Rep. Charlie Rangel attempted to settle ethics charges against him on Thursday, but Republicans say it’s too late. Instead, the House ethics panel brought up 13 charges against Rangel, including failure to report more than $600,000 in assets and income from a rental property in the Dominican Republic. It was reported earlier on Thursday that Rangel had reached a deal to settle the charges, but Republicans rejected his offer. "Mr. Rangel was given multiple opportunities to settle this matter. Instead, he chose to move forward to the public trial phase," said Rep. Jo Bonner of Alabama, the senior Republican on the ethics panel. A failure to settle means Rangel will be brought up before a public trial.

We imagine she'll have a pretty good case: Shirley Sherrod is going to sue Andrew Breitbart for the supposedly racist, heavily edited video he posted of her on his website Big Government. Sherrod announced her intentions at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. The version of the video Breitbart posted showed Sherrod telling an NAACP group that she had denied a farmer assistance because he was white; a full version of the video, however, shows that Sherrod had in fact saved the farmer’s home. Sherrod also addressed President Obama's remarks on The View on Thursday, in which he blamed the media for the whole fiasco. Sherrod said, “It wasn’t all media. It was Fox.”

Tensions continue to mount in Arizona: Governor Jan Brewer announced that she’s appealing a federal judge’s recent decision to block the most aggressive provisions of the immigration law. Brewer requested a speedy appeal, and the 9th Circuit Court agreed. Meanwhile, protesters squared off against riot gear-clad police at the headquarters of Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio, who vowed to proceed with a “crime sweep” that he’d planned before the law was blocked. Legal experts say the case will make its way to the Supreme Court, though it could take years to get there. In the meantime, the federal court has banned  provisions that would have required police to check immigration status while enforcing other laws, along with warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants and harsh punishments for failing to carry registration papers.

Just how often, exactly, are these things supposed to happen? Federal officials are fighting to keep an oil spill in the Kalamazoo River from reaching Lake Michigan. The spill comes from a leaking pipeline, which may have dumped one million gallons of oil into the river. The cause of the leak is currently unknown, and the company that owns the pipeline, Enbridge Energy Partners, is laying down boom.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked the FBI on Thursday to assist in the WikiLeaks investigation, so that it can potentially cover subjects who are not in the military. He refused to say whether journalists or WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could be charged, but Admiral Mike Mullen had harsh words for Assange and his source, saying they could “already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”

Just hours after Fox announced that Ellen DeGeneres would be leaving American Idol, a successor has already been reported: Jennifer Lopez, according to Nikki Finke’s Deadline. Negotiations have apparently been going on for a month between Idol producers and Lopez’s manager Benny Medina, according to the site. Producers were also reportedly talking to Jessica Simpson about replacing the host-turned-judge—and according to Gossip Cop, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith was also in the running. DeGeneres’ departure comes a year before her contract is set to expire—the decision is thought to be mutual, according to Variety, which broke the story of her departure, as she was criticized frequently during the season. “It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for,” DeGeneres said. “I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting, and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings.” Fox also recently announced that Nigel Lythgoe, Idol's former showrunner, would return to the show next season.

Move over, Ivan Boesky. After a long investigation, the Security and Exchange Commission charged the politically active Samuel Wyly and Charles Wyly with secretly trading shares of public companies whose boards they sat on. According to the SEC, the Dallas-based brothers used a series of accounts and companies based in the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands to secretly trade over $750 million in stock, netting themselves $550 million, including $32 million in one insider trading violation. The Wyly brothers have a history of exercising their hefty financial clout in politics, donating millions to various Republican causes over the years. The Wylys’ attorney and stockbroker are also under investigation.

Could William Shatner be reinventing himself yet again—this time as a hard-hitting journalist? In an interview scheduled to air Thursday night, one of the infamous D.C. snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo, reportedly claims there were supposed to be not two, but three or four snipers involved in the tragic 2002 shooting rampage. Shatner conducted the interview on his new TV show Aftermath, airing on the Biography Channel; the show catches up with people who made headlines several years ago. But Malvo’s revelation was so newsworthy that A&E, which owns Biography, turned it into a one-hour special and sent the transcript to reporters in advance. Describing the show, Shatner said, “Whatever the reason is, and I really don’t know why, these people have opened up to me in a way that they haven’t opened up to anybody.” He added that one of the guests likened the interview to a therapy session.

In a disturbing turn of events, French mother Dominique Cottrez has confessed to smothering the eight babies whose remains were found on Wednesday, the BBC reports. She allegedly killed the newborns between 1989 and 2006. Both she and her husband were initially arrested in connection with the children’s bodies, which were discovered and reported by the couple’s neighbors—but following Mrs. Cottrez’s confession, during which she assured police that her husband knew nothing about the murders, he’s been released. Mrs. Cottrez said that her first birth was difficult because of her weight, and that afterward she didn’t want to see any more doctors. Mr. Cottrez said he never noticed that his wife was pregnant. According to the BBC, France has seen a series of infanticides in recent years, including a mother who confessed in March to killing six of her newborn children and hiding them in her cellar.

