After a brutal month of August, President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress on September 9, ABC News reports. Obama hopes to regain control of the health-care debate, which has devolved into shouting matches at town-hall meetings and led to diminishing approval ratings. It appears that the White House is holding firm in the belief that its greatest asset is Obama's knack for a big speech.

Dick Cheney’s back, and he’s got his political foes’ attention. Following a series of high-profile media appearances from the former veep, the Democratic National Committee has launched a series of televised attack adds blasting Cheney as “wrong then, wrong again.” The ad juxtaposes Cheney’s statements about Iraq’s purported weapons of mass destruction and being “greeted as liberators” with recent ones, and says Cheney’s recent statements claiming that enhanced interrogations resulted in valuable intelligence are also false. On Fox News Sunday, Cheney said techniques like waterboarding were “absolutely essential in saving thousands of American lives,” a claim that critics say CIA documents do not support.

Ted Kennedy may be gone, but his voice will be heard on September 14, when his 532-page memoir, True Compass, will be published posthumously. In it, the senator says he “made terrible decisions” on the night of the Chappaquiddick affair, and that the loss of Mary Jo Kopechne’s life was “inexcusable,” reports NYT blog The Caucus. Of the Warren Commission’s findings on JFK’s assassination, Teddy says he was “satisfied then, and satisfied now.” Kennedy also dives into politics, describing his 1980 relationship with Jimmy Carter as “unhealthy” due to the former president’s moderate position on health care, and being a “difficult man to convince—of anything.” He also describes Bill Clinton’s health-care defeat, writing that Clinton himself said he did not deserve to be president if he couldn’t get national health insurance through Congress.

Levi Johnston spilled some Palin family beans Wednesday morning, including that Sarah wanted to adopt his and Bristol’s baby. US magazine now discloses more dishes from his article for Vanity Fair. Apparently, during the election, “she would say things like ‘I brought everything to the table’ and ‘The majority of people were out there voting because of me,' ” Levi writes. “She definitely thought she was running for president.” Levi also writes that Todd and Sarah would argue about divorce, saying they “wouldn’t go anywhere together unless the cameras were out. In all the time Bristol and I were together, I’ve never seen them sleep in the same bedroom.” Finally, Levi writes, “She says she goes hunting and lives off animal meat—I’ve never seen it.”

The Obama administration is cracking down on health-care fraud, and federal prosecutors already have their first mounted head: Pfizer, which agreed to a record $2.3 billion settlement this week. The Washington Post reports that Pfizer’s Pharmacia & Upjohn subsidiary pleaded guilty to a felony charge for marketing anti-inflammatory drug Bextra for uses the FDA has not approved. Prosecutors also say the company gave doctor lavish trips, falsified records, and improperly financed articles promoting their pills. Pharmacia & Upjohn will pay $1.3 billion in fines and forfeits, the biggest criminal penalty in U.S. history, and Pfizer will pay an extra $1 billion to resolve civil cases connected to Bextra and three other medications. Explaining Pfizer’s steep penalty, one U.S. attorney called the company a “recidivist” lawbreaker.

The Empress of Soul will be part of the King of Pop’s funeral. A representative for Gladys Knight confirmed that the songstress, who knew Michael Jackson when he was a child and once shared a manager with him, will perform at Jacko’s funeral in Glendale, California, on Friday.

Heavyweight Democratic fundraiser Hassan Nemazee was arrested last week for defrauding Citigroup of $74 million—and now prosecutors say he cheated other banks out of more than $100 million more. Bloomberg reports that man who raised hundreds of thousands for Hillary Clinton and Obama, and is now out on a $25 million bail, is thought to have used his ill-gotten cash to acquire additional fraudulent loans, turning dirty money into more dirty money. Though prosecutors haven’t identified the two additional banks Nemazee is accused of defrauding, his attorney recently complained that Nemazee’s JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America accounts were frozen.

