Ted Kennedy died surrounded by his whole family, including wife Vicki, his sons, and other relatives, who prayed around him. Rev. Patrick Tarrant of Our Lady of Victory Church, the Kennedy clan's Roman Catholic priest, told The Boston Channel that Kennedy "told his family that he was ready to go and that he wanted to go." Tarrant said he was called to Kennedy's bedside at 9 p.m. Tuesday after the senator "took a turn for the worse" and that Kennedy died around 11:30 p.m. "His whole family was praying. It was a wonderful experience for me. You don't see it very often," Tarrant said. The priest called faith the "secret" of Kennedy's power, but said it was a part of him that the world didn't see.

Ted Kennedy will be buried beside his brothers Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetery. A burial at Arlington is considered a powerful symbol of Ted Kennedy's service to the country as a senator and also during his time serving as a soldier in the Army. Being laid to rest beside both of his brothers, who were assassinated, would also highlight the tradition of public service in the Kennedy clan. John F. Kennedy is one of only two presidents buried at Arlington, though all presidents are eligible. The funeral services will begin Thursday morning, when Kennedy's body will taken via motorcade from Hyannis Port to the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. There will be a public viewing on Thursday and Friday afternoon. Later on Friday afternoon, Senators John Kerry and John McCain as well as Vice President Biden will speak at Kennedy's wake. On Saturday, President Obama will address his funeral mass before Kennedy's body is flown to Arlington Cemetery.

August’s rancorous health-care debates aren’t over yet. With “death panel” and Nazi memes already feeling passé, The Wall Street Journal reports that the Democrats’ other battle will be with pro-lifers. Most versions of the health bill would subsidize private health insurance for people with low incomes. Since many private plans cover abortions, critics complain that the federal government will be subsidizing controversial procedures. Antiabortion groups including The Family Research Council and the National Right to Life Committee are targeting swing-vote and pro-life Democrats and their districts. At a town-hall meeting for Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) on Tuesday, an activist shouting “We won’t pay for murder!” had to be removed by police. Twenty House Democrats recently signed a letter announcing they will not support a bill that fails to explicitly exclude abortion coverage.

The Lov Guv’s number two has thrown him under the bus: South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer has called on Gov. Mark Sanford to resign, becoming the most prominent state Republican to do so on Wednesday. "It is my opinion the best interest of the people of South Carolina can no longer be served by the current administration," Bauer said. "The serious misconduct that has been revealed along with lingering questions and continuing distractions make it virtually impossible for our state to solve the critical problems we're facing without a change in leadership." Later that afternoon, Sanford fired back: "I am not going to be railroaded out of this office by political opponents or folks that were never fans of mine in the first place." The governor has been beleaguered ever since it was revealed that he was having an affair with an Argentinean woman.

The grisly rumors have been around for years, and through state-owned newspaper The China Daily, the Chinese government has finally admitted to harvesting organs from executed prisoners for medical transplants. According to the report—which also detailed the government's new voluntary donation program—two-thirds of China's transplant organs come from executed prisoners. The BBC explains that traditional biases against removing organs after death will likely deter the voluntary plan. The China Daily estimated that 65 percent of organ donations came from death-row prisoners and quoted the vice-minister of health saying that condemned prisoners were "not a proper source" for organs. The new voluntary donation program will pilot in 10 provinces and cities; but with 1.5 million Chinese citizens needing transplants, and only 10,000 operations occurring annually, ending China's death-row organ transfers (and robust organ-trafficking black market) seems unlikely in the near future.

Dominick Dunne, the bestselling author who wrote about crime, died Wednesday at the age of 83. Dunne famously covered the trials of O.J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, and Phil Spector for Vanity Fair. In March 1984, he first wrote for the magazine, about the trial of the man who murdered his daughter, Dominique. He started his career as a stage manager of The Howdy Doody Show, and, before turning to writing, he produced movies like The Boys in the Band and Play It as It Lays. His brother, John Gregory, was married to Joan Didion. A collection of Dunne’s writing for Vanity Fair, Justice, was published in 2001, and his last book, Too Much Money: A Novel, will be published in December.

