The United States has suffered its first death from swine flu: The Associated Press reports that a 23-month-year-old infant in Texas has passed away from the virus. Meanwhile, the U.S. is beginning to mobilize all its resources to combat the virus, which may have been responsible for the death of its first American victim. A second school in New York City has been closed after dozens of students came down with the illness, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in California. President Obama has requested $1.5 billion in aid to combat the virus out of “an abundance of caution.” Richard Besser, the acting director of the CDC, was not exactly a beacon of optimism today, saying: “I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection.” He added, “I think we need to be prepared that even if it starts to look a little better, it may get a little worse.”

A damning assessment from Politico’s John Harris and Jim VandeHei: Sen. Arlen Specter’s decision to join the Democratic Party—putting them one step closer to 60 Senate seats—has dealt a major blow to the GOP, both in terms of “public perceptions and legislative arithmetic.” Specter’s departure only solidifies the perception of the Republican Party as ideologically bankrupt, and it also places his former party at a disadvantage in the Senate not seen since 1977. Republicans are already very unpopular, and many are quick to point out that Specter’s decision was more of an effort at political survival than a philosophical epiphany. Republicans bemoaning their struggling party should take heart, though: Just five years ago, after Bush was reelected, experts were wondering whether the Democrats would ever be able to recover, too.

The ailing bank Citigroup is caught between the strict regulations imposed by the Treasury for bailout recipients and disgruntled employees accustomed to big bonuses as incentives. Now workers in a very profitable department—ahem—within Citi are threatening to leave if they aren’t given their extra cash. The department, called Phibro, is described as “a legendary energy trading unit” that has earned the bank millions of dollars. Citi is now seeking special permission to allow bonuses for Phibro and also is pursuing an easing of restrictions on bonuses for other employees. A third of Citi will soon be owned by the government, and the bank has expressed concern that its employees will jump ship to other banks that face less severe pay restrictions.

The president’s Cabinet is finally complete: The Senate has confirmed Kathleen Sebelius as health and human services secretary in a 65-31 vote. The news couldn’t come at a better time: With the nation battling an outbreak of swine flu, the department is in desperate need of some leadership. Sebelius, a two-term Kansas governor, overcame Republican opposition to her pro-choice stance; she is expected to lead Obama’s push to overhaul the U.S. health care system.

Breathe easy, Sex and the City fans—it seems the sequel (Mr. Big included) is still a go. Sarah Jessica Parker, the much-loved show and movie’s leading lady, is expecting twins with husband Matthew Broderick, the couple has announced. The couple, who have a 6-year-old son, James, will be the parents of twin daughters via a surrogate (start stocking up on pink booties, SJP!), reports E! News. “Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are happily anticipating the birth of their twin daughters later this summer with the generous help of a surrogate,” said their publicists in a statement.

Just this month, when President Obama unveiled Bo the Portuguese water dog to an adoring public, he promised to make walking the dog a family affair. “We all have to take turns...We’re trying to be responsible dog owners,” the president said. Apparently being the first family takes up a lot of time, because Dale Haney, the White House horticulturalist, has been tending to the “presidential pooch” as of late. Haney, in fact, has tended to all first pets since Nixon’s Irish setter. Michelle has said the puppy is a handful and has woken up the family several times—could Bo be in the dog house? For now, everyone, including Haney, has no comment. Rest assured, faithful reader, we’re following this story closely.

Captain Nelson Liu was sleeping in his bed on the Princess Taiping, a Chinese junk built to 13th-century specifications, possibly dreaming of the adulation he would receive when he completed his quest to prove that Asian explorers could have reached America before 1492, when his dream ran afoul of modern shipping practices. A mere 30 miles from his destination, after having logged 14,000 miles at sea under only the power of sail, he was awakened to the frightened cries of his crew at the sight of a 21st-century monstrosity bearing down on his primitive vessel. A Liberian tanker known as the Champion Express ran through his hand-made wooden ship like a knife through butter, sending his crew into the sea and injuring one. The tanker, for a moment, appeared to take notice, but then continued on its course. All survived, but Captain Liu’s dream, like his ship, lies in tatters.

