How soon will the recession end? It seems like every day another pundit or politician issues a new decree, but when the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke makes a prediction, everybody listens. Bernanke granted a rare interview to CBS News' 60 Minutes on Sunday night. Though the financial system is still "in crisis," Bernanke said, "I do think that we will get it stabilized, and we'll see the recession coming to an end, probably this year. We'll see recovery beginning next year, and it'll pick up steam over time." But is Bernanke's optimism just another Clintonian twist of rhetoric? Bernanke defines the end of the recession as "a leveling off. We won't be back to full employment, but we will see, I hope, the end of these declines that have been so strong these last couple quarters." Bernanke gave 60 Minutes a rare tour of the Fed Res headquarters and explained some of the organization's more controversial choices, including letting Lehman Brothers fail. In the next few months, Bernanke said, America will weather more job loss, but we aren’t headed for another Great Depression: "I think we've averted that risk. I think we’ve gotten past that.”

Dick Cheney’s got a few things to share with America: The Bush administration was good, Obama’s putting the country at risk, and Scooter should have been pardoned. In his first televised interview since leaving office, the former veep told CNN’s John King that Bush’s harsh interrogation techniques were “absolutely essential” to preventing another 9/11. “President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack,” he said. A nugget on the economy: “Stuff happens, and an administration has to be able to respond to that and we did.” On Iraq: “We’ve accomplished nearly everything we set out to do.” And lastly, on his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby: “I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon, and the president disagreed with that…I was clearly not happy that we, in effect, left Scooter sort of hanging in the wind.”

Actor, radio personality, and political activist Ron Silver died on Sunday morning after a two-year battle with esophageal cancer, the New York Post reports. Silver's public and stage personas have long been intertwined: On television's The West Wing, Silver played a firebrand policy wonk that switched parties. In his public life, the New Yorker was once a self-described lifelong Democrat, going so far as to help found liberal-leaning non-profit Creative Coalition in 1989—only to ditch the far left for the radical right shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Silver spoke in President Bush's favor at the 2004 Republican National Convention. His last public appearance was an October 2008 appearance on Larry King Live where Silver acknowledged Bush's shortcomings and spoke against the Reagan Revolution.

They received and lost hundreds of billions in federal bailouts, but AIG will spend some $100 million on bonuses for senior employees this week, the Washington Post reports, even as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner implored the company to stop the internal spending. In a letter to Geithner leaked to the Post last night, AIG CEO Edward Liddy said the bonuses had been scheduled months ago and "could not be cancelled altogether because the firm would risk a lawsuit for breaching employee contracts." Liddy also argued that changing compensation plans mid-stream would cause an exodus within AIG's already embattled ranks. AIG put forth a plan for restructuring bonuses but not for eliminating them: Thousands of the failing insurance company's employees will continue to receive hundreds of millions in bonuses.

Every time you think the scandal surrounding Rod Blagojevich couldn't get worse, it does. Page Six reports that a forthcoming book by a former Blago adviser depicts the deposed Illinois governor as ruder, more cavalier, and even greedier than previously reported in the national media. Among Blago's offenses: Showing up so late for the funeral of a "beloved" state senator that then-Lt. Gov Pat Quinn had to step in to present the ceremonial flag to the pol's grieving widow; cursing out reporters who dared ask why he needed $5800 state-financed plane trips every day when the legislature was in session; and being so brazen with his 'pay for play' tactics that, somewhere, Boss Tweed is blushing.

Mere hours after Beverly Hills Police told OK Magazine they expected actress Lindsay Lohan to turn herself in on a day-old warrant related to her 2007 DUI, the young starlet's lawyer told the Associated Press that her client will do no such thing. In fact, LiLo plans to skip her court date on Monday. The 22-year-old's lawyer will appear on her behalf to explain how the new warrant is part of a big misunderstanding. Lohan is currently serving a 3-year probation for a pair of arrests related to a drunk driving incident. Possible reasons for issuing a warrant on a person serving a probation like Lindsay's include failing a drug test or missing appointments with probation officers. In 2007 the actress pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of being under the influence of cocaine, no contest to two counts of driving with a BAC over .08 percent, and one count of reckless driving, the Associated Press reports. If she violated her probation, Lohan could face up to a four years and 90 days in jail.

