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President Bush traveled to the great state of Florida and this morning spoke about the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit in Sun City Center, accompanied by his brother, Governor Jeb Bush. He also went to Broward Community College with Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt to visit with senior citizen, and later spent some time at the Sun City Center Fire Station #28 to talk about the outbreak of brush fires in Florida. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had a press conference today, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a strong statement regarding Iran today, Congressional GOP members reached...

The Talk Shows Sunday, May 7th, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich.; Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.; Washington Nationals co-owner Mark Lerner. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Bush impersonator Steve Bridges. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas; Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean; outgoing White House press secretary Scott McClellan. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt;...

The Talk Shows Sunday, January 1st, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Diane Swonk, chief economist, Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc.; John Bogle, founder, the Vanguard Group Corp. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian and author of "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." FACE THE NATION (CBS): New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin; Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. THIS WEEK (ABC): Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of...

p>The Talk Shows Sunday, December 11th, 2005 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.; Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. THIS WEEK (ABC): Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq; Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. LATE EDITION (CNN) : Khalilzad; Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

Last week, Michael Leavitt, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, declared that his agency is going to "aggressively enforce" the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002. The act defines an infant as a "member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development." The act further defines "born alive" to mean any infant who "breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut, and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as...

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The likelihood of a human flu pandemic is very high, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt warned Monday as he sought Southeast Asian cooperation to combat the spread of bird flu. Leavitt and the director of the World Health Organization are touring Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to seek their collaboration in preparing for the anticipated public health emergency linked to the H5N1 strain of the disease. That strain has swept through poultry populations in many parts of Asia since 2003 and jumped to humans, killing 65 people, mostly through direct contact with sick fowl. While there have...

The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com HHS-sponsored forum touts 'harm reduction'By Cheryl WetzsteinTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished August 16, 2005 The Department of Health and Human Services is one of the "primary sponsors" for an upcoming Salt Lake City conference on methamphetamines whose organizers back the "harm reduction" approach to drug policy, which Republicans see as form of legalization.     Rep. Mark Souder, Indiana Republican, said in an angry letter sent Friday to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Michael O. Leavitt that the conference's approach to end the nation's "war on drugs" in favor of programs that try to limit drugs' harmful effects undercuts...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A leading Democrat has threatened to keep the U.S. Senate from confirming Mike Leavitt, the president's nominee for secretary of health and human services. The New York Times said Tuesday Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., considered blocking the Leavitt nomination unless GOP leaders guarantee a vote on permitting U.S. pharmaceuticals manufactured for sale outside the United States to be purchased by U.S. residents by mail or over the Internet. U.S. manufactured prescriptions drugs are often cheaper in other countries, either because government subsidies keep the retail cost down or because foreign distributors purchase them more cheaply...

Greener Pastures by Gregg Easterbrook Michael Leavitt announced yesterday that he will leave the Environmental Protection Agency after just 14 months at the EPA's helm and become George W. Bush's secretary of Health and Human Services. ... He is departing because he realized that environmental regulatory reform is currently impossible. Neither the left nor the right will allow it. [snip] But under current law, cost-effective environmental protection is often discouraged. [snip] On the right, the Republican nut-case faction in the House continues to claim that environmental protection is destroying the economy, though there is zero evidence of this: Pollution has...

Michael Leavitt had no time to build a legacy at the Environmental Protection Agency. He replaced the beleaguered Christie Whitman as administrator in late 2003 and now, barely 14 months later, President Bush has whisked him off to run the Health and Human Services Department. He will face many problems in his new job, but none as troublesome as being the point man on environmental matters for an administration whose policies on this score have been the subject of unrelenting criticism since the day Mr. Bush took office. Mr. Leavitt leaves behind a good deal of unfinished business, mostly involving...

To: National Desk and Environment Reporter Contact: John Millett of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 202-564-7842 or millett.john@epa.gov DES MOINES, Iowa., July 19 /U.S. Newswire/ -- EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt announced 14 watersheds -- representing 17 states - eligible for $15 million from EPA's Targeted Watersheds Grant Program. The selected areas represent more than 20,000 square miles of rivers, lakes and streams across the United States. "Through this program, EPA lends a hand to local groups working to protect and restore our nation's watersheds," said Leavitt from the banks of Gray's Lake, part of the Upper Mississippi watershed. "With these...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has dropped her plans to block the nomination of former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency, saying she will no longer hold the nomination hostage to her demands that the White House release the names of individuals she accused of engaging in a massive Ground Zero air quality cover-up. "We have reached agreement with the White House for additional testing to verify that residences [at Ground Zero] that have been cleaned have not been recontaminated," Mrs. Clinton told reporters yesterday, saying she'll allow the Leavitt nomination to go to the Senate...

STATEHOUSE UPDATE To the surprise of few, two governors who have been mired in controversy announced last week that they would not seek re-election in ’04. Democrat Robert Wise of West Virginia and Republican Judy Martz of Montana both cited their need to deal with personal troubles as the chief reason for standing down. Wise had recently admitted an extramarital affair. Martz conceded she had cared for and washed the clothes of her top policy adviser after he crashed a car, killing the state house majority leader. She harbored him overnight without calling the police. Montana’s first woman governor, however,...

President Bush has picked Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, an advocate of shifting environmental regulation to the states, to become head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a senior administration official said Monday. Leavitt, a three-term Republican governor, would succeed Christie Whitman, a former New Jersey governor who held the post of EPA administrator for the first two and a half years of the administration before resigning in May.

Maria Bartiromo just announced that Utah Gov Leavitt has been selected to be EPA head.

A former professional athlete who starred in his sport for several years, attended Brigham Young University during the off-seasons and now lives in Utah County has talked to several professional political consultants about running for governor in 2004. It's not Steve Young. Dale Murphy, a native Californian who made news during his 15-year major league baseball career not only for his exploits with the bat, but also because of his conservative Mormon lifestyle in the fast lane of professional sports, says he has been encouraged by a number of people to seek the Republican nomination. He spoke first to Evan...