FURTHERMORE. . .

AP - Former Rep. David Bonior, a one-time leader in Congress who has
close ties to labor unions, has signed on to manage a future John
Edwards presidential campaign. . . Bonior was a leading advocate for
labor unions, a constituency that Edwards has aggressively been working
to build support since losing the vice presidency as John Kerry's
running mate in 2004.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061205/UPDATE/612050426


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AP - The Bush administration is challenging a court order requiring it
to make housing payments to thousands of families whose homes were
damaged by Hurricane Katrina. U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said
last week that confusing, often contradictory letters to hurricane
victims from the Federal Emergency Management Agency didn't explain why
housing funding was cut. He said that violated the Constitution, and he
ordered the agency to restart the program immediately. The government is
still under a court order to make housing payments for people displaced
by last year's storm, but the Association of Community Organizations for
Reform Now, which won last week's ruling, said in court documents
Tuesday that FEMA has refused to disclose its plans for restarting the
program.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
20061205/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_housing


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PRESS WATCH, UK - More than a decade's use of mobile phones does not
increase the risk of brain cancer, according to one of the largest
studies into the link. The longest-running investigation yet conducted
involving almost half a million people has found that there is no link
between mobile phone use and cancers of the head or neck. Research by
the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology in Copenhagen found that of
the 420,095 people studied, 14,249 cancers were diagnosed, but there was
no suggestion that any were linked to mobile phone use. The research
contrasts with a 2004 Swedish study which found that using mobile phones
for ten years or more can increase the risk of non-invasive growths
called acoustic neuromas.

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WASHINGTON POST - Three federal lawmakers yesterday called on the new
administrator of the General Services Administration to halt her plan to
replace government auditors in the agency's inspector general's office
with private auditors, saying in a letter that the change could lead to
less oversight of contractors. The letter to GSA Administrator Lurita
Alexis Doan followed a report in The Washington Post on Saturday that
described Doan's plans to cut $5 million in spending on audits and shift
responsibility for contract reviews to small, private contractors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/05/
AR2006120501340.html

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DEAN BAKER, PROSPECT - The Washington Post has yet another column
calling for fixing the incredibly solvent (by U.S. standards) Social
Security system. There will be a day where real numbers, actual
projections from the Congressional Budget Office in some real world
context, will appear in the Washington Post. And then, Washington Post
readers will realize that the paper's editors, columnists, and reporters
had been misleading them all these years into believing that Social
Security was in a crisis.

http://www.prospect.org/deanbaker/

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EAVESDROP DC - Guy on cell phone: "Hey man, dude, I totally think you
can get diapers at CVS." - outside of a dorm at George Washington
University

"My broad asked me to get rid of some of my comics. I told her I'd get
rid of her before I got rid of my comics because I know where my comics
are at 2am on a Saturday." - Comic book store in Georgetown

http://eavesdropdc.blogspot.com/

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ALL IN THE FAMILY: Ninety minutes before leaving office, Alaska Governor
Fran Murkowski named his son-in-law to the board of the Alaska Railroad.

MORE FAMILY NEWS
http://prorev.com/family.htm

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EX CIA INSIDER DOESN'T THINK MUCH OF GATES
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120506J.shtml

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YOU'LL NEED A LEGAL RELEASE FORM FOR YOUR XMAS PARTY
http://www.slate.com/id/2154739/?nav=tap3

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AP - A total of 488 communities have been erased from the latest version
of Georgia's official map, victims of too few people and too many
letters of type. Georgia's Department of Transportation, which drew the
new map, said that the goal was to make it clearer and less cluttered .
. . Gone are such places as Dewy Rose, Hemp, Experiment, Retreat,
Wooster, Sharp Top and Chattoogaville, a spot in far northwestern
Georgia that consists of little more than a two-truck volunteer fire
department, a few farmhouses and a country store where locals fill up
their gas tanks. . . In Texas, few of the 2,076 cities and towns are
ever deleted because of strict standards that weigh whether a spot is
along a state highway, has a post office or boasts a population of 50 or
more.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/08/map.deletions.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

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BALLOT ACCESS NEWS - Maine has released approximate registration data
for June 2006. . . The state's estimates for June 2006 are: Democratic
302,000; Republican 275,000; Green 26,000; independent and others
364,000. The Green percentage is 2.69%. This contrasts with the November
2004 figures, when Maine Greens had 2.36%. The new Green figure for
Maine is the highest percentage any state Green Party has ever had, of
any state's registration. Currently, the highest registration for the
Constitution Party in any state is Nevada, where it has 3.48% of that
state's registration. Best Libertarian registration is Alaska, with
1.88%.

http://www.ballot-access.org/

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KOMO-TV SEATTLE - There will be no more Christmas trees at Sea-Tac
Airport this season after the Port of Seattle received at least one
complaint about them. For more than 25 years, the airport has celebrated
the holidays with Christmas trees over its entrances. But overnight, the
Port of Seattle ordered all 15 trees removed. . . The Port allowed
"holiday" decorations to remain but decided to take down all the
Christmas trees after a Jewish religious leader complained they were
offensive. . . The Port of Seattle says it had little choice. It says a
Seattle rabbi with the Central Organization for Jewish Learning hired an
attorney and threatened to sue if the airport did not erect an
eight-foot menorah to balance the message of the Christmas trees.
According to an airport spokeswoman, the two sides could not reach an
agreement before the lawsuit was to be filed, so the trees were removed
instead. . . The Christmas trees are now in storage or hidden in unused
areas of the airport where they won't be seen.

http://www.komotv.com/news/4873941.html

[The simplest way out of this sort of situation is to let everyone into
the act: Christmas trees, crosses, menorahs and a statue of Emma Goldman
or Mark Twain for the ethical but non-mythological.]

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BALLOT ACCESS - Venezuela held a presidential election last weekend.
Although there were approximately 12 parties on the ballot in that
election, almost all of them nominated either the incumbent (President
Chavez) or his leading opponent. Venezuelan election law permits fusion,
so Venezuelan voters were able to vote for Chavez under any one of
approximately six party labels. A few states in the U.S. also use
fusion. It is not known if fusion is used in any other nations in
presidential elections.

http://www.ballot-access.org/

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NEW BOOK OFFERS NEW THEORY ON TWA 800 CRASH
http://www.cashill.com/twa800/lance_triple_cross.htm

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