Diane Sawyer is replacing Charles Gibson as the anchor of ABC World News, the network announced Wednesday. Gibson is retiring at the end of the year, ABC News president David Westin said, and Sawyer will move from Good Morning America to the evening news in January. After Katie Couric on CBS, she'll be the second solo female to anchor a network newscast. In an email, Gibson revealed that he has been contemplating some form of retirement for several years. "It had been my intention to step down from my job at Good Morning America in 2007 but with [Peter Jenning's] illness, [Bob Woodruff's] injuries, and [Elizabeth Vargas'] pregnancy, the job at World News came open in May of 2006." Gibson also mentioned that he is looking into ways he may continue contributing to ABC News.

Farewell, free content? YouTube is in talks with Lions Gate, Sony, and Warner Bros. about allowing its users to stream movies on a rental basis—the video giant’s first steps toward charging for content instead of airing it free with ads. The Google subsidiary already has some movies available, but they’re not new releases. The new arrangement would let users rent movies on YouTube the same day they’re released on DVD; a spokesman says the site is always aiming to build on “its great relationships with movie studios and on the selection and types of videos we offer our community.” Prices for the new movie rentals will probably be $3.99, equal to what iTunes charges.

Retired pitcher Curt Schilling led the Boston Red Sox to two World Series titles—could he lead the GOP to a comeback in Massachusetts? In a phone interview with New England Cable News, Schilling, a Republican, said he has been “contacted” by people who want him to run for office, and discussed running for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat: “As of today, probably not,” but “I’m not going to speculate about it right now.” Schilling expressed disgust for wasteful government spending, calling Boston’s “Big Dig” highway project “the largest, most colossal waste of money in the history of the United States,” but noted that he might not be a good candidate: “I don’t have a really good filter… My first press conference could be my last.”

Suicide bombers don't take Ramadan off: An explosion ripped through a crowd in front of a mosque east of Kabul on Wednesday, killing 24. Top officials from Laghman province were killed along with Abdullah Laghmani, Afghanistan's deputy chief of intelligence, who was targeted by a suicide bomber on foot, according to a Taliban spokesman. The assassination of Laghmani, a Pashtun, may exacerbate ethnic tensions within the National Directorate for Security, which is headed by a Tajik, particularly considering the emerging results of the Afghan election where President Hamid Karzai, also a Pashtun, leads Abdullah Abdullah, who is half Pastun and half Tajik, but who is seen as a Tajik candidate. The bombing also underscores the Taliban's ability to undertake complex and targeted attacks.

Mini Madoffs come in many flavors: A big-shot Shiite investor, Salah Ezzedine, is being held by Lebanese authorities on suspicion of major fraud. Ezzedine, who has not been formally charged as of yet, is rumored to have promised big returns on investments from wealthy Shiites in Lebanon that he could not pay. Victims of the scheme are thought to include top members of Hezbollah. Ezzedine is the owner of a major book publisher in Lebanon and is said to have suffered major losses through the decline in the price of oil. He is suspected of investing the millions he swindled from others shortly before declaring bankruptcy.

The Gosselin meltdown continues in epic fashion. On Good Morning America Wednesday, Jon defended his actions as the couple continue their separation. In the interview, Jon criticized Kate for ignoring their children while she goes on book tours and "travels the world." Jon also said Kate even called him a "dead fish" because he wasn't doing anything while she was out and about in the public eye. "Well, excuse me, I'm taking care of the kids," Jon said, adding that he "took a lot of abuse" from his estranged wife. The first step of moving on involves lots of name-calling, apparently.

An unnamed official has revealed new information to the Associated Press on the possible overdose of DJ AM, who was found dead in his New York City home Saturday. According to the AP, 36-year-old AM (legally Adam Goldstein) had six prescription pills in his stomach and one in his throat when he was discovered in his SoHo apartment. The official said the pills appear to be OxyContin, a strong painkiller. Though a preliminary autopsy was inconclusive, according to the medical examiner's office a crack pipe and prescription-pill bottles were reportedly found near Goldstein's body.

The trustee tending to the victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme is preparing to file a civil suit against the swindler's sons and brother, CBS News reports. The trustee, Irving Picard, may seek over $50 million through civil complaints against Mark, Andrew, and Peter Madoff. Sources say the move is a step towards forcing the Madoffs "to reveal all their assets," including a Nantucket home bought by Mark Madoff and his wife with $6.5 million in cash transferred from Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities the month before the crime was exposed. Madoff's sons turned their father over to authorities so the trustee will not be accusing them of any illegal activity. Instead, the trustee is attempting to hold family members accountable for assets they may have obtained through Bernie's scheme.