Another historic moment for Washington: Michelle Obama, speaking Tuesday at the new Capitol Visitor Center, helped unveil a statue of the abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth. In her remarks, the first lady marveled at “just [imagining] what she would have to say about this incredible gathering, just looking down on this day, and thinking about the legacy she has left all of us.” Truth, a woman born into slavery in New York State, went on to become a contemporary of other abolitionists and women’s suffrage advocates such as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Susan B. Anthony. Obama recognized Truth’s work in advancing both struggles, saying: “I hope that Sojourner Truth would be proud to see me, a descendant of slaves, serving as the first lady of the United States of America.”

First the iPod, then the iPhone, and then the icing on the cake: Popular commercials establishing PCs as the computer for losers. Now comes news of Microsoft’s latest effort to become relevant: a touch-screen phone created in collaboration with Verizon. The phone, code-named “Pink,” would run on the Windows Mobile operating system and feature Microsoft’s version of iTunes, Windows Marketplace. Both Microsoft and Verizon have a vested interest in the success of the phone, as their two main competitors, respectively, are Apple and AT&T. Word of the collaboration comes as The New York Times reports Verizon is in talks to sell the iPhone, which is now exclusive to AT&T.

Prince Harry will be in for quite a change of company when he leaves his fellow brothers in arms in England, where he is training to become a helicopter pilot, and heads to the Big Apple next month for a series of charitable engagements. This will be the 24-year-old’s first appearance in the U.S. in an official capacity, and it is expected that thousands of his followers will anxiously follow his every move. Harry’s visit is tied to Sentebale, a charity supporting African AIDS orphans, which he established in his mother’s name. The most hotly anticipated event will be his participation May 30 in an exhibition game of polo; tickets for the match go on sale May 1 and are expected to sell out quickly. Proceeds are expected to net more than $150,000.

When the Taliban said they would withdraw from Buner, the valley a mere 60 miles from Islamabad, it turns out they were (surprise!) lying. Now, Pakistani armed forces are clearing out some 500 insurgents after having finished an operation in neighboring Lower Dir. The Pentagon is considering rushing hundreds of millions of dollars in funds to Pakistan to help fund counterinsurgency efforts and prevent the nuclear-armed country from falling into chaos. The Pakistani government faced much criticism over its ill-fated attempt at negotiating with the Taliban, which seems to have only emboldened the radicals to expand into other areas. A military spokesman tells The New York Times, “The militants started intimidating people and forcibly recruiting young people to take them back to Swat for military training. The government acted with patience but eventually there was no other way except to launch an operation.”

Pirates in the treacherous waters near Somalia don’t just target tankers and cruise ships, they also harass smaller fishing vessels, including those captained by their fellow countrymen. Sick of the attacks at gunpoint, some of the fishing communities of Somalia have taken the law into their own hands and formed vigilante militias. One fishing village said it had captured three boats carrying 12 men with weapons. The vigilante groups, formed by village elders, say they will hand over suspected pirates to the Somali government, which recently passed harsh anti-piracy laws that allow the death penalty for those convicted. Many Somali pirates are said to be former fisherman who left the trade after large commercial operations ruined their livelihood. However, the pirates apparently feel no solidarity with those who still try to make a living by fishing.

Before Arlen Specter sucked all the air out of the news cycle, weren't we worried about something else? Oh right: The Associated Press is reporting that the number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States has jumped to 64, and the new count includes "a number of hospitalizations," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 17 new cases found in New York City, four in Texas, and three in California. Seperately, the Associated Press reports that a coroner in L.A. is investigating whether the swine flu is responsible for two deaths in the city. A 33-year-old man and a 45-year-old man died within the past week after having symptoms.

He isn’t filling Jay Leno’s chair until June 1, but Conan O’Brien is getting a head start on personalizing the classic late night chat fest. He unveiled the new logo for 11:30 show today, telling TV Guide Magazine, “I wanted a logo that acknowledged the long, rich tradition of The Tonight Show while still looking good on hats, T-shirts, mugs, lawn furniture, notebooks, stemware, urns, defibrillators, water bottles, cell phones, sports equipment, pens, vacuums, chimes and our new line of unisex cologne.” The classic moon is still there, but otherwise the design looks entirely different from Leno’s standby—perhaps the first signal of the show freshening up under the new regime.

