State of the State

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NEARLY HALF OF AMERICANS BELIEVE THAT NATION'S BEST DAYS ARE OVER

RASMUSSEN REPORTS - The survey also confirmed the ongoing decline in
confidence about America's future. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of
Americans believe that our nation's best days are still to come while
48% think they have come and gone. Those figures reflect a sharp decline
in confidence over the past two years.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Political%20Tracking/Issues/AlliesFollowUSA.htm


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FROM THE PEOPLE WHO WON'T LET YOU CARRY LIQUIDS ABOARD: COULD YOU HELP
THEM FIND 189 MISSING BADGES IN YOUR GREATER LOS ANGELES AREA?

AP - More than 3,700 identification badges and uniform items have been
reported lost or stolen from Transportation Security Administration
employees since 2003, according to documents obtained by a San Antonio
television station. WOAI-TV received the documents under the Freedom of
Information Act. Los Angeles International Airport reported the most
items with 636 missing uniforms. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago
reported 189 missing badges. Bush International Airport in Houston led
Texas with 77 missing items. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had
about 40 items gone.

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4420374.html

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HOMELAND SECURITY SORT OF ADMITS IT LIED, BROKE LAW

AP - The Homeland Security Department admitted Friday it violated the
Privacy Act two years ago by obtaining more commercial data about U.S.
airline passengers than it had announced it would. Seventeen months ago,
the Government Accountability Office, Congress' auditing arm, reached
the same conclusion: The department's Transportation Security
Administration "did not fully disclose to the public its use of personal
information in its fall 2004 privacy notices as required by the Privacy
Act." Even so, in a report Friday on the testing of TSA's Secure Flight
domestic air passenger screening program, the Homeland Security
department's privacy office acknowledged TSA didn't comply with the law.
But the privacy office still couldn't bring itself to use the word
"violate."

Instead, the privacy office said, "TSA announced one testing program,
but conducted an entirely different one." In a 40-word, separate
sentence, the report noted that federal programs that collect personal
data that can identify Americans "are required to be announced in
Privacy Act system notices and privacy impact assessments."

http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomWashington-TopStories/
~3/65549468/2006-12-22-homeland-privacy_x.htm

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CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY BLASTS OKLAHOMA CITY INVESTIGATION

AP - The FBI failed to fully investigate information suggesting other
suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols with the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing, allowing questions to linger more than a decade
after the deadly attack, a congressional inquiry concludes.

The House International Relations investigative subcommittee will
release the findings of its two-year review as early as Wednesday,
declaring there is no conclusive evidence of a foreign connection to the
attack but that far too many unanswered questions remain.

The subcommittee's report will conclude there is no doubt McVeigh and
Nichols were the main perpetrators. . .

Mr. Rohrabacher's subcommittee saved its sharpest words for the Justice
Department, saying officials there exhibited a mind-set of thwarting
congressional oversight and did not assist the investigation fully.

The report rebukes the FBI for not fully pursuing leads suggesting other
suspects may have provided support to McVeigh and Nichols before their
truck bomb killed 168 persons in the main federal building in Oklahoma
City on April 19, 1995.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061224-101116-3060r.htm

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OIL COMPANIES PREPARING BIG TIME RIP OFF OF IRAQ SUPPLIES

JOSHUA GALLU, SPIEGEL.DE - The Iraqi government is considering a new oil
law that could give private oil companies greater control over its vast
reserves. In light of rampant violence and shaky democratic
institutions, many fear the law is being pushed through hastily by
special interests behind closed doors. . .

The draft law lays the ground work for private oil companies to take
large stakes in Iraq's oil. The new law would allow the controversial
partnerships known as 'production sharing agreements'. Oil companies
favor PSAs, because they limit the risk of cost overruns while giving
greater potential for profit. . .

It's also dangerous. It means governments are legally committing
themselves to oil deals that they've negotiated from a position of
weakness. And, the contracts typically span decades. Companies argue
they need long-term legal security to justify huge investments in risky
countries; the current draft recommends 15 to 20 years.

Nevertheless, Iraq carries little exploratory risk -- OPEC estimates
Iraq sits atop some 115 billion barrels of reserves and only a small
fraction of its oil fields are in use. By signing oil deals with Iraq,
oil companies could account for those reserves in their books without
setting foot in the country -- that alone is enough to boost the
company's stock. And, by negotiating deals while Iraq is unstable,
companies could lock in a risk premium that may be much lower five or
ten years from now.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,456212,00.html

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PENTAGON BLOCKS HTML E-MAIL AND BANS USE OF OUTLOOK

HOUSTON CHRONICLE - Due to an increased network threat condition, the
Defense Department is blocking all HTML-based e-mail messages and has
banned the use of Outlook Web Access e-mail applications, according to a
spokesman for the Joint Task Force for Global Network Operations.

An internal message available on the Internet from the Defense Security
Service states that JTF-GNO raised the network threat condition from
Information Condition 5, which indicates normal operating conditions, to
Infocon 4 in the face of continuing and sophisticated threats" against
Defense Department networks.

Infocon 4 usually indicates heightened vigilance in preparation for
operations or exercises or increased monitoring of networks due to
increased risk of attack.

The JTF-GNO mandated use of plain text e-mail because HTML messages pose
a threat to DOD because HTML text can be infected with spyware and, in
some cases, executable code that could enable intruders to gain access
to DOD networks, the JTF-GNO spokesman said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4423689.html

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PAY GAP FOR COLLEGE EDUCATED WOMEN WIDENED SLIGHTLY IN LAST DECADE

DAVID LEONHARDT, NY TIMES - Throughout the 1980s and early '90s, women
of all economic levels - poor, middle class and rich - steadily gained
ground on their male counterparts in the work force. By the mid-'90s,
women earned more than 75 cents for each dollar in hourly pay that men
did, up from 65 cents 15 years earlier.

Largely without notice, however, one big group of women has stopped
making progress: those with a four-year college degree. The gap between
their pay and that of male college graduates has widened slightly since
the mid '90s.

For women without a college education, the pay gap with men has narrowed
slightly over the same span.

These trends suggest that recent high-profile achievements - the first
female secretary of state, lead anchor of a nightly newscast and, next
month, speaker of the House - do not reflect what is happening to most
women, researchers say. . .

Last year, college-educated women between 36 and 45 years old earned
74.7 cents in hourly pay for every dollar that men in the same group
did, according to Labor Department data analyzed by the Economic Policy
Institute. A decade earlier, the women earned 75.7 cents. .

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THANKS TO WAR, AFGHANISTAN IS AMERICA'S MAJOR SOURCE OF HEROIN

GARRETT THEROLF, LA TIMES - Supplies of highly potent Afghan heroin in
the United States are growing so fast that the pure white powder is
rapidly overtaking lower-quality Mexican heroin, prompting fears of
increased addiction and overdoses. Heroin-related deaths in Los Angeles
County soared from 137 in 2002 to 239 in 2005, a jump of nearly 75% in
three years, a period when other factors contributing to overdose deaths
remained unchanged, experts said. . .

According to a Drug Enforcement Administration report obtained by The
Times, Afghanistan's poppy fields have become the fastest-growing source
of heroin in the United States. Its share of the U.S. market doubled
from 7% in 2001, the year U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban, to 14% in
2004, the latest year studied. Another DEA report, released in October,
said the 14% actually could be significantly higher.

Poppy production in Afghanistan jumped significantly after the 2001 U.S.
invasion destabilized an already shaky economy, leading farmers to turn
to the opium market to survive.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/12/25/ap/health/mainD8M85H6G1.shtml

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