180,000 U.S. civilians working in Iraq under U.S. contracts

does not include tens of thousands who have been hired by many of these as “sub-contractors” or tens of thousands who have been hired as “private security.”

exceeds by at least 20,000 the number of combat troops,

union-busting activities and mercenary operations to control whole towns

43,000 “foreign” (non-American, non-Iraqi) contractors on the U.S. payroll

President Bush earns the distinction of being the first president in U.S. history to rely on private corporations to carry out the occupation of a country.

coalition is billing the American taxpayer.”

our young men and women dying to support corporate contractors

Interviews granted to the People’s Weekly World by Iraqi trade unionists

laying the groundwork for a permanent economic occupation of that country

We never had problems providing electricity to the people until they started this privatization with U.S.-paid operators

next step is to build and study the performance of a four-metre model,

Waste heat, a byproduct of any fossil fuel or nuclear plant operation that is typically vented into the air through cooling towers, is carried by water pipe to a vortex engine facility nearby. The hot water enters a number of cooling cells stationed around the facility where fans push dry air across hot pipes.

air picks up the heat and enters the vortex through 10 or more angled ducts, causing the air to swirl inside. The heated air begins to rise in a spinning motion, gathering energy the higher it gets and creating a vortex. As the vortex gathers momentum it begins to suck air through the cooling cells, at which point the fans that initially pushed in the air now function as turbines that generate electricity.

$60 million

o longer need a separate cooling tower.

cost less than one quarter the cost of a coal plant,

excluding the cooling tower benefits and the fact that no ongoing fuel expenses

Once it gets going, it may be too hard to stop

could be turned down, or shut off completely, by limiting the amount of air flow into the base of the funnel

as the vortex grows it would likely be able to pull in warm ambient air from many kilometres away, creating the possibility for debris accumulation and making it more difficult to manage.

series of controlled tornados along the equator would carry that heat to the outer edges of the atmosphere, where it could more easily escape.

because he wouldn't stop reciting the First Amendment to a bunch of stone-faced cops.

routinely rub the NYPD the wrong way

City Hall claims the cyclists don't have the right to assemble and pedal

Transportation Alternatives advocate a "green hierarchy" which gives priority to pedestrians, cyclists, mass transit, and commercial vehicles over the single occupancy cars

the NYPD hauled the Reverend Billy off to jail for reciting the First Amendment at the monthly bicycle rally known as Critical Mass

Americans drank more than 8.25 billion gal

Water sales topped $10.8 billion last year

fosters a perception that tap water isn't safe or necessary

It takes oil

Fewer than a quarter of plastic bottles are recycled

2 billion lbs. (900 million kg) a year to clog landfills.

putting stress on the environment

aging public-water systems need investment

Gigi Kellett

"An entire generation is growing up thinking they have to get their water out of a bottle."

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom last month barred officials from using municipal funds to buy bottled water

New York City launched a $1 million campaign this summer to encourage citizens to stick to the city's famously clean public water

top-flight restaurants that once would never have dreamed of serving tap are ditching the bottles

"I think the industry is being targeted unfairly," says Patrick Racz, CEO of Icelandic Water

bottled water weans consumers off soda

research was only possible because of legal loopholes that have since been blocked

DEA has turned down his requests to import marijuana from the Netherlands

no such thing as freedom of research

fear that cannabis dispensaries serve as an additional source for recreational marijuana.

use among teenagers actually has dropped

teenage marijuana use had gone down by as much as 50 percent in states that had legalized medicinal marijuana.

“Kids don’t want to smoke their grandma’s medicine,” Landers offered.

one of the biggest challenges to such developments will be zoning laws.

at least 25 percent of the homes in the proposed development must be affordable

$10 million will include a mix of maybe $8 million in bonds and another $2 million in grants and other subsidies,

Cuba will import $300 million to $350 million in goods from the USA

Granma daily newspaper, which on its website proclaims it the "Official Organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba," is printed on newsprint made at three south Alabama paper mills

Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez said earlier this year that it would be "naive" to think that easing trade restrictions would improve conditions in Cuba

Cintra and the Macquarie Infrastructure Group (mig) of Australia

state would hand over operation of the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road for the next 75 years

tax breaks

immunity from most local and state taxes

generate more than $11 billion over the 75-year

prelude to a host of such efforts to come.

privatizing everything from the New York Thruway to the Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey turnpikes,

$25 billion in public-private highway deals are in the works

Transurban, paid more than half a billion dollars for a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway

$1.3 billion bid by Cintra and construction behemoth Zachry Construction to build and operate a 40-mile toll road out of Austin.

negligence and fraudulent concealment while using the pesticide.

generally accepted studies in the scientific community of which we are aware which establishes an effect on sterility in banana farm workers

placed under the jurisdiction of Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney.

"I don't think public health was what his vision was. As far as the international office was concerned, it was a political office of the secretary. . . . What he was looking for, and in general what he was always looking for, was, 'How do we promote the policies and the programs of the administration?' This report didn't focus on that."

Mark A. Abdoo

"We believe this document should be focused tightly on the Administration's major priorities in global health so the American public can understand better why these issues should be important to them. As such, the draft should be a policy statement, albeit one that is evidence based and draws on the best available science."

Steiger, 37, is a godson of former president George H.W. Bush and the son of a moderate Republican who represented Wisconsin in the House and hired a young Dick Cheney as an intern

Steiger's parents, now deceased, were "lifelong friends" of many members of the same congressional class, including the Rumsfelds and the Bushes.

Steiger promoted interest in global health

doubling the number of expert staff members overseas

"You have to look at his skills as an executive leader in spite of the fact that he doesn't have a medical degree or a public health degree," Hall said.

Public health advocates have accused Steiger of political meddling before

demanding changes in the language of an international report on obesity

U.S. food manufacturers and the sugar industry.

Carmona at one point suggested that Steiger release the global health report in tandem with a separate report of the sort Steiger wanted,

Carmona testified

tarnish the office of the surgeon general when our colleagues saw us taking a political stand."

U.S. used to be a leader in this field," Novotny said.

global health document was one of several reports

suppressed because they disliked the reports' conclusions

Bush administration has always believed that public health policy should be rooted in science. "While we appreciate and respect Dr. Carmona's service as surgeon general, we disagree with his statements," Hall said.