The Daily Muck

The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, is off the hook for assuring New Yorkers in 2001 that air surrounding the World Trade Center after 9/11 was safe to breathe despite having no basis for such claims. Though numerous reports of sickened residents and workers near the site pour in, a federal appeals court ruled she did not intend to cause harm. Whitman contends now that she was talking about Lower Manhattan in general, not just Ground Zero. (Washington Post)

The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday challenging the equitable value of the “millionaire’s amendment,” which puts restrictions on wealthy congressional candidates while allowing their opponents to raise more money. Justices were split in their views of the law: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the law was created to fight the perception of congressional seats for sale. Justice Antonin Scalia argued that logic had nothing to do with fighting corruption. (New York Times)

Officials of the private military firm Blackwater Worldwide were not deterred by those protesting their projected training facility east of San Diego … they just moved their focus-area elsewhere in San Diego County. Blackwater Vice President Brian Bonfiglio says the over 61,000-square foot building in Otay Mesa will cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” and should be ready for Navy training this summer. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Now that the Democrats control Congress, many Republican lobbyists have taken notice and are rushing to curry favor with the relatively new majority. (Politico)

A former U.S. Army engineer, 84-year-old Ben-Ami Kadish, was arrested Tuesday for sharing classified information with Israel between 1979 and 1985. Intelligence officials discovered Kadish’s activities in the last few years, findings produced by the ongoing investigation of another spy case, that of Jonathan Pollard. A common “handler” linked Kadish and Pollard. (Newsweek)