Could this be the beginning of the end for Bank of America’s Ken Lewis? In a narrow vote, the bank’s shareholders have removed him as chairman, though he will remain chief executive officer and president. The New York Times calls the vote a referendum on his leadership and said it could signal the end of his reign at the American banking giant. During Lewis’ tenure, the bank has more than doubled its deposits and expanded its credit card and mortgage operations, but he’s been criticized for his acquisitions of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide. Lewis on Wednesday defended those decisions: “Let me be clear: Merrill Lynch and Countrywide led the way for our first-quarter earnings. Today I can state without reservation that these acquisitions are not mistakes to be regretted. Both are looking more and more like successes to be celebrated.” He’ll be succeeded as chairman by Walter Massey.

Time to panic? The World Health Organization has raised its threat level for a swine flu pandemic to Phase 5—meaning the possibility of a full-blown outbreak is “imminent,” ABC News reports. So far the virus has spread to 11 states, infecting 94 people; five more states (Arizona, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Maine) each now have at least one confirmed case. The WHO’s move comes on the same day of reports a 22-month-old boy died in Texas, the first know U.S. fatality—though, it should be noted, he contracted the virus in Mexico and was transported to Houston for treatment. Germany and Austria are the latest countries to confirm infections, and the Egyptian government has begun slaughtering all 300,000 pigs in the country.

President Obama opened his third prime-time news conference Wednesday with a call for a “new foundation” for the American economy. The president also gave a positive assessment of his first 100 days in office, but said there is much more to be done: “We are off to a good start. But it is just a start. I am proud of what we have achieved, but I am not content,” he said. During an hour of questions, Obama defended his release of the torture memos and repudiated Bush's use of waterboarding (which he called torture), saying, “I will do whatever is required to keep the American people safe. But I am convinced that the best way to do that is to make sure we’re not taking shortcuts that undermine who we are.”

Do you think the timing is coincidental? On President Obama’s hundredth day in office, the House and Senate passed a $3.4 trillion budget that is geared toward aiding Obama's lofty goals, including health care reform, but scaled back some of his spending and tax-cut proposals to hit a $523 billion deficit target by 2014. The bill's approval was clearly split along party lines in both the House (233-193) and Senate (53-43); notably, the budget failed to include a renewal of a $400 tax cut for workers that was advocated by the president.

Another victory for gay marriage advocates: The New Hampshire Senate has passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, 13-11. The bill could hit a hurdle in Gov. John Lynch, however, who hasn’t indicated whether he’ll veto it; he’s already expressed opposition to the measure. The state’s House of Representatives passed the bill March 26, but it looked doomed for defeat in the Senate, before an amendment was added prohibiting polygamy and marriage of family members, mollifying some critics. The last-minute changes also allow clergy to decline to marry gay couples. If Lynch signs the measure, New Hampshire will join Iowa, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut in allowing gay couples to wed. Maine’s legislature could vote on a similar measure as early as next week, Reuters reports.

Conflicting reports on Chrysler: The Associated Press is reporting some good news—that Italian carmaker Fiat is prepared to sign a partnership deal with the failing Detroit giant that would save it from a bankruptcy filing. But The Washington Post has a report that bodes ill for Chrysler chief executive Robert Nardelli if his company does file for bankruptcy: Under a plan the government is preparing, he would be replaced by Fiat management. The Obama administration is still holding out hope that a bankruptcy can be averted, but under its plan, the ownership of Chrysler would be “dramatically reordered” and the company would receive about $4 billion more in aid from the Canadian and U.S. governments, plus another $5 billion later. The Obama team would then create a “new Chrysler that would purchase assets of the old company,” The Post reports, with ownership divided among the union’s retiree health fund (55 percent), Fiat (35 percent), and the U.S. government (8 percent).

The domestic assault case that started a national debate could be called to a halt before it starts. Singer Chris Brown’s lawyer says he wants to look into how the LAPD photo of a battered Rihanna ended up on the celebrity site TMZ.com. If misconduct or bias is shown, Brown’s lawyer will ask for a mistrial. Brown, 19, is charged with beating his pop star girlfriend in a fight that ended with him allegedly choking and biting Rihanna after a pre-Grammy party. At his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty to felony charges of assault and making criminal threats. In other news, a judge has released $1.4 million in loaned jewelry Rihanna was wearing that night; the court had been holding it as evidence.

