Corporate special interests have a special relationship with this administration. Latest example: representatives of the retail industry had a private dinner with the chairman and two top officials of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the night before a hearing on a plan to require retailers to submit more information on a more frequent basis so that CPSC can turn consumer complaints into an early warning system. From the Washington Post: Dining behind the mirrored, closed doors in the private Blue Room at the trendy Ceiba restaurant on Monday night, CPSC Chairman Harold D. Stratton, compliance chief John Gibson "Gib" Mullan and general counsel Page C. Faulk chatted with members of ALFA International, formerly known as the America Law Firm Association. Mullan, speaking for the commission, said the dinner was a social occasion to meet the out-of-town attorneys who had come to Washington for the agency's Tuesday meeting. It was just "a courtesy dinner" to get the know the people "who have knowledge and experience on product safety issues," he said.*** With this excuse in mind, the CPSC declined to put the (expensive) meal on its public calendar. Consumer advocates had no idea until contacted by the Washington Post. Of course, there's a Wal-Mart angle to this story... Many of the corporate attorneys were in Washington for a hearing to discuss whether recent hazard-reporting guidelines developed for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. should be extended industry-wide -- an idea put forward by Mullan and favored by * * * consumer advocates. * * * * The guidelines being discussed by the commission are patterned after a recent agency agreement with Wal-Mart, which for years had battled the agency over which product safety hazards it needed to report. In April 2003, Wal-Mart agreed to pay a $750,000 civil penalty to resolve a lawsuit alleging that it had failed to report 29 injuries -- including fractured vertebrae and herniated discs -- after consumers had tried out exercise machines in its stores. As part of the settlement, Wal-Mart agreed to forward all incidents to the agency -- an agreement that led to a haystack of reports, with many having nothing to do with safety or products the agency regulated. As a result, the agency and Wal-Mart developed a more selective plan for listing incidents that the CSPC considers serious. Between Oct. 1, when the agreement took effect, and the end of January, the company sent in weekly reports that highlighted 371 particular problems. That in turn has triggered 113 investigations by the CPSC. The agency now wants other retailers to follow suit. While retailers and manufacturers applaud the effort to clarify reporting rules, some are concerned that the agency will now be asking for more data than is legally required.