That’s Senator Burris to you: Blago’s pick will be sworn in as Illinois’ junior senator later this week. All the roadblocks to his selection were lifted this afternoon, and Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a joint statement: “We have spoken to Mr. Burris to let him know that he is now the Senator-designate from Illinois and as such, will be accorded all the rights and privileges of a Senator-elect.” As you may recall, Illinois lawmakers voted last week to impeach Governor Blagojevich, but not before he appointed former state Attorney General Roland Burris to Obama’s Senate seat. No word on whether Burris agreed not to stand for re-election in 2010.

Julius Genachowski, a former Obama classmate at Harvard Law, is the president-elect’s choice to head the Federal Communications Commission. Obama’s technology adviser during the campaign, Genachowski, 46, worked for the FCC during the Clinton administration and is a founder of the D.C. VC firm LaunchBox Digital. He also put in eight years at IAC/InterActive Corp., where he was “instrumental in organizing technology companies to address regulation of the flow of Internet information, long before the concept of so-called net neutrality was de rigueur in Silicon Valley and Washington,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Genachowski had also been considered a candidate for the new chief technology officer post.

As one of his first acts as president, President Obama will issue an executive order to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. The order will come in his first week—or even his first day—at the White House, an adviser tells the AP. The catch: The prison isn’t likely to be closed right away. Obama said over the weekend it would be a challenge to close it during his administration’s first 100 days; one of the big questions is where to send the 250 Guantanamo detainees.

A federal judge in New York City ruled today that Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff—who allegedly fleeced $50 billion from his firm's clients—can remain out on bail. Prosecutors had sought to put him in jail now because they claimed he tried to dispose of assets, a violation of bail. Madoff is currently under house arrest in a penthouse apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side under the protection of private security guards.

Set your TiVos: President Bush will offer a formal farewell to America on Thursday night at 8. His televised address, before an audience in the East Wing of the White House, will be his last public appearance before Obama’s inauguration. While heartfelt reflection has been the customary theme of presidential farewell speeches, don’t expect Bush to drop to his knees in self-reproach. At a press conference this morning, he said some parts of the Iraq war “didn’t go according to plan,” but he assured the public that America’s reputation abroad is still strong. According to White House press secretary Dana Perino, the president will talk at length about the challenges facing the nation and the Obama administration, and he’ll likely impart some wisdom to the president-elect (like how to ignore your critics).

Things were going all wrong for Marcus Schrenker. Three of the Indiana businessman’s companies were under investigation, and to top it off, his wife wanted a divorce. But instead of facing the music, Schrenker, 38, sought a novel way out: He intentionally crashed his single-engine turboprop plane Sunday night in Florida, putting it on autopilot and parachuting to the ground. Then he disappeared. He was last seen Monday, wet from the knees down, in Alabama, where he told police he’d been in a canoeing accident. The friendly officers put took him to a hotel, only to find he’d slipped away after donning a black cap and running into the woods.

President-elect Barack Obama and President Bush are joining forces to fix the ailing economy. Bush will ask Congress to release the secondary bailout funds—amounting to $350 billion—while Obama will work to "rebrand" the program to disassociate it from criticisms of the initial Treasury program. Obama plans to add increased transparency to the allocation and include ways for consumers, homeowners, and entrepreneurs to tap the funds.

Might Duane Reade be New York City’s next victim of the financial crisis? According to The Wall Street Journal, the ubiquitous Manhattan drug store is just one of several retailers threatened by a post-Holiday crunch, as the industry’s biggest lenders, including GE Capital, CIT Group Inc., and Wachovia Corp, tighten lending terms and reduce their exposure to retail. In addition to pinching retailers with poor credit ratings, like Duane Reade, Claire’s Stores, and Bon-Ton Stores, this tightfistedness is making it difficult for other companies to reorganize under Chapter 11. Circuit City, which filed for bankruptcy in November, warned on Friday that it risks liquidation if it fails to secure a cash infusion.

In his final press conference from the White House press briefing room, President Bush wished his successor well and reflected on his eight years as commander-in-chief. "When I get out of here, I am getting off the stage," he said. "I have had my time in the Klieg lights." Bush reiterated that he genuinely hopes President-elect Obama will succeed, especially in protecting the homeland. "I wish that I could report that's not the case, but there's still an enemy out there that would like to inflict damage on America—on Americans," he said. "There'll be a moment when the responsibility of the president lands squarely on his shoulders," he added. Bush also said the Republican Party shouldn't be written off yet. "Our party has got to be compassionate and broad-minded," he advised.

