraq win more than $250 million in reconstruction contracts. • Printer-friendly version • E-mail this article • Army helping Iraqi businesswomen win contractsBy Lt. Col. Stan Heath February 7, 2006 WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 7, 2006) -- About 250 reconstruction contracts worth more than $250 million have been awarded to women-owned businesses in Iraq over the past eight months. Opportunities for Iraqi businesswomen are increasing, with help of the U.S. Army Corps of...

After three years of losing money, Halliburton reported a hefty profit for 2005 and announced that all six of its divisions posted record results. "The year 2005 was the best in our 86-year history," Dave Lesar, Halliburton's chairman, said Thursday. The company posted a year-end profit of $2.4 billion, or $4.54 per share, on revenue of $21 billion. That compares with a $1 billion loss in 2004 when Halliburton finally settled scores of asbestos and silica lawsuits. For the fourth quarter, Halliburton booked a profit of $1.1 billion on revenue of $5.8 billion. Lesar attributed the fourth-quarter comeback primarily to...

IT'S enough to make the hippies and peaceniks of Byron Bay choke on their organic muesli. Byron Bay Shire Council has awarded a contract to a subsidiary of Halliburton, the multinational formerly headed by US Vice-President Dick Cheney and condemned by anti-war activists as a major profiteer in the Iraq war. The hip northern NSW beach town, long a haven for anti-war activists, made history in 2004 by becoming the first place in NSW to elect a Green mayor, Jan Barham. But Ms Barham, one of three Green councillors who voted in favour of awarding a contract for a sewage...

HOUSTON -- Civil rights groups representing Katrina refugees complained Monday that New Orleans residents and the black community are being left out of the city's rebuilding process, excluding them from jobs and building contracts. Malcolm Suber, a Katrina refugee from New Orleans now living in Houston and a member of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, said rebuilding committees have "no respect for the black population of New Orleans." "We are coming back home," Suber said. "This is our city and we are going to have a say so in its future." During a news conference outside a Federal Emergency Management...

We hear a lot about the government largesse flowing toward Halliburton, Bechtel and a handful of other favored firms chosen to rebuild Iraq. Less often do we consider the possibility that the administration's bellicosity has been a major business blunder.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The uncle and father of a Louisiana lawmaker have won three no-bid contracts worth $108 million to provide temporary housing for Hurricane Katrina evacuees even though their motorcycle shop didn't have a license to sell new trailers until after the first deal was signed. Recreational vehicle dealers in Louisiana are angry, saying they've been shut out of what they call a sweetheart deal. One is threatening to sue the motorcycle shop's owners for violating the dealer's franchise rights to sell RVs. No-bid contracts awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for temporary housing in trailers and...

New Orleans Levee Repairs: Contracts, but No Work By Angelle Bergeron Katrina’s surge swept barges into St. Bernard Parish floodwall (Photo by Andrew G. Wright for ENR) Critical levee repairs in New Orleans are on hold because parishes can't come up with money needed to match the federal contribution, local sources tell ENR. On October 12, the Corps of Engineers awarded the third contract under Task Force Guardian, whose mission is to restore the federal levee system to pre-Katrina level performance by June 1, 2006. But the contractor, Manson Gulf LLC of Houma, still hasn't received the notice to proceed...

Most of the signs are handwritten and simply worded, such as "Workers Wanted" or "Need 50 Laborers Now!" Word has gotten out and each morning day laborers — who come from Central America and Mexico by way of California, Texas and Arizona — gather on street corners in the Kenner and Metairie neighborhoods on the western edge of the city. Lured by jobs paying $15 to $17 an hour, the Spanish-speaking day laborers have flooded into New Orleans to haul out debris, clear downed trees, put in drywall and perform other tasks as rebuilding takes hold in the city. Specialized...

