| Cracked On the job, he covered the District's crack cocaine epidemic ...
I should've turned and walked away when Carrie didn't answer the door. But I was on a mission, and my judgment at the time was less than sound. Carrie was a lithe, blond Arkansan with a sweet demeanor and prom-queen looks. Instead of her, I was greeted by a large man wearing a dirty white T-shirt and bluejeans. He had a wild, uncombed Afro. "What you want?" His eyes were bloodshot. His expression was suspicious. He was north of 6 feet tall and well over 200 pounds. I checked the number on the door. The building was on Ninth Street NW, in the Shaw neighborhood. Carrie had said she'd be in unit No. 32 -- the same number I was looking at. "Maybe I've got the wrong place," I recall replying. "I'm looking for Carrie." The man's expression softened.
Misdirected Money?
Sometimes, it's necessary for a neighborhood newspaper to speak out against possible misspending, even though it's money that may have been misspent citywide or statewide. We are referring to a recent report in a Boston daily newspaper (Herald, December 8). That report alleged that many individuals under treatment for substance abuse are taking advantage of the system to obtain expensive, unnecessary personal transportation to and from clinics.
Why should South Boston Online care about this issue more than any others?
Well, our concern goes deeper than simply being worried about the misuse of scarce tax money. South Boston is waging, and winning, a hard-fought war against drug and alcohol abuse. This requires government funding - lots of it.
Consumer Demand
The largest overseas deal ever in Russian business history occurred in 2005. Alfa Group acquired 13.2 percent of the stock in Turkey's largest cellular company, Turkcell, for $3.3 billion and received guarantees for increasing its package to 27 percent.
Strictly speaking, the expansion of Russian cellular operators in the CIS ad Baltic region has been going on for several years, but the process came to a head in 2005 as the industry's growth rate in Russia was going flat. iKS Consulting analysts estimate that the market in the CIS and Baltic region is about 100 million subscribers. Cellular companies are ready to go to battle with each other and with their shareholder for those subscribers. The Alfa Group consortium, the largest shareholder in VimpelCom with 32.9 percent of its stock, fought for the entry of the company onto the Ukrainian market, against the wishes of second largest shareholder (26.6 percent), the Norwegian holding Telenor.
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