Huffington Post — Insider trading by members of Congress, their top staff and executive branch officials would be banned by legislation that passed the Senate on Thursday.
Although insider trading is illegal for anyone, some had argued that the STOCK Act, which passed 96 to 3, was needed to close loopholes that let lawmakers and lobbyists profit from “political intelligence.”
Chronicle Telegram — Members of the U.S. Senate who vote on the country’s laws should be required to divest themselves of stock holdings affected by their official duties or place their investments in blind trusts, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Brown, D-Avon, said Wednesday in a conference call. “There’s no reason any of us should be buying stocks in multimillion stock portfolios.”
Asociated Press — After three days of controversy, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast-cancer charity says it is reversing its decision to cut breast-screening grants to Planned Parenthood.
“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” a Komen statement said.
Putnam Sentinel — You may not know Elizabeth Williams personally, but you know someone like her.
Elizabeth Williams is a single mother of two living in North Jackson who has worked at General Motors’ Lordstown plant for 17 years. One of her sons, Zachary, dreams of becoming a state highway patrolman. Though he’s only in high school, he works as a part-time dispatcher for the Columbiana Police Department after school. Her other son, Bryan, is an iron worker who’s stayed in the Mahoning Valley and is working on building V&M Star Steel’s new $650 million expansion in Youngstown.
The News-Herald — Ohio’s two U.S. senators are both supporting legislation that would prevent members of Congress and employees from profiting from knowledge they have gained from behind closed doors…
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, supports the measure and plans to offer an amendment to take it one step further for senators.
Jackson County Times-Journal — The U.S. Department of Labor announced a $5 million National Emergency Grant increment to continue providing temporary jobs for eligible dislocated workers. The new federal resources will help support nearly 700 Ohio workers continue clean-up efforts following severe weather throughout southeast Ohio. The grant will assist with cleanup and recovery efforts following severe storms and floods in April and May 2011 that affected southeastern Ohio.
Akron Beacon Journal Online — The Obama White House has attempted in the past to investigate the abusive practices of the mortgage industry that contributed heavily to the housing mess and the battered economy. The effort has yielded little so far, for homeowners, the housing market or the economy. In his State of the Union address last week, the president relayed that he would try again. He announced the creation of “a special unit of federal prosecutors and leading state attorneys general” that will “hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.”
What will prove different? The leadership matters, the president tapping as a co-chairman Edward Schneiderman, the New York attorney general who has been determined to hold accountable the mortgage industry. Notably, he has been stubborn in negotiating a settlement with the country’s five largest mortgage servicers. He has resisted the idea of granting banks as part of a deal a broad release from future claims of liability.
Follow Sherrod