• Overwhelmed regulators are giving Wall Street a break by providing "temporary relief" from some Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform provisions regarding derivatives known as "security-based swaps."

This move comes in the wake of intense lobbying by the financial industry to weaken these rules.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency will:

1. Provide guidance regarding which provisions of Subtitle B of Title VII will become operable as of July 16, and, where appropriate, provide temporary relief from several of these provisions.

2. Provide guidance regarding – and where appropriate, temporary relief from – the various pre-Dodd-Frank provisions of the Exchange Act that would otherwise apply to security-based swaps on July 16. Under Dodd-Frank, security-based swaps would be included in the definition of “security” under the Exchange Act. While such swaps will be subject to provisions addressing fraud and manipulation, the Commission intends to provide temporary relief from certain other provisions of the Exchange Act so that the industry will have time to seek, and the Commission can consider, what if any further guidance or action is required.

3. Take other actions such as extending existing temporary rules under the Securities Act, the Exchange Act, and the Trust Indenture Act, and extending existing temporary relief from exchange registration under the Exchange Act. This will help to continue facilitating the clearing of certain credit default swaps by clearing agencies functioning as central counterparties.

• The country's top nuclear watchdog "strategically" withheld information from coworkers as part of his effort to halt work on the controversial waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according to a new report by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's inspector general. The decades-long effort to develop the site as a waste dump, which has cost almost $14 billion, was shut down by the government earlier this year.

NRC chairman Greg Jaczko is described as yelling at people frequently, which makes it "difficult for people to work with him" and creates an "intimidating work environment."
Some of his actions were particularly petty -- one commissioner claims that he was told that if he didn't withdraw a request for an additional staffer, Jaczko would withhold authorization for that commissioner's foreign travel.

According to the report, Jaczko failed to adequately inform other staffers that he wanted to use Obama's budget request, which called for terminating the Yucca Mountain project, as a way to halt work on it. Part of that involved "suppressing papers or manipulating the agenda planning process" because Jaczko controlled the sequencing of papers to be presented to the commission for a vote.

Along with this spring's Japanese nuclear disaster, in which low water-levels in pools of spent fuel rods ended up releasing radiation into the environment, the NRC decision highlights a waste crisis in the nuclear industry. Currently, about 65,000 metric tons of nuclear waste are stored at reactor sites, posing risks.

• Some of the vacancies at financial regulatory agencies are filling up -- the Obama administration is considering nominating lawyer Thomas J. Curry to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Martin J. Gruenberg to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and former banker Raj Date to lead the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

• Despite long-established Clear Air Act amendments requiring coal power plants to install scrubbers on smokestacks to reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the air, not much has been done. Industry representatives often complain about the cost of such upgrades and more than half of boilers attached to tall smokestacks continue to lack such scrubbers, according to a new Government Accountability Office report:

For example, GAO found that 56 percent of boilers attached to tall stacks lacked scrubbers to control SO2 and 63 percent lacked post-combustion controls to capture NOx emissions. In general, GAO found that boilers without these controls tended to be older, with in-service dates prior to 1980. GAO identified 48 tall stacks built since 1988--when GEP regulations were largely affirmed in court--that states reported are subject to the GEP provisions of the Clean Air Act and for which states could provide GEP height information. Of these 48 stacks, 17 exceed their GEP height, 19 are at their GEP height, and 12 are below their GEP height. Section 123 of the Clean Air Act defines GEP as the height needed to prevent excessive downwash, a phenomenon that occurs when nearby structures disrupt airflow and produce high local concentrations of pollutants.

• In an interview with Dan Rather, former TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky warns that there are not enough safeguards to prevent another financial crisis.

"The next crisis may cost $5 trillion in upfront costs just to deal with the large institutions and their assets ... You can't look at what happened in the run-up to 2008 and see how it's not going to repeat itself given what we've done."

Watch:

• More than three-quarters of U.S. television news guests discussing Environmental Protection Agency regulation of greenhouse gases between December 2009 and April 2011 opposed such regulation, according to a analysis by Media Matters.

Guests included lawmakers, members of advocacy groups, business leaders, pundits and others. Only one of the featured guests, the Cato Institute's Patrick Michaels, had a background in climate science -- and, as Media Matters notes, Michaels also estimated that about 40 percent of his funding comes from the petroleum industry.

