Interest in the United States over the time for the 'Public Option' on Google Search.

Washington (CNN) - With more than a billion searches being typed into Google a day, the search engine serves as a barometer for what's on the minds of Americans. And when it comes to politics in 2009, Americans were searching more for Henry Louis Gates over Sonia Sotomayor, AIG over TARP, and Mark Sanford over John Edwards.

The most searched-for-senator in 2009 was Ted Kennedy, followed by Bill Nelson - a likely mistake for people trying to find Ben Nelson who has played a large role in the health care debate. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, who were respectively the third and forth most searched for senators, were searched for more than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

When it came to terms people were searching surrounding the federal bail-out, the No. 1 search was AIG, followed by TARP, GM, and Auto. The word "Government" was the fifth-most searched bail out word in Google this year and "Bank" was the seventh-most searched. When it came to top economic search words Americans were looking for, "Crisis" and "Cash for Clunkers" were No. 1 and 2 and "Great Depression" and "inflation" were No. 9 and 10, respectively.

For all search terms surrounding the health care reform debate, more people were searching for "Rush Limbaugh" and "Glenn Beck" then were searching for the "public opinion" and "Medicare."

In a category Google calls "Their 15 Minutes" or "public figures who made headlines "this year-but may have wished they didn't," Americans searched for "Bernie Madoff" the most, followed by "Mark Sanford." "Rod Blagojevich" came in third followed by "John Edwards."

And in major stories this year, "swine flu" was the top search followed by "inauguration" and "Rush Limbaugh." "Henry Louis Gates" came in fifth and "Sonia Sotomayor" came in ninth, followed by "Mark Sanford."

More broadly, what was the top Google News search? "Swine Flu" and then "Susan Boyle." "Inauguration" was the seventh most-searched word in Google News this year, coming right before "New Moon," the Twilight box office sensation.

And for people who live inside Washington, D.C., they were searching for anything but politics. "FCPS Blackboard," the education company, was the first most searched phrase for Washingtonians, followed by the "E Street Cinema."

(CNN) – With less than six months until primary day in California, a new poll indicates GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman leads her Republican rivals, but slightly trails probable Democratic candidate Jerry Brown.

The Public Policy Institute of California survey, released late Thursday night, also suggests that most people in the Golden State are not paying much attention to campaign politics, with only 10 percent of likely voters watching the governors race "very closely" right now.

According to the poll, 32 percent of likely Republican primary voters are backing Whitman, the former eBay CEO, a billionaire with national party connections, and an adviser and surrogate last year for John McCain's presidential campaign. The survey indicates that former Rep. Tom Campbell is 20 points back at 12 percent, with 8 percent supporting State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. But more than 4 out of ten are undecided.

In a hypothetical general election matchup, the poll indicates Brown, the state's sitting attorney general and former two-term governor from 1975 to 1983, has a 6 point lead over Whitman. Brown, who has yet to declare his candidacy for governor, leads Campbell by 12 and Poizner by 16 points in possible matchups next year. About one in five voters are undecided in the general election matchups.

California's current governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is term limited and prevented from running for re-election next year. According to the survey, Schwarzenegger's approval rating as governor has hit a new low: 27 percent. But that's 10 points higher than the approval rating for the State Legislature, which matches their all time low of 17 percent back in July.

The survey suggests California voters continue to be extremely frustrated over the state's budget, which is projected to be nearly $21 billion in the red over the next year and a half.

The Public Policy of California poll was conducted December 1-8, with 2,004 adult state residents questioned by telephone. The survey has a sampling error of 3 percentage points for all likely voters and 5 percentage points for likely Republican primary voters.

– CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @psteinhausercnn

Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner is frustrated with the course health care reform legislation in the Senate is taking.

Washington (CNN) - Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner is frustrated with the course health care reform legislation in the Senate is taking, telling CNN the "bill has certainly gotten worse."

But the liberal lawmaker from New York, on CNN's American Morning Wednesday, said "I'm not prepared to say that we should throw out the whole process."

There have been increasing complaints from many on the left in recent days, as what they consider key elements of President Barack Obama's health care reform plan – including a public health insurance option and a compromise proposal that would allow individuals to buy in to the government run Medicare system at age 55 – have apparently been jettisoned to win the support of conservative Democrats, independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, who's part of the Democrats' 60 seat coalition in the Senate, and moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe. Some have said the bill has been so watered-down, it may be time to abandon it entirely.

"Every time conservatives or those that are concerned about costs step forward and say they have a problem, they take out something that helps reduce costs. You know, the public option was something that increased competition for private insurance companies and drove down costs; they took it out. Expanding Medicare to allow people not just 65 but 64, 55, the most expensive group to insure get covered under Medicare, now that's been dropped out," adds Weiner. "You know what's puzzling about all this is the very same people who say they're concerned about cost are the ones responsible for stripping out cost savings measures, so it really is a frustrating process to watch going on in the Senate."

Weiner hopes the bill can be improved in a House-Senate conference committee, saying, "I don't believe that you should let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and unlike some people in this town, I actually want to get health care reform passed. But when we go into a House/Senate conference, one of the things a lot of my colleagues are going to be asking are what are the things we can do to improve the choices that consumers have, make some competition for the insurance companies."

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Deans said earlier this week the Senate bill should be killed. Health care was one of the central issues of Dean's when the former Vermont governor ran for the White House in 2004.
"This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate," Dean told Vermont Public Radio on Tuesday. "Honestly, the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House."

Weiner, a six-term congressman who represents a district in New York City, says "what Governor Deans has said is not wrong.
Weiner adds that he reserves to right to join Dean "at the end of the day."

"This does have to get better," says Weiner.

Max Baucus's spokesman confirms Hanes pay raise.

Washington (CNN) - Montana Sen. Max Baucus gave an employee with whom he later became romantically involved a raise of nearly $14,000 and recommended her for a U.S. attorney position, his spokesman confirmed Friday.

But spokesman Ty Matsdorf said Melodee Hanes' raise was comparable to the pay boost given to other members of the senator's senior staff at the same time – identical to his legislative director's pay bump, and less than his chief of staff's.

Hanes was paid $126,541 total for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, according to congressional records.

The former prosecutor, who currently works for the Justice Department, withdrew her nomination for U.S. attorney in March of 2009 because her relationship with Baucus was "changing and growing increasingly serious," according to an aide to the senator. The aide said the decision had been under discussion for several weeks before – though "around the same time as" - a March inquiry about the relationship from a Missoulian reporter.

Matsdorf also defended a taxpayer-funded overseas trip Baucus and Hanes had taken in 2008, telling CNN that the former state director had traveled in her official capacity, and had taken similar international trips without the senator.

Baucus, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, says the pair began a romantic relationship in the summer of 2008. Both had separated from their spouses at that point. Matsdorf confirmed that Hanes met with Baucus's divorce attorney in the summer of 2007, saying those meetings also took place in her official capacity.

"Melodee Hanes' interactions were in her official role as State Director and focused on scheduling and logistics, including how a potential separation between Senator Baucus and Wanda could impact the Senator's travel and work," he said in a statement.

The Tennessee Republican said his 22-year-old daughter, Julia, stopped the family's 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe not far from their apartment - just nine blocks from the U.S. Capitol building - to help someone she thought needed directions Wednesday night.

"A gentleman appeared, opened the door, grabbed her by the neck," the senator told CNN on Thursday. "She kicked to try to get away ... and he threw her on the pavement and drove away."

A short time later, two suspects were taken into custody in a parking lot in Seat Pleasant, Maryland. Corker credited the vehicle's OnStar service with helping to find it.

OnStar is a navigation and tracking system that General Motors installs in its new vehicles.

Full story

Join the conversation on Jack's blog.

Abortion is the political hot potato that could derail health care reform entirely.

It caused major disagreements in the House – and the Senate is now wrestling with how to address the issue. Democrat Ben Nelson says he will introduce an anti-abortion amendment... and that he won't vote for the health care bill unless this language gets added.

Nelson and others aren't satisfied with Majority Leader Harry Reid's current plan – that is to forbid including abortion coverage as a required medical benefit – but to allow a new government insurance plan to cover abortions and let private insurers that get federal money offer plans that include coverage for abortion.

In the House – a group of anti-abortion Democrats added restrictions that would forbid any health plan that gets federal money from paying for abortions – except in the case of rape, incest or to save the mother's life. Also under the House bill, a new government insurance plan couldn't offer abortions – and women would have to buy separate coverage for abortion services.

To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion, click here

Obama: India-U.S. relations to be a 'defining partnership' for the 21st century.

Washington (CNN) – America's president and India's prime minister agreed Tuesday to team up and tackle a checklist of economic, research, nuclear, security, and environmental challenges.

In what is the first state visit of his presidency, President Barack Obama welcomed India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the White House Tuesday morning.

Obama and Singh had what they called a productive sit-down meeting and then briefed reporters with comments that reiterated what both nations believe will be a strong relationship in the years to come.

Calling India "the world's largest multiethnic democracy " with a fast growing economy, Obama said, "I believe that the relationship between the United States and India will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century" and will reflect the "strategic dialogue" between the countries.

"We're the world's two largest democracies. We have a range of shared values and ideals. We're both entrepreneurial societies. We're both multi-ethnic societies. We are societies that believe in human rights and core freedoms that are enshrined in our founding documents," said Obama, who also stressed the dynamic role of the growing Indian-American community.

