The American Academy of Pediatrics says that chemical-management policies have to be revised to better protect children, pregnant women, and the elderly. Dr. Jerome Paulson is the incoming chair of the Council on Environmental Health for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the lead author of new guidelines issued today.

Half a billion eggs suspected of carrying salmonella have been recalled in what’s become the largest egg recall in U.S. history. And many people are wondering: How did this happen? Is it the fault of the factory farming industry? Or the government? And what can be done to prevent widespread food contamination from happening in the future?

To date, at least 88 lawsuits have been filed seeking compensation from the April 21^st oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The rig explosion killed 11 oil workers and the subsequent oil gusher poses a serious threat to the economy and ecology of the entire coastal region.

Top executives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton – the three companies involved in the massive oil spill that continues to spew in the Gulf Coast – testified on Capitol Hill yesterday, pointing fingers at each other and deflecting blame from their own firms.

Senators were clearly not amused by all the blame game in full swing. "There's this transference of liability, or finger pointing," Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said. "There's going to be plenty of time to figure out who is to blame, who is at fault.”

The Senate is scheduled to vote today on whether to begin work on the finance regulatory overhaul bill, which President Obama promoted in New York last week. If Democrats have their way, the Senate will proceed to a debate on the bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd. Otherwise, the bill, S.3217, will stall and require more negotiations.

 

• MONEY TAKEOUT:  New York Times finance reporter Louise Story parses President Obama's newest proposal to regulate U.S. banks.
• SPORTS TAKEOUT: Takeaway Sports Contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin previews the big match-ups this weekend as the Saints, Vikings, Jets and Colts battle for a spot in the Superbowl.

• Washington Takeout: Todd Zwillich tells us that for the first time in history, a disclosure on the amount of money that Congress spends on itself is available online. Todd took a look at some of the nearly 3,400 pages that cover the quarter from July 1 to Sept. 30, 2009.
  
• Business Takeout: Louise Story, finance reporter for our partner The New York Times, takes a look at Congress' stalled efforts to pass financial regulatory reform.
  
• Sports Takeout: Takeaway Sports Contributor Ibrahim Abdul-Matin discusses the latest developments in golf champion Tiger Woods' strange and eventful Thanksgiving weekend.

The financial reform bill introduced Tuesday by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), chair of the Senate Banking Committee, would dramatically change the way U.S. banks are monitored. But with resistance from both Republicans and Democrats, the bill is unlikely to pass through the Senate before the end of the year. Here to tell us more about it is our Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich, along with John Cassidy, New Yorker staff writer and author of the book, "How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities."

 

President Obama has proposed sweeping changes to the regulation of the country's financial system. But do these changes actually address the root causes of our financial crisis? For one view, we turn to Eliot Spitzer, former Attorney General and Governor of New York. When he was Attorney General he made a name for himself suing companies like AIG for deception, fraud and boosting the company’s stock price. He also discusses his personal feelings at having to watch the unfolding crisis as a bystander and not as political leader.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is heading to Capitol Hill this morning to outline a sweeping overhaul of federal financial regulations. Early leaks of his testimony say the plan would extend regulation for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives and to companies including large hedge funds and major insurers such as AIG. Joining us this morning to look at whether this will stop the next meltdown and whether lawmakers will pass the new regulation laws, are Dan Gross, senior editor at Newsweek and columnist for Slate and Philip Coggan, capital markets editor at The Economist in London.