Citizen Cartwright

Congress oversees current laws and makes new ones. If you don't like the way things are or the way things are headed, write to your two senators and your representative (they pay attention to the mail — no joke — they want to be re-elected, after all). To find out who they are and to track legislation of interest to you, click on opencongress.org.

After bills passed by Congress are signed by the president and become law, the executive branch writes regulations to implement them. The public is given time to comment before the regulations are finalized. For an easy way to track regulations and comment on them, click on regulations.gov.

But do you get discouraged, thinking there's no way to compete with big-money lobbyists? Here's what former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., says: "Money is important, but votes will beat money any day."

 

Note to readers

Citizen Cartwright is taking some time off and will resume regular publication on Monday, July 1. See you then!

Senate immigration bill advances

Two votes Tuesday to place the bill formally before the Senate and open for amendment each got more than 80 votes, but Republicans are insisting on tougher border security provisions and stricter terms on people seeking legal status.

Sexual assault provisions dropped from Senate bill

In a "striking showdown" with a member of his own party, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Tuesday he would remove from a defense spending bill language by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to give military prosecutors rather than commanders the power to decide which sexual assault crimes to try, The New York Times reports.

Insurance companies' 'secretive transactions'

New York State regulators are pushing for a national moratorium on transactions that they say life insurers are using to alter their books by billions of dollars.

The regulators are concerned that the deals put policyholders at risk and could lead to another taxpayer bailout.

U.S. sabotages al Qaeda magazine

American intelligence operatives last month covertly sabotaged Inspire, the English-language magazine distributed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in an apparent attempt to create confusion among the group’s followers, according to officials.

Also in the news

Iran's leading reformist candidate drops out of presidential race

Talks between North, South Korea break down

Turkish leader to meet with protesters

NSA aftershocks: Leak inspires lawsuit, letters of protest, tech companies' push to disclose more

SEC settles whistleblower case for $580,000

Are investors seeing a bumpy return to normal or new volatility as central banks step back?

Walgreen in record $80 million settlement over painkiller distribution

Apple adding 'kill switch' to iPhones to make them less valuable to thieves

Government proposes new protections for chimpanzees in captivity

Former Arizona Republican Rep. Rick Renzi found guilty on 17 federal corruption charges

Oregon Senate passes vaccination education bill

More NSA revelations said to be coming

Glenn Greenwald, a columnist for the Guardian, the British newspaper that broke the first story based on secret NSA documents, says, "There are extremely invasive spying programs that the public still does not know about that the NSA regularly engages in or other capabilities that they're developing."

Greenwald told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Monday, "We are working on stories right at this moment that we think are very valuable for the public to know that don't in any way harm national security but that shine a light on this extremely secretive though momentous agency."

Senate to begin debate of immigration bill

President Obama is scheduled to appear Tuesday at the White House with a broad coalition of immigration supporters to tout the legislation, as senators from both parties prepare dozens of amendments in an effort to shape the most significant overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws in a generation.

Banks making money from fraud of older customers

Across the country, banks of all sizes are facilitating billions of dollars of fraud every year — and collecting big fees for doing so, reports The New York Times.

The Justice Department is considering civil and criminal actions against a number of banks for allowing tainted money to flow through branches, for failing to safeguard against suspicious merchants, and for originating transactions on behalf of businesses that they know make unauthorized withdrawals from customer accounts, the Times says.

Diagnosis: Caffeine withdrawal

Have you ever missed your morning coffee, only to be surprised by a pretty nasty headache?

The new mental health diagnostic manual released last month includes caffeine withdrawal and intoxication as mental disorders when they impair a person's ability to function in daily life.

The designations are controversial.

"Caffeine intoxication and withdrawal both occur fairly frequently but only rarely cause enough clinically significant impairment to be considered a mental disorder," says Allen Frances, who chaired the task force that developed the previous version of the manual and has been a vocal critic of the latest version. "We shouldn't medicalize every aspect of life and turn everyone into a patient," he says.

For people who don't want to completely give up caffeine, but don't want to be dependent on it, Dr. Laura Juliano of American University recommends drinking it at irregular intervals, and limiting it to as close to 100 milligrams as possible.

Dr. Roland Griffiths, of Johns Hopkins, says he has caffeine perhaps once a week, in relatively small doses. "If I'm sleep deprived, it's a really effective drug. It's very useful if you're not dependent on it because then it's more powerful and more effective and you don't have any withdrawal," he says.