Looks like Rep. Eric Massa has fast-tracked his retirement from Congress: The New York Democrat will retire effective 5 p.m. EST on Monday. Massa is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee after a male staffer charged him with sexual harassment. He had originally announced that he would serve out the remainder of his term and retire in November. In a letter, Massa says he is retiring due to his health. "After I decided not to run again I was told, for the first time, that a member of my staff believed I had made statements that made him feel 'uncomfortable,'" Massa wrote.
"There is no doubt in my mind that I did in fact, use language in the privacy of my own home and in my inner office that, after 24 years in the Navy, might make a Chief Petty Officer feel uncomfortable. In fact, there is no doubt that this Ethics issue is my fault and mine alone. But in the incredibly toxic atmosphere that is Washington D.C., with the destruction of our elected leaders having become a blood sport, especially in talk radio and on the internet, there is also no doubt that an Ethics investigation would tear my family and my staff apart."  

In better than expected results, unemployment numbers reported Friday held steady at 9.7 percent in February, including a loss of 36,000 jobs. Economists had predicted a rise to a 9.8 percent unemployment rate and job loss of around 68,000, partially due to weather-related business closure. Though companies cut the fewest jobs in two years, rates of underemployment—part-time workers who would prefer to be full-time or workers who have ceased looking for new jobs—rose from 16.5 percent to 16.8 percent last month. Job gains and losses depended partially on industry, and while jobs were actually added in the service industry, positions were cut in construction. Sen. Harry Reid reacted a bit too positively. "Today is a big day in America," he said. "Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good."

As healthcare legislation founders on Capitol Hill, the White House is making its struggle against soaring insurance costs personal. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a meeting with the CEOs of five major insurers and officials from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners at the White House Thursday to discuss what she called “jaw-dropping rate increases” around the country. Specifally, she instructed them to be more transparent in their pricing. "Put it on a Web site, tell us what your loss trends are," Sibelius said. "Tell us what you're paying out. Tell us what you're spending in overhead and CEO salaries and advertising." President Obama dropped in to personally hand the executives a letter from a cancer survivor whose health premium increased over 40 percent this year. Wellpoint execs said they raised their rates in California due to rising medical costs and a pool of aging customers. A broker at Goldman Sachs predicted insurers will continue to hike prices, especially in areas where they enjoy monopolies.

We really ought to start listening to these people’s parents: Like the parents of the accused Christmas Day bomber, the parents of John Patrick Bedell, the man who shot two police officers at the Pentagon on Thursday, had warned police about their son. Bedell’s parents reported their son missing January 4 and told police that they were worried he had purchased a gun after reading an email he had written. Bedell then returned to his parents on January 18 and told them “not to ask any questions,” before disappearing again. It is believed that he set off on the cross-country journey that ended with his death Friday morning.

More bad behavior from Big Ben? A young woman in Georgia has accused Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of sexual assault in a nightclub bathroom. Roethlisberger is already being sued by a woman in Nevada who says he sexually assaulted her in 2008. Apparently, the latest event took place early Friday morning in Milledgeville, Georgia. The woman was treated at a local hospital and released; Roethlisberger has already been interviewed by police and has not yet been charged with any crimes.

Has Liz Cheney taken her attacks on President Obama too far? Several conservatives are attacking the former vice president’s daughter for her “Al Qaeda 7” campaign, which demonizes Department of Justice lawyers who have represented Guantanamo Bay detainees in the past. Paul Mirengoff, a writer on the conservative blog Power Line, called Cheney’s campaign “vicious” and “unfounded,” and later compared Cheney to Joe McCarthy. Meanwhile, John Bellinger III, a former legal adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, told The American Propsect that Cheney’s campaign is “unfortunate” and “it reflects the politicization and the polarization of terrorism issues.” And Ted Olson, the conservative lawyer who won Bush v. Gore, said “When government officials are called ‘war criminals’ and when public-interest lawyers are called ‘terrorist huggers,’ it not only cheapens the discourse, it scrambles the dialogue.”

