When the fervor over the bailout was at its peak, President Obama faced criticism for not lending a hand to the average consumer. Today, he signaled that is exactly what he intends to do by reforming the credit-card industry. Some of the main reforms involve avoiding sudden jumps in fees, explaining policies in plain language, and greater enforcement of the rules. Obama sees the moves as means of protecting Americans from unforeseen expenses during a recession. With credit-card executives seated beside him, Obama sternly said that "those in the industry who want to act responsibly will engage with us in a constructive fashion, and that we're going to get this done in short order."

One of the Big Three lay in jeopardy on Thursday night: After the New York Times reported that the Treasury Department was preparing Chrysler for chapter 11 bankruptcy, the troubled company's lenders started work on a new offer to forgive a portion of its debts. Earlier in the week, Chrysler's lenders—which include J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Cerberus—offered to forgive $2.5 billion of the $6.9 billion Chrysler owes them, but the Treasury nixed the deal due to steep shareholding demands, and instead offered Chryslers' debtors 22 cents on the dollar and a 5-percent equity stake in the reorganized company. The deal fell apart, but Reuters reports the lenders are now preparing a counter-offer. Complicating Chrysler's intricate choreography of bankruptcy-avoidance measures is Italian automaker Fiat, where plans for an alliance with Chrysler are in the works. According to The New York Times, Fiat plans to forge ahead regardless of Chrysler's bankruptcy status. The government's deadline on Chrysler's reorganization plan is April 30.

Michelle Obama shared homey details about living in the White House during a Q-&-A session with the inquisitive children of White House staffers celebrating Take Your Child to Work Day. One child asked, “what would you do if something bad happened to a country?” “Well, first of all I'd wake my husband up if it were at night,” Michelle answered. “And I'd tell him, hey, buddy, you're the President, get down to the Oval Office and call some leaders.” Obama stressed that she loves her job because she doesn’t have to “deal with the hard problems,” just the “fun stuff.” (The only thing she doesn’t like to do? Run on a treadmill.) “I think I have actually one of the best jobs in the White House,” she said. She doesn’t miss cooking now that the family has a chef, and said she spends more time with the President than when he was on the campaign trail. “If I really need to see him, I can walk to his office, and, you know, cool stuff like that.” The first lady also revealed details on first puppy Bo: "He loves to chew on people's feet" and has a "crazy" temperament.

And then there was one. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is going to have to wait a little longer to see if she can officially join President Obama’s cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Republicans refused to vote on the nominee after heated and ongoing debate. Sebelius has drawn fire for her support for abortion rights and failure to report all campaign contributions from physicians who perform abortions. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said her “fairly contentious” selection merited more time for consideration, while RNC chair Michael Steele said she must answer more questions on late-term abortions or withdraw. A spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Democrats will pursue avenues to break a Republican filibuster if necessary, and that they'll push for a vote next week. Sebelius, a moderate, is the last of Obama's cabinet members awaiting confirmation.

Jay Leno checked himself into a hospital in Burbank after canceling Thursday's show last minute. No word on what ails Leno, but an NBC rep says he's doing fine: "He was kidding around with the hospital staff and running his monologue jokes by the doctors and the nurses." Leno, who is famous for his work ethic and never calls in sick, also cancelled his Friday show. Ryan Reynolds—and an animal handler and small menagerie of reptiles—were expected to appear on Thursday's show. It was the first time Leno canceled a taping since he took over the show in 1992.

Maybe we can give Citigroup to Fiat too? The Italian automaker, already lined up to take a 20 percent stake in Chrysler, “may buy a stake in General Motors’ Opel division in Europe, and has discussed a potential deal with government negotiators in Washington, executives at G.M. and representatives of the German government,” according to The New York Times. “A deal that gave Fiat control of Opel would solidify its position in Europe while sharply increasing its current production of 2.2 million vehicles a year, a longtime goal of Fiat’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne.”

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s gift of a book may not have won President Obama over. So how about an island? The Venezuelan government has formally donated Petty Island back to the United States. The US may not be won over, however, since it probably considers the island rightfully its own: It’s located in the Delaware River, near Philadelphia. Venezuela’s state-run energy company, PDVS, bought the island in 1990. It has used the island for fuel storage and refinement since 1990.

