Are the bonuses coming back? The Associated Press is reporting that the House has passed a bill to impose a 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses, 328 to 93. Nancy Pelosi said "We want our money back and we want our money back now for the taxpayers." Republicans criticized the bill as a “legally questionable ploy to paper over Obama administration missteps.”

In stateside prisons, it's news if one or two of the inmates are found to be innocent. In Guantanamo Bay, however, the numbers are more like 776 innocent out of 800. Lawrence Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, wrote this week that only about 2 dozen of the roughly 800 male inmates at Guantanamo are terrorists. The rest are innocent prisoners who may or may not have information useful to the U.S. government. "There are still innocent people there," said Wilkerson, "some have been there six or seven years." Wilkerson says he learned of this through State Department briefings and military commanders.

One by one, the most diehard of the GOP's state governors announced their right-wing bonafides by threatening to reject their states' portions of the stimulus. On Thursday former VP candidate Sarah Palin announced the precise amount of Alaska's stimulus she wants to reject: $514 million, approximately 45 percent of the $940.7 million the federal government appropriated for the wintry state. Palin explained, "We won't be bound by federal strings in exchange for dollars, nor will we dig ourselves a deeper hole in two years when these federal funds are gone." The governor also said she wanted to avoid "unrealistic expectation that the state will continue these programs when the federal funds are no longer available," and said Alaska needed to "foster a discussion" about "growth of government."

The Associated Press is reporting that actress Natasha Richardson “died of blunt impact to the head.” In medical terms, that’s “epidural hematoma due to blunt impact to the head.” It was also ruled an accident. Richardson was initially fine after falling during a ski lesson, but reported not feeling well an hour later. She was hospitalized in Montreal on Tuesday and then flown to a hospital in New York, where she died yesterday.

A judge ordered Josef Fritzl jailed for life this morning. He apologized to the court, but added, "I can't go back and change it," CNN reports. For those of you just joining us: Yesterday, the so-called Austrian dungeon dad pled guilty to all charges, which included assault, rape, incest, slavery, murder and withdrawal of liberty, since he locked his daughter in a basement for 24 years, raped her more than 3,000 times and fathered seven children with her, one of whom died from lack of medical care. Admission aside, a jury still needed to decide his guilt or innocence.

Now AIG gets a taste of the real-estate crisis its bankers helped to cause: Crain’s reports that AIG is trying to sell its headquarters in downtown Manhattan, but the building is likely to fetch only about one-third of the price it would have earned just six months ago. Because AIG will move out its employees when it sells the building and new tenants are hard to come by these days, experts estimate the Pine Street building will sell for somewhere between $78 and $116 million. Six months ago, the same building was thought to command between $310 and $385 million.

At least one person's stock is rising in the economic turmoil: Andrew Cuomo's. The New York attorney general is establishing himself as a major player on the national scene as he leads the crusade against AIG's outrageous bonuses. It was Cuomo who issued subpoenas forcing AIG to release details of who received overly generous bonuses. Cuomo has emerged as a relentless antagonist of AIG, and told the AP he had been "investigating AIG compensation arrangements since last fall." All of this sets the stage for a rumored run at the governor's office in 2010.

As the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin met with George W. Bush face-to-face, but it wasn’t the first time he’d been that close to a president: President Obama’s official photographer, Pete Souza, has discovered a photograph of then-President Reagan shaking the hand of a Russian child with then-KGB agent Vladimir Putin looking on. You wouldn’t be able to tell Putin was a KGB agent from his get-up at the time, however: He is undercover as a tourist, complete with a polo shirt tucked into khaki pants and a camera around his neck.

$5 billion? Almost sounds like chump change now. The ailing auto industry will be getting an extra $5 billion from taxpayers to help it stay afloat. This time, the funds are going to auto part manufacturers who have long-sought aid. "Though the Treasury has focused on helping Detroit's automakers survive the ongoing economic downturn, the vast majority of jobs and revenue stems from the automakers' web of U.S. parts suppliers, who provide everything from the seats to electronics," the Washington Post reports.

A transcript of speeches given by soldiers that saw combat in the recent war in Gaza reveals shocking abuses that contradict Israel's statements throughout the conflict. Soldiers described wanton destruction of Palestinian's homes, the murder of women, children and the elderly clearly not involved in the conflict and a general disregard for the value of Palestinian life. Testimonies also told of an almost messianic ambiance encouraged by military and non-military rabbis, who told soldiers they were doing God's work by storming Gaza. Israel has consistently claimed to have "a moral army" that strictly follows rules of engagement.

