There is no rock solid list, but as of this morning we know that at least 348 workers who are helping rebuild Iraq have died.
Some estimates place the number of deaths considerably higher.
Here is a list of the deaths we know about.
Frontline produced a remarkable 2004 documentary on these "private warriors."
This American Life, the outstanding radio documentary program also produced an outstanding work on the work of private contractors in Iraq. This is worth your time.
Here is a website that is a support site for families of civilian contractor workers in Iraq. The video page includes "home videos" of the conditions in which contractors work. Look at this sandstorm — unbelievable.
DangerZoneJobs.com is a Web site that helps people find high paying jobs in world danger zones. Here is a list of companies that contract with workers worldwide, often for very dangerous work. The State Department’s Web site attempts to help contract workers get ready for the tough conditions in which they will work.
The State Department even lists some high paying jobs that are open in Iraq.
Get local. The Center for Public Integrity has a list of contracts between the Department of Defense and private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Exotic Mortgages Losing Appeal
Those folks who took out adjustable-rate or interest-only home loans during the height of the housing market now face big problems. MSNBC points out:
Now these cheap mortgages that fueled the real-estate boom are beginning to hurt the homeowners they once helped. Higher interest rates and the end of honeymoon periods for too-good-to-be-true teaser rates are increasingly causing payment shock for borrowers.
"Nationwide, approximately $400 billion of [home-purchase adjustable-rate mortgages] are scheduled to reset at some point in 2006," said Frank Nothaft, chief economist with Freddie Mac in McLean, Va. "A significant number of homeowners will face some adjustments." In fact, the ARMs with scheduled payment increases this year work out to about 5 percent of all single-family debt outstanding in the country now, he said.
Many of these mortgages carry negative amortization features that permit borrowers to pile on additional debt beyond their original balance, and make minimal payments for the first several years. Once the initial period is over, however, payments could shoot up by 100 percent or more as the loan resets.
Other programs allow interest-only payments with no reduction in the original loan balance until the reset point. Then payments can jump by 50 percent or more in order to amortize the debt balance over a compressed number of years.
Tick Diseases
The CDC just reported a "cluster" of tick paralysis cases in Colorado.
During May 26 - 31, 2006, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment received reports of four recent cases of tick paralysis. The four patients lived (or had visited someone) within 20 miles of each other in the mountains of north central Colorado.
You may have read that last week, the Governor of Tennessee was hospitalized for nearly a week from an apparent tick bite.
The GAO reported in 2001:
From 1991 through 1999, the annual number of reported cases of Lyme disease increased by 72 percent. Although Lyme disease has been reported in 49 states and the District of Columbia, 9 states, mainly in the eastern part of the country, account for 92 percent of the nationally reported cases. Persons of all ages and both sexes are equally susceptible, although the highest attack rates are in children under 15 and in adults from age 45 to 65.
Could it be that doctors now are diagnosing this disease, or is it that tick bites are getting more dangerous?
Tick bites carry Lyme disease and it is at the center of a ton of research going on through the National Institutes of Health. Lyme disease can cause heart problems, eye inflammation, arthritis, liver disease, severe fatigue, can affect muscle movement, cause neck soreness and even make limbs go numb. The NIH says:
The Institute conducts and supports most of the basic and clinical research on Lyme disease funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). However, because Lyme disease affects different tissue/organ systems of the body, it is also a matter of great concern to other NIH institutes and centers.
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) supports research on chronic Lyme-induced arthritis, including the role of the immune system and genetic factors in contributing to its development. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) supports research to characterize the neurological, neuropsychological, and psychosocial manifestations of early and late Lyme disease in both adults and children, as well as to characterize pathogenic mechanisms associated with the neurological symptoms of chronic Lyme disease. The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) provides resource support (non-human primates) for basic and clinical studies on both acute and chronic infection, as well as support for testing and developing candidate vaccines for Lyme disease. In addition, the Fogarty International Center (FIC) funds research on Lyme disease abroad, and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) focus on those aspects of Lyme disease that relate to their specific mission.
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Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected. 
