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WASHINGTON - Democrats may have declared a one-year moratorium on pet projects treasured by members of Congress, but the move will hardly stop horse trading in Washington or moves by lawmakers to try to steer taxpayer money back home. Nor will it touch billions of dollars in already budgeted Pentagon earmarks, which go to everything from research into better body armor for overseas troops to finding bone marrow matches to treat leukemia patients. The temporary ban on earmarks — footnotes in spending bills that lawmakers use to deliver federal bacon to their states — has been greeted with applause by...

The ravaged neighborhoods of New Orleans make a grim backdrop for imagining the future of American cities. But despite its criminally slow pace, the rebuilding of this city is emerging as one of the most aggressive works of social engineering in America since the postwar boom of the 1950s. And architecture and urban planning have become critical tools in shaping that new order. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development’s plan to demolish four of the city’s biggest low-income housing developments at a time when the city still cannot shelter the majority...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2006 – Military officials in Afghanistan reported several new examples of ongoing progress: resumption of a road project in Paktika province, a new well for a school in Panjshir province, and the training of Afghan soldiers and police in the United States. Construction of the Naka Bazaar Cobblestone Road in Naika district has resumed after being halted in May due to security concerns, officials said. The project, which employs 60 local Afghans at an estimated cost of $199,000, will link villages in Paktika province and improve its economic viability. Taliban extremists dug up many of the cobblestones...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2006 – Steady progress is being made to provide new roads, electric power and water distribution systems to the Afghan people, the U.S. Army’s top engineer said today. The Taliban destroyed much of Afghanistan’s feeble infrastructure while they were in power, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock, commander and chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said from Afghanistan during a teleconference with Pentagon reporters. That’s why Afghanistan isn’t a reconstruction mission, Strock said. “This is a construction mission,” the three-star general said. “And, when you look at the resources available in this country, it’s going to...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2006 – Several construction projects in Afghanistan have recently been completed, and many more are close to completion, military officials in the Afghan capital of Kabul reported. The Khayr Khot Medical Clinic in Paktika province had a grand opening ceremony Oct. 14. The clinic will provide health care to citizens of the province’s Sharana district. The clinic complex consists of a building with five rooms, a bathroom and a guard post with perimeter wall. riginally built by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan in 1999, the facility needed significant repairs, coalition officials said. The refurbishment cost $120,000 and...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2006 – Iraq’s future success depends on the ability of its provinces to assume control of their governance, their security and their prosperity, the spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq said today in the southern Iraqi city of Hillah. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell spoke today during a meeting with the Babil Provincial Reconstruction Team, one of seven PRTs up and running in Iraq. Two of the seven PRTs, in Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, are slated to be inaugurated later this week and the following week, respectively, he said. Ultimately 10 PRTs will be operating around the country....

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2006 – More than 140 Afghan laborers are currently working to complete local dam and building construction projects worth a total of nearly half a million dollars, according to Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news releases. More than 90 Afghan workers are helping to build a water-retention dam on a natural waterway near the village of Rawza in Ghazni district, Ghazni province. Work on the $200,000 concrete dam began July 25, but much of the work was redone because of heavy rain and flooding that month. Work on the more than 45-foot-high dam is 25 percent complete. The...

An Iraqi construction worker pounds an iron rod into the ground at an electrical substation construction site in Shamia, June 25. The substation, once complete, will provide electricity to the residents of the town. Department of Defense photo by Air Force Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz. BAGHDAD -- While operations aimed at bolstering security in Iraq continue to move forward, quality of life projects - such as reconstruction, improving the health-care system and building the economy - are also finding success.According to a recent Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report, building an Iraqi health-care system based on primary...

MOSUL, Iraq (Army News Service, Aug. 21, 2006) – Three towns west of Mosul in northern Iraq are benefiting from several newly completed projects as a result of cooperation between local leadership, and members of the 403rd Civil Affairs Battalion. Local contractors completed construction of a new courthouse for the citizens of Sununi on Aug. 7. The month-long project employed 35 local workers and is expected to make the adjudication of laws easier for the judges in the Sunini sub-district by providing a place for judges to meet and hear cases. When inspecting the work, coalition force personnel assessed the...

Soldiers Complete Projects in Zafaraniya Soldiers from Forward Operating Base Loyalty completed several beautification and improvements projects in Zafaraniya during the month of July. By U.S. Army Sgt. Tanasha Stachelclzyk FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq, Aug. 15, 2006 – Multi-National Division – Baghdad soldiers from 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, completed several beautification and improvements projects in Zafaraniya and the area outside of FOB Loyalty during the month of July.The projects included five playgrounds, two soccer fields, a soccer park and a sewing co-op. “I have the best job. I get...

