This is probably going to get ugly quickly: A federal judge has blocked controversial elements of Arizona’s new immigration law that would have required police to question a suspect's immigration status. The judge also blocked provisions that would have required immigrants to carry their papers at all times and forbade illegal immigrants from seeking work in public places. The law will still take effect on Thursday, but without the blocked provisions.

The WikiLeaks documents may not be as harmless as they first seemed: The Times of London discovered the names of dozens of Afghan informants in the documents after just two hours of searching. The documents also provide the informants’ villages and, in many cases, their fathers’ names. WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange said that his organization had checked the documents for named informants and that he was withholding 15,000 of the 92,000 documents until the names could be redacted. A senior official at the Afghan Foreign Ministry says, “The leaks certainly have put in real risk and danger the lives and integrity of many Afghans.”

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal state of emergency Wednesday, hoping to pressure lawmakers into crafting the final version of the state budget-five weeks overdue--that will help close the $19 billion shortfall. California's massive deficit is 22 percent of the $85 billion general fund budget for the fiscal year that ended in June, but analysts said it could be several more weeks before a final budget is created. In Schwarzenegger's budget ultimatum, he ordered three days off without pay per month for tens of thousands of state employees. Labor officials immediately criticized the governor as using the furlough as a political ploy to get the budget passed. Schwarzenegger insisted the longer the budget delay lasts, the closer his state will be do a "fiscal meltdown."

Amazon.com is once again lowering the price on the Kindle, chief Jeff Bezos said Wednesday, part of the company's desire to make the electronic device more "mass market." Starting Thursday, a new version of Kindle, which will be shipped in August, can be ordered for $139 for models with a WiFi connection and $189 for models with both a WiFi and 3G connection. In June, Amazon immediately cut the price of the Kindle to $189 following Barnes & Nobles' new, lower Nook price point of $199. The price cut worked, and that model is currently  sold out. Since Amazon debuted the current generation of the Kindle 17 months ago, the market has become saturated with similar models, including Apple's iPad. Bezos insisted he's not interested in making a tablet computer, and instead said the company is committed to making a single-purpose E-Reader.

Someone tell Republicans to pull their fingers out of their ears: Alan Blinder, a Princeton professor and a former Federal Reserve official, and Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, argue in a new paper based on an economic model that, without the Wall Street bailout and the economic-stimulus package, the national GDP would be 6.5 percent lower this year. Additionally, 8.5 million more people would be unemployed and the dollar would be experiencing deflation. “While the effectiveness of any individual element certainly can be debated, there is little doubt that in total, the policy response was highly effective,” the duo writes after concluding their model proves the argument. They also argue that the financial bailout had more of an effect on the economy than the stimulus did.

This certainly doesn't bode well for the FBI's credibility: On Wednesday, the agency's director Robert Mueller told Congress that he was unaware of exactly how many active FBI agents cheated on a crucial test on the bureau's policies for conducting surveillance on Americans. Some agents, in direct violation of testing rules that stipulate the exam should be taken alone, took the exam together, and according to some officials various agents finished the long and time-consuming exam in a curiously short amount of time. The Justice Department inspector general is investigating the scope of the cheating, which could be in the hundreds. "I've got a general idea, but I do not know how many," Mueller told Congress. "[T]here may be persons in a particular office where it was widespread and may be attributable to a lack of understanding and confusion about the procedures."

As the first sitting president to appear on The View, Obama addressed the “roses” and “thorns” of his presidency, saying his recent vacation with his family has been a rose in a taping of the interview to air Thursday. As for the thorns? The president joked, “Where do I begin?” On a more serious note, Obama said, “Look the country has gone through a tough stretch… the last 20 months have been a nonstop effort to restart the economy, to stabilize the financial system, to make sure we are creating jobs and not losing them.” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama visited The View to “talk to people where they are.” Given the president’s recent low approval ratings—especially among women—some said Obama’s visit could help bring some popularity back. But one prominent Democrat wasn't biting: Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said he thought the president should go on “serious shows.”

