Bipartisan consensus on a jobs bill wasn’t meant to be, it seems: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is rewriting a jobs bill that was unveiled Thursday after Democrats complained it conceded too much to Republicans. The bill, unveiled by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) with support from Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), contained measures that Democrats thought wouldn’t be effective at creating jobs, like a $31 billion extension of expiring tax provisions. “We’re going to move this afternoon to a smaller package than talked about in the press,” Reid said. “The message is so watered down with people wanting other things in this big package.”

Less than a month after his father's historic seat in Massachusetts went to a Republican, news has come that Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) won’t be seeking reelection to Congress. In a message to be aired Sunday night on television in Rhode Island, Kennedy said that his life is "taking a new direction." (The Associated Press previewed the tape.) Kennedy has served eight terms, but has been in and out of treatment for substance abuse following a car crash in 2006.

President Barack Obama had harsh words for Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Thursday. After struggling over a deadlock on administration nominees, Obama told the Senate Minority Leader, "If you don't move any, I'm going to do some [recess] appointments." Twenty-seven nominees have since been confirmed. In a statement, Obama said, "While this is a good first step, there are still dozens of nominees on hold who deserve a similar vote, and I will be looking for action from the Senate when it returns from recess. If they do not act, I reserve the right to use my recess appointment authority in the future." Though the move may look like a show of power from the commander in chief, Republicans say this happens all the time. "We cleared something like 35 nominees before the last recess, too. That's what happens before a recess," said a Senate Republican aide.

Iran is allegedly blocking all telecommunications, effectively hindering opposition supporters from relaying information and messages to the rest of the world and each other, according to the U.S. government. Telephone lines and SMS messages have been disabled, and the Internet has been "throttled." This comes after Iranian opposition supporters rallied to mark the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, sparking violence in Tehran and other cities. PJ Crowley, assistant secretary of State, told reporters, "Iran has attempted a near total information blockade," and called it an "unprecedented and overwhelming step."

Former President Bill Clinton, who was admitted to a New York hospital Thursday after experiencing chest pains, is in "excellent" condition with "no evidence of heart attack or damage to his heart," according to his doctor. Both daughter Chelsea and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were with the recovering Clinton, who had two stents inserted into a blocked artery—one grafted during a quadruple bypass surgery in 2004—to restore blood flow. Clinton has been a busy man lately, having traveled to Haiti twice since the earthquake on January 12 and to Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, also in January. Friends and analysts attribute Clinton's current condition to his long hours and rigorous work schedule. President Obama called the former president to "wish him a speedy recovery."

Finding Osama bin Laden might be a moral victory, but it won't be the end, says his son Omar bin Laden. In fact, Osama's successors might mean even more trouble for the U.S. than the current leader of al Qaeda. "From what I knew of my father and the people around him, I believe he is the most kind among them, because some are much, much worse," said Omar in an exclusive interview with ABC News. Omar, who was picked to succeed him as the leader of jihad, has rebelled against his father’s mission, which he finds “unacceptable.” "Their mentality wants to make more violence, to create more problems." Omar said he is confident his father won't be caught, even with the $25 million bounty.

Despite grave warnings from China about rough international relations ahead, President Obama has set a date to sit down with the Dalai Lama, according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. The spiritual leader will appear at the White House on February 18. Ma Zhaoxu, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the U.S. should "immediately withdraw" the invitation. Every president since George H.W. Bush has met with the Dalai Lama, usually not without criticism from the Chinese government. This president appears to be no exception, though he did skip a face-to-face with the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan leader visited Washington in October.

Alexander McQueen, the 40-year-old British fashion designer, has died in an apparent suicide. McQueen was sometimes called “the hooligan of English fashion,” and was known for his bold and avant-garde designs--clothes, for example, that were made from animal bones, or models dressed as mental patients. He was the son of a taxi driver and learned tailoring in Savile Row. In 1996, he was the youngest designer to ever win “British Designer of the Year,” and he went on to win three more times. Among his most famous and recent designs were the “ armadillo boots.”

The economy is in the dumps and health-care reform has been stalled, but at least President Obama can let out a little sigh of relief. In the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, Americans are more willing to blame former President George W. Bush, Wall Street, and Congress for the nation’s economic troubles instead of Obama. While the majority of Americans still say the president needs to provide a clear plan for job creation, they applaud his efforts at bipartisanship and support his stance on issues from "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to repealing the tax cuts for the wealthy that were put in place during the Bush years. However, the poll also found that 51 percent of Americans view the Democratic Party "unfavorably."