An explosion set off the destruction of a star has set a record as the most distant object ever seen—a mind-boggling 13 billion light years away. A Cambridge University professor could not hide his excitement at the discovery, spotted by a NASA satellite, telling the BBC, “[This] was probably one of the first stars that ever formed in the universe.” Experts study such great distances to help them better understand the beginning of the universe and the forces behind its development. The BBC reports that the explosion, which likely formed a black hole, occurred when the universe was “only 630 million years old, a mere one-20th of its current age”—estimated at 13.7 billion years old.

Hollywood’s catching on: What could be timelier than a follow-up to the classic film Wall Street, which documented all things greedy and excessive in the ’80s? Michael Douglas is slipping back into his Oscar-winning role as “corporate raider” Gordon Gekko, who returns to the real world after a prison stint and discovers—oh, no!—the economy has taken a nosedive. Transformers and Indiana Jones action wunderkind Shia LeBeouf is in talks to play a young (likely smart-mouthed) trader, and the film will take place 20 years after the original. Douglas, for one, appears gung-ho about the role, saying, “I think it’s time to take another hard look at trading and the economy and what went wrong in the last few years.” Apparently, greed is good … again.

Oh hey look at that—Citigroup and Bank of America need more money. According to Reuters, “ U.S. regulators have told Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Inc they may need to raise more capital following stress testing of the two banks.” The shortfall at Bank of America, according to people familiar with the situation, is billions of dollars, and it is expected that some of the other 17 banks that underwent stress tests will need more capital. Officials at Citi and BofA are objecting to the findings and plan to reply with detailed rebuttals.

A birthday party went horribly awry in Moscow early yesterday, as a cop got in an argument with his wife and then stormed a supermarket, firing at least 20 times and killing three bystanders. The cop, Denis Yevsyukov, was described by one witness as appearing drunk. Four of the six who were wounded in the rampage were hit in the head and neck, suggesting that the deranged officer of the law was shooting to kill. The Moscow police chief said that it appeared Yevsyukov, who had just turned 31, suffered a psychotic episode. "His eyes were like saucers. He was out of it, didn't remember anything that had happened and was just crying." The incident has spurred calls for more rigorous psychiatric screening of Russia's police force. Yevsyukov faces 20 years to life in prison.

Good news consumers: You’re confident! At least more confident than expected: April’s consumer confidence index rose more than 12 points to 39.2, up from 26.9 in March and beating the projection of 29.5. That’s still leagues below the year-ago level of 62.8. It’s okay if you don’t really know what those numbers mean, because no one really does. Bottom line: Good news, at least until it craters again in May.

PT Cruiser enthusiasts rejoice! Chrysler, it seems, isn’t going belly-up after all: Reuters is reporting that the Treasury reached an agreement with Chrysler’s lenders to help the automaker avoid bankruptcy, according to a source. Details are not immediately available, but Chrysler’s first-lien lenders, who owed $6.9 billion in secured loans, have agreed to write down the debt to $2 billion according to The Washington Post. Chrysler faces an April 30 deadline to complete an alliance with Fiat, and has already agreed with the United Auto Workers to modify the union’s labor contract.

Far from Mexico City, on the Gulf of Mexico, lies ground zero of the swine-flu outbreak that has killed at least 149 people. Authorities suspect that the never-before-seen virus was born on a pig farm called Granjas Carroll. Nearby, the swine-flu first infected a four-year-old boy. The, boy—who survived the virus—was initially thought to have a particularly bad case of the flu. Officials have begun tracking the march of the virus as it swept across all of Mexico, and have revealed that its first fatality was a door-to-door census taker who likely had contact with hundreds of people. Granjas Carroll denies its connection with the virus, saying that none of its workers have come down with the illness. Another rumor claims that an immigrant returning from work in the U.S. brought the virus with him, in turn unleashing it on the community. Meanwhile, the Mexican government has taken the unprecedented step of canceling all school though May 6.

