ENVIRONMENT -- BECK, BOENHER CALL ARCTIC REFUGE A 'WASTELAND,' CLAIM WILDLIFE IS UNEFFECTED BY DRILLING: On Glenn Beck's CNN program Wednesday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) falsely claimed that wildlife in Alaska are not affected by oil operations there. Animals "couldn't care less whether...the pipeline was there, or the oil company was there," he said. Glenn Beck similarly argued that wildlife can't tell if the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline is a "tree or a pipeline," and said that the northern reaches of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- where Boehner hopes to drill -- are a "barren wasteland." Far from "not caring" about the presence of oil operations at the 800-square mile Prudhoe Bay facility, native species are dramatically affected by drilling. Scientific surveys have shown that the Central Arctic caribou herd has been "crowded out" due to drilling, reducing their use of the area near the Prudhoe Bay oil fields by 78 percent. In addition, the northern reaches of the Refuge are not a "barren wasteland." According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Refuge's northern edge is home to "a greater degree of ecological diversity than any other similar sized area of Alaska's north slope."

ETHICS -- HOUSE LEADERS APPOINT CONTROVERSIAL GOSS TO ETHICS PANEL: Yesterday, House leaders announced the names of four former lawmakers who will serve on a new independent panel that reviews ethics complaints against members. The panel's co-chair will be Porter Goss, a former representative who served as President Bush's CIA director before abruptly resigning in May of 2006. Goss is a controversial choice for the position. As Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Goss opposed investigating the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's idenity. It is also suspected that Goss was connected to defense contractor Brent Wilkes, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for bribing Duke Cunningham. Goss apparently attended some of the "bacchanals" Wilkes was fond of throwing. Goss was also director of the CIA in 2004 when the agency destroyed at least two videotapes documenting harsh interrogations of detainees, though apparently without Goss's knowledge. Goss's appointment to the ethics panel "surprised even some Republican members of Congress," the Hill reports. "Several shook their heads in disbelief when told he was named to the board."

ADMINISTRATION -- EPA INVESTIGATOR SAYS VOLUNTARY TARGETS 'UNLIKELY' TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES: In April, President Bush called for a "voluntary target" of "halting the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025." But a report released yesterday by the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that such voluntary pollution-reduction programs have "limited potential" to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG). The report said that it is "unlikely" that voluntary programs would reduce more than 19 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that are projected for various industries in 2010. "If EPA wishes to reduce GHG emissions beyond this point, it needs to consider additional policy options," the report concluded. The Bush administration argues for voluntary programs to reduce carbon intensity, but according to the EPA, "persuading companies to spend money on optional activities 'presents a significant challenge to using voluntary programs as the current solution to reducing greenhouse gases.'"  "We will not solve the global warming problem without an across-the-board mandatory program that every polluting company has to participate in," said David Doniger, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Climate Center.

"A petition to send former White House deputy chief of state Karl Rove to jail over refusing a subpoena to testify before a House committee has gained over 100,000 signatures," according to Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films and online activists.

The EPA's Inspector General's Office has said that "voluntary pollution-reduction programs touted by the Bush administration as part of the solution to global warming have 'limited potential' to reduce greenhouse gases." The "industry’s unwillingness to participate and unreliable data that casts doubt on claimed reductions are hindering efforts to control some of the most potent greenhouse gases."

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) on Thursday announced joint appointments to a landmark ethics review board" that will allow private citizens to review allegations against members. The co-chairman will be former CIA director Porter Goss, who "opposed launching an investigation into the Valerie Plame CIA leak case."

"The American public is not buying the arguments of President Bush and the oil industry that new drilling will lower gas prices," with 63 percent saying increased drilling is "more likely to enrich oil companies than to lower gas prices." 

Rep. George Miller (D-CA) pledged today to introduce legislation that would "block an eleventh-hour effort by the Labor Department to make it more difficult to limit workers’ exposure to chemicals on the job." Miller said he was determined to stop the "secret rule" that has been described as "a parting gift" to industry from the Bush administration.

"Home foreclosure filings rose 14 percent in the second quarter, the eighth consecutive quarterly climb, and more than doubled from the same period a year-earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Friday." Home foreclosures were up 121 percent from a year earlier "amid the worst U.S. housing market downturn since the Great Depression."

The U.S. Embassy in Iraq announced yesterday "that it had expanded tenfold its program to help Iraqi employees of the American government here" to obtain visas and ultimately American citizenship. However, critics noted that the U.S. "had promised several times that it would try to speed up the process, and that it had not come through."

And finally: Ted Stevens sticks by his "series of tubes." In 2006, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) was widely mocked after he described the internet as "a series of tubes" that "can be filled." Asked this week if he stuck by that description, Stevens said, "I do," before adding that he's "still not sure about the difference between tubes and pipes."