On the 7th year anniversary of 9/11, GSA, the federal agency that manages government contracts, is protesting federal building codes meant to deal with a terrorist attack. The New York Times’ Eric Lipton reports that GSA thinks the cost of building a third stairwell in skyscrapers, or fireproofing that can withstand 1,000 pounds per square foot of force, is not the most effective use of money. They side with real estate developers who say installing these safety measures costs $13 million for a 42-story building.

I’m not sure I side with GSA and the real estate lobby. But it’s a legit discussion to have. The country needs many, many infrastructure improvements. Maybe redesigning a skyscraper to protect it from radical jihad shouldn’t be the top priority.-MB

As the Washington Post’s Christopher Lee laid out this morning, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, along with a coterie of historians and archivists, have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the vice president himself. The lawsuit concerns whether Dick Cheney might use a 2001 executive order by President Bush to undermine the 1978 Presidential Records Act. The post-Watergate PRA compels the president and vice president to turn over all documents relevant to their time in office once they depart.

But the 2001 executive order says that Cheney must turn over all "executive records" to the National Archives. And, here we go, Cheney claims that the vice presidency is not part of the executive branch. Will the White House use this notorious claim to destroy or withhold the records of the most powerful vice president in American history? CREW et al seem to think so. Stay tuned to see if the VP just turns over his records– or this is a constitutional battle Cheney is jonesing to have.-MB

The following ten entries for the $50,000 Prize for Preventive Journalism were selected by the judges, Charles Peters, Bill Kovach, and Katherine Boo, as finalists for the 2008 prize.

• The Associated Press - Martha Mendoza, Justin Pritchard and Jeff Donn: "Pharmawater"
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Alison Young: "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Series"
• Atlantic Monthly - Gregg Easterbrook: "The Sky is Falling"
• The Dallas Morning News - Michael Grabell: "Toxic Neighbors"
• Government Executive - Allan Holmes: "On the Brink"
• The New York Times - Eric Lipton: "The Testing Lab"
• Sacramento Bee - Andrew McIntosh: "Nail Gun Safety Series"
• TIME Magazine - Michael Grunwald: "Why New Orleans Still Isn’t Safe"
• The Washington Post - Debbie Cenziper and Sarah Cohen: "Forced Out"
  
• The Washington Post - Dana Priest and Amy Goldstein: "Careless Detention"

Our thanks to Derek Kravitz of the Washington Post. 

Understanding Government gratefully acknowledges the Washington, D.C. office of Google and the Sunlight Foundation for their sponsorship of the award ceremony for the prize on September 30, 2008.

Our thanks to HorizonsISG (Cleveland, Ohio) for their generous support and to Carolyn Wasylczuk of Just Paper and Tea (Washington, D.C.) for her kind assistance with invitations.

Please click here for more on Preventive Journalism.

The paper of record tackles the incredible dispute over what happened during an Aug. 22 U.S. airstrike in western Afghanistan. The New York Times’ Carlotta Gall indicates that the airstrike killed closer to 90 Afghanistan civilians– which is what the Afghanistan government and United Nations assert– than five civilians– what U.S. militiary officials say. Afghanistan villagers are interviewed and some display pictures on their cell phones showing many more than five corpses. And the Shindand, Afghanistan local police force leader said he personally counted 76 bodies on just the day of the airstrike.

The U.S. military has asserted that the Taliban tells these residents what to say. But America may be ready to reconsider: David Petraeus, now head of U.S. Central Command which controls the Middle East theater, has called for a new military investigation.-MB

The big news of the weekend was the government taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, companies involved in roughly half of the country’s mortgages. The New York Times’ Stephen Labaton and Edmund Andrews focus on Fannie and Freddie’s tumultuous history and that free-market conservatives have always blasted the idea of the heavily subsidized public-private enterprises.

Now politicians of all ideological stripes — including Barack Obama and John McCain — are praising Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for his dramatic move. Because of the deal’s enormity, though, the consequences are not likely to be known for a few years.-MB