Training
Ketchikan's Firefighters
Stacy Francis (with fire nozzle),
Britney Freeman and Steve Phillips wait their turn at the burning
building during the live fire exercise.
Front Page Photo by David Hull - Photo
Gallery
National: Unprecedented
security awaits inauguration - The first inauguration since
Sept. 11, 2001, will be conducted under what appears to be the
most sophisticated security in history.
Concerned by threats of bombs
in limousines and other vehicles, police have announced they
will close off most of downtown Washington on Thursday to anything
other than emergency and official traffic during the events of
President Bush's second inaugural.
Thousands of security agents
are checking out buildings along the route that will take the
president, members of the official party, and marchers from the
Capitol to the White House.
Anyone with any possibility
of even a long-range view of the inaugural stand, parade route
or parade-reviewing stand in front of the White House will have
to pass through metal detectors, and many will be behind wire
mesh fences.
Closed-circuit television will
constantly sweep the crowd and security agents in plain clothes
will be on patrol, as will uniformed officers with bomb-sniffing
dogs. - More...
Tuesday - January 18, 2005
National: Largest
inaugural donors also big federal contractors - Many of President
Bush's largest corporate contributors to this month's $40 million
inaugural bash are also some of the nation's biggest government
contractors, getting at least $2.9 billion from Uncle Sam last
year.
Forty-four corporations, groups
and individuals have each pledged $250,000 - the maximum under
voluntary guidelines set by the White House - to defray costs
for the most expensive inauguration ever held for a second-term
president.
At least five are corporations
that got $286 million or more in federal contracts last year,
according to a Scripps Howard News Service study of the Federal
Procurement Data System computer files maintained by the Office
of Management and Budget.
"This is something the
public ought to be looking at. It's a giant loophole because
it's a way for special interests to maximize their clout with
the administration," said Steven Weiss of the nonpartisan
Center for Responsive Politics. "They are hoping to extend
their influence." - More...
Tuesday - January 18, 2005
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