OTHER NEWS

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UNDERGROUND FOR CONSUMER REPORTS

WIRED - Jon is shopping for Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream — nine
pints of it. And all need to have rolled off the same production line,
on the same date. He enters the supermarket carrying a Styrofoam cooler
full of dry ice (to keep the ice cream cold), a pair of gloves (to keep
his fingers warm), and a flashlight (to help him see the inkless
indentations on the bottom of each container that show where and when it
was manufactured). Reaching the freezer section, he sits down and begins
stacking ice cream on the floor. "Eventually a stocker comes over," Jon
says, recalling the incident. "He's not happy."

Jon is not his real name. He won't reveal his true identity because he
is a member of an underground network of nine full-time and 85 freelance
shoppers working for Consumer Reports. In 2006 (last year's numbers
aren't available yet), CR tested 3,377 products, drove 85 cars,
purchased 572 tires, washed and dried 192 wrinkle-free shirts, and
prepared 470 pounds of mashed potatoes. According to the magazine's
rigid ethics code, it all has to be bought by secret shoppers. The cost
is considerable: In 2006, the advertisement-free magazine spent
$2,849,349 on cars alone.


Making these purchases without saying why can be tricky. Once, Jon told
a phone salesman that he needed a particular model because his mother
had Alzheimer's and he'd never be able to teach her how to use a new
brand. He laughs when he describes the wary looks he got after filling
up a shopping cart with condoms. He fondly recalls the time he purchased
five different washing machines, claiming that his landlord father had
given tenants their choice of brands. . .

http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/16-03/ps_consumerreports


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BREVITAS
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INDICATORS

DISTRICT CHRONICLES - Over 25 million households in America do not have
bank accounts, according to a study conducted by the South Carolina
Council on Economic Education, based in Columbia, S.C. . . . 80 percent
of those households are Blacks (46 percent) and Hispanics (34 percent).

http://media.www.districtchronicles.com/media/storage/
paper263/news/2008/02/24/Cover/Blacks.Hispanics.Going.
Without.Bank.Accounts-3230422.shtml


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CORPORADOS

CONSUMERIST - If you call Comcast and ask them to stop sending you
anything other than your bill, they'll agree but quietly slap you with a
$1.99 "change of service" fee. . . During an online chat, a Comcast rep
explained the source of the fee: "It looks like on 2/5/08 you contacted
us and requested to have all direct mailers stopped on your account.
There is a one time "Change of service" fee associated with making that
change on the account."

http://consumerist.com/362099/comcast-will-charge-you-2-to-stop-
sending-you-junk-mail


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FREEDOM BEAT

GLENN GREENWALD, SALON - In his press conference, Commander-in-Chief
George W. Bush candidly explained why he was so eager to have Congress
grant amnesty to telecoms: "Allowing the lawsuits to proceed could aid
our enemies, because the litigation process could lead to the disclosure
of information about how we conduct surveillance.". . . Bush is finally
being candid about the real reason the administration is so desperate to
have these surveillance lawsuits dismissed. It's because those lawsuits
are the absolute last hope for ever learning what the administration did
when they spied on Americans for years in violation of the law.
Dismissal via amnesty would ensure that their spying behavior stays
permanently concealed, buried forever, and as importantly, that no court
ever rules on the legality of what they did.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/29/bush_amnesty/index.html


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ECO CLIPS

METAEFFCIENT - Three huge wind turbines have been installed on the
Galapagos Islands. They will generate a total of 2.4 megawatts for the
30,000 residents of the Galapagos archipelago's five inhabited islands.
The system will meet 60 to 80 percent of electrical demand during the
windy months of October, November and December. The turbines will halve
the island's diesel fuel imports, and pave the way for further renewable
energy development.

http://www.metaefficient.com/renewable-power/wind-turbines-on-
galapagos-islands-reduce-diesel-by-50.html#more-1209


