By June, Bu Peien had become thoroughly hot. Strangely, temperatures had risen earlier than last year.
Scientists claimed that the extreme weather might be subsiding, but some people who held views contrary to the experts believed that summers might grow hotter, while winters could become colder.
Several interesting things happened during this period.
First, the Federal Department of Defense issued a public announcement stating that, except for the Military Clubs in the Federal naval districts, all military clubs would be converted to a cooperative operating model.
In other words, the Department of Defense would provide part of the funding, while enterprises would be responsible for the actual operations. Regardless of how well the business performed or how much was spent, there would be no reimbursement of the difference.
Moreover, operators had to meet certain mandatory standards set by the Department of Defense. For example, they had to provide military personnel with alcoholic beverages at regular intervals.
Some enterprises interested in this had even called to inquire. But after hearing about the many mandatory conditions, they lost all interest in "contracting"—or "cooperatively operating"—the clubs.
In the end, an enterprise that few people had ever heard of signed contracts for all the clubs.
The public did not really care about this. Although it was called a public announcement, 99.9 percent of Federal citizens had no idea it had happened.
The second matter was that Ms. Trish's trial had concluded. Congress wanted to give her a severe sentence, preferably one that would leave her to die in prison—for example, twenty or thirty years behind bars.
But the Chief Justice clearly failed to reach a consensus with Congress. After interference from various forces, including petitions from large numbers of citizens, Ms. Tracy was sentenced to six years.
The central issue behind her harsh sentence