Congressional investigators obtained new documents that reveal Toyota officials bragged about saving $100 million on their recall by convincing government regulators to stop a 2007 investigation into acceleration problems. Toyota, which has recalled 8.5 million cars due to problems with acceleration and brakes, said it saved the startlingly large sum by successfully establishing a recall on floor mats for 55,000 vehicles in September 2007, convincing regulators that was all that was needed. As the fallen car company’s top executives prepare to testify in two hearings on Capitol Hill this week, these documents call into question whether Toyota purposefully ignored or simply missed the customers' safety complaints. The documents also reveal a potentially lax approach by U.S. safety regulators.

The U.S. slid past Canada on the ice today, with Brian Rafalski scoring two goals in a huge upset against the top-seeded team. The pro-Canadian crowd occasionally booed the U.S. team, who won 5-3 and will now be heading to the quarterfinals. With a win for Sweden on Sunday, the U.S. is now the No. 1 seed. The defeat to the U.S. is a huge morale-buster for Canada, who is lagging in the medal count and was counting on its all-star hockey team for a boost. Canada will play another game to qualify for the elimination rounds.

The head of the U.S. Central Command said that the huge battle raging in Marja, the Taliban stronghold, is only the “initial salvo” in a campaign that could last up to 18 months. General David H. Petraeus said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that the Marja battle is just the beginning of America’s attempt, with the help of Afghanistan and other international forces, to defeat the Taliban in a “comprehensive civil-military campaign.” Petraeus said Special Forces were playing a prominent role in the efforts as well as nearly 20 percent of the 30,000 troops Obama promised to deploy. The general added that he is strongly opposed to torturing captives to obtain information. “Whenever we have, perhaps, taken expedient measures, they have turned around and bitten us in the backside,” Petraeus said.

Colin Powell has Obama's back. The former secretary of State said former Vice President Dick Cheney has no basis for claiming the current president's policies are putting America at risk. Powell highlighted the fact that the Obama administration has continued or escalated many of Bush's security programs and procedures on CBS' Face the Nation Sunday. He supports Obama's efforts to put an end to waterboarding during interrogation and the current administration's preference of criminal courts over military commissions to try suspects. Powell also cautioned fellow conservatives who refer to Obama as a socialist, saying the constant criticism without the contribution of new ideas is unproductive. "Have we so lost our faith in this country that we think one person, one man, can suddenly change our entire system?" Powell asked. "That's kind of absurd."

The televised health-care summit President Obama will host Thursday is being billed as likely the last chance for the GOP to influence the legislation. The Obama administration said health-care proposals will be published on its website Monday and will likely be a melding of the House and Senate Democrats' versions of the reform legislation. The summit has been hyped as a chance to break through partisan gridlock and listen to Republican ideas. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Saturday that the final Democratic bill will be unveiled Monday evening, and that Democrats will finish up health care within the next 60 days using the budget reconciliation process, a procedure that requires a simple majority vote and would block a potential Republican filibuster. Republicans have decried reconciliation as a partisan move.

And the gloves come off. In an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called Republican critics of the Obama’s stimulus plan hypocrites while citing the plan's effectiveness in creating 150,000 new jobs in California. The Obama administration says the plan has either saved or created up to 2  million jobs and economists have agreed that it stopped the economy from falling further. "You have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn't create any new jobs," said Schwarzenegger. "Then they go out and they do the photo ops and they are posing with the big check and they say 'Isn't this great?'" Schwarzenegger's comments were in response to comments made by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who said the stimulus package hasn't created any jobs.

The members of the hit squad that assassinated a senior Hamas commander in Dubai last month are suspected of entering the United Arab Emirates with forged diplomatic passports, the country’s senior officials revealed Saturday. The 11 assassins reportedly used British, Irish, German, and French documentation to enter the emirate in January, leading the country to call for full-scale investigations in those nations. The police chief said that the assassination of Mahmoud-al-Mabhuh, the founder of Hamas’ armed wing, is “a security issue for European countries.” The Dubai police chief also suggested that one of al-Mabhuh’s closest associates may have leaked information regarding his whereabouts to the assassins, but Hamas said the murdered military leader was careless about security: He booked his ticket to Dubai online and told family members via phone where he planned to stay. Mabhuh's brother said he never told the family where he was traveling.

Not good for an election year: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is reportedly so verbally abusive that several members of his staff have called an anti-bullying hotline, according to the CEO of the National Bullying Helpline. She came forward after the release of a bombshell new book by journalist Andrew Rawnsley, The End of the Party, which describes the prime minister's volcanic temper and tendency to fly into rages and yell at his staff. Downing Street staff and business secretary Lord Mandelson denied that Brown had temper issues. Rawnsley's book describes Brown roughly shoving aside one longtime aide and grabbing another office worker by the lapels after he made a mistake. "He suffers from a massive paranoia and an inability to accept blame, yet he runs a blame culture that allows him to blame others," a former adviser told The Guardian.

