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OLYMPIA, WA—The Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) filed a petition today with the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) on behalf of public employees requesting an administrative rule change that would allow non-union employees to participate in workplace decisions that directly affect their employment. EFF filed the petition after receiving reports of exclusion from many public employees. Public employees have the option to decline union membership, but are often required by law to pay dues for union workplace representation. Many workers refuse to join a union because of concerns with the union’s political and ideological agenda. Despite paying for union representation, non-members...

THE Sunday Times has tracked down a mysterious middleman who was a key figure in the notorious Niger uranium hoax before the Iraq war, writes Nicholas Rufford. Speaking to a reporter in a cafe in Brussels last week, he claimed he had been an unwitting dupe in the scam, which embarrassed both Tony Blair and George W Bush over Saddam Hussein’s phantom weapons of mass destruction. The middleman, an Italian who uses the name Giacomo, is a small-time tipster said to have worked for Italy’s armed forces and intelligence services. He says Sismi, the Italian foreign intelligence service, used him...

LONDON, Aug. 3 - Iraq has an immense amount of oil, but no one knows in detail just how much is there, not even the country's oil ministry. So the ministry is undertaking the first comprehensive evaluation in decades of the two biggest fields now in production, at Rumaila in the south and Kirkuk in the north. And it has invited dozens of foreign energy companies to compete for the job of sizing them up. At least 16 companies, some of them giant oil producers and others independent engineering contractors, are preparing bids, according to executives at two of the...

Convention panel hides info on minority biz contracts The Democratic National Convention Committee - facing embarrassing public criticism on their record of doling out contracts to businesses owned by women and minorities - is flatly refusing to provide details of their contracting process. After numerous inquiries from the Herald about DNCC catering contracts, the DNCC refused to provide the information, citing a privacy policy. The Herald's inquiry came the same day as one by Boston City Councilor Charles C. Yancey, who said he has been focused for some time on making sure that minority- and women-owned companies could feast on...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff was told in 2002 that Cheney's former company would receive no-bid work to secretly plan restoration of Iraq's oil facilities, but the information wasn't given to the vice president, a White House official said Tuesday.Kevin Kellems, Cheney's spokesman, told The Associated Press he confirmed the decision not to inform Cheney with the vice president's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby."The vice president was not informed" that Halliburton would get the Defense Department contract, Kellems said.Libby informed participants at a Defense Department briefing in October 2002 that "the vice president's office...

could be worth as much as $10 billion. The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it has picked Accenture as the prime contractor for US-Visit, an IT-based system that will control entry of foreigners into the country. The five-year contract, which could be lengthened to 10 years, could be worth up to $10 billion. Some people questioned whether the U.S. government would award Accenture the contract because it's incorporated in Hamilton, Bermuda. But only a handful of employees are situated there; 25,000 of Accenture's 90,000 workers are based in the United States. Accenture, with operations in 48 countries, says it...

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Marines and Navy Seabees are seeking Iraqi contractors to repair and refurbish mosques in an effort to dispel the notion that the United States has declared war on Islam. The effort is proceeding more quickly in the surrounding farming villages than in Fallujah, the Sunni Triangle city where Marines and insurgents fought three bloody weeks of combat. The Marines have a growing list of mosques that villagers would like help in repairing, renovating or expanding. Few, if any, village mosques were damaged during the fight, but the Americans said fixing the mosques could elicit more goodwill in...

Amec and Koreans in $1bn Iraq deal Oliver Morgan Sunday May 23, 2004 The Observer Amec, the British engineering and services group, has signed an agreement with the state-owned South Korean oil company to develop oil production in Iraq. The Korea National Oil Company (Knoc) wants to invest up to $1 billion in Iraq in order to establish itself there, along with western oil companies such as Shell, which have said they plan to move in as soon as circumstances permit. Iraq has the world's second highest oil reserves, behind Saudi Arabia. Knoc has signed a memorandum of understanding with...