The Mississippi Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal aims for no less than an "economic renaissance for coastal Mississippi," said its chairman Jim Barksdale, a former president and CEO of Netscape. To help create a physical plan, state officials invited New Urbanist Andres Duany, FAIA, to lead a charrette last month in Biloxi, one of Hurricane Rita's hard-hit targets. Joining him were 100 members of the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), including transportation planners, environmentalists, code writers, sociologists, and representatives of such large AE firms as SOM, HOK, HDR, and UDA. General teams will deal with regional issues,...

Paul Mullinaux will deposit the $20,000 check he received from the federal government. But he just doesn't feel right about it. Not after hauling ice in a zigzag motion for two weeks, from New York to Missouri to Alabama to Massachusetts. Not after living for more than a week on the Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base flight line. And not after learning how much the federal government paid for what's been deemed Hurricane Katrina's frozen water fiasco. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded an emergency ice contract with IAP Worldwide Services of Cape Canaveral, Fla., paying more for truckers to...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government's tab for hurricane relief and rebuilding efforts is likely to cost less than $150 billion, Congress' top budget analyst said Thursday, an amount significantly less than original guesstimates tossed about in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin told the House Budget Committee that his agency now estimates damage to homes, government buildings, oil refineries and businesses will total between $70 billion and $130 billion. Of that, at least $40 billion is covered by private insurance, he said. Those figures don't include the immediate relief and rescue efforts, which...

The US Army has asked companies to bid for contracts to produce large quantities of anthrax and equipment to produce other unnamed biological agents, according to New Scientist, but has not said what it needs the facilities for. [snip] One contract specifies: "The company must have the ability and be willing to grow Bacillus anthracis Sterne strain at 1500-litre quantities." Others call for a 3,000-litre production capacity for unnamed biological agents and sheep carcasses to investigate incineration of infected animals. The non-virulent Sterne strain of the bacterium is the only one specified in any of the documents. It is not...

Pentagon Defends Its Growing Reliance On Foreign Contractors [International Herald Tribune, September 23, 2005, Pg. 15] The Pentagon's latest weapons-buying list has a distinctly foreign flavor. From the military's point of view, the U.S. no longer has a lock on research and technology and has no choice but to look abroad for various piece parts.

On Wednesday the official death toll from Katrina jumped to 474. More than 400 of those bodies are now being held for autopsy at two locations in the Baton Rouge area. All those bodies are now producing a brand new public relations nightmare for state officials. This time, it involves the hiring of the world's largest funeral corporation to handle the job of recovering the dead. But it's a company we've learned has a tainted history of legal troubles. According to the Department of Health and Hospitals, Kenyon International has been in charge of recovering and handling Hurricane Katrina's dead...

As the death toll across the Gulf Coast rises, one of the largest reconstruction efforts in American history begins. An estimated 400,000 jobs have been lost, and 1 million Americans have been displaced from their homes. Workers who have found the courage to return to their devastated communities suffered another blow last week when President Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act. Davis-Bacon ensures that workers who perform similar jobs for government contractors are paid the local prevailing wage. In New Orleans, where a quarter of the residents lived in poverty before Hurricane Katrina, that wage was $8.49 an hour for service...

Now that President Bush has made a massive commitment to the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast and the Greater New Orleans area, the usual suspects are moving in to try to secure the federal money. Last week in Dallas, a group of mostly white business leaders met with Mayor Ray Nagin about their vision of how to rebuild New Orleans. Upon his return, Nagin was greeted by complaints by African American politicians who did not appreciate the Mayor’s meeting. These politicians want to control the flow of federal funds to the city. So, which group should lead? Actually, neither group...

9/16/2005, 4:41 p.m. CT The Associated Press BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Less than a year after he took the post, state Democratic Party Chairman Jim Bernhard stepped down from the leadership job Friday, saying he needs to focus on his engineering and construction company — which is heavily involved in Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts. "The people of our state who have been so tremendously and adversely affected by this disaster require all the available help that exists, and I feel an obligation to contribute to those needs," Bernhard said in his resignation letter, released by the Louisiana Democratic Party....

