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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...