Singh's visit comes amid India's always tense relationship with nuclear rival Pakistan, regional concerns over the fighting in Afghanistan, and the burgeoning trade relationship between the United States and India - a country of 1.2 billion people with a growing and influential diaspora in America. It also comes about a year after the deadly terror attack on the Indian city of Mumbai.

Obama said he and Singh "agreed to strengthen the economic recovery and expand trade and investment" in order to create jobs from both nations.

"Indian investment in America is creating and sustaining jobs across the United States, and the United States is India's largest trading and investment partner," said Obama.

As for the U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement, Obama said he has "reaffirmed to the prime minister my administration's commitment to fully implement" the deal, which Singh signed with former President George W. Bush.

Both countries are attempting to put the finishing touches on implementing the deal, which would provide for the development of Indian nuclear power for peaceful uses.

Obama also supported Singh's backing for nuclear nonproliferation
efforts.

"I look forward to India's participation in our nuclear summit ... next year, as well as India's participation as a full partner in our shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons."

Ahead of the upcoming Copenhagen climate change framework meeting, Obama said he and Singh settled on a "comprehensive" agreement that would "cover all the issues under negotiation," building on the "progress" that Obama recently made on a trip to Beijing.

Obama said he and Singh have agreed to pursue new efforts, such as a "clean energy initiative," "more affordable energy," "a green partnership to reduce poverty," and an effort "to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels."

"We resolved to take significant national mitigation actions that will strengthen the world's ability to combat climate change. We agreed to stand by these commitments with full transparency, through appropriate processes, as to their implementation," he said.

As for security, he and Singh decided to work closer on information-sharing to prevent the kind of militant attack that happened in Mumbai last year, and they discussed Obama's Afghan policy review, which is expected to lead to an announcement on troop levels next week.

Obama said the pair agreed to widen education exchanges in science and technology, and ties between universities and colleges. He said both countries want researchers to work together to reduce hunger and fight disease.

Singh touched on the same topics as Obama, and invited Obama and his family to visit India, an invitation Obama accepted.

Noting that the global economic crisis illustrates "the fact that our prosperity is interlinked," Singh reiterated what Obama said about tightening their relationship on trade and investment.

"We admire the leadership that President Obama has provided to stimulate and guide the G-20 process that is now fully in place," he said.

He also endorsed collaboration in education, health and agriculture.

"We will deepen our ongoing cooperation in frontier areas of science and technology, nuclear power and space," Singh said, also noting that the leaders agreed on the "early" and the "full implementation of our civil nuclear cooperation agreement."

As for climate change, he said he and Obama "have agreed on the need for a substantive and comprehensive outcome which would cover mitigation, adaptation, finance and technology."

Singh also brought up another issue: that the U.S.-India "strategic partnership should facilitate transfer of high technologies to India."

"The lifting of U.S. export controls on high-technology exports to India will open vast opportunities for joint research and development efforts," he said. "It will enable U.S. industry to benefit from the rapid economic and technological transformation that is now under way in our country.

On the subject of Afghanistan, Singh pointed out the importance of the world community helping the war-wracked country emerge "as a modern state."

"The forces of terrorism in our region pose a grave threat to the entire civilized world and have to be defeated. President Obama and I have decided to strengthen our cooperation in the area of counterterrorist."

In the evening, Singh and his wife will attend the state dinner in a tent on the South Lawn, with Grammy- and Oscar-award-winning singer and actress Jennifer Hudson scheduled to entertain the black-tie crowd.

Singh's visit - his second to Washington after meeting with then- President George W. Bush - will last five days. He arrived in the United States Sunday.

On Monday, he attended a luncheon hosted by the U.S. India Business Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and he addressed the Council on Foreign Relations.

At the business luncheon, Singh underscored economic relationships as the "bedrock" of other forms of ties - social, cultural and political. At the Council of Foreign Relations, the prime minister spoke about moving beyond bilateral engagements to having a "strategic partnership (with the United States) of global dimensions."

On Wednesday, Singh will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates and will later attend a reception for the Indian community hosted by Indian Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar.

Singh will leave Washington on Thursday and fly to Port of Spain, Trinidad, to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit.

The 77-year-old Singh is a Cambridge- and Oxford-educated economist who was governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1982-1985 and the nation's finance minister from 1991-1996.

A member of the Congress Party, he is serving a second five-year term as prime minister. He was first sworn in in May 2004 and again in May of this year. He and his wife of 51 years, Gursharan Kaur, have three daughters.

–CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh in New Delhi contributed to this report

In the Senate, a unanimous sentiment: Praise for Robert Byrd.

Washington (CNN) – Plaudits are rolling in from both sides of the Senate aisle for U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd as the passionate and painstaking Democratic senator from West Virginia became the longest-serving member of the U.S. Congress Wednesday.

On the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and others issued moving tributes to the larger-than-life legislator, who served six years in the House and then nearly 51 years and counting in the Senate.

The senators marveled at Byrd's milestones:

He became the only person ever elected to nine full terms in the Senate,
served in Congress for 20,774 days, cast more than 18,000 Senate votes, and is the longest-serving member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He presided over the Senate's shortest and longest continuous sessions.

He is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of Senate rules and has never lost an election.

"Throughout history, forecasters have subjected themselves to ridicule for prematurely assuming a skyscraper's height would never be topped, a promising invention's ingenuity would never be outdone or for contending an athletic feat would never be surpassed," said Reid, the Democrat from Nevada.

"I am willing to risk predicting that many of the records set by Sen. Robert Byrd will never be passed."

Byrd surpassed Carl T. Hayden, the Arizona Democrat who served a total of 20,773 days in the U.S. House and Senate. McConnell, the Kentucky Republican quoted Byrd as saying that one has to work at being a good senator and that now, "longer than anyone else in our history, he's lived by those words."

"Carl Hayden was known to many as the silent senator. That probably isn't a phrase many would use to describe Sen. Byrd, but what they both share is an undying love of this great country of ours and of the United States Congress," McConnell said.

Byrd, who is to turn 92 on Friday, was raised by an aunt and uncle after his mother died when he was a year old. He hadn't graduated from college until he received a degree in 1994 from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. In a sign of his Appalachian roots, Byrd was an avid fiddle player who appeared twice on the television program "Hee Haw," but gave up playing in the 1980s due to a tremor in his hands.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Byrd's colleague from West Virginia, warmly congratulated and praised Byrd, noting the "tremendous respect and the unwavering admiration" throughout the Senate and for the voice and the vision he gave to his fellow West Virginians.

"Most importantly and most powerfully," he said. "Sen. Byrd always makes me so very proud to be a West Virginian."

In Charleston, the West Virginia state capital, an afternoon ceremony with West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, will honor Byrd and it will be followed by an exhibit illustrating his accomplishments that include "photos from throughout his distinguished career, his beloved fiddle and other personal memorabilia."

"Sen. Byrd sets the gold standard for what it means to be an outstanding public official," Manchin said recently.

In a statement issued by his office, Byrd expressed his gratitude to "the people of the great State of West Virginia" for their long-standing confidence in him.

His only regret, he said, was that his wife, Erma, who died in 2006, would not be with him.

"I know that she is looking down from the heavens smiling at me and saying congratulations my dear Robert - but don't let it go to your head," Byrd's statement said.

His early political years displayed some of the deeply rooted racism of the American South. Byrd was a member of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan in the early 1940s, and later called it "the most egregious mistake I've ever made."

In 1964, he voted against the Civil Rights Act pushed by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. But Byrd later followed a more traditional Democratic path.

An ardent foe of President George W. Bush's policies in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Byrd opposed creating the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 and called Bush "dangerous, reckless and arrogant" in February 2003, six weeks before the Iraq war started.

Three months later, he criticized Bush's landing a jet on the USS Abraham Lincoln to signal the end of the Iraq war as "flamboyant showmanship."

Things have changed since he arrived in Washington as a new congressman in 1953, along with the first Eisenhower administration. Gas cost 20 cents a gallon back then, and the average annual salary was less than $4,000.

Ten presidents later, Byrd is known for his devotion to his state and constituents.

"Although we are marking a longevity milestone, it has been the quality and dedication of service that has guided me over the years," Byrd said in his statement. "I have strived to provide the people of West Virginia the best representation possible each of the 20,774 days which I have served in the Congress of the United States."

He thanked his constituents for their support and for "putting their trust and faith in me."

Slowed by illness in recent years, including a six-week hospital stay this year due to a staph infection, Byrd concluded his statement with typical bravado.

"The only way for me to close on this historic day is to say that I look forward to serving you for the next 56 years and 320 days," he said. "Thank you and may God bless you."

–CNN's Tom Cohen contributed to this report

Rell leads in a new poll, but announced she is not seeking re-election.

(CNN) - A new poll suggests that Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell's approval rating is on the rise and that she would beat all her potential Democratic challengers in next year's election. The only problem, Rell is not running for re-election.

According to a Quinnipiac University survey, 64 percent of registered voters in Connecticut approve of the job Rell is doing as governor, up 5 points from September. The poll's Tuesday release comes just hours after Rell, a Republican, announced she would not seek re-election in 2010.

The survey indicates that Rell would top Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz 46 percent to 40 percent, leads businessman Ned Lamont 53 percent to 33 percent, and Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy by 19 points, in hypothetical general election matchups.

In a possible Democratic primary matchup, Bysiewicz gets 26 percent to 23 percent for Lamont, with 9 percent for Malloy, according to the poll.

With Rell not running for re-election, the Democratic Governors Association is moving Connecticut into its top tier of targeted 2010 pickup races.

