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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A presidential ethics panel has opened the door to testing an anthrax vaccine on children as young as infants, bringing an angry response from critics who say the children would be guinea pigs in a study that would never help them and might harm them. The report, however, released on Tuesday by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, said researchers would have to overcome numerous hurdles before launching an anthrax-vaccine trial in children. It now goes to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, who will decide whether to take the steps...

Creation provides “the place in which to know God’s omnipotence and goodness,” Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly public audience. Continuing a series of Wednesday talks on the Creed, the Pope dedicated his February 6 audience to the phrase identifying God as “Creator of heaven and earth.” He explained that God is “the source of all things, and the beauty of creation reveals the omnipotence of the loving Father.” Turning then to the account of Creation in the book of Genesis, the Pope said: “In the light of faith, human intelligence can find the key to understanding the world In...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said on Sunday embattled Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) should keep his chairmanship of the Foreign Relations Committee despite an investigation into his dealings with a top donor. "Sen. Menendez has given us an assurance that there is no substance to these charges," the Democratic senator from Illinois said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It's being looked at by the Ethics Committee. Of course, I can't comment beyond that." The Senate Ethics Committee is looking into Menendez's interaction with Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye surgeon who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Menendez and...

The University of Texas women's track coach who resigned under fire after the disclosure of an affair with a female student a decade ago doesn't understand why she was targeted for punishment and questions whether she's being treated fairly. "Is it because I have a disability? Is it because I'm black? Is it because I'm female? Is it because I'm successful? Is it now because of my sexual preference?" Coach Bev Kearney asked on CNN's "Starting Point" Tuesday.

Formed in 2008 as part of Rep. Nancy Pelosi's laughable promise to "drain the swamp" when she gained the gavel in 2006, the Office of Congressional Ethics is an independent group that investigates ethics complaints about Congress. Here's the catch: the Congress it investigates must actually go about the business of nominating its appointees, reauthorizing and funding it or it will cease to exist. As one might expect, princesses are not overly fond of paying others to place peas under their mattresses, endangering their delicate hindquarters.So, the Office of Congressional Ethics is in danger, with its creator Pelosi and Rep....

The House Ethics Committee has decided to close its investigation into preferential mortgages doled out under a controversial VIP program without taking any action. The panel said it was not taking any action on members who received more affordable mortgages under the program, instituted by the now-defunct Countrywide Financial because while allegations surrounding the program and lawmakers involved "serious matters," they largely fell outside its jurisdiction. For example, many of the allegations pertain to actions outside the Ethics Committee's statute of limitations — greater than three Congresses ago — and many of those accused are no longer working in Congress...

Today the House Ethics Committee announced that it was taking no action against Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) who secretly took a $40,000 payment from an individual who subsequently pled guilty in a multi-million-dollar mortgage scam. In 2007, Meeks received $40,000 from a "businessman," Edul Ahmad. Under the Ethics in Government Act, Congressmen are required to disclose such financial transactions on their annual Financial Disclosure Reports. Meeks failed to disclose the transaction on his reports for 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2010, the New York Daily News reported, "Queens Congressman Gregory Meeks made no payments for three years on a...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — It was a brazen and surprisingly long-lived scheme, authorities said, to help aspiring public school teachers cheat on the tests they must pass to prove they are qualified to lead their classrooms. For 15 years, teachers in three Southern states paid Clarence Mumford Sr. — himself a longtime educator — to send someone else to take the tests in their place, authorities said. Each time, Mumford received a fee of between $1,500 and $3,000 to send one of his test ringers with fake identification to the Praxis exam. In return, his customers got a passing grade...

Barack Obama promised his administration set a new standard in transparency: I will also hold myself as president to a new standard of openness .... Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency. Obama even issued a memo My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government. He declared his to...

Congressman Mike Honda is my representative in Congress. I believe that Congressman Mike Honda has made an ethics violation. He posted an October, 2102 report from the Committee on Energy and Commerce on his Facebook page. This report details Mr. Honda’s assumptions about the effects of Paul Ryan’s budget upon the Seniors in his district. The posting of this report at this time appears to be on overt attempt to influence the Presidential election. It influences the election because Congressman Ryan is the opposing party candidate for Vice President. This overt attempt to influence the election is using taxpayer dollars...

WASHINGTON -- Shinya Yamanaka, a scientist at Kyoto University, loved stem-cell research. But he didn't want to destroy embryos. So he figured out a way around the problem. In a paper published five years ago in Cell, Yamanaka and six colleagues showed how "induced pluripotent stem cells" could be derived from adult cells and potentially substituted, in research and therapy, for embryonic stem cells. This week, that discovery earned him a Nobel Prize, shared with British scientist John Gurdon. But the prize announcement and much of the media coverage missed half the story. Yamanaka's venture wasn't just an experiment. It...