<p>Pepco Holdings Inc.'s bid to hold the bankrupt power provider Mirant Corp. to money-losing contracts drew skepticism from a panel of federal appellate judges, who questioned the need to preempt a bankruptcy court from deciding the question.</p>

WASHINGTON - Ten companies with billions of dollars in U.S. contracts for Iraq (news - web sites) reconstruction have paid more than $300 million in penalties since 2000 to resolve allegations of bid rigging, fraud, delivery of faulty military parts and environmental damage. AP Photo   The United States is paying more than $780 million to one British firm that was convicted of fraud on three federal construction projects and banned from U.S. government work during 2002, according to an Associated Press review of government documents. A Virginia company convicted of rigging bids for American-funded projects in Egypt also has...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A high-profile U.S.-sponsored trade fair for companies rebuilding Iraq was postponed on Thursday, a day after the grisly killing and mutilation of four American contractors deepened fears that security was worsening. Iraq's U.S. governor, Paul Bremer, vowed to hunt down those responsible for ambushing the contractors in the restive city of Falluja, and those who then torched the corpses and dragged them through the streets before hanging them from a bridge. "Yesterday's events in Falluja are a dramatic example of the ongoing struggle between human dignity and barbarism," Bremer said in a terse address at a police...

After enduring decades under a corrupt state-run economy, the Iraqi people are poised for an economic renaissance through reconstruction projects funded by an $18.4 billion American grant, senior U.S. and Iraqi officials announced today in Baghdad. "The waiting is all but over. The partnership between the American and Iraqi people for the reconstruction of Iraq is on the move," Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, Coalition Provisional Authority administrator, told reporters during a news briefing. This "Partnership for Prosperity," Bremer noted, will benefit all Iraqis and "is based on the commitment of the American people to provide substantial support" to transform...

BEIRUT, March 20, 2004. (RIA Novosti). Russian companies have a chance to take part in Iraq's economic recovery, Iraqi Finance Minister Kamil al-Kilani told RIA Novosti. He participated in the international conference on Iraq's economic development in Beirut. "Iraq is interested in different proposals. Therefore, all companies, Arab, European and Russian, have a chance to be involved in Iraq's economic recovery," Kamil al-Kilani said. According to him, American projects are the only exception. All investors, including Russia, have equal chances in all other projects, Kamil al-Kilani added. The Law on Investments adopted in Iraq allows foreign companies to invest in...

Department Awards $34.6 Million Contract to Develop and Operate World's Largest Education Database Department's Institute of Education Sciences to oversee development of searchable Internet-based catalog of education literature FOR RELEASE: March 18, 2004 Contact: David Thomas (202) 401-1576 The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a five-year, $34.6 million contract to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) of Rockville, Md., along with its subcontractors, to develop and operate a new database system for the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). The ERIC database will use the latest search and retrieval methods to cull education literature and give high-quality access to educators, researchers,...

NEW YORK The New York Times angered hundreds of freelance photographers last week when it distributed a contract some are calling "outrageous," "insulting" and just plain "sad." The contract asks freelance photographers to assign joint copyright ownership to the Times (Click for QuikCap), giving the newspaper the absolute right to exploit the photographs for the life of the copyright and collect all licensing fees, without payment to the photographer. The Times had no previous written agreement with freelancers. Photographers, copyright lawyers and industry trade groups have objected to the new contract, saying it puts the freelancer at a distinct disadvantage....

<p>Perini Corp., a Massachusetts construction company partially owned by the investment firm of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband, landed a $500 million contract Friday to repair southern Iraq's electricity grid.</p> <p>Perini is one of several American firms mobilized to restore Iraq's electricity under a series of contracts issued by the Pentagon this week. On Friday, Washington Group International won a $500 million contract to restore power in northern Iraq.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON — Many of the companies awarded contracts in Iraq this week have strong Washington ties.</p> <p>The former employer of the Pentagon's top contracting official in Iraq shares part of $130 million in reconstruction business awarded this week.</p> <p>Many of the companies awarded eight management contracts Wednesday have other inside-the-Beltway ties: Several are generous Republican donors and another is partly owned by a Democratic California senator's husband.</p>

<p>The Pentagon has begun doling out $5 billion in new contracts to rebuild Iraq, and a San Francisco firm partially owned by Sen. Dianne Feinstein's husband has landed some of the cash.</p> <p>URS Corp. will oversee repairs to Iraq's communications system, hospitals and courthouses under contracts worth a total of $27.7 million. The contracts were awarded late Wednesday to a joint venture of URS and the Louis Berger Group of New Jersey.</p>

Israel’s Sonol gasoline company, along with its foreign partner Morgantown International, have won a tender valued at $70-80 million to supply fuel to US troops in Iraq. Sonol is expected to supply the US forces with some 25 million liters of fuel each month. The tender was issued by the US-based KDR Company, a subsidiary of Halliburton, who has been entrusted with the majority of contracts for the US troops in Iraq. Among Sonol’s competitors was Delek, another Israeli company. Until now, the US forces have received most of their fuel from Kuwait. However, following Halliburton’s admission that it overcharged...