| Mideast Peace Conference Assembles
A U.S. sponsored Mideast peace conference convenes this week. The three-day gathering is being held in Washington and Annapolis, Maryland. The summit is aimed at shepherding a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. Participants from nearly 50 countries and groups are planning to attend. cc/cdo
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Couple who lost home in floods, anxious for answers
RUSHFORD As Karen Wilkemeyer reflects on all that her family lost in the August floods, it's the simple things she misses most. The star that always topped the family's Christmas tree. The handmade ornament she made as a first-grader. And then there are the baby pictures taken of her four children at the hospital. "Their first pictures ever, and they're gone," she says. She doesn't mention the family's obvious losses -- their two-story house and day-care business. Although it's been more than three months since floodwaters ravaged her hometown, Wilkemeyer still is struggling to process what happened. "I don't think it's really hit me," she says. "I cry when I think about it. But I still feel like I'm in this foggy daze and not really understanding." In one night, everything Tim and Karen Wilkemeyer had worked for was gone.
Lt. Col. Kerry MacNeal's e-mails from Iraq
We arrived at Camp Echo under cover of darkness on a Blackhawk helicopter to our forward operating base (FOB) at Camp Echo, South of Baghdad, in Qadisiyah Province. This is a coalition forces outpost of 13 nations led by the Polish Army Division. This base has so many functions and diverse operations. Even more amazing is the collection of multi-national forces including soldiers from Mongolia, Poland, Denmark, El Salvador, Ukraine, Latvia, etc. I have never encountered such a polite collection of humanity - of course, it could be because everyone is armed to the teeth. So many projects, so little time.
One reason the economy is dysfunctional is the pillars of Iraqi society are not cooperating very closely. The Provincial Government, the Iraqi Army, Iraqi Police and Tribal Leaders all regard each other with some degree of suspicion and do not share power easily.
Bush to revise rule on hiring illegal aliens
The Bush administration will suspend its legal defense of a new rule issued in August to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, conceding a hard-fought opening round in a court battle over a central measure in its strategy to curb illegal immigration, according to government papers filed late Friday in federal court.Instead, the administration plans to revise the rule to try to meet concerns raised by a federal judge and issue it again by late March, hoping to pass court scrutiny on the second try. The rule would have forced employers to fire workers within 90 days if their Social Security information could not be verified.The government's proposal was a response to an indefinite delay to the rule ordered Oct. 10 by the judge, Charles R. Breyer of Northern District Court in San Francisco.
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