As Steve Vizard departs his yacht cruising in the calm waters off the south of France and prepares to return to chilly Australia to face the music, the controversy around his insider trading at Telstra continues to swirl in much choppier seas. And increasingly, the spotlight is turning on Vizard's complicit accountant Greg Lay, who actually carried out the $850,000 share trades in companies connected with Telstra while Vizard, the beneficiary of the trades, sat on the Telstra board. So where does that leave Lay?
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Damned if he does
There is a saying in California, a state with a climate, cities and water needs not unlike Australia: whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over. The fight over Sydney's water supply has turned into war after NSW Premier Bob Carr named Kurnell in Sydney's south as the site for a $2billion desalination plant to solve the city's water shortage.
He asserts that Sydney Water knew back in 1980 that the city would need a new dam, or other sources of water, before 2000. "We have known about this for the past 10 years. We should have been doing something about it." Essery says Warragamba, Sydney's main dam, is a good storage dam, but, as the public knows too well, the catchment is not in a good area
• It is cheaper to treat waste water than it is to treat salt water [This month MONTHLY features a cover article by Robert Manne on the Iraq war. Manne says reading Bolt's columns is akin to "being trapped in a small room with an angry, indignant, simple-minded man who believes the best way of convincing you that he is right, yet again, is to ridicule and shout." Manne dismisses the Fairfax press as no longer playing the kind of balancing role they once did ; via a compelling writer Antony Loewenstein ]
• · Prime Minister Jií Paroubek is a man unafraid to say what he thinks. Upon returning from his end-of-June trip to China, where he hoped to drum up business for Czech companies, he criticized those whose "ideological bias" against China stood in the way of closer economic ties between the two countries Communists look to emerge from red corner; Collective guilt ignores historical responsibility - The postwar mistreatment and expulsion of German speakers from Czechoslovakia remains a European issue, one of the key factors for future co-existence of the nations of Central Europe Playing the blame game ; Patients treated with drugs for Parkinson's disease can turn into compulsive gamblers Drug turns patients into punters
• · · Commonwealth Bank claims that it has been defrauded of $7 million after a man it lent money to - a mysteriously named "Mr Edge" - disappeared Bank mystery: Mr Edge and the missing millions Former WorldCom chief executive Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison today for his role in the fraud scheme at the telecom giant that led to the biggest corporate collapse in US history WorldCom collapse: ex-chief gets 25 years jail
• · · · Journalists at a West Australian newspaper are being forced by their employer to sell two weeks of their annual leave, contradicting assurances from the Howard Government and employer groups that cashing out holidays would be voluntary Publisher enforces holiday sell-off ; THE Howard government's industrial relations overhaul will not create new jobs, will hurt families and will lead to workers being bullied IR reforms won't create jobs: conference
• · · · · Defending the role of leadership in communicating change ; Workplace rumours trigger a wide range of effects. The most common are lower morale, bad press, loss of trust, increased stress, decreased productivity and tarnished individual and corporate reputations Dealing with workplace rumours
• · · · · · Time spent on your resume or CV could be better spent blogging; Job Search Engine Sites ; Getting jobs in Iraq ; How to Find Local Job Listings