"We are fortunate to have a strong field of Democratic candidates who are well-known public servants, each of whom has the knowledge, leadership, and judgment to
guide the state through these tough economic times," says Nathan Daschle, DGA executive director, in a press release.

Connecticut appears to be friendly territory for Democrats. President Obama won the state by 23 points and Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature. But the last Democrat to win a gubernatorial contest in Connecticut was William O'Neil in 1986.

Rell took over as Connecticut governor in July 2004, when predecessor John Rowland resigned in a corruption probe that eventually landed him behind bars. Rell was elected to her own full term in 2006, winning 63 percent of the vote.

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted November 3-8, with 1,236 Connecticut registered voters questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points for the overall sample.

Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @psteinhausercnn

The CNN Washington Bureau’s morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world.

WASHINGTON/POLITICAL
For the latest political news: www.CNNPolitics.com.

CNN: Optional public option enters health care talks
Senate Democratic leaders met Thursday night with White House officials to consider including a government-funded public health insurance option, along with a provision allowing states to opt out of it, in a health care overhaul bill.

CNN: Hate crimes bill goes to Obama for signature
The Senate passed groundbreaking legislation Thursday that would make it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.

CNN: Cheney: Obama seems 'afraid' to make decision on Afghanistan
After dialing back his attacks on President Obama's foreign policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney says the administration has damaged U.S. ties with key allies, dangerously wavered in Afghanistan, undermined progress in Iraq and sabotaged the Bush administration's national security legacy.

CNN: Gibbs hits back at Cheney
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs fired back Thursday at the latest criticisms from Dick Cheney, and suggested the Bush administration did not send U.S. troops into foreign conflicts responsibly.

CNN: Pelosi chastises Cheney for saying Obama 'afraid'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back Thursday at former Vice President Dick Cheney's comment that President Barack Obama seems "afraid to make a decision" about his strategy in Afghanistan.

Washington Post: For Kerry, a growing role on foreign policy stage
Five years after his painful loss to George W. Bush, ending a presidential campaign in which he was accused of being an Iraq war defeatist who was too willing to talk to America's adversaries, Sen. John F. Kerry has finally found his place in the foreign policy spotlight.

CNN: Stimulus debate heats up as Dems push aid for small business
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Congress is set to consider a measure increasing the amount of money the federal government can lend to small businesses.

CNN: Bands want to know if their music was used on Gitmo detainees
A coalition of top musicians, including R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, want to know if their music was used by the U.S. military as part of controversial interrogation methods at the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Moves to Protect Habitat of Polar Bears
The Obama administration is setting aside 200,000 square miles in Alaska and off its coast as "critical habitat" for polar bears, an action that could increase restrictions on future offshore drilling for oil and gas.

CNN Poll: Is the worst of the recession over?
The number of Americans who think the country's economy is currently in very poor shape is on the rise, according to a new national poll. But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday also indicates that a growing number of Americans think the worst of the recession is over.

CNN Poll: 3 out of 4 want illegal immigration decreased
A new national poll indicates that nearly three-quarters of all Americans would like to see a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants in the country.

Washington Post: In Massachusetts, Obama won't promote state's plan
President Obama will travel Friday to Massachusetts, one of only two states to implement a universal health-care program similar to his ambitions for the entire country. But he does not plan to use the trip to make his case for far-reaching reform; he will tout clean energy and raise money for the Democratic governor.

CNN: Joe Wilson's wife diagnosed with swine flu
Rep. Joe Wilson's wife Roxanne has been diagnosed with swine flu, the congressman's office confirmed to CNN on Thursday.

CNN: Palin endorses in New York race, while Pawlenty holds back
Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty, two Republicans widely viewed as possible 2012 White House hopefuls, weighed in Thursday night on the closely-watched special election in New York's 23rd congressional district. They chose very different approaches – but neither endorsed the GOP candidate.

McClatchy: FBI looks at bribery allegations against Alaska Rep. Young
An Alaska businessman admitted to giving gifts to Republican Rep. Don Young, the state's long-serving sole congressman, in a confession made public this week as part of an ongoing federal investigation into political corruption in the state.

Washington Post: U.S. urges probe of Sri Lanka war
The State Department's top war crimes official called on Sri Lanka on Thursday to conduct a "genuine" investigation into allegations of war crimes by Sri Lankan troops and Tamil rebels during the bloody final months of the country's 25-year-long civil war.

New York Times: Senators Question the Role of ‘Czars’
Several senators on Thursday morning sharply questioned the need for so many policy “czars” at the White House, with Republicans and Democrats both citing historical concerns that such presidential advisers often fall outside the scrutiny of Congressional review.

CNN: FCC proposes new rules of the road for the Internet
The Federal Communications Commission took the first step Thursday in a process intended to formalize and further define principles governing management of the Internet's infrastructure by the nation's broadband access service providers.

CNN: Sanford: National political efforts had become distraction
Before an extramarital affair came to light in June that effectively ended his future political ambitions, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said repeatedly that he was not thinking about running for president in 2012, despite clear indications that he was working to build a national profile among conservatives.

Washington Post: After war, a Biden's new battle
On Sept. 30, a ceremony in front of the Delaware statehouse welcomed the 261st Theater Tactical Signal Brigade home from Iraq to the brick buildings of Dover.

New York Times: For History, a Special Substitute Teacher
Talk about a field trip. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. brought his 11-year-old granddaughter, Finnegan, with him for his three-day trip through Eastern Europe and gave her some first-hand lessons in modern diplomacy and Cold War history.

First on the Ticker: Leading Democrat warns of tough midterm
Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen warned fellow Democrats Thursday that they are heading into a challenging midterm election, but assured them that everything is being done to head off major losses in 2010.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Chris Daggett: Profile of an independent
How many people, Chris Daggett wants to know, feel well represented by Republicans or Democrats in Trenton?

CNN: GOP fault lines on display in NY-23
If Democrat Bill Owens manages to claim victory in next month's special congressional election in upstate New York, he'll have some unlikely benefactors to thank.

Washington Post: Deeds ignored advice, White House says
Sensing that victory in the race for Virginia governor is slipping away, Democrats at the national level are laying the groundwork to blame a loss in a key swing state on a weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election.

CNN: Graham attacked over cap-and-trade in new ad
An interest group supported by energy companies is attacking Sen. Lindsey Graham in his own backyard over his willingness to support cap-and-trade legislation.

Boston Globe: Fiscal policy role fuels Frank fund-raising
Representative Barney Frank’s central role in drafting new regulations for the US financial industry has dramatically boosted his power as a political fund-raiser, helping him increase campaign contributions by almost a third more than at this point in the last election cycle.

CNN: Poll: Bloomberg widens lead in NYC Mayoral race
With less than two weeks until election day, a new poll suggests that Michael Bloomberg holds a 16-point lead over his Democratic rival as the New York City mayor bids for a third term in office.

CNN: Obama signs bill to improve budgeting for veterans' health care
President Barack Obama on Thursday signed a bill to ensure that government funding for veterans' health care avoids any gaps in the budgeting process.

CNN: Pawlenty heads to Washington for first PAC fundraiser
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is holding the first fundraiser for his newly-formed political action committee Thursday night in Washington.

CNN: New Jersey poll shows Daggett gaining
A new poll of New Jersey voters suggests independent candidate Chris Daggett continues to make gains in that state's highly competitive gubernatorial race, primarily peeling support away from Republican challenger Chris Christie in campaign's final days.

NATIONAL
For the latest national news: www.CNN.com.

CNN: Detained immigrant children face legal maze in U.S.
When "Marta" was 12, she entered the United States illegally, hoping to join her mother, who had left her in Central America years ago to search for work. Three years later she was sitting in immigration detention by herself waiting to be deported back home to her grandmother, who was dying of cancer.

CNN: Small town killing puts focus on crimes against Latinos
Crystal Dillman says she will never understand why a group of teenage boys beat her fiancé to death.

Washington Post: Scramble to parcel out H1N1 vaccine
The federal government's unprecedented campaign to protect the nation against the swine flu pandemic has gotten off to a sputtering start, frustrating parents, pregnant women and others anxious to get immunized against the new virus.

Los Angeles Times: H1N1 vaccine a tough sell to pregnant women
As the H1N1 influenza vaccine trickles into clinics and pharmacies over the next few weeks, public health officials and doctors desperately hope that pregnant women will be at the front of the line for the shot. Past influenza pandemics have proved that they're at increased risk for severe complications - and they appear to be even more vulnerable to this new flu strain.

CNN: Airliner crew flies 150 miles past airport
A Northwest Airlines flight from San Diego, California, overshot the Minneapolis, Minnesota, airport by about 150 miles Wednesday evening, and federal investigators are looking into whether the pilots had become distracted, as they claimed, or perhaps fell asleep.

CNN: Justice Department announces 300 drug arrests
The Justice Department on Thursday announced 300 additional arrests in a four-year operation that it says produced nearly 1,200 arrests and seizures totaling 11.7 tons of illegal drugs.

CNN: Organized crime's new target: Medicare and Medicaid
Organized crime gangs are exploiting a new target for illegal profit: Medicare and Medicaid.

USA TODAY: Hurricane alleys get big break
When a hurricane hits South Florida, the employees at Beach Ace Hardware, two blocks from the ocean in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, work until the sheriff's department warns it is shutting the bridge that connects the beachfront town to the mainland.

CNN: Taser makers say don't aim at chest
The maker of Taser stun guns has advised law enforcement agencies to avoid hitting suspects in the chest, partly "to minimize controversy."

