We’ve been hearing for some time about our “new Great Depression,” so what will our new New New Deal look like? Barack Obama offered a clue in a speech today. Obama’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan” will aim to double the production of alternative energy over the next three years, computerize American medical records within five years, modernize classrooms, revamp the country’s electricity grid, and offer a $1,000 tax cut to 95 percent of working families. He announced that all money will be spent transparently, with records available online, and that it will be free of earmarks. “It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth,” Obama said, “but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe.”

The Illinois House of Representatives is lacing up its boots so it can kick Governor Rod Blagojevich to the curb. The House released a report today recommending the embattled governor's impeachment, saying "The totality of the evidence warrants the impeachment of the Governor for cause ... The Committee, therefore, recommends that the House consider an Article of Impeachment against the Governor." The committee cited Blagojevich's refusal to testify before it as evidence of his wrongdoing. Later today, Roland Burris also testified to the committee today, saying that governor didn't seek any favors in exchange for appointing him to the Senate. “Knowing my ethics, I would not participate in anybody’s quid pro quo,” Burris said. The House could vote as early as tomorrow on whether to impeach Blagojevic, setting the stage for a Senate showdown. 

Remember 2008 when all anyone was talking about was the car czar? Well, looks like there might finally be a name to attach to the position. ABC News is reporting that mega-rich private equity investor Steve Rattner has emerged as Barack Obama's leading candidate. The post, which first came up during Congressional deliberations regarded the auto industry bailout, would see Rattner supervise the overhaul of the industry and help automakers restructure. The founder of private investment firm Quandrangle group, Rattner first supported Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. When Obama became the nominee he switched course and raised more than $100,000 for the president-elect.

Might Israel soon face a second front in its operation against Hamas? Three rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel this morning, wounding two. Israel immediately targeted the launch site with an artillery barrage, though it is unclear whether the rockets were launched by Hezbollah or a Palestinian organization, inspired by but not linked to Hezbollah. Hezbollah denied involvement, and the Lebanese government said it will investigate the attacks and is committed to its truce with Israel, though Israel said it holds the Lebanese government responsible for preventing such attacks. The rocket attacks also mark a failure of the United Nations “peacekeeping force” under Italian command charged with policing the border since 2006. According to The Jerusalem Post, "Israel had warned Hezbollah against opening another front, saying it would retaliate massively."

Those looking to recoup Bernard Madoff losses can begin with the paper piled on his desk: Federal prosecutors said today that they found 100 signed checks totaling over $173 million on his desk when he was arrested on December 11. According to the Associated Press, he was planning to send the checks “to his closest family and friends at the time of his arrest last month.” According to the prosecutors, “The only thing that prevented the defendant from executing his plan to dissipate those assets was his arrest by the FBI on Dec. 11.” The detail came to light as prosecutors argued that Madoff should have his bail revoked and be sent to jail.

Perhaps a simple 'no comment' would have been advisable. Since her December 18 arrest for allegedly selling OxyContin, grandmum's been the word for Sherry Johnston, but no longer. The mother of Levi Johnston, who fathered a son with Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, revealed that her dependency on the opiate came after her hysterectomy eight years ago, and that complications led to seven additional surgeries. "I have been trying for years to deal with the pain...I have a medical pump inside me. I'd rather not comment any more but it's not everything that they're saying," Johnston said to People magazine. At least there's a wee distraction from those pesky drug charges: after seeing her new grandson, Tripp Easton Mitchell, Johnston said, "I started bawling...I think he looks just like Levi."

Apparently not everyone is as enamored with Sanjay Gupta's striking eyes and disarming smile, especially Representative John Conyers. The Judiciary Committee chairman wrote a letter to his Democratic colleagues today urging them to publically oppose the CNN correspondent’s potential nomination for Surgeon General. Gupta, Conyers wrote, "lacks the requisite experience needed to oversee the federal agency that provides crucial health care assistance." Conyers, whose opposition represents one of the first critical takes on the potential Gupta nomination form the Hill, throws his hat in with Paul Krugman, who came out against the Gupta nomination on Tuesday.

