Free Republic

The multimillion-dollar contract to turn Maryland's travel plazas on Interstate 95 over to an out-of-state company is being challenged by a Bethesda-based firm that says the bidding process favored the eventual winner. HMSHost has filed a protest with the Maryland Transportation Authority, saying that bid specifications to replace the Maryland House and Chesapeake House were too vague and that Areas USA, a Florida company, was the only bidder allowed to sweeten its offer. "This is like a kick in the gut and we're trying to get our breath back," said Michael Jones, the HMSHost vice president who put the bid...

Sunshine today! The Royal Terns are coming in in large flocks, ahead of cold weather. The Grackles were pleased to see me, as usual. The males are getting over their fear of me. Grackles may be pests in urban areas, but around here they stay in the marshes and on the beach.

PAKTIA PROVINCE, Afghanistan, April 23, 2009 – Village elders here, in conjunction with the Paktia Provincial Reconstruction Team, held a bidders’ conference at the governor’s compound in Gardez this month to give local contractors a chance to compete for construction projects in the area. Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel Moy, commander of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Paktia province, speaks with contractors following a bidders conference at the governor's compound in Gardez, April 2, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Andrya Hill  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. In the past, the PRT has selected contractors from a...

An Israeli company has made an offer to buy the kosher meat producer Agriprocessors. The company, Soglowek Nahariya, made the offer in a filing Sunday with an Iowa bankruptcy court, the Des Moines Register reported. Agriprocessors, once the country's largest producer of kosher meat, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. The company had been on a steady downward spiral since May, when federal agents descended on the company's Postville slaughterhouse and arrested more than one-third of its workforce in what was at the time the largest single-site immigration raid in American history. Joseph Sarachek, a bankruptcy trustee who...

Randy Newman Compares Bush To Hitler and Stalin by Paul Cashmere - February 3 2007 Singer/Songwriter Randy Newman has written a song about the end of the American Empire, and aligns the current regime with dictators Stalin and Hitler. The lyrics for the song 'A Few Words In Defense of Our Country' were published this week in the New York Times and the recording was made exclusive to iTunes.In the lyrics, Newman says "The end of an empire is messy at bestAnd this empire is endingLike all the restLike the Spanish Armada adrift on the seaWe're adrift in the land...

WUERZBURG, Germany, July 6, 2006 – The U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division, known as the "Big Red One," bid farewell to its host country of Germany at Victory Park on Leighton Barracks here today. The colors of Big Red One are scheduled to be unfurled at Fort Riley, Kan., Aug. 1, and the division will assume command and control of its units now there. Among other duties, the division is slated to take on the mission of training foreign security forces training teams in support of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Despite numerous deployments to distant countries within the...

NEW YORK (NNS) -- The 19th New York City Fleet Week came to a close May 31, as Sailors and Marines left New York City in their wake, headed for their next destination. While visiting the ‘Big Apple,’ Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen participated in community service events, sports competitions, military demonstrations and Memorial Day remembrances in all five boroughs. “I’m just impressed by the good, positive attitudes and willingness to work that the young Sailors express,” commented Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Paul Ablaza, a Reservist with Naval Security Forces, Naval Weapons Station Earle, Colts Neck, N.J. “Seeing the dedication of...

AL ASAD, Iraq (May 16, 2006) -- "Generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war, in both hemispheres, and in every corner of the seven seas that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security." These words, written several generations of Marines ago by Lt. Gen. John A. Lejeune, 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps, describe with uncanny accuracy the service one proud warrior with Marine Aircraft Group 16 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, has given to his country and Corps over a career spanning 30 years. Sgt. Maj. Abelardo Flores passed his position as Group...

The feds have launched a criminal probe of powerful New York Central Labor Council AFL-CIO head and Queens Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin as part of an alleged city bid-rigging scam involving hundreds of millions of dollars in street-lighting contracts. FBI spokesman James Margolin confirmed the investigation after agents searched the Central Labor Council's offices on West 15th Street yesterday, hauling off suitcases filled with financial records. Margolin declined further comment. The actions sent shock waves through New York political and union circles. As a state lawmaker and labor boss, McLaughlin, a top Democrat, dealt with nearly all the city's elected officials...