Two journalists working for Al Gore's cable channel, Current TV, have been arrested by North Korean authorities while reporting a story on refugees fleeing to China and South Korea. As with most issues involving North Korea, there is a good deal of mystery surrounding the incident. Though it is not uncommon for North Korean spies to make arrests wherever they please in the sketchy border zone, it is unclear whether the reporters were in China or North Korea when they were captured. A Chinese interpreter assisting the women was also arrested, and an American cameraman tagging along "escaped arrest at the last minute." U.S. and Chinese officials are looking into the matter. This all serves as a backdrop to the looming North Korean satellite launch next month, which many fear will actually be a missile test.

While the Obama administration gears up to drastically shift the energy market energy away from fossil fuels, Exxon Mobil has its head in the sand. If the company doesn't see the light, and soon, it may miss the window to adapt—a window that every other oil company has at least opened: BP, Shell, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips have all diversified into forms of renewable energy. Exxon, which has scorned its rivals for such advances, put out a recent report predicting a steady increase in global demand for oil, coal and natural gas despite President Obama's pledge to curb it. The president's plan calls for not just a cap and trade program, which could shrink demand for oil by jacking up the price, but also for a drastic reduction in the amount that is imported from the Middle East. Exxon Mobile, which relies on the Middle East for roughly 40 percent of its imported crude, is probably in for a devastating surprise.

If it weren't for the swastika on his forehead, he could be your grandfather. A subdued photo of ex-rampaging murderer Charles Manson has been released as part of a routine series of updates by Corcoran State Prison, where he is serving a life sentence. It's been 40 years since Manson and his "family" murdered actress Sharon Tate and six others, and his countenance is a far cry from that of the crazy-eyed young man in the now ubiquitous black and white photo taken in 1968. Manson, whose original sentence of death was changed to life in prison in a 1972 California Supreme Court ruling, is up for parole in 2012.

Continuing his struggle to stay relevant, a new tape attributed to Osama Bin Laden has been released, in which he calls for the overthrow of the new Somali president. The president has only been in office since January and is struggling to establish the first functioning government in Somalia in over 15 years, the BBC reports. In an effort to assuage fundamentalist Muslims, he has stated he will institute strict Sharia law in the country. Apparently this did not satisfy bin Laden, who described the president as having "changed to partner up with the infidel."

New Jersey's board of cosmetology is pushing for a ban on Brazilian bikini waxes, a popular salon treatment that removes all hair in the genital area using strips of hot wax. Why? Two New Jersey women were hospitalized for infections after receiving the treatment. Genital waxing has never specifically been allowed, but because no direct ban exists most salons provide the service, which their owners say is a big money-maker. Salon owners are predicting that women will seek their bare-it-all fix across state lines.

That thing about the captain going down with his ship apparently doesn’t apply at The Washington Post: Barron’s reports that Donald Graham, the chairman and CEO of Washington Post Co., “has sold tens of millions of dollars worth of stock in the past year through a series of trusts he oversees for his relatives.” In the past two weeks alone, he has sold over 40,000 shares for $14 million. Graham, however, sold off only about 1.4 percent of the company’s publicly traded class B shares and still owns 33.8 percent.

As if New York Governor David Paterson weren’t embattled enough already: NBC New York is reporting that “New York campaign finance records show American International Group donated $100,000 to the state Democratic Committee just before Democratic Gov. David Paterson and his insurance superintendent launched marathon sessions to prop up the embattled insurer.” The donation was made on August 29, and on September 16 Paterson announced the “great news” that New York officials had helped persuade the Federal Reserve to keep AIG afloat.

As anger over AIG's $165 million bonus package dominates the headlines, lawmakers and federal officials are trying to figure out how they were blindsided by news of the executive compensation deal over the weekend. According to the Washington Post, Federal Reserve officials were aware of the bonuses for months but failed to inform the White House until just days before they were due, leading to a last minute scramble to confront the issue. "I was stunned when I learned how bad this was on Tuesday [March 10]," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the Post. "I shouldn't have been in that position, but it's my responsibility and I accept that." Fallout is also hitting Senator Chris Dodd, who is already facing re-election troubles at home due to his close ties to finance—a recent poll showed him in a virtual tie with likely opponent Rep. Rob Simmons. Dodd yesterday admitted that he had inserted language into the stimulus bill allowing for the AIG bonuses to go forward.

Ending a rally that pushed the dollar to its highest levels since 2006, the currency's value versus the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and Swedish krona dropped 2.7 percent yesterday on news of the Fed's $1.15 trillion plan to buy up bonds. It was the steepest one-day fall in nine years against the euro as investors worried that the Fed's decision to print new money would lead to inflation. The dollar had previously strengthened during the economic downturn as demand for safe and reliable U.S. Treasury bonds shot up with the stock market tanking.