Dennis Hopper's prenuptial agreement with estranged wife Victoria has just been unsealed—and it packs a punch. According to the document, Dennis would keep all his property, fine arts valued at more than $2.5 million, and his "separate property pension and retirement benefits." Victoria would also have to move out of the house within 60 days of divorce filings, extended from 30 days because they have a child together. However, if Dennis were to die while the two were married and living together, she would receive $250,000 in life insurance and 25 percent of his will. Unfortunately for Victoria, they no longer live together. Regardless of marital status, Victoria is only walking away with a few computers, books, an old VW and her grandmother's furniture. According to The Dennis Hopper Trust, Victoria would have pocketed $6.25 million and Dennis' Los Angeles home if they hadn't separated.

Google is taking one more step toward becoming your entire Internet experience. After a week that saw the rollout of Google Buzz and its plans to run a service provider, the online giant acquired the social search engine Aardvark for $50 million. Aardvark, whose gimmick is providing answers to questions from people in your online social circles, was founded in 2007 in part by two veterans of the Google empire—one headed Google News and the other was responsible for Adsense, among other applications.

Some news out of D.C. about something other than the weather: Senators unveiled an $87 billion jobs bill Thursday with support from at least two Republican senators, Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch. Grassley announced the bill with Sen. Max Baucus, (D-MT) and the two announced that the bill was only a “first step.” However, the bill already faces opposition from both sides: Sen. Judd Gregg (R-VT) attacked a $19.5 billion fund to help state and local governments with highway construction. Liberals, meanwhile, point out that a tax credit for business to hire new people would cost between $56,000 and $125,000 for each job created. In December, the House passed a $155 billion jobs bill.

Every tea party has a pooper: More than seven in 10 Americans say that Sarah Palin is unqualified to be President in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, up from 60 percent in November. Even among Republicans, only 45 percent say she’s qualified to be president. Overall, 55 percent of Americans have unfavorable views of her, with only 37 percent holding a favorable view.

Fans of brooding vampires and reluctant actresses may be in for a treat— Deadline Hollywood reports the final Twilight installment will be made into two films, but the studio will not confirm the internet buzz. Despite the fact that the movie’s stars (Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner) were initially contracted for only four films, Deadline Hollywood reported Thursday that deals have been struck and that Summit Entertainment—the company that owns the franchise — is looking for “high-end” directors. "No decision has been made," the studio told MTV. "As we have said all along, we are continuing to work with Stephenie Meyer to bring 'Breaking Dawn' to the big screen." Stephenie Meyers’ novel may be difficult for Summit to make, as it includes (SPOILER ALERT) not only an actual sex scene but also a C-section that skips the scalpel in favor of Edward Cullen’s… teeth. The sex and teenage pregnancy depicted in the novel could face serious revisions to get the PG-13 rating it needs to appeal to its target audience.

Elizabeth Edwards is opening up a new front in the battle with her husband, John. After legally separating from him, she is now threatening to sue his former aide, Andrew Young, for helping her husband conduct his affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter. North Carolina is one of only seven states where a third party may be sued for the dissolution of a marriage. Unless Young agrees to several terms, including a $250,000 donation to the Wade Edwards Foundation and a promise to stop discussing the Edwards' marriage, she intends to pursue the suit, according to ABC News. Young's busy legal team is also dealing with a complaint from Hunter, who claims that a sex tape she made with Edwards is her property. Young turned it over to a North Carolina court on Wednesday.

John Mayer's oversharing days may be over—the singer apologized for using the "n" word in a Playboy interview on Twitter and vowed to not be as "raw" in the future. Behind his kissing and telling about Jessica Simpson, who he described as "crack cocaine to me" and "sexual napalm," the most explosive portion of Mayer's interview was his explanation of why, as he says, "black people love me." In the article that will appear in the March issue of Hugh Hefner's infamous publication, the guitar player says, "Someone asked me the other day, 'What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?' And by the way, it's sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a n***** pass." His political point, however, was overshadowed by the racial remark causing Mayer to both apologize and explain in a series of tweets. "I am sorry that I used the word. It was arrogant of me to think I could intellectualize using it." Mayer wrote, adding that his "shock jock" days are over. "I just wanted to play the guitar for people," he wrote.

