The Congressional Research Service has issued a study describing an emerging crisis in children’s healthcare across the country, according to a story by Robert Pear in the New York Times.   California will begin cutting off 64,000 children each month beginning in January if the standoff between President Bush and the Congress is not resolved. (more…)

While American legislators, State Department representatives, and Justice Department officials debate whether Blackwater employees should be immune from prosecution for errant shooting of Iraqi citizens, the government of Iraq is looking to make the whole question moot. (more…)

Evan Perez of the Wall Street Journal reports that large telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T participated in electronic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency based on letters from then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President Bush’s legal counsel. (more…)

Congress is examining a bill to revamp the Consumer Product Safety Commission, M.P. McQueen and Christopher Conkey report in the Wall Street Journal.  The much-troubled agency could gain 100 employees and see its budget grow to $141 million by 2014. (more…)

Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen has emerged as one of the few plain speaking officials left in government after the departure of Richard Armitage . . . his latest report shows that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not performed on a job related to flood control — this one in Iraq. (more…)

Bob Schieffer of CBS News makes a great point here when he talks about FEMA’s recent fake news conference — "fire these people."  Pat Philbin, head of public affairs at FEMA, has either resigned or been fired, according to CNN.  But it didn’t happen soon enough. (more…)

Thanks to the Associated Press and the New York Times for pointing out a critical source of information about the dangers of American aviation — and it’s not the FAA. (more…)

California, New York, and more than ten other states are pressing the Environmental Protection Agency to allow them to create tougher standards on pollution and global warming.  They have begun plans to sue the agency if they don’t get their way.  (more…)

A few weeks ago Charlie Peters asked in our pages [here] about the Iraqi police.  He noted that

One argument advanced in favor of our staying in Iraq is that the Iraqi police and army still need to be trained.  We have been training them for four years!  Why have we failed to get them up to speed?

Now it turns out the State Department had exactly one employee overseeing the $1.2 billion contract to train Iraqi police. (more…)

The Agriculture Department places inspectors in plants around the U.S. who can test meat products at delivery, production, and packaging stages.  The plant owners also are charged with keeping their products safe from disease. So in the end, the food poisonings that resulted from tainted beef sold at Wal-Mart and other chains are both a private and public disgrace. (more…)