One way in which the new government is looking out for the little guy: The Associated Press reports that “The Senate voted on Tuesday to prohibit credit card companies from arbitrarily raising a person's interest rate and charging many of the exorbitant fees that have become customary—and crippling—to cash-strapped consumers.” The measure passed 90-5, and, with the House on track to endorse the bill later this week, could be on Obama’s desk by Friday. The bill would give the credit card industry nine months to change its ways: “Lenders would have to post their credit card agreements on the Internet and let customers pay their bills online or by phone without an added fee. They'd also have to give consumers a chance to spare themselves from over-the-limit fees and provide 45 days notice and an explanation before interest rates are increased.”

A spokesman for Donald Rumsfeld released a statement denying the former Secretary of Defense was involved in the Bible quotes adorning the “World Intelligence Update” security reports GQ revealed last weekend. “The report was briefed regularly to senior military officials in the Pentagon—only occasionally to the Secretary of Defense and not to the President of the United States,” the spokesman, Keith Urbahn, wrote. Rumsfeld did not compose, approve of, or personally show any of the covers to President Bush, he continued. “When [Robert] Draper goes back and checks reality against his reporting, he might also check whether GQ is in need of a new gossip columnist,” Urbahn said in a dig at the article’s writer. Draper wrote that Rumsfeld used inspirational quotes on security briefings he hand-delivered to the president in order to curry favor with his religious boss.

General Motors is considering selling its healthy assets to a U.S-owned, newly created company while dumping the rest of its assets into bankruptcy, reports Reuters. The new company would honor the claims of GM’s secured lenders. The not-so-healthy GM assets would stay in bankruptcy protection to pay off other claims. GM has about $6 billion in secured debt. The White House is considering giving stakes in the new company to GM’s union and bondholders, while also extending a credit line to the company and forgiving the $15.4 billion in loans they’ve already forked over. If GM doesn’t restructure by June 1 it will follow Chrysler into bankruptcy.

Most Democrats were for closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay until they realized that the prisons in their constituents' backyards could end up holding any relocated detainees. Now, the Republicans have won a concession from Senate Democrats that will remove funding for the closing of the controversial prison in Cuba. The setback for the Obama administration occurs as the GOP has successfully waged a campaign to raise fears of whether the U.S. prison system can properly accommodate suspected terrorists. Some Democrats have also criticized Obama, who has not aggressively lobbied for the closing of Gitmo as he attempts to sort through the litany of challenges involved in bringing the prisoners to trial.

The Lion of the Senate might be coming back with a roar. Senator Harry Reid told reporters today that Sen. Edward Kennedy’s brain cancer is in remission, and several senators confirmed he is planning to return to the Senate after Memorial Day to push through health care reform, the Hill reports. Reid’s spokesman distanced himself from his comment afterwards, saying he will “leave the diagnosing to doctors." Reid said he spoke with Kennedy’s wife who said the lawmaker is “doing fine,” but is going through another round of chemotherapy treatment. Since he was diagnosed with brain cancer last May, Kennedy has stayed out of the public eye. He did attend Obama’s inauguration in January, where he had a seizure brought on by fatigue and was rushed to the hospital. Kennedy is expected to spearhead Obama’s health care reform if he returns.

After a judge ruled that a Minnesota teenager could not treat his Hodgkin’s Lymphoma solely with vitamins, his mother has absconded with the boy to an unknown location. A judge issued a warrant for the mother’s arrest, and wants 13-year-old Daniel Hauser, who vowed he would fight Western treatment, to be placed in a foster home and immediately treated for the curable disease. The debate over whether parents should have complete control over their children’s medical care is an ethical and religious minefield. The question of what’s in a child’s “best interest” is complicated: someone who believes Western medical practices will send their child to hell is likely to think treatment is more harmful than letting their child die of a curable disease. The Hausers follow “do no harm” Native American healing practices called Nemenhah.

And you thought the U.S. had it bad: Japan’s economy contracted at a record pace from January to March, dropping 15.2 percent due to falling demand for exports and weak domestic demand. Exports fell by more than a quarter, the biggest drop on record, as global demand decreased due to the global slowdown. Japan’s economy fared worse than the other Group of Seven leading industrial powers—the U.S.’s economy shrank 6.1 percent during the first quarter while Germany’s shrank a record 14.4 percent—its worst since 1970, but still not as drastic a drop as Japan’s. But some hopeful news: economists think the export-reliant country’s economy might have bottomed out in the January-March period, and could rise a little next quarter.

