National News
CQ - Republican Boycott Blocks Senate Panel Vote on EPA Subpoena
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee canceled a vote Thursday to subpoena the EPA administrator after Republicans boycotted the meeting.
CQ - Futures Bill Advances Through Committee, Could Go to House Floor Next Week
A House panel approved legislation Thursday intended to limit investor activity in energy futures markets, and the bill could be on the floor as early as next week.
The Hill - Democrats fail to win two-thirds on oil vote
House Democrats for the third time in a row have failed to move a key part of their energy agenda forward. In a 268-157 vote on Thursday, Democrats fell short of moving legislation to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which Democratic leaders argue would lower gas prices.
The Hill - Goss among former members appointed to ethics office
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday announced joint appointments to a landmark ethics review board that for the first time will allow private citizens to review allegations against members. Still, four out of six members of the board for the newly created Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) will be former members of Congress, including former CIA Director Porter Goss (R-Fla.), who will serve as co-chairman.
Fox Business News - Where Are Congress’s Ethics Hearings into Countrywide’s VIP Loans?
Sweetheart mortgages given by Countrywide Financial, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, to elected officials and government bureaucrats seem tailor-made for an ethics inquiry by Congress, especially as the country is seeing a rising tide of voter anger in this presidential election year due to the massive $300 bn bailout of the housing industry at taxpayers’ expense.
Politico - House GOP says please veto
House Republicans are trying a new tack to get President Bush to reverse his support for the massive housing bill: asking nicely.
LA Times - Medicare Part D a boon for drug companies, House report says
Taxpayers pay up to 30% more for prescriptions under the privately administered program than under Medicaid, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform finds.
Wall Street Journal - Amid Turmoil, U.S. Turns Away From Decades of Deregulation
The housing and financial crisis convulsing the U.S. is powering a new wave of government regulation of business and the economy.
NY Times - Effort to Address Gasoline Prices Stalls in the House
House Democrats failed Thursday in their efforts to force the Bush administration to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices as Republicans stuck to their demands for a vote on an expansion of offshore drilling.
International News
Washington Post - U.S. Can't Keep Up On Visas for Iraqis
Refugees in Danger After Helping Coalition
LA Times - Olympic officials bar Iraq from Beijing Games
The International Olympic Committee says the seven-member team cannot compete next month because the Iraqi government replaced the country's Olympic panel with a new body.
LA Times - Israel Moves Toward Building More Settler Homes
An Israeli defense committee has approved the construction of 22 homes in a barely populated West Bank settlement, Defense Ministry officials said Thursday. The move appeared to catch some Israeli officials off guard, angered Palestinians and was likely to prompt criticism from the international community as it tried to push forward a long-faltering peace process.
Washington Post - Civilian Airstrike Deaths Probed
78 Have Died in Three Incidents This Month Alone, Afghan Officials Say
Washington Post - US strengthening Zimbabwe sanctions
The U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe says the United States is in the process of strengthening sanctions against individual Zimbabweans blamed for deadly electoral violence.
State News
San Francisco Chronicle - Controller says he won't cut workers' wages
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's bombshell plan to slash the pay of state workers and lay off thousands of other employees to ease a looming cash shortage brought on by the state's budget impasse faces the same obstacle that arose five years ago during a state fiscal crisis: a state controller unwilling to cooperate.
San Francisco Chroncle - Poll finds dark view of economy in California
Californians have turned overwhelmingly grim about the economy, with an unprecedented proportion saying their situations have worsened, according to the Field Poll.
North County Times - Marine sniper cleared of manslaughter charges
Manslaughter and dereliction of duty charges have been dropped against a Marine sniper accused of wrongfully killing two men he suspected were planting a roadside bomb in Iraq last year.
San Diego Union Tribune - Copley Press explores sale of Union-Tribune
The parent company of The San Diego Union-Tribune announced Thursday that it has hired an investment banker to look into the possible sale of the company.
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