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Lucy P. Marcus at Reuters on how GM can recover from the ignition switch recall scandal. “Congress will question why Barra’s most recent predecessors didn’t catch the defective switch. A likely explanation is that the board and senior management were so focused on digging GM out of bankruptcy that they weren’t paying attention to what else may have been going amiss,” Marcus writes. “The ignition switch recall has been a big test for Barra, and one that she has so far managed well. She reportedly learned the full extent of the problem on January 31, two weeks into her tenure as CEO. If Barra works closely with her executive team and board — and the board is committed to strong oversight and strategy — GM has a fair shot at succeeding.”
Ruth Marcus at The Washington Post on why Jonathan Pollard should be freed. “Today, no longer young, I woke up to the news that President Obama is considering releasing Pollard in a bid to keep Israeli-Palestinian peace talks from collapsing. It seems like time. I hold no brief for Pollard, now 59. He betrayed his country — for money. On the other hand: He spied for an ally, not an enemy. The sentence seems comparatively harsh,” Marcus writes. “But here we are, with release again on the table. Of course, there is something disconcerting — repulsive is only slightly too strong a word — about having justice used as a diplomatic bargaining chip. So here are words I never imagined writing when I stood outside his Dupont Circle apartment so long ago: Go ahead. Free Jonathan Pollard.”