The U.S. Army is probing payments by pharmaceutical companies to military physicians in the wake of a recent settlement between Novo Nordisk and the Justice Department over charges that the drugmaker "illegally promoted" its hemophilia drug, reports Pharmalot.

In that case, Novo Nordisk was accused of promoting its NovoSeven medication for unapproved uses such as blood trauma, intercranial hemorrhage and other surgeries by making payments to influential military physicians and personnel. Such off-label use was illegal and dangerous, said the settlement, and while it was helpful to reduce the amount of blood transfusion needed in trauma patients, it did not prolong life. In some cases, the payments were disguised as educational grants by being channeled through nonprofits.

As part of the settlement, the drugmaker paid $25 million and signed a corporate integrity agreement, which is closely monitored by the Justice Department. Such off-label marketing by drugmakers has resulted in multi-billion-dollar settlements in recent years between large pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Merck and the Justice Department.

The use of NovoSeven has been defended by some military physicians, who insist that it's safe and useful in treating trauma patients.

The command stated in a release saying, “the Army surgeon general and commanding general United States Army Medical Command re-opened the AR 15-6 investigation to include a systematic review of honoraria in the medical research environment.”

The Army had put its investigation of the incident on hold during the Justice Department probe.

Oversight of Disaster Pipelines Was Guided By Industry-Funded Studies

The operators of the nation's 2.3 million miles of pipelines carrying natural gas shaped and provided funding for numerous safety studies conducted by the federal agency that regulates the industry, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Those studies, run by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, help guide national and state safety rules and procedures for those pipelines.

Three deadly accidents in the past three years involved decades-old pipelines that might have been replaced -- saving lives -- had the outcomes of the federal agency's research, and the policies they influenced, been different.

CPR For TBTF

How do you resuscitate a too-big-to-fail bank that is near collapse?

That is the subject of an all-star panel Tuesday assembled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Sheila Bair to advice the agency on the issue. Among the attendees: former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, MIT economist Simon Johnson and former Citigroup chairman John Reed. Bair said the panel “brings together some of the best and brightest minds to augment the groundwork that the FDIC has already put in to place to handle an extremely large and complex failure,”

Other items on iWatch News's useful Financial Reform Watch this week: a SEC vote on Wednesday on whether to require hedge fund advisers to register with the agency and a House Oversight Committee hearing the same day on the implications of the GM bailout.

FDA Goes Global To Handle Flood Of Imports

The Food and Drug Administration unveiled on Monday a new global strategy to address the challenges posed by rising imports of food, drugs, vaccines and medical devices amid a highly complex global supply chain.

“Global production of FDA-regulated goods has exploded over the past ten years. In addition to an increase in imported finished products, manufacturers increasingly use imported materials and ingredients in their U.S. production facilities, making the distinction between domestic and imported products obsolete,” said Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret A. Hamburg in a release. "There has been a perfect storm - more products, more manufacturers, more countries and more access. A dramatic change in strategy must be implemented."

Part of the strategy involves building international coalitions of regulators focused on product safety and quality and building data systems to help share information about these products. Among the agency's new mandates -- inspecting more than 19,000 foreign food facilities in 2016.

Salazar Expected To Ban Uranium Mining For 20 Years

It's widely expected that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will announce on Monday a new long-term ban (up to 20 years) on uranium mining. In a midday press conference at the Grand Canyon, he will address the controversy over the boom -- there was a 2,000-percent increase in new mining claims in the Grand Canyon area between 2005 and 2009, reports the American Independent.

Since the U.S. relies on imports of uranium to fuel the nuclear industry, Salazar has been under pressure to drop the ban, but the Japanese nuclear disaster changed that calculus.

More Cops On The Wall Street Beat

The number of regulatory cops on the beat on Wall Street is growing fast, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The New York Federal Reserve has about 150 regulators -- or regulatory "embeds" -- working at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank among others and that number is expected to double by this fall.

