The 2007 Service to America Medals have been awarded, bringing to light the work of America’s finest public servants.  This year, the Partnership for Public Service awarded 10 medals for achievements at Defense, Energy, HUD, the Navy, State, and the VA.  Max Steier, founder of the Partnership, noted "the true stories of the remarkable work that our federal employees do each and every day."  See more here. 

John Ashcroft is emerging as one of the strongest defenders of basic moral principles of the Bush presidency.  It appears that Ashcroft, vilified by many as a firebreathing religionist and unthinking advocate for Bush administration policies during his term as attorney general, was in fact one of the few high-ranking administration officials who opposed the White House’s hidden campaign to promote the use of torture. (more…)

California is once again leading in the fight for new environmental standards, petitioning the EPA to institute new rules limiting CO2 emissions from the world’s large ocean-going ships, which are as large a source of pollution as many large industrialized countries.  See Felicity Barringer’s story in the New York Times.