As different health-care bills come together in both the House and Senate, Nancy Pelosi has backed out of a deal with centrist Blue Dog Democrats who oppose tying a public option to Medicare. The Blue Dogs who oppose the measure are mostly from rural areas where reimbursements from Medicare are low, The Hill reports. The decision reaffirms Pelosi's commitment to the public option, and also pushes the House bill to the left—a striking contrast to Senator Max Baucus' bill, which has been criticized for being too favorable to insurance companies.

The usually well-mannered Condoleezza Rice is doing her best impression of Dick Cheney: “If you want another terrorist attack in the U.S., abandon Afghanistan,” she tells Fortune magazine. “The last time we left Afghanistan, and we abandoned Pakistan," she said, "that territory became the very territory on which al Qaeda trained and attacked us on September 11th. So our national-security interests are very much tied up in not letting Afghanistan fail again and become a safe haven for terrorists.” Condi’s quotes come after reports that the Obama administration is reevaluating its options in Afghanistan.

Despite the powerful pleas for collaboration and substantive change, one element was missing from President Barack Obama's speech at the United Nations regarding climate change: a concrete commitment to an immediate reduction in emissions. While other leaders received standing ovations for their "robust targets" for cutting emissions, CNN reports that Obama only received "polite applause" for his speech that pledged a new era of cooperation and U.S. leadership but did not lay out a concrete goal for the immediate future. President Hu Jintao of China, on the other hand, pledged to increase the use of non-fossil fuels for energy to 15 percent by 2020 and also add 150,000 square miles of forest by the same year. Europe has also committed to reducing emissions by 30 percent by 2020. In contrast, the Obama administration has made its goal an 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050.

Donald Trump might have accidentally rented his Bedford, New York, estate to loathed Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, who has been desperately trying to find a place to pitch his Bedouin tent while in town for the U.N. General Assembly meeting. Trump said he rented his estate to a group of Middle Easterners who may be connected to Gaddafi. Trump's spokeswoman said she is "looking into the matter now." An ABC News helicopter captured an image of a large tent on the 113-acre estate, but Bedford attorney Joel Sachs says a stop order has been issued on the tent because it's an "illegal structure." Gaddafi arrived in the U.S. today, but it's unclear where he will stay tonight. A State Department official told the AP that no one would be staying in the tent overnight, but that Gaddafi would use it for entertaining. Earlier plans to erect his tent in a New Jersey town were roundly rejected by local authorities.

Authorities across the nation have been warned to be extra vigilant at public-transportation hubs after the arrest of Najibullah Zazi, the 24-year-old arrested in the FBI's investigation into a plot to explode bombs in the United States. Investigators are concerned that Zazi, an airport shuttle driver, may have been planning to use backpack bombs made with hydrogen peroxide-based explosives to blow up New York City subways, and that others may now follow through with the attack plans. CNN reported that investigators are looking for "about a dozen" more people in connection to the case. Counterterrorism agents conducted numerous raids Tuesday in connection with Zazi, another indication that many of the facts surrounding the case have yet to be revealed. Hotels and stadiums are also on alert.

The Food and Drug administration announced that it would outlaw cigarettes flavored with chocolate, vanilla, clove, and other tastes that they say entice children and teens. The agency considers the products to be a gateway, easing young consumers into the acquired taste of addictive nicotine. The FDA was first given the power to regulate tobacco products last year, though it cannot ban regular cigarettes, cigars, or chew. Menthols may be a next target. Research in 2004 showed that "17-year-old smokers were more than three times as likely as those over the age of 25 to smoke flavored cigarettes, and they viewed flavored cigarettes as safer." The agency warned that making little flavored cigars to get around the ruling would not be tolerated. They will be looked at on a "case by case" basis.

President Obama met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday in New York and delivered the message that "we all must take risks for peace." Obama presided over a handshake between the two leaders, who have been almost entirely at odds since the conservative Netanyahu took office, and Netanyahu announced that both countries want to relaunch peace talks as soon as possible, without preconditions. The obstacles to negotiations have revolved around Israel halting construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as a return to pre-conflict 1967 borders. Comments by Abbas after the meeting likely foreshadow another point of debate: He insists that Israel follow through with the commitments it made in the "road map" negotiated in 2008, when Netanyahu's predecessor was in office. However, Netanyahu recently said, ""We are certainly not obligated to the positions of the previous government." He told ABC that he would not freeze settlements as a precondition to negotiations, saying "you can't freeze life."

Ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is set to give a "wide-ranging" policy speech to an audience in Hong Kong this week, and she's brought along Sen. John McCain's foreign-policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, to help her prep for it. Her choice offers some insight into what direction Palin's foreign-policy beliefs—rather vague during last year's presidential campaign—are shifting as she tries to position herself as a serious national politician. Scheunemann, a prominent GOP neoconservative, was an early supporter of the Iraq war, and opposes President Obama's recent decision to scrap missile-defense bases in Eastern Europe. Sources told Politico that Palin will be discussing "everything from the financial crisis, health care, and energy to Afghanistan and policy toward China and the entire East Asian region."

Two photographers have filed a lawsuit against Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his pregnant supermodel wife, Gisele Bündchen, claiming the couple’s security guards opened fire on them after a private wedding celebration in Costa Rica. The suit seeks $1 million in damages, though neither man was harmed in the scuffle. The photographers, Yuri Cortez and Rolando Aviles, allege that bodyguards attacked them in spite of their clearance to take snapshots from a nearby property, and that five guards approached them demanding their equipment, detaining them, and eventually taking shots at their SUV with pistols. The filing was met with a resounding “no comment” from the golden couple's respective spokespeople.

When a theme park called The Wizarding World opens next spring in Orlando, Harry Potter fans will be able to get fitted for a magic wand at Ollivander's Wand Shop, stroll through the village of Hogsmeade, and eat at the Three Broomsticks restaurant, according to artists' renderings. The park is intended to be a " completely immersive environment" that recreates the whole wizarding world imagined by J.K. Rowling. A ride called Forbidden Journey will take fans through scenes in the movies, and one called Dragon Challenge ("definitely for the brave") is based on the Triwizard Tournament. A third ride is called Flight of the Hippogriff. Looks like the magical world of Hogwarts will finally be available to Muggles everywhere.

Plaxico Burress, who hoisted a Super Bowl trophy only 20 months ago, began a two-year prison sentence Tuesday for weapons charges after apologizing in a courtroom and giving a teary goodbye to his family. The 32-year-old former wide receiver for the New York Giants could get out of prison in June 2011 with good behavior. Burress' lawyer hinted that the harsh sentence he received for accidentally shooting himself in the leg outside of a Manhattan nightclub with an illegal gun was excessive. Burress took a limousine to the Manhattan court where he was officially sentenced, and was accompanied by his 3-year-old son and pregnant wife. It is unknown where the talented receiver will serve his sentence, though he went to Rikers Island for processing.

Jenny Sanford is moving on by going public. The wife of Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, disgraced for lying about his affair with an Argentian woman, has secured a book deal with Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House. Known for bucking the trend of stand-by-my-man political spouses, Jenny plans to write an “inspirational memoir” that “will grapple with the universal issue of maintaining integrity and a sense of self during life's difficult times,” the publisher said Tuesday. Jenny moved out of the governor’s mansion with their four sons but has said they are working on staying together.

Former Charlie's Angels star Jaclyn Smith was reported on several blogs to be in critical condition in Honduras with a gunshot wound to the head Tuesday evening, which might have been self-inflicted, but her rep says this is a bizarre rumor gone wrong. "She is alive and well in Los Angeles...I spoke to her this morning," her publicist told TMZ. Perez Hilton wrote that the 61-year-old star was vacationing on an island in the Central American country and was evacuated by helicopter to a nearby hospital, which was apparently a mistranslation of a report in a Latin American paper that said Smith's stunt double received a gunshot wound. "Sandra Franklin, stunt double of Jaclyn Smith in the series Charlie's Angels and wife of the producer of the series, received a bullet wound in Roatán, but is recovering in San Pedro Sula," the original story said. "Jaclyn is safe and home with her family. She is not in Honduras. It is a lie," someone posted on Smith's Twitter page.

Sen. Robert Byrd fell at his house in Northern Virginia, a spokesman reported Tuesday. Multiple ambulances rushed to the McLean home of the 91-year-old Democratic lawmaker. Byrd, the longest-serving senator in history, “apparently stood up too fast this morning in his home and fell down,” a spokesman explained. “To err on the side of caution his caregiver called an ambulance. He was taken to the hospital where he is currently being checked out. At this point in time there is no indication that he will be admitted.” Byrd was recently hospitalized for a staph infection.