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former FEMA director hired by Louisiana to help lead its Hurricane Katrina recovery effort has registered to lobby for an insurance company that wants Congress to create a natural disaster "catastrophe fund."

Kenyon's parent company is Service Corporation International, a scandal-ridden, Texas-based company accused in a number of lawsuits for illegally discarding and desecrating corpses.

BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco has accused the federal government of moving too slowly to recover the bodies of hurricane victims, saying her state would hire a private company to do the work. ADVERTISEMENT "No one, it seems, even those at the highest level, seems to be able to break through the bureaucracy to get this important mission done," Blanco said as she met with state officials.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A team of investigators is being sent to the Hurricane Katrina-ravished Gulf Coast to follow the money - namely, billions of dollars in relief aid the federal government is pouring into the region without normal contracting safeguards. The 30 Homeland Security Department investigators and auditors are part of what officials call an unprecedented effort to ensure federal funds are properly distributed in a rescue, relief and rebuilding process expected to exceed $100 billion.

A team of investigators is being sent to the Hurricane Katrina-ravished Gulf Coast to follow the money - namely, billions of dollars in relief aid the federal government is pouring into the region without normal contracting safeguards.

From the "Bias? What liberal bias?" files... On Saturday, CNN.com had a piece titled "Firms with White House ties get Katrina contracts:" Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast. One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other...

Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast. One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton...

BATON ROUGE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 2005--The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) announced today that it has been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to aid in the recovery and rebuilding efforts. Shaw will provide supervision, equipment, materials, labor, logistics, and all means necessary to provide the Corps of Engineers an immediate response for construction contract capability. The contract will provide construction and related services including program planning, scheduling, design, engineering, transportation, construction management, and quality control. Under this contract, Shaw has received its first task of pumping floodwater from the city of...

Houston Business Journal - 11:10 AM CDT Tuesday Halliburton's KBR unit gets contract to repair Gulf Coast facilities Halliburton Co.'s Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary has begun work on a $500 million U.S. Navy contract for emergency repairs at Gulf Coast naval and marine facilities that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina, according to an Associated Press report. KBR has been under fire for receiving a five-year, no-bid contract to restore Iraqi oil fields shortly before the U.S. went to war against Iraq in 2003. The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc. of Arlington, Va., won the competitive-bid contract last...

The "Blame Bush" crowd will be thrilled with this bit of news. Halliburton subsidiary KBR has begun to repair port facilities for the Navy along the Gulf Coast after Katrina. Some of the details from the KPRC-TV/Associated Press story: The subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root Services Inc. of Arlington, Va., was awarded the competitive bid contract last July to provide debris removal and other emergency work associated with natural disasters. (emphasis added) This is also not the first time KBR has done post-storm cleanup: The company has provided similar work after major disasters in the United States and abroad for...

IEM Inc., a Baton Rouge, La.-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, announced it will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane...

The delivery committee of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., convened this morning to review deliveries in progress related to the NYMEX Division natural gas futures contract for August 2005. Based upon the shutdown and force majeure declaration by the Sabine Pipeline, which operates the Henry Hub facility in Louisiana, all remaining delivery obligations in the August contract month are operating under force majeure considerations subject to NYMEX rule 220.18. The committee is currently in contact with Sabine regarding handling of any outstanding delivery obligations as expressly prescribed in NYMEX rule 220.18, section (C)(6). All market participants with any outstanding...

(IsraelNN.com) The United States Army has awarded Israel Military Industries a $300 million contract for arms, the largest-ever munitions contract Israel has received from the U.S. The company is to supply light arms over the next five years, Israel Military Industry vice president Eli Gold said that the contract places Israel "among the world's top-tier munitions makers." The company won the tender as part of a consortium headed by General Dynamics.

