Bloggers have been focusing much of their attention on the federal government this week. The testimony of former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona about White House pressure to remain silent on stem cell research, sex education, and other topics spurred lots of reactions: Revere at Effect Measure and Cervantes at Stayin’ Alive criticized Carmona for failing to speak out during his four-year tenure, while Roy M Poses MD at Health Care Renewal, Josh Rosenau at Thoughts from Kansas, and Grrl Scientist at Living the Scientific Life direct their comments to at the Bush administration trend of covering up science for political ends.

In other federal government news, Matt Madia at OMB Watch urges us to tell our Senators to support the provision denying funding to the White House’s regulatory power grab. (If that sentence confused you, see this post for details.) David Roberts at Gristmill points out that Representative John Dingell may be calling our bluff with his carbon tax proposal, but he’s also giving environmentalists something we want. On the other hand, EPA’s draft list of endocrine-disrupting chemicals to be subject to a new screening protocol is a disappointment to Jody Roberts at The World’s Fair. The Corpus Callosum alerts us to the latest legislative attempt to align copayments for outpatient psychiatric services with those of other medical services, while Orac at Respectful Insolence offers some thoughts on improving NIH’s support of biomedical and behavioral research.

Elsewhere:

Jessica Pickett at Global Health Policy suggests that the perfect might be the enemy of the good when it comes to malaria treatment in Burkina Faso.

Becky Johnson at RH Reality Check reports on the International Women’s Summit on Women’s Leadership on HIV and AIDS.

Angry Toxicologist compares findings from a new study on the phthalate DEHP (regarding levels of DEHP metabolites in men’s urine and their thyroid hormone levels) to findings from previous studies on DEHP in rats.

JLowe at Impact Analysis explains why BPA is a textbook example of an environmental toxicology and health policy problem.

The Tangled Neuron reports on research linking the Chlamydia pneumoniae bacterium to Alzheimer’s (via Grand Rounds at Aetiology).

Barton Jones at Hazard’s Recognized discusses the difference between safety training and safety education.

Robert McClure at Dateline Earth pays tribute to Mike Dunne, an environmental journalist who “had a big heart, an open source list and a hearty word of encouragement for any reporter to turned to him for help.”