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Quotable

Ma'am, we're going to do this one more time, and then I'm going to treat you as though you were not here."
— Immigration judge Rex J. Ford, Mentally Ill and in Immigration Limbo (NYT)

NY Fed's Goldman Ties at Issue » New York Fed chairman Stephen Friedman's Goldman Sachs connections illustrate what a tangle of overlapping interests can arise at a hybrid institution, especially as the U.S. government grows more deeply enmeshed in American business and banking. — Wall Street Journal ($)

Firms Face New Tax Curbs » The Obama administration is expected to unveil details of what aides are calling a far-reaching crackdown on offshore tax avoidance, targeting many U.S.-based multinational corporations and wealthy individuals. — Wall Street Journal ($)

Edwards Admits Inquiry » Two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has acknowledged that investigators are assessing how he spent his campaign funds -- a subject that could carry his extramarital affair from the tabloids to the courtroom. — New York Times

Two Deaths, Two Very Different Probes » When a USC student died in a hit-and-run collision, Los Angeles police and the media jumped on the case and officials rushed out a $235,000 reward. A nearly identical accident across town received no attention and few resources. — Los Angeles Times

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The Scapegoats of Abu Ghraib? » When the photos of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq surfaced in 2004, U.S. officials portrayed Army Pvt. Charles A. Graner Jr. as the ringleader of a few low-ranking "bad apples." But Graner's lawyer contends that recently-released Justice Department memos show how guards were made scapegoats for policies approved at high levels. — Washington Post

Report: Contractors Behind Waterboarding Program » According to current and former government officials, the CIA's secret waterboarding program was designed and assured to be safe by two well-paid psychologists now working out of an unmarked office building in Spokane, Washington. — ABC News

Hearings Sought in Merill Deal » House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) took a new stance on investigating the involvement of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve in Bank of America Corp.'s purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. Thursday, saying there "probably should be hearings." — Wall Street Journal ($)

One Town's Take on Big Banks » Last year, Indio, Calif., passed a law that allowed it to charge banks with a criminal misdemeanor if they allowed a home to fall into disrepair. "If I need to do it, I'll say, 'Mr. Bank President, if you don't come and take care of your property, we're going to come arrest you,'" says Brad Ramos, Indio's long-serving police chief. — Wall Street Journal ($)

Flu Readiness Varies » More than two dozen states, including Maryland, as well as the District, have not stocked enough of the emergency supplies of antiviral medications considered necessary to treat victims of swine flu should the outbreak become a full-blown crisis, according to federal records. — Washington Post

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The 'Fort Murtha' Debate » The Pentagon has spent about $30 million on upgrades at a little-used airport named for Rep. John P. Murtha (D), though most of the improvements have not been used for their intended military purpose. Critics complain that the projects, funded through appropriations approved by Murtha's panel, are a waste of taxpayer dollars. — Washington Post

Kennedy Is Key in Voting Rights Ruling » The Supreme Court yesterday split along a familiar ideological battle line in its consideration of the Voting Rights Act, apparently leaving Justice Anthony M. Kennedy in the pivotal position of deciding the fate of what a government lawyer called "one of the most transformative acts in American history." — Washington Post

Immigration Focus Shifts to Employers » In an effort to crack down on illegal labor, the Department of Homeland Security intends to step up enforcement efforts against employers who knowingly hire such workers. — New York Times

Tracking the Stimulus Trackers » A vocal cross section of technology experts, academics, good-government groups and federal employees weighed in this week on the future of Recovery.gov, the Obama administration's Web site that officials promise will eventually track every single dollar of the federal stimulus. — Washington Post

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Quotable

The louder he yells at me, the calmer I will be."
— Neel Kashkari, outgoing bailout director's note-to-self while testifying on Capitol Hill about TARP oversight

NYC Flyover Fallout » White House press secretary Robert Gibbs yesterday said the administration is conducting an internal review of the Air Force One flyover that caused panic Monday in New York City. "It was a mistake," Obama said of the photo-op flight, which reportedly cost taxpayers $328,835. Meanwhile, documents suggest federal officials knew the Air Force mission would cause alarm, but proceeded anyway. — Washington Post, Bloomberg, WCBS-TV

Surveillance Effort Draws Concerns » A growing number of big-city police departments and other law enforcement agencies across the country are embracing a new system to report suspicious activities that officials say could uncover terrorism plots but that civil liberties groups contend might violate individual rights. — New York Times

'State Secrets' Claim Rejected » A federal appeals court yesterday reinstated a lawsuit by five former detainees who sued a Boeing subsidiary over its alleged role in transporting them to foreign countries, where they say they suffered brutal interrogation under the CIA's "black site" prison system. — Washington Post

