Advisory Committees

While the Bush administration is reworking its overall strategy in Iraq, military leaders in Baghdad are searching for new ways to improve the decisions and choices they make closer to the ground. The U.S. military has sent to Iraq a five-person team of dedicated skeptics, known in military jargon as a "red team." In a war known for its missteps and unanticipated results, the team will be assigned to review, and question, military operations.

Congressional Democrats on Sunday kept up their attacks on substandard care for injured soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as they prepared for hearings on the issue this week. "If it's this bad at the outpatient facilities at Walter Reed, how is it in the rest of the country?" Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on ABC's "This Week." "Walter Reed is our crown jewel." In a letter sent Sunday to Defense Secretary Robert M.

Struggling with political fallout over shabby treatment of wounded soldiers, President Bush on Tuesday named ex-Sen. Bob Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to lead an investigation into care provided at military and veterans' facilities. Democratic leaders in Congress, meanwhile, launched an effort to increase funding for veterans' care.

Under fire for spending $82 million annually on gang-prevention programs without measuring how effective they are, the City Council agreed Tuesday to form a panel of academics to suggest evaluation methods. The City Council also agreed to create a steering committee, including the mayor, city administrative officer and city attorney, to determine which anti-gang programs should be funded in the coming fiscal year.

David Lindsay-Abaire is safely in the record books as a Pulitzer Prize winner for drama, having been honored Monday for "Rabbit Hole," a critically praised but stylistically conventional play about an investment banker and his wife trying to restart their lives and rescue their marriage after the death of their 4-year-old son.

A strike was averted Monday when the governor intervened in a labor dispute that could have resulted in 1,100 Orange County bus drivers walking off the job today. The Orange County Transportation Authority requested that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger take action so that county bus service wouldn't be crippled. Drivers are seeking higher wages. County transit employees haven't walked off the job since the mid-1980s.

The lone Democrat on a White House privacy board has abruptly resigned, citing disagreements with the Bush administration over the board's role in protecting civil liberties. Lanny J. Davis, a Washington lawyer and former Clinton White House counsel, said this week he no longer believed the five-member board was sufficiently independent to provide oversight of government surveillance. Leaders of the Sept.

Nearly four years after the worst wildfires in state history raged across Southern California, officials have yet to implement some of the key reforms developed in the aftermath of the disaster that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed thousands of homes. The state faces another potentially disastrous fire season, with the Southland recording its driest year on record. Already, there have been several major blazes this year -- far earlier than usual.

Orange County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with the creation of a civilian commission that would review misconduct complaints against county law enforcement. The board agreed to spend two months fine-tuning details of the proposal before giving final approval, a concession to the sheriff, district attorney and some board members who criticized the current version.

A task force set up by California's chief justice to consider statewide conservatorship reform is seeking public comments on a list of draft recommendations that include a "Bill of Rights" for people under conservatorship and improved ways to protect the assets of incapacitated adults from theft.