A prominent Republican congressman is under investigation for insider trading. U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who heads the House Financial Services Committee, is being probed by the Office of Congressional Ethics for making suspicious trades and buying certain stock options while helping oversee the nation’s banking and financial services industries.—-
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops began laying the groundwork for its political campaign against a new federal rule involving birth control more than seven months before the rule was announced, The New York Times reports. The church’s hierarchy was smarting for a fight over the rule, which requires religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to cover birth control in their insurance plans beginning in summer 2013.
Meanwhile, a new Public Policy Polling poll released this week shows 56 percent of voters support the birth control coverage benefit, including 53 percent of Catholic voters, and 62 percent of Catholics who identify themselves as independents. A coalition of community groups and activists will protest this afternoon at House Speaker John Boehner’s district office in West Chester. They say the average woman would save more than $600 a year because of the new benefit.
An engineer at Russia's Plesetsk space facility has been jailed for 13 years after being convicted of selling missile test data to the CIA. Lt. Col. Vladimir Nesterets, a senior test engineer at the facility, was convicted of treason, the BBC reports.
GOP presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum are busy this week prostrating themselves before the gathered throngs at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) conference in Washington, D.C. But as The Nation’s Ben Adler points out, the gathering also includes panels with participants from white Christian nationalist groups like Serge Trifkovic and Peter Brimelow. Can you imagine the outrage if liberals held a conference that included members of the Weather Underground or the Black Panthers? Apparently it’s OK, however, for the Right to embrace its fringe elements.
A request made under public records law has yielded the FBI’s file on Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs, who recently died. The FBI interviewed more than 30 friends, neighbors, family and ex-business associates, along with Jobs himself, when the eccentric businessman was being considered for a government appointment by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. “Several individuals questioned Mr. Jobs’ honesty stating that Mr. Jobs will twist the truth and distort reality in order to achieve his goals,” according to the FBI file.
Locally, Chiquita Brands International has informed Ohio officials that 200 people will be laid off when the company transfers its headquarters to North Carolina in April. That's the total number of employees who either didn’t accept a transfer or will have their jobs eliminated by the relocation, according to The Business Courier.
The newspaper reports that about half of the 330 people that Chiquita employed here accepted the transfers. That’s probably because the firm offered incentives like paying for the search for new homes in North Carolina, paying for temporary living expenses and storage fees, and reimbursing some employees for the losses incurred in selling their Cincinnati residences.
U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot’s 22-year-old son was arrested Sunday after allegedly breaking into a McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital annex building in Oxford. Police said Brandon Chabot smelled of alcohol and initially told them he worked in the building. He faces three charges including felony breaking and entering, which carries a possible penalty of six to 12 months in jail.
(Speaking of which: If the good congressman and his son will give me creative control over what’s done, I will gladly pay for a quality haircut and restyling for both gentlemen.)
Hamilton County Coroner Anant Bhati was hospitalized Wednesday after injuring his head in a fall. Bhati is in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Good Samaritan Hospital.
Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld is leading the push to crack down on predatory automobile towing by local companies. Ohio law caps towing fees at $90 plus a $12 per day fee for storage. Some local firms, though, routinely exceed the caps — with one charging 333 percent more than is allowed.