Is the $10 you spend on a shirt at Target going toward anti-gay groups? Target gave $150,000 to MN Forward, a political group that has endorsed and pays for ads for Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, a fervent opponent of gay marriage. Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel denied any political agenda in an email to staffers, and insisted the Target’s support for the GLBT community is “unwavering.” Despite Target’s defense, a Facebook group called “Boycott Target Until They Cease Funding Anti-Gay Politics” already has 5,000 members. Best Buy also defended its $100,00 contribution to MN Forward, and said the corporation supported the group because it makes “jobs and economic issues a top priority in this election.” Corporations only recently became allowed to donate money to campaign advertising following the Supreme Court’s January ruling reversing campaign finance laws that had prevented their involvement.

Get ready for an all-star mother-daughter duo. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed on Wednesday that Sony has picked up the upcoming Meryl Streep and Tina Fey film called, Mommy & Me. Though rumors have been swirling about the project, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Sony, which also made Streep’s 2009 hit Julie & Julia, has acquired the movie. Though the storyline is currently unknown, the industry insider paper says it “spotlights the thorny and funny sides of mother-daughter relationships.” Stanley Tucci is set to direct and executive produce the film alongside fellow actor Steve Buscemi.

The old saying “nothing is ever lost” was proven true Wednesday when a team of Canadian archaeologists found a missing British ship—150 years after it went missing in the icy Canadian Arctic waters. The HMS Investigator left Britain in 1850 under Capt. Robert John Le Mesurier McClure—who has been credited with discovering the last portion of Canada’s Northwest Passage—on a mission to rescue an expedition that had disappeared five years earlier. The 122-ton ship got stuck in the ice, and the crew was forced to abandon it after two years. The expedition was later rescued at Mercy Bay—named by McClure—which is covered in ice for most of the year, so the remains of the ship have been nearly impossible to find. The crew of archeologists set up camp last week at the site, and when the ice briefly cleared Sunday night, the search began. Brian Payton, author of a book on the Investigator, called the excavation a “wonderful relic of the Arctic past and of Canada’s past.” Three grave sites of crew members who did not survive the expedition were also found.

After a months-long investigation of David Paterson's role in a domestic violence dispute involving one of his former top aides, the New York governor will ultimately escape landing in hot water. While Judge Judith S. Kaye found that Paterson had exercised poor judgment in contacting the woman who accused his aide of assault, Kaye is not recommending he be charged. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo asked the former chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals to take over the investigation in April. The governor’s intervention in the domestic abuse case rocked the state's government earlier this year, causing the resignations of five top state officials and Paterson's decision not to run for reelection. His former aide, David W. Johnson, who was accused of assaulting a former girlfriend, could still be charged.

Apple isn’t Google’s only competitor these days: Google is working on a new social media site that would rival Facebook, The Wall Street Journal reports. The tech giant has been in talks with several top game developers—including Playdom Inc., Electronic Arts' Playfish, and Zynga Game Network—to offer games in the social-networking service. Google CEO Eric Schmidt wouldn’t confirm the plan, and, when asked if the site would resemble Facebook, said “The world doesn’t need a copy of the same thing.” A Google social-networking site would be great for social-game developers because they wouldn’t be so dependent on Facebook. Demand for the games is high—more than 50 million people use Zynga’s Farmville game on Facebook—and on Tuesday, Disney bought Playdom for $563.2 million, plus up to $200 million more if it hits performance targets. Google launched Buzz in February; the service offers updates on friends’ photos and links but drew big complaints about privacy.

That second Gulf oil well that began leaking after a boat hit it on Tuesday? It’s still going. No one knows how much oil is spilling from the well, which was abandoned, but it's clear that it's a much smaller leak than the Deepwater Horizon one. Coast Guard Captain John Arenstam says that a plan to shut down the well will be ready on Wednesday.

There’s a new fist to pump: MTV has chosen Deena Nicole Cortese as the newest cast member for Jersey Shore. The 23-year-old got onto the show through her friend Snooki and is from New Egypt, New Jersey. Oh, and apparently she’s racist: Her MySpace page features video of her using the n-word.

Orlando Bloom and Victoria's Secret model Miranda Kerr sure love operating in stealth mode. On the heels of their secret nuptials at an undisclosed location earlier this month, a source has revealed that the pair has been keeping another milestone from the public: their alleged first born. An insider close to Kerr told Us Weekly: "She's definitely pregnant...She's telling all her friends, mostly other models, about it." The couple has not yet made an official announcement about the pregnancy.

