Leon Panetta said Monday that Congress should stop drawing the CIA into their partisan political battles. “If they start to use these issues as political clubs to beat each other up with, that’s when we not only pay a price but this country pays a price,” the CIA director said in a question and answer session after a speech in Los Angeles. Panetta added that he wanted to improve the CIA’s relationship with Congress, which was going through “a rough period.” Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed the CIA misled her in 2002 about interrogation techniques (she later said it was the Bush administration that was to blame). Panetta sent out a written statement refuting this claim, but seems to resent engaging in the political back-and-forth. He said he hopes the interrogation issue doesn’t become “so divisive” that it interferes with the CIA’s ability to prevent current threats to the U.S.

A day of good news from Wall Street: Hopes of a housing-sector rebound soared Monday after home-improvement giant Lowe’s raised its earnings outlook. Also boosting spirits was a 9 percent surge for Bank of America—on news that Goldman added the company to its “conviction buy list”—and a 17 percent jump for India’s stock market. The Dow jumped 235.44 points to close at 8,504.08, while the S&P 500 closed at 909.71, a 3.04 percent uptick. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, also climbed more than 3 percent. “People are starting to get nervous; they don’t want to miss the next move upward…a couple of months ago, that wasn’t even a consideration,” a derivatives strategist tells The Wall Street Journal.

What was the most important thing to come out of Obama’s meeting with the Israeli prime minister on Monday? The president’s declaration, for the first time, that he wants to continue talking to Iran until the end of the year, The Daily Beast’s Dan Raviv writes. “The Israelis strongly doubt that such efforts will work—and certainly clandestine activities by the Mossad will continue, as will planning by Israel’s air force—but it is an extremely important part of Israel’s foreign and defense policies not to anger the president of the United States,” he writes. Raviv’s conclusion: So long as Obama’s talking to Tehran, Israel can’t attack.

The diverse interests that appear to have approved of President Obama's new national fuel economy standards make for an early achievement for the politician who campaigned on a promise of dialogue among groups normally at odds with one another. The new guidelines, negotiated in secret, will redefine how fuel efficient cars must be and has gotten the stamp of approval from foreign and domestic automakers, the EPA and many state governments. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to attend the announcement. According to Politico, the rules will offer "certainty" to embattled domestic auto makers as they begin their long road to recovery. The new fuel economy rules will also reduce dependence on foreign oil, another of Obama's signature issues.

The Harvard Crimson reports that an unidentified African American college-aged man was shot in the basement of Kirkland House, one of the campus dormitories. The victim was still conscious after the shooting, according to a student who helped the man. An unnamed university official confirmed to the Crimson that the man was not a student. House Master Tom Conley said two to three suspects fled the scene after the "targeted shooting." Students said they heard three noises that sounded like gunshots around 5:00 pm. "We ask everyone to cooperate with the police and staff in the hours ahead," the dorm's House Masters wrote in an email. "We will apprise everyone of further developments."

Former President Bill Clinton isn’t content to stay in his wife’s shadow—he has just been named UN envoy to Haiti, which has suffered a year of debilitating natural disasters. Clinton will fundraise for the country’s rebuilding efforts through the United Nations, much like he and President George H. W. Bush did after the tsunami in 2004. The former President also plans to use his non-profit organization, the Clinton Global Initiative, to brainstorm for solutions to the country’s economic recovery, and visit the nation four times a year. The UN has yet to make the formal announcement, but Clinton jumped the gun and confirmed the appointment to The Miami Herald.

Scared CEOs can stop biting their fingernails: it doesn’t look like pay caps are in their future. Speaking to Newsweek’s Jon Meacham, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that though the government should put “broad constraints” on pay that encourages executives to take short-term risks, the government won’t intrude further. "I don't think our government should set caps on compensation," he said. Government regulations should tie incentive pay to long-term performance and give shareholders the right to vote on salary packages, he added. Geithner struck a relatively positive note overall, saying the economy has “clearly stabilized,” but that things will still “feel fragile for a while.” The Treasury Secretary also gave an interesting insight into the opportunity the Obama administration sees in the current crisis, saying the “impetus for reform” must be seized while “the trauma” of the experience is still lingering. He said the country’s growing deficit will be one of the “defining economic challenges of the next five years.”

