Sarah Palin has once again managed to get herself back in the news, although I’m thinking she never really left – This time it’s for filing late disclosure forms for free trips she received more than a year ago. The trips were taken in April and May of 2007 and, under state ethics law, should have been reported within 30 days. When asked why she was more than 550 days late in filing, a spokesman for the governor blamed the error on the Governor’s travel support staff. In one of the trips, the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute of North Carolina paid the $2,827 cost of Palin's April 2007 flight and hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, to attend a four-day conference. In May 2007, Palin accepted lodging for herself and her three daughters at a Lodge in the Southeast Alaska town of Skagway. The lodging, valued at $300, was paid for by the owners, one of whom was Palin friend and former deputy campaign treasurer Kathy Hosford. Now, Palin spent a lot of time during her gubernatorial and vice-presidential campaigns chastising lawmakers for accepting gifts and bribes. But, maybe her definition of “gifts” is different from everyone else’s.
A subcontractor for Kellogg Brown Root in Iraq has been accused of holding more than 1,000 men captive. Najlaa International Catering Services brought the men into Iraq with promises of steady work and considerable pay, but the men soon found themselves locked in crowded, windowless rooms with no work and no money. In addition, reports show that these 1,000 men were forced to share only 12 toilets in the entire facility. The company contends that it was taking care of the men's basic needs while they wait for jobs to open up, but has since said that it would send the men home with back pay instead. Some of the men told newspapers that Najlaa was holding their passports, which is a violation of the United States' 2006 instructions to contractors. The living conditions, as well, appear to violate guidelines meant to deter human trafficking and abuse by recruiters and guarantee each person in such a situation at least 50 square feet of living space. There is still no word yet on how KBR will handle the matter, or if they will even face charges for these abuses.
And just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new report shows that one in three toys contain dangerous chemicals. Researchers for the Michigan-based Ecology Center tested more than 1,500 popular toys for lead, cadmium, arsenic, PVC and other harmful chemicals. The researchers said they found that one-third of the toys contain "medium" or "high" levels of chemicals of concern. The toys selected for testing were among the top-sellers this holiday season. Researchers bought the toys at chain stores including Target, Kmart, Toys R Us, Babies R Us, TJ Maxx, and Wal-Mart, as well as drug stores, dollar stores, on-line retailers and independent toy stores. The study found lead in 20% of the toys tested. In 3.5% of the toys, levels of lead exceeded the federal recall level for paint. According to the report, 21% of toys from China and 16% of toys from all other countries had detectable levels of lead. Of the toys made in the United States that were tested, 35% had detectable levels of lead. But never fear, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has said that a new regulation they’ve passed will make the sale of some of these products illegal. Unfortunately, this regulation doesn’t take effect until next February, which for those of you without a calendar, is AFTER Christmas when millions of dollars worth of toys will be purchased and put in the hands of smiling children.
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