In an effort to preserve good relations with Turkey, the Obama administration has said it will not let Congress pick at old sores. On Thursday, a House committee narrowly voted in favor of a measure to brand Turkey’s killing of Armenians during World War I genocide—much to the outrage of the Turkish government. Now, despite Obama’s campaign promise, the White House is set to block the bill. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she plans to “work very hard” to block this and now feels confident that Congress will not vote on it. Two years ago, the House Committee on Foreign Relations approved a similar resolution, but the Bush administration successfully urged the House not to vote.

Spending 12-hour stretches at an Internet café, no doubt, is bad for your health. It’s even worse for your baby girl’s health when she is left at home. Kim Yoo-chul, 41, and his partner Choi Mi-sun, 25, found that out the hard way when their three-month-old baby starved to death. The unemployed couple allegedly spent most of their time playing a Second-Life-style game called Prius, which grants users virtual children after passing certain levels. The couple’s virtual daughter was named Anima. The real daughter was not yet named. According to police, they returned home from one Prius session to find her dead. They were arrested Friday after an autopsy revealed she had died from prolonged malnutrition. "The couple seemed to have lost their will to live a normal life, because they didn't have jobs and gave birth to a premature baby," Korean police said.

Long before Facebook was the international phenomenon it is today, founder Mark Zuckerberg was plotting to delay the launch of a competing project he was hired to help, according to Business Insider. And in 2004, when Zuckerberg was a Harvard sophomore trying to launch TheFacebook.com, the college's newspaper was close to writing a story that aired the grievances of the competing site. Zuckerberg was rattled enough to use his fledgling site to find the personal passwords of the paper’s reporters and editors and log into their email accounts, according to Business Insider. This isn’t the first time that he has been accused of less than sterling behavior, especially during Facebook’s youth. The company is refusing to discuss the claims. "We’re not going to debate the disgruntled litigants and anonymous sources who seek to rewrite Facebook’s early history or embarrass Mark Zuckerberg with dated allegations,” a spokesperson said.

Maternal mortality is often associated with bygone eras and Third World countries, but some experts say more new mothers in the U.S. are dying within 42 days of childbirth. A new report says the number of women who died in California shortly after giving birth has nearly tripled in the past decade, counting 16.9 per 100,000 births in 2006. A source who worked on the study said most women died from hemorrhage, blood clots, or underlying cardiac disease. But California is not alone—the Joint Commission issued an alert in January that maternal mortality rates could be increasing nationwide. “The rate of maternal death today is not acceptable in the United States,” the president of the Joint Commission said. “We need to work much harder than we have been to reduce it.” Doctors attribute the increase to the rise of obesity, which makes mothers more likely to have other health conditions, and increasing scheduled C-sections, which show a higher rate of maternal mortality.

Never underestimate Mick Jagger: A new book claims that the Rolling Stones singer slept with Angelina Jolie in 1997, while he was married to Jerry Hall and she was married to Jonny Lee Miller—and that they hooked up again in a Bangkok hotel six years later. Jagger is 32 years older than Jolie. Other nuggets in Jenny Paul’s Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie: The True Story: Jolie has been involved with Ralph Fiennes and Colin Farrell.

It looks like Alexander McQueen’s designs will never grace the runway again: The late designer’s final runway show, scheduled for Paris Fashion Week next week, has been canceled. In its place there will be a presentation and memorial on March 9 and 10, but photographers have been banned. Shots of the clothes will be provided, however, to media outlets.

Tiger Woods may have no equal on the putting green, but he may have met his match in philandering: Not only has British footballer Ashley Cole been charged with cheating on his wife with five different women, but he is now suing the tabloids News of the World and The Sun for libel after the papers published articles claiming that a soccer star had been caught using a mobile phone as a sex toy in a “homosexual orgy.” Interestingly, neither News of the World nor The Sun identified Cole by name in their article. His identity was left anonymous, but after News of the World published a pixilated photograph of the man they alleged was in the orgy, other sites like PinkNews posted an image clearly featuring Cole that they say is the original copy of News of the World’s photograph.

Hope you can wait a few more weeks: Apple has delayed the release of the iPad until April 3rd. The company refused to explain the delay, although an analyst from another company this week said that Apple had encountered an “unspecified production problem.” The news didn’t affect Apple’s share price: It rose 3 percent to $217.02, a record high.

