WASHINGTON - Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment.
"It goes beyond just having the White House involved in picking industry favorites to evaluate government science. Under this proposal, the carefully crafted process used by the government to notify the public of an imminent danger is going to first have to be signed off by someone weighing the political hazards."

(Despite the many prospects, a clumsy recruiting effort attempted to turn our high-flying F-102 pilot into the Guard?s anti-drug poster boy. ?George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn?t get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed,? reads a 1970 Guard press release. ?Oh, he gets high, all right. But not from narcotics.?)

The Washington Post reported Monday that the Pentagon has ordered its clipping service to exclude articles critical of the military and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Staffers at the Early Bird, whose service is devoured by Pentagon brass, lawmakers, journalists and military personnel around the world, were told to eliminate all newsmagazine articles last October -- four days after the publication of a Newsweek cover story on Iraq that included "Rummy's New Headaches" and a Time piece titled "Is Rumsfeld Losing His Mojo?"