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Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) on Tuesday called the sex scandal allegations against him “false” and said that the alleged hush money he paid his former mistress is a “private matter.” In a statement delivered in his district with his wife, Terry, by his side, Mahoney said he takes “full responsibility” for his actions and the pain he has caused his family. He offered vague statements about an arrangement that, as ABC News reported, he had with former aide Patricia Allen, which allegedly included more than $120,000 and a job to ward off a threatened lawsuit after Mahoney apparently fired Allen....

A big bank acquisition and hopes that a Wall Street bailout will pass Congress Friday afternoon pushed stocks higher, outweighing a weak jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which slid almost 350 points in the previous session, recently posted a 206-point gain, trading up 2%, at 10688.66. Investors' mood was boosted by news that Wachovia has agreed to sell itself to Wells Fargo in a $15.4 billion takeover that will require no government assistance, scrapping a federally backed deal with Citigroup. Wachovia shares surged more than 71% in recent action and Wells Fargo rose about 8% while Citi was...

SpaceX has made history. Its privately developed rocket has made it into space. After three failed launches, the company founded by Elon Musk worked all of the bugs out of their Falcon 1 launch vehicles. The entire spectacle was broadcast live from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. Cameras mounted on the spacecraft showed our planet shrinking in the distance and the empty first stage engine falling back to Earth. As the rocket ascended, cheers rang out during every crucial step of the launch sequence, and at the final stage their headquarters in Hawthorne, California erupted in excitement. The tensest...

The Falcon 1 booster redeemed itself Sunday with an electrifying launch that put an exclamation point on six years of hard work and disappointment for SpaceX, the startup company chartered to revolutionize space travel. The 70-foot-tall rocket successfully delivered a 364-pound hunk of aluminum to orbit on the launcher's fourth flight, ending a streak of three consecutive Falcon 1 failures dating back to 2006. "That was freakin' awesome," said Elon Musk, CEO and chief technical officer of Space Technologies Corp. Musk established SpaceX in 2002 and funded the company from the fortune he earned from starting Zip2 and PayPal. "We...

Q: That would be an area where you’d like to depart from the current course – because in the COTS program, both of the companies receiving NASA money are developing space capsules as well. A: You’re very observant, following my well-chosen words. I’m quite aware that a number of years ago, the Russians had a design that they tested with scale models. We re-engineered and studied it and renamed it the HL-20. … My group of engineers thought it was very, very attractive, and together with Raytheon we were working on a proposal… It really surprised us when the upper...

Which side are you on? The time is now for an American solution that will secure our families' health and a healthy economy. The first order of business for the new President and Congress in 2009 should be to pass health care legislation that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all. We are asking everyone to tell us which side you are on: - I’m for a guarantee of quality affordable health care for all.- I’m for leaving us on our own to buy private health insurance.Which Side Are You On?

The New York Federal Reserve's closed-door rule making with top players in the massive $60 trillion credit default swaps market came under legal fire on Sunday, as a fair finance activist filed a complaint questioning why it was done in the dark. "The Federal Reserve seems to think it can engage in rule making in secret only with the industry," said Matthew Lee, executive director of the New York-based non-profit group Inner City Press/Community on the Move. Lee filed the administrative complaint on Sunday with both the New York Fed and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. In the complaint,...

Private companies to take over failing NHS hospitals By Rebecca Smith and Andrew Porter Last Updated: 11:09PM BST 03/06/2008 Private companies are to be drafted in to run failing NHS hospitals for the first time, under plans to be announced. Poor managers are to be sacked without receiving large payouts and replaced by staff from profit-making companies who would be paid with public money. The NHS will retain ownership of hospital buildings and services but the private firm will "take over" the day to day running of the hospital. Ministers believe the proposals will drive up standards within the health...

Barack Obama is poised to run the first privately financed general-election presidential campaign since Watergate, giving him more control over his own operations than any candidate since 1972. Buoyed by record-setting fund raising, the Democratic front-runner already has laid the groundwork, through seeking a Federal Election Commission ruling, to reject traditional taxpayer funding for a contest this fall against Republican John McCain. If the Illinois senator were to win the Democratic nomination and take that option, he would be the first White House hopeful from either party to abandon completely the federal campaign-finance system, created in 1974. Obama spokesman Bill...

Democrats push to end private tax collectionsWed Jul 18, 2007 3:51PM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Wednesday moved to end a treasured Republican program that allows private debt collectors to pursue tax debts owed to the U.S. government. The House Ways and Means Committee, on a mostly party line vote of 23-18, approved a bill ending the program enacted in 2004 by the then Republican-led Congress. Democrats, who now control Congress, and unions opposed the program, saying it was a costly way to collect tax debts that could more efficiently be collected by IRS...

