Don’t bank on much more of an economic recovery in 2011: Unemployment is unlikely drop below the 9.7 jobless rate achieved in February, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, and Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer. “We do not expect further declines in unemployment this year,” they said in a statement. The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, said that it will keep the benchmark rates near zero and that they will stay low for an “extended period” while the economy recovers.

Populist Moktada al Sadr, a thorn in the side of the American military as well as Iraqi officials since 2003, won big in Iraq's elections last week. After a snub by Americans in 2003, al Sadr led the Shiite insurgency, which the U.S. military wasn't able to quash till 2008. He made a comeback in last year's provincial elections, and is increasingly considered part of mainstream Iraqi politics. Though he's still living in Iran, al Sadr's followers waged a disciplined campaign and are set to have more power than ever in post-invasion Iraq. The Sadrists' rise could complicate the forming of an Iraqi government; they're unpredictable, and now their bloc could be as big as 40 seats and as large as the Kurds', who've been able to play kingmaker since 2005. Sadrists no longer back Nouri al Maliki, which is bad news for the prime minister, and they're quickly eclipsing Shia leaders who returned from exile after the invasion.

Conservatives who argue against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will have to do so without the support of one of their heroes: General David Petraeus told Congress on Tuesday that “I believe the time has come to consider a change to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He stressed that it should be done “in a thoughtful and deliberative manner.” In recent weeks, Petraeus had refused to give an opinion on the policy.

During a congressional testimony Tuesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the U.S. won't bring back Osama bin Laden alive. Holder, when asked whether bin Laden would be read his Miranda rights upon capture, responded that the U.S. would never have to make that call. "Let's deal with reality," Holder said. "You're talking about a hypothetical that will never occur. The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden... He will be killed by us, or he will be killed by his own people so he's not captured by us. We know that." During the hearing, Republicans argued that the Obama administration would give the 9/11 planners the same legal rights as American citizens, and Holder said, yes, they would be treated like any other murderer—Charles Manson for example. Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) took issue with that, saying, "The disconnect between this administration and your mind-set is so completely opposite that of where the vast majority of the American people are," and added that Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) was elected in January because voters oppose the president's terrorism policy. The hearing was legislators' first chance to grill Holder since he backed off a plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City.

Ever since he ran his SUV into a fire hydrant outside his house over Thanksgiving, Tiger Woods has had a hard time doing anything discreetly—from entering sex therapy to a long list of alleged mistresses stepping forward. So it’s only fitting that after three months away from the greens, he’s making his return to golf on the sport’s biggest stage: Augusta National next month. “The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect,” he said in a statement. "I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy and I am continuing my treatment,” he added. “Although I'm returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.”

American relations with Israel got awfully frosty awfully fast after the country announced plans to expand settlements in Jerusalem during Joe Biden’s visit last week—most recently, the U.S. envoy to Israel canceled his trip. What’s Obama up to? Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic writes, “I think it's fair to say that Obama is not trying to destroy America's relations with Israel; he's trying to organize Tzipi Livni's campaign for prime minister, or at least for her inclusion in a broad-based centrist government. I'm not actually suggesting that the White House is directly meddling in internal Israeli politics, but it's clear to everyone—at the White House, at the State Department, at Goldblog—that no progress will be made on any front if Avigdor Lieberman's far-right party, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Eli Yishai's fundamentalist Shas Party, remain in Netanyahu's surpassingly fragile coalition.” Goldberg says the goal is to “force a rupture in the governing coalition that will make it necessary for Netanyahu to take on Livni's centrist Kadima Party (he has already tried to do this, but too much on his terms) and form a broad, 68-seat majority in Knesset that does not have to rely on gangsters, messianists and medievalists for votes.”

Last week, two students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, jumped from bridges to their deaths. They were the fifth and sixth suicides this academic year at the university, and school officials are worried Cornell will become known as a “suicide school” after years of trying to distance itself from that reputation. Police and security guards have been posted on all the bridges on the campus, known for its gorges, and campus counseling services now have extended hours. Staffers checked on the door of every single student over the weekend, and are urging students to keep grades in perspective. The last suicides were in 2005, three years after the university stepped up its suicide-prevention program. From 1996 to 2002, there were 11. Administrators have long tried to ease Cornell’s reputation for suicides. They say there are not more at the school than other colleges, but suicides in the gorges are very public, getting more media attention than others would.

"Talks are under way" for a documentary of Conan O'Brien's 30-city comedy tour in the wake of his getting the boot from NBC, Deadline New York reports. Media Rights Capital has been in talks to finance the movie, with Rodman Flender to direct. The move wouldn't violate O'Brien's agreement with his former bosses. The tour, called The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour, comes to Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden in June, and tickets are already sold out.

