The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee over possible violations of insider-trading laws, according to individuals familiar with the case. Read full article > >

Excerpt from:
Rep. Spencer Bachus faces insider-trading investigation

Yahoo has shaken up its board , with four of its top board members headed for the door. In a release Tuesday, the Internet firm announced that Chairman Roy Bostock, Hewlett-Packard executive Vyomesh Joshi, Gary Wilson and Arthur Kern will leave Yahoo’s board. Combined with the resignation of Yahoo founder Jerry Yang , that will leave the company with a majority of new board members. With the new changes, all of Yahoo’s directors will have joined the board after 2010. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
Yahoo shakes up its board

Urgent change is needed at the Press Complaints Commission which showed its lack of powers in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, the chairman of the body which funds it says.

Read more:
Press body ‘needs urgent reform’

Sony Corp said on Wednesday that Vice President Kazuo Hirai will take over the roles of CEO and president on April 1 from Howard Stringer, who will retain the chairman’s post as the company struggles to regain its standing in the consumer electronics sector in which it was once a driving force.

See the original post:
Sony Elevates Kazuo Hirai to President and C.E.O.

Any parliamentary move to regulate newspapers would “open a Pandora’s box” which could stifle freedom of speech, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission says.

Read the rest here:
Press body keen for ‘fresh start’

GENEVA — Swiss National Bank Chairman Philip Hildebrand resigned abruptly Monday, bowing to a public uproar over his private currency deals just as a Swiss parliamentary committee was preparing to grill him behind closed doors. Hildebrand’s resignation took effect immediately, Switzerland’s central bank said in a brief statement. Read full article > >

More:
Swiss National Bank chief Hildebrand resigns amid uproar over private dollar trades

The House Committee on Ethics said Thursday that it was extending an investigation into the conduct of Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), who has previously come under scrutiny for reimbursements made to his employees for campaign donations. The announcement by Chairman Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and ranking member Linda T. Sanchez (D-Calif.) marks another political challenge for Buchanan, the senior Republican fundraiser in the House, who is also facing a separate Justice Department probe. Read full article > >

See more here:
House ethics panel extends probe of Fla. GOP Congressman Vern Buchanan

AT&T had hoped to salvage its proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile by winning in court against the Justice Department and then using that victory to convince other skeptical regulators. That strategy, however, was thrown into disarray Friday when a federal judge said she would weigh a Justice Department request to throw out the antitrust case altogether, which could rob the wireless giant of a chance to prove itself in court. The merger fell into serious doubt after the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission expressed opposition last month. Read full article > >

Read more:
Justice Dept. is about to pull rug out from under AT&T

Still searching for the money to pay for it , the House leadership has put the brakes on a long-term transportation spending plan, but Transportation Committee Chairman John L. Mica says he’s confident that the legislation will pass before the current funding extension expires March 31. State transportation planners say their efforts to move ahead with new highway and transit projects have been hamstrung by congressional failure to approve a new multi-year plan. The last big bill, passed in 2005, expired two years ago and planners have been living with the uncertainty under a series of stop-gap funding extensions. Read full article > >

See the original post here:
House delays long-term transportation plan over funding, timing

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (D-Texas), the chairman of the Hispanic Caucus, is retiring in 2012 after 14 years in office. “I still find the job hugely rewarding, but the demands pull me somewhere else,” Gonzalez told the San-Antonio Express News. “[F]inancially I would like to be productive and have the resources to make a better life.” Read full article > >

View original post here:
Rep. Charlie Gonzalez to retire

Several lawmakers expressed support Wednesday for a controversial bill aimed at curbing online piracy as lobbying over the issue reached a fever pitch. In a House Judiciary Committee hearing on a bill proposed by committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), a bipartisan group of lawmakers said new laws are needed to help media outlets, software makers and retailers fight the illegal distribution of movies, songs and software. Read full article > >

See the article here:
SOPA, controversial online piracy bill, gains support as lobbying intensifies

The cover of the book “Young Guns” features its three authors — House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Republican Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) and House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) — posing purposefully beneath a subtitle dubbing them “A New Generation of Conservative Leaders.” The man just below Cantor and McCarthy on the leadership ladder, House Chief Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (Ill.), is a few years older, less well-known and has no intention of writing a book anytime soon. Read full article > >

Continue reading here:
Behind the scenes, Roskam is House GOP’s ‘listener in chief’

New rules on banks are making it more difficult for them to lend, according to the chairman of the UK’s Treasury Committee

Continued here:
Warning over risk to bank lending

After a spate of public outrage over the practice of arresting drivers with expired license plates, the D.C. Council acted Tuesday to keep those people out of jail cells. It adopted emergency legislation that would repeal criminal penalties for driving with an expired tag, instituting fines instead. “Today, we have an opportunity to fix a problem in our law, one that has caused many people to scratch their heads in amazement,” said Chairman Kwame R. Brown (D), who introduced the legislation on behalf of Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D). Read full article > >

The rest is here:
No more jail time for expired license plates, D.C. Council says

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) figures the nation could raise a little cash by licensing Internet gambling. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) wants to save money on prison beds by letting convicts out early if they learn to read. And House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) joined forces with Democrats on his panel to tell congressional budget-cutters where they should NOT look for savings: The Pentagon, which is already struggling to respond to two previous rounds of cuts. Read full article > >

View original post here:
Advice from lawmakers pours in to ‘supercommittee’