The Cheney Observer
Exelon and PSEG to join forces
20-12-04 Exelon is acquiring Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) in a $ 12 bn stock deal that would create the nation's largest power generation company with customers in Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50321.htm
Halliburton to cut jobs and reduce employee benefits
17-12-04 US oilfield service company Halliburton is cutting jobs and reducing employee benefits at its subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root.
The cutbacks come as KBR admitted in a letter to staff that it had lost "several major bids" in the Europe/Africa region worth more than $ 1 bn in the past two years and that "competitors are significantly outperforming KBR".
However, KBR could face legal problems in its efforts to cut costs at its UK division, which employs 3,000 people.
KBR has told them that, if they decline to accept new employment contracts, they will have their employment terminated but will not be entitled to redundancy payments.
Source: Neftegaz.RU
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50329.htm
Oil market's volatility could mean lost revenue when hedging the wrong way
by Lisa Sanders
18-12-04 While lofty crude oil prices handed oil companies their best year ever, oil executives should take a moments to thank those who frosted their cake in December -- the speculators.
With fund managers constantly on the prowl for lucrative plays, this fall investors and hapless consumers saw clear evidence that these managers pounced on commodities, spurring frenzy in the trading pits of New York and London.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50325.htm
ChevronTexaco announces 2005 capital spending program
19-12-04 ChevronTexaco announced a $ 10 bn capital and exploratory (C&E) spending program for 2005, which includes $ 1.8 bn for the company's share of affiliate expenditures. While actual 2004 C&E expenditures will not be known until year-end, they are estimated to be in the range of the 2004 budgeted amount of $ 8.5 bn.
"Our capital program continues to target our strategies to focus on high-return upstream growth projects, to commercialise our company's large natural gas resource base and to enhance the financial returns in our downstream business. These are the right strategies at the right time and continue to yield very strong results," said ChevronTexaco Chairman and CEO Dave O'Reilly.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50323.htm
Energy firms donate to President Bush's inauguration fund
18-12-04 More than $ 4.5 mm from the corporate world has flowed to President Bush's inauguration fund, much of it from the energy industry and some of its executives in contributions of $ 250,000 each.
Outside the energy sector, New Orleans Saints football team owner Tom Benson gave $ 50,000 and his companies gave $ 200,000, the fund reported. Northrop Grumman, the world's largest shipbuilder and second-largest US defence contractor, donated $ 100,000.
Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., the world's largest personal computer maker, gave $ 250,000. So did United Technologies, maker products ranging from escalators to aircraft engines.
Investment banking firm Stephens Group of Little Rock, Arkansas, gave $ 250,000. And the education loan firm Sallie Mae gave $ 250,000. Occidental Petroleum, whose business stands to benefit from the president's actions concerning Libya, donated $ 250,000, as did ExxonMobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company. ExxonMobil reported record third-quarter profits, thanks to higher prices for oil and natural gas.
In April, Bush took steps to restore normal trade and investment ties with Libya, enabling four American oil companies, including Occidental, to resume commercial activities there after an 18-year absence. Bush's action was a reward to Muammar Gaddafi for eliminating his most destructive weapons programs.
Other donors from the energy sector included Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, who gave $ 250,000; and former Enron President Richard Kinder, who left the firm five years before it collapsed and now is CEO of one of the largest energy transportation and storage companies in the country. Kinder also gave $ 250,000.
Energy provider Southern Co., which owns utility companies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, gave $ 250,000.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization of the nuclear industry, gave $ 100,000.
Source: Associated Press
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50327.htm
Duke Energy to invest $ 1 bn in gas infrastructure
17-12-04 Duke Energy plans to invest about $ 1 bn over several years to expand its natural gas pipeline system and storage capacity.
Duke expects to spend $ 350 mm to $ 400 mm annually to expand in the area, keeping pace with growing US demand for LNG.
Charlotte-based Duke is a diversified energy company.
Source: Charlotte Business Journal
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50330.htm
Rocky Mountains may hold 800 bn cf of raw gas
by Patrick Brethour and Dave Ebner
17-12-04 For decades, what lies beneath the limestone shelf deep below the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains has been a mystery to energy companies, left to guess what kind of energy riches might be trapped underneath in the ancient coral. The sound waves used to map oil and natural-gas reservoirs simply could not make their way through the folds of the mountain range and the limestone.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50331.htm
Global LNG sector poised for accelerated expansion
16-12-04 The LNG industry is poised to enter a period of accelerated expansion driven by "steadily increasing" global gas demand, high market prices and falling units costs of production and delivery, Moody's Investors Service said in an Industry Outlook report.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50332.htm
ConocoPhillips announces exploration and development plan
11-12-04 ConocoPhillips plans to spend about $ 700 mm in Alaska next year on exploration and production activity. Executives with the Houston-based energy firm said the planned spending is part of a $ 6.9 bn global capital budget.
The company also will commit $ 1.4 bn for exploration and production in the North Sea and West Africa; $ 900 mm for the Asia Pacific region; $ 900 mm for the Lower 48 and Latin America; $ 700 mm for Canada; and $ 400 mm for Russia and the Caspian Sea region.
The Alaska money will go toward drilling four North Slope exploratory wells this winter, plus work to possibly develop oil from "satellite" oil accumulations near the Alpine oil field. The company also plans to continue a major project to boost production of so-called heavy oil from the North Slope's massive but technically difficult West Sak field.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50336.htm
ConocoPhillips and Anadarko approve development of Alpine satellites
20-12-04 ConocoPhillips and Anadarko Petroleum announced that the companies have approved the development of two Alpine satellite oil fields on Alaska's North Slope. The project was sanctioned following recent favourable Record of Decision rulings from the Bureau of Land Management and the Corps of Engineers on the Alpine Satellites Environmental Impact Statement.
The project will include two satellite drill sites -- CD 3 on the Fiord oil field, and CD 4 on the Nanuq oil field. Both will be located within an 8-mile radius from the ConocoPhillips-operated Alpine oil field on the border of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn50322.htm
Chesapeake Energy to drill up to 50 gas wells in Texas
06-12-04 Oklahoma City-based natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy will pay Hallwood Energy of Cleburne $ 277 mm for 18,000 acres of leases and 42 wells in the Barnett Shale in northern Johnson County.
Chesapeake, which in the last four quarters has reported $ 2.2 bn in revenue and $ 376 mm in net income, said it plans to devote three rigs full time to drill 45 to 50 wells in Johnson County next year. Total spending in Johnson County is expected to amount to $ 100 mm next year.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn45114.htm
Heavy explosion at chemical plant in Texas
04-12-04 An explosion at a chemical plant that could be heard 20 miles away caused a large fire and sent up massive clouds of smoke. No casualties were reported.
Several tanks and a building were on fire at the Marcus Oil & Chemical plant, but officials did not know what caused the explosion or what was in the tanks, said Tommy Dowdy, a district chief with the Houston Fire Department. Streets were closed off around the plant, but there were no evacuations. Dowdy said the three people on duty at the plant were not near the explosion.