Apple is one major market away from total global immersion, and they don’t like it. The Wall Street Journal reports that China’s 687 million cellphone users may soon have Apple’s fastest-growing product to reckon with. Apple is reportedly nearing a deal with China’s state-owned wireless company, China Unicom, and an iPhone prototype has already been approved by the government’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. But will China like the iPhone? The Journal notes that iPhone’s Japan launch was weak, due in part to Asia’s robust mobile-phone industry.

Sarah Palin continues to drift toward the fringe: The former governor of Alaska took to Facebook on Wednesday to encourage her friends to watch Glenn Beck. “Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job this week walking America behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outlining who is actually running the White House,” Palin wrote. “Monday night he asked us to invite one friend to watch; tonight I invite all my friends to watch.” Beck has faced a boycott recently due to his allegation that President Obama has a “deep-seated hatred of white people.”

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) has called for the health care bill to be renamed in honor of late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). The bill should bear Kennedy's name "for his commitment to insuring the health of every American," said Byrd, the only senator to have served longer than Kennedy. "I had hoped and prayed that this day would never come," Byrd said in a statement. "My heart and soul weeps at the loss of my best friend in the Senate, my beloved friend, Ted Kennedy." Byrd had wept when his younger colleague fell ill with brain cancer last year and was similarly emotional during his statement on Wednesday. "God bless his wife Vicki, his family, and the institution that he served so ably, which will never be the same without his voice of eloquence and reason," Byrd said. "And God bless you, Ted. I love you and will miss you terribly."

Still mourning the loss of close friend Ted Kennedy, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) must now face a critical decision: Take over the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee—inserting himself into the eye of the health-care maelstrom at crunch time—or hold on to his Banking Committee chairmanship and move forward with a significant overhaul of financial regulations that could help him shed his reputation of being tight with Wall Street. His decision could not only affect his political future, including his reelection prospects for 2010, but lead to a domino effect in the Senate among committee chairmanships. Early on Wednesday, a somber Dodd said he hadn’t given the HELP chairmanship a “second’s worth of thought,” Politico reports, and that he'd speak with Democratic leaders about his quandary in the coming days.

Well, she'll certainly have plenty to talk about. Kate Gosselin, who has been all over the tabloids as of late, will be a guest host on The View. Gosselin's extremely public separation from Jon (who seems to be regularly out on the town with younger ladies) means she should bring a ratings boost to the morning talk show as it begins its new season mid-September. Gosselin, a devout Christian, will be filling in for the lone conservative at the roundtable, Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Other guest hosts on the lineup include Meghan McCain and LaToya Jackson. Gosselin is expected to join Barbara Walters, Whoopi and the rest of the gang on September 14 and 15.

Hmm... The Russian cargo ship that mysteriously vanished after passing through the English Channel was actually being monitored by Russian and international authorities during its three-week trip, according to Russia's top general. Now people are wondering what the ship's cargo was. "The motives behind the seizure are not wholly clear. We do not know what it is carrying,” Nikolai Makarov told reporters. “All we know is that it is carrying timber, but an investigation should determine whether it is carrying anything else.” And another detail adds to the intrigue: The vessel's crew for some reason attempted to pass off their ship as a North Korean one to the Russian Navy. Eight men are currently in custody and stand accused of piracy and kidnapping in relation to the hijacking. They are ominously described by the Russian Foreign Ministry as "two Russian citizens, one Latvian, one Estonian and four stateless persons."

Former teen actor turned television creator Dan Schneider is the driving force behind an unprecedented seven straight hits for Nickelodeon and he is about to embark on his eighth, entitled Victorious. Young actors like Amanda Bynes and Josh Peck credit Schneider with establishing the foundations of their careers, The Amanda Show and Drake and Josh, respectively. The 43-year-old Schneider credits his success with the fact that the child within him is still alive and well. "Really, I'm just a big kid myself," he told The Washington Post. Still, fifteen years working 100-hour weeks at Nick have led Schneider to feel like "an engine that never gets a chance to relax."