CNN: San Francisco police look at 'Night Stalker' for 25-year-old case
The San Francisco Police Department is reopening a 25-year-old homicide that may be linked to convicted killer Richard Ramirez, known during his 1984-85 spree as the Night Stalker.

CNN: Katherine Jackson replaces lawyers in estate battle
Michael Jackson's mother fired the lawyers helping her fight for control of her son's estate, but her new lawyer missed a key hearing where the judge gave more power to the men she is opposing.

CNN: Lil Wayne pleads guilty to weapons charge
Hip-hop artist Lil Wayne pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted criminal possession of a weapon, the Manhattan district attorney's office said.

INTERNATIONAL
For the latest international news: http://edition.cnn.com/

CNN: Refusing runoff would be 'insulting democracy,' Karzai says
Afghanistan's president is downplaying accusations of widespread fraud in his country's recent elections, but he's emphasizing the importance of a runoff for the sake of ensuring peace and stability in his nascent and war-torn democracy.

New York Times: A Lone Cleric Is Loudly Defying Iran’s Leaders
A short midlevel cleric, with a neat white beard and a clergyman’s calm bearing, Mehdi Karroubi has watched from his home in Tehran in recent months as his aides have been arrested, his offices raided, his newspaper shut down. He himself has been threatened with arrest and, indirectly, the death penalty.

CNN: Iraqis top list of refugees seeking asylum
For the fourth year in a row, Iraqis top a growing roster of people seeking asylum in an industrialized nation. They are just ahead of people fleeing wars in Afghanistan and Somalia, said a report published by the U.N. refugee agency Wednesday.

Wall Street Journal: China, India Stoke 21st-Century Rivalry
In the brewing discord between two giant, ambitious nations, even a remote meadow in the Himalayas is worth fighting over.

CNN: Is Mexico winning its war on drugs?
Mexico's arrest of drug cartel suspects has become fairly commonplace. On Thursday, it was six suspected members of La Familia, based in Michoacan. A day earlier, it was a man identified as a top leader of the ruthless Zetas.

CNN: Strong earthquake rocks Afghanistan
A strong earthquake rumbled deep beneath mountainous regions northeast of Kabul early Friday, waking residents and sending some into the streets.

Wall Street Journal: Afghan Ballots Go Out, by Air and Donkey
Afghan authorities and the United Nations, supported by U.S.-led international forces, began distributing millions of ballots, tamper-proof ink and equipment for a runoff presidential election on Nov. 7.

CNN: 'I am not a Nazi,' National Party leader says on BBC
British National Party leader Nicholas Griffin denied Thursday in a controversial appearance on a popular BBC television program that he is a Nazi.

CNN: French Red Cross worker abducted in Darfur
Several armed men Thursday abducted a French national working for the Red Cross in Sudan's volatile Darfur region, the agency said.

CNN: Clergyman linked to Rwandan genocide seized in Italy
A Rwandan accused of "complicity" in the massacre of students at the college he headed during the country's genocide 15 years ago has been arrested in Italy, where he served as a clergyman, an international police agency said.

BUSINESS
For the latest business news: www.CNNMoney.com.

CNN: Windows 7 born from Vista's frustrations
If consumers like the new Windows 7 operating system, they'll have the much-maligned Windows Vista to thank.

Los Angeles Times: Solar energy firm takes advantage of auto industry's manufacturing expertise
Skyline Solar, a Silicon Valley start-up, has become the latest green energy company to tap the struggling auto industry's manufacturing muscle.

CNNMoney: 3 AIG execs get bonus OK from pay czar
In the end, pay czar Kenneth Feinberg's hardest case was AIG.

New York Times: Pay Cuts, but Little Headway in What Matters Most
And then the country’s pay czar descended from the mountaintop, or at least from his Washington law office, and handed down his rulings. And for his 175 subjects — er, I mean the 25 most highly paid executives at the seven big companies that still hold billions of dollars in government assistance — his rulings were painful.

CNNMoney: Insurers not improving nation's health care
The quality of health care for millions of Americans insured through commercial or public plans has stopped improving for the first time in more than a decade, according to an industry accreditation group's report issued Thursday.

Bloomberg: New Jersey Pays Goldman Sachs for Swaps on Nonexistent Bonds
New Jersey taxpayers are sending almost $1 million a month to a partnership run by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. for protection against rising interest costs on bonds that the state redeemed more than a year ago.

In Case You Missed It
To watch the latest interviews and reporting: http://www.cnn.com/video.

CNN: Qatar and the recession
MME addresses the issues of the recession to the Former Economy and Commerce Minister Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Jassim Al Thani.

Subscribe to the CNN=Politics DAILY podcast at http://www.cnn.com/politicalpodcast.

And now stay posted on the latest from the campaign trail by downloading the CNN=Politics SCREENSAVER at http://www.CNN.com/situationroom.

Playoff PAC was formed to push for a playoff in the college football championship series, according to one of the PAC's organizers.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - A new political effort is afoot to reform to the NCAA Bowl Championship Series. Playoff PAC, a federal political action committee, was launched Monday by six men bound together by law school ties or work on Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

The new organization is "dedicated to establishing a competitive post-season championship for college football," according to a statement posted on the PAC's Web site www.playoffpac.com.

"To that end, Playoff PAC helps elect pro-reform political candidates, mobilizes public support, and provides a centralized source of pro-reform news, thought, and scholarship," organizers said in the statement.

Bentley Peay, who helped create the PAC and is one of its six board members, said in a phone interview Tuesday that the group's goal is to ratchet up political pressure in support of getting a playoff instituted in the BCS.

In past years, Peay said, other efforts to pressure the BCS to change, like petition drives and boycotts, had been "unorganized and ineffective." The PAC was created to support and defend candidates who are petitioning or arguing for a playoff.

Proposals calling for similar changes have been circling on the Hill for years, and the PAC already has some congressional support. In a statement on the PAC's Web site, Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch said he backs having a playoff in the championship series.

"I'm supportive of all reasonable efforts to ensure that students and schools are treated fairly and a national playoff system being advocated by Playoff PAC seems like a reasonable way to accomplish that goal," says Hatch.

Peay says the PAC is already at work to garner more support in Congress.

The White House tightly managed Sotomayor's nomination, including which suit she wore at her nomination ceremony.

(CNN) - Just how tightly scripted did the White House manage U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's nomination process?

Obama administration officials even picked out which suit Sotomayor wore when President Obama formally announced her as his nominee for the high court early this summer.

According to the New Haven Register, Sotomayor told fellow classmates at her Yale Law School Reunion over the weekend she had planned to buy a new outfit for the event, but the White House instead asked she bring five suits to Washington, one of which they would pick for her to wear.

Sotomayor also discussed the administration's grueling vetting process, which included the dispatch of an FBI agent to investigate a parking ticket she incurred more than two years ago, according to the Yale Daily News.

Sotomayor, who graduated from Yale in 1979, also described her first meeting with President Obama last spring.

"It was a conversation like none other that I have ever had," adding that she "almost fainted."

Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be in Hong Kong this week to address about 1,000 investors from around the globe.

HONG KONG, China (CNN) - Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be in Hong Kong Wednesday to address about 1,000 investors from around the globe in what is billed as her first speech outside North America.

Palin, who recently stepped down as Alaska's governor, will make the keynote speech on Wednesday to the 16th CLSA Investors' Forum. She will cover governance, economics and current events in the United States and Asia, said Simone Wheeler, head of communications for CLSA.

"What we look to do is invite our keynote speakers who we feel are opinion makers, who are newsworthy and who we feel our clients - a very broad international client base - would be interested in hearing from," Wheeler said Monday, noting that CLSA is a politically neutral, independent brokerage. "We certainly believe that Sarah Palin will be - she has been in the news - we believe that she will continue to be a newsmaker in the future and therefore someone we feel that is definitely of interest to fund managers."

Full story

Obama and Paterson will attend the same event in Troy, New York Monday.

(CNN) - Call it interesting timing.

New York Gov. David A. Paterson attends an economy event with President Barack Obama today in Troy, New York.

The event comes one day after Paterson said he will run next year for election for a full term as governor, despite a New York Times report that said the White House is "urging" him to withdraw.

Senior White House officials deny the report, which said that President Obama "sent a request" to Paterson. The paper described it as "an extraordinary intervention into a state political race by the president."

The Times report cited "two senior administration officials and a New York Democratic operative with direct knowledge of the situation."

Speaking to CNN, White House officials acknowledged that aides have conveyed to Paterson's camp that they are aware of Paterson's unpopularity at home and the political troubles it could cause.

"It's no secret that Democrats in New York are very concerned about the situation," said one White House official. "We share those concerns and those concerns have been conveyed in an appropriate way."

Paterson told reporters Sunday, "I am running for office. I'm not going to discuss confidential conversations." He said he was focused on state legislation, not "distractions."

The New York Times story said the situation is "delicate," and noted that Paterson is one of only two African-American governors in the United States, the other being Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.

The report said the president's "political team and other party leaders have grown increasingly worried that the governor's unpopularity could drag down Democratic members of Congress in New York, as well as the Democratic-controlled Legislature, in next fall's election."

Paterson was lieutenant governor when a scandal led to then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer's departure from the office in March 2008.

Recent polls suggest that Paterson's approval rating among New York State voters ranges from the low 20's to around 30 percent. And surveys suggest Paterson trails New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in a hypothetical Democratic gubernatorial primary by more than a two to one margin. Cuomo has not indicated whether he will challenge Paterson in 2010, but the son of former New York State Governor Mario Cuomohas amassed a large war chest.

