News at Noon

Joseph Cassano, the much-maligned ex-chief of AIG’s Financial Products division, told a congressionally appointed commission on Wednesday that he truly believed what he told an earnings call with analysts and investors.

“I meant exactly what I said in August 2007,” Cassano said, according to prepared testimony for the hearing held by the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.

The hurricane was churning coastal waters across the oil-affected region on the Gulf of Mexico. Waves as high as 6 feet and winds over 25 mph were forecast through Thursday just off shore from the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.

In Louisiana, the storm pushed an oil patch toward Grand Isle and uninhabited Elmer’s Island, dumping tar balls as big as apples on the beach.

The review was released Wednesday. It says “misunderstandings and failed communications” and a “certain degree of fear” each man had for the other led to the confrontation.

It was compiled by a 12-member panel assembled in September.

Indeed, this is a moment of truth for the country straddling the dividing line between Europe’s Germanic and Latin cultures. Wallonia, Belgium’s French-speaking southern region, has struggled to recover economically from a postwar industrial decline, and its proponents argue that Dutch-speaking Flanders should show more solidarity in helping it through. But the Flemish, who see themselves as more entrepreneurial and outward-looking, label Wallonia as sponging and feckless. (See Justine Henin’s decision to retire in 2008.)

The split personality of the country emerged in a befuddling election earlier this month, which left the country with no viable government. The biggest party in the Belgian Parliament is now the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which seeks independence for Flanders, while the largest party in Wallonia is the Socialist Party (PS), which wants a stronger central government. Their respective leaders, the N-VA’s Bart De Wever and the PS’s Elio Di Rupo, are tentatively negotiating a coalition, but it is hard to see their common ground. A working coalition isn’t even likely until October, at the earliest.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.2 quake was centered in a sparsely populated, mountainous area of Oaxaca near the southern Pacific coast.

“It felt strong, very strong,” said Tomas Herrera Sanchez, a police officer on duty in the town of Santiago Pinotepa Nacional, the closest sizable town to the quake’s center. “There are people who got scared and left their houses,” but there were no immediate reports of damage, he said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will coordinate the plan, which calls for collecting about 70,000 turtle eggs in up to 800 nests buried in the sand across Florida Panhandle and Alabama beaches.

It’s never been done on such a massive scale. But doing nothing, experts say, could lead to unprecedented deaths. There are fears the turtles would be coated in oil and poisoned by crude-soaked food.

Obama is visiting Wisconsin on Wednesday to speak about the economy in Racine before taking questions in a town hall meeting.

The president is facing a public that is pessimistic about the economy. The latest Consumer Confidence Index, released Tuesday, showed its biggest drop since February and indicated Americans aren’t in the mood to spend. Those factors are worrying businesses and investors: The Dow Jones industrial average closed down nearly 270 points Tuesday.

House and Senate negotiators hoped for a vote in the House on Wednesday and to secure the votes of three straying Republicans in the Senate. The Senate vote, however, is not likely until after Congress’ weeklong July 4 break.

The death of Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., this week and fresh objections from Republican Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine had threatened to derail the bill, already a year in the making.

A group of retirees has gathered to hear Buck, a prosecutor who had little name recognition until he became a hero to conservatives by targeting illegal immigrants in northeast Colorado’s Weld County. For the past year, the indefatigable Buck has pitched a hard-right conservatism to tea party followers and GOP clubs, turning the Republican Senate primary into a fiercely competitive race.

His rival, Jane Norton, is a former lieutenant governor backed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and most Republican senators. She raised nearly $1 million her first few weeks in the race and once appeared to be a shoo-in. But she’s run into Republican resentment over the party’s failed choices in recent elections – and the denim-clad Buck’s tireless campaign and folksy charm.

Republicans who oppose her nomination will need to resort to a filibuster to block a confirmation vote, a prospect that seems less and less likely.

A few uncomfortable exchanges with Republican senators about her treatment of the military and her political views didn’t slow down Kagan during Tuesday’s hearing. She tried to assure conservatives that her work as a Clinton White House aide and as President Barack Obama’s solicitor general wouldn’t make her a partisan justice.