Lenny Ogle, manager of a gas station half a mile away, said the explosion shot flames about 75 feet in the air. Houston Fire Department District Chief Phil Boriskie said a hazardous materials team was conducting an evaluation. He said there were no reports of chemical exposure.
According to reports, Marcus Oil & Chemical, owned by privately held HRD Corporation, makes polyethylene waxes.
Source: Suni System
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn45115.htm
Kerr-McGee to acquire BP’s stake in Gulf of Mexico discovery
30-11-04 Houston-based Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas plans to acquire BP's 37.5 % working interest in the Blind Faith discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in exchange for Kerr-McGee's interests in various oil and gas assets in the Arkoma basin of Southeast Oklahoma.
The exchange, which includes extra cash compensation from Kerr-McGee, a unit of Oklahoma City-based Kerr-McGee, is expected to close during the first quarter of 2005.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn45119.htm
ChevronTexaco to build six hydrogen fuelling stations
by David R. Baker
24-11-04 In a corporate parking lot in Chino, ChevronTexaco is building what looks like a gas station. It isn't, at least not quite. When finished in February, the small structure under a swooping canopy in the San Bernardino County town will dispense hydrogen for fuelling experimental cars.
ChevronTexaco, the United States' second-largest oil company, has started exploring hydrogen, the energy source some environmentalists hope will one day replace oil.
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnn44904.htm
Our Common Cause: Money for aid, not war
March 20 marks the second anniversary of the start of the criminal war on Iraq. Today, Iraq lies in ruins; its own people have become prisoners of war and terror. The war and occupation has brought neither freedom nor democracy. The elections have done nothing to change this.
Already more than 100,000 Iraqis have been killed, almost as many as perished in the recent tsunami disaster. Iraq's infrastructure has been devastated and its environment polluted for thousands of years through the use of depleted uranium weapons.
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/618/618p7b.htm
More leaks
Sunday, March 6, 2005
The latest bad news from the Big Dig is that inspectors have identified 20 cases of damaged fire-proofing material and six more leaky concrete panels. Even before it is completed, the nation's most expensive construction project is cementing its reputation as the most wasteful and inept.
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=92374
Botched Sgrena Hit Does Not Bode Well for Bush and Berlusconi
Kurt Nimmo
March 06, 2005
Newspapers across the United States are publishing and posting the same story by Frances D’Emilio on the shooting of Giuliana Sgrena and the murder of Nicola Calipari. The story is entitled “Story of Italian Hostage’s Release Unclear” and it is divided between the “circumstances” surrounding Sgrena’s release and the “friendly fire incident” that killed Calipari and wounded Sgrena. D’Emilio, however, left out a few important facts, as noted by Lew Rockwell < http://blog.lewrockwell.com/ >:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m10165&l=i&size=1&hd=0
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
George Walker Bush & Richard Cheney are killing wild dolphins with the nations Navy.
I imagine Bush is laughing up a good one along with his other sadistic staff. Go ahead. Laugh and kill all over the globe. When you've destroyed everything I am sure you will all be better men for it.
I should be there but I have too much responsibility here right now.
The Miami Herald
THE NAVY IS KILLING MARINE MAMMALS
Dolphins stranded on day of sub mission
BY JENNIFER BABSON
jbabson@herald.com
KEY WEST - A nuclear-powered submarine used two different types of active sonar to navigate over several days as it trained off the Florida Keys last week, including the day of a massive dolphin stranding in Marathon, the U.S. Navy said late Monday.
At the time, the submarine was approximately 39 nautical miles southwest of Marathon, where about 80 rough-toothed dolphins -- nearly 30 of which have since died -- beached suddenly late Wednesday.
WHY don't they try the Sonar out on their own specimans first? Do we actually trust the Navy with Marine Mammals at all?
US Navy Marine Mammal Program
Everyone is familiar with security patrol dogs. You may even know that because of their exceptionally keen sense of smell, dogs like beagles are also used to detect drugs and bombs, or land mines. But a dog would not be effective in finding a sea mine. Sea mines are sophisticated, expensive weapons that are designed to work in the ocean where they can sink ships, destroy landing craft, and kill or injure personnel. Sea mines are made so that they cannot be set off easily by wave action or marine animals growing on or bumping into them. If undetected, sea mines can be deadly, destructive weapons. But just as the dog's keen sense of smell makes it ideal for detecting land mines, the U.S. Navy has found that the biological sonar of dolphins, called echolocation, makes them uniquely effective at locating sea mines so they can be avoided or removed. Other marine mammals like the California sea lion also have demonstrated the ability to mark and retrieve objects for the Navy in the ocean. In fact, marine mammals are so important to the Navy that there is an entire program dedicated to studying, training, and deploying them. It is appropriately called the Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP).
I should be there but I have too much responsibility here right now.
The Miami Herald
THE NAVY IS KILLING MARINE MAMMALS
Dolphins stranded on day of sub mission
BY JENNIFER BABSON
jbabson@herald.com
KEY WEST - A nuclear-powered submarine used two different types of active sonar to navigate over several days as it trained off the Florida Keys last week, including the day of a massive dolphin stranding in Marathon, the U.S. Navy said late Monday.
At the time, the submarine was approximately 39 nautical miles southwest of Marathon, where about 80 rough-toothed dolphins -- nearly 30 of which have since died -- beached suddenly late Wednesday.
WHY don't they try the Sonar out on their own specimans first? Do we actually trust the Navy with Marine Mammals at all?
US Navy Marine Mammal Program
Everyone is familiar with security patrol dogs. You may even know that because of their exceptionally keen sense of smell, dogs like beagles are also used to detect drugs and bombs, or land mines. But a dog would not be effective in finding a sea mine. Sea mines are sophisticated, expensive weapons that are designed to work in the ocean where they can sink ships, destroy landing craft, and kill or injure personnel. Sea mines are made so that they cannot be set off easily by wave action or marine animals growing on or bumping into them. If undetected, sea mines can be deadly, destructive weapons. But just as the dog's keen sense of smell makes it ideal for detecting land mines, the U.S. Navy has found that the biological sonar of dolphins, called echolocation, makes them uniquely effective at locating sea mines so they can be avoided or removed. Other marine mammals like the California sea lion also have demonstrated the ability to mark and retrieve objects for the Navy in the ocean. In fact, marine mammals are so important to the Navy that there is an entire program dedicated to studying, training, and deploying them. It is appropriately called the Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP).
Morning Paper's - It's Origin
Sorry this is late. Computer trouble.
Traveling on a Highway of Dread
A reporter recalls her own wary journey on airport road hours before an ex-hostage was shot.
