Lay and Skilling guilty  —  Ex-CEO and founder convicted on fraud and conspiracy charges in Enron case.  —  HOUSTON (CNNMoney.com) - Enron former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay were found guilty Thursday of conspiracy and fraud in the granddaddy of all corporate fraud cases.

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 …

Rove-Novak Call Was Concern To Leak Investigators  —  On September 29, 2003, three days after it became known that the CIA had asked the Justice Department to investigate who leaked the name of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, columnist Robert Novak telephoned White House senior adviser Karl Rove …

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 …

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 …

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 …

'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 …

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 …