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By Joel Seidman and Norah O’Donnell
NBC News (MSNBC)

Buried in the Tuesday filing at District Court — “Exhibit B” in a motions request by Libby’s defense team — is a Jan. 23 letter sent to Libby by Fitzgerald.

The last paragraph of the letter says, “We are aware of no evidence pertinent to the charges against defendant Libby which has been destroyed.” But it goes on to say, “We advise you that we have learned that not all e-mail of the Office of Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system.”

ANDREW C. REVKIN
The New York Times

Other National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists and public-affairs employees came forward this week to say that beyond Dr. Hansen’s case, there were several other instances in which political appointees had sought to control the flow of scientific information from the agency….

In October, for example, George Deutsch, a presidential appointee in NASA headquarters, told a Web designer working for the agency to add the word “theory” after every mention of the Big Bang….

The Big Bang is “not proven fact; it is opinion,” Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, “It is not NASA’s place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.”

By Yuki Noguchi
Washington Post Staff Writer

Last week, Wikipedia temporarily blocked certain Capitol Hill Web addresses from altering any entries in the otherwise wide-open forum. Wikipedia is a vast, growing information database written and maintained solely by volunteers….

A popular change in recent weeks has been deleting mentions of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) from politicians’ profiles. Politically motivated edits aren’t just coming from Capitol Hill; some comments are being traced back to other parts of political Washington, including the Justice Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Navy and Marines.

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer

At a time when the use of low-cost generic drugs is being embraced as one of the few ways to rein in skyrocketing health care costs, the Food and Drug Administration has a backlog of more than 800 applications to bring new generic products to the market — an all-time high.

As a result, experts say, fewer generic drugs will be available to consumers in the years ahead than the industry is ready and able to provide. The FDA, however, has told Congress that the office that reviews new generics needs no additional money, and the agency has no plans to hire more reviewers.

…”The branded industry has to be delighted by this backlog,” said Jake Hansen, vice president for government affairs for Barr Laboratories Inc., a maker of generic drugs. “If they can’t stop competition in the courts, stopping it as applications go through the regulatory process is just as effective. For consumers, to flatline or cut funding makes absolutely no sense.”

Richard Norton-Taylor |
The Guardian
…Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme.
…Mr Bush told the prime minister that he “thought it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups”. Mr Blair did not demur, according to the book.

By Simon Romero The New York Times | International Herald Tribune

Perhaps the most significant step the country could take in reducing oil dependence is to change the way cars are produced….Automobiles, for example, use about 9 million barrels of the 20 million barrels or so of oil that the United States consumes each day. Trucks, heavy machinery and some power plants consume the rest.

Improving the efficiency of hybrid engines and using advanced metal alloys and carbon composites instead of heavier steel to make cars could double or triple the fuel efficiency in these automobiles….

Federal funding for research and development in energy efficiency has declined 14 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis since 2002.

By Kevin G. Hall

Knight Ridder Newspapers

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America’s dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn’t mean it literally.