 The construction crew showed up at Orlyn and Carol Bell's 110-acre ranch in western Colorado and began clearing a road to build a drilling pad for four natural gas wells on their hay pasture. For the Bells, the bulldozers arriving capped nine months of frustrating negotiations with energy giant EnCana over how the company would drill on their land. When the construction was imminent in September 2004, the couple capitulated to the company's terms: a payment of $2,000 for each of the roughly 8 acres used for drilling, roads and pipelines, rather than $4,500 an acre they had sought. The Bells' experience reflects a sometimes painful reality in much of the West, where people who own millions of acres don't own the minerals below ground. For landowners without mineral rights, there is nothing they can do to prevent drilling on their property, and often little they can do if the energy company declines to be helpful....
http://www.usatoday.com
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Editor - 20:28:00 03-21-06
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 Rule change could allow sale of your tax return |
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is quietly moving to loosen the once-inviolable privacy of federal income-tax returns. If it succeeds, accountants and other tax-return preparers, for the first time, will be able to sell information from individual returns — or even entire returns — to marketers and data brokers. The possible change is raising alarm among consumer and privacy-rights advocates. It was included in a set of proposed rules that the Treasury Department and the IRS published in the Dec. 8 Federal Register, where the official notice labeled them "not a significant regulatory action."IRS officials portray the proposed changes as house-cleaning measures needed to update outmoded regulations that were adopted before the IRS began accepting returns electronically. ...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002878871_irs21.html
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Editor - 17:47:00 03-21-06
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| British Police Investigate Allegations Blair Sold Seats in House of Lords in Exchange for Loans |
Police opened an investigation Tuesday into allegations that Prime Minister Tony Blair sold seats in the House of Lords in exchange for secret loans to his governing Labour Party, another twist in a political furor that has prompted calls for Blair to leave his job. Public trust in Blair has taken a pummeling in the week-and-a-half since the loans became public, adding new weight to long-standing charges that those who support Labour financially are frequently nominated for peerages in the Lords or titles like knight, dame and Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Blair says he has not made such nominations in exchange for party funding and that all his Lords nominees are well-qualified for seats in Parliament's upper chamber. However, the party has acknowledged it accepted and did not disclose loans of almost $25 million from 12 supporters. Four of the 12 were nominated for a seat in the House of Lords, although three later withdrew their names. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1751461
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Editor - 16:56:00 03-21-06
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| Documents show Saddam's WMD frustrations |
Exasperated, besieged by global pressure, Saddam Hussein and top aides searched for ways in the 1990s to prove to the world they'd given up banned weapons."We don't have anything hidden!" the frustrated Iraqi president interjected at one meeting, transcripts show.At another, in 1996, Saddam wondered whether U.N. inspectors would "roam Iraq for 50 years" in a pointless hunt for weapons of mass destruction. "When is this going to end?" he asked.It ended in 2004, when U.S. experts, after an exhaustive investigation, confirmed what the men in those meetings were saying: that Iraq had eliminated its weapons of mass destruction long ago, a finding that discredited the Bush administration's stated rationale for invading Iraq in 2003 — to locate WMD....
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-03-21-iraq-wmds_x.htm
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Editor - 16:40:00 03-21-06
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| UAE, Saudi considering to move reserves out of dollar |
A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros.The United Arab Emirates said it was considering moving one-tenth of its dollar reserves to the euro, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the decision by the United States to force Dubai Ports World to transfer its ownership to a ‘US entity,’ the UK Independent reported.“Is it protectionism or discrimination? Is it okay for US companies to buy everywhere but it is not okay for other companies to buy the US?” said Hamad Saud Al Sayyari, the governor of the Saudi Arabian monetary authority. The head of the United Arab Emirates central bank, Sultan Nasser Al Suweidi, said the bank was considering converting 10 per cent of its reserves from dollars to euros....
http://www.middleeastforex.com/index.php?section=147
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Editor - 14:32:00 03-21-06
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| Bush: Iraq withdrawal a decision for future Amid public unease, president suggests U.S. troops will stay through 2008 |
Bush said Tue the decision about when to withdraw all US troops from Iraq will fall to future presidents & Iraqi leaders, suggesting US involvement will continue at least through 2008. Acknowledging the public’s growing unease with the war & election year skittishness among fellow Republicans Bush nonetheless vowed to keep US soldiers in the fight. “If I didn’t believe we could succeed, I wouldn’t be there. I wouldn’t put those kids there,” Bush declared. He also stood by embattled Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. “I don’t believe he should resign. He’s done a fine job. Every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy,” he said. Bush and other Brave Arm Chair Generals have no problem with war, as long as others do the fighting and dieing. Support the Troops, send more to die for whatever the cause, America Right or Wrong, Support the Traitors in Power. And to hell with the Constitution, most haven’t read it anyway. Wave the Flag Proudly as if you knew what you’re doing...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11941620/from/RSS/
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Editor - 13:18:00 03-21-06
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| post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
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