Bernie Madoff’s younger brother, Peter, is expected to plead guilty to conspiracy to to commit securities fraud and falsifying records. He will be the first Madoff to admit any wrongdoing after Bernie’s Ponzi scheme drained the life savings and pension accounts of hundreds of people. Peter, who is 66 and is expected to serve 10 years, was the firm’s compliance officer. He will also forfeit about $143.1 billion, which is the amount of money that passed through his brother’s company while he was involved.

A siege on a pro-government TV channel has killed three and left the building demolished in Syria. Gunmen attacking Ikhbariya TV also blew up the newsroom, in Drusha, south of Damascus. Rebels claim that the attackers are defectors from a group of "loyal" Assad defenders. The TV station had been targeted by European Union sanctions on Monday. Hours before the attack, President Bashar al-Assad had told members of his cabinet that the country is in a “real state of war,” and the U.N.’s deputy envoy says the violence has “reached or surpassed” levels before the April ceasefire deal.

Wildfires in Colorado continue to rage. As of Wednesday morning, the 6,200-acre blaze had been only 5 percent contained, and 65 mph winds blew the fire through containment lines into northwest Colorado Springs on Tuesday. Officials say it is exhibiting “extreme fire behavior.” Roughly 32,000 residents have been evacuated from the area so far. Colorado Springs reached a record 101 degrees on Tuesday, and conditions are expected to be hot and dry until early next week. Gov. John Hickenlooper said, “It’s as serious as it gets,” while the Colorado Springs fire chief labeled it “a firestorm of epic proportions.” President Obama will visit the area on Friday to survey the damage.

News Corp. on Thursday approved a split between the publishing and entertainment divisions—and Rupert Murdoch will chair both. The entire process is expected to take a year. Under the split, 20th Century Fox, Fox broadcast network and Fox News will be included in the entertainment company while HaperCollins, The Wall Street Journal and Britain's Sun newspaper will be in a separate company. Shares of the company’s stock have risen 11 percent since News Corp. acknowledged it was considering the split.

Ann Curry gave an emotional farewell on Thursday in her final appearence as host of the Today show. "I am so grateful, especially to all of you who watch," Curry said. On Wednesday night,she told USA Today it’s “going to be a bit of a tough day” and she’ll “really miss” the viewers. She’ll stay with NBC, however, after signing a multiyear contract to cover foreign and national stories for the network. She says the leaks about her departure have “hurt deeply” and that she doesn’t feel she had enough time to work out the “kinks” at Today.

Coast Guard inspectors called in the cavalry Wednesday at Port Newark, N.J., after hearing the sound of people inside one of the incoming shipping containers. Officials suspect that the container, which was loaded in India and is listed as carrying "machine parts," may be filled with stowaways. (The ship that brought the container originally embarked from Pakistan.) Inspectors "heard sounds coming from one of the containers in the hold consistent with the sounds of people inside," said a Coast Guard spokesman. The dock was swarmed with federal and local officials. According to authorities, stowaways show up at ports in the New York area around six times a year.

After the story—and the drug allegedly behind it—took the media by storm, medical examiners have made a shocking discovery: the man shot while eating a victim’s face in Miami had no trace of bath salts in his system. The body of Rudy Eugene, who was killed by police during the incident in May, only contained traces of marijuana. The bizarre crime and Eugene’s freakish behavior led to widespread belief that bath salts, an easily obtainable stimulant that mimics the effects of harder drugs, had been responsible.

The 9/11 memorial closed Wednesday morning when a beam crashed through a window at 4 World Trade, raining shards of glass and construction debris on passersby. The beam was being lifted by a crane at the building, when a gust of wind sent it swinging into a large glass panel. Luckily, nobody was hurt, but the construction team is exerting caution. “We have suspended steel lifts pending an investigation, are inspecting the entire façade of the building, and are reviewing protocols for evaluating weather conditions,” said John Gallagher, a spokesman for Tishman Construction. A day earlier, a worker was impaled by a piece of steel at the same site, but survived the injury.

Arena Pharmaceutical struck gold on Tuesday when the Food and Drug Administration approved its anti-obesity pill Belviq, the first new prescription drug for weight loss to hit the pharmaceutical market in over a decade. The FDA’s approval of the drug comes at a time when more and more doctors are seeking weight-loss treatments to curb America’s surging obesity epidemic. While clinical studies showed that the drug resulted in only modest weight loss, it passed the FDA’s safety test, after being turned down in 2010 amid concerns that animals developed tumors from the drug. The drug has been approved for clinically obese adults who suffer from at least one other weight-related illness, such as high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes.

Stockton, a working-class port city and epicenter of California’s agricultural exports, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday night, becoming the largest city in the U.S. to do so. Residents of Stockton lived largely on credit during the economic boom, borrowing money to construct expensive waterfront redevelopment projects up until the mid-2000s. This caused the city to be hit hard by the depression, leading it to have the second-highest rate of foreclosures in the nation. Subsequent drastic cuts of $90 million to its police department, fire department, and employee benefits weren’t enough to bail the city out of debt. The state is investigating the possibility of corruption factoring into Stockton’s financial meltdown.

John Edwards, beware: a new titanium wedding ring stops infidelity in its tracks and has taken the blogosphere by storm. In the old days, a creative cad could simply remove his ring before heading out on the town. But a new version from TheCheeky.com has the words “I’m married” carved within, which slowly imprint on a finger. Even if you slip off the ring, the words remain—a warning to any would-be hookup. “With Arnold, Tiger, and two-timing IMF guy in mind, we have created this wedding ring for people intent on cheating,” the company said.

