Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Frogs, Toddlers, The Elderly, And Now Workers

• Yes, keeping secrets is great, but this is one tale the administration shouldn’t have kept to themselves.
• The Department of Labor is proposing to make it tougher to regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins. [Washington Post]
• The problem: the department violated its own rules by failing to announce its plans in public regulatory notices.
• Insiders who were briefed on the subject said the proposal would severely weaken regulation of workplace exposure to dangerous chemicals and address long-standing complaints from businesses that the government overestimates the risk posed by job exposure to chemicals.
• And conveniently, political appointees are moving with unusual speed to push through the rule during the final months of the Bush administration.
• The department’s speed in trying to make the regulatory change contracts with its reluctance to change workplace safety rules.
• Since 2000, the department adopted only one major health rule for a chemical in the workplace.

This isn’t the first time the Bush administration has tried to “help” consumers with their ‘toxic’ policies and regulations.

• 2003: White House voted to not ban wood that was treated with poison arsenic in playground equipment, that could harm children if put on their hands, and swallowed. [CNN]
• 2004: EPA bribed low-income parents to use camcorders to tape their toddlers as lab rats for a study about the dangers of pesticides on children. Not to mention the study was paid for in part by the chemical industry. [SF Gate]
• 2004: Bush and EPA refused to regulate a chemical, which when flowed into local streams, caused frogs to become hermaphrodites.[Washington Post]
• 2007: A corporate insider for the White House said that the EPA shouldn’t value the lives of older people as much as younger people, when calculating the effect of arsenic in drinking water. [NY Times]

One question Department of Labor—How is this new rule guaranteeing workers’ rights to “safe and healthful working conditions", as stated in your mission statement?

POTUS Cries Uncle, Won’t Veto Housing Bill

• President Bush yesterday reversed his opposition to Congress’s housing packaged and said he would not veto the legislation. [ABC News] [Fox News] [NY Times] [Washington Post]
• Why He Wanted To Veto: President Bush didn’t like a $3.9 billion grant which would help poorer, urban communities buy up vacant and foreclosed homes.
• Response: Lawmakers said these funds would actually have an important long-term effect, stopping properties from falling into foreclosure, which would then stop them from becoming abandoned. Fewer houses in foreclosure = fewer blighted neighborhoods.
• Plus: Even Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was in favor of the legislation, telling the President it was vital to stabilize both the housing and the credit markets.
• The Political Battle: We thought this line from the Washington Post’s blog summed it up: “If you stood in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue this morning and listened closely, you could hear the sound of President Bush pulling the rug out from under House and Senate Republicans.” [Washington Post blog]
• Still Fighting, Bless Their Hearts: Many congressional conservatives said they’d continue the fight. Rep. John Boehner said he’s still voting against the measure. And Sen. Jim DeMint announced he’d filibuster the whole thing once it comes to the Senate. (There’s enough bipartisan support to overcome DeMint’s roadblock, but look for it to eat up at least 30 extra hours, pushing a final vote to Friday at the earliest.)
• What Else Is In The Bill: “The most sweeping federal overhaul of the mortgage finance system since the Great Depression, as well as dozens of provisions aimed at halting the worst slide in house prices in a generation.”
• Hundreds of thousands of homeowners can refinance to more affordable, fixed-rate loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration.
• Tighter controls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or back half of the nation’s $5 trillion-worth of mortgages.
• Measure to give the Treasury Department the power to extend credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
• Modernization of the FHA
• $15 billion in housing tax breaks for first-time home buyers and people who don’t itemize their taxes.

Is it perfect? Of course not. But it’s better than nothing.

Truth in Audits? Not at the Pentagon

• Hiding wrongdoing and charges of over-billing appears to be part of the job description for auditors at the Pentagon. [Washington Post]
• An 80-page Government Accountability Office Report found that the auditors at a Pentagon oversight agency were pressured by supervisors to skew their reports on a major defense contractor’s work.
• The Defense Contract Audit Agency made an upfront agreement with “a major aerospace company” to limit the scope of work and basis for an audit, according to the GAO report.
• When the contractor complained about original findings in the audit, a new supervisor was assigned to the case and the senior auditor threatened with personnel action if “he did not delete findings from the report and change the draft audit opinion to adequate.”
• The report also cites a “generally abusive work environment,” including intimidation attempts and preventing auditors from speaking to GAO investigators.
• GAO launched the investigation after receiving complaints on a hotline about 14 DCAA audits, and spoke to more than 50 people involved with the audits.