Thirteen-year-old Katie Reyes stepped up to the plate in the top of the 6th inning and slapped a sharp line drive to right field, delivering a game-winning two-run single in the Little League World Series for her team from Vancouver, British Columbia. Reyes may not have immediately realized that she also had just etched her name in Little League lore, as she is likely the first girl ever to make the winning hit in the Little League Word Series. Fifteen girls have played in the Little League World Series since 1984, according to ESPN. Reyes' hit came after their opponents from Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, mounted a comeback capped off by grand slam.

He's the man that got you into college: Stanley Kaplan, who founded the nation's largest test prep service, died on Sunday at the age of 90. He started tutoring out of his parents' Brooklyn home in 1938, and was driven by the belief that fair testing would allow smart kids without means to rise to the top. He capitalized on the testing market just as the post-WWII GI Bill resulted in a college enrollment boom. In 2008, the company—which was sold to The Washington Post Company in 1984—posted a revenue of $2.3 billion. But Kaplan wasn't embraced in higher education circles and was criticized for helping people study for the SAT—a test people said only measured the ability to learn, rather than innate knowledge.

Solomon Jackson, the new winner of a $259.9 million Powerball lottery in South Carolina, has sworn the winnings won't change his penny-pinching ways. USA Today reports that Jackson bought his winning ticket at a Murphy USA gas station he regularly visited in order to save 3 cents a gallon. Jackson, a former assistant supervisor at the state Department of Revenue, has been tight-lipped about his personal life, and says he hasn't even told his family and friends about the winnings. During a news conference, he pledged that some of the money would go to support education programs in South Carolina, and that he'd search out other philanthropic opportunities. Despite his newfound riches, Jackson still drove to a western suburb of his hometown of Columbia for a $35 deal on tire alignment.

President Obama may be on vacation, but apparently he’s still working hard: According to the Guardian, a U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian deal allowing talks to resume is close. In exchange for Israeli cooperation, the U.S. would take a harder line on Iran's nuclear weapons program, seeking—along with Britain and France—expanded U.N. sanctions against Iran's oil and gas industry. Israel would then agree to a partial freeze on constructing settlements, the paper said. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and U.S. Special Envoy George Mitchell are to meet privately in London Thursday, but negotiations are advanced enough that France and Russia have both offered to host a new round of talks. Obama could make an announcement before the end of next month.

Can an anti-imperialist change his stripes? The International Herald Tribune reports that the hero's welcome that Col. Muammar Gaddafi gave Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing of 1988, may have ruined his reconciliation with the West. The Tribune said the incident was "signature" Gaddafi. After wringing a concession from Western powers and offering his thanks, he appeared to mock them for caving. The incident also spotlights what may be Gaddafi's naiveté: Libyan officials reportedly believed that the celebration at Megrahi's return was low-key, as Gaddafi did not personally greet Megrahi right away. The move may have scuttled Gaddafi's chances of proving to America and the U.K. that he's changed over the last 40 years. As a fellow at the Washington Near East Policy Institute put it, "The very concept of anti-imperialism is still at the heart of Gaddafi’s discourse."

A New York hotel that crosses over the city’s latest attraction—the High Line—has been drawing attention for the randy displays in its fishbowl rooms. Now, the New York Post reports that the Standard Hotel encourages the voyeurism in order to entertain the parkgoers outside. "We don't discourage it. In actual fact, we encourage it," a bellhop tells the Post. The bellhop says that, after the hotel opened late last year, staff members were encouraged to pose nude in front of the windows. "One of the managers even got naked in a room, and filmed it—they were considering a live feed for the Web site," the staffer said. "She's an exhibitionist, too." Parkgoers have reported seeing men masturbating, pornographic films being shot, and couples having sex.

Out with the old, in with the… old? President Barack Obama may say he’s against the Bush administration’s interrogation policies, but he’s just tapped a key Bush-era CIA insider, John Brennan, to oversee his new interrogation policies. Brennan, who was in the CIA for 25 years and who served as the CIA’s deputy executive director during the period of "enhanced interrogation techniques," will be Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser. He'll oversee a new interrogation corps, which will be focused on the most important detainees. While Brennan was not in a decision-making position during the period of enhanced techniques, former CIA officials say that he was likely privy to discussions about certain tactics. According to Melvin Goodman, former intelligence analyst who worked at the CIA for 20 years, Brennan “supported everything with great enthusiasm—apparently he did make claims in-house … against waterboarding, but he was defending detentions, defending extraordinary renditions, enhanced interrogation techniques and secret prisons.” He added that Brennan getting the new job “shows that Obama is politically deaf or doesn’t care.”