File this one under "unexpected": Former White House press secretary Dana Perino says her old boss, George W. Bush, deserves credit for the stock market's recent uptick. Though Perino acknowledged that it is "not a secret" that the economy fell apart on Bush's watch, he also "alleviat[ed] the downturn." In an interview on CSPAN's Washington Journal Perino referred to the Dow's recent turnaround: "Can all the credit go specifically to President Obama? Well, I would say no. We are just going to have to take a while to let all of this settle down and let the policies that our administration and the new administration are trying to put in place have a chance to work." As for Obama's complaints about "inherited problems," Perino argued that Bush, too, inherited "a recession" in the form of the burst technology bubble, but refrained from blaming Clinton. "The danger I think—and I would say we fell into this a bit as well—is that if you constantly blame the person before you, you are not able to move forward and look forward."

Supermarket sighting: Sarah Palin with children Willow, Piper, and Trig, and grandson Tripp in tow. The Alaska governor was at the Fred Meyer store to sell some Girl Scout cookies: “I read about it in the newspaper and I said, ‘Well, me and the kids have an hour on Saturday, let’s go down and help,’” she said. But where was Tripp’s mom, fresh off a breakup with babydaddy Levi Johnston? “Oh, Bristol is over at the state capitol building golfing in a miniature golf tournament,” Palin said. “Bristol is doing great, just great!” But on to more important news—what are the former VP candidate’s favorite Girl Scout cookies? “I love the Thin Mints,” she said. “But my daughters already told me I can’t get those, that I have to get the Samoas. Well, you know what? We’ll get both!”

The standoff between Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif took a turn for the worse today, with riot police surrounding Sharif's home and placing him under house arrest. Sharif, for his part, says he will ignore the order. "The house arrest is illegal and immoral. All these decisions are unconstitutional," he told AFP. Zardari is cracking down hard on planned protests scheduled for tomorrow against his failure to reappoint judges who were ousted by the previous military government. The rally could threaten his hold on power and push nuclear-armed Pakistan further toward anarchy.

It's every country for themselves when it comes to jump-starting the economy, as finance ministers have failed to come up with a coordinated stimulus plan at a G-20 meeting in England. While the group, whose nations comprise 85 percent of the world's economy, pledged to take “whatever action is necessary” to bounce back from global recession, there was no agreement on how countries should boost demand or deal with the toxic assets that have frozen credit around the world. The G-20 did find some common ground on international aid, pledging to boost contributions to the International Monetary Fund to help bail out desperate economies in Eastern Europe as well as Iceland, Pakistan, and others. But no specific dollar amount was put on the aid, punting the issue down the line. The US wants a $500 billion increase to a total of $750 billion.

Who brought Earth, Wind and Fire to the Obamas’ first formal dinner? Honored Stevie Wonder at the White House? And—gasp—served a black-tie governors’ dinner with mixed-place china settings? It was stylish social secretary Desiree Rogers, who sat down with the Chicago Tribune to dish on how she’s making the White House “the people’s house.” (Answer: by inviting ordinary citizens chosen by lottery and with events like an “egalitarian ball celebrating ordinary Americans” and poetry slams.) The Tribune calls Rogers’ (and the Obamas’) style “livelier than the Bushes, more hip than the Reagans, more multicultural than the Clintons and more accessible than the Kennedys.”

Hey, John McCain, remember that time Obama ran a bunch of ads right before the election bashing you for threatening to tax health care benefits? Well, good news, he's finally come around! In a dramatic reversal from his campaign position, the Obama team is quietly signaling to lawmakers that it would not oppose taxing some health benefits en route to a major overhaul of the system. Having once described the plan as “the largest middle-class tax increase in history," Obama could find it a tough sell among fellow Democrats. Republicans might not want to play along without the president's vocal support, if only for the satisfaction of hearing him say he was wrong. Of course, his is all little comfort to McCain as he mouths the words to his State of the Union address in front of the bathroom mirror every morning.