By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — The route runs through a broad and flat landscape, bare but for a few date palms rising tall and dignified and the occasional small bush. Goats mill about, shepherded by young boys or old men. Except for the litter of plastic bottles and bags, the scene is almost pastoral, peaceful.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-airportroad7mar07,0,902949.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Bush to Nominate John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador
From Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, whose strong statements on North Korea's nuclear program irked the leaders in Pyongyang, is President Bush's choice to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, three government officials said today.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-030705bolton_wr,0,6649386.story?coll=la-home-headlines
The Gulf News
US may have tried to kill me, says Sgrena
Rome: The Italian journalist wounded by American troops in Iraq after her release by insurgents rejected the US military's account of the shooting and declined to rule out the possibility she was deliberately targeted.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=155131
Pipeline diplomacy in South Asia
By C. Raja Mohan
The recent visits to India by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi were both focused on building energy linkages between the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and the Gulf region.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=155045
Michael Moore Today
"I can think of 80 reasons to do this in Fayetteville and every one of those has a name and every single one of them has a tombstone because they were from our community and they were killed because they were sent to war based on lies."
Veterans and families rally against the war
By Stacy Neumann / News 14 Carolina
Organizers of an upcoming peace rally in Fayetteville expect thousands to attend. Among the attendees will be people from the group "Military Families Speak Out."
Lou Plummer wants Rowan Park's lawn filled with people who want the same thing he does.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1693
White House Approves Pass for Blogger
By Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times
Another signal moment for bloggers is to occur this morning, when Garrett M. Graff, who writes a blog about the news media in Washington, is to be ushered into the White House briefing room to attend the daily press "gaggle."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1706
Shootings by U.S. at Iraq Checkpoints Questioned
By R. Jeffrey Smith and Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post
The deadly shooting of an Italian intelligence officer by U.S. troops at a checkpoint near Baghdad on Friday was one of many incidents in which civilians have been killed by mistake at checkpoints in Iraq, including local police officers, women and children, according to military records, U.S. officials and human rights groups.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1709
It's a Family Affair: Uncle Bucky makes a killing
By Jeffrey St. Clair / Bloomington Alternative
Back in 1991, shortly after the depleted uranium-flaked dust had settled some from the first Gulf War, there was a minor tempest in the press over influence peddling by members of the President George H. W. Bush's family, including his son Neil and his brother Prescott, Jr. Both Neil and Prescott, neither of whom had proven to be exceptionally talented businessmen, had made millions by flagrantly trading on their relationship to the president.
Seeking to distinguish himself from his more predatory relatives, William Henry Trotter Bush, the younger brother of Bush Sr. and an investment banker in St. Louis, gave an interview to disclaim any profiteering on his own part. Indeed, he sounded downright grumpy, as if his older brother hadn't done enough to steer juicy government deals his way. "Being the brother of George Bush isn't a financial windfall by any stretch of the imagination," huffed William H.T. Bush.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1698
"After you've been in hell, nothing's ever really the same again."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
They're back from Iraq, but are they OK?
Ephrata guard unit loses no lives, but life is different
By M.L. Lyke / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A guardsman walks into a local Wal-Mart, freaks, does a 180, and walks back out again. Even after seven months, he can't stand the crowds. Another jerks awake in the middle of the night, holding an imagined gun at his wife's temple.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1713
Many Missteps Tied to Delay in Armor for Troops in Iraq
By Michael Moss / New York Times
The war in Iraq was hardly a month old in April 2003 when an Army general in charge of equipping soldiers with protective gear threw the brakes on buying bulletproof vests.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1710
I've loved horses since I was a girl.
Police: Monroe stable fire doesn't appear suspicious
Investigators spent Monday morning sifting through what remained of a stable where 21 horses were killed in a fast-moving fire Sunday at the Meadowbrook Inn & Riding Club on Cherry Lane in Pocono Township.
"They are digging through it now," said Pocono Township Police Sgt. Phil Riley. He said the cause of the fire had not been determined, but "it doesn't appear suspicious."
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_3horsesmar07,0,2788208.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed
FALLON BACKS FORTUNE FOR STOUTE JOB
Kieren Fallon believes Jimmy Fortune would be his natural successor as stable jockey to Sir Michael Stoute.
Fallon quit the position last month to become the retained rider at Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard and the Newmarket handler has yet to announce who will take over.
http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/story_get.dor?STORY_NAME=racing/05/03/07/RACING_Fallon.html
Nation's Law Makers Hear about Horses at Risk; Events at Capitol Intended to Save Wild Horses from Slaughter
3/7/2005 7:00:00 AM
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Trina Bellak, Esq., 866-983-3456
News Advisory:
-- Events at Nation's Capitol Intended to Save 8,000-plus Wild Horses from Slaughter and to Help Pass Bills to End All Horse Slaughter in the United States
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43922
Students research, raise horses for coming auction
By Michael Robot
Published: 3/7/2005
Page 1 of 2
A group of Cook College students will auction off a set of horses they have raised and researched since September, in an expanded program at the Equine Science Center that may raise thousands of dollars.
Over 30 students in the North American Equine Ranching Information Council's Young Horse Teaching and Research Program have been involved in studies with 12 yearlings that will culminate in the sixth annual benefit auction on May 1 at the Round House on Cook campus.
http://www.dailytargum.com/news/2005/03/07/PageOne/Students.Research.Raise.Horses.For.Coming.Auction-887173.shtml
Friesian Horses for Sale: Friesian Horses ‘Interviewed' Before they are Offered for Sale
(PRLEAP.COM) SOLVANG, CA March 7, 2005 — When it comes to the purchase of a Friesian horse, the last thing a buyer wants to encounter is disappointment - disappointment that the horse is not as well trained as was promised or, worse yet, the disappointment that comes from the discovery that a horse is unmanageable. This is why Pieter Franken, the owner of Dutch Horsefriend in Solvang, California, flys to the Netherlands to personally "interview" each and every prospective addition to the stock of Friesian horses he sells to casual riders and show horse competitors.
http://www.prleap.com/pr/5077/
Wild horses couldn't drag President Bush to humane action
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Wild horses couldn't drag President Bush to humane action
Date published: 3/7/2005
Why is President Bush allowing the slaughter of wild horses? ["Showdown at the 'W' Corral: Bush's wild-horse policy is not OK," Feb. 11].
Horses have feelings. They see, hear, breathe. Doesn't Bush take the time to think about what he is signing?
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/032005/03072005/1688589
PROOF OF VACCINATION REQUIRED
Posted by Anthony Corban 11:09 AM 07-Mar-2005 NZST
The Meadowlands, on the recommendation of the Department of Agriculture, will now require that all horses competing at the track have proof of vaccination for equine herpes virus.
Written verification of vaccination within the last six months from a licensed and accredited veterinarian will have to be on record with the race office.
"We don't feel there should be any problem
http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=22491
No home on the range
Originally published March 7, 2005
HALF A century ago, a Nevada woman known as Wild Horse Annie launched a crusade to protect free-roaming horses and burros being destroyed or driven so rapidly from the Western range they faced extinction.
The equines mostly descend from those brought to the continent by European explorers but have a rich heritage in the American West. Velma B. Johnston, as Annie was more properly addressed, aroused broad support that eventually led to a 1971 law protecting herds on public lands and mandating that federal officials look after them.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.wildhorse07mar07,1,3894486.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines&ctrack=2&cset=true
Other Stuff
Office Beats Little Brits
Shock, horror, Little Britain hasn't won something.