Not exactly the behavior of a grande dame of New York’s social world: Brooke Astor told Camilla Parker Bowles that her great-grandmother would be proud of her for continuing on in the “mistress business.” "Your grandmother would have been proud of you," Astor, 101 at the time, told her at a welcome party she helped organize for Bowles. “You're keeping this mistress thing in the family. Two generations providing mistresses!" A confused Astor had her generations wrong: it was Bowles’ great-grandmother, Alice Keppel, who was the best-known mistress of Edward the VII, while Parker Bowles was famously Prince Charles’ mistress. Prosecutors argued on Monday that Astor had Alzheimer’s when her son wrangled a reported $60 million from her, since her once impeccable social graces were failing so fast. Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation, also testified that Astor insulted Catherine Zeta-Jones at the same party by remarking loudly that she was wearing an inappropriate dress.

Good news for Conrad Black—one-time publisher of The Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times, and many more—the Supreme Court is examining his conviction for mail fraud and obstruction of justice. Justices will focus on the mail fraud conviction, which lawyers for Black, who’s serving a 6-year sentence in prison, was unlawfully expanded beyond its legal definition. In 2007, the former press baron and occasional Daily Beast contributor was convicted of stealing $6.1 million from Hollinger Inc., his newspaper company. The Supreme Court’s ruling, Bloomberg reports, could affect the conviction of another executive who suffered a precipitous fall: Jeffrey Skilling of Enron.

One of the stars of Sex and the City is hanging up her single-girl credentials and getting hitched. Cynthia Nixon announced her engagement to long-time girlfriend Christine Marinoni at a rally supporting same-sex marriage in New York on Sunday. At the rally, which was also attended by New York Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Nixon showed off her engagement ring and said, “It’s time already.” Nixon began dating Marinoni in 2004 after she left Danny Mozes, her partner of 16 years and father of two of her children. Where will the pair marry? “In an ideal world, we’d like to in New York, when it becomes legalized,” said Nixon.

The unfortunately-named-but-nobly-intentioned Velvet Revolution, a coalition of left-wing advocacy groups, “filed legal ethics complaints on Monday against 12 Bush administration lawyers, including three U.S. attorneys general, whom the groups accuse of helping to justify torture,” reports The New York Times. The coalition has asked four states and the District of Columbia to disbar the lawyers, saying they violated the Geneva Conventions by approving interrogation methods like waterboarding. The lawyers named in the complaint include John Yoo and Jay Bybee; former head of the office of legal council Steven G. Bradbury; former attorneys general John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, and Michael B. Mukasey; Michael Chertoff; Doug Feith; and David S. Addington.

Filmmaker Lars von Trier may not win any awards at Cannes for his latest, Antichrist, but he certainly is getting plenty of publicity. The new movie, starring Willem DaFoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, has sent film critics into a tizzy as they try to wrap their heads around what in the world von Trier is trying to say. The movie chronicles a bereaved couple's descent into madness as they struggle to cope with the loss of their young child. In an effort to help his wife recover, DaFoe's character decides that they should spend some time in an isolated cabin in the woods. Things go downhill from there. Really downhill. Along with extraordinarily graphic sex scenes, Gainsbourg ends up torturing DaFoe and mutilating herself, often in close-up. Once the film concluded at Cannes, a spattering of unsure applause was drowned out by a wave of boos. Von Trier, for his part, is not explaining his art, saying, "I am the best film director in the world," and "I don't think I owe anyone an explanation."

As if to reiterate its announcement that it has finally defeated the Tamil Tigers after 25 years of civil war, the Sri Lankan government announced today that it has killed the Tiger’s chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, “ending his three-decade quest for an independent homeland for minority Tamils.” The government sent a text message to phones around the country announcing his and his top deputies’ deaths. “The announcement sparked mass celebrations around the country, and people poured into the streets of Colombo dancing and singing,” reports the Associated Press. The  Tigers were called a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, using suicide attacks, and recruited child soldiers. “Prabhakaran's death has been seen as crucial to bringing closure to this war-wracked Indian Ocean island nation. If he had escaped, he could have used his large international smuggling network and the support of Tamil expatriates to spark a new round of guerrilla warfare here.”

President Obama welcomed Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House today for their first meeting since his election. The two discussed Obama's desire for a two-state solution in the Middle East and how to approach Iran. Obama said the U.S. would be committed and "engaged" in the process of seeking a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine. The two leaders met for more than two hours, with Obama saying Iran's nuclear program is not in that nation's own interest and stressed "we should have some sense by the end of the year" about the success of talks with Iran.

One of The New York Times' stars, Maureen Dowd, has admitted to lifting verbatim the words from a Talking Points Memo post for her Sunday column, and the blogosphere has erupted in a torrent of replies. Dowd said she did not read the post in question on TPM, but rather heard the passage from a friend and then used the friend's words. Michael Calderone over at Politico raises the question of whether using a another person's words without proper credit is ethical, and criticizes The Times for not taking the issue more seriously. Glenn Greenwald at Salon also uses the controversy to point out that contrary to the popular notion of blogs being a "parasite" on journalism, bloggers and journalists actually enjoy more of a symbiotic relationship. Since admitting the mistake, Dowd has been silent, perhaps waiting until bloggers' fingers get tired from so much furious typing.

