In her first communication since officially resigning as Alaska's governor (and just days after telling the media to quit "makin' things up"), Sarah Palin stated Friday on her Facebook page that health-care reform, or what Palin calls Obama's "death panel," may kill her infant son, Trig. “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil,” Palin writes. Palin’s spokeswoman pointed to page 425 of the House Democrats’ bill when asked what Palin was referring to, which contains a section that refers to “advance-care planning consultation” for seniors, which includes voluntary discussions of living wills, power of attorney, or the decision to reject “extraordinary measures of life support.” The proposal, which has nothing to do with euthanasia, has been widely circulated by conservative critics of the administration as part of a false rumor that a health-care overhaul would pressure senior citizens into killing themselves. As for Palin's description of mandatory Sparta-style murder of Down syndrome babies, the paranoid vision doesn't match up with any component of any health-care plan being discussed.

Good news: Job losses slowed in July and the unemployment rate dropped for the first time since April 2008, the Labor Department reported Friday. President Obama touted the gains in a press conference Friday, saying the numbers prove his administration "rescued our economy from catastrophe." But the Washington Post had a gloomier take, saying much of the drop in unemployment was the result of people removing themselves from the labor market altogether, or giving up on trying to find work. The jobless rate fell to 9.4 percent in July, from 9.5 percent in June. Payrolls fell by 247,000 in July—following a loss of 443,000 in June. And the news significantly beat analysts’ expectations. They had predicted, on average, that losses would raise to 9.6 percent (some even predicted the number would reach double digits) and that payrolls would drop by 325,000.

It's a big day for Sonia Sotomayor. Obama’s No. 1 draft pick was administered two oaths in an 11 a.m. ceremony: the first among a small group of friends and family; then the judicial oath, which was the first televised ceremony of its kind. Sotomayor is the third woman and first Hispanic to join the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, Obama will host a reception for Sotomayor at the White House and the court will formally inaugurate the 55-year-old New Yorker in a month’s time. But what lies ahead in Sotomayor’s rookie years? “She is going to really disappear into her work, for a year, if not more,” said Dawn Cardi, a lawyer in New York and a close friend of Sotomayor’s. The justices are rarely seen because hearings aren’t televised (a notion Sotomayor is open to amending), so the judge will likely fall off the radar after her first case Sept. 9, which will reevaluate campaign-finance reform. Studies show that a justice’s decisions in the first term are not accurate forecasts of their career-long jurisprudence. For new justices, who are given very little guidance from the surrounding eight chambers on learning the High Court ropes, this news likely comes as a relief. Said Stephen R. McAllister, who was one of Justice Clarence Thomas’s clerks: “You’re a justice now; you figure out how to do it.”

For the past eight years, Osama Bin Laden’s al Qaeda has had close ties with Baitullah Mehsud, the Taliban’s most dangerous and powerful leader who was reportedly killed earlier this week by a U.S. predator drone. It was Meshud who took in fleeing al Qaeda leaders after the 9/11 attacks, and it was al Qaeda that helped build the Taliban up as a military force, their expertise contributing to the “suicide-bomber-on-demand” operation that Pakistani officials think is connected to 90 percent of suicide and terrorist attacks over the past two years, including the attack that killed Benazir Bhutto. Mehsud’s death may signal the end of that mutually beneficial relationship, as none of his top commanders are prepared or willing to offer comparable protection or funds to al Qaeda. Some of the commanders, such as Maulvi Nasir, have a history of turning on al Qaeda. Nasir killed 250 al Qaeda members and banished several hundred more from his territory in 2007. The Pakistani army may be looking to take advantage of this new vulnerability. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the Pakistani Army spokesman, said, "If you can knock out the problem's center of gravity, Mehsud, then you may not have to go against the other tribal forces that may fall into line.”

