In a signing statement appended to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008, President Bush asserted that he is not obliged to obey four key sections of the bill because they trample on his executive authority. One provision that Bush's statement targets precludes the the use of taxpayer money "to establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq" or "to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq." (Boston Globe)

Barack Obama's (D-IL) presidential campaign announced last night that it will give to charity over $70,000 in contributions linked to Antoin Rezko, the Chicago developer due to begin trial next month for corruption. The campaign said it discovered the money after it undertook a more extensive review of Rezko-related contributions. (AP)

Civil Rights groups have called upon Attorney General Michael Mukasey to rescind a Department of Justice opinion that authorized an administration scheme by which registered Republicans switch their affiliation to "independent" so that President Bush can stack the bi-partisan, eight person Civil Rights Commission with political allies. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) are leading the effort to have a Bush memo, which laid the foundation for the end run around the Civil Rights Act of 1957, rescinded. (CREW)

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Antoin "Tony" Rezko, the ethically challenged businessman whose thousands of dollars in contributions to Barack Obama have dogged the candidate, has been jailed for violating his bond. According to a federal prosecutor, Rezko "played a shell game" in which he hid millions of dollars from the authorities while claiming to be broke. Rezko's trial for charges of fraud, money laundering, and attempted extortion begins February 25. (AP, Washington Post)

Republican efforts to make a proposed earmark moratorium a symbol of their new fiscal discipline and ethics has met stiff opposition from Republicans. Meanwhile, the head of the GOP - President Bush - has enjoyed a steady diet of pork by approving approximately 55,000 earmarks worth more than $100 billion. Think Progress has the facts. (Politico, New York Times, Think Progress)

Student protests at the prestigious prep school Choate Rosemary Hall, which boasts alumni such as John F. Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson, have convinced Karl Rove to withdraw his name as the graduation speaker this spring. Rove explained that he "would not want 12 minutes of remarks to be used as an excuse by a small group to mar what should be a wonderful day of celebration." (Washington Post)

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Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) said yesterday on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that he will return all campaign funds that are connected to indicted Chicago developer Antoin Rezko. Obama has already returned $85,000 in Rezko-related contributions, but news reports have suggested recently that he has not returned all Rezko-related money. (Washington Post)

The Bush administration’s federal mine safety regulators have violated federal law by allowing thousands of health and safety violations to go unpunished. In just the past six years, The Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration failed to act upon approximately 4,000 violations. One of those violations was partially responsible for the 2005 death of a Kentucky miner. (Charleston Gazette)

On New Year’s Eve President Bush signed the OPEN Government Act, legislation that had passed in the House and Senate unanimously. Though the law was supposed to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, Bush has now taken steps to undermine OPEN by gutting funding for the National Archives and thus, according to Congress Daily, “effectively eliminat[ing] the office.” (Think Progress)

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Today's New York Times editorial page puts some nails in the coffin of Giuliani's campaign by introducing readers to the "real Mr. Giuliani" - "a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power." The paper asserts that Giuliani, "whom many New Yorkers" have already come "to know and mistrust," should be known for his "breathtaking" "arrogance and bad judgment" and the manner in which he "shamelessly turned the horror of 9/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city’s and the country’s nightmare to promote his presidential campaign." Just yesterday, one of the paper's blogs ("City Room") ran a scathing indictment of Rudy's improper use of public office, as documented by 25 former prosecutors from the N.Y. region. (New York Times)

Presidential hopeful John McCain has a Rick Davis problem. McCain's top political aide, who has worked on and off with the Senator since 1999, was once part of a lobbying firm that provided political advice to anti-democratic, pro-oligarch candidates in the Ukraine. Davis, who some McCain advisers have concerns about, even arranged a meeting between McCain and the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripsaka, whose alleged ties to organized crime and anti-democracy movements are so serious that the U.S. has revoked his visa. (Washington Post)

