A COVER-UP—In Iraq, the worst contracts could turn out to be “task-order” agreements. Christopher Yukins, an associate professor of government contract law at George Washington University, told Government Executive magazine in June that task-order contracts are also “non-competitive.” The most infamous of these contracts allowed the Army to hide its procurement of private-sector interrogators at the Abu […]

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Still Walking—And talking. And now she’s running. Doris Haddock, also known as “Granny D,” is a 94-year-old activist whose reputation precedes her. In 2000, she ended a 14-month, 3,200 mile cross-country walk from California to Washington, D.C., to rouse support for campaign finance reform. She’s not sitting down yet. “Granny D” will be the Democrat […]

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A week in June that was supposed to be a great one for President George W. Bush was eclipsed by the week-long, non-stop televised mourning for President Ronald W. Reagan. In the air on Air Force One, Bush first greeted the Pope—and while in Rome asked top Vatican officials to press American Catholic bishops to […]

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Excuses for Abuses—When Attorney General John Ashcroft told the nation in a televised news conference that terror strikes against the U.S. were imminent, he did it without the calmer Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, by his side. Before many hours had passed, Ridge had pooh-poohed the warning. Ashcroft blew it again in an appearance […]

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State Legislators for Sale—In our June 1 FYI we reported that 1,300 of Washington’s corporate lobbyists have given the Bush campaign more than $1.8 million since 1998. Fifty-two from this group additionally gathered more than $6 million from big business donors for the 2004 Bush re-election bank account. These discoveries came from the difficult-to-decipher reports […]

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