The White House is asking the Supreme Court to block the detainee abuse photos that President Obama sought to suppress from public view in a high-profile reversal in May. The Justice Department filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking them to overturn a lower court's decision requiring the government to disclose the photos, which are being sought by the American Civil Liberties Union through the Freedom of Information Act. "The government need not disclose records causing danger to human life and safety," the Department of Justice complaint read. The filing says the photos show "soldiers pointing pistols or rifles at the heads of hooded or handcuffed detainees," while one shows a soldier who is acting "as if" he is violating a prisoner with a broom handle. Obama said in May that the photos would endanger troops by inflaming anti-American sentiment. Critics accused him of abandoning his stated goal of bringing transparency to the White House.

Wonder if they'll still serve those mini pretzels: Congress announced plans Friday to spend $550 million on eight new jets—including two 737s and two Gulfsteam V planes—which will help to accommodate the growing travel demands of congressional officials. While the new fleet will replace "seven aging and more expensive business jets," as the House Appropriations Committee said, the purchases are somewhat ironic: just last year, Congress harshly criticized the use of private jets to fly company members in the weeks after the government bail-out of the banks. Congressional travel has increased ten-fold since 1995, and the new jets will be equipped with cooking galleries and worktables designed to be "an office in the sky."

Jenny and Mark Sanford just returned from a two-week European vacation, but apparently the family getaway didn't erase memories of Sanford's earlier jaunts to Argentina. The first lady of South Carolina announced Friday that she and her four children are vacating the governor’s mansion, Politico reports. “I have decided to move back to our home in Charleston with our sons for the upcoming school year,” Sanford said. “From there, we will work to continue the process of healing our family.” Sanford stressed, as she has in the past, that she and the governor are not getting a divorce and asked that the media “allow us to go on with our lives in peace.” She played a crucial role in minimizing political damage for her husband after his affair with an Argentinean woman became public. She helped quiet state legislature rivals who called for Sanford’s resignation.

The man who opened fire on women in a Pittsburgh gym bought gun accessories from the same web company that sold arms used in two other mass shootings. George Sodini bought a Glock Magloader and Glock Factory Magazine from TGSCOM Inc. The company also sold guns to Seung-Hui Cho, who shot 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007, and Steven Kazmierczak, who murdered five students at Northern Illinois University in 2008."This tragedy underscores the need for people to protect themselves and not rely only on police," said the company's president, Eric Thompson, who confirmed the purchases. "There is evil all around and we must be able to handle it."

Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy and the founder of the Special Olympics, is in critical condition in a Massachusetts hospital. The 88-year-old is "surrounded by her family at Cape Cod Hospital," the Associated Press reports. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the husband of Shriver's daughter Maria Shriver, is also at her side. Shriver has nineteen grandchildren and is the only woman to have appeared on a U.S. coin during her lifetime. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984 for her efforts with the disabled.

The sudden death of as-seen-on-TV salesman Billy Mays just got more dramatic. An autopsy report concludes that cocaine use contributed to the heart disease that killed Mays in his sleep in June, officials said Friday. A medical examiner tweaked Mays’ earlier cause of death of heart disease, concluding that "cocaine use caused or contributed to the development of his heart disease, and thereby contributed to his death." Cocaine use can raise blood pressure in the arteries, thicken the left wall of the ventricle, and quicken the development of atherosclerosis in coronary arteries, the medical examiner continued. Mays used the drug in the days before his death, but was not under the influence when he died, the report said.

Hamid Karzai is running for reelection as the president of Afghanistan, but he’s not the only one with his eyes on the office. Forty-one candidates are opposing him in the August 20 election, with one candidate asking how Afghanis can vote for a man who has led their country into corruption. "If the goal is to consolidate a group of drug dealers as the government of Afghanistan so that you have relative peace, then what is the vision?" Ashraf Ghani, a rival in the upcoming election, asks in a cover story for this week's New York Times Magazine. Others paint a sympathetic picture of an embattled, isolated figure, who makes accommodations to warlords and foreign governments in the hopes of keeping his country together. Karzai defends his shady approach to government, saying "I feel for the Afghan people," and holding up Gandhi as a role model. And yet corruption persists. "The Karzai family has opium and blood on their hands," a Western intelligence official tells The Times. Karzai’s unpopularity and questionable tactics have put the Obama administration in the awkward position of supporting a leader who may not have the backing of his people.