The lineup is in, and film buffs with overstuffed wallets are probably already booking their plane tickets to Paris. This year’s Festival de Cannes is heavy on modern auteurs and highly-anticipated flicks, with premieres from Ang Lee, Pedro Almodovar, Quentin Tarantino, Lars Von Trier, and Terry Gilliam among the highlights. Among the most-hyped include Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino’s WWII drama, and Gilliam’s fantasy epic The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which marks Heath Ledger’s final role. Closing the fest, which runs in mid-May, will be Jan Kounen's Coco Chanel biopic.

Seems like everyone in D.C. wants to voice their opinion on the release of the controversial torture memos. Speaking today in North Carolina, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he had been in favor of releasing the documents, taking the pragmatic view that they would eventually be leaked anyway. Gates added that one of the most important aspects of their release was that the CIA agents that carried out the torture be protected. He also considered the possibility of "backlash in the Middle East" as well as the memos being used as a recruiting tool by al-Qaeda. But in the end, in light of congressional probes and several lawsuits, Gates supported the release of the memos.

“Accused ‘Craigslist killer’ Philip Markoff was put on a suicide watch today after correction officers found shoelace marks on his neck” reports ABC News. He was moved to a special unit where officers can keep an eye on him. Markoff, a 22-year-old medical student, is accused of murdering Julissa Brisman, a woman he contacted through a Craigslist ad offering a massage.

Woops! Dick Cheney will be sending some tea bags to John Boehner’s office for this one: At a press conference today, the House Minority Leader called torture “torture.” "Last week, they released these memos outlining torture techniques. That was clearly a political decision and ignored the advice of their Director of National Intelligence and their CIA director," Boehner said. Boehner called the discussion of such techniques “inappropriate” since our enemies could rip them off.

Time to get a different veterinarian. The 21 polo horses that mysteriously perished before, during, and after a match were accidentally poisoned by an incorrectly prepared medication, the Associated Press reports. Though the guilty pharmacy has yet to officially state what the medicine was, there are reports that it was a tainted vitamin that is illegal in the U.S. The horses belonged to Victor Vargas, the shady Venezuelan millionaire who is rumored to be quite cozy with Hugo Chavez. The deaths have spurred a call for anti-doping measures in equestrian sports, though the captain of the polo team insists they would never do anything that might harm their beloved steeds. Vargas himself was said to be openly weeping while holding one of the dying horses in his arms.

The showdown between Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann is going straight to the top. During a shareholder meeting at GE, MSNBC's parent company, a "gotcha" reporter/producer for Fox News peppered GE's CEO Jeff Immelt with pointed questions about the news network's liberal bias before his microphone was abruptly cut off. The questions were not that out of place at the meeting, however, as other attendees echoed the producer's criticism. One shareholder asked the GE CEO if he had personally ordered news executives to portray Barack Obama in a favorable light. Others openly criticized Olbermann's credibility as a journalist. "The crowd was very upset with MSNBC because of its leftward tilt. Some former employees said they were embarrassed by it," one attendee told the Hollywood Reporter. Interestingly, several of the shareholders who harshly criticized MSNBC are also involved with Fox News. Isn't that some sort of conflict of interest?

Whatever Works, which debuted last night at the Tribeca Film Festival, may mark Woody Allen's cinematic return to New York—but it sure didn't impress the city's critics. The film includes a scene in which President Obama is unable to hail a cab in New York, a stale joke about Viagra, and an odd sexual relationship between Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood. While some film critics say the movie is the first actually funny Woody Allen movie they've seen in a while, others think Whatever Works misses the mark. According to the New York Post, Allen's humor is sparse and outdated—he "tries to show he's with it by briefly throwing in a ménage a trios." Hm... doesn't quite work.

Never before have scientists engineered such cuteness. A trade show in Germany features new robotic penguins that swim underwater and interact with one another (all that's missing is Morgan Freeman narrating). There are also airborne models of the robot which behave in a similar fashion, i.e. looking like penguins. The pseudo-penguins are outfitted with high tech sensors that detect their environment. It has yet to be determined if they are a suitable substitute for the real penguins that are vanishing along with the polar ice caps.

