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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
---Discord grows over public health care plan
By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The mood was upbeat in early March when scores of powerful lawmakers and lobbyists joined President Obama in the East Room of the White House to talk about fixing the nation's health care system. Still, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, rose to tell Obama that many Republicans had a problem with his plan to let the government compete with private insurers.
"There's a lot of us that feel that the government is an unfair competitor," Grassley said. "We have to keep what we have now strong, and make it stronger."
Three months later, disagreement has turned to discord over a key element of Obama's health care prescription: his insistence on a "public plan" to compete with private insurers. America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group, is joined by the American Medical Association, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others that have expressed misgivings about greater government involvement.
"We're not sure that the government is very good at running a health plan," said Nancy Nielsen, president of the AMA, which heard Obama defend his plan Monday.
That has led to a number of compromise proposals, designed to inject choice and competition into the market without letting the government set prices or shift costs to the private sector.
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---Gordon Brown is condemned over secret inquiry into Iraq war
The Prime Minister faced accusations of an “establishment stitch-up” after telling MPs that an investigation into the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein would be held behind closed doors. By Andrew Porter, Political Editor
Published: 6:55AM BST 16 Jun 2009
He cited national security as the reason — a claim attacked by MPs of all sides and the families of soldiers killed in the conflict.
Mr Brown said the inquiry’s findings would not be published until after next year’s general election — a timetable derided by the Conservatives.
In a statement to the Commons, Mr Brown said the inquiry would cover the period from 2001 to this year’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
He said it would be led by a committee of privy counsellors, headed by a former Whitehall civil servant, but would not seek to apportion blame.
Tony Blair, who caused division in his own party by pushing ahead with the invasion alongside America, is expected to give evidence.
Mr Brown ruled out a public inquiry because he feared it would take as long and be as indecisive as the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday, which was set up in 1998 and has yet to report on the 1972 shootings in Londonderry.
Mr Brown said the Iraq inquiry would be “fully independent of government” and its final report would disclose “all but the most secret of information”. Its scope would be “unprecedented”.
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---Freddie Mac - Koskinen hopes to name new CEO next month
(Reuters) - Freddie Mac (FRE.N) (FRE.P), the second largest U.S. home funding source, hopes to name a new chief executive officer and a finance chief next month, the Wall Street Journal said.
John Koskinen, the government-controlled company's interim chief executive and finance chief plans to stay as a chairman, according to the paper.
In an interview with the paper, Koskinen said he hopes to name a new CEO and finance chief next month. He also has to find a new chief operating officer, but that may come later.
The McLean, Virginia-based company also sounded out Steve Preston, who served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George W. Bush, the paper said citing a person familiar with the situation.
Preston withdrew from consideration June 5, in part because he felt he couldn't "move the dial" at Freddie Mac in the face of significant government oversight, the person told the paper.
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--- Department of Justice
--- Securites and Exchange Commission (SEC)
--- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
--- Federal Procurement Data System
---Fraud Victims Want Maximum for Madoff
By ZACHERY KOUWE
Published: June 15, 2009
They are widows, retired schoolteachers, electrical contractors and Korean War veterans. Most had a strong message for the judge in charge of sentencing Bernard L. Madoff: impose the maximum sentence allowable by law.
In more than 100 letters and e-mail messages to Judge Denny Chin, victims of Mr. Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme described how their lives had been forever changed by the actions of a man they had trusted.
The letters, sent to the Federal District Court in Manhattan and released to the public on Monday, come ahead of Mr. Madoff’s sentencing on June 29. Eight of the victims, including one who has known Mr. Madoff personally for more than 20 years, asked Judge Chin for permission to speak at the sentencing.
More than two-thirds of the victims who wrote to the court were retirees or children of retirees who invested with Mr. Madoff more than a decade ago. Many said they had been forced to move in with relatives or look for jobs.
Several letters expressed dismay with the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to discover the fraud after being tipped off numerous times.
Many were brimming with anger directed at Mr. Madoff.
“Sentence this monster named Madoff to the most severe punishment within your abilities,” wrote Randy Baird, a California lawyer. “We are too old to make up what we lost. We have to start over.”
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If you don't know where you are going, you won't know where you are when you get there.
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