While major anti-government protests were predicted for Thursday to coincide with Iran’s 31st anniversary celebration of the revolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad successfully overshadowed dissidents with scare tactics, a large pro-government rally, and a news-making announcement that Iran is now a “nuclear state.” Hundreds of thousands of Iranians attended the pro-government rally on Thursday in Tehran, where Ahmadinejad declared the country has produced its first stock of 20 percent-enriched uranium—which could be converted to weapons-grade material in six months. As the rally was under way, security forces violently turned on the protesters who went public. PBS writes of the opposition: “Everyone we have spoken to so far this morning has said about the same thing—in a word or two: ‘A big anticlimax,’ ‘defeat,’ ‘An overwhelming presence from the other side. People were terrified.’”

All is not well with Alec Baldwin. The 30 Rock star was rushed to the hospital from his New York apartment on Thursday morning after a caller, assumed to be his 14-year-old daughter Ireland, phoned 911 to report that the 51-year-old Emmy winner was "unresponsive." When police and medics showed up, Baldwin agreed to be taken to the hospital. After more than an hour at Lenox Hill Hospital, he was released.

Researchers have located a diary which provided key material for Nobel prize-winning author William Faulkner, whose books like The Sound and Fury became signal events in American literature. The manuscript, which dates back to the mid-1800s and belonged to a Faulkner neighbor, was the source for names and details that made up the treasured Yoknapatawpha County of Faulkner's fiction. “I think it’s one of the most sensational literary discoveries of recent decades,” said one English professor. Another called the diary's discovery "a once-in-a-lifetime find."

The 10 American Baptist missionaries accused of child trafficking in the chaos following Haiti’s earthquake will be freed by a Haitian judge, Reuters reports. (NBC News is reporting that a final decision hasn’t been made, however.) The missionaries, who said they took parentless children from orphanages but actually took them from willing parents in a village, could be released this Thursday after almost three weeks in custody. "One thing an investigating judge seeks in a criminal investigation is criminal intentions on the part of the people involved and there is nothing that shows that criminal intention on the part of the Americans," an anonymous source told Reuters.

Greece's financial crisis threatens the stability of the Euro, has rattled the bond market, and may be responsible for a worldwide financial slump, but European Union leaders hope to help ease concerns by convincing investors that Greece won't be allowed to default on government debt. On Thursday, the European Council agreed on a political statement in support of the Greek government, but will leave the details to its finance ministers, who will meet on Monday. The tentative plan is for European nations to finance loans to Greece and draw on the International Monetary Fund to implement the loan and draw up conditions, although which countries will back the loan and how the loan will be structured remain unclear. The way the EU treats Greece is of special concern because it could set a precedent; if other countries bail out Greece, investors will expect a similar response should other weak European economies such as Portugal or Spain go under.

From Washington to New York, the East Coast was shut down by a second huge snowstorm within a week. Total snowfall in Washington hit 54.9 inches, breaking a 110-year-old record, just days after being blanketed with 32 inches of the white stuff. Federal office closings in D.C. will cost an estimated $100 million a day; while the Senate will reopen Thursday, there won't be votes this week, and the House will stay closed. Reagan National and Dulles International airports were shut down Wednesday. Many flights in and out of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston were canceled. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said taxpayers would pay $1 million for every inch that fell there. But Wall Street soldiered on, as did Broadway— Hair offered $40 tickets to students. Travel was especially dangerous, with some areas seeing whiteout conditions. Thousands were left without power, but a few people could savor the day: New York City students enjoyed what was only the third snow day in eight years.

Twenty years ago today, Nelson Mandela took his first steps as a free man after spending 27 years in jail. And with his release, South Africa was spurred into abolishing apartheid, the institutionalized segregation that had divided the country since the 1940s. Thousands of South Africans marked the anniversary by celebrating on the steps of the last prison where Mandela was held, known then as Victor Verster, near Cape Town. It was there that he had walked out, fist raised and hand-in-hand with his then wife, Winnie, creating one of the iconic images of the nation's struggle. That moment was immortalized in 2008 with a tall bronze statue that now stands in front of the prison. Though Mandela, 92, has largely retired from public life, he was expected to appear in parliament to hear President Jacob Zuma's state-of-the-union address.

