On Oct. 31, a landslide at the Wisconsin-based We Energies Oak Creek Power Plant sent piles of coal ash, along with dredging equipment and debris, into Lake Michigan. Thankfully, there were no injuries, but the incident is reminiscent of the disastrous 2008 coal ash spill in Kingston, TN – where a failed impoundment released 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash that buried a community and severely contaminated a nearby river – and raises concerns about how to regulate the storage and disposal of coal ash.

A memorandum issued Oct. 26 by the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Cass Sunstein, instructs federal agencies to submit reports on the implementation of their retrospective review plans for periodically evaluating existing rules. The plans were required by President Obama's Jan. 18 Executive Order 13563, "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review" (E.O. 13563), and thus far in the process, agencies have largely managed to keep their focus on their main mandate: protecting the public.

In the Oct. 12 edition of The Watcher, we highlighted the multi-state listeriosis outbreak as an example of the high stakes of food safety regulation. Linked to cantaloupes from Colorado-based Jensen Farms, the deadliest foodborne disease outbreak in a decade has now killed 25 people. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report from an investigation conducted in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that reveals some of the factors potentially contributing to the listeria contamination.

Some members of the Senate used floor consideration of the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011, S. 1619, to push anti-regulatory measures through last-minute amendments. The bill was introduced to curb Chinese currency manipulation, yet it could now be tagged by amendments aimed at delaying or preventing environmental safeguards and obstructing the regulatory process.