The award-winning comedy only managed to come in sixth place in a recent poll of the funniest TV show of all time.
Instead Ricky Gervais' The Office has taken back its crown of being known as the most hilarious thing on telly.
http://www.sky.com/showbiz/article/0,,50001-1173641,00.html
The Porn King
Brett Pulley, 03.07.05, 6:00 AM ET
NEW YORK - "Sex is a very powerful thing."
As a guy who has spent much of his life around the porn industry, Steven Hirsch, the 43-year-old head of the adult film studio Vivid Entertainment, has no doubt uttered similar statements countless times before. Yet still, he speaks passionately about his closely held company, its growth prospects and the potential for an initial public offering in the coming months. "With all of the new technologies and the excitement surrounding them," Hirsch says, "this is the right time for us."
http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/07/cz_bp_0307vivid.html?partner=daily_newsletter
Crisis In Lebanon
Oxford Analytica, 03.07.05, 6:00 AM ET
The resignation this week of the pro-Syrian government of Omar Karami has created an open-ended political crisis in Lebanon with no immediate solution in sight.
http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/07/cz_0307oxan_lebanon.html?partner=daily_newsletter
Annan plea on global women's day
Women in Bangladesh call for protection against acid attacks
Targeted action is needed to change the "historical legacy" that puts women at a disadvantage, says the UN's Kofi Annan on International Women's Day.
The UN Secretary General says 2005 marks a milestone in the advancement of women, 10 years after a major conference on the issue in Beijing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4328429.stm
World marks International Women's Day
By EDITH M. LEDERER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
UNITED NATIONS -- Leaders of the fight for women's equality say there is no going back on the revolution that began 30 years ago though the challenges ahead are immense.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=UN%20Women's%20Day
Celebrating Women's Day
08/03/2005 09:08 - (SA)
Akon Bala Devi feeds one of her children as she prepares to spend another night on a roadside in Gauhati, India. (Anupam Nath, AP)
Cape Town - International Women's Day, March 8, is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world.
This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday.
When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1672993,00.html
The Tah-Tah Box
The TATA Box is an actual binding protein in the production of DNA. It directs the RNA Polymerase II to the initiation binding site on DNA. For the Purposes of this section we'll call it the Tah-Tah Box.
The Use of Genetics as a Social and Political Hammer
This begins a conversation regarding the vital science of genetics. Genetics has been made into a scapegoat by religious preference of some who see it as demonic. That's nonsense. If you don't want to participate then don't. I am not afraid of the science or the people who practice it. I welcome the life changing cures that await in it's wake. Nothing will change my mind. The profession practices ethics when it is not toyed with by government. I will also seek to define uses of genetic difference within this context to ward off the evil spirits of discrimination against women. If the truth be known women have a lot more genes then men do, we are complex creatures. Women have yet to achieve their potential in any country due to social attitudes and oppression.
International Women's Day - Statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM
United Nations Development Fund for Women (New York)
DOCUMENT
March 7, 2005
Posted to the web March 7, 2005
Celebrating Our Gains, Accelerating Change
http://allafrica.com/stories/200503071700.html
The activism goes on
The Fiji Women's Crisis (FWCC) is concerned that the essence of International Women's Day is lost amidst the fanfare and party atmosphere which in many ways reinforce traditional roles of women.
The history of International Women's Day is embedded in the struggle for women's human rights - for equal pay and working conditions for women.
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=17468
Sexual Harassment & Discrimination Based on Gender
Sexual harassment is defined by law and includes requests for sexual favors, sexual advances or other sexual conduct when (a) submission is either explicitly or implicitly a condition affecting academic or employment decisions; or (b) the behavior is sufficiently severe or pervasive as to create an intimidating, hostile or repugnant environment; or (c) the behavior persists despite objection by the person to whom the conduct is directed. The University considers such behavior, whether physical or verbal, to be a breach of its standards of conduct. It will seek to prevent such incidents and will investigate and take corrective actions for violations of this policy.
http://www.provost.uiuc.edu/campusconduct/gender.html
Wal-Mart Class Action Gender Discrimination Case Holds Warnings for All Employers
By Myron Curry, President and CEO of BusinessTrainingMedia.com
Copyright -2004
Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer and America’s single largest employer. It was, therefore, a noteworthy event in June 2004 when a federal judge expanded a lawsuit filed by six California women to a class action. The case has now mushroomed to cover 1.6 million women Wal-Mart workers, employed nationwide since 1988, making it, by far, the largest class action in U.S. history. This article looks at two questions: How will liability be determined? What can other employers learn?
http://www.business-marketing.com/store/article-walmart.html
Gender discrimination not good for growth
by Gumisai Mutume
Washington, 7 Mar 2001 (IPS) -- Economies that narrow the gender gap and improve the status of women grow faster, the World Bank said Wednesday and, in a report issued to mark International Women’s Day, urged societies with high levels of gender inequality to adopt measures that improve the status of women.
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/gender.htm
From the March 23, 1999 issue of the New York Times
MIT ADMITS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST FEMALE PROFESSORS BY CAREY GOLDBERG
New York Times
March 23, 1999
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-In an extraordinary admission, top officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the most prestigious science and engineering university in the country, have issued a report acknowledging that its female professors suffer from pervasive, if unintentional, discrimination.
"I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception," the university's president, Charles Vest, said in comments to be published in the faculty newsletter within days and already posted on its Web site. "True, but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance."
Vest's comments introduced a report five years in the making that documents a pattern of sometimes subtle-but substantive and demoralizing- discrimination in areas from hiring, awards, promotions and inclusion on important committees to allocation of valuable resources like laboratory space and research money.
Such discrimination, national experts say, continues and in some way has worsened at institutions across the country, despite the growing number of female professors. In a report issued last month, the American Association of University Professors found that although women make up 34 percent of faculties nationwide, up from 23 percent in 1975, the gap between salaries for male and female professors widened in that period.
And Stanford University officials confirmed last month that the U.S. Labor Department is investigating whether their university engaged in"widespread" gender discrimination and violated federal affirmative action law. The investigation had its origins in a complaint brought by more than a dozen female researchers at Stanford who sent federal investigators a 400-page report last year alleging gender discrimination and affirmative-action lapses.
Remedies on the way
Female faculty members involved with the MIT report say they do not believe the institute discriminates more than other top-flight universities; it is simply more willing to admit it and address the problem. A push to increase the number of tenured female professors is already under way, the report says, along with other efforts to redress inequities in the allocation of resources.
The MIT administration's comments on the report "are the most forward-looking statements on gender discrimination that I've read by a high-ranking administrator in one of these elite institutions in the 25 years I've been a faculty member," said Nancy Hopkins, a prominent molecular biologist and an initiator of the committee that issued the report.
Robert Birgeneau, dean of the School of Science, the section of MIT that was the focus of the report, said Monday that he believed the university was unusual in its willingness to make such a document public. He also noted in his written comments: "I believe that in no case was this discrimination conscious or deliberate. Indeed, it was usually totally unconscious and unknowing. Nevertheless, the effects were real."
