The Filter: Is Obama Ditching Consumer Protection Push?

(Feb. 25) -- With so many news aggregators out there, who can keep up? AOL News filters the filters to steer you to the headlines that really matter.

Skip Those, Read This: The Huffington Post leads with, and The Daily Beast picks up, a Washington Post story suggesting President Barack Obama may abandon his push for a consumer protection agency. The White House is hoping to pass a larger financial reform, which could be hindered by an insistence on a new, stand-alone agency. Now, it appears a consumer affairs department may be set up inside the Treasury or in a new agency charged with regulating banks. But consumer advocates say that bank "supervisors have shoddy records on shielding customers from abusive financial practices," the Post reports. The Daily Beast also has an article, "How Obama Screwed Volcker," which further describes White House concessions on bank regulation.

Paterson Bombshell? After weeks of rumors and a slow drip of less-than-scandalous story, the New York Times may finally have dropped its big story on New York Gov. David Paterson. The Slatest leads with the Times' report, which says that the governor may have illegally used his influence to keep a woman from pressing assault charges against David Johnson, a senior Paterson aide. After the woman, who the Times doesn't identify, went to court in the Bronx, the State Police harassed her to drop the case, she claims. "The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that the woman was visited by a member of the governor's personal security detail," the Times reports. Then the governor called, her lawyer claims, and the woman didn't return to court.

Trade Tumbles: The Slatest picks up a British Guardian report that global trade fell 12 percent last year. The economic crisis that originated in the United States spread to nearly every corner of the world, according to the director general of the World Trade Organization. But he also said the global economy was picking up now: "Certainly there is a pick-up. Whether this pick-up is short term ... or whether this is sustainable ... is difficult to say but we certainly are picking up." But according to a Wall Street Journal article, carried by The Daily Beast, the euro is hurting Europe's recovery.

Overpaid? Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack believes bankers' pay is exorbitant, according to a Bloomberg report picked up by the Huffington Post. "I still don't think the industry gets it," Mack said Wednesday during an appearance in Charlotte, N.C. "The issue is not structure, it is amount." He cited the case of a 28-year-old trader who was offered $11 million in compensation by Morgan Stanley, but left for a hedge fund that offered him $25 million. Mack said he also told President Obama recently that the banks are unlikely to enact any reforms on their own.

Madoff -- no, Morgan: Pat's Papers picks up a New York Daily News report that Bernie Madoff's daughter-in-law and two grandkids are changing their last name to Morgan. "Petitioner wishes to avoid additional embarrassment, harassment and endangerment associated with the name 'Madoff' by changing my last name to 'Morgan,'" said court papers filed in Manhattan. Bernie Madoff remains in jail, sentenced to 150 years, for masterminding a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Only Howard Stern: The radio shock jock is organizing a beauty contest with a tabloid-driving twist: The contestants are former Tiger Woods mistresses. It's a Huffington Post story, picked up by The Slatest. Already, four of the golfer's alleged mistresses have signed on. AshleyMadison.com, a Web site for wayward spouses, is putting up the $100,000 in prize money.