- A congressional commission pressed Goldman Sachs executives Wednesday to spell out how much their company has earned from its exotic bets against the housing market, including $20 billion in wagers that helped force a $162 billion taxpayer bailout of the American International Group. However, Goldman's president and chief risk officer told members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that their company never breaks out its figures that way.
- From former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to Arizona Sen. John McCain to junior members of the House of Representatives, conservative Republicans have accused President Barack Obama of failing to do all he can to help clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill because he hasn't waived a U.S. maritime law called the Jones Act.
- Last week in Missouri, more than 8,300 people lost unemployment benefits, and 200,000 people a week around the country are likely to lose them if the government doesn't take action soon. Republicans in the Senate this week again successfully filibustered a bill to extend them as Congress gets ready to depart for its Fourth of July recess.
- Nevada has feasted on California's problems for years, gleefully luring away businesses and wealthy individuals. Compared to its troubled neighbor, Nevada offered stability, low taxes and dazzling opportunities. But now, the state with the ultra-friendly business climate has the nation's highest unemployment and foreclosure rates.
- News reports that State Rep. William Snyder is planning an Arizona-style immigration-control law set off a wave of anger and concern among undocumented immigrants and their advocates in South Florida. Immigration activists are preparing to fight the Snyder proposal.
- In a flurry of interviews Wednesday, Elizabeth Edwards called the decision to leave her philandering husband "terrifying" but said she's planning to sell the couple's sprawling Chapel Hill house and move on with her life. The interviews, including one with Larry King, coincided with the paperback release of her book "Resilience."
- If there was one takeaway the Obama administration was trying to push amidst the firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, it was this: That internecine war within Obama's Afghanistan team is over. Hitherto, this team of rivals will move forward with one common purpose without a hint of dissent. Will the harmony, or at least the facade of harmony, last? Not likely.
- The first round of government tests of the chemical dispersants that are being used to break up the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico found that they aren't overly damaging to shrimp and small fish, but more tests are needed to determine what happens when they're mixed with oil.
- A military judge will decide whether a Sudanese detainee who says he's undergone "various methods of interrogation" since 2002 can use an Arabic-speaking psychologist with experience in post-traumatic stress disorder to help him prepare for trial.
- Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on Wednesday appeared to be cruising toward relatively easy confirmation, as she spent a third day assuring Senate Judiciary Committee members that she has no preset ideological agenda. Her hearing so far has followed what's become a standard judicial confirmation script, as sympathetic Democrats build her up and skeptical Republicans try to knock her down a notch or two.
- The drug gangsters who grow marijuana and cook meth in Sierra Nevada forests would face stiffer penalties under a bill introduced Wednesday by a San Joaquin Valley lawmaker.
- Two environmental groups on Tuesday filed formal notice of their intention to sue BP, the Coast Guard and a string of federal agencies involved in the cleanup. They contend the practice of corraling and torching oil at sea was being conducted without first adequately checking for turtles and likely claiming hundreds of them, including endangered Kemp's ridleys.
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