former Deputy Director, Federal Judicial Center
Visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution; former Deputy Director of the Federal Judicial Center, the research and education agency for the Federal Courts
PROFILE
Russell Wheeler
Guest
FROM Russell Wheeler
To the Point
The Oil Industry and the Government The Gulf oil spill is producing hundreds of lawsuits in several states, but federal judges are bowing out because of investments in the oil industry. Judge Martin Feldman, who threw out the President's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling on Tuesday, recently held stock in Transocean and Halliburton. Meanwhile, two whistle-blowing scientists from the Mineral Management Service have talked to the New York Times about BP's plan to drill for oil off the shores of Alaska. The plan skirts the President's moratorium because its drill will be based on an artificial island three miles off the coast. So it's technically “on-shore.” We look at how the oil industry continues to wield influence even after the worst environmental disaster in US history.
Recommended
Left, Right & Center
President Trump: US to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord Trump says he was elected to serve Pittsburgh, not Paris.
To the Point
The Trump agenda: where's the beef? President Trump says big things are happening. After celebrating a House bill on health care, he doesn’t yet have Senate agreement. With James Comey’s public testimony scheduled tomorrow, the President today tweeted his selection of a new FBI Director. Is the Chief Executive all style and no substance? Later, terror attacks in Iran and conflicting claims about who’s behind them.
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.