[JURIST] In a major course-reversal, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (official website here), now a candidate for state governor in 2006, has said that he is ready to turn high-profile investigations of wrongdoing by investment banks, mutual funds and insurance companies over to federal regulators, suggesting that state-led crusades balkanize corporate regulation, and that federal agencies have lately become sufficiently aggressive to take the lead. Saturday's New York Times has more.

12/26/04 9:52 AM ET - In a statement criticizing the NYT article Saturday, Spitzer said he did not intend to turn over any existing inquiries to fderal regulators, and that his comments were limited to investigations with which his department was not already actively involved. Sunday's Times has more here.