A suicide bombing in northern Iraq and a string of bombings in Baghdad left 43 dead and hundreds wounded Friday morning. The blasts, which were targeted at Shiite pilgrims, killed at least 37 and wounding 276 Shiites attending a funeral at a mosque, while separate roadside bombs in Baghdad and attacks at Hamza Square in Sadr City, claimed another six. The death toll is expected to climb as emergency workers sift through the rubble. Hundreds of thousands of Shiites have recently been in southern Iraq, on pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) got a nice start to the weekend Friday as the Senate Ethics Committee determined that he did not receive "sweetheart" loans for his 2003 mortgages from Countrywide. However, in a letter to both Dodd and Sen. Kent Conrad (who was also the subject of a probe and cleared), the panel advised being more careful with their dealings with the firm. This is good news for Dodd, who recently began treatment for early-stage prostate cancer.

Maybe he should stick to writing: The New York Times announced Friday that they fired Sunday business columnist Ben Stein after they learned that the writer/politician had appeared in commercials for FreeScore.com. The firm, as Reuters blogger Felix Salmon describes it, is "a sleazy company which exists only to extract large sums of money from those who can least afford it.” It offers customers a free credit score, charges them immensely for the actual credit report.

For those in the Northern Hemisphere, heads up: Astronomers have calculated that the annual Perseid Meteor shower will take place on the night of August 12. From 12 a.m. to 4 a.m., the meteors should be best visible, according to Joe Rao of New York's Hayden Planetarium. Despite the fact that a bright moon will drown out fainter meteors, researchers predict it could be a potentially intense Perseid year (in the absence of moonlight, observers may see up to 200 meteors per hour), and could produce an above average amount of shooting stars. The meteors are the trail of debris left behind by the orbit of the Swift-Tuttle comet, which was discovered in 1862.

Day four of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 11-day tour of Africa has landed her in South Africa, where she met with former South African President Nelson Mandela, a meeting she said left her with "admiration for his public work but an even greater affection for the man." She is scheduled next to meet with President Jacob Zuma, the current South African president, to discuss reform, business and health in Zimbabwe. She will leave for Angola on Sunday, before heading to Nigeria, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cape Verde.

Writing in Slate, Jack Shafer whacks Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli for surrendering to the paper’s critics. After two Post writers recorded a controversial video segment—it referred to “Mad Bitch Beer” as a drink fit for Hillary Clinton—Brauchli canceled the segment. Shafer points out that Post readers, like newspaper readers the world over, have an endless capacity to be offended. By kowtowing to them, Brauchli showed his “spinelessness,” and sent the following message to his troops: “We support edgy journalism completely—until we don't, and at that point we'll ship you to the tailor and have you fitted with gags.”

A mother-son camping trip turned fatal when a 28-year-old mother and her 11-year-old son's car became trapped in the sand in Death Valley for five days. They had no cellphone service—with temperatures climbing to an average of 112 degrees—and they lived off the Pop Tarts, cheese sandwiches, and water they had packed. Unfortunately by the time police found the car on Thursday, the boy had already died—the day before, according to his mother. She is currently being treated in a hospital.

Someone needs to take Vanessa Hudgens' digital camera away. The High School Musical alum and Zac Efron girlfriend is in the middle of yet another nude photo scandal—her second in two years. Though Hudgens is now of legal age, the New York Daily News reports that she is said to be a mere seventeen in the topless photos making their way through gossip sites like Perez Hilton and appear to be self-portraits. Last time Hudgens' nude self-portraits found their way into the public eye, she apologized to her fans and said she was "embarrassed." This time, she appears to be playing it cool; word is she'll skip the apology rigamarole and focus on her acting. Next week's Bandslam should be good wholesome fun, but in her next project—Zack Snyder flick Sucker Punch—she'll be back in racy situations, playing a prostitute.