The very subprime lenders whose products were the root of the housing crisis are now eligible for billions in public funds, according to The Washington Post. The nonprofit investigative reporting group Center for Public Integrity has released a report that shows that the government's foreclosure-prevention program may benefit subprime companies such as J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Countrywide (now part of Bank of America). The $75 billion program, called Making Home Affordable, offers taxpayer subsidies to lenders who ease mortgage burdens on troubled homeowners. So far, it's not working. Less than 10 percent of eligible mortgage holders have gotten help, despite the intense pressure on lenders from Congress and the White House.

Kate Gosselin appeared on Larry King tonight, but she didn’t reveal much about her ruined marriage and hectic family life. She looked tense as she explained that she and Jon Gosselin have a “peaceful custody” arrangement, and that their breakup has been “a good experience” so far. Gosselin admitted, however, that when it comes to the kids and the cameras, “my nature is to freak out, to be in control.” And as Jon cavorts with younger women, Kate reacted with a hint of disdain. “Uh, his decisions right now are not ones that I would necessarily make, but down deep in his heart, I know that he is a [good dad],” she said of her ex-husband. And, in true Gosselin fashion, she ended with a good cliffhanger: At the end of the interview, she told King: “I have big dreams… I am very driven.”

President Obama has weighed in on the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, pronouncing himself "heartbroken" over the loss of "the greatest senator of our time." Kennedy served in the Senate for 46 years, longer than all but two other senators, and challenged Jimmy Carter for president in 1980. Having died at 77, he is the only one of the four Kennedy brothers to have survived into old age. "An important chapter in our history has come to an end," Obama announced. Meanwhile, the Kennedy family said in a statement: "We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all. He loved this country and devoted his life to serving it. He always believed that our best days were still ahead, but it’s hard to imagine any of them without him.”

It's not over until someone produces a reality show about it. A&E will be moving forward with its plan to air a reality show about the Jackson brothers in the wake of Michael's death, The Hollywood Reporter writes. The series, tentatively titled "Jackson Family Dynasty," will begin with a one-hour documentary about Michael featuring footage shot before he died. The rest of the show will follow the remaining Jackson brothers as they cope with the King of Pop's passing and their own lives. The executive producer of Point 7 Entertainment said the show would be "genuine" and that the Jackson brothers wanted to talk about their brother "honestly."

The CEO of Nemazee Capital Corp and a major fundraiser for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has been arrested on charges of defrauding Citigroup out of $74 million, according to the Department of Justice. Hassan Nemazee is accused of submitting phony documents to obtain up to $74 million from Citibank. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted. Nemazee served as national finance chairman for Hillary's campaign, and raised at least $100,000 for her in the 2008 campaign before bringing in another $500,000 for Obama once he won the nomination. Another prominent fundraiser for Clinton and Democrats, Norman Hsu, was convicted in May of campaign finance fraud for illegally donating tens of thousands of dollars. He also pleaded guilty to running a $20 million Ponzi scheme.

Showing off Pyongyang’s newfound conciliatory mood, South Korea and North Korea are holding talks this week that will focus on the reunions of families torn apart during the Korean War. They’ve scheduled a three-day meeting between Red Cross representatives from both nations, and, if agreements are reached, families separated by war could see each other for the first time since 1953. It’s all part of what what Time magazine calls “a North Korean charm offensive,” set off by Bill Clinton’s recent visit to free two American journalists. According to South Korean news outlets, North Korea has even invited Barack Obama and Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special envoy to the country, to sit down for talks. American outlets previously reported that President Obama refuses to meet with North Korean officials; nonetheless, South Korean reports claim the administration is “seriously considering” a trip next month.

The verdict is in: Chris Brown was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation—and 180 days of community labor—for attacking his former girlfriend, the singer Rihanna, in February. He’ll also take a yearlong domestic-violence prevention class, and has been ordered to stay away from Rihanna for the next five years. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg said she wants to see Brown do “actual physical labor, as opposed to some type of community service.” Meanwhile, People reports that court documents reveal a history of abuse between Brown and Rihanna, including an incident in Europe when Brown pushed Rihanna into a wall, and one in Barbados where an enraged Brown stopped a car he was driving, got out, and "broke the front driver and passenger side windows of the car."