With the job market still foundering, Americans who lost their jobs are facing difficulties getting back on their feet after long stretches of unemployment. Safety-net programs like unemployment insurance, which Congress has extended for longer periods than normal, are still running out before people find new jobs, leaving roughly 2.7 million people without aid if Congress doesn't extend them again in April. “We’re looking at the very real possibility of being homeless,” a California woman whose benefits have run out told The New York Times. With welfare programs changed to emphasize finding work in the mid-1990s, many are finding them inadequate in the current climate. “We have a work-based safety net without any work,” Timothy M. Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty, told the Times.

Avatar had nothing on The Hurt Locker at the British Academy Film Awards, England's version of the Oscars, on Sunday. The Iraq War drama took home six statues, including best film. The drama's director, Kathryn Bigelow, also won a BAFTA for her efforts, making her the first woman to do so. The Hurt Locker also earned honors for best original screenplay, cinematography, editing, and sound. Avatar, directed by Bigelow's ex-husband, James Cameron, won two BAFTAs at the ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden. And the British academy also honored their own: Colin Firth won best actor for his role in A Single Man, and Carey Mulligan picked up the award for best actress for her role in An Education. The academy awarded a rising star award to Twilight superstar Kristen Stewart, who attended the ceremony alongside co-star Robert Pattinson. Also in attendance were Gabourey Sidibe, Audrey Tautou, Kate Winslet, and Prince William, who honored Vanessa Redgrave with a BAFTA Fellowship.

Can Congress work effectively while every major decision requires 60 votes? Sen. Evan Bayh, a veteran Democratic lawmaker who announced his retirement last week, writes in The New York Times that the obstructionist parliamentary tactic known as the filibuster is making it almost impossible to govern. "Last fall, the Senate had to overcome two successive filibusters to pass a bill to provide millions of Americans with extended unemployment insurance," writes Bayh. "There was no opposition to the bill; it passed on a 98-0 vote. But some senators saw political advantage in drawing out debate, thus preventing the Senate from addressing other pressing matters." He suggests lowering the number of votes needed to break a filibuster to 55 from 60 and changing the rules to force filibustering senators to publicly commit to continually debating an issue (a la Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) to discourage frivolous obstruction.

After its release date was postponed from October, Shutter Island outdid itself in its opening weekend by earning $40.2 million and surpassing box-office expectations. Leonardo DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese's latest project is based on Dennis Lehane's bestselling novel and the psychological thriller scored mostly positive reviews. The film cost nearly $100 million to produce, but its first three-day haul notched the best-ever opening for both the director and actor. The star-studded Valentine's Day came in second with $17.1 million and Avatar, with a total gross of nearly $688 million, continued its stellar run and rounded out the top three. Wolfman made a pitiful howl in its second week out, grossing only $9.8 million.

In the latest installment of the Mideast controversy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added two sites, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem, to the national heritage list on Sunday. The government will renovate and restore the sites in a move that will likely upset Palestinians, who reject the Israeli presence in the West Bank, reports Haaretz. The decision by Netanyahu was praised by the Yesha regional council, who said "the plan strengthens the connection with land of our forefathers." Netanyahu said, "Our existence depends not only on the IDF or our economic resilience—it is anchored in... the national sentiment that we will bestow upon the coming generations and in our ability to justify our connection to the land."

Heavy downpours led to deadly mudslides and flooding in the Portuguese island of Madeira on Saturday. At least 42 people were killed and a Madeira official told CNN that perhaps dozens more were unaccounted for. Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates arrived at the island to survey the scene and told Portuguese media that "the situation is under control" despite the devastation. Portugal's military is sending in search and rescue teams. The Atlantic island is about 600 miles southwest of Portugal.

With Republicans positioned for major electoral gain in 2010, Newsweek is taking a look at how the party would govern if they were in power. The center of any Republican agenda would be tax cuts, tax cuts, and more tax cuts, but the article notes that anti-spending and anti-taxation fervor among the party's faithful could make it near impossible to address the deficit without touching Social Security and Medicare, which are extremely popular. "Small-government Republicans come down squarely on the side of smaller deficits... Sounds great. Except that no one in either party has figured out how to do that in a way that won't cause a rebellion among the voters," the article states. The author notes that there's significant agreement between Obama and Republicans on both foreign policy, with the president presiding over an increase in troops in Afghanistan, and education, where the president's support for charter schools and providing incentives for school reform on a state level has GOP roots.

After a rough two weeks swatting down rumors about a potentially career-ending New York Times profile, Governor David Paterson is steering the focus back towards his career. During an appearance at Hofstra University today, Paterson said "After all you have heard, there's one rumor I will confirm: I am running for governor this year,” …"They haven't knocked us down yet, and they never will." The announcement was his first official bid in the New York governor’s race, and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is expected to battle him in the primary race. Former Long Island congressman Rick Lazio has also declared his intention to run on the Republican ticket.

First Lady Michelle Obama urged governors to take up the fight against childhood obesity at the National Governors Association’s winter meeting. “There's no place for politics when it comes to fighting childhood obesity,” Obama said, “Because with a phone call or the stroke of a pen, you can determine whether a child can see a doctor or get a decent education or have a safe place to play...” The first lady spoke approvingly of several successful state programs, including one in Arkansas, for which she gave former Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee high marks. She praised the creativity in West Virginia of bringing the dance game Dance, Dance Revolution to schools (and noted the president had yet to master the difficult game). Obama stressed that lowering the BMI of the nation’s youth was not only morally right, but financially smart.

