Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Chief movie lobbyist Jack Valenti defended smoking in Hollywood films, but senators insisted the industry must do more to stop the practice. "I don't believe that whatever the director does ought to incite the intervention of the government in any form," Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing yesterday. "I've got to tell you I believe it is his right to tell the story as he chooses to tell it." Some lawmakers were dissatisfied by his answers. A study last year found that teens who watch movies with smoking in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA chief Sean O'Keefe faced withering questions from senators on Wednesday over his handling of the shuttle Columbia disaster, a week after investigators blamed the U.S. space agency's culture for the accident that killed seven astronauts. "When do you expect this culture to be fixed?" Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, asked O'Keefe at a hearing of the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. "This is going to be a long, long haul," O'Keefe replied, adding that the "beginnings of this change" would be evident in six months to a year. O'Keefe told the senators he planned...