Citi Seeks Bonus Approvals » Citigroup Inc., soon to be one-third owned by the U.S. government, is asking the Treasury for permission to pay special bonuses to many key employees, according to people familiar with the matter. — Wall Street Journal ($)

DOJ Probes Google Book Deal »The Justice Department is looking into whether a 2008 settlement between Google and authors and publishers over the search giant's Book Search service could be anticompetitive. — BusinessWeek

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Gauging Swine Flu Response » As the White House works to confront the growing threat of swine flu to U.S. citizens, dozens of key public health and emergency response jobs in the administration remain vacant. Meanwhile, Mexico is facing criticism for its slow and confused response to the gathering epidemic, as families of victims await medicine two weeks after the country confirmed its first death from the virus. — Washington Post

Five Charged in Mortgage Fraud Scheme » It was a mortgage fraud and a Ponzi scheme, and it was, prosecutors say, a moneymaker. In just a couple of years, the Dream Homes Program stole at least $70 million from more than 1,000 people, many of them in Prince George's County, Md., by promising to pay off their mortgages in exchange for investments of at least $50,000, according to prosecutors. — Washington Post

Report: AIG Probe Narrows » More details are emerging about the government's probe into American International Group Inc.'s derivative contracts, with criminal authorities focusing on at least three men, two of whom are still at the company, according to people familiar with the matter. — Wall Street Journal ($)

Bankers Shut Campaign Cash Flow » Since the financial industry bailouts began, Wall Street and Washington have never looked closer. But as the recession deepens and banks grow to resent the stigma associated with taxpayer aid, an unexpected chill is occurring: Bank employees are slamming their checkbooks shut. — Washington Independent

Liberals Push Bybee Impeachment » Liberal activists are pressing for the impeachment of federal Judge Jay Bybee over the Bush administration's "torture memos" in part because there is virtually nothing that President Barack Obama, congressional Republicans or conservative Senate Democrats can do to stop the process from getting under way. — Politico

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The president doesn't open or close the door on criminal prosecutions of anybody in this country because the legal determination about who knowingly breaks the law in any instance is not one that's made by the president of the United States."
— Press secretary Robert Gibbs, Advisers Pressed On Memo Fallout

Effectiveness of Harsh Tactics Unclear » Whether harsh tactics were decisive in Khalid Sheik Mohammed's interrogation may never be conclusively known, in large part because the CIA appears not to have tried traditional tactics for much time, if at all. — Washington Post

House Heavyweight Feels Threat » So powerful was Rep. John P. Murtha at one time that he used to put up billboards in his Western Pennsylvania district declaring that "the P is for Power." But today, a string of federal criminal investigations of contractors or lobbyists close to Murtha are threatening to undermine his backroom clout. — New York Times

State vs. Federal Power » On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal in an antidiscrimination case pitting New York against several national banks. If the state wins, it would mark a break with decades of precedent that mostly favors the powers of the federal government and open a new era for 50 state regulators to play a bigger role. — Wall Street Journal ($)

Water Woes Linked to Gas Drilling » A string of documented cases of gas escaping into drinking water is raising new concerns about the hidden costs of this economic tide and strengthening arguments across the country that drilling can put drinking water at risk. — ProPublica

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I felt very strongly the importance that they be protected and against all different kinds of possible prosecutions."
— Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, explaining his concern for CIA officers as he agreed to release of torture memos

Obama Rebuffs Truth Panel » President Obama appeared to back away from an earlier suggestion that he could support an independent commission on detainee treatment, telling congressional leaders that he wants to look forward instead of litigating the past. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also rejected calls for an independent panel, saying he preferred to await the findings of an ongoing investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee. — Washington Post, Wall Street Journal ($)

Beyond Abu Ghraib » The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuses at U.S. prisons other than Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, drawing concerns from Defense Department officials that the images could incite another backlash in the Middle East. — Los Angeles Times

Threats Ushered BofA Deal » Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and former Treasury secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. threatened to remove the management and board of Bank of America if it backed out of its deal to acquire Merrill Lynch late last year, according to documents released yesterday by New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. Meanwhile, Bank of America CEO Kenneth D. Lewis may face SEC scrutiny for failing to disclose mounting losses at Merrill Lynch ahead of the merger. — Washington Post, Bloomberg

Gonzales Reportedly Intervened in Wiretap » The CIA concluded in late 2005 that a conversation picked up on a government wiretap warranted notifying Congressional leaders that Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) could become enmeshed in an investigation into Israeli influence in Washington, but Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the agency's director, Porter J. Goss, to hold off. — New York Times

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