The breakdown of TV analyst perspectives is starkly at odds with public opinion polls, which have shown 71 percent of respondents said they support continued funding of the EPA to "enforce regulation on greenhouse gases and other environmental issues.'

Per Media Matters:

• For some useful perspective on government oversight of Wall Street, JPMorgan Chase's litigation reserves of $4 billion -- the money the bank is saving so it can fight or settle lawsuits -- is four times the size of what the Securities and Exchange Commission has to regulate the entire securities industry. Bank of America's marketing expenses in the last three months of 2010 were about half the SEC's budget. (Forbes)

• A grassroots movement built by the nation's biggest business lobby would seem to be the definition of astroturfing, a term used to describe a political or corporate agenda disguised as an independent, bottom-up movement.

But that didn't stop U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue from sending out a seven-page memo announcing the latest chapter in its mission to create a grassroots movement for reform and relief of government regulation -- he's enlisted former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh (Ind.) and ex-White House chief of staff Andy Card for a “road show” to "promote a bipartisan blitz against what it deems excessive and costly government regulations," reports the Center for Public Integrity.

• The revolving door between the federal government and Wall Street is highlighted by the Project on Government Oversight. The most recent example: SEC nominee Daniel Gallagher, who currently works at law firm WilmerHale, and worked for the SEC before he held that job.

WATCH:

• Despite the fact that for two decades the Internet has allowed federal agencies to provide reams of non-classified information to the public -- bypassing the costly and cumbersome Freedom of Information Act process -- not every agency has taken advantage of the opportunity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently jumped aboard when its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service made the service's data on people and companies it licenses available in a free online searchable database.

In light of all the recent concern over food safety issues, it's worth checking out.

• In a speech before a coal industry group in Kentucky on Wednesday, the U.S. Senate's top Republican accused the Environmental Protection Agency of declaring war on the coal industry and blamed the Obama administration and Democrats for pushing regulations that he claimed kill jobs and increase energy costs.

"Of course, the EPA's real goal here is not to see the Kentucky coal industry comply with its boatload of regulations and red tape," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in his speech to the Kentucky Coal Association. "It is to see the Kentucky coal industry driven out of business altogether."

McConnell is the top recipient in Congress of campaign contributions from the coal-mining industry, having collected $485,000 during his time in office -- almost twice as much as the number-two recipient.

Saying that "it's time for Congress to rein the EPA in," McConnell criticized the agency for its interpretation for regulations, which he claimed made it more difficult for new mines to open. He said that the EPA's proposals to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants were tantamount to a "backdoor" energy tax.

McConnell expanded his critique, slamming Democrats for pushing a "train wreck" of rules and regulations that he claimed are raising prices and stalling much-needed economic growth in the wake of the recession.

• The lobbying blitz over the implementation of financial regulatory reform continues to swamp Washington. About 488 companies, trade associations, unions and other groups reported lobbying on financial reforms in just the first quarter of 2011, compared to 501 groups that lobbied the reforms throughout all of 2009, according to a Center for Responsive Politics study. Among the most heavily lobbied agencies were the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which all saw "more lobbying activity during the first quarter of 2011 by groups interested in the Dodd-Frank regulations than in any other quarter since Obama took office."

• Despite mounting evidence of the potential dangers of BPA (the chemical bisphenol-A found in many consumer products), plastics manufacturers have embarked on a public relations and lobbying blitz aimed at "obscuring or confusing the results of research," say the authors of a new white paper by the Center for Progressive Reform.

"There's a lot scientists don't know about BPA," says CPR Member Scholar and white paper co-author Thomas McGarity, a law professor at the University of Texas. "But what they know for sure gives ample reason to limit the use of BPA. Simply put, the chemical is ubiquitous in commerce and in Americans' bodies as a result. Rather than seeking to confuse and mislead Americans about BPA, the plastics industry should acknowledge the danger and eliminate it."

Among the findings in the report: industry advocates promote the myth of a scientific consensus on the safety of BPA. "In fact, scientists say that BPA is a known endocrine disruptor and that it therefore presents many risks."

