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— The head of a new congressional panel set up to monitor the gigantic U.S. government bailout says the government still does not seem to have a coherent strategy for easing the financial crisis, despite the billions it has already spent in that effort. Elizabeth Warren, the chairwoman of the oversight panel, said in an interview that the government instead seemed to be lurching from one tactic to the next without clarifying how each step fits into an overall plan.

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news.bbc.co.uk — Outgoing U.S. President George Bush has said his biggest regret is the failure of intelligence over Iraqi weapons. In a wide-ranging TV interview, he declined to say whether he would have decided to invade Iraq if he had known it had no weapons of mass destruction. The outgoing president told ABC television: "The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq." He added: "I wish the intelligence had been different." Mr. Bush — whose approval ratings are at an historic low — said he was happy for history to be his judge. "I will leave the presidency with my head held high," he said.

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hosted.ap.org — The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents. "Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job. Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

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washingtonpost.com — In a burst of activity meant to leave a lasting stamp on the federal government, the Bush White House in the past month has approved 61 new regulations on environmental, security, social and commercial matters that by its own estimate will have an economic impact exceeding $1.9 billion annually. Some of the rules benefit key industries that have long had the administration's ear, such as oil and gas companies, banks and farms. Others impose counterterrorism security requirements on importers and private aircraft owners.

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reuters.com — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defended the safety of infant formula sold in the United States despite tests that found the chemical melamine in one brand and a related compound in another. FDA tests found "very low levels" of the industrial chemical melamine in Nestle's Good Start Supreme with Iron formula, Sundlof said during a conference call. Thousands of Chinese children were sickened and at least four died after developing painful kidney stones from formula contaminated with melamine, which has been used as a cheap substitute to boost the appearance of protein levels in milk and other products.

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washingtonpost.com — The Obama administration will inherit a Food and Drug Administration widely seen as struggling to protect Americans from unsafe medication, contaminated food and a flood of questionable imports from China and other countries. The agency's public image and staff morale has been damaged by a perceived tilt toward industry and away from consumer protection under the Bush administration. Many say it is overdue for a doubling of its budget in order to keep up with the increased number of goods it must oversee.

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msnbc.msn.com — Created in the aftermath of Katrina to provide financial help to as many as 13,000 live-in owners of the shotgun and cottage conversions that kept rents cheap here for generations, the nearly forgotten Louisiana Small Rental Property Program has put money in the hands of only 352 landlords. The hurdles have been its flawed implementation, limited financial resources among applicants, and lately, the national credit crunch. Now, the state is seeking to overhaul the program and divert the funds. Housing advocates say the program's failure has contributed to a 40-percent spike in rents citywide. That has forced the federal government to pour even more Band-Aid relief into the recovery, including a $28-million-a-month Disaster Housing Assistance Program that helps 31,000 families pay the inflated rents.

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msnbc.msn.com — President George W. Bush has granted pardons to 14 individuals and commuted the prison sentences of two others, including a rapper, convicted of misdeeds ranging from drug offenses to tax evasion, from wildlife violations to bank embezzlement. The new round of White House pardons are Bush’s first since March and come less than two months before he will end his presidency. The crimes committed by those on the list also include offenses involving hazardous waste, food stamps, and the theft of government property.

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npr.org — The economic crisis. Two wars. A flood of wounded veterans. Those are just a few of the huge problems that President-elect Barack Obama will face in office. But the president-elect has said he also plans to grapple with a dilemma that's much less visible: the explosion in government contracts under the Bush administration. The Bush administration has hired private industry to take over more of the government's work than any administration ever. It has made history.

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washingtonpost.com — With a backlog of applications piled up at the Justice Department, high-profile criminals and their well-connected lawyers increasingly are appealing directly to President Bush for special consideration on pardons and clemency, according to people involved in the process. Among those seeking presidential action are former junk-bond salesman Michael Milken, who hired former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, one of the nation's most prominent GOP lawyers, to plead his case for a pardon on 1980s-era securities fraud charges. Two politicians convicted of public corruption, former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and four-term Louisiana governor Edwin W. Edwards (D), are asking Bush to shorten their prison terms.

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