An award winning Indian businessman who pioneered the outsourcing of American jobs to rural communities in India has candidly admitted to colleagues in a multiple page document exactly how he has been doctoring his company’s books for years. The maverick proprietor and founder of Satyam Computer Services, B. Ramalinga Raju, called his friend and colleague Utla Balaji, chief executive of one of Raju’s many charities, and told him "he was sorry things happened this way, and we would continue our work transforming rural India.”  Raju wrote to colleagues, “It is with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience, that I would like to bring the following facts to your notice.” He then provided chapter and verse of how he committed the fraud. Raju repeatedly won national and international awards for leadership, entrepreneurship, and corporate responsibility.

What’s the first item on wide-stanced Idahoan Larry Craig’s post-Senate agenda? Craig has quietly dropped his battle to void the guilty plea he offered after he was arrested in the Minneapolis airport in 2007 for allegedly soliciting gay sex. He stepped down from his Senate seat this year after serving for three terms.

Donald Rumsfeld once defended Guantanamo Bay by complimenting its cafeteria, noting that “the military spends more per meal for detainees to meet their religious dietary requirements than it spends for rations for US troops.” What’s the latest from the mess hall? According to McClatchy, 10 percent of the Guantanamo detainees are now being force fed. As of Thursday, 30 of Guantanamo’s 250 detainees were on hunger strike, 25 of whom are being fed through tubes in their noses. The latest wave of hunger strikes is in reaction to the release of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden’s driver. ''They've actually gone ballistic at the fact that Hamdan, who was convicted of supporting terrorism, was released and they, who have been charged with nothing, continue to languish there,'' said a lawyer representing 17 Yemenis.

Like pretty much everything else, American fashion faces hard times ahead, but, for the first time since Jackie O, it has an advocate in the White House. During the election, Michelle Obama "signaled an interest both in looking stylish and also in advancing the cause of American fashion and those who design and make it," reports The New York Times. Sometimes, she wore off-the-rack clothing from J. Crew, other times high-end designers like Narciso Rodriguez. But nearly all the clothes were American. "Just looking at the designers she's been drawn to, you can see she's shown astute sartorial judgment that thoughtful and intelligent American designers are perfectly capable of creating clothes that have an impact on the world stage," said Hamish Bowles, an editor at Vogue and curator of a 2001 show about Jackie Kennedy's style at New York’s Met Museum.

John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, hosted a private funeral for their 16-year-old son, Jett, today at their $8 million home in central Florida. It was expected to be a traditional Scientology funeral, E! Online reports. Jett passed away last week at the family’s vacation home in Grand Bahamas. According to The New York Post, “Doctors in the Bahamas performed an autopsy Monday but did not release results. A Bahamas undertaker said the teen's death certificate listed ‘seizure’ as the cause of death. The body was cremated Monday and flown to the U.S. the same night.”

After years of Team Aniston versus Team Jolie, Brad Pitt is seeking a public truce. "Jen is a sweetheart," the actor told W magazine. "I think she got dragged into that one, and then there's a second round to all that Angie versus Jen. It's so created." Pitt denied rumors he cheated on Aniston with Jolie, saying he's "proud" they were "respectful" while they filmed Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The actor also claims to be in touch with his ex-wife: "She was a big part of my life, and me hers.” At the box office, the public has sided with Aniston. Marley & Me has topped Pitt's Benjamin Button for two weeks in a row, raking in over $100 million (versus $79 million for Button—but will Bride Wars take the reins this weekend?

It's been a difficult few weeks in popedom: First, Pope Benedict XVI raised some eyebrows when he compared the need to eliminate homosexuality to saving rainforests. Now, he may have to cancel a planned trip to Israel after the head of the Vatican Council for Justice and Peace compared Gaza to "a big concentration camp." Pope Benedict is German and, as a child, was enrolled in the Hitler Youth. Israel and the Vatican are also at odds over the beatification of Pius XII, the WW II-era pope who remained silent during the Holocaust—a move that would put him on the path to sainthood.