President Obama and his top White House advisers, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, are actively pursuing and aiding their preferred Democratic candidates in state races--a bold course of action most recently seen in New York when Obama asked Gov. David A. Paterson not to seek reelection. The assertive approach towards state races was also used by Karl Rove during the Bush administration, but it’s ruffling the feathers of some Democrats who see this kind of direct involvement as contradictory to Obama’s commitment to transcend partisan politics. On the other hand, notes former Clinton political director Doug Sosnik, “The outcome of governor’s races in 2010 will have a huge impact on political power in the country for the next decade.” In addition to N.Y., Obama’s team has made moves to influence races in Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, N.J., and Pennsylvania with no sign of letting up.

Kate Gosselin’s new talk show is being sold as The View for working moms. As a host, Kate is now a working mom herself, and it turns out it’s not so easy: The mother of eight reportedly began to sob during a taping of a panel with former Early Show anchor Rene Syler, Lee Woodruff, and Paula Deen. According to a source, “Producers flashed a picture of Kate's children on a screen and she burst into tears. She said she hates being away from her children, but now that she's to be divorced, she has to work to support them. She was very sad, emotional and very guarded.”

From The Daily Beast's Sexy Beast roundup of TV, film, and music news: TV fans still pining for the '90s rejoice: The CW has announced that original Melrose Place star Heather Locklear will be joining the cast of the network’s revamped version of the show. The network announced simply that Locklear will be reprising her role as “scheming vixen” Amanda Woodward, her character from the show's glory days between 1993 and 1999. In other news, Yoko Ono has revived the Plastic Ono Band, and came back with a bang in a performance at London’s Meltdown Festival, and Fox's hit Glee has been extended.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms are causing severe flooding in Alabama, Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina right on the heels of a two-year drought. Nine people have died so far, including a 15-year-old boy who was found in the Chattooga River in Georgia and a toddler who was separated from his family when a creek flooded their home. In North Carolina officials have compared the flooding to the Frances and Ivan hurricanes of 2004. In addition to deaths and evacuations, the flooding has torn apart trailer homes, closed schools, separated families, caused the power go out for approximately 12,000 Georgia Power customers, and submerged football fields, car dealerships, neighborhoods, and hundreds of roads and bridges throughout the Southeast. Georgia's governor has declared a state of emergency in 17 counties.

Good news for Senate Democrats: The Massachusetts state Senate has voted to allow Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint an interim U.S. senator to Ted Kennedy’s former seat. The state House approved the measure last week, and it now requires a final vote in both chambers and a signature from Patrick. Patrick is expected to name a succesor within days.

China has become known for its sky-high levels of pollution—the nation gets 70 percent of its energy from coal—but at Tuesday’s U.N. climate summit, President Hu Jintao vowed to curb the nation’s C02 emissions and to “vigorously develop” renewable and nuclear energy. Any change would be incremental, though: Hu promised only to curb emissions per unit of GDP, which would make little difference in a country with an ever-expanding economy, and many are pressing Hu for more concrete figures. Critics have also raised eyebrows over the U.S. commitment to the environment, saying that Obama’s stated target of returning to 1990 emissions levels by 2020 is not a large-enough step. Obama, for his part, pledged a “new era” of clean energy.

Bailouts work both ways, apparently: The government is seriously considering a plan to have healthy banks lend billions of dollars to bail out an insurance fund that protects bank depositors and is rapidly running out of money due to bank failures. Bankers and their lobbyists like the idea, as opposed to borrowing the money from the Treasury. The use of taxpayer dollars could lead to new government controls on things like executive pay. Plus, FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair apparently does not want to bark up Timothy Geithner’s tree. “Sheila Bair would take bamboo shoots under her nails before going to Tim Geithner and the Treasury for help,” said one source of their strained relationship. “She’d do just about anything before going there.”

Has Afghanistan replaced health care as the Obama administration’s most pressing issue? The day after the leak of his urgent request for more troops, top U.S. commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal has told his commanders to pull troops out of sparsely populated and dangerous rural areas and to focus on protecting major population centers. The change is in line with Gen. McChrystal’s assessment, which urges the U.S. and NATO to “initially focus on critical high-population areas that are contested or controlled by insurgents.” His new strategy focuses on protecting civilians and strengthening the Afghan government and its security forces.

President Obama wrapped up his media blitz Monday night with an appearance on Late Show With  David Letterman. The president had an irreverent answer for Letterman when he asked if the virulence of the health-care debate was fueled in part by his race. "First of all, I think it's important to realize that I was actually black before the election," Obama said, provoking big laughs from the audience. Letterman quipped: "How long have you been a black man?" The 40-minute interview tackled mostly serious topics. Obama said he has not yet decided whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, and addressed the sobering unemployment numbers, calling it a "big problem" for at least another year. The president starts participating in the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.

