During a botched landing in Montana, a small turboprop plane crashed into Butte's Holy Cross Cemetery and killed between 14 and 17 passengers, the Associated Press reports. An FAA spokesperson said that the aircraft—which originated in Oroville, CA—was originally headed for Bozeman, MT but changed course and headed for Butte. "We think that it was probably a ski trip for the kids," the spokesperson said, explaining the numerous children aboard. The group began their journey in San Diego, where an air transit official said the children looked to be bewteen the ages of 6 and 10. It appears the party changed planes in Oroville, though no flight plan was filed there. The fourth major American plane crash in fewer than four months, witnesses say they saw the ski trip turboprop nosedive to the ground, a mere 500 feet from its attempted landing place.

Sick of hearing about the AIG bonuses? Don’t worry, Newsweek has dished up a fresh helping of outrage: Members of Congress are raking in the campaign cash from banks and firms that have taken in billions through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. A few bailed-out banks, including Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, have cut back on campaign donations, Newsweek reports, but “others are quietly doling out cash to select members of Congress, particularly those who serve on committees that oversee TARP.” Among the recent donations: Bank of America gave $24,500 to Rep. Steny Hoyer, and Citigroup dished out $2,500 to Rep. Eric Cantor. While Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Financial Services chairman Barney Frank “both said recently they won’t take donations from TARP recipients…House Democratic fundraisers have quietly passed the word that the party’s campaign committee will resume accepting them,” the magazine reports.

A year after leaving office in disgrace amid a prostitution scandal, Eliot Spitzer is back in the news—and back on TV screens. The former New York governor, who was an early critic of AIG as the state’s attorney general, is reemerging to talk about the company and the economic crisis, and some are wondering whether he’s plotting a return to public life. Today Spitzer made his first television appearance in a year, telling Fareed Zakaria that recklessness and greed got us into our financial mess. He also spoke about his personal problems: “I have flaws, as we all do, arguably. I failed in a very public way in my personal life. And I have paid a price for that.” Asked by Zakaria whether he wished he were in office to help solve the financial crisis, Spitzer replied: "Well, obviously I, first and foremost, hope that we can solve the problems, because the future of our economy and, without overstating, our nation, is at stake here. If I can contribute, I will do so in whatever way I can…These are issues that I feel deeply about. But I am where I am because my own conduct.”

Politico is calling it "friendly fire": The New York Times' top liberal voices all criticized President Obama this weekend, with gripes ranging from the economy to national security. Maureen Dowd accused the White House of treating Wall Street's worst with "kid gloves" and Geithner of being an i-bank apologist; Frank Rich called bonus-gate Obama's 'Katrina Moment'; and Thomas Friedman said America has "an absence of inspirational leadership." Meanwhile, Republican leaders Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Bloomberg lauded Obama on Sunday's Meet the Press. Bloomberg said Obama "deserves a lot of credit" for following up on campaign promises, and that the president has been able to "galvanize Congress" and "galvanize the country" to fight the recession. Schwarzenegger thanked America's collectively lucky stars "that this president is listening" to what we need.

In a private funeral in upstate New York, friends and family of Natasha Richardson laid the deceased actress to rest at a site near the home she shares with husband Liam Neeson and their two children. The Telegraph reports that Neeson was among the pallbearers. A head injury sustained during a ski lesson at Quebec's Mont Tremblant killed the 45-year-old actress last week. Among Natasha's mourners were sister and actress Joely Richardson, mother Vanessa Redgrave, and actor friends Uma Thurman and Ralph Fiennes.

Some may be calling for Treasury secretary Tim Geithner's head, but in an interview with 60 Minutes that will air on Sunday night, Obama says he'll stand by his man—in fact, he'll fight for him. In excerpts CBS released early, Obama jokes that, if Geithner attempted to jump ship, he'd tell him, "Sorry, buddy, you've still got your job." Obama noted that he'll need to win over Wall Street to make his new toxic asset buy back program work, but remained critical of their controversial bonus practices. He also fired back at former VP Dick Cheney, who recently criticized the new president's plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and to stop torture once and for all. "How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney?" Obama asked. "It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment."

In one of the worst police shootings in California history, three Oakland police officers are dead and one on life support after two gun battles with a wanted suspect. The carnage began early yesterday afternoon, when two traffic officers made a routine stop and the suspect opened fire, killing Sgt. Mark Dunakin, and severely wounding Officer John Hege. Acting on a tip, a SWAT team later charged an apartment where the suspect, Lovelle Mixon, took his last stand. Firing wildly, he fatally shot two SWAT officers, Sgts. Ervin Romans, and Daniel Saka, before another SWAT member killed him. Hundreds of police waited outside the hospital afterward for word on the officers' condition. "In these moments, words are extraordinarily inadequate," Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums told reporters at police headquarters last night.

On the heels of reports that Harrison Ford finally popped the question to Calista Flockhart, the LA Times reports that Bruce Willis married on Saturday. Thirty-year-old model Emma Heming—whose uncanny resemblance to Willis ex Demi Moore goes not unnoticed—married the graying action star at his vacation home in the Caribbean. The wedding featured 54-year-old Willis' extended and highly blended family—three daughters, Demi, and Demi's young husband Ashton Kutcher—and a star-studded guest list that included Madonna. Ford's engagement to longtime partner Calista Flockhart also broke in the entertainment media this weekend, though Ford reportedly popped the question last month, on Valentine's Day.