Polls also indicate that Paterson trails former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in a hypothetical 2010 general election match up by nearly a two to one margin. Giuliani, a Republican presidential candidate in the 2008 campaign, has not decided whether he'll run for governor.

– CNN's Ed Henry and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) - Former President Jimmy Carter reiterated Wednesday that he believes racism is an issue for President Obama in trying to lead the country.

"When a radical fringe element of demonstrators and others begin to attack the president of the United States as an animal or as a reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or when they wave signs in the air that said we should have buried Obama with Kennedy, those kinds of things are beyond the bounds," the Democrat who served from 1977-1981 told students at Emory University.

"I think people who are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African American.

Full story

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Two links (Miller's ActBlue listing and fundraising page) allowing people to donate to Rep. Congressman Joe Wilson's opponent Rob Miller went viral last night on e-mail, Twitter and Facebook, raising approximately $100,000, according to the liberal group pushing for the contributions.

The links came from online fundraising site ActBlue, and the first donation via the links came in at 9:30 p.m. ET last night. ActBlue's two links were clicked on over 3,000 times. The overwhelming majority of those clicks came in from people e-mailing the links, followed by a people sharing the link on Twitter. A smaller number of donors put the link on Facebook.

ActBlue Deputy Communications Director Adrian Arroyo told CNN that the donations have come in from over 5,000 individuals.

(CNN) – A year to the day before his passing, Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy delivered a memorable speach at the 2008 Democratic convention in Denver, Colorado.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver speaks at a dinner in honor of the Special Olympics in July 2006.

(CNN) - Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy and a champion of the disabled who founded the Special Olympics, died Tuesday, the Special Olympics said. She was 88.

Born on July 10, 1921, in Brookline, Massachusetts, Shriver was the fifth of nine children to Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. She emerged from the long shadow of siblings John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as the founder of the Special Olympics, which started as a summer day camp in her backyard in 1962.

Today, 3.1 million people with mental disabilities participate in 228 programs in 170 nations, according to the Special Olympics.

"She was the light of our lives, a mother, wife, grandmother, sister and aunt who taught us by example and with passion what it means to live a faith-driven life of love and service to others," the Shriver family said Tuesday in a statement.

"For each of us, she often seemed to stop time itself - to run another Special Olympics Games, to visit us in our homes, to attend to her own mother, her sisters and brothers, and to sail, tell stories, and laugh and serve her friends."

No final decision has been made on funeral arrangements, a source close to the family said.

Full story

(CNN) - Relatives of Eunice Kennedy Shriver were summoned to a hospital on Cape Cod, Massachusetts Monday, a source close to the family told CNN.

"It's minute-to-minute right now," the source said.

Shriver, 88, has been was in the hospital for several days, her family said, and her relatives were summoned after she suffered a "setback," the source said.

Shriver founded Special Olympics. She is the sister of former President John F. Kennedy.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Goodbye, Walter. I'll miss you, even though it's been a while since we last spoke. I'll miss what you stood for even more.

Walter Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening News for nineteen years, from 1962 until 1981. I joined CBS News in 1964, so I was there for most of it. It was a special time. We thought we had the best team. We in Washington thought we had the best bureau. We probably did. One review of network news back then said, I still remember, "People at other networks talk a lot about CBS people. So do CBS people." Right. And we knew, of course, that we had the best anchor.

Chet Huntley and David Brinkley of NBC led the ratings when Walter's tour began. He overtook them and was number one for years until he retired. CBS stayed first for a time after that but then lost it, and never, if I remember properly, got it back.

What was it about him? He wasn't TV slick or TV handsome, that's for sure.

What he was, I think, was reassuring. However bad the news was, and it was often pretty bad back then–Vietnam, Watergate–you remember–this earnest, believable man seemed to be saying, in addition to his spoken words, "It's okay, folks, we'll get through this." He didn't openly show emotion – the Kennedy assassination, of course, and once I remember a "Go, baby, go!" when a spacecraft lifted off the launch pad. That feeling of solidity, of "this is a guy I can believe," was always there.

When Lyndon Johnson famously said of the Vietnam War, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America," he was probably right.

I've missed you on screen too, Walter. TV news just ain't what it used to be. But I'm happy to have been one of your "so-and-sos," as in, "so-and-so has more on that." Good memories of the way it was, back then.

Bruce Morton is a veteran political reporter who worked for CBS News from 1964 to 1993 and for CNN from 1993 until his retirement in 2006. His blog is available at http://brucemortonblog.blogspot.com/.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Congressional Republicans tore into the Obama administration over its implementation of the economic stimulus plan Wednesday, arguing that the White House is mishandling the distribution of the money while dramatically overstating the ability of the package to create jobs.

Among other things, they criticized the White House for constantly referring to the number of "jobs created or saved" by the $787 billion package - a metric, they claimed, that is impossible to verify.

The White House Office of Management and Budget defended the plan, arguing that every federal dollar spent has, by definition, helped to ease the pain of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The Republican and Democratic leaders traded their arguments during a contentious hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"In selling the stimulus package, the administration promised the American people that (the) legislation would create or save 3.5 million jobs and prevent the U.S. unemployment rate from rising above 8 percent," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California.

"I believe that the discredited Keynesian theory behind the effort is misguided, and I am convinced that it won't work," said Issa, making reference to the theories of economist John Maynard Keynes. "Unfortunately, recent economic data has validated my opposition."

The economy has shed 3.4 million jobs over the past six months, according to the Department of Labor. The unemployment rate rose for the ninth straight month in June, climbing to 9.5 percent while hitting a 26-year high.

"From the moment he was elected, the president has put the economy front and center," countered Rob Nabors, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

"We are slowing the economic freefall (and) the recovery act is an important part of that effort. ... It's a work in progress, but it's steady progress."

Nabors said that the recently reported loss of 467,000 jobs in June was disappointing, but it nevertheless represented an improvement from the 691,000 jobs lost on average in the first three months of the year.

Republicans also criticized the use of stimulus funds for initiatives such as the extension of unemployment insurance.

That kind of spending, while beneficial in some ways, does not "dollar for dollar, create or save a job," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

"I don't see how you can say that," Nabors replied. "We believe that any dollar spent in the federal system will create or save a job, because what's going on is we are putting dollars into people's pockets to spur demand."

Congressional Democrats offered mixed reviews of the implementation of the stimulus package, arguing that the package was necessary, but improvements could be made in its implementation.

"Frankly, there is good news and bad news," said the committee's chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-New York

"The good news is that money is flowing from the federal government to the states at a faster rate than the Congressional Budget Office predicted at the beginning of this year." The bad news is a General Accounting Office finding of "significant shortcomings in the targeting and tracking of recovery act spending."

Stimulus money should be primarily directed toward economically distressed areas, Towns noted, but there are "substantial variations among states as to what constitutes" such an area.

While many leading Republicans say the stimulus plan has been a waste of money, some economists - like Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman – have argued the original measure was too small.

Vice President Joe Biden said Sunday that the administration "misread how bad the economy was," but he told ABC's "This Week" that the pace of the stimulus program would be increasing.

Speaking on NBC's "The Today Show," Obama on Tuesday said "rather than say 'misread,' we had incomplete information."

He also told ABC's "Good Morning America" that "there's nothing that we would have done differently.

"We needed a stimulus and we needed a substantial stimulus," he said.

Democratic leaders in Congress are now kicking around the idea of another stimulus.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday he would consider supporting a second economic stimulus bill, but added that people need to give the package that passed in February more time to work.

The president said he's not taking the idea off the table, and one of his top economic advisers has already called for one.

Republicans, however, have accused the White House of not getting its story straight.

"They said the stimulus was necessary to jumpstart the economy. Yet now, with about a half million jobs lost every single month, they've started to admit that they simply 'misread' the economy. These were costly mistakes, and we can't take them back," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday.

Despite a tough year for Republicans, GOP strategists say the economy is part of the party's road to recovery.

"Nothing has really galvanized the Republican Party more than the stimulus vote," Republican strategist Doug Heye said. "One thing that we've seen is that the president's popularity, while he's still popular throughout the nation, really is taking hits in key states."

– CNN's Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.

Join the conversation on Jack's blog.

Al Franken is headed to Washington. Nearly eight months after Election Day, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously declared Franken the state's next senator.

And once he is sworn in - presumably next week - the Democrats will finally have their so-called super majority; meaning they'll have 60 votes, which is enough to stop any Republican filibuster.

On paper it seems like a home run for Democrats and for President Obama’s ambitious agenda in the coming months. But in reality it might not be so easy.

For one thing, Democrats won’t always have the 60-vote majority because Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd are both ill and are only likely to return for the most crucial votes. Also, Former Majority leader Trent Lott once said governing the Senate is like herding cats; and Senate Democrats have already proven they won't fall into line when it comes to some of the president's top priorities.

To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion, click here

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A new multi-million national television campaign launches this week that is designed to pressure Congress to enact healthcare reform, organizers tell CNN.

Families USA and The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) are paying to air three new 30-second ads in the coming weeks on CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC. Dave Lemmon, a spokesman for Families USA, described the ad buy as a “multi-million, multi-week” effort to convince lawmakers to listen to President Obama’s call to Congress to deliver a healthcare reform bill to his desk by October.

In the first six months of this year, more than $22 million has been spent on healthcare reform commercials, according to an analysis conducted by Campaign Media Analysis Group, CNN's consultant on political television advertising.

The commercials feature people discussing how the rising cost of healthcare has affected them personally. Public polling shows that healthcare reform is a major concern for Americans.