So what if conservative commentator William Kristol was let go by The New York Times? Why should that disqualify him from winning an award—with a $250,000 stipend—for making an "outstanding" impact in his field? Kristol—an author, Fox News pundit, founding editor of The Weekly Standard, and former aide to Dan Quayle—was chosen for his affect on "development of public policy from national and international perspectives" by the Milwaukee-based group. The awards will be presented in June.

Levi Johnston and his family don’t want to be famous. “I'm not out here looking for fame,” said Bristol Palin’s ex while appearing on Larry King Live with his mother and sister. He’s “just trying to get [his] story out.” And the story, now, is that he hasn’t seen his son Tripp in over two weeks. While claiming that he is not in a “big fight with the Palins” yet, he implied he soon might be if the family refuses to allow him to “take [the baby] and that kind of thing, go do the father thing.” Johnston's mother Sherry was more direct, saying that taking legal action “is what we're going to have to do next. We were just hoping that we wouldn't have to.” A Palin family spokeswoman responded by saying that “Bristol is focused on going to college, raising Tripp, and advocating abstinence,” in spite of Bristol’s recent statement that abstinence is “not realistic at all.”

Americans want what Obama’s selling: A new poll by The Associated Press shows that, for the first time in years, more Americans think the country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction: 48 percent said the nation is on the right track, while 40 percent said it’s on the wrong track. The last time this happened was briefly in January 2004, after the United States captured Saddam Hussein. Obama’s approval rating was at 64 percent.

Murder and a Ponzi scheme in a single story? The New York Post reports that Long Island lawyer William Parente was under investigation for running a $20 million Ponzi scheme, and that, hours before he killed his wife, two daughters, and himself, his scheme began to unravel. Parente, his wife Betty, and 11-year-old daughter Catherine were visiting his eldest daughter, the 19-year-old Stephanie, at college in Baltimore when Parente snapped. During the day on Monday he bludgeoned and smothered his wife, then Catherine, and, when Stephanie visited the hotel room at 4 pm, he did the same to her. He covered the bodies with a sheet, and early on Tuesday morning, he slit his own wrists. Hours after the bodies were discovered, $450,000 in checks that Parente had given an investor began to bounce.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has a weakness for beautiful women: His candidates for the European Parliament elections in June include a Big Brother star, a Miss Italy contestant, and a television actress. None of the women has any known political experience, but at the center-right People of Liberty party headquarters they received seminars on European history, current affairs, NATO, and finance from high-ranking Italian officials. Berlusconi landed himself in marital hot water two years ago after he was overheard hitting on the Minister for Equal Opportunities—a former topless model—at a television awards ceremony.

Scary news from Pakistan: The Taliban have seized a district close to Islamabad, and the government appeared to make no move to fight back. The district borders the Swat Valley, a region the Taliban wrested from Pakistan’s army in February. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s government recently agreed to the introduction of Sharia law in Swat, which the Obama administration thinks is too big a concession to the Taliban. “I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday. The Taliban have tried to take over the Buner district before, but citizen militias forced them away. Now the Taliban have more recruits in Swat and were easily able to invade—and they’re one step closer to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

Angelina Jolie doesn't just read scripts. The actress was seen toting around Richard N. Haass' War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars on the New York City set of her latest film, Salt. Jolie is no stranger to the Iraq conflict: she visited the country last year. She wrote in a subsequent editorial, "My visit left me even more deeply convinced that we not only have a moral obligation to help displaced Iraqi families, but also a serious, long-term, national security interest in ending this [refugee] crisis."

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, “a member of SMAP, the biggest, best-loved and most successful boy band in Japanese pop history,” is known as “Mr. Jeans Japan” but it seems he prefers his pants off. “What’s wrong with being naked?” Kusanagi is said to have screamed at police officers who arrested him for being drunk and naked in a public park. Kusanagi was “whooping noisily” and cannot remember why he took his clothes off. The case is expected to have a big fallout, since Kusanagi’s image as the “boy next door” is threatened: Toyota and Procter & Gamble have already cancelled ad campaigns with him, while the country’s minister for internal affairs and communications has said he’s “furious” and might drop Kusanagi from a public information campaign.