Another town hall meeting—this time in Tampa, Florida-area town of Ybor City—was overshadowed by right-wing protests Thursday, and this time, there was violence. Tampa police quelled a  jeering, cat-calling mob at a town hall featuring Democratic Representatives Kathy Castor and Betty Reed, reports the St. Petersburg Times. The Service Employees International Union sponsored the meeting and had been aiming for something of a "pep rally"—instead, some 1500 protesters overflowed the premises, chanting "Tyranny! Tyranny!"; "Forty million illegals!"; and "You work for us!" The Tampa Tribune reports that "some [protesters] scuffled with members of the sponsoring groups," prompting police to  break up the spats. A series of videos of the rowdy crowds are rising to viral status on the internet. In one, a group pounds on a closed door with fists and a cane, chanting "Open that door!" The door opens to reveal an at-capacity crowd. A woman yells, "They don't fucking listen!" Rep. Reed expressed shock at the meeting's ugly turn: "When you get to the point of possible violence, you've gone over the edge."

Ruthie’s in the poorhouse, Bernie’s doing time, and hundreds of victims lost their savings—but one man in L’Affair Madoff is sitting pretty: Irving Picard, the trustee in charge of liquidating Madoff’s investment company, won court approval Thursday for a $14.7 million payday for his law firm, following four months of Madoff-related work, Bloomberg reports. The sum covers Picard’s and his firm Baker & Hostetler’s work from December 15 to April 30. Picard and his associates had recovered $1.08 billion for the Ponzi schemers’ victims, as of the end of June. Naturally, not everyone approves of the multimillion-dollar bill. “This depletion of [Securities Investor Protection Corp.] funds is unjustifiable,” said one victim. “The trustee has been an abysmal failure.” Picard’s group has so far approved $3.36 billion in claims from 820 victims and are filing more complicated lawsuits for some of Madoff’s biggest investors, who are claiming some $14 billion in damages. Some, however, say Picard’s recoveries have been relatively easy so far, drawing mostly from Madoff’s extant bank accounts. Ultimately, the Madoff victims are stuck in Picard’s hands: Legal experts note that the oversight rules for trustees like Picard tend to be slim.

Who says talking heads don't pay consequences? Lawyers.com, Procter & Gamble, and Progressive Insurance, all of which used to run ads during Glenn Beck's Fox News program, are distancing themselves from the host in light of his assertion that Barack Obama is a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture." Beck made the controversial comments during an appearance on Fox & Friends on July 28. Both Procter & Gamble and Progressive now say placing ads with Beck was a mistake, while NexisLexis, the owner of Lawyers.com, says it won't advertise with him again. The move may have been persuaded by 45,000 members of Color of Change, an organization that mobilized a letter-writing campaign in protest of Beck's show.

The first family and A-list celebrities: Where does one end and the other begin? Michelle and Malia Obama stopped by Top Chef Spike Mendelsohn’s Good Stuff Eatery Thursday, only to be hounded by a slew of paparazzi—and managing to spark baby-bump rumors. The pair dined on burgers, fries, onion rings and shakes, but none of that matters when compared to the very slim, photo-generated possibility that the missus could be with child. INF, the Web site that originally posted the pics, had a closeup of an unusually round-stomached Michelle (then again, the girls did order four different types of milkshake) but have since deleted the shot.