No one would say it’s been a good year for Republicans—just ask recent turncoat Arlen Specter. But have no fear: Republican leaders are launching a rebranding effort in the form of the National Council for a New America, which features familiar faces like Bobby Jindal, John McCain, and Jeb Bush. The council’s first meeting will be held this Saturday in Arlington, Va., where members will discuss the future of the Republican Party and work on policy proposals. Virginia is a fitting location, as the state recently shifted to the Democrats, allowing Obama put it in the blue column for the first time since 1964.

The news that U.S. gross domestic product shrank 6.1 percent last quarter left most economy-watchers feeling pretty glum. But The Wall Street Journal has analyzed the other data in the report, including a modest rise in consumer spending, and reports they are encouraging—and perhaps signal that the worst may be over. Consumer spending rose 2.2 percent in the quarter, and disposable income was up 6.2 percent. Savings are up, as well, which should translate into later spending once consumer confidence is restored. It also looks like the much feared deflation is being held at bay—prices rose at a 2.9 percent annual rate. The stubborn hold-out is business investment, which plunged another 38 percent after tumbling 21.7 percent in last year’s fourth quarter.

Deborah Perez, a 47-year-old real estate agent in Orange County, called a press conference Wednesday to drop a bombshell: that her father was the infamous Zodiac killer, who terrorized the Bay Area in 1968 and ’69. Perez said as a child she tagged along with her dad for two of his killings and said she still has a “trophy” he kept: a pair of his victim’s eyeglasses. “I was a child and just thought I was helping my father,” she told the crowd. She said her dad, a now deceased carpenter named Guy Ward Hendrickson, was mentally ill and killed the five people police have attributed to the mysterious Zodiac killer, who wrote chilling letters to the San Francisco Chronicle and other newspapers bragging about his crimes before disappearing. Hundreds of people offer tips about the identity of the killer every year.

Another sad and deadly day in Baghdad: 46 people were killed and at least 68 wounded when two car bombs went off near a crowded ice cream parlor in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum. A third car bomb was found and is being diffused, according to police, and after the attacks, angry citizens threw stones and bottles at Iraqi soldiers. Last week, 150 people died in bombings, spurring fears that Iraq could be returning to sectarian conflict.

Sean Penn is known for his ability to get into character, but he’s through with one role: husband. Penn has filed for legal separation from his wife of 13 years, actress Robin Wright Penn. The couple’s had a rocky past: Penn filed for divorce in 2007 but later dismissed the suit. A few days later his 43-year-old wife filed for divorce, too. The couple appeared to reconcile last April, when they asked for the divorce petition to be dismissed, but Penn had fans whispering when he failed to thank his wife during his acceptance speech at the Oscars this winter. He later told Oprah Winfrey that he wanted to focus his speech on the film’s professional team. Penn won the Oscar for Best Actor for his starring role in Milk; this will be his second divorce—his first, of course, was from Madonna.

What to call President Obama's political philosophy with regards to the economy? What about "a ruthless pragmatism"-the president coins that one himself in an interview with The New York Times Magazine's David Leonhardt. Asked about the perceived lack of intellectual diversity on his economic team, Obama says, "[T]he truth is that what I've been constantly searching for is a ruthless pragmatism when it comes to economic policy." In the interview, Obama emphasizes that the era of big bonuses and "illusory wealth" is behind us. He also expresses his hopes for the next generation of the U.S. workforce, saying that a college education is a must and that more math and science students will be needed to restore a balance between the service and manufacturing sectors.

Those upset that Rod Blagojevich can’t participate in I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here can tune into TLC’s American Chopper, the show about the building of custom motorcycles, and catch Sarah Palin instead. The Alaska governor will appear in an episode about a special bike being built to honor Alaska’s 50-year anniversary as a state. "It means so much to the state of Alaska that these guys are building this bike that will honor statehood here," Palin says in the episode. Maybe it will play well with her base.

Don't tell your Twitter-addicted friends, but it might just be a fad. According to new stats from Nielsen Online, about 60 percent of new Twitter users stop using the service after a month. On the plus side, the 40 percent retention rate has increased over time, though MySpace and Facebook both do a better job at user loyalty. Critics contend that Nielsen misses the point, since most of Twitter activity occurs on cell phones, not Twitter.com.

A vivid and harrowing story in the new issue of Outside magazine. Jim Blanning, 72, sent Aspen, Colorado, into a frenzy this New Year’s Eve when he walked into two banks and robbed them by threatening to set off bombs. In Mike Kessler’s piece, we learn that Blanning was a town playboy, an occasionally flush prospector and—in darker moments—a man “with some wild thing in his head,” according to his brother. Still reeling from a real estate gambit didn’t go his way, he walked into a Well Fargo branch and handed a note to the banker: “You had better be one very cool individual … or many in Aspen will pay a horrible price in blood.”