A run for political office means putting your spouse's life under a microscope, but that doesn't seem to worry Emily Ford, whose husband Harold Ford Jr. is considering a bid for New York Senate. Before The New York Times scored an interview with her, she was best known from an ad levied against her then-boyfriend during his failed Tennessee Senate campaign in 2006, an ad that played on the racist fear of black men dating white women. Contrary to popular belief, Emily is not an Upper East Side heiress, rather, she grew up in Florida, graduating from the University of Miami and working first as a publicist for designer Nina Ricci and now celebrity stylist on behalf of designer Carolina Herrera. She's down to earth about the whole political process, saying she understands that people will "say things that are untrue and harsh" about her during the campaign. One thing's for certain though--she has her husband's ear. Her stories about her gay step-uncle who died of AIDS, and a gay aunt in committed loving relationships helped change Ford's views on gay marriage.

Former George W. Bush speechwriter Noam Neusner ratchets up the snark in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. Assuming the alter-ego Straw Man of the United States (SOTUS), Neusner highlight's one of Obama's rhetorical techniques, setting up an imaginary enemy—the straw man—and then destroying it. SOTUS tells Obama things like, "Mr. President, you know, I think that in the face of the biggest financial crisis in three generations, you should really do nothing," only to hear his words rebutted in later Obama speeches, such as a Feb 9, 2009 press conference in which Obama said, "There seems to be a set of folks who—I don't doubt their sincerity—who just believe that we should do nothing." Neusner goes on to point out that conservatives "can't imagine anyone is saying the things that Mr. Obama stands up as arguments that he proceeds to knock down." Finally, Neusner employs the technique himself, writing that, "Some say Mr. Obama should make a stronger case for his opponents' positions than his own. The cynics think that straw-man arguments by definition prove that the speaker has no proof or logic on his side. Some would force presidential speechwriters to choose between a nifty setup for a zinger and boring rhetoric that puts audiences to sleep," concluding that "this straw man thing is pretty easy." Zing!

Who could possibly melt the icy sarcasm of Simon Cowell's heart? Meet Mezhgan Hussainy, a soap-opera actress turned makeup artist, who has finally appeared with Cowell in public, despite dating him in secrecy for months, according to The Daily Mail. Hussainy, 36, fled Afghanistan with her family in 1981 because her parents didn't want the Taliban to draft her three brothers into the army. Hussainy acted in Sunset Beach and The Bold and the Beautiful before heading backstage to do makeup. The couple got together last March on the set of American Idol, breaking up her relationship with her then-boyfriend. According to an unnamed inside source, Hussainy is "down to earth and not in the least bit starstruck" by Cowell. She reportedly calls him "a piece of cake" whose "bark is much bigger than his bite."

Could the world levy a global tax on the international financial services sector? Gordon Brown seems to think so. The British prime minister told the Financial Times that "support is building" among the world's leading economies for a global tax, and that he hopes to hammer out a deal at June's G-20 summit in Canada. It's unclear how such a tax might work. Brown has proposed that governments take a cut of bank transactions. He’s suggested that the International Monetary Fund's proposal would differ from Obama's proposed tax on wholesale funding. Brown said that such a tax could raise "a substantial amount of money" for Britain.

One of the athletes getting the biggest buzz heading into the 2010 Winter Olympics has been Lindsey Vonn, the best female skier in American history who wore skis for the cover of one Sports Illustrated issue and a bikini inside another (the swimsuit issue). But Wednesday, Vonn gave a tearful press conference announcing that she’d severely bruised her lower right shin last week while training in Austria. The skiing phenom said she was scared she might not be at her best in the Olympics this month, if she can ski at all. Vonn said the injury is so bad she’d opt out of competing in one, or all five, of her events because it’s right where her ski boot hits, causing pain with every move. The skier has had rough Olympic luck—while training four years ago in Torino, she had to be air-lifted to the hospital following a bad crash. "She's a tough girl, and you can never discount Lindsey and how tough she is and how much she wants this," a ski team doctor said.

