Word: watchdog
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...debate and wrangling, representatives of South Africa's political parties, black and white, agreed last week to create a 20-member, multiracial, multiparty transition council -- with blacks in the majority -- to supervise the existing government until free elections are held on April 27. For the first time, the watchdog council will give 30 million black South Africans a measure of power and legitimacy within the country's political system; its installation, perhaps as soon as the middle of October, will definitively mark the end of 45 years of white rule. "It is a historic moment," said Cyril Ramaphosa, secretary-general...
...usually pass the low-cost shares only to clients who generate the fattest commissions. Foley, a stock-market neophyte with a small account, does not fit that profile. "Foley may just be lucky in the stock market," comments Ellen Miller, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group. "But it raises the question, Did he get a special deal, and why do people want to be so especially nice to members of Congress...
Initial reaction to the networks' labeling plan was predictably skeptical. Critics, from conservative watchdog Terry Rakolta to earnest newspaper columnists, complained that the warning label was a cop-out, a Band-Aid solution that would not reduce violence but would simply point out more clearly where to find it. But as production for the new season gets under way, the impact of the new label is shaping up as substantial, maybe even crippling. The Clean Up Your Network campaign may help make TV safer for kids, but it will almost certainly make network programming even blander than it already...
...suspected for other traits that society judges "undesirable," such as mental and physical illness. Said the Rev. Louis Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition: "The fact that homosexuality may be genetically based will not make much difference for us from a public policy perspective." Reed Irvine, whose watchdog group, Accuracy in Media, increasingly criticizes favorable reportage about gays and gay rights, called for more coverage of studies that he claims show homosexuality can be "cured" -- an assertion that both gays and health professionals widely dispute. Says Irvine: "It's a little more complicated than just saying you can prove...
...real civic organization. The longstanding and politically powerful Cambridge Civic Association (CCA) is actually a political party. The members of its board of directors act as power brokers and policy makers for the city. It is a clear conflict of interest for the CCA to serve as a "watchdog" over elected officials, since they have a contractual arrangement with their endorsed candidates. Cambridge needs a civic organization that is unencumbered by these incestuous conflicts to impartially assess the actions of local government and its elected and contracted officials...