Real, but hard to pin down until three tenured female professors in the School of Science started to compare notes in the summer of 1994. As the report describes, they decided to poll their other female colleagues,which was not difficult because in the entire School of Science, there were only 15 tenured women, compared with 194 men.
In fact, the report notes, the percentage of the School of Science faculty who are women, 8 percent, has remained virtually unchanged for perhaps 20 years. And that, too, seemed a problem, with no sign of improving on its own.
By August 1994, the female faculty members in the School of Science proposed creating an initiative to improve the status of women in the school-to which Birgeneau readily agreed-and, being scientists, they began to collect data on everything from the allocation of laboratory space to the amount of research money professors had apply for themselves instead of being handed it by the university.
'It was data-driven," Birgeneau said of the report, "and that's a very MIT thing."
Other studies at other schools have found women consistently paid and promoted less, said Martha West, a professor of law at the University of California-Davis and a member of the American Association of University Professors' committee on the status of women. But, she said of the MIT report, "what's amazing about this is the president's acknowledging that there is a 'scientific' basis for our continual perception that things are not good for us. And my perception is that things have been getting worse, not better, for women over the last 10 years."
Birgeneau said participants in the report had not examined its legal implications. Laying the statistical basis for the report involved fact-finding that uncovered some interesting wrinkles. For one, junior female faculty tended to feel untouched by discrimination; it was only as they became senior faculty, and competed for real power, that they felt themselves increasingly marginalized and overlooked by male-dominated networks. And that did not seem to improve with time,the report found.
Another interesting aspect of the process was the dawning comprehension among the faculty, men and women both, who participated in the report that they really were seeing a pattern of discrimination, not a set of individual cases, all of which had "special circumstances."
Uncovering reasons
Each little slight to a woman might involve an assumption that served as an explanation: say, that a single woman might seem to need a raise less than a family man, or that a woman might be less likely to seek an outside job offer to propel her promotion, or that it might seem implausible that a woman with children could work hard enough for a given job. But they all added up.
The women "needed to prove to themselves almost at the level of scientific proof that this was really not fair before they had the conviction to act," Hopkins said.
The tenured female faculty members and the dean, the report says, "found that discrimination consists of a pattern of powerful but unrecognized assumptions and attitudes that work systematically against female faculty even in the light of obvious good will. Like many discoveries, at first it is startling and unexpected. Once you 'get it,' it seems almost obvious."
The report, first reported on in Sunday's Boston Globe, recommended vigilance, noting that in the School of Science, there has never yet been a female department head or even associate head. It made a raft of recommendations, including a yearly collection of "equity data" and the dismissal of administrators who knowingly discriminated.
It also pointed out that there was still a long way to go.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
The MIT report is published at http://web.mit.edu/fnl/women/women.html.
http://sll.stanford.edu/projects/tomprof/newtomprof/postings/109.html
REYKJAVIK, Iceland, March 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- deCODE genetics today announced that its presentation at the JPMorgan Small Cap Conference will be webcast live via streaming audio. deCODE management will provide an overview of the company’s drug development programs and business.
The presentation will be delivered at 11:30am Central Standard Time/12:30 pm EST/ 5:30pm GMT on Thursday, March 10, 2005, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago. The webcast can be accessed through the Investors page on deCODE’s website, http://www.decode.com/ , or through the JPMorgan conference website at http://equityconferences.jpmorgan.com/ . The webcast will be archived for at least one week on both sites. Those interested in listening should log on a few minutes in advance, in order to download any software or complete any sign-in that may be required.
About deCODE
deCODE is a biopharmaceutical company applying its discoveries in human genetics to the development of drugs for common diseases. deCODE is a global leader in gene discovery -- our population approach and resources have enabled us to isolate key genes contributing to major public health challenges from cardiovascular disease to cancer, genes that are providing us with drug targets rooted in the basic biology of disease. deCODE is also leveraging its expertise in human genetics and integrated drug discovery and development capabilities to offer innovative products and services in DNA-based diagnostics, bioinformatics, genotyping, structural biology, drug discovery and clinical development. deCODE is delivering on the promise of the new genetics(SM). Visit us on the web at http://www.decode.com/ .
http://www.mysan.de/article49482.html
I doing something a little different today. Catch on history tomorrow.
Rooster (There has to be a least one in every hen house.) "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Okey-Doke"
NOT TO FORGET. THE Lebanese still have elections for a Prime Minister.
The Los Angeles Times
A return to Clinton Surplus Tax Structures that accommodate higher debt now needs to be pursued.
Washington Outlook
Greenspan's Warning on Deficit Ignores His Role in Its Growth
Is he kidding?
That's the only possible reaction to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's conclusion last week that the massive federal budget deficit accumulated under President Bush was "unsustainable." Declared Greenspan: "The principle that I think is involved here … [is] that you cannot continuously introduce legislation which tends to expand the budget deficit."
...One recent study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group, found that of all the federal policy changes since 2001 that had enlarged the deficit, tax cuts contributed 48%, followed by increases in defense and homeland security at 37%, and domestic spending at 15%.
The best estimate is that over the next 75 years, Bush's tax cuts will cost $11 trillion — about triple the projected Social Security shortfall over the same period that Bush has labeled a crisis…
… federal interest payments on that debt (The National Debt) (now running just under $180 billion annually…
… Greenspan's more like the guy at the party who handed the car keys to a drunk. Now, after the wreckage, he's sad. But we'd all be better off if he had spoken up when it could have done some good.
Traveling on a Highway of Dread
A reporter recalls her own wary journey on airport road hours before an ex-hostage was shot.
By Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — The route runs through a broad and flat landscape, bare but for a few date palms rising tall and dignified and the occasional small bush. Goats mill about, shepherded by young boys or old men. Except for the litter of plastic bottles and bags, the scene is almost pastoral, peaceful.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-airportroad7mar07,0,902949.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Bush to Nominate John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador
From Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, whose strong statements on North Korea's nuclear program irked the leaders in Pyongyang, is President Bush's choice to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, three government officials said today.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-030705bolton_wr,0,6649386.story?coll=la-home-headlines
The Gulf News
US may have tried to kill me, says Sgrena
Rome: The Italian journalist wounded by American troops in Iraq after her release by insurgents rejected the US military's account of the shooting and declined to rule out the possibility she was deliberately targeted.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=155131
Pipeline diplomacy in South Asia
By C. Raja Mohan
The recent visits to India by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi were both focused on building energy linkages between the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and the Gulf region.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=155045
Michael Moore Today
"I can think of 80 reasons to do this in Fayetteville and every one of those has a name and every single one of them has a tombstone because they were from our community and they were killed because they were sent to war based on lies."
Veterans and families rally against the war
By Stacy Neumann / News 14 Carolina
Organizers of an upcoming peace rally in Fayetteville expect thousands to attend. Among the attendees will be people from the group "Military Families Speak Out."
