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PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Textron Inc (NYSE: TXT) announced today that Bell Textron Inc., a Textron company, has been awarded the development contract for the U.S. Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. The award is based on Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor that was developed and tested as part of the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR TD) program that began in 2013. The V-280 progressed through design, manufacturing, and more than three years of rigorous flight testing that provided extensive data validating the technical and operational advantages of the aircraft for the long-range assault mission. "We are honored that the U.S. Army...

Senate Republicans have successfully identified two minor violations of reconciliation rules in the final piece of the health package, according to aides from both parties. The violations will force the Senate to change the bill and ship it back to the House for final passage. But Democratic leaders said the provisions that will be struck from the part of the bill dealing with Pell Grants for college students do not significantly affect the student loan program or the health care bill overall.

In the midst of the firestorm that is the contested U.S. Air Force KC-45 refueling tanker program, the first of the new aircraft has been sent to Germany for its cargo conversion. Northrop Grumman/EADS North America officials have been coy about how much work they are doing with the $60 million provided by the Air Force before Boeing protested the team's win. The company has not discussed much about its work since Boeing's March 11 protest of the award. But, now Northrop Grumman has acknowledged that D-1, the first developmental KC-45, was sent to Dresden March 4. Work was scheduled...

The Patriot Act Strikes Again! First saw this on Digby, then DailyKos, then TalkLeft. Decided I had better look into it. The page is gone now so you'll have to read it here. Don't know who Stephanie Bond is, never read her stuff, won't read her stuff either. But Lady Lightfoot seems to be a fan, so I'm blogging it here. Bad news for Democracy, my friends. Can you say Steve Kurtz? Patriot Act Hits Close to Home by Stephanie Bond In the previous Jungle Beat, I reported the narrow defeat of the Freedom to Read Amendment to the Commerce,...

If you think that as women’s fiction writers, we’re immune from scrutiny under the Patriot Act, think again. Last fall, the home of a multi-published author for an RWA-recognized publisher was raided and her writing in materials confiscated. The writer, an RWA and PAN member who asked to be referred to as Dilyn, agreed to he interviewed for this column to alert RWA members of potential risks when conducting research. SB: What type of story were you researching? Dilyn: Mainstream women’s fiction adventure. It was set in Cambodia, all about the theft of antiquities. In my research I learned, about...

The situation in Iraq is fast approaching the tipping point. The terrorists know that if they can wreak enough havoc, kill enough Iraqis waiting in line to join their own police force, they can prevent the United Nations from coming up with a plan for elections and a stable transfer of U.S. authority to an Iraqi government. Once authority is in Iraqi hands, the Baathists and Islamists have a real problem: They can't even pretend to be fighting the United States anymore. It will be clear to all Arabs and Muslims that they are fighting against the freedom and independence...

The Soft Target Is the Mind Thomas Friedman of the New York Times believes that terrorist attacks on Iraqi soft targets have nearly brought that country to its knees, a development that can only be forestalled by tough talking from John Kerry. (Hat tip: Belmont Club reader DL) The situation in Iraq is fast approaching the tipping point. The terrorists know that if they can wreak enough havoc, kill enough Iraqis waiting in line to join their own police force, they can prevent the U.N. from coming up with a plan for elections and a stable transfer of U.S. authority...

NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - In the latest move in the campaign for reparations, descendants of black slaves filed lawsuits in New York and California on Tuesday, demanding corporations pay back profits reaped from the work of their enslaved ancestors. The suits, filed in federal courts in New York and San Francisco, according to court documents, are to be followed by similar suits in Illinois, Texas and Louisiana, activist Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, who has led the campaign for corporate reparations, told Reuters. The legal action is the latest attempt to have corporations recognize and repay profits they reaped from slavery....

I just got off the phone with Senator K. Hutchison's office in Dallas and the person at the office said that the senator regreted the "SEIGE" but that she thought the boy needed to be rescued so he could be with his father.

Police probe attack at Cuban diplomatic mission By George Gedda, Associated Press, 4/18/2000 18:00 WASHINGTON (AP) District police said Tuesday they have launched a criminal investigation into allegations that some 15 people from the Cuban diplomatic mission here assaulted Cuban-American protesters who were demanding that-year-old Elian Gonzalez remain in the United States. Some of the protesters suffered minor injuries in the fracas just before nightfall last Friday and were treated at local hospitals. The disclosure came as the State Department summoned a top Cuban diplomat here to express ''extreme concern'' over the beatings. The diplomat, asked for an explanation, did ...