The Peacock Report is Now History — Archives to be Preserved

After considerable thought, I have decided to archive The Peacock Report by migrating it here to the WordPress system. After posting hundreds of original articles — many of which were investigative pieces that scooped the mainstream media worldwide — I have decided to move on. There are several reasons. For one, I feel as if I have been slitting my own throat, so to speak, by providing news coverage free of charge; although occasionally I still sell my material, for the most part I have been giving it away. While blogs hardly are the cause of the downfall of the American newspaper, I feel that we bloggers are contributing to the decline of journalism as a paid profession; I’m sure we could debate that topic endlessly, but we won’t debate it here. The second — and main — reason for the termination of TPR is that I recently have become certified as a high school English teacher and likewise have been delving more and more into creative writing. While I intend to continue to pursue investigative reporting, it almost certainly will be targeted towards long-term reports and book-length projects.

Thanks to the many people who paid over 35,000 visits to The Peacock Report in the past few years.

Feds to Unveil New Initiatives for Public Schools

An additional federal infusion of funding for public schools is slated for this summer, according to new contracting documents that The Peacock Report (TPR) located today. In two particular cases, however, the funds will not be invested in U.S. schools; on the contrary, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in one instance will transfer an unspecified amount of cash to support the standardized testing efforts of the government of Ghana, Africa.

According to a "presolicitation notice" dated April 24, the USAID endeavor seeks to provide — free of charge — 4,034,000 testing packages that will be distributed for nationwide assessments of Ghana school children on July 23. The agency is accepting project estimates from potential contractors until May 14.

TPR also has learned that American taxpayers will foot the bill for another Africa-based USAID education project separately implemented this week that will deliver, "at a minimum," 300,000 textbooks to the nation of Liberia.

These projects are the latest in a series of U.S. investments into African education programs. As TPR reported earlier this year (TPR 1/16), USAID also was scheduled to arrange the delivery of 128,000 math and science textbooks to Tanzania.

Defense Unit Weighs Media Support Contracts

 Information dissemination, broadcast production, and media analysis are among tasks that a select Dept. of Defense unit may begin outsourcing to industry, The Peacock Report (TPR) has discovered.

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) currently is assessing the capabilities of companies that provide such services, according to a “sources sought” notice that TPR located through a routine search of the FedBizOpps database. DTRA describes itself as “the intellectual, technical and operational leader” for DoD and U.S. Strategic Command efforts to detect and combat threats from weapons of mass destruction.

The document does not explicitly state that contractors will be tasked with placing video news releases (VNRs) into mainstream media newscasts — a controversial government practice that has come under fire from media and congressional critics. However, it specifies that a selected contractor would provide support such as “serving as part of the DTRA synthetic media cell; drafting quick-turn-around articles to support simulated media activities and aiding in webpage operations and the production of broadcast materials and graphics, as needed.”

The contract calls for support of DRTA public affairs personnel in preparation, maintenance, and distribution “on a quick-turn around basis broadcast-quality news stories, news releases, articles, fact sheets, and digital images and productions to targeted audiences.”

 

Among other duties, the contractor likewise would be responsible for helping to create – and to perform “security reviews” – of internal and external websites, newsletters, PowerPoint presentations, and other media. Additionally, it would conduct daily news analysis and provide briefings to DRTA officials on media coverage of the agency.

 

The document did not provide an estimated value – nor did it guarantee the awarding — of future contracts.

(Click here to access the SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE.)

NIH Seeks Greater Minority Role in Science, Health Research

The recruitment of health and science professionals from "underrepresented minority groups" will be the goal of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) outreach campaign that could roll out by August. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at NIH seeks to outsource a media campaign designed to "target and acquire" such workers via newspaper, magazine, and online media advertising across the nation.

Further details are not yet available, as NIAID this week again delayed releasing a formal solicitation for the project — the third such delay since the agency originally began its search for potential contractors late last year. NIAID describes the project as a necessary component of creating a workforce to research efforts "against infectious and immune-mediated diseases, immune tolerance, AIDS, bio-terrorism agents, emerging diseases, and vaccines studies."

U.S. in 2009 to Build More Military Sites Across Central, South America

Construction of new military airfields, heliports, and ammunition-storage facilities across Central America over the next year is the objective of a $50 million U.S. Army Corp of Engineers project that The Peacock Report (TPR) discovered this week. According to a pair of "presolicitation notices" that TPR located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, one initiative "[p]rimarily is for all countries in Central America" (#W91278-09-R-0030), while a related project mainly will target Peru and Colombia (#W91278-09-R-0029). Both documents point out that some of the individual construction initiatives of these endeavors will be carried out in "remote areas" of these regions, and therefore will require close coordination with the Army and with "Host Nation Military authorities throughout the life of the project." The full text of the solicitations is expected to be released around March 5.