The state House on Thursday rejected a plan to give public money to parents to send their children to private schools. It's the third consecutive year the House has voted against establishing a voucher program. This time around, voucher supporters tried to attach three separate proposals to a bill allowing open enrollment in public schools. All three were defeated; two of them by slim margins. The emotional issue triggered some heated debate and brought a surprise appearance by Rep. James Smith, D-Columbia. Smith flew home from National Guard training in Kansas to vote on the controversial proposals. Rep. Bob Walker,...

NOIDA, India -- India's continued economic success depends in part on what's happening in this city on the outskirts of New Delhi, where construction workers lay brick for new science buildings, libraries and dormitories for the rapidly expanding Amity International School. Amity is part of a wave of private universities in India -- the most high-profile backed by the nation's business moguls -- that are sprouting up to meet the exploding demand for skilled workers. While the private universities are adding much-needed capacity, they are also raising questions about the quality of their degrees and the motives of some wealthy...

Across the country, state highway officials are almost giddy about the prospects of selling the right to build toll roads to private investors. Financial wizards have learned how to amass gigantic pools of capital to pay the states for the privilege. Prestigious financial institutions are promoting the new method of financing infrastructure as the greatest development since sliced bread. Left out of the equation is the consumer – the poor working stiff who has paid exorbitant local, state and federal taxes on every gallon of gasoline he ever purchased so that highway officials would have the funds necessary to construct...

Opposition is mounting against a proposal by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels for a private investor to design and build a 75-mile tolled loop around Indianapolis. About 300 people met last week in Martinsville, IN, according to one of the toll road opponents, Steve Bonney of West Lafayette, IN. More meetings are scheduled to take place later this week. Bonney was one of the plaintiffs last year who files a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of Daniels’ “Major Moves” transportation plan, which included the 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road to private investors. Bonney and others are on record on...

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Kevin Watt crouched down to search the rusted Cadillac he had stopped for cruising the parking lot of a Raleigh apartment complex with a broken light. He pulled out two open Bud Light cans, an empty Corona bottle, rolling papers, a knife, a hammer, a stereo speaker, and a car radio with wires sprouting out. "Who's this belong to, man?" Watt asked the six young Latino men he had frisked and lined up behind the car. Five were too young to drink. None had a driver's license. One had under his hooded sweat shirt the tattoo of...

Days ago, in a proposal unnoticed by the media, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced the largest land grab since President Clinton designated massive national monuments across the West. When Clinton decreed 1.9 million acres of federal land in Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to kill a vast underground coal mine that would have employed 1,000 locals in the most economically depressed region of southern Utah, generated $20 million in annual revenue, and produced environmentally - compliant coal for generating electricity, there were protests across the West. When the Bush Administration published its plans, there was...

Can science get by without your tax money? Just ask them over at IBM Science Notebook by Terence Kealey SCIENCE POLICY across the globe is but a series of footnotes to Vannevar Bush’s 1945 book Science: The Endless Frontier. Before the Second World War the US Government spent little on applied science and nothing on pure science. In 1940 its total research budget was only $74 million, mainly for defence and agriculture, when the private sector was spending $265million, of which $55 million was for pure science. Yet by 1940 America had long been the richest country in the world,...

THOMAS MENINO wants to make Boston wireless. From park benches or street corners, people would have low-cost access the Internet. Just as Oz is the Emerald City, Boston could become an Internet city, a place where life is enriched by the glow that radiates from a vibrant mix of online services. [...] Menino has three sound goals for wireless service in the city: close the digital divide; encourage economic development; and improve city services. Under this vision, the system would be built on lampposts, the outsides of buildings, and other structures. Bringing the service inside buildings would involve buying inexpensive...

Our Congress has gone off the deep end of an empty pool, they have flipped out, they are crazy. They have just spent the last half hour that I have seen, 1:30PM PST, discussing the huge problem of "Private Property Ownership,,, in Vietnam!!! Why do we send them to Washington? To work for us I thought. Why are they wasting our Dime on the problems of Vietnamese Citizens? What Wealthy Former vietnamese is pushing this resolution through Congress? Is it one of those that were working with the CIA-Air America drug smugglers of the 1960's?

