Al's Morning Meeting

One of the country's best investigative reporters, KCNC-TV's Brian Maass, has broken another big story. This time, Maass shows how the company that has contracts to de-ice aircraft in 11 cities and foreign countries fed test answers to applicants who have to be certified before they can de-ice aircraft. You will see in the Denver station's video that the trainer gives answer after answer to applicants in two different training sessions taped a month apart.

Is this a big deal? You bet it is. The Federal Aviation Administration says since 1993, 135 airplanes have crashed and 171 people have died because the planes were not properly de-iced.

I like how KCNC includes big chunks of raw video on the station's Web site so you can see that the alarming soundbites used in the story were not out of context. What a smart way to use raw video online.

I interviewed Maass by e-mail about the project.

Tompkins: How did you hear about this story?

KCNC-TV Brian Maass

Maass: I was contacted by a highly credible, reliable source who I have known for about 10 years. He had been hired on as a de-icer and went through the training and "testing." He called me immediately after the class to let me know what was going on. He was pretty disgusted by what he had experienced. He said his first thought -- after getting over the initial shock -- was to give me a call.

Tompkins: What ethical/legal concerns did you have about sending a staffer undercover to tape the testing?

Maass: In applying for a de-icing job, we knew we couldn't lie -- about anything. So on every application, every form, our staff member was honest. He was also instructed to answer any questions from the company truthfully. It was a plus that the de-icing company never asked him any questions about himself, never really interviewed him, or even bothered to call his references or his current employer, which seems to show some other gaps in their processes. He only had to pass a drug test and criminal background check to get the job.

Click here to read more of this interview.

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Foreclosures Hit Renters

The Modesto Bee tells the story of how renters had no clue the house they were renting was about to be tossed into foreclosure.

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What Does Faith Have to Do with the 2008 Farm Bill?
The Religion Writers Association has a fine resource page for covering how religious groups have been lobbying for changes in the 2008 Farm Bill, which is still hung up in the Senate. Why would religious groups be interested?

Religious groups have frequently weighed in on food stamp and nutrition programs, but this time a wider range of religious voices is active in the debate on a wider range of issues, including the environment. And don't forget, churches often are the distribution point for food subsidy programs, so they often know the needy folks pretty well. Religionlink says:

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War Contractors
The Center for Public Integrity has updated its Windfalls of War list, showing which private contractors are landing the biggest contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The CPI finds:

• Over the three years studied, more than $20 billion in contracts went to foreign companies whose identities -- at least so far -- are impossible to determine.
• Nearly a third of the companies and joint ventures on the Top 100 are based outside the United States. These foreign contractors, along with the $20 billion in contracts awarded to the unidentified companies, account for about 45 percent of all funds obligated to the Top 100.
• U.S. government contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan have grown more than 50 percent annually, from $11 billion in 2004 to almost $17 billion in 2005 and more than $25 billion in 2006.
• KBR, Inc., the global engineering and construction giant, won more than $16 billion in U.S. government contracts for work in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2006 -- far more than any other company. In fact, the total dollar value of contracts that went to KBR -- which used to be known as Kellogg, Brown and Root and until April 2007 was a subsidiary of Halliburton -- was nearly nine times greater than the value of contracts awarded to DynCorp International, a private security firm that is No. 2 on the Center's list of the top 100 recipients of Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction funds.

The top 20 contractor list looks like this:

1	KBR Inc (formerly known as Kellogg Brown and Root)	$16,059,282,020
2	DynCorp International (Veritas Capital)	$1,838,156,100
3	Washington Group International Inc	$1,044,686,850
4	IAP Worldwide Services Inc (Cerberus Capital Management LP)	$901,973,910
5	Environmental Chemical Corp	$899,701,070
6	L-3 Communications Holdings Inc	$853,535,680
7	Fluor Corp	$736,853,200
8	Perini Corp	$720,859,110
9	Orascom Construction Industries (OCI)	$617,089,510
10	Parsons Corp	$579,265,450
11	First Kuwaiti General Trading And Contracting Company Wll	$495,404,500
12	Blackwater USA	$485,149,590
13	Tetra Tech Inc	$362,107,010
14	AMEC PLC	$317,171,280
15	Laguna Pueblo (Laguna Construction Company Inc)	$312,677,530
16	AECOM Technology Corp	$293,731,050
17	Toltest Inc	$266,595,130
18	Lockheed Martin Corp	$244,376,120
19	Weston Solutions Inc	$230,982,240
20	Red Star Enterprises Ltd	$193,374,320

Click here to get the top 100 contractor list.

Here are the 10 biggest contracts awarded by the Feds for work in Iraq and Afghanistan:

1	DAAA0902D0007	Defense	KBR Inc (formerly known as Kellogg Brown and Root)	$15,447,831,814
2	W91GY006D6001	Defense	Unidentified Foreign Entities	$6,083,781,531
3	SLMAQM04C0030	State	DynCorp International (Veritas Capital)	$2,022,231,411
4	W91GER06D6001	Defense	Unidentified Foreign Entities	$1,199,856,920
5	W91GXY06D6001	Defense	Unidentified Foreign Entities	$1,143,080,801
6	DACA6303D0005	Defense	KBR Inc (formerly known as Kellogg Brown and Root)	$1,110,850,779
7	W91GXX05D0001	Defense	Unidentified Foreign Entities	$1,068,938,580
8	W91GY005D0001	Defense	Unidentified Foreign Entities	$1,036,119,038
9	W91GEU06D6001	Defense	Unidentified Foreign Entities	$1,017,216,015
10	W91GET06D6001	Defense	Unidentified Foreign Entities	$788,908,449

The CPI also includes a "document warehouse" for you to click through. This search feature provides full-text access to about 360 documents. Among them are reports, audits, testimony, project site inspections and correspondence from four sources: 1) the Government Accountability Office; 2) the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction; 3) the U.S. Agency for International Development Inspector General; and 4) the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General.

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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.