A case filed in Superior Court in Sacramento this week could reveal which state legislator or legislators are responsible for avoiding the competitive bidding process mandated by the California Public Contract Code. The purposes of the Contract Code are to “[protect] the public from misuse of public funds,” to “provide all qualified bidders with a fair opportunity to enter the bidding process, thereby stimulating competition in a manner conducive to sound fiscal practices” and to “eliminate favoritism, fraud, and corruption in the awarding of public contracts.” According to the case, the California legislature has been disregarding these principles and getting...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Haier Group, China's largest appliance maker, and its two private equity partners have dropped out of the $1 billion-plus bidding race for Maytag Corp., Maytag said on Tuesday. The prospect of a Haier takeover helped stir anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S. over Asian companies gobbling up U.S. businesses. That concern has been stoked by a bid by China oil company CNOOC Ltd. to buy California-based Unocal Corp. for $18.5 billion.

Powell bids farewell to State Department Thursday January 20, 7:18 AM (Kyodo) _ U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said farewell to State Department employees Wednesday, thanking them for improved ties with China and other achievements but also acknowledged that North Korea's nuclear program is one of the unresolved issues in the past four years as the nation's top diplomat. Appearing before hundreds of personnel at a department ceremony with his wife Alma, the retired Army general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, "You are wonderful patriots who serve your nation as its troops in the...

Ms Anderson, who hails from Hobart, Indiana, said the unexpected attention generated by her whimsical eBay sale had "left her a nervous wreck" and that she had cancelled some of the more "outrageous bids". She reiterated that the purpose of the exercise was simply to reassure her five year-old-son who was uneasy about living in a house that he felt was haunted by his "mean" grandfather.

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel's security barrier was a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Eleven days later, the United Nations General Assembly voted 150-6 to condemn Israel and demand removal of the barrier. All twenty-five members of the European Union supported the motion.[1] The EU position would not have been so offensive had it not then undertaken an act of stunning hypocrisy. In August 2004, the EU put out tenders for companies to construct a European separation fence to prevent migration into the EU from countries excluded from...

The Navy has set minimum bid prices and deposit requirements for the planned auction of the old El Toro Marine base, scheduled to begin Jan 5. The minimum averages range from about $125,000 to just under $300,000 per acre but are expected to ascend quickly although the federal government reckons it will fall short of the nearly $1 million per acre that Tustin air base land fetched. That’s because plans for the 3,700-acre base call for large sectors to be left as wilderness areas or developed as parks. Still, interest in the land is expected to be intense. It will...

The Department of Defense announced today that the fiscal 2003 report of "100 Companies Receiving the Largest Dollar Volume of Prime Contract Awards (Top 100)" is now available on the World Wide Web. The Web site address for locating this publication and other DoD contract statistics is: http://www.dior.whs.mil/peidhome/procstat/p01/fy2003/top100.htm . According to the new report, the top 10 Defense contractors for fiscal 2003 were: (In billions) 1. Lockheed Martin Corp. $21.9 2. The Boeing Co. 17.3 3. Northrop Grumman Corp. 11.1 4. General Dynamics Corp. 8.2 5. Raytheon Co. 7.9 6. United Technologies Corp. 4.5 7. Halliburton Co. 3.9 8. General...

<p>The gubernatorial recall has turned into an old-fashioned game of chicken, in which two cars head right at each other and everyone waits to see which will swerve first.</p> <p>Gray Davis is driving one car with fellow Democrats in the back seat, most of them insisting the governor should steer but wondering if he is about to kill them all.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has invited at least five engineering companies to submit bids for a contract to do reconstruction work in Iraq (news - web sites), U.S. and company officials said on Monday. The winning company would get about $900 million to repair Iraqi health services, ports and airports, and schools and other educational institutions, they said. "Because of the urgent circumstances and the unique nature of this work, USAID will undertake a limited selection process that expedites the review and selection of contractors for these projects," said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Agency for International Development....

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - With less than a year left in his latest political incarnation, Mayor Willie Brown has aroused intense speculation over his future plans by tossing his trademark fedora into the ring for the presidency of the nation's largest pension fund.</p>

The government bought more than half of its products and services last year without bidding or with practices that auditors say do not fully shop the marketplace, an Associated Press analysis of contracting records found.While such shopping accelerated in President Bush's first year, it has been on the rise since the 1990s when the Clinton administration and the GOP-controlled Congress streamlined purchasing under its "reinventing government" initiatives.Some of those well-intentioned efforts to cut red tape - epitomized by Al Gore's smashing of a government-issued ashtray on television - may have gone too far, inviting new risks of fraud, contracting experts...