Lay, Skilling convicted in Enron collapse  —  HOUSTON - Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted Thursday of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud in a case born from one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history.

ABC News Update on Hastert Story  —  Brian Ross Reports:  —  Richard Esposito and Rhonda Schwartz contributed to this report.  —  Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is …

Libby Told Grand Jury Cheney Spoke of Plame  —  Vice President May Be Called as Witness  —  Vice President Cheney was personally angered by a former U.S. ambassador's newspaper column attacking a key rationale for the war in Iraq and repeatedly directed I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby …

The Shadow of a Marriage  —  The two sides of Hillary Rodham Clinton — the opposites that make her potential presidential candidacy such a gamble — came into sharp focus Tuesday morning at the National Press Club.  —  For the better part of an hour, the senator from New York held forth …

Pelosi move triggers revolt  —  Furious black lawmakers, rallying behind Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), were pulled back from the brink of open revolt against House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an emergency meeting with her yesterday.  —  The meeting with a handful of CBC members …

Fragile Senate Coalition Set To Pass Bill on Immigration  —  The Senate moved to the verge of passing landmark immigration legislation yesterday, scheduling a final vote for today on a bill that would tighten the borders while allowing millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the country and permitting new guest workers to come and go.

Selfless Oracle?  —  Al Gore is at his most appealing when he isn't running for office.  But that doesn't mean that the former veep has left politics for good.  —  May 24, 2006 - In Washington the other day, I got a chance to tell Al Gore something I'd meant to say for a long time …

'YELLOW' JOURNALISM!!  —  "As per our conversation, I'm looking at running this," wrote the newspaper editor of the article he'd just received, "but I have not been able to confirm its veracity.  Particularly, I want to make sure that part saying Jews will have to wear a yellow stripe and Christians a red stripe is, in fact, true."

Justice Department Probe Foiled  —  An internal Justice Department inquiry into whether department officials — including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft — acted properly in approving and overseeing the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program …

Abbas stuns Hamas with talk of referendum  —  RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he will call a national referendum on accepting a Palestinian state alongside Israel if Hamas does not agree to the idea within 10 days.  —  Abbas' surprise announcement …

AP Unveils Deal to Tie Stories to Blogs  —  AP Announces Agreements That Will Tie Its News Stories to Blogs, Help Guide Readers to Web Sites  —  NEW YORK May 23, 2006 (AP)— The Associated Press announced two agreements Tuesday one that will tie its news stories to the rapidly growing world …

Q1 GDP growth fastest in 2-1/2 years  —Text+WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy shot forward at an upwardly revised 5.3 percent annual rate in the first quarter, the fastest growth in 2-1/2 years, as companies built up inventories and exports strengthened, a Commerce Department report on Thursday showed.

Expanded Worker Checks Would Use Faulty System  —  A federal database program with a checkered track record could dramatically expand to affect every U.S. employer and worker under provisions of the immigration legislation being considered by Congress.  —  The program is intended …