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In July, when heating oil was approaching $5 a gallon and the so-called experts were saying crude was headed to $200 and beyond, millions of homeowners were flipping coins. Heads, they'd commit to pay $4.50 to $4.75 a gallon for heating oil this winter; tails, they'd gamble it wouldn't going to $6 as predicted. In Connecticut, heads came up about 200,000 times. And as soon as those homeowners signed contracts with their suppliers, crude prices crashed 60 percent in less than four months. Today, heating oil can be had for as little as $2.40, c.o.d. As awful as those contracts...

Iraq Cancels Six No-Bid Oil Deals United Press International 9/11/2008 URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=66533 The Iraqi government said it has canceled six oil contracts with foreign companies that were awarded in June in a no-bid arrangement. One-year contracts with Shell, Chevron, Total, BP, ExxonMobil and others, meant to increase Iraqi oil production by a 500,000 barrels a day, were canceled after Democratic U.S. senators complained the deals could interfere with Iraqi efforts to pass an energy policy law and reach a revenue-sharing agreement among Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, The New York Times reported Thursday. To go ahead with the no-bid contracts "would...

Washington, D.C. - Here's a new reason for taxpayer dismay: There's increasing evidence that companies may be protesting government contract awards as a strategy to negotiate their way into contracts or to derail an award process already in place. ... In February, IBM protested the Federal Bureau of Investigation's award of a $1 billion contract to Lockheed Martin (nyse: LMT - news - people ). Big Blue dropped its dispute two months later when Lockheed announced it would use IBM as a subcontractor.

Efforts by utility regulators to reopen costly long-term electricity supply contracts struck at the height of the California energy crisis were deflected by the U.S. Supreme Court in a ruling yesterday. The decision written by Justice Antonin Scalia sent the case back to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, with instructions to determine if the public interest was harmed by energy supply contracts signed in 2001. The case was filed by Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County, Wash., which entered into a long-term electricity supply contract with the Morgan Stanley Capital Group. As the crisis waned, prices dropped, but...

Iraq's Oil Ministry has approved 35 companies it will allow to bid for soon-to-be announced tenders to develop oil and gas fields. The largest oil companies in the world -- ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Conoco Phillips, Chevron -- all qualified, as did firms of a variety of sizes and nationalities. The announcement Monday on the ministry's Web site is a major move that could bring foreign oil companies en masse into Iraq since the third-largest oil sector in the world was nationalized three decades ago. It takes place as the ministry attempts to increase oil and gas production as a new...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department's renewal of Blackwater's contract to provide security in Iraq "is bad news," an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said. Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 people, including women and children, last September, prompting an outcry and protest from Iraqi officials. "This is bad news," al-Maliki adviser Sami al-Askari said. "I personally am not happy with this, especially because they have committed acts of aggression, killed Iraqis, and this has not been resolved yet positively for families of victims." About 25,000 private contractors from three companies protect diplomats, reconstruction workers and...

International Business Machines Corp. has been temporarily banned from new business with the federal government and is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia over a contract awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, the company said Monday.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IBM is under investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over an $80 million bid it made in 2006 to modernize EPA financial systems and has been suspended from seeking new contracts with all U.S. agencies, the company said on Monday.

Address only per protocol. www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080308/NEWS01/80308067

A big protest is planned for Monday afternoon, ahead of the latest public hearing on the proposed statewide tollway. Lots of landowners are upset about the state’s plan to build a tollway from Mexico to northeast Texas. There have already been several town hall meetings about the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most of the people who have spoken out about the plan say it will put them out of business. But state officials argue the tollway is necessary to keep up with the growing population in Texas. Monday’s meeting is being held in Huntsville. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walker...