Toyota certainly isn't alone. Following reports that Ford and Chrysler cars have also experienced unintended acceleration issues, Honda is recalling 410,000 Odyssey minivans and Element SUVs because their brakes tend to go "soft" over time, requiring the driver to push the pedal further toward the floor. Eventually, this can lead to a loss of braking power, and possibly a crash. The models covered are from 2007 and 2008. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has documented three crashes related to the problem, but there have been only minor injuries. Honda says the problem stems from the mechanism that powers the electronic stability-control system, which in an emergency brakes each wheel selectively to keep the car from toppling over. The device is called the vehicle stability-assist modulator, and whenever the car is started, it lets a tiny bit of air into the hydraulic brake lines to test itself. Over time, that can create a bubble that can diminish braking power.

Will the final two Twilight movies get Oscar-caliber talent? Sources indicate that Summit Entertainment has approached Sofia Coppola ( Lost in Translation), Gus Van Sant ( Milk), and Bill Condon ( Dreamgirls) to direct Breaking Dawn, its fourth installment. Breaking Dawn will be split into two movies, and the plot will take a turn for the absurd: The books include (spoiler alert) a demon baby—which may make filming it a near impossibility. But that doesn't mean Summit won't try: Screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg's outline is expected to be sent to the powerful trio of directors sometime next week. Only Van Sant's reps have confirmed that he was approached, but Kristen Stewart told MTV that she's happy that all three were being courted. Coppola probably won't be confirming any time soon: The pregnant director is working to finish Somewhere. Critics are already doubting the idea of a "prestige" director helming a movie (or two) that could not be any more commercial, but only time will tell if any of these auteurs is willing to put his or her career on the line for the chance to film Stewart birthing a baby vampire.

The Democratic National Committee’s biggest donors are peeved at the White House because they haven’t been getting enough love, Politico reports. In fact, though the most obvious reason for Desiree Rogers’ departure as White House social secretary was the infamous gatecrashers incident, another reason for her ousting was grumbling from fundraisers. See, some donors did not even get a Christmas card this year (an offense that is clearly worth risking the loss of a congressional majority). A mere 10 percent of the 150 top donors maxed out last year, giving $30,400 in donations. The DNC is still raising money at a rapid rate, pulling in $30 million more than during the last midterm season in 2005, and has a rare cash advantage over its Republican counterpart. Under George W. Bush, the Republican National Committee was able to raise much more for midterms, but under current Chairman Michael Steele, it’s not doing as well.

Google is upgrading its Nexus One phone so it can now work on AT&T's 3G network, the main channel for Apple's iPhone. Google's phone initially only worked on AT&T's slower networks, and this update comes sooner than expected. It's another swipe at Apple, which Google hopes to surpass in the cellphone market. Apple is suing HTC, which makes Nexus One, over claims it infringed on its touch-screen patents.

Police have uncovered new clues to the mysterious disappearance of a mother and son last seen this weekend on a road trip to visit family in Olympia, Washington. Shantina Smiley, 29, and her 8-year-old son, Azriel, drove on I-5 Saturday in a borrowed minivan; Saturday night, Smiley called her fiancé to say she was lost in Olympia. No one has seen them since. On Sunday, the minivan was found abandoned in Budd Inlet, part of Puget Sound. Investigators have partially traced the movements of the mom and son: On Saturday night, they went to a market and then a diner, where an employee says Smiley forgot her purchase (a corndog) and fell in the parking lot. Surveillance video shows she later tried to use a payphone at another store. Ten minutes after that, she knocked on the home of a West Olympia resident, who says she seemed upset and lost. He let Smiley use the phone. After that, the trail runs cold. Search and rescue scoured the shoreline and woods nearby, but found nothing.

Apparently getting tackled in a Super Bowl commercial is a sure path to career rebirth. Betty White, the octogenarian who starred in The Mary Tyler More Show, Golden Girls, and Ladies Man, has inked a deal to star in TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland. White will play the role of a sassy landlord in—you guessed it—Cleveland. The series will also feature Valerie Bertinelli ( One Day at a Time), Jane Leeves ( Fraiser), and Wendie Malick ( Just Shoot Me) as three Los Angeles women who board a plane for Paris but land unexpectedly in Ohio, where the trio discovers new sides of themselves. It’s been a great year for White, who was featured in The Proposal and is set to host Saturday Night Live on May 8—thanks to an army of Facebook fans who demanded the venerable comedienne be given the honor. White was originally signed on for just the pilot, but TV Land apparently realized that adding the star to the entire 10-episode run would prove to be a good decision. Hot in Cleveland will begin airing in June.