The world’s favorite polar bear is at the center of a nasty legal custody battle between two German zoos. Neumunster Zoo, which owns legendary Knut, says they are owed a share of the profits that the Berlin Zoo—where the bear was born and remains today—made from the loveable bear. The Berlin Zoo offered to buy Knut, but for only 350,000 euros, a paltry sum in the eyes of Neumunster. The drama started when Neumunster loaned Knut’s father to Berlin on the condition that they would own his first cub. But when Knut was hand-reared after his mother rejected him he became a worldwide celebrity, and is now a cash cow (or rather, bear) for Berlin. In 2007 alone he brought in $6.7 million for the zoo.

Robbers gunned down a U.S. priest and international rights activist in Guatemala in order to steal a little over $100 on Monday. Lawrence Rosebaugh, a U.S. priest who brought international attention to human rights abuses in Brazil in the 1970s, had spent 10 years as a missionary in Guatemala where he ministered to HIV patients. Robbers stole $125, a cell phone and religious ornaments from the car full of Oblates priests. Another priest was injured in the incident. Rosebaugh, 74, was jailed and brutally beaten in 1977 in Brazil where he ran a small soup kitchen. He informed First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who publicized the abuses, infuriating the Brazilian dictatorship.

Sick of all those Republican apologies we’ve been receiving? Can’t stand the thought of seeing Dick Cheney on television one more time, saying how sorry he is for all of his mistakes? Good news: “The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said today at an RNC assembly. “We have turned the corner on regret, recrimination, self-pity and self-doubt.” Steele also promised to “take the president head-on,” saying “the honeymoon is over.” He promised to take Obama on “with dignity,” criticizing the “classless and shabby way” that Democrats would attack Bush. Tomorrow, the RNC is expected to pass a measure rebranding the Democratic Party as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a powerhouse on Capitol Hill, but he may be undone by his constituents back in Nevada. If Republicans can put forth a viable candidate, a poll reveals that they have a good shot at taking his Senate seat. The poll finds that 45 percent of Nevada voters would replace Reid, with only 35 percent saying they would vote for him in 2010. It also finds that Reid has one of the lowest favorability ratings of any Senate Democrat. Nevertheless, Reid is not in any immediate danger, as no Nevada Republican has appeared up to the challenge of taking him on.

Talk about a heavy workload: While crafting a health care reform for the House, Henry Waxman must also try and push through a bill to tackle climate change. In a new profile, Washington Monthly examines the Lilliputian politician, who has the perfect personality to carry out Obama's ambitious agenda. Throughout his career, Waxman has been relentless in his pursuit of the issues near and dear to his heart. As one of his critics put it, he uses "the Ho Chi Minh approach. If [victory’s] not in the first year, it’s in the fifth." It is precisely this reputation that won him the influential chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, giving him a starring role in the fight against climate change. And though Waxman may not be the most charismatic individual on Capitol Hill—his speeches are likened to a principal who has caught kids smoking in the bathroom—his commitment to his principles make him ideal, the profile says, for crafting legislation that will tackle this era's most pressing issues head on.

Forget Lucy. A new 47 million-year-old fossil unveiled at the American Natural History Museum Tuesday may offer clues on human ancestry. The fossil, labeled Darwinius Massilae, but nicknamed “Ida” is an early member of a “stem group” from which humans are thought to have derived. The specimen—also said to be the most in-tact primate fossil ever discovered because its skeleton is 95 percent complete—has an opposable big toe and fingernails, in addition to a developed mandible. Ida was discovered outside of Frankfurt, Germany in 1983. Dr. Jørn Hurum, the chief scientist for the project, purchased her in 2006. He has spent the last two years researching the fossil's origins in secret. He’s now unveiling it amid massive media hoopla. The discovery, which has been branded “The Link,” and likened to the Rosetta Stone and the Holy Grail will, conveniently, be the subject of a book and a two-hour History Channel special. Maybe we shouldn't forget about Lucy, after all.

Someone start polishing an Academy Award: Steven Spielberg plans to produce the "defining" (his own words) biopic of Martin Luther King Jr. It is possible that Spielberg will direct as well. Dr. King's heirs fiercely guard the rights to his name, and the Independent reports that Spielberg's studio, Dreamworks, likely paid a hefty sum for the exclusive rights to King's "speeches, books and intellectual property." Whoever lands the role of Dr. King will be a shoe-in for an Oscar. Let the casting call begin.

When was the last time a NASA mission went according to plan? It cost $1 billion, required unbelievably precise work in zero gravity, and now, against all odds, the Hubble telescope is better than ever. NASA scientists could not hide their excitement at the potential discoveries possible with the upgrade, which will yield new data from the depths of space for the next five years. The astronauts carrying out the repairs were met with several bumps in the road, including running over schedule on several repairs. One grueling session lasted eight hours and required one of the astronauts to return to the shuttle to refill his air tank. The crew is expected to return to earth on Friday.