Super Slab, the proposed 210-mile long road curving through Colorado's eastern plains from Fort Collins to Pueblo, has been reborn as the $2.5 billion "Prairie Falcon Parkway Express." The Front Range Toll Road Ltd., doing business as the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express Company, announced Monday it has filed a new corridor plan with the Colorado Secretary of State's office. The company is sending official notices via certified mail to owners of property along the project's path, said spokesman Jason Hopfer. About 4,000 notices were mailed, although the company figures there's only about 2,000 individual property owners -- some owning more...

SACRAMENTO - The California prison system, plagued by mismanagement and negligence in delivering health care to inmates, is ill-equipped to provide hospital services to prisoners and should let an independent health care provider take over, the state's corrections chief said Friday. "Clearly, I've seen examples where inmates are dying due to a lack of care in the system," Acting Corrections Secretary James Tilton said. "The facts are there: We have people not getting appropriate care." A federal receiver took control of the prisons' medical system in April after a U.S. District Court judge found that an average of one inmate...

From its beginnings in the 1950s, through the glory years of Apollo and to the present day, NASA has always owned and operated the rockets with which it launches crew and cargo into space. But last fall the agency attempted to kick start a quiet revolution in near-earth spaceflight. In an announcement, titled "Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS); Spaceflight Demonstrations," NASA requested proposals from companies interested in building and operating rockets that could reach the International Space Station and serve both government and private-sector customers (see "Private Space," March/April 2006).

When Richard Kinder left Enron in late 1996 he set out to build an empire out of the staid yet steady energy pipeline business. Nearly 10 years later he plans to take Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc., where he is chairman and chief executive, private in a $13.5 billion transaction that could be one of the largest such buyouts in U.S. corporate history. Kinder, along with members of his management team, board of directors and a group of investment firms, wants to give Kinder Morgan Inc. shareholders $100 cash for every share, an 18.5 percent premium over KMI's $84.41 closing price...

May 12, 2006 — Americans by nearly a 2-1 ratio call the surveillance of telephone records an acceptable way for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, expressing broad unconcern even if their own calling patterns are scrutinized. Lending support to the administration's defense of its anti-terrorism intelligence efforts, 63 percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the secret program, disclosed Thursday by USA Today, is justified, while far fewer, 35 percent, call it unjustified. Indeed, 51 percent approve of the way President Bush is handling the protection of privacy rights, while 47 percent disapprove — hardly a...

In a rousing speech that drew an overflow crowd to the University of Vermont on Friday, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama endorsed Bernie Sanders for U.S. Senate and Peter Welch for the U.S. House, saying the country could use a "nice cool blast of the truth." The rising star of the Democrats said Americans were starting to pay attention to their federal government and are ready for a "call to action." He called Sanders and Welch "two outstanding progressive candidates" who could bring about change in Washington He also praised former Gov. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who...

$10 million spent annually by district for classroom subs... Driven by parental concerns about teacher absenteeism, the Chicago Public Schools for the first time will start scrutinizing schools with high numbers of teachers taking sick days. On any given school day in Chicago, an average of 1,500 teachers, about 6 percent of the teaching staff, call in sick or take a personal day, according to a Tribune analysis of teacher payroll records. The absentee rate is highest on Fridays, when an average of 1,800 teachers don't show... For each of the last six school years, Chicago teachers missed an average...

The New York City teachers union has decided not to stage a demonstration at ABC's offices on Feb. 14 to protest John Stossel's recent 20/20 feature criticizing the public education system, Stossel said in an email to viewers of the show on Thursday. "They are apparently planning something else," he wrote. "Stay tuned." Earlier in the week, Stossel said that he had been scheduled to receive an award from the union's Social Studies Conference "for the oustanding work which you have done for social causes." However, he said, after the broadcast the union wrote a letter withdrawing the invitation and...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2006 – If you or another servicemember or military family you know needs help, the support you're seeking might be just a few clicks away on the "America Supports You" Web site. The green button on the www.AmericaSupportsYou.mil site takes military members to a long list resources and America Supports You partners, all standing by and ready to help, Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, told the American Forces Press Service. They include traditional military and government programs, but also corporate, grassroots and individual efforts that help meet needs the Defense Department...

For Immediate ReleaseOffice of the Press SecretaryFebruary 4, 2006 President's Radio Address      Audio      THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. This week in the State of the Union address, I set forth my American Competitiveness Initiative. This plan will help our Nation to compete with confidence, raise the standard of living for our families, and generate new jobs for our citizens. Generations of risk-takers, inventors, and visionaries have made America the world's most prosperous and innovative nation. Just 25 years ago, most Americans used typewriters instead of computers, rotary phones instead of cell phones, and bank tellers instead of ATMs. Today America...