Fresh off the AIG bonus debacle, the Obama administration is set to announce a push this week for a major overhaul of regulations surrounding executive pay at banks, Wall Street firms, and other businesses. While details are scarce, one proposal is to require company boards to tie bonuses and other payouts more closely to performance and give the Fed more far-reaching abilities to intervene. In addition, the new restrictions are intended to rein in the complicated derivatives market that helped cause the economic crisis by making it more transparent and tightly regulated. CEOs everywhere are anxiously awaiting the full proposal as they debate which vacation home they could do without if necessary.

The Mexican border is set to become further militarized, and just not for the reasons many anti-immigration advocates had hoped. President Obama plans to announce an initiative geared toward assisting Mexican authorities in their brutal war with powerful drug cartels. "Federal agents, equipment and other resources" are heading to the border as early as next week, The Washington Post reports. Agents at the border will begin cracking down at checkpoints by using new technology to weigh vehicles and also enter license plates into security databases. Mexican and American authorities also will be sharing intelligence as a means to contain the cartels' movements in the border region. The drug war at the border has leapfrogged to the top of the list of domestic concerns at the White House, as it becomes less and less clear whether the Mexican government can rein in narcotraffickers. Since the beginning of 2008, more than 7,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico.

Jade Goody, the British reality TV star whose fame pushed the boundaries of reality television further than perhaps any other participant in memory, has died of cancer. Though the star had announced plans to broadcast her imminent death for all the world to see, BBC reports she passed among family early this morning. Goody stormed onto the scene through the British version of Big Brother. She later gained notoriety after making racist comments about a Bollywood star participating with her on Celebrity Big Brother. But the criticism subsided with her announcement that she had cervical cancer—a diagnosis she received on India's version of Big Brother. Goody became a regular presence in the British tabloids as she unabashedly publicized her own struggle as a means to spread cancer awareness. Even in death, her unorthodox ties to the limelight feature prominently: Her funeral is being called a "Jade Goody Production."

Barack Obama couldn't make it to the Gridiron Club dinner, an annual white-tie party held by journalists and White House officials, but his absence from the traditional presidential stop gave Vice President Joe Biden something to do for a change. Filling in for Obama, Biden won over the crowd mostly by poking fun at himself, from his suspiciously full head of hair to his penchant for gaffes. Staying on message, he also threw in a gag about outrage over corporate bonuses. "I’d like to address some of the things I said: Like when I said that ‘JOBS’ is a three-letter word," Biden said. "I did say that. But I didn’t mean it literally. It’s like how, right now, most people think AIG is a four-letter word." Obama, who was at Camp David last night, was the first president to skip his inaugural invitation to the event since Grover Cleveland, whom Biden joked had better things to do on a Saturday night, like hanging out with his 21-year-old wife.

You know times are tough when Hugo Chavez is urging Venezuelans to "be more realistic." In a startling admission that his oil-fueled socialist revolution cannot sustain itself, Chavez announced major cutbacks to Venezuela's 2009 budget. The move is a surprising reversal for the president, who has thrown around money with reckless abandon in the last few years. Taxes will go up, senior public officials will face a substantial pay cut, and the budget will be reduced by nearly 7 percent overall, the BBC reports. The charismatic leader has hit several bumps in the revolutionary road lately, as his opposition has become more vocal in criticizing him for mismanaging the economy, cracking down on dissent, and failing to stop the raging violence in Caracas.

Harrison Ford has popped the question to Calista Flockhart, his girlfriend of seven years, People reports. The star of Indiana Jones and Star Wars proposed to the Brothers & Sisters star over Valentine's Day weekend while on vacation with their son. If all goes as planned, this will be Ford's third marriage. The wedding date has yet to be determined.

Plenty of drama yesterday in the basketball bender that is March Madness. Ty Lawson, point guard for UNC, carried the Tar Heels to victory while playing on a swollen, deformed big toe. Gonzaga and West Kentucky went down to the wire, with both teams trading buckets in the final minute. Zaga came out on top when their freshman point guard made a bank shot in the clutch with a second to spare. And Duke eked out a victory while playing in front of a hostile, pro-UNC audience. One person who was surely pleased with Saturday's results: Barack Obama. His bracket yesterday was flawless.

The 40 activists aboard Connecticut's AIG protest tour bus on Saturday were vastly outnumbered by the photographers and reporters assigned to follow the first organized populist uprising aimed at AIG executives' homes and families. The Associated Press reports that photographers from as far away as Germany tailed the small band of outraged citizens, organized by non-profit Connecticut Working Families. Dubbed "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous," the tour was equal parts pitchfork mob and real estate voyeurism, featuring both outrage and wonder: At executive James Hass' sprawling Fairfield manse, one protester -- a gardener by trade -- mused, "Lord, I wonder what it's like to live in a house that size." Other protesters noted that many of their far humbler homes are on the verge of foreclosure. In anticipation of the protest, security guards stood sentry at executives' home, but there were no arrests or reports of violence.