And the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has about 500 bank examiners working on location at big banks -- and that number is expected to rise by 10 percent. From the Wall Street Journal:

"Regulators have inspected their companies for safety and soundness, financial performance and the quality of management and directors for decades. The on-site reviews are thorough and can produce friction between the bank examiners and their subjects, according to bankers and regulators. The Fed's latest how-to "Commercial Bank Examination Manual" is 1,808 pages long, and examiners have the power to "review all books and records maintained by a financial institution."

Late one night in January 1994, a chlorine leak that seeped through the sewer system of the city of Cali in Colombia killed three children in their beds and sickened more than 400 people, leaving 23 with severe lung burns. Some of them died in later weeks and months from the effects of the toxic chemical. At the time, press accounts said it was an industrial accident although no responsible party was ever identified.

It turns out the tragedy was the result of an experiment gone awry by one of the world's most fearsome drug cartels, reveals William C. Rempel in his new book, "At The Devil's Table". In their quest to smuggle cocaine, the cartel considered using chlorine tanks, which are often used in industrial processes and which are imported from the United States and then returned for refills. Due to their toxic content, even the empty tanks were unlikely to be opened by customs officials and their contents was undetectable by drug-sniffing dogs.

The challenge was how to purge the dangerous gas -- so that night four members of the Cali cartel tried feeding the gas down hoses into the sewer system of the city. But they misjudged the operation and the toxic gas soon started backing up out of the manhole, growing into a vapor cloud. The men quickly fled the scene but the gas spread throughout the neighborhood.

The cartel brainstormed their next move and even considered making a financial gift or providing medical care for the victims. Instead they did nothing and later successfully carried out the same experiment in a rural area far from town. Within a few years, the ploy was carried out by drug smugglers--and not always successfully: in 1996, U.S. Customs and the Drug Enforcement Administration busted three Colombian nationals for trying to smuggle 1,000 kilos of cocaine in chlorine tank cylinders to a warehouse in Baltimore.

In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, amid fears that chlorine could be used by terrorists, U.S. regulations on the importation of chlorine were tightened.

CFTC Watchdog Gets Failing Grade

The inspector general for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission -- the internal watchdog for the agency given oversight of the derivatives market -- flunked a peer review of its auditing operations, "raising questions about its ability to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse," reports iWatch News.

Inspector General A. Roy Lavik revealed the failing grade in his semiannual report to Congress. The review highlighted the IG's audit of the CFTC's hiring of contractors to replace government employees, ultimately concluding that it was "insufficient" by not performing a cost comparison analysis and relying on interviews instead.

It is rare for an IG to receive such a low grade -- the only other recent example is Arnold Fields, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction who resigned earlier this year.

FDA Approval Of Modified Salmon Halted By Congress

Just days before the Food and Drug Administration was set to approve an application for advanced-hybrid salmon, sources tell HuffPost, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) pushed an amendment through committee that would bar the agency from spending money to that end. On Wednesday afternoon, when most of his colleagues were busy chowing down at the House picnic, the lawmaker brought a few allies back into the chamber, where it passed the House by voice vote.

Young, along with lawmakers from other salmon states -- concerned about protecting the jobs of wild salmon fishermen -- have been fighting for months to block approval of the fish, which grow twice as fast as Atlantic salmon and require about 10 percent less food to reach the same weight. Though consumer groups have long opposed the idea, AquaBounty, the company that developed the technology, emphasizes that the salmon pose no threat to human health and will be kept away from wild salmon populations.

SEC May Charge Credit Rating Agencies

In the wake of the financial meltdown in the fall of 2008, credit rating companies were blamed for enabling the crisis by blessing Wall Street's mortgage securities machine, but they largely escaped punishment.

Almost three years later, that may begin to change: securities regulators are weighing civil fraud charges against some of the ratings agencies -- specifically Standard & Poor's and Moody's Investors Service -- for their role in fueling the crisis, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Now, SEC officials are focusing on the question of whether the ratings companies committed fraud by failing to do enough research to be able to rate adequately the pools of subprime mortgages and other loans that underpinned the mortgage-bond deals, according to people familiar with the matter.