Each year, more than 100,000 people are sexually abused in American prisons. The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission has released national standards for detention centers to decrease sexual abuse behind bars, but will they be implemented? Attorney General Eric Holder has until June 23 to review them and make necessary changes before making them nationally binding, but opposition could be holding him back. While the commission mandated a zero-tolerance policy, Holder is being pressured to weaken the strict standards. Corrections officials oppose some of the standards and are influencing the Department of Justice while survivors and their advocates do not have a formal role in the department’s decision-making. Prison officials are concerned the standards will be too costly. Experts expect Holder to request at last an additional year to weigh the costs and the benefits.

Six people died near Phoenix, Arizona on Friday when a bus they were riding hit another vehicle and then rolled over on the interstate. The bus was carrying 21 people—in addition to the four that died, an additional 15 people were injured, including two children. Apparently, the bus read-ended a passenger car, causing the bus driver to lose control of the vehicle.

In what would be a major reversal for President Obama, White House advisers are close to announcing a new policy regarding terror detainees that would see Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected 9/11 plotter, tried in a military court. Obama's decision to try Mohammed in civilian court in New York created endless political headaches from both sides of the aisle and the Washington Post reports that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is offering to help with bipartisan support for closing Guantanamo Bay if the decision is reversed. The move would be certain to anger Americans concerned about the erosion of civil liberties since 9/11. "If President Obama reverses Holder's decision to try the 9/11 defendants in criminal court and retreats to using the Bush military commissions, he deals a death blow to his own Justice Department, breaks a clear campaign promise to restore the rule of law and demonstrates that the promises to his constituents are all up for grabs," Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post.

If early turnout is any indication, Nashville may have a major say in Iraqi elections. Due to its large Kurdish population (around 10,000 people), the city was selected as one of the expatriate voting centers in the U.S. for Iraq’s parliamentary elections this weekend, and an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 Kurds are expected to travel to the city to cast their ballots. “The main thing I want people in the United States to know is that this is probably one of the best and most democratic elections in the history of the Middle East,” said a spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party. “I know a lot of people have a hard position about the government and [President] George Bush going to Iraq, but this is what is happening because of all the sacrifice of the United States people.” For this round of elections, there are 6,172 candidates from more than 240 different parties competing for 350 seats on Iraq’s Council of Representatives, including around 250 candidates from the Kurdistan Alliance.

The cab driver who accused Naomi Campbell of assaulting him earlier this week has apologized to the supermodel, saying in a statement from his lawyer that he “got angry and overreacted […] This whole thing has been blown out of proportion and I apologize to Ms. Campbell for causing that to happen.” In spite of a history of violent outbursts Campbell has insisted that this time around she’s in the clear. “I have worked very hard on correcting my previous wrongdoings and I will not be held hostage to my past,” she said. “I try to treat everyone with respect and I am pleased the driver has apologized.”

In the midst of the UK’s Iraq Inquiry, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is defending the government’s decision to go to war in Iraq, saying, “I think it was the right decision and made for the right reasons.” A chancellor when the decision was made, Brown insisted that former Prime Minister Tony Blair did not withhold information at the time and referred to Iraq as a “rogue state” that “had to be dealt with.” With the UK’s general election looming Brown also defended the financial decisions made in spite of recent accusations by the former Chief of Defence of Brown’s government “not fully funding in the way that they had asked” which “undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers.” Brown did express at the reconstruction efforts and told the inquiry, “It was one of my regrets that I wasn’t able to be more successful in pushing the Americans on this issue--that the planning for reconstruction was essential, just the same as planning for the war.”

If you see a long line outside Disneyland, don’t worry—it’s probably for job applicants, not Space Mountain. A job fair at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, drew 1,600 people—in the rain. Universal Studios received more than 1,100 job applications in one day last month, and Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm have received so many applications they are postponing their job fairs. Applications are coming from everyone from unemployed mortgage agents to sales clerks to construction workers looking for temporary positions. With the unemployment rate in California at 12.4 percent, those theme-park jobs are no longer just for teenagers seeking their first jobs. “We are getting a lot of people who, in a normal economy, would be considered overqualified,” said a manager at Universal Studios Hollywood. Anyone have a Fast Pass?