Chris Matthews, 63, fast talking star of MSNBC’s Hardball, told his staff last night he will not be standing for the Pennsylvania Senate seat. A former aide to House speaker Tip O’Neill, Matthews, a Democrat who admitted that the prospect of an Obama presidency sent “a shiver up my leg,” has been toying with a run at the Senate from his native state for much of the last year. The speculation he would challenge the sitting Republican, Arlen Specter, was fueled by rumors that NBC was planning to ask him to continue his political jousting show but wanted him to take a drastic pay cut — from $5 million a year to about $1 million. A network executive said discussions with Matthews for a new contract were continuing.

During the election, Obama's opponents questioned the extent of his resolve. But if his commitment to his BlackBerry is any indication, then he is as stubborn as a mule. The president-elected has reiterated his intention to keep his personal BlackBerry, despite advice from the Secret Service and lawyers that he should give it up. "I'm still clinging to my BlackBerry," he said in an interview last night with CNBC and The New York Times. "They're going to pry it out of my hands." Like President Bush, Obama has been advised to give up personal email for his own legal protection, but he seems determined to hold onto it. "I don't know that I'll win," Mr. Obama said. "I'm still fighting it."

A cease-fire in Gaza has moved slowly closer with Israel agreeing to send an envoy to Cairo to negotiate terms. Egypt’s powerful intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is thought to have persuaded Hamas leaders the provisional deal has merit. The deal would install international monitors to ensure arms do not enter Gaza and a permanent end to Hamas terrorists firing rockets into Israel. Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the moderate Palestinian faction Fatah, is flying to Cairo to discuss the peace plan brokered by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. But the Israeli cabinet kept up the pressure on Hamas by approving a “more devastating” phase of its Gaza offensive. Residents of Rafah, south Gaza, were Wednesday night told to leave their homes or face aerial bombardment. Both sides agreed to a three-hour lull in the fighting to allow humanitarian aid to reach victims. There have now been more than a thousand Palestinian victims of the Israeli assault, with more than 680 bodies amassed in hospital morgues.

Awards season is in full red-carpeted swing. Queen Latifah hosted the 35th Annual People’s Choice Awards last night from the Shrine Auditorium and The Dark Knight swept five categories, including best on-screen matchup for Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger. Bale accepted the award alongside director Christopher Nolan saying, “On behalf of all of the cast from the movie, thank you very much to the fans. Here's to Heath." The awards show, whose winners are decided via online voting by the public, also honored Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but neither star accepted in person. Will Smith, who was also absent, took home two for favorite male movie star and favorite male action star, while American Idol’s Carrie Underwood nabbed three trophies for her limelight year. Best TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres stepped in to present the night’s first award for Kate Hudson, who was inconveniently stuck in traffic 40 minutes away. Stars, they really are just like us.

A website specializing in reporting news about the Apple computer firm had its feed to the annual Macworld Expo conference interrupted with the spoof announcement "Steve Jobs just died." In light of the recurring rumors that Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs is dying, the false headline cause ripples in the Macworld audience listening to Phil Schiller, standing in for the ailing Jobs, giving a keynote speech about Apple’s new products. A correction, "Retraction on Steve Jobs comment ... we don't know how that got in our feed. Steve did not die," was swiftly followed by, "Oh wait, sorry, Steve did die. Our condolences."

Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton’s fictional scenario about reviving extinct animals through DNA technology, is nearing reality. A report in The New Scientist suggests that although it would be impossible to restore dinosaurs to the earth, at least 10 extinct species, including Neanderthal man, the Tasmanian tiger, and the dodo, could be brought back to life. Genetic information stored in long dead specimens recovered from permafrost, dark caves, or dry deserts could be implanted in a surrogate species similar to that of the extinct animal resulting in a feasible embryo. Among other species that could now be cloned: the short-faced bear, the glyptodon, the woolly rhinoceros, the giant ground sloth, the Irish elk, and the moa. "Of course, bringing extinct creatures back to life raises a whole host of practical problems, such as where they will live,” explains the magazine, “but let's not spoil the fun..."

