WASHINGTON -- Just six weeks before President-elect Obama is to take office, the Bush administration issued revised endangered-species regulations yesterday to reduce the input of federal scientists and to block the law from being used to fight global warming.
The changes, which will go into effect in about 30 days, were completed in just four months. But they could take Obama much longer to reverse.
They eliminate some mandatory reviews that government scientists have done for 35 years on dams, power plants, timber sales and other projects, a step that developers and other federal agencies have blamed for delays and cost increases.
The rules also prohibit federal agencies from evaluating the effect on endangered species and the places they live from a project's contribution to increased global warming.
Obama assigns Daschle to overhaul health-care system
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Obama handed Tom Daschle two prime jobs yesterday and one gigantic assignment: overhauling the health-care system so that more people are covered by insurance.
Daschle, a former Senate majority leader, is Obama's choice as secretary of health and human services and director of a new White House office on health reform.
Jeanne Lambrew was named as deputy chief of the new office. Lambrew has worked at HHS and the White House budget office.
Foradil, Serevent no longer recommended for asthma
WASHINGTON -- Government health advisers recommended restrictions yesterday on some long-acting asthma drugs.
Outside experts advising the Food and Drug Administration said that Foradil and Serevent no longer should be used for asthma. But they said that the benefits of the more widely used Advair and Symbicort clearly outweigh the risks. Each contains an ingredient that relaxes muscles around stressed airways. But that may mask symptoms that can trigger life-threatening asthma attacks. Advair and Symbicort contain a second ingredient that reduces inflammation inside breathing passages and may help patients avoid such problems.
Skeletal remains of child found near Anthony home
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A team of medical examiners and detectives was hustling to identify the skeletal remains of a child found in a wooded lot in central Florida yesterday, hoping to solve the 6-month-old mystery of a missing toddler.
Caylee Anthony, 3, has been missing since June. Yesterday, less than a half-mile from where the girl lived, a utility worker stumbled upon the remains.
Sheriff Kevin Beary said that investigators and the FBI would work around the clock and through the weekend to identify the remains.
Caylee's mother, Casey Anthony, 22, was indicted in October on a charge of first-degree murder.
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