June 17, 2010 at 2:54 p.m.
Filed under:
Energy,
Politics
Associated Press | BP’s humbled CEO sat grim-faced Thursday as a House chairman accused him of
being oblivious to the risks of the company’s deep water operations.
Tony Hayward waited his turn to tell Congress he was “deeply sorry” for his
company’s catastrophic oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the BP executive that in his committee’s
review of 30,000 items, there was “not a single e-mail or document that
you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at this well.”
Get the full story: BP’s Hayward lectured sternly on Capitol Hill.
June 17, 2010 at 10:27 a.m.
Filed under:
Policy,
Politics
By Mike Memoli
| The agreement reached between the White House and energy giant BP emerged as an
early partisan flashpoint at a Congressional hearing this morning, as a
Republican Congressman apologized to the company’s CEO for what he called a
“shakedown.”
Get the full story: The Swamp.
June 17, 2010 at 9:45 a.m.
Filed under:
Policy,
Politics
From Bloomberg News | U.S. lawmakers on Thursday are expected to decide whether banks should pay for their funerals before they happen or afterwards as they craft a final rewrite of financial regulations.
The most sweeping overhaul of Wall Street rules since the 1930s would allow regulators to step in and dismantle troubled financial firms before they threaten the stability of the economy, in an effort to avoid a repeat of the 2007-2009 market meltdown.
But negotiators from the House and the Senate will have to resolve a standoff over whether the financial industry should have to pay for the process now or after a firm runs into trouble.
Get the full story »
By Wailin Wong | Illinois has joined a list of governments in the U.S. and worldwide that are probing Google’s data collection for the search giant’s Street View service.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Wednesday her office is investigating whether the California-based company gathered personal information from state residents. Street View is used in Google Maps and Google Earth to show photos at the street level, displaying pictures taken by special camera equipment mounted on cars and other vehicles.
The controversy over Street View arose last month, when Google admitted to inadvertently capturing and storing bits of private information sent over unencrypted WiFi networks. This “payload data,” as the information is called, can include e-mails, passwords and browsing activity.
Get the full story »
June 16, 2010 at 5:36 p.m.
Filed under:
Investing,
Policy,
Politics
From The Wall Street Journal | In a letter sent Monday, Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), the ranking minority member on the Senate Finance Committee, asked the SEC to review the agency’s “revolving door,” which shuttles many SEC
staffers into jobs with the companies they once regulated.
Get the full story: wsj.com.
June 16, 2010 at 4:38 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Policy,
Politics
Associated Press | Anyone with a bank account or credit card has a stake in the overhaul of
financial rules Congress is working on. But the industry ties of some
politicians writing the law go far beyond the norm.
One senator’s wife is a director of a securities exchange; another
senator and his wife run a multimillion-dollar title company. And a
congresswoman’s husband drew salaries from three industry players last
year.
Several lawmakers hashing out a House-Senate compromise on the
legislation have millions in financial services company investments or
owe big mortgage debts to banks lobbying on the legislation, according
to an Associated Press review of financial disclosure reports released
Wednesday.
Get the full story »
June 16, 2010 at 10:48 a.m.
Filed under:
Energy,
Policy,
Politics
Associated Press | President Barack Obama met on his own turf with top BP officials on Wednesday to press his demands that the London-based oil giant pay into a claims fund for victims of the worst spill in the nation’s history.
Get the full story: Obama meets with BP leaders, pushes for fund.
June 15, 2010 at 5:30 p.m.
Filed under:
Policy,
Politics,
Retail
From the Chicago Sun-Times | Mayor Richard Daley said he was “encouraged” by a private meeting with Wal-Mart executives about a possible Chicago expansion by the retail giant. “They’ve made a commitment for a variety of stores — the food desert stores, 20,000 square foot, all the way up to super-centers,” Daley said.
June 15, 2010 at 9:04 a.m.
Filed under:
Chicago executives,
Energy,
Environment,
Politics
From The New York Times | The heads of the world’s largest oil companies are facing a Congressional panel on Tuesday, and they will try to cast the BP spill as a rare event that their companies are not likely to repeat. In prepared remarks, the executives said that continued offshore drilling is essential to American oil and gas supplies.
June 10, 2010 at 3:52 p.m.
Filed under:
Politics,
Sports
Tribune staff report | A day after the Cubs got the go-ahead from the City Council to install a controversial, illuminated Toyota sign behind the left-fielder bleachers at Wrigley Field, up went the sign.
Get
the full story: Toyota sign goes up at Wrigley Field.
June 9, 2010 at 4:14 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Politics
Associated Press | A banking group says Democrat Alexi Giannoulias didn’t serve on its board of directors like he’s claimed on his Senate campaign website. The Community Banks Association of Illinois said Wednesday that Giannoulias served on its Committee on Legislation and Regulation.
Get the full story: Giannoulis fixes claim of being director.
June 7, 2010 at 2:56 p.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Manufacturing,
Politics
Eric Gershon/The Hartford Courant | Boeing will seek a contract to build the next U.S. Presidential
helicopter, Marine One, which means Sikorsky Aircraft must again compete
to keep work it’s had for decades.
Boeing said Monday it has licensed an AgustaWestland medium-lift
helicopter to offer against an entry from Sikorsky Aircraft and Lockheed
Martin, which are working as a team.
Get the full story »
May 28, 2010 at 11:30 a.m.
Filed under:
Conventions,
Policy,
Politics
By Kathy Bergen
| Less than 24 hours after the McCormick Place overhaul package became law, the International Home + Housewares Show decided to pursue a new long-term contract at the convention center.
The International Housewares Association’s board voted today to move forward with the negotiations, said Phil Brandl, president of the Rosemont-based organization.
Get the full story »
May 28, 2010 at 11:24 a.m.
Filed under:
Credit Cards,
Credit repair,
Policy,
Politics
By Julie Wernau
| A bill that would prohibit employers from inquiring about or using a
person’s credit history as a basis for employment or discharge has
passed both legislative chambers in Springfield, and is awaiting the
governor’s signature.
The bill, House Bill 4658, introduced by Rep. Jack D. Franks
(D-Woodstock), creates the Employer Credit Privacy Act, and provides
exemptions for the banking and financial industry and state law
enforcement and investigation units. The bill passed the Senate on May 4, and the House of Representatives concurred on minor changes made to the
bill Thursday.
Get the full story »
May 26, 2010 at 5:32 p.m.
Filed under:
Computers,
Internet,
Policy,
Politics,
Privacy issues
Associated Press | A top Pentagon official says a government computer security system that can thwart cyber attacks should be extended to private businesses.
Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III says discussions are in the very early stages to allow the government to extend technology from the Einstein 2 and Einstein 3 computer defense programs to private firms.
The idea raises a myriad of legal, policy and privacy questions, including how it would work and what information would be shared between the government and businesses.
