Obama's Picks: In this late post on the BLT, Joe Palazzolo reports that President-elect Barack Obama is expected to announce soon the nomination of David Kris, a former high-ranking national security lawyer in the Justice Department, to head the department’s National Security Division, according to a source close to the transition. As an associate deputy attorney general from 2000 until 2003, Kris oversaw national security issues. He is currently counsel and chief compliance officer at Time Warner Inc.
Gaming it Out: The BLT was busy late last night. David Ingram posted this report after hours discussing which areas Sen. Arlen Specter plans to focus on next week when interviewing Eric Holder Jr. during Holder’s confirmation hearing to be attorney general. In a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday, Specter (R-Pa.) said he plans to focus his inquiry on three areas: the pardon of fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich; the decision by Holder’s then-boss Attorney General Janet Reno not to appoint a special prosecutor to look into Vice President Al Gore’s 1996 fundraising activities; and the clemency granted to a group of Puerto Rican nationalists.
Lumps of Coal: Despite the fact that coal ash dumps ontain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health, they are not subject to federal regulation, The New York Times reports. Coal ash is used throughout the country for construction fill, mine reclamation and other “beneficial uses.”
SEC? What SEC? The Securities and Exchange Commission is facing harsh criticism for dropping the ball on the Madoff Ponzi scheme, The Associated Press reports via Law.com. The SEC's internal watchdog, Inspector General H. David Kotz, says he is so concerned about the agency's failure to uncover Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme that he is expanding the inquiry called for last month by SEC Chairman Christopher Cox. Cox had pushed the blame squarely onto the SEC's career staff for the failure to detect what Madoff was doing.
Heading for the Hills: With a surge of people coming to Washington for the inauguration expected to hit the millions, some who live in the city are opting to get the heck out of Dodge, The Washington Post reports. The masses coming to the city are expected to be a boon for Washington's tourism industry, but the nation's capital isn't the only city hoping to cash in on the inauguration. Tourist venues across the country are hoping to attract those fleeing the throngs of people looking for a brief glimpse of history.
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