WASHINGTON: The FDA temporarily halted work September 29 on a $300,000 contract with an Alaska-based PR firm that had subcontracted with Qorvis Communications. The government agency is awaiting the findings of internal and independent reviews.

For months, the 2008 presidential election has been hyped, by media and political pundits, to be unlike any this nation has ever seen.

At press time, the House of Representatives had shot down a $700-billion bailout plan for the financial sector from the White House that was initially expected to pass. A revised bill was headed to the Senate, but the initial failure offers not only a political lesson, but also a communications one.

The $700 billion government bailout has much opposition from voters and taxpayers (and even members of Congress), but the message from the government is that something drastic, and perhaps undesirable, must be done.

Nobel Prize winners send anti-bailout petition to Pelosi, Byrd; Obama urges McCain to join the debate; PETA advocates the use of human milk in ice cream.

NEW YORK: Financial services companies in good standing are aggressively communicating with customers and the media during this time of great economic uncertainty.

In these perilous times, a CEO really needs a good friend. With Wall Street firms finally paying penance for their risky investments, CEOs are fretting about how the reverberations will affect their own organizations. This should surprise no one.

The crisis on Wall Street is having myriad unexpected results, not the least of which is the $700 billion bailout that is likely to pass through Congress in some capacity.

Congress debates the $700 billion bailout plan; NHL uses online outreach; China faces tainted milk crisis; and more.

HOUSTON: Texas institutions affected by Hurricane Ike earlier this month are conducting outreach via the Web and other media to update the electricity-starved public on their recovery processes.