In the age of Twitter, can fans wait to watch tape-delayed events during the Winter Olympics? Most events will be shown live to American viwers because the quadrennial global sporting festival takes places in Vancouver this year, but some, like major skiing competitions, will take place during the day and be shown on television at night. "The way information travels these days, finding out the results in advance is a total buzz kill," one potential fan told The Wall Street Journal. It'll be the worst for West Coast audiences where all major prime-time events will be shown on NBC with a tape delay.

A teacher at a Knoxville, Tennessee elementary school is accused of shooting and wounding two principals Wednesday. Mark Stephen Foster, a 48-year-old fourth grade teacher, was charged by police with two counts of attempted first-degree murder. One principal is in critical condition and another stable condition at a local hospital. Students had been dismissed only an hour earlier due to snow. A school spokesman told the Associated Press that the school had not planned on rehiring Foster next year. A year earlier, Foster's brother attempted to get a restraining order against him, alleging mental illness.

While everyone was watching to see what kind of money Goldman Sach's Lloyd Blankfein would make this year—it turned about to be $9.7 million—other not so famous names in finance were taking home the bacon. The biggest earner this year was John Stumpf, the head of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo. He earned $18.7 million in cash and stocks. The bailout has turned the normal order of compensation upside in finance, as high profile executives receive the same amount and sometimes less as those executives who work for them, The New York Times reports. Credit card giants did particularly well: Visa's Joseph Saunders made $15.5 million, more than what top execs at Bank of America and Citigroup were paid.

President Obama met exclusively with black leaders for the first time in a rare Oval Office meeting Wednesday. The group—including the Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Benjamin T. Jealous, National Urban League Marc H. Morial—braved D.C.’s “snowpocalypse” to discuss black joblessness, and the president requested support for his economic proposals. "I think he was very clear that he was not going to engage in any race-based programs,” Sharpton said. “But at the same time, he was determined that going forward we can correct some of the structural inequalities that are currently in place." Jealous said the discussion was more about geography than race, focusing on hard-hit areas such as Detroit and the Carolinas. Some black leaders have expressed frustration with Obama, saying he has not addressed deep economic problems facing African-Americans, who have a higher unemployment rate than the national rate and who are disproportionately affected by the home foreclosure crisis.

Vice President Joe Biden went on Larry King Live Wednesday night and told the talk-show host that Iraq, a war which Barack Obama has opposed for many years, "could be one of this administration's greatest achievements." Biden said that he thought another terrorist attack, like the one attempted on Christmas Day, is likely. "I think there are going to be attempts," he told King. The vice president also said that what keeps him up at night is not Afghanistan or Iraq but Pakistan. "I think it's a big country. It has nuclear weapons that are able to be deployed. It has a real significant minority of radicalized population," Biden said, adding, "It is not a completely functional democracy in the sense we think about it, and so that's my greatest concern."

Equipment failures and other setbacks could undermine Iran's efforts to ramp up its nuclear program, the Washington Post reported Thursday. But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a crowd gathered in Tehran for the anniversary of the 1979 founding of the Islamic Republic that his country has enriched uranium to a higher level and is now a "nuclear state," the Associated Press reported. At the gathering, security forces clashed with opposition leaders and protesters. Batons, pepper spray, and paintballs were used against the crowd. The government attacked the opposition online as well, cutting off Web access. Ahmadinejad claimed Iran is not building nuclear weapons—a fact that the United States and other countries dispute. 

The New York Times reported an annual profit of $19.9 million Wednesday, after suffering a $58 million loss in 2008. Does this signal new life in the advertising market for newspapers? It depends. The Guardian calls the report "the latest indication of a tentative improvement in the fortunes of the badly battered global newspaper industry." On the other hand, news that that advertising sales continue to slump sent the company's share into a 9 percent slump Wednesday afternoon. The venerable publisher, which had major layoffs last year, is trying, so far unsuccessfully, to unload its partial ownership of the Boston Red Sox.

It seems that Dennis Hopper will not be able to live out his final days in peace: The dying actor’s divorce battle has gotten even uglier, with his wife, Victoria Duffy-Hopper, ordered to stay at least 10 feet away from him, his son, his daughter Marin, and his assistant. Court papers describe Duffy-Hopper as “insane and out of her mind” and “inhuman.” Hopper is fighting his wife for custody of their daughter Galen.