Washington, D.C., Feb. 18, 2011 — The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that its Executive Director, Diego Tomás Ruiz, intends to leave the agency to return to the private sector. Mr. Ruiz has served as the SEC’s Executive Director since August 2006, and in that capacity has overseen the agency’s strategic planning, management policies […]
A large swath of the country is at risk of moderate to major flooding this spring, from northeastern Montana through western Wisconsin following the Mississippi River south to St. Louis, National Weather Service flood experts are forecasting. Today the agency released an initial spring flood outlook for this high risk region and will release a […]
Carson McCullers Novelist Carson McCullers (1917-67), noted for her exploration of the dilemmas of modern American life in the context of the twentieth-century South, was born on February 19, 1917, in Columbus, Georgia. Her first novel, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, published in 1940, delves into the lives of four isolated individuals—an adolescent girl, […]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — News conferences, events and operating hours for the news center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., are set for the final scheduled launch of space shuttle Discovery. Lift off is targeted for 4:50 p.m. EST on Thursday, Feb. 24, to begin the STS-133 mission to the International Space Station. A NASA […]
The Department of Defense announced today that Noor Uthman Muhammed was sentenced to 14 years in confinement for providing material support to al-Qaeda and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization and terrorism. A pre-sentencing hearing took place in a military commission courtroom at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. During […]
WASHINGTON – The government has intervened in a lawsuit against Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc. (KBR) in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, announced the Department of Justice. The lawsuit was filed in February 2007 by James A. Brady III, a former employee of KBR, and alleges that KBR violated […]
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting the public to provide input on a plan that will guide EPA’s retrospective reviews of regulations as part of the agency’s response to President Obama’s January 18, 2011 Executive Order (EO) 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review.” EO 13563 directs each federal agency to consider […]
Washington, Feb 11 – Iowa Congressman Tom Latham, the chairman of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, released the following statement after the introduction of a continuing resolution in the House of Representatives to fund the federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011: “This continuing resolution demonstrates a drastic change in […]
WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley has asked the Commerce Secretary to ensure a full accounting and appropriate discipline for abusive spending of asset forfeiture funds collected by federal law enforcement officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Grassley’s request is based on questionable purchases including a $300,000 luxury boat purportedly for undercover operations. The […]
WASHINGTON – Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) released the following statement after meeting with President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan at the White House this morning to discuss education reform and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. They were joined at the meeting by […]
