Bottom line

• AVIATION. Lobbyists are at work trying to protect babies from in-flight turbulence. Heather Podesta + Partners has signed up with Baby B’Air Flight Vests, a Dallas-based company that makes safety vests for lap-held babies during flights, to lobby on “FAA regulations regarding use of child restraint devices,” according to lobbying disclosure records. Heather Podesta, once counsel for the late Rep. Bob Matsui (D-Calif.), and Benjamin Klein, once ex-Sen. Byron Dorgan’s (D-N.D.) legislative director, are advocating for the company. 

• BANKING. A former chief of staff to ex-Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) is helping out a Bangladeshi bank. Powell Moore, once an assistant secretary of Defense, has signed up to represent Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd. to lobby on “Anti money laundering.”

{mosads}• COMMUNICATIONS. Glenn Beck’s radio and television production company, Mercury Radio Arts Inc., has signed up Wiley Rein to lobby on “program carriage issues.” John Simpson, a former legislative aide to Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.); Scott Weaver, once chief of staff to former Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.); and Peter Krug, a former senior legislative aide to ex-Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) will lobbying for the company.  

 • ENERGY. Halliburton has added to its extensive lobbying team, contracting with Shockey Scofield Solutions to lobby on energy, immigration and transportation issues. Lobbyists Mike Ference, Jeff Shockey and John Scofield will be representing the energy giant. Halliburton has several other lobby firms on its payroll, including Patton Boggs and Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford. 

• ENVIRONMENT. Barrick Gold of North America Inc. has brought on Cassidy & Associates Inc. to lobby on conservation and endangered species issues. Kai Anderson, once deputy chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), and Janie Wise, who worked in the Energy Department’s legislative affairs shop, are among the lobbyists working on the account.  

 • FOREIGN RELATIONS. Hon. John Loeb Jr., once the U.S. ambassador to Denmark during the Reagan administration, has hired Poblete Tamargo to lobby on “claims against the government of Cuba.” Jason Poblete, once an aide to former Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), and Mauricio Tamargo, who used to work for Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), are representing the ex-ambassador.