Iraqi Communities Benefit From Projects Local contractors, civilian work force, local neighborhoods benefit from Civil Affairs projects. By U.S. Army Spc. William Jones 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment TIKRIT, Iraq, July 17, 2006-- One Iraqi community after another is benefiting from the efforts of people working together to improve the infrastructure of Iraq after years of neglect and war and at the same time putting the labor force back to work. "This helps to improve their infrastructure and it gives them an economic base." Capt. Jonathan Walden These behind-the-scenes people are working closely with the local Iraqi leadership to...

BALAD, Iraq, July 16, 2006 – Civil affairs soldiers are here working to ensure local Iraqis have the strong foundation needed to rebuild and sustain their government long after the coalition leaves Iraq. Army Capt. Philip Zapien, civil affairs team leader for 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, finds himself wearing many different hats these days. The majority of his civil affairs team has been tasked to help another unit, leaving Zapien with just a couple of soldiers to complete missions. Though short-staffed, Zapien is determined to...

NEW ORLEANS — Hundreds of displaced public housing residents returned here for the first time since Hurricane Katrina over the last several days, armed with little more than cleaning supplies and frustration, in an attempt to force the city to reopen their storm-damaged apartments. The city, saying the projects are not ready, has refused. And so, outside the largest public housing complex, the St. Bernard Housing Development in the 7th Ward, tenant groups have organized evacuees into a tent city called "Survivors Village." Uptown, at the C.J. Peete Development, elderly residents, mostly women, broke into their old homes and carted...

HYDERABAD, India (AFP) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) can boost the fight against climate change by curbing funds for fossil fuel projects and supporting renewable energy, environmental watchdog Greenpeace International says. In a report titled "Irrelevance or Leadership," Greenpeace said if the ADB continued to fund coal-based projects it could fail in its mission to reduce poverty and promote development. "The main cause of climate change is our reliance on fossil fuels -- coal, oil and gas -- to produce energy and the solution is to shift to clean, renewable energy such as biomass, geothermal power plants and wind...

ORLANDO, Fla. - The cost of building roads has gotten so high, not even dirt is cheap anymore. As a result, many states are postponing scores of highway projects. The reconstruction work from the eight hurricanes that have hit the United States since 2004 has combined with a rise in population in some states to drive up the demand for labor, material and equipment. That, in turn, has pushed up wages and prices. Surging fuel prices, China's immense demand for concrete and steel and the reconstruction of Iraq are also pushing U.S. road construction costs higher. "We plan for cost...

MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. (March 16, 2006) -- Service members and employees of Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow judged some exceptional science projects for the Barstow Unified School District Science Fair March 9 at Barstow Community College's gymnasium. The fair is an annual event that is participated in by students who attend all schools within the Barstow area, said Danielle King, Barstow district science fair coordinator. Following the judging at the district fair, the students who received a gold ranking for their outstanding scientific intelligence are able to participate in the regional science fair, said King. Not all...

BAQUBAH, Iraq (Army News Service, March 14, 2006) – Challenges facing quality maintenance of a water treatment plant and a primary electrical sub-station northeast of Baghdad were laid out by Iraqi engineers during a tour by Coalition leaders March 9. Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, visited the Khatoon Water Compact Unit and the Al-Abarra Electric sub-station. Both facilities were in great need of refurbishment and oversight. Chiarelli spent the day with the command group of the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, and toured two of the brigade’s areas of...

In an unusual campaign to hedge their political bets, a coalition of 11 leading environmental groups has quietly drafted a ballot measure asking California voters next year to approve the largest parks and water bond in state history. The proposed measure, now awaiting a title and summary from California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, would raise $5.4 billion to shore up aging levees in San Francisco Bay's delta, build new drinking water treatment plants, fund flood control, restore salmon runs and purchase new parklands from Monterey Bay to Lake Tahoe to inner-city Los Angeles. --snip-- ``We're hopeful the governor and the...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 21, 2005 – Mosul is a microcosm of Iraq. It's the second-largest city in the country, and contains all kinds of people who make up the ethnic stew that is this nation. Shiia Arab, Sunni Arab, Kurds, Turkomen, ethnic Iranians, Assyrians and many other ethnicities settled in Mosul, taking advantage of its location astride ancient trading routes, and amid fertile land that turned the region into the wheat belt of the Middle East. The city is the capital of Ninewa province. In Judeo-Christian heritage, Ninevah was the home of the prophets Jonah and Isaiah, and it has the...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Iraq, Dec. 16, 2005 – Nothing makes Army Lt. Col. Jamie Gayton more angry than someone saying coalition projects in East Baghdad have no effect. "We are making a difference every day in the lives of average Iraqis," said Gayton, the commander of 2-3 Brigade Troops Battalion and responsible for coalition projects in East Baghdad. Sadr City is a part of the area of operations for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, a unit of the 3rd Infantry Division. Hundreds of projects in the area of 2.6 million people have changed life in the neighborhoods. When Americans...