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WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department on Thursday approved final rules to allow energy companies to share the costs and revenues from drilling for oil and natural gas on leased tracts in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve.

Early this August, Rosina Phillipe and Ruby Ancar drove from the government-issued trailers where they are still living two years after Katrina, to a boat landing at the end of a long dirt road. You have to go by boat to get to their tiny town of Grand Bayou, a "wetland community" in Plaquemines Parish, not far from where the Mississippi River empties out into the Gulf of Mexico.  

WASHINGTON, DC -- Just 20 electric utilities in the United States are responsible for half the carbon dioxide, mercury, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide pollution emitted by the 100 largest power generating companies in the nation, a new report finds. The study by a coalition of environmental and public interest groups found that between four and six companies account for 25 percent of the emissions of each pollutant.

This CorpWatch report, by Eliza Strickland and Azibuike Akaba, tells the story of corporate malfeasance and government incompetence two years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. This is our second report - Big, Easy Money by Rita J. King was the first - and it digs into a slew of new scandals.

A Boeing Co. unit falsified flight plans to disguise the Central Intelligence Agency's transporting of terrorism suspects to secret prisons overseas, the American Civil Liberties Union claims in an updated lawsuit.

Lockheed looks to secure more U.S. government contracts for other services from managing military bases and embassies to helping writing constitutions for developing nations.

Qosmos - a French technology company - is being investigated for acting as an "assisted witness" in alleged torture in Syria. The specialized crimes unit of the Paris Tribunal has agreed to study the use of Qosmos surveillance software by Bashar Al-Assad's regime, following complaints filed by two human rights NGOs.

Contractors hired to clean up after Hurricane Katrina are fuming over delays in getting paid by FEMA, and some politicians fear the red tape will discourage companies from bidding on the big rebuilding projects that lie ahead for New Orleans.



One company claims it is owed about $150 million, and some contractors have walked off the job or gone to court to get the money they say they should have been paid for demolition and debris removal completed as much as a year and a half ago.