"More and more families are being priced out of the health care they used to take for granted,” said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA. “This ad campaign, involving real people, shows that there will be a huge cost to America's families and businesses if we fail to achieve meaningful health care reform this year."

The CMAG analysis estimates that supporters of President Obama's approach to health care reform are outspending opponents on the air by a margin of greater than 2-to-1 in 2009. Families USA and PhRMA are considered supporters of Obama’s call for healthcare reform.

Opinion of Barack Obama as president continues at levels rarely seen in recent decades.

(CNN) – Across America and much of the world, opinion of Barack Obama as president continues at levels rarely seen in recent decades. Sure, there has been sniping from the right and a little slippage in the polls, but mainstream opinion – both in the polls and the press – has generally been lavish in praise.

That is why it has been jarring to read two of the most influential and mainstream newspapers in the world over the past few days, both of them harshly critical.

In editorials, columns and news stories on Saturday and again this morning, the Financial Times castigates the President for passive leadership. Among the headlines: “President Obama needs to lead”; “Obama is choosing to be weak”; “Cap-and-trade mess”; and “Punch-drunk Obama needs middle way on Tehran”. Meanwhile, the Economist spoke out in its new issue with a full-page column entitled, “The senator-in-chief: Barack Obama is too deferential to his former colleagues on Capitol Hill”.

The essence of their argument about his domestic leadership is that the President has assigned out to Congress primary responsibility for writing major legislative bills and then has stood by passively as the bills have been so watered down or become so flawed that they fall far short of what is needed.

Full post at AC360 Blog

(CNN) - South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has issued a statement following his press conference Wednesday:

"I apologize to the people of South Carolina. There are many people out there right now who are hurt, angry and disappointed with me, and rightfully so. Over the time that I have left in office, I'm going to devote my energy to building back the trust the people of this state have placed in me."

Full statement after the jump

Columbia, S.C. – June 24, 2009 – Governor Mark Sanford today issued the following statement:

"First and foremost, I apologize to my wife and my four boys. I have made decisions that have hurt and will continue to hurt them, and for that I'm sincerely sorry. Jenny has stood by me through campaign after campaign, through hard time after hard time, and neither she nor the boys deserve this. Please offer them your prayers.

"I apologize to my staff. I misled them about my whereabouts, and as a result the people of South Carolina believed something that wasn't true. I want to make absolutely clear that over the past two days at no time did anyone on my staff intentionally relay false information to other state officials or the public at large. What they've said over the past two days they believed to be true, and I'm sorry to them for putting them in this position.

"I apologize to the people of South Carolina. There are many people out there right now who are hurt, angry and disappointed with me, and rightfully so. Over the time that I have left in office, I'm going to devote my energy to building back the trust the people of this state have placed in me.

"I ask for your forgiveness, and your prayers for everyone who I've hurt," Sanford said.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) - President Barack Obama will speak "candidly" on a number of issues Thursday when he addresses a mostly Muslim audience in Cairo, Egypt, an administration speechwriter said.

Obama, who arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday on the first leg of a visit to Middle Eastern and European nations, will take on some of the
misconceptions held by Americans and Muslims and acknowledge the need for both sides to know each other better, Ben Rhodes said.

The president still is working on the final text of his highly anticipated speech in Cairo, Rhodes added.

Some of the issues to be addressed are: violent extremism, the Pakistani fight against the Taliban and dangers at the Pakistani-Afghan border.

He also will discuss the Israeli-Palestinian plight, with the understanding that this has been a source of tension and passion throughout the
world, the speechwriter said.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Justice Department is dropping charges against the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and two of its members who were allegedly involved in voter intimidation on Election Day at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania polling station.

A Justice spokesman said the department decided to take this action after winning an injunction earlier this month against a third member, Samir Shabazz, that prevents him from ever brandishing a weapon outside a polling place again as he was charged with doing last November.

Shabazz was one of the three persons, along with the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, charged with voter intimidation last January in a lawsuit filed under the Voting Rights Act. Shabazz will not face any jail time or a fine.

“Claims were dismissed against the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law,” DOJ spokesman Alejandro Miyar said in a statement. “The Department is committed to the vigorous prosecution of those who intimidate, threaten or coerce anyone exercising his or her sacred right to vote."

On Election Day, two men in uniforms stood outside the polling station with one of them holding a police-style baton weapon and saying he was providing security there. Justice has alleged that person was Shabazz.

In January, Justice said in a criminal complaint that the chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense confirmed its members were stationed at that location as part of a nationwide effort to deploy people at polling stations.

The Justice Department says The New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense is distinct from the well-known Black Panther Party of the 1960's.

UPDATE: Malik Shabaaz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, told CNN Friday that Samir Shabaaz is no longer a member of the organization, and that his organization does not support voter intimidation.

"We want to thank President Obama and his administration for dropping charges against us that were vindictively brought by the Bush administration," Malik Shabaaz told CNN. "We don't condone any type of illegal activity at polling stations."

Shabaaz said the members in Pennsylvania were not acting under the direction of the national party.

(Updated at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 29 with New Black Panther Party response)

Springtime visitors make their way across the White House driveway Tuesday morning. (PHOTO CREDIT: JAY MCMICHAEL/CNN)

A hard drive containing Clinton administration records is missing from the National Archives in Washington.

WASHINGTON (CNN) –The National Archives - a repository of important government documents, including the U.S. Constitution - has lost a computer hard drive containing large volumes of Clinton administration records, include the names, phone numbers and Social Security numbers of White House staff members and visitors.

Officials at the Archives say they don't know how many confidential records are on the hard drive. But congressional aides briefed on the matter say it contains "more then 100,000" Social Security numbers, including one belonging to a daughter of then-Vice President Al Gore. It also contains Secret Service and White House operating procedures, the staffers said they were told.

The hard drive was last seen in the National Archive's complex in College Park, Md., sometime between October of last year and the first week of February. It was discovered missing in late March, prompting a thorough search for the small, 2.5 pound device, the Archives said.When it could not be located, the inspector general's office opened a criminal investigation.

On Wednesday, the Archives announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to its return.

The Archives said that no national security information is on the hard drive, nor any original documents. But they said it does contain "personally identifiable information," and they take the loss "very seriously."

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, whose staff was briefed on the matter, said the House will hold a hearing Thursday on the incident.

"If they (the National Archives' staff) can't handle a hard drive that may be sensitive properly, we need to ask the question, will they handle the most secret materials properly?" Issa said.

The Archives Wednesday gave the following account of the disappearance:

Last October, the hard drive was moved from a "secure" storage area to a workspace where it was being used for routine recopying to ensure preservation of the records. But work was halted last year because archivists "wanted to investigate using automated tools to generate inspection reports."

Staffers were moved to other projects until an automated tool was found in mid March - that's when they found the hard drive was missing.

The device is described as a two terabyte Western Digital MY BOOK external hard drive, measuring 6.5 x 2.1 x 5.4 inches.

More than 110 4-mm tape cartridges were copied onto the hard drive. The records included records from the Clinton Administration Executive Office of
the President.

The archives said no original records have been lost, and the Archives has a backup hard drive that will enable them to determine what information is on the missing device.

The inspector general said at least 100 people had access to the area where the hard drive was left unsecured, and that janitors, visitors and others also passed through the area.

The Archives said it is reviewing the data on a copy of the missing hard drive and compiling a list of people whose personal information may be compromised. It will notify individuals of the potential breach and will provide them with a year of credit monitoring, the Archives said.

"Because of the extremely large volume of data on the drive, we do not know yet the number of individuals whose privacy has been affected," the Archives said Wednesday. "As individuals are identified, they will be notified."

The Archives also said it has taken steps to improve security, including both physical control of records and the treatment of personal information.

Voters defeated Schwarzenegger's budget proposals .

(CNN) - California's governor said he would meet with state leaders Wednesday after voters panned a handful of ballot measures designed to pull the state out of a deepening budget crisis.

Californians voted down five of the six propositions in a special election Tuesday. More than 60 percent of voters shot down each measure, according to final tallies Wednesday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had said that, if the propositions failed, he would have to make drastic cuts to education and health care, and would probably free many inmates from the state prison system.

With all six measures defeated, the deficit would surge to $21.3 billion, Schwarzenegger's office said last week. Even if all the measures passed, the deficit would hit $15.4 billion at the start of the new fiscal year in July.

Schwarzenegger spoke about the apparent defeat late Tuesday.

"Tonight, we have heard from the voters, and I respect the will of the people who are frustrated with the dysfunction in our budget system," the governor said in a statement. "We face a staggering $21.3 billion deficit, and in order to prevent a fiscal disaster, Democrats and Republicans must collaborate and work together to address this shortfall. The longer we wait, the worse the problem becomes and the more limited our choices will be."

Officials had expected low turnout for the special election, with some voters expressing fatigue, while others were put off by the complex issues.

A CNN photographer spent two hours waiting for voters at two polling places in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, and encountered just one.

The one ballot measure that passed was a provision that prevents certain state officials from receiving pay raises when California has a budget deficit.

The other measures would have capped government spending, protected education funding, changed the state's lottery and redirected money to children's health programs.

Schwarzenegger had warned that, without budget relief from voters, he would have to take severe steps.

The steps include shortening the school year by a week and a half, cutting tens of thousands of education jobs, eliminating health insurance for nearly 250,000 needy children, laying off 1,700 state firefighters, and withholding $2 billion from local governments, which could trigger cuts in law enforcement and other services.

Defeat of the provisions also could free 38,000 inmates and force the sale of the notorious San Quentin prison.

