High Noon
• It’s a showdown. A House judiciary subcommittee voted to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony in the battle over who did what with eight U.S. attorneys fired last year. The action, which gives the Judiciary Committee chairman the power to call Karl Rove in for more than a nice fireside chat, heats up the controversy, especially after the White House yesterday threatened to stop cooperating if subpoenas were issued. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to follow with its own set of authorizations today, according to the L.A. Times.
Grants from Gates
• As reported in the Washington Post, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to give $122 million in grant money to support D.C.’s poorest school children, helping them gain mentors and eventually college scholarships. The funding is meant to bolster high school and college graduation rates in the Southeast and Northeast parts of the city and is one of the largest grants the foundation has given for education.
Campaign Announcement
• John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, have called a press conference today to discuss a major development in the future of his campaign. Edwards is third in the already boiling race for the presidency in 2008, and this announcement comes directly after his wife, who has undergone treatments for breast cancer, went in for a checkup. The press conference is at noon in North Carolina.
Conflict of Interest
• Advisors to the FDA can no longer vote on a company’s product if they have received money from a drug or device maker, according to the New York Times. Doctors who receive more than $50,000 from a drug company will be unable to serve on advisory boards that recommend drugs for approval.
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