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usatoday.com — Federal officials say fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers from Mexico pose a salmonella risk, but the peppers are still selling in the U.S. and for much less than their U.S. rivals. Buyers tend to be small Hispanic grocers and mom and pop restaurants, while big supermarkets and restaurants shun the Mexican supply, distributors say. The Food and Drug Administration warned last month that consumers should avoid fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers from Mexico, after salmonella saintpaul was found on samples. Nationwide, 1,434 people have been sickened in the outbreak, the largest for food in more than a decade. New illnesses peaked in May and have slowed to a trickle. The latest new illness started Aug. 8, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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hosted.ap.org — A Bush administration rule barring states and local governments from requiring more air pollution monitoring is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out a two-year-old rule that may have allowed some refineries, power plants and factories to exceed pollution limits because the Environmental Protection Agency "failed to fix inadequate monitoring requirements … and prohibited states and local authorities from doing so."

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washingtonpost.com — A senior aide to Vice President Cheney is the leading contender to become a top official at the Energy Department a promotion that would put one of the administration's most ardent opponents of environmental regulation in charge of forming department policies on climate change. F. Chase Hutto III has played a prominent behind-the-scenes role in shaping the administration's environmental policies for several years, the officials said, helping to rewrite rules affecting the air that Americans breathe and the waters that oil tankers traverse. In every instance, according to both his allies and opponents, he has challenged proposals that would place additional regulations on industry.

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reuters.com — U.S. prosecutors have sent letters to six Blackwater security guards involved in a 2007 Baghdad shooting, in a move that could lead to groundbreaking criminal indictments. Bodyguards from U.S. security firm Blackwater Worldwide opened fire in a traffic jam last September, killing 17 Iraqi civilians while escorting a convoy of U.S. diplomats through the capital under a contract with the State Department. The Iraqi government called it a "massacre" and demanded the right to try the guards. Iraqis were further upset when the State Department renewed Blackwater's contract. The question of where and how the contractors can be tried has yet to be publicly resolved, and the incident set off debate in Washington on the use of contractors in war.

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csmonitor.com — The American military has depended on private contractors since sutlers sold paper, bacon, sugar, and other small luxuries to Continental Army troops during the Revolutionary War. But the scale of the use of contractors in Iraq is unprecedented in U.S. history, according to a new congressional report that may be the most thorough official account yet of the practice. As of early 2008, at least 190,000 private personnel were working on US-funded projects in the Iraq theater, the Congressional Budget Office survey found. That means that for each uniformed member of the US military in the region, there was also a contract employee — a ratio of 1 to 1.

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usatoday.com — President Bush signed legislation that bans lead from children's toys with the world's toughest standard on keeping the metal out of children's toys. The new law prohibits lead, beyond minute levels, in products for children 12 or younger. Lead paint was a major factor in the recall of 45 million toys and children's items last year, many from China. Congress approved the bill by overwhelming margins. The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates about 28,000 deaths are linked each year to unsafe products, including toys, in the United States. More than 33 million people were injured last year by consumer products. The bill would double the commission's budget, to $136 million, by 2014 and give it new authority to oversee testing procedures and to penalize violators.

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nytimes.com — The federal government froze all approvals for new bus companies because a fatal crash in Texas exposed a flaw in regulations that allowed banned companies to reopen under new names. The crash that killed 17 people near Sherman, Tex., has highlighted the spotty enforcement of federal bus regulations and the often weak communication between regulators and state law enforcement. The bus hit a guard rail and careened off a bridge after a retreaded front tire—illegally used, investigators say—blew out and the driver lost control, officials said. The driver had been been stopped for drunken driving and speeding, federal investigators said. The chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration acknowledged that enforcement of bans by his agency had been inconsistent.

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— Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey rejected the idea of bringing criminal charges against former Justice Department employees who improperly used political litmus tests in hiring decisions, saying he had already taken strong internal steps in response to a "painful" episode. Two recent reports from the Justice Department inspector general and its internal ethics office found that seven department officials — all but one now gone — had systematically rejected candidates with perceived "liberal" backgrounds for what were supposed to be nonpolitical jobs and instead picked conservative lawyers. In a speech to the American Bar Association in Manhattan, Mr. Mukasey condemned the abuses, saying “the system failed,” but rejected calls to prosecute those responsible.

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latimes.com — Many struggling families in the normally comfortable cul-de-sacs outside U.S. cities are thinking of switching parties. Four years ago, exurbs in Florida, Ohio, Nevada and Colorado were especially important to Bush's reelection. Full of families escaping crowded schools and other downsides of city and suburban life, they were more consumed with the demands of everyday life than politics, but were open to the Republican messages of family values and low taxes. Now, exurbanites feel increasingly pinched by the rising costs of what not long ago seemed the ideal lifestyle.

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nytimes.com — Blackwater Worldwide, the contractor whose provision of private security in Iraq has been under scrutiny, and its affiliated companies may have improperly obtained more than $100 million in contracts meant for small businesses, according to federal auditors. A report by the Small Business Administration's inspector general, issued in July, found that Blackwater and its affiliates won 39 contracts in the fiscal years 2005, 2006 and 2007 despite indications that the companies employed more than the number specified by the federal government. In some cases, the report said, the companies also had higher revenues than allowed for a small business. Blackwater was the subject of a Congressional hearing after a Blackwater shooting in Baghdad last September left 17 Iraqis dead.

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