Photo: Kings of the road

Posted: Sunday, August 06, 2006

By Al GrilloThe Associated Press

Two caribou pause Friday as they walk down a road at the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope. The hundreds of caribou that wander around the oil field have the right of way and are not allowed to be interfered with. Vehicles are prohibited from honking their horns and must yield to the animals and wait for them to leave the road.to 40 _billion_ dollars. The government admits that
they don't have the money, and that there will be no commercial return for at
least 20-30 years. They, so far, have spent $17 million dollars in studies and
reports by consultants, and have delievered a pitifully low amount of
Broadband to Tasmania, the smallest (by an order of 10) state (think Rhode
Island vs Alaska). Already it is covered in scandals and rorts, the head of
the project gets a $400k salary and is an ex-union hack who was given the job
on the basis of being friends with the minister responsible. The main
opposition party has promised to scrap the entire project for fiscal
responsibility reasons and turn the market back over to private competitors,
with government backing for rural areas, as was the original plan. The
opposition are