Lou Plummer wants Rowan Park's lawn filled with people who want the same thing he does.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1693
White House Approves Pass for Blogger
By Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times
Another signal moment for bloggers is to occur this morning, when Garrett M. Graff, who writes a blog about the news media in Washington, is to be ushered into the White House briefing room to attend the daily press "gaggle."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1706
Shootings by U.S. at Iraq Checkpoints Questioned
By R. Jeffrey Smith and Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post
The deadly shooting of an Italian intelligence officer by U.S. troops at a checkpoint near Baghdad on Friday was one of many incidents in which civilians have been killed by mistake at checkpoints in Iraq, including local police officers, women and children, according to military records, U.S. officials and human rights groups.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1709
It's a Family Affair: Uncle Bucky makes a killing
By Jeffrey St. Clair / Bloomington Alternative
Back in 1991, shortly after the depleted uranium-flaked dust had settled some from the first Gulf War, there was a minor tempest in the press over influence peddling by members of the President George H. W. Bush's family, including his son Neil and his brother Prescott, Jr. Both Neil and Prescott, neither of whom had proven to be exceptionally talented businessmen, had made millions by flagrantly trading on their relationship to the president.
Seeking to distinguish himself from his more predatory relatives, William Henry Trotter Bush, the younger brother of Bush Sr. and an investment banker in St. Louis, gave an interview to disclaim any profiteering on his own part. Indeed, he sounded downright grumpy, as if his older brother hadn't done enough to steer juicy government deals his way. "Being the brother of George Bush isn't a financial windfall by any stretch of the imagination," huffed William H.T. Bush.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1698
"After you've been in hell, nothing's ever really the same again."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
They're back from Iraq, but are they OK?
Ephrata guard unit loses no lives, but life is different
By M.L. Lyke / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A guardsman walks into a local Wal-Mart, freaks, does a 180, and walks back out again. Even after seven months, he can't stand the crowds. Another jerks awake in the middle of the night, holding an imagined gun at his wife's temple.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1713
Many Missteps Tied to Delay in Armor for Troops in Iraq
By Michael Moss / New York Times
The war in Iraq was hardly a month old in April 2003 when an Army general in charge of equipping soldiers with protective gear threw the brakes on buying bulletproof vests.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1710
I've loved horses since I was a girl.
Police: Monroe stable fire doesn't appear suspicious
Investigators spent Monday morning sifting through what remained of a stable where 21 horses were killed in a fast-moving fire Sunday at the Meadowbrook Inn & Riding Club on Cherry Lane in Pocono Township.
"They are digging through it now," said Pocono Township Police Sgt. Phil Riley. He said the cause of the fire had not been determined, but "it doesn't appear suspicious."
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_3horsesmar07,0,2788208.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed
FALLON BACKS FORTUNE FOR STOUTE JOB
Kieren Fallon believes Jimmy Fortune would be his natural successor as stable jockey to Sir Michael Stoute.
Fallon quit the position last month to become the retained rider at Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle yard and the Newmarket handler has yet to announce who will take over.
http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/story_get.dor?STORY_NAME=racing/05/03/07/RACING_Fallon.html
Nation's Law Makers Hear about Horses at Risk; Events at Capitol Intended to Save Wild Horses from Slaughter
3/7/2005 7:00:00 AM
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Trina Bellak, Esq., 866-983-3456
News Advisory:
-- Events at Nation's Capitol Intended to Save 8,000-plus Wild Horses from Slaughter and to Help Pass Bills to End All Horse Slaughter in the United States
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43922
Students research, raise horses for coming auction
By Michael Robot
Published: 3/7/2005
Page 1 of 2
A group of Cook College students will auction off a set of horses they have raised and researched since September, in an expanded program at the Equine Science Center that may raise thousands of dollars.
Over 30 students in the North American Equine Ranching Information Council's Young Horse Teaching and Research Program have been involved in studies with 12 yearlings that will culminate in the sixth annual benefit auction on May 1 at the Round House on Cook campus.
http://www.dailytargum.com/news/2005/03/07/PageOne/Students.Research.Raise.Horses.For.Coming.Auction-887173.shtml
Friesian Horses for Sale: Friesian Horses ‘Interviewed' Before they are Offered for Sale
(PRLEAP.COM) SOLVANG, CA March 7, 2005 — When it comes to the purchase of a Friesian horse, the last thing a buyer wants to encounter is disappointment - disappointment that the horse is not as well trained as was promised or, worse yet, the disappointment that comes from the discovery that a horse is unmanageable. This is why Pieter Franken, the owner of Dutch Horsefriend in Solvang, California, flys to the Netherlands to personally "interview" each and every prospective addition to the stock of Friesian horses he sells to casual riders and show horse competitors.
http://www.prleap.com/pr/5077/
Wild horses couldn't drag President Bush to humane action
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Wild horses couldn't drag President Bush to humane action
Date published: 3/7/2005
Why is President Bush allowing the slaughter of wild horses? ["Showdown at the 'W' Corral: Bush's wild-horse policy is not OK," Feb. 11].
Horses have feelings. They see, hear, breathe. Doesn't Bush take the time to think about what he is signing?
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/032005/03072005/1688589
PROOF OF VACCINATION REQUIRED
Posted by Anthony Corban 11:09 AM 07-Mar-2005 NZST
The Meadowlands, on the recommendation of the Department of Agriculture, will now require that all horses competing at the track have proof of vaccination for equine herpes virus.
Written verification of vaccination within the last six months from a licensed and accredited veterinarian will have to be on record with the race office.
"We don't feel there should be any problem
http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=22491
No home on the range
Originally published March 7, 2005
HALF A century ago, a Nevada woman known as Wild Horse Annie launched a crusade to protect free-roaming horses and burros being destroyed or driven so rapidly from the Western range they faced extinction.
The equines mostly descend from those brought to the continent by European explorers but have a rich heritage in the American West. Velma B. Johnston, as Annie was more properly addressed, aroused broad support that eventually led to a 1971 law protecting herds on public lands and mandating that federal officials look after them.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.wildhorse07mar07,1,3894486.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines&ctrack=2&cset=true
Other Stuff
Office Beats Little Brits
Shock, horror, Little Britain hasn't won something.
The award-winning comedy only managed to come in sixth place in a recent poll of the funniest TV show of all time.
Instead Ricky Gervais' The Office has taken back its crown of being known as the most hilarious thing on telly.
http://www.sky.com/showbiz/article/0,,50001-1173641,00.html
The Porn King
Brett Pulley, 03.07.05, 6:00 AM ET
NEW YORK - "Sex is a very powerful thing."