Highways The Texas Department of Transportation plans to let contracts for $4.1 billion in construction in 2008 are in jeopardy after having to return around $950 million to Washington over the past 18 months. The mood in Austin is uncertain, although voters approved Proposition 12 in November, authorizing the next Texas Legislature in 2009 to issue up to $5 billion in bonds (paid from general revenue) to build highway projects. A required independent audit of the Texas Department of Transportation during 2007 recommended that the department “should continue to pursue Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDA) and toll pricing at levels that...

Billions of dollars are pouring into Iraq to fight the war and rebuild the country, and companies are vying for a piece of the action. In some cases, contractors paid kickbacks to military contracting officers to gain the upper hand. For Eric W. Barton of Tennessee, he may have had an Barton is accused of having an affair with Air Force Capt. Sherrie L. Remington, a former contracting officer in charge of awarding some of the lucrative work. The Army claims Barton used a six-month relationship with Remington to his advantage to win at least $2.5 million in contracts for...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19, 2007 – The Defense Department has let contracts for an additional 2,400 mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, bringing the total number of the vehicles ordered to 8,800. “We’re going to do everything we can to get as many vehicles in theater as fast as we can,” a senior Pentagon official, speaking on background, said yesterday. The MRAP is designed to survive blasts from improvised explosive devices and armor-piercing IEDs known as explosively formed penetrators or projectiles, the main killers of American servicemembers in Iraq. The vehicles have a V-shaped hull that deflects shrapnel, providing more effective protection for...

BAGHDAD, Oct. 17 — Iraq has agreed to award $1.1 billion in contracts to Iranian and Chinese companies to build a pair of enormous power plants, the Iraqi electricity minister said Tuesday. Word of the project prompted serious concerns among American military officials, who fear that Iranian commercial investments can mask military activities at a time of heightened tension with Iran.

While waiting to be confirmed by the White House for a top civilian post at the Air Force last year, Charles D. Riechers was out of work and wanted a paycheck. So the Air Force helped arrange a job through an intelligence contractor that required him to do no work for the company, according to documents and interviews. For two months, Riechers held the title of senior technical adviser and received about $13,400 a month at Commonwealth Research Institute, or CRI, a nonprofit firm in Johnstown, Pa., according to his resume. But during that time he actually worked for Sue...

LONDON - The chief U.S. missile defense negotiator defended plans to place anti-missile sites in Eastern Europe, saying Wednesday that the system could prevent a war with Iran by building an effective deterrent. "Our intent is to address emerging threats in the Middle East," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Rood said in an interview with The Associated Press during a visit to London to attend a conference on defense trade. "Countries like Iran are developing long-range missile systems. And we're concerned not only about the emerging capability but of the hostile intent from countries in the region."

# Story Highlights # Pentagon investigating criminal charges related to $6 billion worth of contracts # Contracts are for equipment and services needed in Iraq and Afghanistan # 90 investigations and 29 audits underway; about half are for procurement fraud # 16 linked to the theft of money or property and violations of U.S. export rule

How does renegotiation of contracts not fall under consideration? How do athletes, etc., get away with renegotiating the contract and why do the institutions not sue for the first contract agreed upon?

WASHINGTON, July 18, 2007 – Thousands of disabled military veterans have enrolled in a governmentwide program that’s designed to help them succeed in new careers as business owners, a Defense Department official said here today. The Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Office was established at the Pentagon by an October 2004 presidential executive order and federal legislation that stipulates 3 percent of all annual military contracting will go to small businesses operated by service-disabled veterans, Anthony R. Martoccia, director of the office of small business programs at the Pentagon, told veterans’ service organization members during a conference call today. Military...

It’s a big, evil secret behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq - a 100,000 strong mercenary force that the Bush administration has hired to do the U.S. government’s riskiest and dirtiest operations. It works behind the scenes and is virtually above the law. Its name is Blackwater USA -- and it’s a private army with a license to kill. More evil still is the fact that Blackwater USA is run by a multimillionaire Christian fundamentalist who has also bankrolled President Bush’s election campaigns. And what makes the whole exercise so frightening is that American mainstream media - supposedly the champions...