When rumors swirled that Mel Gibson had cheated on his wife with a Russian woman named “Oksana” rumors swirled over her identity. Now speculation can be laid to rest: Pianist Oksana Grigorieva appeared with Gibson last night on the red carpet of X-men Wolverine’s premiere in Los Angeles. Who is Grigorieva? A 2003 profile from Pravda offers a clue: Born in 1970, Grigorieva has studied piano since she was four. Once attached to James Bond star Timothy Dalton, Grigorieva must have also left some impression on Senator Ted Kennedy—they met at a fundraiser for Bill Clinton in Washington while she played the keys, and he helped her parents visit the States after their visas were initially declined by officials. She seems to have settled down with Mel: Reports are circulating that a baby is on its way for Grigorieva and Gibson. Oksana’s friends told Pravda.ru, “Many went abroad, but she did an impossible thing: married a principal bachelor Dalton and born a baby for him!” Looks like she might have just done it again.

On his hundredth day in office, President Obama released a statement that offered his condolences to the family of the swine flu's first victim in the United States. The president said he received the news overnight of the toddler who died in Texas yesterday and sent his "thoughts and prayers," adding, "This is obviously a serious situation, serious enough to take the utmost precautions." Texas officials have said the boy was brought to Texas from Mexico early this month with "underlying health problems." Shortly after arriving in America, the boy became ill and was admitted to the hospital, where he eventually died. Obama exhorted health officials and parents to be vigilant for any symptoms of the virus, saying that substantial school cancellations are a possibility.

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. 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.”

There are heart-wrenching magazine stories, and then there’s this: Skip Hollandsworth’s profile of John McClamrock, the paralyzed football player, in the new issue of Texas Monthly. McClamrock was hurt in a junior varsity high-school football game in 1973; he lost the use of everything below his neck, and couldn’t even lift his head without blacking out. But his frozen body, which amazingly lived another three decades, was tended to by an angelic presence. McClamrock’s mother, Ann, fed him, changed him, watch game shows and soap operas with him. There are no plot twists to come, no recovery miracles, just a bond between mother and son that is amazingly rendered.

Don’t expect an apology anytime soon from Judge Jay S. Bybee, who helped author the controversial interrogation memos as head of the Office of Legal Council in 2002 before Bush appointed him to a federal court. In written answers to questions, Bybee told The New York Times that he continues to believe that the controversial memos represented a "good-faith analysis of the law" and had "legally correct" solutions. Currently, Bybee's under fire for the memos—the Justice Department is investigating his professional standards, some people have called for his impeachment, and, The New York Times writes, "he's even become estranged from friends."

Alright, conspiracy theorists. Now you get to find out who really calls the shots. Spurred by complaints from privacy advocates, book publishers, and authors, the Justice Department has officially opened its inquiry into Google Books, the company's ambitious project to digitize literature. Meanwhile, perhaps in an effort to get good press (or to fire a shot back at the government), the company has unveiled a new tool, Google Public Data, which will sort out government information in a more easily accessible manner. Currently, information from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics can be searched with the tool. If it works well, Google Public Data will surely delight countless journalists who have spent hours trying to find that one nugget of information on baffling government Web sites.

Hard to believe, but there are still swathes of land in Afghanistan where no American soldier has ever set foot. Many of these troubled territories are in the heart of opium country, where the Taliban harvests the main ingredient for heroin that it exports around the world. Now, as part of Obama's effort to regain the upper hand in the war in Afghanistan, he is sending troops deep into the Taliban's "financial engine." The army is expecting heavy combat throughout the summer as the insurgents "vigorously defend" their precious cash crop which yields as much as $300 million a year. But it doesn't look like the troops will have to wait until entering the new territories to see a surge in attacks: A Taliban leader has promised a new offensive against the fragile government of Afghanistan.

The long-rumored JFK-Marilyn Monroe sex tape may have company now in the annals of presidential smut: French First Lady Carla Bruni is reportedly agonizing over the theft of hundreds of “highly intimate” photos and videos of her with a former lover, philosopher Raphael Enthoven. Burglars broke into Enthoven’s brother’s apartment in Paris, where the prints and videos were thought to be safe. According to a source, “The thieves appeared to know exactly what they were looking for, taking highly intimate prints, a camera full of further images, videos, and numerous computer files … Nobody was at home at the time, and nothing else was taken.” Bruni met Raphael through his father, whom she dated in the late 90s. Raphael was married at the time. His former wife, author Justine Levy, has characterized Bruni as a “husband stealer” with a “terminator smile.” Police believe the images could be posted on the web, or be sold for a sizeable sum.

