The CEO of the Business Council of Australia, Katie Leahy, citing Nike and McDonalds as examples, said that companies could be forgiven for wondering why they should make philanthropic contributions if they only became the subject of increased community criticism. "There is a concern among businesses that they don't necessarily receive the acknowledgment they think their efforts should bring them. ...

"The Justice Department is demanding
that the nation's biggest cigarette makers be ordered to
forfeit $289 billion in profits derived from a half-century
of fraudulent and dangerous marketing practices. Citing new evidence, the Justice Department asserts ... the major
cigarette companies are running what amounts to a criminal
enterprise by manipulating nicotine levels, lying to their
customers about the dangers of tobacco and directing their

"The 'powerful odor of mendacity' (to borrow Tennessee Williams' phrase) hung over George Bush's primetime virtual declaration of war Monday night," TomPaine.com commentator Doug Ireland writes. "When Bush proclaimed that 'The Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most