A statistic that will have many an adorable animal and amateur performer green with envy: Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent audition tape “has been watched 93.5 million times on YouTube in just 11 days.” As Boyle’s media blitz continues, the clip is expected to pass 120 million views in the coming days, which would make her clip the most watched YouTube clip of all time, knocking the “Evolution of Dance” and a slew of music videos off the top.

Another Bush administration policy overturned: The FDA will allow 17-year-olds to buy Plan B—aka the morning after pill—over the counter. A U.S. district court judge has ruled that the policy restricting access to minor was based on politics, not science, and opened up an investigation into whether any age limit should exist for the drug. Plan B contains a high dose of birth control that can prevent a woman from becoming pregnant up to 72 hours after she has had sex, but does not interfere with an existing pregnancy. Pro-lifers say the pill is like an abortion because it prevents a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus, though research suggests that is unlikely.

A search of suspected “Craigslist killer” Philip Markoff’s apartment has yielded creepy results: two pairs of women’s underwear kept as mementos and a gun concealed in a hollowed-out copy of the textbook Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body. Who the underwear belonged to has yet to be determined—as has whether the gun found was used in the murder of the 26-year-old masseuse found in the doorway of a room at the Boston Marriott Copley. The Suffolk County district attorney says the 23-year-old med student, who has pleaded not guilty, “seems to have no problem physically hurting women and dominating them.”

Things will be quiet in Detroit this summer: According to the Associated Press, General Motors “is planning to temporarily close most of its U.S. factories for up to nine weeks this summer because of slumping sales and growing inventories of unsold vehicles.” The exact dates are unknown, but people familiar with the matter say it will be near GM’s normal two-week shutdown in July, when changes are made to the company’s models. The Associated Press comments, “The shutdown could be catastrophic to many auto parts suppliers that already are near bankruptcy due to previous production cuts. During the shutdown, suppliers couldn't ship parts to GM and would lose critical revenue.”

Who was calling the shots at Bank of America during the height of the financial crisis? The Wall Street Journal reports “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Department chief Henry Paulson pressured Bank of America Corp. to not discuss its increasingly troubled plan to buy Merrill Lynch & Co—a deal that later triggered a government bailout of BofA—according to testimony by Kenneth Lewis, the bank's chief executive.” Lewis was questioned by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in February, and the transcript has been released now for the first time. “I was instructed that 'We do not want a public disclosure,’” Lewis says. Why might this be a problem? “Under normal circumstances, banks must alert their shareholders of any materially significant financial hits. ... Disclosing losses at Merrill—which eventually totaled $15.84 billion for the fourth quarter—could have given BofA's shareholders an opportunity to stop the deal and let Merrill collapse instead.”

It is not clear whether work troubles were what drove Freddie Mac CFO David Kellermann to suicide, but it is certain that the months since his promotion were trying. Kellerman spent hours every day meeting with chief executive David Moffett, even after everyone else had gone home, wrestling with the difficulties of a company that had been near collapse. He worked his way up at the mortgage giant from a young financial analyst to become one of its main points of contact with government overseers. The company’s billions of dollars in losses and other accounting and legal issues had taken an increasing toll on Kellerman, who, according to colleagues, refused to take any time off. He also found himself at the center of recent controversies. Among them, the bonus fiasco. He was slated to receive $850,000 over the course of a year and a half, $170,000 of which had already been disbursed.

Here’s your daily dose of economic data, and it doesn’t taste good: Home resales fell 3 percent in February after the National Association of Realtors originally reported they rose 5.1 percent. The stock market dropped about 60 points on the news. Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports that jobless claims rose more than expected, up to 640,000 from 613,000 instead of the projected 635,000. Total claims for unemployment benefits are over 6.1 million.

This sounds like a case for Maury or Montel: According to The Washington Post, “For the third time in less than a month, a woman came forward yesterday saying that [Paraguayan President Fernando] Lugo, a former Roman Catholic bishop, is the father of her child.” The first woman ,Viviana Carillo, claims her relationship began with Lugo began when she was 16. Lugo admitted that he was the father to the boy, Guillermo, who will turn two next month. The second woman came out Monday, saying her relationship began in 2000 when she was 17 and that their son was born in 2002. As a priest, Lugo swore chastity vows.