Whistleblower Claims He Was Fired For Asbestos Complaint

Five days after a realtor complained about asbestos exposure at his workplace, he was fired. Now his company, CMM Realty in Columbia, South Carolina, has been sued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for allegedly retaliating against a whistleblower. OSHA is asking the court to reinstate the unnamed employee, and pay him $56,222 in back wages and compensatory damages, reports WISTV. The company is appealing a previous OSHA order from last November to the department's Office of Administrative Law Judges, where it is currently being reviewed.

OSHA Targets Health Hazards In Metals Factories

To raise awareness of the health problems associated with exposure to metal dusts and fumes, carbon monoxide, lead and silica, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is targeting the metals industry with a new initiative. The National Emphasis Program (NEP) is designed to "identify and reduce or eliminate worker exposures to harmful chemical and physical hazards in establishments producing metal products," such as establishments that make nails, insulated wires and cables, steel piping and copper and aluminum products.

Paging Hollywood screenwriters: The drama unfolding in Lynch, Ky., has all the makings of a big-screen hits like "Erin Brockovich" or "Silkwood," where regular folks took on big companies over environmental and worker safety issues.

The residents of this eastern Kentucky town are in the middle of a long fight to halt mountaintop removal coal mining of the hills that surround it. The hamlet, known for its tradition of African-American miners, was built by U.S. Coal & Coke Company in 1917 to house 10,000 miners and their families. Already, the nearby Black Mountain, the tallest mountain in Kentucky, has been blasted in recent months to access the seams of coal beneath the surface.

The small town, which in recent decades has lost much of its population -- and tax revenue -- has also been trying to get money from the county to help restore an old fire station. Now, the town's mayor is claiming that those funds are being held hostage by Harlan County executive Joe Grieshop. At a heated city council meeting, Lynch Mayor Taylor Hall accused Grieshop of blackmail. He told Hall that he must negotiate with the coal company or the county would not fund the fire station. Virginia-based A&G; Coal Company has planned mountaintop removal mining in the area.

"Criminal coercion is when you take or threat to omit action unless someone else is changing what they are doing or saying," said Hall, according to the Harlan Daily Enterprise. "When you say to us, that we will negotiate with the coal companies or not receive any money through the fiscal court, I think that is paramount to criminal coercion."

Grieshop countered that he was simply telling Hall that tax revenue from the coal companies could help fund the station. “I just told them that the coal companies are where the money comes from. If you're not willing to work with them and you're anti-coal, then the fiscal court members are not going to support you. They have already stated that. They don't feel comfortable helping out cities with coal monies, when the city is not trying to work with the coal company.”

Here is a video of resident Stanley Sturgill discussing the operation on Black Mountain:

The $15 Billion Hole To Nowhere

Deep under the desert of Nevada, a 25-foot-wide, 5-mile long tunnel intended to carry 70,000 tons of nuclear waste will probably never be used.

The Yucca Mountain project recently halted by the Obama administration, is almost certain to die despite several lawsuits in progress, reports the Washington Post. Calling a "case study in government dysfunction and bureaucratic inertia," this must-read story details the $15 billion project to find and build a place to put the spent nuclear fuel.

Back in the early '90s, my father was brought in to consult the Energy Department (DOE) on ways to warn future generations about the waste buried deep underground. In rapt fascination, I listened to his account of riding an elevator thousands of feet under the ground to visit the repository and his quasi-anthropological discussions with other experts about the challenge of anticipating how people in 3000 A.D. will interpret warning signs.

In related news, a federal safety board blasted the DOE and contractor Bechtel for safety failings at Hanford nuclear plant's waste treatment facility. Among the accusations by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board: burying technical reports that raised safety issues and creating an atmosphere that discouraged workers from expressing their concerns, reports the News-Tribune of Tacoma, Wash..