• The Obama administration ceded leadership and management responsibilities in the wake of last year's devastating oil spill to BP, according to a new House Oversight Committee report. In addition, many Gulf residents and local leaders believe that the oil giant is not living up to its obligations.

President Obama had to choose between federalizing the response to the oil spill under the Stafford Act or allowing BP to lead the effort under federal oversight under the authorities of the Oil Spill Act. While BP would have been financially responsible for clean-up costs under either scenario, President Obama chose the option of letting BP lead and make critical decisions on recovery efforts under the authority of the Oil Spill Act.
Many Gulf Residents and Local Leaders Believe BP is not Meeting its Obligations Failure to fund removal of clean-up equipment debris, uncertainty surrounding mental health services, and frustration associated with the compensation process are among the concerns of affected Gulf Coast residents. Many believe BP is not meeting its obligations and the federal government has abdicated its responsibility to intervene.

• Talk about awkward. A man considered an "enemy of the state" found himself face to face last week with the nation's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Eric Holder, at the Apple Store in Baltimore.

The case of Thomas Drake, a National Security Agency whistleblower charged with unauthorized possession of classified documents, has aroused concern among former government security officials and free-speech advocates and was detailed in a recent New Yorker story.

Drake says he was working his shift at the store when he noticed Holder walk in with his FBI detail and approached him.

"I'm Thomas Drake, the former National Security Agency official who's been in the news," Mr. Drake told Mr. Holder.

"Do you know why they have come after me?" he asked the attorney general.

Mr. Holder replied: "Yes, I do."

To which, Mr. Drake responded: "But do you know the rest of the story?"

Without a word, Mr. Holder turned and walked out of the store.

Asked for comment, the Justice Department would only say that Holder is a "fan of Apple products."

• House Republicans are fighting a series of public health proposals, including nutritional standards for school lunches and tobacco regulation, reports the Washington Post.

The Republicans have used an agriculture appropriations bill to send several messages: They don't want the government to require school meals that are more nutritional but also more expensive, they don't want the government to prod food companies to restrain marketing to children, and they don't want the Food and Drug Administration to regulate any substance based on anything but "hard science."

Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) wants to block the FDA from issuing rules or guidance unless its decisions are based on "hard science" rather than "cost and consumer behavior."

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) released the findings of its investigation into a fire last September on a oil platform about 100 miles off the coast of Louisiana, an incident reflecting continuing safety problems with offshore oil drilling.

The agency found that the fire was caused by the collapse of a fire tube inside a 30-year-old piece of equipment that had been weakened by heat and corrosion, and that the crew was unable to use a water pump to fight the fire due to the failure of an emergency generator. The agency also uncovered several incidents of non-compliance which could lead to civil penalties for Mariner Energy Inc., the operator of Vermilion 380A.

The fire forced the 13-person crew to abandon the platform and jump into the water. All of them were later rescued and no injuries were reported.

A BOEMRE Accident Investigation Panel concluded that the fire was caused by the collapse of a fire tube located inside of the platform's Heater-Treater. The Heater-Treater, a nearly 30-year-old piece of equipment, used heat from a fire tube as well as chemicals and electricity to separate oily water emulsions into oil and water. The fire tube had been weakened over time due to a variety of factors, including heat, corrosion and pitting.

Investigators also found that after the platform lost primary power because of the fire, the emergency generator failed to start and supply power to the firewater pump, leaving the 13-member crew without a firewater system to aid them in trying to fight the fire. Ultimately, the crew was forced to evacuate the platform, and all were later transported to safety.

"This report reflects a careful and comprehensive investigation by the BOEMRE Accident Investigation Panel, led by the Investigations and Review Unit," said BOEMRE Director Michael R. Bromwich. "The report underscores the need for offshore operators to maintain their equipment consistent with existing standards, to protect the safety of personnel working onboard and to protect the environment."

The investigation included interviews of the Vermilion 380 A crew, review of documentary and physical evidence, examination of equipment onboard the platform, and consultation with an expert in oil production platforms and Heater-Treaters.

In addition to its investigative findings, the BOEMRE panel recommended several Incidents of Non-Compliance be issued to Mariner Energy, Inc., which may be used as the basis for future civil penalties. BOEMRE will now consider the panel's recommendations before taking further action in this case. Production from the platform remains shut-in until BOEMRE personnel approve all safety and structural corrections.

