"A rule designed by the Environmental Protection Agency to keep groundwater clean near oil drilling sites and other construction zones was loosened ... after years of intense industry pressure, including court battles and behind-the-scenes agency lobbying," in addition to a letter from "a well-connected Texas oil executive" to White House advisor Karl Rove, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Expanding on earlier reports of growing product placement deals with TV news programs, Joan Stewart writes in Tactics, the monthly magazine from the Public Relations Society of America, that "in many cases, viewers don't know until the end of a five- or 10-minute spot that the segment is, in fact, advertising." For example, "in Minnes

According to its website, the PR firm Edelman has expanded and renamed its division aimed at marketing to ethnically diverse audiences. Rosa Alonso is joining Edelman as Senior Vice President to oversee Edelman Multicultural, which focuses primarily on Hispanic and African-American marketing.