Yes folks, that is her real name. I think her formal name is Bunnatine, but Bunny Greenhouse has a nice ring-if you are a burlesque dancer. All kidding aside, Bunny is in a tight spot, a place she freely put herself in by speaking out against the Army Corp of Engineers contract that was awarded to Halliburton before that start of the war in Iraq. Greenhouse had been critical of Halliburton's handling of servicing US troops in Bosnia. While the Big H is primarily an oil services company, with KBR being the cash cow, they also got into the business...

DUBAI — A projected $ 35-40 billion (Dhs 128.55-146.92 billion) is up for grabs as contractors vie to participate in rebuilding the Iraqi oil sector. OGS 2005, the premier Arab Oil and Gas Show which is to be held from November 7 to 9, 2005, at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre, is expected to be an important link between cutting-edge technology providers and investors in Iraq's resurgent Oil & Gas sector. In the 12th edition of its showing, OGS will provide companies with a platform to network and discuss business prospects, innovation and issues related to exploration, extraction, processing, storage,...

No, this is not a post about the Texas Air National Guard or the how the Vietnam War continues to haunt the national political psyche but of democracy and our national interests. Bruce Kesler, a columnist for the Augusta-Free Press alerted me to the underreported fact that Phan Van Khai, the Prime Minister of Vietnam, will be visiting the United States and meeting with President Bush- a key step in an increasingly warm relationship between Washington and Hanoi. The Prime Minister does not come empty-handed but instead brings with him a jet deal for Boeing that will net the corporation...

Company accused of stealing from reconstruction projects. Former executives of Custer Battles — an American firm accused of stealing millions from Iraq reconstruction projects and banned from further government contracts — have continued doing contracting work and have formed new companies to bid on such projects, The Associated Press has learned. This may or may not be illegal, military officials say; Custer Battles officials deny any wrongdoing. The new companies (there are at least three) are all headed by Rob Roy Trumble, who previously was operations chief for Custer Battles, according to state records....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said on Tuesday it had awarded $72 million in bonuses to Halliburton Co. for logistics work in Iraq but had not decided whether to give the Texas company bonuses for disputed dining services to troops. Army Field Support Command in Rock Island, Illinois, said in a statement it had given Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown & Root ratings from "excellent" to "very good" for six task orders for work supporting U.S. troops in Iraq. The Army said its Award Fee Board in Iraq had met in March and had agreed to pay KBR bonuses for...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army said today it had awarded $72 million in bonuses to Halliburton Co. for logistics work in Iraq but had not decided whether to give the Texas company bonuses for disputed dining services to troops. Army Field Support Command in Rock Island, Ill., said in a statement it had given Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown & Root ratings from "excellent" to "very good" for six task orders for work supporting U.S. troops in Iraq. The Army said its Award Fee Board in Iraq had met in March and had agreed to pay KBR bonuses for work it...

The Pentagon's internal watchdog has begun investigating two additional contracts handled by convicted former Air Force official Darleen Druyun and could add three more deals to its growing list of possibly tainted procurements, the Pentagon said on Monday. Druyun is serving a nine-month prison term for violating federal conflict-of-interest laws by negotiating a $250,000-a-year job with Boeing Co. while still overseeing its business with the Air Force. She also admitted steering contracts to Boeing as far back as 2000. "In the course of our review, in an effort to be as thorough as possible, we decided to take a look...

OWEGO, NY, March 30, 2005 -- Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] received a $37.8 million contract to provide the U.S. Air Force with Precision Engagement production kits to modify A/OA-10 aircraft. The entire A-10 fleet will be modified over the next five years for an estimated total contract value of $168 million. The Precision Engagement modification will enable the A-10 to use advanced precision guided weapons, including the Joint Direct Attack Munition and the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser. The modification also adds the capability for advanced targeting pods to improve pilots’ situational awareness. “The Precision Engagement modification allows aircrews to engage...

Two restaurants at O'Hare Airport have been allowed to rake in millions of dollars, even though the Daley administration learned back in 2002 that the company running them was probably a phony minority "front" for Panda Express and Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a top fund-raiser for Gov. Blagojevich. Crucial Inc. won the O'Hare concessions in part because it was certified as a minority-owned business. Its largest shareholder was listed as Jabir Herbert Muhammad, son of the late Nation of Islam founder, Elijah Muhammad.