The plant, still under construction, is required to start treating 53 million gallons of nuclear waste held in underground tanks at Hanford, which produced plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Despite Human-Trafficking Concerns, Firm Still Gets Contracts

Despite issues raised by the State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that a catering firm was involved in human trafficking, the subcontractor to Kellogg Brown Root continued to get government contracts, reports the Project on Government Oversight and the Center for Public Integrity.

Najlaa International Catering Services, based in Kuwait, has been awarded six government contracts in the last two years, most recently on March 23, despite a State Department diplomatic cable in early 2009 and FBI email in late 2008 that both raised suspicions about human trafficking.

Those communications followed a December 2008 protest by 1,000 Najlaa laborers being held without pay in abysmal conditions, according to a 2008 KBR inspection. The men, who were lured to Kuwait on the promise of lucrative wages, were confined in a windowless warehouse and dismal living quarters without money or work for up to three months.

EPA Allows Florida To Write Its Own Clean Water Rules

The Environmental Protection Agency raised the concerns of clean-water advocates by allowing Florida to write its own water quality rules. State lawmakers and industry representatives criticized federal standards to regulate nutrient overload in waterways, saying they would be too costly and difficult to implement.

It's uncertain whether the state will design criteria sufficient to meet the EPA's standards -- the current standard is considered vague and ineffective, reports the American Independent. The agency's regulations merely state that "in no case shall nutrient concentrations of body of water be altered so as to cause an imbalance in natural populations of flora or fauna."

SEC's Budget Frozen By House Committee

Despite being financially outmatched by the Wall Street firms it regulates, the Securities and Exchange Commission may not end up with a bigger budget. The Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee passed a bill Wednesday that freezes the agency's budget at $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2012. GOP lawmakers rejected the Obama administrations' request to boost the SEC's funding by $222 million to help it handle the new responsibilities it was given under the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill.

To put that in perspective, the SEC's budget is one-fourth that of JPMorgan's litigation reserves, the money it sets aside to fight or settle lawsuits. It's also equivalent to about half a year of Bank of America's marketing expenses, notes Forbes' Halah Touryalai.

In 2009, SEC chair Mary Schapiro testified that its 3,600 staffers oversee more than 30,000 public companies, mutual funds, investment advisers, broker dealers and transfer agencies.

Among its current tasks, the agency is investigating Merrill Lynch's sale of a complex mortgage-related security it created for hedge fund Magnetar. That controversial sale was the subject of the Pulitzer Prize-winning story by ProPublica's Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein.

Millions Of Fish Die Due To Industry Intransigence

Hundreds of millions of fish die every year in the Great Lakes because power plants have resisted using environmentally-safe cooling equipment. As a result, fish eggs, larvae and young fish are sucked in by powerful intake systems and cooked to death by intense heat and pressure inside the plants, reports the Chicago Tribune.

"Industry lawsuits have delayed the phaseout of once-through cooling at older plants," the Tribune explains. "Echoing their arguments about tougher air-pollution rules, power company lobbyists say the expense would force dozens of plants to close, costing jobs and making the nation's electrical grid less reliable. Some plants have tried to reduce fish kills by building intakes offshore away from spots where fish congregate. Others have installed systems designed to deter fish with sound or air bubbles."

OSHA Fines Lumber Mill $1.9 Million

In one of its largest recent sanctions, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined an Alabama lumber mill $1.9 million for hazards that constituted "egregious disregard" for worker safety.

The company, Phenix Lumber Co. and its owner, John M. Dudley, were cited for 27 willful safety violations in the wake of complaints that workers were at risk of losing hands or fingers from machines that lacked safety guards. OSHA has clashed with the lumber mill for years, citing it 77 times for serious safety and health violations since 2007, especially last year after a worker was killed and another one suffered a broken neck on the job.

One year after the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul, key regulators keep delaying or watering down new rules and regulations.

On Tuesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed delaying rules for the $601 trillion derivatives market that were set to go into effect on July 16 until as late as the end of the year. CFTC chairman Gary Gensler explained the postponement by saying, "Some might ask: why six months? Six months will provide the commission with the opportunity to re-examine the status of final rulemaking in light of the changed regulatory landscape at the time."

The proposal comes less than a week after the SEC announced that it would give banks and traders "temporary relief" from new regulations for security-based swaps.

Per Reuters:

Those granted temporary relief from the new guidelines include transactions in exempt or excluded markets -- primarily in financial, energy and metals -- as well as measures that do not require rule-making but refer to terms such as swap, swap dealer or major swap participants that must be further defined by regulators.

Here is commission Bart Chilton's statement before the CFTC's public meeting today:

We are taking these actions today out of necessity in an effort to provide time to craft thoughtful regulations and, to the extent practical, give some certainty to those impacted by the rules. However, we can't sit back. We need to push the pedal down and make time to finalize thoughtful rules as soon as possible. Markets are not much safer than they were when the economic meltdown occurred. We still aren't seeing into dark over-the-counter markets like we should, much less regulating them. We still lack limits on excessive speculation that is impacting consumers who at times are paying a Wall Street premium, and we have not addressed super fast cheetah traders who may be instigating mini flash crashes or posing risks to markets, and therefore consumers.

The 'Dirty Dozen' Fruits and Vegetables

Which fruits and vegetables should you avoid because they have the most pesticides?

The Environmental Working Group released its annual list of the "dirty dozen" with the largest doses of pesticides. The winner (or loser): Apples, 92 percent of which carried two or more pesticide residues in testing by the USDA. As noted by Mother Jones, the narrow range of apple varieties available in most groceries also featured a "stunning diversity of poisons" -- 56 distinct pesticides.

The Shadow Congress Gets Bigger, More Powerful

The Shadow Congress keeps growing. In the wake of the 2010 election, Talking Points Memo Muckraker updated their list of ex-lawmakers working for lobby shops -- it's up to 195 from 172 last year. The new list includes 90 Democrats and 105 Republicans from 45 states. Major additions include Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), now with the Motion Picture Association of America, former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), now working for the Chamber of Commerce among others, and former Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.).

Formaldehyde Ruling Not Likely To Prompt Major Changes

Though safety advocates cheered the news last week that formaldehyde was being classified as a "known carcinogen" by the Department of Health and Human Services, it's unclear how much of an impact that classification will have on regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency "has been trying to update its chemical risk assessment for formaldehyde since 1998, but has been stalled repeatedly by the chemical manufacturing industry," reports ProPublica.

Two years ago, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) moved to delay the assessment through an act of raw political power -- putting a hold on the nomination of an EPA appointee. Soon after the ploy, industry lobbyist Charles Grizzle hosted a big fundraiser for Vitter.

NEW YORK -- Just before retiring from her job as a manager at Krispy Kreme in 2006, Jerri Young got a letter at her home in West Des Moines, Iowa, telling her to call Principal Financial about her 401k. When she called, assuming that she was talking to an account manager looking out for her best interests, she was convinced to roll over almost $70,000 into a Principal IRA with a class of mutual funds.

Unbeknownst to her, Young was actually talking to a sales agent at a subsidiary of Principal. She felt deceived and sued Principal along with other plan participants, alleging that the company "failed to act solely in the interests of the participants and their plans and instead engaged in blatant and massive self-dealing."

Essentially, the case asked a simple question: Is it too much to ask of professionals who give investment advice to retirement plan participants to have the best interests of those retirees in mind?

In a decision that reverberated through the universe of retirement professionals and their clients, Young's case was dismissed. Principal felt vindicated, stating at the time that it makes "every effort to ensure our business conduct fully satisfies our high ethical standards." The decision, along with many other cases in which it proved difficult to hold investment advisers accountable for allegedly self-serving advice, helped convince the Labor Department to make some changes.

The resulting proposal, which broadens the definition of a fiduciary -- a person bound to look out for another's interest -- has sparked a fierce lobbying battle in Washington, D.C., largely under the radar of the media.

