Breaking News Story Sources This Week

The Institute for Public Accuracy puts out bulletins for journalists looking for national sources for stories. I want to post them here for the delectation of my community radio comrades. Don't go calling these folks willy-nilly -- check in with your news directors and set up a story idea, then set up an appointment.

Now get out there and file a story!

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

PM Thursday, March 13, 2008

Five Years Later -- Oil Contracts: Success of War?

Interviews Available

BEN LANDO, blando@upi.com
President Bush has repeatedly called for the passage of the
proposed Iraqi oil law. Lando is energy editor for UPI. He has recently launched
the web page .

ANTONIA JUHASZ,
antoniajuhasz@gmail.com,
http://www.TheBushAgenda.net Juhasz is the author of the book "The Bush Agenda: Invading the
World, One Economy at a Time" and is with the group Oil Change International.
She said today: "Five years after the invasion, the very same oil companies
that owned and controlled Iraq's oil from the end of World War I until
nationalization in the early 1970s -- Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, Shell
and Total -- are now poised to make their grand return. Each has signed
technical service contracts with the Iraqi government for work on five
of Iraq's largest oil fields. These contracts offer a mere foot in the
door, however, as both the companies and the Bush administration pressure the

Iraqis to pass the Iraq oil law and give the companies the Big Prize:
renewed ownership and control of Iraq's oil. Oil was the reason for
this war five years ago, it is the reason why we remain entrenched in this
war today."
On Friday, Juhasz will be testifying at the "Corporate Pillaging
and Military Contractors" civilian panel at Winter Soldier with journalist
Jeremy Scahill. Juhasz wrote the oped "Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?" which
appeared in the New York Times. Her forthcoming book is titled "The
Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry and What We Must Do to Stop
It."
Oil Change International will be one of the groups participating in protests on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the invasion of Iraq on March 19 in Washington. They will lead protests at the American
Petroleum Institute in Washington. See:
and .

Garbage In, Garbage Out: You Are What You Eat?

I am on the fly here, making dinner and lunch for my graveyard shift tomorrow and clearing out the living room and getting ready to wash the dog. But I wanted to post something for folx to do.

My daughter goes to Grant High School in the Portland Public Schools District. She says her school cafeteria uses the same food service company as the local jail -- or maybe it's the state penitentiary. She's not sure.

My son, who also goes to Grant, says Eric Schlosser, who wrote Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, reported the same thing in his book. Then I said, I think they use the same companies for hospital food at OHSU. When I was hospitalized in Minneapolis, Minn. three years ago for a kidney transplant, I only saw one piece of fresh fruit the whole time, and it was a creepy, droopy banana.

Here is homework assignment #2: Who can document whether or not Portland Public Schools and the Columbia Correctional Facility (or Coffee Creek Correctional Facility for women, or the Oregon State Penitentiary in the Salem area, or any others) use the same food service companies as ANY school dictrict in the state?

Here is a list of all Oregon prisons.

Bonus point goes to whomever can find out whether the same company provides food services to any hospital in the state.

Wierdly,

here is a complete listing, with links, of Oregon medical facilities put together by a 12-step group.

Right on!

Who can find out which are the top food service companies in the state? I know one is Aramark.

What would be the most timely news peg for such a story? I know that a report released last week showed Oregon spends more money per capital to incarcerate people than any other state. I also know that Oregon schools are chronicly underfunded and essentially FUBAR. Several years ago a report found that Oregon spends more $$ to incarcerate people than it does to fund higher education.

So ... what can we find out?