Maybe some of the viewers will hang around after Glenn Beck’s 5 p.m. show: President Obama will sit down with Fox News on Wednesday for an exclusive interview. He’ll appear on Brett Baier’s 6 p.m. newscast to discuss “the upcoming House vote on health-care reform and what to expect in Washington in the weeks ahead.” Things have cooled off a bit between the White House and Fox News since former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said Fox was not a legitimate news organization. Since then, Obama has also sat down once with Fox News’ Major Garrett.

Being directed by your husband in love scenes with Leonardo DiCaprio would put an awkward crimp in any marriage. And in the wake of Kate Winslet’s breakup with Sam Mendes, her husband of nearly seven years, it seems that tension during Revolutionary Road was certainly a factor. Winslet starred alongside DiCaprio in the Mendes film about a loveless marriage, and months of arguments followed. “I just kept saying, ‘This is too weird,’” Winslet said of the love scenes in an interview last year. But in addition to work coming between them, Alison Boshoff of London’s Daily Mail suggests Winslet’s temperament might have played a part and that the breakup was not as amicable as the couple claimed. “She is 'fierce' in an argument and is a woman of stubborn loyalties and intense passions,” Boshoff writes, “you are either within her inner circle or she never wishes to speak to you again.”

Michael Jackson may be gone, but we’ll be hearing more of him than ever: Sony is set to release 10 Jacko albums in seven years after it set a new music-industry record by striking a $250 million deal with Michael Jackon’s estate, says The Wall Street Journal. These albums will include both previously unreleased songs and also remakes of Jackson’s classics. Sony has sold an estimated 31 million Jackson albums since he died on June 25. By the first anniversary of his death, Jackson’s family is expected to have raked in another $250 million from music, merchandise, and ticket sales for the concert film This Is It.

Old rivalries die hard. For a few minutes last weekend, Andre Agassi seemed to forget that he was playing longtime foe Pete Sampras in a charity doubles match to benefit Haiti, not on Centre Court. Making things personal, Agassi poked fun at Sampras for being stingy after Sampras imitated Agassi’s pigeon-toed walk. Both were wearing headsets, meaning the crowd heard every word. Sampras replied with a high serve directly at Agassi. But on Monday, Agassi apologized, saying his behavior was “out of line.” “It was inappropriate,” Agassi added. “The night was on fire. We were all having fun. I was trying to be comedic. I only had a split second to make a decision. I went for it and it fell flat.”

At only 29 inches tall, He Pingping was larger than life: The world’s smallest man died over the weekend. The 21-year-old was in Rome filming a TV spot when he began suffering chest problems. He Pingping was born in China’s Inner Mongolia—which was also, miraculously, home to the world’s tallest man for a period of time. (See pictures of He Pingping with the 7’9” Bao Xishun here.) The Guinness Book of World Records says it will soon announce He Pingping’s heir; one Nepalese man, Khagendra Thapa Magar, who claims he’s only 20 inches tall, said he deserved the title in February.

Coming soon to a classroom near you: History textbooks that stress the “Christian origins” of the United States, play up the historical importance of figures like Phyllis Schlafly and Newt Gingrich, and examine the “unintended consequences” of the civil-rights movements and Title IX. The brouhaha over Texas’s efforts to pass these new conservative history standards—which are expected to be finalized later this spring—could have national repercussions. That’s because Texas is “a huge market leader in the school-textbook industry,” says the Associated Press. “The enormous print run for Texas textbooks leaves most districts in other states adopting the same course materials, so that the Texas School Board effectively spells out requirements for 80 percent of the nation’s textbook market.”

Around 4 a.m. Tuesday, many Southern Californians between San Diego and Santa Clarita were stirred awake by a 4.4-magnitude earthquake. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries, but over 1,000 people have already said they felt the shake on the U.S. Geological Survey’s “ Do You Feel It?” Web site. The epicenter was about 11 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.

Say it ain’t so: The House Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC) has told McClatchy that the vote on health-care reform might not go down before Easter Sunday. “The chances are good, but I wouldn’t bet on it,” he said. Most people have been expecting a vote by this Saturday, at the latest. "I need 216 votes to pass this bill," Clyburn told McClatchy. "I think I'm going to get 216 votes. It could be closer than last time. All I want is 216 votes.”

