On the Reported Death of the MACHO Era
  We present radial velocity measurements of four wide halo binary candidates
from the sample in Chaname & Gould (2004; CG04) which, to date, is the only
sample containing a large number of such candidates. The four candidates that
we have observed have projected separations >0.1 pc, and include the two widest
binaries from the sample, with separations of 0.45 and 1.1 pc. We confirm that
three of the four CG04 candidates are genuine, including the one with the
largest separation. The fourth candidate, however, is spurious at the 5-sigma
level. In the light of these measurements we re-examine the implications for
MACHO models of the Galactic halo. Our analysis casts doubt on what MACHO
constraints can be drawn from the existing sample of wide halo binaries.