As a guy who has spent much of his life around the porn industry, Steven Hirsch, the 43-year-old head of the adult film studio Vivid Entertainment, has no doubt uttered similar statements countless times before. Yet still, he speaks passionately about his closely held company, its growth prospects and the potential for an initial public offering in the coming months. "With all of the new technologies and the excitement surrounding them," Hirsch says, "this is the right time for us."
http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/07/cz_bp_0307vivid.html?partner=daily_newsletter
Crisis In Lebanon
Oxford Analytica, 03.07.05, 6:00 AM ET
The resignation this week of the pro-Syrian government of Omar Karami has created an open-ended political crisis in Lebanon with no immediate solution in sight.
http://www.forbes.com/2005/03/07/cz_0307oxan_lebanon.html?partner=daily_newsletter
Annan plea on global women's day
Women in Bangladesh call for protection against acid attacks
Targeted action is needed to change the "historical legacy" that puts women at a disadvantage, says the UN's Kofi Annan on International Women's Day.
The UN Secretary General says 2005 marks a milestone in the advancement of women, 10 years after a major conference on the issue in Beijing.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4328429.stm
World marks International Women's Day
By EDITH M. LEDERER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
UNITED NATIONS -- Leaders of the fight for women's equality say there is no going back on the revolution that began 30 years ago though the challenges ahead are immense.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=UN%20Women's%20Day
Celebrating Women's Day
08/03/2005 09:08 - (SA)
Akon Bala Devi feeds one of her children as she prepares to spend another night on a roadside in Gauhati, India. (Anupam Nath, AP)
Cape Town - International Women's Day, March 8, is an occasion marked by women's groups around the world.
This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday.
When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,6119,2-10-1462_1672993,00.html
The Tah-Tah Box
The TATA Box is an actual binding protein in the production of DNA. It directs the RNA Polymerase II to the initiation binding site on DNA. For the Purposes of this section we'll call it the Tah-Tah Box.
The Use of Genetics as a Social and Political Hammer
This begins a conversation regarding the vital science of genetics. Genetics has been made into a scapegoat by religious preference of some who see it as demonic. That's nonsense. If you don't want to participate then don't. I am not afraid of the science or the people who practice it. I welcome the life changing cures that await in it's wake. Nothing will change my mind. The profession practices ethics when it is not toyed with by government. I will also seek to define uses of genetic difference within this context to ward off the evil spirits of discrimination against women. If the truth be known women have a lot more genes then men do, we are complex creatures. Women have yet to achieve their potential in any country due to social attitudes and oppression.
International Women's Day - Statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM
United Nations Development Fund for Women (New York)
DOCUMENT
March 7, 2005
Posted to the web March 7, 2005
Celebrating Our Gains, Accelerating Change
http://allafrica.com/stories/200503071700.html
The activism goes on
The Fiji Women's Crisis (FWCC) is concerned that the essence of International Women's Day is lost amidst the fanfare and party atmosphere which in many ways reinforce traditional roles of women.
The history of International Women's Day is embedded in the struggle for women's human rights - for equal pay and working conditions for women.
http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=17468
Sexual Harassment & Discrimination Based on Gender
Sexual harassment is defined by law and includes requests for sexual favors, sexual advances or other sexual conduct when (a) submission is either explicitly or implicitly a condition affecting academic or employment decisions; or (b) the behavior is sufficiently severe or pervasive as to create an intimidating, hostile or repugnant environment; or (c) the behavior persists despite objection by the person to whom the conduct is directed. The University considers such behavior, whether physical or verbal, to be a breach of its standards of conduct. It will seek to prevent such incidents and will investigate and take corrective actions for violations of this policy.
http://www.provost.uiuc.edu/campusconduct/gender.html
Wal-Mart Class Action Gender Discrimination Case Holds Warnings for All Employers
By Myron Curry, President and CEO of BusinessTrainingMedia.com
Copyright -2004
Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer and America’s single largest employer. It was, therefore, a noteworthy event in June 2004 when a federal judge expanded a lawsuit filed by six California women to a class action. The case has now mushroomed to cover 1.6 million women Wal-Mart workers, employed nationwide since 1988, making it, by far, the largest class action in U.S. history. This article looks at two questions: How will liability be determined? What can other employers learn?
http://www.business-marketing.com/store/article-walmart.html
Gender discrimination not good for growth
by Gumisai Mutume
Washington, 7 Mar 2001 (IPS) -- Economies that narrow the gender gap and improve the status of women grow faster, the World Bank said Wednesday and, in a report issued to mark International Women’s Day, urged societies with high levels of gender inequality to adopt measures that improve the status of women.
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/gender.htm
From the March 23, 1999 issue of the New York Times
MIT ADMITS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST FEMALE PROFESSORS BY CAREY GOLDBERG
New York Times
March 23, 1999
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-In an extraordinary admission, top officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the most prestigious science and engineering university in the country, have issued a report acknowledging that its female professors suffer from pervasive, if unintentional, discrimination.
"I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception," the university's president, Charles Vest, said in comments to be published in the faculty newsletter within days and already posted on its Web site. "True, but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance."
Vest's comments introduced a report five years in the making that documents a pattern of sometimes subtle-but substantive and demoralizing- discrimination in areas from hiring, awards, promotions and inclusion on important committees to allocation of valuable resources like laboratory space and research money.
Such discrimination, national experts say, continues and in some way has worsened at institutions across the country, despite the growing number of female professors. In a report issued last month, the American Association of University Professors found that although women make up 34 percent of faculties nationwide, up from 23 percent in 1975, the gap between salaries for male and female professors widened in that period.
And Stanford University officials confirmed last month that the U.S. Labor Department is investigating whether their university engaged in"widespread" gender discrimination and violated federal affirmative action law. The investigation had its origins in a complaint brought by more than a dozen female researchers at Stanford who sent federal investigators a 400-page report last year alleging gender discrimination and affirmative-action lapses.
Remedies on the way
Female faculty members involved with the MIT report say they do not believe the institute discriminates more than other top-flight universities; it is simply more willing to admit it and address the problem. A push to increase the number of tenured female professors is already under way, the report says, along with other efforts to redress inequities in the allocation of resources.
The MIT administration's comments on the report "are the most forward-looking statements on gender discrimination that I've read by a high-ranking administrator in one of these elite institutions in the 25 years I've been a faculty member," said Nancy Hopkins, a prominent molecular biologist and an initiator of the committee that issued the report.
Robert Birgeneau, dean of the School of Science, the section of MIT that was the focus of the report, said Monday that he believed the university was unusual in its willingness to make such a document public. He also noted in his written comments: "I believe that in no case was this discrimination conscious or deliberate. Indeed, it was usually totally unconscious and unknowing. Nevertheless, the effects were real."
Real, but hard to pin down until three tenured female professors in the School of Science started to compare notes in the summer of 1994. As the report describes, they decided to poll their other female colleagues,which was not difficult because in the entire School of Science, there were only 15 tenured women, compared with 194 men.
In fact, the report notes, the percentage of the School of Science faculty who are women, 8 percent, has remained virtually unchanged for perhaps 20 years. And that, too, seemed a problem, with no sign of improving on its own.
By August 1994, the female faculty members in the School of Science proposed creating an initiative to improve the status of women in the school-to which Birgeneau readily agreed-and, being scientists, they began to collect data on everything from the allocation of laboratory space to the amount of research money professors had apply for themselves instead of being handed it by the university.