Air Force Lifts 20-Month Boeing Ban on Satellite Launch Contracts WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Air Force on Friday lifted a 20-month ban prohibiting Boeing Co. from bidding on satellite launch contracts, saying the company had corrected problems that led to accusations that it stole information from a competitor in 1998. The Chicago-based aerospace giant was suspended in 2003 and stripped of some $1 billion in launch contracts after it was found in possession of thousands of sensitive documents belonging to rival Lockheed Martin. Acting Air Force Secretary Peter Teets said Boeing will reimburse the military $1.9 million for the cost...

Computer Sciences Receives Army Technology Order Worth $199 Million EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) -- Computer Sciences Corp. said Wednesday it led a team that received a $199 million order from the Army to provide technology to monitor product life cycles and integrate logistics systems. The deal spans 57 months and aims to provide Army warfighters with logistics systems integration, and provide the information to Army customers. The Computer Sciences-led team also includes Northrop Grumman Corp., International Business Machines Corp., Digital Fusion Inc. and Germany's SAP Aktiengesellschaft.

President Bush is thought to have ordered the invasion and occupation of Iraq in order to secure control of that country's vast oil fields for his friends and contributors in the oil industry, especially Vice President Cheney's former company Halliburton. This is taken as an article of faith among many, especially for many in our universities, our cultural industries, and in our press. Hundreds, if not thousands, of essays, articles and reports have been circulated in the past 3 years about the motivations of President Bush when it comes to Iraq. Typical examples of the genre can be found daily...

Heckler & Koch is a leader in the design and manufacturing of technologically advanced firearms for military and law enforcement. It is the firm behind some of the most well known firearms of the last fifty years including the G3 rifle, MP5 submachine gun, USP pistol, and newer models such as the MP7 Personal Defense Weapon, the UMP submachine gun, and the G36 weapon system.

General Electric Co., which has been accused of collecting "blood money" by doing business in Iran, will stop accepting any new orders for business in the country, company officials said Wednesday. The move by the world's largest company by market value comes just days after another conglomerate, Halliburton Co., announced the company will wind down its operations in Iran. "We're seeing a turnaround by a number of U.S. companies operating in Iran," said Dan Katz, chief counsel to U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. Katz said the moves may signal an imminent change in U.S. policy that has allowed foreign subsidiaries...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- On Capitol Hill, reaction to the announcement that a Lockheed Martin-led international consortium had won the contract for the design and construction of the next generation of U.S. presidential helicopters was mixed. Some folks cared; others didn't. Welcome to life in 21st-century Washington, where diplomatic concerns, the demands of the global marketplace and plain, old-fashioned political pressure and pork barrel regularly collide. "The $6.1 billion contract -- $3.6 billion for the fleet of 23 helicopters and the rest for research and development -- is far from the Pentagon's largest," the New York Times reported Monday,...

The oil services conglomerate Halliburton Co. will wind down its operations in Iran and seek to separate its engineering and construction subsidiary KBR from the parent, chairman and CEO Dave Lesar said today. Lesar made the disclosures today to analysts in a conference call after the company disclosed its fourth-quarter loss narrowed to $201 million from a loss of $947 million in the same period a year ago. Halliburton does business in Iran through a foreign-owned subsidiary, which is allowed as long as Americans don't participate in or direct that business. But a federal grand jury is investigating whether the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a surprise move, the U.S. Navy (news - web sites) has chosen a transatlantic team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. to build a new U.S. presidential helicopter fleet in a deal valued at well over $1 billion, several congressional sources said on Friday. The decision was a stunning setback for Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp.'s Sikorsky Aircraft unit -- which for nearly 50 years has built and maintained the green and white "Marine One" helicopters that fly the president. Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), a New York Democrat, announced the decision in a press release,...