Think Progress

MILITARY -- OLD GI BILL STILL BEING PITCHED TO NEW RECRUITS: The Associated Press reports that new U.S. military recruits "are being advised to continue signing up for the old GI Bill while details are being worked out about what types of education are covered under the Post-9/11 GI Bill program that became law June 30." However, the old Montgomery GI Bill comes at a cost for recruits: a $1,200 contribution that can be paid in $100 monthly installments within the first year of service. The new 21st Century GI Bill, which was originally sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), is free. Regardless, the Defense Department guidance says that "those who might want vocational training...should enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill" anyway because "those types of training may not be covered by the new program." Service members "can get the $1,200 back if they end up getting a traditional college education." 

KATRINA -- REPORT SAYS MILLIONS WASTED ON NO-BID CONTRACTS FOR KATRINA RECOVERY: According to a report by the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general, "The government wasted millions of dollars on four no-bid contracts it handed out for Hurricane Katrina work." The Associated Press called the report "the latest to detail mismanagement in the multibillion-dollar Katrina hurricane recovery effort, which investigators have said wasted at least $1 billion." In the new report, investigators cite temporary housing contracts that were "awarded without competition to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Group Inc., CH2M Hill Companies Ltd. and Fluor Corp." by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). Investigators found that FEMA "did not always properly review the invoices submitted by the four companies" and "also issued open-ended contract instructions for months without clear guidelines on what work was needed to be done and the appropriate charges," which "wasted at least $45.9 million." Approximately $20 million of the wasted money went towards "a camp for evacuees that was never inspected and proved to be unusable." FEMA said that it "generally agreed" with the report and "would further investigate the $45.9 million in questioned costs and recoup the money as necessary."

ETHICS -- REPORT DETAILS 'CULTURAL OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND PROMISCUITY' AT GOVT. OFFICES: Yesterday, the Interior Department's inspector general revealed that 13 government officials "handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them." The report notes that nearly a third of the Denver Minerals Management Service's 55-person office "received gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies." The report reveals that government officials tried to rewrite ethics rules in order to accommodate their partying and cover up their misdoings. In the summer of 2006, Royalty in Kind (RIK) employees wrote up a document titled, "Initiative to Clarify Guidance for RIK Interaction with Industry," which would codify employees' "uniqueness." Employees also illegaly took drugs, often while at the office. Gregory Smith, Program Director of the RIK, referred to cocaine as "office supplies" and rewarded his employees for obtaining it for him. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) criticized "how cozy the relationship between Big Oil and the Administration's regulators have been." The AP called the scandal part of a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity."

On the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, new data "from a public health registry that tracks the health effects of 9/11 suggest that as many as 70,000 people may have developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the terrorist attacks." Approximately 3,800 to 12,600 may have developed asthma after being exposed to heavy pollution that day.

"Deaths among those working the nation's oil and gas fields have risen at an alarming rate," the AP reports today. Illustrating the "soaring cost of America's unquenchable thirst for energy," at least 598 workers died on the job between 2002 and 2007 as the number of deaths per year has risen by around 70 percent.

In July, President Bush approved secret orders "that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government." The New York Times writes that the legal basis for the operations remain "unclear," and the Pakistani army has said it "would defend the country's sovereignty 'at all costs."

An Iraqi plan to award six no-bid contracts to Western oil companies has been withdrawn. Iraq's oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani said this week that the talks "had dragged on for so long that the companies could not now fulfill the work" within the one year time frame of the deals. The companies confirmed on Wednesday that the deals had been canceled." 

"Workers with professional degrees, such as doctors and lawyers, were the only educational group to see their inflation-adjusted earnings increase over the most recent economic expansion, adding to the concern that the economy has benefited higher-earning Americans at the expense of others."

The United States is "running out of time" in Afghanistan, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee yesterday. "I'm not convinced we're winning in Afghanistan," said Mullen before quickly adding that he's "convinced we can."

A Colorado meatpacking company fired about 100 Muslim workers "who walked off the job last week in protest of the firm’s refusal to give them time to pray during the holy month of Ramadan." Supervisors had originally granted permission for prayer breaks, but "non-Muslim employees protested," and on Friday the company refused to grant break time. The union that represents the employees said it would challenge the firing.

A new report from the Homeland Security Department's Office of Inspector General has found that "the government wasted millions of dollars on four no-bid contracts it handed out for Hurricane Katrina work, including paying $20 million for a camp for evacuees that was never inspected and proved to be unusable." Investigators say the U.S. government has wasted nearly $1 billion in the recovery effort.

And finally: Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee was burning up Washington, D.C., yesterday. First, he stopped by the Center for American Progress for an event on music education, where he and Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY) performed "I Saw Her Standing There." Huckabee was on bass, while Crowley handled guitar and vocals. Later in the day, Huckabee was named "Funniest Celebrity in Washington" at the annual stand-up comedy competition at DC Improv. Watch his performance here.