The Bush administration, which believes in third chances, has appointed Paul Wolfowitz, the disgraced former president of the World Bank and Under Secretary of Defense, as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, a high-level advisory panel on arms control that reports to the secretary of state. Wolfowitz will, once again, be providing the government with his wisdom on disarmament, WMD, and nonproliferation. (New York Times)

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Though the CIA recently asserted that Bhutto was assassinated by al-Qaida, Dell Dailey, the State Department's counterterrorism chief admits that "there's gaps in intelligence," because "we don't have enough information about what's going on there. Not on al-Qaida. Not on foreign fighters. Not on the Taliban." Dailey said this makes him "uncomfortable," especially since more than 40% of Pakistanis support or feel sympathetic to al-Qaida. (ABC's "The Blotter")

Already facing a variety of legal problems, Blackwater may soon be facing financial ones as well. The security company's contract with the State Department runs out in May and with the ongoing investigations into the company's activities in Iraq - and the possibility of indictments in the future - it's possible that the contract will not be renewed. (Time)

Though one might consider suicide to be the ultimate bad side effect of any drug, for decades the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has paid scant attention to the psychiatric impact of medicines. The FDA has changed course and set new rules - perhaps the "most profound changes of the past 16 years" - but the agency's new policies remain hidden from the public because FDA oversight of experimental drugs is conducted in secrecy. (New York Times)

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Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) ties with indicted Chicago developer Antoin Rezko are back in the news after Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) brought them up in last Monday's Democratic presidential debate. Obama has "been accused of no wrongdoing" in the case against Rezko - who is scheduled to begin trial next month - but his relationship with the businessman dates back to before the beginning of his political career in the early 1990s. (Chicago Tribune)

Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt (R-MO) announced yesterday that he will not be seeking re-election. In a statement Blunt, whose administration has been caught up in scandal, said that he was retiring "with the knowledge that we have achieved virtually everything I set out to accomplish." (Kansas City Star)

Representative William Jefferson (D-LA) recently appeared in court papers of a diamond executive in Botswana because he accepted four funded trips there beginning in 2001. Jefferson violated House ethics rules because he failed to report three of the trips which were designed convince Jefferson to oppose bans on "blood diamonds." In 2001, Jefferson had co-sponsored the "Clean Diamonds Act" but he withdrew his support just before taking his first trip to Botswana. (The Hill)

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Last week Defense Secretary Robert Gates toured the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in Charleston, S.C. where the military is producing 1,200 “Mine Resistant Ambush Protected” (MRAP) trucks every month and boasted that the military has not suffered a single casualty with the trucks during 12 roadside attacks. But just yesterday, the military suffered a fatality and three injuries when a MRAP truck ran over a roadside bomb. Though the crew compartment remained intact, hopes for the new vehicle have been questioned. (UPI, New York Times)

Though President Bush is under pressure from fiscal conservatives in Congress and budget watchdog groups, it is unlikely that he will challenge Congress’ billions of dollars in earmarks. Representative Roy Blunt (R-MO) has suggested that any challenges to Congress’ pork business could jeopardize Bush’s relationship with Congress. The 2008 spending bills signed by Bush contain at least 11,700 earmarks worth $16.9 billion. These figures mark a decline since Republican control of Congress. (New York Times)

The ethics committees of the House and Senate disagree on how to interpret new rules covering tickets to events sponsored by charities. Previously, lobbyists were allowed to request event sponsors to invite (and provide free tickets to) elected officials who would then be seated at the lobbyists' tables. The House ethics committee has interpreted the new rules to allow lobbyists to continue the practice, while the Senate committee argues that it is now prohibited. (The Hill)

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The U.S. military asserts that attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq that involve Iranian bombs have sharply declined (sub. req.) and that the influx of Iranian weapons has also waned. Rear Adm. Gregory Smith asserted that "the number of signature weapons that had come from Iran and had been used against coalition and Iraqi forces are down dramatically except for this short uptick in the EFPs in the early part of January," yet these remarks were preceded by allegations from Gen. David Petraeus last week that EFP attacks had risen by a factor of two or three recently. (Wall Street Journal)

