| Grassley: Cut contract fraud loophole
Compliance has been voluntary, and over the past 15 years the number of company-reported fraud cases has declined steadily. Now, the Justice Department wants to force companies to notify the government if they find evidence of contract abuse of more than $5 million. Failure to comply could make a company ineligible for future government work. But the planned rule, as written by policy-writers who are reviewed by the OMB, specifically exempts "contracts to be performed outside the United States." The rule was published in the Federal Register in November. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and Justice Department both have criticized the loophole. The White House has refused comment on it before the rule becomes final later this year.
THE AGE OF SHIVA
Most of the time we just feel sorry for everybody. Much of the novel focuses on Meera's complex feelings, first for her sisters and parents, then for her husband and finally for her child, Ashvin. When she looks at her beloved son, Meera launches into soliloquies that are half dithyramb, half goo and suffused with obvious sexual innuendo. For instance, the novel opens this way: "Every time I touch you, every time I kiss you, every time I offer you my body, Ashvin. Do you know how tightly you shut your eyes as with your lips you search my skin? Do you know how you thrust your feet towards me, how you reach out your arms, how the sides of your chest strain against my palms? Are you aware of your fingers brushing against my breast, their tips trying to curl around something to hold on to, but slipping instead against my smooth flesh? "Ashvin.
US says it has right to kidnap British citizens
More than a dozen other British executives, including senior managers at British Airways and BAE Systems, are under investigation by the US authorities and could face criminal charges in America. Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the "extraordinary rendition" of terrorist suspects. .
Sallie Mae names 2 new executives
RESTON, Va. (AP) - Student lender SLM Corp., better known as Sallie Mae, said Tuesday it named John Hewes executive vice president and chief credit officer and Jonathan Clark as senior vice president of corporate finance. In the newly created position, Hewes will oversee the company's private student loan underwriting policies and risk management. Hewes previously worked at MBNA, a credit card issuer. Clark will oversee Sallie Mae's unsecured debt issuance and treasury operations. He will also assist the asset-backed securitization team. Before joining Sallie Mae, Clark worked at Credit Suisse. Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. .
Coming, coming, come...
Even as city franchisees were announcing the names of the teams with great fanfare, IPL officials, player agents and their lawyers were frantically trying to reach a consensus on the terms and conditions of the contract. By late Tuesday evening, IPL chairman Lalit Modi promised that there wouldnt be any lack of star value when 78 players, including all the 33 BCCI-contracted players, go under the hammer at a five-star hotel on Wednesday. Even as GMR, the Delhi franchisee, announced that it had managed to secure Virender Sehwag as an icon player, Modi admitted that the Indian players Down Under were inking their contracts as he spoke. There was an issue, more of a language problem in the contract, of who would be the guarantor. It was whether the contract would have a franchisee guarantee or a BCCI guarantee.
Spring Training
In 2008 in Florida, 17 teams will hold their preseasons in the Sunshine State. They are: the Atlanta Braves (at Disney's Wide World of Sports), the Baltimore Orioles (Fort Lauderdale), the Boston Red Sox (Fort Myers), the Cincinnati Reds (Sarasota), the Cleveland Indians (Winter Haven), the Detroit Tigers (Lakeland), the Florida Marlins (Jupiter), the Houst... Show more .
Outdoors Notebook: Tag program for striped bass off to good start
An effort to place satellite information tags into striped bass has been deemed a success. Dr. John Graves of the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences placed six tags into fish last weekend. He has four more tags to deploy. Part of the sought data deals with mortality in a catch-and-release fishery. So three of the tagged fish were caught on conventional "J" hooks, and the other three were caught on circle hooks. Only one of the J-hook-caught fish was deep-hooked. "We were able to remove the hook with no problems, and the fish appeared to be in great shape," Graves said. "All the other fish were hooked in the corner of the mouth." Graves, who has used similar tags in his white marlin research, said the remaining four tags likely will be in fish by the start of today's Super Bowl.
NEWSWEEK: COVER: Books Aren't Dead. (They're Just Going Digital.)
Via the Amazon store, you can subscribe to newspapers and magazines. Levy talks to Bezos about the new device and the impact technology will have on the future of reading in the November 26 cover, "Books Aren't Dead. (They're Just Going Digital.)" (on newsstands Monday, November 19). "Music and video have been digital for a long time, and short-form reading has been digitized, beginning with the early Web. But long-form reading really hasn't," Bezos says. The Kindle represents a milestone in a time of transition, when a challenged publishing industry is competing with television, Guitar Hero and time burned on the Blackberry; literary critics are bemoaning a possible demise of print culture, Levy reports. Though the Kindle is at heart a reading machine made by a bookseller-and works most impressively when you are buying a book or reading it-it is also something more: a perpetually connected Internet device.
Barack Obama - a John Kennedy for our times
Like Kennedy, he combines personal magnetism with a strong appeal to American idealism. Like Kennedy, he is young and speaks for the new generation of American politics. By ordinary political reckoning, 2008 ought to be the Democrats' year. In 2006 they captured both houses of Congress in mid-term elections. There are, of course, hypothetical events that could change everything. There could be an attack on Mr Obama himself, but he is protected by the Secret Service. There could be an action by al-Qaeda, which would refocus American anxiety on the threat of terror. But al-Qaeda is itself highly political. It would probably not be in its interest to secure the election of Senator John McCain. Al-Qaeda may be unpredictable, but it would be a mistake for it to interfere in American politics, even if it had the capacity to do so.
Spotlight on McCain turns hot
This might look a little like Bill and Hillary Clinton on 60 Minutes in 1992, but the senator clearly placed on notice here his personal reputation for honesty and integrity," said Michael Rubinoff, an Arizona State University professor of film and media studies who specializes in politics. "Unless something more concrete appears, this unlikely will be anything but a small radar bleep." But ethics issues raised in the Times story, and in another piece on the same topic that appeared in the rival Washington Post, could prove damaging to McCain's White House aspirations. Underneath the sexy innuendo is the question of whether McCain's long and sometimes close association with lobbyists and political patrons suggest hypocrisy on the part of a politician who has styled himself as an ethical reformer.
AIADA Establishes Partnership with Moneris Solutions for Dealership ...
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The American International Automobile Dealers Association today announced a new affinity partnership with Moneris Solutions, designed to provide dealer members with exclusive pricing on merchant card processing, check guarantee and conversion, gift cards and ACH/EFT processing. Moneris Solutions is one of North America's largest payments processors with a roster of clients that include numerous Acura, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and other leading car dealerships. "As more and more customers seek to pay by credit and debit card, and check services become a critical component to closing deals, the ability to accept any type of payment has become a fundamental element in maintaining dealership customer satisfaction," said AIADA President Cody Lusk.
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