Cheat Sheet

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo

Though President Obama has promised the CIA that agents who tortured terror suspects will not face prosecution, the same does not go for the lawyers that came up with the justification for their actions. Speaking at the White House today, Obama refused to rule out the possibility of prosecuting Bush's team of lawyers. He did, however, express concern about the effects of "high-intensity hearings" that would likely resemble a truth commission. Obama said he supports an investigation on treatment of detainees provided it's "conducted in a bipartisan way." The president is leaving the decision of whether to prosecute the Bush lawyers in the hands of Attorney General Eric Holder, who pushed for the release of the torture memos they authored.

Bad news from Silicon Valley: Yahoo posted a 78 percent drop in profit in the past quarter as advertisers cut back or went elsewhere. Display ads, typically from major brands like car companies, fell 13 percent in the quarter, and search ad revenue also dropped. The company is considering a search-advertising partnership with Microsoft that would pool their search ad assets and enable Microsoft to sell search ads on Yahoo pages. New CEO Carol Bartz said Yahoo would soon eliminate about 5 percent of its workforce, or about 675 positions. The company laid off 1,000 employees in the first quarter of 2008, and 1,500 more in December.

The pirate saga comes to New York: A federal judge has ruled that alleged teen pirate Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse is old enough to stand trial as an adult in a New York court, where he’s facing charges of piracy and hostage-taking. Muse’s father, testifying by phone from Somalia, said his son is 16 years old, but he became confused under further questioning. Muse, who was photographed Monday night smiling as he arrived in the city, has since admitted he’s 18. The teenager, injured during the attempted hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama and taken aboard the Bainbridge, the Navy ship sent to rescue the U.S. sailors, was aboard the Bainbridge when Navy snipers killed his three accomplices, who held Captain Richard Phillips hostage in a lifeboat. Muse’s lawyers say he’s an innocent country fisherman who was forced into piracy and had never seen a camera before yesterday.

Looks like the Boston police aren’t the only ones to describe the alleged Craigslist killer as “clean cut.” Philip Markoff, the 22-year-old Boston University medical student who is accused of killing a woman and robbing two others he met on the Web site, is remembered as an intelligent and sweet boy by former neighbors. “He was a good student and just a really nice, nice kid. He was one of my most polite students,” his high school English teacher and neighbor told The Boston Globe. “Just a nice, clean-cut boy, smart, wanting to succeed.” Markoff was an honors graduate at his high school and served on the Youth Court, where students act as judges, lawyers, and jurors in school court cases.

Fifteen years into democracy, South Africans flock to the polls Wednesday in just the fourth election since the end of apartheid. A new opposition party will try to attract a portion of the potential 23 million South African voters, many of whom have become disenchanted with the ruling African National Congress party. But polls show most citizens will vote for the ANC, extending its rule another five years and prompting some to question whether South Africa is becoming a one-party state. “There is nothing in the constitution that says a massive majority for the ruling party is bad for democracy,” says shoo-in ANC presidential candidate Jacob Zuma. “Especially a party that has a track record of upholding the constitution like the ANC!” The opposition claims Zuma strong-armed prosecutors into dropping a corruption case against him.

President Obama certainly charmed reluctant leaders in Latin America, but he might be pushing his luck with this latest move: He’s invited the leaders of Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinian territories to meet in early June in Washington and talk peace. There’s no sign the Arab and Israeli leaders will meet directly, of course. Obama has pledged to address the conflict in the region and combat the “cynicism” surrounding the peace efforts. “What we want to do is to step back from the abyss, to say, as hard as it is, as difficult as it may be, the prospect of peace still exists, but it’s going to require some hard choices,” he said. The U.S. supports a two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine coexisting as independent nations.