For approximately one week, Canada placed the U.S. on a “torture watch list.” But as a result of complaints from the U.S., Canada’s foreign minister has conceded that his nation “wrongly” included “some of our closest allies.” The U.S. Ambassador to Canada argued that it was “offensive for us to be on the same list with countries like Iran and China,” but Amnesty International noted that Canada’s primary concern should “should not be” whether it is “embarrassing allies.” (Think Progress, BBC News)

For the fourth time in fewer than three years, the highest ranking editor or the publisher of the Los Angeles Times has been forced out for taking a stand against newsroom job and budget cuts. The paper’s top editor, James O’Shea, resisted calls by publisher, David Hiller to cut the news budget by $4 million. (New York Times)

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The Secret Service is in court responding to a lawsuit from Steven Howards, a man accused of assaulting Dick Cheney in June 2006. Howards' suit against five agents alleges that they violated his freedom of speech and civil rights after he touched Cheney on the shoulder and denounced the Iraq war. Meanwhile, the agents have accused one another of unethical and illegal conduct in their handling of Howards’ arrest. (New York Times)

Immediately before and after Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) bought 145,000 trailers through no-bid contracts. Later, when the trailers became problematic, FEMA sold the trailers for 40 cents on the dollar. Now, FEMA has offered to buy them back at the original purchase price because the trailers may be a health risk as a result of high levels of formaldehyde. Meanwhile, a UN official who recently toured the Gulf coast says that many of the poor displaced by Katrina resemble poor people every where else in the world who have been displaced by natural disasters. (Washington Post, AP)

Just yesterday, Bhutto’s Pakistan’s People Party called for the United Nations to conduct an inquiry into Bhutto’s assassination. Today, the CIA, in its most “definitive public assessment” to date, asserts that Bhutto was murdered by al Qaeda and allies of the tribal leader Baitullah Mehsud. (Financial Times)

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In the middle of an FBI interview in August 2005 when his New Orleans home was raided, representative William Jefferson (D-LA) dialed the House general counsel’s office. Jefferson also received calls on his cellular phone, including one from someone who is now identified as "Lobbyist A" in the federal indictment against Jefferson. Recent FBI testimony about these calls – intended to show that Jefferson was not subjected to coercive interrogation – did not clarify whether the calls came before or after the FBI found $90,000 in Jefferson’s freezer. (The Hill)

Oregon pollster Bob Moore, whose company Moore Information has been linked to complaints about push polls relating to presidential candidates Mitt Romney and John McCain - agreed yesterday to appear in a New Hampshire court - but only to fight a subpoena, not comply with one. Moore said in a statement that his company "has never, currently does not nor will ever engage in push polling" and his attorney calls the investigation "baseless." (AP)

When former representative Mark D. Siljander (R-MI) was first elected to Congress he believed that he won because "God wanted me in” and he frequently sported a "Jesus First" button. Now Siljander has become the first former member of Congress to be indicted for conspiring with an Islamic terrorist group. The government alleges that Siljander received $50,000 from an Islamic organization to lobby Congress to keep that organization off the list of terrorist organizations and that money was stolen from the U.S. Agency for International Development and that Siljander lied to federal agents about his involvement. (Washington Post)

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Larry Craig’s poorly executed bathroom sex may be a case of first impression for the Senate Ethics Committee, but a recent ACLU brief notes that the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled 38 years ago that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms “have a reasonable expectation of privacy.” The ACLU brief, filed on Craig’s behalf, asserts that "the government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Craig was inviting the undercover officer to engage in anything other than sexual intimacy that would not have called attention to itself in a closed stall in the public restroom.” (Boston Globe)

Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) is furious that he and other lawmakers cannot get an answer from the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding its handling of the case of the woman who says she was raped and sexually assaulted by KBR/Halliburton employees in the Green Zone. So far, DOJ has not filed any charges and has failed to prosecute a similar case in which the accused assailant confessed to physically harassing behavior. Democratic Senators Daniel Akaka (HI), Barack Obama (IL), and Jon Tester (MT) have joined Poe in demanding answers from Michael Mukasey. (ABC’s “The Blotter”)

