March 27, 2002 - Waste Management denies charges - Accountant Arthur Andersen had hand in scheme, SEC says, MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS, WASHINGTON, The founder and former head of Waste Management Inc. denies government allegations that he and five former top executives of the giant trash hauler duped stockholders for years. Waste Management executives also denied that the company’s auditor, embattled Arthur Andersen LLP, helped cover up the company’s improper accounting practices...

 March 18, 2002 - Who Gets Subsidies? - Only farmers who grow one of the eight "program" crops are eligible for farm subsidy checks. (See a state listing of how many farms get subsidies.) Even then they are eligible only if their land has been enrolled in the program to establish an official production history. All farmers are eligible for conservation program payments, but funds are usually so limited that tens of thousands of applicants are turned away. Disaster payment eligibility varies from year to year, depending on the geography of weather-related losses and congressional action to provide ad hoc disaster aid for those losses. Crop insurance transactions are not included in this database. The EWG database includes only one form of agricultural aid--direct payments to farmers. It does not include income transfers that occur from consumers to farm operations or agribusiness as a result of programs that raise commodity prices through various ways, including programs for sugar, peanuts, dairy and tobacco...