Suspicions are emerging that call into question the story involving the Russian cargo ship supposedly hijacked by pirates somewhere near the English Channel. Now, a European Union maritime official has said that the most plausible scenario he can envision is one in which the Russians were secretly transporting missiles to the Middle East before they were intercepted by Israelis. Meanwhile, the reporter who broke the story about the ship has fled to Istanbul after receiving a frightening phone call that told him to "get the hell out of Russia." Thus far, the 15-man crew of the ship as well as the alleged hijackers have both been mostly silent about what occurred at sea. One crew member sarcastically told the media they "were in the Bermuda Triangle and the pirates fed us ice cream" while the accused hijackers claim "they are ecologists who ran out of gas in the Baltic."

One sign that the White House considers the public option dead? David Axelrod is talking about its “spirit.” In an interview with ABC News, Axelrod seemed to imply that President Obama has given up on the public option. “The spirit that led him to support a public option is still very much at play here and so you know he wants competition,” Axelrod said. He also said that President Obama is ready to “close” the debate. “The president has a big megaphone and he intends to use that megaphone in these final weeks to really make clear to the American people what’s on the table and how it might help them.”

Governor Mark Sanford has surely seen better days: his wife moved out over his affair with a woman he called his "soul mate," polls show voters turning on him, and South Carolina lawmakers are calling for his resignation. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Sanford said he was "zen-like" despite the fact that his political opponents "smell blood in the water" over his sinking popularity. He's embarked on a statewide forgiveness tour, trying to win back disaffected constituents. "If I'd read the stuff they'd read, I'd feel the same," he told the Journal. He said that he spent last weekend on a farm with his estranged wife and children, but said further discussion "leads to looking backward, not forward."

The wildfires in L.A. County are still raging, although high humidity and slightly cooler temperatures have helped firefighters get closer to the inferno to burn, cut, foam and gel in an attempt to stop the fire's spread. The fire is now 22 percent contained, up from 5 percent on Monday evening. The weather had one downside, The Los Angeles Times reports: gusty winds that sent firefighters scrambling to keep the blaze away from Mt. Wilson, home to a historic observatory and communications towers used by almost 50 area radios and TV stations. Although evacuation orders were lifted in much of La Cañada Flintridge and La Crescenta, fire officials were worried about the northern flank of the fire, from Agua Dulce to Littlerock, and said it could reemerge as a threat to homes to the east. The fire's cause is still under investigation. It has ripped through 127,500 acres and 62 residences so far.

Should the public interest fade in Sarah Palin, Levi Johnston has a backup career plan: Gawker is confirming that, after months of rumors, Johnston will in fact pose for Playgirl’s Web site. (The print version closed earlier this year.) He will not, however, pose fully nude and will appear in his skivvies. “An agreement is in place to do the shoot,” Gawker reports. “They’re in final negotiations to get the thing together right now.” When asked recently if he knew what Playgirl is, Johnston said “I’m assuming it’s where a dude poses for women.”

No surprise here: The SEC released on Wednesday a harshly critical report that finds that a thorough investigation of Bernard Madoff was never carried out, despite all the warning signs. The report also did not find any collaboration between senior SEC officials and Madoff, a theory popular among conspiracy theorists who find it hard to accept that the commission never knew of the massive Ponzi scheme. The SEC received "six substantive complaints" regarding Madoff that should have provoked a thorough investigation. Partially due to an "inexperienced" staff, a thorough investigation was never carried out in spite of Madoff being caught in numerous "lies and misrepresentations." The fact that two parallel SEC investigations of Madoff were going on within the agency without one being aware of the other highlights the embarrassing bureaucratic breakdown.

Sonia Sotomayor may not be the most junior Supreme Court justice for long: Justice John Paul Stevens has hired fewer law clerks than usual, leading some to speculate that the court’s leading liberal will retire next year. The Associated Press reports that Stevens has hired only one clerk for the term that begins in October 2010, and that he is usually among the justices who has hired all four clerks for the following year by now. It was Justice David Souter’s failure to hire clerks that first tipped court watchers to his retirement earlier this year. Stevens, 89, joined the court in 1975 and is the second-oldest justice in the court’s history.