By defining a fiduciary as a person who provides investment advice to retirement plans for a fee or some compensation, the proposal is intended to foster impartiality of advice and make advisers accountable. It also would strip investment advisers -- from large mutual funds to individual accountants -- of a long-standing source of revenue.

The proposal is fiercely opposed by a diverse array of interests, from Wall Street's biggest banks and securities industry groups to a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). The Labor Department has been flooded by comments, with those in opposition -- including Principal Financial -- drowning out the voices of consumer advocates and retiree groups. Several other firms that have been targeted by lawsuits involving their investment advice, including State Street, Northern Trust and JPMorgan, have filed lengthy letters in opposition to the proposal.

Kerry, Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and 30 members of the New Democrat Coalition have written to the DOL, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodities Futures Trading Commission to express their concern that the new rule “would result in worse investment decisions” by consumers and increased costs. Ranking Republican members of key House and Senate committees called the proposal "unworkable," requesting that it be postponed or rejected.

"It's just about basic accountability," says Phyllis Borzi, assistant secretary of labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration.

“When you hire a plumber, they stand by their work. When you hire an electrician, they stand by their work. Why are you less entitled to that kind of accountability when someone gives you investment advice?"

Borzi says that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act included a broad definition of fiduciary when passed in 1974, but a year later a Labor Department rule restricted that definition to those who met a five-part test. For example, the rule required that advice be given on a regular basis for an adviser to be considered a fiduciary -- so even If a retiree made a decision based on a single conversation, that infrequency exempted the adviser from the responsibility of being a fiduciary.

When the ERISA legislation was passed, many retirement plans were defined-benefit plans and relatively straightforward, so they didn't require many decisions on the part of retirees. It was also before the advent of 401Ks and IRAs, which have required retirees to hold more responsibility for their own retirement planning decisions -- and rely on investment advisers to help navigate the complex range of choices.

In recent years, Borzi and her staffers have seen abuses proliferate. EBSA's enforcement data bears that trend out, with the agency recovering over half a billion dollars since 1991. The 401k marketplace is prone to business arrangements that foster conflicts of interest -- for instance, when consultants receive compensation from the investment companies whose products they recommend to the plan -- according to a 2009 report by the Government Accountability Office. And the Securities and Exchange Commission found in a May 2005 study that 13 of the 24 pension consultants it examined had conflicts of interest.

Borzi, a former lawyer, says that she saw "case after case in which investment advisors would put in a contract that they agreed to be fiduciaries and when the trustee tried to hold them responsible, they would hide behind this DOL [five-part] test. For small employers, it would leave them holding the bag."

She explains that this proposal addresses a "matter of fundamental fairness -- that the person responsible for this loss be held accountable."

The proposal could have far-reaching consequences -- the employee benefit plans under EBSA's jurisdiction hold over $5 trillion in assets and cover about 150 million workers, retirees and their families.

With so much money at stake, the lobbying has intensified on the issue. After a wave of comments, the agency agreed to hold two days of public hearings featuring testimony from interested parties, which prompted another round of comments. "The lobbying power is out of control," says Jessica Flores of the Fiduciary Compliance Center, an independent consulting firm, adding that the hearings were "mobbed with industry lobbyists."

"I have been lobbied pretty intensively on this issue," says Rep. Bob Andrews (D-N.J.), who supports the proposal. "There has been a lot of pushback from the financial industry -- some legitimate and some illegitimate. There are some transactions that may get swept up in this that shouldn't be, such as when an adviser has an approved list of banks and they recommend whatever bank pays the most interest. They do get some compensation from the banks for the right to be on the list. We don't think that should be barred from this rule."