Talk about a real-life MacGyver: Dr. Loannis Lerepoulos of the Bristol Robotics Lab has received a grant to research the energy applications of urine, Science Daily reports. The lab has been working on a robot that runs off of microbial fuel cells, bacterial cultures that break down nutrients to create power—and could help to transform the waste product. “Over the years we have fed our MFCs with rotten fruit, grass clippings, prawn shells, and dead flies,” Lerepoulos said. “Urine is chemically very active, rich in nitrogen and has compounds such as urea, chloride, potassium, and bilirubin, which make it very good for the microbial fuel cells.” Though he admits that his research is still in its early stages, the researchers are already in touch with a urinal company (yes, those kind of urinals) about a potential collaboration. “We hope to work toward producing a prototype portable urinal which would use urine to create power from fuel cells,” he said. “We envisage that this could be used, for example, at music festivals and other outdoor events."

Well, Elisabeth Hasselbeck couldn’t crack him: President Obama’s appearance on The View was mostly a friendly affair, but he did take the opportunity to blame the media for last week’s Shirley Sherrod affair. He said that the “24/7 media cycle doesn’t get to the facts first,” and that it ginned up the “phony controversy.” He did at least note that “people in my administration” were too quick to play along. Obama’s appearance was the first for a sitting president on The View. He also refused to address the Mel Gibson controversy, saying he’d rather talk about Afghanistan, and said he did not know much about Snooki from Jersey Shore.

The personal details of 100 million Facebook users have been published in a single place by security consultant Ron Bowes, who says he wanted to draw attention to the social-networking site’s privacy problems. Bowes used code to scan users’ profiles for public info and collected it in a downloadable file. The list has already been downloaded by a thousand users on the site Pirate Bay, a massive file-sharing site. Facebook says the information in the list—every searchable users’ URL, name, and unique ID—is already public information, so no private data has been compromised. Privacy watchdogs say Facebook should have anticipated a trawl of this size and made default settings err on the side of more private.

The best remaining pitcher in baseball is off the market: The Houston Astros have traded Roy Oswalt to the Philadelphia Phillies.  He is 6-12 with a 3.42 ERA this year. The Phillies, meanwhile, are 3.5 games back in the NL East.

Goldman Sachs has banned its employees from using curse words in their emails. Wall Street types are notorious for their foul language, a tendency that brought the firm some embarrassment during an April hearing, when angry senators seized on a Goldman email calling a product “one shitty deal.” The anti-swearing policy will be enforced with screening software. It’s unclear whether shorthand like “WTF” will fall under the ban, which was issued verbally. In June, Citigroup employees got a memo saying that "recent headlines involving inappropriate emails are an important reminder to 'think before writing, read before sending'."

It’s looking like Bradley Manning may want to prepare himself for a long prison sentence: The Wall Street Journal reports that investigators have found concrete evidence linking Pfc. Manning to the 92,000 classified documents obtained by WikiLeaks. While it’s not clear what exactly the evidence it is, the Journal says that it was recovered from Manning’s computer. The Journal also confirms, as was reported in The Daily Beast Wednesday, that investigators are looking for possible civilian accomplices.

On July 22, former Memphis Grizzlies basketball star Lorenzen Wright was reported to be missing; on Thursday, investigators discovered his dead body in a densely wooded area in Memphis, Tennessee. The 34-year-old, 6-foot 11-inch athlete was last seen July 18. Wright's cousin, Camella Logan, issued the following statement Wednesday night: "Lorenzen's family has come together to mourn his loss and honor his legacy. We appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and condolences as they are comforting at this very difficult time." A Memphis native, Wright attended high school there, enrolled at the University of Memphis, then became a member of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies—just like another NBA star, Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway. "It's just a great loss for the city of Memphis and for his family at such an early age," Hardaway told WMCTV. "It's just senseless."

Steve McPherson resigned from ABC abruptly Tuesday amid a company investigation into sexual harassment claims against him, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The departure happened mere days before the network will present its fall programming to TV reporters and critics. The investigation had been going on for three weeks after multiple harassment complaints. Allegedly, several woman, including on-air talent and executives, are involved, as is one incident at a company retreat.

Eight newborn babies were found buried in the ground of Villers-au-Tertre, a quiet village in northeastern France. Authorities arrested a married couple in their mid-40s in connection with the finding. "They were normal people. How such a thing is possible is unimaginable," said one neighbor. The husband built roofs; the wife was a nurse's assistant. Police said they think they will find more bodies. The killings likely equal the deadliest infanticide in French history.