Talk about staying beyond your welcome. Though the Iraqi government has demanded its departure, controversial military contractor Blackwater—under its new, but less commonly used name Xe—is sticking around. The U.S. State Department’s contract with the firm was set to end this month, but until a new deal with competitor Dyncorp International is finalized, Blackwater will stay for an indefinite period, “weeks or months,” according to the State Department. Blackwater will continue to provide helicopter transportation for U.S. diplomats through its oddly named subsidiary Presidential Airways.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says that "no deal" led to the release of Libyan Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber. Earlier this month, al-Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds, just eight years into his life sentence for his role in 1988's bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie Scotland, which killed 270 people. On Tuesday, Scottish officials released documents stating that Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell told Libyan officials that Brown didn't want the bomber to die in a Scottish prison. Rammell confirmed his statement to Libya, but said he didn't discuss the statement with Brown. Brown said Wednesday: "There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no assurances by me to Colonel Gaddafi."

Levi Johnston is the gift that keeps on giving: The father of Sarah Palin’s grandchild takes readers through the inner workings of the Palin home in the October issue of Vanity Fair. “The Palin house was much different from what many people expect of a normal family, even before she was nominated for vice president,” Johnston writes. “There wasn’t much parenting in that house.” Johnston says that the kids basically took care of themselves—cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry, getting ready for school. Johnston also says that, after Palin learned of Bristol’s pregnancy, she said she wanted to keep the pregnancy a secret so that she and Todd could adopt the baby. “She was nagging—she wouldn’t give up,” Johnston writes.

Obama broke records with his early-term outreach to the Muslim world—and on Tuesday he reached inward to the Islam that “is part of America” during a Ramadan dinner in the White House. Hosted in the State Dining Room, the iftar—or fast-breaking—meal, highlighted “the contributions of Muslims to the United States” and to promote “engagement grounded in mutual interests and mutual respect.” The president acknowledged the religion’s role in American culture, noting that the tradition he partook in was also “carried out at tables and mosques in all 50 states,” and singling out an Iraq War veteran, a high-school athlete, and Muhammad Ali for praise. George W. Bush hosted eight Ramadan dinners during his two terms.

In a harrowing op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee describe their arrest and imprisonment in North Korea—and the story they were pursuing when it happened. The Americans say they crossed from China into North Korea for less than one minute while pursuing a story on human trafficking. As they returned, however, a pair of armed North Korean soldiers chased them on foot. "We were firmly back inside China when the soldiers apprehended us,” they write. “We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on Chinese soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers. They violently dragged us back..." At the beginning of their confinement, the pair "furtively destroyed evidence" by swallowing their notes and damaging videotapes. They protected their sources during interrogations, but note that "the psychological wounds of imprisonment are slow to heal," and encourage the public to pay attention to the trafficking story instead of the journalists' own story.

Afghanistan's election has been flooded with complaints of fraud and intimidation. The latest accusation comes from tribal leaders in southern Afghanistan, who say that the governor of their district, Delaga Bariz, was detained by aides to President Hamid Karzai's brother in order to prevent him from endorsing Karzai's top opponent, Abdullah Abdullah. In addition, the leaders say that all 45 polling sites were shut down and some 23,900 ballots were sent in to be counted—all for Karzai. "Not a single person in Shorabak District cast a ballot—not a single person," Bariz told The New York Times. The election dispute is hardly the only pressing problem in the country as terrorists are still staging major attacks. A bomb in Kabul on Wednesday killed 24, including a high ranking intelligence official.

Buried in a lengthy interview about Heidi Montag's music career and the relative "oomph" of Venezuelan women, Miss Universe choreographer Michael Schwandt describes an "odd" Donald Trump ritual: "At all the shows, he pops in the day before the telecast and we line up all the girls in alphabetical order... he basically walks by and has an assistant that takes notes... And it's just kind of common knowledge that he picks six of the top 15 single-handedly." Interviewing blog Guanabee asks point-blank: "So, he's orchestrating at least a portion of the results?" Schwandt answered in the affirmative, explaining that Trump had "left it all up to preliminary judging in the past and some of the most beautiful women, in his opinion, were not in the top 15 and he was kind of upset by that." Gawker notes that Schwandt's account may reveal a direct violation of Miss Universe's rules.