It happened late in January on the FOX network's Hannity and Colmes program, with the pretty blonde, Estrich, in her abrasive voice subbing for the absent abrasive Colmes. The subject was eminent domain, a process by which a government "condemns" private property and takes it for "public" use. Until recently, I had never seen it used for any other purpose than to make way for a road or a public development of some kind. A park, a facility to keep equipment, like fire trucks, in a central location. A place to put a school. Those sorts of things. Then, the...

Jefferson might claim deals private 'Official acts' issue could play key role in case Saturday, January 21, 2006 By Bruce Alpert Washington bureau WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's public response to the federal government's investigation of his business dealings suggests his legal defense could be that his actions were distinct and separate from his congressional responsibilities and therefore not subject to federal bribery statutes, legal experts say. The New Orleans Democrat last week said he had never requested or accepted anything to "perform a service for which I have been elected." He said he is disappointed and perplexed by...

The Florida Supreme Court struck down a statewide voucher system Thursday that allowed children to attend private schools at taxpayer expense - a program Gov. Jeb Bush considered one of his proudest achievements. It was the nation's first statewide voucher program. In a 5-2 ruling, the high court said the program violates the Florida Constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public education. About 700 children are attending private or parochial schools through the program. But the ruling will not become effective until the end of the school year. Voucher opponents had also argued that the program violated the...

Oprah's Jet Grounded After Striking Bird Oprah Winfrey's private jet was forced to return to the city airport after its windshield was cracked in a collision with a bird, officials said. Winfrey and her boyfriend, Stedman Graham, were not hurt in the incident, which occurred around 12:30 p.m. Monday just after the GulfStream jet had taken off from Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, said Santa Barbara Fire Department spokesman John Ahlman. "This is not a totally unusual thing," Ahlman said of the cracked windshield. "We see these things pretty frequently." The plane will remain grounded until its windshield can be repaired,...

Private Military Companies, also known as PMC's, are changing the face of warfare. Private Military Companies have shown themselves able to operate more effectively at a lower total cost and with fewer friendly casualties than government-operated military forces. Under assault by insurgents and unable to rely on U.S. and coalition troops for intelligence or help under duress, private security firms in Iraq have begun to band together in the past 48 hours, organizing what may effectively be the largest private army in the world, with its own rescue teams and pooled, sensitive intelligence. Active military assistance operations conducted by private...

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis. The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of...

Florida School Board Sued for Unequal Education Friday, November 18, 2005 PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A first-of-its-kind class-action lawsuit in Pinellas County, Fla., could force the local school board to reveal how it teaches and disciplines its 20,000 black students, who struggle academically in disproportionate numbers to students of other races. "Public education, to me personally, is specifically set up to dumb us down," said William Crowley, who filed the lawsuit. Click in the video box to the right to watch a report by FOX News' Orlando Salinas. Crowley said the white-run school system allowed his son to fall behind....

Dell plant supporters oppose lawsuit 10/13/2005 9:21 AM By: Associated Press GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A motion filed in Wake County Superior Court asks for the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the roughly $300 million incentives deal with Dell Inc. The motion was filed Wednesday on behalf of the state, the city of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, Dell and others. The North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law charges in its lawsuit filed in June that the incentives violate state constitutional prohibitions against the use of public resources for private benefit and fail to treat taxpayers equally. In exchange for creating at least...

Date: 2005-09-22 Denial of Hurricane Aid to Catholic Schools Is Assailed U.S. Bishops' Aide Criticizes Senators Kennedy and Enzi WASHINGTON, D.C., SEPT. 22, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. bishops' secretary for education says that Senator Edward Kennedy's opposition to hurricane relief aid for private and religious schools "makes no sense." "Denying educational aid to victims of Katrina because they attended Catholic schools is like denying home repair assistance to anyone who is not in public housing," said Dominican Sister Glenn Anne McPhee. "Congress needs to reach out to help all afflicted by disaster, whatever their race, economic level, or school ties,"...

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - The largest private campground on the California coast could be forced to close one-third of its campsites after a report found its size is putting too much pressure on the nearby sand dunes and marsh environment. The environmental report ordered by Marin County also found that many facilities at the 180-acre Lawson's Landing are not up to health and safety codes. On peak days, the area draws 4,000 people to its 1,000 primitive campsites, 223 recreational vehicle sites and 200 day-use sites. Owners Nancy and Bill Vogler said they can't afford to upgrade the camp's aging...

Our so called Conservative majority in Congress passed by unanimous vote the National Heritage Area's Bill (See Senate Bill 243) along with (Senate Bill 54)on July 26, 2005.