For those who have waded through J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Hobbit and his Lord of the Rings trilogy and still crave for more, HarperCollins have bought the rights to an unpublished work by the master storyteller. Written before The Hobbit, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, edited and introduced by Tolkien’s son Christopher, will be published in May next year. The work, written when Tolkien was professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University during the '20s and '30s, makes available for the first time the author’s extensive retelling in English narrative verse of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the Völsung and the Fall of the Niflungs. Little is known about about the new work, though it may be that Sigurd's slaying of the dragon Fafnir was in Tolkien's mind when he wrote the encounter between Bilbo and Smaug in The Hobbit.

Bristol Palin is not alone: 26 states saw a rise in teen birth rates in 2006, the most recent year stats are available. "We're seeing increases in both the number of teens having births and also the rate at which they are having births. Both of them are going up," explained a health demographer. 2006 was the first time since 1991 that the birth rate among women 15-19-years-old rose, with the highest levels in the South and the Southwest.

The Army issued a formal apology to the families of soldiers killed in combat yesterday after it sent letters addressed “Dear John Doe” to of their 7,000 relatives. "There are no words to adequately apologize for this mistake or for the hurt it may have caused," Brig. Gen. Reuben D. Jones wrote yesterday in a statement. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr. is also sending a personal apology letter to the families. The letter was sent to provide information about private companies that offer assistance to families of the fallen. The salutation prompted a strong reaction from some military families. "The indication that anyone would perceive that a hero is not significant, that they would not direct this personally to them, is shattering," said Merrilee Carlson, whose son died in Iraq in 2005.

Obama has rarely been compared to Richard Nixon, but the new president's move to increase control over domestic policy with a high powered cadre of White House-based advisers brings to mind Tricky Dick's attempts to abolish the majority of his Cabinet and run the whole administration himself. With the help of czars in areas like health reform, the environment and urban affairs, Obama is aiming to cut through the traditional bureaucracy and allow "stream-lined decision making," advisers tell the Washington Post reports. But experts worry that the appointment of a White House based “super-cabinet” may create regular clashes with his cabinet picks. Sometimes a Team of Rivals can provide more rivalry than team work.

Ever wondered how the unfinished novel crazy Jack Torrance was writing in Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterwork The Shining turned out? New York artist Phil Buehler, who dubs himself "a big fan of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King", has self-published Jack’s unfinished work, endlessly repeating the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” but formatting each page differently, using the words to create zigzags and spirals. "I thought, 'If he continues to get crazier, what would those pages look like?'" said Buehler. Like axe wielding Mad Jack, played to perfection by Jack Nicholson in the 1980 movie, Buehler himself hit writer’s block at 60 pages. And like Jack, he unnerved his girlfriend when he showed her his manic typescript. "I finally showed her the movie, and she realized I wasn't really losing it," said Buehler.

Dr Richard Batista, from Ronkonkoma, New York, who is being divorced by his wife Dawnell, has asked she include the kidney he donated to her for transplant in the divorce settlement. Batista puts the value of the organ at $1.5 million, a court in Mineola, New York, has heard. There is little chance he will get his way. Asked how likely it would be for the doctor to either get his kidney back or get money for it, Arthur Caplan at the Centre for Bioethics, the University of Pennsylvania, said it was "somewhere between impossible and completely impossible." Robert Veatch, a medical ethicist at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics, agrees. "It's illegal for an organ to be exchanged for anything of value" because organs may not be bought or sold, he said. And as the donation of an organ is considered a gift, legally "when you give something, you can't get it back." "It's her kidney now and ... taking the kidney out would mean she would have to go on dialysis or it would kill her," Veatch said.

