Intelligence Chief Is Shifted to Deputy State Dept. Post  —  John D. Negroponte, whom President Bush installed less than two years ago as the first director of national intelligence, will soon leave his post to become the State Department's second-ranking official, administration officials said Wednesday.

Ethics Overhaul Tops the Agenda in New Congress  —  On the brink of regaining power after 12 years, House Democrats said Wednesday that they would move immediately to try to sever ties between lawmakers and lobbyists who figured into scandals that helped Democrats win control of Congress.

In Padilla Wiretaps, Murky View of 'Jihad' Case  —  In 1997, as the government listened in on their phone call, Adham Hassoun, a computer programmer in Broward County, Fla., proposed a road trip to Jose Padilla, a low-wage worker there.  The excursion to Tampa would be his treat, Mr. Hassoun said …

Lieberman Party Now in Hands of Critic  —  HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The party Sen. Joe Lieberman created to mount his independent re-election campaign has been seized by one of his critics, and the secretary of state's office said Wednesday that it won't challenge the takeover.

U.S. Bars Lab From Testing Electronic Voting  —  A laboratory that has tested most of the nation's electronic voting systems has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its quality-control procedures and could not document that it was conducting all the required tests.

Rehnquist FBI File Sheds New Light on Drug Dependence, Confirmation Battles  —  The late Chief Justice William Rehnquist's Senate confirmation battles in 1971 and 1986 were more intense and political than previously known, according to a newly released FBI file that also offers dramatic …

Bush Signals Budget Accord  —  President Bush promised yesterday to produce a plan to balance the federal budget in five years and challenged lawmakers to slash their special pet projects in half next year, embracing priorities of the new Democratic leadership that will assume control of Congress today.

W pushes envelope on U.S. spying  —  New postal law lets Bush peek through your mail  —  WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.  —  The President asserted his new authority …

The Right Minimum Wage  —  A federal minimum wage is an idea whose time came in 1938, when public confidence in markets was at a nadir and the federal government's confidence in itself was at an apogee.  This, in spite of the fact that with 19 percent unemployment and the economy contracting …

A Chance To Change The Game  —  This past Election Day, the American people sent a clear message to Washington: Clean up your act.  —  After a year in which too many scandals revealed the influence special interests wield over Washington, it's no surprise that so many incumbents were defeated …

We May be Biased Toward Hawks, but We've Become Doves  —  Pinker's brief contribution to the Edge's year-end treat gives a cheerful & progresive sense of proportion.  While acknowledging our historical tendency toward cruelty and barbarism, he describes a world more dovish.

What the Rudy Memo Missed  —  The Guiliani leak may be the least of his problems.  —  Rudy Giuliani is back on the front pages of the New York City tabloids, thanks to a juicy scandal straight out of junior high.  There's the misplaced binder (The New York Daily News published …

Have something to say?  I don't care  —  Don't bother sending anything to that e-mail address below — because I don't care.  —  DON'T E-MAIL me.  —  That address on the bottom of this column?  That is the pathetic, confused death knell of the once-proud newspaper industry, and I want nothing to do with it.