Surprisingly, the Pentagon has no comment at this time.

Good News, Bad News

The Los Angeles is serious about getting people to conserve and recycle. Yesterday the City Council banned plastic shopping bags, saying “the ban will minimize cleanup costs for the city and reduce trash that collects in storm drains and the Los Angeles River.” San Francisco passed a similar ban last year. [CBS News]
GOOD NEWS: Unlike their paper cousins, plastic grocery bags are not biodegradable. The city of LA uses more than 2 billion plastic bags a year, only about 5% of which are recycled.
BAD NEWS: But we’re used to people offering us “paper or plastic.” It’s a comforting part of our grocery-shopping ritual. We fear change!

Quote Of The Day

“There’s no question about it. Wall Street got drunk — that’s one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras — it got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments.”

—President Bush, at a private fund-raiser last week in Houston. [ABC]

Speed Round

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO HIM

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, thought by many to be a front-runner for John McCain’s vice president slot, told Fox News yesterday that he’s just not interested. (True? Or could this be an elaborate ruse to mess up our office pool?) [Fox News]

FALL INTO THE GAP

According to IRS data, “the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation’s adjusted gross income for two decades” and “possibly the highest since 1929.” Meanwhile, “the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years.” [WSJ] via [Progress Report]

FEMA

First they put Hurricane Katrina victims into trailers contaminated with toxic formaldehyde fumes. Then they tried to cover it up. Now FEMA wants immunity from any lawsuits from people sickened from living in the trailers. [Raw Story]

GLOBAL ENVIRO

In 2001, the World bank made environmental stewardship a top priority in it’s global poverty work. Turns out that was easier said than done; according to a new internal review, the World Bank lacks solid, comprehensive strategies in considering the environmental effects of projects they’re bankrolling in poor countries and environmental policies are not being implemented on the ground. [NY Times]

AFTER 60 YEARS....

..Senior black officers are still rare, particularly among the highest ranks. Blacks make up about 17 percent of the total force, yet just 9 percent of all officers. That fraction falls to less than 6 percent for general officers with one to four stars, according to data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press. [CBS News]

BEAT THAT FORD

With a weak U.S. auto market, General Motors said that sales slipped 5% worldwide in the second quarter, helping Toyota beat GM in worldwide sales for the second year in a row during the first half of the year. [USA Today]

UNBELIEVABLE

An art teacher was convicted of forcing a boy to repeatedly have sex with him repeatedly in a classroom supply closet. How many years was he sentenced to? 43. How many years has he served. None. A South Florida judge let Mohanlal go free while he appeals. [CNN]

NO FLOWING MISSISSIPPI

The Coast Guard closed 29 miles of the Mississippi River at New Orleans after a 600-foot tanker and a barge loaded with fuel oil collided, breaking the barge in half. Luckily, no one was injured, but more than 419,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil spilled. [MSNBC]

ARE YOU AN ORGAN DONOR?

In five years, New Jersey residents seeking driver’s licenses will have to decide whether they want to become organ donors under a new law. The names of residents who want to be organ donors will be maintained in a state registry, while those who decide against organ donation will have to acknowledge reviewing information about it. [MSNBC]

$375 MILL

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates pledged additional funds to fight what they called a global tobacco epidemic. The money will be spent primarily in developing countries like India and China. [ABC]

ONLINE LAWS

A federal appeals court struck down the Child Online Protection Act, a law which required adult websites to verify visitors’ ages. The law was decided to be unconstitutional and a violation of the First Amendment. [ABC]

WHO GETS SAVED FIRST?

A million health care workers, such as emergency room staff and nurses skilled in vaccinating others, will be immunized first if a flu pandemic broke out in the U.S., followed by military and “mission critical” personnel, public health workers and hospital and nursing home staff, the DHS announced today. [MSNBC]

TB

Tuberculosis cases continue to fall in the United States, but some immigrants have disturbingly high rates of the disease, according to a study released Tuesday. It calls for more aggressive action, including increased testing before migration and developing ways to treat latent TB infections. [CBS]