With President Obama likely to announce his first pick for the Supreme Court this week, might this be a hint at the frontrunner? Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, one of the candidates for the court, is scheduled to appear at the White House today. An administration official tells the Associated Press that the visit is not related to the Supreme Court. “It is not clear whether Granholm will be meeting with Obama about the upcoming vacancy on the court,” writes the AP. Granholm, 50, is a former federal prosecutor and Michigan attorney general.

No crimes and misdemeanors here: Woody Allen agreed today to a $5 million settlement with American Apparel, the clothing company that used his likeness on a billboard without his permission. Not content simply with the check, Allen used the opportunity to say on the courthouse steps that he hoped the lawsuit "would discourage American Apparel or anyone else from ever trying such a thing again.” American Apparel president Dov Charney told reporters that it was not his decision to settle, and that the defense was controlled by his company’s insurer. Allen originally sued for $10 million.

Something to talk about at the water cooler today: Paternity tests have revealed that the twin sons of Mia Washington, a resident of Dallas, have different fathers. Sperm can survive in a woman’s body for up to five days, making “bi-paternal twins” or “superfecundation” possible. It’s not as rare as it sounds—according to SkyNews, “recent research indicates that one in 12 non-identical twins are so called bi-paternal.” Washington admitted to having an affair. "Out of all people in America and of all people in the world, it had to happen to me,” she said. “I'm very shocked."

Last week, reports on the construction in China of a “sex theme park,” featuring giant sculptures of genitalia, exhibitions on the history of  sex, and sex technique workshops, circulated the internet. We hope you didn’t already buy tickets: “China's first sex theme park, aimed at improving both the sex education and the sex life of its visitors, has been torn down before it even opened,” reports the BBC. Chinese officials denounced Love Land as “vulgar, ill-minded, and misleading.”

In the running for the lead role in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming biopic of Frank Sinatra are George Clooney, Leonardo di Caprio, Harry Connick Jr., Justin Timberlake, and … Jamie Foxx? The Telegraph reported that Foxx was in the running this morning, but Gawker said today that it was kidding when it started the rumor. Let us hope that Justin Timberlake is also someone's joke. 

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake hit Southern California on Sunday night. The quake, which lasted 15 seconds, was centered east of Los Angeles International Airport and was felt as far away as San Diego, according to the Los Angeles Times. There were no immediate reports of serious damage beyond some broken windows and items falling off of shelves. No serious injuries were reported either. According to U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough, the quake was “a bit deep,” originating 8.4 miles below the surface. "That tends to make it less sharp—less of a jerky, abrupt motion.” The quake hit at 8:39 p.m. Pacific time, and was followed six minutes later by a lesser-magnitude aftershock. "It felt like all the windows were about to pop," said Joseph Poindexter, of Los Angeles, who was inside the Hollywood Park Casino. "It sounded like a big sonic boom. Everybody started running or ducking under the tables."

Members of Congress have been told that Pakistan is stockpiling nuclear weapons even as the country is battling a Taliban insurgency, causing concerns that billions of dollars in U.S. aid could go to manufacturing more weapons for the program. The Obama administration is focused on preventing the country’s 80 to 100 nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of Islamic insurgents—meanwhile, Pakistan is producing bomb-grade uranium and a series of new reactors. President Obama wants to pass a treaty preventing nations from producing fissile material, but hasn’t commented on Pakistan’s nuclear activity as the two nations are in a delicate diplomatic phase right now. Congress is considering sending $3 billion to the area over five years to beef up counterinsurgency efforts, on top of $7.5 billion in civilian assistance.

When George W. Bush appointed two Supreme Court justices, John Roberts breezed through confirmation while Democrats reserved their fire for Samuel Alito. Was that a mistake? In The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin writes “Roberts’s record is not that of a humble moderate but, rather, that of a doctrinaire conservative. The kind of humility that Roberts favors reflects a view that the Court should almost always defer to the existing power relationships in society. In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff. Even more than Scalia, who has embodied judicial conservatism during a generation of service on the Supreme Court, Roberts has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the contemporary Republican Party.” Obama may be leading the country leftward, but “Roberts’s service on the Court, which is, of course, likely to continue for decades, offers an enduring and faithful reflection of the Bush Presidency.”