In a fascinating article in Commentary magazine, historians present documents proving—once and for all, they say—that left-wing hero journalist I.F. Stone was a Soviet spy. Conservative commentators such as Ann Coulter and Robert Novak have long accused Stone, who worked for the New York Post and then The Nation in the 1930s and ’40s, of being a spy—basing their arguments on a few vague but incriminating reports leaked from Russian sources. Stone, who died in 1989, has a legion of staunch defenders who see him as a pillar of truth-telling liberalism. But the notes of a former KGB officer turned journalist who co-authored the Commentary piece show Stone, whose code name was “Pancake” and who was paid for his work, served as a talent spotter, courier, and information source for the KGB from 1936 to 1939, and perhaps again in the 1940s.

Over the strenuous opposition of John McCain, the Senate has confirmed Christopher Hill as the new ambassador to Iraq. McCain, along with Republican Senator Sam Brownback, blocked the shortcutting of Hill’s nomination, arguing that he did a poor job as nuclear envoy to North Korea, which recently launched long-range missiles. “I don’t believe it is appropriate to select as our next ambassador someone who will require on-the-job training on Iraqi affairs and Middle East issues,” said McCain. The former presidential candidate also objected to Hill’s comments to a New York Times reporter about the Bush administration. “These [expletives] don’t know how to negotiate,” he was quoted as saying. Senator John Kerry, on the other hand, calls Hill one of the country’s best diplomats.

Susan Walsh / AP Photo

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is in no rush to see banks repay government loans if it would come at the cost of the credit market. Geithner told the Congressional Oversight Panel today that decisions about paybacks will depend on the broader stability of credit, which could be rocked if banks started paying back the $700 billion TARP investment. "My basic obligation is to make sure the system as a whole...has the ability to provide the credit that recovery requires," Mr. Geithner said, describing it as "the ultimate test." Until then, only a few select bank firms have been allowed to repay loans.

Stephen Chernin / AP Photo

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich won't be following in the steps of Richard Hatch. A federal judge denied this request today to go to Costa Rica to film I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. "I don't think this defendant in all honesty ... fully understands the position he finds himself in," the judge said. Blagojevich had argued that he needed to do the new Survivor-like show "for my kids": He could have earned up to $80,000 per episode. Blago has pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to sell President Obama's old Senate seat.

Share prices are falling, Vikram Pandit’s job is reportedly in jeopardy, and now new reports of bank misdeeds. Feels like February again, no? USA Today reports that “A government watchdog has launched ‘almost 20’ criminal investigations related to the $700 billion financial bailout program.” According to the special inspector general for the program, Neil Barofsky, probes include possible public corruption; corporate, stock, and tax fraud; insider trading; and mortgage fraud. Barofsky would not say who is being investigated. Details will not be released until public action is taken.

Good news: After being rushed to the hospital yesterday after suffering a serious respiratory infection, world’s smartest man Stephen Hawking is now expected to make a full recovery. When the Brief History of Time author, who is paralyzed with ALS and speaks with a voice synthesizer, went into the hospital for tests, his condition was deemed “more serious than routine.” Now Hawking remains in the hospital but is said to be in “comfortable condition.”

Rodrigo Abd / AP Photo

When the drug cartels were at their most powerful in Juarez, Mexico, they forced the local police chief to step down by threatening to kill a cop every 48 hours he remained in power. Shortly thereafter, President Calderon fired the local police and sent in the army. Now, violence has plummeted as soldiers armed with heavy weapons and dressed in camo patrol the streets. They "write tickets, investigate domestic disputes, arrest drunks" and bust heads, according to the Washington Post. That might not be all, though, as many claim that the military sweeps up innocent people and beats them before turning them over to local authorities. Meanwhile, the army claims that traffickers have begun dressing up in military outfits to sow distrust among the populace. Regardless, the military's presence in Juarez will be felt long after they are gone: They are training the next generation of cadets that will form the new local law enforcement.

This will have the dogs howlin’: According to the Associated Press, the trustees of the estate of Leona Helmsley, who had said before her death she wanted her fortune to go entirely to dog-related charities, have decided to give $136 million to charity, only $1 million of which will be going to the hounds. That $1 million will be divided equally among 10 animal-rights charities, while the largest grant, $40 million, went to a digestive diseases center in New York. Helmsley had named her dog, Trouble, as her beneficiary before her death, but a judge ruled in February that trustees for the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust had sole authority to give away her money.

