A Pentagon public relations program that sought to transform high-profile military analysts into “surrogates” and “message force multipliers” for the Bush administration complied with Defense Department regulations and directives, the Pentagon’s inspector general has concluded after a two-year investigation.
The inquiry was prompted by articles published in The New York Times in 2008 that described how the Pentagon, in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks, cultivated close ties with retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks.
Pennsylvania regulators ordered Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) to install pressure gauges costing as little as $600 on 114 of its wells after natural gas contaminated drinking water last year.
National security advisers to the Republican presidential candidates have ties to defense, homeland security and energy companies that have received at least $40 billion in federal contracts since 2008.
The Justice Department has rejected South Carolina's voter-identification law, saying it discriminates against minorities.
Large Hadron Collider scientists including a group from the UK believe they have detected their first new subatomic particle. Known as Chi (the Greek X symbol) b (3P), it is a "boson" like the fabled Higgs particle believed to underpin mass.
Most Holy Redeemer Church, a Catholic parish in the middle of the Castro, is in trouble again with church leaders over how best to minister to its heavily gay and lesbian congregation.
Last week, a new border crossing was opened in East Jerusalem's Shoafat neighborhood, to little fanfare. Two days later, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat asserted that Israel should relinquish Palestinian neighborhoods of the capital that are beyond the separation barrier, despite the fact that their residents carry Israeli identity cards.