The Europeans have warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin that he risks sparking an ugly diplomatic incident unless he restores their full energy supplies. The Russians have turned off the gas, which flows through a pipeline across the Ukraine, after failing to reach an agreement with the pro-Western government of Ukraine to pay for its gas supplies. Representatives from Europe, Russia, and the Ukraine meet to hammer out the matter today. "If the transit does not return to normal we will have a real problem and we have to make some conclusions that we no longer consider gas supply from Russia through Ukraine a credible option," José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, declared. The European Union has given Moscow until Friday to settle its differences with the Ukraine. In Bulgaria, 15,000 homes were without heat, and dozens of schools and kindergartens were shut. Slovakia and Romania have declared states of emergency.

Seven years ago Fred Milani, an Iranian-American developer, built a replica of the White House in Atlanta. Now the 16,500-square-foot facsimile of Obama’s new home has become a casualty of the bursting housing bubble. Milani, 57, has put the house up for sale for $9.88 million. “I still do not want to sell, but I will,” he said. “A prominent builder of McMansions in a city that once could barely consume enough of them, Mr. Milani has fallen on financial hard times as the demand for real estate has waned,” reports the New York Times. Twice he has avoided foreclosure on his home and he must repay multiple loans. Inside its wrought-iron gates, the paper reports, the Atlanta White House contains Middle Eastern décor (wall rugs, a hookah), American political kitsch (Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation on a bedroom wall), and iconography (a tapestry of “The Last Supper,” a crucifix). Who does Milani expect to buy the house? “Wealthy international buyers,” he said. “Or maybe I’ll contact one of the contenders for the real White House, maybe John McCain or Ross Perot.”

The Bavarian premier is insisting that all children from the state where Nazism was born must make a compulsory visit to a concentration camp, Dachau, to instruct them in the evils of the Holocaust. "Our aim must be to bring up kids so that they can resist any attempt by the far-Right to lead them astray," said Host Seehofer. The regulation may eventually be extended to all German children and will include history lessons that pose moral questions about the rise of Nazism and compare it to anti-Semitism and racial intolerance today. The Bavarian action was triggered by the stabbing of Alois Mannichl, police chief of in the Bavarian town of Passau, who takes a hard line against neo-Nazis. Joachim Herrmann, the Bavarian interior minister, will also ask America to ban the sale of Nazi literature and memorabilia via the Internet. "We are going to talk to the U.S. authorities about this," he said. "It is not acceptable that publications denying the Holocaust should be made available here."

Colonel Donald “Don” James Matthew Blakeslee, the first pilot to fly the long-range P51 Mustang fighter over Berlin and the most decorated World War Two US Army Air Force fighter pilot, has died aged 90. He flew more missions and spent more time in combat than any other USAAF airman. Unlike the British Spitfires, which had a range of 500 miles, the Mustang could travel 2,000 miles, nearly as far as the B24 Liberator bombers they were protecting. Blakeslee, born at Fairport Harbor, Ohio, was eager to become a fighter pilot so he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. He shot down his first German plane over France in 1941, and went on to shoot 15 German aircraft in all. He once said, "There's nothing unusual in the missions. They all follow the same pattern. Either you get on Jerry's tail or he gets on yours." Although Blakeslee died in September, his daughter delayed the announcement of his death to respect her father's wishes.

This sounds like something that could go terribly wrong: Australian scientists are injecting bees with cocaine in order to learn more about addiction. Researchers studied honeybees whose job is finding food—flying to flowers, discovering nectar, and if their discovery is important enough, doing a waggle dance to help hive mates navigate to the location. Coked up bees “danced more frequently and more vigorously for the same quality food,” said one scientist. “They were about twice as likely to dance” as undrugged bees, and they circled “about 25 percent faster.” Next up: scientists are looking to see whether bees begin to crave cocaine and need more for the same effect, like humans, when the grams disappear.

For decades, Venezuela opened its doors to Latin American exiles, including people fleeing the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Today, Venezuela is producing political prisoners rather than saving them. Venezuelan independent daily Tal Cual reports that under Hugo Chávez’s administration, the number of political prisoners has soared; opposition leaders are being publicly named "military targets of the Revolution"; and lists of political opponents are in circulation. Sounds like something for Sean Penn to investigate.