Don’t tell Dick Cheney, but, according to Democracy Corps, “for the first time in our research, Democrats are at full parity on perceptions of which party would best manage national security, while they have moved far ahead of the GOP on specific challenges such as Afghanistan, Iraq, working with our allies, and improving America’s image abroad.” 64 percent of voters approve of the job Obama is doing on national security, which is 8 percent more than his overall approval rating. By a two-to-one margin, Americans think Obama is doing a better job on national security than George W. Bush.

Given the recent accusations against him, Alex Rodriguez has probably seen better days. This should help: A-Rod, recently tied to Madonna, may now have a new lady in blonde bombshell Kate Hudson. The pair met at the Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami in November, and were spotted at dinner with a group of friends in New York in January. Hudson was cheering on Rodriguez at the Yankees game last Friday, and the odd couple reportedly ended its night at Mustang Grill, a bar on the Upper East Side. According to the bartender there, people couldn’t go into the back room because “A-Rod and Kate Hudson were back there making out.”

Roderick Anthony Burton II, otherwise known as the rapper Dolla, was murdered yesterday at the Beverly Center shopping mall in Los Angeles. The Atlanta-based rapper was standing near the mall’s valet parking area when he was shot in the head. The suspect then fled in a silver Merecedes SUV, and a 20-year-old “person of interest” was apprehended about an hour later at LAX. Police have not yet announced a motive. Considered up-and-coming, Dolla’s first album was scheduled for release this summer. His first single, “Who the … Is That?”, was released in 2007.

Britons are still reeling over the Parliament pay scandal, and they may have just been dealt their harshest blow yet. Parliament Speaker Michael Martin will announce this afternoon that he will “stand down” from his position following reports that he helped Parliament members bilk the system by claiming "phantom" expenses. His poor handling of the expense scandal outraged other members of Parliament and, according to one colleague, Martin became a “dead Speaker walking.” The last speaker ousted from the House of Commons was Sir John Trevor, who was found guilty of “a high crime and misdemeanour” in 1695. Martin told the Commons yesterday: “Please allow me to say to the men and women of the United Kingdom that we have let you down very badly indeed… I am profoundly sorry.”

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.

What’s that about former Bush officials not being able to find jobs? Zalmay Khalilzad, Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations, “could assume a powerful, unelected position inside the Afghan government under a plan he is discussing with Hamid Karzai,” according to The New York Times. After missing the deadline to run for president, Khalilzad is in talks with Karzai to be “on a job that the two have described as the chief executive officer of Afghanistan.” Karzai would co-opt a rival, and Khalilzad could help to organize the dysfunctional Afghan government. According to one Obama administration official, Khalilzad would be like “a prime minister, except not prime minster because he wouldn’t be responsible to a parliamentary system.”

A former adviser of Sarah Palin urged her to forge an alliance with Hillary Clinton as a way to cozy up to Independents and Democrats after a grueling election, Politico reports. John Coale, a Clinton supporter who shifted to the GOP for the general election, told Palin in February she should use her political action committee to help pay down some of Clinton’s campaign debt. Palin said she wouldn’t mind meeting the Clintons, but didn’t want to pay for the privilege. “While we appreciate your efforts and recognize that a friendship with the Clintons is appropriate, the governor believes (and I concur) that using SarahPAC to pay down Hillary’s debt is not a prudent use of the money,” Palin’s aide wrote to Coale in an email in February after he made his suggestion to the governor. “Contributors who chose between heating their homes and sending in a contribution because they believe in Sarah would be crushed.”

Michael Steele has an op-ed in Politico today announcing that “The Republican Party Turns a Corner.” Uh, Michael… According to a new poll from Gallup, the “movement away from the GOP has occurred among nearly every major demographic subgroup. Since the first year of George W. Bush's presidency in 2001, the Republican Party has maintained its support only among frequent churchgoers, with conservatives and senior citizens showing minimal decline.” Losses are particularly large among college graduates, whose support for the Republican Party has dropped 10 percent since 2001. Only 27 percent of respondents identified as Republican Party members.

After everything that’s happened, CIA officials are still worrying that public scrutiny over torture will limit their ability to conduct interrogations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. With increased oversight, there’s inside concern that some CIA techniques–like enhanced interrogation–will no longer be viable. Especially now, on the heels of its dispute with Nancy Pelosi (and as two CIA officials prepare to take the stand before grand jury this week) the CIA feels it’s being made to take the blame for the Bush administration’s bad torture record. And looking forward, the agency is even more unsure of how it can proceed. The CIA has said it will enforce all future interrogations in accordance with the 2006 Army Field Manual, but some officials believe that, despite recent controversy about unauthorized torture methods, there may be some necessary techniques that are written out of the broadly-worded manual. Leon Panetta says he would go to the President for authorization if he believed any of these techniques necessary, and Obama is expected to set up a task force in the coming months to evaluate the contents of the manual and judge whether “additional guidance is necessary” for the CIA.

