News Headline

iht.com — Two months after announcing Major General Jay Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan, the Pentagon has quietly canceled the assignment. Hood, a 33-year army veteran, was excoriated in the Pakistani news media for one of his previous jobs: commander of the United States prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The withdrawal of Hood's assignment has not been announced, but it reflects the widening shadow that the military prison at Guantánamo is casting over American foreign policy.

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ap.google.com — Workers in the Mariana Islands will receive the protection of U.S. labor law under a bill signed by President Bush. Debate over whether to extend federal labor and immigration law to the Marianas, in the northwestern Pacific, had been sullied by reports of sweatshop labor and past associations with the lobbying scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff, whose firm was hired by the islands to oppose the changes. The measure creates a federally run guest-worker program in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

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reuters.com — U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said that President George W. Bush will veto the farm bill agreement reached by law makers in Congress. The administration said the farm bill was too costly and failed to deliver the reforms that the administration was seeking. House and Senate negotiators agreed on a $285 billion farm bill that puts more money into public feeding programs and denies one crop subsidy program to the wealthiest Americans.

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washingtonpost.com — Bucking a White House veto threat, 39 Republicans joined Democrats in supporting an ambitious plan to rescue hundreds of thousands of homeowners at risk of foreclosure. The measure aims to unfreeze mortgage markets by expanding the Federal Housing Administration's reach and strengthening mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It also would create a $7,500 tax credit for first-time home buyers to try to boost sales and slow plummeting home prices.

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cnn.com — Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, said the general manager and possibly other senior staff members at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, should face a criminal inquiry. Miller, chairman of a House investigation committee, has sent a referral letter to the Department of Justice asking it to investigate whether the mine's manager, on his own or in conspiracy with others in the company, concealed facts or made false statements to federal investigators about the condition of the mine before the disaster.

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iht.com — The results of a congressional investigation say sthat the general manager and possibly other senior staff at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, where 9 miners died in August 2007, hid information from federal mining officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face criminal charges. The report also said that the mining company should never have submitted a request to remove coal from the section of mine where the collapse occurred, and that federal mining officials should not have approved the proposal, because of foreseeable dangers.

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money.cnn.com — Oil prices hit a new record high above $125 as a weaker U.S. dollar drove investments into commodities. U.S. crude for June delivery rose as high as $126.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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ft.com — The Bush administration has sidelined a federal official who raised legal questions about whether John McCain, Republican senator, could raise private funds in his presidential bid. The White House late on Tuesday nominated Donald McGahn, who once served as an attorney for former majority leader Tom DeLay, to replace David Mason, a fellow Republican, as the chairman of the Federal Election Commission. Mr Mason raised hackles in some Republican circles early this year when, he questioned the legality of a McCain campaign decision to withdraw from the public financing system during the Republican primary.

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msnbc.msn.com — Steve Bailey, chief executive for loan administration at Countrywide Financial Corp., told a Senate panel that the company's employees have made mistakes "from time to time." But he disputed accusations, made by hundreds of borrowers, that the company has sought to collect inflated fees and other payments by filing inaccurate bankruptcy documents. The Justice Department is currently investigating the accusations.

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— Senate Democrats have called for a temporary windfall profits tax on oil companies and a rollback of $17 billion in oil industry tax breaks as part of an energy package. The proposal also would impose federal penalties on energy price gouging and calls for stopping oil deliveries into the government's emergency reserve.

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