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What began in June with a controversy over an $8 million technology contract has escalated into a scandal exposing high-level management failures at San Jose City Hall. ``It's becoming clear that both the city manager and the city attorney have been running very dysfunctional offices,'' Councilman Dave Cortese said late last week, after more revelations surfaced about favoritism and collusion in the failed deal to buy Cisco Systems networking and telephone equipment for the new City Hall. ``At a tremendous cost to the city, they let that condition fester, and now it's a big-time problem and a big-time cost to...

LAST YEAR at this time, the media were in full scandal mode over 16 words that President Bush had spoken nearly six months earlier. "The British government has learned," Bush had said in his State of the Union address in January, "that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." A furor erupted over that statement when a CIA consultant and ex-diplomat named Joseph Wilson, who had gone to Niger in 2002 to look into the matter, publicly claimed that the charge wasn't true. The White House agreed that the line shouldn't have been in Bush's speech, but...

(Talon News) -- Vice President Dick Cheney went on offense last week, charging that the Clinton administration ignored the threat of terrorism during its eight years in power. His remarks came during a speech at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans on Thursday. Cheney began by praising the World War II generation for inspiring a new generation of Americans to lives of service in America's armed forces. Cheney pointed out that thousands from the new generation are "standing watch for freedom in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world." The vice president said that the challenges faced by the war...

<p>The resignation of - and subsequent week of heavy demand for - David A. Kay, the former U.N. weapons inspector who headed the weapons-searching Iraq Survey Group, might turn out to be little more than a week of fleeting publicity. Even if his assertions are valid, it is probably too much to hope that it will lead to valuable reform of U.S. intelligence agencies. Mr. Kay said he now doubts Saddam had had stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons, but that the best available intelligence prior to the war made it reasonable to suspect he did.</p>

Higher taxes will be needed to fund health and education improvements, Tony Blair indicated yesterday after admitting that his first six years in power had failed to deliver a promised "transformation" in public services. After weeks on the defensive over Iraq, the euro and accusations of a "botched" reshuffle, Mr Blair sought to regain the initiative by relaunching his second-term agenda of public service reform. Tony Blair: promised to pushthe pace of NHS reform He said the Government had to provide more choice and quality in the NHS and schools to keep better off patients and parents within the State...

Many people I know seemed to have unusual failures with their cell phones this evening. All of 12 had the failure sometime this evening. I live in South Florida. Is someone wreaking havoc with the cell phone satellite or something? My friends use either Verizon or Cingular Wireless.

In a blistering indictment of his old boss's negligence in fighting the war on terrorism, former FBI Director Louis Freeh charged Tuesday that ex-President Clinton was so unhelpful during his agency's investigation into the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that he had to turn to former President Bush. Writing in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Freeh described the Clinton White House as "unable or unwilling to help the FBI" gain access to key witnesses in the Khobar case because it feared exposing the role of Hezbollah and its state sponsor, Iran. "The only direction from the Clinton administration regarding Iran was to...

It's Week 2 of Al and Tipper Gore's book campaign juggernaut. The ex-veep and his wife -- who pocketed a rumored seven-figure advance from Henry Holt and Co. -- have been welcomed by countless media outlets willing to help them hawk "Joined at the Heart," an anecdotal study of the American family, and "The Spirit of Family," a companion coffee-table photo collection. But while the authors are getting star billing wherever they go -- including Al's scheduled guest shot on tomorrow's "Tonight Show With Jay Leno" -- their books aren't selling up to expectations, publishing sources told us yesterday. "They've...

HMMM...Daschle and his lousy 23.8 percent Senator Daschle's Job Performance Review 23.8% = UnderperformingAfter a year as Senate Majority Leader, Senator Daschle has little to show for it. Senator Daschle's year as Senate Majority Leader has been a year of delay and obstruction. With no budget, unable to outline priorities, and an inability to pass legislation, Senate Democrats have failed to lead. While the House of Representatives is addressing the President's compassionate conservative agenda for national, homeland, and economic security, Senate Democrats continue to ignore their responsibility to the American people. As Senate Majority Leader, Senator Daschle has a 23.8%*...

Faulty Genes Explain Why Cloning Is So DifficultMon May 27, 3:07 PM ETCloning may not always completely reprogramme an egg cell the way sexual reproduction does, which might explain why the process fails more often than it works, experts say. Dolly, the world's first cloned animal, stands in her pen at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh in this February 23, 1997, file photo. REUTERS WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cloning may not always completely reprogram an egg cell the way sexual reproduction does, which would explain why the process fails so often, researchers reported on Monday. While lawmakers around the world debate...

Excerpts from the article: Last week, the news media and some members of Congress worked themselves into a frenzy over the revelation that an intelligence briefing made to President Bush last August mentioned the possibility of airplane hijackings. Although no information in the briefing indicated that the hijackings would be used in the kamikaze-style attacks of September 11th, the news caused an uproar because, critics claimed, it should have been released earlier. The media worked overtime, jumping to conclusions and making false accusations that suggested a cover-up. The New York Post screamed in large type on the front page: "9/11...

lundi 22 avril 2002, 2h37 A masked man holds a sign reading "I cry, I cry, I'm ashamed of being French" after early results of the first round of the presidential elections in Paris, Sunday April 21, 2002. Media projections showed President Jacques Chirac was in the lead and should face extreme-right National Front party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in the runoff on May 5. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon)

<p>His first two years in office, Gov. Gray Davis was the luckiest of politicians. A robust economy fueled an explosion in state tax revenues. School reforms implemented by his predecessor triggered a rise in test scores. And crime rates continued their long decline from historic highs.</p>

Ashcroft Orders Inquiry Into Immigration Failures After Visas Approved for Two Dead Hijackers By Sonya Ross Associated Press Writer Published: Mar 13, 2002 WASHINGTON (AP) - Prodded by President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered an investigation Wednesday of quot;disturbing failuresquot; by immigration officials in the delivery of student visas for two of the Sept. 11 hijackers six months after they crashed into the World Trade Center. quot;It is inexcusable,quot; Ashcroft said of the delivery to a Florida flight school of approved visas for two men whose names and pictures have been widely published. quot;Individuals will be held responsiblequot; and...