by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning’s most important, most interesting, or both Washington-related stories.
The Central Intelligence Agency admitted that in 2005 it destroyed videotapes of harsh interrogations by its employees of terrorist suspects in its secret detention program at a time when those activities had come under increased scrutiny.
President Bush unveiled a modest plan to help a fraction of the homeowners struggling to make payments on their subprime mortgage loans but the plan was criticized as too little, too late by some critics as well as being unfair to those home owners who were making their payments.
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is a Republican presidential candidate, gave a widely watched speech in which he sought to assure evangelical Christians and other voters that, as president he would not put his Mormon faith before his constitutional duties, and that he shared the same values as non-Mormons. The House passed an energy bill that would raise the car fuel economy standards for the first time in 32 years and also require the use of renewable fuels like wind power to produce energy but it also ends some energy industry tax breaks and faces a presidential veto threat.
Environmental groups said Saudi Arabia and the U.S., in that order, are the world’s two worst global environmental sinners because of their emissions of greenhouse gases and weak government policies devoted to reducing those emissions.
State and local police departments are increasingly requiring their officers to play greater roles in arresting and helping to deport illegal immigrants, a circumstance arising from frustration with the federal government’s inability to effectively address the problem.
The International Monetary Fund’s leader said his institution will cut staff by 15 percent, including the first significant layoffs in the institution’s history, as demand for loans has fallen greatly in a world awash in cash, especially generated by oil resources.
The Senate passed a so-called patch to keep millions of taxpayers from falling prey to the alternative minimum tax. But unlike the House-passed plan, the Senate version doesn’t pay for the fix by raising taxes elsewhere, setting both chambers on a collision course.
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