Another bad week for the Catholic Church and it’s only Tuesday. While Ireland’s senior cardinal Sean Brady refuses to resign for not informing police about a child-molesting priest he had collected evidence against, a German priest was suspended for breaching a ban on working with children that had been in place ever since he was convicted of molesting boys in 1986. Working as a canon lawyer in 1975, Brady had helped investigate claims of sex abuse at the hands the Rev. Brendan Smyth. But they were never reported to the police and Smyth went on to molest and rape scores more children until his arrest in 1994. "Yes, I knew that these were crimes," Brady said. "But I did not feel that it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of Brendan Smyth to the police. Now I know with hindsight that I should have done more." Meanwhile, the German priest Father Peter Hullermann was suspended for abusing children in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising when Pope Benedict XVI was the archbishop there.

Just in time for President Obama’s reelection campaign: More than $700 billion in risky, high-yield corporate debt will come due in a three-year period starting in 2012. These “junk” bonds will come due in a year when the U.S. will need to borrow $2 trillion to cover its budget deficit—raising fears that businesses will not be able to get new loans, setting off a wave of bankruptcies. The numbers are worrisome: Junk bonds, valued at only $21 billion this year, will mature at a rate of $155 billion in 2012 and $338 billion in 2014. “An avalanche is brewing in 2012 and beyond if companies don’t get out in front of this,” said an officer at Moody’s.

Nearly four centuries after Shakespeare's death, a new play by the playwright might be entering the canon. Rumors have abounded of the Bard's "Lost Play" since the early 18th century, when Lewis Theobald claimed that his play Double Falsehood was based on original texts of Shakespeare’s lost Cardenio, which had been performed in 1613. Theobald’s claims were widely dismissed as a hoax, but Nottingham University Professor Brean Hammond has found new evidence supporting them, saying, "I don’t think you can ever be absolutely 100 percent but, yes, I am convinced that it is Shakespeare." Experts say that Theobald’s play is similar to other Shakespeare works, though Hammond described it as "flawed." His research has been endorsed by Shakespeare publisher Arden, and the play may even be performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford.

The House will soon vote on health-care reform, but it won't be straightforward: Nancy Pelosi plans on using the “self-executing rule” or “deem and pass” to move health-care reform through her caucus—basically, the House will vote to pass a series of reconciliation fixes and this package will “deem”  the Senate bill passed. It’s a complicated procedure that is meant to spare House members from having to vote directly on the unpopular Senate bill. Pro-reform blogger Ezra Klein balks at the process: “No one cares whether the House passed the bill or ‘deemed’ the bill passed,” he writes. “People don't pay attention to whether you voted using the passive voice or not. But by falling back on this bizarre locution, the House signals to voters that it thinks it's passing a bad bill.” Still, under this procedure, this weekend’s vote will be the decisive one, and President Obama will be able to sign health-care reform into law.

With Israel refusing to budge on its decision to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, U.S. special envoy George Mitchell is suspending plans to visit to Israel because the administration believes negotiations could be a waste of time. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the construction will go ahead, despite last week’s diplomatic faux pas—Israel announced the inflammatory project as Vice President Joe Biden arrived to moderate peace talks with Palestine. “What happened to the vice president in Israel was unprecedented,” a senior administration official told The New York Times. “Where it goes from here depends on the Israelis.” The U.S. is now insisting that the upcoming peace talks must include promises from Israel to cease construction and for a “substantial gesture” toward the Palestinians. Meanwhile, Palestinians took to the streets in East Jerusalem on Tuesday to protest Israel’s plans. Israel police in riot gear were deployed to counteract the demonstrators, who threw stones and blocked traffic.

Reacting to widespread criticism and far too many civilian casualties, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the ranking American commander in Afghanistan, is gathering nearly all of the American Special Operations forces under his direct supervision. McChrystal is hoping to increase accountability and organization among those units in the field because even though civilian casualties are falling, he insists the number is still too hig —last year, according to the United Nations, most of the 596 civilian deaths in Afghanistan could be chalked up to Special Operations troops. “What happens is, sometimes at cross-purposes, you got one hand doing one thing and one hand doing the other, both trying to do the right thing but working without a good outcome,” General McChrystal told The New York Times. Still, others have said that a higher number of civilian deaths is inevitable for those units, if only because they conduct more night raids—operations that McChrystal is trying to scale back.

It's a tale of two comebacks: Former American Idol judge Paula Abdul is close to sealing a deal with ABC to headline a new version of beloved '80s talent show Star Search, Entertainment Weekly reports. While her exact role with the "great-granddaddy of all televised singing competitions" is still being defined, rumors swirl that she'll both host and judge. The original Star Search premiered in 1983 with host Ed McMahon; in 2003, CBS launched a revival with host Arsenio Hall, hoping to capitalize on the then-new Idol's success, but it was canceled in 2004. Sources aren't sure whether Abdul’s agreement with Star Search would preclude her from joining former Idol co-judge Simon Cowell on the American version of The X Factor, as had previously been discussed.