Word: block
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Secretary of Agriculture John Block sought to defend the current level of food stamp funding by showing that a family of four could subsist on a $58 allowance for a week. Surrounded by a flock of aides and reporters, he and his wife pushed a cart through their local supermarket picking up provisions recommended by nutritional experts. The millionaire farmer reported that there were only a few minor hitches in living on this allotment for a week: "The family crisis was when the dog ate the biscuits. But that could happen to any family, rich or poor." Critics countered that...
...prisoners. They are also barred from meeting with the families of other detainees. Thus any assembly of more than three close relatives of political prisoners renders them liable to conspiracy proceedings. Prisoners' families are kept under constant surveillance by the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (neighborhood block committees) and the police. In May 1979, because I had refused to write a letter disavowing the contents of my books and denouncing those who had published my poetry or who had talked of my situation abroad, my family was refused an exit visa to leave the country...
...greater role in the past few days than it in truth deserves." The Foreign Minister explained that the walk-in-the-woods plan showed that it was possible to come up with an agreement that did not include the independent British and French nuclear forces, a major stumbling block in Geneva. Still, there may have been other motives in Bonn's renewed interest in the proposal...
...This is a happy hour," beamed Secretary of Agriculture John Block last week. The reason for his exultation was a new five-year U.S.-Soviet grain agreement, the first since 1976. Negotiated in London, Vienna and Moscow during the past two months, the deal raises the annual minimum Soviet grain purchase required under the earlier agreement from 6 million to 9 million tons. That means a boost for farm exports, but nowhere near the 16 million tons the Americans had originally wanted. Yet Block said the accord achieved "reasonable expectations" and "puts us in a better place to sell...
...tool shop, an English pub and other commercial ventures are moving into the restored Schermerhorn Row of counting houses, which dates from 1811 and shows off the simple charm of the period. The Museum Block, in contrast, includes 14 buildings in a medley of styles, all exuberantly restored. By next summer "Pier 17 Pavilion" will be installed. The Victorian-style steel-and-glass shopping arcade will jut into the East River alongside the four-masted sailing ship Peking and other craft in the museum's flotilla. Also to come are more outdoor cafés, commercial offices...