"Can you help me? I can't inject in my booty." Those were the fateful words that began the friendship between legendary pitcher Roger Clemens and the trainer who would ultimately betray him, Brian McNamee. SI.com has published an excerpt from the upcoming book, American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime by staffers of the New York Daily News. The book is sure to further sully Clemen's already tarnished reputation. In a sign of how pervasive steroids were during the late 90s when the pair began their friendship, McNamee witnesses Jose Canseco unabashedly gobble up three performance-enhancing pills in the middle of the Blue Jays' locker room. The excerpt paints a picture of two men desperate to maintain their position in America's pastime: McNamee—a former NYC cop—yearned to associate with the glamorous world of the big leagues. Clemens, having just been let go by the Red Sox, was desperate to affirm his reputation as the best in the game. So began a relationship that would crash and burn before Congress and the entire sports world.

If Obama thought the release of the torture memos would quell the controversy, he couldn’t have been more wrong. On the contrary—he’s opened debate about whether to hold those responsible accountable. Writing for CNN, Robert Zimmerman says a slow, deliberate investigation should determine who should be held responsible and whether there should be further consequences. A rush to shame those involved is not necessary: “We should establish the facts before making a decision about whether to prosecute,” Zimmerman says. Those in the Cheney camp need not be afforded a major voice in the debate, as their credibility is in shambles in the wake of the Bush fiasco. What is at stake now are “the very values that distinguish our country and defines its greatness in the eyes of the world.”

Astronomers have broken new ground in their quest to find Earth's twin by discovering a planet only twice the size of ours. Previous planets discovered beyond our system had been closer to the size of Jupiter. The planet orbits around its star in 3.15 days, making it far beyond the so-called "Goldilocks zone," where the environment is neither too hot nor too cold to host life. Astronomers in Chile used the "wobble technique" to discover the planet, a method in which one "infers the existence of orbiting planets from the way their gravity makes a parent star appear to twitch in its motion across the sky." Scientists are eagerly awaiting the next generation of telescopes that will allow them to examine the new planet in much greater detail.

Chris Radburn, PA Wire / AP Photo

The day may be coming soon when the wretched-smelling chicken shacks of the countryside provide electricity for the city. The quirky experiment by scientists at Virginia Tech has crept into the state's gubernatorial race, where one candidate proudly exclaimed, "I love chicken waste!" Going green is such a major issue in Virginia that it is second only to the economy on lists of voters' concerns. Though the chicken-poo experiment is only in its early stages, the idea is to convert the waste down into "an oil that can be used for heating, a slow-release fertilizer, and a gas that the researchers hope will one day be recycled to power the machine." Some environmental advocates criticize the project as one that makes good headlines but does not actually solve the problem of renewable energy.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is a rare breed: an Obama appointee that appears to have weathered a storm of controversy surrounding financial disclosures. Sebelius, the nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, won approval from the Finance Committee today, setting the stage for a full vote in the Senate. Sebelius found herself in conservative's crosshairs when it was revealed she failed to disclose campaign donations from 2000 to 2002 from a late-term abortion doctor. Republicans also expressed concern that in orchestrating Obama's planned reform of the health care system, she would tamper with American's right to choose their doctors. Democrats and the White House praised the approval, saying it was time for Sebelius to "roll up her sleeves" and get to work.

Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP Photo

Another first for America! Daniel Andreas San Diego, a 31-year-old computer specialist from Berkeley, California, is the first domestic terrorist to be included on the FBI’s “most wanted” terrorist list. He is wanted for the 2003 bombings of the offices of two northern California corporations. Authorities describe the suspect as an animal-rights activist who turned to bomb attacks. He has a tattoo proclaiming that “It only takes a spark,” and others depicting images of burning and collapsing buildings. San Diego is the second American to make the list; the first, Adam Yahiye Gadahn, is wanted not for domestic terrorism but for his collaboration with al-Qaeda. It is believed that San Diego is now living in Costa Rica, and the government is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to his capture, five times the reward amounts offered for other so-called eco-terrorists wanted in the United States.