Makeup was ruined, dresses were sullied, and dreams were shattered. An audition for America's Next Top Model in New York City turned into a panicked sea of humanity yesterday as the rumor of a bomb swept through the crowd. According to reports, a spat between two men (what were they doing there?) that ended with one threatening to come back with a gun put the already nervous crowd on edge. A rule that those stepping out of line would lose their spot—meaning that America's Next Top Model may have ingloriously peed in a cup on 55th Street—did not help matters. Finally, the arrival of a smoking BMW incited a panic, and women knocked over barricades, fainted, and were pushed against walls in what one aspiring model described as a scene from "9/11 part two." After the stampede, auditions were closed. Several women are in the hospital and three others have been arrested for inciting a riot—and the video has to be seen to be believed.

Though he is a man without a church—thanks to Reverend Wright—President Obama keeps in touch with his spiritual side by praying with five evangelical pastors. The five men are a racially diverse group of center-right preachers that advocate social justice and transcending partisanship but mostly oppose abortion and gay marriage. The New York Times reports that Obama reaches out to the religious leaders as a means to "maintain his moral compass" and communicate with people outside the beltway. Yet Obama's own faith remains a bit of a mystery, even to preachers he prays with, apparently. “I would simply say that he is a person of great faith, and I think that faith has sustained him,” said one.

For all its hype, Zack Snyder's $120 million blockbuster Watchmen is fizzling out at the box office after only one week, providing a disappointing end to an adaptation that was decades in the making. The film brought in only $5.3 million on Friday, a tremendous 73 percent drop from the same day last week, and the weekend numbers aren't expected to look much better. Ousting the film from the top of the charts with $6.7 million on Friday was Disney's alien adventure Race to Witch Mountain, which stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

Police in Northern Ireland arrested three men suspected of murdering two soldiers and a policeman in Northern Ireland in attacks harking back to the country's violent past. It appears the attacks did not provoke the type of reaction the suspected attackers' anti-British splinter groups, the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, had hoped for. Instead of inspiring new turmoil, the killings—the first of their kind in a decade—served as a signal to the world that times have changed in Ireland. Protestants and Catholics alike condemned the murders, and the splinter groups have been portrayed as anachronisms. The new peace is not all-encompassing, though; when one of the suspects was arrested in his hometown, riots broke out among young Irishmen who "threw gasoline bombs at police."

The economy's in the tank, firms are going belly-up left and right, and Wall Street titans Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are... having a good year? Hard to believe, but Barron's is reporting the two banks "seem on course for a profitable first quarter and full year." Morgan's stock is up 58 percent to $25 a share, while Goldman is up 17 percent, to $98. Why? Both lack the crushing consumer-debt and commercial-loan portfolios of their rivals, and "both have bolstered their relationships with institutional traders in the important bond, equity, commodity and foreign-exchange markets," Barron's reports.

With demand for oil—like many other recession-era demands—sagging, Saudi Arabia's oil minister is pressuring OPEC nations to cut oil production in a bid to drive crude prices back up. Saudi Arabia is OPEC's largest producer, pumping more than double the quantity of the organization's second-largest producer, Iran. On Friday oil futures rested at $46.52 per barrel in New York, down from a $100 peak in July. Consequently, oil producing nations are feeling a pinch. Commodity experts in the West say the world can't handle a spike in oil prices, but OPEC appears to be sticking to its guns on a goal to get prices back up to between $75 and $100 this year. Industry leaders remain divided, however, on whether Saudi Arabia's new plan is wise. Compliance with OPEC's current production ceiling lingers around 80 percent, with Nigeria, Angola, and Iran overproducing at the highest rates. Qatar's oil minister said OPEC should force overproducing nations to comply with current limits before creating even lower ones.

Michael Jackson's much-heralded end-of-career concert series won't all be rehashing: Publicist Randy Phillips says the King of Pop is "working on a new move. Something like the Moonwalk, but different," referring to the signature move that cemented Jacko's place in dance history. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Phillips discussed Jackson's concert comeback in epic terms: "We finally made Mohammed come to the mountain of the O2," the London stadium where Jackson has 50 shows planned. He also downplayed the role Jackson's shaky finances played in the star's decision to return to the stage: "I asked him straight off: Why say yes to the tour now? Was it the money? He said, 'you know what, my kids are old enough now.'" Jackson originally agreed to only 10 concert dates, but Phillips' company, AEG, convinced him to 40 more. Phillips also noted that Jackson's comeback could be good for the recession: "Forgetting tickets, the local economy will get $500 million."