Are Canadians bitter that despite the $100 million they shelled out to host the Winter Olympics, the U.S. is taking over their home turf? Just eight days into the Games, the U.S. has already won 20 medals, leading second-place Germany by seven. That pace beats the U.S.'s record rate, in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, by nine medals. If Americans win the lead in Vancouver, it would be the first time since the 1932 Winter Games at Lake Placid that the U.S. would be the overall medal leader. On Saturday, Olympic sweetheart Lindsey Vonn won the bronze in the Super-G. Shani Davis, though expected to win the gold in the men's 1,500 meter speedskating, ended up with silver.

The obituaries yesterday for Alexander Haig, the former secretary of State, all focused on his most infamous moment: when he declared, inaccurately, after Ronald Reagan had been shot that “I am in control here, in the White House.” In the Los Angeles Times, Michael McGough notes that while Haig was a “legal illiterate,” he had a point. Consider this thought experiment: “[I]f President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were to die simultaneously, the president would be a former Ku Klux Klansman, West Virginia Sen. Robert C. Byrd.” Byrd is president pro tem of the Senate, the next in line. Haig himself would have preceded in succession by the South Carolina agitator Strom Thurmond.

The ongoing military campaign in Marja, the Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan, has met "determined resistance" this weekend as Marines and Afghan forces moved in on a western quarter of the region where 40 insurgents have taken cover in a 2-square-mile area of the town. An Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman said they were more prepared for planted bombs, not the amount of sniper fire and sustained firefights they have seen so far in the second week of the military advance. "They are squeezed," said Lt. Col. Brian Christmas. "It looks like they want to stay and fight but they can always drop their weapons and slip away. That's the nature of this war." Gen. David Petraeus said today on Meet the Press that additional U.S. losses in Afghanistan will be “tough” and that while Taliban forces are “formidable,” they are “a bit disjointed.”

An Academy Award preview? The Writers Guild honored scripts for The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air with best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay awards, respectively, on Saturday in simultaneous ceremonies held in Los Angeles and New York. Mark Boal received the WGA award for The Hurt Locker and is also nominated for an Oscar in the category. He thanked American soldiers who allowed him to step into their world and the "chaos and hellishness" that surrounded them while he was in the region as a journalist. Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, who already won a Golden Globe for Up in the Air, were honored with the best adapted screenplay award. "I can't tell you how extraordinarily proud I am to be standing in front of you," said Reitman. "I am always a writer." Other notable winners include The Cove for documentary screenplay, Mad Men for dramatic series, 30 Rock for comedy series, and Modern Family for new series.

American speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno may not have taken home gold, but he did break a record with his seventh Olympic medal. Despite slipping with less than three laps to go, Ohno took third in the 1,000 meters behind South Korea's Lee Jung-Su to become America's most-decorated Winter Olympian, bypassing speedskater Bonnie Blair. "It feels amazing," said Ohno, who is competing in his third Olympics and, perhaps, his last. "I never came into the Olympic Games thinking about breaking medals [totals] or tying any records. Our sport is crazy. To win one medal is a huge accomplishment for any athlete." Ohno also won silver in the 1,500 meters last week and will compete in the 500-meter individual race and the 5,000-meter relay to try to add to his medal count.

The Super Combined event was the missing link in champion alpine skier Bode Miller’s career until Sunday, when the leading American racer grabbed the gold for the first time. Though he started out in seventh place in the slalom part of the event, which begins with a morning downhill, he passed the other six skiers to earn the top position on the medal stand. Norway’s Aksel Svindal had been in first place, but fell at the bottom of the hill. With a first-place time of 2:44.92, Miller’s Super Combined gold is his third medal of the Vancouver Games and fifth Olympic medal overall, both of which are records for American alpine skiing. “I feel good,” Miller said after the downhill portion. “My slalom has been setting up pretty well.” Looks like the Turin curse is over.

The Dutch prime minister announced that the Netherlands would be pulling out its military from Afghanistan, leaving NATO fearful that other nations would withdraw their troops as well. Jan Peter Balkenende announced, "Our task as the lead nation [in Uruzgan province] ends in August this year," despite the fact that NATO leader Andrew Fogh Rasmussen had publicly requested the Netherlands' continued presence. Since the Dutch declaration, some are concerned that other countries will follow, particularly Australia and Canada, which has the highest proportional casualty rate in Afghanistan. The Australian government has repeatedly refused to take on the lead role in Uruzgan without the presence of the Dutch and demands a large NATO power provide the lion's share of troops. U.S. troops will reportedly replace the Dutch forces since European nations are already struggling to gather the 10,000 extra troops U.S. General Stanley McChrystal requested to join America's extra 30,000 troops in Afghanistan. The Uruzgan governor told the BBC that the Dutch played a prominent role in Afghanistan. "If they withdraw and leave these projects incomplete, they will leave a big vacuum," he said.