"If they are non-serious or non-violent, non-sex offenders, we could save in general funds about $53 million in 2009 to 2010," the governor said.

About half the prisoners who might be freed are illegal immigrants, Schwarzenegger said.

"Releasing all the undocumented immigrant prisoners to federal custody could save us another $182 million for 2009 to 2010," he said.

But that plan worries some, including Lance Corcoran of the California Peace Officers' Association.

"The reality is that people don't get to the California prison system by accident, and most of our offenders have nine felony convictions before they have ever seen the inside of the prison," Corcoran said. "There is concern that we are just dumping people back into communities and those communities are going to be at risk."

Obama raised cash for congressional candidates Sunday in Indiana.

(CNN) - Call him Fundraiser-in-chief.

Before heading home from Indiana yesterday, following his commencement address at The University of Notre Dame, the president stopped off in Indianapolis for two political fundraisers.

About 40 people attended a $15,000-per-couple event for the Democratic National Committee, which raised between $300,000 and $400,000 for the party. Some 650 people packed a second fundraiser, for four Indiana Democratic congressmen. Tickets for that even ranged from $250 to $5,000 per person.

Indiana native John Mellencamp performed at the larger fundraiser. For Mellencamp, it was a return to politics. The rock legend took to the stage at Obama campaign events last year during the Indiana primary.

Last November, Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Indiana since 1964.

Reflecting on that victory, the president told the crowd that, "I know that I'm here tonight because of you, and folks like you across this country who made the phone calls, and knocked on the doors, and registered voters, and dug deep and gave whatever you could, because you were hungry for new ideas and new leadership and a new kind of politics."

Sunday night's events were the first fundraisers Obama has attended outside Washington since becoming president in January. Obama is scheduled to team up with Sen. Harry Reid for a fundraiser for the Senate Majority Leader next week in Las Vegas. Reid is up for re-election next year.

According to local reports, some 100 people protesting Obama's economic policies demonstrated outside the downtown Indianapolis hotel where the two fundraisers were held.

President Obama is flanked by Afghan President Hamid Karzai (left) and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States are meeting "as three sovereign nations joined by a common goal: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat" al Qaeda and the Taliban.

To do so, Obama said, the three nations have to deny extremists space to operate and bring a better life to the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Obama, in remarks delivered with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at the White House, said the security of Afghanistan, of Pakistan and of the United States are linked.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – The Department of Homeland Security told its immigration enforcement agents Thursday to target employers who hire illegal workers, but also to continue to arrest the illegal immigrants it encounters.

Some Republicans said they see little change in the move.

The call by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to focus enforcement efforts on employers comes after more than a decade of raids against companies that employ large numbers of illegal workers.

"These guidelines reflect a new department-wide focus to target, through criminal prosecution, abusive employers who cultivate illegal workplaces by breaking our country's laws and knowingly hiring illegal workers," said department spokesman Matt Chandler. "At the same time, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will continue to arrest and process for removal any illegal workers who are found in the course of these worksite enforcement actions," Chandler said.

A copy of the confidential guidance obtained by CNN says the enforcement agency "must prioritize the criminal prosecution of the actual employers who knowingly hire illegal workers because such employers are not sufficiently punished or deterred by the arrest of their illegal workforce."

But whether the guidelines represent a departure from the policies pursued by the Bush administration was questioned by some Republicans.

"The policy does not appear to differ much from past successful ICE practices, but I plan to watch closely to see how this policy is carried out in practice," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas.

"If the administration is true to its promise about cracking down on employers who wrongly hire illegal workers, they will need to enforce all immigration laws and not a selective few," Smith said.

A former immigration official said it will be important to see whether illegal workers will be detained as prospective witnesses against employers, or whether they will be simply processed and released.

Homeland Security statistics show that last year about 6,000 workers and 135 employers were arrested as the result of worksite enforcement efforts.

What grade does the Senate deserve?

What grade does the Senate deserve for its performance over the president's first 100 days?

Let us know here, and tell us why in the comments.

Voting has ended. You gave the Senate a C+.

I say Hillary Clinton gets an incomplete for her time so far as Secretary of State.

It's unclear how much she's done, and how much progress has been the work of the individual special envoys who have been appointed.

It's also unclear where the decisions are being made in this administration. So it's too early to grade her.

(CNN) – I give President Obama an 'incomplete' on his handling of the economy. We haven't seen any of the effects of his stimulus plan yet, and whatever positive upticks we have seen can probably be attributed more to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Barack Obama said Wednesday that a recent uptick in violence in Iraq won't impact his plan for a phased military withdrawal.

"Civilian deaths, incidents of bombings ... remain very low relative to what was going on last year," Obama said during a prime-time news conference on his 100th day in office. "You having seen the kinds of spikes that you were seeing for a time. The political system is holding and functioning in Iraq."

Obama said more details need to be nailed down before U.S. troops leave Iraq - including how oil revenues will be divided, what the powers of provincial governments there will be and the political relationships between minority Kurds, Sunnis and Shiias - including the armed Sons of Iraq groups.

How many promises has President Obama kept - and how many has he broken?

Obama is enjoying high approval ratings, but history suggests they may not last.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A average of the most recent national polls indicates that nearly two out of three Americans approve of the job Barack Obama's doing as president.

According to a CNN Poll of Polls compiled Thursday, 64 percent say they approve of how Obama's handling his duties as president. Twenty-eight percent disapprove.
The President's approval rating also stood at 64 percent in a CNN Poll of Polls compiled in January, just after inauguration.

"Most polls have shown Obama getting fairly high marks on most of the issues he has handled so far," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "One exception has been the way he has handled government assistance to failing banks and automakers. His numbers on the federal deficit are also low in comparison to his approval ratings on the economy and foreign policy."

So how does Obama compare to his predecessors in the White House around the first 100 days mark?

How's the president doing? CNN Radio breaks down the numbers

George W. Bush stood at 62 percent in a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll in April 2001, Bill Clinton was at 55 percent in a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll in April 1993, George H.W. Bush stood at 58 percent in a Gallup poll from April 1989, and Ronald Reagan was at 67 percent in a Gallup poll taken in April 1981.

"The hundred-day mark tends to fall during a period when Americans are still evaluating a new president. The danger period for most presidents comes later in their first year in office," Holland says. "Bill Clinton, for example, still had good marks after his first hundred days, but his approval rating had tanked by June of 1993. Ronald Reagan's approval rating stayed over 50 percent until November of his first year in office, but once it slipped below that mark, it stayed under 50 percent for two years. So Obama's current rating certainly does not indicate that he is out of the woods yet."

The CNN Poll of Polls is an average of three national surveys taken over the past week: Gallup Tracking, Pew, and AP/Gfk.

Blagojevich is said he is still looking for TV deals.

(CNN) - Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Wednesday he is just trying to support his family - and if that means eating bugs on a television reality show, so be it.

"I have to support my children and my family and if that means going into the jungle and having to east some bugs, it's just a testament to how much I love my kids," he told NBC Thursday about the upcoming program, "I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of Here!," in which he was hoping to play a part.

The upcoming show plans to pit 10 celebrities in a Costa Rican village for a month while they battle each other in competitions and put their survival skills to the test. It will air nightly and viewers will have the final say on which celebrities have to go home early.

In the interview with NBC, Blagojevich said he was approached to be a cast member and thought it was an "exciting opportunity."

"The idea of being in the jungle toughening it out and creating a little civil society with other people and seeing you can govern that little society is not that unlike when I was governor of the fifth-largest state in America," he said.

Blagojevich stood to collect about $80,000 every week he survived on the show, according to reports.

But U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel said earlier this week he would not lift the travel restrictions imposed when the former governor was indicted on federal corruption charges.

Zagel, in a Tuesday morning hearing, called the former governor’s participation in the show "a bad idea," and suggested Blagojevich find another way to earn money.

Join the conversation on Jack's blog.

Minnesota has become a joke — unless you live there and would like your voice represented in the United States Senate. 161 days after the election and they’re still trying to figure out who won the senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.

A three-judge panel has now ruled against Coleman, saying that “Franken is entitled to receive the certificate of election” after defeating Coleman by 312 votes. But it’s unlikely that the Minnesota secretary of state will issue that certificate until all legal challenges are exhausted.

I’m exhausted watching this… looks like a Three Stooges movie. Coleman has 10 days to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court; and if he loses at the state level, there’s always the federal level.

To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion click here

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The U.S. policy shift toward Cuba makes no mention of the "harshest of measures" - the economic blockade - former Cuban leader Fidel Castro says.

U.S. President Barack Obama "has announced the relief of some hateful restrictions," Castro said in a statement carried by the official Cuban News Agency on Monday night.
"But not a word was said about the harshest of measures: the blockade. This is the way a truly genocidal measure is piously called, one whose damage cannot be calculated only on the basis of its economic effects, for it constantly takes human lives and brings painful suffering to our people."

Earlier, Obama lifted all restrictions on the ability of individuals to visit relatives in Cuba, as well as to send them remittances.

The move represents a significant shift in a U.S. policy that had remained largely unchanged for nearly half a century. But several key components of America's embargo on the island nation will be preserved. Travel restrictions for Americans of non-Cuban descent will also remain in place.

The U.S. government instituted the embargo three years after Castro took office in 1959.

Castro, in his message, said Obama can use his "talents" in creating a constructive policy that would end the embargo that "has failed for almost half a century."