Potential bidders will meet with U.S. contracting representatives next month, starting with a pre-proposal conference March 17 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and followed by a conference at the Princess Hotel in San Salvador, El Salvador March 19. The purpose of the conferences, according to the document, "is to familiarize the bidders with the scope of work [and to] address bidders questions concerning the project…"

U.S. to Infuse Tons of New Textbooks in Schools

Over 128,000 brand-new math and science textbooks are being purchased by the federal government for nationwide distribution to schools — nationwide, that is, in Tanzania. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is soliciting bids from textbook suppliers capable of delivering the textbooks and related teachers' guides to the Tanzanian Ministry of Education and Vocational Development, according to a USAID request for proposals that The Peacock Report has located.

The USAID document says the goal of this project is to improve the quality of education in Tanzania "by strengthening primary and secondary education performance, especially in areas of sciences and mathematics."

Nuclear Accident Medicine-Stockpile to Undergo Replenishment

The federal government is stepping up preparations for what it characterizes as “the unlikely event of a severe nuclear power plant accident,” according to a contracting document dated July 18 that The Peacock Report has located. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) intends to distribute millions of doses of potassium iodide (KI) to communities within 10 miles of commercial nuclear facilities.

The stockpiling of KI tablets is an ongoing process that began in 2001, when the NRC revised emergency preparedeness regulations governing state-led evacuation and sheltering plans. The latest measure will help to replenish those stockpiles. When the commission revised its rules, it claimed that KI tablets

if taken in time, blocks the thyroid gland’s uptake of radioactive iodine and thus would help prevent thyroid cancers and other thyroid diseases that might be caused by exposure to radioactive iodine that could be dispersed in a severe nuclear accident. 

The Commission has found that potassium iodide is a reasonable, prudent and inexpensive supplement to evacuation and sheltering for specific local conditions. The Commission left it to the states to make a final decision on whether to use it in their emergency preparedness program, but decided to fund the initial purchases of potassium iodide for any state that decided to stockpile it.

The current procurement is for about 2.5 million 65-mg doses of KI. That number is an estimate only, as the exact  amount could be higher or lower, depending upon demand, the document said.

Air Force Ups Ante For PR, InfoWar R&D

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) continues to seek private-sector help in carrying out population “influence operations” and other forms of information warfare, according to a recently renewed call for research and development ideas on the topic. The Peacock Report (TPR) broke the story on the program in 2006, when it was discovered that the USAF was incorporating network disruption and defense R&D into areas such as “psychological operations, military deception, operations security, counterintelligence operations, counterpropoganda [sic] operations and public affairs operations.” Although the agency had initially budgeted $40 million for the program, it has raised that total to about $50 million. It will accept “white papers” on potential R&D concepts through Dec. 31.

See Air Force Seeks to Creat Hybrid Infowar/Public Relations Technologies (TPR, 03/24/2006) for more information.

DoE-Industry Outreach Seeks to Bring About “Commercial Nuclear Renaissance”

Nuclear technology and service providers later this month will get a chance to jointly hustle their wares to the federal government, which is planning a conference where industry representatives can set up shop, free of charge, in order to network with Dept. of Energy (DoE) officials in Denver. The aim of the department’s Nuclear Suppliers Outreach, as it is known, purportedly is to help usher in a “commercial nuclear renaissance” in the U.S. and elsewhere, according to a recently obtained DoE special notice. 

DoE views the gathering as an “excellent opportunity” for:

[C]ompanies interested in working in the DOE nuclear sector to gain insights into the current and future markets for products and services, and requirements to enter or to continue to work on nuclear projects in the DOE-complex. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to interact directly with senior executives, project managers, and procurement personnel working for DOE and its prime contractors…

The event comes at a time when the federal government is gearing up for a massive expansion of its nuclear energy program. As The Peacock Report discovered more than two years ago, the Bush Administration plans to spend an unspecified dollar amount on the construction of new facilities and the modernization of existing nuclear sites; though DoE did not disclose total estimated costs, it revealed that it would award mutliple, individual contracts ranging from $1 million to $125 million (TPR, 3/13/06) over a ten-year period.

The department’s Office of Environmental Management is cosponsoring the event with the National Nuclear Security Administration. It will hold the gathering July 31 at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center.

‘Free’ Wireless Internet Project Underway

The deployment of wireless Internet infrastructure – and the subsequent provision of free access to the world wide web to all Americans — is an idea that’s been circulating in technology policy circles for years. Indeed, the Federal Communications Commission only recently revisited the prospect of free wireless Internet access this past month. And now the U.S. government is taking firm action on the matter — the only problem, however, is that it is not taking action here in the U.S.

On the contrary, the U.S. (unrelated to the above-mentioned FCC proceeding) is handing over nearly a half-million dollars to a Palestinian company to accomplish that task in the West Bank. Specifically, the U.S. Trade & Development Agency (USTDA) will pay for a “technical assistance” contract that will be outsourced to an unidentified vendor; the vendor — which must be a U.S. company – in turn will map out the necessary steps for Ramallah-based BCI Communications & Advanced Technologies, Ltd. to carry out the infrastructure project, according to a procurement document dated June 9 that The Peacock Report has located.

Ultimately, the U.S. taxpayer-funded endeavor will pad the pockets of Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola, whose equipment BCI would use for the project.