President Roosevelt’s first 100 days are the standard by which all subsequent presidents’ first 100 days have been judged. Did President Obama surpass them? Writing for The New Republic, Alan Brinkley comments, “The Obama administration didn't push through the sheer number of initiatives of the New Deal's first months—but its achievements are impressive nevertheless, and appear more likely to create a better ratio between good programs and bad ones.” Obama, believe it or not, may also have had more to juggle: Roosevelt, in his opening days, didn’t face any international crises. “Perhaps most importantly,” Brinkley writes, “Obama has taken a shaken nation, deeply disillusioned with government, and helped it believe again that politics is not necessarily a dirty word, that progress can be made, and that government can at least sometimes be trusted.”

A reportedly "furious" President Obama is looking into the decision to send a low-flying Air Force One into Manhattan on Monday for a photo op that panicked Manhattan workers, The New York Times reports. Yesterday, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary said Obama had asked his staff to "conduct a review into how the decision was made to conduct the flight." Obama said, "it will not happen again." So far, Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, has ponied up to take the blame—the review will determine whether he'll keep his job.

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.

Yesterday, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter defected from the Republican Party and joined the Democrats. What happened behind the scenes? For months, Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had assured Specter that the Party would support him in his uphill primary fight, according to Politico, but Harry Reid was able to win him over simply by showing him the numbers—Specter would probably lose the Republican primary. Vice President Biden, who served with Specter for 28 years, took the lead in trying to convert him, calling or meeting him more than once a week since President Obama took office. President Obama was not told until yesterday morning, and upon hearing the news, "Obama's eyes got very wide," an adviser tells The Washington Post. In today’s New York Times Olympia Snowe, Republican senator from Maine, writes, “it didn’t have to be this way. …  [I]t is truly a dangerous signal that a Republican senator of nearly three decades no longer felt able to remain in the party.”

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.

A counterweight, perhaps, to this morning's sad news that a child has died in Texas from swine flu: “I feel good,” says five-year-old Édgar Enrique Hernández, who has been identified as the earliest confirmed case of swine flu in Mexico. He first showed symptoms on April 1, and Canadian researches confirmed the results on April 23. Edgar lives in La Gloria, a village of about 2,500 people in the state of Veracruz surrounded by pig-breeding farms, where hundreds of people fell ill in late March and early April in an unexplained outbreak that left two children dead and prompted authorities to fumigate the entire village. According to Edgar’s mother, he was not the first to fall ill. “Why did the other children not have it and my child did? He was one of the last to get sick,” she said. “I feel terrible about all of this, because the people are thinking that this was all my son's fault. I don't think this is anyone's fault.” 

The United States has cleared 30 Guantanamo Bay detainees for release, according to Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder was in Germany as he tours Europe petitioning European leaders for help in relocating the detainees as President Obama prepares to shutter the prison. Holder also said that the Justice Department might cooperate with an investigation of Bush officials by a foreign government. “Obviously, we would look at any request that would come from a court in any country and see how and whether we should comply with it,” Holder said. “This is an administration that is determined to conduct itself by the rule of law and to the extent that we receive lawful requests from an appropriately created court, we would obviously respond to it.”

Good news for people who just can’t get enough of the Microsoft Zune (here’s looking at you, President Obama): Microsoft and Verizon are in talks to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone to take on the iPhone and AT&T. Microsoft is already a major player in software for cell phones, but wants a whole device to rival Apple’s. Details are sparse, as The Wall Street Journal report is based on leaks from "people familiar with the matter."

Economists who expected to see improvement in the first quarter of 2009 have been sorely disappointed. GDP shrank by 6.1 percent from January through March, a rate that is hardly different from the 6.3 percent we saw in the fourth quarter of 2008, when the recession deepened. Economists had expected a 4.6 percent drop in the first three months of the year. This marks the third consecutive quarter in which GDP has fallen. The last time that happened was 34 years ago, from the third-quarter of 1974 through first-quarter of 1975. The fall is attributed to weaker investment in housing, combined with an inventory adjustment. But the drawdown of stockpiles of goods is good in the long run because it is an important step toward bringing inventories under control and ending a production freefall. International trade boosted the economy early this year, adding 1.99 percentage points to GDP. Had it not been for this, the U.S. economy would have fallen even further.