California is in dire financial straits, and it has one message for the world: Everything must go! The Great California Garage Sale will run on Friday and Saturday, and state officials will sell various publicly owned items—from BlackBerrys to desks to an “antique piano”—that they no longer need. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is adding a Tinsel Town-inspired incentive: He’s signed some of the CHiPs motorcycles and the windshield of a car in the hopes of attracting higher prices at the sale, which will be held in Sacramento and on eBay. “But perhaps the most interesting untold stories are how in the world the state of California ever came into possession of some of this stuff,” notes L.A. Times blog Top of the Ticket. From a dentist's chair to a surfboard and an “Xbox 360 with Halo 3 cover,” the objects raise more questions than the perplexing garage sale itself.

Ted Kennedy's death ironically imperils one of the causes he most aggressively championed during his life: health-care reform. Democrats and Republicans alike have noted that his absence has made negotiations over a deal more difficult, but his vote in breaking a filibuster could have been even more crucial. Now state legislators in Massachusetts are grappling with how to replace him. A 2004 law crafted to keep Republican Gov. Mitt Romney from appointing a senator if John Kerry won the election calls for a special election several weeks after the vacancy opens, but in his final days Kennedy wrote to lawmakers asking them to change the rules to appoint a temporary senator so the state was represented in the health-care vote if he died. "It is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate," he wrote. But given that the law was modified so recently already and the blatant political reasons for both proposed changes, legislators may be hesitant to follow Kennedy's final request. Already Massachusetts Republicans are decrying the plan. "The hypocrisy is astounding," the state's house minority leader, Bradley Jones Jr., told the Boston Globe Thursday. Possible successors for Kennedy include his wife, Vicki Kennedy, and nephew, Joseph Kennedy II.

The world paid attention when people poured into the streets to protest the June 12 presidential election in Tehran. But what was Iran like on June 11? GQ's Leila Dena traveled to Iran, the birthplace of her parents and home to many relatives, this summer to vote and see the country for the first time. She found a capital city that despite censorship and austere social rule bubbles with romance and information. She discovered politicians willing to speak out against the failures of the government and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. She met her family and watched BBC Persian and dubbed Korean soap operas on TV. Then Dena voted and watched as Iran become unhinged, protests grew, and shouts of Allah Akbar filled the streets--a wail for what still cannot be said. Dena still struggles with being able to leave Iran while others can't: "I keep thinking about the millions of people who are just as scared as I am, who are stuck here, but who are filled with some otherworldly mixture of strength and heart that allows them to swallow that fear and go out into those streets."

On a day when the Kennedy family's achievements and legacy are in the spotlight, one man is adding another scandal to the family history. James Auchincloss, the half-brother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was indicted by a grand jury in Medford, Oregon on Tuesday on child porn charges stemming from an October search of his home by police in which images of young boys were discovered. Auchincloss, 62, faces 25 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse resulting from the alleged duplication and possession of child pornography. According to the District Attorney handling the case, David Hoppe, Auchincloss is not being investigated for producing child porn himself and could possibly avoid jail time in a plea deal. Auchincloss may be best known for carrying the wedding train at his sister's wedding to John F. Kennedy in 1953 when he was 6. The two became estranged in later years.

Let the hounding begin! A host of Democrats—including Joe Biden, New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, California Sen. Barbara Boxer, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer—say they'll return or donate contributions received from Hassan Nemazee. On Tuesday, Nemazee was charged with obtaining up to $74 million from Citibank thanks to his own fraudulent collateral. Nemazee was an important Democratic fundraiser who bundled contributions from others. He contributed $8,300 to Hillary Clinton's 2008 senate and presidential run, and helped raise $500,000 for Obama. But Democrats are running into complications in returning the funds—many donations were made to now-defunct political organizations, or organizations that have already wound down and don't have the budget to repay or re-donate the money. In the coming months, Republicans will doubtless call attention to the erstwhile Democrats' finances.