Democrats: Makers knew Katrina trailers tainted
WASHINGTON - Manufacturers knew there were high levels of formaldehyde in the trailers provided to Hurricane Katrina victims, but sold them to the government anyway, according to a congressional report released Wednesday.
The report by Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is at odds with an analysis done by Republican staffers on the same committee. The Republican report found that trailer manufacturers should not be held accountable for the high levels of formaldehyde — a preservative commonly used in building materials — in trailers that the Federal Emergency Management Agency set up to house people displaced by Katrina in 2005. Republicans say it is the government's fault for not having standards for safe levels of formaldehyde in trailers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_go_co/toxic_trailers_6Polls show high interest in poverty issue
Americans want the news media to focus more on poverty during the current presidential campaign, according to a new poll commissioned by Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, an initiative that raises awareness about economic distress in America.
The survey, conducted by McLaughlin and Associates, asked voters whether they believed the media had devoted “an adequate amount of time during the presidential campaign covering the issue of how to fight poverty in the U.S.” Fifty-six percent of respondents disagreed with that statement.
“We’d noticed that poverty has been more discussed in this presidential campaign than we’d expected, or seen in the recent past,” said Tom Freedman, a former senior White House aide who edits the commentary section of Spotlight on Poverty’s website. “The poll tends to show that the political conventional wisdom that voters don’t care about this issue is wrong.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080709/pl_politico/11637Iraq insists on withdrawal timetable for US troops
BAGHDAD - Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday his country will not accept any security deal with the United States unless it contains specific dates for the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces.
The comments by Mouwaffak al-Rubaie were the strongest yet by an Iraqi official about the deal now under negotiation with U.S. officials. They came a day after Iraq's prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal.
President Bush has said he opposes a timetable. The White House said Monday it did not believe Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was proposing a rigid timeline for U.S. troop withdrawals.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq;_ylt=AsUr94IPun7.wKRFSbd5ZZcDW7oFFed to curb shady home-lending practices
WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve will issue new rules next week aimed at protecting future homebuyers from dubious lending practices, its most sweeping response to a housing crisis that has propelled foreclosures to record highs.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke of the much-awaited rules in a broader speech Tuesday about the challenges confronting policymakers in trying to stabilize a shaky U.S. financial system. To that end, Bernanke said the Fed may give squeezed Wall Street firms more time to tap the central bank's emergency loan program.
To prevent a repeat of the current mortgage mess, Bernanke said the Fed will adopt rules cracking down on a range of shady lending practices that have burned many of the nation's riskiest "subprime" borrowers — those with spotty credit or low incomes — who were hardest hit by the housing and credit debacles.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_go_ot/fed_credit_crisis;_ylt=ApOQvpvfgLVrEnBFqLewApQDW7oF---Thanks for letting me know of the misspelling. My fault.