• Friends and foes of Elizabeth Warren, take note: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau just published a list of the rules and orders that it will enforce -- from the Fed's Truth in Lending (Regulation Z) to HUD's Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act.

• Today's must-read: The latest investigation by the Center for Public Integrity into the impact of Big Tobacco's global lobbying tactics:

As the global fight over smokers moves from the United States and other countries where tobacco consumption is on the decline, Big Tobacco has drawn a line around developing nations that account for an increasingly important share of their revenues. And, from Jakarta in Indonesia to Mexico City, farmers have been reliable street-level lobbyists in the industry’s fight against smoking limits.

• In a shift that's raising the anxiety level in corporate suites, federal enforces are targeting individual executives in health care fraud cases that used to be aimed at impersonal corporations, reports the AP. In their sights: "corporate honchos at drug companies, medical device manufacturers, nursing home chains and other major health care enterprises that deal with Medicare and Medicaid."

• In the aftermath of the BP oil spill, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's focus on maximizing site visits rather than strong enforcement gets some criticism from Center for Progressive Reform's Matt Shudtz. He also urges the Coast Guard and EPA to revise the National Contingency Plan "in a way that gives OSHA a stronger voice in the planning process."

• The Securities and Exchange Commission's whistleblower proposal alarmed companies who feared that a flood of workers would run to the agency to profit off tattling bonuses, but a recent study "found that nearly 90 percent of employees still reported their concerns internally before going to the government."

• Thousands of car accident victims were left behind by the massive government bailouts of GM and Chrysler. The $50 billion rescue of GM and the restructuring of Chrysler allowed them to "wash away legal responsibility for car-accident victims who had won damages or had pending lawsuits," reports the Wall Street Journal. Such victims have waged a struggle for years and their website tracks updates on cases, as well as new complaints, recalls and investigations into the two auto giants. Back in 2009, some of the victims, including Chrysler-defect-injury survivor Jeremy Warriner, brought their wheelchairs to the steps of Capitol Hill to push a bill that would require automakers to purchase liability insurance if they are owned by the federal government or have federal loans. The Jeremy Warriner Consumer Protection Act of 2009 died in committee in the summer of that year.

• Must-read story of the day: Doctors hired to evaluate kids in Florida's juvenile jails have taken huge payments from drug companies. The Palm Beach Post reports:

The psychiatrists were hired by a state juvenile justice system that has plied kids with heavy doses of the powerful medications, and the physicians have prescribed anti¬psychotics even before they were approved by federal regulators as safe for children. One in three of the psychiatrists who have contracted with the state Department of Juvenile Justice in the past five years has taken speaker fees or gifts from companies that make antipsychotic medications, a Palm Beach Post investigation has found.

• Revolving door chronicles: Ed O'Hare, former assistant commissioner of the General Services Administration, is joining Koniag Development Corp. KDC is a subsidiary of Alaska Native Corporation, which has been a major recipient of federal contracts, some of which have aroused Senate scrutiny. (h/t POGO's Morning Smoke)

• The popular stop-smoking drug Chantix has been tied to hundreds of suicides, but that information was left out of a crucial government safety review because Pfizer submitted years of data through "improper channels," reports MSNBC.com.

Some 150 suicides — more than doubling those previously known — were among 589 delayed reports of severe issues turned up in a new analysis by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices. “We’ve had a major breakdown in safety surveillance,” said Thomas J. Moore, the ISMP senior scientist who analyzed the data. The serious problems — including reports of completed suicides, suicide attempts, aggression and hostility and depression — had been mixed among some 26,000 records of non-serious side effects such as nausea and rashes, with some dating back to 2006, the year Chantix, or varenicline, was approved.

• The Securities and Exchange Commission broke the law when it spent about $1 million buying computer equipment from Apple that "immediately failed" to work. The agency awarded the contract without competitive bidding, declined an offer to try the untested equipment for free and relied on the salesman's pitch rather than doing its own engineering analysis, according to the SEC Inspector General.

• Don't buy any of the products on this list -- according to the Department of Labor, they were produced with forced or indentured child labor. They run the gamut from bamboo from Burma to toys from China. Some industry groups, including the Apparel Export Promotion Council, have objected to the inclusion of certain products on the list.