The latest front in the war between The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal is the glossy luxury magazine. Both T Magazine and WSJ . Magazine will have new editors this fall, and both are veterans of big consumer magazines: T’s Sally Singer was a features and fashion news editor for Vogue, while WSJ.’s Deborah Needleman worked for Domino. Journal employees say Needleman’s hiring was not a response to The Times’ hiring of Singer, but the old editor of WSJ. announced her resignation just nine days after Singer’s hiring made news. From the outside it sure looks like a luxury mag arms race. The move follows a big challenge from The Journal to The Times’ metro New York coverage with ads clearly mocking the Gray Lady.

Maybe they’ll ask President Obama for his thoughts on the issue on Thursday: Elisabeth Hasselbeck, co-host of The View, said on Wednesday that older women are coming out as lesbians because “older men are going for younger women, leaving the women with no one.” Joy Behar quickly set her straight: "I don't think that you suddenly wake up and say, 'You know, I think I want to do that.' You wanted to do it; you were just trapped in a system that said 'get married.'"

Judges for the Man Booker Prize have revealed their front-runners for the 2010 award, complete with the requisite surprises and snubs. Many decorated literary icons, such as Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, and Salman Rushdie, were shut out of the running for the prize, awarded yearly to the best English-language novelist, though Australian Peter Carey, one of only two people to have won the prize twice, was nominated once again. Although no one has ever scored a Man Booker hat trick, Carey's novel Parrot and Olivier in America immediately became the 3-1 favorite to win. The list of 13 names has no debut novels, and according to judge panel chairman Andrew Motion very few books about sex. The Man Booker Prize is considered one of the world's most prestigious literary prizes, judging entries from the Commonwealth and Ireland. The pared-down shortlist will be announced September 7 and the winner on October 12.

Much like he transformed "two tickets to that thing you love" into diamonds in a wildly popular Old Spice commercial, Isaiah Mustafa is capitalizing on his 15 minutes of fame with a role in the upcoming film Horrible Bosses. Mustafa, known to most as Old Spice Guy, will star alongside Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, and Colin Farrell in the 2011 movie. Plus, the spokesman has also inked a deal with NBC to appear on Chuck. Mustafa has proven his commercial success—Old Spice has seen significant growth over the past month with its body wash sales skyrocketing 107 percent.

How’s this for a comeback: Kanye West has joined Twitter, with the handle @KanyeWest. His initial tweet read, "Up early in the morning taking meetings in Silicone Valley,” which he followed with a quick copy-edit: "Lol I spelled Silicon wrong (I guess I was still thinking about the other type silicone ITS A PROCESS!! : )" His foray into micro-blogging comes after his performance at Facebook's HQ, in which he did four numbers a capella.

After being lost for decades, 65 negatives shot by famed photographer Ansel Adams were discovered and authenticated by California painter Rick Norsigian, he announced yesterday. (The photos, purchased for $45, were valued at $200 million.) But Adams heirs are skeptical. They say they’ve been dogged by Norsigian for years, saying the painter has been on an “obsessive quest” and that the negatives are “an unfortunate fraud.” Norsigian plans to sell prints from the negatives online, and lawyers with the Adams estate are already looking into suing Norsigian for using a copyrighted name to make money. Norsigian says he bought the negatives years ago and never really considered their value until a friend said they looked like Adams’ work—the same locations, the same style, and sometimes the same associates of Adams were pictured. Authentication was based on the handwriting on the negatives’ sleeves (supposedly belonging to Adams’ wife Virginia), but Adams' heirs say there are spelling errors of place names that don’t make sense given that Virginia was an intelligent native of Yosemite. They also dispute claims that based on snow drift and clouds, some of the photos were taken on the same day as verified Adams works.

A bomb tore through a bus in southern Afghanistan Wednesday, killing 25 and injuring 20 more. All passengers were civilians. The bus was traveling on a desert highway from Nimroz province toward Kabul when it hit an improvised explosive device. It blew up near the border with Helmand province, a major battleground between Western troops and the Taliban. Afghan officials decided the IED-heavy road needed a police checkpoint, but the district still doesn’t have police to put in it. Insurgents have planted thousands of IEDs around the country to kill NATO troops, but at least 7,000 Afghan civilians have died from the roadside bombs. NATO officials say the Taliban has rescinded an order that its fighters try to avoid hurting civilians.

