Free Republic

March 1, 2004, 11:09PM Stake in area nuclear plant sold DALLAS — A subsidiary of American Electric Power has agreed to sell its 25.2 percent stake in the South Texas Project nuclear plant to a unit of Cameco, a Canadian uranium supplier, for $332.6 million. AEP valued the share at about $1.5 billion as recently as Dec. 31. The company said Monday it would ask the Texas Public Utility Commission to recover the difference of nearly $1.2 billion from customers of its Texas Central Co. subsidiary, formerly known as Central Power and Light. In effect, AEP claims it could not...

March 1, 2004, 10:21PM Outsourcing 101: Preparing for the real world Associated Press CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In a crowded MIT classroom, 55 aspiring executives grill a veteran consultant on the hot topic of outsourcing. Their first questions are economic ones, about the cost-benefit analysis the students may be doing next year for real companies. How do you decide what operations can go offshore? What are the hidden costs? How much can you really save? But eventually the human factor arises. One student questions whether software engineers can really collaborate as easily across continents as across cubicles. "I don't know how software...

Feb. 29, 2004, 4:32PM South Texas town under boil order Associated Press CUERO -- A boil order in this South Texas town remained in effect today, two days after high levels of bacteria were found in the water supply. The order was issued Friday, when routine testing revealed high levels of fecal coliform. The bacteria is especially risky to children and can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. Officials urged the city's 6,000 residents to either boil tap water or use bottled water for cooking and drinking. No infections have been reported so far, the DeWitt County Sheriff's office said....

Feb. 29, 2004, 12:23AM City faces $1 billion pension shortfall Taxpayers may have to foot bill for generous benefits By DAN FELDSTEIN and KRISTEN MACK Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle The city of Houston's main pension program has a billion-dollar funding shortfall because benefits have been boosted so high that many employees will earn more in retirement than they received while working, according to a report obtained by the Chronicle. A few will retire as millionaires. To properly reduce the shortfall, taxpayers would have to put nearly $100 million extra into the fund next year, according to an analysis prepared for...

D-FW jobs luring immigrants Market helping drive demographic shift in Texas cities 01:41 PM CST on Saturday, February 28, 2004 By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News Dallas may pride itself on old money and glitz, but over the last two decades it has become a kind of Ellis Island – one of the nation's key immigration gateways. Its foreign-born population shot up more than 500 percent from 1980 to 2000. Only two U.S. metropolitan areas saw greater change: Atlanta, with more than an 800 percent increase in foreign-born residents, and Las Vegas, with more than a 600 percent...

Feb. 18, 2004, 11:07PM Kerry letters aided embattled contractor Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sent 28 letters in behalf of a San Diego defense contractor who pleaded guilty last week to illegally funneling campaign contributions to the Massachusetts senator and four other congressmen.

GM workers reject labor deal Arlington employees expected to vote again after new round of talks 09:00 PM CST on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 By TERRY BOX / The Dallas Morning News Workers at the General Motors Corp. truck plant in Arlington voted Tuesday and Wednesday to reject a new local labor agreement with management. Both sides said they expect a second vote to be scheduled in the next few months after a new round of negotiations. Pete Higgins, shop chairman of United Auto Workers Local 276, was not available for comment on the vote Wednesday. Jimmy Conway, president...

DA's office looking into campaign contributions State Republican PAC denies that it laundered money through RNC 09:41 PM CST on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 By CHRISTY HOPPE and GEORGE KUEMPEL / The Dallas Morning News AUSTIN – A political committee connected to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay sent $190,000 in what internal memos say were corporate donations to the Republican National Committee, which then doled out the same amount to seven candidates in Texas House races. It is illegal in Texas to use corporate money in political races, and some open-government advocates suggest the transaction smells of a money-laundering...

Feb. 10, 2004, 11:43PM INTERVIEW: SPENCER ABRAHAM Let the market work, energy secretary says The following is an interview by staff writer Laura Goldberg with U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, before his speech at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates annual energy conference in Houston. Q. Your reaction to OPEC's decision to cut production Tuesday? A. We, as a policy, don't comment on specific OPEC decisions and haven't in our administration. However, I've been saying for a long time, and I think the decision announced today confirms the importance of letting the market make these decisions. We should let the market...

UTA didn't check ex-prof's references Former city attorney's classroom demeanor upset, scared students 09:36 PM CST on Friday, February 6, 2004 By EMILY RAMSHAW and TERRI LANGFORD / The Dallas Morning News Officials at the University of Texas at Arlington said they made no reference checks before hiring a communication law professor who wept during his first lecture and talked about his sexuality and the devil. Had the university made one phone call to lawyer Ronnie Robert Molina's previous employer – the Dallas city attorney's office – officials would have found out that he was fired from his job as...

Ordeal finally ends for family By JULISSA McKINNONBEE STAFF WRITER Last Updated: February 6, 2004, 07:23:51 AM PST After surviving a head-on collision in Mexico, three members of a Waterford family were eager to end their three-week-stay in a foreign hospital and get home. Luz Maria Saldivar and her children, 15-year-old Natalie and 13-year-old Norberto Jr., needed to pay their respects to Norberto Saldivar Sr. and 12-year-old Gerardo, who both died in the Jan. 14 crash. Their bodies were flown home and were buried at Lakewood Memorial Park, Hughson. The family had been driving on a desert highway in Mexico,...