"On the other hand, our country, which has resisted and is willing to resist whatever it takes, neither blames Obama for the atrocities of other U.S. administrations nor doubts his sincerity and his wishes to change the United States policy and image," Castro said. "We understand that he waged a very difficult battle to be elected, despite centuries-old prejudices."

Obama thinks the change in U.S. policy will ultimately help bring about a more tolerant, democratic Cuban government, said White House Latin American policy adviser Dan Restrepo.

The president thinks "that creating independence, creating space for the Cuban people to operate freely from the regime is the kind of space they need to start the process toward a more democratic Cuba," Restrepo said.

But critics of the change blasted the administration for unilaterally changing what had been a long-settled U.S. policy.

The Castro "dictatorship is one of the most brutal in the world. The U.S. economic embargo must remain in place until tyranny gives way to freedom and democracy," Rep. Connie Mack, R-Florida, said in a written statement.

Obama "should not make any unilateral change in America's policy toward Cuba. Instead, Congress should vigorously debate these and other ideas before any substantive policy changes are implemented."

The president's gesture precedes a trip this week to Trinidad and Tobago for a key meeting of hemispheric powers - the Summit of the Americas.
Castro said Cuba had "resisted and it will continue to resist."

"It will never beg for alms. It will go on forward holding its head up high and cooperating with the fraternal peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean; with or without Summits of the Americas; whether or not the president of the United States is Obama, a man or a woman, a black or a white citizen."

The US-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama and its American crew, seized by Somali pirates, docked Sunday in Kenya.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Federal law enforcement authorities are discussing what to do with the lone surviving pirate captured Sunday off the Somalia coast as a successful military rescue operation abruptly ended a five-day hostage standoff at sea.

U.S. government officials are weighing potential legal hurdles they may face if the young Somali captive is flown to New York or Washington to face federal criminal charges, according to sources familiar with the case.

Officially, the government is virtually mum on the discussions.

"The Justice Department continues to review the evidence and other issues to determine whether to seek prosecution of this individual in the United States," said Dean Boyd, spokesman for the Justice Department National Security Division.

Sources who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss the matter said the detained Somali youth remains in military custody, but is likely to be turned over eventually to the FBI for transport to the United States.

With New York-based FBI agents assisting Nairobi-based agents in collecting evidence and conducting interviews, some officials say it appears most likely the captive initially would be flown to New York to stand trial. However, sources stress no decisions have been made on when or where the young pirate would face justice.

Investigators face the early and potentially difficult task of determining whether the Somali suspect is at least 18 years of age. Initial reports from the Horn of Africa have indicated the young man is anywhere from 16 to 19 years old.

Officials note authoritatively establishing his identity and date of birth in a lawless country where records are often lost or burned, if they existed at all, may be problematic.

Even if the Somali youth is determined to be a juvenile, he could be presented to a magistrate in a U.S. District Court. Justice Department records indicate such occurrences are rare, with juveniles accounting for less than 1 percent of criminal defendants.

The latest available figures show among the thousands of federal prisoners, about half of the 200-plus defendants 17 or younger are held for trial as adults, while a roughly equal number are detained as juveniles.

Whether adult or juvenile, the Somali captive could be charged under an international treaty to which the U.S. is a signatory that carries penalties of up to life in prison.

The 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation has been used to prosecute pirates in other countries. The Convention allows for pirates and hostage takers on the high seas to be prosecuted in any country which signed the treaty, without regard to which national flag a ship was flying.

Former FBI official and CNN Contributor Tom Fuentes, who supervised international operations, recalls FBI agents providing critical help in winning the conviction in a Kenya courtroom of 10 pirates captured in 2006 with the help of the U.S. military. The USS Nassau had come to the aid of an Indian ship on which pirates were holding 16 Indian hostages. Shots were fired, prompting the pirates to surrender.

"The government of Kenya wanted to prosecute the case, so the Justice Department and State Department agreed to that. We said 'Let's teach them to fish,'" Fuentes said.

He said FBI agents ended up spending six months working with Kenya authorities on how to conduct interviews, handle and protect evidence, and shape a prosecution that would stand up in any courtroom in the world. The pirates were convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Officials familiar with the current case say the lone Somali suspect in U.S. military custody could be turned over to Kenya or another country in the region if barriers to a U.S. prosecution appear to be daunting. However, because the ship was U.S.-flagged and the seized sea captain was a U.S. citizen, federal authorities will want to prosecute the case on U.S. soil if at all possible, according to one federal law enforcement official.

Another official said it was probable that if a charge against the Somali is filed in a U.S. court, the action would be filed under a court seal and kept secret from the public until the suspect suddenly appears in court to hear the charge read by a magistrate judge.

Officials indicate such developments are not likely to occur soon.

Members of the media got a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into President Obama's schedule.

(CNN) – The White House Press Office accidentally e-mailed a draft version of President Obama’s Thursday schedule on Wednesday night that included the back-and-forth between White House staffers.

The e-mail – sent on a daily basis to inform the media of the next day’s events – at first appeared like any other press schedule. But at the bottom of the e-mail, there was a series of exchanges from the press team, as well as a draft of the schedule.

The first section of the schedule noted that Obama planned to hold talks in the morning with homeowners who have re-financed their homes and benefited from lower mortgage payments.

One staffer recommended changes to that line to “put more emphasis on the real people aspect of this.” The draft version said Obama will hold talks “with his economic team” and also attending the meeting “will be a handful of households.” The final version took the emphasis off the economic team and said "Attending the meeting will be a handful of homeowners. .. as well as members of President Obama's economic team."

The draft schedule also showed the president hosting Seder to celebrate Passover. The dinner was marked “closed press,” meaning no reporters allowed.

One staffer asked, “Can we remove the dinner at the end of the day?”

“We put it on yesterday’s deal – so folks already know that it’s happening. They’ll wonder why it’s not listed if we don’t include it on there,” another staffer replied.

The staffer who asked to remove the dinner from the schedule replied, “Apparently Jewish here and in neighboring states are now calling wondering why they have not been invited.”

The dinner was not listed on the final schedule.

In another exchange, one staffer recommended nixing a line about Obama meeting with leaders from the Veterans Service Organizations and Military Service Organizations since the president was now meeting with them before his remarks in an event closed to the press.

“Can we keep it and just change it to say before. Its good for us to say we are meeting with them,” another replied.

The final copy kept the line, noting that the VSO and MSO leaders would meet with Obama before his remarks.

FDIC chairman Sheila Bair is regularly published in Highlights magazine and has written two books.

(CNN) -- Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, is one of the few women in the generals' tent of the nation's economic war.

Forbes magazine calls her the second most powerful woman in the world, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel but well ahead of both Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton.

"Watch out Angela!" laughed a good natured Bair in an interview with CNN.

By day Bair keeps the nations banks stable. But by night she wears a second hat - writing children's stories about saving and investing money. She's regularly published in the children's magazine Highlights and has written two books: "Isabel's Car Wash" and "Rock, Brock and the Savings Shock."

Full Story

The rule protects the rights of health care providers who refuse to participate in certain procedures.

(CNN) - A organization of Christian physicians argued Wednesday against an impending rollback of a federal rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide abortions, saying it's discriminatory.

The rule protects the rights of health care providers who refuse to participate in certain procedures.

The Bush White House proposed the rule in August, and it was enacted January 20, the day President Obama took office. It expanded on a 30-year-old law establishing a "conscience clause" for health care professionals who don't want to perform abortions.

Under the rule, workers in health care settings - from doctors to janitors - can refuse to provide services, information or advice to patients on subjects such as contraception, family planning, blood transfusions and even vaccine counseling if they are morally against it.

The Obama administration is expected to reverse the rule shortly, touching off a new wave of heated debate over what remains one of the most sensitive and emotional hot-button issues in American politics.

Full Story

Before he was elected president, Obama promised to ease restrictions Cuban-American travel to visit family in the island nation.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Obama administration sent a fresh signal Monday that new rules on family travel and remittances to Cuba are coming soon, and may be announced before President Obama attends the Summit of the Americas on April 17.

Before he was elected president, Obama promised to ease restrictions Cuban-American travel to visit family in the island nation, and ability to send those relatives money. He will sit down with 33 of his fellow leaders at the summit in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

The White House adviser for the summit, Jeffrey Davidow, would not say Monday when the Obama administration might announce the easing of the restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba. "I really could not say," he said. "But I would not be surprised if it came before the summit… they're going to happen, I can't tell you exactly when."
Davidow also said he hoped that discussions of Cuba would not dominate the summit. "It would be unfortunate if the principal theme of this meeting turned out to be Cuba… I think there are a lot of very important issues that warrant discussion, whether it is economic issues, social inclusion, the environment, public safety," Davidow said at a State Department briefing.

The U.S. maintains that Cuba, which Washington calls an undemocratic state, should not participate in the summit, a gathering of democratically elected leaders.
Davidow said the president would have time during the summit to meet Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, an outspoken critic of the United States in the past, saying the Obama's schedule still has not been finalized.. "The structure of the meeting itself in Trinidad offers ample opportunities for discussions among the presidents… the President is going to Trinidad with the interest and desire of talking to all of his colleagues."
He said Mr. Obama was going to listen, not to deliver a grand plan for the hemisphere. "He's going with the intention of listening, discussing, dealing with his colleagues as partners," Davidow said.

Some reports say the U.S. delegation could include as many as a thousand people. "I don't know the exact size of the delegation," Davidow said. "But it is large. And the fact of the matter is that most of the people who travel on these delegations are there for purposes of security, for purposes of communication… It doesn't seem to me to be any way out of the ordinary from past presidential visits."