As his popularity levels dwindle, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has sought to connect with voters by vamping up his presence on the internet. Downing Street has an official YouTube portal, a Twitter feed, Facebook and Flickr pages, and an e-petitions site. But the strategy has backfired, with most people using the new media to remind Brown just how much they dislike him—one of the most popular letters on the e-petitions site calls for the prime minister to resign. On YouTube, in an attempt to silence critics, the government has decided to disable viewer comments. But the official portal is so unpopular that the move has been practically irrelevant. Brown’s message on MPs’ expenses has been watched only 4,000 times, while a video of him picking his nose has been watched 630,000 times and one of the Tory MEP Daniel Hannan haranguing him in the European Parliament has attracted more than two million hits.

It looks like the alleged Craigslist killer has more than just legal troubles—he’s reportedly had to call off his wedding, too. The 23-year-old Boston University medical student was due to marry fiancée Megan McAllister in August, but a member of the wedding’s band (a Bruce Springsteen tribute band, no less) says McAllister called off the gig. Perhaps even worse, Philip Markoff owes more than $130,000 in student loans and can’t afford to hire a lawyer to defend him on charges of murdering a 25-year-old masseuse he met through Craigslist.

People who rely on over-the-air television signal for both news and entertainment will be afforded at least some variety during President Obama’s third prime-time news conference on Wednesday. Rather than transmit the exact same images as ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, Fox will diss the president and air an episode of the new psychological drama Lie to Me. There are no requirements for television networks to show presidential news conferences, but networks usually accede to White House requests for time. The president’s first two evening question-and-answer sessions, February 9 and March 24, were shown by all the broadcast networks. However, network executives complained about advertising losses that were resulting from the government’s repeated requests for broadcast time. According to Fox, an on-screen graphic will alert viewers to coverage of the conference on the Fox News Channel. Viewers will also have the option of watching the president talk on various other cable channels, including Fox Business Channel and C-SPAN.

Chad Hardy didn’t think it would be such a big deal to create a pinup calendar of sexy, shirtless Mormon missionaries—until he was excommunicated. “Men on a Mission” features photos of hunky men posing in front of backgrounds that suggest their former missionary destinations. Mormon higher-ups, already upset over bad press from incidents like the raid on an outlaw Texan polygamous sect, excommunicated Hardy and barred him from receiving his degree from Brigham Young University, though they deny it is because of the calendar. Hardy is undaunted—a calendar of clothed but alluring Mormon moms (“muffins”) is due out this summer. “It’s friendly,” Hardy says. “It doesn’t tear down the beliefs of the church at all. Underneath, it makes people realize, ‘Oh, they’re sexy Mormons. They’re real.’” The calendar has sold 10,000 copies.

Even though President Obama says the swine flu outbreak is “not a cause for alarm,” top officials in the White House are on full alert and treating the disease as if it were already a pandemic. “We are proceeding as if we are preparatory to a full pandemic level,” says Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Officials expect the flu to spread much more widely than it has so far in the U.S. and don’t want to be caught in a disaster of under-preparedness, as President Bush was in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina. Since 2005, the U.S. has stockpiled $1.5 billion worth of Tamiflu and Relenza, used to treat flu outbreaks.

General Motors, having long prided itself on being “America’s” brand, can now make the boast literally: In a bid to avoid bankruptcy, the carmaker revealed a debt-for-equity restructuring proposal yesterday where US taxpayers would take a majority shareholding in the company. The New York Times observes, “ For all the uncertainty swirling around General Motors, the troubled automaker said Monday that one thing was clear: it must become drastically smaller if it hopes to remain a viable company, regardless of whether it has to file for bankruptcy.” GM is trying to convince the Obama administration that it is willing to take the harsh measures necessary for survival. “By the time it is finished, G.M. expects to have only 38,000 union workers and 34 factories left in the United States, compared with 395,000 workers in more than 150 plants at its peak employment in 1970.”