The BCS system for determining the national college football champion is one of the most mocked sports legacies in the country. But now that system is dead. Starting in 2014, four teams will play a mini tournament to decide the who is the best country. The teams will be selected by a committee, much like the way the NCAA basketball field is set.

Charlie Rangel fought off four challengers to win the Democratic nomination for a 22nd term in Congress. The 82-year-old Rangel, who was first elected to Congress in 1970, was censured by the House Ethics Committee in 2010 and found guilty of 11 counts of ethical violations. Rangel’s district had been extended from Harlem to the Bronx, which gave it a Hispanic majority. In his victory speech, Rangel said, “If they didn’t think after 42 years that I was the best qualified, I promise them that in the next two years they’ll have no question about the fact that we elected the best.” In Brooklyn, controversial City Councilman Charles Barron lost his primary to Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries.

A new Wall Street Journal poll shows that President Obama still has a narrow lead over presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, even though there has been some bad economic news lately. Obama is leading Romney 47–44, though his lead is within the margin of error. Obama is also leading in key swing states like Nevada, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

He’ll make beliebers out of us all. Justin Beiber’s new album, Believe, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts after selling 374,000 copies in its first week—the top-selling debut of the year. It’s also Beiber’s best sales week ever and his fourth No. 1 album. But it falls below expected sales of 410,000 to 440,000 copies and does not come close to the biggest week of the year, when Adele’s 21 sold 730,000 copies right after the Grammy Awards. Still, a Billboard spokesperson explained: “That Bieber can have the biggest opening week of the year says that he’s doing a good job. It’s always tough making that transition from tweeny-teeny pop star to young adult.”

A U.S. judged ordered Samsung to stop selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 after Apple requested an injunction on the product and called it “blatant copying.” U.S. District Judge Lucky Koh wrote that Samsung “does not have a right to compete unfairly.” The order will become effective after Apple posts a $2.6 million bond to protect against damages suffered by Samsung if the injunction is later overturned. Samsung said in a statement: “Apple sought a preliminary injunction of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, based on a single design patent that addressed just one aspect of the product’s overall design. Should Apple continue to make legal claims based on such a generic design patent, design innovation and progress in the industry could be restricted.”

Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, plans to appoint a female vice president. His policy adviser Ahmed Deif said: “For the first time in Egyptian history—not just modern but in all Egyptian history—a woman will take that position. And it’s not just a vice president who will represent a certain agenda and sect, but a vice president who is powerful and empowered and will be taking care of critical advising within the presidential Cabinet.” Morsi had previously wanted to ban women from the presidency, but before the election, he promised to stand for women’s rights if he became president.

Nora Ephron, acclaimed writer, screenwriter, has died after a battle with leukemia at age 71 on Tuesday night. Ephron, a native New Yorker and Hollywood icon, began her career in journalism before writing film classics like Silkwood, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, and When Harry Met Sally. Her work has won three Academy Awards, and she has directed many of her own films. Ephron married Goodfellas screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi in 1987, following a four-year marriage to The Washington Post’s Carl Bernstein.

Five of the nation’s largest banks are writing contingency plans to be used if they go under. The plans are one of the requirements of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law. The “living wills,” which may be up to 4,000 pages long, must be submitted to regulators by July 1. JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley will all submit their plans to the Federal Reserve and the FDIC. Even the healthiest banks are submitting plans and simplifying their global operations, because the Dodd-Frank law allows regulators to compel a bank to divest subsidiaries if it cannot plan for an orderly resolution in bankruptcy. One expert said, “The resolution process is now going to be part of the cost-benefit analysis on where banks will do business. The complexity of the organizations will shrink.”

A report indicates that George Zimmerman never identified himself as a neighborhood-watch leader before the February shooting of Trayvon Martin. In the report, Sanford Police Det. Christopher Serino said that Zimmerman first confronted Martin from the car and then got out and pursued Martin. “His actions are inconsistent with those of someone who has stated he was in fear of another subject,” Serino wrote. Serino recommended a charge of manslaughter based on the investigation, but Zimmerman was not charged until a month later. Another investigator wrote that two computer voice-stress tests from the night of the shooting indicated that Zimmerman was telling the truth about what had transpired. But the results of the tests are not admissible in court.

Can’t they just act like adults? As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tries to push through a relatively simple measure extending FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program before they recess for Independence Day, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is bringing partisan politics into the picture. Paul has refused to approve the measure until his fetal personhood legislation gets a vote. Trying to contain his frustration, Reid told reporters on Tuesday that he’s been “very patient working with my Republican colleagues in allowing relevant amendments on issues,” and occasionally even “non-relevant amendments.” But he’s had enough now, saying it’s “ridiculous” for Paul to insist on not passing a bill on flood insurance as hurricane season looms until he has a vote on “when life begins.”

The Romney campaign is taking its complaints directly to The Washington Post’s door. Romney officials are reportedly meeting with the paper Wednesday to ask it to retract a story on Romney’s outsourcing record as the head of Bain Capital. According to Politico, the campaign is up in arms about the Post’s June 21 report, which depicted Bain as “helping outsourcing companies,” that “were emerging as handmaidens” to a mass “outflow of employment.” The campaign is prepared to defend each of the specified firms that the private-equity firm represented at the time. “The Post’s editors take all complaints seriously and are always willing to listen to concerns and look into them,” Post spokesperson Kris Coratti said. In the past, Romney officials have said that the assertions confuse “outsourcing” with “offshoring.”