A well-placed source in the publishing industry says George W. Bush’s book deal is valued at about $7 million. The former president has already written 30,000 words of the book, to be published by Crown and tentatively called Decision Points, which will focus on his most important life lessons. “I want people to understand the environment in which I was making decisions. I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me,” he told AP. Although Bush’s $7 million deal is $8 million less than Bill Clinton’s deal for My Life, the new book will not be a memoir: Instead of recounting his life story, he’ll write about a dozen personal and professional choices, including giving up drinking and picking Dick Cheney as his vice president.

Let's blame Juno. The birthrate among 15-to-19-year-old girls has increased for the second consecutive year, forcing the debate about abstinence education back into the forefront of discussion. After a 14-year decline, the rate rose 3.4 percent in 2005, followed by an additional jump of 1.4 percent from 2006 to 2007. "We may have reached a tipping point. It's hard to know where it's going to go from here," said a member of the National Center for Health Statistics. The news is especially relevant as in the coming weeks President Obama will announce his plans to support or cut abstinence programs, which receive about $176 million in federal funding each year.

The death penalty is no more in New Mexico—Gov. Bill Richardson has signed a law abolishing it. “This has been the most difficult decision of my political career,” he said as he signed the law making New Mexico the 15th state to ban capital punishment. “I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime,” Richardson said. “If the State is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong.” Supporters of a repeal of the death penalty, which was reinstate in 1976, hailed the decision, calling it a “great day for New Mexico.” The state’s most severe punishment now will be life in prison without the possibility of parole.

With the Obama administration scrambling to comply with plans to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay by next year, Attorney General Eric Holder is saying some detainees may end up being released in the US. Officials are reviewing individual cases of the 250 detainees to determine which will be put on trial and which may be released, said Holder, who’s also still working to assemble his senior leadership at the Justice Department. European justice ministers are pressing Holder for details on how many Gitmo prisoners the US plans to release domestically, “as part of any agreement for allies to accept detainees,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Still up in the air is the fate of 17 ethnic Uighurs, from China’s Central Asian region, who have been ordered released by a judge—but the US won’t turn them over to China, which considers them part of a separatist group.

A victory for Andrew Cuomo: A judge has ruled that Merrill Lynch employees who received $3.6 billion in bonuses in December can be publicly identified as part of the New York attorney general’s investigation. Justice Bernard Fried today rejected Bank of America’s argument that compensation information was a trade secret: “The Martin Act vests in the Attorney General the discretion to decide whether to keep the information that he gathers in the course of his investigation secret or public,” he wrote. Cuomo—who’s been seeking the information as part of his probe of the bonuses, granted in late December before Merrill was bought by BofA—called the decision “a victory for taxpayers.” He added: “Let the sun shine in.”

This seems rather counterintuitive. Two large studies about the PSA blood test, which is used to screen for prostate cancer, have shaken the veracity that that annual screenings should be mandatory. The "significant" and "definitive" results prove that, while the cancer test does indicate if a tumor is present, they are usually so slow-growing that many men are treated unnecessarily. Consequences of treatment range from impotence to incontinence and, overall, the tests did not lead to a reduced rate of death. Doctors are now urging men to weigh the risks and benefits of the preventative care.

Apparently, they never learn: Bloomberg reports that Citigroup is planning to build a $10 million executive suite with new offices for its CEO Vikram Pandit and his lieutenants. Papers show Citigroup plans to pay $3.2 for basic construction—tearing down walls and such—and a source familiar with the project says final costs will be three times that much, once they add in architect’s fees and furniture. In a statement, Citigroup said “Senior executives in our corporate headquarters are moving from two floors to smaller, simpler offices on a single floor … Based on estimates made when the project was initiated, we expect to generate savings in the next few years well in excess of the project costs.”

President Barack Obama may spend most of his time these days scolding businessmen, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a shrewd one himself: When his brand’s value was at an all-time high (right before the inauguration in January), he signed a two-book deal with Crown Publishing Group. One book will be an abridged young-adult version of Dreams of My Father, which came with a $500,000 advance and 15 percent of hardcover book sales and 10 percent of paperback book sales; the other will be a new nonfiction book that he will write after his presidency. Obama didn’t indicate how much this second deal is worth, and it’s likely that terms will not be negotiated until the end of his term.

Natasha Richardson came from one of the world's most famous acting dynasties—she was the daughter of actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late film director Tony Richardson, and she later married Schindler's List actor Liam Neeson. She appeared in many films and made a splash in theater on Broadway and in London, but her first role came at age 4 when she played her mother's bridesmaid in a film directed by her father. After graduating from the Central School of Speech and Drama—which she auditioned for without admitting she was a Redgrave—she made her screen debut in Every Picture Tells a Story in 1984. In the mid 1990s she moved to New York from England to escape the constant comparisons between herself and her mother. According to Richardson, it was there that she felt "I could be my own person." She is survived by two children, both of whom are from her marriage with Liam Neeson. In a statement, her family said: "Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."