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's recent consent order with Ally Bank notes how the bank's subsidiaries, such as GMAC Mortgage, made numerous mistakes in foreclosing on homes -- for example, claiming ownership of the mortgage note, amount of principal and interest due, etc. "when, in many cases, they were not based on such knowledge or review." Part of the order states:

Within 60 days of this Order, the boards of directors of Ally Financial and ResCap, for itself and on behalf of the Mortgage Servicing Companies shall submit to the Reserve Bank an acceptable written plan to strengthen the boards’ oversight of the Mortgage Servicing Companies, including the boards’ oversight of risk management, internal audit, and compliance programs concerning residential mortgage loan servicing, Loss Mitigation, and foreclosure activities conducted by the Mortgage Servicing Companies. The plan shall also describe the actions that the boards of directors will take to improve the Mortgage Servicing Companies’ residential mortgage loan servicing, Loss Mitigation, and foreclosure activities and operations, and a timeline for actions to be taken.

• And as a warning to Memorial Day merrymakers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issues a sobering release that notes at least 62 people may have died in ATV-related accidents between March 1 and May 23.

• Outgoing Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair Sheila Bair appears before the House Financial Services committee to discuss the agency's role during and after the financial crisis. Bair calls on regulators to show political courage to do their work effectively and take on weak practices and excessive risk-taking. Key quote:

"The history of the crisis shows many examples when regulators acted too late, or with too little conviction, when they failed to use authorities they already had or failed to ask for the authorities they needed to fulfill their mission. As the crisis developed, too many in the regulatory community were too slow to acknowledge the danger, and were too slow to act in addressing it. The fact is, regulators are never going to be popular or glamorous figures, whether they act in a timely manner to forestall a crisis or if they fail to act and allow it to take place. The best they can hope to achieve is the knowledge that they exercised the statutory authority entrusted to them in good faith and to its fullest effect in the interest of financial stability, without regard to the political consequences." [WATCH LIVE]

• The administrator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Edward Demarco, pushed back strongly yesterday against Rep. Jason Chaffetz's (R-Utah) proposal to make the housing finance giants open to FOIA requests. His argument: FOIA is "often explained as a means for citizens to know what their Government is up to" and Fannie and Freddie are still private companies. "They did not cease to be private legal entities when they were placed into conservatorship, nor did they become part of FHFA." As Zero Hedge points out: "Still private companies? That's the reason they are shielded? After the taxpayers shelled out $200b (and counting)? Bullshit."

• The White House released the results of its promised regulatory review and published a list of initiatives from over two dozen agencies that are designed to reduce burdens and save money. Among them, the Interior Department is reviewing outdated regulations under the Endangered Species Act. What caught your eye? Let me know.

• Has lobbying by financial institutions contributed to the financial crisis? That is the question explored in a study by three IMF economists. Among their findings: lobbying was associated with more risk-taking during 2000-'07 and bigger bailouts by the government following the financial crisis. In particular, those who lobbied the most made the riskiest loans and expanded faster than their competitors, exacerbating the housing crisis.

• Today's must-read: a great AP investigation legendary gun manufacturer Colt. The company turned to a high-powered lobbyist when it looked like it was about to lose its exclusive deal to provide combat rifles to the U.S. military. "The move highlights the importance of a contest that is the Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one for the small arms industry. The Pentagon may buy hundreds of thousands of the new carbine, which should be more accurate, lethal and reliable than the M4 used by troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. At stake is millions of dollars in business for the winner at a time when budgets are tightening and opportunities for long-term weapons contracts are dwindling."

• Congress may take up proposed legislation to apply U.S. criminal laws to federal employees and government contractors working overseas, reports Legal Times. This marks the third such attempt in the wake Blackwater security guards killed Iraqi civilians in September 2007.

• The risk of a catastrophic release of radiation from an accident at a spent nuclear fuel pool is much higher in the United States than at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies. Spent fuel at many U.S. plants in facilities that were never designed for long-term storage exceeds that stored at the four damaged units of the Japanese plant. For example, the spent fuel in a pool at Vermont Yankee plant exceeds the combined total in the pools at the four troubled reactors at the Fukushima site. There are more than 30 million spent fuel rods in these storage pools in the U.S., the "largest concentration of radioactivity on the planet," according to author Robert Alvarez. The institute recommends moving most of the spent fuel from pools to dry air-cooled steel casks, which is a safer storage method.