As the show trials of Iranian protesters continue, a concern has arisen that a crackdown on universities may be on the horizon. Recent comments by both Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have hinted that secular studies deemed "un-Islamic" by Iranian conservatives may be considered at the root of recent upheaval. The New York Times reports intellectual pursuits in the humanities have been mostly tolerated in Iran, but that in the wake of the recent protests of the election, conservatives may be looking for ways to crack down on the young people who in large part led the movement. "Many of the humanities and liberal arts are based on philosophies whose foundations are materialism and disbelief in godly and Islamic teachings. Instructing those sciences leads to the loss of belief in godly and Islamic knowledge," the ayatollah said last Sunday.

Best get-out-of-work excuse ever: the president told me to stay home. On Tuesday, President Obama said Americans should avoid the workplace when sick, wash their hands frequently, and cover sneezes with a sleeve, not a hand, in order to contain swine flu, the Associated Press reports. In addition, the federal government will ramp up what Obama called a "voluntary but strongly recommended" H1N1 vaccination program. New York City schools will be offering free versions of the vaccine, delivered by nasal mist, to their 1 million-plus students this fall. Health officials are preparing for a possible swine flu explosion this fall, when half of Americans could be infected with the virus, possibly killing as many as 90,000 people--more than double the death toll of the typical flu.

A month of rowdy town-hall protests and hysterical rumors might not have been enough to derail health care in the House when lawmakers return from their August recess. The New York Times reports that members of the Democrats' conservative Blue Dog caucus, who have been skeptical of proposed health-care legislation, have been largely unswayed by the August spectacle. "I can't tell you how comprehensive it will be, but I do believe something will get passed," Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY) told the Times. Another Blue Dog, Rep. David Scott (D-GA), said that disinformation campaigns by the opposition backfired and made him more likely to support a bill than before. "I think now more than ever we must get strong in our resolve to pass health care insurance reform legislation," Scott said. While encouraging for Democrats, wavering Senators are still holding up the bill and major issues such as whether to include a public insurance plan remain unresolved.

Hillary Clinton was not amused by new reports that guards at the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan held drunken frat-like parties and hired prostitutes. She has "zero tolerance" for the behavior and has ordered that the entire system of farming out security to private contractors be reviewed, a State Department spokesman said. The expose, out Tuesday, by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight also found sleep-deprived guards regularly working 14-hour days, and guards whose command of English was so weak as to seriously impair critical communication with the 1,000 embassy personnel they're supposed to protect. Sen. Claire McCaskill, head of the subcommittee on contractor oversight questioned whether ArmorGroup, owned by Wackenhut Services Inc., should have its contract renewed.

Phillip Garrido, the man accused of keeping Jaycee Lee Dugard concealed in his backyard for 18 years, is not linked to a wave of murders of prostitutes in the same area in the 1990s, investigators now say. Authorities scoured Dugard's sadistic compound—as well as a neighbor's yard looking for evidence—but essentially turned up nothing. Investigators did say they found a bone fragment—though they were unsure whether it was human—along with other objects that will need further examination before they can be ruled out as evidence. Meanwhile, Garrido's wife, Nancy, is described by her lawyer as unstable and "seems a little lost." It appears likely her defense will portray her as being under Phillip's spell for years.

Between high casualties in Afghanistan, dips in his popularity, angry town-hall meetings, and the death of friend Ted Kennedy, it was a brutal August for Obama. So he's hatched a new strategy to help himself and Democrats recover—particularly on health care. Politico reports that Obama may detail his health-care demands in—another—major speech as soon as next week. And although House leaders say their members are hell-bent on a public insurance option, Obama has no plans to insist on one, a position sure to anger his liberal base, but one that could demonstrate Obama's willingness to get a bill at any cost. Evidently, top officials also see the public's diminished expectations about the Obama White House as an opportunity to prove it has backbone; in addition to health care, Obama wants to show progress in Afghanistan and use this month's anniversary of the Lehman Brothers crash to regulate Wall Street more heavily.