The House Ethics Committee announced on Friday that it is investigating allegations against Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas). The secretive panel stated that after six weeks of investigating the lawmaker, it was moving to continue its probe until Nov. 28, 2012. The Ethics committee did not specify the nature of the alleged violations of House rules that it is probing in the case, but stressed that the extension of its investigation did not indicate that Reyes was guilty. The outside Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) board referred the case to the Ethics panel on Aug. 30. Reyes lost his Democratic primary...

Guyanese-American businessman Edul Ahmad pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of bank and wire fraud as part of a deal with federal prosecutors in New York's Eastern District. Ahmad was indicted on ten counts related to a massive mortgage fraud scheme in August 2011. He will be sentenced in the near future. Sentencing guidelines call for 10 to 13 years in prison. Ahmad made a $40,000 payment to Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) in 2007 that the Congressman failed to disclose on his Financial Disclosure Reports for 2007, 2008, and 2009. Meeks subsequently claimed the $40,000 payment was a loan,...

Martha Raddatz is the moderator of tonight’s vice presidential debate. In 1991, Barack Obama attended her wedding. A year later, her then-husband, now a high level administration appointee and a personal friend of the president, attended the Obamas’ wedding. Irrelevant information? Put it this way: If Raddatz were a judge, she’d likely have to recuse herself from cases pertaining to the Obamas. We’re not arguing that Raddatz will slant tonight’s debate in the Obama campaign’s favor —any more than a member of Congress would automatically vote for an appropriation simply because it helps a campaign contributor. We are arguing that...

Posted By Bryan Preston On October 10, 2012 @ 8:29 am In media,Politics | 52 Comments The Daily Caller has a disturbing story up today. The outline goes like this: The moderator of Thursday's vice presidential debate is Martha Raddatz of ABC News. She is the network's senior foreign correspondent, and she is the sole moderator of the veep debate, which will center on foreign policy.Raddatz has a connection with Barack Obama going all the way back to their days at Harvard. They worked on the Harvard Law Review together, and Obama attended her 1991 wedding. Fast forward to the...

ABC News told the Daily Caller Wednesday that vice presidential debate moderator and ABC News senior foreign correspondent Martha Raddatz was not at President Barack Obama’s wedding to Michelle in 1992. The news outlet, however, did not deny that Raddatz was invited to the Obama wedding when asked. Raddatz’s then husband, Julius Genachowski, was in attendance..An earlier investigation by TheDC revealed that Obama attended Raddatz’s wedding the year prior when she married Genachowski

Barack Obama was a guest at the 1991 wedding of ABC senior foreign correspondent and vice presidential debate moderator Martha Raddatz, The Daily Caller has learned. Obama and groom Julius Genachowski, whom Obama would later tap to head the Federal Communications Commission, were Harvard Law School classmates at the time and members of the Harvard Law Review. After TheDC made preliminary inquiries Monday to confirm Obama’s attendance at the wedding, ABC leaked a pre-emptive statement to liberal-leaning news outlets including Politico and The Daily Beast Tuesday, revealing what may have been internal network pressure felt just days before Raddatz was...

Game Changer? The federal government paid nearly $40 million dollars to Claire McCaskill’s husband’s businesses her first five years in office as Missouri Senator. During that time McCaskill has had influence over federal policy that has directly affected her family’s income. Missouri royalty - The rest of the country has suffered but Claire McCaskill and her husband Joseph Shepard have done very well these past five years. There are renewed calls for Democrat McCaskill to release her tax returns. ABC3040 reported: Businesses affiliated with the husband of Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill have received almost $40 million in federal subsidies for...

A lot of people, conservatives in particular, tend to idealize the past. We like to wax lyrical about simpler times, the "good old days." Of course, if we are honest we have to admit that those good old days weren't always so great. The passage of time and progress of society have brought many blessings – civil, cultural, and technological. Society today is freer, fairer, safer, and more comfortable. Unfortunately many of the blessings of progress come at a cost. The same technologies that make life healthier and more comfortable can also present us with previously unimagined ethical dilemmas. This...

Surprise, surprise; the House Ethics Committee has cleared Congresswoman Maxine Waters, a distinguished member of Judicial Watch’s Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians list, for steering millions of federal bailout dollars to her husband’s failing bank. The famously remiss committee, which is charged with investigating and punishing corrupt lawmakers, found that Waters committed no wrongdoing when she steered $12 million to a Massachusetts bank in which she and her board member husband held shares. The bank, OneUnited, subsequently got shut down by the government and taxpayers got stiffed for the millions. Judicial Watch investigated the scandal and obtained documents from the...