In a break with the Bush administration, an aide to President Obama said in a speech today that the U.S. would no longer refer to a "global war" on terror, which he said suggested a fight with the rest of the world and inflated al Qaeda's reach. More than a symbolic shift, however, the speech by John Brennan, Obama’s assistant for counterterrorism and homeland security, laid out a detailed new strategy for addressing the root causes of terrorism, which he said include poverty and lack of education. "We cannot shoot ourselves out of this challenge," Brennan said. "If we fail to confront the broader political, economic, and social conditions in which extremists thrive, then there will always be another recruit in the pipeline, another attack coming downstream." Brennan had harsh words for former President Bush, saying that the CIA's use of torture techniques would be "a recruitment bonanza for terrorists, increase the determination of our enemies, and decrease the willingness of other nations to cooperate with us."

It's official: "Cash for Clunkers," the consumer- and environment-friendly car-rebate program, is back. The Senate voted 60-37 in favor of giving the program $2 billion more in federal funds after it ran out of its first $1 billion last week—despite early claims that the first billion could last through November. The new funds are expected to last until Labor Day, and will offer consumers $3,500 to $4,500 in rebates for buying cars when they trade an old vehicle in for a newer, more fuel-efficient one. Thursday's positive vote came after a series of proposed amendments were first added, then scuttled, including a pair of Republican-sponsored amendments that would have suspended the program or promoted donating "clunkers" to charity. When the bill passed, Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow praised Senate civility: "Thank you for allowing an important stimulus to continue. Several Republican senators who opposed the program did not attempt to use parliamentary tactics to delay its passage."

In 1993, a 32-year-old Barack Obama was midway through writing Dreams From My Father when aspiring filmmaker Zeke Gonzalez interviewed him for a documentary on black role models. Gonzalez's film fell apart, but his 12-minute interview with then-community activist Obama has found new life in the hands of L.A. producer Stuart Goldman, who contextualized it with new interviews about Obama's early Chicago years. At the time of the 1993 interview, Obama was working to register Chicago voters, citing the candidacy of Carol Moseley Braun as his inspiration. Did he know he would some day be president? "My general view about politics and running for office is that if you end up being fortunate enough to have the opportunity to serve, it is because you got a track record of service in the community and I think right now, I am still building up that track record. ... I might think about it, but that time is certainly in the future." Politics Daily’s Lynn Sweet notes that three years later Obama ran for the Illinois State Senate and won. "It isn't as if Obama transformed the South Side of Chicago," Goldman tells Sweet. "The story is how the South Side transformed Obama."

John Hughes, the director of some of the most iconic movies of the '80s and '90s, has died at age 59. According to TMZ, Hughes had a heart attack "while taking a morning walk during a trip to NYC to visit family." Hughes directed hit films such as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, and produced Home Alone, giving voice to disgruntled teens (in the Greater Chicago area, of course) and shedding light on high-school angst without trivializing it. Superbad producer Judd Apatow says Hughes invented the niche he now occupies: "His great film characters … were big inspirations,” Apatow told the Los Angeles Times' Patrick Goldstein last year. “When we were growing up, we were all like [ Sixteen Candles’ Anthony Michael Hall]—the goofy skinny kid who thinks he’s cool, even if nobody else does. Superbad has that same attitude, that mix of total cockiness and insecurity.” Hughes’ style of filming also broke the mold, Goldstein writes: Oftentimes he’d allow the camera to continue rolling for four or five takes in order to get the proper “tone and rhythm” for a scene, and would ask his actors to stray from the script based on on-the-spot edits. In recent years, Goldstein says Hughes had strayed toward being "a Howard Hughes-style recluse," refusing interviews and professional representation, preferring instead to live quietly at home in Chicago. Director Kevin Smith described Hughes as "our generation's J.D. Salinger... He touched a generation and then dude checked out." He is survived by his wife Nancy, sons John and James, and four grandchildren.

