Among dozens of regulations being issued during its final weeks by the Bush administration, the Environmental Protection Agency issued two new regulations on Friday – one, it exempted an estimated 118,500 tons of hazardous waste annually from strict federal incineration controls; and two, it separately exempted factory farms from a requirement to report hazardous air pollution to the fede

On Thursday, the Labor Department reported continuing claims for jobless benefits hit a 26-year high; and, the same day, the Senate approved a House bill to extend unemployment benefits by at least seven weeks.