Wednesday's ruling on immigration in Arizona has a large impact beyond the Southwestern state's borders because a federal judge's decision to block the most austere portions of a new law could give the federal government the upper hand in future contests with individual states. Nine states filed papers in favor of the Arizona law, which was opposed by the Obama administration and its attorney general, Eric Holder. The judge ruled that the Arizona law, which would have required citizens to show their papers at the request of police officers, interfered with federal law and policy. The decision, while not final, could put an end to the growing movement among states to fight illegal immigration with new state-level requirements.

George Clooney’s girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis has been implicated in a drugs-and-prostitution scandal in Milan. A French escort girl testified this week that she saw Canalis doing cocaine in a Milan nightclub that’s now the focus of an investigation into an alleged drug-fueled high-class hooker ring. Prosecutors say that call girls were paid in cash and drugs to encourage clients to buy expensive booze; the biggest spenders were allegedly given free cocaine and could buy sex from prostitutes. So far, the investigation has closed two venues, The Club and Hollywood, and five people have been arrested. Canalis’ alleged drug use took place in 2008, a year before she started dating Clooney, who owns a villa north of Milan.

The body of the second American sailor who went missing in eastern Afghanistan Friday has been recovered. Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, 25, was from the Seattle area. Villagers found a body in uniform in the Baraki Barak village Wednesday; the district neighbors the Charkh district where Newlove and Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeeley disappeared last week. The body of McNeely, a 30-year-old father of two sons, was recovered Sunday. The Taliban claimed to have captured Newlove and left McNeely’s body to be found by U.S. forces. The sailors were attending counterinsurgency school in Kabul.

When an American soldier dies in combat, his family benefits from a $400,000 life insurance policy. Unless the insurer handling the policy is one of the companies—Prudential Financial, Metlife—that offer bereaved families a “checkbook” for a secure account holding the money that will earn interest (called a “retained-asset account). What the companies don’t say is that there’s no special account for each family: the money is held in a general corporate account, unguaranteed by the FDIC. It earns a tiny amount of interest, sometimes 0.5 percent, compared to what a real bank account would earn. (The insurer, meanwhile, earns a much higher interest rate.)The “checks,” which feature the name of a bank, are really IOUs—the money’s not in the bank and must be sent over by the insurance company. A common practice among insurers—Metlife held $10 billion in death benefits in 2008—the accounts are anything but secure, as panic that the company couldn’t pay out could cause a run that would wipe out the money since they’re not insured by the FDIC. The lack of insurance is never disclosed to soldiers or their survivors.

In May, BP's Tony Hayward was mocked for his comment that "the Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean," and it would take care of some of the oil spill naturally. Now it seems the embattled CEO might have been right. Fourteen days since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig has been capped, up to 4 million barrels of oil, a large majority of the spill, hasn't been accounted for by government statistics. Some, nature might have taken care of; others may have left the water to pollute Gulf Coast air and landfills. More may be floating in the water, creating toxic underwater clouds, according to the Washington Post. "That stuff's somewhere," said one local scientist. "It's going to be with us for a while. I'm worried about some habitats being exposed chronically to low concentrations of toxins... If the water's contaminated, the animals are going to be contaminated."

He can't read. He grows hashish. He's a former warlord. But Haji Ghani may be America's best hope at taming the violence in an Afghan district dominated by the Taliban. The district governor doesn't like Ghani, but U.S. soldiers are grateful that he and his men have provided some protection for them, cutting out a bubble of safety in an area so they may operate, farmers can grow crops funded by the U.S., and children attend an American-supported school. With coalition troops trying to take down the Taliban, they are more frequently turning to strongmen like Ghani who sometimes are the only ones who can provide help.

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.

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.

With four crew members on board, an Air Force cargo plane crashed and burst into flames in Anchorage, Alaska on Wednesday. Military officials did not say whether anyone survived. "With a ball of fire that big and a plume of smoke that high, it was probably nothing good," one eye witness said. An Air Force officer said the plane was practicing its maneuvers for an upcoming air show. The military may now reconsider whether to participate in such shows following the crash.

A judge’s order that banned the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration law isn’t going to be the final word on the issue in the state: The infamous sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arapaio, is now planning an immigration “sweep” in which his deputies will go into Latino neighborhoods, stop people for minor violations, and then check their immigration status. More than a dozen Latinos, meanwhile, held protests in Arizona. "It's not over yet," said Vanessa Bustos, a 24-year-old who chained herself to five other activists in front of the Maricopa County Jail. "There are other bills being enacted against the Latino community."

In case you’ve forgotten what Sarah Palin looks like: HarperCollins has revealed the book cover for Palin’s upcoming book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag. The cover is just a plain close-up photo of Palin wearing a gray sweater with, of course, an American flag pin and bracelet. America by Heart comes out in November.

Where’s the after party? Actress Mia Farrow is set to testify at The Hague about the blood diamond that Liberian dictator Charles Taylor allegedly gave Naomi Campbell. Farrow was apparently a witness to the gift, which he allegedly gave to the model at a dinner for Nelson Mandela in 1997. Farrow is set to testify at the war-crimes trial on August 9. Campbell is set to take the stand next Thursday.