Among the concerns about the proposal are that it would limit access to investment education and increase the costs of investment products. In his letter, Primerica vice president John S. Watts notes, "with the changes made necessary by the proposed rule, broker-dealers may have little incentive to reach out to many middle-income families, as revenue from accounts with small account balances will not generate sufficient fees to cover the costs associated with providing outreach and account services "

Many of the comments from executives in the financial services industry insisted that the new definition is overly broad, limiting its ability to serve its clients. "A plain reading of the standard would include as advice, for example, an interview with one of our officers or strategists providing general market color in the Wall Street Journal, or on Bloomberg or CNBC," notes JPMorgan managing director Don Thompson in his letter.

Some critics feel that the proposal does not go far enough, pointing out the exemptions for certain players in the field. "Basically, these regulations are worthless," says Flores. "By exempting mutual fund companies, you have exempted the biggest source for conflicted advice and abuse. They can continue to provide these services without any accountability."

Borzi emphasizes that the agency is reaching out to all parties and takes all comments into consideration. "Most of the arguments have been process arguments, we have been coordinating with other agencies, we're meeting with everybody," she says. "We have tried to get the financial services industry to give us a list of fee practices they think will be prohibited by this regulation. If we need to amend those exemptions, we'll do that."

• "Did Education Department officials leak market-sensitive info to stock traders?" That's the provocative headline from Project on Government Oversight reporting on a probe by the agency's inspector general into controversial claims that may implicate Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

IG Kathleen Tighe will "examine whether confidential DoED information and draft documents, including one produced by her own office, were transferred to Wall Street short-sellers seeking informational advantage in their bets on the future of the $35 billion for-profit education industry. Beyond the propriety of the Education Department's conduct, the phenomenon raises broader questions about the integrity of government decision-making in the face of relentless Wall Street scrutiny," reports POGO's Adam Zagorin.

One of the more damning revelations hidden in a trove of documents was an email sent by a short-seller banned by U.S. regulators from the banking industry. Manuel Asensio wanted changes to a then-confidential audit on Iowa-based Ashford University which would have negatively impacted the for-profit's bottom line. (Though the short-seller may have been acting improperly, the for-profit school has had its share of problems. Read Chris Kirkham's devastating probe of Ashford, "Buying Legitimacy: How a Group of California Executives Built an Online College Empire.")

• The State Department's environmental review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline is inadequate and fails to properly address the potential for spills and health impact for communities living near refineries, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The project, which has attracted plenty of over-the-top headlines, involves Transcanada's plan to move 830,000 barrels of oil from Canada to Oklahoma and Texas. Since it is a multinational project and has involved years of negotiation, there has been intense pressure on the State Department to approve the project, reports the American Independent.

Per a June 6 letter from the EPA to the State Department:

As EPA and the State Department have discussed many times, EPA recommends that the State Department improve the analysis of oil spill risks and alternative pipeline routes, provide additional analysis of potential impacts to communities along the pipeline route and adjacent to refineries and the associated environmental justice concerns, together with ways to mitigate those impacts, improve the discussion of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions (OHOs) associated with oil sands crude, and improve the analysis of potential impacts to wetlands and migratory bird populations.

• In the wake of several recent serious bus crashes, a new story by Bloomberg is particularly troubling. Bus safety regulators allowed operators to stay on the road after finding problems serious enough to shut them down, according to Transportation Department records viewed by Jeff Plungis.

Those extensions have sometimes led to fatal results. Three days into a 10-day reprieve given to Sky Express, one of its buses crashed on May 31 outside of Richmond, Virginia, killing four passengers.

• America's first whistleblower? If you care about the rights of whistleblowers, read this fascinating history that reflects the "tension between protecting national security secrets and ensuring the public's 'right to know' about abuses of authority," reports the New York Times. Back in 1777, revolutionary soldier John Grannis informed the Continental Congress about the Continental Navy's commander, Esek Hopkins, accusing him of treated prisoners "in the most inhuman and barbarous manner" and helping torture captured British sailors.

• Who gets blamed if a government official injures herself during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Consumer Product Safety Commission's new testing and evaluation center in Rockville, Maryland? Who makes those giant scissors for such ceremonies anyway? Just asking ...

• 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).