'It was data-driven," Birgeneau said of the report, "and that's a very MIT thing."
Other studies at other schools have found women consistently paid and promoted less, said Martha West, a professor of law at the University of California-Davis and a member of the American Association of University Professors' committee on the status of women. But, she said of the MIT report, "what's amazing about this is the president's acknowledging that there is a 'scientific' basis for our continual perception that things are not good for us. And my perception is that things have been getting worse, not better, for women over the last 10 years."
Birgeneau said participants in the report had not examined its legal implications. Laying the statistical basis for the report involved fact-finding that uncovered some interesting wrinkles. For one, junior female faculty tended to feel untouched by discrimination; it was only as they became senior faculty, and competed for real power, that they felt themselves increasingly marginalized and overlooked by male-dominated networks. And that did not seem to improve with time,the report found.
Another interesting aspect of the process was the dawning comprehension among the faculty, men and women both, who participated in the report that they really were seeing a pattern of discrimination, not a set of individual cases, all of which had "special circumstances."
Uncovering reasons
Each little slight to a woman might involve an assumption that served as an explanation: say, that a single woman might seem to need a raise less than a family man, or that a woman might be less likely to seek an outside job offer to propel her promotion, or that it might seem implausible that a woman with children could work hard enough for a given job. But they all added up.
The women "needed to prove to themselves almost at the level of scientific proof that this was really not fair before they had the conviction to act," Hopkins said.
The tenured female faculty members and the dean, the report says, "found that discrimination consists of a pattern of powerful but unrecognized assumptions and attitudes that work systematically against female faculty even in the light of obvious good will. Like many discoveries, at first it is startling and unexpected. Once you 'get it,' it seems almost obvious."
The report, first reported on in Sunday's Boston Globe, recommended vigilance, noting that in the School of Science, there has never yet been a female department head or even associate head. It made a raft of recommendations, including a yearly collection of "equity data" and the dismissal of administrators who knowingly discriminated.
It also pointed out that there was still a long way to go.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
The MIT report is published at http://web.mit.edu/fnl/women/women.html.
http://sll.stanford.edu/projects/tomprof/newtomprof/postings/109.html
REYKJAVIK, Iceland, March 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- deCODE genetics today announced that its presentation at the JPMorgan Small Cap Conference will be webcast live via streaming audio. deCODE management will provide an overview of the company’s drug development programs and business.
The presentation will be delivered at 11:30am Central Standard Time/12:30 pm EST/ 5:30pm GMT on Thursday, March 10, 2005, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago. The webcast can be accessed through the Investors page on deCODE’s website, http://www.decode.com/ , or through the JPMorgan conference website at http://equityconferences.jpmorgan.com/ . The webcast will be archived for at least one week on both sites. Those interested in listening should log on a few minutes in advance, in order to download any software or complete any sign-in that may be required.
About deCODE
deCODE is a biopharmaceutical company applying its discoveries in human genetics to the development of drugs for common diseases. deCODE is a global leader in gene discovery -- our population approach and resources have enabled us to isolate key genes contributing to major public health challenges from cardiovascular disease to cancer, genes that are providing us with drug targets rooted in the basic biology of disease. deCODE is also leveraging its expertise in human genetics and integrated drug discovery and development capabilities to offer innovative products and services in DNA-based diagnostics, bioinformatics, genotyping, structural biology, drug discovery and clinical development. deCODE is delivering on the promise of the new genetics(SM). Visit us on the web at http://www.decode.com/ .
http://www.mysan.de/article49482.html
UNRULY MEN AND WOMEN LEADERS ARE TO PAY.
CU president Hoffman resigns
Posted: Monday March 7, 2005 12:03PM; Updated: Monday March 7, 2005 12:03PM
DENVER (AP) -- University of Colorado President Elizabeth Hoffman announced Monday that she is resigning amid a football recruiting scandal and a national controversy over an activist professor who had compared victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to a Nazi.
Hoffman, who has been president for five years, told the Board of Regents in a letter that her resignation is effective June 30 or whenever the board names a successor.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/football/ncaa/03/07/cu.hoffman.ap/index.html?cnn=yes
At-home genetic test kits save cash, worry doctors
Your predisposition to inherited diseases can be discovered by mail-order screens.
By Paul Elias / Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- Commercials hawking prescription drugs directly to consumers have driven doctors crazy for years.
Now comes a new kind of marketing that is already troubling some medical professionals: at-home genetic testing.
This week, in a small but dramatic move validating the popularity of the online approach, DNA Direct will begin offering two popular breast cancer tests created and conducted by Myriad Genetics, the most visible player in the field of "predictive medicine."
http://www.detnews.com/2005/health/0503/07/A02-109401.htm
At-home genetic test kits save cash, worry doctors
Your predisposition to inherited diseases can be discovered by mail-order screens.
By Paul Elias / Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO -- Commercials hawking prescription drugs directly to consumers have driven doctors crazy for years.
Now comes a new kind of marketing that is already troubling some medical professionals: at-home genetic testing.
This week, in a small but dramatic move validating the popularity of the online approach, DNA Direct will begin offering two popular breast cancer tests created and conducted by Myriad Genetics, the most visible player in the field of "predictive medicine."
http://www.detnews.com/2005/health/0503/07/A02-109401.htm
Iowa genetics bills drawn fire from farmers
Updated: 03-01-2005 04:00:25 PM
(KAAL) -- An attempt by some lawmakers to prevent townships, cities and counties from regulating agricultural seeds has angered farmers, businessmen, lawmakers and local officials.
On behalf of large agribusiness, two identical bills introduced in the Iowa legislature are an attempt to stop local jurisdictions from restricting the production, distribution and sale of genetically modified organisms or genetically engineered seed.
http://www.kaaltv.com/article/view/85750/
Targeted Genetics to Expand HIV Study
02.22.2005, 03:29 PM
Targeted Genetics Corp. reported Tuesday that initial doses of its HIV/AIDS vaccine in early-stage clinical trials were well tolerated in study subjects, and that the biotech company will begin to evaluate higher doses of the compound.
http://www.forbes.com/business/healthcare/feeds/ap/2005/02/22/ap1842040.html
The textbook of gender discrimination
ASHISH TRIPATHI
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
[ TUESDAY, MARCH 08, 2005 02:18:45 AM ]
LUCKNOW: Customary celebration marked with high rhetoric are once again being organised on the occasion of the International Women's Day, but the harsh reality is that women have not been given equal space in the school curriculum, forget about equal status in the society.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1044193.cms
The New Zealand Herald
Bare-breasted protest puzzles Prince Charles
A policeman covers up a topless protester who shouted 'get your colonist shame off my breasts' during Prince Charles' walk in Wellington. Picture / Reuters
09.03.05
by Helen Tunnah
Two women who bared their breasts at Prince Charles yesterday say they made their protest on behalf of slighted Aboriginal women.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10114339
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Cloudy
-22.0°
Updated Wednesday 09 Mar 3:59AM
Have a good day.
end
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