"You're crazier than Sarah Palin!" is how judge Bruno Tonioli summed up former Texas Congressman Tom DeLay’s gyration-heavy performance on Dancing With the Stars on Monday. While DeLay, referred to as, “the Hammer,” has done well in politics, his standing on the show is shaky, in spite of the success of his partner, professional dancer Cheryl Burke, who has won the competition twice in the past with Drew Lachey and Emmitt Smith. Despite a third to last-place score last night, the judges praised DeLay for his “natural grace.” "One thing I liked about politics was the challenge and competition, and this is just like that. You've got to work hard, and maybe you can win," DeLay said of taking on the new challenge. Tuesday night, DeLay and Burke’s competitors will include Kathy Ireland, Melissa Joan Hart, and Kelly Osbourne.

Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov, who fascinated the world with their 1984 five-month-long, grueling chess battle, will meet for a historic rematch on Tuesday in Spain. The two grand masters faced off 25 years ago in what was seen as representing an ideological battle. Kasparov, only 21 at the time, was cast as the face of reform while Karpov played the role of the old Soviet Union. The two still hold opposing political views, but have become closer over the years. "Many of my friends forgot about me when I was jailed," said Kasparov, who was jailed for leading an anti-Putin protest in 2007. "Karpov tried to visit me." Karpov said they were "totally opposite in every area of life." The two players have been holed up preparing for the series of blitz and semi-rapid games over four days, which may be watched by as many as 10 million people online. Kasparov, 46, no longer plays competitively, and is worried his lack of recent match experience might handicap him against Karpov, who at 58 is no longer ranked in the top 100 players.

In a sign that the White House is getting increasingly nervous about the 2010 races, Vice President Joe Biden said at a fundraiser Monday that if Democrats lose seats in traditionally Republican districts it will mean "the end of the road" for the president's agenda. “If they take them back, this the end of the road for what Barack and I are trying to do,” the vice president said. The Republicans need to win 40 seats to take back control of the House. Almost 50 Democrats hold seats in districts that went to Sen. John McCain in the last election. The White House has been aggressively involved in state-level elections, The Washington Post reports, led by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. President Obama caught some criticism when it was revealed that his aides were encouraging Gov. David Paterson to stay out of the race for the good of Democrats.

The recession has damaged the reputation of America as the land of opportunity as the number of foreign-born residents dropped for the first time since 1970, according to a U.S. Census survey. In 2008, about 38 million immigrants lived in the U.S., about 100,000 fewer than the year before. The fall is within the margin of error, but shows a turnaround from the big increases of earlier years. The U.S. foreign-born population increased by about one million people every year between 2000 and 2006. Hispanics have historically had a higher employment rate than whites and blacks in the U.S., but that has changed since the current recession has hit Latin American immigrants particularly hard. The data also showed that median income fell in 27 states across the U.S., and the rate of home ownership also dropped.

Iranian activists who were disheartened after the rejection of their request to light the top of the Empire State Building green when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in town this week can cheer up: The building will be lit green anyway for the “Emerald Gala” celebrating the 70th anniversary of The Wizard of Oz. Demonstrators plan to stand under the building and cheer when it lights up on Thursday. On the same day, demonstrators will unfurl a mile-long green banner across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Unsealed legal documents secured by the Los Angeles Times reveal that Anna Nicole Smith was turned away by a Los Angeles pharmacist five days after her son died. The prescription she asked for was a lethal narcotics-cocktail that included, among many other things, 300 tablets of methadone and four bottles of painkillers. The pharmacist called the combination of drugs “pharmaceutical suicide,” and thought, “They are going to kill her with this.” Before she died from an overdose in February 2007, three different pharmacists had contacted Smith’s psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich and internist Sandeep Kapoor to say that her prescriptions were too dangerous. The Times reports that both doctors also had “sexual contact” with Smith. Eroshevich, Kapoor, and Smith’s boyfriend Howard K. Stern are being investigated for the role they played in her death. A hearing will take place in October and Larry Birkhead, the father of Smith’s daughter Dannielynn, will be a witness.

Presumably, there’s none of this love at the town halls: In his new book, Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage, author Christopher Andersen claims “On more than one occasion, Barack tried not to look startled when some random woman in the crowd would grasp him firmly by the derriere—and sometimes try to hold on.” After an event in Peoria, the future president allegedly complained, “Jesus, I wish they'd stop grabbing my ass.” Andersen quotes Michelle as saying, “I want to tell these women, 'Back off. Get a life.' It's just embarrassing, that's all."