Tomorrow a federal judge will hear arguments to decide whether Las Vegas casinos can be used as caucus sites in the Democratic primary in Nevada later this week. If permitted, the caucusing on the strip will undoubtedly boost the turnout of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has endorsed Barack Obama. The Nevada State Teachers Union and other plaintiffs in the suit (who support Hillary Clinton) against caucuses on the strip, allege that the plan creates a “preferred a class of voters.” The suit has led to charges that the Clinton campaign is attempting to suppress the voter turnout. (Washington Post)

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In response to investigations by the Justice Department, the CIA Inspector General, and Congress, the CIA has begun a search for more audio or videotapes of interrogations. Officials believe that the CIA does not have any more recordings that it made itself, but that it may have recordings made by other intelligence services. (Newsweek)

Congressional leaders and government watchdog groups are continuing to ask questions about no-bid contracts awarded by federal prosecutors to former Bush administration officials to monitor corporations as part of settlements in fraud and corruption cases. Questions about corporate monitors - who are paid by the companies they monitor - first arose when it was revealed recently that former attorney general John Ashcroft was awarded a no-bid contract worth over $25 million. (Washington Post)

The competition for former Rep. Roger Wicker's (R-MS) seat on the House Appropriations Committee is shaping up as a battle over the Republican Party's disposition towards earmarks. Former Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) says that the appointment of Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who has been critical of the earmark process, would make a "major statement" that the Republican Party is serious about "ending wasteful earmarks and bringing transparency to the Appropriations Committee." (The Hill)

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On the sixth anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, Admiral Mike Mullen, the chief of the U.S. military, declared that he facility should be closed because of the damage it has caused to the image of the U.S in the world. The military tribunal process has produced only one conviction (through a plea bargain deal) and only four current prisoners have been charged with a crime, yet Mullen is unaware of any White House efforts to close the facility. (Chicago Tribune)

A U.S. appeals court has dismissed a suit filed by four former Guantanamo Bay detainees who claimed to have been tortured and humiliated for practicing their religion while in custody there. The plaintiffs, all British citizens who were released in 2004, had sued top Pentagon officials and military officers, including Donald Rumsfeld. The court based its ruling on a claim that it lacked jurisdiction and that the defendants had a right to qualified immunity for performing their government jobs. (Reuters)

In response to a 2004 lawsuit by the ACLU that asserts that the CIA is required to preserve videotapes of terrorist interrogations, the government has asserted that CIA had “no duty” to preserve the evidence. The ACLU believes that the CIA’s destruction of the tapes violated U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein's 2004 order. (AP)

The fire-fighting system in the massive new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is defective. U.S. Officials told McClatchy that in the haste to finish construction on the long-delayed embassy, concerns about fire safety "were ignored or overrruled." (McClatchy)

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Joshua Henderson, the Marine who unleashed a 200 round barrage of bullets from his M240 that killed as many as 19 Afghans last March, asserts that he will testify only if he is granted immunity. Other Marines have testified that Henderson fired as many as 10 times and that they did not see any evidence of hostile gunmen or incoming rounds. (LA Times)

The House and Senate Judiciary Committees want more information about former Attorney General John Ashcroft’s no-bid contract to monitor out-of-court settlements of criminal allegations. The contract is worth between $28 million and $52 million. (New York Times)

John McCain's presidential campaign might have broken its own rules by including its fundraising list as collateral for a bank loan. The campaign had promised its donors that it would not sell their information. (Politico)

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Only one officer, Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, was charged with a crime as result of the mistreatment and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Jordan was convicted last year on a single charge of disobeying orders not to discuss the Abu Ghraib investigation, but he has now been cleared of all responsibility for that crime. Jordan was never involved in any of the abusive practices carried carried out in the prison. (Washington Post)