Maybe this '80s nostalgia kick is going a bit too far. After seven films in its original ten-year run, New Line is planning on reviving its Police Academy series, which grossed $240 million worldwide and spawned a pair of TV spinoffs. The slapstick comedy will be helmed by original producer Paul Maslansky. "It's going to be very worthwhile to the people who remember it and to those who saw it on TV," Maslansky told the Hollywood Reporter. "It's going to be a new class. We hope to discover new talent and season it with great comedians. It'll be anything but another movie with a numeral next to it. And we'll most probably retain the wonderful musical theme."

After two decades of dino debate, the results are in. In an "international consensus," a panel of "blue-ribbon" scientists have decided the Chicxulub asteroid-impact crater located in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula was, indeed, the cause of the mass extinction occurring 65 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs and the majority of life on Earth. An international group of more than three dozen scientists reported an unquestionable link between the Chicxulub impact event and the K-T boundary mass extinction. The initial discovery of the crater's significance happened in 1991, with the debate finally laid to rest this week.

Losing at the Oscars isn't losing at all: With a consolation gift bag of $85,000 worth of free goodies, even the most disheartened nominee won't be going home empty-handed. Included in Oscar gift bags will be vouchers for three vacations: an $85,000 African safari with a personal chef, a $14,500 stay in Monaco, and a $7,000 trip to Connecticut. Also included are gift cards for online shopping, gourmet chocolate, an indoor skydiving experience, and fitness classes. All this without mention of the year of free Altoids and a "green" mattress. Better yet are celebrity gift suites like the one that Sarah Palin combed over today with her family. This year's Oscar suite includes a chance at electronic cigarettes, $8,800 red-eye removal surgery (don't ask), premium gaming apparel (clothes to wear while gaming), and a pill that aims to prevent breast cancer. But nothing beats this year's Golden Globes swag bags, however, where micro-pigs were handed out to any celebrity that attended an hour-long seminar on how to care for the bacon bits.

Representative William Delahunt (D-MA) will not seek reelection to Congress after seven terms spanning nearly 40 years. At 68 years old, the lawmaker is finally calling it quits. “It's got nothing to do with politics,” said Delahunt, who had been considering leaving the House for some time, but was talked out of it by the late Ted Kennedy. While the lawmaker has struggled with Kennedy’s death, he concludes that the strenuous House schedule was taking a toll on his personal life. Delahunt’s retirement marks the 17th among House Democrats. He was regarded as one of the House’s “most ardent and reliable liberals,” and his departure will mean another open seat for potential Republicans, making many Democrats nervous.

The Internet's premier hub for bite-sized conversation has reached a major milestone: according to tweet ID numbers, the site’s users have surpassed 10 billion tweets. Only four months ago Twitter passed the 5 billion mark on the 140-character updates, used by everyone from publicity-hungry celebrities to protestors in Iran. The contents of tweet #10,000,000,000 are unknown, as the user has protected their updates, but #999,999,999 (a link to an gallery of urban photography) and #10,000,000,0001 (a simple phrase: "DON'T U EVER") are viewable online.

Only adding to public distrust in Toyota, the car company has been found to be keeping information that could help explain safety issues due to sudden unintended acceleration confidential. Similar to airline “black boxes,” cars are equipped with event data recorders, or EDRs, but, in statements made to the Associated Press, Toyota gave contradicting and ambiguous information about what the EDRs actually recorded. The AP also found Toyota has refused to provide important information when sought out by crash victims and survivors, used proprietary software for its EDRs (until recently, only one laptop in the U.S. contained software capable of reading data after a crash), and, in some lawsuits where recorder information was requested, either settled or provided incomplete printouts.

The Vatican is dealing with fallout from a corruption scandal within its ranks that took a salacious turn Thursday with the news that one of the Pope's aides was soliciting gay prostitutes. According to The Guardian, Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, or staffer who attended to the Pope, was caught on a police wiretap allegedly negotiating the procurement of a male prostitute with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a Vatican chorister. "I saw your call when I was in the Vatican, because I was doing rehearsals… in the choir… in St Peter's," Ehiem says in one conversation, the Guardian reports. He then suggests Balducci meet a man "two metres tall… 97 kilos… aged 33, completely active." Balducci was arrested last month on suspicion of corruption over public-works contracts, but the investigation also revealed his suspected involvement in prostitution.