• In a split vote on a contentious proposal, the Securities Exchange Commission decided to allow whistleblowers to be rewarded between 10 percent and 30 percent of the sanctions collected in enforcement cases. "The SEC refused to buckle under tremendous pressure from Wall Street lobbyists led by the Chamber of Commerce who worked overtime trying to undermine historic corporate whistleblower protections," said National Whistleblowers Center director Stephen Kohn. Earlier, the agency's enforcement chief Robert Khuzami testified that they have seen an uptick in "high-quality tips" and complaints since the Dodd-Frank Law and said that the SEC is not aware of any empirical data suggesting that internal compliance will be undermined by not having an internal reporting requirement. "The SEC refused to buckle under tremendous pressure from Wall Street lobbyists led by the Chamber of Commerce who worked overtime trying to undermine historic corporate whistleblower protections," Kohn said.

• When drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis lobbied the Food and Drug Administration to delay approval of a genetic drug that would cut into the profits of its blockbuster blood-thinner Lovenox, it relied on some heavy hitters, including the Society of Hospital Medicine and the North American Thrombosis Forum. Among those pleading its case before the agency was Dr. Victor Tapson, who sent a letter on behalf of the American College of Chest Physicians -- unmentioned was that Tapson has been paid $260,000 by Sanofi between 2007 and 2010, according to a new report released by the Senate Finance Committee this morning.

• AMD Industries in Cicero, Ill. was fined $1.2 million for exposing five workers to asbestos hazards without protection by the Occupational and Safety Health Administration. That includes 19 willful citations -- which refers to violations that demonstrate an intentional disregard for the law or "plain indifference to employee safety and health."

• Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's $1.2 billion budget request because he claims it has more than $2 billion left over from the 2011 budget.

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is offering regulatory relief to banks and financial institutions that "work constructively with borrowers experiencing difficulties beyond their control because of damage caused by the severe weather around the country.

• Here it is -- the animated GIF of Elizabeth Warren's reaction to being called a liar by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) during a contentious end-of-hearing dispute over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.

• A House GOP proposal is seeking $285 million in cuts to the Food and Drug Administration, an 11 percent reduction from FY 2011, just as the agency moves to implement an ambitious new food safety law, reports Food Safety News. The proposal would also reduce the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service budget by $35 million. Proponents claim the reduced funding level will not prevent "critical meat, poultry and egg product inspection and testing activities, and supports an expansion of a poultry inspection pilot project that will lead to improving food safety."

• How to decipher Dodd-Frank's alphabet soup: Bloomberg Government provides this helpful glossary on everything from "camels" ("Rating given to banks based on capital adequacy, asset quality, management practices, earnings performance, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk") to "zombie banks" ("A financial institution with negative net worth that continues to operate through federal assistance").

• AT&T; spent $6.8 million in the first quarter of 2011, hiring 71 experts to push through their merger with T-Mobile.

• The nuclear industry was dealt a major setback on Friday when its regulator announced that it will delay the approval of the Westinghouse AP1000, the most popular reactor design pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Greg Jaczko, the chairman of the NRC, said the agency has more questions about the design's shield building and the "peak accident pressures expected within containment."

• In the wake of last year's 'phantom recall' scandal, when Johnson & Johnson hired contractors to yank drugs such as Motrin off of store shelves rather than conduct a proper recall, the company's executives were hauled before Congress and agreed to a consent decree with the Food and Drug Administration. Now, House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa is upset that the FDA has failed to take "promised and necessary corrective actions" at its San Juan office, where the scandal unfolded, Pharmalot reports.

• The commission set up by Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett (R) to generate proposals for the responsible development of the Marcellus Shale, the giant underground rock formation that contains untapped natural gas reserves, is made up of many industry representatives and campaign donors, according to this interactive Pittsburgh Post-Gazette graphic.

• The Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most-lobbied agencies, a striking fact considering its small size relative to behemoths like the Pentagon (via Sunlight Foundation).

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.