Republican leadership is pointedly not “wincing” at former vice president Dick Cheney’s new love of attention, according to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. He defended Cheney on Meet The Press, but then he wouldn’t say whether he thinks interrogation techniques used on suspected terrorists amounted to torture. “I have a personal opinion,” said Steele. “That's not appropriate to share here.” In the meantime, House Minority Leader John Boehner said on CNN’s State of the Union, that Cheney’s new attitude “doesn't hurt, it helps,” adding that the former VP is a “big member in our party.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t offer a direct defense of Cheney during his appearance on Fox News Sunday, but did suggest that the former vice president has had an impact in swaying the debate. According to him, the Obama administration “has responded to the critique of the vice president” that the country is moving in the “wrong direction on national security issues.”

Italian newspapers La Repubblica and Il Corriere della Sera have published disturbing photographs depicting prisoner abuse. The papers allege that the pictures show American soldiers torturing terrorism suspects, though it is not clear whether these are among the photos whose release is being challenged by President Obama. The pictures published by the Italian papers have been in the public domain since at least early 2006, when they were used in a documentary by the Australian television series SBS Dateline. They were also published at that time on the website The Raw Story. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain video and photographs depicting the harsh interrogation techniques—considered by many to be torture—used by the U.S. military in Guantanamo Bay and other detention facilities. President Obama has refused to release them, fearing they endanger American troops abroad. WARNING: Link contains graphic images.

Was Rick Wagoner laid off or is he simply enjoying an extended vacation? Seven weeks after the federal government ousted him as CEO of GM, he is still on the company payroll. His removal is held up because Treasury officials are debating whether or not to pay him the $20 million severance that GM promised. Calling the delay just “one of many hitches,” The Washington Post writes, “Government officials, inside the Treasury and out, say the unresolved issues are piling up in part because of vacancies in the department's top ranks. But some of the officials also cite the Treasury's ad-hoc management, which is dominated by a small band of Geithner's counselors who coordinate rescue initiatives but lack formal authority to make decisions. Heavy involvement by the White House in Treasury affairs has further muddied the picture of who is responsible for key issues, the officials add.”

Despite assumptions that the worst of the swine flu was over, New York has now reported its first death from the H1N1 virus. Mitchell Weiner, a 55-year-old assistant principal at a school in Queen, died on Sunday from “complications of the swine flu,” said a spokesman for Flushing Hospital. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last week that four students were infected and a school official was “critically ill” from the virus, although he declined to name them. Four other U.S. deaths have been reported, and all individuals had preexisting medical conditions. The health commissioner of New York said, “We are now seeing a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City.” Elsewhere, dozens of new cases were reported over the weekend in Japan, China, and Hong Kong, and the World Health Organization may raise its pandemic alert level to 6, the highest level.

Thus far, the legal fallout from Bernard Madoff's epic ponzi scheme has been limited to the man himself. Now, Madoff's top investors are under the feds' microscope, as they investigate whether the investors knew why they were receiving returns that were simply too good to be true. The Wall Street Journal reports that some of the men being investigated would tell how much in returns they wanted, and Madoff would subsequently deliver the expected sum. Some of the top investors received 300 percent returns—or 950 percent a year—absurd numbers that certainly arouse suspicion. The feds are combing through Madoff's records—which are said to be quite detailed—for any clues. The investors under investigation deny all wrongdoing and claim to actually be some of Madoff's hardest hit victims.

On the same day that Jeffrey Toobin wrote a long article for The New Yorker about Chief Justice John Roberts’ conservatism, the Supreme Court has thrown out a lawsuit by a 9/11 detainee against FBI Director Robert Mueller and former attorney general John Ashcroft. Javaaid Iqbal, a Paksitani Muslim, was held in solitary confinement for six months in New York in 2002, and said that he was confined because of his beliefs and race. The court agreed, however, with the government's argument that there was nothing linking Mueller or Ashcroft with the abuses at the New York facility. It was a 5-4 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting as a bloc.

Ever the devout Catholic, Mel Gibson has begun sowing a new family with his girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, a relationship that was revealed only a month ago. The Russian singer is in her second trimester, according to TMZ.com. The Web site also reports that Gibson has already informed his estranged wife, Robyn, as well as his other children. Gibson's wife filed for divorce only last month. Grigorieva is currently shacked up in a house bought for her by Gibson.

Robert Byrd, the 91-year-old senator from West Virginia, has been hospitalized, reports the Associated Press, due to “a spike in temperature.” According to his office, he was hospitalized late on Friday, is being treated with antibiotics, and should be released in a few days.  The temperature spike was caused by a minor infection. Byrd has been a senator for more than 50 years.