By Mark Memmott

Iran continues to dominate the headlines.

Already this morning, we passed on an e-mail from a contact in Tehran who describes some of the violence there and the difficulty of reporting to the world about what's happening. Other stories about the repercussions from Friday's disputed presidential election include:

-- All Things Considered -- "Social Media Allows Reports Despite Tehran's Curbs."

-- The Washington Post -- "Twitter Is A Player In Iran's Drama."

-- BBC News -- More Protests Planned.

But Iran's not the only major story. There's also:

-- Obama To Propose Overhaul Of Financial Regulations: As the Associated Press writes, "President Barack Obama will unveil on Wednesday his proposal to overhaul regulations covering major financial institutions, calling for a new regulatory agency and expanded powers for the Federal Reserve."

NPR's John Ydstie has obtained a "near final draft" of the plan. On Morning Edition today, he said a consumer financial protection agency would be created under the plan -- and that the Federal Reserve would lose some of its power to take emergency action in times of financial crisis and some of its authority over issues related consumer protection.

John says there's a view in Washington that the Fed "dropped the ball" on protecting consumers in recent years:

The president is scheduled to unveil his plan around 12:50 p.m. ET.

-- War Funding Bill Passes House: "War-funding legislation survived a fierce partisan battle in the House on Tuesday, a major step in providing commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan the money they would need for military operations in the coming months," the AP writes. "The $106 billion measure, in addition to about $80 billion for military operations, provides for an array of other spending priorities, including $7.7 billion to respond to the flu pandemic and more than $10 billion in development and security aid for Pakistan and Iraq as well as countries such as Mexico and the nation of Georgia."

-- Nevada Sen. Ensign Admits Affair: According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, "the surprising admission Tuesday by U.S. John Ensign, R-Nev., of an extramarital affair should do little damage to his political career, some leading Washoe County Republicans said. The federal government is just too full of sex scandals for Ensign's admission to have a major negative impact on him, said Heidi Smith, chair of the Washoe County Republican Party. ... Ensign, a member of the party leadership mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, admitted Tuesday he had an extramarital affair with a woman who was a member of his campaign staff."

But Politico says the admission "clouds" Ensign's future, "stunned his colleagues, hurt his chances for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and called into question his future as a leader of the Senate GOP."

categories: Foreign News, Morning Roundup

7:45 - June 17, 2009

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