The results of Israel’s upcoming election are anyone’s guess, but you can be sure that the winner won’t be an Arab. According to Haaretz, “The Central Elections Committee on Monday banned Arab political parties from running in next month's parliamentary elections, drawing accusations of racism by an Arab lawmaker who said he would challenge the decision in the country's Supreme Court.” The measure’s advocates accused Arab parties of supporting terrorist groups and refusing to recognize Israel’s’ right to exist. Hamas, meanwhile, has released a new video predictably proclaiming that “our victory over the Zionists is near.” However, the video also said that “Hamas will cooperate with efforts to achieve a cease-fire agreement with Israel and to reopen Gaza border crossings.”

Education’s odd couple—Al Sharpton and New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein—have coauthored an article about closing the achievement gap between white and minority students in today’s Wall Street Journal. Among their prescriptions: First, develop national standards. “Our current state-by-state approach has spawned a race to the bottom, with many states dumbing down standards to make it easier for students to pass achievement tests.” Second, the federal government should restructure teacher payments so teachers who work in high-poverty urban schools are rewarded for their service. “Study after study shows that good teachers have, by far, the highest impact on student learning. … Teachers, teachers, teachers. The fierce urgency of now cannot be allowed to dissipate into the sleepy status quo of tomorrow.”

Will it be a fair-and-balanced inaugural? Politico reports that Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay bishop for the Episcopal Church in New Hampshire, is scheduled to deliver an invocation on Sunday as part of the first phase of inaugural festivities. A source told Politico: "Robinson was in the plans before the complaints about Rick Warren. Many skeptics will read this as a direct reaction to the Warren criticism - but it's just not so." Robinson's Lincoln Memorial event is open to the public.

After failing repeatedly to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill, Bush is begging his party to abandon its more Dobbsian members' demands and reach out to immigrants. "We should be open-minded about big issues like immigration reform, because if we're viewed as anti-somebody — in other words, if the party is viewed as anti-immigrant — then another fellow may say, 'Well, if they're against the immigrant, they may be against me,' " the president said in an interview on FOX News on Sunday. The GOP's anti-immigration reputation contributed to a major drop in Hispanic and Asian voters' support, many of whom defected to the Democrats in 2006 and 2008 after supporting Bush in 2004.

The Democrats failed to reach 60 seats in the Senate this election. Might they pass the threshold in 2010? It’s too early to say, considering Barack Obama has not yet even assumed office, but after George Voinovich became the fourth Republican senator to announce plans to retire today, the Democrats are hopeful. In addition to Voinovich’s Ohio seat, Floridian Mel Martinez, Kansan Sam Brownback, and Missourian Kit Bond are retiring. "You know Republicans are in trouble when respected senators like Voinovich are retiring while people like [Sen. David] Vitter (R-La.) are running again," said a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman.

He's Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor and typically assumed to be a loyal extension of the prime minister, but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has surprised observers by biting the hand that feeds him and criticizing his predecessor recently. On Sunday, Medvedev blamed Prime Minister Putin's government for lagging behind in dealing with the economic crisis, saying “We have to acknowledge that at the present moment planned measures are being fulfilled more slowly than expected and, most important, more slowly than the current situation demands.” Last month, Medvedev also said that he had "final responsibility for what happens in the country," which some interpreted as a shot at Putin. American leaders have barely acknowledged that Medvedev replaced Putin as president, generally referring to Prime Minister Putin as the de-facto head honcho of the increasingly autocratic government.

As Barack Obama seeks to steer his rescue package through Congress, liberals like Paul Krugman and more fiscally conservative columnists like Clive Crook have the same advice: Spend more. “If anything,” Crook writes in the Financial Times, “$800bn over two years now looks too small.” He recommends spending $500 to $750 billion alone in 2009, the majority of which should be “high-impact spending” and not tax cuts. Krugman notes a study by Christina Romer, Obama’s incoming chief of the Council of Economic Advisers, which says that even with the rescue plan, unemployment will be 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. “If Mr. Obama drops the ‘jump-start’ metaphor,” Krugman writes, “if he accepts the reality that we need a multi-year program rather than a short burst of activity, he can create a lot more jobs through government investment, even in the near term.”

Barack Obama’s most eagerly anticipated decision as president is near: According to Lynn Sweet at the Chicago Sun-Times, the president-elect will adopt either a labradoodle or a Portuguese water hound for his family dog. "This has been tougher than finding a commerce secretary," Obama told George Stephanopoulos over the weekend. Let us hope the first dog behaves better than Bill Richardson.