Feb. 4, 2004, 10:41PM Workers expecting the worst on retirement benefits Associated Press NEW YORK -- Workers expect employers to cut more of their retirement benefits, and three-quarters of companies have either done so or plan to, a new survey says. More than 40 percent of the employers queried have reduced medical benefits for workers who will retire in the future and an additional 35 percent said they are likely to do so, according to the survey released Wednesday by personnel consulting firm Towers Perrin. More than two-thirds of the employers said they have shifted more medical costs to their current...

Feb. 4, 2004, 10:46PM EXPLORATION AND PRODUCTION In times of plenty, they don't flash cash Energy giants plan no burst of drilling By NELSON ANTOSH Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Oil and gas companies have been reporting stunning profits. Houston-based Burlington Resources, Anadarko Petroleum and Apache Corp. all earned well over $1 billion last year. The biggest of them all, Exxon Mobil, racked up $21.5 billion in profits for 2003, which may be the most ever earned by any corporation. With billions in profits under their belts and continued high oil and natural gas prices, the obvious move would be an...

Feb. 3, 2004, 10:33PM Suit claims energy manipulation continues Bloomberg News Texas Commercial Energy, a closely held electricity retailer, has amended a lawsuit claiming that power suppliers in the state continue to manipulate prices while regulators ignore the practice. Texas Commercial's amended complaint includes excerpts of recorded phone conversations in which traders discuss how to take advantage of market participants, Michael Shirley, chief executive of the Allen-based company, said in a prepared statement. Defendants named in the revised petition, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi, include units of Houston-based Reliant Resources, TXU, American Electric Power, Mirant, Automated...

Bill to suspend electric deregulation fails By LARRY O'DELL Associated Press Writer RICHMOND, Va. A legislative committee handed the state's largest utility a victory Tuesday, tabling a bill that would indefinitely suspend electric deregulation in Virginia.Dominion Virginia Power strongly opposed Del. Harvey Morgan's bill, which the House Commerce and Labor Committee shelved on a 15-6 vote.The vote does not technically kill the measure, but its prospects for reconsideration and approval appear slim. Three other bills to either slow down or end deregulation are still in play in the House.The Senate has passed a bill proposed by the Warner administration and...

Dallas parents approve paddling Almost 3,300 say Dallas principals may use corporal punishment 08:40 PM CST on Sunday, February 1, 2004 By TOYA LYNN STEWART / The Dallas Morning News The parents of nearly 3,300 Dallas students say corporal punishment is acceptable for their children. A policy change at the beginning of the school year banned paddling except in cases where parents give written permission. So far, 3,274 parents have consented, and 147 students have been paddled, officials said. "Paddling is a part of a principal's tool box," said Dallas school district trustee Ron Price. "It's not the first tool...

Drug report barred by FDA Scientist links antidepressants to suicide in kids Rob Waters, Special to The Chronicle Sunday, February 1, 2004 A scientist at the Food and Drug Administration has been barred from publicly presenting his finding that several leading antidepressants may increase the risk of suicidal behaviors among children, according to sources inside the FDA. FDA medical officer Andrew Mosholder was to present his report Monday at an FDA advisory hearing in Washington that promises to be a contentious affair involving competing medical experts and parents whose children took their own lives while on the medications. A...

br>Jan. 29, 2004, 11:43PM Medicare law's cost will soar by billions Budget deficit to balloon past half-trillion mark By AMY GOLDSTEIN Washington Post WASHINGTON -- The White House has concluded that adding prescription drug benefits to Medicare will cost one-third more than the $400 billion advertised by Congress and the administration when President Bush signed the bill into law less than two months ago, federal sources said Thursday. The budget Bush is to propose Monday will explain that the new Medicare law -- which sets in motion the largest expansion of the program in its history -- will require $534...

Homeless weigh in on city's plans Placement of assistance center concerns those it would help 08:54 PM CST on Thursday, January 29, 2004 By KIM HORNER / The Dallas Morning News James Blount has a simple reason for wanting the city of Dallas to build a homeless-assistance center on Industrial Boulevard. "It's close enough that I could walk," said Mr. Blount, who has been homeless for 17 years. Nathan Searcy doesn't mind another proposed location eight miles away, as long as it offers job training. "I want to work. I don't mind working, and I can do anything," Mr. Searcy...

Jan. 28, 2004, 11:53PM Bush to eliminate N-plant standards Plan to let contractors devise new rules By NANCY ZUCKERBROD Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is moving to replace government safety standards at federal nuclear facilities with requirements written by contractors -- after Congress directed it to start fining the contractors for violations. Long-established government minimum standards at the more than two dozen nuclear weapons plants and research labs around the nation would become unenforceable guidelines under the Energy Department proposal. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., an author of the 2002 legislation ordering the fines, accused the administration of distorting...