Four arrested in government bribery and contracting scam - Crime Scene. Posted at 12:48 PM ET, 10/04/2011 Oct 04, 2011 04:48 PM EDT TheWashingtonPost Four people were arrested Tuesday in a complex contracting scam involving the Army Corps of Engineers, authorities said. Charged in the District’s federal court with conspiracy, bribery and unlawful kickback were two Army Corps contracting officers, Kerry F. Khan of Alexandria, and Michael A. Alexander of Woodbridge. Facing the same charges are Khan’s son, Lee, of Fairfax County, and Harold F. Federal law enforcement officials said the scam involved delivered and promised kickbacks of about $20 million on what they described as substantial contracts for critical technology services.
Ronald C. Machen and other officials are scheduled to address the case at a 2 p.m. press conference at his offices. According to federal officials, the alleged scam worked like this: EyakTek obtained contracts with the Army Corps of Engineers to provide technology-related work and services. More coverage from PostLocal: Take Action. Please RSVP to your house party host by finding their email address on the map below. The November 9 House Parties in Eastern Time will be from 7 to 9 p.m.; Central Time will be 6 to 8 p.m.; Rocky Mountain will be 5 to 7 p.m. or 8 to 10 p.m.; Pacific Time will be from 7 to 9 p.m. (Please confirm this timing with your host.) More than 150 house parties are being planned, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will join the parties by phone and webcast. If there is no party near you, it is not too late to host one! View full November 9 House Party Map in a new window and find a party near you If You're Interested in Hosting a House Party, Sign Up Below.
“Telling a Story is a Form of Activism”: Interview with Naveen Naqvi. Changemakers recently sat down with Naveen Naqvi, co-founder and executive director of Gawaahi, to discuss her work in Pakistan’s turbulent and often violent environment, where she uses citizen media as a tool for political engagement and raising public awareness. Gawaahi, which means “witnessing” in Urdu, is a Pakistan-based citizen-sector organization that produces digital stories of survival and resistance. Through its online platform, Gawaahi shares stories about women's human rights, child sex abuse, unfair labor practices, and religious persecution. With a background in journalism, Naqvi was previously the senior anchor and morning news presenter at DawnNews, Pakistan's first English-language channel. Before that, she was a producer for NBC News and online contributor for MSNBC.com. Naqvi is serving as an expert commentator for the Citizen Media competition. Changemakers: Can you tell us about how Gawaahi was started?
Naqvi: Our first project was the website Gawaahi.com. “Time to Rally” – Robert Reich at the Take Back the American Dream Conference | Blog | Rebuild the Dream. Off To The Races: Help Find 10,000 Censorship Opponents In 24hrs. Off To The Races: Help Find 10,000 Censorship Opponents In 24hrs We're off to the races. As they try to protect their profits by censoring the Internet, Disney, Warner Bros, and the gang have launched a front group called "Creative America.
" They just announced that 10,000 people have signed up over the last three months. Well, more than 400,000 Demand Progress members have spoken out against the Internet Blacklist Bill, which would give the government new powers to shut down sites that are accused of copyright infringement. Will you help us prove that most Americans stand with us -- and against censorship -- by helping us identify 10,000 new censorship opponents in the next 24 hours?
Please just fill out the form at right if you haven't already emailed your lawmakers. Just use the form at right to email your lawmakers, and use the links above to share with your friends. Here's some background on the Internet Blacklist Bill. Flash Mob hits Target for it’s Homophobic & Anti-Democratic Policies. 'Occupy Wall Street' Should Also Take Aim at Health Insurance Companies. The lobbyists for U.S. health insurers surely have to be feeling a little uneasy knowing that thousands of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who have been marching and protesting in Washington as well as New York and other cities might target them in the days ahead. After all, the headquarters of the insurers’ biggest lobbying and PR group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., is just blocks away from Freedom Plaza, where the demonstrators have set up camp, and problems with health insurers appear to be near the top of the list of protesters’ concerns.
Health Care for America Now, an umbrella advocacy group that played a key role in the health care reform debate, last week analyzed the 546 comments that had been posted by then on “ We are the 99 percent ” Tumblr site. In my book, Deadly Spin , I wrote about how the “Wall Street takeover” of the American health care system has created many of the problems mentioned in the Tumblr site. CREDO Mobile, Warren Buffet and the Limits of Progressive Business. WikiClaimLeaks. Is Our Children Learning? Not When It Comes To Civil Rights History. Human Rights Petition: Tell Obama: Take Action to Stop Racial Profiling. 2011 DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk - Team Statistics. Oct. 6 – Join Us in Freedom Plaza. Awesome Analysis: Borosage and Vanden Heuvel on The American Dream Movement | Blog | Rebuild the Dream. The Rainbow Struggle: A primer for the global gay rights battle. UNITED NATIONS — This June the UN Human Rights Council narrowly passed its first-ever resolution calling for universal gay rights with the support of more than 80 countries.
It was an historic milestone, a global recognition that gay rights and human rights were finally synonymous, at least on paper, here in New York at the world body. How these rights play out in the real world is a very different story, and it is the subject of this GlobalPost “Special Report” which will examine the rights of people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) through a series of reports over the next two months from every corner of the world. In South Africa, for example, the very country that introduced the successful resolution, there is a domestic crisis of rampant gender-based violence.
That violence includes a uniquely horrifying brutality known as “corrective rape” which is a targeted sexual attack against lesbians. The divine opposition. Defend Equality -- IndieGoGo. Tell Senator Cornyn you support our servicemembers’ First Amendment rights. Black Voices for Internet Freedom to Launch Friday - Center for Media Justice. Manu Chao Stands in Solidarity with Sheriff Joe Arpaio Protesters (Video) It was a familiar sight in front of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's downtown office yesterday afternoon. Another assembly of a dozen protesters or so had gathered and members of the media were waiting in tow. Word eventually reached Joe that some multilingual, slightly-famous international recording artist was on his way to play some music or something. "Is he gonna sing my favorite song 'My Way,'" Arpaio asks.
Not quite Joe. This "singer-guy" happens to be Manu Chao and um, he's kind of a big deal. Ahead of tonight's free Alto Arizona concert across the street from El Portal Restaurant at West Grant and S. 2nd Avenue, Manu stopped by the Wells Fargo building Arpaio has called home since 1998, to stand in solidarity with the protesters who have gathered tirelessly in an effort to oust the sheriff. "A lot of people here are trying to fight against these new laws and I think it's important to come and see what's happening with my own eyes and do my part to better the world," Manu says.
On National Coming Out Day, we should respect everyone. Oct. 11 is National Coming Out Day, and here is my coming out story as a lesbian teacher. A month into my first year of teaching seventh-graders in Oakland, Calif., we were in the school library, outlining Africa on poster paper. My students chatted as they worked. “Are you married, Ms. Sokolower?” One of them asked me. My stomach instantly tied itself in a knot. “Well,” I explained in what I hoped was a calm voice, “I have been with the same partner for a very long time, but we can’t get married because we’re lesbians. Immediately, everyone had questions and comments. “How could you have a daughter?”
“How do you know you’re a lesbian?” “That’s gross.” I said, “Right now, we’re working on Africa. I thought about how to explain this in a way that would be appropriate for middle schoolers. The next morning, there was a note in my box to go see the vice principal. “I’m not talking about my sex life,” I told him. So I told them the truth. In so many ways, silence is the enemy. Free/open software to run your election campaign. The NAACP's Photo.