Conflict of interest, anyone? In addition to managing $1.3 trillion of its private clients’ funds, money manager BlackRock is a government adviser, helping with the rescues of Bear Stearns, Citigroup, and AIG, running a Federal Reserve program to reboot the housing market, and helping to evaluate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “BlackRock has become so ubiquitous that some lawmakers, federal auditors and watchdog groups are now asking if the firm does too much, and if its roles as government adviser, giant federal contractor and private money manager will inevitably collide,” writes The New York Times. “The potential for a conflict of interest is great and it is just very difficult to police,” said Senator Chuck Grassley. Writes the Times, “Without naming BlackRock, federal auditors have warned that any private parties that purchase distressed assets on the government’s behalf could use generous federal subsidies to overpay, artificially pushing up the price of similar assets that they manage for their own portfolios.”

This week marks the opening of American-themed art exhibitions around New York City. Who better to kick it off than the First Lady? Michelle Obama had a whirlwind visit to New York on Monday, attending the reopening of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the opening night of the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House. At both events, she spoke to star-studded crowds about the role of the arts in the national identity, and reminded audiences that her husband has included $50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts. “My husband and I believe strongly that arts education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation’s leaders for tomorrow,” she said. The First Lady also praised both the ABT and the Metropolitan Museum for engaging children in their programs. “The president and I want to ensure that all children have access to great works of art,” she told children at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Met’s American Wing. “This is your place, too.”

How went President Obama’s meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday? The two met for over two hours—more than twice the scheduled time—but “remained divided on issues such as the future of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinians' right to statehood, and whether the Palestinian issue should take priority over concerns about Iran developing nuclear weapons,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Netanyahu said he would engage in peace talks with the Palestinians immediately, though refused to say “two states” during the meeting. Netanyahu also offered to crackdown on settlers in the West Bank if Palestinians also cracked down on militants. And with regards to Iran, President Obama insisted he wanted a “clear timetable at which point we say, these talks aren't making any progress."

President Obama is tackling illegal immigration one inmate at a time. The administration will check the immigration status of every prisoner in local jails, a Bush-era policy that could result in a ten-fold increase in the immigrants flagged for deportation. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the effort, called "Secure Communities," was intended to crack down on immigrants who have committed crimes, rather than those who are law-abiding. The president has asked Congress for $200 million to fund the program, which will analyze prisoner's fingerprints and run them through FBI databases. Secure Communities will begin in October in 48 counties—but the administration aims to expand it to every jail in the country by 2012.

More fallout from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme: “Financier and money manager J. Ezra Merkin agreed to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's demands to step down as manager of his hedge funds and place them into receivership,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Merkin had funneled $2.4 billion from universities and nonprofits into Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, and was charged with civil fraud last month by Cuomo, who said Merkin “betrayed hundreds of investors.” One receiver will manage the some $1 billion in Merkin’s Gabriel and Ariel funds, while another will oversee Ascot, whose entire $1.8 billion in assets was lost to Madoff. The trustee charged with recovering Madoff victims’ money has also sued Merkin for $558 million he withdrew from Madoff’s firm.

Hey, did Big Pharma do something good? “The head of the World Health Organization says major drug companies have agreed on a plan to give poor countries access to a swine flu vaccine and antiviral medications if a worldwide outbreak is declared,” reports the Associated Press. However, the drug companies won’t be able to begin making the vaccine until mid-July at the earliest, which is weeks later than original predictions. From there, it will be several months before the vaccine is made. “Mass producing a pandemic vaccine would be a gamble, as it would take away manufacturing capacity for the seasonal flu vaccine that kills up to 500,000 people each year,” writes the AP. “Some experts have wondered whether the world really needs a vaccine for an illness that so far appears mild.”

I guess we know whom New York Times writer Stephen Holden is rooting for in tonight’s American Idol finale. “[Adam Lambert’s] glam-rock poses and banshee shrieks this season have lent a frisson of hipness to American Idol, a deeply conservative show that pretended to be on the cultural cutting edge,” he writes. “Mr. Lambert’s presence helped this year’s American Idol validate an idea of rock ’n’ roll that goes all the way back to the heyday of Little Richard: that it originated as a hormonal noisemaking outlet for rowdy boys to preen, cut up and role-play.” Holden couches his endorsement, however, observing a bit ruefully that Lambert represents  “yesterday’s putatively subversive culture neutralized by television and turned into YouTube-ready theatrical karaoke.”