Bush often invites comparisons with President Truman, but this isn't exactly what he had in mind. According to a report in The Washington Post, Bush "has presided over the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades," with slower GDP growth than under any president since Truman. In addition, the number of jobs increased by just 2 percent—the worst showing of any administration since the government began tracking the data seven decades ago. Overall, a survey of economists and analysis of economic data in The Washington Post finds Bush—the first president to hold an MBA—to be the worst economic leader the country has seen in generations. "For a group that claims it wants to be judged by history, there is no evidence on the economic policy front that that was the view," former Bush staffer Douglas Holtz-Eakin was quoted as saying. Not surprisingly, "the president's current aides say they are proud of their economic record."

Israel's initial rationale for initiating war with Gaza was reducing rocket attacks from Hamas. While Israeli leaders have since expanded the plan to include degrading Hamas' military capacity and even undermining its hold on power, the IDF says that its initial goal of stopping rocket fire has been at least somewhat successful, with attacks down by 50 percent since the beginning of the war. Some 22 rockets still struck Israel Sunday, including one that hit an empty playground in Ashdod. 21 rockets landed in Southern Israel on Saturday.

The fallout from Prince Harry’s “Paki” slur continues: Not only does Prince Harry now face disciplinary action, but he has been condemned by the father of the officer he used the word to describe. “I profoundly condemn it,” said Mohammad Yaqoob Khan Abassi, a retired vice president of a Pakistani bank. Abassi isn’t the only one on Harry’s back. None other than Prime Minister Gordon Brown weighed in on the controversy, saying Harry’s comment should have “no place in our life.” He advised, however, giving Harry “the benefit of the doubt,” since the Prince has apologized.

Amidst book publishers’ struggles, the National Endowment for the Arts has a surprise finding: Fiction reading is on the rise. For the first time since 1982, when the NEA began collecting such data, the percentage of adults who have read at least one novel, short story, play, or poem in the past year has risen to 50.2 percent from 46.7 percent in 2002. The increase was most dramatic among 18 to 24 year old, among whom the decline was previously most pronounced. The exact reasons for the rise are unknown, but Dana Gioia, the chairman of the NEA, speculates that community-based book clubs, Oprah Winfrey, and series like Twilight and Harry Potter all played a role.

If the Golden Globes are any indication, then expect a big showing for Slumdog Millionaire at the Academy Awards next month. Danny Boyle’s Bollywood-inspired romance won each of the four categories it was nominated for—best drama, best director, best screenplay, and best original score. Other winners include Vicky Cristina Barcelona for best comedy or musical; Kate Winslet for best actress for her performance in Revolutionary Road and best supporting actress for The Reader; Mickey Rourke for best actor for The Wrestler; and Heath Ledger for supporting actor for The Dark Knight.

Vikram Pandit’s Citigroup has cost the  United States, so far, billions of bailout dollars. Should the CEO get to keep his job? According to The Wall Street Journal, the board is still backing him. "We have confidence in the current management and leadership of Vikram," said Richard Parsons, a Citigroup board member and former Time Warner CEO. A Citigroup spokeswoman, however, refused to comment, which is, according to Felix Salmon, a sign that Pandit is in the fourth level of “CEO hell”— "when the corporate flacks, who are typically the staunchest of the palace guard, refuse to comment instead of denying the fragility of their CEO's job.”

In recent years, the United States has been compared to everything from a banana republic to an Orwellian dystopia. In this week’s New Yorker, Jill Lepore has a different evaluation: “Behind closed doors, the nation begins to look like a giant human dairy farm.” Although it was believed in the second half of the nineteenth century that women, like men, were evolving out of milk production, breast-feeding is making a comeback. Doctors are now trying to boost breast-feeding rates, since it has been linked to lower rates of everything from ear infections to leukemia to obesity. Six-month maternity leaves, however, which require the mother to split from her child, have given rise to the breast pump. “Today,” Lepore writes, “breast pumps are such a ubiquitous personal accessory that they’re more like cell phones than like catheters.” The advent of “expressed human milk” has raised a series of questions, such as, “Can a woman sell her milk on eBay?” According to Lepore, “all this is so new that people are making up the rules as they go along.”

Might the “surge” strategy fail in Afghanistan? McClatchy reports today that the military tactics that have succeeded in Iraq are not working as well in Afghanistan. The tougher Afghan terrain makes cumbersome the body and vehicle armors that were so helpful in Iraq, and unlike Iraq, where rural areas could be won over by swaying urban centers, in Afghanistan there are often no connections between towns and the countryside. USA Today looks at the problems facing Obama in the country, in 72 percent of which the Taliban has a permanent presence.  They include corruption, inexperienced Afghan leaders, and a drug-based economy. Also troubling is the country’s poor security: The Afghan army is hoping to almost double its ranks over the next five years, and the commander of U.S. and NATO forces also wants to double his troops.