The Republican Party has looked increasingly strong heading into election season, with a string of Democratic retirements and a rising tide of anti-incumbent resentment leading some to predict they might retake Congress. But there's still a major obstacle to a wave of victories: cash. Despite the party's rise in the polls, they lag the Democrats tremendously, Politico reports. Democrats have raised $442,885,585 since January 2009, versus $255,000,681 for the GOP.  A study of House elections in 2008 by the Campaign Finance Institute found that the average win cost $1.4 million, meaning Republican House candidates would need $84 million for their elections—less than half of what's been raised so far.

The man believed responsible for shooting 2 officers at the Pentagon Thursday evening, who died overnight of his wounds, has been linked to postings about 9/11 conspiracies. After walking into the main entrance of the Pentagon and allegedly opening fire on two officers, the officers fired back at John Patrick Bedell, fatally wounding him. Though a possible motive was not disclosed and a second suspect may be involved, Bedell, a 36-year-old believed to be an American citizen, had previously posted on a site discussing 9/11 conspiracy theories. In a news conference held outside the Pentagon, the chief of Pentagon police, Richard Keevill, said the wounded officers recalled the suspect walking toward them nonchalantly and without signs of distress. The officers say they believe he was reaching into his pocket for a security pass when he drew a gun and began firing. The incident occurred outside without words being exchanged. Keevill commended the officers for acting quickly and said, “We have layers of security and it worked.”

Consider this a rather momentous breakthrough for gay athletes: The head coach of Ohio State football, Jim Tressel, has given an interview to Outlook Columbus, a GLBT publication in Ohio. Asked what advice he would have for a gay athlete, Tressel says, “One, we are a family. If you haven’t learned from your family at home that people have differences and those strengthen the whole, then you are hopefully going to learn it as part of the Ohio State football family. … Whatever a young man feels called to express, I hope we will help him do it in a supportive environment. Everybody is important, and maturity is learning to find and appreciate those differences in others.” Asked why he thinks there are so few gay college athletes, Tressel gives a particularly thoughtful answer: "What we have, quite often, with our athletes, and with a number of young people in any sport, is that from the time they were 6 or 7 years old, their identity has been through sports. You’re the tallest, you’re the fastest, you’re the best player. All their feedback has come in terms of their role as a player, and they are often hesitant to go beyond that narrow role. ... The greatest achievement we can have as coaches is that a young man leaves us with a concept of who he is, what he wants from life, and what he can share with others—someone who is 'comfortable in his own skin,' and that identity can go in a number of directions."

Oscar night isn't just about who wins what and who wears what: It's big business for the movie industry, and can mean major boosts or downturns in ticket sales. The average benefit for a Best Picture winner is $17 million in ticket sales, or a 245 percent increase at the box office. Ticket sales for films featuring Best Actress or Best Actor winners also see a major increase, while films that lose out tend to fade from the public eye more quickly. With that in mind, Smart Money has compiled an "investor's guide" to the Academy Awards, tracking the stakes of the companies backing Oscar nominees. While News Corp., which released the $2 billion-grossing Avatar may not need much help, Lion's Gate (which released Precious) is down 29 percent in ticket sales this year, and in spite of nominee Up, Walt Disney is down by 4 percent. Of course, the success of films also determines the ratings success of the ceremony itself, and the upswing of smaller films in recent years may also be to blame for the decline in the show's ratings. "The independents had a lot to gain by taking over the Oscars—but the Oscars had a lot to lose," said one expert.

Perhaps this will convince some people to support health-care reform? A broker at Goldman Sachs said on a conference call on Friday that insurance companies will be raising prices—costing some of their customers their plans—in order to make more money. Because insurance companies enjoy monopolies in some areas, they can raise prices without worrying about losing customers to other companies. The Democrats’ health-care bill would end insurance companies’ antitrust exemption and create a commission to evaluate unexpected premium hikes.