The Central Intelligence Agency, having recently assessed that Iran stopped developing its nuclear weapons program in 2003, may be entering a new period of sounder intelligence and greater institutional integrity, according to an analysis by Tim Weiner in the New York Times. 

The Centers for Disease Control may lose an ombudsman position that had been created to defuse tensions and improve workplace morale among the agency’s 14,000 workers, Alison Young writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.   The position has existed only since 2006, and has faced controversy, in part because ombudsman staff were initially contracted out from a consulting firm owned by a former CDC executive.

The worst may be yet to come from the mortgage meltdown across the United States.  Foreclosures are rising fast, national and international financial institutions are seeking relief, and according to the Wall Street Journal, the problems are "comparable to some of the biggest financial disasters of the past half-century."  (more…)

The question isn’t whether government is too big — it’s about whether government meets the needs of citizens.  The Social Security Administration now faces a backlog of cases from people with chronic illnesses or disabilities that prevent them from working.  The backlog is now at three-quarters of a million cases and some applicants have been evicted while awaiting financial support.  Budget increases to hire more case review judges are in limbo.  Eric Eckholm reports on this issue for the New York Times.