Parents can now bring their kids to see Mel Gibson’s new movie: his new film The Beaver, which also stars Jodie Foster, has just been rated PG-13 by the MPAA. This is described as containing “mature thematic material, some disturbing content, sexuality, and language including a drug reference.” Together again for the first time since Maverick, the film—which is still set for a “TBA 2010” release—centers around a man who “walks around with a puppet of a beaver on his hand and treats it like a living creature.” Since the release of Gibson’s damning tapes, The Beaver has been regarded as a marketing nightmare for Summit Entertainment. But as its writer, Kyle Killen, told The Daily Beast: “Once it went into production, it really became a Jodie Foster movie. So I’m as eager as you to find out what happens.”

A plane carrying 152 people crashed into the hills near Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday morning. Everyone on board was killed, including two Americans, said a U.S. embassy spokesman, and this is the worst aviation disaster in the country’s history. The Airblue plane left Karachi at 7:45 a.m. for the flight to Pakistan’s capital and, during dangerous cloudy weather, lost contact with the airport control tower at 12:43 p.m. The plane crashed into a wooded hill with no roads, making rescue efforts more difficult. Officials say they’ve been digging through the wreckage with their bare hands as helicopters remove bodies. More than 90 bodies have been found so far.

As if home videos weren’t nauseating enough already: Panasonic introduced a 3-D camcorder for consumers on Tuesday. The device will sell for about $2,000 and go on sale in the United States later this year. (It hits shelves in Japan on August 20.) Videos shot on the camcorder will be compatible with 3-D televisions and will require glasses.

The Massachusetts Legislature has voted for legislation aimed at ensuring the winner of the popular vote wins presidential elections, making the Electoral College irrelevant; under the new law, Massachusetts will give its 12 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The bill now goes to the governor’s desk; he’s said in the past that he supports the measure. Supporters of this plan have been campaigning state by state for its passage, and so far Illinois, New Jersey, Hawaii, Maryland, and Washington have approved the law, which goes into effect once enough states have passed it to make it work. (Once states accounting for the majority of electoral votes pass the law, winning the popular vote would guarantee winning the Electoral College.) Critics said bill supporters were messing with a “tried and true” system, but enthusiasts say the Electoral College causes huge chunks of the country—non-swing states—to be ignored during the election.

Not long after 16-year-old Abby Sunderland’s attempt to become the youngest person to sail around the world went awry in the Indian Ocean, a 14-year-old Dutch girl is preparing to do the same. Laura Dekker’s mother and a Dutch court originally objected to her plans, inspiring her to run away. Now, she has approval from her mother and the court, even though the Council for Child Protection in the Netherlands begged the court to block her trip. Dekker is hoping to complete the trip before September 2012, when she will be 17. (The record is held by a 17-year-old, the 16-year-old Jessica Watson unofficially made the voyage, too.)

Finally, some good news out of the Gulf of Mexico: The oil slick appears to be dissolving at a far faster pace than expected. Although there are still sightings of tar balls and oil patches, the immense swaths of surface oil that covered thousands of miles of the Gulf are mostly gone. The dissolution of the slick can help reduce the deaths of Gulf species and the amount hitting the shorelines, but there are still many problems left, including determining what the effects to sea life below the surface will be and the consequences to the shorelines that have been hit. Scientists said they believed the Gulf’s natural capacity to break up oil has helped with the rapid dissolution of the oil slick, and the capping of the well on July 15th has also prevented oil from gushing for the past two weeks.

Even as WikiLeaks’ massive document dump is firing up opposition to U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan, on Tuesday Congress gave final approval to a bill that will issue $60 billion to continue funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Support was tepid, with many Democrats—including the bill’s main architect, David Obey of Wisconsin—voting against the measure on grounds that the administration’s war strategy isn’t working. “I cannot look my constituents in the eye and say that this operation will hurt our enemies more than us,” Obey said. The Senate has already passed the bill, meaning it’s ready for President Obama’s signature, but only after attempts to append unrelated stimulus spending to the bill were abandoned because of Republican opposition. The bill allocates $33 billion to fund the surge of 33,000 troops announced by Obama last year, as well as $13 billion to expand assistance to veterans exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

The hits keep coming for Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), whose chances of cutting a deal for his alleged ethics violations became slimmer Tuesday amid allegations that he met privately with Ethics Committee Chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) without any Republican members of the bipartisan panel present. Lofgren and sources close to Rangel deny a meeting took place, but sources close to the investigation claim that Rangel’s attorneys met with Ethics Committee staff on Monday without top GOP committee member Rep. Jo Bonner (R-AL) present. The committee is set to begin investigating Rangel for a number of ethics violations on Thursday. Top House leaders are keeping mum on the situation, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) saying she doesn’t “know how that happened,” while House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) called it a “sad day” when Congress has to try one of its own members. Two Democratic representatives have called for Rangel’s resignation, and public probes may be troublesome for vulnerable Democrats in the House with midterm elections looming.