Eating lasagna and watching Law & Order reruns may be routine for millions of Americans, but an anonymous TARP wife describes her initiation into such rituals in the latest issue of Condé Nast Portfolio. Other sacrifices? “I drive the family crazy by switching off the lights every time we leave a room. Needless to say, we fly commercial.” Crying a river yet? “We’ve picked up new habits, like making donations anonymously and sneaking in late to black-tie galas after society photographer Patrick McMullan has packed up his camera and gone home. We now regularly turn down the invitations we receive from museums and arts organizations that will inevitably be followed by a request for funds.”

Another sign the nation’s in a credit hangover: The heads of credit card divisions of over a dozen banks will meet with President Obama at the White House on Thursday, as Congress tries to crack down on the industry’s tricky ways. A House bill will seek to prohibit credit card companies from hiking interest rates on existing balances, charging late fees early, and charging interest on debt that was paid on time. Another bill in the Senate would go even further, prohibiting the companies from aggressively marketing to people under 21, raising interest rates for any reason, or charging fees to make a payment. Obama is said to support something stricter than the House bill but not as harsh as the Senate proposal. The Federal Reserve has already created new rules regulating credit card companies, but they won’t go into effect until July 2010.

Breaking news from ancient Egypt: Archaeologists suspect star-crossed lovers Cleopatra and Marc Antony are buried together in a temple near Alexandria. The scientists have been excavating the temple for three years, and they think they’re close to finding Cleopatra’s tomb—they’ve found an alabaster head from a Cleopatra statue and a mask they believe belonged to Marc Antony. “We know from Plutarch they were buried together, and it took her permission to be buried in Alexandria,” said the general secretary of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. The lovers committed suicide in 30 B.C., after their defeat in the battle of Actium.

Norm Coleman is just not giving up: As expected, he’s appealing last week’s ruling awarding Democrat Al Franken Minnesota’s long unresolved U.S. Senate election. The Republican incumbent’s appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court, says Franken lawyer Marc Elias, represents “the death throes of the Coleman legal effort.” Last week, judges shot down Coleman’s plea that thousands more absentee ballots be counted; instead, they counted 351 ballots and declared Franken winner of the election by 312 votes. The appeal could tie up Franken and Coleman in legal proceedings for two or more months while the Senate seat remains empty. But that’s not stopping Franken: He’s already hired his first Senate staffer.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo

Will America soon have a new odd couple? The Globe and Mail reports that “Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will appear together in Toronto next month on a public stage for the first time since Mr. Bush ended his presidency.” The conversation is supposed to last two hours and will address, vaguely, “the events of the last 16 years.” Proceedings are expected to be civil, as former presidents usually only attack each other indirectly.

Mark Stahl / AP Photo

A few days ago GM looked headed for “surgical” bankruptcy. Apparently, not anymore: According to the Reuters, “The Obama administration will make about $500 million available to Chrysler LLC through the end of this month as it seeks to reach an alliance with Fiat, and up to $5 billion through May to help General Motors Corp restructure outside of bankruptcy.” GM announced yesterday it would cut 1,600 jobs by May 1.

It is not your typical foreclosure bargain, but if you want to nab late real estate mogul Leona Helmsley’s former home in Greenwich, Connecticut, this is the chance of a lifetime. Dunnellen Hall, the 20,000-square-foot brick mansion, is now selling for the low price of $75 million, down from an original asking price of $125 million. According to The Wall Street Journal, the $50 million cut may be the biggest ever on a U.S. house. The property must be sold per the terms of Mrs. Helmsley's will, and the proceeds given to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. The realtor’s website describes the house as “the ultimate of all Great Estates in Greenwich on 40 open rolling acres with an amazing Jacobean manor designed by a noted architect and beautifully presented in sparkling condition complete with a fabulous winter garden with a 52-foot indoor pool.”