Is the stimulus working? Economists say that the latest economic numbers—which include lower-than-expected job losses—have the bill's fingerprints. “The signs of the stimulus are there,” Allen L. Sinai, chief economist at Decision Economics, told The New York Times. “Government—federal, state and local—is helping take the economy from recession to recovery. I think it’s the primary contributor.” While a number of economists surveyed by The Times said the stimulus boosted GDP last quarter, the contribution has been smaller than the White House hoped. But the spending is just starting, because many projects take time to get off the ground. Through June, about $100 billion of the $787 billion package has been used through June, according to the White House.

George Raymond, former director of an Army technology program, allegedly had a “cozy relationship” with Catherine Campbell, a favored private contractor—a relationship so close that it may involve passed confidential information and up to $191 million in government contracts. Though reforms were passed a decade ago to make the government’s procurement system more ethical, this latest affair reflects how little oversight and accountability the system really has. Evidence has surfaced that Raymond exposed confidential government information to Campbell and unfairly allowed her firm to write the terms for a contract. Raymond was also involved in a contract that awarded $185 million to Campbell’s firm. In addition to a chain of scandalous e-mails, The Washington Post reports that Raymond called her “Princess,” and she called him “Bubba.” Raymond—who has recently retired with full benefits and recommendations from co-workers—admits to working closely with Campbell (and passing sensitive material to her), but denies an inappropriate relationship. “Nobody ever pointed out that what I was doing was wrong,” Raymond told The Post. “I was never counseled.”

People may guess at whether it's for show or not, but either way Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is putting on his best performance to demonstrate he's looking out for moderate Democratic lawmakers. This week Emanuel warned progressive groups in no uncertain terms to stop running ads targeting wavering Democratic senators on health care, Politico reports. According to the White House, the ads are counterproductive, but the groups in question argue they help the president by keeping lawmakers from straying too far to the right. Adam Green, co-founder of one such group, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told The Daily Beast earlier this week that he hopes "the White House recognizes that we're willfully playing the role of bad cop and holding the door wide open for them to be good cop" with their ads attacking Sens. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Max Baucus (D-MT).

While baseball has been tarnished by years of steroid scandals, basketball has largely avoided similar issues. That may be changing, however, as the NBA has banned Orlando Magic forward Rashard Lewis for 10 games for testing positive for elevated testosterone. Lewis quickly admitted to using a banned substance, which the Orlando Sentinel reported contained a steroids precursor. "First and foremost I take full responsibility for the situation and accept the corresponding penalty," Lewis said. "I apologize to Magic fans, my teammates and this organization for not doing the research that should come with good judgment." While six basketball players have tested positive for banned substances since 1999, Lewis is by far the most prominent, having helped lead his team to the NBA finals this year.

New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney is expected to announce Friday that she will not run in the primary for Senate against Kirsten Gillibrand, Governor David Paterson's appointed replacement for Hillary Clinton's seat. Early reports suggest that Maloney's decision was based on her desire to keep her current position of seniority in Congress, although influential Democrats like President Obama and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, have been urging potential challengers to stay out of the race, as they feared that too intense a primary battle would weaken Gillibrand against a Republican in the general election.

In a surprise announcement at a morning staff meeting Friday, Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida announced that he would not return to the Senate after the August recess. While he had previously said that he would not seek re-election, he had made plans to serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in 2011. He is the second Republican senator in the last several weeks to announce their resignation, leaving Florida's governor, Charlie Crist, to find a placeholder. Some speculate that Martinez may be interested in assuming the role of president of Florida State University, after the school's president also announced he was stepping down.

Pakistan's Taliban chief, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in a U.S. drone missile strike on Friday, a Pakistani minister has confirmed. Mehsud was the nation’s most wanted terrorist, a fierce ally of al Qaeda, and thought to be responsible for a number of suicide bombings and killings, including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007. The United States had a $5 million bounty on Mehsud's head, and a U.S. official said on Thursday that if the death was confirmed, it “would be a major victory” for U.S. efforts there. On Friday, Pakistan’s Foreign minister confirmed: “According to my sources, this news is correct, and he has been taken out.”