METAEFFICIENT - Steve Nash is the All-Star guard for the Phoenix Suns
has forged a partnership with Nike to create the Nike Trash Talk, a
basketball shoe made from manufacturing waste. The "waste" comes Nike's
own production facilities—scraps that would otherwise have been
discarded. The Trash Talk is modeled after Steve Nash's current shoe,
the Nike Zoom BB II Low, and meets Nike's Considered design standards
for taking a sustainable approach to performance footwear innovation.

http://www.metaefficient.com/clothing/nikes-trash-talk-shoe-made-

with-manufacturing-waste.html


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WAR DEPARTMENT

AP - The Army on Thursday rolled out the first revision of its
operations manual since the Sept. 11 terror attacks, putting stability
operations — nation-building — on par with combat.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgPXz3dl2glsJmXPEki7sfnqqlVgD8V3FAB00

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SCIENCE & HEALTH

NEW SCIENTIST - A new study reveals that air pollution associated with
elevated carbon dioxide levels is already responsible for around 22,000
deaths every year. When these are added to casualties from extreme
weather events, it doubles the number of fatalities that can be linked
to global warming.

http://environment.newscientist.com/article/mg19726444.800-global
-warming-twice-as-lethal-as-previously-assumed.html


PATIENTS DIED AS DRUG FIRM, FDA DALLIED OVER NEGATIVE DATA
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/14/60minutes/main3831900.shtml

SCIENCE: HOW TO WAKE UP A PENGUIN
http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,2257720,00.html

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OUTLYING PRECINCTS

HUFFINGTON POST - Hillary Rodham Clinton's pit-bull pollster and chief
strategist Mark Penn has his Washington, DC, neighborhood in an uproar.
He recently started multimillion-dollar renovations on his house on O
Street in Georgetown, but didn't alert anyone beforehand, said one
local. "It includes an underground garage and home office. His yard is
an ugly, huge gaping hole that looks like the descent into hell." Penn
also put a Port-A-Potty on his lawn, no doubt in an effort to kick start
an awesome new microtrend. Some of the annoyed and aggrieved neighbors
apparently include former Clinton White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler and
his wife Polly Kraft. But neither are superdelegates, so whatevs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/27/mark-penn-annoys-his-geor_n_88698.html


MCCAIN RATES A ZERO ON CHILDREN'S ISSUES
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/27/mccain-children/

OBAMA NOT ONLY WHO DOESN'T HOLD HAND OVER CHEST DURING NATIONAL ANTHEM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/25/does-this-make-george-hw_n_88397.html


A HILLARY PEN THAT LAUGHS AT YOU
http://www.hillarypen.com/

THE NEED FOR PROGRESSIVE PRESSURE ON OBAMA
http://www.blackcommentator.com/266/266_african_world_cover_obama_movement.html


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FURTHERMORE. . . .

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER - Comcast Corp. admitted that it paid people to
attend a government hearing. Company critics say the freelance attendees
were there to crowd them out; Comcast says they were merely saving seats
for employees. The five-hour hearing at Harvard University was organized
by the Federal Communications Commission to address the issue of net
neutrality, a hot-button topic for those who think there should be
minimal restrictions on Internet traffic. . . An official at Free Press,
a nonprofit advocacy group that has criticized Comcast for limiting the
amount of data some of its customers send over its network, accused the
cable company of "stacking the deck" at the hearing with the 30 to 40
"seat-warmers." An official at Harvard said dozens of real participants
were left standing outside the auditorium with placards.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/front_page/20080228_Comcast_
admits_paying_attendees_at_FCC_hearing.html


RADAR - Sources tell Radar that the plea deal talks allegedly going on
between Retired Police Sergeant Mark Arneson and former telephone
company employee Ray Turner, both accused of being involved with illegal
wire taps by busted PI Anthony Pellicano, have broken down. They'll
stand trial with Pellicano next week, we hear.

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2008/02/
pellicano-case-plea-deal-breaks-down.php


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