A new survey by the World Health Organization concludes that 151,000 Iraqis have died from violence following the U.S. invasion and that 9 out of 10 of those deaths resulted from U.S. military operations, insurgent attacks, and sectarian warfare. The study also found a 60% increase in nonviolent deaths. The good news is that the death toll is one-quarter of the number given by Johns Hopkins University’s study in 2006. (Washington Post)

Given Democrats’ objections to the NSA’s warrantless eavesdropping and the White House’s insistence on immunity for telecoms that executed the NSA program, the Bush administration is seeking a temporary fix to keep the program alive beyond its February 1 expiration date. A permanent settlement seems unlikely because while the Senate could push through a bill with immunity, the House is moving in the opposite direction. (Newsweek)

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A federal magistrate is giving the White House five business days to report on whether computer backup tapes contain copies of millions of e-mails that disappeared from computer servers during the government’s investigation into the Valerie Plame affair. Two federal laws mandate that the White House preserve e-mails and other records. The National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have filed suit to ensure that the White House complies with the relevant federal laws. (AP)

The Department of Defense’s Inspector General refuses to investigate former Halliburton/KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones’ allegations of gang rape by fellow employees in Baghdad because he asserts that the Justice Department is looking into the matter. Though the alleged rape happened in 2005, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have failed to get answers from the Bush White House on the status of Leigh’s complaint. (ABC’s “The Blotter”)

Concerned that ethics allegations surrounding John Doolittle's (R-CA) ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff might sink his re-election chances and cost the party a seat in Congress, Republican leaders are urging the California representative to retire. (The Hill)

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In recent months Congress has had its turn in scrutinizing Secretary of State Rice’s poor performance in supervising private security contractors and the construction of the U.S. embassy in Iraq. Now, the U.S. Foreign Service is weighing in Rice’s leadership – via the American Foreign Service Association survey - and forty-four percent of respondents have rated Rice’s performance as “poor” or “very poor” and asserted that "developments of the last few years" leave them less inclined to complete their careers in the Foreign Service. (Washington Post)

A federal judge in the trial of Jose Padilla denied the request of lawyers for one of Padilla's co-defendants for access to classified information that might be relevant to the case, ruling that the government had already met its requirement to turn over evidence. Defense lawyers for Adham Hassoun, Padilla's recruiter, had argued that the CIA's destruction of videotapes of interrogations called into question their client's conviction. (New York Times, Miami Herald)

Recent scrutiny of U.S. immigration policy and efforts to standardize immigration laws have led the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to re-examine Violence Against Women Act visas (sub. req.). The program has protected more than 30,670 immigrants married to abusive U.S. spouses since 1994, but many of those visas are now in limbo or jeopardy and some of the abused women may face deportation. (Sacramento Bee)

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Guantanamo Bay is not the only overseas military prison that is posing problems for the the Bush administration. The secretive American detention center at the Bagram military base – constructed as a temporary site after the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 – now holds 630 prisoners. The International Committee of the Red Cross alleges that some detainees are subjected to cruel treatment that violates the Geneva Conventions. (Herald-Tribune)

Former White House economic adviser Lawrence B. Lindsey lost his job shortly after he broke from White House talking points and estimated (six months before the U.S. invasion of Iraq) that the war would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion. Lindsey’s new book What a President Should Know . . . But Most Learn Too Late explains how he came up with that number and admits that putting "out only a best-case scenario without preparing the public for some worse eventuality was the wrong strategy to follow.” (Washington Post)

The judge in the case of former Allegheny County coroner Cyril Wecht has agreed to drop 43 of the 84 charges against Wecht and ruled that they cannot be refiled. Wecht's defense attorneys, who have argued that Wecht is being prosecuted for political reasons, objected to the prosecution's original motion to drop the charges, which would have allowed them to be filed again at a later date. Last week an appeals court refused to grant the defense's request to remove the judge from the case. (Pittsburgh Tribune)

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The President's questionable pocket veto of the 2008 Defense Authorization Act has left the future of some military bonuses uncertain. Until the bill - which provides funding for bonuses - becomes law, the bonuses for the Army and Air Force will not be guaranteed, although they are expected to be paid retroactively. (Army Times, Air Force Times)

