Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel dismissed Mr. Iacocca on Wednesday as chairman of the commission and set off a public furor that pitted the Reagan Administration against a corporate leader of rare grass-roots popularity.
The announcement comes about a week after an officially commissioned review set off an uproar by recommending an end to the annual cap of £3,290, or $5,225, on college tuition.
The commission's review was set off by widespread outrage after consumers in San Diego saw their electricity bills triple this summer.
Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, said the administration's early review of the commission report did not set off any alarm bells "because it was not inconsistent with what we've been saying" about the ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq.
Brussels Zaventem, Belgium's main airport, set off the commission's investigation by complaining that Ryanair's contract with Charleroi broke state aid rules.
And even then it is not clear what would set off the commission's inquiry -- an establishment's failure to post signs, as the new law requires, or its failure to actually pluck cigarettes from smokers' mouths.
The recommendations set off a storm of reactions from all sides -- including commission members.
That decision undercut the election commission, which had earlier declared the results of the vote should stand, and set off angry protests from members of Parliament.
The issue — arguably the most contentious aspect of a federal crackdown on the $700 trillion marketplace for financial instruments known as derivatives – has set off a Wall Street lobbying frenzy and divided the trading commission's five-member panel.
In a vote along party lines, Arizona's Independent Redistricting Commission gave final approval to the congressional maps Tuesday, topping off a political soap opera that has consumed Phoenix and set off a constitutional crisis in Arizona.
On Tuesday the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission set off alarms when it said that such a leak might have happened in the No. 2 reactor at the plant, based on a high radiation reading in its drywell.
