MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN

Associated Press Writer
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US safety board urges changes, can't require them

Has the National Transportation Safety Board become the government's "I-told-you-so" agency?

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First Freedom of Information ombudsman appointed

The National Archives appointed a veteran open government advocate Wednesday to be the first Freedom of Information Act ombudsman, empowered to mediate disputes between people who request data and the agencies that have it.

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Congress moves to withhold detainee abuse photos

Congress is moving to stop a federal court order that would disclose government information to the public — this time the photos of terrorist detainee abuse that President Barack Obama no longer wants to release.

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Cheney backs Limbaugh over Powell on GOP future

Dick Cheney made clear Sunday he'd rather follow firebrand broadcaster Rush Limbaugh than former Joint Chiefs chairman Colin Powell into political battle over the future of the Republican Party.

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Source: White House was updating AF One file photo

An administration official says a presidential Boeing 747 and a fighter jet flew low near ground zero in New York City Monday because the White House Military Office wanted to update its file photo of the president's plane near the Statue of Liberty.

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3 lawyers face scrutiny for torture advice

Three Bush administration lawyers who worked in an elite Justice Department unit face further scrutiny over their advice on how to conduct tough interrogations of terror suspects, but criminal prosecution remains only an outside possibility.

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Hudson ditching survivor `shocked' by FAA secrecy

A survivor of the jetliner that ditched in the Hudson River after hitting birds and most other public commenters opposed a government proposal to make secret its data on when and where such bird strikes occur.

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PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama keeps some Bush secrets

Despite a pledge to open government, the Obama administration has endorsed a Bush-era decision to keep secret key details of an FBI computer database that allows agents and analysts to search a billion documents with a wealth of personal information about Americans and foreigners.

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Federal data to be released unless harm foreseen

The Obama administration advised federal agencies Thursday to release their records and information to the public unless foreseeable harm would result.

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Obama's computer chief once shoplifted 4 shirts

Now it can be told: The mysterious petty theft that President Barack Obama's new computer chief committed at age 21 was shoplifting four dress shirts worth $134 from J.C. Penney.

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White House computer chief reinstated after raid

President Barack Obama's computer chief was reinstated Tuesday from a leave he was put on after an FBI raid at his old job. At the same time, the White House labeled as a "youthful indiscretion" a misdemeanor theft the man committed at age 21.

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Flaws abound in FOIA if Obama wants to fix them

President Barack Obama is promising to reinvigorate the Freedom of Information Act by opening more of the government's filing cabinets without a fight. It can't happen soon enough for the people awaiting replies to more than 150,000 requests for information.

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FBI finds nothing for 2 out of 3 who seek records

If information were a river, the FBI would be a dam.

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Despite Obama pledge, Justice defends Bush secrets

Despite President Obama's promise of more open government, the Justice Department is resisting pressure to release documents the Bush administration kept secret about domestic wiretapping, data collection on travelers and U.S. citizens, and interrogation of suspected terrorists.

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No trouble call from Colgan to air traffic control

The pilot of a doomed commuter plane didn't report any trouble to air traffic control before it crashed outside Buffalo, N.Y., but air traffic controllers quickly established that ice was building up on nearby planes also converging to land there.

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Obama performance chief Killefer out, citing taxes

Nancy Killefer withdrew her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government on Tuesday, saying she didn't want her bungling of payroll taxes on her household help to become a distraction for the Obama administration.

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Source: Pilot rejected 2 airport landings

The US Airways pilot who ditched in the Hudson River considered emergency landings at two airports but twice told air controllers he was unable to make them, then said he'd go into the river instead.

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Nominees sunk by tax and nanny problems for years

The one excuse President-elect Barack Obama's nominees shouldn't be using if they encounter tax and nanny problems is that they didn't realize there would be a problem. Since 1993, unpaid taxes and immigration violations, usually related to household help, have sunk more than one presidential nominee with the whole world watching. But a few have survived to take office anyway.

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Obama's performance czar has tried to improve IRS

Nancy Killefer, the management consultant chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to make federal agencies work better for the public, has a lot of experience trying to improve the agency taxpayers love to hate, the Internal Revenue Service.

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Ex-Bush aide charged with theft from Cuba group

A former aide to President Bush has been charged with theft from a government-funded center that promotes democracy in Cuba.

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50 percent more US children went hungry in 2007

Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year's sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.

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Ford told FBI about panel's doubts on JFK murder

Former President Ford secretly advised the FBI that two of his fellow members on the Warren Commission doubted the FBI's conclusion that John F. Kennedy was shot from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository in Dallas, according to newly released records from Ford's FBI files.

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Emergency inspection of personal jets ordered

Federal regulators have ordered the immediate inspection of throttles on small personal jets manufactured by Eclipse Aviation Corp. after one plane made an emergency landing in Chicago.

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IG criticizes FAA's training of air controllers

The government is hiring so many new air traffic controllers to replace departing veterans that it cannot efficiently train them, an inspector general reported Tuesday.

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FAA tries again to fix cover-up of air safety errors

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday its second effort in three years to stop its managers in Texas from covering up air safety violations — after a new investigation found the misconduct continued into last year.

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