Caviar fans can celebrate: There will be wild catch from the Caspian Sea for the first time in two years, after the international convention that regulates trade in endangered species issued a quota for wild Caspian caviar. (Without an issued quota, caviar cannot be exported internationally.) The quota has been set for five countries on the Caspian—Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan—at 81 tons total, including three tons of beluga. Environmentalists, however, said allowing any international trading will only make things worse for the endangered species. But since wild Caspian caviar hasn't been allowed to be traded for two years, it has been in high demand on the black market. Despite progress in the taste of farmed caviar, there are still some who prefer the taste of the wild.

Another piece of the Democrats’ agenda went down in flames Tuesday when Senate Republicans united to filibuster campaign-finance-reform legislation. In the face of GOP obstructionism, should the Democrats consider losing the filibuster altogether? Ezra Klein lays out how they can do so with only 51 votes: The Constitution requires the Senate to “determine the Rules of its Proceedings” at the opening of each session. That means, assuming the Democrats still control the Senate next year, they could declare the filibuster out-of-bounds—and the GOP couldn’t filibuster the elimination of the filibuster, since doing so would prevent the Senate from considering its own rules and would therefore be unconstitutional. This step has never been taken before by the Senate, though it was frequently discussed in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

In 1974, Edith Vogelhut spent a night with film director Roman Polanski—and he handcuffed, drugged, and raped her, she alleges, in an exclusive video released by RadarOnline.com on Tuesday. Vogelhut, then 21, had been at a dinner party hosted by The Godfather producer Robert Evans. After the party—and, of course, dancing and booze—Vogelhut and Polanski went to Jack Nicholson's house. This is where, she claims, Polanski gave her MDMA, or ecstasy, and raped her. "I kind of knew that we were going to have sex, but I didn't expect anything out of the ordinary," she said. "I did not expect to be sodomized." Three years later, in 1977, Polanski was famously arrested and charged with the rape of 13-year-old Samantha Geimer. As to why Vogelhut held out until now to tell her story, she said, "I was humiliated. I had absolutely no one to tell." Vogelhut said she plans to release a tell-all book, which will include one chapter about the alleged encounter with Polanski. The director was recently freed by Swiss authorities after they denied his extradition to the U.S. to face sentencing for the 1977 charges.

Perhaps they’re hoping to sell film rights once the investigation is complete? A team of federal investigators known as the “BP squad” is preparing a wide-ranging criminal probe of BP, Halliburton, and Transocean (which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig), says The Washington Post. Housed at the FBI offices in New Orleans, the team includes officials from the EPA, Coast Guard, and other agencies; the investigation will include looking into whether cozy relationships with federal regulators contributed to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The companies are also being investigated for violating environmental laws, false statements by company officials, obstruction of justice, and falsified test results.

Arizona’s tough new immigration law goes into effect Thursday, but will the state have the muscle to enforce it? Maybe not, says The Wall Street Journal: While state and local officials can arrest and imprison illegal immigrants, only federal officials have the power to deport them. State and local police are required to contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement to check the immigration status of detainees; ICE will then let them know if the suspect is deportable. ICE has insisted that it will continue to focus on recent crossings, felony re-entries, and serious criminals. However, in the past, the federal government hasn’t withheld its cooperation: The United States has deported 115,841 illegal immigrants under a federal-local partnership since 2007, and—this is really shocking—nearly a quarter of those, 26,146, have come from a single Arizona county: Maricopa County, home to the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Perhaps EPSN threw in some of its website as part of its deal for The Decision? ESPN.com has apparently pulled a less-than-flattering article about LeBron James from its website. SportsGrid wonders if James’ camp complained. If so, what might have offended the basketball star? The article described “bottle after bottle” of Ace of Spades Champagne being served; LeBron wishing that his server was “one of these girls with no panties”; and the writer, Arash Markazi, describing James as “a child wrapped in a 6-foot-8, 250-pound frame.” ESPN has not yet explained where the article went.