The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that companies may reduce health care benefits to employees over 65 who are eligible for Medicare.  Kris Maher, Jane Zhang, and Nathan Koppel write in the Wall Street Journal that the decision has sparked a debate about employer-provided health care for senior employees, though companies have long varied the benefits provided to younger workers and those eligible for Medicare.   The move again focuses attention on the government as health-care provider of last resort.  Read Maher, Zhang, and Koppel here.

The Associated Press reports that the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to turn over to Congress documents related to the agency’s decision not to grant California and sixteen other states a waiver from national auto fuel efficiency standards.  Congress may be attempting to forestall the loss or sequestering of key communications between the White House and executive agencies.  Read the AP story here.

According to Helene Cooper and Steven Lee Myers in the New York Times, in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Pakistan, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice called Bhutto’s second-in-command in the People’s Party, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, to offer sympathy and support.  Will U.S. foreign policy toward Pakistan continue to revolve around individual politicians whose fate, and even physical survival, is beyond our control?  Read Cooper and Myers here.

Leading banks including Citigroup, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase have decided to drop plans for a cash fund designed to support the value of structured investment vehicles (SIVs) including securitized subprime mortgages.  The plan was endorsed by the Department of the Treasury at its outset, and has been called one of the "federal government’s signature efforts to ease financial instability" in the subprime mortgage crisis.  In reality, the government never went beyond cheerleading. (more…)

A team of writers from the New York Times are investigating the possible misuse of millions of dollars of U.S. aid to Pakistan.  According to an article by David Rohde, Carlotta Gall, Eric Schmitt and David Sanger, "Bush administration and military officials" have asserted that key U.S. funding has "not [been] making its way to frontline Pakistani units" targeting the Taliban resurgence, and that some funds may have instead been used to counter India’s presence in the region.  Read more here. 

The Blackwater corporation’s security contractors in Iraq are  "’universally despised’" among Iraqi officials, according to an article by Steve Fainaru of the Washington Post, their reputation worsened by "aggressive street tactics" that have led to at least 31 deaths and dozens of injuries among Iraqi civilians and government employees.   The roots of the problem lie in conflicts of interest, no-bid contracting, and bureaucratic fiat, without "’any [U.S.] oversight on the issue until recently.’"  Read Steve Fainaru here.

Congress has passed new legislation requiring greater transparency and quicker responses from federal agency to Freedom of Information Act requests.  The latest on FOIA has been published in the Lafayette, Indiana Journal and Courier.  Read the AP’s Laurie Kellman here.

The Federal Reserve Board’s proposal to introduce new restrictions and requirements for mortgage lending masks the organization’s inaction in the years the subprime problem began to simmer.  Some inside the Federal Reserve tried to sound the alarm, but neither then-chief Alan Greenspan or policymakers listened.  Read Edmund Andrews of the New York Times. 

It’s not as opaque as Pravda used to be, but after all, this is a liberal democracy.  When it comes to criticizing government, what does the New York Times have to fear?  (more…)

Ever heard of the Minerals Management Service?  Fees paid by processors of oil, gas, and mineral reserves make Interior Dept. agency the third-largest earner for the U.S. government after the IRS and the Social Security Administration.  And that’s money coming from somewhere other than your pocket.  An independent panel, appointed by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne in March 2007, says the government is losing out on royalty revenues from minerals and fuels extracted from federal land.  See John Fialka’s report in the Wall Street Journal.