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Sustainable devt: Mandelson wants to fast-track GM Posted on Monday, June 06 The Independent on Sunday 05 June 2005Peter Mandelson is pressing for new GM foods and crops to be eaten and planted across Europe, even though governments cannot agree on whether to introduce them, top officials from the European Commission have told The Independent on Sunday.

Former PR Official Indicted in DWP Overbilling Probe Posted on Saturday, June 04Los Angeles Times By Ted Rohrlich and Ralph FrammolinoJune 3, 2005Douglas R. Dowie, a leading Los Angeles public relations consultant, political fundraiser and confidant of Mayor James K. Hahn, was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges that he directed a criminal conspiracy to bilk city government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars .

Lobbying: The Pimping of the President Posted on Friday, June 03The Texas Observer Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist Billing Clients for Face Time with G.W. Bush By Lou Dubose, May 27, 2005Four months after he took the oath of office in 2001, President George W. Bush was the attraction, and the White House the venue, for a fundraiser organized by the alleged perpetrator of the largest billing fraud in the history of corporate lobbying. In May 2001, Jack Abramoff's lobbying client book was worth $4.1 million in annual billing for the Greenberg Traurig law firm. He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. He was a Bush "Pioneer," delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign. He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior. He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove's personal assistant. He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay. Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.