SALISBURY - Rowan County officials paid private investigators more than $23,000 over the past five years to search for the writer of anonymous letters criticizing county spending. According to the private eyes, that person turned out to be one of the county's own. The Board of Commissioners never discussed or approved spending for the investigation at any formal meeting. Only County Manager Tim Russell, his assistants and possibly two commissioners' chairmen knew of the investigation, The Salisbury Post reported. Russell said he hired the agency because of the letters' threatening tone. The investigation was revealed after Kiker Investigations issued a...

Ever since Michael Griffin took the reins of NASA three months ago, the space community has been eagerly awaiting how he would put his stamp on the Vision for Space Exploration. It was almost certain that the new leadership would change the agency’s approach to implementing the Vision, based on actions such as the reshuffling of personnel, the curtailing of the extensive “roadmapping” activity that Griffin’s predecessor, Sean O’Keefe, had started, and the initiation of new architecture studies. The evidence for change is there, but what those changes will be have yet to be formally announced. Nonetheless, the are some...

The five-four decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Susette Kelo et al v City of New London, Connecticut et al (June 23, 2005) well could trigger the terrifying risk to private property which Justice Sandra Day O'Connor envisions in her Dissent (joined by the Chief Justice and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas): " . . . Under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner . . . who will use it in a way that the legislature deems more beneficial to the...

San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and his chief policy aide acknowledged this week that they privately agreed in the fall of 2000 to support a future pay increase for recycling workers -- a move that hid the true cost of the city's garbage contract from the city council, the public and competing companies. Through a spokesman, Gonzales on Thursday said he learned months before the city council approved an 11-year agreement with Norcal Waste Systems that there would be additional costs associated with the $250 million deal. However, Gonzales said he did not know the exact amount of those costs....

Last month the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Connecticut case of Kelo vs. New London, gave local governments the power to seize the homes of property owners and give the land to private companies. Florida Attorney General Charles Crist and other sources have been quoted as saying that Floridians don’t have to worry about this decision because state law provides greater protection for private-property owners than the U.S. Constitution or Connecticut law. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Florida’s Community Redevelopment Act that allows “blighted” areas to be condemned by local governments under eminent domain gives public entities unbridled discretion in...

JACKSON, Miss. - A Christian adoption agency that receives money from “Choose Life” license plate fees said it does not place children with Roman Catholic couples because their religion conflicts with the agency’s “Statement of Faith.” Bethany Christian Services stated the policy in a letter to a Jackson couple this month, and another Mississippi couple said they were rejected for the same reason last year. “It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our Statement of Faith,” Bethany’s state director Karen Stewart wrote. “Our practice to not accept applications from Catholics was an effort to be good...

The theme of this year's Return To The Moon conference is "Reality Check" and represents the fact that the time for tangible results has arrived. To illustrate a "reality check" for the entrepreneurial approach to lunar development a panel session on Enabling Technologies will be held to highlight those companies who are building real businesses for lunar oriented markets. The panel session will be an opportunity for each company to be able to pitch itself and its products to an audience of other entrepreneurs, NASA leaders, media, and potential investors. No other lunar specific venue provides the same level of...

All bets will be off July 21-23 at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas as private industry and NASA representatives meet to tackle the challenges of returning humans to the Moon. "Return to the Moon VI: Reality Check," managed by the nonprofit Space Frontier Foundation, has slapped a 10-year container around conference content in order to focus on near-term realities and leave traditional, idealized concepts behind. "Return to the Moon VI" starts just two days following public release of NASA's Space Exploration Architecture Study? a key document expected to restructure the exploration initiative at NASA and provide assessments of technologies...

The New York Times welcomed the Supreme Court's recent endorsement of virtually unfettered eminent domain powers as "a setback to the 'property rights' movement." The fact that the Times not only celebrated a defeat for property rights but felt a need to put the phrase in scare quotes speaks volumes about the left-liberal misconceptions that have been brought to the fore by the Court's decision in Kelo v. New London. According to the Court, the Fifth Amendment, which allows the government to take property "for public use" provided it pays "just compensation," is a license to transfer any parcel of...

American public schools can be described in only one way: an unmitigated failure. The government has created an educational system free of the checks and balances that normally guide success and encourage innovation in the marketplace, namely, profit and loss in a setting of open competition. Instead, government schools shelter teachers through life-long tenure, virtually eliminating all accountability about what and how subjects are taught in the classroom. Furthermore, there are few incentives for cost-efficiency because this could result in budget reductions. Instead, whenever there seems to be a “learning problem,” the cry is for more of the taxpayers’ money....