President Obama and other Democratic bigwigs may have nixed a truth commission on torture, but liberal activists are rallying around another cause: The impeachment of Jay Bybee, the federal judge who, as the head of President Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel, advised that waterboarding was not torture. An impeachment of Bybee would be difficult for Congressional Republicans or conservative Senate Democrats to stop. “If the House votes for it, there’s no way the Senate can avoid it,” says a former Senate parliamentarian. The liberal establishment has been getting behind the idea: The New York Times editorialized in favor of Bybee’s impeachment, while John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress and the chief of President Obama’s transition team, also came out in favor of impeachment. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers said last week “we’re coming after these guys.”

Scandalous details out of the first day of the Astor trial: Anthony Marshall, accused of scamming his Alzheimer’s-stricken mother, society doyenne Brooke Astor, out of millions while she was on her death bed, “literally pulled Ms. Astor out of the arms of her nurse,” according to prosecutors, in order to funnel $50 million of her fortune to his own bank account. Astor died in 2005 at the age of 105, leaving her son, 84, $40 million in property and a $60 million trust fund. Marshall allegedly convinced his confused mother that he needed to sell two of her paintings because she was running out of money. Things are going to get even juicier—60 witnesses are slated to testify in the trial, including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Barbara Walters.

29-year-old conservative wunderkind Ross Douthat breaks into The New York Times today with his first column: “Cheney for President.” For his debut, Douthat has gone the counterintuitive path: “Watching Dick Cheney defend the Bush administration’s interrogation policies, it’s been hard to escape the impression that both the Republican Party and the country would be better off today if Cheney, rather than John McCain, had been a candidate for president in 2008.” Dick Cheney would have been the “diamond-hard distillation” of “real conservatism”—“a conservatism of supply-side economics and stress positions, uninterested in social policy and dismissive of libertarian qualms about the national-security state.” “Disciplined,” “ideologically consistent,” and “cuttingly effective”—“when [Cheney] went down to a landslide loss, the conservative movement might – might! – have been jolted into the kind of rethinking that’s necessary if it hopes to regain power.”

Amidst the swine flu outbreak—and possible pandemic—President Obama has yet to fill the top 15 positions at the health department or name a full-time director for the Center of Disease Control, according to The Washington Post. But some relief is on the way, as the Senate is expected to confirm today Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Anti-abortion groups have been lobbying against her, but she is expected to earn the 60 votes needed this afternoon. The Associated Press writes “Sebelius would be the first of 20 HHS officials requiring Senate approval to clinch her job, so she'd be getting to work without much of a team.” In Sebelius’s absence, Department of Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano has been leading the swine-flu response, although 20 of her senior-level posts are being temporarily filled by career civil-service employees.

In a move that can be construed as either a shrewd decision to improve his chances for political survival, or a bold statement against the Republican Party, Sen. Arlen Specter defected to the Democrats today. If all goes as planned with Al Franken's Minnesota seat, the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Specter's statement was released today at noon and immediately sent shockwaves through D.C. President Obama received word at 10:25 of the decision, and quickly reached Specter on the phone, telling him "You have my full support... We are thrilled to have you." Specter, who will be running for re-election in 2010, was lagging behind his opponent in the primary, Congressman Pat Toomey. RNC Chairman Michael Steele (no stranger to controversy, himself) quickly lambasted the Pennsylvania senator, telling the Washington Post, "Let's be honest—Senator Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind." Specter, who faced substantial criticism for his support of the stimulus package, attributed his decision to a philosophical shift within his former party. "There oughta be a rebellion" in the GOP, he said at an afternoon press conference, noting the party's future was "bleak" if it continued to be dominated by social conservatives.

Amid all the apocalyptic swine flu and economic news, a bright spot: The percentage of black Americans who say race relations in the country are generally good has more than doubled since last July, according to a CBS/New York Times poll. Still, half of blacks surveyed said they thought whites have a better chance of getting ahead in society. About two-thirds of all respondents agreed that race relations are good, suggesting that the president’s election has shifted public perception on race. The poll’s other findings: The American people are supportive of Obama: 72 percent say they are optimistic about the next four years. Another 62 percent support the president’s decision not to hold hearings about the CIA’s harsh interrogation methods.