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman will have to stay in prison while he appeals his conviction for bribery and obstruction of justice, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller argued that Siegelman's conviction was not likely to be overturned. (Birmingham News)

The criminal inquiry into the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes is pitting the FBI against the CIA. Agents from the FBI, which has been critical of the CIA's interrogation practices, are leading the investigation. (New York Times)

Despite Hans von Spakovsky's resignation from the Federal Elections Committee, the White House says that his nomination for the FEC is still active in the Senate and has not been withdrawn. (The Politico)

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Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was penalized last year by the FEC for failing to disclose that his campaign fund went into debt for legal expenses related to the Mark Foley (R-FL) investigation. Hastert announced last year that he would retire from the House of Representatives. (Washington Post)

Politicians and lobbyists are already finding ways around the new ethics rules that took effect this year. And some new rules have not been implemented at all because of the battle in the Senate over nominees to the Federal Election Commission. (New York Times)

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) has not received replies to his requests from Bush administration officials asking for more information about allegations that female employees working for KBR, a government contractor, have been raped or sexually assaulted in Iraq. (ABC's The Blotter)

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Push-polling is alive and well in the Iowa Democratic Caucus. Voters have reported receiving anonymous phone calls criticizing all three of the top Democractic candidates. (AP)

In the deadliest attack in Baghdad in months, a suicide bomber killed 30 people yesterday. The bombing was one of a number of attacks to hit Iraq yesterday, leaving a total of no less than 40 people dead. (New York Times)

Last week was a busy week in the case of Cyril Wecht, a former Allegheny County Coroner who is facing trial for fraud (and whose lawyers, former attorney general Dick Thornburgh among them, say that he's the victim of political prosecution). Last Friday prosecutors moved to dismiss 43 of the 84 charges against Wecht, claiming that this would "streamline the proof and timing of the trial." That same day Wecht's defense attorneys asked the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to remove the judge, Arthur J. Schwab, claiming that he is biased against their client. And last Thursday three local media organizations challenged in appeals court Judge Schwab's order to seat a nearly anonymous jury in the case, arguing that it violates the First Amendment. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

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The FBI's chat with Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) led to new revelations in the case against the congressman. During questioning in August of 2005, Jefferson led investigators to James Creaghan, a lobbyist who asked Jefferson for help obtaining contracts in Africa. Of the thirteen bribery schemes alleged in the indictment against Jefferson, five are linked to either Creaghan or one of his business associates. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

South Carolina Republicans are investigating the origin of a fake holiday greeting card purporting to be from Mitt Romney's family. The card cites passages from the Book of Mormon such as "God the Father had a plurality of wives." (Los Angeles Times)

Objecting to the use of torture in interrogations, Navy JAG Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Williams has resigned his commission. In his letter of resignation, Williams cited both Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann's refusal to call waterboarding torture and the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes as reasons for leaving the Navy. (Think Progress)

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David Hicks, the sole detainee at Guantanamo Bay to have been convicted of a crime under the U.S. military tribunal system, will be a free man on Saturday, six years after arriving at Guantanamo. The former Austrailian Outback cowboy received a 7-year sentence (with all but 9 months suspended) in a plea-bargain deal that allowed him to serve the remainder of his time in an Austrailian prison -- provided he remains silent about any abuse he alleges to have suffered in U.S. custody. (AP)

The U.S.-backed Iraqi government announced it will slash half the subsidized items from monthly food rations because of "insufficient funds and spiraling inflation." The Iraqi government says it is unable to supply the rations with several billion dollars at its disposal, although Saddam Hussein was able to maintain the program with less than $1 billion.The cuts are supposed to be introduced in the beginning of 2008 and will affect nearly 10 million people who depend on the rationing system. (IPS)

FEMA has hired a new director of public affairs to replace the official who was in charge during a fake news conference in October. Jonathan Thompson, who was a deputy assistant defense secretary for public affairs, strategy and operations, will be FEMA's new director of external affairs. (New York Times)

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